Are Your Affairs in Order?

I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to John chapter 5 and hold your place at verse 24. John chapter 5 beginning at verse 24. As you're turning I just want to have you think of a question this morning as this is the theme of the message.

And the question is this. Are your affairs in order? Are your affairs in order? In all of life's vocabulary few phrases carry more weight or more dread than going and sitting in a doctor's office and the doctor after having run tests and examined you look you in the face and say it's time to get your affairs in order.

This is usually the way that a doctor will tell someone that their illness has gone beyond what any type of earthly treatment would be able to provide healing for and essentially they have an impending passing that they are facing.

And I don't know about you but I have counseled with people who have been through this very thing who wake up in the morning feeling like the days are going to go on as they always have they are going to go on normally but they go to the doctor's office they sit with the physician and the physician pulls out his folder and with a ominous tone says it's time to get your affairs in order.

We've done all that we can do. And while that's a tremendously devastating thing to hear it does at least come with one small positive and the small positive is this you still have some time you still have some time to get your affairs in order.

The person who is told to get their affairs in order has time to prepare themselves to prepare their will to prepare their family to prepare those who are going to be attending to the needs after they're gone.

Unlike someone who is taken unexpectedly the person can now consider all the things that they need to do before the end comes. Well in our text today we're going to be continuing on in the words of Jesus where he is talking about the subject of judgment.

We have been studying the gospel of John now for many months and we find ourselves in the middle of a longer discourse of the Lord Jesus Christ and he is going to remind us in this discourse that judgment is coming not a single person will escape it.

And for many of you that may sound like terrible news it may sound like frightening news but the good news is this. And we're going to see this in the text today that for those who trust in Christ there is now no condemnation and no reason to fear judgment because we've passed from death to life.

But here's the other part of the good news. For those of you for whom judgment is a dread you have time today is time for you because the Bible says now is the time of salvation. So as we hear the words of Christ as he expresses the absolute certainty of the judgment to come may we all have our affairs in order.

Let's stand together and read the text. The heading in my screen I just noticed is off. It says we're beginning in verse 19. That's incorrect. We're actually beginning in verse 24. So forgive me for that we will begin now reading and we'll read verse 24 down to verse 30.

Truly truly I say to you whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment but has passed from death to life. Truly truly I say to you an hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the son of God.

And those who hear will live. For as the father has life in himself so he has granted the son also to have life in himself and he has given authority to execute judgment because he is the son of man. Do not marvel at this.

For an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out. Those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

I can do nothing of my own as I hear I judge. And my judgment is just because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me. May God add his blessing to the reading of his word. And may we pray.

Father. I thank you for this opportunity to again open up your word together. And Lord as I consider today the very weight of what it is I'm going to be preaching. I pray as I do every week Lord but perhaps today with even a little more a little more intensity God that you would keep me from error for Lord you know that I'm a fallible man and I'm capable of preaching error.

And for the sake of your name for the sake of my conscience for the sake of your people for the sake of your word. Or tie me to the post of the scripture and do not let me stray. And father as your word is proclaimed today.

I pray that for the believer that this would be a moment of encouragement for them that we are told here that we who have heard and believed will not come into judgment. But Lord for those who have not believed whether they be young or old whether they be visitor or even perhaps member Lord whoever they may be who maybe has made a profession of faith but do not possess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and their hearts have not been changed they've not been born again by the spirit of God.

May today be the day of salvation for them. And Lord may your judgment be a reminder to us of your righteousness your goodness your holiness but also your mercy and grace on those who have trusted in your son Lord may your attributes be put on display today as we consider all that you have done and are going to do in Jesus name we pray amen again.

The Healing at Bethesda and the Charge Against Jesus

I want to welcome all of you here today. I know we have several visiting with us and we're grateful to see you all. And the only negative ever about being a visitor here is that you almost always come in in the middle of a series because we preach verse by verse through the Bible and so it's very unlikely that you're going to come in on a one-off sermon.

We just don't really do a lot of those so want to bring everyone up to speed as to where we are in the text because I think it's important that we recognize the context of what we are studying. Jesus has come to Jerusalem in John chapter 5 for a feast one of the many feasts that was held in Jerusalem and Jesus has come and while he is there he is at the pool of Bethesda.

This is on the north portion of the northern portion of the city of Jerusalem and it was a place where invalids would gather around the pool because it was believed that whenever the waters were stirred up that the first one to get down into the water would receive miraculous and divine healing.

And there was a man there who had been an invalid for 38 years and Jesus walks up to this man and says do you want to be healed. And the man says well I can't get down into the water. No one will put me in the water and even if they were able to I'm never going to be the first one because it just takes too long to get me down there.

And Jesus says to rise take up your bed and walk. And the man is immediately miraculously perfectly and totally healed his legs which were unable to bear his weight. He is now able to walk and leap like a deer.

And he picks up his little mat that he had put it under his arm and begins to walk his way. Now a normal person having seen a miracle like that would be overjoyed at a person whose life was absolutely a life of misery and pain has now been given a new lease on life new legs new physical healing and new ability to go and live.

But the Pharisees were more concerned with the fact that he was carrying his mat because their rules as they understood the Sabbath did not allow for the carrying of anything especially a sleeping mat that was considered to be carrying a burden and they were not allowed to do that on the Sabbath.

So they challenged the man. Why are you doing this. The man said well the guy who healed me told me to who healed you. I don't know. He didn't tell me what his name was. He just healed me and walked away.

So later the man comes. Jesus comes back to the man remarks about his healing and tells him to sin no more that nothing else would come upon him. No greater problem would return to him. And the man immediately goes back to the Jews.

I know who did it and we said a few weeks ago I said I don't know if he was snitching to get out of being in trouble for carrying his mat. Don't really know. His motivation could have been that he was just wanting to testify to who Jesus was.

We don't want to judge his character too well or poorly. We don't know. We just know that he went and said that's the guy. And so they come to Jesus and they challenge Jesus. And Jesus says my father is working until now and I am working basically saying that you all don't even understand who I am.

And you don't even understand what I came to do. I came to do the will of him who sent me. You're challenging me on breaking the Sabbath which I didn't. I broke your rules not the law of God. You're challenging me on breaking the rules.

I'll tell you this. I came to do what God sent me to do. My father sent me to do. And it says that this portion that this was why they wanted to kill him. This was why they wanted to kill him because he made himself equal with God.

Well beginning in verse 17 or 19 rather 17 he speaks. But then in 19 we have this long discourse of the Lord Jesus Christ and I call it the apologetic discourse. This is Jesus giving a legal defense of his words and his works.

He begins with a claim to authority. Later next week we're going to see this. He calls three witnesses to his authority. He calls the witness of his own works. He calls the witness of John. And he calls the witness of scripture.

And he says these are the the trifold witness of who I am. And he even says to him I can't wait to preach on this. He says you think you believe the scripture. But you really don't. Because if you believe the scripture you'd believe in me.

Because they testify of me. I look forward to that because we're going to look at how the Old Testament points to and testifies to the Lord Jesus Christ. But in the midst of this last week we looked at verse 19 to 23 and we noted Jesus is expressing his unity with the father.

He says I do nothing of my own accord. I only do what he who sent me called me to do. He states that he has the power to give life to the dead verse 21 and the authority to judge verse 22. But the most incredible claim is what he says in verse 23.

He says that he deserves the same honor as the father. He ever thought about. How outrageous of a claim that would be if it were not true for anyone to say that I am going to be honored just as the father is honored.

In fact just very quickly. For just a moment look looking back at verse 23 he says that all may honor the son just as they honor the father. That means in the same way going to honor the son in the same way that the honor of the father.

And what does he say. Whoever does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent him. Just a reminder of what we've learned over the last couple weeks. Looking at that text remember this. There is no other way to the father except through the son.

Anyone who says I worship God but I do not honor the Lord Jesus Christ. They do not worship God. Or if they believe falsely about the Lord Jesus Christ well I believe he's a good teacher. Guess what if he said these things and he's not the son of God.

He's not a good teacher if he said these things and he's not the divine second person of the Trinity. He's not a good teacher. He's a liar or a lunatic. But he's not a good teacher because a good teacher wouldn't say I'm going to receive the same honor as God.

And whoever doesn't honor me the same way they honor the father will not see the father. No one has the prerogative to say such a thing other than the Lord Jesus Christ himself. This brings us to verse 24.

Verse 24 I would say really is the the key passage to this entire discourse even going on down to the end of the chapter which we will in the weeks ahead. Verse 24 Jesus begins again with this double use of the word amen.

And it's it's it's the word that we translate truly truly. The King James translates it verily verily. It's the word amen amen. It means this is the truth. And he's saying it twice to emphasize it. He's already used it once.

He used the verily verily earlier or the truly truly now. He's using it again. And this time he's emphasizing something that we all need to recognize in its simplest form. He's emphasizing the way a person can be saved.

A person can know that they are saved. Notice what he says truly truly. I say to you whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment. But he does not come into judgment but has passed from death to life just for a moment.

That's the gospel in its simplest form. Whoever hears the words of Jesus and believes the one who sent him he it is that has eternal life he will not come into judgment. We hold very strongly here to the Reformation doctrines known as the five solas.

And if you're unfamiliar with those those are five Latin phrases that came out of the this the 16th century Protestant Reformation. And they remind us of the simplicity of the gospel message. And the simplicity of the gospel message.

Is this that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone according to the scripture alone to God alone be all the glory. And each one of those we might call them battle cries of the Reformation.

Each one of those were in opposition to some falsehood which had arisen in the medieval church and had been proclaimed and taught by Roman Catholicism. The reformers of course were protesting against the false claims of Rome and they said we are saved by grace alone.

See Rome will say grace is necessary. But we say no grace is sufficient. There's a difference. It's it's it's not enough to say grace is necessary. We say grace is sufficient by faith alone. You see we are justified by trusting and what the Lord has done not in what we do.

We read this already in our catechism. Question what is justification. Justification is having our sins forgiven and being declared righteous before God. That is what it means to be justified. It is not an ongoing process.

We have an ongoing process. What do we call that church sanctification. And it says it in the in the in the in fact I want to bring it back up. I think I can do this. Be careful here do something bad.

Yeah here it is. This is what we ask in our in our we say what is justification. Sanctification mean. Justification means our declared righteousness before God. Sanctification means our gradual growing righteousness.

And when you stand before God on judgment day you are going to be justified meaning declared righteous not by your works but by the works of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what we believe that is justification.

Some people say justified means just as if I'd never sinned. I'm not a huge fan of that language. Even though I get where they're in. Sometimes we do need little ditties. We need little simple colloquialisms to get us by.

But it's not as if I hadn't sinned. It's that I am now righteous as Christ was righteous. It's not just the removal of the negative but it is the imputation of the positive. It's not just taking away the bad but it is it is declaring the good.

I love this story and some of you may have heard me tell it before. But there's a story of a little boy and his father went to England and they were watching the changing of the guard. The changing of the guard which is if you've never seen it it's where the guards in front of Buckingham Palace will change for the day.

And it's this ornate deal where they do all of these military movements. And it's very interesting to watch. And where the boy was. And they were trying to watch this event take place. The little boy couldn't really see.

Well the father noticed a place where you could go and go up and look down on it. So they went across and walked up the steps and were able to look down. And the father said to the boy he said aren't those beautiful red coats.

Because you know the Buckingham soldiers they wear the bright red coats. Remember the red coats are coming. They weren't our friends at one point but they had these beautiful red coats. And the boy says dad those coats are white.

And he looked at his son. He says no no. Maybe thinking his son had a color blindness or something. He says no those are bright red coats. Well he the father steps back and notices that the son is looking through a window and the window had a red tint.

And if you've ever looked through glass that is tinted red. Anything that's red on the other side of red tinted glass looks white. It doesn't look red. It's just a it's an optical illusion. It's just try it go find some red tint.

Look through look at something red. It'll look. It looks white. And this illustration as I've used it over the years to simply say when God looks at us because of our being covered in the righteousness of Christ we are covered by God sees us as being like Christ.

He sees us as being washed white as snow and standing in the splendor of his holiness of his righteousness. What are we seeing in that one hymn dressed in his righteousness alone faultless to stand before the throne.

That's that's what we have when we are in Christ. We have a perfect bright white righteousness even though in honesty we're crimson. But though our sins be a scarlet what does God do. Washes them white as snow.

God takes our sin. And as we read in the confession I think it was this morning one of the things we read it said he casts them as far as the east is from the west. That is God's blessing to us. He takes our sin away from us and he gives us Christ's righteousness.

Now I went through all of that simply to to want to help you understand what it means when we read in verse 24 when Jesus says whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. That is a present tense possession.

Now we don't earn eternal life through a lifetime of righteous deeds. We don't gain eternal life through a lifetime of sanctification and growing. Now here's the thing you will get from sanctification and growing you will get more Christlike and praise God for that.

I don't want you to think for a moment that what I'm saying in any way discounts the blessing of God the Holy Spirit coming and living in your heart and causing you to be conformed to the image of Christ.

That is a blessing from God that every believer should hope for and be thankful for that God is conforming us. I will say this I am not what I should be but I'm thankful that I'm not what I was. God has changed my heart.

Right. That's that's the every Christian we can say that. And whether you're in your first year of being a Christian or whether you're in your fifth year being a Christian or whether you're in your twenty-fifth year of being a Christian you can say Christ has changed my life.

And you might. Here's the only hard thing about it is the more Christlike you become in your thinking the more you recognize your own sin and the more the less you feel Christlike sometimes because it hurts so much more to sin.

The closer you get to your Savior the more sanctified you become the more you recognize and hate your sin. And this is where I think we have that struggle within us. You know that struggle of dealing with our sin.

But none of that contributes one iota to your salvation. Because Jesus said he who hears and believes the one who sent me he it is that has present tense possession eternal life. He does not come into judgment but has passed from death to life.

Now I have to say something about that. The word judgment here may may be a little confusing. I want to ask. I should have looked forgive me for not looking. But what does the King James say. There does it say judgment or condemnation.

Thank you. That's that's what I thought. Mikey what is the does it say judgment. Okay. Well the word here Karina the root is is is is the word judgment but can also be the word for condemnation. And this is the same idea that Paul gives us in Romans chapter 8 my favorite chapter of the Bible which begins with no condemnation ends with no separation.

It's just a beautiful chapter of God's word. But what is Romans chapter 8. Verse 1 say. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. There is now no condemnation. Why. Because Jesus said it he said he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life present possession.

And he does not come into condemnation. Why. Because he has passed from death to life. That's what trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ guarantees us. It guarantees us that when we face him at the end of our days that when we face the judge of all the universe we will not come under the heel of his condemnation.

We will not feel the rod of his displeasure but we will be welcomed in as his sons. This is the blessing of this verse. Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me. What does it mean to hear. This is important because many people hear the words of Jesus but they do not hear them in the sense that the hearing changes them.

What does Romans chapter 10 tell us. That faith cometh by hearing. This is why we are so committed here not to go too far off the subject. This is why we're so committed here to preaching and teaching the word of God.

And we do this I mean through our Sunday school program through our Wednesday night program. Of course on Sunday morning we just believe that the word of God is what changes hearts. And this is what has to be heard.

This is what has to be heard is God's word. And many people will hear it and ignore it. Many people will hear it for a season and then depart from it. That's the one that always scares me is people who are excited about the word for a minute but then immediately go back to their life beloved that the danger in that is the parable of the four soils.

Right. Remember the seed falls among the pathway. It doesn't even get into the ground. The birds come and eat it up. That's the person that you proclaim the word to and they just bounce off of it. There's a video this week a man posted where he went out and he just stood in a as people walking by was a busy sort of crossway.

There were people going by and he says do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Nope. Don't want to talk about it don't want to have anything to it. They'd hear him say that and they would turn immediately away.

That's the seed hitting that hard pathway soil and just bouncing off and the birds of the air come and eat that seed. But there's also those two other soils that frighten me so and I say they frighten me because I've seen it so often where someone will come and they'll be excited for a short time but they will wither away because why they have no root.

They've heard it but it hasn't taken root. So when Jesus says to hear the word it's it's it's that the word might not just be heard in your ears but it would take root in your heart. And this is why hearing and believing goes together.

How. So they hear without a preacher. And how will someone preach without being sent right. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. This is the same thing Paul's talking about in Romans 10.

It's hearing and believing. And what's important about verse 24 is notice what it says. It says believes him. Who sent me now in. In some translations they make it a prepositional. They put a preposition in between.

Some translation says believe on him. Some translation say believe in him. But this is one of those times where I do think and I'm not always kind to the ESV. I preach from the ESV. But I give it. I give it.

It's hard knock so I can I can be honest and give it a good attaboy when it gets it right. This is one of the times where the ESV actually does get it right because it it doesn't say believe in or believe on.

It simply says believes him. Believes him. See here's the thing about this. The thing many people believe in God. But do you believe God. You can believe that he exists. But do you believe what he has said.

You can believe that he's there. But do you believe in who he is. That's the key. Jesus said you must hear my word and you must believe him. Who sent me. What does the father testify. That we must believe.

The father testifies of the son. Jesus is about to say that the last part of this whole section is Jesus saying he's got testimony from his works. He's got testimony from John the Baptist. And he's got testimony from the word which is God's word in it all testifies to him.

Do you believe God this morning. Not just believe in him. Do you believe him. When he says that he's going to tell you if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ you will be saved. Do you believe that. That's what he said.

That's the promise that he made. Remember the Philippian jailer about to commit suicide. About to fall on his sword. The Apostle Paul says don't do that. We're still here men. What must I do to be saved.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Do you believe that. That's God's word spoken through the Apostle Paul to that man. And it goes to every one of you that if you have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ you will be saved.

One of the things I think people struggle with the most and I don't say I think it. I know it because I get this question more than any other question. I bet you if you were to take all the questions I've received on our podcast for the last year and you were to distill them down to the most common question Jennifer I think would testify to this is how can I know I'm struggling with assurance.

How can I know. The first thing we have to do to have assurance is actually believe that God's word is true and that what he says is not a lie has to begin with. That has to begin with with saying I believe him.

I believe what he's saying. I believe it's the truth. How can we trust in anything if we can't trust this. This is the thing that bothers me. So about so many modern preachers that say oh well you know we can we can leave out certain parts.

We can unhitch from the Old Testament if you know that reference. But as you know there's a pretty famous pastor up in Georgia who said we don't need the Old Testament. We can unhitch from the Old Testament.

We just you know as long as we believe in the resurrection you know that's what unifies us as Christians. And I do believe in the centrality of the resurrection. Don't doubt that one bit but I will say this as soon as you begin saying I don't believe this I don't believe that I don't believe this.

But I'll believe in this and that now you're playing a dangerous game of roulette because what's the next card that's going to fall in this house of cards that you're willing to give up. God didn't say believe in part of his word.

He said believe his word sanctify them by thy truth. Thy word is what is true. That word is true. Jesus said he who hears my word to hear to to receive it and believe the one who sends me him it is that has eternal life.

Do you have eternal life today. My prayer is that you would. My prayer is if you don't that you would want it that God would open your heart to believe. I have to move on. But that verse 24 again I wanted to spend extra time with it because I really believe it's the central passage to this entire discourse.

Every discourse of Jesus has one or two sections that really nails everything. And that's verse 24. But verse 25 he says again truly truly I say to you an hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live now.

He says an hour is coming and is now here now. This is not as you know a 60 second or 60 minute time span. When the Bible talks about an hour it's talking about a specific event. And you'll notice in this text verse 25 there is an already and not yet character regarding what Jesus is referring to here.

He says he says an hour is coming and is now here. This is the already and not yet character of the subject that he's talking about. He says the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God. And those who hear will live now.

Who are the dead. That it's referring to here. Well this could be referring to the fact that Jesus is going to raise physical people from the dead during his ministry. We talked about this last week there at least three people that Jesus rose from the dead.

The widow's son at Nain the daughter of Jairus and Lazarus his dear friend they heard the voice of the Son of God in their death and they rose from the dead. So there's that immediate sense in which that was happening.

There was also that interesting little thing that Matthew records for us after the resurrection of Jesus where there were those who came out of the grave. That was sort of a prelude or preview of the resurrection where we had that event.

But there's also the sense when he says when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. There's there's a sense in which he may also in this text be referring to the spiritually dead.

Because everyone hearing his voice who has not trusted in him are spiritually dead. What is Ephesians chapter 2 say. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins. What is required for us to come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Spiritual. What. Regeneration. Which another word for that would be spiritual resurrection as we're dead spiritually. So the dead who hear will believe. That's what changes. How do you know that a man has gone from death to life spiritually.

How do you know that when you proclaim the Lord Jesus to someone that they've gone from death to life the only way to know is that they believe. That's it. That's that's the that's the only indicator is that they trust on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now. Will that result in a changed life. Yes we talked about that earlier. Will that result in the beginning of the process of sanctification. Absolutely. But how do you know. How do you know somebody hasn't gone from death to life.

You proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ. And they don't want him. They don't need him. They don't want anything to do it. That's how you know they haven't gone from death to life yet. So Jesus says an hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God.

And those who hear will live. And I said there's an already and a not yet characteristic because he he he mentions that an hour is coming and this is now here. There's also this reality at the end of the age every person in the tombs every person in the grave every person who's ever been buried at sea every person who's ever been put through the fire of cremation every person who has ever lived will hear the voice of the Son of God and be raised.

Everyone will hear the voice of the Son of God and be raised. And he talks about that. We're going to get to this in verse 28. So we'll get there in a moment. But just know that there. So when he's giving the characteristic of what he's come to do he has come to speak life.

He has come to speak resurrection life as he's going to say later to the sisters of Lazarus I am the resurrection and the life. That's who he is. That's what he does. That's what he came to do. And how verse 26 it says first the father has life in himself.

So he's granted the son to have life in himself and he has given him authority to execute judgment because he is the son of man. You understand God has life in himself. That is something by the way this is another one of those times when Jesus expresses his own divinity because that's one of those characteristics that only God has.

And Jesus says I have that same characteristic as the father has life in himself. So as he granted the son also to have life in himself. What does it mean to have life in himself. Do you have life in yourself.

You have life. But to have life in himself refers to what's known as God's aseity God's absolute independence. God has life in himself. You have life from God. Your life comes from God. Your life is derived from outside of yourself.

It's given to you. Remember God made Adam from the dust of the ground. Then what did he have to do right. He had to breathe life into his nostrils and give him life. That's how Adam received life. But God has life.

God is life. Years ago Pat took me when I was a little boy probably eight years old she took me to a play they used to do downtown at the Prime Osborne Convention Center and it was called the giver of life.

And it was the story of Jesus. And it was probably one of the most. Just as a kid I don't know anything. I didn't know anything about theater at the time but it was just one of the most well-produced plays of the life of Jesus.

And I'm not a huge fan of life of Jesus plays. I think a lot of times are not that great. But I just remember being eight years old and they sang a song he is the life giver. He is the life giver. And they sang that song.