Turn with me to the book of 1
John, chapter 5. I know this is a very familiar
verse with all of you who have read it over and over, and I
don't have anything to say that you probably don't already know.
But this is, as I've already said,
written not merely by John, but by the Holy Spirit. God's Holy
Spirit inspires him. So we have the accreditation
of God through the Spirit as to make this credible, to make
it come from the authority of God.
These things have I written. He wrote them, but under inspiration. These things have I written unto
you that believe on the name of the
Son of God. Written unto you that believe. The Scriptures. How we ought to value the Scriptures. We ought to value every word
in that it comes from God Himself. And all the letters of the New
Testament are written to believers. Believers. These things have I written unto
you that believe on the name of the Son of God. I read one time where a fellow said that he wouldn't
take the world in exchange for one page of the
Bible. Valued it so highly. These things
have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son
of God. I said that all the letters of
the New Testament are written to those who believe. I call
them to be saints. All those at Philippi, he said,
along with the bishops and the deacons. These are not letters that are
written to everybody. They are not written to everybody. written to those who are called
to be saints. And if a person is not a believer
in the Lord Jesus Christ, and he reads this, he's reading a letter that's
written to somebody else, not him. That's a hard statement,
isn't it? But what does it say? It says,
These things have I written unto you that believe. You that believe. Now if a man is not a believer
and he reads this, he is reading a letter written to someone else. It is not written to him. But thank God, he is permitted
to read it. Isn't he? He is permitted to
read it, but it is not written to him. And if he is not a believer,
he won't be very interested in what it has got to say. He won't
understand it. That would be the first thing.
He just won't understand what's going on. It would be a lot of
words to him. Well, a man can read it, though. He
can read the Bible. Everyone ought to read the Bible. And if a man would take up reading
the Bible, it may be that God would, from the very part that
he's reading, use that. to bring Him, to create within
Him a desire, and fill the void that's in Him. Make Him to know
something of the love of God in Christ Jesus. Make Him to
believe. Over in, I think it's the book
of 1 Corinthians chapter 15, I believe. There's something
there. I'll read that to you. Moreover, brethren, I declare
unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have
received. Received that gospel that Paul
preached to them. The gospel concerning the Lord
Jesus Christ. That is what they believed. That
is what they received. And it says, By which also ye
are saved, if ye keep in memory, hold fast, what I preached unto
you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto
you, first of all, that which I also received. How that Christ died for our
sins, according to the Scripture. and how that he was buried and
rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. It's all according to the Scriptures.
If a man is reading the Scriptures, it may please God to reveal unto
him who the Christ of God is according to the Scriptures.
Now, there are many people who believe in Jesus today, but not
according to the Scriptures. See what I'm saying? As a matter
of fact, the majority of the churches, they have a lot of
good things to say about Jesus, but they don't believe and receive
the Jesus according to the Scriptures. And they say in these first four
or five verses of 1 Corinthians chapter 15 is the definition
of the gospel. They say this is what you've
got to believe, that Christ died and was buried and rose again. They say that's the gospel. Well,
that is the gospel according to the Scriptures, as the Scriptures
interprets the Christ. Who is He? Who sent Him? What
did He come to do? Did He do it? Who did He do it
for? All these things are involved
according to the Scriptures. So, we thank God that even though this was not written to unbelievers,
it was written to believers, but unbelievers are permitted
to read it. Though they cannot make sense
out of it, or understand it, to the saving of the soul anyhow,
but it might please God to do something for them. Well, anyhow,
if God was pleased to do something for them, then this book would
become their book. And this promise to these, they
might be God might be pleased to bring
them into that number. And then they could read it with
joy, and they could take great hope and courage in the promises
of God. The promises are to those that
believe. That's all they are to us. No
mistake about that. These things have I written unto
you that believe on the name of the Son of God. We'll talk
about that in a minute. But he had an objective in writing
to them. He had a purpose in writing.
You know, if you're writing a letter, if you have no reason to write
it, it won't be much of a letter, will it? You generally got to
have a reason. Because if you just take a blank
sheet of paper out and figure you've got to fill that space
up with something, it won't be much of a letter at the end.
You've got to have a reason for writing it. Now the object of John's writing
this letter was, These things have I written to you that believe
on the name of the Son of God, those who are the children of
God by faith in Christ Jesus, those that know Him, those that Trust Him, trust Him and Him
alone, those that believe on Him according to the Scriptures,
who He is, what He done, why He done it, and so forth. His
object is that they may know. His object is that they might
have full assurance of faith. Someone said one time that full assurance is not essential
to salvation? Well, I don't know all the answers,
but I know this, it's essential to satisfaction. It's essential to divine comfort
and satisfaction, that you might know it, know
where you stand in your relationship with God. See? These things have I written unto
you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may
know, that you may know ye have eternal life. Many, many, many,
many people in our day, 20th century, they don't know. They believe
in Jesus, they said. Certainly I believe in Jesus,
but I don't know that I have eternal life. I hope I do. I
hope I do. I don't know. I believe in Jesus,
but I don't know I have eternal life. I only hope so. Well, that's not what he's talking
about here. His reason for writing is that these who believe in
Jesus, might know they have eternal life. I remember years and years
ago, I stopped up there at that gas station to get some gas or
something. And they got to talking in there. They said, You're the
preacher up there and this and that. And I said, Yeah. Well,
they said, They tell me that you believe that you preach that
a man has eternal life, and Noah has eternal life, and Noah is
saved, and all that. And they said, we know that ain't
so. One fellow never heard me preach. I doubt if he'd ever
been to church. Dead and gone now. But he argued
with me. He argued with me. You can't
know that you're saved. You can't know that you're saved.
You ain't supposed to know that you're saved. You won't know
that you're saved until it's all over with. Well, that ain't
so. That's what he's writing about
here. I write these things, these things,
these things. We'll get back to that in just
a minute. 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. You might know it. Well, I believe
in Jesus, but I don't know it. I hope I have it. Well, he would
have us to know it. And he would have us to know
for a certainty that we're partakers of the Son. The Lord, he that hath
the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son hath not life,
and the wrath of God abideth on him. So he wrote for a special
purpose, didn't he? These things are written that
you might have it. We can be sure. And we can be
sure of that, that the means used by the Spirit are equal
to the effect which He desires. Down here in verse 1, He says, believeth that Jesus is the Christ. Now, you remember, according
to the Scriptures, there's many Christs. Mexico is full of Jesuses. I told you about that fellow
that plays basketball for Providence. He changed his name to God. God
Sham God is his name. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ, Now, you believe that Jesus is the Christ, don't
you? That means that He is the Anointed One, that God anointed
Him, that God sent Him, God commissioned Him, God appointed Him. That's
what that means. He comes with the backing, the
authority of God Himself. It says, Whosoever believes that
Jesus is the Christ, He said he's born of God if he believes that God sent
him as the messenger of the covenant to represent those that the Father
chose in eternity past. He come to call out a people
for his name. You see, the great mistake of
the 20th century and 20th century religion is that people are led
to believe that God is trying to save everybody, every member
of Adam's fallen race. He's trying to save them, but
he can't save them. But that's not the purpose of God in our
time. He's calling out a people, a
people that He chose. He's calling them out. We don't know who they are. So
we are to go into all the world and preach the gospel. And whoever
receives Him, according to the Scriptures, believes that God
sent Him to be their Savior. They believe that because they
are born of God. They are born of God. Born again,
Jesus Himself said. Well, I say, do you believe that
Jesus is the anointed of God? Is He so to you? Is He your prophet? Is He your priest? Is He your
king? Do you receive or have you received
the Lord Jesus Christ as the anointed of God to be the mediator
between your soul and God the Father? Do you believe and have
you received Him as the propitiation for your sins, your Savior, your
Savior alone? If you believe that He is the
Christ, and He's your prophet and your priest and your king,
and He's anointed of God and sent of God, then you're born
of God. Dear, dear soul, said one time,
said, I know that I love Jesus, but my greatest fear is that
He doesn't love me. Now, how can that be? How can
that be? We love Him. Why do we love Him? Because He first loved us. Now,
we have the witness of the Word of God. If we love Him, it's
the result of Him first loving us. If we cherish Him, if the
gospel is sweet music to our ears, if we could go to church Sunday
after Sunday where the gospel wasn't preached and still be
satisfied, we wouldn't be born again. We couldn't say we love
the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what makes my heart
heavy and sad. For this generation, churches
filled with people on Sunday morning, and there's no gospel
preached, and they say they love Jesus. If a man's born of God,
one of the evidence that he is born of God is that he loves
the Lord Jesus Christ, because God first loved him. He found
that out. He may not have found that out
right off of the bat, but sooner then you think that man will
find out that God loved him in eternity past if he believes
in the Jesus of the Scriptures. I know I love Jesus, but my fear
is that He doesn't love me. Well, if I love Him, I know it's
because He first loved me. Love to God in us is always the
work of God's love toward us. Always, in every case. If there's
an ounce of the love of God in us, it's the work of God towards
us. That's all there is to it. Well,
listen now, and I'll quit. He says, These things have I
written unto you, that ye may believe on the name of the Son
of God. that he's writing to believers
here. He's writing to poor sinners
who have no good in themselves, no merit in themselves to commend
themselves to God. They've acknowledged it. They've
bowed before Him and cried out, My God, have mercy on me, a sinner! They're believers. They trust
in Him. Him alone, they're clinging to Him. Hell or high water, He's
theirs. They can't give Him up, won't
give Him up. They're not ashamed of the gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ. They're believers, true believers. They're going to endure to the
end. God's going to see to it that they do. He that endures
to the end, they're going to be one of them. They're trusting
in Him to get them through every deep water and every trial and
every trouble and every difficulty. They're trusting in Him to get
them through to the other side. They're going to make it. They
know they're going to make it. They're believers. Believers. That's
who He's writing to. Believers. Believers. My dad
used to say, put that in your pipe and smoke it. That's what
I'm saying. Take it and believe it. He's
writing here to believers. You're not a believer. If you're
not a believer, then you're reading another man's letter. If you
desire to be one of those to whom this is written to, to be
the recipients of these promises, may God cause you to cry out.
in your soul. God, make me a believer! Make me a believer! All right, these believers. These believers may know that
you have eternal life. That's assurance, isn't it? Assurance
of faith. That I might know it. I might
know it. Make me happy. Make me happy. I can be down and be sad. Be down on everything and everybody.
But if something will whisper to me this blessed truth about
the assurance of faith, that come what may, hell or high water,
I have the assurance. I've got Him. I've got Him. If I've got Him, I've got everything,
you see. I know it. I've got Him. Things
can't get too bad if I've got Him. Ah, listen. Well, I was reading
down here. Whosoever believes that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. Now, and everyone that loves
Him. Now, we've got the witness of God right here. We've got
the witness of God right here. If a man believes that Jesus
is the Christ, God said He's born of God. He's been born from
above. Because only those that are born
from above will respond to Him. God did something for them. He
deposited grace in their hearts. He made them to see their need
of the Lord Jesus. They seen their need, they found
out who He was, that He met their needs, fulfilled all their needs.
He believed that He came from God. Now, and every one that
loveth Him that begat, loveth Him also that is begotten of
Him. That is, do you love His people? That's what that means.
Do you love His people? Do you love those that are begotten
of Him? love his people. That's an evidence,
that's a sign that a man's a believer, that he loves other believers.
That is, if they're believers according to the Scriptures.
Just to say, I believe in Jesus, doesn't make you a believer.
Many, what Jesus are you talking about? See? By this we know that we love
the children of God. when we love God and keep His
commandments. We're not keeping His commandments
in order to find favor with Him. We keep His commandments because
we're born of God. For this is the love of God,
that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not
grievous. For whosoever is born of God overcomes the world. And
this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith, faith
that's born, faith that's born of God. And who is he that overcometh
the world but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God,
that he's the Christ? Well, I'll read that ninth verse. If you receive the witness of
men, that is, if I was to come to you and say, well, I believe you give evidence of
being a Christian, well, that's good. If you believe that, that
would be fine. But he said, if you receive the
witness of men, the witness of God is greater, and this is the
witness of God. If you believe that Jesus is
the Christ, the anointed of God, the Son of God, to be the Savior
of them that God sent Him to save, we said, you are born of
God. You are born from above. That
is God's witness. If you 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 a witness in himself, the Spirit of God. Witness
with His Spirit. He that believeth not God, man
that doesn't believe God, that God sent His Son, they say, well,
I have no interest in Him. Well, then you don't believe
God. This is the record. God hath made Him a liar. He
that believeth not God hath made Him a liar, because he believeth
not the record that God gave to His Son. And this is the record,
this is the record that God hath given to us, hath given to us,
past tense, eternal life, and this life is in His Son, and
he that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son
of God hath not life. These things that I have written
to you, these things have I written unto you that believe on the
name of the Son of God. I started out by saying it was
written to the believers. Now, if a man somehow was involved in reading a will, and he began
to read that will, And he found, as he went along reading the
various words in that will, uninteresting. He said, I have no interest in
it. There's legal terms here and
words that I don't understand and I'm not going to take the
trouble to find out what they mean. They don't seem to have any bearing
on me anyhow. But while reading this will, this man comes upon a portion
of that will, a clause in that will, in which he finds out that
the whole estate that the will is talking about is left up to
him. Then I guarantee you, that whole
will It becomes important and it's very interesting to him
then. And that's the way it is here.
When we find out that this was written to us, write these things
unto you that believe, that ye may know ye have eternal life. Then we become interested, don't
we? Every promise in the pages of
this book are for you and I, every one of you. In particular,
in the New Testament here. God help us to value the Scriptures. Value the Scriptures. Read the
Scriptures. Read them in light of them being
yours, altogether yours. They're yours. God's writing
to you, writing to me. Don't neglect it. Read them. Meditate upon them. Think about
them. Try to understand them. Search the scriptures. This is Dan. We'll meet again
Sunday morning.