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First John 5:00 and 5:00.
First John 5 and verse five. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ, not by water only, but by water and blood.
And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is improved. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. There are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit and the water and the blood. And these three agree in one. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater.
For this is the witness of God, which he has testified of his Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God has made him a liar, because he believe it not the record that God gave of his Son.
And this is the record that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
He that hath his Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God hath not light. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that he may know that ye have eternal life, and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God.
And this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to His will, he heareth thoughts.
And if we know that he hear us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.
Any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. Where is the sin unto death? I do not say that he shall pray for it. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not unto death. We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not.
But he is begotten of God, keeps himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.
And we know that we are of God.
And the whole world lieth in wickedness.
And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding that we may know Him that is true, and we are in him that is true even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.
Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.
Was that question, brother Lauren, that we agreed to table at the end of the last meeting? Would you mind repeating it?
Over the world and my question was, is that a an event or a process that goes on?
It continues.
I would just suggest the thought that others I'm sure could add to, but I appreciated Doug's remark at the end of the last meeting calling our attention to 1St John One.
Where it mentions the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eye and the pride of light.
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And pointing out that those are the weapons by which Satan uses or those are the weapons which Satan uses in order to gain the victory over us. He tried his best to get that victory over the Lord Jesus in the temptations in the wilderness, didn't he? And.
Failed utterly, because there was nothing in that Blessed One to respond to those temptations. But sad to say, there still is in you and me. And if we allow the old self, the old sinful nature, to respond to those temptations, then we will find that instead of overcoming, we will be overcome.
And I wonder myself if.
It is.
At the same time, an accomplished fact in our blessed Savior for us. And yet at the same time, it is progressive as far as our perfect standing. Uh, we are, I believe, dead and risen with Christ. We are identified with him in his death and resurrection. That's what we express when we are baptized and then.
We say, as it were, now I have new life in Christ, and I want to walk in the good of it. But which one of us would stand up and say, And ever since I clearly saw that truth, I have done so. Ever since I saw clearly that I was dead and risen with Christ, that I was dead to sin, but alive unto God, I have carried that out.
And thus I have overcome. I don't think any believer here would talk like that. So it is a progressive thing which for some of us at least takes a lifetime to learn and learn it well. And I suppose that is why an age servant of the Lord when asked by a younger brother, and this of course was back in the 1800s. What advice do you have for a young man starting out on the Christian pathway? He said simply learn well. 4 words.
The flesh profiteth nothing. We don't learn that overnight. We may learn it, shall we say, objectively as far as the Word of God is concerned, but experimentally we learn it in our lives and sometimes have to realize to our horror, what the flesh is capable of. So am I right in saying that in one sense it is an accomplished fact? We can take that position.
But on the other hand, it is a progressive thing in our lives as we go along to become an overcomer.
I'd like to think too, that it's perhaps not Even so much a question of time when we may learn it or not, but it is a question of what is, like Don said before, abstract or characteristic. What is the characteristic of faith in relation to this world?
It characteristically overcomes the world. That's the character of it. And so it may be.
That I act a different particular time in faith that maybe like you say later on, maybe.
I'll let the things that are in the world have too much.
Influence in my life, and I don't act in faith, but the faith that the believer has is characteristically a faith that overcomes and that's the point I think here.
Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world. So it's what God has put into our into our hearts is that new life. And that new life is through faith. And that faith that he has given you and me is a faith that is an overcoming thing. So don't say well, that other person over there, he has so much faith.
Wonderful as life, yes, but you have the same faith. And if that faith is of God, that faith that you have is an overcoming thing. Remember that.
I'd like to refer to something. It's not exactly the fully the point of this verse, but.
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Related to it and in Daniel chapter 3.
Daniel chapter 3 and verse 16. That's a story I think most everyone in the room knows. When Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were facing King Nebuchadnezzar and they were refusing to bow down before the idol that he had set up, requiring everyone to worship. And then he said, well, then I'm going to.
If you don't bow down, I'm going to put you in the burning fiery furnace. So in verse 16 it says, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said unto the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer them in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of thine hands, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods nor worship.
The golden image which thou set up.
They had an overcoming faith.
But part of it is that if the faith is in the right object, not so much how much faith there is or that looking at the faith itself, but if the faith is in the right object, then the end result will be overcome. And so we all have a faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and I trust we all do. But having that faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
They said to the King, he will deliver us. He might deliver them by taking them out of the King's hand through death, or he might deliver them as he did deliver them. But no matter what means God chose, they knew that because their hands were in the hands, their lives were in the hands of God. The King didn't have power over them. And if our faith is in the Lord Jesus Christ, which every believers is to some extent.
Umm, it has to be to be a saving faith. Then the end result of it will be the world is overcome. We may fail in individual acts in our lives by lack of faith not being resulting the final result of it all. There's no one that really is trusting in the Lord Jesus whose faith will not overcome that world. That would tend to hold them here.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were not delivered from the furnace, they were delivered through it. So often we want to be delivered from the first a certain difficult set of circumstances.
God in his wisdom does things differently than we do rather and so he delivered them through it. But in that and this is what has come as a.
Comfort to my own soul. If he allows the particular difficult set of circumstances, it's because he wants to make himself more real to you and me. And so I don't think she dragged Meeshak and admitted would have missed it for anything. If you ask them afterwards, was it worth it? They were walking in the company of the Son of God through those planes. What an experience.
It was well worth it. And so if God allows a trial in your life and we don't like it, it's something we shrink from. But if we can remember that God in his wisdom does things differently for a purpose of making himself more real to us.
Another comment I'd like to make in Chapter 2 or Doug was mentioning this morning at the end of the meeting.
In verse 15.
He says love not the world, neither the things that are in the world and then notice this part.
If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. And I love to think of it brethren, when you were mentioning the temptation and how the Lord Jesus was tempted.
By those three things, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of light, what was it that was before the Lord Jesus? It was the love of the Father. There was a man who walked in the consciousness at all times of the love of the Father. Was there any danger that he could fall into those things? Absolutely nothing.
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No sin in him at all.
But it was the love of the Father that was his constant enjoyment and rather to realize to walk through this world in the consciousness of the fact we have a Father that loves us with an infinite love.
Is what will keep us from giving in to all those things that are in the world.
In verse 19 we have to work in our chapter it says and we know that the we are God and the whole world lieth in wickedness or in the wicked one. That shows us the condition of those that are controlled through those three things by Satan. He has a developed world that he can manipulate and controls and man is not a free moral agent there.
Uh, any sense to do what he wants, but the Corinthian has the, has the, the secret deliverance through the Son of God and faith in him. And I was thinking of that example that was.
Dead right? We checked the bending though.
Umm. They didn't know how the Lord was going to deliver them out of those circumstances, umm.
Uh, Whether by death or by deliverance, uh, from the fire. And they didn't, I don't believe their thought of overcoming there was that they were gonna stand up and be a noble testimony.
Uh, to again, Nebuchadnezzar or the power that he was wielding at that time. And I don't believe rather than that that is the thought here of overcoming in our, in our chapter that the Christian always lives a, a valiant life that is always contradicting and showing the deliverance that God would give us. Sometimes we don't see the deliverance. Umm, we go through God. Let's just go through.
But the fact that we're not manipulated by safety because we don't follow the lust of the flesh and pride of life and the lust of the eye, uh, gives, gives us that deliverance. And we don't know the Lord might come and take us home. We might be called to pass through that. Uh, many things can happen to us and nobody see an evident evidence of overcoming in our life.
But to go on consistently.
Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Not following the lust that would entice us and thus enslave us is in effect really overcoming, no matter how God made me do it in one way or another. And and I say that because sometimes we don't feel like we're overcomers rather than we feel like we're weak and we fail so often. And yet, brethren.
In the end, the Lord is going to have every one of us home perfectly overcoming in the end, but there is that faith would give us that confidence to go on in whatever circumstances without maybe seeing grand deals evidences of an overcomer in our life.
You get that in the end of Hebrews thir 11, don't you, Doug?
Where it talks about all these?
Witnesses of faith whence the violence of fire. Perhaps that's a reference to Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Escape the edge of the sword out of weakness, remained strong, waxed valiant and fight. And then verse 2036 says and others.
Had trial of cruel mockings and scourging. Yeah, more of more over of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were attempted. They were slain of the sword.
Wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destined to the afflicted, tormented, whom the world is not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. Now notice 39 These all having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise. So they didn't get outward deliverance, did they? But they got a good report, and.
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Faith is that way. I just like to say further that faith always is based on God's word.
Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, and in the world we live in, always a constant temptation to be guided by things that we see.
But Scripture says we walk by faith, not by sight.
We have a tremendous example of of that in Abraham and Lot, both men that had true faith.
But Lot was guided by the sight of his eyes. He lifted up his eyes and shows the well watered plains of Sodom, Gomorrah and went in that direction.
Ended up losing everything.
Abraham.
Simply went by what God had told him.
What blessing there is to this day from his faith. So it's a challenge in the world we live in. We're constantly presented with situations.
That we can see and evaluate. And we're told here in the United States to learn by your circumstances, evaluate things. Yes, we shouldn't be. We shouldn't ignore circumstances, but walking by faith is not walking by sight.
It's letting the word of God dictate. Going by that book, those three friends of Daniel, they knew that the Scriptures definitely prohibited bowing down to a graven image. So it was clear in their minds with their what it was that they had to do. They could not bow. They could say, oh, just a little bow just to get us off the hook.
No way.
And what?
A testimony result.
Verse five ends with the question.
Jesus who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
Jesus is the Son of God is the testimony that has been given, and the thought of how that testimony has been given to man is in the verses which follow. And the result of it is some belief that Jesus is the Son of God, and those who believe in verse 12 have life. Any man who will not believe that Jesus is the Son of God does not have the life that John is presenting to us.
And that's the way with God. God gives testimony concerning a fact that he presents to man, and then he gives witnesses to that fact, and man is responsible to accept it.
Tonight, if the Lord leaves us here, the gospel of grace, that's a message from God will be presented in this room.
And there will be witness to the truth of that message given with it.
And everyone in the audience will be held accountable to God to believe the message that comes from himself. All who believe receive the benefit from God of the message, and all who reject it also reject the benefit that is given to us of that message. And so here he says to those he's writing Jesus, who is he?
The Son of God. That's the question, and the answer is given in the testimony of God, which follows.
There's a practical manifestation in our lives as to whether or not we do believe in a practical way that Jesus is the Son of God. And if I really believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that he's going to reign over all.
And that every knee shall bow, every tongue confess.
Then I would walk perhaps a little differently than I walk and in a practical way, I wouldn't lay hold of that which, uh, this world has that we've often even in these meetings mentioned this, uh, love, not the world neither the things that are in the world. And So what is the world? It's the political world that really is, uh, raised up and under the influence of Satan himself. It's the, uh, religious world.
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It's the, uh, business world, perhaps even you might say the financial world, all that, uh, this world has to live in independence of God, while the heart of the believer is not to be taken up with that system, that, and the one there were to recognize in a practical way that, uh, it's not God's world. It's, uh, under the influence of another, the enemy of our Savior, the Lord Jesus. And so if we walk in a practical way, we have his commandments before us are his instructions.
Divine instructions written for us to captivate our hearts and to make himself known than we walk in a practical way and overcome this world in a practical way. I just want to point out too in Revelation chapter 20 and verse two that in this conflict of faith.
We have the Mrs. and John's ministry as well. The Revelation chapter 20 he he gives a description of the enemy.
And, uh, the enemy of our souls in Revelation 2 and or 20 and verse two, he wants to overcome the believers, but uh, it's faith that overcomes. So verse two, he laid hold on the old dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan and bound him 1000 years. Well, there's four names of the enemy Satan here given. And so the first one is the dragon.
And his character there is the character of a destroyer. He wants to destroy. He doesn't create anything. We know the creator God. He is the one that loves us and created us, that we might be new creations in Christ and might reflect the glory of His son. But the dragon, he's a destroyer who wants to destroy. That's Revelation Chapter 9 and verse 11. His name is given there as Apollon and Abaddon, and then as the old serpent.
His subtlety Revel or Genesis chapter 3.
And umm, how he comes, He's a deceiver and he's subtle. And then the John's Gospel chapter 8 says, uh, he's a liar and the father of it. And so he desires to deceive, not only destroy, but to deceive. And umm, then it says in the devil, and so is the devil. He's a tempter. He came, we just mentioned in connection with the Lord Jesus in chapter 4 of Matthew and Luke's Gospel chapter four, he came to the Lord.
And tempted him, tested him, but the Lord was pure gold. There was no, uh, alloy in his moral character. He's God himself. And so then it says Satan. And so as Satan, that's Job chapter one. He's an adversary and is a roaring lion. He walketh about seeking whom he may devour. And so we overcome in our Christian lives if we have Christ before us and we see before us by faith.
That he is the Son of God, that he is the one that went to the cross and defeated that enemy. And we desire to walk in a practical way in reflection of his glory. And the enemy is going to try to stamp out that light. If you bear a light in this world, a testimony that says Jesus is the Son of God, there's going to be a light to this world. And the enemy is going to oppose that. He's going to seek to destroy it, stamp it out, but by faith, as we've read, and Hebrews Chapter 11.
It's going to be a work of God to preserve us or to bring us home to Himself, depending on what his choice is in that opposition.
Like to comment too that umm, the importance of having Jesus, the Son of God is the object of my son in connection with overcoming the world. And that I want to repeat a comment that Brother Armstead varied made many years ago in a meeting like this.
He said you can just get just as dirty hugging, fighting a chimney sweep is hugging him. Well, I don't know about the younger ones and chimney sweeps be fully just let's just say they get pretty dirty and sooty cleaning out chimneys. And if you try to find them, you engage in them, you're gonna get dirty in the fight. Or if you choose to embrace them, you're gonna get dirty at the same time. And I believe the point of it was is overcoming isn't a matter of fighting the enemy.
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It isn't trying to fight Satan or fight the world or something. Uh, you can love the world or you can fight the world. But I believe his point was what really overcomes is having an object outside of the world that draws the heart away from it. So you're not occupied with it at all. And so we can be overcome by trying to say, well, I'm not going to give in to that temptation or I'm not going to do that thing. And the more we think about what it is, we're not going to do.
The more the flesh in US wants to do it and so the temptation even gets stronger in us to do something and we don't get practical overcoming.
Walk by that means. But if our hearts are taken up with something else, and in this case Jesus the Son of God, if my heart and my affections and my thoughts are occupied with him, then.
In the practical result of it is, is I'm not thinking about the temptations at all. They're they're not before my eye, they're not before my heart. I have something else that I'm enjoying and that's what's attracting my heart. And that results in overcoming in a practical way. But if if I don't have them, then I have nothing to overcome. That is there's no power in me to overcome.
We can't overcome the world in yourself. You don't have to. We don't have the power in ourselves. The power is of the Spirit of God. But the the Spirit of God puts Christ before the soul and occupies us with him. And then there is the true overcoming and so he these verses which follow are to make sure that we recognize the testimony given and believe it as to who he is. That's true, we believe it.
Believers that Jesus is the Son of God. That's one reason I started with saying that the 20th verse is my choice verse of the Bible. I just like to read the 20th verse and then make a comment on the aversion. John 16 which is related here. We've already read the 19th verse. This is what we know that we are of God.
Do you know that?
We are of God and the whole world lies in wickedness, wicked one. Then this verse we know that the Son of God is come. That's a peculiar verse. That's a peculiar verb is come. You don't hardly talk about that things like that now.
It is perpetual.
It's it's praying. God always is he and he is coming to the person of the Lord Jesus.
He was holding a salvation in his arms. That's intimate. Do you know that the Son of God is?
Come, there's more here. He's given us an understanding that we may know. You've got an understanding what for that you may know? Know what?
That.
That we may know Him. That is true, absolutely true. He is the truth. The Spirit is the truth in the sixth verse of this chapter, and the Word is truth. Then it goes on as we are in Him. That is true. That's where you're placed, right near Him. Just as I'm sitting near Des Moines. The Lord is here.
Always, always. Now let's go look at the 16th of John and see what it says about the Spirit of God.
Because it's the same verb. Uh, John 16 and verse 13.
The Lord has told me here about the future at that time.
And he said, John 1613 Howbeit, when he the Spirit of truth is come, you use the same test as perpetual, perpetual God always is, always is.
He's always right here.
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When he has come.
He will guide you into all truth. What a tremendous value that is.
Oh, let's see if you can hold back anything. The truth God gives it and.
He shall not speak independently of himself. He talks along with God the Father and God the Son the the Trinity.
And He will show you things to come. Do you know anything about the future? Where did you get it from? He got it from God, if you know anything about it.
Just also wanna comment that sometimes when you read John's Thistle, umm.
Especially if we're younger there, there's sometimes raises, it might seem to raise uncertainty. It might really save or not.
Umm, because we've talked about loving and if you don't overcome and if you don't love your brother as you should and so on. I want to say that John is not writing to make us dumb. He's not writing to confuse us, and it's important for us to.
If we really are trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, we can put our hands, our finger on the word of God and say I know I'm saved and there is a certainty of the end of this epistle. I don't know how many times John says we know, we know, we know and we have within ourselves this the as given by the power of the Spirit of God working in US.
A certainty that we really are the children of God and we rest in that even while we are exercised by our failings and not living up in practice to some of the things that are before us here. But God wants us to have the assurance in our hearts that we really do belong to the Lord Jesus. If we have the Son, we have life, we have everything in his person. And that's why it's so important to believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
And when we do believe?
Going to give us a certainty like the man in John nine. They were trying to confuse them and they raised some questions he couldn't answer about him, about who even Jesus was. But one thing they couldn't confuse him about was he said one thing. I know.
That whereas I was blind, now I see. And there are things that we can say about the Word of God. Well, one thing I know.
Jesus is my Savior.
And when we say that, let us not be confused or uncertain about things we're not sure about.
I can see it on the first side of the question. And then comes the answer. This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ, not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is true. It's an interesting statement, we know.
Says in John 17 that.
Thy word is truth, the Lord Jesus said I am the way the truth. Now here it says the Spirit is true. So we have witnesses that are confirmed. Here is the Son of God who came by water and blood. And then we have the Spirit, which is the truth for there are three that bear record and then you can.
Come down to verse 8, the second, uh, praise the Spirit, the water and the blood, those three again and these three agree in one. So we have ample witness that it is true what we're talking about. The Son of God is coming by water and blood.
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And the Spirit is he who gives witness.
Son of God is part of deity. There's God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
But that man, Jesus, that man.
Who partook of flesh and blood?
Is the same person. It is the Son of God. The Son of God has come and he has come into this world.
And partaken of manhood. And he is Jesus, And we are, God tells us, believe.
In that person, it's that it was very difficult when they saw Jesus, that to them, some of them that was the carpenter's Son, or later on he was the Carpenter. He was the man of Nazareth, but Son of God, no. And so on the cross they taught him. They look at him as he hangs there and they say, well, if you're the Son of God where he said he was, come on down.
That is, if you have the power to do it as the Son of God does, then you come down from the cross.
And we'll believe then they taught him and really taught God by saying, well, he says that God is umm, if he really is who he says he is, then let God take him down from the cross.
And we'll believe. And the record is that this man Jesus, who came.
Into this world.
As truly a man is and the same person, the Son of God, and we are to believe in who he is.
And if we don't believe in who He is, then we have no life. God. We are not born again, we're not born from above. But if we do believe in His person, even if we don't understand His work and how he did it and how he put our sins away and so on. But every saved soul has a belief in the person. Even if they don't even fully understand who the person is, they still have a belief in His person.
And he says it's Jesus, the Son of God.
I'm not sure this is a full answer to it. I'd be happy to hear others. But when the Lord Jesus was on the cross and he was hanging there.
And the soldier put the spear in his side. The record of God is forthwith came there out blood and water.
And it was a testimony to his humanity and his death.
Separation of the water from the blood was evidence that he had truly died, but both of them, water and blood, were connected with him.
As having come into this world and become truly a man. And so they had the testimony of God in his death, as they looked at him there on the cross. This is the man that came by water and by blood.
When the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, he rose in newness of life. He rose to be the head of a new creation. And the new creation is different. It's not a water and a blood.
In fact, the Lord Jesus as people looked upon him, they said He said to them, flesh and bones, you see me have the Lord Jesus in resurrection life did not live according to the manner in which Adam people of Adams race lived their life.
Because his life was in resurrection life in the spirit, not life according to water and blood. And so there is a new character to the life that our life in heaven won't be a life. The life we have now and that we will enjoy in heaven will not be of water and blood. It will not be the circulation of blood in the body. That is our life. It's life in the spirit. It's a different kind of life.
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That we have and it's eternal in its nature and character and born from above means born of the spirit, not born of flesh and blood. But I believe the water side of it is brought out to us on the cross when the soldier pierced his side and and the coming flowing out of blood and water was the evidence that Jesus was Jesus the man. But we're also to believe he was the Son of God become man.
And took that character of life.
I suppose too, we would connect it, would we not, with what is well known to us, and that is that we get moral cleansing as well as judicial cleansing in the finished work of Christ. And we know that it is through the Word of God, by the Spirit of God, that we receive new life in Christ.
But what does that do? It cleanses me morally, enabling me to live for God's glory. And so the Lord Jesus could say to those disciples in the upper room when Peter says, uh, if you're just going to wash my feet, Lord, don't stop there. Also my hands in my head. And the Lord says, well, he that is washed or bathed needeth not saved to wash his feet, but is clean every question.
And in that sense, Peter was born again. He did have that moral cleansing which I believe the water speaks of, but then the blood would speak of judicial cleansing. But it is the Spirit of God connected with all of that that is needed. And those three are a witness that God gives. I fully agree. And I like what Brother Don said, that it was a witness to who it was. It was a witness to the person of Christ.
But it's also a witness to you and to me that we have new life in Christ. We have been morally cleansed, we have been judicially cleansed, and now we have. The Spirit of God is the power of that new life.
Here, of course, it's connected with Christ, first of all, because he had to come into this world in order to do the work, in order to display God's heart, and in order to go to the cross.
But now you and I have those witnesses here, don't we?
Hmm.
And in Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 22, it speaks of the water and the blood. Let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. That's the blood.
And our bodies washed with pure water. Water.
Good morning, Jesus.
And his body physically water and blood.
And when we read in Peter, the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses them from all sin. It doesn't mean, and I don't want to speak irreverently, but the thought is not that the physical blood of the Lord Jesus was removing sin, but rather.
The value of that blood to the eye of God.
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Or that which cleanses and removes sin, The same spiritual way of applying the water to cleansing. It isn't the physical side of it that is the importance to God. But when God looks at my life, He has removed in virtue of the blood and what it means to His own self in that work of the of atonement in the three hours of darkness on the cross.
That is precious to God because the blood speaks, and it's also speaks of his death.
Necessary death of the Lord Jesus. So there is a physical side to it and his becoming a man, but it is the the spiritual side of it is in the importance of what God places upon it and what he did.
In his, in his death, and He has in it removed and cleansed us from all sin, as as well as the moral cleansing of separation of us through that work for our eternal blessing.
So to answer the question then I believe.
For my own soul that it is a reference to water that was used in the Old Testament. And of course under the law of Israel they didn't totally understand. They knew of course how necessary a blood sacrifice was but there was water used for purification and I am sure that the Israelite in that day did not really understand the significance of it. So I had simply taken it that the word of God uses the word almost there in Hebrews because.
There was water used under the law in a number of cases which the Israelites might have said, well, I guess maybe water is necessary, but not blood. And the author, presumably the apostle Paul, in the book of Hebrews, I believe, presents that thought, just to convey to them the fact that the blood was absolutely necessary in order that sin would be put away.
We might mention too, just in case some are confused, that verse 7.
Really doesn't have, shall we say, the authority of the best manuscripts in the past. And you'll notice if you look at Mr. Darby's translation and even a number of other translations, that it's left out. There really isn't a need for a witness in heaven. And maybe someone knows, but I have no idea why this verse crept into the Scriptures. But, uh, the best translations leave it out so that we can pass on simply from verse six to verse 8.
The emphasis is really on the Spirit, the water and the blood, isn't it? And those are the witnesses that the Word of God draws before us.
And perhaps just to clarify as well, in verse eight it says that there are three that bear witness. There really shouldn't be in earth. It's to the whole creation, not only to man, but, uh, the whole creation. There's a witness of the value of the work of Christ.
It's wonderful how it goes on here too, that.
Witnesses, when somebody goes to court and the matter is brought up and they want to decide the truth of the matter. And so people who are present when the whatever, it's like they give a witness as to the truth of the matter and others see it and are expected to judge in that case and expect to make a judgment about what was true for us. It's a wonderful thing that the witnesses that God has given to us are not only external.
Things that others can testify for our blessing and benefit.
But when a person does believe, then God turns around and says, well, I'll put a witness right inside you. And so we receive life.
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And we receive the Spirit, and the Spirit witnesses to our spirit that we are the children of God. And so we have within ourselves a testimony of God to the truth of what he says to us now, and that the Spirit of God in US speaks to our own spirit and says yes.
That's true. So we can say we have the witness within ourselves as well.
It's a blessed thing that God wants to confirm the truth of what he has presented to us in a way that does not, is not limited, shall we say, by what somebody else has to say about it.
You can't take away that testimony.
It's given of God, and no man can come between us in that testimony of God.
That in which he witnesses to us within us.
And he gives the believer the Spirit of God as soon as he trusts in him. And we always have the Spirit of God.
He could bears witness with our spirit that we are the sons of God. What a comfort that is.
I think it is good to see that Christianity is based on historical facts. We're not talking about mere philosophy or a set of doctrines merely or some kind of religious structure we're talking about.
Historical facts.
Jesus, the Son of God, was born into this world. He lived, He died, He rose again. There are witnesses to that fact and that coming day of judgment. Those witnesses are going to be there and people will be without excuse before the throne of God.
It's historical. Christianity is historical.
And so when a man faces God in the matter of his life comes up, and God says.
I said this to you. I used this servant or that concerning the facts of my Son who came into the world as Jesus and died on the cross for you. And I then told you through my servants to believe me, and you did not believe when you did not believe. What you were saying to me is I don't tell the truth. I'm a liar.
Solemn thing that souls who face God are going to face God.
And, and God is as it were, says to them, you said I lied, that I was not telling you the truth, when I said that Jesus the Son of God died for your sins, died for you, that you might trust in him and receive salvation.
To solemn things, you call God a liar.
So the wonderful thing here is that we have this witness, and as Brother Bob was saying, Christianity is based on historical fact and it is based on that which is clear and definite.
There have been unbelievers who have had to face that. I think it was Mark Twain when someone said something to him about there being things in the Bible that were hard to understand and difficult to grasp. All he said, and he was being honest. He said it's not the things I don't understand that trouble me. It's the things I do understand.
Because what God has given is a clear.
And definite witness of himself, and as we get in Hebrews chapter one, God has in these last days spoken unto us. How?
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In Sun, his son the Witness has come into this world, come as we've had by water and blood, and even if we say, well, I can't see him, he's not here anymore.
We have the Spirit of God here that bears witness to who He is.
Through the word of God. And if man says I don't believe it, he's refusing not only the witness of the Spirit of God, he's refusing, if you want to get right down to it, historical evidence. And as Dawn says in the coming day, what a solemn thing for a man to stand before God and say, I know I had that witness, but I didn't pay any attention. I didn't believe it. But on the other hand, this was written to believers. And what a wonderful thing it is to think that God has sent his beloved Son. Do we realize it?
Of course we do. But is it a present, living reality in my soul? Is it something that forms my life? I believe that's why it summarizes it.
Further down here in verse 13, which is jumping ahead, these things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that she have eternal life. What does that mean? Do we not know it? Yes, but we don't really know it.
Unless we are walking in the good of it, we don't have that sense of it in our souls unless we're walking in the good of it, do we?
Pretty surprising in one way, but as it says in verse 11.
Reading changing the word records of the new translation. And this is the witness that God has given to us eternal life.
Now, if you gave to, there was in the room here a dead person and you could impart life to that person and you gave them life, you'd expect them to know it. You'd expect that person to know it. And but yet it's necessary, as Bill just said, to actually because the worst thing, get up and live.
And it'd be obvious to you you're alive. And so go on.
Gives us a witness to us.
Eternal life and it's in US. And now he says live it. And when you live it, you'll know it. You'll know you have it by the carrying of it out in the walk of life. And it has already been said, the Spirit of God witnesses to our spirit that we have it.
That we truly are children of God and have the life of the family of God, which is called eternal life.
If they're healthy, they do.
They're in an unhealthy state, unconscious or something, Then perhaps they're not conscious of their life. But normally a healthy person, we would say, is always very well aware that they're alive, and God wants us to be very well aware that we have life in Christ.
And enjoy it cannot have it without it being in relationship to the sun again. And that's why it says the end of verse 11. This life is in his son, he that hath his son.
Path life, he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. What is your relationship to Jesus, the Son of God Everything depends on that you have him, you have him. If you don't have him, you don't have him. Oh how wonderful it is to know him this eternal life and just like to read the verse and we've often quoted it but.
In John 17 verse 3.
Which is perhaps we could say, a definition of what eternal life is. It is such a wonderful verse to think about. This is life eternal. This is the Lord Jesus and his I praise you prayer. This is life eternal. That day is people might know thee, the only true God.
And in Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
We think of eternal life so often. We think of life that never ends. Of course that's true, but it's more than that. It's the quality of life. It's the knowledge of the eternal God we know God. Brethren, what a tremendous blessing. It's often been mentioned and repeated.
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The Muslims in their faith say very specifically.
God is unknown and unknowable.
And brother Bill, you know God.
The Scripture says so. Isn't that wonderful to be able to say we know God? God in the person of the sun came into this world as a man, and in that man we now know God in the fullest sense of the word, in the fullest expression of all that God is, was in that man.
Look at him in the gospels as he walks through this world.
Oh, how we should.
Rejoice Press.
We know.
This is life eternal.
Ignore it.
Concerning that is the Spirit of God here just as much as he was on the day of Pentecost.
You answer that for us, brother Clem, Absolutely. He's gone. You'll find him in the second verse of the Bible.
Not many people know that the second verse of the Bible.
The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. That's the second verse.
These eternal as the Father and the Son, they are the Trinity, always gone.
Like refer to a verse in Colossians connection with life in the Sun Colossians chapter.
Three.
Election 334 ye are dead.
And your life is hid with Christ and God, when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, and shall ye also appear with him?
It's helpful to recognize the difference between our natural lives that we are born with in this world and the new life, eternal life that we have in Christ.
I received my life.
By from God through my parents.
Once I had that life, it was mine, whether my parents lived or not.
In that way it was independent of the life of my parents and is my father is with the Lord.
I'm not continuing to live in this world because of a life that is dependent completely upon my mother, my father. That's the character of my life. But new life in Christ is different and it's fundamentally different and wonderfully different. And that is Christ as it says in First Corinthians 15 of the life giving Spirit.
And he himself imparts life to us, but it is his own life, and it is life that is forever linked with himself.
And so our life is in Him, not independent of Him. If Christ ceased to be, so would I, because the life that I have is in Him before God.
If the expression has been used that we're bound up together in the same bundle of life, and so we got the life in Christ is not separate like our natural lives are for our parents. It's not separate from Him. And we are in that way when we display, when we're told to manifest his life, we're really doing that. We are displaying His.
Life which is ours in him to our fellow man. And when it says that they might know thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ, who now is sin. It's a wonderful thing to have the capacity.
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To know him because I have that life.
It's not knowledge there particularly as, but it's the fact that.
Do I know it's hard? You don't know somebody's heart by words. Only you know they're hard by action and so on. But if you shared their heart, you'd say you knew their heart if you shared.
At UMM, the affections that they share is having a common heart, then you would feel as they felt and so we have been linked to God.
Is children of God to have imparted to us the very life of Christ, and as participating in that life we feel as He feels?
Our attitude toward things are his attitude toward things on earth because the flesh is in us, It's it's imperfect but leak manifested, but in heaven it'll be perfect. Whatever he feels toward you, some person, you're going to feel toward that person identically because you know them as he knows them, sharing in that common life.
It's a blessed thing rather than to recognize eternal life isn't.
Something separate from what God is or what the Lord Jesus is if we are so incredibly linked to his person.
That he's the very sustainer of that life because it's his life, but it's not independent of it. Not only that, but.
He's the very food of the life as well.
And I have a life and.
You have a life. In 10 minutes or so, we're gonna be thinking about eating, feeding it. But for the last hour we've been feeding as well. But we've been feeding our Newman with Christ, and that is our food of that life. And that gives strength to the life that we have. And if a person doesn't read their Bible?
It's just like saying why do you want to start yourself?
Why are you starving yourself?
You need to feed on the person of the Lord Jesus and His word. It's your food of your life and.
What you're going to eat in heaven It's time to eat it now and enjoy a feast.
Is the expression to know Him is to love him, but to know Him also to have confidence in Him? In verse 14 we have confidence.
If you want to know what somebody thinks, sometimes you may go to somebody close to them and ask them what do they think.
Because they know, and they know their heart, and they know how they think.
And so sometimes our very prayers, while God wants to hear them, often reflect that we aren't really thinking the way he's thinking, but he's encouraging us to say, you know me, you know my heart. Well, then you can have confidence.
And we do have. We know how a person thinks, and we go to them with something and knowing ahead of time their heart and their disposition in the matter.
We lose confidence if there's something that's come between us and them and our hearts are condemning us because of the loss of fellowship resulting from some strange stuff. And so it is with God. If we don't walk with Him, then we lose, practically speaking, the confidence that we have when we're walking in the enjoyment of fellowship with Himself.
And in fact, sometimes it will say to somebody else, what do you think God thinks about this? And sometimes it's just because we haven't grown to that point. We want an older person in the faith to give us some of their wisdom or insight. But sometimes it's a reflection of our own hearts too, that well, when they wanted to know who's going to betray the Lord, they went to the one they knew was close to his heart that lay on his bosom. They said, well, John will know.
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John is the one that's intimate with the Lord or near the Lord. He lays on his rhythm. And so if we're encouraged to be like John, the one that's writing to us here, say we have this confidence in him that if we ask him anything, he hears us. The nice illustration of that in Elijah in the Old Testament, to pray that it would not rain.
Where did he get that idea?
Is that something just popped into his head?
No, it came right out of the Scriptures he evidently had been reading. And then the lie says that my people would forsake me and go after idols, and I will shut heaven. It will not run. So he simply prayed what God had said in His word. See, that's tremendous power. A man on earth can pray and shut heavens for three years and 1/2.
But it wasn't his idea.
He was close enough to the Lord, he knew what the Scripture said, and so with confidence he asked. And then when the 3 1/2 years were over, God's people had returned to the true God. Why? He prays again, and God gives right? Wonderful.
We might just say in the few minutes that are left too.
Something practical that I have enjoyed in connection with this.
And that is, suppose I do get cold in my soul. Suppose that that new life is not displaying itself as it should. Suppose that I am not enjoying that confidence with God that we're talking about. What do I do about it?
I have appreciated this in my own life and I just suggested we have in this chapter first of all, as we've had brought out that this life is.
In Christ, in his Son, it's not independent life. The Lord Jesus could say that he quickened whom he would as the Son. He has that right, but our life is bound up with His. It's not independent. And so if I find that I don't have that confidence, first of all, I need to get back to that one who is the source of that life. And in a simple way I would suggest.
I simply need to get down on my knees and say, Lord, I'm cold. Lord, I'm not enjoying that confidence that I should. We can rest assured that if our hearts are honest before Him that He will respond. If there's something that needs correction, He'll bring it before us. He wants us to deal with it. He wants that new life to be displayed. He wants our confidence and our company.
And as the one who has given us that life, he doesn't like to see it wither away and not be displayed. And so if we get down on our knees and just ask Him, say Lord.
I'm cold, I'm away. I want that confidence to be restored. But then what else do I need to do? That life needs to be fed. Maybe I've neglected the word of God. Maybe I've neglected to feed that new life. We all know what would happen if we didn't eat. Maybe for some of us it wouldn't be such a bad idea sometimes. But in spiritual things?
We need more and the more we eat.
The more we want and so the Lord wants us to get into His Word. Sometimes I have to confess that I have gotten up in the morning and said I don't feel like reading the Word of God, but what should I do? Read it anyway.
Put open it up and read it and I'll find that the devil will be defeated. The devil will say, oh, you're not feeling too well this morning or that you better sleep in a little bit or whatever it might be.