Turn in your Bibles if you will
this morning to the book of 1st John chapter 5. The book of 1st John chapter
5. Let me read beginning with verse
9 and read down through verse 13. If we receive the witness of
men, the witness of God is greater. For this is the witness of God,
which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the
Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not
God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that
God gave of his Son. And 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. These things
have I written unto you, that believe on the name of the Son
of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that
ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. Now before we
begin our message today, there was a few things that I wanted
to say last week that I didn't get said, and of course there
were many areas of the message on the value of a soul that I
would have liked us to have stopped and spent some time on, but we
were not able to do that, feeling compelled to go ahead on and
finish the message. I wanted to back up a little
bit. And at the outset of our message last week, we talked
about Genesis chapter 2 and verse 7, where it says that the Lord
God formed out of the dust of the earth man, and then breathed
in his nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living
soul. Now, I know that you children,
especially starting school now, that in the process of your education
this year, probably, sometime or other, somebody will bring
up the subject of evolution. Somebody will try to tell you
that man has evolved, that he started at the bottom and he
is on his way to the top. The scripture said that the Lord
God formed man from the dust of the earth. God is your maker. God is your maker. God made man. God made Adam and then took from
Adam a rib and made a woman. Eve. And they might attempt to
persuade you of the theory of evolution. But I want you to
understand that God made you. You're responsible to God. He
is your creator. You're responsible to God. Now it may be that you will have
to say to them, What I said to a fellow one time, I said, well,
you know more. When they began to tell me that
we all descended from monkeys, I told the individual, I said,
well, you know more about your relatives than I know about them.
And I said, some of mine might have hung by the neck, but there
wasn't any of them, as far as I knew, that ever hung by their
tails. And so you have to be alert and
awake and attentive to what's being said and to be mindful
of the truth of the Word of God so that you'll be able to establish
your own soul. in the truth whenever you begin
to hear all of these errors. I was explaining last week how
that we are a soul, we have a body. There was a time in which we
did not exist, but now that we exist, we will exist forever,
we will live on forever somewhere, and we're going to be conscious
a thousand years from now. We're going to be conscious,
we're going to have a mind, we're going to be thinking, and we're
going to be alive somewhere a thousand million years from now. We have
a never-dying soul because God breathed in that man that he
made the breath of life. Adam had the breath of God in
his nostrils. And so man, made in the image
of God, will live on forever. Now, there was another thing
that I said last week about the... I said that Jesus Christ did
not, as the Armenians say, die for Hitler's sins. Adolf Hitler,
all of you have heard of him. and then Mussolini and also the
underworld figures. I said that Christ did not die
for all of those as the Armenians say that he did. But I wanted
to say this in clarification that everyone for whom the Lord
Jesus died, they all have exactly the same natures that these men
had. I'm not going to stand here and
tell you that Christ died for their sins. But I am going to
tell you that everybody for whom he did die have exactly the same
nature that Adolf Hitler had, that Mussolini had, that all
the underground figures have. They have exactly the same nature
and you're capable of doing the same thing that they did. Now
the difference between them and us is demon activity. When the devil puts a man in
a position where he can do great and terrible evil, Then the devil
turns his demons loose on those men, and they do great and terrible
evil. They do terrible, terrible things
that we do not even like to read about, think about, or to hear
about. But I think we should be aware
of the fact that the only difference between these great sinners,
this man Gracie out in Chicago, Illinois, that killed all these
people and buried their bodies under his house, The only difference
between him and you and I is demon activity. The nature is
the same. We have exactly the same nature. And so we need to thank God,
and it should give us a reason to be grateful and to be filled
with gratitude that God has been pleased to spare us. I believe
that homosexuality is demon activity. Men and women have been turned
over to the demons to do with as they would be pleased to do.
They have the same nature that you have, but they are under
the working of Satan and under the demon influence. Now also
we said that hell, last week as we were closing our message,
that hell was a place of murky darkness, it was a place of eternal
night. Now Jesus said men shall be cast
into outer darkness where there shall be weeping and wailing
and gnashing of teeth. Hell is a place of darkness. We were trying to explain that
if you were to tell us or could explain to us how much a soul
would suffer in hell, then you would know how much a soul was
worth. And we said that hell was a place of darkness, eternal
night. But I was reading the scriptures
and these verses stood out to me. I didn't get around to them
last week. But in Revelation 21 and 23,
in contrast to hell being a place of eternal night, Remember I
told you the story about the parrot, who would always say
good morning and good night when the cover was taken off the cage
or put on the cage, and its eyes were scratched out by the cat,
and after that it would only say good night, good night. Now
in hell it's always night. Men will always be in blackness
and darkness. It'll always be night in hell. but in heaven, and the city,
in Revelation 21, 23, had no need of the sun, neither of the
moon to shine in it, for the glory of God did lighten it,
and the Lamb is the light thereof. Revelation 22 and 5, and there
shall be no night there, and they need no candle, neither
light of the sun, for the Lord God giveth them light, and they
shall reign forever and ever." So you see, beloved, the great
contrast between that place of murky darkness, that place where
men go when they die lost, and that place where the people of
God shall habit for eternity, a great difference, a great contrast. How wonderful to be a child of
God and to know that when you die and leave this world that
you're going off yonder to be with the Lord, that you're going
to heaven when you die. Now if you would, if you have
your Bibles open at 1 John 5, I want to talk to you a little
bit very simply today. You folks know that I probably
preach more doctrinal sermons maybe than anybody else in the
state of Montana, and you'd have to probably go several states
around to find anybody that preaches more doctrinal messages than
I do. But last week my message I felt
was a very practical message, and this week will be no different.
I have felt sometime in my meditation while I was away for a few weeks,
I meditated some and I felt that there needed to be some time
spent because of the number of young people and the number of
children that we have in our presence, more time spent on
some of the milk of the Word of God, and maybe not as much
time right now at this time on the meat of the Word. But I'm
sure this morning that you'll get something for your soul if
you'll listen carefully to what we have to say. Well, beloved,
have you realized yet the brevity of life? You know, we were talking
just a moment ago, and this question is one that I believe ought to
be asked of everybody that we meet. If we have an opportunity,
if God opens the door, if the opportunity is presented by the
Lord to our hearts, we should ask them, if you were to die
today, Do you know that you're saved? Do you know that you're
a child of God? Do you know that you'd go off
yonder to be with the Lord for all eternity? Do you know that?
Well, have you yet realized the brevity of life? Yesterday was
the 4th of July, and tomorrow will be Labor Day. how quick
life passes just one day and it just seems like after a month
it just seems like that one day. Today maybe your daughter was
born and tomorrow she'll be getting married. Yesterday you were a
granddaughter yourself and today you are a grandmother. Yesterday you read the funny
papers and today you probably pick out and look at the obituary
column, the first thing you do when you read the paper. Yesterday
in America, 35 years old, was the heart of youth. or was old. Yesterday, back a few years ago,
I remember hearing that when somebody was 35, they were getting
old. But today, let me say it this
way, it is the heart of youth. 35 is the heart of youth. Yesterday,
he or she wore diapers, and today they wear the same clothes that
you wear, and you can't find them because she always or he
always has them on. Yesterday was the crib, and tomorrow
is the casket. Yesterday you stood by his crib,
or her crib, and tomorrow he or she stands by your sickbed.
Time is passing on. Life is very brief. Yesterday
you held on to him and taught him how to walk as a little child,
and today he lets you hold on to him to walk. Life is pretty
short. There's not much to it. We are
just barely alive. We are just barely alive. If
you were to be taken out of this world today, do you know that
you're saved? Do you know that you're a child
of God? Do you know that you would go
to heaven? Now the basis of assurance is the written word of God alone.
The basis of assurance that we have eternal salvation, that
we have eternal life, that we know that we are a child of God,
that we know that we pass from death into life, the basis of
that assurance is the written word of God alone and nothing
else. When it boils down to it, that's all of the assurance that
we really have. Now, feelings won't last. Do
you know for sure that you have eternal life? John said here,
If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater. For this is the witness of God
which he hath testified of his son. God had some things to say
about his son. He said, He that believeth on
the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth
not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the
record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record that God
hath given to us, eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
And he that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the
Son of God hath not life. Now you say, well nobody knows
anything for sure. You say, well, you're talking
about somebody knowing for sure that they have eternal life,
knowing for sure that if they die, they're going to heaven.
Well, in verse 13, these things have I written unto you that
believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know, that
you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may believe
on the name of the Son of God. Somebody said, well, nobody knows
anything for sure. There was a man one time that
I heard make that statement. Somebody was talking about the
assurance of salvation. They said they knew that they
were saved and they were sure of it. And this fellow said,
well nobody knows anything for sure. And this fellow to whom
he was speaking spoke up to him and said, are you sure? Are you
sure? If you say that nobody knows
anything for sure, are you sure that nobody knows anything for
sure? Well, let me tell you this, my friend, that I'm sure if the
Word of God says it. If God said it, John here, he
wrote very simply, very practically, and he said, I've written these
things to you that believe on the name of the Son of God. I'm
writing these things to you that believe on the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And he's very practical, he says,
I'm writing these things to you, tells us who he's writing to,
and then the end to which he's writing, that you may know, that
you have eternal life, and may believe on the name of the Son
of God. Now it's amazing, when you begin to listen to religious
people talk, and preachers, and when you begin to read some commentaries,
what they have to say about this verse. And they read this verse
like this, that you may know that you shall have eternal life. Now they say that's the way it's
to be read. Oh, there's no such thing as knowing now. There's
no such thing as a man having presently the knowledge that
he is a child of God and that he can know now positively that
if he died today that he would go to heaven. There's no way
that a person can know that. Well, I beg your pardon, and
I beg their pardon, but there's no shall in this verse. It says these things are written,
and certainly we read now, and we're able to read now, that
you may know that you have eternal life as a present possession.
You've got it right now. And so if the Word of God says
it, Then, beloved, we can be sure that we have it. Now, I
haven't always known that I was saved. I haven't always known
that. The Lord saved me when I was 16 years old. I'm convinced
of that. I'm convinced of it. But I did
not know positively at that time that I had eternal salvation.
I believe God did a work in my soul. Now, there's been many
times since that when I had many, many doubts. And there's been
times that I felt like I didn't have an ounce of grace in my
soul, that there wasn't an ounce of life in me that was of a spiritual
nature. There are many, many times that
I felt like that there was just, you know, I was just hollow on
the inside. I couldn't believe anything. There wasn't anything
that seemed to move my heart. I was just as cold as I could
be, possibly be, and felt as dull and lifeless as possible,
graceless. But beloved listen there was
a time when God saved me I believe that with all my heart and down
through the years I've had many and varied experiences that I
could stand here and tell you about today and at any one of
those experiences God could have saved me again if he wanted to.
Now I believe that God only saves people one time. I've had many
experiences down through the years but only one time I believe
is when God regenerated my heart and made me alive in the Lord. Now, Spurgeon, he had difficulties
too, believing that he was a child of God. And he preached for a
number of years to large congregations, and all of his sermons were printed
and set out in papers. They were sold for a penny, these
sermons were. And they were sent out, had a
large circulation, and Mr. Spurgeon was off on one of his
times when he was sick and he couldn't be in the pulpit. And
so he went to a little old country church many miles from where
he lived and he sat down on the back row and the preacher got
up to preach and preached his sermon out of the paper. He had
memorized it word for word and preached his sermon back to Mr. Spurgeon and Mr. Spurgeon said
he got up and walked out of that building convinced that he was
a child of God by hearing one of his own sermons preached back
to him. And beloved, many, many times
it's whenever we begin to sit still long enough to listen to
what the Word of God says, even if it's our own preaching, that
we become convinced that we are indeed a child of God. Now, there
was a man by the name of G. Campbell Morgan. who said that
the devil would come to him and ask him, how do you know that
you believe? Well, salvation is by believing
and salvation is by trusting Christ. Salvation is by depending
upon the Lord Jesus Christ. How do you know that you're believing?
And he said that he was never able to answer the devil and
to give the devil a satisfactory answer as to just how he knew
that he was believing on Christ. But he said every time the devil
came to him, he would just fall down on his knees And he would
say, Oh Lord, if I have not believed before, I start right now believing. And he said, just a little while,
the devil would be gone. He'd look up and the devil would
be gone. You know, the Bible says that we'll resist the devil
and he will flee from us. The Bible teaches us that it's
through the Word of God that the devil is driven away. And so we need to learn that
we can only believe what God said and stand on that and drive
the devil away with the word. Now, let me start here this morning
at this point by saying a few things about the importance of
knowing that you are a child of God. The importance of knowing
that right here in this world. I believe it's of the utmost
importance. I believe that it is more important
for you to know that your sins are forgiven and to know that
if you die you go to heaven, to know that you have eternal
life in your heart than it is for you to be able to foretell
the future about kingdoms and people. It's more important.
It's more important for you to know that you're a child of God
than it is for you to be able to explain all the mysteries
of the Bible or for you to be able to explain what the Bible
is talking about when it deals with the subject of eschatology,
for you to be able to set it all out in order, just when the
Lord's coming and all of that. The most important thing is,
do I know? Am I sure that I have eternal
life? Well, let me say first of all,
that there is no fullness of joy apart from knowing that my
sins are forgiven. There's no fullness of joy apart
from knowing that I am saved, that I am a child of God. Now
if you will notice, here in John 5 and 13, he said, I have written
these things to you that believe on the name of the Son of God,
that you may know that you have eternal life. Now turn back to
the first chapter of the book of 1 John, and look at verse
4 if you will. Look at verse 4, and he says
here, And these things write we unto you, that your joy may
be full. Now it seems like maybe there's
a contradiction here. John says in one place, I've
written these things to you, that you may know that you have
eternal life. And then here in this fourth
verse of chapter 1, he says, I've written these things to
you that your joy may be full. Now, beloved, there's no contradiction.
The truth is that assurance and joy are Siamese twins. They're Siamese twins. You cannot
have any joy in the Lord unless you know that you have eternal
salvation. If you want to have real joy,
then, my friend, believe what the Word of God says to those
who have believed on Christ. Now beloved, there is not a word
here for those that are unbelievers. No word for a man who's not a
believer. If you're not a believer, this is not your mail. You've
got no business opening these letters and reading this if you're
not a believer. If you're a believer, then you're
welcome and you must hear this. This is the green pastures which
the people of God feed and lay down or lie down to rest. and
this belongs to the Lord's people and you must see that and if
you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and believe the word of
God then my friend there is a basis for real joy and peace in your
life and then let me say also number two that there's no real
service for Christ rendered by anyone who does not know that
they have eternal life. Now there's no man that's going
to go around telling other people and giving a reason for the hope
that he has in his soul if he don't have any hope. If he don't
have any real lasting hope, if he don't have any sure salvation
in his heart, he's not going to be able to talk to anybody
else. He can't render any service to God unless he knows himself
where he stands. And if he knows where he stands,
then he can talk to somebody else. And he can tell them about
the Savior that died in his room and place. Let me illustrate
that if I can. During the construction of the first half of the Golden
Gate Bridge, Out in California, it is said that 25 people fell
to their death while they were constructing the first part of
that bridge. And before they started the second
half of that bridge, they agreed to construct what they called
the world's largest net. underneath the construction site
and to have that net there as a safety net. And so they did
that. And after the second half of
the bridge, or when the second half of the bridge was built,
There was 10 people that fell, but they were caught in the net.
And there was nobody that lost their life in the construction
of the second half of that bridge. And it is said that when they
got all of the statistics together after they finished the project,
that they found that the workers that had worked on that bridge,
that they had accomplished 25% more in the time they worked
on that bridge than what the men did working on the first
half of the bridge. And what that tells you is that
these men could work much better knowing that they were safe.
Knowing that if they fell, they had a net under them. And so
they accomplished so much more. And I'll tell you this, that
if you don't know where you stand with God, and if your soul is
not secure on the rock, Jesus Christ, You cannot render any
service to God. You're worthless until this is
settled. Until this is settled. Do I know
the Lord? Am I in Christ? Do I know Him
for sure? Now then, the second thing I'd
like to deal with this morning is why do some doubt? Why do
some doubt? First of all, we talked about
the importance of knowing for sure that you're a child of God. Well, why do some people doubt?
Now listen to this. John says, I've written these
things to you that believe. on the name of the Son of God.
I'm writing to save people. I'm writing to believers. And
He said that ye may know that you have eternal life, implying
that there's some people that believe, but yet they don't know. Now they may get to heaven, but
they're mighty nervous on the way. They just do not believe.
There's doubts, and like I told you years ago, I used to have
doubts my own. and struggles of my own in regard
to this until I came to understand that the only basis of assurance
is what God said, what God said. And now I am of Paul's persuasion
when he said, I am persuaded that he is able to keep that
which I have committed to him against that day. I know in whom
I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that
which I've committed unto him against that day. And so I'm
of Paul's persuasion now. I know whom I have believed. I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, why do some doubt? Well,
some people doubt, I believe. Even people that now have the
life of God in them. There are some people that know
Christ that are saved people that feel that maybe they're
going to lose it. That they will lose their eternal
life. Now, throughout the Word of God,
and if we wanted to take the time we could do it this morning,
we could show you that there is no place in the Bible where
it talks about spiritual life being anything other than eternal,
everlasting. Jesus Christ gives eternal, everlasting
life. He does not give temporary life. And one of the great crowns and
glory of the gospel is that everybody that experiences regeneration
receives an everlasting blessing. Receives an everlasting blessing. There's immortality to spiritual
life. And everybody that lays hold
of the immortality of spiritual life receives an everlasting
blessing. All God's people are saved permanently
They're saved for all eternity. All right, now then, if you're
a child of God here today, you cannot lose your salvation. I
said you might go to heaven nervous, but you will get there by the
grace of God if you're a believer on the Lord Jesus. But you could
be much happier if you just believe what the Bible says. Now, why
do some doubt? Well, number one, because they
do not remember the day and the hour when they trusted Christ. Now I believe that God saved
me when I was 16 but I didn't have a watch and as far as I
know there wasn't even a calendar in the house where I lived. I don't know anything about the
day when I was saved. I don't know. You know they used
to sing an old song and it's a little old chorus and they
would sing it in the congregation and it says on Monday the Lord
touched me, on Tuesday the Lord touched me, and on Monday everybody
was saved. On Monday you're supposed to stand up. And whenever they
say, on Tuesday the Lord touched me, everybody's supposed to stand
up. Everybody got saved on Tuesday. And then he said, on Wednesday
the Lord touched me, everybody's supposed to stand up, got saved
on Wednesday. And I just sat there. And they'd say, well everybody
got, the Lord touched on Thursday, stand up. Everybody the Lord
touched on Friday, stand up. Saturday and Sunday, that's all
the days there is. I know God saved me one of them
days because there isn't any other days. But, I didn't know
what day to stand up on at all, but yet I knew the Lord saved
me. And some people say, well, I can't remember just when the
Lord saved me. Well, beloved, I can't remember
it either. But listen, let me explain it
to you like this. If you had a million dollars
in the bank, You had a million dollars in the bank. What difference
would it make if you happened to forget what day you put it
in there, what hour you put it in there? Wouldn't the thing
that really mattered, I mean, when you got right down to brass
tacks, wouldn't the thing that really mattered is that it was
in there? It was in there. A million dollars
was in the bank. Well, that's what would really
matter. Now, whenever you write a check, they don't ask you.
Now, they might if there was some problem, but under normal
circumstances, when you write a check, The Lord bless you,
Gracie. Be careful. Well, they don't
ask you, well, what day did you make the deposit? Or what hour
did you make the deposit? What minute did you make the
deposit here in the bank? They generally don't ask you
that at all. And beloved, listen, it's just, are you trusting Christ
now? Do you have that money in the
bank now? Are you trusting Christ right now? That's what is important,
right today, right now. You say, I don't remember when
all this took place. Are you trusting Him now? Are
you believing right now? That's what the Word of God teaches,
that you're saved on the basis of faith that you have right
now. It's got nothing to do with what
you did when you was a little boy or what you did when you
was a little girl. It has nothing to do with any
other time except right now. Do you believe now, today, that
Jesus Christ is the Son of God? And are you trusting Him and
all the weight of your soul on Him today? That's what really
matters. Now the second thing is this.
Some people doubt their salvation because they did not have the
same experience that somebody else had when they got saved.
Now when I was younger in the faith, About years ago, even
before I started to preach much, I used to go to meetings and
they almost always have a testimony meeting, especially on Sunday
night, where people would get up and tell their experience.
Tell what the Lord had done for them. Tell about what had happened
to them and about all the things that surrounded their conversion. And sometimes they would have
a rather long story to tell, and some of the stories, when
they got them told, you wondered whether it was true or not, and
some of them you said to yourself, if a man's got to experience
that in order to be saved, then I'm not saved. I'm not a child
of God. If that's what it means to be
saved, then I'm not a Christian. I couldn't be a Christian because
I've not had that experience. You know, how that they were
down in the cornfield, and they were four or five rows over in
the cornfield, and they were down praying, and there was two
blue jays sitting on a corn stalk, and oh, just on and on and on
about all the things that just seemingly happened that had to
do with their salvation. There ain't anything to that.
It's not necessary, thank God, for us to have all the experiences
that other people had. I remember hearing a fella tell
one time about an old lady down in Tennessee, I believe I was
in Belleville, Belleville Indiana at a tent meeting and this fellow
was telling about a woman and she come for salvation and She
had a dip of snuff in her mouth. She come down the aisle and the
preacher said well You want to be saved and she said well, yes.
Yes, sir. She said I want to be saved so
They said, well, the best thing to do is get down and pray. They
used to get down, you know, and they'd pray. The preacher prayed,
and he prayed. And after a while, the old lady,
she got cramps in her legs, and she couldn't stay down any longer.
So she got up and went and sat on the front row of the building. And the preacher, he prayed a
little bit longer. And he got up and come over to
her and said, now, have you prayed? She said, yeah, yeah. She said,
I sure enough prayed. He said, well, do you believe
you're saved? And she said, well, I suppose I am. And he said,
well, what did the Lord say to you when you prayed and you asked
him to save you? And she said, well, he looked
down and said, okey dokey, okey dokey. And so the Lord never
said okie-dokie to me, but my mother used to say that a lot.
Okie-dokie, she'd say. But the Lord never said okie-dokie
to me, but he said a lot of other things to me that I'm not here
to tell you about today. But listen, it's not necessary
that the Lord look over the banister of heaven and the Hebrew tongues
say okie-dokie to you in order for you to be saved. And whenever
you hear all these people talking about all their experiences,
remember this. It's the written Word of God
that's important, and I'll go back to the Bible, I'll see what
God says, And whenever God says this is the way it is, that I'm
going to believe that. He said if you believe on the
Son, you have everlasting life. And He said that if you have
the Son in your heart, abiding by faith, you have everlasting
and eternal life. Now some people also doubt because
they trust their feelings. And feelings are changing. When a man feels good, many times
he thinks, well, boy, I'm sure enough saved. I'm sure enough
saved, I feel good. I just feel real good, I'm sure
enough saved. And when he don't feel good, well, he suspects
maybe that there's something wrong, that maybe he's lost because
he don't feel good. Now, we make a mistake if we
ask somebody right after they make a profession of faith, how
do you feel? How do you feel? Because that implies that you've
got to feel a certain way to be saved. And this is a mistake. Now, there's no question that
feelings come when an individual is saved when they know the Lord.
Not everybody feels the same when God saves them. I've heard
people say, Oh, I bless God, I believe God saved me and I
feel like that the Lord kicked a bucket of honey over in my
soul and it's just oozing out of my ribs. Oh, God did a mighty
and wonderful thing in my soul. He just done such a great work.
And then some people say that they feel like they took a shower
on the inside when God saved him. Now there's other people
that say that they feel like they love everybody. Just feel
like they just love everybody. Well, that's alright too. That's
fine. And feel like you took a shower on the inside. That's
fine. And if you want, if you say that you feel like the Lord
kicked a honey bucket over your soul, that's alright too. That's
alright. But don't tell anybody else.
Everybody else, they gotta believe the same thing. Because that's
not the way that it is. Let me make this point. that
feelings are regulated more by our behavior and our obedience
to the Lord than they are by the incoming of spiritual life. Now listen to what the Lord Jesus
said in John 13, 17. He said that if you know these
things, happy are ye if you do them. If you know these things,
if you know my will, if you know what I want you to do, happy
are you if you do them. If you do them. Now you remember
that old song, trust and obey, for there's no other way to be
happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. Feelings are regulated
more by our behavior and by our obedience to God than anything
else. Someone asked William Booth,
the secret to his great joy and he said this he said the secret
to it is that I never say no to God I never say no to what
God told me to do and I believe that's where these feelings come
from you know there are some people that never feel good they
never feel good I heard about one lady who said, I don't even
feel good when I feel good. Because I know that before long
I'm going to feel bad again. And so I don't feel good even
when I feel good. And of course I wouldn't want
to live by her in heaven. I wouldn't even want to live
by her on earth, really. Because people that never feel good,
people that never have any good, solid, spiritual joy, you just
You just have a hard time being around them, don't you? Well,
I want you to write this down if you have a pen and you've
got something to write on. If you don't, maybe you can remember
it. But you ought to write this down so you can remember it.
It says, I feel good, but I don't know I'm saved because I feel
good. I feel good. But I don't know that I'm saved
because I feel good. I know I am saved because the
Bible says so, and I feel good because I know I'm saved. Now, do you get that? You can't
write that down that quick. All right, well, let me just
read it one more time. Maybe you can get it. I feel
good, but I don't know I'm saved because I feel good. I know I
am saved because the Bible says so, and I feel good because I
know I'm saved. Now I think that's clear enough. Listen to these words of the
poet. Feelings, he said, for feelings come, and feelings go,
and feelings are deceiving. My warrant is the word of God,
naught else is worth believing. I will trust in God's unchanging
word till soul and body sever, but through all earth shall pass
away. But though all earth shall pass
away, his word abides forever. So be my feelings what they will. Jesus is my Savior still." Isn't
that wonderful? That's a wonderful poem. Well,
I want you to notice a couple things here. How do we know we're
saved? We've been talking about the Word of God. And we've been
talking about believing the Word of God, and I want being the
Word of God. Nothing else is worth believing.
Well, look in John chapter 3 and verse 36. John chapter 3 over in the New
Testament, we're going to be done here in just a minute or
two here. John 3 and 36. I want you to
look at this verse. He that believeth on the Son.
Now I want you all together to read those next three words.
He that believeth on the Son. Do you suppose that's true or not?
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. If you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, then you have it. And he that believeth not the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.
Now, beloved, if God means what He says, then you have eternal
life, you have everlasting life, if you believe on His Son. Now
that's simple, isn't it? Okay, now look at John 6 and
verse 47. John 6 and verse 47. And I want you to see what this
means, or see what this says here. John 6 and 47. Jesus said, Truly, truly, I say
unto you. These are the words of the Lord
Jesus. Truly, truly, I say unto you, he that believeth, he that
believeth on me hath everlasting life. Now I know that believing
is not the act of the will of the natural man. I know that
faith is a gift of God. But I know that if a man can
believe in his heart on the Son of God, that he hath everlasting
life. Jesus said so. He said, Truly, truly, I say
unto you, he that believeth on me hath. Everlasting life if
you believe on me, then you have Everlasting life, okay, I want
you to turn now to first John chapter 3 first John chapter
3 and look at verse 23 Look at verse 23, and I want you to listen
to what this says. This is your warrant from God
for believing listen to what it says and this is his commandment
and This is His commandment, John said. This is what He commands,
that we should believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ,
and love one another as He gave His commandment. Now listen to
me. It is God's business to put potency
into the cure that He has provided. Did you get that? It is God's
business to put potency into the cure which he has provided. When God says, I command you
to believe on my son, I command you to do it, then it's God's
business through omnipotence. to put power in His Word and
to save you by believing on His Son. That's God's business. He
said this is the cure. This is the cure that you believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And so God will put potency in
that and save you as you believe. Now then, I believe that God regenerates
the soul, spirit, is a work of God in the soul, enabling a man
to believe the gospel. But nobody gets interested in
believing on Christ except those in whom the Spirit of God puts
that thirst and desire for Him. And if you're here today, listen,
if you're here today I want you to think a little bit with me.
You know, we sang that song this morning. How firm a foundation,
you saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent
Word. What more can He say than to you He has said? To you, who
for refuge to Jesus has fled. What more can He say? Now, you
know, if Gabriel was to come down here this morning and he'd
come by and, you know, Gabriel is one of the archangels, and all angels are male, there
isn't any female angels. So if there's any angels around
your house, you know who they are. But anyway, so much for
that. But anyway, if old Gabriel came
down, And a fellow said another thing the Bible says about women
is the fact that nowhere in the Bible does it say a woman died
and went to heaven. He said you can't find it in the Bible where
that a woman died and went to heaven. It said Abraham died
and was buried and went to be with his fathers and that the
rich man died and went to hell and Lazarus died and was carried
by the angels into Abraham's bosom and Enoch was caught up
and went to heaven without even seeing death. But nowhere in
the Bible does it say Abraham died, but it says Sarah died,
but it didn't say anything about where she went. Well, I believe
that women that believe go to heaven when they die. I believe
that. But the Bible doesn't say anything about it. The Bible
doesn't say that. But I'm sure they do. I'm sure
they do. I guess, like the old boy says,
I guess what it means is that the women better behave themselves,
really better take note of their situation. Well, they're as much
saved as we are by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Well,
where was I? Well, Gabriel was coming by.
Gabriel was coming by, and Gabriel, he comes and he says, I've just
come to tell you that you're a child of God and that you're
for sure saved, and that you're going to heaven when you die.
Well, you know, we could say, Gabriel, you didn't need to come
all this way. You've come a long way. Gabriel
says, I've come a long way to tell you that. Well, that'd be
wonderful, Gabriel. Be wonderful. But my Lord said,
he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. My Lord
said, the Bible is written that you who believe on the name of
the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. And Gabriel, I appreciate you
coming and all that, but you didn't have to come, because
what more could anybody tell us than what the Lord's already
told us? What more could anybody? Even if the angel comes by, if
God already said it, then that's what counts. That's what counts.
And so believe what the Word of God says. That alone is the
basis, and that alone and nothing else is the basis for assurance
of salvation. That alone. Father, in the name
of the Lord Jesus, we thank you for this privilege we've had
this morning to preach. I do ask that you might make
this message a blessing to those that have heard it. May Christ
be exalted here, and may some poor soul today say in their
hearts, by the grace of God, by the grace of God, by the power
of the Holy Spirit, I believe the record that God gave of His
Son. And I believe this record is
eternal life. And I believe that He that hath
the Son hath life. And I believe that everything
that is written in the Bible is to the end that I could know
that I have eternal life presently right now. And Father, I just
pray that the victory will be given today, that Christ will
be glorified and honored, that all of us may rejoice more fully,
more fully and completely in Him. In His name we pray, Amen.