Alright, I'll ask you now to
turn in your Bibles to 1st John. 1st John, chapter 2. We're going through numerous
books. 1st John is one of them. 1st John chapter 2. I'd like
to deal with verses 21 to 23. 1st John chapter 2. Before I begin, I'd like to make
this comment. The Lord was pleased to allow
the Apostle John, John was an Apostle, taught the Gospel personally
by the Lord, called by the Lord personally, taught the Gospel
by the Lord personally, gifted to preach by the Lord, commissioned
by the Lord to go into all the world, preach the Gospel to every
creature. And the Lord allowed John to live. He was the last
of the apostles, the last remaining apostle. He was the last one
to die. And he was exiled to the island
of Patmos, penned the book of the Revelation. John had seen
some things. He was witness to some things. One of the things that he was
witness to Of course, he said, we beheld his glory, penned the
gospel of John. And another thing he was a witness
to was the heresies that began to rise up in the church while
he was still alive. Heresies were raising up, and
John who had a first-hand account of these Heresies, these lies
that were springing up in the midst of the assemblies, was moved upon by the Holy Spirit
to write some of these things down. Now these are God-inspired
words written pinned by a man that actually saw Him. He saw Him. He said, we touched
Him. We saw Him. Our eyes beheld Him. Handled Him. So the Apostle John,
he knew by experience the danger of these enemies of the truth. And he did everything that he
could to warn, well what was everything that he could do?
He wrote them down. Wrote them down in a letter.
I'm so glad this is not hearsay, passed down, passed down, passed
down, passed down. By the time he got to us, you
know how stories change. Not this. These scriptures, according to these scriptures,
are God-inspired. These are breathed of God. Infallible. No error. And here's what John
said, starting in verse 21. He said, I've not written unto
you because you know not the truth, but because you know it,
and that no lie is of the truth. He said, I'm writing unto you
because you know the truth. Not because you don't know it,
because you know it. And that's the foundation of
the stability of God's saints. Here's what we need. We need
a constant reminder. We need a constant encouragement. We need a constant warning against
deception. It's not that we've heard this
before and we don't need to hear it again. We need to hear it
again. What do we need to hear? Same thing. Same thing. Man by nature wants something
new. That's what those at Mars Hill
wanted. They wanted to hear some new thing. Tell me something
that'll tickle my ears. Tell me something that'll amaze
me. Tell me something I've never
heard before. If you hear something out of
this pulpit that you've never heard before, and the Lord may
reveal something through the same message that you've never
grasped hold of, but you've heard it before. There's nothing being
preached out of this pulpit that's not been preached out of this
pulpit for 62 years. Same message. And here's the
amazing thing to me. That we still are here. And we
still come back to hear it. We'll come back to hear the same
thing over and over and over. Here's what a believer wants
to hear. You tell me one more time because it's amazing to
me every time I hear it. That Almighty God before the foundation of the
world chose a people in Christ to be represented by Christ.
He chose a people out of all the nations. This is in Ephesians
chapter 1, you know that. Chose a people in Christ that
they should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Does
that ever get old to you? Electing grace. God chose. We're bound to give thanks, Paul
said to the church at Thessalonica. We're bound to give thanks unto
God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord. Because God hath
from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit, being set apart by the Spirit of God, and belief
of the truth. Is there such thing as election?
Absolutely. These scriptures are filled with
it. Somebody said, I don't believe in election. Well, then you don't
believe God. It's just as simple as that. Do you ever get tired
of the Lord of the Scripture that says, I lay down my life
for the sheep? Now listen, just the thought.
I think about that great high priest. Nuh-uh, no. Only one great high priest. The
high priest in the wilderness. The one that was typifying the
great high priest. When Aaron went in there, I've
told you about those two stones. He had a stone on each shoulder
and had six names of the tribes of Israel, six and six, twelve
tribes. One, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three,
one, two, three, on his breastplate, had their names, you know. And
he'd go in and offer blood. He was representing somebody
in particular. Those who were a picture of God's
elect. You ever get tired of hearing
of particular redemption? I lay down my life for the sheep. Those Pharisees came to him and
said, when are you going to be honest with us? When are you
going to tell us the truth? He said, I told you the truth.
And you don't believe me. This is John 10. He said, I told
you the truth. He said, but you don't believe
because you're not my sheep. You're not my sheep. Read that. John 10. He said, My sheep hear
My voice. I know them. They follow Me.
I give unto them eternal life. They'll never perish. That's
the truth. That's the truth. How about the
truth of irresistible grace? All that the Father giveth Me
shall come to Me. Him that cometh to Me by faith,
I will in no wise cast out. What believer tires of hearing
that? You want to hear something? No, no, no, no. John said, I've
not written unto you because you know not the truth, but because
you know it. We need to hear again and again
and again. I've told you faith from the
Scriptures, Romans 10, 17. Faith to come, faith to believe,
faith to love. cometh, cometh, cometh by hearing,
hearing by the Word of God. The reason that you're here today,
by the grace of God, is because you need to hear. Because I need
faith for today. That's why when somebody starts
talking about, well, I came to the Lord when I was 17. Is that
all you got? If that's all you got, that ain't
good enough. He that cometh. He that cometh to me, cometh,
cometh, cometh. He that cometh to me right now,
right now. He that cometh today. Are you
coming today? I need Him today. He that cometh to me. And faith
cometh by hearing. Here's where we're taught. We're
taught the necessity of hearing. Hearing the only message that
God blesses to the salvation of His people. Tell me the truth
again. John said, I'm not writing because
you don't believe, I'm writing because you do believe. And you
need to hear it again. We need to be taught again. Taught the truth of God Almighty
in Christ reconciling His people. So this truth of the need of
hearing the Word of God. We believe by faith through hearing. Look at 1 John 5, 9. What do
we believe? What do we believe? We believe...
I see these signs. I saw one the other day. It was
in a yard. It was big old wooden. It was
kind of an oval. Really nice sign. And here's
what it said. Believe. Believe. Believe what? Believe
that Trump is president? I believe that. I've never met
him, but I believe it. I've seen him on TV. Believe
what? Believe what? Look at 1 John
5 verse 9-10. If we receive the witness of
men, the witness of God is greater. For this is the witness of God,
which He hath testified of His Son, 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. Now, we just considered a message
a minute ago. We've heard that all our lives.
The Son of God. The Son of God. That means that
that's the only begotten. The one that we still, after
hearing that message, I still can't explain it. Believe it,
but I can't explain it. He that believeth on... Now there's an interesting word. He that believeth on the Son. Do you notice that the word is
not in? He that believeth. It doesn't say he that believeth
in the Son. I've told you before, devils believe that there is
a Son. They believe that. But to believe
on Him. To trust Him. I believe Him.
I believe on Him. What do you believe? I believe
that life is in Him, not in me. That's what I believe. He that
believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in Himself. He believes
not merely that He exists, but He knows Him to be the truth. of the grace of God, and He places
all of His confidence in Him upon whom He believes. I believe
on Him. I believe on Him. My wife can believe that I exist,
but for her to trust me, to provide for her, to be faithful to her,
there's a big difference in believing that I exist and believing that
I'll be faithful to her, that I'll take care of her. So all
that believeth on the Son, in that manner, believeth on Him.
And when I say believeth on the Son, that excludes all of us. We don't believe in ourselves
at all. We don't trust ourselves. What believer trusts in himself?
Look at the same books, 1 John 5, verse 31, 32. I'm sorry, I
said 1 John, I meant John, John. This second one is just the Gospel
of John. Gospel of John chapter 5, verse 31-32. If I bear witness of myself, my
witness is not true. There is another that beareth
witness of me, and I know that the witness which he witnesseth
of me is true. Look at verse 36-37. I have a
greater witness than that of John for the works which the
Father hath given me to finish. The same works that I do bear
witness of me that the Father hath sent me. And the Father
himself which hath sent me hath borne witness of me. Ye have
neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape." John
says this, I'm not writing to you because you don't know the
truth. I'm not preaching to you this morning because you don't
know the truth. I'm preaching because you do know the truth.
And you're hearing what I'm saying. And you're perceiving what I'm
saying. Paul said in Philippians 3 verse
1, Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord, that He is our God,
our refuge, our righteousness, to write the same things to you,
to repeat the things that you already know. Paul says to me,
it's not grievous, it's not irksome. It's not an irksome thing for
me to tell you the same things. I can't tell you how many times
in my flesh I'm preaching something and I say, in myself, they know
this. They've heard this before. That's
a battle that goes on within a believer. I want to, you know,
the flesh would say, I want to say something new. Something
that'll dazzle them. That's pride. That's all that
is, is pride. Paul says to say the same things. It's not grievous to me. Oh,
but he said, for you it's safe. This is safe. It's suited for
our needs. It keeps our minds and hearts
upon the Lord. It keeps us from error. Some
might say, well, I'll never deviate. I'll never deviate from what
I'm believing. No, as long as Almighty God keeps you. under
the sound of the gospel and confirming it in your mind over and over
and over. We're not as strong as we think
we are. We think, oh, I got this, I got this, I got it. No, we
don't. We need to hear faith in Christ's
evidence. That's the proof of our election. Then John warns the saints to
be on guard against untruth. that they knew would be there. Listen, a little leaven leaveneth
the whole lump. You've heard that. It's just
like that, I told you last Wednesday night, those of you that may
not have been here Wednesday night, I read something, it was
a newspaper somebody sent me and before I threw it away, I
just read up the top. And it was talking about the
things that they believe. They believe that the Bible is
the, you know, infallible word of God. I believe that. I believe
that. They said, I believe that salvation
is by faith. I don't believe that. I do not
believe that. I don't believe that salvation
is by faith. I believe that salvation is by grace. Through faith. That means if I say that salvation
is by faith, That's works. Now what you're saying is, by
my faith I was saved. Salvation by faith. That's not
what the scripture says. Salvation by grace. And you understand
it by faith. Somebody said, well you're nitpicking.
No, that's the difference in works and grace, isn't it Neil?
If I say salvation by faith, that means that's something that
I do. If I say by the grace of God and I understand it by faith
that's given from above, that makes salvation to be by the
grace of God. So no, I'm not nitpicking. A
little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. So John says, he's saying
that, he says, you know, I'm not writing because you don't
know the truth. I'm writing because you do it
and no lie is of the truth. No form of error, however plausible
it might appear to our flesh. It doesn't matter how ingenious
it seems to be or how natural it seems to be or how virtuous
it seems to be. Somebody might say, well I just
feel as though that everybody deserves a chance to be saved. I'm preaching to a group of people
that I truly desire. I want the Lord, according to
His will, to save. I want that. I want that. But
for me to tell you that every person has a chance, I'm telling
you that you possess something that the Scripture says you don't
possess. You don't possess faith naturally. It's got to be given to you.
I cannot tell you something that's not so. It sounds good, it sounds,
you know, I can tell people, listen, the Lord understands.
He loves everybody, and He's just, He's a loving God, and
He's gonna sweep sin under the rug, and He's going to just,
you know, He's like a dad that just loves His children, and
I know they've got some problems, but it's okay, it's not gonna
matter. That ain't gonna fly. because
it's not the truth. No lie, no lie is of the truth. It's a little leaven leavens
all of it. Then he says in verse 22, who
is a liar? Now that's a question I want
to know. I know everybody can't be telling me, they can't be
telling me two different things or three or four different things
and all of us telling the truth. Somebody's lying. I was driving
over here a while ago getting ready for the services and I
got to thinking, you know when somebody lies, that means that
they knew or should have known something and they said something
that was wrong. They lied about it. They lied
about it. Somebody said, well how can somebody
that is dead in trespasses and sins, how can they be a liar
if they just don't realize it? You see this book? You see those
trees? You see that sky? Nature, very
nature is a witness of God's glory and men are without excuse. They are without excuse. These
scriptures declare the truth of God's sovereign grace. Men
that are not preaching the truth of who God is, the scriptures
declare to be liars. Now who is a liar? Who's an imposter? Who's false? Who's not telling
the truth? I want to know. I want to know. Here it is. Here's the reason I preached
the first message a while ago. On this verse right here. Who
is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ. Not again, not that he merely
exists. As I told you before, demons
don't deny that He exists. When He was here, He healed that
demoniac of the Gadarenes, that legion of demons, that legion
of demons that was in that man right there, they knew exactly
who He was. They acknowledged Him. You're
the Son of the Most High God. If you come here to torment us
before our time, they knew who He was. But they They didn't
confess Him. They didn't trust Him. He that
denieth that Jesus is the Christ. What are they denying? That's what we've got to understand.
Not that He exists, but here's what we believe. This is what
we rest, this is what we have faith upon. That Jesus is the
Christ. We believe, we don't understand
it, but we believe it, that He is the Only Begotten of the Father.
The Eternal Generated One who has always been. We believe that
He is the Messiah in whom a people before the foundation of the
world were chosen. We believe that. How long has
God's people been in Him? They've always been in Him. They
were chosen in Him. How long? He is the Messiah. He is the Christ. He is the One who eternally betrothed
His church to Himself, who everlastingly loved her. stood for her in that
everlasting covenant of grace. I'll answer. I am their surety. I'll make good for a particular
people. That's the Christ. That's the
anointed one. That's the one who came into
this college named Jesus. For He shall save His people. His people. His people. from their sins. Who is a liar but He that denieth? I don't believe that. I don't
believe that He eternally had a people. God said He did. I don't believe that He died
only for the elect. He said He did. I don't believe
that just because God chose a people that absolutely guarantees that
they're coming. The Lord said they did, they
would. He that denieth that Jesus is the Christ. I'm never going to get through
this whole message, but I'm going to tell you this before I wrap
it up. I may have to just pick it up
next time, that's fine. But when we say the Christ, We're
saying basically three things concerning His character, His
being, His person. The Christ. Now I told you this
morning, when we say the Christ, that's a title. It means God-Man. That's the Christ. That's the
Messiah. That's the Anointed One. What
does that mean? I've heard that all my life.
People say, The Lord Jesus Christ. What does that mean? It means,
number one, of three things. Here's the first one. That means
that He is the prophet from God. What does a prophet do? A prophet
speaks to men about God. That's what a prophet does. He
is the prophet. In the days of the early being
of man in wilderness, God spoke to his people through prophets. He sent Isaiah, and Jeremiah,
and Malachi, and all those prophets. He sent prophets. To tell them
something, He taught them something of Himself. Gave them a message
and they came. Ok, God who at sundry times and
in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the
prophets, hath in these last days, when
did the last days start? The crucifixion. It's finished. That's what He said. It's finished.
It's finished. Everything that was ever demanded For the redemption
of God's people was finished at Calvary. It's over. Over. One thing left. The second coming
of Christ. And what we're doing right now
is we're just going through these times of God's good pleasure
to leave us upon this earth until all of God's elect are called
out. And when God's elect are called out, whenever that is,
I don't know who they are, but whenever they're done, He's coming
back. He's coming back to get His church. All the regenerated
of God's choosing, coming back for Him. He hath in these last days spoken
unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things,
by whom also He made the world. So God's prophet is the one who
speaks to God's people on God's behalf. He said, all things are
delivered unto Me. of my Father, the only begotten
Son, said this, No man knoweth the Son but the Father, neither
knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and He to whom the Son
will reveal Him as the Prophet. Only by Him do we know anything
of God's will. What can I know about God? I've got to have a prophet to
tell me something of God's will and God's counsel and God's purpose
and only by the Christ. God-man, the anointed. How do I know about the everlasting
covenant of grace? David said, that's all my salvation. That God made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things and sure. He said, that's all
my salvation. God's purpose to save me, that's all I've got.
What have we got? We've got God's Word on that.
That's all we've got. How do I know that God elected?
How do I know that the Lord redeemed him? Effectually, the Spirit
of God called him out. How do I know that God would
preserve His people by powering? How would I know that? Unless
the Lord told me, I need a prophet. The Christ, He's the prophet.
Secondly, He's the priest. He's the priest of God. What
does a priest do? What does a priest do? He speaks to God for the
people. I need someone to speak from
God to me. I need for somebody to speak
to God on my behalf. That's why I need a priest. I
need a priest. Strictly speaking, there's only
one. These fellows that run around calling themselves priests, they're
not priests. They're not priests. You say,
well, they say they are. Well, a lot of people say they
are. I can say I'm a duck. But I'm not. There's only one
priest accepted. One priest accepted of God on
that priest's merit. The Lord Jesus Christ. What does
that priest have to be? Well, to be accepted of God,
He's got to be God. God's going to accept Himself.
He's got to be eternal. That's why He ever liveth to
make intercession for His people. What does a priest do? Well,
he offers sacrifices. God's been offended. God's just. What's this priest got to do? This priest has got to appease
God for me. This is what a priest does. He
appeases God for me. I can have a prophet tell me
what God expects. But Don, if I don't have a priest
to answer Him and be appeased on my behalf, I've got a problem.
I've got a problem. I've got to have a prophet to
know what God says. I've got to have a priest. To
answer for me! You see why I'm saying there's
only one priest? Aaron in the wilderness, Aaron and his lineage,
they offered blood of bulls and goats for 1,500 years. And the
blood of bulls and goats never put away one sin. Not one. Why? Because that bull and that
goat never satisfied God. It's going to take a man. It's
going to take a man. It's going to have to take a
man that's God. It's going to have to take a man that's able,
able to please God. Never could put away but this
man after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever. Sat down. Sat down on the right
hand of God and henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool. And then lastly, and I'm going to just stop right
here. Yeah, I'm going to stop here. The Christ is the King. I've got to have a prophet to
tell me what God has to say, and what God expects, and what
God demands. I've got to have a priest to
answer every demand for me. and be accepted of God on my
behalf. I've got to have that. And I've
got to have a king. There's only one king. The king is the one who is over
all. Well, he is the king, capital
K, of kings, little k's. He's the boss of bosses. The
king, the lord of lords. Well, what does a king do? He
rules. He rules. He governs. If Almighty God has everlastingly
purposed to save a people, and He demands that those people,
according to His will and purpose, must get under the sound of this
gospel right here. I've got to have one that can
move everything in this world and make sure that that happens,
girl. That's what I've got to have. If God's going to save
me, purpose to save me, and he said through the foolishness
of preaching, I'm going to save them that believe. I need one
that can get me under the sound of the gospel. Leave it to me,
I'll be somewhere else. I have to have a king that orders
everything. I have to have a king that rules. I've got to have a boss who says,
and it is, that's what I've got to have. This ain't left up to
chance. Look, we're going to be in trouble. He said, all power is given unto
me of my Father. Here we are again, the only begotten
of the Father. All power, this is John 17, 2. All power is given unto me of
my Father. Why? Because He's the King. He's the anointed King. All power
is given unto me of my Father that I should give eternal life
to as many as the Father has given me. How did we get here? The king put us here. You take
a king that tells the soldiers, I want you to be over here. I
want you over here. You stay here. And you know where
they're going to be? Here, here, and here. Why? Because he's the king. The Messiah is the king. He's
the prophet. He's the priest. And he's the
king. Whosoever denieth that Jesus
is the Christ is a liar. He's the boss. He's the boss. We're not. And I am so glad it's
like that. Lord, teach me this afresh today
for Christ's sake. Amen.