The Center Point of All Scripture

A couple things before we get to the passage, and we are going to get to the passage, let

! me tell you that. But first, it's encouraging to listen to our young people, the ministry that

! they had this summer, and I stop and think of the, what was it, 12 or 16 weeks of preparation?

How many, Pastor? 14, right in between. I missed the sweet spot, 12, 16, but 14. They prepared

after they were interviewed and made commitments. They spent 14 weeks of preparation before they

went on their missions trip. And we're blessed. We're going to have more information on what that

trip was like, and we're going to rejoice in hearing the answers to prayer. But I'm telling

you right now that it's time to start praying and saving for next year's trip, which is an overseas

trip. And that is a heavier lift financially. And so, guess what? Heavier lifts require earlier

thinking. Everybody said, I understand that. And so, I'm here to tell you, it's time to begin praying.

All right, I may not be going. I'm not going with the youth on this trip, but I'm beginning to pray.

All right, Lord, want to put that team together, want to see that it is fully funded and supported,

and be able to hold them up in prayer before the Lord and see God work over time. So, you keep that

front and center. Will you do that? Now, one of the things I want to do this morning, I want you to

turn in your Bible to John chapter 5. John chapter 5, we're going to be looking at verse 39 through 47.

John 5 · chapter mention John 5 · chapter mention

And one of the things I'd like to do is tell you ahead of time the heart of the message,

not so that some of you can walk out of here and say, well, I got it, and so it's done,

but so that you can kind of keep focused on that fundamental thing. What is this passage really all

about? Here it is. Open your Bible. It's about finding Jesus. When you open the Bible,

it's about finding Jesus. Will you kind of keep that in your mind? Open your Bible. It's about finding

Jesus. Furthermore, kind of as a side note, I'd put it this way, growing in the Word means growing

to be like Christ. Growing in the Word means growing to be like Christ. Let me give you a little bit of

background. I want you to just imagine that I was sitting in your office, and I was kind of giving

you a report on how my marriage is going. And so here's how I broke it down. I want you to know that

I spend 17 minutes every morning interacting with Judith, and I can tell you that we talked about

laundry, we talked about what the dinner was going to be, and we talked about what her agenda was.

And you would check the box saying, wow, he really does love Judith, right? Let me tell you something.

Going to the Word and not being driven by a desire to grow in your affection and your understanding of

the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ is to miss the purpose of the book. Did you hear me? Let me say

it again slowly so you understand that. Putting the time into the Scriptures without understanding

that the center of the Scriptures is the Lord Jesus Christ is to miss what the Bible's all about.

We're not Pharisees here. Most of us here know Christ. But there isn't a one of us, me included,

that hasn't gone to the Scriptures in a perfunctory fashion. We've done it because it's habit.

We've done it because we believe it's good for us. We've done it on occasion so we can talk to other

people and say, hey, I'm growing in the Lord. How do you know? Because I had seven minutes in the Bible.

Do you follow that? That's not the primary purpose for which we have the Word. It is that we would know

the Lord of glory, the Lord Jesus Christ, and know Him personally, and grow in our affection for Him.

And so kind of ask yourself the question right now, hey, the last week as I have read the Scriptures,

how much of my time in the Word has been directly driven by my desire to grow in knowing and loving

Christ? Fair question? The text. John chapter 5, verse 39, you search the Scriptures because you

John 5:39

think that in them you have eternal life, and it is they that bear witness about me. Yet you refuse to

come to me that you may have life. I do not receive glory from people, but I know that you do not have

the love of God within you. I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. If another

comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe when you receive glory from one

another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? Do not think that I will accuse you

to the Father. There is one who accuses you, Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believe

Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you

believe my words? Let's pray. Father God, the preaching of your Word is a very, very Spirit-dependent

activity. And I would be remiss if this morning I did not plead with you to enable me to preach

according to your power and for the glory of Christ. I'm thankful that as I pray, I'm reminded of

the truth in the Scriptures that one of the ministries of the Holy Spirit is to lift up the

Lord Jesus Christ and bring his Word to mind and give understanding and clarity. And so I ask that

your Spirit would work both in what I say and preach, but also, Lord, in the hearts of your people that

your Spirit would open up the Word, that it would be precious and valuable and effective and bring

about in the lives of those who know Christ growth in being more like the Lord Jesus.

We're people here this morning that have lives that are deeply affected by the world we live in.

Some of us are here with anxiety that really in the scope of eternity means nothing.

Some of us are here struggling with attitudes that we know are wrong, but we persist.

There are others here in the Lord Jesus that need salvation. They need to hear the sweetness of the

gospel and understand that their only hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we would pray that

your Spirit will work as we open up this passage and we understand it, that you would do a work in

us that is not to be repented of. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

As we start our passage this morning, I think it's appropriate to give you a little bit of background,

and so I want you to understand that John is a book that is supremely logical and yet a little

complex in that it doesn't have an overly simplistic outline. John chapter 1 explains in broad terms

John 1 · chapter mention

the overarching theme. However, John waits till John 20 to tell us, hey, and by the way,

here's what the book is all about, that you may know Christ and believe in Him for eternal life.

The first couple chapters of John kind of explain the early presentation of the Lord Jesus Christ

to His audience, and it's relatively quiet. In John chapter 3, we find Him turning water into wine.

John 3 · chapter mention

We find Him cleansing the temple. We find actually chapter 2. And then in chapter 3, we find interaction

with Nicodemus. And as things kind of play on, we knew that He had to leave where He was in Jerusalem

because of the initial pushback at Him presenting Himself. Remember, cleansing the temple didn't go

over very well, and so He left for a while. And He had this wonderful gospel ministry with a woman at the

well. And she came to faith, and not only did she come to faith, but as you can expect, she went out

as a result of the power of the Spirit of God converting her. She went out and let other people

know that this is Jesus. This is the Messiah. Come, see Him. John chapter 5, Jesus comes back to

John 5 · chapter mention

Jerusalem, and what He does is He goes to a pool and He heals a man who's sick.

And He had the nerve to heal that person on guess what day? Saturday, the Sabbath. And that just

really, really irritated the Pharisees. I mean, after all, if there was any rule that was to be kept,

it was the Sabbath day, and here was Jesus breaking that. And so they couldn't object to the reality of

this man was healed, but they really were bent out of shape about Him not keeping the Sabbath. And so

Jesus, in the remainder of chapter 5, gives to them, and to all of us actually, a clear explanation of

just why He has the authority to not only be the Savior of the world, but also the judge of the world.

And summarizing chapter 5 so that you understand it, the first person who gives credibility to Christ

is His Father, is His Father, then John the Baptist. John bears testimony, Jesus says.

Then third is My miracles. You don't believe Me? Look at the things I've done.

Interestingly, the last witness to Christ's person and office is not His miracles,

not John the Baptist, but is the Scriptures themselves. And that's where we are this morning.

Now, here's one of the things I want you to kind of tag over into the side of your life is recognize

this. Actually, the most important authority in dealing with the issues of life in your personal

relationships, and also the most important authority for dealing with the issues of eternity,

is the Word of God itself. How many of you bumped into people who always are talking about,

well, I had this kind of mystical experience. I looked up into the clouds, and I saw the image

of a cross, and I knew from then on, you know, it's kind of fantasized little explanations of how

they got there. That's not primarily important. The thing that is important is the Bible, the Bible.

And we find Jesus explain it that way. So let's recognize here this morning, first of all,

we're looking at people, and He's talking about the Pharisees in particular, who used the Bible for the

wrong reason. They used it for the wrong reason. Look there in verse 39. You search the Scriptures

because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is they that bear witness about Me.

The last point that Jesus made in His defense was that the Scriptures are the thing that bear

undeniable evidence to My authority and to My person. And so I want you to remember as we kind of work

our way through this, that the Bible is a central witness to all that is good and true. Keep that in

your mind. But as you step into this, you recognize here were people who knew the Bible backwards and

forwards. They were specialists. They memorized whole sections of it. Earlier this week, last week,

I did a little bit of research on how many verses you have to memorize to be a Timothy award winner.

And six, seven hundred, I don't know. It's a lot of verses, at least for my little pea brain.

And I want to tell you that the scribes and Pharisees had Bible verses memorized. They didn't

get Timothy awards. They got something much more than that, at least in their thinking. And they knew

the entire Old Testament. To be one of the kind of reasonable individuals, you should be able to

recite Genesis, Exodus, Lydicus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. How many of you have ever been reading through the

book of Leviticus and had trouble remembering this tribe and that tribe? You ever been there?

Okay. Or when you're dealing with the kings and talks about the sacrifices and they sacrificed

X number of bulls on certain days, they had all that memorized. In fact, if you were pretty sharp

as a Pharisee, you could have someone in the audience say, and what letter is in the exact middle

of the Pentateuch, and you'd say, oh, I know that. It's Aleph or whatever it is. You know,

they had it all down. They read the Bible, but they never got it. And so I want you to understand that

a person can know the Bible and be completely lost and self-absorbed.

Have you ever kind of wondered how is it that kids go through Sunday school, go through a Juana,

grow up in a Christian home, and they're exposed to all this Bible information, but it never really

makes a difference in their life? Jesus' enemies knew the Bible well, and yet we recognize that they

completely missed it. Their attitude was that knowing the Bible in and of itself is the means

of salvation. Okay? Have you ever heard people say, I'm going to have a good day because I had devotions?

That's pagan. Let me say it again slowly because that may rattle the cage a little bit here,

but giving anyone the idea that reading the Bible equals a guaranteed good day is missing it. Job

didn't know that verse. Here is Hillel. He was a well-respected rabbi, and he said this,

more flesh, more worms. How many of you followed me there? More flesh,

more worms. More wealth, more care. More maidservants, more lewdness. More menservants,

more thieving. More Torah, more life. Are we tracking so far? If you're heavier, the worms just have more

to eat. I was doing a little translating work here for you who are kind of going, what is that all about?

Their attitude was, guess what? If you know the Torah, you're good to go. Here's another thing he

said in relationship to that. Whoso hath gained a good name has gained for himself something benefit,

but whoso has gained the words of the Torah has gained for himself life in the world to come.

So there you are at the gates of heaven, and God says, why should I let you come in? Well, I know the

Old Testament. I'm good. I got it. What part do you want me to recite? That was their attitude.

And Jesus says, hey, you know, you know the Scriptures, and you think that in them you have

eternal life. Then he says something else. He says, they bear witness of me. Well, let's follow again.

People could know the Bible and be completely lost. A person can know the Bible and completely miss Jesus.

They bear witness of me. And what Jesus was actually saying is that the Bible is really

all about Him. So let me kind of a little sidebar here for you. In the future when you are having

your personal devotions, and I got to be honest, I make an assumption, I make an assumption right here

that all of God's people have an ongoing devotional life. Do you follow me? I'm not asking you

to tell me I have 17 minutes. That's not it. But it's a presupposition of a genuine relationship

that you spend time with the Lord. And I want you to understand that as you're spending that time,

I want to remind you that what you do in the Scriptures are really to be directed towards

growing and knowing Jesus. He is the one that's at the center of it. Reading the Bible

is not something that we ought to do to become prosperous. Reading the Bible is not something

we ought to do so that our kids are better at sports. Reading the Bible is not something we

ought to do so that we have happy, healthy homes. Have you ever heard that people come off with that

idea that, okay, if you get into the Bible, you can know these verses, and they're kind of trick verses

that when you're having a little bit of trouble with finances, you can name it and claim it, and you

can do it on the basis of ABC verses, right? So learn these verses so they kind of help you with

these things. That's the attitude of the Pharisees. A person can learn the Bible and miss it.

I want you to recognize that flowing throughout Scripture is the Lord Jesus Christ, and we don't

want to miss that. Let me give you an illustration of that. Step back in your thinking to Genesis,

Genesis, and you remember after Adam and Eve fell into sin, God came along, and He provided a covering

for them, right? They were naked and ashamed, and they tried to do the fig leaf thing. That really

didn't pan out. And so God comes along, and He provides a covering for them, and in order to provide

the covering, where did the covering come from? It came from the skins of animals that had to die.

The first recorded physical death was for the sake of substitution and covering. A reminder that we are

clothed in our faith with the imputed righteousness of Christ. Do you understand that? You are as holy in the

eyes of God as you ever will be. That gives me cold chills when I stop and think about me.

Do you follow that? Imputed righteousness. I have received the righteousness of Christ attached to me.

Genesis. And God, when He came to Adam and Eve, and He said to them, I want you to understand there's

going to be this enmity between you and the serpent. He says, and you will have your heel bruised, and you,

He will bruise your heel, and you will bruise His head. And that was a reference to the coming of the

Messiah. Incidentally, kind of buried in the Hebrew text, when Eve got pregnant with the first child,

do you know what the Hebrew text indicates her thinking was? Listen to me carefully, because I don't

want you to miss this one. Remember she'd heard God's promise? The first thing she thought,

oh, maybe this is the one. How about that? Huh? Isn't that encouraging? Stop. She understood the

promise of God, and she was anticipating, I know we've made a mess of it, and you're going to provide

someone in your time. Maybe this is it. You work your way through the Old Testament,

and you find that when the nation of Israel was in absolute slavery in the nation of Egypt,

and God came to deliver them. Do you know how the nation of Israel was delivered from the death

of every firstborn? It was by blood on the doorposts. Later on, when God chose to dwell among the people

there in the wilderness as they traveled from place to place, there was the tabernacle,

and in the tabernacle was the place on the mercy seat where the blood covered and made atonement

for God's people. And so you work your way through the Old Testament, and you see all these images in

which Christ is being displayed. And yet I want you to understand it. It's just stunning. He says this,

you refuse to come to me. You refuse to come to me, verse 40, that you may have life. The Jews knew the

Bible, and yet they were utterly unwilling to come to Christ. And so a logical question for us to ask is,

why? Now, do you follow me? They knew the Bible, and they miss it. Why? How many of you realize that

that very seldom, occasionally, but very seldom do we sin with complete ignorance? Do you follow that?

How many of you have on occasion been speeding and not really known what the legal limit was?

Don't raise your hand and smile at me, because most of you'd be lying. But sometimes we do. You know,

it's like speed changes and blah, blah, blah, and you get caught somewhere down in Valley View where it

drops from such and such to such and such. By the way, did you know that Wilson Road has a section that

is 35 miles an hour? Be very careful. I can tell you where it changes. Don't ask me why.

Most of the time, though, we sin knowingly.

So what was it that made the Jews miss the centrality of Christ in the Bible? For one,

now look at what Jesus says, verse 42, I know that you do not have the love of God within you.

Now, that's pretty interesting. So what causes people to miss it? Not interested in loving God.

What an indictment, particularly to Jews, remember? Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God,

the Lord is one, and you shall, what? What, what? The heart of it? You shall love the Lord with all your

heart. Love Him. Before you obey Him, He wants you to love Him. In fact, He wants your obedience to not

be driven by an abject fear of His judgment, but to have your obedience driven by love.

And here were people that didn't love the Father. Now, it's very interesting this last week or two has

been kind of marked by the statement, love wins. How many of you heard that? Love wins, love wins,

love wins. And you know, it's like blah. Let me tell you something. Loving God means letting the one

you love run the show. Letting the one you love be the one who tells you what's right and wrong.

My wife, who I love, and I do love her, actually has interest in things that have nothing to do with

what I'm interested in. And so, because love wins, it means that while I would think that getting

McDonald's coffee, which is, yeah, 20 cents cheaper, is a reasonable way to go about showing

your affection for your bride, because I know she wants Tim Hortons, and she wants a double cream on

top of it, I make a detour past where I think logic dictates, and I go over here. Love makes us do

the things that the beloved wants. And God's Word tells us what He wants. He also tells us

in His Word what He has identified as true and right. And so, I want you to understand that

when we talk about love winning, it means telling the truth about the desperate need of man's condition.

That's love. And these Jewish individuals had no interest in really loving God. They were

interested in loving themselves. And what you need to recognize is as you work your way through,

in verse 43, it tells us they were not interested in giving God glory. Look at verse 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. Here was Jesus arriving on the scene, and in every hand or every case,

whenever there was any question about what He was doing, He made it explicitly clear that He was

interested in the Father receiving glory. The Jews were all about accolades and compliments to one

another. For one, there was a rabbi that the population was pretty impressed with. Do you know

what he called himself? He called himself? He called himself the morning star. Does that put your teeth on

edge a little bit? A Jewish rabbi who would know the Old Testament calling himself the morning star?

And everybody, yeah, man, you're good. You know the Old Testament. Morning star. Jesus says, you know

what? You're all about receiving people, and you don't mind other people taking credit, but you're missing

the Father. How can you believe? Well, that's interesting. How can you believe?

Now, follow the logic in the larger context of verse 41 through 44 and recognize what Jesus is saying,

first of all, and we're backing up into this a little bit. He says, I do not receive glory from

people. When Jesus came on the scene, He didn't hire PR men. He didn't put out flyers. He didn't show up at

an arena that had been rented for Him in His limo, and He didn't fly in on His corporate jet to kind of

do some special healings for selected people. He didn't have multi-million dollar mansions,

nor were the disciples high up the food chain. Hey, listen to me. It's unbecoming of those who profess

to be messengers of the Lord of hosts that they live in such extravagant style when Jesus didn't.

And you look and here's Jesus saying, I'm not about what I hear from other people.

He says, how can you believe? Put your finger on that. How can you believe when you receive glory from

one another and do not seek the glory that is from the only God? And so when you find yourself caught up,

listen to me carefully, when you find yourself caught up, even as a believer in this business of

how important am I? I want you to know that in that very thought process, what you are doing is tamping

down the opening of the scriptures to your affection and to your heart because you're choosing to be the

focus rather than Christ. You're choosing to be the focus rather than God. How can you believe

when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that is from God? That brings us to

the last thing that I want us to recognize here. And what the characteristic of these Jews were,

was that they were not overwhelmed by grace. Now think with me so you can see it in the passage.

Where does glory come from God that is only God's? What is it that brings glory to the brokenhearted,

unbelieving, wretched sinner who recognizes the moral bankruptcy of his soul? Do you know where it

comes from? It comes from the work of grace that finds him broken and destitute and saves him. And who

gets credit in that situation? God alone. I remember talking with an individual a couple weeks ago,

and, you know, one of the things that goes with being 66 and a pastor is people assume that I was

kind of born this way. You know, it's like, yeah, you know the Bible, and you're a reasonably good

neighbor. I mean, you know, you at least have your lawn mowed periodically, and so, you know,

there are good things you do. And no, no, no. In the course of our conversation, one of the things

I made explicitly clear was this, is I'm not the hero in my story. Jesus is. He found me broken.

He found me in my wretched condition, and He and His loving kindness saved me, and I will spend the

rest of my days talking about the one who ransomed me and rescued me from the pit.

I wonder this morning whether or not you are overwhelmed by grace.

You know what? You can do a quick check of whether or not you're all about grace by asking yourself a

couple questions. How bristly are you when things don't go your way? How many of you realize

that most of us like to be in control of the agenda of our life? Smile and say, I know, I know.

And here's an absolute guarantee. Things won't go your way. I mean, it may be a surprise to some of

you, but truth of the matter, if you live long enough, you'll find out that things don't go your

way. Earlier this last week, I counseled with my dear friend and pastor, Pastor Saul. By the way,

you know he retired but still around here, and he talks with me regularly. And one of the things he

said to me, I needed to hear at 66, almost 67, was, Pastor, things won't go your way.

Really? Stunned, you know? So, the question is, is when things aren't going your way, do you realize

that God's still in control and doing a good thing? Yeah. You know, God is glorified in that he saves

broken and wretched men and women, and he then uses those broken and wretched men and women to be an

example of his power to transform lives. I'm happy to tell you that I'm not who I used to be,

but I'm also happy to tell you that I anticipate so long as I draw breath, he's going to keep on

working, whether I want him to or not. I like that. And so, I want to be clear that he is the hero of the

story. Turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 1, where the apostle deals with this

1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

so clearly. 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 26. I have to tell you, as I'm turning here,

1 Corinthians 1:26

one of the things that sticks in my mind is I'll never forget a guy, a young believer,

a new believer, came to me and said, you know what? I'm praying that Bill Gates will get saved.

Well, that's a reasonable thing. I mean, you ought to be praying that. I would like him to be saved.

But what he said next was kind of a stunning thing. He says, I'm praying that Bill Gates will be saved

because if he gets saved, the rest of the world will follow. And I thought, really? Oh, okay. So,

we're in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, and listen to what it says there in verse 26.

1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

But consider your calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise according to world standards.

Not many were powerful. Not many were noble birth. But God chose what is foolish of the world to shame

the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised

in the world, even things that are not to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being

might boast in the presence of God. Who gets the credit for who you are? It's Christ.

And the thing that Jesus was saying to those poor, hard-hearted Jews is that the reason

you don't get it is because you're all about yourself. So, let's think, just in closing this morning,

in practical terms of a sober note and some application.

Let me have you look there at verse 45,

Do not think that I am come. I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you, Moses.

What Jesus is saying is that the theme of the Old Testament,

and really the whole purpose of the Old Testament,

is to bring mankind to see two things.

Number one, their hopeless state,

and number two,

the provision of the Messiah,

the Savior.

That's where it's at.

This morning, as I was actually reading

in

2 Kings, one of the things that

having been studying and praying

in my own life, and I over the last

probably ten years have been praying

often about growing to know Jesus

and see Him in the Scriptures

and love Him. But I remember explicitly

this morning, before I opened the Word,

I was praying, I want to see Jesus

this morning on the pages.

Now, 2 Kings is where?

It's the historical

rendition of some of the

messiness of the kings, right?

And so, here I was, opening the Bible and saying,

I want to see Jesus.

And as I was reading this morning,

and seeing just the miserable,

despicable condition of half of the kings

of Israel, I was thinking,

boy, I am so glad

Jesus is the perfect example

of how to rule

and reign with justice

and righteousness

and mercy.

Find Jesus everywhere you are.

And so,

come back around and understand this,

that as we look

at the Scriptures, understand that

Moses serves to indict

and draw us to recognize

the need for the Savior.

And so, as we're working our way through the Bible,

I want you to remind yourself

this morning,

as we look at John,

what Jesus is saying is this,

is that the Bible is all about Him,

who He is,

about Jesus.

He's a central theme.

He is the focus of the whole Bible.

And so, as you read the Bible,

and as you are working your way

through the Scriptures,

as you're listening to the preaching

of the Word of God,

keep on keeping the mind

and the heart tuned to say,

where is Jesus in this picture?

And is He prized

and valued by me?

Jesus is saying,

when you read the Bible,

I'm there.

I want you to recognize

another thing that you have to recognize

is that anytime you are focused

on your own glory

rather than Christ's,

and I say this carefully,

you are choking down,

you're choking down

your ability to grasp

the beauty of the Scriptures

and the centrality of Jesus.

Let me say it slowly.

Anytime you choose

to focus on yourself,

and what are ways

in which we focus on ourself?

Right?

It's when we get caught up

in our self-importance,

or we find ourselves

over and over again

indignant at the way

other people are treating us

or valuing us.

It's when we get obsessed.

How many of you know

what obsessed looks like?

It's a hamster in a cage

spinning wildly

and going nowhere.

You got that?

If you have any question

about what that's like,

go to PetSmart

after its morning service.

You know, it's like,

where am I going

thinking about myself?

When you're obsessed,

Jesus isn't in the picture.

And what happens

is when we get obsessed

and focused on ourself,

we choke down

the ability

that God gives us

through His Spirit

to grow in knowing Christ

and loving Christ.

So where are you?

Where are you?

Is your grasp

of the Scriptures

darkened this morning

because you are

more about yourself

than you are about Christ?

That won't change

without humility

and confession.

Finally,

God is glorified

in the salvation

of fallen

and broken sinners.

Do you realize that?

God is glorified.

That's what we find there

in John chapter 6

John 6 · chapter mention

where Jesus said this.

He said,

you know,

you are not seeking

the glory that comes

from the only God.

You're not looking

for the things

that lift up

the power of Christ

to save.

So let me have you

go out of here

this morning

with a couple

practical things

in your heart.

First of all,

if you're a believer,

I want you to remind yourself

every time you open

the Bible,

it's about who?

Say it with me.

It's about...

Stop just a minute.

Everybody tune up.

Everybody look up.

I really want you

to say this.

Every time I open

the Bible,

it's about Jesus.

And I don't mind

saying that I need

to pray about that

because I need

His help.

Amen?

So every time

I talk about

the things

that are important,

I want to talk

about Jesus.

Right?

Because I'm not

the hero

in the story.

And if you're here

today and you

don't know Christ,

I don't have

to tell you

something,

you already know

your life's a mess.

Question,

do you need

any more evidence?

What's the answer?

I hope not.

So what's the

reasonable,

humble thing

to do?

It's to be

just like a person

who's desperately sick.

Last week,

I had strep throat

on Saturday.

Wonderful disease

for pastors to have.

And I had to go

to an urgent care

and walk in there

and sign in

at the kiosk

and say,

I'm sick.

Do you know

what the outcome

of that was?

You step things

in different places

and say,

uh-huh,

yeah,

yeah,

yeah,

yeah.

But I'm going

to give you this

and it'll make you better.

And here I was

last Sunday,

happy and

marginally healthy.

But hey,

until you're willing

to admit

you have a problem,

you don't have

a hope of solution.

And if you're here today

and do not know Christ,

there will be no remedy

until you come

with a broken heart

and say,

I am a sinner

who justly stands

condemned

before a holy God

and I have no hope

except in Jesus.

And I believe

God sent His Son,

the Lord Jesus Christ,

to die for my sins

that I might have

everlasting life.

Let's close

our eyes

and bow our heads

and pray together

as John comes

to lead us

in our closing song.

Father God,

this morning

we are thankful

for the glory

of the cross

and the certainty

we have

in the Lord Jesus Christ

of complete forgiveness

and salvation.

Help us

when we open

the Bible

to find Jesus

in every page

and we recognize

that that is not

our nature.

We're bent

towards thinking

about ourself

rather than Him.

And as a result

of us being that way,

we spend far more time

being moderately unhappy

and struggling

with issues

that in the scope

of eternity

don't amount

to much at all.

And we ask

that Your Spirit

would do a work

in us

to draw us

to see Jesus

as the most fulfilling,

the most satisfied,

the most significant

of all.

Lift Him up.

in my life.

Lift Him up

in the lives

of Your people

that those

who do not know Christ

may be drawn

to see Him

as sufficient

and supreme.

We ask this

in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.