Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. If you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'll be preaching from the book of 1 John, chapter
5. John's first epistle, chapter
5, and the title of the message is Whosoever Believes. Whosoever Believes. Beginning
here in verse 1 of chapter 5, The first two words, the title
of this message, John writes, whosoever believeth. Now the
scripture's very clear about this issue of believing. What we call or assume to be
faith. And most people will agree, all
who call themselves Christian anyway, that believing is essential. Believing what God says. The Bible says, he that believeth
not shall be damned. And those who believe, those
are the ones who are saved. But there's several issues to
consider about this thing of believing. And obviously, the
first thing that we need to consider is whosoever believes what? What is it that you believe?
And the emphasis today, sadly now, is not on what we are to
believe, but just simply believing. And people have the idea, well,
that means if I believe something sincerely enough or hard enough,
or if I can get a number of people to believe this with me, then
it's true or it's going to come true. And that is such a satanic
fallacy. And I'm not being overzealous
here or overstating something to say
it's satanic. This thing of believing is important. It's a biblical concept. But
my friend, we can believe all kinds of things that are not
true, even claiming to be Christian. We can believe all kinds of things
that are not true. So the issue here to begin with
is what do we believe? Well, John says in 1 John 5 and
verse one, whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ. Who is Jesus? Well, his name
tells us who he is. The Bible says in Matthew chapter
one and verse 21, when the angel came to Joseph, announcing that
his bride to be Mary was impregnated, and he says, the babe that's
in her womb, he says, don't put her away, Joseph. He says, for
the babe that's in her womb is conceived by the Holy Spirit,
and his name shall be called Jesus, Now in the Old Testament,
we read that in the English, it would be Joshua or Yeshua. That's talking about Jesus. And
what that name means is, for he shall save his people from
their sins. That's his name. Now this Jesus
is the Christ. That means he is the Messiah. And the concept of the Messiah
all through the Old Testament was the Savior. the surety of
the covenant, the substitute, the sacrifice, the sin-bearing
lamb of God, who would bring satisfaction to justice, God's
justice, against the sins of His people, the sins imputed
to Him, charged to Him, and that He would redeem them with the
price of His blood, His death, His obedience unto death. So
there's a whole plethora of truth behind this phrase, Jesus is
the Christ. It's not just saying the words.
You know, people, you can say right now, you say, oh, I believe
that Jesus is the Christ. Does that mean that you're saved? Does that mean you have faith?
Not necessarily. Who is this Jesus that you claim
to be is the Christ? What is he like? What is his
person? What is the constitution of his
person? What does the Bible say? That's
what I need to be concerned with, not what I think or what I've
been told. But what does the Bible say?
God's word. And just like when I quoted Matthew
121, his name shall be called Jesus for he shall save his people
from their sins. You understand now, that doesn't
say he's gonna try to save people from their sins. He's not the
one who people preach today who's trying to save everybody. He
shall save His people. And who are His people? That's
God's elect. That's what the Bible says. I
know people don't like to hear these things, but that's not
the issue. I don't preach or avoid preaching
truth because you may not like to hear it. I preach it because
it's in the Bible. And Christ said Himself in John
chapter 10, He said He gives His life for the sheep. And he says he gives his life
for the ones that the Father gave to him before the foundation
of the world. And he said in John 6, 37, all
that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh
to me I will unknowwise cast out. If you come to Christ according
to the Bible revelation of Christ, the biblical revelation, it's
because you were given to him before the foundation of the
world. And that's God's elect. They believe the gospel. They
believe in the person of Christ. So who is He? Well, it goes on
in Matthew 1.23. It says, His name shall be called
Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. That's who He
is. He's God manifest in the flesh. He's the Word made flesh who
dwelt among us. So He's God and man in one person. That's a mind-boggling thought.
We just can't figure out, but it's true, what the old writers
used to call the hypostatic union of the two natures, the deity
of Christ and the perfect, sinless humanity of Christ in one person.
No mixture of the two, but a union of the two. And as God manifests
in the flesh, as the surety of God's people, given Him before
the foundation of the world, and He substituted Himself in
their place, kept the law perfectly, went to the cross and gave Himself,
dying for the sins of His sheep. He laid down His life for the
sheep. And in doing that, He put away
their sins, and He brought forth an everlasting righteousness,
the righteousness of God, by which God has justified them,
and from which He gives them spiritual life in the new birth.
So, whosoever believeth, what? That Jesus, this Jesus is the
Christ. Now, I've talked about this on
this program so many times. There are false Christs. There
are men who preach a false Christ. And the way you know that is
to understand from the Word of God the doctrine of Christ. John's going to say this over
in the book of 2 John. The short book, 2 John verse
9. Listen to this. He says, Whosoever transgresseth
and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God." Now
what is the doctrine of Christ? It's the doctrine of His person,
who He is. It's the doctrine of His finished
work, what He accomplished on Calvary's cross to save His people
from their sins. We talked about it in the book
of 1 John, how he is the propitiation, the sin-bearing sacrifice who
brought satisfaction to justice to ensure the salvation of every
sinner for whom he died. What I'm telling you is this,
if Christ died for me, then I'm gonna be saved. There's no one
in hell for whom Christ died. He did not fail. And then it's
the doctrine of his finished work, his righteousness imputed,
the very righteousness of God that's revealed in the gospel.
It's the merit of his obedience unto death that God charged to
the account of his people, whereby they are justified. And Christ
is the surety, the substitute, the redeemer, and the life giver.
It's Christ who gives life by the Holy Spirit to His people. So why did He do all this? For
the glory of God and the salvation of His people. And where is He
now? He's risen. He died, but He didn't
stay dead. He arose from the dead, and He
ascended unto the Father, and He's now seated in the heavenlies,
ever living to make intercession for His people. Now that's what
it is, and that's what John says in 2 John 9. Whosoever transgresseth
and abideth not, continues not, in the teaching of Christ, the
truth of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine
of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. Now that's plain. So when you read passages like
this in 1 John 5, 1, whosoever believeth, consider that. Whosoever
believeth what or in who? Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ. Now look back at verse 1, our
text. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of
God. Born of God. Now, what is that
talking about? Well, obviously, it's talking
about the new birth. In other words, those who believe
that Jesus is the Christ, those who truly believe in him, the
only right object of faith, they're born of God. That's the evidence
of being born of God. Believing that Jesus is the Christ. Now why is that so important?
Well, Christ said this back in John chapter 3 when he was speaking
to a religious man named Nicodemus. And he says in John chapter 3
in verse 3, when Nicodemus was asking questions and talking
to him, And Christ said in chapter three, verse three, Jesus answered
and said unto him, verily, verily, truly, truly, I say unto thee,
accept a man, be born again. Now that word again is literally
born from above. He cannot see the kingdom of
God. Down in verse five, Christ said,
verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water
and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
Now I'm not gonna go into all the details about the water and
the Spirit, but here's what he's talking about. You know, in the
salvation of a sinner, there are two births. First, there
is the physical birth. You're born in the flesh, begotten
in the flesh through your mother, come out of your mother's womb,
that's the physical birth. But that birth is a birth that
brings us into the reality of our sin and our depravity. Born of the flesh, born dead,
the scripture says, in trespasses and sins. And why is that? It's
because we fell in Adam. When Adam fell, the whole human
race fell in him, fell into a state of sin and death. Now that sin
is that which is opposed to God, and that death, it certainly
has to do with physical death, Adam, when he fell, he didn't
die physically immediately, but the process of death started.
Born to die. But it also included a spiritual
death. Where spiritual life was totally
gone. And what that did is it affected
Adam's ability to see the glory of God. To hear the good news
of God's word. He became spiritually blind. He became spiritually deaf. And he became spiritually unwilling. He actually ran from God, whereas
before he had fellowship with God. Now he ran from God. He was alienated from God. He
realized he was naked, which is a scriptural metaphor for
being without righteousness. And he and his wife Eve tried
to cover it up with fig leaf aprons, you remember. And God
said that's not good enough. That represents man's efforts
to save himself from sins, to make himself righteous. God took
the fig leaf aprons away and He slew an animal. This is in
Genesis 3. Genesis 3.21, God slew an animal
and made coats of skins. And that's a testimony that sin
cannot be forgiven except on a just ground, which is the death
of the offender or one who takes the offender's place. Justice
must be satisfied and righteousness must be established. And that
death of the animal was a picture, a prophetic shadow. of what was to come in and by
the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Lamb of God. And He died
to shed His blood to pay for the sins of His people that were
imputed to Him, charged to Him. And He brought forth an everlasting
righteousness which God has charged to them, like a coat. It's not
a literal coat, and it's not just on the outside. It's the
righteousness of God imputed to His people. And that's what
happened. Now, out of that life of Christ
that he died, he was buried, he arose again, comes spiritual
life for the people of God. And when the Holy Spirit comes
and applies spiritual life to those who are by nature, as we
are naturally, physically born, dead in sins, dead in trespasses
of sins, when the Holy Spirit comes and applies spiritual life
to this, to them, under the preaching of the Word of God, that's called
the new birth. Theologically, or we might say
technically, it's called regeneration. or a quickening and conversion,
a turning. And that's what Christ is saying
here. Except you're born again, you cannot see. You don't have
spiritual eyes. That's why we need to be born
again. Over in our text, 1 John chapter five and verse one. Whosoever
believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. They've been
born again. from above by the Spirit who
came out from Christ to apply the life of Christ in the life
of one of God's people. They're born again. Now, the
new birth does not come by the works or the wills of men. And unless we're born again,
we will not believe that Jesus is the Christ. Do you understand
that? He that whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born
of God. You cannot believe that Jesus
is the Christ. You cannot believe the gospel
unless you're born again. Now that's what the scripture
says. And somebody says, well, how do I get born again? Well,
there's no method by which we can tell you that. Years ago,
a famous preacher wrote a book on how to get born again, how
to be born again. There's no passage of scripture
that tells us how to be born again. It tells us how God births
us again by the Spirit. Look over in John chapter one,
the gospel of John. Chapter one and verse 11. Now
here's what you need to understand from what the Bible teaches.
that by nature, none of us will believe that Jesus is the Christ
as He is identified and distinguished in the Word of God. Left to ourselves,
left to our own wills and desires, we will not will to believe in
and desire to know and believe and follow Christ. And the Bible
says that all the way through. The natural man, I quote this
verse all the time. 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 14. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. Neither can he know them. They're
spiritually discerned, spiritually judged, spiritually understood.
Now if you don't have spiritual life, you cannot spiritually
understand these things. You may hear the words, You may
know the definitions of the words, and you may even claim to believe
the words, but you cannot see it or hear it spiritually. You
must be born again. And you look at passages like
Romans chapter three in verse 10, where it says, there's none
righteous, no, not one. It goes on in verse 11, it says,
there's none that seeketh after God. There's none that doeth
good. That's describing man by nature. Well, look here in John
chapter one. talking about Christ coming into
the world. And in verse 11, it says, he
came unto his own and his own received him not. Now you may
look at a verse like that and you say, well, now I've received
him, but those dirty, rotten scoundrels back then, they didn't
receive him. Well, what made the difference? You see, by nature,
we're all part of that dirty, rotten scoundrel group who won't
receive him. Well, here's what he says in
verse 12. He says, but as many as received
him, now to receive him is to believe in him, to rest in him,
to follow him, to plead his righteousness. He says, as many as received
him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God or to
be called the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. Do you hear that? Now, first
of all, that word power there in John 1 and verse 12, that
word power does not mean ability. Now, we don't have the ability,
the spiritual ability, to believe in Christ. By nature, we don't
have that. God has to give that to us in
the new birth. making, being made spiritually
alive. The word power here means the right or the privilege. And here's the idea. If I claim
to be a child of God, a sinner saved by grace, if I claim to
be one of God's elect, if I claim to be justified, that is forgiven
of all my sins and declared righteous before God based upon Christ's
righteousness imputed, If I claim to be adopted into His family,
the adoption of grace, if I claim to be redeemed by the Lord, that
He died for me, that He was buried and rose again for me, and that
He's seated at the right hand of the Father, making intercession
for me, if I claim that, if I claim to have been born again, what
right do I have to make that claim? You see what I'm saying? What right, if one of you, one
of you men came along and let's say you were riding out a will
and you were gonna bequeath your goods, your assets to your heirs. What if I showed up at the door
and said, now, wait a minute, I'm your son. Well, I'm not your
son. So what right do I have to make
that claim? You understand where we're going
here. Well, that's what he means in this verse. As many as received
him, to them gave he the right, the privilege, to be called or
to be declared a son of God, a child of God. And it says,
even to them that believe on his name. Do you believe on his
name? Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. And he goes on. Now look at verse
13. This is important. We need to understand this because
we need to know. If we do truly believe on the
name of the son of God, Jesus Christ as the Messiah, if we
really, we need to understand what a privilege, what an awesome
work of grace that is. I didn't make the difference,
you don't make the difference, God does. Look at verse 13. Even
to them that believe on his name, which were born, not of blood. In other words, it's not by physical
birth. You can't be physically born
into the kingdom of God. You're physically born spiritually
dead in trespasses and sins, so was I. So it's not of blood,
it's not of a bloodline. You who were raised by godly
parents and brought up in the church, that doesn't mean anything
of you, it's your salvation. And he says, now look at this,
nor of the will of the flesh. Now the flesh refers to man in
sin, men and women in sin. And really what it means is the
works of the flesh. So you're not born by physical
birth, you're not born again by physical birth, you're not
born again by the works of the flesh, now look here, nor of
the will of man. You're not born again because
you make a decision for Christ or that you give your heart to
Christ. I told you about the famous preacher who wrote the
book on how to be born again, and basically what he said is
you're born again if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
that's not true. You cannot believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ unless you're born again first by the Spirit. And
he says it, which we're born not of blood, nor the will of
the flesh, nor the will of man, but born of God. Born of God. Born of His power. born of his truth, born by the
Spirit of God. And so you say, well, how can
I be born again? Well, only God can do that. We're subject to God. But I can
tell you this much. There's no sinner who is born
again under the preaching of a false gospel. Now, do you understand
what I'm saying? If the Lord Jesus Christ, the
doctrine of Christ, you may be sitting in a religious group
called a church. If the man behind the pulpit
or the witnesses in that group are not telling you the truth
about who Christ is, what he accomplished, why he did it,
where he is now, there's not gonna be any new birth because
the new birth comes under the preaching of the truth. The gospel
is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. That
means empowered by the Spirit in the new birth. For therein
is the righteousness of God revealed. Now, I would suggest to you,
seek the truth. Seek a place where they're preaching
the Bible, preaching the truth. Don't just assume that they are.
Don't assume that I am. Test the spirits. I talked about
that a few weeks ago by the scriptures. God says that it's His purpose
to show mercy. So, whosoever believeth that
Jesus is the Christ is born of God. If you truly believe the
gospel, truly know Christ as He's identified and distinguished
in His word, and believe in Him and trust Him for all salvation,
all forgiveness, all righteousness, and eternal life and glory, that's
the evidence that you've been born of God. The new birth you
must be born again, not of the will of the flesh, nor the will
of man, but of God." Hope you'll join us next week for another
message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, Write us
at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia 3-1-7-0-7. Contact us
by phone at 229-432-6969 or email us through our website at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.