Well, good morning. Big crowd. Yeah, it's been a few years since
Mr. Bell and I first met one another
and he mentioned the other night and I can Echo the truth of that,
never been a cross word. Fellowship has always been of
the very sweetest kind with all its brethren. I want to just
thank the church here for the fellowship. I've had this weekend
and these brethren that have preached, it's been a blessing
to me. And for you ladies, the food has just been excellent.
I know y'all do most of the work. I'm aware of that due to cooking.
The men might help carry it in and eat it. And I know that's a lot of work
and I appreciate it. And now I can cross preaching
at the conference here At Lantanta Grace Church. I can cross this
off my bucket list. I've been waiting. Where'd he
go? I've been waiting 25 or 30 years. So he finally got around to it,
and I appreciate that. We'll have a conference at Fairmont
Grace Church in Silmacota, Alabama the last weekend of September.
So you're all welcome to come down there. Your pastor, the
Lord willing, will be preaching, and so will Bruce Crabtree and
Don Thornton. So you're all welcome to come
to our conference there. Will you turn with me this morning
to 1 John The first epistle of John, chapter 5. I'd like to read just one verse. Verse 20. 1 John chapter 5 and verse 20. And we know 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. I want you to go back to chapter
1 in John's epistle just for a moment. And you'll see that
John ends his letter, his epistle, much like he started. In verse
1 of chapter 1 we read, that which was from the beginning,
which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which
we have looked upon and our hands have handled, of the word of
life. For the life was manifested and
we have seen it. and bear witness and show unto
you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested
unto us. That which we have seen and heard
declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with
us. And truly, our fellowship is with the Father and with His
Son, Jesus Christ." John speaks with certainty, doesn't he? He
doesn't sound unsure of what he says. He speaks very matter-of-factly. Over and over again in these
five chapters, John says, we know, we know. This is not guesswork. This is
not a fable we're passing along, not a fairy tale. We're telling
you what we experience. What we saw, what our own eyes
looked upon, what our hands have handled. Twenty-seven times in
these five brief chapters, John says, we know. I've heard people all my life,
and I'm sure you have too, people who profess to know God say that
we can't really know that we're saved. There's no way to really
know. And I've heard them say, we won't
know. We won't know whether we're saved or not until we stand before
God. And they say, then God will weigh
our works like God is going to set out a set of scales. And they say, if our good works
outweigh our bad works, then we'll get to go to heaven. But
if our bad works, can you picture that? How foolish. And if our bad works outweigh
our good works, then we'll be cast out. How refreshing it is,
in the light of such nonsense as that, to turn to God's Word
and to read what we read here in verse 20 of chapter 5 in 1
John. He says, we know. And I want
to consider those four things that John lays out for us in
this verse. And verse 1 is this, we know
that the Son of God is coming. We know, turning to John's Gospel
chapter 1. His gospel begins much in the
same way. In chapter 1, the first three
verses, read what John writes here concerning the Son of God.
Who else could it be speaking of? Look how he's described. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him.
All things. And without Him was not anything
made that was made. Someone said that the Word of
God is about God the Word. And John went on to say in that
first chapter, Behold, the Word was made flesh, That eternal
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Imagine that. Imagine that. Imagine if you were in Bethlehem
that night, and you walk by that stable, and there's a young mother
there, and she's holding in her arms a newborn baby. You look at that dark-complexed
newborn baby boy, and you wouldn't see a halo over his head. You
wouldn't see wings. Oh, no. No. You know what? He doesn't look any different
than any other Jewish baby boy. No different. He was made light
unto his brethren. But concerning that one, concerning
that baby laying in his mother's arms, listen to this. Speaking
of him, that baby, unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given,
and the government shall be upon his shoulders, and his name shall
be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God. Wait a minute,
whoa, you mean to tell me that infant, that infant, that young
mother is holding in her arms, that infant that looks no different
than any other, you're saying He's God Almighty's? You're saying
that He created everything that was created? Exactly so. That's who He is. Counselor,
the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace,
of the increase of His government and peace, there shall be no
end. Upon the throne of David and
of his kingdom to order it and to establish it with judgment
and with justice from henceforth even forever, the zeal of the
Lord of hosts will perform this. He that in the beginning created
the heavens and the earth comes down to earth. He that created
man, he that created man and breathed into that man's nostrils
the breath of life, making man a living soul, himself becomes
a man. Imagine that! God comes down
to man. No wonder Paul said, without
controversy, Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest
in the flesh. Ferguson said, O son of God,
Son of God, I don't know what to admire the most, thine height
of glory or thy depths of mystery. He that was so rich became poor
that we, through his poverty, might be made rich. Oh, the richest
of the greats that is in Christ Jesus. God the Son is come. Whatever he came for, He must
have came on a great, great mission. He must have come for a great
purpose. Why else would He come? Why would
God condescend to be made like unto the flesh of sinful man? Why would He do that? The angel
came to Mary prior to her conception and said, You'll conceive, and
Mary When he's born, call his name Jesus, for he shall be great. He shall be great. And when he
appeared on the scene, he said, Behold, a greater than Solomon
is here. Behold, concerning himself, he
said, one greater than the temple is here. Behold, one greater
than Abraham is here. They said, what did he say? Did
we hear him right? Greater than Abraham. You're
not yet 50 years old. Have you seen Abraham? And he
said, I'll tell you what, before Abraham was, I am. And Abraham
rejoiced to see my day and he saw it, the word is he leaped
at it, he leaped for joy when he saw my day and was glad. And was glad. Oh what? What glorious
mission must the Son of Man came on when He came to this earth. The prophet again speaking of
Him said, Behold my servant whom I uphold. This is God speaking
of His Son. Mine elect in whom my soul delighteth. I have put my spirit upon Him.
He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not
cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.
A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he
not quench. He shall bring forth judgment
unto truth. He shall not fail, nor be discouraged,
until he hath set judgment in the earth, and the owl shall
wait for his law. Whatever he came to do, Know
this. Know this. Whatever the Son of
God came to do, He shall not fail. He shall not fail. Whatever His purpose was in coming,
He shall not fail. He didn't come to fail. He came
to do. He didn't come to attempt. He
came to accomplish. He didn't come to make something
possible. He came to obtain. He said, speaking
to His Father, when He came into this world, through the womb
of that virgin, Behold, I come to do Thy will, O my God. Listen, that's no small task. Doing the will of God, that's
no light work. God is not easily satisfied. God's not easily pleased. God requires, you want to know
what God requires? You want to know what's necessary
for a sinner to be accepted before God Almighty? How about perfection? How about absolute perfection? Now try that on. Compare that
to your works, your decision for Jesus. God requires perfection. He demands it. But of the Son
of God, he said, he said, Abraham, O the friend of God, David, David's
a man after my own heart. Concerning Enoch, we read, he
walked with God. He walked with God and walked
right in the glory. One old preacher said, God said
to Enoch, come up and spend the night and he never came back
because there's no night there. He's selling jewelry. But concerning,
concerning this one, concerning Jesus of Nazareth, God's faith
concerning him, words that he never spoke of anyone else when
he said, this is my beloved son. This is my beloved son. In him
I am well pleased. Everything he does is perfect. Everything he does completely
satisfies me. I am well pleased in him. Call his name Jesus. Gabriel
afterwards said to Joseph, why? Why? Because he's going to try
to save somebody. No, no, no. He'll partly save
somebody. If Lazarus takes the first step,
do you hear that Martha? Poor broken hearted Martha, do
you hear that? If your brother somehow can take
the first step, Jesus will do something for him. That's not
what he told her, is it? Your brother is going to rise
again. And that wasn't a question. That wasn't a question. Martha,
your brother shall rise again. Call his name Jesus. Don't you
love this? For he shall save his people. All of His people, from all of
their sins, that's why we're giving Him the name Jesus. It
means the salvation of the Lord. And He lived up to His name. Bless His glorious name. He did
not attempt to redeem, did He? No, no, no. The Scriptures know
nothing about a hypothetical redemption. A possibility redemption. A pig in the poke redemption.
God just throws it out there and somebody picks it up and
takes advantage of it. It might mean something to somebody. No, no, no, no, no. That's religious
talk. That's ignorant preachers you
hear say that. The Word of God declares He entered
in the Son of God, the Lamb of God, our glorious Redeemer, Jesus,
entered one time into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us." He did not attempt to put away sin. He put
away sin. Look what John says here in verse
5 of chapter 3. Here in verse 3 of verse 5. And
ye know that he was manifest. for this purpose. He came into
this world, was made man for this purpose, to take away our
sin, and in Him is no sin. That's why He came. Did He succeed? Was He successful? Did He do
it? Did He put away the sins of His
people? When He had by Himself, we read
in Hebrews 1, when He had by Himself purged our sin, purged
our sin, took Him all away, He sat down in glorious majesty
at the throne of God Almighty. Yes, He took away our sin. Secondly, looking at this verse
in 1 John 5 and 20, The Son of Man has come and has
given us an understanding. Not to know all mysteries, not
to understand all prophecy. What is it about prophecy that
so intrigues people? I mean, people write books on
prophecy, get rich on prophecy, they don't have a clue what they're
talking about. And people all seemed intrigued
by it. When I first moved to Sylacauga,
I took my car down to a car wash to have it cleaned up and the
fellow brought me back home. And he said, what brought you
to Sylacauga? I said, I'm a pastor of a church down here. And he
said, what do you preach? What do you want to preach? I
said, I want to preach the gospel. And Donnie, like I heard you
say, looked at me like a calf looking at a new gate. The gospel, big deal. He said,
you know what you ought to preach? I said, yeah, I know. I know.
You ought to be preaching the gospel. He said, no, no, no.
He said, you ought to be preaching about the signs of the times. You ought to be preaching about
the last days. You ought to be warning people about that man
of sin in 666. He said, you know right now they're
putting every newborn baby, they're inserting a chip in him. I said,
say what? They're putting a chip in him
so that he won't be able to buy or sell. He said, you might have
one in you. I said, I don't think they were doing that when I was
there. I mean, you know, they're going
to, you got a barcode on your butt and they're going to have
to scan you across it before you can buy or sell. He said,
that's what you ought to be preaching. I said, no, no, no. I said, the
greatest mystery to me is this. I've never gotten beyond this.
I've never been able to get much of a grip on this. Here's a mystery,
that God Almighty made His Son to be seen for me, that I might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. My soul, I say, I've
not gotten beyond that. And I don't think I ever, ever
will. Notice our text. It says the Son of God came and
gave us an understanding concerning this. Nothing's more important
than this, that we may know Him, that we may know Him. Wouldn't
it be something, Pastor, wouldn't it be something if God this very
day, before these meetings are over, The Son of God comes and
reveals Himself to a needy sinner. He opens their eyes to behold
the Son of God. Nothing on earth ever takes place
to compare to that. Our Lord said before He was betrayed,
before He went to the garden, He said, Father, the hour has
come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Thou hast given
me power over all flesh, that I should give eternal life to
as many as Thou hast given me. And this is life eternal. This is what life eternal is,
that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom Thou didst send. There is no knowing God apart
from Christ. Have I been such a long time
with you, and yet thou hast not known me? If you've seen me,
you've seen the Father. Salvation is knowing Him. Somebody said, Jesus Christ is
the only body of divinity. I want to know. I want to know
Him. I've heard talk, and I believe
Brother Joe, you had a brief article in your bulletin not
too long ago about this subject. Every now and then, people begin
to talk about how much does a sinner have to know to be saved. And
they'll go to the other extreme. How little does the sinner have
to know in order to be saved? I'll tell you what's necessary.
Here's what's necessary for a sinner to be saved. Look unto me, God
said. Look unto me. Look unto me and
be ye saved. The object of faith is what's
necessary. What we're looking to, don't
know who we're looking to. Jesus Christ himself and nothing
else. People say, well let's talk about
the look. Let's study the look. How long must one look? How clear
must the look be? Let's dissect fame. Oh, no, no,
no, no, no. No, that's wrong. Look and live. That's it. Look and live. I remember reading a sermon by
Old Spurgeon. And he was illustrating this.
And said a man invited a couple of his friends to his house one
night for supper. And his wife had prepared a fine
meal and a beef roast. And the men sat there, the guests,
discussing, wonder how that cow was raised. Wonder what he fed
him. I was in the store the other
day and picked up some brown eggs and it had a sign that said,
the chickens weren't in cages. And I thought, well that makes
a big difference to me. I never noticed that before. These chickens that lay these
eggs weren't chased by some of them doggies. Is that going to
make them taste better? But these fellas were discussing
what did the cow eat? How was he raised? And all this. There was a farmhand that came
in hungry and sat down and he Just started eating. Just started
eating. Didn't matter to him. He was
hungry. Let these theologians discuss
how, what, where, when. No, no. The question is food.
Look unto me and be ye saved. Aren't you thirsty? The Son of
God said, is anybody thirsty? He had watched for days religious
ceremony taking place. People just going through the
motions. And then with the heart bursting
full of mercy and grace, as though he could stand it no longer,
that last day of the feast, he stood up and said, is anybody
thirsty? Anybody tired of religion? Is
there anybody out there for which this nonsense is not enough? Does anybody cry out for mercy
and the grace of God? Does anybody want to know Him? He said, come unto me and drink. Drink! and you'll live forever. The hymn writer said the brightest
offender that truly believes that moment from Chief Jesus
of heart and receives and that's exactly right. That's exactly
right. Right now. Right now. Look to the Son of God and you'll
be saved. Remember what Bruce preached
the other night? He made reference to that publican
in Luke 18. I love these words. The Lord
said, I say unto you, not the preacher or the soul winner or
the priest or the pope. I say to you that that man, that
publican, is going home justified. The God of glory. looks down
from the throne of his sovereign majesty this morning and his
folks leave this building today and travel back to their homes
there goes one of mine James, he's going home justified. In the court of heaven, there's
been a verdict rendered on his behalf, and we say concerning
him, he's not guilty. He's justified in the sight of
the Holy God. My soul, I can lay down and sleep
on that, can't you? If God says I'm justified, I'll
never be unjustified. It is well with my soul. Like Simeon. Someone referred
to this last night. Took up that young babe. God
in the flesh. And he said, I can die now. Just
let me die. I've got nothing else to live
for. I'll never see anything to equal this. He's holding the salvation of
the Lord in his arms. And he says, I see. I've seen
your salvation, God. Just let me lay down and die. Oh, what was Simeon looking at? It wasn't a what, but a who. Christ told the woman at the
well, if thou knewest the gift of God and who, who, Christ himself
is God's unspeakable gift. Whom do men say that I am? Some
say you're Elijah. Some say you're John the Baptist
risen again from the dead. But who do you say that I am?
Who am I to you? And Peter, like me, sometimes
he spoke when he should have kept quiet. Sometimes he slipped
in his mouth, but not on this occasion. This time he hit the
nail right on the head, didn't he? When our Lord said, Who am
I to you? And Peter said, You're the Christ,
the Son of the living God. Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah. You didn't learn this on your
own. Flesh and blood didn't reveal this to you. My Father in heaven
has done something for you that he's not done for everybody else.
Children of God. Children of God. Our Lord says
the same thing concerning you this morning. If you could say,
I know who He is. He's the Christ of God. You are
blessed among all people in this world. Because God has revealed
to you who Jesus Christ is. Paul is in prison. He's facing
death. And he said, Timothy, my departure
is at hand. I can almost hear the footsteps
of the executioner at my cell door. It won't be long now. But he said, I'm not ashamed
because I know the doctrines that I've believed. I've crossed
every eye, dotted every I, crossed every T. And I find great comfort
in that, Timothy, in my trying hour. Oh no, that's not what
he said. He said, Timothy, I'm not ashamed
because, can you see that faithful old soldier? sitting in that
dungeon cell. Timothy tried to come before
winter. It's cold here. Bring my cloak. Everybody's left
me. But Timothy, I'm not ashamed
because I know who. I know whom I have believed,
and I am persuaded that He, everybody else might forsake me. They can
lock me in, but they can't lock Him out. He stood with me. He stood with me. I know whom
I have believed. Old John Bunyan said, when God
had gotten him lost, when grace had taught his hot heart to fear,
He said, I was so fearful that God wouldn't have mercy on a
sinner like me. How could God forgive a sinner
like me? But he said, I found that so
far was Him from rejecting me that when I came to Him, He said,
there was rejoicing in heaven that old John Spunion had come
home. I can identify with that, can't
you? When God got me lost, I thought, how can God forgive me? Tommy, I remember walking those
railroad tracks in West Virginia. Tommy's a fellow of West Virginia.
That's where we're originally from. And I walked those tracks,
and it seemed like every railroad tire I laid my foot on cried
back at me, you're lost. You're lost. I went to my grandmother. She was one of the few people
I knew that professed to be a Christian. I said, grandmother, what must
I do? I'm lost. She said, you need to get a haircut.
I was a hippie. You need to straighten up. And I thought, man, I'm going
to live this life in misery and then I'm going
to die and then I'm going to go to hell and there's nothing
I can do about it. Absolutely nothing that I can
do about it. And like the hymn writer said,
this is how I felt. I was near to despair. Remember? Remember? I was near
to despair when Jesus came to me there and He told me that
I could be free. Oh, He left in my feet and gave
me gladness complete when He reached down His mighty hand
for me. He didn't say, Larry, take the
first step and I'll take the rest. Oh, no, no, no. He reached
all the way down. His omnipotent arm of mercy and
grace that He lifted this sinner up and put him on a foundation
that the gates of hell will never prevail against. Jesus Christ
Himself. Last of all, John says here in
our text, that we may know Him and we are in Him. We are in
Him. That is true. Ah, so aren't those
sweet words. We are in Him. How secure must
we be? How secure must we be to be in
Him? I remember hearing Brother Henry
Mahan preach a message years ago, and he illustrated it like
this. He said during the days when
people would head west in those caravans of wagons and one of
those prairie fires would suddenly break out and just take everything
before it. He said they would deliberately
start a fire and burn everything around and then they would get
in it. And he said a little boy is standing next to his father
and his father is holding his hand and the little boy is fearful.
He sees that great fire coming towards him and he says, Father,
what are we going to do? And he says, Son, don't worry.
You don't need to be afraid because we're standing on burnt grass.
It's already been burned. There is no condemnation to them
who are in Christ Jesus. We're standing on burnt grass.
God's already been satisfied in the work of His blessed Son
on the behalf of His people. How accepted can we be? In the Beloved. In the Beloved. In Ezekiel concerning that infant. After that time of love. After
God's founding and clothing. He said, your beauty went forth. You were renowned for your beauty
because it was perfect. It was perfect. Am I quoting
that right? Yeah. It was perfect through
my humbleness that I put upon thee. Revelation 14, they are
without fault before the throne of God. Psalm 85, and I'm going to wrap this up. Psalm 85, verse 13. Righteousness shall go before
Him, and He shall set us in the way of His steps. Back in West Virginia, when I
was a boy, we lived up a house and lived up in a hollow. The
last house in the hollow. The road dead ended at our house. One winter, the snow was so deep,
my mother couldn't get out to the store to get the layaway. that she had laid and made payments
on, you know, that World War Smurfies, remember those? For
Christmas. So my uncle got as close as he
could to the house and my father and I went out to meet him with
a sled to bring the gifts down. The sled would hold them all
because there were nine kids. One gift a piece would do. But
I remember walking through a couple of feet of snow following my
father. He was a big man. But I was behind him. And everywhere
he put his foot after he'd go on, I'd try to stretch out and
put my foot in the print he'd already made. I was just following
in his steps. The Son of God live the life
of absolute perfect satisfaction to the law and justice of God.
From the first breath he drew in that stable in Bethlehem,
until that last breath in which he said, Father, into thy hands
I commend my spirit and gave up the ghost, and everything
in between was absolute perfection. God Almighty takes this sinner
and puts him in those steps of perfect obedience as if I did
that myself. Righteousness shall go before
Him and shall set us in the way of His steps. No wonder Paul
said, you're complete in Him. You're complete in Him. That
means lacking nothing. The Lord sent His disciples out
one time and said, when I sent you out to preach, Did you like
anything? What like is thou? And they said
nothing. You hear that? In Christ I'm
accepted. I'm as accepted as He is. I'm
as loved as He is. I'm as righteous as He is. God Almighty has put on this
sinner the very best robe. The righteousness of Jesus Christ
Himself. Old Pop Lady wrote while I draw
this fleeting breath when mine eyes shall close in death and
when I soar to worlds unknown And behold thee on thy throne,
O rock of ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee. Let me, as Paul said, not be
found in my own righteousness, but wrapped up, mmm, that feels
good, wrapped up in the righteousness of Jesus Christ himself. And God the Father will say,
welcome home. All this is for you. Welcome
home. And so shall we ever be with
the Lord. God bless each of you. Thank
you.