Now, I hope you will pay close
attention to the message tonight. Every word our Lord utters is
just too wonderful for me. And I spend hours in studying
and preparing these messages. And it just takes diligent. It takes a diligent hearing.
It's going to take a diligent hearing. All right, let's read
here in John chapter 8, verses 12 through 19. Let's read these
verses. This will make up the whole of
our study tonight. John 8 verses 12 through 19,
Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world. He that
followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the
light of life. The Pharisees therefore said
unto him, Thou bearest record of thyself. My record is not
true. Jesus answered and said unto
them, Though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true. For I know whence I came and
whither I go. But ye cannot tell whence I come
and whither I go. Ye judge after the flesh. I judge
no man. And yet if I judge, my judgment
is true. For I am not alone, but I and
the Father that sent me. It is also written in your law
that the testimony of two men is true. I am one that beareth
witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness
of me. Then said they unto him, Where
is thy father? Jesus answered, You neither know
me nor my father. If you had known me, you should
have known my father also. Now turn over to John chapter
5. Back to John chapter 5. The title of this message is
Christ Bearing Witness of Himself. I want you to put on your thinking
cap here as we look at this. John 5, verse 31. He says here
in John 5, verse 31, he says, If I bear witness of myself,
my witness is not true. Now look at John 7, verse 18. John chapter 7, verse 18. He that speaketh of himself seeketh
his own glory. Now how do you reconcile those
verses with what he just said in John 8? He said, if I bear witness of
myself, my witness is not true. Then in John 8, he said, though
I bear record of myself, my record is true. Does that boggle your poor mind?
It does mine, or it did mine. I think he shed a little light
on it to me. To the average man who has no
light It appears that the Lord has contradicted himself, doesn't
he? But that cannot be. The confusion is in our poor
mixed-up brains, and the problem has to do with us, our understanding
or lack of it. You see, God Almighty, who is Spirit, That's what the
Lord said. Christ described God, didn't
he, in John chapter 4. God is spirit. Right? He said we're flesh. Man is flesh. We're not spiritual beings. We're
flesh. Right? That which is spirit is
spirit. That which is flesh is flesh.
Right? Flesh and blood can inherit the
kingdom of God. Flesh can't see God, never will
see God. God is spirit. How are we going
to see God? How are we going to talk to God? How is God going to talk to us? Well, Romans says, don't say
in your heart, well, let's go to God, let's ascend up. God came down, you see. God was man—that's a mystery. It's what Paul said, great is
this mystery of God. God was manifest in the flesh. You believe that, John? Now,
most people don't do that. Do you believe that, John? Old
John. Flesh and blood didn't reveal
it to you. flesh and blood doesn't believe it. Neither. But the
Father in heaven revealed it to you. Revealed Christ is the
Father to you. Right? You believe that? And
he came to communicate with us. Christ is called, see, he's the,
in order for God to communicate with us, he's going to have to
talk in our language, isn't he? Right? In our language. So he's even called, when he
called himself, the what? The communication of God. What?
The Word. He's even called the Word. That's
his name. The revealer of God. Now how
can man understand God, whose ways and thoughts are as high
above us as the heavens above the earth? Look over John 3. John chapter 3. Our Lord was
talking to this master, this master of divinity named
Nicodemus. The master was talking to this
little pinhead Jew who had a master of divinity. And he was turning
him ever which way but loose. Wasn't he? He had this fellow
just all tore up. And he was telling him virtually
simple things. Well, you know, look at here,
he spoke in parables, earthly stories, human language. He didn't
try. He related spiritual things in
human terms. Right? How else is he going to
speak to us, Terry? How is he going to speak to it? He got
to speak in human language, didn't he? We're not going to understand
a thing he says. He got to speak to us in human
terms. He did. We still didn't understand. Look
at John 3, verse 12. Christ said, If I told you earthly
things and you believe not, how are you going to believe if I
tell you heavenly things? He said, Are you a master in
Israel and you can't figure this out? Talking about the new birth? Nicodemus said, Did man enter
into his mother's womb? Our Lord must have smiled when
he said, Are you a master in Israel? And our Lord assumed a human
body. God was manifest in the flesh. Isn't that what John 1 says?
Isn't that what John 1 says, verse 14? The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. He assumed a human body. And
so what does that do to his spirit, Nancy? When God put on a body,
what does that do to his spirit? God's spirit, but God put on
a body. So what does that do? What's
that put over him? a veil, a covering. He veiled himself. They couldn't
see. We can't see him as God. God's Spirit can't see him anyway.
And he put on a body. He robed himself in flesh. Veiled in flesh. Remember what
we sang, was it this morning? Veiled in flesh, the incarnate, He assumed a body, and man didn't
recognize him as God or believe he was God. He's veiled. I love the story of the transfiguration
when Christ took those three, those three chosen men up on
that mountain. And folks, we've been on that
mountain, haven't we? Oh, he's peeled back that veil
right before my eyes. As are you, John? You've got
a good name, John. John. John. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd
John has seen his light. Huh? He peeled back his veil and you've
seen who he is. What? Who? God. Then he covers himself before
the eyes of the sons of men and they say, he's not God, he's
Jesus. Well, Peter said, yeah, he is, but
he's not. You see, no man hath sinned.
These poor women that came to see me that day, Russellites,
that's what we need to call them, Russellites. They're followers
of a fellow named Charles Russell. He's the one that started that
so-called Jehovah's Witness cult. Russellites, that's what they
are. Don't call them Jehovah's Witnesses
anymore. These poor ladies came to me
and they said, Scripture says, no man has seen God at any time.
He said, they said, if Jesus were God, that that wouldn't
be so. Scripture wouldn't be so. Well, you know, no man had seen
God at any time. No man can't. Second Timothy
four, six says that six, sixteen says that no man had seen God
nor can see God. God's spirit Right? Terry? No man hath seen, nor
can see. We never will see God in his
essence, in his pure essence. Right? Spirit. We're flesh. And we're going to have a body.
Joe, we're going to have a body in the new heaven and the new
earth, aren't we? Isn't that what Scripture did? Thirdly, we're
going to be flesh. Well, God, the scripture says,
in his pure essence, his spirit, he's a consuming fire. Flesh,
what happens to flesh when it gets in the fire? It's consumed. Well, God dwelleth
in light which no man can approach unto. We can't even look into
the face of the sun. This sun, I mean that star, that's
just a star. That's just a burning ball up
in the sky. We can't even look into that
for ten seconds, can we? And even when there's an eclipse
going, we can't even look at it then. We'll see spots. It'll blind us, won't it? Well,
how about him who His face is as the sun shining. The countless
of the sun shines in all its strength. How can we ever look?
John said that on the Isle of Patmos. He said, I turned to
look and saw him. I said, I fell down. Couldn't
look on him. Not the flesh. That's he peeled
back himself then, didn't he? Is there a clearer passage in
all the scripture of who, that Jesus Christ is God in Revelation
1? I am the first and last, the beginning and the end. I am he
that liveth forever. I am alive and was dead, and
live ever forevermore. Same verses written back in the
Old Testament. Same God. So no man has seen, nor can see,
nor ever will see God in his pure essence. But God veiled
himself, and we've seen God. Right? Job said that. He said,
in my flesh, I'll see God. Job 19. These eyes, none other,
I'm going to see God. Who's he going to see, John?
Christ. I'm going to see God, too. Who
am I going to see? Jesus Christ. Thomas saw him,
didn't he? Saw God, didn't he? Who'd he
see? Jesus Christ. He said it, my Lord and my God,
and Christ did not correct him. He said, you call me Lord, so
I am. I am. You notice, you notice, does
that I am stick out to you every time you read it? Now this, the
book of John, all the way through is a declaration of the deity
of the Lord Jesus Christ. of Christ as God. I went through
with a blue highlighter and put blue, blue is royalty, and highlighted
I am. You won't believe, well you ought
to believe how many times our Lord says this, I am. I am. So God veiled himself. You know what we see? When we
see this God, we see God's back parts. Isn't that what he said to Moses,
John, over in Exodus 3? God said, now, or Exodus 33,
said, now I'm going to pass by you. And I'm going to put you in a
rock. Stick you in a rock, you can't get a full view. You're
going to see my back parts. He saw God. Moses did. His back
parts. Well, we've seen his back parts.
We've seen his flesh. We've seen him in the flesh.
Christ Jesus said to him, man's confused, isn't he? Man confused. Even his disciples were confused
at times. so confused. They saw what Christ
did. They saw Him do what only God
can do, didn't they? Didn't they? They saw Him do
what only God could. They saw Him raise the dead.
I mean, I'm not talking about these fools like Benny Head,
you know. Oh, man, I hate that. Forgive
me for ever bringing up those dudes' names. But, you know,
they didn't see stuff like that trickery and hoaxes. They saw him raised every time,
every funeral. I love, Deborah and I love that
thought, that every funeral he attended, the persons got up. Every funeral he attended, that
person lived. You can't, in him is life. You can't, he can't be around
and you'd be dead. In him we live. They saw him
walking on the water. walking on the water. I despise
how men use that flippantly and carelessly talk about all that.
I despise that. Only God can walk on the water.
He did too. Think about that. I'm talking
about a raging sea, raging billows. He's walking on the water. And they thought they'd seen
a spirit. They had. It's all God out there. Well,
man, yet they still were unbelieving. And over in John 14, where Philip
says, show us the Father before you leave. Please show, show
us, show us God is what they were saying. Oh, Philip, Philip,
have I been so long time with you? He said, Show us the Father. He said, Have I been so long
time with you? And you haven't seen? Haven't known? Don't you believe the Father's
in me? And I'm the Father. Well, when he rose from the dead,
they finally believed it. And most of the time our confusion
on the word of God, listen to me. Did those verses confuse
you? Those verses in chapter five
and in chapter eight? He said, if I bear witness to
myself, my record is not true. Could you explain that? Could
you stand up and explain what he meant by that? John said, I do bear record of
myself. My record is true. Do you understand
that, Teresa? Well, our confusion, listen to
me, this is very important, if you're taking notes. Our confusion
concerning the words of Christ, man's confusion concerning the
words of Christ, is when we fail to realize that sometimes he
was speaking as a man, and in other times he's speaking
as God. Now does that shed light on what
he said? Sometimes he's speaking as a
man, he's acting as a man. Why? He was a man. He's our representative. And
he's going to speak like a man ought to speak. Right? The way God requires a man to
speak. Every word that that man said
was the way a man ought to talk. At the end, John, at the time
when he spoke as God and said things only God can say. Right? Whenever he speaks through the
scriptures, he speaks of his subjection to the Father. And
the Russellites really struggled with this. Because he said, Father
is greater than me. Or someday he's going to say,
I'm going to even be in subjection to the Father. They really struggle
with that, Jerry. So they separate. They say, well,
there must be God here, and he's greater, and there's a son, and
he's a lesser God. That's what they say, Stan. They
say he's a God. Well, the Lord our God is one
God. Well, whenever he speaks of the
Father, and his subjection to the Father, he's speaking as
a man. You see that? He's speaking as a man, the way
a man ought to speak, the way we should be in subjection to
God as men. Right? The way we should live
by faith. He had to live by faith as a
man. Right? That's it. The just shall
live by faith. Christ had to live by faith.
In who? God. God had to provide everything
for Christ. He never one time provided anything
for his own self. He ate the food that was given
to him. He wore the clothes that were given to him. Right? As a man. Why? He depended on
God. He was living by faith. Why? That's what man's going to have
to do. Now you say, but he fed the fowl.
He sure did. He fed them. Doesn't say he took
a bite. Does it? He provided for his
own. But not for himself. Who did?
God. He went forty days and forty
nights one time without eating, provided food for us. God sent
the angel to minister unto us. We had ministering angels too.
He was a man. Now that helps me. Doesn't that
help you? I like that. He learned, Hebrews
talks about him learning obedience. Vicki, that just, that just tears
people's minds up. Now he could be God and say something
like that. I can, when he's acting as a
man. You see? He's acting as a man. But then, there were times when
he spoke as God. as the Lord, as the Father, saying
things only God could say. And these verses we just read
are two such cases in point. He said, Back in now does that
shed light on John 5. Look at John 5 again, verse 30. He said, I can of mine own self
do nothing as I hear I judge. My judgment is, we can only judge
as we what? hear the Word, right? We don't have any judgment in
ourselves, only according to the Word, right? Because I seek not mine own will,
verse 30, but the will of the Father which is sent me, that's
what a man must do, seek the Father's will. Verse 31, if I
bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. If any man is out
for his own glory and his own self, he's not true. Right? Do you see that, Joe? Christ
as a man is saying, I'm here to reveal the Father, to glorify
the Father, to glorify God as a man for men. I'm bearing witness
of him. All right? Now, over in John
8, now who's talking? You see? Now who's talking? Over in chapter 8, verse 13,
the Pharisees said, You bear record of yourself. Your record
is not true. Christ said, Though I bear record
of myself, my record is true. Let God be true, and every man
a liar. Let God be true. He said, I'm
true. Must be God then. Must be God then. He says in
verse 14, I know whence I came and where I'm going. You don't
know where I came from or where I'm going. Or anything about me. Your flesh. I like that one. Oh, it's in
verse 23. Right there it is. He said, You're from beneath. I am from above. You're of this world. I am not
of this world." See, he's talking of God now. It's God speaking
now. He says, I am from above. You're from beneath. You're from
this world. I am not of this world. You better reckon it yourself.
I am, and it's true. Don't you like that? Verse 15,
he says, You judge after the flesh. That's all you can do.
That's what you are. Flesh. That's the only thing,
way you can see. He said, God's vision is not
limited like yours. God seeth not as man seeth. Polly? I'm thinking of a number between
one and three hundred zillion. What is it? No man, my, my, God Almighty,
figuring God out, man can just judge at the face, he can't,
man can't see, you can't, you can't know my heart. You can't
know my thoughts. If you can't figure that out,
now that's sinner. You judge at the flesh, don't
you? Holly, what color tie am I wearing? You can see that,
can't you? Huh? Right, you can see that. Flesh. You can see flesh. Oh,
Christ. Those Pharisees at the time would
be talking amongst themselves, and Christ would say, I heard
that. Right? Oh, I love that. I love that. Or they were thinking, just thinking
to themselves. They said to themselves, if this
man knew what kind of woman that was, I know what kind of woman
that is. I love that. He said, my record's true. I
don't judge. I judge no man. What does that mean? These fools,
these idiots. Joe, men are idiots. Especially
preachers. They're the idiotest ones of
them all. Most idiots of them all. Let's
see, Christ doesn't judge anybody. He loves everybody. Judge not.
He doesn't judge. Christ came to love. Christ came
to die. That's not what he's saying,
is it, John? Huh? He said earlier on, he said,
all judgment is committed unto me. Didn't he? He's not contradicting
himself. He's saying here, I judge no
man. Or that is your personage. He's
not paying attention to you, your flesh. What is he looking
at? How does God see? Not like man see it. He looks
on the heart. On the heart. God is no respecter of persons.
That's what that verse means. I had a fellow plead that with
me concerning the election stamp. He said, you see, God couldn't
elect this man and not elect this man because God is no respecter
of persons. I tried to explain to him, well,
that's not what that means. God is no respecter of your person.
Here I am, God, and two men walked into the temple. He gave this
parable, didn't he? Two men walked into the temple.
One was so fine, he looked so fine, and he talked so fine,
prayed so fine, and oh, he was such a good fellow. Everybody
in that place thought he was a good fellow. He was saved.
A fellow back in the back, a sinner, he looked apart. Everybody knew
he was a sinner. What did God, who did God have
respect unto? It wasn't a man's person, was
it? It was that person's confession. A sinner. A sinner. My, my. God has no respect for
persons. That's what that means. Our personhood,
our outward appearance, our speech, our actions, our flesh, and so
forth. That doesn't mean God not paying
attention to it, or he would never give orders concerning
it. Right concerning dress and things
like that doesn't mean that God you just look or act any way
you want to. That doesn't mean that either.
If you believe that, then you're confused too. But God's no respecter
of our personage, our outward, the flesh. The flesh. Verse sixteen, he said, Yet if
I judge, he said, I judge no man. Yet if I judge, my judgment's
true. Why? Because it's heart judgment.
Out of the heart are the issues of life, right? Now, Nancy, I
may look at you and observe you and so forth and think and make
judgment, pass judgment on you. Say, well, she's, she's just
rotten. Well, but I can't see your heart. I
can't see your heart. God can, and God does, and that's
what he looks at.