Will you now open your Bibles
to the fifth chapter of the Gospel of John? Our Heavenly Father, bless us. Bless me, the preacher. Bless
those that have gathered to hear. We are glad that you have given
us hearts that desire to hear what you have to say. But in
order for that to happen, Lord, you must bless me. For there
is nothing in me that can make your word effective in the hearts
of people. I can merely say things, but
you can bring life by your word. We pray that you would do that.
And in the same way, Lord, those who have gathered here cannot
hear unless they're giving given an ear that can hear, a spiritual
ear attuned to the voice of the heavenly shepherd. Father, your only begotten son
said that he is the shepherd, that he knows his sheep. He said,
my sheep hear my voice and they follow me and I give to them
eternal life. Lord, may we all be sheep this
morning, and may we hear the voice of our shepherd and follow
him. In Christ's name we pray, amen. Verse 24, I tell you the truth. Whoever hears my word and believes
him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned. He
has crossed over from death to life. Now this is a marvelously
simple statement. I say simple in the sense that
it is not difficult to understand. It shouldn't be. In fact, if
there is difficulty in understanding what our Lord has said here,
it comes from a heart unable to receive what our Lord has
said here. But we take these words of the
Lord, just like we take His other words, we take them at face value.
Our Lord spoke so that his sheep would
hear his voice, so that those that were his would recognize
his voice. You know, it's an interesting
thing about sheep. Of course, from the time they're
little lambs, they're led by the same shepherd, generally
speaking, and they become attuned to that voice. Of course, they
don't understand the words that are being said, But they know
his voice, and so much is this true. It is said that, you know,
in these times, you know, people with flocks of sheep, they would
take them out into land that essentially wasn't owned by anybody.
You know, it was just out there. And lots of shepherds, each one
with his own flock, they would let their sheep out into that
area. And those sheep would mingle. Because sheep don't mind other
sheep. And, you know, they weren't troubled by the presence of other
sheep. And they went about their day
grazing, resting, doing whatever it is sheep do all day long.
But when it was time to go, the sheep... For some reason this
thing seems to be cutting out. Do you all notice that? Eric,
why don't you turn this microphone on? I don't know what's going
on because I put brand new batteries in. And we'll just forego this microphone for the time
being. I'm going to have to stand like a rock star with my face
right up against the microphone. If you've ever heard me sing,
you'll know I'm not a rock star. Anyway, the sheep are out there.
And they spent their day out in the fields. And it's time
to go home. Now, they don't have to tag the
sheep to identify whose sheep belongs to which shepherd. All the shepherd has to do is
call. And his sheep hear his voice,
and they follow him. Now, when God's people hear the
Word of God in Christ, they recognize their shepherd, and they follow
him. Now, I do my best, as one called
to preach, to speak using the words of the shepherd. But here's
one thing I know, I don't have his voice. That's why it's necessary that
not only that I stand here and according to the gifts God has
given me, speak the truth. It's also necessary that the
spirit of Christ come among us and add his voice to the truth
being spoken. And I can tell you this, here's
a wonderful thing about the voice of Christ. it can use some pretty
pitiful words to get the message to his sheep. The voice of Christ added to
the preaching of a human preacher can supply in the hearts of the
people what maybe wasn't said clearly, and I can testify that
the that our Lord Jesus Christ is also able to stop their ears
from hearing the foolish mistakes that preachers make. If it required a perfect preacher
for the voice of Christ to be heard, it would never be heard. But the Lord says this, I tell
you the truth, whoever hears my word, my word, There's lots of words out there.
Now the word, word, as it appears in Greek, does not simply mean
one unit of human thought expressed either vocally or on paper. It
can also mean an entire message. And so when the Lord says, if
any man or whoever hears my word, he's not just, he's not speaking
of simply a word that he said at one time or another, he's
talking about his entire message. The word of God, the word of
Christ is not just a word, it's not even just a collection of
words. It is a message. That's why I've
several times made the point that While I recognize that the
Bible is the Word of God in the sense that it's made up of words
and that God inspired men to write it, whenever the Bible
talks about the Word of God, it's not talking about itself.
You say, how do you know that this is true? Well, I'll tell
you one reason. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word
of God, according to what Paul wrote. there were no scriptures
till at least 2,500 years of human history had gone by. If by word of God, the phrase
word of God, the scriptures mean the Bible, that means that it
could not have been anyone had any faith until Moses wrote the
first books of the Bible. The word of God, while it's revealed
in this book, And we take this book to be the only authoritative
written record of what God has said. But a person could preach
the things found in this book and never preach the word of
God. Why? Peter says, speaking of
the word of the Lord, another way it's described, He said,
the word of the Lord endures forever, and this is the word
which by the gospel is preached to you. It's not the word of
God till it's the gospel. I may accurately lay out for
you the doctrines contained in here. I can give proper meaning
to the words but until it is declared as good
news, set forth as pointing people to the Lord Jesus Christ and
what he has done, it's not the word of God until then. So he says, whoever hears my word and believes in him who sent
me has eternal life. He will not be condemned. He
has crossed over from death to life. Now here is a great blessing
spelled out. Eternal life. Now I can't imagine anybody would
not want eternal life. But understand that when the
Lord Jesus here speaks of eternal life, he speaks of something
more than merely unending life, unending existence. If I read
the scriptures correctly, even those who die in their sins go
on existing forever. Existence isn't the issue in
this life. That is the eternal life he's
speaking of. It's eternal life not only in terms of the length
of it, but the kind of life it is. It's a spiritual life. It's
a life that enables a person to have union with his creator.
It's the kind of life that God created Adam with. He said, let's
make man in our image and after our likeness. Why? that there
may be fellowship between the creator and his creation. Now
you cannot fellowship with anyone or anything that you do not share
something with. In fact, the word commonly translated fellowship
in the New Testament is the word for common. And it's not, you know, we use
the word fellowship to describe a particular time when people
get together and enjoy one another's friendship. We think that's what
fellowship is. But that's a rather modern definition of the word. In olden times, the word fellow
meant someone with whom you had something in common. We all, just about, I imagine
everybody here knows about Tolkien's books, The Hobbit and The Lord
of the Rings, and they speak in it of the fellowship of the
ring. What do they mean? The kinds of creatures in that
book, you know, you had your elves and your hobbits and your
humans and a dwarf was in there or something. There wasn't much
they had in common, but there's one thing they did have in common.
All of them had some kind of relationship to the ring that
is the central aspect of the story. Believers have a fellowship.
Now we're different, aren't we? In natural things, aren't we
different? But we have a fellowship. And the fellowship, the thing
that all believers have in common, is Christ. and we can get together
around him and worship together around him. If you don't have
Christ in common, no worship can go on together. Well, God
created man that he might fellowship with him. God is spirit, therefore,
if man is to fellowship with God, he must have that nature
called spirit. Now it's my opinion, and I can't
be dogmatic about it, but that's my opinion of what is meant by
the image of God. God is spirit. Man was created
as a spiritual being, but not just spiritual. He's also a fleshly
being. He has a body. And this combined
characteristic of man, body and spirit, he was able to fellowship
with God on the spiritual level. He was able to fellowship with
creatures because he had things in common with them. However,
when man sinned, at the moment he sinned, he died spiritually. He lost that ability to have
fellowship with God. At that point, he had nothing
in common with God. Did he? If God's a spirit and
man, he's spiritually dead. All he is is flesh. He has no
more capacity to fellowship with God than your dog does, or a
bug, or an amoeba. Has nothing in common with God.
Here's an interesting aside. When man sinned, His spirit died
and he was no longer able to fellowship with God. One way
that God fixed that, the Word, the eternal spiritual being of
God, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Since we could
no longer communicate with God in His nature, God took on our
nature to communicate with us. Isn't that a remarkable thing
to think of? In one person was combined the nature of God and
the nature of man that there might be fellowship with God
or between God and man. Eternal life. Here's another
one. Will not be condemned. Now that's a pretty simple statement,
isn't it, is to gather up the meaning. It's categorical. By that, it's
not something that you can think of in terms of gradations. Will not be condemned. A judgment's
coming. That's just, that's true. Paul said to those in Athens,
God has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness
by that one whom he has sent, the one he raised from the dead. There will be a day, I don't
know what day it is, the Bible gives us no clue when this is
gonna happen. It just says it will. And there will be in that day
some who are condemned and some who are not. And it will not be a spectrum, you know, that you have Those
who are really condemned, and those who are only moderately
condemned, and others who are barely condemned, and then you
get to the other side, those that are barely saved, and those
that are pretty saved, and then those that are really, really
saved. They're none of that. All of humanity will be divided
between the completely, utterly, irrevocably condemned and those
who are completely, utterly, and irrevocably saved. That's the only two conditions
there will be. And here's what it says. He will
have eternal life and will not be condemned. Let me repeat that. will not
be condemned. Now here we stand, you know,
as we're going through our moment-by-moment life, and we can think of a lot
of reasons we should be condemned, right? Maybe you don't think
that. Maybe you think, hey, I haven't
been that bad. What do you mean, that bad? We
will be judged by a God Who's that good? Utterly and completely
good and righteous and just. One of whom it says that he is
of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. And it doesn't mean
he can't see it. You know, it says that the Lord
looked on the earth in Noah's day and all he could see was
just wickedness everywhere. He sees it. What it means is
he cannot behold it and tolerate it. he must do something about
it. And it doesn't say that he cannot
behold really gross iniquity or a whole lot of iniquity, he
just, none of it. God is perfect, therefore he
is rightly a perfectionist. Now it's not wise for us to try
to live as perfectionists, we'll drive ourselves crazy. Because
we can never achieve it. And if we become perfectionist
as we judge one another, well, there's not going to be anybody
good enough. So we've got to moderate it. God doesn't moderate
judgment. So we're going to stand before
a God like that. And the world may applaud you. You may show up in history books
as quite the humanitarian, and indeed, by human standards, you
may have been the best person ever to walk the face of the
earth. If you don't believe Christ's
word, you will be condemned. And you may be the worst scoundrel
ever to have drawn a breath of God's air. You may have been
nothing but trouble to everyone around you. You may be recorded
in history books like Hitler as one of the more remarkably
violent, wicked, despicable men. But if before you leave this
world, You hear the word of Christ and
you believe it. Though you will still be condemned
by men like that thief on the cross, you will not be condemned
by God. Someone says, oh, it doesn't
matter whether I'm good or bad. In judgment, it doesn't. No,
not in the judgment of God. And the simple reason is, none
of us are good enough to pass that judgment. Now, does it matter to those you live around? Yeah,
it sure matters to them. And so we ought to do everything
we can to be good, to act loving and all that. But understand
this, not a bit of our efforts is going to be able to spare us from this condemnation. because all of us bear sin, and
that's enough to bring us into condemnation, but blessed promise
coming right from the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not that
coming from the mouth of the apostles make it any less true,
but there just seems, I mean, the Lord himself said this, and that means for certain, no
preacher has any right to put a question mark on it, or to
add to it, or take away from it. He says, whoever hears my
word and believes him who sent me, he has eternal life. Do you
believe God's word? Or have you heard the word of
Christ, the gospel of Christ? Do you believe the one who sent
Christ? Don't let anyone tell you you
don't have eternal life. Because the Lord Jesus Christ,
the only begotten of the Father, God in human flesh, he says you
do. Now, I think we have to be careful
that we don't become too critical of those we listen to in their
preaching. And if they said something a
little bit differently than we think it ought to have been said
or something like that, we're going to cancel them out. Preachers, they're
human beings. They don't always get things
as precise as maybe it could have been. But here's something we should
listen to or listen for very carefully. When a preacher is
preaching, is he putting anything between you and Christ? Now you need something between
you and God. But what you need between you
and God is Christ. You don't need anything between
you and Christ. You don't have any hurdles to
jump over. You don't have any rivers to
swim. You don't have any tasks to complete in order to get to
Christ. And moreover, as we listen to
a preacher, we must be sure that he is not trying to, quote, qualify
the gospel as though we can't take it exactly as Christ spoke
it. has eternal life, not will get,
has eternal life, will not be condemned. And if someone says, will not
be condemned, but you've got to realize that after you believe,
don't listen to him anymore. He doesn't understand the word
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's plain, it's clear. Do you
want to escape the condemnation that your conscience tells you
you are worthy of? Listen to Christ. Trust the Father who sent him.
You won't be condemned, no matter what any religious leader tells
you. And then this, he has crossed
over from death to life. Now anybody that's listened to
me very long knows that I believe those doctrines commonly referred
to, free and sovereign grace. I not only believe them, I love
them. And I teach them. But I also know this, there The
doctrine of God's sovereign grace does not mean there's no such
thing as the experience of being saved by the grace of God. Let
me give you some examples of how people misuse the doctrines of sovereign grace,
and I'm not saying they're lost.
There's a subject called eternal justification. Well, I believe in eternal justification. You know why? Well, the scriptures
say it's God who justifies. God's eternal. Everything he
does is eternal. So when we think of eternal justification,
there is an aspect of justification that is eternal, or maybe we
should say if we look at justification from God's viewpoint, it's an
eternal thing. As God has seen it and always
seen it, and of course here we're in way over our heads because
we're trying to talk about a timeless being and the only way we can
talk is to use words that are time-based words, like we say,
when God, well there wasn't any when, when God chose his people,
no such thing, but that's the best we can do with it. But before
God said or called the universe into existence, he'd already
chosen, redeemed, justified, and called his people. So from
God's perspective, this is all done. But then people turn right
around and say, so I came into this world justified. No, you
didn't. Now, if it's done in eternity,
it will come to pass in time. When our Lord said in his prayer
to pray, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is
in heaven. He was not saying your kingdom
come, May people on earth start doing what you want them to do
just like they do what you want them to do in heaven. Why do
I know that's true? Well, not everybody in heaven
is doing what God wants them to do. By want, I mean what he
has set forth is right. You say, how do you know that?
The devil's in heaven. He constantly goes there and accuses the brethren
in the presence of God. What's he talking about? Well,
the word that's translated done. Now, done is a legitimate translation
of the word, but you have to understand the way that it means
done. It means brought to pass. It's the word used of something
being created, someone being born, something coming into existence. Now that's found twice in the
scriptures, that phrase. Your will be done on earth as
it is in heaven. God's will is already done in
heaven, all of it. And the Lord says, may it come
to pass here as well. We come into this world under
judgment. Now I have even said, you know
Paul says that we are by nature children of wrath, and I said
now we're only by nature like the children of wrath, we've
never been under the wrath of God. And I know what I meant
when I said that, but that's not the best way to say it. The
Bible says anybody that doesn't believe has been condemned already. Anyone not believing, the wrath
of God abides on him. Now I realize that God in his
eternal existence has never had an angry thought towards me because
Christ is eternal and he's always seen me in Christ. Yet as I come
into this world, I'm not out there in eternity. I'm going
through this process of time. And I come into this world a
sinner. I come into this world in Adam. I come lost in my transgressions. I come into this world under
God's judgment and wrath. I come into this world as a dead
person living in the realm of death. But there comes a time in the life of every one of God's
elect when he hears the word of Christ, the gospel. And not just with the ears on
the side of our head. God opens his heart to understand
and to believe. And he comes to Christ. And when
that happens, he passes, he crosses over. from death to life. Now for every one of us in the
flesh, unless some of us live until the Lord comes, for every
one of us, so far as this body is concerned, there will come
a time when we cross over from life to death, right? And that
means something. I mean, you wouldn't say, well,
you know, everything's eternal, you know. No, something happens. Well, spiritually speaking, for
the elect of God, there comes a time when he hears the word
of Christ and he believes the one who sent Christ. And at that
moment, he passes from a state of dead and trespasses and sins
unto alive unto God. In the adult Bible class, we've
been going through the book of Joshua. And one of the remarkable
pictures of salvation in there is when they crossed the Jordan.
And that crossing the Jordan is not when we leave this world
to go to heaven. Crossing the Jordan, the Jordan
does represent death. But when they were on the east
side of Jordan, they were under the law. and the law brings death. But
that Ark of the Covenant, borne up by the priests, stepped into
the Jordan River, and the waters of the Jordan on the down river
side just flowed away, the ones on the up river side just piled
up. And it was flood stage, by the way. But those priests walked
into the riverbed, holding that Ark, a picture of Christ and
Him crucified. that Jordan pictured his death.
And the Jews crossing over the dry bed of Jordan represented,
symbolized this, that they were in Christ when Christ died. They passed through that death
and they went from the land of death to the land of life. They
crossed over. Now that all happened in the
viewpoint of God when Christ died, because all God's elect
were in Him when He died, and all of them passed from death
to life when He died. But that which is done in the
realm of heaven, in the spiritual realm where God dwells, must
come to pass here. We cross from death to life. Our Lord went on to say, I tell
you the truth, the time is coming and has now come when the dead
will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will
live. For as the Father has life in
himself, so has he granted the Son to have life in himself. Our Lord is making some very
powerful statements. And the reason he is, This particular passage of scripture
follows the story where the Lord had healed a man at the pool
of Bethesda. And the Jews didn't like it because
it was the Sabbath day. How hard-hearted do you have
to be to get upset that a man who had been lame for what, I
think it was 38 years? suddenly can stand up and walk.
And you're upset that a guy did this on the Sabbath. Like, he
could take one more day of it and you could come back, you
know. The Sabbath was never meant to be a burden to man. It's a
testimony of rest. But they began to accuse him. And what he said in response
to their accusation shows exactly why it is that whoever hears
his word and believes in him who sent him has eternal life,
will not be condemned, and is crossed from death to life. If
you go back up to verse 16, we'll do this quickly. So because Jesus
was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted
him. Jews said to him, my father is always at his work to this
very day, and I too am working. Now, you might think that that's
really not a big deal. But notice how the Jews took
it up, and they were right in the way they took it up. For
this reason, the Jews tried all the harder to kill him. Not only
was he breaking the Sabbath, he was even calling God his own
father, making himself equal with God. I heard, I mentioned
this video to you, a woman that said five scriptures that made
her no longer believe. And she went on to make the point
that the scripture writers never did think Jesus was God. He was the Son of God. And I
read that and I go... I mean, you know, I understand
if you're blind, you're blind. But it's like they only read
snippets of scripture and think they understand it. When he said
that God was his father, those who were experts in the scripture,
even though they didn't understand his message, but they knew what
it said, they realized that in declaring that God is his father,
he was making himself equal with God. And you know what? God,
I mean, excuse me, the Lord Jesus did not correct their opinion.
He didn't say, oh, wait, wait guys. No, I wasn't saying that. And if he weren't God, if he
hadn't been God, and they misunderstood him to be saying that he was
God, he would have corrected them. He didn't correct them
because they were absolutely right. Shows you how much true
stuff you can know and not know the truth. Jesus gave them this answer.
I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by Himself. He
can do only what He sees His Father doing, because whatever
the Father does, the Son also does. Now, our Lord often spoke
in enigmatic ways, and it was for the purpose of confusing
those that didn't believe Him. But here's what He's saying. I, as the Son of God on earth,
I'm not doing anything. other than what my father sent
me to do, the things he shows me. That's what I'm doing. Whatever the father does, the
son does. Now you compare that with our
Lord's answer when the disciples said, Lord, show us the father
and that'll be enough for us. And he said, oh, Philip, have
you been with me so long and you still don't understand? He
who has seen me has seen the Father. This morning, I started walking
towards the back. There was a young man standing
up next to Scott back there. And I looked. I said, well, who
is that? He looks just like Scott, only
25 or so years younger. And I thought, is that Jacob? But I was too far away. My glasses
aren't good enough for me to get a clear image. Turns out
Jacob's cut his hair. He looks different from a distance.
And it wasn't until I was only two or three pews away. Oh yeah, that's Jacob. And I looked and I thought, man,
that's Pete and repeat. And so it is with God and his
son. What one is, the other is. What
one is like, the other one is like. What one does, the other
does. And our Lord never backed up
from that. He is of the same nature as God
because God is his father. He's equal with God. He is God. God revealed as a human being. You say, well, how can God do
that? Well, that above my pay grade, as they say, I don't know
how God did it. I just know he did. Verse 20, for the father loves
the son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement,
he will show him even greater things than these. You know, the common form of
evangelism in what is loosely called evangelicalism is to begin
with the message, God loves you. Nowhere that I can find in all
the scripture is any preacher given the warrant to go out to
the general public and say to them, God loves you. The apostles
said that of believers. They told believers that God
loves them. But I don't think you can find
one sermon of the apostles, as they went out spreading the gospel,
can't find one message of theirs to the general public that says
God loves you. But I'll tell you something,
I can tell you about the love of God. God loves the Lord Jesus
Christ. He loves his son. And he loves
him not just because he's his son, he loves them because, or
he loves the Lord Jesus Christ because everything God counts
good, he finds in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now when he loves us,
he loves us in spite of what we are. He loves the Lord Jesus
Christ because of what he is. He is, as the scriptures say
in Hebrews, the exact representation of God. When God looks at our Lord Jesus
Christ, he is, as it were, looking in a mirror. Said he loves the son. And then verse 21, for just as
the father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the
son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. There's just some sovereignty.
Oh, Jesus wants to give you life, but you won't let him. Really
now, is that what this scripture says? It says the son gives life
to whomever he wants to. And if he wants to give you life,
he will. You see how the full preaching
of the gospel blends this idea of God does things the way he
wants to do. Don't be presumptuous. But on
the other hand, he has made these promises, and it's not presumption
to believe the promises of God and lay hold of eternal life. See, man's always looking for
a reason for pride. The sovereignty of God's grace
just cuts pride out at the knees. Yet at the same time, the grace
of God is not the least diminished by the fact God's in charge of
it. Because all the promises hold true. And the promises are
out there for anyone to listen to. And if they believe them,
they pass over from death to life. Verse 22, moreover, for the Father
judges no one but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that
all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Do you see what rights Christ
is claiming for himself? I'll tell you, from the Pharisees'
viewpoint of things, I understand why they crucified him. Because in their fierce monotheism,
they could not see how God expresses himself. And they couldn't accept that
this man standing before them is God. But the Lord didn't back
up from it. It says, he who does not honor
the son does not honor the father who sent him. Now these Pharisees
were standing there with their fine robes with the fringes on
them, and their phylacteries, those boxes containing scriptures
on top of them. They were doing everything jot
and tittle of the law. thinking they were honoring God
the Father. But they despised the Son, and
what did that prove? They likewise despised the Father. Why could Jesus Christ say, if
any man hears my word and believes in him that sent me, he has eternal
life? Because he's God. And whatever
God says is true. can be counted on. You can rest
your entire soul on it. It amazes me how quick people
are to believe men, who are by nature liars, and how reluctant
and slow we are to believe God, who is truth. Next year we'll Well, it's already
started, but I mean, it'll get serious in 2024, our quadrennial
frenzy of a national election. And all the politicians, they're
going to do and say the same things they've done and said
always, and go out there and tell everyone about all the wonderful
things they're going to do, and it's all a lie. Part of it's a lie because they
can't do it, And I think the greater part of it's a lie, because
they really never had any intention of doing it, because once they're
elected again, and you know, the people fall for it every
time. And they flip that switch for the guy, and then they sit
back, and for the next four years, wait a minute, when's he going
to get to it? When's he going to do what he said he's going
to do? And over and over, they'll complain that the politicians
don't do what they say they're going to do, and then they go
in, flip the switch for him again. Well, you can see how old I am
when I say flip the switch. Punch the card, write the name,
whatever it is anymore. God, you can count on him. If
he says he'll do something, he will. Believe him. Trust him. And don't trust anybody.