Let's be turning to 1 John chapter
5. Now I want to, by God's grace,
I want to preach this message as clearly and as simply as I
can. The preaching that edifies my
own heart is that preaching that goes word by word, phrase by
phrase, sentence by sentence, and just shows us what the Word
of God says. That's preaching that blesses
my heart. And that's how I want to preach to you. In Nehemiah
8.8 it says, They read in the book, in the
law of God distinctly and gave the sense and caused them to
understand the reading. That's what I want to do. I want
to read God's word and I want to give you the sense of what
it means. Only God can give you an understanding
in the heart, a revelation in the heart, but I want to at least
clearly state what the sense of the Scripture means and trust
that you at least have it in your head. I trust God to give
it to you in your heart. Here we go in verse 10. Well,
let's begin and refresh our memory here back up in verse 6. This is he that 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. 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. Now here's our text. 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. He that hath not the Son of God
hath not life. Now notice John's reason for
writing these things. He said, 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. That you may know
that you have eternal life and that you may believe. That is,
that you may be grown in faith so that you continue believing
on the name of the Son of God. Now my subject tonight is he
that believeth, he that believeth not. And he that believeth on
the Son of God, he says here, he hath the witness in himself. And I want you to see what that
means. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in
himself. He that believeth not calls God
a liar. Now, eternal life is the gift
of God given in His Son. He is eternal life. He is God's
gift. Eternal life is the gift of God
given in His Son. And the Gospel is that simple.
God has given to us eternal life and this life is in His Son.
That's the Gospel. That's the Gospel. And the Gospel
is this narrow. He that hath the Son hath life.
He that hath not the Son hath not life. It's that narrow. as Christ. If you have Christ,
you have life. If you have not Christ, you have
not life. You hear me talk about salvation
being a person. It's the person of God's Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I pray God will use this
message to give you that belief assurance that you may know you
have eternal life. I pray he would strengthen you
in faith to continue believing on the Son of God. And I pray
for you that don't have faith, that God would use it to give
you faith in Christ. Now first of all, God has put
His witness within every believer. He says in verse 10, He that
believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He told
us all about that witness of God. The six witnesses, the three
in heaven and the three in earth. And then He says, And he that
believeth on the Son of God, he hath the witness within himself. Now you notice this word believeth. That ETH ending, that Old English
ETH ending means ongoing present action. It's presently taking
place and it's ongoing. Assurance is not by looking back
to a time and a place where you believe. That's not assurance. Assurance is believing on the
Son of God right now. Do you believe on the Son of
God right now? Faith believes on Him now. And
what is it to believe on the Son of God? What is that? It's
to cast all our care upon Him. Peter said, God resisted the
proud and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourself therefore
under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due
time, casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. When you came in here and you
sat down in that pew, you cast all your weight on that pew. Every bit of your weight you
put on that pew. Believing on Christ is to cast
all your care on Christ. Cast it all on Him. Not partly
on Him. If you partly put your weight
on that pew and partly try to hold yourself up, you wouldn't
rest. You wouldn't last very long.
You'd grow weary. You wouldn't have any rest. If
we try to partly believe on Christ and partly carry our own weight
or try to partly save ourselves, we won't find any rest whatsoever. We have to cast all our eternal
care and all our earthly care, all our care upon the Lord Jesus
Christ. He that believeth on the Son
of God. He says right now, He that believeth
on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. Now for you that
believe, God the Father has sent the Holy Spirit into you. And He's given you this witness. He's borne witness of the Son
of God and brought you to know Him and to believe on Him. so
that you know that God's testimony, God's record, God's witness of
his son, you know it's true. You know it's true. Look back
up at 1 John, there at verse 6, and he says, this is he that
came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ, not by water only,
but by water and blood, and it's the spirit that beareth witness,
because the spirit is true. And our text says, And he that
believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. The Spirit
of God. You have the Spirit of God within
yourself. Look at 1 John 2, verse 20. Here's what he's saying to us.
What he's been declaring all along here throughout this text.
Verse John 2, 20. You have an unction from the
Holy One and you know all things. I've not written unto you because
you know not the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie
is of the truth. You know the truth. You know
that the Son of God is salvation. You have the Father and the Son. And look at verse 25, 1 John
2.25, and this is the promise that He hath promised us eternal
life. The gospel. is the record. The
gospel is the testimony of God. It's the witness of God that
Christ is the Son of God. That He is the salvation of His
people. And it's a secret to this world.
This gospel is a secret to this world. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter
2. This message is a total mystery. It's a secret to the world. Look there at verse 1. Paul said,
Our brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency
of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. That's the same word. I came
declaring to you the record of God. Now look down at verse 6. He says, We speak wisdom among
them that are perfect. Remember John said, God has put
his perfect love in you? That's what Paul's talking about.
Amongst them whom God has put his perfect love in you, we speak
in wisdom. He says, but it's not the wisdom
of this world, nor of the princes of this world that come to nothing,
but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery. That word means
it's a secret. It's a secret. He says, even
the hidden wisdom, it's kept secret. It's hidden on purpose. He says, which God ordained before
the world unto our glory. Verse 10, he says, it's that
which God hath revealed unto us by His Spirit. Verse 12, he
says, that we might know the things that are freely given
to us of God. The psalmist said this, the secret
of the Lord is with them that fear Him. And He will show them
His covenant. What's he talking about? The
secret of the Lord. He's talking about this gospel.
He's talking about this gospel of the Son of God being the salvation
of His people. The world can hear it with these
ears, but they can't hear it with spiritual ears. They can
hear it intellectually, but they can't hear it with faith. It's
a secret. And it's hidden. It's a hidden
secret, a hidden mystery. And it's kept hidden on purpose.
Our Lord Jesus Christ was talking to the religious men of His day
and He said, we can't do anything to please you. We pipe and you
won't dance. We mourn, you won't cry. And
He looked up to heaven and He said, Father, Lord of heaven
and earth, I thank Thee. because thou hast hidden these
things from the wise and prudent and has revealed them to babes. You see, this thing has to be
revealed. It has to be revealed and by
the witness that God's put in us, He's revealed the mystery.
And so by this witness, we believe and we know, what do we know? We know Christ is the only way. He's the only way. He's the only
truth. He's the only life. And no man
can come to the Father but by Him. We know this. By this witness
that God's put within us, we know this is so and we believe
it. We believe God's record. We believe
what He's declared. We believe His witness. We know
it and we bear witness. We bear witness that He's true,
that God's record is true. Who hath believed our report?
Isaiah said. Who's believed the record? To
whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? He said. He's revealed it to
us by this witness. We know what we are and we know
who Christ is. I'm the sinner. I know this. I know I am the sinner. I'm the
helpless sinner. And I know that He's the Savior.
He's the God-man mediator. He's God in human flesh that
the Father sent to be the salvation of His people. I know this. I know that by this witness it's
in me. I know I was the captured, condemned
prisoner. I was taken captive under the
curse and condemnation of the law. But I know this by this
witness that Christ Jesus the Lord is the Redeemer. He came
and with His own blood He purchased me and He purchased all His people
and He reconciled us to God. He brought us back into friendship
with the God we had offended. I'm the helpless dead sinner. He's my physician. He's the great
physician. He came and poured that oil in,
Kevin. And now I'm complete in Him,
and so is all those that have been born of Him. I'm a sinner
still, but right now He's my advocate with the Father. He's
my righteousness before the Father. He's the propitiation for my
sins and for all the sins of His people all over this world.
This is what we know. We know this. We're assured of
this by this witness that's in us. We believe it. We know it. And we bear witness that everything
God says of His Son is true. We know that by His one offering,
He's perfected forever them that are sanctified. He's everything
we need to be accepted of God. Is that clear? Do you hear this? This is God's record. He's saying
His Son is everything a sinner needs to be accepted of Holy
God. Well, there's something else.
The Spirit of God bears witness, giving us assurance that we are
the sons of God. He gives us assurance that we
are the sons of God, that we might know that we have eternal
life. When he says here that we have
the witness in us, he's saying we have the thing witnessed. That's called a metonymy. He's
putting the thing witnessed, or he's saying witness for the
thing that is witnessed. He told us up there that Christ's
blood and His righteousness, the blood of His righteousness
and the water of His sanctification that typically poured from His
side, we have Christ's righteousness. We have the blood of His righteousness.
We have that sanctification Christ is. We have this. He said there
that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit
bear witness. We have God the Father, God the
Son, and God the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. We have Him in
us. He said there that He spoke of
the Holy Spirit giving eternal life in His Son. We have eternal
life. We have it. We have the fruit
of the Spirit. We have joy. and we have peace
in believing, peace with God. We have hope, a good hope. We
have this by the Spirit of God. Love, joy, peace, hope, we have
this within us. Christ said, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, you know that means this is of utmost importance. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. He has it. That's what John, he said, I'm
writing to you that believe on the Son of God that you might
know you have eternal life. And he's saying here, he that
believeth hath the witness in him. You have that which is already
what is witnessed. You have eternal life. You have
it. You have it. Look back up at chapter 4 and
look at verse 13. Hereby know we that we dwell
in him and he in us because he hath given us of his spirit. He's given us the spirit. He
put the witness in us. And what happened? We've seen.
By God-given faith, we have seen. John here is an eyewitness. He began this letter saying,
let me read it to you. He began the letter saying, that
which was from the beginning, which we've heard, which we've
seen with our eyes, which we've looked upon, and our hands have
handled of the word of life, For the life was manifested and
we've seen, we bear witness, we bear record, we testify and
show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and
was manifested unto us. That which we've seen and heard
declare we unto you that you also may have fellowship with
us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His
Son Jesus Christ. But now, he says in 1 John 4.13,
because You dwell in Him and He dwells
in you. He says He's given you of His
Spirit. He says now you've seen. We've
seen by God given faith. We've seen. We're witnesses. Faith is the evidence of things
not seen. The substance of things hoped
for. We've seen. We've seen and we've heard. And
we testify. We bear witness ourselves that
God's record is true. We say this testimony of God
is a true testimony. Christ is salvation. Christ is
life. Christ is everything God says
He is in His Word. We testify that the Father sent
the Son to be the Savior of the world. His record is true. And whosoever shall confess that
Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. He said, he has the witness in
himself. He has that which God promised
when He bore witness to us, when He testified to us. He said,
believe on my Son and you'll have eternal life. John says,
you believe on Him, you have it. You dwell in Him who is eternal
life, and He dwells in you. You have the witness in yourself.
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit and we are the
children of God. So he that believeth hath the
witness in himself. Do you believe God? Does anybody
here believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is everything God says
He is? Do you believe He is the Son
of God? Do you believe He is the Christ? Do you believe He is salvation?
You believe He is all your hope, you have the witness in you.
You have the witness in you. And you know that God is true?
You know God is true, don't you? You can testify, you can say,
I bear witness what God is saying is true. It's true. I know it's true. And I'm in Him that's true. We
know we have eternal life as sons of God and we bear record
that God's witness is true. Look down at 1 John 5 20. Look
at verse 19. We know that we're
of God. and the whole world lieth in
wickedness. And we know that the Son of God is come and has
given us an understanding that we may know Him that is true
and we are in Him that is true. See how he's saying that? We
know Him that is true and we're in Him that is true. We're saying
He's true. He's truth. He's true. Everything
He bore record of is true. We're in Him. We know this. and we know Him, even in His
Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God. This is
eternal life. Don't you know that? You that
believe Him, you know that. You know Jesus Christ is God
and you know He is eternal life. He that hath received His testimony
hath set to His seal that God is true. Now, what does God say about
those that believe not? Now that's so of those that believe.
What does He say about those that believe not? Look at verse
10. He that believeth not God hath
made him a liar. He doesn't say God's true. He
says God's a liar. Because he believeth not the
record that God gave of His Son. Now, for you sitting here that
do not believe, I wouldn't do anything in the world to hurt
you. I would not do anything to hurt
you. And for that reason, I'm going
to tell you the truth. I'm going to tell you what God
says. This is what God says right here. For everybody that does
not believe on God's Son, right here, right now, God says that
by not believing His record, you're calling God a liar. for our young people. Charles
Spurgeon was a preacher in the 1800s in London, England. He
pastored a church that I believe had somewhere in the neighborhood
of 3500 members. It was a large congregation.
And a woman came to Mr. Spurgeon one day and she was
troubled and he preached the gospel to her. He told her, he
said, this is the Son of God. He's salvation. All that God
has for His people is in Christ. It's freely given to all who
believe on Him. He told her, believe on Him. And she replied and said, I cannot
believe on Christ. I cannot believe on Christ. And
he said, okay. He said, I want you to stand
up right now, right where you are. And I want you to yell loud
as you can. And I want you to tell God, God,
I think you're a liar. And she said, oh, I wouldn't
dare do that. And he said, well, you did it
just now when you said you couldn't believe on him. And He said in
every minute that passes that you don't believe on Christ,
you're calling God a liar. That's what God says. Right here
in His Word. God says every time we hear this
Gospel preached, we're hearing God Himself bear record. Did you know that? Did you know
that that's what this is? The preaching of the Word of
God is God testifying. bearing witness of His Son. Let
me read back over there in 1 Corinthians 2. I read it to you. Let me read
it to you again. 1 Corinthians 2.1 Paul said,
When I came to you, brethren, I came not with excellency of
speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. He said, I came declaring the
witness of God. I came declaring the record of
God. This is God's testimony of His
Son. That's why He said, I determine
not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Because this is the word of God's
own Son. This is God the Father declaring
that His Son His salvation, that He's eternal life, that He's
the wisdom and the righteousness and the holiness and the redemption
that He's provided for His people. God's declaring in His Word when
the gospel is preached, this is the prophet that's going to
teach my people the gospel. This is my Son, He's the great
high priest who represents my people to me. He declares, this one right here
is the king. He's the king of my kingdom.
He's over all the kingdom. And His people are His servants
that willingly bow to Him and confess He's the King of kings
and Lord of lords. This is my Son. Salvation is
in no other but my Son. That's what God says every time
this gospel is being preached. He's bearing record. Testifying. This is His Son. And God says,
by your unbelief, Every time, you're calling God a liar. Why? Look there, verse 10. Because
he believeth not the record that God gave of his son. That's a serious charge, isn't
it? What is the record? What's the
testimony of God? Here it is. It's very simple.
Listen to this. This is the record, verse 11.
that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His
Son. He that hath the Son hath life,
he hath the thing witnessed, he hath life. And he that hath
not the Son of God hath not life. Now remember, John's writing
to believers here. You that believe on the name
of the Son of God that you might know that you have eternal life
and that your faith might be strengthened in Christ to continue. That's why he's writing this.
That's why he's writing this. And I'm saying for you that don't
believe, I pray God to give you this in your heart and you'll
begin to believe on it for the first time. Now this is God's
record, this is God's own witness, God's own testimony of His Son. First of it says God has given
to us eternal life. It's free. He's given it. It's a gift. You can't work for
this. You can't earn this. You can't
go to the law and try to work out righteousness and make yourself
good enough that God will receive you. There's no cleaning up your
act before you come to Christ. You can't try to get straightened
up a little before you come to Him. People will say that, you
know, well, I'm going to try to turn over a new leaf and sort
of clean up my act a little bit, then I'm going to come to Christ.
Nope. Nope. The only way you can be
qualified to come to Him is to have no worthiness in yourself. That's the secret of this thing. You can't come to Him and be
received of Him if you bring any goodness of your own. If
you bring anything that qualifies you to come to Him, you can't
come to Him. You have to come empty, with
all your sin, confessing to Him that you need mercy. It's free. It's free through faith in Christ. Believing on Him. See, faith
is opposite to works. Faith is the direct opposite
to works. Faith rests it all upon Christ. It's like you're resting it all
on that pew right there. All who believe on His Son, everybody
that casts their care on Him, they say this record's true.
Yes, God is true. This record is true. We have
the witness. We know His record's true. We
bear witness. God's record is true. And we
have the thing witnessed in us right now. He's given us eternal
life by His Son. And everybody that does not believe
this, that continues in their works for salvation, they're
saying, I don't believe the record of God. I don't believe God's
testimony. Look at the next thing. God hath given to us eternal
life. Now you know what that means?
If He's given to us eternal life, that means we didn't have it.
No sinner comes into this world possessing eternal life. We come
into this world dead in trespasses and sins. If we're going to have
life, God gives us eternal life. He gives it. He gives it. He
must give us eternal life. He gives it through faith in
His Son. He gives you spiritual life and
gives you faith and you come and believe on Him and He says,
you have eternal life. It's yours. It's free. And then
look at this. God hath given to us eternal
life and this life is in His Son. It's in Christ Jesus, the
Son of God. There's life in no other. Now
that one who believes, says the witness of God is true, I'm a
sinner, I don't have eternal life, God's given me eternal
life and this life's in His Son, he declares God is true. He's
got the witness in himself and he bears witness. But that one
who says, no, I'm not that bad a sinner. I'm not so bad that
I have to have Christ to do everything for me. I'm not that bad. God
says if we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and
His Word is not in us. That's what He is saying to us
right here. Look at this. This is the record right here.
He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God
hath not life. Now this is it right here. This
is where the rubber meets the road. Do you believe on the Son
of God? I can't answer that. Nobody else
can answer that for you. You're the only one that can
answer that for you. Do you believe on the Son of God? Then you have
the Son. If you believe on the Son of
God, you have the Son and you have life. That's what He says. He that hath the Son hath life.
That's God's record. Now that ought to assure you
and give you the greatest comfort you could ever have. That ought
to be the end of all the doubting. God says if you believe on His
Son, you have life. Now, here's the next question. Do you not believe on the Son
of God? It's either one or the other.
We either believe on the Son of God or we don't believe Him. If you don't believe on the Son
of God, then you don't have the Son and you do not have life. That ought to terrify you. For
the believer that has the Son and has eternal life, that ought
to be full assurance to you. God's record ought to be full
assurance so you know, I know I have eternal life. But for
those that do not believe on the Son of God, When God says
you don't have life, that ought to terrify us. That ought to
make you cry out for mercy to God right now and not give Him
any rest until He has mercy on you. Verse 13, 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. If you believe on Christ
but you don't have assurance to know that you have eternal
life, John's telling us how God gives us assurance right here.
It's through hearing God's testimony, His record, that His Son is eternal
life. It's through hearing the blessed
gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you don't have assurance,
give yourself to hear this gospel because this is how God gives
it. Don't look back to a time or a place and don't look to
you. Assurance is in His Son. It's
through faith in His Son. And if you're sitting here right
now and you don't have faith at all, this is how He gives
faith and this is how He strengthens faith. Through the gospel of
His Son. If you don't have faith in Christ,
you know what I'd do? I'd go home and I'd search this
scripture. I'd listen to this message when
it's downloaded. I'd look these scriptures up.
And I would give some due diligence to see if I can't find out who
God is. See if I can't find out who His
Son is. And maybe, if God gives you the
grace to do that, He might just give you grace in your heart
and give you faith to believe Him. He says, if you walk in
the light that I've given you, I'll give you more light. That's
what He says. And He said, and he that won't walk in the light,
Christ said, from him will be taken the light that he does
have. I pray God will make us give
ourselves to this Word. This is how He gives you everything.
Right here. Assurance strengthens you in
faith. It's all right here in this Gospel.
In Christ the Lord. Amen.