John 21:24
This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true.
We come now to the end of John’s gospel and our study. We also arrive at the pivotal point of all our lessons, for John’s assertion here is the most important thing you’ll ever read in all your life. He says that his testimony is true. In short, he says that the gospel message of Jesus Christ, His death for our sin on the cross, His resurrection for our justification on the third day, and all its attending truths, are true. To be a Christian is to believe this. To believe in Jesus Christ is to believe the testimony about Him and how else would we know Him unless we’ve been told through Scripture? This alone lays to rest two great philosophical questions of metaphysics and epistemology. God is ultimate and we know because of His revelation to us.
But there’s a great and hidden danger to alert you to at this junction. It’s all too easy to give assent to these things, to proclaim Christ and then bumble off into your life and leave it all on the beach, so to say. There have been supreme spiritual highs, indeed; the Spirit has come to you and you’ve experienced the grace of God. But now you must remember that you’re called to life “in Christ” – you’re called to follow Him. Simply put, this is the area where Christians fail again and again. We want the experience but not the doctrine. We want Christ but don’t bother to follow Him through the discipline of Bible study. It’s a tragic mistake. If you make it, your life will suffer and you’ll leave countless joys on the table for to neglect sound doctrine is to neglect Christ Himself. Furthermore, to be clear, you are sent back into the world. You already know that but must be reminded of it. Christian life isn’t a cruise ship; it’s a battle ship. You’re at war because the Devil is real and he hates you because he hates God and now, in Christ, through faith, you’re God’s child.
What does this mean? Well, the Devil won’t pull up in a black SUV and abduct you. Ours is a spiritual battle; a battle of the mind; a contest of truth versus lies.
C.S. Lewis did a masterful job illustrating this in the Screwtape Letters where he imagined two demons, Wormwood and Screwtape, writing back and forth about the spiritual battles they were involved with during the ordinary life of one man. The thing to know is that the Devil is a liar and was from the beginning (John 8:44). His lies are literally everywhere. Who do you think owns the media, the universities, and the arts? Many conservatives, ostensibly Christian, lament the lies and immorality they see around them as if it’s all some strange thing. But that’s like a boxer who’s shocked that the other fella keeps trying to punch him.
In all, you must take the study of Scripture and the glorious doctrines of God seriously or else, assuredly, the Devil and his minions will score telling blows on you. No, your salvation may not necessarily be lost in this case, but through lies and your basing your life upon them, the Enemy can easily make a shipwreck of your life. Christians are called to live sanctified lives full of the love of God, feasting on the Word and delighting in it. We’re called from a life of spiritual/philosophical whoredom unto a blessed union as the bride of Christ. Shall we be married to Christ and then go back to work on the street corner or the brothel?
As we just saw, Jesus has come back to the disciples. He’s served them, spent time with them and, especially with Peter, restored them. Then He says, “follow Me.” He says the same to me and you. He calls us to be faithful just as He is faithful. And no Christian is faithful who says he believes in Christ but not the ultimacy of His word.
But the world has one thousand shades of unbelief. Some come right out and say that John’s account is rubbish. These are hardened atheists. Others, wishy-washy, mealy mouthed moderates, declare another Jesus not taught in the Bible. They say that you can’t take the Bible literally…or that the god they follow is all about love. They treat Christ like a glutton treats a buffet. They pick and choose. Many such professing believers, tragically, occupy pulpits. Indubitably, they’re wolves amongst the sheep.
But the Bible is a system of truth that we either believe or not. There’s no middle ground because there’s no way to serve half of God. The world will tell you that you can believe in all that Jesus stuff up to a point…just keep it at home, or at the church. The world will encourage you to believe in Jesus “if that’s your thing…”, just don’t believe in Him too much. Do you see the subtlety at work? The world will suggest that you keep Christianity and the Bible to yourself, to your studies and your Sundays but that you must live in the “real world”. Make no mistake, this is a call to not follow Jesus. A call to shared ultimate authority is exactly what the Lord warned us against in Matthew 6:24 but it’s exactly the commandment most ignored by Christians today. The reason for this? Simple. We’re doctrinally weak and have, therefore, fallen prey to the lies of times.
That said, we must take the issue seriously. We must not go along with the false belief that we can follow Jesus Christ and yet think about truth and good and evil without reference to His word. To “keep our options open” intellectually is spiritual adultery as certainly as it would be physical adultery for a person to do likewise with their spouse. We must reject the world’s claim that the Bible isn’t what it claims to be for the simple reason that God’s word is true and there’s no way to bring a charge against it that’s logically and philosophically valid. All complaints lodged against Christ collapse due to their being arbitrary and logically inconsistent with their own premises.
So, yes, the Bible is true. All the way true. Unequivocally true. The only alternative is that it’s all the way false since Jesus Christ doesn’t give us any more than two options. He is either the risen Lord, the Creator and sustainer of all the earth, or He’s a deranged liar. I know, I know…this talk is the sort of thing that sets off the alarm bells of the world’s alleged system of tolerance. They will cry in their towers that this talk is too extreme and that one shouldn’t make such proclamations. The problem is, they just did. The minute a man says he’s for one thing it means that, necessarily, he’s against something else. How is it that the atheist/skeptic has come to be convinced that they know nothing for certain except that Christianity is wrong?
The sharpest ideological tool in the Enemy’s kit presently is the contention that claims of absolute certainty can’t be trusted. But this assertion itself is a claim of certainty and, therefore, suffocates under its own weight. Or you’ll hear someone object that they believe in science, not the Bible. But this is a philosophical statement that can’t be tested scientifically so, again, the unbeliever’s claim is crushed under the weight of its own assertion. If the unbelieving skeptic submitted their own worldview to the same measure they’re applying to Christianity, they would find that their belief is arbitrary nonsense.
Or the critic will persist that they don’t need a book to tell them what to think about life. Really? Where did they read that? Such objections reduce to: I don’t need a final authority to establish truth because my own mind is the final court of appeal. And they say Christians are arrogant! Absolutely not! Christians are truly the humblest of all because they know that only God’s word is the final authority. Again, you find that the critiques of the gospel are all rather arbitrary and inconsistent with themselves as well as reality. In fact, you’ll see, if you dare to look, that anything but the Christian system of truth is actually quite impossible! God has seen to it that no worldly “wisdom” can rise up to challenge Him; it’s all great foolishness.
And you’ll notice something else about the unbelieving critic: his premises are woefully inconsistent with each other. Outside of biblical truth, mankind can’t find an ethical code that’s consistent with the facts of reality so we swing wildly this way and that. For example, an atheist will contend that this is a chance universe but then demand logical consistency for beliefs. Which is it? Is everything random or is it consistent? Or we notice the brazen contradiction of the modern Left when they say that it’s unfair to “judge” homosexuality, for example, but they judge you for judging it. Wait? Isn’t judging bad? No, they say…one can judge the Christian for judging the homosexual because homosexuality isn’t wrong. But what standard did they use to arrive at that judgment? I thought we weren’t supposed to speak of right and wrong because there’s no absolute moral code. Do you see what happened? It’s always such a subtle trick. Man will always try and insert his own arbitrary standards into ethics, causing the chaos of endless contradictions. He’s always saying that there’s no such thing as moral commandments all while issuing them from on high. Christian commandments are rooted in the unchangeable character of God. Worldly commandments are arbitrary and inconsistent.
Christianity isn’t a force in culture today precisely because Christians don’t take the Bible seriously as a system of truth; we don’t accept it as the authoritative philosophy of life. Every Christian must and should learn to think God’s thoughts after Him, that is, to think biblically. At every turn, Christ challenges us to be conformed to Him rather than the so-called wisdom of the world and yet we go on about our lives without bothering to truly become the theologians we’re called to be. If Western civilization falls, as it appears ready to do, it will be because Christendom has traded in the Bible for the ideas of the day and because we’re more afraid of offending man than God. Great thought is given to what car to buy, or what city to live in while the great doctrines are hidden under inches of intellectual dust! Christ calls us to confront the world’s lies and idolatry but we’re too busy getting a living to bother with that. We’ve convinced ourselves that if our worship services are emotional enough, if the praise band is rocking enough, then God will overlook our intellectual surrender to His enemies. He saves us to be fearless invaders of the enemy’s strongholds and instead we’re the Vichy Church. He tells us not to be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine but that’s hardly our problem in America…you can’t be tossed to and fro when you just go with the current. American Christians are more interested in the opinion of others than the opinion of God; we trade our energies for material gain rather than be mighty in Scripture. And then we wonder why we have no power and why the culture continues to crumble around us.
So, John testifies in the Spirit that his account of Jesus Christ is true. We accept his testimony without reservation and submit to the will of the Lord. We follow Jesus, not the ever-changing wisdom of the world because it’s God that’s true and every man a liar. You may make a “decision for Christ” or answer an altar call. That’s fine. But the Enemy will come and he’ll use all his devious tricks to keep that great seed from reaching rich soil. And the rich soil is the heart that submits to the Lord’s holy and life giving Word. It’s this simple. No Bible, no Christianity. This is why the Devil will use his deceptions to attack your confidence in Scripture. If he can convince you that it’s not possible for the Bible to be the Word of God, for whatever reason, then that seed has fallen upon rocky soil and won’t take root.
The question now isn’t what the Lord will do for your career. He’s already saved you from sin! How could you doubt Him for so small a thing as a job or a house? The real question is where is your treasure? That’s where your heart is. Is it in God’s Word? Or is it in something the Enemy can snatch, or a crook can steal? Where, oh, where is your treasure? If it isn’t in the Word of Christ, Christian, you’re on dangerous, unsteady ground.
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