Misplaced Glory and Unbelief

Open your Bibles to John chapter 5 please, to the Gospel of John, chapter 5. Our focus will be from verses 41 and to the end of the chapter, but let me read from verse 18, or really 17, so we get the context. So John chapter 5, verse 17, follow along as I read. But Jesus answered them, My father is working until now, and I am working. And this is why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own father and making himself equal with God.

So Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son of God can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these he will show him, so that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.

For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but he has passed from death to life. truly truly i say to you an hour is coming and is now here 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 has granted the son also to have life in himself and he has given him authority to execute judgment because he is the son of man do not marvel at this for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out and those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just because I seek not my own will, but the will of him who sent me. If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who bears witness about me and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. You sent to John and he is born witness to the truth.

Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp and you were willing to rejoice for a little while in his light, but the testimony that I have is greater than that of John for the works that the father has given me to accomplish. The very works that I'm doing bear witness about me that the Father has sent me.

And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me, but his voice you have never heard, nor have you seen his form. And you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is they that bear witness about me. Yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.

I do not receive glory from people, but I know that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come in my father's name and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe when you receive glory for one another? Do not seek the glory that comes from the only God. So do not think that I will accuse you to the Father, there is one who accuses you, Moses, on whom you set your hope.

For if you believed Moses, you would have believed me, for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe in his writings, how will you believe my words? Let's pray. Oh God, we thank you for your word. We're thankful, Lord, for your spirit that works among us so that your word can be effectual for salvation within our souls. We're thankful, in other words, that through the new covenant, gospel of grace, you have given your people ears to hear and a heart to receive.

And we know, God, that that is a work of divine miracle. Because without the Spirit's work, working the power of Jesus within our hearts, we would never believe. We would never hear. We would never receive. Instead, we'd be seeking our own glory still. So we're thankful that your covenant people can gather together now and truly receive this word that we have before us.

And so, Lord, may we be a people in which we rely not upon our own power, but upon the power that's found in the gospel. And may the people who are here that aren't believers, who do not have the spirit working in them, may they see this glory and this power revealed, and may it cause them to repent and believe themselves, so that they would receive this miraculous power of the gospel. Oh Lord, be glorified, be honored.

God, be with us now, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. So most kids, when they brought home report cards, they were concerned about grades and their parents seeing grades. But in middle school, elementary school, I was more concerned about, by the grades, there was like notes from each teacher. and the notes they would say if you were being good, bad, and all the other.

But the one phrase, the words I was just terrified of seeing was excessive talking. If I saw excessive talking, I knew my dad was going to not be happy with me at all because I had a problem with talking in school And so when most kids they concerned about grades I was concerned about that note excessive talking and I would get it quite often And something that along the lines that my dad would say is, how can you expect not to have that note of excessive talking if you cannot keep your mouth shut, right? And if I wanted to keep it G, I would say if you cannot be quiet or something like that.

But he would say, if you expect, if you don't want that note there because you don't want to spank him or whatever from me. How can you expect that to happen if you're not going to keep your mouth shut in class? That was in the good old days when you expected the teacher to be right and the student that was trying to make his case to be automatically wrong.

My dad would never believe me and any kind of excuse I had, he would simply say, how can you expect that note to not be there if you cannot keep your mouth shut? Well, perhaps a normal student, he's concerned about bad grades. He brings home his report card, and he has bad grades, and a parent might say, how can you expect good grades if you don't study or do your work?

And really, what that sentence is saying is it's getting to the root or the bottom of the issue, right? It's not just the fact that you have bad grades or you have excessive talking, but there's a reason behind it. You can't keep your mouth shut or you don't study, you don't do your work. There's a root cause, there's a root issue at play here. And now we have Jesus at the end of chapter five, he kind of asked a similar question from his enemies, from the Pharisees.

If you notice, he says it twice in verse 44, how can you believe, how can you believe when you receive glory for one another and do not seek the glory that comes from God. Or if you notice in verse 47, but if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words? So he's asking that question, how can you even believe to these Pharisees? And I think it's important for us to understand that he is, in asking that question, the topic of discussion is, this is why you can't believe.

There is a root cause here for why you're not believing me, and this is why. If you notice, if you remember, Jesus has healed the man at the pool and he attributed it to being the son of God or deity himself, right? And these Pharisees, these religious leaders, do not believe that claim. And Jesus has gone through evidences to reveal or witnesses to say, I am who I say I am.

This is who I am. I have witnesses to prove it, that I am the judge and the savior of the world. And now he finishes chapter five with not only acknowledging you do not believe, but saying, how can you believe when you have this root cause that is in the way? And so what we see here from this teaching at the end of chapter five, is there is a reason why people do not believe that Jesus is the son of God, judge of all and savior of all.

Now it can be to us, it's such a fabulous statement that he is the judge and savior of all man that that perhaps it's just a huge statement how can you believe that without it being difficult but what Jesus is saying is it's not difficult it's clear that's who I am and the reason why you don't believe is because of this problem here and this problem here is the same issue of today it's the same issue why people don't believe today and it is the same reason why we might fall into false belief or we might fall into a less than desired belief what is that What is the root cause here? Jesus, how can you believe when this is the case? Well, look at verse 41 as he introduces what that is.

He says in verse 41, as a way of contrast, he doesn't have this problem. He says, I do not receive glory from people. That's the contrast. Now look at verse 44 to see that contrast most fully revealed. How can you believe when you receive glory from people or one another? Do not seek the glory that comes from the only God.

You see, he's highlighting, by contrast, the heart of unbelief. The reason why they cannot believe the Pharisees before them is because they seek man's glory as opposed to God's glory. So if you start the whole process of am I going to believe or not, and you start the process with I desire man's glory above God's glory, Jesus is saying, how can you believe?

In other words, at the very root is rotten. And so that is essentially what he's saying there. And so what does he mean then? If this is truly a root cause, it's a problem even today, it's not like it's only for that time. we ought to know that essential character of disbelief or unbelief. And so what does he mean by glory, right? You seek man's glory and not God's glory.

What does he mean by glory there? Glory is high honor or esteem, okay? Glory is high honor or esteem. So in other words, instead of seeking God's honoring you, esteeming you, being pleased with you, you seek man's esteem. or honor, that you would be popular with man instead. And Jesus here, I want you to notice how he says, I do not, again in verse 41, I do not receive glory from people.

I do not receive high esteem, honor, those sort of things from people. He's not saying that he doesn't receive any glory from people, because truly, in order to be saved, we must glorify Christ. You will be either found damned forever or welcomed into eternal paradise based off of if you gave glory to Christ or not. So Jesus isn't saying, I don't receive any glory from people.

What he's saying is is my ultimate source of glory does not come forth from people but from the Father In other words he not reliant upon us to be glorified To have glory it not reliant upon us And you remember we talked about that with witness Remember, whenever he was talking about witnesses to the claim that he's the son of God, he has witnesses. But you remember what he said in verse 34. Look at it in your text.

Chapter 5, verse 34. Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things to you that you may be saved. Jesus isn't saying I don't receive witness from man, from people. We are to witness to Jesus every day. But what he's saying is my witness isn't dependent essentially on man's witness. It is dependent on essentially God the Father's witness.

You get what I'm saying? So it's the same principle here. Jesus is saying I'm not reliant upon man's glory to be glorious. I have the Father's glory, and that it makes me glory, glorious. So Jesus is saying that he doesn't receive glory from man at all. He's just saying, essentially, I seek the Father's glory.

And then on the flip side of that too, we'll see the relevance of this in a moment. On the flip side of that, look again at verse 44 when he says, how can you believe when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? Jesus isn't saying the heart of unbelief is to receive any glory at all from man. That's really not what he's saying.

He's saying that your main desire should be to receive this theme, the praise from God, and not man. So if man recognizes that you've done wonderful things as you've glorified God, it is okay to receive that glory from man. You know what I'm saying? So if you're a hard worker at work and your objective to work hard is because I want to be, I want God to be pleased with me at work.

That is the, and by the way, that should be why you work hard at work is because I want God to be pleased with what I do there. And then man sees that and they say, man, you are a good worker and you receive a reward, maybe like the employee of the, year at a banquet, it's okay to receive that glory from others. But notice your number one aim there is to glorify God and others then saw that great work and they esteem that great work.

And so I think it's important for us to see what Jesus is talking about here. The heart of unbelief, the heart of why they will not believe is because they sought man's esteem and glory up and over against, despite of the Father's glory. That they cared about man's glory instead of caring about the glory that comes from God. And so that creates an environment of not believing Jesus.

So again, notice how the Pharisees would say, you have no witnesses, your witnesses are not good, how can you make such claims? And they would bring up all these things. And what Jesus establishes their unbelief on is saying, And how can you believe what I'm saying, who I am, when you seek man's glory and not God's glory? So part of what Jesus, now he's kind of turning the corner in this conversation.

And it could be easy for, you know, the way he's defending himself and everything, it can be easy for it to look like Jesus is reliant upon their opinions of him that it ultimately matters. And what Jesus is saying is, it doesn't. It doesn't. I receive, I seek God's glory and God's glory alone. But the main thing he's doing here is making a contrast between himself and those who do not believe him to show why and how they do not believe.

They desire man's honor and glory above seeking the glory that comes from the Father. Now with that established, that kind of coloring the whole rest of this text, look at the text again. It's kind of interesting how he says in verse 41, I do not receive glory from people. and you might think he's going to make the contrast immediately in 42 with, but you do, and that's why you don't believe.

Now he does that in verse 44, but notice the contrast he makes in verse 42. He says, I do not receive glory from people, but I know that you do not have the love of God within you. You might think he would say, but I know that you do receive glory from man, and that's why you don't believe. But instead he gets to the very heart of the issue when he says, you do not have the love of God within you.

Now, why does he do that? Why does he bring up the love of God in this context with receiving man's glory and not desiring God's glory? And the answer is, we will not pursue the glory of the Father above all other glory here on earth if we do not have the love of God in our souls. If we do not have the love of God resting upon our souls, it is like so natural, it will be a natural thing for us to desire the glory of man around us because we'll be filled with self-love instead.

Jesus was looking at a bunch of religious leaders that did not believe him and wanted to kill him because they were more concerned with the honor that comes from man because they did not have the love of God within them. So they were filled with self-love and thus they cared what others thought about them. This is an important, essential point to make.

We are either driven by the love for self, and thus the glory of those around us, or we are filled with the love of God, and thus the glory from the Father. Seeking man's honor is driven by self-love. It has an appearance like it's driven by love for man, but really we seek their honor we seek their esteem because we are filled with our own love in fact in a weird twisted way we will manipulate others to try to get that for the sake to feed our own self that we have for ourselves but there another side of this too so if you like okay I need to seek the glory of God essentially the first step God needs to be glorified I cannot seek the glory of man or receive the esteem from man I need to seek the esteem and God's good pleasure to me.

That's my first step I need to do in order to believe right. You might think that, okay, it's just a matter of sheer willpower to do that. Okay, I needed everything I do. See, God, I want you to be pleased with me. God, I want you to be pleased with me. God, I want you to be pleased with me.

But the fact is, if that is not driven, that engine is not driven by God's love in your soul to begin with, then it will still be filled with self-love and self-preservation instead of just earnestly desiring God because of his love for you. You get what I'm saying there? Is that he contrasts that with the love of God that needs to be put in your heart first in order to make that first proper step.

That love needs to be there. God's love for you needs to be there in order to make that proper first step. I remember I did not, in some ways, I did not, in a lot of ways, have a good time at boot camp. the biggest issue for the Navy, the biggest issue was because I was, I mentioned this before, but I was, I think a believer for only a couple years. And it was like a first major test in which am I going to seek man's glory or am I going to seek God's glory?

Because it was without a doubt, if I tried to have friendships in boot camp, it would start off well, conversations, but then all of a sudden it would get really, really perverted and really nasty pretty quick. And at that point, I have to make a decision. Am I going to stay for the sake of receiving honor for man, friendships, and all that kind of stuff, and build those relationships, and kind of just bear with the ridiculous talk, or am I going to excuse myself for the sake of pursuing God's glory, or being pleased, God being pleased with me?

And it didn't take long for the people to realize that every single time we start talking this way, BB's out, and it didn't take long, and I was also vocal about my Christianity. They connected the two, and then I became more or less a laughingstock because of my Christianity. And I'm not used to that. In high school, I didn't have that issue. And so it was a very strange time for me to then, because I had made a decision, I'm going to seek God's honor and glory.

I'm not going to seek man to be mistreated that way. And I remember, it was like three or four months later, that the main culprit, his name is Angela. I still remember his name. His name's Angelo. Just a short little guy. Just a runt.

And I remember enough was enough. And I'm not proud of this, but I remember at that point, it was three or four months later, I was in the hot sun in Texas, and I was ready to go. It's enough. And it didn't happen, thankfully. But I remember after that, it was just all he had was respect for me. It was the strangest thing.

God sometimes, I guess, will use our sin even to do kind things for us. It's insane. But I remember the reason why I make all this is that I remember one conversation whenever he decided to start respecting and just have, it was strange, a very nice conversation. I remember Angela saying, man, I wish I could do the stuff that you do with God. I wish I could be moral like that.

He had some kind of understanding that he knew he was wicked, and he knew that he went with the crowd, and he knew, I wish I could not do that. I wish I could do that. And his mindset was, it's just, I just don't have the willpower. I just don't have the strength to do it. And you do, and it's amazing. And I remember trying to express to him, and not maybe as particular as I should have been, it is only when God plants his love in you that you're then enabled to seek his glory above everything else.

Or to seek his pleasure above everything else. It is not an act of sheer power within you that's going to enable that to happen. love God's love is a very very powerful thing in fact love itself is a very powerful powerful thing it's why there's countless songs about it it's why most movies even heavy action movies will have some kind of love story in it love makes people do weird things even in old age love is a very strange and powerful thing. And I believe it's because God has created us to be motivated and to enjoy his love.

We are created to enjoy his love, to be motivated by it, for it to be the power that makes the engine go and enables us to do the most important essential task of seeking his glory. So in order to believe, you must seek God's glory above all else. In order to believe, you must seek God's glory above all else. In order to seek God's glory above all else, you must have the love of God in your soul as like the thing that makes the engine go.

And in order to have God's love in you, in your soul, you must believe that God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life so belief becomes central in the gospel and a belief that is motivated and sustained by god's love for sinners in christ so does that as we just take a moment here does that describe your system of your worldview the way that you operate in this life are you motivated above all else to seek the glory that comes forth from God, that he would be pleased with you. And does that motivation, is that the engine, is what gets the engine going, is it because God has loved sinners in Christ? And so you're motivated by the love that he has placed in your heart in Christ.

If that's not the order of events or how you function, then you will not believe. a belief will be impossible for you so then next as Jesus is explaining their unbelief a clear example of it moving forward. He gives a clear example of what he's talking about, of how they seek each other's glory and are not driven by God's love, which explains their disbelief. Look at verse 43.

He says, I have come in my father's name, but you do not receive me. You don't believe me. But if another comes in his own name, you will believe him. And so that's an example of what he's saying. You don't have proper belief. You don't have God's glory in mind.

You don't have the love of God in your heart and mind, because when someone comes in their own name, in man's name, you'll believe them readily. But if someone comes in God's name, desiring God's glory above everything else, you are offended and you do not receive that person, namely Jesus himself. You know, the Pharisees, they had a very big network of teachers, right?

The Pharisees were teachers. They had a network of them. They had many teachers that they accepted and received. But the weird glaring issue with the religious leaders of really all of Israel's age was that whenever someone came wanting to glorify God above all else, they tended to kill them. That's what they like to do. Remember what Jesus says in Matthew 23, 37, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it.

How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, yet you were not willing. So Jesus is using this as an example. You do not seek God's glory. You do not have the love of God in you because anyone who has God's glory as their aim when they teach, you reject. Namely, and it kind it culminates in Jesus himself.

That is an example of their unbelief. The proof of whether we have the love of God in our souls that drives the belief in the Son of God is if we gladly receive his teaching, or if we would rather surround ourselves with teachers that will not offend us. That is a, the proof is in the pudding there, right? What teaching do you surround yourself with? a major test for new believers someone who comes to the faith faith and they're new is what will happen when they hear a truth that offends them that is like a major first test really a test for any believer but especially a new one okay you you you say you believe in christ what happens whenever a truth that offends you jesus is truth what are you going to do with that and if you recoil at that and you respond with, let me be surrounded by false givers that won't tell me that truth, that won't offend me, well, that is a good example of a Pharisee who will not surround himself by truth, by Jesus, by true teachers that will offend him.

Driven by the love of God, do you pursue Jesus even at the expense of the teaching of Jesus that confronts your sin? Let me say that again, driven by the love of God, right? That's the only way you're going to be able to do this. Do you pursue Jesus even at the expense of when his teaching confronts your sin and it hurts? This is what it means to seek God's honor and love to him and not man's honor and love for self.

And now Jesus' final statement here, this last few, this last point that he's going to make before this conversation ends is what we see next. Look at verse 45. He says, do not think, right? Now this is the concluding remarks. Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you, Moses, on whom you have set your hope.

You have to see the mastery of Jesus here. Because I already alluded to it before, but remember, at the beginning of this conversation, Jesus was on the defense, right? Well, let me call witnesses to tell you that I am the Son of God, right? And he points out these witnesses. It's as if he's on the defense. But then in like a very slow way, all of a sudden, now, without even realizing it, the Pharisees are on the defense.

And he says, I don't even need to accuse you. There's one who accuses you, your own hope, Moses. He will accuse you on the day of judgment. And what he's referring to there, if you remember, we talked about this a couple weeks ago. I think he alluded to Moses already Whenever he challenging the Pharisees he made that turn he starts really challenging them And he says that you have never seen the form of God You have never heard the voice of God And I think what he was doing in those earlier verses is he was alluding to Moses.

And the reason why he's alluding to Moses is because these Pharisees sat on the seat of Moses and they used Moses to justify their unbelief to Jesus. and he says you're no Moses you never heard his the voice of God like Moses did and you have never seen his form like Moses saw the backside of God's glory you are not Moses and now here he says and instead of Moses defending you on the day of judgment instead of you using Moses as if you will be found fine or right on the day of judgment, Moses will accuse you on the day of judgment. And I think what's remarkable about this, go to Exodus 33. Go to Exodus 33.

I really think I could be wrong with this. And so that's why I want to say I try to, I don't mean to be vacillating between opinions, but I think Jesus is really, he has Exodus 33 in mind as he brings down the hammer upon the Pharisees. Because it's here in Exodus 33 that, again, we looked at it a couple weeks ago, that's when Israel sinned with the golden calf.

And this is where Moses, it says, spoke face to face with God, and Moses said, I want to see your glory. And this is also where I think Jesus is getting this, Moses isn't going to intercede for you, he's going to accuse you. I think we see all these three things happening in Exodus 33. Just to remind us, if you remember in Exodus 33 verse 11, thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face.

When Moses would go in the tabernacle in the wilderness, God's presence would be there and he would speak to Moses face to face. As a man speaks to his friend, when Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent. So there's Moses speaking face to face. Remember, Jesus saying, you have never heard God.

And there's also the fact that Moses saw the backside of God's glory. Look in chapter 33. Look at verse 18. Moses said, look at verse 18. Moses said, please show me your glory. And God said, I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name.

And so we see that Moses saw the backside of his glory. He saw in some way the form of God. But there's also here, the main point of 33 in this section is that Moses is, and we'll see the reason for this. Okay, keep with me. Moses is interceding for Israel. Israel has just broken covenant with the golden calf.

And that was a warrant for the whole covenant to be broken and they to be destroyed. And Moses has to intercede for the people for God not to destroy them and continue his plans of goodness for them. And we see this is marked of this paragraph. Look at verse 12. Moses said to the Lord, see, you say to me, bring up this people, but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. yet you have said, I know your name, and you have also found favor in my sight.

Now therefore, if, Moses says, I found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider, too, that this nation is your people. And he said, My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest. And Moses said to him, If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here.

For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not? And you're going with us so that we are distinct. I and your people from every other people on the face of the earth. What Moses is doing there is saying, if I found favor in your sight, let me intercede for these wicked people of yours and do not crush them to death.

And so this is Moses interceding for the people. And now the reason why I make a point of saying that going back where we at in John 5 is that there was a tradition among the religious leaders that Moses continues to intercede for the people today in heaven That as he interceded in the wilderness he continues to intercede for us the Jewish people in the time even today in heaven And what Jesus says as he crushes their hope of any kind of salvation outside of him when he says, you're not Moses, you never talked to God, you have never seen his form, and he's not interceding for you at all, in fact, in the end, he will condemn you. He will be used to condemn you.

So Jesus is getting rid of all the safeguards that they thought that they had, and he's saying that you can only expect judgment because you have not sought the glory that comes from God through the love of God, through me. Instead, you have worked or not believed me. So again, verse 45, do not think that I will accuse you. He's saying I don't need to.

There's another who will accuse you, Moses, on whom you've set your hope. Look what he says in verse 46. For, the reason why is, if you believe Moses, you would believe me. For he wrote of me. You see what he's saying there? Moses sought God's glory above everything else.

So therefore, when Moses wrote the word of God, he wrote of Christ Jesus. And he says that now here you are, not seeking God's glory like Moses did. So when you see the word that Moses wrote about right before you, you have no taste for him. Gil, John Gil, he writes about this text, about the reason why I know this is because you do not believe in me, even though Moses wrote about me.

Gil writes about this. In the books written by Moses, Christ is spoken of as the seed of the woman that should bruise the serpent's head, as the seed of Abraham, in whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed, as the Shiloh to whom the gathering of the people should be and as that prophet who would be like Moses, like himself, to whom the people of Israel should hearken. And he wrote many things typical, that is Moses, typical of Christ.

And indeed, the whole Mosaic economy was typical of Christ as the epistle to the Hebrews shows. And therefore, disbelieving Christ was disbelieving Moses who therefore would be an accuser of them and a witness against them. So a heart that is driven by God's love within and God's glory above man's would read Moses' writings and see Christ in them and then have believed in Jesus as he stood before them in the flesh.

But since they were driven by man's honor and a love for self, they could memorize Moses' writings and be a teacher of it even and confidently sit in his chair yet miss the entire point of his writings. And so Jesus concludes in verse 47, but if you do not believe in his writings, now that is total irony that you need to feel coming forth from that page. He's talking to people on Moses' chair.

And he says, you do not believe his writings. That's scathing. if you do not believe his writings, how are you going to believe in my words? Jesus makes a profound statement there. And he explains their disbelief to a T and what the issue is. They have no love of God in them, and therefore do not seek his glory, and therefore do not believe Moses, so they do not believe Jesus.

So in the way of conclusion, let me speak to the unbeliever first. as we finish out this chapter now, let me speak to the unbeliever first. The unbelievers that are in this very room, there's no excuse for your unbelief. There just isn't any excuse. Jesus does not allow for it. Jesus does not say, well, it's a lofty claim that I'm the judge and savior of all, so therefore I can understand if you don't want to believe me.

There's no excuse for unbelief. Excuses you can make come from a heart of not wanting the glory that comes forth from God, period. and it's a heart that doesn't have the love of God in it. Jesus will use the things that you put your trust in against you on the day of judgment. You understand that? The very things that I speaking to the unbelievers here that helps you go to sleep at night because you think about these things and you filled with shame and so there things that you have to think about in order to get to sleep Well I a pretty good person That the biggest one I a pretty good person I did give money to that poor person the other day I was a pretty good parent.

I'm a pretty good parent. I mean, look at Joe down the street. I'm pretty sure he beats his kid. I don't do that. The things that you tell yourself that I'm a pretty good person that helps you get to sleep at night, Jesus is going to use that to accuse you and judge you at the end. To show that even you know that you're not nearly as good as you should be.

Now to the believer. Is your belief in pursuing God's glory motivated by the love Christ has revealed at Calvary? Is your belief in pursuing God's glory above everything else as the only way you can truly be a believer is to do that. Is it motivated by the love God has shown and given at Calvary? Or is it driven by your own power and willpower to do so?

So easy for you to fall in between. We talked about this before already, I think even in this own chapter. You must be driven by the love of God that has been revealed and given on the cross and in his resurrection. That needs to fuel everything that you do as you pursue God being pleased with you. It needs to be through the love he's revealed in Christ for you.

Are you struggling with the false belief of the Pharisees where you study and know the Bible but fail to see the love of Jesus displayed in the pages? Nothing will make your reading of scripture more dull than to fail to see the love of Christ in each and every page? Do you see the love of Christ in each and every page that is going to encourage and strengthen you for that day to say, God, I seek what comes forth from you and not the glory that comes forth from man?

Unbelief and false belief is a result of not pursuing God's glory by the power of his love over all things. And so the answer is always look to Jesus. Look to Christ. he loves you he has revealed that love through his death for you and rising again from the grave for you let that overcome your soul with so much love and affection for God the idea to seek man's glory above God would be so repulsive to you not because you're powerful or good of yourself but because God has revealed his love for you in that way let us pray Oh, Father, we thank you for Jesus Christ and his teaching.

We thank you, God, that you do not allow excuses. Lord, we know that we are people prone to excuses. If you allowed it, Lord, we would have a billion reasons why we shouldn't follow Christ. We would have a billion sins that we would consider that we would rather. We would have, God, our own love of our own self on our minds and the pursuit of man's glory therein. but I'm thankful Lord that you call on us to reject those excuses to see the truth that's found in your word the witness from the father himself to Jesus and to believe that he is who he says he is the son of God who has all life in his hands but also all judgment would you help the people before me would you help my own soul to be driven by this love that he's expressed in Christ for the salvation of the world?

Would you help us to be so motivated of this expression of God's love for sinners like us that the only thing we want to do is to seek the glory that comes forth from you? And the idea that we would seek our own glory, man's glory, be self-willed, motivated by our own love for ourselves, may that be so repulsive in light of the love that you revealed in Calvary. And so, being strengthened by your forgiveness of sins found in Christ, may we proceed forward, Lord, on the first step being that we would pursue you above all else.

Thank you, God, for providing all things. You have done all things well in Christ. So let us look to him together and praise you and thank you. Thank you for Jesus Christ, our Lord. And in his name we pray. Amen.