I've entitled this message, All
the Words of This Life, and when I was thinking of that song,
of seeing the white robed chorus sing in glory, I thought, this
is not life. That is life. Verse 20, once again, of Acts
chapter 5, Actually, let's begin in verse
19. But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors
and brought them forth and said, go stand and speak in the temple
to the people all, A-double-L, all. the words of this life." All the words of this life. This
is what the word of the angel to the apostles was after he'd
opened the prison doors and set them free. You go into the temple,
stand, and say to the people all of the words of this life. Now, I think that's an interesting
name for the gospel, isn't it? All the words of this life. This life. All the words of this
life. Now, in order to preach the gospel,
there's a lot of words that are to be used. None of which can
be omitted. Words like election, calling,
justification, redemption. Words like faith, repentance,
holiness. There are a lot of words that
are involved in preaching all the words of this life and none
of them are to be omitted. Now that doesn't mean you can
preach every doctrine of the Bible every time you preach.
That's impossible. It's a big book. And yes, the
gospel is a very simple gospel. And it's brought through a very
large book called the Bible. And it takes the whole Bible
to preach the gospel. You obviously can't preach every
verse of the Bible in one sermon. I've heard preachers try it.
And I would rather you not try something like that. Keep it
to where we can pay attention. But the thought occurred to me
that I just want to deal with this one word in this verse,
life. Life. Preach all the words of
this life. I thought of what the Lord said
in John chapter 6 verse 63, the words that I speak to you, they
are spirit and they are life. Now look in verse 17 of Acts
chapter 5, then the high priest rose up and they that were with
him, which is the sect of the Sadducees, and they were filled
with indignation. Now they were upset at what had
been taking place. The apostles were being used
to heal people. There were many people that were
listening to them. And this could be jealousy, is what it means. It could be that they were just
zealous for what they believed, but they were filled with indignation.
They were troubled over what they were hearing. And verse
18, they laid their hands on the apostles and put them in
the common prison. They were jailed for this. But the angel
of the Lord by night opened the prison doors and brought them
forth and said, go stand and speak in the temple to the people
all the words of this life. And when they heard that, they
entered into the temple early in the morning and taught. But
the high priest came, and they that were with him, and called
the council together, and all the senate of the children of
Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought. But when
the officers came and found them not in the prison, they returned
and told, saying, The prison truly found we shut with all
safety, and the keepers standing without before the doors. But
when we had opened, we found no man within. A miracle had
taken place. Now when the high priest and
the captain of the temple and the chief priest heard these
things, they doubted of them where into this would grow. They
were thinking, where is this going? Here we imprison these
men and we come and open up the prison and they're all gone. Where is this thing going? Now, life. Life. all the words of this life. There is death and there is life. Now, by death and life, I'm not
speaking of physical death and physical life. We all have physical
life. We're all going to die physically
unless the Lord returns before our death. I'm talking about
spiritual death and spiritual life. Paul said in 1 Corinthians
15, verse 22, in Adam, all die. Yes, physical death will result
from that, but what he's talking about is spiritual death. In
Adam, all die. Now, when you're spiritually
dead, that means you can see no beauty in Christ. You're dead. You don't have the gift of sight.
You're unable to hear the gospel. Oh, you can hear it audibly,
but you can't hear it with hearing ears. That's the gift of God.
If you're dead, you can't smell the sweet savor of Christ. You
can't taste that the Lord is gracious. You're dead. You have not the ability to hear
the gospel. Dead in trespasses and sins. That's death. In Adam, all die. In Christ, shall all be made
alive. Now, the first time this word
life is used in the New Testament is when the Lord said, enter
ye in at the straight gate. For wide is the gate, and broad
is the way that leads to destruction, death, and many there be that
go in thereat. But straight is the gate, and
narrow is the way that leads to life, and few, few there be
that find it. Now we know that Christ is the
way. He's the straight way. And Christ
is the life. He said in John chapter 14, verse
six, I am, I love this verse of scripture. I wish I could
preach on this the way it ought to be preached on. I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. No man cometh through the Father
but by me. The Lord said in John chapter
5 verse 26, as the Father hath life in himself. You know what
that means? That means he doesn't need me
in you. He has independent life. He's not dependent the way you
and I are. You think about how dependent you are right now.
You know, God could kill you just like that right now. He'd
take away that life. He could make that heart. Think
how dependent you are for everything. Oh, we're such dependent creatures.
But the Father has life in himself. He has no needs. He's dependent
upon nothing. He has life in himself. As the
Father has life in himself, so has he given to the Son to have
life in himself. The Lord Jesus Christ, just like
his Father, has life in himself. Absolute independence. Listen to this scripture. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth
on him that sent me, hath, that means he's got it, hath everlasting
life. If you hear his word, you have
everlasting, eternal life, and shall not come into condemnation,
but is passed from death to life. There are people who have actually
passed from death to life, and it's because they have heard
his word. Now, if we're gonna have some
grasp of life, the life of God in the soul, the life of Christ
as my personal life before God, we're going to have to begin
in eternity, when there was no created life. And I like to,
I can't grasp it, I realize that, but I like to think about the
time when there was no time, and there was no created life. All there was, was the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit, worshiping one another, loving
one another, in perfect fellowship, absolute independence, and no
needs. Now during that time, turn with
me to Revelation 13, verse 8. and all that dwell upon the earth
shall worship him whose names are not written in the book of
life. The book of life of the lamb
slain from the very foundation of the world. Now, when there
was nothing but uncreated life, there was also the book of life. with some names written in it. And you know that this is the
book of God's elect. That's the names that are represented. Now look in Revelation 20 after
time is over. Here's another time when time
is over. There is no more time. Verse
11. And I saw a great white throne,
and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the
heaven fled away. And there was found no place
for them, and I saw the dead. I saw the dead, those who have
no life, small and great, stand before God. Now, obviously they
weren't physically dead at this time, but they were the dead,
weren't they? The dead, dead in trespasses and sins, dead
before God. And I saw the dead small and
great stand before God and the books were opened and another
book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were
judged out of those things which were written in the books according
to their works. Somebody says, why does God send
men to hell? Because of their works. because
of what they do. That's the reason. Verse 13,
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and
hell delivered up the dead which were in them. And they were judged
every man according to their works, and death and hell were
cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And
whosoever was not found in the book of life was cast. into the lake of fire. And this is the book of the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. Look in Revelation
21 verse 27. And there shall in no wise enter
into it anything, talking about heaven, There shall in no wise,
under no circumstance, enter into it anything that defileth,
neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie, but they which
are written in the Lamb's book of life. Now, when we talk about
life, here's where we're going to have to begin. The Lamb's
Book of Life. And you will remember that the
Lord said in his great high priestly prayer for his people in John
chapter 17 verse 2, thou hast given him power, authority over
all flesh. Now I want to remind you of this
fact, Christ has complete power over you. What's going to happen to you
is up to Him. Amen. What's going to happen
to you is up to Him. You're in His sovereign hands. And I love thinking about this.
I've said this several times in the last couple of weeks,
but I like saying it again. The sheep are His sheep. The
goats are His goats. He has sovereign rule over everybody. Thou has given him power over
all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as thou
has given him. And this is eternal life. Verse three, this is eternal
life that they might Know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus
Christ, whom thou hast sent. Now this is life. This is spiritual
life. Knowing God. Knowing Jesus Christ. Now I'm claiming to stand before
you saying, I know God. I know Him. And when I say I
know Him, I'm not just dropping His name. I know Him, and He
knows me. I know the Lord Jesus Christ,
and He knows me. Now, somebody says, how can I
know if I really know Him? How do I know I just don't merely
know things about Him? that I've been taught and that
I've heard preached and read. How can I know if I really know
Him? If you know Him, you will look
to Christ only, His life as your only life before God. That's
how you know if you know Him. If you know Him, The life of
Christ, everything concerning Christ is all you want to know. You want not your life to be
brought up on Judgment Day. You want the life of Christ to
be your life before God. And you don't want to look anywhere
else. Now, we read in Acts chapter
13, verse 48, as many as were ordained to eternal life. Anybody know the next word? believed. As many as were ordained
to eternal life, as many as had their names written in the Lamb's
book of life, as many as Christ gives eternal life to, as many
as were ordained to eternal life believed. Now, do you believe? Here's how you can know if you
have eternal life. I'm not asking if you believe you're saved or
if you believe you're a saint or if you believe you have eternal
life. Do you believe the gospel? Do
you believe that Jesus Christ really is the son of God? Do
you believe that he is all that's needed to make you perfectly
accepted before God? As many as were ordained to this
eternal life believed. Now, Christ himself is this life. He said, go and speak unto the
people all the words of this life. We read in John 1, 4, in
him was life, and the life, the life was the light of men. John 14, 6, I've already quoted
this. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. First John 1, 1, our hands have
handled of the word of life. For that life, that life was
manifested and we've seen and bear witness and shown to you
that eternal life. Jesus Christ himself is that
eternal life that was with the father and was manifest to us. Paul said, when Christ, our life
shall appear, then shall you appear with him in glory. Now people talk about living
the Christian life. I hear that a lot. How do I live
the Christian life? Now, Christ is the Christian
life. Let me repeat that. Christ is
the Christian life. That means his life. is my life
before God. Now, are you not concerned about
how you live your life? Well, sure I am. I want to live
on a way that honors Him, but no way of hands and butts, I
do. I want to live a way that's honoring Him. I love that scripture,
these things right unto you that you sin not. I love that scripture.
It's so plain. These things right unto you that
sin not. If that's what you want, how
you live the Christian life, sin not. Thank God, when you do,
we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And as far as people say, well,
we need to be taught to live, when it comes right down to it,
you already know how to live. Nobody needs to teach you how to live.
You know, you got to pay your bills. You ought to know you
ought to be good to your neighbor, kind to your neighbor. You already
know all that stuff. And I'm not saying that our lives
are not important. They are. They are. I'm not saying
that. But I am saying this. I realize
that I still have a life that hadn't changed a bit. And I'm just as evil as I ever
was. I haven't become better. I haven't
become more holy. I've still got a life that is
completely evil. But thank God I've got a life
that I didn't have before. God's given me life. And that's
the life that looks to Christ as my life before God. I really do. I look to Christ
as my life before God. When my name is called on Judgment
Day, here's what I'm hoping in. That the life of Jesus Christ,
the life of perfect obedience, is my life before God. I love it when he said to the
John the Baptist, thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. You see what Christ did? He did
as an us. When he kept the law, I kept
the law. His life is my life before God. I love what Paul said in Galatians
chapter 2 when he said, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. And the life that I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. And I was thinking about this.
Christ my life. This life. It's the life of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's my life before God. That's
my life before God. I couldn't help but remembering,
I don't know if any of y'all remember the movie Crocodile
Dundee. But there was a scene, She had found, I can't remember
what his first name was supposed to be, but she brought him back
to America to do some kind of news about him because of what
he was. And he was with this woman in downtown New York, and
a man came up to him and brought out this knife. And he said,
hand over your wallet. And the knife was probably like
that. You know, the blade was about like this. He said, hand
over your wallet. And the woman that was with him said, Give
him your wallet right now. He goes, what for? And she said,
he's got a knife. He said, that's not a knife.
This is a knife. Remember that? This is a knife. And then he started cutting up
all his clothes and everything and then runs. That's not it. That's not life. This is life. The life of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now this life, I want to say
some things about it. This life, first of all, is the
gift of God. You can have this life as a gift
if he gives it to you. He doesn't have to, but he loves
to give this gift. And there's really never anyone
who's asked for this gift that he said no to. If you ask that
Christ might be your life before God, listen to this scripture,
Romans chapter six, verse 23, the wages of sin is death. But the gift, the free gift of
God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. This is eternal life that they might know thee. The only true God and Jesus Christ
whom thou hast sent. Now, I would love to be able to convey
this the way I want to convey it. I'm not trying to live the
Christian life. My life is Jesus Christ. Do you know what that means? Do you know what it means to
stand before God and having only the life of the Lord Jesus Christ
as your life before Him? That is His gift. The wages of
sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus
Christ our Lord. And the reason I can face death
and judgment without fear. And you know, just the other
day I had some kind of pain and I thought, maybe I have cancer,
maybe I'll get to die, maybe I'll be rid of sin and stand
before God accepted. And I was just, I was excited
about the thought of it. Now I'm not saying you need to
be excited about dying. I mean, you got, particularly if you
got young children, you feel like you got, I wish I hadn't
said that. But I can stand before God without
fear, because my life before God is the life of the Lord Jesus
Christ. When he kept the law, I did as
well. When he died, I did as well. When he was raised, I was as
well. Now, this life that I'm speaking
of is the product of sovereign grace. Turn with me to Romans
chapter 5. Verse 20. Moreover, Romans chapter 5, verse
20. Moreover, the law entered. that
the offense might abound. Now, if you ever see what God's
law has to say, your only conclusion is the offense abounds in me. All I am, all I do is sin. It abounds in me. Somebody says,
well, now that you're saved, is it still like that? All the
law does is make the offense abound. What else? Isn't it a guide to
life? All the law does is make the offense abound. But where
sin abounded. Are you a place where sin abounds? Where sin abounded. Grace did
much more bound that as sin hath reigned unto death. Now, how
much reign does sin have? Well, what can you do to prevent
death? I'm never gonna die. Yeah, you
are. There's not a thing you can do to stop it. The day of
your death has already been marked out by God. The way you're gonna
die has already been marked out by God. And there's not a thing
you can do to prevent it. Why? Because of sin. Because
of sin, that's the only reason. Why do men die? Because of sin.
You know, I said that in a funeral once, and a funeral director
came up to me and said, I've never heard anybody say that. Well, it's true. Why do men die? Because of sin.
That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so in the same manner
might grace reign. That is where we get the term
sovereign grace. Grace reigns. What does that
mean? Grace reigns through righteousness,
the righteous life of Christ unto eternal life by Jesus Christ,
our Lord. Now, just as sin hath reigned
unto death, you can't prevent sin. Grace reigns unto righteousness. You can't prevent grace. You
see, God's grace is irresistible. It's invincible. If God doesn't
offer grace, he saves by grace. And you know where that ends?
Eternal life. The very righteousness of Christ
by Jesus Christ our Lord. Paul said in Romans chapter 5
verse 18, therefore as by the offense of one, judgment came
upon all men to condemnation, even so the righteousness of
one, the free gift came upon all men under justification of
life. Now notice the way these words
are used together, the justification of life. If Christ died for you,
the moment he died, your sin was paid for when he was raised
again you were justified and you have life before God. You see justification is not
just some doctrine you believe. Justification is life. Life before
God. Perfect life. The life of Jesus
Christ as my life before God. That's what justification is.
It means I've never sinned. means I'm not guilty, means I
have a holy and a perfect life. Who shall ascend in the hill
of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy
place? He that hath clean hands and
a pure heart that's never lifted up his soul to vanity, nor sworn
to the Lord deceitfully. That's me. If it's Christ, it's
me. It's called justification of
life. I love it when the Lord said in John, 8 verse 12, I am the light of the
world. He that followeth me or heareth
my voice shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
Now this was what he said right after he said to that woman who
was taken in adultery, woman, where are those thine accusers?
Hath no man condemned thee? No man, Lord, neither do I condemn
thee. Go and sin no more. I am the
light. I am the life as to how that
could happen. And because you're justified
and have this life before God, you know something about the law of life making you free
from the law of sin and death, the law of life. Now, there are
two words in our experience that are always associated with this
thing of having life. The first word is repentance. Acts 11, 18, then hath the Lord
granted to them repentance unto life. Now, when you have life,
here's one thing you sure enough do, you repent. What's that mean? It means to change your mind. Is that all? That's a whole lot. To change your mind, to change
your mind about God. You used to dislike the way you
saved sinners, you like it now. You change your mind about yourself.
You used to think that you had something to bring to the table.
Now you know you don't. You see yourself as nothing but
sin. You change your mind about salvation. Christ is salvation. He's all in salvation. And you
love it that way when you repent. You stay in this state of repentance. It's not a one-time thing. It's
so regrettable that preachers make repentance. Well, that means
repentance, if you repent of your sins, that means you're
really sorry and you don't commit them anymore. Well, I'm all for
being sorry for your sins and I'm all for not committing them
anymore. But how sorry is sorry enough? And
are there sins that you still commit that you used to commit
and you're still committing them? If that's what repentance is,
you've not repented. But thank God, repentance is
repentance with regard to this thing of how God saves sinners.
Everybody naturally thinks forgiveness is at the end of salvation. When you repent, you see salvation
begins with the complete, full forgiveness of sins. Repentance
unto life, and then there is faith. John 20, 31, these things
are written that you might believe that Jesus Christ is the Son
of God and that believing you might have life through his name. You believe him. You have life
through his name and Christ himself is the bread of life. He said,
except a man eat my flesh and drink my blood, he hath no life
in him. Christ himself, Christ crucified, is the sustenance
of my life. Hearing the gospel I'm preaching
right now, this is what I live on. This is the only thing that
satisfies me. This is the only thing I can
eat. I can't eat anything else. It's gotta be him only. Now,
I wanna close this message with these two scriptures. I'd like
you to turn with me. Turn to John chapter five. Verse 39, search the scriptures. And it actually can read, you
search the scriptures for in them, you think you have eternal
life. If I can just figure out this
book and do what this book tells me to do, I'll have eternal life. And that's really the way most
people look at the Bible. If I can just figure out how to
do what this book says to do, I'll have eternal life. And they are they, these scriptures
you're trying to figure out how you can have eternal life with,
they are they which testify of me. And you will not come to
me that you might have Life. Life is in Christ Jesus and nowhere
else. And he tells these people, you
will not come to me that you might have life. Now there's
life in Christ and there's life to all who come. If you come
to Christ, you'll have life. Somebody says, what's it mean
to come to Christ? How do I get to him? I mean, if he's in heaven,
how can I get to him? To believe on his name. That's
what it means to come to Christ. It means to believe Him. All
that the Father giveth me shall come to me. Him that cometh through
me I will in no wise for no reason cast out. You come to Christ
for salvation. You come to Christ for life. There's only life in Him. He
says you won't come to me for it. Now turn to Revelation 22. Verse 17. And the Spirit, God,
the Holy Spirit, and the bride say, Come. And this is what God
says. This is what the Spirit says.
This is what the church says. Come right now. It doesn't say
wait and get your life straightened out. It doesn't say wait until
you deal with this sin. It doesn't say wait until you
understand more. Wait until you have better experience.
No. The command of the gospel right now is come. There's not steps you got to
take. Come. And let him that heareth say
come. Come right now. Just as you are
to Jesus Christ, the Lord. Not putting any roadblocks, not
putting any need to do this. No, right now, come just as you
are and let him that is a thirst. Thirsty. If any man thirst, the
Lord said, if any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. Are you thirsty? Now you're only thirsty when
there's something you don't have and it's got to come from that
side of you. Thirsty. If any man thirsts, come. And look at this next statement,
and whosoever will. I'm so thankful for that. Whosoever
will. Do you want to? Do you want to
have his life as your life before God? Do you want for your name
to be called on judgment day and all there is is the perfect
life of Christ? Whosoever will. Now, God's command
to you is come right now. What if I'm not one of the elect?
You don't need to worry about it. You really don't. Are you
whosoever? Whosoever, whosoever will, let
him come and take the water of life, and there's only one condition,
freely. If you've got anything to bring,
you're disqualified. But if you have nothing, if you
have nothing to recommend yourself to God, you are called upon to
take this water of life freely. And if you have anything to bring,
you've disqualified yourself. Now, whosoever will, let him
come and drink this water of life freely. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. Lord, I'm calling on you to save
me. Lord, save me by your sovereignty.
Will my salvation. Save me by your love. Save me
by your justice. Save me by your power. When you
call upon the name of the Lord, you are calling upon all of his
attributes to save somebody who cannot save themselves. Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And they're
going to have life. life before God. Let's pray. Lord, we're calling upon thy
name to save us and to give us eternal life. And Lord, the only
life that we want to have before you is the life of the Lord Jesus
Christ as our life, as our righteousness before you. Lord, how we thank
you for his precious life, his perfect righteousness. Lord, enable us to believe. That's the gift of your grace.
In Christ's name, in Christ's life, we pray. Amen.