John chapter 5 and verse 31. 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. "'You sent unto John, and he bear witness unto the truth. "'But I receive not testimony from man, "'but these things I say, that you might be saved. "'He was a burning and a shining light, "'and you were willing for a season to rejoice in his light. "'But I have greater witness than that of John, For the works that 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. You have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape. And you have not his word abiding in you, for whom he has sent him, you believe not. He said, you don't have the word of God abiding in you, because the one that the father sent, you don't believe in him. Search the scriptures, for in them, you think you have eternal life. and they are they which testify of me." Our Lord was using this verse as a challenge. In fact, this controversy that he tries to settle with the religious leaders still boiled on all the way to chapter number eight. And he said, I challenge you to search the scriptures because in those scriptures, He said, you are confiding in that you have eternal life. In those same scriptures, they are the ones that testify of me. 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'm come in my father's name and you receive me not. If another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. How can you believe which receive honor one of another? And seek not the honor that cometh from God only. Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There's one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom you trust. For had you believed Moses, you would have believed me, for he wrote of me. But if you believe not his writings, how shall you believe my words? You may be seated. Look down at your Bible. You'll find our text here in John chapter five and verse number 40. I couldn't get away from it. I preached this text before. This is not the message I preached before. It is the same text. John chapter five and verse 40. And you will not come to me that you might have life. Let's pray together. Father, as we bow our heads and hearts, we want to say thank you for this opportunity to come and to preach the wonderful word of God. I pray you touch the minds and hearts of those who come this way. Lord, convey clearly the truth of the scriptures in this hour. There may be one who has long been lost, that needs to be saved in this audience today. There may be one Lord that's nearest hell. Lord, their appointment with death may be sooner than what we realize. I pray that you'd captivate their attention and Lord that you'd convict their heart and draw them by the power of Christ. to make the greatest decision that any man or woman will ever make. That is, the one to turn from their sins and take Christ as their Savior. Allow the Holy Spirit to have freedom and liberty to work in this audience. And we'll thank you for what you do now, for we ask it in Jesus' name, amen and amen. Many years ago, a man had an appointment to meet with a lawyer over some legal business that he had to conduct. And this man was a Christian, a born-again Christian, and a very avid witness for Christ. After having the consultation with the lawyer, he looked at that man whom he had some acquaintance with, and he said, I was wondering why that you've never been saved. Why have you never become a Christian? And the man ashamedly bowed his head. He said, I know enough about what the Bible says to know that no drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of God. And he said, well, you can be forgiven of your sins. You can come to Christ and you can take him as your Lord and Savior. After a time of conversation, that man, Cyrus Scofield, C.I. Scofield took Christ in his own lawyer's office and later became a preacher of the gospel. I want to ask the same question that man posed that day. Why are you still lost? Why are you still lost? Why have you not taken Christ as your dearest friend and only Savior and the only one that can take you to heaven? What really is it that's hindering you from coming to Jesus in salvation? FORGIVENESS THROUGH THE BLOOD OF CHRIST. WHY WOULDN'T ANYONE WANT TO TAKE THE GREATEST PEACE THAT'S EVER BEEN IMPARTED TO MANKIND? AND THE BIBLE TALKS ABOUT so great salvation. That is, salvation is the greatest truth that has ever been proclaimed. How that God sent his son from heaven above to this world to live and to die on an old rugged cross so that men might be born of God. Not only is it the greatest truth, but it imparts the greatest gift that has ever been given. I'm thankful this morning that God sent his son and that through his death at cow rate, that you can be born of God and your life can be transformed. And salvation brings about the greatest transformation. It's a change not from the outside in, but from the inside out. I'm thankful that Christ can come to live in your heart and he can change your desires. My quandary and my battle before I got saved, for about 30 days I tried to figure out how how I could live the Christian life. I tried to quit every known vile vice that I had in my life at that time. Many times I would start out in the day and I would say, I'm going to quit cussing today. In the South, we don't curse, we cuss. And I said, I'm going to quit cursing today. And before the noon hour, usually before the first or second hour of the workday finished, I had already cursed up a blue string. I said, I'm going to quit this and quit that. And there were some of those vile habits that just would not leave. I found out what I really needed was not to try to be a Christian, but to first take Christ as my Savior and to trust Him. to save my soul and to change my life. Though these in this chapter were speaking directly to the very one who was the answer to their life, they refused to come to Him as their Lord and Savior. Jesus looked at them directly and said, you will not come to me that you might have life. Sometimes people say, well, they won't get saved because they got hurt in a church or got offended or they got their feelings hurt and they won't ever go back to church again. Well, I'd rather go to heaven and know Jesus and find a church that I could go to than go to hell with all the hypocrites in the world. And I want to say our Lord in this passage is directly speaking to them. He's the greatest preacher that ever lived. They did not reject Christ because they didn't have a clear witness of the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, our Lord begins to tell them all the witnesses that he had sent to them to show them that they needed to be saved. He sent a man named John the Baptist. In verse 33, he said, you're sending a John and he bear witness unto the truth. That is John had told them who he was. John made the first announcement about Christ. He looked up from the Jordan River and saw him coming down the river banks and said, behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. He announced him in the same chapter as the Son of God. And so this morning, Christ is the only way you can have your sins taken away. You see, it'd be all fine if you knew how You could get rid of your sins, but the only way you can have your sins forgiven is by the blood of an old rugged cross. That is how sins are forgiven. The only way you can have a relationship with God is through the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I sent John to you. And it seems like he didn't want that witness that John the Baptist gave. In fact, one of the kings actually had his head cut off because John preached against sin. And he preached about the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. The second witness that he sent was the witness of the Father. In verse 37, as the Father himself which hath sent me hath borne witness in me. You have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shade. And you have not his word abiding in you. For whom he has sent him, you believe not. They really did not have, though the word of God abiding in them. And they did not believe that the Father had sent him. Had they only known the prophecies that God had sent to them, they would know that Jesus was sent from God. And then in verse 36, he said, 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 to me that the Father hath sent me. And so now the witness that he sends is the witness of his mighty works that he sent to John and said to his disciples, tell John the blind receive their sight. and the lame walk, and the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. He said, you tell John, just like Isaiah said, it would happen when the Messiah arrives, the blind receive their sight. Said, tell John down in prison that a man named Bartimaeus in the city of Jericho received his sight and followed me in the way. Tell John that in the ninth chapter of this same book, there's a blind man and Jesus passed by his way and that blind man got his sight restored by the power of Christ. I would say if he were living in this day, tell him that there's a bunch down at Unity Baptist Church. Thank God they had their spiritual eyes opened up by the power of Christ. They said, tell John that the blind receive their sight. The mighty works of a Savior are being done now by the Lord Jesus Christ. Tell him that the lame walk. Amen. In the early part of this chapter, there's a man by the pool of Bethesda. And that man is laid there for many days. The Bible said in verse 5, he had that infirmity for 38 years. And yet there came one by that way that was able to give him a command through the power of Christ. He was able to rise up and walk. I'm telling you about a mighty Savior. Not only do the blind see, and the lame walk, and those that are crippled are raised up, and the lepers are cleansed. Thank God they're those that were the hopeless ones. They came crying out. Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. Thank God he did what nobody else could do. That horrible disease called leprosy, he caused it to flee from them. And some even came back and fell down at his feet and gave glory to Christ. Thank God the lepers are cleansed. The deaf here, as in Mark chapter seven, verse 32 through 37. And then he said, the dead are raised up, amen. That is, here he is at a place called Nain. And the Bible said there's a funeral procession coming down the road outside the city of Nain. And thank God the old song said, and coming down the road is Jesus. Right on time. Amen. And he touched that little place where the dead body lay. And thank God that boy sat up on that stretcher. He gave him back to his mother and broke up a funeral procession and sent the family home. Wipe their tears by the power of his blessed hope. Thank God our Savior has given a witness of his mighty power. Not only that, at the city of Bethany in a graveyard, Mary and Martha are already weeping. And Jesus came down there where they were, and He walked out to the grave with them and held their hands. And the Bible said Jesus wept. He stood there by the graveside, held their hands, and He wept along with them. Bless His holy name. And then he said, let's rest, come forth. And out of that grave where he had already been dead four days, thank God, came a man that was woken. I say hallelujah. The witness of his mighty works are testimony of who he was. I say not only that, but there is the witness of the scriptures. Our Lord had challenged them concerning the very thing that they knew so well. He said, search the scriptures. If you don't recognize me, you need to search the scriptures. He said, you need to read Isaiah's writings. If you don't know who I am, You need to read Zechariah's writings. If you don't know who I am, you need to go back to Deuteronomy and find the prophecy that said a prophet shall arise like unto Moses. That said you need to read the writings of the Old Testament because in them you think you have eternal life. And this is a verse that reminds us that the religious leaders were not saved. They were sadly deceived. And yet Jesus said, if you search those scriptures, you'll find my identity. you'll find the prophecies that talk about me coming and me dying and rising again so people can be saved. But they would not search the scriptures. They turned their back on all these witnesses. And sadly, there could have been a great deal of them that still went to hell. But I'm asking you the question, why are you still lost? Why have you still rejected Christ? Why have you kept him outside of your heart all these years? Why have you not asked him to forgive you and to save you? Why have you not begun the greatest relationship that any person can ever have? Why is it this morning that you, as an individual, have not taken the greatest gift that's ever been given? Sadly, there are some people that will never get saved. You say preacher that sounds awfully hopeless. Not because I'm trying to offer no hope this morning, but because there are some people that will never get saved. Not because Christ cannot save them. I remember sitting in a break room years ago and I was pastoring the first church that I pastored and I was working a job and I was sitting around the table with some guys and they were talking about a certain individual that this person had gone down the wrong road like a lot of us have. They had gotten wound up in drugs and alcohol and one person at the table to my right knew this person very well. I was just listening and just minding my own business for a minute and they were telling all these things. One of the men said, yeah, I saw this person up on the hill in a certain city that was known for drug activity. Another person spoke up and said, yeah, I know that person's best friend. She's known to be a drug user and known to be strung out and all of these things, all the bad things that they said. And one of them all of a sudden spoke up and said, well, there's no hope for them. And I said, hold on a minute, and I raised my hand up. I said, now you've talked about what you know about. I said, I want to tell you what I know about. I said, you talked about what you can observe and what you can understand. I want to tell you what God says. I want to tell you that that dear person is not hopeless because Jesus Christ is the hope for the entire world. My life was much like theirs until I came to Jesus and took him as my Lord and Savior. And I want to say that it's not that they're lost because Christ cannot save them. wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing that he ever liveth to make intercession for them. There's no one that's too bad to save. Amen. They are not lost because Christ did not die for them. In some denominations, and you'd be surprised, I could name them all. Even the Southern Baptists are riddled with this doctrinal ideology today that Jesus Christ only died for a select few and that unless you are one of the elect, that you have no hope of being saved. I've got news for you. The very same one that put this book together, the very same one that came from heaven to die for us, the very same one that inspired this book and inspired the payment of Scripture said, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. The very one that said, whosoever will, let him come and take of the water of life freely. They're not lost because Christ did not die for them. He absolutely did die for them. You are not lost because your lives are too hopeless to save because Christ can save anyone. In a street one day they brought to him a woman that was caught in the very act of a wicked deed. And I personally believe as I see the way this account is arranged that those men had likely set her up. They had likely arranged this whole ordeal. They did it so they could challenge Christ to see if he would inflict the very penalty of the law. And Jesus saw their wicked hearts. He said to them, he said, those of you that are without sin, not just any sin, but this very sin that you have arranged right here to take place so it can challenge me about my moral authority. He said, you go ahead and cast the first stone. And when he stooped down twice and wrote on the ground, He looked at the woman after her accusers had vanished and said, woman, where are thine accusers? And she didn't see any one of them. And she said, no man nor, nobody's here left to accuse me. He said, neither do I. He said, go and see them no more. He wasn't condoning what she did, but he gave her mercy and he gave her hope, hallelujah. That's the savior that I'm preaching about this morning. But there are some people that God cannot save. Now I want you to hear me carefully. God cannot save a self-righteous person who will not admit that they're a sinner. You see, God sent his son to seek and to save that which was lost. God sent his son not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. Mark 2 and verse 17. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. Christ came to die for our sins and the only way we can be saved is to admit that we're sinners and admit that we're in need of a Savior and to cry out to Him for the mercy of God. God cannot save a person who thinks they're too good to be saved. I have met people down through the years. I remember myself and a visitation partner of mine were knocking doors not very far from this church one day. And we were on the loop road there where it winds around and climbs the hill where the old maintenance garage of the mill was at the top of the hill. At the bottom of that hill, there's a road that goes off to the right. And we were over in there, and my partner was doing a masterful job of showing this man why he needed Christ. The reason we need Christ is because we're sinners in God's sight. The reason we need Christ is because we broke the law of God. The reason we need Christ is because we're gonna have to pay the wages of sin if we don't take Jesus as our Savior. And he's telling this man all along, and he did it very graciously. He went around the room, and he said, now, he said, Christ came to die because Tommy's a sinner, and I'm a sinner, and you're a sinner. And that man's facial expression changed. And he said, wait a minute, I ain't no sinner. What are you saying? I ain't no sinner. I've never killed anybody. He said, sir, you don't have to kill anybody to be a sinner. You're a sinner by nature, and then you're a sinner by choice. But you don't have to be a murderer to be a sinner. All of us are sinners in God's sight in need of a Savior. Every one of us are lost. And the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. And Christ cannot save a person who does not see their need of Him as a sinner. Amen. You know why Jesus went to the down-and-outers? You want to know why they said of him, he's a friend of sinners? You want to know why that he sat down in a publicans house and sat down with a man that he had saved named Matthew and all of his friends? It's because these men knew how How wicked they were. They didn't profess to be anything. They were not pretending to be something righteous. They just knew they were sinners and Christ sat down to them and he fed them the bread of life. He gave them the water of life. I'm telling you, hallelujah, if you're a sinner, he came, he died for you, and he'll save you, amen. God cannot save a person who is self-righteous and doesn't see themself as a sinner in need of a savior. Secondly, God cannot save a person who will not repent of their sins and take Christ as their Savior. Now, a lot of denominations have their doctrines and they are man-made oftentimes because they tell men, the man that led me to Christ the day I got saved was lost for many years. He lived in an area of this town called Frog Holler. His family lived in that part of town. He told me one time when we were out knocking doors, he said, he said, Brother Tommy, he said, if you were in Frog Holler when the sun went down and you didn't belong over there, you got out of Frog Holler. But I'll tell you what happened to him. He's a middle-aged man and he was a drunkard. And he said a denominational preacher came by one day and said to him, said, Charlie, all you need to do is straighten up and do right and join the church and you'll be fine. And he said, I started trying to do it. He said, I started trying to quit. Everything I knew was wrong. And he said, I was trying to do it. And the harder I tried, the worse it got. He said, there was revival going on in one of the churches over there in Frog Holler. And said, the power of God was at work. And said, the pastor and the evangelist come by one day and they knocked on the door and said, ask if they could come in. They came in and they started telling me about Christ and telling me how I could be saved. He said, finally, he said, the man looked at me and he said, sir, he said, would you like to be saved? He said, I can't get saved. He said, what are you talking about? He said, I've already made up my mind. I'm going to hell. I can't get saved. and said he reached in his pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes and he slammed them on the coffee table. He said, I can't even quit these. He said, how can I get saved? He said, the evangelist slid up on his chair. He said, sir, it's occurred to me that you're trying to be a Christian without becoming a Christian. You've got the cart before the horse. He said, you've got to come to Jesus and get saved and God can clean up your life after you get saved. He said, you mean to tell me if I got down on my knees right now that he'd save me? He said, he sure will. He said, if I got down by this coffee table and ask him to save me, that he'd save me. He said, I'll tell you on the authority of the Bible that Jesus Christ will save you. He said, we got on our knees and I cried out to God, made that coffee table and altar and asked Jesus Christ to come into my heart and save me. He turned from his sins and took Christ as his savior, but God cannot save anyone that won't turn from their sins. Jesus said, I tell you, nay, but except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. Paul said, testifying to the Jews and also the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Let me say thirdly, God cannot save a person who comes to God any other way than through Christ. God cannot save you. You see, that'd be like saying, I'd like to go to Lexington. Would you please help me to go to Lexington? And you told me, well, if you just go out here to the stop sign and make a right, and then at the first turn up there, at the first break in the highway, just make a U-turn and go that direction. You know what? I may have believed you. I may have believed that you were sincere. I may have believed that if I took your directions, that I was gonna go to Lexington. But no matter how hard I drove, no matter how sincere I was, if I'm going south, I'm not gonna wind up in Lexington. You know why? Because Lexington is not south of here, it's north of here. And you can't go to heaven unless you go through Christ. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. There's not any other way. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. That is, Jesus said, I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved and go in and out and find pasture. Jesus said he's the only door to heaven. He said he's the only way to heaven. He's the truth about God and the life from God. If you come any way other than Christ, you cannot be saved. God cannot save anyone who tries to come another way other than Christ. Number four, and maybe most important as we progress through the message, number four, God cannot save anyone after they die. God saves no one after death. All of your choices for Jesus are made while you're alive. Jesus said to that crowd in Mark chapter two that brought the crippled man to him, before he caused him to rise up and take up his bed and walk away from that house that day, he said, but that ye may know that the son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins. When you leave this world, your destiny is sealed. When you breathe your last breath, when your heart stops and the doctor can never resuscitate you, I'll tell you this, your choices for Christ are over. Nobody's gonna pray you out of any place. Nobody's gonna get you anywhere from where you made your final choice for Jesus Christ. That's why I say to everyone here that the time to take Christ is today. The time to make the decision is now. That is because after death, no one is gonna be able to be saved. That's why the Bible said now is the accepted time and today is the day of salvation. You see, God many times sends witness after witness after witness. I was trying to win a man to Christ several years back and I remember walking up to the place where he lived and we started a conversation and I started talking to him about Christ and about eternity. This man looked at me and he said, Tommy, I usually tell people I don't want to hear it. I said, I know, and I answered by giving his name. I responded to him that day, and I said, I know that. I said, but all men still need to be saved. You're gonna need to be saved if you're gonna go to heaven. He was very gracious and kind with me that day. That man had a massive heart attack in his home. He died, as far as we know, without Christ, unless something else happened that we don't know about. I remember going to the viewing that day for the funeral. I took his son by the hand and I said, sir, I said, I want to apologize to you. I said, I tried, I tried to talk to this man about Christ. He said, preacher, it's not your fault. He said, I've witnessed to him many, many times. He told me about several instances where he had clearly gave his father the gospel of Christ. After the funeral, I had occasion to meet another man. And I said, you know, it was sad that this man, it seemed to be a picture of health, but died of an extreme cardiac event there in his own home. He said, preacher, he said, I tried many, many times to give that man the gospel. I said, you witnessed to him too? He said, yes, not just me. He said, in the church where I met, this man had a cousin that got saved that was a drunkard. He said many Sunday nights his cousin was in the altar praying and asking God to save his cousin. Said, I know that man went to his home a number of times and tried to plead with him to get saved by the grace of God. And I wanna tell you that I found out that the Lord had sent witness after witness, after witness, after witness. But you see, God cannot save a person that won't come to Christ. Jesus looked right at these men and said, you will not come to me that you might have life. You see, sometimes I know we're beating ourself up over the fact that our family member maybe hasn't turned to Christ yet. We're thinking maybe in some ways our mind's a little twisted that it's all up to us. But I'm gonna tell you, friend, it's not all up to us. Jesus said they have a will and a choice in this matter. They have a will and a choice. Charles Spurgeon said this about preaching Christ. He said, we preach Christ to those who want him and to those who don't want him. And we continue to preach Christ. We preach Christ to those who want him and those who don't want him until one day they decide they cannot live another minute without him. Then we preach Christ to them again and watch them come to Jesus. But it's my desire, and I believe it's the desire of Unity Baptist Church, if you're here today and you're still lost, and I ask you the question again, why are you still lost? It's not because you have questions unsettled or problems unseen, but it's simply because you haven't decided to turn to Him yet, and that today might be that day that you decide to come to Him. You see, one day it's gonna be too late to turn to Him. I say to you this morning, I feel like in this stage of my ministry, I'm preaching some of the last messages I'll ever preach. This has really gripped my heart. I've had this verse in my heart. I go and look because I say to myself, Lord, have I preached that before? But I have. Not like this, but I have. And see, I couldn't get away from it. So today, don't be like those in Jesus' day. Some of these very men that he addressed in this chapter could be burning in hell right now because the greatest preacher that ever lived told them time and time again, I've sent witnesses to you. I've sent people to you. There's another man I tried in this town to reach time and time and time again. I've been to his home a number of times. I sat with him and we tried to plead with him. On the day of this man's funeral, I learned that God not only sent, he not only sent one witness, he sent multiple witnesses. No, God loves you so much that he sent somebody to bring you the gospel and tell you about Christ. You see, you don't have to remain lost. You can take Christ as your savior. Let's stand with our heads bowed. The musicians are coming. With our heads bowed, I'd ask you the question, why are you still lost?