Moses and Jesus - John 5:45-47

2:02And then, finally, in the verses we read this morning, Jesus brings forth his final witness, and that is Moses. Moses. And as with many trials where witnesses are involved, the most condemning witness is saved to the end. And that's what happens here. Now, this is not to say that Jesus sees Moses as a more important witness than the Father. Contrary. In fact, even Moses is just another way that the Father is testifying about Jesus and who he is. But what Jesus is doing here is he is bringing forth the most credible witness in the minds of his opponents. They would all champion the great Moses as their authority in everything that he spoke about. In fact, they would. Boast in their allegiance to Moses. You love Moses, I love him more. You obey Moses, I obey him even more aggressively.

3:11In fact, in chapter 9 and verse 28, they're arguing with the blind man that was healed, and they say to him, You are his disciple. But we, we are disciples of Moses. That's who we are. That's our identity. And that's how we see ourselves. And that's how we get esteem from one another as being devout followers of Moses. So they professed an allegiance to Moses, and they would even seek to outdo one another in their devotion to him. So Jesus brings Moses forward as a witness against them. Their problem, Jesus has already made clear in verse 44, and you can look back and read it. How can you believe when you receive the glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?

4:09They loved the praise of men. They loved the praise of one another. And the way to gain the admiration of one another was to be devout to their cause. And by the way, this isn't much different than the way my friends and I used to think in junior high. School. Okay. I say this to my shame. This is October 8th, is a very special day. My family, I have a brother who was born on October 8th. I have a son who was born on October 8th. But also, October 8th, 36 years ago, in junior high, I sought to outdo my fellow hoodalum friends by calling in a bomb threat to the school.

5:01We got out of school. And I say that to my shame, as a testament, as a monument in my mind. And every year this day comes around, and I am caused to remember the days when I lived for the praise of men. And what we would do, and in that environment, it was let's outdo one another. Okay, and the atmosphere just happened to be my hoodalum friends. And we would try to outdo one another in being bad, being wrong. But it was all love for the praise of men. What's interesting is at that same time, I enrolled in a home ech class. And I really wanted to take home ech. I really wanted, it was in elective, and I wanted to take home. I wanted to learn how to cook, you know? Anyone got a problem with that?

5:59And I really. Did. None of my hoodalim friends were in that class. And the teacher, I remember one time she came to me and she said, You know what? I simply do not believe the reports I hear about you. You are one of the nicest kids that I see. What is it? Why would you do some of the things I hear you doing? That's a head scratcher. I don't know. I mean, you might look back and say, okay, he had a mental condition, right?

6:34He was divided in his mind. Some days he was like this, and some days. No, I had a spiritual problem. And it makes perfect sense. I lived for the praise of people. And in an environment where it was my hoodalim friends, it was one-up one another there. But when it was when I wanted the praise of a teacher, then I would put on certain good behavior. But it was all comes from the same spiritual disorder. I loved the praise of men. And when I came to Christ, that's where the mind had to change. The Metanawu, the repentance, the change of mind. I had to have a change in allegiance. No longer was I to be able to go through life seeking the praise of men. You cannot have the praise of men and the praise of God, and that's what the problem with these Jews were.

7:30And I remember the words that somebody told me one time that just went straight to my heart. The guy said, You know what? God has put you on this world for a reason. And it's not just to go and cause trouble and wreak havoc. And somehow that message sunk deep in my heart. It's like, yeah, I do believe that God put me here for a reason. And it's not to just go live for the praise of men. And that became the changing point in my life when I had to make a shift. You know what? I'm more interested in what God thinks about me than man. And as long as you are bound to the praise of men, you cannot come to Christ. And that's exactly what the situation is with these Jews here. They simply loved the praise of men. And because of that, they feigned a love for Moses. That was how they were going to one-up one another.

8:36And Jesus had already exposed their real love. You love one another. You don't really love Moses. You love yourself. You love the praise of men because you are so much like your father, the devil, who wants the praise of men. And that's the fundamental thing that we must repent. We must turn from, or we cannot come to Christ. To be an allegiance shift, or you cannot come. At some point in your life, you're going to have to be more concerned about what God thinks about you than what others around you think. And as long as you're more concerned about those around you and what they think, you will not come. And that's what Jesus is saying. So, what Jesus does is in our passage, he exposes their inexcusable ignorance of Moses' teaching. They completely missed the message of Moses.

9:36But the reason that they missed wasn't had to do with the intellect. They didn't believe Moses. And if you don't believe Moses, you're going to miss his message. And Jesus, clearly, in this verses here this morning, these verses are very important to us because Jesus sees an indissoluble bond between himself and Moses. One bond, one purpose, one word. They are unified in judgment, they are unified in truth. So I want to spend our time this morning looking at these two unbreakable connections that Jesus makes in this passage. This bond can be thought of two unbreakable connections that Jesus has. himself makes between Moses and himself. And certainly if Jesus made such connections, we should do. In fact, I'll go on to say we cannot be a follower of Christ if we don't make the same connections that he makes. So two connections that Jesus made between himself and Moses. Two connections that Jesus made between Moses and himself. The first connection is regarding the judgment. Regarding the judgment. Look at verse 45. Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father. The one who accuses you is Moses in whom you have set your hope. So there's a connection in judgment. What is Jesus' role in the judgment? Well, he's already stated his role. He's the judge. Look back at verse 22. For not even the Father judges anyone, but he has given all judgment to the Son, so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. In fact, what you have going on in this whole discourse is Jesus Himself judging, pulling forth the witnesses and making judgments about making distinctions about the Jews who are opposing him. But he is the judge. He is not going to be the accuser. Look back, and he says emphatically, do not be thinking. Imperative. One of the few, only two imperatives in this whole, in this whole Whole discourse, Jesus is saying, Don't you for a minute be thinking that I am going to accuse you. I am not against you. Your accuser is Moses.

12:14And the whole idea is that Jesus is saying, I'm not going to be the one bringing legal charges against you. I'm not going to be reproaching you. I'm not going to be bringing any charges against you. Your problem, your adversary before the Father, is Moses, the very one in whom you have put your hope. It's like Jesus is saying, by the way, let's get the roles clear here. Let me introduce to you Moses. He is the accuser in your case. And I'm the judge presiding over your case. Nice to meet you. That's basically what's happening there. So Jesus' role in the judgment is that he is the judge. And what's Moses' role? Look back. Well, he's the accuser, right? And the verb is very interesting because it's a present verb. Moses is currently accusing you before the Father. I think what Jesus is saying here is that Moses, through his writings, are currently bearing witness against the action of the Jews. The Jews are there, you violate the Sabbath, you're a blasphemer. You need to die. And Jesus is saying, the very scriptures, the very writings of Moses himself testify on my behalf that my actions are in accord with God and yours are not. I think in that sense, he's bearing witness against.

13:48So the question is: what are some of the Moses' accusations? What are some of the accusations coming out of the writings of Moses at that present time, which we're bearing witness against the Jews who were opposing Jesus? Well, listen to, and I'll just give you a couple of them, but listen to some of the statements that Moses makes in Deuteronomy 31 and 32, just before he gives the song of Moses, just before Israel goes into the land. Listen to some of the things that Moses says to Israel. Deuteronomy 31, 19. Now, therefore, write this song for yourselves and teach it to the sons of Israel. Put it on their lips, so that this song may be a witness for me against the sons of Israel. In other words, Moses hears a song, teach this song to the children of Israel. Why? Because I want it on their lips, because it is my testimony against them.

14:57Listen to what he says a little bit later in Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 31, 26. Take this book, not just the song in the book, but take this book of the law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may remain there as a witness against you. The truths revealed in Moses are witnesses against the generation. Wow. And he goes on: verse 28: Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes and your officers, that I may speak these words in their hearing, and call the heavens and the earth to witness against them. This is illegal. Moses is saying, I am leaving writings that are going to witness against you as a people. Staggering. And then listen to the, now he's going to give a song. Moses is going to give a song to put on the lips of the people. And listen to how it starts. Give ear, O heavens, and let me speak. And let the earth hear the words of my mouth. Let my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, as the droplets on the fresh grass, and the showers on the herb. For I proclaim the name of the Lord, ascribe greatness to our God. The rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are just. A God of faithfulness and without injustice, righteous and upright is he. So here's the song of Moses. Let me tell you about God. He is upright. He is loving, kind, he is faithful. And then he shifts gears. They have acted corruptly toward him. They are not his children because of their defect, but are a perverse and crooked generation. So starts the song of Moses, and it goes on.

16:55But what a horrifying surprise. The one that they thought was their greatest advocate and even intercessor was actually testifying against them. The Moses that they routinely read in their synagogues was a constant witness of their unbelief. And even at that very moment, Moses was testifying to their crooked hearts and their unbelieving minds. Just think of the tragedy of that. Putting your hope, putting your defense in one that turns out to be your adversary. And I could draw so many illustrations of this and how we do this. I think about the whole system that regards Peter as the Pope, the first Pope, but then does not regard his words at all. And he stands as a witness against.

18:04I think of the many who pray to Mary as their intercessor, and Mary herself, the biblical Mary, the Mary of Scripture, and never asked for that. In fact, she brought the mediator into the world by God's grace so that people would go to him as the mediator. She never claimed to be the mediator and stands accusing. I think of many who put their trust in science, trust in science. I can rationalize away the things of God and the biblical testimony because it's not scientific, yet all the while they are not applying true science. That the very testimony of science, when properly understood and when all the facts are known, will testify to the truth of Scripture, the truth of God and what he did. But science becomes more of a tool of philosophy. And so even science itself is a false hope.

19:11But what is your hope? And we could go through. I mean, people see the Bible. You can put any kind of person, any kind of leader, any kind of system of theology you want. And there are, you must be careful, because the very one you look to may very well be. Your adversary, what is your hope in? What is not shifting? What is a reliable hope to be in? Well, one thing's for sure: we're all going to stand before the judgment. Moses and Jesus are a unified connection, they are connected, different roles for sure, but one purpose: declaring the truth and deciding the truth.

19:58So, second, I see it's already advanced there, right? We're all over it. Two connections Jesus made between Moses and Himself. First was regarding the judgment, second is regarding truth. Verse 46: For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words? Listen, faith in Moses leads to faith in Jesus. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me. If you are believing in Moses, if somewhere you began to believe in Moses, at that same time you will be believing in Christ. That's the way it's written.

20:49In other words, you cannot believe in one without the other. Why? Look back at verse 46. For he wrote about me. Moses wrote about me. Jesus. That's what Jesus is saying. He wrote about me. Now, a good question is: what did Moses write about Jesus? Here's Jesus saying he wrote about me. What is in his mind? Well, I just want to very quickly give you a few suggestions that the overall direction of Moses was pointing to an individual that would come. In fact, Moses speaks directly or explicitly about the coming one, coming Christ. He says in Genesis 3:14, you remember at the end of the fall, and the serpent is cursed, God says this in verse 15, I will put enmity between you, the serpent, and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel. In other words, there is one that is going to come that's going to completely crush the work of the devil in the world. Who is that? At the very beginning of Genesis, Moses is pointing forward to an individual that's coming that's going to crush the head of the devil.

22:17Who is this one? Well, Moses is very much on his mind. And in his writings, Genesis 9:24, we learn that it comes through Shem, that this individual is going to come through Shem. You remember. The story, the event of Noah, and he awakes from his wine. He gets drunk, and something bad happened to him. And this is what he says when he awakes. Verse 25. So he said, Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants he shall be to his brother. He also said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japeth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem. So both, you see how Shem is elevated there? Blessed be the God of Shem. Let Japeth dwell within his tents. So we see through Shem, Semite, right? Shem is going to come this individual. Genesis 22, 16, we learn that this individual is going to come through Abraham. I mean, these are explicit statements of an individual. Remember, right after Abraham is going to give his son to God, God stops him. And he says this, Indeed, I will greatly bless you, and I will multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sands which are on the seashore, and your seed shall possess the gates of their enemies, and in your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed. In your seed. So now we see this one in Genesis 3 is going to come through Shem. He's going to come through Abraham. And then he's going to come through Judah. Genesis 49, 10. The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. So we see this pointing forward. Moses, it's there, it's throughout explicitly. Then, you remember Numbers 24, Balaam speaks, and he says, Behold, a star is going to come forth from Jacob, and a scepter shall rise from Israel. One from Jacob shall have dominion. This is an individual coming out of Jacob that's going to rule. He's going to have dominion. And then coming into Deuteronomy, I mean, these are just a few of the places, but Deuteronomy 18, 15, Moses says this, The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you. Verse 18, God says, I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all I command him. It shall come about that whoever will not listen to my words, which he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. So here's Moses, and you're going to see one like me. Now, a prophet like Moses shouldn't be hard to miss, right?

25:27Moses wasn't some just. Little obscure figure that kind of blended into the woodwork of his society and time. He stood out. And two things specifically stood out about Moses. He was a deliverer, right? He had compassion on his people, and he went by the commission of God, and he delivered them. Same was true about Jesus. Only he delivered, he delivered his people from things far beyond political control. He brought them through diseases of mind and body and soul and spirit.

26:08He was master, right? Master deliverer. Another thing that was clear about Moses is that he was mighty in miracles. Miracles accompanied his words. His words were weighty, weighty from heaven. And boy, did Pharaoh figure that out. And all of Egypt figured that out. And same is true about Jesus. His words carried with it a gravitas, a weightiness, miracles. It could go on. I mean, Moses had compassion on his people. Jesus had compassion. Moses interceded. Jesus interceded. Moses spoke with God face to face. Jesus spoke with God face to face. Moses was the mediator of a covenant. Jesus was a mediator of covenant. Jesus was. Spared his death as a baby. Moses was too. You can go on, and all Jesus gave up a royal position. Moses gave up a royal position. The similarities are strong and tight.

27:10But the two that the leaders of the Jews could not have missed was: one, Jesus is a deliverer, Moses is a deliverer, Jesus is mighty in miracles, Moses is mighty in miracles, and there's not any other comparison. They should have got that, but they didn't. And if they don't listen to what Moses is pointing to, they're not going to see Jesus. But not only did Moses speak about Jesus from an explicit statement way, he spoke about him typologically, or that by many divine object lessons, right? God put down so many object lessons that spoke about the coming Christ. There were all the sacrifices, right? The whole garden sacrifice that covered the shame of Adam and Eve and Levitical sacrifices. Then you have all the feasts. All these spoke and pointed towards an individual. You have Aaron and his priestly ministry. You have Melchizedek, the perpetual ministry, perpetual priesthood. You have a tabernacle where there's access, place of access, the place of the presence of God, the place of fellowship with God. Jesus, he tabernacles. Among us, we have the whole Passover lamb. The very way that God delivered his people was through a lamb. The way he made a distinction between peoples, Egypt and Israel, was by the blood of a lamb. The whole blood of the lamb brought about a whole new beginning. All this stuff is speaking of an individual, and Moses is saturated with it.

28:57The serpent in the wilderness, looking to him, you are changed. Just by looking, an inner change can happen. All these are filled with object lessons about the person of Christ. So, not only do he speak about him directly, but he speaks about him typologically. He also speaks about him historically. As you look through the events of history recorded in the books of Moses, they demonstrate a complete inability on the human side or on the angelic side or any other forces to thwart God's plan to bring about his promises concerning Christ.

29:36You think about Abraham, 90 years old, right? A child? 90-year-old, I mean, 90-year-old Sarah, right? A child? Yeah, she has one. And then, still, kind of slow growing, right? And then all of a sudden, here comes Jacob. You know, he has four women, twelve sons. Okay. So now we start getting some multiplication, but boy, you talk about a dysfunctional family, right? I mean, that's a recipe for a civil ongoing war. I mean, if ever there was one, right? So what does he do? He sends them down to Egypt, right? Through Joseph. He uses Joseph. They end up down in Egypt. And then the multiplication happens. He uses that hardship and he brings forth this mighty nation. And they are welded together through the fires there in Egypt.

30:32And then Pharaoh and all the gods of Egypt were totally powerless to stop God's purposes. So historically, in the events, Moses is arranging things to point to the coming of this individual and histories and forces inability to stop it. But then there's also the testimony of just how Moses presents the human failure and human inability. One truth is brought home over and over again in Moses: that man is not master of his own destination. Listen, we don't have the ability to set up our own utopia, do we? We don't have the ability to even bring about our own happiness. We cannot affect our own salvation and one thing over and over again.

31:30Man needs a Savior. So at the same time he's presenting the Savior, he's also showing man's need. So Moses, Moses is very much clearly speaking and testifying to this individual that will come. And if the Jews had really believed Moses, they could not have helped but to believe in Jesus. Their inability to grasp Moses and get this was due to their unwillingness to believe Moses. If you don't believe Moses, you certainly aren't going to understand Moses. Likewise, today, many people don't understand Scripture. And let me tell you what one of the first problems is: you don't believe Scripture. If you keep coming to Scripture, I don't understand this. Well, let me ask you a question. Do you believe it? I remember one day where the light just went on for me with Scripture. And one day I'm wrestling through something. I said, this is difficult to say. This is difficult to understand. Then all of a sudden, it hit me. I'm going to choose to believe it. Unless there's clear, absolute reason why I shouldn't believe it, my default is I'm just going to believe it. And that opened up an understanding. I choose to believe. I will believe. Unless there's some reason why I just shouldn't, I'm going to let my default go to believing. Instead of that, oh, I'm going to doubt unless there's good reason to believe. Do you see the difference? You see the difference of the mindset? Come to Scripture saying, unless there's clear reason why I shouldn't believe, I'm going to believe. But our society today and many today, they come to Scripture saying, I'm not going to believe this unless there's clear reason why I should. And that's the difference between faith and skepticism. Just believe. Just believe. If you don't believe Scripture, you're not going to understand it.

33:32So faith in Moses leads to faith in Christ. But rejection in Moses also leads to rejection of Christ. So to reject the one is to reject the other. Look back at verse 47. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words? How will you believe my words? And it's a rhetorical, and the answer is you won't. If you don't believe Moses, you will not believe my words. That's what Christ is saying. Moses and Jesus cannot be separated. If you do separate the one, sooner or you will not believe in the other. If you do not believe in Moses, sooner or later you will not believe in Christ. If you cast off Moses, you will cast off Christ.

34:26You know, many today do not take the claims of Jesus very seriously, do they? You see that in our society? They see Jesus as little more than an influential individual in history. Some may even ascribe that he's a miracle worker of some sort, but a good teacher of some sort. But they don't have a context to understand Jesus. And this is not surprising. It shouldn't be, because many do not take the record of Moses very seriously.

34:59Let me read to you some statements from what is now the largest and most popular reference work on the internet, and that is Wikipedia. It's the fifth most visited site on the web, and we laugh about it, but you know what? It is becoming the standard where people come and get their information. We're so connected that we go to Wikipedia. What does Wikipedia say about this? It's really easy, really convenient. But listen to what it says. Listen to what this says regarding the Garden of Eden. Much like records of the Great Flood, the creation story, the account of the confusion of languages, the story of Eden echoes the Mesopotamian myth of a king.

35:51Regarding Moses, this is what Wikipedia says. You pull it up, scholarly consensus. Of course, there's no footmark on this. Demonstrate, but scholarly consensus sees Moses as a legendary figure and not a historical person. This is the main source of news or information that people are dialing into. It's interesting that no one doubts Confucius, right? We have his writings, we have his sayings, so he must have been a figure. No one would dare suggest that Mohammed wasn't a real person, right? He has many followers today, right?

36:31No one would dare say that Shakespeare didn't exist. We still have his plays, right? And yet, the consensus of scholarly opinion is that Moses is a complete myth. We have writings by Moses. We have followers of Moses and professed followers of Moses. His writings are still around. We have holidays that he instituted that have been going on for centuries. Millennium? Millennia, right? This is what it says about the Exodus. The Exodus is the founding myth of Israel.

37:18Passover did not happen the way it's recorded. No blood slaughtered, no angel of death, no destroyer, no killing of the first person. Listen to these numbers. Wikipedia comprises, is in over 299 different languages. And as a couple of years ago, it had 18 billion page views and nearly 500 million unique visitors each month. And this is the consensus, right? This is the standard. And they make a strong disconnect, right, between Moses, call into question Moses' historicity and everything else about Moses. But why is this connection important? Why do you think there's so much attention on Moses? Well, let me tell you, Moses gives us the context to understand Jesus. If Jesus had just shown up on the scene and did many miracles, we would be inclined to maybe think of him as a miracle worker. Even if we believe the record, we would say, okay, he's a miracle worker. But we have no historical context to place him in. He's not just some guy that showed up on the scene that could do great things. He's not just some teacher that just showed up and really swayed a lot of people and had a big influence on society. He's more than that. He's more than that. And the context to understand. Him is Moses.

39:03Jesus is the Lamb that makes, upon whose blood makes a distinction. His blood is the way that the destroyer is averted. His blood is the means for deliverance of his people. His blood is the very distinguishing mark, and his blood is the very power that crushes the head of the devil. Jesus is the covenant expression of God's loving kindness, the embodiment of all of that. We go back to Egypt. We go back to the Mosaic connection to understand Jesus in his ministry and how Jesus saw himself. Listen, those who reject Moses end up rejecting Christ. And those who reject Moses, and hear me on this, cannot be true followers of Christ. Let me say that again. Those who reject Moses cannot be true followers of Christ. And I'm speaking to a lot of institutions who would make a disconnect. Between Moses and Christ.

40:34I went to Baylor, sat in the religion department, and there was a disconnect between, in the religion department, Moses really didn't write this. Moses didn't, Moses was, there were other influences written a lot later. It's interesting, you cannot follow Christ and reject Moses. Jesus makes such a clear link here. If you're going to follow Christ, guess what? He believed in Moses. An historical figure. Had a time and a place. Jesus saw a whole lot of his ministry reflected in Moses. And to think that you can disconnect yourself from Moses and claim to be a follower of Christ is absolutely absurd. You do not understand Christ if you separate him from Moses. That's what's at stake.

41:35And that's why we will have another Exodus, a super one. That's why there will be a world that goes completely after an anti-Christ. Verse 47, look back. It's a solemn and mournful conclusion to this whole address. If you do not Really believe Moses. And let this sink into us. Do you really believe the words of Scripture? Do you really believe that Moses wrote? If you do not really believe Moses, the one you profess to highly revere, then you will not believe in me, whom you are despising. In other words, here's Jesus saying, Look, if you don't, you say you highly revere Moses. Many of us say we highly revere Scripture, right? And here's Jesus saying, if you really believed Moses, you would believe me.

42:42But since you don't believe him, you certainly aren't going to believe me, who you are despising. So if you're not looking for the one that Moses was looking for, Jesus is saying to these opponents, you're not going to recognize me. That's why John is telling us why the Jews didn't accept Jesus. They loved the praise of one another. They really didn't love Moses, because if they really believed Moses, they would have been looking for the one that Moses was looking for, but they weren't.

43:22So I wanted you to see two connections that Jesus made between Moses and himself. Certainly, if Jesus made such connections, we cannot truly be his followers if we deny those connections. Two connections that Jesus made, involving judgment and involving the truth. And yet the Jews had put their hope in Moses, and yet they will meet him as their adversary. So I come back to that question I asked earlier: What is your hope in? Honestly, what is your hope in? Sort through what's going on in your life.

44:09What influences are you ready to leave the influences and the praise of men and come out and come to him? Turn from any other allegiance, repent of your allegiances and come to him. Let Jesus be your supreme guide. I'm going to read to you a portion of Psalm 33 because it very vividly gives us what our hope should be in. Let me read to you, beginning in verse 13, Psalm 33. The Lord looks from heaven, he sees all the sons of men. From his dwelling place, he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth, he who fashions the hearts of them all.

45:00He who understands all of their works. The king is not saved by a mighty army. A warrior is not delivered by great strength. A horse is a false hope for victory. Nor does it deliver anyone by its great strength. Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope for his loving-kindness, to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the Lord. He is our help and our shield. For our heart rejoices in him, because we trust in his holy name. Let your loving-kindness, O Lord, be upon us, according as we have hoped in you.

45:52You know what our hope is in? You know what the church's hope is in? The loving-kindness of God. And do you know who is the very personification of this loving-kindness? It's Jesus Himself. And this is why Moses kept pointing to him. Well, what are you placing your hope in? Is it in your government? Is it in your education? Is it in science? Is it in an organization, a person, or maybe yourself? Well, let me tell you who the church's hope is. Our hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ, who sits at the right hand of God. He is the life-giver, and he is the judge of all. And this one, Moses points to, and we point to. And we invite you to come to him. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we do come before you, confessing our love too much for the praise of men. Forgive us. Forgive all of us here, Father, if I may be so bold as to pray on behalf of all of us. Father, forgive us, Father, in those areas where we have loved the praise of men, praise of one another over your praise, over the esteem and approval that comes from you. Father, help us. Help us all to more and more be driven by pleasing you than by pleasing one another. Father, we thank you for the perfect testimony given to Christ. Father, that we have his own words, we have this testimony to himself. Father, we thank you for the judge in action, seeing him in this passage. We thank you for the apostle John and these words that have come down to us. We thank you, Father, and we ask that they would have their effect, that we would understand them, Father, first by believing them, and that you would impress the truth upon our hearts. Father, may you arise mightily in our hearts. May you be greatly glorified. May you be magnified and the object of our souls' affection. Father, thank you. In Jesus' name, amen. Won't you continue to pray for just a moment?