seeking for the help of the Lord. I direct your prayerful attention to the Gospel according to John chapter 5 and reading from our text verse 14. This is our Lord speaking. He's speaking to the Jews and this is what he says is a way of reproof and ye will not come to me that ye might have life.

Coming to the Lord for life, something that the religious of Christ's day would not do. The Lord had said in the previous verse, search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me.

Now, By nature, we are dead. We are dead in trespasses and in sins. We do not have spiritual life. And indeed, we are not able to give it to ourselves. And there is only one that is able to give it to us, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Many of the Lord's people that have been quickened into life, that have known what it is to seek the Lord and to be alive spiritually, they often feel periods in their lives where they feel dead or lifeless and cold, and the spiritual life is at a low ebb in them.

We think of the Lord saying that I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. And he's speaking of spiritual life. There's so many that misuse that word and use it for teaching that the Lord has come that we might have more of this poor dying world. It's nothing like that, it is speaking of that eternal life and spiritual life.

What a solemn thing to continue, as we are born, dead in trespasses and sins, the dead know nothing, the natural man, which we are by nature, perceives not the things of God, neither can it know them, because they are spiritually discerned. And it is that spiritual life that is so vital.

The Lord here has a real reproof. Here he is amongst his own people, amongst those that are religious leaders, and they will not, they will not come unto him for life. They don't see him who he is. They charge him with being an imposter. In the end they crucify him because that he being a man made himself equal with God.

The very claims, the very things that were vital to believe in for life was the reason why they crucified him. And it makes us then ask the question with us, have we in the beginning been drawn and brought to us for life from a feeling sense of death to the Lord? And if at the beginning, when we feel lifeless along the way, do we likewise come to the Lord for life? Or do we somehow think that it is within ourselves and we can just bring it up ourselves?

The Lord has many ways and means to bring us again to seek Him. and to seek it from Him. Really one of the secrets of vital doctrine and true religion is the reality of the Fall. How many errors in the Church of God stem from the thought that man in himself has some ability to respond to God, that he can instigate salvation, that he's not really so dead, as the scriptures say that he is.

And so it is one of the vital doctrines of the faith. As a Calvinistic church, we believe in the total depravity of man, that he is without any way of regenerating, quickening himself, or responding unto the call of the gospel, without divine power being given from heaven, without being drawn.

And so it is upon this the reality of the malady. If that is wrong, then the rest will be wrong. The crown will be put upon man's head and not on the Lord's. And the gospel, instead of being good news to those who really feel their hardness and deadness will be really a chain to them, a hindrance to them, because it would be like saying to a person that has a broken leg, well, to run a mile, and that if he didn't do it, then he would not get the prize, but not giving him any help to do so.

The gospel provision is so different than the law. The law makes known our sin. The law condemns. But the gospel, it provides what the law does not. It provides life. It provides every blessing that is needed to bring a soul to God. It's done by God. And there are the means and the ways by which that blessing comes. But salvation is instigated by God. It was in eternity past. It was in prescribing the Son of God to suffer, bleed, and die at Calvary. And it still is in the quickening of God's elect people to eternal life.

The promise is unto you, to all that are far off, even as many, as the Lord thy God shall call. It is the Lord that calls his people. I pass by thee when thou wast in thy blood, and when thou wast in thy blood, I bid thee live.

But I want to look at this word, and you might say, well, if you're saying men is dead in trespasses and sins, how can they be reproved for not coming to the Lord? Or how can they be exhorted to come to Him? But it is the Lord's use of means. It is what God uses to draw a sinner. He says, I lifted up above the earth will draw all men unto me. No man cometh unto me except the Father which sent me draw him, and I'll raise him up at the last day.

So I want to look firstly at the source of spiritual life and then secondly the one to come to for life and then thirdly the means and evidence of life which put simply it is believing but firstly the source of life in this chapter we read in verse 18 the Jew seeking to stone the Lord, because he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.

They understood very clearly what the Lord was claiming, who he was, not just a man, but God, the God-Man. In verse 19, Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son, now this is speaking of his humanity, remember he is divine, and he is also truly man, voluntarily humbled himself. The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do. For what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth, and he will show him greater works than these that he may marvel.

For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. And so there in verse 21, we have the Father raising up the dead and quickening them, giving them life. And we have the Son doing the same. The source, then, is Jehovah, the Father to the Son. This is why we read that beautiful Psalm 21. Psalm 21, a Psalm of David, is all speaking of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, of the relationship between Him and His Father, of that which is given Him by His Father.

Now remember, as truly God, as Jehovah, then our Lord had everything that the Father had in knowledge and ability and in power, but as the Son, then he must receive from the Father those blessings dependent upon his Father, but those are blessings that are communicable. They can be communicated to the people of God and communicated because of what the Lord Jesus Christ was going to do in fulfilling the law, in paying the penalty for their sin, in making a way that life could be given to those that were under the sentence of death.

And so we read in this beautiful psalm that, in thy salvation, how greatly she shall rejoice. So the salvation of the Lord is that which is rejoicing of the Lord, rejoicing of Jehovah, and thou hast given him his heart's desire, the desire of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Father, I will that thou whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory. And how that he has set on his head, verse three, the crown of pure gold. He asked life of thee and thou gavest it him, even length of days, forever and ever.

If we think this is just speaking of David, how can that be forever and ever? This is speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, is prophetic of Him. And all that is spoken of here is of Him. His glory is great in thy salvation. God's glory is great in the salvation of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Salvation belongeth unto the Lord. Honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him. The Father hath laid honour and majesty upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Thou hast made him blessed for ever. The Father hath made the Son blessed for ever. Thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance.

For the King trusteth in the Lord. We think of what was cast at our Lord at Calvary. He trusted in the Lord that he would deliver him. Let him deliver him if he will have him. And yet our Lord did trust in his Father, in his God. And though he cried, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Yet the Lord was shown that light at last.

Father, into thy hand I commit. my spirit." And so in this psalm, it is speaking prophetically of that relationship between the Father and the Son, and that which is given by the Father to the Son, and that which then has anointed Him with that witness and authority and power, and it is all for the sake and on behalf of sinners.

The righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ is not just the righteousness that he has as eternal God, it is the righteousness that he as man and God hath wrought out upon this earth and wrought out to give and bestow to the people of God. This is the name wherewith he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. This is the name where with she the church shall be called the Lord our righteousness.

And so that source of life, we cannot get a higher source. It is from the eternal God, the councils from eternity, the one who is the source of life. This is what Paul in speaking to those at Athens, in him we live and move and have our being, he's speaking of our natural lives and is pointing to them for the source of spiritual life as well.

It is the Lord that spake and this world was created into existence and it is the Lord that speaks and gives life to his people. And so the source, may we view the fullness of that source, the Eternity of it, the ancient, goes forth of that source, that there is no lack. The cattle upon a thousand hills are his, and all power and all might are his. And he giveth to all life and breath.

We have it in a natural way. All that are born, even at the base of the field, he gives them their life. They die, and he revives the world again. All this life, all of it, it comes from the Lord, in Him we live and move and have our being. He opened His hand, He satisfies the desire of every living thing. And when we have those high views of the source of spiritual life, you think of how contracted our views sometimes can be, you think of Perhaps just a natural illustration. You might say simply to a child, well, where did our food come from? Well, it came from the supermarket. And that's where they think the source was. But we know from those things that are in that supermarket, they come from farms. They come from many different countries. They come from the fruit of the earth. many, many steps to come there, but they've all had a source, a beginning, where that food was first farmed, first made. Even the king we read in the Word is served by the field. And so we can just have a very short-sighted idea of what comes to us and not look right beyond to see what is the very source of it.

You go to the widest river that we can find in the world, the Amazon or Euphrates or something like that, you get the local rivers, you get the Thames, you get the Yarra River in Australia, in Melbourne, and you trace it back to its source, and you come to a little spring, you come to a little trickle as it were, you come to where that water starts to flow down and then as it goes it gets wider and wider and bigger and bigger. Now in the gospel it's spoken of as a river flowing out from the threshold of the temple and it flows in summer and in winter, half to the former sea, half to the hinder sea, to the Jews, to the Gentiles, And we read of it in the prophets. It begins but a small river, and then it becomes so deep and so great that it needs someone to swim in it too much for it to walk through. And it is a tracing to the source. Where does this life come from? Where does it begin?

Be exhorted to not despise the day of small things. It is not how much, but it's where it comes from, where its origin is, where is the source. The source is in God himself, Jehovah, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

I want to look then secondly at the one to come to for life. The one to come to is our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. It hath pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. We have a little example in the case of Joseph in Egypt. Joseph was sent by God before his brethren to save their lives. Joseph was brought next to Pharaoh, And Pharaoh gave into his hand all the ordering of laying up in store all of the corn ready for that time of famine. When the time of famine came, people came and they cried to Pharaoh that he would provide food for them. He said, go unto Joseph. And it was Joseph then that had laid up that in store at Pharaoh's command, under his authority. And Pharaoh was happy, was pleased, that Joseph have all of the ordering and all of the honor of distributing all of that food of life. And so with the Lord Jesus Christ, the Father hath bestowed upon Him all that honour and glory. It has pleased the Father that it should be so. And so it is to Him that we are bidden to come, to come to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Our Lord says in John 10, verse 10, I am come that they might have life, that they might have it more abundantly. We read in John chapter 6, our Lord is very clear of himself as the source, but also as the Father that is drawing. He said, therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me except it were given unto him of my Father. So we're bidden to come to the Lord, but the Father is involved to draw to the Son. We have, again, if we go to the next chapter, in chapter 7, verse 37, in the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. And he's inviting poor sinners, come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

It is the Lord Jesus Christ that is given the honour and glory to give life. And this, of course, is all centred in what the Lord himself did at Calvary, that he laid down his life and took it again. He was raised by the Father, by himself, and by the Holy Spirit who quickens the dead. And because he then is the first begotten from the dead, he is the first to seed a corn that is cast into the earth, If it does not die, it does not bring forth fruit. But if it die, it brings forth thirty, sixty, hundredfold. And this is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the firstfruits. He is the earnest of what shall follow.

Paul, when he writes to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 15, he speaks of the resurrection or the giving of life from the dead and how vital it is to believe in the resurrection, to believe that there is life from the dead. And the first evidence of life from the dead is spiritual life, a soul that is born again, a soul that is quickened, a soul that is given life. That must happen first.

He shall give grace and glory. We read of the resurrection, those who eternal life and those to eternal death. But because it is Christ who has died and risen again, it assures that there will be a resurrection. And the fact that he has raised from the dead, he is the life of all those that were dead in trespasses and sins. They have been quickened and made alive by him.

How beautifully The Apostle, when he writes to the Ephesians, he says of what had happened to them. You have he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. For as in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, a spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. He tells them In the first chapter, that what had been done in them to bring them to spiritual life was the same power that he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places.

The two things are joined together. That is why our Lord says, because I live, ye shall live also. The life of God's people is bound up with his death and resurrection. That is why it's shown forth in baptism, buried with him by baptism into death, risen again in newness of life. That is why it's remembered at the ordinance of the Lord's Supper. He will show forth the Lord's death till he come.

Our hope is in what the Lord Jesus Christ did at Calvary which enables him justly and righteously to give eternal life to as many as the Father hath given him. It is those for whom he laid down his life, I lay down my life for the sheep, and it is those that he will quicken and make alive.

So in reality then, the one to come to for life is Jesus. How do we come? The Lord is not on earth as he was before. He is now in heaven. How does a poor sinner come to the Lord? Well, there's several ways we may look. Firstly, it is coming by faith. By faith, it is that we understand. We understand the things of God. And faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. And as we read in the Word what the Lord Jesus Christ has done, as he has set before us in the Word, then it is faith that embraces those precious truths. And we know that faith is the gift of God, that it is the beginning of the work of God, grace, and of drawing a sinner unto himself, is that he will give faith to receive the word of God, he will give that person a hearing ear. So they hear the word of God.

The one thing with the Jews, they heard the Lord's outward ear, but they wouldn't receive, they wouldn't believe what he said. They could not hear. After all the parables, the Lord said, he that hath an ear, let him hear. And the letters to the revelation, he that hath an ear, Let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

So we come by faith, trusting in the Word of God, what is set before us in the Word. We come before Him in prayer. Our Word of our text says, You will not come unto me that ye might have life. So we come before the Lord in prayer. Lord, give me spiritual life. I feel dead. I feel carnal, I feel lifeless. I don't feel to have any spiritual life. Lord, give me that life divine. Quicken my soul, make me alive.

And right at the beginning and all the way along the way, however lifeless we feel, we are to go to the Lord for it. There is no other source of life. This is really the good news of the gospel. to poor, lifeless, dead, hard, cold sinners, and have a God to go to, a Saviour, a Redeemer that delights to answer prayer and to give life.

So we're coming to Him. We come to Him in His Word. We come to where He is lifted up. We come in the assemblies of the people of God. Unto Him shall the gathering of the people be. where two or three are gathered together in my name, not just in a disciplinary situation. The word stands on its own, that there is the Lord in the midst, as encouragement for the assembly of the people together, as iron sharpeneth iron, and for the attitude of worship, we gather there. because there the Lord has promised to bless.

We think of the disciples when the Lord rose from the dead, Thomas wasn't with them. The Lord met with them, but Thomas had to miss out, and he waited another week before he saw the Lord. If we want the Lord, if we want his presence, then go where his people are. Go where his promised presence is.

To use a contrast, you wouldn't think of going to the pub, You wouldn't think of going to the cinema and thinking, well, I'm going to have the Lord's presence. God's presence is everywhere. He feels heaven and earth. He's not confined just to a chapel or to a church or God's people. Oh, we can go anywhere. No, we go where we would expect the Lord to be, amongst his people and where his people are, and where he is specially present.

And we think then of the gospel when the word is preached. You know, not every assembly that comes under the name of Christian is a true assembly. We want to go where Christ is preached. One thing my son mentioned, the advice I gave him when he left home, go find a place of worship where Christ is preached. That's the only condition, the only thing I said to him. Because that is the vital thing. It's vital that Christ is preached, is lifted up, because if we're to come for life, it must be to come to him. And if he's not preached, if he's not lifted up, then there's no life, there's no blessing there at all.

So maybe think of these practical, these very real ways of coming to the Lord. coming to our Lord Jesus Christ. May we be encouraged to do so, however hard and low and far off and lifeless you may feel to be. I want to look then at our third point. The means and evidence of life, which is believing. In John chapter 20, at the end of that chapter, we read this, and many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through his name. Notice those two are joined together.

If we go back to Gospel according to John chapter three, that well-known chapter of the new birth, and the summary of the gospel, we might say from verse 15, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. Again, you've got believeth in him and eternal life joined together. 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. And in verse 17, if we read 17 and 18, 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, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

And so all the time is joining together, believing, with eternal life. And remember the title for this last point is The Means and Evidence of Life. The means of life is through the word and being brought to believe. And the evidence is believing. And in believing we know that we do have eternal life.

In John chapter five, where our text is, we go to verse 24. We read, verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. Going back to what we said at the very introduction, that we are in death, we are dead in trespasses and sins, but in believing, hearing the word of God and believing, then there is a passing from that death unto life.

In the sixth chapter and verse 40, this is the will of Him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life, and I'll raise him up at the last day."

If we go to John's epistles, especially 1 John and chapter 5, we read again this joining together. And this is more the second part of the heading here, evidence or witness. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

Now we have these words. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. You might say, why write to those that believe that they might believe, but it's writing to them to say that joined with that believing is eternal life. And John is saying, I want you to know that. Believer, I want you to know that ye have eternal life. It is Christ makes a believer and gives him his crown.

Now this is the vital need for the preaching of Christ, the preaching of the gospel. the hearing of the word of God. It pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. And it is through that way, the natural man, he doesn't receive the things of God, that God in his wisdom, that man through wisdom should not find out God, but it should be through a gift of God. We read it when the word was preached that some believed the word spoken and some believed not. And then we read, as many as were ordained unto eternal life believed.

There is a sovereign work of God through the preaching, through the setting forth and lifting up of his beloved son. There is a believing in him like the eunuch did, Thus, through the preaching of Philip, preaching Isaiah 53, the Lord led as a lamb to the slaughter as a sheep before his shearers is done. So he opened not his mouth. Of whom speaketh the prophet he? Of himself or some other man? And Philip, he began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus.

And when they came to water, And he desired, see here is water, what doth hinder me to be baptized? The required response was this, if thou believest thou most, I believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

Never think that it is a small thing to be made a believer. It is both the means and the evidence of life, of spiritual life. Blessed thing, in the day of grace, to be a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, to receive his word, and our whole life, our conduct, our conversation, what we do, where we spend our time, and who we accompany with, all bears witness to being a true believer.

There's many that would say, oh, I'm a believer, but their life does not bear witness to it. And it is a believer that follows the Lord, obeys him. The Lord said to those that believed on him in John 8, he said, if ye continue in my word, ye shall be my disciples indeed, or really my disciples. Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

Well, the Lord bless us with coming to the Lord for life. Bless us with being a believer and with understanding that in that believing, the Lord has given us eternal life. We shall be with Him forever and ever.