Chapter 5, John chapter 5, verse
23. that all men should honor the
Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son
honoreth not the Father which hath sent him." Now, throughout this fifth chapter
of John, the Lord Jesus Christ reveals His greatness, His deity,
His power, and so many other things about Himself But in verse
23, he says this, and this will be my subject for today's message,
all men should honor the Son. How can a poor, broke, destitute
sinner honor the Lord of all glory? How could we honor? He who is righteous and perfect
in every way. If you look at verse 18, you'll
notice that in the same way these Jews got angry with him because
he had made himself equal with God. Notice carefully what follows,
even as they honor the father. And in John chapter 6, it says,
they took up stones to stone him because he said, I and my
father are one. The world will not accept a Lord
Jesus who is God Almighty. They say they do. But then they
make him out to be this weak-willed person who's waiting for them
to do something, don't they? You need to come to the front
of this church. You need to pray a certain prayer.
You need to get baptized. You need to show up on Saturdays.
You need to go in a little box over there with some other guy
and tell him all your sins. All kinds of stuff they want
you to do. Our Lord said, I and my Father
are one. He also said, many good works have I done among you,
for which of these do you stone me? All men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. They said, we're not stoning
you because of the good work. We're not stoning you because
you are a man, But we're stoning you because you claim to be equal
with God. Our Lord says here, all men should
honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. And he that honoreth
not the Son, with full honors and full glory and full worship,
honoreth not the Father who sent him. Now in the same fifth chapter,
I want to go back to where our Lord came to a pool called Bethesda.
Look at verse 2 through 13, if you would, please. See, there
was a man laying there on a makeshift bed, a portable bed that someone
had brought with them. And he had been lying lame on
his bed for 38 years. Just think of what condition
that he was laying in a bed. Have you ever seen somebody with
bed sores? You know, you can get bed sores pretty fast. Kathy
and I took our aunt in one time. It wasn't long before she couldn't
get up and move anymore. Within days, sores began to appear
on her body. We had to have nurses come over
and they had to roll her and do all kinds of stuff to keep
that. Imagine laying in a bed for 38 years. That's, wow. And our Lord Jesus looked at
this lame man and He asked this question, He says, Will thou
be made whole? Will you be made whole? And the
man replied, I have no help. I have no one to help me. You
see, there was a tradition that an angel would come down at a
certain time and would trouble the water, and the first one
who was to get into that water was made whole. The man said,
I don't have anyone to help me. He was stuck in the bed. He couldn't
get over there and get in. I'm lame, I'm a lame man. I've
laid in this bed for nearly 40 years and every time I get down
to the water someone else has already beat me to it. Our Lord
said to him, rise, take up your bed and walk. And the scripture
says what? Immediately. The power of God
spoke to the flesh of this man. He said, rise and walk. Just
as he said to Lazarus, come forth, when Lazarus was as dead as could
be, so badly that he stunk. The power of God spoke. And immediately he was made whole
and took up his bed and walked. His legs had been strengthened
and he was so empowered by the Lord Jesus Christ that he took
up his bed and walked by himself. He didn't need any help at that
point. He didn't need to stick around by the pool. He was healed.
And he went off carrying that bed on his shoulders. Now here
is a significant statement. You see, and it was the Jewish
Sabbath day. So down the street he goes carrying
his bed. He was leaping, rejoicing, praising
God. I'm walking, check it out. And
everyone was looking at him and pointing at him, calling attention
to him. Wow, wasn't that guy, wasn't
he the one who was hanging out by the pool all this time? Isn't
that the guy who's been laying there? He had been lying there for 38
years by that pool, and every single one around him knew it.
He had met some of the religious fellows, these religious Pharisees
from the synagogue, who saw him carrying his bed. But instead
of marveling, instead of saying, wow, what happened to you? What miracle has been performed
here? No, what did they say? You're breaking the Sabbath. Our tradition. whether it go to be that box,
tell that guy your sins, or come to the front. Our tradition says
you can't work. Instead of marveling at the miracle
that the lame man made whole, they said, it is not lawful for
you to carry your bed on the Sabbath day. Put it down. Their
traditions were more important to them than this man and his
happiness. We don't care how happy you are.
You don't do this on the Sabbath day. their traditions. They didn't
even want him to violate their religious traditions. They would
defend them at any cost. As a matter of fact, he said,
it is not lawful for you to carry your bed on the Sabbath day.
And he replied this, he said, he that made me whole, the same
said to me, take up your bed and walk. This is what He is
saying. He's saying, I'm carrying this
bed because He, the One who made me whole, the One who gave me
the ability to walk, the One who said, rise and walk, He said,
rise, so I rise. He said, walk, so I walked. Do
you see the honor coming here? This One who healed this man,
is the one who's getting the honor, not these religious buffoons
who say you can't carry your bed on the Sabbath day. He that loved me and cared for
me when no one else did in my weakness and my infirmity, he
told me to carry this bed. He came to me in my need when
no one else could help me, when I couldn't even help myself.
And he spoke to me in the power of grace He told me to carry
this bed and walk, and He, by His mercy, made me whole. He
gave me the power to walk. He said to me, take up thy bed
and walk, and I intend just to do that very thing. I intend
to obey the words of my Master who told me to get up and walk.
The One who cared for me, who loved me before the world was.
Now, He didn't say that, but that's exactly what you and I
see. We see a Lord and Savior who has loved us from before
the world was. We see a Lord and Savior who has loved us so
much that everything that has happened between the beginning,
the actual creation of all things, and right now has happened for
your and my sakes. Everything! All the wars, all
the good things, all the inventions, everything has happened exactly
how our Lord would have it done for the sakes of His people. That includes 9-11. That includes the fires up there
in paradise. But it also includes those who
built this country to what it is today. This wonderful place that we
have and come in this building Those who built this were there
for our sakes. You see, we're talking about
a God who rules over everything, who's sovereign in every way. Take up your bed and walk, and
I intend to do exactly what he says. I take my orders from him. If what he says is conflict with
you, What's the difference? All you ever do is stand there
and watch me lay in my bed. I believe that He is the Son
of God and His Word is my law. He that made me whole told me
to take up my bed and walk and I intend to do that very thing.
This is what He's saying, folks. He's saying, I honor my God. I am honoring the Son. He told
me to take up my bed and walk. I am doing so because He is my
God. It doesn't matter the cost. It
doesn't matter what those people over there think of me. It doesn't
matter what the church down the street wants to point their fingers.
That's those Calvin people down there. Who cares what they think? All men should honor the Son
even as they honor the Father. Folks, I would like for you to
consider five scriptures. And there's no conflict here.
There's no danger that we're going to give too much glory
to the Father or too much glory to Jesus Christ. There's no way
that we're going to rob God the Father of any of His glory by
giving glory to His Son. For the Scripture says, honoreth
the Son as you honoreth the Father. It says all men should honor
the Son, even as they honor the Father. And if you honor the
Son, you do honor the Father. This is my Son, God said, pointing
to Jesus. This is my Son, on whom I am
well pleased. Our Lord prayed, Father, glorify
me with the glory which I had had with Thee before the world
was. When you honor the Son as you honor the Father, you are
not robbing honor from the Father, you are giving honor to Him.
Actually, He said, He that honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the
Father. So if you don't give honor to
Jesus Christ as God in the flesh, then you are dishonoring the
Lord God. You can't give Christ too much
glory, there is no way that we can praise Him adequately, but
there is also no way that your tongue could ever praise Him
like He should be praised, is there? I was mentioning that
in my prayer earlier. We say thanks, Lord, but if you
think about what He has given us, that thanks that we give
our Lord is pretty puny and not really worth anything, is it?
But that's all we have. I don't have any righteousness
of my own. All I can do is say, praise you
Lord for giving me, for being merciful to me, a sinner. Knowing that I deserve the wrath
to come. You cannot magnify His name enough. God has given Him a name above
every name, and that name is the name of Jesus Christ, and
every knee shall bow. I want you to listen to the scripture
in John 15, 23. It says, He that hated the Son,
hated the Father. If you hate the Lord Jesus Christ,
if you hate the true and living Lord Jesus Christ, the One who
has all power, The one who comes to us in the day of His power
and makes us willing. The one who is in control of
the air that we breathe. If you hate that sovereign Jesus
Christ, then you hate the Father. Do you have little thoughts about
Christ? If so, then you have little thoughts about God. He
that hateth the Son, hateth the Father. Listen to this in 1 John
2.23, it says, Whosoever denieth the Son, whosoever denieth. No, Jesus is man. There's no
way He could do all those wonderful things. Oh yes He can. And yes
He did. And yes He will. Whosoever denieth
the Lord Jesus Christ, denieth the Father. When a person puts doubts on
Christ, you put doubts on the Father. He that denies the Son,
the Lord Jesus, denies His deity, denies His eternal incarnation,
His sacrificial work in denying the Son. He denies the Father.
He does not know the Father. It says, no man knows the Father
but the Son, and He to whom the Son will reveal Him. And that's
God's Word. In 1 John 5.10 it says, He that
believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself, and he
that believeth not on the Son of God hath made God a liar. Because he does not believe the
record that God gave of his Son. When I, or any person, whoever
it is, puts doubts on Christ, or questions Christ's effectual
atonement, the person, the work, or whatever, we don't believe
in Christ, we are calling God a liar. And the reason this is
so is because we don't believe what God has said about His Son,
the Lord Jesus. It is God that said it, not you
or I. In 2 John verse 9, the Scripture says,
and I want you to listen to this, Whosoever transgresseth and abideth
not in the doctrine of Jesus Christ, hath not God. And when the Scripture talks
about Jesus Christ, they're talking about God in the flesh. Not some
wimpy Jesus Christ who's waiting for us to do something. Not some
Jesus Christ who could lose His people because they've turned
and gone the other direction. I turn and go the other direction
all the time. Thank God for His power that
turns me back. If it wasn't for His loving hand
to me, I would step in so deep that I would go to that burning
pit. I've heard preachers who preach
God, but they don't preach Christ. There was that John, no, what's
that, Og, Oglestine, Og? Joel, yeah. Lance Heller was telling me one
time, he sat and he was on TV, national TV. Now here's a man
who says he's a man of God. He preaches to millions on TV. And he had a whole hour to spend
talking to some fool on TV, and not once in that entire hour
did he mention Christ. Lance listened to him only to
hear if he would say Jesus Christ. And he not once in that entire
hour did he mention it. If they want to talk about Muhammad,
or they want to talk about the Virgin Mary, or Confucius, or
family ties or heritage, they may walk, talk God the Father,
but they don't give any glory to Jesus Christ. It says, whosoever
abides not in the doctrine of Jesus Christ, well what is this
doctrine? It's the doctrine of His eternality.
He's eternal. Jesus Christ was before the world
was, just as Jesus Christ will be for eternity past. He wasn't
a man. He had to become a man so that
He could go to that cross and shed His blood for our sins.
But He has always been Jesus Christ. If they don't talk about His
covenant mercies, His incarnation, His righteousness, His death
on the cross, His burial, His resurrection, His exaltation,
His second coming. If a man doubts, if he does not
abide in the teachings, the doctrine of Jesus Christ, then he hath
not God with him. He does not know God because
he does not believe the record that God has left for his sons. You know, it's plain and clear.
Pauli Mary and I were talking about that last week. It's so
simple. Friday night, we're looking into
Galatians. It's so simple. There's no questions. How can
this man who claims to be the leader of the Catholic Church,
who knows more about Scripture than I'll ever know, how can
he read those very things in Galatians and not see the truth
of who Jesus Christ is? Because God has never done a
work in His heart. The Son has never revealed Him. And they make God out to be a
liar. We worship Christ because He is God. The apostles went
up upon the mountain. And there, Peter and James and
John, along with the Lord Jesus Christ, Scripture says that God
brought Moses and Elijah back from Heaven. They sat there and
talked for a moment or two, and the disciples saw Moses representing
the Law, and Elijah representing the Prophets, and they were sitting
there talking with Jesus of Nazareth. What did they talk about, you
think? Well, they talked about His death. This was the summit
meeting of all summit meetings. There was the Law, the Prophets,
and the Son of God, whom the Law and the Prophets bear witness
of. They talked about His death, and in a moment, Moses was gone,
and Elijah was gone, and Christ was the only one there. The law was gone! Our Lord came to fulfill that
law, and He did it perfectly. The disciples saw Moses... The glory of God glistened upon
him. His clothes glistening. The scripture
says his remnant was white as the light. And it also says that
a voice from heaven came and said, this is my beloved son
in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him. We want to listen to the prophets.
We want to listen to the law. Oh, no. No. No, no, no, no, no,
no. We want to listen to him. Because
you see, from the Lord Jesus we will hear mercy. And we will
hear grace. Which is what I need a lot of. What I'm trying to say here is
this. The Lord taught the disciples that I and my Father are one.
One of them said to Him, just show us the Father and we'll
be satisfied. He said, have I been with you so long that you don't
know me? He that has seen me has seen
the Father. I and my Father are one. So my friends, without reservation,
without hesitation, without apology, and without fear, I boldly declare
unto you who hear me that Jesus Christ of Nazareth, Jesus born
in Bethlehem, Jesus who walked this earth and died on the cross,
Jesus Christ is none other than God Almighty in human flesh.
He who came to this earth to redeem a people for His glory
and for His kingdom. There's no controversy in that.
When we glorify the Son, we glorify the Father. The One of whom He
is well pleased of. This is what the Bible teaches,
and it's what the Word of God teaches, and it is truth. If
you don't believe that, then just take your Bible right now
and throw it out, because it says it from cover to cover.
You don't need the Bible if you're not going to believe that. All
the way throughout it. He's the only revelation of God
in human flesh. In Him dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. God has appointed a day in which
He is going to judge this world by the man, Jesus Christ. People talk about going to judgment.
God the Father judges no man. He committed all judgment to
the Son. Judgment will be based upon who He is, what He has done,
why He did it, and where He is now. Judgment's going to be based
entirely on your honor, on you honoring the Son, and how I honor
the Son. I can stand up here and brag
on you all day. I can brag on me. And we can
brag on each other. And we can talk about all of
our great denominations and our great programs and our great
buildings. We can talk about this being great or that being
great. And you're going to find that
the only thing great in this world is the Lord Jesus Christ. and God is going to honor the
Son. The whole judgment, everything
about it, is not going to be about how many watermelons you
stole, or how many of this, or whatever of that. It's going
to be this. What think ye of Christ? If you don't believe the Lord
Jesus Christ, then you are not honoring Him. Whosoever believeth
on me shall have everlasting life. Isn't that what he says? Our hope for participation in
that kingdom to come is to be among the people out of every
tribe, every kindred, every nation and every tongue under heaven
that believes on the Lord Jesus Christ and receives him in our
hearts. To be a part of those who honor the son, who bow to
the son, and to know the son, and just to have him call my
name to know me. It says, if thou shalt confess
with thy mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart
that God raised Him from the dead, and God made Him the Lord
and Christ, thou shalt be saved. That is what honoring the Son.
Take your Bibles, if you would, and turn to 2 Corinthians chapter
5. And I'll spend the last few minutes
here on this very scripture. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse
18. And let's look at it together,
shall we? It's very clear, it's very plain,
and it's very necessary. First of all, it says, all things
are of God. All things in creation, all things
in providence, all things in salvation are of God. Now watch the next line. It says,
who hath reconciled us? who hath brought us back into
fellowship, who hath drawn us back who went astray, who has
forgiven all our iniquities, he hath reconciled us, he hath
destroyed the enmity between himself and us, he hath reconciled
us unto himself, he hath accepted us unto himself. How? How has he done this? Well, the
answer is by Jesus Christ. It's not by some water that they
put on my head or when I was an infant or it wasn't some promise
that I made in rededication. It wasn't because of some commitments
that I made at a revival meeting. It was by Jesus Christ himself. You see, God is holy and we are
sinners. God came into this world in Christ
and he lived for us. that He might impute to us perfect
holiness and He died for us that He might put away our sin. He
hath reconciled us unto Himself. It wasn't by our act. But it
was by an act of Christ. It wasn't by our works. It was
the work of Jesus Himself. Look at the next line. It says,
And He hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. This is the
good news. This is the Gospel that we have
to give to the world. We're sinners saved by grace.
What a statement that is to our fellow workers. To our loved
ones. To my son. to my daughter. Dad can do all these other great
things that they think of me, but one of the best things I
can say to them is I am a sinner, saved by grace. What is the good news? What is
the gospel? What is the testimony? What is the witness? Look at
verse 19. To wit, namely, that God was in Christ. This is what I've been saying
through the whole message. God was in Christ. When He was born
in Bethlehem, God was born in human flesh. When He walked this
earth, it was God who walked this earth. When He hungered,
it was God who hungered. When He thirsted, it was God
who thirsted. When He cried out, it was God
who cried out. Scripture says, without controversy,
great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the spirit, seen of angels, and preached to the
Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received up into glory. Christ Jesus is God in the flesh. He has given us this gospel of
reconciliation, namely that Almighty God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto himself. God was in Christ satisfying
His own law. He walked perfectly. He took
care of everything for us. He was honoring His own commandments,
doing His own will, glorifying His own commandments, honoring
His own justice, and dying to satisfy His own requirements.
God was in Christ. You see, He's the only one that
can honor His law. He had to be made of a woman.
He had to be made under the law. That's what Scripture says, right?
Because He's the only one who could honor that law. What the
law could not do because it was weak in the flesh, God sending
His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, condemned sin in
the flesh. Let me say this carefully and
I want you to listen. You who won't bow to Christ and consider
Christ Jesus, or honor Christ Jesus, or believe Christ Jesus,
or receive Him as your substitute, who is going to honor the law
for you? Who? Can you? It has to be honored. Who is
going to obey God's commandments for you? They have to be obeyed. Who is going to bear the judgment
and the justice of God for you? For it has to be born. No one
but Christ can bear it. God was in Christ honoring his
law for those who believe. Who can satisfy his justice?
God did it. He's the only one who can keep
his law. He's the only one who can satisfy
his justice. How could one man suffer for
so many? Well, the reason is because he
is God. The scripture also says they're
not imputing their trespasses to them. The word impute means
charge. Not charging their trespasses
to them. Why? Because our Lord took those
trespasses upon Himself. He who knew no sin was made to
be sin for us. Is that correct? Isn't that what
the Word says? Here's one of the things that
just blessed my soul. Thinking about Him who was made
to be sin for me. is able to save to the uttermost. I don't know about you folks,
but that means a lot to me. As I walk through this world
and I see the times that I stumble, the times that thoughts go through
my mind that shouldn't, I know my Lord has taken all
of that on Him. that does not give me a license
to go out and continue. In fact, just the opposite. Lord,
help me to turn from those things. But when I don't, when I stumble
and fall on my face, I know my Lord has me. Just as He did Peter,
reaching down and grabbing Peter before he could sink into the
sea. When I fail and take my eyes
off of Christ, He has a hold of me. He's able to save to the
uttermost them that come to God by Him. Not by you, not by anything
we've done, but by Him. Our Lord has committed us unto
this Gospel. He calls and He sends preachers
to preach this very Gospel. to preach that our sins are forgiven.
All of God's elect shall come to Him, because the Father hath
given them to Him, and He shall lose none. In verse 20 we read, and now,
then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech
you by us. We pray you in Christ's stead,
be ye reconciled to God. Well, who's speaking? It's me. I'm the one who's talking right
now, right? But that's only half of it, folks. I can stand here
before you and read the Word of God, but just like that man
who sits over there in Rome, unless the Lord does a work in
your hearts, you will not see it. You can read His Word all
day long. Memorize every word there is
between the front and back covers of this book. But unless God
speaks to your heart, you'll never know the Son as God in
the flesh. It says, as though God did beseech
you by us. How else is God going to speak
to you if He doesn't speak to you through a man? If He doesn't
give a man to say, be ye reconciled to God. Lay down your shotgun. Put down your sword. Surrender
and bow to the Lord Jesus Christ. Be ye reconciled to God for there
is no other name given among men whereby we must be saved. Now watch this in the last verse.
There are three people that I want to make mention of. It says,
hath made him to be sin for us." Three people. He, the father,
has made him, the son, to be sin, to be a sacrifice for sin
for us. Father, son, and sinner. that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. Did you notice the three again? That's the gospel. And He that
honoreth the Son honoreth the Father. The person who sits there,
wherever you are this very moment, whatever time it might be for
you, wherever you might be listening, It is not saying that I am right. It is saying that the Gospel
is right. The Scriptures are right. And that God is also right. And He is truth. What that man
is saying is so. I am a sinner and God is holy. The only one who can take care
of my sins and put away my guilt and reconcile me to God and restore
my soul is the Lord Jesus Christ. It's because the Father had made
Him sin for me. He was made flesh and dwelt among
us. He, God Almighty, made Him, our Lord, to be sent for us in
order that we might be made holy and righteous of God in Him. I say to you this morning, honor
the Son. That all men should honor the
Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son,
honoreth not the Father which sent Him. Where do you stand this morning? What think ye of Christ? Is He God to you? Or is He just
some figure that you want to try to be like? I want to love
everybody like Jesus loved everybody. Just some figure, some guy who
walked really good, did some really nice things. Or is He
my Creator? That's it. He's Lord of all.
Amen. Just stand with me, please.