Lars Larson Live Stream

First Baptist Church Leominster iconFirst Baptist Church Leominster

2 views

0 comments

00:02
♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪
00:38
Well, we're presently here in John 5, of course, and been here a little while.
01:31
We're in the midst of considering the third discourse of Jesus as recorded by John. He recorded a total of seven speeches, extended discourses of Jesus, and we're in the third, and we began to consider it last
01:47
Lord's Day. And so, our Lord was actually answering the
01:53
Jewish leaders who were filled with rage and were bent on killing
01:58
Him. And this discourse began addressing them, amazingly, and He made known some quite amazing and fascinating truths regarding Himself, His relationship with His Father, and how
02:15
He was working with His Father in conjunction, working in conjunction with His Father, working providentially throughout the world.
02:26
Jesus claimed that He was working with God, His Father, in the realm of providence.
02:32
That itself is a claim to deity, isn't it? Just as His Father was always working, so He too was working.
02:40
And what He meant by this is that He, along with His Father, was controlling all that transpires in history.
02:48
There's not an event that occurs in your life, not a thought that courses through your mind, not a thing that takes place, which is not under the providential guidance and control of Jesus and the
03:02
Father. And even when the Lord Jesus was ministering on earth, even as He was speaking with these people,
03:10
His divine nature was in conjunction with His Father, working providentially, controlling all events in the world.
03:18
And He has throughout history. It reveals the infinite nature of the divine nature of Jesus Christ.
03:26
This was His claim. And the Jewish leaders who were listening to Him knew exactly what
03:33
He was claiming. His self -disclosure was so incredible to them when they heard
03:39
Him, they accused Him of having committed the capital offense of blasphemy. In their thinking,
03:46
Jesus had not only broken the Sabbath day, that was enough to plot to kill Him, but He made
03:53
Himself equal with God, to which He indeed laid claim. He made claim here that He was
04:00
God, and the Jewish leaders knew it. This passage is an utter refuting of the teaching of Jehovah's Witnesses and Arianism, which does not believe that Jesus is
04:11
God. He declared that God was uniquely His Father, and He was uniquely
04:17
God's Son, thereby, verse 18, making Himself equal with God. The Jewish leaders knew exactly what
04:25
He was claiming. Well, in verse 20, Jesus taught that His Father shows
04:30
Jesus all things that He Himself does. Whenever the Lord Jesus revealed a remarkable insight or performed a miracle during His earthly ministry, it astounded those who witnessed it.
04:45
It was because the Father was at work in Him, and through Him. And even though the
04:52
Lord Jesus had already done many great miracles, many wonderful works, we read the
04:59
Lord Jesus saying it was in the Father's purpose that He would do greater works yet. And it was to this end that people would marvel when they saw these greater works that the
05:13
Son was doing, and that the Father was doing through Him. And so I think an appropriate question to ask or answer is what are these greater works than the miracles
05:24
He had already been performing? Well, these greater works are set forth in verses 21 through verse 23.
05:31
For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom
05:37
He will. For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the
05:42
Son, that all should honor the Son, just as they honor the Father.
05:48
There is another claim to deity. So the
05:54
Father gave Jesus, His Son, the authority to impart life. That would be one of the greater things that He would do, which is the same authority as that of His Father.
06:05
The Father imparts life. His Son imparts life. Same authority.
06:11
But in addition to giving life, imparting life, in the arena in which the
06:17
Father does not involve Himself, we read that the Father gave His Son all authority to execute judgment on mankind.
06:26
That's verse 22. And so the Father gave this authority to His Son to the end that all people, or all, perhaps angels and people, would give the same honor to His Son that they give to God the
06:41
Father. Again, that's an amazing statement. You are to honor
06:46
Jesus Christ with the same honor, to the same degree that you honor
06:52
God the Father. Some people don't understand that. It is the will of God that Jesus is honored in the same manner, to the same degree, that all are to honor
07:04
God the Father. There clearly, again, you see the deity of the Lord Jesus set forth here.
07:11
Or else, indeed, it would have been blasphemy, right? Now this passage is one of the clear statements of the deity of Christ that we find in the
07:21
Word of God. How could the infinite God, the Father, show Jesus all things unless Jesus Christ is also infinite
07:28
God? And how could Jesus have the authority and ability to raise from spiritual death to spiritual life, and from physical death onto physical life, unless He Himself is
07:41
God? The Father has this power, this authority, and so does the
07:46
Son. How could Jesus execute the judgment of God on every human being in history?
07:53
For every transgression of every human being throughout their lives, every thought, attitude, action, words of every human being, how could
08:03
Jesus do that unless He were God? His desire of the
08:09
Father for all honor to be given to His Son as He is honored brought forth the words of Jesus.
08:15
He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. And so the only true worship of God that He regards and receives is that which glorifies
08:29
His Son equally as we glorify God the Father. Again, we see the uniqueness of biblical
08:38
Christianity, and no other claim, no other religion can approach that.
08:44
The Lord Jesus made it clear that the only way to know and worship God rightly was through Him, and to worship
08:53
Him, honor Him in the same way that God the Father is honored. But again, we read the greater works the
09:01
Father would have His Son do is to impart life to the dead and to execute judgment upon mankind.
09:11
Our Lord Jesus sets these works forth in detail in the verses before us, verses 24 through 30.
09:17
We left off last week with verse 23, and today we want to begin with verse 24, and Lord willing, go to verse 30.
09:26
Here they are. Most assuredly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in Him who sent me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death into life.
09:44
Most assuredly I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is,
09:50
I underline that in my Bible, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the
09:56
Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He's granted the
10:03
Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the
10:09
Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming, in which all who are in the graves will hear
10:17
His voice and come forth. Those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation.
10:27
I can of myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is righteous, because I do not seek my own will, but the will of the
10:36
Father who sent me. There's profundity in those words throughout this whole passage.
10:44
Let's remember the context of these words, however. The third discourse followed the third sign.
10:51
He healed that lame man with His Word. And now he speaks about giving life through His Word.
10:59
F. F. Bruce wrote, The incident of the cripple at the Pool of Bethesda is a sign of this truth.
11:06
As he received bodily healing through the enabling Word of Christ, so it is through His Word that men and women receive life on the spiritual plane.
11:15
The Son, we've already been told, gives life to whom He will. Verse 21.
11:22
Now we are told who those people are to whom the Son chooses to give life.
11:27
They are those who in faith receive His life -giving Word. Further, they receive the assurance that they will not come into judgment.
11:36
As in John 3 .18, the judgment here in view is the adverse judgment reserved for those who reject the
11:44
Son, but the one who believes in Him is not judged. The believer does not need to wait for the last day to hear the judge's favorable verdict.
11:56
It has been pronounced already. We've already gone through the last judgment as believers, is what he's saying.
12:03
Nor do believers need to wait for the last day to experience the essence of resurrection. Here and now, they've passed out of death into life.
12:11
This anticipation of a favorable verdict and resurrection life sums up what in more recent times we have come to call realized eschatology.
12:22
Eschatology is a term describing the end times or the last things.
12:29
Realized eschatology means that many of these last things have already come into history.
12:36
We're already living in the last days. Realized eschatology. Now before we begin to work through these verses in some detail, let's first summarize the following truths that are set before us.
12:52
First, Jesus declared with assurance in verse 24 that His people, His disciples, have passed from death into life.
13:02
They may be assured that they presently have salvation. They do now possess and enjoy the gift of God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life.
13:13
Then secondly, verses 25 through 27, Jesus declared that He had the authority and therefore the ability to impart spiritual life to those who are spiritually dead.
13:27
This is very important. Many people misunderstand verses 25 through 27. Jesus is the one who causes people to come forth from having been dead without the life that is in God to live in the glory and enjoyment of that life that's in Jesus Christ.
13:46
Jesus Christ causes a spiritual resurrection to take place when people are converted.
13:54
God the Father had given authority to the Son to impart spiritual life, but He also gave
14:00
Jesus authority to execute judgment on those who continue in spiritual death. God gave this authority to Jesus because He was the
14:08
Son of Man. In other words, because Jesus was the promised Messiah, the one destined to reign over the kingdom of God and on behalf of His Father.
14:17
And so throughout this 2 ,000 years of church history thus far, King Jesus has the authority granted to Him to impart spiritual life to those who are dead in sin and also to execute judgment upon those who don't know
14:32
Him. We see all the chaos, all the deterioration, degradation taking place in the world.
14:40
It's evidence of the righteous judgment of King Jesus exercising His rule in history.
14:46
He's saving His people and He's judging His enemies. And it's in view to the last final day of judgment, of course, when eternity will be declared for those two groups of people of which we will speak.
15:01
Thirdly, in verses 28 to 30, we read that God gave His Son authority to raise all the physically dead from their graves and to judge them.
15:11
On that great day of judgment, King Jesus will raise every human being that has ever lived on this earth and then separate
15:18
His people from all the rest, sending them to two separate destinies. He will raise
15:24
His own people unto the resurrection of life. He will raise all others unto the resurrection of damnation.
15:31
That's what Jesus declared. And then lastly, verse 30 reveals that all that the
15:38
Son of God does and will do is because He's acting on behalf of and in the authority of God His Father.
15:46
These are wonderful claims, but challenging claims also.
15:52
And those Jewish leaders who were clueless, you can understand somewhat of their reaction, even though they were culpable for their unbelief.
16:03
Now let's begin to work through these verses with some more careful consideration. First, we see in verse 24, true disciples of Jesus Christ presently have eternal life.
16:19
We read our Lord's words. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears my word, believes in Him who sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.
16:34
So our Lord was giving a word that demanded the greatest attention of those who heard Him. He began saying, most assuredly,
16:42
I say to you. We've seen this expression earlier, and we pointed out that actually this is, in the
16:50
Greek text, a doubling of the word amen. Verily, verily,
16:57
I say unto you, is how the King James translates it. However, the New King James translates it, most assuredly.
17:05
Clearly that's what Jesus was intending to say, but there's something lost, I believe, in that translation. Verily, verily,
17:12
I say unto you. And John, in his gospel, repeats those two words, verily, verily.
17:18
It's unique to John's gospel, and he does so 25 times in his gospel.
17:25
And here in verse 24 is the sixth occasion we've already come across it. Verily, verily,
17:31
I say unto you. The seventh occasion is in the very next verse. Verse 25.
17:40
Now what was it that Jesus wanted his hearers to understand most clearly and thoroughly? Verily, verily, I say unto you.
17:47
Sit up and listen. Jesus said, most assuredly, I say unto you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has everlasting life.
17:59
Jesus used two verbs to describe the one who has eternal life.
18:05
First, he hears Jesus' words, and secondly, he believes in God the
18:10
Father who sent Jesus. That one has everlasting life.
18:18
Now when Jesus spoke of one who hears his word, was he speaking of anyone and anybody who simply physically hears his word?
18:26
Standing there, listening to him speak, who heard his word? Is he talking to every one of us in this sanctuary that are hearing his words as we read them?
18:37
Is that what he meant by the one who hears? I think not. All of us are hearing his words in that sense.
18:45
Unless you're deaf. We're reading them. Is this all that he's suggesting by the verb hear?
18:54
Jesus, when he was referring to, was not merely listening to Jesus' words as they're recorded in the
19:00
Bible as they're being read. He wasn't talking about just hearing physically those who were standing before him as he was speaking.
19:09
Jesus here is speaking about the one who truly hears his word. It's a spiritual apprehension, a spiritual hearing of his word.
19:21
As the Holy Spirit enables the sinner to hear, so as to transform him from a sinner into a disciple of Jesus Christ.
19:29
Paul wrote in a similar way of the Christians at Thessalonica, for this reason we also thank
19:34
God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, I came preaching to you,
19:40
Paul said, you welcomed it not as the word of men. You didn't welcome it as though it was just I telling you about God, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.
19:56
They heard Paul preach, but in reality they heard God speaking to them. And Jesus here says, the one who hears my word and believes on the
20:06
Father who sent me, the same has eternal life. And so the
20:12
Lord Jesus causes people to be saved from their sin, to enter into newness of spiritual life upon hearing from him.
20:21
The Holy Spirit is at work when this occurs. As Christians, we hear someone read the word of God or proclaim it in our hearing, and when the
20:31
Lord is at work blessing his word, we hear it as though the Lord himself was speaking to us.
20:38
That's why we as Reformed, you know as Protestants, have such a high view of preaching. We understand the
20:45
Holy Spirit as work, and to the degree what we say up here is accurate and true to the scripture, the word of God, God is speaking to us.
20:55
If I didn't believe that, I'd quit the work. And so while we hear the word of God as the
21:03
Holy Spirit enlivens it to us, we believe him to be speaking to us. J .C. Ryle, who's so good in these ways, wrote about this matter.
21:11
We see in these verses that the salvation of your souls depends on hearing Christ. Not enough just to hear me.
21:20
Are you hearing Christ? It is the man, we are told, who hears
21:25
Christ's word and believes that God the Father raised him to save sinners, who has everlasting life.
21:31
Such hearing, of course, is something more than mere listening. It is hearing as a humble scholar, and Ryle meant that in the 19th century to simply be a student.
21:42
Hearing as an obedient disciple, hearing with faith and love, hearing with a heart ready to do
21:47
Christ's will, this is the hearing that saves. To hear Christ in this way, we must never forget, is just as needful now as it was 1 ,800 years ago.
21:59
It is not enough to hear sermons and run to preachers, though some people seem to think this makes up the whole of religion.
22:07
We must go much further than this. We must hear Christ, to submit our hearts to Christ's teaching, to humbly sit at his feet by faith and learn of him, to enter his school as penitents, that is, ones who have repented, and become his believing scholars, to hear his voice and follow him.
22:27
This is the way to heaven. Until we know something experimentally of these things, there is no life in us.
22:37
This is the work of God. There are times when God has refused to enable people to hear his word, even when they've been physically hearing his word rehearsed before them.
22:49
And so in Deuteronomy, for example, 40 years after God brought Israel out of bondage, 40 years of having the law of God, Moses teaching them, instructing them,
23:01
Moses said of them, Moses called all Israel, said to them, You've seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, the great trials which your eyes have seen, the signs and those great wonders, yet the
23:17
Lord has not given you a heart to perceive, eyes to see, and here it is, ears to hear to this very day.
23:27
They heard the teaching of the word of God, they received the law, Moses taught the law, but they had never heard it.
23:34
God hadn't enabled them to hear it, that is to really understand the truth and the relevance of it, the importance of it and the value of it.
23:42
That's what it means to hear the word of God in this context. He who hears my word, Jesus says, and believes on him who sent me, he has everlasting life.
23:52
That's what Jesus declared. By the way, Jesus used, and I mentioned two verbs, they're actually participles, and the difference is a verb, of course, describes, oftentimes, action in a sentence, a noun doing action.
24:08
A participle is like a verbal adjective or an adjectival verb, and so it can act like an adjective, describing the noun, also conveying action of the noun itself, and so it's a very expressive word, a participle, and here the word hears and believes are actually participles, and they're set forth in the present tense in Greek, and this is significant.
24:37
What's being conveyed is that these are words of continuous action. The one who is hearing and the one who is believing that God the
24:47
Father sent me, he has everlasting life. This is what characterized the true
24:53
Christian. Therefore, this is no verse, and listen to this carefully. This is no verse to promote a one -time decision to accept
25:00
Christ, which is so popular in evangelical circles. They would say, all you have to do is hear him, and all you have to do is believe, and you're in, as though that hearing were a one -time event and that believing was a one -time decision to believe the gospel.
25:15
That's not what Jesus was saying. He was talking about this is what is characteristic of Christians.
25:22
You're a hearing person. You hear Jesus, and you're a believing person. You believe God the Father, and so this is a continuous action throughout all of life.
25:33
His people began to do so when Jesus Christ put forth his power to raise them from spiritual death to spiritual life.
25:39
They became hearing. They became believing, and Jesus declared that the one who's hearing his words and the one believing on the
25:49
Father who's in him has everlasting life. Jesus declared with authority in verse 24, his people, his disciples presently possess everlasting life.
26:02
We have it now. They may be assured that they presently have salvation.
26:09
They do now possess and enjoy the gift of God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life.
26:16
The simple word has is a present tense verb. We who are
26:22
Christians presently possess everlasting life. Now, in the writings of John the
26:30
Apostle, that is this gospel and say his short epistles, 1st and 2nd, 3rd
26:35
John, eternal life is often set forth as the present possession of believers, like here.
26:42
We have everlasting life. For example, 1st John 5, 12 records, whoever has the
26:49
Son has life. We have it now. Whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
26:56
You either do or don't have it. However, in the other books of the
27:01
New Testament, everlasting life is set forth as a promise that we will one day receive.
27:09
An inheritance that one day will be bestowed upon us. For example, Jesus said in Matthew 19, 29, everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my namesake shall receive a hundredfold and inherit eternal life.
27:29
Notice there it's not a present possession, but it's a future realization and it's promised.
27:35
It doesn't make it uncertain. It's promised, but it's yet regarded as something yet to be inherited rather than a present possession.
27:43
Now, how can you have both these ideas? Eternal life, a present possession. Eternal life is a future inheritance or promise.
27:53
Well, in those places in which eternal life is set forth as a future prospect, the emphasis is on the eternal duration of eternal life, often to eternity.
28:04
We'll inherit that. However, here in John 5, 24, in many places in which eternal life is set forth as a present possession, the emphasis is on the quality of that life, not so much the duration, but the nature of it, the quality of it.
28:24
Jesus declared further in this verse, Most assuredly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation.
28:38
Another promise, another word. However, I would ask the question, how do we understand this?
28:47
Some would say, well, we take it just as it says. Christians will not have to stand in the judgment of God when
28:52
Jesus returns. That's only reserved for non -Christians. Most evangelicals take that position.
29:01
However, the word of God makes it clear that every human being will stand before Jesus Christ, the judge, on the last day.
29:10
There is a general resurrection at the end of the age followed by a general judgment of all mankind.
29:17
And at that time, every one of us will give an account of the words we've spoken, the attitudes we've exhibited, the actions we've performed, and the thoughts that have coursed through our minds, every one of us.
29:30
For example, we read in Hebrews 9 .27, As it's appointed for man to die once, but after this, the judgment.
29:37
And that verse is true of all mankind. It's appointed to all men, once to die, and after this, the judgment.
29:46
2 Corinthians 5 .10, Paul was writing, he included himself, We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he's done in the body, whether good or evil.
29:59
In Romans 14 .10, Paul wrote, Why do you pass judgment on your brother, or you?
30:04
Why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. So how do you deal with this?
30:14
Every human being is going to stand before the judgment seat of God, and yet Jesus here promises you shall not come into judgment.
30:24
Well, what it simply means is that Christians will not come under condemnation in their judgment. That's what he's talking about.
30:32
The Christian will not be condemned on the day of judgment. You will not come under judgment.
30:39
You'll go through judgment, but your life is going to testify to the fact that you're a believer.
30:44
You'll not be condemned in that judgment. Christians will be able to stand exonerated from sin, free of shame on that day, and they will do so, of course, for they will stand in the righteousness of Christ before the judgment seat of Christ.
31:02
The full text of Hebrews 9 .27 makes this clear. Just as it's appointed for men to die once after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
31:23
Yes, we're going to stand before the Lord in judgment, but that judgment will not condemn us.
31:30
It will confirm that we were believers by our speech, by our attitudes, by our actions, by our thoughts.
31:40
Now let's look at the final clause of John 5 .24. It reads,
31:46
Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears my word, believes in him who sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.
32:01
The beauty of the Greek language is its ability to be very precise in its expression. The verb used here, has passed, is a perfect tense verb.
32:14
And what that means is simply this. It speaks about the action of the noun, you passed from death into life.
32:22
The action of the noun is having happened at a single point in time in the past, but the effects continue even now.
32:31
And so he's talking about having passed from death into life at the moment that you were converted. You passed from death into life.
32:40
It declares the one who hears the words of Jesus, believes on the fathers in him, had passed from spiritual death into spiritual life that they currently have and enjoy.
32:50
The Lord was not saying that hearing and believing resulted in passing from death into life.
32:56
He's saying those who are hearing and those who are believing, they were ones who had passed from death into life.
33:03
Hearing and believing is a result of King Jesus giving you life, not the cause of it.
33:12
They had been recipients of a spiritual resurrection from spiritual death into spiritual life. And the evidence of having done so was in their hearing and believing.
33:23
This has some significant and important implications for our understanding of our standing before God. Listen to this paragraph.
33:30
That for one who hears his word and believes God who sent him, eternal life has already begun.
33:37
The judgment of God has lost its fearsomeness. We don't need to fear the judgment. We shouldn't.
33:43
And death had been superseded. What makes this pronouncement special is, of course, that the final decision that determines the life and future of human beings, that is spoken of here and in what follows in eschatological language, that is in end -time language, is transferred from the future to the present.
34:03
I think we've already been to the judgment, as it were. In accordance with the word that Jesus speaks is the one sent by the
34:11
Father and with the answer people give to it. The distinction between the present and the future is not thereby canceled out, but eternal life does begin qualitatively in the present.
34:22
Death also gains a different content than what it usually has for humans.
34:27
Already in this life it is experienced as a passage to true eternal life, and this loses its awe -threatening, ultimately critical character of the future.
34:38
It is no longer ahead of a person, but behind him or her. When we die in the
34:47
Lord, we just go sleep, right? Bodies go sleep. We consciously go to be with the
34:52
Lord. But we're not subject to death. Jesus, we'll see later in John's Gospel, will never die.
34:59
We've already gone through, came out of that death into life, is what he's saying. And that'll never cease.
35:09
Now, in John chapter 3, when we talked about new life that God gives his people, he told
35:15
Nicodemus, the metaphor or illustration he gave was that of the new birth, being born again.
35:21
But here new life is not likened to a new birth, but rather it's likened to a spiritual resurrection.
35:30
Both are true. Both speak to the same transformative experience that God works in his people when he brings them to salvation.
35:38
You're born again, and it's equally just as valid to say you passed from spiritual death into spiritual life.
35:45
You were spiritually resurrected from the spiritual dead onto spiritual life.
35:52
And so when the Lord put forth his power to save us, he raised us. You've already encountered a resurrection.
35:59
The Bible refers to it, at least in one place, in my opinion, as the first resurrection, spiritual resurrection.
36:06
That's what happened when you became a Christian. One of the most clear teachings of salvation is a resurrection from spiritual death onto spiritual life is in Paul's epistle to the
36:17
Ephesians. He first wrote of the authority of the Father that he gave to his son.
36:24
And then Paul wrote about how that power is operative in saving people from their life of sin into spiritual life and eternal life.
36:33
So Ephesians 1 .22. And he, that would be God the Father, put all things under his feet, that would be
36:40
God the Son, Jesus Christ, and gave him, Jesus Christ, to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
36:51
And you he made alive. That's what happened when you were converted. You he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the devil, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit now who works in the unbelievers, the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh.
37:19
That's what governed us, our sinful desires. However, now we enjoy spiritual life.
37:28
For what changed that was God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins, made us alive together with Christ.
37:42
He did that. You didn't bring it about. He did. Made us alive together with Christ by grace you've been saved, and raised us up together.
37:53
What that means is, Jesus Christ is enthroned in heaven, and you and I as Christians are enthroned with him.
38:01
We can experience the reign of grace in our lives over sin, certainly over death.
38:09
We're no longer controlled by it, enslaved by it. He set us free.
38:14
We still struggle with it, but as we've commonly said, before we were converted, we struggled, we fought against God in order to sin.
38:22
Now we fight against sin in order to serve God. Everything changed. Before we move onward from verse 24, let me illustrate what's meant by the
38:33
Lord's words. He who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has everlasting life. Over the years,
38:40
I've often quoted a friend of mine, and maybe you in the men's group would know it more clearly.
38:47
He was a simple down -to -earth man, a man from Arkansas, Doug Moore. I recall him telling me several times, this was his favorite verse in the
38:58
Bible, John 5, 24. This is what the Lord used to convert him. He said that at that moment when he read this verse, he knew that he had become a
39:10
Christian. He had heard the words as having come from Jesus to his soul, and the result is he believed the gospel, and the
39:17
Lord wonderfully saved him and his brother about the same time. He and his brother weren't far apart in age.
39:25
I remember him telling me that they were both born to their mother in Arkansas. Each of them weighed 13 pounds at birth.
39:30
I don't know how I remember that, but I remember that. But it was this verse.
39:38
True salvation is a work of grace, whereby the Lord Jesus speaks to his people through his word.
39:45
You're listening to the Lord speak. It's real. I know it's real. He's telling me
39:50
I need to hear and believe on him and believe the gospel. That's not just that man standing up there talking to me.
39:58
I hear God speaking to me. I hear Jesus Christ speaking to me. It's his word.
40:08
Well, now we read in the next two verses more information regarding the spiritual resurrection unto life that the
40:14
Lord performs upon his people. That's what we have in verses 25 through 27.
40:21
Jesus has the authority and ability to grant spiritual life to the spiritually dead.
40:28
Jesus spoke of his power to bring forth spiritual life to those who are presently spiritually dead in their sin. Verse 25.
40:34
Most assuredly. And there's the other, the seventh occasion in John's gospel.
40:39
Verily, verily, amen, amen, I say to you. The hour is coming and now is.
40:46
And again, I underscored that phrase. Now is. He's not talking about a future resurrection.
40:53
He's talking about resurrection in this world and this age when the dead will hear the voice of the
41:00
Son of God and those who hear will live. It's a statement of the sovereign authority of Jesus Christ to impart spiritual life to those who are spiritually dead.
41:11
Everyone who is saved is because King Jesus issued the command to live.
41:19
Herman Ritterbos wrote of this verse, As an expression of Jesus' messianic consciousness, it may perhaps be considered the most powerful pronouncement in John's gospel.
41:33
Here in verse 25, we have another example again of verily, verily. Jesus said,
41:38
The hour is coming and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.
41:46
Now, when we read over these verses quickly, without much thought, we might assume he's talking about the future bodily resurrection of the dead at the second coming.
41:56
And some people think that. Well, they're wrong. It's clear
42:01
Jesus is talking about a spiritual resurrection, not a physical resurrection. He declared,
42:07
The hour is coming and now is. As one wrote,
42:12
We might understand it of raising the dead at the last day, were it not for the now and now is.
42:18
This shows that what is primarily in mind is the present giving of life that characterizes the ministry of the
42:24
Son. In him the last age is vividly present. Men's eternal destiny is determined by their attitude to him.
42:34
Those who are spiritually dead hear his voice and those who have heard it live. Hear, of course, means hear with appreciation.
42:42
Take heed. Again, it's the work of the Spirit. And so by these words, in verse 25,
42:51
Jesus was declaring that the long -awaited kingdom of God had arrived and he as the
42:56
Messiah, as the King, had the authority and ability to raise people unto spiritual life to enable their entrance into the kingdom of God.
43:04
As one wrote, The hours coming and now is are emphatically forward. And what he meant by that in the
43:10
Greek text, the order of the Greek is different than the order in English. It's a lot like German. They'll put words toward the front of the sentence for emphasis.
43:19
And that's what he's saying here. The hours coming and now is is at the start, beginning of the Greek sentence.
43:24
The time referred to is that of the New Testament era, which as Jesus speaks still is coming since the work of redemption is not yet complete and which yet now is since Jesus is here and his saving work at his very moment rings in men's ears.
43:38
It is thus impossible to refer to these words to the last day and to interpret them with reference to the resurrection at the last day.
43:46
The Jews to whom Jesus is speaking need not wait till later time. The hour to escape from death is now right here.
43:55
And again, we can say that for ourselves today, right? We can escape death now and today.
44:02
Hearing the words of Jesus and believing on the Father who sent him. We're not going to take time, but we can go back to Ezekiel 37 with the prophecy of the
44:11
Valley of Dry Bones. It was given by Ezekiel to the exiles in Babylon in the 6th century
44:19
B .C. Israel was in bondage to Babylon, a thousand miles away from home.
44:27
The nation destroyed. They never thought the nation could live again. And this prophecy of the
44:33
Valley of Dry Bones was set forth. And it wasn't just speaking about a recovery of physical
44:38
Jews back to the physical land, nor is it talking about a future gathering of Jews back to the promised land in this day before the second coming.
44:46
It's talking about a spiritual resurrection of people who are dead in their sins.
44:54
God asked Ezekiel, can these bones live? You know, Lord. They're not going to live by my doing.
45:01
Only you can do it. And so God told Ezekiel, you start preaching to them. And so Ezekiel did.
45:08
And as he did, those bones came together. And they stood up. A great mighty army.
45:15
And yet the word says there was no life in them. And then God told
45:20
Ezekiel, you prophesy to them. You preach to them. And as he did, he said the wind came upon them and infused life in them and they were a living mighty army.
45:29
That's a prophecy of people coming to salvation. And that's what we have experienced.
45:37
Because of the power of God to raise the dead, Jesus Christ caused you and me to come forth onto everlasting life from everlasting death.
45:48
Down toward the bottom, page eight. I don't want to get through here. Please bear with me in these last minutes that we have.
45:56
We read further in verse 25. Jesus said the hour is coming and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the
46:02
Son of God and those who hear will live. Earlier, in verse 24, the emphasis was on continual hearing and continual believing.
46:13
Here, however, the word hear is future tense. They will hear. The hour is coming.
46:19
Now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God. And when you and I were saved, we heard the voice of the
46:27
Son of God. He issued the edict, live. And that's how and why you became a
46:33
Christian. Wouldn't have happened otherwise. The second hear, when the dead will hear, that's future, will hear the voice of the
46:43
Son of God and those who hear. It's set forth in English in all the translations as present tense.
46:49
But it really shouldn't be. It's a past tense verb in Greek. Those who, when the dead will hear the voice of the
46:57
Son and then those who heard will live. Those who heard the voice of the
47:03
Son of God. It speaks about that single moment in time when the Lord issued forth the command for spiritually dead people to live, to have spiritual life.
47:17
We won't read about that. Let's move over to the top of page 9 quickly. We next read in verses 26 and 27.
47:35
The first word of this sentence is the word for. It's a conjunction. It tells us that what comes after explains what went before.
47:45
And so, the first word for begins this explanatory sentence. It provides the explanation why
47:51
God, why Jesus is able to do this work of imparting life. It's because God has given them the authority and the ability to do so.
48:01
It says that just as life is in God, life is in Jesus Christ. And so he has this ability.
48:08
Verse 27 states that God the Father entrusted his Son with the authority to judge the world.
48:15
The Father gave him authority because he's the Son of Man. Most of the time, all the time, in the
48:20
Synoptic Gospel of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the Son of Man is Jesus' self -designation.
48:25
Nobody called him the Son of Man. He called himself the Son of Man. And what he meant by that on the Jewish Messiah. Here in John's Gospel, in this instance, he's probably speaking about his human nature.
48:37
The reason God gave him authority to judge mankind because he himself is a man in his human nature.
48:44
And so he judges mankind. And now look at verses 28 and 30.
48:51
We're going to wrap it up with this and deal with it more next week. After having dealt with the spiritual resurrection when you're converted, now he talks about the future general resurrection at the end of the age with the second coming of Christ.
49:07
Do not marvel at this. For the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves, he's not talking about a spiritual resurrection.
49:15
He's talking about a physical resurrection. They're in the graves. All that are in the graves will hear his voice and come forth.
49:24
Those who have done good to the resurrection of life. Those who have done evil to the resurrection of damnation or condemnation.
49:33
I can do nothing of himself. As I hear I judge. My judgment is righteous because I don't seek my own will but the will of the
49:39
Father who sent me. Jesus said don't marvel at this. Why is he saying that?
49:46
Why, as it's recorded by Paul in the book of Acts, he says King Agrippa, why do you think it's an amazing thing that God can raise the dead?
49:55
Why should you think that that's such a problem that God can't overcome? And hear
50:00
Jesus say don't marvel at this. One day God's gonna raise everybody from the dead. It's an easy thing to do for God.
50:10
That's one reason he said don't marvel at this. And I think the second reason he says don't marvel at this he's really pointing at the fact if you're gonna marvel at something marvel at the spiritual resurrection that we just got done talking about.
50:25
Don't marvel at this, the bodily resurrection. Marvel at this, the spiritual resurrection. It's nothing for God to put life in a dead body.
50:34
It's really something to put life in a dead sinner who is actively opposed and rebellious.
50:40
Marvel at that. That work of grace. I think that's why Jesus said don't marvel at this.
50:48
And then we'll close with this word just to stimulate your thinking a little bit. Verses 28 through 30 in my opinion renders the teaching of premillennialism non -biblical.
51:01
Renders the teaching of dispensationalism non -biblical. There's no place in the understanding of a premillennialist who believes
51:11
Jesus will come and then there will be a thousand year earthly millennium and then the last judgment.
51:17
There is no way that you can fit in a general resurrection and general judgment in that scheme.
51:24
Jesus says the hour is coming when both things are gonna take place. The dead in Christ will rise and those outside of Christ will rise and then they'll be separated.
51:35
Alright? The dispensationalist or the premillennialist has to put a thousand years in between the resurrection of the just and the resurrection of the unjust and it just doesn't go there.
51:48
They argue it from Revelation 20. There's a thousand years that separates the judgment of the righteous from the judgment of the unsaved.
51:56
They say we take the Bible literally. They take Revelation 20 literally they claim but they don't take
52:01
John 5 28 through 30 literally. I take
52:06
John 28 through 30 literally. There's an hour coming. In other words a singular event that will take place and all who are in the graves are gonna come forth.
52:18
There's not a thousand years difference between Christians and non -Christians being resurrected. They're all coming forth on a single event a single occasion of the second coming of Christ and then he's gonna judge them separating them as Matthew wrote in Matthew 25 the sheep from the goats and the goats into everlasting damnation but the sheep into life everlasting to inherit the kingdom prepared from eternity by God the
52:43
Father for them. And so next Sunday we'll talk about this. The future general resurrection the future general judgment of all mankind and we'll show you why the other position is just not tenable and although wonderful many godly
53:02
Christians sincerely believe to that and I did for years until I came across passages like this and then finding many of the old writers who made it all fit together for me.
53:16
We're looking for one second coming of Christ not two and it's a day of the resurrection when all are gonna come forth from the graves.
53:26
We who are alive and remain to the coming of the Lord will be caught up first but all shall come forth and then we'll stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
53:35
We as Christians will not stand to be condemned we'll be standing to be exonerated and glorified because we're gonna be standing in the righteousness of Christ.
53:45
But those without Christ what a day of horror that will be when they will have to face all of the privilege and opportunity they had hearing of Christ all of the rejection and disregard of our witness to them and they'll be consigned to eternity a resurrection of damnation that Jesus speaks about here.
54:06
Very important matter. We'll address it next Sunday. Lord will it. Let's pray. Thank you
54:12
Father for your word. We pray you help us to understand these things with precision and clarity inform us, instruct us but most of all our
54:22
God help us to live in the light of these truths. Thank you for your great grace in saving us.
54:28
We recognize our God. You saved us by your grace and there was nothing of us that commended us in any way to you but your purpose to be merciful and gracious and to glorify yourself and glorify your mercy in saving us from our sin.
54:45
And we pray Lord that we would declare this gospel widely and fully. We thank you that these are the days in which you call forth the spiritual resurrection of those who are spiritually dead and that you call them to the gospel.
54:59
And we're seeing that realized in many lives. It's a wonderful thing. And help us our Lord to be faithful and true and true to your word so that you can bless our message to the furtherance of the kingdom.