Turn with me to John chapter
16 again. I'm going to continue what we
started last week but didn't finish. John chapter 16 and then
I'm immediately going to tell you to look at John chapter 17.
I want you to look at the first three verses of John chapter
17. In John chapter 17 we have the
great prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ the night before he went
to the cross for his people. This really is the Lord's prayer.
The prayer that's known as the Lord's prayer is really the disciples'
prayer, what Jesus taught the disciples to pray. But this is
his prayer, this is what he prayed, the man Christ Jesus, the night
before he was crucified. These words spake Jesus, and
he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour is
come. You know, again and again, it
was not yet his hour. But now, this night, this night
before the day of the crucifixion, the hour is come. Glorify thy
son, and that thy son also may glorify thee. How is he going
to be glorified? in the death, in the crucifixion
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he says this, as thou,
as the Father, hast given him, has given our Lord Jesus Christ,
as he has given him power over all flesh, that he should give
eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life
eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God and Jesus
Christ, whom thou hast sent. The gift of eternal life is in
the hands of Christ. Get that on board. Make sure
you understand that. The gift of eternal life is God's
gift to give. He gives it in sovereign grace. It is His gift to give. People
in their arrogance think that it is their right to step up
and grab what is rightfully theirs, eternal life. But it isn't. It's
in the gift of Christ to give it. And what is eternal life?
What is it? What is life eternal? That they
might know Thee, the only true God. Do you have eternal life?
Because if you do, you know the only true God. And how do you
know that only true God? In Jesus Christ, whom he has
sent. That's what it is. Life eternal
is knowledge of God in Christ. It's intimate fellowship and
communion with God. God who is creator and sustainer
of all things. God who is holy. But here is
my question. How does a person like you or
me go from being without God And as Paul says, without God
and without hope in the world, if you don't know God, you have
no hope in this world. How do you get from that position,
which is our natural position, to experiencing eternal life,
experiencing a blessed relationship with God? By nature, in the flesh,
we're all spiritually dead. We saw that last week. We're
dead. We're senseless, we have no spiritual senses to show us
the things of God in our natural state. What will produce spiritual
life? What will produce it? Ah, those
in religion will tell you, oh well you must study, you must
commit yourself to study. Now study is good, but I tell
you, study alone will not give you that knowledge of God, will
not give you that spiritual life. Ah, well apply your natural reasoning,
apply your intelligence, your abilities to reason as an intelligent
person. Do that, and you know, it makes
no difference. Naturally, The natural man cannot
receive the things of the Spirit of God. They're foolishness to
him, neither can he know them. Ah, well, you have to live in
a particular way. That's what you have to do. Go
and live in a monastery or a convent or something like that. Go and
cut yourself off and go and live on a holy island where the presence
of God is so clearly felt there. No, no, none of these works will
do at all. They won't do anything. Go on
a pilgrimage to this... Ah, what you need to do is you
need to visit the Holy Land, they will tell you. And there
you'll have such an experience that then your eyes will be opened.
No, no, no, no. Pilgrimage works, intelligent,
none of it will do it. What does God's Word say? This
is what God's Word says. John chapter 16, verse 8. Jesus telling his disciples,
when he is come, who? The Comforter, the Holy Spirit.
When the Holy Spirit is come, he will reprove, he will convince,
he will convict, is what that word reprove means. He will convince
the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. It requires
the Holy Spirit. Verse 13, how be it when he,
the Spirit of truth, is come? He will guide you into all truth. How are you going to know the
truth of God and eternal life with God? The Spirit of Truth
will guide you into all truth. It's got to be by Holy Spirit
revelation. Holy Spirit revelation. Not by
natural ability. God the Holy Spirit must come
and open blind eyes. This is what makes the difference.
The Holy Spirit comes. It's a sovereign act of God. What does sovereign mean? It
means it is God's prerogative. It's God's decision. It's God's
choice. It's God who makes that decision. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious, says God. I will be gracious to whom I
want to be gracious to, is what he's saying. Holy Spirit revelation
is how we learn the truth of God, how we come from the natural
darkness of the human mind in our sinful state to a knowledge
of God. And it says when he has come
he will reprove the world of sin. And my first question is
this. What is this world that he convinces? What is this world that he reproves,
convinces, convicts? What is it, this world? It is
evidently not the world of seven billion people in which we live
today. That's evidently true, is it
not? If it were the case that it meant
the world in general, wouldn't you say that the Holy Spirit
of God is making a pretty poor job of reproving the world, because
so few people, it seems, believe him? No, it's not that world.
I'll tell you why it's not that world. Look in chapter 17 and
verse 9. Jesus says he prays for his disciples,
the people that God has given him out of the world, and then
he says, I pray not for the world. You listen to the service on
the radio on a Sunday morning. Don't, but, you know, for the
sake of illustrating it. If you listen to it, you will
hear them again and again praying for the world. Oh, we pray for
peace in the world, we pray for end of famine, we pray about
this. Jesus said, I pray not for the
world. I pray not for the world. It cannot be that world. The
world which the Holy Spirit comes to reprove, to convince of sin
and righteousness and judgment is not the world in general.
It couldn't be. Jesus doesn't pray for that world.
Jesus doesn't pray for it. He prays for his disciples whom
the Father's given him out of the world. It's that same world
This is the world that we're talking about, it's that same
world that Jesus said God so loved. Speaking to Nicodemus
in John 3.16, probably the best known verse in scripture. For
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life. God so loved the world, in other
words, the elect of God from all of the world, not just from
the Jewish nation. That's the reason that he says
that. That's the emphasis there. It's
that world. It's the world of the elect of
God from all of the world, from all the nations of the world,
as Revelation 5 verse 9 says. Thou, this is the people in heaven
pictured in John's vision, and they're all praising God, and
they're saying, Thou God, you have redeemed us to God by thy
blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation,
not just the Jewish nation, the world. It's the world of Gentiles. It's the world of Gentiles, as
well as Jews, that are brought to the light of God. Isaiah chapter
60 and verse 3. In the Old Testament, Isaiah,
the Gentiles shall come to thy light. I wonder what the Jews
thought then, those that really were thinking, what's he saying
here? What's this prophet saying? The Jews are the people of God,
but here he's saying the Gentiles shall come to thy light. In Luke
chapter two, when Simeon, who had been waiting at the temple
to see the salvation of God, when he held the infant Christ,
that little baby, eight days old, The son of Mary and the
son of God, when he held him in his arms and he said, now
mine eyes have seen thy salvation and I can depart in peace. He
said there in Luke 2.32, the infant Christ was to be a light
to lighten the Gentiles. Look at Acts chapter 13. Acts
chapter 13. And in Acts chapter 13 verse
47, For so hath the Lord commanded
us. This is Paul and Barnabas speaking.
For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to
be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldst be for salvation
unto the ends of the earth. God so loved the world. He will
convince the world of sin, the world. And when the Gentiles
heard this, they were glad. and glorified the word of the
Lord. Now listen. And as many of these
Gentiles, as were ordained to eternal life, they believed. They believed the message that
they heard preached. From out of the generality of
mankind, God has chosen a multitude And he put them in union with
Christ before the beginning of time to save them from sin and
condemnation, to unite them eternally with God in the person of his
Son. And in time, at Calvary, God
the Son redeemed them, every one of them individually. He
redeemed them, he paid the price, he bought them back from the
law's curse. Because everyone's under the
curse of the law, for all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God. But Christ has redeemed us from the curse of
the law. At Calvary, he redeemed them from the law's curse. And
in the experience of everyone individually, at some point in
their life, down history, the Holy Spirit convinces them of
salvation. These people, the elect of God
out of all the world, He will reprove, He will convince these
people of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Of what does
the Holy Spirit convince the world of God's elect? That's
the question that we're answering. We looked at the first one last
week. He reproves the world, He convinces
the world, He convicts the world of His elect people of sin. and
I'm not going to repeat all of that, but of our true natural
state before the eternal holy God, he convinces us what we
are by nature, as sinners before him. He brings his people to
consciousness of the offense of sin to God. As we were singing
in some of those hymns earlier, to, let me just see, the awful
sense, naturally we don't find an awful sense of sin, or of
the sinful life, or of the sinful, we don't loathe that plague of
sin within until the Lord that feel imparts. When Holy Spirit
comes and convinces us, convicts us of sin, He imparts that feeling
so that we know what we are, something of it at any rate.
Some measure of it. We know what we are. We know
something of the offense of sin to God. We come to an end of
thinking in any way that we can make amends for our sin. And
we are caused to look for a substitute to intercede for us. We're caused
to look to Christ. We're brought to believe in him
and to look to him. I quote it often, but there's
that hymn, a sinner is a sacred thing. You see, all have sinned,
all without exception, all. But the vast majority have no
consciousness of it. They don't feel it, they don't
know it, it's of no concern to them whatsoever. But when the
Holy Spirit convinces, convicts of sin, a sinner is a sacred
thing. Why? Because he's brought to
a knowledge of what he is. And how is he brought there?
The Holy Ghost has made him so. The Holy Spirit. Clear conviction
of sin. Heard about Robert Murray McShane,
that minister in Aberdeen, I think it was. Clear conviction of sin
is the only true origin. It's the thing that starts dependence
on another's righteousness. A clear conviction of sin is
what makes you look to Christ and depend on his righteousness
for what you need. So, I'm not going to repeat last
week's message. The Holy Spirit comes and convicts
the world of his elect people of sin. That's a distinguishing
mark. Those who say that they are true
believers and have got no concept of sin before a holy God, are
not true believers. They don't know the first thing
of the truth of God. He convicts us of sin, but he
also convicts of righteousness. Of righteousness. Righteousness. of sin because they believe not
on me, verse 10, of righteousness because I go to my Father and
ye see me no more. Of righteousness. The Holy Spirit
convicts the elected God out of this world of the perfection
that is required by God. If you would know God, if you
would experience eternal life, if you would know this life eternal,
knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent,
then you must know the perfection that God requires. Leviticus
19 verse 2, God says to his people, ye shall be holy, for I, the
Lord your God, am holy. You must be holy, you must be
holy. Matthew 5, 48, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said to the
crowd listening to him, be ye therefore perfect, even as your
Father which is in heaven is perfect. He didn't say, have
a good try. He didn't say, do your best,
but we know you'll fail, but nevermind, it's the trying that
counts. No, he said, be ye therefore perfect. You must be perfect. What does that mean? It means
absolutely no blot, no blemish, nothing that isn't 100% perfect. Be ye therefore perfect, even
as your Father who is in heaven is perfect. How righteous must
you be? for your righteousness to be
satisfactory, to go into the presence of God, because God
cannot tolerate, will not stand, he won't let anything into heaven
that isn't perfect. Matthew 5 verse 20, Sermon on
the Mount again, except, unless your righteousness shall exceed
the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no
case enter into the kingdom of heaven. The scribes and the Pharisees
were known in Jewish society at that time as the most holy
of people. Their lives were the most conformed
to the law of God. Their lives in practice of religion
in every detail were perfect. They didn't offend in any way. If they were proper practicing
scribes and Pharisees, they were known as being righteous in that
society, the most righteous, and yet Jesus said, unless your
righteousness exceeds that, because that isn't good enough. That
righteousness isn't good enough. The righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees isn't good enough. Your righteousness must exceed
that for you to enter the kingdom of heaven. But people, we all,
look at one another and we make relative judgments of one another's
goodness. You know, she's long since dead
now, but Mother Teresa of Calcutta was always looked upon. Gandhi
was always looked upon. These people who were very philanthropic
and very neighborly and very inclined to do good to others,
and we look at, oh, they're good people, they're good people.
You know, you could now point to this society in which we live. that the national religion of
this society in which we live is the National Health Services.
People bow down before it and worship it irrationally, often
beyond what is deserved in reality. They turn a blind eye to some
gaping great gaffes and great gaping great problems because
they put people up on a pedestal and they look there and they
count that as being the sort of righteousness and goodness
that's required. But all fleshly righteousnesses,
all fleshly righteousnesses, all attempts in the flesh to
please God, what does God's word call them? Isaiah 64 verse 6. They're filthy rags. They're
filthy rags. They've got no value whatsoever.
Soiled rags. They're not fit to mop anything
up. They're horrible. God requires perfection. He requires it, He insists upon
it, Hebrews 12, 14, follow peace with all men and holiness, without
which no man shall see the Lord. Do you have holiness as God requires
it? Do I? Holiness of character,
holiness of conduct, holiness of speech and of actions? You
look on your own heart every minute of every day and you find
nothing of the sort there in the flesh. But God looks on the
heart. 1 Samuel 16 verse 7, the Lord
looks on the heart. 1 Peter 1 15, be ye holy in all
manner of conversation. Cursed is everyone, says the
law of God. Paul quotes it in Galatians 3.10,
quoting Deuteronomy. Cursed is everyone that continues
not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.
Continues, constantly, without ever letting up, perfectly obeying
the law of God. And none of us, naturally, is
good enough. As Romans 3.10 says, there is
none righteous. No, not one, not one. God looked down from heaven.
to see if there was righteousness. And he found, when he looked
down before the flood, that the thoughts and intents of the heart
of man was nothing other than evil continually. Evil continually. That's what he saw. Has God,
the Holy Spirit, convinced you of this fact? Has the law of
God, have you heard it? You who desire to be under the
law, have you not heard the law? Have you heard the law? Has the
law of God taught you? Because do you know what the
law of God is? Paul says to the Galatians, the law, what purpose
serveth then the law? The law was our schoolmaster
to bring us to Christ, our teacher, the one who will correct us,
the one who will point us to what we need, which is Christ
alone. Has the law of God taught you
how far short you fall of God's requirement for perfection? Has
he given you a glimpse of God's holiness, the holiness that you
need to attain to, as he gave Isaiah? In Isaiah chapter 6,
Isaiah went into the temple and he was given a vision of the
Lord, and we know it was the Lord Jesus Christ, it was the
manifestation of the living God. Any manifestation of the living
God is the Lord Jesus Christ. And in Isaiah chapter 6, he saw
the Lord, his train filling the temple and great visions of the
presence, the divine presence in that place. And having seen
what he saw and the angels crying, holy, holy, holy, then said I,
woe is me, for I am undone. I know what I am. I'm a sinner. I've seen what the holy God is
like. I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a
people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the
Lord of hosts. I've seen him. As Job said, I've
heard of you with the ear, the hearing of the ear, and I was
a religious man as a result, but now mine eye has seen the
living God, and I abhor myself, and I repent in sackcloth and
ashes. Has he convinced you that as
Paul said to the Romans, Romans 8 verse 8, they that are in the
flesh cannot please God. It's impossible. Naturally, we
have no righteousness nor ability to produce it. Yet God demands
it. God demands perfection, without
which no man shall see the Lord. There's no heaven without it.
And yet we can't achieve it by law works, by the things that
we do. The answer to the question, what must I do to be saved from
just condemnation, is you can't do anything. You are incapable
of doing anything. Whatever you would do is insufficient
to satisfy the justice and holiness of God. And Job asked the question,
how should a man be just with God? And the answer is given.
God sets forth Christ, a fitting substitute. One who is able to
make his people the righteousness of God. How do you become the
righteousness that God requires? You must be made it. You must
be made the righteousness of God. How are you made the righteousness
of God? By one coming as a perfect substitute
with the ability, with the power, with the qualities, with the
characteristics. Our Lord Jesus Christ coming
in perfect submission to his Father's will. and He at the
cross being made the sin of His people. I don't really understand,
I don't come anywhere near to understanding what that really
means, but He was made the sin of His people. Why? So that His
people might be made the righteousness of God in him. How would you
be righteous enough for God? You must be made the righteousness
of God in him. 2 Corinthians 5, 21. This is
our message above all else. If I'm going to preach, this
is what I want to preach. I've nothing else to say. I've
got nothing to say, nor as any true preacher, to teach you what
you must do to live a good life. All I want to point you to is
the righteousness of God that is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The people God chose in eternity are made the righteousness that
God requires by the person and finished work of God's Son. Is
that not the message of this book? How should a man be just
with God when it comes to that great and terrible day of judgment
when all things are brought to an end? How should a man, how
should you or me be found just, holy, justified, righteous with
God so that we're accepted into heaven? Answer? by being found
in Christ. Philippians 3 verse 9, Paul says
to the Philippians, what do you want, Paul? I want to be found
in Him, in Christ, not having mine own righteousness, which
is worthless. It's just, it's as much value
as done. It's worthless. That righteousness
which is of the law, of the things that I try to do to obey the
law. No, I want to be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness,
but having that righteousness which is through the faith of
Christ. What does that mean? It's not
that I believe Christ and therefore that's counted as if I did a
lot of good works, no. It's what Christ did, the faith
of Christ, the faithful work of Christ. In fulfilling all
requirements of the law, in going to the cross of Calvary, in satisfying
the law's demand that the soul that sins it shall die and he
dying in the place of the people who were in union with him from
all eternity. That is the faith of Christ.
He did it. He accomplished it. He confirmed
on the cross, it is finished, as he gave up the ghost and died.
Faith of Christ is what accomplished all of that. The righteousness,
which is of God, by faith. We experience it. We apprehend
it by faith. The faith that the Holy Spirit
gives us to look and to believe. And we look. We look to Christ,
who has satisfied every demand of God. as the substitute of
his people. Where we couldn't, he did. He
is, I know I often teach this to you, and I don't apologize
for repeating it, because I just think it is just so profound.
If you get hold of this, you've got the essence of true religion.
He, the Lord Jesus Christ, as Jeremiah 23 verse 6 says, this
is his name, whereby he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. We, his people, need righteousness
without which no man shall see the Lord. He, the Lord Jesus
Christ, is the Lord, our righteousness. How do we have the righteousness
we need? By having the Lord, by having Him, by possessing
Him, by Him being my God and my Saviour. He is the Lord, our
righteousness, and by virtue of the union of his people with
him in eternal spiritual marriage from before the beginning of
time right through until time has ended, his people's name,
the elect of God, that world which he came to convince of
sin and of righteousness and of judgment, his people's name
is, Jeremiah 33, verse 16, it's easy to remember, Jeremiah 23,
six, and then 33, 16. This is the name wherewith she shall be called, his people,
his bride, his bride, the Lord, our righteousness, the Lord,
our righteousness. You know, a man marries a woman,
and I know we're in a very perverse society in what is regarded as
superior morality of, what do they call it, diversity and all
that sort of stuff, but if you go back to the truth of God,
a woman marries a man and she takes his name, This bride of
Christ was married in eternal union to the Lord Jesus Christ,
and He, the Lord our righteousness, we His people become the Lord
our righteousness. That is the name with which she
shall be called. We read in Daniel chapter 9 about
Messiah coming, the Prince, to finish the transgression. Obviously
there's still sin, but what it means is that for the people
He loved, He came to end the consequences of sin, to make
an end of sins. to make reconciliation for iniquity. Reconciliation why? Because God
is offended by sin. And to bring in everlasting righteousness. Huh? How do I know that it's
been effectual? How do I know? Look at verse
10 in John 16. of righteousness. How does he convince us of righteousness?
Because I go to my Father and ye see me no more. He has gone
to the Father. He rose from the dead. He was,
as Romans 4.25 says, he was lifted up for our transgressions and
raised, lifted up on the cross to bear the penalty for the sins
of his people, but raised from the dead for our justification.
He convinces us that righteousness is accomplished in Him. The righteousness
of God in Christ is imputed to His people. It's reckoned to
the account of His people. It's made over to their account.
We could read, for the sake of time, we won't now, but in Romans
3, verses 20 to 26, We read about, now is the righteousness
of God revealed without the works of the law, the righteousness
which is by faith of Jesus Christ, so that God is just, still just,
in punishing sin perfectly, and the justifier of him whose trust
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's imputed righteousness. If you trust in Christ, if you're
in Christ, You have made over to your account in the records
of God the righteousness of God in Christ. And not only that,
it's not only imputed, but it's imparted in the new birth. The child of God, the world,
this world, this world of the elect of God, convinced, convicted,
reproved of sin, of righteousness and of judgment, They have imparted
to them in the new birth, you must be born again, said Jesus
to Nicodemus, you must be born again. The Spirit, like the wind,
blows where it listeth, and you hear the sound of it, you don't
know where it's come from or where it's going to. And the
Holy Spirit comes in sovereign grace, according to the eternal
purposes of God. And on this one and that one,
he opens their eyes, he opens their ears, he plants there a
new life, the life of the Spirit of God. And he gives a new nature
within, so that the one who believes in Christ has two natures, the
old nature of the flesh, which can do nothing other than sin,
and which in itself is never improved, and a new nature. A new nature. You read Romans
7, and Paul there talks about the conflict that is in the believer,
that when he wants to do good, evil is present with him. That
which he would do, he can't do. that which he doesn't want to
do he finds he constantly does. In Galatians 5 we read about
the spirit and the flesh. They're contrary to one another.
They're characteristics of the one believing person. The two
are in conflict, the spirit against the flesh. The flesh wants to
do the things of the flesh and the spirit wants to do the things
of God. In 1 John chapter 3, there he clearly talks, having
said in the first chapter of 1 John about if we say we have
no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us, then
in chapter 3 he says he that is born of God cannot sin. What must he be talking about?
Is he contradicting himself? No, no. He's talking about the
two natures. The new nature which cannot sin,
given by the Holy Spirit, and the nature of the flesh which
does nothing other than sin. So do you see how God's salvation
set forth in Scripture actually accomplishes its objective. It
makes the people of God, the righteousness of God in him. It works. It works. False gospels
don't work. I believed in Arminian gospel.
Well, I didn't really. It was kind of, I just went along
with the flow of it. But the more and more I thought
about it, the more and more I thought, this doesn't work. How on earth
Can it make an eternal difference between heaven and hell just
on the fact that I, as a whim, have said, yeah, all right, I'll
believe that? I say, OK, I'll believe that, yeah. How can that
make a difference between heaven and hell? Is it, you know, I
don't keep the law of God and I'm not righteous, but because
I just go, yeah, all right, I'll believe that. God says, oh right,
I'll count everything that you've done wrong, I won't count against
you and I'll count it as if you've obeyed the law perfectly. It
doesn't work. It just simply does not work. But this salvation
declared by this book does work. For Christ has made his people
the righteousness of God in him. Finally, of judgment. Of judgment
because the prince of this world is judged. You see, knowledge
of sin and required righteousness convinces us of the justice of
judgment. You see, if we know that we're
sinners, and we know that God requires righteousness, that
convinces us of how just God is in judging, in judging and
condemning. God would not be true God if
he did not punish all sin. But when we look at Christ's
victory at Calvary, At Calvary you would think it was a defeat,
but it wasn't. It was the most triumphant victory. He made a show of his enemies
openly, because in that very time when Satan was convinced
he had triumphed over the Christ of God, that was the very moment
in which he was utterly disarmed. He was disarmed. His ability
to accuse God of injustice in letting sinners into heaven was
taken away. He was disarmed. He was bound
in his ability to do his evil purposes. At Calvary, at Calvary,
it was there, the believer by faith is convinced that judgment
is finished. for all who are in Christ. This
is what it means of judgment. He convinces us of judgment.
By faith, looking to Christ and what was accomplished at Calvary,
the believer is convinced that judgment is finished for all
who are in Christ. Now be clear, God will judge
all sin. We all have an appointment with
death. It is appointed to man to die once and then the judgment.
Acts 17, 31, he has appointed a day in the which he will judge
the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained
by Christ, whereof he has given assurance unto all men in that
he hath raised him from the dead. There's a day of judgment coming.
We must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. John
3.36, he that believes on the Son has everlasting life, and
he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath
of God abideth on him. But for God's elect, for this
world that he came to convince of sin and righteousness and
judgment, for God's elect, judgment is finished in Christ at Calvary. That's it, that's what he convinces
us of. Judgment is finished in Christ
at Calvary. Satan is judged and bound there. Thus God's elect are released
from the fear of death. We, through natural man, through
all their life, by fear of death, are subject to bondage. We know
that we must die and it's, however much bravado the average man
puts upon it, when it comes to it, there's the fear of death. But for the believer, Romans
8.1, there is therefore now no condemnation. to those who are
in Christ Jesus. Romans 8, 33 and 34. Let me show
you what that says. I know I remind you often. Who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? They're sinners,
aren't they? But God's justified them in Christ. He's convinced them of sin, of
righteousness, and of judgment. Who is he that condemns? Is Satan
going to come, the accuser of the brethren, and condemn? No,
Christ has died. Yea, rather, he's risen again.
He's risen again. God has vindicated all that he
did. God has put his seal of approval on it in raising him
from the dead. He's even at the right hand of
God making intercession. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Nothing. Nothing can. Nothing can separate
us from the love of Christ. You see, all will be judged. We must all stand before the
judgment seat of Christ. and the books will be opened.
Just turn as we close to Revelation chapter 20. Revelation chapter
20. And verse 12. And in this vision, towards the
end of the book of Revelation, John tells us that, I saw the
dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were
opened. The books. What books are these?
Literal books? I don't believe so. These books
are a picture that God misses nothing. That God sees everything. That God remembers everything
without exception. The books were opened. Everything
that you've ever thought or done was laid bare. And another book
was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead? were judged
out of those things which were written in the books according
to their works, in proportion to their works, for punishment
in accordance with their works. And the sea gave up the dead
which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which
were in them. Those that have died and gone
into a sort of a limbo waiting for this day of judgment, and
they were judged, every man according to their works, And death and
hell, meaning the people that were from there, were cast into
the lake of fire. That's hell. This is the second
death. And, this is it, whosoever was
not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake
of fire. What's the book of life? It's
the book of the elect of God, redeemed by Christ, chosen in
him, redeemed by him, brought to eternal glory in him. Whosoever
was not found written in the book of life was cast into the
lake of fire. Strict justice for all, either
personally responsible or satisfied in Christ. That's how God is
just and justifier. For all whose names are written
in the book of life, it was all satisfied in Christ. This is
what the Holy Spirit of God convinces the world of his elect about. Now this is my question to you.
Has the Holy Spirit of God convinced you of these things? Amen.