Open your Bibles, if you would,
to John chapter 5. We'll read two verses, verses
39 and 40, with verse 39 being the key verse for this study.
The name of the message is, they testify of me. They testify of
me. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ has
been talking to some unbelieving Jews. They want to kill him. You can find that starting in
verse 18. But we're going to key on verses
39 to 40. So he comes to the point where
he's telling them about who he is. And then he says this in
verses 39 and 40. And remember who's saying this.
This is God incarnate in the flesh. Okay? This is God himself. Come, as we saw in the last sermon,
to save sinners. He came into this world to save
sinners. Now look what the scripture says
here in verses 39 to 40. Our Lord, Jesus Christ, tells
these unbelieving Jews, search the scriptures. Now, that's the
Old Testament, because at this time there's no New Testament
at all. So Christ, we find out from this verse here, is all
through the Old Testament, and he's all through the New Testament,
which means from Genesis to Revelation, this is a book about Christ.
It proclaims Christ in type and picture in the Old Testament,
and here's the substance. The Old Testament says, someone's
coming, the Messiah's coming. New Testament says, here's the
Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, God incarnate in the flesh, who
came to save sinners. Oh, it's wonderful, wonderful
news. But search the scriptures, for
in them, you think you have eternal life. And they are they which
testify of me, he says. See, eternal life is only in
Christ. Jews thought, well we got it,
we got eternal life because we're Jews. No. No one is saved because
of their nationality. The only salvation for sinners
is found in Christ and Him alone. He says, and He will not come
to me that ye might have life. See, natural man, before we're
born again by the Holy Spirit of God, we have no faith, we
have no repentance, we have no faith in Christ, we have no repentance
before God. We're dead in trespasses and
sins. And this is the state of natural man. We will not come
to Christ. But by the power of God, the
Holy Spirit, oh, he makes God's sheep willing in the day of his
power. We're born again by the Holy
Spirit of God, given faith to believe on the one object of
our faith, the Lord Jesus Christ, who the scriptures testify of,
who the Old Testament testifies about, who eternal life is found
in, and only in Him. He's the way, the truth, and
the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by Him. And he
says, you will not come to me that you might have life. See,
in Christ is eternal life. Eternal life. Now, beloved of
God, the Lord Jesus Christ is the Alpha and the Omega of scriptures. We see in verse 39, the Old Testament
scriptures speak of Christ. They testify of Christ. And what
does the New Testament do? It testifies of Christ. That
he's the God-man. That he came into this world
to save sinners. And Paul says, of whom I'm chief.
And every believer says that. We're chief of sinners. There's
only one theme in the Bible. It's all about the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is the constant theme in every
one of its sacred pages, beloved. All through the scriptures, the
scriptures speak of a substitute. All through the scriptures, God
says, I will save my people. says he's a just God and a Savior. That's Christ. Oh, my. Every page speaks of a Redeemer,
beloved of God. Every page speaks of the Christ
of God. From Genesis 1-1, in the beginning,
God created the heaven and the earth. The Word of God was there. the Lord Jesus Christ, to Revelation
22, 21, which we'll look at later, which says this, I'll say it
now. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all, amen.
It finishes with Christ. Begins with him and finishes
with him. And all from Genesis 1, 1 to Revelation 22, 21, the
whole Bible speaks of Christ. At creation, we see him with
God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. The Sacred Trinity. He is the Word of God. He's the
Word of God. And John tells us in John chapter
1, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And why did he
come? This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation,
that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners. Are you
a sinner? That's the question. Most people
say, I'm not a sinner. I said that before the Lord saved
me. Now I own my sinnership now. I'm a sinner. And I praise God
that he saved me. He saved me from all my sins.
Oh my. I'm not waiting to be saved.
I am saved. By the grace and mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ.
See, our hope is in Christ alone. It's in him alone. And we catch a glimpse of him
in the promise of the woman's seed. Who's that? The one who
will crush the serpent's head. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's that seed. We see him typified
in the Ark of Noah. The Ark of Noah. All who were
in the Ark were safe from the wrath of God, weren't they? As
a matter of fact, that Ark was pitched from within and without.
That picture is the blood of Christ. They're sealed in there,
beloved. and not a drop of God's wrath. Do you know not a drop
of that rain for 40 days and 40 nights, it beat on the ark,
right? Which again, the pitch sealed it up. It beat on that
ark and not a drop fell on those inside. That picture's us in
Christ, beloved. Oh, it's wonderful. Oh my, what
a Savior. What a Redeemer is Jesus Christ,
our Lord. Every page speaks of him. And
we who are in the ark were safe, just like those who were in the
ark were safe from the wrath of God, which fell upon all who
were outside the ark, right? All who are outside of Christ
will face the wrath of God. For those in Christ, our wrath
that was due us fell upon the king, just like it fell upon
the ark. And not one of them inside were
harmed. Not a drop of rain fell. Oh, it's wonderful. Oh, my. What a picture of the precious,
precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, my. We catch a glimpse
of him in the promise of the woman's seed, as I said. We see
him typified in Noah's ark. All who were in the ark were
safe. We walk with Abraham, and what did Abraham eat? He saw
Messiah's day, didn't he? He saw Christ. Oh, he was looking
to Christ. We dwell in the tents of Isaac
and Jacob, feeding upon and trusting in the gracious promises of God.
And what do we find out in the New Testament? We find out all
the promises of God are yea and amen in Christ. Oh, praise his
mighty name. We hear Israel talking about
Shiloh. And in all the types of the law,
the ceremonies, rituals, and sacrifice, what do we find? We
find our Redeemer pictured, promised, and prophesized. Oh, what a Savior
is Jesus Christ, our Lord. Whether we found them to be prophets,
or kings, or priests, or preachers, they all looked the same way,
and they all looked one way. They all stood like the cherubim,
stood over the ark, desiring to look inside, to read and to
know the great mystery of God's propitiation, who is the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, sent into this world to save
sinners. Oh my, the Lord Jesus Christ,
And in all those Old Testament prophets and scriptures that
the Lord talks about there, yet we see in the New Testament,
we find even greater clarity of our Lord Jesus Christ, by
God the Holy Spirit teaching us and illuminating the scriptures
and teaching us the things of Christ. The one pervading subject
through the Old Testament and through the New Testament is
the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, you know, he's not like a
gold nugget. You know, you see these guys, they're digging for
gold. They find a nugget and they're freaking out, right?
Oh, look what I got, I got a little nugget. The Lord Jesus Christ
is the whole vein. He's the whole mind full of gold. That's who he is. Oh my, he's
the mother load of gold. Oh, he's the solid gold foundation
upon which the whole New Testament stands. He's the whole substance
of the New Testament. And His name is the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that's why we preach Christ and Him crucified, and
Him risen from the grave, because He's the only Savior of sinners,
the only one. Again, even in the last words
of the closing sentence of the Bible, we find it, grace with
the Redeemer's name. Revelation 22, 21, the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. This is how we ought to read
scripture. This is the light by which it must be read. We
should consider the Word of God to be as a mirror. We're looking
to Christ. It reflects Christ. It shows
us Christ. Even though we see through a
glass darkly, It reflects Him. And one day, beloved, because
of His mercy and grace, because He redeemed us with His blood,
because we're born again by His Holy Spirit, we shall see Him
face to face. Oh my, what a Savior! My, oh my, what a Redeemer is
Jesus Christ, our Lord. And the Bible contains the love
letters of the Lord Jesus Christ to His dear bride. He's the author. Oh, my. And these letters are
written to his elect, to his born-again, blood-washed bride. Who are they? All the people
he purchased with his precious blood, a number that no man can
number. Sinners, you can count on that.
They're sinners, because Christ came to save sinners. And they've been taught by the
Holy Spirit of God that they're sinners. They've been taught
their desperate need for Christ. Mmm. My, oh my. And what a sweet fragrance
of Christ's love we see in the pages of the Scripture. For his
bride. The pages of the Bible are the
garments of our great King. They speak of him. They tell
of his person. They tell of his greatness. They
tell of who he is. God, the Word of God. They tell
of what he's done. They tell of who he's done it
for, sinners. He saved us by the shedding of
his precious blood and his death on Calvary's cross, and he's
raised for our justification. Praise his mighty name. The scriptures
tell of God's holiness. Oh, the demons even called him
the Holy One of God. They know who he is, and they
tremble. The scriptures tell of his everlasting
love for his people, his unchanging love for his people. and how
he redeemed those whom he's loved with an everlasting love, with
his precious blood, giving his life and shedding his blood for
us. The scriptures are the royal
chariot in which the Lord Jesus Christ rides. It's paved with
love for his people, love for his bride. He rides on the road
of love, paved for his bride, beloved. My, oh, my. The Scriptures are
as the swaddling bands of the Holy Child. Remember the Lord
was wrapped in swaddling bands? The Scriptures are all wrapped
around Him, and when they're unfolded, when they're opened,
there is Christ. There is the Lord Jesus Christ.
You unroll those swaddling clothes of Scripture, and what do you
see? You find the Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ, who came to save sinners from their sins. Oh,
it's wonderful. That's why we say, flee to Christ.
My prayer is God will show you're a sinner and that you're flee
to Christ, that you're flee to Him. He says, look unto me and
be ye saved, all the ends of the world. He doesn't care about
what your standing is in life, He doesn't care about how famous
you are or how unfamous you are. It doesn't matter to Him. All
who come to Him shall be saved. And we come to Him by faith,
by God-given faith, born again of the Holy Spirit of God, with
God-given faith that has one object, and that's the Lord Jesus
Christ. Beloved of God, the heart of
the Word of God, the heart of the Scriptures is the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's the key that will unlock this treasure chest, this
treasure chest of holy scriptures. And if you miss him, you miss
it all. For Christ said of the scriptures,
they are they.