[0:00] As we begin in the sermon today, I want to remind you of the main points from last week, although I rephrased them, and then show you how this leads into the continuation of the dialogue that Jesus had with these Jews who had rejected his testimony.
[0:25] And so I want to go through a few key points and just remind you of the sermon from last week so that we can continue that as we move into this week's sermon.
[0:39] So recall, Jesus was speaking with those who had sought to kill him, right? He had called God his own father, and in so doing, he had made himself or claimed to be equal with God the Father.
[0:52] And then in addition to this, he claimed to have authority from the Father to execute judgment, and also that in judging, he was just to grant life to those who believe and to condemn any who refuse to come to him for life.
[1:07] And so there were significant implications for those listening, as there also are for us today. So reflecting on the passage from last week, John chapter 18 through 29, I want to remind you of a few key points.
[1:23] First, the son, as he said, could do nothing on his own accord, right? Nothing apart from the Father's will, but only what he sees the Father doing. He imitates the Father and has full knowledge of the Father's will.
[1:36] As the Father raises the dead and gives them life, the Son also gives life to who he will, right? The Son had been granted power over life and death.
[1:49] Thinking back to the previous verses where he healed the paralytic man at the pool of Bethsaida, we see in John chapter 5, 1 through 17, that Jesus saw fit to heal only a single person out of many who were there.
[2:06] And the life that he gave there, as he's speaking of now, includes both temporal life, healing in this world, but also leading unto eternal life as he moved his dialogue from the focus of now to eternity.
[2:26] And this always makes me think of the story of Lazarus, where he raised him, he resurrected him physically and also into eternity. So we see this confirmation of Jesus' power over life in this world and the world to come.
[2:46] So that was my second statement there. But my third statement from last week, the Son gives life to whom he will. And as he said, to believe or trust his witness, his testimony is to have eternal life in this age, which leads to eternal life in eternity.
[3:07] Those who believe the Son will not see judgment or condemnation because they've already passed from life to death. And a couple of verses, if you want to take note, that speak of this, would be John 3.18, Romans 6.13, and Romans 8.1.
[3:24] And then also Ephesians 2.1 and 5. And then also we saw in last week's sermon that the authority of the Son grants two central privileges to the Son.
[3:39] The first to give life, eternal life, and the second to pass judgment. And as we move into this second portion of the dialogue, we see additional confirmation of that.
[3:50] And finally, I want to remind you as we go through this discussion that salvation is by faith alone, in Christ alone. And that condemnation is the penalty of rejecting or, in a sense, disobeying the Son, refusing to come to him.
[4:09] Those who love and believe the Son, they obey him. Spend some time talking about that today. They abide in him, and they walk in the light. So with those in mind, I want to open with prayer, and then we'll move into my first point.
[4:27] Father, thank you for this opportunity to read your word, to dig into your word, and to grow in our knowledge of you and our love of you.
[4:37] I pray that you will open our ears to hear, our hearts to receive, and our minds to believe, Lord, that this would lead unto life, and a life of obedience that is glorifying to you.
[4:51] I pray that you'll bless our time together, and let it be glorifying to you and edifying to us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. So my first point that I want to make is I want to remind you that the Son can do nothing on his own.
[5:07] Not that he's not capable of, but that he obeys the will of the Father. And so he says, I can do nothing on my own.
[5:17] As we move into this second act of Jesus' dialogue with those who sought to kill him, I want to focus on the unity of the Father and the Son. And we see how Jesus acts only in accord with the will of the Father.
[5:33] His every action, we could say, is in reply to the will of the Father. Right? So first, Jesus' source of life was to honor and obey the Father.
[5:45] He said in John 4.34 that we went over a few months ago, My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his works. That was his source of life, or food.
[5:58] He saw fit to come down from heaven to accomplish the will of the Father. In John 6.38, we'll see he says, I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.
[6:11] Jesus sought only the glory of the Father. He says in John 7.18, The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory, but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.
[6:29] And finally, Jesus willingly accepted the reproach, the rejection of his people, to accomplish the will of the Father. And this is documented in many places, but I think Romans 15.2-3 says it well.
[6:42] Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me. And so we see Christ seeks only the will of the Father.
[6:53] In all things, he lives in full accord with God the Father, and that he can have no separate interest from the Father. His interests are to do the will of the Father. Although God the Father and Jesus the Son are separate persons, they're one God.
[7:11] Jesus hears the voice of God and judges, and he's just to judge because he seeks only the will of the Father. So in application, I think we, like Paul, should scoff at the idea of justifying God, right?
[7:26] How are we to justify God? The Father and Son do not need our witness or honor to justify their judgment. However, in another, as I say, mind-boggling, overwhelming display of mercy and grace, we see the Son patiently explaining to these who sought his life why he was just to claim equality with God, right?
[7:50] Not needing to justify himself. He took the time in grace to explain why he is just. What shall, in Paul's words, what shall we say then?
[8:04] Is there injustice on God's part? By no means, right? There's no injustice on God's part. For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.
[8:16] I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy, as we read in Romans 9, 14 through 16, right?
[8:28] And I'm going to spend a little bit more time talking about this. So if it's a little bit vague at this point, I want to get into more depth as we move through the rest of Jesus' dialogue here.
[8:39] But so far, in the first point, I would say believing in the Son for life is to have the love of the Father in us, to seek first his kingdom and to do his will.
[8:50] We are to have no separate interest as Christ or action apart from the Father, to do all things for his glory. And so over the next few points, I want to show you how this is to be, how our obedience is to be in response to our believing.
[9:08] So moving on to my second point, which is going to take a little bit more time, I want to focus on the confirmed authority of the Son. And the second point is on the witness of Christ's authority and his deity.
[9:24] And this is a lot of what the sermon last week touched on, but this is a continuation of that dialogue. And I want to get a little more into the details of his authority and his deity.
[9:39] So we see that Jesus, he didn't witness of himself here in this dialogue because he didn't distinguish himself from the Father. He said he and the Father were one.
[9:51] However, he pointed out the witness of others and the Father's own witness and that we know it is true, right?
[10:02] And why do we know that the Father's witness is true? Because the Father is always and only truthful, as Jesus later says in John, right? The Father is always truthful.
[10:15] So as explained in Numbers 35, 30, we see where the Old Testament law talks about trial and the necessity of having two witnesses.
[10:28] And we see that the Old Testament required two or more witnesses in a trial for the testimony to be taken as true. And you can see the value of this, right? If someone accuses you of something and you're thrown in jail and that accusation or worse, put to death for it, then that person has a lot of power over your life and death.
[10:48] But the Old Testament law required two witnesses to validate it, right? And Jesus reminds us of this when he said later on in John chapter 8, even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I'm going.
[11:04] But you do not know where I come from or where I'm going. You judge according to the flesh. I judge no one. Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true. For it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me.
[11:18] In your law, it is written that the testimony of two people is true. I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me. And so as we move into this second section of this dialogue, John chapter 5, 30 through 47, we see Jesus give four witnesses, four witnesses who bear witness of him being the Son.
[11:42] And I'm going to focus also on a fifth witness, right? So the first witness that he offers is John the Baptist. John the Baptist bore witness, as we saw in the text.
[11:55] He was a burning and shining lamp who for a time the Jews rejoiced in, right? Remember we see in John chapter 1 that they came to him to be baptized into repentance.
[12:08] He was a faithful witness who prepared the way for the true light, the Son, right? However, he merely pointed to the light. He himself was not the light as he testified.
[12:20] The purpose of his testimony was for their salvation in the Son who was to come through repentance and belief in Jesus. He came to bear witness about the light so that all might believe the one who sent him, right?
[12:36] He was not the light, but he came to bear witness about the light as was said in John chapter 1, verses 7 through 8. His witness was not received, and for the first time, we see that they rejected the Son.
[12:47] They turned from John when the Son came, and they rejected the Son. Second, the works of Jesus, the miracles he performed that we've so far seen documented, the three works we've seen so far, the miracles of Jesus, they bear witness of his sonship and his deity, right?
[13:07] The Father allows these miracles to be accomplished to bear witness of the Son. And all of these were done in accord with the will of the Father, right?
[13:22] He saw fit to accomplish these. But the important point, I think John is careful to make in all of these miracles is that the chief purpose of these miracles, these works, which were commissioned by the Father, was to attest to the name and glory of the Son and in so doing the Father.
[13:41] That's why he saw fit to do these works. However, despite these miraculous works, which in our eyes are incredible, right? Again, we see that they rejected the Son a second time.
[13:55] And so I would say the penultimate, to use a fancy word, work of Christ was accomplished on the cross. Jesus said in John chapter 8, when you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me.
[14:13] And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him. And so even in this work, accomplished according to the will of the Father, it was for the glory of the Son and the Father.
[14:27] The third, who we've already seen, bears witness of the Son, is the Father himself, who is always truthful. We don't see in this passage a specific example of the Father bearing witness of the Son, but we're reminded of at least three, right?
[14:45] At the baptism of Jesus, as documented in Matthew 3.17, when Jesus was baptized, the Father spoke from heaven, this is my beloved Son with whom I'm well pleased.
[14:56] And later on, during the transfiguration, which at this point hasn't taken place yet, but we know of in Matthew 17.5, the Father again says, this is my beloved Son with whom I'm well pleased.
[15:09] Listen to him, right? And then again, at the triumphant entry, right, before Jesus goes to the cross, the Father speaks from heaven.
[15:21] Jesus says, Father, glorify my name. Then a voice came from heaven. I have glorified it and will glorify it again as documented in John 12.28, right?
[15:33] And through the variety of Jesus' works, the many miracles that as John says, couldn't all be written in a scroll because it would fill the world, God's Spirit brought about the various works of the Son in order to bear witness of him, right?
[15:49] However, again, we see that somehow they did not know the voice of the Father, had not seen him, and rejected the Son. And the final witness that Jesus offers in this passage is that of Scripture itself, right?
[16:07] He says that they searched the Scriptures for eternal life. The very words of Moses, their version of Scripture, at that point, testify and tell of Christ.
[16:18] However, the Jews, in their failing, they believed that they would find eternal life in the Scriptures. In John 7.49, we see that the Jews actually believed that their knowledge of the law was their salvation, and those who did not know it were already a curse.
[16:37] They were already condemned. However, as Jesus rebukes them, we find that the Word of God did not dwell in them. Did not dwell in them. And again, they rejected the Son.
[16:49] We see that they looked to the Old Testament, to the Scriptures for life, but they missed the author of life himself that the Scriptures bore witness to. We know, those who believe on him, that he was the fulfillment of the law in the Old Testament, and that the law and the prophets, they all pointed to him, as was their purpose, to bear witness of the Son.
[17:12] So in addition to these four, I want to, I don't want to say add, but I want to point out a fifth, right? In addition to these four, we see that the Father's work in his people's hearts and minds to believe on the Son bears witness to the Son, right?
[17:33] When God purifies our conscience and transforms our hearts, as said in John 6, 45, it bears witness to the Son, to his deity, to his sonship, and to his power to grant life.
[17:51] And so the continuing witness through all of history of the Son is that of the Father working in his people through his Holy Spirit to bring about faith, repentance, and new light.
[18:04] Right? So in application, let me ask you an important question. Do you believe in God? Right?
[18:15] Let me ask you a more important question. Do you believe God? Do you believe what he has said, what he has written, what he has witnessed?
[18:26] Right? The Jews believed in God. Why else would they have taken time to read and study his scripture? The Muslims believe in God or some form of him.
[18:39] The demons believe in God. However, those who believe God, who believe the one he has sent, they're the ones who hear his voice and come out to the resurrection of life, eternal life, with God.
[18:54] Right? Those who believe God do his will on earth as it is done in heaven and in so doing, bear witness to his testimony and bring honor and glory to the Father through the Son.
[19:09] Amen. And so Jesus asked his followers later on in John 14, do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.
[19:23] Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do and greater works than these will he do because I am going to the Father.
[19:41] And so, I would ask, does your walk, your Christian walk, bear witness to the Son? Does your life, your actions, your obedience, your reverence all bear witness to the Son?
[19:53] Do you seek to honor the Father in honoring the Son? Jesus continues in John chapter 14, if you love me, you will keep my commandments and I will ask the Father and he will give you another helper to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him.
[20:12] You know him, he dwells with you and will be in you. It is through the Spirit in you that we are able to obey and testify or bear witness to the Son.
[20:25] That's John chapter 14 verses 10 through 17. So in conclusion to my first, or second point rather, those who believe the Son have his Spirit, the Spirit of God in them and by the working of his Spirit they keep his commandments and in so doing continually bear witness to the Son and bring glory and honor to the Father.
[20:51] Right? That's pretty encouraging to think that all that we do as Christians bears witness and brings honor and glory to the Father. I want to take a few minutes on my third point to talk about this statement that Jesus made in verses 39 through 44 when he said, you search the Scriptures for eternal life yet refuse to come to me that you may have life.
[21:17] So moving on, I want to focus on Scripture and eternal life. Right? I think these are important points to point out. Despite searching the law for eternal life, we saw that the Jews rejected the Son.
[21:32] They rejected his testimony. We saw this as well in the story of Nicodemus, a man who knew the law well. Right? He knew much of it very well.
[21:43] However, we saw that apart from the washing and regenerating work of the Spirit, he and many were spiritually dead. Apart from the blood of Christ, their conscience could not be purified from dead works to serve and live for the living God.
[21:59] Right? I want to point out an important thing that I saw as I read through this passage this week and point out the connection between hearing, receiving, believing, and obeying.
[22:14] Right? So last week we heard a lot about hearing and receiving and this week I want to focus on the believing and obeying. Now first of all as Christians, as Reformed Christians, many of us would say and I hope we would all believe that Scripture is the authoritative inspired word of God.
[22:32] Right? It's inerrant. And yet we see that Scripture on its own does not grant life. Within Scripture of itself we cannot find life.
[22:47] Although the word of God is the bread of life, life is found only in the Son as the Father saw fit to give to the Son. Jesus is the giver of life.
[22:58] The Father has granted him full authority to give life as we saw in John 3, 19 through 29. Specifically John 5, 21, as the Father raises the dead and gives him life so also the Son gives life to whom he will.
[23:16] Right? That being said, the Scripture and worshipful service to God are two vital sources for growing in love of God. Right?
[23:27] So the Scripture most certainly bears a vital importance in the life of the believer to point us to God, to reveal his nature to us, but it is not the Scriptures that grant life, it is the author of life.
[23:43] Right? In this dialogue here in verses 39 through 44, Jesus linked belief with the abiding or internal word of God.
[23:54] He said in 538, you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one who he has sent. or if we flip this around and rephrase it, another way of thinking about it, if you had his word abiding in you, you would believe.
[24:10] Right? But how can you get his word inside of you? Right? You can memorize it, but I would say only he can put his word in a way that abides.
[24:22] He says in 542, I know that you do not have the love of God within or abiding in you, because I have come in my Father's name and you do not receive me.
[24:34] Or if we flip it around again, if you have the love of God abiding in you, you would receive me. Right? And so one must hear the voice of God, receive the Son, and according to this passage, believe the Son.
[24:50] And I would say, which is evidenced by his internal word, his abiding love, and finally, our outward obedience to the Son. Paul discusses this connection in Romans 10, 14 through 21.
[25:08] And I'm not going to read all of it, but I'll paraphrase it. You'll probably recognize it. Paul says that all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. And he asks, how will they call on him who they have not believed?
[25:22] How are they to believe in him who they have not or never heard? How will they hear without someone proclaiming the good news? How are they to proclaim unless they are sent? And then the passage about how beautiful are the feet of those who are sent.
[25:37] But he concludes in this passage that faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. And so we see the vital importance of scripture in hearing and believing.
[25:51] But the point I wanted to make here is that it is Jesus who gives life to hear, to have the abiding internal word of God and the love of God. And so as we saw that the son has two central privileges granted from the father, I want to point out two central privileges, if you might use that word, that we have through the son.
[26:18] One, we are to obey the will of the father as the son obeyed his will. John 14, 15 says, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I don't want you to think I'm preaching salvation by works, that you need to obey the son to have eternal life.
[26:33] No, that's not the way that it works. But that doesn't mean Jesus didn't say, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. Right? Second, the second privilege we have is to proclaim the gospel.
[26:47] The Great Commission, right? Matthew 28, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
[27:03] So I would add, proclamation on its own is empty, right? We can proclaim the word, but without the witness of its truth, a witness confirmed through Christ, through the Father, and also through the transforming work of the Son in our lives, which is evidenced outwardly by our loving submission to his will, why would anyone accept that proclamation?
[27:34] Right? Apart from our obedience to his will, we don't bear witness to that testimony. Moving on, Jesus said, I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me.
[27:49] 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 only God? John 5, 43 through 44.
[28:01] Right? So in connection to what I was saying about proclamation and to the word of God itself, notice that the problem here that Jesus pointed out, the root of the problem was that of pride.
[28:13] The Jews were going to scripture seeking life, and in so doing, they were seeking glory from one another, seeking salvation through their knowledge and their obedience to scripture.
[28:27] However, in their pride, they refused to come to the Son, right? So that they might have life. They refused to submit to his will. I would say it seems impossible, right, to read scripture seeking eternal life only to miss the Messiah, right?
[28:50] It seems impossible to hear the witness from Christ himself, from the Father, from John the Baptist, from Moses, only to reject his testimony. However, we are reminded here that hard-hearted, blind, and deprived sinners cannot reason or will themselves to the truth.
[29:11] Instead, we refuse to come to the Son for life. And so I would say, remember the Beatitudes. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, Matthew 5, 3.
[29:24] Or perhaps, if you want to look up on your own time, Psalm 34, 18. Isaiah 66, 2, or one of my favorites, Psalm 51, 17.
[29:35] We are reminded, God will not despise a broken and contrite heart, but the proud will never stand in his presence. Only those who believe the Son will seek first his kingdom, his glory, humble themselves and come to him for life.
[29:51] So in application, we see those who love the Father seek only to do his will and to bring him glory, right? Note the implications of this.
[30:02] In all of this that we've said so far, I think the thing that is most pointed, when we fail to obey the Son and to submit to his will, we fail to bear witness to his working in our lives, right?
[30:17] We dishonor the Son, we dishonor the Father. Not that the Father and Son need our witness, right? The work of the cross was finished by Christ.
[30:28] All the glory, honor, and praise are his for eternity. However, when we live in disobedience to his will, when we fail to submit to his will, we ruin the witness of his work in the eyes of those around us, right?
[30:42] Those closest to us. And more than this, when we disobey the Great Commission, we fail to proclaim the good news of the gospel, we withhold that news from our neighbor, and in so doing, we fail to love our neighbor and we fail to love the Father.
[30:58] So let me ask you another question. Do you search the scriptures for eternal life, or do you search the scriptures for the one who has the authority to grant eternal life?
[31:13] Perhaps you find yourself stuck but cannot seem to say with Christ that I can do nothing on my own accord but only what I see the Father doing. If your primary motivation, your end goal in this life is eternal life, and you find the Son as only the means to that end, I fear that you will find that a failing, a fleeting motivation, right?
[31:43] A feeble motivation. And I would say if you have found this to be your motivation, that take time during and before communion after the service to repent of this, confess your sin of omission and come to the Son, right?
[32:01] I would encourage you to remember we are called first and foremost to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our might, Deuteronomy 6.5. And then I would say when your primary motivation, your chief end in this life, is rightly to be with, to love, and to honor the Father and the Son, you will come to the Son for life.
[32:26] For it was the Father's gracious will to grant the Son life, so all who believe in him would have eternal life. And more than that, those who come to the Son will have life in the present age, and in the age to come in the presence of the Father and the Son, right?
[32:42] That is what we seek, to be in his presence for eternity, glorifying him, not only in eternity, but now in this kingdom, glorifying him through our submission to his will and obedience to his commands.
[32:55] And I would say that this is a motivation, when it is rightly so, which grows, flourishes, and perseveres unto eternity, empowered by his Spirit, founded not on the love of life, but on the love of God.
[33:10] Right? So moving on to my fourth and final point, I want to focus on Jesus' statement, I do not receive glory from people. Right?
[33:21] That was a pretty heavy statement when I read it. It was highlighted in my Bible from months back, and again from several weeks ago, and then this week. Every time I read it, I get stuck on that.
[33:33] I do not receive glory from people. Perhaps for you, it doesn't stand out as it did for me, but I think it's a pretty potent statement. What are the implications of this statement?
[33:45] I think the most literal reading of it would be that in this context, Jesus did not seek glory from people. He didn't seek their honor, their applause, or their permission.
[33:57] In contrast to his accusers, his mission was only to bring glory to the Father. And as we saw, he dies alone on the cross. Only he, the Spirit, and the Father received the glory.
[34:09] He did not need the permission or the honor of his people to fulfill the will of the Father. His work was commissioned by the Father. It was to be accomplished by the Spirit in the face of rejection.
[34:21] Unlike his people, Jesus was concerned only with the glory of the Father rather than receiving honor from others. But this led me to a broader question. Does anyone other than God receive the glory in salvation?
[34:35] Right? When I read that statement, that was the thought that came into my mind. And so I searched and I found Isaiah 48 11, which says, for my own sake, for my own sake, I do it.
[34:47] For how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another. Right? So the short answer might be no. God reserves the glory and salvation alone for himself.
[35:01] I was thinking about the theological implications of this, right? God himself was the creator of all things. He chose to create knowing the outcome. He foreknew the works of the cross before the foundation of the world.
[35:14] He sovereignly ordained all of redemptive history and sent his son at the perfect time. All of this, all of his working in and through human history was for his glory alone, accomplished by his will alone.
[35:27] He was alone at the cross. He alone accomplished the work of salvation so that none might boast. He revealed the gospel to us through the God-ordained circumstances of our lives, through his word, circumstances that were beyond and before our control.
[35:43] Right? And finally, he presented us with the choice, believe and obey or refuse to come and stand condemned, which perhaps is one of the primary messages of the gospel of John itself.
[35:58] So in application, how then might we bring glory, honor to the Father and the Son? I looked up a few instances of where and how we bring glory to God in and through our salvation.
[36:14] We are to hope in Christ for eternal life. I love this verse, Ephesians 1, 12. We who were the first to hope in Christ might be for the praise of his glory.
[36:26] Amen. We are to be filled with the fruit of his righteousness. Philippians 1, 8 through 11. It is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment so that you may approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.
[36:52] Amen. Romans 15, 4 through 7. We are to encourage and welcome one another and so be unified with our brothers and sisters. Right? And I put a note here saying this requires gathering together.
[37:05] Right? We must be together to do this. The verses read, May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another in accord with Christ Jesus that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[37:21] Christ. Therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God. Amen. We are to proclaim the message of Christ. Second Corinthians 8, 23 for our brothers, they are messengers of the churches, the glory of Christ.
[37:38] Right? And perhaps most importantly, we honor or another word might be glorify the father by honoring the son, by coming to the son for life.
[37:48] Right? The father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the son that all may honor the son just as they honor the father. Whoever does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent him.
[37:59] John 5, 22 through 23. And finally, a verse we perhaps all know well, everything we do as children, we are to do to the glory of the father.
[38:11] Right? First Corinthians 10, 31. Whatever you eat or drink, whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. So in closing, I want to point out this last few verses that Jesus talks about speaking about Moses.
[38:31] To remind you that Jesus does not accuse, but judges justly, as was the point he was making in this dialogue. In closing, I want to look at this final rebuke that Jesus offers those listening.
[38:45] He says he will not bring accusation before the father. Instead, they and we stand accused by Moses' words, self-accused and accused by the enemy.
[38:56] Right? Instead, he will judge according to the will of the father. Moses himself will accuse those who rejected the son because they refuse to acknowledge the voice of the father, the spirit testifying about the son in his word.
[39:11] Their condemnation was not in their failure to understand or obey the law. It was in their refusal to come to the son that they might have life. Here we see Jesus' judgment is perfectly just.
[39:22] Notice again that Jesus, the son of God, had the patience to justify himself to man so that we might be saved. His authority, deity, and sonship is confirmed by many witnesses.
[39:34] John bore witness. The scriptures bear witness. All of creation itself bears witness, as we see in Psalm 19. However, in the hardness of our hearts, we refuse to come to him for life.
[39:47] He seeks only the will of the father. And the father's will is for all to honor and glorify the son, as we just saw in John 5, 22.
[39:58] Continuing in 23, whoever does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent him. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my words and believes him who sent me has eternal life.
[40:09] He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Present, right? Not future. However, people love the darkness rather than the light.
[40:21] And this is the judgment. The light has come into the world, and people love the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. Everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his work should be exposed.
[40:36] But whoever does what is true comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. That is the bear witness.
[40:47] Right? So finally, those who believe in the son obey the son and will inherit eternal life, not because of their obedience, not because of anything that they've done, lest any should boast, but only by his grace and for his glory.
[41:02] I would say the father loves the son and has given him all things into his hand. Whoever believes in the son has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains presently on him.
[41:16] John 3.35. 1 Corinthians 1.29-31. John, no human will boast in the presence of God. In Paul's words, because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God.
[41:31] He became to us righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. So that as it is written, let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. Right?
[41:43] His work. Finally, we have confidence that we have eternal life. John wrote in 1 John 5.13-15, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.
[41:59] And this is the confidence we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. So in conclusion, I would say, hearing by grace leads to receiving by grace, which leads to believing by grace, which is evidenced by obeying through grace.
[42:22] Amen. Let's pray.