Let's turn in our Bibles to 1
John chapter 5, 1 John 5. Let's go to the Lord in prayer
before we begin. Our great God and our Father,
we thank you for this morning. Thank you, Lord, for giving us
this privilege to worship you and gather in your name. We ask now, Lord, that you bless
the word to our heart. Make us truly hear it. Make us truly believe you and
trust you. We thank you, Lord. For all the blessings you've
given us freely in Christ, it's in His name we ask these things.
Amen. Scripture speaks about the simplicity
of Christ, the singleness of Christ, the simplicity of Christ. It's really easy in preaching
to get too complicated and to forget
that There's a lot of people listening who don't know all
the words you use, don't know the meanings of those words,
and who don't yet have spiritual discernment, understand the gospel,
believe the gospel. So it's good to be simple. It's good to be very simple.
And that's what John does in this text here that I want to
read to you, just two verses, 1 John 5, 11. He says, 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. Now John says here clearly by
the Spirit of God that eternal life is the gift of God. It's the gift of God. God hath
given to us eternal life. Now, we know a gift is not earned. A gift is given. A gift is free. It's not something that you earn. A gift's given to you. Now, the fact that we're born
into this world guilty sinners, that we come into this world
guilty, that we come into this world with a nature to sin, a
nature that is sin and a nature that sins. And so all we do is
sin in our sin nature. And that being the case, eternal
life's got to be a gift. It has got to be a gift. There's
no possible way we can earn it. It has to be a gift. All have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. So this thing of
salvation, this thing of eternal life, has to be the free gift
of God. It must be. And it is. He says here, this is the record.
God hath given to us eternal life. Romans 6.23 says, the wages
of sin is death. If God leaves us to ourselves,
we will earn death. That's a wage earned. You have
to You have to work for death, and we'll earn it. That'll be
the wage that will be paid as death if God just merely leaves
us to ourselves, because we've sinned in Adam. But Scripture
says this, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus
Christ our Lord. The gift. Why is eternal life
a gift? Why must it be a gift? Why must
eternal life be a gift? It's the only way a sinner that's
been born of God is going to submit to God is if we're made
to see the whole of eternal life is a gift. It's the only way
we're gonna submit to Him. To know He's the giver and we
depend entirely upon Him to give and keep us and continue to give
to us and preserve us and keep us. It's the only way we're gonna
bow to Him and follow Him. It's the only way we're gonna
give Him all the glory. If a sinner wants some glory
for self, he wants some glory, he wants some aspect of it to
be of himself, it's impossible to glory in self and give all
the glory to God. It's an impossibility. Eternal
life's got to be all of God. It's got to be the gift of God
in order for a sinner to be brought to glory only in the Lord. And
this really, this is the preeminent issue that God has made all things
to bring glory to His name. And the whole point of Him creating
us is to glorify God. And He's going to bring His people
to keep His commandments, which are to believe on His Son, and
love one another as the Lord Jesus has loved us. And give him all the glory. Give
him all the glory. Now let me give you four reasons
eternal life must be the gift of God. I've just hit on the
first and that's eternal life must be a gift in order for sinners
to give God all the glory. That's the first thing. Eternal
life being the gift of God means it originates with God. Eternal
life. We know that God had mercy on
whom he would have mercy. We know in eternity he chose
a people. That tells us, brethren, that God purposed this thing
of the fall. He knew we were going to fall,
but before we fell, he chose a savior to save his people.
And he chose people to save. And that's not anything to hold
back on. That's not anything to hide from
sinners because we're proud by nature and we need to be humbled
down to know that we're the sinner. We're the creature. He's the
Creator. We're the sinner who needs saving. He's the Savior who gets the
glory for doing the saving, and we need to be humbled. And so
we need to be reminded salvation begins with Him, and He is the
one who did the choosing. It must be a gift. It all originated
with Him. It's the only way we're going
to glorify Him. It's the only way we're going to glorify Him.
Now that only offends somebody who wants some of the glory.
He really does. That's the only ones that were
offended. You and I were once very offended at the gospel.
Why? We wanted to say we put our hand
to it. But that doesn't offend you in
that, because why? When you know Him, you want Him to have the
glory. You want Him to have it. Another reason eternal life must
be the gift of God is because righteousness has to be entirely
of God. It goes right along with the
first point. If He's going to have all the glory, He's got
to be the one that makes us righteous. Righteousness has got to be freely
given of Him. Righteousness and life, eternal
life, are the same. Where there is no sin, there's
no death. Where there's righteousness, there's life. And if we're going
to have eternal life, it means we're going to be made righteous,
the righteousness of God. That's only in His Son. That's
only provided by God, given freely by God, by the obedience of His
Son. Eternal life can't be the sinner's
righteousness and Christ's righteousness. It can't be by my obedience and
Christ's obedience to the law. It's got to be by His obedience.
By one man's obedience, meaning shall be made righteous. That's Christ. Our righteousness,
the things we call our righteousnesses, you know, some give themselves
credit for righteousness in the beginning. Some do it in the
end, at some point. But if any righteousness that
we claim to be ours, we've got to renounce it. We have to renounce
it. We can't be glorying in our righteousness
and Christ's righteousness. It has to be Him alone. Him alone. Eternal life must be the gift
of God because only God can regenerate a spiritually dead sinner to
newness of life. He has to be the one to give
us newness of life. Eternal life can't be by the
Spirit of God regenerating the sinner and by something the sinner
did to give himself life. When you were born the first
time, think about how helpless you were and passive you were
in that birth. You had nothing to do with your
conception. You had nothing to do with your
birth. It was all of another. And so it is with the new birth.
It's all of God. If a sinner is, if he's resting
in a decision he made or if he's looking back to an old experience
and he's trying to put some confidence in that old experience and defend
that old experience and defend that, you know, well, I know
I was in false religion and I never had heard the gospel, but I say,
you're looking in the wrong place. Christ, by His Spirit, gives
life. He gives it by revealing Himself
and His people in truth. And that's when we know Him.
We're going to see in John 9, not today. He gave that blind
man sight, but that blind man didn't know the Lord. But the
Lord was working everything, and the Lord had him kicked out
of religion by the self-righteous. And once he got him out of there,
the Lord came to him and said, Do you believe on the Son of
God? He said, Who is he, Lord? And then he revealed himself
to him. Get what I'm saying? We can't hang on to something
old and in the past. What is it? Who gave you life
and did He give it to you by revealing Himself the truth,
through the truth? This is how He does this. Eternal
life must be the gift of God because that's the only time
a sinner is going to submit to God as God and truly worship
Him. The only way, we can't worship,
you can't worship a God that's not a sovereign God. That's the
very meaning of God. You can't worship a God that
does not sovereignly do all the savings. You can't. If he's not
sovereign and the author and finisher of your faith and the
totality of your salvation, you're going to glory in yourself. And
that's not worship. Worship is bowing to him and
entirely, thoroughly depending on him alone. And that's worship. And you can't worship any but
a sovereign God who is sovereign in salvation. Sovereign in salvation. A true worshiper is going to
glorify God for ruling and reigning and bringing Him the gospel and
giving Him eternal life and making Him righteous by Christ, giving
Him a new holy nature by the Lord, preserving Him, keeping
Him, correcting Him, beginning to end. Spurgeon said this thing
of thinking that I'm going to gradually get less sinful and
less sinful, and I'm going to get more righteous and more righteous.
He said that's a young man's fantasy. Oh, you're going to stop some
outward sin. When you're laying in a bed,
barely able to breathe, you're going to stop a lot of outward
sin. But you're going to find out In here, and in here, you
still got plenty. Still got plenty. We need Him
to be our salvation. We need Him to be our righteousness.
We need Him to be the holiness that makes us pure in heart and
pure before God. The true worshipper has to count
it, all laws, everything, for this excellent knowledge of Christ.
He just has to. Now verse 11 says, this is the
record God has given to us, eternal life. So eternal life's the gift. It's the gift of God. Now secondly,
eternal life's in His Son. It's all in His Son. Verse 11,
verse 11, he says, This is the record God has given
to us, eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He's given to us eternal life
and this life is in His Son. If it's in His Son, that's where
all of it is, isn't it? It's all in His Son. None outside
of His Son, it's all in His Son. Everything spiritual, everything
eternal is in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It's in His Son.
We're not talking about temporal things now. Temporal things are
here today and they're gone tomorrow. God will provide temporal things
that His people need. But we're talking about a spiritual
thing. We're talking about eternal life. We're talking about lasting,
lasting eternal life here. Eternal life's in His Son, Jesus
Christ the Lord. God blessed His people with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. They're all in Him. Everything's
in Him. He is the eternal life. This
life is in His Son. We're not talking about a new
car and money and a bank and a better back. We're talking
about eternal life. Eternal life. lasting, eternal,
never-ending life. We're talking about justification
from all our sin. Justification. Sin being totally
blotted out, put away, being made the righteousness of God.
We're talking about being separated out, made holy, purified, consecrated
to God, received, perfect in Christ. That's what we're talking
about. We're talking about redemption. We're talking about acceptance
with God. We're talking about actually having peace with God
and fellowship with God, eternal life. Colossians 2, 3 says, in
Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. In Christ. That means whatever I'm looking
into, into this book, I'm going to have to, I'm going to have
to look at it in the light of Christ. I'm going to have to
find it in Christ. He's going to have to reveal
it to me. In Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Colossians 2, 9, and 10 says, In Christ dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and you who believe are complete in Him. This life's in His Son. In His
Son. What else has to be done to complete?
What else? There's something else that needs
to be done to completion? You're complete in Him. This
life's in His Son. It wouldn't be life if it wasn't
complete. It's in His Son. John 3, 35 and 36, The Father loveth the
Son, and hath given all things into His hand. He that believeth
on the Son hath life. He that believeth not the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. It's all
in His hands. It's in the Son's hands. He that
believes on the Son hath life. God's Son is righteousness that
God the Father provided for those He saved. He is the righteousness. He is the righteousness of God
that we believe on. He's the obedience by which we're
saved. He sent Him to get the glory
for taking the law and fulfilling it completely, honoring it completely,
magnifying it completely on behalf of His people. And that's what
he did. He saw there was no man, he wondered
there was no intercessor, therefore his arm brought salvation unto
him, and his righteousness, it sustained him. What the law could
not do, and that it was weak through the flesh, God sent in
his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned
sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Those born of the Spirit who cast all their care on Christ
and trust Him to be their righteousness, He came forth to fulfill the
law for His people to make us the righteousness of God. That's
what He did. That's what He did. He said,
I've glorified thee on earth. I have finished the work which
thou gavest me to do. Now once in the end of the world
has He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
Here's the question. Did the son sacrifice himself?
Well, we have to say yes. Historically, we know it at least.
He sacrificed himself. Did he die? How could that be? How could him who is righteous
and knew no sin, how could he die? Death only came by sin. And he
bore the sin of his people. That's how come he could die.
He bore the sin of his people. Well, did he put away sin? Or
did he fail? Then whose sin did he put away?
Acts 20, 28 says, The church of God which he hath purchased
with his own blood. See, he's righteousness. The
Son of God is himself eternal life. Look back at 1 John 1. Look there. John says, that which was from
the beginning, which we've heard, which we've seen with our eyes,
which we've looked upon and our hands have handled, the Word
of Life. We're not talking about the scriptures
here, we're talking about Christ, the incarnate Word. We're talking
about that Word, that incorruptible seed we've got to be born of,
who's got to be formed in us, the Word of Life. He said, For the life was manifested and
we've seen and we bear witness and show unto you that eternal
life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us. That
which we've seen and heard declare we unto you that you also may
have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father
and with his Son, Jesus Christ. He that doesn't keep our Lord's
commandments, He said his commandments aren't grievous. He said he commands
us to believe on him whom he hath sent and love one another.
When you love somebody, that's the easiest thing in the world
to do anything for them because you love them. If you hate them,
you can't hardly do a thing for them. But if you love them, you
just want to do for them. And believing on the Lord Jesus
Christ, we're trusting Christ the Light. We're trusting Him
who is the Life, the Light, the Righteousness. And by His Spirit
dwelling in us, He makes you love Him and love one another.
But if a man isn't trusting Christ only as his Righteousness, if
there's something else you have to add, that's walking in darkness. That's not trusting Him. or a
man's hating his fellow man and hating Christ, he's in darkness
still. Not believing Christ alone is
the righteousness of God and the acceptance of God and the
perfection God requires. If we don't believe this, we
don't believe Him. It's just that simple. It doesn't matter
what else we do, we don't believe Him. We don't have life. But
he who has that, He who has that, he's going to love as Christ
loved. How did Christ love? When we were without strength. When we were ungodly. When we fall. Do you sin today? Have you sinned this morning?
Why didn't He just wipe you off just like that today? Since you've
been awake this morning. That's how He teaches us to love,
like He loves. He remembers our sins no more. How can He do that? He put them
away. He put them away. Hatred says, I don't believe
He put yours away. Well, you'll have to take that
up with Him. Because He says He did. I trust
Him. Don't you? Believe Him. He said, You gave me power over
all flesh, that I should give eternal life to as many as Thou
hast given me. And this is life eternal, that
they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
Thou hast sent. That is, this is life eternal,
that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom Thou hast sent. Somebody's looking to a time,
to an event when they made a decision for their helpless Jesus. Somebody's
looking to their baptism, looking to the wrong place. Somebody
looking to their law keeping and their good works to add to
something that Christ has accomplished, looking in the wrong place. Trust
the Son, believe on the Son, follow the Son. If there had
been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness
should have been by the law. But the Scriptures conclude it
all under sin, that the promise by the faithfulness of Jesus
Christ might be freely given to them that believe, to them
that believe. If we're following daddy and
mama, if we're following our spouses, if we're following our
sisters and brothers, if we're following anybody else but Christ,
we're not following Christ. It's just that simple. You can't be but one that's the
wise one. That's Christ. Can't be but one
that's the righteousness, that's Christ. Can't be but one that's
the faithful one that obeyed God and saved my soul, that's
Christ. Can't be but one that keeps his people separated unto
himself and looking to him, that's Christ. Can't be but one that
forgives sin and puts it away so entirely that he's just to
do it, that's Christ. How do I know I have the Son?
How do I know I have him? Do you believe Him? Do you believe
on Him? Do you believe on Him? He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. And he that believeth not the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. I've been trying to tell you
some things that Or it is that it's not believing on Him, if
you add anything or look into anything else, and I've been
trying to declare what it is to believe on Him. And this is
the question now. Do you believe on Him? He that
believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. How do I know I'm born
of God? If we believe on the Son, it's
because the Spirit of God revealed the Son in you. He said there
in 1 John 5 and verse 10, He that believeth on the Son of
God hath the witness in himself. The Holy Spirit has borne witness
with that new spirit within us that we're the children of God
and we believe Him. Do you remember when you couldn't
believe Him? Do you remember when you was looking at everything
else but Christ? Remember when you was looking
at your religion? Remember when you was following men and you
wasn't following Christ? Remember when He stripped you
of all that and took all that away and showed you that there's
nothing in you to commend you to God. Do you remember that?
Do you remember how when He revealed Christ in you, you could not
do anything but believe on Christ? Happened this morning, didn't
it? It's happening today, isn't it? For His it is. For His it is. Well, my faith's been questioned.
Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. Ain't nobody
else's business but you and God. Get along with God. Get that
settled. Get that settled. The devil has many who would
separate you from him and turn you to something else, and that's
what he wants. That's exactly what he wants.
Look to Christ. Look to Christ. Many want to put something between
the sinner and Christ. Some requirements you've got
to fulfill or you can't be saved. Salvation is Christ. Salvation
is of the Lord. Don't you let anybody put anything
between you and Christ. No, sir. He that hath the Son
hath life. That's what he said. It's birth from above. Christ
in you, the hope of glory. Paul said, I'm travailing to
Christ be formed in you. It's not Christ in a creed. It's
not Christ at a mourner's bench. It's not Christ in church membership. It's not Christ plus looking
to self. It's casting your care on Christ
right now, every day, this minute, and Him alone. Salvation is a
person to the Lord Jesus. He that hath the Son hath eternal
life. All the mercies, all the blessings
in Christ are yours who believe on the Son. Eternal life, it's
not something we're waiting for when we die. You have it now
if you have the Son. You have it now if you have the
Son. The moment He makes you hear Christ and cast all your
care on Christ, you have eternal life. He's that life. And He is coming again. The life
is coming. The resurrection is coming. He
is coming. And we are going to drop these
bodies of death. Eternal life is not something that can be
taken from us. It is not something that can be taken from you. 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. passed from death unto life.
Do you believe Him? Do you love Him? Is it a chore
to come hear Him? Is it a chore to love one another?
Is it a chore to want to just help brethren? Is it a chore
to forgive brethren? Is it a chore to not hold grudges
and want vengeance and want to be right? Is that a chore? If so, we don't know Him. But
if we know Him, that's easy, because you love. If we've been humbled to see,
we're nothing. That's easy. That's easy. He said the gifts and calling
of God are without repentance. He doesn't take them away. Philippians
and Galatians said, Sirs, what must I do? He said, Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Life shall not
be taken away. What if I sin since I believe?
I would be highly alarmed if you claimed you hadn't. Believers hate our sin. We don't love our sin. We hate
our sin. And by God's grace, we try to
honor God, striving against sin by the Spirit of God. But we sin. And we have plenty
of sin we can be accused of. If we say we have no sin, that
our nature is not sin, we're lying. If we say we have not
sinned, we're calling God a liar. But if we confess to Him that
we are sin and that we have sin, He's faithful and He's just to
forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
This is the good news of the matter, brethren. John said,
my little children, these things write unto you that you sin not. And if or when any man sin, we
have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He's
the propitiation of our sin. Our Lord didn't give us the spirit. so that when you sin, He's going
to scare the hell out of you. That's not why He gave it. He
didn't give you the spirit of fear to keep you in bondage. He didn't. He gave you the spirit
to bring you out of that. And know, He that forgave you
the first sin will forgive you the last one. He's already forgiven
them. Just come to Him. Come to Him. Come to Him. Let no one put anything between
you and Christ, and if the Lord's given you faith, confess Him
in believer's baptism. Get under His gospel, unite with
His people, and follow Him. Learn everything you can about
Him, and seek to honor Him, and follow Him, and walk after Him.
And when you fail, come back to Him. Get up, come back to
Him. As you walk on and you rejoice
and you find all your confidence in Him, learn everything you
can of Him. Follow Him. And when you fall,
come to Him. Confess it to Him. Get back up. Keep following Him. This is what
He's teaching us. This is what He's going to make
His people do. It's what His people are going to do. They're
going to do. This is the record. God hath
given to us eternal life. This life's in His Son. He that
hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God
hath not life. Let's go to the Lord. Father,
we thank you for this word and pray that you bless it to us.
Lord, keep this gospel simple in our heart. Keep our hearts
single for Christ. Lord, increase faith in our hearts. We ask that you increase love
for Christ, love for one another. Lord, make us love as Christ
loved us. Forgive us, Lord, because we
fail miserably. Keep us looking only to Him.
Keep us coming to this advocate, to this one who is our seat of
mercy, our atonement, our eternal life. Lord, we thank you for
your grace. We thank you for your mercy.
Thank you for immutable love, for an everlasting
righteousness, for eternal life in your Son. Forgive us our sins,
Father. We ask it for Christ's sake,
in his precious name. Amen.