1 John 5:9-10 If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he has testified of his Son.… I. IT INCLUDES A CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE EXISTENCE OF FAITH IN OUR OWN MINDS. What is faith? "The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." It draws aside the curtain which hides the eternal world from view. It gives reality, in our apprehensions, to the future condition of rational and immortal beings. It causes us to live under the influence of things unseen by the eye of sense and that are eternal. It is a grace, because it is the gift of God, produced in the soul by the operation of His Spirit. It is a saving grace, because wherever it is produced salvation is its concomitant result. Can it be said that these are exercises which elude our observation? Surely, if we can be conscious of any thing that passes within us, we may and ought to be conscious of the existence and operation of faith. II. BY THE EXERCISE OF FAITH THE EXPERIENCE OF THE BELIEVER IS MADE TO HARMONISE WITH THE TESTIMONY OF THE DIVINE WORD, SO THAT THE INTERNAL WITNESS IS CONFIRMED AND STRENGTHENED. Our Lord has said, "If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God." As we act upon it we find it to be true. This statement admits of a very extensive illustration. Every doctrine of the Divine Word may be included in it. III. THE EFFECTS AND CONCOMITANTS OF FAITH ARE A CONSTANT AND GROWING TESTIMONY TO ITS REALITY. It is not too much to say that faith produces a complete revolution in the soul. Our views undergo an entire change. God, and self, and sin, and holiness, and salvation, and time, and eternity, are seen in a new light. Now, is a work such as this to be maintained in the soul without the consciousness of the subject of it? It must be most strange if it be so. Of all mysteries and miracles that is certainly one of the greatest. Surely if it be unobserved we should fear it does not exist. If the sun shines we behold his light. "He that believeth in God hath the witness in himself." (J. Morgan, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. |
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