I want you to pay attention to the scripture reading this morning. It very substantially runs parallel to what we are looking at in John chapter 5. These people are confronted with undeniable, unmistakable evidence. And when we come to the end of the scripture reading, I want you to see the difference in the two responses. There are only two responses. There are only ever two responses to the gospel. Pay attention to the two responses, but pay more attention to the two responders, the two groups of people that are giving response. to this unmistakable declaration of who the Son of God is. Luke writes this parallel passage to Matthew's gospel. They are very, very similar because they're telling the same story about the same circumstance. Verses 1 through 17 are the context of what is happening with John the Baptist and the hearer's response to Jesus. Luke writes, when he, Jesus, had completed all his words in the hearing of the people, he went to Capernaum. And a centurion's slave, who was highly regarded by him, was sick and about to die. Now when he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders asking him to come and save the life of his slave. And when they came to Jesus, they were earnestly pleading with him, saying, he is worthy for you to grant this to him, for he loves our nation. And it was he who built our synagogue. Now Jesus was going on his way with them. And when he was not far from the house, then centurion sent friends saying to him, Lord, do not trouble yourself further for I am not good enough for you to come under my roof. For this reason, I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you, but just say the word and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man placed under authority. with soldiers under me, and I say to this one, go, and he goes, and to another, come, and he comes, and to my slave, do this, and he does it. Now when Jesus heard this, he marveled at him, and he turned to the crowd that was following him and said, I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such great faith. And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health, And it happened that soon afterward, he went to a city called Nain, and his disciples were going along with him, accompanied by a large crowd. Now, as he was approaching the gate of the city, behold, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother. And she was a widow, and a sizable crowd from the city was with her. And when the Lord saw her, And he felt compassion for her and said to her, do not cry. And he came up and touched the coffin, and the bearers came to a halt. And he said, young man, I say to you, arise. And the dead man sat up and began to speak. And Jesus gave him back to his mother. The understatement of this entire passage is verse 16. And fear gripped them all. And they began glorifying God, saying, a great prophet has arisen among us, and God has visited his people. This report concerning him went out all over Judea and in all the surrounding district. And the disciples of John reported to him about all these things. Summoning two of his disciples, John sent them to the Lord, saying, Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for someone else? When the men came to him, they said, John the Baptist has sent to you, saying, are you the one who is to come, or should we look for someone else? At that very time, he cured many people of diseases and afflictions and evil spirits, and he granted sight to many who were blind. And he answered and said to them, go and report to John what you have seen and heard. The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. Blessed is he who does not take offense at me. When the messengers of John had left, he began to speak to the crowds about John. What did you go out into the wilderness to behold? A reed shaken by the wind? But what did you go to see? A man dressed in soft garments? Behold, those who are splendidly clothed and live in luxury are found in royal palaces. But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and even more than a prophet, this is the one about whom it is written, behold, I send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you. I say to you, among those born of women, there is no one greater than John, yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. And when all the peoples and the tax collectors heard this, They acknowledged God's justice, having been baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and the scholars of the law rejected God's purpose for themselves, not having been baptized with the baptism of John. Let us pray. Father, we rejoice that you have brought us together again this Lord's Day for the purpose of singing your praise and having your word unleashed in our lives. We pray that you will have your unfettered way in every heart here this day. The ministry of the Holy Spirit will achieve the purposes of God set forth from the beginning of time. that you will be honored, that your people will be blessed, is our prayer. And it is our prayer in the name of one who is like no other, the only begotten of God, the only mediator between God and man, the one who has purchased our pardon and has provided for us the righteousness of God to be eternally put onto our account in heaven. We might eternally be right with you. We might have an eternal expectation of the blisses of heaven in the presence of the Almighty. There is only one that can fit that description. That is our Lord, Jesus Christ. It is in His name that we pray. Amen. There is one worth remembering. There is one worth knowing. There is one that you want to have in your corner to have on your side. In fact, you want to be on his side. You want to have his blessing on what you do. Therefore you need to do what he has put his blessing upon one that matters more than any other in the universe, this planet or any other. That one is the Lord Jesus Christ. Friends, He did not come to be an addition to your life. He did not come to merely become a part of your life. He came to become your life. That your life be lived for Him. You can live your life for you. You have that option. All of you can. You can walk out of here and go live any way that you choose. You can go and live life to whatever you consider to be the full. And when you die, it will be over. And there will be nothing but the judgment of God left to face. Or you can live your life for the Lord Jesus Christ and know what true satisfaction and true happiness is in this world, true joy. And when this life is over, you can stand before Him and have Him reward you with crowns of reward. That you get to give back to Him, for He deserves all of them anyway. And live in the eternal bliss of heaven in His presence. To no satisfaction that this world can't even imagine. And all of it hinges on one person. It hinges on Jesus Christ. So you need to get to know who that Jesus Christ is so that you might believe in the true Jesus. There are a lot of false Jesus is going around. One of them is the one that we only see at Christmas time, the baby Jesus friends. He was a baby about as long as your baby was a baby. He's not a baby anymore. He's the king forevermore. He is not waiting for a throne. He is on the throne. There are those that present Jesus as the great celestial Santa Claus, like need meter. He will meet the needs that you have, and he will come into your life and make your life better. That is not the Jesus of the Bible either. Oh, you mean Jesus will make my life worse? Friends, what you want your life to be by nature, but you naturally want out of life. Jesus is not concerned with. It's a fact because by nature, what you want, you want to be the most popular. You want to be the most wealthy. You want to be the most healthy. You want to be the most, whatever. That's why Facebook is such a phenomenon. You get to be anybody you want on Facebook. Look at me, look at me, look at me. Those needs, those desires, Jesus is not concerned with because friends, those needs and those desires are what he came to die for. Those are expressions of our sinful nature that need to be taken care of by another because we can do nothing about them. The Jesus that the Bible reveals to us is a Jesus that came to give himself for your wretchedness. so that you, the wretched rebel, might become the very child of God in him with God's righteousness to meet that great need and to send you out into a world that is hostile against that. But that's not a popular message. The popular message is give us the Jesus that does what we want him to do. Well friends, that is what we find Jesus facing in John chapter five. A group of people that wanted Jesus to come into their life and meet the needs that they defined and to give them what they already wanted. And Jesus comes to them and makes it perfectly plain to them that their need is something far more than they ever expected. And he tells them, I am the one that can meet that greatest need. You desperately need what only I can do. And face-to-face, they rejected him. You and I will never have the opportunity to introduce someone face-to-face to Jesus Christ on this side of glory. On this side of heaven, we'll never have that opportunity. What we do is we go to them with what the scripture says about him, this written testimony about him. We go to them with this. And we say, well, that's not enough. That's a problem. Because if what this book says about Jesus Christ is not enough, you can quit and go home because you have nothing else to say. But I'll tell you this, it is this record, it is this black print on white paper that the Holy Spirit of God uses to save his people and nothing else. He didn't leave us with a music video. He didn't leave us with a song. He didn't leave us with a song book. He left us with the Bible. And he didn't tell Paul to go entertain people to death. He told Paul to tell Timothy, son, The one thing the most important in your life is the leader of that church is to preach the word In season and out of season. I'm not sure if it's in season or out of season for you today I don't know but it's one or the other But that's what we're going to attempt to do this day to take the Jesus of the Bible clearly defined not Not mystical, not some idea of Jesus that's kind of hard to get to, not some man's contrivance of what Jesus is like. We're going to find out what Jesus is like right now. If you have a Bible with you, open it to John chapter 5. We will be looking at verse 36 today, but John chapter 5 and verse 36 does not exist in a vacuum. It is part of a greater context of this gospel of John that the great apostle has written, his eyewitness testimony of the life and times of Jesus Christ. inspired by the Holy Spirit, taking from his own firsthand knowledge and memory of Jesus. He has written this, and the Holy Spirit of God has protected this for you and I, that we would have it today. And it tells us about this Jesus in whom you must believe. the one in whom you must put your faith and trust in order to be made right with God, in order to expect to see God in the next life, in order to walk with God and to know and enjoy Him in this life, all of it hinges on this God-man that we know as Jesus Christ, the Lord. I will begin reading in verse 30. We will read through verse 40. And with the monumental task that is before us, we are beholden to petition the Holy Spirit of God to guide and direct and instruct our minds as we go through this. And we will petition Him when we are done reading, and then we will dive into these words of Jesus. If you have a red-letter edition of the Scripture, all of these words are in red. These are part of a Not a discussion, it's more of a sermon here, as it is recorded in John, that is delivered to the religious leaders of Jesus' day. This isn't merely to the hoi polloi of their day. There is a large crowd gathered, but Jesus is speaking to the religious leaders. And if the most religious people on the face of the planet needed to know this message, how much more do you and I need to know this message? Jesus says, I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge. And my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will, but the will of him who sent me. If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not deemed true. There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things to you so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. for the works that the Father has given me to accomplish. The very works that I am doing bear witness about me that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard. His form you have never seen. And you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is they that bear witness about me. Yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. Father, we petition you again this Lord's Day morning, as we open your word, as we have read it aloud, as we seek to understand it, as we seek to have this truth applied to every heart, as we seek to know you on the terms that you have set, that we come to you in the name of your only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We seek to know him, the true him that we must believe and trust and follow. Father, we are weak. We are frail. We are fickle. In our own selves, we are foolish. And those are insurmountable problems. We are immediately dependent upon another to solve those problems for us. We are dependent upon you. We are dependent upon the Holy Spirit to give us eyes to see and ears to hear, to give us pliable hearts that desire to be molded and shaped. to be bent, to be reshaped, that we might become those who are being molded into the image of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is for His glory and for the good of your people that we have met this day. And it is in His matchless name that we pray. Amen. Jesus has made some astounding claims in the previous portion of this chapter, beginning in verse 19. He has declared that the Son of God has the authority of God. He has established the authority of the Son of God. And here, beginning in verse 30, He is verifying that authority, and He is verifying that that authority belongs to Him. The pronouns change. He's not speaking in the third person of another. He now begins to speak in the first person. I can do nothing of my own. Verse 19, the son can do nothing of his own accord. To catch the edge of this is that Jesus is declaring himself to be the only begotten son of God. Not one of many, a party of one. And he declares his authority and verifies his authority here by the use of testimony from others outside of himself. Although it was not necessary that he seek anyone else's assistance in this. John has written this gospel that you and I might know that this is the Christ. He is declaring Jesus to be the Messiah. And that by believing, in this Messiah that you and I and every other reader might be saved. You say saved, what does that mean? Like we save the dishes after we're done washing them? Nope, not like saving the dishes. Unless somebody's about to throw the dishes in the fireplace. Then you save them from the fire of the fireplace. You need to be saved from God. And this gospel has been written that you and I might be saved and that we might be sanctified and set apart by God for God He begins in verse 30 with the verifying of his authority by his own declaration as the faithful sovereign. He is one who is sovereign and able to judge all things. And he gives a just judgment because he is faithful to the one who sent him. I seek not my own will, but the one who sent me. He is a faithful sovereign. We looked last week at verses 34 and 35. Well, 33, 34, and 35, but the faithful servant who was this one that is the testimony from God, John the Baptist. He tells them, you sent to him and he has borne witness to the truth. But he moves, in verse 36, from the faithful servant to his own faithful service. He is serving another and He is pointing to what He has done and what He is doing as verification of His authority. It is unmistakable. It is undeniable. It cannot be diminished. It cannot be brushed aside. It must be reckoned with. And you will reckon with it today. You will. As you always reckon with the Gospel when you hear it. There is a decision made. Jesus says this in verse 36, following verse 35, he says, you were willing to rejoice for a while in John's light. John came and declared the light. He was the forerunner of the true light from heaven. And he said, you were happy with him for a while, but the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. for the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing bear witness about me that the Father has sent me." He begins by telling us that he has an even greater authority than this faithful servant and the faithful sovereign that he declared himself to be in verse 30 and 31, and the faithful servant that he describes John to be in verses 33 to 35. There is a greater authority. this faithful service that he is rendering. This greater authority makes a proper pronouncement. It declares what is proper and it makes the pronouncement proper. Look at what he says, the testimony that I have. When you go to court, you call witnesses. What do the witnesses come to court to do? To watch? No, they come to give testimony. They come to say what they have seen and heard. They come to validate either what the prosecution says or to invalidate what they say or to validate what the defense says or invalidate what they say. It's someone that comes in and gives some more information, firsthand information, clear information, undeniable information. It is testimony. And what we see the Lord doing here, for instance, He is giving these people more than is necessary. He's giving them more than is necessary. He's coming to them and meeting them where it is meaningful to them. You say, what do you mean? Verse 32, 31. If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not deemed true. Friends, everything that Jesus said was true. Everything that he ever says is true. What he had to say was sufficient to end any argument with anyone that ever had a problem with what he said or did. But he also knew that these people had a law that they had received from God and that Moses had laid down in that law that no one was to be accused of a serious crime without the testimony of two or three credible witnesses. He's meeting them on their territory here and coming to them in a meaningful way. Because if all he does is come in and say, hey, you've heard it said, but now I'm telling you, like he does in the Sermon on the Mount. If that's all that he had done, they would have accepted what they liked and would have rejected what they didn't like. I don't like you do today. As long as they agree with me, we're all right. But as soon as you disagree with me, I'll find a reason to discredit you and you get out of my hair and then we can go on with life and I'm still right. That's how we work. Jesus comes to these people and rather than give them the opportunity to take half of what he said and reject the other half, he says, listen, I'll prove it to you even on your own terms. He condescends to their level and says, I'll give you two or three witnesses. Was what Jesus said enough? Yes. Was what John had to say enough? Yep. The prophet came and spoke it, was it enough? Right, it absolutely was enough. These people were, they've heard this message, they are now going to be held eternally responsible for what they do with this information. What John said was enough, yet more was given. And he gave more to them, and he's given more to you and I, and it puts people in this position. They are now without excuse. No one that ever hears this message, no one that has ever read John chapter 5, no one that ever hears the sermons on John chapter 5, no one that was there the day that he spoke these words that are recorded in John chapter 5, none of them will ever have any excuse to stand before God and say, well, I didn't know. I didn't have enough information. It wasn't enough. You can't hold me responsible. You know how Americans are today. Everything bad that happens to you, you're a victim. Somebody did something. Somebody was careless or something happened. There's somebody to blame, and Morse Bard's going to find them for you. Amen can't say a man, you know Say ouch No billboards everywhere Louisiana's big truck lawyer. Does that mean you're defending the big truck or defending the crazy drivers around the big truck? I'm not sure which which side of Gordon McKernan is on with that People are without excuse they can't they're not gonna stand before God and say well I didn't know because he has made it unmistakably clear undeniable you must make a decision you will make a decision and My call to you today, friends, is not for you to make a decision about Christ. My call to you is what the Scripture calls to you to make the right decision about Christ, because you will make a decision today, in a minute, because you're gonna hear it and have to respond to it. The proper pronouncement here of this greater authority is the testimony that it is giving. And it is a testimony given about a personal possession, Jesus look at what he says in verse 36 the testimony that I have It's mine. I have it. It belongs to me. It is a testimony about me. It is a testimony from me There's a confidence here Jesus says, this testimony is a reality that is unmistakable and cannot be denied. I have it. It is mine. It speaks of me. It has already happened. It has been declared about me. It is right now declaring about me, and it will forever declare the truth about me as it does for you and I here today in 2024. It is the testimony that he had at that moment, the testimony that he has right now. It was a confident, concrete reality. that he possessed then, that he possesses now, and that you and I must respond to. But that personal, that proper pronouncement of this personal possession provides for the hearer in that day and for the reader today, it provides a prevailing proof. It gives a proof that is even more substantial than the fact that Jesus said it, and a proof that is more substantial that John said it. Look at what he says. The testimony that I have, this proper declaration and proper pronouncement of him, this testimony that is his personal possession is greater than that of John. That word greater is the Greek word megas. Now, I have to explain that maybe a little more in Cajun country than other places because mega We understand, but some of you may get confused with the word megah, and it's not the same. And if you don't know what that means, ask someone from Bill Platt. It's greater than John. What Jesus says here is He is piling this up. He is building up the testimony. He's building up the proof. He is moving from the lesser to the greater. He goes from His own personal declaration in verse 30 to John's personal declaration in verses 31 to 33 to hear this declaration of the prevailing proof that's even greater than what He said and greater than what John the Baptist prophesied. It is what He is doing. Friends, this is evidence that demands a verdict. And he is telling the people in this passage in John chapter 5 that you're being faced with a reality that you will respond to. You must make the right response. But then he comes to verse 40 and he says, yet you still refuse to come. Church, you need to understand that when we do deliver the gospel, we deliver it with the greatest clarity, the greatest passion, the greatest emotion, the greatest clarity. We just deliver it with all of our might. And the majority of the people that we come to with the gospel, out of hand, just reject it outright, push it aside. That does not call for us to find a better way to do it, because that has always been the way that it happens. We don't get to try to fix gospel delivery. You don't need a class on how to be a better evangelist. You need the Holy Spirit of God to empower what you're saying. And that means you need to say what he said. Get his message right, get out of the way. Getting out of the way may mean that they just run away from you. Jesus said it's like casting seed. You plant the seed. What does the planter do after that? Does he go back and say, please grow seed, please grow seed? Would you please make a bush? Would you please make a stalk of rice? Would you please make a stalk of corn? No, he doesn't do that. That's stupid, preacher. Yeah, that's pretty goofy. But sometimes that's how we have to go with the gospel. You plant the seed, and the seed is going to grow. You can't explain how a seed grows in the ground. Yes, we can. It germinates. OK, explain how that happens. Well, you see, no, no, no, no. The explanation for that is that God does it. What you see happening is what God did. Jesus uses that as the description of how the gospel is given. You know in your own life, there is no way that you can give credit to the person that brought the gospel to you to say that this person was this mighty force that revealed God to me. You can't do that. You may try to do that. Oh, you know, my mama did, okay, so your mama got the message right and got out of the way. Your mama didn't save you. Although she would if she could. I told somebody that recently, look, As parents, if we could believe for you, we would, but we cannot ever. I don't have enough faith for me. God had to give me the faith to believe. You think I have enough to give for you? You think my faith is going to count for you? You really believe that? You poor, pitiful person. I don't have enough for me. I sure don't have enough for you. You need to go to the one that doles it out in abundant measure. You need to go to God, not to me. The only thing that I can do is tell you what he has said so that you can go to him with the right information and repent of your sin and be saved. And the only way that I can do that is to take this word that he has revealed and allow the Holy Spirit of God to move in your heart like he has done in mine. He comes with greater authority. And he gives greater authentication here. As I told you, he is building this up. He's going from the lesser to the greater. He's gone from what John the Baptist has to say to the greater authentication is what he has done. We see the next thing that he has to say in verse 36 is that he presents evidence. There is evidence presented to make the case for this greater authentication of his authority. for the works. I have a testimony that is greater than John for the works. Here he is presenting evidence to these people. This is where the rubber meets the road. This is the proof to the people. I'll remind you that in John chapter 5, what starts this entire afternoon in the synagogue is that Jesus went and healed a man On the Sabbath day, a multitude of invalids lay in the five colonnades, blind, lame, and paralyzed. Then it zeroes in on one man in that multitude. One man had been an invalid for 38 years. Jesus healed him. And really goes to the guy and says, hey, man, you want me to heal you? And the guy starts talking about, well, I'm trying this. Be quiet. Get up. Take up your bed and get out of here. Jesus struck the match, lit the fuse, and sent the dude on the way. And it explodes in the synagogue, and here we are. And no one has brought up one word about what Jesus did to heal the guy. They don't deny it. They don't even address it. They know that he did it. Look at verse 18. John 5, 18 gives us a little bit of clarity as to what he is saying here and talking about the works. The Jews were seeking all the more to kill him No, it's back in verse 16. 16, they were persecuting him because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. Friends, that means that this was the regular occurrence. This is what he was doing. This was not rare. This had been happening. No one ever addresses that fact here. They're upset because he doesn't meet their religious requirements. He doesn't come on the terms that we have set. We are the religious leaders. We will set what you can and cannot do. These are the rule makers. And he's telling them, look, You can't make a rule Because only one has the authority to do that and you're looking at him And I'm telling you that your rules are not the way to God I am No one's rules are the way to God Jesus is and he says I can verify that for you the works of The works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I'm doing, what is going on here, what is happening, what continues to happen, these things that I keep doing on the Sabbath. Don't make the mistake of thinking this was the first miracle that Jesus performed in Jerusalem. This had been the case. This was happening every day, happening every Sabbath. And they were getting more and more worked up about Him doing it on the Sabbath. But they never called into question that He actually did it. And they wrestle with the veracity of it. And we say, well, how could they wrestle with this? Why was this so hard for them to get? Well, to get a little bit of clarity into your mind and mine, you need to understand, you and I as parents, have a responsibility to raise up a generation, a godly generation that will pursue the kingdom of God and will pursue the lordship of Christ in this earth, in their own life and in the lives of those that they have opportunity to minister to. In order to do that, you have to do more than bring them to Sunday school. In order to do that, you need to train them up in the way that they should go. You need to make sure that they are both taught the Word of God and that the Word of God is taught in your home and that the Word of God is caught in your home as they watch you live a life in glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ. You want to train them up in the way that they should go, but when they're old, they will not depart from it. Now, I can prove that to you without any doubt. There are things that you were taught and raised with when you were young that you still have a hard time dealing with today. Some of you were raised in religious pursuits that were wrong. Those that were leading you were very sincere about it, and maybe you were sincere about it. And as the truth of Jesus Christ dawned on your mind, as the Holy Spirit of God turned on the light, as the Holy Spirit of God birthed you again from above, and you finally see in reality the truth of who Christ is compared to the truth of who you are, and you desperately want Him as Savior, and you turn to Him in repentance and faith, you still have all of this baggage that you carry with you that you were taught from the time that you were little. Because the principle holds true, train them up and they will not depart from it. You want to train them up in the way that they should go so that what they're not departing from is the right thing, is what is right. Not having to try to part from error and know that these things have been ingrained in me, and they told me that it was scriptural, but now you're telling me that the Bible says something different, but this has been my habit my whole life. People that are saved out of false religious understanding in their 30s and their 40s and 50s, they wrestle with some things. Peter wrestled with it. Peter had a sheet vision before he went to Cornelius. You know, Peter went to Cornelius' house just like Jonah went to Nineveh. Remember how Jonah went to Nineveh? Dragging that lip, man, that bobbin, he didn't have to kick a cat, he was kicking that bottom lip, buddy, all the way to Nineveh. Gets to Nineveh and did the bare minimum. 40 days and Nineveh's gonna fall, walking through town saying that, and he go sit on the hill to watch it happen, and God saved the whole city. Jonah was not happy. Peter goes to Cornelius' house because God told him to in a vision, and what brought him out of the vision was the guy knocking on the door. Hey, I need you to come see. Okay, fellas y'all come with me. I'm not sure I'm going by myself. So he brings his entourage they get there they come in Cornelius tells him I had a vision God told me to Call for you Peter comes in and he just okay kind of reluctantly just telling them all of a sudden the Holy Spirit moves in and saves the whole household a Rare occurrence by the way, that's why it's recorded in Acts that way saves the whole household Peter says Guess we're going to baptize him They're done they go back to Jerusalem and everybody's all what in the world you don't go that Gentile house You come in and shake the dirt off You got to get you got to get some eggs out and wash your hands get shipped off your hands You just can't come back in here boy He said listen had a vision God showed up Soon as it while while God is revealing this to me the guy showed up I went I preached and the same thing happened to them is what happened to us on the day of Pentecost The ghost showed up The Holy Spirit of God arrived, and the whole place went quiet. And the only thing that they could say was, well, I guess it's true. God is allowing Gentiles in the church, too. He's saving Gentiles, too. He's allowing them into the new covenant. That's good news for you and I. But friends, Peter had that vision of the clean and unclean animals. You remember what he said? Rise, Peter, kill, and eat. Uh-uh. Huh. Not me, no. I ain't never did that. Peter, don't call common what God has called clean. Rise, Peter, kill and eat. Uh-uh. That do it, boy. Three times. Come to Galatians. Paul says, oh, by the way, some years after that, Pete came up here to Antioch, hang out with us for a while. And it was cool, man. He was kicking it with us. We had the Jews and the Gentiles together. We're having our little thing, you know? Have meal after church, whatever we're doing, getting along. And all of a sudden, some people from Jerusalem showed up, people from his hometown came, and Peter pushed the Gentiles away. I can't be your friend while they're here. Paul said, I rebuked him to his face. Friends, old habits die hard. That is why you want to develop the right habits as early as possible. What we see here in the lives of these people in John chapter five are people that have lived their entire life, not their life, their entire genealogy has done this. They don't know of a generation of people that didn't do it this way. To make the point just a little bit easier for you to grasp. And it's easier to grasp, but it kind of makes it a little more to wrestle with. We looked in Luke chapter seven and our scripture reading Luke chapter seven is the record of what Jesus is doing. He healed the centurion servant from a distance. He raises the widow's son in front of a large crowd, both times. John the Baptist is in prison. John the Baptist sends his guys over there. You remember what we read? The disciples of John reported all these things to him in Luke 7, 18. And John, calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to the Lord and said, are you the one who is to come or should we look for another? That is a strange question for John the Baptist to ask. You just spent your entire ministry saying, behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. Hey, everybody, I've got your attention. I want to introduce you to the Lamb. My job is done. There he is. Gave his disciples to him the whole thing. This is the one. I've been sent to prepare the way for the Lord. The Lord is here. You're in prison. You hear of all of these things that he's doing, and you still have this question. Are you the one? And you say, what a strange question. Why would John ask that question? Well, we tend to look at it and say, well, you know, John was just like you and me. He was a weak man and he had his moments of weakness. He was not a robot. He was not. We have this stoic personality that we assigned to a dude wearing camel hair and a leather belt, eating locusts and honey. He had to be pretty tough cat, but he wasn't perfect. And he asked this question. Now part of the reason that he asked this question is because what he was taught while he was being raised. You remember what they came and asked him in John chapter one that we read last week. They came and asked him, are you the Christ? He said, no. Are you Elijah? He said, no. Are you the prophet? And he said, no. Those are three different designations. Those are three different people that they're asking about. The idea of the Christ and the idea of the prophet, they had separated into distinct people. But it's the same one. John has been taught this his entire life, and he is asking, are you the one to come, or do we wait for another? Maybe you're the prophet and not the Messiah. Now, why did John ask that question? Because these people expected the Messiah to come, and the first thing he was going to do is to restore the political kingdom and the military kingdom to Israel. But that wasn't the first order of business. That will come. But the first order of business was him to come to be the Savior. For him to come and in his office of Messiah as Christ, to come and be the one that leads them to God and provides the way to God and secures them for God, and then he's going to lead the kingdom for eternity. John expected that there was one to come. He was under the idea that these were multiple people. Now John sends his disciples to ask Jesus this question in the context of these innumerable miracles, just like we see in John 5. He's doing these things on the Sabbath. All of these works are being done. Even John the Baptist is asking questions. What did Jesus tell the people? What did he tell them to go back and tell him? They come and ask him, Luke chapter 7, he answered them in verse 22. Go tell John what you have seen and heard. What have they seen and heard? That the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised. That's what he's just done. He's raised the dead and he healed this sick centurion, sick servant. The dead are raised up, and the poor have the good news preached to them, and blessed is the one who is not offended by me." What did Jesus tell them to go back and tell John? Go tell John the works that you see. The works that I'm doing are testifying that I am the one. John, rest assured, yes, I am the one. And what you're seeing is the proof. He says, go back and tell him. Even John has made the declaration, but even John needed the reassurance that the works that Jesus were doing were the verifying works that gave a greater testimony than even what John gave in Bethany at the Jordan River. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. What is remarkable about these two passages in Luke 7 and in John 5 is that they really both end up the same way. When all the people heard this, and the tax collectors too, they declared God just having been baptized with the baptism of John, but the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves. Friends, that should hit you like a wrecking ball. They rejected the purpose of God for themselves. The purpose of God was to send a savior to save people, and they rejected it. Face to face, they rejected it. They had heard about him. They had seen what he had done. They heard from him. They heard from John the Baptist. They recognized what he was doing. They saw it all, and they rejected it. What is amazing is those that didn't reject it are the least likely people in all of the context of sinners in their day. It says, when all the people heard this and the tax collectors too. Well, why do they single out the tax collectors? Because nobody likes the IRS, okay? That's actually not true. Yes, it's true, but that's not why. The why is because the tax collector was the lowest rung in Jewish society. And he said, those that were on the lowest rung, that according to religion were the most unsavable people in that environment believed. And the Pharisees and the scribes, the most religious people, the people that needed the least help to be saved, humanly speaking, were the ones that rejected it. He's presenting evidence and only a handful of the worst people are responding to it. And all of those that have made the claim for their entire life. You know, to be a Pharisee, you didn't just show up one day and say, hey, Daddy, I want to go to seminary. I want to be a Pharisee. No, you can say, Daddy, I want to go to Bible college. I want to be a preacher. You didn't do that to be a Pharisee. You had to be born into that. Paul says, I'm a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee. I was a Hebrew of Hebrews. This has been our family's pursuit for generations. And they come and say, we're not going there because if that's true, if what you're saying is true, that means that everything that I've done in my life and everything that my entire lineage before me has done was wrong. Friends, you can't do anything for the salvation of anybody else in your life. Not your kids, not your parents, not your siblings. The only one that you can do anything for when it comes to salvation and believing in the Lord Jesus Christ is you. You answer for you. You don't answer for anyone else. And if they want to reject Christ, that is a foolish reason for you to reject Christ. There is no legitimate reason to reject this message. Because regardless of how good or religious or kind or loving or fill in the blank, how awesome of a person you may be, you are still irreparably separated from God outside of Jesus Christ. And he comes to them and he presents them with evidence that cannot be refuted. The works that I'm doing, these things that you don't deny, these things that you want to ignore. You want to focus on it being on the Sabbath. You want to ignore what I've done. Would you open your eyes for a minute? Evidence is presented. Then he tells us that this evidence is being presented as part of an eternal pursuit. Look at what he says back in John chapter five. The works that the Father has given me to accomplish. The word given in the original speaks of something that was done long ago with an ongoing effect. He is speaking of works that were given to him to accomplish in eternity. Friends, the gospel was not God's plan B. Didn't want to read the Bible like that, you know, you know, he created everything and it was good behold It was very good and then you know Eve went and slipped up and Adam said, you know, honey, I can't live without you. I'll go with you. Give me some to Or however, you want to render it both She was deceived and he willfully sinned and they're cast out of the garden They're separated from God and you say you know what now God had to adjust his plan. No, he didn't He has a plan You don't ever read about the plans of God, you read about the decrees, the counsel, the plan that he has, not that it's this multifaceted thing. He has one pursuit and nothing stands in the way of it. That sin in the garden was right in the plan of God. I'll ask you this, how would you ever know the grace of God were it not for sin? I'll let you ruminate on that for a moment. Peter says that you and I as believers get to experience God in a way that angels long to understand. The angels of God don't even understand what it is to have the relationship with God that you and I can have in Christ by grace, this unmerited favor. Because the holy elect angels are in heaven like, dude, I never did anything wrong. I don't even know what it is to do something wrong. I'm never going to, I never have, I'm never going to go against this guy. I'm always going to do what he says. My existence is for him and I can't wait to do something else for him. Then you have the fallen angels that have been swept out of heaven with the evil one. They can never repent. They don't want to do what is right. They don't want to rectify it. They don't want to be reconciled to God. But here we are in the middle having the opportunity and the provision having been made for us to be reconciled to God. We did get to choose and we chose sin over God, but then we get the opportunity to choose Christ over sin and be reconciled to God. And the angels look at this and their mind is blown. And it's not plan B. This was God's plan all along. so that the whole world could see what he is like. The heavens declare the glory of God to you and me, and we declare the glory of God to everyone else, as those that are saved out of darkness and brought into the marvelous light of the kingdom of his dear son. What did you do to earn that? The one thing you've earned is not heaven. this eternal pursuit, these things that were given for me to accomplish. And the idea of accomplished speaks with finality. It's to do them all. What are these works that were given to him? He was given these works to heal. We just read from John chapter five, he healed this man. We read from Luke chapter seven, he healed and raised the dead. He's casting out demons. The people are lined up. Can you imagine? You have to imagine because it's never happened since that there's this this one that can heal there are a lot that claim they can but they cannot what they can do is this they can take your money and Run and go to the next town take some more money and leave everybody the same way they were when they got to town Jesus would come to town and heal everybody you imagine what the line of people must have looked like when they figured out that this guy could heal everybody The centurion said, the line is too long. Just say the word. You don't even have to come here. He's walking along. You imagine this lady in Nain, she comes out to bury her only son. And Jesus said, boy, get up and help your mama. It's not exactly what he said, but you imagine what that did to that lady. And everybody else says, hey, I've got a son with a cleft palate. My son's got a club foot. I've got a child that's missing the right pieces. I've got a child that's demon-possessed. We can't help him, but bring him to Him because there's nothing he can't do. The works that he is doing, he's healing, he's casting out demons. Friends, he's teaching the Word of God unmixed with any man-made and man-designed teaching, pure teaching of God. He would go on to perform the work of dying. You say, well, that ain't a whole lot of work. It was for him. His friends on that cross, he didn't die because he had to. Died because he chose to. He let them hang them on a tree that he created. And when it was done, he yielded up his spirit. He died. To do a work. to pay for sin for all who would ever put their faith and trust in it. And to prove that that work was accomplished, he raised himself from the dead on the third day. And all of that means this, that the greatest work that he ever has done, that he ever does do, is in saving an unbeliever and bringing them into the kingdom of God. He said, the very works that I do, the works that God has given me to accomplish, the Father has sent me here and given me these works that declare me to be the one with the authority to tell you how to do it. I have the authority. to correct your religion, I have the authority to correct your behavior, I have the authority to correct everything that you're doing wrong, and friends, he has the authority to run and to rule your life in a way that God will accept. And we see this eternal pursuit has an eternal participation. It is that these two get along in perfect harmony. Look at what he says at the end of that sentence. Or in the middle of the sentence, the end of this clause, The works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing. You understand that Jesus came and did exactly what God sent him to do? He says here that there is absolute unity between God the Father and God the Son. He never stepped out of the bounds of it. He never took an afternoon to go do something for himself. He always did exactly what the Father sent him here to do. We see unity. No, we see trinity in the Godhead. The greater authority that he has than John the Baptist, the greater authentication than John's declaration and the works that he pursues lead to what can only be described as a greater adoration or the greatest adoration. There is none other that you should have the same adoration for that you do to the Lord Jesus Christ. There is more adoration to him than any other. These things declare that the Father has sent me. You need to understand that that means that there was somebody sent and there was a sender. Jesus was sent here because you have to have a Savior. Jesus was sent here because God needs a Savior to save His people. The plan only works if there is a Savior that had to be sent because there is not one already on the earth. There's no one that can save themselves, much less be the savior of anybody else. You might be able to save a foxhole full of Marines from a single hand grenade, but they're still all going to die and face God. His works make a righteous declaration. Look at what he says. These works that God has given me to accomplish, the works that I'm doing, they bear witness about me. They make a righteous declaration that these works declare who I am. You want to know who I am? Look at what I've done. Look at what's going on. Quit worrying about the Sabbath. Dingbat and look at what I've done. That's what he's telling these people. Would you open your eyes? Look at what I've done. Stop worrying about the day. I did it. You make more out of that day than God ever intended. You know that God blessed the Sabbath. He didn't curse it. No, that God gave the Sabbath to the Israeli peoples as a blessing, not as an exercise in, in condemnation and punishment. You're to enjoy God. That's what the Sabbath was given for, take the day off to enjoy God. Jesus says to these people, these things witness about me that something that is far more important than you being able to hold on to your precious rule book and this precious Sabbath that you have turned into a punishment. There's a righteous designation made here. These works bear witness about me that the Father has sent me. It is the Father that has planned and accomplished this. This is what the Father in heaven, this is what God has declared. This is the designation that He made. He sent me here. I didn't arrive here and figure out enough stuff to become the smartest one out here and figure out something new and all of you come follow me as some cult leader. No, the Father has sent me. It was a righteous designation. It was a holy designation. Look at where he says, what did he send? He says, he sent me. He sent me. These things, these works that the Father has given me, things that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me. He didn't send us, he didn't send them, he sent Christ. Friends, this is the Jesus that we preach. If we preach a Jesus different than this, then we don't preach the Jesus of the gospel because this is the Jesus of the gospel, the one that the Father sent with insurmountable evidence. the one that the father sent, and took the time to explain in great detail who he is. He didn't come in and say, hey, here's my message, and people reject it, and he'd slaughter all of them and start over until finally people got the point, well, maybe if we kind of bow the knee to him, he'll stop killing us. That's what dictators do. That's not what God did. He sends the Son who gives testimony and evidence, piled upon testimony and evidence, with more testimony and evidence, and the Holy Spirit of God still has to come in to turn on the light because it is not enough on its own. And for people that think that they can figure out a better way to do it that doesn't need the Holy Spirit's immediate, intimate, insurmountable influence over what they're doing, they are wasting their time in gospel ministry. Because this is the Jesus that we preach. This is the Jesus of the gospel. This is the Jesus that we believe in. John 3.16 means exactly what John 3.16 says. God so loved the world that he gave his only son. Whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting eternal life. It is this son that we believe in. It is this one that has done all of these things. It is this one that has been declared by the Father to be the only one. And if there is any other one that has proclaimed it as a false gospel, it is not a Jesus to believe in because it is not the Jesus of the scripture. One final word. Acts chapter 16. I know there's again some debate in some people's mind about lordship salvation. And they say, well, Lord, making Jesus your Lord is a work. No, it's not. It's no more of a work than faith is faith is kind of a work, by the way, something you choose to do, but even that had to be given to you from above. So what do we believe? Great question. Paul was asked that once. Philippian jailer comes in, Acts chapter 16, verse 29, calls for lights, rushed in, trembling with fear. This man is at the end of his rope. I don't know what to do with my life, I don't know what I'm gonna do. I have to know the answer to this question. Fell down before Paul and Silas. Two guys in stocks, and two guys that are chained to the wall. He falls down before them, and he says, sirs, what must I do to be saved? Ain't no better question ever been asked. What must I do to be saved? I'll do whatever it takes. Who do I pay? Where do I go? What pilgrimage do I go on? What do I have to cut off? What does it take? Do I need to be branded? What is it? I'll do whatever it is. You know what Jesse Duplantis would have told him to do? You need to plant a financial seed in my ministry, boy, because I need a new airplane. Friends, on Judgment Day, when Jesse stands before the Lord, you need to find somewhere else to be. You don't want to be there. What does Paul say? Paul's been in stocks. You know what that is? It's not the thing that they're running out of in New York City. It's not the thing falling off a cliff that you read in the paper. You ever slept wrong on your arm? You ever wake up and that thing, you Get it back where it goes because you held it in an hour and a half too long in one position You imagine if they took your body and stretched it into an uncomfortable position and locked it there. That's what stocks were legs were locked spread apart very Stretch you to the limit and lock you in and stretch your arms out do the same thing and you're you're that's where you are Until they're ready to come get you Paul and Silas have just been broken out of their stocks and And this guy comes in and says, what must I do to be saved? And they said, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Believe in who? Believe in Jesus. Did you say that? No. Believe in Jesus the Messiah, Messiah Yeshua. Believe in Jesus the Christ. Is that what it says? Getting closer, but that's not what it says. Believe in the Lord, Jesus Christ. Believe in the master, the kurios. Believe in the owner and possessor. Put your faith and trust in the fact that this Jew that died on a cross is now the master and owner and possessor of all things, you included. Paul says, it's foolishness to the Gentiles and a stumbling block to the Jews, but to those that believe it is the power of God and the salvation. That is the Jesus that we preach. You need to know who it is that you worship. You need to know who it is that we proclaim, who the gospel is about. And it is about this one that gives this evidence in John chapter five to these people. But friends, I'm afraid that there's always going to be, and there may still be some in this room that live up to verse 40, that you still refuse to come to him that you may have life. You have no excuse today. You have no more excuse today than these people had in that day when they heard it come from his own very lips in that moment. We serve a great God that saves great centers, but he only, he only saves great centers that recognize their sinfulness and the greatness of his salvation. Turn to Him today. Turn from your sin. Turn to Him in repentance and faith. Recognize that you've lived your life, your way, going your own direction your entire life, only wanting God to come in and pad the way for you to go your own way, but He has called you to turn from your way and to turn to His way. Give your life to Him because He gave His life for you and live for His glory for the rest of your existence in this life and the next, and He will save you. He may not fix your bank account, but your bank account's not your problem. May not fix your marriage. Your marriage is not your problem. Friends, your problem is your sin, and only he can fix that, and he will, if you come to him on his terms. Or you can refuse. Some of you can refuse again. I would call you to repent today. If that sounds harsh, you need to know it's not harsh because I said it. And I'm not trying to say it harsh. I just want to say it clear. And this is what the Bible clearly says. You must turn from your sin and turn to this Christ as Savior. Not just any idea of Jesus to this idea. John said, this is the Christ. I've written this that you may know who the Messiah, the Savior is. And it's the one that Paul preached. And it's the one that Paul declared to that Philippian jailer to be the Lord Jesus Christ. Friends, you'll never regret that. If you stand, we're going to pray. Father, we thank you for your word. Without it, we would be lost. We would have no idea that there is a Savior, that we need a Savior. We would have no idea how to reach this Savior, but you have made it so clear. Your Spirit comes and makes it so powerful in our life. Lord, we praise you for it. If all you had given us was your word, it would have been sufficient only to condemn us even more. But you have sent your spirit to open it and to open our eyes and give us understanding and to give it clarity. And I pray that you will open blinded eyes in this room this day and bring a clarity of the gospel to every heart that all might bow the knee to Christ today more than ever before. We might see the glory of our Savior and the great things that he has done for us. Lord, bless your people as they go this day. It's in the Savior, the Lord, Jesus Christ's name that we pray. Amen.