Alright, if you take your Bibles
and turn with me to John. John chapter 5. And my text will
be found in verse 24. Text will be found in verse 24. John chapter 5 and verse 24.
Entitled this message, Hearing and Believing the Perfect Salvation
of Christ. Hearing and Believing the Perfect
Salvation of Christ. John chapter 5 and verse 24,
our Lord Jesus Christ says, 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 to life. Perfect salvation now this give
you a little preface of this Our Lord had just healed that
man at the pool of Bethesda that man had laid there at that pool
for 38 Years now have you had you and I have problems You know
I have a lot of problems, but how many time of us can we say
had a problem for 38 years I? This man lay impotent for thirty-eight
years. Our Lord was younger than thirty-three
years at this time, and he had been there about five years before
our Lord Jesus Christ was born. He had laid at this pool. And
the Lord comes along on the Sabbath day and heals this man. He heals
him. Our Lord in verse 17 declares
to these Jews, He healed this man at Bethesda and these Jews
They become angry at him. Imagine that. He had healed this
man, done a great work, a great miracle. And instead of praising
God for a great miracle, they being legalists and bound to
the law, or thought they were, they berated him for it. They
said, this man, he healed on the Sabbath day. And our Lord
says this in verse 17, but Jesus answered them. Listen to his
answer. He said, My Father worketh hitherto,
and I work. What the Lord here by this statement
declares is His deity. His deity. They were angry with
Him for healing on the Sabbath, and He's saying, look, I am the
Lord of the Sabbath. The Father worked on the Sabbath,
and I worked on the Sabbath, because we are Lord of the Sabbath. He is declaring Himself. These
Jews, as well as every person here this evening, Jesus said,
"...My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." When He said this,
My Father, what was He declaring? He was declaring Himself to be
the Son of God. The Son of God. This phrase,
My Father, is to say that God was His Father alone. that He
and the Father are in union, so as God the Father works, even
so does the Son work. They understood what He said.
Many people, they hear that, and they don't get riled up. They don't even understand what
He's saying. These Jews understood. They understood more than the
Arians and the Jehovah's Witness. Jehovah's Witness and the Arians,
they don't believe that Jesus is the Son of God. They don't
believe He's divine. But these Jews understood something of
what Christ said more than they did. Because in verse 18, look
at this. Therefore the Jews sought the
more to what? Kill Him. because he not only
had broken the Sabbath according to them, but said that God was
his Father making himself equal with God. This One who is speaking
in our text, therefore, I want to preface this by saying this
One talking, this One speaking, here, in this text, in John chapter
5 and verse 24, is none other than the Son of God. The Son
of God. Deity is speaking. They wanted to kill him because
he proclaimed himself equal with God. That's who's speaking. God
manifests in the flesh, is the one speaking in this text. And
he says, as the Father works, so do I work. So as the Father
and as the Spirit work, so does the Son work. in unity, equal
in power, in will, and in purpose. And in verse 19, Jesus answered
and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do
nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do. For what
things soever He doeth, these also doeth doth the Son likewise. Now what does this mean? Does
it mean the Son lacks power? That He can't do anything without
the Father? No. The Son has power. The Son does not lack power or
will. It's the same as saying God cannot
lie. Jesus is saying, look, I can't
do anything without the Father. It's the same as saying God cannot
lie. He cannot deny Himself. It is something universally true
of God. He says, even as the Father works,
so do I work, and I can't do anything without the Father.
Why? Because they are equal. They are working together in
one will and one purpose. They're not contradicting one
another. The Father's work is not... Christ is not saying,
I'm doing the Father's work because it's against my will or what
I want to do. No, they're doing exactly what
they both desire to do. It's not a contradiction with
the Father in any work, will, or deed. They're one, and they're
both the Lord of the Sabbath. Jesus Christ. He's declaring
Himself to be Lord. Equal with the Father. So now
looking at our text, Jesus, the Son of God, says this. Look very
closely. It says these two words. And
Jesus says this in a row. You'll see it in verse 24 and
25. He's saying this twice. Verily, verily. This is not something
to take up space or to be wax eloquent. He's just saying, look,
truly, truly. Now God's saying this, friends.
God's saying, truly, truly. He who is God says, stop. Listen to what I'm saying. Behold,
what I'm saying is truth. This is the truth of God. A truth
that should interest sinners. Listen to what He says is true.
He says, God the Son says this unto you. He that heareth my
word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life. And God said that. And shall
not come into condemnation. God said that. But is passed
from death to life. God said that. This is the Word
of God. This Word should interest sinners.
A true great portion of Scripture. This is
the truth that God has. Everlasting life. No condemnation
and life. Life. The Scripture says this,
all flesh is grass. All flesh is grass and the grass
withereth, the flower fadeth. You and I, my friend, tonight
are closer to death than we were yesterday. Every one of us. Every
one of us closer to death today than we were yesterday. God has
set the bounds of our habitation. And it is fast fleeting away. You young people, don't dismiss
this. Don't dismiss this because of
your youth. God says, "...boast not thyself
of tomorrow, thou knowest not what a day may bring forth."
How many young people have fought themselves to have plenty of
time, plenty of time to consider this, and the very next day they
had to meet God. No, friends, don't. We don't
know the bounds of our habitation. They're set. This is a very important
message. This statement of truth should
interest every child of Adam. Why? Because we've all sinned
against God. We all by nature have been under
the condemnation of God. Jesus says in John 3 and verse
17, God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world.
Why? Because the world was already condemned. The world was already
condemned and what is the proof of the world's condemnation?
Men, the light came into the world and men loved darkness
rather than light because their deeds were evil. Those, by nature,
we love darkness. We love this present world. We
love the things of the world. Those things interest us by nature,
don't they? I'm preaching a message tonight
about what God says, and most people are not interested. Most
people are not interested. You turn on the television, and
they got a nice story, or a nice show, and boy, they're interested! They're interested! They'll spend
hours and hours and hours and hours watching that thing and
give all their energy and effort to understand, yet I got a message
from God. And you don't want to hear it?
You know why? Because you love darkness rather
than light. You love your evil deeds. That's
proof that this world is in condemnation, under the condemnation of God. Men love darkness rather than
light. This is the evidence that the world is under condemnation.
Yet Christ here speaks of no condemnation. Now, shouldn't
that interest you? He says, look, he that heareth
my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting
life and shall not come into condemnation. That should interest
somebody who is a sinner, who is under condemnation, who feels
the justice and wrath of God upon them. This message should
interest them. This is the message speaking
of no condemnation. That God says there will be some. Isn't that something? There will
be some who will not come under the condemnation or judgment
of God. Now does this interest you? Does
everlasting life interest you? Is that not something of value?
Everlasting eternal life. That should interest every son
of Adam. Freedom from condemnation. What
about this being passed from death to life? That should interest
you because of this truth. All men by nature are born dead.
All men by nature. Why do you love this world so
much and despise the Word of God? Why? Why? Why would you hate the things
of God and love the things of sin? We know this. Sin is painful. Friends, have you not found that
out? Sin is painful. It hurts. Every time. It never misses. It feels good
for a moment and then it causes great suffering and pain. And
yet we run to sin rather than running to God. It's because we're dead by nature. This is why. This is why man
should be interested in this text. Jesus said, this is a truth that
some will be passed from death to life. You know, that death
that is on us all is called original sin. When our Father, the Father
of this human race, sinned, He died. It's a very serious thing,
friends. It was no trivial thing that
Adam disobeyed God. In fact, your father and my father
is a murderer. He murdered his whole race. Willingly. Willingly murdered his whole
race. And we, by nature, inherited that spiritual death for as by
one man. Romans 5.12, for as by one man. Sin entered into the world. and
death by sin, so death passed upon all men who all have sinned."
Now you who are outside of Christ, you are dead. Now listen, you
may be religious. A lot of lost people are religious.
You may reform your life. I know a lot of people who were
drug addicts and alcoholics and they got clean and they reformed
their life. You may do that. You may be immoral
and you may pick up morality. You may even make a decision.
You may be baptized. You may join a church. You may
do a bunch of religious things. But that, my friend, is not being
passed from death to life. That is the corpse dressing itself
up. That's all it is. But unless
you are raised from the dead, you will never come to Christ.
You will never believe what Jesus said. You will never have an
interest in what Christ said unless you are passed from death
to life. You cannot and you will not believe
on Christ because you're dead. You have no love for the things
of Christ and you see no need for the things of Christ. Yet,
my hope is that God, by grace, that some see their need. I hope tonight that some sinner
would see their need. I hope that some would see their
dead condition and need of justification, need of forgiveness, need of
mercy, need of grace. And some Some may see that. They may see the frailty of their
human nature, their human body. They may see that life is fleeting. They may see their sin and know
the judgment of God is sure. They may see the deadness of
their soul and need of life. Is this you? The Son of God. The Son of God. Listen, He's speaking to you
then. He's speaking to you. If you have any sense of who
you really are by nature, Christ here is speaking to you. He's
speaking to me. If any man asks, how can these
things be mine? How can I not come into condemnation? How can I have everlasting life?
How may I be passed from death unto life? How is it that a man
can have these things of God upon his soul? This, my friend,
is not the work of man. I can't do this for you. And
I'm going to bust your bubble. You can't do it for yourself.
You've got children. You want them to understand and
have an interest. You've got family that you want
to know and have an interest. You can't do that for them. Jesus said in John chapter 6,
this is the work of God that you believe. You can't make someone
have an interest. No matter how much you want to.
This is the work of God. If God will have mercy upon a
man, this is how He'll do it. Now look at your text. He tells
us how these things may be ours. Look at this. In your text, verily,
verily, says the Son of God, I say, Deity says, two things,
He that heareth My word, and number two, He that believeth
on Him that sent Me. Hearing the Word of God and believing
God. Believing God. First of all,
hearing the Word of God. This is the Gospel. What I'm
preaching tonight is the Word of God. I have no desire to tell
you my opinion of things. I just don't. You don't want
to hear them. I don't have time to tell you
opinions. I just want to tell you what
God says. And Jesus, the God says, you must hear My Word. You must hear the Gospel. His
Word, the salvation of the souls of men, is an act of God. That's the Gospel. In a nutshell,
isn't that the Gospel? That salvation is an act of God? It's a work of God? upon the
souls of men. It's a work of sovereign grace
and power. No man by nature seeks after
God. But here's the gospel, God had
chosen some. God had chosen some of Adam's
race for His own glory, and then sent His Son to be the Redeemer
of those people. He sent His Son to save those
that He loved and chose. So that the Son, that He should
die for their sins upon Calvary's tree, and in time the Holy Spirit
will come to them and give them life and faith. He will give
them what Jesus promises. What are those things? Eternal
life, no condemnation, and being passed from death to life. These
are the things God purposed to give His elect. These are the
things that Christ purchased when He came into the world,
and these are the things that the Holy Spirit gives to His
people. What does He give? How does He
give it? Through the preaching of the gospel. The declaration
of the gospel. God has ordained salvation. And
what is the means? Preaching. I'm going to go to
a couple of passages. You don't have to turn here,
but I'll just flip over for you. In 1 Corinthians chapter 1, Paul
said this in verse 17, that Christ sent me not to baptize. Well,
that's strange, isn't it? Wouldn't baptism good? Isn't
it necessary? Isn't it what Christ said to
do? Yes. Is it important? Yes. But I'll tell you something
that's vitally important, and it's not baptism. Something vitally
important is this, Christ sent me not to baptize, but what?
To preach the gospel. Verse 21 of that same chapter,
For after the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not
God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. And in Romans chapter 10, Paul
makes this very, very plain. He says in verse 13, Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Well, how
are you going to call on Him if you hadn't believed Him? And
how are you going to believe Him if you never heard of Him?
And how are you going to hear Him if He didn't send a preacher?
Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Jesus
said, verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My Word. There's the first act of God,
is that you must hear the Word. And He does this through preaching
the Gospel. We preach the gospel of Jesus
Christ. Paul said, woe is me if I preach
not what? The gospel. The gospel of Christ. We preach the gospel of Jesus
Christ of the grace of God towards sinners. It is a message of the
blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. It is a message of hope
for the hopeless. It's a message of help for the
helpless. It's a message of mercy for those
who have need of mercy and have no merit. It's a message of life
and peace with God, forgiveness and pardon for sin to those who
are guilty. That's the gospel message. In
Acts 13, verse 38, it said, Be it known to you therefore, men
and brethren, that through this man, Jesus, is preached unto
you the forgiveness of sins. Now then again, do I ask, is
there any in need of righteousness? Anyone in need of righteousness? Anyone in need of forgiveness
of sins? Not the forgiveness of men, but
the forgiveness of God before God. Are there any in need of
mercy? Any who would need to be justified
so as not to be condemned under the justice of God's wrath? Anyone? Anyone? You might say,
well, pastor, I'm just not that bad. Well, then this is not for
you. This gospel is for sinners. It's for those who are actually
incapable of saving themselves. You are looking at one incapable
of saving himself. This is mine. This gospel is
mine. Because I am absolutely, utterly
incapable of saving myself. You might say, well, all I need
is a pat and a push. I need a guide, somebody just
to counsel me. I need Jesus just to guide me
through this life. No, I need Jesus to carry me
through this life. I need Jesus to save me from
my sins. I don't need Him to help me.
I need Him to do it for me. Because I can't do it myself.
That's what the gospel is. It is a message of Christ doing
something for us that we cannot do for ourselves. It's not Christ
doing His part and we doing our part. It's Christ doing the whole
thing. That's the message. That's the
gospel you must hear. This is His Word. First thing
when you hear His Word, you have to understand who you are. That's
what His Word declares. His Word makes no uncertain terms
about it. Man by nature is absolutely,
completely, utterly, and if I could find any more adjectives to fit
that, I would. Depraved. Ruined. Dead, lame, blind, halt, maim,
whatever you want to use. Incapable of ever coming to God
or pleasing God. That's what His Word declares.
We are completely spiritually discerned. Listen to what Isaiah
said. Isaiah chapter 1. Listen, you're
going to hear the good news about the Gospel. You've got to first
hear this. Otherwise, the good news is not
that good. Isaiah chapter 1 and verse 5. He said, why should you be stricken
anymore? You know, sin is painful. I told
you that to begin with. Sin is painful and yet, what
do we do? We revolt more and more. Why
would you be stricken anymore? And yet you revolt more and more.
Now why is that? He says this, the whole head
is sick, the whole heart is faint, from the sole of the foot even
unto the head there is no wellness, no soundness in it, but wounds
and bruises and putrefying sores that have been not closed up
or bound or mollified with ointment. In other words, he is saying
from head to toe you are nothing but sin. Sin. Isaiah chapter 64, he reiterates
this in another way. Isaiah 64 and verse 6 says, You
are all as a leprous thing, an unclean thing, and all your righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. Now if you don't ever hear that,
you've never heard the gospel. If you don't know that about
yourself, you've never heard the gospel. One person said,
you get it wrong on the fall, you get it wrong on all. There's
no way. The fall is the basis because
here we see our need. If you never see your need, you're
never going to come to Christ. This is what man should see of
themselves when the Word is preached. Have you seen this about yourself?
that you're sinners, from the top of your head to the bottom
of your feet, and there is no sound. Have you heard this? If
you have, you've heard His Word. But the second thing is just
as vitally important, because if you don't hear the second
thing, then what good is the first? If you heard who you are,
and all you do is mope around about it, and you don't come
to Christ, what good is it? The second thing we hear is this,
we've heard of Jesus Christ, the Son of God has come in the
flesh. He's come in the flesh that He was sent of the Father. That He came as a man, a servant
of God to obey the law of God as a representative for those
who dishonored the law. And He, by His perfect obedience,
honored God's law. He did this for them. Did He
do this for Himself? Did Christ obey the law of God
for Himself? That would be foolish. He doesn't
need righteousness. He's righteous in Himself. He
didn't come for Himself. He did come for God's elect. He did come for all those that
the Father gave Him. And by his death on the cross,
he accomplished something. He accomplished the most wonderful
thing ever in the history of the world or in eternity. He
actually accomplished redemption. He actually made an atonement
for the sins of His people. In Hebrews chapter 9 and verse
12 it says, The blood of bulls and of goats could never take
away sin, but this man hath brought his own blood. With his own blood
he obtained eternal redemption. He obtained eternal redemption.
That's that same thing that it says in Daniel. Daniel chapter 9 and verse 24. Listen to what he says, 70 weeks
are determined upon thy people. See, God set a date. That date was set all the way
in eternity. But here, God even sets a time. He says, 70 weeks
are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city. For what?
To finish the transgression. To make an end of sins. To make
reconciliation for iniquity. And to bring in everlasting righteousness. To seal up the vision and the
prophecy. To complete the vision and the
prophets. To fulfill them. To fulfill them. and to anoint the Most Holy.
That's Christ. That's the one speaking in our
text. He came into the world to accomplish redemption. Have
you heard how He accomplished this? Let me tell you this. 2
Corinthians chapter 5, verse 21 says, For God hath made Him
to be sin for us. That's how He did it. He took
all of the sins of all of His people and imputed them to His
Son. Charged them to His Son. The
Scripture says that He bore our sin in His own body on the tree. And God poured out all of His
wrath and justice against our sins on the Son of God, and He
endured it, and He died for our sins on the tree. That's how
that we may have no condemnation, because all of the condemnation
fell on Him. The justice of God was satisfied. Have you heard that? Have you
heard that? And what's the purpose of that?
That we might be made the righteousness of God. We who had no righteousness
should be made the righteousness of God. He who had no sin was
made sin. And we who had no righteousness
was made righteous. That's the transaction. Have
you heard that God has accepted that offering? How do you know
God accepted? How do you know that God accepted
His offering? How do you know God's satisfied?
God proved it by raising Him from the dead. He raised Christ
from the dead because the grave could not hold Him. There was
no more sin to hold Him. And so God raised Him from the
dead. He ascended to the throne of God. And I declare and preach
to you tonight a successful Savior. You know what makes this gospel
different than any other gospel that's being preached? We preach
a successful Savior. One who actually accomplished
redemption, not made it possible. He actually did it. He finished
it. I point you to the Lamb of God.
Hear His Word. Paul says in Romans 10, he said,
have they not all heard? Oh yeah. How many times have
you heard this message? There are so many that have heard
this message and yet you've not heard Him. You've not heard Him. You've not heard Him speak. You
may hear this message for years. You may even know this message
by heart. Now, you bear witness. You that have been with me for
a long time, is there anything I'm saying tonight that I've
not said before? Anything. There's nothing new
here. Nothing new. I'm saying the same
message again and again. And you've heard it so many times.
You could probably come up here and say what I'm going to say.
You can guess what I'm going to say. Many people have heard this message,
they've made a profession, they've been baptized, and yet they've
not heard Christ. Hearing Christ is not just being
reformed, it's not learning Catechisms, it's not being... It's a spiritual
resurrection, friends. Hearing this Word is a miracle
if you hear it. If you hear it, it's a work of
God. It's exactly like Lazarus. Lazarus was in the tomb dead
four days, but he rose from the dead at the voice of Jesus Christ. He heard the voice of Christ.
And with that voice came power and Lazarus came forth. Even
so, you who have heard this message and believe this message, it
is the power of God that did that. In verse 25, Jesus states it
like this, "...verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming,
and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of
God, and they that..." What? "...here shall live." Hear the
voice of the Son of God. Many there are who profess with
their lips that they love Christ. But listen, if there is no change,
then you have not heard Him. If there is no struggle with
sin, if there is no faith and love for Christ, you have not
heard Him. Many say they love Christ and
still live in their sin, are just as comfortable to swim in
the vomit of their sin, and then come out Sunday morning and say,
well, I love Jesus. I know Him. Oh, friends, you don't. Many come
to church on Christmas and Easter. One preacher said the church
is meant to hatch them, match them, and dispatch them. That's
all people think the church is good for. But they have no love
to hear this gospel. And I'll tell you, once you hear
this gospel, you don't want to hear anything else. You that have heard this
gospel, is that not true? Is there anything else you want
to hear? You want to preach on anything else? Listen, if I preached
on anything else, this church would throw me out on my ears.
And they should. And they should. Because this is what He said,
He that heareth My Word. And His Word is about Christ.
Now then, secondly, you must believe it. Not only hear it,
those who hear it will believe it. He said this, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, He that heareth My Word, and, this is necessary,
believeth on Him that sent Me. Believe. Faith. Those who have
heard the voice of the Son of God, the Gospel of Jesus Christ,
they will believe. These are they that rest their
souls on the grace of God who sent Christ to be our High Priest. We who have heard the truth trust
in Him alone in the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ
to be all our salvation, and we have no confidence in the
flesh. We who believe, we trust everything to Christ. That's
what the message is about, isn't it? Trust in Christ. Shows you
who you are, shows you what He's done, and what do we do in response
to that? By the grace and power of God,
we put all of our soul, all of it. We reserve none of it for
ourselves. Religion is, well, Christ will
do His part and I'll do my part. No! That's not the Word. That's not the message. That's
not His Word. His Word is all or nothing. And you better believe, my whole
soul is all in on Him. That's what it is to believe
on Him. Is this your confession? Is Christ your Lord and Savior? Or are you just paying lip service? Is He all your life? Or just
part of it? Those who hear His voice and
believe on the Son of God, we still hear. And we still believe
on Him. We rest solely on His blood and
righteousness. And listen, faith in Christ,
this belief, look at that word again. He that believeth. E-T-H. You've got the King James Version. That's why I like the King James,
because these words are very important. It's a present perfect
tense. What that means is that you not
only believe now, you will believe the rest of your life. If you believe now and don't
believe tomorrow, your faith was not of God. True God-given
faith is constant and perpetually hearing and believing His Word. He that hears, heareth, E.T.H. Constantly heareth. I don't ever
stop hearing His Word, do you? Matter of fact, when I stop hearing
the preaching of this Word, do I not hear His Word and my heart
convict me that I'm not hearing His Word? I believe on Him and then when
my unbelief is so large and so overwhelming, I'm convicted in
this. And what does that produce? Faith. Even more faith. We long to believe
Him more. Trust in the Lord with all your
heart. And lean not on your own understanding. Let me ask you this. Is it safe
to trust Him? Can you trust Him? I'm not saying
just with your soul. Can you trust Him with your body?
Can you trust Him with your mind? Can you trust Him with your life?
Can you trust Him with your family? Can you trust Him with your money?
Can you trust Him with your house and your everything? Can you
lay all of your trust on Him? Is it safe? Listen, if you don't,
it's not safe. Those who trust Him, believe
me, it is much safer. It is the safest place to trust Him with everything.
And this is what it is to believe in Christ. It's to trust Him
with everything. Isn't it? Trust Him with everything. And
I want you to see what we receive by this. I've got three things
that we receive, and I'll close with these three things. This
is the perfect salvation. The perfect salvation is past,
it's a present salvation, and it's a future salvation. That's
a complete salvation, isn't it? Something that began in eternity,
something that is accomplished in time, and continues on for
all eternity. That is a complete salvation. He that heareth My word, and
believeth on Him that sent Me, hath, past tense, everlasting
life. have everlasting life and shall
not come into condemnation that's present and future And the third
thing is present, is past from death to life. Is, right now,
past from death to life. Let's look at these three things
real quickly. First of all, a past hope, a past confidence. He that
believeth hath already everlasting life. Believer, let us again
see the glory of God's eternal sovereign grace, who by His love
hath eternally loved us with an everlasting love, and given
us eternal life. before the world began. Now,
you get this in your mind. You who believe and hear His
Word, you have eternal life because God promised it to you. When did God promise? The Scripture
says, before the world began, in Titus chapter 1, in verse
2, it says, in hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie,
listen, promised. before the world began. You see, we have eternal life. He hath already eternal life
because God promised it. God promised it, but listen,
Christ purchased it. You can be sure you have eternal
life because Christ purchased that life by giving His life. You remember the redemption of
the ass? It's in the Old Testament. You
know, an ass had to be redeemed. Every ass that every donkey came
out of the womb had to be redeemed. Or you break its neck. Something
had to die in order for that jackass to live. That's a picture
of us, isn't it? In order for this jackass to
live, Christ had to die. That's just so. This unclean
beast, in order for me to live, he had to die. He purchased my
eternal life. And then by the grace and power
of the God, in time, He gives me that eternal life. Jesus said
in John chapter 10, My sheep hear My voice, and I know them,
and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish.
So you heard His Word. You believe on Him. You already
have eternal life. You don't earn eternal life.
It was something promised, it was something purchased, and
it's something given to you. It's not something you earn.
Secondly, a present hope. A present hope. How do I know
I have eternal life? How do I know He purchased it
for me? Listen to this, Jesus said, those who hear His Word
and believe are past, is past, is now presently past from death
to life. We who have believed have been
regenerated. We've been given a new nature
created in us by the Holy Spirit. We who walked in our sins and
obeyed the lust of our flesh are now past from death to life. We've been delivered from the
law of sin and death by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ
Jesus. Which is the law of what? It's
the law of faith and love, isn't it? You know, I've not been passed
to death from life by obedience to the law. Galatians has a whole
book written on that. He said, you begin in spirit
and finish by the law. No, we don't even begin by the
law. We don't finish by the law. We're two different mountains,
isn't it? Sinai and Zion are two distinctly separate mountains. So is works and grace. And this
law that we live under is not Sinai. It is the law of Zion. The law of faith and love. The
law that yields our members as servants of righteousness. The
principle of life that sets others above ourselves. That's not natural,
is it? That's what God puts in us. When
He gives, when He passes us from death to life, He gives us liberty
in Christ. Liberty to love Him that we couldn't
before, and liberty to believe Him, which we couldn't before.
We couldn't hear His Word. We didn't want to hear His Word.
But now, He has passed from death to life. This is the work of
God the Spirit. Don't make light of your faith,
believer. It is a gift. It's not something
that you can produce. It's something God must give
you. And only those who have love for Christ and faith in
Christ are passed from death to life. You have spiritual life. And therefore, what does it say?
The just shall live by faith. Isn't that what someone living
does? He lives by faith. He looks only to Christ. He believes
only Christ. He loves only Christ. He serves
only Christ. That's someone who's passed from
death to life. And thirdly, this is future, shall not come into
condemnation. We who hear and believe shall
not come into condemnation. There is coming a day of judgment.
Our Lord in Matthew chapter 25 sets it up in that analogy. He
says He gathers all the people together at that last day and
He divides them, the sheep from the goats. His sheep He places
on His right hand and the goats He places on His left. And He
says to those on His right hand, come you blessed of My Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from before the foundations
of the world. Now listen, does that sound like
condemnation to you? That's no condemnation, is it? They are coming into an eternal
kingdom, passing all the judgment of God. Why? Because Christ had merited
all their righteousness and redemption for them. They're under no condemnation
because the condemnation of God is already passed on Christ. One thing about God being holy
that believers should be thankful for is this. God cannot demand
twice payment. If God is just, He cannot demand
twice payment. He cannot demand of Christ payment
and then demand it of you. That's why he says, comfort ye
my people. Tell her her warfare is accomplished,
for the Lord hath received double for all her sins. Christ's payment
was doubly good. Therefore, those who are in Christ,
there shall be no condemnation. But I want you to also get this.
Really, there is no condemnation now. Paul said it in Romans 8.1. There
is therefore what? What's the word? Now. No condemnation. Now read it again. There is therefore,
now, no condemnation. And guess what? Five minutes
from now, there will be no condemnation. And ten minutes from now, there
will be no condemnation. But I feel condemned. Well that's
our conscience, isn't it? Our conscience condemns us. Men
condemn us. But God doesn't. Well, that just don't make sense.
Human wisdom, it don't. This is heavenly mathematics.
This is heavenly mathematics. God will never condemn you of
sin because you have no sin to condemn. Shall. This is God speaking in
that text. Look at your text. Read it with
me. He that heareth My Word. You heard His Word? You heard
of your condition? Your ruined nature? Have you
heard of Christ and His perfect atonement? His perfect redemption? That He is seated at the right
hand, risen from the dead, seated at the right hand of God? Have
you believed what you heard? then this is the Word of Jesus
Christ, the Son of the living God. Truly, truly, I say unto
you, this is true. You've heard My Word and you
believe on Him that sent Me. You have everlasting life. You
will not come into condemnation. Why? You are passed from death
to life. It is my hope and prayer that
everyone would hear this Word. It is my prayer that everyone
would believe this Word. I'm going to speak to somebody
who can't believe. If you can't believe, then ask
Him to give you faith. I read this this week, Brother
Milton Howard, I think, wrote it down. He said, the only people
Christ will accept is not the broken hearted, but those who
have to come to Christ for a broken heart. You have to be so worth nothing
that you can't even come with a broken heart. If you're waiting for a moment
when you're able to come, you'll never come. You should come pleading
for the ability to come. Come pleading for the ability
to come. You can't hear His Word? Pray
to hear His Word. You can't believe His Word? Pray
to believe His Word. And I promise you, He'll give
it to you. Find me one person that ever asked that was refused.
Find one. You won't. Not in this book.
You won't. Knock and it shall be opened
unto you. Ask and you shall receive. Is that not easy? Is that not
easy to understand? And listen, this is a perfect
salvation. It's past, present. You have eternal life. You will
not come into condemnation. You pass from death to life.
I pray God will bless this to you. I really do.