in the Gospel of John chapter
5. I just want to read one verse.
I want to look at the context of this verse, but I want to
mainly dwell and think with you this morning on, Verily, verily,
I say unto you. And let's read that verse again.
John's Gospel chapter 5 and verse 24. Verily, verily, I say unto
you. He that heareth my word, and
believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall
not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life."
This word, verily, is used many, many times in the gospel. As
a matter of fact, I looked them up. Matthew's Gospel, our Lord
Jesus used this word 32 times when He spoke. In Mark's Gospel,
it's used 15 times. In Luke's Gospel, it's used 8
times. And in John's Gospel, he doubles
this, verily, and says verily, verily. And he uses that 25 times
in this little epistle of John. a book of John alone, and every
time, without one single exception, it's the Lord Jesus Christ speaking.
He has a peculiar way of speaking. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
I don't talk like that. I'd be afraid to talk like that.
The prophets never talked like that. The apostles never talked
like that. None of the writers or preachers
in the Old or New Testament that we read talk like that. It's unique to the Son of God. Several places in the New Testament
epistles, this word is used. Another word is used for it,
but it's the very same word. Paul used it often. Peter used
it. John used it. And Jude used it.
But it's the Amen. Very same word. And they use
it to affirm a truth that's just been stated. They'll make this
wonderful statement and they'll close it with, Amen. Verily, verily. The difference
between them and our Lord was they closed what they said with
this word. He began with it. Listen to some
of the places where the apostles used it in the Old Testament.
For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things, to
whom be glory for ever. Amen. Verily, same word. To God only wise be glory through
Jesus Christ for ever. Amen. Verily. And to him be glory
in the church by Jesus Christ throughout all ages, world without
end. Amen. Now to the King eternal,
immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory
for ever and ever. Amen. Behold, he cometh with
clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced
him, and the kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him,
even so. Amen. Verily, verily. So they used this word, but not
like Christ used it. When he used it, it's verily,
or verily, verily. The word itself means truly,
or surely, or amen, or trustworthy, or truth, or fact, or certainty. And I like it when John doubles
this. And therefore, we could say when
we read verily, verily, surely, surely. or truly, truly, or amen,
amen, trustworthy, trustworthy, certain, certain, certain, fact,
truth. I love that, don't you? It's
a word used to express utmost confidence in what's about to
be said. Every time it's used in the Gospels,
every time without one single exception. It's followed by this
word, I say unto you. Truly, truly, verily, verily,
I say unto you. This word is given to express
the absolute fact, the absolute truth of what's ready to be spoken. And I think it's very telling
that in Revelations 3, In verse 14, our Lord Jesus uses this
very word to describe Himself. Listen to this. Unto the angel
of the church of the Odysseans write, These things saith the
Amen. Very same word. These things
saith the verily, verily, the faithful and true witness. Well, no one or nobody else ever
used the word then. We're not allowed to, are we?
It describes our Lord Jesus Christ. When the Pharisees sent soldiers
to arrest our Lord Jesus, they went and heard him preach and
they never arrested him. They came back to the Pharisees
and the Pharisees said, why haven't you brought him? And they said,
never a man speak like this man. He don't speak like the other
man did. And one of the reasons he didn't,
because he used this word, verily, verily, I say unto you. I tell you, when he says it,
when he says it, that ends all doubt, doesn't it? When he says
it, the issue is settled. All doubt is dispelled when he
says it. It means something when he speaks.
It always means something when Jesus Christ speaks. But I'm
telling you, when he uses this verily, verily, it really captures
our attention. It meant something to Nicodemus.
When he said, verily, verily, I say unto you, Nicodemus, you
must be born again. He never could get away from
that until finally it converted his soul. Verily, verily, I say
unto you. Why does our Lord use this kind
of language verily, verily? Well, it's not because He has
to. I mean, if He just says, I say unto you, that settles
the issue, doesn't it? I want you to look with me. Hold
your texts, because we'll be coming back there in just a minute.
But look over in Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 5. Matthew's Gospel,
Chapter 5. All our Lord has to do To settle
every issue and answer every question and dispel every doubt
is simply to say, I say unto you, and that's enough. Here
in Matthew's Gospel chapter 5 in verse 21 through verse 24, the
Lord makes this statement several times, I say unto you. And there's a reason he made
that statement like that. The Jews put a lot of emphasis
upon the works of the flesh, what people could see them doing,
giving, praying, fasting. And they put little or no emphasis
upon the heart. Well, the Lord reversed all of
that. He went past what men could see and dealt with the very attitude
of the heart. And when He said, I sinned to
you, He correct the error that they had been taught years before
this. Let me give you some examples
of this. Look in Matthew chapter 5 and look in verse 21. You have heard that it was said
by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill. That is, you shall
not do any murder. And whosoever shall kill shall
be in danger of the judgment. And the Jews said, you're not
guilty of any sin unless you physically kill someone. The
Lord is going to correct that thinking. He's going to correct
that error. And here's the way He does it
in verse 22. But I say unto you, is that enough
for you? When He says that, is that enough?
Does that settle the issue? It makes your ear perk up, doesn't
it? You've heard people before me teach you and tell you something
that's not true, and I'm going to tell you what the truth is.
I said to you that whosoever is angry with his brother without
a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whosoever shall
say to his brother Racca shall be in danger of the counsel.
But whosoever shall say thou fool shall be in danger of hell
far. What is murder? It's hatred that's
unjustified. It's hating someone without a
cause. How do we know that? How do we
know that to be angry with somebody is sin? Because Jesus Christ
said it was. That settles it, doesn't it?
Look down in chapter 5 and look in verse 27. You have heard that
it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery. Go out on your wife. Don't go
out on your husband. Be faithful. Be faithful to what
you promised them you would be until death do us part. Don't
put away your wife. Don't put away your husband.
But look at this in verse 28. But I say unto you that whosoever
looketh on a to lust after her, have committed adultery with
her already in his heart." A look of lust is sin. How do we know
that? I say unto you, that settles
the issue, doesn't it? Look what he says in chapter
5 and look in verse 31. It hath been said, Whosoever
shall put away his wife, let him give her a written of divorcement. But I say unto you, that whosoever
putteth away his wife, except for the cause of fornication,
causeth her to commit adultery, and whosoever shall marry her
that is divorced, committeth adultery." Boy, we just got divorces
everywhere today, haven't we? And you know why people do it
without feeling condemned about it? Because they do not believe
the Lord Jesus Christ. Why can't I divorce my wife?
Why can't I leave my husband? Why can't I get married again?
Because he said. Is that enough? That's enough,
isn't it? Look down in verse 33. Again,
you have heard it has been said by them of old time, thou shalt
not swear falsely or swear thyself, but thou shalt perform unto the
Lord thine oath. That's what they said of old
time. But I say unto you, swear not at all. Neither by heaven,
for it is God's throne, nor by earth, for it is His footstool,
neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.
Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou cannot make
one hair white or black. Let your communication, your
words, be yea, yea, and nay, nay, for whatsoever cometh more
than these cometh of evil." Look at verse 38. You have heard that
it has been said that an eye for an eye and a tooth for a
tooth. If somebody slaps you, slap them
back. Somebody knocks out your tooth,
knock out their tooth. If somebody steals something
from you, you steal it back. But I say unto you that you resist
not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek,
turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee
at the law, and take away your coat, let him have your cloak
also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go among, go with him
too. In verse 43, Ye have heard that
it been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine
enemy. But I say unto you, Love your
enemies, bless them that curse you, and do good to them that
hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute
you." Well, the Lord corrects us, doesn't He? And all He has
to do is just speak to our conscience, to our hearts. And when He speaks
to our hearts and says, I say unto you, that's enough to correct
us. I say unto you, you've been thinking
wrong. Truth, Lord. Lord, thank you
for correcting me. The attitude of your heart's
wrong. Truth, Lord. That's right, Lord. Give me grace
to repent, Lord. You've been acting wrong. You've
been doing wrong. Truth, Lord. I tell you, when
the Lord speaks to us and says, I say unto you, that's enough
to correct us, isn't it? I had a man to call me one day
and talk to him for a while. And he called me and he said,
Bruce, I don't believe in eternal punishment
anymore. I just don't believe a just God
would punish anybody for all eternity for their sins. I just
can't believe that anymore. He acted like he was the only
one that ever had any problem with that. Do you ever have any
problem with that? I do. I really do. It's amazing to me how somebody
could live in this world for 15 years or 965 years and die in their sins and God
send them to hell and punish them forever. You think that
is not a hard doctrine? But I believe it with all my
heart. And the only reason I believe
it is because Jesus Christ said it. I cannot comprehend it. It is somewhat repulsive to me. God must be holy. Sin must be
awful. That He would do that, but He
will do that because Jesus Christ said, I say unto you. You want to see that in this
text? Look over in Matthew chapter 5 again and look in verse 25. Agree with your adversaries quickly
while you are in the way with Him. And some says this is God
Himself. This is the law of God. lest
at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge
deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison."
And the prison he's talking about here is hell. "'Verily I say
unto thee, thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast
paid the uttermost fine.'" How long will it take a man to pay
for his sins in hell? He never will pay for them. The
Lord Jesus said you'll not come out of that pit, that prison,
until you have paid your debt. And it's impossible to pay for
sin, isn't it? Look what he said in verse 29.
If your eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee.
For it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should
perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. So when the Lord Jesus Christ
says, I said to you, boy, that's enough.
That's correction. That's instruction. Enough. You and I are living in a day
when the attitude of so many people is somewhat like the attitude
in the book of Judges. They did what was right. in their
own eyes. And you talk especially to the
young people, the teenagers, and the twenty-somethings and
the thirty-somethings of our day, and they will just flatly
tell you, nobody has the right to tell me what's right and what's
wrong. Nobody has the right to tell
me what I should believe and what I should not believe. Nobody
has the right to tell me what the truth is and what a lie is.
I'll figure that out for myself. But Christ has that right. And
all He has to do when He speaks to you, His child, is just to
say, Verily, verily, I say unto you. Why does the Lord then,
if it's enough for Him to say, I say unto you, why does He use
this word, verily, verily? Well, turn back over to our text
in John, and let's see why he uses these words. He uses them
three times here in the book of John. I want to look at two
of them. Here in John chapter 5, in verse 15, he uses this
word, verily, verily, to establish his equality with the Father,
his oneness with the Father. Look what he says in verse 15. The man departed, the crippled
man that the Lord had given his health to, and told the Jews
that it was Jesus that had made him whole. And therefore did
the Jews persecute Jesus and sought to slay him, because he
had done these things on the Sabbath day. But Jesus answered,
said, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Therefore the Jews
sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken
the Sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself
equal with God." Now the Jews counted this to be blasphemy.
Because here was a man, had no place to lay his head, from Galilee,
and he was professing to be the eternal Son of God. And they
picked up stones to stone him with. He is going to prove to
them that He is one with the Father. He is equal to the Father. And notice how He says it in
verse 19, Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what
He saith the Father doeth. For what things soever He doeth,
these also doeth the Son likewise. This is a very complicated verse,
isn't it? And at first you would think
he was saying, the Father created the world, and so I saw him do
that, so I created the world. But that's not what he's saying.
What he's teaching here is what the Father does, the same things
the Son does. God the Father created a universe. Jesus Christ created the same
universe. They're one. They're one in their
essence, their nature, and they're one in their work. When the Lord
Jesus Christ healed somebody, it was God the Father who healed
them. When the Lord Jesus cleansed
the leopard, it was God the Father cleansing the leopard. When He
raised the dead, it was God the Father who raised the dead. They're
one, and what one does, the other does. The Lord Jesus said, I
can do nothing of myself. for what I see the Father do.
There is a passage here in the 14th chapter of John. Hold this
and look in the 14th chapter, which the Lord Jesus really cleared
this up to His apostles. In John's Gospel chapter 14,
and look in verse 8. John 14, 8. Philip said unto
Him, Lord, show us the Father. And that will satisfy us. Jesus
said unto him, Have I been so long with you, and yet thou hast
not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen
the Father. And how saith thou then, Show
us the Father? Believest thou not that I am
in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak
unto you I speak not of myself, but the Father which dwelleth
in me He doeth the works. Who is doing the works? Is it
the Father or is it the Son? It's both of them. It's both
of them. The Father doesn't do anything
apart from the Son. The Son does nothing apart from
the Father. They're one, aren't they? And
when He said to those Jews, Verily, verily, I say unto you, listen
to what I'm ready to tell you. I am one with my Father. Look back over at our text again.
He not only proved that he was one with his Father,
doing the very same works that the Father did. Look what he
proves in verse 20. For the Father loveth the Son,
and showeth him all things that himself doeth, and he will show
him greater works than these that you may marvel. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, the Father loves the Son, and shows him
all things that himself doeth." I was studying this passage,
and I don't know how many times I just bowed my head and said,
Lord, I don't understand what this is saying. Lord, I am absolutely
in the dark. Would you open my heart? Would
you show me what you're saying? And sometimes the Lord will do
that. He'll show us something. But
you just don't see much of it, do you? We can't comprehend much
of what the Father is and what His purpose and what He's doing.
We know so little. And when He shows us, we forget
it. What kind of a man would it be that the Father shows him
everything that he's doing? Well, you and I, our little brains
could not take that. If the Father appeared to us
and said, Listen, Wayne, I'm going to show you everything
that I've ever done. I'm going to show you everything that I'm
doing now and everything I'm going to do. Your little head
would explode, wouldn't it? But Jesus Christ said, The Father
has showed me everything. that He's doing. What kind of
a person is He? He must be God Himself. They said, you're making yourself
equal with God. He said, I am equal with God.
I know everything God knows. That's not bragging. That's fact.
Truly, truly be confident of this. I know everything. I've retained everything that
God my Father knows. You have to be equal with God
for that. He does it to establish his oneness
with the Father. And secondly, he uses this verily,
verily to establish his sovereign will.
Look in verse 21. As the Father raiseth up the
dead, and gives life to them, quickens them, even so the Son
quickeneth whom He will." That's an amazing statement, isn't it?
You know what he's saying? You know what Jesus Christ is
saying? I save everybody that I'm pleased
to save. I give life to everybody that
I have a will to give life to. He is saying this that nobody
can resist my will. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
just as the Father raises the dead and quickens whom He will,
so I quicken whom I will. Now we have got a great example
of this. I want you to hold that again. I hate to keep turning
these Scriptures with you, but look back over in Mark's Gospel,
chapter 1. We've got a wonderful example
of this in a leper that came to the Lord Jesus Christ one
day when the Lord Jesus was coming down from the mountain, and the
man was dying with leprosy. It had completely covered him.
His nose had rotted off. His private parts had rotted
off. He was sick. His fever was probably 105 to
110. He lived that way and he was
dying. And notice when he comes to the Lord Jesus what he said
in Mark's Gospel, chapter 1 and verse 40. And there came a leper
to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying to him,
If thou will, Thou canst make me clean." Man,
what a plea! But can you imagine dying of
leprosy? Can you imagine how painful it
was and how sick he was? And he said, Lord, if You will,
You can make me whole. Whether I live or whether I die,
whether I'm cleansed or whether I stay filthy is up to You. Boy, that's something, isn't
it? We have a whole generation, religious
people, who believe that the Son of God died upon the cross,
finally got through all of that, was buried and raised and sat
down on the right hand of God. But He can affect little or nothing. I read one time where one man
said he's hoping and praying that somebody will do something
for him. Is that Bible? Verily, verily, truly, truly,
confidently, confidently believe what I'm ready to say to you.
As the Father raises the dead and quickeneth them, even so
the Son of God quickens whom He will. Salvation, eternal life,
is in the very will and hands, and it is the prerogative of
the Lord Jesus Christ to give it or withhold it according to
His sovereign will. I remember the funeral that I
preached. For Job, John chapter 17, verse 24, remember that? Father, I will, that they whom
thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold
my glory. You think he got that request?
That's his will. We rest there, don't we? Ain't
it a wonderful thing to be saved by the will of God? If you're
saved by God's will and you know it's been God's will to save
you, you're the happiest person in this world. You've got all
the reason to be joyful. Some people say it's never God's
will that evil come into this world. It's never God's will
that people be sick. It's never God's will that men
should die. Hell is never God's will. I'm
telling you brothers and sisters, whatever happens is His will. If you will. And what did the
Lord Jesus say? Look in verse 41. And Jesus moved
with compassion, put forth His hand, and touched him and said,
I will. I don't care who you are, how
bad a sinner you've been in your own eyes, you come to the Lord
Jesus Christ and say, Lord, if you will, you can save me. And
you know what He'll say? I will. He's never said anything
else But I will for those who truly come to Him in their hearts. There is power in His will, isn't
there? That is a sovereign will. If He quickens whom He will. We find those two thieves on
the cross. One was taken and the other left. One died in his
sins. The other was broken and brought
to repentance and faith just to reveal to us the sovereign
will of Jesus Christ. Sometimes He saves the hardest
sinners, the meanest sinners, like Saul of Tarsus, just to
teach people, I'll accomplish my will. That's awful comforting,
brothers and sisters, when you stand up here two or three times
a week and preach to people. And sometimes you just don't
see anybody converted. It's confident to know this,
if it's His will, and when it's His will, they will be saved. I love a Christ like that, don't
you? He's not a little sissy Jesus. He's not a little blonde-haired,
blue-eyed sissy that's sitting on the right hand of God. He's
a sovereign Lord. Thirdly, he uses this word, verily,
verily, here in verse 22, to establish something else. That
he's the judge of all the world. See what he does? He begins in
verse 19 to say, verily, verily, I say unto you. And he does that
to emphasize who he is and what he's doing. And he says here
in verse 22, verily, verily, I say unto you, the Father judgeth
no man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son. God has appointed a day in which
He will judge this entire world by Jesus Christ. Matthew chapter 25 tells us that,
doesn't it? When the King shall come in His
glory with all His holy angels And before him shall be gathered
all nations. And he'll separate them one from
another as a shepherd separates his sheep from the goats. And
he'll judge them. And he'll say to the righteous,
Come, ye blessed of my Father, and the kingdom prepared for
you. And he'll say to the wicked, Depart from me, ye cursed. Who
gave him that authority? God did. God did. Verily, verily, I say unto you. Fourthly, notice this. The Lord
Jesus felt a need to use this verily, verily, because He is
going to tell us some things that are just absolutely too
wonderful for us to believe. So He begins with verily, verily,
truly, truly, believe this. Believe this. Amen. Amen. Believe
this. Here in verse 24, let's look
at this right quickly. He gives us five things that's
absolutely wonderful. Look what he says in verse 24.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word believeth
on him that sent me after everlasting life and shall not come into
condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. He tells us
five things here. And he encourages us to believe
it. Get it down deep in your heart
and believe it. First of all, it's this. He that hears my word. He that hears my message. He
that hears my gospel. You know, there's where conversion
begins. It's hearing the truth, isn't
it? There's no conversion apart from the truth. There's no life
apart from the truth. So the first thing we do is hear
the truth. Share and your soul shall live. It's the message. How can we
believe on him that we've never heard of? We've got to hear about
him. We've got to hear his message. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. We must be brought to the knowledge
of the truth. And the gospel is the truth.
Christ is the truth. Listen to your preachers. Get a good gospel preacher and
listen to him as he expounds the Word of God. He is the means
that God uses to bring us to believe, to faith. And read your
Bibles. I encourage lost people all the
time to read their Bibles. And you know why? There have
been people who have been studying and reading their Bibles and
they have been brought to believe. They have been brought to the
knowledge of the truth and to believe. Paul told Timothy, from
a child you have known the Holy Scriptures. You have had them
read to you and you have read them yourself. And they are able
to make you wise unto salvation. This is the first thing that
this world must hear if it's ever saved. My word. He that heareth my word. This is why we've got those books
out there. This is why we put messages on
the Internet. People must hear the word of
the Lord to be saved. Here's the gospel in a nutshell.
Here's the message in a nutshell. Here's what man needs to hear
in their heart. The Son of Man came not to be
ministered unto, but to minister and to give His life a ransom. That's the gospel, isn't it?
It's about a ransom that's been paid. This is my blood of the
new covenant which is shed for many for the remission of their
sins." Hear my word! Hear it! Well, when we hear that sin has
been punished, that's a message, isn't it? That the law of God
has been satisfied? That Jesus Christ in the days
of His flesh made reconciliation through the blood of His cross.
God is not angry anymore. What a message! The work is done. It's finished. That's the message. We're going around trying to
do something to please God or make ourselves accepted of Him.
And the first thing we must do is share the message. And the
message is this, the doing is done. Secondly, he says this, not only
he that hears my message, he that hears my gospel. And secondly,
he said, and believeth on him that sent me. You know why the
gospel is good news? Because God the Father is the
author of it. He knew how fallen the sinful,
the human race was. He knew that it could never in
and of itself recover itself from that fall. So He sent us
a Savior, a great one. That's God who did that. If Jesus
Christ came on His own, that would be wonderful. But when
we remember that He was sent, and who sent Him? God the Father
sent Him. God the Father knew our need
and He met our need in His dear Son. Don't that breed faith in
you and God? One of the reasons the Jews never
could understand the Lord Jesus when He kept saying, the Father
sent me, the Father sent me. They never could understand that
because they never did see their need of being saved. And therefore, they had no need
of God to send them a Savior. We can please God in ourselves.
We fast twice a week. We pay tithes of all that we
possess. We can please God. Well, you mean He sent you to
save us? But don't that just fill your
hearts with gratitude when you hear that the Father sent the
Son to meet your awful need? He that heareth my message, and
believes on him that sent me." What do we believe? That there
is such goodness in the heart of God the Father. That there
is such love and concern in His heart for me that He sent me
a Savior, His only Son, to die for me and redeem me. That melts
my heart. I can't stay away from God, my
Father. I can't refrain from calling
Him my Father when I hear His Son say, The Father sent me for
you. God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son. What love is in the Father! What
goodness! What grace! What mercy! These things should bring us
to the point where we never doubt the love of God for us again
when we read the Lord Jesus saying verily, verily, He sent me. And thirdly, look at this. He
that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting
life. The natural man has this idea
that he's not really a bad person. He's done some bad things, but
basically he's good. And when he's finished living
his life in this world and he comes down to die, the good things
that he's done and his goodness will outweigh his badness. And
then he'll enter eternal life. That is not the way it is at
all, brothers and sisters. What self-righteous men hope
to obtain at the end of their life, a Christian has it as soon
as he believes in Jesus Christ. He that heareth my word, and
believeth on him that sent me, hath, he has it right now. He has eternal life abiding in
His bosom. One man was trying to explain
away everlasting. He said it don't necessarily
mean everlasting. You know what settled that argument
for me? Verily, verily, I say unto you, say what you want to
about it don't mean life everlasting. I'll take his word over it. Life
everlasting. And you have it the very instant
you believe. Sometimes we get all bound up
in these semantics we talk about. Well, you've got to have life.
I don't know how many times I've said this, but I've quit saying
this. And I've got one or two brothers and I wish they'd quit
saying it. You can't believe until you have life. So what
are we going to do? Just wait until God gives us
life? And then we say, now I can believe because I'm alive. Believe. Don't get hung up on
this other stuff. No, you can't believe until you
have life. But if you have life, you're
a believer. These things are born in the same heart at the
same time. So don't sit around and be so
anxious about your feelings Whether you have life or not, just believe. You say, Bruce, I don't know
if I've ever believed Him before. Do you believe Him this morning? He didn't say if you feel, you
have everlasting life. If you know, if everything's
cleared up, you have everlasting life. The instant you believe
Him, you have life everlasting. I don't know exactly when I come
to believe Him, but I tell you this, I believe Him right now.
John Newton said, Lord, if I've never loved you before, give
me grace to love you now. If I've never believed you before,
give me grace to believe you now. And as soon as you believe,
you have eternal life. That's the way it comes, isn't
it? He that believeth on me hath
everlasting life. And look what else he said. And
he shall never, he shall not come unto condemnation. That
is judgment or guilt or damnation. I don't understand some things
to be honest with you. I know there'll be a judgment.
I know that all of us will give account of ourselves to God.
We'll all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. But according to the words of
our Lord Jesus Christ, we won't stand there as believers for it to be determined whether
we're lost or saved, whether we're justified or condemned.
That's not what the judgment is about for believers. Bruce,
how do you know that? Because the Lord Jesus said right
here, He shall not, for any reason, under any circumstances, come
into condemnation. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. You don't believe that. I know
you don't believe that because I see your heads, you look like
you're Mules sometimes with these big long faces. How can anybody
believe this and get so sad and melancholy? You say, Bruce, that's
difficult to believe that I'll never come into condemnation. Will you believe it if he tells
you that? He added these two words, verily, verily. Why did
he do that? Because he said, Cora's going
to have trouble with this. She's going to have a time where
she fears death and she fears living. Because she fears guilt
and she fears sin. But I say unto you, he that believes
shall never come into condemnation. Do you believe that? That's difficult
to believe. If he hadn't said it, I'd never
believe it. I fight with guilt. I asked Brother Barb Wilson one
time. She's been dead and gone. Everybody's talking about what's
your rule of life? Is it the law or is it the gospel and grace?
I said, Barb, what's your rule of life? And she said, guilt. I knew what to do out of guilt
and I was staying out of guilt. You shall never. You're in Christ
this morning. You'll never come into condemnation. You say, Bruce, if I believed
that, I'd go out and live like the devil. I can't believe that
for a minute. I can't believe that anybody who knows and lives
in the reality that the Lord in mercy has washed them and
has justified them and cleansed them from all their past would
turn right around and go out and bring reproach on the Lord's
name. I can't believe that for a minute.
It makes you more careful, fills you with admiration and thanksgiving. Lord, me, I'm self-condemned. I struggle with this sin. I'm
so weak. I'm afraid of dying. I'm afraid
of eternity. And you're telling me I'll never
be judged and condemned? That's what I'm telling you.
And I'm adding this to it to convince you. Verily, verily,
I say unto you. And look lastly at this, and
we'll close with this. He that heareth my word and believeth
on him that sent me hath everlasting life. and shall not come into
condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. You mean Jesus Christ knows that
we were dead? Don't you find great comfort
in knowing that Jesus Christ knows your condition? He knows us. He knows our down
settings. He knows our uprisings. He remembers
that we are nothing but dust. That poor Pharisee stood in his
self-righteousness praying to God, thanking Him that I'm better
than everybody else. And he had no idea the Lord knew
his condition. And what was his condition? He
was dead. We're dead in trespasses and
sins. And the Lord Jesus Christ comes
to us and gives us life. Verily, verily. Truly, truly. Surely, surely. Amen, amen. Trustworthy, trustworthy. Truth,
truth. Fact, fact. Certainty, certainty. If you want certainty, here it
is. Believe it, brothers and sisters.
Believe it. Our Father, thank You. Thank
You for sending us a Savior. Oh, our great Savior. Our Sovereign
Lord, thank you for humbling yourself. Lord, we can't understand
this. We can't begin to grasp it, that
you came down from heaven and humbled yourself and took upon
yourself the form of a servant and became obedient to the death
of the cross. Thank you for knowing us. Thank
you for meeting our awful need. Oh, give us grace this morning,
Lord, to believe your word, simply to believe your word. What rest,
what joy this will give us. How it would renew our strength
and our determination. How it would wean us from this
present world. Oh, give us grace to trust you
more. Thank you for this, dear people,
for their kindness, for their attention. Please take your word
home to their heart. Bless those today who are sick.
who are not able to gather with us to worship. Lord, visit their
hearts and their homes. Save the lost that you're pleased
to save, that you're willing to save. We ask these things
in Christ's name. Thank you for the food we've
been given today. Amen. Today is Brad's birthday. No,
not today, but it's next week. So we're going to sing happy
birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Brad. Happy birthday to you. How old are you, Brad? How old
are you, Brad? Almost 63. Are you that old? I remember when he turned 50,
and that seemed like it was a couple of years ago. Are you that old,
Brad? No kidding? You're 60? I did not know you were that
old. You look good, Brad, I tell you. Anything before we go back and
eat? I hope everybody can stay and eat with us. We've got all
kinds of food. Stay and eat with us if you can, okay? All righty, the Lord bless you. No, I'm going to get.