My text this morning should be
of great interest to all of us. It contains the last sermon recorded
by John the Baptist, the last testimony of John the Baptist
concerning our Lord Jesus Christ. Turn with me, if you will, to
John chapter 3, verses 22 through 36. That faithful man of God,
John the Baptist, was the same at the end of his ministry as
he was at the beginning. He had the same views of himself. He had the same views of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And he had the same views of
God's salvation. Nothing changed. Nothing changed. Preachers do grow if they are
indeed taught of God in knowledge and understanding, but their
doctrine doesn't change, not if God has taught them and sent
them. There are preachers who you read
what they wrote 20 years ago or 10 years ago or five years
ago, and it looks so much different than what they wrote or said
today. That's because they have never
yet come to knowledge of the truth, and they're continually
seeking after something else. John the Baptist had exactly
the same views of himself, of Christ, and of God's salvation
at the end of his ministry as he had in the beginning. Blessed
is that church. whose pastor is constant in the
testimony of God's grace. Blessed are those people who
sit under the ministry of any man who faithfully proclaims
the same good news of God's saving grace in Jesus Christ the Lord. With that as my introduction,
let's get right to the text. The title of my message this
morning is The Baddest the bride and the bridegroom. Verse 22,
after these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land
of Judea and there he tarried with them and baptized. And John
also was baptizing in Enon near to Salem because, that's an important
word, because there was much water there. And they came and
were baptized. for John was not yet cast into
prison. Then there arose a question,
a dispute between some of John's disciples and the Jews about
purifying. It always is. It's always about being pure.
Have you ever noticed that? Religious folks always fuss about
how pure they are and how they make themselves pure. And if
you read the four Gospels carefully, the disputes of the Pharisees
were always about purifying. Always. Always about themselves
being pure and making themselves pure. They had a dispute about
purifying. And they came unto John and said
unto him, Rabbi, Master, now that is these Pharisees, Most
of the commentators seem to think that this is a conflict that
arose between John's disciples and the Lord's disciples. That
wasn't the case at all. These Pharisees were trying to
cause a disruption between John's disciples and the Lord's disciples.
They came, the Jews, these Pharisees, unto John and said unto him,
Rabbi, He that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou bearest
witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come to him. And
John answered and said unto them, A man can receive nothing except
it be given him from heaven. Ye yourselves bear me witness. Now, here's how we know that
the ones who came to John were not his disciples but the Pharisees.
He said, You yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am
not the Christ. You came out back in John 119
and said, who are you? The chief priest sent us out
here to find out who you are. He said, I'm nothing, just the
voice of one crying in the wilderness. Are you the Christ? No, I'm not
the Christ. You yourselves bear me witness.
I said unto you, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before
him. Verse 29. He that hath the bride
is the bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom,
which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of
the bridegroom's voice. This my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must
decrease. He that cometh from above is
above all. He that is of the earth is earthy,
and speaketh of the earth. He that cometh from heaven is
above all. And what he hath seen and heard,
that he testifieth, and no man receiveth his testimony. He that
hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true. For he whom God hath sent speaketh
the words of God. For God giveth not the Spirit
by measure unto him. The Father loveth the Son, and
hath given all things into his hand. He that believeth on the
Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. Now here's the first thing that's
obvious in our text. It takes a lot of water to perform
the ordinance of baptism. John was baptizing here near
Salem because there was much water there. Believers' baptism
cannot be performed with a little bit of water. The Holy Spirit
tells us plainly in verse 22, 23, and 24 that John was baptizing
in Anan near Salem because there was much water there. John had not been arrested and
murdered by Pilate yet. He had not yet reached the end
of his time on this earth, so he was continuing to do what
God sent him here to do, and that is to bear witness of Christ,
baptizing all who came to him wishing to confess their faith
in Christ, baptizing them with reference to repentance, with
reference to faith in the Son of God. John came baptizing,
preaching repentance as a forerunner of Christ. And that's what he
ended his ministry doing. Now let's look at these three
verses line by line. If you compare verse 22 with verse 2 of chapter
4, you'll see this, and it's very important. That which is
done by Christ's servants in his name is done by him. The servants of God are to be
heard and received and treated as Christ himself. Look at verse
22. After these things came Jesus
and his disciples into the land of Judea, and there he tarried
with them and baptized. Look at chapter 4 verse 2. Though
Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples. Is that a contradiction? No. What's it say? These who
were baptizing over here, these disciples of our Lord were acting
on His authority and in His name as those who represented Him
and they are to be treated and received and heard as Christ
Himself. Now that's true with regard to
every faithful servant of God in every generation in every
part of the world. It matters not whether that servant
of God is well known or hardly known. It matters not whether
he is a man of great influence in the eyes of men or a man who
has no influence in the eyes of men. God's servants are to
be received and heard and treated as Christ himself. Listen to
the Scriptures. Paul says to the Corinthians,
now then we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God did beseech
you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled unto
God. I claim the right to be heard
when I stand before any group of people because God sent me
with a message. Did you hear me? I know folks
get upset. Folks say, well, you're arrogant.
Folks say, you're just pushy. Folks say, you're domineering.
You've got to have things your way. I claim the right to be
heard. God sent me. I cannot compel
you to believe. I claim the right to be heard.
That's the reason I will allow no disturbance, no interference
with the preaching of the gospel in the house of God. God's Word
is to be reverenced and is to be received and treated with
reverence. Look at the book of Luke, chapters
10. Luke chapter 10, verse 16. Our Lord Jesus is sending
His disciples out, and this is what He says to them, He that heareth you heareth me." Brother Larry Chris is going
up next week to preach to our friends in Almont, Michigan.
If he's God's servant, if God speaks through you, those who
hear you, hear him. And those who despise you, despise
him. And if that's not the case, don't go. Is that reasonable? Don't pretend to be God's servant.
Well, this is just a good hobby on the side. If God hasn't sent,
don't go. He that heareth you, heareth
me. He that despiseth you, despiseth me. He that despiseth me, despiseth
him that sent me. In Hebrews chapter 13, you don't
need to turn there, twice the apostle tells us by inspiration.
He says, obey them that have the rule over you, whose faith
follow. Why? They're just men. Yes, you're right, they are.
They put their bitches on just like I do, one leg at a time.
You're right, they do. And they will tell you in a heartbeat
they're nowhere near the man you are. But you better obey
them. You better obey them. Not obey their whims. My soul,
you have no responsibility to obey the whims of this man. But
you better obey what he says from this book. I'm not offering
you something to consider. I'm not here giving you an opinion
that I want you to take home and you consider this. Now maybe
if you decide to and you say, well, I agree with that, I'll
take that in. That's not preaching and that's not hearing. I'm telling
you what God sent me to declare to you and if I weren't confident
God had taught me, I wouldn't stand here and talk about it.
I won't do you that disservice and I won't dishonor God and
His Word by doing so. I'm not here to offer an opinion
to share my thoughts with you. I'm here to tell you what God
says right here in this book for you this hour today. That's the labor of the ministry.
Obey them that have the rule over you. Submit yourselves for
they watch for your souls as they that must give account.
Look at verse 23. This is one of the most definitive
statements in Holy Scripture with regard to what men call
the mode of baptism. I say what men call the mode
of baptism because that's the way the commentators and theologians
speak about baptism. You know, we're Baptist so we
practice baptism by immersion. Our Presbyterian friends practice
baptism by sprinkling. Other folks practice baptism
by sloshing or pouring a little water. No, they don't. No, they don't. We do not practice
baptism by immersion Baptism is immersion. The word doesn't
mean anything else. It can't mean anything else.
Older English dictionaries, even in the English, will tell you
the word means to immerse, dip, or plunge. Only the modern translations
of our dictionaries that have been added to and messed with
will tell you it means to dip or plunge or sprinkle or pour.
I happened to look one up last night just to see, and that's
exactly what it said. The word means to dip, to plunge, to immerse. Somebody said, well, you won't
believe this. I have a very dear friend, and
he may hear this. That'd be all right. I have a
very dear friend. He wrote to me and said, but it never says
come back up. You can't mean that it means
just to dip, because then you'd never bring them up. You'd drown
them all. What stupidity for a brilliant man trying to defend
a stupid position. Baptism means to immerse. The
reason John was baptizing here is because baptism requires much
water. And the sprinkling of water on
the face of a baby, calling it baptism, is to cause that baby
from its infancy to eat and drink damnation to itself, presuming
that grace is his when there's no such promise given in the
Word. And it is a mockery of the ordinance. Our Lord Jesus,
in Matthew 3, was immersed. Baptism is, throughout the New
Testament, described as a burial. A burial in water, because we
are crucified with Christ, and it symbolizes a resurrection. We live in hope of the resurrection,
and we rise from the watery grave to walk with our Redeemer in
the newness of life. All right, the second thing,
back here in John chapter 3. The second thing in this passage
is a warning. It is a warning against one of Satan's favorite
devices. The fiend of hell constantly
seeks to divide God's people and to divide God's servants.
Verse 25, there arose a question between the Jews, between some
of John's disciples and the Jews, about purifying. A question,
a debate. A little controversy. We love
controversy, don't we? We love it. As I like to argue,
I know you like to show off what you think you know. That's all
it is. You like to get it over on fellas. Make them say, I can make you
understand this. It's all carnal. It's all ungodly. Just as carnal and ungodly, to
argue with folks, get involved in heated conflict and debate
about the most sacred things as it is to argue with them about
politics or what's going on with the economy. It's ungodly. It's ungodly. It has no place
in God's kingdom, never accomplishes one thing. Never. I have friends
who spend all their time on the internet writing theories and
theses and some of them want me to read the nonsense. I just
tell them, after a while, two or three hours, sorry, I don't
have the time or the interest and you shouldn't. I don't have
the time or the interest and you shouldn't. We have better
things to do. We have more important things
to do. Some of John's disciples and the Jewish religionists were
involved in this debate about rites and ceremonies of purification. Now, the Jews observed more ceremonies
Most of them about purification than I have ever yet been able
to count. Now, somebody may have counted them up. I haven't been
able to find it yet. Some of those ceremonies were according
to law. They were given in the law by
God through Moses as symbols and types of God's works of grace
in purifying our souls in Jesus Christ the Lord. But most of
the things that they observed, most of those about which they
were most tenacious, were their own religious traditions, like
washing their hands before they ate. I washed my hands, you didn't. You must be a carnal Christian.
You must be a worldly person. You must not be Well, I say this
with all humility, as holy as I am. Now, I don't mean that
the way it sounds. No, you mean it a whole lot worse
than it sounds. A whole lot worse than it sounds. Always arguing about purification. They seem to have thought that
John was practicing a new ordinance of purification in baptism. Well, this fellow, man, He doesn't
just wash cups and platters. He doesn't just wash his face
and hands. He washes the whole body. And that would have been
alright. They wouldn't have had any problem
with that. It probably would have been a very good ceremony
as far as they were concerned. After all, in Matthew 3, the
Jewish Pharisees came out and tried to get John to baptize
them. They came out and said, we want to get in on this, but
this is a ceremony everybody can see. This is not done in
a corner. You get out in the River Jordan
and start baptizing folks, you're going to get attention. And we
love attention. But John said, you go bring forth
fruits, meat for repentance. I baptize you, you generation
of dogs. Because all you wanted was to
mix the worship of God with your ceremonies and call it the worship
of God. They wanted to bring John's baptism
among their traditions. Now read verse 26 very carefully.
When we read, And they came unto John, and said unto him, Rabbi,
he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou bearest
witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and everybody is going to follow
him. These were not, I repeat, John's
disciples. They were the Jews. And they
came to tell John, Oh, now, I don't mean to spread rumors. I don't
mean to gossip. I hope you won't take it that
way, but you know Jesus of Nazareth, that man that you were preaching
about back over there on the other side of Jordan? Do you
remember him? You remember telling us that this is he that we ought
to follow? He said he's right down the road
here baptizing. He's gone down there and he's having a tent
revival, and everybody in town's going after him. And look here,
folks, quit following you. What do you reckon their reason
was? What do you suppose motivated
them? They wanted to stir John and his disciples to jealousy
and envy, dividing John from the master, dividing God's people
from one another, separating brethren. These Jews were involved
in Satan's ploy and they delighted in it. Satan does everything
he can to divide God's church, divide God's servants, and to
divide God's people. He does everything he can to
make God's servants envious and jealous of one another, and he
will even use their friends to perform the work. I see folks
over in Lexington. Do you know what they're doing
right now? Y'all probably don't know. Lindsay Might, he works over
there and sees Todd often. My son-in-law's an engineer, so
I know what's going on. They're tearing that roof off of that
building. Tearing the back end out, tearing the front end out.
Because they've got to get more seats. Wow. Look how God's blessing
them. How come y'all don't have to
do that? As if we ought to be envious. As if we ought to, we're in competition
with one another. Oh, no. No. No, we're in the same family,
working for the same man, doing the same business. And we won't
be divided. We won't be divided. You have
example after example of this in the Scriptures. And they're
written and recorded with reason. You turn to Philippians chapter
what? I'll show you what our attitude ought to be. Back in
Numbers chapter 11, you remember Moses followed the advice of
his father-in-law Jethro and he ordained 70 elders. He took
those 70 elders and he goes up to the tabernacle and God said,
all right, you can do it this way. And he poured out his spirit
on those 70 elders, gave each of those 70 elders a portion
of the spirit that Moses had had. But there were two fellows
who stayed in the camp, two fellows who remained down there upon
whom God poured out his spirit. A fellow named Eldad and Medad.
And they prophesied. And a young fellow heard them.
He said, I've got to tell Moses about this. Wow, these fellows
ought not be doing that. They stayed in the camp of Israel,
and they prophesied. And they ran up and said, Moses,
Eldad and Medad are down yonder. They said the Spirit of God's
on them, and they're prophesying. And they're not up here with
the 70 elders. They're not up here with this ordination committee.
They didn't come up here and go through things the way these
fellows did. And Joshua said, stop them Moses. Moses said,
stop them. Don't envy for my sake. Would
to God all the people were prophets. Look at Philippians chapter 1
verse 14. Paul is writing to the Philippians and he said,
Many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds,
are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed
preach Christ, even of envy and strife, and some also of goodwill.
What? You mean these fellows preach
Christ, but they do it because of envy and strife? They preach
Christ with envy and strife toward me. Now, sadly, that happens. It shouldn't, but it does. True,
faithful men, for one reason or another, perhaps men who have
never even met one another are at odds with each other because
of rumor and gossip and yak. It happens frequently. I find
men, I'll meet them, I'll be away in a meeting somewhere,
so I'm going to shake hands with them. But imagine, oh, Don Ford,
I've heard of you. I've heard your name. I've heard,
and I know what they mean. I better go wash that hand. I
know exactly what they mean. And after they sit and listen
for a little while, and we get to know each other a little bit,
you know, you ain't at all like I heard. You're not at all like
I heard. You ought not to pay any attention
to what you heard. Did you hear me? You ought not to pay any
attention to what you heard. Paul said some preach Christ
in envy and strife and some of goodwill. The one preached Christ
of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add afflictions
to my bonds, presuming he's going to hurt me, but the other of
love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel. What
then? Notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense or in truth,
Christ is preached, and I rejoice. God teach me that. Oh, God teach
me that. If Christ is preached in sincerity
and truth, if the gospel is preached, I don't care who preaches it.
God bless it. God, grant your blessings upon
it. All hell must hoot and roar with laughter when the fiend
of hell succeeds in dividing brethren. Oh, Spirit of God,
protect us from this device of the devil and make us peacemakers. Strife and division are horribly
evil, insidious, contagious, injurious things to the cause
of the gospel. Let us do nothing to cause it
and nothing to contribute to it. Back in our text again, verse
27. John is held up before us here
by the Spirit of God as a pattern, an example of a truly faithful
servant of God. Here is a man that Peter speaks
of as one of the under-shepherds to Christ who is truly clothed
with humility. John answered and said, A man
can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven. That
is, you're here telling me that this man over here, you refer
to him as this man, you're telling me that the folks are following
him. Well, that's because God intends for them to follow him. God intends for them to follow
him. If he didn't, they wouldn't. Verse 28, you yourselves bear
me witness that I said, I'm not the Christ, but that I'm sent
before him. He that hath the bride is the
bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth
and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice.
This my joy therefore is fulfilled. Everybody's following him? Great. That's what I came here for. The whole world will go that
trip. That's what I want. He must increase, but I must
decrease. Here's one of the most important,
most greatly used men in the history of the world, John the
Baptist, the forerunner of the Messiah. Now, David, he was somebody. He was somebody. He was a big
wheel among big wheels. And we talk about Moses and Elijah
and Paul and Peter. John the Baptist was a big wheel.
He was somebody. When men sought to honor him,
he turned the honor away from himself. And turned it to the man they
thought he should envy. You tell me the folks that followed
him? That's because God's blessing him. God's blessing his work. In verse 27, John asserts that
any honor a man has, any usefulness God gives him in the kingdom
of God, any place of service God gives him is that which God
intends for him alone and God gives to him. In other religious circles, preachers are forever measured
by numbers and money, by outward success. Let it never happen
here. Let it never happen. Let it never
happen. I wish I could tell you this
and call no attention to myself. Several years ago, I had some
folks out in San Francisco call me. I have no idea who they were.
I got a hunch now. I didn't have any idea at the
time. I don't know if I'd be interested to come out there
and be their pastor. I said, no. No, I'm where God had me to be.
This has been 20 years ago, close to. I know I'm where God had
me to be. What size church do you pastor?
I said, I don't know. I said about 30, 35 of them in the church,
maybe 50 on Sunday mornings there. Oh, we got 600. I don't care about that. How
much they pay you? Whatever they can. That's not
important. Well, we can do this. I'm not interested. I'll be happy
to help you get a pastor, but I'm not interested in pastoring.
And the fellow just, he was flabbergasted. He couldn't understand that.
You're not interested in bigger and better? No. I've got the
best. I'm where God wants me. Understand
that? Doing what God had me to do.
Oh, what an honor. Well, David starts passing down
the road and look what happens. Things just overnight grow huge. Great. That's what God has for
him. And I'll help him all I can. That's exactly right. Who maketh
thee to differ from another? What do you have you've not received? All these worketh one and the
selfsame spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. To every one of us is given grace
according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Let us then acquiesce
in the will of God and rejoice. In verse 28, John declares himself
to be nothing but a voice, a voice sent to proclaim the coming of
Christ. Now, we often like to act humble
and show our humility. Well, this was not a show. This
is not a sham pretense. This is a genuine thing. John
is saying, by the grace of God, I am what I am. I'm over here. doing this because this is what
God had me to do. Oh, what an honor. What an honor. What an
honor God would allow me to do this for Him. What an honor. Years ago, Brother Mahan preached
a sermon I heard, and he said, he said, if two angels were sent
down here from heaven, one to rule the greatest, wealthiest
nation in the world, and the other to sweep the streets, there
wouldn't be any debate about who should do which. and they don't know anything
about redemption. Oh my, if God will use you, if
God will use me for any purpose, for any good in his kingdom,
what an indescribable honor. That's what John's teaching us.
He genuinely sought no honor no praise, no recognition, no
applause. Rather than receive it, he turns
it away from himself. And I've said all that to say
this. You beware. You beware of any
preacher who seeks to turn the light on himself. You beware
of any preacher who's all the time talking about what he does
or has done. You beware Beware of any preacher
that it's obvious everything he does behind the scenes is
to promote himself. God's servants don't promote
themselves. God's servants don't open doors
for themselves and they don't try. God's servants wait to be
sent through the door that he opens. He may use their head
as a battering ram to do it. but they don't open it. He opens
the door and he sends them. And God's servants support and
promote other men, not themselves. I see lots of preachers who do
nothing to lift up another. promote another. Ezekiel did Daniel. He praised
Daniel. Paul promoted Epaphras, our dear
fellow servant. Peter praised Paul in one of
his epistles. Though Paul had publicly rebuked
Peter at Antioch because of his dissimulation, Peter praised
him for his writing. Faithful men promote one another. God's servants, faithful gospel
preachers, are friends of Christ, the Bridegroom. John says in
verse 29, He that hath the Bride is the Bridegroom. The Church
is God's people, Christ's Bride. He has them because God gave
Him His Church, His elect out of every nation, out of every
age, out of every kindred, out of every tongue. They've been
given to Him, redeemed by Him, and He calls them by His grace,
gathers them to Himself. But the friend of the Bridegroom,
that's the faithful servant of God. When the friend of the bridegroom
withstandeth and heareth him, he stands and listens, he rejoiceth
greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. This my joy therefore
is fulfilled. Now it's hard for us to grasp
in our day. I was thinking about Amy's wedding
coming up as I was preparing this message. I'm glad it's this way myself.
These days, the focus on the wedding is the bride. It's always
the bride. In those days, it was the bridegroom.
All the attention is fixed on him. After all, he's the one
who's taking care of the bride. He's the one who's going to assume
the responsibility. And all the attention was on
the bridegroom. He was the center of attention. At the wedding
party, it was the bridegroom who was the center of attention.
And the friend of the bridegroom, he's kind of like the best man.
All he does is tote the ring for the bridegroom to put on
the bride's finger. And I was thinking about the wedding. I thought, you want to be a good
habit, a good thing to start to do. The whole wedding party,
quit buying dresses for the maids and suits for the groomsmen and
all that stuff. Just let them come dressed with
whatever they can put on, whatever they can afford, and whenever
they've done whatever they're supposed to do, sit down and
get out of the way. Just sit down and get out of the way.
The only reason I exist, the only reason I'm here, is for
you to take this ring of the gospel of peace and put it on
her head. Goodbye. That's the friend of the bridegroom.
That's the preacher of the gospel. I've done what God made me for. I've been here to introduce the
bride to the bridegroom. Since the first time I read verse
30 with any sense of its meaning, since the first time it was brought
home to my heart, I've been praying that God would make this my daily
ambition. He, the bridegroom, the Lord
Jesus, must increase in His fame, in His greatness, in His glory. He must increase, but I must
decrease. He must be lifted up, I must
be brought down. And it must be something done. He must be increased, and I must
be decreased. He must increase Himself and
I must decrease myself. I must increase Him and He must
decrease me. Oh God, make that the ambition
of our hearts. Make that the ambition of our
lives. That Christ be increased and we be made nothing. And then
John begins in verses 31 to 35 to increase Christ. and decrease himself. In verse
31, he says, Christ came from heaven and is above all. I'm
just a man of the earth. In verse 32, he tells us the
Lord Jesus is the perfect revelation of God, but men refuse to hear
him. No man hears his voice. And then
in verse 33, he tells us that though men refuse to hear him,
yet all who receive his testimony All who believe him set to their
seal that God is true. You see that? He that hath received
his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true. Believing
on the Lord Jesus. We set the seal in our hearts.
God is true. But let me give you another translation.
A translation that I think the scriptures, as well as the language
in the text itself, will compel us to look at. He that received
his testimony is already sealed, because God is true. He that receives Christ's testimony,
he's already sealed, because God is true. Revelation chapter
7. Angel. ascends and says, hurt not the
earth. No, don't destroy it yet. There's still one of my elect,
damn yonder. Don't you touch it until I've
sealed the last of the 144,000 with the gospel by the Spirit
in their foreheads. He that receiveth his testimony
has already been sealed because God said from eternity in covenant
mercy, I will pour out my spirit upon him. God is true. God is true. And he sealed us with his spirit
unto the day of redemption. Then in verse 34, John tells
us that Christ is the only man to whom the Spirit is given without
measure. He's the full revelation of God, the full truth. All the
fullness of the triune God dwells in him without measure. Oh, how
vast the difference between the servants of God and the servant
of God. And in verse 35, God the Father
has given all things to Christ the Son as our mediator because
of His love for the Son. Therefore doth my father love
me, our Savior said, because I lay down my life for the sheep. The father loves the son as I
mediate to him because of his perfect obedience. And he said
to the son, ask of me, and I'll give you the heathen for your
inheritance. And because the father loves the son, he put
everything in his hands. all things with regard to His
glory, all things with regard to His church, all things with
regard to His salvation, all things with regard to grace and
mercy, all things in heaven, all things in earth, all things
under the earth, all things everywhere. And if there's something I've
left out, that too is given all things to the Son, that the Son
may give eternal life to us, His people. And then the last
thing, the last word of John the Baptist, is recorded here
by divine inspiration, by which John declares that this business of your eternal
destiny is your own responsibility. If you go to hell, it's your
fault. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. And he that believeth not the
Son of God shall never see life, but the wrath of God abideth
on him. Now notice the change in tenses. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath everlasting life, present tense. He that believeth
not the Son shall not see life, future tense. Why? Why do you change that? Wouldn't it be the same thing
if he'd have used present tense both places or future tense both places?
No. Oh no. If you find yourself believing,
it's because God's already given you life. If God leaves you to yourself
and you can go on refusing to believe, you'll never see life. and you will eat the fruit of
your own ways in the torments of the damned. And as surely
as heaven is the everlasting possession of all who believe,
the misery of hell's torments shall be your everlasting possession. Oh God, pour out your Spirit
and give faith to these who yet believe not. Amen.