I want to just speak to you for
a little while, not long, from the book of 1 John, chapter 5. The book of 1 John, chapter 5. Let me begin reading in verse
number one. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. And every one that loveth him
that begats loveth him also that is forgotten 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. His commandments are not grievous. 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, 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 true. For there are three that
bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost,
and these three are one. There are three that beareth
witness in earth, the Spirit, the water, and the blood, and
these three agree in one. If we receive the witness of
man, 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
has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
And he that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the
Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto
you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may
know ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name
of the Son of God. Well, how do we come to believe? That's a good question. A good
question is how do we come to believe and how do we know that
we believe? Let's just talk about that for
a little bit here this evening, not long, and trust the Lord
will help us if there be any questions in regard to our standing before God. How do we
come to believe? Well, first off, the Holy Spirit,
the third person of the Trinity, was pleased to make us aware,
or was pleased to make us conscious of our sinfulness, of our transgression,
the fact that we're not what we ought to be. The Spirit of
God undertook that work and presented some things to us that brought
about this consciousness of our sinfulness, brought about our
consciousness of our danger, that we were kind of walking
a tightrope, and if we slip, we're going to fall, and terrible
would be the fall thereof. So, how do we come to believe? First off, because the Spirit
of God, the Spirit of God Himself, was pleased in His goodness and
sovereign mercy to make His consciousness or make us conscious of our sinfulness
and of our danger and of our inability to do anything about
the danger that we were in and to do anything about our sinfulness. Now, that's the first thing that
happens to us. The Spirit of God makes us aware that we're
sinners, that we're sinners. We may have known all our lives
that there was something wrong with us, that we were imperfect.
We may have known that we have done things which, when we did
them or thought things, and when we thought them, there was something
that registered in our innermost being telling us that these things,
this wasn't the right thing to think or it wasn't the right
thing to do. But there was no There was no awareness. There
was not an awareness with this consciousness that made us aware
of the fact that we had violated some precept of God. We just
thought, well, we're like everybody else. We're imperfect, and everybody
else does these things, and so people think about the same as
we do, and so we just It didn't register. But there was a time
that it did register. There was a time when the Spirit
of God made us understand, made us realize, made us feel the
guilt and the weight of our sinfulness. And we become aware of it for
the first time. How do we come to believe? First,
the Holy Spirit makes us aware of our sinfulness. He makes us
conscious of our sinfulness. And I know that everyone here
who's a true believer will confess if you had opportunity that there
was a time that you was not aware of your sinfulness, but there
was a point, there was a time and place that you was made aware
of the fact that you're the violator, that you transgressed the very
being and nature and law of God And you become aware of it. And
you become aware of the danger if you continue on in that course.
And you become aware of your inability to do anything about
it. The Holy Spirit did that. Well, secondly, how do we come
to believe? Secondly, we understand or perceive
the suitability of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. What
do I mean by that? I mean the suitability of the
gospel of the Lord Jesus to our case, to our need. We were made
to understand that the gospel of the Lord Jesus was just what
we needed. It just fitted our needs. The suitability of our needs
was met in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And thirdly, We received Him whom the Scripture
has set forth in the Gospel. We believed on Him. First, we
were made aware of our need, made aware of our sinfulness,
made conscious of it. Never was conscious of it before.
We could take the name of God in vain and say, well, I shouldn't
have said that. I'm sorry I said that. But it
didn't register. But there was a time when it
did register. become conscious of it. And secondly, we understood
the suitability of the gospel to our case. That is, we felt
ourselves so sinful and understood how sinful we was, but we rejoiced
when we heard about the great substitute in the Lord Jesus
Christ who was able to take care of He was able to cover, was
able to pardon, was able to do away with every one of our transgressions. We've seen the suitability of
the sacrifice of the gospel of the Lord Jesus to take away our
sins. And we came to Him and believed
on Him. Well, this whole chapter here
is talking about whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ. How do we come to believe? How
do we know? That's the second question. How
do we know that we believe? Well, let me try to answer that
the best I know how. Well, it's clear that if a man
does believe, he's saved. That's clear. This chapter sets
that forth. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. These things have I written unto
you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may
know. that you have eternal life and that you may believe on the
name of the Son of God. He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. So, it's
very clear from these scriptures here that if we believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ, we're saved. But the question is this, how
do I know that I believe? How do I know? Well, first of
all, I believe as a general rule it's a matter of conscience.
You see, how do I know I breathe? How do I know that? How do I
know that my heart's beating? How do I know I think? I know
I do, and that's enough, isn't it? I know I'm thinking. I know
I'm breathing. I know my heart's beating. I
know that. You say, well, how do you know
that? I say, I know it. I know it. I just know it. There's
something built in that tells me that I'm still breathing.
I haven't fell to the floor yet. So I know it. It has to do with
the man's conscience. You see, a man might say, and I've heard
people say this, they say, well, I'm in such a weak condition
that I don't even think my heart's beating, but it is beating. I
mean, if it wasn't beaten, he'd be gone, wouldn't he? If his
heart wasn't beaten, he'd be finished. Yet it's beating all
the time when he says, I don't think my heart's hardly beaten,
yet it's still beating. Well, I live. I live. I'm alive. You ask me
for proof that I'm alive, I say, well, I just know I do. I just
know I live. I just know I'm alive. Well,
how do I know it? I just know it. I just know it. Look up here in this 10th verse. How do I know that I believe?
He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. I know it. How do I know? I know
it. Can I prove it to you? No, I
can't prove it to you. I just know it. I just know it. Well, there's another evidence.
How do I know that I'm a believer? How do I know? I know that I'm
a believer because, first off, I just know it. He is the witness
of the Spirit of God, bears witness with my spirit, and I know I'm
a believer. I know that I think, I know that
I breathe, I know that I move, and I know that I'm a believer
in the Lord Jesus Christ. The witness of God bears witness
with my spirit and gives a clear-cut evidence to my very soul that
I'm a believer. And secondly, I know that I'm
a believer because I had a remarkable change in my life. Because I underwent a remarkable
change. Because I turned from this direction
and started in this direction. Now that's evidence that I'm
a believer. I ask these questions. How do
we come to believe? How do I know that I believe?
I know that I believe because the Spirit of God bears witness
with my spirit. I know that I believe because
a change took place in my life some years ago, a change. Of course, I'm not trusting in
that experience back there. I believed then, and I believed
yesterday, and I'm still believing today. You say, well, do you
have to go back 30 years? No, I don't have to go. I just
have to go back right now. I still believe right now. I
still believe it. But I'm saying that there was
a remarkable change that took place in my life 30 some odd
years ago. I was going in one direction
and the Lord stopped me. And I turned from that direction
and started in this direction. Something took place. Now some
people call it repentance. Some people call it something
else. Now you can call it whatever you want to, but I call it being
born again. That's what I call it. You see,
for when a man believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, there is such
a change that is wrought in his very soul that he knows about
it. Now, I am just not convinced
by anybody that when a man is saved, he doesn't know anything
about it. I believe when he is saved, he knows something about
it. There is such a remarkable thing that takes place in his
heart, in his affections, in his attitude, that he knows.
He has been made aware of it. You see, as in the case of the
blind man. You remember the blind man in
the Bible? When his eyes were opened, he said, One thing I
know. I was blind and now I see. As
to how it come about, I can't tell you. I can't tell you how
it come about. There's a man come along and
he talked to me. I don't even know the man, but
I do know this. I do know this. Who was the man?
I don't know who the man was. What do you know? I know this.
I was blind, now I see. There's a remarkable change that's
wrought in the heart of a man who is a believer. The Scriptures
put it this way. They say old things have passed
away, behold, all things become new. That's what they say. The
Scriptures. Old things. Attitudes and habits
and systems and so forth. All these things pass away. If
any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. He's something new. New creation. He's been born
from above. He has the very spirit and nature
of God Himself implanted in his heart. He's not perfect, but
bless God, there's been a change in him. There's been a change.
He's under new management. He's under new management. It
may not be perfect, but I'll guarantee you things won't be
like they used to be. They won't be like they once
was. He comes under new management. He comes under new government.
He has a new president in his life. He has a new chairman of
the board of directors in his life, and that's none other than
God Himself. As in the case of the blind man,
what about the poor woman who had the issue of blood so many
years? Thirty-eight years, I believe
it was, she had this issue of blood. And when she touched the
very hem of the garment of the Lord Jesus Christ, she was healed. How did she know she was healed? How did she know? She felt it
in herself that she was made whole. She said, I know I've
been made whole. I touched the hem of his garment,
and our Lord Jesus Christ said, Who touched me? He said, Virtue
has came out of me. Someone touched me. That woman was made whole. Well,
that's an evidence that a man is a believer. There was a time
in his life when God intervened, and he changed his direction. evidences that we believe are
this, that our affections are so changed or altered. That is, things that I once loved,
I now hate. And things that I once hated,
I now love. My affections have been altered.
That is an evidence. You take a man who says, I believe,
And there's no change wrought in his soul, in his affections,
I doubt whether he's ever believed or not. He may have believed
with his head, but his head and his heart's not got together
on this matter. Because when his heart and his
head gets together on this matter, then his affections are altered,
changed. He hates the things that he once
loved, and he loves the things that he once hated. That's all
they are to him. There's a change, a remarkable change. And everyone's
going to notice it. They'll notice it. The people
that he works with are going to notice it. And if they don't
notice it, he'll be so bold to tell them about it. He'll be
so bold to tell them, no, wait a minute, I want to tell you
something that happened to me. And they'll tell them. It may
be feebling, fumbling, stumbling, halting, lisping words about
the gospel, but they'll tell them. that I've had an experience
here of the grace of God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and I've been brought to face my very sins, and I've seen the
awfulness, and I've been made aware of the awfulness of my
sins and my attitude, and I've believed and trusted in Jesus
Christ, whom God has sent. And there's been a remarkable
change in me. My affections have been altered.
That which once gave him pleasure now causes him pain. Isn't that
true? There are many things that once
caused a man pleasure. He got a certain delight, a certain
enjoyment out of these things. But now it just grieves, vexes,
and torments his brass soul when he sees these things being taken. It used to, it didn't bother
me too much when I When I heard people take the name of God in
vain, when I heard people be so despisable and contemptible
towards the Word, but these things grieve me now, grieves me. Well, things that were unpleasant
and burdensome now become delightful tasks. I can remember when I
was a boy, I just literally, I just looked for every reason
excuse in the book to keep going to Sunday school when I was a
boy. I looked for every reason. I
didn't like to go. It was the most boring, dry,
uninteresting hour that I ever spent. I didn't want to go down
there and listen to some old man stand up there and take the
little Sunday school book and talk and shed a few tears and
if we'd give him our pennies and When Sunday school was over
with, I got out of there. I never stayed for no church
service. I got out of there. Unless someone of higher authority
than me could make me stay, I didn't stay. I got out of there. You
see, now, that which was so unpleasant and so burdensome to me, now
is a delightful task. You see, an evidence that we
believe is that our affections have been altered. Especially, is there a change
in us in respect to God? Now that's where the change really
is more noticed than any place else. In our attitude towards
God. We said in our hearts, prior
to our conversion, up to the day of our conversion, we said
in our hearts, No God. No God. The fool has said in
his heart, there is no God. No God for me. And we'd have
been glad. I know we'd have been glad if
we'll be honest. We'd have been glad if someone
with some authority would have come along and said, well, you're
right. There's no God. There's no God.
I guarantee you that, that there's no God, there's no heaven, there's
no hell, there's no judgment, there's no hereafter. When you
die, that's all over. Eat, drink, and be merry. Someone
could have convinced you and said, well, that sounds good
to me. That sounds good to me. That relieves me a whole lot. I feel a whole lot better. There's
a weight that has suddenly lifted from me to know that out yonder
somewhere that there's no God and no judgment and there's no
day of reckoning. I feel a little better about
that. I feel all right, you see. Well, our affections have changed. When a man's a believer, his
affections have changed. Now his greatest joy is in God
Himself. He desires now to know all that
he can know about God. He delights to hear the preaching
that describes the true character of God Almighty, that talks about
God's attributes, talks about what God did in Christ. He talks
about the faithfulness of God, the love of God, the grace of
God. He loves that. He loves it. He
wants to hear more of it. You can't make him disinterested
when you talk to him about the character of God. He finds out
every day that the more that he approaches unto God, the greater
is his delight. What I'm saying is that how do
we know that we believe in God? These are some evidences that
we know. Now, if our affections hadn't
been changed, hadn't been altered, we can't say, well, I'm just
no different right now than what I always was. I'm still the same. Take it or leave it. I can be
a little religious. I can palpate these things. I
can say, yeah, I believe in Jesus, and I do believe in Jesus. I
believe that He was and He is and so forth. But I can't see
any... I have no real desire. I have no real affection in my
heart that goes out to Him, yearns and pants after Him, desires
to know Him. desires to be like Him, and desires
to please Him. I doubt seriously if I've been
saved, if that's my true witness and true testimony. I doubt if
I've ever been anywhere. I doubt it. I just made a profession,
that's all. I just said, well, I've been
emotionally distraught by some preacher or some occasion or
some circumstance, and I've consented to some things that really I
don't believe. Brethren, some evidences that
we do believe is that there's been a remarkable change. There's
been a change in our conduct. There's been a change in our
habits. There's been a change in our understanding of God,
who He is, and so forth. There's got to be. There's got
to be that. And if that hadn't taken place,
I believe we could say, well, I'm just treading water here. I'm just fighting the air. Now, this man who believes in
the Son of God, a witness that he does believe is that he's
loved. God is loved by our innermost
soul. We love Him. We love Him. We love Him. We found out. We found out. The man that believes,
he just hadn't stopped right there. He hadn't stopped right
there. But God, who hath begun a work in him, has began to work
and has increased his appetite. And he found out some things.
He found out that he loves God because God first loved him. He found that out. He found it
out. Now, when you find these people
that argue and want to debate about the doctrine of God's sovereign
mercy and the doctrine of God's sovereign grace, they won't debate
about it and argue about it while you put a question mark behind
them fellas. You can say, well, they might
talk about the deeper life, but they haven't experienced much
of the deeper life. Because I'm sure, brethren, that
when a man who's a believer, and God begins this work in him,
He'll bring him to the place of inquiry. He'll begin to inquire. And when he hears something relative
to the reason why he loves God, his ears will pick up. He'll
say, what did he say? What did he say? What did he
say? He said, I love Him because He
first loved me. What's that mean? What's that
mean? I love God because He first loved
me. I didn't know that. I didn't
know that the reason for my loving God is based upon the fact that
He first loved me. When did He first love me? And
then it goes on and on. You see what I'm talking about,
Bob? And he'll find out. He'll find out before it's over
with that God loved him in Christ before the world ever was. And
instead of that making him loose in his habits, in his conduct,
or a loose liver, as men say. Instead of that making him a
loose liver, that will make him strive after God. He will desire the holiness of
God. And in his walk and in his conduct,
you will see a difference. We found out that He loved us. Now we love Him with our innermost
souls. And it hurts us. It hurts us
to see God being abused. To see men take His Word and
just cut His Word to pieces. Just take verses out of its context
and try to make it mean what they... It hurts us when we see
men preach something that does not give all the glory to God. We desire a man who's a believer. He desires above everything else
that God receive all the honor and all the glory for his deliverance
from his guilt. He desires that. He doesn't want
any of it. He shudders when men say, well,
you're doing a good job and you're a nice fellow and you're a good
man and you certainly are doing a wonderful job serving God. He's shut. He doesn't like that
kind of talk. He likes to hear men say, I am what I am by the
grace of God. That's what he likes to hear.
He likes to hear preachers preach that will ultimately, the sermon,
the message will ultimately give all the glory to God and strip
man. of his boastful pride and bring
him down into the dust. A man who's a believer, that's
an evidence that a man's a believer. Another evidence that a man's
a believer is that we know also that we believe, though very
far from perfect. We know that. We don't have to
have anybody tell us, well, you ain't perfect. We know that. And people tell us that every
once in a while. You ain't perfect, you know. You try to tell people something
about the Bible, and they say, well, you think you know it all,
don't you? I've heard people tell me that. They say, well,
you just think you know everything. You think you know everything.
I don't know everything, but God does. Isn't that right? I don't know everything, but
God knows everything. And I'm preaching one who does
know everything. I don't know everything. I'm
imperfect. Very little I do know. Very little. That is in comparison to what
is to be known. And in comparison to what is
revealed of God Himself, I know very little. I know very little.
But I know some things. I know this. I know that I'm
not perfect, but I do know this. I love holiness. I love that. And I love purity. I know that. I believe that a man who's a
believer, an evidence that he is a believer is, that he knows
he's not perfect, but he loves holiness and he strives after
it. He strives after it. That's right. He may fall a dozen
times every day, but he gets up and keeps moving. That's what
I'm talking about. He gets up. He doesn't lay there. He doesn't lay there. He doesn't
quit. He gets up. I failed again. I failed again. I failed God again. Miserably,
I failed Him again. I've sinned against Him. But
he repents of it and he gets up. And he gets up and he starts
again. He may not be very high up. His
head may be down on the ground. His chin may be in the dust.
But he's going in that direction. Well, he loves holiness and he
strives after it. Well, righteousness and truth
and peace are the things that a man now strives after and the
things that he now seeks for. It used to be that he sought
his own selfish pleasure. It used to be that all he was
concerned with was what's in it for me and can I have a good
time in this or that or something else, you know. What profit is
it? Can I make any money? How can
I promote myself? But now it's not that. It's not
that. It's righteousness, it's truth,
and it's peace. It's loving God with all of his
heart. It's striving after God, desiring
to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
can know, I believe, that we have believed in the Lord Jesus
because now we have fellowship with God. We have fellowship
with Him. That is, we are in a habit of
speaking with Him. And we are in a habit of hearing
Him speak to us through the Word. I told you this morning about
the Word. This is God speaking. We have
fellowship with God. Our hearts go out to God in prayers. Bob said public worship and private
worship. There's public prayer. There's
private prayer. There's time when we pray, when
we find some spot in the morning, when we're not bothered by anybody
and we seek the face of God and we thank God. We thank God for
His gospel of redeeming grace. We thank Him that He's kept us.
We thank Him that He preserves. We thank Him that He gives us
our food and our lodging and our raiment. We thank Him for
our health. We thank God for these things
because they come from Him. And we pray that God might help
us to be useful, to serve our generation, and to spread the
gospel, the good news. An evidence that a man believes
is that he has fellowship with God, and this fellowship so broadens
out that he wants to share this good news and this gospel to
the whole world. He wants everyone to know about
it. He wants others in foreign lands and other cities and in
his own area, he wants them to know that there is a God of mercy
who so loved sinful human beings that He sent His Son to deliver
them from their transgressions. There's a change in this fellow. Well, I want to just say in closing
that I appreciate and I'm thankful for each one of you true believers. I believe for the most part.
I suppose there are some here who are not believers. But for
the most part, I believe most of you are believers. Believers
in the Lord Jesus. And I've given you some evidences
here that might be of some help and some comfort to you. But
for those of you who are believers, and we have this fellowship with
God, and we want to share the gospel with others, I'm thankful
that That that's your attitude. That's your attitude. You don't
want the gospel just to be confined right here at this little 30 foot wide, 55 foot building. We're just going to hear it and
go home and we don't care about whether anybody else hears it
or not. And I know that's not your attitude because If it wasn't
for you, I couldn't do what I do. I couldn't go and preach other
places like I do, small groups. I've never preached at a big
congregation yet, my whole except at Henry's Church at the Bible
Conference. The only time I ever preached to a large congregation
was down at Henry's. Most of the time I preached to
30, 40, 50, 60, 25, 15. So I preached to all over the
country, and they're not able to buy my gas, pay my motel room,
or give me expenses. They're not able to do all that.
I couldn't do it if it wasn't for you. I thank God for you.
That's inevitable. You're loved. And I don't know
what good comes out of it. I don't know. The response seems
to be great. People seem to rejoice. And only
eternity will reveal what happens here in time. But I'm thankful. But this is an evidence, I believe,
an evidence that we believe. Listen, he that believeth on
the Son of God hath this witness in himself. But he that believeth not, does what? Made God a liar. That's what I was trying to tell
you this morning, where it says, this is my beloved Son, in whom
I am well pleased, hear ye Him. Well, the fellow that despises
that message, Isaiah said, who hath believed our report? Who
has believed our report? Who has believed the report of
the gospel? Well, the man that doesn't believe that God has
declared the Lord Jesus Christ to be the Son of God. the Savior
of every man who will come to Him, Jesus will save. He won't
save him if he doesn't come. But if he'll come to Him, Jesus
will save him. He'll save him throughout time
and throughout eternity. He'll save him forever if he'll
come to Him. He'll save him, He'll bless him, He'll use him.
But He won't do it if He doesn't come to Him. He's got to get
to Him. If He'll get to Him, He'll save him. And it says here
that he that believeth not He that doesn't believe this, doesn't
believe that God will do it through Jesus Christ, he's saying, I
don't want you. That's what he's saying. He's
saying, I don't want you. It's not that I just don't believe
He won't do it, I just don't want Him. I don't want Him. Alright? He that believeth not God hath
made God a liar, because he hath not believed the report or the
record that God gave of His Son. He made God a liar. I'm thankful
this evening that I believe. I believe. Dear Lord, God in
heaven, help my unbelief. I believe. I believe that the
Lord Jesus Christ is my only Lord, my only Savior, my only
Redeemer. I believe that. In spite of my
imperfections, in spite of my inconsistencies, I believe! I believe right now! By the grace
of God, I'll believe two hours from now and tomorrow morning.
I'll still believe. I believe. I've renounced all,
all righteousness of my own. I'm not trusting in anything.
Not one single solitary thing. Naughty. I'm not trusting in
my prayers. I'm not trusting in my preaching. I'm not trusting
in my witnessing. I'm not trusting in my wife.
I'm not trusting in my mother. I'm not trusting in the church.
I'm not trusting in nothing. without all other, everything
else. I'm trusting in Him. I believe. I believe the report. I believe
the record. I believe the record. I believe He'll come to us. I
believe He'll come to us. I believe He'll give you some
evidences. Don't put the horse before the
cart. You can't have no evidences until He comes. You say, well,
if I could have some evidence like you say you have evidence,
and like you say the Bible says men have, then I'd come. Well,
you'll never come. You see, you'll never come. If
a good doctor come along and you were sick and he had a medicine
there, he'd guarantee it would take care of your sickness, your
disease. Well, you'd say, well, I'll wait and see if I improve
and then I'll take it. You'll not improve until you
take the medicine. You've got to take the medicine
to find out whether you're going to improve or not. Isn't that
right? You've got to take it. Now, you can't have no evidences
that He belongs to you and you belong to Him until you believe.
Until you believe. I believe, Lord, help my unbelief.
Lord, give me some evidences. Create in my heart a right spirit. Create in my heart a right affection. Create in my heart a right attitude. Create in my heart an attitude,
a striving after, a planning after, holiness, purity. Make
me a new creature in Christ Jesus. Lord help us. Only He can. I can't.