The testimony of the Scriptu..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. John chapter 5 from verse 31. Jesus is speaking.

If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the witness that he bears about me is true. You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was a burning bush, a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.

But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing bear witness about me that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent Me has Himself borne witness about Me. His voice you have 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 He has sent. You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is they that bear witness about Me.

Yet you refuse to come to Me that you may have life. I do not receive glory from people, but I know that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you receive him. How can you believe when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?

Do not think I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you, Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words? Amen.

This is the word of the Lord. Well, by God's grace, we'll continue this evening in this glorious chapter, the chapter 5 of the gospel according to John. And it is truly, it surprises me. I'm amazed how many glorious truths we find in these 47 verses in this one chapter before us. wonderful theological and Christological truths, the high and the lofty about who our Savior is, who Jesus is.

Truths that He claims from His own mouth from verses 19 through 30, which are astounding. Truths that we cannot but sit back and pay homage to and be in awe of. Because Christ is saying in essence that He and the Father are one. He is equal with the Father. in all things, and He's united with the Father in all things.

Last week, we started the passage that is before us, which is titled in our Bibles, The Witness to Jesus. And if you remember last week, I explained and I said there are three witnesses to Jesus in this passage, broadly speaking, and we looked at two last week. John the Baptist, the witness of John the Baptist. The Father sent John and the witness of Jesus' works, the works the Father had given Jesus to do. John the Baptist was a great witness to Christ.

He was a man who was prepared in his mother's womb to do the very thing that God had ordained for him to be, the forerunner, to bear witness to Jesus. Even before Jesus made it on the scene, He was preaching repentance and faith and the necessity of holiness. He was baptizing the multitudes that had come from all over the country. And they were repentant sinners who came into the wilderness so that it would be baptized by this man, because they recognized their need to be cleansed from within, cleansed from sin. And that was what John's baptism was.

It was a baptism of repentance, symbolizing the need to be cleaned from all iniquity. He preached the Messiah is coming with a God-given boldness, and he did not compromise on his message, not even unto death. And it is that message. It is that conviction that landed him in prison, and ultimately it was his brutal death. But when Christ came on the scene, His proclamation no longer to Israel, Hey Israel, you need to be ready because Messiah is coming.

But rather, He knowing that Christ has come because it was revealed to Him by the Spirit of God, His proclamation was, Behold, your Messiah has come. His testimony was that this Messiah, this Jesus is the Son of God. His testimony was that this Jesus is the Lamb of God. His testimony was this Jesus is the one who takes away the sin of the world. You see, John's testimony was great and he was faithful in what he did.

But we considered last week what our Lord said, and he said that even though John's testimony was great, there's another testimony which is greater still, and that is the works the Father had given Christ. to do. And that of course entails all the work of our Lord that he accomplished in his incarnation. All of it, his words, his deeds, all the way to his atoning sacrifice, his burial, his resurrection, all of it spoke to whom Jesus is. It was a testimony to his deity.

It was a testimony to his messiahship. But in the context of our passage, and with the timely miracle of the invalid man of 38 years being healed, we said last week that in the context, it seems most likely that Jesus is speaking here, the signs that the Father, or the works that the Father had given Him, are more so the divine signs and wonders that were in view. See, anyone with a heartbeat would recognize that these signs and wonders could not possibly be accomplished by a mere man. That's not a possibility. The witnesses who saw what Christ did in His wonders, in His miracles, would have to acknowledge that it is Yahweh that is behind this Jesus.

and the right response at that moment, when one recognizes that a man cannot do the healings that Jesus did, a man cannot do the feats that Jesus did, then the right response would be to stand back and look at this Jesus and say, we believe you are from God. And then listen. Listen to what he has to say, because he's been authenticated by God. And when they hear what Jesus has to say, his testimony is similar to that of John's. I am the Son of God.

But then he'll go on to say, I am equal with the Father. I am perfect in unity with the Father. I and the Father are one. I do the work of the Father, and I speak the words of the Father. That's the testimony of Christ.

That's where we left off last week. And now, of course, we go to or we come to the third witness. Now, we know that the Jews, for the most part, they rejected Jesus. Here in verse 37, our Lord's indictment of the Jews actually is stepped up. It's heated up.

Because until now, the Father has witnessed to Christ in an indirect way. You see, the Father, we're told in John chapter 1, sent John. Jesus told us in this chapter that the Father gave Him the works to do. So the Father is witnessing in and through John and through the work of Jesus Christ. But here, in the verses before us, Jesus is saying that the Father is giving a direct witness to Christ.

Now, although the rejection of John or the works of Christ is a rejection of the Father, His listeners, they didn't think that way. But now Jesus' words cannot be mistaken. The Father Himself has borne witness about me, Jesus is saying. Yahweh Himself testifies directly to who I am. The question we need to ask is, how?

How has the Father testified to Christ? What is Jesus referring to? Now, He could be referring to the voice. of the Father, and the Father has directly testified to Jesus Christ through His voice. We know at the time of the baptism of Christ, when a voice came down from heaven, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased."

And we know the Father also testified of the Son with His own voice at the Mount of Transfiguration when the pre-incarnate glory of Christ, the glimpse of that was revealed before Peter, James, and John, and the voice also came down from heaven. And He spoke the same words as in the baptism of Christ, but He added a phrase, listen to Him. However, these two events the baptism and the... the Transfiguration are listed in the Synoptic Gospels, but they're not listed here in the Gospel according to John. They're not found here.

Now, there are hints in this Gospel that the Apostle does presuppose an understanding by his readers to the Synoptic Gospels, but I wouldn't think, personally, that he would base them understanding what he's saying here based on their prior knowledge to the Synoptics. Now there is another time here in the Gospel according to John where the voice of the Father had spoken and He said, and this is when Jesus said to the Father at the day of the Passover, He said, glorify your name. And the Father said, I have glorified my name and I'll glorify it again. But that doesn't happen until chapter 12. We're still in chapter 5 and in any case that's not a direct testimony to or concerning Jesus Christ.

So what is it here that Jesus is speaking to? I think if we read the passage, we'll get a better idea. Because I think what Jesus is saying is the Father has borne direct witness to Jesus through his own word. If we keep reading, we'll see it clearer. Verse 37, And the Father who sent me has Himself borne witness about me, His voice you have never heard, His form you have never seen.

38 And you do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom He has sent. You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is they, Hades, that bear witness about me. The Father bears witness to Jesus Christ through His written Word, through the Scripture. And this is a major point that we'll see that runs through to the end of this chapter. But let's go back to verse 38 because there's some things I want to see there, and then we'll get to Scripture.

I want to see what Jesus says in the latter part of 38 and the first part of 39. And he reads like this. He says, And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me, his voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you. Now, it's important that we see this, brothers and sisters, that what Jesus is saying here are not universal truth statements in the same sense that, for example, the Bible says that no one has seen the Father because he lives in unapproachable light. This is not what's happening here.

That's not what Jesus is saying. In these words, Jesus is actually rebuking these religious leaders, or these religious men before him. And in fact, he issues three rebukes to them. And he rebukes, the first is that they've never heard the voice of God, that they've never seen or recognized his form, and they don't have his word abiding in them. You see, the context would suggest that the true disciple of God, if they were a true disciple of God, it would have been the opposite in all three of these.

We have here what they call a triple indictment by our Lord of these men. And it's very likely, in my opinion at least, that maybe the first two of these may have gone straight over their heads, possibly. But I'm sure they understood the last one. It begins with his voice you have never heard. Fair enough.

They're probably thinking, yeah, that sounds about right, Jesus. We agree with you on this point. None of us has ever heard the audible voice of God, but we know someone who has. And in fact, we read about him this morning. Moses.

And we are disciples of Moses. Now, this is likely. It's likely that this was going through their minds at this point, because these people really did pride themselves in being disciples of Moses. They prided themselves in two things, really, in being the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and disciples of Moses. This is who we are.

We are the Jews, as our brother said earlier on. The law was given to us through Moses, and we know that Moses, or God, had spoken to Moses. Moses heard the voice of God. In fact, in a few chapters time, in chapter 9, this is what they say. In fact, that's where, in the context, the blind man or a man born blind has been healed by Christ.

And the Pharisees have come and they've apprehended this man and they're rebuking him because they've claimed that he's become a disciple of Jesus. And he asks them, are you interested in being a disciple of Christ? You can imagine the horror on their mind when he asked that question. Listen to their response. This is what they say.

They say, you are his disciple. We, we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses. Moses has heard his voice. That's what they're saying.

But as for this man speaking about Jesus, we do not know where he comes from. We know Moses, but we don't know where this man comes from. We haven't heard God's audible voice but we do follow a man who has. You see they don't even understand that it is actually Moses who will accuse them. This comes in verse 45 and we're not there yet.

But here in verse 37 They're being indicted with spiritual deafness. That's what's happening here. Because Moses did indeed hear the voice of God, and he believed. He recognized the voice of God, and he believed. These people who stand before our Lord, they are looking at the manifestation of God in flesh.

And Jesus only speaks that which the Father has given him. And they have not been able to recognize or hear the voice of God in Jesus. Moses heard and believed. They're listening, they're hearing. They're listening, but they're not hearing or recognizing.

And this makes them not really disciples of Moses. The second thing that Jesus says is, His voice you have never heard, His form you have never seen. Again, this is another rebuke by our Lord. And it's easy to stand back and say, look, no one has seen God. In the first chapter of this gospel, it says that so clearly that no one has seen God.

And that is true. But in this indictment, I think Jesus is speaking spiritually here. I do believe Jesus is speaking about himself standing before them. He himself being the very form of God. He exegeted God.

No one has seen God, but it's Christ who makes God known to mankind. And it's interesting because the form here is only used once in the gospel according to John here. speaking about them not seeing the form of God. And it's used several times in the book of Genesis, but only once does it speak to God in that book. And that is, or twice actually, in the same section.

And that is in Genesis chapter 32. And this is when Jacob meets with God. Jacob wrestles with God. And if you remember that wrestling match when all night and in the end God pops his hip out of its socket. And then after God blesses Jacob, what does Jacob do the next morning?

He says he named that place Pineal. Why? Because I have seen God face to face. That word in the Greek Septuagint is the very same word that's used here. Now it's a possibility.

It's a possibility that these people who pride themselves in being the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, yet Jacob, he saw the form of God. Same word. And he recognized who he saw. Yet these people have the manifested presence of God standing before them and they could not see God in him and their eyes were blind. They could not see.

Does that not make us deduce that they are neither really true disciples of Moses, nor are they true Israelites? The true Jew, as our brother was saying earlier, a true Jew is one spiritually, one who recognizes who God is. Now these two rebukes came their way and it's possible they were thinking this way. It's possible they understood or it's possible it may have gone straight over their heads. But I think we can all agree that they really did understand the third of these rebukes.

Because Jesus says, and you do not have his word abiding in you. This was a great insult. to these people. These men who had prided themselves in being so familiar with the sacred writings. They committed countless hours of study of Scripture.

They memorized the Word. They recited the Word. They were intimately familiar with the writings. Yet, Jesus is claiming it was merely academic. Head knowledge, but no heart knowledge.

They knew the facts. They meticulously labored over the details. But the tragedy was the Word of God did not soak into their soul. It didn't find root in their hearts. It wasn't dwelling within them.

It didn't change them. Their minds were impressive. No one will doubt that. They could recite large portions. Many could recite the whole first five books of the Bible, including the genealogies.

Think of how much time that took. Think of how much effort that took. Now they get an A for zeal. If someone had a question, a religious question, these were the go-to guys. They were the first century equivalent to the modern day theologian or the seminary professor.

But the word did not soak into their hearts. We see a glimpse of this in the man Nicodemus. You remember our Lord's rebuke to Nicodemus in John chapter 3? And this rebuke that our Lord gives is really telling of the condition of the heart of a man who does not know God. Pious on the outside, clean on the outside, really knowledgeable on the outside, but he doesn't have substance on the inside.

You remember what Jesus said? He said to Nicodemus after speaking to him about being born again and that he was born of spirit and of water. confusion and then Jesus says to him, are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? The Word of God had not made root into his heart. It did not apprehend him.

It didn't set his affections on truth. The more they studied, the colder these religious men became, the prouder they became, because their knowledge increased. But that's all it was, knowledge. It didn't do anything inside of them, and it wasn't motivated because of love for God. They read the words of the psalmist, but they weren't moved within.

They read Psalm 119, with my whole heart I seek you, let me not wander from your commandments. And here it is, I stored or have stored up your words in my heart that I might not sin against you. I've stored up your word in my heart. They've read the words, they recited the words, but they were unmoved by them. How devastating.

to have such a zeal to know more and more about the Word of God to find out that you do not know the God of that Word. His word does not abide in them, is what Jesus is saying. Beloved, this is a very scary warning to all of us. I can almost guarantee that these men, insofar as the amount of time they committed to studying scripture, they would shame most people these days. They had scripture memorized inside out and they loved doing it.

Yet Jesus is basically saying it was of no benefit. It did not soak into their hearts, it did not change them and therefore Christ says you do not have his word abiding in you. So the question we need to ask ourselves is what is our motives when we read his word? Do we read it because we have an eager, innate desire, because we love Him, to seek Him and to know Him more, or is it simply an exercise to know what's there? Beloved, we can fall into this also.

We can easily make this an academic exercise, and it's exciting to put information in our minds, but we ought never think that way. Because if the word doesn't change us, we're not serious about studying the word. So how does one know if the Word does indeed abide in one's heart? Jesus gives us the tools to figure that question out in the very next phrase in this verse, or in verse 38. Because after He makes the three piercing rebukes, He gives them the reason for this tragic assessment of their spiritual condition.

Listen to what He says. He says, His Word does not abide in you for You do not believe the one whom he has sent. I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt, Jesus is saying that my father's word does not abide in you because you do not believe in me. You see, not believing in Jesus is evidence that no matter how thorough your study of Scripture is, or how much of the Bible you have memorized, you have failed to truly understand the purpose for which this revelation was given. And therefore, his words do not abide.

in one who has not Christ. Beloved, it's simple as that. The Bible is of zero benefit. Zero benefit to anyone who's not trusting in Jesus. It benefits them for nothing.

In fact, it serves to condemn. Because now you have more light. about how sinful you are and how much of a need for a Savior you actually have. These are crushing words by our Lord to these religious men. And if it weren't for their pride, I am sure these words would have turned their world upside down.

And John tells us that some actually do end up believing. As we progress through this Gospel, we'll see some of the Jews do believe, but the most remain in unbelief, not recognizing the testimony of Scripture concerning Christ. They reject Jesus, but Jesus actually goes further again. He tells us the reason that the Word is not abiding in their hearts. It's because of their approach.

We know at the heart it's unbelief, but in the sense here, it's because of their approach or the motives they had when they approached Scripture. Listen to what he says in verse 39. You search the Scripture because you think that in them you have eternal life. It is they that bear witness about me, that you refuse to come to me that you may have life. As we said before, there was absolutely no need for Jesus to press the point that they need to go and study Scripture.

These men were doing that already. And Jesus wasn't condemning the action of studying Scripture, or searching Scripture. This is not what Jesus... it's actually good for us to do these things. In fact, some of our translations might have that as a command, Jesus saying, go and study Scripture, or go and search the Scriptures.

And some of our ESV Bibles, for example, I think it may be a more accurate reading, it's an indicative, it's an indication of what they're already doing. Jesus saying, this is what you are doing. You study Scripture. They believed that their meticulous behaviors would be fruitful in their study. See, the problem wasn't that they were studying Scripture, the problem was what they thought they would achieve from studying Scripture.

Because they believed, as I said earlier, that that study would be fruitful for them, that their study will yield the desired outcome. What was that outcome they were hoping for? eternal life. You see, at this point you may ask, what's wrong with that? Doesn't Scripture reveal God's plan of redemption?

Doesn't it reveal how one is to be saved? Doesn't it reveal how one is to receive eternal life? And the answer is absolutely yes, but that's not what the Jews were doing. You see, the word here for search in our text is actually to scrutinize. or to diligently examine.

It's like taking a magnifying glass to find a hidden treasure, or treasures. And the more you look, the more treasures you find. It's that sort of sense. You see, for many Jews, their motivation to diligently search the scripture was that they thought somehow, through the mere activity of studying the sacred writings, that they would find the treasure of life. through the actual activity of studying scripture.

As our brother said earlier, the law was given to them, and by having that law, and being able to study that law, they thought that's all it takes to find life, to be pleasing in God's eyes. The study for some was an end of itself, and more study meant more life, as far as they were concerned. Their study was not rooted in love for God, or their hearts' desire to know Him more, but an endeavor to earn favor with God through their own efforts. And their writings support this erroneous thinking. One of their own rabbis writes, the more study of the law, the more life.

It goes on, if a man gains for himself the words of the law, he gains for himself life in the world to come. You see, this is the tragedy. Because although they were very careful and particular with their scrutinizing of the oracles of God, they were thorough and memorized it. They thought it through. All the details.

They knew them. They thought that in them were hidden eternal life. But it's a truth that they never found. Beloved, they never found what they were looking for. But even more tragically, and we too can fall into this, human beings can fall into this all the time, is their quest to find eternal life in Scripture.

And through that quest, they interpreted God's Word as a book of do's and don'ts. This is how they interpreted the book. Thinking somehow that through their obedience to what they found, namely the law, they would find favor with God. That they would find justification before God. None of them were, to my knowledge, none were pressing the point of perfect obedience, but obedience.

They thought that is required to be justified before God. But brothers and sisters, Their pursuit to find life unknowingly to them ended up in the clutches of death. Because they determined in their hearts that true religion was obedience to the law of God. So they built hedges around themselves to make sure they didn't break his laws, to make sure they didn't break his statutes. rules around the Sabbath.

They developed 39 class prohibitions, nitpicking rules to make sure that they and others do not break the law, and they remain obedient. Their study taught them to tithe all the herbs they have in the garden, their dill, their cumin, and their mints, yet they neglected love for God. Their study taught them to pray unfailingly, to fast consistently and to give alms generously, but no engagement of the heart. It looked good on the outside, squeaky clean, in fact, on the outside, but the inside was dead man's bones. After all, they thought maybe that's what God requires, obedience to the law.

And to be clear, they didn't deny the grace of God, they didn't deny that God is gracious to give life, but they also believed they required obedience with His grace in order to have life, in order to be justified. This was the result of their fervent study. This is the result of fervent meticulous study when the Word of God does not have roots in one's heart. Because one then tries to do all things by their own understanding and their own strength. And beloved, if we think about that, this is the height of arrogance.

To think for a moment that us mere sinful human beings in and of ourselves are able with our own strength to somehow earn favor with God and earn life. That's arrogance. They would have seen that if they had the Word of God in their hearts, if it was abiding in them, if it was dwelling in them, they would have seen that the quest for holiness, the quest for obedience, is not bad. It's indeed good. But the quest is not a quest towards eternal life.

It's a quest from eternal life. because one who thinks that obedience to the law of God is what brings them into life, then that law brings them death. but one who has received that life by faith in Jesus Christ and Christ alone, then he has the desire and the ability within him through the power of the Holy Spirit to pursue a life of holiness from life towards Christ, not to life, as is the case with the Pharisees. Life is always given. Eternal life, as we read, is always given, unmerited to undeserving sinners.

And obedience to the law is always spoken of, or one who tries to obey the law. One who tries to obey the law unto righteousness is always seen as death. The Apostle Paul, a former Pharisee, experienced this, and he writes in Romans 7, the very commandment that promised life proved to me, or proved death to me. But the verdict for these Jews that are before Christ was they misunderstood Scripture. They didn't understand the revelation of God to them.

You see, there are imperatives in the Old Testament. There are commandments in the Old Testament. There are many. But they were to serve a purpose. And that purpose wasn't to tie it in one's belt and conjure up all the power they have and all the effort they have to obey, hoping that somehow they will earn eternal life.

These commandments were, as we heard earlier, were meant, were given because of the transgression and meant for us as people to come to God with shaking knees, begging for mercy, because we, in and of ourselves, cannot meet His righteous standards. Because in and of ourselves, we cannot stand before a holy God who desires and commands nothing short of perfection to His law. So in that point, at that point of wretchedness, of helplessness, the human heart, which is naturally so proud, is humble before God. And he comes to him in desperation. He cries out, I cannot do this.

I need your mercy. I need your grace. Apart from your grace, oh God, I am doomed. I deserve death because I know I have sinned against you. I know you demand righteousness.

If I am ever to enjoy life, it cannot come from within me because there is nothing good within me. If I am to enjoy life, it must come from outside of me, and it must come from you, O God. And we know that that life is only in and through our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the end of the law, righteousness. with that attitude, with that understanding before God, as one studies Scripture and one realizes that from the beginning, God has made provision for His people. From the beginning, He's promised in His Word to provide for His people in the seed of the woman and Messiah, to crush the head of the serpent and rescue His people from the clutches of death.

And He's to bring them, the Messiah is to bring them from that death. to life. And according to Jesus, that's the testimony of all of Scripture. It all speaks, it all testifies to Jesus Christ. That's what Jesus is saying.

You search the Scriptures thinking that in them is eternal life, but they testify of me. And you don't come to me that you would have life. The whole of Scripture testifies to Jesus Christ. But the Jews missed that point. They missed the point of revelation.

Scripture is not inherently life-giving, beloved. Reading the Word, studying the Word, that doesn't give life. God is the one who gives life. And God has revealed in His Word that the Messiah that He has sent is the one who will give that life. And the theme of the whole Bible is about that Messiah.

The whole of the sacred writings bears witness about Christ. He is the sum and the substance of God's revelation to mankind. God was, from the beginning, preparing the world for the arrival of Christ. And His Word is Christ-saturated. That's the point that Jesus is making.

Because of your unbelieving heart, he's saying to the Jews, and unwilling hearts, you spent countless hours studying sacred writings, and you somehow managed to fail to see that they unmistakably testify concerning me. Verse 39 is very much the same point that Jesus makes in Luke 24. It may be familiar to the minds of many of us here, because that is pretty much the theme verse to our new Bible studies, where we're looking at the Old Testament and seeing Christ in the Old Testament. But in Luke 24, there are a couple of disciples walking on the road to Emmaus. We, most of us, would know this story and the two disciples walking alongside and then Jesus this is the resurrected Jesus comes and walks beside them and hears them talking and they say that we were hoping hadn't you heard that that this Jesus was crucified buried and some of our own have told us that the tombs were empty We were hoping He would be the Savior of Israel, and then Jesus hearing that and walking alongside them, they didn't recognize Him at this point.

He turns to them, and in verse 25, this is what He says. He says, O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? 27. And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them all the scripture, all, in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself.

It's all about Christ. And we need to take notice of the alls in that passage. I want you to hear it again. All the prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures. This is wholly read.

The alls are there for a reason. You see, there's no exceptions. All of it. Every part of the Old Testament has its trajectory towards Christ. Now, we don't want to force Him into every verse.

We don't want to allegorize every chapter to say, there he is. That's not what it's about. But all of Scripture, in all of Scripture, it's evident in different ways that the grace of God is found, it culminated in Christ. It may be through the prophetic writings, it may be through the types and the shadows, it may be even in the narratives. They all point in one way or another to Messiah, to Jesus Christ.

Not only to recognize the person, but also to recognize his redemptive work. If you realize what Jesus said, he said, was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into glory? In other words, You know the scripture. You should have known these things because the scripture speaks of my suffering. I'm thinking of maybe Isaiah 52 and 53 is in mind.

Now the finer details would be explained, the finer details of Jesus Christ in His incarnation would be explained in the New Testament. Once He has accomplished the plan of redemption and resurrected in glory, we know on numerous occasions that the disciples may not have understood things up front. It wasn't until Jesus was resurrected where we're told that they now understood the things that were written concerning Jesus. So the finer details, they may have been revealed in the New Testament, but the Father has provided a credible witness. He's provided an ample and clear witness in the Old Testament to testify that Messiah is coming, to testify that salvation is found in Him alone, to testify that apart from Him, you die in your sins.

That's clear in God's Word. That's clear in Scripture. It's clear that salvation and eternal life is found in the Messiah alone. And without Him, you cannot have life, because God's righteous demands are perfect, and you and I cannot be perfect. This is so clear.

This is so clear that there is ample evidence in the Old Testament that speaks of Christ, and I think it's one of the clearest passages that speaks to it. In the New is 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy chapter 3, the Apostle Paul speaking to Timothy. If you want to turn there, you can. 2 Timothy chapter 3.

I didn't write the reverse number, but it's 13. start with verse 14. But as for you, Paul speaking to Timothy, but as for you, continue in what you have learned, continue in what you have learned and firmly believe, knowing from whom you learnt it, and how from childhood you have been equated with the sacred writings." Now the sacred writings here are the Old Testament. That's all he had.

"...which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus." What's Paul saying here? Paul's saying that even in the Old Testament, there's enough revelation, there's enough testimony given by the Father that you will be able to read and see and recognize that this is Messiah Jesus Christ and He has come to set His people free. Andrew knew it.

Andrew in John chapter 1 could see this and he declared to his brother Peter, we have found Messiah. You remember that in John chapter 1? What about Philip when he encountered Jesus? He went back to Nathanael and these are the words he says, we have found him whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. You see, these men had the exact same scripture as the Jews.

These men read or may have heard read the exact same words from the exact same scrolls that the Jews had. The difference is that they had the word of God abiding in them. because divinely it was soaked into their soul and it gave them eyes to see. In a word, they believed. They believed in Jesus.

The Jews Jesus was speaking to, who thought they could see, turned out to be blind, spiritually speaking. They saw what they wanted to see in the Scripture. They wanted to see a Messiah of their own choosing, so they searched the Scripture looking for that Messiah. They thought in their minds that by diligent study that the more they consume of the Word, the more they can recite, the more they can have in them, the more life they can earn. But they were deluded in their thinking.

They were self-deceived. They saw what they wanted to see and they failed to see the true Christ. in the sacred writings. Tragically, they refused to come to Him. They refused to come to Him because they rejected the testimony of Scripture that concerned Him.

They rejected that which the Father has given to testify of His Son. They refused to come to the One who has life in Himself, the only One who is able to impart life. They're rejected. Beloved, one who rejects in that way will on the final day come to recognize their fatal error. These men realize.

They will realize, despite their countless hours searching the Scripture, that they did not find what they were looking for, because in Christ's own words, this is eternal life. You want to know what eternal life is? You want to know how to obtain that life? It's not mystical. It's not by opening a book and just reading and consuming and reading and consuming.

It doesn't come that way. This is what Jesus says. This is eternal life. That they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. John 17, 3.

All, all clear yet. And it doesn't get any simpler than this. In our Lord's own words. Or in John's, on words in 1st John, he says, whoever has the Son has life. Whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

Does it get any simpler than that? The Scripture, the Bible all testifies to Jesus Christ. It reveals the plan of redemption from the very beginning. It's not a haphazard plan. Our God is not a reactionary God.

He is what's opposite to reactionary. It's proactionary, if there's a word, or proactive God. He planned from eternity past. This is not haphazard in any way, but He planned from eternity past. that He would send His Son into a crooked world, rebels who have gone against Him and sinned against Him.

And He would send His Son to bear the brunt of the wrath of God, deserving of sinners just like you and I, so that those who believe in Him will have everlasting life. That's the only way to life. The scripture testifies of it. John the Baptist, he testified of it. The works of Christ testify of it.

The writings of Moses in next week we'll see also testify of this truth. What makes it even more terrifying, as we think through the Jews' rejection of Christ, although they had the oracles of God, is that the same error can be made even today, not only with the Old Testament, but with the additional light of the New Testament also. Because at its core, it's not the revelation or the testimony or the witness that is faulty. No, the witness is clear. It's faithful.

The problem is in us. The problem is in mankind. At the core, the issue back then was an unwilling and unbelieving heart, and it's the same today. And beloved, an unwilling and unbelieving heart rejects Jesus. And he who does not have the Son does not have life.

But for those who do believe, those who have apprehended the testimony of Scripture, those who have apprehended the Word of God and have the Word of God residing in them and have trusted in the Messiah that the Lord has sent, that God has sent, for them, they rest in Jesus Christ. They find security in Him and His promises. Because He said, as our brother said earlier, or in his prayer at least, he quoted this verse. I give them eternal life, this is Jesus speaking, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.

The security is in Him, because beloved, we share in His life. Our life, if we are trusting and believing upon Christ, is as secure as the life of Christ itself. Amen, let's pray.