Good morning. And I'm sure that you do. Yes, Todd, you're right. Turn your Bibles to John 5. And Todd is back there saying, announce. Men's group, tonight, 645. I know we met last week and we normally meet every other week, but we're meeting again tonight. We do that from time to time to keep you on your toes. Tonight, Bible study 645. We will cover Hebrews chapter 7, which is the litmus test of the writer of Hebrews. He says, you don't know your Bible if you don't know who Melchizedek is. So, if you want to know who Melchizedek is, Yes, I'll say it slower, Melchizedek. Come, let's learn about Melchizedek, why it's important. And it is vitally important. It's a priesthood. Tonight, 645, we've got food, too. Burgers and fajitas to boot, so you can't beat that. Men's Retreat, also speaking of men, is October 29th and 30th that we meet out. I can send you more information, so let me know if you're interested and you don't know anything about it. And also, we're on the tail end of the women's conference that was here yesterday, which I hear was fantastic. Yes, Margaret Ashmore and the ladies that put it on and worked hard to do it. That's a lot of work to put those on, isn't it? There you go. You men, you're just clapping because you got a weekend without your wife, right? John chapter 5, we'll finish John 5 today. You know, what we've seen up to this point in John 5 is Jesus telling us who he is, and who he is did not please the people that were listening to him. It was the religious Jews of the day. He had equated himself with God, and this was a no-no. And what Jesus is going to be very certain with him about is that he is God. Now, let me tell you why that's important for us today. You may say, I already know he's God. I've got no problem with Jesus being God. Can we move on to something else? I was reading an article just this morning, Sunday paper, in the City and State section. It's an interview with Richard Dawkins. Richard Dawkins is called today the great atheist of our day. And as I read what Dawkins was saying, he says things like, is there any observation that would cause you to change your mind about the existence of God? And he says ridiculous things like this. So far, no evidence has come forward to show that there is a God. So far, no evidence. The fact that he said that and had a mind that gave him the ability to say that or think it, was from God. It's like saying, prove to me there's air. Prove it. I won't believe it until I see it. The very air I'm bringing in to make those thoughts is giving me the life that I'm denying. He says these ridiculous things. He sets up what he calls science. And by the way, science, folks, is observable evidence that we form into theories. We see something happen over time, one time after another, one time after another. Hey, I'll make a theory on that. That every time I drop this Bible, it falls to the ground with a thud. I'll do it ten times in a row. My theory is that if I drop the Bible, every time it's going to fall to the ground with a thud. It's scientific, based upon evidence, what we see here. Now, what Dawkins has is so far from science, and he's appalled that we have not in this country, especially in Texas, where the interview is going on, that we have not come to the realization of what real science is. Now, science, speaking of science, you know, he uses microevolution versus macroevolution. This is all introduction. We will open with a prayer. Don't worry. I want you to set. I'm trying to set the stage to tell you why it's important that we know who Jesus really is. And he says, look, microevolution we know is happening all the time. But given millions and billions of years, those small changes become large changes. Well, you know, we know scientifically about microevolution. Let's just use antibiotics. You've heard your doctor say, well, I'll give you antibiotics for your your illness. But, you know, the bacteria in your body are fighting those things and they're overcoming the bacteria is overcoming your antibiotics. Right. You've heard this. That's evolution in action. It really is. But you know what amazing thing happens about that bacteria that overcomes the antibiotics? It remains bacteria. It doesn't become a bird. Those finches that Charles Darwin noticed in the Galapagos Islands, how their beaks changed with the weather. You know what amazing thing happened with those finches? They remain finches. That's science. Science is this is what we see. This is what we conclude. There is no fence that became a dinosaur. And the dinosaur scales are unable scientifically to become feathers as theorized. As Michael Behe says, it is absolutely impossible. And he uses his fancy word that I used to know about five minutes ago. It leads me now. It can't be that scientifically. So here's the thing, folks. Here's why I bring it up. It's in our Houston paper. People read this guy. They don't believe in God. Jesus has submitted himself in his life as God. It's important that we know it because people might read this article and say, now, this guy's smart. He's a biologist. He's a zoologist. He knows some things. Our pastor just went to seminary. What does he know? I know more than that guy because I can study scientific evidence just like you can and make solid scientific conclusions. Amen. I'm not smarter than you. I'm not smarter than him. But I'll tell you this. I believe what Jesus said in the same way, the same faith that makes me go out and say he's God is the same faith that he says that there is no God because he has no evidence for it sucking in the air. Breathing the air that God gives him, saying there is no God. Let's open with a prayer. Lord God, we pray to you because we believe you to be real. We go outside and we look at the things in the sky and the leaves and we look in our baby's eyes and we think there is a God. We see the sin in our life, and we see the peace that You have given us by granting us salvation in Christ. We see the historical events of our Lord dying on the cross and bleeding for us and coming out of the grave, and people saw Him. There's evidence. You've given it to us. You've shown us so much, Lord. I pray You would open our eyes even more. And for those who are so blinded, like Dr. Dawkins, Lord, I pray You would remove the blinders from that man and all those like him. who cannot, who will not see the truth. To do so would be a great cost to their reputation. Father, I pray that if you look at your Word today, that you would remind us who Jesus is, and may we offer you all the more praise for having been reminded of such. Lord, we thank you for the day. Thank you that you've given us this opportunity to worship you, to study, to sing, to partake of the Lord's Supper, to remember your death, and to look forward to your coming return. What a great day it is. We love you, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen. If you have your outline on your bulletin, in case you don't, I'm going to set this up. I think the whole thing is set up like a court case. And I want you to know in Roman Numeral 1, it's really more a review of what we've talked about the last two weeks, and that is, it's the case that Jesus presents. It's the case that Jesus presents. So in the fill-in-the-blank, it's the case. In chapter 5 and 17 and 18, Jesus, right prior to that, has just healed a man, and He did it on the Sabbath day. He could have done it on any day He chose, but He chose to do it on the Sabbath day because He wanted to make a point. The Jews hated anyone doing anything on the Sabbath, not because the Bible forbade it, Because they gave all these man-made rules that you can't do. Jesus came to break those. And to tell people what they ought to do on the Sabbath. It's a day for worship. And if you get healed, if you just so happen to be ill for 38 years and you can't walk, and some guy comes along and makes you, well, you can pick up your mat and go. It's actually legal to do that. The Jews didn't think so. They were unimpressed with the miracle. They were only angry that Jesus performed this miracle on the Sabbath. So Jesus says in chapter 5, 17 and 18, He said, I'm equal with my Father. I am equal in name. My name is the same as His. We looked at it last week. Yahweh. Jesus says, I am. That's God's name. Yahweh. God says in the Old Testament, there's me and there's no one else. I am the beginning and the end. I am the Alpha and the Omega. And then Jesus comes and He says, I'm the beginning and the end. I'm the Alpha and the Omega. We're one. I'm the same God that you Jews have been worshiping in the Old Testament. That's me. He's also equal in works in chapter 5, verses 16, and then 19 and 20. What God does, Jesus does. And what He says in these verses is that God ceased from work on the seventh day of creation. He worked the six days and then he ceased. I know we say it's rested, but the Hebrew word means ceased. Because when we think rest, we think God must have been tired. He put his godly easy chair back and he kicked his feet back and he said, I'm tired. I'm no more of this. All it means is that he ceased from work. It was all done. And yet God still upholds the universe, continues to work. Is he working in your life? He's working in my life. He has not ceased to work in my life. He has not ceased to make this day happen, to bring everything together the way it is. Everything, your divine appointment to be here, God caused to happen. He made it happen just the way He wanted it to. God continues to work. And Jesus said, as God works on the Sabbath, so do I. And he says that I do the same things he does. I don't just get up and go to worship, Jesus is saying. I can heal a man who's been an invalid for 38 years. I can heal any person I want, and I can do it on the Sabbath. Blind people, I can make them see on the Sabbath. What God does, I do. So He's equal in His name and in His works. He's also equal in His sovereignty and power. In chapter 5, verse 21, He says, Just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son of Man raises whomever He wishes. Whatever God does, that's what the Son does. In His sovereignty and power, I'm the same way. This is His case. Now in His case, every point He makes, He's angering them all the more. It's like you and I getting up and making a case before people that don't believe a single thing we say. Jesus is just laying it on thick. I want you to know the laying on thick, because if you ever get in a conversation with somebody like Richard Dawkins, or if you ever get in a conversation with a Mormon or Jehovah's Witnesses at your front door who tell you that Jesus isn't God, I want you to be able to say, let's just go through John 5 together, one verse at a time. They believe the Bible, unless they don't believe it, right? But isn't that the essence of liberalism? We'll take the Bible until such a time as it offends us. And then, because we don't like it, it must not be true, right? Right. Alright. Row D. He's equal in judgment. As God judges, Jesus says, I judge. What God says is right and wrong, that's what I say is right and wrong. This is His case. And finally, in verse 23, He says, I am equal in honor. Now, we covered this, so if you weren't here the last couple weeks, I'm not just flying through it. It's basically just the introduction. Jesus says, I am equal in honor. Everything that God is to be honored with and worshiped, me too. We've not gotten to the passage yet, obviously, because it's the end of John. But when Jesus has been raised from the dead and Thomas sees him, remember, Thomas doubted it at first. But when he sees him, he says, you are my Lord and my God. And Jesus doesn't do as the angel does who's speaking to the apostle John in Revelation and say, whoa, whoa, don't give me worship. I'm a fellow servant. Jesus takes it. And why wouldn't he? He's God. God accepts all worship insofar as it is true. And what we learn in chapter four is that God seeks those who worship him in spirit and truth. He seeks after us. I think he's seeking that from all of us today. He wants you to worship him the way he wants to be worshiped. He is equal to God in honor. And I use the example then, I want to use it when I preached it before, I want to use it again. How does God want to be worshipped? Well, you've got to read the Bible to see what He wants, versus giving Him what you think. Versus giving Him what you think. I use a birthday party as an example. Alright? If I want this, I tell my wife I want this, this, and this for my birthday, and she thinks she's going to get me this, this, and that, and it comes to my birthday, and I get this, this, and that, and I'm thinking, well, I want this, this, and this, How is that honoring to me? Dear, I said I wanted this. Why did you give me that? Well, the answers, if it did happen, would be, well, I wanted you to have that. I like that, but I like this, but I like that. OK, dear, as long as you're happy, right? It's my birthday. It's my special day. I should get what I want. And that's the best example I can give you as far as what God wants. We tend to come to churches today. And Pete, you know it. Maybe you're one of them. Maybe you're visiting today and you're judging it today based on this. Maybe the music didn't do it for you. Maybe you're thinking, you know, I didn't like those songs. They sang a hymn. Jesus paid it all. I know you sung that all your life. And that's all you think about that song. But to Tim, to myself, to think about the words to that song, that's got depth that modern music doesn't have. Jesus paid it all. A, it uses Jesus' name. B, it says He paid the whole thing. That means no works. I can have that sung in any works-related religion. And C, it's a God-glorifying song to name only three. But people will judge and they say, you know what? The song didn't do it for me. I don't want to go to church and they sing hymns. I want some heavy metal guitars. We want a drum kit. Let's amp this place up. Because that apparently is worship to some. Go home and ask yourself or just ask yourself right there. Is that what you want or is that what God wants? Who are we here to please? Are we here for God to give God what he wants or what we go home feeling good about? Did you want some good stories today? I've got none. All I can do is read this. It's a pretty good story, too. I'm right at. This is what we give here. This is what we serve. No excuses and absolutely no apologies. Here's what we have. We have God honoring, glorifying music and the Word of God. Meat and potatoes. You like meat and potatoes? Or you want a little cotton candy? None of that here. Except the eye candy that you see when you look at me, right? That really wasn't supposed to be funny. They were supposed to say, Amen. Stop it. Fifty year old guy. Equal in honor, the glory, the honor that we would give to God, give to Jesus. That's the case. Now, I would say if we were going to apply something to this, we would say we would make our own case. What kind of case can you make for you being a follower of this God? I said God, not guy, this God. What kind of a case can you make? Do you need to say, look, let me tell you, let me give you five reasons why I'm a Christian. And people are going, you know, I don't care what you say, what you do just mitigates against everything you say. What case can we make for being a Christian? What would what case would someone make for us being a Christian? That would be better put, wouldn't it? All right, let's put Robert aside. Robert, you just first eye contact. They got here. Let's put Robert over here and let's all talk about what ways we think Robert is a Christian. He gets no say. Let's just talk about Robert. Let's use Dave. Let's use JJ. Let's use Emily. Would any of us want to be there? Let's just put a chair right here. Evidence that this guy is. Jesus has just given evidence. A case. Now in Roman numeral 2, in our passage, he's going to present witnesses. Look at verse 30. He's going to give the witnesses. He tells the Jews, he said, I can do nothing on my own initiative as I hear I judge and my judgment is just because I do not seek my own will, but the will of him who sent me. He's telling them, look, I'm not here to speak for myself. I have been sent by God the father. I'm here to tell you what he has said. Jesus could act outside of what God the father said, but he acts in accordance with God. I could stand up here as a preacher. I could tell you anything I want to tell you. I have a commitment here to tell you just what God has said and be a Bible teacher and tell you what this says. It's really all you're here for. If I changed, we could build a much bigger church, right? You know that. I mean, I could work on my backflip and I could just start some really neat stories and sayings. We could clear you folks out and start over. We really build a mega church, right? You give the people what they want. And what do they do? They show up. Let's make it entertaining. Jesus is saying, I'm not going to work on my own. I am working in conjunction with God. And that's whom I hear. As I hear, I judge. And my judgment is just. This is a very arrogant statement. No doubt the Jews would hear Him saying, you are so arrogant talking like this. My judgment is just. What if I told you that? What if I said, look, I'm making some policy at the church, and what I say goes. And I know I'm right. What would you say? OK. You're thinking what you might say. It would be arrogant, would it not? Jesus says, because of where I come from, my judgment's just. I do not seek my own will, but the will of whom who sent me. He says in verse 31, which, by the way, if you write in your Bible, There's a contradiction in verse 31 if you put John 8.14. So let's read verse 31 and flip over to John 8.14. Jesus says, If I alone testify about myself, my testimony is not true. Flip over to the right, chapter 8, verse 14. Jesus answered and said to them, Even if I testify about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from. Over in chapter 5, he says, if I alone testify it's not true. In chapter 8, he says it is true. He's a little confused, isn't he? He's a little confused. All he's doing in verse 31 is he's been put on trial. He's quoting passages. He's quoting Deuteronomy 19.15, which says one man's testimony is not enough. In a court scene, he's saying he's only agreeing with their law. That's all he's doing. But Deuteronomy 19.15, I've decided. He's agreeing with their law. Yes. If I alone testify by myself, my testimony is not true. I've said all these things. And if I just said of my own by myself, yes, by our law, it's not true in chapter eight. He's just saying, but even if I did, it still is true. Right. It's like we go into trial. Let's assume I have been convicted or suspected of murder. I've been put in jail and then I go to the witness stand. Did you murder that person? No. All right. That's good enough for me. Let him go. My testimony is not enough to exonerate myself, right? Right? Nor yours. No, I didn't do it. Wouldn't that be great? Trial system would be gone. Okay, His Word said it. He said it's good enough for me. It's like when Hillary Clinton said a few things one time. She denied everything she had done. She was accused of it. I think it was Oprah Winfrey. She said she didn't do it, but I believe her. Of course she did. That's all Jesus is saying. I can't testify on my own. So He's going to bring forth the witnesses. Verse 32, there is another who testifies of me, and I know that the testimony which he gives about me is true. And I want you to note there, he's talking about God the Father. If we didn't have that passage, if we didn't know that for sure from the other passages that follow, we could say, alright, we know he's talking about John, he's talking about some other things. But we're going to come back to that. He's saying there's another who testifies about me, and I know his testimony is true, which he gives about me. Verse 33, you have sent to John. And he has testified to the truth. I want you to put right outside your Bible there, 1.19. Because in chapter 1, verse 19, remember the Jewish delegation went to John and they said, Are you the Christ? No. Are you Elijah? No. Are you the prophet? No. John said no on all of them. And that's what he's saying. You have sent to John. You went and asked John who he was, and he has testified to the truth. The truth was, I'm not any of those. That's what John said. Jesus says in verse 34, but the testimony which I receive is not for men. OK, so he's just saying you sent to John. John did point to me, but I don't need the testimony of man back in verse 32. It's the another who testifies about me, the father, God, the father. And Jesus says, I know his testimony is true. Verse 34 again. But the testimony which I receive is not for men. But I say these things that you may be saved. You see, John's testimony wasn't for salvation. John's testimony was that's the Christ over there. Remember, he's the voice of the one crying out in the wilderness. And he's running ahead of Jesus, running ahead of the entourage, as it were, and he's saying, the Messiah is coming after me. Everyone take note. I'm not him, but he's right behind me. Watch him. Talk to him. Follow him. And when you get to him, Jesus is saying, I'm going to tell you how to be saved. John is only saying that's the guy to look for pointing to Jesus. But I say these things that you may be saved. Verse thirty five. Speaking of John the Baptist, Jesus saying in verse thirty five, he was the lamp that was burning and shining. And you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. I like what he says about John, a lamp. burning, shining. What does a lamp do? Well, if we turn the lights out in this room, because there's no outside windows, the room is dark. I have come down from the stage before in the dark during the week, trying to find something to figure out, and I will stumble through. If there's microphones and there's chords, it's difficult to see. And when the lights come on, boom, you see everything, right? It's a very simple illustration. But when the lights come on, everything is clear. Now I get it. I see. Now I know where I need to step. John was that. See, they were in the dark. And John came to shine the lamp. Here's the lamp, flashlight moving around, shining on Jesus. He's the one. Follow Him. He was a lamp. Burning shining and I like the word he uses you are willing to rejoice for other word for rejoice is not just happiness It's a very emphatic word. That means really really really happy to put it in English So apparently while John the Baptist was around there was a great celebration that the herald to the Christ was here more so than we're given in Scripture if we just use the word and The word signifies that people were rejoicing. Yes, the forerunner is here. The Christ is right behind him. They just didn't like the Christ, did they? So they didn't like John. If you think that Jesus wasn't the Christ, now you need to persecute John because he was pointing to the wrong guy. But they did rejoice for a while in his life. This is one of Jesus' witnesses. I've got another that testifies about me. In fact, John the Baptist pointed to me. Verse 36. But the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony of John." That's why we know verse 32 is not speaking of John. The testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works which the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I do testify about me that the Father has sent me. John pointed to me, but the works that I have. The miracles that I've done, these point to me. Now, up to this point in John, he hasn't done nearly as many as he's going to do later, but apparently what he's done has been pretty amazing. Any of you here ever seen a person who's been sick for 38 years crawling around? Someone comes up and says, take your mat and go home? And he did. I mean, that in itself, just isolate that one, that's pretty amazing. Add to that what we've seen prior to that. You go back in your Bible, you think, wait a minute, where's he done some works? Chapter 2, he turned water to wine. Anyone ever seen that happen? You think, I could do that. Could you do it like that? Remember, they went out to get the water in the water pots, and by the time they brought the water pots back to the wedding, the wedding's still going on, so we know it wasn't a long time, it had become wine. I'm sorry, but that doesn't happen without a miracle. That is inexplicable. It cannot be explained. That's why it's a miracle. And the people noticed it. And he goes into the temple in chapter 2, and he clears out the temple, and the Jews are asking for signs. And by the time you get to chapter 3, Nicodemus comes up to Jesus and he says, no one can do these works that you're doing unless God is with him. So he had done some that are not specified. And even this teacher of the law, Nicodemus is going, this is magnificent. There's something different about you. We know at the end of chapter 2, it says, verse 23, while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast during the feast, many believed in his name, observing the signs he was doing. They believed in him because of the signs. So this is why Jesus is saying here in chapter 5, not only did John the Baptist point to me, and his own birth and life has been miraculous, he pointed to me as the Messiah. Now look at the works that I've done. I can make lame people walk. We know from the Synoptic Gospels, He had forgiven sins. He's healing the blind. The Old Testament prophecy says when you see a guy, Isaiah 35, 4, 5, and 6, when you see a guy making the lame walk in the blind see, that's the Messiah. What has Jesus done? What more does He need to do? It's like Richard Dawkins. What else do we need to show you, bud, that shows you that there is a God? We read historical evidence of people who saw the Christ, He was dead. We saw the guy that rammed the sword up into His side and blood came down. We heard Him breathe His last. We saw Him go into the tomb. We saw the two-ton rock put in front of it. He came out running around telling everybody He's alive. What more do you want? No, I need some solid evidence of God. I mean, just look at the creation, folks. How did this get here? another blast against the ridiculous notion of the world evolving out of nothing, is that how did everything once be nothing? What does nothing become when nothing comes together? Nothing. There's no elements there for it to be anything. How did it get here? How did that which was so random, if in fact it did happen, become so ordered in this universe? How? Randomness, explosion, so ordered. The human body, the human eye, the eardrum, communication, language, my big toe. It keeps me standing up here. Without the big toe, I'm falling. Right? I don't know where that example came from. It just came to me, though. Total randomness becoming perfect order. There's something to that. What made it? Who made it? What more evidence do we need? So Jesus has got a guy pointing to Him as the Messiah. He's got the works He's done. Verse 37, He says, "...and the Father who sent Me, He has testified of Me." Past tense. I think what He's saying is not only in the creation, as the creation is telling us, but really what we see in Matthew, Mark and Luke is that when Jesus was baptized, you remember the voice, that was heard from heaven. It was a phenomenon of the day. They didn't have loudspeakers back then. No one spoke into a cordless microphone and said, this is my son, in whom I am well pleased. Today we hear that and we go, hey, who's got the mic on? Who's showboating? Back then, there were no loud voices other than the loudness of a teacher's voice. Now all of a sudden you hear a voice from heaven. After this guy is baptized, after John the Baptist has brought him under the water, and you hear this voice from heaven, this is my son. This is the testimony of God. Jesus is saying, you remember the voice you heard? It was pointing to me. John the Baptist was pointing to me. Not only that, John the Baptist's followers followed Jesus. And they became numerous. This is evidence. This is Jesus' case. He's giving us witnesses. Again, verse 37, the Father who sent me, he has testified of me. You have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his form, which is interesting. Last week we connected that with verse 24, where he said, Truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and he does not come into judgment, but is passed out of death into life. Now he's saying in verse 37, you haven't heard his voice. So Jesus is saying, I speak the father's voice and he's communicating with them. They hear him because they're arguing back with him. And then yet he says, but you don't hear me. You ever told your children that? Or if you're a teacher, you see that your kid's in the class and you're telling him something and you're going, you hear me, but you're not getting it, right? The lights are on, but nobody's home. That's really what Jesus is saying. The lights are on with you, but no one's home. Yes, you can hear my audible voice, but you haven't even heard his voice at any time, nor have you seen his form. To which they might have said, well, no one has seen his form. But they wouldn't say that. The Old Testament has a handful of people who saw a form of God. You can list Adam. Adam saw him. Talk to him. Moses. Noah. Who else? Samuel. Samuel did. Back up. No, I don't think David did. Did he? Elijah saw him. They saw forms of God. They saw the angel of the Lord. Jesus is saying, you have nothing to do with that. You have not seen Him. Your people have, but you haven't seen Him, nor have you heard His voice. You are spiritually dead, is what He's telling them. And we talk to people like that all the time. As Christians, you share the gospel with them, the lights are on, nobody's home. They're hearing your voice, and they're just waiting for you to finish. Maybe like some of you are today. When will they finish? When will they finish, right? That can go on. I've done that with me. Verse 38, you do not have his word. By the way, the Greek word, there's Lagos, that's who Jesus is. He is the Lagos. You don't have his word abiding in you, which means living, for you do not believe him whom he sent. Notice that. You do not have his word in you because you do not believe him whom he sent. How many of you have ever read any of the works of Saint Anselm? Saint Anselm. Alright, good. I can tell you anything and you'll have to believe me. Saint Anselm was a wonderful man. One of the first apologists, or at least an apologist in church history. And he said this. He said, I believe in Jesus so that I might understand. I believe so that I might understand. The other philosophers of the day are going, we're trying to understand so that we can believe. That doesn't sound so off-kilter, does it? We need to understand and then we'll believe in Jesus. Anselm said, no. I believe so that I might understand. And that is exactly what Jesus is saying. He's saying, you do not have His Word or Me abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He sent. You can't have God abiding in you because you don't believe His Son. Can you believe in God and not believe in Jesus? You can believe in a God, but you're not believing in the God. Because apart from Jesus, there is no God. There is no God apart from Jesus. That's why you can't have a conversation about God without the mention of Jesus, without not just the mentioning, but the discussion of Him. So he's saying here, the testimony of John the Baptist, the testimony of my works, my miracles, And in verse 39, you search the Scriptures because you think in them you have eternal life. For it is these that testify about me. Now you've got the Scriptures. He's talking about the Old Testament. The Old Testament, which reminds me of a passage in Luke chapter 16. Luke chapter 16 speaks of the two people that died. One guy's name is Lazarus. The other one's just called a rich man. Lazarus is a man who died. He loved the Lord because when he died, he goes into paradise at Abraham's side. And the rich guy goes into Hades, and he's real hot in Hades. And by the way, Hades is only the holding place for which you will most certainly be dumped into the lake of fire. So if it's hot in Hades, I'm guessing it's a little hot in the lake of fire. There's no way to get out. It's no purgatory. You can't be prayed out of there. You're there. The rich guy looks over at the chasm and sees Lazarus, this guy that used to sit at the foot of his table, eating the crumbs off of his table. And he says, Abraham, Father Abraham, please send Lazarus down here to touch my tongue with some water. It's hot. Can't do it, Abraham says. He says, well, at least send him back from the dead to tell my dad and my brothers, because I don't want them coming to this hot place where I am. And Abraham said something profound. I mean, he always did. He said, no, they have Moses and the prophets. Even if somebody came back from the dead, that's not going to trump that one. They have Moses and the prophets. Even if I sent someone back from the dead, they still won't believe. Do you see the importance of Moses' Old Testament? You think, wait a minute, did Moses teach salvation in Christ? No, here's what Moses did. Moses did this. Thou shalt not. Don't do this. Love the Lord your God with everything you have. Don't put anyone in front of Him or anything. Don't steal. Don't kill. Don't covet. Now, as Dr. Phil says, how's that working out for you? Let's just take the first one. No other gods before me. How are you doing on that one? You all stink at it, just like I do. Because your God that you have put before God is... you can throw in the blank, but the first one on your list is you. You. You put you before God all the time, because I do. I'm not saying you do because I do. I just know people. So we don't even need to go to the other nine. But if we go to number ten, let's just go one to ten. Thou shalt not covet. How's that working out for you? You see things you want, that you've got to have, that you're compelled. You go to bed at night, I've got to have that. The next day, I've got to have that. You think about these things. You look at the Best Buy thing in the Sunday paper. Ooh, I need that. We need that. We've got to get that. Coveting! Things that compel you to want things that aren't going to make you happy. Because once you get them, did you get happy? How's that 50 inch HD screen working out for you? Now that they have 3D. I've got to have the 3D. That'll make me really happy. Apparently, I'm only just happy. I need to be really happy. Moses tells us what not to do. And in doing so, he is pointing to the Christ. He is telling us, you can't please God. The Pharisees had found all kinds of loopholes for all these laws to make them doable, but they're not doable. You are listening to a murderer. I'm a murderer. I have killed people. I have fantasized in my mind about killing people. I've figured out ways to do it. I've watched enough movies and seen enough ways that people fail that I think I have a good way to do it and not get caught. I've seen the Michael Douglas movie, The Perfect Murder, and I know where he messed up. Now, I tell you that as a confession. That's my sick mind. I have thought of those things. I am equally an adulterer. You're listening to an adulterer. I'm a Jimmy Carter adulterer. I've done that in my mind. I am a covetor. I am a liar. I'm all those things. And I am my own God. All those things, that's me. Moses tells me, you're in bad shape, pal. I look at the Old Testament and I'm thinking, there's got to be something. Moses must be pointing to something, and he is. He's pointing to Jesus. Salvation is in Him. All the things you can't do, He did. All the things you can't do, He did. And if you will accept Him by faith, you have everything He has. Paul says in Romans 8, we are now co-heirs with Jesus. He did everything. And he says, come sit with me. Come sit right next to me. I'll give it all to you. I did it. I did it for you. And people have the gall to use His name in a curse word. Ignore Him. call themselves good. Jesus is saying, you study the Scriptures all the time. As a matter of fact, it could be read as an imperative. Go study the Scriptures! You'll find out. Verse 44, how can you believe when you receive glory from one another? You do not seek the glory that is upon the one and only God. Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father. The one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. That would have been the ultimate. We love Moses. We revere Moses. And Jesus is saying, and yet he stands pointing his bony finger at you, saying that you are sinners going to hell because you cannot attain to the law. I came here to free you from that and you're denying me. Verse 46, for if you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. You might put in your Bible Deuteronomy 18, 15. He's pointing to the prophet who would come. Moses said all that he did because God told him to say it, to point to the fact that you are a sinner. Why do I tell you you're a sinner? Every week because you are, number one. And number two, you might go away thinking that you're pretty good and you're not. You're still a sinner. But you're saved by grace. I don't want to camp out today on us being horrible sinners. Let's just camp out on being saved by grace. Sinners saved by grace. When you've been forgiven from so much, what else are you going to do except offer praise and worship to God? And when you're not offering praise and worship to God, you're not giving of yourself your entire life, you've forgotten what Christ did. So we need a reminder. Verse 47, but if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words? In other words, you didn't pass the sixth grade. How are you going to handle calculus as a junior in high school? How can you handle basic fundamentals of math when you couldn't get beyond the first grade? How can you do this? How can you understand what it means to be saved unless you know you're a sinner? That's what he's saying. Moses said, you're a sinner. That's why we say it. That's why we use the word saved. To be saved means I must be in trouble from something. Here's what you're in trouble from. You're a wretched sinner. Every inclination we have is wicked and evil. But Jesus came and he didn't have that. He's from God. And he came to do what we couldn't do for wretched, sinning, wicked, evil people. I don't get that, but I'll take it. And then He dies for us, of all things. He gives everything. He doesn't give money. He wasn't a wealthy man. He just died. I'll give my life. I'll get brutally beaten beforehand, and I'll pour out my blood, and I'll say, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing before I die. And I'll say, paid in full. Jesus paid it all. And for anyone who chooses to receive me, co-heirs with me. I know what you've done, but I'm going to put you right here with me. What's the verdict? Two verdicts. Roman numeral four. Actually, the obstacles is number three. The obstacles for those was they were unwilling to believe on their worldview. They wanted their own glory. Richard Dawkins. You know why Richard Dawkins will not come to Christ? Because he is the foremost worldwide atheist. Who wants to lose that title? Being called foremost in anything is pretty much an honor. Number two, you're going to lose all your funding and everything you've written. Now you're saying is a lie. That's too much at stake for Richard Dawkins. He wants the glory he receives from being called the top-notch atheist. And the hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant money that he's able to go around telling people, to his credit, he says this, there's probably no God. And if you know who I'm talking about, you've heard him say this. He doesn't come out and say there is no God. He says, there probably isn't a God. Do you see how certain he is? Why is he so angry about going around telling people that there isn't something that's there? It's not there. Folks, I'm going to go on a crusade. Right here, right in between these chairs here in the front and beyond that little podium, there's nothing there. Just elevate from the white line. There's nothing there. I'm going to make it my life's goal to convince you there's nothing there. That's what he's doing. Because in his mind, God probably doesn't exist. I heard Matt Chandler recently, buy in and out, listen to him. Hilarious thing. He said, I don't get atheists. He said, they go around trying to convince everybody angrily that there is no God. He said, I don't believe in unicorns, but I'm not out there telling everybody there ain't no unicorns. I haven't sold my life to saying there's no unicorns. No, those are the obstacles. So our own case is who are we? And what are the evidences for our faith? Jesus gives the case of who he is. He tells the witnesses. What are our witnesses? Who would say what about me? The obstacles and the verdicts from 524 and 529, we looked at it last week, either belief and resurrection into eternal life. Those who believe in me are resurrected to eternal life. Those who don't are not. Oh, let me change that. Those who don't believe in Jesus are also resurrected into eternal life, aren't they? They are resurrected into eternal life. It's just not a very nice place to have to go to. It's two places we can go. It's one God we can believe in. It's quite simple. We are going to partake of the Lord's Supper today. We call the Lord's Supper the communion. Why do we do this? Why would we partake of the Lord's Supper? Here's the reason Jesus told us to do it. He first of all said, I am the Lord and God. You believe in me, though you're dead, you have life. Though you will die, you'll have life. On the last night before he was killed, knew he was going to die the next day, he had a meal with his disciples. He held up the bread and the wine, and he said, this is my blood, this is my body. Drink it in remembrance of me. And when I come back, we're going to have a really big meal together. And until I do come back, I want you to partake of this sacrament, to remember the meal we're going to have when I come back home. When I come back to take you with me, This is just a foretaste of what we're going to do. I think that's beautiful because I love to eat. I love to eat with people I love. Don't you? You know, someone invites you out to dinner and they say, we're going to we're going to get together with so-and-so is going to be there. Let's do a Saturday night or we're going to do it, you know, December whenever. Let's get together. I'm going to meet here. This is the food we're going to have. You will look forward to that. It's on your calendar. Somebody says, hey, let's go do something. Nope, I got an appointment. I'm going to go out and do this. And you look forward to it. And you get there and you sit around the table and you enjoy the company of the people you love. Notice I'm not saying family, because that's not always the people you enjoy. Because we're getting to that time of year where you start to dread, who do I have to have dinner with this year? It's the people we love. And Jesus is going to be there. You're looking forward to that. That's a meal worth looking forward to. Revelation 19 tells us about what it's going to be like. So if you would, the deacons and elders who are going to pass out the elements, take your places. This is a wonderful time of celebration and worship. And I ask that you take it seriously. Some of you have never been here before. Or you've never partaken of the Lord's Supper with us. Let me tell you, here's what it means here. I've told you what it means. You don't have to be a member of our church. You don't have to have been baptized in our church. If you believe yourself to be a believer in our Lord Jesus Christ, and I don't just mean that you know He exists and He died. That's not a Christian. Your faith has not excelled beyond Satan's at that point. But if you trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Savior of your life, you're welcome. We want you to partake with us. If you are sitting back in your chair and you are fuming mad at somebody, if there is anger and bitterness and hatred in your heart and unforgiveness, get it right. Because there's no point in you looking forward to the return of Christ. It's not going to be a good day for you. Deal with it now where you sit. Another thing is this. Some of you think, well, I can do it. I think I'm a pretty good person. I'll just take the cup and the juice. There's got to be something spiritual about that. It can't hurt me. It can. It can. This is not about salvation. It's not about what this bread... It's a really stale piece of bread in a very small cup of juice. It does nothing for you spiritually in and of itself. I encourage you, if you don't know Christ, don't partake of it. You're better off not. This is a reminder of the death of Jesus that bought us life and looking forward to His future coming. If you believe that, partake with us. Worship with us. And while the elements are passed out and the music is played, get right with God. You can do it. You can do it in the few moments it takes to pass out the elements. He's that local of a phone call. Make it. Let's pray. Lord God, I pray that you be with us as we partake of this. I pray that you would stir in our souls, convict us where we must be convicted and be honored by what we're remembering here today. We ask in Jesus name. Amen.