I am honored of God, so very
honored of God, to have my life so intertwined with yours that I can't escape your burdens,
your cares, your trials, your heartaches, those things that
you carry. I can't escape them. In recent
weeks and months, many, many who are dear to us, many of you,
many of our friends, many of our brothers and sisters, have
again been put into the furnace by God's hand. Some of those trials our friends
endure, are known to all of us, some of them known to only a
few, some known to none but me, them, and God who sent them. Some of our friends are at death's
door. Others wish they were. How honored of God we are. to
be able to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those
who weep in sincerity. It is a blessing of God that
he graciously melts our lives together, melts our hearts together,
and mingles our joys and our sorrows with one another. We
share our mutual woe. Our mutual burdens bear, and
often for each other flows the sympathizing tear. That's a great
blessing. That's a great blessing. And
it's a great burden. As your pastor, as God's messenger
to your souls, I have a very, very heavy burden to carry. A burden that no one else can
know anything about. except another pastor. It's my
responsibility. It's my responsibility to prepare
you for eternity. Now I know I can't do that. I know that's God's work alone. And I know just as clearly that
this alone is God's work. I know that God is pleased to
accomplish this work through the instrumentality of preaching,
gospel preaching, through the use of instrumentality, the preaching
of the gospel. It's a burden and a responsibility
I take Very, very seriously. You'll never hear me joke about
it. You'll never see me even smile
when others joke about it. It's a burden I take very seriously. I recall years ago, Pastor E.W. Johnson going to visit a man
in his congregation. E.W. had been his pastor for
many years, and this man was dying. He knew it, and E.W. knew it. After the visit a little
while, Brother Johnson said to this man, I have to ask you,
my friend, is it well with your soul? And the old man paused
for a minute and looked at his pastor right in the eye, and
he said, if you've told me the truth, it is. If you've told me the truth,
it is. In the light of those things, I prepared this message. May God, the Holy Spirit, send
it to your heart. 1 John 5, verse 11. The title of my message is found
in verse 11. Life is in his son. Life is in his son. 1 John 5,
verses 11 and 12. And this is the record. This
is the record. The record the unbelieving deny
and make God a liar because they refuse to believe it. This is
the record that God hath given to us eternal life. And this life is in his son. He that hath the son hath life. And he that hath not the son
of God hath not life. There is one question of immense
importance that I pray God will cause to ring in your heart incessantly. Dost thou believe on the Son
of God? Dost thou believe on the Son
of God? Nothing else much matters, really. Now, I know to whom I'm preaching,
most of you are members of this congregation. This is not our
Sunday morning crowd or our Easter Sunday crowd or our Christmas
Sunday crowd. This is the Tuesday night crowd.
Most of you regularly attend services here, three, four services
a week. You've been baptized and you've
been members of this church for a long time. You give generously
to support the cause of Christ. I know to whom I'm preaching.
You read your Bibles and you pray. You witnessed others. I know to whom I'm preaching.
But I'm preaching to you, immortal souls, on the brink
of eternity. And I want you to know God. I
want you to possess eternal life. I want you to know God's salvation
in the sweet experience of His grace. Is it well with your soul? Are you prepared to meet God?
Do you have eternal life? And this is the record. What
does that word mean? record, testimony. This is the
truth of God. This is the record that God has
given to us eternal life. And this life is in his son. This is the truth. This is the
testimony of God throughout the book of God. God hath given. He didn't sell it. He didn't
barter with you to get you to have it. He didn't lend it to
you. He hath given to us eternal life. Eternal life. Eternal life is
not something that commences in time. Eternal life is not
something that you have some involvement in. Eternal life
is the life that somebody has with God in his son from eternity,
the covenant surety. And if you have this life, you
have it only because God has put it in you. He has given to
us eternal life, and this life is in his son. Now, I want to
make three statements, then I'm going to show you seven facts,
and then I'm going to give these three statements again. I hope
tonight that God will enable me to preach to you with the
utmost simplicity and the utmost clarity and calls you to see
from his word that the things I'm declaring to you are so.
Number one, here's the first statement. Eternal life. Eternal life, the life of God
in the soul. That's what eternal life is.
It is the life of God in the soul of a man. It is God planting
his life in you. It is Christ in you, the hope
of glory. It is being made partaker of
the divine nature. Eternal life is not just eternal
duration. It is not just endless existence.
Eternal life is the life of God in the soul of a man. Eternal
life. is an utter impossibility apart
from the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. Eternal life is not even
a possibility without Christ. Listen to the book of God. It
pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. This life, John tells us, is
in his son. Eternal life is ours only in
Christ, with Christ, with Christ in us, by virtue of union with
Christ. All fullness, all life, all grace,
all mercy resides in Christ. It pleased the Father that in
Him should all fullness dwell. He is the habitation of all things
spiritual. He is the dwelling place of all
life. He is the habitation of all mercy,
all grace, all God's salvation. He said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. There's no eternal life without
him in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily Turn back
to John chapter 3 Here's a text that our Sunday school children
learn perhaps learn it before they learn any others learn to
memorize it Anyway, John chapter 3 verse 16 John chapter 3 verse
16 for God so loved the world that that he gave his only begotten
son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. But don't ever attempt to understand
John 3.16 without reading at least what's stated in the verses
immediately preceding it. You see, John 3.16 is not the
declaration of the gospel. John 3, 16 reveals the calls
of the gospel. The gospel is revealed in verses
14 and 15. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. Jesus Christ must
die that sinners have life, that whosoever believeth in him should
not perish, but have eternal life. You see that? The Son of
God must be lifted up on the cursed tree, just as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, because without his death, there's
no possibility of life. And here's the reason that it's
all done. For God so loved the world. Obviously. Obviously. Obviously. And if it's not obvious to you,
it's because you read this book with your eyes closed. Obviously. That does not mean God loved
everybody in the world. Obviously, he said, Jacob have
I loved and Esau have I hated. He did not love Esau. He does
not love folks who go to hell. If he did, they wouldn't be in
hell. But he loved the world of his elect. His elect scattered
through all the earth. He so loved the world of his
elect that he gave his only begotten son. That whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. That's
clear enough, isn't it? Eternal life is not in the church. It's in the Son. Eternal life
is not in baptism. It's in the Son. You might say,
well, Brother Don, I'm a church member. I'm in good standing.
Eternal life is not in church membership. It's not in the altar. It's not in the mourner's bench.
It's not in the sinner's prayer. It's not in baptism. Eternal
life is in the Son. You got that? Eternal life is
in Christ. But pastor, I live a good life. I keep the law. I read my Bible.
I pray. I keep the sacraments. Eternal
life is not in your good life. Eternal life is not in keeping
the law. Eternal life is not in reading
your Bible. Eternal life is not in prayer. Eternal life is not in what men
call the sacraments. Eternal life is in Christ. Would
God, I could cause you to hear that. This life is in His Son. Not in what you know. Not in
what you've heard all your life. Not in your feelings. Not in
your experience. It's in His Son. This is the
record that God's given us in His Word. This life is in His
Son. When Christ who is our life. Isn't that a wonderful description?
When Christ, who is our life, we have life in Christ, that's
true. We have life from Christ, that's true. Christ is the dearest
object of our lives, certainly, that's true. But there's more
to it than that. Christ is our life. And apart from Him, Eternal life
is not even a possibility. Number two, there is no possibility. Come back to John chapter 11.
John the 11th chapter. Just hold your hands there when
you get it. John chapter 11. There is no possibility of resurrection. No resurrection from the dead
without Christ. I talked to a young man on the
airplane just the other day, coming back in from Florida.
I didn't know his mother had died. I had known him for a long
time. And he said, she's in a better place. Everybody talks about
going to heaven and rising from the dead. One of these days,
we're going to all meet in heaven. And the family circle, it's not
going to be broken. And I'll see mama and daddy in
heaven. Oh, it'd be so good to see my
brothers and sisters in heaven. It'd be so good to be with my
grandparents in heaven, those sweet saints. We'll all get together
in heaven. Well, the fact is, without Christ,
there's no resurrection. Delusion It's all a fantasy It's
all a lie without Christ without Christ He is the firstborn from
the dead He's the firstborn of every creature He is the resurrection
and he is the life Paul put it this way first Corinthians 15
if Christ be not raised Your faith is vain and you are yet
in your sins. Here in John chapter 11, Lazarus,
Martha and Mary were dear friends to the Lord Jesus. They lived
in Bethany and the Savior often visited their household, spent
some time in their home. As often as he was in Bethany,
I expect he stopped by. He often was guest in their home.
Jesus loved Mary and Martha and their brother Lazarus. And Lazarus
got sick. And Martha and Mary sent message
to the Savior. They said, he whom thou lovest
is sick. I hope nobody takes this the
wrong way. I know you sitting here want you to know me better.
Others might. I hope nobody does. They sent
word to the Savior, Bobby, and this is all they said. He whom thou lovest is sick. Nuff said. Nuff said. He whom thou lovest is sick. And they seem to have understood. Nuff said. Lazarus is the object
of the Savior's love. He whom we trust is God over
all, blessed forever. He is life. He whom thou lovest
is sick. And the master stayed where he
was for four days. After Lazarus had been dead for
three days, he came to the place where he was and Martha ran out
to meet him. Let's pick it up in verse 20.
Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and
met him. But Mary abode, she sat still
in the house. Then said Martha unto Jesus,
Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. I know
your life. And death, death, death can't
exist where you are. If thou hadst been here, my brother
had not died. But I know that even now, whatsoever
thou wilt ask, God will give it thee. Jesus saith unto her,
thy brother shall rise again. And Martha responded very accurately. She responded very accurately.
Her doctrine was right enough. She said, I know that he shall
rise again in the resurrection at the last day. I don't have
any question about that. Jesus said unto her, I am the
resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Martha, do you believe this? Christ is the resurrection. He is our resurrection. When our Lord Jesus arose from
the dead, having died under the wrath of God as our substitute,
all God's elect, having died in Him, having suffered all the
fury of God's wrath until justice was satisfied, and God said,
I require no more. Fury is not in me. When Christ
rose from the dead, we rose from the dead in him. When he comes
to the chosen redeemed sinner in sovereign saving mercy, calling
us from death to life in the new birth, In regeneration, we
rise from the dead. The new birth is a resurrection
from the dead. It's not a decision you make.
It's not something you get walking down the aisle and shaking hands
with the preacher or saying, I believe in Jesus. The new birth
is a resurrection from the dead. Only God can do that. And when Christ comes the second
time in his glory, we shall rise again. But our Savior tells us
here that for the believer, for those who trust him, they shall
never die. They shall never die. Without
him, the resurrection is a fantasy. It's an empty dream. It's a delusion. But the believer, those who trust
him, shall never die. All right, here's the third thing. There is no possibility, no possibility,
no possibility of peace with God without Christ. I hear folks say, well, I've
made my peace with God. She made her peace with God a
long time ago. Just reckon how anybody does
that. Christ made peace through the
blood of his cross, we're told in Colossians 120. Apart from
his blood, there is no peace, no possibility of peace. I know
folks talk about people making peace with God. I've heard folks
say, I've made my peace with God. That was done a long time
ago. It's all settled. It's all taken
care of. But the Lord God described that
kind of peace that men make and men produce. They say peace,
peace, when there is no peace. You needn't to call me up or
come by the office and visit with Pastor Don to get peace. going to pretend to give it. I'm not going to tell you you're
saved. If you need me to tell you you're saved, you're not.
I'm not going to tell you you're a believer. If you need me to
tell you you're a believer, you're not. I'm not going to tell you
that you're accepted of God. If you need me to tell you you're
accepted of God, you are not accepted of God. Is that plain
enough? The false prophet and only a false prophet says peace,
peace, when there is no peace. Ralph Barnard was very accurate.
Many things he said, one of them this. He said only a lost man
will try to convince another lost man that he's saved. Only a lost man. We'll try to
convince another lost man that he's saved. Don't try to convince
your lost mama and daddy, your lost son or daughter, your lost
brother or sister, your lost neighbor or friend. Don't try
to convince them they're saved. That's not your business. Only
Christ makes peace. And only Christ can give you
peace, reconciling you to God by the blood of His cross. You
see, in order to have peace with God, peace from God, somehow
you've got to get rid of your sins. Somehow you've got to get rid
of your iniquities. Somehow you've got to get rid
of your transgressions and you can't do that Only Christ can
put away sin and he has put away our sins by the sacrifice of
himself He was delivered for our offenses and raised again
for our justification that is he was delivered to the hands
of justice and Delivered up to death because of our sins made
his he was raised again Because of our sins put away by his sacrifice
in the complete accomplishment of free justification by his
blood therefore being justified by faith We have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ. Apart from him, peace is an absolute
impossibility. We must have an advocate. We
must have an intercessor. We must have a mediator, someone
to stand between us and God, a mediator, a mediator. You call
it a mediator. When two sides are at an impasse,
they can't come together. There are no terms of agreement.
You got to have a mediator to bring the two together. A mediator
generally brings two opposing sides together by making compromise
and concessions on both sides, not our mediator. The Lord Jesus
steps between God and man. fully satisfying all the requirements
of God in all his holiness and All the needs of fallen sinners
in all our depravity and corruption Putting away our sin by the sacrifice
of himself. He Reconciled his people to God
and he intercedes for us in heaven pleading with God for our everlasting
acceptance with him for our present acceptance with him, for our
perpetual acceptance with him. I have, on a couple of occasions
in my life, needed a lawyer. And what I needed was a slick
trickster. That's what I need. I needed
somebody who could find some hole somewhere that he could
make a case for my benefit or he could get some leniency on
my part. I needed somebody to see to it
that by some means or other, what the law in strict justice
required, I would not have to bear. And I was pretty successful. That kind of law won't do you
any good with God. We must have a lawyer God will
accept who has something to plea God can't reject. And if any
man sin, we have an advocate with the father, a lawyer, a lawyer that God in all his
purity, holiness, justice, and truth cannot deny. For he has something to plea
that God has to accept. Jesus, the Christ, the righteous,
and he is the propitiation for our sins. He pleads continually
perfect righteousness and complete satisfaction. And God Almighty
receives us through our mediator. I hope you see these things and
see them clearly. Now, they make seven statements,
seven facts, seven things. I hope you will remember. This
is why I need Christ. This is why you must have Him. There is a holy God I can never please. A holy God I can never please. I didn't often try to please
my father growing up. I strongly counsel you young
people, God gives you children, do your best to make it your
child's ambition to want to please you. You've got half the troubles
lit if your child wants to please you. I had the privilege of raising
just one child. I don't qualify for giving much
counsel for parents. I just had one child and he was
a girl, so I don't qualify. But that darling child, she's
43 years old now, and for 43 years she's wanted to please
her daddy. And that's a wonderful experience. I never did. I didn't give a flip whether
I pleased him or didn't. But Merle, the few times I tried,
I couldn't do it. I couldn't do anything to please
my mother or daddy. They just could not be pleased
by me. That's nothing. They were sinful creatures like
me. They were as corrupt as me. They were rebels like me. I couldn't
please them, let alone please God. What are you going to do
to please God? How do you hope to please God? I can't, but Christ did. This is my beloved Son, the God
of glory, said from heaven, publicly! For everybody to hear! This is
my beloved son. By his obedience and death, this
is he in whom I am well pleased. And God's well pleased with me
in his son. Number two, there is a holy law
I can't keep. People talk about living by the
Ten Commandments. If it weren't so sad, I'd laugh
at them and laugh out loud. live by the Ten Commandments.
You can talk about it all you want to, write about it all you
want to, preach about it all you want to, brag about it all
you want to. It ain't so. You and I can't keep God's holy
law. All of us are guilty of breaking
God's law continually, every day of our lives, from our youth
to our death. We're all guilty of blasphemy,
We're all guilty of idolatry. We're all guilty of theft. We're
all guilty of adultery. We're all guilty of murder. All
of us. All of us. Oh, not me. I never
shot anybody. Yeah, but you wanted to many
times. Same thing. Same thing. I never committed
adultery. You can tell that to your husband
or wife if you want to. If they've got good sense, they won't believe
you. They know better. Because your husband and wife
are guilty, just like this one and that one. No. Oh, no, no, no, no. You you don't
keep God's law. I don't. You don't. Nobody can
except one man. Bless God, the God being Christ. Jesus kept the law for us. He said, I came not to destroy
the law, but to fulfill the law. And he is the end. of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. Number three, it's just fact. There is a righteousness I can't
produce. God says, except your righteousness
shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. Now just think about that. Exceed. Bill Rodley, you never knew anybody
as good as those fellas. You never met anybody that good.
You never met anybody who behaved that well. Our Savior said, except
your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees. You can't go to heaven. Matthew chapter 5, verse
20. Can't be done. Can't be done. There's a holiness without which
no man shall see the Lord. Jesus Christ, however, is righteousness
that exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.
He is holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Just
as he was made sin, It was right, Lindsey, for God
to kill him. It was right for God to kill
him. You understand that? It was right for God to kill
him because he was made sin. And because he was made sin for
us, God justly slew his son in our stead. In exactly the same
way, we are made the righteousness of God in him. And that means,
Mark Warder, It's right for God to take me to glory. It's right for God to give me
eternal life. It's right for God to save me. It'd be wrong if he didn't. It'd
be unjust if he didn't. If I've been made the righteousness
of God in his son. Number four. This sin I have. I can't put
it away. I can't put it away. And you can't enter heaven with
sin. He that is unjust, let him be
unjust still. He that is filthy, let him be
filthy still. He that is holy, let him be holy
still. But the book says, you can't
go to heaven with sin, any sin of any kind. Can't be. Well,
how are you going to get rid of sin? I'm going to have to
make me another one. I used to carry a little three
page booklet, had a black page and a red page and a white page.
I've got the idea from something I read years ago. An old man
used to carry one around and he'd just sit on the train. And
he'd look at it and just smile and say, bless God. Oh, bless God. Oh, thank the
Lord. That'd get fellas' attention.
They'd kind of want to see if maybe you ought to be committed
somewhere. And somebody'd ask him, well, what are you doing? Have you ever read this book
here? He says, it's my biography. Well, there's nothing on it.
Oh yes, yes, yes. You see this black page here?
That's what I was. Blackness and corruption and
guilt and sin. You see this red page here? That's
the blood of Christ, shed for my sin. You see this clean, spotless
white page here? That's what I am in Christ, perfectly
holy without sin, without sin. Number five, there's a death, a death for sin. I can't escape. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. Brother David Pledge and I had
a little correspondence today. Just had to be very brief. I
was working. And I said to him, I said, I admire and thank God
for your exemplary faithfulness. And I said, our time and our
labor and our day is about done. Soon, we must pass the torch
to another generation. May God give us grace to be faithful
unto death. But death is ours. Soon this body must die. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. That little girl gonna die. Little
baby in the womb dies. Old men, old women die. Young
folks die. Why? Because we are sinners. And sinners cannot escape death. It's pointed out, man wants to
die. And after this, the judgment. And yet, our Lord said, he that
believeth on me shall never die. There is this old man Adam in
me. Bless God, he must die. And there
is this body of flesh in which I dwell temporarily on this earth. This body by which sin has been
committed continually for 63 years. And it must go to the
grave and decay and rot in the earth. But there is that new
man created in righteousness and in true holiness that cannot
sin and cannot die, that new man Christ Jesus in you. When
he drops this robe of flesh, he shall begin to live as he
has never lived before. Number six, there's a judgment
I can't face, not without Christ. I don't know how men do it. People
talk about being courageous and bold and manly in death. I don't watch much television.
I like to watch westerns. Those westerns always act like
a man, die like a man, die like a man. Not many do. Not many
do. They might in the TV script,
but not in reality. But some do. I don't understand
how anybody can be so steel-hearted and steel
his mind in the face of death and judgment without Christ. But this I'm telling you, I can't
face judgment without Him. We must all appear before the
judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things
done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it
be good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror
of the Lord, we persuade man. Bless God. God's elect shall
never meet condemnation or judgment of any kind because of sin. There is therefore now no judgment. That's the word. No condemnation. to them that are in Christ Jesus.
No possibility. Who's going to lay anything to
the charge of God's elect? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather
that it's risen again, who also sitteth at the right hand of
God and makes intercession for us. One more thing. There is an eternal life and an eternal glory. I covet an eternal life. and eternal
glory, I covet. I press toward the mark for the
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Our conversation,
Paul said, our manner of life, our citizenship is in heaven,
from which also we look for the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ,
who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like
unto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is
able even to subdue all things unto himself. Now, go back to
our text, 1 John chapter 5. Remember the three statements
I made in the beginning. Eternal life is not possible
without Christ. Resurrection is not possible
without Christ. Peace with God is not possible
without Christ. But with Christ. Who said with God all things
are possible? These things are realities. This is the record. that God
hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Amen.