Alright, let's open our Bibles
to the book of James, chapter 1. We've been studying the past
few weeks in this book and this chapter, and I've taken my time
going through it because there's so many significant issues here
for our good and our teaching, our learning, that we can come
to an understanding of by the power of God that it will bless
us immensely. And this morning I want to direct
your attention mainly to verse 18. I'll read a few more of those
verses, but I've entitled the message, God's Word and Salvation. God's Word and Salvation. When we think about these things
of the season, as people do, the birth of Christ, the incarnation
and the birth of Christ, It's not an issue of just thinking
of one aspect of the life of Jesus Christ, but we must think
of it as the scripture relates it as a whole. That he came into
the world not just to make us feel good on a given day or season. He came into the world not just
to teach us how to give and how to receive. But he came into
the world to save his people from their sins. And in order
to do that, he had to have a human body without sin. And that's
why he was born. That's why we speak of the incarnation,
the necessity of it. That's why it's a glorious truth.
That's why it's not wrong for us to sing about it. We sing
what they call Christmas carols. I don't like that term for it. They're hymns. And Joe thinks
we ought to sing them all year round. And Chuck does too. And I'm going to point everybody
else that said that to me. And you know, I agree with that.
I had a fellow tell me one time, we tried to sing Joy to the World
in July. And a fellow told me, he said,
I just didn't feel right. And I said, well, get over it. But
they are. They should be sung all year
round. We shouldn't just relegate these good hymns. I know some
of them have words that some people hold in question, but
so does the Bible. Our thinking has to be brought
into submission to God's Word. That's the way we have to think.
I'll show you some of that in just a minute about these great
hymns, Joy to the World. Who wrote that? I think Isaac
Watts wrote that. Just a great hint, talking about the righteousness
of God. And that's what we should think
about. Not just the birth of Christ, as glorious as it was,
as necessary as it was, but the whole life of Christ in his obedience
unto death. Even the death of the cross,
which didn't end at the cross, but actually we can say began
at the cross because he was buried and raised again the third day.
So that we serve a living Savior, a living Lord. Don't look for
his tomb. If you find it, there's nothing
there. Just like there was when the
women came to the tomb. He's not here. He's not here,
the angel said. And we're glad he's not there,
aren't you? And so, we think of salvation. Now, look back at James chapter
1. We read last week this verse,
verse 17. Every good gift, every perfect
gift. Two different words for gift
there. One has to do with the person
doing the giving, the act of giving, and the other has to
do with the gift that's given. And it says, every good gift
and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the
Father of lights. That's the God of creation. with
whom is no variableness, there's no deception here, neither shadow
of turning, no change. God will not go back on a promise. He will not change His mind.
And last week I talked about the gifts of God's grace, talked
about the gift of Christ Himself. That's the first gift. That's
really the only gift. He is the only gift. Christ is. We read about that in Isaiah
9 just a while ago. Unto us a child is born, that's
His humanity, His sinless humanity. Conceived in the womb of the
Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit without the aid of man, he was
not born a depraved, dead sinner, as we were and are. And so a child was born, and
unto us a son is given. A son is given. He's the gift
of God, Christ himself. And if you have Christ, you have
it all. You have all the blessings of salvation, the blessings of
God's grace, and we read about that. That's the gift of forgiveness. When you talk about the forgiveness
of sins, that's a gift from God. And it comes to sinners through
the blood of Christ. That's what it comes to. It doesn't
come to you through anything else. The cost of forgiveness,
never forget this, the cost of forgiveness is the blood of the
Son of God incarnate. Many people say, well, the cost
of forgiveness is your repentance or your tears of remorse, your
promises to do better, your New Year's resolutions. None of those
are the cost of forgiveness. It's all the blood of Christ.
I preached that this morning on TV, salvation by blood. That's the finished work of Christ
and the righteousness that he established. And then we talked
about the gift of righteousness. If any of us have any righteousness
before God, it's a gift from God in Christ. Nothing that we've
done for Him or plan to do for Him. That's what grace is all
about. And that all equals out to the gift of eternal life and
salvation. Well, here in verse 18, he talks
about the gift of the Holy Spirit and the new birth. Look at it,
verse 18, of His own will. Now, that's of the will of God.
Now, what he's talking about here, salvation is all of the
will of God, but he's talking specifically about the new birth
here. You must be born again. Of his own will, begat he us. That's begotten. We speak of
Christ as the only begotten Son of God. That talks about his
uniqueness. And that also speaks of his resurrection,
begotten through death unto eternal life, everlasting life through
him. Well, here it's speaking of our new birth. being born
again. That hymn that we just sang,
Hark the Herald Angels Sing, it talks about born to raise
the sons of earth, talking about Christ's birth. He was born to
raise the sons of earth. That's talking about humanity.
That's not talking about every individual without exception.
Sons of earth, a lot of times the scripture will talk about
men or mankind or all men. It's not talking about every
one without exception. It's talking about the ones he
came to save. And so when you see that term,
all and every, that's how you have to think, because that's
what the context begs for. And here's the key to that. It
says, born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second
birth. That's the new birth. were born
physically. You remember Christ when he confronted
Nicodemus in John chapter 3, he said, you must be born again.
And automatically Nicodemus, not thinking spiritually, the
natural man doesn't do that. He thought of the first birth.
He said, well, how can a man enter into his mother's womb
the second time and be born again like that? And Christ says, that's
not what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about physical
birth. I'm talking about a spiritual
birth, the second birth. And that's what this verse is
talking about, of his own will beget he us. That's the second
birth, that's the new birth, that's a spiritual birth. And
literally that's a raising of the dead to life. Now we can
think of it that way. Just like Lazarus, remember the
story of Lazarus when Christ, Lazarus died and his sisters
Mary and Martha sent for Christ. And he came and he stood outside
that tomb and he said, Lazarus, come forth. And he came forth.
Now, that was a physical resurrection there. That was a physical giving
of life to that man who eventually died again physically. But in
essence, the calling of the gospel. Now, notice here it says in verse
18, he begat us with the word of truth. And what he's teaching
here, and this is taught in other places in Scripture, now listen
to me and think about this. The new birth doesn't happen
without the preaching of the truth. And I want to give you
a little outline I've given you before. Some of you may have
it. It's a real nice outline. I don't know where I got it.
I had it somewhere and wrote it down, but it doesn't matter.
If it's truth, it comes from the Lord. But it's a little outline
I want you to see here. And it's a powerful, simple,
but it's powerful, the word of truth. Now, he says, he begat
he us with the word of truth under the preaching of the gospel.
Paul wrote in Romans 1 16, he said the gospel is the power
of God unto salvation. And what that tells me now is
is whenever I was born again, I don't know when I was born
again. I can't put a date on it for
you. And I really don't care. My concern is, am I born again
today? And I saved today. You know,
people put a lot of stock in that in our day. When were you
saved? And then they want to point back
to some experience. And usually it's it's something
around the age of 12 and 11, 12 and 13, when they walked and
got baptized and didn't know anything about what was being
preached or the truth or anything. You say that's not salvation.
That's not the new birth. And usually that's just, you
know, somebody trying to drag you down and out because they
want to scare the hell out of you, basically. And that's what
happens, and then you live your life, you know, and you always
point back to that experience. But don't point back to no experience
now, because it's not going to do you any good. I don't know
when I was born again, but I know this, it was under the preaching
of the gospel. I can pretty well tell you when
I got under the preaching of the true gospel. The truth. And
sometime after that, the Lord opened my eyes. Or I hit this
old mule in the head with a two before, you might say it that
way. and got his attention. But he's going to do that. And
that's how we're begotten again. Now, the sovereign agent of the
new birth is the Holy Spirit. It's a sovereign act. It's not
of the will of man. It's not, well, you decide and
then you're born again. It's of the will of God. It's
the will of God. It's the power of God. And so
it's with the word of truth, and he says in verse 18, and
he says that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
Now what James is referring to there, you remember back over
in James chapter 1 in verse 1, he talked about the 12 tribes
which are scattered abroad, talking about Jewish believers that have
been scattered abroad all over the earth because of the persecution.
So he's mainly writing to Jewish believers. Now, that doesn't
mean that we're not to read this and can't get anything from it,
because we're Gentiles. We're Gentile believers. It's
a general epistle in that sense, but when James, what he had in
mind when the Holy Spirit sat him down to write this epistle,
he had in mind Jewish believers. And when he says we're kind of
first fruits of the creatures, of his creatures, what he's talking
about is what Paul wrote again in Romans 1.16. Remember what
he wrote there, Romans 1.16, he said, For I am not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth, remember what he said, to the Jew first
and to the Greek also. To the Jew first because the
first believers in the New Testament church were Jewish believers,
and so in that they were the first believers, They're kind
of first fruits of his creature. That's the first harvest that
came in right after the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
And that's what he means. And so in Greek there's just
a way they referred to Gentiles back then because it was a Greek
world. And so it's Jew first and the
Gentile. And the Jews were kind of a first fruit. They were the
first crop that came in from the harvest after the death,
burial, and resurrection of Christ. So he says, of his own will begat
he us with the word of truth. Well, look at verse 19. Now he
says, wherefore, that means for this reason now. All right. How does the new birth come about?
It comes about by the power of the Holy Spirit in the preaching
of the word of truth. That's why we're talking about
God's word and salvation. So here's what you need to do.
You need to get under the preaching of the truth. The truth of Christ. the truth of his grace. So he
says in verse 19, for this reason, wherefore, for this reason, my
beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear. Now I'm telling
you, I know the flesh fights, I know the body, we're weak,
we've got all of our problems, we're tired. Some people, a fellow
told me last week, he said, I wonder if I'm ever not going to be tired. I know all the Things that take
our mind, take our time, take our attention. But I'm telling
you, you need to hear what I've got to say. I'm about to knock
the other one up in water. But you need to hear what I've
got to say. I mean, it's important. And it's not just because of
me. I mean, on December 30th, Wednesday night, we're going
to have a special service. And I know that some of you, I know, listen,
I know I've been there. I know it's hard to get. But
try to come if you can. Brother Jim Byrd's going to be
here preaching. He's going to preach the gospel. It's going
to be the last service we have this year. And we're going to
take the Lord's Supper. If you can be here, try to. I
know some of you can't because of work and all kinds of problems,
but not that work's a problem. I hope it's not. But I just hope
you can because Brother Jim Byrd's going to preach the word, and
you need to hear what he has to say. So it doesn't matter
if it's me up here preaching, or if it's Brother Bird, or if
it's Ron, or Joe, or Aaron, or Brother Alan Ison, or Brother
Gary Shepard, Tim James, any of those men who come in to preach
for us, even our Sunday school teachers, you know, all of them.
You need it because we're preaching His Word, the Gospel, and that's
where you need to be. And so He says, let every man
be swift to hear. That means not just quick to
hear, it means be ready to hear. Be ready to hear. Be anxious
to hear. And listen now, you have to cultivate
a hunger for the Word of God. You can get away from it now. And because of this remaining
sinful, fallen human nature that we have to battle with, it can
take your mind away, but you need to be ready. Make yourself
hungry for the Word of God. Desire the sincere milk of the
Word that you may grow thereby. And then it says, let every man
be slow to speak. Don't be so ready to give your
opinion. Later on, James says, don't be
too quick to try to be a teacher or a preacher. In other words,
what he's saying here is listen to God's word. Think about it.
Think about it. And then let every man be slow
to wrath. That means anger. And you know
why that's sad? Now, we know when the gospel
of God's grace in Christ is preached to unbelievers, it can, well,
it's always going to generate unbelief in the sense that that's
what's in the man by nature. But there'll be different reactions
to it. It can sometimes just generate indifference. Most people
walk away, I don't care. I don't care what you say. That's
the natural man. Pray God doesn't let any of us
go that way. They can get angry. John chapter
3, you remember, this is the condemnation that light is coming
to the world and men hate the light. They love darkness and
hate light. Why? Because the light exposes
us for what we are. Sinful, ruined creatures who
cannot save ourselves. Even our best works. cannot save
us or make us righteous before God. Man at his best states altogether
vanity. And listen, if you're sitting
here this morning and you have any other refuge of salvation,
any other hope of salvation, if you have any other assurance
of salvation other than Christ alone and His blood alone, His
righteousness alone, if you have any other hope, any other assurance,
The gospel will expose that and call it what it really is. Dung. Death. That's what it is. And sometimes people get angry
about that. I can think about an evangelist named Stephen who
stood in Jerusalem and preached the old covenant law. He preached
the law, but he preached it as a schoolmaster to lead sinners
to have hope in one and one alone, Christ, and him crucified and
risen again. And they got so angry that they
picked up stones and they killed him. And one, whom God later
saved under the preaching of the truth, held their coats while
they did. So you can have that kind of
anger, but now listen to me. Now, you believers listen to
me. Why does he say, slow to wrath to us? Because I'm going
to tell you something. And I know this to be true from
personal experience, and you know it to be true too. There
are a lot of times when we go through these scriptures, verse
by verse, that God's revealed will crosses my will. It crosses me. And so he says
to believers, you be slow to anger. When it tells us the truth,
we need to hear the truth. I'm telling you, we need to hear
this. We need it. It's our life. It's
salvation. It's the godliness that God brings
us to and keeps us in. So be slow to wrath. Whenever it crosses my will,
what are we to do? Well, look, in verse 20, he says,
For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
In other words, there's no way that we're going to promote the
gospel of Christ and the glory of God by our anger. by our disregarding what God's
Word says. Don't hear the Word of God. Next
time I'm going to deal with this about being doers of the Word,
don't just hear what God says and then walk away unaffected.
And if God has given us His Spirit to motivate us and to keep us
in check and to guide us, then we'll have that godly sorrow
that says, Lord, you're right and I'm wrong. And so he says
in verse 21, wherefore, for this reason, lay apart all filthiness
and superfluity of naughtiness. That's the abundance of evil.
That's what that means. And, you know, they say that. I'll tell you, I can't think
of anything this morning. What's the. Well, I better not. I might
destroy some people's myths. You know, Tim James used to say,
a fellow called him an iconoclast one time, and he didn't know
what that was, and he said, I know what an icon is, that's an island.
He said, class, he said, I guess that's the sound it makes when
it hits the dirt or something. He knows when you're naughty
or nice, you know all that. Well, that naughtiness there,
that's evil, you see. Well, God knows that. He's the
only one who knows it. But think about this. All this
abundance of evil. What he's talking about is anything
that would hinder you from being quick to hear, swift to hear,
slow to speak, and slow to rap. Anything that would hinder us.
And he says, and receive with meekness the engrafted word. Now, what is that engrafted word?
That's the word of God that is implanted in our hearts, our
minds, affections, and will by the Spirit in the new birth.
In other words, if you've been born again, that word is part
of you. And you really can't get away
from it completely. Now, you may get away from it
for a little while, but you can't get away from it completely.
It's engrafted into your heart. into your soul. It's written
on the heart, scripture says. And he says, which is able to
save your souls, the word and salvation. Now, let me give you
that little outline I was talking about. First of all, when you
think of the word of God, God's word, think of it this way. Now, let's turn to John chapter
one that Brother Ron read a while ago. Think of it this way. John
one. First of all, when you think
of the word of God, Don't just think of it as words on a page
or words spoken. That's part of it now. But think
of it first this way. Think of the living word, the
living word. And what is the living word or
who is the living word? Christ is the living word of
God. Christ himself is the living
word of God. And so when you think about the
word being preached or being spoken or whatever. And that
word of truth, begotten again by the word of truth, is lifting
up Christ, you see, he's the living word. Look at John one
and verse one in the beginning. Literally, that would be just
like it reads back in the Hebrew and Genesis in beginning. It's
almost like. There is no point in time that
you can say is beginning, it's just, that's beginning. In beginning
was the Word. And it says, and the Word was
with God. And the Word was God. Now that's speaking of Christ
in beginning. That's his eternity. That's himself. That's the second person of the
Trinity. He was with God in the sense
that he's the second person of the blessed Trinity. And you
think about that. That's an amazing thing. That's
the one who came to earth. That's the one who was conceived
in the womb of the Virgin Mary. That's what we say incarnate.
That means he was made flesh. And this is this word that was
with God. He is God. That's who Christ
is. That's who he had to be to save
his people from their sins. That's why the angel told Joseph,
his name shall be called Immanuel, which being interpreted as God
with us. He's quoting from the book of Isaiah chapter 7. That's
a prophecy of Christ. He is God. Look at verse 2. The same was in beginning with
God. The only one who could be in
beginning with God had to be God. And it says in verse 3,
all things were made by him. That's creation. That is attributed. Creation in the Bible is attributed
to God in the plural, meaning the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit. Not three gods, but one God who subsists in three
persons. And I've said it many times.
You know it's so. You can't really grasp that with our finite, limited
mind. But it's so. And it says, all
things were made by him, and without him was not anything
made that was made. That's God. He's the living word. In him was life. We're talking
about life eternal, spiritual life. Now, physical life is in
him too. He gives breath to everyone.
The next breath you take is a gift from God. But in him was life. And the life was the light of
men. There's no life without him. And the light shineth in
darkness. Now here's us. Now listen to
this, verse 5. This is us. This is the fallen
world, ruined in Adam. He says, and the light shineth
in darkness. We're the darkness. Now we know
in creation there was darkness. Everything was void. And God
said, let there be light physically. And there was. But this applies
to spiritual things too. We're spiritually dead in spiritual
darkness. And it says, the light shineth
in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. We didn't
understand or know Him. That's man by nature. That's
why this new birth, this salvation, is the will of God, not the will
of man. So Christ is the living Word. And never forget that. Here's
the second thing. Christ is the incarnate Word. Now, had Christ Had Christ not
come to this earth, there would be no salvation for us. Had he
not taken into union with his divine, uncreated nature, a sinless,
perfect human nature, humanity, body and soul, had he not become
incarnate, we would never be saved. There'd be no second birth.
There'd be no begotten again, by the word of truth. So he's
the incarnate word. Look down at verse 14 of John
1. It says, And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And most of you know that word
dwelt there is literally tabernacled. And it's a reference to the Old
Testament tabernacle because that was symbolically and spiritually,
it was the dwelling place of God amongst Israel. It was a
type of Christ. If you want the presence of God,
the blessing of God, the goodness of God, the love of God, the
salvation that God has, if you want communion with God, to pray
to God, to worship God, to serve God, it must come through Christ,
the incarnate Word. He was made flesh and dwelt among
us, John writes, and we beheld his glory. The glory is of the
only begotten of the fathers, only one like him. Never has
been anything like him before the birth, and never anything
afterward. He's unique. And we beheld his
glory. Now, not everybody beheld his
glory. The Pharisees didn't behold his
glory. They called him a sinner. The Pharisees called him a sinner.
They said that he was a wine-bibber, a drunk. He didn't behold his
glory. Pilate didn't behold his glory.
Pilate knew there was something a little special about him, but
he didn't behold his glory. No man by nature beholds his
glory. And you know who beholds his
glory? Those who are begotten again by the word of truth. That's
who beholds his glory. I think about Simeon in Luke
chapter 2. You remember Simeon? I preached
several messages on Simeon in Luke chapter 2. And he was that
old man who the Holy Spirit revealed to him specifically that he would
not die the physical death. He wouldn't leave this earth
until he saw the Christ child, the Messiah who was promised
all those thousands of years and who came in time on that
given day, whatever day it was. I know it wasn't December 25th,
but he did come. And Simeon, the Holy Spirit said,
you're not going to die until you see that child. And when
Joseph of Mary brought him to the temple to be circumcised,
Simeon was there and they recognized through God's revelation that
this man was special. And he lifted up that child. And you remember what he said?
He said, he said, Lord, I'm now ready to depart. I'm ready to
die for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. Isn't that something? Well, you know, let me tell you
something. You know, when you're ready, Simeon saw his glory. You know,
when you're ready to depart, you're going to depart whenever
God says it's time to go. You know that. That's me too.
But you know, when we're ready to depart, when we've seen God's
salvation. Now, the Lord may let us live
many years past that. But you know, since we've seen
his salvation, we've seen Christ and him crucified and risen again.
And Simeon even said, this is not just for the Jews alone,
it's for the Gentiles. That's something, isn't it? No
self-respecting Jew would talk like that back then. But Simeon
did, because he knew his own frame. He knew he was a sinner
who needed salvation by grace. He knew salvation was of the
Lord and wrapped up and centered on and founded upon that child,
that babe that he held in his arms. You think about that. Here's
an old man, probably a priest, they said, and he sees that his
whole salvation is wrapped up, not just in a child in his arms,
but in that person, God and man in one person, Jesus. Jehovah
our Savior, Immanuel, who is going to grow up and keep the
law and go to the cross of Calvary and die for his sins and establish
the only righteousness whereupon God could be just and justify
him. Simeon saw his glory. Full of grace and truth. Look
at verse 15. John bear witness of him and
cried saying this was he of whom I spake. He that cometh after
me is preferred before me for he was before me. He has the
preeminence. And John carried that out through
his whole ministry. He said, I'm not the light. Christ is
the light. I can't save you. I can baptize you with water
and I can do that. But you know what I can't do?
I can't beget you again with the Word of Truth, only God can
do that. Of His own will begat He us with the Word of Truth.
And you know what it takes? It takes Christ the living Word
and Christ the incarnate Word, for all life is from Him. The
Holy Spirit's work in giving us life, resurrecting us from
the dead in regeneration, is based upon, it comes from, it's
the fruit of the redemptive work of Christ on the cross. That's
why he had to become incarnate, so that he could die. God can't
die, but this person who is God did die. Man cannot give life,
but this person who is man does give life. He's God-man. And then turn to John 5, the
word of truth. Now, here's the next thing. Christ the living word, Christ
the incarnate word. Now, Christ, the subject and
theme of the written word. In fact, we could say it this
way. He is the written word. Because if you read anything
of any significance in the written word, I'll tell you where you're
going to go to, who you're going to go to, and where you're going
to end up. You're going to end up with Christ. Isn't that right? Look
at John chapter 5. Look at verse 39. Look at verse 38, he's talking
to the Pharisees here and he says, and you have not his word
abiding in you. You don't have the engrafted
word. What he's telling you, you've not been born again. Because
you've been born again, you have the word abiding in you, Christ
in you. And that is that is salvation
for for whom he has sent him, you believe not, you don't believe
in Christ. Look at verse 39, search the scriptures. Now, that's
the written word. He says, For in them you think
you have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me.
When you search the scriptures, if you find in those scriptures
eternal life, you know what you found? You found Christ. You
found the living word. You found the incarnate word.
You found Christ who finished the work and redeemed you from
all your sins. And he says in verse 40, You
will not come to me that you might have life. If you knew
the scriptures, you'd come to Christ. You plead him, he'd be
your only hope. Not your baptism, not your church
going, not your tithing, not anything, not your works. Christ
would be your only hope if you come, if you search the scriptures
and found him. He says in verse 41, I receive
not honor from men, but I know you, that you have not the love
of God in you. If you don't have the word of
God engrafted in you, you don't have the love of God in you.
I don't care what you're trying to do. You can go out here and
start a million different kinds of charities. But if you don't
have Christ in you, the living word, the incarnate word, by
his spirit and by his word, you don't have the love of God. He
says in verse 43, I come in my father's name and you receive
me not. If another shall come in his own name, him you will
receive. What is your rule of life? Is it what men say, what
their opinion is? Are you enamored with men? Many
are. That's what religion today is all about. You get enamored
with men. Preachers are the worst of the lot. That's right. That's
why they were divided in Corinth. Self-promotion. Are you more
interested in hearing what God's word says, his written word,
or what the right Reverend Dr. So-and-so says? Well, I've listened
to him all my life. Well, that's all right if he's
led you to the written word. Led you to Christ. But when he
leaves that, you leave him. Isn't that the way it should
be? And so he says in verse 44, how
can you believe which receive honor one of another? If we're
here to honor one another, we're not going to see Christ. We're
not going to worship Christ. That's right. He says, and seek
not the honor that cometh from God only. If you're going to
seek the honor that comes from God only, you're going to seek
the glory of Christ. This is my beloved Son in whom
I'm well pleased. Hear ye Him. Be ready to hear
Him. He says in verse 45, Do not think
that I will accuse you to the Father. There's one that accuseth
you, even Moses, in whom you trust. How did they trust in
Moses? They trusted in their works of the law. So he said,
for as you believe Moses, you would have believed me, for Moses
wrote of me. Moses wrote of Christ. But if
you believe not his writings, the written word, how shall you
believe my words? Christ is the written word. He
set his disciples down before he ascended unto the Father,
and he taught them the things concerning himself, his suffering
unto death, the righteousness that he would establish out of
Moses and the prophets and the Psalms. All of it, from Genesis
to Revelation, is a book of Christ. People read their Bibles, and
they still miss Christ. People memorize it. They write
it on their faces. They sew it into the hems of
their garments. They wear it on their bumper stickers in the
car, but they still miss Christ. People celebrate the season,
and they talk about how Jesus is the reason for the season,
and they still miss Christ. How sad. These men that Christ
is speaking to here in John 5, they were the experts, the religious
leaders, the pastors, the teachers, the doctors, the philosophers,
the theologians, and they read the scriptures, they memorized
the scriptures, they studied, they commented, wrote commentaries,
wrote books, but they still miss Christ. Don't miss Christ in
this season or any other season. For He is the written word. He's
the living word. He's the incarnate word. He's
the written word. And then lastly, turn to 1 Peter
chapter 1. Christ, He's the subject and
the theme of the preached word. In fact, He is the preached word. You turn to 1 Peter 1. Paul wrote
in 1 Corinthians 2. He said, I strive not to know
anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And
over in chapter 2, he said, we preach Christ and Him crucified.
We preach His person. We preach His finished work all
the way unto glory. And that's our only hope. I have
no righteousness but Him. He's the Lord my righteousness.
And so look here in 1 Peter 1. He says in verse 18, For as much
as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things,
the silver and gold from your vain conversation received by
tradition from your father." In other words, your redemption
is not from man or anything man says or anything man does. They
didn't pay the price. But you were redeemed, verse
19, with the precious blood of Christ. Now, there's our salvation.
Now, he had to have blood to shed, didn't he? That's why he
had to have a human body. That's why he had to come into
the world without the shedding of blood, no remission of sins.
How many times is that theme throughout the scriptures? It's
all the way through. It pervades the scriptures. The
first time when God killed animals. and shed their skin, got their
skins and shed blood and got their skins and gave them anatomy,
what was he teaching? That salvation was by the blood,
redemption by the blood, righteousness by the blood, no other way. But
not by your blood, not by my blood, not by the blood of animals,
for the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin, by the
blood of the Lamb of God, the blood of the living word, the
incarnate word. the written word, and he says,
with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish
and without spot, the innocent for the guilty. The innocent,
listen, the innocent who was made guilty because of the sins
of the guilty charged to him. Really guilty, really unrighteous
because of my sins laid upon him. And so he says in verse
20, this, this lamb, this Christ was barely foreordained before
the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last
times for you who by him do believe in God. You know, technically
speaking, if you go by the scripture and the wording of the scripture,
anybody doesn't believe in Christ is really an atheist. Now, you
might not say it that way, because you say, well, that's just terms.
But what I'm talking about is, if you don't believe in Christ,
you don't believe in the true and living God. You believe in a
dead God or an idol, which is a dead God. So he says, who by
him do believe in God that raised him up from the dead and gave
him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God, seeing
you have purified your souls and obeying the truth through
the Spirit, that's the new birth, unto unsanged love of the brethren,
see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently,
being born again and you're born again. God's word and salvation
begotten again by the word of truth, not of corruptible seed,
but of incorruptible by the word of God. That's the same word. that you find in John 1, in the
beginning was the word, that's Logos, and he says, "...which
liveth and abideth forever." Now that's Christ himself, the
living word, the incarnate word, that's the written word, and
he says, "...for all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of
man is the flower of grass. The grass withereth, the flower
thereof falleth away. But the word of the Lord endureth
forever." Christ endures forever. the gospel, and this is the word,
now that word there is the uttered word, it's the preached word,
and this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. Yet please the Lord by the foolishness
of preaching, the preaching of Christ, the preaching of the
cross, to save them that believe. So He's the theme and the subject,
the preached word. Christ the living word. Christ
the incarnate word. Christ the written word. Christ
the preached word. It all comes down to Him. By
this word, God the Holy Spirit gives and applies spiritual life
to dead sinners. So when we think of the Savior,
think of Him that way. Think of Him that way. All right.