What Think Ye of Christ?

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I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to John chapter 3 and hold your place at verse 31.
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John chapter 3 and we're going to be reading verses 31 to 36, bringing us,
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Lord willing, today to the end of this chapter. The most important question that one could ever be able to answer and would want to answer correctly would be the question,
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What think ye of Christ? Now that's the King James rendering of that particular phrase.
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It comes to us in Matthew's Gospel, Matthew chapter 22 and verse 42,
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Jesus speaking to the Pharisees. He says, What think ye of Christ?
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Or in a more modern vernacular, What do you think of Christ? Who do you think he is?
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What do you think he has come to do? What do you think of Christ?
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D .L. Moody, in commenting on this verse, said the question is not what you think of this church or that church.
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Not what you think of this minister or that minister. Not what you think of this creed or that creed.
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Not what you think of this denomination or that denomination. The question is not what do you think of this belief or that belief.
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But the question is, What think ye of Christ? And I think that is the proper question.
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In our last message we saw how the disciples of John the
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Baptist had gone to him and that they had remarked that the ministry of Jesus was growing.
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And they said to their leader, they said, Rabbi, look, all the people are going after him.
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And John's response in that lesson was a lesson in humility when he said that it actually fulfilled his joy to see
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Jesus' ministry increase and his own ministry to decrease. John even said,
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I must decrease and Christ must increase.
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That has become the very model of ministry humility down through the ages.
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Often times in our prayers you will hear either myself or one of our other elders when we pray,
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Lord, may it be that I decrease and Christ increase.
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Today we continue with the words of John the Baptist as he recites the wonderful truths of who
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Christ is, his nature and his authority. And I want to give you a quote from J .C.
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Ryle as we open the scripture together. I want you to hear what J .C. Ryle, the great Anglican scholar, wrote about this particular passage.
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Speaking of John chapter 3 verses 31 to 36, he says, More honorable things are nowhere written concerning Jesus than these verses recorded as spoken by John the
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Baptist. Nowhere ever has there been written that which is more noble, more complete than that which is written here by John the
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Baptist. He says, Let us endeavor in life and death to hold the same view of John the Baptist to which
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John here gives expression. We can never make too much of Christ. Our thoughts about the church, the ministry and the sacraments may easily become too high and extravagant.
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But we can never have too high a thought of Christ. We can never love him too much.
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We can never trust him too implicitly. We can never lay too much weight upon him. We can never speak too highly of him in praise.
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He is worthy of all the honor we can give him. He will be all in heaven. May it be that he is all in our hearts on earth as well.
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So with those words in mind, let us stand and read God's word. We're going to read, again, beginning at verse 31.
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Beginning at verse 31. John the
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Baptist is speaking. He who comes from above is above all.
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He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way.
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He who comes from heaven is above all. He bears witness to what he has seen and heard.
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Yet no one receives his testimony. Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true.
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For he whom God has sent utters the words of God. For he gives the Spirit without measure.
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The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.
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Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the
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Son shall not see life. But the wrath of God remains on him.
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Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name. We come to you,
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Lord, and we ask in this moment that you would humble us under your word.
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That we might look to your word as the very source of truth. And Lord, that we might drink from the fountain of the word today and be satisfied.
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Lord, I pray that as I preach your word, as I pray every time
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I preach, Lord, that you would keep me from error, knowing that I am a fallible man and my capacity for error is great.
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So I pray that you would keep me from error. I pray, God, that in the moments to come, that as your word is preached, that your
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Holy Spirit would take these words, that he would cause it to be mixed with faith.
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That he would place it not only into the ear or to the mind, but in the heart of everyone who is listening. And Lord, by the preaching of the gospel, the preaching of your word, that your people would be edified, built up in the most holy faith.
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And Lord, for those who are not yet your people, who have not yet bowed the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ, that they would be humbled by your word and that they would humble themselves and seek
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Christ. And Lord, God, that they would hear these words when it says that whoever believes on the
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Son has eternal life, but whoever does not obey the Son does not have life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
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Lord, may it be that you would draw them with your love or terrify them in your wrath. Whatever be the means of drawing into your kingdom,
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Lord, we pray for we shudder for the lives and souls of those who are outside the kingdom today.
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And I pray, Lord, as I preach, that I would preach as a dying man to dying men, as if it were the last time
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I would take the pulpit. And Lord, may there be an unction and an urgency in the preaching of your word today.
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In Jesus' precious name, amen. It's often been said that if a sermon does not point to the
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Lord Jesus Christ, then it's not a proper sermon. There's a story of one of the students of Charles Spurgeon who preached a masterful sermon exegeting a particular passage, but he never mentioned
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Christ. And when he asked Spurgeon about the message when he was finished, Spurgeon said it was a good history lesson or something to that effect.
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But he said, but your sermon did not have Christ, therefore it was not good. And sometimes when we're making our way through Old Testament passages, sometimes it's hard to see where this might point to the
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Lord Jesus Christ. And we don't want to read into the text something that's not there, but we know all texts ultimately the whole
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Bible points to Jesus. But it is a wonderful thing, I say all that simply to say it's a wonderful thing to come to a passage like this that's all about Jesus.
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And I could not preach Jesus today. I could not preach the Lord Jesus Christ in this passage.
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He is the very focus from the beginning to the end. And so it is a great joy to be able to stand before you this morning and say,
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I won't be like Spurgeon's student and not be able to preach Christ today. Because I couldn't.
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Because this whole passage from beginning to end is about the
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Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, it's three parts and then a conclusion.
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And this is the outline for you today. The three parts are we're going to look first at Christ's superiority. And then we're going to look at Christ's testimony.
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And then we're going to look at Christ's authority. And then finally, we're going to look at our responsibility to trust and obey this
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Christ. So Christ is the very center of our preaching and should always be the very center of our preaching.
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But today especially, it will be centered around the Lord Jesus Christ, taken from the words of John the
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Baptist. John the Baptist, I believe, is speaking in this section. And it begins with his recognition of Christ's authority.
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Look with me at verse 31. He who comes from above is above all.
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He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all.
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In this verse, John is comparing himself to the Lord Jesus Christ.
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He says, he who is from above. In that text, he is speaking of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. The phrase from above is actually the very same phrase which is used earlier in John 3 when
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Jesus said, unless a man be born again, he will not see the kingdom of God.
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The phrase born again actually means to be born from above. And this same phrase from above is used here.
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The same Greek word is used here when John says, he who is from above is above all.
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And therefore, John is making a juxtaposition between himself and Jesus. He says,
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Jesus is from above. He is from heaven. And this is speaking of the deity of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus was born of a woman regarding his humanity, but he is from eternity regarding his deity.
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This is an important distinction that we can make between ourselves and Jesus Christ. We all have a starting point.
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I was just thinking about that this week. I know where I was born.
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I was born not too far from here. I was born on 8th street in what used to be called
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University Hospital. Now it's Shands. But I was born there the first time
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I saw the light of day, April 2nd, 1980. Nine months before that,
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I was conceived. And since I believe life begins in the womb, I was from the 70s.
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But I can say this, prior to my conception, I did not exist. Prior to my conception, though God knew me from eternity, and had set his affection upon me, and had chosen me out from before time began, even though those things are true,
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I personally did not exist prior to my conception. I don't believe in anything regarding past lives.
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I don't believe that the souls were in heaven waiting to come down. As some people believe, the
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Bible says God forms us in the womb. And it is from there that we begin to exist.
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But Jesus Christ pre -existed the womb. Jesus Christ pre -existed
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Bethlehem. He is in the Old Testament. A lot of people say, well, what about the
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Old Testament and Jesus? No, Jesus is there. Jesus is in the
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Old Testament. We see pictures of Jesus in the Old Testament. Jesus is on his throne, high and lifted up in Isaiah chapter 6.
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We see Jesus interacting with Abraham in Genesis chapter 18.
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And I would even argue that it was likely Jesus who walked with Adam in the cool of the day in the garden.
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So Jesus Christ pre -existed Bethlehem, but he also pre -existed creation.
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See, if you talk to the Jehovah's Witnesses, they'll tell you, yes, Jesus pre -existed Bethlehem, but he was created at the beginning.
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They will say he was the first and greatest creation of Jehovah. But that is not what the
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Bible teaches. The Bible does not teach that Jesus is created by God. The Bible teaches that Jesus shares the nature of God and he himself is also eternal.
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Therefore, when it says he who is from above is above all, it is speaking of his deity, of his divinity.
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It is speaking of the fact that he has always existed. He is from above and is above all.
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For just a moment, I only want to turn here for a second, but just for a second, turn over to Colossians chapter 1.
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In Colossians chapter 1, we have what I would say is one of the most explicit expressions of the deity of Christ in all the
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Bible. Colossians 1, 15 to 20. If you remember a few years ago, those of you who have been members here for a while,
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I preached through Colossians and I spent several weeks in Colossians 1, 15 to 20 expressing the deity of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. But I want to just remind you again what it says in that important passage.
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Because in Colossians chapter 1, beginning at verse 15, it says he is the image of the invisible
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God, the firstborn of all creation. And the word firstborn there does not mean created being. It means preeminent or one who is above all.
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He's saying the same thing that John says here in John 3 when it says he who is from heaven is above all. Paul is saying that when he says he's the firstborn of all creation.
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That means he is above all. For by him, notice verse 16, for by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him.
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By the way, you fit into that category. You are all things. You're part of the all. Therefore, Jesus is your creator because all things were created through him, but also notice for him.
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You were created through Christ, but you were also created for Christ. You were created to glorify him.
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You were created to serve him. You were created to be his. You were created for him.
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And it goes on to say, and he is before all things and in him all things hold together.
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The Bible says that God is holding all things together by the word of his power. Jesus Christ is holding all things together.
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When you look out at the vast universe, when you look out at the amazing amount of space that is filled with stars and planets and galaxies, all of that is being held together by the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Just a few weeks ago, when we were on our family vacation, we took our kids to NASA.
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And we had the opportunity to see the video about the
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James Webb telescope, which is the newest of the telescopes to have been sent out into outer space.
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First, it was the Hubble scope. When I was a kid, the Hubble went out and took pictures that went far beyond any
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I had ever seen. And now the James Webb telescope has gone even further than the Hubble telescope, showing us galaxies and universes and stars and planets beyond what we could ever imagine before.
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And understand this, Christ is ruler of them all. And Christ is holding all of it together by the word of his power.
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This passage tells us, in him all things hold together.
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And it goes on to say, and he is the head of the body, the church. He's the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, in that everything he might be preeminent.
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He is first. He is supreme. He is superior. Christ is above all.
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Go home and read Hebrews chapter 1. The writer of Hebrews tells us Christ is superior to all.
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So now going back to John 3. He who comes from above is above all.
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He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way.
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John is now speaking of himself. He is now making a distinction between he who is from above and is above all, and he who is from the earth and speaks in an earthly way.
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John himself is from the earth. He uses the word geis here in the Greek for the earth. He doesn't use the word that we would normally speak of as world.
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He's not saying he's of the world in a worldly way. Normally we think of world like sinful.
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Like the Bible will say, you know, don't love the world nor neither the things therein. But in this term, he's using the idea of the earth as a created thing.
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And what John is doing is he's distinguishing between himself as creature and Jesus as creator.
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He who is from above and he who is from the earth. And I love this illustration. I always love to remind you guys of this illustration.
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Those of you who've never seen it before, this illustration is just a reminder that there are only two categories that really make up all of reality.
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And the categories are creator and creation. And the only one that fits in the creator category is the triune
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God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Everything else falls into the category of creation. Whether it's rocks or trees or rivers or oceans or planets or stars or galaxies, it's all creation.
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You and I are creation. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, the blessed three -in -one, the triune
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God, that God is the only one who fits in the blue category. He's the only one who fits in the category of creator.
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And you might ask the question, well, you say God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Is that three gods?
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No, the Bible says we have one God who exists in three persons. The Father, the
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Son, and the Holy Spirit have always existed. And they share the being of God.
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Jesus said in John 17 when He was preparing for the cross, when He's speaking to God, He's speaking to the
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Father. And He says, Father, glorify me with the glory that we shared before the world was.
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Jesus referred to the fact that He shares the glory of the Father. He is, in fact, God in the flesh.
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This is why we call Jesus God incarnate. The Word was
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God and the Word became flesh. Therefore, He's preeminent. John says,
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I'm from the earth. I speak in an earthly way. But he who is from heaven, he is above all.
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So this is John's expression of the superiority and supremacy and the preeminence of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. In John 3 and 31. But he moves on from there.
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After speaking of Christ's superiority, he then moves on to talk about Christ's testimony.
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Look with me now at verse 32. Speaking of Christ, it says,
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He bears witness to what He has seen and heard, yet no one receives His testimony.
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Whoever receives His testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true.
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Now, notice the phrase when he says, He bears witness to what He has seen and heard.
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When Jesus spoke about God, when Jesus spoke about the realities of heaven and hell, when
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Jesus spoke about eternal things, understand this, Jesus wasn't speculating.
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He was speaking of what He knew to be absolutely true. He was speaking of what
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He had seen and heard. He was speaking, understand, this might be a strange way of looking at it,
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He was speaking from experience. Why? Because verse 31 says,
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He is from above. He's been there. He can speak about the presence of the Father because He is from the presence of the
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Father. He understands better than anyone. And this is a terrible comparison, but I'll make the comparison and maybe it'll make sense in your mind.
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I'm from Jacksonville. Therefore, I can speak with some level of authority about Jacksonville because I've been here my whole life.
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Never lived more than 30 minutes from where I was born. I can't speak about New York because I've never been there. Praise the
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Lord. I can't speak about California. Jerry could speak about California because him and his family are from California, but I've never been there.
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But I can talk to you about Jacksonville because I've seen it and I've heard it. I know how 295 works.
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Used to be called 9A. I know how 95 cuts right down the middle. I know the places you ought to go and the places you ought not.
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I know a little bit about Jacksonville because I'm from here. Not only does
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Jesus have perfect knowledge because He's God, but He also has experiential knowledge because He's from heaven.
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He's from above. Therefore, when He speaks, He's not speculating. On Friday of last week,
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I had the opportunity to speak at the funeral of a dear friend,
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Ms. Kathy Coppin. She used to be a member of this church. And as I often do,
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I talked about John 14 where Jesus says, let not your hearts be troubled.
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You believe in God, you'll believe also in me. In my Father's house, there are many rooms. And then He said this, if it were not so,
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I would have told you. If it were not so, and I always stop at that point.
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I said, you know why Jesus said, if it were not so, I would have told you? He's telling us it's not a lie.
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It's not pie in the sky. It's not a false hope. He said, if it weren't true,
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I would have told you. If the promise of heaven were not true, I wouldn't give you false hope.
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If the promise of eternal life were not true, I would have told you. But I tell you this, in my
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Father's house, there are many rooms. That's the promise of Christ.
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And how does He know? Because He's been there. Because He's from there. And when
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He speaks, He speaks as one with experiential knowledge. The God of the universe became flesh and He came down from heaven and He said,
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I know all about it. And therefore His testimony is of what
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He has seen and heard yet.
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Notice the yet. Yet no one receives His testimony.
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Now, the phrase, no one receives His testimony is rhetorical.
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Because in the very next verse, notice what it says. Whoever receives His testimony, so there are those who did.
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But rhetorically, John is saying, He has come and He has preached about the things that He knows.
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He's preaching about what He's seen and He's heard. And what do the people do? They reject
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Him. I want to tell you this, it should never surprise you when you tell people about what
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Christ said and they reject it. Because that's the very nature of man, is to reject
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God's Word. It should actually surprise us when they actually believe it. We should actually be surprised when they turn.
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Because that's a miracle. Unbelief is not a miracle. Unbelief is the default setting of the human heart.
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But when God opens the heart to believe and a miracle happens and they actually do turn and believe, that's the miracle.
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So John says, He bears witness to what He has seen and heard. And yet no one receives His testimony.
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He's not giving a blanket, a universal statement. He's using the rhetorical phrase, no one receives what
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He has heard. But we could also say there is truth that no one on their own receives it. The only way anyone receives the truth about who
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Christ is, is by the work of the Spirit. The Bible says that the natural man hears the
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Word of God. And what is it to him? Foolishness to him. The Bible says that the natural man does not receive the things of God.
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So God is the one who has to do a work in our hearts that we might receive it.
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And for those who do receive it, it's a life -changing reality.
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And that's what we see in verse 33. It says in verse 32, He bears witness to what
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He's seen and heard. Yet no one receives His testimony. Whoever receives His testimony, sets
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His seal to this, that God is true. Now, that particular phrase, sets
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His seal to this, is rather obscure in our own language.
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But I hope to make it make sense to you. I was talking to my son, JJ, about this last night.
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We were, oftentimes on Saturday night, I'll talk to them about what the sermon's gonna be about. And we'll walk through.
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And when I got to this part, he seemed particularly interested. Because the
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NIV says that the one who receives the testimony of Christ certifies that God is truthful.
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The New Living Translation says it affirms that God is truthful. And I think both of those are kind of trying to get the idea here of what
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John is saying. The term set His seal is the original language, the original
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Greek word here that's being used is related to the use of a seal when a governor or a king or even a landowner would have a particular seal that he would use for sealing documents.
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Much like today, we use our signature to seal documents. We place our signature as a seal of what we have said or what we have believed, what we have trusted in.
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Just a few weeks ago, a friend of mine asked me to come. He was adopting a new baby. And they were getting the baby through a foster care agency.
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And he called me and we'd been praying for him for years to receive a new child. We're very grateful that God opened up that door for them.
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And he called me and he says, we're getting a baby. We're so excited. Would you come with me?
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Because there has to be someone here to witness our receiving of the child and sign the papers that you've witnessed us receiving the child.
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This is a part of the plan. And we want you to come. Absolutely happy to do it.
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Glad to do it. Got in the car, drove a couple hours down and got to be with them, seeing them receive their baby.
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And when they handed me the paper, I signed that I witnessed the truth that they had taken possession of the child, that they had taken their, not possession, what's the word
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I'm looking for? Custody, custody of the child. I had to witness them taking custody of the child.
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So how does this work in this case? Whenever we receive the testimony of the
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Lord Jesus Christ, what we are saying to the world is we are saying that in our hearts, we have certified, we have signed our name.
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We have laid our seal to this fact that we believe that what Christ says is from God.
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We are trusting in what Christ has said. And we are laying our seal to this fact that Christ said it, and it's from God himself.
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When you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, when you believe on the
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Lord Jesus Christ, you are giving a testimony about what you believe about him, about where he came from, who he is, what he has done and what he means to you.
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You are giving testimony of that. And you're saying this, what he said is actually from God.
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So again, hearing it back, whoever receives his testimony, sets his seal to this, signs his signature to this, gives testimony of this, that what
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God has said is true. And so we hear the testimony of Christ and those who receive the testimony of Christ actually affirm it.
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What's the opposite of that? What is the opposite of that? The opposite of that would be to reject the testimony of Christ, would be unwilling to confirm the testimony of Christ, be unwilling to receive it.
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John MacArthur said this about this particular passage. He said to reject Jesus's testimony is to call
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God a liar. So those who receive his testimony, bear witness, we lay our seal to this,
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God is true. But if you reject the testimony of Christ, you have called God a liar. So again, whoever receives his testimony, sets his seal to this, that God is true.
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And now we move to verse 34 and we see Christ's authority. We've seen his supremacy, his superiority in verse 31.
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We've seen his testimony and our response to his testimony in verses 32 and 33. And now we will look at his authority in verse 34.
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Notice what it says in verse 34. It says, for he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the spirit without measure.
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The father loves the son and has given all things into his hand.
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Remember this, Christ's words are God's words. And God has filled
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Christ with the spirit without measure. And this is one of those hard things to think about.
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And honestly, I get a little perplexed myself when thinking about this. When we think about Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ is fully divine.
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And yet, when he goes about preaching and doing miracles, he says he's doing it by what?
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The power of the spirit. And he's doing it under the authority of the father.
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And so the ministry of Christ is a continual ministry of the triune God. The father sends, the son goes, and the son goes in the empowerment of the spirit.
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And this text tells us when God sent his son, he empowered him with the spirit beyond measure, without measure.
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There's no limit to the spirit's power in Christ's work. Christ goes about doing what he does as the physical manifestation of the work of the triune
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God. God the father, God the son, God the Holy Spirit, working out his will through the life of Jesus Christ.
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And in verse 35, it says the father loves the son and has given all things into his hand.
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The father loving the son emphasizes the intimacy that exists within the
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Trinity. It emphasizes the fact that there is intimacy that has always existed.
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And I know you may have heard people say this. Maybe you've thought about this yourself. Some people have said in the past, well,
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God created the world and he created man because he was lonely and he wanted something to love.
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There's a big problem with that. One, God doesn't get lonely because God is a perfect being who needs nothing.
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This is what we call the aseity of God. The aseity is just a big theological word for his self -existence.
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He needs nothing. He doesn't have anything from the outside of himself that would give him anything.
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He is completely self -existent. So we call that the aseity of God. So God doesn't get lonely.
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But we do believe that God has loved throughout eternity. But how has he loved?
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There has been an inter -Trinitarian expression of God's love within himself, father, son, and spirit for all time.
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God did not begin to love when he made something to love. But God has always loved and he has always been loved.
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And his love has been expressed in the Trinity. The father loves the son.
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The son loves the father. The spirit loves the father and the son. And this particular phrase, the father loves the son, we see this in several other passages.
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In John 5, it says in verse 20, for the father loves the son and shows him all that he is doing.
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John 10, 17, for this reason the father loves me. John 15, 9, as the father has loved me, so I love you.
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John 17, 24, Jesus said, Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me may be with me where I am to see the glory that you've given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
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Jesus expresses over and over and over again this love relationship between him and the father.
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Bob Utley in his commentary on this passage says this affirmation about the love of God is repeated throughout
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John and the believer's relationship to God is founded on his love for the Messiah. Note the number of reasons stated in the context why humans should trust the
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Messiah because he is from above, because he is above all others, because he sent from God. And because God continues to give him the fullness of the spirit, but most of all, because God loves him.
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The father loves the son. If you have any reason today in your heart that you're doubting whether or not
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Christ is worthy of following, of trusting, of putting your faith in, know this, God the father has loved the son and given all things into his hand.
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What better person could you place your trust in than the one whom the father has loved and given all things?
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Somebody would say, well, if Jesus is already God, then why did God have to give him anything?
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That doesn't make sense. Sounds like a contradiction. If you say
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Jesus is God, but God had to give all things into his hand, this is an important part of Trinitarian theology.
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And again, this is part of understanding the whole of scripture. Jesus, of course, is
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God in the flesh, but in his incarnation, there was a stepping down of humility into creation, whereby he humbled himself.
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And in his humility, he took on flesh, lived the life of a man, died naked, beaten, and nailed to a cross.
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And with that and through that, God has now exalted him back to the position where he stepped down from.
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He humbled himself so that he could do what he did. And this isn't my opinion.
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This is what Paul tells us in Philippians chapter two, which I quote all the time. And I know you guys know
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I have my favorite verses. Philippians chapter two is among them. And if you listen to me preach for a month or two at a time, you're going to hear
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Philippians two at least once because Philippians chapter two, verse five says, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God as a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant by being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form.
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He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
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Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus Christ, every knee should bow in heaven, on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is
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Lord to the glory of God the Father. Jesus Christ stepped down into our world.
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He took on flesh. He humbled himself for what purpose? That he could live the life that we couldn't live.
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We live sinful lives. Christ lived a sinless life. We die deaths that are because of sin.
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Jesus died having never sinned, so he died for our sin. And when he was resurrected and he was sended into heaven, he was exalted to the right hand of the
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Father. And that's what it means when it says at this point, when John is speaking, it says here that the
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Father has given all things into his hand because he has stepped down and the Father is saying, it is all yours.
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And you know what's going to happen? The Bible says at the end of the age, Christ is going to come at the end of the age and the consummation of everything, and he's going to deliver the kingdom over to his
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Father as a gift. It's all things have been delivered into his hand. He's going to hand it right back and say that God would be all in all.
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It tells us in Corinthians. It's amazing if you think about the whole of the story.
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But now we come to the final section. And this is
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John concluding. With what Brian Bell says, he said it was an altar call that would shake even the most complacent, proverbial fence.
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I thought that was a neat thing because, you know, you hear the term altar call. We don't really do altar calls here at Sovereign Grace.
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And if you don't know what that is, an altar call is in some churches. They'll have benches set up at the front or maybe just the steps.
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And there'll be a certain portion at the service where the preacher will say at this point, if you want to receive
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Jesus or if at this point, if you want to be prayed over or if at this point, if you want to come lay your burdens at the altar, come forward and.
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Lay down on the bench and pray. Now, I personally am not opposed to having a place for people to come pray.
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I don't think that's a problem. Really, I do have an issue with coaxing people to come to the front as a way of producing false conversions.
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I think that can be a problem. But the call for a decision is not a problem. The call for you to examine your heart is not a problem because the
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Bible does it over and over. And when we arrive at verse 36, what we're arriving at, we are arriving at the moment where John is saying to his disciples, understand this, there are two ways.
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There are two ways. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life.
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Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life. But the wrath of God remains on him.
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That's a call. That's a call of decision. That's a call for you and me and everyone else to consider who is this man,
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Jesus. Jesus himself said there are only two paths, only two roads.
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There is the narrow road which leads to life and the narrow road is
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Christ himself. Or there is the broad highway which leads to destruction.
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And the broad highway has many signs on it.
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Personal fulfillment, gratification, pleasure.
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There are even signs that have religious symbols. Islam, Buddhism, Mormonism, on and on and on.
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The broad way is littered with signs saying go this way, go this way, go this way.
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But Jesus said there is only one way that leads to eternal life and it is through him.
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I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.
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People hate the exclusive claim of Christ but it is no less true no matter how much it is hated.
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And this text, very important just to remind you, these are all present active verbs.
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Whoever believes in the son has eternal life. Belief is not something you did years ago but belief is something that continues in our life.
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Belief is not a one time decision but it is a decision which continues throughout our life.
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We continue to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and we have as our present personal possession the gift of eternal life.
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It's ours now. It began when we believed and we still have it and we will have it in eternity.
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But I want you to notice the juxtaposition in this text and this is hugely important. I almost attempted to preach a whole sermon on just this but I don't think
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I'm going to. But consider the juxtaposition that John gives us here.
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He says whoever believes on the son has eternal life but whoever does not obey the son does not have life.
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Now you would think that it would say whoever believes on the son has life but whoever does not believe does not have life.
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But he doesn't say that. He says whoever believes on the son has life but whoever does not obey the son does not have life.
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I want to be very careful not to confuse you today.
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If there is anybody who holds to the doctrine of sola fide that we are justified by faith alone in Christ alone, it's me.
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That's a hill I'm willing to die on and that is a doctrine I believe in and will fight to my dying breath.
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I believe that it's true. But I will also say this.
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Saving faith will never be devoid of obedience. Saving faith will result in obedience to the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Not perfect. That's why we continue to need grace. What is the first thing we are called to do in obedience to Christ?
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Believe. Believe. So when he says whoever believes on the
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Lord or who believes on the son has life but whoever does not believe or whoever does not obey the first thing that we know they're not doing, they're not believing.
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They're not believing because the first command is to believe on the son and they're not doing that.
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But out of the life of faith flows the works of God. For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourself it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast.
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For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which
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God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. The natural understanding of the gospel is that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone and that salvation results in our sanctification which is good works brought forth by the spirit, lived out in the name of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, whoever believes on the Lord, whoever believes on the son has life and that life will be a life change.
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But whoever does not obey, whoever looks at the Lord and says I know you've told me to believe but I won't.
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I know you've commanded me to take up my cross but I won't. I know that you have said come to me you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest but I don't want your rest.
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That person does not have life but the wrath of God abideth on him.
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That also is in the present tense because we are by nature children of wrath according to Ephesians chapter 2.
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We are by nature children of wrath and the only way to receive pardon from the wrath of God is through the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Have you received that pardon today?
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Have you received the pardon of your sins by trusting on the
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Lord Jesus Christ or are you still right now under the wrath of God?
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You might say my life's pretty good. I don't feel like I'm under God's disfavor.
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I got good money. I got a good wife. I got good kids. I got a good life. Why would I feel like I'm under the displeasure of God?
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In Jonathan Edwards' great sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God and if you've never read it
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I would encourage you to or go get Max McLean's great version of it. Max McLean read it and he has this wonderful, just powerful voice that reads that sermon to you and it's almost like you can hear
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Jonathan Edwards preaching it. But in that sermon there's one illustration that has stuck with me ever since I first read it.
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He said, imagine a spider on a web over a flame that at any moment the web could dissolve and the spider would fall and be engulfed in the flame.
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And he says, we all are like that spider who are outside of Christ.
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We are only a breath away from being enveloped in the wrath of God and Jesus calls us to turn and come to him.
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So today you are either in Christ and you have eternal life or you are rejecting
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Christ and the wrath of God abideth on you.
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Where are you today? In a moment we're going to have the table.
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We're going to share in the bread and the cup which reminds us of the body and blood of Christ.
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This is for those who have eternal life because it reminds us of what Christ did to procure that life.
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He gave himself on the cross. His blood was shed. His body was broken that we could have life eternal.
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If you're a believer, you don't have to be a member of this church, but if you are a believer, we want to encourage you to participate with us.
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The way that we would ask you not to participate, one, if you're not a believer or two, if you are from a church and your church has placed you under some form of corporate discipline and you have not reconciled with that church, we would ask you to hold back.
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Otherwise, if you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, then we would encourage you to participate with us as we remember the once -for -all sacrifice made for sin.
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We're going to sing the song, Trust and Obey, because that's what Christ calls us to. Trust him and follow him.
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So let's pray. Father, thank you for the opportunity to be reminded today of the blessed gospel that whoever believes in the son has life, but Lord, we're also reminded of the one who does not believe, the one who does not have life.
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And Lord, we pray by your mercy that you would give life to those who are here who do not yet have life.
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And for those who do have life, that they would be encouraged in their faith today to see the superiority of Christ, to see his testimony, to recognize his authority, and be glad that we have a savior, the