Believe on the Name of the Son

Ascension Presbyterian Church Longwood

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I'm going to ask you to remain standing and take your copy of the Bible and turn to 1

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John, in chapter 5, 1

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John 5. Our time in this epistle is drawing near to an end.

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I'm very sad about that, but looking forward to 2 and 3 John, and maybe even

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Jude, before we leap into something bigger in the future. Let's give attention now to the reading of the word.

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It is God's holy and infallible word to us. 1

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John 5. Whoever believes that Jesus is the

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Christ is born of God. And everyone who loves him who begot also loves him who is begotten of him.

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By this, we know that we love the children of God, when we love

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God and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome.

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For whatever is born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith.

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Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the

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Son of God? This is he who came by water and blood,

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Jesus Christ. Not only by water, but by water and blood, and it is the

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Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear witness in heaven, the

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Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit. And these three are one. There are three that bear witness on earth, the

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Spirit, the water, and the blood. And these three agree as one.

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Now the section we'll be considering today. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater.

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For this is the witness of God, which he has testified of his Son. He who believes in the

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Son of God has the witness in himself. He who does not believe

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God has made him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given concerning his

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Son. And this is the testimony that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his

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Son. He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the

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Son of God does not have life. These things

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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

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Son of God. Amen. Please pray with me.

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O Lord, I pray that your people would today again believe on your name.

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I pray that we would believe your testimony concerning your Son, and that we would enjoy life eternal, the fullness of joy in this life, that we would persevere in faith, and that we would continue to continue on with great assurance.

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We ask this all in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated.

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One of the things that's happened to me, and I don't know that it's something that you experience in our section,

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I feel that I am speaking on the same topics over and over again in 1

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John, and there is some truth to that, and John is so eager for us to nail down a couple of essentials of eternal life being found exclusively in Jesus Christ, to reject any notion, any false teaching that comes in that denies that he is the

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Son of God who has come in the flesh. But we learn today that his aim and purpose is that we would have a good and full assurance of our faith, and this would give us great hope.

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This would enable us to persevere in times of difficulty because we are so anchored and grounded and rooted in the faith that we have in Christ.

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We can withstand all of the storms and all of the hardships that life presents.

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Let's consider our text again, beginning in verse 9. I will give you the brief outline.

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I'm sorry, I forgot to do that. First, the witness of God is the first thing we'll be considering.

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Second, eternal life in the Son. The witness of God, eternal life in the

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Son. And third, assurance and perseverance in Christ.

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Let's take up the idea of the witness of God. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater.

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Now the idea of receiving is to actively lay hold of.

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In this politically charged season, we receive the witness of people we agree with.

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We don't really fact check people who agree with us. We listen to all of the experts and we take their opinion at face value and often act upon it.

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We read an article about some issue of health and we say, well, that sounds about right.

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And we immediately implement some new regimen because of some article that we have read.

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We are habitually receiving the witness of men and we never challenge it.

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And yet the witness of God is presented in scripture and we say, did

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God really say? The witness of God clearly articulates the will of God in scripture and we question it.

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Is this something that we can receive? We have to become much more discerning about what we take in and we agree with and what we listen to the experts and the witnesses that we receive.

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And certainly we acknowledge with John that the witness of God is greater.

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But for some of us, TikTok and Instagram, Facebook are greater witnesses to us or the media or the movies or our friends or our uncle

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Jim or whoever. We take those witnesses, we take them at face value, we accept them, we often act upon them.

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And John says, there's a greater witness, the witness of God himself.

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The idea of witness has the root of the word in which we get martyr from and martyria in this case is basically what you think of the testimony, the evidence that God has given.

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So we have the false teachers bringing a nice newfangled doctrine into the church.

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Jesus didn't come in the flesh. The witness of God is greater. The church is continually assaulted.

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The individual, the family assaulted from without about the witness and testimony of men.

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And we listen to them. May the Lord grant us greater wisdom and discernment not to receive carte blanche, the witness of men, but go to the true source, the witness of God himself, as revealed in Scripture.

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The witness of God is greater concerning Jesus Christ. In a dogmatic sense, this respect matters relating to the truth of Christianity.

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The testimony which establishes and confirms and proclaims the the messianic office of Christ and his divinity.

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A little bit later, we're going to see, I'll introduce it now, the testimony of God in the prophecies of Scripture concerning Jesus, the

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Messiah, the endowments which have been conferred upon him and the works that have been done by him.

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They've been done cooperation and the powerful operation of the

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Holy Spirit in the Christian life. We have a blessed consciousness and realization and we actually receive and we testify, we embrace the witness of God.

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We believe upon the name of the son and we find eternal life and salvation in him.

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The witness of God is greater, literally Megos, where we get the word mega from.

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It's large, spacious, weighty evidence, testimony and witness.

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These are things to be esteemed highly for their importance. These are gravitas things from God, weighty matters of great moment and import weight.

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The testimony of God is weightier. Last week, you may remember,

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I said sometimes we have to have greater confidence in the objective reality than what we're feeling subjectively.

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And we do that because the promises of God in Christ are true and sure and irrevocable.

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And we're feeling not so much that way. Our life is not matching our profession perfectly.

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We're having problems internally and from without the testimony of God concerning his son.

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Jesus Christ is true. We say, amen. We breathe a sigh of relief and then we walk in obedience and righteousness, bolstered and strengthened again to carry on and to persevere in the faith.

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Not because we feel good, but because our God is good and his testimony is true.

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Weighty words of God. This is my son in whom

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I am well pleased. This is the witness of God, which he has testified concerning his son.

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God himself offers the testimony. We should hear him. The one who is truth himself, his attributes are laced with truth.

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He cannot speak a lie. He says, this is my son. Believe on him.

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Have eternal life. Walk in his ways. Walk in his life. Be united to him.

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Be united to all of those who are united to him. God speaks authoritatively without lie, and his testimony is true and sure.

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Let's look at verse 10 now. This gets us to our second point, eternal life in the son.

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It says in verse 10, he who believes in the son of God has the witness in himself.

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We, too, testify that Jesus is the

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Christ. I, as I get older, I feel that I probably have more wisdom than I did when

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I was younger, but I see a gap in my knowledge. It seems the more I study, the more

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I know, the greater the gap of knowledge there is for me. But one thing

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I do know, I know that salvation is found in Jesus Christ. Every believer here, however weak our theology is, we know that salvation is found in Christ alone and we build our lives on it.

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Christ is our life. Life comes from him, it's sustained by him.

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Eternal life has to come from him and be sustained by him. If there be eternal life, it's found only in the son.

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We have this witness and this testimony in ourselves. The one thing that is really hard today,

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I know theologically I haven't thought this, but in a practical way,

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I've thought about the unbelief of the wicked as being a passive activity.

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It's not true. I've kind of felt like, well, they just don't understand. They just don't get it.

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The entire world stands before the judgment of God. Do they believe the testimony of God or not?

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You say, well, maybe it's passive. They just don't get it. They call him a liar.

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The one who is truth himself, they call a liar because they have not believed in his testimony concerning the son.

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Look at this. It says in verse 10 again, he who does not believe

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God has made him a liar. What a blasphemous thing.

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The one who should receive all of our worship, the one in whom we cannot create an idol and fashion something to bow down to, the one in whose name we must preserve and treasure, the one whom we should worship and obey.

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We say in unbelief, God is a liar.

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What a blasphemous thing to say and to believe. This is the status of the unbeliever in the world.

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This is why we believe in the necessity of an irresistible grace, a work of God in the hearts of men to transform them into his son's people because they could not do it on their own.

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God reconciles his enemies to himself in Christ. How great will the judgment be?

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Psalm 110, Psalm 2 of those who don't kiss the sun or acknowledge his kingship and his authority over the world and our own souls.

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The time is interesting. I saw a, I don't know what you'd call it, one of these little short videos.

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And this person was talking about having a closer contact with the vibes of the universe.

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And I was sitting and thinking, how could they put their confidence in the vibes of the universe?

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You're going to buy a crystal. They're going to chant something. They're going to light some candle.

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They're going to flip over some cards. But they will call God a liar and choose that and said, what blasphemy, what idolatry exists?

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Kiss the sun, lest he be angry and his wrath is kindled, but a literal.

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What is the testimony of God concerning his son? At the fall,

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Ismael could tell you from class that I teach, he promised the son and he promised a salvation in him and the proto evangelium.

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He promised that Satan would be crushed under the foot of our

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Lord Jesus Christ. The first gospel preached back in Genesis 3. D .J.

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mentioned biblical theology this morning in relation to the psalm. And if we were to trace the 300 plus messianic prophecies in the

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Old Testament and find their complete and utter fulfillment in Christ, we would learn and we would understand it's mathematically impossible that Jesus is not the

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Christ. And God has twice in the New Testament cracked open the sky of heaven and said, this is my son, baptism, transfiguration.

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The father says, this is my son. The son is invested with miraculous power and signs and works.

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He preaches like no one else has preached. He understands the law so perfectly because he himself is the law giver.

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In accepting his sacrificial death on the cross for your atonement, the father says, this is my son.

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He has done the work. I will grant salvation in his name. And has the father not testified and witnessed in the resurrection of Jesus Christ that this is my son?

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Has he not testified when the son in the ascension comes and sits at the right hand of God, claiming the authority that is rightfully his?

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Has God not spoken and testified? Through his mighty works,

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John 517 says, my father has been working until now. And I have been working.

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What of Christ's sinless life, his expounding of the scriptures?

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What about his humble service? What about his uncompromising and otherworldly royal love, his suffering, his prophetic words about himself?

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Destroy this temple in three days. I will raise it up. There's also the witness of the

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Holy Spirit. We talked about this a little last week. The conception of Jesus in the womb of the

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Virgin Mary, his visible descent upon Christ at his baptism, the effectual conquest, the power of the spirit.

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The conquest of the demonic spirits. Jesus said, if I cast out devils by the spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

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Matthew chapter 12. And finally, the visible, powerful descent on the apostles and the 120 gathered to furnish them with gifts and powers to preach

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Christ and his gospel to the world after he himself had gone to heaven.

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And for us, brethren, the Holy Spirit is here with us, dwells in us.

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All of these things testify, there's so many more, the reality of who

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Christ is and the salvation that could be found. He will continue to be present among us.

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You must believe in the testimony God has given about his son.

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Well, let's take up the remaining verses beginning in verse 11.

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This is the testimony that God has given us eternal life.

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You stop and pause here. God has given us eternal life.

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It doesn't end with our death and burial. When we die, we enter into the presence of the

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Lord. On the last day, these bodies that are frail and decaying will be raised, glorified, these bodies reconstituted, reconstructed, remade for glory, for eternity.

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Surely God has given us eternal life in the sun. He's granted it to us according to his counsel and his will.

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He has appointed to us all the means required to bring us to faith. He placed you, many of you, in a

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Christian home. Children, rejoice that you were raised in a Christian home. It is a gift of God for you to be raised in a

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Christian home. Not everybody can say that. It's no accident that you were born into a

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Christian family. It's no accident that your parents, little ones today, your parents brought you to church today.

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They're preaching Christ to you today. You must rejoice that this is the state that you are in.

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God has been merciful to us. He's pointed all the means required to bring us to faith.

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He supplied the power in the spirit to do it. He's given it to us by promise.

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He's done it in covenant. He confers Christ and all his benefits to everyone who believes.

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Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. It's wonderful, isn't it?

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Life is in the son. Eternal life is found in his own person.

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You don't have to turn there. But in first John one concerning this word of life, the life was manifested.

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And we have seen and bear witness, John would say and declare to you that eternal life, which was with the father, has now been manifested.

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To us. John in his gospel says in him referring to Christ was life.

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And the life was the light of men. There be eternal life.

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It's going to come from the life giver, the light of men, Jesus Christ.

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Colossians three says when Christ, who is our life, I just said that a few moments ago.

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Christ is our life. I want to pause here for application and drive into this a bit.

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Does your life scream that Christ is your life?

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Does everything about you scream that Christ is my life?

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He's everything to me. That's where we should be. We shouldn't be known for our political leanings as much.

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We shouldn't be known about what we like to do vocationally, what should scream out of us, what should be unmistakable in us is that Christ is our life, that we are united to him.

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Eternal life is found in him. That should be what defines us. I think we all have some room for growth and we pray now and ask the

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Holy Spirit to reveal to us the ways in which Christ is not displayed, that we might turn from them, but also to to stir holy affections in us, that that Christ would be our all in all, that we would love him and treasure him above all things.

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Oh, Lord, do this in us, your people today. Kindle these cold heart, hard hearted selves that we are, do something in us, ignite a flame in us, cause us to love and treasure

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Christ above all and to live accordingly. Oh, Lord, please do it in us.

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God's given us eternal life. And this life is in his son,

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I think this is almost a summary of the gospel, isn't it? It's almost a summary of the scriptural record that God has been merciful.

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He's granted eternal life. And this life is only found in Christ. Well, let's keep going.

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In verse 12, it says, he who has the son has life.

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It's really that simple. Not only does Christ have to to die and go to the cross and to to be the atonement for our sins, but we have to lay hold of him.

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We have to take him as our own. He has to give himself to us and unite himself to us or we have no life.

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But all of you in Christ, you can say, oh, whatever befalls you today, all of you can say that I have the son.

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And therefore I have life. But oh, the despair of the world.

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He who does not have the son of God does not have life.

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I've told you that I've enjoyed watching true crime being solved.

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And sometimes they'll show a video and they don't show the gory details, but they'll show the victim just before they get shot or something.

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And it's kind of in the pit of your stomach, you see a person, they're going on in their life, and then in a few seconds, their life is going to be taken from them.

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And it's haunting to see that on film or something. That's the condition of the world around us.

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The unbelievers without Christ, they're they're going about their business. But there awaits a certain doom for them.

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We are responsible and obligated to preach Christ to every creature under heaven and at least warn them and let them know the truth.

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To cry out to them, there's only one path, there's only one way. It's the way, the truth and the life, it's

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Christ. And we should tell everyone we come in contact with that there is a way of salvation.

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God has given eternal life and this life is in the son.

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And we should be unashamed to say that he who does not have the son of God does not have life.

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It's very sobering. Eternal punishment for all of your sins.

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Can you imagine all of your sins and the weight of that guilt hanging over you and the just punishment of God falling on you because you deserve it?

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What a better plan to to run to Christ and find salvation in him.

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We should be more zealous and eager to make the glories of Christ known.

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Well, the last point is maybe the most important in terms of the application of this section, because this seems to be we know those other things to be true.

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But John reveals a very distinct purpose. I read this in the first sermon,

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I believe, that I gave in first John. It says in verse 13, these things

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I have written to you. Who believe in the name of the son of God, so everybody listening.

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John, as an instrument of the Holy Spirit, is writing to God's people.

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And this is what he has to say for us. I'm writing to you who believe in the name of the son of God.

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We are those who believe and we rejoice that we are those who believe. He wants us to know that you can know with certainty that you have eternal life.

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Assurance is something that Christians often struggle with. And I think this is one of those great verses.

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This section is very helpful. I believe in the testimony of God. I believe that Jesus has done it.

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I believe the spirit is powerful to apply this salvation to me.

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I receive the testimony of God is true and I live and I act in response to it.

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These things were written for believers. Sometimes we read in first John. I've mentioned that I'm not really doing that very well.

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He's spurring us on to love and good works. He's spurring us on to to greater heights of obedience.

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He's calling us to repent of sin, to to root out unbelief and worldliness, to be discerning and to reject the false teachers.

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But in the end, he wants to comfort his people that you may know that you have eternal life in Christ and that you might persevere.

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That you may continue to believe in the name of the son of God.

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Everybody starts off the race with great energy and great zeal.

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Marriage, engagement, the early days of marriage. It's so exciting and thrilling.

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But it really is only good if you persevere. When you're married for 50 years and you're not as beautiful as you once were, there better be some perseverance.

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When you can't walk and you're providing medical care for your spouse, you better there better be some perseverance in that love and commitment.

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So, too, for us on our deathbed, may we have even greater confidence than we do in this moment reading this passage because of the faithfulness of God and because we kept persevering, clinging to his precious promises, running time and again to Christ.

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That we would continue to believe in the name of the son of God.

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Do you believe on the name of the son of God? Keep believing.

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Covenant to never let go of the hem of his garment. Say, I will never leave you,

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Lord. You won't forsake me. I'm going to cling to that promise and I'm going to hang on for dear eternal life.

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This is the plight of the Christian. What a glorious thing that John would write to us.

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That we would believe on Christ, that we'd have great assurance of that faith and that we would persevere.

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That we might have hope. And experience the fullness.

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Of joy. A couple of words of application will close here. Belief. Do you have genuine faith in Christ?

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Is Christ your life? Some important questions.

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Do you believe? Second, do you have great assurance and hope?

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I think this is one of those times of objective realities. We don't always feel hopeful.

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We always don't feel assured, but we believe the testimony of God concerning his son.

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Rest in the promise. Rest in the truth. Believe again. Have assurance and hope.

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Do you believe that salvation and eternal life is found in Christ alone? Yes. Continue to believe, persevere and hope.

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This should cause us to be filled with joy. God has saved us.

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We are his people. He's promised to make us holy.

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He's promised to deliver us all the way to the end and to grant us eternity.

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Surely God has spoken. Christ has accomplished. The spirit has applied.

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We have salvation in him. Persevere and hope. Believe the testimony of God.

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Believe on the name of the son, the

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Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Let's pray together. Oh, Lord, we we thank you for a message that is like a drumbeat in our ears.

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You convince us time and again that Jesus is the Christ and we agree with your testimony.

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Oh, God. We acknowledge that you that Jesus is your beloved son in whom you are well pleased.

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And oh, Lord, we are well pleased in him, too. Oh, Lord, I pray that you'd grant us greater assurance of faith.

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A greater dependence upon Christ, a greater longing for the spirit, a greater desire for fellowship with the father, the son and the

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Holy Spirit. Oh, Lord, give us great courage and boldness in our faith to refute those who say that you are a liar.

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And there could be salvation in another. Oh, Lord, help us to be bold. Help us to be merciful.

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I pray that you would comfort and encourage and build up your saints today that they might walk in faith in you.

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And Lord, if there be an unbeliever here or in our arms reach, I pray that in the power of your spirit, you would draw them in.

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Bring them into the church and let them enjoy Christ and all his benefits. Oh, Lord, we ask you to build your church globally, corporately, universally.

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But we ask you also to build our church, to build this place. And we ask this in Jesus name.