Thank you, Susanna. Let's go
back to John, the fifth chapter this morning. I brought, oh now,
four or five messages with the kind of general theme, the pre-eminence
of our Lord, that is, Christ is all. And I want to kind of
continue that theme this morning and speak to you on the subject,
Christ is all in the Bible. He is all in the Bible. John chapter five is most relevant
passage of scripture. It begins with our Lord Jesus
going to the pool of Bethesda, and there was a great multitude
of sick folks who were there, and they were waiting for the
troubling of the water. An angel of God, would come in
the midst of the people. And the first one into the water
was healed of whatever their ailment was. There was a man
there. He had been lame 38 years. He couldn't ever get in the water.
He wasn't fast enough to beat somebody else. And so there he
lay every day. Our Lord Jesus passed that way
and he walked amongst a great multitude. And John is very specific
when he says there's a great multitude of impotent folk there. Our Lord went to one man that
shows his sovereign mercy. He could have healed them all,
but he just chose to heal one man. And after he healed that
man, A man rolled up his little bed or his little cot or whatever
it was that he was laying on, put it under his arm. He began
to walk around and people were seeing him rejoicing. And the
Jews asked him, the Pharisees asked him, who healed you? He
said, Jesus of Nazareth. And he said, well, you're not
supposed to carry your bed on the Sabbath day. So he got very
upset with him, and they were ready to kill the Lord Jesus. And so they went to the Savior,
the Pharisees and Sadducees, the big wheels in Jewish religion,
they went to the Savior, and they said, why is this man carrying
his bed on the Sabbath day? Why'd you heal him on the Sabbath
day? And the Lord Jesus said, well,
my father worketh hitherto and I work. And then they were really
steamed then and ready to stone him to death because he said
God was his father, thereby making himself equal with God. Our Lord then began to set forth
himself In his deity, he set forth several of his attributes. And then after that, he called
upon four witnesses that would attest to his deity. And so as it were, not literally,
but as it were, he called to the stand John the Baptist. He quoted from John the Baptist.
John the Baptist said he was the son of God. And then he talked
about the works of Christ, the works that he had performed. He said, those prove that I'm
sent from God. And then he said, the Father
has spoken, and he has verified the fact that I am the Son of
God. Then he said, the Word of God,
the Word of God, attest to me. And then he says this in verse
39, and this is where I want you to look, John 5, 39. He says,
search the scriptures. Now you need to understand, what
he's saying is, you do, you do search the scriptures, and they
did. They searched the scriptures as though they were miners digging
for gold. And they searched the scriptures
every day. He says, search the Scriptures,
or you do search the Scriptures, for in them ye think. In searching
the Scriptures, you think, you have an incorrect notion that
just in reading the Bible, you will have eternal life. One of their rabbis many years
before this, had written, these are part of the traditions of
the fathers, and you remember that our Lord referred to the
traditions of the fathers that these Jews held to, but one of
those early Jewish fathers or rabbis, he said, he who studies
the scriptures daily will surely find his portion in heaven someday. And that's what they thought,
that just by reading the Bible every day and studying it, they
would therefore go to heaven. And they did read the Bible now,
there's no doubt about that. Hold your place here, and I want
you to go over to the book of Acts. And I'm gonna show you
just a couple of verses here in Acts chapter 13. Acts chapter
13, if you'd look there with me, the Apostle Paul is in Antioch
of Pisidia It says in verse 14, Acts 13,
14. And what I'm after here, what
I wanna show you is that they regularly read the scriptures. Now remember, there was no New
Testament yet, okay? You know that. There was no New
Testament yet. So all of the Bible that they
had was the Old Testament, okay? So Acts chapter 13 verse 14. And when they departed from Perga,
they came to Antioch and Pisidia, and they went into the synagogue
on the Sabbath day and sat down. Now watch this. And after the
reading of the law and the prophets, they did that every Sabbath day,
all of them. And I need not read any further
there. But look at verse 27. He's speaking of the Lord Jesus
and those who crucified Him. Verse 27 of Acts 13. For they that dwell at Jerusalem
and their rulers, because they knew Him not, they didn't know
Christ, they didn't recognize the Messiah about whom the Old
Testament is. They were blind to Him. They
couldn't see who He was. It says, because they knew Him
not, nor yet the voices of the prophets, which are read, watch
it, every Sabbath day. They have fulfilled them. They
fulfilled the Word of God, the Old Testament. in condemning
him. So here's my point. They faithfully
read the Word of God. You say, well, I read the Bible
every day. I go by the reading list, the
schedule that we have set before you, and others have as well,
where you can read the Bible all the way through in a year. And that's a commendable thing,
but it is possible. It is possible for you to read
and study the words of Scripture and yet miss the meaning of Scripture
and lack the understanding of Scripture, the power of Scripture,
and the true knowledge of the Scripture apart from the power
of the Holy Spirit. You see, what I wanna show you
this morning is all of the Old Testament and the New Testament
as well speaks of Christ Jesus. Listen, Jesus Christ and Him
crucified is not the main theme of the Bible. This is the message
of the Bible. I want you to see that. The Old
Testament is not about Israel. It's about our Lord Jesus. The
first five books of the Bible called the Pentateuch, the five
books of Moses, five books of law. They're not about Israel. They're about the law keeper,
the law giver, who is the son of God. And then beginning with
Joshua. Joshua judges Ruth. 1st, 2nd
Samuel, 1st, 2nd Kings, 1st, 2nd Chronicles. They're the historical
books. The history books are not about
Israel, but about the Lord Jesus, our Savior, who is manifested
in type and in picture through the historical books. And then
you get to the poetic books. Job and Psalms and Proverbs and
Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon, the poetic books, they're not
just interesting and beautiful writings about poetry, they're
all about the Lord Jesus Christ. And then you get to the prophetic
books, beginning with Isaiah. You have the major prophets and
then the minor prophets. But all of the prophets spoke
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if you have read the Scriptures
this morning, in your morning devotional, wherever you read
from, if it was from the Old Testament, if you were not aware
of the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ, then your
Bible reading this morning was really of no spiritual benefit
to you. See, that's the scary part. Because
these very people, the Jews, they faithfully read the Bible.
and they memorized it. And it's a wonderful thing to
memorize the scripture. David said, thy word, if I hid
it in my heart, that I might not sin against thee. I certainly
encourage you to read the word of God and memorize the word
of God, but unless the word of God that you read or memorize,
unless that portion of scripture has come alive to you, through
the person and work and worthiness of the Lord Jesus Christ, it
is so far of no real spiritual and eternal benefit to you. Because
that's the way it was with these men. These are the people our
Lord is speaking to. They faithfully read the Scriptures. They memorized the Scriptures.
You know, I've had people say to me, well, I know my Bible
preacher. Well, I'll tell you this, you
don't know it any better than these people knew it. I mean,
they really knew every letter and they sought to keep every
jot and tittle of the Bible and their Bible was the Old Testament. But what they missed, they missed the Savior set forth
in picture and type. They missed that one of whom
the Savior said of Himself, I am the way, He's the way to God.
They missed that. Because they thought the way
to God was keeping the commandments. They thought the way to God was
by personal obedience, morality. They missed that. Christ said,
I'm the way, I'm the way of salvation, I'm the way to God, I'm the way
to forgiveness, I'm the way to righteousness, I'm the way to
everlasting life. Do you read the word of God with
that understanding Christ is the way? And then he said, I
am the truth. Everything else outside of the
Lord Jesus Christ, outside of his word, outside of his gospel,
everything else, every other belief is just a lie. He's the
truth. He's the full embodiment of the
truth. He's the son of God, he's the
son of man. He's the only savior who saved
sinners by sacrificial death upon the cross of Calvary. And
any other way of forgiveness or righteousness or salvation
that anybody preaches, I don't care who it is. Any other message
that's not of grace, grace that began the work, grace that will
finish the work, and grace that's all in the middle, any other
message is not the truth, it's a lie. And he said, I'm the way, the
truth, and the life. I'm the life. So I'm trying best
I can to live right. Good for you. Let me know how
you get along with that. The fact of the matter is, and
I, hey, I say live a moral life and live as good as you can live.
But I got news for you that doesn't impress God. If you think you're earning a
few brownie points with God by doing that, you hear me, God's
only impressed by his son. And it's only as you're found
in the Lord Jesus Christ by sovereign grace, And by your faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ, it is only as you are attached to, connected
to the Son of God that God is pleased with you. Because in
Him is righteousness, in Him is holiness, in Him is salvation. He said, no man cometh unto the
Father but by me. I'll tell you, Christ is all
in the Bible. And as you sit there, and I'm
not gonna ask you to turn to any more scripture. Just keep
your Bible in your lap. But I just want you to listen
to me for a few minutes. And I'm gonna take you on a journey
through the Old Testament, and then a journey through the New
Testament. Say, wow, Jim, 66 books. How long? I should have
packed the lunch. Like that fella in John 6 who
had two fishes and five barley loaves. Maybe I should have brought
that to church with me. Believe me, I can summarize it
pretty quick. I wanna say this. If you want
the key to open the Old Testament Scriptures, here's the key. The Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the key. And I'll break it down a little
bit more. Here's the key. His cross and his crown. Got it? Cross and crown. That's
what's set forth in the Old Testament scriptures. Our Lord Jesus Christ
and his substitutionary death. That's his cross. And then the
reward for his obedience unto death is his crown. And we start right at the beginning
of the Bible. Man fell into sin. And you know
what? The Lord Jesus then, He appears
in chapter three of Genesis. He's the remedy for sin. He's
the remedy for the disease we've got. I mean, before we get very
far into the Bible, we're just beginning to read the Word of
God. First of all, He's the Creator. We're confronted with that in
Genesis chapter 1. Genesis chapter 2, we're confronted
with the fact that God gave Adam an ultimatum. You keep my law
or you're going to die. He didn't say, if you don't keep
it, you'll die. He said, in the day thou eatest
thereof, thou shalt surely die. Dying thou shalt die. He died. But in chapter number three,
Christ appears. There he is. He seeks and finds
the lost ones. That's who he is, isn't it? He's
the seeking shepherd. Two of his sheep went astray.
They're out there in the woods trying to hide from God behind
the trees. And our Lord Jesus makes Himself
known to them. And He says, the seed of the
woman is coming. Who is that? That's His incarnation. That's His virgin birth. He's
talking about Himself. And he said, and the seed of
the woman's gonna crush the serpent's head. What's he talking about?
His cross. That's what he's talking about.
He's talking about his death. Then at the end of chapter three,
he illustrates what he was gonna do when he came into the world.
He's gonna die. Innocent animals died for Adam
and Eve so they could live. Blood was shed. Whose blood did
that picture? You gotta be living in a... closet
or something. You gotta have earmuffs on if
you don't understand whose blood that picture is. It's the blood
of the Son of God. Without the shedding of blood
is no remission of sins. Adam and Eve were not going to
live any longer physically unless an innocent victim died in their
stead. Can't you see Christ there? and the skins, the skins of those
animals. Our Lord Jesus robed our parents. There's imputed righteousness
right there. Go a little bit further, Abel.
What did Abel do? How did he worship God? He offered
the firstlings of his flock. Can't you see Christ there? Offered to God to satisfy, appease,
honor God's justice. Who do you think Enoch walked
with? He didn't walk with the Spirit.
He walked with God. He walked with the Son of God
in pre-incarnate form. And Noah, God told Noah, build
an ark. Who is that ark? Or who is it
a picture of? Christ our Savior. I tell you,
the deluge of God's wrath has kind of come upon this world. There's only one place to hide
from that wrath. That's that ark. That's that
ark. Don't you see Christ there in
the ark? And you just keep on going through
the book of Genesis? You get to the end where Jacob
is blessing his sons, and he talks about Shiloh is coming? Who's that? That's our Lord Jesus
out of the tribe of Judah. To Him shall the gathering be. We're gathered to Christ. The
Holy Spirit gathers us to the Lord Jesus Christ. And in the
book of Exodus, that's full of Christ. That's full of Christ. The Passover lamb. The opening through the Red Sea.
There's the path to safety, to refuge from the enemies. Christ is that way, I've already
said that. And then the manna that God gave
him every morning. Christ said, I'm the bread that
came from heaven and the water from the rock. 1 Corinthians
10, Paul said, that rock was Christ. God smote his son with
the rod of his justice, fulfilling that picture there in the book
of Exodus. And from him comes forth the
wells of salvation. Draw, draw the water of salvation
now by faith. And then God gave his law, the
law of the sacrifice. You know every morning the Israelites
at nine o'clock sharp, they killed a lamb. And every evening of
every day they killed another lamb. Don't you see the savior
there? John said he's the lamb of God. You get the book of Numbers,
the brazen serpent, all who were bitten, look and live. And Christ said, as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up that whosoever believeth on him, or put it this way, whosoever
looketh on him shall have eternal life. Look and live. Oh, my sinner
friend, it's not complicated. There's a blessed simplicity
to the gospel, which is why people miss it. It's by grace received through
faith. The tabernacle, every bit of
the tabernacle pictures Christ. Moses himself is a picture of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Joshua, Jehovah who saves, who
led Israel into the promised land. The judges, they all pictured
our Lord Jesus Christ. The kings, David, God chose David,
a man after His own heart. God chose Christ to be the Savior. You get to the historical books.
The deliverances that God gave to Israel over and over again. Who do you think delivered them?
Our Lord Jesus Christ did. You get all the way up to the
poetic books and in the book of Psalms. You read in Psalm
22, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Don't you hear
the voice of Christ there? Don't you hear him crying from
the cross? Christ lifted up, lifted up to
die. Did you know there were 10 attempts
on the life of our Lord Jesus Christ? And man failed to kill
him all 10 times. The 11th time, God killed him. He died as the substitute and
the sacrifice. And then you get to the prophets.
And all the prophets spoke of him. Our Lord Jesus said that
to his disciples in Luke chapter 24. He opened the scriptures
and expounded unto them the things concerning himself. And you know
the scriptures that he expounded then? The Old Testament. That's
all there was. And of course we get to the New
Testament. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the four gospels. And
they say, he's come, the Messiah has come. He was promised, prophesied,
predicted, pictured in the Old Testament. And the four gospel
narratives, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John said, he's here. And
in those four books, we see him living, dying, rising, ascending. That's what we see in those four
books. We see our Savior, flesh and blood, made flesh and blood. Romans chapter eight says, made
like in the sinful flesh, flesh and for sin. And in that body,
he condemned sin in the flesh. The four Gospels say He's here
and He's died, He's buried, He's risen again because He finished
the work that God gave Him to do. And then you get to the book
of Acts. And the book of Acts is simply
the men that God raised up and empowered to go forth and preach
Jesus Christ crucified, buried, risen again, the resurrected
Savior, the conqueror. That's what the theme of the
book of Acts is. And men went out and preached
to Him. And then you get to the epistles, and from Romans on, it speaks of our Lord Jesus again,
crucified, risen again, reigning, coming again, full of grace,
full of mercy, the only Savior, And you get to the book of Revelation
and Revelation, it's the revelation of Jesus Christ. And John writes
all about our Lord Jesus Christ in the last book of the Bible.
He says, he's coming again. There you go. He's all in the
scriptures. And I defy anybody to say anything
contrary to that. See, I told you I'd give that
to you. He is all in the scriptures. Well, let's get songbook and
we'll turn to