And just another introduction
message tonight, but I certainly hope that you notice five chapters,
and then there's one in 2 John, one chapter in 2 John, one chapter
in 3 John. And I hope you all read this
and read it a couple of times, get familiar with it. But before
we read the scriptures, let's bow our hearts together and pray.
All right, I'm going to read this whole first chapter. that
which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we
have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our
hands have handled, of the word of life. For the life was manifested,
and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that
eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested
unto us. That which we have seen and heard
declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with
us, And truly, our fellowship is with the Father, and with
His Son, Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto
you, that your joy may be full. This then is the message, which
we have heard of Him, and declare unto you, that God is light,
and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship
with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth.
But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, We have
fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ,
His Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess
our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned,
we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. I've got another, you know, some
more introduction to do. Tell you a little about this
book. But why did John write this letter? Why did John write
this letter? Well, there's an early split,
and it happened often. In the churches, it was under
John's ministry. Ephesus, Babylon, and some denied
the central truths of the gospel. And not only that, but John's
authority as an apostle. After time had went by, this
is 60 years, something like that, after the death of Christ, 55,
60 years. And people that hadn't actually
been with the Lord Jesus Christ, they began to question the apostle's
authority. Paul's authority was questioned
oftentimes. And so that's one reason why
I wrote it, because they denied John's ministry and his apostleship. And these dissenters, these people
seem to have a form of Gnostic teachings. And I mentioned this
last week. Claiming that they had a secret knowledge from God. A secret knowledge from God that
John and his disciples didn't possess. So he had to address
that issue. People that think they have a
secret knowledge from God that John and his disciples didn't
possess. And also, these dissenters, these
people claiming a better knowledge confuse many young believers.
That's why he said, I write unto you young men, I write unto you
fathers, write unto you, and call them little children. Because
they claiming that they had a better knowledge, they confuse many
young believers. Should they have followed the
apostles gospel, or those who had a better revelation? Had
a better revelation. And the apostle, in light of
this, he shows his authority. And he proves it by the time
that he had with the Lord Jesus Christ himself. He said, we've
seen him, we've handled him, we've touched him. He was from
the beginning. And he was manifested from God,
and we were there when he was manifested from God. This life
was with God, and this Word, this Word of Life, this blessed
Son of God came from the Father. And we saw him, and we heard
him, and we handled him. And so, you know, he's, uh, he's,
uh, uses his approves his authority by the time that he had with
the Lord Jesus himself and the truths of the gospel that they
heard from the very beginning. Uh, he started out here in the
gospel and he heard it from the Lord Jesus himself. But the most
of this letter, a lot of this letter is most of it is a contrast
between the results of the gospel. and the results of false teachers.
We know what the results of the gospel is, the true gospel. We
know what the results of that is. It produces results. It changes men. It makes new
creatures out of people. It's the power of God unto salvation. And so he contrasts the true
gospel from the false gospel and the false professors. And
John, in his letter, he had served two purposes. First of all, to
assure believers, true believers in Christ, the gospel that he
has believed is the gospel. And secondly, to warn the false
professors of the danger that they were under fighting the
true gospel, denying the Lord Jesus Christ. And he uses these
themes. He makes this contrast and I
won't deal with just the contrast tonight. I won't deal with them.
And there's a bunch of them. And I know you'll see them when
I mention them. You'll understand them very quickly.
One of the contrasts that he makes is the contrast between
light versus darkness. He makes a great distinction
between light versus darkness. And there's at least 13 references
to light and darkness. He says here in verse 5, this
then is the message we've heard of him and declare unto you that
God is light. And what that means is that God
is perfect. There's nothing, no darkness
about God. There's no variableness about
Him. There's no shadow turning about Him. He is light. In fact, look over here with
me in 1 Timothy, back over here in 1 Timothy. Go to your right,
your left, excuse me, and go back over here to 1 Timothy and
let me show you what he's talking about. Psalms and I you know,
I believe it's in Psalm 104 I'll just quote this to you, but it
says over there that God clothes himself with a light And when that Shogun of glory
came down in the tabernacle when that light that cloud followed
him It was light a light that no, I mean people were just Moses
in the presence of God He had to put a veil over his face Because
when He comes down, so the glory that's shown on His face, beloved,
He shines so much just being in the presence of God. And look
what He says here in 1 Timothy 6 and verse 15. 1 Timothy chapter
6. You know, there's at least 13
verse references to it. And He's dealing with the very,
very being of God. God is perfect. God's light shows
that about Him. He says, which in his times,
talking about the Lord Jesus Christ and his appearing, which
in his times he shall show who is the blessed and only potentate,
the King of kings and Lord of lords, listen to this, who only
hath immortality, dwelling in the light, which no man can approach
unto, whom no man hath seen nor can see, to whom be honor and
power forever and ever. Amen. So you see, he talks about
light and darkness. He deals here with the very,
very existence of God. How God is light. There's nothing
dark about Him. And when there's darkness involved,
that always deals with the darkness that's in men's mind, the darkness
of men's hearts, the darkness of... The scripture says in John
1.4, the light shined in darkness. And what happened? The darkness
didn't even comprehend it. And that's what he's saying,
that God is light, and there's no darkness about Him. So if
you have any darkness in you, have any darkness in you, then
you don't, you're not in the light. You don't know God. That's
what he's saying here. God is light, and if you're walking
in the darkness, and your God's got any darkness about Him whatsoever,
then you don't know Him. That's what he's saying. Darkness
is the very opposite of God's perfection. And it reveals that
men don't know God. You know it started out, you
know one of the first things, the time darkness is mentioned
in the scriptures? In the beginning was God. And darkness was upon the face
of the deep. And God said, let there be light. Darkness and light can't be together. When God says darkness, you've
got to go, it goes. And He does that, He shines His
light into the darkness of men's hearts. And oh, darkness upon darkness,
oh my goodness. I tell you, the light shines
in darkness. Look over here with me, and I
want you to see this. This is Matthew 6. Look at this
here. This is something. that is so plain about this light
and darkness business. And look in Matthew 6.22. Oh, darkness. You know, He said in Isaiah 5,
He said they put darkness for light and light for darkness.
They just have it backwards. But look what he said here in
Matthew 6, 622. The light of the body is the eye. An eye is
your understanding. Not this physical eye, but I
mean it shows that all the light that we get comes through the
eye, comes through the mind, comes through this understanding.
If therefore your eye, your understanding be single, then the whole body
shall be full of light. But now watch this. But if your
eye be evil, the whole body shall be full
of darkness. And if therefore the light, the
light that you claim to have, the light that you rejoice in,
the light that you say I'm saved by, if that light in you that
is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness. And so that's the same thing
as, you know, being twice dead. Dead in sins and dead in religion. It's one thing to be dead in
sin, but to go out here and join up with religion and be dead
in your religion. As old Barnard used to say, the
best thing you can do is get a cross hanging around your neck
and buy you a Bible and join a Baptist church and God will
never bother you. And then so light versus darkness.
Here's the second contrast that he makes over here. Life versus
death. Life versus death. Not only is light versus darkness,
but life versus death. He refers to life and death 24
times in this little five chapters. Life and death. Life and death. And you know, when you ever find
life, light goes with it. Life and light go together. You
can't know God and not be in the light, and you can't be in
the light and not know God. Life and light go together. Ain't
that what our Lord Jesus Christ says? In Him was life, John 1,
for in him was life, and the light, that life, was the light
of men. He that walketh and followeth
me shall not walk in darkness, but shall walk in the light.
Walk in the light. And oh, you know what John said?
The same John here. He says, this is eternal life. that they might know thee the
only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. And oh,
listen, and death, contrasting life and death. I tell you what,
how many, you go through this thing and find life and death
all over through it. You know, it's just light and
darkness, life and death all the time. And death is those,
death. When you go through here, you
find death. That's people that don't know God. They don't know
Christ. They don't want to know Christ.
They want to keep their false professions. They want to keep
death and darkness is the same thing, just like life and light
and life, light and life. You know, that's, that's what
he says, you know, and he says here in verse six of chapter
one, You know, talking about fellowship with Him. If we walk
in the light, He is in the light. And if we have fellowship with
Him, we walk in the darkness and we lie and do not. And oh
my, how many places you go through here and He'll talk about death. Life and death. Life and death. And since life and light go together,
death and darkness go together. And they're the same thing. And
John makes such a distinction in those things. Such a distinction. You go through here and you read
these things and about life being in Christ and everybody outside
of Christ is dead. Dead, you know, and the only,
you know, we've passed from death to life. Ain't that what he says? We pass from death unto life. Those who have life, he that
is begotten of God hath life. He that hath not life hath not
God, he said. And so you see, and let me give
you another one. This is really important. Light and darkness, life and
death, and love versus hate. Love versus hate. If God is light, God is light. He says God is
light. There's no darkness about Him. He also says that God is
love. And He references love and hate
in this particular book 57 times. He talks about love and hate. 57 times. Look what He says here
in chapter 1, verses 10 and 11. No, excuse me. Chapter 2, verses
10 and 11. I'm sorry. Chapter 2, verses 10 and 11.
Look what he says here. He that loveth his brother abides
in the light, and there's none occasion of stumbling in him.
But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in
darkness, and know not where they goeth, because the darkness
hath blinded his eyes." Christ can't dwell in a man and the
love of God not be in him and hate at the same time, except
the things that oppose God. Let me look over here at chapter
4 and verse 20. know how many times he said that
in this chapter this this particular chapter look how many times love
is mentioned just in this chapter but he says in verse 20 if a
man say if a man say i love god oh i love god i love the lord
i love jesus if a man say i love god and hateth his brother he's
a liar He makes that so plain? He's a liar. And look what else
he says. For he that loveth not his brother
whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we
from him that he who loveth God love his brother also. You see
the great contrast between love and hate. Love and hate. He not only loves God, but he
loves his brethren. We know we've passed from death
unto life. Why? Because we love the brethren. If you ever went someplace the
very first time to a meeting somewhere, a conference somewhere
and never been around folks, you go your first time and you
immediately feel at home. You feel comfortable there. You
know why that is? Because we're all members of
the same body. We're all born of the same Spirit,
all have the same love and need for Christ, all know that we're
born to have the same Father, and we can actually meet together
without even knowing one another, but yet, after we get to know
one another, we'll know one another, and it's as if we've always known
them. You know why? Because brothers know brothers. Sisters no sisters You don't walk in a place say
boy, I'll tell you what You know, I'm gonna I'm gonna sit over
here because I love these people over here, but that bunch over
there I just don't know about that fella. I don't know about
that woman. I don't know about this. That's not the way believers
think charity love covers a what a multitude of sins And you're talking about love
covering a multitude of sins. Look how much the love of Christ
covered sin. I mean, His love puts sin away
once and for all. And He does not ever bring it
up. And how can we have the love
of God in us and not love the Lord's people? That's what He
said here in 1 John chapter 5. Look what He says here in 1 John
5, 1 and 2. Talking about this love and hate.
He said, Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born
of God. Born of God. And everyone that
loveth Him that beget, that gives that new birth, loveth Him also
that's begotten of Him. God begets you and everybody
else begotten of Him. How can you not love him that
begets you? We got the same daddy. And then look what he says, by
this, we know that we love the children of God when we love
God and keep his commandments. Oh my, he not only love, you
know, this is a mark. This is one of the greatest marks
of a believer that they are, is this thing called love. That's
something you cannot fake. You can fake faith. You can fake
doctrine. But one thing you cannot fake,
you cannot phony it up, and that's love. You can't do it. You cannot
counterfeit love. It can't be done. It just can't. It just can't do it. And not
only does he love God and love his brethren, But he also hates,
when we talk about hate, he also hates what's opposed to God.
He hates every false way. He hates whatever's opposed to
God. He hates the world that's opposed to God. He hates religion
that's opposed to God. And he verily, verily, truly,
truly hates sin. You know to us, let me, I don't
wanna, I'm gonna digress just a little bit. Talking about sin.
Do you know that sin, that you don't have to do a thing, no
sin to a believer becomes so real and so acute that even his
thoughts sometimes, he just feels sin in his thoughts and he'll
immediately say, oh God have mercy. He'll have it in his attitude. If his attitude's not right,
he'll say, oh God forgive me. He can't help it. He can't help
it. Now let me give you another one.
Love, Light and Darkness, Life vs.
Death, Love vs. Hate, and Obedience vs. Sin. Obedience vs. Sin. Look over
here in 1 John 2. Obedience vs. Sin. And here's
the thing. To love Christ is to obey Him. He's our Lord. He's our Savior. And why do we want to obey Him. Why do we want to walk according
to His will? Why do we want to walk according
to His Word? It's because we love. Because we love Him. And
because of His love for us. And our love for His love for
us and our love for Him. But look what He says here in
1 John 2. In verse 3 and 4. Hereby 1 John 2, verses 3 and 4. Hereby
we do know that we know Him if we keep His commandments. Now,
what are some of the commandments our Lord gave us? Well, you can
read the Sermon on the Mount. And when He got through saying
what He was going to say, He said, Be ye perfect as My Father,
which in heaven is perfect. Be merciful as My Father is merciful.
Love one another like I've loved you. That's three right there
off the top of the bag. Be a peacemaker. Blessed are they that make peace. I love these things, don't you?
I don't find no fault with any of them. That's just wonderful,
ain't it? What our Lord, did our Lord give
us something to do that He didn't give us the ability to do it?
And look what He says here in verse 4 then. He that saith,
He that saith, and He makes these distinctions, these great contrasts.
And He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments,
is a liar. And the truth, truth is not in
Him. That's just, that's black and
white. That's black and white. And our
Lord Jesus Christ, look again over here in 1 John 5, 3 and
4. You know, our Lord Jesus, open sin, you know, He said in
1 John 3, He says, He that sinneth, that's in the present tense,
living in sin, continuing in sin. He that's in open sin and
rebellion, against the Word of Christ, against the Word of God,
against the things of Christ, is evidence of hating Christ.
And he contrasts the difference between Christ's commands and
sinning and references it at least 36 times in this particular
book. But look what he says here in
1 John 5, 3, and 4. For this is the love of God,
that we keep His commands. And His commandments are not
grievous. I just told you a few of them. Is any of them grievous?
To be merciful? Forgive one another even as God
for Christ's sake has forgiven you? When you stand praying,
forgive? By this shall all men know you
are my disciples. You'll have love one to another. And as I have washed your feet,
you have seen me do this, and said, you do the same, but do
like you have seen me do. No man is above his Lord or his
Master. So, you know, so many things. But look what else he says. For
whatsoever, this faith, this love that God gives us, for whatsoever
is born of God, overcometh the world. And this is the victory
that overcometh the world, even our faith. And so you see, beloved, and
then let me give you a last one. Let me give you the last one
here. Truth and error. Truth versus
error. And this is really the theme
of this whole entire book. It's the reason for all the other
contrasts. John teaches what is true. and
what is false, so the Lord Jesus Christ people can follow Christ.
He said, these things are written, that believe, that you may believe,
that you know you believe. And oh, look what he says over
here in 1 John 2.21. Oh, talking about teaching what
is true. He says this, I've not written
unto you because you don't know the truth. I've not why I wrote
to you because you didn't know the truth. You know the truth. And he goes on to say this, that
no lie. You can't tell a lie. On God,
you can't tell a lie on the scriptures. Don't lie to yourself. For he
that lies, You know, you know this, that no lie has anything
to do with truth. Ain't that what he says? Huh?
And look chapter 4, verse 1, look what he says here. Oh, he says, Beloved, believe not every spirit,
but try the spirits, whether they are of God. Oh boy. Try the spirits? How do you try the spirits? Well,
he's going to tell us how. Well, they are God because many
false prophets are going out into the world. Now, here's how
you know the difference between the spirit of a false prophet
and the spirit of God. Hereby know ye the spirit of
God. This is how we know, and you
notice how that's capitalized. talking about the Holy Spirit.
Then he talks about our spirit, every spirit, my spirit, your
spirit, anybody's spirit, that confesses that Jesus Christ is
coming to flesh, that God was manifest in the flesh, that Jesus
Christ was God, and that he came here in the flesh. And every
spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ is coming to flesh,
that Jesus is a boy in a manger, you know, he's on a cross, and
that he loves everybody and he died for everybody. And there's
no power in his blood until your faith makes his blood effectual.
And that you can't be born again until you believe. They says
everybody that's like that, he's an antichrist. That that spirit
is not of God and this is that spirit of Antichrist where you
have heard that it should come even as now already in the world. And all listen to this, you are
of God little children and you've overcome them. Because greater is he, who's
he that's in you? The Holy Spirit is greater in
you than he that's in the world. Oh, listen, beloved, truth versus
error is mentioned 13, referenced 13 times. And he distinguishes
between the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. And this
is one thing that our Lord himself taught us in John 16. He said,
when he, the spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into
all truth. For he shall take the things
of mine, belong to me, and shall show them unto you, teach them
unto you. And every one that hath heard
and learned, he comes to me." Makes such a distinction in all
these things. What a contrast. And you know
what? Every one of you all sat here
and listened to that tonight, and you said, boy, that's right,
that's right, that's right. There's such a difference between light
and darkness. Love and hate. Life and death. Obedience to
sin. Truth and error. Incredible difference. And John says, I want you to
know the difference. This is what you're like and
this is what these other fellows are like. You're going to follow
them or you're going to follow the gospel. You're going to follow
Christ. Makes it very plain. Our Father, in the precious,
precious holy name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, thank
you for allowing us this time. Oh, what a time. A time together
with God's people, the Lord's people, to come into this place
that you provided us, warm and comfortable, to sit and be able
to Open the scriptures and let's see for ourselves what you have
to say. Oh, thank you. How blessed we
are. Oh, how blessed we are. Thank
you for teaching us the truth, not leaving us in darkness, not
leaving us in the death of our sins. Oh, Lord, blessed be your
name. God, all you had to do was just
leave us alone, and we would have perished. But you brought
us light. You brought us life. You put the love of God in our
hearts by the Holy Ghost, and we thank you for it. Oh, how
we thank you. God bless these dear saints.
Keep them and preserve them, those that'll be traveling. See
them safely there and see them safely home. Protect and preserve
them. God strengthen and encourage,
save you people in this place. We ask it for Christ's sake,
amen, amen.