Everywhere I go, everywhere in
the world, I don't think I can think of a single exception to
this. Everywhere I go, people ask me
this question. How can I know that I am one
of God's elect? People are confused, often distraught
by bad teaching, Confused and distraught by their own experience
in things Because we are so inclined We are so inclined to take Things
in scripture and twist them Twist them as Satan twist them to our
own discomfort to our own Woeful misery rather than as God has
written them in his words If you read what men say about the
book of 1 John, you will find that almost all the commentators
use this book as a means of introspection. Almost all of them take 1 John
and turn the light of 1 John on you so that you cannot possibly,
you cannot possibly with honesty have any peace or assurance for
what's written here. But John tells us over and over
and over again in these five chapters that it is his purpose
in writing these five chapters his purpose given by divine inspiration
that we should know that we know him. That we should know that
we have eternal life. We who believe God Every sinner
who believes God has reason from this book to walk before God
with assurance. Now, I know people have trouble
with assurance. I do, too. I do, too. And I'll tell you again, as I've
tried to tell you for 33 years, I've tried to tell you just as
often as I think to tell you, the reason is always because
I'm looking to the wrong place. Always. Always. Always. We look in ourselves
to see if we love the Lord like we ought to. Well, Sam Wall,
I've got news for you. You don't. And if you think you do, you
don't know God. That, it just, that can't be
in a printer, can it? If you had the vain imagination
that you so love God, that that gives you peace with God and
assurance before God? Now, since I love the Lord so
much, I know I'm saved. I can't use words contemptible
enough to speak against such things. Well, I don't know whether
I know the Lord or not. I'm so sinful. That's a false
modesty. That's a false humility. It's
the believer's sinfulness that he is aware of that gives him
claim to Christ as his savior. Don't take my sinfulness away
from me. That's the only claim I've got
before God. What I am before God is sin,
and Christ came to save sinners. What I am before God is sin,
and Christ came to put away sin. I just don't know whether I'm
saved or not. I don't love my brethren like I ought to. You
don't. You don't. And if you think you
do, you don't know what love is and you don't know God himself. That's just, I'm trying to be
as plain as I can be. But brother Don, where do you
look for hope? Yonder to that man seated in
glory, Christ Jesus the Lord. And that's all. that's all. Turn with me if you will to first
John chapter 5 and we'll begin in this fifth chapter at verse
13. First John chapter 5 and verse
13. Look what John says here. These
things have I written unto you. Now those are John's words. Those
are my words as I preach to you. These things I have preached
to you. These are God's words to you. These are God's words. John wrote
by divine inspiration. Claus Peter said this is what
God says to you. These things have I written unto
you that believe on the name of the Son of God that ye may
know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the
name of the Son of God. Now back up to verse one. I know there is a people in this
world loved of God, chosen of God, whose names are written
in the book of life before the world began. A people for whom
Jesus Christ lived and died, a people for whom he accomplished
redemption. There are some people in this
world called God's elect who must and shall be saved. A people
whose sins Christ put away at Calvary who cannot possibly go
to hell. I know from the testimony of
Holy Scripture that the Lord Jesus brought in righteousness
for them, satisfied justice for them, and they must be saved. My question is, how can I know
that I'm one of them? How can I know that my name's
written in the book of life? How can I know that God chose
me? He didn't choose everybody. He
says so. He says that as plain as it can
be. Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. That's as plain
as it can be. I know that Christ didn't die
for everybody. If he did, either he's a miserable failure or some
folks are in hell for whom he died and that just cannot be.
That just cannot be. I know that the Holy Spirit didn't
call everybody. If he did, everybody would come
to Christ. Well, how can I know that God chose me? That Christ
died for me? That the Holy Spirit has called
me? How can I know that I'm one of God's elect? Let's look at
the book of God here at 1 John 5. Verse 1. Listen to what it
says. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ, is born of God. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. Now, what does John mean by that? I hear people foolishly, foolishly,
foolishly talk about just a Nominal assent to some proposition folks
make some soul winner makes it you believe in Jesus Yes, I believe
in Jesus will bless God you're saved Every Mormon who walks
on the earth believes in Jesus Is that fact Every moment who
walks on this earth believes in Jesus, but it denies that
is God Every papist who bows down and stoops at the stupid
altar in a papist chapel and burns candles and prays to Mary
believes in Jesus. Every one of them. Every one
of them. Go ask them. Go ask them. Every world-worship Arminian
walking on this earth believes in Jesus, just like the papist
and just like the Mormon. Does that mean everybody's saved?
No. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, he's born
of God. To believe that Jesus is the
Christ is to believe that God's Son, that man who lived and died
at Calvary 2,000 years ago, by his obedience and death as the
sinner's substitute, has fully accomplished everything the prophets
wrote concerning him. Ah, now. He's born of God. Well, believing with the heart. What's that? Believing by the
gift of God, the Holy Spirit in your heart. And if you believe
him, you know it. And useless to come talk to me,
say, Brother Duncan, you help me with assurance. No, I can't.
And I won't. I just won't do it. Only a lost
man will try to convince another lost man that he knows God I'm
not trying to do it. Don't try to do it. That's God's
work. He does it through the preaching
of the word 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 what's John saying just what you think
it is and Those who love God, love God's people. Those who
love Christ, love those who are one with Christ. Those who are
born of God and taught of God, love one another. Believers love
one another because we believe God and believe in God We are
one in Christ one with one another so that those who believe Love
the Savior and love those who are saved by his free grace the
believer believing on the Lord Jesus Looks to his brother as
his brother. I fully worthy of heaven's glory
because of Christ and loves his brother because he's his brother
in Christ Jesus the Lord. Do you trust Christ as your prophet,
priest, and king? Do you trust the Son of God as
your only righteousness, your only salvation, your only hope
with God? If you do, you're born of God and your faith in him
is not the cause of you being born of God. Your faith in Him
is the result, the fruit of you being born of God. And while
love, as the scriptures everywhere declare, is an identifying characteristic
of God's people, our love for God and our love for one another
is so shallow, fickle, and sinful that if we dare make it a basis
of personal assurance, we only delude ourselves. Look at verse
two. By this, we know. By this, we
know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep
his commandments. Love is made manifest by works. It's made manifest by works.
I do not know my love for my wife by the things I do for her. Oh no, no. But she does. And
there's no way for her to know that I love her except by the
way I treat her. And so when John says that our
love is, back here in verse 2, by this we know that we love
the children of God. When we love God and keep his
commandments, he's not saying that our love is evidence to
us. that we know God. That's not
what he's saying. Our love is display to one another that we
know God. So that brotherly love identifies
believers to one another. Paul continually speaks of folks
and says, we know your election because. He didn't say, I know
my election because of what I do. He said, I know your election
because you believe, because you love one another, because
you give yourselves to the gospel, because you addict yourselves
to the word of God. So that these outward signs, these outward
tokens of grace that we see in one another, by these things,
believers know one another. But he's not telling us that
we know ourselves to be born of God, ourselves to be lovers
of God because of these outward circumstances. John is making
it clear that our works is no basis for personal assurance.
He's telling us that God's people identify one another by their
works of faith and love. Paul said to the Thessalonians,
we give thanks always to God for you, making mention of you
in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your works of faith and
labor of love and patience of hope. Look here in verse three.
For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.
And his commandments are not grievous. Love obeys. All who love God, willingly obey
him. All who love God, willingly obey. We keep the Ten Commandments.
That ain't much. That ain't much. That's a little
bitty portion of this book. That's a little bitty portion
of this book. Oh, what's he talking about? The whole revelation of
God's will. Believers obey it. They bow to
it. And nobody has to force them
to. Nobody has to intimidate them into it. Nobody has to talk
them into it. Nobody has to twist their arms
and offer them rewards or threaten to punish them. Oh, no, no, no.
They do so because they love. If we love him, we keep his commandments.
And his commandments are not a burden. His commandments are
not grievous. How can I say this so as to be
understood? The easiest, most comfortable,
delightful way of life in this world is obedience to God our
Savior. Faith in Christ, walking with
God, Obeying his word. I wouldn't have my life any different
for anything in the world except this. To perfectly obey. To perfectly believe. That'd
be ideal. That'd be ideal. His commandments
are not a burden. They're not grievous. But our
works, my works, cannot give me assurance. And my love can't
give me assurance. But there is a solid foundation
upon which I have assurance. Look at verse four. For whatsoever is born of God
over cometh the world. Wow. Anybody that's born of God is
going to triumph over Satan. Everybody who's born of God is
going to trample the neck of the old fiend of hell under his
feet and crush. God's going to crush him under
your feet shortly. That's the promise of God. Everybody's
born of God. Somebody then is going to triumph
in this world. Somebody's going to triumph over
this world. All who are born of God. Look
at verse four. Next line. And this is the victory
that overcometh the world. even our faith. Drawing strength from Christ,
faith works wonders in the world. Faith has enabled men to subdue
kingdoms. Faith has wrought righteousness. Faith has obtained God's promises. Faith Faith in Christ stopped
the mouths of lions while Daniel was in the lion's den. Faith
has quenched the violence of fire so that those three Hebrew
men cast into the fiery furnace didn't even have the smell of
smoke on them. Faith escapes the edge of the sword. Out of
weakness, faith makes men strong. Faith causes men to wax valiant
and fight and turns the flight of armies of aliens. But this
is faith drawing strength from Christ. That which gives us the
victory is not our faith, but the object of our faith, Christ
Jesus the Lord. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God and he overcomes the world John
assures us that faith produces both love and good works but
he draws us away from our love and draws us away from our good
works as any grounds of assurance because Christ the object of
faith is the only basis of hope before God look at verse 5 Who is he that overcometh the
world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? Now, John's whole purpose in
these first five verses is to show us these things are characteristic
of believers. These things are characteristic
of those who are born of God. These things you will see in
God's people. But our hope, our confidence,
our assurance is not in our faith. It's not in our love. It's not in our works. Our faith is not in ourselves. Our faith is in Christ. Who is
he that overcometh the world? he that believeth that Jesus
is the Son of God. So the singular basis of confidence,
the singular basis of assurance, the singular basis of hope, the
singular basis of confidence before God is this, I believe
the Son of God. That's all. That's all. I believe the Son of God, and my behavior, be it good or
bad, my feelings, be they ever so spiritual or ever so hellish,
my experiences, be they ever so great or ever so dismal, do
not alter the fact that I believe on the Son of God. Do you believe
him? Do you believe him? Faith in
Christ is the evidence of things, the substance of things hoped
for, the evidence of things not seen. All right, now, let's look
at our text again. If we would rest our immortal
souls on the merits of that man, Christ Jesus, trusting that he
indeed is the son of the living God, we've got to have some evidence. Faith is not a leap in the dark.
Faith is not just blindly saying, I believe in Jesus. Faith knows
who Christ is. Faith knows what Christ accomplished.
Faith has a basis in the revelation of God. And look what John tells
us about him. Verses 6, 7, and 8. Under Mosaic
law, every claim presented in legal matters had to be presented
by two or three witnesses. Everything presented in court
in the land of Israel had to be presented by the witnesses
of two or three people who were eyewitnesses to that which was
brought to charges against the man. And here the Apostle John
produces three witnesses, three irrefutable, infallible witnesses,
witnesses that could not be disputed by which every believing sinner
may justly lay claim in his own heart to eternal life in Christ
Jesus, the Lord. In verse six, he gives us witness
to the deity of our Savior. To believe that Jesus is the
Christ is to believe that he is God, the son. There is no
faith in Christ unless we believe that Jesus, the man, is God,
the son. And so we have witness given
to the deity of Christ. In verse 7, witness is given
to the accomplishment of redemption. It's useless to tell me that
Christ died at Calvary. That's utterly meaningless. That
doesn't mean any more than to tell me that my granddaddy died
when I was a little boy, as far as salvation is concerned. That's
utterly meaningless. Unless you can convince me by
irrefutable witnesses that cannot be disputed that he accomplished
redemption in his death. That's what he gives us in verse
7. And then he gives witness to the believer of our own saving
interest in Christ in verse 8. Let's look at these three things.
Witness to Christ's deity. a witness to redemption accomplished,
and witnesses to the believer's saving interest in Christ. First,
here's the witness of the water, the blood, and the spirit. This is he which came by water
and blood, even Jesus Christ, not by water only, but by water
and blood. And it is the spirit that beareth
witness because the spirit is truth. We know that Jesus is
the Christ because he came by water. He came by water. What does that mean? What does
that mean? Perhaps it refers to him coming
by natural birth, but that's not much of a witness. Perhaps
it has some connection with baptism because he, by his baptism, symbolically
fulfilled all righteousness. But I'm sure that's not the witness. That could be disputed. That
could be argued. But he came by the witness of the word. The witness of the word. The
word water is used throughout the New Testament. to refer to
the Word of God. Our Savior said, now are you
clean through the Word which I have spoken to you. He sanctifies
and cleanses his church with the washing of water by the Word.
We're born again by the washing of regeneration and renewing
of the Holy Ghost. And that's by the Word of the
Gospel that God gives us. So the Word of God is that which
gives testimony to Jesus Christ. Everything in this book, every
requirement, everything that God spoke of concerning the Messiah,
that God spoke of concerning redemption, everything typified,
every promise, every prophecy, is perfectly fulfilled in Jesus
Christ. And it's not possible, it is
not possible that those prophecies being put together could be fulfilled
by any other human being in time. They had to come to pass at precisely
the time ordered in the Old Testament prophets and they had to come
to pass exactly in a man who met everything prophesied of
and Jesus Christ, the son of Mary, the son of David is the
son of God. He met those demands so that
everything in this book. from Genesis to Malachi, spoke
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he comes being witnessed to by
the Word of God. The scriptures spoke of his incarnation
and virgin birth. The scriptures spoke of his submission
and obedience to the Father. The Scriptures declared his betrayal
by Judas. The Scriptures spoke of his crucifixion,
his substitutionary atonement, and the accomplishments of it.
The Scriptures told us of his resurrection and his glory. All
the types and all the prophecies, everything in the Old Testament
spoke of him. Then we know that Jesus is the
Son of God because he came by blood. Water is used in scripture
to symbolize the word of God and water is used in the word
of God to represent the Holy Ghost. Our Lord Jesus came being
created in the Virgin's womb by the Spirit of God. And he
comes to us in regeneration by the Holy Spirit, taking the word
and effectually applying it to our heart. And the Spirit of
God is brought to us through the Savior's precious, sin-atoning
blood. Christ Jesus had to come by water. He had to come by the Word of
God. And he had to come by blood. Not by water only, but by water
and by blood. It would not do. Christ could
not be our Savior. He could not be our Redeemer.
He could not be our substitute. He could not take us to glory.
If he had come here, born of a virgin, living for 33 years
in perfect righteousness, fully obeying the law of God for us,
performing great miracles, feeding the multitudes with few loaves
and fishes, causing the blind to see and the deaf to hear and
the lame to walk and the dead to be raised up. If he did all
that, we could not believe he's the Messiah. We could not believe
he's the Christ. Except he go yonder to Calvary
and bear the wrath of God in our stead, being made sin for
us and fully satisfy the justice of God until God Almighty declares
fury is not in me. Christ Jesus came by water and
by blood. He claimed to be the son of God.
He demonstrated his power. He proved it by his sacrifice.
We see his Godhead and the glory of God in him, in his sacrifice
in our stead. Paul said, I delivered unto you
the gospel, the gospel. And this is how he defined it.
It's defined several ways in scripture, all of them consistent
with one another, but this is how he defined it in 1 Corinthians
15, 3. H-O-W. H-O-W. How that Christ died for
our sins according to the scriptures. Our Lord Jesus came by water,
by the Word, and He came by blood. He accomplished redemption by
the sacrifice of Himself, putting away our sins through the merit
of His blood. And third, we know that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God, because God, the Holy Spirit,
bears witness of His deity to His own. It is the Spirit that
beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. John recognized
this when he was baptized, Bill. He saw this. He heard the voice
of God out of heaven. He saw the Spirit of God descending
like a dove, lighting on the Savior. And he said, this is
it. This is it. Because God said, this is one
that I've sent. When you see the Spirit descend
and light upon him and abide on him, you know this is it.
John said, this is the Christ. This is the Messiah. On the day
of Pentecost, the whole church knew that Jesus the Christ, that
one who was crucified at Rome and buried in the tomb, that
one whom they had seen and reported that was risen from the dead,
he is indeed enthroned in glory. He's the Christ of God because
the Spirit of God was poured out upon his church, just as
Joel said he would be, and bear witness that he's the Christ.
And every sinner, born and taught of God, has the witness of the
Spirit in himself. So that he comes in the power
of omnipotent grace and sprinkles your heart and conscience with
the precious blood of Jesus Christ, bearing witness that Jesus, the
Savior, He is the sacrifice, the mediator, the redeemer, the
Messiah, by whom redemption has been accomplished. All right,
look at verse 7. And here are three witnesses
to that accomplishment of redemption. We know that Jesus is the Christ
because these witnesses, the water and the blood and the spirit
are given to us. Look at verse 7. There are three
that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy
Ghost, and these three are one. Three that bear record in heaven? bear record. What do they bear
record of? They bear record that Jesus is
the son of God, yes, but heaven needs no record of that or no
witness of that. Heaven knows that. These three
bear record in heaven that God has given us eternal life in
strict accordance with holiness, justice, and truth by the law
being satisfied, by righteousness being brought in through the
merits of his own dear son. There are three that bear record
in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. And these
three are one. How so? God the Father in heaven
accepted the blood of his Son for the atonement of sin. God
the Father in heaven accepted the sacrifice of his Son for
the salvation of our souls. God, the son, the living word
of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity, bears record
of our acceptance and our right to eternal life by his perpetual
advocacy and intercession for us in heaven. I love to meditate
on that day when our savior cried, it is finished. And there was
a thick veil. A thick veil hanging between
the holy and the holy of holies between the holy place and the
most holy place And when our savior cried it is finished that
veil separating men from god That veil which forbade any man
to come to God, except that high priest who had the blood that
God demanded. That veil that said God cannot
be approached by man, and God will not receive man, and man
cannot come to God. That veil was rent, slapped into
from top to bottom, and God said sinners come in. And now we draw
an eye to God in the full assurance of faith. What? In the full assurance of faith. With what? Mary Brown, with what
could that high priest come into that holy place and know he'd
live? Tell me, what could he bring?
Blood. That's all. That's all. That's all. If he came in any
other way, he had full assurance of being smacked to death by
God's hand. Go ask Aaron's two sons. Go ask
Aaron's two sons. You come to God and bring the
fire that God requires and the fire that you like, and God will
send you to hell for it. You come to God and bring Christ's
blood and your goodness and your prayers and your merit and your
work and God will send you to hell for it. How do you come
to God? Nothing in my hands I bring,
simply to thy cross I cling. That's all. That's how you come
to God, with the blood of his son. And the Lord Jesus bears
witness in heaven, we're accepted. Father, I pray for them. And God accepts us for Christ's
sake. That's all. And God, the Holy
Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, bears witness, bears
record of the accomplishment of redemption. by effectually
applying the precious blood of Christ to the hearts of chosen
sinners in effectual calling. He glorifies Christ, receiving
the things of Christ and showing them to his people in heaven.
And he applies them effectually to our hearts upon the earth
so that we now trust in Christ. You read it back there a little
bit ago, Bob, in whom you also trusted. And now, after that
you believed, believing on Christ, you have the seal of the Spirit. The seal by which God seals to
your heart every promise of God. Every covenant blessing. What's
that? Faith in Christ. That's it. Faith in Christ. If you were
to ask a Jew, Let's go back 2,000 years, go back 3,000 years, and
find a Jew and say, how do you know that you're one of Abraham's
seed? He'd say, unlike anybody else
in the world, I've been circumcised. Nobody else, nobody else in the
spirit sits there. Nobody else had this sign in
their flesh. And now. How do you know that
you're born of God? I've been circumcised with circumcision,
not made with hands, a circumcision made by God, the Holy Spirit,
and that circumcision worked in regeneration is faith in Jesus
Christ, the Lord, and believing on Christ all the blessings of
God in covenant grace promised to God's elect given to us in
Christ before the world began? Every one of them, never mind,
not one shall be withheld from me. How can you say such a thing? I believe God. That's all. I believe the Son
of God. I trust the Lord Jesus. And then we're given testimony
of the believer's own interest in Christ. Look at verse eight.
There are three that bear witness in the earth, the spirit, the
water and the word, the word and the blood. And these three
agree in one. God, the Holy Spirit, the water,
the Word of God, and the blood of Christ, these three agree
in one. Now, notice how the order has
been changed. The witnesses to Christ's deity
are first the Word, then the blood, then the Spirit. The witnesses
to redemption's accomplishment are first the Father, then the
Son, then the Spirit. The witnesses to our saving interest
in Christ are first the Spirit, then the word, then the blood. A saving knowledge
of Christ begins with the revelation of God the Holy Spirit. It begins
with Him revealing to us the things that God has treasured
up for His own, for those who are called by His grace in time,
given us from eternity in Christ Jesus the Lord. the revelation
of Christ in me. This assurance, this knowledge
of life that I have now is given to me because God the Holy Spirit
gave me life. That's where it all begins. That's
where it all begins in this sweet, sweet thing called salvation. This sweet, sweet thing called
the grace of God. Everything begins with the gift
of life. People talk about, well, you've
got to feel, you've got to go through, you've got to do. You're
not going to get anything with a dead sinner until he's given
life. Not going to get anything with
a dead sinner until he's given life. You say, well, doesn't
a man have to come to the Lord? Yeah, but he can't come until
he's made to live. Doesn't man have to believe on Christ? Yeah,
but he can't believe unless God makes him live. Doesn't man have
to repent of his sins? Oh, yeah. You can't go to glory
without repenting, but you can't repent until God gives you life.
Doesn't man have to choose the Lord? Well, of course you do.
Who would suggest you didn't want to? But you're not going
to choose him until he gives you life. The dead sinner's dead. He dead. Everything begins with
the gift of life. And then the word. We're born
again. by the washing of regeneration
through the word. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. We're born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which lives
and abides forever. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. This is the means, not a means,
the means by which God saves sinners. Brother Frank Hall brought
you an excellent message on seven impossible things a couple of
weeks ago. I'll add one to it. As it is impossible for God to
lie, it's impossible for God to save sinners apart from the
preaching of the gospel. It's impossible. How can that
be? Because God said that's the way I'm going to do it. He said
he ordained by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. Well, that gives Mighty high
place to preach you didn't it though then it though That doesn't
give any high place to anybody except God God takes things like
you and me and Puts in us the treasure of his grace the gospel
of his grace. He said now go shine this light
everywhere. I and cast your bed upon the
waters. Preach the word beginning at
Jerusalem and in Jerusalem and in Judea and in all the parts
of the earth. And God says, I will gather my elect from the four
corners of the earth. And God, the Holy Spirit takes
the word and applies it to the hearts of chosen centers effectually. And when he does by the word. By the word, he comes and sprinkles the conscience, so
that the sinner, hearing the word, finds himself by some irresistible
compulsion of grace, by some irresistible power from heaven,
suddenly believing on the Son of God, resting in Him, because
God the Spirit taken the word of the gospel and sprinkles his
conscience to purge his conscience from dead works to serve the
living and true God, convincing him of sin, of righteousness,
and of judgment through Jesus Christ our Lord. This saving
knowledge of God our Savior is a knowledge based upon and arising
from the written revelation of God sealed to our hearts by the
power of God the Holy Spirit. This is the record God has given
and we believe God. All right, look back at our text
one more time. First John chapter 5 verse 9. Faith takes God's bare record,
takes God's bare record. Most of you are parents. Let
me find a child here. Matt, Cody, y'all got mama and
daddy. Did you ever ask them why? And
the response was, I said so. You remember that? And if you
should happen to say, I don't believe you, I don't think you'd
have any teeth in the front right now. Why? What boy? I don't qualify as a parent.
I only had one child and he was a girl, so I don't qualify on
what I do. But I got a hunch. I got a hunch.
If I had a son that called me a liar today, I'm 63 years old. If I had a son who's 42 years
old, called me a liar today, I'd still knock his teeth down
his throat. I wouldn't tolerate it. I flat would not tolerate
it. Wouldn't tolerate it. You think
God does? Faith takes God at his word. He said so. He said so. Let's read it. First John five
verse nine. If we received the witness of
men, we received the witness of it. Two or three of you fellas
come in here and report the same thing to me. I presume it. So
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 everlasting life. So what is that? He that believeth
on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth
not God hath made God a liar. Because he believeth not the
record. You got it in your hand. 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. He that hath not the son of God
hath not. life. These things have I written
to you that believe on the name of the
Son of God that you may know that you have
eternal life and that you may go on all your
days believing on the name of the Son of God. Amen.