The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing But the Truth
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Passage- 1 John 5:6-13
Attention-
What are some of the most popular american fibs?
Like...- I’ll start my diet tomorrow.
How about...- Give me your number and the doctor will call you right back.
Or...- One size fits all.
- Leave your resume and we’ll keep it on file.
- This hurts me more than it hurts you.
- I just need five minutes of your time.
- Your table will be ready in a few minutes.
- Open wide, it won’t hurt a bit.
Introduction-
We hear so many 1/2 truths in our culture we can become numb to it
We have said it here before that a 1/2 truth is a whole lie
In these verses John is combating some 1/2 truths
He may not be fighting the email that says that if you send them your social security number they will send you a million dollars but a 1/2 truth that is so much more dangerous
John is combating the error of a 1/2 gospel
You know what a 1/2 gospel is don’t you
If a 1/2 truth equals a whole lie what does a 1/2 gospel equal?
A whole lie…no gospel at all
Main truth-
How do we know we are preaching and/or receiving the pure gospel?
John will give us three truths that are essential in the Gospel of Jesus
He will refer to these as witnesses
Transition #1-
What is being taught? (Explain the passage and draw out the 1st century truth)
Verse 6
Referring to Jesus and His victory over sin and death in verse 5 John describes for us the means by which we have that victory through Jesus
Through the water and the blood
What does John mean by the water and the blood?
There are several possible explanations but I only accept one of them.
My interpretation of this is referring to Jesus’ earthly ministry and that the water points back to His baptism and the blood points to His death
Then John makes an interesting statement…not by water only…what is the purpose of this
John wants to emphasize the need for the blood atonement
We don’t know exactly which false gospel these teachers were trying to spread but it was not a gospel that accepted the blood sacrifice of Jesus.
Not by water only takes the emphasis off the water and prioritizes the blood
Verse 7&8
Here we get the third witness …the Spirit
The three agree as one
The water…the Father calls out at Jesus’ baptism “This is my son in whom I am well pleased
The blood…Jesus’ statements on the cross
Father forgive them for they know not what they do
It is finished
The Spirit
He is the witness in the life of the believer today and is a reminder of Jesus’ ascension into heaven
The HS could not come until Jesus ascended John John 16:7
We again have the gospel pictured here
The sinless life of jesus is pictured in the obedience at His baptism
His death is picture in the blood
And his ascension to the right hand of the father is pictured in the Holy Spirit
Verse 9
John continues his rational
You listen to me and you listen to other human witnesses how much more ought we to listen to God when He speaks
What does He speak about? JESUS & the GOSPEL
Verse 10
If you have placed your faith in Jesus’ sinless life, death, resurrection, and ascension then the same witness is in you
The water and the blood continue to testify with each should who believes its testimony
And the Holy Spirit takes up residence in us, sealing us till the day of redemption and guiding us and convicting us until then
Verse 11
The testimony of the three witnesses is boiled down to this
Jesus was born, died, rose again and ascended into heaven for everyone to have the opportunity to place their faith in Him for the forgiveness of sins.
Verse 12
This is the line in the sand
Not only “Do you believe in Jesus”, that is not enough
It is “What do you believe about Jesus”
If you have the Son (Jesus) you have eternal life, if you don’t have Him you do not have eternal life.
John is telling his reader that all that he has written, in the epistle so far, and in these last few verses is for the purpose of ensuring that we believe the pure gospel and not a watered down version of it
Transition #2-
How do we understand this in our context? (Bridge 1st century truth to today)
Why is all of this so important?
Because if you do not believe the truths of Jesus that are taught in the Bible you have a false gospel that is insufficient to save.
The truths that John has shared in these verses are just as important to us here this morning as they were the moment John wrote them.
We have no less false teacher then John was battling when he wrote 1 John
There are those who want to modernize the cross
Make it a bit less crude…a bit less bloody
There are those who want to bypass the blood of Jesus by saying that so long as you are baptized you will be in heaven
The gospel of Jesus does include believing in the everything up to His death but as soon as you take away the death burial and resurrection of Jesus you no longer have the Gospel!!
And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.
Once we remove the blood of Jesus from the Gospel we have no remission of sins
The purpose of the Gospel is the remission of sins and we NEED the blood for that
In John 14:6 Jesus says
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
His the only way because He is the only one who lived a sinless life, died and rose again
Without all three of these we do not have our sins forgiven
Once we make our own way and change the truth of the gospel we no longer have eternal life.
It is through Jesus’ eternal life that we have the promise of eternal life
Transition #3-
How do we live this out in our context? (Application of the biblical truth to us personally)
How should this change my thinking. (Mental understanding and/or reasoning?)
It may seem appealing to water down the gospel
After all, wouldn’t it make it more appealing without all the blood and suffering?
Maybe from our human perspective
But our wisdom and our works cannot save us
We have the truths of the Bible and can stand on the promises and truths we find in it.
If you know the truth and only share the part you think they will like what kind of witness are you
Think about this...
You are called to the stand to testify in a court case
You tell most of the truth but you keep parts out because you aren’t sure they would accept them
They might not believe you
Or think you are crazy
What kind of witness would that make you?
A false witness
The same is true with the gospel
If we change the truth of the gospel to appeal to anyone we become a false witness
A false teacher
John tells us in verse 13
These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
John was writing a letter to correct wrong teaching and wrong thinking
I’m sure it wasn’t popular with everyone
But he gives us the purpose for why he confronts them with this letter
He loves them too much to allow them to believe anything other than the pure gospel that brings eternal life and that eternal life comes through the blood of Jesus
John is not only challenging his readers to believe and preach a pure gospel he is challenging us to keep the gospel pure as well
Jesus is the only way
He is the only truth
He is the only way to eternal life
If we change any of these we no linger have hope
A watered down gospel make keep some happy in this life but that happiness will end at the grave.
Closing song-
635- I Have Decided To Follow Jesus