Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program. I'm glad
you could join us today. And if you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'm going to be preaching from 1 John 5. I'm
going to begin with verse 6. And the title of the message
is The Witness of God. The Witness of God. And when
I speak of that witness, I'm talking about the Godhead, the
Trinity, the witness of the Father, the witness of the Son, and the
witness of the Holy Spirit. And then we're gonna talk about
another witness here too. Here, John speaks of the witness
that is in heaven. He speaks of the witness in earth. Now, a lot of Bible scholars
will take these verses here and they will disregard them. because
they say that they weren't found in the original manuscripts but
added. I've studied a bit of that and
I'm not convinced that what they're saying is true, but here's the
thing about it. What we need to be concerned
with is not whether they were in one particular manuscript
or not in this manuscript. What we need to be concerned
with here is what is stated here, is it true? Is it biblical truth? And is it consistent with the
rest of the Word of God? Because all truth concerning
God, concerning man, and concerning the way of salvation, that God
is connected with man in reconciliation, all truth is of God and the Word
of God. It's not of man. And I can assure
you that whatever you think about the manuscripts, These words
that are spoken here, or written here rather, are the word of
God. They're truth, gospel truth.
He'd been speaking about this truth, about being born again,
and those who come to faith in Christ, believing the gospel.
The gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that
believeth. to the Jew first and the Greek
also, and he says, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed
from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live
by faith. And that's the whole issue, see. The good news of
how God saves sinners by his grace, not by their works, and
grace means salvation conditioned on Christ. not conditioned on
you, not conditioned on me. Salvation is not conditioned
on our believing. Our believing is the fruit, the
result of the work of the Spirit who proceeds forth from Christ
to give life out of His life, His death, His burial, His resurrection,
His ascension unto the Father. And he gives eternal life to
as many as God the Father had given him before the world began,
he says. And so, salvation's by grace. And grace reigns, Romans 5.21
says, grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. In Christ, The sins of his people
for whom he died were put away, washed away. What can wash away
my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Their sins cannot be charged to them. Now that's God's elect. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. And
it's because Christ died and was risen again. So, their sins
are put away and righteousness by which God justifies His people
is established at the cross by the Lord Jesus Christ and that
righteousness is evidenced. You see, sin demanded His death,
our sins imputed to Him, charged to Him. Well, the righteousness
that He brought forth by His death in satisfying the justice
of God brings forth that life. that is given to Christ in his
resurrection, and that he earned, and that life that is given by
God's grace to his people in the new birth, in which they
live forever. And so he'd been talking about
that, talking about how this is the victory, we overcome the
world. And he says in verse five, who
is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus
is the Son of God. And I dealt with that last week.
But verse six is where I wanna start here on this issue of the
witness of God. And he says, this is he that
came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ, not by water only,
but by water and blood. And it is the spirit that beareth
witness because the spirit is truth. And then in verse seven,
he says, for there are three that bear record or bear witness
in heaven. The Father, that's God the Father. The Word, that's Christ, God
the Son. Remember in John chapter one,
it speaks of Christ as the Word of God. He is the living Word
of God. In beginning was the Word and
the Word was with God and the Word was God. John 1.14, the
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. John 1.14, that's the
incarnation of Christ. Christ is the Word. That's God
the Son. And it says, there are three
that bear record in Him, the Father, the Word, and the Holy
Ghost. That's God the Holy Spirit. And these three are one. They're
one. So it speaks of the Trinity,
one God in three persons. And I've dealt with that a lot
in preaching, how the Trinity is an awesome subject. We can't
explain it in theological terms, in human terms. We cannot even
illustrate it. And I know preachers think they
can have illustrations to teach the Trinity, but there's no earthly
illustration that can explain the Trinity. It always falls
short. But we know it by the revelation
of God. This is how God reveals himself. Christ said in John chapter 17,
I believe it's verse three, he said, this is life eternal, that
they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom
thou hast sent. So the only way you're gonna
know the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is through Christ,
the living Word. Christ is the living Word. He's
the incarnate Word made flesh and dwelt among us. He's the
subject, object of the preached and the written Word. So this
is the three that bear record in heaven. Now, before I go into
that, look back up in verse six. It says, this is he that came
by water and blood. Now, biblical scholars disagree
on what the water and the blood means. Some say that the water
there refers to his actual human birth. You know, when a baby
is born, they call that a water birth sometimes. And then the
blood, they would say, meant his death on the cross. Well,
the blood certainly does mean his death on the cross. He shed
his blood by one offering. Hebrews 10, 14 says, by one offering,
that's the offering of himself as the surety, the substitute,
the redeemer of his people. By one offering, he hath perfected
them that are sanctified forever. The water there, some say that's
his birth. Others say that's his baptism. that the first public, when Christ,
you know, he grew up as other children grew up, except he was
sinless. We don't know a whole lot about
his life as a youth, other than there's a few things that are
said about him, such when he disputed or when he spoke to
the elders in the temple, and his mother and father wondered
where he was, and he told them, I must be about my father's business.
What we know about the life of Christ on earth really began
at his baptism. And if you'll look over in Matthew
chapter three, You remember that John the Baptist, it's in Matthew
3, verse 13. John the Baptist had been baptizing
the baptism of repentance, which means a baptism which was a confession
of sin. Now, water baptism does not wash
away the sins of God's people. The blood of Christ alone washes
away their sins. You understand that? And in the
baptismal waters, the blood of Christ is not applied in the
baptismal waters. The blood of Christ is applied
by God in the reality of imputation. when God imputed our sins to
Christ and imputes Christ's righteousness to us. And the blood of Christ
is applied spiritually in our minds when we're born again and
brought to faith in Christ. And that's before water baptism.
Water baptism is a confession of our union with Christ. That's
why when we're baptized, we go down into the water. When he
died, we died. When he was buried, we were buried.
He's our representative, our surety, our substitute, our redeemer. And we come up out of the water.
When he arose again, we arose again. And we confess our union
with Christ, our faith in Christ. So baptism does not save. There's
no saving power, no forgiving power in the waters of baptism. It's a confession that Christ
is our salvation, that his blood washed away our sins, that his
righteousness justifies us before God. And we believe in that.
But John was baptizing the baptism of repentance, which is a confession
of sin. And it says in verse 13 of Matthew
chapter three, it says, then cometh Jesus from Galilee to
Jordan unto John to be baptized of him. Now a lot of people wonder,
why did Christ need to be baptized? He wasn't saved from his sins. Well, hold on to that thought.
In verse 14 it says, But John forbade him, saying, I have need
to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? John didn't feel
worthy to baptize him. The baptism that John says when
he says, I have need to be baptized of thee, he's talking about regeneration
and conversion. He's talking about the work of
the spirit. What he spoke of the baptism
of the spirit, which is the new birth. But look at verse 15,
this is Christ's answer to John. And Jesus answering said unto
him, suffer it or allow it to be so now. Baptize me John for
thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness Then he suffered
it now. Why was Christ baptized? He was
baptized as an emblem a symbol a confession of what he had come
into the world to do and And this is the testimony of the
Father, the Son, and the Spirit. That's why I believe he said,
for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. John the Baptist
had no part in fulfilling righteousness. No sinner saved by grace who
has been brought to faith has any part in fulfilling all righteousness. The fulfillment of all righteousness
is the righteousness of God. that was fulfilled by the work
of Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. And hold on
to that thought too. But what I'm saying is this.
The work of salvation is a work of all three persons of the Godhead,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father is the source and
originator of salvation. The Son is the ground of salvation,
the bringer of salvation, and the Spirit is the applier of
salvation. And so when he says, for thus
it becometh us to fulfill our righteousness, Christ was showing
in baptism. His own death, burial, and resurrection
to fulfill all righteousness for His people. To put away the
sins of His people, His sheep. The Good Shepherd gives His life
for the sheep. And to work righteousness in
His obedience unto death by which God would justify them. So look
at verse 16 of Matthew 3. He says, and Jesus, when he was
baptized, went up straightway out of the water, and lo, the
heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God
descending like a dove and lighting upon him. Now there's the testimony
of the Spirit. And it says, and lo, verse 17,
a voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved son in whom I am
well pleased. That's the witness of the father.
So right there, you have the witness of the father, the son,
and the Holy Spirit. Well, back over here in 1 John
5, chapter six, that could very well be what is meant here. This is he that came by water
and blood when he was baptized. But let me give you another perception
of this. One of the things that is so
important that we understand about the life, the death, the
burial, the resurrection of Christ is that it was the fulfillment
of all the Old Testament types, the fulfillment of the law, the
scripture says. Christ is the end of the law,
the finishing of the law for righteousness to them that believe.
So it was all that, very much so. And in that law, there was
washings of water, all kinds of washings, all kinds of baptisms
in that sense. Baptism meaning the cleansing.
See, water baptism for us doesn't cleanse us from sin, but it symbolizes
that cleansing that came by the blood of Christ. And so the water
here, when we talk about this is he that came by water and
blood, could refer to the cleansing of sin, the washing of the water,
and the blood itself, actually being the same thing, essentially.
And I always think about this. When Christ was hanging on that
cross and they pierced his side with the spear, what came out? Water and blood. And so it may
represent the cleansing of sin that comes by the water and the
blood. We could talk about the water
of the word, cleansed by the washing of the water of the word,
the water of the spirit. Sanctification, being set apart
by God and forgiven of all sins by the blood of Jesus Christ.
So this is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ,
not by water only, verse six, but by water and blood. And it
is the Spirit that beareth witness because the Spirit is truth.
Well, we saw at his baptism how the Holy Spirit descended on
him in the form of a dove. And the Spirit gives witness
to him. And it's the Spirit's work to guide sinners, God's
elect, into the truth. You can go, so many scriptures
that we could cite here that tell us so much about the Spirit's
work. And incidentally, there's so
many people today who are so confused about the work of the
Spirit. Well, let me tell you this much
about the work of the Spirit. Never gauge the work of the Spirit
unless the truth has been preached. My point is this, you cannot
gauge the work of the Spirit by your feelings, by your songs,
by entertainment. You know, a lot of people, they'll
go into church organizations or religious meetings, and everybody
is happy and joyous and singing and jumping up and down. they'll
walk in and say, boy we really felt the Spirit there. Well let
me tell you something, the only way you can know the Spirit is
there is if what is preached from the pulpit is the gospel
truth of salvation conditioned on Christ by His blood and righteousness
alone which guarantees the salvation of all whom the Father gave Him
before the foundation of the world. If that gospel is not
preached, the spirit is not there. It's a spirit of error. It's
a spirit of deception. It's a spirit of evil. And let
me tell you something about Satan. He loves to deceive people with
happy feelings and joy and all of that. Now, don't get me wrong.
I get happy and I have joy and peace in believing the truth. But the truth must be there.
Look at 2 Thessalonians 2 in verse 13. Here the apostle is
talking about the last days when so many people will be deceived
because they receive not the love of the truth. But he says
in verse 13, he says, but we are bound to give thanks always
to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord. those who are brethren,
those whom God loves, because God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation. That's election. And he said,
through sanctification of the spirit, that's being set apart
by the spirit, and belief of the truth. And what truth is
he talking about? Well, in verse 14, he tells us,
whereunto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the
glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's the gospel truth. Romans
1, 16 and 17, which I quote all the time. Paul said, I'm not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God unto
salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, the Greek also,
for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith, that is, from knowledge revealed to knowledge received,
believed, as it is written, the just, the justified shall live
by faith. And that gospel concerns the
glorious person of Christ, who he is, God manifest in the flesh,
and it concerns the full finished work of Christ to save His people
from their sins. So it is the Spirit that beareth
witness because the Spirit is truth. And look at verse seven
of 1 John 5, for there are three that bear record in heaven. The
Father, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. In
another place He says, hear ye Him. Father bore witness of Christ. And we see throughout his life
the Father bore witness of Him. And then it says the Word, the
actual, the Word of God, which is God the Son, He bore witness
of Himself, but His testimony was not just Him alone. And he
told the people that. He said, I'm not just coming
on my own saying here, I'm the father, I'm sin of the father.
And the spirit bears witness, the Holy Ghost. And these three
are one, one God in three persons. Well, the witness of God goes
further. Look at verse eight. He says,
not only are there three witnesses in heaven, there are three that
bear witness in earth. The Spirit, the Holy Spirit.
Now what's he talking about? And then he says, and the water,
and the blood, and these three agree in one. Well, again, scholars
will disagree on the specifics of all these, and some disagreements
are not vital. In other words, Even believers
can disagree over particular passages and not be considered
heretics. Let me just say this. Whatever
interpretation you place on these words, it's okay unless it confuses,
ignores, or denies the gospel truth. Any interpretation you
have of any verse of the Bible that confuses, denies, or ignores
the gospel truth is a wrong, heretical interpretation. But listen to this. He says,
there are three that bear record in earth, the Spirit. Well, the
Holy Spirit bears record of Christ. The work of the Spirit is to
point sinners to Christ for salvation. He doesn't speak of Himself.
He doesn't point to Himself. He is God, the Holy Spirit, whose
office in salvation is to take sinners, bring them under the
preaching of the gospel. And if they're God's elect, He
gives them life. He gives them a new birth. You
must be born from above, born of the Spirit, under the Word
of God. He's the Spirit of truth. He
brings sinners under the truth. The Holy Spirit does not operate
under the preaching of a lie or a false gospel. He points
sinners to Christ. He points sinners to Christ's
righteousness. as the only ground of salvation.
Romans 8, 10, Paul writes this, he writes, the body is dead because
of sin. Now he's speaking of our physical
bodies. These physical bodies are dying and essentially dead
because of sin. That's why we have to have a
new body to enter glory, an incorruptible body, a spiritual body. But the
body is dead because of sin, Paul wrote in Romans 8, 10. But
the spirit is life, and that's the Holy Spirit there. The spirit
is life because of righteousness. So if you're led, now listen
to this. And I talked about this in the
last couple weeks concerning the spirit of the world. If you
are led to think or believe that salvation is by your works or
conditioned on yourself or your will or your ways or your works,
you're not being led by the Holy Spirit. You understand that? You're being led by an evil spirit.
But if you're led to understand that you have no hope of salvation
in yourself by your works or by your will, and you're led
to Jesus Christ as he's identified and distinguished in the book
of God for salvation, that's the leadership of the Holy Spirit.
That's the spirit giving witness. Over in 1 Corinthians chapter
two, it speaks of this in verse 12. It says, now we have received
not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God,
that we might know the things that are freely given to us. And what things are freely, as
a sinner saved by grace, what are the things that are freely
given to me? All salvation through Christ. And that's the Spirit's witness.
And then the water, I believe it's referring to the Word, the
Word of God. And then the blood is referring
to the death of Christ. And he says, these three agree
in one. They agree. They're not at odds. The work of the Spirit is not
against or at odds with the work of the Father or the work of
the Son. They are totally in unison. That's the witness of
God. I hope you'll join us next week for another message from
God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
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at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia, 31707. Contact us by
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our website at www.theletterofgrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.