Morning, when we're done, you
will have received thus far 40 hours of preaching in the Gospel
of John. Actually, probably a little more
because there are several weeks I went over like 10 minutes. So maybe 50
hours of preaching. Either way, this is the 40th
sermon that we've done in John's Gospel, and we've had a few weeks
of things that we have learned. I remind you of that because
historically it's always been a point of contention. People
say, oh my goodness, quit reminding us of how many times we've been
in John, et cetera. And it's usually a joke. And
I've said this before. It's usually funny to some people. And then some people think, man,
are we ever going to get through this? Remember what I said in the beginning,
we'll be here for years. This is 40 sermons. We've got
12 more sermons probably in the last verse of chapter 5. Not
really, but I mean, there very well could be. So that would
be one year. Twelve more hours is 52 sermons just through John,
not even six. We won't get through six in twelve
sermons. So we've got years. Because of
that, people say, well, you're just robbing the church of a
lot of things. You're robbing the church of
stuff. I mean, I've been told that in the last year by people.
And I've even been asked by some of you, why do we do exposition? Because you want to understand,
that's a good question. You know, is exposition always the best
thing? Because I want to learn Revelation, I want to learn this,
I want to learn that. Okay, well, we've preached those things,
so you have to go back and listen to them. We can't really preach
through everything twice. Usually in a pastor's lifetime,
he barely ever, ever, ever even finishes preaching to the New
Testament. If he's in the pastorate for 50 years, he doesn't get
through preaching through the New Testament. But the reason
we do exposition, just as a way of just teaching some of you
and reminding most of you, is because the Bible was written
in that manner. The Bible was written as a letter. The Bible
was written as a gospel. These letters, these 66 books
that make up the composition that we call the Holy Writ, they
were written in prose. So therefore, we read them that
way. We read them as they were written. We don't dissect them
and divide them. Now, the Proverbs is a little
bit different. The Proverbs is sort of like some fortune cookie
stuff, you know? You can take a proverb, you can take a sentence
out of one of the Proverbs. Like I've been in Proverbs 15
this week. For those of you who know what that is. Basically,
be quiet, be gentle, fool talks too much, the wise man is silent,
that kind of stuff. It's good for all of us. But
you can take one proverb out and you can look at it and go,
man, there's a lot of wisdom in that. And the next one may not even
relate to what you just read. It's just like an old dad sitting
around on his deathbed just saying, all right, son, there's some
things you need to know. Wash your socks daily. Take a bath.
Cut the grass. Change the oil. Treat your wife
nice. Do this. And that's sometimes.
But other than the Proverbs, especially the New Testament,
these things are written to be read and understood in its context.
So for me, as someone who has been charged by the Lord to shepherd
us, Understanding this then I must teach it as it was written because
here's what could happen I'm starting a little series and
I'm just gonna do online there about five ten minute series
I'm gonna start doing once a week called straight out of context
and it's going to be taking these popular verses of Scripture that
everybody in the world loves to just take and manipulate and
I'm gonna teach what they mean. I'm gonna show the errors I'm
gonna put them in their context and show what they truly are
trying to teach us Why is that important? Because I have more
questions than not throughout every week about what this verse
means or what that verse means. And what I find is that 8 out
of 10 times, if I say, well, why don't you just back up, read
the paragraph before it, what does it say? What does it say
right after it? Oh, and it explains it just like
that. So for exposition, that means
that I take what Scripture has said and we read it and we illustrate
it. What does that mean? In other
words, we just elaborate on it. We talk about it a little bit.
We don't have to worry about my commentary. Now, if I'm looking
at a particular sentence or a particular word, I can come up with some
very creative ideas of what I want to say about that. I can come
up with some creative ideas about Moses. That's where we are today
in John 5. I can come up with some ideas of saying, well, you
know, if you don't believe Moses, you don't believe Jesus. And I can twist
that to mean whatever I want it to mean. if I do not put it
in its context, because Jesus gives the context in which that
must be understood. Now see, in our culture, this type of
learning has been gone for a hundred years, or better. This type of
learning has been gone in every discipline. I mean, in math,
in science, in history. You know what history is today?
Here's the talking points. Here's the test answers. Memorize
these things. Who is Charlemagne? Who's Pontius Pilate? Who's Judas? Those are historical things to
know about Scripture. How will we know who they are? We learn
it in context. So we preach through the Scripture. Why? Because teaching
the Word of God is to teach it in context. Any other teaching
that comes out of the Word of God that's not in context is
not teaching the Word of God. However, there are some things
in John 5 that I am considering pulling out that are there, but
where will I go? For example, if I talk about,
as Stray and I were talking yesterday, about the subordination of the
Son, or the eternal generation of the Son. Looking at how Jesus
is the Son eternally, and then where does He come in Functionally
to be subordinate to the father. Is that is that an incarnation
thing? Is that just when he was a human being it's not there.
The Bible doesn't teach it there There's no explanation there,
but there are other places in Scripture where that might be
I'm considering talking about that briefly, but not today That
would still be in line with exposition. But if I did that every week
then you would be like, this is a technical sermon This is
the this is okay. It's theology. But what does
the Bible say here? See, Jesus, we've been in this
discourse with these Pharisees after the healing of the man
who was lame for 38 years. We've been in this now for months.
And today, we will conclude this conversation. I didn't get finished
last week. Let's think about it for a moment. And think about
what we've learned thus far. Listen to the Word of the Lord
in John chapter 5, starting in, let's see, we'll just pick up
verse 44. How can you believe when you
receive glory from one another, and do not seek the glory that
comes from the only God. Do not think that I will accuse
you to the Father. There is one who accuses you,
Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believe Moses,
you would believe Me, for he wrote of Me. But if you do not
believe his writings, how will you believe My words?" Now, bear
with me for a moment. In our day, there is no short
supply of what I call expert opinions. And there's no short
supply of expert opinions on scripture or doctrine or theology
or ecclesiology, the church. There's no short supply of opinions
on anything, really. And if you're looking for them,
you have to go no further than the closest barbershop, beauty
salon, laundromat, water cooler, Facebook page, Twitter feed,
Instagram, Snapchat, whatever it is that people like to put
their lives on display, there's no short supply of opinions from
experts, especially on matters of faith. There will always be,
in the context of the Christian faith, there will always be people
who will not adhere or endure sound teaching. Paul tells that
to young Timothy. It was said there will come a
day, this is in Paul's day, where people will no longer endure
sound teaching, but instead they will, what, gather up teachers
for themselves to scratch their itching ears. Now, what's that
mean? That means that there are times where people will profess
to be in the faith, but they'll come along a path of exposition. You see why some people don't
do exposition? Because it can fleece the church. It can hurt
the unity of the faith. It can trouble your security. Because there are things that
I know that the human mind does not want to deal with. There
are things that I know that some of you don't want to struggle
with in Scripture. And if I know that, then I can
avoid it if I'm just picking and choosing what I'm going to
preach every week. But when I'm preaching through what God has
given, I no longer am the judge of what you're going to eat,
but God is the judge of what you're going to eat, because
He gives you verbatim, verse by verse, the Scripture. And
some of you, many of you, if I were to skip over it, you'd
catch me before my foot hit the floor. Hey, you just, did you
ignore that? What's wrong with you? And even
those of you who didn't catch it, you'd be like, did you skip
that verse? What are you doing here? Yeah, like Mike's going,
we'll pound you to the floor back here. You're going to fix
that next week. Come back with black eyes and say, okay, I get
it. You hold your pastor accountable
to teaching truth. I'm not your boss. You see that? I'm supposed to lead you through
the teaching of the Scripture. So here we see this group of
people that Paul warned about would not adhere to sound teaching.
They will take the banner of Scripture in their own light,
and with disdain then, they'll peer in judgment to those who
do not agree with them. They'll peer in judgment to those
who dare ask questions of them. See, that's one of the key indicators
of knowing someone is really either struggling with their
faith and their fleshliness, or not regenerated at all when
we ask, when we seriously and sincerely inquire of them to
give an account for what they believe, and they take offense
that you would ask. Is not the teaching of Peter
to at all times be prepared to give a reason for the hope that
we have? So in that sense, we need to always be ready to give
a reason with joy, with reverence, and with respect and gentleness.
Without knowing it, just like these Pharisees, these types
of people who most likely are unregenerate, they'll seem in
their own eyes to be greater than others. They'll hold to
a tongue of humility. They'll say, oh, it's not me,
but it's Christ. Like the Pharisee in the parable of the Pharisee
in the publican of the tax collector where the Pharisee did not take
credit for his righteousness, but rather he lifted his eyes
toward heaven and he says, oh, thank you, God. He prayed a prayer
of worship. Thank you, God. that I am what
I am. It is all of you that I am what
I am, but I'm not like Him." You see, that's what the Pharisees
were doing. And if truth be known, I mean,
we're all like that in some way. But by the Lord's grace, we see
it. We go, wow, look at the pride that's swelling up in my heart.
The Pharisees, all the time, the Pharisees would harbor resentment
and frustration that more people around them were not walking
in the same way that they were walking. The Pharisees exemplify
this type of example. They knew so much in regard to
the pretext of Scripture. They had the totality of Scripture
memorized to heart, and even thought that by the way they
lived, they proved... Some of you have heard this already
this week. They thought that by the way they lived, they proved
that they were God's children, as if their works added to their
holiness. There's no small supply of rebuke toward me each week
in the community at large. There's no small supply of rebuke. And to have truth, if I were
to be honest with you this morning, it is sometimes so laborious,
it is so frustrating, so troublesome to have to deal with the constant
barrage of emails and phone calls and things where people see this
or people in the community, you know, and they constantly, well,
why do you think that? Who do you think you are? Are
you the only one with the Spirit of God? I mean, I have these
type of accusations continually. Jesse probably would concur,
he's outside now, but he would probably concur that that's equally
as frustrating for him. It's very easy if we focus on
these things to just go, I'm done. I'm going to go to the
chicken plant. I'm going to get me a job. You
know? This is too much. But the purpose behind that is
the gift of God. If we are standing on truth,
if we are standing by the authority of Scripture, then the Word of
God itself has promised that the world will come after us.
The world will come against us. The world will hate us. The world
will begin to have animosity against those who stand on the
sufficiency and the authority of Scripture. And I know you
hear me tell these stories, and I do not lie in this pulpit,
and I do not stand here and fabricate these things for your amusement.
There are people in this very city who stand in pulpits at
this same hour who refuse by absolute statement, who refuse
to believe that the Word of God is sufficient, authoritative,
and powerful. And it's very easy for me when
they all come after me to go, You know what? You're just a
bunch of pigs. You don't want to hear the Word of God. I'm
not going to spend any more time talking to you. Here's my pearls.
You can't put pearls on a pig. Well, that's a little rude. That's
what Jesus says, right? Don't cast your pearls before swine.
Why? Because they're not going to wear them. They're going to
turn them under the dirt with all the other slop and then they're
going to turn you under the dirt and push you down in the mud.
They're going to turn on you and they're going to slice you
up. The boards are going to cut you and the sows are going to step on
you. Don't do it. But even when we don't do it,
we cannot do it with a heart. We cannot have a heart of frustration
or animosity because when we do, we are guilty like these
Pharisees to think we're better than someone else. We're not
better than anyone else because we can see truth. We are just
blessed. We are blessed because God in
His infinite mercy and in His wisdom chose to show us that
which we could not see in our natural mind. He chose to bring
us to life through the regeneration of the Spirit. and to give us
eyes, and to grant us repentance, and to gift us faith. That's
how we can sit here as the church and say, praise you God for your
glorious grace. We're going to close our service
today with the song that we've been wearing out lately, 202,
Not in Me. It's a really good song. It's
not in me. It's all about the work of Christ. Christ is our
righteousness. But these rebukes can get frustrating. They can get hard. And sometimes
people can try to pry us from orthodoxy. They can try to take
us out of this thing and say, you know, you're a believer.
You don't need to be worried about all this intense solidity. You don't need to be worried
about all this doctrine. Why don't you just relax and be a good
guy? You see? Can't you just minister to people
without trying to talk about the Bible? I get that sometimes. Some of you may get that. Coworkers,
friends, family, whatever it might be. Why does every time
we talk you have to bring up Jesus? Why not? You're talking
about the grandkids. You're talking about the dog.
You're talking about the game. You're talking about the weather. Oh my gosh,
is Jesus not greater than the clouds? I'm being a little bit
funny, but I'm also being serious. People will try to pry you from
orthodoxy. The living word, the truth of
Christ. And in all seriousness, these
Pharisees were false converts. We talked about that last week.
For the reasons given in Scripture, a false convert then will oppose
the truth therein. When I say oppose, I mean oppose.
Not just misunderstand. They will say, no, I will not
believe that. I will not be subject to those truths. I will not surrender
to the reality of what you've taught me in Scripture. I will
not do it. That is not the God that I know.
You ever had anybody tell you that? Yeah. That is not the God that I know.
To which the God that is in the Bible will say, then you do not
know me. They will not submit to the Lord's
teaching. They will not seek to obey anything that does not
fit the fancy of their own religion or their view of righteousness.
And when they do try to follow after certain things, they will
gather themselves teachers who will tell them what they want
to hear. This is why so many times we can see different factions
of denominations on different levels. People divide over many
things, but in the end, the true Church of Jesus Christ, by the
power of God's grace, are able to love each other. I often get
the question, and we're working on a response to this question,
what is sufficient knowledge of salvation versus exhaustive
knowledge of salvation? We're working on that answer
for you, to make it clear. Another question I get is, what
is the evidence of salvation? What is it that the work that
needs to be in the life of the believer? What is the work? And
if we take what the context of John 5 is right here, we need
to be very careful how we answer that question. I'm not going
to preach that this morning, but the primary thing, and I
asked a young boy this past Friday, I said, if you were to look at
my life and you were to ask the question, is James Tippins a
believer? I said, what's the first thing you need to look
for? You know what he said? Fifteen years old. He said that
you confess the gospel correctly. Ta-da! But what do we always
go, well, he's got to love people, he's got to be kind, he's got
to shave, dress nice, you know, wear this or do that, he's got
to speak in a certain way, he's got to... No, no, no, no, no.
Those things might be evident in the life of a believer, not
necessarily all those things, but there are things that might
be evident, that may be and should be evident in the life of a believer,
but that's not the litmus test, is it? But the litmus test that
God gives us is this, that you confess that Christ is our righteousness. You confess that Christ has atoned
for the sins of His people. You confess that the gospel is
the work of God alone by the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ,
who is God, who came to earth, who lived a holy life and who
died a death of substitution on our behalf and was raised
from the dead. And the evidence of that is just the confession
of your faith that Jesus is your Savior and nothing else matters. And then the fruit of that is
a continual confession of that, a continual possession of the
gospel. And most importantly, Jesus and
Paul and John and Peter and James. The whole book of James is about
this issue, is that if you have love for one another. Because there's a lot of living
that can happen. The Pharisees lived a good life. What is Jesus'
words? Unless your righteousness is
greater than that of the Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom
of heaven. Now that was a terrible thing to say in the presence
of people who looked at the Pharisees who obeyed the law perfectly.
They obeyed the law perfectly. Paul says, according to the law,
I am blameless. But he says it's all garbage.
It's nothing. Why? Because the prophets say
that the righteousness of man are filthy rags. You know why? Because it's an obligation. We
have to be holy or we are judged. We're not holy, so we are judged
and we're judged guilty. But the elect, we, the church,
those who believe in Jesus Christ, we know that He is our righteousness.
He is our justification. He is our propitiation. He satisfies
the wrath of God, not us. So then we're compelled by the
Spirit. And it is not I who live, but Christ who lives within us.
We have a supernatural spontaneous affection for one another that
defies all logic, defies all reason, defies all reality, defies
all psychological healthy makeup. Did you hear what I just said?
There's not a psychologist or psychiatrist or therapist in
the world who would not say to some of us, you shouldn't hang
out with those people because they're bad for you. But the
gospel says, I want to hang out with these people. Because I
love them. It's a big deal. And it's not
of us. It's not in me. It's not in you.
The God of the Pharisees, according to what Jesus was saying, was
wrong. That Jesus was a fool. The gospel was an offense to
their view of holiness and religion. Terminally then, in the end of
it all, the Pharisee will regard himself then as a good man. A
man that loves the Lord with everything he is. And a man who
is in love. Who wanted to set every other
man straight. The Pharisee adores the praises of men. We see this
in verse 44. He loves to hear, oh, by the
grace of God, He's worked in you so well. Look at you. We
know you're a child of God. Look how far you've come. You're
not where you want to be, but you're not where you used to
be. Is that the measure of our success? Is that the measure
of God's grace? No. No. Because where is the measure
at the end? The fullness of holiness and perfection. We point to Christ.
We look to Christ. We strive for Christ. It's like
an ant trying to build this building. He can move some dirt, one grain
at a time. He can pick up some leaves. But
in an eternity of eternities, with a billion years of lifespan
and a billion ants that can never put this building together, in
a more magnificent and ineffable way, neither could any human
being or group of human beings put together enough righteousness
to measure up to one-tenth, to one smidgen, to one unmeasurable
minute, microscopic nothing of the righteousness of God. But it's all down to pride for
the Pharisees here. For they feel justified. Pride,
I believe, is a dangerous beast. And it wells up inside of us
at times. And in the end, we always fall before the fall always
comes. Pride. For the Pharisee, he will
fall into the abyss. For the believer, we will fall
into grace. And we will be corrected and disciplined children who
are loved by our Father. The judgment of God where the
Pharisee stands currently is the judgment that he will see
in the end. And when Jesus, the Son of Man, raises him to life,
he will stand in judgment. Jesus has already told them here.
This is a review of the last few weeks to get us in the context.
The judgment of God in which he currently stands is continually
brought before his mind, and yet his pride will not allow
him to see it. Pride hates offending positions. Pride hates submission. It cannot submit to those who
are not perfectly in line with the way of its own thinking. Pride ultimately is offended
at everything coming from the mouth of others, even when it
agrees. You ever had that person in your
life that they say something, and every time they say something,
you take it wrong? Because of the way you look at them? And
even when they say something that you agree with, you're like,
there's something else behind it. You know? That's being judgmental. It happens every day to me. Every
day. And I don't have to say it as
much to you, but I've often, for years, always said, don't
hear what I'm not saying. Don't read between the lines.
If I say something, I mean it. If I had a verbal typo, I'll
correct it. Pride. is the antithesis of love. Pride is the opposite of worship.
For it does not submit, it rules. It does not give, it takes. It
does not serve, it is the master. When the rubber hits the road,
the Pharisees here will not listen to Jesus, because even though
they know that what He says is truth, they cannot imagine the
grace that's needed for their own souls. They've trusted in
Moses, as we'll see. They cannot imagine that the
excitement, as Jesus said, for a little while, you reveled,
you were excited in the preaching of John. Remember? Even though
you enjoyed it for a little while, they were excited. Oh, Messiah's
coming. Messiah's coming. Messiah? Flash in the pan, another dud. Just to think, we thought John
was telling the truth. We thought John the Baptist was
telling the truth. They could not imagine that the excitement
of the preaching of John was to reveal this man, Jesus of Nazareth,
the son of Joseph and Mary. They could not imagine the son
of a carpenter. What good comes from Nazareth, they would say.
What good comes from Nazareth? They had their own view of holiness,
their own view of salvation, their own understanding of worship
that Jesus even explains to the Samaritan woman in Sychar. That
the Jews, the salvation comes from the Jews. They didn't know
how to worship. They've never worshipped. Jesus just said, you've never heard
the voice of God, you've never seen the face of God, you've never
seen the form of God, you do not have the Word of God in you, because
you don't love Me. All their views were wrong. They
were not willing to be counted among the number of the way,
the Christian church. They were not willing to be counted
among that number because it reduced them, listen to this,
it reduced them as Jews, as the Pharisees, as Sanhedrin, it reduced
them to being normal sinners in need of grace, And it forced
them to love and to serve the very people they looked down
on, because those people were not holy in their eyes. And I'm
not talking about the Gentiles, I'm talking about other Jews. Brother Trey taught this past
Wednesday night, and he made the comment about how many people
say, I just wish I could be like Paul, the Apostle Paul. And they say, oh, Paul's really
dynamic, and he's this, and he's strong, and all that kind of
stuff. And then some people look at the other side of Paul, who
was a wicked, evil man, who was a murderer. And some people say,
well, I don't want to be like Paul. I want to be better than
Paul. And he made this distinction, preaching out of Ephesians 1
and 2. He says, we can do nothing but be like Paul. We're murderers at heart. Without
the grace of God, we will always be murderers at heart. Without
the regeneration of the Holy Spirit, we will just be a sinner.
We don't need to look at ourselves as heroes of the faith, but we
need to look at ourselves as sinners worthy of judgment, but
saved by the grace and the mercy of God. He loves us, and He saved
us in spite of us. We ought not see ourselves as
a warrior for the faith, but as a broken vessel to be used
by the mercy of God. So now let's look. Self-glory
in verse 44. It is the root of destruction.
It is evidence of the love of darkness, the blindness of the
devil by the will of God. Let me say that again. Self-glory
is the root of destruction. It is the love of darkness and
the blindness of the devil by the will of God. Now all of that
comes from five chapters of learning. The darkness is what people love. The light is shown to them. They
love the darkness because their works are evil. Stop thinking
when you see John, teach these things. When you see Jesus, teach
these things. Stop thinking of the vile and
grotesque debauchery that we so commonplace make sinfulness. Because it's not what Jesus is
talking about. Because it's not the audience Jesus was talking
to. The audience Jesus was talking to were the most moral people
that have ever walked the planet earth to this day. Made the Puritans look like pagans. Let me say that again. The Pharisees made the Puritans
look like pagans. And Jesus told Nicodemus that
he loved the darkness and that his works were evil. Boom. For those of you who know what
that means, just stop right there and let that burn for a minute.
When Jesus talks about sin, He's moving beyond the obvious evil.
He's moving to the heart of self-righteousness, self-religion, self-worship,
self-glory, pride. It is why Eve and Adam took the
fruit to begin with. Power! Glory! wonder self. That's why they took it. That's
why we take it. That's why we take it. We often
say, and I say to myself, and we have these conversations,
some of us, how is it these people can believe this stuff? How can
they go off and perpetrate this false teaching that they know
is a lie? How can they create these circumstances
to trick people? Because they love themselves.
They love their flesh. They love the glory that comes
from man. How then, verse 44, can you believe
when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory
that comes from God? I'll say it now and I'll say it in a minute.
When we see self-glorification, it is a rejection of the gospel
of grace. Jesus says, how can you believe
when you seek and receive glory? So, if we seek and receive glory,
we cannot believe the gospel. Why? Because a regenerate person
is humble, and granted repentance, and gifted faith. Jesus is the glory that comes
from God. He is the God who sits at the
Father's side and makes God known. He is the one and only God. Jesus is now being viewed by
these Pharisees as an accuser like Satan. I mentioned this
very quickly last week. I went so fast. But Jesus knew their hearts.
They refused grace. They refused the grace of God.
They refused the Gospel. They refused the Son of God.
They rejected Him, though they knew He was who He said He was.
I want you to understand that. Their cognitive understanding
of Jesus in their closed meetings were, OK, He's Messiah. He's Messiah. And this can't be our Messiah. We're better than this. How dare He come here as Messiah
and tell us we need salvation? He needs to do his job and set
Rome out of here so that we can be a people that glorify the
Father. He's talking about glorifying the Father. Now, he is blasphemer. He's made himself equal with
God. Who is this man? What is he doing? They refused
him. Even though Jesus in verse 34
said, it is for your salvation that I say these things, that
you might be saved. They mocked him in that. Isn't that the way
it is? I remember being on my knees
in front of a person at a table, and some of you were there in
2012, and pleading with a man to stop confessing universalism. Stop confessing that God, through
Christ, paid for the sins of every human being, so that God
has no warrant against any man, woman, or child. And out of his mouth, yes, I
guess then, I am a universalist. If that's what that means, every
sin's been paid for, he says. And I wept at his feet, on my
knees, and I asked him to please hear the words that he said,
and he laughed at me. He laughed and scoffed. The Pharisees laughed
and scoffed. Jesus subjects them to His own
judgment. But He does so through the Word
of God. And this is why we hold to Scripture.
So that no man can be the arbiter of truth. So that no church and
their confession can be the absolute sovereign truth of anything. But the Word of God is truth.
Jesus is the Word. He is truth. He is not only truth,
He is the truth. He is the only truth. The Scripture
is the only truth. Many people find what they like
in Scripture, and they'll hold to those things. But when other
things come to them that are equally valid, they reject them,
for it does not appeal to them. And I'm not talking about what
we have so eloquently coined peripheral or secondary issues. I'm not talking about how many
times you dunk somebody or forward, backward, under. It's important. I'm talking about things of salvation.
I'm not talking about things of the gospel. I'm not talking
about whether you have a podium or a board or a bench or pews. I'm not talking about any of
that. Whether you sing with a guitar or a piano. Important. We regulate our worship by what
we believe the Word of God teaches we should do. And sometimes we're
wrong. But when the Bible teaches something
clearly, and someone who professes to be a believer will not receive
it, the Scripture says that through the discipline of the church,
that God will prove their regeneration. Did you hear that? If I begin
to teach things that are not sound, and you call me on it,
and I don't stop, maybe it was an error, or maybe I'm being
malicious, and I don't stop, then the church has a biblical
authority to subject me to the discipline of the Word of God,
and if that does not work, I am an unbeliever to you. Those who are filled with the
Spirit of God do not reject the teaching of God. Matter of fact,
in John 6, as we'll see in the months to come, Jesus says that
those who are His will hear and learn from God. Why do these Pharisees know something
in their mind but refuse it in their heart? You know why? 2
Thessalonians 2.9. It says, The coming of the lawless
one is by the activity of Satan. and listen to these next words,
with all power and thought signs and wonders. In order that all may be condemned
who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
We preach through 2 Thessalonians. I would recommend you go back
and listen to that sermon. It's on the church website. The reason so many people refuse
to believe, they refuse to learn, they refuse to listen to the
truth, they refuse to be subject to the exposition of Scripture,
is because they profess Christ with their mind and with their
mouth, but they're utterly lost in their flesh. They're utterly
lost in their soul. They want the glory that is their
own path to righteousness. Because how many of you, just
by a show of hands, I don't really ask you to do that, how many
of you as a show of hands have ever sat under an evangelical circuit
preacher of any time, any time in your life. And you know what
they do. They get up there and a lot of
them, especially those who are not pastors, who are not shepherds
of the local assembly, but they call themselves pastor, they've
never shepherded a people. Reverend, pastor, whatever the
title the world wants to give us. And they get up there and
they tell you this horrible story about how they used to be, right?
I used to be a drug dealer. I used to be, you know, this.
I used to be, you know, the dynamite man. I just blew stuff up everywhere
I went. I mean, you can see Batman villain coming out, right? And all of a sudden, I met Jesus
in a bathroom stall. I was sitting there and somebody wrote John
3, 16 on the wall. All of a sudden, that just, everything came over
me and I stopped blowing stuff up. And ever since then, I've
been wanting to tell everybody that God loves you and He wants
you to have a wonderful life. And you've got to come to the
cross. And all these other things. These are sound bites. People
can take those and make me a heretic easy. And it doesn't matter who
you are, what you believe, whether you've even heard the name of
Jesus at all, you can have eternal life. That's what these people
say. And it's a lie. It's a lie in the order of 2
Thessalonians. It's a lie in the order of the work of God
to bring condemnation. It's a lie. Now people will say
to me, where do you get that? You're imposing something on
this text in John 5 that's not there. No, I'm not. Because Jesus
explained it very clearly to Nicodemus. Now he's talking to
the very people that sent Nicodemus to Jesus to begin with. Then
in verse chapter 12, after they come and see the resurrected
body of Lazarus float out of the tomb and take the wraps off
of him, and his body that was rotting was no longer rotting
but alive, Jesus, through John, you notice that when John writes,
Jesus writes. When Paul writes, Jesus writes.
And we've already established in the last six weeks, when Jesus
speaks, God has spoken. Same person. Same being. Same essence. Not same person.
I'm a Trinitarian, don't kill me. That's a verbal typo. In John 12, he says that the
reason that they love the glory that comes from men rather than
the glory that comes from God, so they would never make their
true belief of their mind known. Why? Because they were not born
again. And it's so ridiculous because what
we do is we hear the teaching of John's Gospel. Oh Lord, help
me. And then we'll consent to the
reality that we must be born again and then we'll go home
and figure out how to be born again. What must I do to be born again?
That's what they ask Him in John 6. What must I do to be doing
the works of God? And this is what Jesus says. This is the
work of God that you believe on the Son whom He has sent. Jesus is preaching right here
in these verses of John 5. He is preaching the gospel to
the ears of the Pharisees at this very moment. And they cannot
believe because they have not been converted. We do not seek glory. And the
Pharisees wanted their own path to righteousness. They wanted
their own path to glory. They wanted to be able to say,
man, I used to be like this, now look at me. Look at me! I once was lost, but now I'm
found. That's a totally different word, isn't it? That I used to
be bad, now I'm good? What is good? No one is good
but God. Though these Pharisees were religious
models of their day, they refused the gospel. They refused the
imputation of righteousness as their necessity. They said they
could see, but they were really blind. And Jesus will tell them
later that their guilt remains because they say they can see. The mindset that this man Jesus
would be their key to life, their path to the Father, their true
Lord and God was repulsive to them. In Romans 2.29, Paul writes
these words, But a Jew is inwardly A Jew is inwardly. And circumcision
is a matter of the heart by the Spirit, not by the letter. His
praise is not from men, but from God. You see what that looks like?
We consent and we submit to the truths of Scripture because we
are God's people. And we go, wow. And it doesn't
mean that we like it. It doesn't mean that we understand
it. It doesn't mean that we don't struggle with it. But when we
see it, we see it. And it may take us weeks, months,
or years to come to terms with the reality of what God is teaching
us through Scripture. There are some very difficult
doctrines in the mind of God. There are some very difficult
realities about the love of God, which is one of the most butchered
doctrines of all of Scripture. There is something very amiss.
when we have come up in a culture that teaches decisional regeneration,
or free will doctrine, or work salvation, or meeting God. God does 99, you do 1. No. You doing 1% of your righteousness
condemns you. 1%. One billionth of one billionth
of one percent. Now, Trey could do that math,
but I can't. We'll condemn you. It's all of Christ. It's not
in me. It's not in you. The praise is to God's glorious
grace, not to us. Well, where does that settle
me? Why does that not settle my spirit? Do you feel that way
sometimes? Because you're struggling with
believing the gospel. You're working out your salvation
in fear and trembling. Good. Because the more we learn,
the less we know about us. Or excuse me, the less we see
that it's about us. The less we know about us. The
more we know about us. We know who we are. We know what
we are. We know why we are. We know what God has done. And
they go, wow. It's the praise of His glorious grace. to the
praise of His glorious grace, to the praise of His glorious
grace with the Beloved. We are God's prize. We are His
possession. We are His people because He
has reached into our lives. He has taken us out of darkness.
The word there is snatched. You see children fighting over
toys? You don't see a bully, and I'm
saying this being funny now, you don't see a bully come up
to another child and say, pardon me, can I have that toy? I really
want you to give me that toy. I highly suggest you give me
that toy." You know, there might be some coercion there. No, they just
go in there and say, mine, and they snatch it. And if the children
are of equal strength and they're both holding on, they'll butt
heads. Teeth will come out, bloody noses, all sorts of things. Mine,
mine, mine, mine, mine, mine. And eventually, one will win
out and the other will fall to the ground crying. So when I
imagine snatching, I don't think that there's a group of people
going, please, somebody get me out of here. I think snatching
is when we're running from God, we're hiding in our own self-righteousness,
we're satisfied in our own glory, we're okay with our own religious
establishment, and we are complacent and content in our own sin. And God sees us, and we don't
look at Him, because we know better. And as we're ready to
run the other way, He says, no, you're mine! I paid for you. I bought you with the blood of
my Son. You're mine." That's pretty cool, right? He breathes life into us and
we are born again. And we believe. And we're like, what's happening?
I believe. Christ is my goal. Christ is
my hope. Christ is my prize. Oh God, how gracious are you
to be merciful." Whoa, some interesting thing hanging out with a Greek
scholar. Propitiate for me the sinner. That's what that text
says. That's the cry of a true believer. Oh God, satisfy Yourself on my
behalf through Jesus Christ. I cannot satisfy you. I cannot
please you. I cannot come to you. We do not
come to Jesus. We cannot come to the cross.
We cannot accept Him as Savior. We cannot ask Him to save us. We are dead. And God, in His mercy, through
the hearing of Scripture, reaches in and causes us to live. And
we believe what I just said. And we trust in it. Not this
day, not ten years ago, not tomorrow, every moment. Lost track. The Jews in their mind were so
pious, they began to think about Scripture,
and they began to relegate Jesus to the judgment of God, and He
spoke. And when He spoke, they felt
as if they were being judged, and they hated it. See, we as
people, and more importantly, when the unregenerate of the
world, when the lost of the world like to hear things, they like
to hear things that are negative. We want to hear about others
who are not right, but we never want to hear about ourselves.
That's the truth. We're in a circle, and so and
so, man, I'm just dealing with some sin, man, I've got to pray
for them, and we feel empowered, we're spiritual. And we're praying,
and all of a sudden, one of the guys in the group says, well,
what about you, brother? And you're like... You feel like
a goat. He's like... What do we do? What do you mean, what about
me? We're praying for Johnny over here. It's not about me. No. What about me? Praise God for
His mercy. Praise God for His Son. Praise
God for the gospel of grace. Because we are judged by God,
and God has called us guilty. But now we are judged by God
as innocent because Christ has satisfied His judgment. The Pharisees
could not cope with this. Friends, let me tell you something. A majority of professing believers
in our day are Pharisees. Not because they trust in their
works, but because they hate grace. They hate the Gospel. Put it to a test. Ask them. Ask
them. Next time you're in company and
you know someone's professing to be a Christian, maybe they're
talking about church. It's like, man, you should have spent our
church service. We had a Harley come down the aisle. It was awesome. We had a Harley service. Now,
what in the world? We had one in Virginia. Rode
them up on stage. All the biker gangs came up.
Bikers for Jesus. I'm not kidding. I don't know who said it, but
I think it was like, it might have been Spurgeon that said, there will
come a time where there won't be teachers teaching the church,
but clowns entertaining them. I used to be a clown. And then a 15-year-old rebuked
me for it. The Pharisees were judged by
God, and in their own eyes they were judged holy. They said, we're
holy. This man's coming around here telling us we need salvation.
And then verse 45, Jesus answers their faults. Look at that. Verse
45, as they considered Jesus an accuser, He says, do not think
that I will accuse you to the Father. Because they're thinking,
who does this man think he is accusing us to God? And so he
goes, don't think I'm going to accuse you to the Father. And
it's like, wait a minute. Whoa, that was spooky. Yeah?
They knew he was God. They knew he was Messiah. He proved it on every turn. The
testimony that we've already seen about his works and his
word and his power and his authority, all of that is already done.
The testimony of man that he did not receive for himself, he did
not take John's testimony as valid, though it was. He says,
the Father is testifying for me. Now He's going to say the
Word is going to testify to me. Now He's speaking their language.
I'm not going to accuse you of the Father. There is One who
accuses you. Moses, on whom you have set your hopes. Jesus responds, I'm not the accuser
here, Moses is the accuser. Your man Moses, the law giver,
the one that you think gave you eternal life through the obedience
of this law, you are going to be accused by him. These Jews were trusting not
only in their works, but in their rendition of the law, in their
application of the law, in their understanding of the law, in
their rendition and reverence of an outward model, yet they
hated God to the very core of their person. Listen, you cannot
love the God of heaven and hate the Son. Anyone that says to you, that
everybody who loves God and comes to God in their own way, maybe
they see the trees, Paul in Romans 1 said that those people are
condemned. And there comes a day, beloved,
listen to this, this is the reality that we're living in. As long
as there's breath in your body, you have the opportunity for
salvation. That's a lie. The Bible shows very clearly
in many places that when we see people continually to reject
the gospel, that God will turn them over to reprobation. And that's exactly what He did
with the Pharisees. Yet He saved Paul, didn't He? That's what He does with a lot
of people sitting under preaching that's what they love. Seals people. Why? Because He's God and He knows.
And He does what He wishes for. He is the potter. And we are
the clay. How dare we subject God to our
own fairness doctrine? Who are we to say what's fair?
What's fair is that we all are consumed with an everlasting
fire of judgment. It's not fair that Christ had
to die, but it was just for God had chosen a people before the
foundation of the world that He would call His own. They missed the point of what
the law did, which is point to Jesus Christ.
The Word of God will accuse every man, not under grace. And Christ
will be their accuser, but the Word will be their accuser. So
let's just put it to what Jesus is going to say in verse 46.
The words of Moses are the words of God, are the words of Christ. You see why the Old Testament
is not something to be considered antiquated. The Scriptures that
Paul talks about to young Timothy in 2 Timothy 3 are the Old Testament. The Scriptures that Peter deals
with when he talks about you do well to pay attention are
the prophets. Yes, now we have the apostolic
writing. Now we have more Scripture and
it is through. There is no more. Scripture to
be sent to us. We have it. And it is sufficient
for life. People worship the creature rather
than the Creator. And the Pharisees did just that.
Verse 46, If you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he
wrote of Me. They worshipped Moses. They worshipped their
understanding of Moses. They worshipped their theology.
They worshipped their liturgy. They worshipped their religion.
They worshipped Judaism and all the precepts therein. They worshipped
these things. And they could not see that it
was of Christ. They could not see that it pointed
to Christ. Jesus says, Moses wrote of Me. What you're doing
in following after Moses is you're following after Moses. Moses
died. He'll say in a minute, Moses
didn't give your father's bread, God gave your father's bread.
And they died. But I'm the true bread. Hebrews chapter 8 verse 5, I
wanted to spend a lot of time here, but we'll just keep moving.
It says, they, they, what? Those things, the shadows of
the Old Covenant. They serve a copy. The servants
of the Old Covenant. They serve a copy and shadow
of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect
the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, See that you make
everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.
So see, we have the mountain where the Jews did not want to
hear the voice of God. And now we have the true rock of righteousness,
and the Jews did not want to hear the words of God. So when
Jesus says, You've never heard the word, He wasn't being funny. He was being literal. Moses heard
it. They trusted in Moses. As a matter
of fact, they told Moses, don't let any more commands come from
the mountain. We cannot bear to hear it. We cannot hope in additional
things. We cannot hope in conditional Gospels. We cannot hope in a
conditioned faith as a true faith. And we cannot subject those who
hold to those things as brothers and sisters without a heart to
reach them for the Gospel, with the Gospel. Some of you have asked me this
week, what's the pixie-stick gospel? Well, it's just some
silly little garbage that popped into my head and it's stupidity.
And I'm sitting there thinking, what if I come and I'm standing
on the street and I preach a pure and perfect gospel straight from
the Word of God, and then the audience that's there, their
mouth is agape, and all of a sudden I say, and if you really want
to be saved, come down here and let me put some pixie-sticks.
You know what pixie-sticks are? It's straw with sugar in it.
And kids go, and they eat it. I had them when I was a kid.
They got them now. So now they got the big ones.
That's dentist put those out, keep them in business. So anyone who would come up and
say, okay, I want some pixie dust in my eye, they're lost. They're not confused. They're
lost. Why? Because they've done something
in condition to salvation other than believe in grace. You see that? That's what the
Pharisees were doing. The woman of Zechariah will teach
us all things. We've got to trust in Messiah. Wow, she was born
again. She was arguing just a little
while ago as to her living arrangements, and her worship, and her liturgy,
and were they even doing the right thing, and what true worship
was. And all of a sudden she's going,
who cares about that stuff? Jesus, Messiah. That's who we're
looking for. If you don't believe in His writings,
how will you believe in My words? What's the point in this? We cannot
pick the measure of Scripture that we believe in and ignore
some others. We cannot come to the place and put our hope on
several pretexts of Scripture and reject the Gospel and feel
safe. We cannot say, yes, but, like I got this morning. Yeah,
but, should I eliminate James chapter 4 out of my Bible? How
many of you, did you see that? And I'm barely even awake. Really? Who is it? I'm going to call this guy. I
don't want to talk to him online. I'm going to call him, talk to him. What
are you talking about? Are you saying that someone comes
to faith through obedience? If you are, you're lost. Whatever
the obedience is, especially if it's man-made obedience. Like,
okay, now slip right on out and come down. You know why that
offends people? You know why people walk out
sometimes of Grace Truth Church after being here for a couple
of months when they hear me say stuff like that? Because I step on their baby
and I call it ugly. And they want to be self-gloried
in the way they came to faith. And there's nothing I can do
about it. There's nothing I can do about it. Well, you don't
tell me I'm not saved. How'd you rather be told the
truth or die in your sins? See what pride does? See why
I spent seven and a half minutes on that? The minds that are set free by
the Spirit of God receive the totality of the Word. And those
who refuse the major portion of truth and hold to a myopic
handle, this handle, this gold brass ring of their own creation
that rewards their own self-interests, may very well be blinded by the
Lord. And I pray that they're not, but I pray that the Lord
would give mercy as they hear the truth. Friends, we've got
to teach the truth to the people we love. We cannot be pacified
and they say, oh yeah, I believe in Jesus. Great. So do the witnesses. So do the Mormons. So do the
Muslims. So does every atheist that ever
lived. No amount of works will ever
satisfy the requirements of holiness. It will not help in the satisfaction
of that holiness. The Pharisees felt their works
proved that they were the children of God, when they weren't. To ignore
the Scripture is to remain in unbelief. Jesus says in Luke
16, speaking to those who said, Send, or talking about the story,
send someone to my family. If someone comes back from the
dead, they will surely believe. You know what Jesus says in Luke
16? If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will
they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead. And
do you know what's crazy? That's exactly what John 11 shows
us. Lazarus. Come out. And they went, He's got to die. It shows you the futility of
the human nature. Unbelief is fleshed out through
the teaching of Scripture. Anybody can say a confession.
Anybody can say a prayer. Anybody can stand before men
and say, yep, I'm saved. But when they learn, and then
it strikes them in the face, and it presses them in the soul,
and they go, that's not the God I know. I'm not going to submit
to that. I'm not going to obey those things.
I'm not going to love that person. I'm not going to be subject in
that way. Then we know they're unbelievers.
Why? Because they leave the faith. What's that look like? Looks like most people, doesn't
it? I've got to find a church that
helps me with my children. I need to find a church that's
got smoke machines. I want to find an assembly that
does this and has that and provides this and does that kind of stuff.
Listen, superficially, that's what we're taught. I'm not indicting
any of us. I was the Grand Master. of providing
what you were looking for. You wanted it? You wanted juggling?
I'd ride a unicycle if you wanted it. Felt knees, what do you need?
And then God in His mercy caused a fire in me to just start teaching
Scripture and people started coming, but the crowd changed. Why? Because the sheep want to
hear the voice of God. Jesus has taught them through
Scripture and Jesus has taught all of us today. He's taught us. Can you hear
Him? Can you hear what He's saying?
The test is this really. Are you listening? Are you seeing
the truth of Scripture by faith and believing in Christ alone?
Or are you rejecting it by rejecting parts of it? Are you rejecting
portions that you just cannot stomach to make yourself feel
better and then still holding on to the truth that you like?
That's a conditioned faith. That's a partial belief. And
partial belief is no belief at all. You cannot reject any portion
of Scripture without rejecting Jesus Christ personally. Did
you hear that? In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was God, and the Word was with God. He was with
God in the beginning. He created all things. He's the
light which is the life of man. The darkness shall not overcome
it. Though John was a messenger to come and be a witness to the
light, he was not the light. The Word became flesh and dwelt
among us. And we have seen fully the fullness of the glory of
God face to face in Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son. And no
one has ever seen God, but the only God who is at His side has
made Him known. Here He is. His name is Jesus.
And it is through the pages of Scripture that you see, and it's
through the pages of Scripture that you will believe. Do you
believe the Word of God? Why do I, as your pastor, beat
down so hard about us being in Scripture every day? Because
in here contain the Word of Life. And it is the gospel of grace
that empowers you to love each other, to work out your differences
in your homes and your marriages, to not murder your children,
for your children to obey, for us not to hate our neighbors,
but to evangelize them with compassion, even when they deserve a good
kick. The gospel rewards our life with
joy. The gospel rewards our life with
satisfaction and rest, in spite of what else may be on fire.
And sometimes the gospel never brings the fire department to
put it out, but we watch everything that we love in the temporal
world crumble down and burn before us, but the gospel satisfies
us in lieu of it. The Word of God is the only place
that is found. One day when we're in John 19, the Jews answered Jesus and they
said, And according to that law, he ought to die because he has
made himself the Son of God. They are going to kill the very
one that the law pointed to because Jesus, remember while we're in
John 5, healed this man so that they would kill him. And if that's true for our Savior,
Beloved, we don't have to be ashamed to suffer for the sake
of the gospel. It's time for we, as a church,
take it a step up. And we equip each other and encourage
each other to be about our God's business. To be about teaching
Scripture. To be about sharing the faith.
To be about praying for our lost friends, families, and neighbors.
And encouraging each other. speaking the truth in love. It's
time for us to enjoy Christ in the Gospel and proclaim it, so
that we can have the joy, because we've been given ears to hear,
so therefore we can eat and hear and know the Word of God. Are
you listening? Are you listening? Let's pray.
Father, we love You. with a love that is incomprehensible.
We love You, Father, with a love that does not make a lot of sense
at times, because in our flesh we still seek glory. But Your
grace toward us, Your love toward us, Your love in us does a mighty
work. And I pray, Lord, that not only
would we be encouraged by this gospel, but we would be empowered by
Your Spirit to eat the Word, And Lord, that we would begin
to encourage others who claim to be in You, Lord, to be in
fellowship with us, that they may grow and live and be fed
and equipped to do the work of the ministry. Father, help us to never stand
on the sidelines of life when so many souls are in the balance,
but also to recognize that we are nothing but a vessel, a mouth,
and a voice to proclaim the truth of Your Word, whereby You will
do the work of saving. Save our children, Father. Teach
them. We praise You for Your love. In Jesus' name, Amen.