Let's turn to John chapter 5.
Verse 24, the Lord said, 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. The great purpose for which God
the Father sent His Son into this earth is to give life to
dead sinners. To give life to dead sinners. He said in chapter 10, I am calm
that they might have life. That they might have it more
abundantly. That's the purpose for which Christ came. I am calm
that they might have life. He came to give spiritual life
to dead sinners, to dead sinners. About four or five years ago,
somebody wrote me using this verse to prove to me man has
a free will. He said, what are you going to
do with that verse? And he said, when a sinner hears
Christ's word and believes on Christ, he passes from death
to life. And he said, so it's by our will,
receiving Christ, that we're born again. Listen to the word. You hath he quickened who were
dead in trespassing and sin. Even when we were dead in sin,
he quickened us together with him by grace are you saved. Our Lord said, I am come that
they might have life. Our Lord's declaring here that
he's the Son of God, one with God the Father, equal with God
the Father. That means he is God. And he's
saying that as the Father has power to give life to dead sinners,
he has power to give life to dead sinners. When Christ gives
life to a dead sinner, it's the Father giving life to a dead
sinner. When the Father quickens a dead sinner, it's Christ quickening
a dead sinner. He's declaring here He's one
with the Father. Now notice how He begins this.
Verse 24, He says, Verily, verily, I say unto you. Now the whole
Word of God is Christ speaking. The whole Word is Christ speaking. You know, it's hard not to find
a Bible, a King James Bible that is not a red letter Bible. But
it really is, there's no red letters. The whole Bible is his
word. The whole Bible is the word of
our Lord. But when our Lord says, verily, verily, he's saying,
don't miss this. He's saying, hang on this. He's
saying, this right here is of paramount importance. And he
says, verily, verily, I say unto you, he attaches his very name
and his very glory to this statement. That's showing us the importance
of it. It's like what he said through Isaiah. He said, when
the Lord come, he will swallow up death in victory. The Lord
God will wipe away tears from off all faces. The rebuke of
his people shall he take away from off all the earth, for the
Lord hath spoken it. That's what he's saying here.
I have spoken this. Verily, verily, I say unto you. That's the authority. God in
human flesh is saying to us, I say unto you. Now, this word
is the word we have got to hear. This is so for a dead sinner
to have life. It's so for a believer who is
overcome to have life. It's for him to continually speak
his word to keep you in life. He's the one that must speak.
He said, verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my
word. That's not just reading the Bible.
That's not just hearing a sermon. That's not just learning doctrine.
We have to hear Christ's word. Remember Samuel, Samuel laid
down at night And he heard the voice of the Lord say, Samuel.
And he got up and went to Eli and he thought Eli had called
him. He said, here I am. Eli said, I didn't call you,
go back to bed. So he went and laid back down again and he heard
this voice, Samuel. And he went back to Eli again
and Eli said, I didn't call you, Samuel. He said, go lay down.
He said, the Lord's calling you. What wise counsel What wise counsel, when we think somebody else is
speaking to us, to have somebody say, the Lord's speaking to you.
And he went and laid back down, and the third time the Lord said,
Samuel, and he said, speak, Lord, for
thy servant heareth. That's what Paul was talking
about over there in 1 Thessalonians, when he said, when our word came
to you, You received it, not as the word of men, but as it
is in truth, the word of God, which effectually, powerfully
worked in you and gave you life. So in our text, he says, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, he that heareth
my voice, my voice. Look over there at Ezekiel 37. We're in the valley. of dry bones,
that's where we live. And we are the dry bones in ourselves,
in our flesh. And unless Christ speaks to us,
we're just dry bones. And it's not just a one-time
thing and, okay, now you have life. Yes, you do, but it's Him
continually speaking to us. It's leading us and turning us
and teaching us and keeping us and sustaining life in us. But
look what he says here in Ezekiel 37.3. He said, Son of man, speaking
to, he's speaking to his preacher, but this is so of all of us,
brethren. Can these bones live? And I answered,
O Lord God, thou knowest. Again he said to me, now listen
to what he said to him. Preach to these bones. My word,
just what I think, Speak the word of the Lord to them. Speak
the gospel to them. And say to them, O ye dry bones,
hear the word of the Lord. Hear the Lord speak. They are
dry bones. But you say to them, Hear the
word of the Lord. Lest saith the Lord God unto these bones,
Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall
live. I will lay sinews upon you and
will bring up flesh upon you and cover you with skin and put
breath in you and you shall live. And when he does that, he says,
that's when you shall know that I am the Lord. I don't wanna turn somebody by
my word. They may turn, they may impress
me, but they're not gonna know the Lord. I want them to hear
the Lord speak so they know the Lord. So they know the Lord. Look at verse 11. He said, Son of man, these bones are the
whole house of Israel. This is all his elect. This is
how he's gonna work in all his people right here. They say,
our bones are dried, our hope is lost, we're cut off for our
parts. You remember how the Lord in the parable of the sower,
he said, if a man doesn't have root in himself, When persecution
comes, he's going to wilt. He's going to wither. What's
he going to do? He's going to look at everything
that's going on and say, oh, we're dried up, our hopes lost,
we're cut off, far apart. What's going to save us from
that? Every time and every stormy gale and every, what's going
to save us from that? Therefore, preach to them. What
do I say? Thus saith the Lord God. Preach
my word to him. Preach my gospel to him. Remind
him who I am. Remind him what I've done. Remind
him of my covenant promise. Remind him of my mercy and my
grace and my forgiveness for the blood of Christ's sake. Remind
him of me. Behold, all my people, I will
open your graves. I'll cause you to come up out
of your graves and bring you into the land of Israel, and
you shall know that I am the Lord. When? When I've opened your graves.
O my people, when I've brought you up out of your graves, and
shall put my spirit in you, and you shall live, and I shall place
you in your own land, then shall you know that I, the Lord, have
spoken it and performed it, saith the Lord." Christ is declaring
here, that's what he does. That's what he does. The first
resurrection that we have to partake of to be brought up out
of our grave is the regeneration. We have to be brought up out
of that grave of our spiritual death and our spiritual nothingness,
and he has to create a new life in us and a new heart in us.
And throughout the life, as we're going through this life, every
time we're If that scripture that Brother Rob just read, those
that are Christ have crucified the flesh with affection and
love, that's a present participle. It means they are constantly
crucifying the flesh. It means there's a constant warfare
going on between the flesh and the spirit. And there's no way
your spirit is going to overcome your flesh except by the Spirit
of God, except the Spirit Christ speak and bring you up out of
that grave constantly and keep turning you to Him and turning
you to Him and turning you to Him. Marvel not the hours coming in
which they that are in the grave shall hear His voice and shall
come forth. Yes, that's going to happen in the resurrection
when He comes and speaks and everybody's coming out of the
grave. But it has to happen in His first resurrection first.
We've got to hear His voice. That's the only way we're going
to know Him and His power and His ability. And that's the only
way as we go through our life we're not going to faint when
all hope looks lost. Abraham, he hoped against hope. When it looked like there was
no possible way there was anything to hope for, he still hoped.
Why? He knew the power of the Lord.
He knew the power that spoke to him in the Ur of Chaldea and
said, get out of this land. And he went out of the land.
He knew that power. He knew that power. A sinner
won't give the glory to God and will not start giving himself
glory until he's experienced this power of Christ's voice. And we won't stop using our wisdom
and our means and our methods until we've experienced the power
of Christ for us. Remember, Paul said, as we receive
mercy, we thank God. The same way we receive mercy,
that's how we don't thank. Well, how'd you receive mercy?
power of Christ's voice. His voice spoke. That's how.
And the only reason we don't faint now is Christ speaking
and sustaining us by His voice. He upholds all things by what?
The word of His power. That's what will make us renounce
the dishonest ways our means, and our methods, and our ways. And trust, thus saith the Lord,
the gospel, the gospel of peace. What turns you in the first?
What was the message you heard that He spoke to your heart and
gave you peace with God? That's the message. Everything
else is crooked. And Christ says, and I have to
speak, You remember Gideon and his army when the Lord sent them
in to do battle against the enemy. They were to shout and they had
a light that they were going to use to shine. It kind of sounds
like it because they were surrounded and when these candles started
flickering it showed this big light and it basically cast big
shadows and it scared the enemy, terrified the enemy. But here's
what they had to do. They had to shout, and that light
was in an earthen vessel. And they had to shatter that
earthen vessel for the light to shine. And there you have
the means the Lord's going to use. He's going to use the gospel,
the shout of the gospel going forth. Christ is the light that's
going to shine. He's the light that's going to
shine. And how's that light going to shine? It's going to shine
through an earthen vessel, but the only way that light's going
to be seen is that vessel is going to be broken. That vessel's
going to be broken. That vessel is you and me. That
vessel's his preacher, that vessel's his witness he's going to use
to speak the word to somebody. That vessel's going to have to
be shattered and broken and have no power whatsoever to accomplish
anything. And don't we feel like sometimes
we're being so wise in the way we're saying something, And we
say this and that, and that was a smart thing for me to do. We
gotta be broken. You know when the Lord uses our
word most when we don't even realize it, that what we've said
is the right thing to say. When we think we've done right
and said right, that's too much pride. He gonna make it to where
you know he did the speaking and you're just a broken earthen
vessel. He's gonna get the glory. That's
the way we know the excellency of the powers of God. It's not
of us. It's His voice. Now, when He
speaks, brethren, there's life. When He speaks, there's life
because there's faith there. In verse 24, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, He that heareth my word and believeth on him
that sent me, he hath everlasting life. He hath it. That means
it's done. He got it. And he shall not come
into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. Why did he say, he that believeth
on him that sent me? Because he's declaring he's God. He and the Father are one. The
Father speaks, and Christ is speaking. When Christ is speaking,
it's the Father speaking. When Christ went to the cross,
it was the Father going to the cross in Christ. They're one.
They're one. Go over to Isaiah 40. Let me
show you. That's what he's saying. Isaiah 40. The voice said, cry. He said,
what shall I cry? All flesh is grass. and all the
goodliness thereof. Everything that we think is a
pretty bloom that we have created is just like the flower of the
field. The grass withereth and the flower fadeth because the
Spirit of the Lord blows upon it. He is going to make it wither
by His Spirit. But the Word of our God shall
stand forever. Isn't that what Christ is talking
about, His Word? O Zion that bringeth good tidings, get thee
up into the high mountain. O Jerusalem that bringeth good
tidings, lift up thy voice with strength. Lift it up, be not
afraid, say unto the cities of Judah. He's saying, say to my
people, here's the message, behold your God. That's what Christ
is saying to them. Behold your God. Behold, the
Lord God will come. That's Christ, that we're staying
there. That's what he's declaring to us in our text. He will come
with strong hand and his arm shall rule for him. Behold, his
rewards with him and his work before him. He shall feed his
flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
his arm and carry them in his bosom and shall gently lead those
out with young. That's what Christ is saying.
Go back to John 5 and look here in verse 17 at the end. He said, He said, My Father works hitherto,
and I work. You see, the Lord God will come.
The Lord God will come. My Father works hitherto, and
I work. Verse 21, For as the Father raises up the dead and
quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom He will.
The Father quickens whom He will, and the Son quickens whom He
will. He is saying, When He quickens, I quicken. When I quicken, He
quickens. Verse 23, all that all should honor the son even
as they honor the father. He that honors not the son honors
not the father which has sent him. He that believes on the son believes
on the father that sent him. He said, he that hears my word
and believes on him that sent me, we're going to hear his word
and believe on Christ and doing so we believe on the father that
sent him. Because he said, I and my father are one. And look what
he says now. And he that believeth on him
that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into
condemnation. That word is he shall not come
into the judgment. The judgment is settled. He's
passed from death to life. Why? Because all things are of
God. And I'm saying it like this because
he's saying I'm one with the Father. I'm God in human flesh. And they won't come into condemnation
because Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5, all things are of God. All things in our salvation and
all things are of God who had reconciled us to himself by Jesus
Christ. God was in Christ reconciling
his elect to himself, not imputing our trespasses. For he had made
him sin for us. who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. The church of God,
which He hath purchased with His blood, He made Him sin for
us. When we believe on Christ, when
we believe the Lord Jesus Christ, we're believing on the Father
who chose Christ and chose His people in Christ. When we believe
on Christ, we're believing on the Father who sent Him and who
was in Him and who went to the cross and and gave his life and
shed his blood to reconcile his people to himself. It's the church
of God which he purchased with his own blood. God was in Christ.
And believe it on the son, we believe it on the father who
sent him. And when you believe him, you have everlasting life. You shall not come into condemnation.
Those he brings to believe on him, that judgment was settled. And He keeps you believing on
Him. He keeps you resting in Him. He keeps you walking in
the Spirit. When the whole world thinks you're
not, He keeps you there. He sure does. And He won't let you turn from
Him. When the devil's trying every way he can to turn you,
he won't let it happen. Why not? Because it's called
substitution. I had a fellow contact me. I
don't know him. I don't know this church he's
in. But he contacted me and had something he was asking
me. And anyway, I was talking to Brother Gabe.
And Brother Gabe said, you remember this illustration Brother Henry
used to give? He said, I believe the man he
was talking about is in that congregation. So Thursday night,
I talked to this man again and I asked him, I said, is there
a man in your congregation by the name of Horn? He said, yes,
he is. He said he's close to his 80s
now. I said, well, Brother Henry used
to give this illustration. And I said, it was a man from
down South Louisiana. And I said, I thought he might
be in this congregation. He said, yep, he is. He said,
the illustration is about his father. Let me tell you this
illustration. This is such a beautiful example
of substitution. This man's father grew up in
Germany, and he was a Jew. I believe his name was Goldberg,
I believe was his name. But anyway, he was running away. He left to talk to his mom and
dad, his family, his brothers and sisters, and said, I'm leaving.
And so he took off. And the Nazis were after him. I mean, they were hunting him.
They wanted to kill him. And he came to a house. This
is a true story. This happened. He came to a house. And there was a mother and a
father there. And they just finished burying
their son, about the same age as this man. They just buried
him in the backyard. And this man told them his story,
what he was doing. He said, the Nazis are after
me. And they said, come into the house. They brought him in
their house, and they took their son's clothes. They took his
clothes off of him, and they put their son's clothes on him.
They took this man's papers from him, and they gave this man their
son's papers. And they said, from this day
forward, you're in that grave dead in the backyard, and your name's Horn. We're giving
you the name of our son, and here's the papers to prove it.
And so from that day forward, that man became horn and he came to America and he
grew up there and the Lord saved his son who was in that congregation. Isn't that a beautiful picture
of substitution? Here's why he won't come into
life. He died in Christ and God's given him his clothing
and his name and he's not that old man anymore. He's altogether
new in Christ. Before God, he's righteous and
perfect. He's righteous and perfect. He'll
try to be perfect in his life. He'll try to live a life that
he claims to believe, but he won't do it. You don't do it. It's so easy to look at others
and start Because that's the devil's gospel. He wants you
to do that. Because then you can't see yourself. That's what's
so bad about our sin, brethren, is it makes others look at us
rather than look at themselves. But he's going to keep his child
looking at himself and realizing you're that dead man buried in
that grave and you're You're now right there at God's right
hand, seated with Him. What crucifies the flesh? What
really crucifies your flesh? When somebody comes in His heart
with you and they shut you up, oh no, you're like the little
boy that said, I'm sitting down on the outside but I'm standing
up on the inside. That don't crucify your flesh.
That inflames your flesh. Flames theirs and it flames yours.
What crucifies your flesh? Paul says, if you're risen with
Christ, set your affection on the right hand of God. That's
where you are. There's where your life is. That's you, believer. And that brother that you're
condemning, he's passed from this death to life. And there he is too. There he
is too. That's what makes us crucify
our flesh. That's what makes us stop doubtful
disputing and know. I've passed from death to life.
That's the only way we'll treat our dead body like it's dead.
You reckon that man that got that new name, you reckon he
kept going back to that grave and trying to pull up that body?
Or you reckon he started trying to throw that name off and say,
I don't want that name anymore. No, he said, this is my name.
This is my name. When those authorities came and
they said, who are you? My name's Horn. That's who I
am. My name's Horn. All that the Father giveth to
me shall come to me, Christ said, and him that cometh to me, now
get this, I will in no wise cast him out. He knew what you were when He
found you. He knows what you are now in your flesh. He knows
everything that's ever come from our sin nature. And it's all
the same thing. Only one thing's ever come from
our sin nature. Mephibosheth. Shame. That's all. He keeps coming to you and He
says, Mephibosheth! Shame! Here I am, Lord. Have mercy on
me. He said, fear not. Fear not. You pass from death to life. That's the power. That's the
voice. That's the power. That's the life-giving voice.
That's the life-strengthening voice. That's what renews the
new man. That's what makes you put off
the old man. That's it! And he said, this is it, he that
believeth on the Son. He has a witness in himself.
You can't call the Lord, you can't call him Lord unless the
Spirit of God gives you the heart to do it. In faith, through faith,
brokenness, contrition, we can't call him Lord unless the Spirit
of God gives us the heart to do it. But if you can, it's because
you got the voice in you. You got the word in you. You
got the witness in you. Christ has spoken. He's in you.
And he says, this is the record. This is the
witness right here. This is what he teaches you when
you have the witness. God hath given to us eternal
life and this life is in his son. It's in his son. It's not in what you do. It's
not in what you don't do. It's not in what your brother
does or what your brother don't do. It's not in your church membership. It's not in your attendance at
the altar. It's not in anything. It's in
His Son. It's in His Son. We don't bring Him anything in
the beginning. We can't bring Him anything along the way. It's
in His Son. I'm convinced, brethren, and
He says in He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath the Son
hath life. You know, we ask all these different
questions. You know what the Lord asks?
You believe that He's the Son of God? That's what He said in our text.
You believe I'm the Son of God. You believe I am God in the flesh. That I'm the life. You've passed
from death to life. You have eternal life. Oh, it
can't be that simple. You've got to add something to
it now. That's going to make people think all kinds of things.
No, not when the voice speaks. Not when the voice speaks. He
that hath the Son hath life. He hath life. Lord, we pray you'd bless this
to us. We pray you would make us to Be resolved to Christ and Him
alone. Speak the Word and make us know what we are. Make
us look to You and You alone. Thank You, Lord, for this day.
Thank You for this message. Pray, Lord, that You really speak
the Word. Keep your people, be with your
people. Whatever believer who's down and cast down and built
up that middle wall of partition, the enmity, separated because of law, using
earthy things to exalt one over the other, Lord, keep breaking
down that wall. You've put it down and keep putting
it down in our heart. Keep us believing You alone and trust You and follow You and
walk after You by Your Spirit. Lord, help us to see how poor
our judgment is. Help us to see Christ, Him alone. Help us to speak your word to
our fellow dry bones and pray for your spirit to bless
it. Thank you, Lord, for your mercy.
In Christ's name we ask you, amen.