Chapter 5 of the book of 1 John,
and let me read a few verses to you here this evening. Verse number 8, 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. And he that believeth
not, God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the
record that God gave of his Son. Now, the first part of this tenth
verse, where it says, He that believeth on the Son of God hath
the witness in himself. Now, I know what I'm about to
say is true, and I'm not going to say anything that they don't
say, but I know that it's part of the theory of ritualism, that
no man can know that his sins are forgiven unless he be assured
thereof by an individual, by a priest. Now, they tell us to
know that our sins are forgiven or absolved, we must have a revelation
or a spatial revelation from heaven or we must wait until
the day of judgment and find out then, or else some duly authorized
spiritual father pronounces us absolved from our sins. Now,
that's the theory of ritualism, which is very prevalent in some
particular denominations, Catholicism as well as the Episcopal Church. Now, as I said, I'm not saying
anything that they don't say. Now, these folks claim to be trustees
of God, commissioned and authorized from Him to hear and to judge
and to absolve men from their sins. Well, I don't believe that
this is true. I think that this is only the
evidence of the fact that men by nature are born idolaters,
and idolatry, or the idolatry that's in every one of us, seems
to lend itself to priestcraft or the ministry of men. You know that the Scriptures
say that there is one mediator between man and God, and that
is the man Christ Jesus, only one. The Bible says, He that
believeth and is baptized shall be saved. It does not say, He
that believeth and is baptized shall be saved if absolved by
a priest. The awakened sinner As the story
goes in one of the Gospels of the prodigal son, the awakened
sinner says, I will arise and go to my father. That's what
he says. Well, it says here then in this
10th verse, he that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness
in himself. Well, how come we to be believers? That's the question. Well, you
know that every individual who is a believer in the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Holy Spirit has been pleased to come and to make that
individual conscious of his sinfulness, conscious of his danger, and
conscious of his inability to please God in His flesh. Every man that winds up as a
believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, that's his history. The Holy
Spirit has come to him, made him aware of his sins, his sinfulness,
the danger, the inability. He's been made aware of it. He's
been made aware of the fact that he's lost, that he's lost. He maybe doesn't understand all
of what's involved in being lost, but he understands that he's
lost. He's lost from God because of his sins. The Spirit of the
living God makes a man aware of that. I'm sure of that. I
know that to be true. The Spirit of God makes him aware
of it. And then, secondly, the man who
winds up as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, he perceives
or he sees or he understands the suitability of the gospel
to his particular need or to his particular case. He feels
his sinfulness. He feels and knows how great
a sinner that he is. And he knows the sins that he's
committed. And he knows something of his just dues, but he sees
in the Lord Jesus Christ the suitableness to meet his need. He sees in Jesus Christ that
Jesus Christ is able. He is able in himself to meet
his needs, and his needs is great. He's full of sin, he's full of
deceit, and he's full of hypocrisy, he's full of rebellion against
God, and anything else that you might name, He's full of. But
he sees in the Lord Jesus that Jesus Christ in Himself is able
to take care of his needs. He perceives that. He sees it.
He understands it. He grasps it to a degree. I'm not saying that he understands
it perfectly. I don't think anybody understands
it. perfectly, but he understands it to a measure. Well, thirdly,
the fellow who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, he receives
Jesus Christ, or he believes in Jesus Christ as Jesus is set
forth in the Bible. He receives the Jesus of the
Bible. He accepts, put it in those terms. We hear that every day, men accepting
Christ. Well, we do accept Him. We do
receive Him. We bow down to Him. We make that
choice. But of course, we know that this
choice, this choice is only the result of God's eternal choice. We know that. We know that we
love Him because He first loved us. But we do receive Him. We receive the Lord Jesus. And that Lord Jesus that we receive
is the Jesus of the Bible. That's how we come to this particular
place of believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. But that's not
the question that I want to set before you here this evening,
which I believe is of the utmost importance. This is the question
here. I've told you about the religions
and the ritualists of this world, that they say that you can't
know whether you're saved or not, that your sins are forgiven.
You can't know unless judgment time comes. And the books opened
at judgment and check off your sins and all of that, and there's
someone there to absolve you. You might find it out then, or
if you don't know it that way, you've got to have a spatial
revelation from heaven. If you don't know it that way,
you've got to have someone commissioned and authorized by God to come
here and absolve you. I don't believe a word of it.
I think he can know it now. How do we know? How do we know
that we are believers? We know that a man who is a believer,
first off, the Spirit of God comes and makes him aware of
his condition. He makes him aware of something
that he was never aware of before. Now, I know that's true. I know
that's true. That first off, when the Spirit
of God comes, He makes you aware of something about you that you
was never aware of before. Well, all right. But how do we
know that we're believers? How do we know that we're true
believers? The Bible throughout here in every page practically
and every time the brethren stand up here and read and every time
practically that I quote or read from the Scripture or use one
Scripture for a text or a dozen for a text, invariably it has
something to do with a believer or believing. What does it mean? How do I know that I'm a believer? Well, it's clear now that if
we are believers, now get this, it's clear that if we are believers,
we are saved. Now that's clear. That's clear.
He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. If a man is a believer, he's
a child of God, and he's as safe as God can make him if he's a
believer. How do we know, though, that
we are believers? That's the question. That's what
I want to know. How do I know that I really am a believer?
Well, first of all, as a general rule now, it's a matter of consciousness. How do I know that I breathe?
How do I know that I think? How do I know that there was
a man called George Washington? How do I know? I just know. I
know I breathe. You ask me for proof whether
I breathe or not? Well, I know that I breathe because
I'm breathing. How do I know that I think? Well,
I know I think. I know it. I know it. You say,
well, I don't know whether you do or not. Well, I know that
I do. I know that I do. And the same
goes with you. I know whether you're breathing
or not. I see you there. You're not dead.
So you must breathe. Well, faith then, to a large
degree or to a large extent, is a matter of consciousness. Did I say I breathe? I say again,
I live, and you ask me for a proof, and I just reply to you, well,
I know I do. I don't have to have a birth
certificate to know that I'm alive. I just know I do. Well,
I believe. You ask me how I know it. I just
reply, well, I know I do. But there's some more evidences
apart from a matter of consciousness. There's more evidence than that.
And I think these evidences may be are far more weighty than
this idea of consciousness that I've kind of just touched on
here. Now the first evidence, I believe,
is this. How do I know that I'm a believer?
Number one, by a very distinct and remarkable change I underwent
when I first believed. That's one evidence that I'm
a believer. Now how is it How do I know I'm a believer? Well, I know it. I know it. I
know I'm a believer. You can bombard me with questions
and maybe I can't answer them, but in my heart and the innermost
part of my soul, I know I'm a believer. You can't take that away from
me. You can't rob me of that. You can't sneak in and take that
out because it's there in my innermost I know, but I also
know this. I know I'm a believer because
of a remarkable change wrought in my soul and affected me not
only inwardly, but outwardly. And I touched on that a little
bit here this morning. I said a man who's a believer,
when he believes, when he believes, If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature. He's a new creature. All things
have passed away. Behold, all things become new.
Well, I know I'm a believer because of a change that took place when
I believed. I know that. I don't know about
you fellas. I know what direction I was going
in. I know the road that I was traveling. I know my attitude. I know my aspirations. I know
my ambitions. I know my desires at that particular
time. I know. I know where I was going. And I know when I believe the
gospel. I know when the Lord Jesus Christ
made entrance into my soul, I know that there was a remarkable change
inwardly and outwardly about this poor fellow right here.
I know that. I know that. And I hung to that verse, if
any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. All things are passed
away and all things become new. You see, for when a man believes
in the Lord Jesus Christ, there is such a change wrought by the
Spirit of God in his soul that he must be aware of it. He must be aware of it. It's
not a thing hid, but he's conscious of it. He knows it. He's aware
of it. For instance, as in the case
of the blind man. He was blind. And when his eyes
were opened by the Lord Jesus Christ, he said, One thing I
know. They said, Who's this man? What
did he do? And they asked him a bunch of
questions. He said, I don't know about that. I don't know even
who this man was. I don't know. I can't be sure
of it. This one thing I know. He said, I know this. What is
it you know? He said, I was blind, but now
I see. A remarkable change was wrought
in this man. He was aware of the fact that
he could see. You see? How do I know I'm a believer?
How do I know? First off, because there was
a remarkable change in your heart, inwardly and outwardly, when
you first believed the gospel. See? What about this poor woman? that had the issue of blood so
many years. So many years. Poor, sick woman. About all of her life had some
loathsome disease. Couldn't find no help. Spent
all she had on physicians. After she spent all she had,
she was no better than what she was when she first started. But
I'll tell you what happened to her. The Lord Jesus Christ came
along and she slipped through that crowd and she touched the
hem of His garment. And she was healed! Now how did
she know that she was healed? The Scripture said that she felt
it in herself that she was what? Made whole! She was made aware
of it. There's a change, brethren. That's
an evidence. That's an evidence that a man
has passed from death unto life. is that when he believes, a remarkable
change is wrought in his soul by the Spirit of the living God.
Further evidence that we believe is this, that our affections
are altered. Our affections are changed. The
things that we once loved, we now hate. And the things that
we once hated, we now love. That's an evidence. That which once gave you pleasure
and gave me pleasure now causes me pain and no pleasure. Isn't
that right? There's things prior to your
believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, before your affections were altered,
that gave you certain pleasure in being involved with them,
or certain things that you've done. that gave you pleasure. But now, instead of giving you
pleasure, it causes heaviness of heart. It causes pain in your
heart. That which once gave him pleasure,
now causes him pain. Things that were once unpleasant
and burdensome and irksome to him, now becomes delightful. Never used to want to hear the
preacher. Never used to want to go to church or Sunday school.
It was a burden. You hated for Sunday to come,
especially if you lived in a home where there was someone that
went to church, whether it was mother and father, or whether
it was aunt or uncle, or wherever you was at. If there was someone
that was kind of the head of that house, And kind of wanted
everyone in the house to go to church. You kind of hated for
Sunday to come because you didn't want to go. And the only reason
you went was because you had to go. The only reason you went
is because he made you go. You didn't want to hurt his feelings.
Maybe you loved him or her or both of them. It was an irksome, burdensome,
weary, heavy duty to go to church. and to hear the preacher, and
to sit through the Sunday school. I used to do that. As a boy,
I went to Sunday school, and I'll tell you, I kicked rocks
all the way down the road, all thinking about sitting there,
listening to that dry old Sunday school teacher talk about God
and talk about the Bible. I didn't know what he was talking
about, and I didn't think he knew what he was talking about.
I tore him in it! And if I had my way, I wouldn't
have went. But the only reason I was there
was the people that I stayed with. The people that I stayed
with and kind of halfway raised me at that particular time, they
got up every Sunday morning and they went to church and they
expected everybody that stayed with them to do the same. And
I got up and went. It wasn't because I wanted to.
And they had daily vacation Bible school and I went. It wasn't
because I wanted to. I dreaded, I dreaded going down
there to that church for every day for ten days or every day
for a week and listen to a bunch of women and a bunch of sissies
fool around and talk and it just kind of cramped my style. I know what I'm talking about.
You know that I know what I'm talking about. Things that were
unpleasant to us, irksome and burdensome, now have become delightful. Now we want to go. Now we want
to go. You see what I'm talking about?
I'm saying the further evidence that we believe is that our affections
have been altered. They've been altered. And especially, brethren, our
affections have been altered with respect to God. With respect
to God. Now, I know we You might say,
well, preacher, I've always believed in God. Yeah, but it was your
God. It was the God that you manufactured. It was the God
that you made. And if you didn't make Him, somebody
else just like you made Him. And give Him to you, and you
put Him in your best pocket, and you worshiped Him. And I'll
tell you what kind of a God He was. He was a God just like yourself. That's the kind of a God that
He was. Just like yourself. That's the reason you loved Him
so. And that's the reason you hate to give Him up. Isn't that
right? That's the reason you loved Him.
That's the reason you hate to give Him up. Because He's just
like you. You didn't want to give Him up and made you mad.
If some preacher come along and told you something about your
God that offended you. Because when you offend your
God, you're offending me. Because my God's just like myself. I made my God just like myself.
I love myself. So my God just like me. Now brethren,
when our affections were altered and changed, certainly there
is a change in us when we believe in respect to God. We said in our hearts, no God. That's what we're saying. No
God for me. No God for me. The fool said in his heart, No
God! No God for me. That's what we
said. Now we would have been glad,
if we're honest, if we just landed the cards out right here on the
table, just landed out here and calling things and saying things
like they are. We would have been glad to hear
that there was no God. Now that's a big statement, but
I know Knowing human nature, knowing myself, and knowing that
you all out there are no different than I was, there was a time
in your life, maybe that's not the general tenor of your life,
but I know that there was times in your life that you would have
been glad if someone had come along and said, I've got an announcement
to make. finally found out that this thing
is a hoax. And really, I can give you proof. I can give you an authorized
certificate of proof to show you that there is no God. There
would have been a relief in your soul. There would have been a
burden that rolled away. That's right. I say, brethren,
when our affections are altered, even our attitude, our understanding,
and is changed in respect with God Almighty. Yes, sir. You see how our affections have
changed? Now our greatest joy is in Him. Used to be it wasn't, but now
it is. The nearer we approach the God of heaven, the better
we like it. But it used to be we were like
Adam. We didn't want to be in God's presence. We went off in
the bushes, and He hid there in the midst of the trees. and
clothed ourselves with little fig leaf aprons of our own self-righteousness. We didn't run to God, we ran
away from God. But now, you see, the evidence
that we believe is that our affections have been altered and we run
towards Him instead of running away from Him. We find our joy
in Him. Now He's loved in the innermost
part of our soul. We love Him. We love Him. We
sing of Him. We praise Him and we thank Him.
Well, another evidence is this. We know also that we believe
because through, though very far from being perfect, we love
holiness and we're striving after purity. We're not perfect. We're not perfect. I know that.
You never will be perfect. Some people don't like to hear
preachers say that. They say, well, you're lower
than the standard. Well, I hope I'm not lower than the standard.
The standard is perfection, but I'm facing reality that I know
that as long as you're in this body of flesh, I don't care I
don't care who it is. I don't care how holy you are
or how holy I am. We may live to be a thousand
years. We are never going to reach perfection
as God's perfect in this body of flesh. I know that. I know
that. But I know that we have believed
in the Lord Jesus Christ We love holiness and strive after purity
even though we're not perfect. We love it and we strive after
it. I know that. Righteousness and
truth and peace are the things that we now seek for. Used to
be, what did we seek for? prior to our believing in the
Lord Jesus Christ? What was the rule of our being? What motivated us? What kept
us going? Where did we find the object
of our desires and affections? I'll tell you where we found
it. We found it in our own selfish pleasure. Everything wrapped
around us. What I can do. What I want. We
didn't care about nobody else. Me. The big me. The big me. Big I. Big I. Selfish pleasure. What I can
do. I don't care about what you can
do. It's what I can do. I don't care what mother or father
can do. I don't care about what I can do. Just satisfy me. I
don't care whose feelings I hurt. I don't care whose heart I break.
It's me. Me. But I'm telling you this,
an evidence that I believe, an evidence that you believe, is
that though you're not perfect, you strive after righteousness
and truth and peace and harmony and unity. You strive after God. You want to be like God. You
say, well, I could be happy if I just knew that I could live
to be 89 years old and not be affected with cancer or a stroke
or some other disease and just close my eyes some night and
never wake up again. I believe I could be happy if
I knew that. I believe I could be happy. What I desire, if I
had one wish, if I had one wish, well, I wish I had a million
dollars. If I had one wish, I wish this. But brethren, the true
believer, the man who's a believer, he's a believer, and this is
an evidence that he is a believer, is that he says if he had one
wish, he'd wish that he never sinned again. He wished that
he could be done with this sin business. He could be done with
this mind-wandering. I even catch myself, and they
say confession is good for the soul, I even catch myself when
I'm praying sometimes that my mind wanders. I'm talking to
God. I'm talking to the great high
God over all and above all. I'm talking to Him. And I'm determined. I come before Him and I'm determined
to focus my heart and my mind and my attention upon the throne
of God. And I ain't there but a second
or two until my mind begins to float on something else and I've
got to come back. I'm telling you, brethren, An
evidence that we believe, if you think about it a little bit,
if you had one wish, it'd be that you'd be done with this
sin business. Just wouldn't sin. Not that you'd live to be 89
years old and never die of cancer, never have a stroke. That wouldn't
be it. But you'd never sin. Why? Because
sin's offensive to God. Sin's offensive to Him. That's
hard for me to get. Maybe it might be easy for you,
but it's hard for me to get that, brethren, that the least deviation
from perfection, whatever, just a slight thought, a slight thought
of maliciousness or vanity or some obscene thought, just the
slightest thought, that's grievous to God. That offends God. That offends Him. I don't want to offend Him. I
don't want to offend God for my sins. I do. I know it. But if I had one wish, I wish
that I wouldn't sin. Well, you see, we know we believe
in Him because we have fellowship with Him. fellowship with God. That is, we're in a habit, even
though our minds wander at times. We're in a habit of speaking
with Him in prayer and having Him speak to us through His Word. We're in a habit of it. There's
no such animal as a non-praying Christian now. All of them pray. You heard this expression, he's
a given Christian. There's no other kind. They all
give. Well, he's a praying Christian.
There's no other kind. They all pray. He's a witnessing
Christian. There's no other kind. They all
witness. Well, here's a Christian who's really sold out for God. There's no other kind. Ah? Listen. We have fellowship
with God. That's an evidence. We know we
believe in Him because we have communion with Him. We have fellowship
with Him. We go to Him in prayer. We're
in a habit of it. We make a habit of it. It's a
godly habit, and it's a good habit. We're good friends. We're good friends. We talk.
We talk to Him. In prayer, we talk to Him. We
come to Him. When we pray to Him, generally,
we don't say, God do this, God do that. We talk to Him in different
endearing terms than that. You know, back they tell me,
two, three thousand years ago, that these people, these Jewish
people, they so reverenced the name of the Almighty, that they
would do everything under the sun to keep from even mentioning
the name of God, unless they was just dead serious in what
they're talking about. They just didn't say, God this,
God that. They didn't talk that way because of the reverence,
because of their understanding of who He was. They just didn't
talk that way. But we can just be standing around
and we talk God this, God that. But I think that a believer,
when he has fellowship with God and he comes to his God in prayer,
he uses that endearing term. He calls Him His Father. He says,
My Father, Heavenly Father, My Heavenly Father, I come to you
in Jesus' name. I come to you not in My name
or in My works or in My righteousness. I come to you, My Heavenly Father,
in His name. I bless you, praise you, and
thank you. Good friends, good friends. Oh,
the Spirit Himself, the Scriptures say here, The Spirit Himself
also beareth witness with our spirit that we are born of God. That's what the Bible says, that
the Spirit of God beareth witness with our spirit that we are born
of God. Now, do you know what that means?
Do you know what it means? Let me say it again now. The
Spirit of God Himself beareth witness with our spirit that
we are born of God." Now, do you know what that means? Now,
if you don't know what that means, I can't tell you, because the
secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him. Those that fear
Him, those that know Him, know what I'm talking about. They
know what it means when it says, "...he that believeth on the
Son of God hath the witness in himself." They know it, you see. You say, well, how do you know
you believe? I know I believe. How do you know you breathe?
I know it. How do you know you think? I know it. How do you
know that the Spirit of God speaks to you? I know it. And that's
enough. And that's enough. Well, I think, though, the surest
evidence is the sure testimony of the Word of God. The sure
testimony of the Word of God. This is the record, verse number
11. This is the sure testimony right here. And this is the record,
right here it is, that God hath given to us eternal life, and
this life is in His Son. And He that hath the Son hath
life. Have you believed on Him? If
you have believed on Him, whom the Scriptures teach and preach
and present, then you are a believer, if you believed on Him. And if
you are a believer, then you are saved. And this is the best
witness and the most sure testimony is the Word of God. See? 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 that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the
name of the Son of God. Verse 20, And we know that the
Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that
we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true,
even his Son Jesus Christ. And this is the true God and
eternal life. That's the sure testimony. medicine that was prepared by
a great renowned doctor, had a great reputation of being able
to come up with certain concoctions that would bring about healing
for certain people. Well, this great doctor one time prepared a medicine that was
Very powerful for driving out a particular disease that an
individual suffered with. Well, the individual said this.
He said, I'll take it as soon as I see that I'm improving by
its means. Well, you say that man's crazy.
Because, I say, the reason why you say he's crazy is this. You
can't expect even a partial cure until you have taken the medicine.
You can't expect to be cured until you take the medicine.
You can't expect the result to come before the cause. You must
take, what I'm talking about, you must take the good physician's
medicine, the great physician, the Lord Jesus Christ, you've
got to take his medicine as a matter of faith, you see. And after
you have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, then other witnesses
will spring up in your soul. One and two and three and four
and more. And they'll spring up and they'll
be the result of faith. But first you've got to take
the message. You've got to believe. You've got to believe. The Bible
says, He that believeth not, is condemned already. But he
that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and shall not
come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life."
Do you believe? Do you believe? I've given some
evidences here this evening, and I believe they're true. I believe scriptural, and I believe
that if you'll If you think about them, be concerned about them,
they'll be of a help to you. If you're here and you're not
Christian, you say, well, I don't know. Did I believe? How do I know? I know that the
preacher said, and I've heard him lots of times say, that you
can know your sins are forgiven. You know that. If you believe.
But how do I know that I believe? How do I know? Well, has there
been a change? I said that an evidence that
you have believed is that when you first believed, there was
a spectacular change about you. You changed. You changed. Your
attitude changed. You changed about yourself. You
changed about God. You changed about mother. You
changed about father. You changed about Christian people.
You changed about God in particular. There's a change there. Your
habits change. Your outlook on life change.
Your purpose of life change. There's some change there when
you believe. Now, is that taking place? If
any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. All things have passed
away and all things become new. There's a change. That which
I first hated, now I love. That which I loved before, now
I hate. That which caused me pain, now
causes me pleasure. That which caused me pleasure
before now causes me pain. There's been a change. How do
I know what are these things taking place? Do you have a desire to continue
on and on and on? Do you have a desire beyond everything
else to hold out faithful to the end? You say, well, I have
a desire to see God, to see Him face to face. I have a desire
to worship Him. I have a desire over and beyond
everything else to hold on, to hold on, and to keep going, and
to keep going, and to keep going. I love Him. I love Him. I love
the Savior who died for me. I want to please Him. I want
to honor Him. I want to exalt His name. And
I want to hear Him exalted. He is my joy. Are these things
taking place? Well, I believe if these things
are taking place in your life, I believe you can say, well,
I'm a believer. I'm a believer. Are you a believer? You a believer? I believe that I'm a believer.
I believe I'm a believer. Not perfect. That's not what
I'm talking about. That's not what I'm talking about.
I'm a believer. All right. May God, the Holy
Spirit, make it effective in your heart. If there's someone
here you're disturbed about, just have been disturbed, maybe
it'll be of a help to you. Maybe it'll be of a help to you.
I trust it will. Let's stand at Patelatus in a
verse of some old hymn. Welcome home. Air number 252.