The sermon by Jason Dohm, titled 'Jesus the Faithful and True Witness', explores John 8:13-20, where Jesus defends His claim of being the 'light of the world'. Jesus asserts that His testimony is true because He is in unity with the Father who sent Him. The Pharisees challenge Jesus' claim, accusing Him of bearing false witness about Himself. However, Jesus counters by explaining His divine origin and mission, emphasizing that He and the Father testify together. The sermon draws parallels with Revelation, highlighting Jesus as the faithful and true witness. It explains that Jesus embodies truth and purity, offering salvation to both Jews and Gentiles. The message underscores that accepting Jesus' claims transforms one's life, leading them out of darkness and into light. The Pharisees, however, are depicted as judging according to the flesh, unable to recognize the divine truth due to their unrenewed minds. The sermon concludes by challenging listeners to consider the truth of Jesus' testimony and the implications of truly knowing God.

Our sermon text for today is John chapter 8 verses 13 through 20. For context, I'm going to begin in verse 12. Back up. There we go. Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, I am the light of the world.

He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. The Pharisees therefore said to him, you bear witness of yourself. Your witness is not true. Jesus answered and said to them, even if I bear witness of myself, my witness is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you do not know where I come from and where I am going.

You judge according to the flesh. I judge no one. And yet if I do judge, my judgment is true, for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent me. It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true. I am one who bears witness of myself and the father who sent me bears witness of me Then they said to him where is your father?

Jesus answered you know neither me nor my father if you had known me you would have known my father also These words Jesus spoke in the treasury as he taught in the temple, and no one laid hands on him, for his hour had not yet come." Let's pray. Lord God, we pray that you'll bless the preaching of your word, that you'll pour yourself out on Mr. Dome as he comes to bring this message God that you'll open up our hearts to receive it and that we will be blessed and edified from it. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

The title of the sermon this morning is Jesus the faithful and true witness. In the title I'm actually drawing on language from Revelation. In Revelation 1 verse 5, Jesus is called the faithful witness. And then in Revelation 3 verse 14, Jesus is called the faithful and true witness. So the sermon title actually comes from Revelation 3 verse 14, Jesus the faithful and true witness.

In the early chapters of Revelation, Jesus is set forth in His glory. In other words, He is not in the state that we are used to considering Him in the Gospel, a state of humility. In Revelation, Jesus is set forth in His glory. His face is shining like the sun. He has a double edged sword coming out of His mouth.

He is set forward as the faithful and true witness. As the Bible comes to an end, we are really down to the point. Jesus' testimony is true. There is no one who speaks more truth than the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no one whose testimony can be relied on more than the Lord Jesus Christ.

That's really the subject of our text today. Last week, Jesus was in the temple courts, and he was teaching, and he makes this breathtaking claim about himself. He says, I am the light of the world. And I said that overwhelmingly that means two things. When Jesus said I am the light of the world, overwhelmingly he was saying these two things.

One, that he is all the things that light is in Scripture. Scripture uses light a lot. And When scripture uses light, it means truth, pure truth. Jesus is and teaches pure truth. Scripture uses light as purity in life and word and action, complete righteousness in living.

Well, Jesus is that. And scripture, when it speaks of light, often talks about where the pathway of truth and purity takes you. Where is that? Well, it's the place where the Lamb is its light. We looked at Revelation last week and saw that there won't be a sun or a moon in heaven.

Why not? Because they are not needed. The sun and the moon are just placeholders. In heaven, the Lamb will be its light. The glory of God will provide all the light that heaven needs and heaven is a day that never ends.

There will be no night there. The path of the Lord Jesus Christ, the path of perfect truth and purity takes you to a place where it's always day and the Lamb is its light. Secondly, when Jesus said, I am the light of the world. He was saying that he is the Savior promised by God. We went to many other places, but there is this chain of scriptures in Isaiah that speaks so clearly of the Messiah.

It speaks of the Messiah being the great light of the world. He is the light to the Gentiles. So not just truth and purity to the Jews only, but to all the corners of the earth. Every tribe, tongue, and nation receives the light of the world. The second part of what Jesus said in that one verse, in verse 12, is that this great truth that Jesus is the light of the world transforms your life.

If you really lay hold of the truth that Jesus is the light of the world, then he becomes the source of life, and he sustains your life. And you can't be the same ever again. If you believe in Him, then you follow Him and you don't walk in darkness. You have the light of light. When I hear that truth, I have an option.

I either have to bow to that great truth or attack it as falsehood. What's the third option? With Jesus standing before the Jewish nation, in the temple, in public, in view of everyone, saying, I am the light of the world, if you believe that you will follow me and you won't walk in darkness, you either have to embrace it and humble yourself that Jesus is everything and you are nothing, or you have to fight against that truth. You have to go to war against that truth. In our text this week, we have the men who will not bow before that truth, but are waging war against that truth.

As we go to the text, let's ask for the Lord's help. For the Lord's help. That what you say is true, that you are the way, the truth, and the life that no one comes to the Father except by you. We want to embrace the truth that you are the light of the world, that all life comes from you and that you sustain it, that you are a pathway of truth and perfect purity that leads us to God, that leads us to heaven. I pray that these truths would be loved.

Not fought against here in our hearts, but that we would have the ability to humble ourselves before the great truths of the Gospel, to bow our knees and Find our lives to be completely hidden in your Son Jesus Christ. We pray this in His name, Amen. So there are only eight verses in the scope of our text this week, and I have five different subsections, So we're taking them in small bites. I'd like to begin by looking at verse 13. So let me read again.

Follow along. I read John 8 verse 13. And then we'll keep moving after that. John 8 verse 13. The Pharisees therefore said to him, You bear witness of yourself.

Your witness is not true. In this verse we have the Pharisees attacking Jesus' claims. So if you're taking notes on the handout and you're filling in blanks, it's claims. The Pharisees attacked Jesus' claim. As I just said, when you hear Jesus say, I am the light of the world, you either have to humble yourself before that truth and embrace Jesus Christ as King, Savior, Lord, or you have to reject that truth and wage war against it as falsehood.

This is exactly what the Pharisees are doing. They are waging war against Jesus' claim to be the light of the world, and claiming that he is teaching falsehood, that he is a false teacher. What are they really saying when they say you bear witness of yourself? Your witness is not true. They're saying that Jesus is making unsubstantiated claims.

Claims without backup. Claims that have not been proven, cannot be proven, and therefore should not be accepted. This is a very public denouncement of Jesus and his claims. In other words, They are saying, we reject your claims and the other Jews, the multitude that is gathered here, Jesus' teachings should also reject his claims because they are unsubstantiated. There is nothing solid behind them to ground these claims.

The Pharisees are saying that Jesus' spectacular claims have nothing to back them up and give people confidence that they are true. Think of what Jesus is claiming as being the light of the world, as being in His own person, everything that the Bible teaches about light. Jesus is saying, I am that. In my person I am all of those things. And claiming to be the Messiah as the light of the world.

Everyone was expecting a messiah that would be the light of the world. So Jesus had just put that label on his own back. I am the messiah of Isaiah that says that the messiah would be the light to the Gentiles. After all, Deuteronomy 19.15 says by the mouth of two or three witnesses, the matter shall be established. So this is part of Mosaic Law, how you determine what is valid and what is not valid, what is substantiated and solid and grounded and what's not substantiated and not solid and not grounded.

The Mosaic law says, by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established. So here's what the Pharisees are saying. All you have is you talking about you. You have nothing. All you have is you talking about you.

Just flip back to chapter 7. This is really just a repeat of chapter 7 verses 48 and 49. In chapter 7 they are attacking Jesus and Nicodemus says, hey, should we be judging this man before we hear him out and know what he is doing? And here is what they say to Nicodemus in chapter 7 verses 48 and 49, Have any of the rulers or Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed." What they said in chapter 7 is, only ignorant people are excited about Jesus.

This crowd that doesn't know the law, they're excited about Jesus, curse on the crowd. There are no leaders, there are no Pharisees that are excited about Jesus, that are accepting his claims about himself. This is really just more of the same in chapter 8. They say that all he has is himself talking about himself and there's nothing solid behind it. Now Let's continue moving through the text.

Now to verse 14. Back to John 8.14. Jesus answered and said to them, Even if I bear witness of myself, my witness is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you do not know where I come from and where I am going." Here in this second verse of our text, Jesus defends His self-testimony. He acknowledges that he has given testimony about himself, but he actually defends his self-testimony, his testimony about himself.

He defends it as valid, as trustworthy. I want to start by addressing what seems like a contradiction at first. Which is that what he says in chapter 5 seems to be in conflict with what he says here in our text. In chapter 5, he healed the man who had been crippled for 38 years. He healed him on the Sabbath.

The Jews want to kill him, both for healing this man on the Sabbath and for making himself equal with God by calling God his Father. This has lots of applications to our text today. But He healed a man on the Sabbath, and in His defense of that to the Jews, He calls God His Father. And the Jews understand that rightly, that He is making Himself equal with God by calling himself the Son of God by calling God his Father. And so they seek to kill him in chapter 5.

And one of the things that Jesus says in his defense in chapter 5, found in chapter 5 verse 31, Jesus says, if I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true." And then he gives four other witnesses. One, the Father. Two, John the Baptist. Three, the works that he's been doing that he says God the Father gave me to do. And four, the scriptures which testify of Jesus.

So he brings forth four other witnesses, but he begins that by saying, if I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. But now in our text he says, even if I bear witness of myself, my witness is true. On the face of it, it seems to be a contradiction. But it's not. If I had to summarize what Jesus is really communicating in chapter 5, I would summarize it this way.

You don't have to take my word for it. In other words, there are many things that substantiate the truth of what Jesus is saying. And He's not relying just on His self-testimony in order for His claims to be accepted. So if I had to summarize what He is communicating in chapter 5, it would be this way. You don't have to take my word for it.

If you don't want to listen to me, listen to the Father. If you don't want to listen to me, listen to John the Baptist. If you don't want to listen to me, listen to the works that I've been doing publicly. If you don't want to listen to me, listen to the Scriptures which speak of all that I would be and do and say. If I had to summarize what Jesus is actually communicating here in chapter 8, I would summarize it this way.

You can take my word for it. So in chapter 5 it's you don't have to take my word for it. There are these other four witnesses. But here in chapter 8 he's saying you can take my word for it. I'm telling the truth.

My testimony is true. In fact, because of who I am, I can and do only tell the truth. In chapter 5, it's the other footings that if you want to, you can use as other witnesses. In chapter 8, it has to do with the actual truthfulness of his testimony. Really not in contradiction one to the other.

Now let's break down Jesus' response. He says, I know where I came from. Where is that? He came from heaven, from eternity past. Where did the Gospel of John begin?

Chapter 1 verse 1, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. If you go to the beginning, there are three already there. There's Father, Son, Holy Spirit. They're already there. In the beginning, I thought it was the beginning.

No, they are already there. In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was God and the Word was with God. He was with God in the beginning. So where did he come from?

Well, he came from eternity past, and he was God in eternity past. He was in heaven with God the Father in eternity past. And he knows not just where he came from, but where he is going. Where is he going? Well, he is going back to heaven to be glorified for all eternity.

So from eternity past he was in heaven, he came from heaven, and then after this brief period of time on earth he is going back to heaven to be glorified through all eternity. He knows that about himself. He was sent from heaven on a mission for a short period of time but he was always in heaven from eternity past and he always will be the Lord of Heaven through eternity future. He knows that about himself. They don't know that about him.

No one else in all of human history has ever been privy to the eternal counsels of God the Father and God the Son. If you study the scriptures, you know that there have been eternal workings of God the Father and God the Son. Things they decided to do together before the foundations of the earth were ever laid. Were you there for that? Me neither.

Neither has any human being been there. In John chapter 1 verse 18 we read this, No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. In the sermon on that text, I said that Jesus is the ultimate revelation of the unseen God. No one has seen God at any time.

He dwells in inapproachable light. But God desired from eternity past to reveal Himself and the ultimate self-revelation of God is Jesus Christ. If you have looked upon Jesus Christ, you have looked upon the unseen God. Jesus knows exactly who He is. He is God.

He came from heaven, He is going to heaven, He is truth. Right? John 14 verse 6. I am the way, the truth, and the life. He was sent by God to be the fullest self-revelation of God.

The Old Testament is wonderful. The Old Testament is chock full of truth from start to finish, but it isn't the ultimate self-revelation of God. The ultimate self-revelation of God is in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. In a book of progressive revelation, we have a lot of good back here, but we have the fullest and the best in the gospels where Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. He is the light of the world.

Paul in Romans chapter 3 verse 4 says this, very simply, let God be true and every man a liar. It's Romans 3 verse 4. Paul says, let God be true and every man a liar. What is Paul exactly saying there? He's saying that if the whole world says one thing, but Jesus Christ says another, then Jesus is true and the rest of the world is lying.

Let God be true. Jesus is God. Let God be true and every man a liar. If on the scales you have the whole world and its conception of things and it making declarations of truth, but Jesus contradicts it. The scale tips for Jesus.

Actually this happens a lot. Mother's Day is a reflection of that. The whole world outside of the faith, the whole world says a woman's life isn't worth that. It's not enough. Jesus through His Word says there's nothing more worthy.

There's nothing more valuable to give a life for than to pour your life into the next generation to produce Worshipers for God, the disciple worshipers of the most valuable being in the universe. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Think about All the ways in which the world lines up and says one thing, we're living in a world right now that says it's amazing for a man to marry a man. You know what? Jesus contradicts that.

Let God be true and every man a liar. Who is fit to be a witness of the eternal counsels between the Father and the Son? Who has been there? Who would even understand that? In a sense, There is a sense in which there can be no other witness.

No one else is great enough to witness to these things. And really, in a sense, it is the same with other prophets. People aren't standing by to hear God speak to the prophet who speaks. Jesus in that respect is the same, except so much more so, because He has been God from all eternity. Moving on to verses 15 and 16 hopefully you are still in John chapter 8 verses 15 and 16 Jesus continues you judge according to the flesh I judge no one And yet if I do judge my judgment is true.

For I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent me." In verses 15 and 16, Jesus compares their judgment with His. So if you are taking notes on the handout and filling in blanks, it's compares. Jesus compares their judgment, the judgment of the Pharisees, with His. Of the Pharisees, he says, you judge according to the flesh. We might have a vague sense of what that means, but with more precision, what does it mean to judge according to the flesh?

I think there are two elements to this. One, judging according to outward appearance. Two, judging with unrenewed minds. This is what it means to judge according to the flesh. Judging according to outward appearance and judging with an unrenewed mind.

Let's look at both of those more closely. Number one, judging according to outward appearances. You'll recall in 1 Samuel chapter 16, Samuel the prophet is sent to anoint one of Jesse's sons to be king. He arrives, He sees the oldest. He's big, strong, and good looking.

And Samuel immediately says, surely this is the anointed of the Lord, and God says, not so fast. More specifically, God says in 1 Samuel 16 verse 7, The Lord does not see as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. Samuel looked at the big, strong, handsome eldest son and thought, surely this must be the king. Actually no, it's son number seven, the youngest son who's keeping the sheep. The Jews had in mind what the Messiah would be like.

Jesus didn't fit the bill. Jesus was very disappointing for what the Jews had in mind for their Messiah, their King who would come to save. Listen to Isaiah 53. Of course, Isaiah 53 is this great chapter about the suffering servant, the Messiah. Isaiah 3 verses 2 and 3, he has no form or comeliness.

The Messiah has no form or cummliness. I googled cummliness in the early hours of the morning. See exactly how to define that. Here's what came up. The qualities that give pleasure to the senses.

Cummliness is the qualities that give pleasure to the senses. Easy on the eyes. Big strong and handsome. That's the kind of king we want. You know David didn't fit the bill, and Jesus didn't fit the bill either.

He came in a humble form. Now I'll start back at the beginning of Isaiah 53, 2 and 3. He has no form or comeliness. And When we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him. He was despised and we did not esteem him. Here in John chapter 8, this is being fulfilled. Jesus is being despised and not esteemed. Why?

Because he wasn't big, strong, and handsome, and the kind of king they wanted in a messiah. They're judging according to outward appearances. The second element, judging according to the flesh, is judging with unrenewed or unbelieving minds. Judging with a mind that is not born again. Think about how radical of a term that is, born again.

Not a little improved. Not a lot improved. Born again. A new creation. The old has passed away.

The new has come. Nothing is the same. You are a different kind of creature. The mind changes when you are renewed. The mind changes when God takes out a heart of stone and gives you a heart of flesh.

You think radically differently. Paul in Romans chapter 8 verse 7 says this. This is the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 8 verses 7. The carnal mind is enmity against God. For it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.

The carnal mind, the fleshly mind, the unrenewed mind, the unbelieving mind is enmity against God. It is at war against God. It can't be. Because of how much it loves itself, and because of how it wants to be God, the unbelieving mind wants to be God. It wants to be served as God.

It wants to be pleased as if I am God in my unbelief. It is at war against the true God. And it cannot be subject to the law of God. It cannot be subject to the law of God. The unbelieving mind is naturally hostile to God.

It is the natural enemy of God. This is a really important sentence. And that can be true while you study and memorize and even teach the Word of God. Are you with me? Are you following?

Your unbelieving mind can be the natural enemy of God even while you study the Bible, memorize the Bible, teach the Bible. How do we know that? Because it's true of the men Jesus is addressing in the text. They spend massive amounts of time studying the Word of God, memorizing the Word of God, teaching the Word of God, presiding over the people of God, but they are not of God. What about Jesus' judgment?

They judge according to the flesh. What about Jesus' judgment? Jesus says, I don't have any. Jesus says, I judge no one. As he said to Nicodemus in Chapter 3 verse 17, he was not sent to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

Jesus comes twice. First time he came to save, the second time he comes to judge. Now in the Gospel accounts he is on mission to save not to judge. So they are condemning him, now he is offering himself to them as the light of the world, as the Messiah who is fulfilling God's promises to save. Even in this moment where they stand in opposition And they are making war against Him.

He is offering them the opportunity to repent and believe and be saved. He is not judging them. But Jesus makes it clear, if he does judge, he does it in perfect unison with his Father. He says again what he's been saying again and again and again in the Gospels, I and the Father are one. I'm only saying what the Father tells me to say.

I'm only doing what the Father gives me to do. I don't have a separate agenda. The Father's agenda is my agenda. What pleases the Father pleases me. I only do what pleases Him.

If I judge, I judge with His judgment in perfect unison with God the Father. So by saying I judge no one, it's not a statement about his ability to judge. He is perfectly able to judge. Jesus' judgments are never according to outward appearance he sees right into the heart. How many times do we see that in the gospels?

People are whispering something and he says, why are you thinking this? Or people are even just thinking something in their heart and he puts his finger right on it. Why are you thinking this in your heart? Jesus never judges according to outward appearances. He always knows the innermost details that no one else could know about me or you or anyone.

He knows them all. Jesus' judgments come from a mind that has never been touched by sin. That's our problem. Our minds have been affected by sin. Jesus' mind never was affected by sin.

His judgments are perfect judgments. And He's coming again. That's not part of our text, but I'll say it. He is coming again. And He will judge.

And every judgment will be right. Everyone will know that His judgments are right and every mouth will be stopped. The people who think that they will rage against the judgments of God are mistaken. When they stand before Him in all His perfect holiness, and He utters those judgments, you will know that He is exactly, perfectly right in his judgments. Moving to verses 17 and 18.

John 8 verses 17 and 18. Jesus continues, It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true. I am one who bears witness of myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness of me." In these two verses, Jesus provides a second witness. If you're filling in blanks, it's witness. Jesus provides a second witness, and that witness is his heavenly father.

Jesus references the Old Testament principle that matters are established by two or three witnesses. I've already quoted Deuteronomy 19 That's only one of many places in the Old Testament that firmly establishes this principle If you have a matter that needs to be set on solid ground you build it upon multiple witnesses Jesus calls it your law not to distance Himself from the law as if it's your law as opposed to being my law, but to make them clone it as the accepted standard. He knows they accept that as the standard, so He calls it your law to tie them to it. Then Jesus says, I am one witness, my Father who sent me is another. Again, he's making himself equal with God.

Remember I said the trouble all started back in chapter 5, when he healed a man on the Sabbath, and then he made himself equal with God by calling God his Father. Now he's saying, I have witnesses about me, me and my Father. He's doing it again but only worse. Only worse, he's making himself equal with God again in this text. Now think who the audience is.

Very serious-minded Jews. Not born-again Jews, but at least serious Jews. How would very serious-minded Jews be able to perceive the unseen God's testimony about any prophet? Ask that question of this text. Jesus' audience is serious minded Jews.

If they are nothing else, they are serious about this stuff. So how would someone like that be able to perceive the unseen God's testimony about any prophet? They all believe that there is an unseen God that no man can see. They would all accept that as true. They all believe that he sends prophets to speak on his behalf so that mankind would have revelation.

That would not be a point of contention with this audience. So how do you know what would the fingerprints of that unseen God be? Well the Messiah was expected. The anointed of God, the Savior was expected. Why was He expected?

Because He would be the keeping of many, many, many promises. They were expecting Him because God spoke of Him. God promised Him. God promised things that would be done by His hands. The Old Testament had a lot to say about what the Messiah would say and do.

So how does Jesus compare to that? Does He bear the fingerprints of the unseen God or doesn't He? The fingerprints of this unseen God would include undeniable authenticating works. The works of the Messiah. The works that God promised His Messiah would do so that you would know when He had come.

The blind would see. Are the blind seeing? The deaf would hear. Are the deaf hearing? The mute would speak.

Are the mute speaking? The lame would walk. Are the lame walking? These are the fingerprints of the unseen God. These are the undeniable authenticating works promised through the prophets by this unseen God.

The point is this, the fingerprints of the promise maker are all over Jesus. God the Father is the promise maker and his fingerprints are all over the life and the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. So when Jesus calls his Father, God the Father, as a witness, this is how they've always known whether someone was from God or not. This is exactly what Nicodemus says in the beginning of chapter 3. Rabbi, we know that no one can do the things that you are doing unless he is from God.

There is already an acknowledgement that The things that he is doing are proof that he has come from God. Finally, verses 19 and 20. Then they said to him, Where is your father? Jesus answered, You know neither me nor my father. If you had known me, you would have known my father also.

These words Jesus spoke in the treasury as he taught in the temple. And no one laid hands on him, for his hour had not yet come. In verses 19 and 20, Jesus gets to the heart of the matter and they hate him for it. So if you're filling in blanks, taking notes on the handout and filling in blanks, it's heart and hate. Jesus gets to the heart of the matter and they hate him for it.

So if you're filling in blanks, taking notes on the handout and filling in blanks, it's heart and hate. Jesus gets to the heart of the matter and they hate him for it. The Pharisees ask, where is your father? Jesus has called his father as a witness to his testimony about himself. So they say, where is your father?

Now they could be thinking about a human father, but I don't think so. Again, going back to chapter 5, this is where all the trouble started, was that he called God his Father. They understand in chapter 5 that he was saying he was the Son of God, that God was his Father, and that in saying that, he was making himself equal with God. They say, where is your father? I think this is akin to Matthew 27 verse 43.

Listen to Matthew 27 Verse 43. This is when Jesus is hanging on the cross and he's being mocked by the leaders of the Jews. And here's what they say. I'm going to replace some of the pronouns with Jesus and God just so you don't get lost in the pronouns. Here's what they say.

They say, Jesus trusted in God. Let God deliver Jesus now if he will have him. For Jesus said, I am the Son of God. In other words, when he is on the cross, he says, well let God his Father appear then. And save him.

If God is really his Father, and if his Father will claim him, let him claim him now. Let him come and save him from the cross." What they are saying in this text is very akin to that. Jesus has said that his father is his witness. They say, well, let him show up and testify. In the same way that they say when he's hanging on the cross Let him show up and claim them as his son and take him down from this cross and we'll believe Jesus's reply You don't know God You don't know God the you don't know God the son and so you don't know God the Father.

Here is the teaching. This is so important. You either have both, or you have neither. You either have God the Son and God the Father, or you have neither God the Son nor God the Father. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one.

The God of Scripture is a triune God. It's a three part unity. Three subsistences in one. Three persons, one God. Three persons, one God.

To reject Jesus is to reject God because Jesus is God. You cannot extract a member of the Trinity and have the same God. The God of the Bible is the triune God. The three person unity God. You cannot extract a member of the Trinity out and have the same God.

You only have an idol then. In John 14 verse 6, Jesus says, No one comes to the Father except through me. It is impossible to approach this God, to know this God, to have this God as your God, without going through Jesus. Without Jesus, He's at war with you and you with Him. He cannot be your God.

He is only a condemning judge to any who rejects the Lord Jesus Christ. The only Peace with this unseen God is through his Son. Many throughout the earth want a God without Jesus. You can only have an idol without Jesus. So Jews are idolaters, Muslims are idolaters, Hindus are idolaters, secularists are idolaters, Atheists are idolaters.

To be outside of Christ is to only have an idol and not have the one true God. Verse 20 says that Jesus spoke these things in the treasury. The treasury was a very public place in the temple. It was actually in the court of the women. It was a place in the temple courts where women were Welcome.

Not surprisingly, the places where the offerings were taken were in the quarter of the women. They wanted them to be able to give to. And so in Mark chapter 12, when the widow comes to put in her two mites, Jesus and his disciples are watching the giving of the offerings. It says in Mark chapter 12 that this was in the treasury. It was a very, very public place in the temple courts.

Jesus is saying these things in the most public of the public places in temple life. No one laid hands on him because it wasn't his hour. We keep encountering this. What is implied in no one laid hands on him is that they wanted to lay hands on him. But they couldn't.

Otherwise you wouldn't comment on it. Here's what Matthew Henry says. This is such a precious truth. Listen to what Matthew Henry says about this. Of the day of Jesus' death, but also your death if you are in Christ, our enemies cannot hasten it any sooner, Nor our friends delay it any longer than the time appointed of the Father, which is very comfortable to every good man who can look up and say with pleasure, My times are in your hands, and better there than our own.

Amen to that. If you're in Christ, you can say with David, Matthew 3 is quoting the king and the psalmist David, Psalm 31 verse 15, where David says, my times are in your hands. We're back to the divine calendar where the day of your death is already there. It's already on the divine calendar. You don't have access to it.

It's a good thing you don't. If you want to know, I don't want to know. But it's in God's hands. And the day you're going to die is already marked on the divine calendar. And no matter who your enemies are, no matter how many there are of your enemies, no matter how bitter against you there are, they can't pull forward the day of your death one single day.

And no matter who your friends are, no matter how many of them there are, no matter how much they love you, they can't delay it a single day. But those who know their God say, good. Dear God, say, good. Better my times be in His hands than my own. Because He'll handle it with perfect wisdom.

Applications. I have two. Applications. I have two. Number one, Christian faith rises or falls on the truthfulness of Jesus' testimony about Himself.

Christian faith rises or falls on the truthfulness of Jesus' testimony about Himself. At the end of the day, when you boil it all down, You either believe Revelation 3 verse 14 that says Jesus is the faithful and true witness, or you don't. The whole rest of the Bible is irrelevant until you settle on that point. Everything rides on it. It is the hinge point of everything else.

Is Jesus the faithful and true? If he is, then everything falls into place and everything has its place. If he's not, the Christian faith is a fraud, make war against it. Trust him. The rewards are rich for anyone who has trusted them as the faithful and true witness.

For those who have said, I can trust what he said about himself, things fall into place, and you receive a rich return of your trust. Number two. Have you come to grips with how far a person can make it in religion without knowing God? We keep encountering this, but it's here in this text. Because you have Pharisees who have given their lives to studying and memorizing and teaching, and even rising in the ranks of the religious.

They don't know God. I think it was Matthew Henry in his commentary that said, they talk of things as a blind man talks of color. They talk of spiritual things as a blind man talks of color. Meaning, Jesus can't even reason with them because they have minds that are naturally hostile to God because of their unbelief. They are at war with God.

Could that be you? Could that be you? Could you have made it very far in religion? Could you study your Bible? Could you be one who studies your Bible daily and is ahead of the rest of us on the memory text?

And maybe is even teaching the Word of God. But you don't know God because you're not in his son. We have to ask ourselves, in what way have I been the Pharisee in the text? In what way have I in arrogance stood as judge over the book? When really, God through His Word stands in judgment of us.

The wrong people are making the judgments here. Jesus is the one with perfect judgment. He ought to be rendering the judgments here. And yet, the Pharisees are rendering the judgment. Well, don't be so quick to say that could never be me.

We render judgments on the book as if we were wise all the time. But the book is over us, not sitting in judgment under us. Let's pray. God, thank you for your precious word. I pray that we, all of us, would embrace the Lord Jesus Christ as the faithful and true witness.

That we would be content for God to be true and every man a liar if everyone else on planet earth lines up against your word that we would be content to endure the scorn and mocking and contempt of the word of God in order to hold to it, to cling to it, to receive it as truth. God, if there are ways in which we have stood over Your Word in judgment, I pray that You would forgive us and give us such a tender heartedness towards the truth of your word happily being under the authority of it. Pray these things in Jesus' name, Amen.