You want to turn in your Bible
to the Gospel of John, chapter three. We're continuing there.
I wholeheartedly agree with whatever Brad said in his prayer. It was
very good. My own prayer is that the Lord
would answer that prayer for us today. such a gracious text of scripture
that God has given to us in 2 Corinthians chapter 3, which is not where
we're at right now. We're in John chapter 3, but
it, like the rest of the Bible, is so consistent that we use
the testimony of these different places in scripture to understand
the place that we're looking at. So that's the reason why
when we look at a text of scripture, we always go to other texts of
scripture. Because God's word is one, the
message is one, though the messengers are many, and the way in which
God reveals himself is various, as it says in Hebrews 1. Yet,
because it is varied in the way that God has given it to us,
it helps us to understand it and appreciate the depth of the
beauty of the truth of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I
wanna begin in verse 21 of chapter three, John chapter three. This is an amazing chapter of
Scripture, and that's not making the chapter any better, my compliment
of it, but it is me just acknowledging, as I often do when I see the
Scripture, how wonderful God has been in giving us this text
of Scripture. And our, The title for our sermon today
is found in verse 33, and it is just this, God is true. God is true. And so I hope that
we can understand that. I don't do this all the time,
but sometimes I do. I use Denise as a sounding board.
And I was explaining to her the process of looking at a text
of scripture and being utterly unable to know what it means,
and then trying to explain to her what I thought it meant.
And she said, well, your mission is to simplify it. I heard my brother in that admonition. I appreciate that. I want to simplify
things. I remember when I was in college.
And there was usually someone who was not the PhD professor,
but someone who was just getting their master's degree, trying
to fill in for a teacher. And I would get so frustrated
because it seemed like they couldn't explain things simply. And it
was because they didn't understand it so well. And that's my own
case. If it's not clear, it's because
I don't understand it like I ought to. Okay, verse 21 of John chapter
3. But he that doeth truth cometh
to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are
wrought in God. Wrought, that means worked. Worked
by God. God has worked our works. To
do the truth means to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He
is the truth. Jesus said in John 6, verse 29,
this is the work of God that you believe on him whom he has
sent. To do the truth is to believe
Christ. Believing Christ, we see that
he is all to us as sinners and we trust him. And I would like
to spend just a little bit of time talking about trusting the
Lord Jesus Christ. Last week, on the occasion of
remembering Bernadine's life and her death and contemplating
our own life as we think about her life and our own salvation
as we wondered about her salvation, It came very pointedly to my
own thinking that we trust Christ for her, but that doesn't tell
us, that doesn't tell us what the Lord has done for her. In
the same way we trust Christ for our loved ones, but that
doesn't tell us the state, the condition of our loved ones,
does it? And we also trust the Lord Jesus Christ for ourselves. Based on God's word, that tells
us that our case is safe with Him. In fact, trusting Christ
is the work of God in us that teaches us of the work of Christ
for us. And when we trust the Lord Jesus
Christ, we don't simply trust Him as having done something. I mean, we do trust His work. but we trust the one who did
the work. We trust the one who is gracious. We trust the one who is almighty.
We trust the one who is merciful, who is God himself, who is the
mediator, who is the author and finisher of the faith we have,
the one who is compassionate towards sinners, who can heal
all manner of sickness and raise the dead and cast out devils.
We trust him. And trusting Him, we trust that
He cannot do wrong and that all that He does is the very best
because it pleases Him. So in trusting Christ, we have
the most secure, the most certain assurance and confidence and
affirmation that God will do right. and that all who thus
trust Him will never be ashamed. They'll never be put to shame.
So there's nothing more certain than trusting Christ. Nothing
more certain of our salvation than simply trusting Him. We
can't find, for example, it says in Hebrews 11.3 that by faith
we understand the worlds were framed by the word of God. It's
by faith. God said it. We believe God,
therefore this is the way it was. In the same way, we don't
have, we can't go look into the book of life, can we, to see
our name written there. In fact, we have something more
sure than our own reading of a document. What do we have? We have the word of Him who is
God, who gave Himself for our sins, who sits on heaven's throne
and intercedes for sinners. We trust Him to do according
to His will, and in doing according to His will, He will do right. And whatever He pleases to do,
that's what we want Him to do. Because when He was pleased to
do whatever He wanted to do, He gave Himself for the sins
of His people. He gave Himself for our sins
to redeem us and to bring us to God, to give us eternal life,
to give us His Spirit, to know Him. That's what He did when
He did what pleased Him. So we want Him always to do what
pleases Him. And we are absolutely at rest
and peace and have joy trusting Him. He is good and can't do
wrong. And He's the Savior, the only
Savior. And so, as it says here, to do
the truth means to look to Christ and rest our case with Him, to
come to God by Him, to think of nothing in coming to God but
what He offered of Himself in obedience, in sacrifice to put
away our sins and to justify us. We trust Him. That's doing
the truth. That's coming to the light. I
want God to look upon me in all of His holiness in the Lord Jesus
Christ. I don't want Him to compromise
anything. I want to come to the truth,
and God has revealed it, that He has made Christ unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. I trust Him.
And coming to God this way is doing the truth. We come that
it might be known in the light of God's word that all of our
works were worked by God. What comfort, what joy, what
peace we have in knowing this. He that doeth truth, trusting
Christ, comes to the light, the light of God's own light in Scripture,
the light of God's knowledge of us, that our works might be
shown to be God's works in the Lord Jesus Christ. We trust Him,
don't we? Now, in verse 22, there's a transition. a transition in the text, and
it's not meant to be disconnected in that sense, but it's a continuation
of it, the same theme, but a continuation of it in a different light. Verse
22, after these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land
of Judea, and there he tarried with them and baptized. And John
also was baptizing in Enon near to Salem because there was much
water there. And they came and were baptized.
The people who heard John came to John and were baptized. So
now Jesus is in one place, John the Baptist in another place,
both are baptizing. Some are coming to John, some
are going to Jesus. In chapter four, verse two, it
says, that Jesus himself did not baptize but his disciples. So Christ is there, his disciples
are baptizing, and John also, in another place called Enon,
near Salem, is also baptizing. That's the setting. What does
it mean to us? Well, enon is a word that means
a spring or a fountain. It says here, there was much
water there, so it fits. The name enon means much water
because there was a spring or a fountain. And Salem means peace. John the Baptist was baptizing
because there was much water there. And so there's a couple of things
to observe here. First of all, remember what baptism
is. Baptism is a physical expression
of the gospel. John the Baptist came, it says
in Luke 16, I think in verse 16, that John the Baptist was
until, it says in Luke 16, 16, the law and the prophets were
until John. Since that time, the kingdom
of God is preached. So John the Baptist was unique.
He was born before Jesus, sent before Christ, and from the womb,
he was filled with the spirit of God. This is quite an amazing
man, very unique in history. And he was unique also in this,
that when he came, he began to preach the gospel. He began,
the Law and the Prophets were until John, but when John came,
he began to preach the Gospel, which is that Christ is the fulfillment
of the Law and the Prophets for the salvation of his people.
He is the Lamb of God, the one who fulfilled all the Old Testament
sacrifices. and the one who, as the son of
man, was worthy and fulfilled all the will of God and so was
exalted and enthroned to give salvation to his people and the
forgiveness of sins." That's what John preached. He preached
that men should believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, as it says
in Acts 19, verse 4. So that's what this is showing
us here, is that he was there baptizing. Now there was much
water there, And baptism is an emblem. It signifies something. What does it signify? Well, it
signifies our salvation. But in what way? It signifies
our salvation in that the water signifies the flood of God's
wrath. that we are baptized in water
signifies our union with Christ when He underwent that flood
of God's wrath and in immersion under the flood of God's wrath,
He endured it and took away our sins and took away God's wrath
from us. So that when we are baptized
in water, we're saying we were with Him in His death, with Him
in His burial, with Him in His resurrection. And so this is
all preaching through the act to believe the gospel concerning
Christ. He actually came under the flood
of God's wrath. In his own baptism, in the baptism
of Jesus, it signified the same thing. And his baptism would
fulfill all righteousness. And that's what Jesus said to
John in Matthew chapter three and verse 15, suffer it to be
so now that we might fulfill all righteousness. So baptism
is immersion. That's what that word means.
Christ was immersed, actually, when he was baptized under the
flood of God's wrath, which was upon him for our sins. And then
he was immersed in water by John as an emblem signifying what
he would later accomplish. And he mentioned it in several
places. For example, in Luke 12, verse
50, he says, I have a baptism to be baptized with. after he
had already been baptized by John. And that baptism was the
cross. He was baptized when he hung
on the cross in the fulfillment of it. And so we could read about
this in the Old Testament, but I'm not going to take that diversion
right now because I've talked about it before. Let me just
read a couple of Phrases here in Psalm 69. He says save me
O God for the waters are coming unto my soul I sink in deep mire. There is no standing I am coming
to deep waters where the floods overflow me and that was the
same Psalm in In which it says, they gave me also gall for my
meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. So we know
those are the words of Christ in prophecy. He came under the
flood of God's wrath. Deep waters overflowed him. Not
the water of H2O that we drink, but the water of God's judgment.
Okay? So here we have the scene, and
that's where we are now. John is preaching the gospel,
he's preaching Christ. God's spirit is on John the Baptist,
and he is wise beyond our ability to even understand. He spoke
such wisdom in the words that follow that we're going to be
amazed. Look what he says here in verse 24, John 3, 24. For
John was not yet cast into prison, John's ministry from his conception
to his death was to point sinners to Christ. That was what he was
sent to do, to point sinners to Christ. That's what his words
taught. That's what his baptism taught.
And because he was sent to point men to Christ, it says here,
he was not yet cast into prison. There was an overlap between
his ministry and Christ's ministry. He was preaching Christ and Him
crucified through His words and His baptism even while Jesus
was just beginning His ministry. And He also was baptizing, teaching
the same thing, preaching the same thing. The baptism of John
and the baptism of Christ signify the same thing. The difference
was is that John's pointed to Christ who would come and Christ's,
I'm here. And so we see that. And it says,
John the Baptist said, remember those famous words, he says,
behold, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world,
because that was the message. He was the Son of God. He, as
the Lamb of God, the Son of Man, would come and take away the
sins of the world, meaning the world of those for whom Christ
died, a sinful people for whom Christ died, who were in themselves
worldlings, So John's ministry would come to an end, but because
it had not yet come to an end, it says here that he was not
yet cast into prison. At some point, John would fade
away and Christ alone would be left because that is the ministry
of everyone who is truly sent by God. The man fades away. Christ alone is seen. When preaching
is effective, when the person who is teaching or preaching
is blessed by the attendance of the Spirit of God, then all
we think of is the Lord Jesus Christ. It's true. We think,
well, I'm thankful that God raised up that man to teach and preach
the truth of the gospel. When I heard it, I finally believed.
But ultimately, we're attributing it all to the Lord Jesus Christ. He gave me that faith. He is
the object of it. And so John has to fade into
the background now. That's the setting here. He was
not yet cast into prison. He would be. He's going to fade
into the background. He's preaching Christ. Christ
alone is left. Look at verse 25. Then there
arose a question between some of John's disciples and the Jews
about purifying. Now, this is always the case.
There's always an argument in religious things. Religious things
are the source of the greatest arguments. And notice that it
was between John's disciples and the Jews. The Jews, they
had these completely ignorant and false notions of what Old
Testament things meant. They wanted to argue about it,
but they were ignorant of it. They didn't know the truth about
purifying. But they wanted to argue. And
this is what we are by nature, isn't it? Argumentative ignoramuses. That's just what we are. Pride. Only by pride cometh contention,
it says in the Proverbs. It's only by pride, and pride
is most seen in our ignorance when we argue about things we
know nothing about. It's better to keep your mouth
shut than to argue in ignorance, isn't it? But the thing that
they wanted to argue about was purifying, and this is the argument
that everyone wants to argue. How can a person be purified
before God? Who is pure before God? The Jews would have said, we
are. Who makes us pure? That's another reason for argument. How can a person be pure before
God? If Jesus said, blessed are the
pure in heart, for they shall see God, how can I be pure? That's a natural question, isn't
it? And what makes us pure? In what sense are we made pure?
All those things are things. The answer to who is Christ. Christ makes us pure. It says
in Hebrews chapter one, verse three, when he had by himself
purged, purified us, the purification of our sins, he sat down on the
right hand of the majesty on high. Who makes us pure? The
Lord Jesus Christ. How does he make us pure? By
his precious blood. substituting himself, bearing
our sins as the one who was made unclean with our sins in order
to make us pure. Our sins were no longer on us,
they were put on him, and God, in the shedding of his blood,
blotted them out. We are pure in the eyes of God. So how are we made pure? By the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's the blood of Jesus Christ
which cleanses us from all sin. 1 John 1, verse seven. Think
about that verse. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
son, cleanses us from all sin. Have you taken those words to
yourself? Have you trusted on the one whose
blood, whose offering of himself cleanses you from all sin? That's the issue here. That's
the people who are pure, those who trust Christ. We know that
He did it at the cross, but we don't know it as our own purification
until we're given faith to believe on Him. Look at 1 Peter 1. I want to read this with you
because this is an overlap that will help explain much of what
we're looking at today. Turn to 1 Peter 1 and hold your
finger there after we look at this first verse. Look at verse
22. He says in 1 Peter 1, seeing
you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through
the spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that you
love one another with a pure heart fervently. Our heart is
not naturally pure. Jesus said, blessed are the pure
in heart. Who are the pure in heart? And
how is their heart pure? First, God removes our sins in
the blood of his son. Removes them from before his
face. Then, he gives us to know this when he gives us his spirit.
And the spirit of God given to us enables us to believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's called the sprinkling
of the blood on our conscience, the purifying of our hearts. That's what he's saying here
in verse Peter 122. You have purified your souls in obeying
the truth. That's believing Christ through
the Spirit. We didn't do it by ourselves.
It was by the Spirit of God who did this. And the result is that
out of a heart that believes Christ, love to God's people,
love to the brethren. and we have a pure heart. He
goes on, see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently. Look back up in verse 18 of the
same chapter. For as much as you know that
you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold from
your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers,
you used to trust silver and gold to redeem you. You don't
now, but you are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ
as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily
was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest
in these last times for you who by him do believe in God, that
raised him up from the dead and gave him glory, that your faith
and hope might be in God. Notice these words, by him you
believe in God. Do you? Do you believe in God
by him? The Son of God, the Son of God,
and I counted some of these things when I was preparing this sermon,
in John chapter three, It says to believe on or believe in the
Son of God four times in one chapter. And then throughout the book
of John, I counted 74 times, 74 times, it talks about believing
in the Lord Jesus Christ, his word, scripture, himself, what
he did, all these things. Here it says, therefore, that
we believe by Him, we do believe in God. Jesus is the Son of God. He is God. But He's God the Son. When we believe on the Son of
God, we're believing on God the Son who engaged from eternity
with God the Father in order to give Himself for our sins. the Son of God, God Himself. Do you believe Him, the Son of
God who loved me and gave Himself for me? That's what He's saying
here. We believe in the Son of God. He's the object of our faith. Paul in Galatians 2.20 says,
I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave
Himself for me. I live by the faith of the Son
of God. He's the object of our faith.
And not only is He the object of our faith, but He's the mediator. He's the way in which we come
to God. We believe on Him and so come
to God by Him. He gave Himself for our sins.
He's not only God, but man who bore our sins in His own body
on the tree. So we believe in him as the son
of God who gave himself and he did that as the God-man, the
mediator. And he's the only way we come
to God, so we believe him. And believing him, we come to
God by him. That's what it's saying here,
who by him do believe in God. Not only that, but we believe
him who is the author and finisher of our faith. We look to him
to give us the very faith we need to believe him. We often
wonder, do I believe? What are you going to do if you
believe Christ? You're going to ask him, who is the author
of faith, to give you that faith. I don't know what faith even
is. Ask him. Do you do that? When you read
a text of scripture or when you find it in yourself, I must have
faith, do you ask the Lord for it? Or you just assume you can
work it up? We believe Him. So He is the
Son of God, the object of our faith, the mediator, the God-man
who brings us to God, and He gives faith. And not only that,
but He's the one in Scripture who encourages us, who commands
us to believe on Him. Doesn't He? Look unto me and
be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. He told Nicodemus,
whoever believes on him who was lifted up, as the serpent was
lifted up, in the wilderness, sinners, looking to Christ, lifted
up, bearing the curse because he bore their sins, all those
believe him. And he says, this purifies our
souls. This is the application of the
blood of Christ that washed us from our sins before God. It's
the application of that blood to us personally. Nothing is
more important than this. And he says it's by the Spirit.
And Brad was reading to us from 2 Corinthians chapter three.
It says in 2 Corinthians chapter three that we, Where the Spirit
of the Lord is, there is liberty. The contrast in 2 Corinthians
3 is between the law and the gospel. Between us doing what
is necessary for our life and blessings from God, or Christ
doing it, the ministration of life, the ministration of the
Spirit here in 2 Corinthians 3 is the gospel, applied to us
by the Spirit of God. But in verse 17 of 2 Corinthians
3, it says, now the Lord is that spirit, and where the spirit
of the Lord is, there is liberty. What happens when we believe
the gospel? There's this huge load that's removed from us.
We see everything taken by Christ, born by Christ, and given to
us because of Christ, don't we? We're trusting Him to do everything
for us who did everything for sinners, for His people. We're
trusting Him. And that gift to trust Christ
only for ourselves puts us not only at rest and peace, but it
cleanses our conscience. And that's liberty. We don't
have a debt to pay. We're free. We're free. We're
free to know God and to come to God by Him. We're at liberty. He goes on in verse 18, but we
all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the
Lord, that's Christ, looking at the mirror of the gospel,
we see Christ in it, we are changed into the same image from glory
to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. That's what we read
in John 3, 21. He that doeth truth comes to
the light, that his deeds may be made manifest. They're wrought.
God worked this. God did this. And we look at
Christ. And he gave us even that faith to look at him and to see
him. Back to John chapter 3 now. So
we see here that purifying is the work of Christ. And God gives
us the work of Christ as our own when he gives us faith, and
that is by the Spirit of God. You see that? Who by him do believe
in God. Christ is the object of our faith,
the author of our faith, and He's the one who tells us to
believe on Him, and the Spirit of God explains Him, He lifts
Him up, He teaches us about the Lamb of God, who is the Son of
God and the Son of Man, who humbled Himself, suffered in humiliation,
obeyed God's law in humiliation, his own humiliation because it
was our sins he was humiliated by, and he therefore bore the
wrath of God, the curse of God. That's how we are purified, and
baptism signifies that. The gospel teaches it explicitly,
and that was the point of argument between John's disciples and
the Jews. It was the argument of the ages.
How can a man be right before God? And the answer is Christ
and him crucified, trusting him. Now, John chapter three and verse
26. And they came to John, these who were arguing, and said to
him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou
barest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come to
him. What are they doing? They're
tempting John here. They're trying to stir up strife,
aren't they? They were at odds. They wanted
him to take sides. They knew that if they could
get John to take sides with them, then they could win the argument,
because he was a man with the Spirit of God. He had the wisdom.
But he didn't take the bait. He didn't take the bait. In fact,
he says, John answered. in a rebuke and in instruction. Notice how wise John is with
the gospel. He says, a man can receive nothing
except it be given him from heaven. A man can receive nothing. That
includes all of us. Remember in John chapter 3, we
were noticing how the very text of scripture that Christ took
and applied and used in his own sermon to Nicodemus was where
the children of Israel were bitten in the wilderness because they
sinned against God, despising the manna that represented Christ,
the bread. They saw it and said, this isn't
even bread. This is not bread, or it's light
bread. And so they despised God, His
manna, and His law, and they were sinners, and that's why
they were bitten, and they were dying. And we noticed that because
Jesus took that text of Scripture, one of the things it was doing
was making Nicodemus take his place with the sinners. Have
we? Have we taken our place with
Nicodemus? Have we taken our place with those bitten? That's
what he's saying here. A man can receive nothing except
to be given him from heaven. God gives us what we have. But in particular, the Lord Jesus
Christ here was given these people who were coming to him. And John
said, heaven has given him this. These people come to him because
God has given him this people. Verse 28. You yourselves bear
me witness that I said I'm not the Christ, but that I'm sent
before him. He was quick to disown any self-promotion. He did not exalt himself. John
was a very humble man because he had the Spirit of God. That's
what God does for us. He makes us humble. I'm nothing
at all. I'm a sinner and nothing at all.
Jesus Christ is my all in all. And then he says here in verse
29, he that hath the bride is the bridegroom. I'm not the bridegroom. I'm not the Christ. I'm the friend
of the bridegroom. He says, but the friend of the
bridegroom which standeth and heareth him rejoices greatly
because of the bridegroom's voice. This my joy therefore is fulfilled. John directed people to Christ.
And when they went to him, he was as happy as he could be,
because this was God's doing. His ministry was to point men
to Christ, and when he saw that God blessed that word, then he
was satisfied. The people are going to him,
they're believing on him. If everyone left to go to Jesus,
to the Lord Jesus Christ, and the preacher was left standing
alone, that preacher, if he was sent of God, could be no happier. And that's what he's saying here.
He says in verse 30, he must increase, I must decrease. John is about to be put in prison.
His life would be taken. It didn't matter. Christ was
exalted. The purpose of God in all of
time and eternity is to lift up the Lord Jesus Christ and
lift him up to the view of his people. Do we see that? The redemptive
work of Christ Offering himself for our sins is the message of
all of scripture, the message given to his people. That is
the true gospel of God's grace. In verse 31, John is continuing. He that cometh from above is
above all. He that is of the earth is earthly. and speaketh of the earth, he
that cometh from heaven is above all." That makes it clear, doesn't
it? The Lord Jesus Christ came from
heaven. I am from earth, John could say. I'm from earth. I talk about
earthly things. He comes from heaven. He's above
all. He so removes himself from any
consideration. You're arguing with the wrong
person here. You go to him. That's the issue. You want to talk about purifying?
You better go to him. Then verse 32, he says, And what
he has seen, the one who is above all, the one who is from heaven,
the one God has given this people, He says, what he has seen and
heard, that he testifieth, and no man receives his testimony. Now this is where I began talking
to Denise before the sermon today. The Gospel of John and the Epistles
of John were written by the Apostle John. And the Apostle John writes
in a way that's very recognizable, doesn't he? One of the things
that he does is he'll say things and you go, what did he just
say? And here he says, what he has
seen and heard, that he testifieth and no man receives his testimony.
Okay, so no one received his testimony, right? The next verse
says, he that has received his testimony. Wait a minute, which
is it? No one received his testimony?
Some received his testimony? I'm confused. John, would you
make it clear? Look back at John chapter one.
Same thing is done there. He says in verse, Ten, he, Christ, was in the world,
the world was made by him, the world knew him not. He came to
his own, his own received him not. All right, so no one knew
him and no one received him, but as many as received him,
where did they come from? To them gave he power to become
the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. Okay,
so some received him, those who believed on his name were those
that received him, ah, Where did they come from? They were
born of God. See the next verse? No one believes
Christ unless they're born of God. So everyone, by nature,
do not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. So what he's doing here
in John 3 is what he did in John 1. He's saying everybody, naturally,
like Nicodemus, like the children of Israel bitten in the wilderness,
are in unbelief. Only until we're born of God
can we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And so that the operation
of the Spirit of God in us to birth us as God's sons is also
the same operation that gives us faith in Christ. Only the
sons of God believe Christ. Do you understand that? Only
the sons of God, born of God, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. If you believe Christ, you are
the child of God. So he says here, he that hath
received his testimony hath, notice these words, set to his
seal that God is true. He set to his seal that God is
true. Now, What does it mean to set
to his seal that God is true? Well, we have this opinion about
things, and when we're convinced of something, then we're all
on board for it. I'm convinced, you know, some
people are convinced that the world was evolved, so they're
They're convinced the world came about by evolution. God says
he created the world. So what do they think of what
God said? Very little. They're in opposition
to God. They're in opposition to the
God of truth, aren't they? Look at 1 John, the book of 1
John, epistle of 1 John, in chapter five. This helps me understand
this verse here. He that has received his testimony
has set to his seal that God is true. One of the things that's
confusing about that text of scripture is, so what? So what
that you set to your seal that God is true? God was true before
you ever considered it to be true, wasn't he? What commendation
do you give God by saying God is true? For you to say the opposite,
that would be an issue. But to simply acknowledge that
God is true, you're not making God any better, are you? You
can't do that anyway. But look at 1 John 5 and verse
10. He that believeth on the Son
of God, that's God. The Son of God is God. He that
believeth on the Son of God who trusts Him who gave Himself for
the sins of His people, that one believing on Him who is God
and gave Himself for our sins to save us from our sins, hath
the witness in Himself." He has God's witness in Himself. The
Spirit of God. The Gospel. He has what God thinks. He has the mind of Christ. You see? He thinks the way God
thinks about things. Because the witness of God is
in him, he believes on the Son of God. He goes on. He that believeth not God hath
made him a liar. If you don't believe on the Son
of God, what are you saying? God's a liar. Because he believeth not the
record that God gave of his Son. Go back to John chapter three
and verse 33. And he says, he that hath received
his testimony, that's the witness of God concerning his son. What
Christ has said of himself, he that hath received his testimony
has said to his seal, the man who believes, his seal, that
God is true. The one who hasn't received God's
testimony says, what about God? He's a liar. The one who does
says what? God is true. You see the difference? One of the ways that helps me
understand this is the word amen. Do you know what the word means?
When you say amen, what are you saying? That's true. That's truth,
truth. In other words, amen, truth.
And in other places it says, verily, verily, Jesus is saying
amen, amen, you see? But when we say amen, what are
we doing? We're acknowledging the fact
that whatever God just said, I understand it. I finally understand it. And
understanding what God meant here. the record that God has
given of His Son, how that by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
not my work, by His goodness, not my goodness, without considering
anything from me, God has saved me in spite of myself, in spite
of my sins. True, truth, that's the way that
God has done it. Amen, you see? It reminds me
of Psalm 130. Look at Psalm 130. And we will close with this,
Psalm 130. He says in verse three, if thou,
Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, keep a record of them in order
to pay us back, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness
with thee that thou mayest be feared. You see that? Who fears
the Lord? The one who's forgiven. Who loves
the Lord? The one who's been forgiven.
Who loves the Lord? The one who is convinced that
what, in believing on the Son of God, that he has been forgiven
and God has loved him in him. You see that? And what do we
say? What is the resonant thing in
our heart when we realize that God has thus been this way towards
us. God is good. God is true. And we're so convinced of it
that when anyone attacks our salvation in Christ, we're offended. that they would attack the very
truth of God, God who is true. I have put all of my trust in
the God of truth. Jesus said, I am the way, the
truth and the life. And by him, grace and truth have
come. God is true. That's what we say
when we hear the gospel. We've received God's own word
on this. And how does this result? Not
only do we have this resonant amen, this resonant truth, Lord,
that occurs when we hear the gospel, because we're convinced
of it, we're persuaded of it, and we rest in Christ the truth. But we realize that in Scripture,
God, when he saves us, he seals us, he says, with his own Holy
Spirit. He puts his stamp of authenticity,
this one is genuinely born of God. The work of God is in him
and the work of Christ is for them. Why? Because they have
received the testimony God has given of his son. They've received
the very witness of Christ himself. concerning the Son of God and
our salvation in Him. And they have trusted in Him.
They've received it. And what is the result? God has
sealed them with His Spirit. They are marked as His sons.
And they, in their own spirit, look to Christ. Yes. Amen. Truth. God is true. And because they've received
God's testimony, the witness of God is in them. They don't
say God is a liar, but they say by believing Christ, God is true. Don't you? What a blessed thing
it is. God is true. Let's pray. Lord,
thank you that you are true. There is no shadow of turning
with you. You cannot lie. Everything you've
said about the Lord Jesus Christ is true. And he himself is that
truth. Amazing grace. We trust the truth. We trust the one who is our way
to the Father. The one who is life itself. How
can we fall trusting Him? You have said in your own word,
which cannot fail, that the one believing on the Son of God has
everlasting life. Truth, Lord, true, it is true,
and we're so happy. Thank you for this grace, for
being so faithful to your own name and your own word. In Jesus'
name we pray, amen.