Chapter 5, 1 John chapter 5. We'll start at verse 19 and read
down through verse 5 of chapter 5. Verse 19 of chapter 4. We love Him because He first
loved us. If a man say, I love God, and
hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother
whom he hath seen, how can he love God with whom he hath not
seen? And this commandment have we
from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. And every one that loveth him
that begat 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 whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world, 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. All right, back here in 1 John,
verse 1 of chapter 5. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God, and every one that loveth him
that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this we
know that we love the children of God, and 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. You know, as talking here, John
has dealt with this consistently throughout this epistle as to
what we believe. We're not Antichrist. We can
believe and confess that Jesus is the Son of God, that God sent
him into this world to be the Savior. And he starts out here
and said, whoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of
God. And not only to talk about faith,
what we're to believe, and what we confess but he consistently
talked about love and he talked about brotherly love and so I
want to use tonight faith and love from these verses of scripture
faith and love and here he continues the same also in this chapter
and he deals with the nature of faith and the nature of love
but the Lord Jesus Christ is the object of both he's the object
of our faith and if we have love we love him And if he loved him,
then we love those that's been begotten of him. And saving faith
and cannot be separated from love. Where there's saving faith,
there's love. And where there's genuine love of God, there's
saving faith. They go hand in hand. They cannot
not do that. And look what he says here. Whosoever
believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. He starts out
here talking about what it is to be born of God. The blessed
truth of being born of God. And this person that's born of
God, he believes. He believes something. And he
believes some wonderful things. And we're begotten of God. Ain't
that what he says there? Loveth him that begat. You know,
we were born, not of blood, not of the will of the flesh, not
of the will of man, but of God. And over here in James, you look
over here in James chapter one, back over a couple of books.
James chapter one in verse 18. Shirley and I was talking about
this on the way home, about being begotten of God. You think about,
we begat children. You go through the Old Testament,
so-and-so begat, so-and-so begat, so-and-so begat, so-and-so. Well,
we're begotten of God. That's what we, you know, we
have been begotten of God, begotten from the dead, begotten unto
life. And when God begets, you know,
He had an only begotten Son. But in the new birth and being
born again, we're begotten of God Himself. Look what it says
in verse 18 of James chapter 1. Of His own will. That's how it's done. His will. begat he us with the word of
truth, begotten by the word, being born again by the word,
begotten by the word, begotten by the spirit of God, that we
should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. And so he's
born of God. And who's ever born of God? He
believes. He has some faith. And this faith
and this faith that he has and the things that he believes is
this, whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ. Now, what
is it to believe that Jesus is the Christ? Jesus is his name
of humanity. That's the name that God told
the angel to tell Mary to name him and told Joseph, this is
who you're going to name him. John, they told Zechariah, his
daddy, what to name him. That's his earthly name. That's
the name as a man. Jesus, Joshua, Jehovah, Savior. But when it comes to the Christ,
that means the anointed one. The Jews called him the Messiah.
And they were looking for the Messiah, the one anointed of
God in Christ. Is that what the word means?
Anointed. Anointed. And God gave him the
Spirit without measure. And he is anointed to his particular
office, to a particular work. And you go through the Old Testament
and you know Aaron was the first one anointed. First person you
find anointed in the Scriptures. And he was annoyed and set apart
for the office of the priesthood. And that's what it meant in Psalm
133, it said how pleasant and good it is for brethren to dwell
together in unity. It's as the oil that run down
on Aaron's beard. That's when they anointed him,
that oil run down on his beard, run down on his front, because
he was anointed. And so it talks about Christ,
he's the anointed one. And when you talk about Christ
being the anointed one, God's elect, And when we say that we
believe that Jesus Christ is, Jesus is the Christ, we believe
He's the one that God anointed and sent into this world. That
there's no other person that He sent and that He anointed
to come to do the work that He did. And our Lord Himself said,
the Father hath given Him the Spirit without measure. Now when
we talk about we believe that Christ is anointed, it includes
all of the offices of the Son of God. Every office that he
has and everything that he did, he was anointed for that particular
office. He is anointed to do that, set
apart to do that. And so when we say Christ, Jesus
is the Christ, the anointed one, To believe him to be the Christ
is to believe him to be that prophet, that prophet that Moses
said should come. And do you know what it says?
I've got it marked. You don't have to look. I'm going
to read it to you. But I'm going to read it to you here about
what Moses said about that prophet that should come. And Christ
is that prophet. That's why they asked John the
Baptist, are you that prophet? Are you the Christ? Because they
know that there was a prophet coming. They know that God was
going to anoint a man who was going to come to be a prophet.
And it says in Deuteronomy 18 and verse 15, 17, excuse me,
and the Lord said unto me, they have well spoken that which they
have spoken. I will raise them up a prophet,
capitalized prophet, this anointed one, this office that he's going
to be from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put
my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that
I shall command. And it shall come to pass that
whosoever will not hearken unto my words, which he shall speak
in my name, I'll require it of him. And that's what Moses, what
he's that prophet that should come into this world. And He
came as God's prophet to declare the whole mind of God, to declare
the whole will of God. He Himself says, the words that
I speak, they're not mine, they're the words of Him that sent me.
Every word that come out of His mouth, God put that word in there. He made the mind of God. He made
the will of God. He made it known and He told
it all out completely. So that there's no excuse. For
a man that believing that Jesus is the Christ don't know the
mind and will of God concerning salvation, concerning the work
that he is to do. And secondly, to believe that
he is the Christ is to believe that he is that priest, that
priest that should arise after the order of Melchizedek. Now
what kind of priest was Melchizedek? He is the priest of the Most
High God. He was the priest that Abraham went to. He was the priest
that he had fellowship with. He was the priest that had no
beginning of days and no ending of days. He has no descent. We don't know where he come from.
Don't know where he went after Abraham left him. But I tell
you, he said, he'll be a high priest forever, forever, after
the order of Melchizedek. And as the high priest, and as
our priest, our Lord Jesus Christ, as a priest, he had to make atonement
for sin. He had to offer sacrifice for
sin. And when he made that atonement
for sin, then he ascended to heaven, and as a priest, he intercedes
for us right now before God. That's what it is to believe
that Jesus is the Christ. That he's the priest and he's
going to forever be the priest. There's not a priest on the face
of this earth. Nowhere since Christ came into
this world and the only priesthood before that was the Arianic priesthood
that God anointed and God set apart. So there's no priest on
this earth. We have one priest and he's forever. Forever a priest. Where'd he
come from? No beginning of day. Where'd
he come, where's he going? He has no descent. Who is he? Priest of the Most High God.
What does he do? He offers a sacrifice. And then
after he does that, he takes up our case and our cause before
God. And thirdly, to believe that
Jesus is the Christ, it's to believe that he is that king. That king that he said, David,
I'll set a man on your throne and he shall sit on your throne
forever and ever and ever. And oh my, and you know when
our Lord Jesus Christ, he's not a king and didn't act like a
king like other men's kings did. He came meek and lowly riding
on a colt, a foal of an ass, but he was a king. And they strawed
the garments in the way, hailed thou. Now they've hailed him
and But God set him king. King. A lot of people believe
he's going to be king in the millennium. He's king right now. He's king over his people. He's
king over the world. Where does it say he sits? He sits on the throne, don't
he? Sits on the throne by the right hand of God. And he is
a king, and as a king, he defends his subjects, he fights for his
subjects, he provides for his subjects, and he closes his subjects,
he feeds his subjects, and he fights all the battles for his
subjects. His subjects don't do nothing but love the king.
You know, as David's decided, those being that love David,
they danced in the front of David. They danced around David. Saul
slew a thousand, David slew his 10,000. That's the way we do.
We love our King. We love our King and we laud
our King and we bless our King. And oh, beloved, and I'll tell
you something. This believing, this whosoever
believing, that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God. But this
believing is not just given ascent, not just given an ascent to a
fact. People say the Gospels in 1 Corinthians 15, the death,
burial, and resurrection of Christ, but that's not so. That's facts.
It says there that he died according to the scriptures. He was buried
according to the scriptures. He rose again according to the
scriptures. So you got to find out what the scripture says.
And that's what he's saying. Just give mental ascent an agreement
to a fact or to merely acknowledge that Jesus is the Christ. The devils have done that. Look
and look for it. The devils have done that. So
just to give an acknowledgement, that He's the Christ and given
the ascent to it, to a fact. But look what it said here in
Luke 4.41. Oh, whosoever believeth that
Jesus is the Christ. He's the Christ. He's the anointed
one. He's anointed to an office. He's
anointed to a work. He's anointed to be prophet.
He's anointed to be priest. He's anointed to be king. And
God anointed him, dawg. He anointed him with the oil
of gladness above his fellows. And look in Luke 4.41. And devils
also came out of many, crying out and saying, Thou art the
Christ! Thou art the Christ! The devils
acknowledged him as the Christ. And not only that, but the Son
of God. And he rebuking them, suffered them not to speak. Don't
say another word. For they knew that he was the
Christ. But didn't do him any good. Didn't
do him any good. They knew who he was. They knew
he was anointed. And God sent him in here, into
this world. But what is it that God sent
whosoever believeth to believe? To believe, to have this faith
that Jesus is the Christ. is to believe with the heart.
Is to give your whole being over to Him. To believe with all your
soul. To believe with your heart. Believe
with all that you have within you that yes, this is God's anointed
servant. This is the one that God sent
here. Is to believe with the heart. With the heart man believes. and all secondly is to look to
Christ to look to him look to him for everything look to him
and trust him i know whom i have believed to look look to him
look to him i'll tell you what why would anybody want to look
anywhere within themselves or to themselves for any kind of
a hope or encouragement you couldn't do it could you so that's why
we say we look to him Trust Him. Believe Him. Embrace Him. And all, beloved, is to believe
with the heart is to believe that He is our only righteousness. That's the only righteousness
that there is in this world that God looks at and accepts is the
righteousness of Christ Himself. And that's what He said, Whosoever
believeth these things. That's what faith is. It's trusting,
looking, believing, committing, loving and being your righteousness. And it's to rest in His blood.
Rest in His blood from all cleansing. If His blood cleanses us from
all sin, well then rest in that. Rest in that. Don't go back looking
at all your sins. If you do that, oh my goodness,
we all got plenty of them behind us and we got plenty of them
in front of us yet. But rest in His blood for cleansing. His blood cleanses us from all
sin. No, to lay hold on Him, to believe
Him is to lay hold on Him as our only Savior, as the only
Savior we got. We have no other Savior, no other
help, no other hope. And it's to lay hold on Him as
our Redeemer. And let me say something about
redemption and being redeemed. We didn't become redeemed when
we became believers. It's because Christ redeemed
us when he died on the cross. And that word redeem and redemption
means to save from debts, obligations, slavery, sin, everything that's
against you. He redeemed us out from under
that. He redeemed us out from under
sin, redeemed us out from under the bondage of the law, redeemed
us out from under the awful wrath and justice of God. And we look
to Him as our only Redeemer and look to Him as our only Mediator.
How can we go to God? If I want to speak to the Father,
how am I going to do it? If I'm going to go in the presence
of God, how am I going to do that? What am I going to do to
go into the presence of God? There's only one name God will
recognize. Only one person God will recognize.
It ain't me. It ain't you. It's His blessed
Son. We go up there and He said, hitherto
you've not asked nothing. Ask in my name. Now listen, that's
the only way we can come into the presence of the Father. And
the only way the Father can have anything to do with us is through
His mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, need a mediator. Oh, and He's a mediator. Oh,
what a blessed mediator He is. And faith like this, Faith like
this is so far above the reach of the human mind. Father, can you imagine a dog
thinking and being like a human being? It's easier to think of
a dog rising to us than us rising to God without the Spirit of
God. A dog cannot enter into a man's mind, and no more can
the human mind reach into this faith. It's so far above him,
so far above the human mind. And if a man has faith, God gave
it to him. It's the gift of God, not of
works. God gave it to us. And I'll tell
you not only this, it's the result of, and he said, he that believeth
that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. We're born of God's.
Why? We believe that Jesus is the
Christ. You can't believe until you have
life. And faith is the result of the
new birth. That's what he's saying here.
And I tell you, we can't commit the natural man, the human mind.
This is so far above him. He don't get it. And we must,
if we come to God, if we come to Christ and come to this faith,
God's got to draw us. God's got to draw us. I was talking
to somebody the other day and this subject come up, you know,
people want to talk, tell people how to pray, pray the sinner's
prayer and, and, uh, uh, go through this step, that step, and another
step. But I told him, I said, how in the world did somebody
get to God then? I said, God has to draw. And
I said, you know, as Peter drew that sword out of his sheath
to cut Malchus of Zerah, drew it out, he said, that's the same
word that God uses to draw us. He has to reach and get a hold
of us and draw us. And the scripture says that that
no man can come unto the Father. No man can come unto Me except
the Father which hath sent Me draw him. Draw him. And I tell
you what, beloved, if He draws you, you're coming. I mean, you're
coming. And not only that, everyone that
hath heard and it is written, they shall all be taught of God. What does God teach us? That
Jesus is the Christ. that Jesus is the Savior, that
Jesus is the Mediator, that Jesus is the Redeemer, that Christ
is one God sent into this world and no other way we can come
to God except through and by Him. And I tell you, when we've
heard and learned of the Father, we come to Christ and I tell
you something, we just keep coming and keep coming and keep coming
and keep coming until we end up in glory and we can't come
anymore. then it says here in this verse
here, Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of
God, and listen to this, and everyone that loveth him, that
loveth God, that loveth God who begat him, that begat that soul,
that even begat the Lord Jesus Christ and begat us, they loveth
him also that is begotten of him. We love God, the one that
begat. Begat us? Christ is the only
begotten of the Father. And everyone that's begotten
of God, he says here, we love them. We love him that is begotten
of God. Begotten of God. And those who
are born of God, will love all who are born of God. They will. All those who are born of God
will love all who are born of God. Look over here in verse
seven of chapter four. Beloved, let us love one another,
for love is of God. And everyone that loveth is born
of God. Born of God. And he knows God. It makes it so plain. That's
why John talks so much about love. Look what he says down
in verse 12. chapter four no man has seen God at any time
nobody has if we love one another if we love one another God dwells
in us lives in us and his love is perfected in us it's complete
in us it's mature in us and then look what he said down verse
20 if a man say I love God and hateth his brother like Cain
hated his brother Like Esau hated Jacob, and hateth his brother,
he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother,
whom he hath seen, how can he love God, whom he hath not seen?
So John deals with this all the time. And then look at verse
2 back over here in chapter 5. That's the nature of faith that
we just dealt with. Now, he shows us what true love
here in verse 2 is, and the nature of true love. By this we know
that we love the children of God, Listen to this, when we
love God and keep His commandments, oh my, the nature of love, true
love, true love born of God is when God holds the supremacy,
God holds the preeminence, God feels, we love Him, you know, we love Him,
we love God. We love God. We don't love Him
like we should. We don't love Him like we will.
But we love God. We love God. And He's preeminent
to us. He's everything to us. And we
may. We may profess. And by this we
know that we love the children of God and we love God and keep
His commandments. We may profess. It's easy for
us to profess. To love someone. Easy to do that. But we may profess to love someone
because of a natural relation. Husband, wife, son, daughter,
brother, sister, mother, father. But because of a natural relation.
And we may love somebody, profess to love them because of some
social friendship. Because we socialize with them
a lot. We have a lot in common socially. Or we may profess to love somebody
because we get a benefit from them. We get a benefit from them.
Or some kind of a favor received from them. And we may profess
to love somebody because of a natural attraction, but that's not brotherly
love. That's not spiritual love. That's
not a continuing love. True love, this love that John's
talking about here, for others comes from a true heart love
for God. Ain't that what he says? We know we love the children
of God when we love God. True love for others comes from
a true love heart for God. A true heart love for God. You
know when, if it's not the real thing, you know carnal love stops
when the relationship stops. When the attraction stops, or
the favor stops, or the benefits stop. And this is not love at
all, it's self-love. Because just as quick as it doesn't
suit you anymore, then the love stops. The favor stops and the
love stops. That's just self-love. But when
we love God, When we love God, we love them that belong to God. And we'll never cease to love
Him or them. I went in up at Central Friday
night. Brother Henry's sitting there.
And I went up and he just grabbed me like a big bear. And he said,
it's been way too long. And he just squeezed me. We squeezed
one another. And he said, I love you. I really,
really love you. And he does. I don't doubt it
a minute, but that's what he said. He said, he just grabbed
me and screamed like, I love you. Oh, I really love you. And that's the way, that's the
way it is. We better hug one another. Listen,
we grab one another and listen, I can't get around these preachers
and things like that when we don't kiss one another, when
we don't see one another for a while. And oh my. But we love God when we love
them that belong to God or begotten of God, and we never cease to
love Him or them. And then look what he says in
verse 3. For this is the love of God, this is the love of God,
that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not
grievous. Keeping God's commandments, that's the evidence of love to
God. For this is the love of God. This is the evidence that
we have the love of God, that we keep His commandments. keep
His commandments. And this shows us by keeping
His commandments and loving Him and Him loving us, shows that
love is not just in word, is not just in tongue, it's not
in profession only, but it's in deed, it's in deed and it's
in truth. You know, you find a heart and
this is, you know, this is the way salvation is, this is the
way it is. When somebody has your heart, they got you. If
they don't have your heart, they ain't got you. But if they've
got your heart, they've got you. Is that not right? And that's
why God said, My son, give me your heart. And when our hearts
belong to God, when our hearts belong to Him, and they're devoted
to Him, delighted in Him, and one of the greatest desires or
our greatest desire, will be to do His will and obey what
He says in His Word. Obey what He says in His Word.
Not pick and choose what we like and what we don't like. No, no. It's in our hearts to honor Him
and to desire to do His will and obey His Word. And look what
it says there. For this is the love of God that
we keep His commandments. And look what it says. And His
commandments are not grievous not grievous. His commandments
are not burdensome. They're not heavy. Is this thing
heavy to you? Is the things that God says heavy
to you? They're not heavy to me. Not heavy to me. You know,
one commandment God gave us was to believe on his son. Another
commandment was that you love one another. Another commandment
was abide in me and then I'll abide in you. that His commandments are not
grievous, they're not heavy, they're not burdensome, and they're
not disagreeable. I don't disagree with anything
in God's Word. I don't, it's not disagreeable
to me. Is it to you? Oh, they're not hard, they're
not heavy, they're not disagreeable to the one who's born of God
and loves God. Our Lord Jesus Christ said it
this way. He said, my burden is light, my yoke is easy, and
my burden is light. And it is, ain't it? Remember
we carried that old burden of self-righteousness, and that
old burden of legalism, and that old burden of works, and that
old burden of trying to satisfy God? We don't carry that anymore.
Our Lord's yoke is easy, and His burden is so light, so light. That's why Paul said, with my
mind, I serve the law of God. Now I know, I'm not a fool, I
know that we struggle with the flesh, We struggle with our flesh,
we struggle with the desires of the flesh, and there's always
a conflict, always a war between the flesh and the spirit, always
a war between the flesh and the spirit. But I tell you where
the warfare doesn't come from, and where the trouble doesn't
come from, it doesn't come from God's commandments. No, no. It doesn't come from the commandments
of Christ or our love for Him. or even our desire to be like
Him. But it comes from this old corrupt
flesh. When Paul says, that that I would
do, I don't. That that I love, I don't do. And that that I hate, I do. So
I see a war in my members. And that's going to happen, you
know, this old corrupt flesh. But the burden and the trouble
doesn't come from Christ's commandments. And I love for Him, and love
for His Word, and He loved for His commandments. And that's
why David said this, You know when I'll be satisfied? When
I awake and I like this. His commandment's not grievous.
Faith and love. Faith and love. The nature of
faith, whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ. That man's
been born of God. Where'd he get that faith from?
From God. Why does he believe that? God taught him. God begat
some people. And we love those that's been
begotten of God. We love His commandments. And
they're not heavy. They're not burdensome, are they? Not hard to deal with, not hard
at all. Our Lord Jesus, our precious
Savior, blessed Savior, precious to our souls, precious to our
hearts, our minds, and our wills. Lord, it's in our will, it's
in our desire. Lord, it's in our desire to honor
you. It's in our desire to obey you,
to do your will. And Lord, to pray that you would
enable us And if we keep our heart and mind stayed on you,
what a blessing life would be. If we wouldn't become encumbered
with troubles and work and things of time and sense. So Lord, it's
a delightful time when we can gather here, study your word,
see what you have to say to us. And I pray that what's been said
tonight will be used of the Holy Ghost. If he doesn't use it,
Lord, it won't be effectual. And I pray he'll use it. He'll
make it real. He'll make it alive. He'll make
it vital. If all they've heard is my voice tonight, it'll be
ineffectual, have no power. But God, if you drive it home,
it'll do something. Lord, make it real to my heart.
We ask these things in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Well,