THE BELIEVER HAVING THE WITNESS IN HIMSELF
J. D. Gray
1 John 5: 6–12; Daniel 1: 8–16, 20; Acts 26: 1, 2, 25–29
What is in my heart to speak about is the believer having the witness in himself. John’s epistle, I think I am right in saying, was written towards the end of the first century, about the same time as his gospel. It was written in days when, what the Lord describes in regard to the seven assemblies in Revelation was true. We usually regard the addresses to the seven assemblies in Revelation as being dispensational and that is also accurate, but it is also true to take it as actual at the time. The conditions which the Lord describes were in the seven assemblies, and that is all in John’s mind as he writes this epistle. The Spirit of God has to use material that is available to Him, and it is the Lord’s mind in ministry to develop material that is assembly in character. If you read the history of the church and all that came into it you marvel at the truth that came through; particularly that the Scriptures were preserved to us. For much that belonged to the truth had been clouded and lost in practice. I am sure there was something that came through in persons that the Spirit of God could be identified with; but to meet heresies in the church He had to use the material that was available. We are thankful for what was met; the various heresies that came in in the early days that were met by men who had some appreciation of Christ and of His deity. I say that by way of introduction. It is the background to the writing of John’s epistle.
Then it comes down to our day, and in our day there has been recovery to the truth, and there is also departure from it, not only amongst what we call brethren but also in the churches. So it comes down to an individual, comes down to the individual who is a witness to the truth in himself. So it says here, “This is he that came by water and blood. Jesus the Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood.
And it is the Spirit that bears witness, for, the Spirit is the truth. For they that bear witness are three: the Spirit, and the water, and the blood; and the three agree in one”. There is one thing they agree in, and I trust it is something that your heart and soul rejoices in, and that is the love of God. God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son; that is one thing that the witnesses agree in, the love of God. Another thing they agree in is the love of Christ, that He shed His precious blood. And another thing they would agree in is the love of the Spirit, because the Spirit has come, not only as sent by the Father and the Son, but come of Himself. We were speaking this afternoon of the way He operates, and finally of the matter of His authority. The Spirit of God has personal authority and He has delegated authority, and He has love for the saints. I think the affections of the Spirit of God entered into His coming too. That would be objective, it is outside of ourselves.
But then I think there is more in mind than that. You will notice the Spirit is mentioned first,
“the Spirit, and the water, and the blood”. If you go to the gospels you will find that it is the blood and the water that came from the side of Christ, then the Spirit came. You know, dear brethren, we have to appreciate the Holy Spirit. He has brought us into the understanding of the truth, the understanding of what the water and the blood mean. I am sure we all find it easier to understand what the blood means; the blood that came from His side. Both came from the side of Christ. John says that in his gospel. It is a remarkable matter, I say this just in passing, it is only mentioned once in Scripture, and that is in the gospel according to John, where we read that the side of Jesus was pierced and immediately there came out blood and water (see John 19: 34). It shows the essential character of taking account of what is said once in Scripture; how important it is. It is no less
important because only John mentions it; it is very important. It shows that God does not always repeat things in Scripture, sometimes He does, sometimes He does not, but every word of Scripture is profitable as understood by us.
So it says here, “and the blood”. I think every one here, including the youngest believer, carries with them the witness of the blood. What is the witness of the blood? That I am free from the judgment of God! I carry that with me in my life — the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleansed me from all sin. I think I can say that every one here, and we would have faith that God will bring the children into it too, carries that witness with them; carries it with them in their person, carries it with them in their life. An exemplification of it is that they are rejoicing in their sins forgiven, they can recommend it to others. It is the basis of evangelisation that you can recommend that the blood of Christ shelters you from the judgment; just as the children of Israel of old were sheltered from the judgment by the blood on the door-posts and on the lintel, you are sheltered from the judgment of God. If you are sheltered from the judgment of God what about the worldling, the man of the world, the unregenerate man? He is not sheltered from the judgment of God. What a precious thing to carry with you, the witness of the blood, the precious blood. You can say to someone you are redeemed not by silver or gold but by the precious blood of Christ, foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world. That is Christ in His humanity was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, He came into the condition of flesh and blood and died, His blood would be shed. You carry with you in your person, in your moral being, that you are free from the judgment of God.
What about the water? Do you carry with you the witness of the water? It is a cleansing thing.
The witness of the blood is a once for all matter. I mean I can rejoice in the witness of the blood because the blood
has been shed for my cleansing from my sins and my guilt. I have no guilt, I am accepted in Christ, and you as a believer are accepted in Christ; it is the greatness of the Burnt-offering, you are accepted in Christ in the divine presence; Christ is your righteousness. But the witness of the water is a most searching thing because it involves my manner of life after I am converted. There is no point in speaking to an unconverted man about the witness of the water because he would not understand you. But what about you and me, and the cleansing side of my life? I will come to Daniel in a minute because I want to illustrate it from there, but the witness of the water has to do with my motives, my inwards, my whole life as being transparent before the eye of God, and before the eye of men. Is there the evidence that I am free from pollutions of this world? Is that true of me and true of you that the water aspect of the death of Christ, the witness of the water is borne out in us? All this is leading up to the witness of eternal life. You cannot have the witness of eternal life before you have the witness of the blood, the witness of the water and the witness of the Spirit.
The witness of the water involves the cleansing side. Daniel would not pollute himself with the king’s delicate food. What do I feed on? What is my mind feeding on? What is my soul feeding on? It is a test for me as a believer; not as an unbeliever, for an unbeliever feeds on these things; but the believer would have his senses exercised to discern between good and evil. The virtuous woman in Proverbs 31 knew how to choose between good and evil. The witness of the water is involved, the exercise of my senses. I would like to raise the question with every one in this room this afternoon. Are your senses exercised? Are they exercised to discern what is suitable for the believer? You pick up a newspaper, you read it, I read it, but you do not read every article, you can sense what is polluting. What do I feed on? Daniel says he would not pollute himself with the king’s delicate food. What
was this delicate food? It was the things that would please the flesh, that minister to my fleshly taste. But the water came from a dead Christ. Chapter 6 of Romans comes into this,
“knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with him, that the body of sin might be annulled, that we should no longer serve sin” (Romans 6: 6). It is annulled with a view to serving God, with a view to our being here for God. Now that truth has to be maintained by me and you. The water that flowed from the death of Christ is more testing perhaps in life than His blood, because the blood of Christ cleanses from all sins. We can sing—
‘O happy day! that fixed my choice
On Thee, my Saviour and my God’.
Our eternal welfare is settled, but God has left us here. He has not taken us to be with Himself. Christ has not taken us to be with Himself as He took the thief on the cross. He has left us here in testimony. The water had no force for the thief on the cross but the blood had.
He was sheltered by the blood, he died after Christ; but the water had no force for him because his testimony was over. The water that flowed from the death of Christ has meaning for you and me. I would like to ask you. Are you true to Christ’s death? The man who sinned is gone in the death of Christ for ever, that is from before the face of God, but what about you and me? Are we ministering to the flesh? Daniel would not pollute himself with the king’s delicate food; he would not feed on what the world feeds on. How searching that is, I speak for myself, how searching that is! How the flesh in us is drawn to things in this world that are not profitable. The witness of the water is, as Paul says to the Corinthian saints regarding certain matters, relating to what they were in the flesh, uncouth matters, vulgar matters, unholy matters, “And these things were some of you; but ye have been washed”, 1
Corinthians 6: 11. By what? By the moral effect of the water that flowed from the death of Christ!
There is a need, dear brethren, to take care of our minds, what we feed on. You know we can be world-bordering. We can exclude certain things, but we can come as close as we like to them if we so desire. I am saying this in a protective sense, not in a condemnatory sense; do not let anyone think I am condemning anyone here. I am seeking to prevent, to exercise our souls and our consciences in regard to what we engage our time with, engage our minds with, engage our thoughts with. We do become contaminated by what is in the world and we need feet-washing, we need the ministry of the Spirit to cleanse our minds again, and bring them into a clean place. You know it is wonderful to be in a morally clean place. The cleansing of the leper involved the log of oil. That was something that was said to me many years ago but it stuck to me. It involved the log of oil, it involved the person being anointed with the Spirit.
So you come to the Spirit, you come to the anointing. The man who is in the gain of the witness of the blood and the witness of the water, he is not left in a vacuum. Divine Persons never leave a soul in a vacuum. They lead you on to what is positive, and you come into the witness of the Spirit.
The witness of the Spirit is seen typically in Daniel. It says, “at the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer and were fatter in flesh”. I want you to note that; ten days represents the responsible pathway. At the end of this test in their responsible pathways their faces were “fatter in flesh than all the youths that ate of the king’s delicate food”. So the steward took away their delicate food. There is something worthwhile in pursuing the exercises of the witness of the blood and the witness of the water; particularly the witness of the water, it has a sanctifying effect, setting you apart from this world, setting you apart for divine purposes. The scripture says, “But let a man prove himself, and thus eat of the bread, and drink of the cup”, 1 Corinthians 11: 28. Scripture will never discourage any of us from eating, but we have to judge any matter that is not in accord
with the death of Christ, and the cleansing side of it particularly. It is not that I go back to it on Monday morning, it is that I am clear of it. “But let a man prove himself, and thus eat of the bread, and drink of the cup”, a way is made for doing that. You may say, Week after week. Yes, week after week! But it is not intended by the Spirit of God that there should be repetition of what I have fallen into in the past week, not at all “Should we continue in sin that grace may abound? Far be the thought. We who have died to sin, how shall we still live in it?”, Romans 6: 1, 2. The water aspect of the death of Christ involves that we have died to sin.
Then you come to the anointing of the Spirit, that is dignity. There is something about the countenance of the believer that is dignified. The witness of the Spirit involves what is dignified. There is something that causes that. You meet a true believer in Christ, who may not have the light that you or I have, but he is a believer in Christ, and you will detect something of the dignity of the anointing. The Spirit of God would have us to be in the gain of the dignity of the anointing. Let us be in the dignity of the anointing. You can be in the dignity of the anointing as you are in the dignity of the witness of the blood and the witness of the water; both those things are prior to the dignity of the anointing. You cannot have the dignity of the anointing of the Spirit apart from the witness of the water and the blood in your life; that is a most important thing, particularly the witness of the water. Because I say again, the witness of the water is more testing in practice in our lives than the witness of the blood.
Then you get the dignity of the anointing. It is in accord with Jesus; it says of the Lord Jesus in Luke 4 that He came from the scene of temptations in the power of the Spirit, because He was superior to them. There was perfection in all that was expressed in Christ. You and I can come from the scene of temptations in the dignity of the witness of the blood and the witness of the water and be in the dignity of the anointing of the Spirit.
It comes out in such persons; these are what we have been speaking about as assembly persons. That is what comes out in Daniel, and it comes to the point that judicious wisdom was found in him. I want us to note that: “in all matters of judicious wisdom, as to which the king enquired of them”. Think of the King, the Lord Jesus, finding persons in whom is judicious wisdom. You see it is not apart from what we are speaking about. The believer has the witness in himself; the witness of the water, the witness of the blood, and the witness of the Spirit. In a typical sense Daniel had all those things, his flesh appeared fairer and fatter than all the youths that ate of the king’s delicate food. There was something in Daniel and his companions that was morally superior, and they had acquired judicious wisdom. If there is a lack of judicious wisdom amongst us it may be our food is lacking. These young men fed on pulse and water, they fed on Christ. I think they fed on Christ as the grain of wheat that fell into the ground and died. The pulse as I understand is a cereal which came from the seed that died. Daniel fed on that, fed on what came out of the death of Christ, pulse and water. It was not easy for Daniel; he was a young man in the captivity, and would be round about eighteen to twenty years old. So the word comes down to us all here, comes down to those eighteen and twenty years old, to have a sense of responsibility. You may have said to Daniel, What is the worth of it? You have been carried away captive because of the idolatry of your parents, the idolatry that was in the nation of Israel. What is the point in being faithful now? Daniel saw the way to recovery; he is a man who was enlightened that seventy years of captivity were appointed and thereafter the recovery, and he gives God a moral basis for recovery. Let us give God a moral basis for continuing to work recovery in the dispensation, dear brethren.
Daniel gave the Lord a moral basis to work out something in the remnant in captivity that led to the recovery, with a view to Christ being presented to His people. Think of
the potential of all that; think of the essentiality of it all. So this man’s exercises were not in vain. It is said later on, “O Daniel, man greatly beloved”, Daniel 10: 11. Think of heaven addressing you as bearing the witness of the Spirit and the water and the blood, bearing that witness in yourself. Think of God addressing you as a person greatly beloved. I think heaven values an assembly witness; I think it values persons who are in the gain of the Spirit and the water and the blood; worked out in their lives so that there is an assembly witness.
So I come to Acts 26, to a happy man. There is only one happy man in the whole company.
What a scene presents itself, an ostentatious scene of the dignitaries of the day! Paul regards them as he says in 1 Timothy, Pray for kings and all that are in dignity “that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all piety and gravity”, 1 Timothy 2: 2. Paul regards these dignitaries like that; morally they were not in keeping with it, history shows that; this king Agrippa and his associates were not in keeping with it. Paul regards them with the dignity that belongs to them as given to them of God, and he gives his testimony, “I count myself happy, king Agrippa, in having to answer today before thee”. What an answer! You will find in the writings of those who have gone before us, that when Agrippa says to Paul, “In a little thou persuadest me to become a Christian”. Paul might have said, Would to God thou wert. But he says more than that, he says, “I would to God, both in little and in much, that not only thou, but all who have heard me this day, should become such as I also am, except these bonds”. I would like to understand that more, “such as I also am”.
What will help us to be carrying a witness forward, dear brethren, is what helped Paul to carry the witness forward. What changed his life? It was the voice of Jesus. It says, “I heard a voice saying to me ... Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? it is hard for thee to
kick against goads. And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest”, Acts 26: 14, 15. That word grows with you as you go on in Christian experience, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. Mr. Darby says in his writings, Paul got hold of the matter, Christ was one with His disciples, one with His own, and they were one with Him, and that gripped him; he did not immediately come into the gain of it as he did later.
Saul of Tarsus was cut down on the Damascus road but the Lord sent a man to assure him. It says, “Brother Saul, receive thy sight. And I, in the same hour, received my sight and saw him. And he said, The God of our fathers has chosen thee beforehand to know his will, and to see the just one, and to hear a voice out of his mouth; for thou shalt be a witness for him to all men”. Acts 22: 13–15. He got the assurance through Ananias that he was an elect vessel.
There was nothing he could wish more than that there should be others, “such as I also am”.
What kind of person was he? I will tell you what he was. “He that has the Son has life”, 1
John 5: 12. Paul had the Son and he had life. The two years in the Roman jail did not diminish his joy, he was a happy man. No other prisoner in the Roman world would appear before king Agrippa in such a way, only one man at that time, that is Paul. No doubt there were others, as the persecution took hold, who witnessed in the same way, believers in the Lord Jesus, saints by divine calling; persons who had the Son and had life. What a thing to have the Son to have life; this life is in His Son, “this is the witness, that God has given to us eternal life; and this life is in his Son”. Is there anything in this life compared to eternal life?
You come into the circle of the saints, and you touch a life that is different. It is a life that is pure, holy, among persons with minds sanctified by the Spirit. Believer’s minds are sanctified by the Spirit; they are linked with a Man in heaven, “If therefore ye have been raised with the Christ, seek the things which are above, where the Christ is”. Colossians 3: 1.
You come into the circle of the saints and you are linked with persons whose minds are on the things that are above, not theoretically but practically. Why? Because they have joy in their hearts as linked with a Man in heaven.
Paul’s joy lay outside this life, in relation to a Man in glory. The four walls of his prison must have tested the physical and natural side, but he was sustained above it. We are in the normality of life, and in the normality of life it may be more testing for us to be in the state the scripture says, “He that has the Son has life”. Paul was that—“I count myself happy, king Agrippa”—a happy man, linked with Christ in glory; nothing could take it away from him, he was Christ’s. Christ was his, all that Christ had belonged to Paul, and Paul was caught up in the grandeur of the blessings, looking forward to what was beyond the flesh and blood condition. He says, “Henceforth the crown of righteousness is laid up for me” (2 Timothy 4: 8); and it is not only for him, but for all those who love His appearing. Oh, to love His appearing! That is a wonderful thing, when He is going to set the world right. But presently the witness of eternal life should be in the believer. What shone out in Paul was the witness of eternal life. Agrippa knew nothing of the secrets of eternal life. It is not unregenerate man’s position to know the secrets of eternal life. What shines out in the believer as enjoying eternal life is the witness of it. It shines out in his life, and it shines out morally in the fact that he carries with him the witness of the Spirit, and the water, and the blood. May the Lord help us in these things, dear brethren, for His name’s sake.
Address at Aberdeen, Scotland
28 September 1996