Who Do You Say I Am? - John..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. God's Word, John chapter 9 from verse 13. They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind.

Now it was the Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, he put mud on my eyes and I washed and I see. Some of the Pharisees said, this man is not from God, but he does not keep the Sabbath. The others said, how can a man who is a sinner do such signs?

There was a division among them. So they said again to the blind man, what do you say about him since he has opened your eyes? He said, he is a prophet. The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight and asked them, is this your son who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?

His parents answered, we know that this is our son and that he was born blind. But how he now sees, we do not know. Nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him. He is of age.

He will speak for himself. His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be the Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue. Therefore, his parents said, he is of age. Ask him. So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, give glory to God.

We know that this man is a sinner. He answered, whether he is a sinner, I do not know. One thing I do know that though I was blind, now I see. They said to him, What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?

He answered them, I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples? And they reviled him, saying, You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.

The man answered, Why, this is an amazing thing. You do not know where He comes from, and yet He opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshipper of God and does His will, God listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.

They answered him, you were born in utter sin, and would you teach us? And they cast him out. Amen, this is the word of the Lord. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord remains forever, a timely reminder just under this pulpit here. Let's come to our Lord in prayer and ask for His blessing upon our time together this evening.

Father, we come before you reverently and with joy in our hearts. What a privilege it is to open up your word corporately like this. What a privilege it is to meet, Lord, with your people, those who have been cleansed and cleaned by the blood of the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. What a privilege it is now, Lord, to come in anticipation, expecting of our great God to speak to us through and by His Holy Spirit. As we sit here, Lord, with open Bibles, we ask, Lord, feed our souls.

Feed us, Lord, I pray. Pray that you would uphold me as I open my mouth, Lord, that I only speak that which is the truth. which corresponds to truth of your word. Pray for your people who listen, Lord, that they will have ears to hear. That, Lord, you know where your people are exactly.

You know what is running through their minds. You know their thoughts, their worries, their concerns, or their sins. their trials, their tribulations, their afflictions. You know them all. So Lord, I'm not going to pray any more than do what you see fit in the heart of your people.

But only you know, and you are good in all your ways. Bless us this evening, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, brothers and sisters, we are already a few weeks now in the ninth chapter of the Gospel according to John, and we know that this is a chapter that is exclusively speaking about a particular miracle, a full chapter that speaks and explains a single miracle of our Lord Jesus Christ, a sign as the Apostle John would have it. One sign, the sixth one, in fact, recorded for us in the Gospel according to John.

Now, it took us around four weeks before we got to that miracle, but we did eventually, the last time we were in the Gospel a few weeks ago, we looked at the miracle, considered it together, we meditated upon the details, so I'm not going to go there again because I have much to tell you and speak to you this evening, but needless to say, that this is a miracle of creative power. In a nutshell, Jesus with his disciples are walking through the streets of Jerusalem and they see a man born blind. Born blind, never seen the light of day. And after Jesus teaches his disciples some very valuable lessons that they needed to learn, he looks upon this man. And he comes to him and he spits on the ground and swells the mud there in the first century Palestine dust and makes some mud out of his saliva and puts it on the eyes of this man.

And then he tells him, go, go to the pool of Siloam, cleanse your eyes. And he does. And the man comes back to see. What he does is he elicits a variety of responses. There's mixed responses among the people that know this man, his neighbours, his friends, his relatives.

And the son just can't come to the fact that it is the same person that they saw earlier this morning. How could it be? We've always seen you. You're a staple. You're right there.

You're a poor beggar. We see you in the same place daily. And now you've come with eyes that can see what has happened. And he kept saying over and over again, it is me. Listen, it can't be me.

It is me. It is me. It is me. I'm the man. I once was blind, but now I can see.

And they can see. Okay. Tell us, how could you see? How is it that you came about that now you can see when you were blind for so many decades? And he tells them the story.

They're amazed. And they ask the question. They ask him the question. And he says, this Jesus, the man they call Jesus, he's the one who anointed my eyes with mud and told me to wash. And who is this Jesus they ask?

Tell us, who is this Jesus? Deuce us to this Jesus. Who is this Jesus? And then he says, I don't know. I don't know where he is.

Where is he? I don't know. I don't know, he says. That's as far as we got to last time. And we'll pick up from where we left last time, which is verse 13.

From here we'll see the sad state that first century Palestine was in. The sad state that the religious establishment, what was called religiosity in those days, had sunken to. A religion that had become devoid of love. A devoid of love of God and love for truth. A religion that had become cold and ritualistic, legalistic.

And for us, what we find before us in the next few verses is we'll see and we'll clearly see portrayed for us a religious group of people who are known as the religious leaders of the day who were nothing more than steeped deep in darkness and in sin. Beloved, these men were placing immense burdens on the lay people. Those that were entrusted to convey and teach the Scripture, the Torah, had placed immense burdens upon the people because they were in the darkness. They enjoyed being in the darkness. They had no concern for God or for His Word.

That was all a facade. Because whenever spiritual light had entered into that city, they had one objective and one objective only, and that is to snuff out that light. Whatever that rain looked like, whatever the prophets looked like, if they came in the name of the Lord, they didn't want to hear it, because they loved the darkness. Because why? Their words were evil.

Snuffing out the darkness, then it is obvious when the one who has just declared in the previous chapter, that I am the light of the world, whoever follows after me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. When he comes on the scene, once again, what are they going to do? they're wanting to extinguish that light, a light that cannot be extinguished. So the section before us tells us And it begins like this. It tells us that they brought the healed man.

The man that was once blind, they brought this man, who is now a man who can see physically, to the Pharisees. Now we're not given any more details, no explanation why they brought him, but let me tell you this much. I don't believe that they brought him like tattletales to dog on the man. We're going to bring you to the Pharisees so that they can do whatever they want with you because you've done something wrong. The man had done nothing wrong.

They weren't dubbing this man in. Rather, we need to understand what the religious climate was like in this day. Never, never so much was the anticipation of Messiah so real than in the first century. They'd heard of this Messiah. They'd read about the Messiah.

They'd spoken one with the other. They'd heard the teaching and read the prophecies of the Messiah who would come. And they were anticipating the return of the Messiah, to come and rescue them from the bondage that they saw themselves in, the oppression they saw themselves in. Finally He will come and free us from this Roman rule, is what they're thinking. And when they read the passages, they could also see the messianic passages in the Old Testament, those that were taught to them and at least read to them by the scribes and the Pharisees, and they were able to see that the day that the Messiah comes, that when the Messiah was to come, there was prophecies of what to expect when He comes.

The advent of the Messiah would be an advent that came with supernatural, wondrous power, wonders, signs, and supernatural miracles. He had this group of people, lay people, common folk, and they know this man. Many had known him likely from his young age, known his parents for years. They have come to become well accustomed with him. And they knew he was blind from birth.

And all of a sudden, this man called Jesus comes, anoints his eyes with mud, sends him to a pool called Siloam. down on the southeastern wall of Jerusalem. And then all of a sudden his eyes are open and this man can see. A miracle as massive as this. What's running through their mind?

Could this be the Messiah? Could this be the one that the prophets speak about? Could this be the anointed one from God that we've been waiting centuries and centuries for? Could this be Jesus the Christ? Could this be the Messiah we're waiting for?

Who can tell us? Who can help us understand? Who can help us identify whether this is the Messiah that we've been waiting for? Who other than the Pharisees? who other than the experts in the law, the experts in the Torah, those who've memorized the Torah in the back of their mind, recite the whole of the first five books of Moses, those who practice Torah, who taught us Torah, it's got to be them.

They're the ones who will be able to interpret what is written and look at Jesus and say yes or no. They're the religious experts. will go then. That will tell us if Jesus is authentic, or that will tell us if Jesus is a fraud. But they may have been in two minds.

You see, John the Baptist, this is Jerusalem. Not very far from where John the Baptist was when he was writing. Now it's true, John the Baptist may have been off the scene for about two years. He may have died around about two years ago. But he was a big deal.

He wasn't very quickly forgotten. But as a revival, Israel was through this great prophet. And many of these people probably have remembered what John the Baptist said, that his ministry was to usher in the Messiah. And when Messiah came, as big as John the Baptist was, he pointed his finger at the Messiah and said, Israel, behold your Saviour. This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Behold, this is the Son of God, he said. Israel, this is Messiah. I must decrease, he must increase. Maybe the words of the Baptists were running through their mind, but hold on, hold on. These religious elites, these teachers of the law, these people who are called the Pharisees, the highly respected ones, the ones who are supposedly the most holy among us, they dismissed John the Baptist's testimony.

They were inquisitive at first, but then they dismissed his testimony completely. They said, no, this Jesus is a fraud. We know that. So there might have been in two months. How about what we've just experienced with this blind man?

How can that be explained? Is that not the power of God, the creative power of God that gave sight where there was never sight? Where those dead eyes that never had seen the light of day had now become alive and seen the light of day. It's a testimony that we can't refute. How about that?

No, no, no. We need to send this man to the Pharisees once again. Maybe they'll reevaluate their assessment. Maybe if we tell them about this man and what Jesus has done, maybe they'll look at the evidence and go, wow, we surrender. Jesus is the Messiah.

We were wrong. Maybe that's what they'll do. Let's send him to the Pharisees. It's a huge miracle. Surely they'll know what to do with it.

They're the experts in the Torah. Wow, could they have been any further away from the truth? They were the religious elites in this day, but they had made up their mind. And nothing, no one, no miracle, no matter how massive it was, was about to persuade these men who were loving the darkness to change their mind about who this Jesus is. It's a sad state to be in.

My beloved, when it comes down to the wire, when it comes down to the bare bones of things, these Pharisees were not really qualified to determine the truth anyway, were they? Yet sure, they knew the Torah. Sure they knew the scripture, the word that God had given to people, and it was authentic. It wasn't fundled. It wasn't a fraud or a counterfeit.

They had the real deal. Is that all that it takes for them to be able to determine truth from error? The people had the utmost confidence in the Pharisees. That's why they sent this man. For the most part, they had confidence.

But they were deceived in thinking of them far more than they should have. Because what is so clear is that these Pharisees had sunk them in what we call hardened unbelief. You see, what makes these men unfit to determine or to investigate whether this Jesus is true Messiah, whether what he speaks is truth? is what Jesus had already told the crowd back in chapter 7, when he first came to Jerusalem, there in the middle of the Feast of Booths. He gave them this warning, and I want you to hear it.

Jesus said, if anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God, or whether I am speaking on my own authority. Despite all the accusations against Jesus, Jesus is saying, that's what you're saying, you're refuting my words, but if you have a desire to truly, sincerely, Spirit-wrought do the will of God, then only then, and only then will you have the spiritual insight to know whether my words from God, or whether I'm fabricating them on my own, whether my life is from God, whether I am sent from the Father, whether I am who I claim to be, the one sent by the Father for the redemption of souls. Now these people were seeking counsel of the Pharisees. And the only way that counsel would prove prudent was if, if they were genuinely seeking God's will. Is that right?

Is that what Jesus said back in chapter seven? We can't refute that. Yes. That'll put these people in a good position. And that will put the Pharisees, my apologies, in a good position to investigate whether Jesus was indeed from God, whether He is Messiah.

But sadly, Jesus has already dismissed their qualifications for such a task. Because in the previous chapter, precisely in verse 44, this is what our Lord says of the Pharisees. I want you to hear this. You are of your father, the devil. You are of your father, the devil.

And then what do you say? Very interesting. Because we remember that. We remember the discussion that Jesus was having. There's only two families.

Those who belong to the Father and those who belong to Satan, to the devil. There's only two families in the world. Either you belong to God or you belong to the devil. We have that in our minds. But what does Jesus say next?

And your will. And your will. Your desire. is to do your father's desire. Father is the devil, and your will, your desire, is to do your father's desire.

The love of these Pharisees was steeped in unbelief. These Pharisees didn't stand for the truth because their will, their desire, was to do what the ruler and the prince of the power of the air had wanted them to do. They were under his rule, not under God's rule, although they masqueraded around the place as holy men. Therefore, the outcome of this investigation who will be one that's not rooted in truth, but rather the one that aligns to the lies, the lies of their Father, who is the Father of lies. The Pharisees weren't fit to assess whether this Jesus is Messiah.

whether that miracle was indeed from God himself, whether the miracle, the sign, was the power of God put on display so God would be glorified in that day in the life of this man. They were in no position to assess because their will is not to do the will of a fatherly beloved. Don't think for a moment, this is a warning for us, don't think for a moment that the secular world Even those who are proponents of religion, who are devoid of the Spirit of God, will be able to properly assess matters of faith. Don't think for a moment that they're going to understand the contents of this book. They may understand the grammar, they may understand the words, but the spiritual contents of this book cannot be understood by this world.

They are blind to it, just as blind as the Pharisees were in their investigations. They have a heart that has presuppositions and all they wanted to do is make sure that they affirm those presuppositions and have followers who would affirm their faulty and erroneous and demonic presuppositions. Beloved, the world, unless the Spirit of God has done a work in the life of a person, is unable, is unqualified to assess the matters of faith. No matter how educated one is, no matter how well-versed one is, no matter how well-respected one is in society, no matter how smart one is, IQ 200, it matters not. It matters not.

You're not qualified in matters of true religion unless the Spirit of God has first done a work in your soul. Like these two families, there's two realities. Either you're in darkness, or you're in the light. And if you're in the darkness, you cannot see, you cannot understand, you cannot hear matters of true religion. Some may affirm some of the things that you and I, brothers and sisters, believe.

They might say to you and agree with you that Jesus was a real person. They might even agree that he was a great teacher. They might even say that he was a wonderful example of human benevolence. They may even go as far as to say that Jesus was a great prophet. But when it comes down to the pointy matters Like the perfection of His life.

Like the divinity of His nature. Like His substitutionary, vicarious atonement, atoning death. Like the resurrection by the power of God. Like His ascension, where now He sits at the right hand of the Father. His throne is the King of kings and Lord of lords.

You don't give lip service to it. You bend your knee to such a thing. And when you declare to some who say, we agree he's a good teacher, we agree he's a prophet, we agree he's an example of benevolence, but they don't bend the knee to Jesus, they have no critics as far as interpreting matters of faith or religion. None whatsoever. No matter how eloquent they speak, no matter how well they know the Bible, they have zero credibility when it comes to interpreting the word of God.

Unless you have the spirit of God, you cannot know the heart of God. Beloved, even though they're unable, unable to interpret matters of true religion, even then, it doesn't really matter. They aren't qualified to make the assessment anyway. Their unbelief has disqualified them from making a true determination of who this Jesus is. And it was a mistake for the lay people to bring them in to do the investigation and then later to tell them what to do.

But then we get to verse 14. That was verse 30. In verse 14, we're told, oh, and by the way, the miracle that took place happened on the Sabbath. Now, that's a big detail. We could have done with that a bit earlier on, couldn't we?

No, no, no. This is the Word of God, and every word is in its place because God wants it there. The Apostle John, an inspiration of the Holy Spirit, has placed this, not a minor detail, this major detail right here in verse 13 for a very, very good reason. Because the Apostle John intends to show us, the reader, that the section from verse 13 through to 34 has these religious leaders in view, the Pharisees in particular. That's what's coming into play in these verses from 13 through 34.

And we can learn a lot from what we see here. And I think the best way to describe these maybe 20-odd verses is the interrogation of the Pharisees. Because what we have before us is three interrogations of the Pharisees. First, we have from verses 13 through 17 an interrogation of the man who was once blind. They confront him.

And then from verses 18 through 23, we have an interrogation of the Pharisees, which is an intimidating thing, by the way, of the parents of the man. And then from verses 24 through 34, we come back and the Pharisees come back and have another go at the man who was born blind, but this time they step up the heat. So by God's grace, I had intended to take us through the first two interrogations, that is from verse 13 through 23. But I quickly realized that I don't have enough time in the sermon to speak all that I want to speak in those verses. So instead what we'll do together is we'll concentrate our efforts on the first interrogation.

That is from verse 13 through 17. It was the Sabbath. Now every time you read that, those words, it was the Sabbath. Those of us who have read the Gospels a few times, I'm sure something comes to your heart and mind immediately. And it's almost like a buzz kill, right?

Because normally what happens when before you're notified it's a Sabbath, is that something glorious has happened. Jesus has healed a man, or a man with a withered hand, or a man blind, or in chapter 5, for example, where a man was invalid for some almost four decades. But then you hear the words, but it was the Sabbath. And then you know something very, very bad is going to happen. And you're not wrong in thinking that way.

is because of what these religious leaders of the day had done to the Sabbath. What a glorious day! It was meant to be a gift from God to His covenant people. And yet they have changed it and placed burdens on shoulders that they could not bear. And instead of being a day of joy and man created man for the Sabbath, the Sabbath became for the man.

I should say the other way around. Instead of the Sabbath being for man, man became for the Sabbath. That was the right way around. They'd abused the Sabbath. And everyone knew it.

They defined the Sabbath according to their own understanding. The Sabbath became their own thing. And boy, did they abuse it. For like the brothers and sisters, we have to realize that when we read about the Sabbath, we don't get ill feelings towards the day because this is part of the law of God. God had given His covenant people the Ten Commandments, and one of those commandments was, keep the Sabbath.

Observe the Sabbath and keep it holy. It was to be observed by God's people. It was to be observed by the maidservant, and the mouse servant, by the donkey, and everyone in your household. This was a day of rest, a day, a gift that the God, the benevolent God, the God who all gifts are from His hand and given to His people. In Exodus chapter 20, we see this.

In Deuteronomy chapter 5, we see it again reiterated. In Exodus chapter 31, it's expounded and elaborated upon. The day is a good day for the Lord. God is good. I get ill feelings towards the Sabbath.

The problem is that these people took that law. put it center stage and added all their fabrications, their man-made fabrications, their man-made traditions, their own inventions, and placed it upon the shoulders of the people and bound their conscience by it. How was the problem? Now, we've seen this before, haven't we? In chapter 5, I mentioned before the invalid man of 38 years, when Jesus healed on the Sabbath, and he rolled up his mat, and he went walking, and the Pharisees, the religious leaders, got pretty upset, right?

How dare you work on the Sabbath? We've seen this before. How these men were elevating their traditions above the Word of God. Beloved, when you do that, when you start to build these religious structures with meticulous detail, you'll end up replacing true religion with something that is phony, with legalism, with something that is more concerned with the do's and the don'ts, more concerned with following the motions of things rather than the heart and the spirit of things. And that ought to be rooted in your love for God.

Faith working through love. The love of God that flows out to love for others. Beloved, it is inevitable. Obedience to the true, true obedience to the law of God will inevitably manifest love in the heart of a person. True religion cultivates a heart that is warm towards God, not cold.

Not ritualistic. Not concerned with ticking the boxes. Not concerned so much with the do's and don'ts, but rather with the motivation of why you do what you do. That ought to be rooted in love. It's alive.

It's not dead. Is that what we see here? Do we see a living, vibrant faith? These men example for us in the passage that we read this evening. They example for us a true love for Yahweh and a love that spills out to others.

Beloved, is there even a hint in this passage, even a hint that they were glad, that they rejoiced, that a man who was born blind, a fellow Jew, a brother, had suffered a lifetime under that burden. Losing his dignity, can't get from one place to another without a handler, and yet now his eyes have been made open, is there even a hint in this passage of any joy? Of any love? Okay, how about if they had an understanding like the disciples, a faulty understanding whereby they thought that this man was born blind because of sin, and they did, by the way, verse 34. Even if they had that understanding, let me ask you, now that the fact that this man was made able to see, could that maybe possibly mean that Yahweh has forgiven this man and opened his eyes according to their understanding?

Is that not cause for joy? Is that not cause to manifest their love one for another? A lot of brothers and sisters, if you're looking for love, you're not going to find it in this chapter. Apart from what comes and exudes from the life of Jesus Christ himself. These men are resolved to refute and disrepute the name of Jesus.

That's their main concern. That was their agenda. And they were happy to steamroll anyone or anything or any miracle that came in their way, even if it meant denying the obvious, which they will do. How did you receive your sight, they ask. And that's the first that we hear of them.

How did you receive your sight? We know they're not interested in the answer to that question. How do we know that? Verse 18. Verse 18 tells us they didn't believe that this man was blind anyway.

So they're there because they have an agenda. I think it's the Apostle John is making up that clear for us. The line of questioning is to refute and discredit his testimony and anyone who is listening because this could be dangerous because Jesus could actually get a stronghold among the people and they could begin to lose the power they have over these people and that would be devastating for those who are building empires for themselves. Even if they cloak themselves with a cloak of righteousness. But the man simply says, okay, you've asked me how I received my sight, he simply says, how, and it's pretty concise now, you see, I love the way he says it, because now he's probably been asked, I don't know, a hundred times, how did you see?

How were you made to see? And I love when he says, he put mud on my eyes, I washed, I see, that's it. They're the details, you've got them. I love that, straight to the point. But he's brave, brazen.

Then we see something interesting. Then we see before us a fracture beginning to happen among these religious leaders, among the Pharisees. The house divided cannot stand, right? And they know that, and so there's a fracture, there's a disagreement happening among the Pharisees. Now, the Pharisees were united.

They were united at all points of doctrine, but for the most part they were. But now there's a fracture, and this is a doozy. How can you have some on one side and some on the other? Two sides seem to emerge, don't they? We can see that before us.

No doubt the prominent view according to the passage and what we've read in the Gospels already is the first, which is verse 16. Psalm 113 said, This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath. We've made a determination. This man is not from God. Actually, we've already said they've come to the meeting, not with an open mind.

They didn't come with an open mind. They came with a frame of mind that's completely closed. A frame of mind that says, Jesus is a fraud. There's nothing new here. We left the last chapter, beloved brothers and sisters, what were the last words in the last chapter, last two verses?

What were they doing? Some of their colleagues had picked up stones. For what reason? They weren't building altars. They were going to stone our Lord.

So we know where their hearts were. They've been conspiring to kill Jesus all along. Their minds were made up. Even the miracle in chapter 9, even before this miracle, they had already made up their minds. Actually, you don't need to look very far.

All you need to do is run your eyes down to verse 22, and you'll see that already. It says here, the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue. When did this agreement happen? Not after this man had received his sight, but before all of that. But we'll get into what that means next week.

They came into the meeting to squash any sympathy any traction that Jesus may be getting, any followers that Jesus may be deriving, and they wanted that to go away. So they do have an agenda. The first words from their lips about Christ, the signet, this man is not from God, they say. You see, they've made up their mind. This man is not from God.

In other words, he's not the Messiah. Okay, we know this already, right? But the reason, the reason they conclude this is very interesting, and it requires us to unpack it. This man is not from God, for he does not keep The Sabbath. At a service level, that's not actually bad reasoning.

This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath. Now think about it. I said before, the Sabbath is the law of God, and it's a law that needs to be obeyed and respected and observed. Our brother said this evening that God doesn't expect you to obey 99% of what he says, but 100%. So it's pretty good logic, I would say.

If the Sabbath law was pronounced by God Himself to His covenant people back in Sinai some 1,500 years earlier, then the law is good and the people should obey the law. God's people should be defined as a people, as law-abiding people, not lawlessness. We know what the Bible speaks about, despising the law of God. That's not good. So it's a fair assessment.

It's a fair assessment to say that in that case, if God's people are a law-abiding people, it's a fair assessment to say that if Messiah was to come, how could he come and show contempt for that law? He won't. He'd show respect and honour the law. He would obey the law. But here's the thing.

The Jews dismissed Jesus as being a man from God. Because they saw him as a lawbreaker, in particular breaking the Sabbath. But was he actually breaking the Sabbath? Or was he breaking their interpretation of the Sabbath? Now Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath.

But was He breaking the Sabbath, the law of God? Did Jesus ever show content to the law of God? Did He not come to do the will of the Father? Was it not His joy and pleasure and food to do the will of the Father? Did He ever do anything that is outside the pleasure of the Father?

No, He was breaking according to their inventions and their traditions, their understanding and their manipulations and fabrications upon what the Sabbath is. Because these religious leaders had veered so far off true religion. And now they've just added all these rules and these precepts. And they placed it upon the shoulders of the people, expecting them to obey. It was so difficult.

There was more things you couldn't do than what you could do on the Sabbath. Now, because that was their reasoning, and they've elevated their own understanding, their own traditions up to the law of God, then it would be only natural to think that when they assess those who break the law, they would assess that and determine that by going back to the measure that they have, and the measure that they have is the fabrications that they have put together. And now they see this Jesus breaking that fabrication, which they did deem to be the law, and now they call him a Sabbath breaker. What a sin. What a sin it is to add or to take away from the law of God.

We've been going through the book of Deuteronomy. It hasn't been that long since we went to Deuteronomy chapter 12. Do you remember what the Lord said in chapter 12? You probably won't. But this is what he said.

I'll let you know. This is everything that I command you, this is from the mouth of Yahweh, everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do, you shall not add to it or take from it. So these Pharisees, these religious leaders, by adding to the law of God in direct violation to what God himself had spoken, in direct violation to the Torah that they had in their hot little hands and read daily probably. And our Lord rebukes them on this. This is not the first time our Lord has rebuked them.

Well, He's not here in this passage. But it's not the first time the text rebukes these people. Our Lord has rebuked them over and over again because of their faulty understanding. Because of their elevated traditions over and above. I mean, it's one thing to bring it up to the standard of the law.

But even above, Jesus says, this is what He says in Matthew chapter 15. Jesus says, so for the sake of your tradition, speaking to the scribes and the Pharisees. Same group of people. So for the sake of your traditions you have made void the word of God, you hypocrites. Well did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said, These people honour me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. teaching as doctrines, the commandments of man. However, this is a cold, ritualistic, legalistic type of religion that is despised by God. And we see it manifested in the treatment of the Sabbath. As I said earlier, the Sabbath day was a gift from God that man would be able to rest from his labor.

It was given to a people who had been rescued from the land of Egypt. They had not known any rest. Seven days a week they worked for 400 years. And God gives them, I'm going to give you a day in every seven to relax, to rest, and to divert your attention to the goodness and the greatness of your God, the only true God. What a gift.

Taking that gift and making it a burden. oppressing the people whereby every Sabbath I would think that they were living, not in joy, but in fear. I elaborated on the abuses of the Sabbath when we went through John chapter 5, so I'm not going to do that here. I'm not going to spend too much time on it here for the sake of time. But they were very meticulous in their prescriptions as to what the people could do and what they could not do.

What later had come to be known as the 39 classes of prohibitions were formed. The substance of the prohibitions were known to be present in this day and body. Was it easy to violate their laws on the Sabbath? Like you had to walk on eggshells. I think about some of these rules.

Picking fruit from a tree. Sin. Kneading dough. No, you can't do it. That's a prohibition.

Boiling water, not coffee. Violation. Starting a fire, putting out a fire. You couldn't do these things. These things were deemed as work.

The only time you can put out a fire is if there's someone in there raging, crippled, can't get out of it, and you have to save their life. If there was life threatening, then you can save that person and put out a fire. Healing. No, you cannot heal on the Sabbath. And this was the problem here.

So not only was Jesus violating the Sabbath, Because when he mixed the saliva in the mud, they would have considered that to be needing, that to be sort of a work, like you would make mortar, I'd say, I take it for bricks. But not only that, the healing was not allowed. So Jesus, how dare you heal on the Sabbath? How dare you do an act of benevolence on the Sabbath? You could have done it yesterday, you could have done it in 24 hours time.

This man's been blind since birth, another day won't make a difference. Is that cold? That's loveless. That's a lifeless religion. That's not what God wants.

That's not what God intended for this day. Because God looks at the heart. He's not looking at the things you do as much as He looks at the heart. He looks at the root of what you do. And the manifestations of a good root is that which is, in essence, depicting of the wonderful, glorious, gracious character of God.

Not the hard-hearted, ritualistic, lifeless, cold, legalistic religion that we see before us in this day. As difficult as that is, beloved, I think the more heinous thing is the outcome. I think that's even more devastating than the actual events that were taking place. Listen to this. What was the verdict of these religious leaders and their faulty understandings and their manipulations and their traditions and the inventions of their mind?

They had come to find safety and security in the things that they did with their own hands. They're coming to find safety and rest and security in religion. And based on that knowledge, they assess everything else. The premise is good, right? If it's truth, if it's God's Word, then it's good to assess everything in our experience according to the Word of God.

That's what Christians do. That's what the people of God do. You don't deny the Word of God. The Word of God takes precedence. And if it goes against your senses, you say, this is God's Word.

I'm going to trust it. Even if everyone in the world is against it, if God's Word says, so I'm going to follow, may God give us that sort of conviction. The premise is good. The problem is, the problem is when they've created these prohibitions for themselves out of their own understanding, then the lens that they look through to determine whether one is a saint or a sinner. It's not God's Word anymore, is it?

but their own understanding, their own interpretations. This man is not from God. That's the verdict. man is not from God because this man is not from God for which is because he does not keep the Sabbath that's our conclusion that this Jesus is not from God because he doesn't keep the Sabbath oh what a damnable thing to determine that Jesus is not from God because the measure you're measuring is not God's Word but in fact your own inclinations your own inventions Can you see how what would normally be good, logical reasoning, good, faithful reasoning, turns into jelly when you define the Sabbath according to your own inventions? It falls apart.

It ought to be defined by what Yahweh intended when he spoke the law into existence. And as a people who have an utmost confidence in the religion, confidence, confidence that necessarily would place their understanding above anything else, then they have no other choice other than to reject Jesus because he's a Sabbath-breaker. He doesn't keep the Sabbath. So by rejecting him, how can you reject his teaching? They have to reject his claims.

They have to reject his invitations to come unto me, drink from me, come eat from me and enjoy eternal life. They have to reject that because their understanding of God's word is a human fabrication and not the word of God. I don't know about you, but that scares me. It terrifies me. It absolutely terrifies me that someone could be so convinced and yet, and yet be on a fast track to hell.

They're rejecting it. They believe in something that lacks substance, something that lacks salvation. What a warning that is for us today, beloved. Cold religiosity, cold religion, ritualistic religion, do's and don'ts, legalism, this is not something that's confined only to the first century. We see it among us.

And if we're not careful, actually, if we're honest, we'll see it inside of us as well. It's lifeless. It rejects the truth of God's word. It's cold. It's loveless.

It's concerned simply with the outward manifestations, as I said earlier, the do's and don'ts, but it lacks the inward motivation of true religion, which is, as I said earlier, love for God through Christ. Doing things, beloved, even good things, simply for the sake of doing them, is not righteous. It's not righteous, what is it? It's sin. Even the good things that we want to do, if we're not motivated by faith and love, then it's sin.

The Apostle Paul says that in the last verse of Romans chapter 14, does he not? If it does not proceed from sin, it is what? Sorry, if it does not proceed from faith, it is? Sin. Now that verse is such a difficult verse, but it's so true.

Let your mind wrap around that. How easy is it to violate and transgress the law or whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. If it's not faith working through love, it's sin. How easy is it to falter and fall? But I know, I've experienced in my own heart these things.

I know what it is first hand. I know what it is to have obligations and to fulfill those obligations as good as they are in and of themselves, not sinful, but to do them for the wrong reasons where your heart is not engaged, where your heart is not engaged by faith and love for Christ and love for God's people, because you need to do them. You might have an alien, whatever, or you might not have your heart fully engaged. As good as they look at the surface. You're not doing it for the right reasons if you're not motivated by your love for Christ.

If it's not rooted in faith, then it's sin. It's unrighteous. Pharisees, their concern, their concern was to be seen as righteous and holy. Their concern was to cultivate a sort of national pride among the people so that all the world would look upon them and say, this is what it looks like to observe purity to Torah. And maybe usher in the messianic reign.

But God is unimpressed. He's not rooted in faith. It was not rooted in your love, true love for God. Spirit brought love for God. And it's nothing more than unrighteousness.

And if you think your actions will somehow merit favor with God, you need to think again. Can I be legalistic in coming to church? Yeah, you can be. Can I be legalistic in my prayer? Because I haven't prayed today, I just need to pray.

Not so much even just meriting favor before the Lord unto salvation, but even doing it for the wrong reasons. Not rooted in faith, unrighteous behavior. Can I do that? Can I do that by coming to church? Yes.

Can I do that by putting my prayers? Yes, absolutely. We need to examine the motivations of our hearts. Can I do that when I evangelize? Yes.

Can you do it when you have an open Bible in your hand and you're reading the text of Scripture? Oh yes, oh yes. And that is a danger to my brothers and sisters. Because when we read Bible, we, it's a good thing, but when we read it with the wrong motivations, what can happen? We can puff up with pride.

Now I know I can recite Scripture. I can recite the text of the narratives. I know the stories. And when I sit down with a brother or sister who doesn't know as much, it's a platform for pride. Haughty eyes looking down, I know more than them.

May the Lord protect us from such activities. May the Lord protect us from these things. Because the Lord is more concerned, beloved, that not you memorize or keep the scripture in your mind so much, although that is important. but it soaks deep within your soul and transforms your very being. Living and active to transform your very being.

So we need to examine our motivations. Ask ourselves why we do what we do. Because beloved, just like the Pharisees, maybe not to this extent visually, it is very easy to find safety and security in religion, especially when there's others around us doing the same thing. Because unless one has an intimate love knowledge, a salvific intimate relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, Unless one has come to truly know God and has been taught by God in the heart, then everything we do is devoid of substance. And there's no salvation in that.

These Pharisees thought they'd be completely okay, but they were in the depth of darkness. And this is why in Jesus's earthly ministry, they bore the brunt of a lot of what Jesus had to say. Matthew 23, open up that book and have a look at the woes to the scribes and the Pharisees. It's pretty heavy. But also why Jesus, I believe, healed so many people on the Sabbath.

To teach them a lesson. And if you're not careful, If we don't submit to the unadulterated Word of God, not manipulated, not a word that we change to suit our own likings, a word that we don't add to, a word that we don't subtract to, a word that we don't involve human inventions and view in the same way of the Pharisees, if we're not careful, we could fall into that trap. You see, as I said earlier, the reasoning of the Pharisees was not wrong, it wasn't fallacious. It is true that Messiah, if anyone is from God, he would honour and obey God, and the Messiah would be no different. He'd be the epitome of that which is righteous.

He wouldn't show contempt towards his law, but the logic breaks down, as I said earlier, because what they deemed to be the law was not in fact the law of God. A faulty understanding of Scripture will have you accepting that which you should reject and rejecting that which you should accept. And the only way to protect yourself from this, beloved, is to know truth. That's the only way. To know truth, to have truth of God settled in your heart.

Truth only comes through the Spirit. intimate, salvific relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one who reveals the truth. He's the one who stands and says, I am the light of the world. He's the one who reveals.

He's the one who exposes. He's the one who teaches our hearts. He's the one who stood up and said, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. The truth of God will not be made known to your heart or mine unless we truly know Jesus Christ.

But now, we come to the split. On the one hand, you have most likely most of the Pharisees who reject Jesus and say he's a Sabbath breaker and he's not from God. On the other side you have this debate, of this debate you have some who say something, they're asking a fairly legitimate question I think. I mean, I think the logic of the first was okay, that the premise was wrong, but here we have good logic. How can a man who is a sinner do such things?

You have the other side who's going, okay, wait a minute, we're convinced that this man was born blind. We're convinced of this great miracle. So how is it that a man who's a sinner, because we're claiming that Jesus is a sinner, how could this Jesus do such a great sign as this? And I think the logic goes like this. Surely only someone from God is able to perform such a miraculous sign, right?

That's Pare. And if this Jesus indeed performed this miracle, then one must conclude that this Jesus is not a sinner, but from God, right? So if such a powerful miracle can only be performed at the power of God, if we agree with that, and then we agree that it was Jesus, because the testimony of the man is pretty clear. This man called Jesus. He's the one who told me to look in my eyes and go to the wash.

If then we agree that Jesus is the one who performed the miracle, then will that not lead us to the logical conclusion that Jesus can't be a sinner? He has to be from God. He has to be from God. Is that good logic? It could be.

It could be. Because we're not to be hasty here, because the presupposition is that those who perform wonders and miracles must be from God, right? But is that so? Beloved, as I said, it hasn't been long since we We've gone through these chapters in the book of Deuteronomy, but you may remember last week, Deuteronomy chapter 18, and a few weeks back it was Deuteronomy chapter 13, and there we have content that tells the people of Israel how they can test whether a prophet is actually from God, whether he's a prophet that should be stoned, because he's a false prophet. And it's interesting because in the test there in Deuteronomy chapter 13, we have some very important information that's speaking to this passage.

Listen to what he says from verse 1. If a prophet or a dreamer of dream arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass. Now just in case you're wondering, the original language, the word here for wonder is the exact same word spoken of, of Yahweh from his hand in delivering the people of Egypt, in those miraculous signs and wonders to deliver his people. So it's the same word. Okay, and if he says, let us go after other gods which you have not known and let us serve them, you shall not listen to the words of the prophet of the dream of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

Is it enough to stand back and say, we've seen a miracle, therefore, we need to conclude that this man is a prophet, he can't be a sinner. Is that enough? See, the ultimate test, according to Deuteronomy chapter 13, and when we incorporate chapter 18 as well, the ultimate test is not what you see with your eyes. but what is written, what has been spoken from the mouth of God. How are the people of Israel to know if Yahweh is the only true God?

How are they to know this? How are they to know how Yahweh is to be worshipped? How are they to know that there is no other God but Yahweh? How are they to know if Yahweh is the one who spoke? How are they to know this?

Sure they heard the rumblings and the thunderings on the Mount of Sinai, but after that they were afraid and they said, Moses, you tell us. And from that point Yahweh has appointed his prophet, Moses. And what Moses had spoken to these people, he pleased the Holy Spirit to inscripturate for us so that we can have this Word. The same Old Testament that these Pharisees had before them. The ultimate test is not what is seen, but what is written.

What is written. No matter how supernatural the performance is. The Bible tells us, if he diverts your heart from what is written, he is not from God. Jesus warns of the same in Matthew 24. I know some of your eyes, you're probably thinking about that chapter.

In Matthew 24, Jesus says and warns his disciples of false prophets and false Christs that are yet to come. And he says these words, he says, that will come and perform great signs. And what is the purpose of the performance of the great signs? To lead the people astray. Oh no.

Oh no. Deception is far too great and too strong. The Lord has given us His Word for love. Can you see how valuable this Word is? Without it, what do we do if we don't have the Word of God here and treasured in our hearts?

We can't just go by what is seen. The ultimate test is what is written. If it diverts your path from what is righteous and that which is righteous is according to what is written, isn't it? Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. True, they would have had to hear Jesus out, because remember, they would have had to see, okay, Jesus is performing this great miracle, so now he's got our attention, we need to listen to what he says.

Is he diverting our hearts away from that which is written? They didn't get a chance to speak to Jesus, did they? So, if they didn't get a chance to speak to Jesus, there was another critical step that should have been taken. And it also requires the scripture. Because, beloved, even though the debate suggests whether or not this Jesus is from God, that's the words that are before us, in essence, what is at the very core is if this Jesus is actually the Messiah or if this Jesus is a fraud.

That's really, in essence, what is before us. And according to the Scripture, as I said earlier, there will be certain miracles, certain wonders, certain supernatural events that will take place which will be unique to the time of the messianic Advent, right? I mean, isn't that what the Scripture says? That the time will come when the Messiah comes and the salvation of the Lord will come with powerful signs and wonders? I'm sure that if the Pharisees were thinking along these lines, at least the second group, then they're on the right track.

Listen to what is written in Isaiah 35. Many Old Testament passages speak of this, but I'll just read to you Isaiah 35 from verse 1. I wish I had the time to read the whole chapter. I don't, so don't worry, I won't. I'm almost done.

The desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus. It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy in singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to you. The majesty of Carmen and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God.

Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have anxious hearts, Be strong, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you." Glorious words.

Then verse 5. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. You remember when John the Baptist was in prison? Remember how he sent two of his disciples to Jesus and said, with a message, are you the one?

You remember that? Some weakness in John the Baptist's faith. He asked Jesus, are you the one? Jesus didn't send them back and say, tell John, the beloved John. Tell him, I am the one.

No, he didn't need to do that. John the Baptist was a true prophet. A great man of God. He had the word of God sunken into his soul. He knew the word of God.

He knew the words of Isaiah. And Jesus only had to recite a portion of Isaiah 35 and a small portion of Isaiah 61. Send them back and just tell them this. Just recite this passage. And John will know whether I am the Messiah or not.

There were exclusive miracles that would take place. And the Messiah would come to the earth. What is required now is to believe. That's it. These Pharisees, what is required for them is to believe, is to place their trust and their hope in this Jesus Christ who calls them to believe.

To believe His claims, is to believe His teachings, is to believe that He is the Son of God, is to believe that He is the exclusive life of God. God in flesh. The division among the ranks is serious. As I said earlier, a house divided amongst itself cannot stand. Jesus came to divide though, didn't he?

And next week we'll begin to see how they go about resolving this fracture. How they go about resolving this division because you can't have it. There needs to be union among them if they have any chance to de-platform Jesus, at least in their mind. But we'll see very quickly, but they won't do it with sincerity. Because they have an agenda, and their agenda is to disprove Jesus and to prove their presuppositions right, which they've already placed in their hearts and in their minds.

And they'll try to do it in one of two ways. Either refute the miracle that had taken place in the first place. That's the way they'll try. So initially they'll try to refute the miracle. They're going to be pressing to try to refute the miracle or to get a profession that the miracle never took place.

And the second way they will do this is to convince you that Jesus is a sinner. And if he's a sinner, then the logic would go that he could not possibly be the Messiah. But that will be next week. I want to end with this. I want to end with the last words of this first interrogation.

Well, the Pharisees are now speaking to this man who was once blind. I want to end with what they say, the question that is on their lips. These are evil men, no doubt, but what comes out of their lips, I think, inadvertently, is profound. Verse 17. So they said again to the blind man, what do you say about him since he has opened your eyes?

Now, let's get this straight. I think there's a bit of sarcasm in this. That last portion, since he has opened your eyes, I think that's sarcasm. Because at this stage, we've already seen in verse 18, they didn't believe that his eyes were open. I don't think they were sincere in that.

But the first part of that question is absolutely critical. And beloved brothers and sisters, I know you might be a bit tired, but I want you to hear this. The first part of that question is absolutely critical. What do you say? What do you say about him?

Sure, the lay people seem to be eagerly awaiting the verdict of the Pharisees, right? They've sent them because they trust the teachers of religion. They sent these men who are learned, who know the scripture, who know the Torah, sent them among to do the interrogations and to do the investigations, to come back and say, yes, Jesus is Messiah, or no, he's a fraud. We know what the verdict is. We've read the scripture, so we know.

But when it's all said and done, it doesn't matter what the Pharisees say. It doesn't matter even if they come back and say, yes, this is the Jesus, this is the Messiah. It doesn't matter what they say. The question, and the far more important question, is this. What do you say about Him?

This is an individual question that needs to be asked from the heart of every single individual who has walked this planet. What do you say about Him? It's the most profound question that could ever be asked. There is nothing more important, brothers and sisters, than for you right now to answer that question in the very pit of your soul, in the depth of your being. What did you say about him?

Don't get me wrong. Truth is not subjective. Truth is truth irrespective of what this man says. Truth is truth irrespective of what you say, irrespective of what I say. Truth is truth because it's found in the heart of God.

I'm not saying that it's important that you answer this question because somehow your truth is different to mine. That's the lie that we hear out there. It's not true. Truth is objective. But what I am saying is this, the way you answer this question will determine everything that matters in your life and for all eternity.

Everything. Everything, bar nothing, there are no exceptions. There's nothing important of eternal significance that is not linked to how you answer this question, beloved brothers and sisters. And from the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Because I'm assuming that what the mouth says and what it professes is rooted in the heart.

not an empty profession of faith, not something that we say because we heard what you say or we know how to speak Christianese, or we know the Bible, we've recited some verses. No, I'm saying that what is rooted in your heart and manifested in your words, what did you say about Him? Nothing more important. Nothing, nothing, nothing more important. Nothing more important.

Truth is truth. What do you say about it? Not what the religious experts say. Not what does your pastor say. Not what your mother and your father say about Jesus.

Not what does your Christian friends say about Jesus. Not what Google says. The question is directed at you individually. It was directed at this blind man, this man who was once blind. And it's directed at every single one of us.

What do you say about him? Between you and the Lord, what do you say about him? What's your answer? He's a prophet. That's what this blind man has said.

That's his answer. He's a prophet. Oh, don't get me wrong. I'm very glad that there's progressive knowledge in this blind man's understanding. I'm very grateful for that.

Love the fact that we know the end of the story. At first it was this man called Jesus. Now he's progressed. That was earlier. Now verse 17, it's, I say he's a prophet.

You see, the Pharisees for the most part have already concluded this man is not from God. He's not from God, verse 16. And then they go on to say in verse 24, he is a sinner. And this man says, I'm not part, I'm not taking your side. I'm not doing that.

I'm separating from you right now. Your pressure is not gonna work on me. I will tell you he is a prophet. In other words, he is a mouthpiece of God. He is from God.

You say he's not from God. I say he is, he is from God. God. But I submit to you, if this is where the narrative ends, this is all that there is to it. This is a story with a very sad ending.

Let me submit to you that there are millions, maybe billions, in our history who have professed Jesus to be a great prophet. Who are now burning in hell. Who are now separated from the life of God. One day to be fully and finally judged. to be removed from the presence and the light and the grace of God and to exist under the wrath of God for all eternity.

But they declared that he is a great prophet. And let me tell you, I'm gonna go one step further. They did it sincerely. They did it sincerely. That he's a great prophet.

But is that enough? Is it enough just to declare that Jesus Christ is a great prophet? As I said earlier, we have the rest of the narrative and praise be to God that this story does in fact, does in fact end as a happy ending. Because I can tell you if you profess simply that Jesus is a great prophet, it won't cut it. He won't cut it.

Jesus said so himself. He won't cut it. Even if you're sincere in your declaration, he is far more than a mere prophet. He is a prophet. He's a great prophet, but he's far more than a mere prophet.

And as we will see, and this is a sneak peek to what is coming in coming weeks, we will see that this man, although now he professes Jesus to be a prophet, come, Verse 37 or 38, I don't remember. Come verse 36. Come verse 30. My eyes are failing me. Verse 36 and through 37.

He's not asked again, but if he is asked again, his tongue will change and his response will change. If we ask them, who do you say or what do you say about him? Then here in these verses, we will hear this man declare he is Lord. He is Lord. And going by His action, beloved brothers and sisters, that you'll see in those verses, I would hazard to say and add to that that He is Lord and He is my God.

He is my Lord and He is my God, to steal the words of the disciple Thomas. Who else do you worship? Who do you say this Jesus is? What do you say about Him? Anything short from He is Lord.

He is my Lord. He is my God. Let me leave you with the words of our Lord himself, because the authority is found in his words and his words alone. In the previous chapter, you might remember Jesus speaking with the Pharisees to and fro. He says these glorious words.

For unless you believe that I am, there's a he there, But when we explain that and we consider that verse, I did tell you that he is not in the original. When you believe that I am. Later on in that chapter, in verse 58, he says, I, before Abraham was, I am. We know what Jesus means. Unless you believe that I am, unless you believe that I am God, unless you believe I am the one who has no beginning and I have no end, unless you believe that I'm life, substance, and the source of life itself, unless you believe that I'm the creator of the heavens and the earth, Unless you believe that I spoke the world into existence.

Unless you believe that I am the Son of God who came into this world to redeem sinners like you. Unless you believe in my perfect life, a divine life in a human body, incredible. Both divine in nature and both human in nature in the Incarnation. Unless you believe that I faultlessly lived according to the will of God. Perfect.

Born under the law. Born of a woman. Born under the law. Perfectly obeyable that none of us could obey. Unless you believe that I laid down my life and it wasn't taken from me.

I laid down my life. And I hung on that cross. Wicked men nailed me to that cross. I hung on that cross because I desired to hang on that cross to fulfill the will of my father and to redeem my people. I bled and died and I was buried.

And on the third day I rose from the dead. I rose from the dead and I showed myself to over 500 people that I'm the resurrected King and now I am ascended to the right hand of the Father as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and I reign in righteousness and one day I will come back and redeem my people to enjoy me for all eternity unless you believe that I am. You'll die in your sins. Let me leave you with that, those words. Words from the lips of the evil Pharisees, but so profound.

What do you say about it?