The scripture reading for this morning, we can find it in the book of 1 John, as we continue with the series on 1 John. And we will be reading verses 1 through 12. 1 John 5, verses 1 through 12. This is the word of the Lord. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God, and everyone that loveth him that begot 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. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous. 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? This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ. not by water only, but by water and blood. And this is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood, and these three agree in one. If we receive the witness of man, 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. He that believeth not, God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Let us go before the Lord in prayer. Dear Father of Heaven, we come before Thee in this morning in gratitude for the help experienced this far in the semester. And Lord, also as we look ahead of the hours and days that still need to be fulfilled, and worked out by us to reach the end of the semester. We ask for thy strength, for thy communion, for thy fellowship. Lord, give us vitality, give us clarity of mind, and above all, continue to give us that sense of purpose and calling. It is the love of Christ that compels us to go through these hours of study, sleepless nights, tiredness, exhaustion, because the Lamb of God is worthy of all the glory, and because we have been called to His service and to the service of His people. Lord, as we continue our way through 1 John, we also ask for a particular blessing on the reading and the exposition of Thy Word in this morning. Lord, continue to work in us and through us, and continue to guide us through this wonderful book focused on assurance. and the need that all of us have to bring ourselves and bring our faith to the test of Thy Word. Help us, Lord, and lead us every single minute to Christ, because we fall short, O Lord, of such a perfect standard and high calling. Lord, renew Thy grace to us, and give us that precious remedy as we continue to self-examine through this episode. In Christ's name we pray, amen. Dear friends, the verses before us continue to elaborate on a common theme in 1 John. Professing to love God without loving our brethren must bring our confession into question. This John says in chapter 4, verse 20. If a man say, I love God and hated his brother, he is a liar. and also in chapter 3, verse 11, verse 14, verse 17, even in chapter 4, verse 7, 11, and so on. To question such a profession in the nearer context, John has added two arguments. First, you show that you can love God who is invisible when you love your brethren who are visible, verse 19. And secondly, whoever loves God must love his brother, because this is a commandment from God. And before entering into the third argument, which opens up our passage, it would be helpful to remember what John is trying to do in the broader context of his epistle. Throughout his epistle, John has used a set of tests for assurance in his greater goal of leading his audience to know that they have eternal life, and if not, then that they may believe on the name of the Son of God, which we find in verse 13 in this very chapter 5. If Gnosticism is a theosophy, as some commentators call it, involving little to no moral responsibility among its professors and giving room to theological speculation, Christianity, on the contrary, has clear expectations from those who claim to have fellowship with the light, who profess to know the light, and who love the light. This is why we find examinations such as, if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. Also, he that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. Chapter 2, verse 4. Most of these tests of assurance have the expression, if anyone says, if a person says. Why? Because through these tests, John's audience's words, professions, and self-proclamations are put to the test when compared with their behavior. Little children, let no man deceive you. he that doth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. " At present, friends, our society is shying away from concepts such as tests, criteria, standards, and evaluations. In many spheres of our society, we have become increasingly afraid of being put to the test. being set to the bar and being found lacking. One of my children said once to me, I don't want to do this homework because I never get a star. Sometimes we can react a bit similarly even to this epistle of John. since it is perhaps full of so-called black and white statements of examination, such as whosoever abideth in him sinneth not, or whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. we can develop an immediate tendency to go to the more so-called balanced or gray nuanced passages of the scriptures when reading this epistle. This is appropriate to avoid spiritual despair in some occasions. But yet, perhaps, in some cases, some of those who feel overly comfortable in the so-called gray areas of Scripture can also be encouraged to come to the so-called blackened whiteness of John. It is good for us to remember the gravity of not loving our brethren in Christ. It is good for us to remember the severity, the heinousness of loving the world It is good for us to remember the sinfulness of sin, all to be brought to that precious remedy of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, as we find in chapter 2, verses 1 and 2. If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father. So with these introductory remarks in mind, let us allow the word of God through John to run a free course in our hearts in this morning. each one of us receiving our due portion as the passage is opened before us. The title of this sermon is Two Witnesses of Our Saving Faith. And we have two main points, the marks that attest to its possession and the spirit who attests to its object. What about the marks that attest to the possession of saving faith? We find this in verses 1-6. We have the fruits of saving faith, which are love and victory. We find love in verses 1-3 and victory over the world 4-6. These fruits, or marks, attest to the possession of saving faith. Verses 1 through 3 are the third argument that John uses on behalf of chapter 4, verse 20. If a man says, I love God and hate his brother, he is a liar. There we find that the first heartbeat, so to say, or the first mark of a regenerated heart, his faith. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born perfect from the Greek of God. Believing in the Lord is the first effect of regeneration, according to John Murray. But here too we find that anyone born again will naturally love he who begot him, the Father, as some translations supply. And not just that, the born-again Christian loves also others who have been born of God. This is a filial argument, so to speak, through which believers are called to love spiritual siblings, others who have been born of our same God. In verses two through three, John introduces a triad of love, the love of God, the love of those born of God the love of God's commandments. A Christian knows that he loves God because he loves the children of God. And he also knows he loves God because he loves the commandments of God. Though the specific order in which we may want to see this love may vary, since we remember John is fairly circular in his reasoning, But John here provides us with one of the most comprehensive, full-orbed views that we could ever find in the Scriptures about Christian love. Why? Because loving God without loving His children is selfishness. Loving God without loving His commandments is independence. Loving God without loving his children and loving his commandments is self-deception. Loving our brethren without loving God is self-interest. Loving our brethren without loving God's commandments is conspiracy. Loving our brethren without loving God and his commandments is at best a philanthropical complacency. Loving God's commandments without loving God is legalism. Loving God's commandments without loving God's children is judgmentalism. Loving God's commandments without loving God and loving God's children is self-righteousness. Brothers and sisters, here we have and find a perfect circle of love, so perfectly harmonized, intertwined. If you are out of it, though you may climb to have at least one of the elements, you have none of them. And in this circle of love, you cannot break into by offering violence through professions, verbal consents to the word, or even self-attestation. But yet, if you are inside of it, there is no excuses, no shortcuts, no selectivity, only true Christian love. And though to your own perception you may lack one of these elements, through faith in Christ, by His grace, you have all of them. What love is so perfect, so righteous, and so godly as the love of God is. So this is love, the first mark. What about the second one? There is a second mark attesting to regeneration and faith, and that is victory over the world. Everyone who has been born of God has overcome the world, although the term world is also used very extensively in John. Here, the beloved apostle is probably alluding to chapter 2, verses 15 through 17. There we see that the love of God expels any love for the world, and specifically for the things that are in the world. Anyone who loves God must not love the last of the flesh, the last of the eye, and the pride of life. And the beloved apostle is using the term world as Satan's spiritual domains. William Greenhill to promote his kingdom and interests. Satan, this is the world that which he uses to promote his kingdom and interests, as well as to hinder the kingdom and interests of Christ. But on the other hand, this is the same foe and enemy that faith has conquered, as the Heidelberg Catechism speaks. Here, then, we have a first twofold witness, attesting to the possession of saving faith. It is through love and victory that here John identifies who have truly been born of God. By means of application in this first segment, I have several points to offer. Number one, Let us not shy away of the tests of assurance of faith. As Thomas Goodwin says, just as possessing grace that accompanies salvation is the greatest mercy anyone can receive in this world, so to have that grace tried, exercised, and drawn out to the fullest is among the most significant spiritual privileges we can experience after having received grace. So next to grace, according to Goodwin, is the test of grace. Because even through that test, you exercise grace upon grace. Goodwin continues saying, therefore, when trials arise, we should say within ourselves, now my graces will be tested. Now has come that which will exercise them. There is no way in which we can come to first John without being exercised in conviction of sin. But as believers, we love the word of God and we love it even when it is useful for reproof. even when it is useful for generating wounds of conviction of sin, that will lead us again to that precious remedy. My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. I don't know about you, but at this point in 1 John, I have been cornered in many areas of my Christian life. Being, for instance, the love to the brethren an important area. Because how often we can think that zeal for the glory of God, that passion and love for God is incompatible. sometimes with love for the brethren who may think different to us, who may have a hermeneutic difference to that from us. But as much as we love God and His Word, as much as we are convinced of a position in His Word, Even when dealing with it, we need to honor and love those that we are interacting with. If we love God, we love His children. Loving God is a very comprehensive concept. Thus, the next time you meditate or self-examine about your love for God, do not forget to include meditations on loving your brethren and loving God's commandments. Third, loving our brethren is loving the work of God in others like us. In this case, John addresses this commandment from a slightly different angle. When we love our brothers and sisters, we show appreciation for the work of God in the lives of others. To whom God is a Father, the Holy Spirit has applied the precious blood of Christ. So truly, humanly speaking, as we interact within the Society of Saints, or at work, or in a ministry, there might be difficulties when it is about loving a specific person, or maybe specific people. But our remaining sin persistently affects all the fabrics of the church life, including relationships. And yet, we are called to love others, compelled by our love to God and guided by our love to His commandments. Fourthly, love and think well of the law. Clearly, your perspective on the law must have a hermeneutical foundation. But yet, in Reformed and Biblical hermeneutics, the law is precious. not grievous, not heavy or oppressive, as we could see from the Greek. The image is circular as well. In chapter 2, verse 5, John says, But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily the love of God is perfected, teleo, from which we get it is finished, the telestai. So the love of God that was accomplished at the cross, where redemption was accomplished at the cross and finished, has in return love toward Him. But how does the love of God return to Him through us? It is by means of obedience. And there is where the law of God becomes useful for our Christian life. Remember Saul on his way to Damascus, after he asked the first question, who are thou, O Lord? What was the second question about? Lord, what do thou want me to do? And that is the question of every single believer. Lord, what do I do with the love that I have in my chest for all that you have done for me? How can I, O Lord, please Thee for everything You have done for me? How could I ever return this love that I have to Thee? If Thou love me, keep my commandments. So the law is a great alley for us in our Christian life. Without the law, how could we materialize our love to the Lord? If thou love me, keep my commandments. So if we love God, then we are called to love our brethren and to love God's commandments. Fifthly, do you live in victory over the world? Dear fellow students, By now, you may have confirmed that being reformed in doctrine does not take away from us remaining sin, nor the works of the flesh, as Romans 8.13 speak, or the influence and operations of the remaining sin. Admittedly, Brothers, scandalous sins take place among those who bear the Reformed umbrella. We need to be careful with our own hearts, with our own souls. Dr. Kelderman offered a survey, the results of a survey a while ago, in which he said that students tend to graduate from seminary less spiritual than they were by the time they came in. May this never be a reality in our lives, because a seminary aims for the total opposite. for growth, for consecration, for devotion, for a closer communion, for a stronger spirituality. Brothers and sisters, are we mortifying the last of the flesh? Are we mortifying the last of the eyes and the pride of life? Are we taking every assignment as an integral part of our growth in piety, as Warfield would say? Are we drawn to communion, to consecration, to devotion with each assignment? As John Brown of Haddington said, if you be or become either graceless preachers or ministers of the gospel, how terrible is your condition. If you open your Bible, the sentence of your redoubled damnation flashes into your conscience from every page. When you compose your sermon, you but draw up a tremendous indictment against yourselves. If you argue against or reprove other men's sins, you but aggravate your own. When you publish the holy law of God, you but add to your rebellion against it. and make it an awful witness against your treacherous dissimulation. Do we know of this victory over the world? Do we live out of this victory over the world? Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God, as we find in verse 5? Now, as we move to verse six, we enter now into the witnessing of the Holy Spirit. The second point here, the spirit who attests to the object of saving faith. In verses one through five, it is clear that he who loves God and he who has victory over the world believes in Jesus Christ. In verse six, we see John zooming in on what specifically about Christ must be believed. Jesus Christ, the one who came through water and blood. In a similar context, by witnessing John writes in his Gospel, chapter 19, verses 34 and 35, But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. and he that soweth bare record, and his record is true, and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye may believe. With the heresy of docetism as a background, which denied the human nature of Jesus Christ, which denied that Christ had a real human body because they attributed evil to matter. So if Christ was God, he couldn't have any relationship to matter, to a physical matter, which was per se evil. John is first and foremost reinforcing the true humanity of Christ. Water and blood came out of Christ's torso. The Word made flesh, shed all his blood. At the cross the voice that John heard had gone silent. The body that he had seen turned still. The chest on which John had rested, and whose hands had handled, grew cold, because Christ died for the sins of his people. Yet in this case, not like at the closing of his gospel, it is the Holy Spirit himself who witnesses of this truth. And the Spirit is the truth, as we see in verse 6. On the other hand, friends, at the same time, water symbolizes the sanctifying power of Christ and the blood, the expiatory work of the Lord And now here we come to verse 7, one of the most, if not the most, disputed verses in the whole of Scriptures. The dispute revolves around the segment that goes from record, in verse 7, if you have your Bibles opened, verse 7, for there are three that bear record, then you can stop there, and it goes until verse 8, where we find the word spirit, And there are three that bear witness in the earth, the Spirit. So in between, the whole segment consists of, in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. And these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in the earth. So this is called the Joannine comma. Though time does not allow us to treat this issue in depth, we will briefly state some of the criteria behind the discussion, and the argument against the inclusion of the comma can be summarized as follows. Erasmus did not include it until his third edition of the Greek New Testament in 1522. Scholars of the Complutensian Polyglot New Testament in Spain finished a translation of the New Testament in 1514, which they published in 1522. They questioned Erasmus for the absence of this segment. Erasmus affirmed that he would include it if he could only find it in one Greek manuscript. A Greek manuscript was found in Britain, Codex Monfortianus, and Erasmus agreed to its inclusion, but he added this note. This led to a search into Greek and ancient manuscripts and writers to trace the inclusion of the comma. It is argued that since it is not included in extant ancient Greek manuscripts, and since it was not quoted by any or some of the fathers, then there is no concession for its inclusion. The response on behalf of its inclusion goes along the lines of this. There are Latin manuscripts that are even more ancient than the two extant Greek manuscripts that go to the end of 8th century. These Latin manuscripts go to 4th century even, and the question is where Where were they taken from? There is also evidence of this Joannine comma in documents of the African Council in 5th century. You can see a quotation in Augustine in The City of God. Tertullian alludes to it. Cyprian alludes to it. Also, it is found in Symbolum Antiochenum in or based on Greek manuscripts in early centuries as well. I would submit to you that with perhaps a deeper explanation that time does not allow us today, that this segment should be taken as part of the inspired text. Calvin sees it that way, arguing that it is even a more natural reading of the text. Beza included it in his translation of the New Testament. Matthew Poole, John Cotton, Matthew Henry, and other Reformed commentators agree on its inclusion. But as Thomas Burgess advises, each one, depending on the degree of conviction held, should make use of the passage as his conscience allows him, in light of the information of evidence held. Also, a question that is often asked about this text is, why you don't find it all over the place in the Trinitarian discussions? Another question that you can ask back is, what about the baptismal form in Matthew chapter 28? And what about the doxology at the end of 2 Corinthians, which were also commonplaces out of which the doctrine of the Trinity were argued? So the presence of the Joannine comma per se didn't mean that any discussion on the Trinity should be limited to 1 John 5, 7. There were different places out of which the doctrine was argued, reflected upon, So thus verses 7 and 8 show a truthful testimony on the object of faith, Jesus Christ. There is a heavenly witnessing of Christ, and there is an earthly witnessing of Christ. The heavenly witnessing of Christ's divinity and the earthly witnessing was about his humanity, both having the Holy Spirit's ministry of illumination at the center. As such, the testimony of the Spirit is to be received either as divine or by human instrumentalization. as Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 2.13. When ye receive the word which ye heard of us, ye receive it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the word of God. And here we come to a point of application in our second point. Number one, in all the stages of preparation, even delivery and after preaching, the Holy Spirit is communicating His truth. The Holy Spirit is ministering His truth. This is the comfort that we get as students and as preachers. but it is the Holy Spirit involved in every single stage of the communication of His Word. From inspiration of the text, preservation, illumination in our study, help and strength in the delivery, and after preaching, the Holy Spirit will be using His Word to bear fruit in His own way and in His own time. and also brothers and sisters who minister in counseling, whenever we speak the Word, we need to have that conviction and certainty that it is the power of the Word, as used by the Holy Spirit, who will bear the fruit. Remember that the Word will never return empty to our Lord. It will always fulfill the purpose. for which the Lord has given it to us, which is to know whatever is necessary for the glory of God and our salvation. And secondly, this is what makes of unbelief something not neutral, so to say. Yes, the gospel is an invitation, as Isaiah 55 speaks, but the gospel is also a command, as we see sinners called to repentance. So unbelief is not just about take it or leave it. Unbelief is making God a liar because the Holy Spirit has communicated God and His Word as truthful. So whenever we find a person that is comforted in an area of unbelief, it would be good to remind that person. Again, with the so-called black and whiteness of John, dear friend, let me remind you what unbelief is. You are making God a liar. Either God or you are true, but not both in your rejection of the Gospel. And when you reject the Gospel, you are attributing a lie to God and His Word. And again, friends, here in John, Though this is again so-called black and whiteness, I would argue that in John's epistle we find great help to see the true colors of sin. We see this bar set before us. We see how great the calling that we have before us is. to love the Lord, to obey the Lord, to follow Him fully. So may we never be comfortable in the so-called gray areas of the Scriptures, but let us always, at all times, pursue a pleasing of the Lord in its fully, in its full. So how are we doing? As we come here and sit before the exposition of the First John, how are we doing? And how are we responding? Are we responding like the child that gets in despair because he doesn't get a star? Because he doesn't approve his tests? Or are we rather grateful that God has so perfect of a standard, and that God has given us Christ as help for us to pursue that standard, for us to grow in the knowledge and grace of our Lord and Savior, for us to grow in sanctification, in personal communion with the Lord. And again, brothers, The Lord is with us when we are in front of our computers. The Lord is with us inside, outside of the seminary, in our houses, in our rooms. We are an open book before the Lord, always, day and night. How are we living out this victory over the world? Or is the world rather showing itself victorious over us? As the news of Reformed ministers falling into sin come to us, we can but be afraid to ever be numbered among them. And we hope and pray to the Lord that He will keep us close to Him close to this high and glorious standard, because then we will be close to Christ, never thinking that we got it, never thinking that we are enough in ourselves. So may the Lord continue to help us to live in victory And again, take advantage of all the assignments and the opportunities that the Lord has given to us as seminary students, because they are meant to make us grow in piety, in godliness. Going back to the common concept of retrieval, it can be helpful to think about the different disciplines of theology as undivided. in such a way that your exegesis works for your spirituality, that your systematics are applied into your godliness, that your church history help you grow in your consecration to the Lord. Amen. Dear Father of heaven, we come before thee in gratitude and also in recognition that very often we fail to live out to such a high standard. But at the same time, Lord, since we know that Thy Word and Thy Law is a reflection of Thy holy character, we love it. We are like Psalm 119, O Lord. always trying to find words to describe Thy Word, to describe Thy Law, and to request for more conformity to it, not by means of legalism or self-justification, but because Thy Law, O Lord, helps us materialize our love for Thee. But Father of Heaven, also help us if we are finding comfort in getting closer to sin, in walking through the edge, in thinking that we can come close to light and still play games with darkness. We ask from Thee, O Lord, and for the glory of Thy name, the welfare of Thy people, that we may be called more and more to Thee, that we may be claimed more and more to Thee and less to this world, that we may walk as citizens of heaven, that as we may experience patriotism for our earthly nations, that we also experience a great sense of patriotism for our heavenly country, that we may feel for the condition of the church, that we may ask as Nehemiah, how is Jerusalem? And that we may be moved by the reports that come to us of all the nations that don't have a scripture in their own language, of all the people like the Ethiopian who cry out, how can I understand unless someone explains the scriptures to me? Lord, claim us for thee. Claim us as a possession of Christ as we confess in our first question of the Heidelberg Catechism. May we be a possession of the Lord more and more each time. May we be increasingly foreign to this world. And help us, Lord, and forgive us for our sins and our faults. And let Thy Word run a free course in every assignment of the seminary. And if anxiety for hidden sins may take place, then so be it. If conviction of sin takes place in our reading, then so be it, Lord. If past sins are brought to remembrance when we read about the Puritans and the Reformers, then so be it. But also, Lord, lead us every time to that precious remedy of Jesus Christ. so that we may then find only in Him true refuge and true comfort. For the glory of His name and for the comfort of His people, we pray in Christ's name. Amen.