John 5 verse 25, Verily, verily, I say unto you, they are as coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself, and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of Man. Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth, they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. I can of mine own will, of my 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 hath sent me. If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. There is another that beareth witness of me, and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true. He sent unto John, and he bear witness unto the truth. But 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 ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light. But I have greater witness than that of John, for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do bear witness of me. that the Father hath sent me. And the Father himself which hath 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 hath sent him ye believe not. Amen. We'll end our reading there at verse 38, trusting that the Lord will give light in this word as He's been doing over the past weeks we've been in this. We need the light as always. Let's pray just once more time, one more time, that the Spirit of God will give us the help we need. Lord, we give thanks to Thee for saving souls. We thank Thee for saving Timothy. We thank Thee, O God, for all the way that Thou has led him and even the great encouragement he is as we see young men who love the Lord and are making themselves available and willing to do whatever the Lord's will would be for their lives and serving even in their place of occupation and in their local church. We pray God that thou wilt help us all to be a serving people, a sincere people, and that all gathered here tonight might be a saved people. And to that end, then, give us the help of the Spirit. May all thy people, all of us, understand thy word. Help us to grasp these things. We know this chapter is a chapter that many have wrestled over. and as we endeavor to try and break it to the people of God and to unfold its application to the unsaved, Lord, give us help, give us aid, give us divine favor tonight, that having heard the word, we'll know that God has spoken and some here perhaps that need to be saved, not yet saved by the blood of the crucified one, that they may flee to the Savior, flee to the cross, and flee that they might find refuge in Jesus. We pray in His name, magnify it now amongst us, and give us the Spirit in Jesus' name. Amen. For the past number of messages, and I know we've had two weeks of a break, and perhaps you're wondering and forgetting where we went with the chapter and what we've been saying so far, but we've been trying to emphasize the importance of John chapter 5. Not to the detriment or the kind of making little of the rest of God's Word. I would never want to do that. All the Word is inspired, given to be profitable to us for instruction, reproof and correction and so on. We believe that it's all divine truth and it's all applicable and relevant to every one of us. But there are some passages that are vital that we grasp because of their theological content. And when we present the gospel to men, if you go out there and you open your mouth and you talk to people about the truth of God's Word, there will be many who will say they believe in God. There will be many who will assent to the fact there is a God. But the problem comes when you say Jesus Christ is God. And many other religions, comparative religions, those cults that have come out of Christianity as well, falter on this point. They falter on their understanding of the person of Jesus Christ. And that is the last place you want to falter. I'm not saying that by believing Jesus Christ is God merely will save. I'm not saying that. There's more to it than that. But if you don't believe Jesus Christ is God, you can't be saved. If you deny the deity of Jesus Christ, there is no salvation, there is no mercy, there is no forgiveness, there is no way of acceptance before God. This is so vital. And John 5 is so massively important when it comes to our understanding of the deity of Jesus Christ. It's not that it's the only place where we can argue it. John 1 argues it. In fact, every chapter in John argues out, in some way, the deity of Jesus Christ. And the apostles argue it out. And you go through the scriptures, and they argue it out. And even by references that are made concerning the Lord in the Old Testament and that which is taught concerning Christ in the New Testament, there is a clear indication that the attributes of Jesus Christ parallel with the attributes of God. He, therefore, must be God. He must be divine. This doctrine of the deity of Christ is so critical, as I say, and John 5 is unique in revealing this truth because it is the argumentation, it is the declaration of this truth coming from Christ himself. Right from verse 17 onwards to the very end of this chapter, this entire section is Jesus Christ expressing to the religious leaders of His day who He really is. It was such a mercy that He came and delivered such a clear expression of His person. Many times when he spoke to them, he spoke on parables. He spoke for the purpose in parables so that they would not understand what he was teaching in the parables that he taught. And that's the purpose of parables. It's to darken the minds of those who don't want to believe. It's to enlighten the minds of those that he says it's revealed unto babes. Those who are humble enough to accept the truth of those parables, they will see it, they will grasp it, they will understand it. But here he doesn't speak in parables. It's such a mercy. When you give the entirety of the ministry of Jesus Christ, so often he would not speak in a way where the Pharisees would understand. He was hiding it from them, speaking in parables that their proud hearts would not grasp it. And that, of course, was a fulfillment of a prophecy in Isaiah, I think, chapter 6, from memory. The stage here is set by the deliverance of an impotent man in the early verses of this chapter. He has suffered this ailment for thirty-eight years. Jesus Christ comes along and he gives him deliverance. He causes him to do what he had not done perhaps ever in his life. Although I'm inclined, as I said to you some weeks ago, I'm inclined to believe that this ailment came later in his life, into adulthood perhaps, and he had not for 38 years enjoyed the health that he had known perhaps in his younger days. And the point that is made that drives the religious leaders mad is that he did it on the Sabbath. And he called the man to lift and carry his bed on the Sabbath day, which is a breach, not of how God articulated the Sabbath, but how they understood the Sabbath and the extra rules and regulations they added to Sabbath observance. You couldn't carry anything outside your home. You couldn't carry anything in a certain way outside your home. And you could carry, I think it was a few cubits anyway, but by and large, outside your home on the Sabbath, you didn't carry anything. You couldn't. So here's this man publicly carrying the bed that he was resting upon. This was a breach in their mind. And this gives Christ, then, the platform, the opportunity to reveal himself, that he is God, and that God must always be working on the Sabbath. He must always be doing His work on the Sabbath, and as the Lord is working even now, because if He wasn't, this world would fall apart and we would cease to exist. Because the Lord is always working, He is working. And then He enters in to reveal further truth about his deity. He claims it in verses 17 and 18. He explains it in verses 19 through 23, and then he reveals it in verses 24 through 29. And if you haven't been with us, I encourage you to go back, at least listen to the last one. It will get you up to speed on these great truths. When you're dealing with John 5 as a preacher, It's one of those chapters that, and I've hinted at this already, but it's one of those chapters that you don't really want to preach from because of its complexity, its depth, and the feeling of inability. And I said to you at the start when I came to this chapter, if I could leave this chapter later on to my ministry, I would. But I decided to do John, and this is here, and you can't skip the chapter. You'll be wondering why, if I did. But it's vital. It's truth is vital. I'm encouraged. I'm blessed when I study it. But it is a challenge. It is a challenge. There are men who constantly wrestle over understanding the language of Jesus Christ. And the one thing I try to do every week is speak in a way where you don't even see the difficulty of the language. That's my desire. You can come to John 5 and after we're done dealing with the verses we're dealing with, you say, well that's not so bad, I get it. I want it to be simple, but understand it's not. It really isn't. It is very, very profound in the depth of its truth. Just to go over one of the greatest portions of the argument that he expresses his deity, I want you to know and get the grasp of verses 19 through 23, where he shows that he is equal to God through his activity, verses 19 and 20, because the son can do nothing of himself but what he saith the father do. For what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise." I am engaged in the same activity as God the Father. I do what He does. No person can say this unless they are God. It's impossible. He is equal with the Father in ability. That is in His power. Verse 21, For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickneth them, that is, make them alive, even so the Son quickneth whom He will. I have the same equivalent power to raise the dead. Not the same power to do other things that a number of people can do. Something that is exclusive to God. No one can raise the dead. No one can raise the dead in the way Jesus says, of his own will. Whom he will. I quicken whom I will. Why does he quicken whom he will? Because that's who God the Father quickens. He makes alive who he wills, and so the Son does the same. So you have the same ability. There's the same also in authority, verse 22. For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son. So the authority that he has is the same as the Father, and he is the same also in adoration. He is equal with the Father in adoration. Verse 23. That all men should honor the Son. Grasp this. Look. Realizing. Realize this. God will not have any to have his glory. That's the plain teaching of Scripture. God will not give glory to another. Never. And yet Jesus says here that all men should honour the Son even as equal to the way they honour the Father. This is clear, this is perhaps the most explicit statement that must show the deity of Jesus Christ. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him. You cannot disregard Jesus Christ. Because in doing so you don't honour the Father at all. And then he goes on and shows his role in the two resurrections. The first resurrection being that to eternal life. And you're saved and you experience saving power. That's resurrection life. Jesus Christ is the one who has the voice and the power and the authority and the word to make that come to pass. And he is also engaged in the next resurrection, that resurrection to come, the resurrection onto eternal life and the judgment and all of that that takes place in the future. And when we come to verse 30, we're given a summary of all of this when he says, I can 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 hath sent me." And this is really a summary of all that he has already said. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just. He's showing here his communion with the Father as being so intimate that as he judges, so the Father would judge. There's this intimacy in the divine union between Father and Son. They are connected. They are working together. They are equal. They are co-equal in their persons. And because He is equal with the Father, He can be seen only as God. We must grasp that. That's just summarizing what he's already said previously. I can't of my own self do nothing. That is, I am equal. I don't work independently. I think I used that language before. I don't work on my own. That's the way you and I work, isn't it? We work independently. We live independently. We try to do the will of God, but we don't do it flawlessly, do we? But Jesus Christ says, I work continually. He's just expressing what he said earlier in the chapter. Everything I do, as he says in verse 19, I'm doing as the Father willed. I don't do anything of myself. We work together. Everything I hear, I judge. That is all that I perceive. He uses the language of hearing because we understand that. It's not that he's hearing the Father, but his communion with the Father is so intimate. Their understanding is so connected. It's not hearing, but he expresses it as hearing. I know the divine will. And he says here, I hear it. That is, I receive it. And so by hearing it and seeing and understanding this, I judge in light of that. In other words, I judge as God would judge because I am God. And his entire endeavor is not to do his own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent him. He is subservient to him in his humanity, reflecting the fact that he was a servant who came from heaven to be made obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. But he is in perfect unity This verse, of course, brings the challenge of seeing the persons of the Godhead. J.C. Ryle actually said about this, Trying to grasp, is what he's saying, the fact that there are two distinct persons with one nature. And you go through the theology books, you'll never find anyone who actually explains it in a way that you say, well, that makes perfect sense to my logic. It is beyond logic. It's higher than logic. It's not that it's illogical, but it's that we can't grasp there are two persons, one divine essence, one God. Equal. These persons are equal by reason of the fact they have one divine essence. There is one singular God. It is not right as those who would claim and profess and say about Christian religion and that which we believe and assent to and agree upon that we believe in a God with three heads. That's what the Russellites, the Jehovah's Witnesses would say. One God with three heads, some ugly creature of God. We don't believe that. We believe there's three persons, one God. Why do we believe it? Because that's our concept of God? No! Our concept naturally of God would be there is one God, one person. But God has revealed himself to be one God, three persons. And we understand it because he has expressly made it plain in his word. And right from the very first chapter of Genesis we find it. Let us make man in our image. We believe this with all of our hearts, not because we understand it, but because God has revealed it. And so, Jesus says, if I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. What's he saying there? This is one of those texts again, men struggle over. Is he saying that, well, I could perhaps bear witness and not be truthful? Of course not, that can't be true at all. John 8, 12-14, what does Jesus say there? Let's make Jesus again onto them, that's onto the Jews. I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. The Pharisees therefore said unto him, Thou barest record of thyself. Thy record is not true. That's what they said, that's the accusation they made. Jesus answered and said unto them, Though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true. For I know whence I came, and whither I go. But ye cannot tell whence I come, and whither I go. You don't understand, but I do. I understand, and I bear record of myself, and my record is true. So it's not that he's saying here in verse 31 of chapter 5 that I can say something that isn't true about myself or true about God. If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. What he is saying here is that If He was the sole testimony, then they would argue, well, how can we know that you're true? How can we understand? Because there's a principle laid down in the Old Testament, in the mouth of two or three witnesses, shall every word be established. If Jesus merely was the only witness, the only witness to who He was, They might accuse him by saying, I think that's the essence of verse 31. If I bear witness of myself, if I am solely the one who bears witness of me, your claim would be my witness is not true. You'll think my witness is not true. You'll assume that there is no truth in my words, because God would give a multiplicity of witnesses. And so, when we come into verse 32, this is a key text to understanding the following verses. Because from here he begins to express a variation of witnesses. to everything we've already said. What have we said already? Jesus Christ is God. He is equal with the Father. Now what he is saying is, well, if I'd left at that, then you wouldn't believe me. You would think, well, there's no one else who testifies of that. Now he brings to the four arguments. He brings witnesses. He says, look, look at these witnesses. And he presents to them the plain facts that they must grasp about other witnesses who bear to the same truth. There are some who wonder about what this witness might be. Verse 32, as we follow on, it says, There is another that beareth witness of me. They think that's referring to John the Baptist. And I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true. I don't think it is John the Baptist. I think the present tense of witnesseth indicates the fact that it's someone other than John, because John's ministry was over by this stage. And I agree with Calvin and many others that here we have the witness of the Father. And that then brings us into the three points which will be rather brief tonight. I want to next week really deal with the consequences of all that Jesus has said in this chapter. But the three short points I want to leave with you here as we think of Jesus' deity testified. His deity testified. How is it testified? Everything is said We've tried to get a grasp of that. Now he's saying that there are other testimonies to the same fact, and we must believe them as well. So the first testimony is the father testifies to his deity through John the Baptist. The father here is the main witness. Verifying, because this is all the connection between father and son. Noah is saying the father is given a witness, and he has expressed that witness, first of all, by John. Verse 33, Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth. But 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 ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light. Ye sent unto John, that is, the Jews sent to hear John. In fact, it sent people by a commission. We saw it back in chapter 1. They sent a commission to go and ask John who he was. Remember that? I'll not take time to go through that because time is running on. But you go back to chapter 1, you'll see there was a commission sent to John to ask, well, who are you? Are you the Messiah? Are you the one that we look for? And of course, John bore a testimony of who he was. I am the voice of one crying the wilderness and preparing the way for the Lord. But they accepted John. Many of the Jewish religious leaders had a certain acceptance of who John was. They went out to hear him. We know they went out to hear him because Matthew 3 tells us that when they arrived, John, in his godly way of rebuking them in their unbelief, he asks, why are they out there? Why? Why are you here? Bring forth fruit, meat for repentance. These men were ungodly. They were mainly out there just to see what he was doing. And he knew their hearts. He calls them a generation of vipers who have warned you to flee from the wrath to come. And so he knew the character of their ways and their manner and why they were out there. But they had a reverence for him. You remember that passage where they acknowledged the fact that he was a prophet? They believed he was a prophet. They were afraid not to believe. Because if they said John wasn't a prophet, the whole of the people would go against them. They would go mad. Because everyone believed John was a prophet. He was a man who came out of a dark cloud of 400 years of never hearing from God. And John appears on the scene and begins to speak with an authority, with a profound ability to exposed the real circumstances Israel were in to prepare the way for their Messiah. And he opened up the way and he preached in a way that Israel hadn't heard for centuries. And he knew he was a prophet, no man could deny it. He preached with an authority that clearly indicated this man is sent from God. And that's what Jesus says here. He sent unto John. He sent unto him. And he bare witness unto the truth. He told you the truth. You accepted John, at least for a while, as he goes on to say, isn't it? At the end of verse 35, you were willing for a season to rejoice in his light. You received John, you listened to him, you knew that he was sent of God. But here's the thing, what John said was the truth. He bore witness to the truth. Now what was that truth? What was that truth? What did he reveal? What was he talking about all the time? What was John's entire life about? It was all about pointing to Christ. Behold, the Lamb of God. The entire time John's ministry, as I've said on a number of occasions, John only had one thing on his mind. Point people to Christ. That's it. That's it. We'll read later in this Gospel of John that he did no miracle. He didn't do anything spectacular. He didn't have an apostolic ministry. He had the ministry of a prophet. Thus saith the Lord. He spoke authoritatively about the reality of truth, as revealed in the Old Testament, and made the way, saying, Messiah's coming. Behold Him. Look at Him. Turn from your sin. Believe on Him. You must. If you don't, you'll perish and you will die. Without Him, you have no hope. And so, they knew that. They knew he was a prophet. But they didn't really listen to the truth. They didn't accept the truth. They didn't receive the truth. And I feel that, you know, sometimes, before we go any further, I feel that as a preacher. I feel sometimes that people receive me. That they receive you and they say, well, we're thankful that you're there. We're glad you came to Calgary. We like you as a person. You know, we talk to people and we get on. We have nice conversations maybe at the door. Maybe in other times they talk and there's kind of a reception of me as a person, but not yet of the message. You haven't yet grasped the message. You're not saved. You're not in Christ. You're not in the one that I speak of. And look, if you didn't like me at all, it wouldn't bother me so much. It certainly doesn't bother me anywhere near as much as the fact that I know you haven't received Christ. If you receive Christ and yet you turn to kind of turned away from me, and you say, well, I don't really like him, and rather go to another church. Well, you know, I would rejoice in the fact at least you're right with God. You're saved. You're in Christ. Nothing will ever change that or separate you from that. You're saved. And people will, sometimes. Not like you, but they'll receive the message and they'll be saved, and that's good. But the sad thing is that people might like the man, like they appreciate it, John. They appreciate it, John. They were thankful God hadn't completely left Israel to themselves. He sends a prophet in His mercy. They went out to hear Him in their multitudes. that didn't listen to what he said. And that's a danger. That is such a tragic danger. You can hear and receive the man, and you like the man. That's what Herod did. That's what he did, isn't it? He heard him gladly were told in the Gospels. Herod listened to John and brought him out of his imprisonment at times to listen to what John had to say. And John wasn't saying anything nice. He was telling him, you're breaking the seventh commandment. Your brother Philip's wife You shouldn't have her. You're breaking the law. You need to repent, Herod. Turn to Christ. It was a hard message that John brought, but he heard him gladly. He heard him gladly, and yet he went on hearing him gladly, yet not seeking the message. Not seeking, rather, the person that he was bringing in his message, saying, look, in your sin, Herod, This woman is not your wife, you're a lawbreaker. Jesus Christ is the great sin bearer. Behold the Lamb of God that what? taketh away the sin of the world. He can take away your sin, Herod. He can take away your sin. Just as He can take away the sin of anyone who accepts Him. You come to Him. Maybe you think tonight I couldn't come to Him. And maybe you wouldn't accept me. Maybe I'm not from the right place or the right country or the right area. I don't think I would be accepted. That's nonsense. The Gospel is for all people. It's preached to all nations. For everyone who accepts Jesus Christ, they will be gathered in. from all the corners of the globe. Wonderful. But, the sad thing, like Herod, and these Pharisees, they received John, but they didn't receive the message. If you do that, you will perish. Secondly, the Father testifies to his deity through miracles. So, he used John, and he used John to speak to the people, and express the truth that they needed to hear, Not only that, verse 36 tells us, So the works are backing me up. The miracles. This testimony is greater than John's. It's more important than John's. Maybe even there in verse 34, there's an element of that that's being expressed. I receive not testimony from man. In other words, I don't need the testimony from man, because I have the testimony of the miracles, and there's one witness, and then I have the testimony of the Father, who spoke from heaven, and, you know, that could be seen as that way. Perhaps, as I receive not testimony from man, John is just saying that The testimony wasn't the testimony of a man speaking as a man. When John came, he spoke as a man sent from God, so it was... Not that God had sent a man merely to speak his own opinions, but God sent a man who spoke God's word, and so he didn't send someone just to be a man receiving a testimony of a man, but there was a testimony of a man of God. Maybe that's what verse 34 is, there's a difference of opinion there. But in verse 36 he said, whatever the witness of John was, there's a greater witness, and that's the works that he did. It's what he did. testify to him that he is from the Father, he is from heaven, he has a heavenly origin, and validates everything he has said up until this point. The works that the Father hath given me, that includes his miracles, it's not just the work of living out the life for you and me as sinners, and living and obeying the law in full for us, that's obviously included, but he is referring specifically to the miracles, the miracles, the miracles that they must see show that he is from God. They clearly bore testimony to his heavenly origin. Nicodemus recognized that, didn't he, in chapter 3 verse 2? And he came by night, the ruler of the Jews, and said, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. We know. We know. We don't want to admit it, but we know. A man does miracles in front of you. You can't just deny it and ignore it and think that it's something we can just set aside. It must be heeded. You must see that it is of divine origin. And that's what he says. Nicodemus knew that. In John 7, 31, Jesus says there, concerning his works, he says, "...and many of the people believed on him and said, When Christ cometh, will he do more miracles than these which this man hath done?" That's not the verse I was thinking about, but it expresses the same truth. The people came and they believed, and this was their logic. We're looking for a Messiah. We're Jews looking for a Messiah to come. Well, could another person come along and claim to be Messiah and do more than this man has done? Could they do that? Of course they couldn't. It couldn't be any more evident that this man has come from God and is the Messiah. Well, I was thinking about those chapter 10. where Jesus speaks there, and verse 25, what does he say in John 10, 25? Jesus answered them, I told you and ye believed not. The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. It's what I do. They're testifying. They're showing you. If you don't listen to what I say, you should see it even for the works. And that's what he says later on, verse 37. But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works. Look at what you're seeing. Believe that, that ye may know and believe that the Father is in me and I in him, that we are one, that we are in union, that we are co-equal. If you can't see it by my words, see it by my works. I'm raising the dead. I'm giving healing to the blind and to the lame and to the leper. I'm doing all this and you're seeing it. The gospel is just a little snippet. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are just a little, little, tiny, little bit of it. John says at the end of this book, if everything had been written that could be written, the whole world would not be large enough to contain the books that would be necessary to record everything Jesus did. Jesus was constantly healing, showing himself publicly. In fact, J.C. Ryle makes interesting points about the miracles of Jesus Christ with regard to their number. The thousands and thousands and thousands of miracles being performed. There's little statements you read in some of the Gospels, like in the Gospel of Mark, and he's healing certain people, or many sick came on to him, and it just says, and he healed them all. Multitudes, sick, he healed them all. That's it. That's all we're told. We're not told of all their ailments. We're not told how many. It's just that there's a multitude, and it just says, he healed them all. Wherever he went, It brought relief and mercy to them, their number, their greatness, the things he did. As I've said already, raising the dead, giving sight to the blind. You know, the greatness of the myrtles cannot be equaled. The publicity of them as well. He didn't do it. I mentioned this in the Bible class and I'll mention it again. Those who claim to do miracles. But they do it when the circumstances suit them. When they're in their church and when they're around their people and they can manipulate and they can contain and control what's going on. And they're in their little environment that they can control and have a certain amount of power over. A place where there's no way of really validating the legitimacy of what they claim is happening, that these people are being healed, and that, as I said one time when I was in Tasmania, I got a flyer in through the door of a church that was nearby, where we were, and it had the Harvest Time Revival meetings, and all these testimonies of Chimera the size of a grapefruit, healed by the power of God. Gum disease, healed by prayer. All this stuff, and nothing that could be validated, nothing that could be proven. Why didn't they go to the hospital? Where there's all the sick people they could ever desire and heal them all in a place where a doctor can come and say, yep, he had an amputated leg and he has two legs now. I saw it with my own eyes. I'm a medical doctor. I've no vested interest in this man or his ministry. I saw it though. It definitely happened. Everybody here knows the man had half a leg and now he's two legs. Or he was verifiably dead. Not just that his heart stopped beating, but the electrical pulses stopped going through his brain. He was brain dead. He was medically dead. And now he's alive. You can't find it. It's never verifiable. It's always in an environment that they can control. But Jesus publicly, wherever he was, he was in the synagogue, he healed, he was outside in the fields and wherever the people gathered around Galilee and the towns and villages, he healed them. It didn't matter where he was. Perform it. Do it. Of course, the character of those miracles weren't mere exhibition. They weren't just, well, I'm going to show you a few tricks here. The character of them was merciful and instructive. Of course, they appealed to the senses. People could look at it and scrutinize with their eyes and with their ears and with their senses. They could see, this is real. the works which the Father hath given me to finish. He didn't just do what He wanted, just as He didn't say what He wanted. And He prays in the high priestly prayer in John 17, for I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me. The son gave himself to speak the very words the father gave, just as he lived out life doing the very works the father gave him to do. So the father then testifies to his deity through the scriptures, and I'll not go into this in any great depth, but in verses 37 and 38, it really launches us into this discussion that's based around the scriptures. But verse 37, the father himself which hath 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 hath sent him ye believe not. And again there's some debate, as there is in many of these verses, what does he mean about the The fact that he hath borne witness of me. What way has he borne witness? Is it the voice that came from heaven? The baptism? I don't think so. I think in context, if you look at the following verses, it's all around the Word. And even the very, verse 38, where it says, it seems to be that the witness, he hath borne witness of me. You have not His word. His word is the witness. You haven't received the witness, you haven't received the word. It's the same thing. I think that's how we should understand it. Because it launches into the Scriptures and deals with all of that. That's the tragedy. That people can have some kind of reception or acknowledgement of Jesus Christ, but not really have His word or His truth. If you don't have His word in you, if you don't receive His word, you don't receive Him. You don't receive Him, nor do you experience Him in His saving grace and mercy. And what we're going to see next week is the tragedy of not getting the Word, not understanding the Word, and the indictment that Jesus brings to the Jews because all these witnesses and all these evidences, and especially the testimony of Scripture. And I think there's a heightening of the witnesses here. There's John, and he's a tremendous witness. Then there's the... The miracles that Jesus did, and they're a great witness, but even higher than that is the Scripture. It's the Scripture. And the Scripture's higher than miracles. Those of you who gather here, you know that already. I've expressed that to you many times. The Scriptures are higher in their authority than miracles. Luke 16, just to remind you again of that testimony. I want you to know what that teaches. Because the man says, go and send Lazarus to raise him from the dead, that he may speak to my brothers, The brothers will realize that he was a dead man, he's now alive, and when they see him, they will believe. And Abraham says, if they believe not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. The Scriptures have the authority, and that's what we're going to see next week. I wonder what you do with the testimony that comes from this word. that we have read and we have looked at over these weeks. And I wonder, are we going to get to the end of chapter 5 and you still are an unbeliever? You still just are resisting the truth and what Jesus Christ is expressing in this passage. If you need to see that Jesus Christ is God, it's here in this chapter. If you won't get it here, you won't get it anywhere, I don't think. And I trust the Spirit will open up your mind to see these things, and Jesus is just revealing himself for who he really is, and he's saying, all these things bear testimony to me, and basically saying to the people, you've no excuse. You've no excuse. Done. I wonder if, as Timothy said, where you're at, what you're doing, and where are you going, That's a very profound question to ask anyone. Where are you at today? Because where you're at today determines where you would be if you died today, wouldn't it? If you're outside of Christ, you die outside of Christ. If you're in Christ, you die in Christ. What are you doing? How are you living your life? You say, I'm a Christian. but you're not living it out? What are you doing with the message? What are you doing with what Jesus teaches us in his word? And week after week we go through the scriptures and he comes and he applies the truth to us. What are you doing with it? What are you doing with your life? What are you doing with the days that God gives to you? How are you trying to further the kingdom? What way are you living that is presenting before God the proof? I love you, Lord. I love you. Don't just take for granted all that you've done for me. And where are you going? Where are you going? Where are any of us going? Where will we end up on that day? Where will we be? Everything else just peels away when you think of the reality of where you're going. If we go to heaven, our suffering, our hardships don't really have the same impact when we know we're going to glory. And if we are going to hell, everything that seems to mean something to us will mean nothing a nanosecond in eternity. Nothing. May the Lord bless His Word to your heart. Let's bow together in prayer. As our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed, I just want to, again, as I always do, leave the door open to you to talk to me about spiritual matters. I'm here to help you. I'm here to talk you through, if I can, the things you're struggling with. And I'm here to point you to Christ if that's the help you need. You don't need me to be saved, you know that. You can cry for mercy. You can be saved wherever you are. At any time, even now in your pew, you can cry to God for mercy. But sometimes we need a little guidance there, a little help, and I would therefore say to you, speak to us if that's what you need. Don't think lightly of these things. Don't think that you can palm it off as if you've just heard words that have been shared from this pulpit. You need to respond. You need to be saved. You need to be right with God. Lord, we give to Thee what has been said. We give over what has been said of the testimony. We trust it was applicable to those gathered here tonight. We thank Thee for those who have realized that Going our own way never is a good way. The way of the transgressor is hard. Lord we pray that thou wilt continue to bless Timothy and help him and his dear wife. We pray Lord that thou wilt help other young people here tonight, some of which may be struggling, struggling to be steadfast, struggling to press on, struggling to stay the course. Help them. There's some here without the Lord. We pray God that you'll speak to them. And they have all these reasons why they don't yet believe, and yet none of them are valid. They're not valid reasons. And I pray they might see that. Lord, we thank Thee for the joy of being saved. We're thankful for the privilege of being Thy people, and we pray that more might come to know it. Blessed then, all who have gathered here tonight, be with them all as we all go to our homes Bless our fellowship one with the other, as we speak with one another, hide the word in our hearts. May the grace of our Lord Jesus, the love of God our Father, and the fellowship of the Spirit be with all thy people now and evermore. Amen.