John's Gospel, chapter 5, verse 39. The Word of God says, May God add blessings to the reading of His Word this morning. This week our study of John's Gospel takes us to a third witness of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you've been here the last two Sundays, you've been shown the witness of a faithful person through John the Baptist as an example of how our witness should be lived. Last week you were shown the witness of a fruitful life as an example of how our witness should be recognized. Today, the Lord will show us a witness as the work of His Word. The work of His Word. And how it should and should not be handled in our life. The Word of God is the theology and doctrine of the church. There is no other. Now having said that, I feel that it's time to refresh our understanding of the church. And I choose to begin by discussing what the church is not. It is not the name of a building or a denomination. Those do identify socially and culturally. But that's not the most important part or the extent of their use. So the church isn't a place we come to. Then what is it? The church is who we are. Spiritually speaking, you cannot become a member of the church by majority vote. Spiritually speaking. I understand how that remark may upset some people, but based on God's Word, it is true. You become a member of the church by regeneration through being born again by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. And that as a result of his shed blood. It is a biblical practice to join with a like-minded group of believers in fellowship through the testimony of baptism by immersion. and that by coming forth and asking for inclusion and being asked to come and join and be a part of that fellowship and that congregation and then through baptism joining a local congregation. We all should have that in our lives. We all should have the testimony of baptism in our life and fellowship and membership with a body of believers. That is why and how we are distinctively set apart as Baptists. We recognize the New Testament church as being a congregation of baptized believers. And because of regeneration, the New Testament church is also known as the body of Christ. We are the hands and the feet. of Jesus extended to the world around us. If you're not identified by the Lord as part of his body, then you're not part of the church or the body of Christ. Salvation makes that distinction. And that's something that we all must come to an understanding of spiritually. Being born again or regenerated through the blood of Jesus Christ makes us the spiritual member of the church. Joining a like-minded group of believers in a congregation through baptism aligns us and joins us through a congregation as a family in fellowship, one with another. So how does all of this identify with today's message? Well, I'm glad you asked. It's through the Word of God, our Bible, from which we are spoken to by the Holy Spirit and we are convicted of our sin, we are called to repent, we are called to be regenerated, through Jesus Christ. And as a regenerated, born-again believer, we are instructed from God's Word. And through that instruction, we are led in worship and service to the Lord Jesus Christ. So this morning I want to show you three things. from the passage that we've read. Notice with me first that the work of the Word is not vanity. God's Word isn't intended to glorify the church. The work of God's Word is not intended to glorify the church. It is intended to direct us through worship to glorify him. Did we come this morning to lift up Jesus Christ? Did we come this morning to sing praises to Him? Did we come this morning to show our adoration to Him and to have Him speak to us on behalf of our convictions, through our convictions about our failures, our faults? the blessings of this past week and how we can be prepared to move ahead into the week that starts and takes us through our work week and into life throughout the remainder of it. Or did we come here today expecting to be lifted up? God's Word does not lift us personally or as a congregation or as even the body of Christ. We come together today or we should come together with the right heart and the right attitude and the right direction in our life to lift up Jesus Christ and to give thanks and praise and glory to God Himself for everything that He has supplied and given to us. Likewise, God's Word doesn't provide us with a work or a behavior that redeems us. We can't find in God's Word a sacrifice to make. We can't find in God's Word an amount of money to give. We can't find in God's Word a particular mission or ministry to go on. We can't be saved by works. God's Word does not give us that. God's Word doesn't tell us that we can be saved by works or by deeds or even by morals. Being a good person doesn't save us. Being an honest person or a truthful person or a good person doesn't save us. The Bible says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We are born in a sin nature. Depravity is a word that describes it. Depravity is a very catching word. But it's a very accurate word when it comes to the condition of mankind. The very best that we have to offer is nothing more than filthy rags to God. But yet, it is God that does provide us with Jesus Christ as Redeemer, as Lord, as Savior for our souls. It is He who has paid the price. It is He who has redeemed mankind. It is He who will forgive us of our sin and regenerate us when He calls us to salvation. When the Holy Spirit touches our hearts, and tells us it's time, it's time to come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior when we are called to do so and we move forward and we ask Him to forgive us of our sin. We ask Him to write our names in the Lamb's Book of Life. We ask Him to redeem us. We walk away knowing that we have a relationship with Jesus then. That is the work of the Word of God. That is not vanity. Jesus Christ is not vanity. Anything that we want to bring to it, anything that we want to read into it, anything that we want to make out of it, that is vanity. And that is not what the Word of God is. Well, the work of God does reveal to us some things. It reveals first and foremost the Son of God. Do you realize God's Word from Genesis to Revelation testifies of Jesus Christ? From the very first word in Genesis to the very last word in Revelation, it's about Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was present at creation. Jesus Christ was present at Adam and Eve's redemption. Jesus was present at Noah's Ark and their salvation. Jesus was present on Mount Sinai with Moses when the Ten Commandments and the Law was given. Jesus was present at the Feast of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came down and birthed the church. And He is present in the lives of every born-again believer. Every word that we read speaks of Jesus Christ. We've got something to celebrate. We've got something to be joyous over. We have got something to praise God for in Jesus Christ and through His salvation. That's why folks don't like to hear about Jesus today. And if you notice, it's getting more and more prevalent. It's okay to talk about religion. It's okay to talk about morals. It's okay to talk about getting along. It's okay to talk about tolerance. It's okay to talk about any of these other things. It's okay to talk about helping others. I think the world calls it philanthropy. It's okay to talk about all of that. It's okay to talk about God as long as you do it in a broad text where God can be anything to anyone. But when you come down to Jesus, and when you start talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, that's a little different story. People start saying, now, wait a minute. Wait just a minute. If we're going to talk about Jesus Christ, we've got to understand something. Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes into the Father except through Him. He is the narrow gate. It is through Him and only through Him that men and women are saved and born again. That starts narrowing things down. That starts eliminating the false gods of Mohammed. That starts eliminating the false gods of Allah. That starts eliminating the false gods that are in Buddhism. That starts eliminating the false gods that are in Mormonism. That starts eliminating the false gods that are in the watchtowers. That starts eliminating all of the other idols and idolatry that's up around the world. from tribes and nations. It comes down to one and only one and that is Jehovah God, his son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit as the triune Godhead of everything. That sets us apart. That sets the believers apart. That sets Christians apart. That sets the true church apart. That's why we can't compromise the Word of God. That's why we can't go in arbitrarily and just change things to make us feel better. We have to accept the Word of God as it is, the inerrant, the infallible, the inspired Word of God that has nothing but truth to give to us. And that means we have to be willing to accept it. We have to be willing to let it speak to our hearts and change our lives. Even as the church, we have to be willing to grow in our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. And we have to embrace the Word of God. Are we willing to do that? Are you willing to do that today? Are you willing to embrace it as the truth that it is? Now you may say, well preacher, that's a dumb question. Of course I am. I hope so. But do you realize if you are, you're one of a very small group of people today. Because there is a growing number of people in this county that will stand up and will tell you they do not accept this as the inerrant and inspired Word of God. They will tell you that they believe it contains the Word of God. They will believe that it sometime in the past maybe has been the Word of God but isn't today. They will try to disclaim it as being the thoughts and the opinions of people. I've heard it called mysticism and I've heard it called all kinds of fiction. I've heard it called everything. And more and more people are trying to align themselves with that. Why? In order to justify sin and disobedience and rebellion in their life. They had rather be part of the world than they had to be part of the kingdom of God. They had rather be aligned with the world and the pleasures of the world than they had to be aligned with the discipline and the obedience that comes from following God's Word. The work of the Word of God is to change lives and to bring us closer to God. The Word of God manifests itself through regeneration of lives of born-again believers and the born-again believers desiring a closer walk with God. The Lord reveals a profound fact And that is the concern of the depravity of man. We will not come to him. Notice verse 40. Notice with me verse 40. And ye will not come to me that ye may have eternal life. That's what he's telling the Pharisees. The Pharisees, remember, are the ones that started this conversation with Jesus. They're the ones that came to Him and they started this thing, they initiated it. And Jesus is now taking them to school. He is taking them to school on their own thoughts. The Pharisees are supposed to be the ones that are the religious elite. And here Jesus is correcting them and he's saying, you know, you memorize the scripture. You have it memorized front to back and back to front. You have a head knowledge of it but you don't have a heart knowledge because you won't follow it and let it lead you to me. The results of depravity. It is the results of a sin nature that goes unrepentant. If we go unrepentant to God, we push away from God. And the longer we are unrepentant, the farther away we push. The farther away we push, the more disobedient we become, and the farther away we want to push, until we get farther and farther and farther away, and our heart gets more hardened. And that's what had happened here. Jesus said, come to me." Those words should run cold chills up our spine. You will not come to me. That means they're lost. That means they have no hope apart from repentance. There is a sin that is an unforgivable sin, and it is the rejection of the Holy Spirit. And if God is calling people, and people are rejecting Him, they are embracing that sin. They're pushing away farther and farther and farther. That's the condition of the world. The work of the Word convicts us of our spiritual need. If we want eternal life, it's necessary for us to respond to the call of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our knowledge, being able to quote Scripture, being able to learn the languages of Greek and Hebrew, all of that is very impressive and it impresses a lot of people in a lot of areas. But if we don't have Jesus as our Lord and as our Savior, and if we don't allow Him to work in our lives and give us a true understanding of His Word, if we don't let Him touch our heart and in our life and call us and redeem us and then lead us and guide us to a close relationship with Him, all of the head knowledge is for nothing. It will do nothing but impress man. We have enough of that going on today. It's time we quit worrying about impressing others. It's time we quit worrying about impressing God. It's time we quit worrying about all of that and we just start worshiping and following and praising and enjoying the company and the presence of God in our lives. Nothing can lead us closer to God than enjoying His presence, being obedient to His calling. Let Him draw us closer to Him. and embrace it. If we get close to God and we embrace Him and we enjoy the presence of God, we will enjoy the presence of one another. Our fellowship will increase. Our influence in the world around us will increase. Everything will get greater and better and be more beautiful and more godly in our lives. If we will learn to enjoy God's presence, God and His presence and draw close to it and not worry about the world. There is nothing the world can offer that will come close to matching the joy of being in the presence of God and being in His will. I can look back over my life and I can see where I could have made some academic decisions about a decade ago and I could probably be an electrical engineer today. I could probably be making six figures a year. Realistically, I probably could. But God touched my heart and God called me to follow Him into the ministry. And I did. And I don't regret it. I don't regret it. Let them have the six figures. Let them have it. I've got Jesus. I've got Jesus. And there is a growing number, but there's a number of people today that still have a hard time really accepting the fact that God called me into the ministry, I accepted it, and they want to say, who? You? That's okay. I know what God has done. I know what He has called me to do. And I know where I stand with Him. And I can tell you from experience this morning, there's no greater joy than to know that I'm walking in the fellowship of God and I'm where He wants me to be. I make my mistakes. I have my faults and my shortcomings. And I'm man enough to come to God with them. as David did and say, I have sinned against you and I'm also mature enough to know, I can experience forgiveness and maintain that close relationship. And you know what? You can too. You can too. If you're saved and you're born again today and you're not walking where God wants you to walk, That can all be fixed. All it takes is repentance. So what keeps us separated from God? What stands in the way, first of all, of salvation, and second of all, what stands in the way of enjoying God and enjoying who He is and enjoying that walk that He wants us to have with Him? Well, first of all, it's self-righteousness. We have a tendency to explain away our sin. Well, I would not have done it had this not happened or had this person not done this. Or I'm okay. Hey, I've never done this. I've never done that. Self-righteousness. We have a tendency to go into... Our depravity pulls us into self-righteousness. Our sin nature takes us down the road of self-righteousness. We don't want to come face to face with who we really are. We had much rather think about who we want to be or who we are in our mind. Who we are when we compare ourselves to someone else. God's not going to judge us. based upon who we are compared to someone else. He's going to judge us based upon who He has called us to be compared to what is listed in His Word and where we really are in our heart. He's going to measure us against Jesus Christ. And we're all going to come up short. So we need to avoid self-righteousness. We also have a tendency to have a love for sin. Now you may say, wait a minute now preacher, that's not me. I don't love sin. I don't have a love for sin. We all have a tendency to want to fall in love with sin. It may be the little white lie, but it's still sin. It may be that we love being drawn away into the arrogance of athletics. and competition, how we watch athletes build themselves up and put themselves upon a pedestal. We watch the media put them on a pedestal and then we find ourselves looking up to that one person, to that one athlete, to that one superstar. We have them on a pedestal and before we know it, whether we realize it or whether we intend it, we're committing idolatry. We're spending our time focused on that person. We're spending our time focused on some lust. We're spending our time focused on something other than the Lord Jesus Christ. If something keeps us from experiencing the joy of a relationship with God and enjoying God, then there's something between us and them and that's sin. In its simplest terms, it may not be by definition designed to be sin, but we turn it into sin because we let it get between us and God. And then there is the idolatry of religion. We get into a ritual. We get into a routine. We get into a ceremony. And because the ritual and the routine and the ceremony is popular, because it's accepted, because it feels good, we convince ourselves that we're doing the right thing. Religion is worthless without redemption. Religion is worthless if it's keeping us from a proper relationship with God. Religion is worthless if it's preventing us from enjoying the presence of God in our life. If we're not growing, if our rituals, if our routines, if our ceremonies are standing in the way of us drawing close to God and enjoying His presence, then we're not doing something right. We're following the views and the opinions of people, of man, and we're ignoring the principles of the Word of God. And last, the last thing that really fits and encompasses everything, the list could go on and on and on, but pride. Pride stands in the way of us enjoying God. We feel like we deserve eternal life. Now we may not say it. We may not be arrogant enough to say it or to even think it to ourselves, but we practice it in our life, in our daily routine. If we're not careful, we find ourselves living out the belief that we deserve eternal life. We deserve eternal life because we're Americans. Because we're Americans, God will bless us and God will take care of us and God will redeem us. You won't find that in the Bible. We deserve eternal life because we're Baptists. You won't find that in the Bible. We deserve eternal life Because we are what? And again, we may not say it. But if we really take time to listen at how we describe ourselves and our thoughts and our feelings about eternal life and salvation, we very quickly can find that even in our own thoughts and in our own words, we find pride coming out. And I pray that we will be humbled and that God will convict us of pride in our lives so that we can eliminate it and get it out of our life and we can focus strictly on Him. We can focus on Jesus Christ, and by doing so, we can enjoy the presence of God, and we can enjoy the fellowship of one another, and we can celebrate God in worship and in service, and indeed, and it's not about what I do. It's not about who I am. It's not about the titles that I have hung around my neck. It's not about anything that deals with me, but it's all about God and bringing glory to Him and His Son Jesus Christ and seeing other folks that need salvation drawn to it. It's the glory and the joy of being in the presence of a holy and righteous God and knowing that we're living the way He wants us to live and knowing that we are at peace with him. As I prepare to close, I want to ask if our musicians will come and prepare a hymn this morning. In conclusion, what do we walk away with this morning? As we've looked at the work of the word of God in our lives as a witness, what do we walk away with? Well, I want to briefly outline two things that I believe should stand out in our lives. First, the Word of God should speak to you and me personally. By that I mean it should direct our heart to a personal relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ. Yes, that does mean answering the Holy Spirit's call to salvation. But it doesn't stop there. That's just the beginning. Being born again is just the beginning. It's the beginning of a new life. The Word of God should shape the life of every believer and that shaping begins with a desire to be close to God. So, does the Word of God establish in your heart a desire to get closer to Him? Are you hungry for God's Word? Are you hungry for God's presence this morning, personally in your life? We talk a lot, and rightfully so, about the condition of families. We talk about the condition of a nation. We see those conditions because of the shape of the individual. The individual that doesn't desire a close relationship with God. So I can ask you, you in your life personally, are you desiring that? Second, the Word of God should speak through us. If it speaks to us, it should speak through us. Every born-again believer is expected to live in a manner that testifies to the holiness of God. It's expected of us to live that way. God expects us to live that way. It is that life that will influence those outside of the church, those that need to experience Jesus Christ, those that need to be called to repentance and salvation. It is through us that God will work to plant those seeds. Being regenerated as a born-again follower of Jesus Christ, again we're new creatures. Old things are passed away. All things have become new. Have they become new in your life? Are they new? Is life new? If life is truly new in your regeneration, if you're a new creature, you ought to have that desire in your heart to enjoy God and to let Him be as close to you and pull you as close to Him as He can. When family, friends, co-workers, or anyone for that matter sees you today, do they see a new person? Or do they see a different person or the same person of decades ago? Is there a change in your life? If there is, praise God for that. Praise God for that change. Even though you may not be popular with family and you may not be popular with friends or co-workers or anyone like that, If the bars no longer interest you, if the language of the world no longer interest you, if greed no longer interest you, if backbiting and gossip no longer interest you, praise God for that. He's calling you to get closer to Him. Are you willing to do that this morning? I've heard it said that when I'm in the church I respect God. That's good. Okay? But do you respect Him outside of church too? Or does it only come into play when you walk through the doors? We take God with us and we represent Him and He needs to work through us everywhere we go. The work of the Word of God should speak to others through our lives. That's what I'm trying to say this morning. This includes words and deeds and thoughts and actions and decisions and behaviors and the list goes on and on and on. Every aspect of our life should be a testimony of what God has done and is doing in our life. And we should be a living, breathing example that we enjoy the presence of God. every hour of every day. And the world should be able to sense it, and other believers see it. It reminds me of a word, and that word is liberty. Life is liberty. Liberty is broadly defined as freedom from restraint. We have liberty to make decisions in life, don't we? We think of America as the land of liberty. We think of it and we have decisions in life. So, are your decisions God honoring? Are your decisions decisions that point to the holiness and the righteousness of God? Are they decisions that seek Him in your life. Well, this morning I say this. As we close, if God's dealing with your heart for anything at all, would you take this opportunity to come and do business with Him? The doors of the church, as always, are open at the end of the service, whatever the circumstance may be. If God's dealing with your heart, will you come?