Let us turn once more to God's
Word and to the chapter we read here in the first general epistle
of John chapter 5 and directing you this morning to the words
that we find here at verse 7. This controversial verse 1 John
5 7 for there are three that bear record in heaven the Father,
the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. It's a great Trinitarian statement,
of course, and it's good, certainly at the beginning of the year,
to remind ourselves of the fundamental truth that the God that we worship,
the only living and true God, is a Trinity of persons. God
the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit and yet though
three persons he is one God undivided and indivisible it is a fundamental
truth we are Trinitarians our salvation is a Trinitarian salvation
and this is a wonderful statement of the truth of the doctrine
of God and yet as I said it is a controversial verse We read
here of the witness in heaven of those three divine persons.
Job could say, Behold, my witness is in heaven, and my testimony
on high. Can we say the same? That our
witness is there in the eternal heavens. We do really believe
in Him who is the only living and true God. The verse is controversial and
I'm sure you're well aware that it is one that's omitted in so
many of the modern versions. You won't find it of course in
versions like the NIV or the ESV, even in the New King James
Version. There's a footnote, the verse
is there, but there's a footnote which questions the authenticity
of the verse. And as I was preparing for the
service here this morning, I thought, well, let me just have a look
and see what the commentators say. And picking off the shelf
the well-known commentary by Robert Candlish, who was one
of the leaders in the Free Church of Scotland in its best days,
Well, I picked that off the shelf to discover that there's no comment
at all on the verse. Even Robert Candish rejects the
authenticity of the verse and says it's not admitted by intelligent
critics. I was rather surprised really
at that. But there we are. I mean, even
a man who would profess to be orthodox, Calvinistic in doctrine,
found rejects this verse. Now there is evidence, there's
much evidence for the authenticity of the text that we've come to
consider this morning. There's certain external evidence
for it. It is true that in some of the
ancient manuscripts from the 4th and 5th centuries It's not
to be found. But we have to remember that
at that time there were many heresies abounding in the churches. There was the great Arian heresy
that denied the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that prevailed,
really. that prevailed in so many churches,
so it's not surprising that with such heresy abounding, the verse
might be taken away in some of the manuscripts, deliberately
omitted. But we have to remember also
that there's not only the manuscripts, there's the writings of the church
fathers, and the verse is certainly found in the writings of Tertullian
who was ministering in the 2nd century and the 3rd century also
in the writings of Cyprian who was ministering around about
250 and of course Athanasius was the great champion of Trinitarian
doctrine and he lived around about 350 so whilst there were
multitudes about him and Athanasius in some ways stood alone against
the heresy of the Arians when Athanasius will appeal to this
particular verse. And if you consult Dr. Gill's commentary, he does go
into a little detail with regards to this external evidence. He
says there is plenty of evidence in the writings of the early
church fathers. But there's also internal evidence
when we come to look at the actual portion of Scripture, the passage
here from verse 6 through 10. And the best I could find on
that was a piece by Robert Dabney, who was a Presbyterian minister,
a great minister there in the United States in the 19th century,
would have been contemporary with Robert Candlish, well in
his discussions evangelical and theological Dabney has quite
an interesting piece in which he examines the grammar of this
whole passage of scripture and argues really that if you omit
this verse the passage becomes unintelligible he says the grammatical
structure is completely wrong without admitting and acknowledging this
particular verse. And then the great protestant
reformer John Calvin simply makes this comment He says, because
the passage reads better with the clause, and is found in the
best copies, I readily embrace it. So, one is inclined to stand
with the great Protestant reformer Calvin, in spite of all that
may have been said in later centuries, particularly in the 19th and
in the 20th century. Well, that's a little about the
history and the controversies that do surround this verse of
scripture. It's here before us in the authorized
version, so we come this morning to consider something of the
content of this particular verse. And what is it that we see here?
Well, we have God's witness, really, to the deity of the Lord
Jesus Christ. God's witness. to the deity of
the Lord Jesus. That's the main thrust, surely,
of the verse. There are three that bear record
in heaven. The Father, the Word, and the
Holy Ghost, and these three are one. And then John goes on in
verse 9, 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. and now John of course in
the epistles well in all his writings in the gospel and in
the book of the revelation we're thinking in particular of what
he says here in this epistle and in the following two short
epistles the second and the third epistles of John here John is
very much championing the truth of the deity of the Lord Jesus
Christ and the importance of that blessed truth There in verse
9 of the second epistle, Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not
in the doctrine of Christ, he says, hath not God. He that abideth
in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the
Son. And again here in the first general
epistle, there in the second chapter, Verse 22, "...who is
a liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ, he is Antichrist,
that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son,
the same hath not the Father, but he that acknowledgeeth the
Son hath the Father also." And so, considering then this great
Trinitarian text, God's witness, the heavenly witness to the deity
of the Lord Jesus. And I want simply to deal with
this threefold witness, the witness of the Father, the witness of
the Word, and the witness of the Holy Ghost. First of all, we have the witness
of the Father. There are three that bear record
in Heaven. The Father, And the Father's
witness, when we consider the accounts that we have in the
Gospels, is at least a five-fold witness. There is that witness
that was given at the baptism of the Lord Jesus. Remember, as he comes out of
the waters of baptism, he's submitted to John's baptism of repentance,
he's identifying really with those sinners who need repentance,
he's beginning his public ministry, and as he comes up out of the
waters of baptism, the heavens open, and that voice comes, lower
voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved son. in whom I am well pleased." How
the Father is bearing witness to the Son, and we see it again
later in Peter, in Peter's confession
in Matthew 16, at Caesarea Philippi when he says, concerning Jesus
of Nazareth, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. and
what does the Lord say to him? Blessed art thou Simon by Jonah
flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee but my father my
father which is in heaven he is the one who has revealed his
truth that Simon Peter is confession that Jesus is the Christ the
Son of God and of course Peter was there in the Mount of Transfiguration
and again We have the record in Matthew 17 and other Gospels. Behold a voice out of the clouds
when the Lord is transfigured and the voice that speaks. And
it's the same testimony as at the baptizing. This is my beloved
Son in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye Him. And it obviously
makes such an impression in the experience of Peter because he
refers to it when he writes there in his second epistle, 2 Peter
chapter 1 and verse 17 he says he received from God the Father
honour and glory when there came such a voice to him from the
excellent glory this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased
and this voice which came from heaven we heard when we were
with him in the holy mount how the father then bears witness
and bears witness at the baptising at the transfiguration but the
father is also the one who is bearing witness to the Lord Jesus
and his deity in the miracles that the Lord performs and Nicodemus
recognizes that there in John chapter 3 Rabbi we know that
thou art a teacher come from God for no man can do these miracles
that thou doest except God be with him All he realizes is that here
is one performing miracles, because he is that one who has the approval,
the witness, the testimony of God in the work that he is performing. And again, the words of the Lord
Jesus there in chapter 10 of John's Gospel, in John chapter
10 and at verse 37, we can read these words. If I do not the works of my Father,
believe me not. But if I do, though ye believe
not me, believe the works, that ye may know and believe that
the Father is in me, and I in him." The Father is there bearing
testimony to who this man is, that he is God, manifest in the
flesh. The Father bears that testimony
in the miracles that the Lord performs. And even when it comes
to the end of the life and the ministry of the Lord Jesus, how
the Father bears His testimony again. In the language of John 12 verse
20 following, or verse 27 I should say, verse 27 following, Now
is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me
from this hell. but for this cause came I to
this hour father glorify thy name and there comes a voice
from heaven saying I have glorified it and I will glorify it again
all the father is glorified even in the dying of the Lord Jesus
the eternal son of God and then There is, of course, also that
witness and testimony of the Father in the resurrection of
the Lord Jesus. When Paul comes to summarize
the content of the Gospel that he's been separated to, the Gospel
that he's preaching, the opening words of the epistle to the Romans,
that great Gospel epistle, What does he say as he defines that
gospel? Well, he concerns his son, Jesus
Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according
to the flesh and declared, and the force of that word declared
is to mark him out He is declared to be the Son of God with power
according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the
dead. How the Father then owns and
acknowledges him. No man knoweth the Son but the
Father. Neither knoweth any man the Father
save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him. or the
Father owns the Son, acknowledges the Son. There are three that
bear record in heaven, the Father, the words and the Holy Ghost
and these three are one. There is a witness then by the
Father and is recorded throughout the Gospels. But then there is
also here the testimony that he's born by the sun and here
we read of him as the words, the familiar language that John
uses time and again that name that is applied to the Lord Jesus
the eternal word in the sense of course is that one who is
the the one who comes to reveal God he's the image of the invisible
God we think of the language that John employs in the opening
verses of his gospel, in the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the
beginning with God. All things were made by Him,
without Him was not anything made that was made, and so on. And then we come to that great
statement, the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. says
John, and we beheld his glory, the glorious of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. Oh, he is the Word of God and
Christ is able to bear witness to himself and in some ways he
bears that witness to himself and his deity in his death and
in his resurrection. the words that John records there
in the 10th chapter of the Gospel. Therefore doth my father love
me, he says, because I lay down my life that I might take it
again. No man taketh it from me. I lay it down of myself. I have
power to lay it down, or I am authoritative. I have authority
to lay it down, I have authority to take it again. This commandment
have I received of my father. His whole sacrifice is a voluntary
sacrifice. No man could take his life. He
gave his life. And as he gave himself to that
cruel death of the cross, the sacrificing priest as well as
the sacrifice itself. So he is able to take that life
again, to raise himself from the dead. And again, John records
it, doesn't he, there in the second chapter of the Gospel?
Destroy this temple, and in three days I will build it again. And
the Jews, of course, they think he's speaking of the temple that
stands there in Jerusalem. The glory of the temple, of course.
Now all that's left is the wailing wall. What a glorious building
that was, but gone now. But the Lord wasn't speaking
of that physical building, he was speaking of is bodily. Here is God manifest in the flesh.
He's the fulfillment of all that the temple typifies. He's speaking
of himself and his resurrection, destroy this temple. In three
days I will build it again. I will raise it up. All the Lord
Jesus, you see, can bear a testimony to himself and again we have
the language of John, there in the Gospel, in John chapter 8,
that significant passage really, verse 12, and the following verses,
John 8 verse 12, Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am
the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. The Pharisees
therefore said unto him, Thou barest record of thyself, thy
record is not true. Jesus answered and said unto
them, Though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true,
for I know whence I came and whither I go, but ye cannot tell
whence I come and whither I go. Ye judge after the flesh, I judge no man, and yet, if I
judge, my judgment is true. For I am not alone, but I and
the Father that sent me. It is also written in your law
that the testimony of two men is true. I am one that bear witness
of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me. So there is the Word also bearing
testimony as we have it here in the text. The three that bear
record in heaven, the Father and the Word. And then there
is thirdly, the Holy Ghost. All these are the three persons. God the Father, God the Son and
God the Holy Ghost and what a remarkable witness is that of the Holy Spirit
when we read the Gospels the Gospel of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ, a fourfold Gospel and yet we see throughout the
ministry of Christ the significance of the Spirit, quite remarkable
really. Of course, God, we are told,
giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him. How is the mystery of the Incarnation
described for us? We have it there in Luke chapter
1, the message of the angel to Mary the virgin the Holy Ghost
shall come upon them the power of the highest shall overshadow
thee therefore also that holy thing that shall be born of thee
shall be called the Son of God she is with child of the Holy
Ghost there is the first witness of
the Spirit to him this one is human nature is conceived
by a miracle of God the Holy Ghost in the womb of a virgin
who herself of course was a child of Adam and Eve she's a sinful
woman who in the Magnificat can rejoice in God her Savior You
know, when the Roman Catholics talk about the Immaculate Conception,
they're not talking about the conception of the Lord Jesus,
they're talking about the conception of Mary. They say she was a sinless
person. She was not a sinless person.
She's a blessed person. She's the Blessed Virgin Mary,
correctly so. But she was a sinner saved by
grace. And what a favored woman she was, and she recognized that.
who was she that God should bestow such a great favor upon her that
she would be with child, child of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Spirit
is there in the Incarnation. And then of course we see the
Holy Ghost also at the baptizing. It's not just the Son of God
manifest in the flesh coming out of the waters and God the
Father speaking from Heaven, but the Spirit. The Spirit descends
upon Him. in the form of a dove. He's anointed by the Spirit.
He's the Christ. He's the Christ, the anointed
one. And God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. And so time
and again throughout the Gospels we see the Lord as a man living
a life in which he recognizes and feels something of his dependence
upon the ministry of the Holy Spirit. How does he cast out
the demons? Well, he tells the people, if
I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then is the Kingdom of
God come to you. These miracles, they're not only
an authentication from the Father, but the Holy Spirit is there
in the miracles. It's by the Spirit of God that
the Lord is casting out the demons. And then again, when we come
to the end of his earthly ministry, when we come to his death, we
have those words in Hebrews 9.14, who through the Eternal Spirit
offered himself without spot unto God. The Eternal Spirit. Now, It's a difficult passage. In
his commentary, Dr. Owen, the great Puritan, goes
into some detail as to what is to be understood by that reference
to him offering himself by the Eternal, or through the Eternal
Spirit. And there is certainly some reference
there to the truth of his divine nature. In the sacrifice there's the
divine nature there of course as well as the human nature.
This is the great mystery isn't it? There's a mystery in his
incarnation, there's a mystery in his dying. Because he's not
just a man, he's the God man. How can God die? The spirit there, according to
Dr. Owen and others, who through
the eternal spirit there is some reference to the divine nature
in Christ that bears him through all those awful sufferings when
all the weight of the sins of the elect was laid upon the person
of the Lord Jesus but also Dr. Rowan acknowledges
there is some reference to the ministry of the Holy Spirit if
the Holy Spirit is there in his life he's dependent upon the
Spirit even when he comes to die there's some ministry of
the Spirit as he offers himself through the eternal Spirit he
makes that great sacrifice of himself and then again in the
resurrection being put to death in the flesh and quickened by
the Spirit says Peter, 1 Peter 3.18 He's put to death in the flesh,
he's quickened, and he's quickened by the Holy Spirit. Just as the
Father is there in the resurrection, so also is the Holy Spirit. And then, of course, on the day
of Pentecost, we see Christ as that One who
is now exalted at the Father's right hand. being by the right
hand of God exalted. Having received of the Father
the promise of the Holy Ghost, says Peter, he has shed forth
this which ye now see and hear. Oh, he comes now as the Spirit
of Christ. Oh, he comes very much as the
Spirit of Christ, and he comes therefore to bear testimony to
the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord says as much, doesn't
he, O be it when he, the Spirit of truth, is come He will guide
you into all truth, for He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever
He shall hear, that shall He speak. And He shall show you
things to come. He shall glorify mercy, for He
shall take of Mine and shall show it unto you." That's the
ministry of the Spirit, and how the Spirit must be there in all
the preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only His own ministry
here upon the earth, but also in the ministry of His apostles,
and the ministry of all His preaching servants through all the generations.
Paul could say to the Thessalonians, our gospel came not unto you
in word only, but in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much
assurance. There is such a remarkable ministry
then by the Holy Spirit, and in all that ministry He is continually
bearing His witness to the Lord Jesus. This is the record. Here
then we see a threefold record in heaven, the three that bear
record, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. And these
three are one, it says. There is a unity of the Godhead
here. There is a unity of the Godhead. and they are united in the records,
in the witness that they're bearing. Again, we saw that passage in
John 8, where the Lord appeals to the law, and it's the words,
isn't it, of Deuteronomy 19.15, at the mouth of two witnesses,
or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established.
that was how a thing was established under the Lord of God at the
mouth of two witnesses or at the mouth of three witnesses
and then the preacher tells us in Ecclesiastes there in Ecclesiastes 4 and verse
12 and there are significant words the words of the preacher
remember There at the end of that twelfth verse, in the fourth
chapter, it's a simple statement really, but profound in many
ways. A threefold cord is not quickly broken. A threefold cord
is not quickly broken. And here we have the threefold
cord in heaven. They are united, Father, Son
and Holy Ghost in this record but they're not only one they're
not only one in their witness surely there's something more
in this statement at the end of the text when we read and
these three are one they are one in essence they're one in
essence because there is only one God In no way are we to think
that God is three, or that God reveals himself in three different
modes, three different ways. You see, there was a heresy in
the early church, not only the Arians who denied the deity of
Christ, but there were another group called Sibaleans, and they
said, well, there's one God and he reveals himself sometimes
as Father, sometimes as Son, sometimes as Holy Spirit. Three
different modes of revelation. Modalism, sometimes called. But
no, when it says here in the text, the three are one, it means
they are one in their very essence. though they subsist as three
distinct persons and isn't that in many ways the great emphasis
that we have in the Old Testament Deuteronomy 6 verse 4 Hereo Israel
the Lord our God is one Lord one Lord monotheism is one God
and we think of Israel there in the Old Testament and surrounded
by the gentile nations and the gentile nations with their multitude of gods
even that remarkable race the Greeks and the great learning
of the Greeks and the philosophers of Greece and so forth but they
had their pantheon and a multitude of gods But what we learn in the Old
Testament Scripture is that there is but one living and true God.
But we must also remember that that one God is a Trinity. And you know the God that the
Jews worship in their synagogues now is not the true God. They
deny the doctrine of the Trinity. The Trinity is there in the Old
Testament. The God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the
God of Jacob. the God of patriarchs and prophets that's the Trinity and they deny
that the Jews deny that to this day there's no salvation they
are not in that sense those who are the true seed of Abraham
we're the true seed of Abraham who are Trinitarians what a blessed
truth it is we often sing those words of hearts in the hymn 34
to comprehend the great 3-1 is more than highest angels can
or what the Trinity has done from death and hell to ransom
man but all true Christians all true Christians this may boast
a truth from nature never learned that Father, Son and Holy Ghost
to save our souls are all concerns salvation is clearly Trinitarian
in its very nature. It centers in the person, of
course, of the Son of God, because the Son was incarnate, not the
Father, nor the Holy Spirit. He that believeth on the Son
of God, we're told here in verse 10, hath to 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. He that believeth hath the witness
in himself. Do we have that witness in our
hearts? We rejoice. We rejoice in the doctrine of
God and we rejoice in all that God is. As Father, as Son, as
Holy Ghost. We have, don't we, that formula
that's to be used at the baptism when the new believer makes his
profession of faith in a public confession baptizing them in
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. That is the name of God. It's
singular. It doesn't say in the names,
plural. They baptize in the name, one
name. And that name of God, Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost. At the very beginning then, in
baptism, we confess Him. And of course, we often use that
great apostolic benediction, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the love of God and the communion
of the Holy Ghost be with you all. or the love of the Father,
setting His eternal love upon a people. The grace of the Son,
though He was rich, says Paul, yet for your sakes He became
poor, that ye through His poverty might be made rich. What grace
is that? And the communion of the Holy Ghost, how we need the
Spirit to come and to enlighten us, to open our eyes. The blessed fellowship of the
Spirit then when He comes, Can we not say with Job, behold my witness is in
heaven and my record is on high. We look to this God, we look
to the only living and true God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. and we have to know him in prayer,
how can we pray? How can we pray except we accept
this great doctrine of the Triniton? Look at how he goes on later
in verse 14 he says this is the confidence that we have in him
that if we ask anything according to his will he heareth us and
if we know that he hear us whatsoever we ask we know that we have the
petitions that we desired of him, he's speaking of prayer
And when we come to pray, how do we pray? Well, it's through
Him. Through Christ that we have access. By one spirit unto the
Father, says Paul. Through Christ. He is our mediator. The only way we can enter is
by His mediation. He is our Great High Priest. He's accomplished His priestly
work here upon the earth. He's now risen and ascended. He's entered heaven and He ever
lives. Oh, His presence there, it's a continual play. He ever
lives to make intercession. It's through Him we have access,
but it's by one Spirit. And we need the ministry of the
Spirit helping us. How we feel our infirmities when
we come to pray. How we scarce know what to pray
for as we ought. Thank God for the Holy Ghost.
He makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be
uttered. All through Christ we have access by one Spirit unto
the Father. All we can come into the very
presence of God and pour out our hearts in prayers. And we feel to need God to help
us in every aspect of our praying. It's almost, we feel at times,
impossible to pray. How can we pray? We need God
and we need God in all the fullness of His glorious Trinitarian being as Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost, the three then, the three that bear record in heaven, the
Father, the words, and the Holy Ghost. And 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. May the Lord bless to us His
word. Amen.