Scripture reading is from John chapter 1, a bit modified from last week's scripture reading. But it is John's gospel to reveal to us the true reality and nature of the God-man, this rock and Redeemer that we are so desperate for. I'm going to read verses one through eight, and then we will skip to verse 19, and you will see why. John the Apostle writes, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him. And apart from him, nothing came into being that has come into being. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it. There was a man, having been sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. Verse 19, and this is the witness of John. When the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who are you? And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, what then? Are you Elijah? And he said, I am not. Are you the prophet? And he answered, no. Therefore they said to him, who are you? So that we may give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself? He said, I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord. As Isaiah the prophet said. Now they had been sent from the Pharisees, and they asked him and said, why then are you baptizing if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet? John answered them saying, I baptize with water, but among you stands one whom you do not know. This one is he who comes after me, of whom I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandal. These things took place in Bethany, beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing. On the next day, he saw Jesus coming and said, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is He of whom I said, After me comes a man who has been ahead of me, for he existed before me. I did not know him, but so that he might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing with water. And John bore witness, saying, I have beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and he abided on him. And I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, the one on whom you see the Spirit descending and abiding on him, this is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I myself have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God. On the next day, John again was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked and said, behold, the Lamb of God. And the two disciples heard him speak and followed Jesus. And when Jesus turned and noticed them following, he said to them, what do you seek? They said to him, Rabbi, which translated means teacher, where are you staying? He said to them, come and you will see. So they came and saw where he was staying and they stayed with him that day. It was about the 10th hour. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, we have found the Messiah. which translated means Christ, when he brought him to Jesus, when Jesus looked at him, he said, you are Simon, son of John, you shall be called Cephas, which is translated Peter. Friends, Jesus was no ordinary man. and he is in a crowd of one. Father, we thank you for the opportunity you've given us this day to come in to your presence in this house of worship together with the flock of Jesus Christ, the singing of your praise and the preaching of your word. We pray that you will take our time this day and make it profitable for every heart here and make it honorable for the name that is above every name. make it profitable for the reputation of this rock and redeemer, this soon coming king that all of your people have bowed the knee to and anxiously await. The one on whom all history hangs. The one who has died to purchase a people for your own possession and whoever lives to be the king and the Lord and the guide protector and provider of your people. We pray that his name will be made great here this day. It is in this name, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten of God, the Lamb of God that has taken away the sin of the world. The one who was made sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in him. It is in the name of that Savior that we pray. Amen. When we come to the Bible, when we come to the Word of God, we do not come to a book like any other book. We do not come to a book that we deserve to have. We do not come to a book that we can explain in any way except that the eternal love of God decided this is what he would do. This is what he would give to us. This is what he would reveal himself through. And because it has an author like no other, because it has a subject like no other, because it has a power through the Holy Spirit of God like no other, it has a message like no other. And it is of use in your life and mine like nothing else in this world. There is no substitute. There is no surrogate. There is no addition. It is the eternal Word of God, tautified and preserved and able to be possessed and read in your mother tongue, which is not the language in which it was originally written. In this book, we have the message of the saving God. And the reason that we need a saving God is because we need to be saved. We need to be saved from God because of our sin. to be saved from God because we are sinners. The sin that comes out of our lives is just the proof that we are a sinner. Dog whacks his tail and barks. Prove that he's a dog and we sin as proof that we are sinners. The word Jesus Christ came to prove that God is the Savior. You have your Bible with you, and I hope that you do. If you do not, you can look around under the seats in front of you. There are copies of Scripture there. You can open a Bible with me to John chapter 5. This is a book like no other that tells the story of one who is like no other. John's Gospel has been written to give to us the first hand account of John the Apostle. that we might come to know that Jesus is the Christ, that by knowing him that we might be saved. In chapter five of John's Gospel, John gives us the record of the day that the tide turned in Jesus's ministry as far as it concerned the religious leaders of his day. John chapter five is maybe an afternoon on a Sabbath day. This extended portion of discussion or dialogue is really as recorded here. It is a monologue. I don't know what interaction Jesus had with these religious leaders, but the point that is made and what is of the utmost necessity that we know is what has been recorded here. And it is all the words of Jesus to these people. He has healed a man that had no hope. He was helpless. And he was a man among a multitude of other men and women that had no apparent reason for Jesus to choose him to heal. But Jesus healed him, and he healed him on a Sabbath so that he might set up this opportunity Christ unmistakable and undeniable in the minds of everyone who heard it. And John recorded it that it might become undeniable and unmistakable in the hearts and the minds of everyone who ever hears it read and preached. They come to Jesus upset with him because he's doing things on the Sabbath And he says that my father is working until now and I am working, making himself equal with God. And Jesus, knowing that they understood why he has done what he has done, launches in to a declaration of his authority and a defense of his authority. He declares and establishes his authority in verses 19 through 29. And beginning in verse 30, he verifies his authority. He speaks in the third person in verses 19 through 29. He refers to the son of man, or the son. The son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the father doing. The father does one thing, the son does likewise. Those that honor the Son honor the Father. Those that do not honor the Son do not honor the Father. Your honor of God the Father is tied to how you honor the Son. The Son of God will raise the dead and judge them. In verse 30, pronoun changes. It's the personal pronoun, I. In case any of you were wondering just exactly who the Son of God is, it is me, I am He. And he puts the religious leaders and those that were in the crowd this day on notice that there is a new revelation from God, the way to God the Father is through the Son and through Him alone. This comes to a crescendo in verse 41. We will not get there today, but you need to know this is where we are going. Actually, in verse 40, you refuse to come to me. No one will be in hell by accident. No one will be in heaven haphazardly. Eternity is something that will be secured in this life. There will be no option in the afterlife. There will be no additional time for a mulligan. There will be no additional time to maybe add to what you had done to give you some extra homework, as it were, or to take money from your relatives to promise them that if enough money is given, maybe the second chance will be good enough to get them to heaven. You decide in this life that the decision that you make has to do that the evil one has a more orthodox view of the Lordship of Jesus Christ than any preacher you have ever met. And the evil one is the chief captive of hell. It was created for him. Knowing the facts about Jesus' life are not enough. Knowing the facts about Jesus' life bring you to a crossroad in your life where you must make a decision. And you do make the decision, and you will make the decision every time you are faced with it. Well, I'd like some more time to think about it. That is a choice of rejection. One day there will be a final opportunity to make that choice and that projection will be sealed complete for eternity. There must be a first time and there will be a last time that you hear the gospel and have opportunity to restore it. Jesus is making that clear here. Let us read beginning in verse 30. We will read from verse 30 through verse 40. Remember, this is where the pronoun switched. He has turned a corner in this conversation. He has gotten very, very specific, very direct. He is in their face. Not because he is being audacious, but because this is such a stark reality that you must face it. You must face it. He gets their attention here. He 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 said to John, Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things 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 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. It is they that bear witness about me. Yet you refuse to come to me, that you may have life. Father, as we turn to your Word, we realize the daunting task that this is, humanly, to open the Word of the living God and attempt to make heads or tails of it on our own, in our fallen intellect, in our fallen capacities. We must have the ministry of your Holy Spirit to be our God and our interpreter this day. Lord, I pray for myself above all in this room, that you will give me eyes to see and ears to hear, that I might rightly understand, rightly divide, and rightly proclaim this word, and then get out of the way this word. empowered by your spirit, might accomplish the very thing that you have sent it out for this day. As we look at the Savior, Lord, I pray that you will encourage people, that you will exhort your people to put their faith and trust in this Savior. I pray that you will evangelize the lost and give them a yearning in their heart to belong to this Lord, to turn from sin and turn and run to the Savior. Be saved this day, for they're good for your glory. This is our prayer, our confident petition to you, in the name and on the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Jesus has declared himself to be a faithful sovereign in verses 32, 30, 31, and 32. in this verification of his authority. We see him here using another verification. It is the faithful servant that we know of as John the Baptist. And Jesus is building some momentum here. He is going from the lesser to the greater. He has already said that I've given my testimony. I have borne witness and given you some accolade in verses 19 through 29. But if it is only my testimony to my authority, then it really holds no weight. It is not deemed true because I can believe and say anything about myself that I would like. It may be true to me and not true to you, and that means that it is meaningless. However, there is one, verse 32. There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. Why was Jesus so confident in the face of this encounter? Because he had come to believe what God said about him in his humanity. We struggle with the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It's okay if you struggle with it. The Bible makes it very clear that the three are one. And it's okay that the three of them are one because they're not human. You and you can't be one. Man, half the time, you ain't one. You ever talk to yourself? When we come to the hypostatic union, the humanity and divinity of Christ at the same time, and we try to divide them up, there's no way to define them. But in his humanity, he trusted in what he knew. It's not that he came so much pre-programmed as to who he was. He came to know and to trust and to believe what the Father had said about him. And he gives three evidences from the Father. The first is the prophet John the Baptist. And he says, verse 36, but the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. So the next testimony is the works that he did. And then third, friends, the most powerful testimony as to the deity of Jesus Christ. It's not that the prophet John said it, it's not the miracles that he did, but it is indeed that the word of God declares him to be so. There is no greater authority on this planet, in this universe, in your life or anyone else's life, than the authority of the word of God. Not this preacher, not any council of preachers, not the pope, not any religious council, anywhere. All of the councils of hell don't begin to hold the authority of one word, the word of God. And Jesus is building from the lesser to the greater, to the greatest. He's going to tell them, you've never heard God's voice. You've never seen his visage. You claim to know the word of God, but you don't even believe that. This is an outright condemnation of religion. This is one of the most eye-opening things that Jesus ever said to anyone. And he puts everyone on notice that your eternity hangs on what you do with him. That's good news for some, very bad news for others. this faithful servant, this verification of Jesus's authority. We see in verse 33 first that there was a willful investigation on the part of these religious leaders. Look at what he says in verse 33. You said to John, the Baptist. Now speaking of the Apostle John, the Apostle John goes unnamed in this gospel. In fact, as we read in our scripture reading this morning, we'll go back to here in a few minutes, he refers to two disciples that heard John the Baptist say, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and they left to follow him. He never names the other disciple. It was him. It was John the Apostle with Andrew. So when he does name John, and it's not himself, this is John the Baptist. And he tells these religious leaders, hold on a minute. You already asked John. You sent to John. There was a willful investigation on your part. You sent to John. We need to know who he was, what he did, and what he said. They sent to John. Who was John? Well, John was the first prophet that Israel had had in 450 years. It wasn't that John was a miracle worker. They knew that John was a spokesman from God. And when the prophets showed up, God was getting ready to do some stuff. And these people were already anticipating. In Luke's gospel, it says constantly, Luke says, the people were ready. There was a sense among the people that the kingdom was coming. And part of what elevated that sense of the kingdom arrival was the appearance of John the Baptist, the first prophet in 450 years. Scripture had been closed. It is as though heaven and the councils of God had been closed to them. And here is John. And everyone was going out to hear what John had to say. So John's message mattered to these people. He says, you sent to John. We read about it this morning in John chapter 1. You're going to be turning back to John chapter 1 a few times here. So be ready for that. John chapter 1 says there was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness. He came as a witness to testify or bear witness about the light that all might believe through him. John came to be the one to announce that Christ, the true light was coming, that all might be prepared for his coming and might believe in him through John. He was not the light, but he came to bear witness about the light in verse eight. Verse 19 says, this is the testimony of John. when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem. Here we are. It's the same group of people that are upset with Jesus. Verse 15, the man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who healed him, and that is why the Jews were persecuting him. Here's this group. This is the thing that the investigation that Jesus is referring to in John chapter five. You sent to John. You already asked these questions. You know who I am. You sent to John. You sent to the prophet to find out who I am. What does he say about John? You sent to him. You went. It's the same word in verse 19. The Jews sent the priests and Levites. Here Jesus says you sent the same way. You went. You sent an inquiry there. You went to find out. You investigated. And he has borne witness to the truth. Now what you and I need to know is what did John say? If he bore witness to the truth, if he declared what the truth was, what did he have to say? Verse 19, John chapter one. He has testified to you and to everyone, is what Jesus tells them. This is what he said, they asked him, who are you? I'm not the Christ, I'm not Elijah, I'm not the prophet, the prophet from, Moses' prophecy in Deuteronomy, that there will come a prophet after me, greater than I. You're to do everything that he says. Been a long time they've been waiting for this prophet. They're wondering if John the Baptist is this guy. They expected that in Zacharias' prophecy, they expected that Elijah would show up just before the Messiah. So they wanted to know, are you the Messiah? No, not him. Are you Elijah? No. Are you the prophet? No. Well, then who are you? So they ask him, verse 22, we need to give an answer to the Jews. We need to give an answer to these Pharisees that sent us. Who are you? What do you say about yourself? Verse 23, John bore witness. He said, I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness. John said, I'm a nobody. I'm just a voice in the wilderness. I am a faceless voice in the wilderness. So you go outside and you hear somebody talking and you can't find who it is. Like that movie where he walks out of the house and he hears somebody calling his name out of the woods and he doesn't know who it is. And it just carries over the hills and out into the distance. And he just hears this voice echoing in the woods, a faceless, nameless voice. John the Baptist said, I am so insignificant in the purposes of God that I'm just a voice crying out of the wilderness. But what is he crying out? Make straight the way. What did he do? He bore witness to the truth. I'm not the Christ, but I'm telling you to be ready. Make the way straight. He's coming. He's coming. He's almost here. In fact, he's about to tell him not almost here. He is here. You've asked about Elijah. You've asked about the prophet. You've asked about the Messiah. Well, Isaiah said that there would be a voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord. That is who I am. What did he point back to? Again, he pointed back to the scripture. When you look at that and say, well, what does that mean? Good question. He's gonna answer it. who he was as this prophet, the forerunner of Christ, the one that came so that people through him might believe in Christ. He was not the light. He came to bear witness about the light. He was sent from God. He was a testifying witness. But what did he say? Jesus says you sent to him and he has borne witness to the truth. And Jesus is referencing this interaction in John chapter one, what did he say? Verse 24, we find that you can connect Pharisees with capital J Jews in John's gospel. Verse 19, the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem. Verse 24, they had been sent from the Pharisees. So they asked him, then why are you baptizing? If you are neither the Christ nor Elijah nor the prophet. Hey, Holmes, who do you think you are? Bro, what are you doing? If you're not that guy, then why should we care what you have to say? Why are you doing all this? You've got all these people coming out here, and you're baptizing all these people. Someone once asked the inimitable Joel Osteen why he does what he does. 60 Minutes interview. This guy, the interviewer, I forget who he was, irrelevant, had been around church enough to know that in church there's some preaching about this three-letter word that Joel Osteen wants to remove from everyone's vocabulary. We call it sin, because the Bible calls it sin. And Joel decided, we're not gonna talk about sin anymore. And this 60 minutes report, 60 minutes, friend, this is not a bastion of conservatism nor of gospel truth. Why are you conducting something called a church and you don't talk about sin? And Osteen tearfully said, because I've seen what has happened, people have come back and tell me that I saved their marriage, and that I kept them from suicide, and I did this for them, and I did that for them. You know what Osteen just said? Because I'm that awesome. John the Baptist, why are you baptizing all these people? If you're not the Christ, and if you're not Elijah, and you ain't the prophet, who do you think you are? The voice of one crying in the wilderness. Well, why are you doing this, John? John said, I baptize with water. I love how he says that. He just refers to, I'm out here baptizing every person that'll show up. Except the Pharisees. He told them that they weren't there. They were there for the crowd. He said, you're not ready. You're not ready to repent. You people think that you're waiting for Christ to come down and recognize you. It's not for you. Go and learn what it is to repent and then come back. You brutal vipers. Baptizing everybody. He says, I'm baptized with water. All this? I'm baptized with water. He just pushes it out of hand. But, he says, Among you stands one you do not know. The fact of the matter is John doesn't know who it is yet. Even he who comes after me, John says, I'm the forerunner. I'm saying make straight the path of the Lord. He's coming. He doesn't even know who it is yet. We'll see that in the next paragraph. But I can tell you this. I'm not the prophet. I'm not Elijah, but there's one coming that you need to be concerned with. Not me. You need to be concerned with him because as great as you think all this baptizing with water, you're down here to ask me what I'm doing because all of these people are coming out here and I have all this influence. How did I get it? What am I doing with it? Don't worry about that. There's one coming. Look what he says in verse 27, the strap of whose sandal I'm unworthy to tie. You think all this is something? This is nothing. I'm not worthy to take this man's shoes off. You know, at my house, I ask my kids to take my boots off sometimes, and they argue over who's going to stoop low enough to take dad's shoes off. John the Baptist said, I'm not worthy to untie this man's shoes. Not too good to do it. I'm not worthy to take his stinking sandal off of his foot. You're worried about me, but there's one coming you need to be concerned about. Verse 29, he's gonna tell him the most important truth ever, that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Messiah, son of the living God. Jesus says in John chapter five, beginning in verse 19, he tells him, look, the son of God does these things. The son of God has this capacity. Only the son can do that. Verse 30, I am the son. John the Baptist is telling them in chapter one that the Son is coming, the Messiah is coming, the Son of the living God, the Savior is coming. It's what these people and everyone else in the world needs to know more than anything else is that there is a Savior. John the Baptist's testimony, verse 29 of John chapter one. The next day, he, John, saw Jesus coming toward him. and said, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Can you imagine that? He's got everyone's attention, all eyes on you, John. All eyes on you. And he stops what he's doing, and he yells at the top of his lungs and says, behold, everybody, everyone, everyone, look, there he is. And then John steps out of the way. Not, hey, you know, I've done all this for you all. You remember what I did for you? He doesn't say that. There he is. This is the crowd. This is he of whom I said after me comes a man who rakes before me because he was before me. This is the testimony that John gives to the Pharisees when they send the priests and Levites to ask of John. This is the truth that he testified to. I myself, he says, did not know him. See, John didn't even know who it was. You imagine that? John's out there empowered by the Holy Spirit, prepare the way of the Lord. Well, who is it? I'll tell you in a little while. Pharisees want to discredit them. Well, who are you? If you're not all these guys, who are you? I'm the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Remember Isaiah's passage? You've been waiting for that one? That's me. I'm just a nameless, faceless voice. Prepare the way. You people need to be ready. It was a baptism of preparation. It was a baptism of repentance. And in minutes from these people that they were not worthy of the Messiah, and they acknowledged that. They were not worthy of being called righteous by God. It was a picture I mean, after all, didn't God give us the law to show us the way to Him? He gave you the law to show you that it's impossible for you to get to Him. But you decided that the law was to show you how to get to Him, so you had to change what it actually said to be, at least on the outside, achievable in front of the right people, so that you can make them think you're better than you are, even though deep in your own heart, you know you're not good enough. This is him that I said, he ranks before me because he was before me. Now at this point, you know what John really does know here? He knows that that's his cousin. And he knows that his cousin was six months younger than him. Look what he says about him. What an amazing creature was John the Baptist. I didn't know him. He ranks before me because he was before me. I didn't know it in verse 31, but for this purpose, I came baptizing with water. What purpose, John? That he might be revealed to Israel. John said, I've got everybody's attention. The whole city, all of Judea is coming to the Jordan River in Bethany to see John the Baptist. And all he does is get everybody's attention and said, hey, look over here. Get out of the way. Well, there's some preachers that can learn that today. John bore witness, I saw the spirit descend from heaven like a dove and it remained on him. I myself did not know him. He knew it was his cousin. He didn't know it was the Messiah. But he who sent me to baptize with water said this to me, he on whom you see the spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God. the Pharisees in John chapter 5, Jesus is telling them, you're mad at me for making these claims, but you sent an investigatory group of people, you sent these guys commissioned to go find out from the prophet that you supposedly held as a prophet, and he's already told you who I am. He is, it's on God. And John says it in direct terms. He doesn't leave anything to the imagination. I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God. The Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. Maybe the most remarkable thing about John's ministry is what comes in the next verse. We see the immediate effect of John's having borne witness of the truth. Jesus tells him in John chapter 5, you refuse to believe But praise be to God, not everyone refuses to believe. There are some, there is a remnant. This room is filled with those that do believe, that do put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. In verse 35 of John chapter one, the next day, again, John was standing with two of his disciples. day before he points all the people to the land of god that takes away the sin of the world but not everybody's just going to up and leave john they're caught up in the excitement what are you okay that's the land of god what now they're going to start discussing it so they're still there the next day John's standing there with two of his disciples. Now, these aren't just the hoito, or these aren't just the people that gathered around. These are those that have come and have followed John as a rabbi. They are his disciples. He's discipling them. They're his followers. They're guys that are helping his ministry, the guys that he is leading. These are people that are close to John that matter to him. Do your children matter to you, parents? Do your children matter to you? They better. Does your spouse matter to you? You need to point them to Christ. Even if it takes them away from you. If it takes your children far, far away from you. If they're following Christ, you need to rejoice over them. Because they can live in your house and mumble to the devil their entire life and go to hell. Two of his disciples, people that meant the most to him, these are the only friends John had. He was popular, but he wasn't very likable. You looked at Jesus as Jesus walked by, and he said to his disciples, behold, the Lamb of God. Again, hey, there he is. You think John was just giving him some information? Oh, by the way, I know the Lamb of God. He's right there. You think that's what John did? I know, he's name dropping, there's the Lamb of God. Who am I? You guess what John did? Said, I'm saying make way, be straight to the way of the Lord. There he is, fellas, go. Verse 37. The two disciples heard him say this and they followed Jesus. There's a finality to that. They never came back to John. When you turn to Jesus Christ in true faith and repentance, friends, you never go back either. They're following him. Jesus turned and saw them. Said, what do you want? What are you seeking? Rabbi, where are you staying? He said, come, you'll see. They came to where he was staying. They stayed with him that day. It was about the 10th hour. They spent the whole day there. John tells us, you're the Lamb of God. We're going to find out for ourselves. And they did some investigating, too. They spent the day with him. What was their conclusion? What's this immediate effect of John's testimony? Verse 40. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. How'd you like to be known in history as your brother's brother? Yeah, this guy, Vincent, was Floyd's brother. Somebody did that to me at a church pictorial one time. Remember that pictorial directory? Oh, it was for the, one of the 50th or 60th anniversary of the church. They put that bunch of pictures together, and every time my picture was in it, they put in somebody else's picture. Oh, this is Andre's friend. There's Floyd's brother, who was never mentioned to me as confronting. Andrew's son, Peter's brother, was the first thing Andrew does. He didn't go back to John. He first found his own brother, Simon. What does he say? We had found the Messiah. John's testimony to the truth in front of his two disciples. You know, later, John is going to is going to be one of these guys that, hey, bro, we're with Jesus and that Samaritan village won't let us pass. Let's burn it to the ground. Sweet, lovable John. Not a bigoted bone in his body. We don't see that in Andrew and John here. They're not so beholden to following John the Baptist and being part of his crew that they're going to turn their back on the Messiah. They said, we found the Messiah. That's who they've been looking for all along. We found the Messiah. We found the prophet. We found the Christ. It's not John. And he brought Peter. So Peter is taking Andrew's word for having heard from John the Baptist and talked to Jesus. And Peter said, okay, let's go meet him. He brought Peter to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, so you are Simon, son of John. You know what that means? It means Andrew's been telling him about it. Oh, so you're Peter. Yeah, now Pete, I'm Andy's big brother. Yeah. Call me Rock. Actually, they call him Pebble. Call him Pete Gravel. Hey, Limestone, I got a friend in this church whose nickname just became Limestone. You'll know later. So you're a Simon's son of John. Look at the effect that this testimony of John had on Andrew, and the impact that John Andrew's testimony has on Peter. So you are Simon's son of John, eh? You will be called Cephas, which means Peter. Jesus changed his name on the spot. Yeah, you've been Pebble, you've been limestone, but you're gonna be, we're gonna call you Rock one day. This is what John the Baptist, testimony did in the life of Andrew and John and Peter. In others, no doubt. But in John chapter five, Jesus is telling these people, you sent to John in a willful investigation to find out who he was and what he did, and you know what he said. The next verse. Jesus is so tender to these people. You know, you're talking to a person, you have no idea what's going on in their mind. You don't really know what's in their heart. I mean, you can spend some time talking to them and find out what's going on, what makes them tick, what they're going through, how they feel at the moment. You can do that if you spend some time with them. But you can only get so far. The end of John chapter 2, it says that Jesus did no need of anyone to tell him what was in man. Verse 25 of chapter 2. Jesus knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man for He Himself knew what was in man. Jesus is speaking to these people. He knows the hatred in their heart is ready to kill Him. Look at what He said. Verse 34. He speaks to their woeful condition. The condition that all of you have found yourselves in at the moment of birth. Verse 34. Not that the testimony that I receive is from man. He said, look, John said that and he was right. But I'm not really trying to bank my whole case on what John had to say. Not negating John, not minimizing, not belittling what John said. I'm not because he was who he said he was. He bore witness to the truth. He is the voice of the crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord. He was not Elijah. He was not the prophet. He was not the Christ. He is the one that came by the hand of God to proclaim to all of Israel who I am. But I'm not going to John merely for the sake of going to John. I'm going to John. so that you may be saved. I thought I need the testimony of men. Friends, the testimony of men is an insufficient alliance. Jesus tells these people that the worst possible scenario for any human being is the scenario that you people find yourself in and every person is born into. You are destitute of anything that God will respect or accept. You are a rebel before God. destined for a devil's hell. And it doesn't matter how many men, how many people you surround yourself with, you cannot overcome the reality that you stand condemned before God. Doesn't matter how big of an entourage you put together, you cannot negotiate your way into heaven. God is no respecter of persons. God has never been moved by majority opinion. We hear that so much today. Scientists say it. First of all, the scientists say something different than what this book says. They're wrong. Letters after their name, a consensus of scientists are all going to hell if they don't repent. I'm going to fill in the blank with that. Well, you know, society is kind of moving this way that the church wants to remain relevant. I don't want to remain relevant. I don't care if I'm relevant. This book, in your life, is more relevant than tomorrow morning's newspaper. I don't need relevant. Give me the Bible. You take relevant. Tell you what, there's gonna come a day when hell's gonna be the only thing relevant for people that are concerned with being relevant. Well, we've got, society's moving that way, we need to chase them. No, you don't. You better not. If you're gonna chase society, you're no longer the church of Jesus Christ, you're the church of whatever society you're in. Church of Jesus Christ stands on this rock. You know what the rock doesn't do? It does not move. The sands may shift around it. They may wash away. The rock remains firm. Institutions. Well, you know, Southern seminary is starting to do fill in the blank. My wife was asking me about that. Did you hear anything about Southern seminary? People have been slamming Southern seminary and the Master's Seminary and Westminster Seminary for eons. That's what people do. Southern Seminary may go in the tank tomorrow. It does not affect God. Johnny Mack is 85 years old, my friend. He has been one of the most influential true servants of Jesus Christ in Christendom for 50 years. And he is going to be with the Lord sooner rather than later, if the Lord continues to tarry. And what is going to happen to the Master's College and the Master's Seminary, Grace Community Church, Grace to You, all of this influence that has been incalculably blessed to you and I. What's gonna happen to all of that? I don't know, but the church is not gonna die over. God raised him up, God can replace him. He raised up John the Baptist, and John the Baptist was replaced. Institutions don't matter. Governments, God does not care about a government. And you and I, let's be honest, we're far too worried about government. Really, all I'm worried about the government doing is get out of the way and let my money be worth something. Could you just do that? Oh, and fix the road. Every time I pass a Yambley building, I want to call Jesse Bellard and say, hey, cousin, I just blew my tire out on the road coming over here to visit you with this new building you got set up over here, this beautiful fence. Could you fix a pothole? We didn't need a fence. We need to fix a pothole. Yeah, I know. I'm getting off subject. But boy, it's a good one. I don't have a verse for it yet. I'm working on it. Listen, governments come and go. Some are neutral with the church, some are pro-church, some are anti-church. The church keeps going. The kingdom of God keeps going. Trying to get this alliance with men is an insufficient thing to look for. We're not looking for the approval of anything outside of God. The modern church needs to, and let me tell you this, the modern church will learn this. It will. I know that there are people that have an optimistic view of history. I think that's a fool's errand. The scripture gives you no reason to think that things are gonna get better until they get infinitely worse and the Lord Jesus Christ himself steps in. So this idea that we have to try to get the approval of the world, no we don't. We need the world to understand that the approval they need comes from God and right now they stand condemned before him. The farther away you go, the more condemned you are. And when they are out of earshot, what are we going to do? Chase them down? Well, you know, if the church was just a little more, a little more joyful, if it wasn't quite so boring. Are you bored today? Please don't say yes. Not because it's going to hurt my feelings, because we got something else to talk about if you're bored. This book is not boring. You want an exercise in stretching your brain? Go read the Old Testament and how violent those people were. Just go read 2 Samuel. Just start reading it and read about David, the things that David did. Hold the tender, loving David with a sword in his hand, about to annihilate the family of Nabal. This is not a boring book. Oh yeah, you know, that Jesus guy. Jesus walked on water. When's the last time you did that? You better stand up in the shower. How you gonna walk on water? You know the most remarkable thing about John chapter 5? No one argued about whether he healed this man or not. They couldn't deny that he healed the guy. They're mad that he did it on the Sabbath day. Oh, you stepped outside of our boundary. You can't do that on Sabbath day. Hold on, brother. He healed his cat. 38 years he's been trying to get off of the ground, and he's running. Can we talk about that for a minute? Nope. Sabbath day. Sabbath day. Keep the rules. Because if these are not the right rules, that means that I'm not good enough. Bad news for you. You ain't good enough. But the good news is there is one who is. He died a sinner's death that you and I might be healed in a more magnificent way than even this man was healed on this Sabbath day, friends. He can heal you spiritually and take the brokenness that cannot reach God and recreate it to something that can reach God, that God will accept. Not that he'll merely accept it, but that he runs to embrace. There's nothing boring about that message. insufficient alliance relying on the testimony of men but they're in this woeful condition they are facing insurmountable evidence he just says I don't need Testimony of men I don't receive the testimony of men, but I say these these things to you I'm giving you these evidences that you cannot deny you cannot turn away from I'm giving you evidence that you cannot Ignore there's no argument left the only option that you have at this point Once you've been confronted with the gospel the only option that you have is is to either submit to it and embrace it or to willfully rebel against it and remain in unbelief. This insurmountable evidence has been presented to these people. In verse 40, he says, you refuse to come to me. You refuse. You hear it and you refuse. Oh, well, I'll wait till another day. No. You're gonna drive out of here on that road and tell me that you're guaranteed to be here next week. That road, not just every road, that road. And it reminds them of something that's missing from the most popular of churches in this world. They wanna refer to They don't want to refer to sin. They'll talk about the bad things that happen in your life, but the bad things in your life that really need fixing are the things that you don't like about your life. It's like approaching a person who's addicted to crystal meth and saying, you know, the problem that you have is the consequence that crystal meth brings to you. Let me help you get your family on board to let you continue with the crystal meth addiction. The problem that you have is not really your problem, it's another problem. You say, Preacher, that's dumb. I know it is. But it's just as dumb, eternally dumb, to tell people that the problem that you have is not what the Bible says. The problem that you have is the things in life that you don't like, and Jesus will fix that. That's all that you can say to someone if you don't come to the fact that your problem is what you see in the mirror every day. When you brush your hair, brush your teeth, when you dance around, when you take a selfie, that's your problem. Not taking a selfie necessarily. That's the problem. That's what Jesus had to die for. Not because you can't get any satisfaction out of life, Jesus doesn't go down that road. Jesus does immense work. Look at what he says at the end of verse 34. I say these things to you, why? To help you in life. I say these things to you so you can live an abundant life and have all the things that you want. See these abundant life churches on the side, I know exactly what they preach. And it's not this book. Selected portions of the book that make the people feel like a king. Friends, you gotta be a pauper before you can come into this kingdom. It's already got a king, it don't need you. He tells them about an inescapable consequence. I have said these things to you so that you may be saved. What do you mean we need to be saved? Dude, we're ready for the Messiah. All we need is him to come back and anoint us knights in his kingdom. We're ready. Nope, you're not ready. And the more ready you think you are, the farther you actually are from being saved. The less room you think you have to improve, the farther away from this cross you are. I'm telling you, the religious leaders, the Pharisees, I'm telling you these things so that you might be saved. There's an inescapable consequence that you must faith. Verse 35. willful investigation, a woeful condition. In verse 35, he reminds them about a willful reception. It was short live, but it was a willful reception. They received a representative testimony from John. I'm the voice of one crying in the wilderness. I'm pointing to him. He must increase, I must decrease. It says here of John that he was a burning and shining lamp. You need to understand that these two words are very meaningful. He was very recently. By this time, John is probably in prison. His ministry was only six months long, really. He's probably in prison for having told the king that he couldn't have his brother's wife, who was his half-sister. You can't have your half-sister, who's also your brother's wife, as your wife. Doesn't seem like you'd have to tell a rational person that, but that's what the king was doing. He tells the king, you can't do this. The king threw him in jail. So he says, you sent to John and John was a burning and shining lamp. Remember John chapter one, all of the reference made to the light, he wasn't the light. He came to tell us about the light, says that Jesus was the light of men, the light shines in the darkness, the darkness has not overcome it. Jesus is referring to John, he says he was a burning and shining lamp. He's a spirit empowered, employed by another, this representative giving this testimony in acting on the behalf of another. He says he was a burning, shining lamp. This burning is a passive verb. When the lights go out of your house, what do you do? You turn on a candle? No. You light a candle. Does that candle light itself? Not yet, but that's a good idea. I may have to work on that. Self-lighting candle. You have to light that candle. You light that dude, you put it up somewhere high so he can give as much light in your house as possible. I know what you're thinking, no preacher, I'll turn on the generator. What kind of Neanderthal can you live in? We have candles in my house, and they're not automatic. You have to light them, and you put them in a high place. Now what do they do? They give off light. You lit them on fire. It is a light coming from a secondary source. It is being lit. He says that John was a burning lamp. It was a light that was ignited by another, capital A, another. The father lit his fire and set him out and there was light given off, the light of the message that he was giving and the testimony that he gave was this shining light that came from him as he was lit by another. He is proclaiming and expressing and showing forth the message of the light giver. I'm not the light, I'm proclaiming, here comes the light. He's bearing witness about the light. He was a lamp, an instrument used by another. He's the lamp that was lit by another and gave off that light and was placed by that other in the right place. He says of John, he was a burning lamp and you were willing to rejoice. You were willing to rejoice. that the air was thick with anticipation. The kingdom is coming. You were willing to rejoice over what He had to say. He's come with a message that we've desired. The Messiah is coming. The great light giver is coming. The Messiah is coming. The problem is the Messiah is not coming on the terms that you set. The Messiah is coming on the terms that He set. And you do not meet the terms. Therefore, John's ministry of baptism that they rejected. See what he says. We see a rejected testimony. It was recognized, but ultimately rejected. You were willing to rejoice for a while. His message went beyond what they wanted. There are quote unquote evangelical churches all over this country that do this all the time. If we go too far, we're going to turn the unbelievers off. Okay. Friends, I'm not gonna stand before God in front of this church at the Bama seat and answer for how many unbelievers I made comfortable. I'm gonna answer for how faithful I was to this Lord. How faithful I was to this Lord. And you're gonna answer for how you respond to this message. What Jesus told them is what you and I and the whole world needs to hear today. You need another to save you. You need to be saved. You don't need to save yourself. You need to be saved. You need to come to God on his terms and recognize that you are a sinner desperately in need of a Savior and that that only Savior is Jesus Christ. He is the Lord. He is the master. He is the kurios. He is the owner. He is the Savior. And to not do that is to reject Him for who He is. Father, we praise You for the time You've given us this day. Praise You for Your Word, the clarity of it. Lord, we praise You for the ministry of John, the ministry of faithful men of God through the years, and the ministry of the Holy Spirit through them. Lord, I pray for those that are here this day, those that know You, Lord, that You might strengthen their resolve to know You more, to be more faithful proclaimers of Your Gospel. When we're saved, we know what salvation is. We know what to tell another person. We don't need to be taught that. We need to tell others about it. For those that don't know you, we pray that you would cause them to come to that realization this day and that they might come to repentance and faith and know the Savior this day, to accept this Savior on His terms, that they bow their knee to Him, accept the fact that they are unlovable by God, that they are unacceptable to God on their own, and that only through Jesus Christ and Him alone, relying 100% totally on what He has done and what He can do, and that through Him they might come to know You. In our Savior's name we pray. Amen.