Now we ended last week's lesson,
verse 10, where John told us if we don't believe God, we've
made God a liar. He said there at the end of verse
10, he that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because
he believeth not the record that God gave of his son. If we don't
believe the record that God has given us of his son, we've made
him a liar. Now verse 11 where we begin this
week, he says, and this is the record. This is the record that
God gave of his son. This is the record that God has
given to us eternal life. And this life is in his son.
Now this word record means testimony or witness. This is the testimony
that God has given to us. That he has given us eternal
life. Now who is the us that God has
given eternal life to? It's the people, first of all,
that John's writing this letter to. He has given the sons of
God eternal life. If you look back in chapter 3,
here's the us that John's talking about. Verse 1, Behold, what
manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should
be called the sons of God. The us he's talking about here
are sons of God. Verse 2, Beloved, now are we
the sons of God. That's who he's writing to, and
that's who God has given eternal life to, his sons and daughters,
sons of God. If you look over in chapter 5,
verse 13, the us he's referring to here is believers. In verse
13, he says, these things have I written unto you that believe
on the name of the Son of God. That's who he's writing to, the
us here are believers, and that's the people that God has given
eternal life to. It's his elect. Those people
who believe Him. God has given His elect the free
gift of eternal life. And when He gives us eternal
life, now this is a gift. It's not something we deserved.
It's not something we earned. It's not something we merited.
It's a gift. It's a free gift from God's sovereign
grace. It's a gift that He gave to His
elect simply because it pleased Him. It pleased God to give us
this gift. Now, that's who He gave the gift
to. Now, why do we need it? Why do we need this gift of eternal
life? Because we died in Adam. When
God created Adam in the garden, Adam had life, but he lost it. When he disobeyed God and took
of that fruit, God told him, dying thou shalt die. He died
spiritually. And when Adam lost his life,
he lost life for every one of his descendants. Every one of
Adam's descendants were born just like him. Dead. Spiritually
dead. We come into this world dead
in trespasses and sins. And we'll stay that way. A dead
person can't do anything to improve their situation. They're dead.
We'll stay that way. Dead. Unless God moves in grace
and gives us this gift of eternal life. And this free gift of life
is given to every one of God's elect. He gave it to us in eternity
past. In the covenant of grace, when
Christ agreed to be our surety, to be our substitute, to redeem
those that the Father gave Him, in the mind and purpose of God,
the transaction was done. We were justified, given life
in Him. And then in time, we were made
meet. That's what Dan Culver preached
from last Sunday. Meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in life. We are made fit in time. The Holy Spirit of truth is the
earnest of the inheritance. And one day we'll enjoy this
gift perfectly, free from sin. One day we'll have it. But we'll
have it then because we've been given it now. We'll see that
some more here in a few minutes. But this life that God has given
as a gift is the life of God. It's a life of holiness, the
life of righteousness, It's a life of peace in Christ. It's a life
of joy in Him. And it's eternal life. When we've
been given this life now, you're free from death forever, because
this is eternal life. You know these bodies will still
die, but you won't, because you have eternal life. You can't
die. Now God's given eternal life, given us His elect eternal
life. Now I want that life, don't you?
I want to know where I can get this life. Where is it? Where
is it to be found? Well, He doesn't leave it to our imagination.
This life is in His Son. It's not in anything we do or
can conjure up. Life is found in the Lord Jesus
Christ. There's death in Adam. And that's
all there is in Adam. But there's life in Christ. The
second Adam, there's life and there's nothing but life in Him.
that Adam represented died when Adam fell. And everyone that
Christ represented has life in him. And it's not just that this
eternal life was promised in Christ, although it was, it was
promised in him before the world began. It's not just that he
purchased life for us on Calvary's tree, although he did. We have
this life through the blood of His sacrifice. It's not just
that He purchased these things for us or that it was promised
to us. Christ is our life. It's not just a thing that He
gives. He is our life. Over in Colossians chapter 3,
that's what Paul wrote to the church at Colossae. It's not just a doctrine. It's
not a thing. Christ is our life. In verse 4 of Colossians 3, when
Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then we shall appear
with Him in glory. We shall also appear with Him
in glory. Christ is our life. And I put in my notes that spiritual
life is in Christ, and that's true. But spiritual life really
is Christ. That's what it is. And we have
life. We have spiritual life. through
a union, what the old timers called a vital union with Christ. We have it through faith, being
joined to him through faith. A tree branch has life in it,
doesn't it? If you cut it, you see it has
life in it. It has sap flowing through it,
but it has life because it's connected to the trunk. which
is connected to the root. The life that's flowing through
that branch is really the life of the tree, the life of the
root, the trunk, or like our Lord said, the life of the vine.
That branch has life because it's connected to the vine. But
if you separate it from the vine, if you separate a branch from
the trunk, pretty soon all you're going to have is a dry stick
that you burn, that you just throw into the fire. It'll be
dead unless it's connected to that vine. And that's the way
we have life. in the Lord Jesus Christ by being
connected to him through faith. And everything outside of Christ
is a dead stick, just a dry, dead stick. It's death. And this
life is eternal life. We'll have it as long as Christ
lives. As long as he is, we'll have
this life. Because he lives, we live. And
because of that, we'll never lose our life. This life is hid
in Christ with God. And it's eternal. It's secure
as long as he lives. As long as he is, we have this
life. And that's the life that God's given to his people. Now,
verse 12, he that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not
the Son of God hath not life. Now, if this life is in his Son,
it's obvious that he who has the Son has life. I like apples. If I want a bunch of apples,
I need to go to the store and buy them a bag at a time. I can
have a tree. If you've got the tree, you've
got the apples. If you've got the fountain, you've
got the water. If you have Christ, you have
life because he is life. Look at John 3, verse 16. You
see real very plainly where the apostle learned this. If you
have Christ, you have life. John 3, verse 36. It's our Lord
speaking. He says, He that believeth on
the Son hath everlasting life. And he that believeth not the
Son shall not see life. Not only does he not have it,
he'll not see it. But the wrath of God abideth
on him. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. I will look that word, hath,
up. And it means just what you think it means. It means to possess.
But in the original, you know, one of the other definitions
this word has is to be closely joined to a person or thing. And that's how we have life,
by being closely joined to the Lord Jesus Christ. So closely
joined that we're one with him. were joined to him through faith.
That's why the old timers called this a vital union. You can't
have it, life, without this union with Christ. And this life comes
through faith. Through our Lord said, he who
believeth on the name of the Son of God. It comes through
faith by believing him. And again, this is written to
us in the present tense. He hath life. Right now, if you
believe Christ, right now, you have eternal life. It's not something
that you have to wait for someday. It's not like your old man's
been given a little bit of light, a little bit of knowledge, and
a little flicker of light, and someday you'll have life. No.
That old man is still dead. He'll never be made alive. That
which is flesh is flesh. There'll never be anything but
dead, sinful flesh. That flesh is not going to change.
When God gives this gift of life, it's new life. Life that's never
existed before. New life and a new birth. And
that's the same life that you'll have in glory. The only difference
is there, we're not going to be dragging around this old dead
man. We're going to be free. You're
going to put this dead man, old man in the ground, and there,
you're going to be perfectly free from sin. From the presence
of sin, from the effects of sin, thought of sin, this life will
be free from sin. And that's what we have if we
have the Son, if we believe Him. But now, those who don't have
the Son don't have life. Anyone who doesn't have faith
in Christ is still dead in their sins. They're still the same
way that they came, the same way they were born dead. And
to reject Christ is to reject life. To reject Christ is just
what comes naturally to human beings. And when we reject Christ,
we refuse to believe Him. All we're showing is what our
Lord told us our nature is. We love darkness rather than
light. We love death rather than life. That's the only reason
that it could possibly be given that we would reject the Lord
Jesus Christ. And we refuse to believe Him.
He who hath not the Son of God hath not life. Now, verse 13. You know these things. And John
says, These things have I written unto you that believe on the
name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal
life, and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God.
Now, everything John's written in this letter has been written
to believers. He says, I'm writing unto you that believe on the
name of the Son of God. And he's written in a short epistle
some powerful truths for the believer. He's written unto us
that our joy may be full in Christ. He wrote unto us, he said, that
you sin not, but when any man sin, we have an advocate with
the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous, who is the propitiation
for our sins. He's written unto us that in
our daily lives, we follow the example of our Lord. He's written
unto us, he told us time and time again, that we'd show our
love for the He's written unto us that we'll continue in the
faith, that we abide in Him. He's written unto us so that
we'll know we've overcome the world, that in Christ we've gotten
the victory. He's written unto us so that
we'll know that we've passed from death unto life. He's written
unto us to remind us that we love Him because He first loved
us. Now, He's written all these things,
He says, so that you'll know that you have eternal life. Now
there's a lot of things we don't know. There's a lot of things
we don't know. We don't know anything about
the secret will of God. What's going to happen tomorrow,
I have absolutely no idea. That's the secret will of God.
But we can't use that as an excuse for ignorance because there's
a lot of things we do know. There's a lot of things that
are revealed, the revealed will of God that are plainly revealed
in Scripture. John uses the word know 22 times
in this short epistle. 22 times. There are some things
that we know. I wrote them down, put them in
my notes. Chapter 2, verse 3. Hereby we
do know that we know Him if we keep His commandments. Little
children, he said in chapter 2, verse 18, it's the last time.
And as you've heard, that the Antichrist shall come, and even
now are many Antichrists, whereby we know. It's the last time. We know we live in the last time.
Chapter 2, verse 29. If you know that He's righteous,
you know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of Him.
That's the only way they can do righteousness, if they're
born of Him. We know that. Chapter 3, verse 2. Beloved,
now are we the sons of God. And it doth not yet appear what
we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we'll be
like Him. We'll be as He is. For we shall see Him as He is.
Chapter 3, verse 5, we know that He was manifested to take away
our sin, and in Him was no sin. Chapter 3, verse 14, we know
we've passed from death unto life because we love the present.
I don't wonder if I've been made alive. I know that. I know I
have life. I saw a friend of mine, I hadn't
seen him in a long time, and we were talking, and he said,
I know there's a new man in me. I know that. Where does the hatred
of sin come from? I wasn't born with that. God
gave it. I know I've been made alive.
He's right. Chapter 3, verse 19. We know
that we're of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him.
Chapter 3, verse 24. He that keepeth his commandments
dwelleth in him and he in him. And hereby we know he abideth
in us by the spirit which he has given us. Chapter 4, verse
6, hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
We know what's truth and we know when we hear error when we hear
it. Chapter 4, verse 13, hereby know we that we dwell in him
and he in us because he hath given us of his spirit. Verse
2, chapter 5, by this we know that we love the children of
God when we love God and keep his commandments. Chapter 5,
verse 18, we know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not. In
verse 20, we know that the Son of God has come and has given
us an understanding that we may know Him that's true, that we're
in Him that is true, even His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the
true God and eternal life. We know these things, don't you? We know those things. That's
the ABCs of the gospel. You know those things. Now, you think about it. If God
the Father sent His Son to die for you and me as our substitute,
if God Almighty has mercy and grace in our souls, if God, who
the heavens cannot contain, shed His love abroad in your heart,
If God the Holy Spirit takes up residence in our hearts, I
promise you, we'll know it. Something that glorious cannot
go unnoticed, can it? God would not allow something
that gives so much honor and glory to His Son to go unnoticed. He'll give you eyes to see that.
He'll give you a heart to love it. You know that. And John says,
I've written these things and you believe first. that you may
know that you have eternal life, and that you may believe on the
name of the Son of God." Well, if he's already writing to believers,
why is he writing these things to us so we'll believe? I thought
we already believed. Why don't you? You do too, don't
you? What he means is that we'll continue believing. That our
faith will grow. We'll continue to grow stronger
in faith. We'll believe Him more fully.
You know, when a baby's born, that baby takes a breath. Wouldn't it be a shame if that's
the last breath that child ever took? We wanted to continue breathing. That's what we're headed. We
want to continue believing, continue growing. Everything that's written
in the Scriptures, everything that's told us in the gospel,
concerns salvation in Christ. That's what this book is about.
Salvation in Him. And that message tells us that
all men are sinners. Sinners through and through.
That message of the gospel commands every man everywhere to repent
and believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That message
points us to Christ, to look to Him, to find in Him all we
need, that He is the sole object of our faith. Now that's the
message of the gospel. That's the message that God uses
to save sinners. And that's also the message that
God uses at the very same time to feed His sheep. That's the
message that kills and the message that at the same time makes alive. It kills the flesh and gives
life in the spirit. And our faith is confirmed and
it grows by hearing the message of Christ. By hearing the same
message that God used to save us. Hearing the same message
that God used to reveal himself to us. You don't need one message
for the Lord to save you and then another message to grow
in grace. There's just one gospel. There's only one message. And
it's the same message. Now, as we grow, we enter into
it more fully, don't we? We love it more. We can drink
of it more deeply. We have a greater understanding. But it's the same message. The
same gospel. And the only way our faith is
going to grow is by hearing about the Lord Jesus Christ over and
over and over again. Hearing more about Him and learning
more about Him will cause our faith to grow. Now verse 14,
John says, this is the confidence that we have in him, that if
we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us. Now
this confidence John's talking about is boldness. Now, where
does that confidence come from? Confidence in prayer before God. Well, it comes from being a child
of God. A few years ago, Janet and I took a tour of the White
House during the Clinton administration. And we're walking through there,
taking a tour, and I start talking to the guards, you know, and
the people that are there. And this one fellow was telling
me, he said, at 2.30, we start taking all this stuff up, all
the velvet ropes and the red runner carpet that you walk on,
we take all that up starting at 2.30. Because by 3 o'clock,
Ms. Clinton wants this place to look
like a home. She doesn't want it to look like a tourist attraction.
She wants it to look like a home. Because at 3 o'clock, Chelsea
came home. And she wanted her coming home
to home. And I said, the family uses this room like you're wearing
right now? He said, yeah. He said, when
we take up these rope feet and put a TV over here in the corner,
he said, matter of fact, this is the room Chelsea comes to
and she does her homework. And sometimes she brings friends.
They just lay here on the floor and do homework and talk and
stuff. Right here, you know? Janet couldn't
believe it. These kids are laying this old
threadbare rug. She's embarrassed. And it's probably
a rug from who knows what president. It's priceless. Horrified, these
kids are laying in this threadbare rug. But there they are, just
laying around doing their homework. Now, if I kicked off my shoes
and walked, I wouldn't plop down on the floor, I'd sit in one
of the chairs, you know, and start reading a book, they'd
haul me out of their handcuffs. It never crossed my mind to cross
over those ropes and sit in one of those chairs. I mean, in my
wildest imagination, it never crossed my mind. Chelsea never
would have thought to do otherwise. Why? Why does she have the confidence
and boldness to do that and I didn't? Because of who her daddy is.
Her daddy's president. Why do you have boldness? To
come and lay your heart out before the Father. Knowing I'm not saying
everything right. I'm probably saying it all wrong,
but I'm going to lay my heart out in prayer. Why? Because of
who your Father is. God's your Father. And that gives
you confidence and boldness to come before Him in prayer. You
can have confidence and boldness to come before the Father in
Christ, in the Beloved. Look at Ephesians chapter 3. Ephesians 3 verse 11. According
to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our
Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by
the faith of Look over in Hebrews chapter 10. See where this confidence
comes from being in Christ. Hebrews 10 verse 19. Having therefore, brethren, boldness
to enter into the holiest house by the blood of Jesus, through
the blood of the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we
can have boldness and confidence to come before the Father in
Christ because He's our Father. And John says, if we ask anything
according to His will, God hears us. Now, that's pretty heady
stuff, isn't it? That if we ask anything according
to His will, God hears us? Well, we have to remember that
this is according to His will, according to the revealed will
of God. I don't know what the Lord's
will is in the Middle East. I have no idea how that situation
is going to turn out. But I know what the Lord's will
is concerning salvation. I know that. I know that we're
to come to God and beg for mercy for Christ's sake. I know that's
the revealed will of God. I know that it's God's will that
we look to Christ, look to Him, and be saved all ye ends of the
earth. I know that. And there are a lot of things
that we're not to pray for. We're not to pray for things
that are against the will of God. Look down at verse 16. We'll
get into this next week. John says, If any man see his
brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask that
he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. Now,
there is a sin unto death, and I do not say that he shall pray
for it, for apostasy is what he's talking about there. We're
not to pray for people who are apostates. We're not to pray
that the Lord save every son of Adam, because that's not the
Lord's will. That's against the revealed will of the Lord. One
of the writers said it this way. He said, we're not to pray that
the Lord save every son of Adam, but we're still to pray for specific
people, because we don't know whether they're one of the Lord's
elect. He said, we don't even know necessarily sometimes somebody's
apostate. We're to pray for specific people
and then pray, thy will be done. to pray according to the Lord's
will. That's why we pray for Christ's sake. Thy will be done. And I know part of this praying
according to his will is praying in submission to his will. To
make our petitions known and then whatever the Lord does is
all right by me. Conforming my will to his will.
Thy will be done. Now, verse 15. He says, and if
we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have
the petitions that we desire to him. Now, you know full well,
John's not saying, go out there and pray to win the lottery.
And if you pray just like you win the lottery, that tell me
none of y'all praying very good because nobody's won the lottery
and everybody'd like to. And that's not part of the Lord's
revealed will, whether or not we'll win the lottery. I suspect
I know, but I don't know for sure. What he's saying here is
if we ask anything according to the revealed will of God,
his will that's revealed in the word, we'll have that petition.
Now, what we've been talking about here in context, we've
been talking about life being found in Christ, salvation in
Christ. And if I ask the Lord to save
me that way, according to the word, according to his will,
he'll hear that prayer and answer that prayer. And that goes to
every kind of prayer. If we pray according to God's
will, he'll answer that prayer. We'll have the petition that
we ask of him sooner or later in his time. Look over 2 Corinthians
chapter 12. We'll have the petition that
we ask of him one way or another. 2 Corinthians 12 verse 7. Paul says, unless I should be
exalted above measure, Through the abundance of the revelations,
there was given unto me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of
Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For
this thing I have besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart
from me. And he said unto me, My grace
is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will
I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. That prayer of Paul wasn't answered
exactly like he thought, like he wanted it to when he first
started praying, was it? In the end, he had the answer
to his prayer. He had the grace of God. I'll
tell you a story about this verse I thought about this morning. When my dad died, We had the funeral, and my buddy,
Jeff Bangle, came to the funeral. He brought his daughter, Katie.
Katie's a little thing. She's probably eight years old.
And she came in that big room. And Katie, I saw Katie and Jeff,
and I started going over to them. She just broke down, sobbing,
crying, just a big old tear, red face. And I came up to her
and thanked her for coming. She wouldn't look at me in the
face. She just kept her head down, and she was crying. And
I got down on my knee. and told her, now, Katie, you
look at me. I'm going to tell you something. I said, this is
alright. And she looked at me like I had snakes come out of
here. She didn't believe me. This is not alright. And I told
her, I said, Katie, have you ever heard your mom or dad or
a preacher quote a verse that says my grace is sufficient for
thee? And she said, you know, I shook
her head yes. I said, you know what that means? And she said,
no. I said, I'll tell you what it means. It means God's grace
is enough. It's enough. This is, I told
her, I'm sad, but God's grace is enough. It's more to make
this okay. That's what he's saying. He may
not deliver us from the thorn in the flesh, but he'll give
us grace so that we're rather there for glory in our infirmities. His grace is sufficient, isn't
it? All right. Well, Hope Adam, bless
you.