How many times the Lord tells
us to behold something? Look. Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth. I have put my spirit upon him,
and he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not
cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.
A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he
not quench. He shall bring forth judgment
unto truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged
till he has set judgment in the earth and the isles shall wait
for his law. Let's pray together. I want us
to pray as a church for Jeanette. She had a a port put in, Jeanette
Briggs had a port put in Thursday, I think it was Jeanette, and
was supposed to start chemotherapy tomorrow, and they're having
a difficult time getting the chemo in from wherever it's coming
from. So, let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, what great
hope we have in knowing that you are never discouraged and
you can never fail. That we worship a God who changes
not, a God who always accomplishes his purpose. Lord, might we,
by the power of your spirit and the instrument of your word,
find our rest, our hope, and all our life in thy dear son. Lord, we pray for Jeanette and
for Donnie and ask Lord that your comfort and grace will be
upon them, your strength. Thank you for the hope and the
faith that you've given them. And Lord, we ask that you would
provide for Jeanette all that she needs in this treatment. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. A debtor to mercy, a debtor to
mercy. That's what we are, debtors to
mercy. Number three in your spout hymnal,
Tom's going to come lead us. A debtor to mercy alone, of covenant
mercy I sing, nor fear with thy righteousness on my person an
offering to bring. The terrors of love and of God
with me can have nothing to do. My Savior's obedience and blood
hide all my transgressions from view. The work which His goodness
began, the arm of His strength will complete. His promise is
yea and amen. and never was forfeited yet. Things future nor things that
are now, not all things below nor above can make him his purpose
forego or sever my soul from his love. ? I name from the palm
of his hands ? ? Eternity will not erase ? ? Impressed on his
heart it remains ? ? In marks of indelible grace ? ? Yes, I
to the end shall endure ? ? As sure as the earnest is given
? Please be seated. Psalm 89. Psalm 89. This is the
call to worship this morning. Psalm 89. And verse 4, thy seed, that is Christ Jesus,
the son of God and the son of man, thy seed will I establish
forever and build up thy throne to all generations, sela. And
the heavens shall praise thy wonders, O Lord, thy faithfulness
also in the congregation of the saints. For who in the heaven
can be compared unto the Lord? Who among the sons of the mighty
can be likened unto the Lord? God is greatly to be feared in
the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all
them that are about him. O Lord God of hosts, who is a
strong Lord like unto thee, or to thy faithfulness round about
thee? Our God and Father in heaven,
truly there is none like thee nor beside thee. You've gathered
us together around the mercy seat. You said that you would
meet us there where Christ is, who is our mercy seat. We come
to praise your wonders, oh, the wonders of our God, who became
a man in every way like us in order to be our sin bearer and
save us from our sin. us being the focus of heaven,
we would join the heavenly host in worship and praise of him
who was faithful. Oh, he was faithful. He was faithful,
succeeding in everything he promised to do in the eternal covenant
of grace. Lord, these things are too lofty.
We cannot attain to them, but we would glory in what's revealed
to us of him this day. Help us now to worship in the
preaching, in the singing and in prayer. In Christ's name we
ask it, amen. Number 168, 168 in the
hardback temple, let's all stand together. Lord, I hear of showers of blessing,
Thou art scattering, full and free. Showers the thirsty land
refreshing, Let some drops now fall on me. me. Let thy blessing fall on
me. Pass me not, O tender Savior,
let me love and cling to thee. I am longing for thy favor, while
thou art calling, O call me. Even me, even me, let thy blessing
fall on me. Pass me not, O mighty spirit,
Thou canst make the blind to see. Witness, sir, of Jesus'
merit, Speak the word of power to me. Even me, even me, let
thy blessing fall on me. Love of God so pure and changeless,
blood of Christ so rich and free. Grace of God so strong and boundless,
magnify them all in me, even me. Eve and me, let thy blessing
fall on me. Pass me not, thy lost one bringing,
bind my heart, O Lord, to thee. While the streams of life are
springing, blessing others, O bless me. Please be seated. Even me, the
chief of all sinners, Lord, would you be pleased to
have mercy on a sinner like me? We don't accuse God of wrongdoing
because he's elected a particular people according to his own will
and pleasure. We're just amazed that he would
have mercy on us. Lord, why me? John chapter 5, if you'd like
to open your Bibles there with me. John chapter 5. In the previous hour, I quoted
from Isaiah chapter 6, they will have eyes but they will not see,
ears they will have but they will not hear. And that Passage
is the most often quoted Old Testament text in the New Testament. And it certainly did describe
me. For I can remember 40 years ago
committing John chapter 5 verse 24 to memory. I knew the words of this verse but I didn't know what they meant. The Lord had not revealed to
me the glory of Christ and so the keys to the kingdom I didn't
possess, there was no way to unlock the mystery of the gospel
until the Lord Jesus was made known. And I hope this morning
that the Lord will reveal Christ by his word and enable us to
leave this place this morning having just heard something that
was not really understood but having heard from the voice of
God. I've titled this message, Half
Past Tense Eternal Life. Half Eternal Life. John concludes his gospel with
these words when he says, many other things did Jesus that are
not recorded in this book. But these have been recorded
that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the
living God, and that believing you might have life through his
name. Having eternal life. Turn with me to 1 John chapter
5, hold your finger there in our text. 1 John chapter 5. And this is another passage of
scripture that I knew but I didn't know. Many, many years. Verse 11, 1 John chapter 5, 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. Eternal life is bound up completely
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. These things, verse 13,
have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son
of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. I started
the title of this message, how do I know if I'm saved? That you may know that you have
eternal life. and that you may believe on the
name of the Son of God. Assurance of salvation. The reason
I didn't title this message, How Do I Know If I'm Saved?,
is because assurance of salvation doesn't come from believing that
I'm saved. Assurance of salvation comes
from believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Big difference. Big difference. You'll turn back with me to John
chapter five, verse 24, a glorious verse with so much in it. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
the Lord Jesus is speaking. he that heareth my voice, and
believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life, and shall
not come into condemnation, but has passed from death to life. All the false religions of this
world have one thing in common. All of them, doesn't matter if
it's Islam or Hinduism or all the corrupted versions of Christianity,
they all have one thing in common. The appeal to their religion is all about life as it relates
to this world. And the measure of success in
your participation of that religion is measured by things that you
do and don't do. It's all about being a better
person, living a better life. What interest do you suppose
the thief on the cross would have had to such a message? Well, you know, you can live
a better life. You can be happy. You can be
a better person. What interest would have that
thief on the cross had? That thief on the cross represents
every one of us. The Lord Jesus said this, I have
come that they might have life and have it more abundantly. And even in religion, we believe
that to mean that the purpose of the gospel was to make me
a better person, a happier person, a more productive person. That word abundantly translated
means beyond measure. I have come that you might have
life and that you might have it beyond what you can measure. You can't measure this by outward
circumstances. The Lord tells us in John chapter
7, judge not according to appearances. You see, they that are after
the flesh do mind the things of the flesh and all they have
is their eyes and their ears and their feelings and their
emotions and they judge their religion and the success in their
religion all by fleshly means. Judge not according to appearances,
but judge righteous judgments. Judge righteous judgments. Judge according to the righteousness
of God. And we know that left to ourselves,
we have no righteousness. Our righteousness is, as we saw
in the previous hour, man at his very best state, all men
at their very best state at altogether vanity. Our righteousness is
earth's filthy rags. We have no righteousness in ourselves.
And so the Lord says, don't judge according to outward appearances,
but make righteous judgments. Where does your righteousness
come from? Oh, the Lord, we've done many
wonderful works in thy name. Depart from me, you workers of
iniquity, for I never knew you. Now, I'm not going to try to
soften the meaning of the gospel by
defending it against those who would accuse us of being lawless.
Preacher, you're talking about free grace, how are we going
to measure our success if we don't look at outward appearances? As soon as I try to defend the
gospel against the accusations of antinomianism, which is lawlessness,
that's what people say when we talk about free grace and we
talk about judging righteously and not judging by outward appearances.
They say, well, then how can you be sure? And as soon as we begin to try
to defend the gospel against those accusations, what we do
is we send the tender-hearted believer who is free and trusting
in Christ and resting in Christ, we send them to the law to look
to themselves to try to get evidences of their salvation. I would just say one thing to
those who accuse us of preaching an easy believism. And there's
no such thing as that. Believing is not easy. Matter
of fact, it's impossible. It is impossible. But those who
would take what we're saying and come to those conclusions,
I would just say this about them. The reason why you're afraid
of freedom is because you know that if you get out from under
the law, the law's for the lawless. You get out from under the law,
that's the only thing restraining you. The only thing keeping you
in the speed limit is that policeman that's behind you with his lights
on. And you take him away and you know what you're gonna do.
You're gonna put your pedal to the metal and you're gonna take
off. Why? Because you're lawless. And those
who accuse us of preaching a lawless gospel are afraid. If they believed
what we believed, they would be lawless. No. The apostle Paul did not
have to say to that Philippian jailer when the Philippian jailer
asked him. You remember the story. When
the Philippian jailer asked him, sirs, what must I do to be saved? The apostle Paul did not say
to that Philippian jailer, now let's talk about what you did
to us last night. Let's make sure that you're really
sorry for the way you beat us and chained us to the wall and
treated us so badly. No, he didn't say any of that.
He said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be
saved. This is it, believe. And what do we find the Philippian
jailer doing? Binding up the wounds of the apostle Paul. Why?
Because he was told to? Because he was required by some
law to produce evidence of his salvation? No, because the grace
of God in his heart brought him to that place. Zacchaeus, make
haste and come down. I must go to thy house today. And when the Lord Jesus got to
Zacchaeus' house, There's nothing recorded in scripture about the
Lord saying to Zacchaeus, now Zacchaeus, you've been a liar
and a thief and you've robbed your countrymen of their taxes. Let's get that straightened out.
Let's make sure you get your life on the straight and narrow
before we can go any further. He didn't say any of that. No, when the Lord Jesus came
into Zacchaeus' house and came into his heart, Zacchaeus said
to the Lord, half of what I own, I'll give to the poor. And if
I've defrauded any man, I'll pay him back fourfold. See, he
wasn't required. When the Lord gave blind Bartimaeus
his sight, He didn't say to Blind Bartimaeus,
now Blind Bartimaeus, you need to get in lockstep conformity
to me and follow me and do exactly what I do. He told Blind Bartimaeus, he
said, go your way. And the next words in that verse
say, and Zacchaeus followed Jesus in the way. Now I'm gonna make a statement
right now that's gonna, there's always gonna be abusers of grace
and there's always gonna be those who are afraid of grace. But I wanna say to those of you
who are free in Christ. Love Christ and live like you
want. Love Christ and live like you
want. Hey, preacher, you got to give
people more controls over things than that. Well, that's what the leaders
of communist nations believe. very structured life in North
Korea, very structured rules and regulations that no man would
ever fear, would ever dare violate in places in China. You want
to give up the freedom that you have in America to go put yourself
under that? Those countries don't have the
crime and the murders and the shootings that we have in America. They don't. You have your Bibles open to
John chapter 5 verse 24. There are seven statements in
this verse and I want to just take them simply. And slowly,
and clear as the Lord will enable us, one by one, the Lord begins
with these two words, verily, verily. Verily, verily. Truly, truly. The words in the
original language are amen and amen. What is the Lord beginning this
verse with? What is the Lord beginning this
statement with? This is an absolute truth. An absolute truth. Now men have always rejected
the idea that truth can be an absolute. You hear people say today, well,
you know, that's your truth, this is my truth. People say
with Pilate, when Pilate said, tell me then, are you a king?
And the Lord Jesus said, for this cause was I born, and for
this reason came I into the world to bear witness unto the truth. And they that are of the truth
hear my voice and they follow me. And what Pilate said, truth? What is truth? There's no such
thing as truth. Don't you know that you have
to factor into every situation the circumstances that apply
to try to figure out what, there's no such thing as truth. I'm not interested in having
my own truth. I need a truth that's eternal,
a truth that is immutable, a truth that never changes. How do I know that I have eternal
life? Because when the Lord Jesus Christ says to me, verily, verily,
amen and amen, this is non-negotiable. This is always the truth. The response of faith is, thank
you, Lord, I need to hear that. I don't need to be left to myself
to try to figure out what to do and what to believe. I need
you to speak an absolute truth to my heart. A truth that does not depend
upon any of my opinions. I believe the Lord Jesus himself
is that truth. I am the way, I am the truth,
and I am the life, and no man can come to the Father except
by me. That's what I need. I just need a thus saith the
Lord. Lord, don't leave me to my opinions,
don't lead me to try to figure it out. Verily, verily, I say, this is the second statement
in this verse, I say, I believe that Jesus Christ himself
is that truth. The Lord Jesus said, all authority
has been given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore
and make disciples of all nations. And lo, teaching them to observe
all things whatsoever commanded you. And lo, I'm with you always,
always, even until the end of the earth. Never a man spake
like that man. Always spoke with authority.
And don't you love the centurion? I know what a 40 is. I say unto
this one, go, and he goes. I say unto that one, come, and
he comes. I believe all you have to do
is speak the word and my servant will be healed. Amen, amen. This is the absolute
truth of God, non-negotiable, nothing to be taken from it,
nothing to be added to it. I say, unto you." The Lord Jesus
Christ is the only one that could say that. All the Old Testament
prophets, what did they say? Thus saith the Lord. Thus saith
the Lord. Only God can say with authority,
I say unto you. I can't stand up here this morning
and say to you, I say unto you, you've got to do it this way.
All I can say is thus saith the Lord. But here the Lord Jesus
himself is speaking. And he says, I say, you have heard of them of old. Now what the Lord said in the
Sermon on the Mount, you have heard of them of old, that if you take your neighbor's
wife, you've committed adultery, but I say unto you, I say unto
you, You lust after a woman in your heart, you've already committed.
I say that here's the outward appearances of the law required
man or woman to remain faithful in their marriage. But righteous judgments is judging
righteously of the heart. God looks at the heart. Paul said, I was alive once without
the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. It revealed the intents of my
heart. And now God has exposed me for
what I am. I say unto you. You see, when
God says, I say unto you, now we've been exposed before God.
What are we gonna say? You have heard, Commit murder, you've taken your
brother's life, you're guilty of murder, but I say unto you,
if you have ought in your heart toward your brother without a
cause, you've already murdered him in your heart. You see, the
difference between outward appearances and the righteous judgments,
judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgments.
And these righteous judgments only come when we hear his voice
say, I say unto you. As long as it's someone else's
opinion, as long as it's the words of man, we can figure out
a way to justify ourselves, we can figure out a way to say,
yeah, but, we can figure out a way to change it some way or
the other, but when God says, I say unto you, every mouth shall be shut and
we all are guilty before God. That's the blessing. He shut
my mouth. You accuse me of something I'm
not guilty of or even if I am guilty of it, I'm going to try
to find some way to justify myself before you. I'm gonna excuse it or I'm gonna
find some way of saying, well, yeah, but that's not really what
I meant. But when God says, I say unto
you, mouth is shut. What am I gonna say? What do
I wanna say? How can I speak? God said it,
that settles it. The Lord told a man one time,
your sins are forgiven you. And the Pharisees began to rebuke
the Lord. No man can forgive sins, but
God? Who's this man thinking he is?
And what did the Lord Jesus say? This man was crippled. He was
laying on a bed. And the Lord Jesus looked at
those Pharisees and says, what is easier to say? Your sins are
forgiven you? Or take up your bed and walk,
but that you might know that the Son of God has power to forgive
sins. I say unto you, take up your
bed and walk. Oh, the power of God's word.
I say unto you, in the beginning was the word and the word was
with God, the word was God. Oh, when God speaks, every mouth
is shut. In another place where a man
was told to take up his bed and walk, the Pharisees that happened
on the Sabbath, the Pharisees said, what are you doing carrying
your bed on the Sabbath? And what did that man say? The
man who healed me told me to take up my bed and carry it.
And his word has power over your word. When Saul heard the voice of
God, Saul of Tarsus, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me? Who art thou, Lord? I am Jesus,
whom thou persecutest. Oh, Lord, what would you have
me to do? Yeah, well, I'm done. I'm done speaking. I'm done trying
to, figure out how I can, what would you have me to do? You see, this is how we know
that we have eternal life, is we believe ourselves in need
of an authoritative, absolute, Word of truth spoken to us by
God himself. No creed, no confession, no opinion,
no religion, no nothing can help me. God must speak to me. And then the Lord makes this
third glorious statement, he that heareth my word, He that heareth my word. Here's
the gospel. The gospel of God's free and
sovereign grace in the glorious person and finished work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's done, it's finished. I've
heard, Lord, I've been trying to do this and do that. But now, Lord, you have shut
my mouth and you have spoken. infallible authoritative absolute
truth to my heart and you've given me ears to hear let him
who has ears to hear hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches
you don't just decide one day why I'm gonna start listening
to God God's got unstopped ears, God.
The hearing ears of God, that comes from the Lord. I can't just, I introduced this
message by saying I memorized this verse 40 years ago. I was
in seminary 40 years ago. And I thought I was, you know,
I thought I was doing everything for God that I needed to do and
I didn't have a clue. I didn't have ears to hear. And
you can't hear without the preaching of the gospel. How can they call
upon him in whom they've not believed? And how can they believe
in him whom they've not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? You see, we go about trying to
establish our own righteousness, ignorant of the righteousness
of God, for Christ himself is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believe it. Oh Lord, you've got to reveal
your righteousness. I'll go about trying to establish
my own. Look at verse 25. Verily, verily,
here it is again. Each one of the gospel writers
has a different, the Holy Spirit gave Matthew, Mark, Luke and
John a different emphasis in their writings. John is different
from the other three in that the emphasis of John's
gospel is the deity of Christ, the deity. It starts that way. Verse one of John chapter one,
in the beginning was the word, the word was with God and the
word was God and the word became flesh and he dwelt among us and
we beheld his glory. 25 times in the gospel of John and
only in the gospel of John do we read verily, verily. No other
gospel writer records this. Verily, verily, amen and amen. And here he says it again, twice
in a row, verse 25 and verse 26. Verily, verily, I say unto
you, the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the
voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live. We're spiritually dead. Left ourselves, that's how we
come into this world. And in a few chapters, the Lord
Jesus is gonna say at Lazarus' tomb, Bethany, Lazarus, come
forth. Come forth. Oh, what a blessing it is to be able to hear. To hear that trumpet sound of
jubilee. All debt is paid. All slaves
are set free. All property is restored back
to its original owner. Everything that you lost in the
fall, in your father Adam, For in Adam all died, but in Christ
shall all be made alive." Everything we lost and so much
more. That's what the Lord meant when
he said, I have come that they might have life and habit more
abundantly beyond measure, beyond measure. What we have in Christ is infinitely
more than Adam ever knew in the garden. We've heard. We've heard that we were dead
in our trespasses and sins, unable to believe. We've heard that God is sovereign
in salvation. that he has elected a people
according to his own will and purpose, and we rejoice in that.
For if God had not chosen a people, no one would be saved. Election
is not a closed door to heaven. It is the only open door that
there is. And had God not opened that door,
there wouldn't be a way to heaven. Had God not chosen a people,
had he not elected a people, no one would be saved, for none
of us would have come to God had he not chosen us. We've heard that what the Lord
Jesus did on Calvary's cross was the accomplished salvation
of those whom God had chosen. We've heard that. We believe
that everything that God requires for me to have everlasting life,
the Lord Jesus performed. And we look to the same one that
the Father's looking to for the hope of our salvation. And we believe that as we first
trusted the Lord Jesus, so we walk in him. So that we stand fast in the
liberty where with Christ has made us free and not get entangled
again with the yoke of bondage. We're not going back to Egypt,
not going back to the law. We're going to keep looking to
Christ. This faith comes by hearing,
and hearing comes by the Word of God. Every time we gather
together, every time we open God's Word, every time we break
the bread of life, our hope and our prayer is that the Spirit
of God... You remember when the prophet
preached to the Valley of Dry Bones? That's us. The Lord interprets
that picture. He says, He says to the prophet,
he says, this valley of dry bones is the whole house of Israel.
The whole house of Israel. Dead, dry, lifeless, unable to
do anything to raise themselves up. Preach to them, son of man, preach
the gospel to them. And so he did. And the bones
begin to take shape, but yet there's no life in them. There's
no life in them yet. And so the Lord says to the prophet
Ezekiel, prophesy unto the wind, call upon the spirit of God to
bless the word of God, because only then can the dead hear the
voice of God and they that are dead be made alive. It is the
spirit that quickeneth. It is the spirit that gives life.
The flesh profited nothing. Barely, barely, absolute truth,
spoken by God himself, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him
that sent me, believeth on him that sent me, We believe that Jesus is the
Christ, the son of the living God. We believe that the father
sent him. We believe that he is the eternal son of God who was made flesh
and dwelt among us. We believe that he was born of
a woman, born under the law to redeem them who are cursed by
the law. We believe that he is Emmanuel,
God with us. Because he was sent. Why did
the Lord Jesus come into this world? Because the father sent
him. That's why he came. What did he send him for? You
shall call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from
their sins. That's why Christ came. The Lord
Jesus said, my meat, my sustenance is to do the will of him who
sent me and to finish his work. to finish his work. And in John
chapter 17, the Lord Jesus praying on behalf of his people, Father,
I pray not for the world, I pray for them which thou has given
me out of the world, for thine they were, and thou has given
them unto me. And the world hath not known
thee, but these have known that thou hast sent me. We believe. that Jesus Christ
was sent from heaven to do the will of his father and to finish
the work of redemption. We believe that. We've cast all
our hope on him. We've rested everything. What Paul said, I know whom I
have believed and I'm persuaded. God's persuaded me, I've been
taught of God. Why? Because he gave me ears to hear
the absolute truth and the Lord Jesus spoke it. And I can't not
believe. I just absolutely cannot believe.
I try every day not believing God and I can't do it. Every
time I look away from Christ, every time I look to find my
pleasure, my hope, my safety, my whatever, outside of Christ. Lord, I believe, help thou my
unbelief. And every time I manifest my
unbelief, I can't stay there. I try all the time to not believe God. This is life eternal, that they
might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou
hast sent. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting
life. Hath everlasting life. Let's pause here for just a minute.
This is so important, so important. If I believe that Christ is the
absolute truth of God, and I believe that Christ is the living word,
and I've heard the word of God, and I believe that God has sent
his son to save his people, Is that the cause of having everlasting
life? Or is it the result of having
everlasting life? Big difference. You see, men will make a work
out of all these things that we've already looked at in John
chapter 5 verse 24. If you believe, then you'll have
everlasting life. Is everlasting life the reward
that God gives to those who believe? Or is believing the evidence
of having everlasting life? Just a second. How do I know if I'm saved? I believe God. I can't not believe
him. And I'm not looking to God to
reward me for my faith. I know that I would not believe
had he not given me life, half everlasting life. That's why
the Lord said to Nicodemus, Nicodemus, accept a man be born from above. He cannot see the kingdom of
God. Faith is the evidence of things
not seen. It's not the cause of it. Faith
is not our contribution to salvation. Faith is the evidence that God
Almighty has breathed life into our souls. Think about it like this, your
physical life. You know you're alive, you're
breathing, you're seeing, you're hearing, you're thinking. Are those things, are your senses
the cause of you being alive? Or are your senses the evidence
of you being alive? Same thing. You're not alive because you
see and you hear and you think and you talk and you breathe
No, you do those things because you are alive. They shall not come into condemnation. You see that? How is it that I could not be
condemned by God? How is that possible? Well, there's
nothing to condemn me for. I don't have any sin, not before God. By virtue of my union with Christ,
by virtue of what he accomplished, who, Romans chapter eight, can
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. That word justified means to
be without sin, without sin. Turn with me to that passage
quickly, Romans chapter eight. Verse 33. Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. I
haven't justified myself. God the son justified me before
God his father. That's what Isaiah chapter 42,
Isaiah 53, God saw the travail of his soul, and God said, I'm
satisfied. He shall not fail. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
me. I have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous
one. He's my righteousness before
God. And when God the Father looks at his son, he sees no
sin. None. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath, past
tense, everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? Thanks be to God through Christ
Jesus, I am free. There is now therefore no condemnation
to them that are in Christ. Can't be condemned. Not possible. Sin's been put
away. God says, I remember it no more.
I've separated it from you as far as the East is from the West.
Oh, for you, have passed from death unto life. Now in the physical realm, we
pass from life unto death, don't we? But in the spiritual realm,
it's just the opposite. We pass from death unto life. There was a time when we were
dead in our trespasses and sins. We were unable to believe. We
were unable to hear. We were unable to see. We had
no interest in the gospel of God's free grace and the righteousness
in the Lord Jesus Christ, for we had our own. We had no love
for Christ, his church, his word, no ability to worship, no ability
to rejoice. Now the Lord Jesus Christ is
our life. He's our life. Give me Christ lest I die. And faith just keeps breathing.
How do you know you're alive physically? What do we do? We
check a person's vital signs and sometimes their breathing
may be very shallow, maybe almost indetectable. as long as they're breathing. Drawing in that life-giving oxygen,
that's faith. Exhaling that toxic carbon dioxide,
that's repentance. And a believer's life is a life
of repentance and faith. And just like breathing in and
out, So that is our life. Always in need of both. Barely, barely. Absolute truth. I say unto you,
God has spoken. You heard? Believed? It's because you have eternal
life. Everlasting life. And you shall
never come into condemnation. The Lord Jesus was condemned
for you. For you've passed from death to life. Our Heavenly Father, thank you for your glorious word both living and written. Father,
be pleased for Christ's sake and for the salvation of our
souls to speak these words irresistibly and effectually to our hearts. Lord, thank you for this table.
Thank you for the opportunity to sit and feed on the bread of life
and drink the blood. For this is the means by which
we have life in us. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. Number 30 in the spiral hymnal,
let's stand together. ? Glory, glory, I'm forgiven ?
All my sins are washed away ? Christ by his great blood atonement
? All my sin has put away ? Sin imputed to my Savior When he
died upon the tree As the substitute for sinners God will not impute
to me ? Glory, glory, I'm accepted ? Robed in Christ's own righteousness
? I'm a child and heir of heaven ? Saved by God's almighty grace
? Christ's obedience to the Father ? Is imputed now In God's sight
I'm pure and holy. He declares me so to be. Glory, glory, I'll not perish. In Christ's hands, I am secure. He who saved me sure will keep
me. By God's grace, I shall endure. This is not a vain presumption,
I just Please be seated. Let's turn to number 191 in your
hardbacked hymnal for the Lord's table. 191.