It's wonderful, it's wonderful.
What you find in Scripture, and I want to say this at the outset,
is that God speaks of his Son. That's what Scripture's about.
It's God speaking of his Son. And then you'll see a lot more
about that as we go on. God is making himself known by
what he gives to his Son to speak. And so the words of the Lord
Jesus Christ are by the authority of God. He speaks from God, he
speaks of God, and he himself is God who speaks in our nature. So in this particular text of
scripture in 1 John 5, what we see in verse 6, Well, he says many things here.
Let me read from verse four. Whosoever is born of God overcomes
the world, and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even
our faith. We may wonder, often wonder,
how in the world, how we can overcome the world. Well, faith,
it says, is our victory, and faith is looking to and trusting
Christ as our salvation, as our savior. And in so looking to
Him, then we overcome the world. We can't overcome the world in
any way except by Christ. We find our victory in Him. And
that's what faith does. Faith reaches in to the holy
place, the place where Christ is, and finds our salvation there
in Him. We don't look within, we look
to Christ. So that's the first thing. And
then he goes on, verse five, who is he that overcomes the
world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the son of God?
The son of God means he is God. Jesus, who was in the world,
who was born of a woman, who lived his life, who did the will
of God, who spoke God's word, who did miracles, who suffered
and died as a sinner, then rose again, justified by God, in his
resurrection was received up into glory. He was preached to
the Gentiles, that's us, and believed on in the world. He's
the son of God. He's God himself. And then in
verse six, this is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus
Christ, not by water only, but by water and blood. Now let me
comment on that particular verse just for a moment here. Water
and blood. It's often the case I've heard
people explain scripture where one thing explains another thing. And I want to correct a misuse
of scripture in that way, which is when someone takes one shadow
or one type of something and uses that to explain another
shadow or another type. That would be an incorrect use.
So for example, There are those who believe that children who
are not believers should be baptized and that baptism should be some
kind of a sprinkling of water. They say that that is a sign
which is like the sign of circumcision. In fact, they say that circumcision
is a sign that is sort of fulfilled in that sprinkling of that sign.
So what they do is they use the sign of infant baptism to explain
circumcision. That's a misuse of the scripture.
God doesn't use a shadow to explain a shadow. He uses a substance
to explain the shadows. And if you understand that, it
makes total sense, doesn't it? That the image of the thing,
the substance, whatever casts the shadow, is what the truth
is. The shadow itself is just helping
us in the infirmity or the weakness of our own understanding to understand
the truth, and it's the truth that's important, not the shadow
or the figure or the type, as we use those words synonymously.
So what God said in the Old Testament, that was a shadow of the truth,
and what he says in the New, that's the reality, that's the
substance, that's what makes the shadow. But it's not the
picture that we're after. It's the person pictured. So
here he says, he that came by water and blood. It's not talking
about the water of baptism. That would be saying the water
and the blood here represent something. And that something
that represents is another representation of something. Baptism is a representation
of something. But that's not what this is talking
about. It's not talking about baptism here, not water baptism,
although that is the most common explanation of this text of scripture. What he's referring to is the
fact that when the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross, as
the Apostle John bore witness and testified that he saw when
the soldier plunged the spear into his side, out of his side
came water and blood. And in John chapter 19, he says
that this is very important, and so he emphasizes it. And
let me read that to you so that you see how he emphasized it. I know that you're familiar with
how the spear piercing Christ's side brought out water and blood,
but listen to the way that John says this. In chapter 19, verse
34 of John, one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side
and forth came there out blood and water. That's what John 5,
1 John 5 is talking about. He that saw it, that would be
the Apostle John, he that saw it bear record, and his record
is true, and he knows that he says true, that you might believe. It's important what he gave a
record of here in the Gospel of John, the pouring out of Christ's
side water and blood is important. He goes on. that you might believe. For these things were done that
the scripture should be fulfilled. So this is the fulfillment of
a shadow. A bone of him shall not be broken. And again, another
scripture says, they shall look on him whom they pierced. That
was in Zechariah, that last part. So in 1 John 5, when he says
that he came by water and blood, he's saying that the Lord Jesus
Christ, when he died on the cross, and the water and the blood flowed
from his side when that spear pierced his heart, that this
was God signifying that it was the water and the blood that
is all of our salvation. And so what we find is that scripture
gives testimony to this throughout. So that for example, in the Old
Testament, the high priest or the priest had to wash in water
and they had to bring the sacrifice, which was a sacrifice of blood
in order for them to be accepted and for the people to be accepted.
There was two things in the Old Testament, the water and the
blood, but it was a type, a shadow, a figure, a picture of the true,
and the true was the actual death of Christ, which was proven by
the water and the blood that came from his side. And he says
here, that it is He that came by water and blood, even Jesus
Christ, not by water only, but by water and blood. So in the
Old Testament, as I began here, the water and blood signified
the fact that Christ would come and that our acceptance in the
presence of God, as the priests were, was only by the water and
the blood, the washing of water and the blood. Now these two
things together show that all of our salvation is in the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ, because that's when it would get poured
forth from him. And so what he's also saying by this is that as
the law required both water and blood for our acceptance before
God, so all of the law is fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ in his
death. Does that make sense? Everything God requires of us
is fulfilled, is provided by God. It's worked out and fulfilled
by Christ and God has accepted it. And because he has accepted
Christ crucified for his people, he accepted them by the water
and the blood, by the death of Christ. But there's a two-fold
cleansing here. And the two-fold cleansing is
blood and water. And that's what this is referring
to. If you look at Hebrews chapter
10, Hebrews chapter 10, you can see this. In Hebrews 10 and verse
22, he says this. He says in verse 22 of Hebrews
10, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith
having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies
washed with pure water. You see the two things? Our conscience
is sprinkled with blood because God has convinced us, the Spirit
of God has persuaded us that the blood of Christ was actually
shed and that it actually accomplished the purpose why God shed his
blood, which was to take away our sins. And so there's the
blood and the water also. He says here, the blood sprinkles
our conscience, an evil conscience, our bodies is washed with pure
water. Those two things. So if you understand what the
significance of Christ shedding His blood, you know that it was
God who required His blood to be shed because He had to die
for our sins. Sin requires a wage, a payment
that be made to the sinner. But we couldn't endure, we couldn't
make that payment, we couldn't endure the punishment owed to
us because of our sin. So God laid the sins of his people
upon his son and required that payment from him. And that payment
meant he had to lay his life down. He bore our sins, therefore
he had to bear what our sins deserve, which is eternal death,
which he did when he bore the wrath of God for us. That's the
blood. The blood propitiates God. The blood takes away the cause
of God's wrath. The blood obtains favor from
God on the basis of justice satisfied. So do you see that? Blood removes
our guilt before God. Our sins offended God's justice
because we broke his law. And God's own law demands the
curse come upon us because of our sin. But the Lord Jesus Christ
substituted Himself as our surety and gave Himself an answer to
God, an answer under the law. He stood in the law place for
us. He obeyed the law, and in that
obedience to the law, it was an obedience of love that caused
Him to give Himself. in blood, and the blood Christ
shed, meaning his life laid down, was such a sweet savor to God
that he forgives the sins of his people. He no more sees them. They're all removed. Because
the blood removed, the wrath of God satisfied the justice
of God and did it in truth and in the holiness of God. Nothing
is left. All the sins removed by the blood
of Jesus. That's the blood. Okay, but we
ourselves are sinners. We are corrupt in our nature.
And so the water also has to wash us. Wash our bodies, it
says here in Hebrews 10, 22. Our bodies have to be washed
with pure water. Now that water came from Christ,
came from his side when he was pierced. And what does that water
do? Well, it washes us. It washes
us, it takes away our sins. In Revelation chapter 1 and verse
5, unto him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his
own blood. So not only does the blood propitiate
God, but it washes us. In the Old Testament in Leviticus
13 and 14, there's a law of the leper. And the leper who had
leprosy was unclean before God. And even though you could only
see a small sore on his skin, that leprosy had gone deeper
than the skin, the level of the skin, and therefore something
had to be done that removed something that was deeper than that surface,
that superficial surface of the skin. It had to go all the way
and cleanse the leper. And in Leviticus 13 he talks
about this and in verse 13 and 14 he says, only the leper who
was full of leprosy, absolutely covered with leprosy, you couldn't
find any soundness in him at all, then that leper was pronounced
clean before God. Amazing. And in Luke chapter
five, in verse 12 and 13, a man, it says, who was full of leprosy
came to the Lord Jesus Christ. And in Luke 5, 12, he says, Lord,
if you will, you can make me clean. And so the Lord Jesus
Christ said, I will be clean. He was absolutely washed from
his leprosy. He was pronounced clean. And
so that in Leviticus 14, There's this whole ceremony that God
gives to the priest to perform where two birds are taken, one
is killed, and his blood is, and that dead bird is put under
the water, and the water is run over that bird, and the blood
of that bird is washed into a basin, and then that is sprinkled with
cedar and hyssop on the living bird, and that living bird is
then set free. Now this is all typical of the
Lord Jesus Christ, who is that bird who was killed, his blood
was shed, and the water washes that blood and is applied to
the living bird, and the living bird is set free. Completely
clean. And this is how the leper was
cleansed of his leprosy. So that you can see, even in
the Old Testament, Leviticus 13 and 14, and back throughout
the Old Testament where the priest had to be washed in water and
shed the blood in order to be accepted by God, that two things,
water and blood, were necessary. So that here in 1 John 5, he's
showing us that God's law required to accept sinners in the presence
of His holiness as holy before Him. and his wrath removed because
his justice received full payment for them, because of their sins
that offended his justice and demanded his wrath, and therefore
peace was made by God, expending the full, outpouring of his wrath
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and his blood was shed, and the truth
of that is that our sins are washed, and those two things
came from Christ. Everything in our salvation was
accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what he's
saying here. This is He, Christ, the Son of
God. This is He, Jesus, that came
by water and blood, even Jesus Christ, not by water only, but
by water and blood our guilt is removed. God has justified
us because of the blood of Christ. But not only did he reconcile
us in the Godhead, he removed our sin by the blood of his Son,
but he also washed us. We were leprous, completely covered
with sin. And he had to wash us in the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I say all that as an introduction
really to what follows here and what we're going to read in John
chapter eight. If you go back to John chapter
eight. Because as we heard Brad reading there further in first
John chapter five, what we have is that there's a witness of
God that's given. Christ came by water, he came
by blood. It's important that we believe
him. If we don't believe him, we have no life. If we do believe
him, then we're gods, we belong to him, we have eternal life. And back in 1 John 5, 7, he said
that there are three that bear record in heaven. The Father,
the Word, and the Holy Ghost, 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 has testified of His Son." So again,
what does Scripture say? What is Scripture about? The
Son. What does He say of His Son?
He came. What did He come to do? To shed
His blood, to pour out His life's blood, His whole life as water
and blood, blood to remove our sins before God, water to wash
us from our sins. It's justification, His blood,
and sanctification is the water that flowed from His side. that
God requires of us, to have us as His children, to take away
our sins, and to make us holy, has been provided in the Lord
Jesus Christ in His cross. Now, this is not taught in modern
religion. It's not taught in most historical
religion. There's only one place this is
taught. It's in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're
going to see that here. But I'm trying to emphasize here
that there's a witness in heaven, there's a witness on earth. The
witnesses in heaven is the witness of the triune God. God the Father,
the Word, and the Holy Spirit. And they're all one. They agree
in what they have to say. They're giving the same testimony.
And then there's a witness on earth, what Christ accomplished.
It's about His blood and water that came from His side. And
the Spirit of God takes these things in the gospel and applies
it to us. We couldn't know this, we couldn't
believe this, and we wouldn't have the life, we wouldn't have
a spiritual nature to receive the things of God that are freely
given to us because of Christ, unless the Spirit of God does
this. That's what the scripture's teaching
us here. The threefold witness in heaven,
a threefold witness on earth, and the spirit of God takes the
things of Christ and shows them to us. Do you see that? And so
this is the testimony God has given of his son. Now look at
John chapter eight. Notice here in verse 12, Jesus
said, it says in verse 12, they had been in the temple, The woman
had been brought to him, pretty much thrust down in the midst
of the crowd in front of Jesus, and they tried to use her to
bring Christ down, to condemn him and condemn her with him.
They basically had this attitude, to hell with you. And they were
standing off as those who had the right to judge, as God alone
has the right to do. As the law givers, because they
were referring to Moses and they were trying to condemn the woman
and so condemn Christ for justifying the woman. And the Lord Jesus
Christ stoops twice. The first time, he silences them
and sends them out with their conscience, accusing them so
that they had nothing to say and they heard nothing from him.
And then the second stoop, he rises and he looks and he says,
he sees only the woman and he says, woman, where are your accusers? Has no man condemned you? She
says, no man, Lord, neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no
more. as we went over that last time. And now in this verse,
notice in verse 12, then Jesus, then spake Jesus again to them
saying, I am the light of the world, the light of how God justifies
the guilty, how he washes them from their sins. Christ is that
light. He not only accomplishes the
work, but he makes it known. He's not only the propitiation
for our sins, but he's the washing of our sins from us, and he's
the one who is the light that reveals this as our salvation,
okay? And he goes on, he that followeth
me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. The light of life, the gospel.
is where God testifies that our life is in His Son. That's what 1 John 5 says. This
life, this eternal life, is in His Son. It's not in me. It's
in Christ. But Christ lives in me because
Christ died for me, and He gives me faith to see that, and that
is the life. That's the fruit of the Spirit,
which is the fruit of life. Faith in Christ. Okay? I'm the
light of life. I'm the light of the world and
whoever follows me, whoever believes on the Lord Jesus shall not walk
in darkness. He now sees, he or she now sees,
and what do we see? The light of life. This is God's
revelation of how God gives life to dead sinners. It's in the
Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation. It's the spirit of life. Our
body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because
of righteousness. Romans 8, verse 10. And as sin
reigned to death, even so might grace reign in sovereign, life-giving,
saving grace towards us because of righteousness in the Lord
Jesus Christ unto eternal life. That's all because of the blood.
And Christ is the light of that. He's the one who not only was
sent to preach this, but to accomplish it. Now in verse 13, John 8,
verse 13, the Pharisees therefore said to him, thou bearest record
of thyself. Because he said, I'm the light
of the world. Hey, you're bearing record of yourself. And they
tried to say, because you bear record of yourself, therefore
your record is not true. Now is that true? No, it's not.
Because just because Christ speaks of himself, it doesn't mean that
he's speaking false. If he is the truth, who else
could he speak of? Does that make sense? If God
is the truth and the Lord Jesus Christ said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life, he bore record of himself right there
in John 14 6. Then if he were to speak of another,
besides the God of truth, besides himself who is the truth, then
he would not be speaking the truth, you see. Or we could look
at it this way. If we were to search the scripture
and never find a place where God said his word is true, that
he himself is the truth, how could we make that claim? If
God never said he was the truth, that his word is true, it would
be presumptuous of us, we would be baseless of us to make that
claim ourselves. But he did say it. He said the
scriptures of truth. He said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life, Lord God of truth, Psalm 31, verse 5. So the Lord
Jesus Christ is the truth, therefore, who is he going to speak of?
Himself. And so it was false for the Pharisees
to claim, well, if you talk about yourself, you have to be speaking
false. No, this is the only thing I
can speak of. This is what the Father has given
me to say. Salvation is in the Lord Jesus
Christ. God is my salvation. And the
Lord Jesus Christ, his name is Salvation, Jehovah Salvation. That's what Jesus means, Jehovah
Salvation. Salvation is in Him, Jehovah
God, the Lord Jesus Christ. So the Pharisees objected, their
objection, as the judge would say, overruled, overruled. And Jesus answered in verse 14.
And he said to them, though I bear record of myself, yet my record
is true. And here he gives support for
that claim. I know, this is why, for I know
whence I came and whither I go, but you cannot tell whence I
come and whither I go. Where did Christ come from? Well,
he told us he was sent by the Father. He came from heaven. He who was in the bosom of the
Father came from the Father, being sent by the Father from
heaven itself. Hence, He is the Son of God.
The Son of God came from the Father. That's where He came
from. Where did He come to? He came into the world. And where
is he going? Well, he first had to do the
work God gave him to do, to save the people God gave him to save,
and having accomplished that work, then he would return to
his father, and his father would glorify him, because he finished
that work, because he was worthy, with his own person. The father
would glorify the son with himself. Let me read that to you from
John 17. When Jesus is praying, he says
in John 17, he says, I have, Jesus is speaking to his father,
I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished, that's
how he does it. How did he glorify his father?
I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do, everything
God gave him to do and say. And now, O Father, Glorify thou
me on his return to glory. He knew where he came from. He
knew where he was going. Glorify thou me with thine own
self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. The Son of God glorified by the
Father, the Father himself with himself glorifying his Son. You
see the unity here? Do you see how God the Father
and God the Son are one? And that the glory of the Father
is the glory of the Son. And the way that the Father glorifies
Himself is by glorifying His Son. You see that? And how did
Christ do this? By His work. A work that He finished. There was nothing left to do.
Nothing left for us to do. This is God's work. This is Christ's
work. His accomplishment. And so He
says here in John chapter 8, Verse 14, I know whence I came
and whither I go. I know where I came from, who
I am. I know the work God gave me to
do. I know I will complete that work. I'll save my people. I'll
glorify my father. I will return to glory. The father
will glorify me with his own person, with his own self. He
knew this. He spoke of these things. It
was true. He would accomplish this. There
was no failure. He cannot lie. And that's so
impressive to me that God cannot lie. I cannot tell the truth,
but He cannot lie. There's always a measure of insincerity
or a lack of understanding or deception or self-promotion in
everything I say. But in the Lord Jesus Christ,
there was none of that. It was absolutely true. And therefore,
he had to speak of himself because he is the word of God. And he couldn't speak anything
else. He's the word of God. God sent his own word, the word
of God, was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, that
was the Lord Jesus Christ. The Word of God appeared, the
Word of God spoke, and He is the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal
uncreated Word of God came and spoke of His Father. And so He
says this to the Pharisees, I know where I come from, I know where
I go, you cannot tell whence I come and whither I go. Why? totally blind, completely uninformed. Why? Because they had this prejudice. They had a prejudice of their
own goodness in the eyes of God for various reasons, but they
trusted in whatever they thought good about themselves. And therefore
they needed no Savior, and they found Him to be objectionable
because He dethroned them from what they thought they had. He
took away from them what they trusted in. He exposed them as
sinners, and that made them angry, so angry that they're going to
take up stones to kill Him. And this is the way that we are
by nature. By nature we have this tendency,
this natural reaction to the truth of Christ that we do not
like it because it takes away from us control. It takes away
from us the sense of fairness before God. God should give me
more than I deserve in a good way and not give me what I deserve
in a bad way. And so all of religion is about
somehow stealing glory from Christ and applying it to ourselves,
taking credit from Him, claiming what belongs to Him only and
say, no, that's my part, that's my part. I was reading to Denise
this morning, I don't want to get into these kinds of things,
but there's this new wave going around called AI, Artificial
Intelligence. Keep the word artificial strongly
in that sentence. But nevertheless, there's these
things that you can use to handily look up information. And so I
was looking up one of those pieces of information about what the
general idea is about Christianity and stuff. And the claim, according
to this, which was accurate as far as it goes, but the source
of it was wrong because the claim was that Christians believe that
Jesus died for everybody and that God removes our guilt because
we believe Christ. He justifies us because we believe
Christ and that the offer of salvation is given to all And
the difference is made between those who believe and repent
of their sins in comparison to those, or contrast to those who
do not believe and do not repent of their sins. And these people
who do believe on Christ and so are justified by God then
go on, it says, to progress in holiness by their own obedience.
Now, isn't that a summary of modern religion called evangelical
freedom? This is actually the doctrine
of the Catholic Church. Historically, this is what the
Catholics wrote down, codified, and promoted and actually killed
people because they wouldn't accept it. It's called free will
works religion. It glorifies man, it steals credit
from Christ, what only God can do and did in Christ, and it
applies that to man's account in order to give man some sense
of standing and an accomplishment before God in order to give him
assurance because he can see now and do what God requires.
This is essentially the law. This is works religion. But the
truth is that God is the only Savior. Salvation is of Him,
and it's by His will alone. Our will plays no part in it,
nor does our work. We cannot do, we have no inclination
to do what we ought to do, and we cannot remove our sins. But
in Christ, God has done everything. And so these Pharisees are like
that. They are man's religion. And
you know how God describes the words he uses to describe idolatry
in scripture? What is that one way that God
uses to describe idolatry? The works of men's hands, remember? This is idolatry. And so, this
is religion. All religions of the world, it
doesn't matter whether it's Buddhists, or Muslims, or Catholics, or
Jehovah's Witnesses, or Mormons, or Evangelical free works religion. It doesn't matter what your name
is. Baptists, Presbyterians, it doesn't matter. If you are
in any way trusting your contribution, your response in order to make
you justified or to make you sanctified, the Lord is saying
that is idolatry. That is false. That is man's
religion, and the Pharisees personified that in their response to Christ. You can't be true because you're
speaking about yourself. The Lord says, no, I do know.
I am true. My record is true. I came from
the Father. I'm going to the Father. I'm
going to accomplish the work of the Father, save my people
from their sins. But you cannot know these things
because you are of flesh. You're only a natural man. You're still in your sins. That's what he's saying. Verse
15, you judge after the flesh. In other words, after the natural
mind of a man who doesn't have the Spirit of God. You look at
things outwardly. You can only, and then you're
biased by your own opinions, your prejudices. You have to
maintain that you're somebody so that you have to judge others
as being less than you. And anytime someone comes along
and exposes you as being false, you gotta somehow rear back on
your hind legs and put them to death. And that's what he's saying
here. This is the way the world works, if you hadn't noticed
it. Little children even do this,
they get in a squabble. Uh-uh. Not me. But Jesus says, you judge after
the flesh, I judge no man. Now the Lord does judge. but
he doesn't judge after the flesh. And at this time, when he's speaking
here, he had been speaking of himself as the light of the world,
not condemning the world, but doing what? Saving his own out
of the world. So he wasn't judging, he was
saving, and yet these men found fault with him for saving, because
it meant that he had to do all the work. And so they, judging
by the flesh, they condemned him, by their sinful flesh for
saving His people." And that's what he's referring to here.
I judge no man. I came to save. And yet they
judged Him for that righteous cause which He would do, He would
perform and fulfill and glorify His Father in doing and save
His people. And yet, verse 16, if I judge,
my judgment is true. For I am not alone, but I and
the Father that sent me." Now, here's where we get to 1 John
5 and its overlap here. In 1 John 5, he says in verse
9, if we receive the witness of men, here's the title of the
sermon, The Witness of God is Greater. The witness of God is
greater. It's greater than the witness
of men. It's infinitely greater. God is infinite. Man is a puny
worm of the dust. You can't make it too small.
Hannah, in 1 Samuel 2, describes those the Lord saves as beggars
on the dunghill. That's us, that's us. Ruined
by our sin, having nothing to claim, in debt, and unable to
pay, and we need a rescue. We need a salvation, a savior.
So that's what we are. And the Lord from heaven is over
all, God blessed forever. He's holy, harmless, undefiled.
He never says anything that's not absolute truth, because He
is truth personified. I and the Father that sent me.
Now back to 1 John 5, notice what he says in verse 7. First
John 5, there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father,
the Word, and the Holy Ghost. I'm not gonna get into the controversy
around this verse. I'm going to take it as it is,
the Word of God. Some may say this verse doesn't
belong in scripture. It does. In the book of Ecclesiastes,
and just listen to this, you don't have to turn there, but
you might want to. In Ecclesiastes chapter four and verse 12, Make
a note of this. It says, a three-fold cord is
not quickly broken. And we know that. The Golden
Gate Bridge is built with cables, not solid pieces of steel. They
take these cables that were wrapped together and braided together
somewhere in a different state, and they were hauled in in order
to construct the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. And
because it's cables, woven pieces of steel braided together, it's
super strong. Because each of those has a greater
strength in proportion to a single strand when they're braided together.
A three-fold cord is not quickly broken. But God isn't teaching
from Ecclesiastes 4.12 about the strength of man's buildings
or bridges. What is he talking about? He's
talking about the witness of God, compared to the witness
of men. God in heaven is one God. Here, O Israel, the Lord our
God is one Lord, one God. And yet, he's revealed to us
in the three persons of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Or the Father, as it says in 1 John 5, 7, the Father, the
Word, and the Holy Ghost. Now, I often wonder about these
kinds of things. What is the significance? And
I know it's true. What's the significance of this?
Well, there's great significance, but without getting into that,
know this. We can't understand what a spirit is. Can you? Some people compare a spirit
to a gas or wind or something like this, and we think of it
as this large and expanding thing that's invisible, and so we have
a conceptual notion of what spirit is, but we always use something
physical or sense of something physical to describe it. We can't
understand spirit. But we can take what God says
is true in faith, and this is one of those things that God
states and persuades us of as true by the way He reveals it,
and yet we cannot explain it or really comprehend it, that
God could be one and yet three persons in one God. We just take
it as true. And as soon as we just take it
as true, then we'll be able to say what the simple-minded boy
who was mentally handicapped, when he heard this, he said,
what do I see? What do I see? I see the one,
and the one is three, and the three is one, and all the three
are all for me. You see, that's the expression
of faith. It just repeats, it takes God's
Word to itself, as this is the revelation of God, and by faith
lays hold on it and says, this is all for me. This is my salvation. So that the witness of God is
greater than the witness of men, and the witness of God is the
witness of the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, or the Holy
Ghost here. What is this witness? Well, I'm
not going to be able to give you all of the text of scripture,
but I want you to think with me about this, and I want to
talk about the most significant witness of God here. First of
all, everything God has said, the Father and the Son of God
and the Spirit of God have all spoken concerning the same thing. If we could call it thing. And
that thing that God has spoken of is the gospel, the person,
and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, let's catalog some
of these things. The father sent his son. Jesus said this over and over
in the book of John. He sent, I was sent of the father,
he sent me. I didn't come of myself, he sent
me. So that would be what? That would
be the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in Hebrews chapter
5, he says, A body hast thou prepared me. The father prepared
a body for his son. And he says in Hebrews 10.10,
by the witch will we are sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ. So the Father sanctified us through
the offering up of that body and it was His will that His
Son offer up the body He had prepared for Him. So this is
all the Father bearing witness to His Son. In the Incarnation,
before He came into the world, throughout the Old Testament
Scripture, He speaks of Him. He's the seed of the woman in
Genesis 3.15. He's the ark that was pitched
within and without the atoning work of Christ that made us safe
and delivered us from the judgment of God that was outpoured. And
they were safe in the ark because of that atoning work. He's the
Passover, He's the seed of Abraham through whom all the kingdoms
of the nations of the world will be blessed. He's all that God
said in the Old Testament scripture, the Father has spoken of His
Son. in the Incarnation. And then
at His baptism, remember, the Father spoke from heaven and
said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. That was the Word of God, the
Father speaking from heaven at the baptism of Christ. Why is
that so significant? Well, first of all, because Christ
is his son, he identified him in that way. But when he was
baptized by John, it signified that he would come under the
baptism of divine wrath for the sins of his people and take away
their sins and would rise again in justification. So the father
was speaking of his son and speaking of that work he would accomplish
that he gave him to do, the will he would fulfill. So at his baptism,
and then to Peter, Jesus said, flesh and blood has not revealed
this unto you that I'm the Christ, but my father, which is in heaven.
So the father then is again witnessing, bearing witness to the son in
revealing to Peter and to all of his people, God's people,
that he, Jesus, is the Christ. The One who is the Word of God
who reveals God and makes Him known. The One who is the priest
who represents us to God and offers Himself as a sacrifice
to take away our sins. And the One who as King reigns
over all things and gives us life because of His righteousness
and raises us from the dead and delivers us from our enemies.
He's the Christ of God, and God the Father revealed that to Peter.
So we see the witness of the Father in that too. And then
we see the witness of the Father in the miracles. Nicodemus says,
we know you're a teacher. Come from God. No man can do
these miracles except God be with him. God was with him. In
John chapter 10, and many times in John chapter 10, Jesus tells
the Pharisees, if you don't believe me, believe the works, because
my father gave me these works to do, and I do the work of my
father. Therefore, believe the works,
the works of the father. So the work of Christ, in all
that he said and did, his ministry and his miracles, was a witness
of the father to his son. And then in the death of Christ,
Jesus prays in John 12 and John 13, Father, glorify thy name. I have glorified it. I will glorify
it again in the death of Christ and in the resurrection of Christ.
The father is always bearing witness to his son, and not just
to his son, but to his work that he gave him to do. This is a
testimony of God the father. There's no higher authority,
no more authentic witness than the witness of God the father.
He spoke from heaven, he spoke in scripture, he spoke by the
miracles, he spoke by the by the death, the sufferings and
death of Christ, and especially in the resurrection and the exaltation
of Christ. And then he spoke when Christ
sent his spirit into the world to give this gospel to be preached
and to be believed by the Gentiles. This is the witness of the Father.
Do you see it? I know that's a rapid dissemination
of these things in Scripture, but you know that Scripture says
these things. And then there's the witness
of the Spirit. And in every way in which the Father has borne
witness to Him, we find the Spirit of God also bearing witness to
Christ. At His baptism, the Spirit, like
a dove, descended from heaven upon Him. And He's given the
Spirit without measure, John 3, 34. He's the anointed by the
Father with His Spirit. That's His name, Christ, the
anointed of God. And in his work, the Spirit of
God, it's by the Spirit of God that he raises the dead. It's
by the Spirit of God that he casts out devils. It's by the
Spirit of God that he was sent to speak and preach the gospel.
Luke 4, 18, the Spirit of God is upon me. He has anointed me
to preach the gospel to the poor. Deliverance to the captive, to
set at liberty those that are bound. Remember, those that have
been bruised by the fall. The Spirit of God, in his sufferings
and in his death, speaking to him, he was enabled by the Spirit
of God to endure the temptations of Satan and overcome. Because
as man, he depended upon God in his strength in order to fulfill
our righteousness. The Spirit of God bore witness
to him at the resurrection. He was declared to be the Son
of God with power by the Spirit of holiness. And in Hebrews chapter
9, he says, he through the Spirit offered himself to God. By the
Holy Spirit, He offered Himself in His human nature, and by His
own divine nature, the Son of God, as the altar laid down His
life, and it was made acceptable to God by His own divine nature
as the Son of God. All these things speak, and then
Christ sending his spirit and the spirit of God now, given
in the gospel, makes sinners alive from the dead and gives
them faith to know and be persuaded this is the truth of heaven.
A threefold witness. And Christ himself bears witness
to himself, as we just read in John 8 and elsewhere. He tells
those in John chapter 2, he says, destroy this temple, three days
I'll raise it up again. He was talking about the temple
of his body. In John 10, my father has given
me this commandment to lay down my life and take it again. He
speaks of his death. He bears witness to himself. And here he's doing that in John
8. The witness of God concerning his son. It's certain, it's sure,
it's eternal, it cannot fail. God would cease to be God, and
this is the significance of the triune God. You see this? One
in will, in purpose, in work, in glory, all fulfilled in the
Son. They're all pointing to the Son,
and the Son is pointing to His Father and referring and giving
His Spirit in order that we might know Him. This is a blessed thing,
isn't it? This is a blessed thing. And
notice on earth, there's the witness of the blood and the
water and the spirit, the spirit of God revealing to us that our
salvation is by the one who is son of God, who gave his blood
and poured out his life in blood and water for our justification
and our sanctification. We're justified before God and
before God our sins are washed from us so that we're pure, sanctified
by the offering up of the body of Jesus Christ once. Never to
be repeated. accomplishing an eternal work
in His one offering unto death. Now this, if you were to read
1 John 5, this is the revelation given to God's people. And the
commandment of the Lord Jesus Christ that we keep is to believe
on His Son and to love one another, which we do when we see our sin
debt having been forgiven by such a great Redeemer. How can
we not love Him? Let's pray. Father, we pray that
you would indeed glorify your son by your word, by the gospel
that he preached, by the spirit of God given from heaven by him,
that we might know these things, we might receive them, things
freely given to us by God because of Christ, a free and full salvation,
justified by his blood, sanctified by his blood, brought into the
presence of God by the blood of Jesus. Help us to see this
witness that is so infinitely higher than any man could have
devised or given. It tells us things of heaven,
spiritual things, things we could never know. But now your word
has revealed it and your spirit has given us this light and this
light is seen in the Lord Jesus Christ. May we ever, as the hungry
and the thirsty, come to Him who was crucified for us for
this life. And may you pour out your Holy
Spirit in us, dear Lord Jesus, that we might have this river
of life ever flowing, continuously sustaining us in the faith by
your life in us, that we might love the Lord Jesus Christ, Love
all that he is and all that he did and glorify him and love
his people that he purchased with his own blood. Forgive us
our sins, Lord, for his sake. Receive us for his sake. Bring us to yourself according
to your will and your word for Christ's sake. And in his name
we pray, amen.