1 John 5, 10, He that believeth
on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath
made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave
of his Son. And this is the record that God
hath given unto us, eternal life. and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto
you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may
know that you have eternal life, and that you may believe on the
name of the Son of God. Thinking about the context of
this and how much John speaks of loving the brethren, I realize
that John is himself a clear example of
that here. Because if you love somebody, You're going to want them to
know that they have eternal life. You're going to want them to
believe on the name of the Son of God. And John said, that's
why I'm writing to you. That's why I'm writing to you. Life is much more complicated
when you have people that you love. I have my own set of issues and
concerns. It wouldn't be without trouble,
even if it was just about me. I deal with my own problems and
concerns on a daily basis, but when you love somebody as much
as I love my children, as much as I love my wife, As much as I love you, the people
of God, then all of your issues now are also my issues. Your pain is my pain. And your joy is my joy. Your loss, I also feel. And it's never simple. We never are able, never are
able to just completely rest, are we? Everything is fine. But let me say this about it,
too. I wouldn't change anything, would you? Life might be a lot more simple
if it was just all about me. But it wouldn't really be living,
would it? I want your trouble. Along with your joys. Because without it, I can't have
you. If you're going to be my friends
and my family, then my life is going to be affected, for better
or for worse. You have to take the good with
the bad, don't you? And I do that gladly, and I know
you do too. But all of this is just what
we call life. Real life. Real life is very
simple. And there's no doubt in my mind
at all that the reason that all of us, the reason that our lives
are what they are, the reason all of us are friends and all
of us are family, is so that we would see what I pray this
morning we're about to see. There's no doubt in my mind about
that. The reason that we even know each other. No doubt in
my mind that God has arranged our lives in such a way that
you and I would have the relationships that we have so that we would
share all of our joys, all of our pains, all of our sorrows,
and by the providence of God and the preaching of the gospel,
know that in all of it, Christ is all. Christ is life. I thought about this. I met many
of you for the first time. at a Bible conference in Franklin,
Tennessee, where my pastor Jack Shanks came and preached the
gospel at that conference, and I traveled with him. And it was
a place and time where the gospel was in some contention, where
the truth of God's grace in Christ alone was challenged and defended. I was recently reminded of this
by a message that I listened to. The message of the gospel
had to be tenaciously stood for and boldly proclaimed in a place
where in subsequent days choices were made pertaining to the gospel
that had to be made that resulted in some lives being separated
from one another. But it was also the beginning
of others being joined together. Though we didn't know it yet.
I met my wife there at that conference. You think about that. And now
we have three children together. I met Bob and Jeanette Morrell
there for the first time. And their children. I met Jim
and Virginia Reed there for the first time. that place in that
hour. I borrowed a pair of boots from
Brother Jim because I'd forgotten my dress shoes. I was wearing
a suit with white tennis shoes to the conference. And I think
Jack started asking around. Brother Jim had a pair of boots.
They liked to kill me. They were too small. It just
about killed me, but I wore them because it looked a lot better.
Looking good is hard, isn't it? I met Charlie Jackson. Pretty
sure, Vince, were you there at that conference? So I don't remember
seeing you there, but I bet you I did. First time. I'd never
been to Tennessee before in my life. Marvin Stoniker. I reckon you
girls were there too, weren't you? At that conference. I met
you there. For the first time. I think John Kendall might have
been there. You think John was there? Al and Rebecca, probably
there? Quite a few of us, wasn't it? And then when that conference
was over, I went back to Texas to get on with my life. For a
little while. And now here we are, this morning,
five or six miles away from that spot. And look at us now. And now our hearts are knit together
in a way that we never would have dreamed. Now together we're
learning this morning amid all of life's troubles and sorrows
and joys and whatever. Amidst all of it we're learning
that true life is a person. We're learning what Paul said
when he said, to live is Christ and to die is even more Christ. Let me quote it to you, Philippians
121, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. This is the record that God has
given unto us eternal life. And this life, not what this
world calls life, this life is in His Son. To live is Christ, and Christ is life. This is the
difference between men. You can say, and I've heard this
said a bunch of times in my life, there are two kinds of people.
And you can finish that in a lot of different ways, couldn't you?
You can say there are two kinds of people, believers and unbelievers. Well, that's true, isn't it?
You could say there are two kinds of people, sheep and goats. God said, I'm gonna put my sheep
on my right hand and the goats on the left, they're gonna be
divided. Two kinds of people. That's true. But what all of
that boils down to and traces back to is this. What is a sheep? What is a believer? What it boils
down to and traces back to is this. There are two kinds of
people. Those who have Christ and those
who don't. Those who know Christ and those
who don't. Those who are in Christ and those who are not. Those who have life and those
who don't. And this is the record. This is the record. Now when
he's talking about the record, he's talking about God's book.
He is summing up the word of God in this one statement. This is the record. This is God's
record. What is it that God has given? We've got to stop right there
for a second. That God has given. The record is not
that some come to Christ and some don't. That's not the record.
The record is that God has given to some and some he hasn't. No man can come except the father
which hath sent me draw him the Lord said he said it is given
to you it is given to you it is given to you and to them it
is not given that's the record the record is that God gives
eternal life to some and not to others that's what John says
here that God hath given to us Eternal life. God is sovereign
in the dispensing of His grace. Sovereign. Listen to Daniel 4.32. This is Nebuchadnezzar talking about
God's prerogative in providence. In Daniel 4.32, he said, They
shall drive thee from men. This is concerning Nebuchadnezzar.
This is the prophet speaking. They shall drive thee from men,
and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. And
they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen. This is Nebuchadnezzar
who had boasted of his great kingdom. Look what I've built.
Look how great a king I am. God's prophet said you're going
to be seen to be what you are, an animal. A beast to eat grass
as oxen and seven times shall pass over thee. And you're gonna
be out there in the field walking around, your fingernails are
gonna grow out like animal claws, and you're gonna eat grass and
sleep in the field until you know that the Most High ruleth
in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will. What will God have to do to us
until we know that? And we know also from the word
of God that the Most High ruleth not only in the kingdom of men,
but he ruleth in the kingdom of God, of course. And he also
giveth it to whomsoever he will. In Luke 12, 32, he said, fear
not, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to
give you the kingdom. That's how you have life. Because
God was pleased to give it to you. This is the record that
God has given unto us eternal life. Now, knowing you like I
do, and loving you like I do, and
I don't say that much, but I love you. And I'll tell you this,
if we don't love each other, we ought to quit. This ain't
just a class that we learn some things. If we're not the family
of God, we ought to quit. God gives his pastors a heart
for his sheep. He said, I'll give you pastors
after my heart. And I guarantee you, that means
a lot of things. One of them is, I'm gonna send
you somebody that loves you. I'm not going to be a pastor
after God's heart towards you unless I love you. And I do love
you and I want you, I want you, I want you to have eternal life. And knowing how that happens,
knowing how that happens now, I pray for you. I plead with
you. We beseech you. Be ye reconciled
to God. But I pray for you too because
I know how that happens. I know you're not just gonna
wake up one day and decide to be reconciled to God. God's gonna
have to give you eternal life. So I pray for you. I pray that
he would give it to you. I aspire to what Paul said in
Galatians 4, 19. This is how I want to be. Paul
said, little children, Of whom I travail in birth again until
Christ be formed in you. I travail as though given birth. You know, in the scriptures quite
a bit, giving birth to a child is used as an example of great
pain and trouble. I think it's a pretty good example
from what I've seen. I can't testify particularly
to that. Amy's saying quit talking about
that. I don't want to talk about that. If Mary was here she'd be saying
amen. But he said little children I
travail as Of whom I travail in birth
until Christ be formed in you. There's nothing that we want
more than that for those that we love. And that's where John
is coming from here. And knowing this passage of scripture
that's before us this morning can't make you have eternal life. You can know it, you can study
it, you can look at every word in the original and know what
it means. If you're going to have eternal
life, God's got to give it to you. And the way He does that,
the life is in His Son. So the way He gives you eternal
life is He puts you in His Son. Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who is made unto us, everything that's worth being. He must put
you in His Son if you're going to be in His Son. And life is
in His Son. It's not complicated. It's not
hard to know. John wrote this that you might
know. Do you have life? Do you have eternal life? This
is written that you might know. It's not hard to know. He wrote this that you might
know that you have it and that you might believe on Christ,
which is how you have it. You see, settling that issue,
determining determining that perhaps you
don't know Christ. Determining this morning from
what John wrote, that maybe you don't know Him.
That may be the means whereby God gives you faith. That may
be part of the process. First, He has to reveal to you
your error. He's got to strip you before
He can clothe you with the best robe. And part of that sometimes
is realizing I've been deceived. I've been trusting myself. I've
been trusting my idea of Christ. But now I see He's the Sovereign.
He gives life to whomsoever He will. And I'm going to come to
Him and ask Him for life. And if you find that you do know
Him, if this gives you some confidence, if you can look out of self and
look to Christ and have some assurance, Then rest. Rest fully in Him. God said to
all of His preachers, comfort my people. Comfort you, my people. And that comfort is in Christ
also. He said, comfort them and let them know that their warfare
is accomplished. The war, the enmity between you
and God is over. How'd that happen? At the cross.
Let them know that the Lord hath received double At their hand
for their sins. How does that happen? Christ
paid it. And the word double there is used to show the sufficiency
of his redemption. How much his precious blood is
worth. And I want that rest for you. That's what John is saying.
I want you to know. I'm writing this to you that
you might know you have eternal life. I want that rest for you. And if you have a false refuge,
then I want to destroy it. I want Christ to destroy it. I want Him to pull it out from
under your feet. And I want by His grace to point
you to Him. That's what John is doing here
too. He's showing what He wants to happen. His desire is that
you might know Him. And He's pointing you to Him
who is life. He wants you to have eternal
life, so what's He going to do about it? He's going to say,
Christ is that life. That life is in God's Son. And God does give eternal life.
And it is in His Son in more than one sense. It is in His
Son in the sense that it's the Son's to give. The Father gave
the Son authority to give life. John 17 2 as thou this is the
son praying to the father in his great happily priestly prayer
that whole chapter of John 17 is his prayer to his father before
he goes and gives himself a ransom for many and he said father you've
given me power authority over all flesh that I should give
eternal life to as many as thou has given this life is in his
son and that's in If you're gonna have it, you're gonna have it
from Him. God has given eternal life, and it's by the Son that
He gives it, the one that you crucified. And it's important
to see it this way now, because you don't deserve life from Him,
and I don't either. He gives it to whomsoever He
will, not to who deserves it. And aren't you glad? If He gives
it to who deserves it, who's gonna have it? If he gives it
to who earns it, who's gonna have it? If he gives it to who
takes the first step, who's gonna have it? In a cemetery, if you
give something to the one that takes the first step, who's gonna
have what you have to give? God has eternal life and he giveth
it to whomsoever he will. Thank God. Because he's rich
in mercy. He gives it to the ones who deserve
it the least. And that's me. But think of it this way now,
the one that you crucified, the one that you nailed to the cross
and mocked him, you spit on him, nailed him to a cross and mocked
him while he hung there and his precious blood fell to the ground.
He's the one who has life in his hand to give. And so salvation,
It involves bowing to Him. It involves submission to Him.
It involves repentance. My estimation of Him was made
manifest at Calvary. That's what all men think of
him. They got together and had a council and said, what are
we going to do with him? I'll tell you what we'll do. Let's go spit on him.
Let's go beat him with our fists. Let's go put a crown of thorns
on his head and mock him and ridicule him and then nail him
to a cross naked and humiliate him as much as we can and laugh
at him while he bleeds to death. Let's do that. That's our estimation
of Christ. That's got to change. If you're
going to have life He's going to have to give you repentance.
That's his gift. Paul said to young Timothy, oh,
teach them, Timothy. Teach them. Those who are their
own worst enemy, those who have forsaken their own mercy, teach
them the gospel. If God, peradventure, might just
give them repentance to life. What are we talking about? Life.
And he said in that very verse, repentance unto life. That's
how God gives you life. He gives you repentance. The
Apostle Peter told that crowd in Acts chapter 3, you murdered
the Prince of Life. Now think about what he just
said. He's the Prince of Life. So if we're going to have life,
we're going to have it from Him. And what did we do to Him? We
killed Him. We killed Rejected, despised, and murdered the only
one that could give us life. We have no idea how stupid we
are. No idea. I'm learning a little
bit of what an absolute idiot I am. And just wretched, vile
idiot. After accusing them of killing
God's Son in chapter 3 of Acts in chapter 4 of Acts He said
neither is there salvation in any other If you're going to
be saved you're gonna have to come to the feet of the one that
you spit on and beat and murdered and laughed at For there is none
other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be
saved the only one who can save you is The one who decides who
is saved and who is damned is the one that you damned. That's a problem. Of course, you and I don't have
the power to damn like he does, but it wasn't for lack of wanting
to. If we could have put him in hell,
that's what we would have done. And he bore our hell as a result
of what we did. We cursed and killed God's son. And now we have to come to him
for life. And when your eyes are open and you're able to see
what you are and who he is, you're gonna come gladly. And when you
seek life from somebody that, when you seek mercy from somebody
that you had no mercy for, how are you gonna come to him? I'll tell you how, in the dust. We deserve from Him the treatment
we gave Him. But what we want, what we want
by grace if we do, is we want mercy. We want mercy. You see what mercy is? To the
most undeserving. We must have his mercy life is
in God's son and it comes to faith and repentance which are
really the same thing. Faith and repentance you know
we talk about that sometime. You know in the in the book of
Acts the message was repent for the kingdom of heaven John preached.
John the Baptist preach repent for the kingdom of heaven is
in hand. And in the book of Acts they said they said what shall
we do and he said repent and be baptized. But the Lord went
around saying, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt
be saved. Are they preaching two different messages? No, same
thing. Faith and repentance is really
the same thing. It's two sides of the same coin. How are you gonna embrace Christ
without renouncing yourself? And that's what repentance is.
It's renouncing yourself. Right now, if you don't know
the Lord, you love yourself and you hate him. Right now, if you do know the
Lord, you hate yourself and love Him. That's repentance and faith. You believe on Him and hate yourself. Reject yourself. That's what
Paul's doing in Philippians chapter 2 when he says, I won't have
my righteous. I don't want my righteous. I
put it behind me. I cast off my dirty rags like
old Barnabas did. My righteousness and all of my
heritage and religious credentials, I throw that all behind me like
gum and run to Christ. That's repentance and faith. The only one who can save you is the one that we cursed and
killed. And we need Him to bless us and
give us life. It's in His Son that comes through
repentance and faith. We embrace Him, we renounce ourselves,
and it's by His grace God hath given. This is the record that
God hath given. It's by grace God has given,
through faith, whosoever believeth hath life. And it's in Christ. We need to understand also now
that eternal life is not just you living forever. And this
is important to understand because that's what people want. They
want to live forever, don't they? They're looking for the fountain
of youth. So they can live forever. This is not what eternal life
is. Eternal life is a completely different kind of life. altogether
from what we normally think of as life. There's the life of
man and there's the life of God. Eternal life is the life of God
in a man. It's promised to and possessed
by men, but it's the life of God. It's Christ in you, the
hope of glory. Eternal life is a different quality
of life than what we have. He's not going to extend what
we call life. He's going to end what we call
life and give us what we can only imagine is life. What he calls life, we can only,
we don't even know, we know from his words and things about it.
We know it's his life. And it's called eternal life
because it is forever. And this is only something that
can happen in and by Christ. We can't have the life of God
in us without Christ. For a man to have the life of
God, I think about for a man to have the life of God, he must
have the God man. Christ in you and you in Christ. is eternal life. Look at John
17. We talked about John 17 while
ago, according to the very beginning of it, but look at verse 20. John 17, 20, and again, this
is our Lord's prayer to His Father, as our High Priest, Neither pray I for these alone."
Talking about his disciples at the time, he prayed for them,
but not just for them, but for them also, which shall believe
on me through their words. Every generation after. They
preached, and when they died, there were others who began to
preach, and so on and so forth until this very day. God hadn't
left us without a witness in this day. Some will believe through
their words, but the people may see their words. Verse 21, that
they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee,
that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe
that thou hast sent me, and the glory which thou gavest me I
have given thee. that they may be one even as
we are one. Glory is a big word. There's
a lot included in that. You know what one of the things
included in that is? Life. That's what we're talking
about all morning. Life. This life is in the sun.
How did we get it? This is the record. He gave it
to you. Isn't that it? That's what he said. The glory
which God gave us. I gave it to them. I've given
it to them. And look at the next verse. I
in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one,
and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast
loved me. Father, I will that they also
whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may
behold my glory, which thou hast given me, for thou lovest me
before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the
world hath not known thee, but I have known thee, and these
have known that thou hast sent me, and I have declared unto
them thy name. We don't know him like the sun
knows him, But he's declared his character, his attributes,
his person to us. And as much as a sinner can know
him, we know him. And he said, I'm going to continue
to declare it. That the love wherewith thou hast loved me
may be in them and I in them. And notice particularly remembering
in our text where it says, God hath given unto us God hath given
unto us eternal life. And in those two verses where
we just read, the glory which thou gavest me, I've given it
to them. And here's how that happens. I in them, Christ in
me. That's how I have life. That's
how I have glory. Christ in me is the hope of glory,
but it's pretty glorious right now too, isn't it? That's what it is. It's in his
son. If I have life, and life is in His Son, then I must have
the Son. That's why He said, He that hath
the Son hath life. That's the difference between
men right there. Everything else is a result of that. Well, there's
the saved and the lost, but why? Because some have Christ and
some don't. Christ is not in you because
you're a sheep. You're a sheep because Christ
is in you. Eternal life to be one with Christ. To be one with God and that's
what glory is and that's what life is. Now, how that's true Well, how exactly that's true,
how God accomplishes that, that's mysterious, isn't it? That's
mysterious. But what we need to understand
right now, this morning, is not mysterious at all. It's very
simple. Here's what we need to understand
now, this morning, two things. This is necessary. You got to
have life. You got to have life. The alternative
is unthinkable. To be outside of Christ, to not
have Christ, is unthinkable. This is a necessity. And the other thing you need
to know, you don't need to know how. If we need to know that, then
God hasn't been very nice to us because I don't know much
about that. But what I need to know is this.
Where? It's in Christ. It's in God's
Son. And so we preach Christ. You
think about when Paul said Christ is all. We preach Him. We believe
on Him. We bow to Him. And understand
what that is. Bowing to Him is not just something
that happened when I was 10 years old, I got on my knees at an
altar or something. Bowing to Him is acknowledging every day
that Christ is on the throne and I'm not and I'm glad about
it. I like it that way. We bow to Him, we come to Him. Well, yeah, I came to Christ.
No, Paul said, to whom coming? To whom coming? Every day, every
hour. He's our way, He's our door,
He's our life, He's our truth. He's our shepherd, He's our savior.
He's our Lord and our God. Paul summed it up in Colossians
3.11 when he simply said, Christ is all and in all. Have you ever
heard anything more simple language? All of the book of 1 John. Isn't
the language simple? Hereby we know. Here's why I wrote what I wrote.
Here's what I want for you that I love. And here's where you're
gonna get it from. Christ is all. John's reasons
for writing the letter that he wrote are my reasons for preaching
to you what he wrote. By God's grace. You need to know
You need to know. I hope you realize that you need
to know. I hope you have a hunger to know.
A deep desire to know that you have eternal life. You need to know one way or the
other. If you have a false refuge this morning, you need to know.
You see what John said there? I wrote this that you might know.
Oh, that God would make us to know. If our hope is in a false
system of religion or in some kind of religious program, if
our faith is in our own works, in something that we did, some
decision that we made, and that's what all a man's religion is.
It's just trusting yourself instead of him. You need to know that. And if you do, if you do by God's
grace, and remember why you do, don't ever forget it. Don't ever
glory. The Apostle Paul said, God forbid
that I should glory, save in Christ and what he did on the
cross. And when you're thinking about,
if you do come to the conclusion this morning, I believe I have
eternal life. Don't forget how. The record is this, God gave
it to you. He just gave it to you. Thanks
be unto God for his unspeakable gift. And when He gave it to
you is when He gave you His Son, because that life is in His Son.
And he that hath his Son hath life. Do you believe on God's
Son? You need to know. If you don't,
you need to know and you need to believe. If you do, you need
to know and you need to rest. You need to rest. You need to quit looking at yourself
for any assurance. You need to quit trusting in
anything you've ever done or ever could do. You need to quit taking your
eyes off of Christ. You need to rest in Him. Take
my yoke upon you and follow me. He said, you'll find rest to
your souls now. Learn of Him. That's what we're
trying to do. Who is He, Lord, that we might
believe? You need to be reminded. This
morning, you need to be reminded. If you know Him, you need to
be reminded that He's all you need. He's all you need. You see, He's all you need because
He's all. You need to be assured. You need
to be assured this morning if you know Him. You need to be
assured that if He is yours, if you have God's Son, then you
are safe and you are blessed no matter what. We tend to overreact
to things that happen, situations, circumstances. Christ is our anchor. You need to remember Him when
trouble comes. You need to remember His love
for you and that He wouldn't have brought the trouble if it
wasn't going to be good for you. You need to be reminded that
if his precious blood was shed for your sins, then your sins
are gone. They're gone. No guilt, no shame,
because no sin. Because Christ. You need to be reminded that
in Christ, you are holy and without blame. before the throne of God. And I'll tell you what else John
said, one final thought. He said, if you believe, then
you need to believe. You need to rest, and you need
to believe so that you might rest even more. You need to believe
so that you might honor Him even better, much better. He said, I write to you that
believe so that you might believe. My faith is weak. My faith is
weak. And I want to believe him more.
I pray to him as the disciples did, and I pray it for you. Lord,
increase our faith. Increase our faith. I need for
Christ to help my unbelief. May God give us assurance this
morning, and He is that assurance. If we look anywhere else, we'll
have none. If we look to Him, then we can say with Paul, I
know whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded. I'm persuaded
that He is able. I'm not much persuaded about
my ability. I know He's able to keep me.