All right, John chapter 5. The text begins in verse 28. The title of the message is Four
Reasons to Believe Christ. Four Reasons to Believe Christ.
In verse 28, our Lord says, Marvel not at this, for the hour is
coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear his
voice, and shall come forth, they that have done good unto
the resurrection of life. and they that have done evil under
the resurrection of damnation." Our Lord is plainly teaching
here that there will be a resurrection of the dead, and the resurrection
of the dead is no new doctrine. He's not teaching some new thing.
We're told that Job is the oldest book in the Bible. Job lived
before Abraham lived, and Job spoke of the resurrection. He
said, though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my
flesh and my resurrected flesh shall I see God, whom I shall
see for myself, and not another. I am going to see him, though
my reins be consumed within me." He spoke of the resurrection.
Enoch, in the book of Jews, spoke of the resurrection. He talked
about the Lord coming with thousands of his saints. Now, the resurrection
of the dead is plainly taught in Scripture. But in the time
of our Lord's earthly ministry, and even in early church, There
was opposition to this truth of the resurrection of the dead.
The Sadducees were very against this. They did not believe in
the resurrection. And this awful teaching that
there will not be a resurrection even reached the church at Corinth.
Now, why are we so insistent on teaching this truth of the
resurrection? You know, why don't we just agree
to disagree and then, you know, we'll see when we're raised from
the grave. What's the big deal? Well, if you look over in 1 Corinthians
15, I'll show you. This is not just picking at small
points of doctrine. This is a very important truth.
I'll show you that in 1 Corinthians 15, beginning in verse 12. Now, if Christ be preached that
he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is
no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection
of the dead, then is Christ not risen. And if Christ be not risen,
then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea,
we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified
of God that he raised up Christ, whom he raised not up, if so
be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then
is not Christ raised. And if Christ be not raised,
your faith is vain, and ye are yet in your sins. Then they also
which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life
only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
But now is Christ risen from the dead, and He has become the
firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death,
by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all
die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Now if there
is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not raised, and
we have no hope of salvation. We have no hope of eternal life.
But if Christ is raised from the grave, he's the firstfruits
of them that slept, and there's going to be many more to follow.
They'll be resurrected just like he was. And our Lord tells these
Pharisees, now don't marvel about these things that I've told you.
Don't marvel I told you I'm one with God. Don't marvel that this
impotent man was healed after 38 years. That power is nothing
compared to what you will see when time ends. This impotent
man, he heard the voice of the Lord Jesus say, Arise, take up
your bed and walk. And he did. Now that's pretty
amazing stuff, isn't it? That's nothing, not compared
to what you will see. There's coming a day when the
dead will hear the voice of Christ say, Arise. And every dead person
who's ever lived on this planet is going to arise from the grave,
from the dead. Those who are buried in the grave
are going to come out of the grave. All those who have been
buried at sea, they're going to come out of the sea. Those
who died and their bodies were never found, animals finally
found them and ate their bodies and carried the bits of that
body to the four corners of the earth. That body is going to
be raised whole, looking just exactly like they did. They're
going to be themselves. In my flesh, Job said, I'm going
to see God. And that's going to happen because of the power
of the voice of Christ that tells the dead arise. And after that,
there'll be a judgment. Those that have done good, our
Lord says, will be resurrected to eternal life. Those that have
done evil will be resurrected to eternal damnation. Now, that's a scary statement,
isn't it? Does that cause a chill to run up and down your spine?
Well, it does, if you know this. I've never done any good. I've
only ever done evil. Scripture says there's none good. No, not one. Well, is there any
hope for me here? Is there? Yes, there is. There's hope in the Lord Jesus
Christ. There is hope in the vital living
union with the Lord Jesus Christ. For the believer. Union with
Christ is so real. that when He did good, we did
good. We have done good if we're in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ came to this earth to
do good. And when He did good, we who believe Him, we who are
in Him, did good in Him. We did good. When Christ was
tempted of Satan and He didn't fail, we didn't fail either. When Christ delighted to do His
Father's will, Adam Simpson, delighted to do his father's
will. That's how close, how one the
believer is with Christ. It wasn't just like it was Adam.
It was Adam. Adam Simpson did good. It wasn't just like it, he did
good. That's the union that a believer
has with Christ. And the believer's hope of the
resurrection is through faith in Christ. Everything we think
and believe and hope in about the resurrection is through faith
in Christ. Look over a few pages of John
chapter 11. To the believer who has faith
in Christ, the resurrection is just not an event. The resurrection
is a person. In John 11 verse 23. Martha told the Lord, she said,
I know even now, if you'd ask God, he'd raise my brother. Jesus
saith unto her, thy brother shall rise again. Martha saith unto
him, I know he'll rise again in the resurrection at the last
day. Now Martha's talking here about an event, isn't she? Well,
verse 25, Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the
life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth, and believeth
in me shall never die. Believest thou this? She saith
unto him, Yea, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ, the
Son of God, which hath come into the world." Now, people awful
hard on Martha. Martha had an awful teachable
spirit. In verse 24, she's talking about an event. In verse 27,
she quit talking about an event and started talking about a person.
That's the resurrection. It's a person to the believer. We who believe, we know our bodies
will be resurrected because Christ our Savior was resurrected. Those
who believe, we know our bodies will be resurrected from the
dead. We've already been raised from the dead spiritually. When
it isn't natural, our bodies one day will be resurrected the
same way. The physical resurrection of our bodies is going to happen
the exact same way we were raised from the dead spiritually. When
we hear the voice of God. One day, our body is laying in
the grave, is going to rise from that grave. But now our body
is going to remain dead. It's going to remain in that
grave until God says arise. Isn't that how you were raised
from the dead spiritually? We all will remain dead spiritually
until we hear the voice of God through His Word say, Arise. And when He speaks, there'll
be life and we'll arise. The only hope that we have of
the resurrection spiritually is through the death of our Lord
Jesus Christ. And the same thing's true of
our physical resurrection. We live spiritually because He
died and rose again. But we'll physically be resurrected
because He died and rose again. Now, I'm going to tell you this
morning the same thing I always tell you. Look to Christ. Look to this one who is the resurrection. Look to this one who will say
arise. Look to him. Believe him. Believe and you'll
be saved. Look and live. And I'm going
to give you four reasons to believe on Christ from God's word. I
want you to believe Christ. Not because I said it. I want
you to believe it, because you see it in God's Word. God's Word
says it, so I believe it. That's what I want for you. Now,
look at verse 30 in our text, John 5. Our Lord says, I can
of mine own self do nothing. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment
is just, because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the
Father which hath sent me. Now, when the Scriptures say
God can't do something, the Scriptures are never limiting God's power
or His authority. When we say God can't do something,
what we're saying is God's nature is not capable of doing that.
God cannot lie. Well, why? Because God's nature
is truth. Is there unrighteousness with
God? God forbid. God can't do something unrighteous
because his nature is righteous. Is God the author of sin? Well,
of course not. God cannot sin because God's
nature is holy. See what I'm saying? Well, here
our Lord says He can't do anything of Himself. He can't do anything
by Himself. Because He's one with the Father.
He's one with the Spirit. They have the same nature. They
have the same will, the same purpose. He's never alone. So
He can't do something by Himself. What the Son does, the Father
and Holy Spirit do. What the Father does, the Son
and Holy Spirit do. And what the Spirit does, the
Father and the Son do, because they have the same nature. They're
always one. They're never apart. And the
son came, not to do his own will, he didn't have his own hidden
agenda. He came to do the will of his father, which was to redeem
his people from their sins. And he did just that. And because
he's the mediator, the father has given all judgment to the
son, because that's the father's will. And the judgment of the
son is always just. perfectly right and just. And the day of judgment that
he's speaking of here, the judgment of Christ will be inflexibly
righteous. It'll be judgment without a hint
of mercy mixed into it, because in that day, the day of mercy
will be over. That's why we don't pray for
the dead. Their judgment is already sealed. It cannot be changed.
Now, if you believe that, Do you believe Christ came to do
the will of his father? He redeemed his people from their
sin and he'll be the judge of all the earth. In his voice,
the dead will be resurrected. Do you believe that? Do you trust
God's Son to finish God's will for you? Do you trust him to
do that? Our Lord himself gives us four reasons to believe him.
He calls on four witnesses that call on us to believe on him. And you'll notice each witness
that our Lord calls is greater than the last. And the first
witness our Lord calls, the witness he is the Savior, is John the
Baptist. Verse 31, our Lord says, If I
bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. There is another
that beareth witness of me, and I know that witness which he
witnesses of me is true. You sin unto John, and he beareth
witness unto the truth. For I receive not testimony from
man, but these things I say that you might be saved, He was a
burning and a shining light, and ye were willing for a season
to rejoice in his light." Now, everything the Lord Jesus said
is to be believed. It's not to be questioned. It's
not to be, you know, have speculation thrown at it. It's to be believed
just because he said it. Everything he said is the Word
of God, and it must be believed. Our Lord says, though, If he
gives witness of himself, his witness is not true. Now, why
on earth did he say that? If everything he says is just
to be believed just because he's God, why did he say if he gives
witness of himself, it's not true? As the Son of God, everything
he said is true. He doesn't need anybody else
to verify it. It's true just because he said
it and must be believed. But as the mediator, as the Son
of God, Our son of man, excuse me. Everything he said must be
verified by two or three witnesses. Because that's what the law demands.
The law demands every word be established by the mouth of two
or three witnesses. Now, as the son of God, the Lord
Jesus needs no witnesses. But as the son of man, as the
mediator, as our substitute made under the law, he needed witnesses. The law requires two or three.
Our Lord gets four. And the first witness he calls
is John the Baptist. Now these Pharisees, they didn't
believe John's message. But they did admire him. And
our Lord reminds them, you sent to him. You fellas sent to him
to find out who he was. You sent to him to find out where
he got his authority and where he got his message. You fellas
did that. Some of you even believed him.
Some of you were baptized by him. You liked him as the flavor
of the month. for just a little while. You
liked him. You're fascinated with him for a while. Until you
realized what his message was. You know, a lot of people come
and they're fascinated by, you know, what they see going on.
And then they hear what the preacher's really saying. You never see
him again. Why'd they do that? They heard
his message. They heard his message. Was always
going to be the two-fold cry of evangelism. All flesh is grass. You're sinners. You must repent
of your sin. You can't do anything good. All
flesh is grass. So behold your God. Look to Christ. Look to the Lamb to save you
from your sins because you can't save yourself. And when they
realized that was going to be his message every single time
he spoke, they lost interest and left. They would believe that John
the Baptist was a reincarnation of Elijah. They asked him, are
you Elijah? And if he had said yes, they'd have believed him.
But they won't believe in the resurrection of the dead. Now
that's just the twisted, maddening way of thinking of man's religion. They thought John looked like
one of the Old Testament prophets. And they're pretty happy about
that. Because there hadn't been a prophet in Israel for hundreds
of years. But when they really heard his message, that all men,
including themselves, sinners that were dependent, completely
dependent on God's sovereign grace through the sacrifice of
the Messiah. Not through the earthly reign
of the Messiah, but through the death, the burial, and the resurrection
of the Messiah. When they heard that, they lost
interest because they weren't looking for a spiritual Messiah,
a spiritual king. Man is interested in a religion
that makes life better for the flesh, not the spirit. When they
sent witness to John, they heard John. John bore witness to the
truth. John was not swayed by them. He bore witness to the truth.
Well, what's the truth? The truth is the Lord Jesus Christ. John's cry was, Behold the Lamb
of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Here's how
God can take away sin and remain holy. Here's the truth of how
God can forgive sin. It's through the sacrifice of
a sinless substitute. John declared Christ to be the
Savior. Salvation is in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Look to Him. Now you, here today
in 2013, you believe John's witness by looking to Christ. John said
He's the Messiah. John said He's the Savior of
sinners. Then look to Him and believe
Him. Trust Him to take away your sin. John preached. of the Trinity,
the Deity of Christ. He said, I heard the Father speak
from heaven. I saw the Spirit descend and abide on him. John told you the Lord Jesus
Christ is God. Jesus of Nazareth is God. He's God's Son. He's God's Lamb. He's God's Savior. Now you believe
him. But the Lord says, now I don't need witness of men. I don't
rely on the witness of men. I use John as a witness to you
because you're impressed by him, and you'll be saved if you listen
to his message. If you listen to him and you
believe his message, you'll be saved because his message is
Christ. In Matthew 11, our Lord said, Among them that are born
of women, there hath not risen greater than John the Baptist.
John the Baptist is the greatest man born of woman, and our Lord
says, Now that's a witness, you ought to believe him, you won't
find a greater, not a greater man. He says, but I have even
greater witness than John the Baptist. The second witness our
Lord calls to testify he's the Savior is the works that he did. Look at verse 36. For I have
greater witness than that of John, for the works which the
Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do bear
witness of me, that the Father hath sent me. And all the works
and the miracles that our Lord did give witness to his deity,
that he is in fact the Messiah, the Savior, in several ways. First, the number of those miracles
bore witness to him. Our Lord did so many miracles,
John said the books of the world couldn't contain them all. There's
just a few of them recorded here compared to all the many miracles
that he did. The Catholic Church will make
you sane if you just did one miracle. Our Lord did so many
miracles. His deity cannot be denied. Second,
the greatness of His miracles. Bear witness, He's the Messiah.
He's one with the Father. Because His miracles were supernatural. He raised the dead. He healed
this impotent man. He healed people who were in
helpless conditions. He gave sight to the blind. He
made the deaf to hear. Now, who can God, who but God,
can give life? The seeing eye and the hearing
ear, that's of the Lord. Well, this must be the Lord then.
Look at his miracles. That's what he did. He did things
only God can do. Third, all of his miracles were
public. The Savior's not going to do
anything in a corner. All his miracles were public. Now, the
Catholic saint people And maybe they say they've got an eyewitness.
I have yet to see one come on 2020 as an eyewitness in these
miracles. Well, there are so many eyewitnesses
to our Lord's miracles. They couldn't be denied. I mean,
the Pharisees would love to deny them if they could, but they
couldn't. There's too many eyewitnesses. For the nature of our Lord's
miracles gave witness. He sent of God. Our Lord's miracles
were done in mercy, compassion and love for people. Our Lord
never performed a miracle just to show off, just to show off
his power. He did it in compassion. He was
walking through town one day and there was a funeral procession
going by. There was a widow woman following that casket or whatever
they used. She was a widow, her only son. was being buried that day. Her
only visible means of support was dead. Our Lord raised Him
to go support His mother. That's compassion. That impotent
man who didn't have a friend to help him get down in the water
when it was troubled. Those who were without a friend,
our Lord healed them. Just in grace. Just sovereign
grace. Our Lord healed those who had
no other hope. That leper that came and worshipped
Him. Filled with leprosy. He said, Lord, if you will, you
make me whole. Our Lord had compassion on him.
Moved with compassion. Put his hand on him and said,
I will. And he was healed. When no one else would help him.
That nobleman's son, that nobleman had no other hope. The Lord spoke
the word and said, your son lives. Go your way. That man, his son
was demon possessed. The demons threw his boy in the
fire and in the water trying to kill him. Can you imagine
the agony that man lived under? And in compassion, our Lord healed
him. The nature of our Lord's miracle
shows he's God. Done in grace and compassion.
Fifth, all of our Lord's miracles could be examined by men. They
weren't done in a trick. Examine them and you'll see this
is God's Son. Our Lord's first miracle. Those
servants knew The water was made wine. They knew it. You could
examine it. You tasted it. It's the best wine we ever tasted.
The water was made wine. You examine it. Many people saw
Lazarus. He was dead. And they ate dinner
with him. They could touch him and feel
him and watch him eat. He's alive. Our Lord did that. Many people
saw that leper who was healed. Our Lord told them, now don't
tell anybody. Just go to the temple. You offer the sacrifice.
See the priest. You offer the sacrifice. You
keep it quiet. That man spread the news like wildfire. I was
filled with leprosy. He healed me. Many people saw
that demoniac they were afraid of. They saw him sitting cloaked
in his right mind. There was no mistake. A great
miracle had taken place. This is something only God could
do. Benny Hinn doesn't want you examining any miracle he did. I see him on TV sometimes. He
doesn't want you to examine somebody he healed. You know, he blows
on them and he's probably got bad breath. They always fall
over. He breaks their crutches and throws them out in the crowd,
you know. The next week, after the traveling circus has left
town, I never see one of those people without their crutches
saying, Benny healed me. I've never seen one. He don't
want you examining what he did. Just before you think about it,
it's sending money for you. You know, you've got time to
examine this too closely. But many people examine. They
could examine and they did examine the miracles of our Lord. Not
one of them was ever refuted by an eyewitness. Not one. You
know who tries to refute them? Watch the History Channel and
these other channels. People try to refute those miracles
and never saw them. But an eyewitness never tried
to refute one. Not one of them. Look over at Luke chapter 7.
When John the Baptist was in prison and he wanted to confirm
to his hearers that Christ was the Messiah, that Jesus Christ
was the Messiah. What did he do? He didn't send
these witnesses to prove his own faith. He did it for their
sakes, that they might believe. In Luke 7, verse 19, And John,
calling unto him two of his disciples, sent them to Jesus, saying, Art
thou he that should come, or look we for another? When the
men were come unto him, they said, John the Baptist hath sent
us unto thee, saying, Art thou he that should come, or look
we for another? And look what our Lord did. He didn't tell
them, think about, or go find somebody to tell you about the
miracles I did. In that same hour, He cured many of their
infirmities and plagues and of evil spirits. And unto many that
were blind, He gave sight. Then Jesus answered, He said
unto them, Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen
and heard. You are eyewitnesses to this. How doth the blind see? The lame walk. The lepers are
cleansed. The deaf hear. The dead are raised.
the gospel is preached, and blessed is he whosoever shall not be
offended in me." Our Lord gave as evidence that he is the Messiah
the works that he did. Now, the Father, he said, sent
him to finish these works, to finish them. He's not just talking
about miracles here. Our Lord Jesus Christ finished
righteousness. He finished it for his people
to make them perfectly righteous. His sacrifice finished sin. He made an end of sin. He finished
Satan, crushed his head. He finished the law. He magnified
the law and made it honorable and finished it. So the law has
nothing to say to any of you who are in Christ. What did our
Lord say? It is finished. All the work that the Father
sent him to do is finished. Now look to him. Look to him
in faith and believe him. The third witness that Christ
is the Savior is the Father himself. Look at verse 37 in our text.
And the Father himself which hath sent me hath borne witness
of me. Ye have neither heard his voice
at any time, nor seen his shape. And ye have not his word abiding
in you. For whom he hath sent, him ye
believe not." Now, we receive the witness of two or three men,
don't we? Well, we should. We ought to believe the witness
of two or three men, of two or three honest men. Two or three
of these men come and tell you something. Now, you ought to
believe them because they're, you know, by the mouth of two
or three witnesses should every word be established. And we do
believe the witness of two or three men. And the court of law,
the accused. He's either convicted or he's
set free based on the witness, based on the evidence that the
witnesses present. Well, we believe the witness
of men, truth remain. Well, the witness of God is greater. He gives greater evidence. The
Father gave witness to Christ that he is the Savior. The Father
sent angels to announce the birth of his Son. Now, we love our
children. We're pretty excited when they're
born. God ain't never sent angels to announce their birth. We mail
them out. God sent angels to announce the birth of His Son.
The Father spoke from heaven, saying, this is my Son. And what
did He say? Believing that the witness is
given to us so that we would believe Christ. The Father spoke
at His baptism. In John chapter 12, He spoke
again. And our Lord said, this voice didn't come for my sake.
I know He's the Father. I know I'm the Son. This voice
came for your sake, that you might believe. At the Mount of
Transfiguration, the Father spoke from Heaven. He said, this is
my Son. And when Christ died, the Father gave evidence. This
is His Son. The Father turned off the Son.
He shook creation so hard, rocks were torn in two. The dead were
raised. You think about that. There has
to be some connection. Life died and the dead were raised. The life. Life itself was put
in a barred tomb and the dead came out of the tomb. The Father
did that as a witness. This is the Son. This is the
Savior. Look to Him. When Christ said
it's finished, what happened in the temple? The veil was rent
in two from top to bottom. The Father did that. Showing
sinful men the way to the Father is now wide open. You couldn't
go in that place before. If you tried to go in that place
before and you weren't the priest with blood on the Day of Atonement,
they're driving you out by your heels. Now you walk right in. The way to the Father is wide
open because of the sacrifice of Christ. There's no more need
for the sacrifices of lambs and bullets and ghosts. There's no
more need for the high priest to crawl under there and sprinkle
the blood on the mercy seat once a year. Because God's Lamb has
died. And the Father accepted Him.
The Father accepted everyone in Him too. Because of His sacrifice. Now you look to Him. Look to
Him. Believe Him. Beg God to have
mercy on you in His Son. Look to Christ. Believe Him.
And the fourth witness. that Christ is the Savior of
the world, is the Word of God. It's all the Scriptures. Look
at verse 39. Search the Scriptures. For in
them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which
testify of me. Now this, and I told you, each
witness gets greater than the last, right? This is the greatest
witness our Lord offers, that He's the Messiah. You say, now
why don't they Really? Greater than the Father himself? Really? Look at 1 Peter. I'll show you this. 1 Peter. I'm sorry, 2 Peter. 2
Peter, chapter 1. 2 Peter 1, verse 16. Peter was one of those three
that was with the Lord on that Mount of Transfiguration. And
he says, For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when
we have made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ. But we were eyewitnesses of his
majesty. For he received from God the
Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him
from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I
am well pleased. And this voice which came from
heaven we heard. when we were with him in the
Holy Mount. We saw this. We saw him transfigured. Look
what he says in verse 19. We have also a more sure word
of prophecy. We have something more sure than
seeing Christ transfigured and hearing the Father speak from
the most excellent glory. We have also a more sure word
of prophecy. Weren't you, you'd do well that
you take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place
until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts. Knowing
this first, the no prophecy of the scripture is of any private
interpretation. For the prophecy came not in
old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as
they were moved by the Holy Ghost." Now he's talking about the Old
Testament scriptures, the Old Testament prophecies, but that
applies to the New Testament too. This word is God-breathed
and it's the greatest witness you'll ever have. that Jesus
Christ is the Savior. Our Lord tells these Jews, you
search the Scriptures. Let me see if I can give you
some help on this. Search the Scriptures. That word search
means examine. You examine it and digest it. What happens when you digest
something? You eat it, you digest it. It becomes part of you. The nutrients all go and feed
the cells and become cells, all kinds of things I really don't
know anything about, but that's roughly what happens. You digest it and
you make it part of you. We're going to have lunch this
afternoon. Whatever it is, I don't know what we're going to eat,
but I'm telling you, for long it's going to be part of me.
It's going to give me the energy to finish painting my study.
It becomes part of us. Search the scriptures. Examine
it. Eat it and digest it so that
it becomes part of you. So it gives you the energy to
go where you go, to do what you do, to believe Christ. Digest
it. Don't just memorize it so you
can impress people. Do memorize it. You kids, when
you get a memory verse, memorize it. I'm telling you the truth.
What you memorize now, you remember when you're as old as me. And
when you're as old as me, it's going to be hard to memorize
new ones. So memorize them now. But don't memorize them just
so you can impress people how many verses you memorized. Memorize
it so you've digested it and it becomes part of you. One day
you'll need it. And a scripture will come to
your mind. Where'd that come from? From a verse you memorized
when you were a little boy and a little girl. God made it part
of you. He sends it to you when you need
it to help you. Don't just read through the Bible
and say, well, I read my Bible. I read three chapters today.
Read just a little bit of it and beg God to give you an understanding
of it. So you've digested it and you
take it with you and God will use it to feed your soul. Make
it part of you and examine it. You go home and you examine everything
I tell you in the Word of God. Examine it. These other men that
come, the clays coming Wednesday night, the men that come at the
conference, you take what they tell you and you examine God's
Word and see if these things be so. And if you find it there
in God's Word, I don't care if you never believed it before.
I don't care if it crosses what you used to believe. I don't
care if you don't understand it. If it's in God's Word, believe
it. Because this is the Word of God.
It's not the words of men. This is not the words of John.
The Holy Ghost moved him to write this Gospel to give evidence
that Jesus is the Christ for this purpose that you and I would
believe. This is the Word of God. You
test every doctrine, every teaching, every idea by the Word of God. Now the first witness our Lord
called was John the Baptist. John was the last of those Old
Testament prophets that wrote these scriptures. He had the
same message that all those other Old Testament prophets did. Someone's
coming. But then John had the honor of
saying, here he is. And his message masked their
writings, their prophecies to a T. All the Old Testament prophecies
pointed to one man, the Lord Jesus Christ. It cannot be more
obvious. They are not talking, all those
Old Testament prophecies are not talking about anyone except
Jesus of Nazareth. He fulfilled every type, every
prophecy of the Old Testament scriptures. In all the scriptures,
Old Testament, New Testament, Have one message. One unified
message. Christ. Jesus Christ. And every word of it, if you
examine it, you search it, you digest it, every word of it makes
you want to worship Him. Makes you just love Him. He's
so wonderful. This whole book speaks of Him. And all it does is make us believe
Him and love Him and worship Him. Each of us here this morning,
you've seen the witness. You've heard the witnesses of
Christ, that He is the Savior. You have the greatest witness
of Him laying in your lap right now. You're going to take it
home. Are you going to put it on the coffee table? Are you
going to put it up on the bookshelf? That's the greatest witness of
Christ that you have. Read it. Believe it. Now let
me ask you a question. Why don't you believe? If you don't believe, you know
it. Why don't you believe? It's not because you haven't
heard. It's not because you haven't understood. I hope not. I am
very careful to try to say everything I say so that our children can
understand it. Now, you understand what I've
said. It's not that you don't understand. It's not that God
hasn't sent you a witness. If you don't believe, there's
one reason. You're not willing. Look what
our Lord says in verse 40. And you will not come to me that
you might have life. Why don't you believe? Because
you're not willing. If you're ignorant of Christ,
if you don't believe he's the Savior, it's not because God
hadn't told you. It's because you're willingly ignorant. If
you're ignorant of God. If you're ignorant of salvation,
and when I use the word ignorant, I mean that you just don't know.
If you don't know that salvation is in Christ, it's because God's
word is not in your heart. It's not because you haven't
heard it with these ears. It's because God's word is not in your heart.
You don't believe it. You're not willing. Is that the
case for you, for anyone here? Is that the case for you? If it is, beg God to show Beg
God to reveal Christ to you and in you. Ask God to give you faith. Look to Him. Believe Him. Ask
God to enable you to rest in Christ. You'll never find greater
evidence that Jesus Christ is the Savior than what you've heard
this morning. I beg God that He let us leave
here this morning in faith, believing Him. Let's bow in prayer. Our Father, how we thank Thee
for Thy Word. You could have left us in our
darkness, in our superstition, in false religion and self. You
could have left us just the way we are and You'd have been just.
But in mercy and grace, You sent us Your Word. You gave us a pastor. You gave us these witnesses that
you've enabled to faithfully preach the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ to us. You've given us a witness who
points us to the Lord Jesus Christ, tells us to look to Him, tells
us to believe Him, tells us to rest in Him. Father, we beg of Thee that this
morning You give us faith. that you enable us to believe,
that you enable us to hear the gospel, that you enable us to
hear the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ and run to Him. Not walk, not think I'll come
tomorrow, but that you enable us to run to Him. Oh, how we beg of thee that you
give us faith, that you wash us in the blood of thy Son. Father, we beg this blessing.
for thy glory, that ye get the glory and the honor in saving
thy people. For it is in the precious name
of our Lord Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.