When I first started trying to
preach years ago, I would write out
my notes in manuscript form. I was scared to death to look
away from them. And I had up to ten pages of
notes. I've looked at them. They were
good. I've looked at them. They were
good. But man, I hope I didn't wear people out, probably did.
And then I tried to reduce it down to about eight pages for
a while. And then I started thinking,
you know, David, all he used was five smooth stones. So I
thought five pages ought to be enough. So ten or more years
ago, I started five pages. Then I thought, he only used
one stone. So, but I thought I had five pages
of notes, and I tore up notes and wrote some more, and I wrote
and wrote, and I thought, you know, there are five chapters
full of notes. I don't need my comment. So let's go back to chapter one,
okay? Let's go back to 1 John 1. The whole theme of what we
just read is about faith. Love, this whole book is about
love in it, First John. Those that love God, God loves
and those that love Him, they love the brethren, they love
the truth. And the New Birth talks about
those born of God, talks about overcoming the world. I want
to know what that I don't want to be overcome. The greatest
fear of every believer is being overcome and leaving Christ and
going back to the world. I don't want to know. If you
want to know, that's a good sign already. It all begins in chapter 1. Brother
John Davis brought this message to you sometime a few weeks ago,
didn't he? That which is from the beginning,
which we've heard, which we've seen with our eyes, which we've
looked upon, our hands have handled, the word of life, the life, that
eternal life. Who is that speaking? Jesus Christ. That's the way this begins, like
John 1. And it ends, we know the Son of God has come and given
us an understanding. Don't you? Don't you understand
who this is that came? It's going to talk about he that
believeth that Christ has come into flesh, is born of God, and
he that believeth is the Son of God, and he that believeth
is the Christ. You believe, don't you? There was a time he didn't.
Eternal life. Christ is our life. Verse 3,
that we've seen and heard, declare we unto you. This is all that
John is writing about, and that is Christ. That's not just a
slogan. It's reality with God's people.
Like Hosea, or like Ephraim said, what have I to do anymore with
idols? I've heard Him. And if you ever really heard
Christ, met Christ through the preaching of the gospel, Your
ears are open now. Your heart's open. You want to
hear Him. He's your husband. And verse
3 says we have fellowship, that you may have fellowship with
us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His
Son, Jesus Christ. It isn't. These fellas back there are back
again. Why? You're going to hear the
same thing you heard last time. And then tomorrow night, you're
going to hear your pastor preach the same thing. Why? Because
that's our fellowship. We're fellows in the same ship. We're in the Ark of Christ. We're
in God. We're in Christ. That's what it says, doesn't
it? It goes on down, say in verse 7, we walk in the light as he
is in the light. What's the light? Christ is the light. The light
of his word. We wouldn't know Christ. We wouldn't
know God except for his word. entrance of thy word giveth light."
God who causes light to shine out of darkness has shined in
our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Really, it's a reality. All right,
and verse 7 says, we have fellowship with one another around Christ,
and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all
sin. We want to hear about the blood, don't we? We do insist
upon it. God does. And our faith is summed
up in ten words. God can say so much in one-word
syllables. When I see the blood, I will
pass over you. That's all our faith in. Whose
blood? The blood of the Son of God.
The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin.
And he goes on to talk about sin. If we say we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves. You know, God's people know. And we're sinners. I think we
know that. We don't deny that. We confess
it. If we confess our sins, verse 9, He's faithful and just to
forgive us. All our sin cleanses from all
our sin. Isn't that good news? Is that
good news to you? We say this all the time that
the gospel is only good news to sinners. So we talk a lot
about sin. This Bible does. That's why Christ
came. Okay? You heard all that before,
hadn't you? It ought to give you comfort
that you believe every word of that. It's the very feelings
of your heart, isn't it? The fellowship we enjoy. Chapter
2. My little children. Are you a little child? Some
of you are approaching 70. Some of you are over 70. Some
of you are way over 70. Do you not still consider yourself
a little child when it comes to the things of God? Do you
feel like you've grown above drinking milk? Do you not still desire the sincere
milk, the same things, you know, election by the Father, redemption
by the Son, regeneration by the Holy Spirit? Do you not want
to hear those things over and over again, by grace you say,
through faith, not of yourself? You cut your teeth on that. But
you're still little children. Little children, you're little
in your own eyes, you're weak, you're helpless, you need instruction. Our Lord said, except you receive
the kingdom of God as a little child, you'll not enter the kingdom. And He calls us little children
all through this time. He says, I write these things
that you sin not. Isn't that our heart's desire?
To never sin again? Believe. It's like a father who tells
his children, don't do that. What's wrong with you? He knows. He knows our prime date. But
he still tells us, sin not. But, and, if any man sin, we
have an advocate with the Father. How many times have you heard
that? Ah, boy. These are perpetuation
of bloody sacrifice. All right, go on down. Verse
7. Brethren, I don't, I write no new commandment unto you.
An old commandment you had from the beginning. First thing he
heard from our Lord. John was there when our Lord
said, this is my commandment that you love one another as
I have loved you. In verse 9, he that saith he
is in the light hates his brothers in darkness. He that loveth his
brother, verse 10, abideth in the light. There is no occasion
of stumbling in him. Do you love your brother? Do you really? Do you really? Hereby we know that we're the
children of God. It was a time we didn't know
each other. It was a time we had nothing
in common. It was a time we didn't love each other. And now we're
bosom buddies. We're family. We're actually
closer than our flesh and blood family. Now that's a God. That is supernatural. Nothing
stronger than blood, fleshly blood, but the blood of Christ. That's amazing. Can you not say
that? This is my family. Like Ruth
left her gods, left her family, left everybody and said, your
people are my people. Can you say that? I know you
can. Go on, chapter 2. He says in
verse 13, I write unto you, fathers, because you have known him from
the beginning. This is life eternal. Do you want to hear that again?
Many loves this verse. John 17. This is life eternal
that they might know thee, the only true God. John, do you want
to hear me talk about the only true God? Do you ever get tired
of hearing God proclaimed as God? Don't you get tired of hearing
them talk about our God like He's not God? That's the love
of God in your heart. You love God as God. You love
His name. You love His glory. You love
His power. You love His salvation. You never
get tired of it. That's love. You know Him. Knowing is not just knowing about
Him. It's love. Adam knew his wife Eve. And Christ
knows His people like that. And we know Him. We're intimately
acquainted with Him, have His relationship with Him. Zealous
of his glory. You know him. Young men. Verse
13. You've overcome the wicked one. How? We're going to look at this
in a moment. By faith. Little children. You know the
Father. Verse 15 and 16. Love not the world. These are
the things of the world that are in the world. We're going
to talk more about that in a moment. If any man loved the world, lives
for, The world is all they think about. The love of the Father
is not in Him. There was a time when that was
us, wasn't it? Dead in trespass and sin. Very
much alive to and living for this world and the things of
it. Right? But yeah. Not anymore. Not anymore. We're still tempted
by this thing. There's still a pull. You know, the only thing, this
world, has something that God created called gravity. God did
that. A magnetic field. Why? To keep
us all our feet on the ground. We'd be floating around to keep
us down, you know, earthbound. Okay? And it's a very strong
pull and it keeps people down. It keeps people, their heads
down, their thoughts down. It keeps them thinking about
The earth, as the earth or the earthy, right? The only thing
stronger than gravity is grace. It lifts you up. It lifts your
eyes up. It lifts your heart up. It lifts
your mind up. It makes you want to fly up. Grace. Gravity. I'll be glad
when I'm done with this gravity called sin, and it just pulls
me, this world pulls me down. And that only things stronger
than God's grace. Where am I? Lust of the flesh,
verse 16, lust of the eyes, pride of life. Brother Terrell's last
message was on craving flesh. People crave flesh, that's all
they want. Do you? There was a time he did. And by God's grace, not anymore. That's not our heart's desire. I want to be done with this flesh. The world, verse 17, passes away
in the lusts thereof. We know that, don't we? They
do it at the will of God, abide forever. Little children, you
know it's the last time. Antichrist shall come. There
are many antichrists. You know that, don't you? You
see them, you hear them, all this religion. Anything that's
not Christ and Christ alone is anti-Christ. You know that? Any religion, call it what you
will, Catholic, Methodist, Southern Baptist, whatever it is. If it's
man's free will and man's choice and man's decision and man makes
a blood effectual, that's anti-Christ. Because Christ is all. You know
that, don't you? Where did you find that out?
Who taught you that? Spirit of God. Some go out, Brother
Terrell preached on this, verse 9. Some go out, but not others,
because they want something else. Christ is not enough. What about
you? I know He's enough for some of
you. You've been around a long time. John tells me every time.
John tells me the same thing every time. That's all I want
to hear. That's what he said. Your dad.
That's all I want to hear. Don't preach anything else. Okay,
John. That's a good, that's a good
desire. I hear you. That's what the Lord
tells me. That's what his people want.
He says in verse 21, not written unto you because you know not
the truth, but you know it. No lies of the truth. There's
no gray area in the gospel, you know that? Very plain. Very plain. All right, down in chapter 3,
look at chapter 3. Behold, what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the
sons of God. You know, there was a time, that
didn't interest me. Being a Christian, wearing the
name of Christ, or being called a child of God, I had no desire
whatsoever. Wasn't there a time, John, that
never crossed your mind? Now, it's just beyond belief
in me. He says the world doesn't know
us. We don't even know ourselves very well. There's this new man
inside of us, but the old man's still there. But there's this
new man creating the image of Christ Jesus. Old things have
passed away and all things become new. Look at verse 2. We're the sons of God. It doth
not yet appear what we shall be. We know that when he shall
appear, we shall be like him. We'll see him as he is. Do you
want to be like Christ? I used to have some pretty ornery
fellas that I wanted to be like. I mean, there were some men,
some people, some wild and crazy people in this world that I'd
esteemed highly, and I wanted to be like them. Well, not anymore. There's one person I want to
be like. You? This whole chapter is talking
about the new man, verse 5. You know Christ was manifested
in the flesh to take away our sins. In Him is no sin. Those
that are in Christ, they have no sin. They're holy, unblameable,
unreprovable in God's sight because they're in Christ. That word,
in Him, means a lot to us today. We see it everywhere. It's hard
to read the Scripture without seeing in Him. And you know what
that means. in him. It also says, verse 7,
let no man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness is
righteous, even as he is righteous. It also means that God has created
this new man who is no longer a child of wrath, walking according
to the course of this world. The bent of his will and the
tenor of his life and his direction is no longer around this world.
He's following Christ. Now don't let anybody deceive
you. A man that's out there lying drunk, he's a drunk and he doesn't
know God. I don't care what he says in his head. A person whose
life is living for this world, they're of the world. They're
not of God. Right. Let no man deceive you.
So that's what this is saying. This new creature is an old man. They can't do anything but sin.
There's a new man, and they can't sin. Explain it. No. But it's true, isn't it? No man
can. It's just true. So he goes on. Now, verse 13. Marvel not, my brethren, that
the world hates you. The world hates this gospel.
And you remember when you first learned this gospel, you went
to your family and you start talking to them about the gospel
or you went to work and you start talking to people you work with
about the gospel. And they're supposed to be good
Christian. And all of a sudden, the veins pop out in our neck
and their teeth. And, you know, and now they don't
want anything more to do with you. What happened? If you're of the world, our Lord
said, the world would love its own. But you're not of the world.
I've chosen you out of the world. Therefore, the world hates you.
He said they hated me. They hate you. How could they
hate Jesus crying? How could anybody hate Jesus
crying? Because they don't know him.
They love a Jesus that they've made up. It's under their control. It loves them. You know, can't
do anything unless they let him. They love that kind of Jesus.
They will not have this Lord Jesus reign over them. What about
you? Come thou and reign over us. The world hates you. We know,
verse 14, chapter 3, we pass from death unto life because
we love the brethren. We really do. We really do. We really do. But He says, look, children,
verse 18, don't love in word only and neither in tongue, but
indeed in truth. This is His commandment, verse
23. That we should believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ,
and love one another as He has given us commandment. So we believe, don't we? We believe
on the name of the Son of God, the Lord. We believe Christ Jesus
is Lord. God made Him Lord before the
world began. He is Lord. He was Lord. He is
Lord. And we will be Lord. He is Jesus. He is Savior. What does His name
mean? Savior. What does that mean?
That means He saved His people from their sins. We believe He
saved us from our sin completely. Nothing left to be done. He did
it all. Christ the Messiah. And we'll look at that in just
a minute. Chapter 4. Believe not every spirit. Try
these spirits, these preachers, whether they're of God. Many
false prophets have gone out into the world. You know this
is so, don't you? You've heard them. You try them.
You put them to the test. How do you test false prophets?
Somebody tell me. Come on. This is it. You put them to the test. You
hear them preaching. Where does it say that? God just
told me. Where did He say that? You see
all these false prophets. God told me like that. No, He
didn't. No, He didn't. Triumph. Verse 4. You're of God, little children.
You've overcome them. Here's overcoming. You've overcome.
The whole world is overcome by these deceivers. These deceitful
men. He acts worse and worse, deceiving
and being deceived. How could people like doctors
and lawyers and scientists and politicians and all these people
be deceived by these obvious charlatans? How? Because our Lord blinds them. If you don't receive the love
of the truth, He sends you strong delusions. You'll believe a lie.
You don't believe them, do you? You try them. Put them to the
test. You don't believe them. Why? Because you're of God. You've been born of God. You've
overcome them. It's faith. You know when a man's
preaching the truth when he's not? Because the Spirit of God
has taught you. Verse 6, we're of God. Verse
5, they're of the world. They speak of the world, the
world hears them. That's what religion's all about. the world
in it. We want to hear about another
world, a world without end. We're of God, he that knows God
hears us. He that is not of God, heareth
not us. That's strong language, isn't it? That's how we know
the spirit of truth, the spirit of error. Now look at verse 9. This is
goes along. John wrote the Gospel of John,
you know, John 3, 16. Look at this. This will tell
you who the world is. And this was manifested, the
love of God toward us. He just told us not to love the
world in 1 John 2, 15. Any man love the world, the love
of the Father is not in him. How do you reconcile John 3,
16 with that? The world can't. You can. You
know. Read on. And this was manifested,
the love of God toward us, that is little children, God's people,
born of God, because God sent his only begotten son into the
world that we might live through him. People out of the world,
out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation in the world.
Jew, Gentile. All right? Now here's love, verse
10, that not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent
His Son to be the propitiation for our sin. Propitiation, that's
a big word, isn't it? Do you ever hear that in religion
today? Do you? Do you turn on your radio or
TV and you ever hear any modern preacher use that term? We do. What's it mean? There's a word in the middle
of that. Pitch. It means covering. That's what
it means. A bloody covering, just like
that pitch that covered that ark and everybody in it was safe
from that water coming in, destroying it. It's pitched on the outside
and the inside. We're covered. We like to talk
about propitiation. That's the blood again. Blood. So, he says in verse 13, Hereby
know we dwell in God, and He in us, for He has given us of
His Holy Spirit. What does the Holy Spirit do?
Does He make a person talk like a blooming idiot? Waller all
over the ground? No, no, no, it's the opposite.
He sits them down like a Gadarene demoniac. He makes them quit
wallering. It makes them sit wallowing in
the world, wallowing in sin. It makes them sit at the feet
of Christ, hearing the gospel, clothed in His righteousness
and in their right mind, the mind of Christ. And they don't
talk like a blooming idiot. In fact, they talk less than
they ever talked before. And if they're going to say something,
you know what they'll say? Christ is all. That's about all they've
got to say. What's your confession? I'm an
old sinner and nothing at all but Jesus Christ is my all in
all. Is that it? That's it. That's it. So, where am I? All right? Verse 15. Whosoever shall confess
that Jesus is the Son of God dwelleth in him, and he in God. Son of God? What's that mean?
Less than God? No, it means the only begotten
of God, the only bodily manifestation of God. The Jehovah Witnesses,
the Mormons, they all believe that he began when he was born
in Bethlehem. Yes, they do. He that believes that is anti-Christ,
not of God. Southern Baptists believe he's
less than God because he can't do anything unless you let him.
No difference. The Son of God, meaning He's
the express image of God, but He's just as much God as God
the Father. In fact, He said, you've seen
Me, you've seen the Father. He said, all judgment is Mine.
The Father hath life in Himself, and so hath the Son. He's equal
with the Father. He thought it not robbery to
be equal with the Father. Why? Because He is. And that's
not blasphemy. That's understanding that we
might know Him that is true. Who? The true and living God,
Jesus Christ. We call Him God. Thomas hit his
knee before that man named Jesus and said, My Lord and my God. And so do we. So do we. He's the Son of God, but not
less than God. All right. Chapter five. Now
here we get to chapter five. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. That's what we call him mostly
in Christ, don't we? If you look throughout the epistles,
you'll hear the word, it jumps out at you, Christ, Christ, Christ,
Christ, Christ. The name Jesus is used occasionally,
usually in conjunction with Jesus Christ, or the Lord Jesus Christ. I told you, Brother Cody Groover,
you know, I never heard him referred to him except the Lord Jesus
Christ. It was like he was saying one
word. But that's a sweet word, the Lord Jesus Christ. The fear
of the Lord. This is the beginning of wisdom.
Men don't fear Jesus. Nobody fears Jesus. That's why
they call Him Jesus. If you know Jesus is Lord, you
call Him Lord. And you fear the Lord. When Peter finally found out
who Christ was in his boat that day, who called the fish into
his net, he said, You're Lord. Lord of the universe. You didn't
know him, but you feared him, alright? Jesus, Savior. Barnard
used to say, you can't have Jesus as Savior unless He's first your
Lord. I first believed that Christ was Lord before I ever thought
He could save me. You know that? I didn't have any assurance that
I was saved, but I knew He was Lord and He could save me if
He would. I'm not sure if I was saved or not. I've never since then referred
to him as Jesus. He's the Lord Jesus. Christ. What does that mean? Christ. That's everything. That's all
of his offices. Prophet, priest, and king. He is that prophet of whom Moses
spoke, whom God gives the Word of God to, and no one else, to
speak to the people the words of God that will lead us into
the promised land, the Christ, okay? The prophet, that prophet.
We don't need any more prophets. These fellows out here that call
themselves prophets, they're liars. They're liars. We don't need any prophets. Christ
is our great prophet. Priest. We don't need a priest. You know how many millions of
people confessing to these little, someone called this thing, priestcraft,
like witchcraft. That's what it is. They're practicing
priestcraft like witchcraft. It's just as evil. It's worse.
Priestcraft. It's antichrist to claim to be
a priest of God to absolve sins and take people's confession.
That's antichrist. If we confess our sins, He's
faithful and just to forgive us our sins. We confess our sins
to one high priest. And you know what? He's able.
to absolve us of sin. He and He only. Prophet, priest,
and what? King. King of who? Kings. What's that mean? That
whoever reigns in any capacity, be it the mayor of a town to
the president on a throne, Jesus Christ controls him. And I am
so glad. I am just not worried about the
next election. I am just not. Are you? There's one election
we need to make sure of. Give diligence to make your calling
and election sure. Brethren, I'm looking at people,
I'm preaching to people that know what he's saying. You obviously
believe from your heart what John is saying. That tells me
there's a bunch of people in here born of God. That's amazing. If you bring
most of the world in here, they wouldn't sit here. They
wouldn't be sitting here this long. 30 minutes. No way. That's all it'll be in 30 minutes.
I'm going to hurt. All right, it says in verse 4,
Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world. This is the victory
that overcometh the world. What world? Well, we read back
there in chapter 2, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the
eye, and the pride of life, the world. The world is many things. You know, you've got this natural
world. It's beautiful. God made this world. Beautiful,
didn't He? It gives us all things richly to enjoy, the mountains,
the ocean, the sea, this natural world God made beautiful, isn't
it? But some people, the natural world, their life, it's their
life. They worship and serve the creature,
not the Creator. Some people like more than just
go out and go to the ocean and go to the mountains and go to
the rivers and go to the lakes and ski and let's do this, let's
do that. It's life. This is living. And
they'll die doing it. I like to ski. There's no ski,
but me and you and I have concluded we're probably getting a little
too old for that now. Break a bone. I like to go to
the beach. I love going to the beach. Don't
you? Mountains. Fishing. Don't you?
Is it your life? Is that what you live for? and
things, whatever they be, cars and all this, and Steve and I
can relate to this. We grew up loving cars, didn't
we? We just loved cars. I can name every car in the 50s,
every single car. I can name it. Me, to this day,
says, you don't know that's a 56 Chevy. There's no way you know
that. Yes, I do, too. And a 57, a Thunderbird,
and a 59 Impala. Yeah, we do, don't we, Steve? You remember how, you know, we
were just consumed with these things, weren't we, Steven? And
now, horses. Now, I can see a 55 Chevy go
by, that's pretty. It's just a car. Right? That's my life. And I see old
people pull up at Dairy Queen or whatever, my age, and get
out of one of these old Beautiful, classic cars that they got $100,000
in. That's their life. And they don't sit, they wouldn't
sit and hear the gospel of Christ for nothing. You've overcome the world. God's
given you this faith to see that this is not life. This is not
my life. Christ is my life. Isn't it? That's what overcomes is supernatural,
God-given faith, desire. Faith is desire. Faith is love.
Faith is belief of who Christ is. And Christ is your all. Christ
is your life. He really is. Paul said, for
me to live is Christ. Oh, that I might win Christ and
be found in Him. That's faith that overcomes.
This is the victory. All right, let me go on. It says
in verse 10, he that believeth on the Son of God hath to witness
in himself. Do you really believe? Do you?
You can only answer that for yourself. And this is the record,
verse 11, that God has given us eternal life. This life is
in His Son. Salvation is a gift of God. We
know that, don't we? How thankful we are. He gave
us this life, this precious faith in his Son. He that hath the
Son hath life. And he says in verse 13, these
things I've written unto you that believe on the name of the
Son of God. This is to us, not to the world. That you may know
you have eternal life. Do you have any more assurance
now than when you first, when you came in here this morning,
this evening? Do you? Has this given you any more comfort
that you've been born of God and child of God? Has it? And
he said, I wrote these things that you might believe, that
you might more fully believe. Do you believe a little stronger
than when you came? I hope so. Faith overcomes. Where's faith come from? The
gift of God. How? By hearing the Word. You
need more faith? Then shut your ears to the world
and turn your ear toward God. It's overcoming. You won't be
overcome. The world shuts their ear, turning
away their ear from the truth. Well, you do the opposite. You
turn away your ears from what they're saying. And you listen
to God. Let the Word of God dwell in
you richly. This is overcoming faith. Lord, I believe you. I believe
God's true, and I believe every man's a liar. This overcomes the world, the
wisdom of the world, the ways of the world, the religion of
the world, things of the world. Whatsoever is born of God, verse
18, sinneth not. That is, it's not going to fall
away. Boy, don't you want to hear that?
We're kept by the power of God. Who's that? What's that? That's
Christ. The power of God. The Spirit of God is His power.
The Word of God is His power. The Gospel. If you keep coming
to hear the Gospel, if you must hear the Gospel, you're being
kept from falling away. So don't leave the Gospel. And we know He's come and given
us an understanding that He's the true God and eternal life.
Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Keep yourselves from
idols. So to believe is to look to Christ. To believe is to believe that
Christ is all. And everything else is nothing
at all. Okay? And so it comes to work. To believe
is to believe He's Your only hope is to call on Him, to plead
with Him. Okay? Say, Lord, You said, be
of good cheer. I've overcome the world. Lord,
this world is threatening me. And You own this place. Help
me. He will. Lord, You said, sin
shall not have dominion over me. Plead the Lord's promises,
okay? Plead His words. You said, sin
will not have dominion over me. You said, all that come to you
will no wise cast out. This world is threatening me,
Lord. Sin. Order my steps according to Thy
Word and let no iniquity have dominion over me, Lord. You said
it won't. Will He hear that? We just read that. If we ask
anything according to His will, according to His Word. Helen,
He said that. Plead it with Him. That's how
you'll overcome. Through Him. You can't do it. When we talk about faith, it's
not something you do, it's who you're looking to and appealing
to. Lord, You said, He that believeth
on You, the Son of God, hath life. I believe. Help thou my unbelief. Is that your desire? Okay. I stand with you.