Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. And if you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'll be preaching from the book of John chapter
5. John chapter 5, the Gospel of John. And the title of the
message today is The Witness of Moses. The Witness of Moses. Now, after the Lord dealt with
the woman at the well back in John chapter 4, He went about
doing good and healing many people. He healed a nobleman's son in
John chapter four. John chapter five, it starts
out where he healed an impotent man that was by the pool, right
out on the porch where they had a body of water and they said
an angel come down and stirred the waters and who could ever
get down there fast enough? could be healed, and this man,
he couldn't walk, so he had to have somebody take him down to
the pool. But Christ healed him. The Pharisees challenged him,
said that you healed this man on the Sabbath, and told him
to rise up and take up his bed and walk, and you broke our Sabbath. And of course, he didn't break
the Sabbath. The Sabbath day, even under the old covenant,
never forbade acts of mercy or acts of necessity. But the Pharisees,
they had perverted the Sabbath. One time Christ had to tell them,
He said, man was not made for the Sabbath, the Sabbath was
made for man. It was a time of rest. And of course, the Sabbath
day, there were Sabbath days, there were Sabbath weeks, there
were Sabbath years. All those Sabbaths under the
Old Covenant law were pictures of a true believer's eternal
spiritual rest in Christ. And in fact, if you want to see
the Christian Sabbath, it's not Sunday. Sunday is the Lord's
Day where we meet together to worship. But the true Christian
Sabbath is not a day at all. It's Christ in the glory of His
finished work. It's finished. And we rest in
Him and His finished work. And read Hebrews chapter 4 on
that subject. The Sabbath that remains for
the people of God. is in Christ. Well, we come to
John chapter 5 here and verse 39. And he's speaking to the
Pharisees who claimed to be experts, masters of the scriptures, the
Old Testament scriptures, especially the Old Covenant law, the law
of Moses. And here's what Christ says to
them. He says, search the scriptures. This is John 5, 39. Search the
scriptures. Now, the way that it would read
in the original indicates this, that he's saying you do search
the scriptures. It's kind of like if I would
look at all of you and say, now I know you read your Bibles.
Everyone, probably most of you who watch this program, you read
your Bibles. And that's what he's saying then.
You read your Bibles, you search the scriptures. He says, for
in them you think you have eternal life. Yeah, that's what your
thoughts are. You read your Bibles because
you feel like this is the book of God who gives eternal life
and shows the way of eternal life through Jesus Christ. So
in them you think you have eternal life and they are they which
testify of me. He's telling the Pharisees here
that the scriptures that they read And again, now they read
the Law of Moses, they read the Psalms, they read some of the
prophets that were together at that time. And he says, this
Bible, this word is talking about me, Christ says. And you know,
a lot of people, when they try to be self-appointed theologians,
they'll make statements like, well, Christ never claimed to
be God. Well, He did. He did claim to be God. He knew
He was God. God manifests in the flesh. Back
over in John 5 in verse 18, listen to this. It says, therefore the
Jews sought the Moor to kill him, because he not only had
broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his Father,
making himself equal with God. Now, if you're a believer, God
is your Father, but not in the sense that God the Father is the Father
of Christ. You see, that's a different sense.
He's the second person of the Trinity. God the Father, God
the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. His sonship makes him equal with
God in the essence of deity. Now our sonship or being a child
of God does not make us equal with God in the essence of our
natures because we're humans and we'll never be anything more
than human. Now, having been born again,
I'm a spiritual human being. I have spiritual life, but I
still have this flesh, and it'll be gone when I die and go to
be with the Lord, and I'll have a new body when all things are
ended and the glorification of the church is brought about.
But I'm not equal with God in any sense or any fashion. I have
life from God. There are a lot of people who
take a phrase out of 2 Peter 1, verse 4, called partakers
of the divine nature, and they say, well, when you're born again,
that means you become divine. That's not true. You don't become
divine. There's no way to become divine.
I heard a man say one time, that means that God, when you're born
again, God creates within you a divine nature. Divine nature,
a nature that is, in essence, divine, cannot be created. It
is the nature of deity that it has no beginning and no end.
And so when we look at Christ, what the scripture, he said here
in verse 39, they are they which testify me. Well, this is what
it tells us. He is God in every attribute
of deity with no beginning and no end. united himself to a perfect,
sinless humanity that was created for him in the womb of the Virgin. His humanity had a beginning.
He was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin
and he was born. He did have a birthday in his
humanity. I don't know what day it was.
I don't believe it was December 25th. But if you want to celebrate
the birth of Christ on that day, that's fine. But celebrate it
every day. And don't just celebrate his birth. Celebrate his life,
his death, his burial, his resurrection, his intercessory work now. Celebrate
all of that. But anyway, my point is that
Christ is God manifest in the flesh. And that's what the scriptures
teach of him. So he says, they are they which
testify of me. Now look at John chapter five
and verse 40. He says, and you will not come
to me that you might have life. Now I want you to think about
that. He said you will not come to me that you might have life.
You don't have the will to come to me that you might have life,
he would say. Now what he described there is
the nature and natural character of all people as we are naturally
born into this world. We will not come to Him to have
eternal life. We won't do it. If left to ourselves,
now people will tell you that man has, or false preachers will
tell you that man has some kind of a spark of goodness, whereby
if you can fan the flame, you can make the choice to believe
or not believe. The Bible teaches that man's
will is fallen and in a state of sin and spiritual death and
depravity, to where one of the scriptures that I quote all the
time on this program is 1 Corinthians 2, 14. The natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them,
they're spiritually discerned. And 1 Corinthians 2, the whole
chapter's telling us that man has no spiritual life. He's spiritually
dead. You might recall the passage
in Ephesians two and verse one. And you hath he quickened. Now
to quicken somebody is to give them life. And you hath he quickened
who were dead in trespasses and sins. Spiritually dead. And this is why Christ said you
must be born again. In order for a sinner to be saved,
God had to choose him. Christ had to die for them and
be raised again the third day. Righteousness had to be established.
And the Holy Spirit must come in time, bring that sinner under
the gospel, and give that dead sinner spiritual life. Eyes to
see, ears to hear. A new heart. A new spirit. New life. That's the new birth.
Regeneration, it's called. Conversion. calling, the invincible
calling. Well, what he's telling them
there is if left to yourself, to your own will, natural will,
you will not come to Christ that you might have life. That's the
depravity of man. That's the sinfulness of man.
That's why salvation is of the Lord. It's not up to us. And yes, we will make the right
choice if God draws us. The scripture teaches that. No
man can come to me except the Father which has sent me draw
him, and I will raise him up at the last day. God draws his
people, John 6, 44. How does he draw them? Through
the preaching of the gospel in the power of the Spirit. The
gospel is the power of God and the salvation to everyone that
believe it. By grace are you saved, through faith, that not
of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. Well look at verse 41, this is
John 5, 41. I receive not honor from men,
verse 42, but I know you that you have not the love of God
in you. I am come in my Father's name and you receive me not.
If another shall come in his own name, him you will receive.
How do I know I have the love of God in me, in my heart, in
my mind, my affections, my will? Well, I'll tell you exactly how
you do it. You come to Christ, you receive Christ, you believe
in Christ, you have faith in Him alone and you repent of dead
works and idolatry. Those are gifts from God and
they come out of His love. And He says in verse 44, how
can you believe which receive honor one of another and seek
not the honor that cometh from God only? You can't, listen,
you cannot believe God and believe in Christ while seeking honor
among men and from men. Because that which is highly
esteemed among men is an abomination to God. So what are we after? What do we seek? The honor that
comes from God alone and that honor is stated out by the Father
in this way, when He pointed to Christ and He said, this is
my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased, hear ye Him. And when
he said this, look at this, verse 24 of John 5, or look at verse
22, rather. It says in John 5, 22, that all
men, for the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment
unto the Son, that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor
the Father. He that honoreth not the Son
honoreth not the Father which hath sent him. You see that? So you can't believe God and
seek honor from men as far as salvation is concerned now, a
right relationship with God and righteousness. So he says in
verse 45, do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There's
one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom you trust. Moses is your
accuser. Now what is he talking about
Moses? He's not talking about Moses personally. He's talking
about Moses as Moses represents the law. And if you're seeking salvation
by works of the law, the law will condemn you. It'll accuse
you and condemn you. He said over in John chapter
one, he said, the law came by Moses, but grace and truth come
by Jesus Christ. And he says in verse 46, for
had you believed Moses, you would have believed me, for he wrote
of me. What is the testimony of Moses?
Moses pointed sinners to Christ, who Moses saw as the promised
Messiah to come, who would fulfill the law, fulfill all righteousness
for his people, finish the work, and save his people from their
sins. In verse 47, Christ says, but if you believe not his writings,
Moses' writings, the scriptures, how shall you believe my words?
They're one and the same. This is the testimony of Moses. Moses wrote of me. Now think
back of what he says. He said, don't think that I come
to accuse you. Christ did not come into the
world to condemn and accuse, even though much of his, much
of his sayings, his words, his preaching showed the sinfulness
and the depravity and even the condemnation of sinners. But
he came into the world to save his people from their sins. Now
that doesn't always mean that he spoke what people wanted to
hear. I mean, he was rough on the Pharisees.
He told them, he said, you're hypocrites. He said, you're whited
sepulchers. You go out to make converts of
Gentiles, and when you do, you make them twofold more the child
of hell than you are. You understand this? He told
the woman at the well, he said, look, you don't even know what
you worship. So it doesn't mean that he always spoke in terms
that men by nature would love. No, he's the light that men hate.
because their deeds are evil, and he said that. He said, many
will come to me and say, Lord, Lord, but I'll testify in them.
Depart from me, you that work iniquity, I never knew you. But
what he's saying is that the judgment of condemnation comes
by the law, the law of God. And here's what it says. God,
by his law, by the standard of his law, condemns every sinner
who stands before Him without Christ, without being washed
in His blood, without being clothed in His righteousness. God's law,
by His law, condemns every sinner who stands before Him, having
sin imputed to Him, charged to Him. That's why the Bible says,
blessed is he to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. That's
the only way we can survive this judgment, to stand before God
in Christ. And that's what Moses said. That's
what the law was given. You know, the law was not given
as a way of salvation. Moses didn't teach the law that
way. The law was not given as a means of making us righteous
before God by our works. Romans 9 said that the Jews,
Israel sought righteousness by their works of the law, but they
didn't attain it. They didn't attain righteousness
because they did not seek it by faith. To seek righteousness
by faith is to seek it in Christ alone. You see, the perfection
of the law that God requires For salvation and eternal life,
that perfection of the law can only be found in the Lord Jesus
Christ. The law was given to show them
their sin, their depravity, the impossibility of salvation by
their works of the law. The law was given to show them
their need of God's grace through the law-keeping, not of them,
but Jesus Christ, His death, burial, and resurrection. The
law was not given as a way of righteousness. The law was given
to drive sinners to Christ as the only way of righteousness,
for He is the very righteousness of God. Christ kept the law perfectly. No one else did. Christ satisfied
the justice of God under the law. No one else did. So the
only hope that any sinner has, and this is Moses' testimony,
this is the testimony of Moses, the only hope of salvation and
eternal life and glory that any sinner has is to stand before
God washed in the blood of Christ that all the animal blood and
the sacrifices typified and clothed in his righteousness imputed.
the priestly garments, all of that, the scapegoat, all of it. That's what Moses, that was his
message. Moses preached the gospel. He
represented the law, but the law was given to show them their
sin. And the standard, you know, the
Bible teaches that Christ is going to be the judge in the
end, but not only that, he's going to be the standard of all
judgment. This is another verse that I
quote all the time on this program, Acts 17 31, where it talks about
how God has commanded all men everywhere to repent because
he has appointed a day in the which he will judge the world
in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained in that
he had given assurance unto all men in that he had raised him
from the dead. Christ is the standard. When
Christ came into the world and began his public ministry, It
wasn't long before the Pharisees who had perverted the law, the
very ones that Christ is speaking of here, he says, you search
the scriptures, you read your Bibles, you preach on them, you
memorize them, but you've misinterpreted them, you've missed the point.
They are they which testify me. And it wasn't long as he began
his public ministry that the Pharisees and the Sadducees accused
him of breaking the law. But he did not break the law.
Christ did not break the law. He kept the law perfectly, every
jot and tittle. And he said that in the Sermon
on the Mount. I didn't come to break the law, I came to fulfill
it. And they accused him of breaking it because he went against their
traditions, their additions to the law. But he came to fulfill
the law and he fulfilled it in every way. In Romans 10 and verse
4, the Bible says, for Christ is the end of the law, the finishing
of it, the perfection of it, the completion of the law for
righteousness to everyone that believe it. And that's the key. God requires righteousness. In order for me or you or any
sinner to be saved, God requires righteousness. And there is no
righteousness within us. And there can be no righteousness
created by us or accomplished by us in our works. There's none
righteous, no, not one. Romans 3, 10. There's none that
doeth good, no, not one. The law over in the book of Romans
chapter three, it's very clear here about what the law says.
And it even goes on later on to mention Moses. But in Romans
three, it says this in verse 19. It says, now we know that
what things over the law saith, it saith to them who are under
the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world
may become guilty before God. That's what the law was given
for, to show the guilt of men and women. And verse 20 of Romans
3 says, therefore by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be
justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
What is it to be justified? It's to be forgiven of all our
sins. It's to be declared righteous
in God's sight. It's impossible for any sinner
to be declared righteous and to be forgiven by deeds of the
law. So how is it possible that any
sinner can be saved? Well, verse 21 of Romans 3 says,
but now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested
being witnessed by the law and the prophets, that's Moses and
the prophets. And without the law means without
our works of the law. He says in verse 22, even the
righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto
all and upon all them that believe, there's no difference. He says
for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The
law shows that. Being justified freely by his
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Think
about that. The law cannot save you. Only
Christ can save you. Paul preached this. It's recorded
in Acts 13, in verse 38. It says, be it known unto you
therefore, men and brethren, that through this man, that is
the God-man, Jesus Christ, is preached unto you the forgiveness
of sins, and by him all that believe are justified. If you
believe, that means you've been justified. and justified from
all things from which you could not be justified by the law of
Moses. Moses admitted that he had no
hope that Jesus Christ and him crucified. And if you look at
Romans 10, I quoted this verse four. where it says, for Christ
is the end of the law, for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Listen
to verse five, for Moses describeth the righteousness which is of
the law, that the man which doeth those things shall live by them. Now what that means is this,
if you're seeking righteousness by your works under the law,
then you must keep it all. There can be no flaw, there can
be no sin, there can be no chink in the armor. It has to be perfect. The law,
that's what the law says. And he says in verse six, but
the righteousness which is of faith which is the righteousness
of Christ now. Speaketh on this wise, say not
in thine heart, who shall ascend into heaven, that is to bring
Christ down from above, or who shall descend into the deep,
that is to bring Christ again from the dead. You see, righteousness
is not a matter of man trying to work his way up or work his
way down. You see, but what sayeth it? This is verse eight of Romans
10. the righteousness of faith, the righteousness of Christ.
The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart, that
is the word of faith which we preach, that if thou shalt confess
with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Now what's that all about? Verse 10, for with the heart
man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. Now, how do we believe under
righteousness? We believe in, rest in, follow the Lord Jesus
Christ, who is our righteousness. That's the testimony of Moses
and the law. That's what the scriptures that
Christ said to these Pharisees, he says, search the scriptures,
for in them you think you have eternal life. Many people, read
the Bible and miss the message. That's the tragedy. Many people
even memorize the Bible. The Pharisees, they used to sew
scriptural references in the hymns of their garments, but
they missed the message. And what I'm telling you is don't
read it and miss the message. Moses testified of Christ. The
Bible is the book of the glorious person and the finished work
of Christ for all salvation, all righteous, all eternal life
and glory. There's no other way. Don't be
among those who search the scriptures looking for eternal life and
miss it because Christ is our life. Hope you'll join us next
week for another message from God's word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia. Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
or email us through our website at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.