Well, it's good to see everybody out this evening. To add to your prayer list, Matthew Shepard, Gary's son. He's in the hospital. He's got COPD, and he's in ICU because he got double pneumonia. And they also found he's got MRSA, so he's in bad shape. I'm hoping he'll make it, but I pray for him. His name is Matthew Shepard.

Let's begin our worship service tonight with hymn number 485. Praise ye, O God, O the Son of thy love! Lord Jesus, who died and is now born of love! Alleluia! Thine the glory! Alleluia! Amen! Alleluia! Thine the glory! Revive us again! We praise Thee, O God, Lord, our Spirit of life! You have shown us our Savior and scattered our night! Alleluia, Thine the glory! Alleluia, Amen! Alleluia, Thine the glory! Remind us again! All glory and praise to the Lamb that was slain! Who has borne all our sins and has cleansed every stain! Hallelujah! Thine the glory! Hallelujah! Amen! Hallelujah! Thine the glory! Revive us again! Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Number 255, Blessed Assurance, Jesus is Mine. This is my story, this is my song. praising my Savior, all good and all.

Earth, make some things shine! Earth, with delight! Be as your ransomed brethren, Angels be singing, great from above, angels from mercy, whispers of love. This is my story, this is my song. This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long. Earth is a mission, always a great mission, I am my Saviour and I am blest, watching and faithing, looking above, filled with His firmness, all to His word. This is my story, this is my song, This is my story. This is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long.

Turn with me to John chapter 10. We'll be reading verses 39 through 42 tonight. The title of my message is John spoke truth. Verse 39 of chapter 10, therefore they sought again to take him, but he escaped out of their hand and went away again and beyond Jordan into the place where John had first baptized and there he abode. And many resorted unto him and said, John did no miracle. But all things that John Spaker, this man, were true. And many believed on that.

Godfather, we come in the blessed name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. We praise you and thank you for your goodness. And your great mercy and grace. which was sufficient and efficient to save your people from their sins. We know that that grace and that mercy came on the wings of satisfied justice, that Jesus Christ our Lord, the Son of Man and Son of God, went to the cruel cross with Calvary and gave his life for his people. died in their room and place, died the sin death that they owed you, and satisfied your law's demands. We are thankful that as poor, weak, and frail creatures, we can say such things with confidence and faith. For we know that you have given us faith to believe that even now, as we realize and are thankful that he purged our sins, that he ascended and sits at thy right hand, ever living, to make intercession for us.

We praise you. You're worthy of it. Lord, we pray for those who are sick, going through trials, those who've been added to the prayer list. I know it's every case. We ask, Lord, that you would be pleased to minister mercy and grace to these folks. Fix their eyes upon Jesus Christ, and do that for us, Father.

For our days are numbered, and our months are with Thee. Our bounds are set, and we cannot pass. We don't know when You're gonna call us home. But may it be so that our hearts will be connected and united with Thee, and our eyes will be set upon Him who is enthroned on high. Help us to believe and help our unbelief. And help us tonight as we gather here as we look at these words in your book to rejoice in the glory that you have set before us. We pray in Christ's name, amen. Now, the Lord has escaped out of the hands of those that were intent on killing him. That's what it says in verse 39. They saw his death because he had declared that he was God and the works that he did were proof of that fact. And because he said that, they accused him of blasphemy.

And after escaping, he came to the area of Jordan where John had baptized him. We find that baptism recorded in Matthew chapter 3. Matthew chapter 3 verse 13 says, Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, that's John the Baptist, to be baptized of him. But John forbade him, saying, I have no need to be baptized of thee, thou comest to me.

Jesus answered, Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. And he suffered it. Notice that the Lord said, it becometh us. He was by himself. But he was talking about you and I, who are believers, becomes of us to fulfill all righteousness.

And part of that fulfillment of righteousness was him being baptized of John. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water. And, lo, the heavens were opened unto him. And he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him. And, lo, a voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved son. in whom I am well pleased. That word is satisfying or propitiating.

It pleased the Father to bruise him when he made his soul an offering for sin, it says in Isaiah chapter 53. So the Lord has returned to this place. Now this is taking place some three years have passed since the Lord was baptized, but the context reveals, if you were reading along with me, that John's ministry had sufficient impact in this area still. Men still remember John's words after three years had gone by when they saw Jesus. The Lord evidently stayed in that area for a while, for it said he abode there. That term is usually used behind him somewhere. It means they stayed for a while. So we don't know how long he was there and what he was doing while he was there.

But what they said of him reminded them of the words that John spoke concerning him. As has been the case since our Lord began preaching, many people came to see Him. The fame that attended His miracles had spread, and it became a common thing for throngs to gather around Him. And it says in verse 41 that many resorted to Him. It is not revealed what He did while He was there, but it is evident that what He did had caused those gathered around to be reminded of the words of John the Baptist concerning Him.

We know that this is the case. Their minds went to John's words as they watched and listened to the Lord. And what they said of John is a standard, a clarion call, for any who would deign to stand behind a pulpit and preach the gospel, or any who would deign to tell someone else about the Lord Jesus Christ. He says this in verse 41. Verse 41, and many resorted to him there and said, and they said, this is John.

John did no miracle. But all things that John spake of this man were true. Everything he said about Jesus Christ was true. First time I read this many years ago, I thought that this would be the very best epitaph you could put on my gravestone or any preacher's gravestone. He did no miracle. Part of my prayer is normally the Lord let me say right things concerning me.

The first thing they stated was the distinction between John and the Lord. He did no miracle. This did not diminish John's works, but rather exalted the Lord Jesus Christ. The disciples weren't doing that yet. They were following the Lord Jesus Christ and he was teaching them. It was not until the Holy Ghost was given at Pentecost that the gifts of the Holy Spirit were given to men for the apostolic age, but not until that point.

Only this one person. That's why when Nicodemus came to him at night and said, we know that thou art a man come from God, because no man can do these miracles save God had sent him. But up to this point, it's the only thing that had forestalled men from immediately killing Christ was the fact that He's doing these miracles.

That was always the thing. That was the division. There was a continual division among men about Christ, and they thought that they had Him on the Law of the Sabbath, but because of the miracles. It was not politically or religiously expedient to kill Him, because some people believed in Him. Some people followed Him, and there was this but they took up stones to kill him and would have killed him many, many times when he started speaking, they put down the stones.

And it was because of the miracles that he did. Also in this phrase, there is a picture of what is true of every gospel preacher that the Lord has sent after the apostolic age. They do no miracles. They do no miracles. God still performs miracles, but he's not given any man in this day and age Since the death of the apostles, since the giving of the entire book of the Bible, he hasn't given men power to perform miracles. They don't need it anymore. Back then the miracles were given that men might hear the word. But now the word has been given and the way God operates now is he gives men faith to believe what? The word. But men don't do miracles.

I saw a documentary of a cult not long ago, whose leader had died, and the new leader said he was going to raise him from the dead. And he refused to let him be buried and assigned women to wash his decaying carcass until he came up with a new revelation that the rotting prophet should be put in the grave. Every religious huckster, and they are religious hucksters, that claims to have miracle power, the power of healing, the power to raise people from the dead and such, Let me make this very clear. Such a one is no gospel preacher. God did not send them. God did not.

I'm reminded of Oral Roberts many years ago when he injured his shoulder and he couldn't preach for a while because he was sick. And I thought one of his sons said that he healed the shoulder with his healing hand. Why don't he just reach up and touch his own shoulder and heal that bad boy? But that shows you how fake they are.

He did no miracle. You mark well these words that will resound in eternity of every gospel preacher since the apostolic age. He did no miracle. He did no miracle. The next phrase is prime real estate. What greater thing could be said I can't imagine anything greater to be said. All things that John spake of this man were true. They were true.

They looked at the Lord and recalled the words of John, and what they saw and heard convinced them that everything that John had said about Jesus Christ was backed up with undeniable evidence that this was indeed Him whom he spoke of. It behooves us to see what John said, and we're going to just look at a few chapters in scripture in the book of John, because that's where John's words are recorded. And what he said of the Lord Jesus Christ is true. All things that he said of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let's turn back to John chapter 1, and we'll just begin in verse 15. These are the words of John the Baptist. John chapter 1 and verses 15 through 18, John bear witness of him and cried, saying, This is what, one of the things he said that's true. Saying, he that cometh after me is preferred before me for he was before me. So he was saying that Jesus Christ is the eternal son of God. And when he came on the scene, he came before Christ, but Christ was preferred before him.

In fact, the ministry of John the Baptist, you know how long he preached? Six months. That's all he preached. He leaped in his mother's womb when Mary came to Elizabeth there, and he leaped in his mother's womb. She was six months pregnant, or three months pregnant, six months pregnant at the time, and he was born six months before Jesus Christ was born. And he lived his whole life. We don't know anything about his life. We know that he was a rugged man. He lived in the wilderness. He wore camel skin. ate locusts, wild locusts.

We know that about him. We know that he came and he preached. He preached repentance for the kingdom. The sovereign rule of Christ has come. That's what we know about him. John had six months to say what he wanted to say. And then Herod's daughter had him killed. Had his head cut off and put on a plate for everybody to see. This is what he said.

He was preferred before me. I'm nobody. He's somebody. He's somebody. That's true. Because everything John said about Jesus Christ is true. And he says, of His fullness have all we received and grace for grace. Here's an Old Testament prophet and a New Testament preacher. He had one foot in the Old Testament because he was promised in Malachi. And one testament, a new testament, because He's talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. He's talking about His fullness.

What is that talking about? All of Him, we have received. You know what it says in Colossians chapter 2, verses 9 and 10? What does it say? For in him dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead body, and ye are complete in him. You are complete in him, and grace for grace. This is the language, not of the Old Testament. It does talk about grace. But we're talking about a new covenant here, the covenant of grace. And John's already introducing it. And he introduces it even more in the next verse.

He says, well, the law was given by Moses. We know law gave the God, God gave the law on Mount Sinai to Moses, but he introduced the law to Moses, and it's called Moses' Law throughout the New Testament and the Old Testament too, Moses' Law. Well, it wasn't Moses' Law, it was God's Law. Why'd they call it Moses' Law? Because Moses was the one that gave it, and it was a whole different covenant than the covenant of grace. Law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. So he's saying the law came by Moses was true, but it wasn't the truth.

It contained a picture and a type of the truth, which was the Lord Jesus Christ. But what did he say? I am the way, the truth, and the life. He said the truth shall set you free and the Son shall set you free. You shall be free indeed. He said no man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, now he says Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Which is in the bosom of the Father, in the heart of the Father. This is how we know the Father.

He hath the clarity. He hath the clarity. Then we look down at verse 20 and it says this. And he confessed and denied not, but confessed, I am not the Christ. That's the truth. They thought because he was the preacher, And people were following him and he was baptizing people. They thought, this guy may be the Christ, may be the Messiah, may be Isaiah. But he was Elijah according to the words of God. He said, I am not the Christ. And that's the truth.

Then in verse 26, he says, Jesus answered saying, I baptize with water. Or John answered and said, I baptize with water, but there standeth one among you Whom you know not. He it is who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe latchet I am not worthy to lose." I'm not worthy to lose. He said, he's worthy and I'm not. This is the kind of language that you hear from people who really know the Lord Jesus Christ. You don't know him, he said, but I know him and I'm not worthy to latch his shoe. Not worthy to latch his shoe.

Then over in verse 29 he says this, the next day John seeth Jesus coming, coming down the road unto him, and he said, behold, look, the Lamb of God, the only sacrifice that God will accept thee, and that's a capital L. And if you read the book of Revelation, the final revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, He's described this way more than any other way in that book. The Lamb. Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. What's the sin of the world? Unbelief. And He does it with His leg.

In verse 30 it says, This is He of whom I said, After me cometh a man, which is heard for her before me, for he was before me. And I knew him not when he showed up. I didn't know who he was. but that he should be made manifest to Israel. Therefore I come baptizing with water." He said, I come knowing that the Messiah was on his way. I didn't know him when he showed up, but then he revealed himself to me. And John says, and John bear record, I saw, I know it's him, because when he came to be baptized, I saw something. He said, I saw the spirit descend from heaven like a dove and it abode on him.

The Spirit of God came down and abode on the Lord Jesus Christ. And I knew him not, but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Unto whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same is he which baptized with water." The Holy Ghost. I baptized with water. His baptism is different. give men His Spirit, they're going to have the Holy Ghost when He baptizes men. He's not talking about putting them in water. He's talking about engulfing them in the Spirit.

That's why He said in the 17th chapter, I am them, thou and me, and we are one. One. Verse 34, He says, I saw, and I bear record, and this is the All things he said about this man are true. I saw that he was the Son of God. Then look at verse 36. And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he said, Behold the Lamb of God. Behold the Lamb of God. This is the sacrifice. This is the substitute. This is how the elect are truly saved and given eternal life, by the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.

Now look over at John chapter 3. Now in chapter 2, it's about the Lord making water to wine, and the conversations go on there. All words of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're looking at the words of John McCall. The testimony of those who knew him said everything he said about this man was true. Look at verse 30 of chapter 3.

He must increase. Don't look at me, look at him. Don't glorify me, glorify him. Don't speak about me, speak about him, him who's worthy. He must increase, he must increase. The reason he said that is because people come to him and said, listen. Some of his disciples came and said, people are following Jesus like crazy. And he's pulling some of our people away to follow him.

He says back in verse 29, he that hath the bridegroom, you yourself bear witness in verse 29, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him, John said. He that hath the bride, that's Jesus Christ, is the bridegroom. I'm not the bridegroom, I'm part of the bride. I'm the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him rejoice greatly because of the bridegroom's voice.

This is my joy, therefore it's fulfilled. My joy is fulfilled, he said. I'm glad those that followed me in water baptism are now following Him who baptized the Holy Ghost. Because He must increase. I must decrease. I must fade away. That's what all of us can say. Jesus Christ be honored. Jesus Christ be glorified. Let me fade away. Let me disappear. And I will. And you will too.

And if God is any more elect on this earth, somebody else will take our place. Stan and I say it. In verse 31 it says, he that cometh from above is above all, above all. And he that is of the earth is earthly. He said, Jesus Christ come from heaven, I've come from earth. Jesus Christ is son of God.

He's an early speaker of the earth. He says, my ministry was about straightening out your lives. You read the repentance that he preached, I believe it's in the book of Matthew, and it was all about doing things right. That was the repentance he preached, which was Old Testament or old colored repentance, obeying God. And he said, my ministry was of the earth. His ministry is from heaven. And he speaks heavenly things, and he's above all. In verse 32, and what he hath seen and heard, that's what he testifies. He said he gets his word or his doctrine from God Almighty, and that's what our Lord said in John chapter 7. My doctrine is not mine own, but him that sent me.

And no man received his testimony, and that's the truth. By nature, no man receives what he says. It takes the very act of God, in sovereign mercy and grace, to open a man's heart, just as he did with Lydia by the river when Paul came and preached the gospel to her. God opened her heart, and she received the gospel. No man, met by nature, receives his testimony.

It is he that receiveth his testimony, hath set to his seal, that God is true. God is to hold you in place there, turn over to 1 John chapter 5. Verse 20 of chapter 5 says, And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know Him that is Even in His Son, Jesus Christ, this is the true God and eternal life. He that receiveth His testimony, said John, has set the seal that God is true. That God is true.

Verse 34 says, For whom God has sent speaketh the words of God. What did our Lord say to the Pharisees? He that is of God heareth God's words. And he says, you don't hear me because I speak the truth. He says, if I preach the truth, you believe me not. But God's people hear the truth. But he whom God has sent speaketh the words of God, for God giveth not the Spirit to him by measure.

And what he's saying is what Christ perceived as a man, as a human being. was the full measure of the Spirit of God. We don't have that measure. John didn't have that measure. A man who had that measure could actually do wondrous things. He could actually get people filled. A person who was filled completely with the Holy Spirit of God, without measure, could do wondrous things.

Over in the book of Acts, that's how Jesus Christ is described. Acts chapter 10 verse 38 says how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil and for God was with Him. How did Christ do as a man? He did not reach into His deity, though He was full of God. As a human being, endued completely without measure of the Holy Spirit, He could do those things. And yet our Lord said those wondrous things that He did physically. These are physical things. People who raised from the dead went ahead and died anyway. People who healed, they died eventually. We're going to talk about one in this next chapter, a man named Lazarus who was raised from the grave. Lazarus eventually died. These were natural things.

Our Lord said of his disciples, He said, after I'm gone, you're going to do greater works than these. Because there are going to be works that cannot be seen. There are going to be works that are spiritual. We're going to say things that we have no power over. We're going to tell folks things that we have no power over, and the words we speak may be used of God to actually make a dead man alive. A spiritually dead man alive. Not to be raised up to die again, but to be raised up to never die. Greater than these, our Lord said. He is to receive the Spirit without measure.

It says in verse 35 back in our text, the Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand. What does that mean? Remember that old song used to be, you got the whole world in his hand. Remember that old song, you got the whole world in his hand. Well, that's the truth. Everything that exists.

I watched, we watched the launch a while ago. I was spacing in. Our astronauts are going to go back to the moon. They're going around the moon and come back. They're not going to land on the moon, but they're going up, shoot around the moon, and come back to Earth, hopefully. That moon's his moon.

That space they're traveling through belongs to him. He made it. Every creature that walks upon the face of the Earth or rise and wriggles upon the face of the Earth, whether it be a human being, Elephant, or a Tesseronosaurus rex, or a tiny ant, or the most invisible to the naked eye amoeba. They're all his. God has put everything in his hand. In fact, he has authority over all flesh. He'll say that as he prays in John 17. God has given me authority over all flesh. Power over all flesh to give eternal life to as many as God has given me.

All things are in Christ's hand. Old Scott Richie said, God has put all his eggs in one basket, and that basket is Jesus Christ. If you're going to get anything from God, if anybody's going to get anything from God, you have to get it through Jesus Christ. There's no other avenue, no other channel that the gifts of God come through, save for the Lord Jesus Christ.

And then in verse 36, he says this, he that believeth on the Son hath And he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." What I've just read to you is all true. It's all true. And because it's true, and because these men knew it was true, and whatever the words that Christ spoke was true, it ends this way in John chapter 10, verse 42, And many believed on him, There. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. Father, bless us to understand and pray in Christ's name. Amen.

All right. God bless you. I mean, I had to get here Sunday already. Why? Easter. Easter? Last year, because it's Easter, we all had a family. Oh, that's right. OK, I'll announce. I'll send everybody a text. All right. We just have the 11 o'clock service, right? Just have the 11 o'clock service, okay. No dinner Sunday. You have to go and eat with your old family, whatever they cook. I've got no family. You have to go to McDonald's, they open on Easter. No dinner Sunday for what? Oh, we eat dinner with family some place over in Cookton.