The Testimony of God

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Misc. Sermons
The Testimony of God
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Open up your Bibles to 1 John Chapter 5. We’re gonna be in verses six through 12. And if you would, please stand in honor of reading God’s Word. 1 John Chapter five 5, Verse six. “This is he who came by water and blood-Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the spirit is the truth. 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 is born 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 born concerning his Son. And this is the testimony, “That God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”

Father, we’re about to pick this apart. We’re about to focus on a few things here, and God we need your wisdom. I need your wisdom. I need your spirit, Lord. And father for the congregation, they need your spirit to be able to open their ears, so that they can hear this. Father, these are spiritual things. And your word says that the spirit helps us discern these spiritual things. Lord, we need you. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen. You may be seated.

So you just read that, and probably felt the same thing that I felt when I read that. You’re looking at and you’re like “Water, blood, the spirit testifies or three witnesses: Water, blood and spirit.” And on the surface, it seems puzzling and cryptic, but let me tell you, it’s not. Okay, it’s not. It is very clear what John is talking about here. And to get to the point of what’s he’s talking about here, we’re gonna have to look at a lot of scripture. I’m not gonna have to… I’m not gonna ask you to turn to all these things. A lot of it, some of it is gonna be on the screen. Some of it, I’m just gonna read. But we’re gonna have to do a little bit of digging first before we can get into what this actually means for us.

And so there’s a quote by John Piper. He says, “Raking is easy, but all you get is leaves. Digging is hard, but you might find diamonds.” So for just a moment, okay, if you will dig with me, I believe there are incredible treasures for us here to see. So look back at the scripture verse six. “This is he who came by water and blood-Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the spirit is truth. For there are three that testify the spirit and the water and the blood. And these three agree.”

So right at the beginning, we’ve just got them talking about “Look, the one who overcomes the world through faith is the one who believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” And so now, John is going to say, “And look, you have every single right to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God because there are these witnesses that testify that He is the Son of God. And these witnesses that God has sent that testify that Jesus is the Son of God are the water and the blood and the spirit.”

So we’re gonna start with the water. What does John mean whenever he says that the water that Jesus Christ has come by water and the water testifies that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Now, John has kind of a fascination with water in his gospel. He records a lot of what Jesus says about being born through water. And it’s interesting at Jesus’ baptism, what we find is when Jesus goes to be baptized, John lowers him into the water. And what happens? The heavens opened, the spirit descends like a dove. And God gives a testimony. He says, “This is My beloved Son in whom I’m well pleased.”

So it’s pretty clear that whenever John says that, “The water testifies that Jesus Christ is Son of God,” he’s referring back to his baptism because that’s when the heavens opened up and God said, “Hey, this is My Son in whom I am well pleased.” But there’s something little bit deeper than that, in this. It’s not just the fact that Jesus was baptized and that God testified, “Hey, this is my Son.” There’s something deeper about Jesus’ baptism that testifies that He is the Son of God. Now Jesus, whenever he was testified or whenever he was baptized, that marked the beginning of his ministry. Okay. So after he was baptized by John, then he goes off into the wilderness, and he stayed there for 40 days. And he comes back, and he starts doing all these miracles. He starts doing his ministry for three years. So his baptism marks the beginning of his ministry.

Now when Jesus goes to John the Baptist, he says, “John, I need you to baptize me.” And John the Baptist says, “Hey, no I can’t baptize you. I’m not even worthy to untie your sandal. It is you who should be baptizing me.” But it is very interesting what Jesus says to him. He says, “No John, listen. We must do this because it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” So Jesus says, “Hey, the reason I need you to baptize me, John, is because I have to fulfill all righteousness.”

Now, let me ask you a question. Did Jesus Christ have to fulfill righteousness for his own sake? No. He was righteous. He never sinned, not one time. There was zero sin in him. So whatever he says, “Hey, it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” What he was doing is Jesus saying, “Alright look, I’ve been here for 30 years, and now I’m about to start this ministry. John you have to do this because I have to fulfill all the righteousness for those that are gonna believe in me. Because a crucial truth of our faith is that whenever we place our faith in Christ, our sin is placed on him and his righteousness given to us. He is stepping out in obedience to God and he is fulfilling all righteousness for us. And that’s what I think that John is referring to whenever he says “The water,” that’s the deeper meaning. He is showing that Jesus Christ was perfectly completely obedient to every single command of God. Not once did he sin, not once did he veer from the path. He had a mission, he set his eyes upon it and he fulfilled every single commandment of God.

In fact, that’s exactly what Romans 8 says. Romans 8 says that Jesus fulfilled… “He came and he lived and he died so that the righteous requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us.” Now, throughout all of history, every single prophet that came before Jesus, every single man of God that existed, was there ever a single person who completely fulfilled the law of God? No. So this just screams that Jesus Christ is who he says he was, because he never sinned not once. He lived in perfect obedience to the Father. Perfect obedience, that’s what you need to carry away from the water. And Hebrews 5:8 says that, “Though he was a son he learned obedience by the things that he suffered.” And that takes us to the next witness, the blood.

Isaiah 53, “Jesus Christ was a man of sorrows, well acquainted with grief.” Right. Now, this one’s a little easier to understand. The blood. John is referring back to the cross of Christ. He is referring back to the sacrifice of Jesus being crucified on our behalf. Now, Jesus certainly knew suffering, he certainly knew pain, he certainly knew grief. He was born into a sinful world, a holy man, was born into a sinful world, right? And now, there’s not clear evidence but there’s reason to believe that Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father, probably passed away some time either after or right around the time that Jesus was 12 years old. So that meant that Jesus lost his earthly father and he had to care for his household. He had to be the breadwinner for his mother and for his siblings. Life was hard for Jesus.

So he begins his ministry, right? And he goes and he’s baptized and he goes out into the wilderness and he’s tempted for 40 days. And he pours himself out resisting the devil. The scripture says that he resisted sin to the point of shedding his blood and he was so give out by the time that this temptation was done angels had to come and minister to him to let him know, “Hey, everything’s gonna be okay, you did this, you’re good.” They had to nurse him back to health. So he starts a ministry, he goes to Galilee, he goes to Nazareth, he goes to his hometown and his own brothers and sisters reject him. They deny him for who he says that he is. He says, “No, you are a liar. You are not the son of God.” They attempt to stone him and to throw him off a cliff. He is mocked by the Pharisees. He is constantly called a hypocrite or a heretic actually. He’s constantly called a heretic by these people.

He pulls 12 men together and he lives with them for three years, day in day out. Draws close relationships to them, yet whenever he’s in the garden and he says… On the eve of his death he’s about to be arrested and taken to the cross, he says, “Guys, please stay awake with me and pray with me. My soul is sorrowful, even unto death be here with me.” And what do they do? They sleep. Soldiers come to grab Jesus, disciples flee. They leave him. The only people that Jesus had on his side, they’re gone. He is taken by the Roman guard and he is taken and he is beaten. The King of Kings and the Lord of Lords is flogged repeatedly. The skin ripped from his body, bones exposed. They put on a purple robe on him and a crown of thorns and they mock him. And they spit on him. He carries his own cross up the hill to Calvary. He is nailed to it and before the world, naked and alone, the sins of all of us are placed upon him and he cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” In that one moment Jesus Christ was the most lonely person in the universe. His disciples had abandoned him, his family had abandoned him, everybody that had pledged allegiance to him was gone and even in that moment the father had to turn his face away from the son. Jesus knew pain and he knew suffering. But yet it is amazing, Jesus hanging on the cross and he dies.

The sky grows black and there’s an earthquake and then the veil in the Temple is ripped from top to bottom, it is open. And there is a Roman centurion standing right before Jesus and when it says that whenever he sees the way that Jesus died, he says, “Surely this man was the son of God.” There is something peculiar about a man and the way that he dies that is a huge testimony. It revealed to that centurion this was the son of God. So look at those two things, Jesus’ obedience and Jesus’ death, okay? Those two things are pretty peculiar in and of themselves. Nobody has ever seen a man who has never sinned, who’s completely fulfilled the law of God, right? Nobody has ever seen anybody like this, and nobody has ever seen a man who whenever he was reviled he did not revile in return.

That he was mercilessly crucified on a cross for something that he did not do, for claiming to be who he was and not once did he utter anything wrong against them. He said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” There is no other God like this. There is no other man like this and in fact that’s exactly what Isaiah says. He says, “Who has seen a God like this? Who works for those who wait for him.” Every other God makes you work for him. Our God came, he lived in completely obedient life and He died death in obedience for what we did. Our God works for you. There’s no other God like him. If you wanna see two witnesses that verify that Jesus Christ is who he says he is, look at the water, look at the blood. Look at his obedience, look at his death on the cross.

But there is another one. There’s a third one. The spirit. John 15:26, Jesus says, “But when the helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father. He will bare witness about me.” So the spirit comes, right? Whenever Jesus leaves and the spirit descends upon the people at Pentecost. And the spirit testifies with our spirit, that we are children of God. The spirit, his main job is to testify to us here that Jesus Christ is who he says that he is. He does that through his word and he also did that in the life of Jesus Christ. There’s something that I wanna show you.

In John Chapter 3, verses 33-34, this is what it says, it says… This is John the Baptist speaking, okay? And John the Baptist is speaking about Jesus Christ, he says, “Whoever accepts his Testimony, Jesus’ testimony, has certified that God is truthful. For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God has given him the spirit without measure.” Jesus Christ was completely full of the spirit and he had an unlimited resource through which to have the holy spirit. And so what do we see in Jesus’ life? Well, we see all of these miracles and things that he’s performing, right? We see all of these miraculous things that he does and let me tell you, him doing those things was the spirit testifying through him. “Hey, you can believe that he is who he says that he is”

The scripture says that Jesus Christ was made a man in every respect just as we are yet without sin. Hebrews 2 says that “He was made exactly like the brethren,” that’s us, so that he could save us to the uttermost. Now, there’s something very important to understand about Jesus here. You guys understand Philippians 2, right? Have this mind within yourselves which is also in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but instead he emptied himself, took on the form of a servant being found in human flesh, he humbled himself to the point of death, even the death on a cross.

You see that progression there? In the form of God and equal with God all the way to humbling himself to the point of death, even death on a cross. Now when Jesus did that, it says that he emptied himself, he set aside certain rights that he had. And the life that he lived, the spirit descends upon him, he starts doing all these things, he did all of that through the power of the holy spirit. Every single thing. Listen to this, Acts 10:37-39, “You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached. How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the holy spirit and power and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil because God was with him.”

Acts 2:22, “Men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst.” Isn’t that amazing? Do you see what I’m getting at here? Jesus was a man, just like me and just like you. He was just like us, yet he was given the spirit without limit. Now he could have done these things all on his own but think about it. If Christ came and he just, as God, he just resisted sin and just bounced off his chest like bullets off Superman’s chest and it was no big deal for him, would he be a suitable sacrifice for us? Would he? I mean, would he really be able to relate to us? Would it really be true what Hebrews says about he was tempted in every single way that we are? Without sin so therefore he can sympathize with us? Would he really be able to do that? No.

He labored, and he toiled, and he struggled to resist sin to the point of shedding his blood. He lived out of the power of the holy spirit in complete obedience to God, every single miracle that he performed, he did through the power of the holy spirit. So now we look at… We understand the water, Jesus’ obedience. We understand the blood, Jesus’ death. We understand the spirit, the miracles and the things that Jesus performed. So look at verse 10, “Whoever believes in the son of God has this testimony within himself.” So God’s testimony, what is God’s testimony? God’s testimony is this. That God gave us eternal life and this life is in his son. So God has testified to us through three witnesses, the water, the blood and the spirit that we have eternal life in Christ Jesus. Okay? And whoever believes in the son of God has this testimony within himself. Now, this is the application. This is the application, so pay attention to this.

If we have this testimony within ourselves then that means we also have three witnesses. We have three witnesses within us. Three witnesses, three things that we do, that testify that Jesus Christ is the son of God and eternal life is in him. So, Jesus Christ, his witness was the water, it was his obedience, right? So, also the water, our baptism, our obedience shows that Jesus Christ is who he is. Jesus Christ, at the beginning of his ministry, he was obedient to God and he went to John and he was baptized. So, also that’s what we do, right? Whenever we’re saved, whenever we believe that Jesus Christ is who he says that he is. Our public profession of faith is that we step into the water to baptism. That’s what we do. That is obedience. Just as Christ was obedient to do that, so also we are obedient to do that. And let me just say, if you are a Christian, if you have believed upon Jesus and you have not been baptized, you’re being disobedient. You need to do that, you need to follow in that because Christ has commanded us to do that.

Now, but even greater than obedience and baptism is just obedience in general. And, you know, this is kinda what grieves me most about the church these days, is that you don’t see very many people that are walking in step with the Lord, you don’t see that. You see people that they go to church on Sunday morning and then they go off and they do whatever they wanna do throughout the week and they come back on Sunday morning and they sit and they listen and they don’t let it penetrate them and they go off and do whatever they wanna do on Sunday morning. They don’t share the gospel with anybody. Let me ask you, when was the last time you shared the gospel with somebody? Have you ever shared the gospel with somebody? Because you know that Christ has given us a mission, right? Matthew 28, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”. So this is the King of Kings that is telling us this. He has the right to tell us this and he says, “Go therefore into all the nations and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the father, and the son, and the holy spirit, teaching them to obey all that I have commanded.”

Now, if somebody were to come up to you an ask you, “What do you do that proves that you are a Christian?” What do you say? What can you say? If all that you can say is, “Well, I go to church on Sunday morning,” Guys, that doesn’t cut it. That does not cut it. There’s a little boy and he went to his dad and he said, “Dad, did grandpa make you go to church every single Sunday too?” He says, “Well, yeah, I did. He made me go and I was in Sunday school every morning and big service every Sunday. Without fail we were there every single week.” And the little boy said, “Oh, well, I guess it’s just not gonna do me much good either then.”

You see us living in obedience, so that little boy looked at his father and he said, “Wow, he goes to church every single Sunday but there’s something about him that just has not done him any good.” It takes more than that guys, it takes more than that. We have to follow Jesus Christ and his example of righteousness that he set. Because look, whenever we live radically obedient lives to Christ, what that tells the world whenever they see us is, he truly believes what this man says. This man has led this guy to give up the pleasures of this world in exchange for more of this guy in the sky that he talks about and that he prays to, there’s something peculiar about that. There’s something strange about that and I wanna know more. Matthew 5:16 says, “Let your Light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven.”

Your good works are directly tied to glorifying the father in heaven and believing what he has said about his son. And now look, I know a lot of you may think, “But what good does it do? What good does it do? I mean, if I give up all of these things and I live a righteous life and I live obediently, there’s no joy that comes from that.” Wrong. You are wrong. Jesus Christ says in Beatitudes, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they will be satisfied.” Now that satisfaction is not some, “Well, I guess I’ll just settle for righteousness. I mean, hunger and thirst for righteousness and I guess I’ll just get what he gives me and I’ll be pleased with that.” It’s not a begrudging satisfaction. You will be satisfied in your soul and in your heart. There is an immeasurable fountain of joy waiting for you if you will walk in obedience to the Lord and you will do what he has called you to do.

Now look, we offer many, many ways for you to do this here at church. There are small groups that we have. Okay. And the purpose of these small groups is to get you plugged in into community, which is something that Jesus said we should be a part of in his High Priestly Prayer in John 17. Get you plugged into community. Okay. And to… We want to assist you. We want to help you. We want to help you overcome sin. There’s accountability there. There’s hope there. There’s encouragement there. And I know you can come on Sunday morning, and hopefully you’re receiving that right now, hope and encouragement, but it’s gonna be nothing like if you’re in a small group every week and you’re meeting with these same people, and you are honest, and you are transparent and you decide, “Look man, I’m gonna stop messing around. I’m gonna take this seriously, and I want to do life for the glory of God because that is what I am claiming that I have been called to.” And it won’t go unnoticed, the things that you do, they will not go unnoticed.

1 Corinthians, Chapter 15, amazing passage of scripture, it’s the resurrection chapter. Paul is talking about the resurrection, he’s saying, “Look, we’re gonna die, right? But then we’re all gonna be raised, okay? And we’re gonna be raised in imperishable bodies and we’re gonna be with the Lord.” It’s like 50-something verses long that he discusses about the resurrection. And then at the very, very end of that chapter, after discussing all this about resurrection, he says, “Therefore, do not lose hope because we know that the work that we do is not in vain.” So, what does Paul mean when he says “Don’t lose hope because we know that the work that we do is not in vain?” Why does he say that? Well, after we’re resurrected what’s gonna happen?

We’re gonna be brought before the presence of the Lord, right? And we’re gonna receive rewards. Some of us are gonna receive the crown of glory, some of us are gonna receive the crown of hope, some of us are gonna receive the crown of mercy. “And based upon the things that we have done in this life,” Revelation says “We will receive rewards.” But then, what are we gonna do with those rewards? We’re gonna lay them down at the feet of King Jesus, right? Because we, at that moment, we will agree with Paul, “Yes, I worked harder than any of them yet it was not I but the spirit of God that was within me.” We cannot take credit for anything that we do.

All of our righteousness was provided and bought and given to us by Jesus Christ, therefore me walking in obedience is just me being naturally who I am, what he made me, and so he gets all the credit. And for eternity we will sing of what Christ has done in this life. So the things that you do… Guys look, don’t settle for obscurity, okay? Live for Christ because those things we’ll be singing about for eternity. The things that you do now is adding to the eternal legacy of Jesus Christ. What you do has meaning, has purpose, and for the rest of the world to be able to see us, and for the rest of the world to be able to see Christ, it’s gonna take us living like we actually believe the Gospel. It’s gonna take us living like we actually believed Jesus whenever he said, “Look, whoever gives up family, whoever gives up farms, whoever gives up children, and mothers, and fathers, for my sake? Whoever gives all of that up, in this life you will be repaid and then sevenfold in the life to come.”

Do you believe that? Do you believe that if you seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness then all of those things will be added to you? Do you believe that? Do you believe the Lord? Do you think that he would lie? No. The world is not going to put up with hypocrisy. The world wants genuine… They want to see that. They want to see that. So our obedience to Christ is an amazing testimony to who Jesus says that he is. “Let your light so shine before others so they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in Heaven.” So just as Christ also had the water and we have the water, his obedience and our obedience, so Christ, the blood, his suffering, his cross, so also our bearing our cross and our suffering, testifies to who Jesus says that he is.

Now, you can live a righteous life, and that’s powerful. That is powerful in and of itself, okay? But let me tell you, there is just something amazing whenever you see somebody who has lost everything, whenever you see somebody who is in the deepest, darkest night of their soul, and in the midst of unexplainable pain and anguish, they can say, “Christ is enough for me. Christ is enough. Lead me with your counsel, hold me with your right hand, and afterwards you will receive me to glory. Whom do I have in Heaven but you, and on Earth I desire nobody besides you. My heart and my flesh may fail but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” That says wow. This person has a hope that is beyond this life. This person has something that they’re looking forward to that transcends even the deepest, darkest, unimaginable pain that you can experience.

It’s exactly what Jesus Christ did. Hebrew says that it was for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross. There was something that Jesus was looking forward to right over the horizon. Okay, he said, “Look, if I can just endure this then this joy is waiting for me.” And that joy was strong enough to allow him to endure 30 years of shame, 30 years of mockery, to be rejected and abandoned, to suffer the most horrible death on a cross. That joy carried him through that. We get kind of an idea of what this joy is whenever he says… He sends out the 72 disciples and they come back and they say, “Jesus, it is amazing, even the demons submit to us in your name,” and the scripture says that Jesus rejoiced in the spirit and then he prayed to God, it says, “God, you have taken this and you have revealed it to foolish and unwise people.”

And what he’s saying is, the kingdom of God has come. Your salvation, you have shown to these unlearned fisherman. Jesus’ joy was that, we would also enter into salvation. That is exactly what was waiting him on the other side of the cross. Because he knew, “Hey, if I don’t do this, nobody else does either. But if I do, then those whom God has given me will be with me.” So, we have a great hope church. Do we not? We have a great hope that we know that, “Hey, if I believe in Christ, if my faith is in him then I will see him one day. Now I see through a mirror darkly, but then, face-to-face.” Amazing. So guys, find that joy and hold onto it. Okay. And whenever trials and temptations come, and they will come, whenever those trials and those temptations come, the deepest darkest night of your soul, you need to be able to say “Christ is enough. God is enough for me.” Speaks incredible volumes about the satisfaction and sufficiency of Jesus.

Our obedience testifies that Christ is who He says that He is. Our suffering well testifies that Christ is who He says that He is. And also, just as Jesus had the Spirit, and the Spirit testifies through him that He is who he says He is. So also the Spirit has the same thing with us. Whenever you become a believer, you are in dwelt with the Holy Spirit. And what did Jesus say the spirit was gonna do whenever he’s in him, He was gonna testify about Christ. Now, there’s something amazing here. Okay. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Miracles, prophecy, speaking in tongues, words of knowledge, words of wisdom.

Now, which one of those lists made you draw back a little bit? Guessing it was this, probably when I said speaking in tongues. But, the thing is, it just baffles me, it amazes me. We want all of these, we want love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness. But we don’t want, all of these over here, we don’t look into these too deeply. Why do we want the gifts of the Spirit but we don’t wanna walk in His power? It makes no sense. Because he has given us the Spirit to help us through this life. He has given us the Spirit. He has given each one of us gifts so that we can minister to each other. So that we can testify to who Jesus Christ is. If you try to do without Him, you’re going to fail.

It is only through the Spirit that we can do this. It is only through the Spirit that Christ was able to do what he did. But look, the same Spirit that Christ had, we have. What Christ did is not something so amazing as that we can’t do the same thing.

 

 [SPEAKERS NOTE: I realize that this last sentence was a heretical thing to say. My mouth got ahead of my mind and I did not intend to say this. What Christ did WAS amazing. We ARE incaoable of doing what He did. Please forgive me for this as I got caught up in my words and this was not my intention.]

 

Listen, Watchman Nee was a Christian missionary in China. And he was imprisoned and he was beaten, he was tortured for a very long time. And he wrote a book called ‘The Normal Christian Life’. And basically the thesis of the book was, “Jesus’ life is the normal Christian life.” It is. The same Spirit that Christ had, we have, now let us walk in that. We have nothing preventing us from doing these things. Christ has overcome sin. Christ has overcome death. There was no enemy. Now but, if we understand and we realize and we know that Christ has given us the Spirit to help us do this, and we walk in that power, amazing, incredible things can happen. Check out these verses. And they’ll be thrown up on the screen.

Luke Chapter One, verses 11 through 17. “And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him, ‘Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. For he will be great before the Lord, and he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God.'”. Do you see the link? “He will be filled with the Holy Spirit. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God.” Luke 1:39 through 41. “And you will have”… 39, yeah. “In those days. Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah; And she entered the house of Zechariah, and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.” And his… Yeah. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. And at news that the Messiah was within her, she was filled with the Holy Spirit, and John the Baptist leapt with joy.

Luke 1:67 through 69. “And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying, ‘Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he has visited and redeemed his people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David.'” Next Verse. Acts 2:2-4. “And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind and it filled the entire house where they were sitting and divided tongues as a fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Acts 4:7-12, “And suddenly, there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind and it filled the entire house where they were sitting and divided tongues as a fire appeared to them and rested on them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance.” Acts 4:31. “And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.” Acts 9:17. “So Ananias departed and entered the house and laying his hands on him he said ‘Brother saw the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.'”

Acts 13:8-12. “But Elymas, the magician, for that is the meaning of his name, opposed him, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said ‘You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? And now behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.’ Immediately, mist and darkness fell upon him and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand. Then the proconsul believed when he saw what had occurred for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord.” There is something similar in every single one of these passages and that is whenever somebody is filled with the spirit, they immediately proclaim Christ. When somebody is filled with the spirit, they immediately speak the word of God boldly. Whenever somebody’s filled with the spirit, people fall under conviction and they enter into repentance.

That is the power that we have. If we are to testify that Christ is who He says that He is, we have to do it in the power of the spirit. We cannot be shy of the spirit, we cannot think that it’s just some supernatural thing. It’s not, it is reality. You have the Spirit of God dwelling inside of you right now. It’s true. So now, I ask you the very end, 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. In verse 13, John says “I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.”

Band, you guys can go ahead and come on up. So let me ask you. Do you know that you have eternal life? Have you received the testimony of God that Christ is who He says that He is? And if you have, then yes, the spirit will tell you. The spirit will testify with your spirit that you are a child of God, that is there. But look, if you’re just not sure, look at the witnesses that your life is supposed to have. Are you being obedient? Have you followed Christ in baptism? Are you living a holy life? Are you pursuing holiness and righteousness? Or are you pursuing your bank account? Are you pursuing drugs, and alcohol and sex? What is it that you are relying upon to satisfy you? Because I’m telling you, if you hunger and thirst after righteousness, you will be satisfied. Are you being obedient?

If you don’t know if you have the son of God, what does your life say? What do you say? What does your life tell others whenever suffering comes upon you? Do you just withdraw within yourself? And do you consider everything unfair? And do you just lash out at God and lash out at those around you? Or do you say “No, even in the midst of my pain, there is a joy that is set before me that is going to allow me to endure this cross, and I will do it for the glory of God.” Do you have that? Do you have that kind of resolve? Because you can. Are you living in the power of the spirit? Are you relying upon the spirit? Are you inviting him? Are you realizing that you are filled with this and walking in that? Is that a reality to you or is that just kinda weird? You can have this kind of assurance. John has written these things so that we may know that we have eternal life. You can know that Jesus Christ is who He says He is, because look at the life that he lived. Look at the death that he died. Look at the things that he did in his life. Listen to the spirit when he is testifying to you “This is the son of God.”

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