If You Are Wrong About Jesus--
Nothing Else Matters
John 17:1-5
The Bible could not be clearer. There is only one true God and he sent His Son into the world for our salvation. Eternal life is wrapped up in a personal relationship to the one true, living God through His only begotten Son—the Lord Jesus Christ.
Of course the truthfulness of our text should make a careful study of Holy Scripture and a pursuit of the knowledge of God through His word imperative. If eternal life is at stake, if one’s eternal well being is at stake, if the lack of a personal relationship to Christ leaves you totally unprepared for what lies beyond the last human experience we call death, then no stone should be left unturned until you know him in the free pardon of your sin.
Our text makes it abundantly clear that no one possesses eternal life until they know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior . . . Do you know Jesus Christ as Savior? Do you bow before him as Lord? Do you confess with the mouth the Lord Jesus and do you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead? Do you fully trust the death of the divine Son of God for your salvation? Or do you refuse to bow the knee? Do you explain away Holy Scripture? Do you refuse to accept the record God gives of His own dear Son?
My friend, eternity beacons. Soon the old Jordan River will cast its waters at your feet. Soon this brief life must give way to eternal ages. Soon either the glories of heaven will unfold with endless day or the groans of a devil’s hell will encompass your soul in endless night.
Jesus Christ says there are two distinct roads traveled by the masses of humanity. Many are traveling the broad road that leads to destruction and everlasting ruin. He says others are travelling the narrow road that leads to life. Which road are you travelling?
I implore you today. Do not deceive yourself. Apart from a personal relationship to Jesus Christ death is to be feared as the doorway to hopeless, endless separation from the presence of the Lord! Christ is the door by which you must enter to be saved. If you attempt to go another way Christ himself condemns you as nothing more than a thief and a robber (John 10:1). His language is meant to illustrate the futility of pursuing acceptance with the Father by any other means than his own precious blood. Indeed, the way of the cross leads home. There is no other way to possess eternal life. You must know the only true God and His Son Jesus Christ whom he sent. You must come through the door!
But alas my friends, false spirituality abounds as Satan blinds the eyes of those who do not believe. Satan is busy casting doubt upon the Word of God and if you become complicit with him the enemy of your soul will most certainly drag you down to hell. But Christ is calling you today. The Spirit of God is calling you through the message of our text. Hear the Word of God: this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
It is quite obvious from this passage and the whole of Scripture that the true God is represented in history by His Son. God had a Son! The number of false spiritualities that deny this cardinal truth are too numerous to mention and I am sure you can think of more than one movement in our world that denies the Son. How tragic this is! Those caught up in these various movements are travelling the broad road. Their soul is in great danger. They are but a heartbeat away from the regions of the damned.
Sadly all those who perish in the everlasting burnings of the just and holy wrath of Almighty God have themselves to blame. The true Light that lighteth every man who comes into the world has appeared to all with an invitation to flee the wrath to come. That invitation is real. The pleadings of the Spirit of God in the human heart are real. But many turn away. Many resist the Holy Ghost and through neglect, or pride, or willful unbelief harden themselves until there is no more call of God.
Beware my friends. The day will soon be past. The brief hour of invitation to forsake your Egypt and suffer affliction with the people of God—in place of the pleasures of sin for a season—will soon be over. Today if you hear his voice do not harden your heart. It is time to turn. Hear the text carefully. God sent Jesus into the world. God had a Son and any spirituality that says otherwise is dangerous. False spirituality is the means by which Satan is devouring multitudes. Don’t make the mistake of turning away from the Light. When the light of the gospel comes to your darkened soul it is time to turn. It is time to repent.
I warn you today: do not follow those who have popularized what amounts to the spirit of antichrist. Any doctrine that denies Jesus as the unique, only begotten Son of God, God come in the flesh for our salvation, is from the spirit of antichrist. The Word of God teaches us to “try” or test the spirits to discern whether the spirit is of God, or if it is a lying, deceptive spirit.
In order to discern what is of God we must examine what various religions, teachers, and movements say about Jesus. Remember, Satan manifests the spirit of antichrist as an “angel of light.” This is exactly why false spirituality is so dangerous. It often appears to be genuine and good. But if the teaching of a religion or some popular movement denies that Jesus is the eternal Word come in the flesh for our salvation, then it is of the spirit of antichrist. Those who deny the Lord are tragically lost regardless of their sincerity or zeal. (Cf. John 1:1, 14 and 1 John 4:1-6). Again, if you are wrong about the person of Christ nothing else matters. He is God’s unique Son, the Lord from glory, God come in the flesh for our salvation. To deny him means eternal loss!
One tragic example of the manifestation of the spirit of antichrist is very vivid to me. It is the example of a dear man who died less than a year ago. He is in eternity. And while I am not his final judge, unless he changed his mind about Jesus he has no hope. He sold millions of books that are to this day deceiving others and leading them away from the only hope of eternal life—the Lord Jesus Christ. He described Jesus Christ as a “self-actualized person.” He urged people not to be Christians, but Christ-like. He said, “I don’t think that Jesus was teaching Christianity, Jesus was teaching kindness, love, concern, and peace.”
You know, I was once in a math class and I didn’t think 2+2 was 4. Of course, my math teacher corrected me and it didn’t matter what my opinion was about it. Likewise, it doesn’t matter what the opinion of false teachers are. What matters is what Jesus said! Only the foolish could read the words of Christ and deny that he was the Son of God come for their salvation. Be careful my friend. Your soul is at stake. Interestingly Oprah Winfrey tweeted following the passing of this man: “It was a pleasure to talk to (this man) about life’s big questions. He always had big answers. RIP. You brought the Light.”
Excuse me, but that man and no other man is the Light. Jesus Christ alone is the Light of the world! Jesus said, “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”
Jesus Christ not only taught Christianity, he is Christianity! Jesus Christ emphatically declares himself to be the Son of God who came to give his life a ransom for all. He dogmatically says in our text that eternal life is to be found nowhere but in him. He dogmatically declares that he reveals the only true God who sent him to be the Savior of the world.
These are dangerous days in which the spirit of antichrist is dressed up in modern garb and goes undetected by the undiscerning. Indeed, the wicked are waxing worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. You have been warned. It is time to confess that Jesus is the Lord come from heaven for your salvation. He is Emmanuel, God with us! He is the eternal Word who left his Father’s side to tabernacle amongst us in the person of Jesus the Christ.
He proceeded to humble himself in the form of a servant and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross. He endured the cross, despising the shame and is now set down at the right hand of God the Father expecting that his enemies be made his footstool! His precious blood has provided a covering for the sin of the world and today you can come to the foot of the cross and trust his death on your behalf for your salvation. He is risen from the dead with the promise of eternal life for all who will believe upon him.
Will you come to him? Will you confess him as the Lord from heaven? Will you accept his death and resurrection for your salvation?
Eternal life hinges upon that decision.
If you are wrong about Jesus, then nothing else matters. If you should gain the whole world but lose your soul all is eternally lost. What think ye of Christ, whose Son is he? Is he the Son of God? If you answer with the atheists and conclude that he was just a man—if he existed at all—then you will perish. It matters not that you climbed the corporate ladder or ascended to the heights of academia, or lived in positions of power while here on earth. You must go out to face Christ, whom you rejected as Savior.
If you answer with the pantheists and occultists that Jesus was just another ascended master and that you too can be a Christ, then you will realize all too late that your willful unbelief blinded your mind to the simplicity of the gospel of Jesus Christ. One day the living Christ, the Lord from glory, will pronounce upon you those dreadful words, “Depart from me ye worker of iniquity, I never knew you.”
And to our Jewish community and our Muslim community we say with genuine compassion that you both stand in great danger. You both deny that God had a Son. In some context you both say you respect Holy Scripture, at least in part. But you have ignored or willfully turned away from Scripture. You would do well to humbly come back to Scripture with an open heart. You would do well to pray humbly that God would reveal to you the truth concerning His Son. As Jesus Christ says, “search the Scriptures, for they are they that testify of me.”
Now I close with our text again . . .
“These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: as thou hast given him power (authority) over all flesh (all mankind), that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. (John17:1-5).
I pray you will receive God’s word today. Invite Jesus Christ into your heart and place your faith in him as your only hope of heaven.
Nothing Else Matters
John 17:1-5
The Bible could not be clearer. There is only one true God and he sent His Son into the world for our salvation. Eternal life is wrapped up in a personal relationship to the one true, living God through His only begotten Son—the Lord Jesus Christ.
Of course the truthfulness of our text should make a careful study of Holy Scripture and a pursuit of the knowledge of God through His word imperative. If eternal life is at stake, if one’s eternal well being is at stake, if the lack of a personal relationship to Christ leaves you totally unprepared for what lies beyond the last human experience we call death, then no stone should be left unturned until you know him in the free pardon of your sin.
Our text makes it abundantly clear that no one possesses eternal life until they know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior . . . Do you know Jesus Christ as Savior? Do you bow before him as Lord? Do you confess with the mouth the Lord Jesus and do you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead? Do you fully trust the death of the divine Son of God for your salvation? Or do you refuse to bow the knee? Do you explain away Holy Scripture? Do you refuse to accept the record God gives of His own dear Son?
My friend, eternity beacons. Soon the old Jordan River will cast its waters at your feet. Soon this brief life must give way to eternal ages. Soon either the glories of heaven will unfold with endless day or the groans of a devil’s hell will encompass your soul in endless night.
Jesus Christ says there are two distinct roads traveled by the masses of humanity. Many are traveling the broad road that leads to destruction and everlasting ruin. He says others are travelling the narrow road that leads to life. Which road are you travelling?
I implore you today. Do not deceive yourself. Apart from a personal relationship to Jesus Christ death is to be feared as the doorway to hopeless, endless separation from the presence of the Lord! Christ is the door by which you must enter to be saved. If you attempt to go another way Christ himself condemns you as nothing more than a thief and a robber (John 10:1). His language is meant to illustrate the futility of pursuing acceptance with the Father by any other means than his own precious blood. Indeed, the way of the cross leads home. There is no other way to possess eternal life. You must know the only true God and His Son Jesus Christ whom he sent. You must come through the door!
But alas my friends, false spirituality abounds as Satan blinds the eyes of those who do not believe. Satan is busy casting doubt upon the Word of God and if you become complicit with him the enemy of your soul will most certainly drag you down to hell. But Christ is calling you today. The Spirit of God is calling you through the message of our text. Hear the Word of God: this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
It is quite obvious from this passage and the whole of Scripture that the true God is represented in history by His Son. God had a Son! The number of false spiritualities that deny this cardinal truth are too numerous to mention and I am sure you can think of more than one movement in our world that denies the Son. How tragic this is! Those caught up in these various movements are travelling the broad road. Their soul is in great danger. They are but a heartbeat away from the regions of the damned.
Sadly all those who perish in the everlasting burnings of the just and holy wrath of Almighty God have themselves to blame. The true Light that lighteth every man who comes into the world has appeared to all with an invitation to flee the wrath to come. That invitation is real. The pleadings of the Spirit of God in the human heart are real. But many turn away. Many resist the Holy Ghost and through neglect, or pride, or willful unbelief harden themselves until there is no more call of God.
Beware my friends. The day will soon be past. The brief hour of invitation to forsake your Egypt and suffer affliction with the people of God—in place of the pleasures of sin for a season—will soon be over. Today if you hear his voice do not harden your heart. It is time to turn. Hear the text carefully. God sent Jesus into the world. God had a Son and any spirituality that says otherwise is dangerous. False spirituality is the means by which Satan is devouring multitudes. Don’t make the mistake of turning away from the Light. When the light of the gospel comes to your darkened soul it is time to turn. It is time to repent.
I warn you today: do not follow those who have popularized what amounts to the spirit of antichrist. Any doctrine that denies Jesus as the unique, only begotten Son of God, God come in the flesh for our salvation, is from the spirit of antichrist. The Word of God teaches us to “try” or test the spirits to discern whether the spirit is of God, or if it is a lying, deceptive spirit.
In order to discern what is of God we must examine what various religions, teachers, and movements say about Jesus. Remember, Satan manifests the spirit of antichrist as an “angel of light.” This is exactly why false spirituality is so dangerous. It often appears to be genuine and good. But if the teaching of a religion or some popular movement denies that Jesus is the eternal Word come in the flesh for our salvation, then it is of the spirit of antichrist. Those who deny the Lord are tragically lost regardless of their sincerity or zeal. (Cf. John 1:1, 14 and 1 John 4:1-6). Again, if you are wrong about the person of Christ nothing else matters. He is God’s unique Son, the Lord from glory, God come in the flesh for our salvation. To deny him means eternal loss!
One tragic example of the manifestation of the spirit of antichrist is very vivid to me. It is the example of a dear man who died less than a year ago. He is in eternity. And while I am not his final judge, unless he changed his mind about Jesus he has no hope. He sold millions of books that are to this day deceiving others and leading them away from the only hope of eternal life—the Lord Jesus Christ. He described Jesus Christ as a “self-actualized person.” He urged people not to be Christians, but Christ-like. He said, “I don’t think that Jesus was teaching Christianity, Jesus was teaching kindness, love, concern, and peace.”
You know, I was once in a math class and I didn’t think 2+2 was 4. Of course, my math teacher corrected me and it didn’t matter what my opinion was about it. Likewise, it doesn’t matter what the opinion of false teachers are. What matters is what Jesus said! Only the foolish could read the words of Christ and deny that he was the Son of God come for their salvation. Be careful my friend. Your soul is at stake. Interestingly Oprah Winfrey tweeted following the passing of this man: “It was a pleasure to talk to (this man) about life’s big questions. He always had big answers. RIP. You brought the Light.”
Excuse me, but that man and no other man is the Light. Jesus Christ alone is the Light of the world! Jesus said, “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”
Jesus Christ not only taught Christianity, he is Christianity! Jesus Christ emphatically declares himself to be the Son of God who came to give his life a ransom for all. He dogmatically says in our text that eternal life is to be found nowhere but in him. He dogmatically declares that he reveals the only true God who sent him to be the Savior of the world.
These are dangerous days in which the spirit of antichrist is dressed up in modern garb and goes undetected by the undiscerning. Indeed, the wicked are waxing worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. You have been warned. It is time to confess that Jesus is the Lord come from heaven for your salvation. He is Emmanuel, God with us! He is the eternal Word who left his Father’s side to tabernacle amongst us in the person of Jesus the Christ.
He proceeded to humble himself in the form of a servant and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross. He endured the cross, despising the shame and is now set down at the right hand of God the Father expecting that his enemies be made his footstool! His precious blood has provided a covering for the sin of the world and today you can come to the foot of the cross and trust his death on your behalf for your salvation. He is risen from the dead with the promise of eternal life for all who will believe upon him.
Will you come to him? Will you confess him as the Lord from heaven? Will you accept his death and resurrection for your salvation?
Eternal life hinges upon that decision.
If you are wrong about Jesus, then nothing else matters. If you should gain the whole world but lose your soul all is eternally lost. What think ye of Christ, whose Son is he? Is he the Son of God? If you answer with the atheists and conclude that he was just a man—if he existed at all—then you will perish. It matters not that you climbed the corporate ladder or ascended to the heights of academia, or lived in positions of power while here on earth. You must go out to face Christ, whom you rejected as Savior.
If you answer with the pantheists and occultists that Jesus was just another ascended master and that you too can be a Christ, then you will realize all too late that your willful unbelief blinded your mind to the simplicity of the gospel of Jesus Christ. One day the living Christ, the Lord from glory, will pronounce upon you those dreadful words, “Depart from me ye worker of iniquity, I never knew you.”
And to our Jewish community and our Muslim community we say with genuine compassion that you both stand in great danger. You both deny that God had a Son. In some context you both say you respect Holy Scripture, at least in part. But you have ignored or willfully turned away from Scripture. You would do well to humbly come back to Scripture with an open heart. You would do well to pray humbly that God would reveal to you the truth concerning His Son. As Jesus Christ says, “search the Scriptures, for they are they that testify of me.”
Now I close with our text again . . .
“These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: as thou hast given him power (authority) over all flesh (all mankind), that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. (John17:1-5).
I pray you will receive God’s word today. Invite Jesus Christ into your heart and place your faith in him as your only hope of heaven.
