Let's look at 1 John 5. I'm going
to continue in this place again. It won't be long and a few more,
maybe three or four more messages will be done with this little
book. Then we'll do 2 and 3 John. I need to make an announcement. Brother Gary is going to have
a defibrillator put in his tomorrow. You know, if his heart stops,
it will shock it put it back in, and the doctors going in
at Oak Ridge tomorrow to have that done. And we certainly want
to remember him and Peggy. And that heart attack really
took a lot out of him. And it's a wonderful thing that
doctors can do now. They can do so much. They can
put those things in and just, it's amazing what they can do. And how many of y'all enjoyed
that meeting? Boy, that was some kind of meeting,
wasn't it? Oh, my. Preaching was just, I
don't know how y'all feel about it, but I personally needed it
bad. I really, really needed it. I desperately needed what we
had. Huh? Wasn't no food. You know, but that, them preaching,
the preaching just couldn't have been any better. It's just, just
wonderful. And I really needed it. If y'all
needed it as bad as I did, all of you feeling pretty good. You
know, I really, really needed it. And God blessed me through
this meeting, blessed me greatly through it, and I'm very thankful
for it. All right, let's start in verse four, 1 John 5. For whatsoever is born of God
overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh
the world, our faith. Who is he that overcometh the
world? But he that believeth that Jesus Christ is the Son
of God. That's the faith that we have,
objective faith. We believe on the Son of God.
And this is he that came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not
by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that
beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are
three that bear record in heaven, The Father, the Word, and the
Holy Ghost, and these three are one. And there are three that
bear witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood.
And these three agree in one. If we receive the witness of
men, the witness of God is greater, for this is the witness of God,
which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the
Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not
God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that
God gave of his Son. And this is the record that God
hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God
hath not life. Let's look at verses 11 and 12. 1 John 5, 11 and 12. This is the record. God said, he that believeth not
the record that God gave of his Son, he makes God a liar, if
he don't believe the record. And this is the record that God
hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
That's our faith. That's our objective faith. That's
our subjective faith. That's our experience of grace.
That God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His
Son. He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Couldn't
be any plainer. Life is in the Son, and only
in the Son. You know, life in this world,
as we go through this world, is precious. So very precious. You know, ask those who've lost
a child. You know, a 16-year-old boy got
killed last week. And you know how his mother and
daddy are grievously, brothers and sisters, family, grievously,
grievously mourned the loss of his life. So while we're in this
life, life is precious. This life is precious. And ask
those who've lost somebody that's dear to them, precious to them.
So life in this world is precious. We're talking about life. Yet
how few, how few grieve the absence of spiritual life? How few grieve
the loss and the absence of spiritual life? How few parents lament
the fact that their children are all born dead in sins? How many parents grieve over
that? And how many parents start praying for their children the
moment that they know that they're going to come into this world?
And oh, they don't lament their children without exception, enter
this world dead. They enter this world without
spiritual life. How many people lament that?
But I do know that a truth, such a truth, if it's rightly believed,
will drive us to Christ. When Jairus' daughter lay dying,
our Lord Jesus went to him and begged him, begged him, said,
Oh Lord, my daughter is lying at the point of death. Come,
please come. And by the time he got there,
she was dead. She was dead. And that's why
they said, don't trouble the master, she's gone. But the Lord
gave her life. And that's why parents, you know,
if you believe this truth that your children are born spiritually
dead, without exception, without spiritual life, how it should
drive us to Christ on behalf of them. Oh, and beg God for
them. Lord, they're dead. They're on
the verge of eternity. God, please do something for
them. And perhaps the greatest tragedy
of all is that most believing parents are so consumed with
the things of this life, the things of eternity are often
neglected and forgotten. There's people in this congregation
that are that way. They get so consumed with the
things of this life, the things of eternity, they neglect them.
They forget about them. And they got other places to
go and other things to do because they got this life to deal with.
And it's a sad, sad day. It's a sad time when we, as believers,
would neglect the things of this spiritual life. in favor of things
of just so temporal, just so very temporal. And our Lord Jesus,
He never overlooked this present life. He never overlooked it.
He never overlooked it. He told Mary, you know, that,
and Martha, you're covered about many things. Yes, you ought to
do what you do. But He placed emphasis, His whole
life placed emphasis on the life to come, on the life that's to
come. And according to John's Gospel,
alone, just John's gospel alone. The man who wrote this epistle.
Our Lord Jesus used the term eternal or everlasting life 17
times. 17 times. Eternal or everlasting. 17 times. But our Lord Jesus
Christ is more than just a proclaimer of eternal life. He is eternal
life. Ain't that what it says there?
In verse 11 and 12, this is the record that God has given to
us eternal life. And this life is in His Son.
He that hath a Son hath life. Oh, He is eternal life. He don't
just talk about eternal life and proclaim eternal life and
make eternal life available. Life is in Him. And John begins
this letter and ends this letter with eternal life in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Look over here in chapter 1.
And look at the first couple of verses. He begins and ends
his letter referring to the Lord Jesus Christ as eternal life.
He said here in verse 1 of chapter 1, that which was from the beginning,
what did he say in John chapter 1 in verse 1? In the beginning
was the word. And that's what he says here,
that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we
have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and handled,
our hands have handled of the word of life. Listen to this
now, for the life was manifested. Life, where was it manifested
at? In Christ, in that Word that came. And we've seen it, and
bear witness, and listen to this, and show unto you that eternal
life, which was with the Father. That eternal life was with the
Father. He always had eternal life. and
He was eternity. He had life of God and He was
the life of God before He came here. He is the life of God while
He is here and He was the life of God and eternal life when
He left and was manifested unto us. Now over here in John chapter
5 in verse 20 says this is the witness that we do that He is
eternal life, was manifested. In verse 20 look what He says,
And we know that the Son of God is come, We know that, that the
Son of God has come and has given us an understanding that we may
know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even
in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. So you see, He opens it up and
He closes it with Christ being eternal life. And then He goes
down here for those of us who have this faith that overcomes
the world, that believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God,
that has received the witness of God, the witness of the Spirit,
the witness of the Word, the witness of the blood, and the
witness of God Himself. And we believe this, that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God, and look what He says, and this is
the record. Verse 11, this is the record. And this word record
means testimony, same thing as a testimony. All of us here know
about keeping records. There's all kinds of records
that we keep. We keep records. You know, you
have to keep financial records if you're in business for so
long. But we all know about keeping records. We keep a birth certificate. It's kept on record. The place
you was born, you can go there and find out from the record
in the quarter that where you was born. You know, when you
get a deed, what do you do? You go to the courthouse and
you record your deed. You want to find out what's going
on in somebody's thing? You go to the courthouse to look
at the deed. And we record deaths. So-and-so
died on such-and-such a day, and the death's recorded. And
marriage, you know, when people get married, they go to the courthouse,
and they take the marriage license that they have, and they turn
it in, and that's recorded in the courthouse where they was
married at, the place they was married, and then they get a
certificate, we're married. But you have all these records.
Well, God kept a record, but you know what he kept a record
of? Of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know where he
started his record at? Genesis. Started out right in
Genesis. In the beginning, in the beginning,
God created. Who did he create by? He created
by his son. Genesis 3.15, the first thing
promised made was made that the seed of the woman would crush
the head of the serpent. And you go all the way through
Malachi 4 when it says that He shall suddenly come to His temple
and the Son of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His
wings. And oh my! And I tell you what,
to Him, to Him all the prophets give witness. And I tell you
the record that God has given to us And this eternal life,
this is the record. This is the record right here.
He put this in writing. He put it in writing about His
Son. And you know all these preachers
that preached this week, I mean, they preached Christ. They made
Him, they exalted Him highly, highly and put us down where
we belong. And our Lord Jesus Christ, everything
in this blessed book, if we can't find it, it's because of our
blindness. But our Lord Himself says, search the scriptures.
They talk about me. They testify of me. They're a
record of mine. And the Father Himself bears
record of me. And His record is His Word. And
when our Lord Jesus Christ was on this earth, God testified
to Him being His blessed Son while He was on this earth. And
if you hear what He has to say, don't worry about what this one
said, that one said, you hear what He has to say. And when
He says, this is the record that God has given, this record, this
blessed record, the Word of God, this is the record, this is the
sum and substance of all that's declared. When our Lord Jesus
Christ was walking with the disciples on the Emmaus Road, You know
what the scripture says? That he took Moses, the Psalms,
and the law, and the prophets, and opened the scriptures, all
the things concerning himself. And when Paul, when he got down,
was in Damascus, after he received his sight, the scripture said
he went into the synagogue and straightway preached Christ.
Now, before that, three days earlier, he was persecuting Christians.
Three days after that, he's up there preaching the Lord Jesus
Christ. How could he know what the scripture said about Christ?
Because he knew the scriptures. And he understood that all the
things he was fighting was plainly in the word of God. And oh, not
only is it of all that's declared, oh, they declared, Moses wrote
of me. But everything that's written,
Look what John said over here in John chapter, I think it's
20 and verse 30. John's gospel chapter 20 and
verse 30. I think this is what I want.
I just thought of it and I think it'd be good to us to look at
it. John 20, 31, excuse me. Well, verse 30, yeah. John 30,
20 and verse 30. And many other signs truly did
Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written
in this book. 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. This is what these things
are written about. And that's what John said down
here in verse 13 of chapter five. I wrote these things unto you
that believe on the name of the Son of God. And I tell you, so
God wrote these things about His Son. And then all the preaching,
the preachers preached Him. You take the first message that
you find in the Bible, it's about Christ. And all the preachers
preached Christ. But God, God out of His free,
pure, free grace, out of His pure, free grace and because
of His sovereign will and pleasure, He hath given some of the fallen
sons of Adam eternal life. This is the record that God hath
given to us, eternal life. And in His free grace and His
sovereign grace, because it pleased Him and He willed to do it and
He purposed to do it, that he gave some of the fallen sons
of Adam, not all of them, but some of them an eternal life,
spiritual life. And this spiritual life that
we had, the spiritual life that Adam had in the garden, it was
lost. When Adam sinned against God, we lost spiritual life.
We lost the life of God and the life of glory and fellowship
with the Father and with God the Father. We lost the life
of righteousness. We lost happiness. We lost freedom. We lost freedom from sin and
sorrow and death. Those things were our lot if
God don't come and give us eternal life. Oh, we didn't have life. We lost it all in Adam. We didn't
have happiness. We didn't have joy. We had sin
and sorrow and death and grief and God come and gave us eternal
life. And I tell you, look what he
says here again now. And I look here at verse 11 again.
And this is the record. I said this is the record. That
God hath given to us eternal life. Now who did he give it
to? Who did he give eternal life
to? Is it just an open door? Is it just an offer? Is it just a possibility that
somebody can have it? Maybe if somebody repents enough
and believes enough, they can get it. Maybe you won't get it
till you get to know you got it till you get to the end of
the way. Maybe people are laboring to have eternal life. But it
says here that God has given to us eternal life. Who did He
give it to? To as many as was given to Him. To as many as were ordained to
eternal life. To as many. And our Lord Jesus
Christ said, Herein doeth my Father love me, because I lay
down my life. Nobody's going to take it from
me. I lay it down of myself. And I lay down my life for who?
The sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them, and they hear my voice, and when they hear my voice,
they follow me. And so our Lord Jesus Christ
is given sovereignty. He didn't come here to just make
our salvation an offer. He came here to give salvation. You notice it said He has given
us eternal life. He didn't say He tried to, He
hoped to, He'd like for us to have it, but it says He has given
us eternal life. So if it's given to us, that
means it's not earned. That means it's not a debt that
he owes us. It means it's not a merit that
God's merited of God. Life is given. Romans 6.23 says
this, the wages of sin is death. The gift of God is eternal life
through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now death, death is given as
a wage. Man earns, he earns. God's gonna
pay him off for his sins. The wages of sin is death, but
life is a gift. One you earn, the other's given. And I tell you what, and it's
graciously given because it says it's given to us. It's given
to us. And when he talks here about
eternal life, and I've said this so many times over the years,
when he talks about eternal life, he's not talking about the length
of it. He's not talking about the duration
of it. He's talking about the quality of it. He's talking about
the quality of life. It's the life of God in a man's
soul. It's the life of Christ in a
man. It's the new nature in a man. It's the life that God himself
puts in a man. It's Christ in you. That's the
hope of glory is what we're talking about. So it's the quality of
life. You think of yourself. What kind of quality of life
do you have now compared to what you had before you as a believer?
Is your quality of life as a believer? Just look at the quality of our
lives. It's God in us. It enables us
to pray, enables us to seek Him, enables us to love His gospel,
believe His gospel, to meet to worship Him, to give of our time,
our effort, and all the things that God enables us to do. And
life, life is the very opposite of death. Or life is the opposite
of spiritual death. He hath quickened you who were
dead in trespasses and sins. And look over here in John chapter
3. This John that we're in here. Little John here. First John.
Look in chapter 3. Look what it said here in verse 14. Talking
about life is the opposite of spiritual death. And that's what
we were and He gave us life. We know that we have passed from
death unto life. How do we know that we do? Because
we love the brethren. That's why we know. God's the
only one that can put love in a man's heart. And our Lord Jesus
Christ says, this, this is eternal life. Let me read it to you. I don't want to mess it up, but
I'll read it to you here. John chapter five real quick.
Let me read this to you. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth
on him that sent me, hath everlasting life. First time I ever heard
that commented on, this is how Henry Mahan said it. He hath,
that means he's got it. He's got it. Don't mean he's
gonna get it, that means he's got it. Hath eternal life. everlasting life, and shall not
come into condemnation, to listen this, but is passed from death
unto life. We know people pass from life
to death, but God takes dead people and gives them life. And
look what he says, verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming,
and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of
God, and they that hear, what are they gonna do? They are gonna
live. Let me tell you something. Every
person is both dead and alive at the same time. Every person
that you know and I know and will ever know are dead and alive
at the same time. By nature, we are dead to God
and alive unto sin. By grace, we are alive unto God
and dead to sin. Let me say that again. every
person is both dead and alive at the same time by nature we're
dead to God and alive unto sin by the grace of God we are alive
to God and dead to sin that's what this life in Christ is and
then this word eternal he said he given to us eternal life That
means without end, never to cease, everlasting. This is the life
that God gives us. That's why, you know, our life,
our life, the life that's in us right now, when we go into
eternity, that's the very life that we're going to have to go
into eternity with, the life of Christ in us. That's why they
say, boy, I tell you, when somebody goes and we know it's a believer,
oh, bless the Lord, what he's done for them. And then look what it says, not
only is this the record that God has given to us eternal life
and this life is in his son. And that's the third point, this
life is in his son. Eternal life is in one person. God put everything he had for
anybody on this earth in his son. All that life includes,
all that life includes, faith, Hearing, seeing, believing, repenting,
joy, sorrow, everything that life includes. Breathing. All the spiritual, everything
that you have naturally, you have spiritually. Appetite, everything,
is given us in Christ, because it's all in Him. God has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
And when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall we also
appear with Him. And all, let me show you, let's
go to John's Gospel, chapter one. I seen something today,
preparing for this, that I had never seen before. And I hope
I can bring it out. Look what it says here. See,
our Lord Jesus Christ, it says, you know, in Him is eternal life. In His Son is eternal life. This life is in His Son. And
the only thing that anybody needs to be interested in, do I know
the Son? Not some things about Him. Do
I know Him personally? Do I know Him? And look what
John said here, ìIn the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God.î The Word was God. That Word, this thing that was
God and was in the beginning with God, the same was in the
beginning with God. ìAnd everything that was made
was made by Him, and without Him not anything that was made.î
Now listen then, ìIn Him was life.î There was life with Him
before He came, and when He came here, life came with Him. Oh,
listen, our Lord Jesus Christ possessed life, eternal life. He's God, so He's eternal. And as the Father hath life in
Himself, even so hath He given the Son life in Himself to give
it to Himself. And I tell you what, in Christ
we have our physical being and also our spiritual life. And
then look what it says, and the life, this life of Christ, He's
the origin of life. He's the source of life. In Him
was life. And then look what it says, the
life was the light of men. This life of Christ, Now, some people say, and this
is what I learned today, and I think I'm right about this,
and I believe I can show it. Men say that this light of Christ,
when life came in, that He came, that He just gave the light of
reasoning to men. The ability to reason. When He
says, in Him was life, and the life was the light of men, that
means that when He gives us life, He turns on the light and we
get the light and the experience of light in our hearts and souls.
In Him was light. God commanded the light to shine
out of darkness. What did He do? He shined it
in our hearts. Where did He shine it at? In Christ! That life that
He has, He's the one who gave us this light. He said, I'm the
light of the world. You follow me and there ain't
no danger, you walking in darkness. In him was light and there's
no darkness at all. I believe I could, and you know,
and this is, this life is experienced and when Christ comes into us
and this light is experienced in our soul, Psalm 36, nine,
Psalm 36, nine, Psalm 36, nine. Look what he says here about
our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the record. God's given
us eternal life. And where is it at? It's in His
Son. This life is in His Son. Life was promised in the Son. Life is given in the Son. And
look what he said here in verse 9, Psalm 36, 9. For with thee,
with the Lord Jesus Christ, is the fountain of life. He said,
he that drinketh my blood and eateth my flesh, he hath life.
He told that woman at the well, and I don't know how many preachers
missed this, said if you would have asked him, knew who it was that
you was talking to, you would have asked him, and he would
have given you a drink of living water. He's the fountain of life.
And watch this. And look what he says. In thy
light, giving us light, you know what we do? We see light. He
has to give us light before we can see the light. And that's
why Christ's life is the light of men. And all this, and now
back over here in John 5, and I'll try to wind this up. God promised this life. He promised
it. He promised it all the way through
the Old Testament. He promised him to Abraham. All
the promises of God are in him, yea and amen. God purposed it.
He purposed to give grace in Christ. He purposed to give life
in Christ. Like Bruce said, he said, by
the Lord, he said, I've sworn by my name, I've sworn that they
say in the Lord is my strength and my righteousness. That's
a promise, that's the purpose that God had. And then our Lord
Jesus Christ came and purchased this life, paid for this life
with his own life. And because he lives, we live
also. And then look what it says in
verse 12 here, John chapter five. He that hath the Son, life is
in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life.
That means that He possesses it right now. He's not going
to get it. He don't have to wait until He
dies to get it. He has it right now. He said, He that hath the
Son hath life right now. Has life. What life? Christ. Eternal life. The life of God. A new birth. And then look what
also goes on to say. Oh weeping, oh God give us such
a good hope in Christ. And here's the other side of
it. Here's the other side of it. And he that hath not the
Son of God, if you don't have the Son of God, you don't have
life. You don't have it. Oh, what an
awful thing to think about. To not have the Son? To not believe
the Son? And not have the life that you
have in the Son? The man that does not have the
Son has not life. He don't have life. Whatever
else he may possess. And that man that don't have
the Son that does not have life, that means he's yet in his sins.
That means he's yet dead. That means he's without God.
That means he's without Christ. That means he's without hope.
And how can anybody not want this life that's in Christ? Oh,
thank God that God hath given to us eternal life. Give it to
us. And you reckon that he gonna
come along and take it back? You reckon we can say something,
do something, be bad enough, say something bad enough, act
bad enough, fall on our faces enough, fail enough, falter enough
that God say, listen, I made a mistake with that fella. No,
no. He said, he hath given us, and
one thing God don't do, the gifts and calling of God without repentance.
He ain't fixing it. Oh, no. He's done give it to
us. That's why, you know, that's
why we don't believe in backslide. You can't backslide from life.
You can backslide from religion. You can backslide from a profession.
You can backslide from joining a church. But you can't backslide
from life. You know, if he gave you life,
you can't walk away and leave that life because that life's
in you. Ain't that right? All right. Blessed Savior, thank
you for the truth. Thank you for your blessed, precious
word. Thank you for being so kind to us, so loving to us,
so forgiving of us. Again, thank you for blessing
us so abundantly, so abundantly in our Lord Jesus Christ. and
blessed us so abundantly in this life because of Him. And Lord
Jesus, we pray for those who don't know Christ, don't know
what it is to have life in the Son. We pray that you would open
the heart, that you would turn on that life, that you would
give that life. Life is a gift and that you would
give it. And in giving it, you'd see the light. They would experience
that light where they could see God, see Christ, see the scripture,
see the gospel. God, give that light that only
you can. We ask these things in Christ's
name. Amen.