It's my prayer that the Lord
uses this message to make us true disciples of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Wouldn't that be something? Verse 35. Christ's first disciple. Again,
the next day after John stood and two of his disciples. And
looking upon Jesus. As he walked, he saith, Behold,
the Lamb of God, that's what we considered last week, the
Lamb of God's providing that is the message. Behold, the Lamb
of God. Verse 37, and the two disciples
heard him speak. They heard more than audibly,
they heard him speak in some powerful way, because look what
they did. And they follow Jesus. Isn't that what disciples do?
They follow Jesus. Verse 38. Then Jesus. Turned. Now, as I see this, our
Lord is walking. He's going in a certain direction.
And he heard something or saw something that caused him to
stop and turn. Do you know that there are only
seven times in the Scripture where the Lord has said to stop
and turn? And all of them are very, very significant. The first
time we read of Him stopping and turning is when that woman
came behind Him in the press to touch the hem of His garment.
That's all she wanted to do, to touch the hem of His garment.
And she reached out in her inability, in her weakness. She touched
His garment. And the Scripture says He turned
at that time and said, Who touched me? Now, He knew who touched
Him. He was going to use this to make this woman confess what
had happened to her. And then we read of the disciples
being angry at some people who wouldn't receive the Lord. And
they said, will thou that we command fire to come down from
heaven and kill them all the way Elijah did? And, you know,
the Lord turned at that time, the scripture says he rebuked
them. He rebuked them for thinking that way. He said, you don't
know what spirit you're of. And then we read of him rejoicing
in the spirit, in spirit, that the Lord had revealed the gospel
to his disciples, even though he had hid his gospel from they. And the scripture says he turned
toward them and said, blessed are the eyes which see the things
that you see. If you see the Gospel right now,
oh, how blessed are your eyes. And then there was one time the
Scripture says the multitudes followed him. He's walking on
his way and the multitudes are following him. And then he turns
and says, if any man will come after me. And if he doesn't hate his mother
and father and his wife and children, yea, and his own life also, if
he doesn't hate them, And you and I better find out what that
means. If he doesn't hate him, he cannot be my disciple. And then there's the time when
he tells his disciples that he's going to go and die on the cross,
and Peter said, not so, Lord. That's not going to happen to
you. Let's forget this business. And the scripture says the Lord
turned and he rebuked Peter. and said, Get thee behind me,
Satan. I think one of the most poignant
of these is when Peter was cursing and swearing, saying, I don't
know the man. I don't know, and he would not
confess Christ. And the scripture says the Lord
turned and looked at Peter. Can you imagine what must have
been in that look when he looked at Peter? He didn't expose him
at this time, but he looked at him. And then here in our text,
he turns toward these two, his first two disciples that were
following him. Aren't you interested in being
a disciple of Christ? I want to be his disciple, whatever
that means. And we're going to consider that.
I want to be his disciple. Now, we read in verse 38, then
Jesus turned and saw them following and saith unto them, What seek
ye? He asked him a question. What
are you seeking? Why are you following me? What
is it that you desire? Now, the Lord doesn't ask questions
to get information, does he? Lord knows what's in your heart
right now. He knows why you're here. He knows what you're seeking. He reads your very thoughts.
He knows them all together. The Lord never asks a question
for his own information. The Lord asks a question to reveal
something to us. And there is so much in his question. I think of some of the questions
that he asked. I think of the time those two
blind men came up to him and he said they were seeking their
sight. He said, do you believe that I'm able to do this? It's
a good question. Do you believe that he's able
to do this? Whatever it is. You're needing
you believe he's able to do this. I think of the question to Peter,
as he was sinking in the water, oh, you of little faith, why
do you doubt? Can you give a reason? Have I
given you a reason to doubt? I think of the question he asked
his disciples, if you'd be not able to do that which is least,
why take your thought to the rest? Why do you worry? If you're
not able to do that which is least, you can't add a minute
to your life. Why do you worry about anything? Those questions
are very revealing, aren't they? They reveal a lot to us. I think
of what he said to that impotent man. Will thou be made whole? That's a powerful question. Are
you willing to be made whole by a creative act of God? Are
you willing to be made whole? I think of what he said to the
blind man in John 9. Dost thou believe on the Son
of God? What a question. And then there's this question
in our text. These men have heard John preach and no doubt they're
impressed with what he says and they follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
And here our Lord is walking with these two following. Maybe
they felt very awkward. Maybe where is he going? I don't
know, but I'm going to follow him. They were impressed with
something. And he turns around and he says to them, what are
you seeking? What do you want? What do you
desire? What is the need you have for me? What is it that
you crave? What is it you want to inquire
of me? What are you seeking? You know
that question is pregnant with meaning, isn't it? What are you
seeking? And what are you seeking this
morning? What am I seeking this morning? What do we want? What
do we desire? Do you desire a word from God? Is that what you want? Are you
wanting to worship? Do you want to know what faith
is? Whatever it is, I'd like to know what it is. I'd like
to understand what faith is, what it is to walk with Christ.
Do you want to see the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you want to see Him
with the eyes of faith? Do you want to have fellowship with Him?
Do you want to know the living God? Do you need mercy? Do you need grace? Do you need God to do something
for you that you can't do for yourself? Do you need forgiveness? Do you desire to be saved from
your sins? What do you need from the Lord
Jesus Christ? Now you're seeking him because there's something
you need from him. What do you need from him? What seekest thou? What is it that you want? What
we are seeking tells so much about us. What seek ye? And they said unto him, in verse
38, Rabbi, which is to say, being interpreted as master, where
dwellest thou? Now, the way they addressed him
at this time, rabbi, makes me think that they didn't quite
know who he was just yet. Maybe they did, but I'm not sure
that they did, because when they come to the Lord, they come to
him as rabbi or master or teacher. Teacher. I want to be taught, don't get
me wrong, I want to be taught of God, don't you? But I don't so much come to him
as a teacher as I come to him as a Savior. Do you remember
when he was talking to Nicodemus and Nicodemus came to him by
night and he said, Teacher, Rabbi, Teacher, we know that you've
come from God. We'll give you that. For no man
can do the miracles you do except God be with him. Teacher, he
addressed him with some respect. And the Lord let him know, you
don't know a thing. You need to be born again. You don't need
a teacher. You need a Savior. You need somebody to do something
for you. So this makes me think that when they're following the
Lord, they're not yet convinced of who he is. They just address
him as teacher. But they ask a very important
question. They said in verse 38, they said unto him, Rabbi,
which is to say being interpreted master, where dwellest thou? Where do you dwell? Now, this
doesn't mean what your address, what house do you live in? I'm
sure it can be included, but that's not really what he's asking.
He's not just asking what's your address so we know where you
live. Here's what we want to know. Where can we be assured
to find you when we seek you? Where do you abide? Where do
you remain? Where is it that we can always
find you when we're seeking you? Where is it that you dwell? Where can you be found by those
who seek you? And I want to try to answer that
question in the scriptures. Where does he dwell? Now, I'm
going to assume that everybody in this room is here because
you really want to hear from Christ. You want to see him.
You want to know him. You want to believe on him. If
you don't believe on him, you'd like to learn what it is to believe
on him. You want to know what it is to come to Christ. You
want to know where does he dwell? Where can I find him? If I'm
seeking him, where can I find him? Well, let me answer that
in four or five different ways. First, He is found in this book. He said to the Pharisees, you
search the scriptures and in them, in the scriptures, you
think you have eternal life. You think if I can just figure
out how to do what this book says to do, I'll have eternal
life. He says, you've missed the point. They are they which
testify of me. Now, Christ Jesus, the Lord,
is found in this book, this is the inspired Word of God. Now, if we don't have that, what
do we have? We have my opinion and your opinion. And how much
value is there in that? None. None. He's found in His Word. If you want to find the Lord
Jesus Christ, well, you ought to be encouraged right now because
He can be found by His grace in this book. This is where He
makes Himself known. Where can I find the Lord Jesus
Christ? Well, I can tell you where He
is right now. He's right now seated at the right hand of the Father,
ruling and reigning. That's what the Scripture says.
When He had by Himself purged our sins, He sat down at the
right hand of God. Now, I don't know what all that
imagery means, but I know this. He's reigning and ruling and
controlling at the right hand of God. So if you want to find
the Lord Jesus Christ, you find out where it is He controls.
Where does He control? He controls everything. Everything that happens,
you could say the Lord did that. The Lord's been here. He's in
control of it. That's the sovereign Lord Jesus Christ. You find him
in what he controls and you find him dwelling in the hearts of
his people. Ephesians 317 says Christ dwells in your hearts
by faith. Christ in you, the hope of glory.
That means I can find Christ where I can find his people.
That's where he is. Where does he dwell? He can be
found in public worship. He said, now listen to this.
He said in Matthew chapter 18, where two or three are gathered
together in my name, there I am in the midst of them. That's
why what we're doing right now is so important. This is public
worship where he makes himself known. That's his purpose. He
said, there I am in the midst of them. The Lord has promised
to be here this morning. Now, if you're going to find
him, you're going to find him where his people meet together in public
worship. There's something special about
public worship. There's something powerful about public worship.
It's so important. He said where two or three talk
about public worship are gathered together in my name. There I
am in the midst of them. He dwells in the person who eats
his flesh and drinks his blood by faith. He said in John 6,
he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me, and
I in him. He dwells in the preaching of
the gospel. He's dwelling in what we're doing right now. Christ
is preached. Now, do you want to know where
you can find him? Do you want to know where he dwells? That's
what they wanted to know. Where dwellest thou? Where can we find
you? And I love the Lord's answer.
Look in verse 39. He saith unto them, Come and see. Come and see for yourselves.
Come and see. Now, I dislike the term personal
Savior. You ever hear people say, won't
you accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior? I dislike that
so much because He's the Savior, whether He's your personal Savior
or not, for one reason. He is the Savior. And really,
when we make a statement like that, we're putting the wrong
emphasis on things. The Lord Jesus Christ is not
up for your acceptance or rejection. He's not up for your vote. He's
the Savior. He's the Lord. He's who he is.
And it's not up to whether you accept him or reject him. And
as far as that goes, the question is not, will you accept Jesus?
That's not the issue. The issue is, will he accept
you? That's the only issue. I mean, it's almost arrogant
and rude. Personal saviour. You know when
I identify a limb to somebody. This is my personal wife. I mean,
people think, well, he's strange. What's he saying something like
that? He's the saviour. And he's the saviour whether
he's my personal saviour or not. Now, in that sense, I don't like
this word personal. But yet the Lord says to them,
come and see. What he's saying is, see for
yourself. There is such a thing as personal faith. You come and
see for yourself where I dwell. Taste for yourself and see that
the Lord is gracious. Now, I can describe the taste
of... What's my favorite pie? I'd say
banana cream pie. There's a lot of pies I like,
but I like that one a lot. If you ever want to make me a
pie, make me a banana cream pie. I can describe the taste of that. And I can get some good descriptions,
but you know what? It's just going to be words to
you unless you taste for yourself. I can describe brilliantly. But
you won't know what it tastes like until you taste for yourself. Oh, taste and see that the Lord
is gracious. Taste for yourself. I want to
try just for a few moments to give you my personal testimony.
Here's my personal testimony. I've tasted that the Lord is
gracious. I'm giving testimony to you.
I'm not just talking about something I've read. I'm talking about
something that as God is my witness, it dwells in my heart right now.
I trust, I am relying upon the Lord Jesus Christ right now.
And I really believe this. I really believe that His righteousness,
His personal obedience, that perfect obedience that He worked
out as He walked upon this earth, that obedience is my righteousness
before God. I really believe that. And I
can't express to you the joy and the peace I feel from knowing
that it doesn't have anything to do with me. It's His righteousness. I love that. What joy I have
in hearing His last words from the cross when I read these words.
It is finished. That means my salvation's already
finished. The pressure's off. You know, when I think of that,
when I'm stressed, my body relaxes. It's finished. There's nothing
for me to do. Everything that God requires
of me, I have in the Lord Jesus Christ. I get such joy from that. Do you know there's joy in walking
by faith? Do you know there's nothing that this world has to
offer that compares to the Lord Jesus Christ? I'm not saying
that. I really believe it. There's
nothing. I don't care what this world has to offer. There's nothing
that can be compared to Christ. He's the fairest of 10,000. Oh,
the Bride and Morning Star. No one can compare to Him. I
believe that, and you can listen to me say you believe that, but
you know the only way you're really going to enter into it
is if you believe yourself, is if you trust in yourself. If
you trust the Lord Jesus Christ yourself, you know something
of the peace I'm talking about. If you know what it is to know
that everything God requires of you, He looks to His Son for,
you really find that precious blood is precious indeed. It
puts away all... That's why I'm talking about
faith. That's my testimony. That's all I'm going to say. Christ
Jesus is my salvation and what joy and peace I have in looking
to Him. The only way you can experience
that joy and peace is if you personally trust Christ for yourself. Not because your mom and dad
do. Young people. What a blessing you have that
your parents bring you to hear the Gospel. But it's not going
to do you a bit of good unless you personally trust Christ yourself. as you're all in salvation. Would you turn with me for a
moment to Psalm 34? While you're turning there, let
me say this. Even in my joy and sorrow, when I'm talking about
rejoicing and having peace and so on, that doesn't mean there
isn't a lot of things all the time that's grieving me. All
the time there's something grieving. I have sorrow. I have trial,
just like you do. Every one of us do. But you know,
even in the midst of that sorrow and trial, there's a peace in
believing. I've got a joy and peace even
when everything is going terrible. I've got a joy and peace. And
the only way you'll know anything about that is if you trust Christ
yourself. Now, this Psalm 34 is that passage
of scripture where where David said, oh, taste and see that
the Lord is gracious. I'd like us to look at this whole
song for just a moment. Psalm 34. David's giving his
testimony and he says, I will bless the Lord at all times.
His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall
make her boast in the Lord. The humble shall heal thereof
and be glad. He says, Oh, magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt
his name together. I sought the Lord and he heard
me. Now, remember, he's giving his testimony. He delivered me
from all my fears. They looked unto him and were
lightened and their faces were not ashamed. This poor man cried
and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.
The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him,
and delivereth them. Oh, taste and see for yourself
that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in him." And if you've not tasted, you can't know that the Lord's
good. Until you've trusted, you'll have no idea what I'm talking
about. The Lord says, come and see for yourself. Let's go on
reading. Oh, fear that verse nine. Oh,
fear the Lord, ye his saints, for there's no want in him to
fear him. The young lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they
that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing. I appeal
to your selfish motives. If you trust the Lord, you won't
want any good thing. And the thing is, you and I don't
have enough sense to know what's good for us, but thank God he
does. And you're not going to lack anything in trusting the
Lord. Come ye children, hearken unto me, I'll teach you the fear
of the Lord. What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many
days, that he may say good? Well, keep your tongue from evil,
and your lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil, and do good.
Seek peace, and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are upon
the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry. But the face
of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance
of them from the earth. The righteous cry, and the Lord
heareth, and delivereth him out of all their troubles. The Lord
is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, And he say the
such as be of a contrite spirit. Many of the afflictions of the
righteous were not denying those, but the Lord delivered him out
of them all. He keepeth all his bones, not one of them is broken.
Evil shall slay the wicked. He keepeth all. But let me let
me go back there. Who's that talking about? It's talking about the
Lord Jesus Christ and the reason we have all these blessings are
because of union with Christ. When it's talking about him,
it's talking about us to talk. There's a direct reference to
Christ, yet it's talking about us also. He keepeth all his bones,
not one of them is broken. Evil shall slay the wicked, nay,
that hate the righteous shall be desolate. The Lord redeemeth
the soul of his servants, and none of them that trust in him
shall be desolate. Now you taste and see that the
Lord is gracious. Where dwelleth thou? Come and
see. Back to our text in John 1. Scripture says, he said to them,
come and see. And I love this. They came and
saw where he dwelt and abode with him that day, for it was
about the tenth hour. And can you imagine what a day
that was? They followed him and they sat down and they listened
to him and they abode with him that day. And what a day. They never had a day like that
day. They had fellowship with the Son of God. What a day that
must have been. And let's go on reading. Now here's what it was they saw
and learned when they abode with him. Verse 40 and 41, one of
the two of them which heard John speak and followed him was Andrew,
Simon Peter's brother. He first findeth his own brother
Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messiah which
is being interpreted. the Christ. Now, here's what
they found in following Christ and abiding with him that day.
He goes back and finds his brother and he says, we found the Christ. We found the Messiah, which is
being interpreted the Christ. Now, did Andrew believe when
he saw Christ as a teacher? I don't know. He maybe maybe
did. Maybe did. I don't know. But
I know this. He believed now. After this time of abiding with
the Lord Jesus Christ, he believed now. He believed that Jesus was
the Christ. Now, I want to quote a scripture
to you from 1 John 5, verse 1. It says, Whosoever believeth
that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. Now, I'm not going to
qualify that. I want to take it just as it
stands. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. Now, whatever it means to believe
on Christ or believe that He is the Christ, if you do believe
He is the Christ, that passage of Scripture says you're born
of God. You've been the subject. You've
been the object of God's all-powerful working. He birthed you into
His kingdom. He gave you life. You have spiritual
life if you really believe that Jesus is the Christ. Now, here's
the big question. What's it mean to believe that
Jesus is the Christ? What is this thing of Christ all about,
believing that Jesus is the Christ? Christ is not the last name of
Jesus. Jesus Christ, Todd Nyberg, Jesus
Christ, that's not his last name. Jesus is his name. Christ is
his work. It's his office. He's the sent
one of God. That's what it means, the anointed
of God, the sent one of God. Anyone who really believes that
he's God's anointed, they're born of God. I don't care what
else you say about them. If they believe that Jesus is
the Christ, they're born of God. What does that mean? In the Old
Testament, oil was used to anoint God's anointed. And only three
types of people were ever anointed in the Old Testament. And this
is what the Christ means or the Messiah means God's anointed,
the one who God has put his hand on and commissioned and he's
sent from God. It's the sent one of God. There
are only three types of people in the Old Testament who were
anointed. They were God's prophets. God's priests. And God's king. These were the only three type
of people that were anointed, God's prophets, God's priests
and God's kings. And this is very important. I
hear preachers say, I've got an anointing. And I hear people
say, come here, this anointed person or this anointed savior,
you know, that gives me the creeps when I say that. Anointed. I know one who is anointed. The Lord Jesus Christ is God's
anointed. He is the anointed one of God,
and to believe that he's the Christ is believing he is God's
anointed prophet, he's God's anointed priest, and he's God's
anointed king. What's a prophet? A prophet is somebody who brings
men a word from God. I believe that Jesus Christ is
God's anointed prophet. He is the one who brings us the
Word from God, and I believe it is God's Word. This is not
just some man's opinion. This is not some church's or
denomination's opinion. This is the Word of God. Christ
Jesus is the Word of God. All that God is is expressed
in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you want to know what is in
God's mind, if you want to know what He's really like, if you
want to know His true character when He speaks, you know what
word comes out? Christ Jesus. He is God's anointed
prophet. The Gospel, the message of the
Gospel, the message of this book is God's Word. No error. I'm talking about the
Gospel. This message, it's the Word of God. There's no error
in it. It's the very truth of God. And I believe, from the
very depths of my heart, I believe that He is God's prophet. He's
the one who makes known the Word of God. He is the Word of God.
Do you believe that? Do you believe He is the Word
of God? What about God's priest? Remember,
God's priest was anointed. A prophet brings us a word from
God. What's a priest? What does he
do? A priest represents men to God. Christ Jesus is God's anointed
priest. There are men who claim to be
priests. It's a disgrace. There's one priest. He is God's
anointed priest. You know what a priest does?
He brings us to God. Now, do you believe that Jesus
Christ, if he's your priest, do you believe that God must
hear what he has to say when he represents you? What about
the sacrifice the priest offers up? Do you believe that the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ Because He's God's sent priest, God's
sent Savior. The sacrifice of the Lord Jesus
Christ actually is enough to put away all your sins to where
you don't need anything else but what He did to make you holy
in God's sight. Do you believe that? Do you believe
that He is God's priest and everybody He represents must be saved? Do you really believe that? Do
you believe that? Are you relying on that? I'm not just talking
about giving cognitive acknowledgment for it. I mean, are you relying
on the fact that He's God's prophet? He's God's priest? Do you believe
that? In the Old Testament, when a new king was declared, he was
anointed with oil. The one who rules and reigns.
Do you believe that Jesus Christ is God's king? Do you believe
that He's the Lord? That He's in control of Everything
that he rules and reigns. Do you believe really? Do you
really believe that he's the king? Do you really believe that
he's the first cause behind everything? You're in his hands and so is
everybody else and he's just in absolute control. Do you believe
that? Do you believe he's God's anointed king? Now, this is what
faith is. This is what they came to find
out when they abode with him. They found out that he is God's
anointed, God's prophet who brings the word to us, God's priest
who represents us and affectionately saves us, God's king who rules
over everything. So Andrew comes and finds his
brother Peter. He says, we found the Christ,
which is being interpreted the Messiah. Turn with me to Matthew
chapter 16 for a moment. I'll look at a couple of passages
of scripture regarding this. And this is what faith is. If
you want to know what faith is, you're going to learn something
this morning. Verse 13. When Jesus came into the coast
of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do
men say that I, the son of man, am? What's their opinion of me?
What do they have to say about me? And they said, Say that thou
art John the Baptist. Some Elias and others, Jeremiah
is one of the prophets. They say good things about you.
Now, in reality, they weren't, because that's not who he is.
But they put him in some pretty high cotton, didn't they? I mean,
they say good things about you. They put you with some pretty
stellar people. Verse 15, He saith unto them,
But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and
said, Thou art the Christ. The Son of the Living God. This is the one issue between
you and God. What do you think of His Son?
That's the one issue. What do you believe regarding
Him? Peter said, Thou art God's anointed
prophet. Thou art God's anointed priest. Thou art God's anointed king. Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the Living God. And he said, Blessed art thou,
Simon Bar-Jonah, flesh and blood didn't reveal this to thee, but
my father, which is in heaven. Now turn over to John, chapter
six. Now, the Lord had preached this
message in John, chapter six, I can't wait to get there. I'm
trying to preach to John right now. We'll get there sometime.
But he preached this message and all of his hearers and he
had performed miracles for these years and they were enabled to
to eat food that had that that the Lord created. I mean, they
didn't have anything to eat. He created food and they were impressed
with this. They wanted to follow him around. They were they were
impressed with his miracles. But he brought a message that
made every single one of them believe it. They didn't like
what he had to say. Now, let's begin in verse. Sixty
four, but there's some of you that believe not, he said, for
Jesus knew from the beginning who they were, that believe not
and who should betray. And he said, therefore, said unto you
that no man can come to me. except it were given unto him
of my Father. I think that's interesting. These people who
didn't believe and they were objecting to what he said, he said, fellas,
you guys ain't able to believe. You are unable, you don't, you
lack the ability to believe. No man can believe on me, except
it were given him of my Father. And you know that's the truth,
don't you? You can't even believe unless he gives you the faith.
Well, look what it says in verse 66. From that time, many of his
disciples went back. and walk no more with him. They
were his disciples temporarily. But after that, they didn't like
what he had to say, so they left him. Then said Jesus unto the
twelve. Will you also go away? You fellas
want to leave? There's the door. You know, the
Lord's not going to have any unwilling disciples. If you want to leave,
there's the door. Then Simon Peter answered him,
Lord, To whom shall we go? If we did leave, where would
we go? Back to the law? Back to our works? Where would
we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. These words that they've rejected you for and they've
left, I don't find them words offensive. They're words of eternal
life. Verse 69, And we believe and
are sure that thou art that Christ. God's anointed, God's sent one. We believe and are sure that
thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. Do you believe
what Peter believed? Now, you right now, you can answer
that with a yes or no. Do you believe that he's God's
prophet? Do you believe that he's God's priest? And if you
believe he's God's priest, you believe that his sacrifice must
be effectual. It must be successful. He must save everybody who he
represents. Do you believe he's king? Do
you really believe that he's ruling and reigning right now and controlling
everything? Do you believe that? Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. That's what the Bible says. That's
what faith is. Do you believe that? Then you've
been born of God. God's done something for you. Quit doubting
it. If you believe that, God's done
something for you. And I'm not going to try to qualify
that, yeah, but if it, no. Whoso believe that Jesus is the
Christ, they're born of God. Now I want to end this message
by looking at a passage from Ephesians chapter 4. I want to
tell you two things that will be true of you. If you really
believe that he's the Christ. Ephesians, chapter four. We read beginning in verse thirty
one at the end of the chapter, Ephesians, chapter four. He says, let all bitterness and
wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from
you with all malice. And be ye kind one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's
sake hath forgiven you. Now, what I want to zero in on
is this phrase for Christ's sake. Do you believe that Jesus is
the Christ? Now, let's talk about this statement for Christ's sake
for just a moment. Here's the first thing I want
to say about this. If you believe that He's the
Christ, that means that you believe that salvation and every aspect
of salvation is holy for Christ's sake. You really believe that
God's salvation, what God does for you, is not His response
to you. It's not him responding to your
faith. It's not him responding to your repentance. It's not
him responding to your works. You really believe that it's
his response to Christ. He saves you for Christ's sake,
not for your sakes, not because of something you've done or not
because of something you believe. He does it simply for Christ's
sake. Do you believe that? Do you believe
that God forgives you not because You're sorry, not even because
you've asked Him to. He forgives you for Christ's
sake. And the reason you ask Him to
is because He forgives you for Christ's sake. Do you believe
that? Now, I'm here to tell you right
now, I do believe that. I really believe salvation is only for
Christ's sake. It's all of His grace. Now, if you believe that
He's the Christ, you'll believe salvation is for Christ's sake.
Now, here's the next thing I want to say, and it's just as important. For Christ's sake, we'll have
all power over your life. It will cause you to do what
this verse says. It will cause you to forgive
somebody. And be kind and tender hearted for Christ's sake, not
because they deserve it or earn it or because you have, but you
do what you do for Christ's sake. It'll make you lose your life.
For his sake. It'll cause you to deny yourself
to take up your cross and follow him and count it a privilege. For his sake. It will cause you
to do things that nobody will understand, and people will consider
you weird and fanatical. But you'll do it for His sake. For Christ's sake has all power
in your life. It doesn't matter what it is.
For His sake, you'll do it. Not to earn salvation, you do
it for His sake, because the love you have to Him, the esteem
you have for Him. You know, I've read of men who
for Christ's sake, have moved into leper colonies and become
lepers in order to preach the gospel to those people. And they
did it for Christ's sake. There are men who have willingly
been burned at the stake. Why? Is it because they thought
they'd earn a higher reward in heaven? No. They did it for Christ's
sake. Christ's sake. For Christ's sake.
That has a power over a believer that nothing else does. We do
what we do for his sake. Paul said, we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus, the Lord, and ourselves, your servants for
Jesus sake. Now, if you believe. That he's
the Christ. And remember who so believed
that Jesus is Christ, he born of God. If you believe that Jesus
is the Christ, that means you really believe. that he's God's
anointed prophet, God's anointed priest, God's anointed king,
must be successful in all he does, and you're relying on him,
you believe he's God's Christ. And you believe that salvation
is holy for his sake. You really believe that? And
for his sake, whatever it takes, you'll do it. Obedience is not
optional to him. What power this has for Christ's
sake. Do you believe that Jesus is
the Christ? Then you are one of His disciples. That's what a disciple of Christ
is. He believes that Jesus is the Christ. Let's pray together.