Now if you would, let's open
our Bibles to 1 John chapter 5. I'm continuing through this
chapter as we close out this book concerning the subject of
the witness of God. The witness of God. You may have
noticed as Brother Joe read through John chapter 1, and we'll refer
back there in just a moment, that it had a lot to say about
witness. a credible witness. It spoke
of the witness of the Word. The Word there in the beginning
was, or in beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. And that's speaking of the witness
of Christ Himself, God the Son. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. And He bore witness of Himself.
He bore witness in many ways at His birth, His incarnation
and His birth. He bore witness in His very life.
on this earth, in the miracles that he performed, in the message
that he preached, that he wasn't the only witness. You know, the
Scripture talks about in the mouth of two or three witnesses.
And a witness, now, some people have the impression that a witness
is just somebody you can get to agree with you. That's not
what a witness is. A witness is somebody who's credible.
A witness is someone who's actually seen the truth. He's witnessed
the truth. Like a witness at a trial, he
can testify of what's true and what's not true because he was
there and he saw it. That's what a witness is in the
Scripture. And the Son of God, the Word, the living Word, is
the second person of the Trinity we'll see here in 1 John 5. He's
the witness of eternity, the witness from eternity. And then
it spoke of John the Baptist. John the Baptist was a witness.
He represents the witness of the Old Testament because he's
the last of the Old Testament prophets. John the Baptist himself
was prophesied of in the prophets as the forerunner of Christ,
the one who would come preparing the way, preaching the message
of grace, the message of faith and repentance. One of the ways
that we know that John was a credible witness is by his message. He
told them, he said, I am not the Messiah, I am not the light.
He said, there is one coming after me who is preferred before
me because he was before me. And then when Christ came on
the scene, when Jesus of Nazareth appeared on the scene, John said,
behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world,
bearing the sins of his people away. And then John spoke in
his message. He said, I'm not worthy to even
tie shoelaces. He said, he must increase. Christ
must increase. I must decrease. That's a credible
witness because any credible witness under God is one who
points sinners to Christ. He doesn't point sinners to himself.
He's not trying to make a name for himself. He's not wanting
people to follow Him. He's wanting people to follow
Christ. When His disciples approached Him and complained about people
following Jesus of Nazareth, that's what He told them. He
said, well, that's the way it ought to be. That's the issue. What's wrong with that? That's
their only hope. And then, here in 1 John 5, it speaks of the
witness of God. Look over here in 1 John 5. Look
at verse 6. He says, This is he that came
by water and blood, even Jesus Christ. And he says, not by water
only, but by water and blood, and it is the Spirit that beareth
witness, because the Spirit is truth. I talked about that last
week. I believe in the context that the water and the blood
refers first, the water referring to the baptism of Christ. When
he appeared on the scene, he came to John and he asked John
to baptize him. That marked the beginning of
his public ministry. He said, suffer it to be so,
allow it to be so, for I have come to fulfill all righteousness. And he did so. He kept the law
perfectly. He did everything that his father
commissioned and commanded him to do. He said, I always do the
will of my father. What a witness that is. He himself
was and is a perfect person. Now, we can't imagine what that's
like, but we just know it through the life of Christ. He never
broke the law. He said, I didn't come to destroy
the law. He said, I come to keep the law,
every jot and piddle. And he kept it in several ways.
First of all, he kept it because he was perfect. He never broke
the law. He never transgressed. He never sinned. Our Lord was
never a sinner at any point. And then he kept the law because
he was the fulfillment of all the Old Testament types and pictures
and prophecies. So he fulfilled it. And that
was a witness. That was a witness on earth.
And so the Lord Jesus Christ himself was the witness, and
he marked that at the beginning of his ministry when he was baptized.
And we see the father's witness there. The father said, this
is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. And then we see
the Spirit's witness. John wrote here in verse 6, he
said, and it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the
Spirit is truth. You can believe what the Holy
Spirit says, the third person of the Trinity, because he is
truth. And what does he do? He points sinners to Christ.
Christ said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh
unto the Father but by me. The Bible says that God is a
God of truth. The Holy Spirit himself is called
the Spirit of truth. so they speak the truth. The
Holy Spirit continuously bears witness, the supreme witness,
to the world of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Someone may
ask, how do I know if what is revealed to me is of the Spirit?
Or how do I know if the conviction that I'm under is Holy Spirit
conviction? Or how do I know it is the filling
or the leadership of the Holy Spirit? And I can tell you in
plain, simple, uncomplicated terms how you can know for sure,
because I can tell you this from the Scripture. If whoever is
dealing with your mind and your heart and your conscience and
your inner person, if whoever is dealing with you in that way
is the Spirit of God, you will end up finding peace, hope, assurance,
salvation, righteousness, life in Jesus Christ and Him crucified
and nowhere else. That's how you know. If you end
up finding any of those things anywhere else, if you find them
within, if you find them in the waters of baptism or in church
membership or in any works that you do, it is not the Holy Spirit. That's not the Spirit of truth.
The Spirit of truth will lead a sinner to Christ. He'll show
us our sinfulness, but not to leave us in despair, not to leave
us hopeless, but to drive us to Christ and what He accomplished
at Calvary for the salvation of His people. So we know the
revelation of the Spirit. We know the presence of the Spirit.
We know the conviction of the Spirit because of where He leads
us. to find peace and hope and salvation
in Christ. We can talk about the baptism
of the Holy Spirit. A lot of people talk about that
today. What is the baptism of the Holy Spirit? It's the new
birth. Joe read about it in John chapter 1, talking about being
born. Those who Christ came unto his
own, his own received him not. That's man by nature. That's
man's will, depraved. But as to as many as received
him, to them, they were given the power, that word power there
means right and title, to become the sons of God, even of them
which are born, not of Not of blood, it's not by physical birth,
natural generation. And that was significant back
then, especially because there were so many in Israel who claimed
that because they were physical descendants of Abraham, that
means they were children of God. And John says that's not so. Our Lord said that's not so.
John the Baptist said that's not so. You cannot be physically
born into the kingdom of God. into salvation. Now, why is that?
Well, go over in John chapter 3 sometime and read it. We've
already done it. But when Christ was speaking in Nicodemus, he
said, you must be born from above, born of the Spirit. It's a spiritual
birth. And he says, not a physical birth. That which is born of
flesh only produces flesh. Kind produces kind. But that
which is born of the Spirit produces spirit. And so it's not a physical
birth, it's not of blood. And then he says it's not of
the will of man, or the will of the flesh, rather. In other
words, it's not because you will it so. Now many people teach
that, and they get offended when you don't teach it. But the Bible
says it. The new birth is not the result
of what you will. What you will, if you will come
to Christ, is the result of the new birth, according to Scripture.
begotten again by the word of truth. The new birth is no more
the product and result of your will than your physical birth
was. Nobody came to you when you were
physically born and said, do you want to be born today? Well,
no. You say that's silly. Well, let
me tell you something even sillier. And that is the same issue in
spiritual birth. It's born of God. And it's not
of the will of man. It's not of the will of other
men. I believe that's what that's teaching. But it's of the will
of God. It's of the will of God. Well,
somebody says, well, now how can I know that I've been born
again? How can I know that I've been
baptized in the Holy Spirit? Well, do you have the indwelling
of the Holy Spirit? What is the indwelling of the
Holy Spirit? It's a continual conviction of my sin and my worthlessness
and my impotence along with a continual conviction of Christ and His
power and His holiness and His charityship and all that He is
as my Redeemer and my Savior. And then do you have the filling
of the Holy Spirit? Well, that's the leading of the
Holy Spirit. How does the Holy Spirit lead? energizing and motivating
God's people by this Word here. It's not by dreams and visions
today. You say, you can have a dream
and forget it. You can have a dream that's opposed
to God's Word. He leads by the Word, and He
motivates by grace and gratitude and love. He constrains us to
fight sin, not in order to be saved, but because we already
are saved by God's grace. He motivates us and inspires
us to follow Christ, to follow his word, to be obedient servants
of God, not legally as if we owe a debt to God's law and justice,
but graciously because he has already paid the debt in full.
He leads us to follow Him, to seek to be conformed to the image
of Christ, not in order to become righteous, but because He's already
made us so by the grace of God in His death on the cross. You
see the difference? That's the filling of the Holy
Spirit. Well, look at verse 7. Now, what John does here, this
is sort of like a manual of assurance, this last part of John to the
end of the chapter. If you're interested in having
assurance of salvation, you claim to be a Christian, I claim to
be a Christian, and we want to know for sure. And I know there
are some people that say you can't know for sure, but the
Bible's different, and we have to go by the Word of God. But
this is sort of a manual on that subject. And so he gives us the
issue of the witness of God. Now, there are external witnesses
of God, and there is an internal witness. And he's continuing
on with the external witness, the heavenly witness. Look at
verse 7. He said, For there are three
that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy
Ghost, and these three are one. Now, if you are a student of
the scriptures and you read commentaries, you may have found that there's
an argument among biblical scholars over whether this verse should
even be in the Bible, because it's not found in some of the
earliest manuscripts. The issue, I think, that we need
to understand about this verse is not to prove that it was historically
in the earliest manuscripts or not, but is the truth of it within
the context of this passage, and that certainly is true. The
truth is stated here. There are three that bear record
in heaven. Basically, he just said that in verse 6. For example, at the baptism of
Christ, who bore witness? of His Messiahship, of His being
the Savior, the Redeemer, the Christ. Well, the Father bore
witness of Him. Look at verse 7, For there are
three that bear record in heaven, the Father. Did not the Father
say, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased? He
did. And that's not the only time He said that. You remember
on the Mount of Transfiguration, the Father gave witness of the
Son. He said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
And then also, at the crucifixion of Christ, the Father bore witness
of the Son. When Christ suffered unto death
for the sins of his people charged to his account, he gave up the
ghost." And you remember what happened? The veil was rent in
two. The veil in the temple, the temple of Herod, which was
really the temple of God in type, it was rent in two from top to
bottom. that veil that separated the
holy of holies from the rest of the holy place. And that was
God the Father signifying in power with a physical sign that
the work was finished, that righteousness was established, that redemption
was accomplished, that Christ had saved his people from their
sins. That's what we need, isn't it?
We need to be saved from our sins. We can't save ourselves.
If we left ourselves, sin will make an end of us. Sin equals
death, demands death, deserves death. Well, Christ conquered
sin on the cross by the shedding of His blood. He paid the debt,
the sin debt, in full for His people. We need salvation from
Satan, our enemy, the accuser of the brethren. That's Satan's
main weapon against people. He accuses. And the problem is,
is that in man without Christ, sinners without having been washed
in the blood of Christ, without the righteousness of Christ,
those accusations stick. And they're proven well. But
with God's people in Christ, Satan's accusations fall short. They will not reach to be accounted
to the people of God. Why? Because they were accounted
to Christ. He was made sin for us. Christ who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. So that when Satan
accuses a redeemed sinner, a child of God, that child of God can
turn Satan away easily by the blood of Christ. There is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ. Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God the elect? It's God that justifies.
Who can condemn us? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather,
is risen again and seated at the right hand of the Father,
ever living to make intercession for us. Satan has been defeated
in the case of every sinner who looks to and rests in the Lord
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We need a righteousness we cannot
produce. I don't care how good you try
to be today or tomorrow. You cannot even get close to
the righteousness that God's law requires. But you see, here's
the point. In Christ, I find all the righteousness
that I need to be accepted before the Father. So the Father testified
of that. It's finished. And He tore that
veil from top to bottom. He said, the work's done. I've
accepted it. And then there was another sign
that was given that was a testimony of the Father, I believe, and
that's when many of the saints who had died, who were in the
grave, the graves opened and they were resurrected, just like
Lazarus. When Christ said, Lazarus, come
forth, just like Lazarus, when he come forth, those people came
up. And they walked the earth, the
Scripture says in Matthew chapter 27. So that's the record from
heaven of the Father. And then it says there are three
that bear record in heaven, the Father and the Word. Now we've
just spoken of the Word. That's the Son of God. That's
the second person of the Trinity. And it was because it is a testimony
of His Sonship. The word Word is used here because
it's a testimony of His Sonship in our salvation. Now go over
to John chapter 1, that passage. portion of scripture that Brother
Joe read. And listen to what it says there,
in light of this record or witness from heaven. It starts off by
identifying the Word. In the beginning was the Word,
John 1.1. And it says the Word was with
God and the Word was God. Now, how can you be with somebody
and at the same time be that somebody? Well, obviously, he's
speaking of The Trinity. That's a difficult concept for
us to understand. In fact, it's really impossible
for us to understand. It's not something that we can
figure out. And really, it's not even something
we can illustrate. Now, hold that thought just a
moment, because I'm going to come right back to that. Let's
look at this. Now, he's talking about the Living Word. That's
the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God. He's called the
Word. He's the communication of everything
that God is to His people. If you want to know God, you've
got to look to the Word. You've got to look to Christ. He says in verse 2, the same
was in the beginning with God. He says, all things were made
by Him, the Creator. And without Him was not anything
made that was made. In Him was life. Now, that's
the life of God in Him. And the life was the light of
men, and the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended
it not." Now, that's the situation, the darkness meaning man by nature.
Then look down at verse 14. It says, "...and the word," now
the same word, "...was made flesh, and dwelt among us." Most of
you have already studied this, and you know that that word dwelt
there means tabernacled. He tabernacled. The tabernacle
of old was the presence of God, the witness of God among the
people. And everything in that tabernacle
of old, that's where the presence of God was, that's where God
met with his people through the high priest on the basis of blood,
in the holiest of all. Everything in that tabernacle
pictured and typified some aspect of the glorious person, the God-man,
and the offices, prophet, priest, and king, and the mediatorial
work, the cross work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he is the
fulfillment in every way of that tabernacle. Every piece of furniture,
every element that was used had some aspect. The wood of the
tabernacle pictured his humanity. The gold in the tabernacle pictured
his deity. He's God and man in one person.
The silver of the tabernacle pictured his redemptive work.
All of it. The brass pictured the wrath
of God coming down upon him at the altar. The blood, all of
that, you see. So he tabernacled a monk. That's
why we don't build a tabernacle today. That's why we don't need
that. You know, people build models
and stuff to teach, but that's okay. But we don't have an earthly
tabernacle. We have Christ, you see. And
then, incidentally, I have to say this because I saw this on
TV yesterday and I thought, what in the world? Well, you know,
people just don't know. I had a fellow there talking
about Christians and Jews together. And he was talking about Jewish
people in Israel who do not have enough money to buy the food
that they need to keep the Sabbath, to keep the Sabbath meal. There's
two meals. You have one that night and one
the next day. And so he was asking Christians to send $50 so that
we can let the Jews keep their Sabbath meal for a month. Well,
you say, well, what's the problem with that? I'll tell you what
the problem is. Christ is our Sabbath now. We don't keep a
Sabbath day now. Listen to me now. This may sound
harsh, but it's so. To keep a Sabbath day today is
to deny Christ our Sabbath. So I'm going to send 50 bucks
to help them deny my Sabbath? It doesn't make sense, you see.
It's just wrong, and people don't understand. Christ is the fulfillment
of the Sabbath. We rest in Him and His finished
work, you see. That's what that Sabbath day
throughout the 1,500-year period of the Old Covenant represented.
Every feast began with a Sabbath and ended with a Sabbath. In
other words, what was God teaching them in the Sabbath? He was teaching
them this, you cannot work your way into God's favor. You cannot
work your way unto salvation. You must rest in God, the Son
incarnate. You must rest in Christ. Christ
did all the work. He finished it. Saving faith
rests in Him, you see. And that's how He tabernacled
among us. And it said, look at verse 14, And the Word was made
flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory
as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And then it says in verse 15,
John, bear witness of him. John said, this is he of whom
I spoke. He comes after me. He's preferred before me. He
was before me. And look at verse 16. He says,
and of his fullness, all we received grace for grace, grace, grace,
grace, grace. It just keeps on going. Salvation
is not. to create your own fullness and
completeness. Salvation is to receive of his
fullness. And then he says in verse 17,
for the law was given by Moses, that includes the Sabbath, the
tabernacle, the old covenant law, but grace and truth came
by Jesus Christ. What a witness, the witness of
the word. I said it before, Christ in himself
is the living word of God. Christ is the incarnate Word
of God. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. The written Word of God is the
Word of Christ, and it's the Word about Christ, concerns Christ. He told them, he says, you do
search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal
life. They are they which testify of me. Anything in this Bible
that we understand correctly will lead us to Christ and Him
crucified, to find hope and peace and rest, salvation, righteousness,
forgiveness in Him alone. The written Word. And then the
preached Word, the uttered Word, what they call the Rehema, that's
the uttered Word. What is that? Paul said, we preach
Christ and Him crucified. And there it is. There's the
witness of the Word. Now go back to 1 John 5. He says now, he
says, and the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost, we've already spoken
of that, at his baptism the Holy Spirit descended in the form
of a dove and landed upon him, testifying of his. He was a witness. Throughout his earthly ministry,
the Holy Spirit filled him without measure, bearing him up in his
humanity under the trials and testings and sufferings and sorrows
that he would go for. For he was tested like as we
are. He was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, and yet
he was without sin totally. And then at his resurrection,
it was the Spirit who was instrumental in raising him from the dead.
He did not stay dead because he accomplished his work. Righteousness
was established. Righteousness demands life. The
Holy Spirit was instrumental in raising him from the dead.
And then the Holy Spirit testifies of him in each and every person
for whom Christ died in each successive generation as he brings
them to the new birth. And he shows them Christ. Now,
the last line there says these three are one. One God who subsists
in three distinct persons. We don't believe in three gods.
The Trinity doesn't preach or teach three gods. One God. These three are one. They're
one in deity, they're one in essence, they're one in unity,
they're one in purpose, and they're one in testimony. And if you
want to know God, If you want to know the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit, you must look to Christ and Him crucified.
For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye
are complete in Him. I cannot explain to you the Trinity,
and I can't really illustrate it. I've seen people try, but
they fail. There's no earthly illustration that adequately
portrays the Trinity. And don't let anybody tell you
different. I've heard people say, well, it's like you take
a water. You can have it in the form of
water, liquid. You can have it in the form of
gas when you heat it up. And you can have it in the form
of a solid when you freeze it. Well, that doesn't explain the
Trinity because that would be like saying we have one God in
three forms. And that's not true. We have
one God in three persons. I've heard people say it using
themselves, like, I am a husband to my wife, I'm the father to
my children, I'm a son to my father. Well, that's like saying
we have one God who exists in three different roles, and that's
not the way to put it. We just don't have an earthly
illustration for it. Forget it. I mean the illustrations. It's just so. God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And we see the glory
of the Godhead in Christ. Now look at verse 8. He says
in verse 8, continuing with the external witness, he says, and
there are three that bear witness in earth. Now he mentions the
spirit. The witness in earth is the spirit
and the water and the blood. And these three agree in one.
Now again, he's speaking of the Holy Spirit bearing witness in
the earth through the word of God and the blood of Christ that
not only some part of our salvation is found in Christ, but all of
it. All of it. And the heavenly witnesses
are one, and the earthly witnesses are in perfect union with everything
that Christ accomplished. God's righteousness, justice,
and purpose. The Spirit, the word, that's
Christ who came and walked this earth. and the blood, going back
to his crucifixion. All of these things are credible
witnesses to the deity, the humanity, the surety of Christ. You can
believe in Him. You can rest in Him. You can
find peace in Him, but nowhere else. Somebody says, well, I'm
not sure that I'm saved because I'm not sure that I've done enough.
I talked to my Sunday school class about this this morning.
They said, I'm not sure that I've ever done enough. Let me
tell you something I am sure of. You've never done enough.
Let me tell you something I'm sure of. I've never done enough. First of all, enough for what?
Enough to save yourself? No, you haven't done enough to
save yourself. No, I haven't done enough to
save myself. But the question that the gospel
answers is not, have you done enough? The answer that the gospel
answers is, has Christ done enough? Now, there's the issue. And let
me tell you something, He most certainly has. He's done enough. He did it all. He did it all. That's the testimony. That's
the witness of the Spirit and the Word and the blood. And it
all comes forth as we see the glory of Christ in Him crucified. He has done enough. He's able
to save to the uttermost them that come unto the Father by
Him. Paul said, I know whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded that
He is able. to keep that which I've committed
unto him against that day." You say, well, I know he's able,
but is he willing? Well, the Bible says in John
chapter 13 and verse 1 that he loved his own to the end. Literally, that means he loved
his sheep to the fulfilling of all that was required. He finished
the work that the Father gave him to do. He didn't stop short.
He wasn't even hindered. Even in his testing, he didn't
even trip and fall. He set His face like a flint
to go to the cross of Calvary and do away with the sins of
His people and establish for them all that God the Father
required. And He did it. And yes, He did
enough. No, I haven't done enough. No,
you haven't done enough. But He did enough. And you see,
our faith is in Him who did enough. He is the Lord my righteousness.
Look at verse 9. Now, he says, if we receive the
witness of men, the witness of God is greater. For this is the
witness of God, which he hath both testified of his Son. Now,
you know, really, the issue that should give us assurance is not
really what we say about Christ. For example, I could stand up
here and say to I'm blue in the face that he did enough. That
doesn't make it so. But what if God says it? What
if God says he did enough? Now, there's a greater witness.
There's one you can bank on. And that's what John's saying
here. We receive the witness of men. You know, if we get a
bunch of credible, honest men together, and they come to an
agreement on something, and they actually have seen something
that they're testifying of, we'll believe them, especially if we
have any respect or regard for them. Most of the time, that's
not a problem. Sometimes it is, you know. But
here's what we're concerned with as believers. What does God say? Now, go to Romans chapter 8.
I've quoted it so many times, but here's what God says in several ways. And we could
go to so many different scriptures here, but look at this. Verse
1. Here's what God says. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus." And then he adds, "...who walk
not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Now keep it all
in its context now. You say, well now, am I walking
after the flesh or am I walking after the Spirit? Well, where's
your hope? Where's your peace? Where's your
salvation? Who are you looking to, to do
enough? Huh? If you're saying, well,
I haven't done enough and I'm going to try to do enough and
see if I can have assurance of salvation. Do you know what that
is? That's walking after the flesh. That's not walking after
the Spirit. If you're walking after the Spirit,
you're looking unto Jesus, Jehovah who saves, the author and what? Finisher of your faith. You say, well, I'm just not sure
that I'll finish the race. He did. And that's what you better
be sure of. Christ finished it. He's the
author and the finisher of my faith. My faith is not in my
faith. My faith is not in my power to
finish the race. It's in His power to keep me
and to bring me to the end. Now, look over at verse 31. of Romans 8. What shall we then
say to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? Well, how do I know if God's for me? Well, look at
verse 32. He that spared not his own son, but delivered him
up for us all, how shall he not with him, that is, with his son,
also freely, that's unconditionally, give us all things? In other
words, if he's given his son for you, he'll give it all to
you, and he cannot hold it back from you. and that unconditionally."
Wow, what a verse. That puts things in its perspective,
doesn't it? He says in verse 33, "...who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect." It's God that justifies. What
does that mean? God pronounces His elect righteous
in Christ. That's what that means. God pronounces
His elect not guilty in Christ. Well, what did God do with my
sins? Well, He imputed them, charged them, accounted them
to Christ, and Christ bore them away. He put them away. And He gave me in return His
righteousness. Who is He that condemneth? I've done enough. No. Who is He that condemneth? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather,
that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. Now, who shall separate us
from the love of Christ? Go back to 1 John 5. Now, that's
the external witnesses. You see, God has not left himself
without a witness. We have sufficient witnesses
for a firm and strong faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But let
me conclude with this. Look at verse 10. Now, here's
the internal witness of God. He says in verse 10, He that
believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. And he
that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth
not the record that God gave of his Son. He that believeth,
believe what? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Believe on him as the eternal Lord. Believe on him as the one
who came in the flesh. He's both God and man in one
person. Believe on him who obeyed and
honored the law perfectly in my stead. Believe on Him who
paid my debt in full so that I owe nothing to the justice
of God now. Christ paid it all. Believe on
Him who brought in everlasting righteousness for my justification. Believe on Him who brought forth
life everlasting and who sends His Spirit to give life to each
and every one of His sheep in each successive generation to
bring them to a saving knowledge of Him. Now, that person who
believes has the witness of God in himself. And the witness of
God within himself is what? It's the truth of the gospel
of God's grace in Christ Jesus applied in the power of the Holy
Spirit in the new birth. John called it an unction, a
power which will keep us and stay within us. His witness in
us is to the faith he's given us, not just a religious creed,
But it's a conviction. It's our very life. It's a revelation
from God by His Word. And in this conviction, we know
the reality of our sin. Christ receiveth sinful men. That song is scriptural. It doesn't say Christ receives
those who have done enough. It doesn't say Christ receives
those who are qualified. He says Christ receiveth sinful
men. We know the reality of our need. What do I need for salvation? I'll tell you exactly what we
need for salvation. Everything. Everything that God
requires. We need it. We don't have any
of it. Where are we going to find it?
In Christ and Him crucified. He's our righteousness. And we
not only have the witness of God in the written word and in
history, but if we believe in Christ, that witness is confirmed
within our own hearts. One of the reasons I know I'm
saved, one of the reasons I know I'm a Christian, is that I know
in my heart, by the power of God the Holy Spirit, that I have
no other hope of salvation, no other hope of peace and eternal
life, but in Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's it. Now, he says here, he that believeth
not makes God a liar. Now, there's no neutral ground
here with God. You're either with Him or you're
against Him. The issue is the glory of God in Christ. Not to
believe God is to call Him a liar. Because God's Word, that is,
He says here, the record that God gave of His Son, has stated
that these things are true. You say, well, I don't believe
I'm that bad of a sinner. Well, you're making God a liar.
Because God says you are, and I am. You say, well, I don't
believe that I can't do anything to contribute to this thing.
Well, you're making God a liar because He says you can't contribute
anything. I've told that story about the
old preacher when the lady asked him, said, well, what did you
do to be saved? And he said, it's like this.
He said, I did all the sinning. Christ did all the saving. And
that's it. Don't make God a liar. He's not
a liar. But that's what he's saying.
And then look at verse 11. And this is the record that God
hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
This is the sum and substance of all that is declared and written
and preached. God has given to all who rest
in Christ eternal life. He that believeth is not condemned,
Christ said. And this life is the spiritual
life that we lost in the fall in Adam, as we fell in Adam.
It's the very life of God. It's the life of glory and fellowship
with God. It's the life of righteousness
and freedom from sin and sorrow and death forever. And where
is it? This life is in His Son, he says
in verse 11. That's where it's at. It's in
His Son, Jesus Christ. Not only the promise of it, not
only the purpose of it and the purchase of it, but life itself
is in Jesus Christ. He told Martha, I am the resurrection
and the life. Before we know Christ, we're
dead in trespasses and sin. Faith in Christ is the first
evidence of spiritual life. There is no life except in and
by Christ, who is our life. And then verse 12, he says, He
that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son
of God hath not life. The person who has Christ, that
is a saving knowledge of Him, a rest in Him, faith in Him,
love for Him, One in whom Christ dwells within their hearts, that
person has eternal life. You see, sin demands death. Righteousness
demands life. Christ has conquered sin, and
we have His righteousness. And all who believe in Him possess
spiritual eternal life now, right now, and have a right to the
inheritance. Now, the person who has no saving
knowledge of Christ and no faith in Him, nor enjoyment in Him,
is dead in sin. alienated from the life of God,
and shall die the second death, the scripture says. So believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Let's sing hymn number 204. Turn
your eyes upon Jesus as our closing hymn.