Well, as I said, I still intend
to continue with Isaiah, and this is a little bit of a detour.
We were looking at Isaiah 26, and we were seeing glorious blessings
for those that God has saved, the promises of God there. There's
been lots of judgment, and then he promises blessing upon blessing
upon those whom he has saved in the gospel of his grace by
the work of his son. We did a detour to show that,
well, you must be born again. Those things you just cannot
conjure up from nowhere. You must be born again. They
are the things that only the Spirit of God can teach. And
so we went to John 3 and saw what Jesus said to Nicodemus. You must be born again. You can't
see the kingdom of God. You can't enter it unless you
are born again. And then we came to 1 John, John's
first epistle, chapter five, and we read that whosoever believeth
that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. Whosoever believeth that
Jesus is the Christ. If you are born of God, you believe
that Jesus is the Christ. And there's more that we need
to see here in 1 John, chapter five. So the necessity of the
new birth, the ability of the new birth. I've just said it.
What ability does the new birth give us? The new birth gives
us the ability to believe that Jesus is the Christ. Do you believe
that? Do you believe it? What do I
mean? That Jesus, that man, that baby born at Bethlehem who grew
into that man of 30 years old when he started his ministry,
who spoke like never man had spoken before, who worked miracles,
who did all those wonderful things, that he was the fulfillment. of everything that the Old Testament
promised about how the people of God are made right with God. In all of the Old Testament,
washings and sacrifices and blood and all of those things, it all
pointed to the one who would come and would put right that
which the fall undid. That which the fall ruined, he
would come and put right. That's why I said last week,
fundamentally, you can trace everything in this world back
to one of two things. The fall in the Garden of Eden
and the coming of Christ and redemption at the cross of Calvary.
Those two things. Do you believe that? If you do,
what testimony has persuaded you to believe it? Remember,
Paul said, I am fully persuaded. I am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I've committed unto him. He was fully persuaded. He was convinced. He'd examined
the evidence. and he was fully convinced. We've
seen a lot in the news in this last week or so about the US
Supreme Court and the nomination to go up there to be a new permanent
member of the Supreme Court and it's a very significant event
in the Constitution of the United States of America because it
has a profound effect on the laws that are made in that land. And of course we've seen powerful
accusations made against the man who was nominated. We saw
it in the court, and oh dear, oh you think, oh poor woman,
oh look what happened to her, oh dear, oh dear, oh how tragic,
oh look at her, she's crying, oh this is terrible. Your heart
strings might have been pulled, but did it pass the test of objective
justice, evidential justice, because that's the standard of
the rule of law. The things that we've seen, the
things that we've seen, it's akin to the Middle Ages when
the mob used to decide that this local woman was a witch and they'd
go and they'd burn her at the stake because they'd all decided,
they'd all jumped on the bandwagon. There was no evidence, they'd
just all decided. You heard the women shouting
out in the court when it was announced. yesterday, that he
had at finally been appointed. Shame! Shame by what? Where was
the evidence? Where was the evidence presented?
You see, the scripture says, in the mouth of two or three
witnesses. I'm not making a judgement either
way, I'm just saying that mob rule is not the rule of law,
and is not the standard of justice. What standard of justice persuaded
Paul that Christ was the one who was able to keep that which
he'd committed unto him against that day? What standard of evidence? What witnesses? If you believe
that Jesus, the man, is the Christ of God, God come in flesh, the
God-man, who alone can redeem that multitude that the Father
gave to the Son before the beginning of time from their sins, and
make them fit for heaven, and take them to eternal glory. What
is the evidence that persuades you? You know, I didn't just
say to you, you need to believe Jesus is the Christ, and you
go, oh yeah, all right, I'll do that, and that's it, done,
did you? No, you think about it. and God speaks to you, and
there's evidence. What is it? Is it the philosophical
arguments of men? Look in 1 John chapter 5 at verse
9. He says, if we receive the witness
of men, the witness of men? The witness of men, even the
best of men, are all, to some degree, liars, are they not? Even the best... I know! I am! If I'm telling you a story about
how things were, you can guarantee that because of my flesh and
my sinfulness it will be coloured in my favour. That's just the
way we all are, isn't it? Men are to some degree liars.
But the witness of God is greater. Look in verse 9. The witness
of God is greater. Why? Because God is God. And
God, it says, he cannot lie. It's a contradiction of the very
being of God that he would lie. No. If you disbelieve him, because
he's God, he that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness
in himself. He that believeth not God hath made him a liar. You're calling God a liar. Do
you believe God? Because if you say, no, I'm not,
no, I'm an atheist, or I'm an agnostic, or I'll make my mind
up when the time is right. I'll tell you what you're saying.
You're saying, God, you're a liar. That's what you're saying. You're
looking God in the face and you're saying, God, you're a liar. You're
making God a liar, and he cannot lie. But here's the record. This
is the record. This is the record that God gave
of his son. Verse 11, the record God gave
of his son. This is the record that God has
given to us eternal life, and this life is in his son. He that
hath the son hath life. Have you got the son of God?
And he that hath not the son of God hath not life. Do you
have the Christ of God, the son of God or not? What do I mean
by do you have him? I mean, do you believe him? I
mean, do you believe the things that are said about him are true?
The things in this book, do you believe them to be true? Do you
trust the things that God has said about Christ in this book?
By which I mean more than just you believe the veracity of it,
you're prepared to commit to it. If I trust that that chair
will hold me up, I'll sit on it. I might stand here and believe
it will hold me up, but if I trust it, I'll go and sit on it. I
commit myself to it. And sitting on it, I depend on
it not to collapse, and I depend on Christ. This is what it is
to have him, and it isn't just passive, it's a communing relationship. He talks with me. What's that
little simple chorus? He walks with me and he talks
with me, a long life's narrow way. That's what it is to have
the Son. So at the bar of divine reason,
let us look at the testimony of the witnesses that would persuade
us to believe the Gospel. And there are three that I want
to look at here. First of all is the coming of the Son of God
himself. That is a testimony, the coming
of the Son of God, the coming of Jesus Christ into the world,
the coming of the Son of God. And then secondly, the witness
of the triune God, the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit in
heaven. And then thirdly, the witness
that's in the earth, the witness that here and now speaks to men
and women in their state as sinners before the justice and law of
God, and that witness that is in the earth that proclaims the
truth of the gospel of grace in Christ. Those are the witnesses,
heavenly and earthly witnesses, is what I've called this message.
First of all, the son of God. Verse five, who is he that overcometh
the world? but he that believeth that Jesus
is the Son of God. You see, to have the life of
God, as we just read in verse 12, if you have the Son, you
have life. To have the life of God, then you must, verse five,
overcome the world. you must overcome the world.
Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth
that Jesus is the son of God. So in believing that Jesus is
the son of God, you overcome the world is what John is saying.
Now, what does that mean to overcome the world? you know I often think
in these days where we've got these huge great government security
computers that are constantly scanning everything that gets
said and phone messages and sermons and stuff like that and they
hear somebody like me talk about overcoming the world I'm sure
we'll have troops turning up outside to arrest us for insurrection
but of course Jesus said, my kingdom is not of this world.
If it were, my servants would take up swords and fight, but
we don't, because his kingdom isn't of this world. No, what
is it to overcome the world? Look at chapter four and verse
three. In chapter four, John has said,
test the preachers. Don't believe every spirit. Don't
believe the preacher. Test whether they're saying that
the Jesus who has come is the one who came to fulfill and has
fulfilled everything that the Old Testament said about him.
And what did the Old Testament say about him? He would come
to redeem his people the elect of God that the Father gave him
before the beginning of time from their sins. He would satisfy
justice for his people. Right? You say, well, lots of
people believe that. No, they don't. They believe
in another one that they call Christ, who came to make salvation
possible for everybody. Oh, you say, well, it's near
enough. They're talking about the same thing. They're talking
a million miles different. The Christ that they're pointing
people to is not the Christ of this book. The Christ of this
book is the Christ of particular redemption. He did not come to save everybody
that ever lived. He came to save his people from
their sins. He said to the Pharisees, you
believe not because you are not of my sheep. Have you got that? Shocking statement, isn't it?
You religious folks out there, any listening to this? Jesus
did not say if only you would believe you would become my sheep.
He said the reason you don't believe is because you're not
my sheep. The sheep were those the Father
gave to the Son before the beginning of time. Oh, what a cruel doctrine.
Well, that's why Jesus said the world will hate you. It hated
him and it will hate us. for preaching that same doctrine.
He says, believe not the preachers about Christ, because they'll
say, look, here he is, there he is, go after him here. But he
said in verse three, Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus
Christ is come in the flesh is not of God. In other words, the
Christ that we seek to preach. And this is the spirit of Antichrist. Everything that is not for the
true Christ is Antichrist. All religion that calls itself
Christian, but points you to a Christ who is a Christ of universal
redemption, is Antichrist. That is Antichrist. I know people
don't like me being dogmatic about things like this. I'm just
only trying to be as dogmatic as the Scripture itself. The
Scripture is absolutely dogmatic. If you are not believing the
Christ of Scripture, who is a Christ of particular redemption, you
are Antichrist. You are against Christ. You are
for the Antichrist, whereof you have heard that it should come,
and is now already in the world. Verse 4. Year of God, little
children, and have overcome them. Overcome Antichrist. Because
he, greater is he that is in you, that is God the Spirit,
that is Christ and the Father who come to make their abode
with believers by his Spirit. Greater is he that is in you,
than he, Satan, that is in the world. He's greater. You've overcome
the world. Why? Through faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Who is he that overcometh the
world? But he that believeth Jesus is the Son of God. Who
is he that overcomes the spirit of Antichrist, the philosophy
of Antichrist? What am I talking about? It's
the godless, faithless spirit of the world in which we live.
Is it not all around us? It's that which is put forward
as good. in the face of that which truly is good, which is
put forward as bad in this world. It's that godless, faithless
spirit of the world in which we live. But if you are of God,
you have overcome Antichrist. And how have you overcome? Even
our faith. Here is the victory, verse four,
that overcometh the world, even our faith. Faith, sight of the
soul, the sense of God given to the new man of God, which
is born again in that person. who is the child of God. And
what is that faith? Belief that Jesus is the son
of God. Now what is it to believe that
Jesus is the son of God? I've used this illustration before
and in a way I don't like using it because it smacks of irreverence
and the last thing I wish to be is irreverent. But if you
ever have a concept that Jesus being the son of God makes him
God's little boy, you've got completely the wrong concept.
Isaac is Stephen's little boy. I see him sitting there cuddling
up to his daddy now. Isaac is Stephen's little boy.
Don't ever think that Jesus is the son of God means that he
is God's little boy in that sense. No. What it means is this. It
means that he is the person of the Godhead who manifests the
Godhead to us who live in human flesh. He is God manifest in
human flesh. He's manifest, he's made known,
made open in human flesh to reverse the fall for the elect of God. The elect of God, the multitude
that no man can number. That's very restrictive, isn't
it, some say? I say a multitude that no man
can number sounds like an awful lot of people. In Revelation
19 verse 1, John looked and he saw, what did he see? Much people
in heaven. The fall in the Garden of Eden
was when Adam and Eve fell from their sinless state of perfect
communion with God. The serpent came, who was Satan,
who was Lucifer, who was that glorious creature that rebelled
against God and took a multitude of angels with him, the spirit
world, the demons, and they came into that paradise of God, and
subtly Satan deceived Eve. Eve was deceived, and she listened
to Satan. And she disobeyed the clear command
that God had given. And she sinned. And she ate the
forbidden fruit. Whatever that, in reality, literally
was, she disobeyed the command that God had clearly given. And
thereby, sin came in. And she came to Adam. And Adam
was not deceived. We read in the New Testament.
Adam knew exactly what he was doing. Adam was not deceived.
And Adam saw that this wife that God had given to him, woman,
made from him, taken a rib from him, however, I don't know, but
made from him, woman, that this woman whom he loved, who was
his treasure, had fallen into sin, and out of love for her,
he himself took that fruit and ate to be where she was. Now
that was sin. He knew what he was doing. He
did it. He wasn't deceived. It's such a picture is that of
Christ, who for the woman he loved, which is his bride, the
church, he was made sin for us at the cross of Calvary. And
sin came in and sin produced spiritual death. In the day that
you eat thereof, you shall surely die. And they were banished from
the garden of Eden, from that paradise of God. And the certainty
of judgment and eternal condemnation was pronounced. In the day you
eat thereof, you shall surely die. And we read in Romans 5
and verse 12, as by one man, that is Adam, sin entered the
world and death by sin. So death passed upon all men,
for that all have sinned. You say, it's unfair that Adam's
sin makes me a sinner. Well, the proof of the pudding
is that you yourself are a sinner, isn't it? All have sinned. But
when man fell at that very time, God promised redemption from
sin. Genesis 3, 15. He's speaking,
God is speaking to the serpent, to Satan. And He said, I will
put enmity between you, Satan, and the woman, and between your
seed and her seed. Her seed? That's Christ. That's
picturing Christ. It, the seed of the woman, Christ,
shall bruise your head. That's a fatal bruise. That's
a fatal wound in the head. But not without him, Satan, bruising
the heel of the seed of the woman. Oh, that was the persecutions
and ultimately the death of Christ on the cross. You shall bruise
his heel. How would Christ bruise Satan's
head? Two ways. Firstly, by satisfying divine
justice as a substitute for God's elect. The law of God, the justice
of God, demands the soul that sins, it shall die. And Christ
came as the substitute. And he did what the law demanded.
What did the law demand? Death. What did Christ do? He
died for his people. That's why. The death of Christ
is so crucial and central. In his death, he cried out, it
is finished. The law is satisfied. It's done
all it needs to do to be happy. The payment for the debt of sin
is paid. He satisfied divine justice as
the substitute for God's elect. And then secondly, by imputation
of divine righteousness, made sin that they might be made the
righteousness of God in him. By imputation of divine righteousness
and imputation of a divine nature, that new birth of the new man
to all of God's elect, in those two things he bruised Satan's
head. He crippled him. He took away
all of his power to take everyone of humanity to hell, because
Satan could no longer take the elect of God to hell. And it's
all foreshadowed in the Old Testament, in the law, in the washings of
water. in the Old Testament sacrifices
and cleansings and temple rituals, speaking of the need for inward
cleansing. And all the animal sacrifices,
the blood sacrifices, pointing to the price of redemption, pointing
to a price that needed to be paid for the sins of the people.
Because we read, the life is in the blood. The soul that sins,
it shall die. The life is in the blood. And
we read in Hebrews, without the shedding of blood, there is no
remission of sin. And verse six, This is He, Jesus,
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. This is Jesus that came. When did He come? Galatians 4.4.
When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His
Son, made of a woman. Note it doesn't say born of a
woman. It does in the new modern translations that get it wrong,
but in in the King James Version, which seeks to take everything
it says from the Textus Receptus, it says, made of a woman. And
there's something subtly important in that. We need to be careful. Every word matters. Made of a
woman, made under the law. Why? To redeem, to buy back those
that are under the law. Why? That they might receive
the adoption of sons. Hebrews 2, turn to Hebrews 2.
if you can. Don't bother turning if you can't
get there, but it doesn't matter. Hebrews 2 verse 14, for as much
then as the children, the elect of God, are partakers of flesh
and blood, aren't we, who are believers? We count ourselves
among the elect of God by virtue of belief, but we're partakers
of flesh and blood. He, Christ, also himself, likewise,
took part of the same flesh and blood. Why? That he might die
as a man. The law's penalty for the man's
sin is the death of a man, the shedding of man's blood, so he
must come as a man. And through death he might destroy
him that had the power of death. That is the devil. Who is he
that came? We read it in Hebrews 1, didn't
we? He who is the express image of the person of God. You might
say, oh, Isaac looks like Stephen. He's perhaps a little bit young
to make that. I mean, the more I look in the
mirror these days, especially when I'm in the barber's chair,
and I stare in there, and do you know who's staring back at
me? My dad. Honestly, my dad's staring back
at me. There you go. It doesn't just mean he looks
like his father. It means that he's the very outward
expression of his father. Look, he upholds all things.
The laws of physics, the gravity, the strong nuclear and weak nuclear
and electromagnetic forces. That's what it means. He upholds
all things. Now, actively, by the word of
his power, he speaks. Do you know, if you have that
view of how things are held together, is it a huge leap into the dark
to believe in the miracles that he performed? Is it a huge leap? If the man that walked the earth
rolled up some clay and there was a man there that had been
born with just eye sockets but no eyes and he rolled up some
dust of the ground and he spat on it and he made a ball and
he put it in the man's eye socket and then the man was able to
see. Is that as staggering as it sounds if the one we're talking
about is the one who upholds all things by the word of his
power? and he's the one who purged our sins and he sat down. When
it says at the right hand, it doesn't mean there's God and
there's this little sort of subservient. No, he means he's the very God
there, so much better than the angels. It's a relationship of
father and son. When he brings the first begotten
into the world, he says all the angels of God shall worship him.
And they're all ministering spirits, but look at verse eight. To his
son he says, what does he say to his son? What does he say
to his son? Thy throne, O God, is for ever
and ever. The father calls the son God. Thy throne, O God, all power
is yours. Therefore God has anointed you. This is the Trinity. This is
the very Godhead displayed. You see, as Paul says to Timothy
in 1 Timothy 3.16, great is the mystery of godliness. God was
manifest in the flesh. God became contracted to a span,
incomprehensibly made man. And only one who is infinite,
who is holy, who is God, only a man who is infinite, holy God,
could satisfy justice, offended justice, for a multitude of sinners
that no man can number. And that's what he came to do.
And all the Old Testament is the pattern. It's the blueprint.
He is the fulfillment. He is the reality. He is the
substance. We've done all of this work on
our house, and we started out by drawing plans, and we envisaged
how it would work, and we drew plans as to what would go where,
and we measured up and we drew scale drawings to show how it
would fit. Do you know something? Those plans were really good,
but you couldn't cook a meal in there. You couldn't wash any
dishes in there. You couldn't store anything in
it. It was just a plan. But the reality is there. It
works. You can prepare a meal there.
You can store things there. It all works. It's the same. The Old Testament was just a
picture, a blueprint, a plan. But Christ, he came. He came. He came by water and by blood. He is the fulfilment of it all.
He is the fulfilment of the blueprint, the reality, the substance. It
says in Hebrews 10, 4 and 5 that the blood of bulls and goats
in the Old Testament sacrifices could never take away sins. They
weren't... They weren't paying the debt
to the offended justice of God, but when he, Christ, comes into
the world, he says, sacrifice and offering that you no longer
require, but a body you have prepared me. He came in a body
that would be broken, we break bread, and that his blood would
be shed, and that that would effectually make satisfaction
to the offended justice of God, so that in him coming by water
and by blood, by the Old Testament rituals of water, washing, sanctification,
and blood for justification, so that in fulfilling all of
that, when He came as the Son of God into this world, the Christ
of God into this world, we read in Romans 10 verse 4, Christ
is the end, the fulfillment of the law for righteousness to
everyone that believes. to everyone that believes God's
testimony about him. The Holy Spirit of God testifies
truly that all that God requires of a sinner is fully satisfied
in that man who came, who lived 2,000 years ago, who went to
Calvary and died and rose again from the dead and ascended on
high. That's the testimony of the Son of God. That's the testimony
of God's first witness, that all that God's justice requires
of hell-deserving sinners is provided in the redemption purchased
by his son. And it's underlined at Calvary,
because in John 19, verses 34 and 35 at the crucifixion, we
read, a soldier with a spear pierced the side of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And it says, out came blood and
water. Out came blood and water. And
he that saw it, that was John, writing, bear record, and his
record is true. And he wrote it that you might
believe. I saw it. And that's why he says here,
came by water and blood. The fact that at the cross the water
and blood came out when the spear was thrust in is just underlining
the fact that he fulfilled all of that Old Testament truth.
Now we must hurry. Secondly, the witness of the
heavenly trinity. To you who believe, there's a
witness of the heavenly trinity. Verse seven, for there are three
that bear record in heaven. the Father, the Word, and the
Holy Ghost. And these three are one. Now,
I can imagine any smart alecks out there using a more modern
version of the scripture with all of its modern critical comparative
studying will say, well, of course, that verse shouldn't really be
there. It's not really in the original scriptures. It's not
there. It's an addition by the translators.
It's not true. Well, I'll tell you, They do that because they don't
like the doctrine of the Trinity and they find any way they can
get rid of it. The fact of the matter is that this is translated
from the Textus Receptus, which is what was preserved by God,
and the committee of men who were in a calibre that will never
be repeated in terms of their understanding and knowledge of
the Gospel. And those who appeal to archaeologically supposedly
older manuscripts are appealing to those things that were left
and discarded because they had errors in them. You know, it
doesn't necessarily mean that older is more correct. That which
God preserved is correct. And so therefore, again, I would
say use the King James version of the script. Don't even use
the new King James version. Use the King James version of
the scriptures. You can rely on it. All scripture,
all scripture, not just this verse. professes the Trinity
of God, the triunity of God. Right at the very beginning,
what did God say? Did God say, let me make man
in my own image? No, God said, let us make man
in our own image. Did God say, let me go down and
see what they're up to at the Tower of... No, let us go down. Again and again, We see clearly
the manifestation of God. We've got one person of God in
Hebrews 1. We've got one person of God speaking to another person
of God, quoting from Psalm 46, I think it is. We read it this
morning, didn't we? You know, thy throne, O God, is for ever
and ever. This is what God says to God.
This is what God the Father says to God the Son. Your throne,
O God, is for ever and ever. The whole Scripture declares
the Trinity. The whole of it does. And yet, Deuteronomy 6-4,
be clear, the Lord our God is one Lord, only one Lord. In Isaiah
44, Let me read some interesting things. Verse six, thus saith
the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of
hosts. You see, two persons, two persons. I am the first and I am the last
and beside me there is no God. No, there's only one God. And
who as I shall call and shall declare it and set it in order
for me since I appointed the ancient people and the things
that are coming and shall come. Let them show unto them. Fear
ye not, neither be afraid. Have not I told thee from that
time, and have declared it? Ye are my witnesses. Is there
a God beside me? Yea, there is no God, I know
not any. that the Father and the Son and
the Holy Spirit are three distinct persons in that one Godhead,
the tri-unity, the Trinity within the Godhead. And there is no
salvation and no hope of heaven outside of the Trinity. Those
who deny the Trinity, those who come knocking on your doors,
peddling their their magazines, those who deny the Trinity, effectively,
they declare themselves dependent on one less than God for salvation. Is that not what they do? They
declare themselves dependent on one who is less than God for
salvation. Now, we don't have time now to
provide the numerous texts that show the Trinity of God within
the scriptures, but God the Father elected a people before the beginning
of time. God the Son, the Word as he's
called here, the Word. In the beginning was the Word
and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The Word undertook
to come and redeem by being their substitute. And the Holy Spirit
of God undertook to come and quicken and make alive and implant
the new life of God in each and every one of them. And those
people betrothed to the Son, to them the Father testified
to the Son's preeminence when he came into the world. There
was that voice that came from heaven when Jesus was stood there
at his baptism and a dove came down as it were, picturing the
Holy Spirit coming upon him. and the voice came from heaven,
this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. In the mount
of transfiguration, this is my beloved son, hear ye him. The
father testified to the son. The son, the word, is the voice
of God, to the people of God. That's what he is, that's why
he's called the word, in the beginning was the word. We beheld
his glory, said John, the glory as of the only begotten of the
Father, full of grace and truth. No man has seen God at any time.
The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He
has made Him known. He came and made Him known. And
this Word of God, this expression of God, this thought of God made
manifest to man, became flesh and dwelt among us. He is the
only way. He said that. In these days of
comparative religion, You know, that's what your children are
taught at school. You've got to give every religion a chance.
No, there's only one religion that's true, and that's the religion
of the gospel of grace in Christ. I am the way, the truth, and
the life, said Jesus. This man, when he was on earth,
this word of God become flesh. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No man comes to the Father except by me. If you would
come to the one true God, for there is surely only one true
God, there is only one way to that one true God, and that is
through the Son of God, who himself is God. And the Holy Spirit is
sent by the Father and by the Son to manifest that truth of
God in Christ, in the hearts and experience of his believing
people. It's God who cannot lie has testified of this. It pleased
the Father, we read in Colossians chapter one, verses 18 and 19.
It pleased the Father that in Christ, the Son of God, who is
very God, should reside all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. and that he should have all the
preeminence of everything. You cannot raise Christ too highly. You cannot speak too highly of
Christ. You cannot praise and honor and
glorify the Lord Jesus Christ too highly, for he is very God
of very God. He will have the preeminence.
And then finally, the earthly gospel witness. Verse eight,
there are three that bear witness in the earth. the Spirit, the
water, and the blood. And these three agree in one,
the Spirit, the water, and the blood. We've seen that in verse six,
he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ, not by water
only, but by water and blood. But look at Titus chapter three
and verse four. After the kindness and love of
God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us from
our sins, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost
which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour. In this idea of water is the
idea of the washing of regeneration and the new birth and the new
man. Paul writing to the Ephesians,
Ephesians 4.24 talks about the new man which after God is created
in righteousness and true holiness. This is the new man of the new
birth. You must be born again. There must be a new man, a new
heart promised. In Ezekiel, a new heart will
I give to them. I'll take the heart of stone
out of their flesh and give them a new heart, a heart of flesh,
a soft heart, soft to the things of God. In Ezekiel 36, you'll
read that. These are the ones who are made
willing. He makes his people willing in
the day of his power. The hard heart that will not
believe, he makes his people willing to believe. in the day
of His power. And he plants in there the man
that cannot sin. 1 John chapter 3 verse 9, whosoever
is born of God does not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in
him, and he cannot sin because he's born of God. Now don't think
for one minute that we do not sin. If we say we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. That's the
flesh. But the new man from God cannot
sin. There's this new principle of
holiness and righteousness that the Lord God plants within. And
the Spirit of God, The Spirit of God, three bearing witness
in the earth, the Spirit, the Spirit of God bears witness with
the child of God that we are his children, Romans 8, 16. The
Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that new man,
that we are the children of God. Have you, have I heard the Spirit's
witness to the new spirit within that you are among the children
that Christ came to fulfil all righteousness for. He came to
fulfil all righteousness for His people. Are you among them?
Look at John 16. Let me read that for you. John
16 and verse 13. John 16 and verse 13. How be it when he, the Spirit
of truth, the Holy Spirit, is come? He will guide you into
all truth. This is Jesus speaking to his
disciples. He shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he
shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things to
come. He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine and
show it unto you. He promised the disciples, that
the Spirit would come to them and testify of Jesus Christ. And he does. The Spirit comes
to that new spirit within us and testifies of the truth of
the gospel of grace, of the accomplishment of salvation by Christ. And in
many other ways, God's Spirit testifies to the truth of Christ,
to the truth of redemption accomplished. And the Spirit uses gospel preaching,
does he not? He uses gospel preaching. What
a blessing we have in these days. where there are so many preachers
proclaiming the truth that are available and accessible via
the internet. We gather together on Wednesday
evenings and we listen to one of our American brethren, whoever
it might be preaching, and it's just such a blessing. It's all
there and available for us. But this is the Spirit's doing,
testifying to the truth of Christ's person and work in redeeming
God's elect. But what about this water and
blood? And I must be very, very quick. What about this water
and blood? Well, it could be the water of
washing of the word, sanctifying, making holy. It could be speaking
of that. The blood could be speaking of
blood redemption, justifying, and I'm sure it is. But I think
also, and probably more pointedly, as witnesses in the earth, it's
speaking of actual tangible witnesses. to accomplished redemption. Actual,
tangible witnesses. Tangible ones you can touch,
ones you can see, ones you can witness. What am I talking about?
Water. What tangible witnesses there?
Have you ever seen a baptism? Have you been baptised? Yeah?
It's physical, isn't it? They fill a big trough with water,
and you get down in it, and you get buried as if you're dead
in the water, and then you rise up out of the water, and it's
union with Christ, and it's an earthly testimony. It's an earthly
witness to the truth of the gospel of grace, that before the beginning
of time, God the Father He chose me and united me with His Son.
And when His Son died, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live,
yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And He raised me to newness
of life in Him. He crucified this old man. He delivered what the law demands
for this old man. He delivered it in Christ when
Christ died. I am crucified with Him. And
He raised me to newness of life with Christ in the water of baptism.
And then secondly, blood? We're going to break bread, speaking
of a broken body. When you break a body, blood
pours out, and wine, which speaks of the blood. And it says in
the passage we always read, 1 Corinthians 11, verse 26, for as often as
you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's
death till he come. You do witness to the Lord's
death till he come. You do declare to the world that
is watching the Lord's death till he come. You say, this is
what I saw. In the mouth of two or three
witnesses, all things are established. These testify of the efficacy,
the get the job done, of the body and blood of Christ in accomplishing
redemption. What the Spirit does inside a
regenerated sinner, baptism and the Lord's Supper openly testify
to the world around. They witness, they declare, you
do show the Lord's death until he come. That's why we do these
things. That's why we believe these things.
That's why we rest in Jesus, the Christ of God, that in him,
look what it says, God has given to us eternal life, and this
life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. I have
eternal life, and that can never be taken away, because God is
the guarantor of it. Amen.