This passage that Brother Mark
just read, I believe, is so important for believers to understand in
the issue of faith and assurance and obedience in the Christian
life. It concerns, as Mark said and
as is printed in your bulletin, the subject of the witness of
God. When we speak of the witness
of God, we're talking about the credible and infallible witness
of God from heaven and in the earth that Jesus Christ is truly
the Son of God. And if he is truly the Son of
God, then we have no option but to believe that he is who he
said he is, that what he says is law, is word, it is the only
way, and that what he did, what he actually accomplished when
he died on the cross, is the assurance of salvation for all
his people. And also we could add this, that
we might be assured that he is where he is now. in heaven as
our mediator, our intercessor, pleading the merits of his blood,
the merits of his righteousness for our salvation. The Apostle
Paul wrote to young Timothy, the evangelist, who was Paul's
student, in 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 12. He said, I know
whom I have believed. Notice what he said, I know whom
I have believed. He didn't say I know what I have
believed. Now we do know what we believe. Don't get me, I'm
not putting that down. But there's a significance here
that I want you to see. He 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. Some commentators say that day
refers to the judgment, and I certainly believe that's included. But
I know whom I believe, and I'm persuaded that he's able to keep
that which I've committed. Now here's the question, what
have I, who is the whom there? Well, that's the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, the Lord our righteousness. Now what have
I committed unto him? I'll tell you what Paul committed
unto him. I'll tell you if you're a believer what you've committed
unto him, your whole salvation, your whole justification, your
whole sanctification, your whole preservation, your whole glorification
is committed to this one person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Is that
right? Now John here, the Apostle John,
by inspiration of the Spirit, he's still speaking of God-given
faith which overcomes the world. Look at verse 5. Who is he that
overcometh the world? We talked about that last week.
But he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God. We overcome
the world by believing in, resting in, and following the Lord Jesus
Christ for our whole salvation. Our hope is in Him. Our assurance is built upon Christ
crucified and risen from the dead, His blood to wash away
all my sins, the forgiveness of all my sins, past sins, present
sins, future sins, original sin, whatever aspect of sin you want
to talk about. My whole atonement, my whole
propitiation is Jesus Christ crucified. The forgiveness of
my sins by His blood. My whole right standing with
God. Do I have a right standing with
God? Well, if I do, it's all because of Christ's righteousness
imputed to me. Isn't that right? Nothing that
I've done, nothing I stopped doing, Not even my faith and
my repentance or my perseverance gives me a right standing with
God. It's Christ, crucified, risen from the dead. My whole
justification. My access to the Father by the
blood of Jesus Christ. My acceptance with the Father
by the blood of Jesus Christ. My whole preservation in salvation. That which keeps me. That's what
Paul said. He is able to keep. I'm not able to keep it. I'll
let it go if it's up to me in my moments as I struggle in the
warfare of the flesh and the spirit. In other words, I cannot
save myself. I cannot even keep myself. And I certainly cannot bring
myself to glory. But He can. Jesus, who is the
Son of God, can. And that's how we overcome the
world. The world's looking for other
things. The world's looking for themselves or in themselves.
What I do, what I don't do. What God enables me to do. That's
the world too. And that sets us apart from the
world because His glory is our goal. Christ's glory is our goal.
And His unconditional grace and love toward us is our motivation
for obedience and service. So then, if we're resting our
whole salvation, our immortal souls on the merits of the man
Christ Jesus, trusting that he is indeed the son of the living
God, the only savior of sinners, the Lord our righteousness, then
we've got to have undeniable, irrefutable proof that this is
all true. Would you agree with that? I
mean, think about it. If our religion is no more than,
I hope, I hope, I hope, they say, is in the realm of wishful
thinking, it's not Pascal's wager. Pascal was a Catholic monk, and
his wager went something like this. He said, I'm not sure there
is a God, but I'm gonna bet that there is, and I'll be okay if
I operate like that. No, if that's what it is, then
we cannot have the assurance that God gives. Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ
and the only one. He's the Son of God. And in Him
we have confidence that He has accomplished eternal redemption
for us, that His righteousness truly demands and secures our
justification and eternal life. Well, why? Why do we trust him? Why can't we just just as well
trust Allah or Buddha or Brahmanatman? Why can't we just get one of
these other gods? Why can't we trust the God of
the Jehovah's Witnesses, the God of the Methodists, the God
of the Pentecostal, the God of the Babylon? You say, well, they're
all the same God. Are they? Do we have anything to go on?
by which we can make a distinction there and know the truth of this
matter? Yes, we do. And John shows how that faith
which overcomes the world rests in Christ, his person, his saving
work, and then he gives us infallible, credible witness, the witness
of God himself as recorded in his word, the Bible. Think about
it this way. Christ said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. Now if what he said isn't true,
then he's an imposter. Peter stood up and said, there's
none other name given among men whereby we must be saved. You
mean there's none other name? That's what Peter said. Well,
if that's not true, Peter was telling a lie. Peter was fooled
himself. There's one God and one mediator between God and
men, the man Christ Jesus. Now, is that true? If it's not,
we're of all people, most miserable folks. Well, listen to what John
says. How do we know that Jesus is
the son of God? How do we know that his righteousness
imputed? eternally seals our justification
before a holy God. How do we know that His blood
truly works out to forgiveness of all our sins? How do we know
that God cannot and will not charge us with sin, but charges
us with righteousness? Well, verse six, listen to this. 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. Now what is he talking
about? Water and blood. Now listen,
once in a while you'll come across a scripture that in all practical purposes
we cannot pin it down to say that I am dogmatically sure that
this is what the Holy Spirit had in mind when he wrote this.
However, there can be more than one view within a gospel context. And that's one of these verses.
Now some gospel writers say one thing, some say another. But
here's what you have to be careful of when you come to passages
like this. Whatever view you take, number one, it cannot deny
the gospel of salvation by God's grace in Christ. If it does,
I can tell you right now, that's not what it means. If it denies
the person and work of Christ, if it denies how God justifies
the ungodly based on his righteousness imputed, if it denies or challenges
or confuses salvation by God's free and sovereign grace in Christ,
I can tell you right now, that's not what this means. And then
secondly, it cannot deny or contradict other passages of scripture,
because the Bible doesn't do that. But here's what I'm saying. Now some gospel commentators
say that the water here refers to the incarnation of Christ. Now why would they do that? Well,
water in the Bible is often an emblem for the Word. And Christ
himself is the embodiment of the Word of God. He is the Word,
isn't it? Isn't that what John 1 says? He is the Word of God. In beginning was the Word, and
the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Christ is often
referred to as the Word. He's the personification of the
Word. Everything you want to know about
God, everything that God communicates to His people is in Christ, the
Word. He's the Alpha and the Omega.
You know what Alpha and Omega are? That's the first letter
and the last letter of the Greek alphabet. In other words, He
says it all. as the word and in john one fourteen
it says the word was made flesh and dwelt among us so therefore
some gospel commentators say that the water there is referring
to the word which was made flesh his incarnation now it says in
verse seven there are three that bear record in heaven the father
the word and the holy ghost and these three are one and the word
there is christ the father the son and the holy spirit and it's
certainly true that at his birth At His incarnation and at His
birth, there was an ample witness from heaven that this was special. This is a miracle. This is the
promise of God being fulfilled. Look at all the things that revolved
around His birth. Think about it. Even the birth
of John the Baptist was a witness to the birth of the Messiah.
the Christ, the miracle birth of John the Baptist. Think about
the angel coming to Joseph and telling him not to put Mary away
because that holy thing that was conceived in her womb was
of the Spirit of God. His name shall be called Jesus.
That's what the angel said. His name shall be called God,
our salvation. And his name shall be called
Emmanuel, God with us. And think about the shepherds.
how the angel appeared to the shepherds and told them to go
to the manger, worship the Son of God. Think about later on,
it was almost two years afterward, how the wise men saw the star
and how they came to Herod and then they went to the Son of
God incarnate and told Mary and Joseph, you better leave, Herod's
after you. He wanted to kill every male child born in that
area, two years old and under. And then everything that revolved,
there was ample witness, wasn't there? From heaven. That this
is Messiah. The Son of God. God the Son incarnate. And then the blood refers to
His death. It always, in the Bible, the
blood refers to the atoning death of Christ. The blood of the Lamb.
The blood of the Lamb of God. We're brought to God by His blood,
that's His death. It's another way, we're justified
by His blood. That's another way of saying
His righteousness. So we have the witness from God
in His incarnation, but not just by water alone, not in His incarnation
alone, but also in His death on the cross. He died, He was
buried, and declared to be the Son of God, Paul wrote in Romans
1 for, by the resurrection from the dead. That's witness from
heaven. And then think about even after
his death, after his resurrection, he stood there before the disciples,
and the Messiah told him, he said, I'm going to ascend unto
the Father, but I'll be coming back. And he went unto the Father. Remember he said his righteousness
means he goes to the Father as the surety, the substitute, the
redeemer, the mediator, the intercessor of his people. And that interpretation
of this does absolutely no damage to the gospel, does it? But other
commentators talk about the water as at his baptism. The witness
at his baptism. Now turn over to Matthew chapter
3. The baptism of Jesus Christ. At his baptism, There was also
witness from heaven, wasn't there? Look at Matthew 3 and verse 13.
Here's John the Baptist preaching the gospel of Christ. Preaching
righteousness that would come by Christ, the Messiah. Telling
the Pharisees that they need works, meat for repentance. They
need to repent of their righteousness and turn to Christ for righteousness.
And then here the Messiah comes on the scene. Verse 13 of Matthew
3. Now listen to this. Then cometh
Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him.
But John forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptized of
thee, and comest thou to me. See, John recognized who he was.
He said, I'm not worthy to do that. And Jesus answering said
unto him, now listen to his words here. Suffer, or allow it to
be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. And then John baptized him. What
does he mean? Why was Jesus Christ baptized? He did it as a witness of not
only who he is, the Messiah, the Son of God, but as a witness
to the work that He would accomplish. That's what this baptism picture.
He wasn't baptized for the same reason we are. We baptize confessing
Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. He was baptized
witnessing that what He would do and to bring out righteousness,
to bring forth everlasting righteousness in satisfying the law and justice
of God in His death, burial and His resurrection. He was giving
us a picture, a witness, see? This is the witness of the Son.
Why did He come? He didn't come to make salvation
possible. If you'd let Him, He came to
die. A propitiation, a just a satisfying
death to ensure and secure the salvation of all for whom He
died. Now look at verse 16 of Matthew 3. And Jesus, when he
was baptized, he 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." There's the witness
from heaven by the Holy Spirit. And lo, a voice from heaven saying,
this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. There's the
witness of the Father from heaven. And there at his baptism, the
water. Well, somebody asked me, he said, well, which view do
you take? Both. I like both, because neither
one do any damage to the gospel. They're all right and consistent
with the gospel of God's grace in Christ. Water can speak of
his baptism, which there was a witness from heaven. The blood
speaks of his death on the cross. In other words, it wasn't only
at the beginning of this witness, but at the end, too, when he
died on that cross. And you remember the witnesses
came from heaven in his death on the cross, in his sayings,
the seven sayings of Christ, mainly in the one that says,
it's finished. He said, my God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? That was an actual legal separation
between the father and the son because sin had been imputed
to him. And he was about to die. And then he said, it's finished.
Righteousness was established. The purpose of God was fulfilled
in the glory of God and the salvation of sinners by Christ. Everything
that God had purposed and planned from the beginning rested on
what Christ would accomplish there on Calvary's cross by the
shedding of His blood. The justification of His people.
Think about it. Think about all the Old Testament
believers. Saints of God. That means sanctified,
set apart, brought to faith in Christ. They were justified based
upon the very righteousness that Christ established on the cross.
And here's the witness. It's finished. And he said, Father,
into thy hands I commend my spirit. And you remember what happened?
The graves opened, many of those who had died were resurrected
just like Lazarus. The veil was ran into from top
to bottom, a work of God. You see, you have the witness
of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit right there in His blood.
And look back at verse six of 1 John 5 again. He says, and
it is the Spirit that beareth witness because the Spirit is
true. Listen, if you get any message
from the Holy Spirit, this is it. And it brings you to say with
the Apostle Paul, I know whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded
that he's able to keep that which I've committed. It's the witness
of the Spirit in the Gospel, whereby he convinces sinners,
God's people all over this world, of sin because they believe not
on Christ. My friend, if you go through
this life without believing in and trusting the Lord Jesus Christ
and the power of the Spirit, When you meet God face to face,
what a terrible, horrible, tragic day it'll be. Because you'll
have sin charged to you, your sins. And sin demands death,
condemnation, eternal separation from God. But those who stand
before God in Christ, their sins are not charged to them. His
righteousness is imputed to them. That's their account. Somebody
said, well, we're all going to give an account. Well, here's my account.
That I may know him and be found in him, not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ. He's the Lord, my righteousness. He's my account. He settled my
accounts with his blood. And that's what the Holy Spirit
witnesses to in the new birth when he brings a sinner to faith
in Christ. And then look at verse seven. of 1 John 5. And the Holy Spirit convinces
us of righteousness because Christ went to the Father, and of judgment
because the Prince of this world, the accused of the brethren,
is cast out. We have a righteousness that answers the demands of God's
law and justice. But look at verse 7. For there
are three that bear record in heaven, that's the Father, the
Son, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. And these three are one. There's
no contention. between the triune Godhead. They're
one. One God in three persons. Some argue that in the original
manuscripts, the words in heaven aren't there. Okay, that's fine. But that's a witness from heaven.
God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They're not born of the earth,
but look at verse 8. It says, and there are three that bear
witness in earth. Now listen to how it puts this.
The Spirit, that's the Holy Spirit, and the water. Now that water,
like I said, it either means the Incarnation or it means the
Baptism of Christ, both signifying the same truth, why He came into
the world to accomplish redemption, establish righteousness, and
the blood, His death. And these three agree in one.
What is He talking about? He's talking about the witness
of the Holy Spirit under the preaching of the Gospel. wherein
he makes it the power of God unto salvation to everyone that
believeth, the Jew first and the Greek also, for therein is
the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. As it is
written, the justified shall live by faith. There's no, in the Bible, there
is absolutely no doubt as to how we who believe in Christ
can know the power, the witness, and the work of the Holy Spirit.
And it's not by speaking in tongues, it's not by doing miracles, it's
by hearing the Word of God in Christ. Believing in Christ,
repenting of our dead works, submitting to His righteousness,
that's what the Spirit in this earth bears witness to, to God's
people, according to the Word. That's how we know the presence,
the power, the working, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Are you looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith? Are you resting
in Christ for all salvation? For all righteousness? For all
glory? That's how we know. There's the
witness. Well, look at verse 9. Now if
we receive the witness of men, there are men who are trustworthy
and honest that we receive witness of. If you get accused of a crime
and you have to go to court, you look for credible witnesses
to either to exonerate you, to declare your innocence. So if
we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater. If we can have trustworthy, honest
men who will believe, what does that say about God? It's greater. And for this is the witness of
God, which he hath testified of his Son. This is what God
says about Christ. It's like I said this morning.
I know what men say, but what does God say? Well, how do I
know what God says? Well, here's what God says. Look
at verse 10. He that believeth on the Son hath the witness in
himself. If you truly believe, if you have faith in Christ,
that witness has been indelibly implanted on your heart, your
mind, your affections, your will, your conscience by the Holy Spirit.
And let me tell you something, you can't get away from it. He's given you a new heart. He's
given you eyes to see things that you didn't see before. We're
born dead spiritually without spiritual eyes, without spiritual
eyes. But when we come to see the glory of God in Christ, When
we come to see the holiness and justice of God against our sins,
when we come to see our sin and depravity, that without Christ
it's all sin, without His blood to wash them away, without His
righteousness imputed to me, it's nothing but sin, even my
best. And when you come to see the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, that's when the Holy
Spirit has given you a new heart and written the Word of God on
your heart. He says in verse 10, he that believeth not hath
made God a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave
of his son. The record is a witness of God. What is that record? Right here
it is, folks. The Bible. See, everything that I'm telling
you, I can point you to Scripture. Now, I know what people say.
They say, well, Everybody quotes Scripture. Well, that's true. Everybody says the Pledge of
Allegiance too, but that doesn't mean they know what it means. Everybody can pick out Scripture.
You know, all who truly believe in Christ as the Son of God have
this witness in themselves. That means we cannot be charged
with sin. We're righteous in God's sight.
That's why we cannot forsake Christ. And all who do not believe
in their hearts have made God out to be a liar because he doesn't
believe what the Bible says. This is the witness of God. This
is the record. All scripture given by inspiration
of God. Remember Christ told the Pharisees,
you search the scriptures. They studied it. They wrote commentaries. They memorized it. He said, but
they are they which testify of me and you will not come to me
that you might have life. What does the record say? Look
at verse 11. This is the record that God hath
given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. My friend, there's no spiritual
or eternal life in anyone but Christ. So that means when a
preacher stands up and either says or implies that there are
other ways to God, other ways to heaven, What's he doing? He's not believing
the record. He's calling God a liar. Did you know that? Verse 12, he that hath the Son
hath life. He that hath not the Son of God
hath not life. Those who do not believe the
record that God has given, the Word of God that identifies and
distinguishes Christ from all counterfeits, That's a sign. They don't have life, spiritual
life. Not yet. And so he says in verse 13, these
things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the
Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and
that you may believe or continue believing on the name of the
Son of God. Well, that's what I want to know.
How about you? I want to know that I have eternal life. Well,
here it is. If you have Christ, according to the record, as witnessed
by the Spirit, who testifies of Jesus Christ as the Son of
God, the Lord our righteousness, you have life. Believing in Him,
repenting of all your own, all your dead works, and trusting
Him. I know whom I have believed,
and I'm persuaded that He's able. And only he's able to keep that
which I've committed unto him against that day.