Back to John, well to John 3. For those who were watching the live stream last week, it'd be back to John 3. Thought I would finish up some thoughts from last week. I'm sure most people that are watching this morning are probably thinking you didn't get all your thoughts out. That was an hour and a half message last week.

John chapter three, as I mentioned last week, this is after the discourse of John or Jesus with Nicodemus and it has moved now into a uh section speaking of john the baptist and some of his followers that come up to him basically saying you know hey um this guy that you keep telling us about you know he's over there baptizing more people than you now gathering more people everybody's going to him and uh and not you what do you have to think about that and uh john um he uh made the statement, if you'll look there with me in verse 30, he said, he must increase, but I must decrease.

John knew exactly his purpose. And that was that he was to be the forerunner of Jesus Christ. He was to be the one to prepare people for Christ so that whenever Christ came into his ministry, that he would have a people to begin to teach and to instruct and That's where the church began. So that's who's talking here. John is talking, he's given an account of Jesus Christ, and he made that big statement, he must increase, I must decrease. And I made that statement last week.

I said, that's actually a pretty good principle that we should always live by, whether it's by how we worship, whether it's by how we preach, whether it's by how we reflect on the gospel, whatever the case might be, we should always look at that as we must decrease, Christ must increase. If our message ever is the opposite where we are increasing ourself and decreasing Christ, then we're going backwards, okay? Anytime that the center point of the gospel, the center point of our worship, the thoughts of our heart as far as worship is concerned. Today, a lot of modern churches today, worship is about yourself. It's about making me feel good. What makes me feel uplifted? What makes me feel worshipful? What gets me in the spirit? That's what instead of lifting up and exalting Christ Jesus. It's all about me.

And so John here, he says he must increase, but I must decrease. But let's read 31 down to 36, because I started last week talking about, and specifically verse 33 is what I dealt with last week. But the point of, and I'll just kind of set the point at the beginning here. The point of what I'm getting to here is kind of an ongoing theme that I've kind of been dealing with over the last two or three weeks or a month or whatever and everything.

And that is that faith is a gift of God. It isn't something that the natural man can do on his own. It has to be given by God. And if that's the case, then faith will always precede or excuse me, salvation will always precede faith. Salvation isn't the result of our believing, okay? Salvation isn't something that God's waiting to give to us and then as soon as he sees us believe, then he goes ahead and gives that transaction on over to us.

And this, as I said last week, it kind of stemmed from a conversation with a dear friend and brother who, you know, I believe that the Lord is teaching him the doctrines of grace and he's coming to know the doctrines of grace and everything. I still think some of this is still a stumbling block for him. And I just pray that the Lord will continue to open up his eyes to these things. But it's the common belief, not only from Armenians, it's the default belief of everybody before they come to grace, But even among some sovereign grace preachers, they believe that it is faith that enacts or faith that triggers your justification, that it is faith that triggers your salvation, that you're not saved until you're a believer, okay, till you start believing. Now, I've been writing a book and it's just about done. And this is the topic of this. And one of the things I mentioned in this is that this is a semantic thing to a lot of people. Okay. They seem to think that there's some semantics involved here.

But brethren, anytime you place any part of salvation dependent or conditional on what we do, you've lost the gospel. You've lost the gospel completely. Because salvation, whether as I always say, whether it's from the legal standpoint of things, eternal standpoint of things, or whether it's from the experiential temporal time standpoint of things, every bit of that is sovereignly governed by Christ. He is the mediator between God and man. He is the one who is enacting everything that has to do with your salvation, whether it's standing as your representative before God and being that one who obeyed for him, the one who did everything, his faithfulness was your salvation.

But if we look at the temporal part of your salvation, you're actually coming to know I've been saved, coming to know that Christ is my righteousness, coming to know I can't do anything. Those temporal things are another part of salvation. It's not the legal aspect, it's your experiential aspect of you coming to know you have been saved. Coming to know that this is wrong thinking and this is right thinking. I've been saved from the wrong understanding of where my righteousness comes from, where my salvation lies, how it's accomplished, what God is looking at, what God is requiring.

All of that, we are saved in time by Christ coming into us by his spirit and teaching us and leading us, but also giving us the gift of faith and that supernatural, divine, spiritual gift of faith is something that only looks to Christ. It never looks to self. The faith that God gives to us always looks to Christ. So if I am exercising the faith that is not looking to Christ, but looking to my words, or looking to my obedience, or even looking to my faith, that is natural faith. That is religious faith. That's not spiritual faith. That's not faith that God has given us from above. because the faith that God gives us only, only, only, only testifies that Christ alone has done everything, is everything to me.

And so the point of this, and the point of my book that I'm almost done writing, the point of it is that Christ is the one who saved us. not your faith, not your belief, not your perseverance. All of that is part of the salvation that we have received from Christ, but it's a finished work, brethren. It's not anything that is dependent upon our efforts. It's something that is sovereignly done outside of us, and then temporally, it is something that is sovereignly worked inside of us. And I believe that this is what John is getting at here, is he's saying the whole purpose of me coming was to prepare these people who are believing to prepare them for the one who is their savior. Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He is our Savior. He is our Messiah. He is our King. He is our representative. He is our Redeemer.

And so John is saying, listen, my whole purpose of coming was to prepare the way for Him. It's all about Him. It's not about me. John could have easily, like most preachers today, started saying, well, you know, He's really important. We need to be talking about Him.

But yet, you know, God did send me. God did bring me up here first. You know, Jesus himself even said, you know, that I'm blessed among all men who've come out of the womb of woman. You know, you know, there's something special about me. So, you know, I still need to keep my congregation. Surely, surely the goodness God wouldn't want me. I mean, God's put me here and given me a gift and purpose me. So surely, you know, he doesn't want me to have less people listening to his message.

See, that's some of the ideas, by the way, that some preachers can get in their heads, that it's all about them. John here, by the Holy Spirit, was given to understand that his purpose was to glorify and exalt Christ Jesus, because what Christ says is the most important thing.

The testimony that he gives about God and about your salvation, that's the truth. What we say, what we believe, what we think, that doesn't matter unless it aligns with the truth and testimony that Christ has given us. And I believe that's why John says what he says here and goes into what he goes into in our passages here in 31 down to 36. He is making it very clear that the testimony that needs to be heard is the testimony that's coming from the lips of the word of God himself. See, the Bible calls Christ the word.

Why is that? Because he is the one who has vocalized the thoughts and intents and the promises of God to his people. He is the word of God because he is the mouthpiece of God. all the things that God has determined from before the foundation of the world to reveal to man, he has given Christ to be the mediator of that. Christ is mediating the thoughts and the work and the intent and the display and the glory and everything that has to do about God. He is the one that is vocalizing that. whether it be from his actual lips when he walked here, or whether it was from him speaking to the prophets in the Old Testament, and they wrote things down, or whether in the New Testament, it is him by inspiration, by his spirit that is indwelling those men, causing them to write the things that he moved them to write.

He is the vocal piece of God. And so he, if there is a testimony about God, that testimony comes because of Christ. That's why the word was made flesh, to not only make God known visibly, which he was, all of God is in Christ Jesus. So Christ is God visibly, but Christ is also vocally the word of God. And then he sends his spirit, the comforter, into our hearts, and that spirit takes those words and he in our hearts testifies or seals us, as we'll see here, seals us or authenticates the testimony of what God has said.

Now, what did Jesus say before we get to this section? Well, he told Nicodemus that no man can see the kingdom of God unless he's born again. No man can enter into the kingdom of God unless you are born again. He said, be born again to understand and know spiritual things.

We read that back in 1 Corinthians last week. In 1 Corinthians, we see that the spirit has to come into us first so that we can know and receive the things that are freely given to us. So Jesus has told Nicodemus, you have to be born again to understand spiritual things. Now, I don't think it's just by happenstance that John, whenever he was writing his gospel, stopped with that account of Jesus with Nicodemus in the middle of the night, somewhere in the middle of the city, wherever it was that they met, all of a sudden, boom, jumping back out, probably to Aenon, I think is where the passage tells us, back to Aenon and John baptizing in the water.

He just shifts from there to here. No, the Holy Spirit, brought him from this account to this account so that it would be given in this account so that we could see the corollary between the two. Jesus said, you cannot receive and understand and believe on spiritual things unless you be born again. Then he goes right into John preaching Christ alone. And everybody said, hey, everyone's believing on him and following after him. And John said, you're right, they ought to be, that's the bride. And that bride is following after the bridegroom. I'm not the bridegroom. I'm the friend of the bride.

I must decrease, he must increase because it's all about him. And he's the one that has the testimony. Go listen to him. Remember whenever John baptized Jesus in the river and he came up out of the water and what did God say out of heaven? This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And then on the transfiguration, we hear God once again, reiterating those words, but he added this, this is my beloved son, hear ye him.

Why? Because he is who God has determined to be the testimony about God and salvation, about all things. He is the testimony. Why is Jesus the testimony? Because he's the only one that has taken that decree of God, that eternal decree of God, and loosed its seals and opened it up and knows what is written on the front and in the back. He is the only one that has the information. And I'm speaking in this in human terms, brethren, because Jesus is God, he knows all things.

He's the one that declared them. But I'm saying through the mediation of the man, Jesus Christ, God has opened up all the decree that he has made as that invisible God before the foundation of the world. He has done that through the medium of Jesus Christ. He has embodied himself in this man, Jesus Christ, to carry out everything in that eternal decree.

And so John is saying, this is who you need to listen to. Now look with me, if you would, at verse 31, and let's start reading down. I'll try to recap a few things from last week as we go through here. Verse 31, it says, he that cometh from above is above all.

And he's speaking of Jesus there. So he that cometh from above is above all. That means Jesus is paramount. Jesus is who God has put in place over all things. We see that in several places in the Bible. We see that where he says, you know, he's been given a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess. He has been given power over all flesh, that he has been given power to give eternal life to whomever God has given to him. Jesus has been given all authority in heaven and in earth.

Okay, so he is above all. So if he is above all, that just goes without saying, being above all, he should be the one that we listen to because he knows all things. He has all power. He is supreme. He is the king. All wisdom, all knowledge, Everything resides within him. He is God. Therefore, we ought to listen to God and not man. The Bible also tells us that. But look what it says. He that cometh from above is above all.

He that is of the earth is earthly. John's making claim of himself. Hey, I'm just of the earth, earthly. I'm limited in knowledge, limited in ability, limited in desire limited in faithfulness. I'm limited, but he is above all. I have been given something, but he is the giver. The giver is always greater than the one getting the gift. And that's why he goes on to say, He that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth. He that cometh from heaven is above all.

And what he has seen and heard, that he testifieth, and no man receiveth his testimony. See, what Christ knows and what Christ testifies of, the Bible here says, no man receiveth his testimony. Jesus has come and has told us the truth about God, has told us the truth about salvation, has told us the truth about ourselves in Adam. He has told us the truth about ourselves in him. And it says here that no man receiveth his testimony. Now that goes right along, brethren, with other places in scripture where the Bible tells us that no man receiveth the things of the Spirit of God, 1 Corinthians.

John chapter six, no man can come to me except the father draw him. No man can come, why? Because they are spiritually dead. They have no spiritual life. They have no spiritual appetite. They have no spiritual desire. They have no spiritual inclination. They have no spiritual reception within them, okay? I remember back whenever I was a kid, Some of you guys, older folks, will definitely remember this. But as a little kid, I had this little bitty tiny transistor radio.

And of course, back then, kids, we didn't have streaming services and MP3s and everything. Of course, now you guys probably don't even know what MP3s are anymore. But, you know, we had streaming services. We had MP3s. We had CDs. cassettes, 8-tracks, record players, okay? That's the move back.

Well, we had transistor radios, so anytime we wanted to listen to music, we had to have a radio. Well, they had these little transistor radios that you could carry in your pocket. Whenever you pulled it out, it had a little dial for turning it on in a volume that had a little dial that you can move, and it changed the little thing up and down the frequency dial and dialed you into a radio's frequency. and it had a little antenna that came out of it. Well, I had a little transistor radio and I listened to that and play that and everything. One time that antenna got broke off. And even though I had the antenna in my hand and I had the transistor radio in my hand, I now couldn't get anything on that radio.

Why? Because there was no connection between the antenna, which receives the signal, the thing that plays the signal well that's kind of like how it is with us no man can receive the spiritual things because we have no spiritual antenna there is nothing there that is receiving the signal of spiritual things and so john here is saying what he has seen and heard that he testifieth and no man receiveth his testimony Verse 33, he that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true.

So wait a minute, you just said nobody receives his testimony. Now, the very next verse, you're contradicting yourself, John. You're saying he that hath received his testimony. If no man has received his testimony, then it says that some people have, he that hath received his testimony.

Now, just stop there, brother, because this is one of those places where I kind of nerd out on, okay? These are one of those places where a long time ago I started saying that whenever you study the Bible, every word counts. I know you've heard me say that a lot. This is the reason why.

No man receiveth his testimony. That's a blanket statement. No man received with his testimony, but yet he comes back and says, he that hath received his testimony. So if the word of God is true and every word in the word of God is true, which I believe it is, there's no contradictions. The spirit of God has inspired these things and God cannot lie. Then that is not a contradiction. So if it looks like a contradiction, I gotta figure out or pray that the Spirit reveal to me what is happening here that makes this not a contradiction. Well, notice that word have.

That to me makes me think that no man has this testimony. No man receiveth this testimony, but there are some that have. the testimony. If somebody hath the testimony, but no man receiveth the testimony, then that means that there is some people that have been given the testimony, and some people has not been given the testimony. Because you can't have no man having the testimony, and some people having the testimony, and that be true. one of these has to give way to the other. Well, how is it that it can give way? Well, no man can receive the testimony, but there are some that have the testimony. So that means something has to be done for those people or to those people so that they can receive that testimony.

Because otherwise, if that does not happen, they're like everybody else. There can be no testimony received. He that hath his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true. So if we are believing the testimony, we have set to his seal that God is true. Well, let's look at a few things here. First thing first, I think that the reception of this testimony is evidence that something has been done and it's not the cause. Now remember, my thesis is all about this.

Faith is the outcome of salvation, not salvation the outcome of your faith, right? Everywhere, just about every block you go down in this town where everybody's preaching today, they're gonna tell you that you'll get saved if you have faith. But if you don't have faith, you won't be saved. But I'm here to tell you that's not the testimony of Jesus. The testimony of Jesus is because you are saved, you will believe.

And we're gonna see that here in just a minute as a statement of fact that John uses. But look, if you would here, he that hath received this, or excuse me, he that hath seen and heard, wrong verse again. He that hath received his testimony has set to his seal that God is true. Look with me if you would at 1 John chapter 5. We looked at this last week. 1 John chapter 5.

Now, brethren, the reason that I'm breaking this down in such detail is not to just, you know, try to prove some intellectual debate argument, but it's because these are things that I struggled with. These are things that I struggled with, these seemingly contradictory things, especially when it comes to faith, because faith is so important in God's word.

Faith is something that's talked about all through God's word. There's a whole chapter in Hebrews about faith. And I hear loved ones talking about faith and talking about believing and talking about that has to take place because if you don't, there is no salvation. I hear preachers that I love and respect, but yet they say that your justification can't come until you believe.

And so these matters are matters where If you just isolate this verse here and say that, now all of a sudden we have a contradiction over here because the Bible says this over here and this over here and this over here. And we're forming doctrine based upon isolated verses of scripture. Instead of forming our doctrine or believing the doctrine formed for us by Christ, by looking at all the word of God, So that's why I'm breaking these things down.

It's not just to prove how many verses I know. To be honest, there's a lot of these verses I didn't know right off the top of my head. I had to use my good old concordance to find out some of these things, dig them up. I've read them, but I forget where they're at sometimes. Sometimes I forget verses altogether. Thankfully, we have things that can help us find things really quick But look what it says here. He says in 1 John chapter five, verse one, whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ.

Now stop right there. He that have received his testimony. Now we know that the testimony, and we're gonna read that here in a minute, is Christ himself. Jesus Christ is the testimony of God and salvation. He is the testimony. But look what it says here. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. Not will be, but is. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. So the whosoevers of John chapter three, whosoever believeth on him, There's your answer right there. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, who are the whosoever's that believe?

Those who are born of God. That's why Jesus, right before John 3, 16, in John 3, 1 through 16, told Nicodemus, ye must be born again. You cannot believe my testimony unless you are born from above. There has to be a spiritual birth before there is spiritual reception, before there is a spiritual belief.

Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God and everyone that loveth him that begat loveth him also that begot. Now, back to our passage here. He that received his testimony, or he that believeth that Jesus is the Christ, the one Son of God, the one who has the truth, hath set to his seal that God is true. Look with me if you would, back into the gospel of John chapter one.

I know we looked at some of these last week, but I want to reiterate a few of these things before we move forward. John chapter one, verses 12, but as many as received him, That's not everybody, but as many as. If you remember a long time ago, I preached a message about quantifiers and qualifiers. This phrase is a quantifier, as many as. The only ones that were received were as many as, not everybody. And some people will look at that and say, well, that's a conditional thing.

Well, if I'll just receive it, you know, if I'll just believe it, then, you know, no. As many as received him, to them gave he the power to be the sons or to become the sons of God to them that believe on his name. See, he gave them the power to become the sons of God that believe on his name. See, only the sons of God believe on his name.

God has sent his spirit into our heart, whereby, the spirit coming into our heart, that has to come in first, whereby we cry, what? I have a father. How do we call Christ our father? Our Messiah, our Christ, how do we call him that? Our God, how do we call him that? By the spirit of God. No man can call him Christ except the Spirit of God be in him. We can't call him.

Now, I know a lot of people profess Christ, but their faith is not on Christ Jesus. Their faith is not in Christ Jesus. Their faith is about Christ Jesus, but not in it or on it. It's not in what he has done, and it's not on him as their representative.

They believe that it still holds that they have to do something so that God will then turn, give them whatever it is that they're looking to get, rewards, whether it's Salvation itself, whether it's eternal life, whether it's glorification, whatever the case might be, you have to do it.

God's wanting to give it to you, but he's withholding it until he sees you do it. Once you do it, then he'll give it to you. That's not the gospel. And this here says, but as many as received him, to them gave you power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.

Here it is, which were born, which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. See, you're not born again by your faith, or that would have been by the will of man. So see, that would have been contradictory to say that. But here we're seeing what is it that makes that statement that John made in John 3, 33 not contradictory.

Realizing that a group of people have been born from above and in that birth been given the ability to receive. The ability to receive is in the spiritual life that comes from above. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God that believe on his name. I know there's commas in there, brethren, but commas weren't in there originally. They're in there for our understanding and the move of deals. But sometimes you got to read that thing straight like it is.

To them, he gave power to become the sons of God to them or to them that believe on his name. He has given them the power of God to become the sons of God, to believe on his name. You have to be a son of God to believe on his name. And then back to that watershed verse, Acts 13 and verse 48. when the gentiles heard this they were glad and glorified the word of the lord and here's that phrase again as many as were ordained now here's where i got what i just said a minute ago about you have to be a son of god to believe to be given the power to believe here it is as many as were ordained to eternal life believed when did the ordination to eternal life begin you gotta ask that question I mean, there's a couple of questions you gotta ask when you read that verse.

Number one, did the Bible actually say as many as were ordained to eternal life believed or as many as believed were given eternal life? That's the question we gotta ask. Well, the Bible says as many as ordained to eternal life believed. So there's the quantifier, right? The as many as are the ones who were ordained to eternal life. Back in our other passage, the as many as were the ones that God gave the power to become the sons of God to believe. It quantifies it.

So it doesn't leave it as a universal thing. So that doesn't mean man has a universal faith in this natural self that can believe because no man receiveth the testimony. Only those who have been given sonship And by sonship, given power in the new birth to believe. Faith is the power of God to believe. And guess what? He doesn't give that power over to me and then say, here's the keys to the car. You now control it. As many as were ordained to return to life.

But the second question there is, When was we ordained to eternal life? Well, I mean, just by simple logic, and I'm not saying that we interpret the Bible by logic, but there is logic in the word of God. Sometimes we can't understand it until we're spiritually revealed, right? But the logic there is, is if you are ordained to eternal life, then the ordination obviously comes before the eternal life, right? You're not ordained to eternal life after you've got the eternal life. You're ordained to eternal life. So the ordination comes before the eternal life. Well, when did God ordain that we receive the ordination of eternal life? Well, we find in scripture in several places that that was before the foundation of the world.

Second Timothy 1.9 says, who has saved us and calls with the holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ before the world began.

Ephesians one, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places in Christ, according as he had chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. When were we ordained to eternal life? Then, when we were given to Christ. When were we given to Christ?

Before the foundation of the world. So your salvation began there. It was purposed there, declared there, or decreed there, and declared there. It was declared finished there in heavenly places. It was declared in time here when Christ was on the cross and said, it is finished. He manifested what was already declared before the foundation of the world. In fact, we know that to be true. because of what, I didn't read the rest of it in 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy 1, 10, but now is made manifest.

He has saved us and called us, not according to your words, but according to his purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who had abolished death, How did Christ abolish death? By his death, right? He abolished death by his death. It was when he was on the cross.

So when did God manifest that which was from the beginning? When Christ died. Christ dying is the manifestation of everything that was declared and decreed at the foundation of the world. That's why Jesus stood as the lamb slain before the foundation of the world.

That's why we believe here, and I don't wanna include everybody, but I think a lot of us here do, but this is why this church holds to and preaches, and most of us here believe, eternal justification, eternal salvation. It's because it is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and has brought life and immortality something, life and immortality to light by the gospel. Me here today preaching the gospel to you isn't giving you an offer to believe it and then receive life. No, it's preaching it to you so that it will bring to light once you've been given that heavenly receptor, that heavenly antenna for you to receive the declaration and report that has already been made. You have been saved from everlasting to everlasting. Christ is your mediator, your surety. He stood as your lamb slain before the foundation of the world. You were in him, you were accepted in the beloved before the foundation of the world.

Accepted in the beloved. How am I accepted by God? Only on the grounds of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. How am I accepted before God? Only if I am holy and without blame. Well, Mark, we're not holy and without blame until we're glorified. No, brethren, we are not holy and without blame until we are glorified. I agree with that. But that's not what it's talking about. It's talking about substitution. It's talking about imputation.

We have stood from the foundation of the world before ever Adam came and was made. And Adam came before God came and made Adam. And Adam sinned. And sin entered into the world and every one of us were born of his seed. before all that ever took place.

God accepted you in Christ Jesus. God accepted you based upon His righteousness that He would perform for you. God accepts you because you are in Him, His seat. You are born of God because of His life flow, eternal life. And that's why you are His children. Because He chose you before the foundation of the world. And He gave you to Christ. And Christ is your Father. He that has received His testimony hath set to His seal.

Brethren, all this stuff is spiritual rot. We know that, John 6, verse 65, right? has to be given, so receiving has to be given, right? Is it 65? Therefore said I unto you that no man can come unto me except it were given unto him of my father. God has to give it to you. If you turn back a page, well, your Bible might be on the same page on my back. No man can come to me, Jesus, except the father which has sent me.

Draw him and I will raise him up at the last day. See, God has to open up the heart before truth can come in. And how does he open up the heart? He gives you a new one. He takes out your heart of stone and puts in a heart of flesh. So that you can receive. He takes out the broken antenna and puts in a new antenna, one that can receive spiritual things.

In John chapter 10, verse 25, Jesus preaching the testimony again here. Jesus answered them, I told you. Matter of fact, look at verse 24, just so you don't think I'm, you know. And Jesus walked in the temple of Solomon's porch. Then came the Jews round about and said unto him, how long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. So what do they want to know? The testimony, are you the Christ? Now remember, didn't we just read? Hope our memories aren't so short that we've forgotten already. Didn't we just read the only ones who believe that he is the Christ are what? The ones who have been born of God, right?

If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you and you believe not. The worst that I do in my father's name, They bear witness of me. So not only did Jesus tell them that he was the Christ, but every work that he had done in front of them was Old Testament proof that he was the Christ. So the prophets testified that he is Christ. His words are testifying that he is Christ.

But what's lacking? You have the prophets, you have the word of God, we have that as well, right? We have the prophets and the word of God in front of us, all of it. Why are they not believing? Why are they not believing? To some, they think that's all you need. If you just have the information in front of you, that's all you need. If you have the information in front of you and explained simple enough for you, then you'll obviously believe, right? Why did Jesus not only send the prophets and the law, by the way, to them to testify of him, then he comes in person and testifies to them by his own words and by his own voice and says here, ye believe not, Verse 26, he's gonna tell them why they don't believe.

Why do they not believe? And listen, why do you or anybody else not believe? If you don't believe this gospel that I'm preaching, if you don't believe sovereign grace, predestination, election, reprobation, if you don't believe in particular redemption, if you don't believe that Jesus only loves his people and not everybody else, If you don't believe those gospel truths, that is the testimony of Jesus himself, he gives you the reason why. Ye believe not because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.

And I give unto who? Eternal life. I give unto them. Now, all of us are grown adults in here mostly. All of us have ability to reason. Now let's just stop for a minute here. What comes first in this passage? What has to be first before other things to take place? You have to have your standing, right? What's my standing have to be? I have to be a sheep. If I am a sheep, then what comes next? I can hear his voice. And if I hear his voice, what happens next? I believe. But there's something tucked into that that we didn't hit, eternal life. I give unto who? The sheep. Eternal life, why? So they can hear and believe.

Brethren, it's all over God's word. Some people think we only like to stay in Ephesians and 2 Timothy and Romans nine. That's our favorite verses or John six, but it's all over everywhere. It's all over everywhere, Jesus. And let's just exclude all the epistles And let's just stick into the gospels. And even more than that, let's just stick into all of the red letter verses. Who preached sovereign grace more than anybody? Jesus did. You can't get more sovereign grace than that.

My sheep hear my voice. I know them known unto God are his people. He has foreknown them. with an everlasting love. I know them and they follow me. Why? Because I give unto them eternal life. They shall never perish, neither shall any man put them out of my hand. Who died for them? Verse 11, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. Who are the sheep?

The ones he gives eternal life to. The ones who he gives belief to. The ones who hear his voice and follow him. But they don't do that to get salvation. They did that because God made them sheep and Christ died for them. Their believing and following Christ comes as the result, the fruit, of their salvation. Salvation preceded everything. It's everywhere, brethren. It's all over God's Word.

Now, what does this set to the seal mean? Back to our passage here. He is set to the seal. John chapter 3, verse 33. He that hath received his testimony has set to his seal that God is true. The people that believe this testimony have set to the seal that God is true. Well, what does set to his seal? That's kind of a weird phrase we don't really use much anymore. What does set to his seal mean? Well, this means that it signifies authentication. It signifies confirmation, right? It signifies the truth of reality. the statement of fact. He that believes this testimony is authenticating the truth of God.

But what is the truth of God? Well, the truth of Jesus is this, no man can do this except God do it for him. Kind of in a nutshell, Jesus is saying, no man can believe on me and come to me and follow me without God doing something for him, in him, so that he can do that. Because until God does that to you, you would never do that. Because the natural man cannot receive those things, but there's something else even on there, and I'll get to that here in just a minute.

So setting to the seal is an authentication It's not a, how do I want to put this? It's not what creates the truth. Whenever we believe on that, that does not make it true. Because you believe it, doesn't make it true. Some people think, well, hey, because John Gill believes this, that's gotta be true. because Gilbert Beebe believes this, it's got to be true. I've heard a lot of preaching from preachers who probably three-fourths of their sermon is quotes of confessions and men, and they do that to basically try to prove to you this is something that you ought to believe because look who is believing this, look who believes this, look what this guy said. I'm not against using quotes, if that quote is there to reinforce or to pass along a truth, but that isn't the basis and grounds on why we should believe it. I used to have debates with guys all the time online, and they would always throw out these creeds, and they would always throw up these theologians.

And they would say, are you telling me that you're smarter than him? And I said, nope, I've just been given different life than that guy has. I've not been given the light to believe that. I've been given the light to believe this, and this is the reason why. Here's the other scriptures that back up why I believe that. I could care less what that guy said. I can find several reasons why he said that, and it's not true. So, you know, it says God gives us understanding of that. But here we see that because we believe That authentication isn't there to make the truth true.

It's to show that what Christ said was true. These people are the only ones who's going to believe this testimony. Remember the Bible said that the gospel is going to be a stumbling block to many. But to them who is given to God, who believes upon Christ Jesus, it's not a stumbling block, because God has given it to them to believe. That's why I said at the very beginning of this, faith is something that God gives, and that faith, if it's a spiritual, divine, supernatural gift of faith, that faith will only rest and look at Christ alone. If it looks at anything else or accepts anything else or believes anything else, that's your faith in your own natural self, doing what you want to do with your faith and thinking that's something, you know, that God's going to look at, and he's not. So faith confesses what is the divine reality.

Look, if you would, at Romans chapter four. Verse eight. Paul here is making several quotes. One he quotes back to Genesis 15. Right now in verse four and verse eight, he is quoting the Psalms. He says, blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. cometh this blessedness what blessedness the imputation uh the non-imputation of sin come this blessedness then upon the circumcision only or upon the jews only are the jews the only one he says come with this blessedness then upon the circumcision only or upon the uncircumcision also for we say that faith was reckoned to abraham faith was reckoned to Abraham. Notice that?

Faith was reckoned to Abraham. It didn't say God reckoned Abraham's faith. That right there is the watershed verse on why in Genesis 15, I changed my mind and my preaching about what I used to preach, that God saw Abraham's faith and God counted Abraham's faith as righteousness. God opened up my eyes to see that faith was reckoned to Abraham. Not because of Abraham. Or reckoned Abraham's faith. Faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. And you go back to Genesis 15. The Bible says that Jesus stood there and he preached the gospel to Abraham.

Told him he was his exceeding great reward and his shield. There is a lot of spiritual implication to that. OK, what is his spiritual or his exceeding great reward and his shield? His propitiation. His righteousness. He told him. Then he starts preaching to him a spiritual illustration that has a physical reality. He says, look at the stars. so shall your seed be. Your righteousness is gonna be as the heaven stars. Can't count them. Your righteousness is gonna be so great, you can't count it. But it's not talking about a seed as multiple, it's a seed individual.

Galatians tells us the interpretation of Genesis 15. The seed was speaking of one person, Jesus Christ. And the Bible says in Genesis 15 that Abraham believed God. So what does that mean? He believed God's testimony about himself, that he was his seed and great reward and shield. His righteousness was Abraham's righteousness. Abraham believed God and he accounted it. What's that it? The seed. He accounted it, the seed, as his righteousness.

It wasn't God accounting it, faith, as Abraham's righteousness, because that would go against what we see in Romans 4 and 9. Faith was reckoned to Abraham, meaning Christ's faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. Just like you, God reckons Christ's faith to you for your righteousness if you're his child. And nobody believes that, including sovereign grace believers. A lot of sovereign grace believers deny that and say that's just the opposite. God looked at Abraham's faith and counted Abraham righteous because of the faith. And it was God's work and faith in him. But he counted that believing as his righteousness. Therefore, we're only justified until God sees that faith in us. But look what it said about Abraham before that faith.

How was it then reckoned when he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. Let me ask you this. Was it accounted to him before or after he left Ur of the Chaldees? It was counted to him before he left Ur of the Chaldees.

Before he ever believed anything about God, that faith was reckoned to Abraham. Not Abraham's faith reckoned to Abraham. Christ's faith was reckoned to Abraham. Therefore, Abraham was counted righteous before God, before Abraham ever believed God about anything.

But look what it says here. And he received the sign of circumcision as seal of the righteousness of faith, which he had yet been uncircumcised. What was the seal? What was the circumcision given? Why did God give Abraham circumcision? To carry out as a seal, as a sign, as a sign of authenticity, as a sign of reality, those who believe they were circumcised.

We have baptism as a sign today and a seal. Why do we baptize? The Bible commands us. For those who believe, the Bible commands that you be baptized in water as a sign and a seal of your authenticity, of your profession of faith in Christ Jesus, of your acknowledgement that he is your righteousness. That's why We do that. That's why we baptize. It isn't just a thing we do because we're Baptists. We baptize because we've been commanded to baptize.

If you're a believer and you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you believe that he is your Savior and that his righteousness is yours and salvation is in him alone, the Bible calls you to be baptized, publicly baptized. That's an ordinance of the church that we are to do. that you were to follow.

But what is that? That is a seal or a sign of the reality. It doesn't make it that. Whenever Peter said, repent and be baptized for the remissions of your sin, that word for the remissions of your sin didn't mean so that your sins would be washed away.

That's what the Campbellites believe. That's what the Church of God people believe. Or Church of Christ people believe. They believe that whenever you go down to that magistrate and you come up, your sins are now washed away. So they believe in what's called baptismal regeneration. Those that I was talking about a while ago that believes that whenever you believe, then you're born again, that's called decisional regeneration. Some look at it whenever you hear the gospel and believe that's gospel regeneration.

But brethren, we believe and teach here at this church at least, and immediate spirit quickening. I don't like to use the term regeneration because that's not supposed to be used for quickening in the sense of us being born from above. Immediate spirit regeneration, if you want to use that term, that is whenever the spirit causes us to be born again so we can believe. So it has to precede hearing. It has to precede faith. It has to be, it precedes believing. My life is given to me so that I can do those things. But look what it says here in, uh, uh, um, turn away Romans back to Romans four real quick.

He received the sign of circumcision, the seal of the righteousness of the faith, which he had yet been uncircumcised. Now we know that circumcision was a physical thing that God give to the Old Testament people, right? Give to the Hebrews to follow after, cutting off of the foreskin was a sign that they had been cleansed but yet we find out in the New Testament that it isn't about the physical circumcision, it's about that which is done spiritually. There's a circumcision that is a spiritual circumcision. And what does circumcision signify in the New Testament?

The new birth. Circumcision signifies the new birth. It's not the continuation, it's not continued as baptism. It is signifying the new birth. God said it is those who have been circumcised of heart. Well, if you go back to the Old Testament, we find out that God is the one who gives us a new heart. God is the one who gives us a heart of flesh, a spiritual heart in that new birth. So circumcision is talking about the new birth. And Paul here, whenever he talks about this, is bringing up that imagery of circumcision with Abraham to bring people's thoughts into this new birth.

The reason that we have been given the new birth is so that we can believe. We can't receive the testimony of our righteousness in Christ unless we've been circumcised in heart. That's what set to his seal means. So back in our passage, it says, he that hath received his testimony has set to his seal that God is true. So the fact that we believe this shows that God is true in what he says.

No man can believe this except it be given to him. Why? For he whom God has sent speaketh the words of God, for God giveth not the spirit by him to measure. But no man believed it. There was no one who believed his testimony, but only as many as received him. The father loveth the son and hath given all things into his hands. Now, here it is. Here's the isolated verse that everybody goes to to prove that if you believe, then you get saved.

He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. There you go, preacher. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. Notice that it says that he hath everlasting life. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. He already has it. He that believeth on the Son.

But look at the context that led up to that verse. Let's just isolate that and say that it does mean something future. If you believe this, then you'll get this. Let's just say that it's conditional. Well, what did the context of John 3 Starting back with Jesus and Nicodemus, tell us about those who will believe and get eternal life. If you want to put it in the conditional terms, who got it? The ones who were born from above. The ones who received it. The ones who were given to Christ. The ones who were his sheep.

All the context of scripture tells us how to think and believe and to interpret, and in my case as a preacher and pastor, how to preach this. I'm not to preach this as an offer of salvation. I'm not to preach this as an invitation to come. I'm not to preach this as a condition that you must meet. I'm to declare this as the truth of God about your salvation. So God, my friends, is the true sealer. He's the one who seals. Look at 1 Corinthians, or excuse me, I think it's 2 Corinthians. Look it up real quick here. Yes, it's 2 Corinthians chapter 1,

22. I wanna back up to verse 18, it says, but as God is true, Our word toward you is not yay and nay. God's word toward, or God is true. And the word that we preach to you is not, well, do you think it's true or not? Yay or nay, or take it or leave it, whatever you think about it. No, what do we do? We preach this as a truth.

You know why I preach this as a truth and say, well, you know, because God's word is true. And I believe with all my heart, what I'm saying is God's truth. Now I could be wrong, and I always let that be known. I am a man who can be deceived. I have been in the past. So you have to compare everything that I say with God's word. But God's word is not a yes or no, a do you receive it or not receive it, It is not an offer of this or that. It's the truth. And there's only one truth. There's not two ways about it.

For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us. Who do they preach? Jesus Christ. Even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus was not yea and nay, but in him was yea. It was saying this is a matter of fact in Christ. They preached it in him. Everything that they preached about Jesus. They preached as this is everything is true and it's true in him. It's not true in us, not true in you. It's not up to you to finish it off. No, it was true in him. For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him, amen, unto the glory of God by us. Now he which establisheth us with you in Christ and hath anointed us is God.

Verse 22, who hath also sealed us and given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. So how is the authentication How is the confirmation, how is the truth and reality of the testimony shown in us by our believing? But how is it that we come to believe? Because the Spirit has been given to us as an earnest. The Spirit has given us as an earnest. The Spirit is the one who testifies to our spirit that this is true. Until we come into the reality of seeing God face to face, and the Bible says that our faith will end in sight, we're given the Spirit as an earnest to continually teach us and tell us that this is true. to continually point us to Jesus Christ. Why? Because the Spirit never testifies about Himself. The Spirit never testifies about the church. The Spirit never testifies about the preacher or the denomination or the organization or yourself. The Spirit always, always, always will exalt and lift up and point to the finished resting work of Jesus Christ. That is why the Spirit has been given in earnest to us. We always say that he's been given to us as a down payment. That is true. The word earnest means a down payment.

God has given us the Spirit to seal us that we are his. He's gone about all the world and all of his elect wherever they are scattered across the world, God has sealed in their forehead that they are his. How has he done that? By the Spirit of God, putting the Spirit of God in them. But he's also given the Spirit of God, not only to make claim upon them, but so that they can make claim that this is mine.

Now, I don't mean to keep reiterating this, but there is only one mediator between God and man. And Christ Jesus is that comforter who has been sent back to us to do what? To testify of Him. Jesus is mediating God to us. He mediated us to God through His death and resurrection and obedience.

But brethren, now He sits at God's right hand, meaning He has all authority. He's sitting at God's right hand as His power, and by His Spirit, He comes back to us. and he mediates himself to us. This is who I am and this is what I've done. This is the testimony. And so God has sealed that.

So faith honors God's truth. Faith doesn't validate who God is. Faith believes the truth about God. Faith believes the truth about your salvation. All these things Faith does, but faith is a fruit of what you already have in Christ Jesus. It's never the cause of it. You have it and praise the Lord for it, but you have it because he died for you, because he chose you before the foundation of the world to be his, because he loves you. And because he loves you, he died for you. And because he died for you, all the promises and inheritance that are his, he's given to you. But don't ever be so bold and brash and arrogant to think that he did it because you did something for him. That's not the gospel. All right, does anybody have any questions or comments? Corrections or rebuke? Anybody got anything you'd like to share? You guys got anything you'd like to share? All right.

I want to remind you guys, February the 28th, Saturday, is the fifth Saturday fellowship that we were going to have a couple of weeks ago in Delaware, Oklahoma, First Baptist Church, Delaware, Oklahoma. but it's gonna be, it got moved because all the snow that didn't move go away.

We'll have it on February the 28th. I have preaching in the morning. I think that starts at 10 o'clock. So we'll have preaching and then we'll have lunch and we'll come back and have some more preaching. There'll be some hymn singing, all inner sparks between all that. So you guys wanna do that and come and join in the fellowship on that Saturday if you're able to.

We'll get you all the information for that if you don't have it already. But First Baptist Church of Delaware, Oklahoma. All right. Anybody got anything? All right, let's pray. Father, once again, we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ and for the testimony that has been given in and through him.

Father Lord, Thank you for the spirit that we've been given so that that testimony now resides within us to teach us, to grow us in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you, Father, for the gospel. We thank you for gospel preachers and teachers, wherever you have raised them up in whatever capacity you've raised them up in. We thank you for the truth.

And Lord, we just pray that you would keep us in that truth. Lord, we see so often throughout history, many churches that have held to the truth and preached the truth and declared the truth over time no longer exist and no longer preach that truth. And we know that you are the head of your church and that it rises and it is diminished at your command. But Lord, we know that as long as your presence is with us, that we will be kept, will be preserved, and Lord, that we will be given to enjoy and find comfort in the fellowship, not only of the brethren, but the fellowship with you, centered around your gospel. So Lord, I pray that you might keep that in our midst. May we never fall away from that.

And Lord, I just thank you for all these brethren that you've brought here today. I thank you for the safety that you give them. over these last few weeks through the snow and the ice. Lord, I thank you for the time to get together again and how we so miss our times together. And Lord, I pray that you give them safety as they go home. Lord, that you'd be with us this week, that you would minister to us by Christ. And Father, Lord, that you might exalt your son wherever he is preached today. For it's in Christ's name that we pray these things, amen.