We thank the Lord for those words
that we have heard and the songs that we have sung and the occasion
that we have to come together and remember the Lord's death
until He comes again as He has taught us to do. Many people want to remember
many things about the Lord All things that he has done should
be remembered, but the one thing that he commanded us to do was
to remember his death till he comes again, and thus we shall,
by his grace, do so. Now, we've been looking in I
John chapter five, and I wanna read a few verses here. In verse
nine, he says, if we receive the witness of men, the witness
of God is greater. For this is the witness of God,
which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the
Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not
God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that
God gave of His, he believes not the record that God gave
of His Son. And this is the record that God
had given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Now we began when we were looking
at this chapter five by reading those two verses 11 and 12 because
that's the summation of the gospel. I mean you can't, there is no
gospel apart from those two verses, or the things contained in those
two verses. You know, you can't proclaim
the gospel without proclaiming what's in those two verses. That
is the gospel. And this is the record. That
is, this is the witness. This is the testimony. This is
that thing which God has set forth. Now, we just read there
last week, said, for there are three that bear record in heaven,
the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. These three are one.
Down here it says, and this is the record. Now, the record's
been testified to by Almighty God. They're not another message
that God would bring to men. There's all kinds of people,
religions, and whatnot in the world that claim to talk about
God. And yet, we read here that there's
three that bear witness bear record in heaven. This is
a record, this is a testimony that's not in the earth. But
this is the purpose of God. This is that which is set forth
from the beginning. It's testified to by the Father,
the Word, the Holy Ghost. And these three are one. We're not serving a layered God. Now, some people have the notion
that God is in layers. You know, they say you got the
Father, one layer, then you got the Son, he's another layer,
and then you got the Spirit, he's the other layer. Well, God
is one, there's no layers in the Godhead. Of course, we talk about this
from time to time. I think it's very important that
a man have an upright understanding of this. I have no desire to
get into theological arguments with men about this, but suffice
it to say that Jesus Christ is the fullness of the Godhead bodily. No man has seen God at any time. apart from Jesus Christ who has
revealed Him. He has shown us the Father. That's what he said to Philip.
Philip, have I been with you so long and you didn't know who
I was? He said, if you have seen me,
you have seen the Father. Now, you know, the Lord For men
to sit around and define the Lord, you know I've read some
books, in fact there's a very famous book written by a gentleman
from many years ago on the attributes of God. And it's a glorious book,
it's a helpful book, it's a useful book. But on the one hand, how
foolish is it of men to think that they can define the attributes
of God. I mean, he's indefinable. You can't define the attributes
of God. You can't say, well, this is
how God is. See, that's what the heathen
do. That's what men by nature do, is they make God to be like
they understand him to be. Well, you see, when Paul spoke
to the men at Athens, what did he say? He said, I saw an altar
with an inscription to the unknown God. He said, he's the one I'm
declaring to you. He says, you got all these other
known gods out here. You know, I don't know all the
Greek gods that they had. I mean, I've read about them
and all that, but they had a bunch of them. Just like the Romans,
they had a bunch of them. He said, well, you know about
all them. I mean, the Philistines, they knew who their God was,
didn't they? It was old Dagon. They had a
temple to him. And not only that, they didn't
just build a temple to him, they put him in there. Yeah, can you imagine that? Having
a God that you can put in a place. Well, see, a lot of people, that's
how they want to approach and think about God. Well, we know
how He is. See, we've got it figured out. Well, He tells us what He wants
us to know about Him. But see, when you have known
everything that you can read and find out, you still don't
know anything about Him. He's unknowable. He dwells in
the light to which no man can approach. And yet in His mercy
and His kindness, He has revealed Himself unto us in Jesus Christ. And the Father, the Son, and
the Spirit bear witness. This is the record given in heaven.
This is it. And this is the record. that
God had given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. It's not in what men do. It's
not in what men think. It's not even in what they believe. But it's in Christ. This is the
record that God had given to us eternal life. And where is it? In His Son. See, you don't have any life
of your own. Now I know that men like to think
that they do. Men like to think of themselves
as this perpetual being that can't really be destroyed. You
know, they just go along. But dear brethren, we had a beginning and we have an ending, apart
from one thing. being given eternal life in Jesus
Christ. He said that he came that we
might have life and that we might have that life more abundantly.
And that's the record. That's the witness of God to
men. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in
himself. See, you, the only way you ever
came to believe that these things that I'm telling you are true
is because God gave it to you. He put it in you. That's what
he said. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath the witness in himself. It didn't come from him, but
he gave it to us. See, we didn't work it up, but
the witness is in us. See, when the Spirit of God works
in a man to believe the truth of God, he can't escape it. He can't run far enough from
it. Because the Spirit of God is in him and directs him and
brings him exactly where he wants him to be. Jonah found that out, didn't
he? I mean, Jonah wasn't happy with the Lord. He figured, well,
you know, I'm gonna do what the Lord said. But he found out that
he was gonna do what the Lord said. And he was glad when he
did. That's the work of God. You see that? He is constantly
bringing his people where he wants them to be. He brings the
witness into them. I'll probably wear this verse
out, but it's appropriate. where Peter, when the Lord, when
many were going away from him, and the Lord asked the disciples,
he said, well, are you going to go away? Peter said, Lord,
to whom shall we go? That's the words of eternal life.
Now, can a man that believes the gospel believe anything else?
Huh? I mean, if the Spirit of God
has come into a man, can he say, well, you know, I believe Jesus
Christ is the Son of God, but I'm gonna go over here and believe
this. Or I'm gonna reject that. No,
he can't do it. Because a witness is in him. That doesn't mean we know everything.
You know, some people think that because we have the mind of Christ,
as the scripture says, that means we know everything. No, you don't
know hardly anything. I mean, you know exactly what
the Lord would have you to know. And when you have said that,
when you confess that you have known something, you need to
know this, that you know nothing as you ought to know. And so,
You know, here's the witness of God, and men want to come
up with all these different things that the Lord would have them
do and say and all of this, and I don't want to get involved
in those things. What I'm interested in is knowing
what did God bear record and witness to in the earth, and
this is it. God has one purpose in earth,
and that's to magnify the glory of his grace in Jesus Christ
in the redemption of sinners. That's why he created the world.
And this is the record. Here it is. See, just as surely
as the Lord gave the record to Adam of the way of the natural
man, he said, Adam, In the day that you eat this, you are going
to die. And that came to pass, did it
not? Because did it come to pass, the Lord said, man, I had everything
planned out here for Adam, and psh, no. You see, God ordained
all things to come to pass according to the good pleasure of his will. in order that he might glorify
himself in the redemption of sinners. Oh, that's glorious. I mean, to me, I just can't,
you know, I get overwhelmed sometimes thinking about that. But here
it is summed up in a nutshell, and this is the record that God
has given to us eternal life. And this life's in his Son, it's
not anywhere else. Man can't gain it, he can't figure
it out, he can't learn it, he can't buy it. It's in Christ. Oh, what a glorious thing. And if a man believes not God,
the scripture says, he's made him a liar. So every man that
says I don't believe that, he's basically saying God lied. Because he believeth not the
record that God gave of his son. God said, this is my beloved
son, whom I am well pleased. Now if God spoke those words
from heaven, how on earth could it be that men could say I'm
not pleased with him? God's well pleased in Jesus Christ. And this is the record that God
has given to us, eternal life. We live because he lives. We
have eternal life because he gave it to us. And we believe
because he gave us the witness in ourself. He that hath the
Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God
hath not life. Now there's plenty of folks that
don't have the Son of God who are born and they breathe the
same air that we do, they eat the same food, they do all the
same things, and they die. In that life, we follow the same
path. These bodies are decaying. And the older you get, the more
you realize that. The Lord didn't design these
bodies, this flesh and blood that's corruptible. He didn't
design it to last forever. But the scripture says that there's
coming a day when the dead in Christ shall be raised in a immortal
body. It's going to be put on immortality. Will it be the same body? I don't
fully understand all the ins and outs of that. You know, some
people get all worked up about it. I don't know. I know this,
that when the Lord Jesus Christ came back from the dead, He was
resurrected in the same body that he went into the ground
in, because he said to Thomas, reach forth your hand and put
it into the palm of my hand. And the disciples, when they
stood, and the Lord, as the Lord ascended, and those angels stood
there and said, what are y'all doing gazing up? into the heavens
because they were amazed. I mean here was this man that
walked and talked among them that on the seashore ate fish
and bread with them. This same one is taken up out
of their sight into the heavens. And what did the angel say? He
said this same Jesus whom ye sow go into the heaven shall
so come in like manner. That's a glorious thing. The
Lord Jesus Christ is presently living. He's alive, he's as much
alive in the present time before the throne of almighty God in
that body in which he was crucified and raised again. Now, I can't
explain to you the physicalities of that. I couldn't explain it
scientifically, because it's not a scientific thing. God doesn't
need science. God made science. What men call
science is falsely so-called, according to what Scripture says. But see, to have life that he's
talking about here is not the physical life. It's not that
even which men think of as their existence. Because we don't have
an existence apart from being made alive in Jesus Christ. We have a physical existence,
but we know for a fact that physical existence comes to an end. You
know, the graveyard's full of people that testify to that.
We know it's a fact. We've had loved ones whom we've
walked with who are no longer with us. And we know that their
bodies are decaying in the ground wherever they were put. But we know this, that if they're
in Christ, that they're alive. That's a glorious thing. They
have life. And that's our hope, is it not?
He that hath the Son hath life, but he that hath not the Son
of God hath not life. There is no life apart from Jesus
Christ. None whatsoever. He's the life
and the light of all men. Without Him, they don't have
anything. Oh, thank the Lord that he is life. And you know,
in order that we might have life, he laid down his life. How could
that be? It's too wonderful to contemplate. We can't explain that. See, you
can't cause somebody to believe it. You can't write it out in
such a way in a simplified form that anybody could understand
it. But if God, who's rich in mercy, is pleased to open a man's
heart, he can open the heart of a 10-year-old child to believe
that. He can give them faith if he
so pleases to do it. And they can believe it as much
as a 90-year-old man who's walked with the Lord his whole life
because it's the gift of God. this life which is given in Jesus
Christ. Oh, that he might give us a mind
and heart today to realize what it is that he's given us. And
that by his death, he's given us life. And the Lord said, as he gave this
to his disciples, and he gave them the bread and the wine,
he said, This is my body, which is broken for you. He gave us his body. He gave
us his blood. And he told us to partake of
them. And by faith in the present time, we do indeed partake of
these things. But you know, faith gives way
to sight. that which we hope for is that
which we have not yet seen. And we shall yet be raised in
the likeness of the same body as the Lord Jesus Christ. A body,
a true body. As he has said, this is my body.
We can see it. See, we can't look up into heaven
and see him. We can look right here and see
him. Why? Because he said that. And we
believe it. And we don't think this is transformed
into anything other than bread. It's bread, gonna be bread when
we eat it, and it'll be bread tomorrow if any of it's left
on the plate. But he said, I'm giving you my
body. I'm giving you my blood. Partake
of it. Oh, that the Lord give us a mind
and heart to believe those things that he said. and to lay hold
upon them.