Most of my comments will be taken
from John chapter 5, so if you'd like to open your Bibles and
have them there before you. Our Lord has instructed us to
preach the word, not the words of the preacher, which he has
promised to bless, but his word. He said, My word shall not return
unto me void. But my word shall accomplish
that whereunto I have sent it, and that which pleases me." So
I am most desirous this morning that you hear God speak through
his word. Now, someone once said, time
changes everything. Time changes everything. And
I hate to tear up all of our little clichés, but that's just
not so. That's just not so. There's some
things that time does not change. A lot of things time does change.
I wish we'd say things like they ought to be said. Time changes
a lot of things. But time doesn't change everything.
Time hasn't changed the fact of sin. Sin is still S-I-N, sin. It's still exceeding, Paul said,
exceeding sinful. It still lives in our hearts. It still reigns in some hearts.
Sin is still there. Time has not changed the fact
of sin. It's not changed the reigning,
ruling power of sin. It's still there. It's still
a factor and force which must be dealt with. Secondly, time
has not changed the holiness of God. He said heaven and earth
shall pass away, but not one jot or one tittle shall pass
from my law, from my word, till it's all fulfilled." Time has
not changed our sinfulness, and it hasn't changed God's holiness. It hasn't altered the requirements
of his perfect law. That law is still as binding,
it still is perfect, still immaculate, immutable, as it always has been. Time has not changed that. It
hasn't altered it. It hasn't taken the edge off
of it. It's still God's holy law. It's still God's justice
and righteousness. He is a jealous and a holy and
a righteous God. And then thirdly, time has not
changed the way that God saves sinners. Now we've invented all
sorts of ways. New ways, old ways, different
ways, strange ways, weird ways. Somebody said wise and otherwise. But God only has one way. He
said, Christ said, I am the way, I am the way, the truth and the
life. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. It is still true without the
shedding of blood there's no remission. We can deny it, we
can mock it, we can make fun of it, but the blood maketh atonement
for the soul. It's the blood that maketh atonement
for the soul. That's never been altered. It's
still so in 1981 as it was 4,000 years ago and 2,000 years ago.
Time has not altered it, has not changed it. And then fourthly,
and this moves into the message that I want to bring, time has
not changed religious men's efforts to merit heaven by their own
works. We're still doing it. We're still
doing it. We've been doing it for 6,000
years. Keynes started the whole mess.
Merit heaven by what you do and not what Christ did. Merit heaven
by your works and not his blood. Merit God's acceptance by your
deeds and not by his righteousness. We've been trying it. Paul said
in Romans 10, verse 1, my heart's desire and prayer to God for
Israel is that they might be saved. I bear them record. They're
enthusiastic about God, they have a zeal for God, but not
according to knowledge, for they're ignorant, ignorant of God's righteousness,
ignorant of God's requirements, ignorant of God's holiness, ignorant
of God's justice, they're ignorant of God. And they're going about,
going about, working, striving, going about to establish for
themselves a righteousness before God. Time hasn't changed that. Cain started it, and it's still
actually, I guess, more prevalent today than ever before. Religious
men and women, like these in our text, they got so angry.
Christ healed a man on the Sabbath day, and they said, don't you
know this is the Sabbath? Don't you know that you can't heal
somebody on the Sabbath day? Don't you know that you can't
do that? Our rules, our laws tell us that we keep the Sabbath,
that we march to the tune of the Sabbath. Don't you know you
can't do that? You're not God. You make yourself
equal with God. We'll kill you. We'll destroy
you. We'll murder you in defense of
our religion. It's a religion of doctrines,
a religion of ceremonies, a religion of creeds, a religion of carnal
assurance, a religion with everything but L-O-V-E love. Oh, how strict
and rigid and righteous and holy we are in defense of our religion. We'll kill a man when he crosses
our religious creeds and beliefs. We'll destroy him. And that just
shows it's not of God. And then our Lord set forth here
four undeniable witnesses of His glory. I gave them to you.
He said John the Baptist came. He was the forerunner of Christ.
John the Baptist came. See that in verse 32, verse 33. John came and bore witness. But
he said, I don't need the witness of me, and I say this that you
might be saved. I declare unto you and let you in on what God
is doing. I let you have an inside look
into God's purposes. He sent John. Christ could have
come without John, but according to the scriptures, John had to
come first, according to the scriptures. And then Christ said,
the works that I do. You know, John the Baptist, I
don't quite understand this. And I guess the human factor
is in here somewhere, and don't try to explain it, because you
can't and I can't either. Just state it. But John the Baptist
was sent as the forerunner of Christ, the forerunner of the
King. Back in those days, the King
always sent the runner before him, the forerunner, the one,
the advanced man, the fellow that went before him to level
out the smooth places, bring down the high places. make way
for the king, prepare you the way of the Lord. And John saw
Christ and baptized Christ to fulfill all righteousness. And
John also had a word from heaven about the deity of Christ. Our Lord, the heaven and Father,
said to John, Upon whom you see the Spirit of God descending,
then that's the Messiah. And John announced it. He said,
Here's the Lamb of God. I testify that he's the Lamb
of God. And yet John's sitting over there
in prison. He's sitting over there in prison
about to be beheaded, and he's lonely and deserted, and by himself,
and he's troubled, and he calls two of his disciples. Now some
people say he did this for the sake of these disciples, but
I do not know. I know that John sent two of
his disciples. John was a man of God, but he
was still a man. He was a man sent from God, but
he was still a man, subject to fear and doubt and uncertainty.
And he sent two of his disciples, he said, go and ask him if he's
the Messiah. And they came and they said,
we've come from John. And John wants to know if you're the Messiah.
And our Lord said, you go tell John that the blind see, and
the deaf hear, and the lame walk. And be not faithless, but believing,
you know. Blessed are they that have seen
and have believed, but more blessed are they who have not seen and
have believed. Go tell John. Go reassure John. No man could
do these miracles except God be with him. And that's what
he's saying here in verse 36, I have greater witness than that
of John. Because this witness convinced John. This witness
convinced John. But then, verse 37, even a greater
witness, the Father himself! God spoke. When our Lord was
baptized, the Heavenly Father said this, is my beloved Son,
the Son of my love, the Son of my love, in whom I am well pleased. The Father bore witness of me,
and then the Scriptures, the Scriptures are witnesses. You search the Scriptures, they
testify of me. If you could take this Bible
and condense it, if you could take it and press it and condense
it and get out of it In one word, the essence of it, the substance
of it, the heart of it, the glory of it, the message of it, what
it's all about, that one word would be Jesus Christ. That's
what it's all about. That's what the word is all about.
Moses wrote of me, Abraham saw my day, David said unto my Lord,
the Lord said unto my Lord, David wrote of me. Just take the Bible,
Isaiah, just compress it, every word of every, to him give all
the prophets witness. All right, after stating that,
our Lord was challenged by these men. They don't care who they
challenged, they just don't care who they challenged. And they
challenged the Lord in defense of their Sabbath, in defense
of their ceremony, in defense of their rules and regulations,
in defense of their ideas of God. They don't care who they
challenged, they challenged God Himself. They've got this morality,
system of morality, this system of doctrine, this system of ceremony
and ritualism, they've got it set up, they've got their houses
built, they've got their foundations poured, they've got their refuges
all secure, and they're in them, and they're locked in, and they're
staying there, and they'll challenge anybody that challenges them. And our Lord said, I've got several
witnesses. I've got several witnesses as
to who I am. But now I've got something to say to you, and
beginning with verse 39, the first charge he brings against
them is, he says, verse 39, search the Scriptures. And this is,
and I'm not violating this at all, every Bible student in this
congregation knows that Christ is saying here, you do search
the Scriptures. And that's what he said. He's
not telling these men to search the Scriptures. They did, didn't
he? These fellows he was talking
to were students of the Word. Saul of Tarsus, don't kid yourself,
Saul of Tarsus knew the Bible backwards and forwards from Genesis
to Malachi. I know everybody's so excited
about this Jack VanIppy that they call him the walking Bible,
the man who can quote more Bible than anyone. He's one of the
biggest farces and frauds that ever walked in shoe leather.
You listen to him sometimes. Last Sunday, I couldn't get over,
I couldn't believe a man in the name of God would make the statements
he was making. Talking about rewards in heaven,
he says, I tell you, and he says in John 14, in my Father's house
there are many mansions. He says that's many different
kinds of dwelling places, some big, some little. And your dwelling
place in heaven is going to depend on the material you send up there
to build it with. Now you think about that. That
man's a fraud. Now you send your money to me
and I'll build you a mansion up there. Be sure and send it
through his outfit though. He's selling all these things.
That's a fraud. The scripture teaches the first shall be last
and the last shall be first, and that's not many kinds of
dwelling places, that's many dwelling places. But go on from
there. Our Lord said, you search the
scriptures. They did, they were students of the scriptures. You
can memorize it and quote it and study it and still miss Christ. And that's what people are awed
and they're fascinated by folks that can rattle off Scripture.
Solitarsis could rattle off the Scripture. Nicodemus could rattle
off the Scripture. All of these fellows could rattle
off the Scripture. You search the Scriptures. Now
here's your problem. You think in them you have life. You think you have life in the
Scriptures. That's not where life is. Now
brethren, let me say something here. Let us have a high esteem. I talked to the preachers about
this in class Saturday a week ago. Let's have a high esteem
and a sincere, deep regard for this book. I love this book. I have the highest and most sincere
regard. It is barely the Word of God.
This is the Word of God. All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God. All Scripture is God-breathed.
God-breathed. Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God." This
is God's Word, verily God's Word. His Word abided forever. His
Word is necessary to salvation. He has begotten us again through
the living Word, unto a living hope by His Word. And faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. But let me tell
you something. Salvation is not a doctrine. Salvation is not
a system of theology. Salvation is a person. And the
Scripture does not say, he that believeth the Bible shall be
saved, but he that believeth on the Son shall be saved. Don't
make a God out of the Bible, a Savior out of the Bible. You
can memorize the Bible You can memorize doctrine and theology.
You can be accurate in your orthodoxy and miss Christ. That's what
he's saying to these men. Here's the charge he brings against
them. You do search the scriptures. You're searching the scriptures
and studying the scriptures and memorizing the scriptures. For
you think in the scriptures you have life, but they are they
which testify of me. I see these preachers on television
and the television camera scans the congregation, and everybody
has got a Bible, and they all got pencils marking their Bibles,
you know, and that's well and good, just as long, just as long
as you're not trying to find some hope, life, forgiveness,
salvation from this book. It's not here, it's in Christ.
This book drives you to Christ. This book points you to Christ.
This book tells you about Christ. This book turns you to Christ.
And you can memorize the creation story, and memorize the law,
and memorize all of the major and minor prophets, and you can
memorize the New Testament. You know, when the church was
founded, and organized, and how it's disciplined, and how it's
run, and how it's controlled, and what's to do here, and do
there, and say here, and say there, and how many years Christ...
One preacher out in Texas wrote a book and went to great length
in pointing out that Christ had to be crucified on Wednesday
and not on Friday. He's made this an issue. Well,
let me tell you something. You might be able to go through
all the scriptures and prove what day he was crucified on
and still not know him. You see what I'm saying? Don't
get bogged down. You can find out who the beast
is and who the Antichrist is and where Armageddon will be
fought, who will be at Armageddon, and be in there yourself on the
wrong side. I wish we could quit making a
God out of the means. Our Lord God came to this earth.
The Lord God of heaven came to this earth through a woman. He
was born carried in a mother's womb and born from a mother,
and she was only the means, highly favored among women, blessed
among women, honored of God, favored of God, and all that. She bore the person who was to
be the Redeemer, the Son of God. But we made a God out of the
woman. We bowed down to the woman. We worshiped the woman instead
of the Son she bore. Same thing about baptism, there
are whole denominations that are built on that pool right
there. That's their chief doctrine,
the water. The right mode, the right administrator,
the right this and right that, right nothing, that's nothing
in the world but an ordinance to point me to Christ. Nothing
in this world. And their whole churches, their
denominations at the sacrament is the very center point of their
theology. They take the bread and the wine
every large day, the Eucharist and the sacraments and the communion
and all these things, they're so precise and so accurate to
get the right thing at the right time and give to the right people,
and they all go to hell. It's a memorial feast. It's to
show my death until I come, to show my death until I come. Even
the cross! Our Lord died on a cross, a cruel
Roman cross, a wretched, ignominious cross, a vile, shameful cross! And what did we do? We put it
on our steeples, we put it on our communion tables and our
pulpit, we wear it around our necks, we hang it from our bibles,
the cross! Not the Christ, it's the cross
we're worshiping. That cross has no power to save
anybody. If you'd have been standing down
underneath that cross when he died, with your arms wrapped
around it, and his blood had splattered upon you, you could
still go to hell. Did you know that? Salvation
is through faith in Christ. Not seeing him with the natural
eye, not hanging on to a cross, not wearing a cross, not displaying
a cross, but we take these means, that was the means. The means
was used and put aside. Don't resurrect it, don't bring
it back, don't raise it up. I get fed up when I go into a
home and see some silly picture of what they call the Lord hanging
on the wall. That's an idol is what that is. I shall not make unto thee any
graven image." You're worshiping an idol. And people make idols
out of this book right here. They're orthodox theologians.
They're so precise and accurate, they care more for their accuracy
than they do for their attitude. And of course, what our Lord's
saying to them here, you search the Scriptures. In them you think
you have life. You think because you're a theologian,
because you're a moral ceremonialist, because you have the right this
and the right that and the right other that you have life. They
testify of me. They are a means. As Mary was
a means, as baptism is a means, as the table is a means, as the
cross was a means, as the Bible is a means, every one of these
things is a means to turn the sinner to a person, to love him,
to trust him, to believe on him, to walk with him, for him to
live in your heart. And you go in churches and they
burn candles and they wear uniforms and they parade up and down the
aisles and they're processionals and all. These things are nothing
in the world but visual aids to people who have no heart knowledge
of Christ. They have to have this junk because
they don't have this grace. Is that too hard? That's the
truth. It's time our Lord got hard with them. And what I'm
trying to do is shake people out of a false refuge. All right,
the second charge that he brought against them is found here in
verse 40. You will not. You will not come
to me that you might have life. You won't do it. Now, I'm not
talking about a bodily coming to Christ. We're not talking
about a corporeal coming, they say. That's not a word we use.
I change it to bodily or physical coming. Many came to him this
way. Many came to him physically.
Is salvation a physical walking down an aisle? I watched a fellow
this morning, and he showed scenes from his revival meetings. You
hear people kneeling down here, and people are kneeling around
them, and they came down the aisle and embraced them, and
everybody felt happy, and they rejoiced and shook hands, nice,
free. He physically made a move. He physically came to some point. He physically addressed himself
to a certain point. Is that salvation? Well, Nicodemus
came that way. He physically came to Christ.
He came by night. Physically. Alright, the rich
young ruler came that way. He came and ran and kneeled. But he also walked off too. When
he found out what the commitment was, what the committal was,
what the truth was, he walked away. But he did come. And all
the way through the Bible we find people coming to be healed.
They believe because of the miracles. We find people coming to him
for the loaves and fishes. Christ said, I know why you're
here. I know why you're here. You're here because you ate the
loaves and were filled. That's why you're here. You're
here for the benefits. You're here for the goodies.
You rode the bus for the hot dogs. I know why you're here.
You came for the special treat. You came for the $10 bill and
the hymn book. I know why you're here. You came
for the loaves and fishes. Some came to hear him preach
out of curiosity. Let me tell you something. Some
of them came to him. They came to him aright. They came to him in heart. There
was the harlot who came to him as a sinner and knelt at his
feet and bathed his feet in tears of sorrow and grief and repentance. She came to him. She came to
him as a sinner. She came to him with a broken
heart. The publican came to him. God be merciful to me, a sinner.
He came to him, and also one came to him, the leper came to
him as the sovereign. He came running and fell down
at his feet and said, Lord, if you will, you can make me whole,
make me clean. He came to him. And Bartimaeus
came to him as the Messiah. He cried out, Jesus, thou son
of David, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And the thief on the cross came
to him as a king. He said, Lord, you're not going
to stay dead. You're coming into a kingdom.
When you do, would you remember me? He came to him. They wouldn't
come this way. Christ said you will not come.
You won't come as sinners. You won't come as needy creatures.
You won't come as defiled creatures. You won't come to a sovereign.
You won't come seeking mercy. You won't acknowledge I'm the
Messiah. You won't come to me as the King. You just won't come. And therefore you won't have
life. The third charge, quickly, he
said here in verse 42. Oh, I read this, like Aaron said
last night, he said, I like this. This is so revealing. I like
this. If you don't like it, if I don't
like it, you're not going to like it, I know. If I don't like
it, I'm not going to be able to tell you about it. But listen
to what our Lord said. I know you. Boy, what about that? I know you. I know you. Your wife don't,
but he does. She thinks you're such a righteous,
holy, godly, believing person. I got a letter from a lady this
week. It made me tremble when I read it. Talking about her
husband. He died. She knew he was in heaven
because he was such a imminently good man. That scared me when
she said that. He was such an imminently, wasn't
that the word? Good man. God Christ said, I
know you. Your preacher, he doesn't know
you, but Christ says, I know you. I know you. I know you,
the people you associate with, they don't know you. Others are
confined to your claims. Others are confined to knowing
your profession and your word. But Christ said, I know you. Even you don't know yourself
like he does. The heart's deceitful. Who can
know it? But he said, I know you. What about us, Lord? I know
this about you. I know you don't have the love
of God in you. You have the love of this world
in you, and you have the love of pleasure in you, and you have
the love of self in you, but you don't have the love of God
in you. That's my charge. You don't love
God, you love yourself. You don't love your neighbor,
you love the world. I know you. I know you. Turn to 1 John 5
and listen to him here, 1 John chapter 5. Look at verse 1 of
1 John chapter 5. That Jesus is the Christ, is
born of God, and everyone that loveth him, that begat, loveth
him also that is begotten of him. If you love God, Christ
said there'd be evidence if you loved God. If you loved God,
you'd love each other if you loved God. You say, I love God,
but Christ said, I know you, I know better. God looks on the
heart, he doesn't look on the outward countenance. I know your
heart, he says, I know your thoughts. I know you do not have the love
of God in you. And then the fourth charge he
brings against him in verse 43. And I want you to look at what
a revelation of the depravity of natural mind, the natural
mind we have here, John 5, verse 43, I am come in my Father's
name. I am come in my Father's name.
In fulfillment of Scripture, in fulfillment of promise. Well,
they knew that the Messiah was to be born at Bethlehem, they
read that in the Scripture. They knew he was to be of the
family of Jesse, of the tribe of Judah, of the house and lineage
of David, they knew that. I'm coming to fulfill my scriptures.
The scripture talks about his disciples, who they would be,
even the one that would betray him, and how much he'd sell him
for, and what they'd use the money for to buy a potter's feet.
It's all in the scriptures. Christ was sent of the Father,
he was in the world, and the world knew him not. He came in
his own, in his own received him not. He said, I'm coming
in my Father's name, and you won't receive me. You won't receive
me. Now, here's the depravity of
the human heart. What's it? Let another come in his own name,
with no evidences, with no proof, with no scriptural backing, and
him you will receive. Now, don't you think about that.
And him you will receive. My friends, it shouldn't be astounding.
I heard a television commentator say the other day how astounded
he was that a man like Jim Jones could hoodwink and deceive and
fool 900 people or 1,000 people, more than that. I'm not surprised.
Look at Buddha. How many followers are there
of Buddha? He's dead and buried. He had no evidence, no witness,
no proof, no resurrection. And yet a whole nation of Japan
follows. Confucius, Mohammed, Mohammed. They don't even know
where his grave is. Let another come in his own name.
Take the religious leaders of this day. The people can read
in magazines. What these men, Roberts, Humbart,
Falwell, Robertson, Baker, you can read. The men are getting
fabulously wealthy. They're misusing funds. Like
this PTL club, they misplaced something like $12 or $13 million
for a special mission fund, couldn't account for it, and the government
stepped in and wanted to know where it was. Well, a computer
lost it, they said. And just laughed. And people
still, they roll in $58 million a year at every one of those
causes. And these men will stand and deny the scriptures, like
Jimmy Swigert said in my own hearing, Romans 8.28, it's just
not so. It's just not so, he says. All
things do not work together for good to them who love God. And
some poor widow will sit down and write him a check. That's the natural, twisted,
corrupt, and you may be sitting there right now mad at me because
I'm calling these men's names. But they're frauds. and finally
will prove to be false. And this is what charge our Lord
brings against this religious generation. Let a man come preaching
the Word in the Father's name, reading it out of the Bible,
and you won't receive him. Let another fellow come denying
the scriptures wearing 10 carat rings and driving double air-conditioned
automobiles and living in a $650,000 condominium on Miami Beach and
folks were receiving and supporting. That's fantastic, isn't it? But
that's the modern religious mind. It's depraved. It's twisted,
clear out of shape. I've come in my Father's name,
and you receive me not. Let another come in his own name,
supporting his own program, naming everything after himself in his
own name, and him you will receive." All right, look at the next verse.
Here's the next charge against this religious generation. How
can you believe? How can you? "...which receive
honor one of another." Oh, we like that praise, don't we? We
love that honor. We love to be somebody. We love
to be thought to be somebody. We honor and respect and brag
on one another. We like to be seen of men. We
like the uppermost seats. We like to be called doctor and
bishop and archbishop and cardinal and pope and reverend. And we
love these high-sounding titles. uppermost seats, and we love
the praise of men. It's just one filthy worm bragging
on another filthy worm. That's all. How can you believe? How can you believe? You're seeking
the honor that comes from men. You're seeking the approval of
men. You're seeking the praise of men. You're seeking the adoration
of men. You're seeking fame among men.
You like to see your name in print. You like folks to clap
and cheer you and say, Mr. So-and-so, he's one of the pillars
of our church, a man of God. Oh, that sounds good. We love
that stuff. How can we believe? Here's why
we seek not the honor that comes from God only. Listen, the doctrines
of Christ are unsuitable to the carnal mind. The natural mind
is enmity. The natural men receive it, not
the things of God. And the doctrines of Christ are
unsuitable to the natural mind. And the followers of Christ are
a crowd of nobodies. Now, you can put that down, the
followers of Christ, they are despised of men. Christ said,
the world hated me, it will hate you. If you identify yourself
with the followers of Christ, you're going to mark yourself
off the list of 90% of this world's population. Now, that's so. The followers of Christ are nobodies. God has chosen the weak, the
foolish, the despised, and the base. And it's pretty tough to
be identified with that outfit, unless you understand some things
that they understand. That's right. Now put it down.
You cannot, there's no way that you can be highly respected and
your name in lights among men, and yet at the same time be identified
with the despised carpenter of Nashville and his disciples. I'm sorry my friend, it cannot
be done. How can you believe? How can
you? You're looking for honor on this
earth. You're looking to leave a mark on this earth. You're
looking to leave a monument to yourself on this earth. You're
trying to get men to say when you're gone, he was a great man. They're not going to do it. Now,
if you know Christ and walk with Christ, they're going to say
he was a fanatic, he was a radical, he was a fool. Because that's
what they said Christ was. And that's what they said the
disciples were. And that's what they said of Martin Luther when
he died. They're praising him now, but
he's been dead 400 years, so nobody knows what he preached. The honor that comes from God
is being made glorious within, not without. The honor that comes
from God is to have a new name, not a new house. The honor that
comes from God is being an heir of God, not an heir of this world.
The honor that comes from God is looking for a kingdom, not
building one. Moses counted the reproach of
Christ to be greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. Moses
could not live in Egypt and live with Israel. Moses could not
walk with the Egyptians and walk with the Israelites. Moses could
not be called a great man among Egyptians and be a great man
among the Israelites. It could not be done. So he chose
the reproaches of Christ. Greater riches, greater honor.
than any honor or praise this world could ever give. My friends,
let me tell you something. I like what old William Carey
said when his son Felix was made an ambassador by the Queen of
England to India. His son Felix was a missionary,
and the Queen made him an ambassador to India, and when his father
heard about it, he wept. Most fathers would have stuck
their chest out until all the buttons came off their vests.
My son's an ambassador. But Mr. William Carey, man of
God, said this, My son has shriveled and shrunk from a missionary
to an ambassador. He knew something about the honor
that comes from God only. Take your choice. Christ said,
How can you believe? How can you understand? suffering
with Christ, bearing in your body the marks of Christ, identified
with the reproach of Christ. You can't understand that as
long as you're trying to find approval with the people of this
world. They're not going to approve
of you because they don't approve of your Lord. They don't approve
of his Word, they don't approve of his sovereign grace, and therefore
you can't play both sides. You can't do it. That's what
he says here. It cannot be done. It cannot
be done. All right, look at this verse
45, the fifth charge he brings against them is this, or the
sixth charge. He says in verse 45, Do not think
I'll accuse you of the Father. There's one that will accuse
you, even Moses, in whom you trust. Now, they didn't trust
Moses himself. I know that. This is what we
do in the preacher's class. We try to find out what a scripture
means by the process of eliminating what it doesn't mean. These people
weren't trusting in Moses himself. Moses was dead and buried and
been dead 2,000 years. They were not trusting the writings
of Moses. Not the writings of Moses. They
were not trusting the doctrines of Moses. They were trusting...
What did Moses represent, Bill? The law. That's exactly it, the
law. That's what they were trusting.
You trust in Moses. What were they trusting? They
rested in the law, they made their boast of the law, they
expected eternal life and salvation on account of keeping the law.
Watch it now, the Pharisee came into the temple and he lifted
his eyes to heaven and he said, Lord, I thank you, I'm not like
other men, I tithe, I fast, I give alms to the poor," you know what
he said? I'm not an adulterer, I'm not an extortioner, he started
naming the Ten Commandments and he said, I've kept them. I've
kept them. That's what Christ said, you
trust in Moses, you trust in the law for salvation. Do you
not hear the law? Have we not preached it clear
enough so that you would be frightened enough by it? I'm frightened
of the law. One man said to me one time, well, the Ten Commandments
are enough religion for me. I quoted a tract I read one time.
I said, it's too much for me. You'll find out the Ten Commandments
are too much religion. They're too holy for you. What
the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law, that
every mouth may be stopped, and all the world become guilty before
God." The last charge, quickly, verse 47. Talking about Moses,
if you'd have believed Moses, you'd have believed me. He wrote
of me, verse 47, but you believed not his writings. You believed
not his writings. My friends, The light of nature,
I'm going to preach on this tonight from Psalm 19. The light of nature,
heavens, providence, the work of creation manifest the wisdom
and power of God. A man can stand out under the
stars and know there's a God. He can watch the corn grow and
know there's a God. A baby born and know there's
a God. But these things are not sufficient. to give a man a knowledge
of the redemptive grace of God. There's no way. No way a man
can be saved by looking at the stars, because the stars do not
tell us who Christ is and what he did and why he did it and
where he is now. The only place you can go is the Word. That's
what our Lord says, you believe not these writings. And if you
believe not these writings, how can you believe me? You see what
he's saying? Because these writings here reveal
the redemptive character of Christ. Who is Jesus Christ? Where am
I going to go to find out who he is? To the Word. What am I? Before God. Now, I know before
you, we're friends. We've been living together a
long time now, thirty-some-odd years. We're friends and I know
you pretty well and you know me pretty well. But where do
I go to find out what God thinks of me? Go to His Word. See that?
That's the only place I can find that. Where do I go? Will God forgive sin? Will He?
Well, where do you go to find out? To the Word. Well, how does
He forgive sin? How is God going to be just and
justify? How is His righteousness going
to be fulfilled and yet His love manifested? How is God going
to stay God and yet be a forgiver? How is He going to punish sin
and yet forgive sin? That's one place you can find
that out. That's the Scriptures, the Word of God. And let me tell
you this. You don't interpret the scriptures. You don't do
it. The scriptures interpret the
scriptures. Turn to the book of 1 Peter. Let's see if I can
find this. I didn't have this scripture jotted down. Let's
see if I can find it. It's in chapter 1 of 2 Peter
and verse 20. The scriptures themselves interpret
the scriptures. That's right. You don't. And
this is one of our biggest problems today. A woman called me on the
phone yesterday and wanted to know what I believed about grace
and so forth, and she said, Well, don't you believe that God's
not willing that any should perish? Well, I said in the first place,
that's not what the Bible says. Oh, yes, yes, it says God's not
willing. I said, No, it doesn't say that.
It doesn't say that, Cecil, does it? That's just a phrase taken
out of the Scripture. Here's what it says. God is long-suffering
to usward and not willing that any should perish, but that all
should come to repentance. That's a white horse of another
color. Somebody said to me one time, and she also quoted this,
you preach whosoever will may come. I said, well, that's not
what the Bible says either. No, I don't preach that because
that ain't what God said. Well, yes, it is. No, it's not.
The scripture says this. The Spirit and the Bride say,
Come, let him that heareth say, Come, let him that is athirst
come, and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."
That's what it says, isn't it, darling? It doesn't say, Whosoever
will may come. It says, Whosoever is athirst,
let him take it. Well, the Bible says, Him that cometh to me out
of no wise cast out. It doesn't say that either. It
does not say that. all that my Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh out of nowhere." I'm telling
you this, the Bible interprets the Bible. You don't. The Bible
means what it means. It means what it means. And it
says, knowing this first, no prophecy of the scripture is
of any private interpretation. What does that mean? That means
this, that Acts 2.38 cannot be interpreted in light of Acts
2.38. It's got to be interpreted in the light of the whole Bible.
It means, in Acts 2.38, what it meant in John 1.1, and what
it means in 1 Timothy 2.15, and what it means in Genesis 6, verse
3. That's what it means. You better
quit like a crow in a cornfield running down picking up what
you see. And grabbing a hold up and running with it, my friends,
like old Barnard used to say, better buy your Bible and read
the whole thing. Because it's all scriptures given
by inspiration of God. No scripture text is interpreted
in the light of itself, but in the light of the whole book.
And when you want to know God's will, like the dear lady who
said God's not willing that any should perish. Well, God's long-suffering
to us for it. That's written to believers,
and not willing that any of his sheep, because he said, All that
my Father giveth me shall come to me. This is the will of him
that sent me, that of all which he hath given me I'll lose nothing,
but raise it up at the last day. I pray not for the world, I pray
for them which thou hast given me.