you open your Bibles this morning
to John chapter 3. It's been an eventful weekend
and Debbie and I are glad we could be a part of it. It's always
good to be with you and especially on this occasion of the wedding
and we're just so happy and we covet your prayers as we travel
back today. I hope we don't run into real
bad weather up north but it looks like it's coming so hopefully
we'll get through it before it where it hits bad, but we're
glad to be here. All right, let's look at John
chapter 3. Now the title of this message is Eternal Life in Christ. Eternal Life in Christ. And one
of the things that I want to emphasize is when we're talking
about eternal life, we're also talking about obviously salvation
and the things that accompany salvation, the blessings of God's
grace in Christ. But I want to put a special emphasis
on the issue of the doctrine of eternal security. And a lot
of people, you know, will state that in different ways. You know,
the most common way that people try to describe it is the doctrine
of once saved, always saved. And that's okay if you can understand
the scriptural terms. As one fellow told me one time,
he said, well, it depends on who saved you. And I understand
that. But what I want us to see is
that when we're given eternal life by Jesus Christ, it is just
that, it is eternal life. It's not temporary life. It's
never perishable. Bible says you shall not perish,
you have Christ. It is not, and I know you all
have experienced this, and I've experienced it, people bring
their objections, but eternal life, salvation, eternally, is
not life until you sin. Because we know from the scripture
that we're all continual sinners. So it's not life until you sin,
but it's eternal life in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. And
then, you know, well, some people will object. They'll say, well,
that means, well, if you, you know, once you're saved, you
can go out and sin all you want to, things like that. You'll
have those objections. It's not that a sinner is saved
eternally no matter what. As one man put it, he said, well,
you're saying you're saved no matter what. There is a sense
in which we can say that, but we've got to put it in the right
context. But it's that the life that God gives his people by
his grace through Jesus Christ, and this life is in Christ, is
a life by which we're preserved by God in the faith and life
in which we will, by his grace, persevere. And it's a life looking to Christ,
continually looking to and resting in and believing in the Lord
Jesus Christ and living on the ground of His righteousness imputed,
charged to us, whereby we believe in Him and rest in Him and living
out of the forgiveness that is continually ours by the blood
of Christ and that's what inspires us and motivates us and I believe
energizes us in the obedience of faith. So we're going to look
at that. Now in John chapter 3 here, he'd
been talking to Nicodemus Nicodemus, who was a Pharisee, and you know
what the Pharisees were. I'm going to talk about that
in the message this morning a little bit. He was a ruler of the Jews
and he'd been talking to Nicodemus about the new birth. He said,
you must be born again. And that new birth is the sovereign
application of spiritual life to a dead sinner. We're all having
been ruined in Adam, condemned in Adam, and born dead in trespasses
and sins. The only way that we're going
to come to a saving knowledge of Christ and experience this
eternal life is through the new birth. must be born again, and
that's the sovereign operation of the Holy Spirit under the
preaching of the gospel, whereby he brings us, he gives us spiritual
life and brings, you know, as the scripture puts it, the Lord
talking to his disciples, he said, blessed are your ears for
they hear, your eyes for they see, things like that. And you're
brought to faith in Christ and true repentance, repentance of
dead works and idolatry, repentance of sin. Well, Nicodemus did not
understand this. He really had no idea what the
Lord was talking about because Nicodemus was yet an unbelieving,
lost religionist. He was a man who was seeking
salvation, righteousness, and glory, and life by his works. That's what a Pharisee basically
was. He was like the rest of unbelieving
Israel as described in Romans chapter 9. They sought righteousness
by works of the law. And of course they didn't find
it because the Bible teaches us that by deeds of law That
is, by our efforts to keep the law or our efforts to do anything
by way of pleasing God, no flesh shall be justified, declared
righteous, made righteous in the sight of God. For by the
law is the knowledge of sin. And that's why that law was given,
and I'll say more about that in the next message too. But
Nicodemus didn't understand it. He had his focus and his heart
set on seeking salvation and blessedness and security. security through his works. And at the risk of repeating
myself, you know, for example, think about this in the unbelieving
lost religious Jews. They basically had three things
that they claimed as their salvation, as the ground of their salvation,
as their security. Number one was their physical
connection with Abraham. They said, we be Abraham's seed.
So we're not sinners, we're not like the Gentiles, we're children
of God. Secondly, they claim their circumcision,
the circumcision of the male who represented his family the
whole night. We be circumcised, we're not
idolaters. And then thirdly, they claim
to be keeping the law of Moses. We have Moses. And we'll look
at a passage here in just a moment about that. And that was their
three reasons that they would give to say, you know that I
have to be saved. I have to be secure in God's
favor. I'm a child of Abraham. I've been circumcised and I'm
keeping the law of Moses. Well, first of all, the Bible
teaches us, and this is so plain throughout, that physical connection
with Abraham has nothing to do with eternal life. Nothing at
all. And Paul deals with that beautifully
in the book of Romans. Romans 2 and Romans 9, for example. He shows us that it's not the
children of the flesh, those who were born physically of Abraham,
who are saved, who have eternal life, but the children of the
promise. And who's that talking about? That's talking about believers
who believe in Christ. And that's the true spiritual
Israel. He said circumcision has nothing to do with your salvation,
your eternal life, your blessedness before God. He said in Galatians
6.14, God forbid that I should glory, boast, or have any confidence
in anything save except the cross, the finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ, God in human flesh. And he said, by which the world
is crucified unto me and I unto the world. And he said, for in
Christ neither circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth anything. In other words, that's a moot
point as far as your eternal life or your eternal security
or your acceptance before God has nothing to do with it. In
fact, in Philippians chapter 3 and verse 3, he said, we are
the circumcision. And there he's talking about
spiritual circumcision, which is circumcision of the heart,
the new birth. And he says, we worship God in
spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus. That word rejoice there
is the same word he used that's translated glory in Galatians
6, 14. We glory in Christ Jesus. We
boast in him. We rest in Christ. Our security
is Christ. His blood and righteousness alone.
I know I'm forgiven of all my sins. Why? Because my hope is
built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. It's
not resting on my physical connection with Abraham, my circumcision,
or my law keeping. It's resting on the finished
work of Christ on the cross. And so he says, so we worship,
we rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh.
No confidence in anything about me or from me or through me. It's all in Christ. So that's
what Nicodemus had to learn. So Christ, look at verse 14 of
John 3. He takes him to the very foundation of eternal life. He takes him to the very foundation
and the cause of spiritual life. He says in verse 14, he says,
and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. Now that's
a reference back to the episode where the children of Israel
had rebelled against God and God sent the poisonous snakes
to bite them. And he told Moses to intercede
for them by taking a pole and making a serpent of brass and
putting it upon a pole and tell the children of Israel to look
to the serpent of brass. And of course, that's a picture
of Christ. lifted up, you see, as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness. And you can read about that in
the book of Numbers chapter 21. So just like that serpent of
brass, you know, brass is the metal that represents judgment.
And just like Moses lifted up that serpent, he says, even so
must the Son of Man, that's a messianic identification of Jesus of Nazareth
as being the Messiah, Even so must the Son of Man be lifted
up. He must be lifted up. Now what's
that talking about? That's talking about lifted up
on the cross under the judgment of God for the sins of His sheep,
His people. For He was made sin, Christ who
knew no sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. He must be lifted. He must do His cross work. He
must redeem us from our sins. That's what He's talking about.
Now that's the foundation of eternal life. That's the ground
of our eternal security that Christ was lifted up and he was
a propitiation for our sins. He was the sin bearing satisfaction
for all the sins of all his people called his sheep, his church.
All right. And unto God. So there is the
foundation. Now look over at John chapter
12. He describes this again by using
an analogy or metaphor from farming. Look at verse 23. He says in
verse 23 of John chapter 12, he says, and Jesus answered,
he was answering Philip and Andrew, he said, Jesus answered them
saying, the hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Well, how's he going to be glorified?
He says, verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn or a
seed of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. You take a wheat seed and just
put it on that table, it's gonna abide there alone. It's gonna
continue there alone. It won't grow. But you put it in the ground
and where it literally, in the physical composition, dies, he
says, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. Out of that
death of that seed comes much fruit. And then look down at
verse 31. He says, now is the judgment
of this world, now shall the prince of this world be cast
out. Now what's he talking about? Well, look at it in verse 20,
32. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all
unto me. Who's the all there? Well, it's
all for whom he died. It's all whom he represented.
This, he said, signifying what death he should die. In other
words, Christ is saying just like that seed of wheat will
bring forth the fruit of wheat, he said his death will bring
forth the fruit of redemption. The fruit of righteousness. Righteousness
established by his obedience unto death for his people. And
that's the foundation of salvation. That's the foundation of eternal
life. Now go back to John 3. Now he said, I'll draw all unto
me. And that word draw there is the
same word that you'll see in John chapter six when he talks
about how no man can come to me except the father which hath
sent me. Draw him, and it's like drag
him. That doesn't mean that he drags
us against our will. He changes our will. That's what
the new birth is all about. You see, when did you desire
truly Out of a true conviction of your sins, when did you really
desire to come to Christ for all salvation, for all righteousness,
for all life and glory? It's when the Holy Spirit convicted
you. It's when the Holy Spirit entered
in and you were born again. And so he says, look at John
3 in verse 15. So he's gonna draw them unto
him through the preaching of the gospel. He says in verse
15, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have what? Eternal life, not temporary life.
Not conditional life. Not life that you earn or deserve. This is grace, you see. We'll
see that in just a moment. But you should have eternal life.
Now this is the fruit. You know that seed of wheat falls
into the ground and dies and the fruit springs up. This is
not the cause of eternal life. Believing, he says, look at verse
16, for God so loved the world. Now what's he talking about the
world there? He's not talking about every individual without exception
there. Because he said over in John
12, if I be lifted up, I will draw all unto me. All, who are
they all? It's not all without exception,
it is all without distinction. God has a people out of every
tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. And so he has a chosen people,
and Christ died for them, and he's going to draw them unto
him. They're the fruit of his death, just like that seed of
wheat fell in and died and brings forth the fruit. So it's the
world of his people, and he qualifies it in this same verse, that he
gave his only begotten son, that is to die, in order that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Now,
what you see here is that the believing is not the cause or
the ground of eternal life. You say, what is the cause or
the ground of eternal life? He said it. Even so must the
son of man be lifted up. It's his death. It's his blood. It's his righteousness that brings
about eternal life. Our believing is the fruit of
his death. It's part of that eternal life. It's the evidence of that eternal
life. And he says in verse 17, for God sent not his son into
the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him
might be saved. Now the world is saved not through
the salvation of every individual without exception. If that were
true, the world wouldn't be saved because we know the Bible teaches
that many will perish. So how is the world saved? by
Christ saving a remnant according to the election of grace by His
death on the cross. Now, from there you see, here's
the ground of salvation. The ground of salvation is the
death of Christ. It's the blood of Christ. It's
the righteousness of Christ. It's the great transaction that
He went under the just wrath of God, having the sins of His
sheep charged to Him, imputed to Him. in order that we might
stand before God justified, having His righteousness imputed to
us. That's the ground of salvation. And we are drawn unto Him by
the power of the Holy Spirit in the preaching of the gospel
to have eternal life. We possess eternal life. Now
look over at John chapter 5. Let me just read you some scripture
here. John chapter 5. Look at verse 39. Now, you remember I said one
of the issues or one of the foundations of the unbelieving religious
Jews for their claim of salvation and to be a child of God, to
be blessed, was their connection with the law of Moses. Well,
listen to this. Look at verse 39. He says, search
the scriptures. And the sense of this is you
do search the scriptures. The Lord recognized that they
were men who read the scriptures, who discussed the scriptures,
who admired the scriptures, and who claimed to believe the scriptures,
the Old Testament scriptures, especially the first five books,
the books of Moses. and others. But he says, you
do search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal
life. In other words, you think that
the scriptures are going to reveal to you and lead you to the way
of eternal life. That's why you do it. And he
says, and they are they which testify of me. They testify,
the scriptures testify of the coming of Christ. Who he is,
what he would do, why he would do it, and where he is now. All
of those things concerning his death. And he says in verse 40,
and he says, and you will not come to me that you might have
life. Eternal life is in Christ. Nowhere
else. Eternal life is not in the church.
It's not in the preacher. It's not in the family. It's
not in your ethnicity, your nationality. It's not in your upbringing,
it's in Christ and Him crucified and risen again. That's eternal
life. And so he says in verse 41, he says, I receive not honor
from men, but I know you that you have not the love of God
in you. I'm come in my father's name and you receive me not.
How do you know you have the love of God in you? What Paul
described in Romans five is the love of God shed abroad within
our hearts. How do we know we have that? Well, he says, I know
you don't have it because I'm come in my father's name and
you receive me not. So how do you know if you have
it? Well, have you received him? Now, that reception is of the
power of God's grace and the Holy Spirit. He said, he came
unto his own and his own received him not, but to as many as received
him, to them gave he the power, which literally means the right
or the privilege to be called the sons of God, which were born
John 1.13, which were born not of blood. In other words, your
physical connection with Abraham has nothing to do with this.
Not of the will of the flesh. It's not your free will, you
see. Listen, you don't possess eternal
life because you're better than others who refuse to come to
Christ. We were talking yesterday, I
think it was, about Paul's description in Romans chapter 3 and in verse
10 where he begins there. When he starts out in verse 9,
he's talking about how the scriptures have concluded all under sin,
Jew and Gentile, the whole world. In other words, there's not one
person on the face of the earth that's ever been born, is born,
or will be born who can say, I have a righteousness that answers
the demands of God's law and justice. I've worked that up.
The only one who could ever be called righteous that came to
this earth is Christ, and he worked it out. And so he says
there's none righteous, no, not one. Well, people today, if they
were honest in their belief system and what they think about how
salvation is gained and obtained and maintained, They'd have,
when those scriptures are read, when it says there's none righteous,
no, not one. There's none that seeketh after
God. There's none good, no, not one.
They'd have to raise their hand and say, wait a minute, preacher,
not me. I'm not in that group. I did seek him. You see, the
only, if you, and we do seek him, but the only reason we seek
him is because he sought us first. So you see, this issue is coming
to Christ, receiving Him by the power of the Spirit. It's not
of the free will, it's not of the will of flesh, nor the will
of man. In other words, not by the will of other men, but of
God. It's of God, salvations of the
Lord. Well, look back at John 5, verse
43. He says, I'm come in my father's
name and you received me not. If another shall come in his
own name, him you will receive. How can you believe which receive
honor one of another and seek not the honor that cometh from
God only? What is the honor that comes
from God only? Well, it has to do with submission.
to his glory and his will in Christ. It's impossible to please
God without faith, and faith always has an object. It's not
just faith in and of itself, some kind of entity in and of
itself. It's not just believing, but it's who is the object of
your faith. You see, we don't have faith
in our faith. We have faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's the object of our faith.
And preachers are telling people today, well, if you can believe,
if you can believe hard enough, long enough, sincere enough,
you know, you can get whatever you want. Listen, faith, saving
faith has an object and that object is Christ and Him crucified
and risen. The one who's seated at the right
hand of the Father ever living to make intercession for me.
And that intercession, I think sometimes we don't emphasize
this. And I'll show you that in just a moment. That intercession
of Christ. is the foundation of our eternal
security. You see, He pleads continually
the blood of the cross, His righteousness alone, for our salvation. And
John says in 1 John 2 that when we sin, we have an advocate with
the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. who is the propitiation
for our sins and not for ours only, John is saying not just
for God's people in the Jewish nation alone, but for the whole
world, all who believe all over the world. And so he says here,
look at verse 45 of John 5. Do not think that I will accuse
you to the Father. There's one that accuseth you,
even Moses, in whom you trust. Now how did they trust in Moses?
That means they trusted in their works under the law of Moses.
And he says, for had you believed Moses, you would have believed
me, for he wrote of me. He wrote of me, but if you believe
not his writings, how shall you believe my words? Moses wrote
of Christ. Christ went on in the book of
John to say so much about this subject of eternal life. He told
him he's the bread of life. He is the bread of life. In fact,
in John 6, 54, he said this, "'Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood hath eternal life.'" That eating and drinking, eating
his flesh and drinking his blood is a metaphor for faith in Him,
trusting what He accomplished as the God-man, God in human
flesh, in the shedding of His blood on the cross as the complete
payment for all the sins of all His people. And those who believe
that, those who believe it from the heart, They have eternal
life. They didn't earn eternal life.
They don't gain eternal life by their believing. They don't
deserve eternal life, but they have it. How do they have it? Well, they have it by the grace
of God. He said in John chapter 10, listen
to this one, John 10, 27. He said, my sheep hear my voice
and I know them and they follow me. And then he says, and I what? I give unto them eternal life. They don't deserve it. We're
all like sheep gone astray, see lost, gone our own way. He gives
it as a gift of his grace and they shall never perish, he says.
Neither shall any man, in the King James Version, that word
man is in italics, which means the King James translators supplied
it, it wasn't in the original. And the reason I bring that up,
listen to this, it says, neither shall any man pluck them out
of my hand. I had a fella tell me one time, they said, well
see there it says no man can do it, but Satan could. Oh no,
Satan cannot pluck you out of the Father's hand. And really
what that's saying is this, in the original it says, neither
shall any pluck them out of my hand. But let me show you something
here. Turn to Revelation 12. I refer
to this passage quite often because it is so clear on this subject. Can Satan, here's the thing about
it is, our sins cannot take us away from Christ. Because he keeps us. He says,
no, none shall pluck them out of my hand. Satan cannot do it. Verse 9 of Revelation 12. Here
it talks about the great dragon. And the great dragon was cast
out. That old serpent called the devil. That's who that great
dragon is. And Satan. He's called the devil.
He's called Satan. He goes by many names. It says,
which deceiveth the whole world. Now, this is a good point to
stop and just make that point about the word world. You see,
people quote John 3.16. They say, well, that's everybody
in the whole world, you know. Well, it's not. It's talking
about those who believe in the world. That's what it's talking
about. And it says that right in the verse. Those for whom Christ
died. The foundation is his death. Believing is the fruit. The all
whom he'll draw unto him. But now go to this one. It says
here, the devil, who is Satan, deceiveth the whole world. Now,
would you say it's every individual there? Well, now John, who is
the one who received this revelation from Christ, he's not deceived.
So it really, if it meant everybody in the whole world, it would
actually have to say, who deceiveth the whole world except John.
No, it's not, it doesn't mean everything. It's talking about
those who do not know Christ. who are not submitted to his
righteousness as that which alone saves us and secures us into
eternal life. But listen on, he says, which
deceiveth the whole world. He was cast out into the earth
and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud
voice saying in heaven, now is come salvation and strength and
the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ. You see,
eternal life, eternal security is the power of God's Christ. It's not your power or my power. We do persevere, but we do so
by the power and grace and goodness of God. So it's the power of
his Christ for the accuser of our brethren. Now that's what
the word devil means. Accuser. The accuser of our brethren
is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
And that's Satan. He accuses the brethren. Now
can he pluck us out of Christ's hand, the Father's hand? Verse
11, now listen to this. And they overcame him, how? Because they had done so many
good works that he just couldn't get at them? Or because they
were now perfectly sinless and never fell into sin and never
missed the mark? No, no, we're sinners saved by
grace, folks. They overcame him by the blood
of the Lamb. And I, if I should be lifted
up, if I be lifted up, that's his blood. And he says, and by
the word of their testimony. Well, what is the word of our
testimony? Well, Paul said, I strive to
know nothing among you, say Jesus Christ and him crucified. Paul
said in Galatians 6, 14, he says, God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross. That's the word of our testimony.
Saved by grace alone. That's the word of our testimony.
And he says, and they love not their lives unto death. God gave
them that grace to withstand all that Satan would bring after
them. In John chapter 17, you don't have to turn there, let
me just read it. His high priestly prayer, which is his intercession
for his people. The son of God prayed to the
father and he said, as thou has given him power over all flesh.
Now as God absolutely considered, he already had power over all
flesh. But as God-man, he had to earn
that power by his accomplishment of redemption of his people on
the cross. And so he says, as thou hast
given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life
to as many as thou hast given him. In John 6 37 he says he
said all that the father giveth me shall come to me and him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. He went on to say and
this is the father's will which is sent me that of all which
he hath given me I should lose nothing but raise him up again
at the last day. In the book of Acts chapter 13
and verse 48, when Paul preached the gospel, it makes this statement,
it says, and when the Gentiles heard this, and the context shows
us that he's talking about the spiritual ear, he says they were
glad. Are you glad when you hear the
word of God's grace and salvation? The forgiveness of sins by his
blood, that we have a complete eternal, unchangeable standing
and acceptance before God based on the righteousness of Christ
imputed. Are you glad when you hear that? I am. I tell you,
that's good news to a sinner, isn't it? And he says, and as
many as were ordained to eternal life believed, God ordained them. And then one of my favorite verses,
Romans 521, that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might
grace reign through righteousness, that's Christ's righteousness,
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. You see, this thing
of eternal life has already been settled in glory through the
Son of God incarnate. And those who profess Christ
and believe in Him and rest in Him, know that it's life, it's
a life lived in and by the grace of God in Christ. It's a life
lived out of the certain assured forgiveness of all my sins. God has forgiven me. The psalmist
said, we've talked about this this weekend, Psalm 130 verse
3, when he said, he said, Lord, if thou, Lord, shouldest mark
iniquities, who would stand? Do you realize that? I mean,
you know, you look at people, and then we have a tendency,
we do this, you know, and you talk about somebody who does
something that is just humongous in the way of sin, and you say,
what a great sinner, and then others who are religious or whatever. Do you realize that if God were
to mark iniquities on any one of us, None of us would stand. That's so. And that includes
the best of us and the worst of us. But he goes on, he says, but
there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. And
that's not a legal fear. Adam and Eve had that legal fear
after the fall, didn't they? That's why they wanted to run
and hide from God. That's that reverence and respect and that
trust that we have in the God of all grace. There is forgiveness
with thee. It's eternal forgiveness. It's
not conditional on me. It's not temporary. It's not
just for some sins and not for others. It's the forgiveness
of all sins. But now where am I going to find that forgiveness?
And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all unto me. As Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted
up. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have eternal life, eternal forgiveness. Find it in Christ.