Testimony
Blessed Assurance • Sermon • Submitted
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It is truly an honor and privilege to be given this opportunity to look at the Word of God together as a church.
I want to be model honesty for the church and say that this has been a hard week. One of our church members has gone home to be with the Lord. It is hard for us a church, but even harder for the family. And in the face of such difficulty we are given an opportunity. We are given the opportunity to practice what we preach. For the past 11 weeks or so I have been up here talking about the blessed assurance of salvation there is in Christ Jesus. We have been looking at how we may KNOW that we have eternal life. We have been given the doctrinal tests of being obedient, clinging to and discerning truth, and last but most definitely not least, love. Loving God and loving His people.
Church, now is the time to show the Love of God to His people. As the McCullough family has been dealing with this loss, there have been two silver linings that I have witnessed. Number one, the church has been here to support them. While there is nothing we could do to make the pain of loss go away, we have been able to show love. May we continue to do so. Durbin Memorial Baptist Church is a loving church, and we need to live up to that distinction now more than ever.
The other silver lining to what we have gone through this week, is that our dear brother Eddie is no longer in pain. No more heart troubles, no more procedures to be had. He has been made whole and is enjoying the full presence of the Lord. While we shed tears, brother Eddie is kicked back with at least that slight grin he was known to have, experiencing the glory of heaven.
Allow me to say that this is more than a platitude. I care too much about the integrity of the pulpit and the charge that has been given me to preach the true gospel, to offer anyone a false hope for the sake of just making them feel better.
I could not say these things about someone if I was not sincere. Brother Eddie is at home with the Lord. How can I be so sure?
Because Jesus said this:
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
Whosoever hears the words of Christ and believes that Jesus was sent by God the Father to be the perfect sacrifice and pay the debt of our sins has eternal life. That person does not come into judgment, they will not be seen as unrighteous before a holy, righteous God, but rather they pass from death and into life! When those who know the Lord pass from this life, they go on to experience life more abundant than we could ever even comprehend.
Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
Those who know the Lord experience the ultimate blessing when they go on from this body to be at home with the Lord.
I am certain of this. Eddie has gone on to be with many others we know, but even more than being reunited with other Christians in glory, he is with the Lord. The Lord of all comfort, the Lord of all blessings, the Lord of All.
We know this because we know Brother Eddie knew and loved the Lord and that is the promise that we have been given from the Lord Himself as we read in John 5 just a moment ago.
And you might say that all of that is all well and good, but how can we know that this Jesus, the Christ as we call Him, how can we know that this Jesus can deliver on such a promise?
Today in our text from 1 John we are given an apologetic of Jesus Christ being the Son of God. Apologetics are the reasonings to prove something. Today in the book of 1 John we are given the proof that Jesus of Nazareth IS the Son of God.
In days passed, the existence of God would have been a given. Today it is not so assumed by the general populace. I don’t want to dwell too long on providing the rationale for the existence of God, but briefly, one of the simplest proof is if everything comes from something, then everything had to come from something. That something being God.
Lift up your eyes on high and see:
who created these?
He who brings out their host by number,
calling them all by name;
by the greatness of his might
and because he is strong in power,
not one is missing.
O Lord, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom have you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
Here is the sea, great and wide,
which teems with creatures innumerable,
living things both small and great.
God created all this existence that we enjoy out His great grace. His hand is seen all throughout Scripture. His handiwork is seen in His creation.
He has given us His word as recorded in the Scriptures. His prophets spoke of a coming Messiah. That Messiah, that deliverer, that great hope is none other than Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Today, as we walk through the text of 1 John 5:6-12, we will see the proof that God has given us that Jesus is the Son of God, and the great Savior of whosoever believeth in Him.
We are given a testimony from God the Father on who Jesus is and why we should believe that HE is the only Savior.
Let’s begin hearing this testimony in verse 6.
This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.
In this first verse, John is giving us the rationale for why Jesus is THE ONE. Some translations even replace that He in the beginning with the phrase THE ONE. So it could read, This is THE ONE who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. John wants to make it very clear that Jesus Christ is THE ONE. He is the One who fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies. He is the One Savior. He is the One Messiah. Everything else mentioned in this verse is given to support this idea.
I cannot overemphasize enough that Jesus Christ is THE ONE and the only one. We will touch on this more later on, but there is no other way, no one better no one higher.
John is telling us that the blood and the water prove that He is the one, the Son of God.
But what does this mean? How do water and blood testify that Jesus is the Son of God?
There has been a bit of theological debate on the matter. Some suggest that the water and the blood refer to the substances we see flow from Jesus’ side after He died on the cross. The soldiers wanted to be certain that He passed away and so they pierced His side with a spear and water and blood flowed out. We talked about this during our Easter series for a bit, and it is a medical confirmation of His passing due to the nature of being on the cross. But I do not believe that this is what John is referring to, primarily because of the point that he is making in the section of Scripture. He is using this verse to confirm the deity, the God-ness of Jesus. The water and blood that flowed from His side is a greater affirmation of the humanity of Jesus.
Others suggest that the water and the blood refer to the ordinances of the church, baptism and the Lord’s supper. People in this camp would suggest that when we baptize and partake in the Lord’s Supper we are reaffirming what John is saying in this verse. However, as one commenter noted, “Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are the church’s witness to Christ, not the Father’s.”
So instead John is using the water and the blood to point to particular moments in which God the Father has testified that Jesus is indeed His Son.
The water is referring to Jesus’ actual baptism. The blood refers His death on the cross and particular in both of these instances we see God the Father supernaturally testifying that Jesus is the Son of God. These two events are the bookends of Jesus’ earthly ministry and in both the Father testifies of the Son.
Before we expound on that, I want it to be known that John is intentionally and importantly repetitious when he says Jesus came by water and the blood and then he says not by the water only but the water and the blood. I’ve mentioned throughout this series that John is committed to truth and dispelling false teachings. One of the heresies in that time was that Jesus was a regular man who had the Spirit of God fall on Him at His baptism but that before the crucifixion that Spirit left Jesus, meaning that the lifeless body on the cross was just that of a simple man. They denied that Jesus was really anything of note in and of Himself and was rather just a vessel for the Spirit of God as His Anointed one. But this cannot be. If Jesus was going to be the propitiation, the atonement, for the sins of man, it would have to be the Son of God, fully God fully man, who gave up His life on the cross. “If He did not possess His divine nature on the cross, Jesus could not and did not conquer sin and death for believers.” But we are told in 2 Cor 5:21
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
So in His life and death, Jesus was and is the Son of God.
The Father testifies to this at the baptism of Jesus.
Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him.
John the Baptist was at the river Jordan preaching as the forerunner of Christ instructing people to participate in a “baptism of repentance.”
John knew that the Messiah was coming. He was telling everyone to repent of their sins and to give a public testimony of their repentance through the waters of baptism. In the Jewish culture such a rite was reserved for Gentiles that were joining the Jewish faith, so when these Jews responded to John’s call they were showing that they were no better than gentiles. They, too, were in need of repentance.
But here we find a tension. Jesus, the sinless one, had no need for repentance! John the baptist acknowledges this:
John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”
John knew himself to be the repenting sinner. Why would Jesus allow John the Baptist to baptize Him?
But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented.
Jesus was modeling obedience. “He publicly identified with sinners.” He modeled perfect submission to the will of the Father. “His perfect obedience made Him the sinless sacrifice whose death made atonement for sin.”
Then we see God the Father testify:
And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
When in 1 John we read that the water is testimony to Jesus being the Son of God, it is this moment, witnessed and recorded in Scripture that he is referring to. God audibly proclaims Jesus is the beloved Son.
Now let’s look at the blood.
God the Father supernaturally proclaims the deity of Jesus throughout the events of the crucifixion.
Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
God sends darkness to cover the land at the moment in which the wrath owed to sinners is being poured out on His Son.
Later on we read
And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.
God the Father was manifesting an amazing testimony as to what is happening to His Son. It was compelling to those who saw!
When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”
So the water and the blood are compelling testimonies to Jesus being who He said He was, none other than the very Son of God. But John gives us more testimony of the Son of God in verse 6 of 1 John 5.
This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.
The Spirit testifies and the Spirit is the truth. “The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth in that He is true, and therefore, the source and revealer of divine truth, particularly about Jesus Christ. The Spirit was involved at Jesus’ conception, baptism, temptation, and throughout His ministry.”
you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
Jesus did the will of the Father with the power of the Holy Spirit. We can see through the testimony of the water, the blood, and the Spirit, that Jesus is the Son of God. That is what we see in the next verses of 1 John.
For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree.
The Spirit, the water and blood agree. God the Father testifies that Jesus is His Son. Jesus came and accomplished the will of the Father, restoring sinners to the righteous God.
Before we move on to the next part of the Testimony, I want to just quickly mention a difference that we see in these from the ESV from what we see in the KJV. The King James Version has an extra line that refers to the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit agreeing. This is absent from the ESV and most other translations, not because there is a denial of the Trinity, but rather, more recent evidence that points to that language being absent from all of the oldest original manuscripts that have been recovered today. If you want to know more about that I’d be happy to sit down with you, or you can look at what is called the Johannine Comma. I can tell you this, with or without that verse, the Scriptures testify to the truthfulness of the Trinity.
Let’s return to our attention to the testimony we see in 1 John
If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son.
Some of you all may think this is crazy, but I have always wanted to serve Jury Duty. Now, that may change one the opportunity presents itself. But I am just fascinated by the judicial system. I think it’d be incredible to watch all of the witnesses come through and testify to the events in question. When we are watching a trial people come forward and swear to the truth. Conviction and acquittals are won and lost upon the testimony of men.
And yet, we all know that the testimony of man is not always reliable. I was looking around online and found a documented list of 46 instances in which someone was convicted to death row from mistaken or perjured eye-witness accounts. That's 46 people sentenced to death on false testimony. And yet we still have to rely on the testimony of man in criminal proceedings.
John rights that we receive the testimony. We accept the testimony of man and for the most part assume it is true. However, it is proven that in our fallen world, man will lie. This plays out in the legal world, but it also happens in the theological world. People are quick to make up views of God to serve their own interests. This is nothing new. Even in Jesus’ day, there were those who make up lies about Him.
When Jesus was on trial many witnesses arose against Him.
For many bore false witness against him, but their testimony did not agree.
Many people are quick to slander the Lord and stand against the truth of Scripture because they are offended by the truth of the gospel.
Spurgeon wrote:
“When they bring out a new book to disprove Genesis, and another to evaporate the atonement, do not be afraid. As long as the gospel is in the world the devil will find somebody to write books against it. Take no notice of them; they cannot stand against facts. A philosopher once wrote a book to prove that there is no such thing as matter, and a certain reader believed it until he happened to knock his head against the bedpost, and then he abandoned the theory.
When a man feels the power of the Holy Spirit, or the power of the inner life, he does not care to argue. He has a homespun philosophy of facts that answers his purpose better.”
If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son.
The testimony of God, given through the water, the blood, and the Spirit are greater than any testimony of man. And what He is testifying to should fill us all with hope When we grasp this message:
Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
God testifies, God proclaims to this lost and dying world that there is life in His Son.
There is so much that we can pull out from this section of verses and I’m going to try briefly relay all of the theological goodness we see right here.
First, there in the beginning we see that whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. This means that you when you understand Jesus as your Lord and Savior, that you have been given the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth, so help ye God. Jesus said I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. When you have Jesus, you have truth. And you should never be ashamed of the truth of Jesus Christ. We’ve been given the truth in the Spirit of Christ and we sharpen our discernment with the Word of God. Christian, you have the testimony of Christ do not be ashamed.
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
There in verse 11, we are told that the testimony is that God has given us the eternal life and that this life in His Son. It is because of this verse that I have confidence in the eternal position of our brother Eddie. Jesus came and lived that spotless, righteous life in perfect submission to the Father. He humbled Himself to the cross and inso took on the debt of sin for all those who would believe in Him.
GOD gave us eternal life in His Son. Salvation is the free gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. When we realize what Jesus did to provide salvation for those who believe in Him, it should leave us humbled and prostrate before our God. GOD GAVE us eternal life. All those who have received such a gift did not earn it at all, it was given. Such an outpouring of grace is almost incomprehensible to us.
But this should give you hope. Why? Because whoever you are, whatever you’ve been through, the sins that have plagued your life, you can have hope because God gives undeserving sinners eternal life all the time. The ground is level at the foot of the cross. In Colossians 3 it says that Here there is no Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave free, but Christ is all and in all. This means that in Christ there are no cultural, demographical, financial, social, or any other dividing line in this earth that could prevent God from bringing you into the family of God. The God who created the universe, the only thing to exist outside of existence, can save you. And He saves through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ, fully God and Fully man, who died and rose again.
But as we continue to look at these three verses, we must notice an important them in verses 10 and 12. In the second half of verse 10 it says that whoever does not believe in God has made Him a liar, for not believing the testimony that God has given about His Son. Then verse 12 tells us that whoever has the Son has life and the one who does not have the Son does not have life.
This draws our attention to the binary nature of salvation. In our world of forced inclusivity, thinking that anyone could be left out anything seem outrageous. The truth that there are those who will not be saved and given eternal life seem utterly preposterous. But that is because we have taken the grace of God and the goodness of His creation for granted.
Know this, there is coming a day when we all will face judgment. The Bible says it is appointed for man to die once and after that comes judgment. On the day of Judgment one thing will matter most. Did you know the Son of God whom the Father sent? Did you truly believe that He is the Son of God who bring salvation to those who believe in Him? Because you have heard the gospel truth today. God has testified that Jesus is the only way to Salvation. If you deny this truth, you are calling God a liar. And the God of truth will not be called a liar.
Once more, here is the truth you need to know. Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God and the Christ. There is no other way to salvation but through faith in Him. Our sin incurs the wrath of God but through faith in Christ that wrath was poured out on Christ in your stead. So let me ask, is your faith in Christ? If it has not been, and you are understanding the need to have faith in Him, come today. During this next hymn of response, come down and pray with me. That is the first step in publicly confessing Jesus Christ as Savior and in the moment you truly place your faith in Him, you are given that blessed eternal life. This earthly life is fragile and fleeting. Do not wait. Come today.