Pray with me, please. Gracious and merciful Father, Lord, as we look to Christ today,
I pray that Your Holy Spirit would teach us of Christ, especially,
Lord, teach us the glory of Christ in the salvation of souls. Open
our hearts and open our minds to the understanding of Your
Word and our eyes to see Christ. And as You have taken from the
form of a man, except without sin, O dear Lord, give us the
faith of Christ to believe and to know that Christ died that
we might have life in Him, in whose name we have come to You
in prayer this morning. Amen. Open your Bibles, please,
to John 17. John 17, verse 5. The prominent features which
separate the life of Jesus Christ when he was on earth from all
of the other characters who, from time to time, have appeared
on the stage of this world, I believe will be seen more clearly if
we will examine the evidences that we have of Christ's preexistent
state and dignity. It seems to me, to understand
the important events of Christ's life, to understand why He came
to die, we first need to understand His eternal glory. And for that,
we need the teaching of the Holy Spirit. And if the Spirit is
our teacher, there are many verses of Scripture which will reveal
the eternal glory of Christ to us. My prayer is that God might
enlighten us by showing us Christ today. I hope that's why you're
here. Because for those who are taught
by the Spirit, taught to believe and to trust Christ, learning
about Christ isn't a matter of intelligence. It's the work of
God. And God makes this work self-evident. And so His Word doesn't require
much explanation if God is your teacher. And although Scripture
has all of the marks of the most high and perfect wisdom, still
God's living Word is able to be wonderfully understood by
those of us who have the humblest capacities if the Holy Spirit
is our Teacher. Divine goodness in this, as well
as in many other instances, plainly shows us that however these things
may be hidden from the wise and the prudent, yet, God has revealed them unto babies. In 1 Corinthians 1, verse 27,
we read that God has chosen the foolish things of the world to
confound the wise. And God has chosen the weak things
of the world to confound the things which are mighty. Nothing can more strikingly prove
this, I think, than the several passages of Scripture which have
reference to the eternal glory of Christ. For example, we see
the most positive and expressed declaration of Christ's preexistence
of Christ's dignity in the words of Christ's prayer in John 17. John 17 is one of my favorite
chapters. I hope you enjoy it, but we're
just going to look at verse 5 today. There we see our Savior praying
to His Father, praying on the night that He was about to be
arrested, shortly before He's about to go to the cross to die
for the sins of His people. and Christ then is going to be
buried, and the third day He will rise again. But now, in
prayer, He says in John 17, verse 5, And now, O Father, glorify
Thou me with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with
Thee before the world was. When our blessed Lord says that
He had glory with the Father before the world was, What possible
conclusion can you make except to say that Christ had an eternal
existence in glory with the Father before the world was? Seems obvious,
doesn't it? No matter how you read it, I
don't see how you can come to any other conclusion except that
Christ had an existence in glory with the Father before the world
began. That has an important consequence.
It's an important consequence because it means that Jesus Christ
was more than just a man. Many people have very different
opinions in their own minds about the nature and the degree of
the glory that Christ had. And the men who like to argue
about those things can spend a lot of time arguing, conjecturing
about the words of Christ himself. Those words should be listened
to. because they're the best evidence, because Christ is the
Word of God. We'll look at that in just a
few minutes. If you listen to what Christ says rather than
the thought and reasoning of your own mind, then you have
to conclude that Jesus Christ had glory with the Father before
the world was. But for anyone who chooses to
pass by what seems to be obvious and allows himself to be led
by their own sinful minds, looking for something more mysterious
than what the plain verse of the text naturally suggests,
we have a whole lot of other scripture to confirm this one
scripture that I've just read. Turn to John 6 and verse 38.
We'll start in John 6, 38, but our blessed Lord on several occasions
expressed Himself on this subject of His pre-existence in glory
with the Father. He does it in words just like
we look at here in John 6, verse 38, when He said plainly, For
I came down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will
of Him who sent Me. And in John 8, verse 42, He's
discussing with some Jews who aren't accepting His teaching.
And Jesus says unto them, If God were your Father, you would
love Me. For I proceeded forth and came from God. Neither came
I of myself, but He sent me." But God sent me. And in John
8, verse 58, Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto
you, Before Abraham was, I am. Then going back to John 3, verse
13, Jesus said about Himself, And no man hath ascended up to
heaven, But he that came down from heaven, even the Son of
Man which is in heaven." Little doubt that Jesus is talking about
Himself. And in John 8, verse 23, in another
conference with the Jews, our Lord contrasted His nature and
His character with theirs. And in language that honest listening
couldn't misunderstand, I think, He said unto them, Ye are from
beneath, and I am from above. Ye are of this world, and I am
not of this world." And in John 6, verse 62, Jesus asked these
Jews, what and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where
He was before? So let me ask you, after I've
read these verses, let me ask you, what conclusion Can you honestly
make except that Jesus Christ was sent down from heaven, that
He came down from heaven sent by His Father? He came forth
from God. Turn please to John 16 and verse
28. I suppose that somebody really
wanted to make an argument. They could argue about most anything,
someone might argue that Christ was speaking in a metaphor. They'd
only argue that way if they didn't believe and if they really wanted
to twist the Word of God around to match their own reasoning.
But it's evident that the apostles of Christ accepted these statements
that I've just read of Jesus, accepted them in their literal
sense. Because on a similar occasion when our Lord when our blessed
Lord was talking to them about His coming death and His resurrection,
in John 16, verse 28, He said to them, I came forth from the
Father and am coming to the world. Again, I leave the world and
I go to the Father. Then it was after that statement,
in John 16, 28, that Christ's disciples acknowledged in verse
29, verse 29 of John 16, that Christ spoke plainly and
spoke not to them in Proverbs, and they expressed their faith
in this doctrine of Christ's eternal glory and in their trust
in Christ in terms which you would think would be copied by
every sincere believer, except they're not always. Jesus Christ
is the Son of God who came as a man, and He came for the purpose
of saving His people from their sin. That's what the disciples
believed. And I pray that's what you believe.
It is evident that the disciples believed and trusted Christ because
in verse 30 of John 16, the disciples said, Now are we sure that Thou
knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask Thee?
By this we believe that Thou camest from God. This idea that
Christ came from God is an extremely important thing to understand.
Once more, in 1 John 5, verse 20, the Apostle John says, And
we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding,
that we may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that
is true, even in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the one true
God and He is eternal life. So in one of his epistles, or
his letters, John says, we know the Son of God has come. And
again in his Gospel, John says, the Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us and we believe His glory. The glory is the only begotten
of the Father. In both of these passages of
God's Word, the meaning can't be misunderstood unless you just
don't want to understand it. To see the eternal glory of Christ
is to see Christ as your Savior. Now turn please to Philippians
2 and verses 5 to 11 where we see Paul's reaction to Christ's
glory. The eternal glory of Jesus Christ
is that He is Almighty God. He is Almighty God who came as
a man and He came to die for the sins of His people, saving
them for the glory of God. And so as Paul says in Philippians
2 beginning in verse 5, he says, let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation,
and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the
likeness of men. And being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. Wherefore God has highly exalted
him and given him a name which is above every name, that at
the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven
and things on earth and things under the earth, and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
God the Father." I know that you'll not believe
or even see the eternal glory of Christ until God opens your
eyes to see and gives you faith to believe it. Faith is a gift
of God, lest any man should boast. But I ask you to think how ridiculous
and how absurd it would be to say that the Son of God has come
if Christ was not really and truly the Son of God. and if
he didn't possess an exclusive privilege to this title of being
the Son of God? And why would the Apostle give
such a plain and obvious proposition as that the Word was made flesh
and dwelt among us if our Lord was simply another human being
and He had never existed before His virgin birth as a man? How
would God make Himself into the likeness of a man except that
He came in the flesh? And as a man, who should Christ
dwell with but with men? And above all, what possible
claim could this man of flesh have to the dignity of the glory
of God which was beheld in him as of the only begotten of the
Father, full of grace and truth, as it says in John 1 verse 14? Either I'm greatly deceived,
or there is a great and a marvelous glory that is to be seen and
believed in the truth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He
is God. He is God who became a man. And
I believe, as Luke 19, verse 10 says, that the Son of Man
has come to seek and to save that which was lost. Can anything
that's so clear to me and so clear to all of you so clear
to all who receive it by faith? Could it be a deception when
it seems that nothing could be plainer or more evident than
those passages of Scripture are when we read them without prejudice
and we accept them in the first and the most obvious meaning
as God gives them to us? The eternal glory of God is that
we came to save His people. He came to save His people from
their sin. The only way that I can see that
anyone couldn't or wouldn't believe these truths of God, and so they
disregard the eternal glory of God, would be to reject the Word
of God in favor of the thoughts and reasoning of men. So what
if some don't believe? Shall their unbelief make the
faith of God without effect? God forbid. Yea, let God be true,
but every man a liar, as it is written, that thou might be justified
in thy sayings and might overcome when thou art judged, as Paul
says in Romans 3, verses 3 and 4. And here I can't help but digress
for a moment just to observe how necessary it is for all of
those who sincerely want to come to the knowledge of truth to
carefully consult your Bibles to see if these things are so.
That's why I make such an effort to give you the verses that I'm
quoting from so that you can go back and you can read them
in their context. Or in some cases, when I don't
quote the entire verse, you can go back and read the entire verse
in its context. We know that by nature, all men
are liars. Sometimes the lies are not said
intentionally, but sometimes they are said intentionally.
And they're said for a sinful purpose. A preacher right here
in Acomba, once told me, Bob, if I preach what you preach,
I wouldn't have anyone left in my church at all. That was in
a time when I thought maybe I wasn't going to either. But is that a justification for
preaching a lie? Preaching a lie so that you can
build a larger church? God's Word is truth. In John
14, verse 6, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by Me. God's preachers are called by
God to preach the truth of Christ. They are called to preach the
truth of Christ for the salvation and comfort of the souls of God's
people. But those preachers who are not
called by God often preach lies. They preach lies for their own
motives. Books are written by men about the Bible, but books
are only commentaries. They're not the Word of God,
and they should never be taken as anything but commentaries
by men on the Word of God. The best source of truth, and
really the only source of truth, is God's Word. And everything
that men write or say should be compared to Scripture to see
if what they say is true. There's something else as long
as I've gotten off my subject. Many Bible translations are made
and published for the sole purpose of making money. Those that paid
for the translations, they own the copyrights. So they make
money every time a new Bible is sold. Maybe a hundred different
translations. I don't know the number, but
many, many translations have been made, and those are not
all translations. Some of those are rewording of
translations, trying to make it easier for us to understand. They rewrite the translations
because it's cheaper to do that than to pay all the big money
that it takes years and years to do an actual translation.
I wouldn't say that the King James Version of the Bible is
the only Bible to read, but I use it and we use it here at Acumba
because I think it's the best English translation that we have.
If I was doing it in Spanish, I'd read the... how do I say
it, Mary? The Reina Valera. I often, though, read other translations
when I'm studying the passage and sometimes it helps, but I'll
let you in on a secret. Your Bible will never be clear
to you until God gives you the understanding of it. And when
that happens, it's a marvelous blessing to see God speak to
you out of His words. Some of you are nodding your
head and you know exactly what I'm talking about. For that matter, not all commentaries
are written by faithful men either. Some are probably written only
to make money. But when they're written by faithful men who are
called by God to do what they do, and commentaries and other
original Bible translations can be very good, they can be good
tools to help you as you study and learn of Christ. But commentaries
should never be taken the place of studying your Bible. Preaching
and commentaries that don't point you to Christ probably have some
other purpose. And I suggest that that purpose
is going to be Satan's purpose because he's the father of lies.
Turn to 1 Thessalonians 2 and verse 13, please. I can tell you honestly that
I study very hard. I spend many hours each week
to bring you the truth of God as God enables me to do it. I
couldn't do it unless He enables me. And I believe that God has
sent me here to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to you. But even
so, what I preach, don't take what I say at face value. Don't
take what any pastor says as truth no matter how faithful
you believe him to be. God commends the church in Thessalonica
in His Word through the Apostle Paul because they receive the
Word. They receive the eternal glory
of Christ. That's good news. That's the
good news which Paul preached to them. In 1 Thessalonians 2,
verse 13, Paul commended them with these words. He said, For
this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because when
you receive the Word of God which you heard of us, which you heard
us preach, you received it not as the Word of men, but as the
truth the Word of God, which effectually works it also in
you that believe." You see, the Bible is the Word of God. And
we should receive it that way. And if it's preached to you as
the Word of God, you should receive it as the Word of God. Not that
the preacher preaches infallibly. I don't mean that at all. But
then look what God does in Acts 17, verse 11. God commands the
Bereans with an even higher praise than he did the Thessalonians.
Because in Acts 17, verse 11, Paul tells us that the Bereans
were more noble than those in Thessalonica in that they received
the Word with all readiness of mind. And then they did what? They searched the Scriptures
daily whether those things were so. They received the Word of
God that Paul preached to them and they received it as the Word
of God. They received it as God's truth, but still they searched
their Bibles to verify that it was God's Word because the Bible
is the standard on which everything else should be believed and understood. So I pray that each of you would
do as the Bereans did. Receive the Word with all readiness
of mind, but also study these Scriptures at home. That's why
I put them in your bulletin. That's why I am so careful to
mention them most of the time when I use them in a sermon. The several quotations of Scripture
which I have now brought before you, I believe that the first
point I intended to make, that Christ is eternally glorious,
is, I hope, fully established in your mind. You believe it,
not because I said it, but because the Word of God said it, and
I read several verses that said exactly that. In God's Word,
you see, you have an authority which has always been held sacred
and unquestionable as coming from God. And so it now remains
with you, under the light of God's grace, to determine for
yourselves the sufficiency of the evidence that you need, the
enlightening and the teaching of the Holy Spirit that you need
to understand it. The passages that I've tried
to select from among others of similar meaning are the ones
that seem to me to be the ones that can't be easily misunderstood. And yet, they still require the
teaching of the Holy Spirit or you will not understand them
fully. Let me beg you, therefore, to read them in prayer and only
with a proper attention and with a cool, unprejudiced mind and
accept them in the first sense, which is most obvious, and such
as every candid person would naturally take them in. And if
the Lord be your teacher, I would venture to rest the cause I'm
pleading upon the event of their testimony, so clear and explicit
are they in support of this important article of our faith. The eternal
glory of Jesus Christ is that God became a man to save His
people from their sin. It is a true statement, because
it is based on God's word, that Jesus Christ is eternally glorious. But this doctrine of the eternal
glory of Christ will receive a further confirmation by evidence,
which is still more striking, I think, and which may even be
easier to see when we proceed to consider our blessed Lord
under those great and distinguishing attributes in which the sacred
writers of God's Word have presented Christ as the creator and the
preserver of the universe. Because if Jesus Christ is the
Son of God, can create and preserve the universe, He can certainly
regenerate and preserve you and me. All of the works of God's
creation are expressly attributed to Christ. in many parts of Scripture
and from those same Scriptures, it is also clear that creation
is the greatest act of an all-powerful God that we know of or that we
can even conceive of. And so they afford the most positive
assurance of Christ's Godhead. Godhead, of course, is the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit, all which dwell within Christ. As Colossians
2 verse 9 says about Christ, for in Christ dwelleth all the
fullness of the Godhead bodily." Which is a reference, as I say,
to the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Turn please to John 1
verse 1. John's Gospel, which expresses
the pre-existence of Christ as the eternal Word with the Father,
also speaks of Christ at the same time as the Creator of the
universe. Because after saying in John
1 verses 1 and 2 that the Word was with God and in the beginning,
and that He was God, John then immediately adds in verse 3 that
all things, all things were made by Him. And if this wasn't sufficiently
clear, then John repeats the same truth in a more full and
complete way by declaring that without Him, without Christ,
was not anything without anything made that was made. Surely that
communicates to your mind the idea about the omnipotence or
the complete power of Christ which should also bring Christ
in your mind up to the most exalted, highest level possible for you
to conceive of. It clothes him with those great
and distinguishing attributes of the deity. Skipping ahead
to verse 10 in John 1, because the same truth is asserted there
again so that we can't miss it when he tells us that he, that
Christ, was in the world and the world was made by him and
the world knew him not. Talking about Christ. Then turning
to John 3, we read in verse 10, that Jesus answered and said
unto him, Art thou a master of Israel? And you knowest not these
things? At that time, Jesus is talking
to Nicodemus. But these words are also meant
for us today. Do you not know that God is the
Creator of the heavens and earth and all that in them is? Well, if you believe in God,
then believe also in Christ. Turn to Romans 1 verse 20, please. I don't know any words that could
more fully testify to the power of Christ than the works of God's
creation which are so plainly attributed to Christ here. And
because these operations of our Lord in creation are equal to
the highest conceptions which we can possibly have of divine
being, the consequence should be evident to you that Christ
possessed a divine nature and as a creator of the heavens and
the earth, He is certainly able to create life in dead sinners
like you and me. As Paul said in Romans 1 verse
20, For the invisible things of Him, for the invisible things
of Christ, from the creation of the world are clearly seen,
being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal
power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. They who
do not believe are without excuse. the invisible things of Christ,
such as the eternal power and His divine nature, have been
clearly understood even since the creation of the world in
the things that have been made. So if you can see God is the
Creator, then you are without excuse. Jesus Christ is God. But turn to Hebrews 1, verses
1-3 please. God has clearly told us through
the Apostle John, that Christ is the Creator of the universe.
For there are others of the sacred writers who confirm this same
doctrine that Christ is the Creator. Paul, in the first chapter of
Hebrews, both attributes the works of creation and their preservation
to our Lord. Paul speaks of Christ so clearly
as the Creator who upholds all things by His power that it would
be hard not to understand what he was saying. Christ possesses
all of the attributes of the Godhead, the Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit. In Hebrews 1, verses 1 to 3,
Paul says, speaking by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul says,
that God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners spoke
in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, has in these
last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He, whom God hath appointed
heir of all things. by whom also He made the world.
Who being the brightness of His glory, brightness of God's glory,
Christ being the brightness of God's glory, and the expressed
image of His person, and holding all things by the word of His
power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on
the right hand of the Majesty on high." Oh, what a glory. We see in Jesus Christ such a marvelous, marvelous glory. These words from the inspired
Paul here in Hebrews are as full and as expressive of the divinity
of Jesus as any language I think is capable of furnishing to us.
They would be blasphemy if you applied them to any created being.
Indeed, this whole chapter is filled with the terms which tell
us of the omnipotence of the eternal Christ and ascribe to
him every divine honor that the sacred writer seems to labor
for expression to describe the dignity and the greatness and
the glory of Christ. Paul calls our Lord the Son of
God, the brightness of God's glory, and the express image
of God's person. who had in nature superior to
angels and most essentially different from all of the servants of God,
whether prophets or ministering spirits, whether angels or men,
which have been sent forth to minister unto them who are the
heirs of salvation. He is saying that Christ is the
creator and upholder of all things, an eternal being whose throne
is forever and ever. And who at his first entrance
into the world the angels of God were commanded to worship,
when I see the blessed Redeemer of the universe described like
this, under the power and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, as possessing
all of the unique attributes of the Godhead, all of the attributes
of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I am astonished at how
any man could ever not see Christ as the eternal God who came as
a man to save his people from their sins. I wonder, is that
how you see Christ? Is that the way you see Christ?
What language, what expressions could the sacred writer have
used to better convey to us any stronger terms than he has done
the very certainty of our Lord's divinity as Savior? Every verse
of Hebrews, Hebrews 1 anyway, seems more or less expressive
of the truth that Jesus Christ is God who has come in the form
of a man to save His people. Turn please to Psalm 14, verses
1-4. I suspect, at least I hope and
pray that there are very few of you who are listening to my
words and reading these texts with me today who can truthfully
say that you don't believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
You can't or you won't say that you don't believe that Christ
is the Son of God if you're at all honest, because you can't
argue with such clear scripture which says so clearly that Jesus
Christ is eternal God, the creator of the universe. Or, maybe, you're
just a fool. You see, only fools do not believe
that Christ is the Son of God. David understood the sinfulness
of men. He understood their need for a Savior. He understood it
on a very personal level. David called them fools who said
there was no God and who rejected God's salvation. David said in
Psalm 14, verses 1 to 4, the fool has said in his heart, there
is no God. They are corrupt. They have done
abominable works. There is none that doeth good.
And then he said, the Lord looked down from heaven upon the children
of men to see if there were any that did understand and sought
God. They are all gone aside. They
are all altogether become filthy. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one." That was God's judgment. Have all the workers
of iniquity no knowledge? Who eat up My people as they
eat bread and call not upon the Lord? David was calling on those
who reject Christ. He was calling them fools. They
were fools. They were fools because they
rejected God's Word. They were fooled because they
rejected Jesus Christ, the only possibility of their salvation.
Turn please to Luke 1. God is using David to describe
the sinful nature of man and to tell us why only God as a
man could save His people from their sin. Only our rebellious
and sinful nature, that rebellious and sinful nature that we were
all born with, could cause you to be so foolish as to deny the
truth of God's Word. But I'd like for you to think
for just a few minutes about why God took on the form of a
man. Turn to Luke 1, verses 30 to 33, please. This is how it happened, that
God took on Himself the form of a man. In the sixth month,
the angel Gabriel was sent from God to speak to the Virgin Mary.
And in Luke 1, verses 30-33, we read, And the angel said unto
her, Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God. And
behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son,
and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall
be called the Son of the Highest. And the Lord God shall give unto
him the throne of his father David. And he shall reign over
the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be
no end." But we have to turn back to verses 18 to 21 in Matthew
1 in order to find out why God took on the form of a man. I
think you know these verses pretty well, but I want to read them
to you to refresh your memory. In Matthew 1, verses 18-21, it
says, Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise, when
as His mother Mary was espoused to Joseph before they came together,
she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph, her
husband, being a just man and not willing to make her a public
example, was minded to put her away privately. But while he thought on these
things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in
a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not. Take unto thee Mary thy wife,
for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost." Now
pay attention, close attention, because this is why God became
a man. In Matthew 21, the angel said,
And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name
Jesus. Why? For he shall save his people
from their sin. I've never believed when people
tell me They don't sin. I know when they tell me something
like that, that they're lying. Because God clearly says in Romans
3.23 that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of
God. Now I believe that the problem of those who reject Christ is
that they don't believe that Christ came to save them or that
Christ can save them. Or maybe they believe or they
don't believe that they really need Christ's salvation. You
see, most people trust in their own righteousness. I really don't
know why any fool rejects Christ as their Savior. But there may
be some foolish people who just plain don't care. They think
that they can live their lives today and worry about tomorrow,
tomorrow. But as Hebrews 2, verse 3 asks,
how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? Which at
the first began to be spoken of by the Lord and was confirmed
unto us by them that heard Him. Whatever your reason is for rejecting
Christ, let me ask a most important question. the most important
question that I can ever ask you. Do you know the meaning
of the word lost? I can't imagine a sadder word
than the word lost. You're only lost if you want
to be lost. But if you're yet without Christ,
you're a lost sinner. If you're trusting in anything
but Christ, You're a lost sinner. In 1 John 5, verses 10-12, God
tells us that he that believeth on the Son of God hath a witness
in himself. He that believeth not God hath
made him, made God, a liar. Because he believeth not the
record that God gave of His Son. And this is the record that God
hath given to us, eternal life. And this life is in His Son.
He that has the Son has life. And he who is not the Son of
God has not life. He is lost. And everyone who
is lost should be alarmed by these words of God. You know,
people who are without faith, and if you're without the faith
of Christ, the wrath of God is upon you as it is upon them. You are guilty, depraved, and
you are helpless without Christ. You are justly condemned without
Christ. The flaming sword of divine justice
thirsts for your blood if you were without Christ. Unless God
is pleased to save you, you are lost because you will soon be
in hell. You know this is the sad state
of your soul because your conscience bears witness to the fact that
you're lost. You know that you're lost because
you're a sinner who has rejected God, who came as a man to save
His people from their sin. Turn to Matthew 5.20, please. Matthew 5.20, I hope and pray it isn't that you
just don't care. Though I think that's the situation
of some. They just don't care. But I pray
that it might be that you're trusting in your own righteousness.
And so let's talk for a minute or two about your righteousness. The Holy Lord God demands righteousness
from you. And He has a right to do that
because He is God. He created you. And you're His. But you aren't righteous because
God demands perfect righteousness. God tells us in Matthew 5.20,
For I say unto you, that except your righteousness that will
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall
in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. And the scribes and Pharisees,
they said that they were perfectly righteous. Are you righteous? Be honest. Be honest with yourself. Are you able to stop sinning?
When you read your Bible, when I read it to you or your mother
and father reads it to you, you read it yourself, does your Bible
say to you that you're a sinner? No one is able. No one is able
in their own power to produce righteousness in themselves Primarily,
they know that they can't do that because they can't stop
sinning. The polluted fountain of your depraved heart can never
bring forth the pure water of righteousness in your soul. Without
Christ, you are a tree that only brings forth bad fruit. God requires
from us perfection. You have to be perfectly holy
in order to get to heaven. Perfectly holy. God's law doesn't
permit us to have even one evil, selfish, or lustful thought.
We can't ever tell a lie. We can't ever have any pride
or do any selfish act. Perfection is God's standard
for getting to heaven. And I emphasize, perfection is
God's standard. And just as God demands perfect
righteousness, God also demands satisfaction for sin. All sin
must be punished. If God doesn't punish all sin,
then God just isn't a just God. This is what God says in Ezekiel
18, verse 4. He says, Behold, all souls are
mine. As the souls of the Father, so
also the soul of the Son is mine. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. And then God tells us in Jeremiah
31, verse 30, But everyone shall die for his own iniquity. Every
man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge."
And in Romans 6.23, God says, for the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Oh, how good it is that He comes with that last part.
The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The wages of sin, though, is death. I think your very conscience
tells you that this is true. That's why God sent His Son,
Jesus Christ, to die for the sins of His people. Never can
a lost soul find a sweeter word than Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ
is the Son of God. Jesus Christ is the mediator
between God and men. Christ is the Savior of lost
sinners. Christ is the hope. Christ is the life. Christ is
able to save unto the uttermost all who come to God by Him. Christ
And Christ alone can save you. God tells us in 1 Timothy 2,
verses 5 and 6, For there is one God and one Mediator between
God and men, and that's the Man, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself
a ransom for all to be testified in due time. If you know that
you're a sinner and you know that you're lost because you
do not have Christ, then I beg you and plead with
you that you look to Christ. Knowing that Christ can save
you should be sweet words to you if you believe Him. Eternal God became a man so that
He could die to save sinners from their sin. sinners just
like you and me. The religious world would tell
you that you can stop sinning, but that's a lie from Satan.
The religions of the world would tell you that you can be saved
by something that you do, but that's another lie from Satan.
God says in Acts 4.12, neither is there salvation in any other,
for there is none other name under heaven given among men
whereby ye must be saved. The Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world. God assumed human flesh as a
representative man. He lived in perfect obedience
to the law and to the will of God as a representative man,
bringing an everlasting righteousness for all who look to him alone
for righteousness. And once Christ had fully obeyed
the demands of the law as the God-man mediator, the Lord Jesus
Christ took the sins of his people upon himself And He died the
horrible death of the cross for sinners. He died as a sinner's
substitute, satisfying all of the law and justice of God. He
satisfied it perfectly as He kept it perfectly. Did He die
for you? Did He die for you? And I ask
you if you say yes, how do you know? How do you know that He
died for you? Christ died for you if you believe
it. It's as simple as that. Christ
died for you if you believe it. He didn't die for you because
you believe it. He died for you if you believe
it. And if you believe it, you believe because Christ died for
you. God gives you faith to believe
that Christ died for you. And so because Christ is righteous,
because Christ is able to save to the uttermost all who trust
Him, because in Christ, by the merits of His blood and His righteousness,
God is both a just God and a Savior. My constant prayer for you, if
you're lost, is that God may be pleased to grant you the faith
of Christ to the saving of your soul, because it is only by the
faith of Christ that we can be saved. If you understand that
you're a sinner, then understand that you cannot do anything about
your sin to save yourself. You can't even stop sinning.
And you know it. And if that's the case of you,
then look to Christ. In Hebrews 7, verse 25, God says,
Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that
come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession
for them. The Bible alone, the book of
God's Word, tells us what salvation is and how it can be obtained.
The Scriptures alone are able to make us wise unto salvation.
Only in the Bible do we read of God's mercy and love and grace
toward fallen man. Only the Word of God shows us
how a holy God can be both just and justifier of the ungodly.
Salvation is revealed only in the Scriptures, and salvation
is the primary essential doctrine of Holy Scripture. The Bible
was not written to teach us history, but to teach us about Christ
and God's grace. The Bible was not written to
instruct us in philosophy or to teach us history, but to instruct
us in divine truth. The Bible was not written to
teach us morality, but to teach us the way of salvation and to
show us a life in Christ. Salvation by Jesus Christ is
the message of Holy Scripture, and it's to the eternal glory
of God. There is only one way for you
to be saved if you're lost. The eternal, glorious Jesus Christ
is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing
He ever liveth to make intercession for them. In order to be saved,
we must come to God by Jesus Christ. Saving faith is described
by many metaphors in the Word of God. Faith is looking to Christ. Faith is leaning on Christ. Faith
is embracing Christ. Faith is receiving Christ. Faith
is laying hold of Christ. And here in Scripture, God says,
faith is coming to Christ and coming to God by Christ. What
is coming? Isn't coming something that you
do? Please don't misunderstand. Coming
is not a physical act. In this day of high pressure
evangelism, altar call salvation, decisional regeneration, people
thinking that they can be saved because they made a decision.
I cannot stress this enough. Coming to God is not a physical
act. Coming to God is a spiritual
act. No one has ever been saved by
doing a physical act because you can't save yourself. You
don't get saved by coming to church, but you get saved by
coming to God. You don't get saved by coming
to the front of the church or by coming to an altar or coming
to a confessional booth. You're only saved by coming to
God. You don't get saved by saying the sinner's prayer, but by coming
to God in Christ. You don't get saved by coming
to be baptized, but by coming to God in Christ. And then you'll
have to be baptized because it's a testimony of your dying in
Christ. You don't get saved by coming
to the Lord's Supper. You get saved by coming to God in Christ. Oh, I pray that you can all hear
this clearly. Coming to God is a spiritual
act of the heart. It's not coming to Him now and
then, but it's coming to Him continually, sincerely, wholeheartedly. Coming to God is a deliberate,
willful, and wholehearted coming to God in faith. Hebrews 11 verse
6 says, But without faith it is impossible to please Him,
for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, that He is
a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. And in 1 Peter 2 verses
4 and 5, God says, To whom coming as unto a living stone, disallowed
indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, Ye also, as
lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to
offer up spiritual sacrifices accepted to God by Jesus Christ. Coming to God implies that you
must leave something else. If a person comes to God, he
must leave his sins and he must leave his righteousness. He must
leave his bad works and his good works too. The gate is too straight
to carry anything in with you. And the way is too narrow to
allow you to pick up anything along the way. Coming to God
implies a sense of need. Coming to God implies a reconciliation
of the heart to God as He is pleased to reveal Himself in
Holy Scripture in Christ. Above all, coming to God is to
believe in Him. It is exercising of God-given
faith in Him. How do we come to God? There
is only one way for sinful men to come to God. All those who
come to God have to come the same way. We come to God by Christ. That's what Jesus says in John
14, 6. Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. Hebrews 10, 20 says the same
thing. It says, we come to God by a new and living way which
He has consecrated for us through the veil that is in His flesh. Jesus Christ is the only way
to God. We must come to God through the
faith of Jesus Christ, believing that Christ died for our sin
as our substitute. Not the world's sin, but He died
for our sin. He died for your sin, if you
believe it. He died for you personally. We must come to Christ, trusting
in His righteousness and not our own. Jesus Christ is the
only door of entrance into eternal life and salvation. In John 10.9,
Jesus said, I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he
shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture. Christ is the only mediator between
God and man. God will never accept anyone
who comes to Him without a suitable sacrifice. And the only suitable
sacrifice is Jesus Christ. God will never accept anyone
who comes to Him without a spotless garment of righteousness. That
garment, that righteousness, is the eternal, glorious Jesus
Christ. I pray that God has given you
eyes to see your sin, ears to hear the good news that Jesus
Christ died to save sinners from their sin. Amen.