Let's read from the first verse of 1st
John, chapter 5.
Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is
born of God.
And everyone that loveth him that begat loveth
him also that is begotten of him.
Dost thou believe in Jesus?
Do you really?
Well, it seems to me that we have
an opening statement that makes it known to
us that love is certainly an integral part
of this business of God's salvation.
It starts out, for many, with a single
verse of Scripture, John 3, 16.
For God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish but have everlasting
life.
Now, the world just does not understand and
get the message that something wonderful happens in
the life of a believer.
We've said this, but it's worthy of repeating,
that the new birth, being born again, certainly
rivals the miracle that would happen if you
went out to the cemetery and resurrected someone
that was dead in the grave.
The Lord did that for Lazarus.
But being born again brings spiritual life to
the person that receives Jesus Christ as his
Lord and Savior.
I'm telling you, that is a miracle.
Dead in trespasses and sin, and now alive
unto God through faith in our Lord Jesus
Christ.
Now that vital life of God, eternal life,
we become a possessor of it.
It's ours, now and for all eternity.
If you have eternal life, it's eternal.
And as we read down through this passage,
we'll touch on some scriptures that perhaps have
troubled some people, but they have provided what
some people long for, and that is to
know with certainty that I'm saved, that I
possess eternal life, and I'm on my way
to heaven.
By this we know that we love the
children of God when we love God, keep
his commandments.
For this is the love of God, that
we keep his commandments, and his commandments are
not grievous.
You know, the treatment of what God asks
us to do sometimes, first and foremost, I
think people think about something that's unpleasant.
He's going to ask me to do something
that's hard to do.
It would be hard for you to do
it, but with God working in and through
you, he makes it something that becomes very
pleasurable to be occupied in doing.
You'll enjoy doing the will of God.
It becomes something very meaningful to you.
Obedience, again, becomes the watchword.
This is what proves that our faith is
real.
Our faith is real.
It's not just something that we talk about,
but our faith is real.
Hebrews 11 says, Now faith is the substance
of things hoped for, the evidence of things
not seen.
Obedience proves the truth of faith.
I have faith in God.
I obey my God.
It's important that I obey my God.
Oh, it's so important that I do what
he tells me to do.
What I see, the enlightenment that he gives
me in the word of God, I am
to obey that.
Walk in that light.
Our feet have been placed upon a pathway
of righteousness for his namesake.
There's so much involved here.
We represent him.
We call ourselves Christians.
We belong to God.
We have a living relationship with God through
the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Obedience is so important, especially those direct commands
that we have in the word of God.
Now, I know all of you probably know
this verse, and the minute I start quoting
it, you could say, Oh, I've heard that.
I know that.
And it's so important.
A new commandment I give unto you, that
you love one another the same way I
loved you.
Other men will know that you are my
disciples because you love one another.
I think we've talked about this before, but
what sometimes is called love is no more
than lust.
We're talking about people being exploited and used
by other people simply because they told them
they love them.
I love you.
I think this was something we discussed yesterday
morning at our Bible study.
How many people are taken advantage of by
someone else just because they said, I love
you?
And they didn't mean it.
It was just a word.
It was just a word that they used.
A word that does have power.
Oh, there's power in that word.
It's an important word.
Our God is love.
But listen, we must stay focused on the
real meaning of love.
We talked about Peter and how the Lord
asked him that question, Peter, do you really
love me?
Here's that man, you know, that denied the
Lord.
And don't rush ahead now and say, yes,
he denied the Lord.
How about you?
How about me?
Have we ever denied the Lord?
Of course we have.
In many ways we have denied the Lord.
So let's don't become judgmental when we think
about someone else being questioned about their love
of God or their love for the Lord
Jesus.
It's very important that we stay focused on
the true meaning of love.
Love gives of itself.
And we're going to touch on some of
those things, I believe, in this passage.
Ultimately, I started out with this.
I wanted to say some things about prayer,
and we will.
And I'm not going to go over time.
I was reminded this morning that I went
over time.
And I had the clock right here.
That clock, it's a little fuzzy from here.
And that's my excuse.
You've got my excuse.
I should have looked at this.
This is good.
This is a good reminder.
But here we have obedience.
Here we have love.
This is no idle talk about being saved.
Salvation brings to us the present possession of
so many benefits that sometimes it's hard to
take in at one time all the things
that become ours when we become believers in
our Lord Jesus Christ.
And certainly we should acquaint ourselves with all
that we have.
These ones that have been born again into
the family of God, you've come into that
possession of God's possessions.
Does that have a nice ring to you?
I'm a child of God.
I'm a child of the King.
Brothers sing sometimes, The King is coming.
And that is a beautiful selection, and I
love it.
The King is coming.
He's my King.
He's my Savior.
He's my Lord.
All of those things should take on special
meaning to us as believers in the Lord
Jesus Christ.
For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the
world.
This is the victory that overcometh the world,
even our faith.
Who is he that overcometh the world but
he that believeth that Jesus is the Son
of God?
I've heard people say that I never considered
myself to be a person that had ever
had a contact with anything that was very
special in my life.
My life was one of those that just
nothing special ever happened.
You might say my life was rather dull.
But I'm telling you, and this is that
testimony, when I met Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, He transformed my life.
If other people weren't excited about it, I
was more excited about that than anything else
that had ever happened in my life.
I became a new creature in Christ Jesus.
I was born again.
I was in the family of God.
Not everybody can say that.
Some people say, I'm a Christian.
I'm a Christian.
And they may refer to something that really
does not make you a Christian.
Joining a church fellowship does not make you
a Christian.
Going through the ordinances of the church, being
baptized in water, no matter what the mode
might be, doesn't make you a Christian.
Even if it happened when you were a
baby.
You say, I had infant baptism from my
very birth.
I've heard people say, I've always been saved.
I've always been a child of God.
Put your finger on that somewhere in Scripture
and direct me to it, because I haven't
found it yet.
You have to be born again into the
family of God.
If you're going to be saved, you must
receive Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as
your Savior and as your Lord.
And you're not a child of God unless
you've been born again into the family of
God.
The world needs to know that.
We left this banner up here for a
purpose.
There are millions and millions and millions of
people in the world today that need to
be born again.
A lot of them have religion.
A lot of them have credentials that they're
proud of.
And they claim these credentials.
Qualifying themselves to call themselves children of God.
God is my Heavenly Father.
And they've never been born again.
They've never, never bowed the knee and confessed
that Jesus Christ is God.
That's where it all starts.
You remember what the Lord asked Peter after
all these questions had been raised about who
he really was?
And he asked his disciples.
Peter is the one who responded to that
question.
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the
living God.
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the
living God.
You are God.
And our Lord said, flesh and blood didn't
reveal that to you.
It had to come from my Heavenly Father.
It had to come through the power of
the Spirit of God that brings enlightenment and
blessing into our lives.
That evidence, and if you have not the
Spirit of God, you're none of His.
Oh, I'm saddened when I hear these people
say, I'm saved, but I'm praying that I
will receive the Holy Spirit.
Oh God, have mercy.
When so clearly upon the pages of Scripture,
and I was just reading this this afternoon,
and it has to do with this matter
of knowing Him.
And if we have not Him, the Spirit
Himself bears witness with our spirit that we
are the children of God.
That's real, brother and sister.
That's real.
The Spirit of God that indwells us bears
witness.
He confirms that we are God's children because
of what we've done in an obedient act
of receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as our
Lord and Savior.
Oh, the book provides so much that can
clear up so many of the things that
sometimes bother people and cause them to err
in their judgment regarding this matter of God's
salvation.
So faith does have a lot to do
with this business of receiving the gift of
salvation.
For by grace are you saved through faith,
but not of yourselves.
It is a gift from God.
And to me, it's so exciting when we
begin to think about whatever He does in
our lives when He's changing us into those
new creatures in Christ Jesus that we are
His workmanship.
Isn't it wonderful that He's doing something in
our lives now?
Before, we were in no condition.
We had rebelled.
We had not made one concession to God
that He should be in control of our
lives.
Now we've yielded all to Him.
And the Spirit of God that empowers and
indwells us is working out God's plans and
purposes for you and me.
That's wonderful.
It's so sad that sometimes we don't put
a proper value upon what God has done
for us.
And so often it's so good just to
say, Thank you, Lord.
Thank you for what you have done for
me.
You have changed my life.
You have brought me out of death into
life.
And now old things have passed away, and
behold, all things have become new.
This is He that came by water and
blood, even Jesus Christ.
Not by water only, but by water and
blood.
Here we have a mention of something that
is sometimes interpreted in several different ways.
Some interpret this to mean the water means
baptism.
I'm not persuaded that that is true.
I go to a reference in John 19,
34, where upon the cross the Lord, you
know, the soldier pierced his side, and water
and blood came forth.
There was a rupturing of the chest cavity
and the water that surrounds the heart and
all of this.
It was released.
I see in all of this strong evidence
of His death.
Some have tried to say that the Lord
just swooned upon the cross and they took
Him and put Him in a tomb and
in the coolness of that tomb He was
resurrected and He came out of that tomb.
I don't believe that for a moment.
But so many things are sometimes said by
men who make judgment calls about things that
have happened in the life of our Lord.
And sometimes it not only confuses, but sometimes
it takes away from the true value of
what God has done.
In the atoning work that Jesus Christ did
upon the cross, in that atoning work, there
is something so wonderful that it need not
be tampered with.
He that atoned for us.
He that made that atonement.
He that in that one moment of time,
hanging upon a cross, was made sin for
us that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him.
Don't tamper with that.
That's real.
That's the truth.
He that knew no sin was made sin
for us that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him.
The 7th and 8th verses of this chapter
support the belief in the Divine Trinity.
For there are three that bear record in
heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy
Ghost.
And these three are one.
And there are three that bear witness in
earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the
blood.
And these three agree in one.
You know, the very fact that we, as
members of the body of our Lord Jesus
Christ, living members in that spiritual body, that
body of our Lord Jesus Christ, these provide
us with that assurance that God as a
Trinity, He works in and through that spiritual
power that He is able to provide in
working out His will in our lives.
Someone has said, we find in that work
that was done upon the cross, peace-giving
energy, released in a special way, peace-giving
energy, the life of God was poured out
as an act that would satisfy divine righteousness
in providing salvation for our souls.
Oh, that's a tremendous thing that God has
done for us.
The human mind sometimes can't comprehend the wisdom
and the power of God in what He
is doing for us.
Oh, to grow in grace and knowledge of
the Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh, to possess the mind of Christ.
Oh, to have the Word of God, which
is a lamp under my foot and a
light under my pathway, to help me through
all of these things that I may not
comprehend and understand, but He wants me to
understand it.
He wants me to know it.
So often we focus on one aspect of
our salvation, like knowing that we are saved.
But there is a whole lot more to
know, brother, sister.
There is a whole lot more that we
can know.
The Spirit of God, that power that resides
in each one of us, that power to
do the will of God, is not in
the power of my flesh that I do
these things.
The flesh cannot be improved upon.
The flesh cannot do anything that is well
-pleasing to God.
It's only by the power of the Spirit
of God working in and through us that
God is well-pleased.
If we receive the witness of men, the
witness of God is greater.
For this is the witness of God which
He had testified of His Son.
He that believeth on the Son of God
hath the witness in himself.
He that believeth not, God hath made him
a liar, because he believeth not the record
that God gave of His Son.
And this is the record that God hath
given to us, eternal life.
And this life is in His Son.
That Scripture is so adequate in providing us
with what we need in the way of
confirmation that what God has done is real.
This, brother, is not a delusion.
This is real salvation by faith in our
Lord Jesus Christ.
He that hath the Son hath life.
He that hath not the Son of God
hath not life.
These things have I written unto you that
believe on the name of the Son of
God, that you may know that you have
eternal life, and that you may believe on
the name of the Son of God.
You know, we believe, but we can believe
more.
You know what I'm talking about?
I can believe and accept Jesus Christ as
my Lord and Savior, but I ought to
know more.
Are you satisfied with just being saved?
You say, God saved me and that's enough.
Leave me alone.
Oh, no.
God wants you and me to grow spiritually.
He wants to see spiritual development in the
life of every child of God.
Don't be satisfied with just being saved.
It's wonderful.
You can rejoice in it.
You can sing about it.
You can just be thrilled about it, but
want to know more.
I want to grow, Lord.
I want that evidence in my life that
I am really a child of God.
It will take faith.
It does take faith.
I read that verse, number 13.
These things have I written unto you that
believe on the name of the Son of
God that you may know experientially a person
that has been born again will receive the
confirmation through the reading of the Word of
God that he is a child of God.
The Spirit of God that enlightens, guides, directs,
teaches, instructs in the things of God can
truly make these things so precious and dear
to our hearts.
And I am so saddened when I hear
someone say, I hope I'm saved.
I hope I'm saved.
I think I've trusted Him, but I don't
know for sure.
I still have some doubts in my heart
and soul that I'm really saved.
I've heard so many people give testimony to
the fact that when I read this, the
Spirit of God settled that question for me
forever.
Now, I know.
I know that I have eternal life and
that I truly believe on the person of
Jesus Christ, the Son of God as my
Lord and Savior.
If God said it, I believe it.
And that's what it takes.
That's what it takes.
Become very positive about what you believe.
Be very positive in going out and sharing
your faith with someone else.
The world is not going to do this,
brother.
You can see the direction the world is
going in today when you just look at
the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ,
the Son of God.
Anybody that looks upon this and thinks about
it just for a moment would say this
is ridiculous.
What is all this celebration about?
What is this all about?
Well, it has to do with the person
of the Son of God coming into the
world to provide salvation for all mankind.
He came into the world, and the world
rejected Him.
The world would not receive Him.
Light came into the world, but men loved
darkness rather than light because their deeds were
evil.
And they rejected Him, and they nailed Him
to a cross.
Little did they know that they had sovereignly
fulfilled the plan and purposes of God in
that the Lamb of God that came into
the world to provide salvation for us, that
He died upon a cross.
Well, I haven't caught the spirit of what
that means if you attach so much importance
with it.
I cannot catch the spirit of what you
mean in looking at what is happening in
the world today.
All of this celebration seems to be alien,
so far away from what you've just indicated
is the true meaning of Christmas, the birth
of Christ, that sinless life that was lived,
all that He did in performing miracles, what
He did on that cross outside the city
of Jerusalem.
And, beloved, we can personally identify with that.
I'll tell you, when He died on that
cross, I died with Him.
That's what the Word of God says.
God reckoned when I received Him as my
Lord and Savior, it was just as if
I died upon that cross with the Son
of God.
God laid on Him the iniquity of us
all.
Oh, we should think ever so highly of
the person of the Son of God.
You say, how would you celebrate this special
day that is set aside to remember the
birth of the Savior?
I'll answer it this way.
I wouldn't do it the way the world
is doing it now.
I'll tell you that for sure.
And I'll never be asked, of course, as
to how would I celebrate it.
How would I put in place something that
could properly look at and worship and praise
Him as He should be praised?
I don't think any limit should be placed
upon how much we praise and worship our
God and His Son.
He has done something for us that no
one else could do for us.
No one else could love us the way
He has loved us.
No one, no human being you know, your
wife, your mother, your father, no one could
love you the way He has loved you.
Scripture says, having loved His own, He loved
them to the very end.
He went to the cross.
Went to the cross.
I tell you, it grew forth out of
that heart of the Son of God a
cry that you just can never, never as
a believer reach a point where you are
comfortable when you hear it.
My God, my God, why have you forsaken
me?
Can you be comfortable with that?
Doesn't that distress your soul to think that
the Son of God, His Father, forsook Him?
There was darkness.
Where are you?
There's nothing but judgment and wrath in store
for the Son of God.
He's taking our place.
He's paying the penalty for our sin.
You talk about love, brother and sister.
That's love.
That's divine love.
That's elegate love that they talk about.
Sacrificially giving of yourselves.
No one ever loved me like the Lord
Jesus loved me.
Oh, it's something to celebrate the coming into
the world of the Son of God and
what He did for us by dying for
us upon the cross.
I wanted to say something about prayer.
Do you believe God answers prayer?
Do you have any confirmation that He answers
prayer?
Do you have definitive answers to your prayers?
You know, when you give some consideration to
the fact that we're asked to have prayer,
that we ought to have confidence in our
God that when we cry out to Him,
He hears us and He answers our prayers.
I think we do need an intelligent look
at what it means to have prayer made
and to have prayer answered.
Reading at verse 14, it says, and this
is the confidence that we have in Him
that if we ask anything, we ask anything.
Don't stop there, brother.
Don't stop there.
You've got to read all of this.
This is the confidence that we have in
Him that if we ask anything according to
His will, He hears us.
You know, a mind of a believer out
of touch with the will of God may
not make a connection with God.
That's why we need the Spirit of God
to direct and help us in this area.
Let me read again from Romans.
In the same way, the Spirit also helps
our weakness, for we do not know how
to pray.
Are we offering up spiritual prayers?
Are we offering up prayers that the Spirit
of God is working in our hearts and
souls?
Is He generating the kind of thoughts in
our soul as to what we should pray
for as we ought?
We do not know how to pray as
we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for
us.
Oh, isn't He a wonderful comforter?
The Lord Jesus Christ said, I will send
you another comforter.
I'll send you someone just like me.
He will abide in you.
He will empower you to be my witness.
But the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with
groanings that are too deep for words.
And He that is the Spirit of God,
He is divine.
He is not an it.
He is a person, a real person, the
Spirit of God.
He searches the hearts and knows what the
mind of the Spirit is because He intercedes
for the saints according to the will of
God.
We are holy in the sight of God.
We are God's children.
He wants us to know His mind and
His will.
I wouldn't for a moment suggest to you
that you not cry out to God any
time that you have a problem in your
life that you need help with.
My dear wife was in the hospital for
a month and recovering for a while.
I don't know how many times I said,
Oh, God, have mercy.
I know you are a merciful God.
You are rich in mercy.
Have mercy.
That's all I could think of at the
time.
And God was merciful.
But you know, a spiritual-minded person will
seek to always be sure that he is
thinking in terms of is this God's will?
I've said this before.
I think it was Lehman Strauss that wrote
that book about all the foolish things that
people say in prayers.
And that book is rather humorous in that
it reminds us that people sometimes when they
pray and say some foolish things, say some
foolish things, even when they look back and
look over what they said.
You know, I'm embarrassed that I even ask
that.
But when the Spirit of God is a
part of our prayer life and the offering
up of prayer, I can ask of God
anything that is His will for my life.
And He will do it.
He will do it.
We have the Word of God that confirms
it.
If we ask anything according to His will,
He hears us.
You know, your mom and daddy, when you
went to them and you asked of them
something, they always did what was best for
you.
They had that maturity.
They had good, sound judgment about what was
best for you.
And so it is with God our Father.
The Spirit of God will put us in
touch with the will of God so that
we, in asking of Him, we won't go
off and say something ridiculous, or like Leman
Strauss says, say something foolish.
It certainly would be in the mind and
the will of God to bless every one
of us.
O God, bless us tonight as we gather
in this place.
O God, bless, we pray Thee, the Word
of God as it's ministered to our needs,
as the Spirit of God, as He works
in each of our hearts and minds, renewing
us, transforming us into that state of mind
that wants to know and will do the
good and perfect will of God.
That will be answered.
He will bless us.
He will give us enlightenment.
He will give direction to us.
And it doesn't just happen to people that
don't know God very well.
I think the Apostle Paul was a man
that knew the Lord.
He prayed three times.
He said, Take away the thorn in the
flesh.
The Lord didn't do it.
That wasn't His will.
He said, I'll do something better.
My grace will be sufficient for you.
You see how God works?
You see how the Spirit of God puts
in place something that is better than what
we ask for?
And was the Apostle Paul pleased with that?
You better believe he was.
He said there was a victory won for
me that day.
I learned that when I am weak in
myself, that's when I'm strong in the Lord.
I trusted Him.
I trust His judgment.
I trust the application of His will to
my life.
Now I rejoice, and I find victory in
infirmities.
You want to get all you can out
of the things that God allows to come
into your life that are not pleasant.
Get all you can out of the suffering
that you're entrusted with.
It becomes something that God, in measuring out
for each one of us, something that will
help us grow and develop and mature as
believers.
Don't ever forget He loves you.
And He chastens us sometimes because He loves
us.
And He wants to see us grow.
And He wants us to be like His
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are predestined to be like Him.
Isn't it wonderful to think that one day
you will see Him and you will be
like Him?
Rest with perfect confidence at what God has
promised He will fulfill.
Our Heavenly Father, again, we thank Thee tonight
for the Lord Jesus.
And we're so thankful that He accepted us.
We're so thankful that we found that one
and only way into Thy presence was through
Him.
And we're so thankful tonight that we can
rejoice and praise and worship Thee as our
God.
Bless each one of us in this room
tonight.
Bless us.
Bless our families.
Give us direction and help.
Lord, we need help.
We're living in a world that indeed we
need the sovereign grace of God in all
of its sufficiency to face the trials and
testings of life.
Help us as we read this word of
Yours day by day to recognize faith comes
by hearing, hearing by the Word of God.
Bless us, Father, we pray.
In the precious name of the Lord Jesus,
we ask this, amen.
And now, will we have a closing hymn?
Yes.