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 through this message, turn in your Bibles to 1 John,
the book of 1 John, chapter 5, and I'll begin preaching from
verse 20, 1 John 5, 20. The title of the message is Salvation
and Understanding. Now, this is part two of this
message. And if you didn't hear last week's
message, I urge you to get it. You can go on our website at
rainofgrace.com and you can order it or you can just listen to
it from there, watch it. But I began this message. Now,
each message, anytime I do a two-part message, I try to make each message
stand on its own so that people won't be confused if they just
hear one part. But I urge you to listen to all
of this because I want you to study the scriptures concerning
this issue of salvation and understanding. Let me just read 1 John 5 and
verse 20, where the apostle writes, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
he says, and we know that the Son of God is 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. Now this understanding is that
which is connected with the salvation of sinners. It comes by God in
His power through the Holy Spirit in the new birth where under
the preaching of the gospel, the good news, of salvation by
the grace of God in Christ Jesus. That's how this understanding
comes. And it's given. That's what he says, the Son
of God, that's Messiah, that's the Lord Jesus Christ. He hath
given us an understanding because understanding salvation and what
it means and what it's about comes through Jesus Christ as
God in human flesh, who he is, Who is Jesus Christ? He's the
Son of God. That's by nature God. He's the
Son of God. He's the second person of the
Trinity. Equal with the Father and the
Spirit in His very nature. And He is man without sin. The Word made flesh dwelling
among us. Emmanuel, God with us. And that's who Jesus Christ.
Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh.
So that if you want to know anything true about God in the area of
salvation, it comes through Jesus Christ. The revelation of who
He is and then the revelation of His redemptive work. What
did Jesus Christ accomplish when He died on the cross? And this
is where this understanding really comes into view if we know the
Scriptures. Because many, many, many people
believe that when Jesus Christ died on the cross, He died merely
to make you savable if you would just cooperate and do your part,
whether it's believing, repenting, or both, whatever. And that's
not a right understanding of the death of Christ. That's not
a saving understanding. In fact, it's the product of
a false gospel that puts salvation conditioned on sinners and not
conditioned totally on Christ. Now, it's true that those for
whom Christ died will cooperate. They will decide for Him. They
will believe in Him. But that's not the cause of their
salvation. That's the fruit of salvation.
Jesus Christ died on the cross and paid the full redemption
price for all of God's elect people, and they shall be saved. Their sins were charged to Him,
imputed to Him. He was made sin for them. Christ who knew no sin. And His
righteousness is imputed, charged, accounted to them. And that's
the ground of salvation. And out of that comes spiritual
life, which evidences itself in faith, believing, deciding
for Christ. You see, Romans 8.10 tells us
this body, the physical body, is dead because of sin, but the
spirit is life because of righteousness. Now where does that righteousness
come from? It comes from Jesus Christ. And that's the only righteousness
that a holy and just God will accept in order to save sinners. He will accept nothing less than
perfect righteousness. Do you understand that? And that's
what we're talking about. Now, this understanding is a
gift from God. It doesn't come by human will.
It doesn't come by human works. And it doesn't even come by human
intellect. No, God's given us a brain. And
we read and we study. Sometimes we miss it all. But
when this understanding comes, it is a blessing from God. Over
in the book of Matthew, chapter 13, the Lord spoke of this when
the disciples, in verse 10 of Matthew 13, ask Him this question. It says, the disciples came and
said unto him, why speakest thou unto them in parables? Why are
you speaking to these people in parables? Listen to the answer
that the Lord gives. In verse 11 of Matthew 13. He answered and said unto them,
because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the
kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. given to you,
but not to them. It's a gift of God. Now, why
did he give it to his disciples and not give it to, for example,
the Pharisees? Well, you say, well, the disciples
decided to believe and cooperate with. No, that is not correct. That's not even the story of
what these men went through. These disciples, true disciples
of Christ, were just as spiritually dead in trespasses and sins by
nature as the Pharisees. But God sovereignly gave it to
them. You say, well, that doesn't sound fair. My friend, you need
to understand something about God. He's sovereign. He does
as he will among the inhabitants of the earth and of heaven. You
say, well, I don't like that. Well, it doesn't matter if you
like it. God's the creator. He's God and
we're not him. And what he does is good and
right and just, whether we understand that or not. There are things
about God we cannot understand. But here's what he says. He told
his disciples, it's given to you, but to them it's not given.
Now look at verse 12. He says, for whosoever hath,
to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance. Where
God gives it, he gives more. But whosoever hath not, from
him shall be taken away, even that he hath. Think about the
Pharisees, the Jews, they had the Word of God, they had the
Old Testament. People today have Bibles, and
they read it, but they don't believe it. He says in verse
13, Therefore speak I to them in parables, because they seeing
see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. They see the things that Christ
was saying and teaching, the things that His prophets said,
but they don't believe them. This understanding carries with
it a love for the truth, this saving understanding. And he
says in verse 14, and in them is fulfilled the prophecy of
Isaiah or Isaiah. And this is from the book of
Isaiah chapter six. He says, and say, by hearing
you shall hear and shall not understand and seeing you shall
see and shall not perceive for this people's heart is waxed
gross, grown hard. Their ears are dull of hearing
and their eyes have they have closed lest at any time they
should see with their eyes hear with their ears and should understand
with their heart, their mind and should be converted and I
should heal them. In other words, they didn't want
the salvation that Christ brings to his people. And you wanna
know why? Well, the Bible tells us. Just like in passages like
John chapter three and verse 19, where the Lord said, this
is the condemnation. That light has come into the
world and men love darkness rather than the light because their
deeds are evil. They hate the light because their
deeds are evil. You see, men and women, by nature,
we are so proud of our deeds. And deeds there refers to our
efforts to be accepted with God, our works. And we're so proud
of that. We're so proud of our heritage.
We're so proud of who we are. Self-righteousness is what the
Bible calls it. Pride. God hates pride. The Bible
says that the best of us, by nature, can never be saved by
our works, by our deeds. And it even goes so far as to
say this. that our very best efforts to
save ourselves, to make ourselves righteous, to earn our way into
God's favor, are an abomination unto God. Evil deeds, he calls. Iniquity. Their deeds are evil. And that offends our pride. That
offends our sense of self-worth. And by nature, we just don't
want to hear that, and we'll close our eyes and shut our ears
to it, lest we be converted. By nature, we would say, I don't
want to believe that. I don't want to believe that
all my works and efforts are nothing but dung, as Paul called
them in Philippians 3. Those things that I'm so proud
of. Those things that I boast about. We just don't want to
hear that. And when some preacher comes
along and says, now look, all that is worthless, even dumb,
in light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. His righteousness alone. You
see, my salvation is not grounded upon anything I have done, do
now, or plan to do by way of obedience. It's all based upon
the obedience unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, here's
the point. I have nothing to brag about
in myself. I have nothing to boast of, but
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Paul wrote that in Galatians
6.14. He said, God forbid that I should glory, that I should
boast, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. You see that? A true believer who has this
understanding that's given to the people of God cannot boast
in anything. He cannot brag about anything,
but Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who's come and given us
this understanding. who died on that cross to satisfy
the justice of God. God is just to justify the ungodly. Based on what? My believing? No. Do I believe? Yes. But God is not just to justify
me based on my believing. He's just to justify me based
on the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. His
righteousness, the merits of His obedience unto death, charged
to me. And that's what they didn't want.
But the disciples, he said, this is Matthew 13, 16. But blessed
are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear. This
understanding had been given to them. Given to them. Now, this understanding comes
by the power of the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the
gospel and an understanding of God's Word. And I want to show
you some passages of Scripture. Look over in Hebrews chapter
11, if you have your Bibles. Listen to this. This is Hebrews
11 verse 1. It says, Now faith is the substance,
or literally the confidence, of things hoped for. and the
evidence or conviction of things not seen. Now, what is faith? Well, faith is believing God. That's what faith is. Let me
make this distinction. Here's an important part of this
understanding. Faith is not just believing. You know, most people, they think
of faith like Aladdin's magic lamp. You know, you rub it hard
enough, it's gonna the genie's gonna pop out. If you believe
enough or you believe sincerely enough, it'll happen. A lot of
the faith healers, the false preachers, they'll talk about
that. You're sick and if you believe you'll get well enough,
then it'll happen. And if you don't get well, you
didn't believe enough or something like that. That's the implication
anyway. Problem with that, the scripture
says it's appointed unto men once to die and after that, the
judgment. I mean this body's gonna die.
And so the only way that something can live forever as far as in
quality of eternal life is to be perfect. And we're far from
perfect. Now, I can tell you I am perfect
in Christ, but not in myself. This body is dead because of
sin. I stand before God in the perfection
of Christ. Not in my own. Now, when I die
and put off this body, this corruptible, the scripture calls it in 1 Corinthians
15, I'll put on incorruption. That's a new body. You see? A new body. A spiritual body. And it's amazing what that'll
be like. A lot of things we don't know
about it because God hadn't revealed it. But it's true. But my point
is this. Faith is believing what God says,
not just what you want to believe. So this faith is the confidence. I believe it because God said
it. I've told you the story about,
I was riding through a town, I saw on the marquee or the little
sign of a church in a town and it said, God said it, I believe
it, that settles it. And that's wrong. What it should
say is, God said it, that settles it. My believing doesn't settle
it. God said it, settles it. Now,
if I have this understanding, I'll believe what God says. Faith
is the confidence of things hopeful. The reason I believe God saves
sinners by grace through the blood and righteousness of Christ
and not conditioned on men is because that's what God says.
And so, it's the confidence of things hoped for. What do I hope
for? Eternal life and glory, based on the righteousness of
Christ. It's the conviction of things not seen. I'm convinced
of it. Now, who convinced me? Some preacher? Well, I heard
a preacher preach the gospel. But my friend, he didn't convince
me. If man can convince me, man can unconvince me. Now that's
so. I've heard people claim to believe
the gospel and then later on they deny it. They never were
saved. But if God the Holy Spirit convinces
a sinner of these truths in the gospel, who God is, a holy God
that cannot fail to punish all sin, and who
I am, a sinner without hope in myself, without any hope of righteousness
by my best efforts to obey the law. And who Jesus Christ is,
the Lord of glory, God in human flesh, the Redeemer of his people,
the Lord our righteousness. If God the Holy Spirit convinces
you, you cannot be unconvinced. That's what John said in 1 John
2 when he talked about those who went out from the church. They left it, they apostatized.
He said they weren't of us. Had they been of us, they would
have continued with us. And then he went on to say, but
you have an unction from the Holy One. You have an anointing.
Now, what is that anointing? That's the conviction of the
Holy Spirit in the new birth who brings a sinner to faith
in Christ and repentance. Look at Hebrews 11 again, verse
two. He says, for by it, by faith,
the elders obtained a good report, a good reputation. As believers,
Not bragging about their lifestyles and all of that, but that they
looked to Christ. They rested in Christ. And that's
the whole theme of Hebrews 11. A hall of faith, we call it.
Well, that's talking about people in the Old Testament who, by
the grace of God, having been convinced of these truths by
the Holy Spirit in the new world, looked to Christ and rested in
Him. It actually concludes over in
Hebrews 12 where it talks about the life of faith as looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. You say, I'm not
the author of my faith and I'm not the finisher of it. I'm not
the author of my salvation. I'm not the finisher of it. Christ
is. He's my surety. He's my substitute. He's my intercessor. He's my
righteousness before God. I stand washed in his blood. My sins are not washed away by
anything else. Baptism won't do it. Tears won't
do it. Reformations won't do it. Only
the blood of Jesus Christ. You say, I don't believe that.
You say, you don't believe that. Well, don't ever sing. What can
wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
You see what I'm saying? Well, verse three, through faith
we understand, here's that understanding, that the worlds were framed by
the word of God so that the things which are seen were not made
of things which do appear. That one verse there destroys
the theory of evolution. You see, he says here, we understand
that God created and set this world in its order by his word. Somebody told me, said, well,
we don't understand how God created the earth. You're exactly right.
I do not understand how God did it, but I understand that he
did do it. You see what I'm saying? We don't
know how God did it. He's God. We're human. He spoke,
let there be light. There was light. He hasn't told
me or you or anybody in His Word how He did it. We don't have
to worry about how He did it. And that's by faith. Why? Because
He said it. And so we understand that the
things which we see in creation did not come out of the things
that appeared. In other words, life didn't come
from no life, life has to come from life. And that's the substance
of it. So there's faith and understanding
there. And then the scripture tells
us, you wanna understand the Bible? Look at Luke chapter 24. Let me give you some Scripture
here about understanding. Once God brings His people to
an understanding of salvation by His grace through Christ in
the Gospel, by revelation of the Holy Spirit, then He brings
them to see that this whole Scripture from Genesis to Revelation is
the book of Jesus Christ and Him crucified and what He accomplished. Over in Luke chapter 24 verse
44, The Lord, before he's ascended unto the Father, to sit down
at the right hand of the Father, he teaches his disciples. And
he's talking about Moses and the prophets and the Psalms.
It says, he said unto them, these are the words which I spake unto
you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled,
which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets
and in the Psalms concerning me. And listen to the verse 45.
Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the
scriptures. He taught them the gospel. He taught them how salvation
comes about by the sovereign will and purpose and power of
God. He taught about himself as the Lord, their righteousness.
Now he's teaching them how to preach from the Old Testament
concerning himself. That's what he means. You remember
over in the book of Luke, or rather the book of Acts, where
Philip, the evangelist, this is Acts chapter eight, He was
sent by the Holy Spirit out on the backside of a desert, and
there he found an Ethiopian treasurer sitting at his chariot, reading
the Bible, reading the Old Testament, reading the book of Isaiah. It
says in verse 29, then the Spirit said unto Philip, go near and
join thyself to this chariot. Acts 8.29, then Acts 8.30, and
Philip ran thither, he ran there to him, and heard him read the
prophet Isaiah, and said, understandest thou what thou read? Do you understand
what you're reading? The eunuch said in verse 31,
he said, Ethiopian eunuch, he said, how can I except some man
should guide me, some man of God? And he desired Philip that
he would come up and sit with him. And look at verse 32 of
Acts 8. The place of the scripture where
he read was this. He was led as a sheep to the
slaughter like a lamb done before his shears. So opened he not
his mouth. In his humiliation, his judgment
was taken away. And who shall declare his generation?
For his life is taken from the earth. In verse 34, listen to
this. The eunuch answered Philip and
said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this, of himself
or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth
and began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus.
You want to understand Isaiah 53? You can only understand it
in the light of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This is the
understanding that the Son of God has come and given to his
people. You know, people are so confused
about so many things in the scripture. I think about the modern, what
we call tongues movement, where people will claim by the Holy
Spirit to be speaking in some kind of a heavenly gibberish
that nobody can understand. Well, read 1 Corinthians 14.
We don't have time in this program to go over there and read it
all. Read 1 Corinthians 14 where the apostle Paul, now the languages
they were speaking in was not some kind of a heavenly gibberish.
It was the languages of men on the earth because there was such
a hodgepodge of different nationalities in the church at Corinth and
not everybody spoke the same language. Here's one who spoke
Greek. Here's one who spoke Aramaic. Here's another one who spoke
Persian. And God visited those people and gave them the gift
to preach the gospel and read the scriptures in their language
so that they could understand what they were hearing. And the
Apostle Paul said, look, He said, if you speak in a language, in
another language, because you have that gift, and nobody understands
what you're hearing, it's nothing. It means nothing. He said, I'd
rather speak a few words with the understanding than a thousand
words that nobody can understand. It's all about understanding
what God reveals. And that certainly pertains to
the gospel. That's what our text is saying
in 1 John 5.20. He's come. He's given us an understanding
that we may know. Know what? Know Him, the true
and living God. Him that is true and faithful.
The just God, a Savior. And that we are in Him that is
true. Even in His Son, Jesus Christ,
who is the Lord, our righteousness. This is the true God and this
is eternal life. There is no other salvation.
And I pray that God will give you an understanding of these
things. I 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.theletterofgrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.