Turn back with me to John chapter
5. I want to concentrate on verses
39 and 40, which are a summation of the things that he's been
telling them. Their accusation to him was that
he was not who he said he was. He was not who he said he was. Is that not the rejection of
this world to Christ? They deny that he is who God
said he is. The Bible, he told them to search
the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life,
and they are they which testify of me. He goes on and tells them
if you blame Moses, you blame me, he wrote of me. Word of God
testifies of Christ. And the Word of God, the Bible,
is an amazing book. It's an amazing book. I read
one time of this lady, she was a single woman, loved to read
books. And one day she got her a Bible,
and she started reading it. I'm sorry, she got a hold of
a novel, and she started reading that novel. And she just got
bored with it. And she said, that's enough of
that. She just closed the book and put it up. Later on, she
met this fella, fell in love with him. Just fell head over
heels in love with him. And he was an author. And she
come to find out that he was the author of that book that
she was so bored reading. And she went back and picked
up the book, and all of a sudden, there was such an interest in
the book, she couldn't put it down. She read it from one end
to the other. What gave her that interest in
the book? She knew the author, and she
loved him. People tell me all the time,
I get so bored reading the Word of God. That's because you don't
know the author. That's right. You don't have
any interest in the author. That's what it is. And I tell
you, those who know something about the Word of God understand
that it's an amazing book. It speaks of things divine and
supernatural. It doesn't deal so much with
everyday things, but it deals with divine things, eternal things. Spiritual things, things not
seen. It declares that the living God
created all things by speaking these things into existence.
He commanded and it stood fast. You think about that. He made
all of these things not from anything that does appear. He
just said let it be and it was. Let there be light, there was
light. Let the darkness be divided from the day. Let the land and
the waters be separated. He spoke cattle into existence
and pigs and chickens and everything else you see out here. He speaks of the creation of
man, saying that he took a handful of dust and breathed into it
the breath of life. made man. Speaks of making a woman from
the man. He tells us something about a
universal flood covering even the highest mountains. He speaks
of men enabled to foretell the future thousands of years before
it come to pass. Describe it in such detail that
when it come to pass they just couldn't believe it. He foretells the coming of a
redeemer, that he'd be virgin born. Who ever heard of such
a thing? But the redeemer will be. How'd I know that? The scriptures. Scriptures tell
me that. Tells me of a coming redeemer,
tells me of his virgin birth, a man and yet God and one glorious
person. An eternal mediator, a covenant
surety, a divine representative and substitute. The Bible alone
carries God's declaration of the end from the beginning. God
said, I'm God, there's nothing like me. I declare the end from
the beginning. Where did he declare that? In
the word of God. I declare the end from the beginning,
from ancient times, the things that are not yet done, saying
my counsel shall stand and I'll do all my pleasure. And nowhere is this displayed
as it is in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus
Christ. All who were involved and all
that took Part in what took place, understand by the scriptures
that they did whatsoever his hand and his counsel determined
before would be done. You read about it in Acts chapter
four. Whole nations of men, captains and admirals and presidents and
all of these men of high renowned kings And even now the Bible
says that Jesus Christ is set down at the right hand of God,
working all things after the counsel of his own will. Everything's
under control, everything's, nothing is out of whack, nothing
is going off the deep end. Nobody's thwarting his purpose. Jesus Christ, according to the
word of God, is the steward of time and creation and providence. It's all been laid into his hands. And surely he's proven these
things time and again from the beginning of the world. All things
were created by him, Paul said, and for him. He's before all
things, and by him all things consist. They have a continuance. The prophecies concerning the
coming Redeemer, how many were accurate? 100%. 100%. Its prophecies concerning the
Jews and Gentiles, how many of those were accurate? 100%. The prophecies concerning the
rising and falling of nations, how many of them came to pass?
100%. Why then do we doubt his future
prophecies concerning the church and its functions in this world
and the work that he's going to accomplish through the church?
Why do we doubt these things so much? Do we believe there's gonna be
a final judgment? I've got no reason to believe
otherwise because the word of God tells us there will be. But we believe anything we read
on the internet. Huh? Well, where'd you get that? Well, I saw it on the internet.
You have a question somebody can't answer? Jerk that phone
out, boy. Here's what it says. You don't
know who's saying this. You don't know them from the
man in the moon. But you swallow it hook, line, and sinker, everything
they say. We'll swallow anything the teacher
tells us in the classroom whether we know him or not because he's
a teacher. Well, who said he was a teacher? Well, the council
said he was a teacher. The college gave him a degree. Somebody gets on TV and says
he's a medical expert. Why? Who said he was? Well, the media did. And they
wouldn't lie to you. None of these people have shown
you any credentials, given you any reason other than the media
to believe them. And yet we have a book without
error, without flaw, divinely inspired, confirmed to be his
word and his writers being inspired by him by miracles and wonders
inside which thousands and thousands of people saw and bear witness
of. And yet we refuse to believe
the testimony of God. Now that's what's taking place
here in John chapter five. Time again, people tell me, well,
that's your interpretation. That's your idea. That's your
understanding. It's not if I show you in the
word of God where it says it and says it in language that
a child can understand. That's not an interpretation.
In the courtroom, a lawyer points to a certain law. He cites the
trial where that point of law was used and approved. and it
stands good. Is it any different when I say
turn to such and such a passage and it reads so clearly that
anybody could understand it or maybe even go on and point out
that same passage where it was challenged and proven in the
word of God? And yet they'll, that's your interpretation. The Jewish hierarchy rejected
the Son of God, our Savior, and their rejection of Him was not
based on the Word of God, but upon their own expert opinions,
upon their own people that they labeled experts. A high council
of the Jews trained to be experts on the coming Redeemer are here
standing before Him, telling Him that He's a blasphemer. These men had so-called church
credentials. They had papers like the diplomas
that men have today certifying them as teachers of God and the
law. They had strict years of discipline
and training and even carried Bibles with them, what was in
the form of scrolls in that day. But they relied on tradition to interpret the scriptures rather
than just reading the scriptures and taking them as they're written. And what the Jews were doing
then, the world is doing now. Paul warns us about men who would
spoil us through philosophy and vain deceit. After the tradition
of men, they take the traditional understanding. That's why they
keep writing new versions of the Bible. That's what's behind
that. We're gonna take the accepted
tradition, traditional understanding, and we're gonna put it back in
the Bible. So these verses that's giving us trouble, we're just
gonna eliminate them altogether. And so they have, whole chapters. Taking them out. Men will come and spoil you through
philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men. Now listen,
after the rudiments, that is the rudimentary, the basic principles
of the world. How do they interpret it? Well,
this is what seems right to me. You take your time and read the
book of Proverbs and you'll find out he says it over and over.
There is a way that seemeth right unto men, but the end thereof
is destruction. And that's what Paul says. Be
careful, they're gonna spoil you. They're gonna get you to
reason with them on these basic principles accepted by men. Salvation by reward. That seemed
right to me for years. Man had to earn it, huh? I've
been told that since I was old enough to crawl. The world believes it. Every
known accepted church out here believes it. Why wouldn't I believe
it? Because it ain't so. And because it don't jive up
with the word of God. Contrary to the word of God. The men relied on the traditional
understanding more than the Word of God. The Bible's a hymn book, H-I-M. It's about the Son of God coming
into this world to save sinners. Our Lord said to the Jews in
John 5, 37. I read this to you just a few
minutes ago. And the Father himself which
hath sent me hath borne witness of me. Now you've neither heard
his voice at any time nor seen his shape, and you have not his
word abiding in you. God the Father testified of him
in his word, but his word is not abiding in you. That's what
he's telling them. For whom he hath sent, him you
believe not. And then he said, Search the
scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, and there
they which testify of me, and you won't come to me that you
might have life. That's the evidence of your ignorance. You're reading a book that its
entire testimony is about this man. Its entire testimony is
about salvation in Christ. the mercy and grace of God, all
given over into the hands of Christ. All of creation was not
only created by Him, but He was before creation. Nothing was made without Him.
He's the one who made it. It was made by Him and for Him. He's the glory of God alone. that can be seen and known by
men. And he said, and you won't come
to me. You can tell me when to come, I ain't in the right place,
but you can't tell me what this book says. And you search the
scriptures. And you think in your searching
you have eternal life. You think because you have an
interest in the word of God, you have eternal life. That's
not eternal life. Eternal life's in the Son. And
if you take your time and read the book, you'll find out that's
what the book says. It just keeps pointing to him. Pointing to
him. That's my text this morning.
You will not come to me that you might have life. You'll come
to everything else. You'll go argue election on the
street. Huh? You'll argue particular
redemption with anybody. But you won't come to me that
you might have life. Hmm. They sent to John the Baptist. He bear record of Christ. They
wouldn't have his testimony either. Father bore witness of him. He
bore witness of him that day as the heavenly dove descended
on him at his baptism. He bore witness of him on the
Mount of Transfiguration. He bore witness of him long before
he appeared. and the word of God. The scriptures bear witness of
him. But they looked on his preaching the same way folks look on ours. That's his opinion. That's his interpretation. There's
three things in these verses that I think need our attention.
First of all, our Lord, through his preaching, declared himself
to be God. Isn't that what he's telling
them in all them verses? I'm God. My Father worketh hitherto
on the Sabbath, and I work. The Sabbath is about God, isn't
it? You violated God's law. Well, let's talk about the God
whose law it is. And that God is standing right
before him. And he said, my father worketh hitherto, and I work. This day is a day of instruction,
this day is a day of salvation. This very day I'm standing before
you accomplishing the will of God, the work of God. They 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. Boy, they hated it. That old
man had the palsy. You remember the guys brought
him, they had to tear the tile off the roof and let him down.
You know what the Lord said to that man? That palsied man in
that bed, he's hanging there by them ropes, you know what
he told him? He said, thy sins be forgiven thee. Man, those
Pharisees about to come out of their shoes. They said, nobody can forgive
sins but God only. He said, you got it. You got
it. He said himself, as he said in
the word of God, Christ revealed himself to be equal with God. He said it over and over and
over. My father, my father. I and the father are one. Isn't
that what he said? God must honor his character
to save men. He must declare his righteousness
for the remission of sins. And he must be just in his justification
of believers. And only God can satisfy God.
Jesus Christ is God come into the flesh. He came here to save
sinners. In John 5.36, I read to you,
but I have greater witness than that of John for the works which
the Father hath given me. Now listen, to finish, were they
given to him to do the best he can? That's what men are saying. God done all he can do, now it's
all up to you. No, he gave him the works that
were given to Christ to do, were given to him to finish. Ain't
that what that says? 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. Turn with me to John chapter
10. Jesus Christ came into this world
to finish the work of redemption. I come to do thy will, O God.
It's written in the volume of the book of Matthew. I come to
do thy work. I come to do thy will, O God. He came to finish the work of
redemption, righteousness, and reconciliation. He come to do
what no sinner could ever do for himself. Now watch this here
in John 10, 24. This is the same Jews. Then came
the Jews around about him, and they said unto him, how long
dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us
plainly. Verse 25. Jesus answered them, I told you,
and you believe not. Now watch this. The works that
I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. There was
only one commanded to finish the works, and that was Christ. It's written of him, he was set
forth in the Old Testament as the propitiation for our sins,
all the way through the Old Testament. But he said, you believe not,
because you're not of my sheep. As I said unto you, my sheep
hear my voice. They understand why I came, who
I am. Why I came, what I'm doing, they
understand these things. But you're not of my sheep. As
I said unto you, my sheep hear my voice. And I know them. I
know who my sheep are. And I give unto them eternal
life. What's that? That's redemptive knowledge of
God. That's eternal life. You read
about it in John 17.3. Everything God required from
the sinner Christ fulfilled and finished in this world. But why? Why must God take to
himself the body of a man? Why? 1 John 3, 5 says, and you know
that he was manifested. He appeared in this world as
a man. to take away our sins. And in him is no sin. Boy, I tell you, if God ever
gives you an understanding of that, you'll jump up and down.
Huh? We'll all look like a bunch of
Pentecostals if we enter into some kind of understanding about
what that's saying. All my sins, Luke, are on him. When he went to that cross, he
bore our sins in his own body on the tree. All of the sins
of all God's elect from the very beginning of time, from Adam
all the way to the end of the world, they were all laid on
him. He bore our sins in his own body
on the tree. And God killed him for it. And
when he come out of that tomb, listen to me, he had no sins. Those sins are gone. They're
gone. They're not gone in our head.
They're not gone even in our obedience to it, in our actions
in this world. We're still sinners, saved by
grace. But our sins are gone, Walter. God took them away. What to do
with them? I don't know. I'm just happy
that they're gone. They're gone. Well, he's God. Couldn't he just
stay in heaven and forgive sins? No. He could if religion was
right about him. He could. Christ didn't even
need to come into this world. But he said, the soul that sinneth
shall surely die. He said, cursed is everyone who
continueth not in all things written in the book of the law
to do. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. I
will by no means clear the guilty. I'm not going to excuse his actions. The sinner has to die. And so God charged all his elect,
he charged all their sins to Christ, and he killed him. He
put him to death. And in his death, he satisfied
God. He satisfied God. He finished
those works that he gave him to do, bear witness of him. That's
why he was here. That's what he was doing. When did he become our sin bearer?
Scripture said he's the lamb slain before the foundation of
the world. We were redeemed, Peter said. with the precious blood of Christ
as a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was
foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifested
in these last days for years. He was manifested, John said,
to take away our sins, and in him is no sins. He was delivered for our offenses,
raised again for our justification. Oh, sin was paid for, justice
is satisfied. Paul said this, Christ was once
offered to bear the sins of many and unto them that look for him.
You remember the story of the old high priest. He'd take the
blood and he's in his priestly garments and he's got the blood
from the altar. And now he comes to the door
of the tabernacle and he opens the door and he walks in and
he lifts that veil and he goes beyond the veil with that blood.
Everybody who had a concern, who had an interest in the blood
that that priest was offering, every eye was just like this.
They were looking for that priest. Looking for him. Looking for
him to see if he'd come back out. See if God accepted that
blood sacrifice. He was once offered to bear the sins of many and
unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time. Now
listen, without sin unto salvation. That high priest gonna come back
victorious. Victorious. You search the scriptures
for in them you think you have eternal life and they are they
that testify of me. Deceived men and women search
the scriptures, but they read with natural hearts and minds. They read through the glass of
tradition and worldly principles. And they come away with the thousands
of variations of religion that you see in the world today. They
are they that testify me, he said. But you don't come to me
that you might have life. That's what reveals your unbelief.
You won't come to Christ. Now we want to look on everything
else. Don't we? Want to look on how
much we give or we don't give. How much we pray or we don't
pray. We want to look at everything else except Christ. The only place there's any peace
is in Him. Now, I don't care what else goes
on in this world. It's pitiful what goes on. It's heart-wrenching
what goes on. It tears your very heart out,
some of the things that go on in this world. I know it does. I've experienced them. But there's no unrest in Christ,
Luke. You can't find anything to be troubled in when you look
to Him. It's perfect control, perfect will, perfect sacrifice,
all in Him. But where do we look? Everywhere
else. Everywhere else. We go into the
Word of God, oh, that's talking about this and that's talking
about that. And you come away just as upset as you did before
you went in. But if you had come to Him, if
you'd come to Him. He said, I'm coming in my Father's
name and you receive me not. If another shall come in his
own name, him you will receive. We listen to the false prophet.
That's what he's telling us. Jesus Christ is set forth in
the Word of God. And the Word of God is God's
testimony of His Son. And Jesus Christ is set forth
by gospel preachers. How shall you hear without a
preacher? I didn't say that, God did. How you gonna hear? You can't
call on an unrevealed God, and you can't know God apart from
hearing, and you can't hear without a preacher. And he can't preach
if God don't send him. Every man that you know in your
life is not a preacher. And though you love them and
trust them, they're not called of God. God gives testimony through His
Word, and God gives testimony through gospel preaching. Listen
to this. Peter said in chapter 1, verse
25 of 1 Peter, he said, But the Word of the Lord endureth forever. That's what we're talking about,
the word of God. And this is the word which by the gospel
is preached unto you, made known unto you, testified of God to
you. We're ambassadors of Christ as
though God did beseech you by us, be you reconciled to God. And then thirdly, Jesus Christ
is set forth by the revelation of the Spirit of God. And none
of these three witnesses work independent of the other. You hear me? They all three work
in harmony. There is no preaching apart from
the Word. There's no understanding apart
from the Spirit. And there's no hearing without
a preacher. They don't work independent of one another. He's not telling
you there's three sources of truth in the world. No, he's
telling you there's one source of truth and three means by which
you're gonna receive it. And they work in perfect harmony.
Paul said, now we have received not the spirit of the world,
but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things
that are freely given to us of God. Which things we speak. That's what we preach. Not in
the words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost
teaches. Comparing spiritual things with
spiritual. But the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. You search the scriptures. I've told you who I am. John
the Baptist told you who I am. My disciples told you who I am.
But you won't come to me that you might have life. Why? Because the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, they're foolishness to
it. Neither can he know them, because they're spiritually discerned. Many years ago we lived in an
old farmhouse way up in northern Ohio. We were very poor. We didn't have anything. And
this old house, I guess it was the first house we ever lived
in, and I was Old enough to remember, but that is about as far back
as my memory goes. I was really small. And we had
lights in the house. And I thought that was a big
deal. We didn't have to use the lanterns
anymore. We had lights in the house. We
had an inside pump, little old short pump about that big. You
sit there and pump water. Man, that was cool. Actually had running water in
the house. And one day, there was a knock
on the door, and it was a guy selling Kirby vacuum cleaners.
This was way back in the 50s. And this guy, boy, I mean, he
come in just 90 miles an hour. He just, boy, he was unpacking
and selling and talking. You couldn't get a word in age-wise.
And then he started breaking it all down. He's going to give
you a demonstration. And he started getting all this
stuff out. And he had these little jars. And this one had this in
it. And this one had that. And this one had something else. And mom was trying to stop him.
And he was just dumping stuff all over this big area rug that
we had. Had all this stuff out. And finally,
she just sat there like this and looked at him. And he got
all these things out, got the vacuum cleaner all hooked up.
And he said, now, where can I plug this in? She said, I've been
trying to tell you we don't have any plugs. All we have is lights. What should have been his closing
argument, his closing demonstration turned out to be a total embarrassment
because he had no power. Paul said, our preaching. is
in demonstration of the Spirit and power. Power. Where's that power come from?
The Spirit of God. Otherwise, it's just words, ain't
it? I don't care if they're true or false, they're just words. Not important about my words, it's important about His words.
His words. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2,
for his speech and preaching was not with enticing words of
man's wisdom, but in demonstration of spirit and power. Paul said,
preach the Word, Timothy. Preach the Word. Fill your message full of His
Word. When you're preaching something, preach it dogmatic because it's
based on His Word. Preach the Word. Be instant. In season, out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with
all longsuffering and doctrine. That's what you do when you preach
the Word of God. For the time will come when they will not
endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap
to themselves teachers having itching ears, and they shall
turn away the ears from the truth, and shall be turned to fables.
And I say these things to you for two reasons. First of all,
I say them as a warning. The gospel is the testimony of
God. To reject it is to make God a
liar. You can read that for yourself
over in 1 John 5. You reject his testimony, his
witnesses. You make God a liar. And you make his son and his
work a vain show. And then secondly, that you might
believe. That's why I say these things,
that you might believe. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. Do you believe that? Our lives are a mess, ain't they?
You know who makes them a mess? Us. Destruction and misery are
in our ways. We make ourselves miserable.
We make ourselves miserable because we lust for things of this world.
We lust for things of this world because we have not yet seen
something better. When you see him, this, I don't
know how else to say, time is, I was talking to one of the young
boys here this morning. Time, just like that, it's gone. It's
gone. I said, yeah, I couldn't wait
to be 16 so I could get my driver's license, and then I couldn't
wait to be 18. Then I was on my own. I could
leave home, do whatever I wanted to do. Couldn't wait till I was 21.
I could vote. 21. And boy, next thing I knew,
I was 45. I mean, I just blinked my eyes
and I was 45. Now I'm 71. All of these things in this life
that consume our interest and our minds and our emotions, I'm
telling you, are going to be dissolved. There's only one relationship
that's going to survive this, and that's our relationship to
Him. And I'm going to tell you something
else. When that relationship gets right, if it gets right,
If God's pleased to give you a relationship with Him, pleased
to join you with His Son, quicken you in His Son, everything else
in your life, it's gonna get right. It's gonna get right. And I don't care what the problem
is, that's the answer. That's the answer. I don't have
any counseling beyond that. And if I can't turn you to Christ
through that, Then what in the world good's it gonna do me to
stand there and argue with you, huh? Nothing, nothing. That's why we come here, that's
why these words are so important. He said, you search the scriptures,
you got an interest in the word of God, but you won't come to
me. My word's not abiding in you, you have not the love of
God in you. I know you, I know what you are. And you got this big diploma
and got this big gown and got these big badges and things telling
who you are and you're sitting in judgment on the son of God.
That's how ignorant you are. But you're not gonna hurt me.
My father's working here and so am I. And he went right on
working, right, even though they were just calling him everything
but a milk cow. He went right on. And he's still
going right on today.