John Chapter 5:39-47

Proverbs says the fear of man is a snare. That desire is in us. We need to recognize that. And we need to turn that to God and say, God, you're the one I want to please.

You're the one I want to live for. We live in a climate and we think that we're more caring and more politically correct. You know, the Internet and newspapers are filled with these mutual congratulations on business and endeavors to help other people and all these things. And some of those are good efforts. But at the same time, it's interesting that while that has been happening, we continue to criticize and scorn the Word of God. We don't understand the sanctity of marriage, the glory of chastity and purity. And it does seem that as we live to honor man, we're not honoring God.

That's the way it looks. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is the senior pastor of The Bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. One of David's associate pastors is Pastor D.A.

Brown. Welcome D.A. to the program today. Hey, Bob. It's very easy to be a people pleaser.

We want to make everyone happy all the time. But the truth is, we should live to please God. Today, Pastor Dave is going to help us understand the importance of pleasing God as we continue in John chapter 5. Now, here's David McGee with part two of his teaching, The God of the Word. We've been in John chapter 5 and verse 35 says, and it's speaking of John the Baptist here, that he was the burning and shining lamp and you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light. But I have a greater witness than John's for the works which the Father has given me to finish, the very works that I do bear witness of me that the Father has sent me. And the Father himself who sent me has testified of me and you have neither heard his voice in any time nor seen his form. But you do not have his word abiding in you because whom he sent you do not believe. Verse 39, you search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life and these are they which testify of me. Now I've heard some people really twist this passage and say, well, you know, Jesus is saying there that we can overvalue scripture.

That's not what he's saying at all. What he is saying is these guys knew the word, the Pharisees, they knew the Bible, but they didn't know Jesus. See, it's awesome to know the word of God and we should all know the word of God. But if you don't know the God of the word, then you're going to fall far short. And again, I know people who know the word of God, but they don't know the God of the word.

And it's important that you have that relationship with him and that's the next life lesson. We need to know the word of God and we also need to know the God of the word. Isn't it amazing, you remember reading the Bible, you know, perhaps before you became a believer when you were young or in your teenage years or maybe in your older years and you weren't saved yet and you read it and you're like, what is that? I don't get that. I don't understand that. And then after you ask the Lord to forgive you of your sins, you picked it up and you go like, man, I never saw this is great.

I never saw this stuff in here. That's the spirit of God revealing the word of God to you. So it's important to know God and to know God's word. If you love Jesus, you should love your Bible. And if you love your Bible, you should love Jesus.

And to me, I'll be honest with you. This is the real litmus test of a church. Are they a Bible teaching church?

I don't mean, you know, and I'm trying to explain what we do here. Sometimes it got, it's interesting cause I'll say, you know, we teach the word of God. Oh yeah, we teach the word of God. Everybody teaches the word of God. And my question is, well, how do you teach it?

Well, you know, a little bit there, a little bit here. Well, one verse there, one verse there. And I, I challenged people and I said, well, you're not teaching the word of God. You're teaching out of the word of God. You're figuring out, you're figuring out a sermon topic. You're getting other verses to kind of back up that topic and, and you're teaching out of the word of God. You're not teaching the word of God.

And then they seem confounded when I say, they say, well, what do you do? And I say, well, we're going from Genesis to revelation verse by verse. We're not leaving anything out.

We're not skipping anything. We're in the new Testament on Sunday morning. We're in the Hebrew scriptures on Sunday, on Thursday night, verse by verse. I'm not, there's some stuff in Deuteronomy I probably would have wanted to skip over, but you know, I mean, it was still good stuff in there and it's powerful. It's the word of God.

You know, last week, was it last week or week before? Last week we're in Deuteronomy 28, a guy comes up and he goes, man, I just want to let you know I got saved Thursday night in Deuteronomy 28. Praise God, man. That is the word of God accomplishing that which it was sent forth to accomplish. And it's an amazing thing. And so as you read the Bible, make sure that your Bible's reading you. As you read it and you go, oh boy, that speaks to that. Isn't it amazing how the word of God does that? You can have something going on. You pick up your Bible, you start to read and you go, oh my goodness, you know, especially maybe after you've had an argument with somebody or something and you know, and you try to get spiritual, I'm going to read the Bible and then you, and then, you know, you read it and you go, oh, go repent.

Bam. You don't get that from any other book. This is a super natural book. And when you proclaim it, stuff happens. You know, so many people have come to me and said, you know, I didn't know how starving I was for the word of God till I showed up here and actually heard you going verse by verse. And I've grown so much since I've been here.

Guys, do you know why that is? It's because we're focused on the word of God. The word of God is powerful.

It's not that I'm just, you know, just this awesome teacher and you've never heard some of this stuff before. Some of you have heard it before, but it's being reinforced and the power of God is with his word. And that's what's changing lives and bringing people to salvation here. Because I want to stand before the Lord as Paul stood in the book of Acts chapter 20 verse 27. He said, for I've not shunned to declare to you the whole council of God. Now there's only one way I can say that.

There's only one way I can declare that. That's if I am teaching the whole council of God. It's important that you be in the word of God because you know, you understand Jesus is in the word of God.

If you've been here on a Thursday night, some of you've emailed me and called me and said, man, I'm shocked. I never saw Jesus so much in the book of Deuteronomy. It's an amazing thing as you teach the book of Deuteronomy.

I didn't know this was in there. Praise God. Jesus is on every page of the book.

It's amazing. Some of the stuff you see when you begin to be open to the supernatural power of the word of God and how Jesus is so in the book. It says, do you search the scriptures? Do you search the scriptures? Get to know your Bible, get to know Jesus. Because as you get to know the word of God, you'll get to know the God of the word. And as a little additional motivation, realize something.

I don't know if you've thought about this. If you know Jesus in here and you've asked him to forgive you of your sins, you're going to heaven. Praise God.

Isn't that good news? Praise God. We're going to heaven.

You know who's going to be in heaven? The Lord's going to, hey, did you read the book? Oh, I read part of it. You read part of it? Yeah.

Yeah. I, you know, I didn't have a lot of time down there. You know, I only had like 84 and a half years and, and I just couldn't get through that one book. Well you read Gone with the Wind 13 times. Well, yeah, I know.

But you know, that, that I, we're going to have that exchange. I want to say, yeah, I read the book. I studied it, man.

I loved every word of it. There's a love for this word. There's a passion for the word. You know what they do when they're teaching the young Jewish children the letters of the Hebrew alphabet and, and, and when they're teaching them the passages, they connect the letters with verses and then what they do is they have these pieces of paper that has verses on them and then when they're young kids, they place honey on the piece of paper and so the kids lick the honey as they're learning the verse and they begin to equate the sweetness with the word of God. See, that's what we need to do, guys, to attach a sweetness with the word of God and realize you're going to, you're going to meet Micah and Amos and Obadiah and all these guys in heaven one day.

So I want to encourage you in that. Verse 40, but you are not willing to come to me that you may have life. Man, what a tragic verse.

What a tragic verse. You are not willing to come to me that you may have life. They came, but they came with excuses and we can't follow you because of this. We don't like this about you.

We don't like that about you and so we can't receive from you. Reminds us of the man earlier in John chapter 5, how Jesus said, you want to be healed? I can't be healed.

Nobody's here to put me in a pool. He begins to tell them excuses and the tragedy of this statement, it's not that you can't come, but that many are not willing to come. What a tragic statement that Jesus says to us this morning. You're not willing to come. There's people here right now listening that aren't willing to come to Him and how sad that is.

There's people that are listening on the radio or perhaps listening on the internet. They're not coming to Jesus because they won't. They're not willing to come to Him.

Oh, He's willing to accept them. He's willing to forgive them, but they're not willing to come to Him. Do you come to Jesus? I mean, do you come to Him often or do you fill your life with everything else? Do you fill your life with this, that, and the other or do you come to Jesus? Do you come to the Lord and say, Lord, I come to you again this morning and spend time with Him?

Or are you not willing to come to Him? Don't be so easily amused with the things of this life. Don't be so easily satisfied with the things of this life. Don't sell yourself that cheap for just your career or money or prestige or these things. Don't sell yourself that cheap. That's not what life is about if you haven't already discovered that.

Those things will leave you empty and dissatisfied. But come to Jesus, not just once in your lifetime, but every day of your life. Verse 41, I do not receive honor from men, but I know you that you do not have the love of God in you. You know, as you look at this exchange and other exchange, it's interesting to read editorial pages or talk to people who don't really know the Bible and they don't know the Jesus of the Bible. And they'll say things like, well, Jesus would never say anything, anybody ever did anything wrong. Well, Jesus would never tell somebody they were in sin. Well, Jesus would never tell anybody they weren't going to heaven.

What book are they reading? Because this is fairly confrontational in it. You do not have the love of God in you. Well, what happened to just, let's all just get along kind of Christianity. It's not in there. Jesus loved people enough to tell them the truth and he knew that at some points he probably knew this was going to offend them.

He didn't water it down or make it, well, you know, if we mix a little candy in there, it'll be easy for them to swallow. No, he said I got to speak the truth. I love them enough, I care enough for them to tell them the truth. That may happen in here. You may hear something from up here and you go, oh, I can't believe that. If it's the truth, and my sincere prayer is everything that comes from this pulpit is based on the word of God and I take that very seriously.

If it's the truth, perhaps you need to rethink that area of your life. Because if you sit still long enough to receive the word of God, to receive the teaching from the word of God, it may even change your life. I need truth, I desire truth. And Jesus is laying out all these truths that show he is the Messiah. He leads them to this place where it's the reasonable, rational thing to believe that Jesus is the Christ and yet they chose not to believe. I still think today in light of all the proofs of Christianity, in light of all the changed lives, you can't disregard that.

People still cling to their irrational things and they're unreasonable in their disbelief of the Lord. We'll be right back with more from David Magee on Cross the Bridge. Right now, here's a word from associate pastor D.A.

Brown. Hey, Bob, we're excited about God's word going forth and we want to pray for some listeners in these cities, Susanville, California, Talmadge, Truckee, Victorville, Westwood, Yankee Hill, and Huayrica, California. God, we pray for the people listening in these cities today and the surrounding areas. We pray that they would put their trust and hope in you, that they would be encouraged and how much you love them. And, Lord, that they would look for other people who you place in their life to share this good news with as well.

And, God, that they would get plugged into a Bible teaching, Bible believing church. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

Thank you, brother. And now, let's get back to David Magee as he continues teaching verse by verse. Verse 43, I've come in my Father's name and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, him you will receive. This is interesting, isn't it? We see this in our day as teachers come in their own names and they're received.

Why? Because they never say anything that's confronting. It's always just this real syrupy feel good kind of thing. And, granted, there are times in the word of God where, man, I'm encouraged and I feel good and it's affirming me.

And there's other times when I read it and I go, oh, man, that hit me right between the eyes. And, perhaps, and I believe that it's speaking of the antichrist who will be extended an open invitation in the world. Maybe he's coming with a cure for cancer or for world hunger or whatever. We know biblically he's going to come with the answer for world peace, but it's not going to be a real peace.

And the world's going to jump on the bandwagon and he's coming in his own name. Verse 44, how can you believe you receive honor from one another and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God? Wow. Guys, this passage is just so rich. Jesus is making the statement here, and this is a mind blower, guys. He is making the statement that if you seek honor from one another, that that is exclusive to seeking the honor of God. What I'm saying is you can't do both. Jesus is saying if you do this, if you seek honor from man, you're not going to be seeking honor from God.

And if you're seeking honor from God, you're not going to need the honor of man. What a challenging statement. What a challenging statement. Let me ask you a question. Which are you living for this morning? Which are you living for this morning? Are you living to be a people pleaser and to honor people and men? Are you living to please God? See, I want to live to please God. And, again, what happens, because I'm living to please God, there'll be things I do, things I say that might not be popular with people.

I'm sorry for that, but it's unavoidable. I have to be obedient to the Lord. I don't apologize for being obedient to the Lord.

What are you living for? Because, see, there's going to be times in your life where you have to make that decision. Well, do I honor man or do I honor God?

A lot of us make those decisions every week. You know, perhaps somebody at work asks you to do something dishonest. Perhaps they ask you to do something that will violate your conscience in living out a Christian life.

Perhaps they ask you to do something that would keep you from fellowshipping and coming to the Bible study. Then you have to choose whether you're going to honor man or honor God. You have to honor God. You have to live that way.

You know what? You will never please everybody in your life. Whether you try to, whether you honor man or not, it'll never happen. Everybody will not always be happy with you. Now, if you follow God, same thing's true. Everybody will not always be happy with you, but you will have the joy and the comfort and the peace that comes with knowing that you're following God, that you're honoring the Lord. So the life lesson there is don't be a people pleaser. Live to please God. Live to please God. The desire to be a people pleaser.

Proverbs says the snare, the fear of man is a snare. That desire is in us. We need to recognize that and we need to turn that to God and say, God, you're the one I want to please.

You're the one I want to live for. We live in a climate and we think that we're more caring and more politically correct and sensitive and you know, the internet and newspapers are filled with these mutual congratulations on business and endeavors to help other people and all these things and some of those are good efforts. But at the same time, it's interesting that while that has been happening, we continue to criticize and scorn the word of God. We have this contempt for the word of God. We don't understand the sanctity of marriage, the glory of chastity and purity and it does seem that as we live to honor man, we're not honoring God.

That's the way it looks. I mean, we've probably never been so politically correct and yet less godly. I'm not sure we've ever been that in the history of this nation. You can compare yourself to another man and feel good about it. Well, at least I'm not a mass murderer like such and such and so and so. I've only killed a couple of people.

You know, you can always compare yourself to somebody like that and feel good. But the question is this guys as Christians, as believers, what does God see when He looks at your life? What do you think God feels as He looks at your life?

Are you concerned about it? Is that what you're living for? That should be the one thing that you're living for, the glory of God, seeking God's glory and God's will for your life. I studied classical music for a long time. One of the things that was very cool, a lot of these guys were very spiritual men. They were Christian men.

Now, some of the recent literature and movies are not very accurate, to be honest. But these were Christian men and on some of their compositions, they wrote something in Latin, solo diogloria. Bach wrote it on a lot of his manuscripts. And what that means is to God alone be the glory. To God alone be the glory.

That's what I want written in my life. That's what I want to know is that I live for the glory of God and for His righteousness. And if I have to occasionally offend somebody, may I offend man rather than offend my God.

May you live your life in such a fashion that you're living for the Lord, living for His glory. Verse 45, do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you, Moses in whom you trust. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.

This is interesting. He was speaking to the religious people of the day, and we have the same problem now. People are trusting in the Ten Commandments to get in heaven. If you don't think this is true, go out this afternoon and ask people.

Pick up the phone, call some people. Hey, are you going to heaven? Oh, sure. Well, why are you going to heaven? Well, you know, because I've basically been a good person.

What do you mean been a good person? Well, basically I've kept most of the Ten Commandments. And you think that gets you into heaven? And we've done this before.

But, you know, I mean, do a checklist. I mean, the first one, have no other gods before me. Speaking about idols, speaking about taking the name of the Lord in vain.

I mean, chances are we're not doing real good when it comes to Ten Commandments. If we're honest, if we're real, have you ever steamed anything higher than the Lord? Yes, you have. You know what that makes you? It makes you an idolater if you've done it once. If you've ever borrowed something that you didn't give back, you aware of what that makes you? It makes you a thief.

Have you ever not told the truth even once? You know what that makes you? It makes you a liar, a lying, thieving idolater. And we think we're getting into heaven on our own good works. See, the good news starts with the bad news. Bad news is we can't get in on our own good works.

We just hadn't been that good. You can't trust in Moses. And what happens is as you read the writings of Moses, as you look at the Ten Commandments, you become convicted and you think, you know what?

And it's a schoolmaster. Just as Paul said, it points you to salvation. Why? Because you know you can't save yourself. You go, wow, I'm not doing so good on this works and the Ten Commandments thing.

What do I do? Awesome. That's the Spirit of God communicating to you that you can't do it because then hope walks in in the form of Jesus Christ and says, exactly, you can't, but I can and I desire to forgive you if you'll just ask me to, if you'll be willing to come to me. Verse 47, but if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?

Your attention, please. You can believe the Bible. You can believe the Bible. You can't believe everything on the Internet.

You can't believe everything on television, even the History Channel and Discovery Channel. You can't believe everything in print. What you can believe is this book. You can trust it. You can believe it. And if you've got this over here, cast in doubt on the Word of God, and then you've got the Word of God, you know which one you should doubt?

You doubt this. You don't doubt the Word of God. I've seen doubters converted. I've seen scoffers make silly people of themselves trying to cast doubt on the Word of God. Believe the Bible and be willing to come to Jesus. Be willing to come to Jesus. And maybe some of you are sitting there going, well, you know, I came to Jesus once.

Praise God. I'm glad you came the first time. When's the last time you came to him?

See, somewhere along the line we've gotten off track. We've thought, well, you know, as long as we come that one time in life, we're okay. Well, granted, it needs to start with that one time. If you're here this morning and you've never asked the Lord to forgive you of your sins, you need to do that this morning. And I want to give you the opportunity to do that. But I also want to remind those people who have perhaps done that that you should come back to him every day. I have to come to the Lord every day.

Well, you're a pastor. You shouldn't have to come to the Lord every day. Perhaps you're thinking, or perhaps you're thinking, well, you're supposed to come to the Lord every day.

That's your job. I have to come to the Lord every day for my relationship with him. And you, friend, need to come to the Lord every day as well.

And today I want to give you that opportunity to come to him, to come to him in your heart. You probably want to make some things right with the Lord. Perhaps he's laying on your heart to put some stuff down.

Perhaps he's laying on your heart to pick some stuff up. But when's the last time you just came to him and just said, Lord, forgive me again. Do a work in my life. Lord, I desire these changes that I'm hearing Pastor Dave speak about. I want you to do that in me.

God's willing. God's not, he didn't just choose me to change my life. He desires to change every life that's in here. But are you willing to come? If you are willing to come, this could be the day that changes your life. This could be the day that everything becomes different if you're willing. The Lord is saying, you know what? I'm willing to change you. I'm willing to forgive you.

Why wouldn't you want to walk in that and come back to the Lord and say, you know, Lord, forgive me again. Help me to live for you. When Pastor David was describing living for man, that's what I've been doing. I've been seeking honor for man and I've been disillusioned and dissatisfied.

And I want to live for your glory. And today could begin that change in you if you're willing to come to him. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking him to help you to live for him. Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me, that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead, that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned and I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. So congratulations, friend.

You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. You can visit crossthebridge.com to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ. Or you can write to Cross the Bridge at PO Box 12515, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 27117, and share how God is working in your life. Well, DA, before we go, what are some ways that we can bless our listeners? Each day you can wake up with encouragement from Pastor David through the Word of God with his email devotional, life lessons to consider, a daily reading plan, and a thought to meditate on throughout your day from the heart of David McGee. That sounds good, Pastor DA.

And again, it's been great to have you with us on the program today. But tell us, what else can our listeners find on crossthebridge.com? If you're not able to make it to your home church this Sunday, why not join us for our live stream at 10 a.m. Eastern Time or on Thursday nights at 7 p.m. Eastern Time? Just visit crossthebridge.com and click on our live stream link. There, you'll experience a live service from David's home church, The Bridge, in North Carolina. Again, that website is crossthebridge.com. Thanks again for listening, and join us next time as David McGee continues teaching verse by verse in the Gospel of John.