The Witnesses of Christ | Sermon 02/19/2023

Apologia Utah

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All right, please turn with me in your Bibles to John 5.

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We're going to be finishing up chapter 5 today, then we'll move on to chapter 6 the following week.

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We're going to be in verses 31 through 47 today of John 5. And the title of this sermon today, church, is

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The Witnesses of Christ. The Witnesses of Christ. I want you to keep the rest of chapter 5 in mind as we go through this final section.

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We saw at the beginning the healing at the pools of Bethesda. We saw that the

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Jews, the Jewish authorities, accused Jesus healing on the

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Sabbath. And then He proclaimed His deity, His ability to life and resurrection, and that He is judge and He is the one who brings the final resurrection of the evil and those who do good.

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And we saw that last week, that final day when He will shout, there will be a trumpet that sounds and Jesus will come once again.

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And that's all the backdrop to this. So, now go to verse 31.

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Starting there, hear now the inerrant and infallible words of the living and true

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God. If I alone testify about myself, my testimony is not true.

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There is another who testifies of me, and I know that the testimony which he gives about me is true.

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You have sent to John, and he has testified to the truth, but the testimony which

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I receive is not from man. But I say these things so that you may be saved. He was the lamp that was burning and was shining, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in His light.

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But the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony of John. For the works which the

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Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I do, testify about me that the

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Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me, He has testified of me. You have neither heard

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His voice at any time, nor seen His form. You do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe

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Him whom He sent. You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life.

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It is these that testify about me, and you are unwilling to come to me so that you may have life.

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I do not receive glory from men, but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves.

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I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you receive him.

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How can you believe when you receive glory from one another, and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only

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God? Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father. The one who accuses you is

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Moses, in whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would have believed me, for he wrote about me.

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But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words? Thus ends the reading of God's holy and inspired word.

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Let's pray quickly, church. Lord God, would you please speak through me today,

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Lord? Would you get the speaker out of the way? Would you proclaim your word today, dear

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Lord? God, would you illumine these Scriptures by the

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Spirit, the same Holy Spirit who inspired these very words? God, would you teach us and encourage us?

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Would you build us up with your word? Lord, would you also correct us where we need correcting?

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Would you give us, Lord, the boldness to move forward with what we've learned, to take it out of these four walls here at this church, and actually apply it in our lives?

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I love you, Lord. Thank you for this opportunity. I pray this in Jesus' name.

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Amen. We have our budget meeting. So last week,

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I made a shorter sermon last week, and it ended up being an hour and six minutes. I don't know how that happened.

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I really tried to make it shorter. And I'm going to make that promise again. Let's compare it to an hour and six minutes.

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Hopefully, it's at least 15 minutes less. Okay, but there's a lot of passages to go through, so we're going to kind of just boom, boom, boom.

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All right? So, talking about witnesses. The sermon is

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The Witnesses of Christ. You see, a witness is someone who attests to the truth of a matter, as one that was either personally present, or with some sort of knowledge of some specific event or person.

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They are, in a sense, living evidence or proof of an argument made regarding a statement of truth or objective fact.

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Right? In a court of law, you call witnesses forward to validate the argument or claims of the defendant or plaintiff.

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There are an infinite number of things that testify to the existence of God, no doubt.

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And the Jews would agree with that statement. But in the coming of Jesus Christ, they denied what all things were pointing to.

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They denied the truth that He was who He said He was.

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In this section of Scripture, as we finish out John 5, the Lord will make

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His case. So let's take a look in verse 31. If I alone testify about myself, my testimony is not true.

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Now, at first glance, that very first verse is a bit confusing. Later, Jesus will say in chapter 8 verse 14,

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If I testify about myself, my testimony is true. For I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going.

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So it's like, okay, is He contradicting Himself? And I would argue that He isn't.

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And the Lord Jesus can't contradict Himself. So the question is, what is He saying in verse 31?

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Remember, the sermon from a couple weeks ago, I talked about judicial language that Jesus has been using.

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He's been giving a defense, so to speak, of Himself to the Jewish leaders.

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So what He is saying here is more like a court of law, especially the law of Moses, that there needs to be two to three independent lines of witness to validate any claim.

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If He alone testifies of Himself, it can't be considered valid unless affirmed by additional witnesses under the law.

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Deuteronomy 19 verse 15 says, On the evidence of two or three witnesses, a matter shall be confirmed.

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Now, He's not saying if He speaks alone about Himself that it can be false.

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That's not it. That's not what He's saying. It's that all the claims that He just made about Himself previously in the chapter, all those things that He just said about Himself, they don't stand alone.

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They don't stand by themselves. He doesn't just say things and expect you to believe them, although He has the right.

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That's the amazing thing. Jesus is the One who has the right to be like, these are the words of God.

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Believe them. And He doesn't have to give witnesses. But He gives more than even two to three.

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He gives four witnesses in this account. Four witnesses. This is to remove all doubt.

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This shuts all mouths to the contrary. It's also interesting to me, in this section we'll see four witnesses that validate

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Christ, but then I also think about the fact that there's four witnesses in the Gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

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So four once again. It's pretty interesting. It says in verse 32 right there,

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There is another who testifies of Me, and I know that the testimony which he gives about Me is true.

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This particular verse is about God. All of this demonstrates Jesus' obedience and what

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I call and what is known in theology as functional subordination. He has a function to His subordination under the

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Father in His earthly ministry. They are equal, and yet He has come with a mission.

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He has a mission here in His earthly ministry. The triune God has testified of Jesus, and the four ways in which this one true

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God has testified are true. They will speak to the veracity of what

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He just claimed. All that He's saying. All the claims of deity, judge, life, resurrection, healing on the

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Sabbath, regenerating, saving people from their sin. What He's about to say now will validate those claims.

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All these things that He has done or said are backed by what He's about to declare in these verses now and until the end of the chapter.

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And again, I think this is so gracious of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's judge already.

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All authority has been given to Him. He is above any other court proceeding.

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He's above it all, but He allows Himself to be put on trial. Jesus, for our sake, and for the sake of the

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Jews, and anyone who will read this account later, He's allowing Himself to be put on trial so that we would know.

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That we would see it written and declared. For the sake of the truth to be known and demonstrated,

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He knows this helps us. Jesus even considered us that we would need to see this.

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He has every right to self -attestation. But He will show us

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His claims are true. This is all part of His humiliation. That's my belief.

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It will reach that point where it will climax at the crucifixion, but even now in this moment, as the

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God of the universe, Jesus Christ, He'll allow Himself to be put on trial, so to speak.

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He's so humble. If God will become human, then the divine judge will also be willing to be tried like a criminal.

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Do you get that? If God is willing to become human, then the judge will be willing to be charged as a criminal.

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And He will later. He will. Verse 33, You have sent to John, and he has testified to the truth.

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So we have our first witness. Remember in John 1, there were several times the apostle

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John spoke of John the Baptist being a witness of Jesus. He's what's called the forerunner.

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He goes on before the Messiah. There came a man sent from God whose name was

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John. He came as witness to testify about the light so that all might believe through Him.

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He was not the light, but He testified about the light so that all might believe through Him.

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Jesus is the true light. That's what we saw. Then in chapter 1, verse 19, there was a delegation sent from Jerusalem.

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From the Jewish leaders, a delegation was sent out to where John the Baptist was baptizing.

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And they questioned Him. Who are You? Are You the Prophet? Are You the Christ? And He said,

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I'm not. I'm neither of those things. I'm the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, make straight the way of the

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Lord. Quotes from Isaiah. He shows His purpose. That's His calling.

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Every single time John the Baptist is on the scene in the Gospel according to John, even all the way into chapter 3,

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He points people to Jesus. He takes the light as if there's a spotlight shining on Him and He says, hey, will you move that this way to Jesus?

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He says, I have to decrease, and Jesus needs to increase. Look to Him.

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That's His legacy. That's His purpose. So Jesus says in verse 33,

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You, you Jewish leaders, sent a delegation to John. You sent to Him, and He spoke truly.

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He didn't lie. He's not those things. There was another. His witness is credible concerning Me, Jesus is saying.

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And His public and most profound witness was not simply answering the delegation's inquiries, okay?

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That wasn't His legacy just to answer their questions and say, no, I'm not that.

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His legacy would be in front of hundreds if not thousands, and Jesus walked up, and John said what?

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Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. That would be His legacy.

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And He would continue in His ministry on to point people to the

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Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. That is what John came to do.

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Verse 34, Jesus says, But the testimony which I receive is not from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved.

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He's like, I'm bringing up John, but I don't need man's testimony.

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I'm bringing them up so that you might be saved. I'm bringing them up so that you might think of Malachi and Isaiah and all the promises of a forerunner who comes before the

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Messiah. You might think of John so you might understand who I am. I say these things so that you might be saved.

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I don't need to bring up John, He says. The testimony

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I receive is not from man. You see, man doesn't testify of God. God testifies of God.

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But wait, who proves the existence of God then? You think you and I do?

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We don't. God does. God proves His own existence. He doesn't need us to do that.

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We don't need to put God on trial. If anything else could prove the existence of God or have a power higher than God, then it would be greater than God, whoever, whatever that is.

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So even John the Baptist testified of Him. That witness was more for the people to believe in Jesus than for Jesus and His words to be validated.

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God sent John the Baptist. He was on a holy mission sent with divine prerogative.

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Still, Jesus will give more than just what John has said and done. He says,

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I say these things so that you may be saved. I don't need to be on trial with you.

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I don't need to defend myself. I don't need to even bring up John the Baptist. He's just a man anyways.

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I say these things so that you may be saved. He said these things for everyone.

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This is for humanity. And I thank God that He gave us these words, that these words were written down.

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And they've stood the test of time. These are words from heaven on earth that have been given to us.

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And they've never been corrupted. They've stood the test of time. Jesus said heaven and earth will pass away, but My words shall by no means pass away.

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And Jesus doesn't lie. And Jesus knows the future. Jesus can preserve

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His Word from heaven. And He did. And He gave it to us. Here it is.

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The four witnesses are to help us. We read them.

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And by the Holy Spirit, we believe them. We have faith. This is all true. Verse 35.

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He was the lamp. This is John. John was the lamp that was burning and was shining, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in His light.

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Look at this. This goes exactly with John 1. John was not the light, but He came to testify about the light.

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John was just a lamp. John was a lamp that was burning and shining. You see, a lamp isn't the source of light, but it shines it.

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The true light is the Son of God. The light is the Son of God. It's said in chapter 1 that Jesus is the light and life of all men.

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So the Son of God puts His light into John the lamp. He's no longer

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John the Baptist. He's John the lamp. And John shines forth as a lamp the truth of Jesus Christ.

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Also, I think the apostle John might even be alluding to Psalm 132.

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I had Andrew read it today. It's very messianic. If you go back through,

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I know it was recited. You'll probably have to reread it. Psalm 132 talks of the

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Messiah. It says at the end in verse 17, there I will cause the horn of David to spring forth.

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The horn of David will come forth. And then God says, I have prepared a lamp for Mine anointed.

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In the Hebrew, Mine anointed is what? My Messiah. My Messiah.

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I have prepared a lamp for My Messiah. Psalm 132 verse 17 is saying something about John.

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That John the lamp is going to come before the Messiah.

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Jesus says, and for a time you were willing to rejoice in the light coming from John's lamp.

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You stood underneath it. You enjoyed some of the rays coming out of the lamp.

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You enjoyed My light. This may seem like a polite concession, but what we will begin to see is

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Jesus will indict them for choosing man over God. They glimpsed some of the light and they chose darkness.

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Choosing themselves over God. Josephus, the

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Jewish historian, recorded that the ministry of John the Baptist created messianic excitement.

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People were excited during this time. This might be the Messiah. Or the

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Messiah might be coming. If only the Jewish leaders would have remembered what the coming of the forerunner meant.

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And they wouldn't have simply enjoyed the rays of the lamp for a while. They would have looked for the true source.

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The true light. Jesus Christ. But they didn't. Verse 36

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But the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony of John.

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For the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish, the very works that I do, testify about Me that the

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Father has sent Me. You see, John the Baptist was the first witness. Now Jesus calls the second witness to the stand.

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And it is the person and work of Jesus Christ. It's His own work.

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And the person and work of Jesus is far weightier than John the

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Baptist. The works that the Father has given the Son, the works that He has been doing now, and the works

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He will continue to do in His earthly ministry, testify about Him. The things that He does testify about Him.

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By the way, you see this word accomplish? The works which the Father has given Me to accomplish.

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This word in the Greek accomplish has the root word telos. That's where you get words like teleology and things like that.

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Telos is the end. It is the same root word for telestai, which is in John 19 when

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Jesus says it is finished. So it stands to say that Jesus' works begin in this degree and they move upward to the point where He says it is finished.

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It is telos. It is over. It is done. His works will reach a pinnacle at the crucifixion and resurrection.

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And His works are also a witness to who He is. The revelation He gives.

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The accurate prophecy that He has proclaimed. Jesus' authoritative teaching.

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His wisdom. His ability to withstand the wrath of God upon His own body.

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His ability to raise the dead. His power to raise Himself from the grave.

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His healing powers to stop a lifetime of blood flow in a woman. The ability to straighten the crooked back of a man to make a blind man see.

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A deaf man to hear. The paralyzed to walk. The leper to have clean skin. People on the edge of death brought back to wellness and life.

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The ability to remove a demon who is called legion. We're talking 12 ,000 demons in one man and He has the ability to command them to leave.

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To loose the mouths of the mute. To stop a demon from throwing a child into the fire.

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His ability to walk on water. His ability to calm a storm and command creation at will.

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To produce limitless bread and fish. His ability to supernaturally know people's thoughts around Him.

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The ability to transfigure Himself on the Mount of Transfiguration. Removing the veil and demonstrating who

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He is in all His glory. Jesus' ability to preach. His authority to teach.

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They marvel at His ability to teach. His ability to argue and debate is unparalleled.

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He is the best debater that has ever lived. They could throw any question at Him and He would know how to answer.

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All of it. All of it. There's likely so much more I'm missing. But all those works, all those things, testify and demonstrate who

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He is. They fulfill Scripture. And they showcase His divine faculties.

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And also that the Father sent Him to do these things. So it's doubly authoritative.

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Because He does them and the Father had Him do them. It's a commanding witness, no doubt.

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Jesus' works. It ends with the perfect segue into the third witness.

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The Father, v. 37 -38. The third witness.

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And the Father who sent Me, He has testified of Me. You have neither heard

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His voice at any time nor seen His form. You do not have

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His Word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He sent. The Father declared at Jesus' baptism as the

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Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus, He said, this is My beloved Son. This is the Son of My love in whom

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I am well pleased. The Father said it. And instead of providing testimony examples from the garden to the incarnation of all the times the

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Father has testified of the Messiah, the Son, who will come to save His people,

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He turns this into an accusation. For men who are priests, teachers, scribes,

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Pharisees, Sadducees, men who think of themselves as religious authorities, that they are highly religious and highly spiritual, people who they think they connect with God in ways that other people don't, these men, these

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Jewish leaders, they've never heard His voice. They've never heard

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God's voice. They've never seen His form. Moses has heard

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God's voice, but they haven't. Jacob wrestled with the form of God.

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Likely a Christophany. The Word of God abided in Joshua.

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It abided in the psalmist, as the Scripture says. But these Jews are nothing like the men that they ascribe to.

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Jesus is the greatest fulfillment of all preceding revelation. He is revelation of the divine revelator.

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They haven't seen the Father or heard His voice. But you know who has?

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He has. Jesus has. Jesus has heard the Father's voice. He has seen

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His form. He is connected with the Father in a way that I don't think we could probably articulate on paper with words.

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And if these Jews could even respond, well, we might not have ever heard the

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Father's audible voice, but we sure know His Word better than anyone, they might say presumptuously.

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Jesus says though, you don't have His Word abiding in you. They can't even say that.

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You don't even have His Word abiding in you. You've never heard His voice. You've never seen

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His form. And don't even tell me that you have His Word in you. You don't.

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You don't. This word is logos.

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Could be a dual meaning. That they neither have God's Word, because who's the logos?

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The Son, right? The Word from John 1. They neither have the Word nor the Son residing in them.

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Why? Because they do not believe the One in front of them. They don't believe the Son whom the

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Father sent. Which stands to say, if you don't believe in the Son, you will never be able to have

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God's Word abiding in you or have it ultimately speak to you. Okay?

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If you don't believe the Son, you'll never have the Word in you. I'm reminded of even before I was saved,

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I took a university class on introduction to Christianity.

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If you know my testimony, I was a nominal believer growing up. I went wayward. I did not believe until I even got married that the

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Lord saved me early in our marriage. But in this university class, we used

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Bart Ehrman's books. Look that name up.

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That's E -H -R -M -A -N, I believe. Bart Ehrman.

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He is this liberal theologian. And the way he writes, just disparaging the

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Word, okay? It reminds me in this moment that if you don't believe that Jesus is the

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Christ, if you don't believe that Jesus is the I Am, you can study the Word of God all you want.

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I mean, the guy has made a living studying the Bible, but he knows not a shred of it.

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I'm telling you. Pick up a Bart Ehrman book. He doesn't know the abiding

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Word. He doesn't know it. And there's many that do, right? There's secular biblical scholars.

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They don't know the Word. Because you've got to believe. You've got to believe that Jesus is the

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Son. That witness testimony ends in another perfect segue to the next and final witness.

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We had John the Baptist. We had the works of Jesus. And we had the

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Father. And the fourth witness, the Scriptures. This will be the longest of the testimonies, lasting to the end of the chapter, v.

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39. You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life.

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It is these that testify about Me. You see, their failure to understand the

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Scriptures wasn't due to a lack of study. They studied it. In oral tradition,

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Hillel said that the more one studies the law, the more they memorize the words, the more they have life.

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But Jesus makes it clear that if you fail to recognize who actually gives life, if you fail to recognize who the law righteously represents, then you're just following script and words on a piece of paper.

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Not the author. Not the divine author. Paul says in Romans 7, this law, this commandment which was to result in life, proved to result in death.

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The law of Moses was to result in life, but he says it proved to result in death.

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The law revealed sin and didn't help atone for it nor remove it.

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Let me say that again. The law revealed sin and didn't help to atone for it nor remove it, at least permanently.

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Year after year, the day of atonement would come reminded that the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin fully.

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The Jews searched the Scriptures. They searched the

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Scriptures thinking they will have eternal life if they follow what it says to the T. Jesus is alluding, of course, to the law as well.

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The Scriptures testify of Jesus. If you say you believe in them, then you ought to believe in the divine author who gave them.

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But since they don't believe in Jesus, they don't truly believe the Scriptures. We see the apostle

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Paul demonstrate this in Romans 2. Actually, if you want to turn there real quick in your

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Bibles to Romans 2, I'm going to read a big section there. I don't have it on the screen, but it might prove useful to you.

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Romans 2. We're going to look at, real quick, verses 14 -29 of Romans 2.

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Let's read that together. But if you bear the name Jew and rely upon the law and boast in God and know

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His will and approve the things that are essential, being instructed out of the law, and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth, you therefore, who teach other people, do you teach yourself?

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You who preach that one shall not steal, do you steal? You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?

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You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law through your breaking the law, do you dishonor

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God? For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you just as it is written.

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For indeed, circumcision is of value if you actually practice the law.

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But if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.

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So if the uncircumcised man that means the Gentile, keeps the requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?

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And he who is physically uncircumcised, if he keeps the law, will he not judge you who though having the letter of the law in circumcision, are a transgressor of the law?

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For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh.

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But he is a Jew who is one inwardly. And circumcision is that which is of the heart.

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By the Spirit, not by the letter. And his praise is not from men, but from God. That's his point.

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Possessing the law, or studying the law, doesn't help you when you don't actually do the law perfectly.

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Circumcision of the heart is what's necessary, not circumcision of the flesh.

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And to receive that, to receive that circumcision of the heart, one must have the

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Holy Spirit perform it. And for the Holy Spirit to perform it, one must be regenerate and believe in the testimony of Christ.

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So you see, in that Romans 2 passage, that speaks exactly to what Jesus is talking about.

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They can be the arbiters of the law. They can possess the law. They can know it very well.

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But if they don't actually do it, then it's void to them.

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Verse 40, back to John. He says, and you are unwilling to come to me so that you may have life.

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They won't come to Him so that they may have life. That means by default that they're dead.

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If they don't come to Him for life, then they're actually dead. And they choose death over life.

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He'll call them out in another setting later that they're whitewashed tombs.

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They're beautiful and white and clean on the outside, but inside they're full of dead men's bones.

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And if they study the Scriptures and are unwilling to come to Him, they don't understand the meaning of them.

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Their searching the Scriptures is anything but searching for God. As the text continues, you'll notice the

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Lord Jesus mentions several things that they don't have. They don't have Him. They don't have the glory of God.

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They don't have life. They don't have the Scriptures abiding in them. They don't have the love of God in themselves.

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They're missing a lot. For men who say they have it all, they're missing a lot. Verse 41,

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I do not receive glory from men. Remember, Jesus had just said He doesn't accept human testimony regarding Himself.

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Now He doesn't receive human glory. What does He mean by that? If He came to earth, if Jesus came to earth, stooped down to the level that they wanted

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Him to, became the Messiah that they wanted, that the people wanted,

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He would get tons of human praise for it. If He came and did what the people wanted, and became this king -warrior

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Messiah who destroys Rome and removes Roman occupation from them and sits on a throne, they would have loved it.

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They would have kissed His feet for it. They would have praised Him for it. But Jesus came for more than Rome.

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Jesus came for more than Jerusalem. He came for the whole world. And it would have to happen through a death.

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But they don't want that. They don't want that. And so He doesn't get the glory of men.

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The glory He will receive because of such steadfast adherence to the triune decree of God will result in far greater glory and of a heavenly source.

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He's not like them. He's not like these men. He came and He was despised and rejected.

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If no one glorifies Jesus on earth, He has glory from His Father in heaven.

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Verse 42, But I know you that you do not have the love of God in yourselves.

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He knows them. He knows all of us. In fact,

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He knows you better than you know you. He knows things about you that you have yet to realize.

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He knows your blind spots. He knows the hidden traits that you possess in the deep corners of your mind that you neglect and don't believe are true about you.

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He knows the true you. Not the one you show people or like to frame in your mind about yourself.

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That's everyone. All humanity. He knows, man, your deepest desires, your longings, your flaws, your cares.

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When we may have an identity crisis and say, who am I? He knows.

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He knows. In the case of the Jews in John 2, Jesus made it clear that He knows mankind.

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Do you remember that? In John 2, when He was doing these signs and wonders, He said He was not entrusting

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Himself to them because of their shallow belief. He said, John narrates, but Jesus on His part was not entrusting

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Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.

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And He knows they don't have the love of God in themselves. They love themselves.

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They love their own glory. You see, you can't have both.

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You can't have love for yourself and desire for glory for yourself and also have love for God.

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You can't. They love themselves. They love their own glory. They perform the law to give them what they want.

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And if you've turned to Jesus just to save your own hide and not because you love Him, then you might just love yourself more than you love the

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Savior. Verse 43, I have come in My Father's name and you do not receive

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Me. If anyone comes in His own name, you will receive him. Like the prophets of old,

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I come in the name of the Lord, the I Am. The only God, Jesus has come. And He's established already that He's not simply an ambassador, but He is the

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King Himself. But if a man comes to them saying that he is prophet so -and -so, they'll receive him.

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They'll take false messiahs too, but they won't receive the One who actually comes from the

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Father. That's what's baffling. Speaking to this end,

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Carson says, the chief judgment on those who deny that Jesus is the promised Messiah, the

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Son of God, the chief judgment is not so much that they have no Messiah, but that they follow false ones.

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You see? I have come in My Father's name and you do not receive

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Me. And if another comes in His own name, you receive him. They'll take anyone but Jesus.

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They'll give that man glory. They'll believe what he says. And therefore, if they want no Messiah, if they don't want the true

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Messiah, they'll get false messiahs. They'll get false prophets. They'll believe them.

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Verse 44. This is powerful. Listen to this. How can you believe when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only

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God? I spoke on this verse in my sermon on the fear of man, and man -pleasing a couple of months ago.

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Jesus is not asking a question He doesn't know the answer to. He is making a truth statement.

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One cannot believe the Son nor the Father if they receive glory from man.

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This is scary. When you seek your own glory from men over seeking the glory of God or to glorify

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God, then you cannot believe. He makes it clear. There's no room left in your heart for the one and only

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God when you receive the glory of men. Look, this is not a situation when someone's trying to flatter you, or praise you and you shrug it off like, well, that's not me.

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This is someone who receives glory and they bask in it.

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And they seek it. Sometimes we fail with that. I think we all fail in sometimes wanting glory from men and we repent and we stop.

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But there are people in this world, they want the glory of God. They want it all.

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They want glory for themselves at the expense of the blasphemy of the only

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God. Because that's what glory for oneself does. It blasphemes God.

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The praise of man is this type of person's constant objective and frighteningly, they often don't even realize it.

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Jesus exposed the Jews further in Matthew 23. Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples saying,

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The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses. Therefore, all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds.

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For they say things and do not do them. They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger.

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But here it is, they do all their deeds what? To be noticed by men.

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For they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments. They love the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues.

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And they love the respectful greetings in the marketplaces. And they love to be called rabbi.

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These are these type of men. Jesus will finish that.

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Whoever exalts himself above God will be humbled. We saw that even a few weeks ago. The ruler of Tyre, Nebuchadnezzar, Pharaoh, Herod.

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The higher you go, the harder you fall. He says, receive and seek.

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They receive glory from one another, but they don't seek the glory that is from the one and only

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God. They don't seek the glory from God to give it back to God, nor do they seek the kind of glory

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God shines on men and women who love Him. They don't seek that even.

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The kind of glory that shone on Stephen's face as he was put to death.

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The kind of derivative glory that comes from a life of obedience and pointing people to Christ.

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See, Peter and Paul have this type of glory. The glory of God was evident through them.

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It's a godliness and holiness bound in humility that comes from God.

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Kind of like John was a lamp. We're talking about a bunch of little lamps everywhere.

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We're to be lamps. But if you seek your own light, you want to be the true light, you'll be utter darkness.

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Your lamp won't shine. That's what's clear here. Let's go to our final verses. Verse 45.

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Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father. The one who accuses you is

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Moses in whom you have set your hope. Do not think that I will accuse you before the

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Father. Here is that judicial language again. Accusation.

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They have been accusing Jesus and He is graciously offering His defense and bringing in witnesses, but now the finger will be pointed back on to the accusers.

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This is like a movie when the criminal had the thought that the people around him were his supporters, and the police come up, and he acts like he's without fault, but all of a sudden the people around him get on the side of the police and they point back at the bad guy.

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It was him. And that's them in this situation.

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In this passage. The very one in whom they have put their faith and hope in Moses and the law is the same one who will point them out to the

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Father and accuse them of transgression. Moses' role as Deliverer was to point the people to the ultimate

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Deliverer. I don't know about you, but it seems as if the

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Jews in the first century still think that Moses is some sort of heavenly intercessor.

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Like Moses is interceding God at this moment for them. But that's not true.

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He had that role on earth. He would speak to God, ask God to take away this judgment.

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He would speak to God, ask to give this blessing, and God would do it. He would intercede. But he doesn't have that role anymore.

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There's only one intercessor now. There's only one mediator. It's not

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Moses. Only one can intercede on our behalf and he's standing right in front of them.

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The law isn't an end in and of itself as they thought. The law was the end goal for them.

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But the law is a means to an end. A result or a solution

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I should say. Not for us. The law wasn't given to us so that we would be able to find eternal life through it.

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The law was given and was brought in a way for only one person in all of history to be able to perfectly obey it.

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That's why the law of Moses was given. So that one person could live it out perfectly.

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Jesus Christ. And that law brought in a way to propitiate and expiate for sin.

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Propitiate means atone for sin. To pay for sin. Expiate means to remove sin.

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The law brought in that ability, but the unfortunate thing is animals couldn't do that.

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At least permanently. So one had to come who had lived the law perfectly and then he would sacrifice himself through that law of Moses and he would propitiate for sin and it would be paid for forever.

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It was the last day of atonement. It was that day when he said it is finished. And then also sin was removed from us.

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The psalm says it's as far as the east as from the west now. It is remembered no more.

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That's why the law of Moses is a grace. It's a blessing. Because it shows us the very character of God, but it's also a system that brings in sacrifice and the ability to earn eternal life, but only one person could do those things.

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That's it. No one else besides Him ever could. So the end goal of the law has always been

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Jesus. Jesus isn't a plan B. It's like, oh, shoot, the law didn't work.

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Guess we've got to bring in a Savior. Jesus has always been the plan. It wasn't given to us so that we would perform it perfectly.

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It was given so that He could perform it perfectly. So don't get stuck on the law.

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James said now it's a law of liberty. It's like freedom. Because one already did it perfectly, so if you mess up, you look to the

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One who did it already. They though are stuck on the law of Moses.

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They're stuck on Moses. They're stuck on the law. And believing it how they want to believe it.

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Okay? You have to understand, the Jews right now are seeing the law and Moses as the end.

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That's the final revelation of God, but actually Jesus came and they're not going beyond that.

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They're not seeing that that law that was given is for the Messiah to do that and perform it.

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So they're stuck. They're blind. That's like reading a book and interpreting the book in your own way, and then all of a sudden, you meet the author and you're like,

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I just love your book. And you start explaining the book's purpose to the author, and he goes, that's not what

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I meant for it in any way. This is what the book really meant. And they're like, no,

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I won't believe it. I won't believe the way that you say it. He's like, I'm the author. I know what

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I meant by what I wrote. He said, no, I'll believe it the way I want to believe it.

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That's what they're doing. That's what they're doing. The law is a vehicle for Jesus to carry out

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His mission. The law is a vehicle to carry out His mission. They have set their hope in the wrong thing, the wrong person, so that if Moses could speak to them right now and he could speak to us, he'd say, listen to Jesus.

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That's it. Listen to Jesus. Psalm 71 says, For you are my hope,

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O Lord God. You are my confidence from my youth. Psalm 130, verse 7,

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O Israel, hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is grace, and with Him is abundant redemption.

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Grace and redemption. The point is, don't hope in man.

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Hope in God. Don't you see that? That makes sense. When a man wants glory for himself, he often hopes in man, right?

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Because the highest thing in his mind is himself. And who is he? A man.

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So the highest thing this kind of person hopes for is in man. Moses in this case.

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If they believed Moses, they would have believed in Jesus. For He wrote about the Messiah.

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I can't go into it all. Moses, we know, wrote the Pentateuch. That is the first five books of the

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Old Testament. There's Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

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Moses wrote those. And oftentimes, people will go to the prophets, the major and minor prophets, and go,

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I see Jesus all throughout Isaiah, and this or that. But Jesus is saying the law of Moses, what

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Moses wrote in the law, speak about Him. So you have things like Genesis 3 .15,

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the Protoevangelium, the promise that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. Genesis 12, in Abraham's seed, the whole earth will be blessed.

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Jesus is a descendant of Abraham. You have Genesis 22, the Lamb of God will come.

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Genesis 49, Jacob's prophecy over his son Judah that Shiloh will come through Judah.

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Jesus is what? Of the tribe of Judah. You have

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Exodus 3, Jesus claimed that He is the I Am. You have that moment.

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Who are you? Who do I say to the people who you are? I Am, Yahweh. You have

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Exodus 12, the blood of the Lamb saves from the wrath of God in the Passover. Leviticus 16, the sin offering and the scapegoat.

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Numbers 21, the bronze serpent was lifted up and all who looked to the bronze serpent was saved and lived.

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You have all these moments. Deuteronomy 17, we need a righteous King who will obey

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God's law. The King is coming. Next, directly after that chapter, Deuteronomy 18,

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Moses says there's going to be a prophet. In fact, He's going to be the prophet raised from among your own countrymen.

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And He will be the final prophet. Jesus is the final prophet. Hebrews 1 says it.

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You have all these things that fulfill who Jesus is.

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Jesus confirms this even on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24. He says, Then, beginning with Moses and with all the prophets,

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He explained to these men the things concerning Him in the Scriptures. From Moses to the prophets.

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The whole of the Old Testament proclaims that Jesus is the Christ. Verse 47, last one.

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But if you do not believe His writings, Moses' writings, how will you believe My words?

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The last question is in the interrogative sense in the Greek. It's like Jesus has finished and He said,

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I rest My case. If you don't believe John the Baptist, if you don't believe

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My works, if you don't believe the Father, if you don't believe the Scriptures, then I don't know how to help you.

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How will you believe Me and My words then? And so Jesus is uniting

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Himself with all that it means to be God and Messiah.

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He stands right in front of them and yet they are missing it. Jesus has made it abundantly clear who

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He is and what He's come to do in this chapter. And it's going to result in two things,

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I should say. With all that Jesus has said and proclaimed, sinners are either going to get saved or sinners are going to seek to kill

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Jesus of Nazareth. Two things that are going to happen with His earthly ministry.

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So I know that was a pretty quick blitz over like 17 verses. So hopefully you understood much of what we went through.

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Just an amazing chapter. John 5. So I want you to remember those four witnesses, church.

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Remember and believe the testimonies of John the Baptist, the works of Jesus, the

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Father, and the Scriptures. They've spoken the truth. They are true.

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Because get this, if Jesus calls a single false witness to the stand, it's over.

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It's null and void. They have to speak the truth. If He calls one false witness and they say one false thing, then

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He's a false prophet. But He's not. It's all true. And all that those things said validate

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Him. Second thing is believe the object of the testimonies.

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Okay? Because that's a problem that the Jews had. Right? They believed the testimony of Scripture over the object of the testimony.

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In other words, they didn't believe the divine author of the

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Scriptures that they loved so much. So make sure to believe the object of the testimonies.

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If you believe them, then you ought to believe Jesus. They go hand in hand. There are whole religions today that say they believe the

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Father, and they say they believe the Scriptures, but they don't believe the Son. There are whole religions and systems built off of that.

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My friends, it's all or nothing. They don't have the truth abiding in them then.

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You can't divorce Jesus from the Word and from His Father. Lastly, you and I should be witnesses for the

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Lord Jesus as well. Now that He has ascended,

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He calls us to witness to the great works and glorious Gospel of Grace.

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You see, all of you have witnessed amazing things throughout your life. I believe it.

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You've probably witnessed some births of your children.

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You've witnessed the deliveries there. Maybe in this room, some of you can say,

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I have witnessed a miracle in my life. I saw this. This happened. It was a miracle.

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Some of you have witnessed great moments of redemption. Wow! This person ought to be dead, but they're alive.

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You've witnessed these great things. And we tell those stories to everyone if they're willing to listen.

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People come over for dinner, and we give a witness testimony of great things that we've seen.

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But sometimes, when it comes to being a witness and give the testimony of the

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Gospel of Jesus Christ, we close our mouths. We'll talk about lesser things with this enthusiasm.

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With this excitement. But then we close our mouths. My encouragement to all of us, to myself, is be a witness.

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And be unafraid. Be unashamed. Be a witness of that Messiah who has come.

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He says to the apostles and by extension to us, you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and all

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Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest parts of the earth. I think Utah is considered in that last section.

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The remotest parts of the earth. I think if you and I believe all of this is true,

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I think we ought to be compelled to share it. Be a witness of Christ. It doesn't have to be in a stadium full of people behind a microphone.

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It doesn't have to start when you've been a believer after 10 years. It can start today.

01:02:53

You can be a witness for Christ. And it can be simple. Will you witness where you're at?

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Will you witness in your context? When no one else in your work or in your family is a witness, will you be a witness?

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Will you be a witness when you're the only one standing and all others have sat down?

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When the time calls for it, will you stand up and say, like John, like the truth of the

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Scriptures, like the fathers proclaim, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

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Will you say it? Will I say it? We ought to say it. Amen? Let's pray.

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Father, please bless the message that went out today. For Your glory. For the namesake of Jesus Christ.

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Lord, we need Your help. We need Your help to make us bold witnesses to the testimony of the true

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Christ. We need

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You, Lord Jesus, to instill these things in us.

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We need You to put Your abiding Word in us that we may proclaim it wherever we're at.

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We've believed. We read these things. You didn't have to put

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Yourself on trial, Lord Jesus, but You did. And it was for our sake so that we may see this is all true.

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This is all real. Every bit of it is true. You are God. You are the

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Christ. Those who believe in You will have eternal life.

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And we're waiting for You to come back again. We believe it. Help us to give that to others.