I hear the Savior sing, Thy strength indeed is small, Child of weakness, watch Him bring, Find in me Thine all in all. Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe, Sin has left a crimson stain, And He washed it white as snow. 

Lord, now indeed I find, Thy power in Thine alone, Can change the leper's spots, And melt your heart of stone. Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe, Sin has left a crimson stain, And He washed it white as snow. 

O nothing good have I, Whereby Thy grace to claim, I'll wash my garments white, In the blood of Calvary's Lamb. Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe, Sin has left a crimson stain, And He washed it white as snow.

And when before the throne, I stand in Him complete, Jesus died my soul to sin, My lips shall still repeat. Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe, Sin has left a crimson stain, And He washed it white as snow. Yes, He washed it white as snow.

Thank you, Doug, for that good song. That's really the message of the Scripture. It's the message we're going to be looking at this morning as well. Good morning to everyone. Good to see you all here this morning on a beautiful sunny day. It's starting to feel like fall out there already. I saw some red leaves on the soft maples yesterday. I don't want to talk about snow or anything like that, but it's coming. 

Well, before we begin, I wanted to ask you a couple of questions. First of all, I'd like for you to think about this question. Can we know that we have eternal life? Can we know for sure, for certain, that we're going to heaven, to be with Christ forever, that in fact today we possess eternal life? And secondly, I'd like to ask you, on what basis can we know that? I just want you to think about those two things as we work through the text. It's important that we understand that we can know that we have eternal life, and it's important that we understand how we can know. 

Well, to begin, I'd like for you to turn to John 18 with me, please. John 18, verse 33. This is when Jesus was before Pilate. It says, then Pilate entered the praetorium again, called Jesus and said to Him, Are You the King of the Jews? Jesus answered him, Are you speaking for yourself about this, or did others tell you this concerning Me? Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you to me. What have you done? Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight so that I should not be delivered to the Jews. But now my kingdom is not from here. 

Pilate therefore said to Him, Are you a king then? Jesus answered, You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. And Pilate said to Him, What is truth? 

Well, it seems to me that in our world in these last days, the truth is getting harder and harder to discern. From our government and politicians, to the news and media sources, to entertainment, to fake lives on Facebook. It's getting really hard to know what is real and what is a facade. And when we come to the spiritual or religious realm, it gets even more confusing. There's so many churches, denominations, factions of religion, Christian and otherwise. How is a person ever to know what is true, to discern what is right, what is wrong? The salient question for all men of all times is the question that Pilate asked Jesus, What is truth? 

And John tells us in our text today that there's only one source of truth, only one way to find the truth, and that is by the witness of God. All truth is found in God's Word, His revelation to us. And at the center of that truth, the very heart of that truth, is God's witness concerning His Son, Jesus Christ. And this is what John focuses on in our text today. 

Let's begin in verse 6, 1 John 5, verse 6. John writes, This is He who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness on earth, the Spirit, the water, and the blood, and these three agree as 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 who believes in the Son of God has the witness in Himself. He who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son. And this is the testimony, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life. 

These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. 

I've given you three points for our text on your outline. First, we see the witness of God. Second, we see life in His Son. And third, the assurance of faith. 

Well, we've found as we've studied through this first epistle of John, that John was dealing with some false teachers in his time who had begun to influence the church. His main theme in the epistles found in our text today in verse 13, I write you these things that you may know that you have eternal life. John's intent in writing was to give the believers assurance of their salvation in Christ alone. But he also was dealing with a kind of Gnosticism that was rising in his time. And these teachers taught that the Spirit of Christ came upon Jesus at His baptism, but that the Spirit left Him before His crucifixion. Thus, they denied that Jesus was anything more than a man when He died on the cross. 

Well, this was and is serious heresy, denying the deity of Christ, denying the efficacy of His death, the very atonement which is central to the gospel message. And this teaching began to assault the truth of who Jesus is and what He accomplished. And this is always the case with false teaching. It either denies who Jesus is, that He is fully God and that He is fully man, or it denies what He has done, His full atonement for sins, His propitiatory sacrifice for sins on the cross satisfying the wrath of God. 

The false teachers of John's time were denying both really. Rejecting the truth that Jesus is God and denying His atonement on the cross. That's why John said in chapter 2, I write these things to you concerning those who deceive you and he calls them antichrists. This further developed over the next century, this heresy, and it continues today. 

According to Valentinus, a Gnostic teacher of the second century, Christ is the paraclete or helper from the unknown who reveals the discovery of self, the divine spark within you. The issue for the Gnostic is freedom from ignorance, not freedom from sin. To the Gnostic teacher Valentinus, there is no need for guilt or for repentance from sin. And there is certainly no need for belief that salvation comes through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. 

According to Valentinian beliefs, Jesus is the Savior in the sense of being the one who provides for spiritual wholeness by curing us of the sickness of ignorance. I read these things today and you can read Wayne Dyer or Oprah Winfrey and you get the same thing. And half the time, I have no idea what they're saying. Wayne Dyer said, as you awaken to your divine nature, you'll begin to appreciate beauty in everything you see, touch, and experience. Faith is not a notion, but a real, strong, essential hunger and attracting or magnetic desire of Christ, which as it proceeds from a seed of the divine nature in us, so it attracts and unites with its like.

Gnosticism in the new age today and Eastern mysticism, as well as all the religions of men point man to himself, to look within himself for truth, for wisdom, for that spark of divinity. But the fact is that we can only know what is right. We can only know the truth by the witness, the testimony of God. It's not something that is in us that can deliver us. There is no divine spark in me. Rather, it is someone, Jesus, who came to deliver me from sin and death and hell. Only God can tell us the truth. 

And what is the witness of God? What does God say? In our text, it tells us that life comes from His Son, only from His Son. He who has the Son, he who believes the Son has life. And he who does not believe the Son does not have life. 

John begins telling us about the witness of God by pointing us to the water and the blood. And this is interesting language and a bit hard to nail down as to its meaning. I've heard it taught often that the water and the blood refers to the cross when the soldier pierced his side and water and blood flowed out, proving that Jesus was dead. This may be a reference that John has here, but I think there's a better way to understand this. 

When I run into a difficult passage or something I'm not sure I understand in the context, I like to go back to the words, back to the intent, to think about what the author is trying to say and teach and why. Here in 1 John 5, the message is clearly about the witness or the testimony of God. We see this reference several times in the text, the testimony of God, the witness of God concerning His Son. 

So as I kept going over this text, my thoughts went to when in the life and ministry of Christ, God testified about Jesus, who He is and what He's done. And I also thought about John's secondary purpose to address the false teachers that were plaguing the church with their false doctrine concerning the deity and the atonement of Christ. 

So if one of the central teachings of the false teachers as we read was that the Spirit came upon Him at His baptism, but left Him before His crucifixion, thus leaving Him as a mere man and not God at all, not a full atonement on the cross. Then surely John wants to address and correct this lie, this heresy. And I think he takes this opportunity in the context of the witness of God about His Son to do this very thing. He says, this is He who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ. Now listen to what He says, not only by water, but by water and blood. 

Let's go back and look at the baptism of Jesus in Matthew 3. Matthew 3.13. In Matthew 3.13 it says, Then Jesus came from Galilee to John, John the Baptist at the Jordan to be baptized by Him. And John tried to prevent Him saying, I need to be baptized by you. Are you coming to me? But Jesus answered and said to him, Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he allowed Him. When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. 

Certainly, the baptism of Jesus was an important event. It fulfilled all righteousness. It marked the beginning of His earthly ministry. It identified Him with sinners, with men. And clearly it was a testimony of God about His Son, as He even spoke in an audible voice from heaven and said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. 

At Jesus' baptism, we see the testimony of God about His Son. We see the testimony of John the Baptist as well. Listen to what he said in John 1.32. He said, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, Upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God. 

It's important to note again that this identified Jesus with men, His baptism with sinners, because this is integral to His saving purpose and why He came. I think of Hebrews chapter 2, where it says that Jesus took on flesh, that He became a man for the very purpose of dying in our place, paying the price for my sins, that I might be saved, that He might rescue me from the fear of death, which held me in bondage all my life. Just Jesus became a man, He took on flesh, He identified Himself with the sinful human race, yet Himself without sin, for the very purpose of securing our salvation on the cross. 

So we see that God gave testimony at Jesus' baptism. Jesus came by water, but He also came by blood. The blood refers, I believe, to the crucifixion, the capstone of Jesus' saving work. On the cross, He shed His blood for you and me. He died because of my sin. He paid my full debt to God. It is finished, and God showed that He was satisfied with the payment by raising Jesus from the dead. 

At the crucifixion, we also see that God testified concerning His Son. Turn over to Matthew 27 with me, please, at verse 45. Matthew 27, verse 45. This is the account of the day of Christ's crucifixion. It says, now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour, there was darkness over all the land. The sixth hour in Jewish reckoning is high noon. From noon until three on the day of Jesus' crucifixion, the sun became dark and all the land was shrouded in darkness. Clearly a supernatural event. 

Now look at verse 51 in chapter 27. Then behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth quaked and the rocks were split. And the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. And coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city, and they appeared to many. 

So when the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, truly, this was the Son of God. God did many miraculous works on the day of the crucifixion, testifying about His Son, causing darkness to fall over the land three hours at midday, tearing the mighty veil from top to bottom, signifying that the way into the Holy of Holies was now open, and men would have access to God through Christ. 

Causing a great shaking of the earth, opening graves, raising the saints from the dead. The reaction of the centurion and those with him certainly tell us that this was a powerful testimony by God that Jesus was indeed His only begotten Son. John tells us that Jesus came by water and by blood, and I believe this refers to His baptism and His crucifixion, the bookends of His ministry. The times when God testified openly and powerfully concerning His Son. 

And John here also deals a death blow to the heretical Gnostic teaching that Jesus was not God, and that the Spirit was not upon Him throughout His life and ministry, all the way to the crucifixion and affecting the resurrection. He was not a mere man. He did not just come by water, but by blood also. God testified concerning Jesus at His death and resurrection as well. Romans 1.3 says, concerning His Son, Paul talking about the Gospel, concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared, manifest, shown to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. 

Now there's a third testimony, a witness, in the first verse of our text. Look at verse 6 again. This is He who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth. When John the Baptist saw the Spirit descending upon Jesus, it says that the Spirit remained on Him. In John 3, Jesus said that God gave to Him the Spirit without measure. It is the Holy Spirit who inspired and illuminates the Scriptures. The Scriptures that are all about Jesus and the salvation and the promise of eternal life that He provides. 

From Genesis to Revelation, it's all about Jesus and salvation by faith, and the promise of eternal life. We could go on three or four sermons about the witness of the Spirit. He's working all the time. He works in you, my friend. By the very power that raised Jesus from the dead, Paul says in Ephesians 1. Ephesians 3 tells us that the Spirit imparts strength to our inner man. That Christ may live His life fully out through us. That God might do exceedingly abundantly more than we could ever think or ask. 

The Holy Spirit remained on Jesus and was given without measure and was the power working through Jesus to do the Father's will. The Holy Spirit points us to Christ. He testifies about Christ. He guides us into all truth concerning who Jesus is. There are three witnesses here by which God gives His testimony concerning His Son. The water, the blood, and the Spirit. 

Now look at verse 9 as we see the testimony of God. John says, 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. 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. 

Do you think it matters if God is a liar? Do you think it's a serious thing to call God a liar? We see here that the testimony of God is all about life in His Son. God has given His testimony through the water, through the blood, through the Spirit, in His Word, by His witnesses. God speaks loudly and clearly concerning Jesus Christ. And the message is this, that God has given us as a gift, a free gift, eternal life. And this life is in His Son. And it comes by faith, by faith alone. Whoever has the Son has life. Whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. 

Life can only come through Jesus Christ and only by faith in Him. This is God's testimony, clear and consistent from beginning to end. John says back in verses 9 and 10 that this is an exclusive message. And that every man has a choice to believe Jesus or to reject this testimony of God concerning eternal life. The exclusivity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not a very popular message in the world and sometimes not even in the church. The world wants inclusiveness. No absolute truth. No judgment. No God of the Bible. But the fact remains, the only way to life is through Jesus. And we preach this message. We love this truth. We guard it. We hold fast to it because it is the only way to life. The only way that men can be saved. 

We do not compromise the Gospel, my brothers and sisters, or all is lost. John has some pretty amazing and frank words for us here. He says that he who believes Jesus has the witness of God in him. He knows it. He has taken it for himself. He believes the testimony of God concerning the Son. But the one who rejects Christ, the one who will not believe the Gospel message, this man, John says, calls God a liar. Saying that his testimony is not true. 

And here's the question for us. Do we receive the testimony of God concerning eternal life? Life through His Son by faith? Do we hold fast to the central message of the Christian faith? Because so many are willing to compromise in our world. We have those under the umbrella of Christendom who see value in Buddhism and Taoism and Islam, not to mention welcoming fellowship with all the false Christian denominations who deny the testimony of God. 

The doctrine of political correctness and inclusiveness rules over truth and the Gospel in many circles, and this ought not be so. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Listen now. No one, no one comes to me, comes to the Father, except by me. Acts 4.12, there's salvation in no one else, for there's no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. 

God has stated that the only way to eternal life, to possess eternal life, to receive the gift of eternal life is by His Son through faith alone in Jesus Christ. And the fact is, my brothers and sisters, all the major religions of the world reject this testimony of God, reject eternal life in Jesus Christ. Even the vast majority of those who call themselves Christian reject the witness of the Father. 

The Jehovah's Witnesses teach a very similar doctrine to the Gnostics, denying the deity of Christ. The Mormons see Jesus no more of a God as you or me, teaching that we can each reach godhood through our works. And all of the so-called Christians that teach a system of works and sacraments or rituals meant to earn our salvation in conjunction with Christ's merits reject the testimony of God concerning life in His Son. 

And all of those who reject this testimony call God a liar. Those are John's words, not mine. John's a very black and white preacher. Only those who come in faith, only those who come in faith in Jesus alone and what He accomplished on the cross have the testimony of God in them, agree with what God says, believe Jesus. The rest, my brothers and sisters, as John has already told us, are antichrists, teaching a false way. 

It's so important that we see the witness of God and that we understand that we can only have life in His Son. And in so doing, my friends, if we can get hold of this gospel truth, if we can take it for ourselves, if we can rest ourselves upon the merits of Christ, then we will find the assurance of faith. And that's what this epistle is all about. 

Look at verse 11. 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. Look at verse 13. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. 

In the gospel of John, John wrote in chapter 20, verse 31, these things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in His name. John wrote the gospel of John that we might come to faith, that we might believe Jesus and have life in His name. 

But in verse 13 of 1 John 5, we see that John's purpose and intent in this first epistle is to write to the believers. To us. To those who believe Jesus. To give the assurance of their salvation. Assurance of faith. That their faith is in the right object. Jesus Christ alone. And that by this, they might know that they have eternal life and that they might continue to believe in Jesus alone, not being drawn away by these false teachers. They're telling us we need something more. 

That's the essence of false Christian teaching. That you need something more than Jesus. That you need our knowledge. That you need our church. You need our rituals. You need our sacraments. But John gives us an amazing promise. An amazing assurance to know that we have eternal life. 

The fear of death, Hebrews tells us, plagues man all his days. And this is because he fears what is beyond death, eternal death, in the lake of fire. Men go about in uncertainty. In fear. Because they do not know Jesus. They do not believe the gospel. And therefore, they can have no assurance. 

Think about religious men that you know. You could ask them, do you know for sure that you're going to heaven? And they will say something like, no one can know for sure. I mean, I hope I make it. I think I'm good enough. This kind of uncertainty about something so important, so significant, is a testimony against religion. Why is it that a religious man cannot have assurance, cannot know that he is saved? Because the religious man rejects the testimony of God. 

He does not believe that he can have life through faith alone in Jesus alone. He trusts in his church. He trusts in his works. He trusts in his sacraments and rituals. And the truth is, he can never know for sure that he's done enough. 

When I was growing up in the Roman church, I was constantly taught that I could never know for sure that I was going to heaven. In fact, the church's official teaching and dogma calls assurance the sin of presumption. I remember when I first read 1 John 5.13, and the first thought that popped into my head was, St. John is teaching the sin of presumption. 

The church says that to say that you know that you are saved is to presume upon God's grace and mercy, and that since one must die in a state of grace to enter heaven without any mortal sin on his soul, then he can never know for sure how it will turn out and in what state he will die. 

I feel most sorry for those devout souls committed to the doctrines of churches like these. Most Roman Catholics that I know are what Greg Durrell calls a la carte Catholics. They take the doctrines they like and they leave the ones that aren't to their liking. But can you imagine, in any religion, truly placing your faith in your works, your ability to stay in a state of grace not knowing when you're going to die? 

They call them mortal sins because they kill your salvation and die with one on your soul, not having properly confessed it to a priest and performed a penance, and you don't make it, my friend, regardless of what the rest of your life has been. 

What are these mortal sins? Well, there's a very long list. They include murder and sexual immorality and missing Sunday mass or a holy day of obligation. By the way, in the United States, there's six holy days of obligation. But if you cross the border into Canada like we did a couple weeks ago, there's only two holy days of obligation. So the Canadians can miss four holy days of obligation that those in the United States must attend lest they die with a mortal sin on their soul and spend eternity in hell. 

Interestingly, in 1911, Pope Pius X changed the holy days of obligation from 36 a year to eight, reducing them. Other mortal sins are listed in the dogma as pride, avarice, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, and sloth, as well as the fruits of the flesh of Galatians 5. I'm afraid, my friends, that the whole human race has mortal sins upon their souls. 

And unless they can get to a priest and confess all these sins before they die and then not commit another one, then they will necessarily perish in the lake of fire. When my dad was dying of cancer, he attended First Friday masses so that he could gain indulgences so that he wouldn't spend so much time in purgatory having his venial sins expiated by the flames. 

The point here, my friends, is this. If a man rejects the testimony of God concerning eternal life in his Son Jesus Christ, if he adds something to faith, if he adds something to Christ's work on the cross, if he makes his works, his performance, his practical holiness a condition of his salvation, then he can never, ever have assurance. 

However, the entire purpose of the first epistle of John is to give those who believe, those who do receive the witness of God about Jesus, assurance of their salvation. And John summarizes this intent in verse 13 of our text, I write you these things, that you may know that you have eternal life. 

God wants us to know. He wants us to know that if we receive His testimony about Jesus through faith, if we place our faith in Christ and His sacrifice on the cross, in our place for our sins as a completed work, if we believe Jesus, who He is, what He's done, then we can know. We can know that we have eternal life. It is a present possession, my friends. We have eternal life now today, and this means that we possess the divine nature, that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit live in us and work through us to produce fruit to holiness and bring glory to God. 

We have life today, and we will have life with Jesus forever. He will never leave us. He will never forsake us. He will come to take us to be with Him forever. John says you can know. You can know that you have eternal life. 

Now, the heretics that call themselves Christian and deny the doctrine of eternal security can take it up with John. They can call God a liar. But the truth remains, those who believe Jesus have passed from death unto life, and they will not come into condemnation. 

Let me ask you as we close, my friends, do you believe the witness of God? Do you believe His Word? Jesus said in John 5.24, 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 unto life. John 10.27, My sheep hear My voice and I know them and they follow Me. I give them eternal life and they will never perish. And no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand. 

1 Peter 1.3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Who in inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled, and it does not fade away, it's reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 

The water, the blood, the Father, the Spirit are witnessing, testifying to us, my friends, the truth about Jesus Christ, who He is and what He has done. Only God can tell us who we are. Only God can tell us the truth. We cannot trust men. We cannot trust ourselves, our feelings, our emotions. We can only know the truth by going to the Word of God and believing what He says. 

Do you believe Him? Do you trust Him? Do you receive the witness of God? This is the question. Because here is what God says through the Apostle John. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. 

Let's close in prayer. 

Father, we're so thankful for Your promise, Your grace, Your testimony about Jesus. Paul said in Romans 10-17 that faith comes by hearing a message about Jesus Christ. Thank You for bringing that message to us. Thank You for faithful witnesses preaching that truth. And thank You that through faith we can know that we have eternal life. We trust You. We praise You and we give You glory in Jesus' name. Amen.