In John chapter 3, we looked
at the text some Sundays ago, where people were seeing John
the Baptist's disciples go to Jesus. We saw the narrative of
John the Baptist being questioned by the Pharisees in the very
beginning of this gospel. And they came to him and they
asked the question, who are you? They would even say, are you
the Christ? And he would come and say, I'm
not the Christ. And they would say, well, who are you then,
the prophet? And he would say, no, I am not the prophet. Then
who are you? By whose authority do you come
baptizing? See, that was their problem.
It wasn't that he was preaching. It's that he had the authority
to baptize, which belonged only to them and to a certain select
people group. And it began to take away their
authority. It began to shadow them by a
greater message. Here's this lay person sort of
coming and saying, ah, this lay person is taking our thunder.
Now I'd like to tell you that I've never been in that position,
but I would be lying. During the early days of church
growth, and when I say church growth, that's a negative thing.
In the early days of the church growth movement, in the early
days of that type of ministry where we felt the need to go
and gather in a whole bunch of lost people and stick them in
the church and hope for the best and wonder why no one really
got the gospel. It was always unnerving when
you started seeing a new church come up. Cause here you are,
you're baptizing, let's see what was in 2001, 300 people we baptized
that year. I think maybe four stayed in
the faith. Oh, but it was dynamic. We thought
it was the work of God, but I'll never forget when we start to
see other churches come into town and this new plant, you
know, and this, let's see, where's my coffee cup? You know, the
pastor would teach with coffee. Best I can do is kick it over
and spill it. And maybe they'd have a video. Or they'd have smoke machines.
Or they'd have the coolest young youth guy you've ever seen. And
he had a tattoo, not a terrible tattoo, but one that was almost
blasphemous, but it had Jesus in it. So it was just holy enough. And all of a sudden you felt
threatened. And you think, maybe I should get a tattoo. Maybe
we should get a different screen. Maybe we should get a smokier
smoke machine. And it all boils down to this,
the sheep of Christ hear His voice. And when we preach the
truth, the sheep come. But I had to learn that the hard
way. I had to learn that as I would read John, and I would say those
silly Pharisees, they're so prideful, that I was actually reading about
me. And it was a very hard break
for me. And for those of you who know my story and know the
history of my ministry, and I say that just possessively because
it was what I was doing. Of course, we know it is God's
ministry. You know that it was a very deep
depression that I was lurched into to the point that I did
not want to live, to the point that I isolated myself in a very,
very bad way. But God was gracious there as
well. And God was gracious to restore my mind and restore my
heart and restore my peace through the Word of God. And these Pharisees
hated John the Baptist because he stole their thunder. He took
the authority that they had and he began to preach it to others.
Jesus likewise, when He was declared, not discovered, but pointed out
by John the Baptist, it was His message, John would say He was
the voice crying out in the wilderness. And in our day, we love the voices
that cry out in the wilderness. I mean, I never thought 20 years
ago that there would be celebrity pastors. I never thought that
men of old who were dead and gone to be with Christ would
be esteemed and honored in their humanity. I never thought that
people would stand on the precipice of time and quote Spurgeon while
denying the very doctrine he preached. And quote Edwards as
a great theologian while spitting upon the face of grace. I never
ever dreamt that there would be men of God who were shepherding
churches and working their fingers and their hearts to the bone
and their knees to shreds that would have the time to be celebrities. It has blown my mind, and it
is increasingly more popular to be popular in ministry. With
social media, if you have a million followers, companies will pay
you good money, whether you're a pastor or a peddler, for them
to use your channel to make them money. And it is a deplorable
thing, but it is something that we all must realize that none
of us are so good that we could escape it if it came our way.
All of us are subject to the temptation of glory, of self-glory. All of us are subject to the
temptation of... What is the word? Pride. All of us are subject
to the temptation of loving our ministry more than we love each
other. Of loving Our doctrine, more
than we do, the one to whom it points. And I had a conversation
this morning with a brother who's deeply troubled by someone who
confesses to be in the faith and knows all the right doctrine,
but yet they seem not to be believers. And I said to him, I said, many
people can agree with what is written. Many people can come
to the place of saying, yes, the Gospel is all. Christ is
all. Because I believe it. And you've
heard me say this a thousand times over. They put their faith
in their faith. They put their faith in their
own belief. See, faith in Jesus Christ is not about the stuff
that we believe about Jesus. It's about Jesus. Having been
born of God means that we no longer worry about how we might
please Christ in the context of our justification, but we
hold fast to the sanctification that comes who is Jesus Christ,
who is our righteousness. This is the pure gospel. This
is the gospel that John the Baptist preached to the moral majority
of his day. For those of you here on Wednesday
night, I talked about how in my lifetime I've seen this moral
majority, this right-wing mentality of Christianity. And how that
there's so many people who stand and say they claim Christ, but
yet they don't stand on the gospel of Christ. They stand on the
premises, but not the promises. That's not mine, by the way.
I've heard that as a child. And I pray, beloved, that none
of us would fall prey to that temptation. The good news is
that as we are regenerated by the Holy Spirit of God, as we
are indwelt with the Spirit, we are, though subject to temptation,
guaranteed to be brought out of those things. We are guaranteed
that as our heart produces idols and additions, and self-righteousness. That God the Holy Spirit will
crush those things. But He does that not through
counsel. He does that not through our great wisdom. He does that
not through us learning or reading a particular book on these particular
things. But He does that only and absolutely
only through the hearing of His Word together. So that as we
come together, we could all be coming from 50 different places,
50 different circumstances, 50 different mindsets, Fifty different
types of temptation, but the Word of God as it stands before
you today can take away all of that, can put you standing in
a place of worship and help you understand that no matter how
hard you fight, the fight is in Christ, not in us. He is victorious. John would
say, greater is He that is in you than He that is in the world. And what is our victory? Jesus
Christ. Jesus Christ. For us to say that
Christ is not our victory is to say that Christ is a liar.
And that's where we come to in this text today. John, the writer
of this gospel, gets through talking about the discourse or
sharing the discourse that Jesus had with Nicodemus, the teacher
of Israel. Probably the most pious man that ever walked the
face of the earth. Paul himself would even make remark about
his own life as a Pharisee that says, according to the law of
God, he was blameless, yet he gave all of that up as garbage,
and explicative actually in the Greek language, a curse word
that Paul used. Manure for the priceless gain
of knowing Christ. Strong language by the Apostle
Paul. Now, that's not a warrant to go out and start using profanity.
It's different in our day. It's just an uncouth thing to
say in public, much less something to write. And Jesus would tell Nicodemus
that no one received His testimony. John would say that no one would
receive the testimony of Christ. And now, at the end, look at
chapter 3, verse 27 through 36. I'm going to read that text.
And then we're going to focus on verses 31 through 36 with
the time we have remaining. We'll just start with verse 25
so that it makes sense. Now a discussion arose between
some of John's disciples and a Jew over purification. And
they came to John and said to him, Rabbi, he who was with you
across the Jordan to whom you bore witness, look, he is baptizing
and all are going to him. And John answered, a person cannot
receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.
You yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ,
but I have been sent before him. The one who has the bride is
the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom who stands and
hears him rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore,
this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase and I must decrease. He who comes from above is above
all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an
earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all. He bears
witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his
testimony. Whoever receives his testimony
sets his seal to this, that God is true. For he whom God has
sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without
measure. The Father loves the Son and has given all things
into His hand. Whoever believes in the Son has
eternal life. Whoever does not obey the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him." Let's
pray. God, may Your Word be true this
day as You've said therein, that Jesus speaks for you and that
you are true. Lord, may the testimony of Christ
refresh us this day. May the testimony of joy and
peace and grace give us life. Lord, we have life in Christ,
but Father, may we truly live this moment. May we be filled
with all the fullness of your Spirit. May we see the joy that
is only given to us through the peace that is found in the cross
of Jesus. So that we might truly, truly
say, our joy is complete. And we pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen. I made mention of those celebrity
pastors and didn't finish my thoughts, but here you see that
people looked at John the Baptist in the same way. The whole room
is sort of lopsided, by the way. It's sort of weird. Everybody's over
here. It's okay. I'll talk with these
empty chairs, too. But we have people that follow John the Baptist,
and they would love John. Like, some of you love me, like,
well, that's my pastor. Well, put that where it goes. Put that where it's supposed
to be. If I don't point you to the gospel of grace every single
week, if I don't point you to Christ, if I don't point you
to the power that is effectual unto salvation and unto godliness,
then you just better stop calling me anything, much less your shepherd. Because if I don't shepherd you
to follow after Christ, but rather follow after me, then I've not
done anything good for you. No matter how pleasant it may
be, no matter how glorious it may feel to you, I am not your
head except in figure. And only then as I show you the
truth of Scripture. So therefore, keep that in mind. Do not elevate me to a place
because God may just allow me to fall off the stage. God may
allow all of us as we esteem each other above Christ to fall
off that stage. Pam's got a little stool up here,
the kids are wanting to stand on it. It'll knock you off. And
that old adage, it's easier for somebody to pull you down than
it is for you to pull them up. Be careful. John the Baptist
was admired and revered by his followers. And then he would
preach Christ and his followers would see Christ and then they
would go to Christ. But yet some of them were upset
that they would go to Christ. Look, they're all going to Him.
And he expressly connected this reality that he was the voice.
Crying out in the wilderness, when we preach, we're a voice.
But who is speaking? Christ is speaking, if it's contextual. If it's pretextual, it could
be the devil. What do you mean? If I take this out of context
and preach it and tell you to walk by it, that's the work of
Satan. That's why if it's not contextual,
I best not preach it. That's a little harsh, no? That's
exactly how the devil works. He tempted Jesus himself in the
same way. He pretexted Scripture and talked
Jesus into trying to Act out by Scripture. The Bible says
that you could command stones. The Bible said that angels, by
your command, would come to you. The Bible says... Do not fall prey to thinking
just because someone uses the Bible to prove their point that
they are right. Because the devil uses the Bible
more than most of us. More than me. He uses it every
single day. The work of the enemy of God
is not the demonic that we think of because of Hollywood. The
work of the enemy of God is the spiritual. Paul says that very
clearly in Ephesians 6, that we are not fighting against flesh
and blood, but the spiritual principalities of darkness, the
powers of darkness. We are at war with ourselves
because the devil is at war with God. And, beloved, it is easy. How many times in history have
people murdered in the name of Christ and can prove it out of
context? How many people have even said,
this is what the will of the Lord is, and they disobeyed this
part so they can obey this part? And that's what the people of
John were doing. They were following after John instead of hearing
what John was teaching, which was follow after Christ, follow
after the Lamb, follow after the Son of God that takes away
the sins of the world. We've got to not be fooled, beloved. We've got to make sure that we
don't put ourselves in that place of esteem to the detriment of
the Gospel of Christ. And that's what's happening here.
John the Baptist is saying, He must increase and I must decrease. Now, he knew that at the core
of his heart, but he had no idea just how severe God would decrease
him. And how was it? He was arrested
and beheaded. And it was the will of God that
he die. so that Christ would be exalted. Because as long as
John the Baptist was partnering in ministry with Jesus, Jesus
would always play second fiddle in the mind of most. Just the
same thing happened with Paul and Apollos and Barnabas, remember?
The people of Corinth, oh, Apollos is my apostle. Paul would even
say, I'm glad I didn't baptize any of you people. You know,
I've had friends that told me, oh, Pastor so-and-so baptized
me. Pastor so-and-so baptized me. Pastor so-and-so baptized
me. I know people who will travel and go to a celebrity church
so they can say, hey, we sat under the teaching of so-and-so.
Sometimes, well, I ask, did he spit on you? Were you close enough? I remember the first time I saw
in real life a man that God had used greatly in the teaching
of Scripture. And I was so overcome with emotion, I couldn't compose
myself. And I sat there on the front row of that particular
place of worship, and this man walked up to the podium, and
I just began to weep with joy. I was joyful because this man
had been used by God to help solidify a lot of things that
had happened in my life, contextually with the Scripture. But no further
had I gotten three or four minutes into this joyful cry of adoration
that God convicted me it was idolatry. and that I was concerned
more with the man speaking, with the voice from the pulpit, than
I was with the voice who truly was speaking, who was Jesus Christ.
I was more concerned and had more adoration for this man than
I did for Christ and His Word. It was the Word of God that taught
me, not that man. I say this because it is the
King James language, but Balaam, he had a donkey, correct? You
know the other word that the King James uses? And when we're
teaching men to be pastors and elders and we're teaching the
understanding, my first statement somewhere using that term, I
won't say it for the sake of the children, they'll find it
snickery, but they always say if we can be half as effective
as Balaam's mule, that is our prayer. And we say
half, why can't we be more effective? Because Balaam's mule never took
pride in the fact he spoke for God. Balaam's mule never took,
or donkey, or whatever it was, burrow, I don't know. That animal
never felt himself something when God spoke through him. Beloved,
we are nothing but a mouth. And when we speak the words of
God, John the Baptist spoke the words of God. He did not want
people looking at him, but looking at Christ. The bridegroom must
become greater because He is the point of it all. The bridegroom
must increase because He is the one who has come down from heaven.
He said everything that we have has been given to us. Christ
has been given to us. The Gospel has been given to
us. Our fellowship has been given to us. The Word of God has been
given to us. Understanding has been given
to us. Ability has been given to us. Endurance and perseverance
has been given to us. Repentance has been granted to
us. This is the work of God. It has been given to us. So therefore,
if we are going to exalt the One who is doing the work, the
Giver, we must exalt the One from whom it comes, and His name
is Jesus, and He is the Christ, and He is the King of all kings,
and the Lord of all lords. He is the first and the last,
the Creator of all things, and He upholds the universe by the
word of His power, that in the same way He spoke it into being,
In the same way He spoke life into each of us through the hearing
of the Word, without any consideration of our acknowledgement, our decision,
our understanding, our wisdom, or our intellect, nothing in
our flesh has given us eternal life, but it's everything to
do with the work of God through Jesus Christ the righteous, and
He is our hope. He is our hope. And it's so easy
to lose track of what that means. It's so easy to lose track of
what that looks like because when we're in the faith for a
season, we get to thinking, how else can I make this faith better?
No. I'm not going to be a better
preacher. by employing my flesh into the preaching. I'm not going
to be a better pastor by employing my school or my wisdom into your
shepherding. I'm not going to be a better
husband by reading 600 books about husbandry. I'll be a better
husband by reading the commands of Christ to love my wife as
Christ loved the church and then fail miserably every day in striving
for it so that I know that the hope is in Christ, not in me.
Now I can fake it. I can look like the loving husband,
my wife could tell you, me such a loving husband. I know my heart.
And I know sometimes that just like you stub your, I'm sorry
honey, just like you stub your toe, and you might not show the
pain, or like brother, hit your finger, you might not show the
pain, it's there. Just like your children, you
say I love them unconditionally, but not every moment. Why'd y'all
laugh, that ain't funny. Not every moment, because we
know there's murder in our hearts. We know it's there, but by the
grace of God, we subdue it and throw it away because He's given
us His Spirit. So it's not in us. We learn and
we grow. We must make Christ greater because
we oftentimes put emphasis on the working of our ministry.
We often put energy in the working of our piety. We often put equipping
others in place of the gospel of grace. And we often elaborate
on things and grow tired of things. because we seem like they're
infantile and that we need to move past them. But in reality,
we are all infants in some areas of our lives and we are all in
need of grace every moment lest we fall away from the Gospel. Verse 31, He who comes from above
is above all. This is John the writer now,
not John the Baptist. He who comes from above is above
all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an
earthly way. So let's talk about that. He who comes from heaven
is above all. See, this tells us that Jesus
is sent from God. You know, the difference between
John the Baptist and Jesus is the point here, right? That was
the contrast. That was the conflict. That was
the road. Why is this man taking our people? Why are people, doesn't
it aggravate you? You want to give it a real practical
for those of you who are not in ministry per se, like as a
vocation, as a call. You ever try to raise your children
and teach them something from scripture and they're like, okay,
okay, okay, okay. And they hear it and they just
like, and then somebody else comes along, they've known him
like three days. And your kids come home and go,
oh my gosh, brother so-and-so, sister so-and-so just told me
this, and it just makes so much sense. Man, this is the greatest
thing that's ever happened in my life, and the Bible's so true. And
you're going, I've been saying this for 1,000
years. And this guy comes up and repeats
what I've said. He got it from me. And you believe
in that? See, that's the rub. That's the
rub. That's the rub that John the
Baptist people were having. That's the rub that pastors feel
when their sheep come back from a conference and hear some guy
steal their sermon and they come back, well, Jack, come here.
It's pride. That's okay. God is a gracious
God. He loves His children. But this
shows us that Jesus is sent from God. Jesus is not just a messenger
like John the Baptist, though John the Baptist was sent from
God. We know the story there in the beginning of Luke. We
know the prophecy and we know what happened and we know who
John the Baptist was. We also know the unbelief of
Zechariah and Elizabeth. It didn't matter if they believed
God or not because God was going to fulfill His promise to them
anyway, just like we learned last week about Abram. Jesus
is sent from God, therefore the Christ has authority to speak
and to decide what is true. Jesus is the truth bearer. He's the one who speaks and if
He says it, it's true. See, that's the apologetic. Well,
how do I know the Bible is true? Because God has said these things
in His Scripture. Well, I don't believe the Bible
is from God. Well, you don't believe the Bible at all because
the Bible itself says that it's from God. All Scripture is breathed
out by God and useful and profitable. For what? Teaching, correction,
rebuke. instruction, and training in righteousness, those five
things that the pastor is supposed to do, that he might be successful
through the teaching of Scripture. That's the point. So he who comes from heaven is
above all. Why? Because he's the ruler of
all things. See, John the Baptist was nothing. A voice crying to
the wilderness that soon will be severed. James Tippins is
nothing. And sadly, I'm not trying to
be deprecating to you, but you all are nothing in that context.
But because Christ has saved us, we're all something. We're
the objects of His affection. We're the objects of His glory.
We are those for whom Christ died so that He would be glorified
in the redemption of His people. So we are important to God because
if we weren't, He would not have sent His Son to die on our behalf.
But the importance that we hold is not within us. It's without
us. The importance that we hold is
not how we are or who we are, but in the fact that God is who
He is and who He says He is. So therefore, that which God
has decreed is God's business. So therefore, Jesus comes to
speak with authority everything that God has said and is currently
saying. So in like manner, then, Jesus
decides what is true. Isn't it hard to find truth in
a world of fake news? Isn't it hard to find the true
news in the world of social media? The court of public opinion never
comes with a right judgment. I mean, for the love of all things,
how many opinions do we have? How many opinions do we need?
How many opinions do we have about even the things that we
shouldn't have opinions on? Imagine the opinions of Jesus
today. Who is this man? Who is this man? And what is
his message? This man is the one that came
from heaven. That's what John is reminding us. Before we move
on to these other interactions, to these other dialogues, John
is just saying, listen, Jesus just got through talking with
the most pious man in all of Israel. The most knowledgeable
man about the Scriptures that ever walked the earth and breathed
in this particular day. He was the most well-versed man. in the Word of God, and yet he
was blind in everything he did, his prayers, his teaching, his
study, his practice, Jesus called it darkness, and that the wrath
of God remained on him. That shook the core of this culture. How dare you call my baby ugly?
You see, when we call somebody's baby
ugly, have you ever done that? No, of course not. Have you ever
seen an ugly baby? Absolutely. But the first thing you say,
she's so tiny. You're gonna say beautiful, you
say tiny. But babies are beautiful in their
own way. But you would never say, this child just doesn't
look pretty. Why? Because you've seen no fury. Like telling a woman who just
gave birth that the child that she suffered for is not beautiful,
the most beautiful child in the world. But we all think our children
are the most beautiful while our neighbors go, So when we call people's doctrine
ugly, we call people's lifestyles ugly, we call people's religion
ugly, we call people's ministry ugly, we call people's learning
ugly, when we say to them it's worthless. When we say to them
that who you are, Jesus says, this doesn't matter to him in
the scheme of things. And it makes them what? Mad. Let's just be honest. It makes
us mad when people say stuff like that just repeating Christ. But we have to understand that
Jesus is above all. So what Jesus has said and how
Jesus has judged is correct. And so it's never wrong to quote
Christ. It's never wrong to teach what
Christ has taught. Even though it may be wrong in
our spirit, even though it may be wrong in our tone, even though
it may be wrong in our attitudes, it is never wrong if what we
teach is what Christ has taught. Because Christ is from God. He who comes from heaven is above
all. We teach Christ because if we don't, we move the one
who is above all to a secondary position. When we take Scripture
and we discombobulate it and segment it into things that aren't
necessarily taught, like the Philippians 4.13 or the Jeremiah
29 text and all that, and we make it, try to shove it into
this thing that it doesn't mean, because we've not read the context,
we have spoken for Christ in a way that Christ hasn't spoken.
And so we put Christ secondary to what? Us. We hear Christ because
our thoughts are invalid outside of Scripture, so we must understand
that He's above all. So we listen to Him more than
we listen to ourselves. How do we listen to Christ? Through
the Word of God. Scripture is our picture of the authority
and the message and the power of Jesus. It is through Scripture
that we will know Christ, and it is through Scripture that
we will comprehend Christ, and it is through Scripture that
we are empowered by Christ. And outside of Scripture, there
is nothing for us to do but sin, no matter our intentions. We
cannot speak of our own authority. We cannot speak of our own account.
We cannot speak in our own wisdom. We think that we can move beyond
the teaching of Christ and Scripture and find power and find peace,
but it does not happen. It is the simple and silly and
childlike instruction that the Bible gives us that gives us
security in this life, that gives us wisdom. This is almost becoming
a sermon on Sola Scriptura, isn't it? It is through the Scripture that
we find peace and purpose. Why? Because it says right there,
those who are of the earth belong to the earth and speak in earthly
ways. What does that mean? That means my commentary to you
is ineffective. My anecdotes are ill-effective. My stories or funnies are ill-effective. They may get your attention.
They may, excuse me, diffuse a tense situation. See, that's
a coping mechanism for me. Let's laugh. Let's just do something. I have nothing to laugh about.
Somebody fall down, let's laugh. Why is that even funny in our
culture? I don't think it should be. But we come to this place where we know that we're earthly, so
we do not speak of our own wisdom. We speak through the Word of
God. Now friends, I don't know about you, but I read the Bible
an awful lot, and I wish I had more time to read it more. And
I know many of you read the Bible a good bit as well. But friends,
it doesn't matter how much we have read, it matters what we
are reading. You hear that? It doesn't matter
what we have read. It matters what we are reading.
What are you reading today in the Scripture? What are we putting
into our minds? What are we hoping to find? It's
funny how we'll pray for God to do something. God, help me
in this circumstance. Give me a resolve for this situation. Give me peace. Give me hope.
Give me wisdom. And never pick up the Bible.
You know what God we're praying to? The God of self-reliance.
There is no God outside of Scripture. There is no Christ outside of
Scripture. There is no Holy Spirit outside
of Scripture. Now yes, it's not like we have
to have the Bible out every time we pray, but beloved, God speaks
to us through His Word. And so when we pray, God give
me wisdom, and the Bible says, here's wisdom, James. Then we
better go and find it. And we better find it, not with
this stuff, if you've got stuff in the back of your Bible. I
don't even have any. Yeah, I've got a little bit of stuff in there. Not with this
stuff. This isn't how we go find the will of God. Let's find the
word. Remnant. There we go. Okay, that's
what God means by it. No, it's not. That's just an
index of terms. It's not how we, we go into the
Bible to see the face of Christ. We go into scripture to see the
satisfaction of our souls. We go and make Christ much and
we become nothing. We don't go to the word of God
so that we can get the answers to life's problems. We go to
the word of God to see Christ who is the answer to life's problems. You see. The Bible is not an instruction
book of how-to's. It is a masterpiece and a majestic
supernatural revelation of the one who has. It's a big difference. And beloved, I lived my life
in a vitamin box Christianity for a long time. You know what
a vitamin box is? I have one. You remember to take
the right pills at the right time, you know? I saw somebody
the other day at Rite Aid and they were buying a vitamin box
that was bigger than this Bible. Like 30 days. It was like a calendar
for, what does he call those things? For Christmas. Advent
calendar. For pills. And I lived my Christian
life that way. I had a thousand memorized passages
of Scripture in my head, and it was just all sorted very petitely
and uniquely. Oh, I'm feeling a little depressed. Let's go here. Let not your hearts
be troubled. Woohoo! There it is. I'm not
troubled. I'm still troubled. Don't worry about tomorrow. Easy
for you to say, Jesus. You know what's going to happen.
And yet he still went to the cross. We can't live like that. We must
live contextually in the Spirit of God, with the Word of God,
with each other, that we might grow and learn. And sadly, we
gain wisdom when we ride through a parking lot that we've never
ridden through before, a little bit fast, and we hit those speed
bumps, we learn next time to slow down. No matter how many
people have said before, speed bump ahead. It can't be that bad. Axle brakes. You see? So it is through the
bumps that we learn, and it is through the Scripture that we
are able to handle them. Let every man speak the judgments
of God, not his own. Last week in Colossians 3, we
looked at the Word of God dwelling richly in us. We looked at what
it means for that to happen. Beloved, I was giddy hearing
you sing the truth of God's Word this morning. So much so that
I lost my place in the music and started playing something
different. Because it blesses me to hear
the truth come from your mouth. It blesses me to hear it when
you're talking to me individually. It blesses me when you ask questions.
It blesses me when you burden me with your burdens. And it
blesses me to hear you teach each other. And it blesses me
to hear you sing it. It teaches me. And it encourages
me. Just like it should encourage
each of you. So Jesus gets to decide what
is true and He knows what is true because look at verse 32.
He who is from above, who is above all, what in the world?
So what? So you're from a specific place.
No, He's from God. And He speaks not what He's been
taught like I do and like you do. He speaks what He knows as
a witness. You see? Jesus speaks willingly
as a witness to the glory of God. He tells. He'll say it again
in chapter 4, but He says it to Nicodemus, doesn't He? You
don't receive our testimony. We know. We've seen. We speak to you what is true.
He says it with the woman at the well. We speak of what we
know, for salvation is of the Jews. And then He goes a little
bit further. Y'all, it's going to be good.
He goes a little bit further and says to her, you know, you
don't know what you're talking about, but I do. And he reveals to her the gospel
of Christ that she was already very familiar with intellectually. And Jesus gives this woman life
and she resolves to this. I guess all of my religion and
all of my following and all of my practices and all the Jews and all the
conflict that we have with them and how they don't agree with
how we worship and vice versa. Because you know, you know the
story of who they were. And I guess that I've been trying
to find joy, and I've been trying to find this, and I've been trying
to find peace. And I guess all of this stuff is really not going
to be found in me, or another man, or getting water at a different
place and time, or avoiding the people who look at me and rebuke
me because of the way I live. There's nothing else I can do.
That's the context of John 4 with this woman. She says, I guess
Messiah will teach us all things. Because in the Spirit of God,
she was regenerated. And she believed. You know what
she believed? Not that Jesus would help her
work all these things out, but that Jesus alone would just give
her the answer. That Jesus alone, not Jesus, but the Christ. That's
the Greek word for Messiah. That Christ would give her. And
He says to her, the one of whom you speak, I am. It's a glorious thing. And that's
what John's reminding us of here. We don't get to choose what we
like in the Word because Christ speaks willingly to the things
that He has seen. He is a witness to the glory
of God. He comes from God and He speaks
for God. And He speaks with the authority
of God. And He speaks the testimony of God that He has seen, not
that He has heard. This is a Christological masterpiece
right here. This is almost a recapitulation.
No, it's not. It is a recapitulation of the
entire first 18 verses of John 1. It is just John saying, don't
forget where we're going, y'all. Don't forget why I wrote this
letter, that you may have life, that you may know that Jesus
is the Christ and by believing in His name you have eternal
life. This is why I wrote this letter. Do you believe today?
And the question is for us to see and for us to answer. and for God to grant that faith
through the hearing of that said question. Do you believe in Christ? Are you trusting fully in Christ
for every aspect of your life right now? How is it that we
can trust Christ to save us from the wrath of God, but not trust
Him to deal with a strained marriage? Not trust Him to deal with strained
relationships? Not trust Him to deal with sickness? Not trust
Him to deal with financial problems? What in the world kind of God
is it? that would do that, that would not have the power to handle
the minutia of His own creation, but yet He can do sublime and
divine intervention judicially at the cost of His own Son. That's
what John's reminding us of. Don't get caught up in John the
Baptist. He's going away. He pointed to Christ. In the
same way, beloved, we point to Christ. Because if we speak out
of ourselves, we speak in an earthly way. No matter how much
Bible we use, when we speak in ourselves, we speak in an earthly
way. And that is not the way of Christ. Jesus speaks for God. Sola Scriptura. The Bible has authority over
all of us. And the New Testament is written
to the local church, to the assembly. It requires us to be subject
and obedient to each other according to the Scripture. It produces
in us true faith. It produces in us peace. It produces
in us perseverance. It produces in us all these things
because Jesus speaks to us and empowers us to know and to live
in this way of hope. He is the truth. He is the only
way. He is the only life. That's not
about salvation alone, y'all. The New Testament is not a road
map to salvation. It's the road map to life. Only
for the church. Don't forget that. The New Testament
was written only to the saints. No apostle ever put pen to paper
thinking he was going to write to a lost people. Ever. So this is for them and this
is for us. This is for you to be reminded
of just the glory that is ours to behold in Jesus Christ. That
we are seeing not a story about Jesus, but we are viewing the
very image of Jesus face to face through the lens of Scripture.
That we have intimacy supernaturally with God Almighty because Jesus
speaks for Him. And to ignore that is to say
that that is a lie. To refuse that is to say that's
what he says right here. Look what he says next. He says,
but no one receives his testimony. What? What do you mean no one? Why
such a hyperbolic statement? Well, we know what John 1 says,
don't we? What does John 1 say? John 1
has already said, In him was life, and the life was the light
of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness is
not ever coming. He was in the world, and the world was made
through him. Yet the world did not know him. He came to his own,
and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive
him, that is, who believed in his name, he gave the right to
become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor the will
of man, nor the will of the flesh, but of God. So here is just another
recapitulation of that, a restatement of that same truth. Because he's
going to show you that though the Jews rejected Jesus, he uses
this hyperbolic statement. No one receives his testimony.
But I don't think it's hyperbole on intention. I think it's got
a double meaning. Number one, we know that some have believed
because John was writing this. So some have believed because
we believe today. When it gets down to the end
of the day, no one received the testimony of Christ except that
Christ make him alive. You see. That's the point. It's not in me. We'll sing that
next after the sermon. It's not in me. It's not in me
to come to Christ. It's not in me to believe on
Jesus. It's not in me to receive the
testimony of God through Jesus Christ, through His Word, except
that we are born again through the hearing of the same Word
that we can't believe. How crazy is that? That's called
divine. That's divine power. That's divine
power. Few find it. Few believe. Few seriously actually hear it. Few know it. But many profess
it. Whose words are those? That's
the teaching of Jesus. Broad is the path that leads
to destruction. Many go that way. Narrow is the
gate that leads to righteousness and few will find it. He wasn't
standing there in an audience of a bunch of heathens living
in sensuality and lucidiousness and a bunch of holy people trying
to find the gate. He was standing there in an audience
of a majority of holy people walking according to the precepts
of Moses and saying, you're all in the broad way of destruction.
Why? Because the sinner knows he's
a sinner. It's the man that thinks he's a saint and doesn't know
that he's a sinner that's lost. That's the trouble. Few. See, some people in this
world, according to Jesus, when He told the parable of the sower,
some people in this world look like they receive. You know what
they look like? What does the Scripture teach?
They have passion. They have zeal. They sometimes
walk in a certain way, but then what happens? Temptation comes
and they run away. Snares of the world come and
it runs away. Or, God tells the devil to take
it away. Why? Why does God do that? Because it's all of grace. That's
why. Salvation, hope, worship, all
of it, understanding, it's all of the work of God through the
finished work of Jesus Christ. Most of the time, and we're all
guilty of this, we can try to trust in ourselves. But by the
grace of God, the Spirit of God convicts us of that. And we realize,
wow, man, I've got it together over here on this stool, but
I ain't even near that one. So we're still guilty before
God. What is the illustration I used?
Was it Wednesday night? So if I don't curse, am I better
than the man that does curse? No. I'm not even more holy than
him. The man that does curse may be
in the Word of God every day, which is greater than my not
cursing. Where does the scale stop? The scale stops with this. We're all guilty and fall short
of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift. That's where the scale stops.
There is no scale in this church. There is no scale in the body
of Christ. There is no scale except the scale of grace. And
grace allows the Holy Spirit to work in our lives. Yes, we
practice discipline. We practice discipline with each
other. That's not becoming of a Christian. That's a direct
violation of what the Bible teaches we should say, or do, or act. But we do it as how? People who
know that we very well have sins that are just as grievous. Just as grievous. And then we
are encouraging, and when they repent that day, we move on to
the next. No one receives it. Some insist
that they know but they're not subject to the scripture by their
own wisdom. They refuse accountability. They
refuse to hear. Now that happens to all of us
sometimes. I'll never forget one time when someone came to
me and just rebuked me harshly by quoting scripture to me. I
wanted to just really be fleshly with that person. And a few years
later, After all was said and done, I went back and I said,
you know, I need you to forgive me. Why? Because, man, God used
you greatly. Because God rebuked me and I
blamed you. You see? Some find it, they reject it. And sometimes people, when we
think that we have it all together, when we have all the knowledge,
We have all the Gospel right here. We know it. It's the very
time we need it more. We need it more. There's never
a time to move beyond the Gospel of Grace. That's why the Scripture
is written like it is. And in the midst of all these
things, like last week, we put off this and we put on this.
We put off this and we put on this, but ultimately it all rests
in what? This. the grace of God. It all rests
in worshipping together. It all rests in learning together.
It all rests in growing together that we might be a people for
God's glory by His grace. So that no one can say, man,
you really took control of that. Anyone that says, I took control
of that, is a liar before God because God will take it away
from us. He will push us right off the
cliff of piety and hold us with a bungee cord of grace and let
us bounce for a little while. And if I were God, I'd lower
it just enough to let us pop our head on a rock somewhere.
See? Watch out. But He never lets
us go. He never lets us go. We've got
to be careful. Remember the audience. This was
Nicodemus. We should never sit in our own
wisdom concerning the things of faith, because it may produce
in us unbelief. We hold fast as the church to our confession
of hope, who is Jesus Christ, enduring all the offenses, enduring
all the sufferings, enduring all the persecutions for the
sake of the elect with joy, even when it's inexpressible. Many
times, however, pain and problems will prove that some of us may
be weak in the faith, and sometimes, as we've already witnessed, Pain
and problems prove that some are not in the faith, but just
in the presence of the faithful. But as God speaks, He draws His
people. He draws His church. He draws
us. Because we who believe have been
granted that faith by God. Look at verse 33. See, the one
who saves is God. The one who saves is God. And
it says that that one who receives the testimony can what? Set his
seal. That means he can put the finished
stamp on it. Like a seal that would go on
a letter, a seal that would go on an edict, or a seal that would
go on a cow. Like a brand. The seal is done. We can set our seal that what?
God is true. We don't have to set our seal
that we've got it. We don't have to set our seal
that we're wise. We don't have to set our seal that we're doing
it correctly. We set our seal that God is true. And so those
who receive the one who believes the testimony of Christ, believe
the testimony of God, for they are the same thing. So if you receive the testimony
of the Word, you receive the testimony of Jesus, which is
the testimony of God. And we set our seal to it. What
does that mean? What does that look like for
us? Let's think about that in closing. What does it look like
to set our seal on Jesus Christ? It means that we can rest in
the assurance that God, first and foremost, is the author of
our faith. I'm going to say that again. We can rest in assurance
in Jesus Christ that God is the author of our faith. You know
what that does for us? We don't have to worry if we're
in the faith. We believe that God is the author
of our faith. Beloved, that is the biggest problem amongst the
Church of Jesus Christ today. That thing wants to go down,
doesn't it? I'm talking with my hands too much. That's the biggest problem. We
want to try to insure ourselves and give assurance that the Scripture
doesn't call for it. Don't hope in yourself. Don't
hope in your words. Don't hope in the assurance that
you think is yours by the way you grow in the faith even. In
knowledge, or in presence, or in actions, or in thoughts, or
in words. Don't look at those things and say, wow, I really
must be saved. They are evident, but they are
not eternal. Do you hear what I just said?
Those things are evident, but they're not eternal. God, according
to our confession, at the time He wills, can let us run loose
a little bit. We're not lost. That's why church
discipline reels back the believer. You got a little bit out there.
Praise God you came back. Praise God you came back. Praise
God that you didn't stay in that sin. Praise God that you grew.
Praise God that you matured. Praise God. That's why we're
here. You know what the efficacy of that is? You know what causes
that stuff? It's the truth of Christ. It's Jesus Christ who
is true. That's what causes that stuff. Because obedience and
affection is what lasts. Obedience out of worship is what
lasts. Worship is not done because it's
commanded. Worship is done because we love.
We love worshipping Christ. We love worshipping the Saviour
of ourselves. We love worshipping a God that
rightly should have smite us, smote us, smashed us, whatever
S word is. Smite? Smote us, that's it. judged
us, given us wrath. We're worthy of it. But we worship
God because of His glorious grace, is what Paul said, in the Beloved,
because we know that without His grace, nothing would cause
us to be born again. It is what Peter said. We are
praising God. Blessed be the God and the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who caused us to be born again to
a living hope. Our living hope is learning Christ. That's why John redoes it right
here before we get into some more dialogue. So that we can
be assured that our hope is in the finished work of Jesus. And
that while we ebb and flow in our obedience, while we ebb and
flow in our sanctification, while we ebb and flow in all these
things and we do strive, our assurance doesn't come from them.
It doesn't come from them. It comes from Christ. And that's
only comes from the word of God. Whoever believes in the son of
God is the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God
has made God a liar because he has not believed in the testimony
of God that has that God is born concerning his son. That's first
John 510. So God saves, and we can set
our seal on that salvation, and we have the power to live in
the hope of Christ. And that when we hear the commands of
God, we hear them and we heed them through the Son Jesus. Jesus speaks for God, verse 34.
God has sent the One to utter His words. And Jesus then, according
to this very next phrase, God gave Christ the Spirit without
measure. Now let me illustrate this. This
is a sermon in itself, but let me illustrate it here. Elijah was given the Spirit of
God to preach. Moses was given the Spirit of
God to do what he did. Jeremiah was given the Spirit
of God to proclaim. Isaiah and all the other prophets.
John the Baptist, but it was not without measure. That means
the fullness of all of who God is dwelt in Jesus Christ fully. That means there was no portion
of the Spirit of God as a being, as a person rather. God is the
being, the Spirit is a person. There's no portion of God the
Holy Spirit as a person that did not indwell Jesus. That the
fullness of God was pleased to dwell in Him. That's what Paul
taught the church of Colossae. So that when He spoke, He uttered
absolutely the incredibly accurate and truthful Word of God. And
He speaks for God, and He is full of God. And in 35, we see
the authority of God given to Jesus Christ. The Father loves
the Son and has given all things into His hand. You know what
that means? That Jesus is God. He's God! And when the Word of
God, the speech of Jesus, the teaching of Jesus, all Scripture. It's not about the red letters,
y'all. Don't fall into that cult. It's easy because it's an easy
leap. Oh, let's just study what Jesus said. Jesus said it all.
Paul even said that. Paul said, if people don't agree
with what I say, they're not brothers. That means the Spirit
of God doesn't dwell on them if they don't listen to what I say.
Paul said demons wouldn't hear the Word of God. The command
of the apostles is the Word of God. So that's what Jesus is
saying as well. So what Jesus is saying through
His Word, we are empowered to believe it. We are in intimacy
with Jesus. We are in intimacy with each
other. We are in intimacy with the Holy Spirit. Because it is
through the Scripture that God works and breathes and creates
and secures. Because Jesus is God. He has
all authority and rule. Therefore, the Word of God rules
over us. Because this is the speech of
God over us. All things are His. You belong
to Him and the reprobate belong to Him. We all belong to Him.
We are subject, as we've been learning on Wednesday nights
in Romans, we are subject to the Word of God, no matter what
we believe. All power is His. He will say
in John 5 that He has the power to raise all men from the dead
and there will come a day when all people will hear the sound
of the voice of the Son of God and they will be raised to life
out of the graves and they will be cast into judgment for those
who do not believe and everlasting life for those who do. Jesus
Christ is God Almighty. He is God Almighty. He is over
all. So you believe in the fullness
of the gospel who is Jesus Christ. This is eternal life. John 17
says that this is eternal life that they believe you, the one
true God and the Son whom you have sent. And it means that
we trust in who Christ is and what He's done and what He says
to us in regard to those things. And we put no provision for the
flesh. We put no provision of the fleshly wisdom. We do not
do anything by tradition. and say that it is the will of
God, but we follow only the scripture and only the scripture alone. Because as we see, whoever believes,
look at verse 36 in the sun has eternal life. Look at the contrast
of what John says, whoever does not what obey the sun. What do you mean? How about whoever
believes? Hasn't He already said this?
And whoever does not believe shall not see light, but the wrath
of God will end. It's the same thing. To not believe the Word
of God is unbelief. To not hold to the Word of God
is not believing the Gospel. You can't believe the Gospel
of grace and salvation and not believe everything else that's
contained herein. You cannot say that I like this as it applies
to me, but not this as it applies to me. Or like most of us, this
applies to you, but not to me. Parents, that's how we relate
sometimes. And it's wrong. We are under
the authority of Christ, and if we believe Christ, we have
eternal life. If we don't believe in Christ,
it means we disobey Him. Unbelief equals disobedience. Unbelief equals reprobation. Unbelief equals wrath, death,
and judgment. See how important this is. See
how important it is. This is important for us, church,
because it gives us what? It gives us hope. It gives us
encouragement. It gives us power. You want power? What does Peter say? All things
we need for godliness is given to us in His divine power. And
then he goes on to say that God holds us by His power. We are kept in heaven. Are we
in heaven right now? No, absolutely not. The power
of God keeps us in heaven. Our place in heaven is secure
by the power of God. And no matter what befalls us,
we hold fast to the Word of God. We will, as a people, hold fast
to the foundations of the truth of God's Word. Sola Scriptura
is not a historical platform. It is the authority of God Himself.
Self-proclaimed and self-revealed, the Word of God is His authority
to govern you and me. His Word is not just the suggestions,
but it is the command by the King of Kings who created all
things. And He commands all men everywhere to change the way
they think about their own lives and salvation and to believe
the Gospel. That's what repent means. We will hold to the foundations
of the truth of God even if it costs us our lives, beloved.
And if you think that a fairy tale, watch the world around
us. We will never reduce the teaching
of God's Word. We will never reduce the teaching
of the glorious Gospel of Grace to a man-centered pragmatism,
which is demonic. Remember what I talked about?
How is it that the devil uses the Word of God? He tried to
get Jesus to do what was practical. I'll just do this. You've got
the power to do that. We will not do that. Why? Not because we're so strong and
powerful. Not because we're so wise and bold. It's because the
Word of God dwells in us richly, and the King of kings has told
us and promised us we shall not see wrath. And so if we shall
not see the wrath of God, surely, surely we can rejoice. Surely
we can walk in a manner worthy of the Gospel. Surely we can
grow together. Surely we can worship in spirit.
and in truth as we humbly rest in the finished work of Jesus.
As we humbly and joyfully rest in His divine power. As we look
to Him and not to each other, except that as we see each other,
we point to Him. Just like John the Baptist. Behold the Lamb of God. Behold
the Lamb of God. We assemble each day, each time,
because it is what the church is. And we grow in love and unity
because it is what the church does. Believe on Christ. Live and rejoice. Let's pray. How blessed it is for us to worship
in unity. The spirit of grace. The spirit
of peace. The spirit of harmony. The spirit
of power. Father, it is not ours, it is
all of You. And Lord, I thank You for these
people. I thank You for being part of a spiritual family that
trusts fully in the Gospel, that rests in the finished work of
Jesus, that wrestles sometimes with each other. But Lord, that
the outcome of your work is joy, peace, security, and love. And Father, as we continue to
worship in song and as we leave this place today, let us be ever
mindful that we are here because you have decreed it so. We pray for each other. We long
to see each other grow. We are here to equip one another
And we praise You for it, in Jesus' name.