I'd like for you to turn with
me to the book of 1 John, if you would, chapter 5. 1 John, chapter 5. Not long ago, Clayton found a
track, a religious track, from Billy Graham, which was titled,
How to Become a Christian. I want to read you a few comments
from that little brochure. Mr. Graham wrote, by Christ's
death, God offers you forgiveness for your sin. Christ died and
rose again for the whole world. But for you to become a Christian
is an individual matter. The only way to establish a personal
relationship with Jesus Christ is to accept his offer of forgiveness
and everlasting life. God loves you and God loves all
people. He wants to bless your life and
make it as full and complete as possible. He offers you not
only abundant life, but an everlasting life. And you can invite Jesus
into your life right now by praying and repeating the following prayer. Now my question is, is what Mr. Graham wrote, is that what the
Bible teaches? It's not what the Bible teaches.
I ask you this question as the first of several that I want
to ask you this morning. And that question is this, is
salvation an offer or is salvation a gift? I think verse 11 very
well answers that. First John says, and this is
the record. Now that word record there means
evidence. This is the evidence. Some of
you may have a different translation of the Bible and it very well
may say this is the evidence instead of the record. Same word.
It means report. This is the report made. This
is the witness. And this is the testimony that
Scripture gives concerning salvation and eternal life. I look at it. First, that God hath given to
us. Do you see that word given? God
hath given to us eternal life. And the second thing, and this
life is in His Son. This is the record of eternal
life. Now I want you to notice the
simplicity of this. This is what scriptures declare
concerning eternal life. First, it's God that gives eternal
life. God gives it. It's a gift of
God. God gives eternal life. Eternal life is a free gift of
God's grace. And secondly, Jesus Christ is
that gift of eternal life. This life is in Him. Isn't that
so simple? Nothing hard about that. This
is the record. This is the report. This is what
we preach. This is what we give witness
to. This is what we have evidence of. This is the believer's personal
testimony. This is the record. This is what
is recorded in the scripture. First, that God has given us
eternal life. And secondly, this eternal life
is in God's Son. Now who is this us that John
speaks of? Who did John write this letter
to? Well, in 1 John 1 verse 7, you
can turn back there if you'd like, we see that John is writing
here to those who walk in the light as Christ is in the light. He is speaking to those who have
fellowship, one with another, in Christ Jesus, whose blood
cleanses them from all their sin. This is a particular, specific
people that John is writing to. He's not writing this to the
whole world. He's writing this to a specific group of people. In 1 John chapter 2 verse 2,
He is speaking to those who are referred to as little children.
He calls them little children. Those who have been adopted into
the kingdom of God's dear Son. They're His children. Those who
are trusting in Christ alone as their only acceptance by God. That's who this letter was written
to. These are those who are trusting Christ to be the propitiation
of their sin. The us here is none other than
the elect of God. God has freely given them eternal
life. So we see that salvation is not
an offer. It's not, is it? Salvation is
a gift. Paul said, for the wages of sin
is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus
Christ our Lord. That's exactly what John said.
Paul speaking to the church at Ephesus said, but unto every
one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of
Christ. And every one of us there is
again written to those who are in Christ Jesus, those who are
trusting Him, believers, chosen of God. For by grace are you
saved and that's not of yourselves. What is it? It's the gift of
God. All through the scriptures, it's very plain and simple. Salvation
is a gift. Second question, very important. Is salvation a reformation or
is salvation an improving of character in the sinner or is
it a new creation? That's a very important matter.
Do we by faith reform our character? Do we believe God to help us
to get better? Are we trusting God to help us
improve upon our character and more efficiently exercise our
morality? Are we trusting God to make us
good enough to be accepted by a work of righteousness that
we do? Is that what's going on here? Is that why we're meeting
together today, to try to learn to live better and do better? Does God make us new creatures? New men and women who are conformed
perfectly to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ? You see, only
dead men and women can be born again. Those that are whole have
no need of a physician. Those who believe that they are
alive and that they are well by their own righteousness, well,
they have no need of eternal life. The Lord said that. Those
that be whole have no need of a physician. You know who has
need? Somebody that's sick. Sick. Bad sick. Diseased. Plagued with
sin. That's who needs help. Let me
ask this question another way. Does your new birth into eternal
life come by your faith? Or is our new life in Christ
that produces faith in us? Is a sinner born again because
they believe on Christ? Or does a sinner believe on Christ
because they're born again? It's important to get the order
straight there. Most will tell you that a man
is born again when a sinner believes, but did you know that the Bible
actually teaches that a sinner can only believe after God gives
them spiritual life? And that makes perfect sense,
doesn't it? Faith cannot be exercised by
somebody that's dead. You can go up to a dead man and
say, do you believe this? And he won't answer you. He has
no will in the matter. Someone who's dead cannot believe
in anything until life is first given. And that's just such a
simple truth. Could Lazarus have obeyed God's
command to come forth from the tomb if he had not first been
given life to come forth? He's dead. Four days dead as
we saw earlier this morning. God had to first give life in
order for him to come forth. What does verse 11 in our text
teach us again? First, eternal life is God's
free gift to us. And secondly, this gift of eternal
life is found only in Jesus Christ. Now before I go any further,
let me ask you, do you believe that? Do you believe that? It's not too hard to understand.
Yet apart from God divinely intervening, it's impossible to believe. It
just is. But the truth remains, God gives
to His elect the gift of eternal life, and that life is in Jesus
Christ, God's Son. That's the only place this life
can be found. Narrow is the way. It's narrow. And you're not going to go in
carrying your works with you. There's not room. No works can
you take with you. But that which Christ brought
for you. This is what John says in the very next verse. Verse
11. Or excuse me, verse 12. He that hath the Son hath life. Can we say it any simpler than
that? He that hath Christ, the Son of God, has life. And he
that has not the Son of God has not life. Can you explain that
to me? You don't need to explain. It's
just simple and plain. Now there seems to be no doubt
at all in the beloved John's mind that to have Christ, that
to be joined and made one with Him is all that a sinner needs
to have eternal life. Even our believing is a result
of God's love and mercy and grace to us. Because this is the record. This is the gospel message. Being
redundant on purpose. First, because God has given
us eternal life. It's a gift. And secondly, that
life is in His Son. If you leave here today agreeing
with anything, I hope that it's that. It's God that gives us
eternal life, and that life is in His Son. And that being the
case, my third question is this. Is salvation by choice, or salvation
by chance? I don't think there's anyone
here this morning that would claim that salvation is by chance. Most everyone, even those who
believe in a free will, believe that salvation is by choice.
So maybe the correct question to ask would be, by whose choice? Is it by our choice or is it
by God's choice? Well, our Lord removes all doubt
concerning this question by the statement that He made in John
chapter 15 verse 16. He said this, You have not chosen
me, but I have chosen you and ordained you. That word ordained
simply means purposed. I purposed you. What did Christ
purpose us to do? Well, He purposed us to believe.
God's purpose for us is to believe on Christ. And all God's elect
will believe. No possibility that even one
of God's elect will not believe and trust in Christ. No possibility
of the chosen being lost. Because God makes all His chosen
willing to believe in the day of His power. If you're one of
God's elect, if you're one of God's people, you're going to
believe. You're going to trust in Christ totally, completely,
fully for all that God requires of you. Every single bit. Salvation is by God's choice. How do I know? Because God hath
from the beginning chosen you unto salvation through sanctification
of what? The Spirit. Capital S. The Holy
Spirit. And belief of what? The truth!
The Word of God. When the Gentiles heard the Gospel
and believed, the Scripture says that they rejoiced and were glad. But then it says this, as many
as were ordained, purposed to eternal life, believed. Every
single one of them. Every single one. Who of these
Gentiles believed? As many as were ordained. purposed
unto eternal life, Acts 13, 48. One day God told the prophet
Ezekiel, he said to go down to a valley that was full of dry,
bleached out, parched bones. God asked the prophet this question. He said, can these bones live?
If the Lord would have asked me that, I'm just almost sure
the first thing that would blurt out of my mouth was no way. They're
dried up. They're dead. They're bleached
out. They're past being saved. Past being healed. But Ezekiel
said, Lord, Thou knowest. That's a good answer to about
everything. Lord, You know. You know. And
do you remember what the Lord told Ezekiel to do next? He said, preach to them bones. Preach to them. Preach to them
dry bones. And when Ezekiel preached, the
Lord said, behold, I will cause breath to enter into these bones
and they shall live. That is the only hope that any
of us have of believing. that God might be pleased to
breathe into us the breath of life, and that we become living
souls. Ezekiel preached, but it was
God that breathed life into the bones, these dead, dry, lifeless
bones, and the scripture says they stood up as a great army.
It's the same for us. God must send His Spirit to breathe
into us the breath of life that we may become new creatures in
Christ. James said this, of His own will,
God's own will beget, that word means transformed, generated. He beget us with the word of
truth. And it's by the foolishness of
preaching that God saves those that believe. Well, that brings
me to my fourth question. Are sinners really dead spiritually? Is the natural man and woman
really dead in trespasses and sin? If you believe in the Bible,
you have to believe it so. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1,
and you hath he quickened, you hath he made alive, who were
dead in trespasses and sin. Right there in black and white.
In verse 5 of Ephesians 2, Paul confirms that and he says, even
when we were dead in sins, he quickened us together with Christ.
And then he adds this, by grace are you saved. And again, what
are the two things that John told us? I'm going to give you
a test on this. What are the two things? God
has given unto us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
You were dead in trespasses and sin. That's what Paul said. You were dead. God's people were
dead in trespasses and sin, but not anymore. By grace are you
saved. God gave you eternal life. And
this eternal life is in His Son, for He hath quickened us together
with Christ. It all goes hand in hand, by
grace are you saved. In order for God to give me that
life that I so desperately need, Jesus Christ is going to have
to die for me, because the wages of my sin is death. And that
brings me to my fifth question. Why did Christ die on the cross?
Now that may seem an elementary question, and everybody pretty
much has an answer to it. But listen to me closely. I don't
want you to misunderstand what I'm saying. This is very, very
important. I know that Christ's death on
the cross was for God's elect. I know that. He was wounded for
our transgressions, the scriptures say. He was bruised for what? Our iniquities. The chastisement
of our peace was upon Him. But His death was not for our
sake alone. It was for God's sake. The offering
of Christ's blood was to appease the law and the judgment and
the justice of God. God had to do something for Himself
before He could ever do anything for me. That's what this book
teaches. Jesus Christ didn't die simply
to win men and women's sympathy or to make friends. Not why He
died. He died to enable a holy God
to save a sinner's soul. His death was not a pattern.
It was a payment. His death was not to revive us
or to resuscitate us. We were already dead, born dead,
bored and condemned. His death was to redeem us, to
make us live unto God. We were in bondage to the law.
The bondage of the law would not let us go until somebody
came and paid the law's wages. Holy justice would never let
us go until it was completely, totally, fully satisfied. It would cease to be God's holy
justice if it was anything less than that. That's what makes
God to be God. And that's what few understand. We're in captivity to the law
and to the justice of God and we cannot be released unless
somebody pays the bill that we owe and fool. Let me show you
that. Turn with me to Romans chapter
3. Romans chapter 3 if you would. Look at verse 24. I want you
to pay close attention to the wording here. Paul says in verse
24, being justified freely by His grace, and that grace of
God's is through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. This
redemption is where? In Christ Jesus. That's exactly
what John told us. God has given us eternal life,
and this life is in His Son. Eternal life and redemption are
in Christ Jesus. Now look at verse 25. Whom? Still talking about Jesus Christ
here. Whom? We're talking about Him. God
has sent Him, the Lord Jesus, forth to be a propitiation. And that word means an atoning
victim or a mercy seat. God has sent Him forth to be
a propitiation through faith in His blood. Now, I have to
pause there just for a second. Christ becomes our propitiation,
He becomes our covering, He becomes our righteousness, our mercy
seat. How? He tells us. Through faith
in His blood. By believing in His blood. What
does it mean to have faith in His blood? Have you ever thought
about that? It's very plain here, that's what it's talking about.
Faith in His blood. Well, it means to trust that
His blood, the very blood of God, is the only thing that can
wash away your sin and make you perfectly righteous before Him. Have faith. I have faith in His
blood. His blood, the blood of God. Christ took His people's sin
upon Himself, and with His own shed blood, He washed them all
away. My faith's not in my works. My
faith's not in any righteousness that I have. My faith is in Christ's
blood. For without the shedding of His
blood, there is no remission for sin. None! Not one sin can
be paid for apart from Christ's shed blood. And Paul goes on
to say here, we declare, we preach Christ's righteousness for what?
The remission of sins that are past. Don't you love that word? That are past. They're gone.
There's no future sin because we're dead and risen with Christ.
And it's all according to the forbearance of God. Verse 26,
to declare, I say at this time, His righteousness. What do we
preach? His righteousness. Not our own. Filthy rags. We preach His righteousness,
that He might be just and the justifier of him which believeth. And Jesus, only by God providing
the righteousness that God required, can God be both just and justifier
of those who believe in Christ. And God by the sacrifice of himself
justly, and I mean justly, put our sin away. I love the question
that Paul asked in Romans 8, verse 33. He says, who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's away? Have you ever asked
yourself that question? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect when it's God that justifies? Who can condemn
a blood-bought sinner when it's Christ that died for? You see,
it's who it is that died for us that makes all the difference. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's will? Who can condemn any sinner when
it's Christ that died for them? And not only did He die for them,
but He's risen again, and He's even at the right hand of God,
and He forever makes intercession for us. Why did Christ die on
the cross? You know the answer. To satisfy
God's holy justice. And to justify His chosen people. You see, only God forsaking God
could accomplish such a thing. Only God punishing His Son, who
is God. Only God dying as a man could
satisfy justice and justify me. Do you believe this gospel? Is
it good news to you? And that brings me to my last
question. Is the gospel an invitation or
is it a command? Are you invited to believe the
gospel or are you commanded to believe it? Does God invite people to repent
or does God command them to repent? Is bowing to the glory of God
and the preeminence of Christ an invitation? Or is it a commandment
from God? Did God invite Noah to build
an ark? Did God invite Noah to go in
that ark? Did God invite Abraham to leave the land of Ur? Or was
it a command from God? Did God politely ask Pharaoh
to let his people in Egypt go? Or was it a command? Was Moses
invited to offer a Passover lamb? Our Lord said, Matthew, follow
me. Our Lord demanded Zacchaeus to
come down. Lazarus come forth. Turn with
me to Luke chapter 14, and I'll wrap this up. I want you to see
this. Luke chapter 14, verse 16, if
you would. In verse 16, the Lord said, A
certain man made a great supper and bade many. And he sent his
servant at suppertime to say to them that were bidden, Come,
for all things are now ready. I looked in my concordance, and
you can too, but the words bade and bidden here mean simply to
invite. A particular man made a great
supper and he invited many to come. He sent his servant at
suppertime to invite them saying, come, all things are now ready,
come and eat. And here was the results of that
invitation. Verse 18, verse three words,
and they all came. All of them. All of them without
exception. All of them with one consent.
All of them in total unity began to make excuse. They were some
of the saddest and most ridiculous excuses that anybody ever heard. I still hear some pretty sad
excuses today why sinners won't come to Christ. A mere invitation
seems to have no consequence to the one invited. It's taken
as an option. It's mistaken as a choice. And the man's servant came with
all their sad excuses and verse 21 says, the master of the house
being angry said to his servant, go out quickly into the streets
and lanes of the city and bring in, bring in, hither the poor. and the maimed, and the haught,
and the blind. And the servant said, Lord, it
is done as thou hast commanded. And yet there's room. And the
Lord said unto the servant, go out into the highways and hedges
and compel, that's a strong word, constrain, command them to come
in that my house may be filled. For I say unto you that none
of those men which were bitten, none of those men which were
invited shall taste of my supper. My, what a sobering text of scripture. Did you know that the word invite
or invitation is only used three times in the whole Bible? I wrote
them down if you want them. But each time the word invitation
or invite is used in the scripture, it's used in conjunction with
inviting someone to dinner. It is never a gospel preacher
inviting people to believe God. Never. Never. Keeping with the
character of God's sovereignty, friends, the gospel is a command. A sovereign ruler doesn't bargain
with his subjects, does he? A righteous judge does not negotiate
with criminals. God has the right, according
to His own glory, to command all men and women everywhere
to repent and believe the gospel. An invitation given to one without
a will to respond will always find rejection, every time. Our
Lord said, you will not come to me. And to make things worse,
you cannot come that you might have life. Like those in the
story, many will make with one consent, begin to make excuses. And to those of you who are yet
without Christ, I ask you what the Lord asked His disciples.
Will you go away also? Will you go away also? There
is no other place to go. Will you leave also? Where else
would we go? That's the answer that the believer
gives. No other place to go. He, Christ,
Jesus has the words to eternal life. That's what I need. That's what I want. The gospel
record is this. You remember what it was? God
hath given eternal life. It can't be bought. It can't
be earned. It can't be merited. God has
to give it to us. And this life is where? It's in His Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Do you want this life? Do you
want this Savior? Do you need this substitute?
May God be pleased to reveal Him to you and to show you your
need of Him. God, make it so for Christ's
sake.