1 John chapter 5, and our text will be found in
verse 1 of 1 John chapter 5. The title of the message is,
Jesus is the Christ. Jesus is the Christ. The Scripture says, Whosoever
believeth that Jesus is the Christ. is born of God. The Scriptures tell us that Jesus
is the Christ. Now, many believe in Jesus. I cannot find many people that
I have spoken to that do not or have not heard of the name
of Jesus. As a matter of fact, when I mention
it, usually people start running in the opposite direction. That's sad. That is very typical
and sad, but true. And if you were able to corner
them and ask them if they know about Jesus, surely they would
tell you, yes, they know who Jesus is. Many will confess Him
to be a good man, that He did good things, to be an example. He is an example for how we are
to live, and some of them might even confess that He is the Son
of God. But the Scripture here tells
us that this confession that we have of Jesus must also be
a confession that He is the Christ. Unless our faith believes that
Jesus is the Christ, our faith is vain. Our faith would be empty
if we did not believe that he is the Christ. What does this
mean? What does this mean to us? If
we believe that he is the Christ, what do we believe? What does
it mean when I say Christ, when that word is spoken? What do you think of when you
think of that? When I was a kid, I always thought
it was his last name. Jesus Christ. I thought that was his last name.
Mary Christ and Joseph Christ. It was foolishness. But you ask
anyone what that means now, and they're just going to give you
about the same silly answer. What is it to believe that Jesus
is the Christ? This is altogether important.
Well, this word Christ, it simply means anointed one. That's what
it means. It means someone was appointed
or anointed to a office. This is a office of the Lord
Jesus, the Son of God. He is the Christ. Do you believe
that Jesus is the anointed One of God? Well, the anointed what? The anointed what? Well, when
we think of anointing in the Old Testament, there were three
offices. to which men were anointed. There was the priest. They were
anointed to the office of Aaron was anointed to the office of
the high priest. We think of Aaron, and he was
chosen of God to be the high priest of Israel. But how was
this made manifest to the people of Israel? It was made clear
by the anointing of this man. They would take oil and they
would pour the oil over this man's head and say, this is the
one out of all the people, this is the one that God has chosen
to be the high priest. There was only one high priest.
There was only one high priest and that was when Aaron was high
priest. And then, you know, when Aaron
died, they would anoint another high priest. And there would
be only one high priest. There was always only one high
priest, and this is the way they manifested. They would take him
and they would set him aside by anointing him with oil. Let's see this in Exodus chapter
28. Exodus chapter 28 and verse 41. This is speaking about Aaron's
robe, this chapter. It talks about the beautiful
garment that they made Aaron, that they were to be very specific
in this embroidered work, and it was beautiful. But he would
anoint them, he would take this robe and they would put this
on Aaron in the breastplate, and the Scripture says in verse
41, And thou shalt put them upon Aaron thy brother and his sons
with him, and thou shalt anoint them and consecrate them and
sanctify them that they may minister unto me in the priest's office."
In the priest's office. He was anointed. And this word
here that is in verse 41 is the root word where we get the word
Messiah. Anointed. When they were to anoint
him, that is a root word for the word Messiah. Or, in the
Greek, Christ. Christ. Now, as Aaron was anointed
with oil to be the high priest of Israel, Jesus Christ was also
anointed, not of oil, but the Scripture tells us He was anointed
with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit. You remember
when Jesus was entered into His ministry and He was baptized?
The Scripture says that the Spirit of God descended upon him like
a dove. Scripture tells us that he had
the Spirit of God without measure. Without measure. He was anointed
by the Spirit of God. I'll tell you, when this law
was given and Aaron was anointed to minister in the office of
the high priest, That brought great joy to Israel. Go to Psalm
133. Look what the psalmist thought
about this. He said, Behold, how good and how pleasant it
is for brethren to dwell together in unity. That is pleasant, isn't
it? Isn't it pleasant for us to dwell
together in unity around the Lord Jesus Christ? It is. It's
a joy to see you. I always rejoice to see you.
I rejoice to be with you. And he says, it is like the precious
ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's
beard, and went down the skirts of that beautiful garment, that
garments that they made him. How much more pleasant and rejoicing
should it be for the people of God to know that Jesus Christ
has been anointed to be our great high priest. He has been anointed
to be our great high priest, not after Aaron's order. Praise
God, it's not after Aaron's order he was anointed. But in Hebrews,
it tells us that he was anointed after the order of Melchizedek. Go over to Hebrews chapter 7. Hebrews chapter 7. Actually, Hebrews chapter 6.
And look at this in verse 19 or verse 18. It says that by
two immutable things, which being the counsel of God and the oath
of God, which is impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong
consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope
that is set before us. Which hope we have as an anchor
for our souls, both sure and steadfast, which entereth into
to that which within the veil, whither the forerunner has for
us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest after the order
of Melchizedek." What's so special about that order? Well, see,
Melchizedek was a type, he had no beginning. There's no you
don't know where this man came from. You don't know when this
man lived and died. You don't you don't know how
long he'd lived. You know nothing about this man.
He just comes onto the scene and Abraham gives him ties, offers
him ties and Melchizedek blesses Abraham. Well, this is a picture
of the order of Jesus who was anointed high priest. His high
priesthood is an eternal order. It doesn't end. It's not after
the order of the law, but it's after the order of God. Well, the second office that
we know was anointed was the priesthood, the prophet. That was the second office. To
be a prophet, you must have been anointed to be the prophet. We know this by Elijah and Elisha. God commanded Elijah to anoint
this man, Elisha, to be the next prophet of Israel? And if Elisha was anointed, how
much more was Jesus Christ anointed to be the prophet of God? Look at Isaiah chapter 61. Isaiah chapter 61 in verse 1,
it says, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord
hath, what? Anointed me to preach good tidings
unto the meek. To preach. That's what the prophet
did. The prophet, all his office was,
is to take the Word of God and to deliver it to the people. Jesus Christ was anointed of
God to preach, to declare the Word of God. And the third office
is king. This is another office in which
men were anointed in the Old Testament, as David was anointed
by Samuel the prophet. Even so was Jesus Christ anointed
to be God's elect king. In Psalm chapter two and verse
Two, it says, the kings of the earth set themselves and the
rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against
his anointed, saying what? Let us break their bands asunder
and cast their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens
shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them
in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have
I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion. The Lord Jesus Christ
is the anointed King of God. God has set Jesus to be the anointed
King. And I'll tell you, I believe
that Jesus is anointed of God to be prophet, priest, and King. That's what it means to believe
that Jesus is the Christ. It means that Jesus has fulfilled
all of these offices as he was appointed. Now. We believe that Jesus is, first
of all, I want to go over these, each one of these in detail concerning
these offices. First of all, we believe that
Jesus is the Christ because he is the anointed high priest. What is the purpose of a high
priest? Why was it necessary that men have a priest? Well,
the office of a priest had one purpose, and that was to mediate
between God and men. You see, man was sinful and could
not offer a sacrifice himself. We cannot offer a sacrifice unto
God because we are of sinful nature. We are sinful beings. And so then all that we offer
would be sinful. So God appointed a man to mediate,
to stand between us and the justice of God. God is holy and therefore requires
that all who offer a sacrifice must be pure, pure. Now, Aaron was a sinful man. You could tell that by the first
thing that Moses came down from the mountain. He was there worshiping
a cow, a golden calf. This was the high priest of Israel. And there he was. Joining in
with that in idolatry. Now, although Aaron was a sinful
man, we know this because he had to offer a sacrifice for
himself. The scriptures tell us that Aaron,
in order to offer a sacrifice for the people, had to first
offer a sacrifice for his own self, had to purify himself before
he could offer a sacrifice to the people. And he offered sacrifices,
he was anointed to offer sacrifices according to the law. But Jesus
is a different high priest in that he needed no sacrifice for
himself. When I say Jesus is the Christ,
I am telling you that he is the sinless, perfect high priest. I'm so wonderfully glad that
God has anointed a sinless high priest to intercede for you and
me, to intercede for us. He is the only acceptable priest,
and he has offered the only acceptable offering, because he was both
sinless and his offering was sinless. Jesus was anointed to
be the surety, the scripture says, of a better covenant. Better than the covenant of works. Jesus was anointed priest because
he was the only righteous man. Although he was chosen to be
our priest from eternity, yet we also recognize that he must
have been made a man in order to be our high priest. Jesus
Christ could not have been our high priest had he not been made
a man. A man. The Scripture tells us
in Hebrews chapter 5, it says, every high priest is taken from
among men and is ordained for man in the things that pertain
to God. To believe that Jesus is the
Christ, he must not only be known as the Son of God, but he must
also be recognized as he is the Son of Man. I don't know about
you, but I have many infirmities, many weaknesses, many troubles,
many sicknesses come upon me. But I know this, that my high
priest understands what it is to be a man. I'm thankful for
that. I'm so thankful that I, you know,
if you were to ask, I imagine anybody in Congress or the president,
what does it cost to buy a loaf of bread? They wouldn't have
any clue what it costs to buy. Why? They don't shop for themselves. They don't know what it is to
be a common man anymore. They have been so far removed
from that. They have been so far removed
from having to deal with day-to-day stresses. But I know this, that
my high priest was a man. And when I say that Jesus is
the Christ, I recognize that my high priest was a man and
he was tired. He felt our infirmity. He felt hunger. He felt thirst. He felt weak. He was taken from among men.
So when we talk of Jesus Christ being our High Priest, we know
this first, that He is the Son of God from eternity, but He
was also made the Son of Man, so that He would be our High
Priest. And as such, as a man, he's able to touch both you and
God. You remember Jacob when he laid
his head down and he dreamed the dream of the ladder. Jacob's
ladder, they say. It's not Jacob's ladder. It's
all of our ladder. It's Christ. It's Christ. That ladder extended from earth
all the way to heaven. Well, that's Christ. He touches
both earth and heaven. man and God. He intercedes for
us. And never could we offer an acceptable
sacrifice. May God help us to labor to enter
into His rest. We labor for everything else
but that. I seem to work and to strive and think that somehow
by my working and striving as though God would see me in some
different light. That's foolishness. That's foolishness. Because none of my sacrifices
amount to anything. My sacrifices are weak and sinful. But this man was different. When
he offered his sacrifice to God, his sacrifice was a sinless,
perfect, Offering we could not offer because we were unclean
and everything we touched was unclean. But Jesus Christ, the
anointed high priest, he offered a pure sacrifice because he offered
the sacrifice of himself himself. Go over to Hebrews chapter 10. These words should give us great
comfort. Hebrews chapter 10, we begin reading in verse 1,
it says, For the law, having a shadow of good things to come,
and not the very image of the things, can never by those sacrifices
which were offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto
perfect. For then would they have not
ceased to be offered. because the worshipers once purged
should have no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices,
there is a remembrance again made for sin every year, for
it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should remove,
should take away our sin. It's not possible that the law
should take away our sin. The law only pictured the one
who would come and take away our sin. Jesus Christ, he said,
Lo, I come in the volume the book is written of me to do thy
will, O God. Above, when he said, Sacrifice
an offering and burn offering and offering for sin, thou wouldest
not, neither hast thou pleasure therein which are offered by
the law. Then said he, Lo, I come to do
thy will, O God. He taketh away the first that
he may establish the second by the which will. Whose will? Whose
will was this that he should come? It was the will of God. By the will of God, we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ. How often? Once for all. Once for all. And in verse 14,
he says, For by the offering he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. Therefore, he was able to pray. In John 17, Jesus was able to
pray this high priestly prayer. He said, Father, glorify Thou
me, because I have finished the work that Thou hast given me
to do. He finished the work that God
gave him to do. What was that work? The work
of the high priest to offer an acceptable sacrifice for sin. And He offered Himself once unto
God for our sins and forever has removed our sins from us. Forever. Once for all. Second, to believe that Jesus
is the Christ is to believe that He is the anointed prophet of
God. The anointed prophet of God.
Now, all that the prophets have spoken, all that the prophets
have spoken in the Old Testament, as well as the preachers of the
New Testament, the apostles, they only spoke what they were
given. They only spoke what they were
given. This was the office of a prophet
to speak the things concerning what God gave them to speak.
Well, what did they all speak about? Well, they all spoke about
this one prophet. All the prophets spoke about
this one prophet. Look at this in Luke 24 when
he's talking to his disciples on the road to Emmaus. Jesus
says himself in verse 25, O fools and slow of heart to believe
all that the prophets have spoken. What did they speak? Ought not
Christ to have suffered in these things and entered into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all
the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the
things concerning himself." All this book is about Christ, the
prophet. All this book, all the prophets
have spoken is concerning Christ. Now, because of the depravity
of man, there is none that seeketh after God. The scripture says
there's none that understand it. I pray that God would give me
the liberty at times to make things as clear as I possibly
can. I want this to be clear to you. Every time I stand and preach
the Word of God, I feel I'm muddying the waters rather than telling
you plainly what it is. of the prophet, the office of
the prophet, was to declare plainly what God had said. But if I tell
you things as clear as I possibly can, if I can make them as clear
as any man could ever make them, I know this, unless God the Holy
Spirit come and reveal it to you, you will not understand. There is none that understand
it. There's none that understand
by nature. We could never know God unless the prophet of God
reveals Him to us. And that prophet is Jesus the
Christ. I know that much of what the
prophets spoke, they didn't understand. I mean, if you were at that time
and you were to ask Jeremiah what he knew, about what he said,
he probably knew very little. But I'll tell you this, they
knew that they were speaking of one who was to come. Abraham,
when he heard the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ and turned
around and saw that ram, I know this, he saw Christ. He saw a
picture of Christ who was to come. I know when Manoah, the
father of Samson, You remember when he made that offering for
what he said was the angel of the Lord, is what the Scripture
calls him. When he made that offering for the angel of the
Lord, and he spread it out, and they were just about to eat it,
and he ascended out of his sight, and he said, oh, we've seen God.
That was the Lord Jesus Christ. I know Manoah understands that
that offering pictured Christ. But now that Jesus, the anointed
prophet, has come, all is made plain. Everything that God had
purposed from eternity is now revealed to us by the appearing
of Jesus Christ. Look at that in 2 Timothy, chapter
1. 2 Timothy, chapter 1. In verse 8 it says, Be not thou
therefore ashamed of the testimony of the Lord, nor of me his prisoner,
but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the
power of God, who has saved us and called us with an holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to his own purpose
and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus. before the world
began in the anointed Christ Jesus before the world began. The reason of the prophet was
to declare the word of God, and Jesus Christ has come to declare
the mystery of the gospel. Paul in 2nd Corinthians calls
this a mystery. The gospel of Jesus Christ is
a hidden mystery to men. It's a mystery. How could sinners
be saved? How is it that God could be just
and justify the ungodly? If you look at all false religion,
they say that God is just and justifies the ungodly by the
works of man. That's how men think. That's
how the natural mind thinks. No man has ever known the gospel
to be of grace, except it were revealed to him of this prophet,
Jesus Christ. How could God pardon sinners
without excusing or passing by sin? It was a mystery. Well,
the revelation of this mystery is because He chose us in Christ
before the world began. There's the revelation of the
mystery. Well, man, that's deep. Not really. Not really. God chose you before
the world began. End of story. That's what it
is. God chose us in Christ, and in
Christ has made us accepted. We are accepted in Christ before
the world began. Well, how do you know this to
be true? Were you there? Did you see him write your name in
the book? I remember this analogy that
this decorated war hero in England, he he knew that they
had a book at the British Parliament. He knew they had a book with
his name in it. And someone once asked him, he says, how do you
know your name is in that book? He said, well, I receive a check
every month. I know my name is written down because I receive
a check every month from them. See, I know my name has been
written down because someone who came down from heaven has
told me so. Because I have heard the voice
of the Lord Jesus Christ and He has said that I have chosen
you from before the foundation of the world. Mystery solved. Mystery solved. He has come to
reveal that salvation is by grace through faith in Him alone. A mystery that none of us could
have solved on our own. We could have never figured this
out had God not come down and revealed it to us. We know it's
true because He was there. He came and showed us these things. So how do we know that How do
we know such mysterious things? Well, we know this through the
preaching of the gospel. This is the means that God has
chosen to reveal that Jesus Christ, Jesus is the Christ, is by the
preaching of the gospel. Also, don't be ashamed of the
gospel. Don't be ashamed of me, his prisoner. Because this is
the power of God and the salvation, the gospel is how we know. This
is how God reveals it to every one of us, not one of us who
are saved and know that Jesus is the Christ. We all receive
the gospel the same way. By the hearing of faith, the
scripture says in Romans, Romans, chapter 10. Flip over there, Romans, chapter
10. And the scripture says, How shall
they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall
they believe on him in whom they have not heard? And how shall
they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? As it is written, How beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. But they have not obeyed the
gospel for a lifetime. For Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath
believed our report, so then faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God." Friends, when we hear the gospel, if you hear the gospel, you are
hearing the voice of Christ. It is a very mysterious thing,
but it is so. And we who have heard it testify
to it. Scripture said, Jesus said, The
day is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice
of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. Jesus Christ has come and manifest
himself to be our Savior. He has come. The Scripture says
that he has brought life and immortality to light, to light,
to knowledge, to understanding how through the gospel, through
the gospel. We believe that Jesus is the
Christ. And he has made clear. That all
the Old Testament offerings and prophecies and Psalms and the
law They all pictured him. So you can go anywhere you want
to in the Bible and read of Christ. Every time a man stands to preach,
he should preach one message about one person, that anointed
prophet, Jesus Christ. They all pictured and pointed
to his coming, and when he has now come, he has come to make
salvation known to his people. Do you believe on the Lord? Is
He the Christ, the anointed prophet? Have you heard His voice? Have you believed on Him by faith? Then we know this, He is the
author of our faith. I know this, that if I die believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ, I will give Him glory because He is
the finisher of my faith. Jesus came, the anointed, to
preach the gospel to everyone. Not to everyone, but to sinners.
Isn't this the message of today, that Christ has come to preach
the gospel to everyone? Now, I preach to everyone. I
preach to anyone that will hear. Anybody that wants to come in
and hear, they are welcome to come in and hear. And I will
preach the gospel to you. But I know this, that Jesus Christ
truly will only preach to His people. And only they will hear. His voice. Scripture says that
Jesus said, My sheep know my voice, and they follow me. And they won't hear another.
They won't hear another. You believe on Christ. When you
hear another gospel, does your ears not burn? You not want to
flee at the mention of another Christ? I do. I don't want to
hear it. I have no interest in it. I have
no interest in anything but the gospel. Jesus' Word is even now
living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. Has
the Word of God pierced your heart? Oh, yes. Yes, it has. I've heard the voice of my Savior,
and I know Him, and I follow Him, and I won't hear a stranger's
voice. We believe that Jesus is the
Christ because He preaches to us His gospel. And thirdly, we believe that
Jesus is the Christ because He is the anointed King of God. The anointed King. Now, Jesus
was from eternity King. There's no doubt about this.
He made all things. The Scripture says that He made
all things, not only by His own self, But He made all things
for His own self. He made everything for Him. He was the Creator God and has
always ruled His creation. Yet the Son of God was chosen
to be a king by the anointing of God as a man. He was not only to be the man,
the high priest, He was not only to be the man, the prophet of
God, but he was also to be the man, the king of God. We were by nature rebels. Can
you identify with that? Does your old man identify with
that rebellious nature? I do. We by nature were born
rebels and haters of God. Yet Jesus was anointed to be
our King, and by his life and by his death, having removed
what separated us from God, he hath reconciled us rebels to
himself." He reconciled us to himself. This Jesus Christ, the
King, has by his mighty hand destroyed death. He by his conquering
power has conquered the grave. He's crushed the head of Satan,
our enemy. He has led captivity captive. He has set us free who were bound
to sin and captive to the will of Satan. Because Jesus is the anointed
King, we believe on him as Christ. The scripture Jesus has said,
if the Son will set you free, you shall be free indeed. Free
from what? Do you need to be free? Those
Pharisees didn't need to be free, did they? They said, we're Abraham's
seed. We don't need to be free. Well,
he didn't come to set them free. He comes to set sinners free. Free from the law. Oh, happy
condition. Jesus has bled and there is remission. Cursed by the law and bruised
by the fall, Christ hath redeemed us once for all. This king, Jesus,
has come and he has set up his kingdom in our hearts. The kingdom
of God, Jesus said, doesn't come with observation. Everybody's
waiting for the kingdom of God. You see the books and the movies,
they're all thinking that somehow He's going to come back to this
earth and He's going to try to set up an earthly kingdom in
the midst of sinners. What a foolish notion that is.
Jesus said, the kingdom of God cometh without observation. It comes because it's in us. He establishes His kingdom in
the hearts of His people. Then He will come. and set up
His kingdom and deliver us from sin, the presence of sin. One
day He's going to come and He's going to deliver us and we're
going to be with Him forever. The Scripture says, there is
therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. Why? Because He is the King that
has delivered us from the law of sin and death. We should rejoice daily that
we are not under the law of sin and death. We should rejoice
daily that our King has established his kingdom in our hearts. What
then can remove his throne? If Jesus is the anointed King,
what can remove his throne from our hearts? Nothing and no one. Nothing and no one. There is no angel in heaven or
devil. There's nothing in heaven or
earth in this life or after, not even our own sin. Now, that's
good news. That is good news that there's
no one to dethrone this king. He said, you are in my hand,
and I in the Father's hand, and no one will pluck you out of
my hand. The Father which gaveth you me is greater than all."
I'm thankful for my King. I'm thankful that He has set
up His office in my heart and I serve Him now. I don't wait
to serve Christ. I serve Him now. We serve Him in worship. We serve
Him in prayers. Does this mean that we won't
suffer? No. We will suffer in this life.
That doesn't matter, because our King even controls our suffering. He controls all things. And the Scripture tells us that
he will not lose one of us. Not one. All that the Father give me shall
come to me, and I should lose nothing but raise it up again
at the last day. Well, fourthly, to believe on
Christ is to believe He's successful. If He is the Christ, then He
has fulfilled all that the Old Testament has said about Him.
Do you believe Christ is successful? Has He saved His people from
their sins? Yes, He has. The Scriptures tell me that he
shall not fail nor be discouraged. Is he going to fail? Has he ever
failed to save one of his people? No. No. And he won't fail. He'll never be discouraged. Why?
Because he has accomplished all that God gave him to do. Do you believe this? Is this
true? Is he the Christ? The anointed of God. You bet
he is. My whole soul rests on it. And if you believe this, look
back to your text real quickly. If you believe that Jesus is
the Christ, the anointed prophet, priest and king. And that he
has accomplished all salvation, look at this, whosoever believe
it, that Jesus is the Christ is born. of God. I'm born of God. I'm not born
of my decision, my will or my works. I am born by the will
of God. And there is no way that that
will ever be undone. And the last of this text, it
says, everyone that loveth him that begat loveth him also that
is begotten of him. How do we know that we believe
and trust that Jesus is the Christ? The only way this is measured
is by our love for one another. Anyone can say, I believe, but
truly, This is measured by how much we love the brethren. How much we love one another.
Jesus said, if you're born of God, you'll love others who are
born of God. You'll identify with Him. When
we come together here, we don't always get everything. But I
know this, I come to be identified with you. I identify with you. Because
we both have the same Father. We both believe that Jesus is
the Christ and we are both born of God. And therefore, we love one another. I tell you what, my right hand
and my left hand, they don't always do the same thing, but
I love them both. I love them both. And friends, I love you. I do. May God give me grace to
love you more. May God give me grace to serve
you more. I pray that God bless this to
your hearts. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.