We're gonna be in John 5, verses 37 through 47. It reminds me of this section where Jesus is calling four witnesses to testify on his authority as the son of man. Reminds me of that scene from the movie, A Few Good Men, when a military lawyer was cross-examining one of the officers. And the lawyer demands, he says, I want the truth. And the man on the stand says, you can't handle the truth. I feel like this is the scene in John 5. The Jews are filled with rage and anger at Jesus healing on the Sabbath, calling God Father, making himself God. And it's as if the Jews are saying, we want the truth. Give us the truth, defend yourself, Jesus. But in their belief, they can't handle the truth. And it's true for everyone who's in unbelief. The truth just bounces off and it angers. Unless the spirit moves on hearts, dead men and women hate the truth. And we come to this last section in John 5. We come to this section. where Jesus again has called two witnesses that we looked at last week, John the Baptist. We've seen the witness of John the Baptist and Jesus himself called his own works, the works of that he has performed before their eyes that he has not performed, but he has done before their eyes. And we'll come to the final two today and we're going to move right into this quickly. And the first, We'll see today the third witness to the stand is God the Father in verses 37 and 38. Again, Jesus has been challenged. They are angry. They sought to kill Jesus for healing on the Sabbath. But Jesus now calls his father to witness on his behalf. And he says, and the father who sent me in verse 37 has himself borne witness about me. Again, these four witnesses that are given are in some sense all given from the Father, because if we look back at verse 32, it says, there is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true, and that's God the Father. But now Jesus is going to deal in a greater manner with the witness of the Father on his behalf. He reiterates, Jesus does here in this section, that he has been sent by the Father. He has been sent by the Father, now Jesus has chosen to allow the Father's witness to expound in a greater manner to witness to Jesus Christ. Did you ever stop and think, well, where has the Father in Scripture borne witness about Jesus? Well, even in our New Testament here, we know in Matthew chapter three, verse 16 and 17, and this is in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, At the baptism of Jesus, what were those words that were said in verses 16 and 17 of Matthew three? And it said, when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water and behold, the heavens were open to him and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove coming to rest on him. And behold, a voice from heaven said, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. The father's testimony of the son has been brought to say, Christ is the son of man, the son of God. And what he does comes with the authority of heaven. But that's not the only place. If you flip over to Matthew 17, verse five, we know from the transfiguration of Jesus, when he's up on the mountain, what does God say there about him? He was still speaking when behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them and a voice from the cloud said, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him. Listen to him. And yet these are just two examples of the New Testament. And at the time when Jesus was speaking to the Jews, they would have been referring to the Old Testament. All of the Old Testament. was full of the father bearing witness to his son with the hope of salvation being held out to Israel. You say, well, where was that? If you remember from our scripture reading in Luke 24, Jesus himself says, the law and the prophets, Moses and all of the prophets have continually spoken of the coming Messiah. Beginning in Genesis 3 after the fall of man. This is our hope for an unbelieving world This is the hope that that we as sinners can be forgiven that there would be one who would crush the head of the serpent This is the first gospel announcement in Genesis 3 15 that there's a Savior coming and He will crush the head of the serpent and But it doesn't stop there. The tabernacle and temple that we have seen, all parts of that are fulfilled in Jesus Christ, whom the Father is testifying about with all the details that were laid out. Every one of those pieces is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. He is the altar of sacrifice. He is the water that washes us. He is the light of the world. He is the one who went to the Holy of Holies. He is the high priest. He is the sacrifice for us. He is the one who makes intercession for us. The Father has all from the beginning bore witness about His Son who was to come. And Jesus is pointing to this truth. The whole sacrificial system is fulfilled in whom? The Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, who takes away the sin of the world. Every covenant that was made finds its yes and amen in Jesus Christ, because they all bore witness and point to as a sign to the Savior. But what does God continue to say there in the last part of 37? He says, to the Jews, again, these are people who spent their life studying the scriptures, knowing what the word has said. And he tells them this, his voice you've never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one in whom he is sent. Jesus addresses the religious Jews, excuse me, with this three-fold scathing attack on their unbelief. He is standing before them and point blank says, you Jews who claim to believe the law and the prophets who've come, you are deaf and blind. You are deaf and blind to the one whom scripture has testified. Just like us today, when someone calls on the phone, even before caller ID, you recognize them by their voice, but you recognize them even better by their appearance. Well, God has spoken to them. He said, you have heard the voice and you have seen my works. through whom I speak and point to, and that is my son. What does Hebrews 1 say? We've referred to this verse a lot, but listen to this. Hebrews begins by saying in verse 1, long ago and at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. Jesus, the son of God was speaking to them and they didn't hear. He was speaking to them in the flesh and they couldn't see. They were blind. The eternal word, the final and full revelation, the son of God was before them. This is what God has when he said, you have never heard, you've never seen. The word doesn't abide in you because you don't believe in the one whom I've sent. Hebrews 1 verse 2 continues, But in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He created the world. He's the radiance of the glory of God, the imprint of His nature, the exact imprint of His nature. And He upholds the universe, how? By the word of His power. Jesus is talking and taking them to the Old Testament. He said, you search the Scriptures, but you are blind. You think you know, but you don't know. And what does he say in that third scathing indictment on the Jews? He says, the Word does not abide in you, you Jews, because you missed who the Word was about. And who did Jesus say? Again, Old Testament, the Word was about. the one sent by the Father, the one whom the Father had sent. Jesus is the Son of God. He's the Son of God who was speaking to them, as I've said, and they could not hear. Jesus was in the flesh right before them. All that the scriptures had pointed to was standing before them. They had seen him do things that only God could do, telling a lame man to take up his bed and to walk. But they were blind. The Jews had the scroll in their hand, but they didn't have the word in their heart abiding in them. It did not dwell in them. That word meaning to dwell, to abide. Because they did not believe the one whom God the Father had sent. What's Jesus saying here? You cannot say that you love God and deny and reject the Son. Well, we just did almost all the false religions and cults in right there with that statement. We believe in God. There's more than one way to God. Well, not the God of the Bible, not the one true and living God. He says, you can't deny the father. I mean, deny the son and say that you love the father. You can't reject the son. He said, because the pastimes of God's voice, his true form being seen and the word abiding was fulfilled completely in Jesus Christ. Because that is God's greater and final word for His people. The Son was speaking to them, and they rejected His miracles and His message, and ultimately, they reject the Messiah. So God the Father here, and we'll move quickly through this first part today, the third witness. God the Father's given a clear and convincing witness to his son. But now where we'll spend most of our time here in verses 39 through 47, we get the fourth and final witness. And of all the things that Jesus could have chosen, what does he choose? He chooses to show us the implications of this fourth witness, and that is the scriptures themselves. And we see here with this question lingering in the background, what is the focus? Verse 39 says, you search the scriptures because you think in them you have eternal life. Think about that. In them you search because you think in them there is eternal life. Now let me tell you something, we're not talking about people who've got Bibles on their shelf in every translation and never crack it open. We're not talking about Christians who come to church and don't ever bring a Bible or want to be in it. That's not who we're talking about here. We're talking about the Pharisees whose regard for the scripture was so high that it got them in trouble. They thought that studying the scrolls and the very letters in the scriptures have the power of eternal life. We have eternal life because we study and care so highly about the scriptures and every letter that was there. In copying the scriptures, the scribes could only write one letter at a time before looking back to the text. That's the regard in which they held it. Now that is great for the accuracy of the text, but it's indicative of the misplaced focus because they missed the context of the scripture. This is a perfect example of missing the forest for the trees. Tell me if this makes sense. Let me give you a little example here. A seashore is a better place than a street because you need lots of room. At first, it is better to run than to walk. You may have to try several times. It takes some skill, but it's easy to learn. Even young children can enjoy it. Birds seldom get too close. If there are no snags, it can be very peaceful. But if it breaks loose, you won't get another chance. Make sense? Those were complete sentences. Letters were spelled right. What's missing? Context. We'll give you one word and see if it changes your understanding and the meaning of what was said. I'm gonna give you the word kite. A seashore is a better place than the street because you need lots of room for a kite. At first it's better to run than to walk. You may have to try several times. It makes some skill, but it's easy to learn to fly a kite. Even young children can enjoy the kite. Birds seldom get too close to a kite. If there are no snags, it can be very peaceful, but if it breaks loose, you won't get another chance to fly your kite. One word changed the whole context, didn't it? Of course it did, it made no sense, even though the letters were right, they were in the right place, and those were complete sentences. But this is what the Jews were doing. They had searched the scriptures and missed the context. They had read and written, and we are thankful for the work of gathering the translation of God's word for us, but they missed it. Just like as you sat here and heard me say something, and one word changed everything about those sentences. They were searching and even searching something as wonderful as the scripture, but without the context that one word, Jesus, it all fell apart. One word would have changed the lives of all of these Jews who was angry that Jesus healed on the Sabbath. And that he was claiming to be God and calling God his father. One word would have changed all that, Jesus Christ. That's two. I get in trouble when I say one word and I use four or three. But don't miss the point here. I gotta stop doing that. One word, Jesus. At one time, I listened to the end of a sermon. I said, I got four endings. There was like eight words. I count. I'm going, man, it's people going to think something's wrong. That's why we preach Christ and not my math skills. That's why we preach Christ and not the scribes and the Pharisees. We preach the word of God because it is where the authority is because Christ has to die for me to even speak these words and for you to even receive these words. But one word changed the context. Don't miss that. Jesus Christ. You see, it's not by searching and reading the scripture itself that imparts eternal life. That's not their job, folks. It's like asking a car to fly or a bike to float across the river. It's not his job. Their job is to do what? Bear witness about Jesus Christ. They are to lead us to Jesus Christ. Did you get that? When you come to your quiet time, or your devotional, or I'll pray, you read the word, do you realize you're coming to be taken to Jesus? Not six steps you need to be doing something else, but to come to Jesus. He says, they bear witness about me from Genesis to Malachi. There was one unfolding truth. And now we have the rest of the canon. But at this time, there was one unfolding truth of where eternal life could be found. And it's not on the pages of scripture. It's not in the ink. It's not in the letters. It's about the one in whom the scripture was testifying. And that is Jesus Christ. Again, I don't want you to miss this. Jesus was talking to a very devoted group of people. If there was a Bible study, they would be there with their Bible. They'd have one in the original language. They'd have every new study Bible. They would be checking you out to make sure that what you're saying is accurate. They would be having a daily quiet time with the Lord. They would not miss their devotions. The word was held in such high regards, though, that they miss whom the word was about. They were blind. They were deaf to the witness, to the witness of the word of God. They missed what it was pointing to, and that is Jesus Christ. Again, think about this. Within the context of this situation, the Jews were upset because Jesus healed on the Sabbath and they said broke the law. He didn't break God's law. He broke all the stuff they had added to try to protect the laws on the Sabbath, that they had missed the joy of Jesus. They missed Jesus himself. They missed the point. But Jesus doesn't stop here. Look at verse 40. He says, yet you refuse to come to me. You pour over the scriptures. You look for him searching for eternal life. And yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. Now, this is a sobering statement, is it not? That you can read and search the scriptures, but refuse to come to Jesus. You can hear scripture and refuse to come to Jesus. You can sit under God's word and refuse to come to Jesus. This refusing to believe or come to Jesus meant that they, and the same for us today, you don't have eternal life. You must come to Jesus. Jesus himself, again, think of Luke 24. where he interpreted all of scripture. Would you have not loved to walk that? Where he took them when he says from Moses, that's the, that's the tour of the five books, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. And Jesus has given them, this is how it's fulfilled in me, man, would that not have been a great class to walk? And then all the prophets that they were fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Do we see this here? But the problem was unbelief and self-righteousness had blinded the Jews. They thought they were righteous in their religious work. And here was their, one of their big works was wanting to keep the law so bad that they missed Jesus, the great law keeper and law fulfiller. That was their, one of their big issues. Their self-righteousness, they thought could make them right by their study and detailed looking into the scriptures, but they missed him. Even such a good thing like reading the scriptures, yet refusing to come to Jesus, they had no life. So we talked about here, who's the focus? Well, Jesus is clearly saying who's the focus. Well, look here in verse 41, but who gets the glory? This is the other thing that's just weighing in the background. There's a section here, and this is the first part where Jesus says, I don't receive glory from people. Let's get this straight. Jesus doesn't need the glory and affirmation of the Jews or anyone else to prove who he is. He's out to please and glorify the Father. He doesn't need their affirmation to confirm who he is. He's not dying and beckoning them to believe and trying everything. Jesus didn't fit the description that they desired of a Messiah. And so he wouldn't affirm their sinfulness. and he didn't like it. That's what the word does. It's not going to affirm your sinfulness. Jesus says in verse 42, but I know that you do not have the love of God within you. Again, this omniscience, this all-knowing, knowing the heart of man and what's being played out. Jesus gets right to the heart of the matter. Hey, you know what? That's why people stay away from the Word of God, because it is sharper than a two-edged sword. It pierces right to the soul. It knows your heart. You can fool your friends, you can fool your family, you can fool yourself, but you cannot fool Jesus Christ through the Spirit and the Word when it gets right inside of those dark crevices. But when you stay away from it, you know, you become dull to it. But even then you have the law written on your heart and mind and it testifies to it. But Jesus says, I know that you don't have a love of God in you. He gets to their very heart, their very motives. He knows that in us too, our very heart and our very motives and our desires or lack of desires that we have for him. And he says, I know you don't have the love of God within you. You say, well, how does he know? Well, look at verse 43. He says, I have come in my father's name and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. Again, it's almost like if I preached in this manner, maybe you feel this way already, but in a, in a seminary, in a homiletics class, you get busted. If you keep repeating yourself over and over again, Jesus is just repeating himself. I'm going to say it this way. He said, I'm going to say it again. I'm going to say it again. And he says, I affirm in my works and all that I do is consistent with the Father because I've been sent from the Father. Again, can you imagine the anger? This is what made him mad in the first place. You're saying you're God. You're calling God Father. They didn't talk in that manner. And here's Jesus doing it. He's doing things in the name of the Father, yet he's still not received. The unbelief though is the major problem. The unbelief of the Jews is the problem. It wasn't that they needed more teaching on scripture or anything, they needed to have eyes to see and ears to hear. That's what unbelief does. It blinds, deafens and kills. Jesus has now given four witnesses just in this section and they're still rejecting him. He's given John the Baptist, who they have affirmed. He's given his own works in which they saw. Nobody denied that a lame man was walking. That he gave God the Father and pointed it out. Now he's saying all of scripture. And yet they still don't believe. Next time an unbeliever says, well, if you could just give me some proofs, I would believe. They're lying to you. Because all the proof they ever need is given. You got nature, you got the law written on their heart, and they have a conscience. They're without excuse. Don't play that game. The truth is, for all of us here, we have no excuse. God has spoken, He speaks through His words, and He has given us the witnesses to bear truth on who He is. He says if someone comes in their own name, they'll be received by them, by the Jews. He's speaking of those false messiahs, those false prophets that would come, and they would gladly lap them up, and they would receive them eagerly, because that message would be more pleasing to the Jews, and it tickled their ears. It tickled their ears. How can you believe when you receive glory from another and do not seek the glory that comes from God? Jesus is bookending this glory section here, is he not? He's bookending this glory section by teaching that the Jew's unbelief is manifest in a desire to receive glory from man. That's what unbelief does. We don't think of it this way. People in unbelief don't articulate this way, but ultimately unbelief says, I'm seeking my own glory. I'm seeking my own way because I know best. And I love when man glories and affirms me in my sin. There was an old carnival headliner. They nicknamed him cannonball. In his younger days, he was blasted out of a cannonball 1200 times. They said, why in the world would you do this? Here's his response. Do you know what it's like to feel the applause of 60,000 people? He said, that's why I did it. That's what the Jews are saying. Yes, Jesus, we physically see, we can physically look, but the glory that man gives us, our status in society, who I am, feels much greater than coming to you and dying to myself. and admitting my sin. And that's what sinful unbelief does. We all like to be in the cannonball because we want the applause of man. Nobody wants to hear, come and die, take up your cross, follow me, count the cost. And Jesus is saying, I'm laying out the witness. And it's a witness that has been given from Genesis. And now we have to revelation that is consistent. The Jews were more concerned with applause and accolades for their knowledge than they were seeking the glory of God. Pride loves the glory of the flesh, loves the glory of another, and it's pride that wants all the glory. 2 Corinthians 4, I've looked at this this week, and it is just humbling when you think about this. 2 Corinthians 4, verses four through six. Think about these words here. And he's talking about unbelievers at the beginning. It says, in their case, the God of this world has blinded the mind of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ is Lord with ourselves as your servants for Jesus sake. For God who said, let light shine out of darkness has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. You want to see the glory of God? Look at the face of Jesus Christ. You say, but where? He's not here. The Word of God, by faith we see. the glory of God shining forth in His Son. Yes, when He came, His glory was veiled before man, but He was standing before them in man, before man in the flesh. If anyone says, well, if I would have seen these things, I would have believed. No, you wouldn't, apart from the grace of God. But we have a greater word to us now, all of Scripture that says, behold the face of Jesus Christ. When is the last time we just said, I want to simply stop and behold the glory of God? I want to look into the face of God in his scripture, and by the help of the Spirit, see. Because as that verse said at the beginning, there are many who are blinded in their minds as unbelievers. If you sat in here today as an unbeliever, I pray that you would flee to Christ and that he would move on your heart because as unbelievers, you are blind to this. And that's what Jesus is standing before people whose job was to study the word and to care about it and teach it. And they could not see the key. They missed the kite in the story. They missed Jesus. In verse 45, he continues this. He's gonna slam the door shut on this. He says, but do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There's one who accuses you, Moses, on whom you've set your hope. Oh man, he is throwing flames at him now. Moses is accusing us? He says, because if you'd have believed Moses, you'd have believed me, because Moses wrote about me. Think about this, the Jews who claim to love Moses and the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. Well, Moses wrote about Jesus. When's the last time in your Bible reading plan when you say, well, I'm getting in here to Leviticus and this is terrible, and then you go, hey, Lord, show me Jesus. Where do I see Jesus in Deuteronomy? Where do I see Jesus in Exodus? Where do I see Jesus in Numbers? Because I want to behold your glory. And that's what he's saying. Jesus' own words is, Moses wrote about me. You're without excuse. He said, because if you truly believed Moses, then you would believe in Jesus because it was Jesus who Moses was writing about. One more place to convince you of this beautiful truth is this sobering story in Luke 16, verses 27 through 31. You're familiar with this. This is the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man goes to hell and Lazarus goes to heaven. He tells this story. Let me back up here to verse 24, where Lazarus is calling out He says, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am in anguish in this flame. But Abraham said, Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things and Lazarus in like manner bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in anguish. And besides all this between us and you, there's a great chasm has been fixed in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able and none may cross from there to us. And he said, then I beg you father to send them to my father's house for I have five brothers so that they may warn them lest they come into this place of torment. But Abraham said, they have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. And he said, no father Abraham, but if someone goes from the dead, they'll repent. He said to them, if they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead. Brothers and sisters, he's risen and people don't believe. He's risen, do you believe? He's risen and has given His testimony, all of His Word, so that you may believe in Him. And you find not only life eternal, but daily life. That is a sobering story that brothers and sisters that he wants a finger dipped in the water because that's the eternal separation of God. He said, and if you just go tell someone from the dead what it's like here, they'll believe they won't believe. And what did he say that they should believe is the word of God, the people of God who has been prophesied and testified and written for us to believe. And Jesus then in verse 47 says, but if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words? Jesus concludes this by stating they couldn't believe him if they won't believe the word of Moses. Oh, how this made him angry. That's why when we saw there in John where it said in verse 16, this is why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him. He's laid out his witnesses and they have testified and it's true. But the rage that sparks in unbelievers is just as true then as it is today. Sin wants to be affirmed in its position. And even as believers, we struggle with that. We want our sin affirmed. And when Jesus comes and says, believe my words, we have to decide, where we will choose the sin or the Savior in our decisions that we make. They didn't believe Moses, and so it was actually Moses who was accusing them. Because Jesus' deductive logic is this. All the scripture is written about and fulfilled in Him. If you can't accept Jesus, then you're definitely not going to accept Moses, who was writing about Jesus. I say that both of these final witnesses Jesus used in defense of the accusations of his unbelieving Jews. But what did he focus on ultimately? Yes, he brought in the witness of the Father, but he used the word of the witness of the Father, and then all of scripture. The Father's witness, the word not abiding in them, and then scripture as a whole. Let me ask you one question, folks. Where do we hear and see the witnesses that Jesus has laid out and testify about him? Scripture, the Word of God. I pray that you have seen today that if you want to be not only a believer, trust Christ today, the Scripture is laid out with a most convincing argument, come to salvation. But as believers who've trusted in Him, you must be people of the book. You must be people of the Word. Because the Word points to where you find life. You want to know how much you trust that? Talk about how much time you spend in the book of life and how much you spend apart from it. If we really believed this, our Sunday schools would be jam-packed and our pews would be full. And your life at home would be ordered around the word of God and all that we do in prayer. I'm not speaking as a rival, I'm telling the truth for all of us. And so when Jesus says this, we not only come for eternal life and say, that's good, I got that checked off, but you come for daily life. We must be people of the book. We must be people of the word. It's because that's where we find life eternally and daily. We'd make it our habit to take advantage of all the Lord's Day offers. All of your time in private and family and Bible studies and all these things that God does. I'm not here to obligate you to everything, but I'm here to say do you feast and find your greatest joy in the Word of God and fellowship around the Word of God. Because it must abide in us. Jesus said that you don't have the love of God in you because the Word doesn't abide in you. It doesn't abide in you. We must search the scriptures always with the key in mind though, folks. We don't come to Bible study to check off a mark or to read about something. It is with the key in mind, Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ. The way we put the scriptures or fail to put the scriptures into action in our life reveals just how deeply we believe the word of God. We must come with a seeking spirit and receptive to the word of Jesus, eager to believe and obey out of joy and motivation. From what truth, though? You say, Josh, you're telling me things, but what's your motivation? Why do you stand up here and preach? Because of this right here. Let me tell you this, folks. We aren't saved by grace. We are saved by the grace of God or the God of grace. That changes how you read the Bible. You can say grace, grace, grace, but you understand you're saved by the grace of God. Brothers and sisters, we're not saved by faith. You're saved by faith in Jesus Christ. It's not grace that saves or faith that saves. It's the grace of God and the faith in Jesus Christ that saves. It's not the word that we need, folks. It's the word of God. It's the word of Christ with its witness pouring forth life for us. Won't you pray and say, God, make me a person who loves the word of Christ more than anything, because in it, I find life now and eternally. Let's pray.