Audio restored with Diffio. Diffio processed the original archive recording to reduce noise and produce a cleaner listening version; the original stays available.
Speech quality score (model-estimated, SCOREQ): before 3.04 → restored 4.70
Use the player's Original switch to compare.How Diffio restores old speech recordings
And once more, a very good evening to you all. When we broke off our lecture last evening, we were thinking together, if you can remember that far back, upon the central function of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. For we'd be ha- we had been thinking about the problem that lay before God Almighty. How to resolve the demands of his justice, and yet how to satisfy the longings of his love, that he might find a way to forgive us sinners without implying that sin does not matter, without doing injustice to those whom we have wronged.
And above all, without going against his own holy character that declares that offense against his holy law must be visited with his own righteous indignation and wrath. And so we found the solution to this problem in the death and cross and sacrifice of our blessed Lord Jesus. Some have said that our, our doctrine of atonement is not just. Because, say they, how is it just to take an innocent person like Jesus Christ and make him suffer for the sins of the ungodly?
We would never think of making an innocent third party suffer for the sins of some criminal. How, they say, could it be just of God to make his innocent son suffer the penalty of the law on behalf of guilty men and women? The question, of course, though apparently real, is based on a false supposition. Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the first place, was not a third party. He was our savior and is our savior because the salvation he offers and the forgiveness he has provided are given solely to those who actually receive him through repentance and faith.
As it is written in Scripture, to as many as received him, to them gave he the authority to become children of God. The Bible makes it clear that when man or woman receives the Savior, in a very real sense, they cease to be two separate people. But when we receive the Savior, he comes to live in our hearts, and we are joined to him. That is a wonderful thing that the New Testament tells us, that all who believe the Savior are in Christ.
Therein the New Testament, of course, is absolutely distinct. The world had had many philosoph- philosophers before, for instance, Socrates, to name just one. But the most ardent follower of Socrates never claimed to be in Socrates. That wouldn't have made any sense. And the most ardent admirer of the Buddha would never claim to be in the Buddha. And no Muslim that I ever heard of would claim to be in Muhammad. And yet you find the early Christians speaking in that terms.
If any man is in Christ, it says, he is a new creation. There is the wonder of it. We shall talk of it later this evening, that when we receive the Lord Jesus and the eternal life he gives us, we become united with Christ. God puts us in Christ. Therefore, he ceases to be a third party. He bore our sins, what happened to him, his death, God graciously counts as ours. He wasn't a third party, of course, as far as God is concerned.
Because Jesus Christ is not just a prophet sent from God. Jesus Christ, our Lord, is himself God. As the Gospel of John relates it, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All that God was, the Word was. For the sake of our salvation, it is also written, the Word became flesh. In the death of Jesus Christ our Lord, God the lawgiver, who laid down the law and prescribed its penalties, out of love for us, himself paid the penalty and bore it in the person of his son.
And the result, as we saw last night, was this, that now God can be just and the justifier of him who believes in Jesus. I remember as a young man being taken out for a walk by a senior Christian. He had told me of his own conversion to Christ, and then I think he thought it worthwhile examining me to see how far I'd got, you see, and whether I'd understood salvation. So turning to me presently, he said, now, David, in what is your hope for salvation?
And you know what I nearly said? I nearly said in the grace of God, and it would have been true, wouldn't it? For the Bible declares we are by grace we are saved through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God. But you know, one sometimes my brain runs a little quickly, and just before I answered by I'm trusting in the grace of God, I thought there was a rascally old man trying to catch me out. So I said, I'm trusting in the justice of God, my good sir, and I passed his examination with ten out of ten. It's marvelous, isn't it, to be saved by the grace of God, free is a gift.
By grace are we saved through faith, and that not of ourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works that any man should boast. But of course, we're not only, we are saved by grace, but not at the cost of justice. God's grace does not mean he brushes the guilt of our sin under the carpet and agrees to forget it. That would deny the very character of God who cannot compromise his holiness. We are saved through the justice of God, because his justice demanded that his wrath against sin be met and suffered and paid.
The penalty of the law be paid. The penalty has been paid by the Son of God himself, so that God can be just, and yet the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. And then we saw last night, did we not, that God, having solved the problem of forgiveness, how he can forgive and yet be just, is able to offer us, upon repentance and faith, immediate access into the presence of God. Immediate access to the Father, as the New Testament puts it.
We thought about King David, you may remember, who let Absalom the the murderer come home without any repentance, without any confession of sin, without the penalty being paid, but wouldn't let Absalom come home to the king's house because the king had a guilty conscience about accepting an unrepentant murderer. When God has forgiven us in Christ, and the whole thing is just, then the Bible talks in these terms. We have been justified by faith, we therefore have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
And having peace with God, we have our access into this grace wherein we stand. That is worth noticing, for it's a common view that if you would be good and accepted into God's presence at last, into his eternal heaven, then of course you have to be as good as you can possibly make it here on earth, in your attempt to qualify for access into God's heaven. And thereby, of course, you cannot possibly know for certain that you will ever be in heaven, for all will depend, as a gentleman in this city told me just the other day, it will all depend on the state of your works, your heavenly bank balance, so to speak, when you come to die.
That is the popular notion. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm pleased to remind you it isn't what the New Testament says. The moment we have put our faith in Christ, that moment we have access into this grace wherein we stand and can rejoice in hope of the glory of God. How can we be utterly sure, then, that we shall at last be saved, and be saved from the wrath of God through Christ? The answer to that that is given in Holy Scripture is this, that upon believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, we receive from God, the Holy Spirit of God.
And says Scripture, he pours out the love of God into our hearts. Just as I might take this glass of water before me and pour it over the ground, and you would see it land, and then you would see it go here, go there, go there, as it began to spread. When we receive the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit takes the love of God and pours it out in our hearts. So gradually it floods our hearts, convincing us in the deep well of our being of the love of God. And yet it is not just a sentimental, emotional experience.
Because when the Holy Spirit sheds God's love for us in our hearts, he does it largely by argument and logic, and teaches us to reason. You'll see, let me read the passage of the Bible that talks about this. It says that hope puts not to shame because the love of God, that is God's love for us, has been shed abroad, poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit which was given to us. Now here comes the argument. For while we were yet weak, in due season Christ died for the ungodly.
For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for the good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his own love towards us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, shall we be saved from the wrath of God for- through him. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, much more being reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy- join God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
And from that you will perceive, I trust, the argument, the logic of the Holy Spirit. And if I might, uh, paraphrase it, it goes like this. Talking to those that have trusted Christ. It says, now, tell me this. What is the biggest thing that God will ever do for you? And when you've scratched your head a while and come up with the answer, what is it then? What's the biggest thing that God will ever do for you? You say, I, I hope he'll, uh, take me home to heaven.
No, no. And when I get there, he'll give me a crown and a galaxy or two. No, no. They're small things. The biggest thing? The biggest thing that God has ever done for us to g- is to give his son to die for us. Everything else is small by comparison. Here comes question number two. When exactly did God give his son for you? Was it after you had begun to improve somewhat in your style of living? And that God said, I wouldn't begin to think of giving my son for them in their present condition.
Wait till they've improved, uh, quite a considerable amount, then I'll give him. No, no, it wasn't that. While we were still sinners, says God, Christ died for us. Well, if Christ, if God has given his son for us while we were sinners, now we've trusted Christ, now we've been justified. You suppose that God would cast us out then? That wouldn't make sense, would it?
It would mean that God was being inconsistent. If while I was a sinner, God gave Christ and Christ died for me. Now that I have trusted his son, I have been justified before God through faith. I may be utterly certain, even more certain if possible, that I shall be saved from the wrath of God through. And just in case the argument being stated once isn't sufficient, the Holy Spirit repeats it. 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.
The words are written exceedingly carefully. While we were enemies, reconciled. How? By the death of his son. When I read the phrase, I cannot help remembering a parable the Lord Jesus told to the Jewish authorities, the religious leaders in Jerusalem. He said, there was a man who had a vineyard, and he let it out, uh, to tenants, you'll see, to farm it for him. Presently, at the time of grapes, he sent his servants to get the produce from his vineyard, and they repudiated his servants and beat some and drove them away.
Last of all, he said, I'll send my son. Surely they will reverence him. When the son approached the vineyard, the men cowered behind the glass houses and picked up slates and stones and attacked him and eventually murdered him and threw him out of the vineyard. It was a parable of our Lord's own making, of course. He was the Son. Son of the Creator of the universe, sent by God for our salvation.
And the hostile human heart, in its rebellion against God, took him and nailed him to a cross. And God's response? To his very enemies? That if they would repent, God loved them still. And he would take the death of his son as a sacrifice for their sin. They were reconciled to God by the death of his son. There is one place on earth, ladies and gentlemen, where sinners burdened with a sense of guilt can come and meet God and be unafraid to confess their sin.
And find salvation. That place is in the dark shadows of the cross of Christ. When I see what my sin has done to God's Son. When he bore my sin in his body. In that moment, I'm aware that God loves me in spite of my rebellion and sin, and is prepared to forgive and accept me for his son's dear sake. Then how can I still rebel against God and reject him?
How can I still maintain my pride and suppose I don't need a savior or his sacrifice? It is at the cross of Christ where we can meet God, be unafraid to confess our sin, find a savior and forgiveness and peace with God. But now let me take the story a little further. When we receive Christ as savior through his death at Calvary, then we receive, says the Bible, eternal life.
For though the wages of sin is death, the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So tonight I wish to examine with you the claims of Jesus Christ our Lord in connection with eternal life. For when he was here, he claimed in the first place to be the source of eternal life. And then secondly, he claimed to be the means of eternal life. So let me pause a moment and explain the terms I'm using.
Christ, the source of eternal life. Christ, the means of eternal life. What's the difference between source and means? Let's use the analogy of physical life, and let me proceed to ask you, just how did you get your physical life? Did you get it by eating bread and butter, by any chance? You say, don't be silly, of course not. No? No, you say. You don't get life by eating bread and butter. You get life by altogether a different process. Uh, we get our lives through our parents, physical life.
We get it as a gift without our doing anything. Our parents are the immediate source. God is, of course, the ultimate source of physical life. I see. Ah. So once you've got your physical life, you didn't ever need to eat bread and butter, I suppose. Oh, you say, don't be so silly. We got our life from our parents, but once we got it, it had to be maintained, of course. And for that purpose, we had to eat bread and butter and milk and all sorts of other things. Yes. So with physical life, you need a source of life, and then you need the means of life to maintain that life, don't you?
So it is, of course, with eternal life. We need the source of life, and we need the means of life. And in the Gospel of John, in chapter five, we have the record of our Lord Jesus claiming to be the source, the sole source, of course, of eternal life. Let me read you the words. This is from the Gospel of John in chapter five. and he says as follows: For as the Father hath life in himself, even so gave he to the Son also to have life in himself, and he gave him authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of Man.
Christ, the source of life. You will see, when the Bible says that as the Father has life in himself, it doesn't just mean that the Father is alive. Of course, the Father is alive. It is saying that God is the source of life. He has life in himself. When he made this vast universe, he didn't have to get physical life from some other source to make it with. The Father has life in himself. So, said our Lord, has he given to the Son to have life in himself.
Christ, the source of life. And how that affects us, we shall see in a moment. Then in the next chapter, he says as follows, verse fifty seven: as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he that eateth me, he also shall live because of me. Christ, the living bread to maintain the life that he has given. So tonight, let us ponder this marvelous claim of the Lord Jesus to be the source of life and the means of life.
To help us understand the significance that he is the source of life, our Lord did an initial miracle. There was a pool in Jerusalem, and round it there would assemble large numbers of sick, weak people. They were waiting, the Bible says, for the waters to be disturbed. Some manuscripts say it was an angel that did it, others do not offer an explanation. Could have been, uh, a stream that runs into that pool that conveys mineral-laden water. Whatever it was, it was a means of healing that God in his grace had given to people.
And when this disturbance of the water happened, those who went in first were benefited and healed from their diseases, and then the value, the effectiveness of the water would be gone until the next disturbance. Around this pool then were many sick people, but on this particular occasion there was one man, he was paralyzed, and for the last thirty eight years, just imagine it, he had been trying to get into that pool to benefit from its, uh, beneficial waters.
And for thirty eight years, he had tried in vain. I imagine him trying to ease his way into the pool, but he was paralyzed, and before he could get in, swarms of other people got in, and the virtue in the water was dissipated. It was to that man the Lord Jesus came one day, and coming up to the man and knowing he'd been in that state thirty eight years, he said to the man, would you like to be well? Would you like to be made whole? But like so many others, the man didn't, wasn't listening to the question. Instead of saying, yes, of course I would, what he answered with this, when our Lord said, would you like to be made whole?
He said, but sir, I've no one to help me put me into the water. He so got it in his head, the o- the only way he could get cured was to get into that water and use the means provided. So that when our Lord said, would you like to be made whole? As I say, he merely answered, I've no man to put me into the water. And our Lord replied, if I may be allowed reverently to, uh, paraphrase him, my good man, I don't need to use any means whatsoever. I don't need the pool.
Get up, said he. With that word came the word of authority, and the man sprang to his feet. Our Lord was illustrating at the physical level that he doesn't have to use means like our noble doctors use, whether health spas or whatever. Our Lord, he is the source of all physical life. And if he chose, because he has life in himself, he could impart physical life to that man there and then, and he did so.
But when he had, uh, performed that physical miracle and demonstrated that he was a source of life, then he proceeded to use it to illustrate this far more important thing, that our Lord is the source of eternal life. Said he, the hour coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. Not the physically dead, but the spiritually dead.
And we pause to notice that diagnosis. Men and women without God, without the Savior, says the Bible, are spiritually dead. And many people have the notion, when they're conscious as there's a gap between them and God, they think that they must spend great effort to try and close that gap. It was so with the Jews at the time. They regularly kept the Sabbath, which is a very good thing, but they were indignant when our Lord healed this man on the Sabbath.
They thought he was breaking the Sabbath. Why, we asked, did our Lord do this miracle on a Sabbath anyway? The man had been ill for thirty eight years. He could have waited one more day, couldn't he? Why would our Lord go and do the miracle on a Sabbath and upset the Jews like that? Well, for a very good reason. The Sabbath was ordained of God, that after men had worked six days in the week, they should rest on the seventh from their own works, that they might contemplate God, the source of all physical life, and life's burdens be eased, and man's natural strength recuperated.
A very good institution. Now the Jews, like many more, had turned the whole thing on its head, and they thought now that by keeping the Sabbath and many another religious work, they would now earn eternal life. And they turned this matter of trying to get eternal life into a large system of religious works and merit. And of course, knew no rest of soul. Show me a man that is hoping to gain God's heaven by his religious works. I guarantee what I can say about him.
He has no rest of soul, no certainty that he'll ever be in heaven. His very religious modesty will make him answer, if you ask him, are you certain of heaven, he'll say, no, no one can be certain. I do my best. And turn the whole matter of gaining eternal life into a system of meritorious work. The very opposite of the Sabbath. So now on this particular Sabbath, our Lord Jesus comes and demonstrates that he is the creator incarnate, able to impart physical strength to this man.
But listen now to the additional lesson. Verily, verily, he says, I say unto you, he who hears my word and believes on him that sent me has eternal life. And you will notice it's present tense. Upon believing, a person receives from the Savior eternal life. Secondly, and does not come into condemnation. Can be certain that he will never face ultimate condemnation by God.
And thirdly, he has already passed over from death to life. That is such a magnificent statement that we better ponder it a moment. He who hears my word and believes on him that sent me has eternal life. And what is eternal life? For some people, they if they think of eternal life at all, they think it is going to heaven when you die. Well, certainly all believers go to heaven when they die. That isn't exactly what the Bible means by eternal life.
Eternal life is given to us here and now in this life. When we are born from above, when we receive the Savior, and he gives us a spiritual life that we never had before. That's eternal life. If ever we're to receive it, we must receive it in the here and now. We wait till this life is ended, it will be too late. Listen, therefore, to our Lord's statement.
Mark the tenses of the verb. He who heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me has everlasting life now. And as to the future, shall never come into condemnation in the future. Why not? Because he's already passed out of death into life. You say, how could our, uh, Jesus Christ ever say any such thing and say we have eternal life, the life of the ages? The answer is simple. He gives it, you'll see, in the verse. He gave him authority to execute judgment because he is the son of Man.
Or again, for neither doth the Father judge any man, but he hath given all judgment unto the Son, that all may honor the Son even as they honor the Father. Mighty words, these. You will notice that Jesus Christ is not claiming just to be a prophet in the line of thousands of prophets. He is claiming, not only is he the source of life, of all life, as God is, but when it comes to the final judgment of men, the Father judges no man, says Christ. He has given all judgment to the Son, that all should honor the Son even as they honor the Father.
And my good friends, if you should ever stand before the th- throne of final judgment, the one you will see enthroned is Jesus Christ, our Lord. He is to be the judge. And his verdict, ladies and gentlemen, will be final. There is no appeal against the verdict of the judge.
That being so, what would you give, madam, to know here on earth what the verdict of the judge will be concerning you? What would you give, sir, if you could know in the here and now... the verdict that the judge will give... concerning you. And perhaps your reaction is to say, but that's impossible. You can't know until you arrive there.
That is mistaken, sir. Allow me to tell you, and tell you with certainty and with joy. For this is what the Lord Jesus was saying as he stood here, two feet upon this earth. The Father judges no man, but has given all judgment to the Son, speaking therefore as the one that will be judge. Here is his verdict on those that in true repentance and faith receive him. The verdict is this: He that hears my word and believes on him that sent me has eternal life, the life of eternity.
Has it now. How can he give us eternal life now, you say? Because he is the source of life. And he can give us that life now. Because that life is a gift and doesn't have to be earned. The free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Because it is a free gift. Not earned or bought by us or by our behavior.
But given to those in true, who in true repentance and faith receive the Lord Jesus. He has the authority here and now to give us eternal life. And the next thing? He who hears my word and believes on him that sent me has eternal life and shall not come into condemnation. How can a judge possibly say that? Why, the answer is this, that the condemnation that we deserved, the penalty that we rightly would have suffered, he bore it for us.
He bore our sins, says scripture, in his body on the tree. God made him who knew no sin to be a sin offering in our place, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Are they not glorious words? No sweeter music was ever sounded in the ears of men. And the Bible throws out the challenge. If God be for us, who can be against us?
He who spared not his son but delivered us up for us all, how shall he not with him freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect, when it is God that justifies? And now listen. And suppose somebody laid a charge, who is he that will condemn? Shall Christ Jesus? Why, of course not. Christ Jesus, who died for us, is risen, and now at the right hand of God makes intercession for us. All the wonderful certainty of the implications of the death of Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Shall not come into condemnation, but has already passed out of death into life. Notice the perfect tense. From being under the wrath of God, and so to speak, as good as dead. Passed from under that sentence out into abundant and never-ending life. Jesus Christ, the source of life. And he stands among us still and bids us come to him.
Happy those men and women who in the course of this life come and meet Jesus Christ and receive from him instantaneously in that moment the gift of pardon, the gift of peace with God, the gift of new life, even eternal life, and the guarantee that they shall not come into condemnation, but shall enjoy God in his heaven forever. Jesus Christ, the source of life.
But then, of course, Jesus Christ is not only the source of life. He is the means of life. I think you agreed with me when I said you didn't get your physical life by eating bread and butter. You got it by altogether a different process. One moment you didn't exist. The next moment, when the zygote was formed, you received life and began to be. But after you had received life, you needed, um, bread and butter or other such means of life to maintain a life, yes?
So our Lord Jesus is not only the source of life, who, when we first come to him, gives us eternal life. Thank God, he says, I am the bread of life. To maintain our life and maintain it eternally. To help us understand that, the sixth chapter of Gospel of John that preaches Jesus as the means of life, the bread of life come down from heaven, points out that just at this time, the Jews were celebrating or about to celebrate Passover. And that would remind them, and may remind us tonight, that at the original Passover, Israel and Egypt were in danger of being destroyed by the destroying angel that went through to destroy the firstborn.
They were told by God to slay a lamb, to put its blood on the lintel and the doorposts, and shelter behind that blood-stained door. Stretched himself over the door so that the destroying angel could not come in. They were saved, redeemed by the blood of the lamb. But then that began a journey. That very night they were redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. They started a journey that would take them from Egypt to their promised land. And on that journey, as they journeyed through the desert, the Sinai desert, of course they would need a food supply.
And where were they to get the food in that wild howling wilderness? And so we're told how God did a miracle, and he rained down bread from heaven on them in the form of the manna daily until they got to their promised land, to maintain them in the wilderness. And the analogy holds for us too, doesn't it? We are redeemed, says Peter, with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb, saved from the wrath of God. Now we begin a journey. And for a believer, life is not just muddling through life to some unknown destination.
For a believer, the moment he or she puts faith in Christ, then life becomes a journey, a steady journey, deliberately taken and constantly pursued. A journey that is going to take us from this temporary world to God's eternal world, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us. We are on a journey. But how shall we be maintained on the journey? To maintain Israel, God rained down manna from heaven upon them daily, bread from heaven.
The analogy holds again. I, said Christ, am the living bread which came down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and never die. Christ is the means for the maintaining of our spiritual life right through life's journey, to bring us safe to heaven. At which point a thought might occur to us. If you read the ancient history books about Israel's journey through the wilderness and how they got the manna from heaven, it makes a stimulating reading.
The sorry fact is that in spite of the manna coming down from heaven, most of them who came out of Egypt never got into the promised land. They died in the wilderness. And the reason they died was because of their sin. They sinned against God, they rebelled against God, and they died in the wilderness and never got into their promised land. And perhaps we say, wait a moment, wait a moment. I'm on a journey too. I'm going from this world to the eternal world. Jesus Christ is the bread come down from heaven.
But can I be sure I will enter into that glorious inheritance? Or might I stumble and fall and lose it all after all? What is the answer? We may be heartily glad that Christ has not left us to think it through ourselves, but has given the answer in words of simple syllables, that we may be utterly sure. Listen to what he says. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth has eternal life.
I am the bread of life. Your fathers did eat the manna in the wilderness, and they died. So he did. Notice the contrast. This is the bread which cometh down out of heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die. And if once were not enough to say it, listen to him again. You'll see, this is the bread which came down out of heaven, not as the fathers did eat and died. He that eateth this bread shall live forever. Glorious guarantee from Christ, that all who have trusted him and began the journey from earth to heaven have his personal guarantee that the bread of life shall sustain them, that they shall never die in a spiritual sense, but live forever.
See how sustaining this bread is. When the Jews said, you say you're the bread of life, well, Moses gave us the bread from God, the manna on the ground. Where is your bread that you're giving us? Our Lord graciously replied, I myself am the bread. He's a person. The bread that came down from heaven, I say it liter- uh, uh, respectfully, was so much stuff. But the true bread is Christ. That's why he used a very vivid metaphor, you'll see, and said, now he that eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.
Didn't mean it literally, of course. He later on said, it is the spirit that gives life, the flesh doesn't profit anything. You could eat the literal flesh of Christ and drink his literal blood if you could, it would do you not one heighth of penny worth of good whatsoever. It was a vivid way of saying, however, that if your food is going to do you any good, you must ingest it. So I am the bread of life, says Christ. If you would benefit, you must not just know about me, you must receive me, so that you and I become one.
There's a difference between, you'll see, the manna that came down from heaven. It was bread, full of vitamins, doubtless. It wasn't alive. I am the living bread, says Christ. And when Christ comes to take up his residence in a human heart, the living Christ, that human that belongs to him will last eternally. And to enforce it, our blessed Lord said, I came down from heaven to do the will of my Father that sent me. This is his will, that everyone that seeth the Son and believeth on him should never perish, but I shall raise him up at the last day.
My good friends, you know at heart, I'm a simple man. You've judged that already. But when it comes to these things, then I find it profitable to do as our Lord said and adopt the attitude of a trusting child. He tells me he came down from heaven to do the will of his Father. The will of his Father was that everyone that seeth the Son and believeth on him, none of them shall perish. I shall raise them at the last day. And I do, unashamedly, ladies and gentlemen, forgive this personal reference.
I do, I do receive Christ. I believe him to be the Son of God, incarnate, truly human, truly divine. I believe and say with the Apostle Paul, the Son of God, he loved me and gave himself for me, and I have received him as my only hope of salvation. I've received him. And I hear him again, this is my Father's will, that all that seeth the Son and believeth on him, none should perish. I will raise him up at the last day.
And I picture the blessed Son of God coming to stand before the Father and introducing the redeemed, as the Bible has it, to present them before the presence of his Father with exceeding joy. And the blessed Lord, as he presents the redeemed to the Father, says, Father, this is Abram. Ah, wonderful Abram. Great believer of the Old Testament. This father is David, king of that name. This is Martha and Mary. This is Peter. Oh, what a day it will be when the risen Lord, glorified, presents us before the presence of the Father with exceeding joy.
And then I imagine when Christ has presented all the many thousands, Paul's and Peter's and Luther's and Wesley's and everybody else, comes to the last one and finished. And the Father says, very good, my son. About that chap Gooding. You haven't mentioned him. Is he here? And Christ says, will he? You mean that David Gooding? Yeah. Well, he isn't here. Why not?
Didn't he trust you? Well, yes, he did, but he was a poor fish of a thing. So I lost him. Well, my friend, the very thought is almost blasphemous, isn't it? For if Christ loses one soul that has fled to him for refuge, then shall he have failed to do the will of God, and heaven itself would turn to darkness. It shall never be. He is the bread that came down from heaven, and he shall lose none that have put their faith in him. And I sing for the simple heart of people of God, and shall I be among that throng?
I shall indeed, for I have been redeemed. God grant that as once more we have heard of the wonderful salvation affected through the cross of Christ. God grant that as we have heard of him as the source of eternal life that can meet us this very night, if we will have him, and impart to us the gift of eternal life here and now, and guarantee that we shall never come into condemnation. God grant that we, as we have heard of him as the bread of life, on whom we may feed as we journey from this world to the next.
The bread of life that is given to sustain us, and will sustain every believer and bring him through to glory at last. God grant. Now we shall examine our hearts quietly afresh, and ask ourselves that inevitable question. Have I met? Have I trusted? And have I received the Christ of God as my savior, as my sacrifice, as the source of life and the means of life that will bring me home to glory.
