Well, although 1 John chapter
5 was extremely relevant to what we're looking at, the text is
actually in John's Gospel and chapter 6. And it's the verses
towards the end, verses which I often refer to but I felt very
much constrained to come back in the light of what we were
thinking about last week, which was Matthew 19 at the end of
it, where Peter says, we disciples have forsaken all and followed
Christ. What therefore shall our compensation
be, if you like? Forsaken all and followed Christ. Followed Christ? Why Christ? Why is Christ so important? I mean, people make themselves
followers of all sorts of other historical characters. Philosophers
from the past. Politicians from the past. People
make themselves followers of them. Why is Christ so important? Why is Christ, might I say, unique? You know that word unique? You
can't have degrees of uniqueness. There's either only one or there
are variability and it isn't only one. You can't have something
that is fairly unique. It's either unique or it isn't.
There's no half measures. Why is Christ unique? There is
nobody, absolutely nobody, like the Lord Jesus Christ. He asked
the Pharisees, the rulers, a question, what think ye of Christ? What
think ye? This is it. This is the critical
test of life and of eternity. I ask you all, anybody listening
to this at any stage, What think ye of Christ? That is the crucial... I could ask you how much money
you have, where you live, what your status is, what degrees
you have, what knowledge, what language you speak, what ethnicity.
All of it is ultimately, utterly irrelevant compared with this.
What do you think of Christ? You see, Christ, and he's coming
in the middle of time, in the middle of, according to scripture,
in the middle of time, is pivotal to world history. The whole of
world history, in truth, pivots around the coming of Christ and
his death on the cross of Calvary. The whole of it does. The very
essence of true eternal life to God's people is Christ and
his coming in the middle of time. When the fullness of the time
was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under
the law, to redeem those who are under the law. As we read
in 1 John chapter 5, that coming of Christ in the middle of time
is the very essence of true, eternal life to God's people. Wouldn't you have true, eternal
life and the assurance of it? You must know Christ. You must
be in Christ. Now, few, very, very few truly
know anything about Christ today. Very few, don't they? Very few.
When I was growing up, everybody in this country knew of Christ,
something of Christ. But today, you'll come across
swathes of people who've never ever heard the name other than
a curse and a swear word. That's just typical of the blasphemy
of the fallen heart. But he's central to absolutely
everything. Think back to Roman times, the
time when Christ did come into history. He was expected. Christ was expected then. Daniel's
prophecy was so clear that at that time, the 70 weeks, all
of that showed exactly the time when he should come. He was expected
in Roman times. And do you know something? I
learned this preparing for this. Even Roman historians, would
you believe, expected some mighty king with a universal empire
to arise in the East. Even pagan Roman historians expected
a mighty king to arise in the East with a mighty universal
empire. And the Jews, they had an even
clearer expectation that Christ would come into history. They
had the oracles of God, as Paul tells the Romans. What advantage
is there to the Jew? Much every way. They have the
oracles of God, the word of God, the inspired scriptures. They
have the oracles of God. They had what Peter later called
that more sure word of prophecy, the written word of God, to which
we do well to take heed. They had an expectation that
as John the Baptist's father Zacharias said, the day spring
from on high hath visited us. That Christ is the promised Christ. Who is this promised Christ that's
coming? He's the seed of the woman. When Adam and Eve fell
in the Garden of Eden into sin and Satan triumphed there in
the fall, God promised that there would be a seed of the woman.
A representative seed, as in Adam all die, there's a seed
coming Christ, and as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall
his people be made alive. There's a seed of a woman coming.
Jacob prophesied about the coming of this so vital, important one,
this uniquely important one. In Genesis 49, blessing his sons,
in verse 10, he says of Judah, the scepter, the symbol of power. In the houses of parliament there's
a scepter. It's a symbol of kingly power. The scepter shall not depart
from Judah, from the tribe of Judah, because from the tribe
of Judah shall Shiloh come. Shiloh? was the Christ, a name
for the Christ. The Christ is coming, the seed
of the woman, to redeem the people of God from the curse of the
law by himself being made a curse for them. He is coming. Even
false prophets foretold of him coming. Even Balaam, who desired
the riches and the favour of Moab, the destruction of Israel,
couldn't but say what God told him to say. False prophet though
he was, and he says in Numbers 24, 17, there shall come a star
out of Jacob and a scepter, symbol of power, shall arise out of
Israel. He's speaking of the coming Christ,
that vital one, that one that's uniquely needed. for the salvation
of his people. And then all the prophets from
Isaiah onwards, they're all pointing to one who would come to redeem,
to pay the sin debt price, to pay the price of liberty from
the enslavement to sin, of the people loved by God before the
beginning of time, the sinners loved by God before the beginning
of time, those that he calls his elect. The number that no
man can number, an innumerable multitude, from every tribe and
tongue and kindred, loved by God before the beginning of time
for nothing other than the sovereign choice of God. Not of him that
wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy.
And we come to the actual time when Christ was born. And there's
the old man Simeon in the temple, and the old woman, the prophetess
Anna, in the temple. And what are they doing? They're
very old and frail, but they're waiting because God has told
them, you will see, you will see the promised one who has
been promised for all these years since the fall, he is coming. You will see a baby who will
grow to be the Messiah, the Christ of God, to redeem
his people from the curse of the law. And the rulers of the
Jews, they were expecting as well about that time. The Magi
came from the East, didn't they? The wise men, as they're called.
The Magi came. Because why? They were looking,
I think they were looking, in what was left of where the Chaldean
Empire used to be when Daniel prophesied there in Babylon,
those hundreds of years before, and in some library there was
a copy of the Scriptures, and there they'd got the prophecy
of the book of Daniel, and they'd seen about this time, he's coming. The promised one, the essential
one, is coming. And they were looking, and they
said, while we were in the east, we've seen his star. A star shall
arise. Isn't that what Balaam said?
A star out of Jacob. We've seen his star while we
were in the east, and we have come to worship him. And the
rulers went out, because John the Baptist came to prepare the
way of the Lord, to proclaim repentance to God and in a very
simple style not like the religious leaders out in the wilderness
and the people went out to him and the rulers were intrigued
by him because they were looking for the Christ and they went
out and they asked John the Baptist John 1 19 and 20 the Jews sent
priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him to ask John the Baptist
who are you And he confessed and denied not, but confessed,
I am not the Christ. They were asking him, are you
the Christ who is coming? And he said, no, it's not me.
It's not me. I'm just preparing the way, as Isaiah has said,
make the way straight, make the rough places plain. The Jewish
rulers even asked Christ when he was teaching, they said to
him, They knew they were expecting a Christ to come. If thou be
the Christ, tell us plainly. Tell us plainly. See, they were
expecting. Is this the one? Why didn't they
see his miracles? His miracles testified as to
who he was. No man, no prophet, nobody had
ever performed miracles like he did. Why did he perform miracles? Were they just the tricks of
a very clever magician? Not at all. The miracles that
he performed were miracles that completely turned the laws of
science on their head, for one purpose, to testify that the
words he spoke were the word of God, the truth. His miracles
testified as to who he was. Who else had ever taken a man
who had been born without eyes, with just sockets but no eyeballs,
and from the mud of the ground had made Do you know how complicated
an eyeball is? Do you know how complicated it
is? In a moment, in a word, had made him eyes that saw. This
was the kind of miracle that he did. The dead were raised.
The lepers were healed. Picture of sin. The lepers were
healed. Demons were cast out, showing his triumph over the
world of darkness. And his teaching, this sun, so-called,
of Joseph, a northern carpenter. Can you imagine it in this country?
Those of our friends in America, north and south are the wrong
way round compared with in this country. In the south it's where
the refined, sophisticated people live, and up north they're all
very rough and they're a bit thick and, you know, they don't
talk proper and all this kind of thing. It's a complete travesty
of the truth in actual fact. But nevertheless, that is a common
mis... perception of the way things
are. And to them, it was like people in the south of England
regarding the Christ as somebody who came from, let's say, where
should we say? Middlesbrough. Something like that. Someone
who came from, how can anything good come out of Middlesbrough?
Can anything, I mean, they're all hopeless up there. They don't
know a solitary thing. You see, that was the attitude
to this Christ from Nazareth in Galilee. Who is he? Who does he think he is? He's
not been to university, he's not got any degrees, yet he taught
with authority and not like the scribes. Many of the rulers even
believed with a natural faith, with a rational reasoning. It
says in John 12, 42, among the chief rulers also many believed
on him. But because of the Pharisees,
they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the
synagogue. For they loved the praise of men more than the praise
of God. You see, they actually believed
that this one was the Christ that was promised, but they weren't
sufficiently persuaded to actually follow him. They weren't persuaded
to forsake their synagogue reputation and follow him. They weren't
prepared to do what the disciples had done when Jesus said, follow
me, follow me, and they left their nets and followed him.
Many had followed Jesus, but for a fleshly motive. And we
find them in John chapter 6. Look at verse 26. Verse 26 of
John chapter 6. You see, he'd fed the 5,000,
and then he goes onto the lake, Lake of Galilee, and goes to
the other side of it, and the crowds followed him. And in verse
26, Jesus answered them. You see, they'd asked him, oh,
when did you come here? This is good that we're back
with you. When did you come here? And Jesus
answered them and said, verily, verily, I say unto you, ye seek
me, not because she saw the miracles, and the implication is believed
the Christ, but because she did eat the loaves and were filled.
You've got your bellies full of bread and fish, that's why.
You thought, hey, this is easier than going out to work, isn't
it? You came for that which satisfies the body. He says in verse 27,
labor not for the meat which perishes, but for that meat which
endures unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give
unto you. For him, the hath God the Father
sealed. It's only in Him that you will
have that true bread. Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And Christ
is the Word of God. Look in verse 31, they then said
to him, well, we want a miracle. You've been doing miracles, we
want another one. You see, you've been doing some miracles, but
you're not come close yet to 40 years of manna in the wilderness
when our fathers came out of Egypt. And for forty years they
ate manna in the desert, as it is written. He gave them bread
from heaven to eat. Verse 32, Jesus said to them,
verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread
from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
That manna was just for the sustenance of the body, for their wilderness
wanderings, which was a punishment for their disobedience and unbelief.
But he says, my father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is not something
that you eat with your mouth. It's he which comes down from
heaven and gives life to the world. Then they said to him,
Lord, evermore give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, aye.
and the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But
I said unto you that ye also have seen me and believed not. You see, they had unbelieving
hearts. They said in response to that,
because they're getting confused now, they're getting a bit annoyed
about this, in verse 42, they said, hold on a minute, who does
this guy think he is? Who does he think he is? Is this
not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know,
the lad from the north, from Nazareth? How is it then that
he says, I came down from, you didn't come down from heaven,
you came down from Nazareth in the north. You know, you're just
a bloke from Middlesbrough, we might say in Southern England.
Who do you think you are? Isn't this Joseph's son? And
they're saying, we don't get what he's saying. So Christ underlines
his doctrine. He tells them what his doctrine
really is. And just go back a few verses
because he's already told them this. He underlines his doctrine. First of all, that salvation
and favor with God and being in the purposes of God is entirely
a result of the sovereign grace of God. The sovereign grace of
God. Do we really believe that? God
is sovereign over everything. He is perfectly just to do with
me exactly as he will. It is not of him that wills,
nor of him that runs, but of God who shows mercy. Born not
of the will of the flesh, nor of blood, nor of the will of
man, but of God. It is God who chooses. You have
not chosen me, said Jesus, but I have chosen you. So in verse
37, he says, all that the Father giveth me So there's a people,
all, that the Father has given to Christ before the beginning
of time. All those people that God elected into Christ and bound
in eternal union with Christ before the beginning of time
shall, in time, come to me. And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. So don't say, well, it probably
doesn't include me. No, you come, you come. If you
hear his voice, you come. He says, I came not down, I came
down from heaven not to do mine own will. He isn't a man who's
come to do the will of him as a man, but the will of God, his
Father, who sent him. And this is the Father's will,
which has sent me, that of all which he has given me, all those
people, that fixed number, that multitude, that elect number
that he has given me, that I should lose nothing. I should lose nothing,
but should raise it up again at the last day. Why? Because
I'm going to pay the sin debt. of that people. I am going to
pay the sin-debt of that people and that people alone. And in
paying the sin-debt of that people, the salvation that I have accomplished
for them is utterly effectual. What does that mean? It means
it does the job. It gets the job done. So that
when John looks in Revelation chapter 19 in his vision, John
looked, he says, I looked and I saw Much people in heaven. Which people in heaven? Exactly
these people in heaven. The ones the Father gave to Him.
The ones that He gave Him and He has lost none of because they
are all there in heaven. They're all there, a mighty army.
They stand on their feet as in Ezekiel's vision of the valley
of the dry bones. They are all there and not one
of them is missing. And who's going to come to me?
Verse 44, no man can come to me. You want the doctrine of
eternity and eternal life? He's saying to these Jews, no
man. We'll decide if we want to come
to you, if we think you're fit to follow. He says, no, you won't.
No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me
draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day. You see,
whoever you are, It's not of you who wills, but of God who
shows mercy. And maybe God will speak to you.
What is it that hymn says? Savior, dear Savior, hear my
humble cry. Whilst on others thou art calling,
do not pass me by. So he tells them clearly sovereign
grace and particular redemption. And then he says that there must
be a vital spiritual union with himself. Verse 51, he says, Him, the Lord Jesus Christ. He
shall live forever. And the bread that I will give
is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. He
gave his body. His body was broken. His blood
was shed, that the sin debt of his people might be paid. And
the Jews, therefore, they were confused. They strove among themselves,
saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus
said unto them, Ah, well, it's easy, it's like this. No, he
didn't. He said, he underlined what he'd said. He said, verily,
verily, I say unto you, except unless you eat the flesh of the
Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoso
eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and
I will raise him up at the last day. He's not talking about cannibalism. He's talking about spiritual
things. The words, verse 63, the words
that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. We
must have a vital spiritual union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Without
God's spirit applying the person and work of Christ in your soul,
you are spiritually dead. You're a sinner. You need to
see what you are before the law and justice of God, how justly
condemned you are, how the God of heaven, who created all things,
to whom we must give account, is perfectly just in condemning
you to a lost eternity. and yet in Christ having paid
that sin debt, having come as the substitute of his people,
having come as the federal head of his people, having stood in
their place and answered at the bar of divine justice, and gone
to the cross, loaded with their sins, he who knew no sin, being
made sin for them, that they, these sinful people, might be
made the righteousness of God in him. And having that righteousness,
having got that righteousness in Him, having the righteousness
which we must have in order to see the Lord and be accepted
of Him, accepted in the Beloved. The vital thing is not your religious
heritage. I don't care which family you
were born into. I don't care which Sunday school
you went to. I don't care about any of those
things because the scripture doesn't care about it. I don't
care about what doctrinal training you've had if you went to a college
or anything like that. I don't care what traditions
you have, culturally or otherwise. In no respect does it make any
difference. The one thing that matters is
the gift. of God, the sovereign gift of
God. I'll underline it again. Not
of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God that shows
mercy. Show me your glory, said Moses.
This is what I'll show you. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious. and I will be compassionate on
whom I will be compassionate. What do you mean? Do you mean
it's got nothing to do with us? Do you mean that we're not good
enough? Do you mean that we as we are, we're not good enough
for this God of yours? This is what they're thinking. Look at
verse 60. Many therefore of his disciples
when they had heard this said, this is a hard saying, all this
sovereign grace particular redemption stuff, this vital union, this
spiritual union, without which we're dead. This is a hard saying. Who can hear it? I mean, we liked
listening to his teaching. It was good teaching, and he
fed us with the bread and the fishes. This was good, but this
is a hard saying. Do I have to believe this stuff?
This is a good man, I quite like him, but do I have to believe
this stuff? This is a hard saying, verse
66, from that time. Many of his disciples, those
who had followed, went back and walked no more with him. They
went away because their proud, self-righteous, unbelieving,
rebellious hearts could not receive the truth of God's absolute sovereignty. Can you? Can I? The truth of
God's absolute sovereignty Do you know something? Even the
12 disciples, the 12 that Jesus had called to himself, even the
12 from what follows next were visibly shaken. They'd seen,
this is going well, look at the crowds. Oh, oh, oh now, what's
he saying this for? Why is he pressing them like
this? Oh look, did he really have to say that? They're going
away. Look, the crowds are going away.
There's just us left. And so Christ looks at them.
Will you go away too? Have you believed this Christ?
Have you believed him in the truth of the gospel of his grace?
Have you really understood what it means to bow before the sovereignty
of God Or do you find it a hard saying? And like those disciples,
go away. Will you go away too? Look at
Christ's question. Will you go away? There it is
in verse 67. Jesus said to the 12, will you
also go away? Of course, he knew that they
wouldn't, except for Judas. He said, I've chosen you 12 at
the end, and one of you is a devil, that's Judas. He knew they wouldn't
go away. He knew that 11 of them wouldn't
go away. As Peter later wrote, 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 5, true
believers are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. God's spirit had powerfully worked
in them. How do we know? They had left
all and followed him. That power is exceeding great.
Listen, Ephesians 1 19. the exceeding greatness of his
power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his
mighty power." This is his spirit coming and turning a rebel into
a willing bondservant who wants to follow him. Flesh and blood
hadn't persuaded them to follow. It wasn't the persuasion of somebody
who was good with words that had persuaded them to follow.
You know, when Peter confessed Christ in Matthew 16, who do
men say that I am? Who do you say that I am? And
Peter said, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. And
Jesus said to him, blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, that was
Peter's name, for flesh and blood, other people have not revealed
it to you, but my Father, which is in heaven. There's the truth
of this, the sovereign grace of God, sovereignly determining
to whom he will show his truth and his grace and his mercy.
Has it sunk in? He'd done that for these disciples,
but in their flesh, I am sure there was a temptation to leave.
I'm sure as they saw in their flesh, their weak flesh, is your
flesh not weak? Mine certainly is. As they saw
all these numbers of so-called disciples turning away, have
we got the right one? Is this really the right one?
I quoted this hymn last week, I think. Prone to wander, Lord,
I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.
Take my heart and take and seal it. Seal it from thy courts above.
Because if God doesn't seal it, I'll follow that proneness to
wander. In my flesh I am subject to unbelief. I have such an evil
heart of unbelief in my flesh. Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief,
because in my flesh there is such unbelief. In my flesh there
is such a propensity to sin. The pleasures of sin, it says
in Hebrews 11, regarding Moses. He chose to turn away from the
pleasures of sin in Egypt for a season. He could have it all,
whatever he wanted. There is Satan who would drag
me down and turn me from the faith. Satan who prowls around,
said Peter, as a roaring lion, seeking whom he might destroy.
Jesus said to Peter, Peter, Satan has desired to have you that
he might sift you, that he might put you through severe trial.
But I have prayed for you that your faith fail not. If Christ
has prayed for you, it will not fail. And then there's the world. Is not this world so alluring? Is not this world so contrary
to this teaching of the sovereign grace of God in Christ? Is not
this world such a stark contrast But God is stronger than the
world. My Father which gave them me,
his people, is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them
out of my Father's hand. Nevertheless, it's not just passive. God's power is manifested in
personal commitment because He, by His Spirit, makes His people
willing in the day of His power. And His people are not dragged
to follow Him with their arms twisted up their back. They willingly
follow Him. They allow for no other possibility
than to follow Him. And so Peter's reply to the question,
will you also go away? Peter replies with a question
that says, to whom shall we go? Would you like to give us an
alternative? Would you like to suggest where we might go? Think
about it. Where might we go? Where else
is there that we could go? Should we go back to the world,
to our fishing business and what we were doing? There's no comfort
there for eternity-bound souls. This world offers no comfort
for eternity-bound souls. This world offers no comfort.
Should I go back to sin, a life of sin, a life of blatant sin,
a life of sin with no thought for the justice of God? Shall
I go back to the thing that cursed me, for cursed is everyone that
doesn't continue in it? to keep the law of God perfectly.
It's that sin which crucified the Lord Jesus Christ to pay
the debt for his people. Shall I go back to, say, I was
in religious tradition. Shall I go back to religious
law? to that heavy, condemning burden of religious law, Peter
said at the Council of Jerusalem to the others, he said, you know,
be honest, admit it, that law of Moses, he said we couldn't
keep it, we couldn't be justified, the law of Moses could never
justify us, the works that we would do would never justify
us, and compared with that, Christ's You know, the yoke is what they
put on the oxen for them to pull the plough. Christ's yoke is
easy. His burden is light. Shall we go back to a life of
self-centeredness, obstinate, proud, empty self-centeredness? Shall we go to friends whose
comfort might be there in words, but it's impotent? And whatever
friends might do for us here and now, as a philosopher once
said, finally we all have to die alone. Is that not the case? Finally we all have to die alone. Are we going back there? There's
no comfort from friends. Are we going to side with the
enemies of the gospel, who have hated us for our profession?
You see, the soul that has found peace in Christ has found the
pearl of greatest price. Nothing else has any alluring
value. Only Christ has what Peter says. You have the words of eternal
life. Nothing else has the words. No one else has the words of
eternal life. Eternal life is what we want.
Eternal life is what we need. Peace with God is what we need.
You alone have the words of eternal life. The words of eternal life? He who is the Word of God. John 1, verse... In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God. He's the one who made
all things. Without him was nothing made
that was made. John 17, verse 8. Listen to this. This is his
prayer before he goes to the cross. I have given unto them,
this is his people, the words which you gave me. He's praying
to his father. I've given my followers the words
that the father gave me, and they have received them, and
have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have
believed that you did send me. With words God calls his people. It's by the foolishness of preaching
that it pleased God to save those who believe. We read in James
1.18, of his own will, God's own will, begat he us, he made
us his children with the word of truth. It's with words, the
words of eternal life. 1 Peter 1.23, being born again,
not of corruptible seed, not of corruptible seed, the seed
of a man, but of incorruptible. How? By the Word of God, which
lives and abides forever. The Word of God comes and preaches
the gospel of grace and shows us the truth. A preacher comes
and preaches the truth, and you hear it. And hearing it, you
believe it. And believing it, you embrace
it. You call on the name of the Lord,
and calling on the name of the Lord, by faith you are saved.
These are life-giving words. It is written, said Jesus to
Satan in his temptation, quoting the Old Testament, quoting the
Old Testament law, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Why?
Because only the Word of God, only the Word of Christ, only
Christ who is the Word, with the words of eternal life, only
they speak of effectual salvation. A salvation that secures your
salvation. You know, there are people who
talk about salvation, but it's not effectual. It doesn't accomplish
its end. It's dependent on what you are
and what you think in every way. But this is the salvation of
God, and it's effectual. Redemption speaks of a price
that is genuinely paid, not a general universal offer that you are
there free to pick up and go with or not, as the case may
be. It's a command to the people of God to believe the gospel,
to embrace the gospel of His grace. to embrace that satisfaction
of the justice of God that is in Christ. Outside of Christ
is nothing but death and hell. In him is life. Listen, John
5, 26, Jesus said, for as the father hath life in himself,
so hath he given to the son to have life in himself. And what
we read in 1 John 5, verse 12, Simple as this. Listen. He that
hath the Son hath life. Do you have the Son of God? If you do, you have life. He
that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Do you have that
life of God in your soul that is in Christ alone by his Spirit's
revelation? If yes, are you not filled with
thanks and praise? Of course you are. If no, then
My friends, while there is time, ask God to be merciful to you.
Ask God, seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened
to you. Peter's conviction was this.
We believe, verse 69, we believe and are sure. That's what it
is to truly believe. We believe and are sure that
thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. You, Jesus,
the man sitting here with us while all these others have gone.
You who just look like another man. You, Jesus, we believe are
the promised one of God. the one that all of history was
looking for, to come. We believe that you are God,
manifest in the flesh, that if we would know God, we must know
you. We believe that you are the Son of God. I'll just close
briefly with this. Look at Hebrews chapter 1. God
who at sundry times and in divest manners spake in time past unto
the fathers by the prophets hath in these last days spoken unto
us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also
he made the worlds, who, being the brightness of his glory and
the express image of his person, the outshining of the person
of God. This is the one that was sat
before them. We believe that you are the Christ, the son of
the living God, who upholds all things by the word of his power,
who is the one who came to purge the sins of his people and sit
down on the right hand of the majesty on high. This is the
one who came as the substitute for his people. This truth of
Christ that gives life does not come by intellect, or character,
or status, or tradition. It comes purely by revelation
from God. Listen to this, with this I'm
gonna close. Matthew 11, you don't need to turn to it. Verse
25, at that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things, these
spiritual truths of salvation, from the wise and the prudent,
and hast revealed them unto babes, Babes, even so, father, for so
it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto
me of my father. And no man knoweth the son, but
the father. Neither knoweth any man the father,
save the son. And he, his people, to whomsoever
the son will reveal him. And then he says, come unto me.
All you that labour under heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me. For I am meek and lowly
in heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls. For my
yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Has that truth been revealed
by God's Spirit to you, so that you gladly embrace it? You gladly
forsake all else. You gladly follow Christ to the
very end.