Turn back to John chapter 5.
We're going to be turning quite a bit
tonight. I think that will be good for us. I wanted to have
an illustration to get your attention. I hope I can get it and hold
it. You might learn something. I'll be good for us. We may have
something to learn. This evening I come home and got my notes
ready. Walked in the house and care about staying there in the
kitchen. And in her arms, she had a beach towel. Wrapped up
in that beach towel was a chicken. Uh-oh. She must be running real
late for dinner. What's this? What's happening
to my home? We had a bobcat come in her backyard and got a hold
of one of the chickens. It was about to hop the fence, and Jaylee
saw it, and yelled out the window and said, drop it! And that dropped
it. And that bobcat jumped the fence,
and the chicken ran back to the coop. So she was mending it and
doctoring it up some. She told me that, and I said,
I got an illustration. I forgot the story. That wasn't a bobcat. She showed me a picture. That
was a Robert cat. That was a big one. You think that chicken needed
saved? You think it being in the mouth
of that wild cat, that it needed somebody to do something for
it? It had no defenses. It was not able, and it was about
to be a meal. Somebody had to save it. That's what sinners are. They
don't know it. They're walking this earth, and
they're in desperate need of a Savior. And I want to tell
you tonight, He is able. I can prove it. Somebody had
doubts, somebody had concerns, like, well, maybe I'll try that
when I get a little older, or I don't know if He's good enough
for me. He's the Savior. He is fully able to save to the
uttermost, and I can prove it. He gives us four witnesses. He
gave us John the Baptist in that day. In this day, he has his
own people after his own heart that tell what his word says. Not their own word. Not a misconstrued
word. They tell the Lord's word. His
works testified of him, the miracles that he performed. And there
were many. The lame walked, the blind. They
saw. Deaf people heard something.
And all that was a representation of what the Lord does in the
heart, isn't it? He healed a blind man. I taught a blind man that
one time. I said, well, do you know good to have physical sight?
You need God to give you spiritual eyes. He got mad at me. It's
the truth. It may be nice if you could see
things, but life be easier on you. You need Him to give you
spiritual eyes. It's what you need. We have those miracles in our
day. We get to see those. We get to see the Lord give somebody
ears to hear Christ for the first time. With his eyes to see and
read the scriptures and say, that's him. I said, that ark
we read about in Genesis 1, that's Christ. I see that. I see that. The father was his witness. The
father spoke from heaven. He witnessed of the son. His
angels, his messengers witnessed of the son. He said, this is
my son. And finally, the Scriptures witness
to us. We have this Word in our hand. We can read it. Probably ain't
going to understand it by itself. But that goes back to the beginning,
doesn't it? He sent somebody to tell you
what it means. Just like an Ethiopian eunuch. And there's a fifth one
here. He's speaking to unregenerate religious peoples who he's talking
to. But he slightly touches it. We have the Holy Ghost. We have
the earnest of our inheritance. What is it? Is that mystical?
Is that something I can levitate and move trees by myself or something
like that? We believe Him. We believe His
Word. We believe His messengers. We
believe the Father that witnessed of Him. And we believe the work
He's done in our hearts. Ain't complicated, is it? He's
gave us a witness. I hope we can pay attention to
that. But the context of this is what we just read. Our Lord's
speaking to some Pharisees. And He had just healed a lame
man that they knew of for 38 years laying by the pool of Bethesda.
And He healed him. And that man said, Jesus of Nazareth
healed me. I said, why are you walking?
He said, My Lord healed me. I too did it. He made him whole. And they were angry because the
Sabbath, this took place on the Sabbath. It broke their traditions. Boy, we need our traditions broke. We need our traditions broke.
He says in verse 16, John 5, 16, And therefore did the Jews
persecute Jesus and sought the slave, because he had done these
things on the Sabbath day. But Jesus answered them. My Father
worketh hitherto, and I work." What you just saw happen to that
man, that's God the Father and me working in him. Therefore
the Jew sought the more to kill him, because he not only had
broken the Sabbath, but also said also that God was his Father,
making himself equal with God. Our Lord, knowing their hearts,
you can trick a man. I've been lied to, and you get
good at it. I know when somebody's lying to me. I met a couple hundred
thousand people in my life. I got a little bit of sense.
I know that. But you can be lied to. I can be fooled. You can
be fooled. Not him. He knew their hearts. He knew
their hearts. And he knew the anger that was
in them. This hatred that consumed them. And he spoke to them three
verily, verilies. Three amen, amens. Truly, truly. Trustworthy. He said, I and my
Father are one. We're together. All power. All
life. that's in the Father, it's in
our Lord Jesus Christ. He said, it's in me too. They're
the same. Then he gave another verily,
verily to these people, one to kill him. He said, he that heareth
my word and believes on him that sent me hath everlasting life. He's one with the Father and
whoever hears Christ, whoever hears the Father and believes
on Christ and the Father that he's one with, they hath everlasting
life right now. You believe Him? You heard Him?
Right now, you're alive as you're ever going to be alive. You're
going to be different. But you're alive as you're ever
going to be alive. That's how they hear. They're alive. That's
how they have a heart to believe they've been born again. They've
been given a new heart. And they told these religious
Jews that, I'm God over all. I'm God of salvation is what
he's getting at. And finally, verily, verily, He's the God
of resurrection. He's going to be the judge of
all. There will be a day coming. He
will sit in judgment. We'll be judged against Him.
But those that hath life, those that He's come to, will see no
condemnation. That's what He told. Do we believe
Him? Do we believe He and a Father
are one? To call Christ Jesus Lord, a
whole mess of people call Him Lord. Oh, it's the Lord Jesus
Christ. But to call Him Lord from the heart, to love Him,
want His will to be done. For that to happen, God did a
work in you. God saved you. That's what happened. They're
calling Him Lord. That's what John told us. He
said, no man can call Him Lord. He says, the Father saved Him.
He says, the Father put life in Him. The Father made Him believe
of Him and Him alone as salvation. We can add to it or we're hopeless
and helpless without Him. That He's coming again. And we
look for His coming because we'll be made like Him forever. It
says here in verse 30, I can of my own self do nothing. As
I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just." This isn't suggesting
that the Lord Jesus lacked any power. It was an area that He
had no will or ability. He didn't lack any ability. He
didn't lack any power. What it's declaring is Him and the Father
are of the same will. He's telling them again, because
that's what they're mad about. And so He's just going to keep
hitting on it. He's going to keep telling. The Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit, they are united. in will, in purpose,
and in word. What one says the other says,
they verify each other. He says, because I seek not my
own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me. His
will, His nature, cannot do anything apart from the Father and the
Holy Spirit. We read that He's a God that cannot lie. That's
because His nature, His character, is truth. Man says that God's
a God of love. Not so. That's not true. That implies that love's over
here and God's over there and somehow they've conformed to
one another. God is love. That's His nature. That's what
it is. We need to adjust our thoughts
of love to what He is. To what He says and what He's
done. God's holy. Holy. That sank a little bit
deeper into me this week. I've appreciated the character
of God for many years now. And boy, I appreciated it more
this week. We have a sovereign God, yes. But He's a holy God. He's a just God. What He does
is good. What He does is right. We know
these things. Boy, we get a hold of them. Yes, He is, isn't He? Be reminded
one more time, He delights to show mercy. What a thought. Verse 31 says, If I bear witness
of myself, my witness is not true. Now it would be blasphemy
to say that our Lord was a false witness. And that would be foolish.
And that would be against His Word. Men without understanding,
without knowledge, say things like that from this verse. What
he's getting at is, if the only witness I have is my words, that
would open the door to suspicion. That would open the door to doubt.
If He came in His own name and His own name alone, and even
answering these that he's speaking to, these that sought to kill
him, our Lord is fulfilling the law right now. Well, how would
he say something like that? He just fulfilled the law for
his people. Did you know that? In Deuteronomy 17 it says, at
the mouth of two or three witnesses shall he that is worthy of death
be put to death, but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be
put to death. Paul told us that plainly. If
somebody is going to bring a charge against the elder, you better
have two or three witnesses. If you want to play that game, you
better bring your witnesses, don't you? Solomon told us that. He said, let another
man praise thee and not thine own mouth, a stranger, and not
thine own lips. Boy, what wisdom. Not only does
our Lord tell these accusers plainly, He is God. He saves His people. He'll raise
them up again at the last day. He was going to judge everything
in that great day of judgment. He tells them, here's four witnesses
to prove everything I just told you. Will you listen? Does that
get a hold of you? Do you want to know what his
witnesses are? I do. It says in verse 32, this is
the fifth one I talked about for believers, but he's speaking
to unbelievers, but he mentions it. There's another that beareth
witness of me, and I know that the witness which he witnesseth
of me is true. The Spirit bears witness of him,
not of himself. The Holy Spirit comes, he doesn't
speak concerning himself, he speaks concerning Christ. But
these men haven't met the Holy Spirit yet. They don't know Him
yet. So He gives four witnesses of
who He is. Each one builds in importance. It grows in greatness. And I'll show you that at the
end. The first witness is John the Baptist. This is the last
of the Old Testament prophets. It says in verse 33, Ye sent
unto John, He's talking about what they did. He sent unto John,
and he bare witness unto the truth. My first witness, he calls
out, is John the Baptist. And he said, you went to him,
and everything he told you was absolutely true. What did John
tell him? We've looked at this recently,
haven't we? Turn back to John chapter 1. John chapter 1 verse 19. It says, and this is the record
of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to
ask him, who art thou? John's down there in the wilderness
baptizing and everybody don't know who he was. What's going
on down there? Who is this man? And he confessed, verse 20, and
denied not. He told them the truth, but confessed,
I am not the Christ. Who are you? I'm not Christ.
And they asked him, what then? Art thou a lies? And he saith,
I'm not. Are thou that prophet? Are you
that prophet of Deuteronomy 18 when the Lord said, Moses, I'm
going to send a prophet out of the people just like you. But
people's going to hear him. Are you that prophet? Is that
you? And he answered, no. Then said Dan to him, who art
thou that we may give an answer to them that sent us? What sayest
thou of thyself? And he said, I am the voice of
one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the
Lord, as said the prophet Isaiah. The Lord's coming. I'm just a
voice. I'm an earthen vessel. I'm a
broken clay pot. And I'm a mouthpiece saying,
He's coming. Look down at verse 29. This is
the next day. The next day John seeth Jesus
coming unto him and saith, Behold, the Lamb of God which taketh
away the sin of the world. John said, I'm a nobody. I'm
telling you God's coming. And then God came and He said,
There He is. That's the Lamb of God. Right there He is. That's
the One who made everything. That's the One who sustains everything. That's the One who gives us breath
that we're breathing right now. He bore the sins of His people.
That's the Lamb. That's who He's talking about.
Just as that scapegoat, it was turned loose in the wilderness
with those sins of Israel put on it. It was sent out to die. Christ our Lord took our sins
and His body on the tree. And He bore our sins away. He
took them. He bore them. The shame, the
guilt, the grief, all of it. It was placed on Him. He says
in verse 30, This is He of whom I said, After me cometh a man
which is preferred before me, for he was before me. I thought
you was older, John. That's the great I Am. That's
what He's saying. And I know Him not, but that He should be
made manifest to Israel. Therefore am I come baptizing
with water. And John, bare record, saying,
I saw the Spirit. descending from heaven like a
dove, and it abode on him. And I know him not, but he that
sent me to baptize with water, the Father that sent me, the
same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending,
and remaineth on him the same as he which baptizeth with the
Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bear record, that
this is the Son of God." The Father sent John to bear witness
of who Christ is, and when he saw Him, he said, That was his
purpose, and he accomplished it. That's the witness of John.
He declared Christ. Not himself, not another, Christ
and Him alone. Now back in our text here in
John 5, he says in verse 34, But I receive
not testimony from a man, but these things I say that ye might
be saved. Well, John said some good things
about you. The Lord said, I didn't receive testimony from a man.
He's saying we don't have to trust just the witness of man
alone, even if it's a great witness. But our Lord tells us over in
John 2.25, He said, He needed not that any man should testify
of Him. What a thought! The Lord uses men and He uses
means, but He does not need me. He doesn't need you. If the Lord
wanted to, He'd make a donkey talk, wouldn't He? He could do
that. It's pleased Him to do so. Man's
just an earthen vessel. And He's chose to take the weak
things of this world to prove to naught that things that people
think are just so wonderful. John was the greatest man born
of Adam. The Lord said so. And he was
just a sinner saved by grace. That's all he was. I hope people
testify of me. Never met him. This boy Kevin's
preaching the gospel. That's the first thing I thought
of. I don't need no man to testify on me. That's what Paul said, you're my epistles.
I've watched the Lord work in your hearts. I don't need somebody
bragging on me. I ain't worried about it. But
the Lord says here in verse 35, he was a burning and a shining
light and you were willing for a season to rejoice in his light. You all went to listen to John
and ask him questions. Well, he was a great orator.
Oh, he could command an audience. Oh, he's doing great things.
It was a show to people. Herod went to go listen to him.
These people he's speaking to went to go listen to him. But
God must give ears to hear him. To hear him. I'll just listen
to him to hear him. You saw that there's light in
John, that God was with him, but his only testimony was of
Christ. And that's why that season passed. It got old. He really
preached Christ every time he preached. And people couldn't
stand it no more. Or they just slip on, oh slugger.
We'll get through this somehow. Take a Benadryl. Get us through
it quickly. A second witness. The first witness
was John. The second witness is the works
of Christ. He says in verse 36, But I have a greater witness
than that of John. John was a wonderful witness. Greatest man ever lived.
For the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the
same works that I do, bear witness of me that the Father hath sent
me. His works witnessed of him. Nicodemus
knew that, didn't he? That's when he came to him in
John 3 we looked at. He said, we know that thou art a teacher
come from God. For no man can do these miracles that thou doest
except God be with him. Nicodemus didn't know the Lord,
but he knew of His miracles. He knew that that witness that
he was sent of God. Turn over to John chapter 11.
Nicodemus wasn't the only Pharisee that knew this, that was a witness
to these truths. John 11 verse 47. It said, Then gathered the chief priests
and the Pharisees a council and said, What do we do? What are
we going to do? For this man doeth many miracles. If we let him thus alone, all
men will believe on him, and the Romans shall come and take
away both our place and nation." They had to concoct a plan. They
was going to lose their position. They was going to lose the good
gig they had set up for themselves. And that's when the high priest,
being the high priest and not knowing what he was saying, he
said, one must die that many can benefit. We're going to kill
Him. Oh, what truth! One must die
so that many can live. But they knew of these miracles.
They could not deny these miracles were a witness that God was with
Him. His enemies couldn't deny it. Turn to Matthew chapter 11. John the Baptist was in prison
and he sent a couple of his disciples to see if this one that he had
heard about was the Christ. As many out there preaching and
teaching, they said, is this Him? Go find out. Word was spreading. It says in Matthew 11 verse 2,
Now when John had heard in the prison, how far had word got
about these miracles? Prisoners knew about it. When
John had heard in prison the works of Christ, he sent two
of his disciples and said unto him, Art thou he that should
come, or do we look for another? And Jesus answered and said unto
them, Go and show John again those things which you do here
and see. The blind receive their sight,
the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the
dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.
And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me."
The miracle our Lord performed, we looked at these years ago,
didn't we? A bit while. The miracles our
Lord performed should not be taken lightly. Him healing a
blind man, Him giving life to a dead man, Him allowing someone
to speak that's been dumb their whole life. We shouldn't take
those things lightly. This is proof of His Messiahship. It's proof of who He is. I want
to give you five things we should think about these miracles that
the Lord performed on this earth. The first was the quantity of
them. The amount of them. How many there were. We have
recorded in scripture several of them and we go through them
on occasion, don't we? We've looked at several of them.
Of these miracles He's performed. But boy, how many there was we
don't have recorded. It wasn't a man was alive. Life was on this earth. And wherever
he went, there was an effect to it. There was proof of it. Everywhere he went, miracles
were performed. John said at the end of this book, as we get
to the end of it here in several months, he says, and there were
so many other things which Jesus did. The witch, if they should
be written, everyone, I suppose that even the world itself could
not contain the books that would be written in. A great amount
of miracles. He performed many. Second thing
was the greatness of His miracles. How great these miracles were.
The lame actually walked. The blind actually saw. The deaf
really did hear. This really happened. It was
a great, great miracle. After several days of someone
being dead and they were starting to bloat and rigor mortis had
set in, they lived. They walked again on this earth.
I saw when I was a young fellow, a little bitty guy, on TV, there
was a man that was slapping people on the foreheads and said, be
healed. And I said, Daddy, why is that guy high-fiving in people's
faces? What's he doing? He said, he's
a charlatan, son. And then when Dad said something,
you didn't talk back. And I thought, why is that guy's
name Charlotte? He's a man, isn't he? It took me years to figure
it out. This isn't some trickery. This isn't some circus show.
The Lord actually healed people. It was great miracles. He had
the amount of them, the greatness of them, and it was publicly
known. These miracles were known all
over. We just saw them in prison. They heard about them in prison,
didn't they? They were not done in secret. They weren't done
behind closed doors. This wasn't something done in
a dark alleyway. There were thousands upon thousands
of eyewitnesses. Everybody saw them. Many heard
and saw. What happened? That's what he
said, go tell what you hear and see. They heard his voice. They saw
what he did to these people. So much so, his enemies had to
admit what he claimed. That's why they sought to kill
him. That God was with him. Fourthly, they were never just
proof of power. Could he show how powerful he
was by healing somebody? To prove that he was God? He's
God and you wouldn't have walked up there. You wouldn't be alive.
That's what it is. This isn't just a proof of power.
It was a work of compassion. A work of compassion. Great and
abundant acts of mercy is what it was. People that did not deserve
it. He come to them and healed them. That's what he did. That
was his miracles. It wasn't just an image on a
piece of toast. That's what people think miracles
are nowadays. Some statue is crying tears of blood. Who's
that helped? No, now you can't eat a piece
of toast, you've got to make another piece. It doesn't help nobody,
does it? The Lord came, He's in the people
business. He came to seek and to save His lost and He shows
it through these miracles. He came to take care of people,
take care of His people, to heal them, to benefit them. He raised a son and gave it back
to her mother. This man was blind from birth and He gave him sight
and His parents witnessed it, didn't they? That's true service
to people. That's what that is. And they
were effectual. This wasn't temporary help. That
man at the pool of Bethesda, he could have went to the finest
orthopedic surgeon of his day, of our day, and they'd have said,
yep, the man's fine. There's no evidence of damage
for 38 years. Miracles happen. A blind man
from birth, he says, now I see. His parents confirmed it. Take
the best ophthalmologist you can find. And they said, yes,
that man can see. He passes an eye test. This was effectual. That first witness was John the
Baptist. The second one, he said, was the works he performed. I'm
back in our text here in John 5, verse 36. He said, but I have greater witness
than that of John for the works which the Father hath given me
to finish. The same works that I do, they bear witness of me
that the Father hath sent me. Here's the third one. And the
Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me.
There's a lot of controversy over that verse, and I don't
know why. But there are many ways that the Father bore witness
of His Son. We have it all throughout Scripture.
The Father sent angels to announce His coming. He sent the angels
to announce that He was coming. The angels are God's messengers.
Now they're ministers to the children of God. They minister
to us, but they're His messengers. And He sent them. He said to
Mary, that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called
the Son of God. The Lord sent that. The Father
sent that. He spoke to Joseph. Joseph was going to put her away
privily. He was an upright man. He had some sense. He read the
Scriptures and he knew what it said. And he said, I ain't going
to make a show of her. I ain't going to embarrass her.
I'm going to put her away. And the Father sent an angel to him.
And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying,
Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy
wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.
Those shepherds, on that hillside, an angel came to them, and said,
The angel said to them, Fear not, for behold, I bring to you
good tidings of joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you
is born this day in the city of David a Savior, the Savior,
the Christ, which is Christ the Lord. That's who He was. Our Savior was baptized. When
John the Baptist baptized Him, the Father spoke from heaven.
And it says, "...and lo, a voice from heaven saying, This is My
beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." He witnessed of Him. His messengers witnessed of Him
on that Mount of Transfiguration. Peter, James, and John was up
there with the Lord. And Moses and Elijah was there. And He
said, This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Hear
ye Him. He didn't just say, This is Him. He gives credence to
Him, gives glory and magnifies Him and says, hear Him, listen
to Him. Turn over to John chapter 12. Here's another time the Father
spoke from heaven concerning His Son. John 12 verse 27 says, Now is
my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this
hour, but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, Glorify
thy name." Then came there a voice from heaven saying, I have both
glorified it and will glorify it again. The people therefore
that stood by and heard it said that it thundered. And others
said an angel spoke to him. That first generation that heard
that said, God spoke from heaven. He's going to glorify his name.
He responded to this man because they're one. The next generation
went and said, well, that was an angel come down and spoke.
Then another generation went and said, well, it thundered
real big that day. Then another generation went
and said, well, it might have sprinkled some. I think there's a cloud
or something. We just, we go down. We just
degenerate, get worse. The Father bore witness to the
crucifixion. He rent that veil from top to bottom. The earth
shook. The graves opened up. People
walked in darkness over the whole world for three hours. After Christ ascended to glory,
the disciples were looking up at the sky. And they said, where
did he go? We're all alone. And there was
two men dressed in all white raiment sitting next to him.
And they spoke. And they said, you men of Galilee,
why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which was taken
up from you into heaven, so shall come in like manner as ye have
seen him go into heaven. The Father witnessed the Son.
He declares it. That's His Son. Hear Him. And
He's coming again. That's the witness of the Father.
Now back in our text. John 5. The Lord said He came
to do the Father's will. There was one that if He had
testified of Himself, it would have been open for question.
So He gave us a sure, steadfast witness. John the Baptist. The works He was sent to perform
in the Father in Heaven. It says in verse 37, "...and
the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of
me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his
shape. And ye have not his word abiding in you, for whom he hath
sent him ye believe not." These Pharisees, they were not convinced
by God's ambassador, by his prophets. They had heard, they had saw
these works that Christ performed firsthand. And they were offended
to the point they were going to murder him. They heard the
voice from heaven. They heard the heavens rumble.
A voice speak. And they said, well, it was just
an angel. Maybe it was just thunder. They discounted three witnesses.
Wouldn't have one of the three. Now the Redeemer is going to
get them right where they eat and sleep. He's going to bring
it to their doorstep. What was tucked underneath their
very arm walking around the street so everybody could see. Here's
the fourth witness. It says in verse 39, search the
scriptures. For in them ye think ye have
eternal life, and they are they which testify of me. That very thing tucked underneath
your arm. You go search that. It witnesses of me, is what he's
telling. Aren't you thankful for Gutenberg?
That printing press? At this time, you know how precious,
physically precious, the Word of God was? Somebody had to hand-write
that out. That's what the scribes did.
They scribed, and they wrote it out. And then finally now,
with technology and the print and press and all this, then
they had to set type, and it still took forever. Do one page
at a time. You can go to a quickie mart,
find the Bible, can't you? the access we have. How thankful
I am of that. I said before that these witnesses were going to
increase in greatness, didn't I? John the Baptist, the miracles
Christ performed on this earth, the Father speaking, and now
the Scriptures. Does that mean that the Scriptures
you and I have so abundantly all around us, that we have in
our homes, in our cars, in our offices, in our lives, is greater
than God's preachers, than an experience of hearing a voice
or seeing something miraculous happen? It is. Turn over to 2 Peter 1. Our old brother Maurice says, do
we treat it as such? 2 Peter 1. Peter writes here in verse 16,
For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made
known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,
but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from
God the Father honor and glory when there came such a voice
to him from the excellent glory. This is my beloved Son in whom
I'm well pleased. And this voice which came from
heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy mountain,
on that Mount of Transfiguration. He says in verse 19, and we have
also a more sure word of prophecy. Whereunto ye do well that ye
take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until
the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts, knowing
this, first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private
interpretation. We have His holy, infallible,
undefiled Word, and it ain't open to private interpretation.
How do I know these things? How do I compare Scripture with
Scripture? I give the same advice in that office back there as
I give from this pulpit. Why? Because it ain't my advice.
Somebody threatened to sue me the other day. They said they
wanted something for free and I wouldn't give it to them. They
said, you called me personal distress. I said, what kind of mine? First crimp, then six. I'd sort
that out. You have a problem among you and it's a bad one.
And I said, go hire a lawyer. I don't think they'll act on
it. We'll see. He said from verse 21, For the
prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy
men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. God
sends His prophets, His apostles, His preachers, and they all speak
of Christ alone. They point you to Him. They witness
Him. Any experience, any miracles, any angels speaking, things you
can see, things you can hear, they all witness of Him, of His
person and His work. The Father, the angels, they
speak of Him. Hear ye Him." That's the only
one He's going to be pleased in. And these scriptures that
we ought to hold so dear. This Bible in your hand. It's
written by men, and God the Holy Ghost moved their fingers to
write it. And it witnesses Christ. Whether we see it or not, He
said, Moses wrote of Me. That's how I know Christ is the
Ark. I can say it with full assurance, Moses wrote of Him. That's who
he spoke of. That's what the scriptures are.
Me and one of the Lord's children, a dear brother, was talking the
other day about Bibles and red letter Bibles and black letter
Bibles. My Bible I'm using, Christ's words are in red. And in another
Bible I have, all words are in black. And I said, for me, it's
quick. When I'm studying, I'm pressed
for time. And if I'm reading it out loud, I can say, well,
here our Lord speaks. But in reality, is there a word
in here that's not His? Is there a word from Genesis
1 to the end of Revelations that's not His word, that He's ordained,
that He's preserved? Everything else has falsehoods
in it, can have error in it, and the Lord may sustain it.
And I read commentaries and look at them, but there's some briars
in there. I've got to kind of sort through
those. And like old brother Barnard
said, all you need is a Bible and a dictionary. And he said,
these scriptures are sure to shed a whole lot of light on
them commentaries. And that's the truth, isn't it? He's gave
us his word. We'll see this as a condemning witness next time.
We'll pick up here, but I pray the Lord will allow us to see
Christ in these witnesses that He's recorded. See Christ in
His prophets and His preachers and His apostles. See Christ
in the miracles He performed and what He's doing now in His
people. Growing them in grace, what a miracle. What happens when there ain't
nothing growing? There's death, isn't there? It's dead. The tree
ain't growing. We looked at it last time. It's
dead. Pray, grow us in grace and let us see that. Let us see
the Father's witness of Him. How He's glorified Him. Where
He is now? He's seated at the right hand of God on His throne,
interceding for His people. Isn't that something? And we
have the Scriptures that just prove Him over and over. Proves
what I am over and over. The more I read it, boy, just
the lower I get. That's me. You're right, Lord. and proves
Him, my need of Him, His success, a successful Savior. When I say
so often, come to Christ, we've just seen His witnesses He's
given to these unregenerate people. When I say, come to Christ, come
to Christ, do you know what that means? Believe Him. Here's the witnesses,
here's His witnesses. Believe Him. Trust Him. You can
trust Him like that chicken getting took over the fence. There's
a Savior that's able. He's the Savior of the uttermost.
Trust Him. Cast all your care on Him. Believe Him. Come to
Him. Do we believe Christ? Do we believe
His Word? Do we believe His witness? His
work that's accomplished? Do we believe Him? What's our response if we do?
We ought to. We ought to believe Him. What's
our response if we do? Hebrews 12, we say, Wherefore,
seeing we also are accomplished about with such great a witness,
great cloud of witnesses. Let us lay aside every weight.
Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily
beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set
before us. Let's put what God's put in our
hands. Let's do it with all our might. What's the bones of that
race? What's the essence of that race?
What's the meat and potatoes of it? Looking unto Jesus. believe in Him, trust in Him,
the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was
set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set
down at the right hand of the throne of God. If we believe
His witnesses, we're going to look to Him. If we believe His
witnesses, we believe Him. He sent the witnesses, don't
we? And then we cry out like that man. Lord, I believe. I
believe Him. I believe His Word. And more
so every day. Not just to practically, but
believe His Word. Lord, I believe. Help thou my
unbelief. You're the only one that can
help. Lord, I believe. Help thou mine.