FAITH AND THE WITNESS UPON WHICH IT IS FOUNDED – Charles Spurgeon

FAITH AND THE WITNESS UPON WHICH IT IS FOUNDED

“If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which He has witnessed of His Son. He that believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself: He that believes not God, has made Him a liar; because he believes not the witness that God witnessed of His Son.” 1 John 5:9, 10.

You observe that I have somewhat corrected the translation. The same word is employed in every case in the original, but for the sake of variety of expression, the translators have used four different words in our version, and so, instead of improving the sense, which, indeed, never can be in the case of the Holy Spirit’s writing, they have rather darkened the meaning. Put the word “witness” or “testimony” in each case, and you get the true meaning. Last Thursday night, I tried to show the great importance of faith and that, while it was a most simple thing, it was also most sublime. While it appeared to be weak, it was really the strongest of all motive principles, and produced the most amazing results. If, on this occasion, I shall run in the same strain, for me, indeed, it will not be grievous, and for you, it will be safe, for we cannot too often review the truths which are the vitals of our holy religion. Faith stands, under the covenant of grace, in a leading position among the works of the regenerate man and the gifts of the Spirit of God. Righteousness is no longer to him that works, but to the man that believes on Him that justifies the ungodly. The promise no longer stands to the man who does these things, that he shall live in them, else we were shut out of it, but, “The just shall live by faith.” God now bids us live by believing in Him. He saw that we were not willing to yield obedience to Him and remained rebellious. Perceiving, with a glance, that the root of that rebellion lay in lack of love to Him and in need of confidence in Him, He now begins, at the very foundation of the whole matter, and by a wondrous act of grace, to claim our confidence. He gives us proof that He deserves it and then, comes to us and says, “Trust Me. Trust My Son, who has died for you, and you are reconciled to Me by His blood. Begin, then, the new life with confidence in Me as the mainspring of all your actions, and thus shall you be saved. If I threaten you, you will only revolt more and more. If I strike you, you will sooner die under the rod than repent. Nothing remains with which to influence you but love. And now, in the person of My Son, I commend My love to you and show you what good intents I have towards you. Come and trust Me. Let us be friends again. Rely upon what I have worked, in the person of My Son, that you might be forgiven. Trust Him and you are saved.” Men are willing enough to accept a gospel which requires them to do something. They admire the impossible way of salvation by works. Man is afraid, when Sinai is altogether on a smoke, and begs that the terrible words of the law may not be spoken to him again. And yet he still loves to wander around the foot of Sinai and is unwilling to come unto Mount Zion. The old spirit of Hagar is upon us, and until the Lord causes us to be born again, we remain children of the bondwoman and will not rejoice in the promise. To accept the gift of free grace is contrary to our proud nature. The power of God is needed to induce us to throw down the tools with which we work for salvation and take, with joyful hands, the full, free, and finished salvation which Jesus bestows on all who trust Him. One would have thought this plan of trusting in Jesus for salvation would be joyfully accepted by all, but instead of that, no man receives the witness of God, though it is infallible. I wish to speak, this evening, a little upon the grounds of testimony—the reasons of faith—and may God grant, while we speak about them, believers may be refreshed and unbelievers may be led to Jesus.

First, in our text, we have the external evidence or the witness of God to us—“If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which He has witnessed of His Son.” Then, secondly, we shall consider the internal evidence or the witness of God in us. “He that believes on the Son has the witness in himself.” And then, thirdly, we shall inquire how we are treating the witness of God, especially dealing with those of whom we find it said, “He that believes not God, has made Him a liar, because he believes not the witness that God witnessed of His Son.”

I. THE EXTERNAL EVIDENCE

First, then, dear friends, since our great business is that we believe God, let us see what reason we have for believing Him. The external evidence given is stated in the first verse of the text, as the evidence of God to us, and it is prefaced by the remark that, “We receive the witness of men.” We are accustomed to receive the witness of men. David said, “All men are liars,” but he spoke in haste. There would be no history if we did not receive the witness of men. If we neglected human evidence, there could be no courts of law, no trading between man and man except for cash money. Confidence would cease and the bands which unite the social fabric would be snapped. We do and must believe the testimony of men as a general rule—and it is only right that we should account witnesses honest till they have proven themselves false. The principle may very readily be pushed too far, and we may take the witness of men and find ourselves deceived. Still, for all that, the evidence of honest men is weighty and, “In the mouth of two or three witnesses the whole shall be established.”

Now, God has been pleased to give us a measure of the witness of men with regard to His Son, Jesus Christ. We have the witness of such men as the four evangelists and the 12 apostles. These men saw Jesus Christ. Some of them were familiar with Him for years. They saw evidence of His deity, for they saw Him walk on water and heard Him say to the winds and the waves, “Peace, be still,” and there was a great calm. These witnesses say that they saw Him heal lepers with a touch, open blind men’s eyes, and even raise the dead. Three of them tell us that they were on the mountain of transfiguration with Him and saw His glory, and heard a voice out of heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son: hear you Him.” These persons were very unsophisticated individuals. They mostly belonged to a class of men who are rather celebrated for their bluff honesty, namely, fishermen. They certainly had nothing to gain by saying that they saw all these things—in fact, they had everything to lose. Their names are famous, now, but they could little have reckoned upon such fame. And they do not appear to have been men who cared about fame at all. They lost their all. They were despised and maltreated, and most of them met with a cruel death on account of having borne witness to what they saw. Their witness is by no means of a doubtful character. They were very positive that they saw the things of which they are witnesses. One of them has said, “He that saw it bore record, and he knows that his witness is true, and he knows what he says true.” No part of history has come down to us so well attested as the life of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Now, a man takes Tacitus, and he believes what Tacitus tells him, although, very likely, Tacitus did not see the things and only got them second hand. But as a reputable historian, his witness is received. Surely the witness of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and Peter and James and Paul is as good as the witness of Julius Caesar or Tacitus. And it is rendered the more trustworthy from the fact that they died for adhering to it—which neither Caesar nor Tacitus were made to do. Besides, for the gospel narrative we have many witnesses—the number of names was about 120—and they all agreed and stood fast. And even the one who did, for a time, seem to forsake his testimony, bad as he was, returned to it and threw down the money for which he had sold his Master and said, “I have sinned in that I have betrayed innocent blood.” We have the witness of men as to the facts that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, lived and died and rose again and ascended into heaven.

Further, we have the testimony of men as to the present power of that same Jesus to forgive men their trespasses and to save them from the power of sin. From the first day when our Lord was taken up till now, men and women have come forward and have said, “We were once lovers of sin. Whatever our neighbors are, such were we, but we are washed. We are sanctified, and all this by faith in Jesus.” Those who knew these people have confessed the change, although they have often been, at the same time, angry with them for it. They have acknowledged their virtues and have persecuted them on that account.

Now, these converted people have stood to it that they obtained a new heart and a right spirit through believing in Jesus. They have been put in prison for saying this and for declaring that faith in the crucified Savior had delivered them from the dominion of sin, from despondency, and despair. That it had made them love God, given them hope and joy and peace, taught them to love their neighbors, to do justice and to expect a home in heaven. These people have been among the best in the world, all along, even as we read in history of the Albigenses and the Waldenses or the Vaudois or the Lollards. They are described as detestable fanatics and enthusiasts, but they are admitted to have been sober, honest, chaste, quiet citizens and industrious parents—so that the very kings who put them to death regretted that it was necessary to sacrifice such subjects.

Now, it is a very singular thing that these people should so constantly and continuously come forward and say, “The witness of God is true. He has sent His Son into the world and those that believe on Him are saved. We are saved and we will burn at Smithfield, rot in the Lollards’ tower, or lie in a dungeon till the moss grows on our eyelids—but we will never deny or cease to assert this gospel.” All ages have supplied the witness of men. Some of you, beloved friends, have had this witness in a very pointed and practical manner. I may be addressing one who is irreligious, but he never can forget his mother, or his sister, or some other beloved relative now gone to heaven. You are never able to laugh at religion, though you do not believe in it, because these sainted ones rise up before your mind. You are persuaded that they were under a delusion, but, for all that, they were so happy that you half wish you were deluded, too. You would sooner put your children in a school with godly people than with skeptics like yourself—you know you would. There is a something about a Christian which is a witness to you. To me, I must confess, the witness of the lives of some Christians has been wonderfully confirmatory when I have seen how they suffer without repining and even bless the Lord in the midst of agony. If this is the essence of the Christian religion, it must be true. And so, on dying beds, when we have seen the remarkable peace and, sometimes, the extraordinary joy of persons departing, we have felt quite sure that faith in Jesus is no fiction.

I have heard dying children speak like doctors of divinity about the things of God. I have heard dying women, who were quite uneducated, speak of the world unseen in a style of inspiration which has struck me with awe. I do not believe that a faith which enables a man to die triumphantly, rejoicing in his God, or to die calmly in the midst of pain, looking for a world to come, can be, after all, a myth. Oh, if it were so, and the wise man could prove it was all a mistake, I would almost ask him to forego his work—for this has charmed away our fears and turned our desert life into a garden of the Lord. The gospel has smoothed the pillow of the dying and wiped the tears of the desponding. Alas, for you, oh earth, if this could be proven a dream, then were your sun quenched forever and it had been better for us all that we had never been born. But it is not so. The witness of men about the things of God is very clear. Some years ago, there went into a Methodist class meeting, a lawyer who was a doubter, but at the same time a man of candid spirit. Sitting down on one of the benches, he listened to a certain number of poor people, his neighbors, whom he knew to be honest people. He heard some 13 or 14 of these persons speak about the power of divine grace in their souls, and about their conversion and so on. He jotted down the particulars and went home, sat down, and said to himself, “Now, these people all bear witness. I will weigh their evidence.” It struck him that if he could get those 12 or 13 people into the witness box, to testify on his side in any question before a court, he could carry anything. They were persons of different degrees of intellect and education, but they were all of the sort of persons whom he would like to have for witnesses—persons who could bear cross-examination and by their very tone and manner would win the confidence of the jury. “Very well,” he said to himself, “I am as much bound to believe these people about their religious experience as about anything else.” He did so and that led to his believing on the Lord Jesus Christ with all his heart. Thus, you see, the testimony of God to us does, in a measure, come through men and we are bound to receive it. But now comes the text—“If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater.” God is to be believed if all men contradict Him. “Let God be true and every man a liar.” One word of God ought to sweep away 10,000 words of men, whether they are philosophers of today or sages of antiquity.

II. THE INTERNAL EVIDENCE

Now, what is the witness of God with regard to Christ? How does He prove to us that Jesus Christ did really come into the world to save us? He proves it in three ways according to the context of this passage. God’s witnesses are three—the Spirit, the water, and the blood. God says, “My Son did come into the world. He is My gift to sinful men. He has redeemed you and He is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto Me by Him. And in proof that it is so, the Holy Spirit has been given. He descended at Pentecost. He abides with you forever. He has not gone back again. He is in the Word—He is with the Word. He is in the church—He is with the church.” Whenever God the Holy Spirit is pleased to work, whether in revivals or by individual conversions, the wonderful phenomena which are worked by Him, which are miracles in the world of the mind, are as astonishing as the miracles of Christ in the world of matter. God is saying, “I declare Christ to be My Son and your Savior, for I have sent the Holy Spirit to prove it. I have converted yonder sinner, I have comforted yonder saint, by the Holy Spirit. I have instructed the ignorant, I have sanctified the impure, I have guided My people safely by the Holy Spirit. He is My witness. If you need any evidence that Jesus is really My Son, behold My Spirit going forth among the sons of men, converting whom He wills by the truth concerning Jesus.”

Then the water, that is to say, the purifying power of the gospel is also God’s witness to the truth of the gospel. If it does not change men’s characters when they receive it, it is not true. If it does not purify and produce virtue and holiness, do not believe it. But as God everywhere—among the most savage tribes or among the most refined of mankind—makes the gospel to be sacred, it has the power of cleansing the hearts and lives of men. He gives another witness that His Son is really divine and that His gospel is true—the blood also witnesses. Does believing in Jesus Christ do what the blood was said to do, namely, give peace with God through the pardon of sin? Does it, or not? Hundreds of thousands all over the world affirm that they had no peace of conscience till they looked to the streaming veins of Jesus—and then they saw how God can be just and yet forgive sin. Wherever God gives peace through the blood, that blood witnesses with the Spirit and the water on God’s behalf. He says to us sinners, “I have spoken to you a word of love, and that word is My Son. What I have said to you is Jesus. He is My communication to men. I have delivered Him as My message to your souls. And in proof that He is my message to you—a message of love and mercy and pardon—behold, I send the Holy Spirit forth among the sons of men. Behold, I work a purifying work among the sons of men and I give peace in the heart through the blood of the atonement. These three, agreeing in one, are My witness concerning My Son.”

Now, dear brethren, remember that the evidence of faith to every soul hangs here. I shall soon speak to you of the witness in you, but the faith demanded of men rests not upon the ground of any witness in them, but of the witness to them. I am to believe God because He cannot lie. I am to believe Christ because God gives me the witness concerning Christ. And If I will not do so I shall have no other witness. The inward evidence only comes to those who, first of all, accept the evidence of God. Witness in us is not given first, but witness to us—and if the evidence to us is rejected, we shall be cast away and lost forever.

III. HOW ARE WE TREATING THE WITNESS OF GOD?

I come now to the practical point—how are we treating the witness of God? For it is written in our text, “He that believes not God, has made Him a liar; because he believes not the witness that God witnessed of His Son.” Now, are we believing the witness of God? I believe that the most of you here present entertain no doubt whatever that the Bible is the Word of God. Do not, therefore, I pray you, think it superfluous for me to ask you. Do you believe it? Do you believe it? You reply, “Of course, I do.” Well, I am not sure that it is, “Of course,” because there are persons who believe in a way—and that way is a false one.

I have heard of a poor curate who was upbraided for not believing the articles of his church and replied that he believed at the rate of 40 pounds a year. There are persons who believe at a very cheap rate. They believe in the Westminster Assembly’s catechism—it is true they never read it—but they believe it. The church has a creed—they do not know what it is—but they still say they believe it. “But what does the church believe?” “It believes what I believe.” “And what do you and the church believe?” “We both believe the same thing.” That is what it comes to. Such a faith will not save your soul. There must be an intelligent reception of the testimony which God has given. There are many in whom this faith does not exist, because if it did, they could not act as they do. Do you unconverted people believe that the wrath of God abides on you? Then you must be insane if you do not seek to escape from that wrath. If you believed that at this moment there was a snake in your pew, I guarantee you, you would soon rush out into the aisle. I should not need to argue with you about it either. I might try to persuade you to sit still, but you would not be persuaded. If you really believed that your sins had destroyed you, you could not be careless any longer. Do you believe that Jesus Christ has come into the world to save sinners and that He is able to save you? Yes, you are sure you do. I am not so sure, because if it were certain that there was outside yonder door a purse of gold worth 50,000 pounds, and that whoever chose to take it should have it, you would be glad to hear me pronounce the benediction, the most devout of you, so that you might get the treasure. You would not need any exhorting to go, for natural instincts would lead you to make haste and seize the golden opportunity. If you believe that Jesus Christ saves from sin and gives to the soul a treasure far beyond all price, you should make all speed to obtain the precious gift. Is it not so? He who believes in the value of a gift will hasten to accept it, unless he is out of his mind. Many of you who think you believe, and say you believe, do not believe at all. And I put it to you, do you know what you are doing? You are calling God a liar. So the text says. “No, I would not do that,” says one. Friend, I hope that your case is well described in that prayer, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” But after tonight, you will know what you do. If you do not believe what God says, you call Him a liar. “I do not see that,” says one. You cannot help seeing it if you will but look at it, for if any person bears witness to you concerning some important matter and you say, “I do not believe you,” you call that person a liar. When God bears witness in any way, He ought to be believed. To deny the truth of God is a fearful insult to Him. To every man, and to every good man especially, his truthfulness is a jewel. He cannot endure to have his truth impugned, and do you think that God can? The more pure a man is, the more indignant he is when his truthfulness is assailed. And to doubt God is to assail a truthfulness which is unimpeachable and ought never to be questioned. Besides, look at the whole case. You have quarreled with God. You have broken His law. You have sinned. You deserve to be cast into hell. And yet, in His mercy, He says, “Sinner, I have no pleasure in the death of him that dies, but would rather that he should turn unto Me and live. And in order that I may be able to forgive you and yet be Judge of all the earth, I have given My own Son to bleed and die on Calvary, that whoever believes in Him might not perish, but have everlasting life. Come,” He says, “sinner, trust in My Son, and I will forgive you.” And your answer is, “I do not believe You.” Now that is, in addition to the insult of unbelief, exceedingly provoking to the loving heart of God. I have met with persons who have been generous to the poor until the murmuring words of some whom they have tried to benefit have quite wearied them from their benevolent course. Most persons who are doing generous actions are very sorely hurt if their conduct is misrepresented and their kindness treated with ingratitude. Now, when so splendid an act of generosity, so unparalleled a deed of grace as the gift of His own Son is made a subject of undeserved unbelief, it touches God in a very tender place. I am not using too strong language when I remind you that He whom He gave to us was His own Son, very dear to Him, and yet He put Him to grief on our account. The bloody sweat of Gethsemane and the wounds of Calvary show how greatly God pressed and bruised that matchless cluster—His own Son. And, after all that, for you to say, “No, I do not believe in Jesus. I will not have His atonement and I will not trust in Him,” is cruel of you, sinner. It is cruel of you to the last degree. To stand at Calvary’s cross and see Him bleed, whose unspeakable beauties might put the very sun to blush for the dimness of His light—to see Him die for His enemies and to hear Him say, “Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” and then to turn your back on Him? This is the direst proof of the depravity of human nature that ever was presented under heaven. All the iniquities and transgressions that are committed by men, all the crimes that have ever stained humanity do not equal, in extent of enmity to God, the hatred that lurks in the resolve sooner to be damned than owe salvation to the free grace of God. He hates God, indeed, who hates Him so much that he will even dwell forever in hell sooner than be forgiven by Him and saved through the blood of His Son. Man shows his deadly enmity against God to the fullest extent when he will destroy himself to indulge it.

I think I hear one say, “I would believe if I felt something in my heart.” You will never feel that something. You are required to believe on the witness of God—and will you dare to say that His evidence is not sufficient? If you will believe on the divine testimony, you shall have the witness within, by-and-by, but you cannot have that first. The demand of the gospel is, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and believe upon God’s testimony.” What more testimony do you need? God has given it to you in many forms. By holy men who have gone before, as I have told you. By His inspired Bible; by the various works of His Spirit, and by the water and the blood in the church all around you. Above all, Jesus Himself is the best of witnesses.

Believe Him. “But I wish I could have a very striking dream—perhaps that would convert me.” Would you put more confidence in a dream than in God’s Word? “Oh, but I hear of persons who have received revelations from the Spirit of God.” Do not tell me about the Spirit of God speaking to anybody more than is in the Bible. What is in the Scriptures, the Spirit of God will apply to the heart. But if you need the Spirit of God to speak to you over and above that, you will never have it. You have Moses and the prophets—hear them—and if you do not, neither will you be converted though one rose from the dead. But nobody will rise from the dead. You have, upon the strength of the divine testimony, to trust your soul in the hands of Jesus—and if you do so you shall be saved. May the Holy Spirit lead you to do so at this very moment. “That is an easy matter,” says one. I know it is, and that is why it is so hard. If it were a hard thing, you would do it, or try to do it. But because it is so easy, your pride will not come down to it unless my Master moves you to consent. It is simply, “Wash and be clean.” “Believe and live, trust and find it true.” Ah, may the Lord grant that this simple matter may be clear to you—that you may accept it eagerly, lay hold upon it earnestly—and then, having believed, you shall have the witness in yourself which will prove it to be true. “Doctor,” you say, “will your medicine heal me?” “Yes,” he says. “But doctor,” you say, “I cannot believe till I have the witness in myself that it will make me well.” “But,” he says, “you won’t be able to take my medicine on those terms because you cannot have that witness till you have taken it. Will you have it on my witness that I have prescribed this in many similar cases and I know, from what I understand of the anatomy of the body, that the drugs suit your disease and will remove it?” “No, doctor,” says the man, “I must feel better before I can have confidence in you.” “What? Feel the power of the medicine before you take it?” “Yes.” “Then your demand is preposterous. You must surely be weak in your intellect.” Moved by this reproof, you take the medicine. He comes the next day and you feel relieved from the pain. A new tone is given to your system and you cheerfully exclaim, “Now, doctor, I have the witness in myself.” But, if you had been foolish enough to insist and not take the medicine till you had proved it—and yet you could not prove it till you took it—you would have behaved like an idiot. And the man who will not take God at His Word, but needs something else besides the Lord’s witness, not only insults God, but plays the part of an insane suicide and deserves to perish. God give you grace to accept the gospel. Then you shall have the witness in yourself and He shall have the praise, and you shall have the comfort.

Charles Spurgeon