Do you really believe in God? If you do then you are saying that you believe that Jesus Christ is God’s Son. We have been talking about believing the testimony about Christ and that testimony is that He is the Son of God. There are too many people in this world who do not believe this fact.
Today we are going to talk a little bit about the testimony of God and the testimony of John as we take another test that proves that we really believe in God. How important is your testimony? What we believe and how we act on what we believe is our testimony to others. We’ve been in a series for a number of weeks now talking about how we should behave as a believer. Our behavior reveals our character. For instance,
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When it was time to name their firstborn son, the young parents argued over whose father to name him after. Finally they took the matter to their rabbi. Maybe he could settle the matter.
The rabbi asked the young dad: “what was your father’s name?” “Abijah,” he answered. He turned to the mother and said, “what was your father’s name?” “My father was also named Abijah,” the woman replied.
The rabbi was baffled. Throwing his hands in the air he said, “Then what’s the problem?” “The problem,” answered the mother, “is that my father was a scholar, while his father was a horse thief. How can I allow my son to be named after such a man?”
The rabbi sat silently, trying to come up with a solution to satisfy everyone. After a while he said, “I have a suggestion. Call the boy Abijah. In time you will see whether he becomes a scholar or a horse thief, and then you will know for whom he was named.”
You see, behavior reveals character. Those of us who bear the name of the Lord Jesus Christ should walk as he walked. Our walk is our testimony to the world. That’s why our testimony is so important.
First let’s look at the testimony of God. READ verses 9-12. Verse 9 tells us that God’s testimony is far greater than the testimony of men. Why, then, does the world have a tendency to believe the testimony of men and not of God?
• Spouses usually believe the testimony of one another.
• Children believe the word of parents and teachers.
• Businessmen believe the word of employers.
• We all accept the reports of the news media and of friends every day.
But think about it, men interpret the facts and sometimes they stretch and twist the facts. When you think about it, we are never completely free of personal opinion and interests when we listen to the testimony of men. And some even lie and try to deceive when they share with us. They stretch the truth. Yet we come more to believing man’s testimony than we do God’s.
But you see, God never exaggerates or twists the facts. He never lies or deceives. What God says is always true. It’s the plain and simple truth. So when God says that Jesus Christ is His Son we should believe Him.
Verse 10 tells us that God’s testimony lives within the heart of the believer. When a person believes in Jesus, God implants His testimony within that individual. What is that testimony? That testimony is that the Holy Spirit living within that person gives him the assurance that Jesus has saved him from sin. The HS is the One who assures you that you are saved.
But in the last part of verse 10 we are told that God’s testimony is rejected by unbelievers. And this verse uses some strong language when it says that if you don’t believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, then you are calling God a liar.
Here’s the point. Ask anyone, anywhere, if they think God is a liar and what will be their response? “I would never think that. I would never call God a liar.” Yet some of these same people cannot look you in the eye and profess that they believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. Verse 10 says they are in effect calling God a liar.
Why? Because they are saying that they don’t believe God’s testimony through Jesus Christ. God has given us testimony after testimony that Jesus is His Son.
• The testimony of the life of Christ, His miracles and His words.
• The testimony of Jesus’ baptism
• The testimony of the blood, the cross, and death of Jesus.
• The testimony of the resurrection.
• The testimony of the Scriptures.
• The testimony of the Holy Spirit that convicts the human heart.
• The testimony of believers who have experienced the power of Christ in their lives.
If a person doesn’t believe all of this, he is, in effect, calling God a liar. And Jesus said, “for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”(Jn. 8:24)
One last thing about God’s testimony is that it is clearly stated. READ verses 11-12 again. To me, this goes right along with what Jesus said when he stated, “No one comes to the Father except through Me.”(Jn. 14:6b)
The one thing that man wants is to live forever. But to live forever in this corrupted world is not necessarily a good thing. What we have now is not real life. It’s not what life was meant to be. The life that God gives, eternal life, is the life that man was meant to live.
The only way we can receive this eternal life is by accepting Jesus Christ as our personal Savior. For those of you who have made the decision for Christ, Aren’t you glad you did? Isn’t it a wonderful thing? Doesn’t it make you feel great? What are the rest of you waiting for?
You see, we can’t come before God on our own because we are not perfect. Jesus was the only perfect and ideal man. Therefore, only Jesus has the right to stand before God. But Jesus will stand before God for you if you accept Him. And this means something wonderful.
It means that God will never turn down a person who has Jesus Christ as his advocate. The person who has Jesus Christ to approach God for him will never be turned down.
This life that I speak of is the energy, the force, the power of being.
• It is the opposite of perishing,
• It is eternal
• Satisfaction
• Security
• Found only in God.
• Has been revealed and is clearly seen in Jesus Christ.
• But this life only comes to someone when he or she believes in Jesus Christ.
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In verses 13-15 we have the witness of John the apostle. READ. John declares two things in these three verses.
1. A believer can be assured of eternal life.
2. A believer can be assured of answered prayer.
First, we can be assured of eternal life when we believe in Jesus Christ. And we can be assured of eternal life right now. When does eternal begin? Not after we die. Eternal life begins the moment you accept Christ as your Savior.
John says there are three ways that we can know beyond a shadow of doubt that we have eternal life.
1. By heeding the Scripture. John says he has written his Epistle so that we can have eternal life and know that we have it.
2. By believing in the name of Jesus Christ. Only we who believe on the name of the Son have eternal life.
3. By continuing to believe in the name of Jesus Christ. Don’t believers already believe in Christ? Yes. But John is saying that we must continue to believe. Keep on believing until the Lord takes us home.
You say, “Well I know this guy who says he accepted Christ and today he claims to be an atheist. Or I know this person who claims they have accepted Christ earlier in life but you would never know it by the way they act.” What about that? If a person forsakes Christ, it is pretty clear evidence that he never knew Him, loved Him, or believed in Him in the first place.
The point is that we must believe in the name of God’s Son and keep on believing.
The second thing that John declares in this passage is that the believer can be assured of answered prayer. You say, “I can give you a list of prayers of mine that God never answered.” Let’s look at what John is saying more closely. READ verses 14-15.
Note exactly what is said here.
(v. 14) We can have confidence that God hears our prayers if we approach Him. We approach God through whom? Christ! A person must believe in the name of Jesus Christ and approach God in His name.
Verse 14 also says that we can have confidence that God hears our prayer if we ask according to His will. What is God’s will for us?
• It is His will for us to experience the fruit of the spirit. When we become a Christian, the HS comes to live within us. The proof of the indwelling presence of the HS is that your life will show the fruit of the HS—love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.
• That we have the provisions and necessities of life. It is God’s will that your needs are met.
• That we be protected and delivered through all the trials and temptations of life. God never gives us more than we can handle, but will provide an escape from the temptations of life.
• That we be delivered from sin, death, condemnation, and the fear of death. He did this when He sent Jesus to die for us, to overcome death in the resurrection and to give us hope in the same.
I could go on and on listing the promises of God, promises that should fill our prayers as we face the difficulties of life. The point is that we can boldly know that God will hear us when we pray according to His will.
Here’s the catch. We can have confidence that God hears our prayers if we know that He hears (v. 15). But we have to know that He hears if we want to receive what we ask. It’s foolish to waste time asking God unless we believe that He will hear us.
It is also foolish of anyone to think that they can get to God without going through Jesus Christ.
Here’s a final comment on those of you who say that there are many prayers that God has not answered for you. Has He not answered? Or has He not answered the way you thought He should answer? Maybe He answered and you didn’t listen.
• A husband thought his wife was becoming deaf. He stood behind her across the room and said, “Can you hear me?” He heard no answer. He then moved closer asking the same question. Still no answer. Finally he stood directly behind her and said, “Can you hear me?” The wife, finally becoming impatient, responded. “Yes, for the third time, I can hear you.”
Does it seem to you that God is becoming deaf? Or is it you?
Here is what we have learned from this passage today.
• God’s testimony is greater than any testimony of man. His testimony lives in the heart of the believer. His testimony is rejected by unbelievers.
• His testimony is stated clearly that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that we are given eternal life in His Son.
• He who has the Son has eternal life, he who doesn’t have the Son doesn’t have eternal life.
We have also learned that
• A person can be assured of eternal life.
• A person can be assured of answered prayer.
We are assured of these things
• If we are in Christ
• If we ask according to His will
• And if we know that God hears our prayers.
I hope that you are sure of these things. If not, you can be. It’s as easy as ABC.
Admit that you are a sinner
Believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God
Commit your life to Him as Lord of your life.
“Choose you this day whom you shall serve, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Will you serve Him? Won’t you accept Him?
