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of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of the believers. I pray that you please bless Pastor Anson with the fullness and the power of the Holy Spirit as he preaches his word so that your children would be edified in your word. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Man, 1 John chapter five, I feel like we just started this book and we're already to the end of it, but what a powerful chapter. I mean, chapter five is really just a tour de force of quotable verses. So much great doctrine about salvation, about the Trinity, and on and on. Starting on verse number one, of course, it just starts out with such a powerful statement. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments. So really in chapter five we're wrapping up or summarizing almost everything that's been taught in the book of 1 John up to this point. Chapter five is sort of just like a closing summary, hitting all the points again. But the first thing I want to point out, of course, is that the way to be born again, the way to become a child of God, the way to be born of God is by believing that Jesus is the Christ, right? It's by faith that we are saved. It's not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy that he saved us. And so we are saved by faith in Christ. If we believe in Christ, we are born of God. That's the same thing that's taught in the Gospel of John when it says, but as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. So if we believe on the name of Jesus, we become the sons of God. And just as my children will always be my children, once you're God's child, you will always be God's child. You may be disciplined, in fact, you will be disciplined, because the Bible says, whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. So we will be disciplined as children, but we will not be cast out of the family. Jesus said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. And then it says, everyone that loveth him that begat, talking about God is the one who begat, loveth him also that has begotten of him, talking about the believers who the Bible says have been begotten again unto a lively hope, those of us that have been born again. And then this is summarized in verse two, by this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments. And again, this is a theme that we've seen throughout the book of 1 John. It's one thing to be saved, being saved is easy, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shall be saved. But once you're saved, you're supposed to be obviously growing in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And as you live the Christian life, you need to understand that there are three things that are inextricably linked about your Christian life. That is your love for God, your love for other people, and your keeping of God's commandments. Okay, these three things go together. You can't have two of them without having the other. Okay, you can't say like, well, I really love God, and I really love people, and then you're not keeping the commandments. That doesn't make any sense, because what does the Bible say in verse three? For this is the love of God that we keep as commandments. Okay, God's love is defined as, in many ways, keeping God's commandments. For example, Romans 13 says, love is the fulfilling of the law. For this, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet, and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Jesus said that on these two commandments, loving God and loving your neighbor, hang all the law and the prophets. And so keeping the commandments is how we show our love for God, and it's how we show our love for other people. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law, the Bible says. And so these things are inextricably linked. Okay, you've got to love God, and love your brother in Christ, and keep the commandments in order to be right with God. You have to be doing all three, and if you say that you're doing one and you're not doing the other, it really isn't true. How can you say that you love God if you don't love your brother? Because the Bible says, he who loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him that he that loveth God love his brother also. And so we could go to all the different verses throughout 1 John and elsewhere in scripture, epistles of Paul, four gospels, and show how these three things go together. As we increase in the one, we will increase in the other. Right, as we love God more, we're gonna love our neighbor more. If we love our neighbor, we're gonna love God. We're gonna keep the commandments. We're gonna do right by the neighbor and so forth. All these things are connected. He says, this is the love of God that we keep his commandments. And then he says, his commandments are not grievous. God's commandments are not a pain in the neck. Some people act like they are, but they really aren't. God's commandments are actually for our benefit. In fact, the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 12, that our parents on this earth, they chastened us after their own pleasure. They discipline us so that we don't torture them. But God disciplines us for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness. And so the Christian life that follows the commandments and the word of God is a better way to live your life. You're gonna live a more blessed and enjoyable life doing things God's way. God's commandments are not grievous. God's not up in heaven just trying to make your life hard or painful or unenjoyable and just kind of ruin your fun. No, God is actually giving you good commandments, righteous commandments. And in fact, back in the Old Testament, God predicted that when the other nations around Israel would see the commandments that they had been given by God, they would all look at that and say, wow, this is such wisdom. These laws are so just, this is so smart. And they will want to seek the Lord because they'll be so impressed by the wisdom behind the commandments of God. And even today, people look at those who live the Christian life and they say, hey, wait a minute, you know, whatever you believe, these people are living a good life. These people are living a clean life. This is a right way to do things when it comes to the family or when it comes to business or whatever. God's word makes sense. God's commandments are not arbitrary. God's commandments are there for a reason. Now, when you're young, you might not understand all those reasons and so you just do it by faith, you know? If God tells you not to do something, you don't do it. If he tells you to do something, you do it and you may not always understand it, but as you get older and you start to learn more about life, you'll realize, okay, now I see why God tells us not to do that, right? Maybe when you're a teenager, you don't really understand what's the big deal about fornication or drunkenness or whatever, but let me tell you something, as you get older, you will see how damaging those things are and you will realize that God is 100% right about these things. And so you've got to realize that God's commandments are not grievous. And then the Bible says, for whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the son of God? Now, I love this scripture because it defines the one who overcomes the world as the one who believes that Jesus is the son of God. Now, elsewhere in the writings of John, this idea of overcoming comes up, doesn't it? In the book of Revelation, chapters two and three, he that overcometh, right? In the messages to the churches. And if you compare scripture with scripture, even we're talking about the same human author. When we talk about overcoming, we're talking about believing that Jesus is the son of God. Some people will try to turn overcoming into a works thing, some kind of a workspace thing, but sorry, the Bible defines it for us. It's about faith in Christ. It's about believing and it's not about anything else. That's why it even says, who is he that overcometh, but he that believeth that Jesus is the son of God? That's the only person that it is. No one overcomes without believing that Jesus is the son of God. That's what it is. It's not about doing works. Flip over to Revelation. We'll just quickly look at this. You know, we wanna spend most of our time in 1 John five because there's so many great verses to talk about. But let's just touch on this and look at this term overcometh over in Revelation, just a few pages to the right as you're reading your Bible. And if you go through these different messages to the churches, he has this thing about he that overcometh in each case. Look at verse number seven. It says, he that hath an ear, Revelation 2 seven, let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. And again, if you remember, eating of the tree of life is associated with living forever because if you remember, when God kicked out Adam and Eve from the garden, he told them, or he basically said that, you know, he's barring the way to the tree of life lest they eat of the tree of life and live forever as a result. So it makes sense that him that overcometh has eternal life because he that believes that Jesus is the son of God has eternal life. I'll give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. And then if you go down just a little bit in verse 11, it says at the end there, he that overcometh shall not be heard of the second death. Well, the second death is the lake of fire. And obviously the one who has believed on Christ is not going to be touched by that second death. He's not gonna spend any time in the lake of fire whatsoever. He's not going to hell. Go down just a little bit more. And it says in verse 17, Tim that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna and will give him a white stone. And in the stone, a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it. There's a famous song about this in the hymnal, right? There's a new name written down in glory. And then as we go down again, it says in verse number 26, now notice this one's a little different, pay close attention. And he that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end. So this is not simply the guy who just overcometh. The guy who overcometh is gonna eat of the tree of life. He's gonna eat the hidden manna. He gets a new name when he gets to heaven and he's not heard of the second death, but he that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end. Now that's another thing, isn't it? Because it's one thing to believe on Jesus. It's another thing to actually maintain good works all the way to the bitter end, right? To keep his works unto the end. He says to him, will I give power over the nations and he shall rule them with a rod of iron as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers even as I received of my father. So when it comes to ruling and reigning with Christ, obviously that's a reward that's based upon your actual performance as a Christian, not just are you saved? Did you believe in Christ? Because obviously millions and millions and millions of people believe in Christ. But how many people can really rule over the nations? There's only so many nations to go around to rule over. And people are gonna be given different levels of reward and different levels of authority in Christ's kingdom based upon the works that they do. That's why Jesus said, behold, I come quickly and my reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be. So the rewards are according to every man's work. Now here's the thing, salvation is not according to work, but the rewards are according to work. Guess what? Salvation is not a reward. Salvation is a free gift. A reward is something that you work for. It's something that you earn, but a gift is not earned. It's paid for and given freely. So let's move on to chapter three here. It says in chapter number three in verse five, he that overcometh the same shall be clothed in white raiment. And I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my father and before his angels. And again, this is just simply associated with being saved, okay? Because if you believe on Christ, your name will not be blotted out of the book of life. Here's what's interesting about that, is that as we study the book of life in scripture, you'll find that there's never any instance of any names being added to the book of life. There's only talk about people being blotted out or removed. The only time it ever mentions anyone's name being written in the book of life is before the foundation of the world. Okay, so basically if you actually study this throughout scripture, before the foundation of the world, people's names are written in the book of life. Everyone's name is written in the book of life and it's people getting removed. And if you believe on Christ, if you overcome, then your name is not blotted out of the book of life. But rather your name is confessed before the father, before his angels. Because some people will try to say that the blotting out from the book of life is about someone losing their salvation, okay? Well, you can't lose your salvation, okay? Because if you lose your salvation, God's gonna have to stop being God because God promised us eternal life and God cannot lie. And the Bible says, in hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie, promised before the world began, okay? And so, no, what it means to have your name blotted out of the book of life is that you lose your opportunity to ever get saved in the future. You're done at that point. So if a person dies without Christ, their name is blotted out from the book of life. They're removed at that point, they're done. Now, also, someone could do something else, even while they're still alive, to get their part removed from the book of life. Because if you go, you don't have to turn there, but of course, the famous scripture in Revelation 22 says that if you remove from God's word, don't add to God's word, don't remove, if you take out of God's word, if you remove something from God's word or censor God's word, then he'll take away that person's part out of the book of life and out of the holy city and from the things which are written in this book. That's talking about someone losing an unsaved person who tampers with the word of God, some wicked false prophet, some person who tampers with the word of God. They lose their opportunity to ever be saved in the future because their part is taken out of the book of life. Just like the Bible talked about, and you might think this is a rabbit trail, but this is gonna come up again a little bit later in 1 John 5, so I'm laying a foundation, it's all gonna make sense later in the sermon. Also, in the four gospels, we have the subject of the blasphemy of the Holy Ghost, where Jesus says, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven among men. He says, of men, he says, neither in this world shall it be forgiven, neither in the world to come. He that blasphemeth the Holy Ghost has no forgiveness. I'm pulling quotes from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and kind of synthesizing it. The point is that if you blaspheme the Holy Ghost, according to scripture, you're done. It's over for you. Now, people, again, will try to twist this into losing your salvation. No, who's Jesus talking to? Who is he talking about that blasphemed the Holy Ghost? Pharisees who had never believed in Jesus in the first place, they, the Pharisees who rejected Christ, they blasphemed the Holy Ghost, and then they crossed a line where they couldn't get saved in the future, where he's like, you guys are never gonna be forgiven. You guys are done. And that's why it says of those same people in John chapter 12, right around the neighborhood of verse 40, he says, therefore, they could not believe because God blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts. And again, this is because they had blasphemed the Holy Ghost, and that was a line that they crossed. So here's the thing. If a person dies without being saved, do they get a second chance? They're gonna get reincarnated and get to do it again, and hopefully they get saved this time? No. If a person dies without Christ, it's over for them. Everybody understand that? And you know, all of our independent Baptist brethren, they all understand that. And not even, just all Baptists understand that when you die without Jesus Christ, it's over for you. But what some of them don't understand is that for some people, it could be over for them even before they die. If they blaspheme the Holy Ghost, it's over for them. If they remove from God's word, it's over for them. Also, in the end times, there's gonna be something called the mark of the beast. And let me tell you something. Those who take the mark of the beast, it's over for them. The Bible's clear, they're done, they're doomed. And so again, this is not a saved person doing something and losing their salvation. That would be impossible. These are things that a saved person never would do, never could do. This is unsaved people losing their opportunity to be saved in the future. And this all makes perfect sense once you realize that there is nowhere in the Bible that talks about a person's name being added to the Book of Life throughout history. So we might sometimes have heard people say, oh, the moment you got saved, God wrote your name in the Book of Life. But that's not what the Bible actually says. The Bible says the names were written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world. And we only read about people being removed, only names being taken out. Well, how do you avoid getting your name taken out by believing in Christ? And him that overcometh, him to believe in Christ, I will not blot out his name out of the Book of Life, but I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. And you say, that doesn't make any sense, Pastor Anderson, because I just think that it's just a blank book. And when somebody gets saved, God just writes a name and they get saved, he writes in the name. Let me tell you why I like the actual Book of Life better than that idea. Because I like the fact that everybody's name starts out in the Book of Life because it shows that God's not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance and that God wants everybody to be saved. And that the default mode for people, how about as a baby? Is that they're there, their name's there, that they have life. And of course, we believe that if a baby dies in the womb or if a baby or a young toddler dies before they reach a level where they can even understand what's going on before they reach whatever the age of accountability is, which is different for everyone. But before they reach that point, their name is already in the Book of Life, they're already good to go, okay? It's people losing that chance eventually by either dying without Christ, living their whole life without getting saved, or committing one of these specific things that pushes it too far with God that takes you over that line even early. And so we have people in this world that are just like a dead man walking because they've already crossed that line. They're like those Pharisees that Jesus was dealing with where they've already blasphemed the Holy Ghost or tampered with God's Word or whatever. They've crossed that line and they are what the Bible calls a reprobate. You know, they're doomed. And a lot of people just, they rebel at that doctrine and they say like, well, I just believe that every single person can be saved even up until their last breath. But that's not what the Bible teaches. You know, the Bible clearly teaches that somebody takes the mark of the beast, they can't be saved until their last breath. Once they've got that mark of the beast, they've made their choice, it's over for them. Same thing with blaspheming the Holy Ghost, et cetera. And again, I could do whole sermons on all those things that I just brought up, but we're focusing right now on this thing of overcoming, so we don't wanna get too far off the mark here. So back to Revelation 3, we're just looking at these overcome-eth verses. Verse 12, him that overcometh, chapter three, verse 12 of Revelation, him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God and he shall go no more out and I will write upon him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God and I will write upon him my new name. And then in verse 21, it says to him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne even as I also overcame and have sat down with my father in his throne. You know, all of us who are saved are, the Bible says, even spiritually already seated in heavenly places with Christ. So back to 1 John chapter five, him that overcometh is he that believes that Jesus is the son of God. The victory that overcomes the world is our faith. We're saved by faith and faith is believing in Jesus, believing that he's the Messiah, believing that he's the son of God, trusting him as our savior. And then it says in verse six of 1 John chapter five, this is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ, not by water only, but by water and blood and is the spirit that beareth witness because the spirit is truth. So again, we're hitting highlights from the entire book of 1 John. We've talked about loving and keeping the commandments and salvation by faith and so forth. And now we're emphasizing Christ's physical coming. The fact that Jesus Christ came in the flesh, he came by water and by blood. And it says, it is the spirit that beareth witness because the spirit is truth. And of course, this is reminiscent of the Gospel of John chapter 19. When Jesus is on the cross, if you remember, this is a key passage that the author, the apostle John really makes a big deal about seeing this because he says, I was there and I saw it and I'm telling the truth. And like, he makes it clear, I'm the one who's writing this book that was physically there and saw it. He identifies himself as the author because throughout the book, he kind of evades the fact that he's John. So he'll kind of call himself the other apostle or that other apostle or the disciple whom Jesus loved or something like that. But he says in John chapter 19, that when Jesus was on the cross, the soldier pierces his side with a spear and out of the spear hole, immediately there came out both water and blood came pouring out of the side of Jesus. And John saw this amazing, miraculous sight because I believe it was a miraculous thing. I've heard medical doctors and people try to explain this and what scientifically was going on here. But honestly, I think it's more likely that it was just a miracle because John makes such a big deal out of it that if it was just a normal process and if it was just some kind of plasma or pus, I think that it was a miracle where blood and crystal clear water came out of Jesus' side. And so that's why John was so amazed at it. And then the blood and the water came out and he gave up the ghost. And so what John is really emphasizing here is the fact that Jesus really died. He's actually dead because you have these false prophets who come along later and these liberals that try to say that Jesus just swooned or he was just resuscitated or all these different theories about how he wasn't really dead, he just seemed dead or whatever. But obviously he was dead and he's saying, look, his side was opened up, blood and water came out of his side, and John was saying that he was close enough to the cross that he witnessed Jesus give up the ghost. He saw Jesus breathe his last breath and so he gave up the ghost. The spirit, the water, and the blood exiting his body are the testament to the fact that Christ physically died on the cross and that his life force went out of him. And also, of course, there's a symbolic meaning for the blood and for the water and for the spirit. That's a whole sermon in and of itself. In fact, I preached that sermon. It was called The Spirit and the Water and the Blood. So I'm not gonna go off on a big thing about that, but then he rolls into one of the most famous verses in the New Testament, which is missing in all of the modern versions, right? So this is a verse that's removed in the NIV, it's removed in the New American Standard, it's removed in the ESV, and the modern versions of the Bible do not contain this verse, but it says in verse seven, for there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one, right? This is the missing verse. If you have one of the modern versions, it will say in verse seven, there are three that testify, and then it will say verse eight, and then it will just pick up with the Spirit, the Water, and the Blood. It basically takes half of verse seven and mixes it with half of verse eight, and just completely removes this verse about the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. And it's a great verse on the Trinity. Now, obviously, this is not the only verse on the Trinity because there are multitudes of verses throughout the New Testament that we could use to teach the Trinity. So a lot of people would say like, well, it's okay if it's gone because we got all these other verses. Okay, remember that curse we talked about in Revelation chapter 22? God takes this thing really seriously of tampering with his Word, adding to it, removing from it. And of course, all of these scholastic, academic egghead types, they've got all these reasons why this verse should not be in the Bible, and they've got all their archeology and all of their textual criticism and all this. But at the end of the day, how do we know that anything in the Bible is God's Word? You know, if somebody's gonna come along and say, 1 John 5, 7 is not authentic. And by the way, virtually every single person who says that 1 John 5, 7 is not authentic, you know what else they say is not authentic? Mark chapter 16, verses 9 through 20, verses 9 through 20 of Mark 16, all of your modern version crowd, James White and the NIV and the New American Standard editors and the ESV people, they all also say that's not, you know what else they say is not authentic? John chapter 7, verse 53 through chapter 8, verse 11, 12 verses in the book of John about the woman taken in adultery, he that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. They don't believe that's authentic either. So they wanna take out these chunks of the Bible that God's people have always accepted as Scripture, right? So the Holy Spirit of God has been working in the churches for hundreds of years and Spirit-filled preachers have recognized these words as the Word of God, they have preached them as the Word of God, they have believed them as the Word of God, they have been virtually universally accepted by God's people as Scripture. But they say, well, you know, the earliest, most reliable manuscripts don't have them. You know, they're talking about a couple of defective, in a lot of cases, when we're talking about Mark and the portion in John, the woman taken in adultery, we're talking about those, we're really just talking about two defective manuscripts, Vaticanus and Sinaiticus. Now, 1 John 5, 7 is missing in a lot more places. There are a lot more places where it's missing, but here's the thing about that. How do we know that anything in the Bible is authentic? You know, what about the book of 3 John? How do we know that's authentic? How do we know the book of 2 John's authentic? How much evidence is there for the book of 3 John? Well, I'll tell you this right now, there's more evidence for the end of the Gospel of Mark than there is for the epistle of 3 John. You know, here's the thing, I'll tell you how we know that it's all authentic is because of the fact that A, it is self-authenticating, it shows itself to be God's Word, it proves itself to be God's Word because never man spake like this man, that's what he said about Jesus. God's Word is powerful and authenticates itself so that we know what God's Word is because we know what God's, well, that's a circular argument. No, no, no, we are indwelled by the Holy Spirit, we know God's Word when we hear it, we know the voice of the shepherd, we know the voice of strangers, and you say, well, so you're just the final judge? Folks, it's not just me, it's called Christians in general. It's called centuries of saved, born-again children of God, even just in recent history. How about just all throughout even times that we have a lot of records for? The 1800s, the 1900s, the early 21st century, you know, here we all are reading our Bibles, and you know what? When we read the woman taken in adultery, when we read Mark 16, when we read 1 John 5-7, you know what, we just know that it's God's Word, we just believe that it's God's Word, just like we believe the rest of the Bible is God's Word. God preserved his Word, God, through his providence, has allowed the Word of God to be preserved and to be compiled into these 66 books and bound up in a nice little book for you, and you have received this document called the Bible, and all of it is true, all of it is God's Word, and all of it is powerful, and all of it authenticates itself and it has been authenticated by God's people, not some atheistic scholar in Germany with some computer and an artificial intelligence trying to figure out what God's Word is, but rather the Spirit of God has worked through history to deliver to us this Word right here. And somebody could sit there and talk about, you know, 1 John 5-7, that it's not in these Greek manuscripts over here or there or wherever. Well, you know what, it is in some of the Greek manuscripts, number one, but number two, it's also in thousands and thousands and thousands of Latin manuscripts and other languages, and it's been a scripture throughout history that's been used and taught, and if you go back to ancient Greek sources of hymns and sermons, people would refer to this verse. So there are all kinds of references to it, but none of that really even matters because it's just God's Word because it's God's Word, because you read it and it makes sense and the Holy Spirit has vindicated it and God's people have universally received it for centuries, even in our recent history. So how do we know that anything in the Bible is true? Because the Bible authenticates itself and because God's people have the Holy Spirit of God and God's people have decided these things are authentic, not academia. You know, since when do we look to academia for spiritual truth? Since when do we look to a scientist to tell us about spiritual truth? This is not a science book, okay? This is God's Word. It's not about what some historian or scientist figures out, it's religion, it's the Spirit of God. And so it's authenticated by the Spirit of God, not by some expert who's gonna tell you about what was dug up somewhere. Folks, let me just tell you this right now. If they dig up some manuscript of the Bible that's more ancient than anything we've ever seen, they dug up some manuscript from the first century, I don't even wanna look at it, I don't even care what it says. I have zero interest. You wanna know why? Because I already have God's Word. We've always had God's Word, it didn't go anywhere. But these atheists, they wanna reconstruct the New Testament. Why? Because they believe it's been lost. Why would we have to reconstruct something that never got lost in the first place? God has delivered His Word and God has preserved His Word. No need to reconstruct anything. It never left, it never disappeared. We have it, here it is. I'm satisfied. I don't need some new archeological find to confirm the Bible or disprove the Bible or confirm it. You can't confirm or disprove it. It's by faith and I already know 100% that this is right. So I'm not interested in seeing the latest archeological find. Who cares? I certainly don't. But anyway, man, I spent too much time on that. I gotta hurry. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. Here's what's so powerful about this verse, okay? And it's an aspect of this verse that's not often talked about, but it should be talked about. Everybody really focuses on the part that says, these three are one, because that's a great statement on the Trinity. People love that part, but what we really need to focus on as well is the part that says there are three that bear record. Okay, and here's why this is important, because the false doctrine out there that attacks the Trinity, and it's called the oneness doctrine or modalism. And this doctrine teaches that God is just one person who manifests in three different ways. So he manifests as the Father, he manifests as the Son, he manifests as the Spirit. And the way that the purveyors of this false doctrine will explain it, and again, it's called modalism or oneness, is this is what they'll say. They'll say it's sort of like, I'm a pastor and I'm a father, and I'm a husband, but I'm just one person filling these different roles, right? So we've got Steven Anderson, the Father, Steven Anderson, the Son, because I'm my dad's son. So I'm a son, so I'm Steven Anderson, the Son, I'm Steven Anderson, the Father. And that's what they teach about God. This is a false doctrine. This is a lie, okay? It isn't true, because the Bible teaches that God eternally exists as three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Now it's one God, three persons. Now, how do we derive this from Scripture? Well, again, this is a whole sermon in and of itself, but look at John chapter eight, because this ties in with what we're looking at in 1 John 5. Now, of course, people will try to act like the Trinity is a man-made doctrine, or that it's something that was dreamed up hundreds of years after Christ. They have all this garbage that they teach, but let me tell you something. The doctrine of the Trinity is very easy to derive from Scripture. Did you ever take those geometry classes where you have to derive mathematical proofs? Who knows what I'm talking about? Geometrical proofs and things, and you have to prove things, and you have to derive these proofs? Well, doing this with the Trinity is way easier than high school geometry, okay? So fear not, it's so easy, because here's how you derive the Trinity from Scripture, is that you, first of all, find all the verses that talk about the fact that Jesus is God. So we have a lot of verses about the divinity of Christ, saying that Jesus is God, calling Jesus God, saying that he's God, and so forth, saying that he's the creator of the whole world, and all these different things. That's one component of it. Then we have all these other verses making a very clear distinction from Jesus and God the Father, saying that Jesus is not God the Father, and that God the Father is not Jesus. So you find all these verses saying that Jesus is God, you find verses saying that the Father is God, you find verses saying that the Holy Spirit is God, and then you have all these verses showing that these three are not the same person, but that we've got the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost as distinct. And obviously, just looking at those two facts side by side, that Jesus is not the Father, the Father is not Jesus, but that they're both God, and that there's only one God, you see how it doesn't take long to get to the conclusion of the Trinity. Once you just lay down a few facts, there's only one God, Jesus is God, the Father is God, but Jesus is not the Father, well, once you throw the Holy Spirit into the mix, you walk away with nothing other than the Trinity, so it's really not that complicated to get to the Trinity from Scripture. But a lot of people, when they first hear this oneness doctrine, they don't realize how bad it is, because when you first hear it, it doesn't sound that bad. Like, you know, when they say, oh, Jesus is the Father, you just kind of think like, oh, they're just kind of affirming the deity of Christ, you know, and maybe they're just getting a little radical, but no, no, no, this is a damnable heresy. Okay, it's a lot worse than you think. It's one of these things where on the surface, it doesn't seem like a big deal, but it leads to other worse heresies, and it's a very dark path that it takes you down. But let me just show you a great verse to just totally debunk this foolish idea of modalism or oneness, okay? In John chapter eight, it says in verse 13, the Pharisees therefore said unto him, thou barest record of thyself, thy record is not true. Now you remember, what did it say in 1st John five, seven? For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. Thou barest record of thyself, thy record's not true. Jesus answered and said unto them, though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true. For I know whence I came and whither I go, but you cannot tell whence I come and whither I go. Ye judge after the flesh, I judge no man, and yet if I judge, my judgment is true, for I am not alone. He's saying, yes, I bear record of myself, but I'm not the only one that's bearing record. I'm not alone, but I am the Father that sent me. It is also written in your law, the testimony of two men is true. I am one that bear witness of myself and the Father that sent me, beareth witness of me. Now, how in the world could you read that and walk away being a modalist? I mean, what in the world would that make sense? Well, I'm not alone because I'm not, it's not just Stephen Anderson, the Father, it's Stephen Anderson, the husband also. I mean, imagine me going to a courtroom, because this is courtroom language. It's written in your law, the testimony of two men is true. I'm one that bears record, the Father bears record, there are three that bear record. Okay, now, what if I went to court and we said, Your Honor, we have three witnesses. I'd like to call my first witness, Stephen Anderson, the Father, and then Stephen Anderson, the Father tells me, I've got a second witness, Stephen Anderson, the son. Now I got Stephen Anderson, the pastor. Now we got Stephen Anderson, the husband. You've heard all the witnesses, folks. That's one witness. How in the world is it three witnesses if Jesus and the Father are the same person in a different mode? He's just in Father mode, Spirit mode, Son mode, it's garbage, okay? It is the testimony of, and by the way, what sense would it make for Jesus to say, not my will, but thine be done? That doesn't even make any sense. And then people who mock the deity of Christ, you know, what, Jesus praying to himself? Well, according to the modalists, yes. According to the Trinity, Jesus is praying to the Father. Okay? And by the way, Jesus said that the Father loved him before the foundation of the world. Okay. Another great, one of my favorites, too, is when they're asking to sit at, you know, the mother of Zebedee's children is asking that they might sit at his right hand and left hand in his coming, and he says, well, that's, you know, that's not mine to give. It's, you know, the Father is gonna make that decision. So, but he's like secretly, I mean, think about how disingenuous that would be if he really is the Father. That doesn't even make sense. Like, it'd be like if my kids came and asked me, and I said, you know, I'm sorry, I can't make the decision of who's gonna ride in the front seat, that's not mine to decide. That's not Steven Anderson, the husband's job to decide. Only the Father can decide. It's absurd. It's laughable, and you know what, I could do this all day. I'm not going to, but I could show you for an hour verses that make modalism or oneness seem that laughable. Okay? And people struggle with this, like, how can God be three persons? Well, here's the thing, you know, there's only one God. This is what he's like. There's no other God to compare him to. That's just not how gods are. Gods aren't like that. Gods, you know, you might think that gods don't be like that but they do. Okay? It do be that way. Because there's only one God, and he's a Trinity, there is no other God. So like a one person God doesn't exist. There is no one person God. Oh, you mean like the God the Muslims worship? It's the devil. Oh, you mean like the God the Jews worship? Also the devil. Okay, the only real God is the Trinity. There's nothing to, God even says like, who are you to compare me to? I'm God, I'm the creator. The Father, Son, Holy Ghost. These three bear record in heaven, and that is only a meaningful statement if they are three witnesses. And they can't be three witnesses if they're all the same person in three different modes. You gotta have the Father as a witness, the Son as a witness, the Spirit. That's three witnesses. So that's what we don't wanna miss in 1 John 5. There are three that bear record in heaven. Don't miss that. And these three are one, and then it says in verse eight, back in 1 John 5, I gotta hurry up and finish here. There are three that bear witness. Bear witness, by the way, my friend, is just another way of saying bear record. Testify, bear witness, bear record. These are all identical in meaning. Bear record, bear witness, testify are synonymous. There are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit and the water and the blood, and these three agree in one. So we have three earthly witnesses telling us the same thing, right? The blood, the water, the Spirit, right? These things are all pointing us to the Gospel, right? Pointing us to salvation through Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. So we got three earthly witnesses, but is the water equal to the blood? Are blood and water the same thing? Is blood equal to Spirit? No, no, no. They all are agreeing in one, right? They're all testifying to the same truths about Christ, but they are not the same as each other. And then you've got the analog of that in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. These three are one. Verse nine says, if we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater, for this is the witness of God, which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. Now, the witness here is talking about the Holy Spirit. That's the witness that we have in us if we believe on the Son of God. He that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave his Son. So there are two kinds of people in this world, those who believe the record that God gave his Son, and those that are calling God a liar. Right? That really helps us understand what the word believe means, by the way. Because a lot of times people will try to say, well, believe means do works, or something. You know, it's like, come on. It's the oldest trick in the book. We're saved by faith, not of works, lest any man suppose. But well, believe means, you know, do the work. Keep the commandment, you know, it's like, ugh. But here's the thing about that is that, you know, the Bible says that the opposite of believing is to make God a liar, right? So if I trust someone, if I'm taking what they say on faith, if I'm believing them and I'm relying on their testimony, that's the opposite of doing what? Saying, this isn't true, you're lying. Calling them a liar, okay. This has nothing to do with obeying, or doing works, or keeping commandments. Faith has to do with trust or reliance upon the record that God gave of his Son, okay. And it says, if you don't believe the record, you made him a liar. And then it tells what the record is, look at verse 11. And this is the record. So this is what you have to believe to be saved. This is the record that God has given to us eternal life and this life is in his Son, three elements there. That God has given to us, it's a gift. It's not of works, it's a free gift, it's given. That God has given to us eternal life, not temporary life, not life until we mess up, until we sin, until we break a commandment. No, God has given to us past tense, he's already given to us as a gift, it already happened, eternal life, right? It's not gonna end, he's not gonna take it away and this life is in his Son. Meaning that it's only through Jesus that we can be saved. There's no other way to be saved. It's gotta be through Jesus and if we believe on him, we have that gift that he has given us of eternal life. If there's any part of that you don't believe, it's cause you're not saved. You know, if you don't believe that salvation is in his Son, you're not saved, right? If you don't believe that God has given to us eternal life but you think that it's somehow earned or worked for or that it's some kind of a reward, you're not saved. And if you don't believe it's eternal, you're not saved. Because you'll run into people who will say like, oh yeah, salvation is by faith, it's just by believing in Jesus. But then you ask them, hey, you think you can lose your salvation? Oh yeah, of course you can't just live however you want. It's like, what did you just say? You just said it's by believing. Now all of a sudden I have to live right? So I guess according to that logic, Jesus made the down payment for our salvation but we have to pick up the payments each month. And if we don't make the payment each month, then Jesus is gonna come as a spiritual repossessor of our salvation. He's gonna repo, in the middle of the night, he's gonna come repo our salvation because we missed a payment. We didn't go to, you know, that's not a free gift. The Bible calls salvation a gift but it also calls it in Romans chapter five, a free gift. Just in case you don't know what a gift is. He gets real specific, the free gift. Okay, it costs Jesus his blood, it costs him his life but for us it's free. So that's what you gotta believe to be saved. You gotta believe the record that God has given to us eternal life and this life is in his son. He that hath the son hath life. He that hath not the son of God hath not life. Muslims don't have life. Jews don't have life. Hindus don't have life. Buddhists don't have life. You gotta have the son to have life. You gotta have the son of God. Jesus Christ, the son of God. You know, and then you get these modalists that come along. You know, they don't really even believe if you really get down to brass tacks. They don't really believe that Jesus is the son of God, do they? You know, because they just believe in God becoming father, son, spirit. They don't believe that Jesus is the son of God. And by the way, they have to do, I'm sorry, I just can't resist talking about this even though I already dropped it and moved on. I can't resist, okay? Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Listen, my friend, these modalists, they have to do something with these verses. Like, oh, you know, if I bear witness of myself, my record's not true. It's the father that bears witness of me. How can that be true if they're the same person, right? How can not my will but thine be done? They have to, you know, oh, I can't, sorry, only the father can decide who sits in my right hand and left. What do they do with those verses, right? They have to do something. This is where they get into deeper heresy. This is why I'm telling you it's a scarier doctrine than you think. Because at first it doesn't seem like it's that big of a deal. It's way worse than you think. And the way I'll illustrate this and then I'll be done is it's like a guitar, okay? A guitar has six strings and they have these little knobs that every toddler and child is attracted to with a very powerful force. All they want to do is twist that knob, okay? So any place you have little kids around a guitar, they're gonna twist that knob. They're going for that knob. They don't want to play the strings. They want to go straight for that knob and they want to crank it, okay? So even if kids don't grab it and crank the knob, over time it just slowly loosens itself up anyway and the strings loosen over time. Guitars are constantly getting out of tune. Every time you sit down to play the guitar, you have to tune the guitar virtually every time you play it, okay? That's pretty much the way it works, especially if it's an old guitar or you have kids around. Well, here's the thing. You can just tune the guitar to itself or you can tune it actually the right way, right? So to do it the right way, you might have a little electronic tool that's telling you you got it right. I'm kind of old school, so I don't like using the tool. So I'll hit a key on the piano and then that gets me started on the first one and then I just tune the rest of the strings based on that. But here's the thing. Let's say you get one string tuned wrong. You can tune all the other ones wrong in the exact same way and the guitar will sound great. Now, does anybody understand what I'm talking about? Who has a grasp of what I just explained? So basically, if one of the strings is wrong, it's gonna sound horrible when you play all the strings. But if you tune them all equally wrong to where it's tuned to itself, it will sound good until you start trying to play with a piano or a trumpet or some other instrument. This is gonna be like, whoa, that's out of tune. But when it's just, so here's what false doctrine does. They get a string way out of tune and they don't wanna fix it. So here's what they start doing. They start tuning other strings wrong. And this is how false doctrine works. In order to salvage that false doctrine that you just can't let go of, you start creating other false doctrines. And then you're like, hey, I got a system of theology that works. Until you start comparing it with the Bible. Until you start actually talking to somebody who's actually saved or knows the Bible or whatever. And obviously, when we're talking about who God is, we're talking about a really important serious doctrine. This can also happen with other like side doctrines that aren't as important, but like say end times Bible prophecy or something. You get married to an idea of like a pre-tribulation rapture or something. And now you've got to start changing things and putting that round peg into the square hole as it were. But here's what happens. These modalists, they have all these verses that are making a very clear distinction between father and son. What do they do with it? Well, now what they end up doing is they create this hardcore division between, oh, well, that's the man Jesus versus divine Jesus. You know, they try to separate his divinity and humanity. Well, that's just the man Jesus. Because what about when Jesus is on the cross and he says, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? Now, and so the modalists would be myself, why have I forsaken me? Which doesn't make a lot of sense. But yet he says, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? What does a modalist do with that? Well, that's the man being forsaken by God. So you know what you're left with as a modalist? You're left with a Jesus dying on the cross for you who isn't God. Because it's just the man who's dying. You got the God part and the human part, right? And only the human part died. God can't die. Yeah, God can die. God did die 2,000 years ago. God died on the cross. Because Jesus Christ is God just as much as the Father is God. The Holy Spirit is God. All three members of the Trinity are equally God. The Father is God. It's not that the Father is like a little more God than Jesus. Jesus is every bit as much God as the Father is. Okay. So you can just make these statements. Well, God can't die. Well, says who? Jesus is God and Jesus did die. And it wasn't just the human part that died because there is no human part of Jesus and God. And they'll say, well, his physical body's the human part. Wrong. Last time I checked, Jesus was born of a virgin. Riddle me this. If Jesus is born of a virgin, how can he be physically not divine? Because last time I checked, in order for my physical body to exist, I need two parents. Because I'm getting 23 chromosomes from one of my parents and I'm getting 23 chromosomes from my other parent. And in order for me to even exist as a human being, I need 46 chromosomes and I need 23 from each parent. Am I right? Okay. And how could Jesus' physical body exist if that his physical body is just the human part? Let me tell you something. Jesus' physical body was divine because every cell of Jesus' body was both human and divine because he's got God the Father's DNA in every cell. And he's got the DNA coming from Mary in every cell. Jesus Christ is 100% man, 100% God, and that's not like, oh, let's chop that and say, well, the soul is God and the body is, no. The body is both human and divine. The soul is human and divine. And you see how you can start getting into, it's like one domino knocks over the next domino. They have to do all this weird heretical stuff and then you end up with a doctrine where it's just a non-divine Jesus dying on the cross for you. Wow, that escalated quickly, didn't it? And so this is why we don't wanna touch this modalist doctrine, this oneness doctrine with a 10-foot pole. We believe in the Trinity. The traditional Orthodox view of the Trinity is biblical. Okay, that the Trinity is three co-equal, co-eternal persons, Father, Son, Holy Ghost. That is truth. All right, so I'm pretty much out of time, but of course we get to verse 13, this powerful statement. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. And that's all we have time for tonight. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word and we thank you for the powerful verses in this chapter, Lord. Help us all to be shored up on these important doctrines about salvation and about the Trinity, Lord. Help us to have sound doctrine, sound speech that cannot be condemned. And Lord, help us not to be tossed to and fro with these other winds of doctrine that pop up from time to time. In Jesus' name we pray.