I'm so used to such our manner
of worship and I'm never ready when you call me up I figure
I want to sing a few more songs. I kind of wanted to push it down
the road just a little bit more. Maybe I'll be prepared if you
just give me five more minutes. That's not going to happen. I'll tell you what, before we
begin, let's go to God in prayer again. I need him. I need him.
Our gracious father help. I pray father for your help and
guidance in this worship service that you'd give our hearts and
tune our hearts. to see Christ. I pray you give me the liberty
and unction of the spirit so that I might set forth Christ
crucified among these men, these brethren and father, that you would open
all of our eyes and hearts to see him set forth in his glory,
in his majesty, in his victory, in his power, I pray that you'd work affectionately
in the hearts of those who are outside of Christ, those who
do not know him, that you would draw them to him as he has set
forth this night among them. I pray that you'd do this for
your own glory and the glory of our savior, Jesus Christ.
In his name I ask. Amen. If you take your bibles
and turn with me to john chapter 12, John chapter 12, I know your
pastor's preaching through this, so I don't know if he's gonna
want these notes or not, but we'll see. John chapter 12, look
at verse 20. The scripture says, and there
were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the
feast. The same came therefore to Philip. which was of Bethsaida of Galilee,
and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus. Philip cometh
and telleth Andrew, and again Andrew and Philip tell Jesus. And Jesus answered them, saying,
The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the
ground, and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth
much fruit. He that loveth his life shall
lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep
it unto eternal life. If any man serve me, let him
follow me. And where I am, there shall also
my servant be. If any man serve me, him, will
my Father honor." Now, in the previous chapters, we read of
our Lord manifesting His deity. Our Lord manifesting His deity
and the healing of the man born blind. There was never such an
event that happened, and the Lord came to this man and healed
him. The man did not seek Christ.
He didn't come to Christ. He didn't even know he was there,
and Christ came and healed him. And we also have the power of
Christ revealed, His deity revealed in the resurrection of Lazarus.
And we know that the Lord Jesus Christ did these miracles so
as to display His gospel. He did these miracles not just
to show His power, but rather to give us a message of the gospel
in every miracle He did. We, by nature, were born blind.
We by nature were born blind. Christ came to us. Christ healed
us. Gave us spiritual sight. As God commanded the light to
shine out of darkness, He has shined in our hearts to give
us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. And that man, he didn't know
much. And I think your pastor said it. And the more they asked
him, the less he knew. But he knew this, I was blind,
but now I see. And this is what we know. And
Lazarus also is a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ raising
us from the dead. We by nature were dead. We were
not only blind, we were dead. Dead in sins. And it was Christ
who came to us in power and called us by name. I'm sure that day
if he had said, come forth, everybody would have come forth. But he
didn't. He said, Lazarus, come forth. And you know, what could
Lazarus do? What could he do? He could do
nothing but come forth. He came forth bound. You got that? He was... I don't
know how that happened. He was bound in grave clothes.
He was mummified in grave clothes. And yet the scripture says he
came... I don't know if he floated out or what, but he came out. And then the Lord said, loose
him and let him go. That's what he did to us. He
called us by name, gave us life, gave us faith in Christ, and
he said, loose him and let him go. What an amazing thing. Our gospel is a gospel of free
grace and mercy that doesn't bind us but frees us. It frees
us from our sin, our guilt, our shame. I'll tell you this, it
does bind me to something, it binds me to Christ. You know,
next time you see Lazarus, you know what do you hear from him?
Nothing. He's just sitting there at the
table. That's what we do, we sit at the table with him like
Mephibosheth. Still lame on our feet, sitting
there enjoying the King's Feast. Tonight I hope you enjoy the
King's Feast. What's the feast? It's Christ. It's Christ. And
so now, then, in our text, we see this, that the Passover has
now come, and these proselytes, these Greek proselytes, they
came to worship. They came to worship at the feast.
And these men came to Jerusalem, the time of the Passover, as
it was required in the law of Moses. And these men heard of
Jesus' miracles. of what He had done, of His salvation,
of His message. And now they desired to hear
Him, listen, for themselves. Somebody had told them of Christ.
They came worshiping in the Jewish religion because they knew that
there was, they knew God, they knew that Jehovah was God, and
they knew that they should worship this way, but they knew this,
something was missing. And when they heard of Him, They
knew he was the missing piece. He was the one. They had to hear
him. Certain Greeks, they came to
worship and they said to Philip, sir, we would see Jesus. Tonight, it is my hope for you
and me that we would see Christ and nothing else will satisfy.
Nothing else will satisfy the soul but to see Christ. When
God moves on the heart of the sinner to come to Christ, when
his sin is exposed and when God's holiness is revealed, no word
of man, no religious deeds, no amount of works will ever satisfy
unless you seek Christ for yourself. Now listen to this, when I heard
of Christ many, many years before I knew my need of Christ, But
the moment I knew my need of Christ, it would not suffice
to hear from man. I must hear him. I must see him. Nothing else satisfied. Nothing
else satisfied. Believe me, I tried. I tried
everything that I thought would satisfy, but I know this, it
didn't. Is there any sinner here tonight
who seeks to be accepted of God? Anyone desire to receive eternal
life and acceptance with a holy God, then listen, you yourself
must come. Now I know this, sweetheart,
your dad is a pastor, but he can't come to Christ for you. I can't come for my daughter.
You must come yourself. You must see Him yourself. You
must believe Him yourself. You like these Greeks. These
saw the effects of their religion was not enough. They saw the
blood being shed. They saw the priest doing the
work. But they knew this. It was not enough to remove their
sin. It was not enough. These sacrifices
of bulls and goats could never take away sin, and neither can
our works, neither can our deeds. We cannot make ourselves acceptable
unto God. Over in Micah chapter 6 and verse
5, our Lord says by His prophet, He said, My people, remember
Balak king of Moab, how he consulted Balaam, son of Boar, and Shittim,
that you may know the righteousness of the Lord. He said, I want
you to remember that event because that event, listen, that event
tells you of the righteousness of God. This evil king, he said
this, wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow myself
before the Most High? Shall I come before him with
burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord
be pleased with a thousand rams or ten thousand rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression the fruit of
my body for the sin of my soul? What does God require of me? If you're to be accepted of God,
that's a good question. Listen to the answer. The Lord
hath showed thee, O man, what is good. And what doth the Lord
require of thee? Listen. But to do justly, to
love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God. Listen to this. He requires
absolute righteousness. Perfect righteousness. Perfect
righteousness. To do justly. To love mercy. to walk humbly with thy God. You know, Enoch showed us that,
didn't he? He was one of the first men revealed in Scripture. Enoch. It says that Enoch walked
with God and was not. And the apostle tells us in Hebrews
chapter 11 how he walked with God. He walked with God by faith,
for without faith it is impossible to please God. He requires righteousness
and that righteousness is obtained by faith through Christ. Faith
in Christ. That's what God requires. God
requires righteousness to be without sin. But what is our
experience? Are we not full of sin? So then no matter what we do
or what we give, it's never enough. It's never enough. These Gentiles
realized that the sacrifices that they were honoring were
not enough. They were not sufficient. They
were following the letter of the law, but it was not enough.
Therefore, they came to someone they knew had the answer. Sir? We would see Jesus. We would
see Jesus. If God's going to save you, He
must bring you here first. He's got to expose your sin. If He never exposes your sin, you'll never come to Christ. You'll never know your need of
Christ. This is what God does first.
He shows us the depravity of our nature. Then He shows us
the vanity of our self-righteous. The vanity of our works and religion,
just as these Greeks found their obedience was insufficient. Do
you desire to see Christ? Do you desire to hear Him? Then
come near and hear the gospel that He preached to these men.
Now, our Lord Jesus, when He heard these men would see Him,
what did He do? He preached the gospel to them. If you're to see Christ, you
must see him through the gospel of his death. You must see that
his death is the only sufficiency God will accept. The only one. Look at Christ's answer in verse
23. He said, Jesus answered them, saying, The hour has come that
the Son of Man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth
alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth
much fruit. This here is the gospel of Christ's
death. Listen, there is no gospel without
the death of Christ. There is no gospel without blood.
Now listen, if you ever hear a message that does not contain
blood, it is useless. It's useless. Without the shedding
of blood is no remission. of sin, no remission of sin. Jesus here sets forth in the
picture of his death by this corn of wheat. Now consider if
Jesus here, he is the corn of wheat. He is pictured as a corn
of wheat, a seed, a seed. And now if you take a seed and
you put it right here on this pulpit and you leave it alone,
how much fruit will it produce? None. If it abides alone, it
will not produce any fruit. And so Christ here, if Jesus
had not come to die, if He had remained in His holy state as
the Son of God, listen, which was His right? That was his right. Surely if Jesus were to leave
fallen man just like he did the fallen angels, would he be guilty
of anything? No. But see then the mercy of
God. God was not obligated to save
man. Listen, men want God to be obligated
to them. They think God owes them something.
Well, God, you made me, so obviously you're obligated to do something
for me. Yeah, he'll send you to hell. That's all his justice
is obligated to do, send you to hell for your sin. God doesn't
owe us anything. And if God would have left Adam
alone in his fig leaves, he would have been just. But praise God,
that's not what happened. But God in free sovereign mercy
came to Adam and revealed his purpose of grace to fallen man. He revealed his purpose of grace
in a message of salvation. Adam had fallen. Adam had sinned. Adam had died. Adam did not know
how to be accepted with God. Adam covered his sin in fig leaves
and thought that was sufficient. And God came to him exposing
his sin When God comes to a man, you know the first thing he's
gonna do? He's gonna try to hide. He'll try to hide. Hide in religion. Confusion. That's all religion
is, is confusion. Gospel's simple. Religion is
confusing. If you're ever confused, it's
not the gospel. It's not the gospel. Gospel's
simple. He came to man with a message
of grace, not by works or merit of man, but salvation by the
seed of the woman. God said, the seed of the woman. Another man is coming, and he
is going to crush the head of the serpent. He is going to save. He is going to deliver. He'll
destroy the works of the devil, which was sin. It was then by
sin that death came by one man, sin entered in the world, and
death by sin, so death passed upon all men. By the offense
of one, many were made sinners. Listen, even so, even just like
that, You know, men don't like that representative in Adam,
do they? You hear that you sin in Adam. When Adam died, you
died. Men don't like that. They say,
that's not fair. Who cares what men think? God
said he was your representative, and he was a heck of a lot better
than any of us. And he died. God said, I'm gonna
send a second Adam. Just like that. And this one's
going to succeed. Where that one failed, this one
will succeed. God purposed to destroy sin. He purposed to destroy death
by the work of another, and that's the one speaking. That's the
one in our text. That's the one these men desired
to see. Christ Jesus, the Son of God. God purposed this and his work
was to be done by the bruising of his heel. Wasn't that the
prophecy? The seed of the woman shall crush the head of the serpent
and he shall bruise his heel. What does that mean? This is
exactly what the Lord Jesus is talking about. This corn of wheat
falling into the ground and dying. He's talking about his death.
His death. See then the horror of sin. Friend,
if God ever exposed this to us, I imagine we'd go insane. If God ever showed you what sin
really is, sin is so devastating that only
the death of the Son of God would remedy it. It's a very narrow way, isn't
it? Very narrow way. Only the sin
of the Son of God could remove it. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Nothing. Except this corn of wheat falling
to the ground, if it abide alone, no man could save, but here's
the hope in the text. Listen. He says this, I say unto
you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth
alone. But if it die, if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. That word if, I like this, some
translator translated when. Not a matter of if, it was just
a matter of when. He said the hours come. This was determined
to happen when the corn of wheat die. Only then does it bring
forth fruit. See then the gospel, it was God's
purpose and will that Christ should die for the sins of his
people. The scripture had said, for he
shall save his people from their sins. Over in Luke, when the Lord rose
again from the dead and they were all sad, He had died. They said, We thought this was
the one. We must have been mistaken. And Jesus said, Ought not Christ
to have suffered and entered into His glory? Ought not Christ
to have suffered and entered into His glory? And beginning
at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them and all
the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. Himself. You who know your need, you who
would see Jesus, behold, He has come and He has died. This corn
of wheat did fall into the ground and die. just as God purposed
him to die. He is the Passover Lamb. That
Passover that those guys were celebrating spoke of Him. The Lamb that was slain spoke
of Him. He is the Passover Lamb. And by His grace and love, He
bore our sins in His own body on the tree. He died. God smote the shepherd. And by
His one offering, listen, the scripture has said this in Hebrews
9 and verse 12, He has obtained eternal redemption for us. Not by the blood of bulls and
goats, not that way. That was just a picture. That
was just a type. It was just a shadow of what
He was going to do. Christ said, the corn of wheat
is me, and if I fall in the ground and die, I will bring forth much
fruit. Behold the representative man
for all that the father gave him. He is the corn of wheat. He fell into the grave and died. And by his one work of death,
he has redeemed his people from their sins. He has suffered the
just reward of divine wrath in our state. Over in John 10, the Lord told
him, he said, I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep and am known
of mine as the Father knoweth me. So I know the Father. I laid
down my life for the sheep. This was his purpose. This is
why he came. He said, Father, shall I say,
Father, save me from this hour? It was for this hour I came.
to die, lay down my life. Other sheep I have, which are
not of this fold, them I also must bring." Isn't that these
guys? That's what these guys right here, that's talking about
us. He was thinking of you. When he said that, he's thinking
of you. He said, other sheep I have, other sheep, other sheep
I have, them I also must bring. Well, how she bring them except
he die. He must die. And behold then the blasphemy
of such things as free will, works, religion. Friend, it is
a blasphemy. It is a blasphemy. The doctrine
of universal atonement opposes the word of God. For it proclaims
that Christ's death was for everyone without exception. Well, you know what this means. If
that's true, then those people who are in hell, Christ died
for them. If Christ died for those in hell,
then listen, He failed. He failed. You see that Christ
fell into the ground and died and did not yield the seed He
hoped. Friends, that's blasphemy. We
know that Jesus Christ was not a failure, but a victorious Savior. His death accomplished salvation. It obtained eternal redemption
for all those that the Father gave. Go to John 6. Go to John
6. Oh, this is such a plain verse.
John chapter 6, look at verse 35, Jesus said, I am the bread
of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger. He that believeth
on me shall never thirst. But I said unto you that you
have seen me and believe not. Now was this discouraging? Was
Christ discouraged by this? Absolutely not. He said, look,
I tell every man, whosoever will, come, right? But you didn't believe. Let me tell you why. Here it
is. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. That's who's going to come. All
that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And Him that cometh
to me, guess what I'm going to do? I'm not going to cast Him
out. I won't ever cast Him out when they come to me. And this
is the Father's will which has sent me. He said, For I came
down from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of Him
that sent me. Now, do we have to speculate as to what the will
of God is? Do you have to guess as to what
the will of God is? No. Christ says it. And this
is the Father's will, which has set me, that of all which he
hath given me, I should lose how many? None. Nothing. Zero. How many will this death lose?
Zero. Everyone the Father gave me,
I will save them. My death is sufficient for everyone
the Father gave me. I will lose nothing. I think
one guy said, what if you put a million zeros together, what
do you have? You still have nothing. Zero. Zero times zero is zero
still, isn't it? He's got to lose one. And any
religion that says he will is a blasphemous religion. It must
be abased. It must be done away with. Now why is that blasphemy? Why
do I say such a thing? Because in this text, you listen.
Jesus Christ ties the glory of God to his death. He ties the glory of God to his
death. He says, Now is the hour come
that the Son of Man be what? Glorified, glorified, exalted,
magnified. Why? Because He's going to be
successful. He's going to be victorious. So then will the glory of Christ
fail? If Jesus died for a sinner so as to glorify God the Father,
and then that sinner die in his sins, listen, then the glory
of Christ would fail. The glory of Christ would fail
because he failed to give eternal life to as many as the Father
gave him. You see that John 6, Christ would
be a liar if that happened. We know that's not so. He's not
so. No. He will not fail. But we
are sure of His glory even because the Father purposed to save the
elect. The Son died to redeem the elect. And because He is now glorified
by the Father, we know that the Holy Spirit will call all of
those He died for. Every one of them. Every one
of them. The Holy Spirit will call the
elect and He'll do it the same way He called these Gentiles
by the preaching of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was talking to some people this
week and they're asking me about, you
know, where they should go to worship. And I said, any place
where Christ is always the sum and substance of every message. Any other place is not worth
going. If they're going to talk about you, it's not worth going. I'm not worth being heard about.
I'm just not. Christ is all. Christ is all. When these men would see Jesus,
you know what Jesus spoke of? He spoke of himself. He spoke
of himself. And so then, what is the effect
of then, of this death? He says the corn of wheat fall
into the ground and die. If it abide alone, there's no
hope, but if it dies, it's gonna bring forth much fruit. And he
said, by this I'm gonna be glorified. Now, what's the effect? In the
next verse, we see the effect of the result of this effectual
call of the Spirit. Look at this in verse 25. Let
me go back to my text here. Look at verse 25. This is the
effect of this fruit coming forth. He says, If any man serve me,
let him follow me. And where I am, there shall also
my servant be. If any man serve me, him will
my father honor. I'm sorry, verse 25, I'm skipping
ahead. I'm sorry, verse 25. He that
loveth his life shall lose it, and he that hateth his life in
this world shall keep it unto eternal life. This is the effect.
First of all, he that loveth his life shall lose it. I know
this, sinners by nature love this life. We all love this life
by nature. We love this life. We, by nature,
desire the pleasures, the treasures, and relationships of this world.
Men, by nature, love not only this life of sin, but this life
of religion. Man is religious. I remember
reading this historian one time. He said, you'd sooner find a
civilization without an alphabet than you'd find them without
a temple. That's because man, by nature,
is religious. And so man by nature loves his
religion. He's a religious man. He loves
the God of his own imagination. A God that he can control. A
God he can rule over. A God that needs him. A powerless
God. He loves a God that will do according
to his will. He loves a God that will give
him health, wealth, prosperity. He loves a God like that. And all who desire to keep their
sin and their religion and their God, all who desire to keep their
family and friends, and will not completely, absolutely surrender
to Christ, Christ said this, if you love this life, you're
going to lose it. Whosoever loves this life shall lose it. The life you're working so hard
to gain, you'll lose. you'll lose. What do the preachers
say in Ecclesiastes? Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Oh, how men, the flesh, the world,
seek after their lusts, their craves and desires, the things
of this world. They say, if I just had this,
If I just had this, then I'd be satisfied. That's the thought
of the natural man. And you and I can understand
that, can't we? We all say that. The natural
man says it. If I just have this, and when
they get it, what do they need? Well, they need something else.
They find out it doesn't satisfy. And soon this life is gone. and
they stand before God in judgment only to be cast out into eternal
torments, in that day then what shall these things profit you? What shall it profit a man if
he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or answer this, what shall a
man give in exchange for his soul. Christ said, you cling to the
things of this world. In that day, these things that
seem important now will not be important at all. How much will the pleasures of
the flesh do your soul on that day? How much comfort will they
give you in that day when you stand before God? How will you
in hell be able to remember the hope that was set before you
and how you despised it? Whosoever loveth this life shall
lose it. But here is hope. He that hateth
his life in this world shall keep it unto eternal life. This is always the result of
one quickened by the Spirit of God. For once we loved our sin. We loved the things of this world.
We loved the religion. We loved our false God. We did. We loved the God that we can
move. The God we can manipulate. But
when God revealed himself as the immutable, unchangeable,
holy, omnipotent God, we found out we could not move him. We found out that we could not
satisfy him by our self-righteousness. And then in love and mercy, we
sought mercy, the same place these Gentiles sought it, we
came to Christ. We heard of his death, and we
now desire righteousness. I desire righteousness. Go to
Ezekiel chapter 36. Look over to Ezekiel chapter
36. Look at this. This is the covenant, the eternal covenant
that God promised. Ezekiel chapter 36 and verse
24, he says this, this is what the effectual call, he's talking
about this, I'll take you from among the heathen and gather
you out of all countries and I will bring you into your own
land. Isn't that what he did to you? He gathered you, he called
you, he took you, didn't he? Took you from the land of death
and sin and then he sprinkled you with clean water. And you
shall be clean. This is speaking about the blood
of Christ. He sprinkles you with the blood of Christ. And we are
clean from our filthiness and from our idols. Will I cleanse
you? And a new heart will I give you, a new spirit I'll put within
you. That's a new nature. I'm going to take that stony
heart out of you, give you a heart of flesh, a heart of love, a
heart of affection to me, heart of faith. and you'll walk in
my statutes and you'll keep my judgments to do them. You shall
dwell in the land that I gave your fathers and you shall be
my people and I will be your God. I will also save you from
all your uncleanness and call in for the corn and increase
it and lay no famine upon you and I will multiply the fruit
of the tree and the increase of the field and you shall receive
no more reproach nor famine among the heathen. This is speaking
about the spiritual food of the gospel. I'm going to increase
it. I'm going to cause it to grow. I'm going to cause that
fruit of the Spirit to grow in your heart. And then you'll live happily
ever after. Is that what it says? You'll just smile all the time.
Is that what it says? You shall remember your evil
ways and your doings that were not good, and you shall loathe
yourselves. How do you feel about yourself? Religion wants you to feel good
about yourself. God ever cleanses you, ever saves
you. You'll despise your sin. You'll remember what you are. You'll loathe yourselves for
your iniquities and for your abominations. Oh, now we see the vanity of
self-salvation. We see the emptiness of our vain
religion. Therefore, we most surely in
the depths of our souls believe and cling to Christ for all our salvation. My only hope is that corn of
wheat that fell into the ground His death is all my standing
before God. All my hope. And the more we
live and grow and struggle in this mortal frame, we are constantly moved to loathe
ourselves and exalt Christ. Sir, I would see Jesus. Now, if you would, he'll put
you in the dust and him on the throne. He causes then these graces to
grow and then notice what happens next. If any man serve me, let
him follow me. If any man serve me, let him
follow me. This following of Christ is not
turning to the law. That's not following Christ. We must never begin in the spirit
and finish in the flesh. No, the just shall live by faith. That's how we serve Him. That's
how we follow Him, is by faith. trusting. We serve Christ, we
follow Christ, we walk in obedience. I told you this Sunday, we are
not antinomians. We are not lawless. We have a
king and our king has given us command and we serve him. He's
given us a law. You know what that law is? Let's
not be ambiguous about it. Go ahead and go to 1 John chapter
3 and see it. I love it. You don't have to guess. You
just don't have to guess about these things. Just read it. 1 John chapter 3. Now, in 1 John
5, listen to this. I won't read this, but 1 John
5, 3 says this. For this is the love of God,
that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not
grievous. Now, if you're a believer in Christ, if He's caused you
to give you life and faith in Him, listen, you're gonna follow
His commandments, and they're not grievous at all. Now, see
what His commandments are in 1 John 3. He says before, look
at verse 22. He said, what you shall ask,
we receive of Him because we keep His commandments and do
those things that are pleasing in His sight. Well, what is that?
And this is His commandment. See, there's no argument here. This is what I've been talking
about, John said. This is what I've been saying.
Listen, this is His commandment. That we should believe on the
name of His Son, Jesus Christ. Commandment number one. Number
two, and love one another as he gave us commandment. And he
that keepeth his commandments, listen, you're in union with
him. You dwell with him. Dwelleth in him and he in him. and hereby we know that he abide
in us by his spirit that he has given unto us." Oh, believer
in Christ, don't ever be deceived as to think you begin in the
spirit and finish by obedience to the law of Moses. Throw that
garbage out the window. This is commandments. Believe. Is that grievous to you? Is that
weighty? No. Matter of fact, I know this,
I don't believe like I want to, but I do believe. And I told you also Sunday, remember
faith 10 minutes ago and faith 10 minutes from now will not
help you. Faith now is all that matters. Do you believe now? Do you believe now? Well, this
is pleasing unto him. This is pleasing. And you know
what? I love you. Is that grievous? Is that grievous
to love one another as he gave us commandment? Not if we've
seen what he's done for us. If we see His love for us, it's
not grievous for me to love you. Those are His commandments. This
is what it is to serve Him. And listen, just like John said,
that's how you know that you're in Him. Well, how do I know that
I'm in Him? I can't. Sometimes I can't feel
it. Sometimes I just don't. I just don't know. Tis a point
I long to know. Oft it causes anxious thought.
Do I love the Lord or no? Am I His or am I not? What do
you believe? Help my unbelief. I do. John says you abide in him and
he abides in you. Isn't that what our Lord said
in your text? Look at that. He may serve me
and follow me where I am. There he is so. There's my servant. What is he talking about? Union.
He's talking about union. You his servant? Okay. Where he is, that's where you
are. Where is he? Where are you? I'm in Him. I'm in Him. We are in union with
Christ because God put us there. But of God are you, where? In Christ Jesus, who of God is
made unto you wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
You are in Christ Jesus when He came into this world. I wasn't
born yet. Now think about that seed. You
know, every fruit is already programmed into the seed. It's
already there. It's already there. And when
you put the seed in the ground and it dies, it brings forth
exactly what was programmed in it. That's Christ. I was in Christ when He died. I was in Christ when He rose
again from the dead. I was in Christ when He ascended
to the throne. And I wasn't even born yet. One day, I experienced it. One day, He gave me life. Was there any chance you was
going to miss that? I had a friend in our congregation, his name
was J.D. Farmer. He's since now gone to
be with the Lord. He had to see our old building
there in Louisville. It's just built in 1900. It's got these ominous stained
glass windows on the front. It just, you know, it was a Methodist
church to begin with. It always wanted to make you
afraid when you went in. And sure enough, it was just
dark in our parking lot, and the center of these things looked
like red eyeballs, you know, just... And J.D. and his brother out there in
the parking lot, and they're out there, these grown men, he
was 66 at the time, and him and his brother, and they were out
in the parking lot doing rock, paper, scissors to see if he
was gonna go in. Well, J.D. won, and they went in. And that night, the Lord spoke
to that man and saved him. And he came to me about a year
later and he said, you know, what if I'd lost? What if I lost, I didn't come
in the building. It was not a chance you were
going to lose. It was always determined. There was no chance you were
going to miss It was already programmed in the seed. You were
already in there. But one day, life sprang forth. I saw thee polluted in thine
own blood. And when I passed by thee, it
was a time of love, and I said unto thee, and what could we do but live? He said, believe. What could
I do but believe? I experienced the union of being
in Christ. Therefore, in the new birth,
is the regeneration, resurrection and faith in Christ was given
to me, not by chance, but by purpose. And Titus chapter three
and five verse five says, not by works of righteousness, what
we have done, not unto us, not unto us, O Lord, but unto thy
name be glory. not by works of righteousness
as we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us by
the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which
he shed abundantly on us through Jesus Christ, our Savior, that
being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life. Therefore rejoice, you who are
the fruit of Christ's work. You who believe, you are the
fruit of his labor. You are the fruit he purposed
to have. That his death accomplished,
you are his sons. Therefore, as we go through this
life, what is still our desire tonight? Sir, I would see Jesus. Isn't that always your desire? And we do that by preaching of
this gospel. And I know this, you that are
the fruit of his offspring, you are the fruit of his death. Listen,
none of you shall ever leave him. Why? because he keeps you. I like
that, when his disciples, they didn't understand what was going
on in John 6, you know, he said, look, you gonna go away also?
You suppose he knew the answer to that? You suppose he was asking
for information? No, he's trying to help them
understand. You'll go away? Lord, to whom shall we go? You
have the words of eternal life. We're sure you're the son of
the living God. That's what we're sure of. And
every time we preach this message, it's the desire of everyone who
hears it to see Christ. Sir, I would see Jesus. And what
are you gonna hear when you ask that? You're gonna hear about
his death, you'll hear about his victory, and hear about his
glory, and hear about his success. I'm so glad we serve a successful
Savior. I pray God will bless this to
you.