This will be our reading passage
this morning, and our text will come out of John's Gospel. Chapter 5, the letter of 1 John. Lord, thank you for letting us
gather in this place this day. Thank you for our Bible study
this morning. Lord, we are amazed We take no
credit to ourselves whatsoever that in your wonderful free mercy
and grace in Christ, you have crossed our paths with that gospel
that matches the one that is everywhere displayed in this
book. But the question remains, do I, in the Lord Jesus Christ, your
only begotten Son. Lord, no matter our text or our
words, if you yourself, if you do not take up your own cause
and bring to pass your own purposes, no preacher dead or alive can
possibly do so. We cast ourselves this morning
upon your grace in our blessed Lord Jesus, whoever lives at
your right hand, who is this very day, as in every day, fulfilling
your eternal purpose, having given into your Son's care a
host of people called your elect, too many for any man to number.
And we trust that in this very day, as this world continues
to stand, that wherever your gospel is preached, not only
here but elsewhere, that you would send out that irresistible
call of your grace in the hand of your Spirit. Bring us to trust
and rest in the only way a sinner can find in the Lord Jesus. Now
as we read this precious chapter, we beg that you would open our
understanding bring honor and glory to your soul. All right,
1 John 5, verse 1. Whosoever believes that Jesus
is the Christ, there's only one way to account for that. That
person is born of God. Faith is the result of being
born, not the cause. And everyone that loves him that
begat, that begat is a form of the verb to born or is born back
in verse 1. Well, we're still in verse 1.
Everyone that loves God, that is the author of the new birth,
loves Him also that is begotten or born of Him. So you have three
different expressions in that one verse concerning the new
birth. Verse 2, By this we know that
we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His
commandments. Now be careful with that phrase,
and keep His commandments. If we keep any command of God,
it is because He keeps it and through us. And that's how we
may be said to keep in the perfect obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ. For this is the love of God that
we keep His command. Now, if Romans 7 is to be trusted,
Paul rejoiced in the law of God, but he declared that something
else ruled inside of him. He concluded himself to be a
wretched man O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from
this body of death?" And how was he delivered? I thank God
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Verse 3, this is the love of
God that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not
grievous because our inability to keep in no way affects our
Our Savior rendered perfectly. He did it for His children, His
people. Therefore, His commandments are
not grievance. And if you're an honest person,
and none of us are honest except by the grace of God, no honest
person will claim to keep one or all ten of those commandments. You see, they're not just outward.
They're not just the hand and the foot. It's the heart. and the mind, and no man can
tame these things. We might can restrain most outward
things, but given the perfect set of circumstances, that all
goes out the window. And you know it is. All right,
verse 4, for whatsoever is born of God, whatsoever is born of
God, back in verse 1, it's whosoever. But in this verse, it is whatsoever
is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory
that overcomes the world, even our faith. Now translated, that's
even our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 5, who is He that
overcomes the world but He that believes, that believing and
trusting in Christ. How come? Because Christ is our
overcomer. And everybody who's in Christ
is made to rejoice and celebrate and enjoy His overcoming. When you get a chance to read
the second and third chapters of the book of the Revelation,
the seven letters to the seven churches in Asia Minor, And every
last one of them end with a statement about being overcomers. Listen,
we are overcomers in him who is the true. And I know where
I speak. And I know that's the truth.
Who is he that overcomes the world, but he that believes that
Jesus is the son of God. This is He that came by water
and blood, even Jesus Christ. Not by water only, but by water
and blood, and it is the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, that bears witness,
because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear
record in heaven, the Father, and the Word, and the Holy Ghost,
or the Holy Spirit, and these three are one. Now, some of you
have in your margin to forget these statements that they're
never meant to be there and so forth. I believe that is not
accurate, that this is precisely what is supposed to be in our
Bibles. So I don't give any countenance to what is said in the margin.
Some of you, thankfully, have a blank margin, maybe no margin
at all, no reference system at all, and sometimes that's better.
All right, verse 8. And there are three that bear
witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood,
and these three agree in one. If we receive the witness of
men, and we all do in one shape, form, or fashion or the other,
if we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater. For this is the witness of God,
which he has testified of his Son." And here it is. It follows that statement. He that believes on the Son of
God has the witness, the testimony in himself. He that believes
not God, as much as he refuses this name, has made God a liar. Not believing and trusting the
Son of God, the Lord Jesus, makes you and me a blasphemer against
God. We say God is a liar. And every man and woman in the
race of Adam do the very same thing. We're born in this condition. of calling God a lie. Of course, not to God then, of
course, but he's not really God. A God that you can control and
I can control is no God at all. That's why this world loves this
false Jesus. He that believes not God makes
him a liar. But preacher, don't you preach
that Nobody can believe and trust Christ without a miracle from
heaven. Oh yes, I preach that freely,
many times, all the time. Then how can you put these two
things together? Let's read it again. He that believes on the Son of
God, this is verse 10, has the witness in himself. He that believes
not God has made God a liar because he believes not the record that
God gave. Now what are you going to do
with that? Here's what I'm going to do. If you cannot believe and
trust Christ and by yourself you never can or will, how many
minutes or hours have we spent begging God to open our eyes
and give us a heart that willingly and openly trusts Christ for
everything? If we truly want to know Him,
whom God sent into this world with man's flesh, a perfect human
nature and a perfect divine nature, to know Him. And yet we don't
know Him. We can't trust Him? Then where
do you think the problem lies? The problem is in me. Verse 11,
and this is the record, the testimony, the witness of God concerning
His Son, that God has given to us eternal life. Christ is everlasting life. Verse 12, He that has the Son has life
eternal, everlasting spiritual life. Life in the soul. And he that has not the Son of
God does not have life, has not life. Breathing, he's walking
around, he's talking, but he does not have the life of God
in him. Now that statement is too simple
and cut and dried for our taste. We like to modify it just a little
bit, give some wiggle room, give us a chance to get out from under
this condemnation. But when we've done our dead
level best, and men have certainly tried and invented many things
to do so, tomorrow, the next day, all the way to eternity. These things, verse 13, have
I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God.
that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may
believe on the name of the Son of God. And this is the confidence
that we have in Him that if we ask anything according to His
will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears
us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that
we desired of Him. If any man see his brother sin
a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask and he shall give
him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto
death. I do not say that he should pray
for it. All unrighteousness is sin. And there is a sin not unto death. We know that whosoever, we started
out with that word in verse 1, We know that whosoever is born
of God sins not. That statement is referring to
the new spiritual nature of the child. One part of me loves sin
and the other part hates it. And we'll go to our graves. It
ain't true that the The older you are in grace, the less sin
is a problem. That is not true. I'm older than
a good many of them. I'll tell you from personal experience,
that ain't true. This is talking about the believer's
divine nature. Christ imputes a perfect divine
nature. Peter calls it that in 1 Peter
1. Verse 18 again, we know that whosoever is born of God, but
he that is begotten of God keeps himself, and that wicked one
touches him not. And we know that we are of God,
and the whole world lies in wickedness, and we know that the Son of God
has come and has given us an understanding that we may know
Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true. Even in
His Son, Jesus Christ, this is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves
from idols. Years I spent in vanity and pride,
Caring not my Lord was crucified, Knowing not it was for me He
died, O Calvary. Pardon there was multiplied to
me There my burdened soul found little Turkey At Calvary By God's word at last my sin
I learned Then I trembled at the law I'd spurned Till my guilty
soul in glory Turned to Calvary Mercy there was great and grace
was free There my burning soul found liberty and Calvary Now
I'm given to Jesus, heaven-bringing ♪ Now I gladly hold Him as my King
♪ Now my raptured soul can only sing of Calvary ♪ Mercy there
was great and grace was free ♪ Pardon there was no delight
to me ♪ There my burdened soul found rest ♪ Calvary ♪ Oh, the love that brought
salvation to man ♪ Oh, the grace that brought him down to man
♪ Oh, the mighty gulf that God did span ♪ At Calvary ♪ Mercy
there was great and grace was vast and there was love divine
to me. There my burdened soul found
liberty at Calvary. Donna, let's make a little change.
Number 446, please. It's probably still number three
on your thing. 446, entitled, Satisfied. Now if you look at the chorus,
your book may not have had this change marked in it. The chorus
begins, Hallelujah, I have found Him. Now that is true. Nothing wrong with the statement,
but the scripture teaches us to superimpose 1 John 4.19 over
it, which means then that the reason we found Him is because
He found us first. And everybody and his brother
thinks he finds God, but it scares his hen's teeth to find people
that say, God found me. So anyhow, we've changed that
to read, hallelujah, he has found me. Now if you forget it or miss
it, the house ain't going to fall down. Wonderful little hymn. Satisfying. Now my text this
morning is found in John's Gospel, chapter 20. John chapter 20. The title this morning is, Do
I Believe on Christ the Son of God? John chapter 20, verses
30 and 31. John, in the preceding 20 chapters, has given us only seven of our
Savior's miracles. And John calls them signs. Seven signs that testify to who
Christ is and what He does for sinners. Every healing of a body
in the Bible is but a representation of the healing of Christ's soul. So John explains in verse 30
why he has not included every miracle that Christ did or every
place that Christ went or every message that Christ spoke in
those roughly three and a half years of public life and ministry. All right, verse 30. And many
other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples.
which is not written in this book. And all four of the Gospels
does not record all that our Savior said or did or all the
places that He went, the encounters which He had. But we know this
for sure, verse 31, are written. And soon to become 21 chapters
are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the
Son of God, and that believing you might have life through Him. Now that is the singular purpose
of the Gospel of John. It is the singular person, reason
for all the Gospel accounts. And for that matter, it is the
reason for all the Bible, both Old and New Testament. Both are
equally the Word and Christ is the subject of both. That you
might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that
believing, you might have life in Him. Now, let's work on this
one verse of Scripture. You've already taken too much
of my time, and that's called passing the book.
First of all, Faith. Faith is the design not only
of the Gospel of John, but for all Scripture. People have been
converted upon hearing statements that are so obscure in our Bibles
that we probably wouldn't even recognize them as coming from
the Bible. And others have been converted by a text that has
been used countless times to bring sinners to faith. John's
Gospel shows us above all else who the blessed Lord Jesus Christ
is. There are many things, if we
had time, we could show you that come from John's Gospel and none
of the other three. The other three, you remember,
are called what kind of Gospels? Synoptic, meaning similar. But John goes way out here off
the beaten path and writes from a different perspective. And
he's adept. He makes a studied attempt to
leave himself out of the picture. He does not call attention to
himself. So faith is the design of all
scriptures. But secondarily, faith is a work
which works by love. Faith works by love. You can find those actual words
in the book of Galatians. But remember, saving faith, believing
and trusting Christ, our works are a secondary thing. that depend exclusively on this
first matter of faith. Without faith, the believer has,
he can only do one thing and that's sin. And that's not when
he's, that's not only when he's sinning and knows he's sinning.
But if I read this book right, everything we do, every breath
we take, every word we speak without knowing and trusting
and resting in God's Son, is an offense to God Almighty and
therefore a sin. He said even the plowing of the
wicked is an abomination in God's sight. What you and I ought to
worry about far more than many other things that many other
people might worry about, we ought to worry about the religion
into which I was and believed and followed only to find out
that it was not so. Not so. Everybody I knew believed
it was so. But John's Gospel, this might
be all we get to work on this morning, but I want you to see
this. John's Gospel, beginning in chapter 1 all the way to chapter
20, gives us scenes and pictures of people who are coming to discover
who Christ is and what He's done for sinners. So if you got it,
you don't have to do this, but if we're not going to go anywhere
now outside of, I mean, for the time being, I got to keep a little
something in reserve, but I don't know that I'll have time to use
it. So just take, turn to John chapter one, and we're going
to take it in consecutive order. We begin at verse 47 in John
chapter one, our Lord is in this latter part of chapter 1 is calling
his apostles. Beginning at verse 47, the Lord
Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him and said of him, now our
Lord has never seen this man, I mean, in his earthly existence
anyway, behold, an Israelite indeed. There is no God. No pretense. Whatever he is,
he is. And he's that way all the time.
That's a rare bird. Now the King James is a little
tough. Whence knowest thou me? We would say, how do you know
me? Jesus said, before Philip called
you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you and look
what happens. Nathanael answered and said unto
him, Rabbi, you are the Son of God. You understand what I'm saying?
There's a sinner coming to know Christ. Not your usual method
now. I'm not having anything. I just
know that's what I read and that's what it says. Chapter 2, verse
11. Our Lord is at the wedding feast
at Cana. This is said to be His first
miracle, turning the water into wine. Of course, most Baptists
you know say He's turned it into grape juice now. He just made
grape juice. But the book says wine. We just
can't let this book say what it says. We've got to conform
to our set of beliefs and our standard. Verse 11. This beginning of miracles did
Jesus in Cana of Galilee and manifested forth His glory. Now, the miracle itself was without
any fanfare. The Lord Jesus just told the
servants, Mary told the servants, whatever He says to you, you
do it. And He just told them to fill these. I forget what
Perkins, I believe, or something like that was the measurement
of the amount, seems like. And our Lord said, just fill
them up with water. And then he said, serve it to
the governor of the feast. And the man proclaimed that not
like ordinary people, this fellow served the best wine at the last
supper. So somewhere between filling
them up with water and serving them to the feast, the miracle
took place without anybody seeing it or knowing what had happened.
And so our statement is that Christ manifested forth His glory
and His disciples did what? Believe. You know, John might
have been serious when he said this Gospel is written that you
might believe that Jesus is the Christ, Now are you a believer
or an unbeliever? One or the other, there's no
such thing as something in the middle. If this gospel is designed
for that purpose, and I don't believe, I'm not a believer,
it might not hurt if you read these 21 chapters several days
in a row, no telling what will happen. Here's the third one. Chapter 4. The woman at the well,
who can forget this? This old girl was a doozy. She
might have been a prostitute or bordering their home, but
she wanted our Lord to know that she knew some stuff about the
Bible as well. So she does every way in this
world to get away from Christ. So in verses 27, 25, 26, and 29 we read, The woman said
unto him, I know that Messiah comes. I'm no dummy, I know these
things. Which is called Christ. When
He has come, He will tell us all things. And He's already
told her a bunch of things, not only about herself, but where
God is and how God can be worshiped. God is a spirit and they that
worship Him must worship Him in a spiritual worship, not a
fleshly worship. She said, I know that Messiah
comes and He's called Christ. When He has come, He'll tell
us all things. Now, I don't think you can find
words like these anywhere else in our Bibles, anywhere. Jesus
said to her, I that speak unto you am he. Now, either he's a liar or he's
the truth of God incarnate. And this old woman was skeptical,
but those words, that revelation conquered her. And the miracle
of the new birth took place and left a sacred deposit in her
soul. The twin sisters called repentance
and faith. She forgets her water pot. She
runs back to town. And in verse 29, she said, Come,
see a man which told me all things that ever I did. Is not this
the Christ? Look in chapter 4 also. at verse
53. Here's the nobleman's son who
is sick in Capernaum. And our Lord is in Cana, I believe,
still at this point. And in verse 53, our Lord has... Let me back up and give you just
one. Let's see. In verse 49, the nobleman said to Christ,
Sir, come down before my child dies. Jesus said to him, go your
way, your son lives. And the man believed the word
that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way. And when
he was going home, his servants met him, saying, your son lives. And he inquires as to when the
child made a turn for the better. Verse 53 says, here's the purpose
of this gospel. So the father knew that it was
at the same hour in which Jesus said unto him, your son lives,
and himself believed. Chapter 6. I need a crowbar to get, there
it is, I finally got it. John chapter 6, verses 67, 68,
and 69. A large number of persons have
left off following Christ in the previous verses. Take, for
example, verse 66, from that time, and the word time is not
really there, from that, I lost my place, from that, many of
his disciples went back and walked no more with him. And that that
is that he said, no man can come unto me except the father which
has sent me draw him. We think we can do anything and
come to find out we can't do anything. Verse 66, from that
time, from that, his disciples went back and walked no more
with him. Then said Jesus to the twelve, since this is a day
of people not following me and leaving off following me, will
you also go away? And Peter answered for them all
and said, Lord, To whom shall we go? You have the words of
eternal life and we believe and are sure, here it is, that you
are that Christ, the Son. Let's try chapter 9. The man
that was born blind and defended our Savior before the Jewish
Sanhedrin. with all the repeated times that
he had to go back before that body until he finally made a
statement to them that angered him very much. Now listen, there's
a difference in healing a blind person who's lost their sight,
but this man never had any. Mr. Hawker suggests he did not
even have eyeballs, but I can't go that far. But I know this,
this old boy was pretty well able to hold And he made bold
statement after bold statement about Christ. This is as a lost
man. But look what happens in verse
35 through 38. Jesus heard that they had cast
him out. They cast him out of the Jews' religion, which in
that society, you were an unmentionable. You didn't exist. Nobody spoke
to you or anything. Jesus heard that they had cast
him out. And when he, the Lord Jesus, had found him, he said
to him, Do you believe on the Son of God? You mean a man can
receive a miracle from the hand of the Son of God and not know
that he is the Son of God? Do you believe on the Son of
God? The man answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might
And our Lord said, you have both seen Him. And the man said, Lord,
I believe. Now my friend, that's how men
and women are supposed to be. An encounter with Christ. His
not being on this earth in 2011 is nothing to be discouraged
about. People heard Him, saw Him, were spoken to by Him, spoke
to Him themselves, and yet left this world without Christ, without
God, and without hope. Is God still in the business?
I can't tell you how. I can't tell you when. I can't
even tell you when. But our Savior is not going to
lose a single one of His sheep. That's the only thing that keeps
this world going is to bring in Christ elect. He shall see
of the travail of his soul and be... All right, let me see. Chapter 10. Now this one doesn't give us a specific
example, but it is certainly an instance of the case in point.
Beginning at verse 40 in John chapter 10, Our Lord goes to
the place called Enam, I believe. It may not be called that here.
But anyway, where John was baptizing, and he baptized our Savior in
the Jordan, and that heavenly dove lighted on Christ. John
the Baptist saw that, proclaimed him to be the So he goes away,
our Lord retreats again beyond Jordan into the place where John
at first baptized and there he abode or remained. And many resorted
unto him and said, listen carefully, John, John the Baptist, did no
miracle but all things that John said of this man. Everything John said about Christ
was truly believed on Him. Well, let's jump to chapter 17. No talking, just reading. John
17.8. This is our Lord's priestly prayer. He says in the 8th verse of John
17, For I have given unto them the words which you gave Me,
And they have received them, and have known surely that I
came out from you, and they have believed that you did sin me."
All right, chapter 20. Back to home plate. Chapter 20. Remember, Thomas was absent when
our Lord appeared to His disciples on this previous occasion. And
so verse 27 says, Then said the Lord Jesus to Thomas. Thomas made the assertion that
unless he put his fingers in the wounds in Christ's hand and
his hand into his side, he would not believe that Christ was raised
from the dead. Now, little does he know, our
Lord was not present bodily in that. And he knows what I've
said and you've said. The Lord said to Thomas in verse
27 of John 20, Reach here your finger, and behold My hands,
and reach here your hand, and thrust it into My side. And be
not faithless, but believe. And Thomas added unto him, My
Lord and my God. Jesus said, Thomas, because you
have seen Me, Blessed are they that have not seen. It's not
what we see with this vision. That doesn't count for anything
when it comes to believing God and trusting and resting. Lord,
help us. Do you have all four hymns up
there? Yes, 474. I don't mind singing this on
your time. I just didn't want it to be on mine. It's a little
bit long. Only a sinner. Don't wait for the music before
you stand up. People that put that hymn player
together, they probably said, ain't nobody going to sing this
song. Naught have I gotten but what
I received, Grace that's bestowed since I have believed. Boasting excluded, pride I abase,
I'm only a sinner saved by grace. Only a sinner saved by grace
Only a sinner saved by grace This is my story, to God be the
glory I'm only a sinner saved by grace Once I was foolish and
sin ruled my heart, Causing my footsteps from God to depart. Jesus hath found me, happy my
case. I now am a sinner, saved by grace. Only a sinner, Saved by grace
Only a sinner Saved by grace This is my story To God be the
glory I'm only a sinner Saved by grace Tears unavailing, no
merit had I. Mercy had saved me, or else I
must die. Sin had alarmed me, fearing God's
face. But now I'm a sinner, saved by
grace. Only a sinner saved by grace. Only a sinner saved by grace. This is my story. To God be the glory. I'm only a sinner saved by grace. Suffer a sinner whose heart overflows
Loving his Savior to tell what he knows Once more to tell it
would I embrace I'm only a sinner saved by grace Only a sinner
Saved by grace Only a sinner Saved by grace This is my story
To God be the glory I'm only a sinner Saved by grace