Immanuel Sermon Audio
1-3 John (62-64:66)
All right, thank you, Abel. Abel is going to be, Abel's a student, if you didn't know, at UTPB, and it's almost summertime, so he's going to be gone for a few months, and then he'll be back in the fall. So thank you for leading us tonight. Anybody need a handout? Anybody didn't get one when we passed these out earlier? Now's your chance, anybody? Nobody, okay, everybody's good. Okay, Lyndon left some on the back row if you need one. So first, second, and third, John. I got a lot of stuff to share with you, and we're going to go through it pretty quick and talk about these three books, and then we'll pray together for some of the families in our church. Start off with just a little bit of trivia, just a few facts about the book of first John. We're going to talk about this in just a minute, but I'm stealing my own thunder here, okay? It's written by John, John the Apostle. From the city of Ephesus, John was the pastor of the church in Ephesus, and so that's where he was when he wrote these letters. First and second, John are very confrontational. In fact, if you were to go out to just say the average Christian in Odessa, Texas, and start talking to them about some of the things in the book of first John, you would probably be met with resistance, and people would probably call you judgmental, and hateful, and critical of them, and tell you that you have no business saying those sort of things to them. They're confrontational books. Makes people uncomfortable today. Second and third, John are the shortest books in the New Testament, both under 300 words, that's Greek words, and both short enough that they could fit on an ancient piece of papyrus. Just the whole book could fit on one piece of papyrus, so they're little, they're short. And third John is the most personal of the three letters. You can read these later, they're all very short. Third John is written to a guy named Gaius, or Gaius, depending on how you wanna pronounce it. It's written about a guy named Diatrophies, a warning, the reader about Diatrophies, and then it's written to also encourage or lift up a guy named Demetrius. So, a lot of names get thrown around in that very short book. Here's the big ideas of each book, just so you know the lay of the land before we jump in. First John was written to provide assurance of salvation. And maybe that's not the best way of phrasing it, but it communicates the idea. It's written to give you some tests, and if you pass those tests, then you have assurance of salvation. You could also say it's written to shatter your assurance of salvation if you fail those tests. But he hopes that they know that they have eternal life. Second John, written to warn about false teachers, and then third John, written to encourage, support for good teachers. We'll just read these three verses quickly after you fill those blanks in. Look at 1 John 5, verse 13, towards the end of 1 John, he says, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. He wants them to know with certainty that they do in fact have eternal life. And so the whole letter is written to that end. You flip over to second John and you read, it's only one chapter, but you read verse eight, and it says watch yourselves so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward. And so the theme of second John is you need to watch. You need to be on guard. You need to be careful about false teachers. Watch yourself so that you don't lose what we've worked for. And then third John, also verse eight, says we ought to support people like these that we may be fellow workers for the truth. And he's telling them, okay, I just warned you not to associate with false teachers and to be on guard for them, but when there are good teachers coming around and he's writing to this guy named Gaius, he's saying you're supporting them and that's a good thing, you need to continue to do that. So be supportive of those who are teaching the truth. So those are the big ideas. There's a little chain of relationship that you really gotta nail down if you wanna understand first, second, and third John, okay? And the chain of relationship looks like this. I think I gave you some blanks on your outline. Once upon a time, there was a guy named John, the Apostle John. He mentored a guy named Polykarp, okay? He was his disciple, mentee, and John was the teacher, the sensei, the master, whatever you wanna call it. John taught Polykarp everything he knew. And then Polykarp mentored and was the pastor of the church where a guy named Irenaeus or Irenaeus grew up. And so Irenaeus grew up listening to Polykarp's preaching. He eventually became a bishop, Irenaeus did, in a different place. Polykarp was the bishop in a town called Smyrna, which is in what we call Turkey, Asia Minor. Irenaeus ended up Bishop of Lyon, which is out in France, but at one point they were in the same town and this is a chain that you've gotta understand, okay? John mentored Polykarp, who then mentored Irenaeus. So you just keep that in mind as we go through some of this stuff about the book of 1 John. We're gonna talk about who wrote it. I already told you John wrote it, but you need to understand that of all of the letters in the New Testament, that only two of them are anonymous. The only two that are anonymous are 1 John and Hebrews, okay? We don't know who wrote 'em, Hebrews and 1 John. You say, what about 2nd and 3rd John? We'll look at 'em over there if you just wanna flip over. They are written by somebody called the Elder and he doesn't give us what his name is or his background or anything about himself. He just says the Elder is writing this. So 1st John is anonymous and then you have 2nd and 3rd John written by the Elder, which is a vague term. And I just want you to understand on three counts that we're pretty certain, 99.9% certain that John the Apostle wrote 'em, okay? And here are the three proofs. These are on your outline. You can write down some of these things if you want to, but I just listed 'em for you. And I gave you a big fancy word, Johannine authorship, you can go to lunch with somebody tomorrow and they say, what'd you do at church? Oh, we talked about Johannine authorship of 1st, 2nd and 3rd John and they'll think you're brilliant. So you throw that word around and drop it in on a conversation. So one proof is church history, okay? All sorts of guys in the early church who in their writings quote verses from the book of 1st John or 2nd John or 3rd John and they say, John said this, okay? And I can give you a whole list of 'em. I was gonna put 'em up on the screen and I'm not even gonna do it 'cause there's just tons of 'em. The two you really need to know about, okay, is a guy named Pauli Karp and Erenaeus. We have a lot of the things that they wrote. And in their writings, they quote these books, not surprising, since they were mentored by this guy. And they say, John says, quote the verse. So you would think that those guys know what they're talking about. They spent some time with John. Another proof is comparing the gospel of John to 1st, 2nd and 3rd John. Now, if you paid attention back when we talked about John, you may remember that the gospel of John is also anonymous. All the gospels are anonymous. They don't tell us anywhere in the text who actually wrote 'em. But we're pretty confident that John wrote the 4th gospel and when you compare the gospel of John to 1st, 2nd and 3rd John, the sentence structure is almost exactly the same. The same person liked to write the same style, the sentences and you read 'em and it's very, very similar. The vocabulary, lots of similar vocabulary words between those two. Another thing that's similar between the two is whoever wrote those books really saw the world in black and white terms. Wasn't a lot of gray in his life, okay? You know people like this, right? It's either all the way this way or that way. So when you read the gospel of John or you read 1st, 2nd and 3rd John, you read things like this. You're either of the light or you're of the darkness. One of the two. You are either alive or you're dead. One of the two uses both of those ideas. You either love or you hate. You're either in the truth or you're in the falsehood. All these contrasts all the way through both of those books. And whoever wrote those books like to put people in categories. And so categories you find in both of these works are you're either a child of God or you're a child of the devil. You either belong to the world or you don't belong to the world. You belong to God. You either have life or you don't have life. And so a lot of similarities between the two. Here's the only internal piece of evidence within the book. Look at 1st John, chapter one, starting in verse one. And we're just gonna read a few verses here. It says, "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life. The life that was made manifest and we have seen it and testified to it and proclaimed to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us. That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you so that you too may have fellowship with us. And indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his son, Jesus Christ. You go back and you look at those three verses and you compare some of the things that this guy says here to the first few verses in the Gospel of John. Very similar ideas, talking about the word being revealed to us, being made manifest. Both of them start off with the idea of in the beginning, in the Gospel of John it's in the beginning was the word. And in 1 John it's that which was from the beginning. And also in these first couple of verses of 1 John, he says, look, we've seen him and we've heard him and we've touched him. So whoever wrote this book is somebody who was with Jesus enough to say, look, I am a firsthand eyewitness to this guy. This isn't something that somebody else told me. This isn't something that I just dreamed up. This isn't something I passed down through the rumor mill. This is something I've seen with my very own two eyeballs and I've laid hands on him and I've talked to him and I've heard him. All of those things have to be true of an eyewitness and John fits that profile. So we're going with John as the author, which is kind of interesting. Take a little poll question before I put this next slide up. Who wrote most of the New Testament? Got one vote for Paul. Anybody else want to throw a vote out there? Got a vote for John. Anybody else want to throw a vote out there? Anybody? We need one more vote at least. I'm just telling you, hint, hint. Luke, so we got a vote for Paul and John and Luke. So here's the numbers, check this out. Luke wrote in Greek 37,933 words, 27% of the New Testament and that would be in the book of Luke, gospel of Luke and the book of Acts, okay? Paul, 32,407 words, 23%, and John, 28,092 words for 20%. Now some of you are saying, you're looking at those numbers and you're saying, I wonder if he included Hebrews with Paul because I think Paul wrote Hebrews and I'm looking at the math and it's pretty close and I wonder if he's making me feel dumb by everyone says it's Paul and if you throw Hebrews in there then Paul's going to jump into the lead. We'll check this out, throw Hebrews in there. He's still in second place. He did not write most of it, wrote a lot of books but he did not write the majority. Luke wins that, Paul comes in second and then John, which just for you accounting majors, math majors, number, fans, things like that, when you add Luke plus Paul plus John, those guys wrote 70% of the New Testament and then you can throw in Matthew and Mark and whoever wrote Hebrews and James and Peter one and two and Jude and they make up the difference. So there you go, just fun numbers for you, trivia and again you can ask somebody those questions and now you know the right answer. Why write these books? It's always important when you're studying a book in the Bible as much as possible to understand why it was written. Okay and I gave you the big ideas so I sort of gave you the overarching flyby but let's jump into this a little bit more. Why write these books? Three reasons, number one to give assurance of salvation which we've talked about, number two to confront theological error and number three to confront ethical error. Those are the three reasons that these three letters were written. Assurance of salvation, correcting bad theology and correcting bad behavior. So we're going to look at each of those, talk about each of those reasons. First one, John wrote these letters so that people could have assurance of their salvation. Okay, in the book of first John there are three tests that you have to pass if you want to know for certain that you have eternal life in Jesus Christ. And John is very black and white, so black and white that it makes people uncomfortable today, okay? When John wants you to have assurance he does not say, okay well have you invited Jesus into your heart? Yes or no? Have you prayed a sinner's prayer? Yes or no? Have you grown up going to church? Have you been baptized? Have you been confirmed? Have you had this experience? Have you done this? He doesn't go there on any of those things but he gives you these three tests and they're multiple verses throughout first John. It's not just one verse for each, it's multiple verses. And the first test is theological and we're going to look at some of these verses in a minute so I didn't put them in this section. The first test is, do you believe the truth about Jesus Christ? If you don't believe the truth about what the Bible says concerning Jesus, you should have no assurance that you have eternal life. The truth matters about Jesus. What you believe matters. We're going to talk more about that. The second test is a moral test and this is where people get really queasy today. John just cuts straight to it and says look, if you say you love Jesus but you live like a pagan, you're a pagan. If you say you love Jesus but you continue to sin and sin and sin and you don't feel bad about it and you're not repentant or sorrowful or contrite or anything like that, you're not a Christian. You're lost, you're a liar he says. I mean he's pretty black and white. You are a liar, the truth is not in you. You don't have life. So there's a theological test, there's a moral test and then you really want to make people queasy. There's a social test and this is not like how good are you at parties mingling with people. This is, are you part of a church family in a real meaningful significant way? Yes or no? Do you love your brothers and sisters in Christ? Not just in word but do you really love them? Remember, he's talking to people who would say, I love Jesus and he says but you don't believe the truth about him, you're lost. But you don't live like you love him, you're lost. So he doesn't care what people say over here, he's saying look at your life, do you really exhibit love for other Christians? Yes or no? And he just says black and white, if you don't, you're not a Christian. I don't care what you believe. I don't care if you pass the theological test. I don't care if you pass the moral test. I don't care if you grew up going to VBS and you've been on mission trips and you've done all this stuff. It doesn't matter, you're lost. So he gives you these three tests. And I can tell you that I've used the book of 1 John on a lot of occasions when I've had close friends who grew up in church and then they've totally walked away from the faith, but in their mind they think, but you know, I prayed a prayer when I was younger, I invited you to send him my heart. They would still tell you they're a Christian. And I've said to my friends, will you just read the book of 1 John and tell me what you think? Just read it. Listen, you don't have to argue with people like that. You can argue with them and it's just gonna be an argument. They're gonna get mad, you're gonna get mad, nobody's gonna convince anybody, you're gonna dig your heels in. So just say, would you just read 1 John and explain it to me? And I've had some friends come back from reading it and say, I guess I'm not a Christian. There you go. Well, at least we're clear on that now. And I've had other friends come back and say, not just flippantly, but broken saying, I'm not a Christian and I need to get my act together. I don't pass any of those tests. I don't line up with any of that. Wouldn't me convincing them of that. That's the scriptures convincing them of that. So keep first John in your mind. Second reason he wrote the book, to confront theological error. And I'll give you a few examples here, okay? He's wanting people to understand Jesus is the Christ, meaning he is the Messiah. He is the Son of God and he is truly human. So you can jot those down if you want or you can look at these verses with me. Look at first John 2, 22. First John 2, 22. Who is the liar but the one who denies Jesus is the Christ? Okay, it's a question. And as he's writing it in Greek, it has a definite answer and what he's saying is, if you deny that Jesus is the Christ, you are a liar. The truth is not in you. He is the Christ, he is the Messiah. He wants to correct this confusion. Look at verse 26. I'm writing these things just a few verses later. I'm writing these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. There are people who are trying to lead you astray. They're telling you that Jesus is not the Christ. He's not the Messiah. And so you need to understand that he is the Messiah. He's also the Son. Look at chapter four, verse 15. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, abides in him and he and God by implication. If you don't confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God does not abide in you and you do not abide in God. You need to understand this. You need to confess it that Jesus is the Son. He talks about Jesus being truly human. Look over at second John, verse seven. And there's all sorts of verses throughout first John about all of these. I'm just giving you one or two on each. Second John, verse seven. Many deceivers have gone out into the world. Those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Meaning there's people going out there saying, you know, we believe in Jesus. We believe that he's God, but he wasn't really human. This is the heresy of dossatism in the ancient church. Dossatism comes from the Greek word that means to appear. And these guys said he appeared like a human, but he wasn't really a human. It's just sort of like a 3D hologram illusion thing. It's just God walking around pretending to be human. He wasn't really human. And John says, look, if you don't believe and you don't confess that Jesus really came in the flesh that the Word took on flesh humanity of real human body, then you're a deceiver and you're a liar. And so back in first John chapter four, verse one, this is an important verse for this theological test. He says, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God for many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is a tricky thing, okay? On the one hand, I know a whole lot of Christians who don't quote unquote test the spirits. They just say, well, I bought this book on the best-selling shelf at Life Way or Mardelle. So it's true. It's right. I bought it at the Christian bookstore. It's a best-seller. Millions of people have bought this. It's true. And John would just come to you and probably backhand you and say, don't believe everything you read. Test it to see whether it's right or not right. You got to line it up with scripture. On the other hand, know a whole bunch of people. I probably tend to be on this side of the fence. A bunch of people who are skeptical about everything and look for mistakes and everything and like to jump down people's throat for every little sort of Piccadilly mistake, you're off just a tiny bit and just say, ah, that's wrong. That's false teaching. You're a crazy person. You're a heretic. And somewhere in the middle there, John is saying, look, I don't have to be a jerk about it because there's a social test, right? You need to love people. But you can't just believe everything that comes your way. You've got to test the spirits. And so I'll give you an example of this about a guy named Serenthus, okay? Serenthus. Put this up here. And I'm reminding you when we talk about Serenthus about John who mentored poly carp, who mentored Erenaeus. So Erenaeus is known as one of the early church fathers and he was recognized as the great apologist of his day. That doesn't mean he went around apologizing for Christianity. That means he went around defending Christianity, okay? That's what apologetics is, defending the faith. And so Erenaeus wrote a book called Against heresy. And he just sort of called all these heretics out and said, you teach this, that doesn't line up with the Bible, you teach this, that doesn't line up with the Bible, you teach this, that doesn't line up with the Bible. And he tells a story in that book and Erenaeus is talking about this guy named Serenthus. And he tells a story that he heard from poly carp, okay? And the story goes like this. Remember, this is Erenaeus writing down the story that he heard from poly carp. And poly carp says, one day him and John, John the Apostle, were hanging out in Ephesus at the public bath house, okay? That seems like a weird thing for us today, but you have a bath in your home. So it's weird for you, it wasn't weird for them. They're hanging out at the public bath house and they're sitting there and they're sort of doing the philosopher wise sage thing and they're talking and impressing each other with how smart they are. John and poly carp are in there. And Serenthus comes walking in. And everybody knows Serenthus is a false teacher. Serenthus was going around teaching people. There was a man named Jesus of Nazareth, who was a good guy, great guy. And when Jesus of Nazareth was baptized by John, you remember that story in the Gospels? When Jesus of Nazareth was baptized by John, the spirit of God came upon him and the man Jesus became God for a while and then the spirit left him before he died on the cross. 'Cause God couldn't die on the cross and it's this crazy thing. You read the stuff Serenthus is teaching and you're like, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. But he's going around teaching this. Jesus was just a man and then he sort of became God and then he wasn't God and it's this weird stuff. So here's poly carp sitting with John in the bath house and Serenthus walks in and John, I'm presuming with not a whole lot on 'cause they're in the bath house, stands up and starts screaming and says, everybody get out, Serenthus is here and the building's gonna fall down. God's gonna strike us all dead 'cause we're in the same room as this false teacher. And I don't know if he actually ran out or if he was just joking or it was sarcasm, but poly carp remembered that story. And poly carp told it to Erenaeus and Erenaeus is including it to say, look, you gotta test the spirits. I don't care how great Serenthus in his theory and his interpretation and all this stuff may sound, just go back to the Bible. Why don't you listen, Erenaeus is saying, to the people who were eyewitnesses, the people who walked with him and the people who talked with him and the people who touched him. Serenthus has all these crazy ideas about Jesus. He wasn't even there. I know the guy that was there, that saw it and heard it and listened to it and touched him. So he wants him to test the spirits, okay? That's confronting theological error. Then there's ethical error, confronting ethical error. And there's a lot of people who claim to love Jesus that we're not obeying Jesus. Sounds like our day and age. There's a lot of people who were refused to repent of known, persistent sin in their life. Meaning if you ask them about it, they would say, yeah, it's there, whatever, it's not that big a deal. I believe in Jesus, he forgives me. So what, mind your own business, quit being judgmental. They just refuse to repent of sin. Then you had people who refused to recognize their sin. I'm not a sinner, I don't do bad things. I don't hang out with people who do and they refuse to admit that they were even sinners in the first place. And then you had people, we've talked about this social test who didn't love other Christians. And so let's look at some verses where John confronts these mistakes. Look at chapter one, first John one, six. You gotta love how straight to the point John is. John one, six. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. You say you have fellowship with Jesus, you walk in the darkness, you're a liar. There you go. Chapter two, verse four. Whoever says, quote, I know him, end quote, but does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. Try telling that to somebody today and see how they like it. You're a liar. I love Jesus, no you don't, you're a liar. So John says, chapter three, verse 24. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. You've got to abide. That goes all the way back to the gospel of John where he talks about I am the vine. You are the branches. If you want to bear fruit, you've got to abide in me and me and you. You gotta follow me. You've got to listen to me. Look at chapter five, verse two. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and obey his commandments. Obaying his commandments is important. Chapter five, verse 18. We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God, he who was born of God protects him and the evil one does not touch him. So if you're born of God, if you have new life, spiritual life, you don't keep on sinning. Look at second John, verse nine. Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son, okay? So this idea that you can love Jesus and not obey Jesus, John is just blowing it out of the water. No, you can't. And I've told you the last couple of weeks when we've looked at first and second Peter because this comes up in first and second Peter. I told you about some people I have visited with lately who have said to me, you can trust in Jesus and go to heaven without being obedient or sanctified. God will justify you for trusting in Jesus without you actually following and being a disciple and being sanctified and growing in holiness. They think that that can happen. I think as long as you pray the prayer, you say the right words, you accept him, you invite him, whatever you want to call it, then you're in. It really doesn't matter what you do with the rest of your life. I'm not talking to you about like crazy, crazy people on the street telling me this stuff. I'm talking to you about church leaders, talking to me about this. And I'm just saying, have you ever read first, second or third John? 'Cause John seems pretty clear to me. If you don't obey as commandment, you're a liar. If you don't abide in the teaching of Christ, you don't have God in your life. That seems pretty clear to me. Some people refuse to repent of sin. They refuse to change their behavior. Look at chapter three, verse four in first John. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. That doesn't sound positive for the person doing that. Verse six in chapter three. No one who abides in him in Christ keeps on sinning. That seems pretty plain to me. If you're truly abiding in Christ, you're not going to continue sinning. No one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Pretty black and white. Look at chapter three, verse eight. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil. Try telling that to somebody today. The devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning. For God's seat abides in him and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. It's not possible for that to even happen, John says. Look at third John, verse 12. Verse 11, I'm sorry. Do not imitate evil, but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God. Whoever does evil has not seen God. So those who refuse to repent of sin, it doesn't matter what they say. At the same time, you need to recognize the sin that is in your life, okay? Look at first John one, eight. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If you don't recognize your own sinfulness, your own need for Christ, you can't be a Christian. That's pretty basic. Look at verse 10. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. And then he talks about lastly here, people who don't love other Christians, okay? Chapter two, verse nine. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in the darkness, okay? I just, you get the feel for what John is saying here? John is saying, I don't care what you say. Talk is cheap. You can say whatever you wanna say. You can tell me you love Jesus all day long. Verse nine, you can say you're in the light, but if you hate your brother, you're still in the darkness. Chapter three, verse 14. We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers. That's how we know. We know we've moved from death into life. You can have assurance of salvation. Why? How? Because you love the brothers. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. Tell that to some people in churches in the Bible belt. If you hate other people, you're a murderer. If you're an unrepentant murderer, you're not a follower of Christ. If you're not a follower of Christ, you're dead in your sins and you're lost. Look at chapter four, verse 20. If anyone says, I love God, quote, I love God, but you hate your brother, you're a liar. He who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. In this commandment we have from him, whoever loves God must also love his brother. So look, I just want you to get the flavor. We're reading all these verses so you understand, John is confronting people who are saying one thing about their spiritual life, but they're living something different and he's saying, I don't care what you say, what you profess, what prayers you prayed, what experiences you've had. If it doesn't play out in your life, it's worthless. And you're a liar and you're a follower of Satan and the truth isn't in you. There you go. Here's some big truths from first, second, and third, John, okay? Give you about six of these. Salvation is promised to those who confess their sin. There's a great, great verse. I bet a lot of you have memorized this verse. First John 1-9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I think a lot of times Christians quote that verse, think about that verse and don't think about how strange it is. It's a strange verse. You would expect it to say something like, if we confess our sins, God is faithful and merciful and gracious and kind and patient and he will forgive us. But he doesn't say that. He says, if we confess our sins, God is faithful and he is just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If a judge in Odessa, Texas started acquitting and forgiving people simply for pleading guilty, he wouldn't be a judge very long. People of this town would rise up and say, you're the worst judge ever. You don't let people go just because they admit they've done something wrong. Have you lost your mind? But that's what this verse says. God is just as the judge to forgive you when you confess your sins. And the only way that that makes sense and is possible is if you look at John 2-2 where it says he, talking about Jesus, is the propitiation for our sins. And you ought to, if you like to make notes in your Bible, you ought to underline that word propitiation. And if you underline it there, you might as well flip the page and go to John, first John 4-10, that also says this is love, not that we love God, but he loved us and he sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. That word propitiation is a big long, fancy theological word. And here's what it means. When Jesus died on the cross, he took the wrath and the anger and the judgment and the punishment from the Father that should have fallen on you. He stood between you and the judge. And when the sentence was handed down, he took the punishment. And what John is saying is when you confess your sins to God and you come to Jesus Christ in faith, God is just to forgive you. Why is he just? Because it's already been punished. Jesus is the propitiation for your sins. It would be unjust for God to punish a Christian because that means he would have punished their sin twice. Once in Christ and once in their life. And so he says God is just to forgive you. And so salvation is promised to those who confess their sin. Secondly, Christians must not love the world or the things of the world. You talk about a challenging verse for people who live in a great country like the United States. This is a tough one. You talk to some of our brothers and sisters who live in Vietnam, parts of China, Sub-Saharan Africa. They don't really have a problem loving this world. There's not a lot in their life that they're just in love with. But in this country, life is relatively easy and pleasant and good. And there's a great danger that we start to love this world and this country and this home more than our true home. And so John warns us about that. Look what he says in 1 John 2, 15. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, there's John, black and white. If you love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. All that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eye, pride and possessions is not from the Father, but it's from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. So don't fall in love with the world. Thirdly, big truths, this is a good one. Apostasy or falling away is a sign of false conversion. False conversion. This is a truth in 1 John. It's one of the clearest places in the New Testament that it spelled out. And if you don't get it, there's a lot of other confusing passages in the New Testament that are hard to wrap your brain around. But look what John says, 1 John 2, 19. He says, "They went out from us, but they were not of us, for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us, but they went out, that it might become plain, that they all are not of us." Look, there was people who were once part of our fellowship, and they left, and they turned their back on Christ, and they went out. And he's saying, that's not proof that they lost their salvation. That's proof that they never were one of us to begin with. They never were true followers of Christ to begin with. Did they pray a prayer, maybe? Did they sign a church membership card, possibly? Did we get them wet up there in the baptistry? Yeah, we made a note about that in the church computer. Doesn't matter, they weren't one of us. They went out from us, and when they did that, it's proof that they were never one of us to begin with. Okay, we're gonna come back to this in a minute. Number four, love is defined by God sending Christ while we were still sinners, not defined by us seeking God or loving God or doing something for God. What God did for us through Christ is the picture of love, and we've already read that verse in chapter four. Fifthly, John wants us to know the truth about Jesus, and anything less is idolatry. Anything less is idolatry. Look how the book ends. The very last verse, verse 21. We read verse 20 as well. We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true, and we are in Him who is true in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God in eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. A lot of people, commentators, Bible scholars, they write about 1 John, and they say, "Verse 21 is like a weird add-on at the end." Doesn't fit with anything else He's talked about in the book, and He hasn't talked about idolatry at any other point. He's talked about how do you know if you're a Christian on and on and on, and all of a sudden He drops this verse about idolatry. The reason that confuses people is because when we think of idolatry, we think of what? Statues, pillars, temples. We forget that an idol of the mind is no different than an idol you make with your hands. And all throughout this book, He's saying, you gotta believe the truth about Jesus. You can't just believe what, you can't be with Serenthus. He doesn't believe the truth. He's made up His own Jesus. That's not the true Jesus. And He said, look, you have to believe Jesus is the Messiah. If you don't believe that, you're not believing in the true Jesus. You made an idol, a Jesus idol in your brain. You gotta believe that He's the Son of God. Anyone who denies that is worshiping an idol of Jesus in their mind. You gotta believe that Jesus came in the flesh that He really was a human being. And if you don't believe that, you've invented your own Jesus. You may not have a Jesus statue or a Jesus picture at home, but that idol lives in your mind and in your heart and it's the exact same thing. So after giving them all these tests, it's theological tests for knowing the truth, believing the truth. He says, you need to keep yourself from idols. And I'm just telling you, he's not talking about statues. He's talking about views and beliefs about Jesus that don't line up with the truth of scripture. So anything less than believing the truth, according to John, is idolatry. Lastly, relationships with other people are very important. We're gonna read two of my favorite verses in the whole Bible. Second John, verse 12. Though I have much to write to you, I would rather not use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to come to you and talk face to face so that our joy may be complete. Then he says the exact same thing in third John at the very end, verse 13 and 14. I had much to write to you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink. I hope to see you soon and we will talk face to face. Hey, you know, people always write Bible verses on greeting cards. Those are great Bible verses to write on a greeting card. See if anybody looks it up. And John is saying, look, I'm gonna send you a letter. I'm gonna keep in touch. But what I really want is to see you face to face. I wanna be able to hug your neck. I wanna be able to be with you. I wanna be able to see you. And all throughout first John, I gave you just one verse up here, okay? First John, two, one. But you can read first John. All the way through it, he's calling these people, his children, his beloved, his friends. All these terms of affection he uses all throughout first John and then in second and third, he says, look, I just wanna come see you. I wanna be with you face to face. And I think that's a good reminder for us today. And you should just go to a restaurant and watch people. Watch people when they sit face to face how uncomfortable they, we, I, all of us are. We can't put our phone down. We can't quit looking at it. We can't check in, can't stop checking in on Facebook and sending text messages and taking phone calls and all of it. And we're so preoccupied with a phone. We've lost something of this face to face. And I think there's a little reminder in here, second, third John that relationships and being with people are important. And I think what John would say to go back to the first chapter of the Gospel of John and to go back to the first chapter of first John, he would say, look, when the word came, he didn't just send a letter. And he didn't just send a text message. And he didn't just give you a status update. He became flesh and dwelt among us. That's the mystery of the incarnation. He actually came to be with us and to walk among us. So relationships matter. We'll end with this and we're gonna do it really quickly. I don't think I had space to put these on your notes. But as you read these books, there's some questions that you might come across. And if you're interested in sort of debated, controversial things or you've ever had these questions, you can write some of this stuff down on your own. Lot of debate and lot of theories in second John, verse one, when he says, the elder to the elect lady or to the chosen lady and her children. Who is he talking about? Okay, I've already told you we think the elder is John. So who is he writing to? And not all, but a good majority would say that he's talking to a church. And this would fall in line with other verses in the New Testament that call the church the bride of Christ. And so he's using this image of the church being female bride of Christ and that Christ is the groom. And so there's the most plausible solution to that. That one's not too hotly debated. Here's one that is hotly debated. How many of you guys read King James Bible? Anybody you'd like to use King James, a few of you do? I use the ESV, which is kind of like an update of the King James, but here's a difficult question. Why do different Bible translations have different words in 1 John 5, 7? And you can look at 1 John 5, 7. The King James and the new King James will say in verse seven, there are three that will testify. The Father, the Word and the Spirit, I think is what it says. And in almost all other translations, not the King James, the three that testify are the Spirit and the water and the blood. So those are way different. So people say, why are those so different? Those aren't just like stylistic differences. Those seem like pretty serious differences. And the bottom line answer is that there's discrepancies in the manuscripts. In the old ancient documents that we have in the New Testament, they just read differently. And when they compiled the King James Bible, they used when they did the King James, they used all the manuscripts they had, the best ones that were available. And they looked at them all and they studied them and they came up with what you read in the King James. And since then, it's been a long time since the King James was first translated. We have found in the Middle East, digging around in the ground a whole lot more manuscripts. I'm not talking like a handful more. I'm talking about hundreds and thousands more. And all these other manuscripts we found are older than the ones that they used when they translated the King James. And those older manuscripts read something differently. And so there's just disagreement there. And I'm telling you my take, just to be straight with you, is I don't think the King James translation is right in that instance. And I know that's a big discussion. If you have questions about King James only or other Bible translations, I would love to visit about that. And I won't yell at you or be mean like John would. I'll be very patient and kind. And I won't call you a follower of Satan or a child of the devil or anything like that. Here's one question that is a little more pressing. This is a question, this is actually one I get asked a lot. Those are the questions and those are kind of bookworm nerdy questions. This question I get asked. First John 5, 16 to 17 talks about a sin leading to death. Let's just read it real quick. First John 5, 16. If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will give him life. To those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death. I do not say that one should pray for that. All wrong doing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death. That's a strange verse. And as I looked it up this week, I found about 4 or 5 really popular explanations of it. One explanation that I read in a couple of my commentary said that John is talking about blasphemy of the spirit. So you go back to the Gospels and Jesus warns the Pharisees about blasphemy of the spirit. It doesn't say that they've committed it, but warns them about it. And they say John is talking about the same thing. I don't buy that exactly, and we can argue about that later if you want to. Other Bible scholars, I have one of these books in my office. It's from a Catholic perspective. It says that John is talking about mortal sins versus venial sins. Mortal sins lead to death, venial sins don't. And there's this beginning of this Catholic idea of different degrees of sin. And some are really, really bad, and some are not that bad. Clearly, I don't agree with that in any way, shape, or form. But that's an argument that you hear. Here's two that I think are possible. One is John is describing apostasy, which earlier we said that's falling away, people who fall away. And what he's saying is there's some people who fall away from the faith, and that's a sin that leads to death, and you shouldn't pray for that. And if you want to read about that view, you look at these verses in Hebrews. And these verses in Hebrews talk about people who were so close to the Christian community. They heard preaching. They participated in worship. They took the ordinances or the sacraments, whatever you want to call it, they were in. Hebrews says they tasted the heavenly gift. They were so close to salvation, and then they walk away from it. And it talks about as an example Esau, who was so close to the truth, who walked away from it, and there was no opportunity for him to repent later, a sin that led to death. And some people read those verses in Hebrews, and you read this verse in John, and some people say, well, that, I've always heard once saved, always saved. How does that fit with that? And I'll just tell you, I think it fits. I think it fits with once, genuinely saved, always, genuinely saved. And when you read these verses, 1 John 3, 9 and 5, 18, those are verses that support the idea of the security of your salvation. So 1 John 3, 9 says this. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning. If you really experience regeneration, and you're born again into God's kingdom, you're not going to make a practice of sinning. John says it's not gonna happen. It's an impossibility. And then in 1 John 5, verse 18, he says, we know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning. If you're truly born again, Jesus said to Nicodemus, you must be born again. John says, if that happens in your life, you're not going to keep on sinning. So John didn't think you could lose your salvation. He explains that in chapter two, we read this earlier, verse 19, where he says those who go out, those who commit quote unquote apostasy show that they weren't really one of us to begin with. So that's one possibility. Here's another possibility that I think is also legit, is that John is talking about when God kills people for their sin. And there's examples of that in the New Testament. So in Acts five, it's Ananias and Sephira, right? They commit sin and it leads to death. They die right there on the spot. And Paul talks to the Corinthians. One example that he gives the Corinthians is, some of you guys are taking the Lord's Supper like it's a joke and God has killed you for it. You're going and taking the Lord's Supper. You're not being serious about it. You're not examining yourself. You're not waiting for your other church members. You're going to the Lord's Supper to get drunk. He says, and God's killed you for that. And so some people say that it is talking about physical death, the sin that leads to God's judgment in that way. And that would kind of make sense where John says, you don't need to pray for that. No need to pray for Ananias and Sephira, that's done. They have moved on to eternity and that issue has been settled one way or the other. There's nothing really to pray for there. So you can take your pick on that issue. So I just want to mention those because there's some debated things. Here's the takeaway, okay? Just to back up and think about this book, the takeaway. John is pretty black and white. And he says some things in this book, these books, first, second, and third, that if they don't make you personally uncomfortable, my guess is they make you uncomfortable for somebody that you know, okay? You can probably think about somebody you know, a kid, a grand kid, a parent, grandparent, friend, family member, co-worker, whatever, who would say one thing about their relationship with Christ. And not that you're some sort of all-knowing spiritual authority over them, but you look at these tests that John lays out and you look at their life and you say, man, that's tough. I don't know what to say to that person. And if you're like me, you think that's kind of an awkward conversation to have with somebody, right? 'Cause it's not like you need to go tell them about Jesus. You go start telling them about Jesus and they can answer every question you ask them. They might even be able to quote more Bible verses than you can. Problem is you look at their life and you say it just hasn't translated. And all I can tell you is I empathize with you and then that's a hard situation to be in with people in your life that you're close to. It is really tough. And my suggestion to you and to myself would be number one, to pray for wisdom, to know how to handle that. Not to just ignore it and pretend like, okay, I'm just gonna pretend like I didn't read first John, but I need wisdom to know how to talk with this person and to ask God for wisdom. And the Bible says if you ask for wisdom, you seek it and you're serious about it, he'll grant it to you. So you pray for wisdom. And then secondly, no reason to argue with anybody about this stuff. I just don't think that that's gonna get you or anyone else anywhere. But as you can, you have opportunity to bring up these truths, to point people back to first John, to point them to the Book of James, to point them to first and second Peter, and to get them thinking, it's the word of God that's gonna convince them, it's not you or me that's gonna convince them. And so we'll just end with that realization. It's a very confrontational book, which means if we're gonna take it seriously, at some point there's gonna be confrontation with the folks that God has put in our life. And so we're gonna end just praying for wisdom in those situations and praying that God would give us grace to handle those things. So let's pray. Father, we're grateful for your word, and we're grateful for a book like first John. We know that it's a book that we need to hear. We know that it's a book that our culture needs to hear, our society, our churches need to hear. And Father, we just pause as we've read these verses and we've thought about these tests and these things that John is addressing. And we pray that you would help us to examine our own life first, that if we have a spec in our eye that we would remove it, and that we would deal with the things that we need to deal with, and that we would be humble before your word, and we would submit to its authority that we wouldn't try to argue, that we would just listen to what the spirit says through John and these books, and we would accept it. And then Father, we pray for the people in our life, friends and family members, loved ones, acquaintances. We all know people who need to hear these truths. Every last one of us in this room know people who need to hear these things. They need to be confronted by these things. And Father, we want you to use us. We wanna be gracious, we wanna be gentle. We don't wanna be combative or argumentative or hateful. We don't wanna be critical and assume that we know other people's heart. But Father, when you've put us into relationships with people who need to hear these things, we wanna be faithful to share with them the whole counsel of God and not to hold back something that they desperately need to hear. So we pray that you would give us wisdom and help us to be gracious as we think about the people that maybe we need to point towards first John, second John and third John. So we ask for your help. We trust that you can answer that prayer and you can do above and beyond abundantly more than we can ever imagine. And so we pray that you would use us for your glory and we pray in Jesus' name.