You can take out your Bibles once again and turn them back to 1 John, chapter 5. Let's pray together before we get started. Our Father, we always come to you with thanks, because we have so much to be thankful for, more than we could ever possibly realize, from our day-to-day lives and especially to the grand nature of your grace to save us from what we are. But we do continue to thank you. We thank you for the opportunity to meet, Thank you for giving us hearts that want to. For bringing us together with our goal of worshiping you. And we pray, Lord, that that happens through your power. We pray, Lord, that we can worship you today. That this message is glorifying to you and to your son. that it would be glorifying to you and your son, but also the kind of message that lifts the hearts of your people. That is why we're here. And we look to you to make it happen. And we trust in your promises that you fulfill in us through your son. And we are so grateful, Lord, that you've chosen a people to fulfill your promises in. We pray this for all of your people this morning. We pray it in Jesus' name, amen.

So again, this is gonna be called God's Testimony. I kind of mentioned earlier testimony is something that gets tossed around a lot, especially in modern Christianity. I even remember when I was a kid, a lot of teenagers would give their testimonies and then you'd hear adults give their testimonies and usually it was just pictures or stories about how their life had turned around. About how they used to be so bad and now they are so much better. That is not the kind of testimony we're interested in.

It does say in the scriptures that we read here that we accept human testimony, but what they're referring to is specifically the testimony of the disciples who were told, go tell of the things you've seen and heard. Well, they had seen Christ. and heard Christ's teachings. So their testimonies were valid because their testimonies were not about themselves. Their testimonies were of the Son of God.

So our modern day, or I'm sure probably happened years ago too, our worldly versions of testimonies is not what we're talking about today. It's not even the same thing. But it's interesting because even when he talks about the testimonies of the disciples, in verse 9, it says, we accept human testimony, but God's testimony is greater. And then I love this simple explanation, because it is the testimony of God. What testimony matters more than the testimony of God? None.

The gospel message is a testimony, a record of historical realities. If you want to look at it in an earthly, worldly way, it can be a descriptive testimony, a story, a record of historical realities. Paul described it as Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and was buried and rose again according to the scriptures. It's made up of historical realities that were personally witnessed. The apostles were sent out with a testimony they had personally witnessed. John said that which we have seen and heard, we declare to you. The gospel is not merely some theological system that floats around up here. It's real. It happened. It's physical. It has a history of events. Something happened 2,000 years ago. Someone did something. And that person and the work that he did constitutes the gospel, and it constitutes this specific testimony of God.

This is why the gospel is transmitted by words, by preaching, by speaking in plain words. We are not trying to cause men or women or anyone listening to feel emotion or to stir up emotion. That is not the goal of preaching the gospel. The preaching the gospel is to tell them the truth. That they hear the truth. Joe always said to me, Joe said so many things to me, but we talk about having kids. And he would always say, there's nothing you can do for them besides making sure they're here to hear the truth. It's all a parent can do as far as the spiritual situation their kids are in. We can't do anything to save them. But we can demand, sometimes they weren't very happy about it, that they be here to consistently hear the truth of Christ. That is how the gospel is learned. To believe, you must hear. Christ said, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

The gospel is made up of objective facts. We don't think of it that way because so much of it is beyond our understanding. But it is made up of objective facts. And virtually anyone can know these facts. A lot of people do. The gospel is not some mystical truth that you can't grasp or understand. It is plain. It is simple. It is bold. in its plainness. It's a very simple truth which can be expressed in very simple terms. In fact, when the disciples first went out and preached the truth to the Gentiles, that was one of the pushbacks. This sounds way too simple. This doesn't sound like upper-echelon theology from philosophers. You're not impressing us at all with this. John, Paul, this is not impressive for human standards. Where are your lofty words? Where are your intricate phrasing? In fact, like I said, one of the great offenses back then was the fact that it was too plain to the point of almost being crude. If you think about the, to an outsider's perspective, you are all sinners. There is one savior and he needs to die a bloody, awful death to save you. Plain and simple and offensive and crude is how they saw it.

When the Bible says that the natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God to understand the simplicity and the plainness of the truth, it's not saying that it's too difficult for them to understand. In fact, it's quite the opposite. It's saying it's so plain and simple that natural man refuses to believe it. They have not been given the ability. Their hearts are still stone. Their ears are still shut. Their eyes are still blind. He cannot imagine that something of such great importance could be so simply described.

A natural man can understand the system of the gospel, can understand the facts of the history of events that creates the gospel. They can understand all of that. They can have a very good knowledge of this book, the Word of God, and still have no idea how to receive it as an eternal, spiritual, saving truth.

Now, this testimony has been recorded in the Scriptures. This is where the testimony of God is. It's in this book. What a blessed day we live in to have this. I mean, if you think about that, it's only recent history that we can just go pick up a Bible. For 2,500 years, they didn't write anything down. It was just spoken word. And then for 1,500 years after that, God had his men write according to what he told them to write. But it was 1,400 years later when they finally figured out, hey, we can kind of manually create these. And then a couple hundred years later, before anybody could actually get their hands on them, And if you could, you were wealthy. We live in a time where Bibles are free everywhere. That is amazing.

The testimony of God is in the Bible. You want to know how to be saved? It's in this book. And now at this point, any common man can really go get a copy anytime. You can download it. It's all free. But we live in a day where we can have them and virtually anyone in the world who wants a Bible can afford one.

Turn to 2 Timothy 3. 2 Timothy 3, verse 15, it says, and how from infancy you have known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. It's found in the scriptures. This was part of Paul encouraging Timothy to remain grounded in the scriptures. I mean, we get so used to having this. Do you know what a special, special book this is? This is the Word of God in our hands. I mean, one of the big questions in the spiritual world, in the religious world, how can a sinner be saved? It's in here. Get a Bible. There is no other book and no other place with that information. Get a Bible and read it and ask God to open your eyes to understand it and your heart to believe it.

So this is the testimony of God found in the scriptures. But it's interesting. Go back to 1 John again. It says in verse 10, anyone who believes the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. So this testimony of God can be found in two places. It can be found in the scriptures and in the heart of his people. That is such a blessing. that the truth of God, the testimony of God is placed in the heart of a believer by him. This is the work of the Holy Spirit to take an external testimony of the scriptures and make it an internal testimony of someone's soul in the heart of God's elect.

Faith is not what puts this testimony in us. We don't earn it through faith. God's Spirit puts this testimony in His people, and then they have faith. Faith is merely the proof that God's testimony has been placed in your heart. To the believer, the gospel is not just a religious program in which he or she participates. The gospel is literally part of who they are. It has been placed in you, and it cannot be removed.

Those who religion is based on external things, merely a form of worship that they practice. They can easily change their religion, what they believe, according to the whims of this world, according to social movements, according to personal decisions. I really like the entertainment in this church. It really keeps me awake. Or my kids' best friends go to that church over there, and I think they would really enjoy that. It's so fickle, it's so easy to switch, because it means nothing.

But someone who has the testimony of God in their heart cannot leave it. One who has God's testimony within them cannot and does not exchange it for something else. If it was left up to us, we probably would. But it's not. It wasn't something from us. We didn't create it. We didn't place it. It was from God. It's His testimony. And He put it there. That is such a blessing because we would throw it away. But He doesn't give us that option. He places it there and He knows that it will never go anywhere. We cannot remove it, otherwise we would. If you go back in 1 John again, except this time chapter 2, verse 19, John writes about preachers who left the gospel and preached other gospels. It says, they went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But their going showed that none of them belonged to us.

He says of such people that their departure proved they were never really part of the church. And what's true about those preachers who change what they preach is just as true about anyone who changes what they hear. A believer will never change what they hear. A non-believer will change what they hear on this week's whim. A man in whom God has placed his testimony is simply incapable of trading that testimony for something else.

Now, what is God's testimony that he places in the heart of every believer? Go back to 1 John 5 9. We accept human testimony. But God's testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God which he has given about his son. I am so grateful that the way the Lord orchestrated this book is so easy to understand. I mean, this group of verses today that we're reading couldn't be laid out in a way that's easier to understand. There is no one on earth that can't understand what we're reading right now. God has a testimony, and it is about His Son.

It is unfortunate, actually, and this is something I actually found in Joe's notes, and I thought it was very fitting. He says, and I'm actually gonna read this, because this is right from Joe. It is unfortunate that denominations have arisen over the years. I suppose it is unavoidable as people feel compelled to withdraw from this or that church for reasons of conscience, but such divisions lay a trap for us, for it is easy for us to hold allegiance to a denomination instead of allegiance to our God. Denominations change. God does not. Every denomination's message changes with time. But God's message never changes.

He wrote, when Grace Community Church formed in 1987, we specifically did not choose a denominational identifier. Purposely, we left it off. But if anyone with some knowledge of various denominations or theology were to sit and listen, they would probably call us Baptists. But I assure you, we have never opened a book of Baptist theology to find out what we are supposed to believe. The Bible is the only reliable and authoritative book on God's truth. The Bible is the inspired testimony of God. And we must look to it and nothing else. We should be bound to it.

When I say we're bound to the Scriptures, in truth, we're actually bound to God's testimony. But because it's found here, we are bound to the Scriptures. God being gracious, by God's grace alone, I pray that I never preach from anything else. Nor should we ever be willing to listen to anything preached from anything else. If it isn't based biblically on the Scriptures that show us The testimony of God we shouldn't even listen. The testimony we need is the testimony of God. Give us nothing else.

Furthermore, it is the testimony, as it said, is God concerning His own Son. It says, because God's testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God which He has given about His Son. The entirety of God's testimony is the truth about Christ. The Bible is the only reliable record of God's testimony. But this does not mean that some men won't use the scriptures to preach from the Bible a message that is not God's testimony. It can be twisted. We've all seen it. But if we know what God's testimony is, which is everything regarding His Son. No matter how biblical a message may seem, if it is not a testimony concerning God's Son, it is not God's testimony. He says it right here, God's testimony concerning His Son. So if you hear any testimony that isn't concerning God's Son, it is not the testimony of God.

Christ said this very pointedly in John 5, 39 and 40. He said, you study the scriptures diligently, saying this to the religious leaders of his day, because you think that in them you have eternal life. In the scriptures. These are the very scriptures that testify about me, he says. Yet you refuse to come to me for life. These Pharisees and Sadducees were diligent students of the Scriptures, but they had utterly failed to grasp the meaning of the Scriptures. They failed to see Christ. They failed to see that the Scriptures are the testimony of God concerning his Son. And they proved their failure by their unwillingness to come to Christ for life.

So this testimony of God, which is within the heart of every believer, is God's testimony concerning Jesus Christ, His Son, the testimony of who He is and what He's done. This testimony is in the heart of every believer. It says that as clear as it could possibly state it. No one believes unless this testimony is in them. In John's gospel, chapter five again, actually let's turn to John chapter five. And we'll go to verse 37 and 38. And the father who sent me himself testified concerning me. These are Christ's words.

The Lord was not saying that God's word did not dwell within them because of their lack of faith. He's still speaking to the religious leaders of the day. He's not saying, because of your lack of faith, you're not understanding the word of God is about me. The Lord said to them, their unbelief was proof that the word was not in them.

By a miracle of grace, God puts his word, his testimony, in the heart of everyone of his elect. You think about the thief on the cross. He had no reason to believe any of this. But that testimony was placed on his heart and he had no choice because he was one of God's elect. Therefore we believe that testimony because it's been placed in our heart.

The Word of God is truly a living thing. It's in us. It's made its home in the heart of all who believe. God's testimony is a living word and it gives life to those in whom it resides. It's plain and it's bold. And often the shyest believer in the face of opposition to the gospel will stand up in the face of his enemies. People who are never so much as raise their hand to ask a question become bold to defend the truth in the presence of God's enemies. Men and women who are timid about all else have been made bold and courageous even unto death. over this testimony of God concerning his son.

Only, the only explanation for that is that God's testimony of his son was put in them and it simply could not be denied.

The testimony is simple. We might think that any testimony given by the all-knowing God would be beyond our understanding, but what good would that do? It's certainly true that there are parts of it that are mysterious, that are too big for us, that is beyond our ability to grasp how they could be. But none of it is beyond the power of the weakest mind or weakest intellect to know. Not to understand, but to know. I may not understand how Christ can be God and man at the same time. But I can easily understand that he is indeed God and man at the same time.

So what is God's testimony? The testimony that is in every believer. Go back to 1 John chapter 5 once again. And this is, I was talking about the plainness and the boldness and the simplicity of these specific pieces of text. This is exactly what I'm talking about. Verse 11 and 12 of 1 John 5. And this is the testimony. God has given us eternal life. And this life is in his son. Whoever has the Son has life. Whoever does not have the Son does not have life.

Sometimes it feels like God is specifically dumbing this down for us. Because He needs to. If you have the Son, you have life. If you don't, You don't. There's nothing difficult to understand about the testimony of God.

The experience of salvation to the believer is actually receiving new life. It's what it says, whoever has the son has life. It's not a renewal of an old life. When Adam sinned, we all sinned in him and we all died in him. So salvation is not the improvement of a life that we already have, it is the giving of life that we naturally do not have. Jesus said, I have come that they might have life and have it to the fullest. So it is obvious that we do not naturally have this life that he's talking about. Otherwise, why would Christ have to come so that we could have life if we already had some?

This life is a gift from God. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ. We are dead in sin. There's no way for a dead person to generate life. There's no way for a dead person to earn new life. He is dead. The dead can do nothing. But God gives life. He does not merely offer life to people. What good is an offering to a dead man? A dead man doesn't even know he's dead. Think about that. A dead person isn't aware that it's dead. Nothing there. To offer a dead person something is useless. A dead person doesn't even know they have the power to know that they're dead, much less have the power to accept a gift.

This life is in God's Son. It can be found nowhere else. It says, I am the way. Again, plain, I am the way. It can be found nowhere else. It can't be found in the church. It can be found nowhere other than in Jesus Christ. The idea that many religions of the world are simply different paths to the same place is a lie. It's not true. There is one religion that is right, and it is Christ and him alone. All others are a path directly to hell. Christ is the singular way to the Father. He said that Himself. Christ is the one source of eternal life. All that God has for sinners is Jesus Christ. There is no other right answer. And again, I love how the conclusion here is so plain. The one who has the Son of God has life. The one who does not have the Son of God does not have life. A person may have many, many, many good things according to the world. May be a very moral person. May have a lifelong membership in a church. donate to causes and help people and build houses and all, I mean, just be a peach of a human being that we would love to emulate. I'm not saying any of that's bad. Could be the kind of person that you wish you were. But if they don't have the sun, they don't have life. And then the flip side of that is true too. Can be someone that never goes to church. Could be someone that should, according to us, should treat people a little bit better. Maybe a little too gruff for our taste. But if he has the son, he has life.

So how can we know, and I love, I came across this scripture, and this has been something I wish I would have read years and years and years ago. There are so many times of doubt, right? We all go through doubt. So many different kinds of doubt, but even doubt spiritually, help my unbelief. We all go through times of questioning our faith, especially, when God has just opened your eyes. Man, do I really believe? Am I really saved? How do I know? How do I know? You're tossing around the idea of maybe getting baptized, but man, I don't have a definitive answer. How do I know that I believe? I feel so weak at times. I feel far away from God at times. How do I know I'm one of His people?

The scriptures tell us right here. In verse 13 of 1 John 5, it says, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know you have eternal life. It's like they knew the question was coming, so here's your answer. Faith, if you believe in Christ, you have eternal life. Like I said earlier this morning, if you feel the need for Christ, your heart has been softened. Your eyes have been opened, and your ears have been opened, and you can hear the truth, and you can see Christ as best we can while we're here. You are blessed. Don't overthink it. Faith is proof that we have the Son. Do you believe the Son? Stop thinking about yourself. I'm weak. I'm far away. Do you believe the Son? If you do, you have the Son. And if you have the Son, you have eternal life. It tells us in black and white. That is the testimony of God. And we are so blessed that He not only tells us His testimony in this scripture, but He takes it and He puts it in your heart. Because if it was just here, we would set it down and walk away. But he doesn't give us that option. He says, you are mine. Here is my truth. I'm not just going to tell you about it. I'm going to make this truth part of you. I will never let you go. You are mine.

It's an incredible thought to think that that truth isn't just a truth floating out there. It is part of who you are. And it's placed there by the Almighty Father of the universe. What a comfort. I mean, we all go through these times of doubt and unbelief. Look at this. He has placed the truth in your heart. You can't escape it. As hard as we try. He has overcome us. That is the testimony of God. That we need Christ. Christ has sufficiently fulfilled everything demanded by His Father on our behalf. The Lord has fulfilled every promise in us. It is finished and it is stamped on our hearts. That's the testimony of God.

Dear Lord, we thank you so much for what you are, for your grace. for your love and your mercy that you show your people in a way that is so powerful and final and unchanging and unchangeable. We are so thankful, Lord, you leave nothing of this to us, not even our ability to hold on. We would be too weak to hold on or we would choose not to. And you know that. So you have given us, you have made the truth a part of who we are. An inescapable part. And Lord we thank you for knowing us and knowing what we are and creating a way for us to be saved in spite of who we are. We thank you Jesus for everything you are for us. Everything you've done for us. And we look so forward to the day when we can wrap our arms around your neck. And say thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. We pray this in your perfect name. Amen.

You can take out your hymnals and turn them to 136. Ye servants of God, your master proclaim number 136 and we'll stand together as we sing.