The Five Fold Testimony of Jesus Christ: Part 1

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The Five Fold Testimony of Jesus Christ: Part 2

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What do we hear from heaven? Is it something mystical? Is it just saying,
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OK, I'm going to hear God's voice in the wind or something mystical, superstitious?
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No. God has given His Word right here,
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Genesis to Revelation. And as Hebrews 1 says, God has spoken to us in sundry times through the prophets, the apostles, but through His Son, the
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Lord Jesus Christ. I'd like to speak to you today about the five -fold witness of who
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Jesus is. We're not going to get very far in this. We may look at two witnesses at the most.
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So, if you have your Bibles, please turn with me to the Gospel of John. John's Gospel, chapter 5.
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Chapter 5, as we continue to journey into the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, as you know from what we have studied in chapter 5, beginning with verse 17, running all the way to the end of this chapter, in verse 47, this is one long discourse in which
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Jesus declares His deity. And we did a huge series on the deity, the greatness of the
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Lord Jesus Christ in these particular verses, in John chapter 5, in this particular section,
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I should say. And let us not forget that the whole point of the
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Gospel is that wonderful key verse that's found in John chapter 20, verse 31.
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And what is that? But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the
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Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, there it is, believing you may have life in His name.
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That, beloved, is the key verse of this entire Gospel of John.
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That's John's own statement. That's John's own statement of why he wrote the
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Gospel under the inspiration of the Spirit of God. So here in this particular section, we have reached a climatic high point, so to speak, and that is the deity of Jesus Christ, the deity of Jesus Christ.
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Jesus claims equality with God the Father. And as we have seen, we will continue to see throughout this
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Gospel, as our Lord declares His deity, proving His deity, demonstrating His deity, the response is this, unbelief.
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That was the response, and we will see this in the closing verses of this chapter.
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But you see it also throughout this entire Gospel. There's unbelief. God save us from a hard heart of unbelief.
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Now, all the way through the Gospel of John until its climatic point, they, the religious
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Jews, will, as we see, and as you know, execute
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Jesus Christ as a deceiver. They will crucify Him to a criminal's cross.
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And for this reason, this is why He came. He literally laid down His life for the salvation of His people.
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That's the climax. That's the climax. Now, in saying that, let me read to you our text, in which we will be looking into today.
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And again, we're not going to get very far, but we're going to take this, possibly, two or three parts,
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I should say, God willing, next week, in John chapter 5, we will pick up verse 31, or, should
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I say, I'd like to read verse 30, and read to the end of the chapter, or verse 47.
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Let me begin with verse 30, to get the context of what the Lord is saying here, to verse 47.
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So, let's be attentive in hearing the word of the living God. So, hear God's word from John 5, verse 30 to verse 47.
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Jesus says, I can of myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge.
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And my judgment is righteous, because I do not seek my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me.
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If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. There is another who bears witness of me.
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And I know that witness which he witnesses of me is true. You have sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth.
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Yet I do not receive testimony from man, but I say these things that you may be saved.
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He was a burning and a shining lamp, and you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light.
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But I have greater witness than John's. For the works which the
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Father has given me to finish, the very works that I do, bear witness of me, that the
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Father has sent me. And the Father himself who sent me has testified of me.
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You have neither heard his voice at any time nor seen his form. But you do not have his word abiding in you, because whom he sent, him you do not believe.
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You search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life. And these are they which testify of me.
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But you are not willing to come to me that you may have life. I do not receive honor from men, but I know you, and you do not have the love of God in you.
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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, him you will receive.
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How can you believe who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only
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God? Do not think that I shall accuse you to the
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Father. There is one who accuses you, Moses, in whom you trust.
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For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.
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But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?
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May God bless the reading of his word from our ears to our hearts this morning.
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Please bow with me in prayer. Father, as it has already been spoken this morning, from your awesome word is what we have heard to the hearing of our ears, and how blessed are our ears this morning to hear your word from the prayer, from public scripture reading.
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Our prayer is this. Lord, speak, for your slave hears.
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And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. When a witness is sworn in during a trial in court, certain words customarily are used, as you well know.
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The witness is asked to step up to testify.
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They put their hand on the Bible. Do you promise? And they are asked this question.
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Do you promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? So help you
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God. And of course, even the biggest liars have said,
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I do. Now, that's in the court of men.
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By swearing an oath before God, and a witness stand. The witness promises that he or she testifies and will give the testimony that will be true and not to be false.
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In his commentary, one of my favorite theologians, R .C.
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Sproul, who is now with the Lord, says this concerning the context in which we're looking at this morning and bearing witness in a court of trial.
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I quote him here. In the Old Testament, when capital crimes were committed, the suspects were tried at the city gate in the presence of the judges of the land.
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Before the death penalty could be given, at least two eyewitnesses to the crime had to give testimony, and their testimony had to agree completely.
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The idea of giving the true, accurate witness in a court of law was so important to Israel that when
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God fashioned the constitution of His people, He included among the top ten laws a prohibition against bearing false witness.
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The law also included strong sanctions against anyone who delivered a false witness in a capital crime.
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That person would himself be subject to the death penalty. And R .C.
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says this, so great care was taken about how the truth was to be discerned in context of a trial.
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End quote. The reason I recite this quote from R .C.
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Sproul concerning this context is because the background of this section that I've just read to you from John 5,
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John's Gospel, is that before us, in this wonderful chapter, has to do with accusations that's being brought against Jesus that was charged with violating the
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Sabbath law for healing a man that was paralyzed. And then ordering the man, he commanded the man, and Jesus miraculously healed him on the
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Sabbath to pick up his bed and walk. So he did. He took up his bed and he walked.
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Rather than rejoicing, which the Jewish people did not, the religious
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Jews did not even have in mind, was not even on their radar, they went in the negative and full of hate toward Jesus of healing this man on the
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Sabbath. From verse 1 to verse 18, Jesus heals this lame man on the
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Sabbath and brings a controversy as it's intensified because of what
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Jesus says about himself in verse 17. What does he say? He says, But Jesus answered them and said,
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My father has been working until now and I have been working. My father works,
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I work. Jesus was saying. The implication of what he says in verse 18 is this,
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Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill him because he not only broke the
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Sabbath but also said that God was his father making himself equal with God.
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Now, that's the point here. The equality of God. And as we have seen in the past Lord's Day and in this particular section, as I've said, from verse 19 to verse 30,
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Jesus takes this as an opportunity to present his credentials, so to speak, before these religious
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Jews. And does he have credentials? Oh my. Jesus has the credentials.
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He claims to have a very unique relationship with God the
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Father in verse 19 and 20. He claims to have the power and authority to raise the dead and grant life.
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Verse 21. He has the authority to execute judgment on the whole entire human race.
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Is that power, folks? Verse 22. He calls everyone to believe in him for spiritual life now and a glorious life in the future beyond the grave.
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That's the promise to those who believe. And we see that in verse 23 and verse 29.
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He makes that a stunning statement that all the dead will be raised when
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Jesus utters his mighty voice over the whole human race.
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Verse 28 and verse 29. We saw that. And this is the authority that Jesus has that is equal with God the
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Father. These are incredible claims, are they not? Incredible.
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Amazing. And why should anyone believe them? Why should anyone believe them?
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It's a good question, isn't it? Now the Lord of glory, Son of God, the
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Son of Man will give us a list of witnesses who confirm who he says he is.
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He will back this up. It's kind of like, if I can use for an example, an illustration, a very poor one probably, but that would kind of tune us in of what the
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Lord is doing here. It's kind of like applying for a job recently and needing a few people to serve as references.
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It makes sense. Someone is applying for a job but the employer only knows the basics from the interview and the paperwork.
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But from the interview, and they need someone to confirm these things about this person because as the person is being interviewed, they don't have a clue about this person.
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Well, let me say this in a simple way here. From verse 19 to verse 30, it's like Jesus' resume.
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It's like Jesus' resume. And can I say from verse 31 to verse 47, it's like his references of his resume.
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Now that's a small illustration to kind of help us get tuned in to what the
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Lord is about to do here in this section. He's going to call forth references.
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He's going to call forth witnesses, testimonies on his resume.
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Jesus made some staggering and shocking claims, as I mentioned, and now he tells the Jews who can confirm his awesome statements, they are listed as witnesses.
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Testimony. Witnesses. Testimony. That's a very important word here because of the
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Jewish understanding of the confirming of one's testimony. We will look at that.
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Now, there's a lot of them here that say there's a fourfold witness, but I'd like to bring,
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I believe there's maybe fivefold. If we look at the first one, we're going to look at this.
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Because the word witness is really a key word in John's Gospel. Warren Wisby's commentary says it was used 47 times in the
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Gospel of John. 47 times. Jesus did bear witness to himself, but let's keep this in mind.
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He knew they would not accept it. He knew this.
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So he calls forth other witnesses. Now, we're talking about the
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Lord Jesus Christ being the truth. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the
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Father but through me. No one. He is that truth. Pilate, as he stands before Pilate.
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Pilate, he says, Pilate basically mentions, what is truth? Jesus was standing right in front of him.
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Now, the first point I'd like for us to see is that Jesus tells a testimony or witness beyond his own regarding himself.
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Now, I believe this is a first witness. There's a lot of commentators that does not pick up here.
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They basically go right to John the Baptist, which we will see. We will only look at these two at the introduction of this message today, but the first point is that Jesus tells a testimony or his witness beyond his own regarding himself.
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Now, first of all, to understand what is being said here, we must understand the verse that is prior to verse 31.
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Let me read verse 30 again. Jesus says, I can of myself do nothing. As I hear,
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I judge, and my judgment is righteous, because I do not seek my own will, but the will of the
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Father who sent me. Now, I don't know about you, but at first you read this, and you think,
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Jesus is saying, I can of myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge, my judgment is righteous, because I do not seek my own, but the will of the
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Father who sent me. It almost appears that the
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Lord can do nothing outside of the Father. But what the
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Lord is saying is, in these verses to come, is this text seems to say that he can't do anything outside of the power of the
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Father, or anything by himself. However, that was not the case.
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If you look closely, the thought is that he is so closely united with God the
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Father, he has a unique relationship with God the Father like no one else.
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After all, he is God, and he is God the Son, the second person of the
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Trinity, and he is united with God the
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Father in that he could not act by himself. That's basically what Jesus is saying. He could not do anything on his own authority.
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There was no trace whatsoever of willfulness or selfishness in our
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Savior. He acted in perfect obedience to the will of God the
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Father and in his will, and always in the fullest fellowship and harmony with God the
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Father. Because the Savior had no selfish motives, he was not about himself, he was about his
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Father's business. You notice that he says this all the time. I always do those things that please the
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Father. I always do his will. I do what I see the
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Father does. And that's actually what he says in verse 17. My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.
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He's one with the Father. He can never be pulled apart or separate from the
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Father because he's God. He's God the Son. He's working in unison with the
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Father. Jesus had no selfish motives. He could decide matters fairly, in justice, and impartially.
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God has no respecter as a person. And his one ambition was to please his
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Father and to do his will. Jesus had a holy passion to do the will of God above everything.
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What God desired. What God commanded. This was his focus.
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This was his mission in life. And to go to a cross and to die. You remember when he struggled in the
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Garden of Gethsemane. And it wasn't that he was struggling with doing God's will, it was just there was such a pull and temptation.
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I believe Satan was throwing everything at him at the Garden of Gethsemane to bypass the cross.
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Three times the Lord says, if it's your will, let this cup pass from me.
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Let this cup pass from me. But the Lord drank that cup. And he drunk the bitterness of all the dregs and the wrath of God within that cup.
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And the sin, that he became sin. So that you and I could be saved.
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But Jesus accepted it and he went all the way to the cross. Aren't you glad? He went a little further.
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Well, here, nothing has allowed to stand in the way of this. Therefore, his judgment of matters was not influenced by what would be for his own best interest or advantage.
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It was the interest, number one, of his father. He died to the glory of God. Even though he died for the salvation of those he would redeem, the elect and those that would believe, but he died to the glory of God.
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Because Jesus Christ is God's Lamb. He is the Lamb of God. Now, our opinions and teachings are generally affected by what we want to do, isn't it?
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And what we want to believe. But beloved, it was not so with the
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Lord Jesus Christ. His opinions or judgments were not biased in his own favor.
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He was without prejudice. In verse 31, that's where it leads us to this.
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Jesus says this, If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.
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Or you could say, my witness is not valid as a testimony. Now, let me make a statement here.
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Jesus made a general statement here on that subject of witnessing. Again, this does not mean for one moment, folks, that the
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Lord Jesus could ever say anything that was not true. He's not saying that. After all, he is the truth, like I mentioned earlier.
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Rather, what is he saying? He is simply stating a general fact that the witness of a single person was not considered sufficient evidence in the court of law.
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Now, I want you to think about this for a second. God's divine decree was that at least two or three witnesses were required before a valid judgment could be formed.
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Now, where does this basically come from? Deuteronomy chapter 19, verse 15.
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Let me tell you what it says. One witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits.
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By the mouth of two or three witnesses, the matter shall be established.
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Now, do you see what the word of God says there from Deuteronomy? Our Lord quoted from Deuteronomy quite often.
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He knew the word of God quite well as a man. He studied it even though he's the word flesh.
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But he grew in stature and grace and the fear of the
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Lord as a man. And as a man, he knew God's word very well.
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It's incredible. But our Lord is doing two things here. I want to bring this to your attention.
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He's doing two things in one here. The first thing is he's keeping the law of God perfectly.
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You see that? He never once broke God's law. He lived it up to the height, to the perfect standard.
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No one else has ever done this. Jesus was the only one that lived without sin.
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He was the sinless, perfect Son of God. He is keeping the law of God perfectly.
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And he keeps it for us. He keeps it for his people. Now, second, as he keeps the law of God perfectly, our
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Lord was about to give not two or three witnesses which
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Deuteronomy requires by the decree of God, but four witnesses or even five to his deity.
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He gives more. Folks, this is so wonderful because it's as if Jesus, he did not have to do this because he's the truth.
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But what is he doing? He's condescending. He's stooping low for our sakes that we may be saved, that we may believe in him.
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And even to these religious, self -righteous Jewish leaders that had a heart of hate to kill him,
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Jesus knew their hearts. But he never committed himself to them because that's what
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Scripture says. He's the perfect Son of God. But he desires us to believe in him that much.
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He gives all these witnesses. Now, this leads to verse 32. Now, this is a tough verse.
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And I want to tell you why in just a minute. I want to read it first. There is another, he says, there is another who bears witness of me.
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And I know that the witness which he witnesses of me is true.
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Now, this is very interesting. And I want to tell you why. And it was a challenge. I want to be honest with you.
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I was quite challenged in my hermeneutics. And that's basically my Bible study and putting together the
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Scriptures because the Scripture says, as I present God's Word to you every
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Lord's day, I have a duty before God to study, to show myself approved unto
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God to rightly divide the Word of Truth. And sometimes there are interpretive challenges for all of us.
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If you're a good Berean, you know what I mean. You study the Scriptures and the Bereans study the
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Scriptures daily to see whether those things are so. And by the way, you check me.
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If I say anything outside of the Word of God that is an error, come to me. And I'll be glad to talk with you about it because, listen, there's not a one of us in here that's right a hundred percent.
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If we're honest about it, right? And that's why we are to search the Scriptures. To read the
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Word of God. You know, not only to read it, the Scripture says to meditate on it.
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To meditate. Use Brother Keith's example here, if you don't mind, Brother Keith.
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Just a common country analogy. You see a cow chewing the cud.
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You know, they chew the grass and they put the cud in the back of their jaws and they chew it and chew it and chew it.
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And they don't necessarily always swallow it. They chew and they like to chew. Kind of like football players and, you know, these guys.
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You know, they chew and chew and chew because it's enjoyable. They get the sweet flavor out of it. Well, that's what God wants us to do about the
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Word. Just not to read it, but to pause and to meditate and to get all the flavor out of it and to get every detail we can because we need to know
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God's Word. That's the way we renew our mind. Daily. To have the mind of Christ.
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So, God desires us to know His Word but to meditate on it as well.
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Now, here's the question. The question here as I present before you here is whether this verse refers to John the
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Baptist, the Holy Spirit, or God the Father. Now, much time could be spent here and I would do my best to make this as short as possible because there's a lot here.
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And like I said, I'm so thankful for expository preaching because we can pick it up next week where I can't finish it.
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And you know that's been the case of me most of the time. But much time could be spent in going through all the observations and go through all the detail.
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But I'm not going to bore you with that. I'm going to try to give you a short version of these observations.
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Now, some believe, and I mean some, commentators, godly men, that knows much, much more than me.
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Theologians. I'm just a student of the Word of God. One, for example, is by the late
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John Gill. Godly man back in his day. He believed that the word another here, or other, describes
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John the Baptist in that this verse is linked with the three verses that follow.
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Now, there's others that believe the Lord here was speaking about the witness which is another that will be given from the
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Father which is the Holy Spirit that bears concerning Himself.
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But it appears that Jesus, and I humbly take this view where some very good theologians back this up, was speaking here of God the
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Father as that other witness. And I'm going to tell you reasons why here. About those witnesses,
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He had more to say later in the surrounding verses and the verses that follow. Also in the
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King James Version and in other translations here, if you notice in verse 31, if I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.
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Verse 32, there is another who bears witness of me and I know that the witness which he witnesses of me is true.
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If you notice, the he is capitalized. So I believe that would mean that is reliable to the reference of deity speaking of God the
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Father. One of the main themes of this discourse, by the way, in chapter 5 is the relationship between the
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Son and the Father which I've already mentioned. The Son does only what He sees the
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Father does. Jesus is working on the Sabbath because His Father is working on the
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Sabbath. The Father raises the dead and gives life so the Son also gives life.
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The Father is to be honored by all so the Son also is to be honored by all. Jesus, the
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Son, who is equal with God, the Father is one with God the Father and so on.
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So when we come to verse 31, where Jesus claims that His testimony of witness is not valid, if He testifies about Himself, it again has to do with His relationship to His Father.
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This is very important. So if the Father is not also testifying about Jesus, then
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Jesus' own testimony about Himself is not valid. I'd also like to bring up there were times, just a handful of times, in the
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Gospels we read that the Father's audible voice spoke, testifying, that this is
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My beloved Son at the baptism in whom
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I'm well pleased. Some people thought it thundered. They had no attention to the voice of God.
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But God the Father spoke and said this is My beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased.
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And also on the Mount of Transfiguration, again the Father spoke and said this is
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My beloved Son while the disciples, Peter, James and John was there and then Jesus appeared and Elijah representing the prophets and Moses representing the law, the law and the prophets and Christ in the middle.
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And they were speaking of His resurrection, actually His exodus. Because those men can relate to exodus, can't they?
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I believe Elijah can because he was taken up with chariots of fire into heaven. He exited out.
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And then you have Moses can speak of he was the deliverer that came to deliver, was used of God to deliver
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God's people out of Egypt after 420 years of slavery. And what did he do?
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He led them out. There was an exodus as Brother Keith mentioned this morning. But in the middle, you have the greatest of them all.
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The Lord Jesus Christ and His powerful resurrection to come. That would be the exodus that He would give.
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His glorious resurrection. And then Peter, as you know the story, he gets excited as being a
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Jew as he was seeing Moses and this vision of Moses and Elijah and he's not really focusing on Jesus but he's getting caught up with the
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Old Testament prophets. And he said, let's make a tabernacle for this one and a tabernacle for that one.
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And then God the Father thunders out, this is my beloved son, hear ye Him. Boy, isn't that a word for us?
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As good as the prophets and as great as the prophets and the patriarchs are and all these godly men.
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Folks, they were all about the Lord Jesus Christ. They wrote about Him. They looked forward to the
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Messiah. And that's why God the Father actually rebuked Peter in this because this is my son, you hear
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Him. We need to hear Christ. Jesus would, you see, be operating just not on His own but rather in accord with the
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Father. But Jesus, back to our text here, Jesus offers here throughout the gospel as He does, the fact that the works, perhaps chiefly not limited to the signs,
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He was received from the Father in verse 36. Verse 36 says,
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But I have a greater witness than John's for the works which the Father has given me to finish the very works that I do bear witness of me that the
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Father has sent me. Now, much could be said.
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The next text, as Jesus defends
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His self -witness, now He's already introduced the greatest witness of all and that is the
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Father. In verse 32, The Lord then turned to the testimony of John the
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Baptist. He reminds the unbelieving Jews, and this is His audience, folks, these are hard -hearted, unbelieving
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Jews that they sent men to John to hear what
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He had to say and to John's testimony was really all about the
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Lord Jesus Christ, wasn't it? Because you see this in verse 33 to verse 35.
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Let me read it. This is actually the second testimony, the second witness.
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You have sent to John and he has borne witness to the truth. Yet, I do not receive testimony from man, but I say these things that you may be saved.
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He was a burning and a shining lamp and you were willing for a time to rejoice in His light.
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Isn't that interesting? Now, let me refresh your memory about how
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John bore witness of Jesus. We've already gone through this, but I think it's significant that we refresh our memory.
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You go back to John chapter 1. Let's look at this. Go back a few pages to John 1, beginning at verse 15.
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John bore witness. There it is. There's that key word. John bore witness of Him talking about Jesus and cried out.
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And what did he say? He said this, saying that, This was He whom I said,
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He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me. And of His fullness, we have all received in grace for grace.
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For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has seen
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God at any time. The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared
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Him. And he goes on to say this. Now this is the testimony of John.
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Speaking about His witness, His testimony. When the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask
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Him, Who are You? Who are You? He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed,
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I am not the Christ. I'm not the Messiah. I'm not the Anointed One. And they asked
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Him, What then? Are You Elijah? And He said, I am not.
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Are You the Prophet? And He answered, No. And then they said to Him, Who are
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You? That You may give an answer, that we, I'm sorry, that we may give an answer to those who sent us.
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What do You say about Yourself? And He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.
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Make straight the way of the Lord, as the Prophet Isaiah said. Now those who were sent were from the
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Pharisees, the religious group, pretty much close to the same crowd that's accusing Jesus about breaking the
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Sabbath and so forth. Verse 25, And they asked Him saying, Why then do you baptize if you are not the
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Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet? Baptism was a big deal, about cleansing and washing externally, but it signified something internally of repentance.
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Verse 26, John answered them, and what kind of answer did he give? I love the answer
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John gives here. He never pointed these men to himself, folks. He always points people to Jesus Christ.
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Even the religious crowd. He says, I baptize with water.
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In a sense you could say, Hey, that's external washing that signifies something internal.
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But there stands one among you whom you do not know. It is
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He who is coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandals strap.
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I am not worthy to loose. These things were done in Beth Barber, beyond the
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Jordan, where John was baptized. Now, see you have the witness of John the Baptist there, and Jesus here uses
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John as a reference. John the Baptist was a good reference. Now, let's look a little bit about John the
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Baptist's reference. Again, he was always pointing people to Jesus, the
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Savior of the world, never to himself. He says, I must decrease, Christ must increase.
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He bore witness to the one who is the truth. In verse 34, Jesus says this,
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Yet I do not receive testimony from man. This is interesting. But I say these things that you may be saved.
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You know what the Lord Jesus is doing? He's reminding His listeners that His claim to be equal with God the
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Father was not based simply on the testimony of human beings. If that was all
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He had, then His case would indeed be a very weak one, would it not?
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A very weak case. Now, we're talking about someone that came from above.
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And if you read it, in the beginning of John chapter 1, we're talking about the Word here, folks.
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We're talking about the Word. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was
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God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him. And without Him, nothing was made that was made.
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In Him was life. And the life was the light of man. And the light shines in darkness. And the darkness did not overpower.
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It did not comprehend it. We're talking about the One that made all things. The Creator of the ends of the earth.
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The Word. The Logos. And He became flesh. Verse 14,
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And the Word became flesh and tabernacled. He dwelt among us and we beheld His glory.
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We saw Him. The glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And here
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He is. He's testifying. He's bringing these testimonies, these witnesses, to the case.
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And again, if He just had human witnesses, His case would be very weak.
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But He did introduce the testimony of John the Baptist for our sake and their sake.
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John the Baptist, and by the way, he was a man that was called and sent from God.
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He was just not another ordinary religious guy in that day. John upset everything.
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He was unusual. Read about him. Camel's hair clothing, and he ate locusts and wild honey.
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He was a strange individual. By the way, if he came today and were to preach, his preaching would be awesome and powerful, but he would be a strange character to us, wouldn't he?
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This man spent most of his time in the desert, but he was a man sent from God. He was otherworldly.
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And he testified of the Lord Jesus Christ. And since he testified that the Lord Jesus was indeed the
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Messiah, and he also testified that this is the Lamb of God that would take away the sin of the world.
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And then he added, but I say these things that you may be saved. I want to say that again.
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This is so important here because he says, but I say these things that you may be saved.
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So why was the Lord speaking to the Jews in such great length here? You ever think of that? These people that hated him,
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Jesus knew what they were going to do, that they hated Christ, and they were going to eventually take him to the cross and turn him over to be executed as a criminal in shame.
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And Jesus knew their thoughts. But yet he goes in great length and gives one of the longest discourses to these people to testify of his equality with God, and he brings forth these witnesses that you may be saved.
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Was he simply trying to show that he was right and they were wrong? But you know,
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I want you to think of this. That may be true. But on the contrary, he was bringing before them that these wonderful truths in order that they might realize who he really was.
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Who he really was, and by the way, to see our great need of a
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Savior. That's why he's doing this. These verses are incredible.
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They give us a clear view of the loving kindness and compassionate heart of the
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Lord Jesus Christ, even to those that hated him here. You know, have you ever thought of that?
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You know, you read Luke 15, you read the parables, even Luke 15, was that whole parable of...
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It's actually three parables in one. You have the parable of the lost sheep, the parable of the lost coin, and then the lost son.
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And actually, in that parable, Jesus is actually, he's giving this to the
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Pharisees, the self -righteous Pharisees that condemned Jesus. Oh, he eats with sinners. He's a friend of sinners.
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They did it in disdain. But Jesus was a friend of sinners. But then he gives these parables and he shows the loving kindness and the greatness and the goodness of God and the love of God.
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And he even says it in this discourse. He says in verse 42, But I know you, I know you, that you do not have the love of God in you.
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He knew their hearts. He was the searcher of hearts. And by the way, he's the searcher of your hearts. He's the searcher of my hearts.
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We really don't know our heart. The Bible says that the heart is desperately wicked, deceitful, above all things, desperately wicked.
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Who can know it? That's why we need God to search our hearts. We need to go to the scriptures and get in prayer and go before God and say,
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Oh God, like David says, try me and search me and see if there be any wicked way in me.
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We don't know our hearts. But Jesus was given this discourse to show them their great need that they're sinners and that they need a
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Savior. And He speaks to us just the same. He speaks to them in patience, doesn't
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He? Loving kindness and truth concerning Himself.
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He spoke to those that hated Him with a hatred who would soon be seeking in every way possible to kill
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Him, to execute Him to a criminal's cross. Great love is the
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Father sending the Son. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
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For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved.
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That's why He came to seek and save the lost from the heart of the
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Lord Jesus Christ towards those that even hated Him. He demonstrated perfect love, folks.
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There was no motive in Him of aiming at them in a sense of being bombastic and saying,
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I'm right and you're wrong. Even though He was because He's the Son of God. He's truth incarnate.
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But He was patient toward them. Even to these self -righteous Pharisees and religious leaders.
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I don't know about you. That's very convicting to me. Because I really get up in arms about these religious leaders that come, as we talked about today, these
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Jehovah Witnesses. I know Brother Keith can testify this since he had some come to his door. He went right to John chapter 5.
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Praise God to who Jesus is. But we need to be patient with people that are deceived. Even the
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Jehovah Witnesses, as self -righteous as they are, they're brainwashed, folks. They're deceived in religion.
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Trying to earn their way to heaven. But the Lord has. He's the answer to their religiosity and to their sinful actions as He is for us.
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He says, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. Well, let's go to verse 35 very quickly.
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Jesus speaks of John. He was a burning and a shining lamp. And you were willing for a time to rejoice in His light.
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For a time, hear the Lord. He pays tribute to John the
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Baptist. What a great honor to have the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's another time, I believe in Luke's Gospel, He speaks that out of all the men that's been born of women, there's none greater than John the
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Baptist. The privilege that he had to introduce the world to the
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Lord Jesus Christ. He was a burning and a shining light. A burning lamp. This meant that he was a very zealous man for the truth.
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Very zealous. And we need this kind of zeal for the truth.
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John the Baptist had a ministry that brought light and darkness to others.
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I like what Ravenhill said, He did no miracles, but He raised a dead nation. Think of that.
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This man was a burning and a shining light. Can you imagine the Lord Jesus Christ speaking of you like this? Will He speak of you about this one day when we stand all before, all of us will stand before Him one day before the judgment, the behemoth seat of Christ.
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And will Jesus be able to say, well done and good and faithful servant, slave, enter into the joy of the
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Lord. Or are you going to hear the terrifying words that comes from Jesus, depart from me,
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I never knew you. Most terrifying words ever. Well, John the
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Baptist was one who was consumed with holiness. He was a burning and a shining lamp.
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Think of that. In a dark world, in the process of pointing people to the
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Lord Jesus Christ, this man was consumed with Jesus Christ. He constantly pointed, even the disciples that he had, he points them to Christ.
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He says, behold the Lamb of God. Go after Him. There He is. Go follow Him. There was no competition in his heart.
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He had, like Brother Ben's been speaking about, holy violence for the kingdom of God and for the king.
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He brought a lamp, a burning and a shining lamp of the gospel to others around him.
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Let me ask you a question here. Are you doing that for the Lord Jesus Christ today? Are you being a witness?
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And by the way, if you go to Acts 1 -8, the Bible says, Jesus says, you shall be, you shall receive power.
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Dunamis, like a piece of dynamite. Power. After that, the
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Holy Spirit comes upon you and you shall be witnesses unto the world?
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No. Keep this in mind. We are, first of all, witnesses unto Christ. You shall be witnesses unto me.
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And you know what the original says there about witnesses? You shall be martyrs. And folks, the people that followed
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Jesus in that day paid a price. They were martyrs. And there are still some today that are martyrs.
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They will give their very lives to death because they see that Jesus Christ is the only one that's worthy.
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He's our reason to live. In Him we live and move and have our being. Paul says,
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He's all in all. I'm complete in Christ. If I have Christ, I've got everything. Take this world and give me
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Jesus. Amen? Oh, I'm telling you, beloved, we need
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Jesus more and more. Now, at first, the Jewish people flocked to John the
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Baptist. You remember that? I just read it to you. They flocked to him. He was something of a novelty, wasn't he?
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He was a strange figure, like I said, very eccentric, so to speak. And he had come into their lives and they went out to listen to him.
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Oh, we want to hear this preacher, John. Oh, we want to hear his fiery preaching, possibly like Elijah, because Jesus says, if you can receive it,
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Ben spoke about that last Lord's Day, that he's like Elijah, a fiery prophet.
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Let's go hear him preach. Let's go hear his preaching. But, beloved, if you were to hear John the
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Baptist preach, you know what he'd preach? Behold the Lamb of God. I will point you to Jesus Christ.
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And He alone is the one that can save you. Well, they went to him to listen to him but just for a time, it kind of wore off.
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Oh, his preaching probably offended a lot of people, I'm sure. Probably got old to hear this firebrand.
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They accepted him as a popular preacher in his day, but why then after accepting
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John so warmly, I got to listen to this. Here's a question. Why did they accept
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John the Baptist so warmly? Would they not accept the King, the One, the
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Righteous One, in whom John prepared them to hear and to see?
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And they rejected the Messiah, the King. Oh, they rejoiced in a temporary time in His light, but there was no repentance.
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You see this? We can all fall in this category. They were very inconsistent.
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May God save us from apathy toward our Lord. Jesus even said this in Revelation to the churches.
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In one of the churches, I believe it was the church that made God sick. Laodicea. He says,
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I would prefer that you be hot or cold. He said, but because you're lukewarm, I will spew you out of my mouth.
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In other words, it makes God sick. May we be like John the
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Baptist, but more than that, let's be like Jesus. I love
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Amy Carmichael's wonderful poem here.
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It's one of my favorites. It's called, Fuel of God. She says this,
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From prayer that asks that I may be sheltered from the winds that beat on thee, from fearing when
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I should aspire, from faulting when I should climb higher. This is so convicting.
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Listen to this. From silking self, O captain free, thy soldier who would follow thee, from subtle love of softening things, from easy choices, weakenings, not thus are spirits fortified.
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Not thus are spirits fortified. Not this way went the crucified. From all that dims thy calvary,
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O Lamb of God, deliver me. Give me the love that leads the way, the faith that nothing can dismay, the hope no disappointments tire, the passion that will burn like fire.
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Let me not sink to be a clod. Make me thy fuel, flame of God.
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Don't you desire to be like that? God provides the fire.
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We just need to provide the living sacrifice. To burn for Jesus.
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To burn for Jesus. To be a light and a torch for Jesus. We need it in this day, folks.
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I'm telling you. Look around you. How many of us would agree today that the coming of the
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Lord is nigher than ever before? Look at this world today. It's fallen apart.
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And yet people are forgetting Jesus Christ. You think Christ is on their mind? Not on your life. And Jesus says when
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He comes again it will be like a thief in the night. And the Bible says it would be working, watching and ready.
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Well, the Lord of glory was soon to come. The Messiah, the Savior of the world. Let me ask you.
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Where are you with the Lord Jesus Christ? Go with me in closing very quickly to Matthew 16.
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And I'm going to tie this right in to what the Lord is saying in closing. Matthew 16.
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There's so much that can be said here. But you know this great chapter. But in the middle of it, there's the confession that Peter makes.
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And this, folks, is the confession of the church. Of who we believe that Jesus really is.
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Verse 13. When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, a hell hole actually,
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He asked His disciples, saying, Who do men say that I, the
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Son of Man, am? Notice He begins a question. He first says, Who do men say that I am?
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You get this. So they said, and then they began to say, Some say John the Baptist.
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Because John the Baptist is a fiery preacher. Some say Elijah. There's another fiery prophet.
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Others, Jeremiah. A weeping prophet. See, Jesus had this all in one. He wept.
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He was fiery in His preaching. Or one of the prophets. And then in verse 15,
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He said to them, He gives them the question in a roundabout way, in a different way.
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Then He gets more direct. He first begins by saying, Who do men say that I am? Then He says,
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But who do you say that I am? Who do you say that I am?
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Folks, the way you answer that question right there, well, to determine everything, eternal life or eternal death, and meaning it.
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Simon Peter answered and said, and he didn't come up with this in his wits, You are the
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Christ, the Son of the Living God. Jesus answered and said to him,
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Blessed are you, Simon Bar -Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed, this is a revelation, this to you, but my
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Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you, that you are
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Peter, and on this rock I will build my church. That's the first time the church is mentioned. Jesus will build
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His church, the Ecclesiastes, the called out ones. And the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
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Jump to verse 24. The gospel is given. Then Jesus said to His disciples.
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Folks, this defines a follower of Jesus Christ right now. Everybody says they're Christian, but bring this up.
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Bring this verse up. If anyone, Jesus says, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.
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First, self -denial. Second, taking up His cross.
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You know what that means? Our obedience to the commandments of Jesus Christ. And you follow
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Jesus all the way to the end. Day by day.
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Day by day. He doesn't stop there, folks. Listen to this. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it.
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For whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?
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What a question. And what will a man give in exchange for his soul? And then
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He says this. For the Son of Man will come in glory. Jesus already mentioned that in John 5, didn't
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He? When? For when the Son of Man will come. He's coming. We don't know when.
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Everybody's caught up with the when. We need to be ready. What do we do in the meantime?
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Deny ourself. Take up our cross. Follow Jesus day by day.
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But for when the Son of Man will come in glory of His Father with His holy angels and then
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He will reward each according to His works. You know what that means? Everybody will stand before God.
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Give an account. Well, I'll stop right there.
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May we be like Christ more than anything else. May we be flames of fire for Christ burning ourselves out and bringing light to a lost and dying world that lies in so much darkness.
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Oh beloved, be a true witness for Jesus Christ. And that doesn't mean just being moral.
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That means to be holy. Gird up the loins of your mind.
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We're not to be like the world. We're in the world, but not of the world. But we're to reach the world.
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That's what Jesus came to do. He came to reach in a unique way to be the Savior of the world. But He's Lord.
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Amen? And that's what Peter was saying. This is the confession of the church. Thou art the Christ, the
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Son of the living God. May we follow Him and be true and faithful to the end as the
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Lord gives us grace day by day to follow Him, deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow
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Him to the end. Amen? Let's pray. Father, we thank You for this time we've had to come to hear
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Thy Word. Lord, I pray that the Word that went forth that never ever goes without profit, goes forth without profit.
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Lord, You said it. It goes forth, and it does not return void. It accomplishes exactly what
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You've sent it to do. Lord, I'm just a voice. Take Your Word, and I pray that it, like seed, will fall on good ground and bring forth much fruit for Your glory.
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Lord, this life that we have is like a vapor.
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It's here one moment, and it's gone the next. May we be eternity -minded.
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May, as Jonathan Edwards said, stamp eternity on our eyeballs today.
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And if anyone here, Lord, does not know who they are, that they are a wicked sinner,
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Lord, I pray today will be the day of visitation, and they will come to know who
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You are, a great Savior. We are great sinners, but there is a great
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Savior to save us to the uttermost. Father, we thank You for this, that You came to seek through Jesus Christ, seek and save the lost.
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We praise You. Lord, we can come to You knowing that You willingly, desirously, desire to save us to the uttermost.
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Lord, may we trust in Your Word today. May we believe in Your Word. As it says in Hebrews, Lord, that there is a great high priest that pleads our case.
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See, and then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. Let us hold fast our confession that there are the
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Christ, the Son of the living God, the Lord Jesus Christ. So we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, our infirmities, but was in all points tempted us, we are yet without sin.
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And Lord, we could come boldly to Thy throne of grace that we may obtain mercy, compassion to wash and cleanse us from all of our sin and find grace to help in time of need.
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May this be so. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and for Your glory.