Gospel

Now we're going to read, please, from John's Gospel, chapter 1. First chapter of the Gospel according to John, and for the last section of our meeting today, it will be a presentation of the Gospel. Verse 1 of John, chapter 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.

All things were made by Him, and without Him, I want to emphasize that statement, without Him was not anything made that was made. I want to notice three things in our reading in John chapter 1 this evening. First of all, I want you to notice an immeasurable poverty.

You cannot measure the length or the depth of this poverty, and it really is expressed in this statement, without Him, without the Lord Jesus Christ, a person is in the depth of poverty. The second thing that we're going to read is the invitation of a remarkable expression of grace, a very precious, blessed, present invitation. And the third thing that we're going to remark is an inevitable change in our life.

It's an inevitable change, and I do trust that there are persons here this evening, and one of the burdens of your heart as you have sat through the meetings in this conference is the fact that you're left outside of it all. You don't see any beauty in that ministry that we've been listening to, and as far as the meetings are concerned, you're glad to be with your friends, but there is something missing, and without Him, you are in a depth of immeasurable poverty. But thank God, friend, the gospel of grace, God has told us to herald it forth.

There is an invitation from heaven tonight, and I trust someone will take it in, change your life, and you need it. You need a change, especially in relation with God. So we'll continue our reading, please.

Verse 3, all things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. That's where men get their life.

Notice further down to verse 9, that was the true light. That's a title, as you notice, capitalized. That was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world, and he was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.

He came unto his own, and his own received him not, but as many as received him. To them gave he power or authority to be called the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born and received that new life, not of blood didn't come because their parents were saved, nor of the will of the flesh, not because of some decision they make, nor of the will of man. It's not by human design, but it's of God.

You must get it from God. Notice in verse 17, for the law was given by Moses, that's what condemns us, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Verse 29, the next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

Look further down now please to verse 36. This is again John the next day after verse 35 reads, John stood and two of his disciples, and looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God. And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.

Then Jesus turned and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, which is the same being interpreted, Master, where dwellest thou? He said to them, Come and see. They came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. One of the two which heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.

He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messiah, which is being interpreted, the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus. May the Lord bless our reading of his word and help us, and I hope friend tonight there's someone in this meeting, and our passage tonight will be a message just to meet your need.

That's one thing about the Bible. When you're turning to the Bible, and that's why we wish to direct you tonight, friend, in the preaching of the gospel, to look at what God says, because that's what settles it. The Word of the Living God is the final authority.

You can trust it, you can trust it with your soul, you can trust it with your life. The precious, unchangeable Word of God. And what we want to try and notice with you is what is in that Word.

And if you are ever going to get the joy of knowing the burden is lifted, my sins are forgiven, my soul is saved, you're going to get it from the Word. That's what will give the assurance, the Word of God. Notice with me the first thing that we have before us in our passage, is being without Him.

Now did you notice, friend, in our reading it doesn't say without an experience. Sometimes, and I'm speaking now from my own experience, for I received God's salvation, I received the Lord Jesus as my Savior when I was a boy of nine years of age. And I had a struggle.

It's hard to believe that, isn't it? But I did. I had a real struggle. I wanted to know my sins forgiven.

I wanted to be sure that I would never go to hell. When I died as a sinner, I wanted God's salvation. And I thought I knew how, because my mom and dad were saved before me.

And I went to Sunday school, and I did listen in some of the gospel meetings with a desire to get something, but I never got anything. And so not only was I confused, but I was made to recognize that if this is the way you get salvation, I'm not going to get it because I can't figure it out. You know what my mistake was, friend? I was trying to create a process whereby God would bring me into His salvation.

The great secret I had to discover is these two words, without Him. You're going to have to come to grips, friend, with the person of the Lord Jesus. There's no other way of receiving eternal life and the deliverance from judgment which you deserve as a sinner.

There's no other way than you must come face to face with the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no shortcuts. You've got to get down to business.

It would be great wisdom on your part to get alone in your bedroom with your Bible, on your knees, and in honesty before God, come to grips and face and bow to the Word of the Lord Jesus Christ. For without Him, the first thing I want you to notice is in verse four, without the Lord Jesus, you have missed the reason that He gave you life. It's an amazing thing, friend, to just remember that the fact, the reality that you are alive tonight is by divine permission.

He gave you life and giving you life, dear young man, dear young lady. He had a purpose in it. He's not playing games.

He's not playing chance. He gave you life. Other babies probably born the same day.

That was my experience. There was other babies in the hospital the day that I was born and they were born dead. Why did God give me life? I've got to get the reason for that.

You also, dear young folk, why are you alive? Well, this text is teaching us that the main reason that God has chosen to give you life is He wants you to get His Son and enter into the great blessings that He has determined and designed for humanity that will come to His Son and receive salvation, a righteous salvation, so that all your sins would be put away, never to be brought up against you, and your soul to be fitted to dwell in the glory of what we have just been listening to, in the presence of the blaze of the presence of eternal God, and to be at home, to be able to rejoice evermore. Without Him, you've missed the reason that He gave you life. So I ask you kindly, friend, what are you spending your life for? What is it that you are giving your life to? Have you ever come to grips with this, that without the Lord Jesus, I will live and die as a guilty sinner? Without Him, that is the great subject that I trust tonight will touch your heart, for I believe, friend, it's so easy for you, as it was for me, to be on the wrong track and trying to figure things and thinking God's putting me through a process kind of a wringer, if He can wring it out of me.

No, friend, it's the person of the Lord Jesus. You've got to get down to business with Him personally, and without Him, you are absolutely poor. You do not have the very reason for which you're alive.

Now as we move through the Scriptures, it is amazing to notice how God takes an interest in children. I suppose the obvious one, just to bring to your attention, is Samuel. You remember how God spoke to that little boy, just a boy, but he had his eye on because he loved him.

He wanted Samuel to be with him in eternal glory, and he touched his heart when he was but a boy. And I believe there are those in our audience tonight, and some of you have sat through gospel meetings, and there's been occasions when you really wanted to have that sin burden lifted, and you haven't gotten it yet. The problem is you're on the wrong track.

You've got to get down to business with the Lord Jesus. Without Him, you've missed the reason that you are alive. So if God has touched your conscience, and made you aware of your sinfulness, and brought you into the consciousness, friend, that if anything happened to you, and you die as you are with your history as a sinner, you will righteously go down into hell, and eventually the lake of fire.

He's telling you because he loves you. He's reminding you that your little life is not for this world and things. Your life was given to you so you may know him, and the wonders of all the reality of his great salvation.

So without the Lord Jesus, your life is empty as the value for eternity. No relationship with heaven, no Savior within, no hope for eternity. Without him, you have missed the reason that you are alive.

But can I notice with you the next thing we read about the Lord Jesus? It tells us that he is the light coming into the world to light every man. He is the light. I struggled to try and understand God's Word as to how I could have the assurance of salvation, and I want to tell you, it was mighty dark.

I knew scriptures that I learned from my Sunday school teacher. I can remember being on the platform with the other line of children saying our little texts, and I can repeat them still, the very texts that I said in those days. But you know, when I was searching after God's salvation, those texts didn't, they didn't even say anything to me.

I was looking at them from a wrong viewpoint. And friend, tonight can I say to you that the only way you're going to be able to see God's salvation is from the light. Again, you're absolutely dependent upon the Lord Jesus, because he is the light.

He is the one that shows it. He is the one that makes it clear. And every other avenue that you may pursue to try and get rest will become empty.

It's a dead-end street. You will not find it, friend, for without the Lord Jesus there is no light. Man may have a Bible and be in the dark.

You may have texts that you have learned from childhood. Your mommy taught you the very first one, didn't she? Be sure your sin will find you out. You must be born again.

But you're in the dark, and when you have tried to get a hold of salvation you have discovered, I don't know how to say, I can't see it. I can't see it. No, friend, because you've got to get down to business with the Lord Jesus.

That is the only answer. You must get to know the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the light, and apart from him, men are in the dark.

Oh, what an awful reality it is for people to die in the dark spiritually. Friend, could I say to you very kindly, to die without the Lord Jesus, dying in the dark, wandering on the broad road, and dying on the broad road is to enter into eternal darkness, never to see a ray of sunshine, never to see a spark of a star, never to have the penetration of any light from heaven. Everlasting darkness without the Lord Jesus.

God help you to see tonight, friend, and get down to business with this fact. Without him, I'll live and die in the dark. I've got to get to know the Lord Jesus.

That's the secret. You must get down to business personally with the Lord Jesus Christ. But can I note with you again what we read in verse 17? God says the law was given by Moses, and you know, sometimes the law is used to show to us our sin.

I remember when my father taught me what sin was. I was a very, very foolish boy. I outrightly told him a blank lie.

I did it purposely, a big dummy that I am. And of course, my father, he had to discipline me for that, righteously. But what he did was, when he took me in the bedroom, he got me down on my knees, and he says, I'm going to tell God what you have done.

And he did. And he quoted that verse in the Ten Commandments. Thou shalt not bear false witness, tell a lie.

I never, ever forgot that. The law condemned me, and I didn't know how to get rid of that burden of guilt. I am a guilty sinner.

I willfully sinned, not only that occasion, but many occasions. And your guilt, friend, your sins, they're there, and the finger of the law is pointing to you and saying, you are a guilty sinner. That's what God says.

Why don't you turn to the epistle to the Romans, chapter 3. God looks at the whole world individually, and he says, all the world is guilty before God. And friend, without the Lord Jesus, there's no grace and no truth. That's what's in our little text there.

The law was given by Moses, but, but says God, here's my message for you. You have a burden of guilt. Your history is marked by your sin, but grace and truth have come by the Lord Jesus.

And if you've never entered into the blessing of that grace, you've never come to grips with his truth. Friend, you're still going to bear that burden. You're going to bear it into the judgment morning for your own sin.

You see, grace from the Lord Jesus, it's the Lord Jesus and what he has that he's bringing within your grasp. He is available to be trusted by guilty sinners. And what is he bringing? You remember what he said to the man that I read to you today that was on the bed? Thy sins be forgiven thee.

He has that authority, friend, to be able to say to you that you will not be brought into judgment for your sin. That's by grace, not because you're doing the right thing, but it's a gift of grace. He has that, and he has eternal life.

He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. That's what grace is bringing, exactly what the sinner needs, so that he will be able to stand in the presence of a holy God and not to be condemned, not to have to worry about that burden, because of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. So friend, you must get down to business with him.

Let me repeat it again and again. Grace comes from the Lord Jesus. Turn to him as a burden sinner, and there is forgiveness through our Lord Jesus Christ.

It's the same with truth. See, sometimes we have our own interpretation of different things, and I know very well that I had my own interpretation of, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And the man asked me one time, what is it in that verse that saves? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.

I said, believing. No, he says you're wrong, and he didn't tell me the answer, and I was wrong. Friend, believing never pays for sin.

Believing never gives to God a satisfaction for my sin, but the text says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the answer. He is the one friend that is the truth.

It's taking what he says, not what I think that I should be doing to satisfy God so he'll move toward me. No friend, God has already moved toward you. He so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.

He sent him to Calvary, which is the next text that we're looking at in our little passage, verse 29. The Lord Jesus went to the cross as a sacrificial lamb. He was offered on behalf of others to God as a satisfaction for their sin.

That's what's in our question. But without him, without the Lord Jesus, you have no answer for your sin, and you have no satisfaction for God. It's only in the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.

So without the Lord Jesus, man is in absolute, immeasurable poverty. He's missed the reason that he's alive. He has no light.

He's in the dark. He's never received the blessings of grace. He's never believed the truth, and he has no answer to God for his sins.

Oh friend, I do trust tonight that you will not go to your rest in your bed with that lying over your head. You have absolutely nothing to keep you out of hell. Nothing.

Nothing. All your trying will never stop you slipping down that broad road. All your crying will never take you away from the awful edge and abyss of eternity.

Without Christ, you will perish righteously as a guilty sinner forever. But can I note with you the invitation that is in our little text? As many as received him. Ah, there's the secret friend.

You must get alone with the Lord Jesus. He's offering himself in all that he has accomplished as the sin-bearer. He's telling you, I'll give you the truth.

I will give as a free gift everlasting life and the forgiveness of sin. He wants you to receive him. Can I notice with you that this is a two-way street in this verse? He receives you and you receive him.

How can he receive me? He'd have to receive me as a guilty sinner. Not as a good one, not as a trying one, not as a believing one, just a guilty lost sinner that has no hope. That's how he receives me.

And he wants you to receive him and the answer of all that he is, the one that takes away the sin of the world, the one who brings in grace, the wondrous forgiveness as a free gift. You receive him. It's not having an experience.

It's not thinking, being able to say, I saw light, no friend. It's receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as your own and only Savior. And he says, as many as receive him, to them he gives the authority to be able to say, I am born again.

And I didn't get it because my parents were saved, that's the next verse, and I didn't get it because I made a choice of my own, and I didn't get it because I thought I could figure it out. No, I got it from God. That's the secret, friend.

It's the gift of eternal grace in the person of the Lord Jesus. Without him, you have nothing to keep you out of eternal fire. But he is available to be trusted tonight.

Turn to him, friend. Turn to the Lord Jesus. Get alone with him.

It's not a preacher you need. It's not mommy and daddy because they are saved. You must, as a guilty sinner, get alone with the Lord Jesus and receive him as your personal Savior.

What is the inevitable change? I love it. Dear John the Baptist, the preacher, has pointed out the Lord Jesus, and it says they left John and they followed Jesus. That will be the result of every person who receives the Lord Jesus as their Savior.

Instead of following their old way, they're gonna follow him. And he said to them, what are you looking for? They said, what did they say? What was it they were after? They just said, wherever you are, we want to be. Haha, friend, that's the change of life.

Thank God I'm saved tonight. I want to follow that blessed man wherever he is. I'd love to be.

And if you only knew him as your Savior, you would say from your heart, all for Jesus, all for Jesus, all my being's ransomed powers, but without him, friend. Oh God, help you as you leave your chair tonight. I ask you, will you leave this room with Christ as your Savior, or without him? How will you go to your bed tonight without him? God, disturb your heart and your foolishness and carelessness.

If you go to your sleep without him, the tremendous reality lies before us, friend. Jesus is coming again. He will keep his promise, and your opportunity to receive him as Savior will be gone forever.

Eternity lies before you. As many as receive him, he will receive you just as you are. Come as a sinner to Jesus and be saved, even tonight.