Jesus Unfiltered - Believe - Jesus - Offers Hope to the Hopeless, Part 2

Today we live in a world where Jesus is described almost exclusively as love. And make no mistake, Jesus is the most loving person in the universe. But he's also something else. He holds us accountable. Jesus is also the judge. And he will judge all of us fairly.

Have you ever wondered what that's all about? What it will be like? And where you stand? Well stay with me.

That's today. Well with that, let's join Chip with the second half of his message, Jesus Offers Hope to the Hopeless. The second thing he does is not simply his relationship to the Father. Now he's gonna explain his relationship to the world. And in verses 24 through 26, he's going to declare that he's the Savior. He's gonna just come out and say it.

He's the Savior of the world. You're gonna see in verse 24, the absolute clearest explanation of how a person receives eternal life from Jesus and can know you have it of anywhere in the Bible. Verse 24.

Now I mean, their jaws are dropping, the hairs on the back of their head, they're angry. And now he says, I tell you the truth. Or some of your old translations, verily verily I say unto you. Or truly truly.

It's a way of emphasis, it's underlined, in bold, listen up. Whoever hears my word and believes on him who sent me has eternal life. We just circle has, it's present tense.

Has, not someday, someway, somehow. And will not come into condemnation. He is crossed over from death to life. And then he goes on to say, I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he is granted the Son to have life in himself. So he's just declaring, I'm the savior of the world, this is how you have eternal life.

It's not by studying scriptures, it's not by just knowing the Torah, it's not by being a good moral person, it's not by all your religious activity. Here's how you can have eternal life. Every man, every woman, when you hear the truth, when you hear Jesus, when you hear the gospel, when you hear the good news, and you believe, here's what happens. You receive eternal life. Notice there's three things that are true of all of us.

One, we have physical life, we're born with physical life. Number two, we all die. And number three, after we all die, we're all judged. The scripture says it's appointed unto man once to die, but after this the judgment. You can go all around the world, any kind of religion, and I will tell you, there's some judgment somewhere. Even if it's some sort of plan where you come back as someone else depending on how you did. After you die, intrinsic in mankind is there is a judgment.

There has to be for justice and equity. And the Bible clearly teaches that you have a physical life, everyone that has a physical life will die, and after everyone dies, we will be judged. Those who hear and believe receive right now eternal life, they cross over from death to life, and there's no judgment. There's no judgment. You don't come into condemnation is the word.

Can I just ask you, just for you personally, have you ever crossed over from death to life? I'm not asking if you're a nice person. I'm not asking if you go to church.

I'm not even asking if you intellectually believe in God. I'm asking on a certain day at a certain time, have you ever heard, now I know you've heard because you're in this room right now. You're hearing the truth of the gospel and Jesus claim.

It happens to be coming through my voice, but I'm just reading what he said. If you have believed, and by believe isn't mental assent, it's entrusting, believing to the point of acting and trusting to follow. Then you have eternal life. You cross over from death to life, and the promise is there's no condemnation. You won't be judged because your sin and my sin, for those of us who have trusted Christ, have been placed on him as our substitute, and we have been forgiven, and we've received the life of Christ, and he received, when he died on the cross, the penalty for our sin.

Does that make sense? So I have no idea kind of where you're at with your life, but I would just tell you, I would just shut me off. I mean, I'm going to keep talking, but I would not even listen to me anymore if you are not 100% sure that you have eternal life right now, and I would pray quietly to God, and I would confess my sin, tell him I'm sorry, ask him to forgive me, and ask the Spirit of God to come into my life and make me a new person. And what I will tell you is he promises to do it. He's the savior of the world, and you matter to him, and he brought you in this room on this day so you could know that.

That happened to me in 1972. After going to church, having a bad experience in church, doing all the things that other people do about these church people, and all their hypocrisy, and all their stuff, I didn't realize I had a lot of my own. I heard the gospel.

I didn't know a whole lot, but I turned from my sin, and I received Christ in 1972, and I will tell you, there was a dramatic beginning of a change and a lifelong journey, because God's Spirit living in me, little by little by little, is making me more and more like his Son as I take the truth of his word, put it into my mind and my heart, realize I can't do it on my own, but get involved in the community and life of a vibrant church, allow people to know me, and share my life, and be encouraged to share others in some kind of small group, and then realize that I am now an ambassador for Christ, and the people in my neighborhood, and the people where I live, and the people where I buy coffee, and the people where I do my dry cleaning, and the people that I play pickup basketball with, I am an agent of the living God for them to hear there's a Savior in their hopeless situation, and that's who you are in your world. And so that's what Jesus is teaching to these religious leaders. Notice he goes on, he says he's not only our Savior, he says he's our judge. He's our judge. He says the Father has life in himself, verse 26, so he's granted the Son to have life in himself.

We actually learned that in chapter 1. In him was the life, and the life was the light of man. And the Father has given him authority to judge, because he is the Son of Man. You might put in your notes Daniel 7. It's the favorite term of Jesus for himself. In Daniel 7 it talks about the ultimate judgment, and the ultimate judgment, and the Son of Man will come, and Jesus, I mean these are Bible scholars. When he uses the phrase, and the Son of Man will judge, they're going, Daniel 7, who do you think you are? And he says, it's not who I think I am, it's who I really am. Notice, it's almost like he's looking at their faces. Do not be amazed at this.

Why are you shocked? For a time is coming when all who are in their grades will hear his voice, and will come out, speaking of himself. Those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil rise to be condemned. When a genuine faith, accepting God's grace, it always responds. A living faith, good works never gets you into a right relationship with God, but a right relationship with God always produces good works.

And then verse 30, by myself I can do nothing. I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I do not seek to please myself, but him who sent me. So he's the savior of the world, he's the judge, he is literally throwing down the gauntlet.

And then now what I'd like you to do is follow along in your Bible. You gotta ask yourself, I mean, put yourself in these guys' position. He's doing these miracles, they can't deny the miracles. He's making outrageous claims. There's been whispers, some people think he's that, and some people think he's that, but he's breaking some of our rules.

Doesn't make much sense. And they're angry at him, and he's upsetting their life. And now he's taken off the gloves, this is my relationship with the Father. I'm dependent, but I'm co-equal, co-powerful, co-knowing. Here's my relationship to the world. I'm not down on you, I came to save the world. But here's what you gotta understand, I came to save the world, but I will be the judge. I am the Son of Man. And then the logical question is, anyone who makes outrageous claims about truth needs to have some backup testimony.

And so that's what we see in the next section. Verse 31, follow along in your Bibles. If I testify about myself, my testimony is not valid. In a Jewish court, the testimony of one person doesn't hold up. There is another who testifies my favor, and I know that his testimony about me is valid. And now he's gonna give three verifiable testimonies. He's gonna say, I have my own testimony. And then he's gonna also say, the Father has a testimony about me. But he's gonna give three specific testimonies that they can verify in their historical space-time continuum. You have sent to John, speaking of John the Baptist, and he's testified to the truth. Not that I accept human testimony, but I mention it so that you may be saved.

I mean, remember? I mean, everybody knows John's a prophet. You all knew he was a prophet. I mean, no one criticizes John the Baptist.

I mean, he was an Old Testament prophet, God sent him, he prepared the way, he was the light, and he testified of what? Of me. Remember the baptism. Remember, I'm the one, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. And then he goes on to say, John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you choose for a time to enjoy his light. Verse 36, I have a testimony weightier than that of John. So in other words, John verified that I am the Messiah, and if you were open, if you were listening, he's an Old Testament prophet, but I've got one that even weightier than that. For the very work that the Father has given me to finish, and which I am doing testifies that the Father has sent me. And the work here, the word is for miracles. The water to wine.

The mat. I mean, think of how dramatic this miracle is. I mean, this isn't like, you know, he had migraine headaches and he feels better. This isn't like he's had a lumbago, you know, he's had a sore back, went to a meeting, someone prayed over him, he feels better.

This is dramatic. This is a shriveled up man for 38 years that people have walked by, who's completely restored. He wasn't just helpless, he was completely hopeless.

He was completely powerless to do anything for himself. And there's a reason why, you're gonna see just in a minute, why he did that miracle that way. And he says, John the Baptist, testimony number one in a legal court, testimony number two is the miracles, and then notice testimony number three. And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, nor does his word dwell in you.

Why? For you do not believe the one he sent, speaking of himself. And then, see, the Jews actually believed. In fact, one of the great rabbis, Hillel, taught that if you studied the Torah, the more you studied, the more you became an expert in law, that eternal life was found in actually studying the scriptures, and the more you knew and the more knowledgeable, that's how you would get eternal life. He says you diligently study the scriptures because you think that in them you possess eternal life. These are the scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me and have life.

By the way, this is a great dramatic statement. The only people that will not have life is people who refuse to come to him. God wants to give life. I do not accept praise from men, but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. I have come into my Father's name, and you do not accept me.

But if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. And here's a verse many, many years ago, verse 44, I memorized. I memorized it because I realized, you know what, God is always wanting to grow my faith, and there's certain barriers to my faith and to your faith.

How can you believe if you accept the praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the one and only God? You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and we'll continue our series Jesus Unfiltered Volume 1, Believe, in just a minute. But first, our desire is to help you deepen your faith in God, so let me encourage you to keep listening after this message as Chip explains what it means to come before God daily and identifies a few resources we've bundled together to support you.

Stick around to learn more. Well, here again is Chip to finish his talk. I memorized that and wrote it on a little card about 30-some years ago, and I realized that it is so easy in life to want to live your life for the praise of people, for what other people think of you.

And you can make lots of really dumb, bad, unwise, downright sinful decisions trying to get people to like you or to impress people. How can you believe when you seek the praise of men but do not seek the praise? See, I've got to tell you, I don't have it down at all, but in my heart of hearts, I want the God of heaven to look down and say, Chip, now that I like.

Chip, I'm proud of you. And yet I'm living in a world, and you're living in a world where we are pressed from every direction. And so many of our priorities are out of whack because we're seeking the praise of people, and what they think matters more than what God thinks. And you know what? When you look at the facts, think about these guys. They're smart, they're intellectual, they're knowledgeable, they know all the Bible, and they reject Jesus because honestly, what he's poking at is they're going to lose control if they believe in him.

They're going to be just like all those common people. He's messing with their world. Religion has become a place of power and politics and for many of them, financial gain. He goes, but do not think I will accuse you before the Father.

Have you noticed? Truth, grace. More truth, grace.

Truth than grace. Well, why did Jesus come? He came to explain the Father full of truth and grace.

I mean, he just nailed them between the eyes, and then he goes, but do not think that I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses. He's speaking of the Scriptures, on whom your hopes are set. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say? The testimony of John the Baptist, the testimony of the miracles, and the testimony of the Scriptures, along with Jesus and the fathers, he said, I've made my case. The Father and I are one. I'm the Savior of the world, and I will judge the world, and I have just given you the clearest opportunity ever, ever, ever to have a personal, eternal relationship, beginning the moment you hear and then believe.

Put your faith in me. Now, if you'll turn to the back notes, what I want you to see is that the Spirit of God placed this in this book, in this way, so that we could see something about our spiritual life. Because if I would have said to any of you, if you were like Lang for 38 years, and you were an invalid, and Jesus said, do you want to get well, your answer would be, yeah, right? And yet, what we know psychologically is that a lot of people say they want to get well, but they really don't want to change. They like the attention. People get used to their condition.

In fact, one of the most difficult things, if you do any study with backgrounds of alcoholics or drug addicts, one of the most difficult things is when they get clean and sober, it messes up the family system, and often the relationship with the spouse or the kids gets really crazy for a while. Because we all want them to get well, but when the person gets well, all of a sudden, the codependency and all the stuff changes. The fact of the matter is some people like to be sick. They like to complain about being sick.

They like the attention of getting sick. And now notice the parallel on the back page. See, the message, here's the message of this entire chapter. There's hope for the hopeless.

That's the message. There's hope. I don't care how bad, how difficult, how painful, there's hope. In this man, his physical condition was hopeless, helpless. In our spiritual condition, we're helpless. If there's anyone that could do it through knowledge or morality or something, the Pharisees got a big leg up on all of us. The man's question from Jesus was, do you want to get well?

Yes. The question for us is, do you want to get well? I mean, spiritually. See, a lot of people understand the gospel.

Everything in John 5.24, some of you have heard it many, many times, and people are praying for you, and you should come to Christ and place your faith in Christ and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know what? You don't want to get well. You would rather be sick in your sin.

You would rather have the consequences of your sin because you like it, because you're comfortable in it. And when you see it juxtaposed to this physical, all of a sudden you realize, that is nuts. It was easy to see when it was physical, but it's harder to see in ourselves. The man's response was, I need help. Our response is, all you need to do is ask for help.

Isn't this amazing? A merciful, loving God, the moment an individual would simply say, help, have mercy on me, God. Forgive me. Cleanse me.

God longs to. He loves you. He's for you.

He cares about you. The man received physical life and power. What do we receive? Spiritual life and power. The warning to the man was, your sin will be judged. This isn't one of those where he had faith. This is a guy who gets physically healed, but I don't think he's right with God yet.

This is sort of an unusual order. He makes him whole. He doesn't have faith.

He doesn't have gratitude. But here's the illustration now. I've helped you. Now deal with the issues in your life. And he says to us, there comes a day for every single person when we'll be judged. And many people very, very sincerely, and I was one of them for many years, you know, I'll do that later. Yeah, maybe someday.

Yeah, I get where you're coming from. Yeah, I mean, but, after, or later, you know, right now, or gosh, you know, my roommate, what would he think, she'd think. You know, right now I'm kind of doing some tough stuff. Bible says, today is the day if you hear his voice. I'm always sobered by the reality that on this day, at this moment, you are hearing his voice.

You may never hear it this clearly ever again in your life. To say later, maybe, just is no. He wants us to respond, to obey to the light that he might give us more. Part of this passage raises a significant issue. I ask you when we started to think of a really hopeless time, a helpless time, a difficult time, and part of it, you've got to say, well, why all this pain? I mean, if God's a loving God, if he's a good God, why all this pain?

In Shadowlands, C.S. Lewis writes, God creates us free, free to be selfish, but he adds a mechanism that will penetrate our selfishness and wake us up to the presence of others in the world, and that mechanism is called suffering. To put it another way, pain is God's megaphone to rouse a deaf world. Why must it be pain? Why can't he wake us more gently with violins or laughter?

Because the dream from which we must be awakened is the dream that all is well. All is not well. If you do not have a relationship with God through the person of Christ, you are spiritually in a hopeless situation, and you need a savior. He goes on to say, if you're self-sufficient, you have no need of God. If you have no need of God, you do not seek him.

If you do not seek him, you will not find him. The suffering in the world is not the failure of God's love for us. It is his love in action. That is a sobering quote by C.S.

Lewis, isn't it? That suffering actually is the love of God in action. If there weren't suffering, we wouldn't know that something's wrong. But in that suffering, we realize that something's desperately wrong, and we're in need of help. And if we're in need of help, then we begin to seek help. And if we will seek help from the God who made us, here's his promise. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you hear my voice and believe on him who sent me, you have eternal life, and you will not come into judgment, but you'll be passed from death into life. This is John 5-24.

I think it's the clearest teaching in all the New Testament on how to have a personal, eternal relationship with God. Here's the question. Have you ever done that? Have you ever placed your trust in Christ's work on the cross for you? Have you crossed the bridge, if you will, from man over to God's side, where the cross and the life of Christ has covered your sin once and for all?

That's the offer. God loves you. I believe that right now, wherever you're at, listening to my voice is a divine appointment, and the Spirit of God is wooing and saying to you, come, come, just come. Just believe. Just trust me. I want to forgive you. I want to have my life take up residence in you. I want to give you a brand-new start.

That's your heart's desire right now. If possible, close your eyes, and if not possible, pray with your eyes open and cry out to God in your own words, oh, God, I need you. In your own words, cry out to him.

Tell him you're sorry that you've sinned. You know, admit where you've done things wrong. Be honest.

Be specific. And then right now, ask him, please forgive me on the basis of Jesus' death on the cross and his resurrection. Listen to my life.

I believe. Make me your son. Make me your daughter. He will answer that prayer. And if you've prayed that with me right now, can I encourage you to make sure that you tell someone that you respect who's a good Christian, someone that you know really loves God, call him right now, text him right now, go to our website at livingontheedge.org, and there's some information for new believers that will help you on your journey, and let me encourage you, go to our Bible teaching church this weekend and move beyond feeling uncomfortable and go to church and hear God's word and start the journey of walking with Jesus. Well, if you prayed with Chip, we do have a free resource we'd like to put in your hands that was uniquely created for new believers. This tool will help you understand what it means to trust in Jesus and what to do next. Request this free resource by calling 888-333-6003 or by visiting livingontheedge.org and then clicking the New Believers button.

That's livingontheedge.org or call 888-333-6003. Let us help you get started in your faith journey. Well, Chip's still with me in studio, and Chip, our passion here at Living on the Edge is to see Christians all over the world living like Christians, and we've come up with a simple path believers can follow to live God-honoring lives.

That's right, Dave. You know, I've pastored for many years, and what I've learned is that so many people want to grow. They want to become more like Christ.

They want to be a better dad, a better mom, a person who's single that really lives a life, but they don't know the path. And over the years, what I've developed is a little acronym called BIO, B-I-O. The B represents coming before God daily. The I is doing life in community weekly, and the O is being on mission 24-7.

And so I can just tell you that if you want to change, it's not about trying harder. It's about really seeing who God is. It's about connecting with Him. When you come before God and you experience His presence and you see Him for who He is, He does something from the inside out that changes our life. And so we have three specific resources right now to help you learn to come before God so that you can grow to know who He really is. The first is a book called True Spirituality, Becoming a Romans 12 Christian. The second is called The Real God. It's a perspective of high, holy view of God, but it's kind of in a very practical way where you can get your arms around what's it mean that He's loving or kind or just or holy, and what does that mean to you? And finally, we have a prayer journal that helps you track your journey with the Lord as He speaks to you.

The Real God, a prayer journal, and True Spirituality, these tools can help you or the people that you love draw near to God and have a pathway for intimacy. That's absolutely right, Chip. To get your hands on this three-book bundle, go to SpecialOffersAtLivingOnTheEdge.org or the Chip Ingram app. And if you'd like to gift any of these resources for Christmas, place your order by December 13th to receive it in time. Again, to get our Before God bundle, go to SpecialOffersAtLivingOnTheEdge.org or on the Chip Ingram app. As we wrap up today's program, if you've been blessed by Chip's teaching and you'd like to bless others in the same way, let me encourage you to become a financial partner. And right now is a perfect time, because between now and December 31st, every gift we receive will be matched dollar for dollar. So if you'd like to support us, go to LivingOnTheEdge.org or call 888-333-6003. That's 888-333-6003 or go to LivingOnTheEdge.org. App listeners, tap Donate. Well, thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. I'm Dave Druey, and I hope you'll join us again next time. MUSIC