Good to have Adam and Carrie
Simpson with us. I asked Adam about his dad, and
he says he's doing okay. He's been going through considerable
pain, as you know. for a while now. They hope they've
got that under control. He says he's up and about, walking
around. I'm glad to hear that. We pray
for him all the time. We never quit. The men in the
study always bring up your dad's name in prayer. Let's continue
to remember him. Winna, Cody, I mean, Winna and
Walter and Debbie and their family. It's going to be hard not to
mention his name in it. Okay, I'll ask Brother John Sheasley
to lead us in prayer. O Most Gracious, Heavenly Father,
we thank You, Lord, for bringing us here this morning. We thank You, Lord, for the many
blessings You have given us. Lord, please, be with the sick,
be with Brother Simpson. You know each one of them. I'm
not going to try to name all of them. Please, Lord, be with
each one according to your will. Lord, maybe we have some traveling.
Be with them, Lord, or whatever their reasons they're not here
at this point. Please, Lord, be with each one
according to your will, Lord. Be with our pastor this morning,
our great Lord, as you've already given him your words for us this
day in both services. Please, Lord, cause us to hear
your word according to your will, Lord. Let it be your word that
we hear, not just a man. Lord, we ask all things in the
name of the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you, Lord. Thank
you, John. The Gospel of John chapter 5. John chapter 5. What a wonderful
book this is. The subject and the theme of
these verses in chapter 5 are Christ declaring who He is. Christ is declaring who He is
in no uncertain terms. Very plainly, telling us who
He is. And He said in His prayer that
this is life eternal. This is eternal life to know.
who He is, to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He
hath sent. And he tells here in these verses,
and this is the gospel, who He is and why He came and what He
did and who He did it for. These things are told here by
our Lord. And he's speaking primarily in
these verses to scribes and Pharisees. Those that were his enemies.
All of this was addressed to them. Lest we be accused of saying
too much against false religion and false prophets. Our Lord
is the one who warned us that many will come. He's the one
who warned us. And he was constantly confronted
by them. Because there were more of them
than the truth. And it's even more so now. But
he answered their arguments here in these verses. Now look at
verse 16. It said, The Jews, remember the man at the pool
of Bethesda, the Lord healed him and the Jews did seek to
persecute Jesus and sought to slay him because he had done
these things on the Sabbath day. Our Lord so many times spoke
of Pharisees not really caring about people, not really caring
about the souls of men and women, but caring more for their traditions. And not caring, truly. But their tradition was everything
to them. Everything. The Sabbath especially.
They thought they kept the Sabbath, not knowing, not believing, rejecting
the Lord who is the Sabbath. And they sought to persecute
him, and do now. Verse 17, and here's our Lord's
answer, and it's a lengthy answer. He has much to say here. He says,
My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. took great pride in not working
on the Sabbath. As someone said, they made a
work out of not working. And that's what legalists do,
don't they? But our Lord said, My Father
worketh, worketh, continueth to work, and so do I. We work. And they, to them, was
a direct violation of the Sabbath. And Hebrews 4, my, my, talks
about a Sabbath for the people of God, which is Christ. He that has entered into Christ,
He is our rest, like Noah. He that has entered into the
ark has ceased from his own work, not meaning he quits. doing things on Saturday. By the way, it's the Sabbath
day, and Sunday is not the Sabbath day. Not a new Sabbath. Saturday
is the Sabbath day. Our Lord laid in the grave on
the Sabbath day, telling us clearly that he took away the first to
establish the second. But they made a work out of working
and not working, and our Lord said, I work and my Father works.
We continue to work. Never did stop working. Never
did stop working. They work now. If they quit working
right now, everything would end. But they uphold all things by
their own power. Verse 18, So the Jews sought
the Moor to kill him, because he not only had broken the Sabbath,
but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal
with God. They thought he was just a man. Now listen to the irony of this. They thought that he was just
a man. That's what they believed. But
they didn't think the Sabbath day was just a day. They put
more power and more emphasis on a day than the person of the
Lord Jesus Christ. They thought he was just a man,
but the Sabbath is not just a day. And that's what all religious
error has that in it. Salvation by works. Salvation
by keeping the Sabbath law. Salvation by keeping laws. Salvation
by you doing anything. They put more emphasis on that. Salvation by man's will. Salvation by man's faith. Salvation
by man's work. They put more emphasis on that.
But they really don't believe salvation is of the Lord at all.
They think he's just a man. He's just a man, and he did all
he could do. But now, it's up to you. You've got to keep the law. You've
got to do this. You've got to do that. You see
that? They put more emphasis on keeping the law than on Christ,
the law keeper. He said, you're just a man. You're not God. You're just a
man. But if he's not God, he's the biggest imposter that ever
lived. And he couldn't, he didn't save anybody. Verse 19, Our Lord
answered them, and he said unto them, Verily, verily. And throughout the Gospel of
John, he uses this double, truly is what he said. Truly, truly.
He said in Matthew's Gospel, Mark, verily. But here throughout
the Gospel of John, he says, Verily, verily. Truly, truly. Of a truth. of
a truth I say unto you. You need to listen to what I'm
saying. He said in verse 19, 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. And he He calls himself
the Son, not meaning that he's less than the Father, but that
he's a man. He's the only begotten of the
Father, that in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead in a body. The only reason he's
called the Son, not making him less than the Father, but because
he's the offspring or the bodily presence of God. Okay? The Son. As a man. As a man, he came to be God the
Father's servant, like an obedient son. Alright? And as a representative,
as a substitute, he came to glorify God as a man. But he's not less
than God the Father. Not less than. That's why he
was made flesh. You know that. He's the Son as
the only begotten, the bodily image, but he's God. He's as
much God as he is man. As a man. As a man, he came to
do the work he did. And he does, he said, I do exactly
what the Father does. That's how you know that I'm
of Him, in Him, that He's in me. Just like a son or a daughter
bears the resemblance of their parent, and the longer they live,
the more they begin to take on that image of their parent. Have
you ever said this about yourself? I have become my father or my
mother. I am her. And humanly speaking,
there are things, you know, Outdoing what my mother did. He didn't
mean that in a good sense. But our Lord, some of you, here's
a good illustration, some of you in here did not know Joe
Parks. You did not know Joe Parks. Well, right there he sits. Some
of you did. Is that right? Robert, you knew
Joe. That's him. He's his own person.
He's his own person, but that's the father. It's just like him.
The older he gets, the more he's like him. In the marriage, that's
the wife. That's the way it is, isn't it?
He's not less than Joe Parks. Oh, no. He's never been the man
that he was. See, you can't honor, our Lord
said you can't, 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 sinned him. What do you
think Joe Parks would think if you didn't honor his son? You say, I like Steve, but I
don't like his dad. That's not possible. I like Joe,
but I don't like Steve. You must not know Joe, and you
must not know Stephen, right? It's just right. You catch yourself
thinking like your dad, Stephen, do you not? Think just like him. Call him on the phone. I like
to catch myself. Sounds like him. That's a good
illustration, isn't it? Now if that be so in a human
sense, how much more? The Lord Jesus Christ. You're
just a man. We see you. Look over at John
14 with me. John 14. Go over to John 14 with
me. Our Lord, see, even His disciples
got, they didn't know Him truly until it was all over. But though
He clearly showed Himself and revealed Himself, John 14, our Lord, verse 4 said, we told them
He's leaving. And they were distraught because
he was everything to them. That's how we should be at the
thought of the Lord leaving us, the gospel leaving us. He said
in verse 4, Whither I go you know, and the way you know. And
Thomas said unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest.
How can we know the way? Well, he'd been for three years
telling them. We're so dull of hearing, aren't
we? And our Lord said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If he had known me,
he should have known my Father also. And from henceforth you
know him, and have seen him. Well, Philip said, Lord, show
us. Show us the Father. Give us a
special view of the Father, and it will suffice. Then we'll really
believe. And our Lord said unto him, Have I been so long time
with you? Hath thou not known me, Philip?
He that hath seen me hath seen thee." Father, how sayest thou
then, show us the Father? Isn't that what Isaiah prophesied
in Isaiah chapter 9? Unto us a child is born, a son
is given, the eternal Son of God. I shall call his name Wonderful,
Counselor, the Mighty God. The everlasting Father. Well,
how can these things be? You know, we don't fully understand
that, but it's true in two separate persons or three separate persons
of a Godhead, but they're all one, all equal, and you can't
worship one without the other. You can't know one without the
other. You can't know the Father or the Son without the Holy Spirit
revealing it. You can't know the Father unless the Son reveals
Him. You can't know the Son unless the Father reveals Him. So, our Lord said, he that hath
seen me hath seen the Father. Alright, look at verse, back
in our text. He said in verse 19, I do nothing of myself but
what I see the Father do. That's the things that the Son
doeth. He came to do God's will. He came to do God's will as an
obedient son that He is. He came to do God's will. And I thought about this. We
are the sons of God. Behold, now, beloved, now are
we the sons of God. And I thought, isn't that what
we want? Isn't that what we seek, His
will? And so as obedient children,
that's what we should seek first and foremost. Christ did. That's
all I am here to do, what the Father sent me to do. Verse 20,
he said, The Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things
that himself doeth. And he will show him greater
works than these, that ye may marvel. Now he's not saying this
in the sense that he didn't know until the Lord showed him. No,
not at all. No, no. What he's saying is,
in a way we can understand, in a private covenant between the
Father and the Son before the world began, they worked out,
according to their will, this whole scheme of salvation. And this is what they did in
communion, in private. This eternal counsel that was
held between God the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, and
no one else was around. And they showed this is what
they were going to do. Okay? That our Lord knew. He knew. But he's telling them
in the sense that this took place between the Father and the Son.
These works. These works that He came to do. What's that? Save His people. Here it is. A clear declaration. of who Christ is. Verse 21, As
the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them, even so
the Son quickeneth whom He will. Alright, we're talking about
life and death. We're talking about people being
dead and how they are made alive. Now what did he say? Right here
is the heart and soul of salvation, right here. That men are dead
in trespass and sin. But Ephesians 2 says, and you
that were dead in trespass and sins, what happened? How do you have life? How are
you saved? Have He quickens who were dead? Raised the dead, and throughout
this, look at verse 25, he said, Verily, verily now, truly, truly,
I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, right now is, when
the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that
hear shall live. How they live? Christ calls them
from the dead, like Lazarus. That's a few chapters later.
He's going to stand in a cemetery. And there are many graves. There
are many tombs there. And He's going to call one man's
name, because He and the Father, in a covenant agreement, chose
that man named Lazarus. before the world began. And Christ
came down here to do His covenant work before Lazarus. And Lazarus
was dead. And Christ said, I have come
for the glory of the Father, to raise the dead. And he came
to that tomb. Well, we'll get to that when
we get to that. But he called one man and he came forth. He
would not have lived unless Christ had chose him and called him. He did. He said in verse 21,
the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, even so
the Son quickeneth who lets Him. The Son quickeneth who will accept
Him. The Son quickeneth who will receive
Him. The Son quickeneth who will let
Him in their heart. No, sir. The Son quickeneth who
exercises their free will. Could it be any clearer? Again,
this is the heart and soul of the truth. And this is how you
know truth from lies. This is how you know the truth
from error. Whose will? Whose will is it
in salvation? Whose will is it in salvation? Who gets the glory? God does. Christ does. Whom He
will. This is what God said to Moses
on the mount, show me your glory. And he said, okay. This is my
glory, that I will have mercy. Man doesn't deserve mercy. Mercy
is not mercy if it's deserved. Man deserves to be punished. But God, who's rich in mercy,
and for His great love, wherewith He loved, set His love upon many,
quickeneth them. He said, I will have mercy. Bless God. Blessed be God and
Father of all mercy. I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy. That's the essence of the truth.
And if somebody says, I don't like that, then you're lost. Those who God has shown sovereign
mercy to, those who realize by His grace that He chose them
in spite of them, gave them to Christ, and Christ did what He
did for them, such unworthy, hell-deserving sinners. that
God would choose them and show such mercy to them, they say,
praise the Lord for His sovereign mercy, for choosing me, for sparing
me. Far from having a problem with
that, they glory in it, to the praise of the glory of His grace. Thy will, O Lord, not mine. His will. His will. And verse
22, the Father judges no man, but hath committed all judgment
unto the Son. All judgment. Now, modern man
says this about Jesus. Oh my. And it's the fault of preachers
who have told everybody God loves them, and of course Jesus died
for them. But they say this, when Jesus was here, he didn't
judge anybody. Right? You've heard them say
that. He wouldn't judge. He never said anything about
this and about that. He never judged. He didn't judge
people. He just loved people. He just told us to love everybody.
Is that right? Is that what he just said? In his Sermon on the Mount, he
magnified the law. In other words, he blew up the
law. Magnified, like you take a magnifying
glass and you bring something larger so that you can see every
jot and tittle of it. Our Lord magnified the law. Alright, I'm on a sermon on a
map. And what he said, well, everything he said concerning
the law to everyone. Now this is the law writer, this
is the law keeper, this is Christ who came to fulfill the law for
his people, and he's telling every one of us, Every one of
you have broken every law. Every one of you. As the law
in the flesh, Christ is the Word made flesh. And as the law giver
and keeper, he came and what he said first in his preaching
was, Why? Because every single one of us
had broken his law. Not me, not me. That's what the
Pharisees said. Not me. I've never committed
adultery. He said, if you've ever looked
upon another, you're guilty. And he went on and on, didn't
he? He didn't judge anybody. He judged everybody and found
those wanting. found us guilty, right? And then, you see, he came to
show us that we're guilty. And then he stood up for sinners and cried, anybody
guilty of doing all that I said I know you're doing? Guilty of
it. Come unto me." Did you hear me? That's why he came. He didn't
judge anybody. No, he said, if I hadn't come,
they'd have a covering for the sin. I exposed everybody. Christ said that in the Gospel
of John. He said, they have a covering. But when I came, they had no
covering. Take one look at Christ and he said, he stood up one
day, who can convince me of sin? Our Lord, through the Holy Spirit,
convinces everyone of sin. That's what He does. His life
convinces us of that. We've come far short of the glory
of God. Jesus Christ, glorified God,
is a man. Oh my, we haven't come close. The Father says, I'm well pleased
with my son. Now, if you can live like him,
you'll earn heaven. I'll open the gates of heaven
and accept you." He said, I can't. You can't? No, I can't. You need somebody to do it for
you. That's why Christ came, he said.
He said, I didn't come to call the righteous, because there's
none righteous. Not one. I came to call sinners. To what? Repentance and faith. and faith. Christ came to be
the sin-bearer, but He first convinces us of sin. He committed
all judgment to the Son. God did. Look at Acts 17, very
quickly, Acts 17. I got a... I had... Really, Don Bell and I were talking
about the Gospel of John, and there's not a more powerful book
in all the Word. If I had one book in all the
Bible, with me on a desert island, I might choose this gospel, the
gospel of John. Or maybe Isaiah. It would be hard to do without
the Psalms. But John, the gospel, the word
of Christ, actual words. Look at Acts 17, 31. God hath
appointed, Paul is preaching in Athens. And he said, God hath
appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness,
true holiness, by that man whom he hath ordained. Who's that? Jesus Christ. He's the judge. He's the judge. My, my. So being
a judge, shouldn't we fear him? I know perfect love casteth out
fear, but it's not slavish fear. It's not the fear of a guilty
one, but the fear of a child. And yet, as our judge, and Peter
is going to tell us in the morning message of this, we spend our
sojourn in here in fear before the Lord. But faith. But look at verse 23. All men should honor the Son,
even as they honor the Father. Anything you say about God, it
needs to be said about the Son. He that honoreth not the Son,
honoreth not the Father which is sent him. And what does that
say about any and all religion that doesn't attribute to Christ
everything they attribute to God? What does that say? Whatever religion it may be,
Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Free will, Catholicism, whatever.
If they don't attribute everything to Christ that belongs to God,
it's false. It's false. I think I'll quit right there.
Okay.