Behold the Lamb #3

It doesn't matter how many times they tell you, oh, but I accepted Christ as my Savior. Oh, the pastor baptized me when I was eight.

Out! Out with this insult to the seriousness of the eternal consequences of the Gospel. Coming to true faith in God entails a whole lot more than some passing emotional experience. True faith can stand the test of fire, and it trusts in the authority of Scripture unconditionally.

That fact will be driven home today on The Truth Pulpit with Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Hi, I'm Bill Wright, and we're wrapping up a lesson in John's Gospel called Behold the Lamb. Simultaneously, we'll conclude a journey through all four Gospels that paint portraits of Christ.

Don, how would you tie a bow around what we've learned in this series? My fellow Christian, I hope this series has whetted your appetite to know Christ better. He is the King God promised in the Old Testament. He walked on earth as a man even though he is eternal God.

And he did that on a divine mission so that he could be the Lamb of God on the cross who takes away the sin of the world. You know, it took four Gospels to help us see our one great Savior. Friend, Jesus Christ is worthy of your complete devotion, trust, and obedience. No wonder Thomas said at the end of the Gospel of John, My Lord and my God.

Bill, let's wrap it up today. Okay, Don, and now friend, let's move into today's lesson on The Truth Pulpit. In John 6, verse 67, I want you to see the clarity and the purpose of the Word of God, the Word of Christ, receiving it as law, receiving it as final authority to your soul. Jesus said to the Twelve, You don't want to go away also, do you?

Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. You have words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God. There they were standing, having gone from a crowd that would fill an arena to a crowd that would fit on this platform. And Peter shows the mark of a true disciple when he says, Lord, there's nowhere else to go. I'm all in on your Word.

Where else would I go? It is a recognition of the authority of Christ and an utter submission to it. And let me say a word of pastoral encouragement to you, too, at this point. As you're walking through trials that are testing you to the limit, there's something going on besides the trial in that time. When you're tempted to wonder what God is doing, you're tempted to question it, some of you, as I've done in times gone by, one time in particular, am I even going to continue to follow if this is the trial and sorrow that following Christ is going to bring me?

Do you ever feel that way? I have. Let me help you understand what's going on at that point. Trial is not about the trial. The trial is exposing for you to see whether you are truly willing to subject yourself completely to the Word of Christ and close the back door and lock it so that you can't walk out. Have you received the Word of Christ with that level of final unconditional submission?

Or do you have these mental places where you'll give yourself an out? You see, when we call people to Christ, we're calling them not simply to Him as the Savior who can save them from sin, we're calling them to come under the authority of the Word of God as their final disposition of what is true. And unless we tell people that that is what is at stake, we are leaving the door open for them to be deceived. You don't have that door open to you anymore. The question is, do you unconditionally receive the Word of God, the Word of Christ, as your defining spiritual authority? And if you're in that trial that I alluded to, listen. Let that trial be to you the defining point in life where you say, yes, Lord, I will follow you no matter what. You say it through sorrow, you say it through tears, but you say, Lord, no matter what else happens, I'm not leaving.

Where else could I go? You have words of eternal life. That is what that profound trial in your life is intended to bring you to, to clarify your attitude of trust and submission in Christ. And if that result is produced by that trial, then that trial has become an avenue of God's blessing to you. You can say and rejoice through the tears, my faith is real.

God has done a real work in my life because otherwise I would have left a long time ago. You see, true disciples continue in the Word. Let's go through these next few passages quickly. John chapter 8 verse 31. The priority of the Word in true faith, the submission to the Word in true faith. John 8 31, Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed in Him, if you continue in my Word, then you are truly disciples of mine, and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.

He says you have to continue. Having just seen people walk away because they rejected certain aspects of his teaching, ironically when he said, you can't come to me unless the Father calls you, unless the Father draws you, they took off. Jesus said, if you continue then you are truly disciples of mine. This is the mark of a true disciple, they continue in my Word. Those who have taken an exit ramp off someplace, they weren't disciples.

They were never disciples to begin with, they were never true Christians. In one of the Apostle John's other writings, 1 John 2 19, he said, they went out from us but they weren't really of us. For if they had been of us they would have remained with us, but they went out so that it would be shown that they all are not of us. Departure is the design not only of defection, but of someone who was never saved to begin with. When we see people who've been associated with the church for a time, associated in their family, they grow up and they depart, the sad reality that we have to acknowledge is, you know what, whatever the other appearances were, they were never saved to begin with.

Otherwise, they would have stayed. Genuine love for Christ, true faith in Christ receives his Word as law, as final authority. Look at John 14 verse 15. John 14 verse 15. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Verse 21, he who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me. Verse 23, Jesus answered and said to him, if anyone loves me he will keep my word.

Verse 24, he who does not love me does not keep my word. How many times does he have to say it? Once.

How many times did he say it? Multiple. How important is this?

Infinitely important. I think about things like what I'm about to say. People...and it's sad. It's a sign of spiritual blindness and deadness. It's horribly sad to realize how casually people can have the Word of God presented to them and then just turn and walk away from it. The spiritual implications of that are enormous. You share the gospel with somebody, you present the gospel with them, and they brush it off with a wave of their hand. It's speaking spiritual volumes. Somebody comes under the hearing of the Word of God for a period of time and then walks away. That's not my cup of tea. They might as well put on a shirt that says, I'm going to hell. Want to come with me?

Because that's what's happening. A casual dismissal of the Word of God is the mark of somebody who is never saved and it doesn't matter how many times they tell you, oh, but I accepted Christ as my Savior. Oh, the pastor baptized me when I was eight. Out! Out with this insult to the seriousness of the eternal consequences of the gospel! Out with that!

Out, out, out! We will not trivialize what Christ said. If you continue in my words, then you are truly disciples of mine. It's not that you're earning salvation or merit by continuing in God's Word. It's a sign that you've truly been born again, that the Spirit has done a work in your heart that has made you receptive to the Word of God. He's removed your heart of stone and given you a soft heart of tender flesh that says, yes, I want this Word to reign over me.

Yes, I want this Christ to reign over me. Is that where your spiritual life is at? That's the question.

I can't answer it for you. I can't assume anything. All I can do is say, here is the Word of God, and ask the Spirit of God to work in your heart and help you to see and make you tender and responsive to it. Do you receive God's Word, or do you leave room for the Word, but? I believe in Jesus, but other religions will go to heaven, too. I'm a Christian, but I can't judge homosexual marriage.

That wouldn't be right of me. I love the Bible, but science has taught us that evolution is true. True faith.

Write this down. True faith submits all the mind to all the Word and stays there. New life, new law, finally new Lord.

New Lord. Saving faith does more than hear about Christ and walk away unchanged. True saving faith does more than raise a hand in a meeting or walk down stadium stairs to go up to where other people have been trained to prime the pump by getting out of their seats and walk and follow in a reaction of mass hysteria and emotional manipulation. Saving faith, true faith, true repentance could never walk away unchanged. Stated differently, true faith submits to Jesus Christ as Lord. True faith, stated differently, true faith submits to Christ as a ruling person in your life. It's not merely a receptivity to certain theological constructs or memorizing two or three Bible verses. There is a celestial confrontation that takes place when a man is converted where Christ takes ownership, takes rulership over a human soul. And saving faith is the glad, knowing, understanding submission to His authority. Without reservation, without qualification, true saving faith recognizes Christ for the person that He is, God in human flesh, and says, You henceforth will be my Lord. Take my life, do with it what you want, just take me.

Please take me and have mercy on my sin-filled soul. Look at John chapter 14 verse 6. John 14 verse 6, Jesus said to him, I, personal, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me.

Personal submission to Him. Eternal life is to know the Father and Jesus Christ whom He sent. Look at John chapter 17. John chapter 17. Verse 1, Jesus is praying on the verge of His crucifixion and says, Father, the hour has come, glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, and to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. Christ gives, eternal life is the gift, we receive it.

As a gift, not as a wage. And then he says in verse 3, this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. As you go to the end of the Gospel, you see the climactic illustration of true faith. In the writing of the Gospel of John, this book that was written so that you would believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and believing you may have life in His name.

Everything that's been written, the teaching of Christ, the signs of Christ, all of it has been designed to be this divine force, this divine influence on your thinking, on your heart, on your will, to bring you to this point that's illustrated for you so that you can see it, so that you can also embrace it and say, yes, this is what I want my heart to be. John 20 verse 26, actually go to verse 24. You remember Thomas, one of the twelve called Didymus, which means the twin, was not with them when Jesus came. And so the other disciples were saying to him, we have seen the Lord, we've seen the resurrected Christ. But he said to them, unless I see in his hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe. In the original language, it's an emphatic statement. He said, unless I see this, I will by no means believe.

He's pounding his fist on the table where I will not believe this unless I see. Verse 26, after eight days his disciples were again inside and Thomas with them. Jesus came and the doors having been shut and stood in their midst and said, peace be with you. Then he said to Thomas, I love the way the Lord addresses us as individual men when he saves us. Paul said, he loved me and gave himself up for me. Here he comes as an individual, not to a mass of humanity who can take or leave it. He comes to a man and presents himself. And he says, Thomas, verse 27, reach here with your finger and see my hands.

Reach here your hand and put it in my side. Stop being unbelieving, but believing. What does saving faith look like? What's the climax of this book that is designed to lead us to eternal life? Thomas answered and said to him, my Lord and my God, my supreme one, my master, my king, to you I bow my allegiance.

To you I irrevocably devote my affection. There will be no other besides you, my Lord, my God. And it is right after that confession that John says, these things were written so that you would believe. And through the wonder of the inspiration of Scripture, this great gospel has brought us face to face with Christ ourselves and says, what will you do with this one? Thomas received him as Lord and God. Christ will save you from your sin if you receive him on those same terms. Lord and God. Christ offers you the free, full, unconditional forgiveness of all your sin. He offers you the gift of eternal life. But he doesn't leave it to you to determine and state the terms of engagement.

He's my teacher. I'll follow him as long as it suits my fancy, as long as I get what I want, and don't trouble me with too much doctrine in the process. The man, the woman, the child who tries to have Christ and yet hold him at a distance says, you can't go there, you can't have that part of my life, has reason to question whether they're saved at all. In fact, there's no reason for you to think you're saved if that's you. If you are consciously rejecting the lordship of Christ over an area of your life, you are not a Christian.

Because true saving faith receives him as Lord and God. Those are the terms of engagement. New life. New law. New Lord. Jesus Christ confronts us, confronts you with a total confrontation of everything that you are. He says, I will be gracious to you, but you must bend the knee. You must receive me as Lord and God.

What's your verdict? Christian, you should be rejoicing if you can identify these affections and motions in your heart. If you can see that spiritual reality animating your spiritual life, I am born again.

I do love God's Word. I do submit my life to Christ. Oh, I wish I was perfect. I'm not. I fall short.

I get that. But the great desire of my life would be nothing more than to be found pleasing to my Master. If that's you, rejoice. All of today's message has simply described a work that God has done in your heart, and he's been gracious to you. Give thanks. You should have, of all people, the most deep assurance. Join with me in rejoicing in the Gospel. A merciful Christ has given you life that's worth more than 10,000 trials in this life. But if that's not you, what will you say? What do you say?

Preserving your lusts, preserving your sin, preserving your autonomy, even if it produced 10,000 blessings for you from now until the day of your death, it's going to seem like an awfully cheap exchange when Christ turns you away. There's no option here. There's no alternative here. Lord and God receive him for eternal life. He's offered to you in the Gospel now. Don't walk away.

Don't walk away. Bend the knee and receive the blessing. Let's pray together. Our Father, we commend these things to you. New life, new law, new Lord. Those of us who are saved are those who were dead in sin, and yet you made us alive in Christ. We had our own thoughts about the world, but now we submit them to your Word and ask that you would claim every thought captive in obedience to Christ. And Lord Jesus, we're not simply after a theological construct here. This isn't about simply memorizing Bible verses and getting a prize at the end of a season.

No, no, no. Lord Jesus, you are a real, living person. And we bring our will and our allegiance and our affections and we submit them to your marvelous majesty and your marvelous authority. We gladly give ourselves over to you. You would have us after all that we have done in sin against you, you would still have us and receive us. What kind of mercy, O Christ, is this?

Thank you. Praise be to your name. And I pray, Lord, that those who have had their hearts exposed as false disciples, no matter how long they've been in the church, that you would help them humble themselves before your sovereign majesty and receive new life, that's the fact that they have withheld their final allegiance from you. But no more. But no more, Lord. Take your word, apply it to their heart and capture their soul for yourself, even as you did mine and many others in this room. All is vain unless your Spirit gives us help. And so we humbly commit all of these things to you. In Jesus' name, amen. That's Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, wrapping up our series titled Portraits of Christ here on The Truth Pulpit. Our next broadcast looks appropriately at The Cross of Christ.

Plan now to be with us. You know, you can hear any part of our Just Completed series again at your convenience when you visit our website, thetruthpulpit.com. You can download podcasts or find out how to receive CD copies for your personal study library. Plus, you'll find the link Follow Don's Pulpit. That'll take you to Don's full-length weekly sermons, not subject to the time editing that we need for radio broadcasts. Again, that's all at thetruthpulpit.com. And may we also say thank you for your support of this ministry. I'm Bill Wright. We'll see you next time on The Truth Pulpit with Don Green.