Well, God has given me a message
for you, a message you need to hear. I pray he'll give me grace
to deliver it and you ears to hear it. Everywhere I go, I meet men and women like you,
old and young, who ask this question, how can I know that I'm one of
God's elect. How can I know? How can I know
that I'm one of God's elect? Is that even possible? It is
a rare day when I do not receive a telephone call or an email
or a letter from someone asking that question one way or another. How can I know that I'm one of
God's elect? Now we know, this congregation
knows, you preachers know, there is a people in this world who
are called in the word of God, the elect. That's not a cuss
word, that's a good word. The elect, men and women chosen
of God before the world was, predestined by God's sovereign
purpose to eternal life in, by, and with Jesus Christ the Lord,
And those elect sinners must and shall be saved. No question
about that. Scripture is as plain as the
nose on your face. The Lord Jesus Christ, God's
darling son, came into this world on a mission. He came with an
errand. He came with a work to do. And
he could not go back to his father as Jehovah's righteous servant
until the work was completely finished by him. And when he
went back to glory, just before he left his body in this world,
he said, it is finished. By his obedience to God as the
surety and substitute and representative of those elect sinners, Jesus
Christ fulfilled all righteousness. He lived in perfect faith, in
perfect obedience to God, loved God with all his heart, soul,
mind, and being, and loved his neighbor as himself. That's called
righteousness. He didn't do it for himself,
he did it for his elect. He did it for everyone whom he
represented, and they did it in him. And when he shed his
blood at Calvary, he suffered all the fury of the wrath of
God, all the horrid, infinite wrath of divine justice for those
elect people. He died in their room and in
their stead until justice was fully satisfied. Until God could
demand no more, he continued to suffer. Until at last, justice
was swaddled up in him. Judgment swaddled up in him. Sin put away by him for his elect. And all his elect died in Him,
and they were crucified in Him, and they satisfied the justice
of God in Him. They were made righteous in Him,
justified in Him, even as He was justified. Even as He, as
the God-man, our mediator, brought in righteousness, He has made
the righteousness of God to His people. And in the fullness of
time, at God's appointed time of love, the Lord God Almighty
will send his blessed spirit into this world to call, to regenerate,
call, to redeem, or to sanctify all those elect ones, forming
Christ in them, making them partakers of the divine nature, creating
in them a man in perfect holiness and righteousness, that man being
Christ himself, giving them a new nature, creating in each one
faith in Jesus Christ. So that as a babe born in this
world breaks his mother's womb and breathes with life, Every
sinner born of God's spirit called by God's grace breathes the life
of faith. He believes on the Son of God. That's what faith is. That's
what faith is. But pastor, how can I know that
I'm one of those elect sinners redeemed by the blood of Christ?
regenerated, called, and born again by God the Holy Ghost.
The scriptures tell us very plainly. If you'll turn to 1 John chapter
5 and just hold your Bibles open at 1 John chapter 5, we're going
to look at the first 13 verses of this blessed instructive chapter. I want to show you from the Word
of God that there are certain infallible witnesses by which
believing sinners may be assured of a saving interest in Jesus
Christ the Lord. Now this is a message for every
one of you. I've told you how God saves sinners. I'm gonna
tell you how you can know that God has saved you by his grace. How you can know John tells us
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. What a word. What a word. Is that really possible? Now
I have read a good many horrible commentators, commentaries on
this, these five chapters of 1 John. And I don't usually pay
too much attention to bad commentaries. I just get my mind informed so
I know what to look for. But I've read every good commentary
I know of on 1 John. And the best of them, the best
of them, After you read just a little bit of them, you think,
John must admit these things have I written unto you that
you may never know that you have eternal life. Because they leave you looking
somewhere where you can't possibly know. They leave you looking
to your experience, or your knowledge, or your feelings, or your works,
or your church attendance. or your sobriety, or your morality,
or your giving, or your devotion, or your Bible reading, or your
prayer life. Now. Boy, I didn't used to have
it, but I've got it now. You'll lose it just that quick.
Just that quick. We have an anchor. Sure and steadfast. Yonder. Now, I'm not a seaman. Didn't ever plan to be, didn't
ever want to be, still don't plan to be. I don't know much
about sailing. Brother Greg does. You got a
boat still, don't you? You got an anchor for that boat?
Does it do any good laying on the boat? I don't care how much you paid
for it. I don't care how pretty it is. As long as it's in the
boat, it's utterly useless. It's only good when you throw
it out. It's only good when you throw
it out. And the anchor of our souls is
not in here. The anchor of our souls is within
the veil. It's Jesus Christ, our risen,
exalted, accepted Savior. We have every reason, believing
on Him, to know that we have life everlasting and to know
that we believe Him. All right, let's look at 1 John
5, begin at verse 1. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. That's not ambiguous, is it? Does that need any explanation?
Anyone in the world, any man, any woman, old or young, anybody
here this hour who believes that Jesus, that Jesus revealed in
this book is the Christ, is born of God. What a statement. John has told us exactly the
same thing. in chapter 4. He tells it again
in the 7th verse of the book of 2 John. Now this is what he's
saying. To believe that Jesus is the
Christ is to believe that that man, born in Bethlehem a little
over 2,000 years ago, commonly known as Jesus of Nazareth, is
indeed the promised Messiah, the Redeemer, the one that Adam
trusted when he made himself known to Adam in the garden,
slew an animal, and clothed Adam and Eve in the skins of that
animal. That man, Jesus of Nazareth,
is that man who walked with Adam in the garden. That man, Jesus
of Nazareth, is the one of whom all the prophets of all the Old
Testament spoke all the time. He's the one pictured, promised,
and prophesied in all the Old Testament scriptures. Everything
that the scriptures in the Old Testament, from Genesis to Malachi,
said the Christ would do, Jesus of Nazareth has done. Everything,
everything. And there is no possibility that
any other man might be identified like this. He that believeth
that Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified at Calvary 2,000 years
ago, having finished his work, is the Christ, he's born of God. You can't believe him unless
you're born of God. Do you trust the Lord Jesus Christ
as that man who fulfilled all righteousness? That man who put away sin, who
made an end of transgression, who glorified God, who redeemed
his people, who accomplish their salvation. Do you believe that
Jesus is the Christ? Do you trust him? Your faith
in Christ is not the cause of you being born of God, but it
is the evidence. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for. The substance of things hoped
for. Faith is the confidence, the assurance of things hoped
for. The evidence of things not seen. I'm confident my name was written
in the book of life before the world began. And I've never seen
that book. I'm confident that Jesus Christ
died in my stead of Calvary. I'm confident he did. And I wasn't
there. I'm confident that I had been
called by God, the Holy Spirit, as personally, as distinctly,
as surely as Saul of Tarsus when the Lord God spoke to him and
said, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And I had never heard
his voice with these ears. But I hear his voice because
I believe. that Jesus is the Christ. I believe that Jesus is the Christ. And let me tell you something. None of you would say this about
me. Well, maybe some of you would,
I don't know, but you think you know me. But I'm gonna tell you
what I know. I have absolutely no reason to think that God loves me. No reason to imagine that I've
been saved by God's grace. None whatever based upon anything
I know or anything I've felt or anything I've done or anything
I've thought, or anything I've imagined. None. And I know more than most of
you sitting here. I've had experiences not many
folks have had. I have no reason, none, to dream
that I might be an heir of God, except this, I believe that Jesus
is the Christ. In the teeth of my hard heart,
in the teeth of my horrid sin, in the teeth of my ungodly behavior,
I believe with no doubt with no foundation but this. I believe that Jesus is the Christ. That's all. Most of you know
our only daughter. Shelby and I got married when
I was just 18. I won't tell you how old she was. Well, I will
if you ask me. But I was 18. It's been so good. If I had to do over, I got married
when I was 12. But I was 18. And I was in college. My second
year of college, we learned that Shelby was expecting a baby. And we had been told we couldn't
have any. And we didn't do anything about
it. We didn't go see a fertility doctor. I don't even know that
they might have even had them back then. I don't know. We didn't
do anything about it. We didn't do anything about it.
But I found out she was pregnant. I bought cigars before we had
anything else to do. Ah, she was gonna have a baby.
At the time we found out, I was studying New Testament Greek.
Our daughter's name is Catherine Faith. I chose that name as soon
as I found out she was coming. The name means pure, catharetso. Faith is dual. We expected a
child and we had her with no foundation but faith. That's all. Had no other reason
to anticipate it. I have no reason to expect eternal
life when this world is done except this. I believe that Jesus
is the Christ. And then John says, in this first verse, and everyone that loveth him
that begat, loveth him also that had begotten of him. Now, if
you love God like you ought to, now you've got some assurance.
Is that what John's saying? Look at verse two. By this we
know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep
His commandments. Oh. Now I can know that I believe
if I love God like I ought to. I know that I believe if I keep
God's commandments. Refer that to the Ten Commandments
or to everything written in the Word of God, however you take
it. Either way, John is turning around and saying, now, you believe
that Jesus is the Christ, and you're born of God, and you can
know it if, if John does not take us back to the whip of the
law. He does not point us back to
ourselves. Read the third verse. Read verse
three. For this is the love of God,
that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not
grievous. Now I saw something this morning,
shared it with my wife going home early this morning, working
on this message I'd never seen before. How on this earth can
I understand that at all? If John's referring to my love
of God and my love of you, and my keeping of the commandments
in my personal experience in day-by-day life, everything about
it is grievous. Yes, we love him because he first
loved us, but my love for him makes me weep more than it makes
me rejoice. Yes, we who are born of God love
one another. But if that's all the hope I've
got, my love for Richburg, it ain't much. And the same thing's
true of you. And the sooner you learn it,
the better. Well, how then can this possibly refer to us? Look
back at chapter three, verse 23. And this is his, what a strange
word. commandment. His singular commandment. The one thing God in the whole
book of Scripture demands. This is his commandment. That
we should believe on the name of his son. That we should believe
everything there is about his son. His name represents his
whole person. and love one another as he gave
his commandment. Now, how can this possibly be? How can this possibly be? By
trusting Christ, we fulfill the law and all the commandments
of God we fulfilled in him and continually fulfill in him. Does he love God with all his
heart and soul? He does, doesn't he? Me too. Does he love his neighbor as
himself? He does indeed. Me too. Because you can't separate me
from him. We're one. We're one. He's bone of our bone and flesh
of his flesh and we are spirit of his spirit. so that we know
that we have eternal life because we believe that Jesus is the
Christ. Now the scriptures give us warrant
for this confident assurance of faith as it's called in the
scripture. Because as John Newton put it, assurance is the essence
of faith. Any lack of assurance is a lack
of faith. Assurance is the essence of faith. Let me see if I can make good
on that from your memory of things in Scripture. One of my favorite
passages in the Scripture, Brother Chapman referred to this morning,
is Mark chapter 16. Our Lord's risen from the dead,
and the women are at the tomb, and the man says to them, said,
go tell my disciples I'll meet them in Galilee. Go tell his
disciples, as he said, he will meet you in Galilee. And I can
just, I like to picture things. I can just picture them headed
that way. Oh boy, the Lord's gonna meet him in Galilee. And
he, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Be sure you tell Peter. Be sure
you tell Peter. Go tell my disciples. And Peter,
Peter, who three times did the hype
man. Peter, who cussed and said, I don't know the man. Peter who
said to his brethren, boys, I'm going right back where I was
three years ago, I'm going fishing. Be sure you tell Peter, nothing
has changed. Be sure you tell Peter, nothing
has changed. The church of God described in
the Song of Solomon, that one that our brother read to us about
this morning, without spot, pure, holy, undefiled. The Church of
God, in chapter five of the Song of Solomon, is described in her
lowest state. There the Savior knocks and says,
open to me. She says, I ain't got time for
you now. Don't bother me now. I've got
other things to do, something more important. I'm taking a
nap. Oh, that's surely not what I
mean. That's just about how we treat him most of the time, Rick
Williams. Would God that were so, but it
is. That's just fact. That's just fact. Are you any
different? Anybody here who is, please step
forward and I'll listen to you. Clay Curtis, that's just how
we are. Just tell me. And she arises
and goes about seeking him whom her soul loves. And she says,
she says, have you seen my beloved? And the watchmen at her, and
they take away her veil and show her what she is. And she acknowledges
her sin. And she still looks upon Christ
as her beloved and her as he is, the fairest among 10,000.
In John chapter 13 in verse 38, our Lord Jesus said to Peter,
before the rooster crows in the morning twice, you're going to
deny me three times. Peter said, not me. Maybe James
and John, but not me. Not me. I'll go with you to death. Not me. and the Lord's next word
to him. If you've never read John 14.1
in connection with John 13.38, you haven't read it right. Tomorrow
morning, you're gonna deny me. You believe in God, let not your
heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. Nothing's changed. Nothing's
changed. Our Lord met Peter. beside the
Sea of Galilee, and asked him three times, Simon, son of Jonas,
lovest thou me? But the third time he changed
his words, and Peter was grieved because it said to him the third
time, lovest thou me? He uses the strongest word. I
know I'm in a minority saying that, but the stronger word for
love in the text is what he uses there. Peter, do you really love
me? And Peter answered in the strangest
way. He said, Lord, thou knowest all things. Now to you who are
religious hypocrites, that's the most terrifying thing in
the world. He knows everything about you
and everything about me, everything. The darkness is light before
him. He looks on your heart and sees
Lord, thou knowest all things. To the sinner who believes that
Jesus is the Christ. Great guilt is the most comforting
thing in the world. Thou knowest all things. Todd might not be able to see
this. Shelby might not be able to see this. You might not be
able to see this. Lord, thou knowest that I love
thee. Nothing's changed. My relationship with God, I wrote
some 40 years ago, does in great measure determine what I do. But what I do, be it good or
bad, has nothing to do with my relationship with God. Nothing. Nothing. I have no righteousness
but Christ, who is my righteousness. I have no sanctification but
Christ who is my sanctification. I have no holiness but Christ
who is my holiness. I have no redemption but Christ
who is my redemption. Now look what it says in verse
four. For whosoever is born of God
overcometh the world. Those who are born of God overcome
the world. the lust of the world, the religion
of the world, the cares of the world, Satan at last, and this
is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Faith conquers. Conquers the
world. It's victorious. And it's our
faith. Our faith. Our faith tramples
on the neck of Satan himself. Our faith. I have breath in my
lungs. Now, God gave it. I'm fully aware
of that. But it's my breath. It's my breath. And I have faith
in Christ. God gave it. God works it. God performs it. But it's my
faith. I believe that Jesus is the Christ. And by this God-given faith,
I am overcoming and shall overcome the world, not because of the
strength of my faith, the might of my faith, but because of the
object of my faith. In verse one, John said, he that
believeth that Jesus is the Christ, and he assures us that faith
produces both love and good works. but he immediately draws us away
from our love and our good works as the grounds of assurance.
Our confidence is in Christ alone. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. Now our flesh and the devil would
teach us otherwise. Whenever you get yourself in
a mess or you start to feel cold-hearted and down, you think, well, I
need to read my Bible more. Well, you do. You sure need to
do that. I need to go to church more.
You do. You ought to be there every time the doors open, every
last one of you, without exception, without excuse. You have an opportunity
to hear the gospel and worship God, and you decide to stay home
and watch gun smoke instead? Shoot. Or stupidity. Or stupidity. But that ain't
gonna make you have any better assurance. Well, it probably
will if you don't know God. You'll feel better for a little
while. But it'll soon be gone. And you'll start to miss church
again and start to not give like you ought to. And the preacher
will whip out the law and say, boy, if you was ever born again,
you'd do. Oh, what's wrong with him? He just lost. Well, if you
start acting bad, well, he must be saved. What's the assurance? What is it? Whosoever believeth
that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And then John proceeds
to show us irrefutable witnesses to things. Who is he that overcometh
the world? But he that believeth that Jesus
is the Christ. It's not faith in myself, or
faith in my love, or faith in my works, or faith in my experiences,
or faith in my feelings, or faith in a sense of my nearness to
God, or my spirituality, or my holiness. But rather, it is Christ,
the object of our faith, that overcomes the world. Who is he
that overcometh the world? But he that believeth that Jesus
is the Christ. Now look at verses six, seven,
and eight. Here in verse 6, John gives us three witnesses to the
eternal deity, the eternal Godhead of our Lord Jesus Christ. We
believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the Son of God,
because this is He which came by water and blood. This is He
which came by the Word. I tried to take time to look
at this. I can't find a single place where
the Apostle John uses the word water that he doesn't mean for
the water to represent the Word of God except where he quotes
our Lord Jesus in John 7 and where he speaks of the water
coming out of the pierced side of the Son of God, our Redeemer.
Everywhere else It speaks of the word. This is he which came
by the word and by the blood. It's the spirit that beareth
witness, because the spirit is truth. The Lord Jesus came and
fulfilled all the scriptures, all of them. This book told when
he would be born. at Daniel's 70th week, told where
he would be born, told who his lineage would be, told everything
he would do. He fulfilled everything written
in the book, told how he would accomplish redemption by the
sacrifice of himself. And the Spirit of God bears witness
to that in the Word and bears witness to that in his works
while he walked on this earth and in his works since he was
raised from the dead and in the hearts of his people. The Lord
Jesus is that one who is himself God, the Eternal Son. Look at
verse seven. Our Savior came into this world
for a purpose, to redeem his people. Here in verse seven,
John gives us three witnesses to the accomplishment of redemption
by Christ Jesus, the Lord. For there are three that by record
in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. And these
three are what? Bear record of what? They bear
record that Christ is God. They don't need that record in
heaven. They bear record that He did what He came to do. They
bear record that redemption is accomplished. How? The Father
received Him and accepted His sacrifice. The Word of God declares
that it's done. And God the Holy Ghost bears
witness to it in the hearts of his people. And these three are
what? Now just in case you want to
look at it sometime or you're thinking about getting you one
of those messed up translations, every modern translation that
I'm aware of, there may be one here that I don't know about,
but every one I'm aware of, And every reference Bible I've ever
looked at, every one of them, will tell you that 1 John 5,
7 should not be in the Bible. And if they put it in the Bible,
they'll put you a note in there saying it's not really supposed
to be there. Well, it's really supposed to be there. And it
states the doctrine of Trinity clearly and emphatically, and
this is the only single place in Scripture where it is stated
with such clarity and emphasis. But there's more than them being
one. Their record is one. The Father,
and Christ the Word, and the Word of God itself, and God the
Holy Ghost declare that Christ has finished his work. Look at
verse 8. And there are three that bear
record in earth. And the order changes, the spirit,
and the water, and the blood. In the Old Testament, in the
sacrifices, three things were common. Living water, holy oil,
and blood. They were always there. Running
water, holy anointing oil, and blood. Our Savior came by water
and by blood, and here it is the Spirit that bears witness
on the earth, and it does it by the word, the water, and the
blood, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, sprinkled on the
mercy seat. And these three agree in one.
God the Holy Ghost comes to chosen sinners at the appointed time
of love, And he gives them life. He gives them life. He doesn't
offer it. He doesn't give them an opportunity
to have it. He gives them life. The first time you know he's
present, he's already inside working. He gives them life. And giving them life, he calls
them to faith in Christ. But calling them, he gives them
faith in Christ. How so? Hebrews 9 speaks of it
this way, with a sprinkling of the blood. The sprinkling of
the blood. The priest in the Old Testament
would take that water and oil, mix it in his hand, and he'd
put it right here, and he'd put it right there, and he'd put
it on the right toe, the great toe of the right foot, applying
it. to the one who was sanctified
by the blood, who had been made clean by the blood, the one who
is called by the Spirit of God. God, the Holy Spirit, comes,
and when he gives a sinner faith, something strange happens. Something
strange happens. Donny Bell, I was terrified of
God, and terrified of hell, and terrified of judgment. I mean
terrified. I couldn't think the name of
God without being terrified. And I couldn't believe. Until
one day, by the word, and God the Holy Ghost never operates
but by the word, by the word, I heard a man preach Jesus Christ
and him crucified. And something happened. I can't
hardly believe it to this day. This sinner lifts his heart to
heaven and looks God straight in the face with no more fear
than a baby looks at her daddy and says, my father, my father, my father. And I have no guilt and no fear
and no dread. How can that be? I believe that
Jesus is the Christ. If you now believe that Jesus
is the Christ, oh, if God will give you grace to believe. Without moving a muscle, don't
even say a prayer. believe, come to Christ, come
to Christ. If you can, let me tell you what
you can do. You can go home tonight singing,
blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory
divine, air of salvation, purchase of God, born of the spirit, washed
in the blood. Oh, God help you to believe that
Jesus is the Christ. Amen.