All right in 1st John chapter
5 is the new subject we're going to be dealing with I'm going
to read 1st John chapter 5 Verses 1 through 5 and then we will
commence to Looking at the import of these opening verses of 1st
John chapter 5 the closing portions of this first epistle this is
what John says whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ and
born of God and everyone that loves him that begot loveth him
also that is begotten of him by this we know that we love
the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments
for this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and
his commandments are not grievous for whosoever is born of God
overcometh the world and And this is the victory that overcometh
the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the
world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? Thus is the reading of the scriptures.
Once again, we would remind you that because of the nature of
John's repetitive device within the book of 1 John particularly,
The language may sound redundant, but he is being redundant with
a very legitimate and purposeful intention, and that is to keep
the believers in his authority, in his parish, comprehending
the foundation and understanding the necessity of the foundation
of the gospel as the basis of their whole hope and the whole
of their salvation. And we have broken up 1 John
in the three categories, chapter one and two was the category
of light. Chapter three and four is the
category of love. And chapter five now is the category
of faith. This is the way 1 John is broken
up. It's broken up in the categories
of light, love, and now faith. However, as I've said also before,
with the way that John teaches He actually introduces subjects
that he's going to further develop and expound in a previous subject
that he has already dealt with. So when we talk about love and
faith in relationship to light, we are not saying in the first
two chapters that John didn't talk about love or that he didn't
talk about faith. Of course, he talked about love
and faith in the context of light. It was light that was the primary
metaphor or analogy that John was using when he opened up the
epistle in 1 John chapter 1 and 2. And it was love, beginning
in chapter 2, emerging through chapter 3, fulfilling itself
in chapter 4, that John emphasized, helping us comprehend the meaning
of a Christocentric evangelical love. In chapter five, John is
now going to stress what he talked about also in chapter three and
four, at least in a very gingerly way. Now he's going to talk about
faith, faith. However, as he talks about faith
tonight, he's not going to be dealing with faith exclusive
or apart from. light, and love. They are inherent
components as well. And so I want you to know he's
dealing with these three categories, chapters one and two, flow over
into chapter three and four, and finally culminate in chapter
five. Because this is the great objective
that John wants to make sure that we comprehend what it means
to be a believer. How important it is to believe. Now last week and the week before,
as we were in chapter four, I really stressed to you and I that assurance,
the assurance that John talked about in chapter four, that we
might be persuaded and assured of the love that God has towards
us is born out of the fact that the love of God is the foundation
of the relationship of the believer and it's an all-encompassing
Relationship which constitute the father the son and the Holy
Spirit in the life of the believer So that when a believer is able
to say he loves God He can say that he loves God because God
loved him first We say that we love God as John said in first
John chapter 4 because he loved us first and he loved us and
in a very specific way in which he gave his son to be a propitiation
for our sins. So when we talk about love as
we have it in category two, we are not talking about a gushy
love and emotional sentimentality. based upon our feelings or our
circumstances or empiricism or the well-being of our life, the
riches and prosperity that we have in our life. If we would
ever talk about the love of God in terms of what God does for
us, we would fail to rightly represent God. Then we would
be excluding men and women whose lives are filled with lots of
trouble and lots of pain and lots of suffering. And we would
be implying like the Jews did, that the evidence that God loves
you is that God blesses you with material things. And therefore,
by logical deduction, the evidence that God does not love you is
that God does not give you things. He does not make you whole. He
does not make you well. I.E. Lazarus could have never
been the object of God's love predicated upon God loving us
evidentially or empirically or by giving us things. So we never
ever say for the Christian who is biblically grounded that the
love of God for us is to be expressed by the things that God gives
us. For us, the love of God is expressed
by the person that God gave us. And that person is Christ. This
revelation not only secures the eternity bound soul for glory,
This revelation secures every eternity bound soul for glory.
No matter whether you are rich or poor or healthy or wise or
dumb or stupid, this love has no respect of persons and no
one gets an advantage on this love. You guys follow what I'm
saying. So now this love not only secures the believer in
terms of his relationship with God, which is the work that God
does in the category of what we call sanctification in the
realm of sanctification. He is transforming us into his
image daily by his very active and involved work in our life
by his spirit and through his word because he loves us and
because he has an aim for us. And that aim for every believer
is to be conformed to the image of his darling son. There is
a circuitous or a circular argument then with the gospel. It starts
with God and it ends with God. When we teach truth, biblical
truth, we start with God and we end with God. If you don't
teach truth accurately, this is how you know you aren't teaching
it accurately. When you don't start with God
and you don't finish with God, you don't have biblical truth.
God is the first cause of everything. He is the grounds upon which
everything exists, and he is the goal for which everything
is made. Am I making some sense? God is
the first cause of everything. He is the grounds upon which
everything exists, and he is the goal for which they exist.
This here is a triad, a simple Hebraic triad that I'm using
with you as a form of Axiom by which you can make sure that
when you are hearing the Word of God taught or preached by
anyone does this man? Woman person know the truth as
it is in Christ. This is how you can know they
start with God They sustain his glory in the propositions and
the exhortation and the development of it and they close with God
Because all things are of him and through him and to him You
guys got that that's a cool rhythm right there All things are of God, that's
called first cause. All things are through God, that's
called means. All things are to God, that means
goal, our objective, our end, our purpose. That's what God
has done by virtue of everything he created. That's you, me, everybody. In the context of believing now,
I want us to exegete 1 John 5, verses 1, 2, and 3. We may get to verse two tonight,
but I just want to start with verse one, as John now has shifted
us from the love of God into now that article of faith by
which believers are uniquely affirmed and manifested in the
world to be God's children. Verse one says, whosoever believeth. that Jesus is the Christ, is
born of God. That's verse one, part eight.
I want us to deal with that right there. The way the language is
crafted in the English, it's smooth, but it's not as clear
as it ought to be. And there is a certain critical
truth around the doctrine of faith, pistouo or pistis, believing,
which are two sides of the same coin. You guys know to be a believer
is to be one that has what? You guys know that? To be a believer
is to be one that has faith. When I say I have faith, I am
saying I am a believer. Faith in this context is a noun.
Believing then serves as a verb. And so if I am acting out in
the life of believing, it is because it is based upon me having
faith. The way the language opens up
in 1 John 5 is to be carefully understood this way. Everyone. See the word whosoever? Pontos. It can be translated everyone.
And it's actually almost an exclusive term, meaning every single individual
who possesses this characteristic. Every single individual who possesses
this characteristic. In other words, there is no one
who possesses this characteristic of which it can be said these
things. So the word means all of us, now watch this, who are
believers. And it actually can imply every
believer from the beginning of time to the end of time. This
is what I mean by an all-inclusive statement, Pontus. All of us,
every one of us, everyone who is believing. So what we call
the present, Active indicative if I have it, right, this is
what I would say everyone who is presently believing You know
how you meet people who say they used to believe God Have you
ever met someone like that? Well when you are really a believer,
that's a non sequitur There is no such thing as becoming a believer
and then one day stop believing not for true believers. It's
impossible to actually become a believer and then stop being
a believer just as much as it is impossible to become a human
being and stop being a human being. I want you to stay with
me now. We're exegeting verse one so
that you can honor the concept of faith in terms of its grounds
and its efficacy. and it's aimed. You meet a person
who says, I no longer believe. What you can say to them is you
never believed. You just thought you believed.
You had learned some concepts and some ideas. There were some
biblical thoughts that were rattling around in your brain. You understood
a few intellectual propositions in terms of theological truth.
And while they were convenient for you, you utilize them in
your life. This is the parable of the sower
and the seed. But you were not a believer. You were using biblical
terms and you were practicing a human kind of faith, but you
weren't a believer. You were like the stony ground
here and the thorny ground here and the in some cases wayside
here where you make a profession of faith. But you really were
not a believer. You went to church and you identified
yourself with the Baptists, Pentecostals, Methodists, Charismatics, Catholics,
Anglicans and whoever, but you were not a believer. You were
religious and you held to certain credo statements in the church,
but you were not a believer. Because when a person is a believer,
it is not merely based upon them attaching themselves intellectually
or psychologically to a set of theological propositions. When
a person is a believer, it means that a work of grace has already
taken place of a divine nature, which has brought them into a
filial relationship with God by which their believing is related
to, is rooted in a relationship. Are you hearing me? That a man
or a woman cannot say they believe God and don't have a relationship
with Him. So it's important for you to
understand when we talk about biblical faith and we talk about
the dynamic of biblical faith, and we're talking about authentic,
genuine biblical faith, The kind of faith that God ascribes to
true believers is a faith that is rooted in the divine nature
that is communicated to the believer by the Spirit of God, by which
he first makes them sons and daughters of God. Are you hearing
me? And because he has made you a
son or daughter of God, the the invariable necessary evidence
that you are a son or daughter of God is that you cry Abba Father. Stay with me. Every believer
cries I believe God because it's part of his nature. Are you hearing
what I'm saying? This is critical. So that believing
is not simply whether or not your IQ is large enough to actually
capacitate and affirm certain theological statements. Believing
is rooted in something that takes place by which you are now made
part of the family of God and you evidence being the family
of God by your being able to say, I believe. So now the language
goes like this in first John, chapter five, part a. Everyone
who is presently believing that means is a present tense. It's
an active verb form, which means you are the one believing God's
not believing for you. Do you guys get that? Everyone
who is believing, that means you are the one doing the believing.
Now watch this. This is very important in this aspect of faith,
this category of faith, this component of faith is designed
to expose God's people to the world. Faith is designed to expose
God's people to the world over against those who are not God's
people. Like when you are part of the family and you have the
DNA of that family, that DNA is going to come out. Right at
some point in your life and expose you as being part of the family.
Now, God plants faith in the life of the believer. Faith is
a what? A gift of God. Not of works lest any man should
both faith is rooted in the grace of God planted in the soul in
Regeneration as we're about to say and just as the seed is sown
into the ground. It must bear fruit after its
own kind, right? So faith is gonna come out because
it's part of the DNA of the new nature It's gonna come out So
a person can't say well, you know, I I'm a believer, but I
don't know what I believe. No, no, no, no, no Sorry That's
like saying, I think I'm part of the family, but I don't know
who my daddy is. I don't know my mom. No, I'm sorry. Faith actually becomes the evidence
and credible token of the identity of that person relative to the
family. So this is how it goes in the
verb form in first John chapter five. And this is all the way
through first John five. I want you to get this. Everyone who
is presently believing is already born of God. Got that? That's the way that verse must
be understood. Everyone that is presently believing, who says
I'm a believer, who demonstrates faith in Christ, is already born
of God. So when the child cries coming
out of the womb, it's an evidence that he is what? Alive. It's
not the cause of his life. It's not the basis of his life.
It's not the start of his life. It's the evidence of his life
It requires life For faith to manifest itself Faith is a fruit
of life This is why we say the church is that tell people who
are dead and trespassers and sins to believe that's an oxymoronic
thing You can't tell a dead man to do anything You can't tell
a dead woman to do anything. All you can do is preach to the
dead and wait till the Holy Ghost works on the dead to raise the
dead from the dead. And you will know that they are
believers because they will believe. Are you hearing what I'm saying
now, what I'm doing, we're going to get into in a little bit when
I introduce you to what I call the first family principle, the
first family principle, because this is a family affair that
I'm talking about. Y'all know that, right? This is a family
affair that I'm talking about. I'm talking about what happens
in the family, the first family principle. But what I'm getting
at is men and women who are authentically born of God are authentically
born of God, not of themselves. Not of the church, not of the
preacher, not of tradition, not of rules, not of regulations.
For as many as received him, to them gave he power to become
the sons and daughters of God, not according to the will of
the flesh, nor according to the will of blood, nor according
to the will of man, but of what? God. When a man or woman walks
in the authority of sonship, it's because they've been born
of God. People struggle with this because this snatches away
human freedom, human right, human will, human work, human performance
as the basis of affirming that they know they are children of
God. Well, I know I'm saved because that night I went to that Billy
Graham crusade and they were praying just as I am. I was moved
so much I came to the front of the altar, gave my life to Jesus.
But that's not how you know you're saved. Sorry. You only know that
you are saved when you are really and truly born again. Because the rebirth is the foundation
prima facie. This is the grounding place upon
which faith emerges and it cannot but emerge. So what John is saying
in first John chapter five verse one is critical for us to understand.
Listen to what it says and it's in your outline. Believing in
the present tense is in the perfect tense, already born of God. You guys got that? That means
once I am born of God, born of God, the evidence will manifest
itself that I am a what? That's right. That's right. Now,
look at the verse again, because we're going to tear this verse
apart just a little bit to be blessed by what I call the first
family affair. And there are two aspects of
the family that we're going to deal with here. But verse one
will give us what we call the first family This is how we'll do it right
now. I don't want to take the time
to clean the board up too much. So let that thought come into
your mind. The first family affair. What John is going to describe
is what happens when you and I discover that we are part of
the family of God. Now, the first family that I'm
talking about is God himself. God is the first family. What I mean by God is the first
family. is that when we have a proper and biblical understanding
of the true and the living God, what we know is that God has
revealed himself in three persons. Are you hearing me? Father, first
person. He is the head from whom all
the blessings flow. He is the first cause of everything.
We call him Father, Papa, Pater. Abba, that's the Hebrew word.
That's why when you're born of God, you call him Papa, because
he is the one that begins you. This is how you know you have
a relationship with him, because it's now familial instead of
didactic, or merely propositional, or merely intellectual. Like
a son will know his father, or a daughter will know her mother. The children will naturally gravitate
to the parents. Am I making some sense? When
you and I were liberated from a servant status, a slave status,
a sin status where we feared God. Remember that time living
in rebellion, living like hell, God was our enemy and we were
his enemy. We ran from God, hid behind the trees, fought God,
denied him. But when God got ahold of us
by his grace and planted the incorruptible seed in our soul
and quickened us by his spirit, we broke, didn't we? That crisis
hit, it brought us to our knees, and we did just like Saul did
in Acts 9. Lord, what must I do? The soul said, ah, the father.
Now God is no more our adversary, God's our father. But we're not
only talking about God the father, Because God the Father is never
to ever be comprehended by himself. Never. We are talking about God
the Father, first cause, through God the what? Second cause, our
means, our instrumentality, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. Am I making some sense? That
no one can know the Father apart from the Son. no time. Are you with me so far? That
in God's economy, in God's purpose, in God's plan throughout the
whole of the universe, you know what he decided to do? To have
a people for himself from every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue?
And he said, Son, show them my glory. Right? So we know that
the objective of the Father is to reveal to men and women who?
The Son. And it's the objective of the
son to see to it that men and women comprehend the father in
himself by virtue of whom? The spirit. This is what we call
the triunity of God in their collective work to bring men
and women into what I call the first family. The first family. Now the first family consists
of God the father and God the son in a filial generation. A filial generation, a family
relationship. The father and the son are related
filially. Obviously, the appellative or
nomenclature of terminology, father and son, makes them related,
right? In a sense in which the father and the son do not have
the same kind of relationship with the spirit. The spirit is
ontologically related to the father and related to the son,
but not in the sense of father son You guys got that they are
related in what we call nature or essence or ontology So that
they are all God But God has revealed himself as the first
family would watch this a father a son and a glorious servant
Called the Holy Ghost Am I making some sense? Now, can I back that
up with the analogy of scripture? Can I back it up? Can I back
it up everywhere in the Bible in what we call biblical theology,
history according to Jesus, where the typology and metaphor of
scripture affirms over and over and over again, the father-son
pattern all the way through the word of God. And the servant
who is sent by the father to get a bride for the son, i.e.
Eleazar, the servant of Abraham, our prototypical pattern of a
father-son model of God the father and God the son. Eleazar is in
the family, but he's not filial family. He goes to get the bride
to bring her to the son. Am I making some sense now? So in verse one, what John is
exposing us to is the first family, first family being father, Son
and Holy Ghost they are exclusively of themselves the first family.
They are called God Got it And when he is properly revealed
he is they are God all by themselves apart from the universe and anything
made Everything proceeds from them The world the universe angels
devils demons life everything proceeds from God. Is that true?
I without the things that are made God is still God he still
has his family from all eternity father son and glorious Holy
Spirit see what I'm getting at we could get into all the technicalities
of the nature of the three persons but we want I just simply want
you to understand what John is doing in first John chapter 5
verse 1 part a is introducing us to the faith or believing
that evidences that we are part of that family. That ought to
make you happy. Now watch how he puts this so
that you can grasp it. And it's also in your outline.
The one who is believing are all those who are believing have
already been born of God. And as John puts it, watch this,
whosoever believes that Jesus is the Christ, Jesus is the Christ,
is born of God, and everyone that loveth him that begot or
begat loveth him also that is what? That's that strange repetitive
language that John is using and really the word begat is the
key term because that's our word geneo which is rooted in the
term to be born. And when we talk about being
born, now we're talking about the family again. And here's
what John says. Those who are believing that
Jesus is the Christ are already born of God and they that are
born of God loves the beginner. Are you with me so far? Loves
the beginner. Now, who is the beginner? The father. He is always the beginner. This
is why he made us in his image and made us in his likeness.
He said, Adam, You and he begin every act of beginning typifies
God. So the father is the beginner.
Now watch this. They that are born of God loves
the begatter. Everyone that is born of God
loves him. That begat love with him. Also, that is what begotten of
him. Who was that? That's the son. That's the son. Don't miss it.
Now, before we go on to make what we call an extended application
of that text, I want you to think through what I just stated, that
what John has done for us, ladies and gentlemen, is given us an
introduction to the grounds upon which you and I can know that
we are part of the first family. Is that a legitimate way to look
at it? John has given us the grounds upon which we can know
that we are part of the first family, and that is faith in
Christ. If we have a solid, biblical,
vital, saving faith in Christ, we know that we have had that
because we are born of God. And if we are born of God, here
are two other undeniable principles that are going to be evident
in your life. And this here is also a polemic and an apologetic
that John is doing. He's saying it's impossible.
I told you the way John teaches, is he starts a subject, begins
to develop it, and inside the development of that subject,
he starts another subject that he's gonna develop down the line,
because once he develops it down the line, he's already giving
you a primer of that subject. He's already told us how love
acts on the part of the believer. He's already told us this over
and over and over again, so you're gonna see it now echoed here.
John says, if you're born of God, you're already in the family.
If you believe the gospel, if you trust Christ as your savior,
it's because you're already in the family and it's evidenced
by two things. You love the father and you love the son. That's
right. Ain't no such thing as knowing
God and don't love the father and don't love the son. It's
not possible. It's not possible. Now, if you
take that right there as an axiom, you can go back through the scriptures
and you can see the battle that was waged between the son of
God and the rulers of the church. When the rulers of the church
boasted themselves in knowing the father, but they denied the
son. And here's what the son said.
It's impossible for you to know the father and deny me. And I know that you don't know
him. Watch this. Because if you knew
him, you would know me. Here it is. And you would love
me like you say you love him. Got it, ladies and gentlemen,
the circular argument predicated upon an all right assumption. You say, you know, God, well,
to know God is to love God. You say you love God. Well, if
you love God and you say, you know him, you've got to know
me. You've got to love me because you get you can't have it without
a package deal. The father and the son are a package deal. Are
you hearing what I'm saying? The father and son are a package
deal now watch this. I want to just say this on terms
of larger Theological arguments that go on around the world like
folks who don't believe in christianity calling themselves knowing god,
right? There are lots of religions. That'll say they know god Well,
you can't know god in the truth And not know his son Am I making
some sense? It's not possible It's not possible
The father is only comprehended in the son John chapter 1 verse
18 says what no man has seen God at any time That's an absolute
statement So all the religions that are boasting themselves
and knowing God One or two things is true by virtue of logic and
deduction either God is lying Are they are lying You follow
what I'm saying? This is the exclusivity of the
gospel. The exclusivity of the gospel says God has only revealed
himself through his son. Is that what we believe? Do we
believe that Jesus is the revelation of the invisible God? Do we believe
that Jesus is the icon of God? Do we believe that he's expressed
image of his nature? That's what the word says, right?
And so we believe that the invisible God whom the Father is and the
Son and the Spirit are also by nature that we believe that the
invisible God can only be made known through the Son. Is that
true? Is that true? And so now we have
the work of the three persons in God's love towards us in manifesting
himself towards us. Here's what we know if God reveals
himself to us and that revelation of himself to us doesn't kill
us. He loves us. I'll say it again. If this glorious
being called God, with all of the wonderful attributes of divinity,
omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, absolute autonomy, absolute authority,
absolute sovereignty, and the predicates of holiness and righteousness
and justice, power, If this God in the impeccability of his nature
and the glory of his being reveals himself to us and we don't die,
he loves us. It'll hit in a moment. No man
can see God and live. Yet God has revealed himself
to us And some of us live. Is that true? There are people
from the foundation of the world to right now whom God has revealed
his glory to. And not only do they live, they
live abundantly. Because the revelation of God
has always been through his word and by his son to those he loved. So if God reveals himself to
you and you don't die, it means that God loves you. This is why
people can say I ain't never seen God never heard God. I don't
know why you say you know God It's just crazy the notion that
there is a God well, here's what you can say to them while they're
still breathing God's air and thinking God's thoughts and using
God's body and living in God's world and eating God's food and
sleeping in God's house and still in God's glory and he hasn't
wiped them out yet and And they say, I don't know if there's
a God. I don't believe there's a God. I don't see a God. So
you know what? God's being good to you. Did you get that? Because if
he ever reveals himself to you, why are you in that attitude?
You're a gone goose. So here's a glorious truth on
the side of God where he doesn't reveal himself, and that's this.
He allows men and women to live in this world, work in this world,
prosper in this world, do all that they do and never reveals
himself to them because if he doesn't reveal himself to them
in the sun, he will kill them. His revelation will destroy them.
There's a kind of mercy where God doesn't reveal himself to
people. Am I making some sense now? There's a kind of mercy. I know I'm stretching theology
a bit. I just want you to work with that. This is important.
See, God is merciful to his creatures, but he's not saving everybody.
Nobody wants to be saved But those that are saved God is being
very loving towards the rest. He's being merciful towards Say
pastor. I can't get that Well, let me
put your feet in God's shoes for just a second before I unpack
the last part of this verse because you know We get way more righteous
than God, don't we? We really do we get way more
righteous than God now watch this you own the house You go
outside and get the bum off the street and And you let him in
your house and you tell him this is my house. This is my refrigerator. These are my rooms. These are
my things. Now you can hang out here, but you got to behave yourself. See what I'm getting at now?
And then he starts walking around your house, acting like it's his house. Now
stay with me a little longer and telling everybody there is
no God that you don't exist. That's exactly what human beings
are doing right now every day. Am I making some sense? Now,
what would you do with that fella that you decided to show some
mercy to get him off the street, bring him in your house, and
this fool is going in every room in your house and walking past
you like you don't exist. and telling people in the house,
ain't nobody live here, man, this is about us, not him. The person you're talking about
is a figment of your imagination. Would that brother belong in
your house? See, we're being honest, aren't
we? Now stay with me now. Aren't you glad you're not God? So what I'm saying is the unbeliever
is experiencing an unconscious mercy of God So long as they
are living in god's world and denying his glory For the believer
who has come to grips with the reality of the glory of god in
the centrality of jesus christ in the gospel You and I are blessed
To be made part of the family of god But we have an obligation
Once we have been made part of that family Here's the obligation
And all the commandments hang on these two We are to love God with all of
our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbor as ourself.
Because once God saves you and gives faith to you, to where
you manifest believing in God and thus articulating what you
have come to know about God, you serve as God's witness. Got it? Now you become God's
credible testimony that he is. And that privilege requires that
you love the father and love the what? That's right. And for
us who are believers, that's a commandment that is not grievous.
See John is getting ready to say that in the next couple of
verses and his commandments are not burdensome in that what it
says now pastor Why are they not burdensome because they come
in the context of a father-son relationship? Ladies, haven't
we learned that in biblical theology that the father-son pattern constitutes
a necessity of obedience All who are sons and daughters of
God are called to obey because obedience is the evidence of
the relationship All right. That's the evidence of the relationship
And that's why God sent his only begotten son. We call him the
monogamous. The real unique son of God, he came to demonstrate
what it means to be a son of God and that he obeyed his father
and everything he did right. This is how he manifested his
sonship to the father. And this axiom also is running
through John's gospel. If you say you know him, if you
say you love him, do what? Keep his commandments. That's
what sons and daughters do. Now we'll explain the commandments
once again, just in case you're scared. But what I want to say about
God giving us the imperative to keep his commandment and our
heart saying, Lord, your commandments, I want to keep. Is that's a privilege
that's only bestowed upon those who are in the family. God doesn't
require anybody who is not in the family to keep his commandments. Because of two reasons, they
can't and they won't. Now the commandments we are talking
about is the commandments that are evangelical in nature. Before
I go to that, this is what I wanna say. I just wanna wrap this part
up. As John introduced us to the first family, the first family
being the father and the son, as John introduced us to the
first family, what I want you to understand in 1 John chapter
one, 1 John chapter five, verse one, the first family principle
also includes what we call in our culture, which is right,
Watch this now, extended family. Extended, we know about extended
family, don't we? So we have the first family, which constitute
the what? Three persons. Is that right?
Two familial, the other one is a servant status. We, that is
the believer, we, we love them, don't we? We love the first family,
don't we? Do we love the first family?
And you know, people love to talk about, I love God. I love
me some God. Well, first of all, if you do
love God, it's going to be evidenced by you having a right understanding
of who God is. If you do love God, you're going
to love the father and you're going to love whom? That's why
that's just an axiom. You can't get away with what
Jesus told the rulers in John chapter eight, John chapter five,
and then John chapter eight and John chapter five. He said this.
I know that you don't know my father because the love of God
is not in you. Got it? Because if the love of
God was in you, there'd be no way that you would be going about
to kill me. Got it? That's the battle of
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We call it the gospel versus
religion. The gospel versus religion. But
what the scripture teaches us is Those of us who are begotten
of God, who love the father and love the son, we are also to
love everyone who is begotten of God, just like us. Are you
hearing me? So what I'm saying is this, if
I love the first family, I also got to love whom? The extended
family. That's where the trouble comes
in. Am I telling the truth? That's where the trouble comes
in. When I look around and I see my brothers and my sisters, and
we all have the same nature and struggles and challenges, though
we are also begotten of the father and the son by the spirit, the
struggle is not only loving the first family, but the extended
family. And one of the battles that goes
on is I can love the first family, but I have no desire to love
the extended family. Am I telling you true? That's
the war that goes on. I just want you to see that as
we open up first John chapter five, verse one, and we move
into chapter two, it is a first John chapter five, verse two.
It is imperative that we comprehend the first family extended family
principle. So loving the beginner is the father and loving also
the begotten is the son. And then put an apostrophe S
around that are, you know, put some brackets around it and go
love all the sons. Because if I love the son, I've
got to love all the sons. Now I need the Holy Ghost. Am
I telling the truth? Now I need the Holy. Now we all
need that servant who hunted us down in the first place to
bring us to Isaac, right? Because in the process of bringing
us to Isaac, he has to clothe us with gifts by which we can
get alone until we are all made like the only begotten son. And that's what John is talking
about in 1 John. The evidences of being born of
God is that you love the Father, you love the Son, but you also
love the people of God. And I want you to see a few verses
repeating this theme, which is critical to this concept over
in 1 John 3, verse 14, and then 1 John 4, verse 20. In 1 John
3, verse 14, John already introduced this concept to us. Watch this.
I'm going to read verse 13. Are you there? Marvel not my
brethren if the world hates you see that now you're gonna be
hated by somebody Because the Sun was hated by somebody right? We could say if we wanted to
Anchor this statement here down in the historical context of
our Lord's excursion That the world in this context was the
religious world of Jesus day Do you know that Jesus called
his religious peers the world? He said you are of the world
You're from below. I'm from above You're from beneath. I'm from above and when he talked
in terms of the world hating the disciples He wasn't talking
ladies and gentlemen primarily of the secular world He was talking
about the religious world the very world that was going to
kill him and Then kill them Because the two primary ways by which
the devil works is religion and politics, false religion and
politics. Now, this is why 1 John's epistle
is so powerful in the context of biblical and Christian love. You cannot say that you love
God and hate your brother. Sorry, that is a fundamental
litmus test. And it was fully exposed in the
coming of God's son, To the very religious crowd who said they
knew the father And when the son did what the son did to prove
that he was a son He also by proving that he was a son proved
that they were not the sons Remember john chapter 8 Ye are of your
father the devil and the works of your father you will do He
was a liar and a murderer from the beginning. He never abode
in the truth As you are going about to kill me. It's evident
that you are of him See what I'm getting at and this is why
Jesus said in the same chapter of John chapter 8 now watch this.
He said The servant does not abide in the house forever But
the Son abides forever Remember that They're like what in the
world are you talking about? Here's what he was saying. I
You guys the Jewish people who had the covenant and the laws
and the promises boasting yourselves to be of God Y'all think you
are the sons But all you are are slaves your servants and
the servant does not abide in the house forever because the
servant does not have a part in the inheritance the inheritance
is always given by the father to the And the only people that
can rejoice in being in the house forever are those who are in
the... Are you hearing me, ladies and gentlemen? This is the inheritance
doctrine that runs all the way through the scriptures. And this
is why after they crucified our Savior, Israel was kicked out
of the what? Stewardship. The kingdom is taken
from you and given to others bearing the fruit thereof. And
for this 2000 years, Israel has been outside of the house. Are we learning ladies? Disobedience
kicks you out of daddy's house. Am I telling the truth now? So
what Jesus was doing when he was talking to the rulers was
as it were deconstructing their false assumption that they were
right with God because they were Abraham seed. We be Abraham's
seed. Jesus said, that's not good enough.
I'm not talking about Abraham, your father. I'm talking about
God, my father, except you be of the seed of God, the incorruptible
seed of God. You're not in the house. You're
temporarily there as a servant, but you're not there as a son. Yeah, it's there, you got it
now, right? It's important to get. And Jesus becomes the focal
point of this whole construct. We need to be very careful. Never
get away from Christ. Christ is the center. Christ
is the foundation. Christ is the object by which
truth is revealed to us. The moment you get away from
Jesus, you have no certainty of anything. This is why Jesus
says, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes unto
the father, but by me. No one comes to the father, but
by me. That's why they wanted to kill
it, because they wanted to come another way. And there is no
other way. There is no other way. And had
they come through Jesus, you know what they would have been
doing? Showing that they believed on Him and showing that they
loved Him. That takes us back to our verse,
doesn't it? Stay with me then. Notice what it goes on to say.
It says, Whosoever are everyone that is presently believing that
Jesus is the Christ. I'd love to unpack that because
when it says Jesus is the Christ, it's talking about the anointed
one, the Messiah. And there are minimally three
offices that constitutes his role as Messiah, prophet, priest,
and King. Minimally three offices. Minimally
three offices. So when a person says Jesus is
the Messiah, he is saying, I understand something about the one whom
God coronated, to be the head over all things to the church.
I understand that Jesus is God's prophet. He is God's declarative
proclamation and word to us about God's will. You and I know that
Jesus is the word of God, is he not? He was the word made
flesh and dwelt among us. That he was the word from the
beginning that God spoke all things into existence by him.
that the worlds were made by Him and that when God declares
His will and God declares His purposes and God declares His
decree and His covenant, it comes through the vocal cords of the
Son of God. He is the voice of God. He is
the voice of God. And so it's critically important
for us to understand that the idea of Us comprehending biblical
truth and us understanding the father is that we understand
the father only through the sons The son is the means by which
we understand god. The son is the means by which
we understand this idea of anointing him being the prophet him being
the priest Prophet priest and king. It's kind of a triad Now
who is the priest? He is the high priest that stands
between the people of god and god on the basis of covenant
Got it? He is the high priest that stands
between the people of God, God, and the people of God on the
basis of what? Covenant. This is why we're learning in
biblical theology, covenant theology is critical to understanding
scripture. It's the cohesive character of scripture. You cannot
understand the scriptures unless you understand that God is a
covenant God. Is he a covenant God? Yes. Is he a covenant-keeping
God? Yes. Before the world began, God operated
in covenant. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
decreeing and purposing what they would do. When he created
this world, he operated in covenant, didn't he? When he created Adam,
he created Adam in covenant. He told him what to do. He confirmed
his covenant over and over and over again through scripture,
did he not? So God is revealed to us as a covenant God because
God has a purpose. He acts in terms of covenant.
When he gave us our Bibles, he compiled our Bibles in two categories,
larger categories called Old Covenant and what? New Covenant.
So in the old covenant we see God working, we see God working
in the new covenant because God has always been a covenant God. The high priest stood between
a holy God and a sinful people. Guess who that sinful people
is? You and I. And that covenant program in
relationship to God and his people was seen most eminently in Old
Testament Israel, right? When God called Israel out of
Egypt, you know the first thing he did? He set up a prophet and
a priest to run the kingdom. Who was the prophet? Moses. Who
was the priest? Aaron. Then he set up the Levitical
priesthood. and the temple worship, because
the temple worship is going to be the grounds or medium between
God and the sinful people. God cannot dwell with a sinful
people without a priesthood sacerdotal system by which sacrifices are
now going to be offered up without the shedding of blood. There
is no what? God's not gonna have fellowship with you without blood
in that what first John chapter 1 verse 5 says and truly our
fellowship is with the father and with the son Jesus Christ
and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from what all sin
so God deals with us on the basis of blood because blood is Necessary
in the covenant because God tells us to do things and we don't
do it and when we don't do it in his holiness He has to kill
us Except there is the shedding of blood And the role of keeping
God's wrath from God's people is on the priesthood. And the
high priest stands between the people representing the people
to God, and the prophet represents God to the people. And our great
high priest is whom? Christ is our high priest. He
stands between a holy God and a sinful people to not only make
the covenant effectual, Hebrews 9, but then to open that covenant
up so that it brings blessing to us. This brings us into the
third category of Jesus office as king. This is why we had the
monarchical kingdom under Israel to model the kingship of Jesus
Christ. God is always all only had one king. You know who that
is, right? Christ is our king, is he not? So the king is the
one who governs the kingdom and dictates the kingdom and issues
decrees and issues blessings out of the covenant. It just
happens to be that the king is the high priest at the same time.
But he's also the sacrifice, as we learned on Good Friday.
What a high priest to also be the lamb that was shed to wash
away our sins and open up the covenant to us. This is why Christ
is everything. This is why he is the alpha and
the omega. This is why he is the beginning and the end. This
is why he is the first and the last. This is why he is all of
those predicates scripture talks about concerning him for us.
God has made him to be all things over the church to us. He is
the head of all things over the church for us. We find in Christ
all of the sufficiency necessary to get back to God. So we're
operating in this covenant paradigm. Even here, we're operating in
a covenant paradigm where Christ is the mediator. Is there one
mediator between God and man? Who is that man? That's exactly
right. And God can't even be comprehended
in the truth apart from that mediator. A person on the outside
of this covenant blessing, on the outside of the mediatorial
role of Jesus Christ, can only speculate about God. Well, you
know, I think God is like this. I think God is like that. You
know, I kind of think God is like that, where you're only
speculating. Because until the Spirit of God
reveals the Father to you through the Son, you're only speculating. You guys got that? You're only
speculating. Can I make good on that proposition?
Remember one of the elite rulers of the church Came to Jesus on
this very subject of what it means to be in the family of
God in John chapter 3 and he says master We know that you
are a teacher come from God remember that he was talking like he was
on the inside of the kingdom and But now had he been on the
inside of the kingdom talking about the things of the kingdom,
the artifacts of the kingdom, the things of the kingdom that
he would have been able to easily verify, he would have had already
had to been in relationship to the one he was talking to. What
Christ said is you can't be in the kingdom because you don't
even know who I am. Except you be born again. You
cannot enter into the kingdom of God. He was automatically
rebuked because he's talking like he's on the inside, but
he's still on the outside. He cannot enter in the inner
end until he's born into the kingdom. And except you be born
of water and of the spirit, you do not even see the kingdom,
let alone enter in Nicodemus like, whoa, I better stop talking
right now. because he was pretending to know the things of the kingdom,
but he had no right of passage by virtue of not having a relationship
with the man he was talking to. God was drawing him though, wasn't
he? Eventually he'd be brought in. That brother would stand
up for Jesus. He would follow Jesus all the
way to Calvary. And when Jesus died, he would
bury Jesus right along with Joseph of Arimathea in a borrowed tomb
because he fell in love with Christ. And it was an evidence
that God had already made him born again. He believed the gospel. Am I making some sense? See,
when God is drawing you, you come into Christ, you come into
Christ, you come into Christ over against adversity, over
against trials, over against difficulties. You are coming
to Christ. That's what happened to him.
He was rebuked. He was mortified when he was
told by the master, you're on the outside. He struggled with
the crisis of not being born again and said, how does an old
man return again inside his mama's womb? And Jesus said, you are
way off the course, brother. Right. You are way off the course. It shocked him. So. In your outline,
I have under chapter five, verse one, believing is in the present
tense. It's the consequence of already been born again. It's
in what we call the perfect tense. And the evidence of being born
again is believing. And the evidence of being born
again is loving the father and is loving the son and is loving
all those who are born of God. You guys see that, right? So
that's very important as a concept. Now notice what it goes on to
say in verse two, we'll stop right here. By this, we know
that we love the children of God. So the writer of the King
James and probably many other translations distinguish the
concept of begotten of God from the term children of God, because
now verse two is actually moving towards the horizontal relationship
between the believer and those that are children of God. Now
watch this. We know that we love the children of God when we what?
Love God and what? Keep his commandments. For this
is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments
are not what? Okay. So now in your outline,
we have the expression of that love. The expression of that
love, according to first John chapter five, verse two is what? What is the manifest expression
of God's love? Commandment keeping. Commandment keeping. Please understand
that. The expression of love towards
God legitimately is keeping God's commandment. Now, all John is
doing is what we've talked about several times in our study, and
that's this. Jesus said, if you love me, do what? So John is
echoing Christ. Don't ever forget that and never
chafe at it. Never let the idea of God's commandments cause you
to successfully run from God. Because if you do, it means you
don't understand the privilege of being told to keep his commandments
as a basis for affirming your sonship or daughtership. Because
every believer wants to keep God's command. Every believer
does. It's part of our DNA. Christ in you, the hope of glory,
wants you to keep God's commandments. Then if you're born again and
you are informed thoroughly about your mediator, Jesus Christ,
help you with a couple of points and we'll stop here. For everyone
that is born of God, They can receive the yoke of imperative
to keep God's commandment as a very light yoke, because as
the little ox is yoked to the big ox, in Matthew 11, 28, Jesus said, come unto me, all
ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will what? Take my yoke
upon you, because my yoke is what? And my burden is? and you
will find that I am meek and lonely. So the process of yoking
means being brought into relationship in terms of covenant purpose,
but God does not yoke us to him by ourselves. He yokes us to
him through his son. I'm gonna share this with you.
You should already know this. When a man or a woman is yoked
to God through Jesus Christ, commandments are given to us
to do. They are based upon a finished
work that already sees our works and our commandment-keeping as
perfected in the big ox, which is Jesus Christ. Now stay with
me again. Now y'all act like I'm saying
this for the first time. We preach this at Grace all the time. The
obedience, therefore, of the believer towards the Father ought
never to be rooted in fear. And if it is, it's based on you
having forgotten the premise or foundation upon which he is
calling you into fellowship with him as a father and a son. And
that is a finished work by which your substitute and your Redeemer,
Jesus Christ, has already obeyed all of God's commandments. in
your behalf, by which you now possess God's righteousness,
by which he can authentically call you his son, so that in
our obedience to God, it's never to merit anything. It's always
to glorify God. It's always to affirm our sonship,
but it's never to merit anything, because our works will never
ever be good enough to merit. Every work you and I do in our
own nature will be a demerit. Only that demerit is canceled
out by Christ's merit. That's why I'm saying we love
him because he first loved us. We approach God without fear
because fear has torment, but perfect love casts it out. And the love of God shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Ghost continues to draw us to God,
does it? In spite of how sinful we are.
And we are not coming to a God directly without a mediator. That would be death immediately.
I'm coming to God through a mediator who is not only my high priest,
my prophet, my king, but he's my redeemer and my kinsman, my
brother. He's my substitute and he's my
surety. And he has provided everything
necessary to secure my relationship with the father so that I already
know that where Christ is, I am only I am in process of discovering
that as I live out my life. You and I, if we are believers,
marvel every day at the grace of God that keeps us from running
from God. Don't we? We marvel every day
at the grace of God that wakes us up with a renewed desire to
love God and serve him. But that marvel is based upon
what Christ has done for us already at Calvary. And this is the wisdom
of God to take sinners who are undeserving like us and say,
come on, come on, draw near to God in full assurance of faith. having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience by the blood of Jesus Christ, of whom God
has now made a new and living way through his flesh that we
might be brought to God in relationship to Christ. This is God drawing
us to himself, giving us every grounds to come to him. Now watch
this. This is what John is gonna say
down the line. And when you have heard the gospel like this, and
he has made every way possible for you to come to him, and you
say, I'm not coming, You make God a liar. Because you don't believe what
the scriptures say his son did to provide for you an everlasting
salvation that is secure and free because of his finished
work on Calvary Street. Isn't that profound ladies and
gentlemen? Let's close in prayer. Thank you for this time. Thank
you for our thoughts on verse 1 of chapter 5 and verse 2 of
chapter 5 as we go our way. Give us traveling mercies. We
pray. In Jesus' name, amen. God bless you.