The sermon 'Do You Honor the Son' by Scott Brown explores John 5:16-24, emphasizing Jesus' claims of equality with God. The passage highlights five aspects: Jesus' nature, works, authority, judgment, and honor, all pointing to His divine identity. The sermon challenges listeners to reflect on their beliefs about Jesus, contrasting a man-centered Messiah with the biblical understanding of Jesus as God incarnate. It underscores the importance of honoring the Son as a reflection of honoring the Father, drawing parallels with various religious views that differ in recognizing Jesus' divinity. The sermon further explores the interconnectedness of the Trinity, emphasizing the love and submission within the Godhead as a model for human relationships. It reiterates the exclusivity of Christianity, asserting that true belief involves a heart-felt honor and obedience to Jesus, which is essential for salvation. The sermon concludes with a call for individuals to examine their relationship with Jesus, urging a commitment to honor Him as God.

Good morning. The sermon text is John chapter 5 verses 16 through 24. For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus and sought to kill him because he had done these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, my father has been working until now, and I have been working. Therefore, the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.

Then Jesus answered and said to them, "'Most assuredly, I say to you, "'the Son can do nothing of himself "'but what he sees the Father do, "'for whatever he does, the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all things that he himself does, and he will show him greater works than these that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom he will. For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.

Most assuredly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has Lord, we thank you for this section of scripture. Lord, we're so thankful for the Savior, Jesus Christ, and what He's done for the forgiveness of sins, making a bridge to the Father. Lord God, I pray for Scott Brown as he comes to preach and exposit these scriptures that you'd fill him with thoughts and words to help us more fully understand and live out this scripture. Thank you, Lord, for this day. Amen.

Amen. This passage of Scripture is unmatched in its significance in declaring the identity of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And in this passage in John 5, 16-24, it makes it very clear that you must decide what you believe about Jesus Christ. Who is Jesus Christ? You must decide who He is.

You cannot leave Him alone because He will not leave you alone, and you will face Him. And you must answer the question, Who is Jesus Christ? Whose Son is He? Is He a man or is He God in the flesh? The time that we have here this morning is really dedicated to the proposition that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father.

He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. And the Lord Jesus Christ utters these words in the face of his opposers, particularly the scribes and the Pharisees and also the dedicated religious people there. They believed in a man-centered Messiah and for example there were various kinds. The legalists there, you know, believed that Christ is simply a guide for a way of living. The Pharisees wanted a military ruler to come.

You know, today you have you have the Christian scientist who says that Christ is a divine idea. You have Freemasonry which says that Christ is a man like us. You have Hare Krishna who says that he's a guru. You have the Mormons who say that Jesus Christ is the procreated Son of God the Father from one of his holy wives. But what you believe about Jesus Christ the Messiah is the hinge point upon which everything turns.

And the impact of believing a man-centered Messiah, which actually the Jews did believe, has tremendous significance. If you believe in a man-centered Savior, then you think that this world is all that matters and you idolize the accomplishments of this world and you fear failure and you believe in a false messiah of self-improvement that the Christian life is all about just kind of getting better at this or that type of thing. But it all it all comes down to who you believe Jesus Christ is. Who is he? Now this discourse that we're in is a long one.

It begins in verse 17 and moves all the way to verse 47. If you have a red-letter Bible, you know this. They're all red letters from 17 to 47. These are the words of Jesus. He's making a speech to those who are listening to him.

Many of those who are listening to him want him dead because Jesus is threatening the very sanctity of their system. He had already cleared the temple And he is now declaring the exclusivity of his own name. And this passage of Scripture really focuses on the heart of the gospel and the exclusivity of the gospel and the identity of Jesus Christ, that he is equal with God, that he actually is God. And many of the commentators speak of this with using many descriptive and beautiful words to describe how important it is. J.C.

Ryle says this, nowhere does our Lord dwell so fully on these subjects as in the chapter before us. And John has written these things that we might believe, and that in believing, we might have life in his name. If you have a God in your own image, you will not have life in his name. So the consequences are enormous. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ has already declared that he is God many times and in chapter 1 he is declared to be God that The word was God and the word was made flesh.

John declared him to be the lamb of God, which was a divine claim, and they were attacking him on this claim of deity. He's already declared himself lord over the temple. He cleared the money changers out of the temple. He's already declared himself omniscient. He knows what people think.

He's divine. He looks right into your heart. He knows everything about you and that's already been established in the previous chapters that we've studied in the Gospel of John. He proclaimed himself Lord over creation when he turned water into wine to tell us that he makes everything better. So he's already been proclaiming himself as Lord and here in this passage, you know, he's proclaiming himself Lord of the Sabbath and in doing such a thing he's proclaiming himself to be God this is not a new message but it's underlined and and dissected in very clear language in this section here And the Jews respond that he's a blasphemer because there's nothing more pivotal in your life than what you believe about Jesus Christ.

And it's very important. We live in a world where people think that Jesus is a good teacher, that he was a prophet, that he's the wisest man who ever lived. But the Bible makes it very clear, is that he's not just a good teacher. He's not just a prophet. He's not just the wisest man who ever lived.

He's far, far more than that. And the world settles for a Jesus that isn't really taught in the Bible. And John is destroying these thoughts that Jesus is anything else but God in the flesh. And so who is Jesus? This is the question of this passage of scripture.

Now just in practical terms, in terms of our lives together in this church. You know, our prayer, really as elders, is that the chief mark of this people is that they honor the Son, that they honor His work, that they honor His words, that if someone would look in here, if they would meet you out on the street, they would say that church is about honoring the Son, Jesus Christ. And so this passage proclaims this truth that Jesus Christ is God. And because a failure to embrace Christ and who he is damns every person who fails to embrace it. And in this passage, there are mind-bending things, the incomprehensible matters of the Holy Trinity, how God becomes man, how can this be?

And the world wants to make Jesus something less than he is, but the truth is he is either a devil or he is who he said he was. He's either an insane liar or he is absolutely who he said he was as we read in this passage. Now, it wouldn't surprise us that persecution of Jesus is a tremendous theme in this section. The persecution comes after Jesus heals this man at the pool of Bethesda, this lame man, particularly declared in verses 16 through 18 and before. And the man didn't have anyone to put him in the waters, and so Jesus heals him on the spot and declaring really himself to be God.

And the people understood that. By the way, everybody knew that Jesus proclaimed himself to be God. There was no debate about that. They wanted to kill him. And it's in fact in verse 16 as we find ourselves you know getting closer to the text here for this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus and they sought to kill him because he had done these things on the Sabbath.

The Jews understood that when healing this lame man, that he was proclaiming himself to be God, everybody understood that. And somehow after the Lord Jesus Christ died and rose from the grave, people began to think of Jesus differently than the way that the Jews thought he was proclaiming himself to be. Now in this passage is the most extensive declaration of his deity. So let's dive into the text. If you have an outline in front of you, you'll see how I plan to move through the verses here in this passage of scripture.

And I owe large parts of this outline to other theologians that have gone before us, particularly John MacArthur. I think some of these points are directly his points. But you'll find very, very similar outlines of this passage of scripture among the commentators. And I want to speak about five ways that Jesus is claiming to be God by his equality with God. And remember, the whole proposition of this time together, of our time together as we sit here is that all should honor the son just as they honor the father and whoever does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent him.

What is on the table is something that exists in your heart that no one else can see. It is honor. Honor is a secret matter. It does express itself in outward things, but dishonor is a secret sin, and honor is a secret virtue. So no one knows here where you stand before Jesus Christ, whether you honor him or not.

But he does, because he's omniscient, and he knows you if you honor him or not. So these matters are very critical. So as you can see, There are five ways that Jesus is claiming to be God. First of all, he's equal with God in his nature. That's verses 17 through 18.

Second, he is equal with God in works, verses 19 through 20. Third, he is equal with God in authority. That's verse 21. Fourth, he is equal with God in judgment. That's verse 22.

And fifthly, he is equal with God in honor. Verses 23 through 24. Now these might seem like academic and theological categories, but but let me just say this these are designed to Pierce all of our hearts to help us to understand that he he is God So the first the first matter here is begins verse verses 16 through 18 that he is equal to God in nature. And at the beginning of the discourse here, of Jesus' speech, is verse 17, and we read these words. But Jesus answered them, my Father has been working now until now and I have been working.

He's declaring himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be doing the very same work that his Father does in sustaining the world. He causes the sun to rise. He causes the grass to grow. He causes the rain to fall on the ground. And he causes life to go on.

He supports it. When God rested on the Sabbath, he continued to support life on Earth. It continued to go on. These were acts of mercy, acts of necessity. This is the kind of work that God did on the Sabbath.

He wasn't working for remunerative return. We're called to cease working on the Sabbath for money, to have a day of rest and to spend our day delighting in Him. And the work that the Lord Jesus Christ and His Father did when they rested for the very first Sabbath after they had created the world, their work was to sustain the mercies of God in the world so that the sun would come up, so that there would be water to drink, so that there would be food to eat. These were acts of mercy, And acts of mercy have always been lawful on the Sabbath. And that was a point of contention that Jesus always faced with the Pharisees.

And John Calvin says it like this, rest is not disturbed when we are involved in the works of God. And so as we gather together in the Sabbath, we work the same way that the Father and the Son worked when they celebrated their Sabbath. It's a day of mercy. It's a day of loving kindness. It's a day of celebration and thanksgiving.

That's what we're here to do today. It's a kind of work, but it's not the kind of work that's prohibited on the Sabbath day. You know, in Matthew chapter 5, we read these wonderful words in verse 45, he makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good, and he sends rain on the just and on the unjust. This is the love of God toward the world. Every time the sun rises, it's an expression of the love of God.

Every time the moon goes up and the stars come out, all of those are expressions of the love of God. Those things, those movements sustain life on earth and if there's the slightest change in variation, almost everyone dies on the planet. Almost everything perishes because God sustains life on this planet. You know, in Luke chapter 14, Jesus heals on the Sabbath, and he's accused of breaking the Sabbath. And he finds himself in the home of one of the rulers of the Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath.

And there's a man right there and he has congestive heart failure. And his lungs are filling up with water and he's going to die and Jesus heals the man. That happened to my father one time. He didn't die. I was so grateful for that.

Caught it early enough. But he was having congestive heart failure. The biblical word is dropsy. And one of the lawyers in Pharisees, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath and Jesus says which of you having a donkey? Like if you had a donkey or an ox that fell into a pit, wouldn't you go in and pull it out on the Sabbath day?

Absolutely, you would do an act of mercy on the Sabbath day. And so what happens is that because Jesus healed this lame man, they want to kill him for making himself equal to God. Verse 18, therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill him because he not only broke the Sabbath, and I would just like to insert broke their Sabbath laws, not the Sabbath laws. He broke their Sabbath, but also said that God was his Father, making himself equal with God. So the issue is he's making himself equal with God.

And this is what the Bible teaches. Paul restates this in 1 Timothy chapter 3, verse 16. He says, without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness, God was manifested in the flesh. And they're charging him with blasphemy. In chapters seven and eight, they accuse him of being possessed by demons.

In John chapter 8 verse 51, they call him a Samaritan, and they say he has a demon. In John 7 verse 20, the people say that he has a demon. In John 7 verse 40, They say that he's born of fornication, that he's an illegitimate child. In John chapter 10 they say that he's insane and because of these sayings he says he has a demon and mad. Why do you listen to him?

Jesus in no uncertain terms proclaims himself to be God and this is the heart of the persecution that he experienced. In John chapter 8 verse 41 he's accused of blasphemy. In John 12 verse 24, he's accused of operating under the power of darkness, the devil himself. And so, you know, the Pharisees understood that you couldn't take the option that Jesus was a good teacher. They understood that.

He wasn't a good teacher. He was God. He was God in the flesh. They did not come to the conclusion that he was a good teacher. They understood that he was claiming to be equal with God.

You know, by the way, good teachers don't claim to be God. Have you ever known anybody who claimed to be God? They are insane. They're crazy. They've completely lost their minds if they claim to be God.

You'll see homeless people on the street sometimes proclaiming themselves to be God, and they talk to themselves, and they walk around and they proclaim to everyone not listening, but they're not God. But Jesus was proclaiming to be God. And in John chapter 5 here, he's demonstrating and he's proving this claim. And Jesus was either God or he was insane or he was a liar. He was the most deceived person.

He was one of those things. There are really only a few options. When you claim, When you make the claim to be God, then that really reduces the options of who you really are and what you're all about. He referred to himself as I Am. In John 14, he says, if you've seen me, you have seen the Father, because he was one in nature with the Father.

And in John later on in chapter 12, he says, in him was life, and the life was the light of men. He's very God and very man, and he is of the same nature of God. And so this is without question one of the most extensive definitions of his relationship with his father. That he is equal with his father. You know, in another place in John, they said to him, Who are you?

And Jesus says, Just what I have been saying to you from the beginning. He says, I do nothing of myself, but as my Father taught me, I speak these things. He who sent me is with me. The Father has not left me alone, for I always do the things that please him. As he spoke these words, many believed in him.

And of course, many did not believe him that he was a God. And again, all of this just to say that this entire gathering today is to serve the proposition that we should honor the Son just as he honored the Father, because he who does not honor the Son cannot honor the Father at the same time. So this first way that he proclaims himself equal with God is that he is equal with God in his nature. And then the second way that he proclaims this is found in verses 19 and 20 where he is equal with God in his works. And verse 19 speaks of what he does.

And then Jesus answered and said to them, most assuredly I say to you, the son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do. For whatever he does, the son also does in like manner. So the son is watching the Father and doing the things that the Father is doing. Their works are the same. Jesus is duplicating the works of His Father because He is of one heart with His Father.

Not only just his nature, but he actually is doing the exact works of the father. Everything Jesus does recorded in the gospels is a work of God the Father. He is, as Hebrews 1 says, he's the express image of the Father. Now in the previous point, we have the focus really of what is called the ontological Trinity. In other words, that Jesus is God in His being.

The economic trinity is another term that theologians use to explain what He does, that He does the same thing. The economic trinity serves the idea that Jesus does the same things that the Father does. It focuses on what He does. And there are key words here. He is seeing and showing.

And There's this great eternal council between God the Father and God the Son. The Father speaks it and the Son sees it and agrees with it and does it. And their works are the same works. The Son never does a work that's not consistent with the will of the Father. And the Father doesn't do a work that is inconsistent with the will of the Son.

Their wills, they have one will with one another. And the result of that one will is that they do the same things. There is a way in the Lord Jesus Christ's incarnation that he subordinates himself to his father in his work as the incarnate mediator between God and man. And in his incarnation, God the Son takes on the role of a servant and He takes on a manhood, he takes on the human frame in order to declare to us the glory of God. But in his incarnation, he is submissive to his Father.

And this submission works itself out in the actual deeds of Jesus Christ. Now there's language here that gives us insight on what this was like. And before I bring this language, I want to underline something critically, and that is that the relationship of God the Father and God the Son and God the Spirit in their relationship in the Trinity is a pattern for human relationships. The love that exists, the servanthood that exists, the submission that exists, these things are there to teach us what it means to be a family. It teaches a father what a father is like.

It teaches a son what a son should be like. And it teaches the relationships of beauty and love that exist in the Godhead. And so we see that here. And we encounter this word here that the Father loves the Son. The Son is basking in the love of His Father.

In another place you read that the Son delights to do the will of His Father. There's delight in the heart of the Son. There's love on the heart of the Father. This is the way that a family was designed to operate. And this is why God said, fathers, don't exasperate your children, but bring them up in the training and the admonition of the Lord.

And it's why God said to children, honor your father and mother, for it's the first command with the promise. It's a picture of love when a son or a daughter honors and obeys his father, just like it was a sign of love and delight that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, obeyed His Father. These things are there for purposes to help us to look to, you know, set our eyes on Jesus Christ and become like Him. Every father should be like the Father in heaven. And here we read, the Father loves the Son.

Do you remember the very first words that we read in the New Testament? There were the words of a father and a son. This is my beloved Son, in whom I'm well pleased. You know, the very first mention of the word love in the Old Testament is a father-son love toward his son. When Abraham said, my son whom I love, this is my son whom I love, when he was ready to sacrifice him.

So love is critical in this father-son relationship. The Father is showing the Son all things that He Himself does, and that He will show Him greater works than these that they might marvel. The Father is teaching the Son as his submissive Son during his incarnation during this period of time. And I believe that the relationship of the Father and the Son, the Father's role in the Son's life, particularly in Jesus Christ's incarnation, is a beautiful expression of the Fifth Commandment. And you see the interplay between the Father and the Son.

Love always shows the way. Love communicates. Every child knows how they appreciate it when their parents explain why they're doing something. They might not understand it, but it's a blessing when it is explained and when children are shown. Wives appreciate it when husbands explain why we're doing this or that.

They appreciate it. It's an act of love. And I don't say that to say that every child has to understand everything parents are doing. God is not like that with us. We don't understand everything he's doing.

But there's this principle in the incarnation where the Father is showing the Son, he's communicating the Son, he's telling the Son what he's doing, and their interplay. As the Lord Jesus Christ is also a man, that is a blessing to him as a man. These things are very deep. These things make your mind bend in all kinds of different directions because if we understood the doctrine of the Trinity, we would be God, but we're not. Don't ever expect that you'll understand this.

You will not understand how God became man. It's mind-blowing to human flesh. You know, if a person says that they love God and they don't love the Lord Jesus Christ, it puts them at odds with God the Father. There are many people who say that they love God, but they have a different opinion about Jesus Christ. A person can't say, I believe in a supreme being who created all things.

But that respect stops with God the Father. If he loves God in that way, then he is at odds with God. You cannot love God and not love his son. The Muslims love God, but they do not love Jesus Christ in the same way. The Mormons love God, but they do not love Jesus Christ in the same way that Jesus is presenting himself here.

If you say, I have spirituality and I believe that there's something out there. If you don't love the Son of God, Whatever's out there doesn't love you and does not honor you. By the way, the Bible also says if you honor the Son, the Father honors you. If you say, I believe in spirituality, that there are things out there that are affecting me and I'm being so led by them, recognize that unless you love the Son, whatever's out there will not honor you. And you'll face the Son, you'll face Him in judgment.

So the second way, He's equal with God in His works. The Son does the works of the Father. And then the third way that he declares that he's equal with his father is in his authority. He is equal with God in authority. Verse 21, for as the father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so, the Son gives life to whom he will.

So here we have the authority of the Son to give life whom he will. That's another way of saying it's a God who chooses who is saved. If you believe, it's because God moved your heart to believe. And He activates your will. So it feels like that it's you.

But actually, it's true what Paul said, it doesn't depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but it depends on God who has mercy. The Father draws you. If you believed, you thought that you just made a decision, it was God that led you. He prepared you to make, it felt like it was you making that decision, that he led you there. That here we see that it is the Son gives life to whom he will.

He gives life as a manifestation of his authority. If you believe in Jesus Christ God has exercised his authority and he's caused you to believe When you come to that place you recognize that the authority of God has done the work that has saved you. And beautiful language here, he gives life or he quickens in the King James Version, he quickens. He makes you dead, there you are, You're a dead body because the Bible says that you're dead in your trespasses and sins. And then He quickens you.

He makes you alive. It's like His life flows into you. And He quickens you. And you get up and you walk and you talk. And you're now walking and leaping and praising God.

Your whole heart has changed. You praise different things. You love different things. You want to talk about different things. You want to do different things because you've been quickened by God.

You know, we read in the first chapter, in him was life and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it." And so it's God who gives life. It's His authority. And Jesus speaks in many places of his authority. He has authority over everything.

The Gospels make it clear he has authority over the weather. The Gospels make it clear he has authority over life and death. The Gospels make it clear that he has authority over heaven and hell. And he also has such authority that he takes on the name that in the Old Testament was exclusively dedicated to the authority of God, God the Father. It's the term I am, I am.

This is a term of authority. I am the bread of life. I am the resurrection of the life and the life. I am the light of the world. I am the vine.

These are expressions of authority. He takes the tetragrammaton, the most authoritative terminology of the Old Testament, and he applies it to himself because he's equal with God in authority. And the fourth way that he proclaims himself equal with his father is that he's equal in judgment in verse 22. For the father judges no one but has committed all judgment to the Son." So you have this delegation of the authority of God in judgment. And we read about this in different ways in the New Testament.

For example, in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 22, we read that He is head over all things. That's Jesus Christ. That God put all things under His feet and gave Him to be head over all things to the church. And so the Son is judging as the Father is judging. The Father has committed judgment to the Son, and they are equal in judgment.

In Acts chapter 10, verse 36, we read that He is Lord of all, and that includes all judgment. In Romans chapter 14, verse 9, we read that He has authority over the living and over the dead. And so the Father has delegated His authority to the Son. They are both judging simultaneously. But the way that Ian Hamilton explains it is like this, what one does, they all do.

Every time Jesus heals someone, the Father heals them as well. They have one will, but they are separate persons. John Gill says it like this, For the Father judgeth no man, that is, without the Son. He judged and condemned Sodom and Gomorrah, but not without the Son. He judged the people of Israel and often chastised them for their sins, but not without the Son.

This is the mediatorial role of Jesus Christ in his incarnation. He has a delegated authority from his Father and he has authority over all things. In John chapter 9 verse 39, Jesus says, for judgment I have come into the world that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind. He has authority over whether you are blind or whether you see. If you're blind today and you cannot love the Son, you cannot see the Son, you don't have life in the Son, cry out to him.

He has authority. He has all authority to give you life. He has all authority to help you to believe in your unbelief. That's why that man prayed. He said, Lord, I believe but help my unbelief.

He was declaring the authority of the Son of God through the Lord Jesus Christ, through his father. So he is equal in authority and he is equal in judgment and he is now number five, He is equal with God in honor. Verse 23, that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. So the heart of salvation is a heart of honor.

You know if you're saved, if you honor Him to the point that you defer to Him in your heart and in your life. You place yourself below Him. These are manifestations of honor. You have a joyful compliance toward him. This is a manifestation of honor.

You have an obedience toward him. This is a manifestation of honor. You have a servant hood. This is a manifestation of honor. You are a slave, but you are a delighted slave.

You're so glad that it's his authority. You want to be his slave. He's such a good master that you and you were so you got so sick and tired of the devil being your master and how he tore you up and how he broke your heart and how he wrecked your relationships. And you get so sick and tired of him and the addictions and the pain And the sorrows that he brought into your life, through the immorality and the rebellion, you get so sick and tired of being his slave that you're so glad to have Jesus Christ as your slave master. You want his authority.

This is the honor that he's speaking about. And this is the whole question of this passage. Do we honor the Son as we honor the Father? Now there are many ways that we can walk around these truths. And here's one way.

Is the religion that you have just simply possessing a God concept, that you have a God consciousness, that you have a consciousness of God, like you believe that God is out there, you know that something, someone had to create this world and you believe in that kind of God, that's not real Christianity. Jesus doesn't leave that option open to you in this passage because the honor that Because the honor that he's speaking of will draw us the honor of God. You know, someone said that the heart of Christianity is the love of a father toward his son. And In order to love the Father, one must love the Son. In Deuteronomy 6, in that great chapter where Moses is instructing the families of Israel about how they should teach their families, how they should teach their children, He says to them, you shall teach them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up.

And then he says, these things will be in your heart. These things will be in your heart. But the very first thing that he said in his discourse was, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And this is the exact same principle that Jesus is speaking about here. The word for one that Moses uses in Deuteronomy chapter six, it really does, it's a word that contains three persons in one.

The center of the universe is a Father's love for the Son and a Son's delight in his Father. True Christianity is a delight in the Son, which is also a delight in the Father. And we learn in the next verse, in verse 24, that honoring the Son is the gateway to eternal life. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life." John the Apostle communicates this in different ways. In 1 John 5 verse 11 he says, and this is the testimony that God has given us eternal life and this life is in His Son.

And so, how do we have life? We have life when we believe from the heart and have a true honor toward Him such that we long to obey Him and we want Him to be our Master. It's not just intellectual assent. Yeah, there's a God. I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

True Christianity is not contained there. True Christianity is not contained in intellectual assent. True Christianity is contained in an intellectual assent that desires the authority of the Son of God and His Father. That's true Christianity, and that is honor. So the exclusivity of Christianity is found here.

And it's based on the Father's relationship with the Son and the Son's relationship with the Father. So that to honor the Son is to honor the Father. Now I've mentioned this throughout in different times, but I want to make this very clear that the one who does not, who are the ones that do not honor the Son as equal to the Father? Mormons do not honor the Son as being equal to the Father. Jehovah's Witnesses do not honor the Son as being equal with the Father.

Those of Islam do not. Atheists do not honor the Son. Agnostics do not honor the Son. New age philosophers do not honor the sun. Lovers of what is falsely called spirituality do not honor the sun.

This is the critical matter. Jesus Christ forms a dividing line. Jesus Christ divides humanity into two sectors, those who honor the Son and those who do not. And there are many successful religions alive in the world and that will lure those to believe what Jesus, believe what is contrary to what the Lord Jesus Christ says. But let me just add one more type of person that fits this category of not honoring the Son, the heartless churchgoing people that do not honor the Son.

And Jesus described them. He said, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me." Even in true churches you have heartless churchgoing people. They sing the songs. They might raise their hands. They might talk about God.

They might acknowledge God, but they sing the songs, raise their hands, talk about God, and acknowledge God, but do not honor Him by placing themselves below Him. And they don't love His authority, And they don't want to be his slave. They just want him to be there somehow in their life. Because they might like the blessings that are part of being in relationships. Because there's no more wonderful culture than that what the Bible creates.

A culture of love, a culture of patience and kindness, all the one and others, a culture of long suffering, a culture of speaking to one another and caring for one another. God commands His people to be a particular kind of people, and people like that, because you have people, they might even like ask you over for dinner or something, which doesn't happen when you go other places. But there are various kinds of people who do not honor the Son. But let's be very clear about what Jesus is saying here. If a person says that he loves God and he doesn't love the Lord Jesus Christ, then that person is at odds with the Father.

A person cannot say, I believe in a supernatural being who created all things and love God. He'll be at odds with God because you cannot love God unless you love his son. And that's the whole point that he is making here. In Revelation, we learn that he is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. In Hebrews 1, 3, he's the expression of the brightness of his glory.

In John chapter 15, 23, we read, he who hates me hates my father also. In John two, in first John two, 22, we realize that this denial of the Son is worse than anything you ever thought. And what John says is that the denial of the Son is antichrist. He says, he who denies that Jesus is the Christ. He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son.

Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either. He who acknowledges the Son has the Father also." You cannot state this proposition more clearly than is in this passage, that to love the Son is to love the Father and that the Son is equal to the Father. And God will not receive the worship of the person who worships God the Father but does not worship the Son. The denial of the eternal sonship of Jesus Christ is the denial of God Himself. And this is why in John chapter 12, the Lord Jesus Christ quotes Isaiah 53.

Jesus says this, while you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light. And then he quotes Isaiah 53 and he says, who has believed our report? Who has believed? Because not everybody believes that Jesus is equal with the Father. Who has believed our report?

And he says, to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? In other words, is there anybody out there who sees that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that he is powerful, that he's wonderful, that he's good, that he is the bread of life, he is the light, to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? And then Jesus says, therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said again, he has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they should see with their eyes, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal him." And then later in this text, In John 12, Jesus cries out and he says, He who believes in me believes not in me, but in him who sent me. And he who sees me sees him who sent me. I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in me should not abide in darkness.

And in verse 48, he who rejects me and does not receive my words has that which judges him. The word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me gave me a command what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told me, so I speak." Now, this is why the apostles said in Acts chapter 4 that there's salvation in no other name than Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me. And so our time this morning, and I pray our whole day, is dedicated to the proposition that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. This is the most important question.

And one does not have the freedom to believe in a different kind of Jesus Christ, unless you're ready to say he is he is a demon or he is crazy but if you read what we have been reading here in John what you find is he's full of grace and truth he's the only begotten of the Father that he is he's so full of love, he's so full of wisdom that no one has ever known such love or such wisdom. And that's what we believe here. Would you pray with me? Lord, I pray that you would form us into a people who honor you, that this would be the greatest mark of our lives and our hearts all day long, today and tomorrow and the next day. And Lord, if there are any here who don't love you and honor you from the heart, oh God, that you'd have mercy on them.

Lord, that you would come down upon them, that you would change their mind and their will, and you would help them to say, maybe for the first time, I want to follow you. I want to obey you. I need your sacrifice for my sin. And then, Lord, for all the rest of us, that you would increase our honor toward you in all that we do as a church, all that these families do, and what all of us do as single people and individuals, that you would raise up within our hearts such honor that's described here in this place. Amen.