1 John chapter 5, and let's look
at verses 9 through verse 13. If we receive the witness of
men, the witness of God is greater. And this is the witness of God
which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the
Son of God has the witness in himself. He that believes not
God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that
God gave of his Son. And this is the record that God
hath 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. 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 on the name of the Son of God." This is the
record. This is the record, he tells
us here. This is the record. And in the
broadest sense, of the Word, the record of God
is His entire Bible. I know here we can limit it maybe
to the blood and the water and the spirit, but I think in the
broadest sense we can say the record of God is the Old and
New Testament concerning His Son. It's God's testimony. It's God's record. I know men
wrote it. Men were the means, but God is
the author of the record. He's the author of the testimony. The scripture says, holy men
of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Not one verse
or one word in the Bible originated in the mind and thoughts of men.
It came from the very thoughts and mind and heart of God. The Lord gave the Word, and great
was the company of those that published it. When the Apostle
Paul came to Corinth to preach, he said, Brethren, I came not
with enticing words of man's wisdom. I didn't come trying
to impress anybody or put on a show, but I came declaring
unto you the testimony of God. In the Old Testament and the
New Testament, it's the record that God gave of His Son. And the older I get, the more
thankful I am for this record of God. The testimony of God
concerning all things. Now somebody say, Bruce, has
He told us all things? He's told us all things that
is needful and essential for us to know. If He'd have told
us everything, the world itself couldn't have contained How would we have found something
when we wanted to read it? It would have been bigger than
the world could have contained. But He's given us in this Bible,
in the record of God, everything that's needful, everything that's
essential for our salvation, our eternal life, and to live
for God's glory in this world. We find it here in the record
of God. And I take great delight in this,
and I trust that you do too. And I found a great degree of
comfort and quietness in my soul by simply believing God's record. Aren't you thankful for the record,
for the testimony that God has given? I used to put a lot of
stock in my feelings, and I'm afraid I still do sometimes.
I used to trust a lot to my emotions. Got some assurance from my emotions.
I've got through some of that, but I've not got through all
of it. I wish I could lay all of that aside and never trust
in my feelings again. Never get down when I feel depressed. Never get too high when I fill
up. I wish that I could just go through
my life, opening this book and simply reading and simply believing
the testimony that God has left us to read. and to believe. Believe
the record that God has left us. My grandson, David, and I
was talking at the house the other day. And we were talking
about evolution, the evolutionists
and their theory of evolution as opposed to divine creation,
that God made all things in six literal days. He and I were discussing
that, and I told him, I said, really it comes down to who you
believe. They present what they think
is their evidence, and it doesn't make much sense to me, but I
guess it does them. But they tell us that this world
could be a million years old, a hundred million years old,
and they always got to say perhaps, or maybe it could have been,
because that's the way it is, see, with them. They cannot be
honest and put anything definite as to where life really came
from, the origin of it. It's a continuous study for them.
But they present their evidence, and they say somewhere there
was an explosion. There was a mass. There were
cells that exploded, and it's still exploding. It's still going
out. The universe is expanding. And
they say out of that explosion comes everything that we see
in this universe. all the starry heavens, the sun
and the moon that has such order that comes up at a certain time
and goes down at a certain time, man in his complex system of
nerves and his thought that he's fearfully and wonderfully made,
and we see all the creation around us and They say it all came from
this big bank. Well, brothers and sisters, I'm
telling you this, if that's not a system of faith, I don't know
what it is. Because you've got to have faith,
and a lot of it, to believe something like that. Our system is not
a faith system, I beg your pardon. I beg your pardon, it is. It
is. And then on the other side, what
do we have? We have this record, don't we?
We have the record of God concerning creation, and it says this, through
faith we understand that the worlds were created by the Word
of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things
which do appear. Creation was made from the Word
of God. God's stake, and it was done. He commanded, and it stood fast. God, by Jesus Christ, the incarnate
Word, created all things. That's what the Bible says. And
He spread it out as a tent to dwell in. He formed man of the
dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils. And He did
all of that in six days. And, brothers and sisters, it
comes down to this, doesn't it? Who are you going to believe? One might say, if only I could
have more physical evidence, I would believe that God did
it. If only He would prove it to me. But this is important. This is the proof. The record. Here it is. Here is the testimony. that God has left us. And when we simply believe the
record, you will see the evidence all around you that God has did
it, that God is true. I love science. I love even those
who believe in these theories of evolution. I love it when
they discover things. I know what their motives are
to prove evolution, but when they go out yonder with their
telescopes into outer space and they take all of those pictures, you know what I say? God did
it. That's my Savior's work. God
created all things by Jesus Christ. They discovered gravity. And
man, they were so excited, and I was excited. When I read how
excited they were, it made me excited. I love it when they
discover these things. They discovered gravity. What
makes things fall down instead of just going up? And how essential
it is that we have gravity. Could you imagine if we didn't
have? We'd be running around tied to the earth, wouldn't we? Who did that? God our Savior
did that. We look at ourselves and how
complex we are. We can't figure ourselves out.
Medical science can't figure us out. They can't even make
blood. They're still working on the
brain. All this system of messages running
through the body. Oh, we are fearful and wonderfully
made. And who did it? Christ did it. He was in the world and the world
was made by Him. And the world knew Him not. But you know Him, don't you?
He is your Savior and your Creator and your Redeemer. How do we
know that? We believe the record. We believe
the record. As soon as we believe God's record,
we begin to see the Creator in all things. The one dear brother said, this
is my Father's world. The birds, their carols rise. They raise. The morning light,
the lily white, declare their Maker's praise. This is my Father's
world. He shines in all that's fair. In the rustling grass, I hear
Him pass. He speaks to me everywhere. This is my Father's world. I
rest me in the thought of rocks and trees, of skies and seas. His hand the wonders wrought."
But you know something? It's only through faith that
we understand that. Those who refuse the simple record
of God's Word, they'll live and die in confusion about it all. They may clamor for more evidence,
but they'll never have it. until they simply believe the
record of God. These things are written that
you might believe. One said, I just can't see it.
Well, here's the problem. You just can't believe it. You
can't see till you believe. Without faith, it is impossible
to please He that comes to God must believe that He is. He must believe that He is. There's no coming to God, there's
no coming to Christ and to God by Him apart from faith. He must believe that God is,
that God is willing, that God is able to bless those, to reward
those who come to Him in faith. Why don't sinners come to God
by Christ and receive that salvation and life that's in Him? They
don't believe the record that God has given. That's what it
boils down to, doesn't it? If I want to offend you this
morning, you know what I'd call you? I'd call you a liar. Boy, nothing gets under our skin
like being called a liar, isn't it? The kids there at the house will
get out of control. Boy, they'll get upset. And that's what you'll
hear. You're a liar. Man, that sends
chills down everybody's spine in the house. That's the worst
thing you can accuse somebody of. You're a liar. You know what
it is not to believe God's record? It's to say you're a liar. He that believes not the record
of God has made him a liar because he believes not the record that
God has given of His Son. That's what he said in verse
10. Look back in verse 9 of our text. Look in verse 9, 1 John
5 and 9. If we receive the witness of
men, and we do, don't we? We received man's witness. I knew this snow was coming before
it got here. And you did, too. And you know
how we knew it. The weatherman told us, didn't
he? And I believed him. He says it's coming. I received
his testimony. Here it is. Glenn, when you used
to travel, you received men's testimony all the time. You got
on your little map, on your little gidget. And the woman kept telling
you where to go to and how to get there. And you listened to
her, didn't you? We open our mouth. We say, here's the way
we go. Somebody has witnessed to us. Somebody's left that on
record. And we receive the testimony.
We go to court. You have a jury and they have
witnesses. I swear to tell the whole truth.
And they listen to the testimony, don't they? And unless there's
a reason not to, we believe what man tells us. we receive the
witness of man. And if we do that, he said, the
witness of God is greater. If we believe what man tells
us, should we not more so believe what God tells us? And I tell
you, brother, it's a greater witness that God gives. Man can
err. He may tell you something and
sincerely err in what He tells you. But God is too wise to err. Man can lie to us, and often
does, but God cannot lie. Man deceives us sometimes, but
God cannot be deceived, and He does not deceive us. If it were
not so, He said, I would have told you. He won't deceive us,
will He? And man can change his testimony. But you know something, when
God says it, that's it. I am the Lord, I change not. Heaven and earth are going to
pass away. They're going to be changed. But my Word will never
pass away. Once He's wrote it, I'm telling
you it's just as good today. as it was when it was in the
mind of God. It's just as subtle and firm
and immutable today as it was then. The testimony of God is
greater. And note this, God's testimony,
His witness or His record is more honorable to Him and more
critical to us than all man's put together. Because God's testimony
It's what He says about His Son and that life that's in Him. That's important, ain't it? Boy,
that's important. That's important than believing
a man about the weather or some testimony on the witness stand.
This is the record that God hath given of His Son. Isn't that what He said in verse
9? For this is the witness of God which He hath testified of
His Son. God has testified of His Son. If you want to know who the Son
of God is, listen to the record. This is God's testimony concerning
His Son. And my, let's look at the ways
for just a second that God has testified of His Son. Consider the Old Testament Scriptures
from Genesis through Malachi. The Lord Jesus said, search the
Scriptures, the Old Testament Scriptures. In them you think
you have eternal life, and these are they which testify of Me. All the Old Scriptures bore witness
to His character, His names, His birth, His work while He
lived in this world, what He would do in His death, and what
He would do when He rose from the dead. The Old Testament is
God's witness concerning His Son. Listen to this. Here's what
God said about His Son. A virgin shall be with child,
and shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call His name
Immanuel, the mighty God, the Prince of Peace. What a name! And that's God's name for it.
He shall be great. The government shall be upon
His shoulders, and of His kingdom and peace there shall be no end. He shall be great. He shall be
a shepherd, God said. He will feed His flock. He will gather His lambs with
His arm. He will carry them in His bosom
and gently lead those that are with young. He is a shepherd. And here's what God said about
His Son. I'm going to put the iniquity
of all My people upon Him. And I'm going to smite Him. I'm
going to wound Him. I'm going to bruise Him. And
I'm going to sieve the travail of His soul, and I'm going to
be justified. I'm going to be satisfied. And
all of those whose iniquities He bears, I'm going to save them. I'm going to justify them. I'm
going to pardon their iniquity. That's the testimony. That's
the record of God concerning His Son in the Old Testament. We come to the New Testament.
And how many times did the Father bear witness of Him? I mean,
bore witness to Him when He opened up the heavens. There at His
baptism, and the dove came down and laid on His shoulders. And
the voice spake from heaven. God bore witness of His Son and
said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And
how many times did He do that? This is my beloved Son. Hear
ye Him. It's God bearing witness of His
Son. Do you believe the record that God gave of His Son? Everywhere
in this book, He's bore witness to the Son. The Lord Jesus said,
the works that my Father has given me to do, they bear witness
of me that He has sent me. Man, the works that He did bear
witness. He opened the eyes of a man who
had been born blind. And that man himself said, this
has never been heard of since the foundation of the world,
that a man who was born blind at his idol. And Jesus of Nazareth,
the Son of God, did it. He raised a man from the dead,
if you can imagine this, that had been dead for four days and
was stinking. And He restored him to life and
restored his flesh. Lazarus, come forth! And he that
was dead came forth. There was a leper full of leprosy
came to him, and the Lord Jesus Christ merely spake the word,
Be thou clean. And this man was cleansed from
his leprosy. That's the works that God the
Father gave him to do. There was a woman who was bleeding
to death, and she merely touched the hem of his garment and was
made whole. Ain't that amazing? Those are
the works that the Father gave Him to do, to bear witness that
He was indeed the Son of the living God. He cast a legion
of devils out of a man. And all He did was say, come
out of it. And they obeyed Him. He's the
Son of God. He spoke to the raging sea, and
suddenly there was a great calm. Not a ripple. to be seen. He spoke to the powerful wind
and it stilled. It stilled. And those were witnesses of God. And He's put it down in this
record that you and I might know it and believe that Jesus Christ
is indeed the Son of the living God. When our Lord ascended back to
heaven, the Father sent another witness to testify of His Son. I will pray the Father, and He
will give you another comforter, even the Spirit of truth, and
listen to this, He shall testify of me. This is the testimony
of God that Jesus Christ is indeed His Son. And He comes, and He
opens our hearts, and He reveals Christ to us. He teaches us our
need of Christ, and He shows Christ to us that we are complete
in Him, that we are accepted in Him, and we give all the glory
to Him. He bears witness of Christ. And
the Spirit of God moved upon these apostles, and they bore
witness, and what did they say? Look what he says in chapter
4, 1 John, in verse 14. Here's what they say. And we
have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be
the Savior of the world. That's the testimony. He didn't
come to condemn the world. He didn't come to destroy the
world. He came to save men out of it. You and I are in a dispersion
world, aren't we? Do we need a Savior? Do we want a Savior? God has a Savior. He has borne
witness to Him in His book. He has given us a whole book. And in that book, He testifies
of His Son that He sent Him Gave Him the credentials. There's
no doubt. Jesus of Nazareth is the eternal
Son of God. He proved it, didn't He? And
He says, here's My record of it. Here's My testimony of it. And if we receive the witness
of men, how much more should we come here to God's record
and say, this is true. I believe it. I believe it. And you know what happens when
we believe it? We're saved. We're saved. Somebody said, there's
a lot of people who believe God's Word and not saved. Not so. Not
so. That'll never happen. How could
you have any assurance of your salvation if there was people
who believed God's Word and weren't saved? There's not a single soul
that believes God and is lost. If you believe God's record concerning
His Son, you're saved. You have life eternal. That's
how important this record is. He says here in chapter 5 and
verse 11. Look at this. In 1 John chapter
5 and verse 11. I love this. Look at God's record. Here's His record. If you want
to know something about life, then open the Bible and see what
God says about it. This is the record concerning
life. This is the record That God hath
given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. See these things about life.
It's a gift. God has given to us eternal life. You can't earn it. You can't
buy it. It's a gift. It's a gift of God. freely by His grace. And since
that's so, He can give it to whom He pleases. And here's the
blessing in that. He gives it to the worst people
in this world. He gives it to the most undeserving
that you can imagine, like you, Terrence, like you, Shannon.
How can He do that? That's just not fair. You want
what's fair? Salvation is a gift, isn't it? Life is a gift. And God freely
gives it. It's His. Notice something else
He says about this life. It's eternal. This is the record
that God hath given to us eternal life. I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish. That unending life. Ain't that wonderful? Can you
think about that? Can you believe the record that
God gave of His Son? And this life, He tells us here
in God's record, is in one source. It's in one person. And this
life is in His Son. You ain't looking for life anywhere
else, are you? Because there's life nowhere
else. There's not life in the church. There's no life in systems of
doctrines. There's no life in all these
religions that spring up through the ages. There's life in one
source, in one place, and that's Jesus, the Son of God. As the
Father has life in Himself, so has He given to the Son to have
life in Himself. As the Father raises the dead
and quickens them, even so the Son quickeneth whom He will. Life is in the Son of God. And if you have Him, you have
life. You have life. When Christ who
is our life shall appear. He's our life. The life I now
live, Paul says, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless,
I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in
me. Christ is our life. And if you
have Him, you have life. If you don't have Him, you don't
have life. It doesn't matter what else we
have, does it? And you know that's the record
that God gave of His Son. This is the record that God has
given to us, eternal life. As you and I get older, well,
I can say this about myself, but you probably can bear witness
to it as well as I, that you see more of the vanity of this
life. Now if you see it, when we're
young, even young Christians, we don't see that. But as we
get older, we say with Solomon, vanity of vanities. All is vanity. All of it? All of it. See if
you don't agree with this about yourself, especially you that's
getting older. This surprised me in a way. But
as I've gotten older, I've gotten worse. in my own eyes. I think I had a sense when I
was a young Christian that I'd reached the place where in some
way or another I'd be free from this struggle. I'd be free from
this inward sin. But it's gotten worse. The struggle with unbelief has
gotten worse. Fighting and fighting within
yourself. And it seems like I find myself
almost on a daily basis, Lord, would you warm my cold heart? Would you soften my hard heart? You have to pray that way. We preached a few days ago on
that. Struggle, Romans 7, when I would
do good, evil is present with me. And I think one of the best
evidences of grace that's in a man's heart is that he continually
struggles. Year after year, decade after
decade, he continually struggles within himself. And he says vanity,
it's all vanity. And secondly, I see this, I've
come to the place where I can't live upon nor trust my feelings. Tears, weeping can be one of
the most deceitful things in the world. Those women were following
the Lord Jesus and saying, oh, oh, don't do it, please. And
the tears were streaming. And He turns to them and said,
don't weep for me. Save your tears. Weep for yourselves. Be careful that you don't deceive
yourselves with your emotions and your tears. Sometimes I've
been high, and I've been joyful. And I don't know if it's true
joy or not. I think sometimes when I feel like I'm at the gates
of hell, it's when I'm nearest to heaven. Feelings come and feelings go
and feelings are deceiving. Our warrant is the Word of God. Aught else is worth believing. And thirdly, I find nothing of
this world that is stable and lasting. Boy, this has surprised
me. I lay in my bed and right up
over my bed, the bed I sleep in sometimes. I'm all over the
house. You can't sleep, you know how
it is. Musical beds. But there's, I saw some cracks
coming in the cellar. Big old crack running down the
wall. We had a picture and some stuff fall off the wall the other
day and behind it was a big old crack. I thought, man, this old
house is falling down. It's decaying and falling down. My health. Driving Joe's little
old car, and I can't hardly get out of it. My hips and my knees. You're getting older. Friends
are getting older. Friends are dying. Some friends
that should love us have forsaken us. Some that should commend
us have falsely accused us. There's nothing in this world,
is there? that's stable, that's sure. Our families can split up, go
their ways, hate each other, fuss and argue. Nothing that's
stable, nothing that's firm. It's vanity. It's all decaying,
it's falling, it's coming apart. But as we realize these things,
as we get older and we see these things happening, we see all
the vanity in us and around us, I tell you there's one thing
I've found out that steals my mind and upholds my heart. The only place I can find any
stability and any surety in this uncertain world is to open this
book. and see what God says about it
all and simply believe it. Leave all emotions aside. Leave in how I feel aside and
just simply believe what God says in the record that He has
given us. Have you seen that about yourself? very face of my utter confusion
and my doubts and my anxieties and my disappointments, to simply
believe the record that God has given of His Son. Feelings. Emotions. I never read in God's Word or
he ever condemned a man for not feeling. Have you? The only place I know that a
man depended upon his feelings was Isaac when Jacob deceived
him. I never read where God refused
to save a man or forgive a man because the man didn't feel something. Never read it. We never read
where God refused to give life to a man because he didn't feel. The best warrant for faith is
not feelings. The best warrant for faith is
because God said it. Look here what he says in 1 John
chapter 3 and verse 23. Look at this. 1 John chapter 3 and verse 23. And this is His commandment. But I don't feel. He didn't ask
you to feel. Let's be honest about it. We
put a lot of stock in our fillings. God says nothing about fillings.
This is His commandment. What? that you should believe
on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another
as He gave us commandment. God will not condemn you for
not feeling anything, but He will condemn you for not believing
His commandment. He won't hold anything against
you for not expressing any joys or depression or any other feeling. But He will condemn you for not
believing the record that He has given of His Son. He doesn't ask us to feel. He
commands us to believe the record that He has given of His Son. And if we believe that, were
saved. Believe the record and be saved.
And believe in the record, we can have assurance of our salvation.
And when we don't believe the record, it doesn't matter what
we feel. Does it? It's sad when men profess to
be saved, don't know who saved them, how they were Why they
were saved? These things are written. Listen
to this. These things are written. Why
did God write His record concerning His Son? These things are written
that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. This is the order now that we
look at these things in. God testified of them. He wrote
them down in a book. And he says, I did that that
you might believe. That comes first, doesn't it?
Believe that Jesus is the cross, the Son of God. And here's the
effects of believing. You might have life through His
name. And he says here in our text
in verse Verse 13 of John chapter 5, 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. Brothers and sisters, the
older I get, the more I am content to merely believe the record
and lay feelings aside and just believe the record. Because the
record's true. The record's true. One last scripture. You'll turn
to John chapter 6. We'll close by reading this scripture.
John chapter 6. Look in verse 66. John chapter 6 and verse 66.
From that time, many of his disciples went back. They went away. They walked no more with the
Lord Jesus Christ. Then said Jesus unto the twelve,
Will you also go away? Then Peter answered and said
unto him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of
eternal life. And look at this. And we believe. and are sure." Now, that's a
good order, isn't it? Why didn't he say, We're sure,
therefore we believe? That's not the order. It doesn't
come that way, does it? We believe and believe in. We have the assurance. We're
sure that Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living There's the record. Believe it
and be saved. I was reading a little article
the other day, F.B. Meyer, over in London, many years ago. He was speaking to a lady about
salvation and how it's not earned, it's not merited, it's merely
received. It's received into the heart.
It's a gracious reception. And she disagreed with him. She
didn't understand what he was saying. She invited him to tea,
and they were setting at tea in her house. And she set a cup
of tea in front of him on the table. And just a while later,
he said, Madam, may I please have a cup of tea? And she looked
at the cup in front of him and said, Why, Mr. Myers, you do
have a cup of tea. He never said anything for a
few minutes, then finally he said again, will you please give
me a cup of tea? And she said, Mr. Meyers, sir,
please, you do have a cup of tea. And he waited a few minutes
and he said, please, I am so thirsty, would you please get
me a cup of tea? And she started to say, sir,
you do have a cup of tea. And she caught herself. And she
said, oh, Mr. Meyers, I see it all now. What you mean is the Lord's blessing,
His power, His salvation, they're all right here before me. Yet I am asking and asking and
asking instead of taking and taking and taking. There'll come a time when we'll
quit asking and we'll believe. This is the record. Believe it
and be saved. Let's pray.