Let's turn together to the gospel of John chapter 8, the gospel of John, the 8th chapter. What would appear to be nothing but legal wrangling, which makes dull reading and even dull or preaching, actually turns out to be the revelation of the nature of Jesus Christ and how it is that some here and comprehend and others do not. If you ever thought all people have a religion, all people have a religion. And many people have songs to go with that religion, some of them are the same songs that we cherish and sing, many of them doctrinally correct. If you come in on a Sunday morning and happen to turn on the radio, I forgot what time it is, you may hear the sound of one of the most beautiful vocal choirs, I think you will hear on the radio, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. People singing the same songs we sing here in Sunday morning worship, and these are people who themselves believe that they will become gods and have their own world just as God the Father, that they themselves will be God the Father. Yet they have a religion and they have edifices that they call church, and they have songs of faith, and they pray, and they baptize, and yet they have yet to see the true God. They have not apprehended and comprehended the truth about God, and the Mormon church is not the only one. Pick your faith, pick your cult, pick your tradition, just because it looks like a duck and sounds like a duck doesn't mean it is a duck. The Pharisees had the scriptures. They had Jesus Christ in their presence. They had the temple system of worship, and yet Christ spoke to Him, and they were filled not with awe, but with hatred. They were not moved because of His words. They were enraged because of His words. Yet all of the same elements were present as we have with us today. The word of Christ, the gathering of gods people, the service of worship, what is the difference between those who see God and those who simply act out religion? John chapter 8, beginning again at verse 12, which we talked of last week. Again, Jesus spoke to them saying, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. So the Pharisees said to Him, you are bearing witness about yourself. Your testimony is not true. Jesus answered, even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true. I know where I came from, and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from, or where I am 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. In your law it is written that the testimony of two men is true. I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me, bears witness about me, and they said to Him therefore, where is your Father? You know neither me nor my Father, if you knew me, you would know my Father also. And these words He spoke in the treasury as He taught in the temple, but no one arrested Him because His hour had not yet come. Now the Lord bless the reading of His Word and the hearing of His people. Have you ever been talking to someone and telling them, you know, you really need to receive Christ. You really need to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and your Savior. And their response is something like, you know, I would if you could just prove to me that it's true. If you could just give me evidence and proof, then I would accept Jesus. And then you would say, well, it says in the Bible because we remember the words of that wonderful children's song, Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so. So we hold up the Bible and we say, well, here is our evidence. Here is where it explains all that you need to know about Christ. And their response is, well, so says you, but who says that the Bible is true? How do I know that your Bible is true after all the Muslims have their Bible? The Mormons have their Bible. The Jehovah's Witness have Bible similar to yours worded a little differently, especially concerning Christ. How do I know that your Bible is the right Bible? How do the Pharisees know that this man named Jesus, who claims to be Messiah, is Jesus, who is the Messiah? Cornelius Vantill in his book, The Defense of Faith, if you were to turn to page 148 of that book. He talks about the nature of man in the way he understands as a hater of God, which is man's original state. In the fall, actually, not his original state is created in innocence. But after the fall, man was in rebellion against God. Man kind was in rebellion against God. What is rebellion? It is an expression of hatred. That's what rebellion is. As a hater of God, he, that is man, does not want to hear about God. The natural man seeks to suppress the pressure of God's revelation in nature that is about him. He seeks to suppress the pressure of conscience within him. So he also seeks to suppress the idea of the revelation of grace that speaks in Scripture. This is what Romans 1 teaches us, that is the suppression of truth, that is characteristic of fallen man. Fallen man does not reject religion. Fallen man rejects truth. Fallen man rejects revelation, because fallen man finds itself in an empty experience when nothing but the presentation of God's truth is set before him. And so we find cults and we find religions and we find different faith groups as fallen man begins to take over more and more of Christendom. We find churches looking more and more like the Donnie and Marie show or Tony Orlando and Don or Sonnie and Cher or the Lawrence Welk show or whatever you might have it as people desire and need something that they can focus on for worship. Because they can't see God. And so as far as they are able to discern there in an empty room or listening to a lecture and it's dull and it's boring and there's nothing there and they've understood the moral principles that you preach. And so they'll take candles or they'll take whatever they need to give their eyes something to see. And then they will organize in that service different distractions to busy and occupy themselves with to while away the time and all the while there's no place where the people of God perceive God in their midst.
How do you reduce a testimony? If you have somebody that's against you and they're going to testify against you and you are not an honest person and so you want to reduce their testimony or you want to cancel out their testimony, you might try first to eliminate the one who would bring testimony to just simply get rid of them. You would plot their overthrow or you would plot their destruction or you would plot somehow to keep them from bearing testimony. That's what happened in John chapter 7. They sent guards to arrest Jesus. But Jesus spoken such a way that the guards who were sent to arrest Him were overwhelmed with Christ and were not able to arrest Him. They were not able to eliminate Jesus in that way. They sought to discredit Jesus. They brought to Him the adulterous woman and in doing that they sought to catch Him in a contradiction and in a point of hypocrisy. You see their goal is not to discover the truth. The goal is simply to discredit Him somehow by twisting and turning and finding Him some ruling or some statement that then they can say, uh-huh, you see? You see He's not consistent. You see what we told you? He actually fudges or He compromises Himself. Where is that righteousness that He talks about now? Are they failed in that too? Because Jesus was not able to be discredited. Now they turn to legal wrangling. They want to disqualify Him on a legal technicality. Jesus speaking to them has said, I am the light of the world who ever follows me will not walk in darkness. Let me remind you last week we simply said that this related in the Hebrew mind to the Exodus. And you might remember even at the Exodus we have those who see and those who don't because at the time of the Exodus the pillar of fire, the pillar of cloud was there with the people. And if you were to go back and read the account you would see that for the Hebrews on one side there was light because there was flame. And then on the Pharaoh side and the Egyptians on the other side was darkness. They could not perceive the presence of God. All they could see was a darkness that enveloped them. But for the Hebrews there was light and light and hope and salvation and guidance. And Jesus is saying in this tabernacles the season of the Feast of Tabernacles as they were all rejoicing and reflecting on God's bringing them out of bondage and of God's deliverance of them. Here Jesus is in that environment and in the context of that thinking he's saying I am that light. I am the one who delivers. I am the one who abides with you. I am the one who guides you. I am the one who will protect you. I am that one. The Pharisees here in the temple court now rise up and they say so says you. Where is the other one to bring testimony? You say this. Well, it takes the testimony of two. That would be the rule of Deuteronomy 1915 or Numbers 35-30. Those require that two or three witnesses be brought forward in a legal case. The Pharisees are just wanting to disqualify Jesus' testimony based on this complaint that they have. Meaning today don't believe the Christian claim, the Christian witness, the Christian testimony, which is the testimony of Christ. They don't believe it because they say the evidence is just lacking. So if you could just prove it, then I would believe it. They claim to be agnostic. They say you know it's not that I don't believe there is a God. I am saying that we can't know anything about this God because the unbelieving mind seeks to suppress the pressure of God's revelation in nature, seeks to suppress the pressure of conscience, which is the work of the Holy Spirit, seeks to suppress the idea of the revelation of grace, the unbelieving mind at enmity with God seeks to suppress the revelation of God within Christ Jesus, who is the Word of God incarnate. Come among us, and this Word of God is the light of life. Jesus' defense is unique. Look down at verse 14. Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I came from or where I am going. His testimony is corroborated by the manifest presence and cooperation of the Father. That's where his testimony is corroborated from. His as light, he self-manifesting, he say, I am showing you myself and my testimony is corroborated by the Father. He testifies that he knows his own origin and he knows his own destiny and that they know nothing of this and that it is his father who corroborates his testimony. His testimony, how? How has God corroborated? How has God verified the testimony of Christ through John the Baptist, a witness? A witness that they understood to be a prophet of God, who said, behold, the Lamb of God who comes to take away the sins of the world. One who sandals I am not fit to untie. It's corroborated through the miracles of Christ, whether it was the wedding at Cana or the feeding of the 5,000. What man in his own power, what one man bearing testimony only to himself could possibly do these things. Which one could give sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, who could mend the crippled limbs of those who were paralyzed and could not walk, which one could cast out demons. Which one could teach in such a way as to completely mesmerize and amaze men so that even those sent under orders to arrest could find themselves unable to lay a hand upon the servant of God. Jesus, in bearing testimony about himself, he's claiming his testimony to be based upon his eternal origins. We testified of this using our creed today. Thank God that our church has left a repository for us of summaries of our Christian faith that remind us of these essential truths that Jesus Christ is eternal. Micah 5-2, but you will Bethlehem. From you shall come forth from me, one who is to be ruler in Israel whose origin is from old, from ancient days, meaning here before creation. The one who was to come existed eternally before creation, Psalm 27. The Lord said to me, predicting that is the Lord's anointed which was to come, you are my son, today I have begotten you. The word that's used for today or in some translations this day is used for the universal present is the tense. It's the universal present which is simply meaning an everlasting day that is eternity, an everlasting now, an everlasting moment which is eternity. Those same verses are repeated for us in Hebrews. If you have, if you're quick with your Bible drill, let me encourage you to flip over to Hebrews chapter 1. I'll read verses 3 and 4. He is the radiance of the glory of God. And the exact imprint of his nature. And he upholds the universe by the word of his power after making purification for sins. He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. Jesus knows from where he came and he knows where he is going. He will be resurrected in glory to be seated at the right hand of God on high. There is what we teach our children and the catechisms, a progress in the revelation of Christ, his humiliation and his exaltation it's called. That means his humiliation we would learn of this in Philippians chapter 2, the passage is often called the Kenosis passage. I'm sure that's familiar with you. Where Jesus though he was in very form God and thought that the attributes of God were nothing for him to be grasping and clamoring after because they were his. Became an appearance in the very form like man. And being made man, he humbled himself through birth, through suffering, through temptations, through the trials and humiliation of death on the cross. And that was the period of Christ humiliation where he went from being eternally with God as the word of God to being made man in that lowest state as Hebrews teaches us for a little while even lower than the angels. And then he would be exalted again and sit at the right hand of God to rule and to reign and glory forever. Jesus tells the Pharisees, you don't even know who I am. You don't know where I came from and eternity passed with the Father and you have no idea where I am going to and glory to be seated at the right hand of the Father. How are you to disqualify my testimony when you can't see anything about the man that you would accuse? He says, I know where I came from and I know where I'm going and contrast to that in verse 15, however, he says, you judge according to the flesh. You judge according to the flesh. Jesus is saying that all they are able to judge by and all they are able to see is that which their eyes perceive, worldly standards of judgment. Where is their spiritual discernment? There is none. But what they do have is a legal standard that is based upon their own conceptions and their own ideas and their own traditions and by that they judge because that is the only way they know which is the way of the flesh. Do they screen it through the scriptures, which they hold? No, of course not. They screen it through a prism of legal self-establishment and in doing that, they fail to recognize the Christ who is with them. The Pharisees' judgment is not according to the Spirit, but the flesh, and so it is a judgment that is built upon unbelief. Jesus was not on a mission to judge. He tells them he's on a mission to reveal. He's on a mission to redeem. And the inevitable consequence is that there is a resistance to Jesus and that in fact will result in judgment. Jesus' judgment, if he were to judge them, is impartial because it's not from a human perspective. They had limitations. Their limitations were that they had a lack of knowledge. How could they judge what they do not understand? How could they judge a man who they can't even discern where he came from and where he is going? How will they stand as judged, jury and prosecutor for a man who they cannot even comprehend? They lacked knowledge. They also lacked objectivity. All they understood was the established religion which was bankrupt, which they were presently in. They lacked objectivity and they also had a bias towards themselves. Which part of their judgment was in a preservation of self, preservation of their own ideas, preservation of their own religious tradition, preservation of the establishment of the Pharisees and the Sanduceses, preservation of the status quo? Jesus did not come to maintain the status quo. Jesus came to bring redemption and salvation to His people. There was a judge in Virginia speaking of bias. There was a judge in Virginia who was trying to decide a case between two railroads. The two lawyers, one for each, sent him briefs on the case. And in those briefs was a check with one for $10,000 and in the second brief there was a check for $15,000. The judge sat and he looked at the two checks and he pondered them and then he called his secretary on his intercom and he said, I need for you to take out the check book and write a check for $5,000 and send it to the second lawyer because we want to judge these cases based upon the merits. They write their best. At their very best, men are still sinful. But Jesus, Jesus has a pure testimony. Jesus says, besides I don't testify alone, as I've already mentioned, John the Baptist, the miraculous signs as well as the Old Testament scriptures, all bear witness along with Christ Himself that His testimony is superior, that it is based on an unbiased understanding and knowledge of the testimony of the Father. Why can't they see? Why can't these Pharisees discern? Why can't Sadducees understand the clear teaching of Christ? Isn't that what we hope? If somebody will just explain the gospel clearly, all people would grab hold. Why wouldn't they desire salvation? Why can't they understand? And why do they still reject the offer of mercy and of grace? And when God calls His people and He says, come and hear of me and let me remind you of the grace and the love which I've shown you on the cross, why is that rejected? What is so burdensome the people will reject that? Why cannot they understand? William shed a great theologian of past in his section on regeneration as he tries to explain how it is that people are saved. We wonder, why do they still reject? Is it as religious and pious as the Pharisees were? Why do they reject truth? He says this, shed does. Regeneration as a creative and life giving act of God produces an effect on human understanding. It is illumination. Enlightening the mind corresponds to our Westminster larger catechism, question 67. God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God and the face of Jesus Christ, again taken from 2 Corinthians 4-6. Jesus told His disciples when it was time for Him to depart. I will not leave you but I will send the Holy Spirit and He will guide you and show you and teach you all things. Work of the Holy Spirit is to illumine the natural mind and to make it able to understand that which is supernatural, not by its own resources and its own strength and energies, but because of the work of the Holy Spirit, we are made able to see that to which we were previously blind. So all of men's natural religious knowledge is called in scriptures ignorance. No matter what form it takes, no matter how sophisticated, no matter how fancy, no matter how pleasurable or enjoyable, that which is not informed by the scriptures, in scripture is called ignorance, ignorance because it is blind to truth. In John 8-19, he says, you know neither me nor my father. The psalmist mourns sins effect when he says, I was so foolish and ignorant. But Jesus Christ has compassion on the ignorant Hebrews tells us in chapter 5. Jesus has come and has compassion on the ignorant. Matthew 11-27, he reminds us that no one knows the father except the son. And the one to whom the son wills to reveal him. The work of revelation is not man's work of discovery, but God's work of revealing. Man is not even all a quest to discover the truth. God reveals to man the truth. Jesus has the light. Illuments for his own himself and the father that seeing we will be able to believe and that believing we may have life. Three brief lessons from this. We should be suspicious of our own judgment and spiritual matters. Whenever we just take off on our own to make up our minds about what's right and what's wrong or what's spiritual or was not spiritual. Isn't it interesting statistically today we live in one of the most spiritually sensitive ages that has ever been and yet there is less belief in the Bible by people's own words. I'm not guessing by observing although that's clearly manifest, but there's less dependence on the Bible for truth and more interest in spirituality. In the 19th century, 20th century there was a movement coupled with the American, started in England but coupled with the American romanticism of our age which focused on the transcendency of knowledge beyond revelation. Beyond cognition. There was a sense in which in this transcendentalism, as it's called, that truth was believed to exist within the person and that it was more of an expression of inspiration than revelation. We find ourselves still victim to this. You'll find people who will walk into a particular church or a particular place and they'll say things like, oh I just knew that the spirit was present or I just knew that this was such and such or I was so moved by the spirit of God but it had nothing to do with revelation. It had to do with the inspiration of the inner person. Transcendentalism is that teaching, that truth emerges from within through our being so inspired and moved by what is perceived here and here, the ears and the eyes of flesh, that inspire the spirit of man but do nothing to draw man to God or reveal truth to him. And so you have people who are very edified but not necessarily saved. Very spiritual but not born again. We have a limited knowledge and we are not unbiased in our approach. First one is that we should be suspicious of our own judgment and spiritual matters. The second one is we must turn to the scriptures alone and trust Christ alone because of who he is. Not because I said so but because of who Christ said he is. We don't turn to the scriptures because the pastor insists that we do it that way. We turn to it because Christ insists that we do it that way. We turn to the scriptures alone and trust Christ alone because of who he is. Left to our own logic and left to our own devices. There are things that we will never understand ever. Left to our own logic and left to our own devices. There are things that we simply will not ever want to understand. What are the scriptures principally teach? We ask our children and our shorter catechisms. What do the scriptures principally teach? Which I actually covered in our communicates class this morning with two children there. What man is to believe concerning God and what duty requires of him if we as adults will simply abide by this. How much of our error is corrected? If we say whatever I express, whatever I desire, however I organize my life and my religion is based upon the scriptures principally teaching what man is to believe concerning God and the duty that God requires of man, how much of our life would be ordered by God's word instead of corrected and by admonition. Third, if God's word is true, then we must receive Him as He presents Himself as our Redeemer and our Savior, 1 John 5-13. I write these things to you and believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. We cannot receive Christ as we choose to craft and sculpt Him. We receive Christ as He revealed Himself in the scriptures. The Pharisees would have received Him another way. Jesus will not be presented in another way. These things are written in the scriptures of God. That we may know what has been written and revealed and knowing that and nothing else will we have eternal life. This is why we in the reformed Church of Jesus Christ defend the theology of the Word and the Spirit so tenaciously. Because it is the Word of God, read to the people of God, coupled with the illuminating work of the Spirit of God, these two coming together to transform and regenerate the people of God to cause us to be born again through no other device has God ordained that people will come to saving knowledge of truth. They may come to some sort of a romantic affection of Christ. They may come to appreciate good living. They may come to regret their past life and the way they have done and they may decide not to take drugs or not to drink or not to corrals or not to gamble or not to fight or not to cuss or whatever it might be because of the societal pressure and the communication of ideas and ethics that say rise above and be more. And that Jesus is your friend that can help you do that they can appreciate those things. They can believe that there is a God but to come to a saving knowledge is exclusively the work of the scriptures with the illuminating power of God's Holy Spirit because I said so no because our confession of faith said so no because God Himself has decreed the means by which people come to faith. And so we tenaciously defend a theology of the Word and the Spirit. All other methods are of man's design. Jesus Christ was the Word of God made flesh who came to reveal Himself and His left us, His revelation, the means of grace, the Word and the sacraments are the means Christ prescribed, all other are the means of man. So we find in this passage what appeared to be the desire for a legal disqualification and we find here one of the most sobering revelations so far I believe at least in a compact place where Jesus expresses to them I'm the light of the world. When you think of that Exodus you think of me and I existed eternally and I will be once again glorified with the Father and you can't even see or understand what I'm trying to express to you all you can see is the eyes of the flesh. So we see here that separation of depraved man from redeeming man and we see here a calling, we see here a calling to us to use the means of God's direction, to use Christ's own Word and then pray that the power of the Holy Spirit would fall upon those we testify to, that when they come here, when they go to their place of worship, that they wouldn't simply see a place with people and a preacher but that they would see God, that they would hear God and that it would be Christ who ministers to them, that they would not see with eyes of flesh and hear with ears of flesh but that they would discern truth. That Christ our Lord lives and reigns has revealed Himself and is the light of illumination of truth, Christ and Christ along. Almighty God our most precious, perfect Heavenly Father, we submit to you because you are truth. There are many rivals, there are many competitors, there are many that have become almost like past lovers still holding onto our hearts. But Father, we know that there is only one who loves us with an everlasting love, only one that can save our soul, only one that can show us truth, Father we desire desperately, that you would cleanse us of all other affections and focus us upon your Word, that we might be seated securely and truth, not seeking to suppress that which you show us. But by the work of your Holy Spirit to be compelled to believe Christ, help us Father in our unbelief, help us to believe in Jesus' name. Amen.