If you will, take your Bibles
and turn back with me to John Chapter 20. The title of my message is, These
Things Are Written That You Might Believe. My text in John Chapter 20 took
place after the resurrection of Christ. and before his final
ascension to the father. And we're expressly told that
the contents in this chapter and throughout the book of John
were written as the basis or foundation of our faith. These
things were written that you might believe. He did much more
than what John wrote. A lot of the things that Matthew
wrote are not recorded in the book of John. A lot of the things
that Mark wrote are not written in the book of John. There was
a lot of things written that's not found in the book of John,
but what things are written there are written that you might believe,
and believing that you might have life. I want to begin this morning
with an undeniable declaration of truth. This is the basis of
all preaching. If this is not so, then there's
no reason to preach. This is an undeniable declaration. It's told throughout the scripture.
Way back in the book of Isaiah, he said, the voice said, cry.
And he said, what shall I cry? What's the first thing he said?
All flesh is grass. Now all the glory of man, it's
like the flower of the grass. It's like that dandelion. It's
like that little daisy you see. All the glory of man, it's like
the flower of the grass. Well, the sun shines on it, and
the wind blows, and the blooms of that flower fade away. Fade away. Now that's man. That's
man. This world and all of its nations,
all of its tribes and kindreds and tongues, they all stand before
God as unregenerate rebels. But you say they, I saw men and
women this morning that dressed just like I am, maybe better,
suit coats and ties. Had their little children with
them, had their wives with them, they've gone into these various
places of worship all over. You mean to tell me that a lot
of them are unregenerate rebels? That's exactly what I'm telling
you. This world, all of its nations, all of its tribes and kindreds
and tongues stand before God as unregenerate rebels. If you're
here this morning, And you have not the faith of God's elect. You're an unregenerate rebel. You're not a pretty good person.
You're not in a vacuum. You're a rebel. You're a rebel. They're unregenerate rebels.
They're vile sinners. You can't imagine, I can't imagine,
when God looks at an unregenerate man, what he sees. do you know that when God uses
that word in the Bible, worm, you know what he's talking about?
Look it up. Maggot. That's what we are before
God. Unregenerate maggots. Worms. Vile sinners. And enemies of God. This is how God commended his
love toward us and that while we were yet enemies, sinners,
enemies of God, by all sinners, Christ died for us. Speaking
to those chosen of God and predestinated to the adoption of children,
redeemed in Christ and given the gift of faith, God the Holy
Ghost says, and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and
sins. At that time, you were by nature
children of wrath, even as others. This declaration, I'm telling
you, it goes all the way through the scriptures. The very fact
that a virgin conceived and brought forth the God-man Christ Jesus
is all the evidence you need to convince you that with man,
this thing of salvation is impossible. If it was possible any other
way, Christ would not have to humiliate himself by taking to
himself our pledge. No fallen, depraved son of Adam
can reconcile himself to God. He can't do it. He may think he can do it. He
may be deceived into thinking that he has done it, but it's
an impossibility. According to the scriptures,
our Lord's name was called Jesus, Joshua, whose coming was to save
his people from their sins. According to the word of God,
Jesus Christ came into this world to give us an understanding that
we may know the true and living God and that we're in him who
is true. And that this is eternal life.
And if he is our savior and redeemer and we're in him, then his coming
into this world is to save our souls. He's the savior. He's not altogether our example. He is an example. But that's
not why he came. He's the Savior. He's the Savior. In 1 Peter 3, verse 18, it says,
For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust,
that he might bring us to God. And the Bible also said that
he is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that
believeth. All of these ungodly, vile sinners,
none of them righteous, none righteous, no, not one. Isn't
that what Paul said there in Romans chapter three? And in John 19, verse 30, he
records the final words of our Lord, who came into this world
to save sinners, and he said, it is finished. What's finished? The work of salvation. The work
of redemption. It's finished. Did you know redemption is a
finished work? Then you know more than most
of this world knows. Redemption's a finished work.
Our Lord said it's finished. It's finished. Everything He
came to do, He did. Everything He came to save, He
saved. Everything he came to preserve,
he preserved. I came not, he said, to do my
own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the
Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath
given me I should lose nothing. When he said it's finished, he's
saying I lost nothing. He came to accomplish his Father's
redemptive will. and he said on that last day
I'm going to raise it up and it'll be raised up on the last
day because it was raised up with him on this day. You see,
what I'm trying to get across to you is the value, the glory
of this one who now stands before him, resurrected, alive from
the dead. When we were dead in sins, He
quickened us together with Christ and raised us up together and
seated us together with Him in the heaven of heavens. Everything
that He's gonna raise up at that last day, He's gonna raise up
because it was raised up in that day. And it was raised up in
Him. You see, salvation is not just
a thing. We start to talk to people and
we go into all these big explanations and all this. Salvation's in
a person. That's what I'm trying to get
across. Salvation's in a person. The person stood before. He said,
here's my nail hole. Stick your finger in it. Here's
where the spear penetrated my side and the blood and the water
gushed forth. Stick your hand in there. It's in a person. And I'm telling
you, there's no other way to be saved. You're not going to
be saved by obeying the law. You're not going to be saved
by reforming your life. You're not going to be saved
because you quit smoking and you quit drinking. Salvation's
in Christ. All together in Christ. Let me
tell you something, salvation's in Christ alone. Not Christ plus
your decisions and Christ plus something else. So you don't believe dead sinners
have to make a decision? You'll never make that decision
unless he gives you the ability to make it. My people shall be
willing in the day of my power. They're not willing. They weren't
born willing. They're willed not free. He makes
them willing. in the day of His power. There's no other way to be saved.
Acts chapter 4 verse 12 said, neither is there salvation in
any other. There's no salvation in the church. There's no salvation in the preacher.
Salvation is in Christ. For there is none other name
under heaven given. given of God, given among men,
whereby we must be saved. Our Lord said to his disciples,
they said, we don't know where you're going and how can we know
the way? He said, I am the way. I wonder how many of us, after
all these years gathering and worshiping God and all of these
things, I wonder how many of us would have said the same thing.
Well, I don't know where you're going and I don't know the way. The Lord said, I'm the way. What do you all believe? Well,
I'm the truth. Isn't that what he said? I'm
the way, I'm the truth. I'm the life. You'll call on Him and trust
Him and believe on Him as God has set Him forth or you'll be
damned with the rest of this unbelieving world. Now I'm telling
you, that's a statement that you can't refute in the Word
of God. and it's in harmony in Genesis,
Exodus, all the way through the Bible. All have sinned, Paul
said, and come short of the glory of God. Jesus Christ, this one who stands
before them, this one they didn't recognize, he had to make himself
known to them, who walked with him. Jesus Christ came into this
world to save sinners. All right, here's the next thing.
How are these men and women going to be saved if they don't know
him? Now, he revealed himself to a
few when he was in this world. He went everywhere preaching
the gospel. But how these generation after
generation after generation, how these men, God has an elect
out of every nation, kindred, tribe and people and tongue under
heaven. How are they going to know? How
are they going to call on him in whom they have not heard? How is his elect over in Russia
going to call on him? How those exiled up to Siberia,
how are they going to call on him? How are these Indians in
the deepest jungles down in Mexico, how are they going to call on
him? God's going to take a preacher.
He's going to anoint that preacher. He's going to equip him for the
ministry, just like he did Walter Gruber, and he's going to send
him down there in them jungles, and he's going to go out in that
jungle and learn to preach to sinners. He'd been down there now 50 years. And there's 40 some churches,
native churches, raised up with pastors, native pastors, preaching
the gospel. The Jesus preached in the average
pulpit is what Paul called another Jesus. He's another Jesus. He's not the federal head and
representative of God's elect. You can sit over there for 20
years, you're never going to hear that. He's not the sovereign eternal
mediator. You mean God appointed a mediator
and then he created the world? That's exactly right. Because
without that mediator, there's no point in creating anything. You can't go down here and find
out about the sovereign eternal mediator. He's not the creator
and the one for whom all things are created and the one by whom
all things are preserved. He's not the sovereign savior
who saves whom he will and hardens whom he will. And then Paul asked this question
in Romans 10, 14, how shall you believe in him of whom you've
not heard? You can't call on him in whom
you have not believed. You can't believe in him of whom
you've not heard. Our Lord was standing there in
his resurrected body with his disciples, whom he was about
to send forth into a depraved world with the gospel. And he
tells us in John 20, 21, as my father has sent me, even so send
I you. How did the father send him?
How did the father send his son? He sent him according to his
eternal purpose of grace, and according to the counsel of his
own will. Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth. Isn't that what it says on the
book of James? Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth. Now, he said, you be careful
how you hear. In Acts chapter 4, verse 28,
he says that all these Gentile nations and the Jewish nations
and everybody that had a hand in the crucifixion of Christ
did what God's hand and God's counsel determined before to
be done. The redemptive will of God set
before us in John 6, 39 and 40. He tells us all that the Father
has given Him. He's not going to lose anything.
He's going to raise it up at the last day. And He said, this
is also the will of Him that sent me, that everyone which
seeth the Son and believeth on Him may have everlasting life. In verses 44 and 45 of John chapter
6, He tells us that none will come except they be drawn of
the Father. and taught of the Father, and
all those who are taught of the Father gonna come to Christ.
Not gonna come to a reformation, not gonna come to a decision,
they're gonna come to a person. All right, now look back at my
text in John 20, verse 22. When he said this to us, and my father sent me, so send
I you. And when he had said this, he
breathed on them and saith unto them, receive ye the Holy Ghost. Uh-oh, now we got a problem.
Holy Ghost wasn't given till the day of Pentecost. Please God through the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe, but our God is a sovereign
God. Every so often he demonstrates
it. Every so often he'll call a man like John the Baptist and
he won't wait until he's 22 and save him the way that he's purposed
to save everybody. He'll cover him in his mother's
womb with the Holy Spirit. Why would he do such a thing?
To show you and declare to you that he's sovereign. Now the
Holy Ghost is promised. He told them, you go down to
Jerusalem and you tarry there till you be endued with power
from on high. And in that day, that Holy Ghost
is gonna be shed, gonna be poured out on the church. But to prove
to you that he's the sovereign God in human flesh, he breathed
on them and they received the Holy Ghost right then. Right
then. What he's talking about here
is the spirit of submission and revelation of the gospel of Jesus
Christ. Paul said that his sufficiency
was of God. He said, who's sufficient for
these things? My soul. You reckon Peter thought
he was sufficient for these things, or John, or any of them? He said,
our sufficiency is of God, who hath made us able ministers of
the New Testament. And I'm persuaded that this is
the correct translation because he tells us in John 20 verse
23. Look at this. Whosoever sins you remit, they
are remitted unto them, and whosoever sins you retain, they are retained. Do you mean to tell me that preachers
have power to forgive sins? That's ridiculous. I don't know
anybody that believes that. I don't know anybody that believes
that, except the Catholics. They believe the Pope has that
power. The power to forgive or damn
lies in the hands of God our Savior. These men whom he breathed
on with this Holy Spirit and they received the Holy Spirit,
these men never spoke of forgiving sins or having any power to condemn
men. They never did. What he's saying
is that according to their gospel, the gospel of Jesus Christ, their
witness, they're being sent forth as witnesses of the person and
work of Jesus Christ. According to their gospel, the
gospel of God's sovereign grace in Christ, what sins by virtue
of his blood atonement are forgiven are forgiven. If I tell you this
morning that the blood of Jesus Christ is sufficient to put away
sin, and you call on him and trust in him, your sins, they're
gone. They're gone. Why? Because I said so? No. Because
I brought you the word of God which said so. And if I tell you your free will
works religion can't put away your sin, you're speaking in tongues and
walking down aisles can't put away sin, but you insist on going
back to it anyhow, then your sins are retained. They go with
you out the door. That's what he's telling them.
These men never spoke of those things. And what he's saying
is that according to their gospel, these things shall be. And he
that believeth not, he said, he that believeth and is baptized,
he'll be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. What's he going to be damned for? His sins. Their commission was to preach
his person and work to all the world, and those who believed
and were baptized were saved, and those who believed not. shall
be damned. You know there's a passage over
here in I think it's in Hebrews chapter 10. He said if you sin willfully
there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. Now I'm going to tell
you something, all sin is willful. And that's not what he's talking
about. You just bow up and say, well, I'm gonna sin. You do that
all the time. Yeah, you do. I do, you do, everybody
does. That's not what he's talking
about. What he's talking about is you've heard what Paul declared
to them about Christ being set forth in the Old Testament and
his accomplished redemption. and you go ahead with your practice
of offering these animal sacrifices and establishing a priesthood
and doing all these things. I have to go into every detail
and make this application to free will works religion and
legalism and sentimentalism and all the other isms. You hear this gospel of Jesus
Christ and his accomplished redemption, salvation by Sovereign grace. And you say, I think I should
go back to my old religion. Well, let me tell you something.
There remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, because the sacrifice
is in Christ. The sacrifice for sins is in
Christ. Jesus of Nazareth is a real person,
not some fictitious figure of ancient mythology. His whole
life was a fulfilling of prophecy. Thousands of years of prophecy,
one prophecy after the other. Different men with different
vocations from different parts of the world, all of them prophesying
of the coming redeemer. His whole life was a fulfilling.
He did this because it was written of him. His whole work, eternity past
or eternity future, laid before us in the word of God. And God
confirmed him in his office. He gave evidence that this is
the Christ. You're gonna seek after a sign,
but there's no sign gonna be given you. Here's the sign, Isaiah
talked about it years and years and years before the coming of
Christ. Here's the sign, a virgin shall conceive. And bring forth
a son. That's the evidence. God confirmed him in his office
as the Christ by undeniable miracles and wonders and signs which God
did by him in our midst. All through the book of John,
he talks about it. Talks about the woman at the
well. He turned the water into wine. And you can go on and on
and on all through the book of John. All these evidences. He
said, if you don't believe on me for my sake, believe on me
for the work's sake, which I do. God's demonstrating who I am
right before your eyes. God confirmed him in his office
as the Christ by undeniable miracles and wonders and signs. And he
did the same thing for his witnesses. Before a crowd of thousands,
he was crucified and died. And on the third day, he arose
and was seen by as many as 500 disciples at one time. You can
read about it in 1 Corinthians 15. There's no sleight of hand
here. There's no magic tricks. The
Lord Jesus Christ came into this world and accomplished the Father's
redemptive will. He saved a people and in so doing,
he manifested the glory of God. He honored God's justice. He
honored God's righteousness. And I'm not up here trying to
reform your doctrine. I'm here trying to preach a person,
hoping that God will enable you to see Him and trust in Him,
hope in Him, and rest in Him. Look to Him. Worship Him. And submit yourselves to Him. This Apostle John, that we've
been studying his writings in the book of Revelations, John
states the ministry As clear as any preacher in the New Testament. Here's what he says. For the
life was manifested, and we seen it. God manifested life in this
world of dead sinners, and we saw it. and bear witness and
show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and
was manifested unto us. That's the ministry, 1 John chapter
1 verse 2. Jesus Christ was not just another
prophet, another preacher, another man. Jesus Christ is the Son
of God. They got up on that mountaintop,
that Mount of Transfiguration, Those apostles looked up there,
and there was Elijah. You reckon they carried pictures
of Elijah around with them so they knew who he was? No. Elijah was made known to them
by the Spirit of God. And they looked up there, and
they saw Moses, and they saw Elijah, and they saw the Lord. And they said, let's build three
tabernacles. And a voice came out of heaven.
and said, this is my beloved son. You hear him. You hear him. This is the brightness of the
father's glory and express image of his person. This is he who
by himself purged our sins and sat down at the right hand of
the majesty on high. This is the priest after the
order of Melchizedek without beginning of time or end of days. Jesus Christ, Paul said, is all. He's all. Well, what do you say down there
that Jesus Christ is? You talk about what we say is,
what do you say? I say he's all. He's everything. Take Christ
as God has declared him out of the picture and there's nothing
left but a great black hole. Brother Scott Richardson said
years ago the Bible is a hymn book, H-I-M. It's a hymn book. To him give
all the prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth
in him shall receive remission of sins. Through this man is
preached unto you the forgiveness of sins and by him all that believe
are justified from all things which they could not be justified
by the law of most. laboring this morning to tell
you how sins are forgiven and how men and women are reconciled
to God. Paul said, having made peace
through the blood of His cross by Him, by Him, to reconcile
all things to Himself. By Him, I say, whether they be
things in earth and things in heaven. And you that were sometimes alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now has He reconciled
How'd he do it? In the body of his flesh through
death to present you holy and unblameable and unapprovable
in his sight if you continue in the faith. Grounded and settled,
be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which I preach
to you and to the whole world. You see, faith is about believing
the testimony of God concerning his son. John said, this is the
record that God has given to us, eternal life, and there's
life in his son. Now look back at our text, John
20, verse 30. Many other signs truly did Jesus
in the presence of his disciples. which are not written in this
book. But these are written. What did
John write? Well, he talked about being on
a ship out in the middle of the sea in the middle of the night. What in the world was an experienced
fisherman doing in a ship at night in the middle of the sea
in a storm? They went out there because that's
where the Lord told them to go. And while they was on that ship
in the middle of that storm, thinking positively that they
were going to the bottom, they looked up and in the night, blackest
night that you can imagine and lightning flashing, and they
looked off in the light of that lightning and there's the Lord
walking on the troubled sea. But he wasn't troubled. He was just walking. He was just walking. And he made
like he was going to pass them up, and they cried unto him. And he got over in the ship.
And he said, peace be still. And that sea laid down like a
sea of glass. These things are written. It's
not what's not written, it's what is written. There's just
a few things, just a handful of things. John goes on to say,
if everything the Lord did was written in a book, the world
couldn't contain the books. But these things are written.
These things are written. What's written? He said, all
that the Father gave us is going to come to me. And him that cometh
to me, I don't know why he's cast out. He said, I'm going
to go before the Jews, and they're going to condemn me, and they're
going to nail me to a cross, and they're going to put me to
death, and you're going to lay me in a tomb. But on the third
day, I'm going to rise. What happened on the third day?
He rose. Oh, but they put this big boulder
up there, and they sealed it and put a guard outside. That
didn't keep him from rising from the dead. And he wasn't in a hurry. He
got up, took off his gray clothes, and folded them and neatly laid
them on the stone where they laid him. The angel of God came
down, rolled that stone back, and he walked out justified,
the risen Savior. It's not the unwritten things
that generate faith in Christ, but those which are written.
Secret things belong unto the Lord. Those things which are
revealed belong to us and our children forever. If this book is indeed the word
of God, and truly it is, and all of its contents inspired
by God the Spirit, then surely we can take God at his word. These things are written. These
scriptures fulfilled, these promises brought to pass, these types
manifested, these miracles done, this work accomplished. These
things are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ,
the Son of God. And of believing, you might have
life. You might have life through his
name. The understanding of it, the reality of it, the effects
of it, the sufficiency of it, and the benefits of it. What about you? What about you in here this morning? These things are written that
you might believe. Do you? You either do or you don't. There's no gray areas here. There's
no fog about this thing. You either believe or you don't.
And these things are written that you might believe. Well, I'll tell you what I pray
this morning. I pray that the Lord will do such a work in you
that you can't do anything else. I tried, I tried the first time
I heard this. I tried to disprove it. I went
through the scriptures and the more I looked, the more that
foundation was laid out just like that man told me. I tried
to disprove it. You can't disprove it. It's the
declaration of God. These things are written that
you might believe that he is the Christ, the son of the living
God and believing that you might have life. Oh, may the Lord grant
it to you this morning.