Speaking out of John chapter
14, he read something that I don't think I've ever really seen as
I did when he read it in verse 14. He said, if you shall ask
anything in my name, I will do, and I never noticed that that
it is in italics. That opened up that passage to
me because I don't know how many times I prayed in his name and
it didn't come to pass as far as I could tell. But here we
have this promise. If we ask anything in his name,
he says, I will do. That's enough to satisfy us,
isn't it? Turn back to Titus chapter two. Now, as I've already said in
verse two, we have five foundational, fundamental truths of the gospel. And if these are not preached,
the gospel is not preached. Hope, we considered that last
week, hope that is seen. is not hope. For what a man seeth,
why does he yet hope for it? Hope is a confident expectation. The second thing he mentions
is eternal life. And I love the way he says in
hope of eternal life. There's a sense in which we can't
see eternal life. We believe it. We experience
it. We're aware of it. But as far as seeing it, well,
we hope for it. A confident expectation and hope
of eternal life. And the third thing he mentions
is what God cannot do. God cannot lie. And all of our salvation is predicated
on that glorious truth that God cannot lie. Then the fourth thing is his
promise. In hope of eternal life, which
God that cannot lie promised. Oh, the promise of God. You and
I make a promise and we want to keep it. but there can be
so many circumstances that can prevent that from taking place.
But oh, not God. His promise is absolute. And
I love when he made this promise, he promised before the world
began. You see, everything in the gospel took place before
the world began. Eternal life. A life that has no beginning,
no starting point, and no ending. That is eternal life by definition. Now, most people, when they think
of eternal life, they think, well, you're saved, and it starts
there, and you go on, and when you die, you go to heaven, and
you'll never die there. You'll always be healthy, happy.
Everything will be good. Now that is not what eternal
life is. That's such a shallow, wrong
view of eternal life. To be eternal, it has to be eternal. No starting point, no ending
point. Now I know ahead of time that
you and I cannot possibly grasp that. We just believe it. No starting point, no ending
point. Now, how can that be? If I'm a creature, if I was born
on a certain day, if I was born again at a certain time, how
can it be that this eternal life I'm speaking of does not have
a starting point and does not have an ending point? Christ
himself is that eternal life. That's how that's so. John said, we show unto you that
eternal life that was with the Father. In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God. And the word was God and
was manifested unto us. John chapter 14 verse 6, the
Lord said, I am the way, the truth and the life. Now, if I'm justified before
God, it's because his life, his eternal life is my life before
God. Paul said in Colossians 3, 4,
when Christ our life. I know in the King James it said
when Christ who is our life, but it's the who is is in italics. When Christ our life shall appear,
then shall you appear with him in glory. Listen to this scripture
from 1st John chapter 5 verses 11 and 12. This is the record
that God hath given to us. Eternal life and this life is
in his son. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son hath
not life. 1 John 5, 20, listen, and we
know that the Son of God hath come and hath given us an understanding. Now, if I have any spiritual
understanding, it's because He gave it to me. The Son of God
has come and given us An understanding that we might know Him that is
true and we are in Him that's true. Now do you catch those
two things? This is eternal life, that we
might know Him that is true and that we are in Him that's true. How long have you been in Christ?
Was there ever a time when you were not in Christ? I don't understand
that. Every one of God's elect are eternally united to the Lord
Jesus Christ. And John tells us this is the
true God and eternal life. This thing of knowing Him that's
true, being in Him that's true, this is the true God. And this
is eternal life. The Lord Jesus said in John 17
3, this is eternal life that they might know The only true God. And Jesus Christ whom thou hast
sent. Now here's what this looks like.
Would you hold your finger there and turn to Galatians chapter
two? Verse 20. Galatians chapter two, verse
20. Paul said, I am crucified with
Christ. We just heard that in that song.
In the beloved, I went to the tree. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. That's everlasting life. Yet
not I, but Christ liveth in me. That is everlasting life. And the life that everlasting
life, which I now live in the flesh, I'm in this body of sin,
I'm in this body of flesh, I'm still in it, the life that I
now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God. Now folks who have eternal life,
they live by the faith of Christ. They live off the faith of the
Son of God. I'm not trusting my faith. I'm
trusting the faith of the Son of God. That's what eternal life
is. It's living on the faith of the Son of God who loved me.
and gave himself for me. I don't frustrate the grace of
God. I don't render it meaningless and void and null. I don't frustrate the grace of
God. Now, if God is gonna have grace on you, you can't stop
it. You can't frustrate it. You can't
keep it from happening. God's grace is invincible and
irresistible. But he says, I don't frustrate
the grace of God for if righteousness came by the law, by my doings,
by my works, by anything that I do, then Christ died in vain,
to no purpose. Now what this tells me is that
my eternal life comes by his death. Isn't that mysterious? My life, my eternal life before
God, the life of God in my soul, being a partaker of the divine
nature, It's so mysterious, it's so glorious, but it comes to
me because of his death. That lets us know in no uncertain
terms that eternal life cannot be earned. It comes by his death. Oh, the mysterious, glorious
death of Jesus Christ, the Lord. The rich young ruler said, what
good thing What can I do that I might inherit eternal life? Nothing. I can answer that question. Nothing. Paul says, where is
boasting then? What can you boast in? It is
excluded. It is shut out. By what law?
Of works? Nay, but by the law of faith. Now this eternal life. The Lord
said in John chapter 5 verse 39, you search the scriptures. He's speaking to the Pharisees.
You search the scriptures. And in them you think you have
eternal life, which demonstrates that you don't even know what
eternal life is. If you think, if I can find out what rules to keep and
what to do that I might have eternal life, you search the
scriptures. In them you think you have eternal life. They are
they. which testify of me. And you will not come to me that
you might have life. That's what life does. Life comes
to the Lord Jesus Christ as everything in salvation. That is eternal
life. Now this life, eternal life,
is above and beyond anything in this natural life that can
be produced by any man. This is divine life. This is
the life of God. This is being birthed by the
spirit. This is being made a partaker
of the divine nature. It's the spiritual life of the
new birth. That which is born of the spirit
is spirit. Listen to these scriptures. That
which is born of the spirit, God, the Holy Spirit, is spirit. It's spiritual life. being born
again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word
of God, which liveth and abideth forever. Of his own will began
he us, birthed he us, fathered he us through the word of truth. How much of your will was involved
in your first birth? Wasn't involved at all, was it?
Not in any level. How was your will involved in
your second birth? Not at all. If you're born from
above, God birthed you into his kingdom through the scriptures,
but he birthed you into his kingdom. I think of that scripture in
John chapter 1, verses 12 and 13, but as many as received him.
Oh, I want to do that, don't you? Whatever it is to receive
Jesus Christ, that's exactly what I want to do. As many as
received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God,
even to them which believe on his name, which were born, which
were birthed. Not of blood, not because of
any fleshly connection, not of the will of man, not because
a bunch of men got together and said, we're gonna pray for this
man until he's saved. Not of the will of the flesh. It's not
an act of man's will, but of God. Born of God. Now somebody may be thinking,
that has a beginning point. There was a time when you were
not born of God, and then all of a sudden you are. that has
a beginning point when we were birthed. So that doesn't seem
to enter into the realm of before time. I understand somebody thinking
that way. That's the way I see it too. You know, when you were
born again, when you were born again, when you were birthed
into the kingdom of God, that's when you believed, when you're
birthed into the kingdom of God. But that may be true, but our
eternal union with Christ existed before there was time. All of the elect have always
been in Jesus Christ. According, Paul said in Ephesians
1-4, as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of
the world, before there was time, all of the elect have always
been in the Lord Jesus Christ. We read in Hebrews 2.11, both
he that sanctifyeth and they who are sanctified. The Lord
is the one who sanctifies, the Lord Jesus. Yes, God the Father
does, yes, God the Holy Spirit does, but here it's talking about
the sanctifying work of the Son. Both he that sanctifyeth and
they who are sanctified are all of one. Not closely joined together, infinitely closer than that.
They're all of one. We're in Christ eternally. Now,
logically, Christ comes before us, doesn't he? It's gotta be
him first. Logically, that's the only way
it could be. Logically, Christ must come before us. And Paul
said in Colossians 1, he is before all things. Whatever it is, he's
before it. Now, we understand that, we believe
it, we glory in it, but it's also true that every believer
has been eternally united to him. I think of that scripture
as he is. Well, how's he? A lot of things
I can say about that, but one thing I can say, he's eternal.
As he is, so are we in this world. As he is, eternal, holy, absolutely
beautiful, sinless, so are we in this world. Think of this scripture. Before
I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. Now, did that have a starting
point? Was there a time when he didn't
know? Now he does. No, God is eternal. Before I
formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. I have had personality
before Jesus Christ eternally. He knew me. He said, behold,
Jeremiah 31.3, behold, I have loved you individually with an
everlasting love, a love that had no beginning, a love that
has no end. Now that is the eternal life
that every believer possesses. 1 John 3, verses 5 and 6 says,
he was manifested to take away our sin, and him is no sin, whosoever
abideth in him sinneth not. Now how long have I been in him?
Eternally that's how long I've seen not in him eternal life
Now this eternal life we're speaking of began in eternity That means it never began Acts chapter 13 verse 48 after
Paul had preached that glorious message and Luke gives us this
comment, kind of an editorial comment, as many as were ordained
to eternal life believed. Did you hear that language? As
many as, I mean, everyone who was ordained to eternal life
believed. You know, there's something called
the Lamb's book of life. Have you ever thought about the
fact that it's not called the Book of Death? It's called the Book
of Life. The Lamb's Book of Life with
individual names written in it. The Lamb having been slain from
the foundation of the world. And those people who were written
in that book, He was slain for them before the foundation of
the world. Now that's what we're talking
about when we're talking about eternal life. We're talking about
eternal life. A life that has no beginning in Christ. A life
that has no ending. Now, logically, I've already
said Christ must come before, but I've always been in Him. Now, that lets us know that eternal
life is a sovereign act of God. We read in John 12, 50, this
is His commandment. even life everlasting. Now this is an eternal commandment,
but the reason I have eternal life is because he commanded
that I have eternal life. Listen to this scripture. I know
you'll love this. I love this scripture. Moreover, Romans 5,
20 and 21, moreover, the law entered that the offense might
abound. Question, are you one where the
offense abounds? It overflows, it bubbles up out
of your heart. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, in that very
place where sin abounded, would that be you? Grace did much more
abound, that as sin hath reigned unto death. Now listen, don't
miss this. How much power do you have to
prevent death? Zero, none. That as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so in the same manner might grace reign. How much power
do you have to prevent the reign of grace? None. Now listen to this scripture.
and that a sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign
through righteousness unto eternal life, which is by Jesus Christ,
our Lord. Even when we speak of eternal
life, we must speak of it in this manner. It's by Jesus Christ,
our Lord. Eternal life is the gift of God. Romans 6, 23. The wages of sin is what? Death. But the gift, the free, absolutely
free gift of God, nothing you have to do to pay for it, nothing
you have to do to earn it. It's the free gift of God. And I'll tell you what, that's
good news if you don't have anything to pay. If you don't have anything to
pay, you're awful mighty happy that it's the free gift of God.
The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life
through our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the record that God has
given us eternal life. John 28, my sheep hear my voice,
I know them, they follow me and I give unto them eternal life
and they shall never perish. John 17 too, as thou has given
him power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to
as many as thou has given him. Oh, what a gift. It's an eternal gift, but it's
a gift. It's something God gave to you. This glorious gift of eternal
life, the life of God in your soul. I think of what the Lord
said to that woman at the well, if you knew the gift of God. Now, his gift has no strings
attached. If it had strings attached, it
wouldn't be a gift. Oh, he's too glorious for that. The gift of God, if you knew
the gift of God and who it is that saith thee, give me to drink,
you would have asked. And he would have given thee
living water. Now, God can give living water. Now, God's independent. He doesn't
need anything to maintain his life. Like you and I, we have
to eat and drink. God is independent in his life. And as the independent God, he
can give eternal life to whomsoever he pleases to give it. Now, this
eternal life cannot be separated from justification. This is so
important. You can't even begin to think
about eternal life without some understanding of what the scripture
teaches with regard to this thing of justification. Now, what is
justification? A sinless life. A sinless life. A life without
sin. A life that has never sinned. Sinlessness before God. God sees
you as Colossians 1.22 describes as holy. Do you know holiness
cannot sin? If it can sin, it's not holy.
Holy! Unblameable. There's no sin for
which to blame me for. Now wait a minute, you've committed
sins. Remember, this is in God's sight. And how God sees things
is how they really are. Holy, unblameable, and unreprovable
in His sight. This eternal life is because
of the justifying work of Jesus Christ our Lord. That's how we
have it. He justified us. Titus 3.7 says, being justified
by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of
eternal life. Why do you have hope of eternal
life? Because he justified you. that cannot be separated. To
talk about eternal life and not talk about justification is just
nonsense. He came to justify his people,
and that's what he did. I love the scripture. Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justified
them. Who is he that can condemn? It's
Christ that died, yea, rather it's risen again. who's even
at the right hand of God. The eternal life we have is given
to us for this one reason, the death of Christ and what he accomplished
in that death, justification. He was delivered for our offenses,
he was raised again for our justification. Now, here's another thing that
you can't even think about eternal life without thinking about this,
Eternal life cannot be separated from faith in Christ. I've already quoted this, but
I emphasized one part. Let me emphasize the other. Acts
chapter 13, verse 48, as many as were ordained to eternal life. What's the next word? Believed. Believed. Do you believe the
gospel? I'm not asking you if you can
see the motions of eternal life working in you. We're aware of
eternal life. But as far as, he did call it
the hope of eternal life. Can I see that sinlessness? No,
I can't. I believe the gospel. Believing
the gospel, there's one reason. Eternal life. That's the only
reason you would believe the gospel. God gave you life. eternal life, the life of God
in the soul, the new birth. Now, people who have eternal
life believe the gospel. Now the gospel message has a
content that must be believed. You hear that? The gospel message
has a content that must be believed. The first scripture that I thought
of is, to him that worketh not, But believeth on him that justifieth
the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Do you work
not? Do you see that if salvation
is dependent upon you first doing something before God can do something
for you, there's no hope for you. You see, you can't work
for salvation. If anything is required of me
to do before God will do something for me, there's no hope for me. To him that worketh not, but
believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted
for righteousness. Now, do you remember when the
Lord said to his disciples, as the multitudes left him, he miraculously
fed 5,000, they wanted to make him king, they heard his message,
and they left him. They didn't like what they were
hearing. They said, these are hard sayings. We don't like hard,
harsh, austere sayings. And from that time forth, Many
of his disciples walked no more with him. And the Lord looked
at the 12, and he said, will you also go away? I love Peter's answer. To whom
shall we go? It's not like we have an option.
It's not like we have a choice. To whom shall we go? Thou hast
the words of what? Eternal life. And we believe
and are sure that thou art that Christ, the son of the living
God. Now, here's the content of the
gospel that we believe. We believe that Jesus is God's
Christ, God's Messiah. We believe that Jesus Christ
is the prophet. He himself is the word of God.
He's God's message. He's what God has to say. This
is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. Hear ye him. He
is the prophet. All we're going to know of God
is what he makes known. He is the word of God. Don't
you love the way he's called the word of God? When God speaks,
what comes out of his mouth? Jesus Christ. He's God's prophet. Oh, he's God's priest. This weekend I was at a wedding
and the priest had this garb on. I'm thankful it's not that kind
of a priest. Well, that man's not a priest,
you know that. He takes that title. But we're talking about
his priesthood. If he brings you This is what
a priest does. Now a prophet brings God's word
to man. A priest brings men to God. Now if he brings you to God,
you're there. You're already there. In him,
eternally in him. You're already there. If he brings
you to God, I love the way he said to Peter, Peter, Satan has
desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat. And he did,
he turned Peter inside out. He said, I've prayed for you. That your faith fail not. He didn't say, I pray that you
don't fall. Peter needed to fall. He was
full of himself, he was so high, although the rest of this bunch
will deny you, I won't do it. And he believed that when he
said it. He was thoroughly convinced he would die for the Lord. He
felt like he was better than the other disciples. I can see
them doing it, but not me. He didn't say, I pray that you
don't fall. Now, somebody says, are you making
God the author of sin? I hate that question. God's God. He's in control of everything.
Somebody said, well, you're making the author sin if you're saying
he permitted Peter to fall. God's God. And whatever he does
is right, holy, just, and true. And he let Peter fall according
to his eternal purpose. But he said, I prayed for you
that your faith fail not. And while Peter denied knowing
the Lord, he never denied that Jesus is the Christ, did he?
As a matter of fact, even when he was weeping bitterly, probably
thinking he wasn't saved, he knew the only hope he had was
if Jesus Christ died for him. He knew who Christ was. He believed
in the Christ. And if Christ presents you before
his father, you must be saved. What a priest. What a king. Jesus Christ, prophet, priest,
and king. That's the three offices of the
Christ. He's king. That means his will
is done. That means he can cause you to
do his will. That means he can cause you to
believe. That means he can cause you to
repent. That means he can cause you to
come to Christ. He's king. The king is the one
whose will is done. We believe and assure that thou
art that Christ, the son of the living God. I believe Jesus Christ
is God, God the Son, the God-man Christ Jesus. That's why He's
incapable of failure, because who He is, He is the Son of God. Now there's the content of faith.
We believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son
of the living God. The Lord said in John chapter
5 verse 24, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my
word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life. That means he's got it. You believe
on the Christ? You've got eternal life right
now, the life of God in your soul. He's done a mighty work
of grace in you. Whoso believeth that Jesus is
the Christ is born of God. Do you believe that he's the
Christ? Then you've been born of God. You have eternal life.
Now turn with me for a moment to John chapter three. Now the Lord had been talking
about being born again. And Nicodemus' response in verse
9, Nicodemus answered. This is where he said, Verily
I say unto you, except a man be born again, he cannot see
the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, except
a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the
kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel
not that I said unto you, you must be born again. The wind
blows where it wills. You hear the sound thereof, but
can't tell whence it comes or whether it goes. So is everyone
that's born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto
him, how can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto
him, art thou master of Israel? No, it's not these things. This
is clearly taught in the Old Testament. Jeremiah 31, Ezekiel
36. Verily I say unto you, we speak that we do know and testify
that which we've seen and you receive not our witness. If I've
told you earthly things and you believe not, how shall you believe
if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to
heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the son of
man which is in heaven." I love that. He said, nobody can ascend
up to heaven except the son of man who came down from heaven.
And even while I'm speaking to you, I'm in heaven. Isn't that
mysterious? Isn't that glorious? What a glorious
God-man. Now, look what he says, verse
14. And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, you remember the story. They complained. I'm going to be preaching on
that, Lord willing, in a couple of weeks out of 1 Corinthians
10. They complained. We're sick of this manna. We
want something else to eat. They complained. God sent fiery
serpents. Much people of Israel died. Then
they come to Moses and say, we've sinned. They had been complaining. They were victims. God's brought
us out here. Moses has brought us out here.
We're in bad shape. Now they confess their sin. We
sinned against the Lord and you. Pray for us that the Lord will
take away What's causing our death? Take these serpents away. And isn't that what we need?
We need our, what causes our death? Sin. We need our sins
taken away. And that's what they prayed for.
Let our, take away these serpents from us. And Moses went to God
and God said, you put a serpent on a pole. The serpent's the
cause of death. You put this brazen serpent on a pole and
you lift it up. And anyone who just looks. Just look, lives eternally, lives. Now the Lord says, as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be
lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have what? Eternal life. Now that eternal
life being born of the Spirit comes through looking just the
way the children of Israel look to that brazen serpent on a pole. Verse 16, for God so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Wherever there's eternal life,
you have one who looks to Christ alone. Don't look for anything
else. Where you have eternal life,
you have one who looks to Christ alone. Now, turn with me to 1
John chapter 5. We're going to close with this. Verse 13. These things, 1 John 5 verse
13, 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. Now, as soon as, if I stop there, you would start
thinking, do I? Do I? It says he's written that
we might know we have eternal life. Do I? Well, I love what
he says next, that you may believe on the name of the Son of God.
Who has eternal life? Anybody who believes on the name
of the Son of God. That is eternal life. You know, Paul said to Timothy
on two different occasions, upon eternal life. How? By believing. You believe on
Christ. You believe on his name, the
eternal name of the son of God. You have laid hold upon eternal
life. Let's pray. Lord, we have, by your grace,
considered great and glorious things from your word. Lord,
we cannot possibly understand eternity, but, Lord, we believe. And, Lord, we believe eternal
life is to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
thou hast sent. Lord, I ask in Christ's name
that you would take this word and beget in every hearer that
eternal life that looks to Christ only. Bless this message for
Christ's sake, in his name we pray, amen.