I want to show you where our
text is for this morning. It is the 24th verse, John 5,
24. There are five phrases after
the introductory phrase that make up this verse of Scripture,
and all of them are of the utmost importance. In the Gospel of
John, we have an expression, if I remember correctly, is not
found any place else in our Bibles. It is a double use of the word
verily. Verily. It is defined different
ways by different people, but it is a means of putting emphasis on a particular
portion of Holy Scripture, the word literally means, amen, amen. And since amen and the faithful
witness are both titles and names for our Lord Jesus Christ, the
fact is that we find these verily, verilies coming from the lips
of our Savior. There are at least two of them
here in this immediate part, back in verse 19 and then in
verse 24, again in verse 25. And I didn't bother to count
them, so there may be some others. But this gives great significance
to this statement. Alright, let's back up now to
verse 1 and let's read through verse 29. And I know how slow
I am, but I shall stop only when I think it is really, really
necessary. That's probably not saying a
lot now. After this, there was a feast
of the Jews. Mr. Hawker thinks a Passover
feast. And Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is at Jerusalem a sheep
market really a sheep gate, you see the word market italicized.
There was at Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called
in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, which means house of mercy, having
five porches or colonnades. In these lay a great multitude
of impotent folk, people without strength of one type or kind
or another. Here they are defined of blind,
halt, which is lame, withered, a limb has shrunk and is no longer
of any use, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went
down at a certain season into the pool and troubled the water. Whosoever then first, after the
trebling of the water, stepped in, was made whole of whatever
disease he had." Isn't it wonderful that the gospel says the first
shall be last and the last shall be first? And a certain man was
there which had an infirmity thirty-eight years. Thirty-eight years. When Jesus
saw him lie, saw him laying there, and knew that he had been now
a long time in that case, our Lord said unto him, Will you
be made whole? Will you? It is strange that our Lord would
ask him Do you really want to be made whole? Because everybody
I know that's got bodily ailments would like to be rid of them.
Wouldn't you? I mean, we'd be ready for the
funny farm if we weren't. But guess what? In regard to
spiritual disease and sickness, no man of himself is willing.
God has to make us willing. So what's the man's answer? Verse
7, the impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man when
the water is troubled to put me into the pool. But while I'm
coming, another steps down before me. Now you know when it comes to
spiritual disease, you and I can't help each other. We're not looking
for a man. We're looking for the God-man. Jesus said unto him, Rise, take
up your bed, and walk. And immediately the man was made
whole, and took up his bed, and walked, and on the same day was
the Sabbath. Now I don't know if you can believe
this or not, but our Lord Jesus Christ deliberately stuck it
to these proud, haughty Jews that go around talking about
their wonderful way that they honored the Sabbath and all of
this stuff. Wouldn't give a flip if this man never got cured if
he had to be cured on the Sabbath day. That's sick. That is sick. And I tell you, the Lord did
it on purpose. It's like he went out of his
way to do these acts of mercy on the Sabbath day. This is not
the only one by any means. The Jews therefore said unto
him, verse 10, that was cured. How were you cured? Nope. They said to him, It is the Sabbath
day. It is not lawful for you to carry
your bed. They have not one ounce of joy
that the man has been healed. Oh, they've got to guard their
precious Sabbath. Look at His answer. He answered them, He that made
me whole, the same said unto me, take up your bed and walk.
If you and I have ever been made whole of our spiritual disease
and our spiritual death, the man that said to us, be healed,
whatever he says to us, let's do it. Not to impress him, but to express
our thanksgiving to him. Let's don't worry about Sabbaths
and non-Sabbaths. So they asked him, Who is this
man? What man is this which said unto
you, Take up your bed and walk? And he that was healed knew not
who it was, for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being
in that place. Afterward, our Lord Jesus finds
him in the temple and says to the man, Behold, you are made
whole. Sin no more. lest a worse thing
come unto you." I can't say that I understand that statement,
but I understand this. If all it takes is one more sin
for us to go back to what we were, we've had it. My Lord, if we could stop sinning
to be in this room an hour, that would take a miracle of grace. The man departed and told the
Jews that it was Jesus which had made him whole. Therefore
did the Jews persecute Jesus and sought to slay Him, to kill
Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath day. Now in the Gospels, our Lord
answers the charge about Sabbath breaking four different ways.
Here's the one before us this morning. Jesus answered them,
My Father works hitherto up until this exact second, and I also
work. If God's not working right now,
my friend, this world is gone and everybody in it. And if the
Lord Jesus is not still saving His people and interceding for
them, we've had it. We have no hope whatsoever. Therefore the Jews sought the
more to kill him, because he had not only broken the Sabbath." Ah, look what that statement,
my father works hitherto, and I work. They understood it, at
least between the ears, not in their hearts. Not only broken the Sabbath,
but said also that God was his Father in a special sense that
you and I cannot enter into, making himself equal with God. Well, my soul, He is God. You
can't make yourself God. We're not, He is. Well, that
just poured gasoline on the fire. Then answered Jesus and said
unto them, Amen, amen, I say unto you, the
Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do.
For what things soever He does, these also does the Son likewise. For the Father loves the Son
and shows Him all things that Himself does. And He'll show
Him greater works than these that you may marvel. And if you
can't marvel, you can just wear your teeth down to nothing, love it or hate it. For as the
Father raises up the dead and quickens them, makes them to
live, even so the Son quickens whom He will. For the Father
judges no man, but has committed all judgment unto the Son, that
all men should honor the Son even as they honor the Father.
He that honors not the Son honors not the Father which has sent
Him. Amen, amen, I say unto you. He that hears my word and believes
on Him that sent me has everlasting life and shall not come into
condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. Amen, amen,
I say unto you. The hour is coming and it's already
here and now is. When the dead shall hear the
voice of the Son of God, they that hear shall live. Brethren
and sisters, when the dead start to hear, God is moving and working. Oh, that He would this day. The
dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that
hear shall live. For as the Father has life in
Himself, So has He given to the Son to have life in Himself,
and has given Him, the Son, authority to execute judgment also, because
He is the Son of Man. Not because He's the Son of God,
but because He's the Son of Man. But mind you, He's both. But
as the Son of God, nothing can be given Him as God. Everything
already is. Equal with the Father and with
the Holy Spirit. but as the Son of Man, God in
human flesh. Verse 28 and 29, marvel not at
this, for the hour is coming. And unlike the statement previously
that said it's coming and now is, this one doesn't say it now
is. Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming in which all that
are in the graves shall hear His voice and shall come forth
They that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and
they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation. And don't imagine that you and
I can do anything worthy of the resurrection of life. The only
good thing that you and I can do, and God does that for us,
is believe and trust His blessed Son who is life itself. But now
on the other side of the coin, they that have done evil under
the resurrection of damnation, one sin not under the blood of
Christ will doom us. One. There's no need of us talking
about one or two or a few. We know better, don't we? Let's just go straight to verse
24. John 5, verse 24. First of all, we must take note
in verse 24 of the subject of this particular verse, which
is possession of eternal life. You cannot make that statement,
say anything else. He that hears my word and believes
on God that sent me, sent me the Lord Jesus, has everlasting
life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from
death unto life." All right. The very first phrase that I
propose to take is our first point. He that hears my Word. He that hears My Word. Now, there may be other kinds,
but for our purposes, there are two kinds of hearing. One is the natural hearing with
the natural ear or with a hearing aid. Either way, it's still the
same kind of hearing. It's the hearing capability that
God has put in the human body. But if that is the only place
that we hear these words, this truth, this gospel, it cannot
go from this ear to the soul and the heart. You follow me? It is a second
kind of hearing. And both are included in this
statement in John 5.24. It is to hear with the ear of
faith. It is to receive in the heart
this glorious truth by faith, by Christ if you please. So he
that hears my word, my word, Eternal life, that is the subject
of verse 24, correct? We just looked at it. Shall have
everlasting life, shall not come into any kind of condemnation.
In other words, that simply means to have everlasting life means
you can't lose it. You cannot lose it. We did nothing to gain it, we
can do nothing by which we lose it. And we can lose our inheritance
in this world, but not in the world to come. All right, let's look at this
statement now about hearing. This life, he that hears my word,
this life is not communicated to us. The life of God in Christ
cannot be communicated to us By water, I don't care how many
men say it's holy water, there ain't no such critter. Baptist water is just as plain
water as anybody else's water. We have a baptism, we put water
in that pool behind that curtain, but it's just plain old H2O. That's all it is. nor the water sprinkled on a
baby's head, cannot wash one single sin away. The only thing
it can do is add more sin to it, which it does. And the sin
of trusting in what cannot give us life is a far greater sin
than the whole dictionary would even have any idea to publish.
You can't find it in there. for us to believe that some silly
ceremony, no matter how elaborate, can do what only Christ can do. My soul, we make an antichrist
out of it. No amount of visions and dreams, no supposed, and it is all supposed,
obedience to laws, These things do not, cannot, have not, and
will not communicate life to us. The life of God is where? In His dear Son. And to hear
Him and to have Him is to have everlasting life. That's as plain as it can be
stated. And that is just flat truth. take all the varnish,
all the veneer, take away all the flowers, all the decorations,
just plain, flat-out statement. These things that men claim to
be able to change them in God's sight are nothing at all except
false Christ. Therefore, saving faith and eternal
life come by hearing the Word of the Lord Jesus Christ, hearing
a message that is proclaimed to us by another human being,
mind you, of who Christ is and what He's done for helpless sinners.
That, my friend, is the gospel that saves, the only one that
saves. All right? Second statement in
our text. Believes on God that sent me. The God who sent Christ into
this world. His only begotten Son. Believes on Him that sent me. That sent me. How about turning
in your Bibles, only two books over to the right, the book of
Romans. If you would, look in Romans chapter 4. Now, I always get in trouble
here because, see, I looked at my watch and I had 25 minutes
to go and, of course, that's not the case now, but in just
a minute I'm going to look at it and I'm going to start thinking
to myself, man, you're already in the hole and it's getting
deeper. Romans chapter 4. What is the subject? Believing
on God who sent the Lord Jesus Christ To save sinners. Trusting God by trusting His
Son. Alright. What is it to believe
God? Romans chapter 4, verses 20 through
25, talking about Abraham. He staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving
glory to God. And our Lord plainly says in
John chapter 12 that Abraham saw Christ's day and rejoiced.
So we're not talking about a different situation, a different God, a
different Christ. It's the same. Therefore, it
was imputed, charged to Abraham's account for righteousness. What was Abraham's righteousness?
Hey, listen, not his faith. The Savior, the Lord Jesus, is
our righteousness. Righteousness is a person. Jeremiah
23.6, His name is Jehovah Sidcanu, the Lord, our righteousness. That's His name. Verse 23, And
it was not written for Abraham's sake alone that it was imputed
unto him. What kind of righteousness did
Abraham have? The imputed righteousness of
Christ. Do you have a righteousness?
Well, if it ain't the imputed righteousness of Christ, you
need to throw it down. Throw it away. Now, it was not
written for Abraham's sake alone that it was imputed to him, verse
24, but for us also. Paul and his readers, including
ourselves, to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on Him
that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. Speaking of Christ
being raised who was delivered for our offenses and raised again
for our justification, the just indeed shall live by faith. All
right, the second thing is not only to believe in God the Father,
but if you go back to John, and turn over to chapter 9. And I'll
be briefer this time than I was that time, I hope. John chapter
9. We have an incident that begins
chapter 9. John is famous for this. He'll
start off with one of the miracles of Christ and then the teaching
related to that is followed throughout the rest of the chapter. So in
the opening statements of chapter 9, we have a man that is blind
from his birth, born blind. Many commentators say he was
born without these things that we call eyeballs. Our Lord Jesus
gave him sight and he saw more than just natural things. But he did not see Christ as
the result of having his natural sight given. I can prove it to
you, verse 35. In the meantime, he's managed
to get himself kicked out of the Jews' religion. And so our
Lord hears about this and in verse 35 it says, Jesus heard
that they had cast him out, out of the temple, out of the synagogue,
out of the Jewish religion. And when Christ had found him,
oh, what a blessed statement, when he found Our day is blessed
when He finds us. When He had found Him, look what
our Savior asked Him. Do you believe on the Son of
God? Well, I'll ask you and myself
too. Do we? And I know this much. I ain't
smart, but I know this much. We either do or we don't. There
ain't no in-between. Either we have Christ or we don't
have Him. Do you believe on the Son of
God? You know what most people do,
don't you? Sure, doesn't everybody? Ah, not this guy. No, the Lord's
been looking for this man and He's found him. The man said, Who is He, Lord,
that I might believe on Him? We cannot trust with the eternal
salvation of our souls, a Christ that we do not know. And the only way I can know Him
and the only way you can know Him is by divine revelation. That's fiction to be showed us
in this statement. Who is He, Lord, that I might
believe on Him? Here's how smart we are. The
Samaritan woman was in the same boat, this man is in the same
boat, and we're in the same boat. We cannot know Christ until Christ
reveals Himself to us. Here's proof positive. Our Lord said unto him, verse
37, You have both seen Him, and it is He that talks with you.
Now I can't get any plainer than that. And the man said, Lord,
I believe, and he worshiped him. That, my friend, is how sinners
are brought to trust Christ. And there ain't no other way. No other way. It's not emotional experiences. It's not the result of some tragic
event in our lives, though that can possibly be used of God to
bringing us to Christ. That doesn't do it. The saying is that whatever is
born in the storm dies in the calm, and that's pretty much
how it is. Deathbed repentances are just that, deathbed repentances. The dying thief was not on a
bed. He was on a cross. Believes on Him that sent me. Now it took y'all a lot longer
to deal with that than it did that other passage. Alright,
number three. Number three. Let's look back at John 5. I
want you to see this in the verse with me. The first one is, He
that hears my word. John 5, 24. He that hears my
word. The second one is, and believes
on Him that sent me. And the third one is, which is
now to occupy us for just a moment, has, I'll just use the King James
word, half. That says past tense, as past
tense gets. Half everlasting life. And one of the most obvious things
in this world, in that verse in our Bibles, is simply this. Faith is the result of being
in possession of everlasting life. We do not come up with faith
and then the Lord gives us everlasting life. My soul, He's the means
as well as the object. He's everything. Everything. Let me change my mind here. How
about turning to 1 John chapter 5. Now I'm only doing this for
one reason. Because you all look like skeptics
to me if I've ever seen any. So I'm only joking. But I have to preach as though
you were. If you can call what I'm doing
preaching, mind you. 1 John chapter 5. All I'm doing is reading the
Bible and, you know, talking a little bit. 1 John chapter
5, what are we here for? In 1 John 5, what's our purpose? To find out the relationship,
are you listening? Between faith and salvation. What is the relationship between
faith and receiving eternal everlasting life? Do we have faith first
or eternal life first? Now, if we could just for a moment
pretend ourselves to be physically dead and being a corpse, we wouldn't
have any trouble answering this. Dead men cannot believe. We have to be made alive first.
And spiritually, it is precisely the same. One is a physical birth. The
other is a spiritual birth. Now this one statement in our
Bibles will solve it forever and ever. Verse 1, 1 John chapter
5. Whosoever believes that Jesus
is the Christ, the Messiah, is, past tense, is born of God. Now which came first? Life and
then faith. Now I know we were born and bred
in this junk that we have to do something first and then God
will do something. You're not immune to that. I'm
telling you, you've heard it If you've been anywhere, you've
heard it. We take the first step, God takes
the second. Lord, have mercy. Have mercy
on our souls. In Christ, we have eternal life,
and the life that we have in Christ is the life of the eternal
Son of God. Well, we've got two more things
here. Number four, back in John 5.24, is the very next phrase. And I want you to see this as
much as any of the other phrases that we've looked at in this
verse. John 5.24, He that hears my word,
believes on him that sent me, has everlasting life, and shall
not come into condemnation." Yes, but preacher so-and-so says
if you don't do this, that, or the other, you're going to lose
your salvation. Well, God said you can't. Who are we going to
believe? Oh, this will make people careless. Oh, shucks, you're already careless. Don't blame God for our carelessness.
No, no. Blame Him for our salvation.
Give Him the honor and glory of saving us. If we are in Christ,
we have eternal life and it cannot be lost. It cannot be. I mean, if you can't lose it,
it never was eternal. It never was everlasting. I tell you what, you're right
here in John chapter 5. Jump down to verse 29 for a second. That was our last verse in our
reading earlier. Our Lord is describing that day
which is yet to come when all men will be marshaled before
Him. Let me tell you just as plainly as I can in my estimation.
I understand if you don't think much of my estimation. I understand
that. If the judgment of God fell on
our Savior on Calvary's tree, and it did, There ain't no more
judgment. There just isn't any. Not only that, but come judgment
day, we know the judge. We're in him
and he's in us. All right, let's look at this
statement now just for a second. They shall hear His voice, in
verse 28, and shall come forth, in verse 29, they that have done
good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done
evil unto the resurrection of damnation. Now as best I know how, if we are in Christ, we are in
Him. who is perfect goodness. Perfect goodness. There just
isn't any way to get any better, to be any gooder than to be in
Christ. He is good personified and if
we're in Him, how good are we if we're in Him? As good as God
That's exactly what it takes to be in the resurrection of
life. All right, one more statement in our text, verse 24, John chapter
5. Here's the summarizing statement
in this glorious little statement, verse 24 of John chapter 5. "...but is passed from death
unto life." And that whole phrase now is designed to complement
the previous one which said, and shall not come into condemnation."
Why not? Why not indeed? Because we've
passed from death unto life and you can't go back. It's like playing Monopoly, you
can't go back. You just can't. I'm telling you, whatever God
does for a sinner in Christ, It has to be forever. It cannot
be temporary. It cannot be changed. It cannot
be altered. It is passed from death unto
life. Unto life. I conclude with these statements.
There's only one issue, my friend, worth our time. Now, tomorrow,
next week, next year, whenever, there's only one issue, and that's
what do I think of Jesus Christ. That's all that matters, all. Secondly, this book says, 1 Corinthians
3.11, other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid. What is our foundation? Jesus
Christ. And I add, alone. We can't give
Him any help. He is our rock and our foundation. Thirdly, there's only one hope for a sinner,
and that hope is in Christ. Colossians 1.27, Paul said to
the Colossians, Christ in you, the hope of glory. The hope of
glory. If we're in Him and He's in us,
it's already glory. Finally, number four, last point
on this statement about being passed from death unto life.
There is no other mediator. There has never been any other
mediator than the one we have right now. There's one God, 1
Timothy 2.5. There's one God and one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.