I'm going to read the rest of that chapter, and then we will pray and go forward. This morning's title is The Witnesses to Truth. The Witnesses to Truth. If you're joining us live stream on Sermon Audio, we are in John chapter five, and we're going to be looking at 30 through the end of the chapter, and we're looking at, just going to start reading where we left off at 30. John chapter 5, verse 40 it is, I'm sorry, verse 40. And you will not come to me that you might have life. I receive not honor from men, but I know you that you have not the love of God in you. I am come in my father's name and you receive me not. If another shall come in his own name, you will receive, him you will receive. How can ye believe which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only? Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me, for he wrote of me. But if you believe not his writings, how shall you believe my words? And we'll raise a blessing to the renewing of his word. Let's pause a moment for prayer. Dear Lord, I readily admit I am nothing. I need your help today. Please strengthen me. Give me words, wisdom. May I say nothing amiss. Be with those teaching downstairs. Thank you that we have a visitor today. Thank you for all the children we have downstairs with the Junior and Beginner Church. Thank you for the faithful workers. I pray that you just bless our time together as we look into your word. The most important part of any message is the understanding and hearing of your word. May it find lodging in our hearts, and as we think about the witnesses to Christ's deity, may we again be reminded that the Bible is so abundantly clear that you are God of very God, and we are worshiping you, Jesus, today. And so, Lord, forgive me of sin, empty me of self, I pray, and fill me with your spirit in the next moments to follow. In Jesus' name, I pray these things. Amen. The witnesses to truth. How can you know for sure that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? And that may be a question I might ask you even this week. The songwriter said, I think it was Ackerman, said, you ask me how I know he lives. He lives within my heart." Okay, that's pretty subjective. A Buddhist might say to you tomorrow on the street, he might say, well I believe Buddha lives in my heart. How can you verify such a thing? A critic might say that Jesus was simply a legend or a myth and that his disciples after he died made up all these rumors and untruth accusations that he somehow rose from the dead. Perhaps he was just a great religious teacher who was tragically murdered. How can you even say that he was God, a very God. Well, today we're gonna look at the witnesses, if you would. If you've ever sat in a jury or watched one on the courtroom drama, followed by trial, you know that multiple witnesses, a reputable character, who all say the same thing independently is a great help for your case. I think in a recent case in Wisconsin, there were two key witnesses who agreed together that the young man was not acting inappropriately, et cetera, was defending himself, and so, et cetera, you know about that. A witness is not free, though, to make up his own story. He who must report the facts as he saw them. If the witnesses are credible people who give consistent witness, the case has a pretty good, secure standing. In some cultures, it's interesting, in biblical cultures, I believe there were times if you gave a false witness, and they found out about it, you received the punishment that was to go to the defendant. And so pretty much everybody's wanting to say the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. There was a big city lawyer who was called in to adjudicate a case between a farmer and a large railroad company. The farmer noticed that his prized cow's best prized cow, Bessie, was missing from the field, and so he filed a suit against the railroad, assuming that they had hit the cow, Bessie, and she was no more. The case came to be tried in the Justice of the Peace in the back of a country store there. The attorney, however, immediately cornered the farmer on that day of the trial and tried to get him to settle out of court. The lawyer did his best-selling job, and the farmer finally agreed to take half of what he was going to normally get to settle the count. After the farmer signed the check and took the release form, The young lawyer couldn't help himself, but he said, you know what, sir? He said, you know, I hate to tell you this, but I put one over on you just now. I couldn't have won the case because the engineer was asleep and the fireman was in the caboose. When the train went through your farm yesterday morning or the day before, and I didn't have one witness to put on trial, so I would have lost. The farmer said, well, young fellow, I'm going to tell you what, you know, I was a little bit worried about my winning, too, because you see, yesterday morning, Bessie came home. We need to have a witness that is truthful. adequate testimony. Four things, four S's. The witness, first of all, of the servant. Back in our text in 5.31, the witness of the servant. And we see the Lord in 31.32. If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. There's another that beareth witness of me, and I know of the truth of the witness, which he witness of me is true. 31 is best seen also entitled with 30. Verse 30 says, I could of mine own self do nothing, as I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which has sent me. If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. If I bear witness on my own, apart from what the Father has said about me, then that witness is not true. Somehow the word true there means valid. Now we also might say something also he was referring to the Jewish Need of more than one witness and by the way, you cannot witness for yourself. You cannot notarize your own signature I can't even notarize my wife's signature. She can't notarize mine. There was more need of more than one witness I like the how Arthur Pink gets us back around to the right word The right thinking, the word of a mere man does need confirmation, but not so that of God the Son. To affirm or suggest that his witness must be ratified by the testimony of others so as to make it believable is dishonoring the Christ. What he was saying here is, I'm not doing anything. By myself, my witness is not true because he'd be apart from the Father. He and the Father were seamlessly together in everything. He was submissive to the Father's will. The word there for bear witness in 31 means to give a personal eyewitness account of a certain matter. And the word for another in 32, there is another, that is the Greek word allos, indicating another of the same kind. You remember in Galatians, we've been talking about another of a different kind, heteros. No, this is another of the exact same kind in this case. God the Father bearing witness of the Son. The Lord says if he were simply testifying of himself, his testimony would be invalid in the Jewish court of law, or, I believe most importantly, if it was acted independently of his father. So when he says, I know that the witness he witnesses of me is true, he used the word oida in the Greek, which means absolute knowledge, spoken of, distinguished from the experiential gnosco, learned by example or learned by doing experience. A man's self-testimony depends heavily on his character. If a man is known for lying and manipulating the facts to serve himself, you're not going to believe a lot about what he has to say. I have before me, which I get almost every week, I get a fact something like this that we printed out in big paper at work. It's from a law firm in Canada. He says, identifies himself, I'm a partner of the first street law firm in Canada. It may surprise you to receive this letter from me since there's been no previous correspondence between us. There is an unclaimed permanent life insurance policy held by our deceased client. The transaction pertains to an unclaimed payable on death savings monetary deposit in the sum of $13,030,000 into the reputable bank. And it gives the policyholder's name. And there's a guy that has worked at our office a long time ago who had the same name. So can you partner with me? And we'll get the money. 10%, I'm giving to charity. And we'll split the other 90% between us. I'm telling you, I'm not calling this guy. Because you know what? My wife's boss also got one, and probably your boss got one. And we're going to believe this guy? I don't think so. Don't think so. So if you're going to be a witness, you need to be one of validity, one of truthfulness. But everything we know about Jesus, by the way, he's a man of integrity. Everything he said, he was right every time, truthful every time. So when he says something, you can actually take that to the bank, because it is true. It is true. His trial, the Jewish authorities couldn't even find real witnesses to agree, so they had to hire some false witnesses to convict him, to even send him to the cross, or send him to Pilate, or send him to Herod, et cetera. The men who were closest to Jesus watched his life and testimony. And after he was raised and the Holy Spirit came on them, all of them, with exception probably of John the Apostle, were martyred for the cause of Christ. I tell you, they believed. They believed. They believed. Pilate even, taught him in Sunday school, Pilate even said, I find no fault in him at all. Pilate, down deep, did not want to kill him, but he would rather have his position than have the Lord. I wonder how many have sold themselves out in America, across the world, for a position or for money, rather than the Lord having the Lord. So that the witness of the servant, there is the Lord, and then there is the light. In verse 33, it says, you sent unto John, and he bear witness unto the truth. And I receive not testimony from man, but these things I say, that ye might be saved. He was a burning and a shining light, and you were willing for a season to rejoice in that light. Now, John the Baptist's impact on the nation was quite renowned, we know that, tremendous. Everyone had heard of John the Baptist. The message was clear, repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And the baptism was one of repentance. Baptism did not save them, but it showed they were repentant of their sin. There's no mere rhetoric when he said, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. John was spot on, we call it today. He was exactly right. That's who the Christ was and is. Both of the nation actually acknowledged that John was a prophet. There was no more could be said about that, but either John was deluded and deceived, or he was divinely inspired, even the Jewish authorities would not challenge the prophet stance or position of John. John's witness should have been convincing. It says there, but I received not testimony from man, but these things I say that ye might be saved. The testimony of the Baptist was adequate for them, but the Lord himself had testimony from a much higher source than it would derive from the prophet. Receive there means to lay hold of, to grasp at. Salvation comes by believing the witness of the scriptures. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. You hear the word of God given, you say, yes, I believe that, and I respond. There's so many that have heard with the ear, but it's not touched their heart. There's that tract that says, missing heaven by 18 inches from the head to the heart. They believe there's a God somewhere, but they've not received him for themselves. says that he was a burning light. Now that John was a lamp, one indeed for which while the people were happy for a time to have him, and they followed John, his lamp was extinguished by Herod Antipas. Unlike Jesus, who was the light, the fos, the essence of light, John was a luknos, a portable oil lamp, if you would. But he was shining brightly. I asked in Sunday school, I said, are you going to be a witness tomorrow or whenever? Are we witnesses? Yes, and it's either a good one or a bad one. But one way or the other, you're going to be a witness. I was telling how when I went interviewed for the company I'm working for, and the men treat me very nice where I am, I did not hear one negative, one cuss word the whole time I was interviewing. The boss was with me, the owner. So we were walking through, meeting everybody, not one. But it's the first day on the job, I learned they probably held their tongues because the boss was there, owner was there. And so, but now they apologize. And when they use it, use like, I'm so tired, Pastor Tim, I didn't, Tim, I wasn't gonna use it around, et cetera. What if I started using the same language that they were using, are using? I would lose all credibility, would I not? Yes. I would lose my testimony, yes. So I am a testimony one way or the other, whether you want to be a Pastor Tim, I think I'm going to live my life and just be undercover, an undercover, a secret service Christian, and no one will know, and I'll live like, I'll fit in with everybody else, but underneath, that's not how it works, really. I guess maybe you can try that. But I never saw why God has a secret service. I don't see that. What about Joseph of Arimathea? Yes, but the word there really wasn't like scared. He was waiting his time. Joseph was. Henry Morris says he's likely standing in his own tomb, looking at Calvary, waiting for Jesus to die to go to Pilate. And when he begged Pilate, begged the body of Christ from Pilate, he crossed the line. He should take his stand. I'm taking my stand with Jesus. And when Nicodemus came and helped him, Nicodemus crossed the line. And what'd they give up? Everything. They gave up likely everything, the council, the social status, all these things to do that, to be a Christian. There is the part where Jesus said, take up your cross and follow me. It's not just, oh, I think I'm going to jump into the boat with everybody else and have, oh, we're a Christian. I want to see it in your life, and you want to see it in mine. It's more to it than simply some kind of verbal acclamation. It's a life surrendered to God. He is Lord of all, or not Lord at all, someone has said. He is to be your Lord and master. The joy of the Jews and John was a promise. And for a time, they liked him. But after a time, they did not like him so much anymore. For they had anticipated a militant Messiah, did not receive Jesus. They were looking for someone, not someone like Jesus, whose miracles they discounted, whose message they disbelieved, whose ministry they denied, and whose method they despised, says John Phillips. They're looking for something else other than Jesus. Surely he can't be the anointed one, because he's not going to overthrow Rome. In 35, Jesus reminded them of one specific time, this season. They generally rejoiced in John's lukenos, his lamp for a time. Season simply means an hour or one twelfth part of the day. They rejoiced in John's light, but the difference of real believers and professors, false professors, is not how they began, but how they end. Matthew 10, 22, and ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake, but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. I'm not saying that If you endure, you're going to be saved. You are saved. You will endure to the end. It's not saying you're only going to be saved if you endure. No. What it's saying is I am a child of God, and so I'm going to get home before dark. I'm going to endure to the end. The witness of the servant. And then at 36, there's the witness of the Savior. Look at his works in 36. But I have greater witness than that of John for the works which the Father has given me to finish. The same works that I do bear witness of me. And marvelous works. I like the 19th century J.C. Ryle, a wonderful commentator on many things. The five distinctive features of Jesus' miracle. Consider this just for a moment. Compare that with the miracles of today. Listen to this little podcast thing. Oh, this one picture says, oh, I tell you what, we've had 34 resurrections in the last few years, and they're better off where they just recently died. They're a lot easier to raise and have been dead for a while. Well, if you can raise one, you should be able to raise them, period, right? Really? Think about Christ's miracles, the number, not just a few, but many, many, many. I tell you, if all that Christ did, John said, the books could not contain what Christ did while he was on earth. And the greatness is not just little things, but as Mr. Womack likes to say, he interfered with ordinary course of nature. God interfered in things. Praise the Lord, he did. The publicity that was not done in a corner, you could have videoed it. The same thing, oh, surely he's being fake. Have you seen the fake videos of people being raised in the dead? Oh, and they are fake. Most likely they are. No, the one I watched was certainly fake. The publicity. Generally, everybody needs to know, and we just want to hide it for just a few. No, everybody knows. And then how about the direct appeal to man's senses? They were visible. They could bear scrutiny. Well, now, I was really dead. What? Were you really lame? I was lame for 38 years. I had an issue of blood for 18 years and it healed me. I'm not sick a moment after that. Yes, true, yes, I saw it. The blind man, yes. I was blind, but now I see. Can't wait to get to that John 9. What a wonderful response that blind man gives to the Pharisees. That was the witness of the Savior, the works, and how about his word? That the Father has sent me, and the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was sent for us. Either he has no credibility at all, or he is God, a very God. The witness of the Savior, the witness of the servant. How about the witness of the sovereign in 37? The witness of the sovereign. In our text it says here, and the Father himself, which has sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape, and ye have not his word abiding in you, for whom he has sent him ye believe not. This puts to rest the idea that somehow, somehow, that we can love God and not acclaim Jesus for who he is. If you do not claim Jesus as the Son of God, you cannot be saved. They work together. The Father and the Son, they are seamlessly working together. You cannot promote God and ignore Jesus. Matter of fact, God said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And he spoke clearly. Clearly, he was testifying to the Son that's born witness of me. There's the father, and then 38, there's the failure. And you have not his word abiding in you. The failure of the religious leaders, they had this choice to believe not was their choice. You have the same choice. You can either believe, and by the way, we have an abundance of evidence more Then they of the disciples, now they had the Septuagint of the Old Testament Scriptures, but they didn't have all the writings, obviously, that we have today. We have all these things. We have the written proof of Christ's glorious resurrection. It's the most attested to fact in history, likely. The resurrection of Christ. And so finally, not only do we have the witness of the servant, the savior, the sovereign, there's the witness of the scriptures in 39. Search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me. The result, if you search the scriptures, the result is you learn about Jesus the savior. That's the result. They testify of me. And for the religious uppities to say, oh, we know the scripture. Remember in Matthew chapter two, verse six, They called him in, oh, Bethlehem, Judah, et cetera. We know the Savior's going to be born. And they quote the Old Testament about where Christ is to be born. They did not do anything about it, however. I almost was going to bring in my call tree at home and put the sign instead of the arrow, Jesus pointing that way. And then say, oh, my, have you noticed what a beautiful? Let's just do it. Have you noticed what a beautiful? phone I had. Well, wow, look at that. It's got clear plastic. It's got, I guess it's three cameras. I don't know what it is back there. I've got two up on that. It's got a little apple with a bite out of it there in the back. And it's got all these different things. And wow, look at that. Well, you know, it does also call people. But, oh, look at that. Look at that phone. I'm just, I'm enamored with the phone. Well, there's more to it than simply the outside. It's like, oh my, look at the Bible Pastor Tim has. It's a custom, it is a custom bound Bible. And it's been about 10 years old now, and he's worn it out pretty much. It's falling apart. Yes, it is starting to fall apart. And look at that. Look at the text in there. And you keep going on and on and on. No, listen, the sign is Jesus. This is what we don't get enamored with the phone that's used to call. Don't get enamored with simply looking at the pages and simply studying. Oh, this all pointing to Jesus. If you miss it, It's an eternally terrible thing. The greatest tragedy of all is to open the scriptures and miss Jesus. You have all these liberal theologians who say, well, we don't believe this, we don't believe Jesus raised from the dead. You're not saved. You may know the scriptures back when, can you imagine? People like Jesus, little boys like Jesus, knew the scriptures entire, probably entire penitent, memorized. And think of how many Jews did the same thing, and yet they missed from Genesis 3.15, the seed of the woman. They missed that. If you're here this morning and you know the Bible, perhaps inside and out, but you don't have the relationship, you're missing the most important part. This points to Jesus. It does. The result, search the scriptures, and that word search there is sort of like a bloodhound. He gets on the scent, and he keeps looking, and he keeps following, looking for what we can find. He's searching, searching, searching. Church Scriptures. The result is they testify of me. Verse 40, however, back in our text, in John chapter five, verse 40, we have the rejection, and you will not come to me that you might have life. That is the recurring theme of the religious leaders in the New Testament era when Jesus was alive, and you will not come, but will not, not that you can't. You will not. So, on December 28, 1984, about 11, probably about 11.59 a.m., either my dad, I can't remember if my dad or her dad said, Timothy, will you have Stephanie be your wife? Waffley wedded wife, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I had to say, I will or I won't, right? So, I did say I will. So, when I said, I will, and she said, I will, before even the kiss, we're married. It's a meeting of the wills. Wilt thou be made whole? Wilt thou have eternal life? That's the question to you. Do you want to be? Will you do it? And when your will meets the divine will of God who wants to save you and you ask forgiveness of your sin, repent, then you receive Christ and the wills are working together. Will you? It's easy to get caught up. Pastor Brian Vail says, easy to get caught up in the technical peripheral of the superficial stuff. It's like a lawyer is easy to get enamored with the intricacies of the law and never develop a heart for justice. It's easy for a doctor to become swept up in the state of art medicine with robotics, et cetera, and never have a heart for compassion. It's easy for a serious Bible student of scriptures to become enamored with exegesis instead of the Jesus we're learning of. The Bible is given not to simply be as a legal document or self-help book. It is a love letter. God wants a relationship with you. For God so loved the world that he gave. Result, how about the receiving? Rejection, and thirdly, is the receiving in 41. Back over to our text, John 5, 41. It says for us here, but I receive not the honor from men, but I know you that ye have not the love of God in you. I am come in my Father's name, and you receive me not. If another shall come in his own name, him you will receive. How can you believe which receives honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only? The word honor is often translated glory, as a twofold idea that refers to the glory of God revealed to man, and secondly refers to man glorifying God for what he has done for us, giving glory to God. To refuse the truth is to embrace a lie. We're very familiar in our culture right now with embracing lies. To refuse the truth is to embrace the lie. It's not like there's some who are saved, some are 90%, 80%, 60%, 40%, and some have just started their journey to being saved someday. No, it is a one-time, it's a life-changing event, happens in a moment of time. Lord, forgive me of my sin. I believe I'm a sinner. I know I'm a sinner. I repent of my sin. Please forgive me of those and be my Lord and Savior. Come into my heart and life. I surrender. Will you please save me? He comes in. When your will matches his will, he comes into our hearts and life. It's not like, okay, that's my first journey. I'm 10%. Okay, I gotta say it again every three years and 20%, 30%. No, it's not like that. Either you are or you are not his child. by grace through faith. There was a lot of, interestingly enough, there were a lot of false messiahs, especially after Christ came on the scene. According to Josephus, there was 64 false messiahs in that era. About 70 or 60 years later, after Christ was on earth, Bar Kokhba, the Jewish person, he announced that he was the messiah. Even the head rabbi of that day said, oh, we believe he's the messiah, until the Romans came in and the catastrophic results of the Jewish people. It would seem even that false messiahs are gonna proliferate as the second coming draws near. In 2017, there was a man in Siberia who said he was Jesus. He had 10,000 followers. There have been, right now, I believe, I think they're all currently alive, six people in the world that claim to be Jesus. In the 20th century, there was over 20, over 20 people who said they were Jesus Christ, Sungkyunkwan being one. It's going to culminate in the false messiah, the antichrist. He's going to be, if you want, the definitive false Christ. And if you take the Greek, each Greek letter has certain numbers with it. And if you add up his name in Greek letter numbers, it comes up to be 666. That's where it comes from, the mark of the beast. He's going to be the last, if you would, false Christ. The true messiah has come. And he's reigning from his throne in heaven. And he's going to come back for his people. And finally, there's the recrimination Recrimination, the witness of scripture, starting in 45, says for us here, but do not think that I will accuse you to the father. There is one that accuses you, even Moses, in whom you trust. For had you believed Moses, you would have believed me, for he wrote of me. The recrimination. The chief witness of the prosecution would be Moses, the one whose law they so venerated. The one who they owe Moses is the man. I don't know if they had a chant like that, but Moses is the man. And that's who they believed. Moses had done so much for them. I'm not saying they worshiped Moses, but they probably worshiped the law that God gave to Moses. They rewrote that repeatedly, as you well know. It's not just the law, it's gonna be Moses himself would rise up on the day of judgment and condemn them for using him as their excuse to persecute Christ. Can you imagine? Moses, listen, you're doing this all wrong. You're persecuting the very one who you should be worshiping, the Lord and Savior. The very law of Moses, which they trusted for salvation, would condemn them. Remember, Paul's gonna say, therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. If you had believed Moses, you would have believed me. Let every liberal theologian who attacks Genesis, Exodus, Vedicus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy listen carefully. If you had believed Moses, you would have believed me. Moses wrote so much about Jesus, the types, The Ark, the offering of Isaac, the ladder and Jacob, the story of Joseph, the Passover lamb, the manna from heaven, the ribbon rock, the serpent on the pole, not to mention, that's just a few. And Moses wrote a hymn. Matter of fact, in Deuteronomy 18, 15, all Jewish people knew the verse. You want to turn over? I want to read it real quickly. Deuteronomy 18, 15. They knew this verse, but they did not want to believe, referring to Christ. The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee of thy brethren, like unto me, unto him ye shall hearken. Oh, we don't want to hearken, because if we hearken, then we're going to lose our power base. We'll be like all the other common people. We don't want to listen to that. Bartholomew says, Jesus' opponents ignored the clear evidence from the Old Testament that he was the Messiah. But at a deeper level, they also misunderstood the purpose of the Mosaic Law. They saw keeping it as a means of salvation, but that was never the intent. The law was given to reveal man's sinfulness and utter inability to save himself, end of quote. We've learned in Galatians, it was a schoolmaster the law is to bring us to Christ. That's the purpose of the law. Never was intended to save us, period. We are saved by grace through faith. Abraham believed the promise and was counted righteous because of his belief. Their case was hopeless. If Moses, the great intercessor of the Old Testament, became their great accuser, their doom was sealed. It should come as no surprise that those who did not believe Moses' writings would not believe Christ's words either. They rejected the truths taught by Moses, whom they had revered. How could they hardly be expected to accept the teaching of Jesus, whom they reviled? And they did not. Leon Moore says, if these people who profess to be Moses' disciples, who honored Moses' writings as sacred scripture, who gave an almost superstitious reverence to the letter of the law, if these men did not really believe the things that Moses had written and which were the constant objects of their study, then how could they possibly believe the spoken words of Jesus? End of quote. Oh, pastor, if we had some prophet from heaven come down to earth, why, the people would just be saved by the torrents, thousands and millions. No, they wouldn't. They wouldn't. Remember, it was Abraham said to the rich man, oh, if he just said, was it Moses? If Moses just go back and talk to my five brothers? You had the word. You had the truth already. If they're not gonna believe that, they're not gonna believe Moses until he come back from the dead. Well, pastor, we need some, no. You need to exercise faith. We need some, we need some miracle signs. No. Jewish people ask for those all the time and they never truly believed. I tell you, you have in your hands God's word. In the beginning was the word. This is God's word to us, to mankind. Jewish people said in John 19, 7, they answered him, said, we have a law and by our law, he ought to die because he made himself the son of God. One verse. Clearly, even his enemies, his abject haters, clearly proclaimed who Jesus said he was. I tell you this morning before I pray, he is the son of God. Either you've accepted that or you've denied it. There's no, I'm in the process of it's either or. I read this week regarding our knowledge of scripture. Does our knowledge of the Bible give us a big head or a burning heart? Does our knowledge of the Bible give us a big head or a burning heart? Sadly, and as I have grown up, my wife and I have been talking about this different times off and on in our group of churches that we were in, so often there was an arrogancy, there was a anger, there was a, if you're not part of this exact denomination, you can't even be saved. I was raised like, how can even people be right with God and not being, oh my goodness. Does it give us a big head? or a burning heart. We should have a burning heart that others hear the truth of the gospel. And there are other Christians who do not believe exactly what we believe and they're going to be in the same heaven we're going to, right? Those peripheral things, yes, the essentials, yes, we agree on those. Yes, you have to understand that Christ is God and be saved by grace through faith. But there's other things that, you know, maybe some men wear toupees. that will be in heaven, and that is fine with me. That is fine with me. Let us pray together. Lord, I am thankful that your word is so abundantly clear. We don't have to wonder how to be saved. We don't have to wonder how we're supposed to live afterwards. It is clear. If you love me, keep my commandments. Lord, you so clearly over and over and over and over again said that you are the Son of God. Even your enemies, Lord, clearly declared that you said you were the Son of God. And Lord, either you are the Son of God or you are the worst charlatan of all time. Lord, I have chosen to believe that you are God of very God, the creator of all things, and the saver of my ornery, ugly soul. Thank you for grace extended even to me, even the grace of faith to believe. or if there be a need among those listening this morning, whether live stream, later on, or even live, if there's a need of receiving Christ as their very own personal Savior, they would respond. So Lord, work in our hearts and lives during this invitation time, in Jesus' name I pray, amen.