#1477 John 5 Part 4 Willful

 

33 You have sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. 34 But the witness I receive is not from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. 35 He was the lamp that was burning and shining and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. 36 But the witness I have is greater than the witness of John; for the works which the Father has given Me to finish—the very works that I do—bear witness about Me, that the Father has sent Me. 37 And the Father who sent Me, He has borne witness about Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time nor seen His form. 38 And you do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He sent. 39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that bear witness about Me; 40 and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life. 41 I do not receive glory from men; 42 but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. 43 I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him. 44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the only God? 45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. 46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?”  John 5: 33-47 LSB

John 5: 33-47

We left off with Jesus reference back to what they had to said to Him, that He was testifying to Himself, and what matters, as always, is what He saying true? They were hypocrites about this because we will find that they will accept plenty who come in their own name. They were lying to themselves and others in this as well because Jesus doesn't come solely in His own name, and He is going to present that case here, almost an indictment of the Jewish leadership, that there are more people and things that bear witness to Him, all of which ultimately are the testimony of God, Who He also is. He is the Son of God. He is testifying as someone from God, from eternity, but lets see what bears witness to Him.

31 “If I alone bear witness about Myself, My witness is not true. 32 There is another who bears witness about Me, and I know that the witness which He gives about Me is true. John 5: 25-32 LSB

And it all came down to this in verse 40. They were unwilling. They were unwilling. I want to stop here and you need to make sure you understand this. Sinners are going to be held responsible before God for their unwillingness…for their unbelief. In John chapter 3 and verse 19, we hear about their judgment. This is the judgment that the light, meaning the Lord Jesus Christ, has come into the world and men loved the darkness rather than the light for their deeds were evil. Men who love sin hate righteousness. Men who love the darkness hate the light. This then is the judgment. The judgment will fall because they were unwilling to leave their sins and their darkness. It’s the unwillingness of the sinner that is the basis of judgment.

Now I say that because we understand that the Bible teaches this, that if you’re saved, it’s the will of God. If you’re saved, God gets the credit. We saw that in John 3, you must be born from above. Something has to happen to you that you don’t contribute to. So we give God all the credit for our salvation, that’s biblical. But the sinner takes all the responsibility for his unwillingness and unbelief. Those two truths are clearly taught in Scripture. If you have trouble harmonizing them, join the human race. The most astute theologian on the planet realizes those two truths go parallel together and will only be explained to us one day when we meet the Lord. But we also understand how feeble our minds are.

I just want to emphasize, all responsibility for unbelief always falls on the sinner. All responsibility for unbelief always falls on the sinner. Let me take it a step further. It doesn’t fall on the sinner’s environment. It doesn’t fall on the sinner’s parents. It doesn’t fall on the sinner’s bad circumstances. It falls on the sinner. Salvation is because God wills. Condemnation is because the sinner is unwilling. And the Bible is clear on both of those. Judgment is never ever attributed to a decision made by God. It’s always attributed to an unwillingness in the sinner. Judgment is not a matter of God being unwilling to receive cause the Bible keeps saying, “Whoever believes…Whosoever believes…Whoever comes, let him come. I will in no wise turn him away. Come unto Me all you who labor and who are heavy laden and I will give you rest,” Matthew 11.

So judgment is never attributed to some decision by God, some decree by God, or God’s unwillingness to receive a sinner. The sinner’s condemnation is never because there is some limit in the atoning work of Christ. It’s never attributed to a limited atonement so that there’s no way to include these people because there’s no provision for them. Furthermore, judgment is never attributed to a lack of invitation, because we’re to take the gospel invitation to the ends of the world to every creature. It’s never attributed to an absence of information. Always the sinner’s judgment is simply and entirely the sinner’s unwillingness to believe. - J Mac

You have sent to John, and he has born witness to the truth - They esteemed John as a prophet from God, one who had a big following, one who Herod even came to hear preach. The Jewish people were wanting out of bondage, wanting the physical kingdom to manifest itself, and they were students of the Scripture, so they even wondered, is John the Messiah? He set them straight on this, and he is a stark contrasting comparison to those who will call themselves prophets after him, and he even acknowledged his limits. John had a proper view of Himself in light of Who Jesus is. John was the messenger preparing the way, the herald walking in before the King, "make the way straight, His Majesty is coming, prepare to meet your Lord." Whether you believed it or not, like it or not, that's Who Jesus is. John is making the proclamation, the One Who deserves your full obedience is coming, repent and be saved.

…3A voice of one calling: “Prepare the way for the LORD in the wilderness; make a straight highway for our God in the desert. 4Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill made low; the uneven ground will become smooth, and the rugged land a plain. 5And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all humanity together will see it. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”… Isaiah 40: 3-5

1“Behold, I will send My messenger, who will prepare the way before Me. Then the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple—the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight—see, He is coming,” says the LORD of Hosts. 2But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He will be like a refiner’s fire, like a launderer’s soap. 3And He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver. Then they will present offerings to the LORD in righteousness.… Malachi 3: 1-3

…26“I baptize with water,” John replied, “but among you stands One you do not know. 27He is the One who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.” 28All this happened at Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.… John 1: 26-28

…29The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom stands and listens for him, and is overjoyed to hear the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. 30He must increase; I must decrease. 31The One who comes from above is above all. The one who is from the earth belongs to the earth and speaks as one from the earth. The One who comes from heaven is above all.… John 3: 29-31

V. 34 But the witness I receive is not from man - Again, ultimately, if John is a prophet he is not a self made or self styled prophet with just any gospel; he is God's messenger.

V. 35 He was the lamp that was burning and shining - He wasn't the light, but carried it, bore witness to it. People were pouring out to hear John speak because they hadn't had a prophet in 4 centuries. People were being baptized unto repentance, except of course those who didn't feel the need. The Pharisees liked seeing other people repent, they wanted a "moral" world, but they thought they had earned salvation by their own meritorious system of counting cumin seeds, straining at gnats while swallowing camels. 

…7But when John saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his place of baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8Produce fruit, then, in keeping with repentance. 9And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.… Matthew 3: 7-9

V. 36 But the witness I have is greater than the witness of John - John said what God wanted Him to say, Christ says and does only what the Father is doing. Jesus is the Son, and so the works He does are things only God can do, and He even answers a struggling John, imprisoned for speaking against the adultery and incest of Herod and Herodias. John sends his disciples to Jesus with question are you the One or do we wait for another? I think this is largely for the sake of his disciples who he is trying to push away from himself towards Jesus.

…21At that very hour Jesus healed many people of their diseases, afflictions, and evil spirits, and He gave sight to many who were blind. 22So He replied, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. 23Blessed is the one who does not fall away on account of Me.”… Luke 7: 21-23

V. 37 And the Father Who sent Me has born witness about me - This is the ultimate, and they wouldn't even hear Him, and Jesus points to His written word as well, though scribed by men, it is the proven word of God. You have not seen the form of the invisible God, for good reason, but you have seen His work, Creation, and now you have someone before you with power over Creation. 

…16As soon as Jesus was baptized, He went up out of the water. Suddenly the heavens were opened, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and resting on Him. 17And a voice from heaven said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased!” Matthew 3: 16-17

…20Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture comes from one’s own interpretation. 21For no such prophecy was ever brought forth by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. 2 Peter 1: 20-21

V. 38 And you do not have His word in you - This probably caused more than a few aneurisms, how can He say that about us? We aren't pagans, we aren't even Samaritans, we go to the right temple, in their minds they know the word better than He does.

V. 39 You search the Scriptures because in them you think you have eternal life; it is these that bear witness about Me - The Scriptures pointed to Christ, it was God's redemptive story, History about Creation, the fall, and His redemptive plan that all rests in this One individual. They read Moses (the Pentateuch), the prophets, and they looked in them to find the Messiah, to find salvation, but they took it, twisted it in their minds, added to it, and were now lost. It was not an issue of evidence, but of self will, they loved sin, loved pride, and refused God's witness to them.

…15From infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17so that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work.… 2 Timothy 3: 15-17

V. 41 I do not receive glory from men - He didn't need their approval. He wasn't looking for their indorsement. They did that with each other and for each other, gross compliments and flattery. It is sick, they are basically asking Him to seek their approval by being the Messiah they want Him to be, not the One Who is God the Son, the One Who proceeds from the Father, the One Who demands their obedience. They want Him to obey them. Paul only wanted people to follow him in as much as he followed Christ. They wanted people to follow them, for Christ to point to them; it is satanic.

…6They love the places of honor at banquets, the chief seats in the synagogues, 7 the greetings in the marketplaces, and the title of ‘Rabbi’ by which they are addressed. 8But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers.… Matthew 23: 6-8

V. 43 If another comes in his own name, you will receive him - They developed a taste for false prophets and teachers throughout OT history and in Christ's time. Jesus warns of this for period in between His first and second coming, many will come in His name.

Now false religion is dishonest, it’s all strapped on. It’s all stuck on. It’s all attached on the outside. It’s dishonest because it doesn’t live in the heart because people in false religion love themselves, glorify themselves not God and not Christ.

So, if that’s the situation, you can’t possibly love the Father if you reject the one who came in His name. On the other hand, the end of verse 43, “If another comes in his own name, you’ll receive him. To say that I came in the Father’s name would be to say that I came, claimed to be from the Father. It was verified by the Father’s testimony through John the Baptist, through the miracles, through the Old Testament as we’ve said. You’re not interested in loving God, you’re not interested in honoring Me. But if another comes in his own name, you receive him.”

What is that? Well, the history of Israel is a history of false Messiahs and some historians have counted as many as 70 of them that gained ground with the nation…70 different people who claimed to be the Messiah and, of course, were not. And all of them had a following. Sometimes an extensive following. It was the following of a false Messiah that started the revolution that led to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. and about 60 years later after that, another false Messiah comes up and captures the interest of the people. And that has gone on throughout Jewish history.

And by the way, that will continue to go on. If you look back again to Matthew’s gospel, our Lord is describing the future and what it’s going to be like when the judgment comes. And when the judgment comes, one of the things that our Lord promises is that there are going to be false Christs, Matthew 24, false prophets arise, show great signs and wonders so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.” Some people will say, “Here is Messiah. There is Messiah. He’s over here. He’s over there.” There’s going to be competition for Messiah in the time of the Tribulation in the future. One will emerge and that will be the Antichrist, the ultimate false Messiah, and he’s described in Daniel 9 as the one with whom Israel makes a pact for a seven-year period.

Israel has always been willing to follow a liar and a deceiver and a false Messiah, that’s been their history in the past and it will happen again in the future. And they’ll be pretty convincing because they’ll do what amount to Satanic wonders. They have not, however, been willing to follow the true Messiah whom they had despised and rejected. - J Mac

V. 46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me - This was a huge insult to them, for they thought themselves most familiar with Moses.

15The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to him. 16This is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the LORD our God or see this great fire anymore, so that we will not die!”… Deuteronomy 18: 15-16 

…20He did not refuse to confess, but openly declared, “I am not the Christ.” 21“Then who are you?” they inquired. “Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No.” 22So they said to him, “Who are you? We need an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”… John 1: 20-22 More of John the Baptist's testimony about himself.