Christ’s Testimony Received

Christ's Testimony Received

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, AUGUST 10, 1890,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"He that has received His testimony has set to his seal that God is
true." John 3:33.

IN opening this discourse I would call your attention to the different
statistics given by John's disciples and by John himself. In the 26th
verse, the disciples say, "All men come to Him"–that is their judgment
of how the ministry of Jesus was succeeding. John, in the 32nd verse,
said, "And no man receives His testimony." If we view them as both
correct, then the disciples looked at outward appearances and in their
view the cause of Jesus seemed to be prospering to an overwhelming
degree–"All men come to Him." But John looked below the surface, at
the true spiritual results and his verdict was, "And no man receives
His testimony."

Be very doubtful of statistics–they depend very much upon the person
compiling them. Some, with sanguine spirit, say everything that is
delightful and encouraging. Others, with more serious and with,
perhaps, more severe judgment, say much that is depressing. I am
inclined to take both these opinions with a grain of salt. Each one was
intended for truth, but neither of them was exact. We often hear
persons say that there are crowds attending such a ministry, the people
block up the gangways, they fill every seat and the preacher is very
useful for "all men come to him." This may be true and yet there may be
few conversions and little spiritual results so that another may as
truly say, "No man receives his testimony."

Ah, dear Friends, we can never be satisfied with a numerous
congregation–we want souls to receive the testimony of Christ! Even
though we may thank God that all sorts and conditions of men lend
willing ears to our teaching, yet only one note sounds the knell of our
joy! If we hear it said, "No man receives His testimony," we are sad at
heart. Forgetting what the disciples reported, let us now look at what
John said, "No man receives His testimony." He did not mean, literally,
that no one received the Truth of God, for his next word was, "He that
has received His testimony." He meant that comparatively none received
it. Compared with the crowds who came to Him, compared with the nation
of Israel, compared with the human race, those who received Christ's
testimony were so few that his sadness made him call them none.

John, though he went a little below the mark, was not far from the
truth when he said, "No man receives His testimony." In these profound
and wordy days, this is called the "pessimist" view of things. However,
if it were not precisely the truth, it was mournfully near it. Today,
Christ is preached and many will come to hear about Him but, alas, few
receive the Gospel into their hearts! Go through these crowded streets
and mark how few receive the sacred testimony! Go into our provincial
towns and country villages and note how few receive the Truth as it is
in Jesus. When you look at the denominational rolls at the end of the
year, what small additions have been made! I think one section of the
Church reports one addition for the year. If any community reports as
high as three or four per cent, people think wonders are accomplished!

The world can never be converted at the rate at which we are now going,
for the increase of population is greater than the increase of the
Churches. We are relatively further back than we were. There are more
Christians, but there are fewer Christians in proportion to the
population! There is much reason for crying earnestly to God to work
more mightily upon the hearts of men. How glad was John to think that
some had received Christ's testimony! How hungry he was that there
should be more! In what earnest tones does he set forth his Lord's
claims in the verses around our text! He would have men go beyond
himself and find Christ and receive His testimony. This is how the case
stands. Men had wandered far from God. God desired that men should come
back to Him and therefore He sent a witness to men to tell them of His
kindly feelings towards them and to show in His own Person, teaching,
life and death how really and truly God desired that men should be at
peace with Him.

The only-begotten Son was born into our world and took our Nature, that
He might be a witness to the people of the Character of God towards us,
that we, knowing how God felt, might be led to cry, "Come, and let us
return unto the Lord." He would have us touched with tender relentings
when we discover the greatness of the love and mercy of God towards us
by seeing Him seeking and saving the lost in the Person of His
only-begotten Son. Of that subject I am going to speak this morning,
keeping as closely as I can to the text and crying to the Holy Spirit
for aid.

First, observe the Testifier carefully. Look at Him and see who it is
that has come to reveal the Father unto us. Secondly, hearken to His
testimony. What is it? Know it and believe it. Thirdly, note the
rejecters– "No man receives His testimony." How sad is the fact! Then,
coming closer, still, to the text, commune with those who do receive
His Heaven-given testimony. Of these it is said that they have set to
their seal that God is true.

I. First, let us OBSERVE THE TESTIFIER. Jesus, our Lord, as a Witness,
is so wrapped up with the testimony which He bears, that you have to
know Him before you can understand His witness–in fact, to receive Him
is the same thing as to receive His testimony! If we have received
Christ as what He is, we have received the testimony which He came to
bear. Who is this Testifier? This Witness? We answer that, according to
the context, it is "He that comes from above." To save us there has not
come to us a man whose origin was at his birth, but One who existed
long before and descended from above! It is true that Jesus was born at
Bethlehem, but it is equally true that He had a preexistence from
before all worlds! The Word was from the beginning with God–"without
Him was not anything made that was made."

He was God as truly before He became Man as ever He was afterwards. He
that has come to save us has, in the highest sense, come from above.
Let this kindle hope in the sinner's mind and let it draw forth faith
in the Divine Ambassador. One has come from the highest heavens to lift
those up, who, apart from Him must have sunk into the lowest Hell.
Nearly 1,900 years have passed since He came and trod the roughest ways
of this world and lived, sorrowed and suffered here below. From the
hills of Heaven He came to this land of sin that He might lift us up
and give us a Divine inheritance.

He was one of the very highest Character. Observe–"He that comes from
above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly and speaks of
the earth: He that comes from Heaven is above all." All other
messengers that God has sent have had much earthliness about them and,
assuredly, we who are now His messengers have much of it. "We have this
treasure in earthen vessels," but there was nothing in our Lord Jesus
that could debase the Messenger. He was pure, perfect, heavenly–and
though He bore our Nature, yet He shared not our sinfulness. And though
He spoke in our tongue and brought down the mysteries of Heaven to our
comprehension, yet still He spoke them in a heavenly style–a style to
which a mere man could never have reached!

Moses wrote as a man and the Spirit of God only revealed Truth
measurably by him. But our Lord Jesus Christ was full of Grace and
Truth and He spoke with a Manhood united to Godhead, having the Spirit
without measure. In all Jesus said there was a fullness, a power, a
reality which mere men were not capable of containing. He was above all
and others derived their authority from Him, "for the testimony of
Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." Will you not listen to one so
supreme? "God, who at sundry times and in different manners spoke in
time past unto the fathers by the Prophets, has in these last days
spoken unto us by His Son." Surely it shall go ill with him that
refuses such a Messenger!

As He was above all in Character, so was He above all in rank. None can
be compared with Him for dignity–the angels may be peers of the
heavenly realm, but He is the Crown Prince of the blood-royal of
eternity! He is God over all, before whom cherubim and seraphim veil
their faces. He deigned to become subject to parents, but He was, none
the less, above all–Lord, Ruler, Head over all things! Though He
stooped to seek and save the lost, He was still higher than the
highest! Though He laid His Glory by, that He might wash His disciples'
feet–yes, and wash our sins away in His own blood–yet He was still
Master and Lord. "See that you refuse not Him that speaks. For if they
escaped not who refused him that spoke on earth, much more shall not we
escape if we turn away from Him that speaks from Heaven."

I cannot too highly speak of the Glory and honor and majesty which
belong to our Emmanuel! If I had the tongue of men and of angels I
could not sufficiently extol Him. He is the First-Born of every
creature, yes, the Creator Himself! King of kings and Lord of lords is
He and it is through so glorious a Person as this that God has sent to
us a message of peace. Our ambassador is of a rank above all ranks that
the Lord may show how highly He esteems His chosen of the race of man.
We are greatly honored by dealing with so august a Messenger. Come, you
willing hearts, and gladly receive the testimony of Him who is above
all!

We are further told by John a very important fact which ought to weigh
with every thoughtful mind. The testimony of Jesus is Personal
testimony–"what He has seen and heard, that He testifies." The
Prophets received their prophecies from the Holy Spirit who spoke to
them of things which they had not seen. Sometimes they did not even
understand what they wrote. They did not see those things of which they
wrote for it is written that "many Prophets and kings have desired to
see those things, but have not seen them." These things even angels
desired to look into, but they were too mysterious for them. Our Lord
Jesus Christ knows heavenly things of His own proper knowledge, for He
has ever dwelt in the bosom of the Father. He knows the mind of God,
for He is God. The secret intent and purpose of the Most High God are
with His Son Jesus.

All that He reveals to men of the mercy of God He has Himself seen and
heard. He was an eye and ear witness of the mind and will of Jehovah.
Christ's teaching is not second-hand–"No man knows the Father, save
the Son." Who taught Him wisdom? From where has this Man knowledge?
From Himself, from His own eternal experience–as dwelling with God
before all worlds He speaks to us. Do you want a better Messenger, my
Hearers? How can the Lord serve you better than by sending One who
knows what He declares–knows it by having heard and seen and handled
it? With the God who made the heavens and fashioned the earth He ever
dwelt, as One brought up with Him and He was daily His delight. The
Lord God has sent as Ambassador to you One whom He "possessed in the
beginning of His way, before His works of old." What more can you
desire?

And then, further, the Baptist goes on to tell us that the testimony of
Jesus is identical with the Words of God Himself. "He that has received
His testimony has set to his seal that Christ is true." Do you think I
am reading amiss? The Scripture says, "that God is true." The testimony
of Jesus and the testimony of God are one–and when you believe Christ
Jesus, you believe God! Further on we read, "for He whom God has sent
speaks the Words of God: for God gives not the Spirit by measure unto
Him." If you deny what Christ says, you make God a liar, for you have
not believed His testimony concerning His Son. So fully is the witness
of Jesus backed up and supported by the Words of God–so fully does
Jesus represent the purpose and the mind of the Father–that to doubt
Him is to doubt the Eternal God!

Now, if you have a plan of salvation put before you by God's
Messenger–which is most assuredly the very mind of God Himself–will
you reject it? Will you fly in the face of God by rejecting salvation
which comes stamped in every letter of it with Divine authority? I pray
you, my Hearers, if you have not yet believed in Jesus, remain no
longer in unbelief of Him, for it is unbelief of the Lord God, unbelief
of the Triune Jehovah who made you and who keeps the breath in your
nostrils! See what a Messenger we have, then, who speaks not His own
words, but the words of Him that sent Him. Those words are full of
Grace and Truth for they are full of God.

Read a little further on, in the next verse and you will see that this
Messenger whom God has sent is One in high esteem with God. "The Father
loves the Son." To show His great love of Him, He "has given all things
into His hands." You have not, now, to deal with God out of Christ, for
all things are now put under the mediatorial government of the Son of
God. Christ Jesus, the Mediator between God and men, has all things in
His power–the government is upon His shoulder. It has pleased the
Father to put all things under the Man Christ Jesus–

"Life, death, and Hell, And worlds unknown Hung on His sacred will."

Jesus is absolute Master of all things. Angels fly and devils tremble
at His nod and all the wheels of Providence revolve in perfect order
according to His will. If you listen to His testimony of Grace,
remember that He has all power to back it up and make it true to you.
"He is able to save to the uttermost." All power is given unto Him in
Heaven and in earth. God has put all things under His feet–and He who
is thus the Lord of All–has come to treat with you concerning
reconciliation. Turn not on your heels, you busy men! Say not that you
have no time to attend to Him! You must attend to One whose kingdom
rules over all. Dare you treat Him with indifference? Will not the awe
of His majesty constrain you to hearken to His voice?

Once more only. Concerning this Testifier, we learn that He is the Lord
and Giver of life and if we will but accept His testimony we shall live
thereby. He has life in Himself and He has power to quicken whomever He
will. "He that believes on the Son has everlasting life." And to make
the matter still more pressing, the word of warning is added, "He that
believes not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abides on
him." God can never be pleased with a person who

gives the lie to His own Son. He has, in boundless pity, sent His Son,
His only-begotten Son, to live and die that men might be saved–how
shall He endure to see Him rejected? "God so loved the world, that He
gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not
perish, but have everlasting life."

And if this Son of His love is refused. If the guilty insult the Father
by rejecting the Son, what can remain but righteous wrath? If a deed of
mercy, unspeakable, immeasurable, comes to be despised by you, then the
anger must abide upon you. There is no hope for those who refuse Jesus.
Flatter not yourselves that there is another way of escape, in some
future state, for if there could have been another way, God would not
have given up His Son to shame, suffering and death! Faith in Jesus is
the only door of hope! Shut that upon yourselves and you shut
yourselves in utter darkness, in helpless, hopeless misery! What can
help you if the wrath of God abides on you? This must mean a misery
unspeakable, without the slightest alleviation.

O my dear Hearers, I wish I had the power to set forth my Lord as the
Witness! As I cannot do this as I would, I commend to you the passage
of Scripture itself. The sentences are short, sharp, crisp, clear–and
they show you who He is whom God has sent on the great errand of Divine
love. Refuse Him not, I implore you!

II. Secondly, HEARKEN TO HIS TESTIMONY. What is the testimony of Jesus?
What has the Christ to tell us concerning God? I will only use the
three chapters which precede my text and I shall gather enough from
them to give a fair outline of what Jesus tells us of the Father and
His willingness to forgive and save. First, he tells us, God has
provided an Atonement. Look at the 29th verse of the first chapter,
where John says, "Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of
the world." The very fact that the Son of God came here as Man to
suffer for our sin proves that God has provided a great and
all-sufficient Sacrifice.

God could not deal with a sinful world–it was too defiled with sin for
Him to look upon it–but that sin of the world which prevented a holy
God from dealing with a condemned race has been taken away by Jesus, so
that now the Lord can visit man and favor him with the Gospel of peace
and the work of salvation. This was necessary before a single
individual could be saved. "God was in Christ, reconciling the world
unto Himself." The death of Jesus has enabled God to commune with men.
Oh, hear this! There is a Sacrifice for sin! My Hearers, believe it and
make much if it. The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all
sin! Jesus has died and in that death He has finished transgression,
made an end of sin, and brought in everlasting righteousness. All
Believers are forgiven through His death. God is willing that you,
believing in His dear Son, should be so forgiven as to be washed whiter
than snow. That is Christ's testimony to you and he that receives it
has set to his seal that God is true.

The next testimony of Jesus is that the Lord has made a way of access
between man and God. Look at the 51st verse of the first chapter. He
said to Nathanael, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, hereafter you shall
see Heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon
the Son of Man." Jacob's ladder is not now before you as a dream, but
as a reality. The Son of Man, the Incarnate God, God in Christ Jesus,
is the way by which there can be commerce between man and God. We can
go up to God and the angels of God, loaded with blessings, can come
down to men. The gulf is bridged–a glorious stairway has been made
across the dread abyss which separated guilty man from his offended
God. Jesus Christ Himself, in His own Person, is that ladder and He
bears witness thereof to you. Sin is put away and distance is removed.

What is the next part of His testimony? You will find it in the third
chapter–God is only to be approached in a spiritual way. To come to
God, "you must be born again." That which is born of flesh is flesh and
cannot commune with God, who is a Spirit. That which is born of the
Spirit is spirit and can commune with the holy God and understand
spiritual things. My Hearers, there is no coming to God by a priest of
human consecration! There is no coming by outward ritual, form, or
ceremony–"God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him
in spirit and in truth." You must have a spiritual Nature, that the
Spirit of God may commune with you. Only by a spiritual Nature can you
have communion with the great Invisible.

Your spirit can be in fellowship with God, the mighty Spirit, but what
can you do till a spirit is created in you? This was our Lord's
testimony to Nathanael and I suppose that, by some means, John the
Baptist had heard of it. But whether he had or had not does not matter
to my purpose at this time–it is certainly a part of the testimony of
Jesus. Furthermore, our Lord bore testimony to the great fact that God
gives salvation to all Believers in Jesus and to make that

very plain, He puts it thus–"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: that whoever
believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life."

You know the type. Bitten by the fiery serpents, the people looked to
the bronze serpent and they were healed. Now, bitten by sin, you look
to Him who was made sin for us and, looking to Him, your guilt passes
away and the poison of your sinfulness meets its antidote. We look to
Jesus and live! Our Lord bore witness to this with His own lips and
then by the lips of His Apostles. He still cries, "Look unto Me, and be
you saved, all the ends of the earth." Yes, there is life in a look at
the Crucified One! Believing is receiving. Accept Christ, whom God
sends as a Messenger to you and in accepting Him you shall be saved.

Jesus also testified plainly that from all who believe in Him the Lord
has removed condemnation. It is written, "He that believes on Him is
not condemned." He that believes is justified and, "being justified by
faith, we have peace with God." Guilty and condemned as you may be at
this hour, if you accept the Son of God to stand for you, you are not
condemned! "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in
Christ Jesus." Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white
as snow. Though by nature robed in rags, the Lord says, "Take away the
filthy garments from him." Your glorious challenge is, "who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect?" "Who is he that condemns? It is
Christ that

died."

Oh, this message of mercy from Jesus, is it not full and blessed? If I
had the time I should like to have enlarged much upon the testimony of
God in Christ Jesus, but here it means just this, that you, being
guilty and condemned, can be justly forgiven through the sacrifice of
Jesus! You may be beloved of God because of His love to Jesus. You may
be delivered from all the evil results of sin because of the death of
the Well-Beloved. You can be saved! Yes, if you now believe in Christ
Jesus, you are saved. All heavenly privileges are yours now–where you
now sit–and shall be yours world without end. Glory be to God!

II. With great heaviness we have now to NOTICE THE REJECTERS–"No man
receives His testimony." You would have thought that the moment this
testimony was delivered to the world every man would have hastened to
hear it and would have believed it with joyful readiness! But alas, the
very reverse happened! If I went to fish with such bait as this, I
should expect to have a sea full of fish rushing towards me, but it was
not so. Men, as a rule, will not accept this heavenly salvation–no man
will receive it except moved by God the Holy Spirit. Why is this? In
the case of many, it is because they are earthly and the message and
the messenger are too heavenly for them.

They are earth-bound and earth-buried. They are so busy–how can they
consider the grand fact that God has come down to save men? They will
think of that great spiritual Truth of God one of these days when they
have made sufficient money and can retire–when they have nothing
better to do than to attend to the claims of God. God is second-rate,
no, seventh-rate in their esteem! They are really so occupied and their
thoughts are so taken up with daily cares of this life that God's Grace
must wait their convenience. I fear they will never be startled into
thought until it is said of each one of them, "In Hell he lifted up his
eyes, being in torments." The rich man had kept his eyes downward upon
his sumptuous fare and had never looked up to heavenly things–but the
realities of eternity have awakened him. O God, grant that none of my
hearers may keep their eyes down until they lift them up in Hell!

Some rejecters of the Word of our Lord, I have no doubt, were too
learned to believe in anything so simple as the statement that God was
among them in human form to live and die for men. Though this is, in
very truth, the most sublime of all mysteries, yet human pride counts
it a small matter. It is to the Jews a stumbling block and to the
Greeks foolishness. Men know so much that they will not know God! I am
struck every day, when reviewing books of the present period, with how
wise fools are nowadays. Pardon me. I will put it differently and
say–how foolish the wise are nowadays. I mean the same thing whichever
way I say it. They get a hold of the tail of a dead thing and they
shout like men that find great spoil! Here is a great discovery–a
discovery of nothing!

At one time they find Deuteronomy to be a fraud. Now there are two
Isaiahs. Then the book of Ruth was written far down in the centuries
after the exile. Jonah is a myth. Esther is a romance and so forth.
Their criticisms are all false, as others of the same breed soon show.
They are always finding some dead oat or other and setting it out on
the table where the children's bread ought to be. What mighty
discoveries of mans' nests we have lived to see! Men of this nature
will not receive the witness of Jesus–it is a pity that they
should–He is honored by their rejection. You can scarcely read a book
nowadays but you come across a bit of rotten stuff, the
fondly-cherished nonsense of some writer who has a taste for that

which is far gone in decay. They will not believe God. How can they
while they receive honor one of another, as learned critics?

It is today as it was in our Lord's time, "not many wise men after the
flesh are called." Still have we to ask, "Where are the wise? Where is
the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world?" Those who glory in
fleshly wisdom cannot receive the testimony of the carpenter's Son–a
testimony so plain that the poor and illiterate can understand it and
enter into eternal life! I hope this will not be the case with any of
the more cultured among you. Be willing to take Christ's yoke upon you
and learn of Him.

Certain people did not receive the testimony of Jesus because they were
too proud. Pedigree and privilege kept many away. Read this verse in
the first chapter–"He came unto His own and His own received Him not."
Why? Because they thought they were God's own already! Did they not
wear a text of Scripture between their eyes? Had they not broad fringes
of blue on their dress? Did they not tithe mint, anise, cumin and other
pennyworths of herbs? Did they not fast thrice in the week and so on?
What did they want with Jesus? Those who professed to belong to God and
cried, "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are we," were
too good to accept a Savior–too near to Heaven to need a Messenger
from God.

But the real reason for rejecting the testimony of Jesus was this–they
were too evil to receive it. Read verse 19– "Light is come into the
world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds
were evil. For everyone that does evil hates the light, neither comes
to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved." Ah, my unbelieving
Hearers, if you were better men you would more readily accept the light
of Christ! If men were not such sinners as they are, they would come to
Him to learn the way of the Lord. Alas, the depth of man's guilt has
hardened his heart and darkened his perceptions–and made him prefer
darkness to light! Men do not see that they need deliverance–they hear
music in the rattle of their chairs. May the Spirit of God come and
convict men of sin–and when they are once convicted of it and foresee
their doom, they will change their minds towards the Savior and be
willing to hear the message of Divine Grace!

May God, of His boundless Grace, save every man and woman and child to
whom this sermon shall come! [And may He be as merciful to those who
read this in the 21st Century!] I am greatly pleased to see so many of
you present on such a wet and stormy day as this–I hope the Lord means
to bless you now that you are here. I remember going to the house of
God one morning when there were only a few persons able to reach the
place, there being a heavy snowstorm at the time. That morning I found
the Savior by looking to Him upon the Cross and now I look with great
interest upon services which are held in rough weather. I hope that
those who have had the determination to come are more than common
hearers–I trust that they have hearts that the Lord God has touched.

I hope you have come here with a desire to find salvation and if so,
may you find it in the Lord Jesus at once! O Lord, grant it, I beseech
You! All the while, remember, these rejecters of Christ were under the
wrath of God. What a terrible condition! I will not dwell upon the
awful fact, but let a man only know the meaning of these words and he
will tremble in his seat–"He that believes not the Son shall not see
life; but the wrath of God abides on him." O Souls, how can you bear
it?

IV. We will conclude by speaking upon the fourth point. Let US COMMUNE
WITH THOSE WHO RECEIVE CHRIST'S TESTIMONY. The text says, "He that has
received His testimony has set to his seal that God is true." To
receive is, in still plainer Saxon, "to take in." There is here the
idea of retaining as well as receiving. We take in the testimony of
Jesus that it may abide in us. We hear what Jesus says and we answer to
it, "Lord, I believe." Our word is, "Master, say on. Whatever You say,
I believe." We take in all that Jesus witnesses and we hold to it. We
believe and we keep on believing. We come to Jesus and we are always
coming to Him.

Some people begin with believing in Jesus and then turn aside to
believe in their own feelings, but you must not do so–you must believe
and keep right on believing. The just shall live by faith. We receive
Christ and keep on receiving Him. "He that receives His testimony." Do
you refuse anything to which Jesus witnesses? This is evil! Receive His
testimony with unquestioning faith. Some men will believe any monstrous
assertion of scientists, or spiritualists, or rationalists–but they
cannot believe the plain witness of the Lard Jesus Christ! The man who
takes in the teaching of Jesus and keeps to it, he is the blessed man!

He takes in the testimony of Jesus for himself and receives it as his
own possession. That Jesus saves from sin is true. That He saves me
from sin is a more personal truth! Christ will save those who believe.
This is good. But, "I believe and

therefore I am saved," is better. Personal appropriation is the best
receiving! Accept the Truth of Jesus for your own soul–seize it by the
grip of a personal faith and then you have it! You have seen a boy with
a burning-glass–he concentrates all the rays of the sun so as to
produce a fire. Even so, by faith, concentrate the testimony of Jesus
upon your own case and you will soon feel a wonderful power working in
your soul! He that receives the testimony of Jesus makes it his own,
feeds on it and is saved thereby.

Receivers of Christ's testimony allow nothing to make them doubt what
He has said. When the Believer is down in the dumps and is passing
through a dark time, he says, "What Jesus has said is true for all
this. He has told me that if I believe in Him I have eternal life and I
have it, however gloomy things may appear. I have a sluggish liver and
it makes me feel low and miserable, but I have eternal life! My wife is
sick to death and I have buried child after child and lost friend after
friend–but I have eternal life! God's waves and billows go over me,
but I have eternal life, for He says it and I cannot doubt Him." It is
a grand thing to have your confidence outside yourself! It is glorious
to have it all in Christ!

As long as you keep your confidence in your own self it will be a very
poor stay for you. There is a ship at sea and a foolish landsman feels
very confident of the safety of the vessel because they have a big
anchor on board. My dear Man, what is the good of that anchor while it
is on board? It would rather tend to sink the ship by its weight than
to be of service to it. "Oh," he says, "but it is one of the best
Admiralty anchors and we are safe while that is on board!"

O simple Soul, an anchor is of no use while you can see it! Drop it
down into the deep sea, out of sight, and then it will be of service.
Hear the chain run out! Now the anchor is far down. It grips and holds
the vessel. You must fix your confidence within the veil. Your
anchorage of hope must be where mortal eyes can never see. Our rest
lies in simply believing the Word of the Lord Jesus. I believe it
though I do not feel it. I believe it though I cannot argue the matter
out logically. I believe it because God says it to me through His great
Witness, the Lord Jesus Christ. The foregoing will enable you to see
the truth of the statement, "He that has received His testimony has set
to his seal that God is true."

In the olden time men did not often write their names because they
could not write at all! Even kings set their seals because they could
not give a signature. To this day, how often does it happen to me, as a
trustee to a chapel or a school, to have a paper laid before me and I
not only sign my name, but I put my finger on that red wafer which
represents my seal and I say, "This is my act and deed"? When you
believe in Jesus you have set your seal to the testimony of Jesus,
which is the Revelation of the Lord. You have certified that you
believe in God as true. What does that mean? It means not only that He
has kept His promise as made to the fathers in the Old Testament and
will keep it in Christ Jesus, but it means, also, that to you God is
real. By faith in Jesus you have come to know the reality of God.

Before, you talked about an unknown God, but now you know Him and
declare your faith in His reality and fidelity. Now you perceive
substance and not shadow. Now you see mystery, but not myth. God is
Truth and all that Jesus said of Him is Truth. He says, "He that
believes on the Son has everlasting life," and you find that God is
true, for you live in newness of life! Jesus says, "He that believes on
Him is not condemned," and you know it is so, for you enjoy a sense of
pardoned sin! You have sealed the testimony of God by resting your own
soul upon it. It seems a very joyful thing to me that I should be
allowed to be a witness to the Truth of God. I feel honored by being
allowed to subscribe my name to the testimony of Jesus.

Can you not do the same? Remember what it involves. You doubting
Christians, what are you doing? You have already put your hand and seal
to the promise of God and are you going to contradict your own
signature and seal? When you first believed in Jesus you set to your
seal that God is true. And now, because you have met with a little
trouble, are you going to retract your witness? Do you fear that the
Lord will not help you and save you? What are we to understand by that
seal of yours? Is it, after all, untrue, or unreal? You know better!
Shame on you for contradicting yourself! Remember, when you make God a
liar you make yourself a liar, for you have already set your hand and
seal to it that God is true–and seals and handwritings remain. You
accepted the real Savior for your real sin and you believed in the real
death of Christ for you–are you going to run back? Will you doubt your
Lord after this?

God grant you may not, but, on the contrary, may you go on confirming
the testimony of Jesus and setting it to your seal again and again that
God is true! Give glory to God believing that what He has promised He
is able also to perform. Never stagger at the promise through unbelief.
All the promises of God are yes and amen in Christ Jesus to the glory
of God by us–why, we set to our seal that God is true!

I have done, when I have said just this. Avoid, dear Hearers,
anxiously, the double sin of unbelief. If you do not believe Jesus, you
do not believe God. If you reject His Son, you reject Him. If you give
the lie to the teaching of Christ, you give the lie to God. Flee from
this deadly sin! Note well the simple matter upon which eternal life
depends. "He that believes on the Son has everlasting life." He has it
now. It is in his heart now and it is not for a time, for it is
everlasting life. Note that as soon as a man believes God, he sets to
his seal that God is true and then away flies all suspicion of his

God!

Our sins are largely caused by our mistrust of God. You think that God
denies you something that would be good for you and therefore you go
and take it. You suspect God of being so cruel as to command you to do
that which is to your injury and so you refuse to obey Him. Now if you
believe that God is true, you will from now on give up what He bids you
give up because you feel that it is well to do so. And you will act as
He bids you because you are sure His command is wise and good. Between
you and God there will be, from now on, a holy confidence–and what
will that lead to? It will lead to holiness of life and earnest seeking
to please God in whom you unreservedly believe.

You will love Him with all your heart and with all your soul, now that
confidence is created. See what a change faith makes! Have you ever
heard of a servant who believed hard things of her mistress? She
thought her a tyrant and resolved that she would do nothing to please
her. When she did her work, she did it very badly and thought it was
quite good enough for such a creature as her mistress. But she heard
something about her which entirely changed her opinion. Instead of
thinking her a demon, she judged her to be little less than an angel!
It might have seemed a small matter, but it was not so. She did her
work zealously and gladly now that her suspicions were ended. Faith in
her mistress affected her whole life.

So is it in spiritual things! Faith in Christ Jesus is the fountain of
obedience, the ensign of a change of heart. God grant it to you all!
Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURES READ BEFORE SERMON– John 3:13-36.