The 20th chapter of the Gospel
of John, and we begin reading this morning
at verse 19. Verse 19. Now before we begin, Let's bow for prayer before we
read God's holy word. Lord, we come into your awesome
presence. Thankful that we can sing such
hymns as ride on in majesty. The pain and suffering, the insults,
the injury that was done to our Savior is now over. Our blessed Lord Jesus Christ is sitting on a throne in glory,
reigning. And that reign is forever and
ever and ever. We borrow the language of the
hymn, ride on, ride on in majesty. Lord, as we come to your word
this morning, remind us and remind me that this whole book has one
overriding subject over everything else, and that is our blessed
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. This book is a book about your
Son. Oh, open our eyes. Give us eyes
to see. Quicken our dead souls. that
we might understand what the natural mind can never understand. Help us this morning as we come
to these few words out of your servant John's gospel. Lord, bless your word as we read
it and as we hear it preached. We beg in our Savior's precious,
precious name. Amen. Beginning now at verse
19 in John chapter 20. Then the same day at evening,
being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where
the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus
and stood in the middle and said unto them, Peace be unto you. And when he had so said, he showed
unto them his hands and his side." Now, they didn't ask him to do
this. He voluntarily did this. Now,
think of that now, because we're going to run into another disciple
who not only asked but demanded that he would not believe until
he saw it. Let's see if that turns out to
be the case. He showed them his hands at his
side. Then were the disciples glad
when they saw the Lord, the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. Then said
Jesus unto them again, Peace be unto you. As my Father has
sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he
breathed on them, and said unto them, Receive you the Holy Ghost,
or the Holy Spirit. Whosoever sins you remit, they
are remitted unto them, and whosoever sins you retain, they are retained."
But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, I believe that
word, if I remember right, is twin, was not with them when
Jesus came. The other disciples, therefore,
said unto Thomas, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them,
Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put
my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into
his side, I will not believe. And after eight days, again,
his disciples were within and Thomas with them. Then came Jesus,
the doors being shut, and stood in the middle and said, Peace
be unto you. Then our Lord said to Thomas,
Reach here your finger and behold my hands, and reach here your
hand and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless, but believing.'
And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God."
Now if Christ is our Lord, He is
also our God. If He is our God, He's our Lord. Well, we're not headed, we're
already there into the Christmas season. And that Jesus being
celebrated at Christmas has got nothing to do with being God.
It is pathetic. You can have all
of it you want. My Lord and my God. Jesus said unto him, Thomas,
because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are they
that have not seen and yet have believed. Now listen carefully
to verses 30 and 31. Verse 31 is actually our text. And many other signs truly did
Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written
in this book. This book, the Gospel of John,
are all four Gospels put together. But these are written. Here's the purpose of every book
in the Bible, most especially now John's Gospel. These are
written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the
Messiah, the Son of God, and that believing you might have
life through His name. Now that life is eternal or everlasting
life through His name. Now Christ names. are simply
descriptions of who He is. His character and His being. Life through His name. Now hang on to that phrase, unless
your mind isn't like mine and it just goes willy-nilly and
you don't know where it went. But I hope you're not in that
shape. You might have life through His
name. Now this morning I'm trying to
answer two questions. Just two. Number one, what is
it that we must believe in order to have eternal life? What must we believe to have
eternal life? Here we read it in verse 31 again,
but these are written, that you might believe that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life,
listen, through His name. Through His name. Second question. I haven't answered
that one yet, I know, but the second question. These are the
two questions I'm trying to get to this morning. The Lord helping
me, I'm going to get to them. On what authority can I or any
other preacher promise eternal life to one who believes this
gospel? On what basis? Can we promise
that if we believe, just as our Lord said to Thomas, just as
the other disciples have been, you might have life through His
name? His name. Alright, question one. What must
we believe to have eternal life? What must one believe to be justified
sanctified before God and redeemed by the blood of Christ. These
are all words that have great meaning in the Scriptures and
that have obviously something to do with this subject that
we are now pursuing. Number one, what must we believe? Here's the very first thing.
We must believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. That means
Christ is God. God has purposed in the Bible
to reveal Himself in three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And they are all three simply
manifestations of God, for there is but one God, though He reveals
Himself in three Persons. When you get to heaven, you won't
see three Gods. You'll see our blessed Savior,
the Lord Jesus. That's the revelation of God. Now, this importance on Christ
being the Son of God, God the Son, is a great moment. In the four Gospels, somebody
said this, I have no idea who, In Matthew, the Lord Jesus is
set forth as the King of the Jews. In Mark, He is declared
to be Jehovah's servant. And in the Gospel of Luke, He
is said to be the Son of Man. But in the Gospel of John, He
is pre-eminently the Son of God. The Son of God. Now, hang on,
here's my promise to you, at least for the first question,
I'm not going to ask you to turn anywhere except it be in the
Gospel of John. So that's pretty good. Let's
turn to John chapter 6 for a moment. John 6 is an interesting chapter
that has often occupied our time in this place. A great many people
have been following the Lord and they've left off following
because they cannot take what He's telling them about Himself
and what He's telling them about themselves. So in verses 67 and
68 of John chapter 6, Our Lord turns to his disciples,
the apostles, after so many others had just defected. Then said
Jesus unto the twelve, Will you also go away? Then Simon Peter
answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of
eternal life, and we are sure That you are that Christ, the
Son of the living God. Alright, one more reference. And I'll refer to a third one.
We'll not necessarily turn. John chapter 8. Now when God revealed Himself
to Moses in Exodus chapter 3, through that burning bush, you
do realize that that revelation was God's revelation of Himself
in Christ. And this commission came to Moses
to go to Egypt, be the spokesman for God's people and lead them
out of that slavery that they'd so long been in. And Moses says,
well, who am I going to say has sent me? And the Lord reveals himself
with this name, I am that I am. Now here in John chapter 8 and
verse 24, we run into these words again. Our Lord said to these carping
Jews that were always hounding Him, I said therefore unto you,
John 8, 24, I said therefore unto you that you shall die in
your sins. And here is the basis on which
that statement is made. For if you believe not that I
am, The word he is italicized, and if you have a King James
Bible, you will be able to spot that immediately, and you know
that in the original language, there was no word there for he.
It simply stops with I am. If we translate it, that means
this. If I do not believe that Jesus
is the I am God, then I have no life in him. I'm lost. You can't be saved
and not know that Christ is God. He continues, for if you believe
not that I am, you shall die in your sins. Now the other reference
to which you need not turn is in John chapter 18. The Lord Jesus is in the garden
of Gethsemane with his disciples, except for Judas. The soldiers,
Judas leading them to this garden at night with torches and weapons,
they came to take our Lord Jesus Christ. Take him to the Jewish
authorities and then to the Roman authorities and then to the cross.
And so our Lord steps forward as he sees them coming. You could
not have missed it. There was over 500 of these people. And he says, Whom seek you? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. And our Lord said, I am. And every last one of them fell
backwards on the ground. They got up and decided to arrest him again.
And our Lord says the same words without the power attached to
it. And he goes with them on one basis, that his disciples
have to go free. He is, after all, our surety
and our substitute. If he dies, we live. You see that? Christ is God. Second answer to this question,
to believe that the Lord Jesus is not only the Son of God, but
He is the Son of Man. Our Lord has two natures. One is a divine nature, and the
other is an absolutely perfect human nature without sin. This
is why He was born of the seed of the woman, for had He been
born of the seed of the man, He would have been born in the
same state that you and I are in, which is a state of deadness
and lostness. We're spiritually dead from the
moment we draw our first breath. And this remains on us until
God removes it by His grace in Christ. And that's what we're
about this morning. To believe that the Lord Jesus
Christ is not only the Son of God, but the Son of Man. Paul said in 1 Timothy 3.16,
God, was manifest in the flesh. There are six things, and that's
the very first thing in the list. God manifested himself in the
person of our Lord Jesus Christ. And this has never been done
before or since. And it is important for us to
know this and to believe it with all our heart. The third thing
that has to do with Believing and being justified in God's
sight is to combine the Son of God with the Son of Man, making
one person who is called Christ, which literally means the Messiah. Christ is the Messiah. The Messiah is the God-Man. The God-Man. which also has to do with our
Lord's office as mediator. There's one mediator between
God and men, and it is the man Christ Jesus, or the God-man
Christ Jesus. Alright, the third answer to
this question, to believe the Lord Jesus as the God-man is
to believe Him as the Christ. Acts 2.36, here are these words, The apostles, when they were
preaching at Pentecost, God has made that same Jesus whom you
have crucified, now listen, both Lord and Christ. So we must not ever forget that
our Lord Jesus Christ is the Christ, the Messiah. Fourthly,
to believe on the Lord Jesus is to call upon His name. Remember that in our text? Look
back at verse 31. That believing, this is the last
phrase, that believing you might have life through His name. His name. What do his names do? They describe
his person as well as his work. But first of all, his person.
The apostles said in Acts 4.12, there is none other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved except the blessed
name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Our Lord's name describes His
character and identifies who He is. Now, most of you should
already know this, so I'm just going to review it with you to
make sure we're all on the same page. In referring to the Old Testament
Scriptures, there are seven names of the
triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that total seven in number, but
one of them has two parts to it, which I'll mention in just
a moment. These expressions in the Old
Testament that belong to Christ, to God the Holy Spirit, and God
the Father, these names are hyphenated Jehovah names. Now Jehovah means
Jehovah is salvation. That's like it's a synonym for
the word Jesus. Matthew 121, you shall call his
name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. Now these seven hyphenated Jehovah
hyphen names all wonderfully belong to our Lord Jesus Christ. The first of these His Genesis will not turn to
these, because time just won't allow it. The first one is found
in Genesis 22, 14, when Abraham went up on Mount Moriah to offer
a sacrifice to God. He took his only son Isaac with
him on that journey. They took the wood, they took
the fire. And Isaac asked Abraham, Father, here's the wood, here's
the fire, where is the sacrifice? And Abraham used this expression. Jehovah Jireh, J-I-R-E-H, the
Lord will provide Himself a sacrifice. They go up on the mountain, they
prepare the altar, put the wood on it, Abraham lays his son Isaac
on it, and has taken his knife and is about to plunge it into
his chest when the angel of God stops him And there's a ram caught
in the thicket. And Abraham takes that ram as
a substitute for his son. And that's who Christ is. He
is our substitute. He died in our room place instead. This is a glorious thing that
we must know. We must know. The second one comes and acts
in Exodus 15-26. I'll get it in a minute. Jehovah Rapha. R-A-P-H-A. The Lord that heals. And Curtis,
it heals our spiritual diseases. The soul's diseases. Today's
religion will talk to you about the body, tell you they can heal
it and they can do this and they can do that and the other. This
book talks about our soul, the spiritual part of ourselves. The third one is Exodus 17.15,
Jehovah Nissi, the Lord is our banner. He's our glory. We march with Him. Wherever He goes, we are to go. Fourthly, Judges 6 and verse
2 and following, Jehovah Shalom, the Lord our peace. We have peace with God, how?
Through our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only peace there is. Number five, Jehovah-Re-Ah, R-A-hyphen-A-H,
Psalm 23-1. You should know this one before
I tell you. The Lord is my shepherd. Christ is our shepherd. Number
six, We pause here for just a bit. This one appears twice in our
Bibles, in the same book of Scripture, by the way, and it's the book
of Jeremiah. In Jeremiah 23.6, it is Jehovah Sidkenu. And Sidkenu is spelled T-S-I-D-K-E-N-U. So the tea is silent. Jehovah
said, it means the Lord, our righteousness. The only righteousness
that we have before God is the righteousness that he gives us
in the perfect obedience of his Son as he stood in our room and
stood. But this word also occurs a second
time. And that's in chapter 33 and
verse 16 of Jeremiah. But there's one word missing.
One word difference between chapter 23 and chapter 33. You know what
it is. S-H-E. She shall be called the
Lord our righteousness. That's Christ's Bride, the Church.
If you're in Him, you're righteous and holy in Him. And we don't contribute to that. It's all a gift of grace. If
we ever see how wonderful our Lord Jesus really is, we won't
dare think about adding anything of ours to it. In 1 Corinthians
1.30, Paul put it this way, Of God are you in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. And in 2 Corinthians 5.21, God
has made Christ, Christ who knew no sin, God has made Christ to
be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God
in Him. Now what I'm trying to say is
there ain't no righteousness any place else except in Christ. You and I are not capable of
producing it. Why? Because we're still sinners. Well, preacher, I thought you
said we're forgiven. We are. But that doesn't mean that we
aren't still alive in this body of flesh in this world. And if
you don't sin with your hands, you certainly do with your eyes
or your mind or your thoughts. Why pretend anything else? One more of these Jehovah titles. This is the last verse in the
book of Ezekiel, chapter 48, verse 35. It is Jehovah Shammah. The Lord is there. The Lord is
there. Where is there? Anywhere and
everywhere. We call Him everywhere present. There is no place that He isn't. Curtis had a few words about
the tragedy in Connecticut yesterday. Or day before, I forget which
it was. But God was there. He's everywhere. Now you might
want to stone me for this, but I'm going to tell it anyway. Whatever happens in this world
every day that rolls by is the unfolding of the mysterious will
of Jehovah God. And if that ain't so, then I
don't have anything to say. If God doesn't rule everything,
then whoever does is God. Now, religion this morning is
trying to put the blame somewhere besides on God, just like they
do every time we have a bad hurricane or a tornado or this or that
or the other. If God could have prevented this,
He would not have let it happen. That's a lie. It simply is not
true. God rules everything or He doesn't
rule anything. Thank God He does. Alright, second question. Oh, if I didn't find this, it
wouldn't be a second question, hardly. But, on what authority
can a preacher promise eternal life to one who believes this
gospel? My prohibition on referencing
is now wherever. We start off in 1 John. That's
not far from the revelation. 1 John chapter 3. 1 John 3, verse 23. Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ is presented
to us in this scripture as God's command. God's command. Now, if God commands us to do
something, it must be right. 1 John 3, verse 23, and this
is His commandment, that we should believe on the
name, remember that word from John 20, verse 31, That we should
believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another
as He gave us commandment. The reason it is right to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ is because God commands it. And if it were not right, He
certainly would not command it. Alright, the second matter in
trying to answer this second question on what authority can
we offer this promise of eternal life to one who believes in Christ
in this gospel. The second one is, we sung the
words to this just a little while ago, because it is the character
of God to show mercy. Let's see, how did that go? If thou, O Lord, should mark
iniquity, that word mark means to count. If God counted our
sins, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with
thee, that thou mayest be feared. Then it is right, it is God's
command, as well as an expression of His great mercy in the character
of God, for us to come to Christ. and plead for mercy. Thirdly,
this authority is based on the reason Christ came to save sinners. And we have this in many different
forms in our Bibles. Let me see if I marked it. I
don't know if I did or not. Yes. You don't have to turn.
I'll just read it and then I'll tell you where I got it. Fair
enough. For the Son of Man is come to
seek and to save that which is lost." Now thankfully, it doesn't
just say to seek. But it's successful seeking if
He's the one doing the seeking. To seek and to save that which
was lost. So the next time you hear a preacher
tell you if you'll seek God, He'll save you. You just quote
in this verse of Scriptures, found in Luke 19, verse 10, Christ came to seek and to save
that which was lost. I tell you, religion is constantly seeking to steal
the honor and glory of Christ. And you and I ought to be jealous
over that. I'm trying to remember. Now is
the fourth answer to this question on what authority we can promise
eternal life to those who believe the gospel. I want you to turn. Hey, I've
got 30 minutes. How about turning to Mark chapter
16? Mark 16. On what authority do we preach
the gospel of Christ? Now, I know that you know this,
but the lengthier commission of Christ's disciples in the
virtually the last thing He said to them before He returned to
glory, ascended to heaven, is Matthew 28. But here in Mark
16, it is so brief, and yet it is so explicit. Mark 16, 15. And He said to them,
just before ascending to glory, He said to them, Go you into
all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. That's talking about human beings
now. Every created human being. And then this statement, verse
16. He that believes and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believes
not shall be damned. Now that's called cut and dried. There's no if, ands, or buts.
That's just an explicit statement. It's not only God's command for
us to believe His Son, but it is Christ's commission to His
church and His disciples to carry this gospel to the ends of the
earth. Don't let anybody tell you because God is sovereign,
preaching the gospel to every creature is not necessary. That
is not so. There are dozens of Statements
to refute that in our Bibles. Alright, number five. This is
a little bit longer, but it's my last one. Here's the fifth
answer. On what authority do we promise
people eternal life if they'll believe and trust the Lord Jesus
Christ? Here it is. Because of the example
in the Scriptures of many others, who did the very same thing. Let's talk about Moses. We ran
into this just recently, maybe last Sunday. I'm not positive.
I don't even remember where we were in the Bible last Sunday.
But let's talk about Moses. When our Lord was talking to
those Jews, oh, it was a couple of weeks ago, the Jews in John
chapter 6, you remember one of the things He said to them? They
claim to love Moses to death. You know, the reason that is,
he's dead. He can't say anything unless
they say it. And that hasn't changed. Still that way. People
that love whoever in the past, virgin or whomever, they don't
have to listen to him. They've got him locked up in
their library. They can just let him out to say whatever they
want him to say. When our Lord said to those Jews,
Moses wrote of me, and he's talking about in Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Those are the first
five books in our Bibles, and they are full of Christ. Full of Christ. Scripture says, Abraham saw my
day and rejoiced. Our Savior said that. Abraham
lived a long time before Moses. The oldest book in the Bible,
generally speaking, as opinions of men vary a little bit, the
book of Job. Job said everything in his life was gone.
Everything had gone haywire. Lost his children. Lost his property. Lost all of his animals. Lost
his wife. But he said, I know that my Redeemer
lives. And on this earth one day shall
stand. David said, the Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want. Paul said in 2 Timothy 1.12,
I know whom I have believed, and I am
persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed
unto him against that day. So returning for just a second
to our text in John 20 verse 31, May I read you this verse one
more time? But these are written that you
might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that
believing you might have life through His name. His name. Remember, his name
describes who he is, who he is. Okay, okay. 334 in our hymnal. Be thou my vision.