I'm not trying to get you to stop reading it. I'm not trying to say that it's inadequate or anything. It includes a verse that I do not believe it should include, and I'll tell you why. The King James Version, if you've been reading that and following along, you notice that I didn't read a sentence there, and you had to skip down a little bit to keep up with me. The King James Version reads, starting in verse 6, This is He that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ, not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is the truth. So far so good. Then in verse 7 of the King James, For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. Verse 8, There are three that beareth witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood, and these three agree in one. First of all, the thing that we need to remember is that what we have here today is not the original manuscript from the handwriting of the Apostle Paul or the Apostle John. You all know that. You know that these are copies written down. The way that this works is that throughout history, manuscripts are written. Sometimes they contain all of the Bible. Sometimes they contain the New Testament. Sometimes they contain a fragment of one book. Sometimes they contain this part or that part. What has been done by people who are involved in the maintenance and the preservation of manuscripts over the years is that they gather all of them that they can find and they can compare them. Scribes are people who, generally speaking, are people who have a high regard for the Word of God and they copy from texts and manuscripts that they find to make a new copy of the same manuscript. The difficulty comes in is that through the passage of time, sometimes scribes have, not all of them, but some of them, have a tendency to add things by way of clarification. Or they might add something that is an oral tradition, but that was not actually in the text itself. For instance, maybe you know this, maybe you don't, John chapter 8, the woman caught in adultery. The passage that many people build large chunks of their theology on is not found in the earliest manuscripts of the Bible. It is placed all over the place in the manuscripts where it is found. Some put it in Luke, some put it in other places in John. It's a floating text that goes around, nobody knows where it put it. It is highly questioned as to whether it was in the Gospel of John in the first place at all, and it is most by most scholars agreed upon that it was not included. Same with the last part of Mark 16. Almost every Bible that you read might have an asterisk by it, or it will have it in italics, or it will have some footnote. Even Bibles that don't have footnotes generally have something regarding this text, because they all know that these texts are somewhat in question. This text that we come upon here today is the same. The verse that is included in the King James Version, and not in others, is a passage where it says there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, are not found in any of the manuscripts until you get to the 10th or 13th centuries. So think of that for a minute. For 10 or 13 centuries, that isn't in their Bibles. When they read their Bible, they would not have read that. So how did it get in there in the 10th or the 13th century? The problem that was occurring was that a man by the name of Erasmus gathered manuscripts together and put together a Greek New Testament in the 1500s, right around prior to the Reformation. And he used the best manuscripts he had, but they were only the ones from the 10th or 13th centuries. They weren't very old manuscripts, or what we say, early manuscripts. But he used the best one he had. The translators did a fine job with what was given to them, what material they had to work with. Basically, Tyndale used, William Tyndale, whom we did a biography on not very long ago, used the Greek New Testament that Erasmus put together, and he translated it. It was not permitted in England, and Tyndale was See the one burned at the stake? Yeah, he was burned at the stake for it. Then shortly after his death, King Henry VIII agreed, yeah, Henry VIII agreed that the Coverdale Bible could be printed, and then the Matthews Bible was printed, which was basically totally borrowing from Coverdale and Tyndale. But they were all using this very good testament of Matthews. And then in 1611, when King James authorized the version that you may have today, we have a few here. It was the 1611, that's why it's called the authorized version, because King James authorized it. I don't mean to bore you to death here, but this is the reason for this difference. The difficulty is, the farther you get away from the original writings, The further away you get from Christ's actual walking the earth and the apostles writing it down and the earliest copies, the more danger there is for insertions into the text or copying errors or things like that. It just follows, the more people you get involved copying something over time, the more likely you're going to have errors. Whereas the closer you get back to the original time of the writing itself, the more likely you are getting closer to what the original author wrote. in the manuscript. So, in the judgment of a consensus of scholars, superior manuscripts dating back to as early as 325 AD, far earlier, far closer to the time of writing than the ones available to the translators of the King James, do not include this verse. They don't have it. It is susceptible in that sense. In the 19th and 20th centuries, they have found many manuscripts But they are not manuscripts that are new manuscripts. They're newly found manuscripts. And they date back earlier and older to the manuscripts used to translate the King James Version. The text is in question for that reason. Erasmus, when he translated it, he put it in the margin. In fact, he didn't even include it. And then he got tremendous pressure from the Roman Catholic Church to put that in there because, you can see why, it's such a nice, concise statement of the Trinity. Well, that being the case, with such a wonderful statement of the Trinity, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one. Oh, there it is. There's the Trinity in one verse. Why would it not be found in the early manuscripts? Would people forget to include that? I don't think so. But it came to represent such a nice choice nugget of the doctrine of the Trinity, which has been... heresies have developed over and over regarding the Trinity, that the Roman Catholic Church produced a late example of this verse in a Greek manuscript from the 10th century. He said, here it is. They said, why did you include this verse? He said, because I couldn't find it in the manuscripts I was using. They produced one for him from the 10th century. He said, OK, I'll include it. He put it in the margin. Because, in his mind, it's questionable. If you can't find it until the 10th century, why is it in there? Enough of that. I want to move past that. I hope that you don't think that I'm criticizing your Bibles. If you cherish the King James Version, that's fine. I'm not criticizing it. This is the reality. Maybe you'd rather not know about these things. I don't know, but there you go. Now let's move on to the text and actually talk about what it says here. He came by water and the blood. What does he mean by that? In the early church, especially John, writing against the heresy of Gnosticism. Gnosticism was the belief that physical things are evil. The spiritual is what is good, the physical is evil. Then, breaking off, or under the umbrella of Gnosticism, was a belief called Gnosticism. Gnosticism, which was given birth to from Gnosticism, was the idea that Jesus didn't really have a body. Jesus only appeared to have a body. The Son of God is a Divine Spirit, the Divine Logos, the Word, that came down, and He came upon Jesus, this man called Jesus, who is just a man, and He sort of possessed Him, or inhabited His body at His baptism, and then He left Him before the cross. And that's what they believed, and this heresy was running rampant in the early church, and John was reacting to it. You can see this throughout the epistle of 1 John 1. What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have beheld in our hands handled concerning the word of life. Why does he need to say all that? Because he's reacting to people who basically say, well, the Son of God is not a visible person. Then you look at chapter 2, verse 22, and you see him reacting against the same error. Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. Chapter 4, verses 1-3. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God, that every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. Okay, so there it is. Every spirit that confesses Jesus has come in the flesh is from God. He's saying the Gnostics, the Dofusists, are not from God. They denied that Jesus came in the flesh. They say Jesus did not come in the flesh. This is the divine Son of God inhabiting some guy named Jesus. It's not one person with two natures combined together. They didn't believe in the physical world. Look at verses 14 through 15 in chapter 4. and we have beheld and bear witness that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God and abides in Him, and he in God." And then you look at chapter 5, verse 1. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. You can see from this stream of thought throughout John that he has a burden to show that Jesus is the Christ, Jesus is the Son of God and the Son of Man. Jesus has a human body. The Son of God has a human body. In verse 5 of our text this morning, 5, 5-12, you see he represents Jesus as the Son of God. That's a title of Jesus to represent his deity, his divinity, that he's God. And the Son of Man, or Jesus the Christ, is the title to represent his humanity, which he does in verse 6. This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ. So there's this deity and there's this humanity in one. Both truths must be maintained and upheld, or you don't have the real Jesus. What does he mean when he says that Jesus came with the water and the blood, not the water only, but with blood? This is a difficult one, and there's a lot of... Really spiritual interpretations of this that you can read out there of people seeing all sorts of meaning into this. I don't know whether they're right or not. I think that what John is doing here is again trying to establish the humanity of Jesus Christ. And the reason he says, not with the water only, but with blood, he seems to be saying that some of these people out here say that he came with the water, but not with the blood. But what I'm saying to you is it came not with the water only, but also with the blood. You must have both truths. So what is he reacting against? I think he's reacting against the Doctrines that claim that Jesus, the Divine Son of God, inhabited the human body of a man, Jesus, at his baptism. That's the water. They acknowledge that. They acknowledge that it came at the baptism. What they do not acknowledge is the cross. do not acknowledge that Jesus, the Son of God, went to the cross. The man Jesus, yes, but the Son of God, no. Because that which is physical is evil. It is impossible that he could die and be crucified on behalf of other people. They deny that. So when he says, not with the water only, but with the blood, I think he's saying, All of this is the Son of God. The Son of God did not depart from the man Jesus at his baptism. I mean, at the cross. He stayed with him. He was him. He suffered and died. So John refused them on this point. The importance of the humanity of Jesus might be lost on us today, because today that's not our error. If you have any error concerning Jesus Christ today, it's people denying that he's God. Like it was in Jesus's day. When Jesus went around, people didn't have trouble wondering if he was really a man. What people did not accept is that he's God. You know, either I am the father or one, and they pick up stones to stone him. Before Abraham was, I am. They go stone-to-stone anyway. They don't accept that He's from God. They don't accept that He is the Son of God. Not long after that, Satan runs into heresy in the opposite direction. Okay, let's allow Him to be divine. Let's just not let Him be human. But that doesn't really occur that much in our day. We're used to people saying, oh Jesus was a great man, he was a great teacher, great moral example. So we're not used to people denying Jesus and his humanity. But it is so crucial to assert the humanity of Jesus. Do you know that if Jesus wasn't human you cannot be saved? In Hebrews chapter 2 it says, Jesus had to clothe himself with humanity, and he had to become like his brethren in all things, except sin, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest to those he intercedes for. If Jesus didn't become human, if he didn't clothe himself with flesh, if he didn't, or if he wasn't exposed to real temptation, The devil is tempting him and those sorts of things like you and I deal with. He cannot be a merciful and faithful high priest on our behalf. You are dependent on receiving mercy from him by the virtue of his humanity. If he's not human, mercy goes out the door. He cannot be a merciful and faithful high priest on your behalf if he wasn't human. He has to be. And you see why John fights for this church. It's just not negotiable. Then you come to the three witnesses, and here is where the textual problem, and so I'm skipping down to basically verse 8. The Spirit is the truth. The Spirit, the water, and the blood are the three witnesses. Since the Spirit is the truth, meaning there is no truth in this world outside of the Spirit of God, And so any truth that you believe and any truth that you have is from the Spirit. An unbeliever, of course, does not have the Spirit of God in him, and the Spirit is the truth. And so an unbeliever is at a great disadvantage because he does not have the truth. In fact, he has the Father of Lies whispering in his ear all the time, and no protection against it. He does not have the Spirit of God in him, dwelling in him like believers do. That doesn't mean that everything an unbeliever says is a lie or untruth. He can borrow truth from the Spirit of God who has broadcast it throughout the world. But the real truth about who God is, about who Jesus Christ is, about the nature of God, the understanding of the Scriptures, he doesn't know. And he can't have it because the Spirit of God is in him. The Spirit is truth. You must have the Spirit of God in you to even understand truth, and to love it, and to embrace it. 1 Corinthians 12.3, I'm going to get a turn there, I'll just read it for you. Therefore I make known to you, Paul says, that no one is speaking by the Spirit of God, since Jesus is a curse. And no one can say Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit. And of course he means, you can't say Jesus is Lord and mean it, unless it's by the Holy Spirit. Anybody can formulate those words on their lips. Although at a time of persecution, many people don't. If you're going to get thrown into jail and be beheaded by saying Jesus is Lord, you can't say that unless it's by the Holy Spirit. But in the time of non-persecution, many people can say it on their lips, but they can't really believe it and what it means and understand what it means and affirm that truth. And so the truth is dependent upon the Spirit because the Spirit is the truth. The Spirit testifies to Jesus in a number of ways. First of all, at His birth. Jesus was born in the womb of the Virgin Mary, showing that He is human. But He was conceived by who? The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit testifies to Jesus Christ by conceiving Him in the womb of the Virgin Mary. He also comes upon Jesus to cast out demons. One might think, well, Jesus is the Son of God. Why does He need the Holy Spirit to cast out demons? I don't know. But he cast out demons by the Spirit of God. That's what it says. So the Holy Spirit was in Jesus to full measure. And Jesus cast out demons by the power of the Spirit. And by helping Jesus to cast out demons, the Spirit was testifying that this is the man. This is the God man. He is the one who has power over the evil one. And he testifies to him. He also testifies to Jesus through conversion. Remember that Jesus said that he would baptize you with the Holy Spirit? John said, I come to you baptized in water, but one comes after me who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. When you came to John for baptism, you got wet. You were immersed in water. When Jesus baptized you, you get immersed in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is given to you, and the Holy Spirit is poured out into your heart, as Romans 5 says. And the love of God, which is the Holy Spirit, is shed abroad in your hearts. That's what it means when it says that Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit. He gives you the Spirit. Let me just turn to Romans 8 for a minute. Look at this passage, because this is an important parallel passage. While we're going there, remember in John 3, Jesus said, unless you are born of water and the Spirit, you shall not inherit the Kingdom of God. You can't enter the Kingdom of God, you can't even see the Kingdom of God, unless you're born not just of water, like you do when you come into this world, but of the Spirit as well. That's being baptized by the Holy Spirit. Born of the Spirit, born again, a dead sinner, made alive in Christ Jesus. That's the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Romans 8 verses 1 through 17. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son, the lightest of sinful flesh, as an offering for sin. He condemned sin in the flesh. in order that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. For those who are according to the flesh, that their minds are the things of the flesh. For those who are according to the spirit, the things of the spirit. But the mind cut on the flesh is death, but the mind cut on the spirit is life and peace, because the mind cut on the flesh is hostile toward God. For it does not subject itself to the law of God, it is not even able to do so. And those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, yet the Spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells in you. So then, brethren, we are under obligation not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. For if you are living according to the flesh, you must die, but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received the spirit of slavery, leading to fear again, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by which we cry out, Have a father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, heirs also, heirs of God, and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with them, in order that we may be glorified with them. There's different ways in that passage that the Spirit testifies to Jesus. One is by conversion. He forms Christ in you. The Spirit causes you to be born again, and you are born a new creature. Who are you like now, as this new creature? You are like Jesus Christ. So the Spirit gives an ongoing testimony of Jesus Christ by making little Jesus Christ, by forming in you Jesus Christ, so that you walk after the pattern of who? Jesus Christ. So that increasingly you are conformed to whose image? Jesus Christ. And so the Spirit continues to, on an ongoing way, testify to the Son of God by forming Him in you. OK, he also testifies to him when you get a resurrection body. We're all going to die unless Jesus comes back before you. And your body will go to the grave and it will disintegrate and your spirit will go to heaven. But on the last day, when the last trumpet is blown, and the Son of God shall descend, those who were in the grave will be raised and believers will get a new transformed body. that is perfectly conformed to Jesus Christ. He will raise the corruptible body and make it incorruptible. And in this way, the Spirit again testifies to Jesus that He was really human, He was raised from the dead, and I'm going to make you like Jesus who was raised from the dead. He was the first fruits of the resurrection. Everybody who comes after that at the general resurrection is getting a body like Christ has. The Spirit testifies to the truth of Jesus by being in believer in the spirit of adoption. If you cry out to God as Father, if you understand Him as your Father, it's because the spirit of adoption is in you. Crying out, have a Father in you. Okay, that is the Spirit's testimony. Then there's the water. I've really already said what this is. I think the water is the baptism of Jesus. That is a testimony. When the Spirit of God descends upon Jesus like a dove, And John sees him descending upon him like a dove and then the voice comes from heaven saying, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. This is the testimony of the spirit of Jesus at his baptism. The water. The blood. By the blood is Jesus' blood. Remember when the spirit was stuck into Jesus' side and out flowed water and blood. And then John makes an interesting point after he says that saying that the one who has seen this Witnesses to this, that's that word again, witness, testifies to this, and his witness is true. So John sees that as very significant when water and blood come out of the side of Jesus. Whether that's a reference to the Old Testament priests who sprinkled people with both water and blood for the cleansing of things, I'm not sure. But the blood of Jesus coming out of his side testifies, this was a man. This was flesh and blood. He shed his blood for sin. God the Father looks upon the shed blood of Jesus Christ, which alone can wash away my sin. Nothing but the blood of Jesus can wash away my sin. The three are in agreement. the water, the blood, the spirit of God, all testify to one truth. Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus is the Son of Man. He is the God-Man. He is God and He is Man, both. It's not one or the other, He's both. How that can be, I have no idea. Some day, maybe, we'll know. But He is both. It's not one or the other. Most of the heresies throughout history have been favoring one of those sides versus the other. Then we see in the text here, as we go on down, that John says, verse 9, if we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater. For the witness of God is this, that He has borne witness concerning His Son. In the Old Testament, if you wanted to establish a fact, you had to have two or three witnesses. Every fact must be established by two or three witnesses. Someone could not come and accuse you of something alone, and then you'd be condemned for it on the basis of one person's testimony. There had to be at least two or three witnesses. And every fact is confirmed by that matter. Now, what he is saying here is that if we accept the witness of man, where two or three depraved sinners come together and agree on one thing, and you accept it as true, Shall we not accept God and His testimony? And when the Spirit, and the blood, and the water, all three testify together, shall we ignore that testimony when we accept the testimony of sinful men when two or three witnesses are gathered together? The witness of God is greater than the witness of men. Flipping back quickly to John chapter 5. There are so many parallels between the gospel of John and the epistles of John. It is so obvious that it is the same author. John 5, 31-37. You see him talking about witnesses. There's actually more witnesses than water, blood, and spirit. I alone bear witness of myself, Jesus says. If I alone bear witness of myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who bears witness of me, and I know that the testimony which he bears of me is true. Presumably he's speaking of the Father. You have sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. But the witness which I receive is not from man, but I say these things that you may be saved. He was the lamp that was burning and was shining, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. There's another witness, John the Baptist. Verse 36, But the witness which I have is greater than that of John. For the works which the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I do, bear witness of me that the Father has sent me. So Jesus' works bear witness of Him. His miracles, His character, His life of obedience, His death of sacrifice, His resurrection, His works bear witness of Him. And verse 37, And the Father who sent me, he has formed witness of me. You have neither heard his voice in any time, nor seen his form. And you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe in him, he says. Verse 39, there's the witness of the scriptures. You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life. And it is in, and it is these that bear witness of me. So the scriptures bear witness to him. How many witnesses do we need before we believe Jesus Christ is who he said he is? The witnesses are multiplied. If God were to manifest himself in a burning bush right in the middle of this room, would you say to God, you're a liar? I don't think so. If you had a mountain that was smoking and trembling and there were earthquakes and thunder and lightning over it, would you go up knowing that this is the visible manifestation of God and say, you're a liar? No, but what will people do with the scriptures? They'll say it's a book of lies. What did they say to Jesus Christ? To his face? They said he was a demon. He had a demon. He was a Samaritan. That he was born of fornication. Unbelievable. The gall and the nerve to say to Jesus Christ, who is God in human flesh, to his face, you are a liar. Will we say that? How will we respond to Him and to His Word? Jesus is not here in flesh. He's not sitting here in the pew in the flesh. He is at the right hand of God. But Jesus says, He was ashamed of me and my words. I will be ashamed of when I come. The Word is the test on what we would do to Jesus if He were here in person. If we treat the Word of God lightly, we would treat Jesus lightly. If we reject the Word of God and quarrel with it, and argue with it, and are angry with it, then we would do the same thing with Jesus Christ if he were here. Who wouldn't believe Him? We would do nothing more than what the Pharisees did. The Word is your measuring stick. Jesus identifies Himself with His Word. How do you respond to His Word? Closing up here. You see the content of the witness. Verse 11. The witness is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. You're not going to find it anywhere else. It's in Jesus. That's where eternal life is found. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. Verse 12. He who has the Son has the life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. If you do not have the Son of God dwelling in you, then you do not belong to Him. You do not have that life. So, we'll just close with these questions and thoughts. Do you believe the witness of God concerning His Son, Jesus Christ? Do you believe that Jesus Christ is God who came into the world and became a man without ceasing to be God? Do you believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross and shed his blood for sinners, and that he is the only sacrifice there is for sinners, and that if you have any hope at all in the world, it is in him? Do you believe that he rose again and ascended to the right hand of the Father in heaven, where he is now ruling and reigning over his kingdom? If you are to be saved at all, you must believe at least these things. Now, I don't think he means an intellectual ascent to these truths. The demons believe these sayings. They're not saints. But, nevertheless, belief in these sayings is extremely important. It is one component of genuine conversion. The question of am I really saved or not, this must be there. You must believe in Jesus for whom he says he is, the way he is represented in the scriptures. That is one prong of the foundation upon which your confidence that you are saved and not deceived must rest upon. Do you believe he is who he says he is in the Word? Muslims do not. Buddhists do not. Hindus do not. Mormons do not. Jehovah Witnesses do not. This is still significant today. What do you think about Jesus Christ? Do you believe Him for who He says He is? Millions of people do not. They say something else about Jesus. We cannot, of course, just be orthodox in our mouth and honor Him with our lips while our hearts are far from Him. We can't say we believe something and not really believe it. It's not that your lips alone are what saves you, irrespective of your heart. We cannot merely have an ascent to these truths in our heads while our hearts are cold toward it. We can't merely believe in Jesus, quote unquote, but believe in an unbiblical Jesus. In that case, we have an idol. It must be Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Son of Man, the Messiah who was promised, as He is revealed in the Scriptures by the testimony of the Spirit, the Father, His miracles, John the Baptist, the water, and the blood. Believe in Him. It is your only hope. Let's pray together. Father, your witness is true. You have multiplied witnesses when you really didn't even need to. You have given us an abundant reason to put our hope in Jesus. Lord, we confess Him as the content of our hope. We do not look to our good works. We do not look to our ancestry. We don't look to family connections. We don't look to church memberships. We don't look to baptism. We look to Jesus Christ. He is the only reason that we, as lawbreakers, have any hope and any reason to approach your throne with confidence. Fix our hope, Lord, more firmly in Him. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.