Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1324
“And you will not come to Me, that you might have life.” John 5:40.
OUR Lord was addressing Himself to the unbelieving Jews. He told them that they had received abundant evidence of His being the Sent One of God, but yet they had rejected Him, and He solemnly charged this home upon their consciences. If you read the passage at home you will see that in the 36th verse He reminded them that He had received the witness of John, and all men believed John to be a Prophet. He had come as the herald of Christ, the promised Elijah, and he had borne witness, saying, “Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world.” Yet this clear testimony they had despised and trod under foot.
Next, our Lord claimed that His miracles and lifework were a sufficient witness to His Messiahship. “The works which the Father has given Me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me.” There is, perhaps, no better evidence of the truth of our Savior’s mission than His Character, life and miracles. The truths which He revealed, the perfections which He displayed and the wonders which He worked all went to show that He was, indeed, anointed of God and sent to be the Savior of men.
Further, our Lord informs them that there was more testimony, still, though in that evidence many of them had not shared. He says, “The Father Himself, which has sent Me, has borne witness of Me.” Three times out of the excellent Glory the Father had said, “This is My beloved Son, hear you Him.” This was good evidence, whether they had heard it or not, and though He tells them that they had neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His shape, yet others had heard that Voice and seen the descent of the Spirit like a dove—and their testimony ought to have had weight with them.
To you, dear Friends, assembled here tonight, this is a very important piece of evidence. We rejoice as we hear that God has actually spoken by audible sounds out of Heaven and borne testimony to His Son that He is the Christ! Then our Lord goes on to say that there was yet another evidence in which the Jews had not shared—the unbelieving ones—and that is, the internal evidence which, to those who have it, is the very best in all the world!
Internal evidence—the evidence of a renewed heart, the evidence ofjoy and peace, the evidence of conscious pardon, the evidence of sanctification—this is the most convincing of all evidence to those who possess it! It is clear as the sun in the heavens, but they had not shared in it and, therefore, felt it not. “You have not His Word abiding in you; for whom He has sent, Him you believe not.” And then the Master reminds them that there was yet a fifth mode of evidence which demonstrated Him to be the Christ, and that was the Scriptures, of which He says, (if I may read the text in the indicative and I think it must be so read)—“You search the Scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me.”
Therefore, if we will now forget the unbelieving Jews and only think of unbelieving Gentiles, there are to us, tonight, evidences concerning the Lord Jesus of the most convincing character. There are John’s witness, the witness of the miracles, the witness of the voice of the Father out of Heaven, the inner witness which many of our friends and kindred tell us of, and then the witness of the Holy Spirit in sacred Scripture. All these show that Jesus of Nazareth is the promised Redeemer of man, that He is the appointed Mediator of the Covenant of Grace and that through Him there is immediate salvation for all who will believe on Him.
The worst point about the whole conduct of the Jews was that, with all this witness in His favor, which they could not overturn, they would not come to Him that they might have eternal life! At this moment there are many such unbelievers upon the face of the earth and, what is more to the point, I fear that at this hour, in this congregation, there are some who will not come to Jesus that they may have life. There are persons in this great assembly, consisting, as it does,
of individuals who have enough thought about religion to come out on a weeknight to hear a sermon about it, who, nevertheless, will not come to Christ!
Some of these persons are often here, familiar with these courts and familiar with this voice—perhaps so familiar that they have grown accustomed to it and it has but little power with them. And yet, though they will come to us, they will not come to Christ! However, it is to them that I shall speak tonight and I ask God’s people to pray that while I am speaking, the Spirit of God may apply the Word to the heart and to the conscience. I speak in great weakness and bodily pain and, therefore, I hope to be aided and assisted by a double portion of the Divine strength, and, if it is so, God’s Glory will come of it.