We're in 1 John again, this hour. 1 John chapter 3. While you're turning there, I wanted
to make the announcement that our brother Rob Hicks is asked
to be baptized, confess the Lord and believers baptism, so we'll
observe that next Sunday, Lord willing, immediately after the
service. 1 John chapter 3. We're going to look at one verse,
verse 23. This is his commandment that
we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and
love one another as he gave us commandment. Now, John is writing,
as we heard the first hour, to the Lord's little children, to
the Lord's sheep, to the Lord's people. What sweet and precious
consolation we have in the commandment to believe in the Lord. My hope
this hour is before you leave here, you will know whether you're
saved or not. You will know. That's my hope. The reason we never feel saved
is because we're looking at ourself and not looking to Christ. Being
saved is not a feeling. Being saved is not a feeling.
Being saved is a position with the Lord that Christ hath wrought,
a position that by his own blood he purchased. It's nigh unto
him, it's at his right hand in the person of Jesus Christ, that
is salvation. But my hope this morning before
you leave is you'll be able to know of certainty whether you
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ or not, for that is salvation.
The reason we never feel saved is we look to ourself, don't
we? But we feel this way or we feel that way, and I said this
the first hour, but faith is not a feeling. And all feelings
come and feelings go. Faith just believes God. Faith
looks to Christ. Faith has nothing to do with
how we feel. Faith is not a human emotion. Faith is not based on
human emotion. Faith rests in Christ. Faith
believes in Christ. Faith is the gift of God. For
by grace are you saved through faith. In that not of yourself,
it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Unless God makes us rest in the
Lord Jesus Christ, we never will. He must command it, and he does. He does command it. Look again.
This is his commandment, that we should believe on the name
of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he gave us
commandment. Now a commandment can only be
given by one who is in a position of authority. I could tell your
children to do something and you can tell my children to do
something, but we don't have the authority to command someone
else's children because they're not our children. Likewise, if
you were to think of a general that's in the army or in the
military, he commands his troops. He tells them what they are going
to do and they follow, they obey him. He's in a position of authority.
Another example of that is the other day I was at a daycare
center and this one child would not quit crying. And it was of
the teacher's observation that the child was just crying for
no reason. There was nothing wrong with the child. The child
had been fed. The child had been changed. The child was just throwing
a tantrum. And the teacher, being in the
position of authority, says, I'm going to put you in timeout,
and puts the child in timeout. Did that stop the crying? No. She said, I want you to stop
crying. You are going to stop crying. Well, then she gives
him options. I'm going to give you a snack
if you quit crying. It's a bribe. Okay, well, you're
gonna just have to sit there for the rest of the day if you
don't quit crying. That's her attempt. That's options, isn't
it? That's not how God works. That's not how God works. He
doesn't give options. See, he's in the position of
authority even more so than the general we just mentioned because
a troop can still disobey. You hear of troops going AWOL
and doing different things, don't you? So even the general is not
a good example of how sovereign our Lord is. When he commands,
all obey. He doesn't give options. He doesn't
give bribes. He can't be constrained or restrained
in any way by us. He is sovereign in all things. He commands. And this is his
commandment. that you believe on the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is his commandment. That
is his commandment to his people. Now the daycare teacher, she
had authority, but she had no power, did she? She couldn't
have, yeah, you know what would have happened if she'd have laid
hands on that kid. You know exactly what would have taken, she didn't
have power, she had authority. She had what men would call control,
but not really. But not really. She was a teacher.
She was in a position of authority, but she had no power. See, our
God is both in the position of authority. He's all powerful
as well. He's all sovereign. So he doesn't
just have authority. He has all power. There's none
left for you and I. All power. He's supreme in authority. He's
completely sovereign. commands and everything obeys
his voice. He owns the title to everything.
Did you know that? He created everything. He owns
the title to everything. And his title is Alpha and Omega. He's the beginning. He's the
first, foremost of anything. And he's the end of everything.
He's Alpha and Omega. This is who God is. None can stay his hand or say
unto him, what doest thou? Even when he walked upon the
face of the earth, the wind and waves obeyed his voice. They
knew his voice. They knew he was God speaking
to them and they obeyed. Peace be still. And what happened? The wind stopped. He controlled
the wind with his command. Death. When Lazarus was placed
into the tomb, held in the chains of death, what happened when
God spoke? Lazarus come forth. Death had to relinquish its hold
upon Lazarus. It had no power over God. Death
had no power. See, he has the authority. He
has the title. He is sovereign. He is sovereign. He has the power over all, over
earth, over the inhabitants thereof, over heaven and the inhabitants
thereof. In hell, he owns everything according
to his glorious purpose, according to his will. He has the authority
and he has the power. When he commanded Lazarus, come
forth, that wasn't optional, was it? He didn't say, Lazarus,
if you take the first step, I'll take the rest. Lazarus, come
forth. That's what he said. And what
happened? Lazarus came forth, bound hand and foot. When God
commands light to shine in darkness, light shines in darkness. Is
that not what happened before the world was ever created? He
said, let there be light. That wasn't an option. Light
came into existence at that point, didn't it? He said, let there
be, you know, he commanded everything, the earth, the fullness thereof,
the trees, everything. He commanded it to be so. The
only thing he put his hand on was man. God formed man out of
the dust of the ground. And yet a lifeless corpse couldn't
do anything to become alive. What did he do? He breathed the
breath of life into it. He commanded that corpse to become
alive and Adam was made alive. This is what he does for his
people. This is what he's done from the beginning. He's not
changed. He's the same yesterday, today and forever. He passes
by our dead corpse according to his glorious grace. And he
says, live. And you and I don't fight that. How can we fight that? We were
made alive. He did it. He did it all by himself. Everything is subject to his
authority, everything bows to his will, everything obeys his
command. So what is his command? What is his command? That you, his people, should
believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ. That's his command.
That's his command. This is not merely instructions
to have a better life. Men say, well, if you let Jesus
into your life, you'll have a better life. It'll be more fulfilling.
That's not what God's saying. He's saying believe. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a command. It's not instructions.
It's not optional. It's not optional. Anytime God
says believe to a sinner, that sinner believes. God is sovereign. God is sovereign and he commands
we just believe. It's not good directions. It's
not a choice. It's not optional. It's not good
advice. It's a command. Believe. Believe. My question is, have you believed?
Have you believed? If you're believing, You're looking
to Christ as all your righteousness before God. If you're believing,
you're looking at Christ as your justification before God. If
you're believing, you're not getting better, progressively
getting sanctified. You've been sanctified once by
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, by his death. If you're believing,
it's because God's commanded you to believe. I can rest in
that. It's not an invitation. He commanded
it. Lord, command me to believe.
Is that what you cry out when you hear that? Lord, if you've
never commanded me, command me to believe. His people obeyed his command.
It's his sovereign omnipotent command. Understand, if I receive
an invitation to go to a wedding or to go to a party, an invitation
of any kind, name it, there's an option there. I can accept. the invitation, or I can decline
the invitation. I have a choice. I have the authority
to make a choice. I have the power to make that
choice. This is not an invitation. This
is not an invitation where if I do decline that invitation,
that's not rebellion, is it? That's just me, I can't go. Maybe
it's personal, maybe I just can't make it to it. Maybe I want to
go to the wedding, but I can't. That's not rebellion, me not going.
To not obey this command is rebellion. It's rebellion. This command
is going forth right now. Believe. Believe on the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe. That's a command, not
an invitation. God's not inviting me to believe.
He's not inviting you to believe. The flesh The flesh doesn't choose
to believe anyway. Do you know why? The flesh can't
believe in spiritual things. The flesh can't believe God.
It's an impossibility. Men say believe and they act
like that you are given an option to do so in the flesh. The flesh
doesn't believe God. Your flesh hates God right now
as much as it ever has and always will. My flesh hates God. No,
this command is to the spirit. The new man created in Christ
Jesus. When the Lord says live, it's
followed by believe immediately. And that's called repentance
and faith. And what do we do when the Lord
commands? We obey. We obey. The flesh can't believe, but
the new man does. See, God must give life and command you and
I to believe or we never will. Turn with me to John chapter
three. Familiar passage with Nicodemus, the Lord speaking
to a a ruler of the Jews, he's called, came to the Lord and
asked him, what must I do to have eternal life? Jesus didn't
even answer his question. As we'll look right here, John
chapter three, verse two, the same came to Jesus by night and
said to him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from
God, for no man can do these miracles. that thou doest accept
God be with him. Now he was interested in coming
to Christ for whatever purpose and reason. But the first thing
he does is he's acknowledging that Christ came from God. The
Lord didn't even acknowledge that. Look what he tells him.
Jesus answered and said to him, verily, verily, I say unto thee,
except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
He put it right in his face to begin with it. And he told him
the truth. You have to be born again, Nicodemus, whatever your,
And the Lord knew exactly what Nicodemus was doing by telling
him, well, we know that you're a man from God. He said, you
have to be born again. It doesn't matter what you know, it matters
who you know, you've got to be born again. Now look down here
with me in verse 14, as the conversation continued, 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 eternal life. 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. For God
sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that
the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him
is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already. He that believeth not is condemned
already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten
Son of God. I understand this matter of belief
that he is speaking of here. He likens it under the serpent
in the wilderness. You remember that beautiful allegory,
the picture of the fiery serpents being sent into the nation Israel
because of their unbelief, because of their disobedience, because
of their murmuring against God. The Lord sent judgment. He sent
fiery serpents. And the people then come to Moses
and confess the same thing that God demands you and I confess.
He commands this. They confessed, we have sinned
against the Lord. Pray that the serpents be taken
away. And the Lord told Moses, make a brazen serpent, a fiery
serpent, brazen serpent, put it on a pole. And whosoever looketh
upon it shall live. Whosoever looketh upon it shall
live. And he did. And they begin to look. Now,
this thing of believing is exactly the same thing as looking, as
defined by the serpent on the pole. Who would have been the
ones looking? the ones that were bitten. You
would have never had a need had you not been bitten. Likewise,
once you're bitten and commanded to look, the only way that you
can be looking is if you become completely vulnerable to the
serpents that are around you at that time. You would have
not been able to defend yourself anymore away from them. You would
have not been able to... Think about what the situation
that was happening. A bunch of serpents are in the
camp. They're biting everyone. To be bitten meant certain death.
The Lord gives a remedy to look. Well, if I take my eyes off of
these serpents that are around me and I look, I become vulnerable
to those serpents. Well, that's the point. That's
the point. You can't look at circumstances
any longer. You have to look to Christ. That's
the serpent that was on the pole. He became that which we are by
nature. He became sin for us who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
That's the message. Look to the serpent on the pole.
He's the only one. He's the only hope that we have
to be saved. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. That's what the Lord's saying
right here to Nicodemus. Only those bitten have a need.
If you've seen the dark abyss of your sin, you've been bitten. Everybody's been bitten. Not
everybody knows about it. Not everybody knows about it. Everybody's
a sinner. Born in sin, shaping in iniquity,
having no hope of eternal life in yourself. Everyone's been
bitten. But the remedy has been given.
The remedy has been given in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. There's the remedy, what he has done, what he has done. And the command comes from God
to his people, believe, believe. Well, Lord, I want to believe,
help my unbelief. Lord, I can't count on my believing
as my salvation. You're gonna have to make me
believe. What does the Lord say? Believe, it's a command. It's
a command, it's not optional. God's commanding you and I to
look to Christ, believe on Him, believe on His name as both Lord
and Christ, as both Lord and Christ. Matthew 16 tells us of
the account of Peter and the Lord and the disciples. The Lord
said, who do men say that I am? And they spoke up and said, well,
some say you're prophets, some say you're Elijah, some say you're
this, and they said, well, who do you say that I am? See, that's
what matters. What is your confession? What
think ye of Christ? Well, that's the question. What
think ye of Christ? Peter spoke up and said, thou
art the Christ, the son of the living God. What did the Lord
say? Blessed art thou Simon Bar-Jonah
for flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto you, but my
father, which is in heaven. The only way Peter would have
ever saw the Lord as Christ is if the father commanded it. And
he did. He did. God must be the revelator. He
must be the illuminator. He must resurrect you and I before
we even can believe. Did you know that? We're dead
and he has to resurrect me. I'm dead. How's a dead man gonna
believe? Dead men can't do anything but
lie there and stink. That's it. None of which bring
eternal life. No, he has to say live. Lord
asked Ezekiel to make Ezekiel confess. And I love the Lord's,
he asked questions just to make us answer him. The question was
this, can these bones live? Can these bones live? The Lord
knew whether the bones were going to live or not. He purposed it.
Can these bones live? What did Ezekiel say? Lord, thou
knowest. It's not in my power, but you
can make them live. I believe. I believe you can
make these dead bones live. Do you believe that the Lord
can make the dead bones of your bad, your sin. Do you believe
he can make you alive in the righteousness of God, in Christ
Jesus? Yes. Yes, I believe he can. I don't believe I can, but I
believe he can. I believe he can. No, he is the resurrector
of his people, the illuminator. He shines forth his light in
darkness. He commands that light to come
forth. He commands that light to come forth and that light
obeys and shines forth. He commands and His people believe.
See, because He commands, we believe. We don't believe and
then something happens. We believe because He did something. He says, believe, and we believe. The cause and effect in religion
is backwards. Men say, believe as if it was an option. The call
goes forth when the Lord says, believe, We just believe. We just believe. When Joshua
was talking to the children of Israel, and he said unto them,
if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day
whom you will serve. Joshua wasn't giving them an
option to choose God or to choose another God. He was saying, if
our God is not the one that you think is good, then choose the
God of the Amalekites, the Amorites, the Hiabites, the Hittites, all
the other ones that are false. If that's what you think, But
he said, as for me and my house, we're gonna serve the Lord. We're
gonna serve the Lord. You see, believing on the Lord
is all by him saying live, all by him saying believe, all by
him commanding light to shine out of darkness. Therefore we believe as mercy-begging
broken empty vessels. Can you relate to that? A mercy-begging
broken empty vessel. A mercy begging broken, empty. But you see yourself as broken.
You can't hold any water, can we? No, I'm a mercy beggar. Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner.
Have mercy on me, the sinner. The good news is that's the only
way Christ can be received as a mercy begging broken vessel. A mercy begging sinner. Well,
how can a broken vessel receive something. Wouldn't the water
just pour right out of a broken vessel? Truth, Lord. Truth, Lord. I'm empty and I'm broken and
you're going to have to repair. You're going to have to fix it.
I can't. I'm a broken vessel. I'm a sinner. I have no hope
of coming to you. I have no hope of holding your
living water that's required. I can't hold it. I'm a broken
cistern. Aren't you glad that the Lord makes a vessel of honor
and a vessel of dishonor according to his purpose? Hath not the
potter power over the clay to make one lump to honor and another
to dishonor? And according to his mercy, he makes vessels of
honor and commands them to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ can only be received by
empty vessels. Colossians 2 tells us, as you
have received, therefore, Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk ye in
him. Well, how did you receive him?
As an empty, broken sinner. Walk in him that way. Walk in
the light as he is in the light. You have fellowship one with
another, he tells us. Christ can only be received by
you. If you and I, if we're offering something, you can't receive
anything. Think about that. If I'm offering something to
God, I can't receive anything from God. Christ can only be
received when I have nothing to offer him, when I have nothing
to bring to him, when I have nothing to present him, when
I have no hope in what I do at all. That's when the command
comes that says, believe. The Lord does that according
to his mercy, according to his grace. He empties us and fills
us up all the way with Christ. And what did David say? My cup
runneth over. My cup runneth over. Surely goodness
and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I will
dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Christ Jesus is only
all to a nothing. Christ Jesus is only something
to a nothing. He's only all to a nothing. Are
you a nothing? Christ is something to you, isn't he? Are you a nobody? Then Christ is the somebody you
need, isn't he? Are you a zero? Yes, I need the
one. I need the one. I need the Lord
Jesus Christ. What does John 1 tell us? As
many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons
of God. If you receive him, it's him
doing it. It's not you making a choice to allow God to be God. No. You've been made to receive
him. Therefore, he's given you the
power. The reception is the power. The
power to become the sons of God. Therefore, you believe. You believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. You believe that command. It's
all cause and effect that he does and he gets all the glory.
Believing is not an offer, it's a command. The thing received
is not an offer, it's commanded, receive the Lord. Receive thy
sight, is that not? How is the blind man gonna look
at the Lord and say, no, I think I'm gonna remain blind, I'm not
going to receive my sight, even though you've commanded it. I'm
gonna reject that, and I'm still gonna be blind. See how silly
that sounds? No, the Lord said, receive thy sight, and what happened?
Immediately, he saw. Immediately, he saw. The most
interesting part was is it made the Pharisees mad because it
was on the Sabbath. And they looked at the young man and said,
tell us that this man, we know he's a sinner. We know he's a
sinner. We know this Jesus is a sinner. Give glory to God.
Tell us that he's a sinner. And he says, whether he's a sinner
or no, I know not. This one thing I know, whereas
I was blind, now I see. And he did it all. And he did
it all, and he gets all the glory. See, men don't like God getting
all the glory. Men want God to do things their
way, but God doesn't do things the way that you and I do them.
He's God. He does all things at the determinant
counsel of His sovereign will. Thanks be to God, He chose in
mercy and in grace to command the light to shine in darkness
in His people's heart. He says, believe, and His people
believe. His people really believe. This command is not God saying,
if you will do this, then I will do that. No, it's God saying,
I have done this. Therefore you will believe. I
have saved you. I have redeemed you. Therefore
you're saved. You're redeemed. I have bought
you. You're mine. This is our God. This is what he says. Receiving
Christ is the command of God to his people. Looking unto Jesus
is the command of God to his people. Resting in Christ is
the command of God to his people. Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ
is not optional. It's a command. We had no life
to make a choice. Even if we did, Christ said,
you will not come to me that you'll have everlasting life.
He said, you will not come to me that you'll have life. That's
what the Lord told the Pharisees. You will not come. Why will they
not? You cannot. I cannot. I cannot, not in myself,
not in my flesh. The flesh is enmity against God.
The flesh profiteth nothing before the Lord. You will not come to
me that you might have life, but those who are given grace
to believe, believe his command. Those given grace to believe,
believe his command. We receive him as our all, as
our everything, as our only hope, our only righteousness before
God. This is not a choice, this was,
I'll say it this way, salvation is a choice. It's just not your
or mine, it's God's. It's God's choice. That's what
the scripture tells us. It's freely bestowed by His choice
and His authority. Isn't that what it says, and
acts those who are ordained unto eternal life believed? Who did
the ordination? God did. God did. Now back to
our text in 1 John 3. Verse 23 again, this is his commandment
that we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ,
and love one another as he gave us commandment. Do you remember
talking about the Lord commanding? Do you remember the Lord told
Moses, go down to Pharaoh and tell Pharaoh to let my people
go? You remember that account? Moses goes into the throne room
of the most powerful man on the face of the earth at that time
and says unto him, God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of
Israel has commanded you to let his people go. Think about that. You and I'd be scared to death.
I know that Moses had to be, but for grace, but for grace,
This man had the power to kill Moses if he so chose, because
Moses would have been guilty of murder earlier. Remember,
he fled and was in the wilderness 40 years because of it. So God
had to give a lot of grace for Moses to go up to him. But then
in the confidence of the Lord, he looks at Pharaoh and says,
God says, let my people go. What does Pharaoh say? Now that's
a command from God to Pharaoh. What does Pharaoh say? I know
not your God. nor will I let your people go."
You know Moses had to be standing there thinking, you're going
to learn today. You're going to learn about who God is today.
You're going to find out. He had complete confidence in
the Lord because the Lord had already made himself known unto
Moses because Moses was already given the command, believe. And
you know the account how that ten plagues later What happened? Ten plagues later, when the final
plague happened, the death of the firstborn, he said, when
the death angel comes, you have to have the blood on the door.
When I see the blood, I will pass by you. I will pass by you. But those who didn't have the
blood, the firstborn died. And what happened the next morning?
Pharaoh had to relinquish all of his power. Pharaoh had to
relinquish all of his position, all of this authority he thought
he had. He had to obey God at God's commandment, at the appointed
time. Why didn't he obey him the very first time he heard?
Because God didn't make him. God didn't make him. He chose
to show his signs and his wonders, is what the scripture says. He
said, for this cause, that my glory may be known. I've raised
up Pharaoh for that reason. Pharaoh had no hope of eternal
life. He was raised up for the singular purpose of having his
heart hardened and him hardening his own heart, that God would
get all of the glory. That was Pharaoh's purpose in
life. At the appointed time, Pharaoh
had to relinquish all of his power. He truly had none. And
that's what happens with you and I. The appointed time when
the command comes into your heart, the Lord says, live. The Lord
commands, believe. We relinquish all hope of self-righteousness. We relinquish all authority over
ourself. We say it's no longer my choice,
it's his. We say truth, Lord, I am a dog,
but the dogs desire the crumbs that fall from the master's table.
Can I have a crumb from your table? Can I be your dog? Can
I be your little child? That's what he commands. That's
what takes place. Either we believe now or we will
believe by sight in eternity. What does the scripture says?
What does the scripture say? Every knee shall bow and every
tongue shall confess what Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
God, the father, not might, but shall. What mercy and grace it
is to believe right now, right now, not having to wait. We believe
by sight, by his command, believe we believe. Whosoever believes on the Lord
Jesus Christ shall be saved. What a promise. Whosoever. I
said this the first hour, but I'm going to say it again this
hour. I'm glad he didn't say Caleb Hickman. Caleb Hickman
believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. He'll be saved. There's a bunch
of Caleb Hickman in the world. Thanks be to God. He said, whosoever.
Whosoever. That means I can say with all
authority, you're a whosoever. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and you shall be saved. Believe. Believe on him. Take
him at his word. Take him at his word. Believe
on what he said. Trust in Christ alone. Believe
on him alone. Now in closing, I want to ask
you this question. What does it mean to believe
on his name? Because that's what he said we have to do, believe
on his name. What does it mean to believe on the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ? Well, when you think of someone,
you think of a person. When you hear a name, you think
of a person. If I was to mention a actor of
some kind and said their name, you would think of that person,
you would think of their characteristics, you would think of their movies
that they made. If we were to talk amongst ourselves
and we're to talk, maybe I'm asking them about somebody over
here, they will be thinking about you as a person, your character,
your attributes, everything about you. Now, there's only one Lord
Jesus Christ that has to be established. We know that to be true, but
it also has to be established just by me saying it. To make
certain that whenever we say the Lord Jesus Christ, we're
not thinking of lowercase Jesus. We're not thinking of baby Jesus
in a manger. We're thinking about the Lord Jesus Christ. In the manger, he was the sovereign
creator of the universe even then. And that's how we view
him no matter where we see him through the eyes of faith. So
what does it mean to believe on his name? It means that every
title that he was given, you believe it. As the author and
as the finisher of faith, as the alpha and the omega of your
salvation, as Jehovah sit, can you, the Lord, our righteousness,
believing that we have no righteousness. This is believing on his name,
who he is. He is the Christ of the father. He is the Lord's Christ. He is
the lamb of God. These are not just titles. This
is his name. His name shall be called Counselor,
Wonderful, Prince of Peace, the Everlasting Father. This is who
he is. To believe on his name, you believe
in every bit of his character, every bit of his ability, relinquishing
any ability that you have. Any hope in a choice that you
make, but believing that he chose to go to the cross as the Lord
Jesus Christ to put away the sin of his people, you believe
that. And you believe that he successfully did that. That's
what it means to believe on his name. It's a complete confession
that you cannot contribute anything to salvation. Remember what the
angel said, I quoted this earlier, call his name Jesus. for he shall
save his people from their sin. Why was his name called Jesus?
Because he saved his people from their sin. Do you believe that?
Do you believe on that name? It's the sweetest name that we
know, isn't it? There's no other name given among
men whereby we must be saved. See, believing on that name,
you must be saved because God's give you the faith to believe
it. You must be saved. That's not us obligating God.
That's him promising himself. If you believe, if you believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, you shall be saved. That's what he
said. Don't think of this belief as a work, something that you
conjure up, some decision that you're making. I've been as clear
as I could be on that. This is him saying, believe and you believe. That's the message, believe.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Believing is not a work. Believing
is a work of grace in the heart. Not a work that we do, it's a
work that God does. Not a work that we do, but a work that he
does. To believe on his name is to
believe everything he said, everything he did. He is the savior of his
people. I like the name, the great I
am that he gave to Moses. I am that I am. We can't enter
into what that means. We can't enter into who God is,
but faith believes it, don't we? When the I am was made sin
for his people, that you and I might be made the righteousness
of God in him. He did that. Believe that. Believe
on him. This is God's commandment. that we should believe on the
name of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he gave
us commandment. The Pharisees came to the Lord
one time and said to him, what's the greatest commandment? What
did he say? To love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind,
soul, and strength. And the second is like unto the
first, love your neighbor as yourself. If you believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, by the faith that he's given, by the work
he did in your heart, And you love him with all your heart,
mind, soul, and strength. And you love your neighbor as yourself
in Christ. How can I love my neighbor as myself? How can I
love the brethren as myself looking to Christ? Looking to Christ. How can I forgive my brother?
By realizing you've been forgiven. They that have, they that are
asking for forgiveness, give forgiveness because they've been
forgiven. If somebody's asking me to forgive them, how much
More so should we forgive because of us being forgiven, seeing
ourself as the sinner, realizing how much did the Lord forgive
us? Certainly we should forgive one another. How much did the
Lord love us? Certainly we should love one another. John even says,
you know, you've passed from death unto life because you love
the brethren. What am I saying? I'm saying that if you believe
the commandment of the Lord, if you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, You're gonna love one another. It's gonna happen. That's
just how it works. That's it. We love him and we
love each other. This is his commandment. Lord
Jesus Christ purchased the right for you to believe on him. He
qualified you by his blood. I love that. Qualified his people
to believe. Gave them faith to do so. You're
commanded to believe. It's not an option, you're commanded
to believe. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be
saved. That's our hope, isn't it? Let's
pray. Lord, cause us to believe on you, cause us to come as little
children, cause us to look, cause us to rest, cause us to believe,
we pray in Christ's name, amen.