Good evening. Let's begin our
evening service by singing 334, Be Thou My Vision, 334. Be Thou my vision, O Lord of
my heart. Thou art be of those whom ye
say that Thou art. Thou my best thought, by day
or by night, Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light. Be Thou my wisdom, and Thou my
true word, Now with me, Lord, Thou my great
Father, I Thy true Son, Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee
one. Riches I heed not, nor man's
empty praise, Thou mine inheritance now and always. Thou and Thou only, first in
my heart, My King of Heaven, my treasure Thou art, My King
of Heaven, my victory won. I reach heaven's joys, O bright
heaven's sun. Lord of my own, forever be full. Still be my vision, O ruler of
all. Thank you. I'd like to read Isaiah 6. Isaiah
6. In the year that King Uzziah
died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted
up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims,
each one had six wings. With twain he covered his face,
and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another and
said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth
is full of his glory. And the post of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with
smoke. Then said I, Woe is me, for I
am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell
in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen
the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims
unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken
with the tongs from off the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth,
and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity
is taken away. And I sin purged. Also I heard
the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will
go for us? then said, I, here am I, send
me. And he said, go and tell this
people, hear ye indeed, but understand not, and see ye indeed, but perceive
not. Make the heart of this people
fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they
see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand
with their heart, and convert and be healed. Then said I, Lord,
how long? And he answered, Until the cities
be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and
the land be utterly desolate. And the Lord hath removed men
far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the
land, but yet in it shall be a tenth. and it shall return
and shall be eaten as a teal tree and as an oak whose substance
is in them when they cast their leaves, so the holy seed shall
be the substance thereof. Our heavenly merciful Father,
we thank you again, Lord, for giving us the health and the
strength and the ability to assemble again this evening, where, Lord,
week after week, you have allowed these doors to be opened and
where we can sit down here and hear the unsearchable riches
of our only hope, the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we thank you
for this great blessing. And Father, we thank you for
our full and free salvation, where you have taken away our
sin and you have given us access unto you, the Father. through
Christ that veil has been rent and Father you have taken all
our sin away and cast them behind you as far as the east is from
the west. Father we thank you for all your
mercy and graces and long sufferings towards us. And Father, remember
us this evening, especially again, where Brother Eric hopes to stand
before us. Father, remember him in mercy.
Pour out your grace upon him, Lord, and open his mouth and
release his tongue that he may once again declare your glory
and your riches in the gospel. And remember us, Lord, as we
sit here and we listen. Give us, Lord, what we need,
the attention and the hunger for our hearts, and that we may
have rest for our souls, that our faith may be increased and
strengthened. And again, Lord, we pray for
our loved ones. You know, Lord, perfectly what
each situation is, and nothing is too difficult or too wonderful
for you. Father, will you be a surprising
God, and will you call them out of nature's darkness and give
them a hunger for their soul. Pour out your spirit upon them.
And Father, remember us also pertaining to this local assembly.
Will you continue to provide for us? And Lord, if it is your
will, would you provide us a permanent location? Lord, you know all
things perfectly and all things are in your hands. Remember us
in mercy, Lord, especially those that are suffering and struggling,
whether it be physical or other ailments. O Lord, that our eyes
may be ever turned towards you, for Jesus' sake alone. Amen. Before we turn to our text, let
me just say that Christ Jesus is the record of God. He bears witness, He is the testimony
of God's gracious will and purpose for His people. that God may
be gracious to us. The death of our Lord justifies
the people of God. The life of our Lord gives life
to the people of God, restoring fellowship between them and God. His death and resurrection testifies
to us that that gracious will and purpose of God has been fulfilled,
established, finished. The work is done. The Lord Jesus
Christ has finished the work that the Father sent Him to do. And this testimony of what our
God has done, what our Savior has done, this testimony is wrought
in you that believe by the power of God so that you hear this
testimony and you receive this testimony and you believe the
Lord Jesus Christ because of the power and glory of God manifested
in you. witnessed in your hearts, testified
to your spirit, making you to know the mind of God revealed
in the Lord Jesus Christ. So this witness is wrought in
God's people by the Holy Ghost who regenerates us, meaning that
he gives us spiritual life. We didn't have it. We were born
of Adam, dead in trespasses and sins, but we've been regenerated
by the Spirit of God so that now we live. We live, we have
spiritual life and know the things of God revealed unto us. The
Holy Ghost taking the things of Christ and He shows them to
us. He shows us the witness of Christ
in the Word. He makes us to hear the witness
of Christ in the preaching of the Word and He manifests the
power of God. He's the dynamite. He makes that
word dynamite in us to give us life, to bring to life out of
nothing and to make us to know what Christ has done for us. Let's be turning to John 19 now. John 19. When you read the record that
we're about to look at tonight in verses 31 through 37, When I looked at it, it's like
looking into the infinite mind of God and standing here before
you this evening to preach this word. I feel very small. I feel
very tiny because I'm talking to you about the manifold wisdom
and testimony of God that's declared here, born witness of here, of
the manifold witness and testimony of God that is received by you
according to the manifold witness and testimony of God in you,
according to His power. And so He's giving us here in
this text witness upon witness upon witness, testimony upon
testimony upon testimony that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ
of God. You look to Him. He's the servant
of God. Trust Him. Believe Him. He is
the fulfillment of God's Word. to you his people that have no
righteousness of your own, but look to Christ and believe him
for all your righteousness and all your standing and acceptance
with holy, almighty God." Now, it's a three-fold witness. here
that describes what God does in manifesting the life of Christ
in the believer by his power. That power is the same power
that Paul wrote of when he said in 1 Corinthians 1.18 that the
preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness,
but unto us which are saved. It is the power, the dynamo,
the dynamite, the explosive power of God. It gives us life. It brings us to life by His power. So let me just give you a little
outline here of what we're going to see. There's three things.
here, there's a three-fold witness. And there's two things, two significant
things that John records for us here in the scriptures that
are done before our Lord is removed from the cross. One, they didn't
break his legs. Two, they pierced his side. And these things testify that
from the scriptures that he is indeed the Christ, that he is
the Christ of God. Second, we're given an eyewitness
testimony by John who stood there. We're hearing an eyewitness record
of the Apostle John testifying to us, saying, I was there. And
they didn't break his legs because he was dead. He was dead, so
they didn't have to break his legs. He was dead, and they pierced
his side. So we're getting an eyewitness
testimony of the church, of the church by John. Third, what flowed
out of Christ's side when they pierced it was the blood and
the water. And this blood and the water
is a description of the witness, of the power, manifest power
of God in you that believe. This blood and water testifies
of the testimony, the witnesses that God gives and reveals in
each one of you that believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. So
it's a three-fold witness describing a three-fold witness wrought
in the lost sinner, chosen of God to hear, to receive that
word, to believe the word of Christ. Because not all men hear
it, not all men receive it and believe it, but to you, You believe
that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God. He is the Christ
of God, and He is my Lord, my King, my Savior forever. That's what you testify to in
your hearts. That's what's been brought in
you that believe Him. Now, you may know these things,
but give glory to God, because it is not of the flesh. It's
not of the flesh. It's of the Spirit of God. His
record is true. His record is true. Now, first,
the fulfillment of the Scriptures. First, we're given a witness
of the Scriptures. Now, sometimes the Scriptures,
in the Scriptures, are referred to as water. Water is used a
lot of ways in the Scriptures, and it's used to define a number
of things, but it's used to define the Scriptures. And Ephesians
5, 25 and 26 says, Husbands, love your wives even as Christ
also loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might
sanctify and cleanse it, his church, you his church that believe
him, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of
water by the word, by the word. His word gives testimony. Our Lord's death, even in our
Lord's death, as He's on the cross and He's now dead, He's
given up the ghost to the Father, He's dead, and yet He's still
fulfilling the scriptures that prove that He is the Christ. He's still fulfilling the scriptures,
even in His death, even in His death. Now, because of the coming
Passover, Because of the preparation for the Passover, the Jews wanted
those that were crucified taken down off the cross as quickly
as possible. And so it says in verse 32 that
the soldiers came and break the legs of the first and of the
other which was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus
and saw that he was dead already, they break not his legs. But one of the soldiers with
a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came thereout blood
and water. Let's skip down to verse 36.
We'll come back to verse 35, but let's go to 36. For these
things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, a bone of
him shall not be broken. And again another scripture saith,
they shall look on him whom they pierced. So the first point of
note here is that Christ has been fulfilling all the scriptures,
testifying that he is the Christ, and here again he's fulfilling
the scriptures that speak of the Christ, showing you that
this Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ of God. Regarding his
bones, that comes from Psalm 34, 20. He keepeth all his bones,
not one of them is broken. And the piercing of his side
is from Zechariah 12, verse 10. That's the prophet quoting the
Lord, speaking of himself, who said, I will pour out, I will
pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem
the spirit of grace and of supplications, and they shall look upon me whom
they have pierced. When our Lord gives His Spirit
of grace and He pours it out upon you, that's when we see
and behold Him who fulfilled all the scriptures, of whom we've
heard testified to by the church, and they're preaching the gospel.
By the Spirit, by the manifest Spirit of God in us, then we
behold our Lord. who died for us, who gave his
life for us, and gives us life in himself. So, this first point,
now, of Christ fulfilling the scriptures, I realize, that seems
like a familiar point. You know this. You already know
that Christ fulfilled the scriptures. You believe. It's a well-accepted
point with you. I'm not teaching you anything
here. But do you realize that there's
millions and billions of people that have come upon this earth
and gone from it, upon the world, that do not believe the witness
and the testimony of these scriptures that declare that Jesus of Nazareth
is the Christ of God. And what that means for you that
believe him, what that means is that he's given you that witness. He's born that witness in you,
because it's not the flesh, it is God. God has given that to
you. He's washed you with the water
of the word. He's sanctified you by that written
word of God. Second, we're given eyewitness
accounts. When I'm standing up here preaching
to you, I'm bearing witness of the testimony of God from these
scriptures, of the testimony he's wrought in my heart, of
what he's shown to me and declared in my heart that I'm now preaching
to you, praying that the Lord declare it in your heart, in
your heart. And we have here eyewitness accounts
that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ of God. Let's look again
at verses 33 through 35. But when they came to Jesus,
and saw that he was dead already, they break not his legs. But one of the soldiers with
a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came thereout blood
and water. And he that saw it bare record,
and his record is true. And he knoweth that he sayeth
true, that ye might believe. Now first let me just deal with
a critical detail here that, because there's people that deny
that Christ was dead when he was laid in the tomb. But here
we have the testimony that Christ was dead already. That's why
he didn't break his legs. He was dead already and the main
thrust of that is that he gave up the ghost to the Father in
sacrifice of himself to the Father to put away the sins of his people. No man took his life from him. He gave it willingly, willingly,
a willing sacrifice to the Father for your sins. And there's multiple
witnesses, multiple witnesses of Christ's death. First we have
John, the Apostle John. He was standing there when Christ
died. Christ said to him, woman, behold
your son. Son, behold your mother. And
he took Mary into his house from that very hour. He was there
the whole time Christ was crucified. So he saw. He's giving you an
eyewitness account of what he saw when Christ was crucified. Additionally, the Roman soldiers,
it was their job to kill those men. It was their job to make
sure that they were dead. That's what they did. They were
executioners. They did it. They made sure he
was dead. They didn't kill him, but they
made sure that he was dead. And the Jews present, they were
satisfied that he was dead. And then the Roman government,
they sealed the tomb. They put their seal on the tomb
that he was dead. And they put a guard over it
to watch lest a disciple should come and try and steal his body
away at night and a greater stir be whipped up. So there's witnesses
that Christ was dead. So that's one thing, one point
I just want to make there. But the testimony of John about
his bones not being broken It confirms what another eyewitness
said concerning Christ in John chapter 1. John recorded another
eyewitness named John the Baptist who spoke and testified of Christ. It's recorded for you in John
1. We had the witness of the Scriptures, and now we're hearing
the witness of the Church. Just like you hear pastors and
preachers declaring from the pulpit the Word of God, you're
hearing the testimony, the witness of the Church, who's received
this witness and testimony by her God, from her God, to declare
unto you. to declare unto you what the
Lord has revealed to us concerning Christ, the death and resurrection
of Christ." So not breaking a bone of Christ, what does that have
to do with? Why is that important? Is it
just because it fulfills the scriptures? Well, it does fulfill
the scriptures, but it also speaks to him being the Passover Lamb
of God, the one whose sacrifice propitiated the wrath of God
for us that believe in him, the one who turned away the wrath
of God so that he would not destroy us and punish us according to
our sins. But instead he passes over and
he's merciful to us and gracious to us for Christ's sake. So the Lord told the Israelites
something about the Passover lamb, and it's in Exodus 12 46
where it says, among a few other things, it says, neither shall
ye break a bone thereof. When you make that Passover lamb,
do not break a bone of it. And so if Christ's bones were
broken, how could he be the lamb? That John, John the Baptist testified
of saying, behold, the lamb of God, which taketh away the sin
of the world. Look at, go there to John one.
Let's just look at a few more verses in picking up in John
one, verse 32, and we'll work our way down to 36. It says in John, verse 32, in
John Bear Record. You see, the Lord is giving you
witness upon witness upon testimony upon testimony that this Jesus
of Nazareth is the Christ. In John Bear Record, the church
here is giving you her word by the grace and power of God. And
the Apostle John's recorded this witness of John the Baptist,
who is a prophet of God. John, bear record, saying, I
saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode
upon him. And I knew him not, but he that
sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, upon whom
thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him the same
as he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bear
record, that this is the Son of God. Again the next day after
John stood and two of his disciples, and looking upon Jesus as he
walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God." And so the fact
that Christ's bones were not broken, that confirms what John
the Baptist declared at the beginning of Christ's ministry, that this
is the Lamb of God. God's confirming that testimony
to you." Now, this second point of the witness of the church,
here, written, recorded for us by the church, declared, they're
telling you they're eyewitness, and you hear this word preached.
Now this second point of the witness of the church, through
these records given by John the Baptist and the Apostle John,
They too might seem familiar to you, and a well-accepted point
at this point. You believe that Jesus is the
Christ, and you worship God, and you rejoice in the gospel
that's preached unto you that declares Christ. because this
is the witness of God given to His church to declare this Word
in the ministry of reconciliation, to comfort your hearts, to bless
you, and to declare this blessing of God to you through the blood
of Christ. You rejoice in it. But there
are millions and billions of people that have come and gone
throughout the history of this world that do not receive the
witness of the church, that do not receive the witness, that
same witness that blesses your heart and makes you glad and
rejoices your heart in the Lord Jesus Christ. They don't receive
that witness, but you do. You do. Take note of that because
that is a witness of the Spirit and the power of God in you,
which is not in them. And that's why you receive the
witness of the Church. That's why you hear it and receive
it and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. God has made this witness
known to your heart, sanctifying you with a belief of the truth. through His Spirit, and by His
Spirit sanctifying you unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ." Listen to this, what Paul said to the Thessalonians
in 1 Thessalonians 2.13, he said, Because when ye received the
word of God, which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the
word of men, but as it is in truth the word of God, which
effectually worketh in you that believe." God has made his witness
effectual to your hearts. I wanted to cover those so that
when we come to this third and final point, my prayers it's
a little easier to hear and to categorize it, to receive it
and understand this witness upon witness upon witness here. So,
the witness you received concerning the scriptures. And the witness
you received concerning the Gospel preached unto you by the Church
is because of God's power and witness manifested in you that
believe. It is a spiritual work. The Spirit
of God has come and sanctified this Word and this Word to your
hearts, to you that believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's His
grace and mercy. This time let's just read verses
34 and 35, John 19, 34. But one of the soldiers with
a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came thereout blood
and water. And he that saw it bare record,
this is John himself, be bare record, and his record is true.
And he knoweth that he sayeth true, that ye might believe. Now the blood Let's look at this
one way here. The blood which flowed from Christ's
side, it testifies that all for whom Christ died are now justified
by God. God has justified you. Your sins are put away. You're
righteous. You're perfect. You're without
spot, wrinkle, or blemish. God receives you because you
are perfectly righteous in the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ's blood
speaks of his death as the sacrifice for sin. There's no other reason
why he died but to put away the sin of his people. When he shed
his blood, he made an atonement, a covering for sins with his
own blood for you that are chosen of God, given to Christ, that
he might save you from your sins. that he might justify you and
make you righteous in himself. Turn over to Romans 5. Let's
see a couple scriptures there. Romans 5. Let's go to verse 8. but God commendeth His love toward
us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
See, everything's tied to our Lord's death, and everything's
tied to our Lord's resurrection. Much more than being now justified
by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. Now just
stay there for a minute, don't turn away. Christ justified his
church, that mystical body which was given to him by the Father
before the foundation of the world. Christ justified them
by his blood. And because we are justified,
his blood pictures our justification, that water speaks of our sanctification. Because we are justified by Christ,
you are now sanctified by the Lord Jesus Christ. They're hand
in hand. His death justifies you. His
life sanctifies you and gives you life. We live because of
Him. Look at Romans 5 verse 10. For
if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death
of his Son, much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life. He lives. Yes, he lives. He's
been raised from the dead. We are saved by his life because
he lives. He's not dead. God raised him
from the dead, declaring to all his people who believe in him,
you're justified. You're justified. Your sins have
been put away. you that hear the testimony,
you that hear the witness and believe the witness of God in
the scriptures, by the witness of the church preaching and declaring
the word, by the witness of the spirit in you, you hear that
word and you believe, I'm justified, he's my justification, I'm righteous
by him, and I live by him. That resurrection power that
raised Christ from the dead is the same resurrection, sanctifying
power of God that raises you from the dead. We come forth
spiritually dead in trespasses and sins, but now you live. You're spiritually alive thanks
to the Lord Jesus Christ who lives. His life is now wrought
in you. His spirit is given to you, and
that spirit, bam, gives you life, gives you life through the preaching
of the word, testifying of this word. It's all witness upon witness
upon witness being witnessed in you that believe Him. Now turn to one more passage
of Scripture. We're going to go to 1 John 5.
1 John 5. Now you'll notice that the Apostle John, who wrote the
Epistle of 1 John, well, he's also the author that we're looking
at here in the Gospel of John. And so the language, you'll notice,
is very similar. Very similar language that he
uses in 1 John 5. In this passage, John takes the
witness of the blood and water that flowed from Christ's side.
And here, when he speaks of it, he's speaking of it as being
applied by God to the hearts of God's people. That justification,
sanctification that we spoke of, that we saw here, witnessed
and testified in John 19, has now been applied to the hearts
of his people in this text. So we're going to pick up in
verse 6 and read down through 8. And this is speaking of that
new birth, which is wrought by the Spirit of God in the new
man, wherein we are born again, regenerated by the Spirit of
God. So, it begins in verse 6 here, this is speaking of our Lord,
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." And what
this means is that when Christ came, he came not in word only. We know that when he came, he
testified of the truth of God. He showed that the hope of man
was in dead letter works, in dead letter religion, practicing
and doing things that cannot save, and he testified of the
truth of God. That's why people were astonished
by his doctrine, because they never heard anything like that
before. And he testified of the truth.
He came testifying of the water. But he didn't come in word only.
He came also in deed, so that he accomplished the redemption
of his people by laying down his life and shedding his blood. So he testified of the truth
of God. the water, and he shed his blood. He came in water,
by water and blood. Now this passage here, you'll
notice as we go, it's all about the witness. It's all about the
witness that we've been given. Look at verse seven and eight.
And there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father,
the Word, which is the Son of God, He is the Word of God, and
the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. And there are three
that bear witness in earth. Three that bear witness in earth.
Now here's what I've been talking about all night. The spirit,
and the water, and the blood. And these three agree in one. So they always agree. You'll
know that it's the spirit, the water, and the blood because
they all agree. They all testify of the death
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. They never depart from
that. They always declare to us the
death of Christ that justifies me, the life of Christ that gives
me life. That's what your God has done.
He's given you this testimony to show you that everything that
he's declaring to us in Christ, he's manifested it to you. And
so upon the earth your God has given you this threefold testimony,
the Holy Spirit who sanctifies the redemption of Christ to you
through the new birth by the seed of Christ. The Spirit is
given to sanctify that word, what Christ did to you, and he
sanctifies the witness of the word here called water. He shows
you that this word is true. This Word is the Word of God
and it testifies from beginning to end of the Lord Jesus Christ. It keeps showing me again and
again and again what Christ has come to do. God's gracious purpose
to me. His will and purpose in the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's the record of God. And the
Spirit sanctifies the witness of the blood-redeemed church
to your hearts called the blood. Speaking of When we testify,
we're speaking of the blood of Christ. We're speaking of what
He came to do, how that He redeemed His people, and how that He rose
again. We're the blood-redeemed church,
declaring the blood, declaring the blood, declaring to you this
witness that we've been given according to this word, that
agrees with the Spirit of God who has given it to us and manifested
it to us. So this threefold witness testifies
of Christ's death and resurrection and our partaking of it by the
grace of God. Read just a couple more verses,
10 and 11. 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. This life is in his son. So you
see that he's saying this witness you that receive that understand
this that believe the scriptures believe the testimony Know that
Christ is my Savior that he justified me and and his life is my life. That's the gift of God That's
the witness of God wrought in your hearts and in your minds
now Some commentators say, they say, well, the water and the
blood signify the ordinances of water baptism and the Lord's
Supper. Fine, I'm okay with that. You know why? Because what do
those things testify of? The death and resurrection of
the Lord Jesus Christ. They speak of the death and resurrection
of Christ, right? The baptism testifies that Christ
died and rose again. And my baptism is a public testimony
that I died with him and I rose again when he was raised from
the dead. I live by him in newness of life. Regarding the ordinance
of the Lord's Supper, Paul said, as often as ye eat this bread
and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come.
he died and he rose again and he's returning again and when
he returns this body shall be raised anew from the dead as
well I live in him now and it shall be raised anew with the
new body when he returns and that's just a beautiful another
beautiful declaration of that is when Paul said in Galatians
2 20 I'm crucified with Christ nevertheless I live Yet not I,
but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live,
I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave
himself for me." It's just all testifying of Christ's death
and resurrection. It's witness upon witness. So
the testimony of Christ is wrought in you that believe Christ by
the Spirit. You believe the testimony of
the scriptures. You believe the testimony of
the church. You've heard and received the
gospel of Jesus Christ, that his blood justifies me. His life has raised me from the
dead and given me life and fellowship in the family of God, with God,
through him, through him. This is our witness. I wanna
bring you to one more scripture, and then we'll be done. Luke
24. Go to Luke 24, so it's right before John. Last chapter in Luke. Here we see this threefold witness
in Luke 24, beginning in verse 45 through 48. It says in verse
45, then opened he their understanding that they might understand the
scriptures. That, brethren, is the witness
of the Spirit of God in you. When you have the Spirit of God,
then you can understand the Scriptures. Then you can understand what
the Lord is saying. In verse 46, He said unto them, Thus it
is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise
from the dead the third day. That's the witness of the water
of the Word. showing you that witness of the
word 47 and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached
in his name among all nations beginning at jerusalem that's
the witness of the blood redeemed church declaring the gospel turn
from your dead works that cannot save look to the lord jesus christ
believe him that's the repentance stop the dead works believe the
living Believe Him who died and rose again to put away your sins
and give you life. All these witnesses were sanctified
to you that hear, receive, believe, and witness this word." Look
what he says, the last verse, 48, and he, are witnesses of
these things. That's the witness, brethren.
That's what John is declaring there in chapter 19. It's just beautiful. It's the
witness upon the witness upon the witness. So I pray that you
hear it and are comforted by it and rejoice that you hear
and believe and receive those things that no other people do
except they're blessed of God and it's given to them. Amen. Let's go to the Lord in prayer.
Our gracious Lord, we thank you for your grace. We thank you
for this witness. And Lord, though to believers
it can seem like a very obvious point, a very well-known and
accepted point, but Lord, we just pause for a moment to give
you thanks, to give you praise, for it's you that manifested
this to us, that it's you Lord, that it's your glory, your praise,
your honor, your power that reveals this in our hearts, the hearts
of dead sinners made alive by the justifying power of the blood
of Christ. the giving of his spirit, the
giving of life by him. Lord, we thank you for your justification. We thank you for your sanctification.
We thank you for your redemption and the wisdom of Christ. Lord,
teach us. Keep revealing this to us more
and more and help us to bear witness of these things that
you've testified to us in the scriptures that Jesus of Nazareth
is the Christ of God and all that that means. We thank you,
Lord. In Christ's name we pray and
give thanks, Amen. Our closing hymn will be 475,
Redeemed, 475. Redeemed, how I'd love to proclaim
it. Redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb. Redeemed through His infinite
mercy. His child and forever I am. Redeemed, redeemed. Redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb. Redeemed, redeemed, taller than
forever I am, redeemed and so happy in Jesus, no language my
rapture can tell. I know that the light of His
presence with me does continually dwell. Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed
by the blood of the Lamb. Redeemed, redeemed, His child
and forever I am. I think of my blessed Redeemer,
I think of Him all the day long. I sing, for I cannot be silent,
His love is the theme of my song. Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed
by the blood of the Lamb. Redeem, redeem, His child and
forever I am. I know that the end is beauty,
The King in whose law I delight, Who lovingly guardeth my footsteps,
And giveth me songs in the night. Redeemed, redeemed by the blood
of the Lamb. Redeemed, redeemed, His child
and forever I am. Thank you.