Let's be turning to 1 John, chapter
5. 1 John, chapter 5. So John here
returns to some familiar themes that we've been seeing, that
he's been repeating here. He describes the confession of
our faith and the resulting evidence of our faith. what the Lord reveals
in us that results in the new birth, what we see of that work
that he's done, the birth that he's given, the change of heart
that he gives to us. There's a confession of faith.
And there's fruit in what he's done in us. There's fruit in
us, brethren. So John says in verse 1, 1 John
5, verse 1, whosoever believeth. that Jesus is the Christ, is
born of God. All right, whosoever believes,
where there is faith, which is the gift of God, that faith looks
to Christ. Well, that one is born of God,
and their faith is an evidence that they are born of God. And everyone that loveth him,
that begat loveth him also, that is begotten of him. And we see this is a close repetition
to what John has been saying to us back in chapter 4, in verse
2, he said, Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ
is come in the flesh is of God. The spirit that confesses that
Christ has come in the flesh, that spirit is of God. Everyone
that believeth is born of God. And then in verse 15 of chapter
4, whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God God dwelleth
in him, and he in God." And so we see the working of the Spirit
of God in his people, in bearing this confession, in revealing
this faith in them, in revealing this hope that they have, and
as we'll see, there's love. We've been seeing that a lot
lately, the faith of God, the hope that he gives us, the love
of God that he works in us. There's faith, hope, and love,
and the greatest of these is love, Paul tells us. And so he's
saying here, this confession here, is that Jesus, Jesus of
Nazareth, is the Christ. This is the Christ of whom the
prophets Moses and the prophets wrote. This is him, brethren. This is the Christ, the Messiah
promised to us from the garden. And so what I think, since we've
been seeing this repeated a lot, I think what would be profitable
to us here is to ensure that we have a good understanding
of what we mean, of what our faith lays hold of when we confess
that Jesus is the Christ. He is the Christ of God. And
so we've been summarizing this lately as who he is, why he came,
and what he accomplished in his coming. And having accomplished
that, what he does accomplish in us, whom he has accomplished
redemption for. And so this makes up our hope
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And John here, and all of those
born of God, we believe, you that are born of God, believe
that Jesus is the Christ. And so what are we saying there?
What do we mean by he is the Christ? Well, for one thing,
he's testified to in the law and in the prophets. And it was
Moses who said that the Lord thy God would raise up a prophet. In fact, let's turn over to Deuteronomy
18. Let's see this from Deuteronomy
18. When we're speaking of Jesus
is the Christ, we're saying that he fulfills all the offices that
the Christ, that the Messiah would fulfill. He's accomplished
that for us. And so here in Deuteronomy 18,
in verse 15 is where we'll pick up. This is Moses speaking to
the congregation, saying, the Lord thy God, will raise up unto
thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like
unto me. unto him shall ye hearken you
should hear him you're to hear him according to all that thou
desirest of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly
saying let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God
neither let me see this great fire anymore that I die not right
the Lord had worked this in them. He had shown his glory to them
in such a manner that they cried out for a mediator. 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 what whosoever will not hearken unto my words, which
he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him. So I want to show you real quickly
here before we go on four ways in which Jesus is testified to
that he is the prophet. He is the one spoken of here
by Moses. So Moses said that he would be
like unto me. And what is one of the things
that Moses did? He gave the commandments to the
people. He was an angel of God, a minister
of God who gave the commandments. That's what the word angel means
there. He was a mediator and gave them
the commandments of God. Well, our Lord does the same
thing. He said in John 13, 34, a new
commandment I give unto you. He gave commandment to his people
that ye love one another as I have loved you, that ye also love
one another. If you're confused as to how
you should love your brethren, just think of how special it
is, how overwhelming it is when your brethren love you. And when
you feel that love, and their love for you, their patience
with you, their kindness toward you, and how that touches you,
that's the love that we want to show to our brethren. God
helping us. We want to be able to show that
kind of love there. And we know it because we've
been touched. And the Lord often uses our brethren to minister
that love, to make us to know that love. There's times when
I feel down and someone calls me out of the blue or contacts
me out of the blue and just shows some appreciation for a message
they heard, a bulletin, an article that I wrote, something like
that. And it's nice just to know that someone is helped in some
way. So it's those things he uses
brethren. Because I always think, Lord,
you saw me in the dumps. You saw me on the pity pot. And
you sent a word to say, don't be discouraged. Keep going. Keep faithfully preaching Christ.
That's what you're called to do. That's what you're called
to preach. Second, the people asked for
a mediator when they said, let me not hear again the voice of
the Lord my God, neither let me see this great fire anymore
that I die not. And the Lord approved that cry.
He's the one that gives the cry in the heart. He's the one that
we see in the Psalms where, what was it, Psalm 107, when the people
went through the wilderness way, And they felt the pangs of hunger.
There was famine in them. They hungered and thirst. And
they cried. And the Lord answered their cry. He fed them. He gave them meat
in due season. That's what the Lord does. He
brings us by a way so that we cry. And he brought them by a
way. Show them the purity, the perfection, the holiness of God
so that they cried out we need a mediator. We need somebody
to stand between us and God lest we perish. And we know Christ
Jesus is the mediator between us and the Father. between us
and Holy God so that He stands in the gap there. He is our righteousness. He is the confidence that we
have to cry out to God, to beg God for mercy, to beg God for
the needs we see of our children, of our friends, of our family,
of our brethren. We see that He gives that cry,
and it's for Christ's sake that we can go to the Lord and pray
to Him. Paul told Timothy, there's one
God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. And so as we see Moses was a
mediator of the old covenant, well, so Christ Jesus is the
mediator of the new covenant. And he established the covenant
of God's grace that we are now brought under by his grace and
power. And then third, as the prophet,
who is a mediator to the people, he must speak the words of him
that sent him to us, to be a mediator to us. And so the Lord told Moses,
saying, I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak
unto them all that I shall command him. Well, there were many examples
when Christ made it known that he's not speaking of himself.
He's not just talking about what he would have done. In fact,
he didn't say anything according to himself. He spoke the words
that he heard the Father speak. And so in John 12, verse 49,
he said, I have not spoken of myself, but the Father which
sent me He gave me a commandment, what I should say and what I
should speak. And the Lord Jesus Christ was
faithful not to speak his own words, but the words of the Father.
The Lord Jesus Christ was faithful to do the works of the Father
before the people. And there we see a picture of
him fulfilling the office of the servant of God. that he's
the servant of God. He didn't come to do his own
will. He was a faithful servant doing the will of him that sent
him, the Father. And so he spoke what the Father
commanded him. what he heard the Father speak.
Fourth, regarding this, that whosoever, at the end there it
said, whosoever will not hearken unto my words, which he shall
speak in my name, I will require it of him. And our Lord Jesus
Christ said, if ye believe not that I am he, ye will die in
your sins. Meaning, it'll be required of
you. If Christ be your Savior, If He came and He reveals Himself
to you, if you see the Son, believe Him, believe on Him, cry out
to Him, call upon Him, because for who He is the Savior, He
settles the debt. He paid the price for the sin
of His people, and all those who All those who have no heart
for Him, they bear their own sin. They're bearing the punishment
of their sin. But all who come to the Father
through Christ, it's because He bore it. He bore it away.
He put it away. And we have that confidence,
that hope in Him. So Jesus is that prophet spoken
of by Moses. Now another thing, our faith,
when we say Jesus is the Christ, we're saying that he is our high
priest. He's the priest of God's people. He's the prophet, and he's the
priest of God's people. He's the priest that was to rise
or come after the order of Melchizedek. And that truth is taken from
Psalm 110, verse 4, where the psalmist said, the Lord has sworn
and will not repent. thou, speaking to our Savior,
thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek." And
if you read that short psalm, Psalm 110, seven verses, that
psalm is speaking to the ascension of of the Lord Jesus Christ after
his resurrection, when he ascended up to the Father, returned to
the Father, and is now seated on the throne at the right hand
of God his Father, ruling and reigning in session. He's in
session right now, ruling and reigning, opening the seals of
the book, implementing all things according to the Father. Whatever
you're seeing, As much as it might antagonize us in the flesh,
hold up. It's the Father's will being
done. It's the Son's will being done. It's the Sovereign God
doing His will and His purpose as it pleases Him, bringing us
to see. He's providing for us. And so
he's sovereign. We don't need to fear. But now
I'm into the kingship. But this speaks to his priest,
how he is the priest of his people forever after the order of Melchizedek. In other words, he's an eternal
high priest. Melchizedek had no beginning
and has no end. And Melchizedek, one of the sweet
things we saw with Melchizedek back in Genesis When Abram had
returned from the slaughter of the kings, he defeated those
whom the king of Sodom and his band of kings couldn't defeat. Well, Abram went out there and
defeated five kings. And the king of Sodom was coming
to talk to Abram, to be in league with him. And Melchizedek came
right in there, interposed himself, put himself right in between
the king of Sodom, the evil king of Sodom, and Abram, with the
wine and the bread. Before the king of Sodom opened
his mouth and said anything, the wine and the bread were brought
in. And then Abram was strengthened,
so that when the king of Sodom said, hey, I'm going to make
you rich. You just give me the people, and I'll give you all
the riches, which is a picture of what the temptation of our
Lord When he was in the wilderness and the evil one said, you bow
to me, I'll give you all the kingdoms of the world. Just bow
to me, meaning you give me all the people. Because then you
and I wouldn't be delivered, brethren. But he said, nope,
no. I want the people. I'm taking
the people. And so he delivered us. And so
Abram, there was a picture of that. And Melchizedek is a picture
of the blood of Christ interposed for us to deliver us from evil. And so our Lord Jesus Christ
is a high priest for his people after the order of Melchizedek.
And we're told in Hebrews 7.16 that he is made not after the
law. He's that high priest after the
order of Melchizedek, because he is made not after the law
of a carnal commandment, as Aaron was, which was a temporary priesthood. And every time they died, a new
priest had to come. When they made sacrifice, they
had to make sacrifice for themselves first, because they were sinners.
Not so with Christ, who is the righteousness of God. He made
a perfect, eternal sacrifice after the power of an endless
life. He is the perfect high priest
for his people. It's an eternal sacrifice. We
don't need another sacrifice. We don't need anything outside
of Christ. We have everything in him, brethren. For by one
offering, he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. He did it. His sacrifice is once
for all. And then finally, on this point,
our faith in Jesus Christ is that he is the King whom God
set over all things. All things, in heaven and in
earth. While the world is raging against the Lord our God, while
they're raging against his anointed, Christ being the anointed of
God, the anointed King of God. He says in Psalm 2 verses 6 through
9, Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion. I will
declare the decree. The Lord hath said unto me, Thou
art my Son. This day have I begotten thee.
Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance,
and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou
shalt break them with a rod of iron, thou shalt dash them in
pieces like a potter's vessel." we serve his pleasure whom the
father sent. He's the king. We're at his disposal. We are according as it pleases
him. And the father has exalted him
to his right hand and put all things under his feet. And so in that, in confessing
that Jesus is the Christ, we're saying he fulfills all the offices
that the Christ was to fulfill for his people. Prophet, priest,
and king, and many others, such as the servant of God for his
people. He's fulfilled all things. He's
the shorty. He's the savior of his people.
He's done it all for us, brethren. He paid it all, and he's done
all that we needed our Lord and our Savior to do. He's done it
all. This Jesus, he is the Christ. Now, this confession there that
I just went through there, we know that there's many who know
these things. They can articulate many sweet
things out of this, right? There's many people that know
this, but this is not a confession of just the memorization of words,
or going through the Apostles' Creed, or having our catechisms
to memorize and things like that. There's some value in knowing
truth. We want to know the truth. We'd
like to hear Christ. But it's not just a mere confession
of these things that is our hope. When we say that this is our
confession, it's because we have a new heart.
It's because we have his spirit, that this is our hope. He is
our savior. We've cast everything on Him.
We're trusting Him for everything, to provide for us here and to
provide for us hereafter. We're trusting it all to His
hand. If it just came down to a mere
lip service, a mere confession, I saw Robert Hawker, he said
we'd have to conclude that just about everybody was saved. Because
so many people say that Jesus is the Son of God, that He is
the Christ, that He came in the flesh. But what's the difference? A new creature, a new creation,
which only the Spirit of God can do, which only he can work
in us. If it was just a mere confession,
listen to what the devil said in Luke 4.41. I'll quote it. Devils were coming out of the
people as Christ was casting them out and saying, thou art
Christ, the Son of God. And he rebuked them and didn't
let them talk. So many can say these things. but how many can
say them with a new heart, a hope that He is our Savior. And it's
what He's given to us. He is our hope. When we look
at ourselves, we don't see what we think we should see, but where
else can we go? He alone has the words of eternal
life, and His word is given to us by promise. And his word is
true and sure and certain. And he's coming again for you.
And you, and you, and you, and you. He's coming again to save
you, to fulfill his word of promise to you just as he said. And he's
giving you this confession. He's, through faith, through
the new birth as newborn creatures, are trusting him, right? Though
we don't see what we think we should see, we wait for it with
patience, with patience, by his spirit and grace. And so when
John is saying, whosoever believe it that Jesus is the Christ is
born of God, this testifies of what our Lord said to Nicodemus
when he said, you must be born again. We all were born of the
corrupt seed of Adam. We've all come forth in the flesh,
that first man, that old man. But now we are born again, and
we walk by faith, trusting that he has done this work, and looking
to him to fulfill it all, to provide all that we need. And
it's called the walk of faith because we're trusting Him even
when we don't see what we think we should see in ourselves. We're
still walking in that faith and that hope of Him. And so it's
a change of the heart. It's a new heart. So that when
Paul said in Romans 10 verses 9 through 11, He said that if
thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, that he is Lord
and Christ, raised from the dead by the Father, and shalt believe
in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved. For with the heart, a new heart,
that the Lord has given you, man believeth unto righteousness,
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the
scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. You that turn, that draw back
from Christ, to work your own righteousness under the yoke
of the law, and to flee to dead-letter religion for a righteousness,
that's a drawing back unto perdition. And you will be ashamed. But you that remain in Christ
and look to Him, and press toward Him, seeking to know Him, to
hear His words, begging Him for grace and mercy, for His Spirit,
for His help, for His understanding, for His knowledge, you'll never
be ashamed looking to Christ, trusting in Him for all your
salvation. And so it's the Lord, it's a
heart work that the Lord gives us. And you that by faith call
upon him and believe him, that's of him, not of your flesh, but
of him. No man can come to me. No man
can cast himself upon me for mercy. Son of David, have mercy
on me. No man can do that except the
Father which hath sent me draw him and I will raise him up at
the last day. It is written in the prophets,
and they shall be all taught of God. Every man, therefore,
that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. Because the Father is able to
put you in the way, to press you, to press you to Christ.
to give you no out, but Christ. He's able. He does it. He's sovereign
and able, and that's why you are where you are, and looking
to Him, because the Father chose to do it that way for you. And
it pleased Him. And each one is a trophy of His
grace as He's done it. This one a little this way, that
way, a little bit here, a little bit different there, but all
trophies of His grace, seeing that there's one Savior, one
Lord, one faith, one baptism, the Lord Jesus Christ. So he
does it. So such are begotten of God,
meaning they're born of God, born first in Adam's corrupt
flesh, but born again by Christ's incorruptible seed, the last
Adam. And John adds there at the end
of verse one, everyone that loveth him that begat, loveth him also
that is begotten of him. And in one sense, yes, that is
speaking of Christ. We do love Christ. But we also
see in that how that it's speaking of our brethren who, like us,
are born again, born of our God and Savior who's done this. We
love our brethren. And it's the fulfillment of His
command to love one another. As I have loved you, he said.
So there's difficulties in the flesh that prove that love and
test that love and try that love which is given to us for one
another. But though we see difficulties
and infirmities in the flesh, we love one another and we're
thankful for one another and we are appreciative of one another. in the Lord and for what he's
done and what he's provided for us. A new commandment I give
you, that ye love one another as I have loved you, that ye
also love one another. And so remember that, right? Remember that when looking at
your brethren. It's not about how well we conform
to one another standard, but how we love Christ and look to
him and trust him. and are helped by him. We love
one another as he loved us. So then John writes in verse
two, by this we know that we love the children of God, when
we love God and keep his commandments. God gives us a testimony in this,
that our faith is of him, that our confession is not of mere
words, but a confession lived. All right, John said earlier
in 1 John 3, 18, my little children, let us not love in word, neither
in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And then now in our text
in chapter five, verse three, John says, for this is the love
of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not
grievous, right? Because he gives us a heart for
it. He gives us a living faith, which
hears his voice. and follows his voice, follows
the shepherd. As sheep follow their shepherd,
we follow the shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ, who said, come
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me. For I am meek and lowly in heart,
and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and
my burden is light." And so he gives us his word that his commandments
are not When we come, we're not coming under the law of Moses
with its threatenings and its torments and its thunderings
and lightnings. We come in the law of liberty,
the law of faith, the law of love. We come with joy and gladness
in our hearts. And so in ourselves, in this
flesh, we struggle with the motions of sins in our members. We struggle
with the weakness of this flesh, the tiredness of this flesh,
the unwillingness of this flesh. But we're not squirming under
Christ's commandments. His commandments are not grievous.
It's that this flesh is weak. His commandments are not heavy.
It's that this flesh is weak. His word is sweet and pure and
true and righteous. And so the difficulty arises
from the weakness, the corruption of this flesh. But it's not because
His commandments are heavy or grievous. We're the ones that
are weak. And Paul wrote of this, if you
turn over to Romans 7, in Romans 7, he said in verse
19, For the good that I would, I do not. But the evil which
I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not,
it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. It's
sin in our members. I find then a law that when I
would do good, evil is present with me. for I delight in the
law of God after the inward man. But I see another law in my members,
warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank
God through Jesus Christ our Lord, so then with the mind I
myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of
sin. And so you notice here, Paul
never speaks of withdrawing to the law of Moses to help him.
He never speaks of climbing up concrete steps on his knees or
whipping his back with a cat-of-nine-tails to kind of whip himself into
shape. He never does that. Instead,
he cries out for grace and mercy and finds it in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that's what the Lord does.
He gives his child the spirit of adoption that cries, Abba,
Father, Lord, save me. Lord, help me. Lord, give me
your spirit. Lord, give me your grace. Lord,
keep me. And the Lord does that, and he
uses this, what we see here, to keep us humble, to keep us
ever looking to Christ, to keep our ear open to him. right to
hear to hear him. And so it's the Lord that gives
us faith. And it's this confession of our
faith in Christ, whereby he manifests love in our hearts, love to God.
for what he's done for us, for love to Christ, for his anointed,
for his prophet, priest, for our prophet, priest, and king
whom he sent, and for giving us a love for our brethren, and
thanking him for our brethren who are begotten of him. And
he gives us this hope in Christ. And so this hope, this real fast,
is revealed in us in the new man, look back in 1 John 5, 4, whatsoever is born of God overcometh
the world. And this is the victory that
overcometh the world, even our faith." And so everything that
is of the world, our flesh is of the world. It opposes, anything
that opposes the glory of God and opposes His will and His
salvation, that's of the world. And His flesh is is part of that. It's made of the dust of this
world and the dust it will return. However, we have the victory
in the Lord Jesus Christ. We've already overcome our enemies
because Christ has defeated all our enemies. And they're just
being put down under his feet, one by one. He's just knocking
them all down as he sits there on the throne and his enemies
are being put under his feet as a footstool. He's already
won the victory. So that in all these things,
we're more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded
that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And John asks in verse 5, who
is he that overcometh the world but he that believeth that Jesus
is the Son of God? He's our Lord. He's our righteousness. He's our all, our everything. Christ is all and in all. And
we rejoice in Him. And that's our confession in
the new man which is given to us. Amen.