Scripture reading, let's turn
to Psalm 19. It's been so long since we had all three of you.
She's in the nursery, ain't she? So much for that. Well, baby
Kimberly, you come and sing then and Marlene play for you something
or whatever. Psalm 19. The heavens declare the glory
of God. And the firmament shows his handiwork. Day unto day utters speech. They speak to us. And night unto
night shows us knowledge every time we look into the heavens.
There's no speech, no language where their voice is not heard.
It's all over the universe, all over the world. The line has
gone out through all the earth and their words to the end of
the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, which
is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber and rejoices as
a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end
of heaven and his circuit under the ends of it. And there is
nothing hid from the heat thereof. The law of the Lord. The Word
of God, the truth of God is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony
of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the
Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the
Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is
clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are
true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than
gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the
honeycomb. Moreover, by them thy servant
is warned, and in keeping of them there is great reward. Who
can understand his errors? Who can cleanse thou me from
secret faults? Keep back thy servant also from
presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over
me, then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the
great transgression. Let the words of my mouth, the
meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength
and my redeemer. Oh, Lord, our Lord, our great
and glorious and dreadful and terrible God of heaven and earth. Lord, we've been blessed to understand
by your word, by the Holy Spirit, that this creation is yours,
that the heavens was made with your hand and the firmament.
This earth is made by your word. And we believe it. We believe
your word framed this world. We believe your word created
it all. And we believe you uphold it
by the word of your power. And that one day you're going
to cause this world to pass away and you'll create a new heaven
and a new earth. And all that will ever be there
is nothing but righteousness. Everyone there will be righteous.
The earth will be righteous, the people in it will be righteous,
and oh, we'll worship that one who is altogether lovely throughout
eternity. Thank you for allowing us to
meet this morning, for allowing us to understand and believe
that you're the great I Am, and we want to worship you, magnify
your blessed and glorious name. We want to honor your blessed
power and grace and mercy given to us in Christ. We want to see
sinners brought to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We want to
see men and women come to rejoice in what the Lord Jesus Christ
has done for sinners. Oh Lord, you did it for us. And
oh Lord, we believe that you can do it for them. And again,
we pray, for those that we love dearly, those that we care for,
sons, daughters, children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, husbands
and wives, brothers and sisters, O Lord, salvations of you, make
them to see it, make them to know it, make them to feel it,
make them desire it, and meet with us today, receive our praise,
our songs, our worship and sanctify it and make it acceptable through
our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. We will turn to John's
gospel chapter 20. John's gospel chapter 20. I want to read two verses of
Scripture. John 20, verses 30 and 31. Two verses of Scripture. John
30, 20, verse 30 and 31. And many other signs truly did
Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which are not written
in this book, in God's Word. But these are written that you
might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that
believing you might have life through His name. The main reason
that God wrote His Word, the main reason of the Scriptures,
is to produce faith. Faith cometh by hearing, hearing
by the Word of God. And then Paul told the Ephesians,
after you heard the gospel of your salvation, the word of truth,
after you heard the word of truth, you believe, it became the gospel
of your salvation. And that's what John is saying
there in verse 31. These are written that you might
believe. What's written? The word of God,
the scriptures, that you might believe that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God in that believing you might have life in His name. And I tell you, beloved, the
only thing that can produce faith is the Word of God. Nothing else
can do it. Nothing else can do it. Now,
there's not a verse of Scripture in the Scriptures, in the Bible,
written to create doubt. There's not, this Bible, this
book's not written to create doubt. Not a verse of scripture
you can read that's to create doubt. Doubt is self-sown. That comes from your own self.
That comes from you. Or else from the devil, why?
Because if a man has these doubts that God didn't get, God don't
produce them. Scriptures don't produce them.
They come from ourselves. But the scriptures are written
to give us a confidence, a consolation. And it reveals to us things that's
true and facts, things that actually happen. Truths, that's what they're
written for. And I know the scriptures are
written to give us the life of Christ. And you can read about
Christ from Genesis chapter 3. all the way through the revelations,
and where John says, the Lord Jesus says, I come quickly, and
John said, Amen, even so, behold, come, Lord Jesus. So it starts
out with Christ in the Genesis creating the world, and then
Him being the seed of the woman that would crush the seed of
the serpent, And this gives us the revelation of Christ, the
life of Christ. And that's why these things are
written from Genesis to Revelation. That we might believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God. And that believing you might
have life through His name. That's what this book's written
about. To make Christ known to men and women. To make Christ
known to faith. To make Christ known to people
that's never heard anything about Him. Well, let me show you. Look over
here. You keep John 20. And look over here with me in
2 Timothy chapter 3. 2 Timothy 3. This is exactly
what the scriptures are written for. 2 Timothy 3.14. And that's why as a preacher,
and all the preachers that I know, that I know personally, this
is their purpose, this is their calling, they have no other reason
to exist, is to open the scriptures and to take and expound from
the scriptures the Lord Jesus Christ. And that you might come
to know the Lord Jesus Christ and that knowing Him and knowing
who He is, the Christ, the Son of God, THAT THROUGH HIS BLESSED
NAME, GOD GIVES YOU FAITH, AND YOU TRUST HIM AND BELIEVE HIM.
LOOK WHAT HE SAID IN VERSE 14 OF II TIMOTHY 3. NOW PAUL WROTE
WRITING TO TIMOTHY, HIS SON IN THE FAITH, BUT CONTINUE THOU
IN THE THINGS WHICH THOU HAST LEARNED AND HAST BEEN ASSURED
OF, KNOWING OF WHOM THOU HAST LEARNED. AND THAT FROM A CHILD
THOU HAST KNOWN THE HOLY SCRIPTURES, Now all he had then was the Old
Testament. Knowing from a child thou hast
known the holy scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto
salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. That's what
they're written about. That's what it's all about. And
I tell you, no part of the scriptures, no part of the scriptures is
written to magnify and honor and exalt the person who wrote
it. John here is a perfect example of that. He's called the disciple
whom Jesus loved. He leaned on the breast of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He was an eyewitness of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Over here, John 20, 25, look
what it says. Or verse 24. He was an eyewitness
of our Lord Jesus Christ. He said we've handled the word
of life. We've seen the word of life. We've touched the word
of life. He was at the transfiguration. He was at the raising of Jairus'
daughter. But this is what John said. This
is the disciple, just a disciple, a follower of Christ, which testifies
of these things and wrote these things. And we know this testimony
is true. This, John don't take any glory
to himself, Isaiah didn't take any glory to himself. He wrote
all these things that we might know Christ. And he said we beheld
his glory. That's what he said. He said
I didn't behold my glory, I beheld his glory. As the only begotten
of the Son of God. He was full of truth and full
of grace and no man's seen God at any time save the only begotten
Son. And oh, he was taken into the
garden with John, James, and Peter. And he said, I wrote these
things. I wrote these things. And look,
he said there in verse 30 of the text that I read to you,
John 20, 30. Many other things. He said, oh, if everything was
written that Jesus did in the presence of his disciples, they're
not written in this book. He done so many things that's
not written in this book. I know that there's people who
have a lot of speculation about what he was as a child and what
he did. But there's only two instances
talked about as he's a child. And people want to go about the
historical Christ. But this is written that you
might know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that
when you know who He is, And you know what he did, that God
would create faith in your heart and that you would believe on
his name. And I tell you the Holy Scriptures,
God's blessed book was not written with the view or the intention
of just imparting knowledge to men to present them with the
complete biography of our Lord Jesus Christ. Look what John
said in John 21, 25. Oh, you know, I'm not interested
in the biography of Christ, I'm interested in knowing Him. I
know how He was born, I know who it was that was born, and
I know why he was born, and I know why he lived, and I know why
he died, and I know why he was risen again from the dead, and
I know where he is right now. And how did I learn all of that?
How did I find all of that? I didn't learn it by the biography
of Christ. God taught me by the Holy Spirit, and He'll do the
same thing to you, and that's what the Scriptures are written
for. Not to just fill your head with some knowledge, but that
you might come to know a person THAT YOU MIGHT COME TO KNOW THAT
JESUS, THAT NAZARENE WAS REALLY THE CHRIST. AND LOOK WHAT JOHN
SAID HERE IN VERSE 25, JOHN 21, AND THERE ARE ALSO MANY OTHER
THINGS WHICH JESUS DID, THE WHICH IF THEY SHOULD BE WRITTEN EVERY
ONE, I SUPPOSE THAT EVEN THE WORLD ITSELF CANNOT CONTAIN THE
BOOKS THAT SHOULD BE WRITTEN. I've got hundreds of books in
there, in my library. And they all preach about Christ,
talk about Christ, theology books, every kind of book, 62 volumes
of Spurgeon, all these things about Christ. And every one of
them, most of those, and all them was written about Christ,
and all the things about Christ that a man could possibly learn
as he's learned. John Gill, oh my, you gotta have
a magnifying glass to read it, but it's 12, it's an unbelievable
amount of knowledge there is. And all these books been written
about Christ, and there ain't none of them ever been able to
tell the whole story. Ain't that right? When you can't
tell it, the way we want to tell it. But we understand that this
is why God gave us this book. And oh, the intent of the scriptures,
the purpose of the scriptures is that you might be brought
to faith in the Lord, that you might believe that Jesus is the
Christ. And oh, it was not the writer's
goal, it wasn't the writer's aim just to give us a biography
or a complete life of Christ because they didn't. They didn't. They just told us some of the
things that he did. How many things did he do in
30 years of life or 33 years of life? How many things did
he do that nobody even said anything about? Do you realize how many
times he walked and how many people he talked to and the things
that he done in his life that there's no way in the world they
ever could be written in this book. They couldn't do it. But I tell you what's written
is written enough for us that we might believe that Jesus is
the Christ. And you take Matthew, the book
of Matthew, he presents the Lord Jesus Christ as the King, as
the Messiah, as the King. When you read the book of Luke,
he presents the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of Man, identified
with man, Son of Man. How many times did Luke say that?
And then John comes along and he presents him as deity, as
God, as the God-man, as the man who was God that came down here
through the womb of a virgin, that it was God that came into
this world. in the person of Jesus Christ.
In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the same
was in the beginning with God, and everything that was made
was made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that
was made. And when you go through all the
writers in the book, in this blessed book, They don't just
give us an attempt to increase our knowledge, but to win our
understanding, and to conquer our hearts for the Lord Jesus
Christ. And oh, may God conquer a heart. That's what God's after. He's
after your heart. And He'll get your heart. If
you're one of His, and God opens your understanding to the scriptures,
and you come to know that Jesus Christ is the only hope you have
before God, I know men have a lot of different people they believe.
There's one man I know, he always talks about Zeus. Always talks
about Zeus. You know, that's a Greek mythological,
he's a myth. But this guy worships him and
believes in him and calls on him. And the only person that can
do anything for a sinner on the topside of God's earth is the
Lord Jesus Christ and God wrote a whole book, 66 chapters in
the Bible. 39 in the Old Testament, 27 in the
New. He wrote all these books and
had all this written and caused all these men to write down all
these things for one main reason. THAT YOU MIGHT BE BROUGHT TO
FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST THE LORD OF GLORY, AND THAT HE MIGHT COME
AND CONQUER YOUR WILL, AND IMPART TO YOU YOUR DARKENED UNDERSTANDING,
AND TURN ON THE LIGHT, AND TAKE OUT THAT STONY HEART OUT OF YOUR
HEART, AND PUT IN A HEART OF FLESH. ONLY GOD CAN DO THAT. GOD CAN, YOU KNOW, MAN CAN GET
AN AWFUL LOT OF UNDERSTANDING IN HIS BRAIN. I MEAN, HE CAN
FILL HIS HEAD WITH ALL KINDS OF KNOWLEDGE. But only God can get a man's
heart. And that's why the heart stands
for the mind. The heart stands for the understanding.
The heart stands for the emotion and the affection. It stands
for you. It stands for you. And oh, that's, you know, I'm
telling you. Oh, the Bible was written with
the view of setting before us Not even written to show before
us a complete example. That's not what they've set before
us a clear example. But our Lord Jesus Christ was
set before us as a perfect character. A blessed person. And all about
him was just perfect. And all of his character is perfect.
And yet we're bound to imitate him. I've got a message I'm going
to preach pretty soon called The Imitation of Christ. out
of John of Romans 14, 1, Mormon 15, 1, where it says, Christ
pleased not Himself. That's the first thing about
imitating Christ, Christ pleased not Himself. If we could ever quit pleasing
ourselves, And that's what Christ is talking about, that's what
John's talking about. It's not we we're talking about, we're
talking about the Son of God. And will God bring a man to believe
on Christ? That's what this book's written
for. Oh, and it's true, it's true
when we read the life of Christ. God teaches us how to live through
our Lord Jesus Christ and what life is and how precious life
is and what life comes from. It comes from Him. He said, I'm
the resurrection, I'm the life and John said this, we shall
live because He lives. And I've come that you might
have life and that you might have it, what? More abundantly.
That means it gets more and more and more and more and more of
it all the time. It just increases. And then not only how to live,
but also how to die. Oh, if a man don't know Christ,
if a man ain't come to Christ, if a man don't believe in Christ,
God have mercy on you. I certainly hope you don't die
until you're brought to faith in Christ. You know how many people go out
into this world and don't know anything about Christ? How many
people, you know, there was a funeral went by yesterday, we was out
on 127 north of town, and everybody stops when a funeral comes by. That's the thing they do in the
south, they don't do that up north. But all cars stop, men
take their hats off, even if they're in their car, because
somebody's loved one's passing by. Somebody is going in that
hurts and all them people follow them as somebody they know and
somebody they love Now where they know Christ or not, that's
another story But you don't want to be carried out You don't want
to be put in a black hurts and took to the graveyard without
knowing Christ. You don't do that You don't want
to do that. I don't want you to do that.
I The Spirit says come. The bride says come. The church
says come. Christ says come. Oh, just awful to think about
somebody perishing. Just awful. I don't want it to
happen. Not anybody I know that has,
but I didn't, I don't like it. Oh, listen. This blessed book
was written that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the
Son of God, and believing have life, life, life through his
blessed name. Well, people say, well, what
about good works? What about them? What about them? You surely don't think you could
do a work good enough to make God accept you, do you? Huh? You surely don't think that
having good works and doing something good enough in this world, a
good work that you do or being a good person that you do would
be sufficient enough. No! No! Christ didn't die on
a cross to put its ends away by the sacrifice of Himself to
accept what a man does in this world. The only work that's ever
been accepted by God Himself is the work of His blessed Son.
That's the only work that God's ever accepted of anybody in this
world. Oh, listen. The scriptures put
the roots in a man's heart. And then after that, there's
the fruit. And John, in his gospel, keeps
to this one point that Jesus is the Christ. I want to show
you this. Turn with me to John 1, 17. Let's just go through
a couple of these scriptures here, if we can. John 1.17, to
show you that he keeps to this one point that Jesus is the Christ
and that he's the Son of God and that believing you might
have life. He keeps to this same point over and over and over
again. Look what he said, John 1.17. The law was given by Moses. But oh, listen to what happened.
Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. And listen to this, no
man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, there
you go, which is in the bosom of the Father. What did He do?
He came out and told us about Him, told us about Him. Look
over in verse 40 of John chapter 1. One of the two which heard John
speak, John the Baptist preaching, he saw the Lamb of God and pointed
them out to him. And following him was Andrew,
Simon, Peter's brother. Now watch what he says. He first
findeth his own brother Simon, saith unto him, We have found
the Messiah, which is being interpreted, we found the Christ. He keeps
to that same point. He keeps saying the same thing.
Look down at verse 49. Verse 48, look what it says.
Nathanael saith unto him, Whith'st thou made? Our Lord answered
and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou
wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. Nathanael answered and
saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, the King of Israel. Oh my! And look over here in
verse 11 of chapter 2. And this is what John kept to
this theme all the way through the scriptures, through his book.
This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and
manifested forth his glory, and his disciples believed on him. Huh? Y'all getting cold? Need
me to turn the heat back on? Huh? I turned it off because it's
hot. I'll go turn it on for you. Want me to do that? Just give
me a minute. back and all I tell you the miracle
he did all these things were written that I just went through
to produce faith it says they believed on him Simon Andrew
went told Simon we found the Christ Nathaniel said doubt the
Christ and when he turned the water into wine many believed
on him on that time And I tell you that's what happened to Nicodemus.
Nicodemus believed on him. It's what the woman at the well
said. She threw her water pot away and she went and run and
says, come see a man that told me everything that ever I did.
Is not this the Christ? Is not this the Christ? And I
tell you, beloved, The great object of true faith, if you
want to know if you've got true faith or not, the great object
of true faith, God-given faith, is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. That's the object of true faith.
And these are written that you not believe, what, a creed or
a doctrine? I listen to a lot of different
Presbyterian preachers preach and then I've got books in there
I read and the first thing they do is it says our confession
of faith and they'll use a confession of faith and they'll make a point
on their confession of faith. And they'll go to a particular
confession and they'll tell the number of it. This is number
three of confession of faith and they'll say this is our most
holy faith that teaches. Well, these things are written,
not that we might get a creed or get a doctrine. No, they're
written that you might believe. You might believe. Believe what? How many people
you meet that believe? But believe that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of God. And that life is in that name.
And if you believe that name, trust that name, trust that person,
you have life. And it's true faith that brings
life to the soul. Faith in that blessed person,
our Lord Jesus Christ. Faith in His blessed office is
His prophet that teaches us, priest that intercedes for us
and offers sacrifice, offering Himself. And as our King who
reigns over us and provides for us and makes Himself known and
sits on the thrones of our hearts. And no wonder Paul said, I know
who I have believed. People tell you what they believe,
but what, who do you believe? Oh, I believe in election, but
I believe in the one who elected me. Election is not my Savior. Christ is my Savior. I've got
faith, but faith didn't save me, Christ saved me. I believe this blessed book,
but this book didn't save me, Christ saved me, but this book
told me about Christ. And I tell you what, you can
be wrong about 10,000 things, and you can make a mess out of
your life in a thousand ways, but if you're right right here
about who Jesus Christ is and been brought to true faith, you'll
be right in the end and that's what matters. That when you get
to the end of this world, you got somewhere and someone that
you can venture your life on and soul on and go out into eternity
with peace and quiet and surety in your heart. Oh, I tell you, this is life. Life. We say people die, not
believers don't. No, they really, they, they enter
into life. Bodies die. Believers enter into
life. God's people just go from here
to there. Oh, that's why God wrote these
things for us to believe. Do you believe? Do you believe? Do you believe? We're to believe that He's the
Christ, the one anointed of God, the promised seed, that He's
the Son of God, the only begotten Son of God, that He was God and
He was man in one undivided person. That he had to be God in order
to save us from our sins and he had to be man in order to
be identified with us and able to die. Oh, I believe this. I believe
this as an absolute matter of fact. And I believe it for myself.
Do you believe it for yourself? If I, oh, I'd give anything in
this world if I could take men and women. If I could take people
and put faith in them, if I could just put faith in them, I'd do
it. Oh, I'd do it, I'd do it. But I can't. That's why God gave
us this blessed book, that he, these are written that you might
believe, that you might believe. Huh? Oh my, based on the written
word of God, look over at 1 John 5 with me. In verse 9, his message
never changes. 1 John 5 and verse 9, we're to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. We're to receive the Lord Jesus
Christ as being the son of God, the Christ. And what's the reason
for it? On the ground of his written
word. Not on the basis of our feelings.
Feelings come and feelings go and feelings are deceiving. Not
else is worth believing but the word of God. Not even our experiences
but the word. But the word, look what he said
here in verse 9, 1 John 5 verse 9. If we receive the witness of
men, if I'm witnessing to you this morning. and you receive
my witness, I'm witnessing about Christ, I'm witnessing about
the scriptures, I'm witnessing about what God says, and what
salvation is, and where it's at, and who it is that saves
sinners, the Lord Jesus Christ. If we receive the witness of
men, you imagine how great the witness of God is. God bears
witness, this is God speaking here. If Christ came down here,
he would not say no more than what he's already said. And listen
to this. For this is the witness which
God hath testified of his Son. Now listen to it. He that believeth
on the Son of God, he has the witness in himself. If you believe
on the Son of God, you read the scriptures and you know whether
you believe or not. You got that witness in yourself.
And watch, look what he says. And he that believeth not God
hath made him a liar. Oh, you mean you ain't going
to believe what God says about his Son? You're not going to
believe the record that God made, the testimony of God himself.
You'll believe a man if he tells you something, say, yes, that
fellow's telling me the truth, but you won't believe God. And
that's what John's saying here. If you don't believe God and
you believe what man says and don't believe God, you made him
a liar because he believeth not the record that God has given
of his son. And then he says, well, what is this record? The
blessed book that God hath given to us eternal life. And this
life is in His Son. And he that hath the Son hath
life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Now
here we go again. What he said in verse 3. These
things have I written. THAT YOU MIGHT BELIEVE ON THE
NAME OF THE SON OF GOD. Wasn't that my text this morning?
You think John changes his message? THAT YOU MAY BELIEVE ON THE NAME
OF THE SON OF GOD AND THAT YOU MAY KNOW THAT YOU HEARD OF ETERNAL
LIFE AND THAT YOU MAY BELIEVE ON THE SON OF GOD. Now, he wasn't
talking about, he said believe. Believe what God said. And I
tell you, beloved, the true, true life of a soul, not only
is it a great object of faith, the Lord Jesus Christ, based
on His Word, not your feelings, His Word. If you're waiting for
a feeling to know whether you're saved or not, don't do that. If you believe what God says,
confess it. If you believe that you believe
the written record of God, you say, God said it, I believe it. I can take God at His word. God
said I believe on His Son, He'd give me life. God said I believe on His Son,
that He'd give me eternal life. and that he'd give me his righteousness,
and that he'd come and receive me. What evidence do I have that
all these things are true? This right here. And oh, listen, the true life
of a soul lies in Jesus Christ and it comes to that soul through
faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. I'm going to give you three things
about life, if I can, and I've got to hurt, I know. The first
thing that a man has coming to Christ, he has what they call
in the scriptures judicial life. What does that mean? That means
he's justified. You know, the judge of all the
earth, here he was guilty, here he was
condemned, and God removes the sentence. How does he do it? Christ takes our place as the
guilty, as the condemned, bears our punishment, bears our guilt,
bears our condemnation, and God turns around and gives us the
life of Christ and the righteousness of Christ. And there is therefore now no
condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Oh, listen,
the sentence has been removed. God acquitted us, pardoned us,
justified us through the righteousness of Christ. He's a just God and
He cannot clear us. He has to punish us and He punished
us in our Lord Jesus Christ. And let me tell you something
else about this life of a soul we have in Christ. We have an
imparted life. What do I mean by that? That's
the new birth. The life of God in a man's soul.
Christ in you, the hope of glory. If a man have not the spirit
of Christ, he is none of his. We are made partakers of the
divine nature. Paul says, the life that I now
live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who
loved me and gave himself for me. How can we understand? How do we call on God? How do
we commune with God? How do we fellowship with God?
With that nature of God in us. Oh, and I tell you something
about this life, it grows and it increases. The life that starts
here, I tell you what, is going to be made perfect in glory.
And I tell you, you can't have more spiritual life than you
have right now. That's why you can't get lost
again. People say, well, you know, I believe that a fellow,
if he don't live right, he'll be lost again. You can't undo your
birth. You cannot undo your birth, can
you? Once you're born, you can't undo
that, and that's the way a new birth is. Once you get that life
of God in you, you can't undo that. You can't undo that birth. And we've already been through
the death and the burial and the resurrection and seated with
Christ because we're so identified with Him. In all this life, these
are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the
Son of God, and that believing you might have life through Him.
Now, life comes with believing. I'm going to say a few things
here, and then I'll hurry up. You say, well, I don't know when
I was converted. I don't either. But I'll tell
you what I do. I believe right now. Where were you converted? I don't
know. But I know I know Christ now,
and I trust Christ right now. If He lets me live tomorrow,
I'm going to trust Him tomorrow. Well, I want to know if I'm alive
by my feelings. Well, there's as much evidence
of pain, life in pain as there is in pleasure. And if you feel
in pain and anxiety pains and worrying about whether you have
life or not, there's as much life evidence of life in pain
as there is in enjoyment. So, you know, if you feel this,
birth pains, and these pains are wondering whether or not,
well, listen, there's much evidence of life in pain. Say, well, I
changed so much. Well, join the crowd. Oh, listen, people say, I have
such conflicts. I'll tell you something. I have
these battles in my heart and in my soul. I'll tell you something
about a dead man. He don't have no conflicts. Dead
men don't have no battles in his soul. Does he? We never had a battle with sin
until we were converted. We never had a battle with ourselves
until we were converted. We never had a battle with our
flesh until we were converted. Is that not right? And I tell
you, I didn't think, I didn't believe, I don't know. And everything
depends upon His blessed name. Ain't that what it says there?
Verse 31. But these are written, God wrote
his blessed book that you might believe. And listen to this,
that Jesus is the Son of God, that Jesus is the Christ, the
Son of God. And listen to this, that believing,
believing, you might have life through his name. Everything
depends upon this blessed name. Depends on this blessed person,
the great I Am. His offices, His relationships,
all the work He has done and is doing. And it's at the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ men live or men die. It's by His
blessed name. God gave Him a name that's above
every name. And one of these days every knee
is going to bow. and every tongue's gonna confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
Now, you can do that here or you can do it in judgment. You
can do it in grace or you can do it in justice. But one of
these days, every person on topside of God's earth is gonna have
to admit that Jesus Christ is the Lord. It's gonna bring glory
to God. Huh? Oh, listen. These are written is that we
believe on Him, trust Him, cleave to Him through
thick or thin, foul or fair, uphill or down, in night or day,
in life or death, in time or eternity, in storm or calm. We rest and trust Him. We trust him, trust who he is,
trust what he did. And we sang that old song, my
faith has found a resting place. And let's stand and get that,
228. My faith has found a resting
place, not in device nor creed, but in the ever living one who
died. 228, stand together.