The Five Fold Testimony of Jesus Christ: Part 3

We're online again, so let me start with some questions. Question number one is this, what keeps people from believing in Jesus Christ?

What keeps people from believing in Jesus Christ? Second question

I would like to ask, why would anyone desire to have his or her sins forgiven and to have eternal life as a free gift of God's grace through Christ, so that they do not come into judgment?

Why would anyone not desire to have his or her sins forgiven and have eternal life as a free gift of God's love and grace through Jesus Christ, and so that they do not come into ultimate eternal judgment?

Well, by asking these questions, let me give some reasons.

Many reasons, but two are really paramount, but one is critical.

For example, many Muslims reject Jesus Christ because they have misconceptions about who

Jesus is and what he claimed. That's exactly what this chapter is referring to.

Muslims, and the same misconceptions amongst the Jehovah Witnesses, among the

Mormons, among thousands of cults, that have wrong views of God and Christ.

Others reject Jesus Christ because they have been wounded by professing

Christians or by a church. I've talked to many, and I'm sure you have. When we went to the

Pride Parade to witness the Pride LGBTQ movement out a month or two ago, there were many that I spoke to said that they had just been literally turned off from God, and who

God is, and from the truth, and from church, because someone within the church deeply wounded them.

A preacher, a minister, a priest, possibly abused them, causing them to conclude that Jesus Christ and Christianity is a crutch and really a sham.

Perhaps their parents professed to be a Christian, yet were abusive.

I've heard this so many times and time again. Did not live out the faith at home, or supposedly was a hypocrite.

So they're turned away from the truth of who God is. So they say these things.

I would not turn to Christ. I would not come to Christ because of the hypocrites.

The hypocrites. Or the parents, they say, were overly strict, and tried to force them into believing in Christ, forcing it upon them.

Others go to college, and their faith is undermined, and you have atheistic professors influencing them against the scriptures, against the

Bible. Now, let me say this, beloved. We can multiply many, many more reasons why people do not come to Jesus Christ, and these excuses of what people say.

And I say excuses because really a lot of people look for excuses to turn away from God.

And I also know this, there are many times when these things happen, it causes them to search the scriptures and go toward God.

But let me also insert this and give a footnote on this at the beginning of the message here.

Now, even when there's some of these reasons, some of these reasons I have just listed could be facts and reasons, and supposedly might have happened and may be true, why people don't come to Jesus Christ.

Many, many people, again, use these reasons for excuses to stay away from Christ or not come to Christ.

And they become clerks. They clerk their own sin and cast the blame on supposed

Christianity. And we know that that's not right. That's the reasons according to them.

Now, I'm not to say that they're not true, but they are looking for excuses to look down at the truth, look down at Christianity, and so forth.

Yet, again, that is according to each one of their stories, and I know you've heard them as well as I have.

Yet, the Bible, the Bible itself, the word of the living God, gives us two clear reasons, and I'm going to put a third in here too, but two clear reasons why people do not come to Jesus Christ.

Let me give you these two reasons. Number one, first of all,

I believe would be deception. People are deceived. This is

Satan's master tactic. This is his master strategy, is to deceive.

People are deceived, and by the way, as we well know, the false teachers deceive, and they will deceive themselves, and still deceiving.

Jesus called them blind leaders of the blind, and Jesus said, they'll both fall into the ditch.

So we have deception. That's the first one, and I believe there is another one.

I believe that's very important for us to understand this, and we see this really in our text, and this is a big one.

It's called unbelief, a hard heart of unbelief. You have deception on one end, and unbelief on the other, and these are the two main reasons why literally millions and millions of people are perishing right now, because they are deceived, being deceived, and also it's a hard heart of unbelief that keeps them from coming to the

Lord Jesus Christ, to faith in Christ, and repenting of their sin. Now, of course, it goes without saying that those are terrible sins, and we know that it's a sin, but what would really be the backbone of those sins in which

I've listed? Deception and a hard heart of unbelief. I really believe that the root sin of all those sins, and those two sins

I briefly mentioned, deception and unbelief, is the sin of pride.

The sin of pride. The sin of pride and self -righteousness is no doubt because they are deceived, and that they're blind, and that they choose not to come to Jesus Christ because they're dead in their sins and their trespasses, and this is why the sin of unbelief prevails.

It is because of the pride within them. The pride of life, as John speaks of in John 2.

Well, as we saw in John 3, let me read this, back it up a couple of chapters, and this goes right hand in glove of what is being spoken here.

John 3, verse 18 to 21, Jesus Christ himself speaks of the reasons why people love the truth,

I'm sorry, they love the evil in which they do, and do not have a love for the truth, and it's this, verse 18.

He who believes in him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten

Son of God. Now listen carefully to what the Lord says. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

There's a love for the darkness, there's a love for that, rather than the love for the truth and the light.

Verse 20, for everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.

That he who does come to, he comes, does the truth, comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen and that they have been done in God, wrought in God.

Now, that's the Lord Jesus Christ himself. People love their sin because they love darkness.

And this is the world in which we live, a fallen world, dead and trespasses in their sins.

People reject Jesus Christ, they love their sin, they hate heaven, they're exposed by the word of God, by the truth and the light.

The light shines upon them, it exposes them, and they do everything they can to cloak and hide themselves with fig leaves.

Now, in our text, in John chapter 5, Jesus directly confronts these religious leaders, these religious

Jewish self -righteous Pharisees who were opposing him, who hated him for the claims he made, who were unwilling to come to him for eternal life.

This is what the text tells us. Verse 44 says, How can you believe who receive honor from one another and do not seek the honor that comes from the only

God? That's the question. How can you believe?

Now, I don't know if you noticed this in that question, the green bird points to man's inability to believe.

He's not only not willing, he's not only not willing to come to Christ, he's unable to come to Christ and believe within his own power.

We must honestly think of this great truth, the inability, and a lot of people really think that they have their own, and yes, there is a will that we have.

We're not robots, we're not automatons, in that sense, we do have a will, but our will is bent to sin.

Our will is not to seek God. We are unable to even come to God.

It's the Father himself that draws us, and it is by God's Spirit that anyone, if he comes to grace and the

Lord Jesus Christ, it is ultimately by God himself that seeks us out, and it's not us that seeks

God. God is the seeker. Now, there is an inability, and we are in bondage to sin.

Yeah, we have a so -called free will, but we have a free will to sin.

We only have a nature that is bent to do what is only wrong and not what is ultimately right.

Jesus just gave them adequate witness, testimony to back up his claim to be equal with God the

Father, so they didn't lack evidence. They had ample evidence here, as Jesus told them, this is who he is, and because he told them this, in verse 17, my

Father has been working unto now, and I have been working. Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the

Sabbath, but also said that God was his Father, making him self -equal with God, and this is why they sought all the more to kill him.

Now, they had ample evidence. I want you to think of this. Not only did they have ample evidence, they were zealous students, so -called theologians of the

Scripture, the Torah, the law and the prophets, the writings of the

Old Testament, all the prophets, all the prophecies concerning Jesus Christ as the

Messiah, and all that was spoke of him, prophesied of him, throughout the entirety of the

Word of God. What was their problem? What was their problem? What kept them from believing in Jesus Christ?

Why did they eventually murder him and put him to death on a cruel cross, the

Savior of the world for whom the Father had sent? Again, the capital error of sin, of all sin,

I believe, according to the Scripture, is the hardness of their heart and the sin of unbelief, that root sin of unbelief, no doubt, was the pride of life, the pride of outward self -righteousness.

This is why they were self -deceived, the pride of life, the sin of pride, the sin of pride, the outward self -righteousness, as opposed to seeking the inward reality with God to keep you and I from believing in Jesus Christ if we go down that path.

Now, no doubt, the sin of pride is the root of all sins, and I want you to think of this, this is the sin that turned an archangel into a devil.

This is where sin began, was in heaven. It did not begin on earth.

It began in the heart of an archangel that willfully came against, rebelled against God.

What sent him to turn against God was his own pride, his pride.

Pride makes us think that we know what's best for us. Pride makes us think that we know the way is better.

It makes us think what is best for us so that we rebel against God and we rebel against God's way, my way, as the song goes.

That would be the song of the damned and lost into hell. I did it my way. I did it my way.

Pride deceives us into thinking that we can be good enough to get to heaven.

Pride causes us to put up a good outward front of hypocrisy.

Hypocrisy is basically another name for play acting. Outward show. How can

I perform outwardly? How can I do all these good things? How can I be better? How can

I think of myself, I think of myself very great. I look at myself in the mirror. I go to church.

I want people to think good of me. And all together, we're all hooked on ourselves.

Ourself. Ourself. And this is why Jesus said, if we're to follow him, we are to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him.

The first thing, self -denial. Jesus says, you must deny yourself. Now, the self is the problem.

Pride causes us to put up a good outward front, put on a good show, and impress others, while we hide ourselves with fig leaves, our own self -righteousness, our own religion, and cover ourselves with religion, and hide the way that we really are before God and our hearts.

But you know, God knows our hearts. God knows our hearts. Spiritual pride, deception, actually lead to unbelief.

That leads us to unbelief, and there's unwillingness to come to God.

Now, so Jesus confronts their pride. Jesus confronts their pride. This is the one that is meek and lowly.

This is the one that is meekness himself, incarnate. Now, in John 41 and 42, we will be seeing this later on, but he says this.

He says, I do not receive honor from men, but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in you.

Notice that. In you. He knows their hearts. Jesus Christ is the searcher of our hearts.

He knows who we are. He knows us inside and out, everything about us.

So their pride led them, the religious Jews, into a misunderstanding of the

Bible. That's my first point here. This pride leads them to a misunderstanding of the truth of the

Bible. They were self -deceived because of their self -righteous pride.

Verse 37 and 38 says this.

He says, But you do not have his word abiding in you, because whom he sent, him you do not believe.

You do not have his word abiding in you. Abiding in you.

Now, think of this. Jesus begins in our passage here by saying that God has sent him and that God bears witness to him.

And then Jesus tells these pharisaical Pharisees that they never heard the voice of God in the first place, nor seen

God, nor did they have the word of God dwelling in them, abiding in them.

The word of God was not their love. Even though they searched the

Scriptures, they did not have a love. Notice that in verse 42. He says, You do not have the love of God in you.

So if they did not have the love of God in them or inside of their hearts, they had no love for the

Scripture itself. Now, this leads us to the next verse.

And it's interesting because Jesus says, You search the Scriptures. You search the Scriptures. For in them you think you have eternal life.

Notice that. They searched the Scriptures. This should be a searching thing to every one of us because we can search the

Scriptures and not let the Holy Spirit search us. And don't let the

Scriptures search our own hearts. Let the word of God search us. And then he says this,

And in them you think. They're deceived. That's how we know there's deception here. He said,

You think you have eternal life. And these are they which testify of me.

Now, let me stop right there. Jesus never minced any words here. He pointed and he pointed out directly right to their hearts.

He puts his finger right on their hearts. He unloads and unpacks the truth right in their hard hearts.

He says that they've never really heard the voice of God. You really do not know his form.

You really don't. You don't have the word of God abiding within you. You do not have the love of God in you.

Now, again, keep this in mind. In the context of what he's saying, he's talking about people that supposedly were experts of the truth.

They were experts of the Bible. They were experts of the Old Testament, just like Nicodemus.

Very religious Pharisees, very religious Jews here, that God had given his word to the

Jewish people, those covenant and the promises and the law and all that he gives them.

It was a point of pride that kept them in their state as they are.

And they, here, here comes the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the

Son of the living God, speaking to them. Jesus Christ being God incarnate, God in flesh, deity,

Christ has come. The second person of the Trinity comes. He's incarnate, tabernacles among them.

And here he is speaking to these religious Jews, these Pharisees that thought they knew everything, deprived.

John 3 .34 says this, For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the

Spirit by measure. Verse 35, The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hands.

John 1 .1, In the beginning was the Word, the Logos, and the Word was with God, and the

Word was God. Here is God in flesh. Jesus is the Word of God, whom the

Pharisees don't hear. They don't hear what he's really saying. Even though Jesus speaks to them the truth, they're totally deaf.

They're mute to what Christ is telling them. The irony is that the Pharisees are literally hearing him speak,

Jesus Christ speak to them, but they don't have ears to hear what he's truly saying.

They do not have the ears, inner ears, to hear the truth, to perceive.

This is the way people are today. So many people hear sermon after sermon, and I call them sermon -proof

Christians. They really don't have a great appreciation for the Word of the living

God because they don't have inner ears to hear what God is saying. They can continue to hear sermon after sermon, and I've seen it so often.

And it's so searching to myself as well, but it's like, they hear their strongest preaching and sermons on judgment and repentance and even hell, and people still continue to go in their self -willed way and not come to Christ and repent.

How is it? How is it that they can do that? Well, this is what happens here.

You know, the irony again is that they're hearing Christ speak, but they don't really have ears to hear what he's really saying.

And the idea is that, and we will come up at the end of this chapter, is that the

Pharisees, the followers of Moses and his writings and the

Torah, the Pentateuch, they would have recognized

Jesus for who he was if they truly believed in what Moses said.

It's true as well that the Pharisees, these theologians of that day, would often miss the very heart of God himself.

And it could be easy to know a lot about the Bible, but not to have the

Bible changing your heart, your heart. They had a lot of good knowledge.

And this is a warning. This is such a soul -searching thing for each and every one of us here today, right?

We can have a lot of head knowledge, but no heart knowledge. We may hear it, and we may time and time again hear this truth, but really, do we truly know what it's saying?

So, it makes me think of James the Apostle. James the

Apostle prays in James 1 .22 that we would be doers of the word and just not hearers, hearers only.

So, it's more than just hearing it. Now, we do know that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

And we're going to look at this, but it's not just enough to just so -called hear.

We must have ears to hear inward but faith must be activated.

You see what I'm saying? That's what the scripture says. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God.

So, when we truly do listen to God's word, that faith is activated by God's sovereign grace as then obedience will result in that.

Now, we're going to look at that. Now, let's consider for a moment that the confrontation which inspired this entire speech which the

Lord Jesus has been given. It began with Jesus healing a man as we saw.

He was an invalid for 38 years and Jesus heals him on the

Sabbath which the Pharisees had considered a violation of the law.

And because of such a restricted view that they had what it meant to follow the

Sabbath and, of course, we know that their view of the Sabbath was erroneous and they accused

Jesus of breaking the Sabbath. Jesus says that they had never seen

God's form. In other words, what Jesus is saying is they really don't know who God is.

They're blind. They're blind leaders of the blind. And this is exactly what he tells them.

Now, they're actually looking at Jesus, I should say, hearing

Jesus who's God on earth, God in flesh, God himself, Emmanuel, and they really don't see him as he is.

They do not believe his claims. So they are not willing to come to him.

So for who he is, they don't hear him. And they are blind to the truth.

They are deaf to the truth. And let me add here, they're like the walking dead.

And again, verse 38, that you do not have his word abiding in you.

Listen to that. The word of God is not abiding in you, he says, because whom he sent, him you do not believe.

They do not believe. Why? Why? Because their hearts were hardened. They had a hard heart of unbelief and it was all because of their stubborn pride.

And sad to say as I minister to you this word, there are literally millions and billions of people in hell and hell will continue to expand because of this.

God does not, and there is a teaching out there that teaches that God ordains people to hell.

That is not a biblical doctrine, beloved. Now, to eternal life? Yes, he does.

And Spurgeon put it this way. He said, excuse me, that salvation is all of God, that damnation is all of man.

That is a very biblical saying, what Spurgeon mentions. And you can go to the word of God because you see this in Ephesians chapter one, that God ordains, that this speaks of the doctrine of election.

Let me read just a little bit to you because this is so critical. Paul the apostle says, blessed be the

God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing into heavenly places in Christ.

Notice what he says, just as he chose us, he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestined, that word predestined means he's marked out, he marked us out in the

Greek, to us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he made us accepted in the beloved.

In him we have the redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace, which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of his will, according to the good pleasure, which he purposed in himself.

Notice he said he had made known to us, we did not figure this out, and it is through Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone, but God the father has elected us in Jesus Christ.

There's nothing there in the scriptures that speaks that God ordains people to eternal hell. That damnation comes because man has unwillingly, unwillingly desired, chooses not to come to Jesus Christ.

Now, we have a lot here in the text. I want to just briefly mention this to you.

The first testimony that we've seen, and you can add this, some say that this is not necessarily one of the witnesses, but I believe it is

Jesus himself, bears witness of himself. But Christ says in verse 31,

I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. He's not, in other words, valid.

He said, he's not saying that he is the truth and we know that he's the truth. What he's saying is, there must be, he's keeping the law perfectly and he upholds the law.

There must be out of the mouths of two or three witnesses, others to verify everything that he says.

So he said, there's another who bears witness of me and I know that the witness, which he witnesses of me is true.

And he speaks, of course, of the father. And then there's another witness that we see, it's the second testimony, is

John the Baptist. We looked at that in verse 33 to verse 35. Then there's another testimony, the third testimony was the works of Jesus.

And we see that in verse 36, in which we saw last Lord's day, that 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 father has sent me. Now, then we come, of course, in verse 37 and 38, the testimony of the father, the witness of the father, in which he's already mentioned, that the father, in verse 37, the father himself who sent me has testified of me.

And you have never heard his voice at any time nor seen his form. So you have one witness upon another witness.

Jesus gives more than two or three. There's some say a four -fold witness, but you could say it's a five -fold if you see that Jesus himself is the witness.

Now, we have another testimony here. And I think this is a very important one. This is our focus for today.

Verse 39, Jesus says, you search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, and these are they which testify me.

These are they which testify me. What is that witness? The witness of the scriptures. The witness of the scriptures itself.

In theory, the religious leaders in Jesus' day supposedly loved and valued the scriptures, but they really didn't love the word of God because he said the love of God is not in them.

And if they say that they loved the scriptures, it's because their motive was completely wrong.

They really had a love for themselves, didn't they? And don't you see people like that today?

They really caught up in themselves. They really caught up in their own knowledge, their spiritual pride.

We need to be cautious of this in the circles of Christianity. We need to also search our own hearts that we're not caught up in the spiritual pride.

They hear used in the sense of the Old Testament, Jesus speaks of the scriptures, he's referring to the law and the prophets.

They studied and memorized, they thought upon them continually and meditated upon the scriptures and tragically missed the whole point of what the scriptures are all about.

And who's that? The Lord Jesus Christ. The Messiah, their own

Messiah. Who Christ is. Isn't it glorious to know that everything that is said from Genesis to Revelation is all about Jesus Christ.

You take Christ out, you take Christ out, as J .C.

Ryle says, you have a very dark book, a very dark book. Jesus Christ himself is the grand subject of the entire

Bible. He is everything. And Spurgeon said,

I love Spurgeon, he said, you could take me to a scripture, and he said, it may even seem like it has nothing to do with Christ.

He says, but every scripture, he said, I can guarantee you I can take you to Calvary some way.

Now, it may take you here and there, but it will take you to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the whole reason he's the subject of the entire

Bible. The written word speaks of the living word. Now, look with me in this one verse we're going to really focus on, verse 39.

He says, you search the scriptures. You search. Is there anything wrong with searching the scriptures?

No, by no means. But their motive is wrong. We need to check our hearts.

We need to allow the Holy Spirit, as Paul says, to examine yourselves to see if you're in the faith.

What kind of heart do you have? Do you have a heart that loves God? Do you have a heart that truly loves the scriptures?

And not for yourself, but for what the scriptures are about,

Jesus Christ. Most prefer this translation, you search the scriptures, they're indicative.

The verb implies a diligent scrutiny and observation and investigating the scriptures to find eternal life.

John MacArthur in his commentary says this, that gives this observation. He says, quote, however,

Jesus points out that with all their fastidious effort, they miserably failed in their understanding of the true way to eternal life through the

Son of God, end quote. They misunderstood. They had miserable failings in the true way of eternal life, which is found in the

Son of the living God, Jesus Christ. They failed to see that. Their motive was, again, wrong.

Their motive was spurious. They did not have a heart to love

God because Jesus says it in verse 42, that he says, I, but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in you.

Isn't it wonderful? When we're born again and regenerated in the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit of God sheds the love of God, literally sheds it upon our hearts, makes us a new creation.

Then he takes out the hard heart, the stony heart, and he puts in a heart of flesh. And the heart of flesh, he writes his laws.

And you know, I like to look at it like this. It's as if he does a heart transformation, a surgery internally by the power of the

Spirit of God, the third person of the Trinity, and in writing his words upon our hearts, it's like he gives us new desires.

He gives us new affections. So when there's a change that takes place in our life, we don't do the things we used to do, right?

We do things different, like we have a bent to love God and to fear God and to love him and to love others.

That's the motive. Our motives change. Our bent, our desires change.

Our affections change. We have now holy affections, not unholy affections.

Even though we war against the flesh and our mind in Romans 7, and that battle continues, rages until the day we're glorified.

But I'm telling you, folks, in our innermost being, being born again of the

Spirit of God, God himself takes up residence in the

Trinity and the person of the Holy Spirit. Christ abides within us.

God is our Father. And we're part of the family of God. Everything is new. Old things have passed away.

All things have become new. D .L. Mooney said, when this happened to him in his life, he said he went outside and he said everything took on a different meaning.

He understood the clouds, he says, that are the dust of his feet. The sun he put in the sky to turn its course, as we read in Psalm 19.

And he understood the meaning of the sun and the meaning of the clouds and the meaning of everything and breath and life and all that we exist and we live and move and have our being in him.

Isn't that wonderful? Doesn't Jesus make all the difference in the world?

He does. And it's by the power of the Holy Spirit. But these self -righteous

Pharisees, these people here, had a motive that was wrong. It was all about, even searching the

Scriptures, was about themselves. To win an argument maybe or to read instead of the

Scriptures and not to search for God or search God with all their hearts to love him.

No, they wanted to find arguments to support their own private positions, their rules and regulations.

So they twisted the Scriptures. They did not really love God. They really did not love the

Scriptures because they did not love the God of the Scriptures. And Jesus said, it's the traditions of man that they abide by.

They really didn't love God. They did not serve the God of the living.

They did not really care about God. They had their own ideas about God.

They had their own twisted views of God. So again, they searched the

Scriptures for the wrong reasons. The verb implies, again, a keen scrutiny of observation.

Tracking down the message of the Scriptures but they missed Jesus. How tragic it was that these religious people were so committed in the

Scriptures and very devout. And for all their painstaking exploration and exploring and pouring over the sacred writings of the

Holy Scripture, they never found the very real reason of what the Scriptures are all about and he was standing right in front of them.

Jesus Christ. Because eternal life is through Christ. Tragic and terrible even to think of this.

That these men with the Scriptures, with all that light in their hands, they could be so deceived and so blind.

It's soul searching, isn't it? I don't know about you, as I'm speaking to you about this, it searches my own heart to make sure that I am not leaning upon my own understanding that my trust would be in the

Lord Jesus himself and him alone. God saved us.

God had mercy on us. Let me add here, it was even more inexcusable, by the way, that after the

Lord Jesus spoke to them in this way with such clarity and such love and such grace telling them who he was and who he is.

That they still were unwilling and refused to come to Jesus Christ.

Jesus acknowledges that the religious leaders, the Pharisees, do study the

Scriptures. D. A. Carson put it this way, there's nothing intrinsically life -given about just studying the

Scriptures. At least there's not, if you miss the ultimate meaning of the purpose of the

Scriptures. I'm pointing to the glorious, gracious God who made a way for fallen man to be redeemed by Jesus Christ by the plan of the

Father and Jesus accomplished it and the Holy Spirit applies it. Think of it.

Millions of people value the principles. Isn't this so true? Listen to this very closely. Even among the cults, millions of people value the principles of Scripture.

They believe in the moral teachings of the Bible. Even many non -Christians that don't even believe, non -believers, they affirm that fact.

They'll say, oh, it's a moral book, there's great principles, there are great things. They'll say Jesus is a good man, he's a good prophet, that's what the cults say.

But they don't really see him for who he really is. But they don't see this is all about the saving of their soul.

That's the point. They don't see that it's a soul -saving point of God's Holy Word.

Many people study the Scriptures out of wrong motives. You know, you see this in a sense, what

Paul speaks to the Church of Corinth in 1 Corinthians 13.

And how soul -searching is this? He talks about the greatest gift is a God they love. Listen to what

Paul says. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love, I have become a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, that if I have not love,

I am nothing. Let that sink in.

I am nothing. We can have all faith, we can have all the giftedness, we can understand prophecy, understand all mysteries and have all knowledge.

Think about what he's saying. We come to a point where we just have some, but he's talking about if we have all of it.

And if we don't have God's love, we're nothing. Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

Then the definition of love comes. Love suffers long and is kind. Love does not envy.

Love does not parade itself. Love is not puffed up. Does not behave rudely.

Does not seek its own. Does not provoke things to evil. Does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth.

I like to put it right there. Put Jesus right where love is. Jesus suffers long and is kind.

Jesus does not envy. Jesus does not parade itself. Love is not puffed up. Because Jesus is that love.

Isn't that convicting? It should be. It should be.

And it's to help us to see who we really are in the light of Scripture.

Oh, a person can know the Bible backwards and forwards. If we don't understand that it is

Christ to whom the Scriptures bear witness, we've missed the whole point of the

Bible itself. A person can have long sessions of Scriptures memorized, and that's good to memorize it.

It's fine and it's great. Actually, I would encourage everyone to memorize

Scripture, I think, to hide it in the Word of God in your heart that you may not sin against God. You know, it is good to memorize the

Scripture. I think that's a very good thing. But let us remember this. The question is this.

Is the Bible changing you? Are you just not merely just memorizing Scripture?

Is it changing you? Is it transforming you? Are those verses impacting your life?

Is it changing your direction in life? Is it bringing you closer to God? Are they impacting you in the way you look at God?

Are they impacting your trust in Jesus Christ? Are they changing you on a daily basis from faith to faith, from boy to boy, and are you maturing?

Is it drawing you closer to God? Jesus says this at the end of verse 39.

The Scripture says, they testified me, he said. They testified me.

Don't you love this? In John 1 .45, verse 45,

Nathanael said to him, How do you know me? Jesus answered and said to him,

Before Philip called you, you were under the fig tree.

I saw you. Nathanael answered and said to him, Rabbi, you are the

Son of God. You are the King of Israel. It's all about Jesus Christ.

John 2 .22. Therefore, when he had risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he said this to them, and they believed the

Scripture and the word which Jesus had said. And then you have interacted with Jesus in chapter 3,

Nicodemus, another Pharisee, a teacher of Israel, an expert of the law. In chapter 3, in verse 10,

Jesus gives him a loving rebuke. In verse 10, what does he say?

Jesus answered and said to him, Are you a teacher of Israel and do not know these things?

You pour over, you search the Scriptures. In other words, he was a Pharisee.

And Jesus is saying, he's speaking to him about the new birth, because in context he said,

Jesus said, did not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again? The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, and cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes, so as everyone who is born of the

Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said to him, How can these things be? And that's why Jesus rebuked him.

He said, you are a teacher of Israel and do not know these things? It's found in Ezekiel. It's found in Jeremiah.

It's found in the New Covenant. You should know it. You search the

Scriptures. They testify of me, Jesus said. Moving that along, the

Bible is a book about Jesus Christ. He's the hero of the book, right? Think about it. We have the record of Scripture to the exact point where he would be born, born of the

Virgin Mary in Bethlehem. That is prophesied in the

Old Testament and that his ministry would be preceded by a forerunner. That is prophesied in Scripture.

Born of the Virgin. Prophesied in Scripture again. Isaiah 9. Hosea said that he would travel to Egypt and we see this in his early ministry and we see this in Matthew, in Matthew chapter 1.

Psalm 40. Predicted that he would preach repentance to Israel.

Psalm 78. Predicted that he would teach in parables. Isaiah 6.

Verse 9. Predicted that the people would not listen to his teaching. And it says, Go and say to this people,

Keep on hearing, but do not understand. Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.

Other prophecies fulfilled in Jesus Christ. He would have a miraculous ministry in Isaiah 35.

Verse 5 and 6. The eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped, and the lame man shall leap like a deer and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.

Speaks of the miracles and the power of Jesus Christ. The Old Testament mentions that he would minister in Galilee and draw

Gentiles to himself. Other times in the Old Testament prophecies mentions that he would even ride into Jerusalem on a donkey and be plotted against.

He would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver. The Old Testament prophecies, prophecy after prophecy, is accurate to the

T of everything about the Lord Jesus Christ as the Messiah. We had the prophecies that say that he would be even forsaken by God in his death on the cross in Psalm 22.

It even speaks about lots would be cast for his clothing and for his garments.

And that to the closest friend of his, to him, he would even abandon him.

Psalm 41 .9 says, Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate bread, has lifted up his heel against me.

Scripture even gives details of his crucifixion. And I'm talking about this as one chapter that the

Jewish people hate to go to. It's called, and it was found in, I should say, Isaiah 53.

Many, many more throughout the entire Old Testament we see the scriptures testify of Jesus Christ of being the

Messiah, the Christ, the anointed one, the Son of the living God. Wonderful, isn't it?

Now in saying that, turn with me to Luke 24.

And I'd like for you to see something here as we come to a conclusion. Chapter 24 here gives us the account of the road to Emmaus.

In verse 13, let me read. Now behold, two of them were traveling at the same day to a village called

Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem. They talked together of all these things which had happened.

So it was they conversed and reasoned that Jesus himself drew near and went with them.

But their eyes were restrained so that they did not know him.

Their eyes were restrained, they did not know him. And he said to them,

What kind of conversation is that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?

Of course he knew what they were talking about. Christ knows all things.

And he gives this question to make them think, to make them search their hearts. What's this conversation with one another as you walk and you're sad?

You're sad. And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered and said to him,

Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem? And have you not known the things which happened there in these days?

And he said to them, What things? Oh, what things?

So they said to him, The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed, word before God and all the people, and how the chief priest and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and crucified him.

For we were hoping that it was he who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened.

And yes, a certain woman of our company who arrived at the tomb earlier astonished us. And when they did not find his body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said he was alive.

A certain of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.

And then he said to them, O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe.

And listen to what he says. Slow of heart to believe in what? And all that the prophets have spoken.

Are not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory?

And verse 27 says this, And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he had spounded to them and all the scriptures, the things concerning him said.

Wouldn't you love to hear Jesus expounding the written word, the living word here, expounding on the scriptures and all that, the things concerning himself.

So they testified him. Beginning at Moses and all the prophets. And notice what happened.

And they drew near to the village where they were going. They still did not get it, folks. And he indicated that he would have gone farther.

But they constrained him, saying abide with us. It is toward the evening and the day is far spinning.

And he went in to stay with them. He gave companionship.

And as it came to pass, he sat at the table with them. And he took bread and he blessed and broke it and gave it to them.

Then their eyes were opened and they knew him. And he vanished from their sight.

Isn't it interesting? When their eyes were opened, it was in the breaking of the bread. It was in the communion.

That intimacy. And they said to one another.

And notice what they reminisce over. Did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us on the road, while he opened up the scriptures to us?

Heart burn. Their hearts were on fire because the living word of God is spouting from the scriptures.

So they rose up in that very hour and returned to Jerusalem and found the eleven of those who were gathered together and saying, the

Lord is risen indeed. He has appeared to Simon. And they told us.

And then they told about the things that had happened on the road and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.

Isn't that wonderful? The breaking of the bread. You see,

Jesus expounded the word concerning himself. He is the key that unlocks the

Bible. Jesus Christ. And it's the Holy Spirit. We must not forget this.

It is the Holy Spirit of God that is the revealer. That reveals to us who

Jesus really is. And it's always connected to the word.

So merely just knowing about God and knowing about Christ and facts of scripture without hiding them in our heart and acting on them in obedience will not bring the blessing of salvation, beloved.

So what is required for salvation? What is required for salvation?

There's two things that's very important. And also keep this in mind. I meant to bring this out.

The natural man does not understand the things of God. They're foolishness to them, right? No one does in a natural state or in the flesh has the capacity to believe in God.

God has revealed them to us through his Spirit. That's what the Bible says. It's through his

Spirit. Verse 10 of 1 Corinthians 2. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.

For what a man knows, the things of a man except the Spirit of the man which is in him. Even so, no one knows the things of God except the

Spirit of God that we have received. Not the

Spirit of the world but the Spirit that is from God that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

And these things we also speak not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the

Holy Spirit teaches comparing spiritual things with spiritual. The natural man does not receive the things of the

Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him nor can he know them because they are what?

Spiritually discerned. It must be the Spirit of the living

God that is the illuminator to open our eyes of who

Jesus is. What's the two requirements of salvation? There's only two.

And it is all focused on Jesus Christ. It is faith and repentance. Faith and repentance.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews chapter 11, that faith chapter, by faith, by faith, through faith, by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith.

Not feelings, not reason, but faith. And faith is the instrument which we have that gives, that God gives to us as a gift to lay hold of Christ.

By faith. Isn't that what the scriptures say? It's by faith.

Isn't it? When Martin Luther was in the monastery and he was studying the scriptures in the epistle of Romans, chapter 1 and verse 17, that for the just shall live by faith.

It's by faith. By grace are you saved.

You have been saved through faith, that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast, for we are this workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which

God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. By faith. What about repentance?

It's like one coin and two sides. You have faith and repentance.

Mark 1, 14, 15, now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel, isn't what it says, of the kingdom of God.

And what did he say? The first thing Jesus preached was this. The time is fulfilled. And the kingdom of God is at hand.

It is near. And what does he say? He preaches a command.

Repent and believe the gospel. Repent and believe the gospel.

Folks, that is the message. That is the core, and that is the heart of the message of Jesus Christ.

And those are the only two requirements that is given to us in salvation.

What about obedience? What about obedience? Is obedience required?

Not for salvation necessarily, but it is a result. And why

I say that? Because it is the perfect obedience of Christ that our salvation is merited.

We cannot merit it. We cannot obey enough to earn it, can we?

But the perfect man did. Jesus Christ did. And that is a result of salvation.

That is a living proof, so to speak, a fruit of that we have been saved as our obedient life to God.

Obedience produces the results. Amen? The Bible cannot properly be understood apart from the

Spirit of God, as I mentioned in 1 Corinthians 2. The Jews' zeal for the

Scriptures was commendable, but because they were unwilling to come to Jesus Christ, the sole source of eternal life, their knowledge did not result in salvation.

John 17 3, Jesus prayed this, and this is eternal life, that they, who's the they?

The sheep, the elect, may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

That's, did you know that John 17 3 is one of the most important verses, and that is the one verse that most of the

Puritans preached, because it's so critical. And when he says that they may know you, the only true

God, that knowing you is intimate. It's like going to Genesis, and the first time we read that Adam knew his wife, he knew his wife, there was intimacy, there was that intimacy as Christ is knowing her intimately, in covenant.

And that's what Jesus is saying there. It's an intimate knowledge. This is not bad knowledge. That intellectual knowledge of the

Pharisees did not result in salvation and eternal life, because they did not intimately care to know Jesus Christ.

So clinging to their stubborn unbelief and their pride to a superficial system of self -righteousness by works of the flesh, they became ignorant of God's righteousness and sought to establish their own righteousness, which

Paul speaks of in Romans 10 3. That self -righteousness cannot save anyone, can it?

Isaiah 64 6, why? Because all of our righteous deeds are like filthy garments before God.

Think of that. Even our very best is filth before God.

The only cloak, the only garment that covers us from the wrath of God is the garment of Jesus Christ.

His righteousness. Only trusting and clinging and believing in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, the pure, spotless

Lamb of God, can cloak us, can spare us from the wrath to come.

And this is where I want to close. It is in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone that covers us.

Only Him and He alone. It makes me think of the wonderful, wonderful hymn.

And I'm trying to find the words to it real quickly here. On Christ the solid rock

I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand.

Let me find this in closing. I like to read. I know you're familiar with these words, but we need to be reminded of these words.

On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.

Amen? There is nothing else that's going to do in living, in dying, is only on Jesus Christ, the solid rock.

And He alone is the only one. I had this marked, but I lost my place.

But 526, thank you. Yes, thank you,

Liz. Listen to these words. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.

I do not trust the sweetest frame, but holy lean on Jesus' name. When darkness veils

His lovely face, I rest on His unchanging grace. And every high and stormy gale my anchor holds within the veil

His oath, His covenant, His blood support me in the whelming flood. When all around my soul gives way,

He then is all my hope and stay. When He shall come with trumpet sound, oh, may

I then in Him be found here it is, dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne.

That's how we could stand before Him and He would say, well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of the

Lord. It won't be anything that we've done or merited. It's all because of Jesus. Isn't that wonderful?

We can bank on that. We can trust in that. And we can say, I know whom

I have believed in because I'm persuaded that He's able to keep that which I've committed unto Him against that day.

Amen? Let's pray. Father, we thank You for this wonderful, glorious word that You've given us,

Lord. It's not the word of a preacher, Lord. I just pass this on, representing,

Lord, everything that You say here. It is Your word and Your word alone and help us,

Lord, to place our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, if there's anyone here today that does not know

You in an intimate way, that has submitted themselves to the

Lordship of the Lord Jesus Christ, committed wholly on the righteousness of Christ and who

You are, has not believed, Lord, may this be the day of visitation for them. Today is the day of salvation.

We thank You for the deliverance that comes through Jesus Christ. We thank You, Lord, that He alone,

Your Son, in whom You're well -pleased in, is the way, the truth, and the life. And we praise You and we give

You the glory and all the honor. In Jesus' name, I pray.

Amen and amen. We praise