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Sermon #53 — 1st John Series

 

            Title:                           “Life is in His Son”

 

      Text:                                  1 John 5:11-12

            Subject:                     Life in Christ

      Date:                                Tuesday Evening — January 14, 2014

      Readings:           Mark Warta and Bob Duff

      Introduction:

 

I am honored of God to have my life so intertwined with yours that I cannot escape the cares, and burdens, and trials, and heartaches that you carry. In recent weeks and months, many who are dear to us, many of you and many of our friends, our brothers and sisters, have been again in the furnace of affliction. Some of those trials our friends endure are known to you all. Others are known only to me, those who bear them, and God who sent them.

  • Some of our friends are at death’s door.
  • Others wish they were.

How honored of God we are to be able to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. It is a great blessing of God that he graciously mingles our lives together.

 

“We share our mutual woes;

Our mutual burdens bear;

And often for each other flows

The sympathizing tear.”

 

That is a great blessing; but it is also a great burden.

 

As your pastor, as God’s messenger to your souls, I have a very, very heavy burden to carry, a burden that no one else knows anything about, except another pastor. —— It is my responsibility to prepare you for eternity, to prepare you to meet God. I know that I can’t do that. It is altogether God’s work, the work of his grace, to prepare you to meet him face to face. But God does that work by the instrumentality of his Word, by the preaching of the gospel. And I take that work and responsibility very seriously. It is a heavy, heavy burden, a burden from which there is no relief.

 

Illustration: “Is it well with your soul?” — “If you have told me the truth, it is.

 

In the light of these things, I have prepared this message. May God the Holy Spirit give me his grace and power to preach it; and I pray that he will graciously cause each of you to hear it, for Christ’s sake.

 

I want to talk to you tonight, with all the plainness, simplicity, and clarity possible, about eternal life in Christ. I want you to know God. I want you to have God’s salvation, eternal life in Christ. My text is 1st John 5:11-12.

 

1 John 5:11-12 And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. (12) He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

 

The title of my message is found in verse 11. — “Life is in His Son.”

 

I know to whom I am preaching.

  • Most of you are members of this church.
  • This is our Tuesday night crowd. Most of you regularly attend services here three or four services a week.
  • You have been baptized. You have been members of the church for a long time. You give generously to support the cause of Christ.

But I am going to preach to you, as I know I should, as men and women, boys and girls, immortal souls living upon the brink of eternity, about to meet God, immortal souls who may meet God at any moment. — Is it well with your soul? Are you prepared to meet God? Do you have eternal life?

 

And this is the record.” — What does that word “record” mean? This is the record. This is the testimony. This is the truth of God. This is the record of God. — That God hath given to us eternal life.” — Now listen. — And this life is in his Son.”

 

God’s Gift

 

This is the truth. This is the testimony of God. “This is the record that God hath given to us eternal life.” He didn’t sell it. He didn’t barter it. He didn’t lend it. He gave it to us, eternal life. — “And this life is in his Son.” — Now, listen to the next line. — He that hath the Son of God hath life and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” He does not have eternal life.

 

Three Statements

 

I want to begin this message with three very important statements, three plain, clear, important statements. I am going to begin the message with these three statements; and I will close the message with these three statements. — Listen to them.

 

1.    Here’s the first statement. — Eternal life, eternal life, the life of God in the soul, eternal glory, heaven, eternal life which God gives is not even a possibility, apart from the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Eternal life is not even a possibility apart from Christ, because the Scripture says, This life is in his Son.” That’s right. So, without Christ, without his Son, it is not even a possibility. This life is in his Son.” That is clear. That is plain. Eternal life is in Christ. Without Christ eternal life is not possible (Colossians 1:19; John 3:14-16).

 

Colossians 1:19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell.

 

All fulness, all life, all grace, all mercy dwell in Christ. Christ is the habitation of mercy, and grace, and life. Christ is Life; and Christ is the source of life. He is the Fountain of all blessings. All grace, all life, all salvation is in him and comes from him (Colossians 2:9-10). He said, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life!

 

Colossians 2:9-10 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. (10) And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:

 

Now here is a passage of Scripture with which everybody is familiar. This is a verse of Scripture that every Sunday School child learns early. I suppose it is the first one that most our children were taught to memorize — John 3:16. Look at it with me. I am saying that eternal life is not even a possibility outside of Christ, apart from Christ because this life is in his Son.”

 

John 3:14-16 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: (15) That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. (16) For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

 

That is clear enough. Isn’t it? Eternal life is not in the church. It is in the Son. — You say, “But, Bro. Don, I am a church member in good standing.” Eternal life is not in the church. It is in the Son! Eternal life is not in the altar, or the mourners’ bench, or the sinners’ prayer, or baptism, or the church roll. Eternal life is in the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ! — This life is in his Son!

 

You say, “Pastor, I live a good life. I try to keep the law. I read my Bible. I pray. I keep the sacraments.” — But eternal life is not in your good life. Eternal life is not in the law. Eternal life is not in your Bible reading. Eternal life is not in prayer. Eternal life is not in the sacraments. Eternal life is in Christ. — This life is in his Son!

 

This is the record God has given us in his Word. — “This life is in his Son.” The Bible, the Book of God, is God’s record of this fact; and the Bible is the only source of information there is about salvation, and life, and heaven, and God, and Christ, or anything else spiritual. And the Book of God tells us plainly that there is no possibility, none whatsoever, of eternal life apart from the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

1 John 5:11-12 And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. (12) He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

 

Listen to this Scripture. When Christ who is our light shall appear, then shall ye appear with him in glory.” — He is life. Without him, there is no possibility of life. —— All right. Here is the second statement…

 

2.    There is no possibility of resurrection, no resurrection from the dead, without Christ.

 

Everybody talks life beyond the grave and resurrection. Everybody talks about going to heaven, when we are going to be raised, when we are going to live together in heaven, when we are going to meet mother in heaven, and all those wonderful things in heaven. We die; and we are buried; and we are going to be raised in the last day.

 

Well, let me tell you something. Resurrection from the dead to eternal glory, is fantasy without Christ. All that is nothing but an empty wish apart from our resurrected Lord. He is the Firstborn from the dead. He is the Firstborn of every creature. He is the first begotten from the dead. He is the Life; and he is the Resurrection. Paul put it this way, If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins! — If Christ be not raised there is no resurrection.

 

Lazarus had died. You remember the story. In the little town of Bethany there were three people Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, two sisters and a brother. And our Lord frequently came to that home and visited with them. Then, one day, Lazarus died. Martha and Mary sent for the Savior. Finally, after three days, the Lord Jesus came. He stayed away on purpose. They had already buried Lazarus. He had been in the grave several days. Martha ran out to meet the Master. Let’s look at what she said and what the Lord Jesus said to her (John 11:20-26).

 

John 11:20-26 Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him: but Mary sat still in the house. (21) Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. (22) But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee. (23) Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. (24) Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. (25) Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: (26) And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?

 

Christ is the Resurrection. There is no resurrection apart from Christ. It is fantasy. It is an empty dream. It is hogwash apart from Jesus Christ. That’s right. There is no resurrection from the dead apart from him who is the first begotten from the dead.

 

There is no eternal life apart from Christ; and there is no resurrection apart from Christ. It is an impossibility. It is nothing but fantasy. — Here is the third statement.

 

3.    There is no possibility of peace with God apart from Christ, no possibility of peace with God without the sin-atoning blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

 

We hear a lot about peace with God. But I am telling you that peace with God is an impossibility without the blood of Christ. There is no peace without the blood of Christ. Christ “made peace through the blood of his cross (Colossians 1:20). Apart from his blood there can be no peace between man and God.

 

2 Corinthians 5:17-21 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (18) And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; (19) To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. (20) Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. (21) For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

 

I know that folks talk about people making their peace with God. I have heard that ever since I was a boy. — “He made his peace with God.” How did he do that? How did he do it? Did he just erase the wrath of God? Did he just blot out the wrath of God? How did he make peace with God? We hear people say, “Well, I am at peace with my maker.”

 

But the Lord God described that kind of peace. He said, “They say, Peace, peace, when there is no peace.” Peace comes from the Prince of Peace. Having made peace with God through the blood of his cross he says, “My peace I give unto you.”

 

We are not the ones who decide whether there will be peace with God. He is the one that determines the terms of peace. God determines the terms of peace. He alone can make peace; and he alone can give peace (Isaiah 59:1-2; Romans 4:25-5:11).

 

Isaiah 59:1-2  Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: (2) But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

 

That’s where our problem is. Our iniquities have separated us from God. No man can make peace with God until he can remove his sin.

 

Romans 4:25-5:11 (The Lord Jesus Christ) was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. (1) Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: (2) By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (3) And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; (4) And patience, experience; and experience, hope: (5) And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. (6) For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. (7) For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. (8) But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (9) Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. (10) For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. (11) And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.

 

We have “peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” That is where peace is. It is in Christ. It is through Christ. “By whom we have access into this grace wherein we stand.”

 

We need someone to go to God for us. Do you know what we need? We need a Mediator. Now a Mediator is not of one. A Mediator is of two. And if there is a Mediator present his presence tells us that something is wrong. When you call in a Mediator, you do so because two sides are at an impasse. They can’t get together. And that is what we need is a Mediator.

 

We need an Advocate. What is an advocate? It is one who pleads for us. An advocate is a lawyer, one who takes up our cause and our case. We need an Intercessor. Someone to plead our cause with God in heaven, a Daysman, a Go-between, a Mediator, an Intercessor. — That is what Christ is. There is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. There is no peace with God apart from that Mediator. You are not going to make peace with God. You are not going to settle things with an almighty, holy, eternal God.

 

We’ve got to have the Mediator, Christ Jesus! But a mediator has got to have something to plead; and I’m here to tell you that the Lord Jesus Christ has something to plead that a holy, just, and true God cannot refuse (1 John 2:1-2).

  • Righteousness
  • Propitiation

 

1 John 2:1-2 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: (2) And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

 

Do you see these three things? We’ve got to have Christ.

  • There is no possibility of eternal life without Christ.
  • There is no resurrection without Christ.
  • There is no peace without Christ.

 

Seven Facts

 

Now, let me give you seven facts, seven things to remember. This is why I need Christ. This is why we must have him.

 

1.    There is a holy God I can never please.

 

Immaculately, infinitely, eternally, unspeakably holy is the Lord God of heaven; and I cannot in any shape, form or fashion please that God. In my flesh dwelleth no good thing. No mere man can please God, but Christ my Savior, the Godman pleased him, and pleases him still! — God the Father said of my Lord Jesus, “This is my Son in whom I am well pleased.”

 

2.    There is a holy law I cannot keep.

 

You can talk about it all you want to, write about it all you want to, and preach about it all you want to; but you can’t keep God’s holy law. Neither can I! All of us are guilty of breaking God’s law continually.

  • Blasphemers — Speaking God’s Name without Reverence!
  • Idolaters — Covetous!
  • Liars!
  • Thieves!
  • Adulterers!
  • Murderers!

 

There is a holy law, a spiritual law, a law that reaches not just to the act, but to the attitude, not just to the deed, but to the thoughts, to the spirit. And I can’t keep it. Paul said, “When the law came (when the law came to me in its spiritual demands), sin revived and I died.” He was one of the most moral men whoever lived and yet when he faced God’s holy immaculate, impeccable law he said, “I died.”

 

I can’t keep the law. You can’t keep the law. But, blessed be God, Christ kept it! My Savior kept that law perfectly. He said, “I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill the law.” And that is what he did for his people.

 

3.    There is a righteousness I cannot produce.

 

There is a righteousness God demands, a righteousness God must have. In fact, the Lord Jesus said this to his disciples (Matthew 5:20).

 

Matthew 5:20  For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

 

There is a holiness without which we cannot be saved (Hebrews 12:14).

 

Hebrews 12:14  Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:

 

I can jump over a barn, if you let me build the barn. And I can be perfectly holy, if you let me determine what holiness is. I can be perfectly righteous, if you will let me make the standard. But when God builds the barn it is too high. And when God determines what holiness is, I am a total failure. And when God sets the standard of righteousness we are all failures.

 

But Christ brought in everlasting righteousness! He is the end of the law for righteousness. He is our Holiness. He is our Righteousness!

  • He was made sin for us!
  • We are made the righteousness of God in him!
  • His name is Jehovah-tsidkenu, The Lord our Righteousness!

 

4.    There is a sin I can’t put away.

 

Your sins have hid his face from you. Your sins have separated between you and your God. There is a sin problem. I say with David, “My sins are ever before me.”

 

Aren’t yours? Don’t you mourn over your sins and grieve over your iniquities? I can’t put them away. You can’t put them away. But he can; and he did! It said “Once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” And he said, “Your sins and iniquities I will remember no more, no more.” He bore our sins in his body on the tree and paid for them. He separated our iniquities from us as far as the East is from the West!

 

Illustration: The Three Page Book

 

In Christ we have no sin. — “In him is no sin!

 

5.    And then there is a death, there is a death for sin that I cannot escape.

 

The Scripture says, “The soul that sinneth shall surely die.” No question about it, no way to beat the wrap, no loop holes. — “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.”

 

 

But wait a minute. But Christ said to Martha, “He that liveth and believeth on me shall never die!” He was made sin for us. He who knew no sin was made sin for us. He suffered for sin, the just for the unjust that we might not die, that the curse of the broken law, the curse of sin and God’s judgment for sin shall not fall on us. It fell on him. That is what he did on that cross. He died under the weight of our sins. And, now, believing on him, I shall never die.

 

6.    There is a judgment I don’t want to face.

 

And you don’t either. Everybody talks about going to the judgment. You don’t want to go to the judgment, not on your own, not by your own merit.

 

2 Corinthians 5:10-11 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. (11) Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.

 

Revelation 20:11-15 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. (12) And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. (13) And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. (14) And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. (15) And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

 

But, blessed be his holy name forever, there is no judgment for God’s elect! Christ was judged for us.

 

Romans 8:1-4 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (2) For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. (3) For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: (4) That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

 

Romans 8:33-35 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. (34) Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. (35) Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

 

7.    There is an eternal life and an eternal glory that I covet, I desire.

 

I want eternal life. Don’t you? I want to attain unto the resurrection of the dead. I want to so badly, so desperately; but it is beyond my ability, beyond my ability. But it is not beyond his (Philippians 3:20-21).

 

Philippians 3:20-21 For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: (21) Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.

 

  • Are you in darkness? He is the Light.
  • Are you a sinner? He is the Friend of sinners.
  • Are you hungry? He is the Bread.
  • Are you thirsty? He is the Water.
  • Are you poor? He is the Riches of God’s grace.
  • Are you weary? “Come unto me,” he said, “I will give you rest.”
  • Are you weak? He is our Strength. He is our Strong Tower.
  • Are you guilty? He is our Refuge.
  • Are you dead? He is the Resurrection. He is the Life.
  • It is all in him.

 

Three Statements

 

Now, let’s go back over those three statements I made before. I tell you a lot of the problem with preaching today is not what men are saying. It is what they are not saying. I am trying to say what most are not saying. And I am trying to say it plainly, clearly, and forcefully. I want you to see what I am saying clearly for yourself in the Word of God. So I repeat these three statements.

 

1.    Eternal life is not even a possibility without Christ.

 

You needn’t talk about it, think about it or plan on it. It is not a possibility apart from the Lord Jesus Christ; for God hath given us eternal life and this life is in his Son. And he that hat the Son of God hath life and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

 

2.    There is no resurrection without Christ.

 

And I have gone many a time, and stood before many an open grave, and watched that casket go down and the dirt being put in and we stand there and talk about a resurrection. We talk about oh, one day, there will be a resurrection. One day we are going to meet again. Will the circle be unbroken? We are going to be in heaven with all our friends and loved ones. That is all fantasy, utter, absolute fantasy apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s right.

 

But in him resurrection is a certainty because he said, “Because I live, ye shall live.” He said, “I am the resurrection and I am the life.” And if Paul said in 1st Corinthians 15 — If Christ be not risen we are false witnesses. Our faith is vain. Everybody who has died is gone forever. We are of all men most miserable. There is no resurrection if Christ be not risen.

 

But I will tell you. Our graves will open because his opened. And we are in him. That is a promise; and, when it’s all said and done, that is the only thing there is!

 

3.    Peace with God. Peace with God is an impossibility without the blood of Christ because he made peace through the blood of his cross and reconciled us to God.

 

And without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. There is no reconciliation and there is no remission. But Christ hath once suffered for sin, the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God.

 

“There is a fountain filled with blood,

Drawn from Immanuel’s veins,

And sinners plunged beneath that flood,

Lose all their guilty stains!”

 

1 John 5:11-12 And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. (12) He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

 

Amen.

 

 

Don Fortner

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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