John chapter 15, we read the
first 11 verses and we'll come back there in just a moment and
take our text. A familiar verse or two, before
we do that, from Isaiah chapter 40. The Lord's command to his
prophet, comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished. It's done. And her iniquity is pardoned
for she had received of the Lord's hand double for all of her sins. Now here in John chapter 15,
The Lord himself does that very thing, what he commanded the
prophet to do in his name, that is, to comfort his people, he
himself does here. He that gave the command to Isaiah
fulfills it here himself because he speaks words of comfort as
only he can. His word not only speaks of comfort,
when he speaks it, he accomplishes comfort. He gives comfort to
his people through the promise of his word. From chapters 14
through 16, our Lord does that very thing, promise after promise,
perhaps the one that we're most familiar with, the very first
verse of chapter 14. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. Let not your heart be troubled. And then down in verse 18, I
will not leave you comfortless. I will not leave you comfortless.
That's the promise of our Redeemer. That's the promise of the one
who loved us and gave himself for us. He says to you and I
tonight, Not a conditional promise, not based upon our faithfulness,
but upon his. Not based upon any time, because
he's the same yesterday, today, and forever. He says to you and
I, throughout our earthly pilgrimage, I will not leave you comfortless.
I will come to you. I'm sure I've pointed this out
to you before, but the word here, comfortless, means orphans. I will not leave you as orphans.
but I will come to you." And then again in verse 27 of the
same chapter, he says, peace I leave with you. Peace I leave
with you, my peace I give unto you. And my peace is not as the
world giveth, give I unto you. And with that blessed, blessed
promise, he adds this, let not your heart be troubled, neither
let it be afraid. And then in chapter 15, Verse
3 says, now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken
unto you. In chapter 13, he had washed
his disciples' feet. And he told them, ye are clean,
but not all. Speaking of Judas, Judas was
present. Judas is gone out now. When he
speaks these words, Judas is gone to betray him. Therefore,
he says, ye are clean. All of you together, those 11
remaining, he said, ye are clean through the word which I have
spoken unto you. Several ifs in these verses that
I read to you a moment ago. Several ifs, but they're not
conditions of our joy that we must meet, not conditions of
peace, not conditions of our comfort or our cleansing, but
promises and assurances that it's so. Rupert Reibenbach, who
pastors the church in Spring Lake, North Carolina, made this
statement once preaching in the conference in Danville, Kentucky. He said, if all the ifs in the
Bible, and there are many, but he said, if all those ifs in
the Bible hang on Christ, then the believer can claim them all
as promises. That's how we should view these
verses that we read that contain these ifs in John chapter 15.
They are promises because all the ifs are conditioned upon
Christ. Now, I bring you back to verse
5 where our Lord again says, I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in
him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me ye
can do nothing. Now, we sang two hymns. A few
moments ago, what can wash away my sins? Nothing. Nothing. Nothing but the blood
of Jesus. Nothing else can. The other one
we sang contained one verse that says, nothing good have I, whereby
thy grace to claim. Nothing at all. It's rather easy
to sing those old hymns. But it's altogether a different
thing to feel in our hearts, to be convinced of the truth
of it, of what our Lord said and what we expressed in those
hymns, in the singing of them. Without me, you can do nothing. Only God, by His Holy Spirit,
can convince a man of that. And thank God our Lord taught
in chapter 6 of this Gospel of John that they shall all be taught
of God. All of his people will be taught
of God. In chapter 6 he's speaking to
some religious folks, folks that had been fed and experienced
the miracle of his feeding thousands, and they followed him across
the sea. And he said to them, once they found him, once they
searched for him, crossed the sea looking for him, He said,
you haven't really come to me. Isn't that strange? Most preachers
today would start taking a head count and say, well, look here,
we had 5,000 decisions the other day. Christ said, you haven't
really come to me. No man can really come to me. Now, if coming to Christ was
something a man could do with his feet, from moving from the
back of the church to the front of the church at a so-called
altar, then those words would be meaningless. But Christ said,
although they had came to him physically, he said, you haven't
really come to me. Nobody can really come to me. And what he means is come in
a saving way. Come to him by grace, through
faith. No man can come to me in that
way except God Almighty draw him. And then they began to murmur. Verse 43 here in John 6. Jesus
therefore answered and said unto them, murmur not among yourselves. Murmur not among yourselves.
They murmured about several things, he said, about his sovereignty.
In verse 44, he goes on to say, no man can come to me except
the Father which has sent me draw him, and I will raise him
up at the last day. It is written in the prophets,
and they shall be all taught of God. Every man, therefore,
that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. As old John Newton put it, grace
taught my heart to fear. I would have never otherwise.
We would never, me and Louis talked about this just a few
minutes before service. A man won't even know he's in
darkness. He won't even know he's lost.
I mean really know it until he's learned of the Father. And when
God teaches a man, he gets the lesson. He gets the lesson, he
learns it. God teaches affectionately. And
Newton referred to this. Grace taught my heart to fear. Grace, as old Ralph Barnard put
it, got me lost. Otherwise, I would have never
known it. And until someone's lost, they'll
never be found. Until they're stripped, they'll
never be clothed. And this is what God does in
his mighty work of grace. Grace teaches a sinner that those
things are so, the true condition that he's in. But that same amazing
grace doesn't leave him there. Oh, no. Grace Newton went on
to write, relieved my fear. If Jesus Christ is all, then
without him, as he taught here, there's nothing. We can do nothing. But on the other hand, on the
other hand, if Christ is everything, And if there is one thing taught
in this book, it is exactly that. Christ is all. And I don't mean
just in the New Testament. I mean from Genesis to Revelation. From the first verse to the last
verse, it teaches that Jesus Christ is all. Therefore, if
Jesus Christ is all, and I have him, I have everything. Without Him, nothing. But with
Him, I lack nothing. Is that not the teaching of the
book? Everything depends on Him. Everything depends on Him. And
this thing of salvation, from the purpose to save, to the purchase
of our redemption by Christ, Accomplishment in time by the
Holy Spirit's work of coming unto us and creating us new in
Christ Jesus. Everything depends on Him. Grace. Grace. We cannot come to God and claim
to come on any other grounds. We cannot come on the claims
of merit. Grace is unmerit. Unmerit. You know what that means. We at least mentally know the
definition of it, but it means, according to God's Word, there's
nothing that a sinner can do to merit to earn God's grace. It can't be done. If ever it's
done, then it's not grace anymore. Paul talked about that in Romans
11, didn't he? If it's works, then it's no more
grace. Oh, but if it's grace, then kick
works out the door because it's no more works. Grace. Without Christ, there's no grace. Turn here since we're in John.
Turn to chapter 1 for just a moment. John's Gospel, chapter 1. Let's
read these words beginning at verse 14. And the Word was made
flesh and dwelt, tabernacle, among us, and we beheld his glory,
the glory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. John bare witness of him and
cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake. Now, this is John
the Baptist. He that cometh after me is preferred
before me, for he was before me. And of his fullness, that
fullness of grace and truth, of his fullness have we all received
and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses
but grace and truth came by through Jesus Christ. Right here where
it's mentioned in verse 16, And of His grace have we all received,
and grace for grace? That word for could very well
have been translated, and grace because of grace. We've received
grace and we continue to receive grace. If we ever receive grace,
we continue to receive from that same fullness. Grace because
of grace. I copied a... A brief article
by my pastor, Mr. Fortner, and he put it this way.
We have received redeeming grace because of electing grace. That's
right. That's right. All those God chose,
those same ones Christ redeemed. We receive regenerating grace
because of redeeming grace. Those he redeemed, he also calls. Sanctifying grace because of
regenerating grace. Believing grace because of sanctifying
grace. Persevering grace because of
preserving grace. Grace in time because of grace
in eternity. Is that not so? Grace because
of grace. Experimental grace because of
covenant grace. Partening grace because of promised
grace. Imparted grace because of imputed
grace. Everlasting grace because of
everlasting grace. The fullness of grace because
of the freeness of grace. I like that, don't you? All of
grace. And without grace, without grace
that comes through the Lord Jesus Christ, No salvation. There's no salvation. The only
way salvation comes to sinners, Ephesians chapter 2, almost as
familiar as John 3, 16. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that's not of yourselves. What is Paul talking about there
when he says, that's not of yourselves? First he said, for by grace are
you saved through faith, and that's not of yourselves. It's
the gift of God. Is he speaking of the grace,
not of ourselves? The faith, not of ourselves?
Or the salvation, not of ourselves? All three. All three. All three
are the gift of God, and without Jesus Christ, we can't have them. Without him. Paul, writing again
to his beloved Titus, said, For the grace of God that bringeth
salvation The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared. Oh, bless his name. Without salvation,
where would we be? Without Christ, no grace. No salvation, no faith. Without salvation, or rather
without Christ, there would be no salvation. As Paul again in
Ephesians 2 said, without Christ equals without hope. Also, without
God. So then every saved sinner must
confess. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy and for thy truth's
sake. And the same declaration we find
in the New Testament. God forbid, Paul agrees perfectly
with David. Every redeemed sinner, every
saved sinner, and David was saved the same way Paul was. The same
way, there wasn't a different way of sinners being saved in
the Old Testament than the New. They were all saved on the merits
of that lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world.
Therefore, it's before David's time, the lamb stood, and before
Paul's time. They stand up on the same ground,
and Paul says, I agree with David 100%. God forbid that I should
glory, save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why is that
so important? Should we make an issue of it?
God makes an issue of it, doesn't he? God says, to my son belongs
all praise. To my son belongs all glory. Who wears the crown? Who gets
the credit? Whoever gives the grace deserves
all the glory. And grace comes only from one
source. God doesn't deal with any sinner. No sinner has ever, nor shall
they ever, experience any mercy, any grace of God, except through
that one mediator, that one channel, that everlasting fountain of
overflowing grace, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. And John
said he's full of grace. All the grace a needy sinner
shall ever need. Turn, if you will, to 1 Corinthians
chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Again, the apostle repeats this
very blessed truth, the grace of God that is in Christ Jesus. In verse 9, Paul said, For I
am least of the apostles that I am not meet, worthy, fit to
be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God.
Another place he said, I wasted it. In Acts, we read that Paul
spent his entire life breeding out threatenings against the
church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul was thinking about that
when he wrote those words. But look at verse 10. But, but
all that changed. It changed dramatically. It changed
dramatically. Paul left Jerusalem that day
with a saddle bag full of warrants to go to Damascus to arrest God's
people. He had chased him from Jerusalem,
but he didn't think that was enough. They've got to be brought
back so he can give his witness against them so they can be in
prison or put to death. And there he goes that day. There
he goes. That was his determination. But before he gets to Damascus,
before he does what's in his heart, something takes place
that changes the Apostle Paul, or rather Saul of Tarsus, forever. He'll never be the same after
that. What happened, Paul? Did you make a decision for Jesus?
Did you run into a soul winner on the trail to Damascus and
he stuck a track in your hand and you signed on the dotted
line? Is that what's made you such a changed man? Well, my
soul, that doesn't change anybody. All that does is give them a
false hope, a refuge of lies. Know what happened that changed
the Apostle Paul that he speaks of here in verse 10. But, but
God Almighty, Jesus Christ himself appeared to him, but by the grace
of God. But, oh, that is just another
word that describes how grace stepped in. Grace intercepted
the apostle Paul. Grace stopped him in his tracks. That's what grace does. But by
the grace of God, I am what I am. And His grace, which was bestowed
upon me, was not in vain. It wasn't futile. It wasn't for
nothing. It wasn't wasted. But I labored
more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God,
which was with me." John Newton, perhaps you've heard, I'm sure
you have, said, looking back over his life, and
as a believer, after many years, he said, I'm not what I should
be. I'm not what I ought to be. And I'm not what I want to be. And I'm not what, one day, I'm
going to be. But he said, I'm not what I used
to be. And that's what Paul said here.
I'm not what I used to be. God's grace which was given to
me, which was bestowed upon me, was not in vain. That grace which comes in Christ
Jesus, that comes from Him to His people, is never in vain. It's never useless, but it's
effectual. And that simply means it gets
the job done. It means that it works. God's
grace works. God's grace brings salvation. It doesn't come to the sinner
and say, pretty please will you let me in? No, it comes and enters
into their heart. Christ has the key. He lets himself
in and his people become willing in the day of his power. That's
what I want for my children. That's what you want for your
children. I don't want them to experience the high-powered evangelism
of some religious huckster, I want them to experience the real grace
of God that's in Christ Jesus, cause that's the only thing that
can change their nature. Give them a new heart, rather. Oh, as the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ that sinners experience in time, as we just read here
in Paul's testimony, is as effectual as his precious blood that redeemed
them. just as effectual. His blood
wasn't in vain, his blood wasn't useless, it wasn't shed for nothing,
and his grace that comes to sinners, it's not in vain either. Multitudes
say that his death was wasted, that its value is not determined
by himself, by his own merit, by his own virtue, but by what
men do with it. Really, really. Are you still
in John? Look back in chapter 12, what
our Lord says here. And so every place redemption
is spoken of, it's spoken of in these words as something that
was accomplished, something done for his people. But here in John
chapter 12, does this sound like it would be ineffectual, void,
useless? Verse 23, And Jesus answered
them, saying, The hour has come that the Son of Man should be
glorified. Should be glorified. Well, if
all he did was attempt something, what glory is there in that?
And if he failed to do what he willed to do and what the Father
sent him to do, what glory is there in that? Verse 24, Verily,
verily, here's the glory. I say unto you, except of corn
of wheat fallen to the ground and die, comparing that to himself,
it abideth alone. But, but, if it die, it bringeth
forth much fruit, without a question, without a doubt. This is exactly
what we find in Isaiah chapter 53. Turn there for a moment to
this familiar passage. Isaiah chapter 53. I love this
passage in God's Word. First, the prophet describes the redeemer of God's people
entering into the winepress. Look at verse 4. Surely he, that
is Christ, the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, he
hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem
him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But he was wounded
for our transgressions. There's no question about that,
is there? He was bruised for our iniquities, certainly. The
chastisement of our peace was upon him, no doubt about that,
and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to our
own way, willfully, in stubborn rebellion, and the Lord has what? Laid on him. We went our way,
but the Lord had laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was
oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.
He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before
her shearers is done, so he openness, not his mouth. He was taken from
prison and from judgment, and who shall declare his generation?
For he was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression
of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the
wicked, and with the rich in his death, because he had done
no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth, yet, yet,
It pleased the Lord to bruise him. He had put him to grief. He said, I have trod the winepress
alone, and of the people there was none with me. The old writers
referred to the sufferings of Christ at this time as the unknown
sufferings of Christ, meaning that we just cannot enter into
them. We cannot comprehend what he
endured. God being forsaken by God, unknown
to us. Oh, but not unknown to him, and
not unknown to his heavenly Father. In Lamentations chapter 1, our
Lord says this prophetically. Is it nothing to you, all ye
that pass by, behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto
my sorrow, which is done unto me? by God, wherein the Lord,
not man, the Lord had afflicted me, speaking of these unknown
sufferings, I'm reading from Lamentations 1 verse 12, wherein
the Lord had afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.
From above hath he sent his fire into my bones, and it prevailed
against them. He hath spread a net for my feet,
he hath turned me back, he hath made me desolate and faint all
the day, the yoke of my transgressions. Do you hear that? This is our
Lord speaking. And he says, the yoke of my transgressions,
he took our transgressions, our sins, and made them his own. The yoke of my transgression
is bound by his hand. They are wreathed and come up
on my neck. He had made my strength to fall. The Lord had delivered me into
their hands, from whom I am now not able to rise Mm, mm, mm. And there was no contribution.
No contribution by anyone was made to him who trod the winepress
alone. He said, of the people, there
was none with me. Turn, if you will, to Luke's
gospel, chapter 23. Luke chapter 23, verse 20. Luke
23 and 20. Pilate, therefore, willing to
release Jesus, spake again to them, that is, the multitude
that was crying for his death. But they cried, saying, Crucify
him, crucify him. And he said unto them the third
time, Why, what evil hath he done? I have found no cause of
death in him. I will therefore chastise him
and let him go. And they were instant with loud
voices, requiring. Nothing else would satisfy them.
requiring that he might be put to death. And the voices of them
and of the chief priests prevailed, and Pilate gave sentence that
it should be as they required. And he released unto them him
that for sedition and murder was cast into prison, whom they
had desired, but he delivered Jesus to their will. that it should be as they required. But there was one, there was
one, whose will overrode all other wills, and that was God
himself. And he had decreed concerning
his son that it should be as he, God Almighty, required. And what he required, what he
demanded, was that justice be satisfied. And only God could
do that. They can spit on him by God's
permission, and they can pluck out his beard, and they can whip
him with that cat of nine tails so his back is just a strip of
a bloody paw. They can mock him. They can press
or crown the thorns up on his neck, or head, rather. They can
do all that, but they cannot do this. They cannot make him
sin. Only God can. God, Paul said
in 2 Corinthians 5, has made him to be as in italics, have
made him sin. I don't understand that, but
that's how it reads. God had made him sin for us. God required that he should be
put to death, should be made sin. No wonder the old writers
referred to it as the unknown sufferings of Christ. One hymn
writer put it this way, much we talk of Jesus' blood but how
little understood of his suffering so intense angels have no perfect
sense. Who can rightly comprehend their
beginning or their end? It is to God and God alone that
their weight is fully known. See the suffering Son of God,
panting, groaning, sweating blood, boundless depths of love divine.
Jesus, what a love was thine. Turn back to Isaiah for a moment.
We don't want to leave off where we did. We want to continue the
reading here in Isaiah chapter 53. It speaks about him being
bruised. trotting the winepress alone.
Yes, he trotted by himself but not for himself. By himself and
none with him but not for himself as the substitute for his people.
And what's the outcome of all that? All that we read prior
to this from verses 4 down to the part of verse 10. What's
the outcome? What's the outcome of that? What
was it all for? Look at verse 10 again, picking
up the reading right here. When that shall make his soul
an offering for sin, he shall see his sin. He shall prolong
his days. He'll live forever. He's not
going to stay in the grave. And the pleasure of the Lord
shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of
his soul, and shall be satisfied by his knowledge, shall my righteous
servant justify many, many. For he shall bear there the many's
iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a
portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoiled with
the strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto death. And
he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bared the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors. He shall see of
his seed, who? God, yes, and Christ as well. Therefore God shall divide him
a portion with the great. Mmm. Six shells in those couple
of verses, 10 and 11. Six shells. And every one of
them are certainties. They're not maybes or perchances. They're all certainties. He shall
bear their sins, and they shall be justified. He shall be satisfied. He shall see his seed. That's
why it concludes with, therefore, because he was successful. because
he did what he came to do, because he accomplished the redemption
of his people, God has exalted him and given him that name above
all names. If he had failed to do what God
sent him to do, God would never have done that. When he had by
himself purged our sins, he sat down at the right hand of the
majesty on high, John, being escorted around glory. By the
elder, he said, behold, I looked and lo, a lamb stood on the mount
Zion. Glorious, majestic, victorious. But he's not alone. He bore the sin of many. Take, drink, this is my blood
which is shed for many. The Son of Man came not to be
ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom
for many. And those same many John sees
with him on the mount. And with him, a hundred and forty
and four thousand representing God's elect, having his father's
name written in their foreheads. And they sung as it were a new
song before the throne and before the four beasts and the elders
and no man could learn that song but the 140 and 4,000 which were
redeemed from the earth. Their ransom had been paid and
God Almighty accepted the ransom. The ransom was paid to God. And God said, I'm satisfied with
it. Therefore, deliver their souls
from going down to the pit. I found the ransom, and this
ransom is a sweet-smelling saver. I'm satisfied with the price
paid. The ransom was to satisfy God,
and it did forever. Therefore, there is no more sacrifice
for sin, because once was enough, once, got the job done. No wonder Paul said, God forbid
that I should glory saving the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Peter likewise, neither is
there salvation in any other because there is none other name. not Mohammed, not Buddha, not
reverend, not priest, not father, not Pope. The only name under
heaven that God gives whereby men must be saved is in that
glorious name of his son, Jesus Christ the Lord, our Redeemer.
And without him, Christ said, nothing, nothing. Let me quote
or rather read another hymn that expresses it better than I can.
Sons of peace redeemed by blood, raise your songs to Zion's God. Made from condemnation free,
grace triumphant, sing with me. Calvary's wonders let us trace,
Jesus just as magnified in grace. Mark the purple streams and say,
thus my sins were washed away. Wrath divine, no more we dread.
Vengeance smote our surety's head. Legal claims are fully
met. Jesus paid the dreadful debt.
Sin is lost beneath the flood, drowned in the Redeemer's blood.
Zion, oh, how blessed thou art, justified from all things now. Without Christ, nothing. Remember,
when that rich young ruler came to our Lord, man, look at him. He's something. The disciples
thought he was something. They were impressed with him,
didn't they? Because man looketh on the outside, but the Lord
looks on the heart. Oh, but the disciples, they thought
he was something, and the young rich ruler thought he was something,
too. And he said, what must I do to
inherit eternal life? I can inherit it just like I
did my riches. What can I do to earn eternal
life? had a pretty good suspicion that
he'd already done it, that he'd already done enough to inherit
eternal life. And our Lord said, after listening
to his list of what he'd done, from my youth up, the Lord said,
yet one thing thou lackest. One thing thou lackest. And he
lacked Christ. Therefore he lacked grace, he
lacked faith, and he lacked salvation. With all that he claimed, With
all that he claimed, his morality, his religion, with all that he
could claim, he was religious but lost. He was as lost as he
could be. Oh, he looked good outwardly.
He looked good outwardly, but he was as lost, devoid of grace
as he could be. And on the other hand, There
sits a woman at his feet in a little house in Bethany, and she doesn't
claim anything like the rich young ruler did, and yet our
Lord says she doesn't like anything. She doesn't like anything. She
has the one thing that includes everything. The one thing that's
needful, the Lord Jesus Christ. You have the same picture and
the same lesson taught in Luke 18 with the Pharisee and the
public. The Pharisee stood and said,
man, I've got it all. God must be pleased with me.
I'm sure God's honored that I even come to the temple. He must accept
me. Oh, look at this robe of self-righteousness
that I'm wearing. Oh, God must be impressed. Look
at it. Look at it. Tithing and fasting
and giving and not touching and not tasting and not wearing and
not going. I'm not like other people. God's
impressed with this garment. And God looked down and said,
it's a filthy rag and it's a stench in my nostrils. And look over
there. a tax collector, one of the most hated people other than
Christ himself in Jerusalem. And he doesn't claim anything. He doesn't claim anything but
his sin. That's the only thing he claims.
He claims nothing because he was nothing and he could do nothing. He's a beggar. And Jesus Christ
said, not the Pharisee, but the beggar. Mike the beggar went
home from the temple justified that day. And he went to glory
since then justified. If he's justified on earth, he's
justified in heaven. Justified in Christ Jesus, you
can never be unjustified. The wise man in Ecclesiastes
asked in conclusion of his Let's hear the conclusion of the whole
matter. Well, let's do the same. And
the conclusion is this. Jesus Christ is all. God has
made him to be unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. He that hath the Son hath life. That's what John wrote, 1 John
chapter 5, and this is the record. This is a matter of record. This
is not speculation. This is not hearsay. This is
the record. This is God's record, child of
God. I believe we can count on it, don't you? That God had given
to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath
the Son hath the life, and he that hath not the Son of God
hath not the life. These things have I written unto
you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may
know, not that ye may doubt and fret, but that you may know.
Do you believe on the Son of God? Then know this, know this,
that ye may know that ye have eternal life and that ye may
just keep doing what you're doing, that ye may believe on the name
of the Son of God. With Christ everything, without
Christ nothing. When Peter wrote his first and
second epistle, he opened them in the same way. In the first
chapter of both epistles, he says, grace and peace be multiplied
unto you. I like Peter's arithmetic, don't
you? He never says grace be divided. It never is. It never is. God giveth. Lord, God For this sinner for
63 years, God has given and given and given more grace. And I believe,
God helped me to believe and honor him in believing that he'll
continue to do so until he takes me to glory. Grace be multiplied
until grace carries us all the way to glory. Where? when life's
journey is over, and I, the dear Savior, shall see, I'll praise
Him forever and ever for saving a sinner like me. Amen.