Let's go in the scriptures to
John chapter 5. Gospel of John chapter 5. I'm so thankful that the Lord
appointed you to be here this evening and me as well. He marked out our paths in old
eternity. And He graciously ordained that
we would meet together this evening to exalt our blessed Redeemer. And we would again hear the message
of good news for us poor sinners. The message of saved by grace. the message of substitution and
satisfaction, the message of our Lord Jesus, the great offering
for sin. So I'm thankful that he brought
me here and I'm thankful that he brought you here as well. May we seek to exalt him as we
meet together. As we continue to look at John
chapter 5. We have discovered that beginning
at verse 17, going to the end of the chapter is a lengthy message
that our Lord delivered to these Jewish religious leaders. He addresses them and brings
this message because they were offended in one of his deeds
and they were offended with his words. The deed that they were
offended with was that he healed a man on the Sabbath day. A man who had been lame 38 years. And our Lord graciously and mercifully,
He restored to him the ability to walk. And He said to him,
simply rise, take up thy bed, and walk. And with the word of
the King came the ability to obey Him. And indeed, that is
the way it is when the Savior comes to us and in effectual
drawing grace, He says to us, unto me, I'll give you rest,
I'll give you life, I'll give you righteousness, I'll give
you forgiveness, I'll give you acceptance. Though we have no natural ability
to come to Him, when He issues that word to our hearts, we come. We come in loving obedience to
Him. And He does make us willing to
come to Him in the day of His power. So here is this man, he's
been lame 38 years and the Lord heals him. And this offended
the Jews because it was a deed done on the Sabbath day. And
then His words offended him. Not only an action, but His words
offended him because They accosted him about performing this miracle
on the Sabbath day and he said, my father worketh hitherto and
I work. And then that really pushed them
over the edge because they understood that when he said that God was
his father he was saying that he was equal with the Lord. So
these are the two things that led to this message that our
Lord delivers here in John chapter 5 verses 17 through 47. And actually as you go through
the book of John, and we've been going through five chapters,
we're ending up the fifth chapter. Now, we know that these are a
couple of things that kind of run parallel. One of them is
our Lord is always setting forth His deity. He sets before those
who listen to Him, those who observe Him. He sets forth the
fact that He is God in flesh. So that goes parallel, goes all
the way through the book. There is another thing that always
goes with that, and that is the hostility of the Jewish leaders
toward the Savior. So these sort of, could we call
them two themes? They sort of go through the book,
running side by side. Our Lord, He establishes His
deity, His divinity by His words, by His message, and by His deeds. And as He does that, these folks
that they hated Him, they despised Him, by the actions of our Lord
and the words of our Lord, they just sort of pushed Him nearer
and nearer to the edge until ultimately they couldn't stand
anymore. And that's when they insisted
that He be crucified. And of course, all of that worked
out. according to God's eternal purpose
because He has ordained that He give His life a ransom for
His people. Now I had Brother Joe read to
us, Brother Bryson read to us there from John chapter 20. That is indeed one of the main
verses in the book of John. These things are written that
you might believe that Jesus is the Christ He is the Son of
God and that believing you might have life through His name. The
Spirit of God led this beloved apostle to write this gospel
narrative with the express intention for this main purpose to establish
our Lord's divinity. To establish the fact that He's
God. If He's not God, He can't save
us. We know Luke set him forth as the man, Christ Jesus. He is the son of man. And he
had to be the son of man to suffer, to bleed, to die, to suffer all
of the penalties of a broken law. So he had to be a man. But then John follows that up
according to the purpose of God. the spirit who led these men
to write these narratives. John follows it up by saying
this one who is the son of man, he is of course the son of God. He had to be God in order to
make the work of redemption effectual and indeed to make it absolutely
satisfying to God Himself. And so this is the theme that
goes through the Gospel of John. Now, our Lord Jesus, He does
indeed say, go back to verse 17 if I may draw your attention
to these words again. Jesus answered them, My Father
worketh hitherto and I work. Now this is not the first time
that He is referred to God as His Father. Go back with me to
the first chapter. Go back to the first chapter
in verse 14. John chapter 1 in verse 14. And the Word was made flesh and
dwelt among us. That is, He, the Son of God,
tabernacled among us. And we beheld His glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father. That's the first
usage of the word Father in the Gospel according to John. Full
of grace and truth. Drop down to verse 18. No man
hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in
the bosom of the Father. He hath declared Him. He hath
told Him out. Go to chapter 2 and verse 16. And in this scripture, here's
the first occasion where he expresses this fact to his enemies. Here
they are in the temple in Jerusalem. They've made merchandise of the
temple and there's all kinds of selling and trading. bartering
and purchasing. That's going on in the temple.
You'll notice in John chapter 2 and verse number 16, He said
unto them that sold doves, take these things hence, make not
My Father's house and house of merchandise. That's the first
occasion when before His enemies, He identifies Himself as being
the Son of God and that God was indeed His Father. Look at chapter
number 3 and verse 35. John the Baptist says this, The
Father loveth the Son, as He is preaching. The Father loveth
the Son and hath given all things into His hands. Look at chapter
4 and verse 21. This is our Lord speaking to
the woman at the well. Chapter 4 verse 21, Jesus saith
unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall
neither in this mountain nor yet in Jerusalem worship the
Father. Notice again verse number 23,
but the hour cometh and now is when true worshipers shall worship
the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to
worship Him And then, of course, we get back now to John 5 and
verse 17, and this assertion greatly angered the Jews. When
he said God was his Father, they understood exactly what he was
saying. He's saying, my Father and I
are one. I am equal with God. I am God. I am as much God as the Father
is. That's what he's saying. Now this did greatly offend them,
but he didn't stop saying it. It made them mad, but he didn't
back off. He didn't lessen these remarks. He didn't try to appease them. He didn't try to make them happy.
He's not going to cozy up to them. This is a doctrine that
is absolutely, it's a must to be believed. You've got to believe
this. He is God. If anybody says He's
not God, they can't be Christian. They can't know God. He is the
Lord. He emphasizes this. And so when
He gets into this message, over and over and over again He reminds
them God is His Father. Now remember, this is a message. He is delivering a sermon to
these Jewish religious leaders. These who are so offended by
the deed that He did on the Sabbath day and the words that He spake,
My Father worketh hitherto and I work, and they knew what He
was saying. He was saying, I am God. Though they were offended,
He continually kept this truth in front of them. Look at verse
19. Then answered Jesus and said
unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing
of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do. For whatsoever
things He doeth, these also the Son doeth likewise. Look at verse
21. Well, verse number 20. For the
Father loveth the Son. Now remember who His audience
is. See, anytime you look at any
passage of Scripture, and you know this, you've always got
to keep it in the context. You've got to keep in mind who's
doing the speaking and who He's speaking to. Our Lord doesn't
have a nice congregation before Him, as I have this evening,
of people who you shake your head and say, yeah, these things
are right. No, He's got a congregation before Him, and as He preaches
it doing this, He's not getting any amens. What He's getting
is much opposition. But it doesn't stop Him. It doesn't stop Him. He doesn't
change His message. This is a vital truth. This has
to be enforced. It has to be believed. And so
He doesn't hold back. Verse 20, For the Father loveth
the Son, and sureth Him all things that Himself doeth. He will show
him greater works than these, that you may marvel. Verse 21,
For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickneth them,
even so the Son quickneth whom He will. For the Father judgeth
no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son. I mean,
He just keeps on driving this right home to them. Well, we're
offended in what you say. Well, if you're offended by it,
I'll give it to you again, and again, and again, and again. I'm just going to keep on saying
it. Notice what he says in verse 23. That all men should honor
the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not
the Son honoreth not the Father which hath sent him. Look at
verse 26. Well, look at verse 25. Verily, verily, I say unto 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. For
as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to
have life in Himself. And He has given to Him authority
to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. Look down
at verse 30. I cannot of mine own self do
nothing. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment
is just, because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the
Father which hath sent me." So they were very highly offended. But the Savior didn't back off.
The fact that they were upset did not make the Savior back
down one iota. It didn't lead him to soften
his words, so that the religious leaders wouldn't be so upset.
He didn't subscribe to what some preachers subscribe to, peace
at any cost. He's not trying to make peace
with these people. He's not trying to get along
with them. Listen, if he was trying to get along with them,
he would have stopped using the word father. Wouldn't He? Sure
He would. He would stop using that word.
But it's not His intention to get along with them. These are
His enemies. They were born His enemies. They're
living as His enemies. And unless He's pleased to show
grace to them and mercy to them on the basis of satisfying justice
for them by His death on the cross, they'll go on being His
enemies forever and ever and ever. He said the Father, He and the
Father are one. That's what He says over in John
chapter 10. He didn't agree with the idea
that we should give up the truth for the sake of getting along
with people. There can be no compromise between
truth and error. It just can't be. There can be
no compromise between grace and works. There can be no compromise
between salvation by the will of God or salvation by the will
of man. There can be no compromise between
salvation by the blood and the righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ and the efforts of the endeavors and the labors of man.
They just can't get along. Those things can't get along. God's Word, God's truth cannot
get along with error. It just cannot. They cannot peacefully coexist. Look at the book of 2 Corinthians
6. Look at verse 14. Be ye not unequally yoked together
with unbelievers. I know where I used to go to
church many years ago, this was always used in the case of marriage. It's certainly a fact. Don't
be unequally yoked together with unbelievers in marriage. I don't
advise. In fact, I advise against a believer
marrying an unbeliever. And I would also advise against
a believer going into a business venture with an unbeliever. Any
sort of relationship like that. Because you're just kind of asking
for trouble. But this goes deeper than just
a marital relationship or a business relationship. This is a relationship
between people in general. For what fellowship hath righteousness
with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light
with darkness? What we are talking about here,
we are talking about light, The light of God's grace, the light
of God's kingdom, the light of God's Word, and we're talking
about darkness, error, superstition, that which is wrong. They just can't get along. They
can't have any communion. You know light and darkness can't
have any communion. It'll get dark here in a little
bit and the sun's gone. The sun comes up, darkness goes
away. They can't have communion. And as it is in the natural world,
even more so in the spiritual world. Light and darkness can't
have any communion. Notice what he says in verse
15. What concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part he
that believeth with an infidel? What agreement hath the temple
of God with idols? But you're the temple of the
living God. As God has said, I will dwell
in them and walk in them. I'll be their God and they'll
be My people. Wherefore, come out from among
them and be ye separate. Don't try to merge in with error. It can't be done. You'll be the
loser. The good apples don't help the
bad apple. It's the bad apple that causes
the good apples to rot, right? And I had apple trees up in Michigan. While I'm allergic to apples,
I'd put on my gloves and my mask and go out and pick the apples
and put them in. I had bushel baskets. Every once in a while before
we'd get to them, before Nancy would get to them, to can them
and make apple butter and apple sauce, et cetera, before there'd
be a rotten apple down there. Boy, I tell you what, you better
get it out. You better get it out, because a rotten apple can't
have communion with a good apple. It's going to destroy the good
apple. And that's the way it is in spiritual matters. God's
Word, God's truth, the gospel of redeeming grace, it cannot
coexist with error. It just can't do that. Light
can't abide darkness. And it works the other way too.
Darkness can't abide light either. So, back over here in John chapter
5. Our Lord, He just keeps on... I was trying to think of a way
to express it. He kind of keeps His foot on
the gas pedal here, if I may say it that way. The Father,
the Father, the Father. You're offended when I say the
Father? You're offended when I say my
Father worketh hitherto and I work? Well, I'll just keep giving it
to you over and over and over again till you do one of two
things. Bow to the truth or rise up in
open rebellion against it. But he wouldn't back off. And
you see when it comes to the truth of the Gospel, these essential
doctrines, that we talk about. We can't back off. We can't let
up. There must never be any let up. If you ever let up, that's when
error comes sneaking in the door. So we have to be bold. We have
to be uncompromising. It doesn't mean that we're mean
or we're hard to get along with, kind of being cantankerous about
things, but listen, we're not going to yield. We're not going
to bow. We're not going to budge. We're
not going to bend on this. We know that our Lord's words
often offended the Jews. Look over in John chapter 6. Look at John chapter 6. I made
mention of this this past Lord's Day in John chapter 6. Our Lord
brought up several subjects which in the end caused a division.
John 6.59, these things said He in the synagogue as He taught
in Capernaum. John 6.60 now, many therefore
of His disciples, we said that word disciples means students
or pupils. When they had heard this, they
heard what He had to say. They said this, this is a hard
saying, this is an offensive saying. The word saying is actually
the word logos. These are offensive words. Offensive
doctrines. Who can inherit? When Jesus knew
in Himself that His disciples murmured, you know what that
means? They grumbled. Kind of a grumbling in the background. There weren't any amens. There
weren't any praise the Lord. That's right! They were grumblings. And he
knew it himself, they were grumbling, they were murmuring. And he said
unto them, does this offend you? Does this offend you? And then
he didn't say, well, if it offends you, I'll ease up a little. No. He tacked on more. He said, and if you see the Son
of Man, ascend up where He was before. It's the Spirit that
quickneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. The flesh never has
profited us, and it never will profit us. It's the Spirit that
profits. quickens. He says, the words
that I speak unto you, My words. And that's what they despised
was His words. But there's life in His words.
There's salvation in His words. There's acceptance in His words. The words that I speak unto you,
their spirit, their life. But there are some of you that
believe not. And He's looking right into their
hearts. For Jesus knew from the beginning
who they were that, believe not, who should betray Him. He's always
known. He's known it because He ordained
it. That's how He knows everything. He's appointed everything. And
He said, therefore said I unto you that no man can come to Me
except it were given to him of My Father. And from that time
many of His disciples went back. They went back. Went back to
their old religion. Went back like a dog to its vomit. Went back like to a sow wallowing
in the mire. Went back. It doesn't matter
what religion they went back to, it's just the fact that they
went back. They left Him. There they were
sitting at the feet of Him who is the fountain of life. In whom
all the riches of God's grace dwell. He's full of grace. He's full of truth, it says in
John chapter 1. There's the Savior. There's the
only one who can help them, who can save them, who can forgive
them, who can make them righteous, who can justify them by His blood. And they went back and walked
no more with Him. They said, we're done with you. What ticked them off? His words. What He said. And then Jesus looked to the
12 and he said to them, will you also go away? Simon Peter,
then he answered and said, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast
the words of eternal life. We believe and are sure that
thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. People got offended at what he
said. Go over to Matthew 15. I'm not even going to get as
far tonight as I thought I would, but that's okay. Go to Matthew
chapter 15. Let me show you this passage. Here's my point. The Lord Jesus did not cease
to speak the truth of God just because some people found these
truths intolerable. and offensive. I had a friend of mine, she was upset with her preacher because of the error that he
was preaching. And she called and talked to
me and she said, do you think it'd be okay if I wouldn't talk
to him because I'm leaving. I'm leaving the church. I said,
yep, it'll be okay to go and talk to him and tell him why
you're leaving. And so she did, and he said,
well, what if I change my message? And she said, you won't change. Oh, he said, you give me some
verses to study. She said, well, I'll give you
some verses. And the next Sunday, oh, he'd just let her have it. You know, God's preachers are
not going to change their message for anybody. Satan's servants,
he may tell you he's going to change his message, but he'll
just try to soften it a little bit. I told her, I said, I don't
have any respect for any man who when somebody comes and talks
to us and says, you know, what you're preaching, I don't like.
And then he says, well, I'll change. He's not much of a preacher,
is he? And she left. She left. Been going there 40 years. 40
years. She left. You know why? Truth cannot abide error. Somebody whose eyes God has opened
to the message of redemption and reconciliation, the message
that Jesus Christ is all, the message of God's free and sovereign
grace. Once God puts that message in
your soul, when you hear something else, you say, I can't abide
that. I'm just not going to put up
with that. I'm going to put up with that. Why not? Truth cannot
get along with error. Light can't get along with darkness. Over here in Matthew chapter
15, I'll give you this and I'll quit. In Matthew chapter 15,
the scribes and Pharisees were upset with our Lord and with
His disciples and that was nothing new. They were often upset with
the master and with his followers. On this occasion, they were upset
with the master's disciples because they did not observe the Jewish
tradition of washing your hands before you eat. Now, that is
a good thing to do, to wash your hands. That's cleanliness. That's
a good idea. eating in a restaurant the other
day. I won't tell you the name of
it. Maybe I should, but I won't tell
you the name of it. But there was one of the workers
and the employee came in the restroom when I did and used
the restroom and then left without washing his hands. And then after
I washed my hands, I left the restaurant. It's always good to wash your
hands. That's a sanitary thing to do. But with the Jews, It
was a religious thing. That wasn't in the Law of Moses. It wasn't written in the Old
Testament Scriptures that you must wash your hands. This was
a tradition of the elders that you had to wash your hands before
you ate because if you didn't, if you had touched where a Gentile
had sat, if you had touched something that was ceremonially unclean,
And then you ate and you took that filth, as it were, into
your body. You contaminated yourself. In
fact, I was reading today, here are three quotes that I found
from the Jewish law. He that eats with unwashed hands
is as if he lay with a harlot. Another ruler of the Jews said,
whosoever despises the washing of the hands in a ceremonial
and religious way should be rooted out of the world. Yet another
said, he that blesseth food says the blessing before ye eat. But
he says it with unwashed hands is guilty of murder. Boy, they put people under severe
burdens. the burden of their man-made
traditions. Well, this is what upset them.
Our Lord's got an answer for them now. Matthew 15 verse 10. He even says this, back up to
verse 7, He says, Isaiah, well did Isaiah prophesy
of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth,
they honoreth me with their lip, but their heart is far from me.
For in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments
of men. And he called the multitude,
he said unto them, Now hear and understand, We know what those
Jewish people were saying. We know what the Pharisees and
the scribes were saying. You better not eat with unwashed
hands. You take filth into your body.
You take sin into your body. You take pollution into your
body. And our Lord says to the multitudes, I want you all to
listen to what I have to say. He says in verse 10, Hear and
understand. Boy, He spoke with authority,
I'm telling you. He said, Not that which goeth
into the mouth defileth the man, but that which cometh out of
the mouth That defileth the man. And then came his disciples and
said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after
they heard these sayings?" Lord, you've just, you've upset these
people. You need to back off just a little
bit. Too hard. I am sure a lot of
people have said of the pastors of this church in the past, former
two pastors and of this pastor as well, you know, they are just
a little too hard sometimes. They just go too far. Wish it would ease up just a
little bit. Probably more people would be
saved if it eased up a little bit. The Lord, this is what they said
to Him. These are His disciples. But He answered and said, every
plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted
up. Let them alone. Leave them alone. Because they be blind leaders
of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind,
both shall fall into the ditch. Just leave them alone. Leave
them alone. Then answered Peter and said
unto him, Declare unto us this parable. And Jesus looked at
Simon Peter. Now remember, here's all this
big multitude around. And Simon Peter says, Tell us
what you mean. And our Lord said, Are you yet
without understanding? Do ye not yet understand that
whatsoever entereth in at the mouth, goeth into the belly,
and then it is cast out into the draft? It is gone. But those things which proceed
out of the mouth, they come forth from the heart. They defile the
man. For out of the heart proceed
evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness,
blasphemies. These are the things that defile
a man, but deed with unwashing hands defile it, not a man. In
other words, it's not what you're putting into your body that's
your problem. It's what's coming out of it. It's that cesspool
within. And the only cure for that is
the grace of God. God's pure, free, sovereign mercy. So we love people. We want to preach the truth to
people. But when folks get offended,
we're not going to hush up. We're not going to quiet down.
We're not going to back up. We're not going to say, well,
let me say that again a little softer way. We're going to use
Our Lord is that perfect example. We don't like you saying God
is your Father. And He said, My Father, My Father,
My Father, My Father, My Father. He just kept driving it in. Driving it in. You are either
going to believe it, or you are going to throw up your hands
and say, we are not going to have this man rule over us. But
you are going to reach a verdict in your heart. And every man
does, doesn't he? Everybody reaches a verdict about
the things of God. May the Lord enable us to reach
this verdict. He is the way, the truth, and
the life. Whatever He says is the truth.
And nothing but truth can come forth from Him. Thy Word is truth. Let's us hold forth the truth
of God's Word. Let's sing as a closing song
here.