Take your Bibles and turn back
with me to John chapter 5. John chapter 5 and our text is
found in verse 24. John chapter 5 and verse 24 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."
The title of my message this morning, Complete Salvation. Complete Salvation. Jesus, here in this text, after
He had healed the man at the pool of Bethesda, He had healed
this man on the Sabbath day, But our Lord, in verse 17, declares
to these Jews that would have killed Him because of this. You
see, He broke what they thought would be the law of God, and
so they brought Him before them and persecuted Him. They persecuted
Him. These Jews... These Jews. He declares to these Jews in
verse 17, as well as to every person sitting in this building
this morning, you that are under the sound of my voice, I want
you to hear this message from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself
declaring who He is. In verse 17, He says, But Jesus
answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Jesus Christ said, My Father
is God. My Father is God. And this phrase,
My Father, is more than is on the surface here in our translation. Jesus Christ in this place is
saying God was His Father in such a way that He is the Father
of Jesus Christ like no one else. He alone is My Father. That's what He's saying. He alone
is my Father. That is, He and the Father are
in such a union unlike any one of us. Now, we who are believers
in Christ, we are in union with Christ and we are one with Christ
and one with the Father, but not like this. You see, He was
always in union with the Father in the deity of His person. Jesus Christ here in that verse
is declaring that He Himself is the Son of God. He Himself is God. Now, these
Jews, in verse 18, they understood more than most people understand
today. You see, in the end of verse
18, they said they wanted to kill Him because He made Himself
equal with God. You see, He understands more
than the Arians or the Jehovah's Witnesses who deny the deity
of Christ. They understood this statement
when Jesus said, My Father worketh and I work. He says, I am God. I am God. He alone is God. He proclaimed Himself to be equal
with God as He has the right to do. He is equal with God. This One who is speaking in our
text is God, manifest in the flesh, and as He works, so does
the Father and so does the Spirit, who are one in person, one in
the essence of God, one in unity, one in will, one in power, and
one in purpose. So that when God the Father works,
God the Spirit works, and God the Son works, they are equal. And in verse 19, Jesus expounds
on this, and He said, the Son can do nothing of Himself. What
does that mean? Does that mean that the Son lacked
power to do anything? Absolutely not. You remember
the statement in Scripture that says, God cannot lie? Remember
where it says God cannot deny Himself? This is the same idea
here when it says Jesus said, I can do nothing of myself. In
other words, He said that when I work, when I move, God moves. When I healed the man at the
pool of Bethesda, that was God healing the man at the pool of
Bethesda. I and my Father work in unity
as one. As one. And so that He can do nothing
of Himself, so that when He does something, the Father does something.
And when He does something, the Spirit does something. And these
Jews, they were trying to get at Him because He healed on the
Sabbath day, but they had no idea He was the Lord of the Sabbath. He was the One that created the
Sabbath day. And so therefore, He could work
in it. It was His to work in. And so,
looking at our text, I want us to keep that in mind today as
we study what is being said here, because I'm not saying it. Don't
look at it as I've said it. My friend, this is the very God
of heaven that is stating this in Scripture. This is His Word. And he says this in our text,
don't skip these words, verily, verily. How many times have we
heard that and we just read right through it, verily, verily? Verily,
verily, God has said. Verily, verily, I say unto you.
These are, God doesn't put them there to fill space. There's
nothing in the Scriptures to fill space. The Lord Jesus Christ
is saying truly, truly, truly. This is a truth and you should
stop and pay attention to what I'm saying. That's what Christ
is telling us. When you see these words, you should stop and pay
attention because He's saying something very important. Very
important. The everlasting God has said
this. And so we should pay attention. And my friends, this truth that
He is stating here should have interest for every person in
this building. This Scripture should interest
every one of you in this building. This morning it should. It should
interest every one of us. That this truth proclaims a great
declaration. The Scripture says that all flesh
is grass. Isn't that true? Is not time
fleeting so fast? Can we not look back at our lives
and see how fast it has gone? It has gone so fast. All flesh
is grass and the flower of the field. And the grass withereth
and the flower fadeth. You and I, my friend, are closer
to death today than we were yesterday. We're closer to the grave today
and none here will escape it. You that are young, don't boast
in your youth. Don't boast thyself of tomorrow,
thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. This statement should
interest you because Jesus Christ said, He that heareth my word
and believeth on him that sent me shall have hath everlasting
life. Is that interesting to anybody?
Everlasting life? It should be to a dying person.
It should be to one who is dying. That should be an interest. It
should be an interest. A statement should be of interest
to every child of Adam because all have sinned in Adam. All
have a sin nature. All are under the condemnation
of God. Jesus, when He said in John chapter
3, everybody likes John 3, 16, but they miss 17. Jesus said,
the Son of Man came not into the world to condemn the world.
You ever wonder why He wouldn't come to condemn the world? Because
down in the other verse, in the verse just down from that, he
says, the world is already condemned. You see, the sentence has already
been handed down. You've already been condemned. When you breathe your first breath
in this life, you entered in under the wrath of God, under
the condemnation. And said, this is the condemnation,
that men love darkness rather than light because their deeds
are evil. Some of you. There's some of
you that, my friend, you are under the condemnation. And yet
Christ, here the God of heaven, speaks. And He says, some will
not come into condemnation. That should interest you. That
should interest you. Some will not come under condemnation. This is the truth of being passed
from death to life. This should interest everybody
here. Why? Because the human soul is born
dead in sins when it breathes its first breath. Remember, our
father Adam, when he sinned, he died spiritually, and that
spiritual death is passed down unto every one of us. Romans
chapter 5, "...Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the
world, and death by sin, so death passed upon all men, for all
have sinned." Is that not clear? That's clear. All men are spiritually
dead. And Jesus here is talking about
spiritual life. That should interest some people.
That should interest people who are dead and need life. It should. You who are outside of Christ,
my friend, today, listen to me very carefully. You are dead. You are dead on the inside and
dying on the outside. You see, you can get religion.
You can reform yourself and you can turn over as many new leaves
as you want to. You can do all you can, but my
friends, there's one thing you cannot do is raise your own dead
soul to life. You can't do it. My friends, unless you have been
resurrected in your soul, you cannot nor will not find anything
of interest in what I'm going to say this morning. You cannot,
of yourselves, find any interest in this. Although you should
be interested. Although you should, you can't! Because you're dead
in your sins and you will not believe. You will not believe. You have no love for the things
of Christ. You see no need for the things
of Christ. And yet some of you here, you
do see the futility of life. Maybe somebody here sees the
futility of life this morning and sees how fast it is fleeting.
Maybe some of you know that God is coming in judgment upon those
who are in sin. Maybe you know that this morning.
Maybe you see the deadness of your soul. If you see these things,
my friend, I have a message for you. I have a message for you. I have a message for those. If
any man asks, how can these be mine? How can this everlasting
life, this justification, righteousness that you speak of, this resurrection
of souls, how can it be mine? Let me start off by saying this. It is not the work of you. It is not something you are able
to do. It's not like you're going to
buy a how-to book and follow step 1, 2, 3 on how to resurrect
your soul. No! This is the work of God. This is the work of God. Salvation
is the work of God, not of man. How will He do it? How will He
do these wonderful things? Well, we've got two ways, two
things that God uses. Two things that God will do to
a man who has need of life, who has need of freedom of condemnation,
who has need of everlasting life. Jesus Christ in this Scripture
shows us two things that God will do. Two things must happen. First of all, God must cause
you to hear. God must cause you to hear. And number two, God must cause
you to believe. God must cause you to believe.
First of all, you must hear. You must hear. Look at that in
our text. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
He that heareth my word. What is the word that he's speaking
of here? It is none other than the Gospel
of Jesus Christ. That's His Word. This is His
Word. The salvation of souls of men
is an act of God's sovereign grace. No man seeks after God,
yet God has chosen a people. This is the message. Here's the
Word. Listen. Listen to it. God has chosen a people. Jesus Christ has come in the
flesh to redeem those people. And God the Holy Spirit is now
moving through the preaching of the gospel to save those people. That's the gospel in a nutshell.
That's it. There's the Word of Christ. There
it is. Christ. And Christ alone is the
hope of men. This is the message. So then
God has ordained salvation. From the beginning of the world,
before the foundation of the world, God ordained salvation. God accomplished salvation in
His Son, and God has also ordained the means by which He will call
those people. He has ordained that means by
which He will call those to Christ. And that is by hearing the Word. hearing the gospel. He that heareth
my word, the gospel of Christ, the gospel of the grace of God
to sinners, the message of the blood and righteousness of Christ,
the message of hope for the hopeless. Message of help for the helpless. Are you helpless or do you have
something to give? You've got something to give.
I've got nothing for you. If you are helpless and hopeless,
oh, what a glorious message this is for you. Hear this message.
This is the message of Christ. In Acts 13, verse 38, the Apostle
says, "...Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren,
that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins."
Oh, is there anybody in need of forgiveness? Then I preach to you this man,
Jesus Christ. Oh, everyone that needs forgiveness! And I'm not talking about the
forgiveness of men. A lot of people get into a bad
situation, they get into a cross situation with men, and they
get down, and they get depressed, and they start looking for forgiveness.
Well, what they want is forgiveness from a man. I don't have that. I'm talking about forgiveness
with God. Do you need forgiveness of God? You see, that's what the message
of the Gospel. Those are the people that the Gospels preach
to. People in need of forgiveness. In need of mercy. Are there any in need of mercy
this morning? I am. I need mercy. I need mercy. I don't need justice. I need
mercy. I need grace. I can't help myself. My friend, the only reason I
believe today is not because I did believe, but because the
Spirit of God gives me faith today to believe. That's it. My hope rests in Him. This is
the message of Christ. Do you need salvation? Then come to Christ. Well, pastor,
I'm not so bad. I've got a little problems. You
know, I don't have that big problem like that. All I need is a push
in the right direction. If you just set me on my road,
pastor, I'll be okay. Sorry, I've got nothing for you.
I've got no message for you. God gives you no message but
condemnation. If this is you, you've not heard
the Word of God. He declares men by nature are
at enmity against God, that they are depraved and spiritually
dead, and God says no man can come unto Christ except the Father
which has sent Me draw him. Isaiah chapter 1 and verse 5
and 6, it says, why should you be stricken anymore? Ye will
revolt more and more. The whole head is sick and the
whole heart is faint. From the sole of the foot even
to the crown of the head, there is no soundness but wounds and
bruises and putrefying sores. Is that you? That is my flesh, my friends.
That is our flesh by nature. This is what men must see in
order to hear the Word of God. That they cannot by their works
please God. Is any of you resting in what
you've done? Anybody in this building resting in anything
that you have done in your entire life? Is there anything that
you rest in besides Christ? If you do, you have not heard
the Word. You've not heard what you are.
You've not heard what God says about you. Have you heard that
Jesus Christ is the Son of God and come in the flesh to become
a servant and obey the law of God perfectly? To lay down His
life as a sin offering for the atonement of sinners? Have you heard that? Jesus didn't
come for Himself, my friends. He didn't come down here and
suffer the persecution and the ridicule of natural man, the
man He created, so He can have righteousness. He always had
righteousness. He came that you might have righteousness,
so that I might have righteousness. He laid down His life and God
imputed the sins of all His people onto Him. And He suffered the
wrath of God alone for the sins of His people. And
my friends, the Jesus I'm talking about this morning, I'm not talking
about a weak effeminate Jesus who can't save anybody. I'm talking
about the sovereign Lord Jesus who has risen this morning and
sitting on the right hand of God, and He is a successful Savior. You see, He accomplished salvation. He didn't make it possible. He
accomplished salvation. This is the Word of the Gospel.
This is the assurance of the Gospel. Have you heard this? Have you heard of this? I came
to preach unto you Jesus Christ, who is a successful Savior and
worthy of our praise. I point you to the Lamb of God. Don't look at me. I can't help
you. I can't save you. I can't save
myself. I declare unto you Jesus Christ
and Him crucified for the only hope for sinners. Behold, the
Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world." Behold
Him. Hear His Word. Hear His Word. Paul says this in Romans chapter
10. Remember Romans chapter 10? He
that calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. How shall
they call on Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall
they hear without a preacher? Down on in that verse he said
this, Have they not all heard? You this morning, I just declared
unto you the gospel and I told you where salvation rests in
Christ. You heard me. I don't think there's
any deaf folks in this room this morning either. I mean, everybody
I believe, even the smallest child, heard me with their ears,
didn't they? Everybody. Paul said, have they
not all heard? Yes, their sound went out through all the world.
Sure, everybody heard. Everybody hears me this morning.
I'm sure you're not... Am I too soft? Is my voice too
soft that you can't hear? I don't think so. I think it's
loud enough that everybody can hear me even outside. I had one
guy come in on Wednesday because he heard me. Yes, I think my
voice is loud enough. But that's not the hearing that
he's talking about. You see, I know some of you have
heard this message. I know that some of you have
made a profession of faith. I know that some of you have
been baptized. But to hear the Word of Christ
is not just to hear or to assent to something that's true. That's not hearing the gospel. That's not it. What I'm talking
about is something much greater. Hearing the gospel is not just
assenting because I made it logical to you. If I sit down with you
and I make it logical to you and you say, yeah, that sounds
right, that sounds good. That's not hearing. That's not hearing. My friends, if I convince you
of something today, somebody tomorrow will convince you of
something else. I promise you. I promise you that will happen.
That's not hearing. Some of you may be reformed.
You may have been something very wicked and evil and you may have
had a wicked life and then all of a sudden now you're doing
well. That's not hearing the gospel. Learning the catechism
or learning Calvinism is not salvation, my friend. Learning
theology is not salvation. Hearing the gospel is this. Listen
to me very carefully. This is hearing the gospel. You
want to know how these things can be yours? Listen. It is the
resurrection of a dead soul. Jesus said, the hour is coming,
and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of
God, and they that hear shall live. Remember Lazarus? He was dead in that tomb. Jesus caused them to roll the
stone away, and he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth! Lazarus laid there and said,
let me think about that. Let me think about that a minute
and I'll get back to you and see if I can ascend to that kind
of understanding, Christ, I'll be back with you in a minute.
Oh no, he got up. And that's exactly what happened
to me. I was sitting in a congregation just like you were sitting. And
I heard the preacher preach year after year after year. And one
day he said, Fred Evans, get up! And I got up. That's a resurrection
of the soul and the whole world changed. I didn't know if I changed
or the world changed, but something changed in me. I saw the world
differently. I saw what I was. I saw who He
is. I've been raised from the dead. I didn't make my decision for
Jesus. I didn't just ascend, I ascended
to this stuff a long time before I was saved. To hear the voice
of the Son of God is to be raised from the dead. Many people profess with their
lips to love Christ, but there is no change in their life. They
still love their sin. Oh, I love Jesus. When they're
here in this building, when they go back home, Where'd their love
go? They're dead. You see, when someone
comes to know Christ, everything changes. Some people believe
the church is made to hatch them, match them, and dispatch them.
That's the only time they ever come to church. When they're
born, when they're married, and when they die. Any other time,
doesn't really matter. Easter? Christmas? Come, tip your hat to God, and
go back to like you were the rest of the year. These people have not heard,
because when people hear, Christ is not just a part of their life.
He is their life. My friends, Christ will be your
all, or He will be your judge and condemn you to hell that
you deserve." There's no middle ground here, friends. People
say there's carnal Christians. I don't believe there's such
a thing. No. There's sinners saved by grace. I understand
that. But my friends, those who are resurrected and hear the
voice, their lives are changed and Christ is their all. Number
two, God will not only cause you to hear, but He will cause
you to believe. Believe and believe God. Those
who have heard His voice believe God. They rest their souls upon
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and His work as their High Priest. You see, this morning, I've heard
the voice of the Lord God, and I saw what I was, but I saw what
Christ had done for me. I saw that His blood was my only
hope, and I believed God. No doubt, every one of you in
here believe there's a God. I don't doubt that whatsoever.
Ninety-something percent of all Americans believe in a God. That's not what I'm talking about.
There's altogether a great difference in believing in God and believing
God. Altogether great difference.
Do you believe God? Do you believe His record concerning
His Son? and His record concerning yourself."
Oh yes, I believe. Help thou my unbelief. Help thou
my unbelief. Faith, my friend, is a gift of
God. Is a gift of God, not of my works. You that have faith, is that
not the record of God that your faith is not your own, but something
given to you? I had to receive faith. I couldn't
even believe without God giving it to me. And so when God causes
a man to hear, He will also cause him to believe. Believe God. Is this your confession today?
Is Christ Jesus your Lord and Savior? Or are you paying lip
service? Is He your all? Is He your life?
Or is He just part of your life? To those who hear His voice,
they will believe. on the Son of God, and as many
as believed, to them gave He the right to become the sons
of God, which were born, not of the will of the flesh, nor
of the will of man, but of God." Now, you that have believed,
I'm going to talk to you a minute. Hear me? You that believe in
Christ, I want you to see what God's comforting Scriptures has
said to us this morning about a complete salvation. You see,
God didn't make salvation possible and expect you to fill in the
blank. No. No, praise God, He didn't. Praise
God, He did nothing like that. Our Lord God, when He made salvation,
He made it complete. And He finished the work. The
work of salvation is finished. Past, present, and future. Look
at our text. I want you to see this. I noticed
this. It came out to me like a bolt of lightning on this Scripture.
The tense of the verbs here. Look at this. He that heareth
My word and believeth on Him that sent Me. Look at this first
one. Hath. Now, you don't have to be a Greek
scholar or an English major in order to understand that's past
tense. He already has. already has everlasting life. Believer, let us again glory
in the sovereign grace of our God who loved us in eternity
past and gave us eternal life before there was ever a sin. Isn't that something? Titus chapter
1 and verse 2 says, "...in hope of eternal life which God that
cannot lie promised." When did He promise eternal life? Before
the world began. Isn't that something? You that
believe, you already have everlasting life. Let me ask you this, when
does everlasting life begin? When can you begin something
that's everlasting? You can't. It always was. God had your life already given
to you before the world began. And so this sures us. This is the foundation by which
we rest and we fall on, that our salvation is in God alone
and not in ourselves. Hallelujah. Praise God that it's
in Him and not in us. What a foundation to stand on.
My life, my everlasting life, hath been given to me already.
It already has by God's sovereign grace. Number two, notice the
present tense. Look at the very last part. But is past. Is, right now, presently, past
from death to life. Believers, when we were regenerated,
We have been given a new nature that is created inside of us,
who we walked in sin and obeyed the lust of our flesh, but now
something's changed. Something's new. We have been
delivered from the law of sin and death and been translated
into the glorious kingdom of His dear Son. Right now, you
are passed from death to life. You are free from the burden
of the law, which only was an ordinance of sin. Only an ordinance
that manifest our sin to us. And God says, you are right now
free. Free in Christ. We are right
now presently free to love and serve God. You weren't before.
Isn't that right? Before, you hated God. But now,
we are passed from death to life so that we can serve God and
love each other. Is that not the commandment of
Christ? Love one another. I did this on Wednesday night.
We saw this in greater detail on Wednesday night. Let each
esteem other better than themselves. You know, that's not natural,
is it? That's not something we grow up doing. Do your kids,
do they esteem others better than themselves? Or do they automatically
esteem themselves better than everybody else? Mine esteem themselves
better than everybody else. I don't know about your children.
I do, really, but I'm trying to be nice. Yes, our children,
they know what's good for them. But when God changes our hearts,
you know, I see things differently. I want what's good for you. I
want to see you, believers, as God sees you. If I can do that, I'll esteem
you better than me any day of the week. And that's what's been
given to us. And number three, this is a complete
salvation in future tense. Look at that. And shall not come
into condemnation. We all here in this building,
hear me again, pay attention now. I'm almost finished. Almost
finished. Every one of us will be judged
before Christ. You will. Every person in this,
under the sound of my voice, you will stand before the judgment
seat of Christ. I promise you. You will. He will judge you. In Matthew chapter 25, we see
a clear definition of this, when Jesus said, the Son of Man shall
come in His glory with His holy angels, and He shall gather all
nations before Him. And on that day, my friend, there
will be a great separation. God will separate those who have
heard and believed on His right hand and on His left hand. all of those who have not heard
and did not believe. And He will say to those on His
right hand, Come, you blessed of My Father. There is therefore
now no condemnation. Come on in. That's the day that
God will manifest to us the completeness of our salvation when He says,
Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from before the foundation of the world. That is a sure
thing, believer. Therefore, death, we may say,
where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
Because at death, my friends, it only ushers believers into
the presence of their Lord. And in that chapter, you'll notice
their attitude. When Jesus said, when I was hungry,
you fed me. When I was in prison, you visited
me. And they said, Lord, when did we do anything like that? But those who are on the left,
Those who will not believe, who trust in themselves, they have a different attitude.
They said, Lord, when did we not do those things for You?
Lord, didn't we cast out devils in Your name and preach in Your
name? Didn't we do this and do that and do this and do that?
What will He say to them? Depart from Me, you that work
iniquity, I never knew you. Don't you imagine that those
on that left hand will be very shocked? And disappointed? I say to you, there may be some
here in this room who will be in that crowd. I tell you, hear the Word of
God and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. This is the Word of the Living
Christ. Hear Him. Hear Him. We'll have the man come forward
for the Lord's table, please.