himself for us, and we'll read
from John chapter 5. And we'll begin reading here
in verse 24, I believe it is. Well, I'll read 23. That all men should honor the
Son, the Lord Jesus, even as they
honor the Father. And he that honoreth not the
Son honoreth not the Father which hath sent him. 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. 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. For as the Father hath life in
himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself.
and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because
he is the Son of Man. Marvel not at this, for the hour
is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear
his voice, and shall come forth, they that have done good unto
the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil under
the resurrection of damnation. I read here recently a commentator
or a writer in the paper one. They were talking about the explosion there in the Twin Towers,
the airplanes running into those two buildings and the killing
of five or six thousand people. They were upset that these people
did that and certainly everyone was upset about that. But they
kept emphasizing that these people were evil. That's probably an understatement
to his evil. But it shows you the shallowness
of the understanding that men have
about themselves and other people. All men are evil. All men are
evil. All humanity is evil that is
born that way. Not just those people that run
them planes in the building. They indicated that that was
these evil men. We've got to put a stop to these
evil men. There's no stopping evil men.
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and all
men by nature are born evil. You don't have to teach them
to do wrong. They do wrong by nature. You
have to teach them to do good. They're all evil. Well, anyhow,
in this 24th verse, he says, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me
hath everlasting life. Verily, verily, I say." Now,
these two words, verily, verily, these words are the preface of
a saying of more than ordinary importance. When he says verily,
verily, he's about to say something that's more than just ordinary
importance, but a greater importance than just a common thought. He says, He that heareth my word. Now, hearing here is more than
just listening. Most, the majority of churchgoers,
The majority of them hear the Word through the hearing of the
ear. They hear the sound. They hear the words as they're framed
into sentences. They hear that. But that's not
the hearing that he's talking about here. It's more than just
listening. Most just hear by listening,
and some don't even do that. Some don't know what's been said
during the course of a half hour, 45 minutes. They couldn't tell
you anything that was said. There's not many people like
that, but there's some. But the majority of them are
just listening. This means here, when he says,
He that heareth my word, it means Hearing with the heart, hearing
with the soul, that's what it means. Not just listening, but
hearing down in here where it counts, where it's effective,
where it's doing something. It means hearing with faith,
sprinkled with faith. It means he that so hears the
doctrine, that is being taught is accompanied by obedience to
what the Word commands, more than just listening. He
that so hears the doctrine, that is, so hears the teaching, or
so hears the Word of Christ, he has life. If he hears with
faith, and obedience, hears in his heart, that's evidence
that he has life. He didn't just listen to the
Word, but he heard the Word of the Lord Jesus. Verily, verily, something important
is coming along here, not just hearing or listening, but listening
with the heart. He that heareth my word, and
believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life. He that hears the doctrine, the
teaching, the word of the Lord Jesus Christ, has life. John
chapter 10 says, My sheep hear my voice. They hear his voice. and obey the command of His voice,
the effect of their hearing His voice is they follow Him, My
sheep. John chapter 10. My sheep hear
My voice. They follow Me. I give unto them
eternal life. My sheep hear My voice. Over
here in the book of Ephesians, There's a verse that I'll read
to you, chapter 4 of the book of Ephesians. In verse 21, the 20th verse says,
or 19th verse says, 18th verse, having the understanding darkened,
being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance
that is in them because of the blindness of their heart, who,
being past feeling, have given themselves over unto lasciviousness,
to work all uncleanness with greediness, but ye have not so
learned Christ. You haven't just been listening,
but you heard. And when you hear, the effect
of it is conformity to the Word and conformity to the Lord Jesus. If so be that ye have heard him,
if you have really heard him and have been taught by him,
as the truth that is in Christ Jesus. Well, if these scriptures
that I've read to you from 24 unto 29 have any meaning whatsoever
or any particular teaching, they teach that the salvation of our
souls depends on hearing the Word of God as spoken by the
Lord Jesus Christ. It depends on hearing Christ
to sum it all up. It is the man, the Bible says,
who hears the Word of God, who believes God, and who believes
that God sent him. I think that's what it says.
He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me. He hears the word of God and
believes on him that sent me. He believes that God the Father
sent him, the Lord Jesus, to do a specific thing, and that
specific thing is to save sinners. His name shall be called Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sin. So it is the
man, according to what we are told here, who hears the Word,
who believes God and believes that the Father sent the Lord
Jesus to save sinners, that that man has everlasting life. So, such hearing, then, is something
more than just listening. It's hearing the Father, it's
hearing the Son, it's hearing the Blessed Trinity, the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And it's hearing with faith and
love. It's hearing as a humble student
or a scholar. It's listening in the heart,
coming through the ear to the heart of a man. That that makes
a man tick, his soul, his ear and in his soul, sprinkled with
faith. That man, he has everlasting
life, our Lord says. It's the hearing then that saves,
isn't it? It's the hearing that saves.
He that heareth my word, he that heareth my word, and
believeth on him that sent me, he hath everlasting life. It is the very hearing of which
God spoke of in that famous prediction of a prophet like unto Moses
here in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 18. If I can find it. Chapter 18 and I think about
verse 15 now. Chapter 18, verse 15, it says, The Lord thy God will raise
up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee and of thy brethren. That was Moses. The Lord did
raise up. from the midst of Israel a prophet,
and his name was Moses. And our Lord said, Like unto
me, and unto him ye shall hearken. You'll hear him. According to
all that thou desirest of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the
day of the assembling, Let me not hear again the voice of the
Lord my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that
I die not. And the Lord said unto me, They
have well spoken that which they have spoken. I will raise them
up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee. and
will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them
all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass that
whosoever will not hearken unto my words, which he, this prophet,
shall speak in my name, I will require it of him." So to hear
Christ, in this way, we must not forget that to hear him in
this way is just as much needful now as it was several thousand
years ago or eighteen hundred years ago or however many years
ago that was when God spake of his prophet You see, it's not just enough to hear
sermons. People run to hear sermons by
preachers, and most that do so never get beyond that, just running
to hear preachers. Well, we must hear Christ. If we run to hear sermons that
Christ is not in it, it will profit us nothing. We must run
to hear sermons that are filled with Christ from start to finish,
sermons that honor and glorify Him. Just running to hear sermons
is of no avail. It's to sit at His feet and to
learn of Him. And he that heareth my word,
not just listens to it, but hears my word and believes on Him that
sent me, everlasting life? Well, an evidence that, as I've
already mentioned, an evidence of really hearing the Word of
the Lord Jesus in our hearts, sprinkled with faith, the effect
of that is that we follow Him. We run after Him. We're obedient
to Him. At least we make an all-out effort
to be obedient to Him. We are not... That is, the trend
of our life is not one that depicts disobedience, but it depicts
obedience. We fall, but we rise again. So it's to hear His voice and
to follow Him. He says to pick up our cross
and follow Him. It says that if a man takes hold
of the plow and lets go, doesn't finish, if he starts the race
and he doesn't finish, he's none of mine. So it's to hear His voice and
to follow Him. And then it talks about the privilege
of a true believer, certain privileges that we have as believers that
unbelievers do not have. And of course, we could name
joy and peace that passes all understanding, that's the privilege
of a believer, an unbeliever doesn't have that. He's yet in
a stupor. He's in never-never land. He's never faced the reality
of himself, who he is as of yet, and he has no privileges. He
thinks he has privileges, and sometimes believers are anxious
or jealous because the unbeliever does this and they don't do that,
which certainly is not right thinking, but it does prevail. So the privileges of a true believer,
it's taught here, is this. Number one, a true believer has
everlasting life. That's a great privilege, isn't
it? Listen. He that hears my word and believes
on him that sent me hath everlasting life. Oh, my soul, what a privilege
that is. That means you'll never die.
That means you'll go down into the grave, you'll die a natural
death, Or sudden death, you'll die, you've got to go to the
grave, but you're not dead. You're still alive. Your body
dies, but the soul lives on and goes to glory. You have everlasting
life, no end to it. That's a privilege, wonderful
privilege. And it's been a gift, it's been
given to you, you didn't earn it. He gave it to you without any
strings attached to it. He didn't say, I give he that
heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting
life, if, if he does this or if he does that. He said he has
it. He'll never take it away from
me. God's not an Indian giver. He doesn't give you something
and then take it away from you. And these people, that believe
that once you're saved, then you can be lost. They don't know
much of the gospel, do they? They don't know what the gospel
is. They say that God gives you eternal
life, and if you don't do well and run well, he takes it away
from you. Well, he enjoys the The privilege of being a believer
is that he has everlasting life, and secondly, it is a present
salvation. You have it now. You remember
I said the question is asked, when is now? Now is now. You see, it's a present salvation
that you have right now, everlasting life. You're not
hoping to be saved, you're already saved. Remember I preached to
you here the other day about what is a good hope? A good hope,
I said number one, is a hope that can be explained. If you
believe that you're saved one day and lost the next day, you
can't explain that, that's not a good hope, is it? Not a good
hope, not a present hope. He now has everlasting life.
That is, he's completely justified before God. He has forgiven all
of his sins by the blood and the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and there remains no more condemnation for him. His sins are put away. all of
his sins from start to finish and all that's in between, from
the time he was born until the time he died, the time he died,
all of his sins is rolled on Christ and he made an end of
them and put them away forever and cast them as far as the east
is from the west and said that I will never remember them again
against you no more. privileges of the believer. That's what he has. These are
the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. He that heareth my word,
heareth with his heart, and believes on him that the Father sent me. He hath it. Well, no condemnation for him is sins
are put away and Our Lord said he made an end of them, and then
this person who hears to the saving of his soul the teachings
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the gospel, that person is an entirely, he has an entirely new Position
before God. He once was dead in trespasses
and in sins. Now he is alive unto God forevermore. New position. He once was dead,
but now he's alive. Now he is a new creature in Christ
Jesus. All things have passed away and
all things become new. He has passed from death unto
life. He is now presently, as I speak,
a child of God forever, adopted into the family. He's already
pardoned, He's already forgiven, He's already saved, though He's
not in heaven yet, but He's guaranteed by God Himself that He will be
in heaven shortly. I'm privileged of Him that heareth
my word. Not just listening to it, not
just running after sermons, but hearkens puts his hand behind
his ear and he listens and hears these joyful, happy truths as they
fall upon his soul. Not only is his sins entirely
put away, but there's another place in the Scripture When the
prophet is explaining this, it's our privilege, he said, God has
blotted them out. God did not erase them, but he
blotted them out. And when you blot them out, they're
gone. Blotted them out by the blood
and the righteousness of our blessed Redeemer. And so this one who hears, responds,
believes, trusts in the Lord Jesus, acknowledges his guilt
before God that he's a debtor to God and he can't pay the debt
and he seeks mercy and grace. Well, he stands now in a different
relationship than He stood prior to the hearing of the Word. He stands in the presence of
God. He stands there without fault. He hasn't got a fault. God can't
find a fault in him. There's not a blemish or a spot
or a wrinkle that God can find in him because he's clothed in
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus. And as Jesus is, so is
he before the throne. The privileges of being a believer. He stands without fault. He's no
longer as one dead before him. He's dead now legally. Legally before God he's dead. But he's alive under God, and he also says this, and I'll
quit, up here in this 28th verse. Well, the 27th verse
talks about the authority and power. The Father hath life in
himself, so hath he given the Son to have life in himself. And he hath given him, that is,
the Son, authority to execute judgment also, because he is
the Son of God. And marvel not, he said, don't
think this is strange, for the hour is coming in which all that are in the
graves shall hear his voice. That is, he has power to give life to
dead souls. But all is not over, he says,
when a man dies. There's a summons that comes
from God, and everyone in the grave shall hear. They'll respond
to the summons. Now, when you are taken before
the grand jury, You must be summonsed before
them, and they send the deputy sheriff out with the summons
to bring you before the grand jury. You cannot refuse to come. The power and authority is behind
the summons, and you've got to go. So all of these are the good
and the bad. saved in the lost. They are going to have to answer
to this summons. The lost as well as the saved
are going to be raised from the dead. The hour is coming in which
all that are in the grave shall hear His voice and they shall
come forth. That summons must be obeyed. None can escape the summons.
You can't say, well, I teach school and And I can't be there
on Thursday because I've got an important class and you can't
give them that excuse. The summons must be obeyed and
they shall come forth, they that have done good unto the resurrection
of life. Those that have done good are
those that hear the word of the Lord Jesus. and believe the Word
and believe the testimony of God concerning His Son, they
are the good. Their believing is the result
of the working of the Holy Spirit. That belief, that trust that
they manifest in the Lord Jesus Christ is not something that
inherently belongs to them. That is the work of God, the
work of Spirit in a man's soul that brings him to the Lord Jesus
Christ. So the good here is not some
good act that we've done. We're good in Christ. Those that
are saved, they are the ones that have done good unto the
resurrection of life. And they that have done evil,
they that have continued on, in the same habit they were born
in, doing evil, thinking evil, being evil, rejecting God, rejecting
the Lord Jesus Christ, saying no to God, well, they'll go into
the resurrection of damnation. And I think that's partly what
that's teaching. It may not be all of it. and shall come forth they that
have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done
evil unto the resurrection of damnation." So there's a judgment
then, a judgment. And we have this good hope and
the promise of God in Christ that at that judgment He'll answer
for us. you'll stand with us. What a
privilege that you don't have to conjure
up a thousand dollars to get a lawyer to represent you. You
got one that'll represent you who's never lost a case, never
lost a case, never lost a patient, the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank God. My hope is built on
that place in Jesus' blood and righteousness this day and hour.