John chapter 5, if you remember,
opens up with Jesus healing an impotent man. Impotent means
without strength. Impotent means helpless. And
the Lord Jesus healed this man without any help from the helpless. I find that very comforting,
very comforting. And when he asked him, he said,
wilt thou be made whole? Yeah, I do. I want to be made
whole. I want to be made whole by the
Lord who doesn't need my help and doesn't look for my help
because I'm helpless. And he has all power. And so
what we see in this account here in the miracle of raising this
man up from his impotency, and he had been this way for 38 years,
We see the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. We see His goodness. We see all of that that we need
comes from Him. And if you get that, then you
will get the message today, which I've entitled, The Will of the
Son. The Will of the Son. And that's
taken from verse 21. I wanna read that to you. It
says, as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them,
or gives life to them, Even so the Son quickeneth whom He will. He will. That's the will of the
Son. We sometimes want to do different
things, and we want to go to see Mom and Dad, or we want to
go see the grandbabies, and we have all these things we want
to do, and we sometimes are able to do them. That's our will. What we want to do is our will.
It's not complicated. And the Lord Jesus Christ has
a will. And here's the good news. He has the power to always do
His will. So the will of the Son means
that there's no power needed but His power. There's no will
needed but His power to accomplish His will, and He doesn't rely
on any but Himself. And so that is a beginning of
trying to give you the message from this text of scripture today,
that all that I need is in him. And that makes me very, very
happy. But in this miracle, not only
did the Lord do this miracle, but then he expounded the miracle
to us as I've been trying to point out in verses 17 and following. And so what we see there is that
Jesus tells us who he is. He tells us very plainly who
he is, and the people who heard him were the Jews. They were
those who trusted in their own obedience to Moses' or the law
of God, which Moses gave to them. They trusted Moses because they
said, well, we have Moses and we're going to obey his law.
That's going to give us a place with God, favor, blessing from
God. We're gonna get our kids circumcised,
we're gonna be circumcised so that we can all be part of Abraham's
blessings. But they were completely mistaken,
completely mistaken because they misunderstood all of the scripture. As we saw a couple weeks ago,
they misunderstood the purpose of the Sabbath. The Sabbath was
not what man does or doesn't do, it's what God does and our
resting in that. Only God can do what's necessary
for us to have eternal rest. That's the message of the Sabbath,
and we are to trust Christ who did that work. And they also
didn't understand circumcision. Circumcision was given that we
might know that righteousness does not come by our keeping
circumcision, because it was given to Abraham after he was
considered righteous by God. So that was also a complete misunderstanding. They viewed the very opposite
of the truth that God had revealed here. And so it's no surprise
that when Jesus healed this man on the Sabbath day, they hated
him more And when He spoke to them about
who He is as the Son of God, they were inflamed so much that
they wanted to kill Him. And they tried to, but they couldn't
find a way. And then finally in John chapter
19, in John 19 and verse 7, what we find is that this very thing
that Jesus said, that He is the Son of God, was their pretense. That deceitful false justification
for why they should kill him, that's what they used it as in
verse 7 of John 19. It says, the Jews answered Pilate
and said, we have a law and by our law he ought to die because
he made himself the son of God. Well, if that's true, that He
is the Son of God, then they've got a big problem, don't they?
Because they're fighting against God, which is the fact. But they
used it as a pretense, as a reason why they could actually kill
Him because He claimed to be the Son of God. Now, look at
verse 17 again. Jesus answered them when they
had this indignation against Him for healing this impotent
man on the Sabbath day, showing that Christ does the work of
raising up those who are helpless and impotent and even dead, and
that is His work alone, and therefore the work of God, and is our rest. But they were angry at Him for
that, and He answered them this way very clearly, Now, Jesus,
therefore, is, by his own account, the Son of God. And also, he
goes on in verse 17, my father works hitherto, that means at
this time, and I work. Okay, so they go on and they
conclude, therefore, the Jews taught the Moor to kill him because
he not only had broken the Sabbath, in their opinion, but said also
that God was his father And this is John, the Apostle John, writing
and clarifying it for us, making himself equal with God. So Jesus
is the Son of God. The Son of God is equal with
the Father. Therefore, Jesus is equal with
God the Father. So that's what we saw the last
couple of weeks. We keep reiterating this. It's
important that we see the impact of this. Sometimes we have these
facts. And we'll spout the facts. In
fact, some churches have catechisms, they call it, where they have
questions with answers, and they give those to the kids, and they
give them a question. The child learns the question,
and they learn the answer, and they go on. Who is Jesus? Well, he's the Son of God. And
I'm just repeating what has been revealed here in the scripture.
And who is the Son of God? Well, he's equal with God the
Father. And we could do that, and that would be accurate. But
sometimes, just the facts, just the facts that Jesus is God,
or that the Son of God is equal with the Father, they don't impress
us, do they? It's like four plus four is eight,
10 plus 10 is 20, and we can just keep going on, right? Pretty
soon we just kind of glaze over. What does it do for me? How does
that affect me? What does it mean that Jesus
is the Son of God, that he's equal with God? This is what
we're getting to here. This is the exposition of the
miracle and the implications of it here. That Jesus is the
Son of God, He's equal with the Father. And this is what they
were offended by. Now, notice here in this context.
What is the reaction of the people who are hearing the Lord Jesus
Christ tell them that He is the Son of God, that He is equal
with the Father? Well, they just get angrier and
angrier. It seems to just make the flame of their hatred for
Him grow incredibly hot, and they're ready to kill Him. But
here's the flip side of it, and never miss this in Scripture,
because this is the way the truth of the gospel comes to us. It
always has this effect. Some hear it, and it makes them
angry. And some hear it and they hear,
this is my life. And that's the implications here.
If Jesus is the Son of God, if the Son of God is equal with
the Father, some hear this and they think, how dare He? and
they want to kill him. How dare he raise a man on the
Sabbath, and they want to kill him. And others hear it and they
say, thank God, the Son of God is able to raise the dead, and
He does so, and it's by His will alone. And so the difference
here is that some hear, and they don't believe, and the result
of their not believing is they go on in their hatred, and their
hatred increases. and grows to a fever pitch so
that they want to kill the very Son of God, their only Savior,
and they want to kill the Lord of glory. And others hear it
like the impotent man who heard the words of Christ, do you want
to be made whole? I don't have anyone to help me
into the water. Get up, rise, take up your bed
and walk, and suddenly every whit, the smallest possible particle
of him was all made perfectly whole. Perfect work on the Sabbath
day. And he was amazed by it. And he went on to tell the Jews,
probably thinking they were going to also be amazed. And they said,
no, we're going to kill him now. Because these two reactions always
occur and attend the gospel, faith in Christ and therefore
knowing God in him and loving God, seeing his love for us in
him. Or that hatred that arises and
that indifference and thinking, well, God's out to get me. And
how dare you think, how dare you accuse me of being a sinner,
or that my works count for nothing, or that Jesus is God, therefore
he can do what he wants and he's gonna do away with me. And so
we hold and harbor these evil thoughts against God because
we consider him to be like us. But these two are always in the
scripture. You see those who hear the gospel
and it penetrates their hearts and becomes their very life.
and the love of their hearts. And you see those like, eh, who
needs it? It's just facts. Facts I don't
need. God, son, three, I don't care. It means nothing to me.
It's like two and two. I can do math. Anybody can do
math. No, this is life. This is the
difference between life and eternal death. We need to hear the words
of the Son of God. That's the way God gives life.
So these are some of the things we need to consider as we hear
these things. So Jesus is the Son of God. What
does it mean to me? Ask of the Lord. Don't ask me. You can ask me, but ask the Lord. Go to Him. Every time we express
our needs to one another, sometimes we need to ask ourselves the
question, have I really expressed my needs to the Lord? Have I
made my supplication to the only one who can help me? Or am I
simply just doing peer analysis and trying to get help from my
peers and my friends? And that's okay. It's okay to
share our burdens. We must do that, but we must
first of all go to the one who has all grace, who can answer
these questions for us. Seek your answer from the Lord,
and when you do, you'll find the answer that you need is the
answer he's given in his son. And seek salvation in the only
one who is that salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ. So he says
here, he answered them, my father, My Father, I'm the Son, He's
my Father. We have this relationship. I
stand in relation to God as Son, and He stands in relation to
me as Father. And as the Son of God, I am in
every way equal to the Father. I know His mind. I do His work. I make His judgments. Everything
He needs, needs is not the right word, but everything He is pleased
to do, He has given me to do. You see, this is the meaning
of these words here. And the thing that God the Father
is pleased to do, notice, is to raise the dead. Raise the
dead. That's what this man was. He
was without strength, without hope, without any human help.
And the one who had pity on him came to him and saw him and raised
him and gave him to carry his bed and show forth the glory
of God by doing so. What an amazing story this is.
Every part of this book and this Bible is amazing, isn't it? It's
about the Lord Jesus Christ. My grandkids were watching a
show at home, Mr. Incredible. This is Mr. Incredible,
right? This is Mr. Incredible. So look at this again with me. The will of the son, the will
of the son. He says in verse 19, Jesus answered
and said to them, verily, Verily I say to you, truth, truth, amen,
amen. Take this, this is the very truth
of God that cannot change. You need to know this and they
would know it. He says, I say unto you, he's
the authority, the Son can do nothing of himself but what he
seeth the Father do, for what things soever he doeth, these
also doeth the Son likewise. Now, there's two ways this has
been explained historically. One is that Jesus is less than
God. or that the Son of God is less
than the Father. That's not true. That's not what
Jesus is saying here. The Son of God is equal. He who
is God. He says in Hebrews 1, verse 8,
Unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever.
And when he bringeth the first begotten into the world, he commanded
the angels to worship him. None are to be worshipped but
God. Satan is to worship Christ. He didn't. He wouldn't. So that's
one way this is explained, that somehow the Son of God is less
than God the Father. And other ways it's been explained,
but the way to understand this is not that Jesus as the Son
of God is somehow less than God. or that the son of God is less
than his father, in terms of some kind of an equality, or
power, or that his life is somewhat less, or his knowledge, or his
truth, or his justice, or his grace, or his love, any of those
things, somehow it's not eternal, it's not almighty. That's not
the way to understand this. What you need to understand here
is the, honor and the majesty of the Son, the one who is God
who created all things by the word of his power and upholds
them and gives life to whom he will, that one stooped to do
the will of his Father. The reason he doesn't do, he
says in verse 19, the son can do nothing of himself is because
he took the lowest place. He who is the son of God took
on the form of son of man, and as son of man became servant
to God, not only his father, but to his people, he stooped
and washed their feet. and He broke bread and gave them
bread. Life He gave Himself for them. He stooped to give of Himself
for His people, and that's the will of the Father. Do you see
this? When we want to know God, what is He like? What is He thinking? What's in His heart? This is
it. To give life to His people through His Son. Do you see this? That the work of the father is
to give, to send his son, to give his son, to choose his people,
to adopt them, to sanctify, to make them holy, and to justify
them. In 1 John, chapter 4, he says
this. Let me read this to you. This
is the work of the father. It's the same as the son, by
the way. But it has his work on it. Notice verse 9. In this
was manifested the love of God, speaking of the Father, toward
us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world
that we might live through him. The only way you can live is
if God sent his Son. Now that's the work of the Father.
Now do you appreciate that? Do you see that? Do you see that
this has significance? That it's not just, yeah, there's
a God, He made everything. No, this is not just God who
made everything. Yes, it is, but it's God as he
stands in relation by his own goodwill to his people. He calls
them his children, himself their father, and he sent his son that
we might live through him. And he says in the next verse
how we do live through him because he says here in his love, not
that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to
be the propitiation for our sins. The propitiation means the sacrifice
offered that pleases God, that satisfies His justice, and that
brings His blessing. That's what He did. The Father
did this. And we could go on and on. about
what he did, he sent his son, he adopted his children, he predestinated
them to the adoption of children, that they might be conformed
to the image of his son. Now that's the work of God the
Father, and how did he accomplish that work? His son, the son can
do nothing of himself, but what he seeeth the Father do? He stooped
to do that, to sacrifice himself and offer himself to God for
us. And he wouldn't do anything but his Father's will. He's not
gonna do anything of his own mind. His own mind is one with
the Father, but he's not gonna deviate. Not in independence
from, but in total dependence and in unity with his Father. There's not a shadow of difference
between the work of the Son and the work of the Father, because
the work of the Father is what Christ did. And the words of
the Son are the words of the Father, because God sent Him
and gave Him the words to speak. So the things He revealed are
the things that lie in the heart of God the Father. And we often
think, what's God like, as I said? And what is He thinking? What
does He really love? Whatever the Lord Jesus Christ
said, whatever He did. This is God the Father, if you've
seen me. He said to Thomas and Philip,
you've seen the Father. And John 12, he says, he that
seeth me seeth my Father. And so we know this here. Now
we see the stoop of the son of God that he would only do his
father's will. He's the one who carries it out.
And that was such a stoop because it required him to become man
in the likeness of sinful flesh. He came into the world in order
to save his people from their sins. That's life. That's the
work of God. That's the work of the son. And
these people hear him. And they have their fingers stuck
so far into their ears that they don't realize this is the only
life from God. And that's the natural heart
of man. We think, well, like my own self, we have these doubts. We wonder, how can I know if
the Lord loves me? How can I know if Christ died
for me? How can I know anything? You have to look at the sun.
The Son is the one who does all of the Father's will and work.
The power is in Him. The life is in Him. He gives
it to whomsoever He will. Well then, if all of the will
is in the Son, if the power is only in the Son, if the work
is accomplished only by the Son, and if the life is in Him and
He gives it to whomsoever He will, then it's not in me. I
don't have to look in me for it. Where do I look then? To
the Son. And if I look to the Son and
I see that it's all in the Son, then I have complete confidence,
don't I? That God has appointed and anointed
and sent and Christ has fulfilled the will of the Father in order
to save His people from their sins. That's the work of the
Son. Do we doubt it? I have many doubts
about myself. But I do not doubt that everyone
for whom Christ died will be justified. I don't doubt it. I completely am convinced that
all for whom Christ died are sanctified, holy, and perfect,
and ready now to appear in the presence of God in all of His
glory to the praise of the glory of His grace, and holiness, and
justice, and righteousness, all by the Son. It's in Him. It's in Him. And these men were
like, no, I can't hear it. I can't see it. And they refused
their own salvation. They rejected the Son. But those
who were like this impotent man, Lord, come to me. Save me. And they're looking to Christ.
You know what? That's God's life. And that life
functions in faith. Faith in Christ is the outworking
of that life. And that faith in Christ causes
us to say, yes, everything is in Him. I find everything I need
in the Son. And we're standing in awe. And we join the psalmist, as
I pointed out last week. Oh, Lord, my God, Thou art very
great. You are clothed with honor and
majesty because of what you've done. I can see it here. As a
sinner, the Lord is good to all those who trust in him. All right,
all right, so we see that the Lord Jesus Christ says, I can't
do anything but what my Father does, because whatever He does,
that's what I do. Now doesn't that tell us He's
equal with the Father? Who can do the works of God but
the one who has the power of God? Who can know the mind of
God but God Himself? Who can know the will of God? Who can have that will resident
in him but the one who is himself God? You see, he's telling them
at the same time, yes, I am one and equal with the Father, and
yes, I have stooped to do the will of the God. He's God. He's man. He's the high and holy
God over all things that rules eternity for the glory of God
and for the salvation of his people and here he is as man
fulfilling all that God requires in order that his people might
be holy in him and righteous before God. And he goes on in
verse 20, for the father loveth the son and showeth him all things
that himself doeth and he will show him greater works than these
that you may marvel. What great works? Here he goes.
Verse 21, for as the father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them,
even so the son quickeneth whom he will. And as I've already
pointed out, what that means to me is that all of the will,
all of the power, all of the life. All of the merit, all of
the righteousness, all of the covering for my sin, all of the
sustaining life and faith, the Holy Spirit Himself, everything
comes to me because of the Son, by the Son, and not because of
me. God looks for nothing in me.
He looks for no help from the impotent. No life from the dead. He doesn't look for those. He
doesn't look for faith in the unbeliever. He brings that faith. He doesn't look for repentance
in the dead in sins. He gives them repentance. And
He doesn't look for love in those who were naturally His enemies.
He gives them that life so that they believe and love Him. And
when I lack faith, when I lack love, what am I going to do?
I'm going to look to the One through whom these things come,
aren't I? The Father loveth the Son. Do you see that love God
has for His Son? It's the same love He has for
His people. amazing grace, as the father
loves the son, so he loves all of his children. In John chapter
17, he says this in his prayer, the Lord Jesus, he says, I in
them, thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one and that
the world may know that thou has sent me and has loved them
as thou has loved me. There you have it. The love of
the Father for the Son. God the Father will not withhold
anything from His Son. Anything. Martha said that in
John 11. I know that whatever you ask
God, He'll give it to you. I do too. I do too. I know whatever
the Lord Jesus Christ wants to do, God approves. You know why? Because He does
only His Father's will. Everything that is in His Father's
mind and will is in Himself. It's such a wonderful thing to
think about the unity of the mind and the will and the work
and the glory and the honor, the judgments, the life, everything,
and the Son and the Father. The father loves the son. He
loves him because he stooped. He loves him because he obeyed.
He loves him because he took his people to be their surety,
to bring them back again. He loves his son. Just like Jacob
loved Joseph above all of his sons, God the father loves his
son. He's the one, He's the one. Make
a coat of many colors for Him. Show the world, I love my Son. I love my Son. Because everything
He did brings honor to God the Father. You see that? That's
my Son. You see Him stooping? Do you see Him suffering and
dying for sinners? That's my Son. That's the love
of my heart. That's my son, that's me. You
see that? That's my son. He doesn't do
anything that's not the will of his father. Oh, that children
would learn this as they go about to mimic their own father, that
they would see the son of God mimicking, because this was in
his heart to do his father's will. And the greater works that
he does is that the father raises up the dead and quickens them. And so the son quickens. He gives
life to whom he will. Someone will say, well, therefore,
if it's his will, then I can't live unless he gives it's his
will for me to live. That's true. That's true. And
therefore, I mean, if he's not going to give me life and I'm
I'm just going to go on until he does. I mean, you know. And this arrogant puffing out
of the chest of a stupid, ignorant, dead sinner against God. Yeah,
he's like me, you know. He offended me. I'm not gonna
show you any kind of respect. This is the attitude we have.
You worthless worm of the dust. And yet the Lord doesn't squash
us, does he? He just gives us his word. Because the problem
is we're always looking for a fight with God. We're always looking
for something to accuse Him. We have this hostility naturally
latent in our mind, and it comes out. And what we say in our reaction
to this, what do you mean the Son gives life to whom He will?
How dare He be sovereign? How dare you attempt to be sovereign
over Him? No, that's not the issue here. The issue is not, well, he's
going to give life to whom he will, so therefore I have no
hope. No, this is your hope. You see, there's no reason to
doubt now because it's his will, not yours. And that's the way
the religion has turned this all around, just like the Jews
turned around the Sabbath and circumcision. They turn around
and make opposite what the Lord means by this. His will means
that the salvation we need comes from Him alone. Therefore we
have every reason to look to Him and worship Him in thanksgiving
and love Him. The hatred the Jews had for Him
was because they didn't have faith. But the love that we have
is because He's given us life with faith in Him. That's the
reason we love Him. The reaction of his word to the
Jews, the unbelieving Jews, was hatred. The reaction of his word
to his people was life with faith and love to him. You see? The
impotent man had no strength. We have no power. And Christ
speaks his gospel and it raises us to life. It causes us, yes,
This is all my life. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself,
the Son of God, is all my life, my righteousness, my holiness,
He's everything. You see? That's the reaction.
And that's the difference between faith and unbelief. Faith brings
us to the feet of the Son in worshipping Him and love for
Him. Unbelief says, I've got to do more until I can have this
sense of my own accomplishments in order to have any confidence
before God. Damn your confidence. Let Christ
be exalted. You see, it's all about Him. It's not about your feelings.
Let Him be exalted. And I hadn't planned to say that,
but this needs to be said. Let's go on. Look at this. In
verse 22, the Father judges no man, but hath committed all judgment
to the Son, that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor
the Father. How can you say he's not equal
with God? God the father said, you honor my son. You honor him
with the same honor you would honor me. And if you do not honor
him, you do not honor me. You see the preeminence he's
given to his son? Preeminent. This is the only
way to the father. The only life of the father is
in his son. The only truth of God is revealed
in 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 has sent him. Verily, verily,
I say to you, he that heareth my word, Jesus said. Notice,
hearing my word. What is it that God uses to give
us life? Hearing the word. If we don't
believe, what are we gonna do? Lord, give me your word. Don't we? Do you find that you
say, In Psalms, in Psalm 119, it says, I will never forget
thy precepts, for with them thou hast quickened me. I won't forget
the word the Lord used to give me life. I won't, because he
gave me life by that word. Well, then we think, well, what
was that word? What word did he give me life by? Because if
I'd forgotten it, maybe he didn't give me life. Again, it's the
Word of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's about Him, the Son. It's
about how life is in Him, power is in Him, God's will is in Him,
God's righteousness is in Him. All of our merit before God is
in Him. That's the Word, and that Word gives us life. It's
the Gospel. So God's Word gives us life,
and that life brings faith, and that faith causes us to see and
know God and to love Him. And so if we lack these things
from day to day, what do we need to do? Lord, give me your word. You see, the gospel has to come
to us daily, continuously. And we have to avail ourselves
of it in order that we might receive by the will of the Father
and the power of the Son this life. his life to know him and
to love him and to believe on him. Verse 24, I say unto you,
he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me has, already
has everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, but
is passed from death to life, never to be condemned, already
resurrected, already living to God. That's the one who is believing. A believer evidences everlasting
life. You see, everlasting life is
the evidence of faith in Christ. The one who believes has everlasting
life. Not the worker, the believer.
Not the moralist, the believer. You see, everything comes down
because faith ascribes to the Lord Jesus Christ all merit,
all righteousness, all power, all life, all truth. Faith empties
itself and takes the crown as it were and sets it on Christ's
head. Faith draws from God the sacrifice He gave and the sacrifice
He received in the death of His Son. And faith rests and finds
all of its satisfaction to God and all of its holiness before
God in that sacrifice of Christ Himself. That's faith. No wonder
God commends faith, because faith commends the Son of God. And
we've passed from death to life, and this is the way we know it.
We believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you doubt? Of course
we do. I do, all the time. Every day. And what do I do? Well, Lord,
give me your word. Give me your word. Let me see that it's not
in me. It's in the Lord Jesus Christ. He goes on, verse 25. Verily, verily, I say to you,
the hour is coming, and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son
of God, and they that hear shall live. Have you ever seen something
dead? Maybe you've seen it on the road, something dies, got
run over by a car, an animal, maybe you've even seen a dead
person. Here's the thing about things that are dead, they don't
have any life in them. They can't breathe, they can't
hear, they can't think, they don't get hungry, they're never
thirsty, they're dead, they don't do anything, they're dead. And
that's the way Christ finds his people, dead. The apostle Paul
speaks of this in Ephesians 2, when we were dead in trespasses
and sins. What do you mean death? What
is death? Well, remember in the beginning, in the day you eat
of that tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall surely
die. That's death. Death in body,
death in spirit, eternal death. And here he says, I say to you,
the hour is coming and now is when the dead in spirit, in body,
and under the eternal condemnation of death, they shall hear the
voice of the Son of God, he says, and they that hear shall live. live in spirit, their body will
be raised again, and they have not come into condemnation, they
have already passed from death in all of its forms to life.
Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life, and whoever lives
and believes in me shall never die. Does that mean our body
is going to live forever? No. It means this body is already
dead, but it's going to be raised. The body is dead because of sin,
and this body that's already dead is going to sleep in the
grave, and then the Lord Jesus Christ is going to raise it up,
because He's the one who speaks and raises the dead. He gives
life, and this is talking in verse 25 about those spiritually
dead who have no spiritual ears, take them off, no spiritual eyes,
can't see, no taste for spiritual things, no faith, they can't
call, they don't cry, they don't know, they can't understand spiritual
things because they're dead in sins. But they hear, in spite
of the fact that they're utterly Without strength, he says, this
is the marvel. This is the greater work the
Son is going to do. He's going to raise them from
the dead. The gospel will come to them and they will suddenly
say, amazing grace that God would save a sinner in the deadness
of his sins. And the sinner would do nothing
to help and not require anything from him to help. The Lord would
do it all. Verse 26, for as the father hath
life in himself, so hath he given to the son to have life in himself,
independent of all outside of himself. Life is in him. Where's
life? Is it under a microscope? Did
it evolve? Of course not. Life is only in
the son. As the father, God the father
has life in himself, so also the son has life in himself.
And he has life in himself, not only as the son of God, but as
the son of man. When the Jews saw Jesus here,
they saw a man. He looked like an ordinary man.
No big deal. He's just a man. We can poke
fun at him. We can try to kill him. Ah, but
he's God. He's not just a man. He's God,
the Son. And you're going to fight against
God? Yes, that was their attitude.
But he says, as the father hath life in himself, so hath he given
to the son to have life in himself. So what do we do as believers?
Our life is in the son. We want to be joined to him,
right? Lord, live in me, be my life,
verse 27. And he has given him authority
to execute judgment also because he is the son of man. Job said, I want someone, I want
a daisman between me and God who can go to God and plead my
cause, because he's just too big, he's too wise, I can't bring
my case to him adequately, I need someone to go there for me. Because
it's true, we can't approach God. We can't know God's mind. It's infinite. His power, infinite. We can't stand before His justice. All those things are true. But
here, God, the Son, in our nature, as man is living amongst us,
we say, well, yeah, you know, I couldn't help doing those things.
I can't help being who I am. Well, I know you can't help it.
That doesn't mean it's not your fault. Here's someone absolutely
perfect. He's going to judge you. How
does that make you feel? Well, I guess he's a man. He
knows all about men. He can't make a mistake because
he's got God's mind and God's will, and so that makes us very
sober-minded, doesn't it? That the Son of Man is going
to stand and judge us, and He knows what's in man, doesn't
He? He knows what we're like, and
yet, That one who knows what we are as sinners, that's the
one who has come to us to bear our sins. So we go to him, Lord,
I am a sinner. Have mercy upon me and bear my
sins away. Take them away from me, the son
of man. See, so both things are there.
Yes, we go to our judge that we might receive mercy from him
because he's a man and he knows our weaknesses. He goes, verse
28, marvel not at this, that the son of man, the one you're
accusing and fighting against now, is gonna judge you. Marvel
not at this, for the hour is coming in the which all that
are in the graves shall hear his voice. Everyone who has ever
been born since the dawn of time, since creation itself, who has
lived and died, lived and died, lived and died, all the billions
of people in this world who have died and laid their bodies, been
put in the ground, and their bodies return to the dust, the
Lord Jesus Christ is going to give a commandment and every
person ever born and died in this world is going to be raised
to life again. That's power. That is power. But this is also said, as he
goes on to say, that there's two resurrections here. He says,
and they shall come forth, they that have done good to the resurrection
of life, and they that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation. The Son of Man, who is the Son
of God, is going to speak with power, raise the dead. They that
have done good will be raised to life, and they that have done
evil to death. The resurrection of condemnation,
of eternal condemnation. Do you have a problem with this? That God would, the Lord Jesus
Christ would raise those who have done good to life and those
who have done evil to eternal condemnation. Do you have a problem
with that? I do, because I find myself in the latter category.
Those that have done evil, don't you? Here's the thing, listen
to these things. Ecclesiastes 7.20, there's not
a just man on earth that does good and sins not. Romans 3,
there's none that doeth good, no, not one. We know from Romans
3 also there's none that seek after God and none that understand
him. He says there, they've all gone out of the way. And we know
that whatever God says in his law, he says to all men that
every mouth may be stopped and all the world become guilty before
God. And we know from Jeremiah 17,
verse nine, that the heart of man is deceitful above all things,
desperately wicked. And we also know that God looked
down upon the children of men to see if there were any that
did good, that understood. And he concluded, they're all
gone out of the way. There's none that doeth good.
No, not one. And we know that God looked in
the beginning in Genesis and he saw that all the thoughts
of man's heart was only evil continually. That's in Genesis
6, 5 and 8, 21. And we also know that Jesus said,
whatever comes out of a man's heart, that defiles a man. Because
what comes out of man's heart is murder, adultery, thefts,
fornication, and all kinds of wickedness. But we also know
this. Therefore, from these things,
what do we say about those that are raised, that have done good
to the resurrection of life? What can we say then? There's
none that does good. Not in this, the people themselves,
they haven't done good in themselves. Somehow, this good has to come
in another way. And yet, it's them that's done
it. He says here in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30, of him are you in
Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us righteousness. Righteousness. Righteousness is the doing of
good. God says it's righteousness, and God did this. He put us in
Christ and made Christ our obedience, our righteousness. In 2 Corinthians
5, verse 21, God made Christ's sin for us, Christ who knew no
sin, that we, notice, might be made the righteousness of God
in Him. So those who are raised that
have done good, therefore, cannot be those who have in and of themselves
obeyed God, but in Christ and of Christ have obeyed God, and
that righteousness of His is given to them. And that's what
he's speaking about here in verse 24. Whoever believes on me, those
are the ones who have done good. To believe on Christ is a good
work. And that work is given to us.
And that work of believing Christ gives all credit to the Lord
Jesus Christ for all of the works that God counts as mine, as good
works. So, in other words, the Lord's
gonna raise His people to life and give them the reward of His
righteousness, which is life and all that life contains. Righteousness,
holiness, everything. Only they who are holy see the
Lord. And if we see the Lord, because
we've been given grace to believe on Christ, that means that we
have holiness from God. All right. So you see these things
here, and I hope that it impacts you. It's not just facts, that
you come to rest all of the weight of your soul on the one who alone
has the power to save and the righteousness to justify and
the holiness to sanctify sinners. And that therefore you would
look for him to raise you from the dead based on that same righteousness
that he found in himself to give you life. Let's pray.