5/10/26 1 John 5:9-13 “Jesus Is God!”

07 May 5/10/26 1 John 5:9-13 “Jesus Is God!”

5/10/26     1 John 5:9-13             “Jesus Is God!”

I would like to begin today by talking a little about a pet peeve of mine.  I have found that just about anything you read about on the internet is false.  Now there are a lot of personal stories and articles that are probably true.  I’m not talking about these.  There are also a few people like me that try to spread the word of Jesus on the internet.  These are also good and I’m not talking about them either.  I’m referring to when people spread so-called news.  It is usually false.  For example, there was a flood in Minot a few years back that was quite severe.  You might remember this.  Anyway, there were some pictures on the internet of the flood and the damage.  In my ignorance, I reposted them.  The next day, I had a friend of mine tell me that these were actually pictures from a flood in Iowa the year before.  I had to post a retraction of the whole thing.  What kind of people try to exploit victims of a flood?  Anyway, it was a lesson learned by me.  I do not believe any type of news article on any social media.  I have found many other instances of outright lies about news.  You might be wise to use a little discretion in this area.  This will be the object of discussion in today’s sermon.  Many times, we have to rely on the testimony of people to get things done.  The question today is whose testimony do you rely on in today’s world?  Do you rely on Jesus or other people?

Bob Joyce tells this wonderful little story that hopefully proves a point.  The creation is a testimony to the existence of God. A young man told his mother one day he was an atheist, that he didn’t believe in God any more. She quietly responded, “If there is no God, who made the world? He replied, “Nobody made it, it just happened.” A few days later he came home from school and passed through the kitchen. A sandwich was sitting on the counter. He asked, “Who made the sandwich?” His mother said, “Nobody made it, it just happened.”  That young man was wrong. Just as there could be no sandwich without a sandwich maker, there can be no creation without a Creator.

In today’s world, we have a huge problem with people who doubt.  I’m not just talking about religion here.  It’s getting to the point where people of this country just about doubt everything and they have good reason.  The government steals billions of dollars from us and then deny doing anything wrong.  Big pharma keeps jacking up prices for no reason other than to raise prices on the stock market.  I could ask just about anyone watching this and we will have many more places where we cannot trust people.

All of this distrust leads us to our religion.  There are many people who call themselves Christian who doubt things about God.  I have heard so-called Christians tell me that they do not sin.  Can you believe this?  One of the first things that real Christians learn is that we all sin and fall short of the glory of God.  We have many churches that are led by pastors who don’t believe in the Bible or God but they sure will be quick to say that they do, just not every part of it.  We do not have the choice of picking and choosing what we believe in the Bible.

And this leads us right into ignorance of the world and especially the Bible.  If you want to get ahead in this world, then you should be studying things that really work in the world.  It is the same way with Jesus.  You need to learn as much about Jesus as you can, not so you can show other people.  But so that you can answer Jesus when He calls for you.  The best way to leave this ignorance behind is to be reading your Bible.  You can read other Christian books too but the Bible is the best.

Because if you are ignorant, then you can be easily swayed by all kinds of false teaching like we have in many churches today.  If you study the Bible, then you will know false teaching when you hear it.  The Bible is pretty easy to read so read it.  Learn to understand the real teachings so that you will recognize the false teachings.  When these things come together, then you will have the assurance from God that you are doing right and everyone else is on the wrong path.  This should be a great comfort.

Now we come to a very important part of the reading.  Whose testimony do you believe?

If you were buying a house, whose testimony about the house would you deem credible?  Hopefully, you would doubt the witness of the realty agent.  He/she is there to sell a house, make money.  They usually know little about a particular house.  Who would you believe if you were getting a loan for that house?  You probably should not take what the bank or loan office say because they are also there to make money.  No matter what we are buying or renting, you need to aware of who is making the money on the deal.  This rule applies whether you are getting something big or small.

Maybe a little illustration from Terry Blankenship would help.  If you ever testify in court, you might wish you could have been as sharp as this policeman. He was being cross-examined by a defense attorney during a felony trial. The lawyer was trying to undermine the policeman’s credibility….  Q: “Officer — did you see my client fleeing the scene?”  A: “No sir. But I subsequently observed a person matching the description of the offender, running several blocks away.”  Q: “Officer — who provided this description?”  A: “The officer who responded to the scene.”  Q: “A fellow officer provided the description of this so-called offender. Do you trust your fellow officers?  A: “Yes, sir. With my life.”  Q: “With your life? Let me ask you this then officer. Do you have a room where you change your clothes in preparation for your daily duties?”  A: “Yes sir, we do!”  Q: “And do you have a locker in the room?”  A: “Yes sir, I do.”

Q: “And do you have a lock on your locker?”  A: “Yes sir.”  Q: “Now why is it, officer, if you trust your fellow officers with your life, you find it necessary to lock your locker in a room you share with these same officers?”  A: “You see, sir — we share the building with the court complex, and sometimes lawyers have been known to walk through that room.” The courtroom erupted in laughter, and a prompt recess was called.  Credibility of the witness is a very important part of any testimony.

So, if you are relying on human testimony on day-to-day life, I might have a suggestion for you.  We all have trouble finding someone who can give their testimony that we rely on to be the truth.  It’s hard and I know that most of you have a person or two who you trust.  As long as there is no conflict of interest, you can probably rely on them.  However, who do you turn to when you need the advice that cannot be wrong.  I hope that you are answering with the name of Jesus Christ.

One of the reasons that we have the trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is so that they can have 2 witnesses.  The Law in the Old Testament tells us that we are not to convict anyone with just one witness.  They needed at least 2 witnesses to convict.  This should also be the same way for us as it’s the same way with God.  If it was only God the Father, then we would be no different than any other religion.  But we have a trinity.  Jesus witnesses that what God the Father does is true as does the Holy Spirit.  The best part of this trinity is that it is a Holy Trinity.  They have proven themselves over and over again and again over ages and eons.  So far, they have been totally right and they will continue to be right to infinity into the future.

Jesus was asked about witnesses to Himself once.  They were trying to outfox Jesus and you have to get up pretty early in the morning to do that.  Jesus names God the Father.  He also named John the Baptist.  He could have named the Holy Spirit but they did not know the Spirit yet.  He could also have named any of the 12 disciples who had witnessed many of the miracles that He performed.  Or He could have called on the people He had brought back from the dead.  Or the many, many that He healed as He traveled about.  People, there were many witnesses to just who Jesus was.  Plain and simple, Jesus was/is God.  Period!

So let me ask this question.  Where are the witnesses to Muhammad in Islam?  Where are the witnesses to Joseph Smith and his hallucinations?  Where are the witnesses to Buddhism or Hinduism or any other ism you can think of?  You won’t find them because they don’t exist.  By the time that Jesus went back to heaven, there were hundreds if not thousands of witnesses.  That is why I can stand here and preach this because I know that this is the truth.  The Bible is the book of truth.  No one else has the truth.

So, what is in this testimony that makes it so good?  Well, first and foremost, we are promised eternal life.  Jesus has shown us the way to eternal life but it is up to us to accept it.  We don’t accept this in rituals in church or using self-improvement tricks.  We accept this by accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior after we have confessed our sins to Him.  For those of you who have done this, you know the wonderful feeling of total goodness that happens when you do.  This is almost a universal feeling among Christians.  To those who are not yet believers, please notice this among your believing friends.  We all have a unique but wonderful experience when we have gone through this. Once again, this is the testimony of believers to you.  A testimony that you can rely on.  You will never find a better deal no matter where you look.

Jesus tells us in several places that if you have the Son, then you have life.  That is what we are all yearning for.  Life does not get any better than when you have Jesus living in you.  Conversely, if you don’t have Jesus living in you, then you do not have life.  I have preached this over and over.  Without Jesus, you cannot have real peace, real love, real hope just to mention a few things.  Jesus Christ is the key to a better and longer life.  Without Jesus, you have nothing.  But the choice is yours.

Notice how the disciples answered the question about what other people think of this.  Some say that He is John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.  So, you see how close they are to right but not quite right.  The people around them had the right idea.  You hear me preach about how so many churches are not really Christian.  They do not believe the Bible for everything.  They do not quite follow the Word of God.  They almost have it but not quite.  For many people listening today, you should have no fear of judgement.  If you have Jesus in your heart, then this should not be a problem.  Instead, you can look forward to the next life with joy.  This is the joy that we get from Jesus and not from the world.  We have every bit of confidence that we will be going to heaven.

Hopefully, we have taken the guess work out of following Jesus today.  I am certain, just as I am standing here today, that Jesus Christ is everything that He has said and much, much more.  You can be that certain also if you have Jesus in your life, in control.  You can live in a confidence that defies all human understanding.  You will not have to fear judgement or anything else.  You can now live in the joy that only comes from Jesus.  You can live like this because you know beyond a shadow of doubt that Jesus is the Son of God.

I guess this all boils down to “Who do you trust?”  I spent nearly 40 years of my life trusting in the wrong things, the wrong people.  Anytime you trust people, you will be trusting the wrong people.  Maybe we have some today who are watching who are doing the same thing.  You think the government is never wrong.  My friends know what they are doing.  It cannot really get any worse than this.  These are all false statement.  These are just lies that you tell yourself so you keep going.  But one day it happened.  I had reached the end of my rope and was in total despair.  There was only one thing left to do.  I tried Jesus.  And nothing happened.  You see you cannot try Jesus.  He is not there so you can try your life on Him.  You either have to take Jesus 100% or not at all.  There is not trying Jesus.

Well, nothing happened so about a week later I got down on my knees and I confessed and asked Jesus to live in my heart.  I had read testimonies that this was the only right thing to do.  So, I did it.  We had a Bible in the house and I sat down and I started to read it.  I’ve been reading it ever since.  In there I found many more testimonies that you can rely on.  The Bible is the only book I know that has so much truth in it.  I would say it is all truth.  Anyway, my life changed that night and it still gets better every day, to this day.  Jesus is the way.

That is what I leave for you today.  You now have my testimony, which is good but still only human.  But you also have the testimony of the many of followers in the Bible.  If you look around you might find more testimonies in your life.  But just remember, Jesus is God and He loves you far beyond your comprehension.  And that is a fact.  Thank you, Jesus, for first loving us.  Let’s pray.