Certainly blessed to be here
today and share with one another the opportunity to praise the
Lord together. No greater blessing for the sons
of God than to be gathered together in one accord to exalt and honor
the one name that is above every name. We're looking in 1 John chapter
five. 1 John chapter five. As we sang that song there just
a moment ago, and the prayer, of course, throughout that singing
of that song is that we might be clothed with humility and
love. And of course, as we look here
in the The Book of 1 John, those things are quite prominent. That
the Lord might clothe His people with humility and love, that
we might keep His commandments. His commandment is not grievous,
that we might believe on the name of His Son and love one
another as ourselves. And that is the most impossible
thing for anybody to do. Impossible for a man to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ unless the Lord in His mercy visits
him and gives him such an ability to believe. You know, we, men,
of course, in our day and time, it's primarily taught that man
can just believe any time he gets ready. It's all up to him. But the truth of the matter is
that apart from the grace of God, man will never believe.
He will go on his way. He may hear the gospel. He may
even be moved somewhat emotionally by those things that he hears. but apart from god's grace uh... he'll never believe it but by
his grace he will and by his grace he won't be able to do
anything else but believe it can't be taken from him because
it is the gift of god uh... and so then the lord is pleased
to work in his people Very work, this is what he says here, that we love
the children of God. And we won't do that unless he
helps us, shows us what love is, number one, and that he applies
that to us by his spirit, which he does. and we are imperfect
creatures we do not love as we ought to love but we do by his
grace uh... are given a desire bear with the people of God,
to be with the people of God. You know, somebody that doesn't
like being around the people of God has no reason to believe
that the grace of God is active within him. Because it is the
work of the Spirit of God to give God's people a love, one
for the other. And so that is, as he says here,
a mark of we know that we love God because we love one another. And so it is a true thing. I'm gonna read some of these
verses here in chapter five. We've looked at some of them
and we're gonna go a little further from where we were. Chapter five,
1 John says, whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born
of God. And everyone that loveth him
that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this we
know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep
his commandments. For this is the love of God,
that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not
grievous. For whatsoever is born of God
overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh
the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the
world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? This is he that came by water
and blood, even by Jesus Christ, not by water only, but by water
and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth
witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that
bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost,
and these three are one. And there are three that bear
witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood,
and these three agree in one. 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 Son. And this is the record. that
God hath 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. And so we'll stop there and go
back and look at these verses. as we began, whosoever believeth
that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And we talked about that
some last week. And surely that does not mean
what it has come to mean in the world. Well, you just believe,
oh yes, I believe. So you can go, especially here
in the South, you could go around and take a poll and you'd be
hard-pressed to find a great number of people. that would
say they did not believe that Jesus Christ is who he said he
was. They would think in their mind,
well, I believe, I believe in him. See, a lot of people think
that believing in God is a mark of faith. That's not a mark of
faith, that's a mark of observation. As what Paul said in the book
of Romans, he said, you can look around you and see the glory
of God, I mean, you don't have to have any great insight or
be taught much to look around and know that God created the
world. How else could it have come to
be what it is? And I know there's all kind of
scientific explanations and stuff, but they all fail at one point,
and that is, well, where did it start? You know, they talk
about the Big Bang. Well okay, well let's think about
the Big Bang. What caused the Big Bang? And
what was before the Big Bang? So you know, it's inescapable.
A man can't escape the fact and the glory of God. So it doesn't take any great
insight for a man to believe in God. In fact, the scripture
says it takes a fool not to. The fool has said in his heart,
there is no God. Now what he's in essence saying
is there is no God for me. So you see a lot of people say
they believe in God, they believe all these things, but they don't
want him to be the ruler over their life. They want to control
their life. And they think they do. And they
think that their decisions are what the things that, you know,
cause God to do what he does. But the reality is that it is
God which works in us both the will and to do of his good pleasure.
A man can't escape that. Now that's a blessing to the
sons of God, is it not? To know that. I mean, I wouldn't
want it to be any other way. I want him to direct my path,
to give me light, give me direction, to show me the way. I don't want
to be left to myself. Now the man who's a non-believer,
he wants to be left to himself. He doesn't want God to mess with
him. He wants to be free. But what he doesn't understand
is such freedom as that is actually the greatest bondage that a man
can ever be in. Because when a man is free to
do what he wants to do, there's only one destination that he's
gonna arrive at, and that is destruction. Because that's where
men are headed by nature, to a place of great destruction.
And so it is. that whosoever believeth that
Jesus is the Christ is born of God. That is when a man really
believes it, by the grace of God, when he's been taught it
in such a way that he can't believe anything else. When he's been
taught it in such a way that he doesn't want to believe anything
else. When he looks around him and he sees nothing that exceeds
the glory that he finds in Jesus Christ, that's what it is to
believe him. to love him, to look at those
things that he's done in our behalf and to rejoice in it,
not just to endure it or just to say, yeah, it's so, but I'm
gonna go on my way. To believe him is to hold on
to him. And everyone that loveth him
that beget, loveth him also that is begotten of him. That is the
one who is the creator. If we say we love him, then we
must love those who were begotten by him, the children of God. By this we know that we love
the children of God when we love God. keep His commandments. So those two things are inseparable.
You can't love God without loving His people, and you can't love
His people without loving God. Those two things go hand in hand,
and they are true. For this is the love of God,
that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not
grievous. for whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world,
and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our
faith. And we talked about this last
week. The faith of God's people is not an activity. What John's
talking about here, he says our faith, he's not talking about
an activity. Now most all of the teaching
that you will hear in the present day about faith is speaking about
the activity of faith. You need to believe. You need
to do this. But that's not what the faith
that John's talking about here is. Our faith, the faith that
overcomes the world, is not an activity but is a person. Jesus
Christ is our faith. We fled to him for refuge and
we can go nowhere else. He's the one we want. Just like blind Bartimaeus. He was blind and the Savior was
passing by and he said, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy
on me. That's what he needed. That's
what he wanted, and he couldn't be satisfied with anything less,
even though the people that were sitting by told him to be quiet. See, you can't cause a man who
believes in Jesus Christ not to believe in him. You can tell
him anything you want to. Not gonna change his heart. Not
gonna change his mind. Because it's the work of the
Spirit of God in him that causes him to believe. And he can't
just decide one way or the other. See, that's the way people think,
oh, well, I think I'll decide to follow Christ. No, you won't.
Man will never decide to follow Christ unless the Lord makes
him willing in the day of his power. And then if he makes him
willing in the day of his power, he won't be able to do anything
else. So the victory that overcometh
the world is our faith, is Christ. He's our victory, he's that one
who is our triumph. Who is he that overcometh the
world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
Because he's our faith. We overcome because of him. Our
overcoming is not the activity that we perform, but our overcoming's
in him. We triumph because He's our triumpher. He's that one who's fought battles
for us. He's that one who has kept us
and keeps us. And then it goes on here in verse
six. This is He, speaking of Jesus
Christ, this is He that came by water and blood, even Jesus
Christ. Not by water only, but by water
and blood. Now, there's a lot of Things been
written about that particular phrase that's here. And there's
a lot of applications that can be made with this. I think there's
one thing that John was saying. Now like I say, I think you could
make some applications here. Some people try to equate this
with the water that it's speaking of here, with water baptism. Now water baptism is an important
thing. The Lord said to his disciples
that he would have them to baptize those whom they made disciples in water. He gave us an example. He was baptized in water. But
at the same time, having said that, being baptized is of no
consequence whatsoever. apart from faith. Because it is the answer of a
good conscience toward God. It is that which a man would
desire to do because his Lord said to do it. And because he
believing in what the Lord said, he would desire to be baptized. But the baptism itself is of
no consequence. It doesn't do anything for a
man. And so when he's speaking here about Jesus Christ coming
by water, it's not talking about that he came by water and being
baptized or that this is the teaching here. What he's speaking
about is the same thing that he told Nicodemus. He said, Nicodemus,
let's go over there and we'll read that, John chapter three. In verse five, Jesus answered,
well, let Nicodemus, the Lord said, except a man be born again,
this in verse three of, I mean, yeah, verse three of chapter
three. Nicodemus, the Lord said to Nicodemus, except a man be
born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus in
his natural understanding was puzzled by this. He never heard
of anything like this. You'd have been puzzled too if
you'd have been there and you'd never heard anything about what
it was to be born again. And the only kind of birth that
he's thinking about is being born of his mother. And so he
said, Nicodemus saith unto him, well how can a man be born when
he is old? Can he enter the second time
into his mother's womb and be born? See, he's thinking about
natural birth. And Jesus answered, verily I
say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit. He cannot see the kingdom of
God. So what he's saying to Nicodemus is, Nicodemus, this has got nothing
to do with water birth. Because, you know, as you understand
and know a little bit about natural birth, there's waters involved
in that birth. Because the baby is in a sack
inside the mother's womb that's filled with water. And when the
baby is going to be born, that water comes forth. And so Nicodemus
understood what he was saying. He said, Nicodemus, we're not
talking about water birth. We're not talking about natural
birth. He said, because you can be born naturally, but not have
the birth that I'm speaking about here. A man must be born of the
spirit. not only of the natural birth. And so when it's speaking over
here about the Lord Jesus Christ came by water and blood, it's
not talking about, it's talking not about any baptism or anything
like that. It's speaking of the fact that
he was born in the flesh. I mean that's what John has said,
a man that doesn't believe Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.
He has come in the flesh. He walked among us. Now that
is a very important part of the faith that we have, is to believe
that Jesus Christ was a man, is a man. He came into the world
in a natural birth. just like we are, because he
would come as our sin bearer to carry away our sin. And had
he not been born as a man, he would have had no standing to
take away our sin. But he came in such fashion.
He came by water and blood. So it speaks here that he came
by blood, we understand that the Lord said the life is in
the blood. And so, when you see blood, you
know it's not a good thing. I mean, you know, if you, I went
to school with a boy that for some reason, just the sight of
blood would cause him to just pass out. I mean, literally pass
out. I mean, if he saw blood, buddy,
he was out. And I think there's a condition
that's called, but I can't think of it, call it right off my hand.
But in other words, that's a magnification of the fact that the life is
in the blood. I mean, when somebody's bleeding,
you want to get it stopped. Well, the Lord Jesus Christ poured
out his blood for us. What do we understand by that?
Does that mean that he just cut his finger and let the blood
run out? No, it means he gave his life. He poured out his life. The life was in the blood. And
when the blood is poured out, the life ceases. And so Jesus
Christ came by water and blood. He came in a natural birth, born
like all men, but he died in giving of himself. in the behalf
of people. And so that's what the witness
is. This is He that came by water
and blood, even Jesus Christ, not by natural birth, but by
natural birth and blood. He died. He came this way. That's the reason that He did
come into the world. You see, the Lord didn't The
Lord didn't come up with the work of redemption as an afterthought. I know that a lot of times people
think of it, well, you know, Adam, the Lord created Adam in
this perfect way, and Adam messed up the Lord's plan, and then
the Lord had to come up with another plan. And so he sent
his son in to pay for Adam's sin. That's not how it happened
at all. Because Jesus Christ, the scripture says, the lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. The world was created
with redemption in mind. The Lord created man. He created
Adam. He put him in the garden, and
He told Adam exactly what he was going to do. He said, in
the day that you eat this, you're going to die. He didn't say if. He said, this is what's gonna
happen. Because according to God's purpose for Adam to be
exactly what he was, and for things to be exactly as they
turned out to be, because Jesus Christ would come into the world
as the savior of sinners. He did it on purpose. It wasn't
something he was trying to do, or something he's hoping to do,
it's something that he came to do. Just like the Lord sent the
angel to tell Joseph. It says, thou shalt call his
name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. He's
not gonna attempt it. He's not gonna hope to do it.
He will do it. And so Jesus Christ came by blood,
not by water only, but by water and blood, and it is the Spirit
that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. The Spirit
of God has come to tell us. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I
am the way, the truth, and the life. And listen to what it says
here. The spirit that beareth witness
because the spirit is truth. Jesus Christ said, I am the truth.
Now, is there a conflict there? No, because he, the Lord Jesus
Christ sent his spirit See, it wasn't a spirit. He didn't send
something outside of himself. He sent himself. He said, I will
come to you. The spirit is truth. He bears witness of the truth.
The Lord said that he would teach you, he would lead his disciples
into what? All truth. He will guide you
there. because the Spirit is truth speaking. Now listen to this. For there
are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word,
and the Holy Ghost, and these three are what? One. Now a lot of people get all uptight
about this and get all worked up and there's been, you couldn't
fill this, you couldn't put all the books that's been written
about this subject into this room If you put them on microfilm,
probably, I mean, you probably couldn't get them all in here,
because people have labored over this, trying to define and explain
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, when it's impossible to comprehend
this. See, we're dealing with an incomprehensible
God. You can't figure God out. How
foolish it is for men to spend hours and persecute one another. There's been more people persecuted
and put to death over this particular subject right here. You realize
in times past that if you uttered something other than the orthodox
view of what the scripture says about father, son, and spirit,
that you could be put to death. People have been. But, dear brethren, the scripture
speaks about the Father, speaks about the Son, and speaks about
the Holy Spirit. But I can unequivocally say,
as the scripture says here, they are one. We're not talking about three
individuals. We're talking about one. Now
how you explain it, I'll leave that up to you. I don't try to
explain it. Neither should you spend a lot
of time trying to get it explained to you. What does the scripture
say? I mean, it bears witness. The Lord Jesus Christ told his
disciples, when he gave them what's called the Great Commission,
And he said, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Ghost. But you can look through the
scriptures, and you can look through the New Testament through
the book of Acts, and you'll find a lot of places where people
were baptized. But you won't find one where
they were ever baptized in the name of the Father, the Son,
and the Spirit. Now did they disobey the Lord?
No. They did exactly because the
Lord showed them what it was to baptize somebody in the name
of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. When they did what? They baptized them in the name
of Jesus. So if you would know who God
is, if you'd know who the Son is, if you'd know who The Spirit
is. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
You must know Jesus Christ. There's no other way that you'll
ever know the true and living God apart from knowing Jesus
Christ. Because He's the revelation of
God to men. And the Spirit bears witness
of this. That what the Lord said? He said, when the Spirit has
come, he will not what? Speak of himself, but he will
glorify me. And there are three that bear
record in heaven, the Father, the Word, the Holy Ghost. And
what is the record that they bear? These three are one. That's the witness. That's the
declaration. Oh, what a glorious truth it is to
know that Jesus Christ is indeed God. Now, some people are afraid to
say that. Scripture's not afraid to say it. When the Lord Jesus, when they
came to arrest him in the garden, you remember what he said? they
said we say jesus he what do you say he said i a m and you
remember what he said to moses when moses said moses said well
who whom i don't have a ms is sending me he said you tell him
i a m and we know it's the same one world because when The Lord
said to these men, I am. You know what happened? The scripture says they fell
backwards. Now can you imagine the stupidity, I can't think
of a better word than that, of men who come face to face with
the true and living God so much so that they are knocked off
of their feet and fall backwards. And yet they get up and still
take him into custody. Now how did they do that? They
didn't do it by might or power. They did it because he ordained
that it be so. Just like he told Judas, go and
do what you gotta do. He said this man would be better
for him if he'd never been born. There are three that bear record
in heaven. Now this is the record that's
in heaven, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, and they are
one, that's the record. They bear witness, they're one.
When Jesus Christ came, he came as one. What did Isaiah prophesy? He said, he shall be called,
what? The everlasting Father. He told Philip, he said, Philip,
if I've been so long time with you and thou hast not known me,
why do you say, show us the father? He said, he that has seen me
has seen the father. Dear brethren, I can't understand,
I can't comprehend how that can be more clear throughout the
scripture. And when he says here, these
three are one. Now you can call that whatever
you want to. A lot of people call it, they
speak about the trinity. That's a word never found in
the scripture. I don't have, wouldn't fall out
with anybody over that at all. In fact, I wouldn't fall out
with anybody who seeks to try to explain this in whatever fashion
they do. But if they come to any other
conclusion than that Jesus Christ is God, is no less than God in
any fashion, then they have missed the mark of what scripture says. And then he says, and there are
three that bear witness in the earth, the spirit, the water,
and the blood, and these three agree in one. Speaking about man. Men are spiritual creatures.
Now, unfortunately, you see, we're body, soul, and spirit,
but we're not spiritual in the sense of having the spirit of
God. We have the spirit of man. That's
what the spirit, see, we have the spirit of man. We have the
spirit. What is the spirit? It's the
breath. The Lord breathed into man and he became what? A living
soul. Man doesn't have a soul. He is
a soul. According to what scripture says,
it doesn't say he got a soul. It says he is a soul. He made
him a soul. We're souls. Now, we're not immortal. We're finite. We have a beginning
and we have an end. Apart from one thing. That is
that the Lord might give us eternal life. And if he gives us life,
no man can take that from us. And this is the record. He says
it right down here. This is the record. That God
hath given to us eternal life. He that hath the son hath life. He that hath not the Son hath
not life. Make of that what you will, but
that's what the scripture says. The life, eternal life is in
Jesus Christ. There's no other place that we're
going to gain it. There's three that bear record
in heaven, the Father, the Word, the Holy Ghost. These three are
one. There's three that bear witness in the earth, the spirit,
the water, and the blood. We have, we are spirit, but we're
finite spirits. Water, we have natural birth.
That bears record, does it not? And the blood, the life's in
the blood. We have a natural existence. And these bear witness
in the earth. And if we receive the witness
of men, the witness of God is greater. For what is the witness
of God? That bears from heaven is one. And then he says, he that believeth
on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. See, the very witness
of God, the Lord witnessed from heaven. And the man who's caused
to believe in the Son of God, the scripture says he has the
witness, where? In himself. How does he get it? Because God gave it to him. Oh,
what a glorious thing. And this is the record. that
God had given to us eternal life. His life's in His Son. Now, we
could spend a long time on that. I mean, that's the essence of
the gospel here, brother. Eternal life is in Jesus Christ. It's not in what you think about
Jesus Christ, not what you decide about Jesus Christ, but eternal
life is in Christ. And if you would have eternal
life, you must have Christ. Not a teaching about Christ.
See, I can teach you about Christ, but that won't do you any good.
I mean, it might do you some good, but it won't do you any
eternal good. Well, the Lord must give you
that eternal life. And he does give it. He gives
it to sinners. He gives it to those that believe.
And they don't get it because they believe, they believe because
He gave it to them. What a glorious thought. Our life and our times are in
His hand. I'm thankful. I'm glad He's not
left me to go on my way. Because as surely as the sun
comes up tomorrow, if He departs from me and lets me go That's just the nature of man.
May the Lord deliver us and help us.