Everyday Church
No Greater Witness
(upbeat music) - Hello, friend. Welcome to today's podcast, Everyday Church, with Pastor Jason Kiefer. Everyday Church is a daily podcast where believers learn together, grow together, and serve together. (upbeat music) - Hey, my friend. It's great to be with you today on the Everyday Church podcast. And I hope you're having a great day in the world. And man, what a great thing that we can come together and be in God's Word. Well, here we are at the end of the week. And I don't know what your plans are. It's Friday morning as you're listening to this, or maybe Friday afternoon, or you may listen to this later, but some of you listen to it the day it comes out, and that's always an encouragement. But I hope that you'll plan to be in God's house this weekend. I just wanna say that I think that believers coming together to worship the Lord is just a great thing. I'm so thankful the Lord has given us each other. And so wherever it is that you go to church, be there, worship with your brothers and sisters in Christ, be an encouragement to people. You know, that would be a blessing to those around you. So last time we were together, we were talking about the victory that we have in Jesus, right? Victory in Jesus. That's a great, great, great song. And victory in Jesus. I love that, oh, that hymn. And, but as we move on today, we're just gonna look at a few things in the scriptures and continue in first John chapter five. And as we continue, the last thing we said was, who is he that overcome at the world? But he that believe it that Jesus is the Son of God. The leavers are overcomers through faith. And verse six, this is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ. So this is the one that came that was born of the Virgin Mary that lived as a man 33 and a half years and died and was buried and raised again, that lived for you. And I lived a sinless life for you and I. And so this is who we're overcoming. This is who has given us the ability, the power. This is who's given us the victory. And he came not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the spirit that bear witness because the spirit is truth. The spirit is truth for there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. These three are one. And so I believe that in John and John, first John five and six, Jesus references that Jesus came by water and blood. And I think you go back to John chapter three when Nicodemus was asking when he came to Jesus by night and Jesus told him said Nicodemus, except the man be born of water and of blood. He cannot enter the kingdom of God. Well, what does that mean? Well, water is our natural birth. Water is the natural birth. And what is he saying there, which almost telling, Jesus was telling Nicodemus that blood is the spiritual birth. And what does, what do we know is that Jesus was that spirit that came down from heaven. He was that spirit that he was God. Let me back up, he was God that came down in the flesh, that came down out of heaven, supernatural in every way, God in every way, but yet he was man in every way. He was God, he carried out the father's will, but he, you remember what Philippians says, he laid down his right to will of being God. He made himself of no reputation, but yet he was God. He was God in the flesh and it's hard for our minds to be wrapped, it's hard to wrap our minds around that and really understand how was God 100% man and 100% God. And so this is a faith thing that we must, we must take. And he says, it is the spirit that bear with witness because the spirit is truth. It's the Holy Spirit in you, John Sam. It's the Holy Spirit that lives in you. You remember he's already, he's already told us over there in first John chapter three, when he talked about the believe not, I'm sorry, chapter four where he said, "Beloved, be not, believe not every spirit, "but try the spirits, whether they are of God," right? And he's already told them this is how you're gonna know. You're gonna know because he's given us of his spirit there in first John chapter four and verse 13, hereby know we that we dwell in him and he and us because he has given us of his spirit. And so now he's saying over here in chapter five, he's saying, look, it is the Holy Spirit that bears witness with you because this is the spirit is truth, he says the spirit is truth. Remember what Jesus in John chapter 15 when he was getting ready to leave? And he said, look, I'm gonna pray that the Father sent you another comforter, even the spirit of truth is what he said. And so that is that Holy Spirit that lives in us. Paul says, Paul said it this way. He said that I might know him in the power of his resurrection. That's the spirit, the power of his resurrection, the spirit, that same spirit that came down and rested upon Jesus when he was baptized is the same Holy Spirit that lives in you and I. And so verse seven, he says, there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, which is Jesus and the Holy Ghost, these three are one, the Trinity. We call that the Trinity, three, there's three equal parts of God. They're all equal, they're one, they're one in person, they're one in unity, we see that when Jesus was baptized. Jesus was in the water being baptized, the Holy Ghost spirit comes and lands on his shoulder as a dove and the voice of God come down from heaven, saying, this is my beloved son and whom I am well pleased. And so what do we know? There's three parts there and there are three that witness bear witness in the earth, the spirit, the water and the blood. The same thing there, the spirit, the water and the blood, the spirit being the Holy Spirit, the water, the son of God, the son of man and the blood, God the Father, these three agree in one, these three agree in one. And so he says in verse nine, if we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater. So they were heavily reliant on the eyewitness accounts of other men, that's why when John first starts writing this book over in first John chapter one, if you remember, he said that, which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled the word of God. So he said, look, we're that witness. And so then now as he's closing this out, he said, if you receive, if we received the witness of men, the witness of God is greater. So I'm saying, look, I can tell you everything I know, but there's no greater witness than the Holy Spirit living inside of you. There's no greater witness than the work of God working through you and in your life. There's no greater witness than the work of Christ that redeems you and has restored you. That is a great witness. And he said, if we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater. For this is the witness of God, which he had testified of his son. So this is the witness, this is what he testifies. He that believeth on the son of God hath the witness in himself, the Holy Spirit. He that believeth not God hath made him a liar because he believeth not that the record. He believeth not the record that God gave of his son. So the language there is a little tricky. It's not saying that God can lie or God is lying. It's just that we're denying truth. We're denouncing truth. If you refuse to believe on Christ, you're denying the truth to you, it's a lie, to you, it's not true. And so the key is faith, the key is believing, the key is trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ that he has given us his son who died on the cross, buried, rose again, he has given us the Holy Spirit that now lives and dwells in us. And so he says, this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life. And this life is in his son. Man, what a great, great thought. In fact, that ties in with verse 12, he that hath the son half life and he that hath not the son of God, half not life. That's what it's all. John's trying to get them to understand. Look, this is written on these things I've written unto you that believe on the name of the son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. That's the whole purpose of John writing this book. And he's saying here, look, he that believes. If you believe on the son of God, if you put your faith in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, having repented of your sins, having come to a place where you've acknowledged that, look, I've done this on my own to this point. I've sinned, it's unrepented of, and I'm coming to Christ. And because of his grace, he's drawn me to him. And now I make this, he makes this heart change in me. And I'm trusting in him and I'm placing my faith in him so that he can transform me and change me. The man that does that has life and he has it life more abundantly, right? That's what Jesus said, I come that they might have life and they may have it more abundantly. Remember, he said in chapter five verse three, "My commandments aren't grievous. "They're not burdensome. "I've come that you can be free. "I've come to make you free from sin, from bondage, "from the slavery of self. "And so many things, so many other things "that we all deal with, Christ has come to make us free." Hey, who believes on the Son has life? I wonder today, do you believe on the Son? Have you trusted Christ as your Savior? Has there ever been a time where you've repented of your sins and you just said, you know what? I'm done, the word I need you, be my Savior, please. I call on you, change me, transform me. And many people are still trying to change themselves. Fran, I wanna tell you, there's miraculous power in the power, and there's miraculous ability in the changing power of God. Miracles happen in our life, chains are broken, we're set free, the heart is changed and transformed, that is the work of God, that is the work of life. And I hope today that if you have not experienced that, then you would call on him to save you today. Amen, what a great promise that we have from his word. I wanna encourage it today, share that with somebody, share this podcast with somebody. Everydaychurchabc@gmail.com is a great way for us to communicate. And I'd love to hear from you if you have a question or a thought. We're wrapping up first, John. We'll be finishing a couple of days, and we're gonna hit the ground running in a different direction. So we'll be praying for one another, and let's go to the Lord together. Father, thank you, thank you for your Son that gives life, thank you for the power of God that transforms our life and our heart. Thank you, Father, for the promise of your word, Lord, that he who believes on the Son of life. I pray for anyone and everyone who would listen to this today, God, that it would be a helping encouragement to them, God, that they would turn to you and repentance and faith believing, and Father, you change your life. We love you, thank you, and pray. It's in your precious name, we pray. Amen. (upbeat music) - Thank you for listening to Everyday Church, a daily podcast where believers learn together, grow together, and serve together. 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