The Village Church
Do you have a faith? Pt. 3 - Audio
And that's what we all long for, if you are a believer, that someday is a promise that Jesus will return, and when he returns, the party begins, we go home. Let's see what I got here. Please join me in prayer. Father God, we thank you that that song is a certainty that someday we will go to glory. We will be without safety, we will see heaven, we will not just be beamed, we will see the whole life. And Lord, as we come now to your word, I pray that you will receive glory from it. That it's not in me or it's not in who I am, but it's about Jesus and His glory and His awesomeness. In no spirit, I pray that you take these words of mine and apply it to the lives of your people and apply it to my own heart, Lord, who I am a sinner will fall short daily, and I need to receive your word to be convicted by your word, to be encouraged by your word. O spirit, come take the word and apply it to our dear lives, the Christ in my brain. Amen. Well, if you have your Bibles this morning, we're going to continue in 1 John coming to the end. We in chapter 1 John, chapter 5, beginning with verse 6. This is He who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not by the water only but by the blood and the water, and the spirit is the one who testifies because the spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify, the spirit and the water and the blood, and these three agree, 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 this testimony in Him, whoever does not believe God has made Him a liar because He has not believed the testimony that God has borne concerning His Son, and this is the testimony that God gave us to turn to life, and this life is in His Son, whoever has His Son has life, whoever does not have His Son does not have life, as His God's Holy Word. Five months ago, Waikita and I had some work done on our home, and the contractor reused, he came to us by word of mouth. He was highly recommended to us by one of my wife's co-workers, and this co-worker she testified about this man's great work, how good a job he would do, and so after we met with him, talked with him several times, we decided we're using to do the work for us. And one day, when he was at the house working, you know, we got to talk in and I asked him did he have a website, and does he do different types of marketing about his business, and he said no. I don't have a website, I don't do any printed marketing, I don't have a billboard, nothing like that. He said get all my jobs by word of mouth, that's how I got your job, because someone else told you about my work. And he told me that if he did his very best job with the job he had, they will always guarantee him one more job, because he knew a satisfied customer will also be a testifying customer to other people on his behalf to get him other potential customers. All businesses benefit from word of mouth, right? We all do it, don't we? Haven't you had a good experience somewhere, and you went back and told so and so, oh, you got to go see this movie, oh, you got to go to this restaurant, so and so has this great sale, you just got to go. We all do it, word of mouth marketing for other things. And when we do that, we are actually testifying on behalf of those businesses, hey, if you do this, they are going to help you. Now when you have a stake, a good stake, do you keep that to yourself, or are you going to tell somebody at work, you know what? I had an awesome stake this weekend, you need to go to this restaurant, right? Be here something funny, a good joke, or are you going to share it with someone? If you win the big game or see a good game, are you going to talk about that game next week? Yes, you are. Word of mouth, but when was the last time you talked about Jesus that way? When was the last time we testified about Jesus to other people through word of mouth? Of course, if you are in a relationship with Jesus, you should be a satisfied customer, right? And all satisfied customers should be testifying customers, right? Did you testify about Jesus? But let me tell you, he is the best, the best, if he is the best, shouldn't we want other people to know him, who don't know him? We should be ready and eager to do that. You see, for the past two Sundays, we've been talking about faith. The question I asked each of you is, do you have a faith? You remember that question? And the answer is, for every believer is yes, we have a faith that what? We have a faith that believes, that loves, that obeys, and overcomes. And this morning, we have a faith that testifies, of faith that testifies. That's about who, that's about Jesus. A faith that testifies about Jesus. Now we said Jesus is the content and the source of our faith, but he's also the message of that faith too, the gospel, Jesus is the message of the gospel. And a faith that testifies, test about who Jesus is to other people. And this is what John shows us in these six verses here, when we share our faith, we're sharing something about Jesus to other people. And our faith, according to John, is not rooted in culture, is not rooted in any particular denomination or tradition. All Christians around the world believe the same, they have to believe the same things to be a Christian. You have to accept Jesus into your heart, and it's your personal Lord and Savior. Do you see that, all Christians have to believe that thing to be a Christian. Christian A can't believe, well, I guess I believe these things, then I could be a Christian, or my good work saved me, or Christian B. Well, I think, I just believe in Jesus, then I'm a Christian. No, it ain't good works in Jesus, it's Jesus, for all eternity, the message, the content and source of our faith. When we share Him with others, we share what He came to do, what He came to accomplish. Who is Jesus? Reading first John. If you've been reading and following along, who does John tell us Jesus is? Who is He? He is the Christ, He is the Son of God, He is God and man, both at the same time. This is something that John has said throughout this letter, and even the purpose of his gospel. Do you know the purpose of the gospel that he wrote? It was so that people may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. That was his purpose of the gospel he wrote. And his argument here is still the same, and the setup here is a little different. The setup here is like he's in a courtroom setting, and he brings in key witnesses given testimony about Jesus. Who are these witnesses? Look at verse 7, it says, "For they are three that testify, the Spirit, the water, the blood, and these three agree." In this case, these witnesses here, they are given an agree testimony that Jesus is what he claimed to be. They are all in agreement. He is the Son of God. These three witnesses, you have two historical witnesses taken from Jesus' life, the water and the blood. Those are things that happen in his life, and the supernatural witness is the Spirit. You see in Deuteronomy 19, verse 15, it says, "Only with the testimony of two of the witnesses shall charge be established. Only with the testimony of two in three witnesses shall a charge be established." And even Jesus said in John 8, as he was talking to the Pharisees, "In your law, the testimony of two witnesses is true. I am the one who bears witness about myself and the Father who sent me bears witness about me." You see, this is what John is doing with this. Even your testimony of three witnesses saying to you, "They all agree that Jesus is who he claimed to be, the Son of God, the Christ, the Messiah." He is the one who took away our sins, and they don't agree. They don't disagree. They don't contradict each other. The water, the blood, and the Spirit, if you put them in separate rooms, they're all going to tell you the same thing and no trigger policemen were able to trick them up. Jesus is the Christ, the blood says. Jesus is the Christ, the water says. The Jesus is the Christ, the Spirit says, and we're all in agreement. We're all going to testify of our witness to the same thing about Him. The first two witnesses, the first two testimonies, the witness of the blood and the witness of the water. Verse six says, "This is he who came through the water and the blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only, but with the water and the blood." What does that mean? Jesus came through water and blood. There have been three possible suggestions of what that can mean. Some take it to mean that the water and blood refer to the sacraments of baptism in the Lord's Self. Could it mean that? The second is to see this as a reference to what happened to Jesus on the cross when they thrushed the Spirit to his side and the water and blood flowed out of his side. Is that what is meant by the water and the blood? No. There's two problems with those suggestions. You see, John says, "Jesus came through water and blood," which means that some type of past activity is not present. John Stott says, "Is Jesus historical coming that John has in mind here?" So the problem, the first one won't do. The second one, the problem with that one is that the water and blood and the cross came out of Jesus. Here it says, "He came through them." So what is the best possible meaning for these two things? The best possible meaning for water is that simply refers to Jesus' baptism and his death refers to his, I'm sorry, the blood refers to his sacrificial death upon the cross. These are two historical events taken from Jesus' earthly ministry, and they all bow witness. He came through them when he says that he's saying they are used as a means to bow witness to Jesus, that he is the Son of God, the Christ, his baptism, his death. Well how, Alex, if you read through the Gospels, what happened to Jesus as baptism? Something happened there. When he came up out of the water, what happened? After John the Baptist baptized Jesus, he saw the heavens open, and the Spirit is sending upon him like a dog, and a voice came from heaven and said, "What? This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." That happened at his baptism, and there Jesus was declared there to be the Son of God, and he was also commissioned to begin his earthly ministry. But the baptism bears witness to Jesus as the Son of God. What about the blood? When Jesus was crucified as the same barrier, and he rose again on a third day, that's what happened on the cross. He completed and finished his work, his ministry. You see after their resurrection, Jesus appeared to many people. He appeared to his disciples, he appeared to others, and in one group he appeared to, and he says this to them, he says, "Old foolish ones, slow heart to believe, all that the prophets have spoken, was it not necessary that the Christ to suffer these things and enter into his glory? Was it not necessary for the Christ, the Messiah, to die, to suffer these things and enter into his glory?" Then he says to his disciples, "It is written that the Christ to suffer on the third day rise from the dead." So the blood, the death, bear witness that Jesus is the suffering Christ of God, even the testimony, Jesus is who he claimed to be. He is who he claimed to be, and his baptism and his death are in agreement to death. I also noticed that John goes on and says that Jesus came not with the water only, but with the water and the blood. Now what is he doing there? Remember one of the problems that John is dealing with in this letter, there were false teachers in that church. They're not part of the church anymore, but they were there. And what were they teaching about Jesus, what were they teaching about him? They were teaching, they believed Jesus was just a man at his birth, and he became the son of God at the baptism. Now how does that sound to you? Is that true? Was Jesus just born a man and became the Christ at the baptism? Now they don't stop there. They also says that before he died the Christ part of him left, so he was just a man dying on the cross. Now if that's true, what does that mean for our sin? What does that mean? If Jesus died as just a man, that means we need to close up our Bibles and go home and live however we want to live if he's just a man down on the cross, because none of this matters. I wasn't the seminary for nothing, and we're doing all this for nothing. If he's just a man, we are fools. We should be living it up, doing whatever we want to do, because we would be still lost in our sins if he died as just a man. And John stands up and says no, that is a lie. Jesus came with the water and with the blood. He was the Christ at his birth, and he was the Christ after he died as well. He is God and man. Before his birth, he is God and man after his birth, he is God and man before the cross, he is God and man after the cross. And he still exists today as God and man. That's Jesus, and that's something you have to believe. He is God, the suffering Christ. And so these two historical witnesses testified the same thing about him. Now what about you? You see, no Christian, no preacher, no theologian, no evangelist, or whatever title was in front of a person's name, test the files about themselves, do they? And I noticed something they do because we are not the Christ. We are men and women, and that's it. We're not divine. We're not God. We don't have the power to save nobody, not even ourselves. We only just simply bear witness to him that does. We simply bear witness to Jesus in our life. You see, we can't treat our faith, you know, like little kids, treat their toys, you know, when some of the kids come up to the house, what do they say when that little kid starts playing with their toys, mine, that's mine, mommy, no, that's mine. If you treat your faith that way, you're never shared. It's just mine, Alex, it's me and Jesus, me and Jesus, sounds good, but it's just not you and Jesus. It's you, Jesus, and the rest of the body too, and the other believers as well. We have a faith that is supposed to be shared with others. Our faith is a gift, but we don't selfishly and fearfully keep it to ourselves, but you should be eager to share with others because you want them to know that Jesus that you know are you broken, because your heartbreak for the people you know who don't know Christ, because you know what happens to them if they die and don't know them, you realize what happens to them don't you, they go to hell, or are you broken by that, or is it just me and Jesus, and this is my life, me and Jesus holding hands, walking, and I don't ever look at anybody else, I don't care what they're dealing with or struggling with, it's just me and Jesus, me and Jesus, and I don't care about anybody else who don't know Him. Is that the type of faith that we have, our faith is a testifying faith that we testify to others who don't know Him, that's the kind of faith that we have. It's word of mouth testifying. I mean if you do that about a stake, how much more Jesus, I don't care how good a stake is, they ain't going to save nobody's soul, they give them a heart attack, but they ain't going to save their soul, only Jesus saves souls, period, period, only Jesus, and if you have tasted the goodness of Christ, I know I have, shouldn't you want others to taste that as well, shouldn't have you have tasted His goodness, all of us have, not just at the moment of salvation, but after salvation as well, you have tasted that goodness, all that we have in our life is a gift from God, everything, even the shoes and socks on my feet are from God, it's not mine, and we should have a desire to share our faith with others who don't know Jesus. You see, it's just passing along the information, passing it along because you know you can't help but to do it. If we passionately tell others about states that we've eaten, if we passionately tell others about the best movie that we've ever seen in our life, and we've been telling them about the best restaurant we've ever eaten, it eaten that in our life, how much so Christ, for He's the best thing ever, He is the best thing ever, but do we realize that? He is the best thing ever, do you realize that? And if He is, and if you see that, you should passionately shut up others about Savior who saved your sinful dead soul through His own death, through His own death, He saved you. Many of us have friends or a family member that you can't tell certain things to, because that person can't hold water, like if they got, if you got something going on in your life that you don't want everybody to know, you don't tell that person, you don't tell that person when you want information to go out, you know, and that's how we have to be about Jesus, don't hold water, don't sit on it, share it, be that family member that no one wants to tell you anything, because you can't hold water, you've got to be that way about your faith. Now you ain't got to be a jerk about it, you do it in love, you do it out of concern, and keep in mind that your words and life experiences don't save anyone, that's someone else's job, there's a person who takes what we say and uses that to call lost people into saving faith, all we're doing is just speaking, but someone else is at play, see John knew this, you see John, he knew that the Word and the blood alone would not be enough to convince people that Jesus was the Christ, we know that right, the Word and the blood alone, his death, historical, his baptism, historical, but that old things were not going to be enough to convince people that Jesus is the Christ, something else had to happen, that's why he says in verse 6b, "In the Spirit is the One who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth, the Spirit is the supernatural witness to Jesus, here's the One who testifies, but here's the truth, and there's phrase that the Spirit is the truth, this is something that John heard before, this isn't new to John, this is something that Jesus told him, he and the other disciples, in John 15 he said Jesus tells the disciples, but when the Hebrew comes whom I was seeing you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father, the Spirit will bear witness about me, the Spirit will bear witness about me, and in John 16, 14 Jesus says, "The Spirit will glorify me," we underestimate the role of the Spirit in our faith, we don't estimate him, don't really see how important he is sometimes, you see in any court case, if you watch any court TV shows, there's always that bombshell witness that make blows the case wide open, right, that's what the Spirit is here, that's how John uses the Spirit, he's the bombshell witness that truly convinces us that Jesus is the Christ, because he's the one that comes into our heart and changes our hearts, so that we can see that his death on the cross doesn't really let the Christ die on the cross, it wasn't just a criminal, Luther says, Martin Luther says that no matter how much the gospel is preached or shared, how much it is shared, no one accepts it unless the Spirit is present, you have to keep that in mind when you witness them to family members, friends, if the Spirit ain't knocking, it ain't happening, and so what that means is we come down off our high horse, but we don't save people, our experiences don't save people, my preaching don't save people, it's the Spirit, and if he ain't knocking, ain't nothing happening, and that keeps us humble, see, he is the one who is living and active, he is the one who convinces our heart of the testimonies of the war and blood, he is your helper who leads you into all truth, and he lives in all of God's people, so when you bear witness about Jesus to other people, it is the Spirit using you to do it, it's the testimony of the Spirit working itself out in your life, you get strength from that, you know, so if you say, well I don't have the gift out of evangelism, I don't want to, I'm afraid, pray about it, ask the Spirit to give you the boldness that you don't have, the confidence that you don't have, to take away the fear that you're feeling, and he'll do it, he'll do it, because his role here is to bear witness to Jesus, to glorify Jesus, that's one of his roles here. Now John, he doesn't leave it there, he goes a step further about the testimony of the Spirit, and telling us that the testimony of the Spirit is actually a testimony of God, in verse 9 he says, if we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has born concerning his Son. So John is pretty much using, you know, a logical argument here, in the sense that all of us every day, where do you, in your job or in your relationships, we all receive the testimony of the people, right? Every day, people come to you and say this and say that, and you believe them, and they're following people, sinful people, but there are certain people in your life you receive the testimony right, don't you? Because you consider the source as well, you consider the source, is this person an incredible source, is he reliable, are they shady, questionable, right? God is incredible, reliable, he ain't shady, he ain't questioning, and his testimony is true, truer than mine and yours, because he's God and his testimony is greater, and that is, John just using a logical argument there, that if we willingly accept what other people say, when they are an incredible source, how much more God? How much more God? Particularly his testimony concerning his Son, if God says that Jesus is who he claims to be, we should accept that. He is the Son of God, he is the Messiah, the Christ, the God-Man, and by talking about the Father here, we have to see the Father is the subject of this testimony, he is the creator of this testimony, it's not just simply the spirit-man witness, it's just not simply the blood of Christ and his baptism, it's actually God himself if responsible for it, and if it's God's testimony, we got to realize that it wasn't made up on the fly, it wasn't God saying, "You know what, I need a plan B, a plan A, it didn't work out, I need a plan B here, is that how God works?" It wasn't something that he just came up with, one day sitting on the beach, you know what, these people need a Savior, so let me create a Jesus and send Jesus to save him, because my other plan didn't work, God doesn't work like that, and we want you to see it, this is a divine testimony that existed in the mind of God before all eternity, it was then, in the mind of God before any of us was around him, and so that should be like, "Wow, God already had this planned out, he already had it planned out, and so the historical witness of the blood and the water and the supernatural witness of the Spirit are actually God's witness, because he is behind him, he is the one who testifies to his son in history, in the water and blood, and he is the one who testifies today through his Spirit, is God doing it, is his testimony." This past Tuesday, evening we had a man's Bible study, and we talked about Genesis 1, 2, and 3, and one of the pictures you see in Genesis 1 and 2, Genesis 1 and 2, is that man and God was in perfect relationship, and he was in bliss, and he found it, something that I read the other night, Tuesday night I want to read it here, if I can find it. Genesis 1, verse 28, "And God said to them, and God blessed him, he said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over it, have dominion over the fish, of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and every living thing that moves upon the earth.' And the Lord said, 'Behold, I have given you every plant you will see that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with the seed and its fruit, and you shall have them for food, and to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the heavens, to everything that creeps from the ground, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every plant for food, and it was so, and God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good, very good. I read that, and he was telling the man, I had given you every tree, everything for your benefit, for you to have dominion over it, except for one thing, except for one thing, the tree in the middle of the garden, you should not eat from him, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You see Adam and Eve, as we were talking to tonight, they had it made, living a good life, the American dream, if you want to use that. They were living it up, but in Genesis 3, they failed, because they disobeyed God, and that perfect relationship between God and man was broken. That was a consequence of it, sinned into the world. You see, the testimony of God that he has concerning his son doesn't just include the fact that you just died for your sins, but also includes the fact that he restores you in your relationship to the Father. Do you see that? He restores you to what was happening in the garden. A broken relationship has not been restored through Jesus, through his death. You see, down for your sins, yeah, but the best part about it too is you are now in relationship with the Father, the Creator of the universe, calls you sons now, calls you daughters now. That's what Jesus has done for all those who receive him, to all those who receive him. We can have fellowship with the Father through Jesus. So when you testify to others about Christ, don't just say, "Hey, Jesus died for your sins," but take it further. He died for your sins, but guess what else you get? You are now in relationship with the Father, relationship with him. Verse 10 says in verse John 5, "Whoever believes in the Son of God has a testimony in him. Whoever does not believe in him has made God a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony God has borne concerning his son. And this is a testimony that God gave us to turn to life, and this life is in his son. Whoever has a son has life, whoever does not have the son does not have the life. The purpose of God's testimony is so that we will have eternal life in his son." That's the benefit that we get receiving seventh faith in Jesus. And another awesome thing about this eternal life is that you get to experience it here. Is this not in the kingdom world to come? Is this not in the age to come, but you can experience taste that life here. How is that possible? How is something that's supposed to come when Jesus comes back? How is it that I can actually taste it now? He says in verse 12, "Whoever has the son has the life." See, Jesus said, "Come that you may have life and have it abundantly." What is he talking about there? It's living a fellowship with the Father. You can actually do that now and not wake to glory. Beans of heaven. That's one of the beans of heaven that we get to experience here. That you can know the Father. You can live a relationship with the Father. You can be in communion with Him. Does that excite you? Or is that... Oh, are you looking for a bigger punchline? I mean, that should excite you. That you have a relationship with the Creator. This is God we're talking about here. You're not talking about a relationship with me. God, the great I am, the Alpha and the Omega, the great I am, the Alpha and the Omega that begin in the end. The Creator of all things. Elohim, Yahweh, go through all His names, Jehovah's Yara. That God, you can be a relationship with Him. You can know Him through Jesus. You should be excited about that. I should see more smiles here, not fake smiles. And if that doesn't excite you, I wonder why. You can grow in Him. You can actually love God and return Him. How? How is that possible? Through His Word and through prayer. Those are the tools the Spirit has given us. Means of grace. Spend time in His Word. Spend time in it. Spend time in prayer. And what we're going to do here as a whole church, we're going to read through the Bible in two years. This is something we're going to do as a whole congregation. And the whole purpose of that is to give us in the Word. To give us in God's Word. Spend time in His Word. To let His Word feed us. Something's feeding you. You run into something to get you through today. You could be coffee. It could be whatever. His Word. You need His Word in you. And so I'm on the back, but there are these schedules here. The reading schedule and the verses here. And I'm challenging all of us to make a commitment to being God's Word. Reading books about God's Word is cool, but you still need to be in God's Word too. And that is you. I say this again. You want to grow your relationship with Jesus? You've got to spend time in His Word. And still spend time in prayer. Now am I saying, well, we're going to go seven for seven each week. That's the product going to happen. But the goal is that whenever you don't spend time, don't give up. Just come back the next day. God knows we're imperfect. But don't use that imperfection as a excuse not to do anything, not to spend time at all. This is life for you. This is life to you. And I said this before, if you understand God as Father, you don't see this as a monkey on your back. You see this as wise counsel. No good son would disrespect his dad when his dad's giving him good advice. When God says, don't touch the oven. It ain't for God's benefit. It's for your benefit because if it turns the oven, you're going to get burned. And so when God says, be faithful to your spouse, that's for your benefit people. This is God's fatherly counsel to his beloved. And we are foolish if we just put it on the shelf. Don't put it on the shelf. Pull it off. Spend time with it. Spend time with it. All the other things that we testify about at certain point, they're going to let you down. I don't care if it's the best restaurant in town. At some point, they're not going to always be that. And another thing is that the best movie that you see might not be the best to other people that go see it either. And the one thing about Jesus is that he's always consistent. He always won't be the best to whoever you refer him to. He ain't ever going to have a bad day. He ain't ever going to let someone else down. You got to understand that. When was the last time you heard a true believer say, you know what? I'm so tired of Jesus. I'm going to walk out. What Christian says that? Have you ever heard a believer say that? Let me get frustrated, but do they ever say Jesus is inconsistent. Jesus let me down. That Jesus did all these bad things to me. Jesus always Jesus from eternity from eternity. He's a savior, a good savior, a forgiving savior. And so when you share him with other people, you let them know. You may struggle as a believer, but he holds on to you. The only one of his promises is that in the John is, he says, whom all the Father has given to me that he will not cast him out, who will not lose any of the Father has given him. You see, your faith is also eternally secure. Do you realize that? In Jesus. He wants, he gives you that life. It's yours from all eternity. He holds you. He holds you. Let them around your mind. Jesus holds each and every one of his people. He keeps them. All that the Father has given him, he will not lose ever. And that includes you for the spray. Father God, we have a faith that continues to believe, loves, no bays, a faith that overcomes, and a faith that we also that testifies, testifies about you to other people who don't know you. If I don't pray that you'll give us a burden for the loss, the people on our jobs and our communities, that who don't know you, and that we will share them, share with them about you, that our love for you will just overflow to that. We won't be able to keep an end, because we want them to know that Jesus, to have eternal life, and to live a life here in fellowship with God, the Father, Almighty. And some of us, you know, we're scared. We feel like we don't have the gift of Spirit. You know our weakness. Your Word says your power is made perfect in our weakness. So be made perfect there. Give us the confidence and the boldness and humility to talk about Jesus to other people. And that includes myself. I have relationships with people I know and I have not spoken up about Jesus. Give me the boldness to be able to proclaim the name of Christ. Christ in my play. Amen. All right can everyone please stand for our last song. So you can sing a short bit of "I'm a Friend of God."