Every time I hear about singing,
well not every time, but I like to be reminded that after the
Last Supper, the Lord Jesus Christ sang. What a voice he must have
had. Wouldn't it have been lovely
to hear him sing? Anyway, the children of God hear
a joyful sound and they sing. They sing because of who the
Lord Jesus Christ is and redemption accomplished. It's a glorious
gospel we have to proclaim, but it's a serious gospel we have
to proclaim. And I'd like us to turn to one of the most extraordinary
passages in all of the scriptures, and I've said that about most
passages I've been studying, but John Chapter 5 is a remarkable
passage of scripture and it's brought to us by the Holy Spirit
on account of some some Jews who were offended that the Lord
Jesus Christ came and displayed his absolute sovereignty in choosing
one man out of a great multitude of lame and crippled and withered
men. And he came to one particular
man and he said, I'll have you. And he healed that man and that
man went from being outside of the family of God and brought
into the temple and the Lord met him in the temple and the
Lord Jesus Christ had healed that man on the Sabbath and the
Lord particularly and specifically comes to the Jews to undo all
of their notions of who God is and all of their notions of what
their religion was all about. He came in his first visit to
Jerusalem and said, this temple, this temple is my temple. This
is my father's house. He's saying it's my house. And
I make the rules around here, which is why he made that call
to whips and drove out all the money changers and the cattle
and others with them. And they said, where did he get
this authority from? He gets his authority directly from God,
and he comes. He comes in John chapter 4 and
he reminds us that the Jews' notion of what Israel was and
who the elect children of God are, are not restricted to that
particular nation, Israel. He went to a Gentile village. In fact, he went to the lowest
of the low. He went to a Samaritan village and he found the lowest
of the low in the Samaritan village. I love that he comes to save
sinners. I hope you like the fact that he comes to save sinners.
And in that place, in that village, he found this woman who'd been
married five times and was now the youngest married man. He
undoes their notions and of course in the healing of this man in
John chapter 5, Lord Jesus Christ displays his glory, sovereignty
in electing love. And the particularity of that
and the power of that when he says to this man, just rise,
you rise. And this man was given a life
and given a creation that he didn't have before. You rise
and you take up your bed and walk. And the Jews never once
in this passage of scripture mention the fact that this man
was healed. The only thing that ever took their attention was
the fact that this was done on the Sabbath. So let's begin. in verse 16 of John chapter 5. He says, And therefore did the
Jews persecute Jesus and sought to slay him, because he had done
these things on the Sabbath day. So here we have the first mention
in John's Gospel of the fact that the desire in the hearts
of religious people is to murder God in every way possible. And the Lord Jesus is caused
by their hatred to give us one of the most remarkable passages
in all of Scripture. And he begins, when they are
offended about him claiming to be who he is, he just gives them
more of who he is. And John's Gospel, John chapter
5, is just remarkable in this. Listen to what he goes on to
say to them. He says, My father, this is his answer to them. He
says, My father works, and I'm working. We, the Trojan God, don't need
to rest on a Sabbath. We stopped from our work in Genesis
on the Sabbath. The Sabbath was made for man.
Verse 18, Therefore the Jews sought the Moor to kill him,
because not only had he broken the Sabbath, but he'd also said
also that God was his father, making himself equal with God. So one of the great things about
this, isn't it, is that the Lord Jesus Christ at the very beginning
of this persecution when they're attempting to slay him and they'll
continue through the rest of John's Gospel, he wants to make
sure that they know exactly who they're slaying. He knew the
end from the beginning. He had no doubt about what these
men were going to do. Making himself equal with God.
And then verse 19, then Jesus answered and said unto them,
verily, verily, I say unto you, the son can do nothing of himself,
but what he sees the father do, and for what things soever that
he does, he doeth. These also doeth the son likewise. For the father loves the son,
he loveth the son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth. And he will show him greater
works than these, that you may marvel. for or because as the
father raises up the dead and quickens and gives them life,
even so the son, quickeneth, gives life to whom he will. So
new birth, life from God is in the will of God. John's Gospel
makes it absolutely abundantly clear that anyone who thinks
that salvation has got anything to do with the ridiculous notion
of the free will of man doesn't know who God is and doesn't know
who themselves are. They are just denying the Gospel.
He quickeneth whom he will. That's what the Scriptures say.
That's what he says to these people who thought that by their
own will and their own worth and their own works that they
were in right relationship with God. Verse 22, for the Father
judges no man, but has committed all judgment unto the Son, that
all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father.
He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father which
has sent him. This is the verse that I wanted
us to spend some time looking at today. Let's read it together.
Verse 24, 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. Let's read these next few verses
so that we understand what all this is in the context. For as the father has life in
himself, so has he given to the son to have life in himself,
and have given him authority to execute judgment also, because
he is the son of man. Marvel not at this, for the hour
is coming in 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 unto
the resurrection of damnation." We might stop there for want
of time. Now I want us to remember that
the Lord Jesus Christ is here talking to some people who thought
they already were saved and they had evidence of their salvation,
these people. They thought that because they
were the descendants of Abraham and that they were obedient to
the law as they thought, that they thought that because they
lived moral lives and they were separated from this evil world,
they thought they were saved. And everyone in Jerusalem would
have thought the same. And if you'd seen these people
and you'd met these people, you would be amazed. You would be
humbled by your lack of piety compared to their great wisdom
and knowledge and all the things they do. You see, these men presumed
that they were saved. And once again, The Lord Jesus
Christ, in his coming, he reveals. He reveals the hearts of men.
He reveals God, but he reveals what's in men, and he particularly
reveals what's in religious men. You see, in their hearts was
a hatred of God when they thought they were worshipping him. That
was what was in their hearts. And all this was exposed by an
act of kindness, by an act of love, by an act of mercy. The revelation of the mercy and
the love and the sovereignty of God stirs up in these religious
people an enmity against God. As the psalmist in Psalm 109
says, for my love they are my adversaries. for my love they
are my adversaries, and fought against me without a cause. The cause was not in the Lord
Jesus Christ ever. So I want us to contemplate this
verse 24 in light of what we've just read, and I want us to think
about how this remarkable word, if we translate it, The Greek
word which is used in verse 24, condemnation, and in verse 27,
judgment, and in verse 29, damnation. If you just took the Greek letters
and wrote them out and said them, you would have the word crisis,
crisis. Meeting God, meeting the Lord
Jesus Christ and having him speak and having him revealed is a
crisis. It's a crisis. It is so serious. It is so serious. So let's go
back to our verse that I want us to look at. I want us to look
at it in two parts because in verse 24 there's remarkable promises
from God and remarkable blessings. He says, verily, verily, truly,
truly, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth
on him that sent me, if you hear and you believe God the Father
in sending his son, you have in your possession you
have everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, shall
not come into that crisis that's spoken of, but is passed from
death to life. It's wonderful, isn't it? The
passage of life of human beings is a passage from life to death. The passage of human beings,
of all of God's children in the gospel, is a passage from death
to life. Death to life. Okay, so let's go back and have
a look at this. Verse in a bit more detail, the Lord Jesus Christ
uses that word, verily, verily, truly, truly, most assuredly
I say unto you, most solemnly. These are all of the words of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Every word of scripture is precious
and every word of scripture is true. But when the Lord Jesus
Christ uses this expression, and as he does in John's Gospel
25 times, it's something that you need to take careful note
of. We have to take careful note of everything he says, but this
is something that he draws our attention to. And we do well
to treat these words with utmost seriousness. In John 3, he says,
verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man be born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of God. Truly, truly is about seeing
the kingdom of God. Verse five, it says, verily,
verily, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. Verse 51 of John
8, verily, verily, I say unto you, if a man keep my saying,
he shall never see death. I'm interested in that. I'm interested
in what he's saying when he says truly, truly, when God Almighty
in human flesh says truly, truly, we do well to pay close attention. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
I say unto you, I want us to be reminded that this This hearing and this believing
and these gifts in the light of verse 22-23 are about honouring
the Son and honouring the Father who sent Him. This verse has
something to declare about honouring the Son of God. And this verse
says something about hearing. Hearing. Now you're all involved
in hearing right now, aren't you? Hearing, I say unto you,
he that heareth my words, heareth the word that he speaks. You
see, in the matter of eternal life, in the matter of escaping
the crisis and that damnation, only one person's words matter
at all. And it doesn't matter what religion
has said. It doesn't matter what confessions
and creeds and statements of faith say. The only thing that
matters is I say unto you. I say unto you. Only the words of Christ will
comfort a sinner on that great day. Only his words will be the
ones that matter. Welcome, good and faithful servant,
he says to all of his own. All of the pillars of our salvation
are in the I say unto you. And of course, as we saw earlier,
the Lord Jesus Christ has declared himself to be God in the most
remarkable ways before these people. They say, you make yourself
equal with God. He didn't have to make himself
equal with God. He was always equal with God. This was God
in human flesh. If you've seen me, he said to
Philip, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. The fullness
of the deity dwelt in this man who was speaking these words. He's saying, I'm speaking to
you now. You have in your hearts a plan
to murder me. I'm speaking to you now, and
the evidence of my deity, the evidence of who I really am,
is here before you. There's this man healed. There's
this man walking. I heal and I operate as God. There is obviously an audible
voice from the Lord Jesus Christ. These people heard an audible
voice. Countless multitudes heard an audible voice. Millions throughout
history have heard the words of God repeated faithfully to
them. But his voice, his voice is a
voice that carries with it a power, just as when he said to this
man who was there in the temple, just as he said to that man,
rise, take up your bed and walk, what happened? The man rose,
the man took up his bed and the man walked. Just as he did to
the nobleman in the previous chapter, he said, your son lives. And that man, without seeing
any evidence whatsoever, just hearing a word from God, His
words are powerful. In verse 25 His words will raise
the dead. In verse 28 there'll come a time
when He'll speak from heaven and everyone, every grave on
this earth will be emptied. That's how big and how glorious
the Lord Jesus Christ. And he speaks, he's not speaking
words to bring their condemnation, he's speaking words to expose
it, he's speaking words to expose himself. Look what he says in
verse 34 of this John chapter five. He says, but I receive not the
testimony of men, but these things I say, that you might be saved. These things I say that you might
be saved. With his words comes life. With his words comes power. The gospel, the declaration of
the Lord Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that hears my word, he that hears, hears and keeps on hearing
is what it means in the original. He that hears and continues to
hear. He that hears my word and believeth
on him that sent me has everlasting life. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
comes by hearing, that's the promise of God. Faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ, true faith in the Lord Jesus Christ comes
from hearing the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no
true saving faith where there is a false gospel. There's no
word from God where there is a false gospel. The true word
of God comes and gives life where the true word of God is revealed. Faith comes by hearing, you read
about it in Romans chapter 10. And hearing is the means that
God uses. is through the ear door that
salvation comes to people. It's through the door of our
ears that we hear the word of God. And there's a specific reason
that God has chosen that rather than miracles and all sorts of
other evidence that people look for. Because in hearing you are
passive. In hearing you are passive. And in hearing it's not a work. It's not a work that you can
do. You can't boast that you've heard. No one here can stand
up and say, well, I've heard and no one else has heard. You've
all heard, haven't you? We hear. We hear. We are passive
in hearing, and it's a work to which we can claim no merit whatsoever. No merit. So it comes, it comes
as a word from God. We are passive and God is active
in this business of salvation. As I said earlier, as you know,
these men heard these words. And all of the testimony that
we have in the rest of the scriptures is that almost none of them,
none of these particular people heard and believed. Most of these
Pharisees, the Lord Jesus Christ said, will die in their sins. God's hearing that he speaks
of here is the particular hearing that he brings to particular
people to have everlasting life. In John 8, verse 47, he says,
he that is of God, he who, that word of means origin, he who
has an origin from God, hears God's word. And then he says
to them, you therefore hear them not because you are not of God. God's children hear. The children
who are not children of God don't hear. He says in John 8, verse
43, why do you not understand what I'm saying? Why don't you
understand my speech? Even because you cannot hear
my word. It makes me want to pray again
and again to God like Samuel did when God spoke to him in
the temple as that little boy. Lord, speak. Lord, speak. As the Shulamite
at the end of Song of Solomon says, cause me to hear your voice.
Cause me to hear. I want to hear what you say.
I want to hear what you say. So what's the difference between
hearing an audible word and hearing a word that brings life, brings
no condemnation? The first, I've got about eight
points I want to make here, and I'll be making them necessarily
briefly, but I'd like you to go away and ponder them. What's
the difference between hearing and hearing from God, and hearing
and not hearing from God? The first thing I want to say
is that when you hear His word, it's not something about which
you can have an opinion. When God speaks, He speaks in
an unmistakable way to His people. No one ever spoke like this man. Secondly, when you hear from
God, you'll hear that it speaks of Him. If you're
going to hear from God, it's always going to speak of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And it will speak in such a way
that you will like the disciples when that multitude who heard
and saw the most remarkable things in John 6 went away. If you hear from God, you will
have the statement in your hearts that the disciples had. Who shall
we go? Listen to what they say in John
6, 68. To whom shall we go? To whom shall we go? There is no other whom to go
to in all the world. Thou hast the words of eternal
life, and we believe and are sure that thou art the Christ,
the Son of the living God. So you'll hear when it's an unmistakable
voice, when it's a voice just like no other voice, and it's
a voice that speaks of Him and it speaks of Him exclusively.
And you'll hear, you'll hear when you hear as a sinner. You
will hear when you hear as a sinner. You will hear when you hear as
someone who is needy of mercy. The previous chapter, you read
the story at the end of the previous chapter, that man was pleading
with the Lord Jesus Christ, come, it's only a 25km walk. It's over
hill and dale. Come with me quickly. You've
got to come down because my son will live. And the Lord spoke
a word to that man. He says, your son's alive. And
he had no more pleading. He had no more requests of God. and slept that night on his way
home to see his son. He just believed he hears the
word from God. When you hear, you'll hear of
someone who is needy. You'll hear of someone who's
a sinner. Job heard God speak to him. And what was Job's response?
Behold, I am vile. When God speaks, you will know
that's God speaking and you'll know who he is. You'll know who
you are. And when God speaks, You'll never need to go beyond
His word to seek confirmation for what He said. You won't need
the opinions and all of the other things that men might bring to
you. You won't need any other evidence. His word is sufficient
evidence. How much of God's word do you
have to believe to be a believer? All of it. You read Paul's testimony
in Acts chapter 24. He's believing all things that
are written. It doesn't say you understand it all. You believe
it. The man whose son was healed
miraculously, he didn't have a clue what happened. He couldn't
see it. He had no evidence. But he believed
because God had spoken. They shall all be taught of God,
says our God. I love that verse in scripture.
They'll all be taught of God, and great shall be the peace.
of his people. You'll hear his word when it
comes and it works effectually. Let me read a wonderful verse
of 2 Thessalonians 2. For this cause also thank we
God without ceasing because when you receive the word of God which
you heard of us you received it not as the word of men but
as it is in truth the word of God goes on to say, which worketh,
effectually worketh also in you that believe. It works effectually
in you that believe. So you'll hear the Word of God
when it's not an opinion. You'll hear the Word of God when
it's an unmistakable verse. You'll hear the Word of God when
it comes from the Scriptures. It comes from the, I say unto
you, from the Scriptures. You'll hear the Word of God when
you're shut up to the Lord Jesus Christ and you have nowhere else
to go. You'll hear the Word of God when
it comes to you as complete truth. You'll hear the Word of God when
it comes to you as a sinner or someone who's a mercy beggar.
You'll hear the Word of God when it comes to you with its own
power and you'll hear the Word of God when it necessarily reveals
everything else that people hold onto is absolutely false and
a lie. When you hear the Word you'll hear the truth and therefore
the truth will expose all the error just as He who was the
truth and is the Word of God was standing before these people
and He exposed them for what they were and no one else, even
themselves, didn't know what was in their hearts. But the
Lord Jesus Christ, when His Word comes, when the Word comes, It
speaks that always there's something that accompanies the word of
God every time. And it's in our verse in John
5, 24. And believeth on him that sent
me. Believes and keeps on believing. If you're going to hear, you're
going to hear and believe on God the Father. You're going
to believe that he sent his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And if
he sent his son, you're gonna believe everything that he said
he was sending his son for. Simon has spoken to you about
that eternal covenant, the covenant of love, the covenant of grace,
and it's the covenant in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. God sent him from heaven. He
existed in heaven before he was sent, but he was sent here with
a particular and specific purpose into this world. You will call
his name Jesus, they were told, weren't they? You'll call his
name Jesus, why? For he will save his people from
their sins. He cannot fail. He cannot be
discouraged, Isaiah 42 says. He will. Did he save all these
people from their sins? Well, he says he did. So if you believe the one who
sent him, you'll believe the mission on what he sent, you'll
believe why he came, you'll believe that everything that God the
Son did was in accordance with all of the divine characteristics
of God, that he's absolutely sovereign over all things, he's
absolutely holy, he's absolutely righteous in all he does. Listen to what the Lord prayed.
Pride for his apostles and pride for us. He says in John 7 verse
8. want to know the purpose of God you go and read John chapter
17. It's as clear as they could ever wish to be. When he died
on the cross he said it's finished. All of these petitions. He says
in John 17 verse 8, For I have given unto them the words which
thou gavest me, and they have received them. To receive them
is to believe them. And listen to what he goes on
to say, And have known surely that I came out from thee, and
they have believed that thou didst send me. To know surely,
they have known surely. That means to know in truth in
the original. Know surely that the Lord Jesus
Christ came from God the Father. To know surely that everything
that he came to do everything that he came to do, to bring
his people into everlasting life. You'll see one of those words
of Christ that's down there in John 5, verse 29. Just look it with me. And they
shall come forth, and they'll hear his voice on that day before
the great day of judgment. They'll hear his voice. They
that have done good, they that have done good unto the resurrection
of life, Doing good starts with hearing, but doing good believes. Doing good believes. Believes
what God has said. It's God the Father who sent
his son. One of the things that just annoys
me so much, and it's so common these days, is that people pray
to Jesus all the time, and that people talk about God. God the
Father gave him his titles. He's exalted him. He's the Lord
Jesus Christ. And the Lord Jesus Christ brings
all of his people into the presence of God the Father. I think he is dishonored by people
who don't give him his titles. I'm not saying there isn't a
remarkable familiarity with him, but we are talking about God
who is infinitely holy here. So doing good is believing. And it's God the Father who has
given a record. God the Father has given a testimony
of his Son. He said in 1 John 5 11, he says,
this is the testimony, this is the record that God has given
us eternal life. And this life is in his Son. But he says, he that believeth
on the Son of God has this witness in himself. The word has come
and dwelt in amongst them powerfully. He has his witnesses. He that
believeth not God has made him a liar. You can't make God a
liar. You're saying that God doesn't tell the truth because
he believes not the record that God has given of his son. God
gave a record of his son. That record's written down here
in this book, Brothers and Sisters in Christ. They hear, they hear. God's very character, God's honour
is tied up with what he says. what he sent his son to do and
the accomplishments of that. Blessed are the people that know
the joyful sound. The joyful sound. They shall
work, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance. Why don't we stop, have a cup
of coffee, have a break, and we'll come back and look at the
blessings that come from hearing and believing the very words
of God.