Are Your Affairs in Order?

I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to John chapter 5 and hold your place at verse 24.

John chapter 5 beginning at verse 24. As you're turning

I just want to have you think of a question this morning as this is the theme of the message.

And the question is this, are your affairs in order?

Are your affairs in order? In all of life's vocabulary few phrases carry more weight or more dread than going and sitting in a doctor's office and the doctor after having run tests and examined you look you in the face and say it's time to get your affairs in order.

This is usually the way that a doctor will tell someone that their illness has gone beyond what any type of earthly treatment would be able to provide healing for and essentially they have an impending passing that they are facing.

And I don't know about you but I have counseled with people who have been through this very thing.

Who wake up in the morning feeling like the days are going to go on as they always have.

They are going to go on normally but they go to the doctor's office, they sit with the physician and the physician pulls out his folder and with a ominous tone says it's time to get your affairs in order.

We've done all that we can do. And while that's a tremendously devastating thing to hear it does at least come with one small positive.

And the small positive is this. You still have some time.

You still have some time to get your affairs in order. The person who is told to get their affairs in order has time to prepare themselves to prepare their will, to prepare their family, to prepare those who are going to be attending to the needs after they're gone.

Unlike someone who is taken unexpectedly the person can now consider all the things that they need to do before the end comes.

Well in our text today we're going to be continuing on in the words of Jesus where he is talking about the subject of judgment.

We have been studying the Gospel of John now for many months and we find ourselves in the middle of a longer discourse of the

Lord Jesus Christ. And he is going to remind us in this discourse that judgment is coming.

Not a single person will escape it. And for many of you that may sound like terrible news.

It may sound like frightening news. But the good news is this and we're going to see this in the text today.

That for those who trust in Christ there is now no condemnation and no reason to fear judgment.

Because we've passed from death to life. But here's the other part of the good news.

For those of you for whom judgment is a dread, you have time.

Today is time for you. Because the Bible says now is the time of salvation.

So as we hear the words of Christ as he expresses the absolute certainty of the judgment to come.

May we all have our affairs in order. Let's stand together and read the text.

The heading in my screen I just noticed is off. It says we're beginning in verse 19. That's incorrect.

We're actually beginning in verse 24. So forgive me for that. We will begin now reading and we'll read verse 24 down to verse 30.

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.

He does not come into judgment but has passed from death to life.

Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the

Son of God and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the

Son also to have life in himself. And he has given authority to execute judgment because he is the

Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out.

Those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

I can do nothing of my own as I hear I judge. And my judgment is just because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.

May God add his blessing to the reading of his word and may we pray. Father, I thank you for this opportunity to again open up your word together.

And Lord, as I consider today the very weight of what it is I'm going to be preaching,

I pray as I do every week, Lord, but perhaps today with even a little more intensity,

God, that you would keep me from error. For Lord, you know that I'm a fallible man and I'm capable of preaching error.

And for the sake of your name, for the sake of my conscience, for the sake of your people, for the sake of your word,

Lord, tie me to the post of the scripture and do not let me stray. And Father, as your word is proclaimed today,

I pray that for the believer that this would be a moment of encouragement for them. That we are told here that we who have heard and believed will not come into judgment.

But Lord, for those who have not believed, whether they be young or old, whether they be visitor or even perhaps member,

Lord, whoever they may be, who maybe has made a profession of faith, but do not possess faith in the

Lord Jesus Christ and their hearts have not been changed. They've not been born again by the spirit of God.

May today be the day of salvation for them. And Lord, may your judgment be a reminder to us of your righteousness, your goodness, your holiness, but also your mercy and grace on those who have trusted in your son.

Lord, may your attributes be put on display today as we consider all that you have done and are going to do.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Again, I want to welcome all of you here today.

I know we have several visiting with us and we're grateful to see you all. And the only negative ever about being a visitor here is that you almost always come in in the middle of a series because we preach verse by verse through the

Bible. And so it's very unlikely that you're going to come in on a one -off sermon. We just don't really do a lot of those.

So want to bring everyone up to speed as to where we are in the text, because I think it's important that we recognize the context of what we are studying.

Jesus has come to Jerusalem in John chapter five for a feast. One of the many feasts that was held in Jerusalem.

And Jesus has come. And while he is there, he is at the pool of Bethesda.

This is on the northern portion of the city of Jerusalem.

And it was a place where invalids would gather around the pool because it was believed that whenever the waters were stirred up that the first one to get down into the water would receive miraculous and divine healing.

And there was a man there who had been an invalid for 38 years. And Jesus walks up to this man and says, do you want to be healed?

And the man says, well, I can't get down into the water. No one will put me in the water. And even if they were able to,

I'm never going to be the first one because it just takes too long to get me down there. And Jesus says, to rise, take up your bed and walk.

And the man is immediately, miraculously, perfectly and totally healed. His legs, which were unable to bear his weight, he is now able to walk and leap like a deer.

And he picks up his little mat that he had, put it under his arm and begins to walk his way.

Now, a normal person, having seen a miracle like that, would be overjoyed at a person whose life was absolutely a life of misery and pain, has now been given a new lease on life, new legs, new physical healing and new ability to go and live.

But the Pharisees were more concerned with the fact that he was carrying his mat.

Because their rules, as they understood the Sabbath, did not allow for the carrying of anything, especially a sleeping mat.

That was considered to be carrying a burden. And they were not allowed to do that on the

Sabbath. So they challenged the man, why are you doing this? The man said, well, the guy who healed me told me to.

Who healed you? I don't know. He didn't tell me what his name was. He just healed me and walked away.

So later, the man comes, Jesus comes back to the man, remarks about his healing and tells him to sin no more, that nothing else would come upon him, no greater problem would return to him.

And the man immediately goes back to the Jews. I know who did it. And we said, a few weeks ago,

I said, I don't know if he was snitching to get out of being in trouble for carrying his mat.

Don't really know his motivation. Could have been that he was just wanting to testify to who

Jesus was. We don't wanna judge his character too well or poorly. We don't know.

We just know that he went and said, that's the guy. And so they come to Jesus and they challenge

Jesus. And Jesus says, my father is working until now and I am working.

Basically saying that you all don't even understand who I am and you don't even understand what

I came to do. I came to do the will of him who sent me. You're challenging me on breaking the

Sabbath, which I didn't. I broke your rules, not the law of God. You're challenging me on breaking the rules.

I'll tell you this. I came to do what God sent me to do.

My father sent me to do. And it says at this portion that this was why they wanted to kill him.

This was why they wanted to kill him because he made himself equal with God. Well, beginning in verse 17 or 19 rather, 17 he speaks.

But then in 19, we have this long discourse of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I call it the apologetic discourse.

This is Jesus giving a legal defense of his words and his works.

He begins with a claim to authority. Later next week, we're going to see this.

He calls three witnesses to his authority. He calls the witness of his own works. He calls the witness of John and he calls the witness of scripture.

And he says, these are the trifold witness of who I am. And he even says to him, I can't wait to preach on this.

He says, you think you believe the scripture, but you really don't. Because if you believe the scripture, you'd believe in me because they testify of me.

I look forward to that because we're going to look at how the Old Testament points to and testifies to the

Lord Jesus Christ. But in the midst of this, last week, we looked at verse 19 to 23 and we noted

Jesus is expressing his unity with the father. He says, I do nothing of my own accord. I only do what he who sent me called me to do.

He states that he has the power to give life to the dead, verse 21, and the authority to judge, verse 22.

But the most incredible claim is what he says in verse 23.

He says that he deserves the same honor as the father.

You ever thought about how outrageous of a claim that would be if it were not true.

For anyone to say that I am going to be honored just as the father is honored.

In fact, just very quickly, for just a moment, looking back at verse 23, he says that all may honor the son just as they honor the father.

That means in the same way. You're going to honor the son in the same way that they honor the father. And what does he say?

Whoever does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent him.

Just a reminder of what we've learned over the last couple of weeks, looking at that text. Remember this, there is no other way to the father except through the son.

Anyone who says I worship God, but I do not honor the Lord Jesus Christ, they do not worship

God. Or if they believe falsely about the Lord Jesus Christ.

Well, I believe he's a good teacher. Guess what? If he said these things and he's not the son of God, he's not a good teacher.

If he said these things and he's not the divine second person of the Trinity, he's not a good teacher.

He's a liar or a lunatic, but he's not a good teacher because a good teacher wouldn't say,

I'm going to receive the same honor as God. And whoever doesn't honor me the same way they honor the father will not see the father.

No one has the prerogative to say such a thing other than the Lord Jesus Christ himself.

And this brings us to verse 24. Verse 24, I would say really is the key passage to this entire discourse, even going on down to the end of the chapter, which we will in the weeks ahead.

Verse 24, Jesus begins again with this double use of the word amen.

And it's the word that we translate truly, truly. The King James translates it verily, verily.

It's the word amen, amen. It means this is the truth and he's saying it twice to emphasize it.

He's already used it once. He used the verily, verily earlier or the truly, truly.

Now he's using it again. And this time he's emphasizing something that we all need to recognize in its simplest form.

He's emphasizing the way a person can be saved. A person can know that they are saved.

Notice what he says. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.

He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

Just for a moment. That's the gospel in its simplest form.

Whoever hears the words of Jesus and believes the one who sent him, he it is that has eternal life.

He will not come into judgment. We hold very strongly here to the reformation doctrines known as the five solas.

And if you're unfamiliar with those, those are five Latin phrases that came out of the 16th century

Protestant reformation. And they remind us of the simplicity of the gospel message.

And the simplicity of the gospel message is this, that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, according to the scripture alone, to God alone be all the glory.

And each one of those, we might call them battle cries of the reformation.

Each one of those were in opposition to some falsehood which had arisen in the medieval church and had been proclaimed and taught by Roman Catholicism.

The reformers, of course, were protesting against the false claims of Rome. And they said, we are saved by grace alone.

See, Rome will say grace is necessary, but we say no grace is sufficient.

There's a difference. It's not enough to say grace is necessary. We say grace is sufficient by faith alone.

You see, we are justified by trusting in what the Lord has done, not in what we do.

We read this already in our catechism question. What is justification? Justification is having our sins forgiven and being declared righteous before God.

That is what it means to be justified. It is not an ongoing process. We have an ongoing process.

What do we call that church? Sanctification. And it says it in the, in fact,

I want to bring it back up. I think I can do this. Be careful here. I don't want to do something bad. Yeah, here it is.

This is what we ask in our, we say, what does justification and sanctification mean? Justification means our declared righteousness before God.

Sanctification means our gradual growing righteousness. And when you stand before God on judgment day, you are going to be justified, meaning declared righteous, not by your works, but by the works of the

Lord Jesus Christ. This is what we believe. That is justification. Some people say justified means just as if I'd never sinned.

I'm not a huge fan of that language, even though I get where they're, and sometimes we do need little ditties.

We need little simple colloquialisms to get us by. But it's not as if I hadn't sinned.

It's that I am now righteous as Christ was righteous.

It's not just the removal of the negative, but it is the imputation of the positive.

It's not just taking away the bad, but it is declaring the good.

I love this story, and some of you may have heard me tell it before, but there's a story of a little boy and his father went to England and they were watching the changing of the guard, the changing of the guard, which is, if you've never seen it, it's where the guards in front of Buckingham Palace will change for the day.

And it's this ornate deal where they do all of these military movements.

And it's very interesting to watch. And where the boy was, and they were trying to watch this event take place, the little boy couldn't really see.

Well, the father noticed a place where you could go and go up and look down on it. So they went across and walked up the steps and were able to look down.

And the father said to the boy, he said, aren't those beautiful red coats?

Because, you know, the Buckingham soldiers, they wear the bright red coats. Remember, the red coats are coming.

They weren't our friends at one point. But they had these beautiful red coats. And the boy says, dad, those coats are white.

And he looked at his son. He says, no, no, maybe thinking his son had a color blindness or something.

He said, no, those are bright red coats. Well, the father steps back and notices that the son is looking through a window.

And the window had a red tint. And if you've ever looked through glass that is tinted red, anything that's red on the other side of red tinted glass looks white.

It doesn't look red. It's just a, it's an optical illusion. It's just, try it. Go find some red tint.

Look through, look at something red. It'll look, it looks white. And this illustration as I've used it over the years to simply say, when

God looks at us because of our being covered in the righteousness of Christ, God sees us as being like Christ.

He sees us as being washed white as snow and standing in the splendor of his holiness, of his righteousness.

What are we seeing in that one hymn? Dressed in his righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne.

That's, that's what we have when we are in Christ. We have a perfect, bright, white righteousness.

Even though in honesty, we're crimson, but though our sins be a scarlet, what does

God do? Washes them white as snow.

God takes our sin. And as we read in the confession, I think it was this morning, one of the things we read, it said he casts them as far as the east is from the west.

That is God's blessing to us. He takes our sin away from us and he gives us Christ's righteousness. Now, I went through all of that simply to want to help you understand what it means when we read in verse 24, when

Jesus says, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. That is a present tense possession now.

We don't earn eternal life through a lifetime of righteous deeds.

We don't gain eternal life through a lifetime of sanctification and growing.

Now, here's the thing you will get from sanctification and growing. You will get more Christ -like and praise

God for that. I don't want you to think for a moment that what I'm saying in any way discounts the blessing of God, the

Holy Spirit coming and living in your heart and causing you to be conformed to the image of Christ. That is a blessing from God that every believer should hope for and be thankful for that God is conforming us.

I will say this. I am not what I should be, but I'm thankful that I'm not what

I was. God has changed my heart, right? Every Christian, we can say that.

And whether you're in your first year of being a Christian or whether you're in your fifth year of being a Christian or whether you're in your 25th year of being a

Christian, you can say, Christ has changed my life. And you might, here's the only hard thing about it is the more

Christ -like you become in your thinking, the more you recognize your own sin and the less you feel

Christ -like sometimes because it hurts so much more to sin. The closer you get to your

Savior, the more sanctified you become, the more you recognize and hate your sin. And this is where I think we have that struggle within us, you know, that struggle of dealing with our sin.

But none of that contributes one iota to your salvation.

Because Jesus said, he who hears and believes the one who sent me, he it is that has present tense possession, eternal life.

He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Now, I have to say something about that.

The word judgment here may be a little confusing.

In fact, I wanna ask, I should have looked, forgive me for not looking. But what does the

King James say there? Does it say judgment or condemnation? Thank you, that's what I thought. Mikey, what is the, does it say judgment?

Okay, well, the word here, Karina, the root is the word judgment, but can also be the word for condemnation.

And this is the same idea that Paul gives us in Romans 8, my favorite chapter of the

Bible, which begins with no condemnation, ends with no separation. It's just a beautiful chapter of God's word.

But what does Romans 8, verse one say? There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

There is now no condemnation. Why? Because Jesus said it.

He said, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, present possession, and he does not come into condemnation.

Why? Because he has passed from death to life. That's what trusting in the

Lord Jesus Christ guarantees us. It guarantees us that when we face him at the end of our days, that when we face the judge of all the universe, we will not come under the heel of his condemnation.

We will not feel the rod of his displeasure, but we will be welcomed in as his sons.

This is the blessing of this verse. Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me.

What does it mean to hear? This is important because many people hear the words of Jesus, but they do not hear them in the sense that the hearing changes them.

What does Romans chapter 10 tell us that faith cometh by? Hearing.

This is why we are so committed here, not to go too far off the subject.

This is why we're so committed here to preaching and teaching the word of God. And we do this,

I mean, through our Sunday school program, through our Wednesday night program, of course, on Sunday morning, we just believe that the word of God is what changes hearts.

And this is what has to be heard. This is what has to be heard. It's God's word. And many people will hear it and ignore it.

Many people will hear it for a season and then depart from it. That's the one that always scares me, is people who are excited about the word for a minute, but then immediately go back to their life.

Beloved, the danger in that is the parable of the four soils, right?

Remember the seed falls among the pathway. It doesn't even get into the ground. The birds come and eat it up.

That's the person that you proclaim the word to, and they just bounce off of it. There's a video this week, a man posted, where he went out and he just stood, and as people were walking by, it was a busy sort of crossway there where people were going by, and he says, do you believe on the

Lord Jesus Christ? Nope. Don't want to talk about it. Don't want to have anything to it.

They'd hear him say that, they would turn immediately away. That's the seed hitting that hard pathway soil and just bouncing off, and the birds of the air come and eat that seed.

But there's also those two other soils that frighten me so, and I say they frighten me because I've seen it so often where someone will come and they'll be excited for a short time, but they will wither away because why?

They have no root. They've heard it, but it hasn't taken root.

So when Jesus says to hear the word, it's that the word might not just be heard in your ears, but it would take root in your heart, and this is why hearing and believing goes together.

How shall they hear without a preacher, and how will someone preach without being sent, right? Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ.

This is the same thing Paul's talking about in Romans 10. It's hearing and believing, and what's important about verse 24 is notice what it says.

It says, believes him who sent me. Now in some translations, they make it a prepositional.

They put a preposition in between. Some translation says believe on him. Some translations say believe in him, but this is one of those times where I do think, and I'm not always kind to the

ESV. I preach from the ESV, but I give it its hard knock, so I can be honest and give it a good attaboy when it gets it right.

This is one of the times where the ESV actually does get it right because it doesn't say believe in or believe on.

It simply says believes him, believes him. See, here's the thing.

Many people believe in God, but do you believe

God? You can believe that he exists, but do you believe what he has said?

You can believe that he's there, but do you believe in who he is?

That's the key. Jesus said you must hear my word and you must believe him who sent me.

What does the father testify that we must believe? The father testifies of the son.

In fact, Jesus is about to say that. The last part of this whole section is Jesus saying he's got testimony from his works.

He's got testimony from John the Baptist, and he's got testimony from the word, which is

God's word, and it all testifies to him. Do you believe God this morning? Not just believe in him.

Do you believe him when he says that if you believe on the

Lord Jesus Christ, you will be saved? Do you believe that? That's what he said. That's the promise that he made.

Remember the Philippian jailer about to commit suicide, about to fall on his sword. The apostle Paul says, don't do that.

We're still here. Men, what must I do to be saved? Believe on the

Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Do you believe that? That's God's word spoken through the apostle

Paul to that man, and it goes to every one of you. That if you have believed on the

Lord Jesus Christ, you will be saved. One of the things I think people struggle with the most, and I don't say

I think it, I know it. Because I get this question more than any other question.

I bet you if you were to take all the questions I've received on our podcast for the last year, and you were to distill them down to the most common question,

Jennifer, I think would testify to this. How can

I know? I'm struggling with assurance. How can

I know? The first thing we have to do to have assurance is actually believe that God's word is true.

And that what he says is not a lie. Has to begin with that. Has to begin with saying,

I believe him. I believe what he's saying. I believe it's the truth.

How can we trust anything if we can't trust this? This is the thing that bothers me so about so many modern preachers that say, oh, well, you know, we can leave out certain parts.

We can unhitch from the Old Testament. I don't know if you know that reference, but, you know, there's a pretty famous pastor up in Georgia who said, we don't need the

Old Testament. We can unhitch from the Old Testament. We just, you know, as long as we believe in the resurrection, you know, that's what unifies us as Christians.

And I do believe in the centrality of the resurrection. Don't doubt that one bit. But I will say this. As soon as you begin saying,

I don't believe this. I don't believe that. I don't believe this. But I'll believe in this and that. Now you're playing a dangerous game of roulette.

Because what's the next card that's going to fall in this house of cards that you're willing to give up?

God didn't say believe in part of his word. He said, believe his word. Sanctify them by thy truth.

Thy word is what? His truth. Thy word is true. Jesus said, he who hears my word to hear, to receive it and believe the one who sends me him.

It is that has eternal life. Do you have eternal life today? My prayer is that you would. My prayer is if you don't, that you would want it.

That God would open your heart to believe. I have to move on. Verse 24, again,

I wanted to spend extra time with it because I really believe it's the central passage to this entire discourse.

Every discourse of Jesus has one or two sections that really nails everything. And that's verse 24.

But verse 25, he says again, truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the son of God and those who hear will live.

Now, he says an hour is coming and is now here. Now, this is not, as you know, a 60 second or 60 minute time span.

When the Bible talks about an hour, it's talking about a specific event. And you'll notice in this text, verse 25, there is an already and not yet character regarding what

Jesus is referring to here. He says, he says, an hour is coming and is now here.

This is the already and not yet character of the subject that he's talking about.

He says, the dead will hear the voice of the son of God and those who hear will live. Now, who are the dead that it's referring to here?

Well, this could be referring to the fact that Jesus is going to raise physical people from the dead during his ministry.

We talked about this last week. There are at least three people that Jesus rose from the dead. The widow's son at Nain, the daughter of Jairus and Lazarus, his dear friend.

They heard the voice of the son of God in their death and they rose from the dead. So there's that immediate sense in which that was happening.

There was also that interesting little thing that Matthew records for us after the resurrection of Jesus where there were those who came out of the grave.

That was sort of a prelude or preview of the resurrection where we had that event. But there's also the sense when he says, when the dead will hear the voice of the son of God and those who hear will live.

There's a sense in which he may also in this text be referring to the spiritually dead. Because everyone hearing his voice who has not trusted in him are spiritually dead.

What does Ephesians chapter 2 say? And you were dead in your trespasses and sins. What is required for us to come to faith in the

Lord Jesus Christ? Spiritual what? Regeneration, which another word for that would be spiritual resurrection.

As we're dead spiritually. So the dead who hear will believe.

That's what changes. How do you know that a man has gone from death to life spiritually?

How do you know that when you proclaim the Lord Jesus to someone that they've gone from death to life?

The only way to know is that they believe. That's it. That's the only indicator is that they trust on the

Lord Jesus Christ. Now will that result in a changed life? Yes, we talked about that earlier. Will that result in the beginning of the process of sanctification?

Absolutely. But how do you know? How do you know somebody hasn't gone from death to life? You proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ and they don't want him.

They don't need him. They don't want anything to do with it. That's how you know they haven't gone from death to life yet. So Jesus says an hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the

Son of God and those who hear will live. And I said there's an already and a not yet characteristic because he mentions that an hour is coming and is now here.

There's also this reality. At the end of the age, every person in the tombs, every person in the grave, every person who's ever been buried at sea, every person who's ever been put through the fire of cremation, every person who has ever lived will hear the voice of the

Son of God and be raised. Everyone will hear the voice of the Son of God and be raised.

And he talks about that. We're going to get to this in verse 28. So we'll get there in a moment.

But just know that there's... So when he's giving the characteristic of what he's come to do. He has come to speak life.

He has come to speak resurrection life. As he's going to say later to the sisters of Lazarus, I am the resurrection and the life.

That's who he is. That's what he does. That's what he came to do. And how?

Verse 26, it says, For as the father has life in himself, so he's granted the son to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment because he is the son of man.

You understand God has life in himself. That is something, by the way, this is another one of those times when

Jesus expresses his own divinity because that's one of those characteristics that only God has. And Jesus says,

I have that same characteristic. As the father has life in himself, so is he granted the son also to have life in himself.

What does it mean to have life in himself? Do you have life in yourself? You have life.

But to have life in himself refers to what's known as God's aseity.

God's absolute independence. God has life in himself.

You have life from God. Your life comes from God. Your life is derived from outside of yourself.

It's given to you. Remember, God made Adam from the dust of the ground. Then what did he have to do? Right. He had to breathe life into his nostrils and give him life.

That's how Adam received life. But God has life. God is life.

Years ago, Pat took me when I was a little boy, probably eight years old. She took me to a play they used to do downtown at the

Prime Osborne Convention Center. And it was called The Giver of Life.

And it was the story of Jesus. And it was probably one of the most, just as a kid,

I don't know anything. I didn't know anything about theater at the time. But it was just one of the most well -produced plays of the life of Jesus.

And I'm not a huge fan of Life of Jesus plays. I think a lot of times they're not that great.

But I just remember being eight years old and they sang a song. He is the life giver.

He is the life giver. And they sang that song. And I remember thinking, even as an eight -year -old little boy, that's what

Jesus came to do. He came to give life because that's what he has to give.

That's the gift God has to give is life. No other being, no other person can offer you that.

No one else. You can go to any religion. You can go to any shaman.

You can go to any witch doctor. You can go to anywhere. And you can look for life. And they won't have it because they ain't got it.

And they won't have it to give. But Jesus says the Father has life in himself.

You know, it's the one thing science really can't explain is life.

If you go back and you study evolution and you study how modern evolutionary biologists try to explain life.

They say at some point life erupted because there was no life and then there was life.

There's a Greek word for that. Baloney. That's right. That ain't how it works. Life doesn't combust.

It doesn't come out of nowhere. Life comes from life.

Life comes from life. Our life didn't come from non -life.

God had life in himself. He spoke into, or he breathed into Adam and he gave him life.

And now our life is derived from God. Jesus comes to those who are dead in sin.

And what does he say? I've come to give you life. And what kind? Abundant life.

And he has given not only the ability to grant life, but he's given the ability, the authority to execute judgment because he's the son of man.

Now time does not allow me to spend as much time with it as I would, but the word son of man here is very important.

Because the word son of man is Jesus. And it's the only time he calls himself in this whole section of Jesus' discourse.

This is the only time he calls himself the son of man. But it is a term he used for himself often. And the son of man is tied back to the book of Daniel.

Where in the book of Daniel there was this one who was called the son of man, who was given authority to rule and to judge.

I'll read it to you. This is Daniel 7 .13. Daniel is expressing his vision.

He says, I saw in the night vision, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came one like the son of man.

And he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all the people's nations and language should serve him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall never pass away. And his kingdom, one that shall not be destroyed.

That's the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's saying here, he says, I've been given authority to judge.

The father has sent me to give life, but he's also sent me to judge.

He came first to save. He will come again to judge. And this leads to verse 28.

Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out.

And those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

Now, this causes us reformed folks to get a little uncomfortable. Especially after all

I said earlier, am I going to contradict myself now? No. But anytime we see the words of Jesus regarding judgment, he always emphasizes that at judgment, there will be a division between those who have done good and those who have done evil.

And immediately, again, from a reformed perspective, from someone who is very steeped in reformed theology and thinking, our mind goes, but wait, that sounds like we're judged according to our works.

Understand this, and this is so key. When Jesus says in this text, those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment, understand this, the only way to do good towards God is through beginning with faith in the

Lord Jesus Christ. If you do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you have not done good towards God.

Now, you may have done good in a social sense. You may have done good in a familial sense.

But if you are outside of the faith of Christ, you are still dead in your trespasses and sins, and nothing you have done that is good in that sense is truly good.

Because that which is not of faith is what? Sin. You see, when the word of God says that at the end, there's going to be a separation of the sheep and the goats, there's going to be a separation of the righteous and the wicked.

This is explaining to us on that great and terrible day of the

Lord, that when there is a separation and a divide, the divide will be between those who have trust in the

Lord Jesus Christ and those who have not. Because those who have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ are the ones who have actually truly done good.

And those who have not, even in all of their goodness, their righteousness is as filthy rags.

And they have nothing to hold to the Lord and say, look and save me because of this. You understand that your salvation will be predicated on one thing only, and that is the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

And all of the goodness that you do is out of gratitude for his salvation, not to create your own justification.

You will not be saved by your works, but your works do testify of your salvation.

Simple enough. Now we'll finish with verse 30. Jesus said,

I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge. I talked about this last week.

I'm not going to spend too much time on this way. I talked about the fact when Jesus is not denying his own divinity, but he is denying that there's any separation between him and the

Father. He and the Father are one in purpose. I don't do anything on my own accord. I do everything in perfect union and harmony with the

Father. But notice what he says. As I hear, I judge. And my judgment is what?

Just. Because I seek not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

I ruminated on that word this week. The word just.

The righteousness of God is the measurement of justice.

Jesus says, my judgment is just. The word just means righteous.

Here's what I want to get across to you. To believe that we can be saved by any goodness within us would mean that God has to relax or forfeit his righteousness.

You say, why would that be the case? Because when we stand before the tribunal of the

Almighty and we stand before him at judgment, we stand having all of our sins on display.

And if God looked at those sins and said, I recognize all of your sins, but I see your good works and your good works outweigh your bad works.

So I'm going to save you. That would be a travesty of justice. And the reason why that would be a travesty of justice, because that's not the way justice works.

You go before a judge, you've broken the law, and the judge says, yeah, but you also did some good things.

So it's going to balance out. I'm going to let you go. Everyone would say that's a bad judge.

Because only a bad judge would look at you who've committed crimes against the state and say, you know what?

Your crimes are now balanced by your good works. That's not. You can be a good person for 30 years.

You murder somebody, guess what you are? A murderer. And in one instance, all the good you did for 30 years isn't going to matter when you stand before the judge as a murderer.

Now you're thinking you're going to stand before the tribunal of God, having all of your sins laid out before him.

And you're going to say, yes, but look at my good works over here and look at my good works over here. The righteous

God of the universe whose judgment is just is going to look at you and laugh and hold you in derision.

If you think you can offer up one good thing that you have done to pay for your sins, you cannot pay for one minor sin with the greatest act of righteousness that you've ever been able to accomplish in your own flesh.

The only way to have your sins forgiven and be counted righteous before God is if all of those sins are paid for.

And the only way to have those sins paid for is through a substitute, the

Lord Jesus Christ. All of our sin is laid upon him. He dies in our place.

He takes the punishment that we deserve and he drinks the cup of God's wrath down to the last drop.

And when he is finished, he looks to heaven and says, to tell us that it is finished, the debt is paid.

And now we have no sin before God, not a little, not an inkling, not a not a morsel, nothing.

All of our sin has been paid for. And we stand righteous before God because all of Christ's righteousness is given to us as a gift.

That's the only way to have assurance on judgment day. So I ask you again, as I asked you earlier, are your affairs in order?

Are you prepared for that day? Are you trusting in Jesus Christ alone?

Or are you still holding on to some morsel of your own righteousness?

Jesus says, my judgment is just. That should frighten you if you're holding on to your own righteousness, but it should comfort you if the one who is just has given you his righteousness as a reward.

Let's pray. Father, I thank you for your word. And I thank you now,

Lord, for this opportunity to be reminded that those who hear your word and believe have eternal life and will not come into judgment.

I pray for everyone in this room. Lord, now, as we turn our attention to communion, I pray,

Lord, that we will be reminded of what Christ has done to secure our salvation.

And Lord, for those who are not prepared today, Lord, may they get their affairs in order.

And by that, I mean, oh, God, may you, through your Holy Spirit, open their heart to believe while there is still time.

Lord, only you can change a heart. And we trust you to do that, which you only can do in Christ's name.

Amen. As we prepare for the communion, 1