We are now embarking upon a new
study in the gospel of John. I trust that it will be a blessing
to you. In the book of John, I want us
to deal with the introduction of this book. This is going to
require us considering the framework of the book and kind of getting
an overall synopsis of it before you can really appreciate any
book. Some people call the epistle
of john first john second john third john which is the word
for letters the greek term epistle is the word for letter they struggle
with whether or not this is a letter because when you read the the
way that this particular letter is formulated it is in not what
it's not in what we call classical greek uh letter form this is
more of what it's called a semitic Greek form of writing. It doesn't
have the formal introduction that you have in the epistles
of Paul and even of Peter. I, Paul, apostle of Jesus Christ,
thank God the Father for you, the saints in Christ, dah, dah,
dah, dah, dah. That's how almost all of your formal letters were
written in the Greek culture. Your Semitic, which is the Hebrew
form of writing, is much more personal, and it gets to the
point And here in the letters of John, 1st John particularly,
and 2nd and 3rd John get extremely intimate. And he does that because
the letter that John has written here, he has written to several
local churches that were his. He was the pastor over these
churches, the apostolic pastor over these churches to whom he
is writing. and he has a very intimate relationship with them
on a profoundly pastoral level, which gives him an advantage
in terms of the issues that he's going to address, but it gives
you and I a certain disadvantage. So I want you to think about
this. This is a part of expository listening or expository reading.
We talk about, there are assumptions that we all carry into whatever
we read, assumptions. A lot of times people will have
the assumption that reading the Bible should have the same experience
as reading a novel or the Reader's Digest or Jet Magazine or any
other form of literature and nothing could be further from
the truth. But here are some parallels to literature that
you can bring over into scripture and that's this. If literature
is a body or a corpus of writing that has several series to it,
and those series are connected in terms of their themes, One
knows that if you're dealing with a trilogy of books, if you
read the third trilogy, in order for you to really understand
the third trilogy, you got to read the second one and the first
one to actually get on the inside of the story and understand what
we call the language dynamics, the inner language dynamics. So to assume that you can read
your Bible as if the Bible is written directly to you would
be a flawed assumption. This is why sometimes when you
read your Bible, statements are made that appear to you to be
unqualified, open-ended, and ambiguous. And they are because
you are reading them from a perspective that does not apply to you directly. It's as if you are listening
to a conversation between two people. That dialogue between
those two people are personal. You are a third party to the
dialogue, which means you have certain disadvantages. If those
persons don't turn to you and say, he means this or she means
that, you are on the outside of that unless you can get behind
the conversation and understand the premise and the foundation
for their discourse. Am I making some sense? And so
people don't advance in their knowledge of the gospel or the
word of God and to enjoy the word of God if they don't take
those sorts of things into view. That being said, if you're going
to be really a good student of scripture, you're going to have
to be a little bit more methodic as to how to approach those texts
of scriptures that don't seem to make any sense to you. I get
a lot of new Christians who will say, well, this doesn't make
sense and that doesn't make sense. And I'll say, well, that's because
you haven't labored carefully enough for the clarity of that
text to open up to you. Are you interested enough in
what's being said there to do the research, to find out what
it means? See what I'm getting at? The
thing that you and I as Christians must never do, and that is to
tell God to make it so plain to us that we don't have to labor
to know the truth. That would be, again, an arrogance
and an assumption that would only belie our ignorance as to
how the Word of God was formulated and structured and put together.
You and I, when it comes to epistles, particularly epistles, are third
parties to other dialogues and conversations which of which
we need help being able to grasp what is the real and immediate
and fundamental meaning. So as we go into the the letter
of John to the church, to the churches to whom he ministered,
It is not general in the sense that he's writing to all churches
in a general way. It's specific, but it's application
applies to us. And I have stated that in your
outline, as you see, point number one, the objective of First John,
the objective, the objective of the epistle First John and
one could argue second John and third job, but more particularly
first John There's a continuity that flows through the other
two smaller epistles But I want this to enter into your head
that the objective of first John is true communion true and authentic
communion is the objective of first john if you read first
john what john's aim will be what his goal will be his goal
will be to establish or affirm true fellowship true communion
true fellowship those are the same terms, true fellowship,
true communion is what John will be seeking to affirm as he deals
with the church that he is ministering to you too. And therefore, what
I want you and I to grasp is we're going to have an opportunity
over these next five chapters to investigate what it means
to have true and authentic fellowship with God. First John is written
and designed for us to investigate and to query the question, what
is true and authentic fellowship with God? The man or the woman
that will stand the labor, persevere through the labor, if the development
of the studies are careful and God blessed, we will learn what
true and authentic fellowship means. And when we say true and
authentic fellowship with God, we can sense this by the opening
of the first three verses of which I want to read now. And
I'm gonna come back and talk about this true fellowship in
a general sense. Listen to the way he opens up.
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 you
may also have fellowship with us And truly our fellowship is
with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. And these
things we write unto you, that your joy may be full. What an interesting way in which
to open up a letter. Notice he opens up the letter
with a strange little clause, that. that which was from the
beginning, which we've heard and seen with our own eyes and
handle of the word of life. And then he says in verse three,
that we have seen and heard and declaring to you, we do it in
order that that's your little purpose cloth in order that you
may have fellowship with us as we have fellowship with the father
and the son. He's giving us in the first three
verses, his aim, And his aim is that the people to whom he
is writing might actually have fellowship with God, with them
and God as they actually have fellowship with God. There's
a number of assumptions there that are worth noting too. But
before we get to those assumptions, the first thing I want to talk
to you about is fellowship. When he says, in verse three,
that you may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship
is with the father and with the son, Jesus Christ. He's not talking
about potluck dinners. Okay. He's a fellowship is not
potluck dinners and fellowship is not just the general conversation
and dialogue that we have about everyday mundane things. That
doesn't define fellowship in the Middle Eastern culture. It
doesn't define fellowship in the Jewish and Semitic mindset. It doesn't define fellowship
in the scriptures. That's just hanging out. In the
Bible sense of fellowship, what it means to have fellowship,
it means to be a partner in a quest. It means to be a partaker and
sharer within the framework of a community. It means to actually
mutually participate in a bounty that has become equally everyone's. To fellowship means to be one
who has access to the mutual benefits and blessings, economy,
commodity, worth and wealth of a particular community of people
or institution. When one is in fellowship, in
the biblical sense of fellowship, he is in a state of, I want you
to get this word, it sounds contemporary, but it works, partnership. This is going to be critical
to answering the question, what is true fellowship with God? What is authentic fellowship
with God? Again, the objective of first
John, the objective of the apostle is that you and I might be able
to examine and derive from a proper assessment and exegesis or development
of the text. what constitutes true and authentic
fellowship. And in this sense, when he uses
the word fellowship or partnership, or in our Bible's translation,
King James translation, the word is communion. Do you guys see
that? Communion, communion. It's often translated fellowship
or communion, and sometimes in our newer translations, partnership. And I want to share a few verses
to underscore that. And I want to drive home some
points as we work through the framework tonight. What do we
mean by partnership? I'll give you a very good illustration
of this. And then I want to go through
a couple of examples. Here's a very good crystal centric illustration. On first Sundays, when we gather
together on what we call the Lord's day around the Lord's
table, We demonstrate or illustrate our partnership with God when
we take the bread and we take the cup and we symbolically by
the act of eating the bread and drinking the cup, tell those
who are watching us that we are partners with God through Jesus
Christ in terms of everything that Christ's life, death, burial
and resurrection has accrued for us. When we eat the bread
and we drink the cup, we are saying that we are partners with
God in the scheme of redemption and the blessings that flow from
it. Are you guys hearing what I'm saying? When we eat the bread
and drink the cup, we are saying that we are sharers together
with God in the the blessings of redemption that flow from
God through Christ to the community of God called the body of Christ
of which now we have become partners, sharers, communal union with
God in a very profoundly intimate way. Am I making some sense? Now the Lord's table is not as
shallow as religious folk make it. Or you may have been ignorant
of the mode and meaning and substance of the table, which we have been
engaging in over the last 2000 years. You watch it done and
you may even do it, but you don't do it with a sense of partnership
with God. You go through the rope motions,
but you are ignorant of the deep and profound significance of
what it means. The union between a holy God
and a simple people which can be defined as the union between
a holy God and a sinful people, which can be defined as the body
of Christ. The union between a holy God
and a sinful people can only be defined as the body of Christ. is authentically so because the
body has now partaken, ingested, brought into themselves symbolically
the real person and real work of Christ by virtue of his incarnation,
his suffering on Calvary, his resurrection, his lordship and
sovereignty over the world by which he can bring every member
of the body into communion with the triune God through his work
on Calvary. Did you guys get that? The work
on Calvary unites the members of Christ's body, separated by
sin, scattered to the four winds. It unites the members of Christ's
body to the Godhead in a vital work of redemption. We'll see
what those other components are that bring us to the place where
when we eat the cup, I mean, eat the bread and drink the cup,
we are saying to the world, we are one with God and God is one
with us. That's what communion is. It's
much more serious now, isn't it? It's much more serious because
as we're getting ready to work through the framework, John is
getting ready to tell us it is no small thing to tell people
that you have fellowship with God. It is no small thing for
you to say, you know, God, certainly if you know God, that means you
have fellowship with God. You are in partnership with God. You have communion with God.
I can make that assumption valid, John chapter 17, 3, and this
is eternal life, that they might know thee. The only true God
in Jesus Christ whom thou has said if you want to take the
word no and do a full development of it It's the intimate covenant
knowing between a man and a woman. It's not a shallow academic knowledge
It is a profound experiential knowledge of grace Through the
medium of the gospel by which we are brought into real and
vital union with God. Are you following me so far?
so then the objective for the Apostle John is to investigate
as it were and to expose what constitutes true and authentic
fellowship, that you also may have fellowship with the Father
and the Son, even as we do. So I want to share with you a
few verses that will constitute this in your head. The first
verse I want to share with you is in Psalm 133. Go in your Bible
to Psalm 133. I want you to hear the reading
of Psalm 133. I'm going to share with you a
few more verses, and then we're going to move on to the structure
of the book. John's aim is that we understand
true communion with God through Christ. And if we do understand
true communion as partnership, fellowship, a partaker of the
blessings of the commodity that constitutes the wealth and commonwealth
of that particular communion, our fellowship and equal sharers
there in the word is also translated distribution. It's the word that's
translated distribution in first timothy chapter 6 where the apostle
says to the wealthy to see to it that they distribute distribute
Make sure that they allow the poor to enter into the commonwealth
of their resources since they are all partakers of the same
body now listen to this glorious language in psalm 130 Concerning
the nature and character of fellowship. I want you to get this. Here
it is. Psalm 133. Here it is. Listen to it Verse 1, 2, and
3, behold how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together
in what? That's the idea of fellowship. Dwelling together in unity. Those three words, dwelling together
in unity. Now watch what he does to underscore
or illustrate this. It is like the precious ointment
upon the head that ran down the beard, even Aaron's beard that
went down to the skirt of his garment as the dew of Hermon,
as the dew that descends upon the mountain of Zion, for there
the Lord commanded the blessing, life forevermore. Do you guys
see that? Life forevermore. The imagery
will escape you if you don't have it explained to you briefly.
So the concept is, is unity, togetherness, dwelling among
the brethren, of which the author says how good and pleasant it
is. And he uses a strong Hebrew term
like we do in the Greek, look, pay attention. Nothing is greater
than the dwelling unity and oneness of the people of God. Nothing
is greater than this. He says, and then it's like the
anointing of the head of the high priest the oil running from
the top of his head all the way down his garments to his feet.
They call that the consecration of the high priest. And the high
priest represented the people. The high priest was the medium
between God and the people. Here, the author is uniting the
concept of fellowship or partnership or community with the high priest,
which high priest we know is Jesus Christ. So, as we are contemplating
communion, contemplating fellowship, our eyes are now cast upon our
High Priest, who is the medium between us and God. There is
no direct fellowship with sinful creatures like us, apart from
Christ. Christ is the mediator between
us and God. Christ stands as a representative
of God being God and he stands as a representative of man being
man so that he bridges the gap between us and God he Establishes
authentic fellowship between us and God. Do you see the picture?
And from the top of his head to the soles of his feet, the
anointing takes place, the consecration takes place, and just as vivid
as that outpouring of the oil was upon the high priest, so
the work of the Spirit of God in bringing men and women into
union and fellowship with God through Christ is for the body
of Christ. The people that looked on the
consecration of the high priest was looking on the Grounds upon
which God could bring them into fellowship just as God accepted
the high priest So he accepts us so mark this I am just as
accepted before God as my high priest is To the extent that
God embraces Christ he embraces me Are you following me? And so our unity with God, our
partnership with God, our fellowship with God, our communion with
God is all predicated and centered around the high priest, Jesus
Christ. I want you to now go with me
in your Bible to Amos chapter three, Amos three, Amos three.
I'm going to read a few verses to underscore this, what constitutes
true and authentic fellowship. John is going to establish that
as we work through the epistles. But as we go through the idea
of fellowship, I want to read a number of verses, Amos, is
one of the minor prophets that you can find after the book of
Hosea. And in Amos chapter 3, verse
3, you can understand this statement as we define the concept of communion. Are you there? I'm going to read
verses 1, 2, and 3. And let verse 3 be the rhetorical
statement essential to defining fellowship on a certain level.
Hear this word that the Lord has spoken unto you, or against
you, O children of Israel. against the whole family, which
I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, you only have
I known of all the families of the earth. Therefore, will I
punish you for all your iniquities? Interesting way to open up chapter
three, right? God says, no one, no nation in
the world have I had any dealings with like I did with you. I had
a covenant relationship with you for which I revealed myself
in so many ways in my mercy and goodness to bring you out of
Egypt and to place you in your own land And to whom much is
given, much is required. Because you shirked the blessings
of fellowship with God, I now must punish you. And here is
the grounds upon which God now is going to punish national Israel,
whom he had brought to himself to have communion with. and fellowship
by the blood of the lamb signified by the doorpost on Passover night
when he brought them out of Egypt and signified by the Red Sea
a type of baptism for which he would bring the whole nation
through the death of Christ into the wilderness to grow that little
child up into a man or metaphorically into a full grown woman to enter
into full nuptials with her once he brought her into his house
called Palestine. Listen to the language. Verse
three, here it is. Can two walk together except
they be agreed? So now here's what I want you
to understand. When it comes to communion, fellowship, and
partnership, what we are talking about is agreement. Do you guys
see that? Agreement. Agreement. So when it comes to fellowship
with God, the claim that John is going to be dealing with is
true fellowship and authentic fellowship with God constitutes
agreement with God. The ability to walk with somebody
in unity as a friend, as a covenant partner means that we agree. He's making the logical assessment
that it is impossible for us to walk together if we don't
what? Agree. You see, what he's establishing
also is the principle of logic. I want to make sure you understand
that. Logic always plays a role in exposition and argument of
scripture. He's reasoning with us on a logical
level. You don't have close friends
with whom you are always disagreeing. You may have an antagonistic
relative or an antagonistic party in your life with whom maybe
somehow you get some morbid stimulation out of always arguing with them,
of which we would say in the psychological realm, that is
a dysfunctional relationship. But you get something out of
it. I guess some relationship is better than no relationship.
You know how some people just argue all the time. But true
fellowship is where we have large amounts of agreement based upon
the same Constitution upon the same work. So now go with me
in your Bible to Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2. verse 42 I'm
going to read a few more verses because I want you to get this
concept of true communion down in the New Testament the Apostle
uses this word through the book of Acts a number of times I just
want you to see it in its organic form as it's manifested in the
book of Acts you've heard this verse quoted before but I want
you to see it again in the context in which we're talking are you
there accepted to verse 41 and 42 then they that gladly received
his word were baptized in the same day there were added unto
them about 3,000 souls by the way there will not be a Bible
Friday Bible study next week I just want to get that out get
no and I know that I may not say so let me say it now no Bible
study next Friday this this is a July 4th weekend so we'll be
taking a break then they that gladly received his word were
baptized in the same day they were added unto them about 3,000
souls And they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine. Watch
this. And what? And in breaking of
bread and in prayers. And I'll notice fellowship is
distinct from eating meals and from prayer. A person can eat
a meal with somebody and can pray with somebody and not be
in fellowship with that someone. Are you hearing me? And so when
we talk about a fellowship according to verse 42 what constituted
fellowship was that the people had first received the word secondly
they were baptized thus they were brought into local fellowship
in the church Thirdly, they had continued steadfastly in what
the apostles doctrine. Now that's going to play a major
role as we work with in the inner textual development of First
John. The phrase apostles doctrine
is going to play a major role in helping us understand the
inner textual definition of terms in First John. Notice what it
says. And they continued steadfastly
in the apostles doctrine and fellowship, partnership, communion,
sharing. This fellowship here was based
upon the doctrine of the gospel communicated by the apostles
of which these people believed. And the net effect of believing
that gospel was the riches that flowed from that gospel that
constituted the unity and fellowship of those people. Are you guys
hearing me? We'll see this working itself out as we go through the
text. Go with me in 1st Corinthians chapter 1 verse 9. 1st Corinthians
1 9. Here how the apostle uses this
in 1st Corinthians 1 9. Remember we are talking about
true communion. true communion. What is true
communion? True communion is dwelling together in unity. It's
walking in agreement based upon a set of dictums, our premise,
our persons who, who established our unity for the Christian,
the unity of every member of the body is based upon the oneness
that Christ provides for every member of the body. Our unity,
ladies and gentlemen, is in Christ. I know that phraseology seems
a little vague, but it'll work itself out in due season. Our unity is in Christ. Now notice
how the apostle Paul puts it over in verse nine of first Corinthians. As he's speaking to the Corinthians,
listen to it, to what it says. God is faithful. Do you guys
see that God is faithful by whom you were called unto the what
fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Now watch this. God called the church into partnership
and union and communion Mutual sharing with Jesus Christ you
guys got that that's what that term means We're gonna we're
gonna fully develop it here in a moment I just want you to I
want you to learn to appreciate the concept of fellowship It's
the same word for communion same exact word for communion as well
Go with me now in your Bible to Galatians chapter 2 Galatians
2 I'm only choosing select passages to kind of Again, to cause you
to appreciate the term, but there are many more verses that could
substantiate it before we go further into our account. Galatians
chapter two, I wanna show you how this works in the Galatians
again. Remember, we're saying it's partnership, it's communion,
it's fellowship, it's agreement, it's mutual sharing of the commodities
and the blessings and the benefit that flow from the communal bank,
our treasure chest, whatever that communal bank, our treasure
chest is. For the church of the living
God, our treasure is Christ. Christ is the treasure of the
church. He's the pinata of the church He's the he's the object
from which all the blessings flow into the church Christ is
the possessor of the riches and wisdom and treasure of God out
of Christ flows all the blessings to the church I haven't even
begun to describe those blessings. I'm just telling you the source
of them Are you with me so far? Well mark what he says in Galatians
chapter 2. Here's another description of the fellowship Galatians chapter
2, this is Paul talking that after that he had labored vigorously
to get the Jewish brethren That's Peter James and John and the
rest of the Jewish brethren that were up in Jerusalem Who had
a problem with Paul and Barnabas and Titus and Tychicus and Timothy? Preaching the gospel to all these
Gentile without first coming to Jerusalem to get approval
to do it So, you know even the the Apostles had their issues
didn't it? Paul finally went up to Galatia to straighten him
out because they were about to go apostate to under that strong
Demonic influence of Jewish legalism telling them that you can't simply
preach free grace and expect people to survive No, you got
to anchor that thing down with circumcision and law keeping
and sacrifices in the mosaic structure We're gonna learn that
nothing could be further from the truth on Sunday We'll learn
that but listen to what he says in verse 9. Here's another picture
of fellowship. Are you there? And when James
and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, they were pillars,
seemed to be, they were pillars of the New Testament church.
Yes. These are foundations to the New Testament church. All
12 of the apostles are part of the foundation of the new Jerusalem
pillars. Absolutely. So was Paul. Listen to the language who seemed
to be pillars perceived. They came to understand by Paul's
coming to them. face-to-face confrontation Full
development of the gospel and God's hand in his life along
with the other men that were with him They came to perceive
washes the grace that was given unto me see that phrase grace
that was given unto me Call you can define that as partnership
distribution of well Fellowship with the son Jesus Christ. What
did the son give to Paul? grace to be an apostle Power
to be an apostle ministry to be an apostle the grace of the
gospel Empowered Paul to preach the gospel to thousands and thousands
of Gentiles so that they became partakers in the communion partnership
fellowship of the church the body of Christ Peter James and
John perceived that God had brought Paul in the fellowship with Christ
and that fellowship manifested itself in Paul's life Are you
with me so far? They couldn't argue that what
Paul was doing was a net effect of his communion with God through
Christ. Now watch this. Here's what the
effect of Paul's ministry did for the brethren up in Jerusalem.
As a consequence of them perceiving that God had given him this grace,
they gave to me. See that phrase? What are we
talking about? They gave to me. Partnership.
Distribution, right? We're talking about mutual sharing
now, are we not? Is anybody lost to what I'm getting at? See,
what we're talking about on a horizontal level is acting in response to
a revelation of commonality among ourselves. Here, Paul is seeking
to persuade Peter, James, and John that he didn't have to come
to them to get approval to preach the gospel. God had revealed
Christ to him. Christ had revealed Christ to
him. Christ had commissioned him to preach the gospel. And
his preaching resulted in multitudes being saved. I don't have to
come to you. When God revealed himself to me immediately, I
did not confer with flesh and blood I went about preaching
as God called me to preach But now since you guys want to ask
whether or not I am an apostle of God look at the evidence when
they looked at the evidence They couldn't do anything other than
what true brethren do extend the right hand of fellowship Extend the right hand of fellowship
Had Peter, James, and John been too proud to extend the right
hand of fellowship to Paul for the grace that was undoubtedly
in his life, it would have indicated that Peter, James, and John did
not know Christ. What I'm getting at is the nature
of fellowship in its true and authentic sense. How can two
walk together except they be agreed? How good and pleasant
it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. Now notice what it
says. They gave to me and Barnabas
the right hands of what? Do you know what that means?
Partnership. communion, fellowship, equal authority with those apostles.
From this point on, the issue of whether or not Paul was a
genuine apostle was done with. No one could question whether
or not Paul was an apostle of Christ because the brethren gave
the gesture that affirmed his equality of authority based on
what Christ had done for him. We must let him into the fellowship.
We must acknowledge. In fact, all we can do by this
is symbolically acknowledge that he's there. We're not letting
him in. We're simply giving him the right hand that symbolizes
that brother's already in. In fact, we were just about to
get kicked out by the way we were acting with our doctrine
and theology of mixing legalism with grace. Are you guys following
me so far? Now, this is the grand subject
of which the study for us is going to carry us into the new
year, because I'm going to go very carefully through the book
of John to make sure we understand the depth of his objective. And that is to establish, bring
to clear credibility, true and authentic fellowship with God.
True and authentic fellowship with God. So now the second thing
I want to call your attention to is the structure of the book.
Go with me back to first, John. Let's work through this. I want
to make sure I get through this today. The structure of the book,
the structure of the book. This is so very important when
you are appreciating a work. Let's say we are dealing with
a piece of artwork. What one would want to do is
become as skillful or knowledgeable in the work that goes into art
as much as possible in order for one to be able to, what's
the word, appreciate it. You can go to many art galleries
all through the Bay Area. In San Francisco, there are many.
And you will look at artwork. And if you are not a person given
to the knowledge of what goes into good art, you will look
at a thousand pictures and they will mean nothing to you. But
a person who understands quality art, the kind of canvas, the
kind of paint, the kind of texture, the kind of technique, the kind
of time, the kind of labor and effort, intensive labor and effort
that goes into the work. If a person can learn those fundamental
ingredients to it, they can begin to appreciate because they can
distinguish between shabby work and good work. It would be the
same way with reading a good book, or it would be the same
way with sitting under sound biblical teaching. would be the
same exact way. So in First John, I have broken
John up into three categories. These three categories are not
esoteric. They are not opaque. They're
not difficult to see. They aren't even original to
me. One of the things I love about
studying scripture, and I'll just say this to all of you,
is that I have come to learn over the years that God did a
very good job When he deposited the gospel to the church in the
first century in the life of the apostles and that gospel
is passed from the apostles to the fathers all the way up to
the present hour. God has preserved his word. He's preserved his
gospel and he's preserved his church up to this hour. That
being said, here's what I want you to, I want you to hear the
fact that the church has been around for 2000 years and we
have the Bible in all of its clarity is central to our salvation. And the fact that we have a legacy
in history, in what we call church history, to which we can defer
and look to, to see the struggles and the challenges that the church
is going through, is God's faithfulness in giving to the church the stewardship
of preaching the gospel to the end of the world. We therefore
have an enormous resource for ourselves to go back and evaluate,
look into and examine how God used the church from generation
to generation to preach the gospel. That being the case, it allows
us to see where good men have devoted their whole lives to
certain disciplines, like the discipline of textual criticism.
We'll talk about that when we get to systematic theology. The
men who were devoted to determining the authenticity of the letters
that were being circulated in the New Testament, that is New
Testament apostolic letters being circulated by the apostles versus
the pseudepigraphers or the false writings of those who were false
prophets and false teachers. The men whom God gave grace to
focus purely on the grammar of the text. That's textual criticism,
the authenticity of the faithfulness, consistency, all of the things
necessary in determining what we would call the original autographs
or the authentic copies of the original autographs so that we
can be confident that we have the Word of God today. That's
just one category. The other category is the category
that we're going to talk about here in a little bit. It's called
apologetics. Don't let that word blow you
away. But apologetics is a critical discipline in the church by which
the gospel is preserved as men are gifted to defend it, defending
the gospel. We'll talk about that in a moment.
And throughout church history, we have a vast amount of resources
up to the present hour by which we can labor to determine whether
we have the truth without succumbing to the false notion, now watch
this, that we can come to truth on our own. In fact, that notion would be
heretical. Will you hear me? The idea that
a man or a woman can know the truth apart from the instrumentality
of the body of Christ who is the steward of the truth is a
flawed notion that flies against the way God has chosen to communicate
biblical truth. I'll give you just one verse
that will help you. This is John chapter four. You don't have
to go there in your own time. Read it. Jesus says other men have
labored and you have entered into their labors. You know who
he told that to? His apostles. You know why he
did that so that they wouldn't get a big head so big that it
couldn't get out of the door Assuming that the gospel started
and ended with them They would come to understand that not only
were they privileged to communicate biblical truth from the second
person of the godhead But they had the resources of the old
testament brethren to be able to affirm and authenticate the
gospel. They're communicating And so all throughout church
history i've said it before I know this might seem like a segue,
but I want you to get this See this book you have in your hand?
This is a compilation of the collective efforts of thousands
of people who have labored in specific categories to put together
what we call the Word of God. Now watch this. Not just the
Bible, but your translation of the Bible. Not just your translation
of the Bible, but the collective whole of the 66 books. For if
you know anything about church history or what we call bibliology,
then nobody have a whole Bible in the first century. In the
Old Testament, they were scrolls, independent scrolls, Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Deuteronomy. We have the whole book. Somebody
labored, didn't they? And for someone to arrogantly
say, I came to truth on my own belies their stupendous ignorance. You know how dependent you are
on the labors? This is what we call the interdependent
labor of the church. You're so dependent that you
rely upon your English translation which came from the Greek, Aramaic
and Hebrew translation of which if you don't know Greek, Hebrew
or Aramaic, you are totally dependent upon the scholarship of Hebrew
and Greek and Aramaic scholars to have translated your Bible
into English because you don't even know if they're telling
you the truth. See what I'm getting at? I don't want to get drifting
any further because this will get into how God has humbled
the whole human race to the principle of faith by which we know. the
principle of faith. God has humbled the whole human
race to the principle of faith. How do you know anything by faith?
How do you know anything by faith? Because the vast majority of
the material used for us to know anything is what we call testimonials. Somebody else said something
about it that somebody else said that somebody else said that
somebody else said all the way back to the first person. And
if they got it right all the way down the line, we get it
right. But we only get it right through the testimony. Am I making
some sense? It humbles you because you don't
get to say it originated with you. That's good. I have to do that
because I, I actually listened to a lot. Sometimes over the
years I've heard pastors talk like they just don't need the
church. And I say, you dummy, you're
contradicting yourself. You're contradicting yourself.
So here's what we're going to do now. I want you to see that
in your Bible, John has broken up the subject matter of fellowship
into three categories, light, Love. And what else? Faith. I want you to see this. In chapters one and two, we are
dealing with light. Light. That's the metaphor that
John uses. And we're going to go into that
in detail. I'm going to talk to us about the metaphor of light,
how that it reflects the nature of the triune God and how essential
light is to life. Life. And so John uses that language
when he speaks over in 1st John chapter 1 verse 5. This then is the message which
we have heard of him and declare unto you, here it is, that God
is what? Light. And in him is no darkness
at all. This here is what we call a compendium
statement. This is an overarching statement
that John is making as he introduces the subject of true and authentic
fellowship. We want you to know God is what? That's right. Now you can launch
yourself out into the research of the nature and character of
God as light. And once you launch yourself
into the research of the nature and character of God as light,
that revelation of what it means for God to be light will open
up to you the truth about what the nature of light is versus
what the nature of light is not. Okay, when he says God is light,
he's making an emphatic statement that basically distinguishes
what God is from what God is not. We'll talk about that a
little bit more. That's going to get into our
third point here. But here's what I want you to know. In chapters
1 and 2, light is what's talked about. And light in this context
is really a metaphor for a couple of things. One is knowledge.
Okay? Isn't light a metaphor for knowledge?
Revelation. Revelation. So light is a metaphor
of knowledge and revelation. Chapters 1 and 2 develop this
whole issue of Light as knowledge and revelation and it closes
out in chapter 2 this way. Go with me over in chapter 2
verses 27 through 29. Are you there? In fact, let me
start at verse 26 and go through 29. These things have I written
unto you concerning them that seduce you. We'll deal with that
in our third point. but the anointing which you have received of him
abideth in you, and you need not that any man teach you, but
as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is true,
and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you shall abide in
him, you shall abide in him, And now, little children, abide
in Him, that when He shall appear, we may have confidence and not
be ashamed before Him at His coming. If you know that He is
righteous, you know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born
of Him. Do you know the word that He
uses symbolically to connote knowledge and revelation? It's
the word anointing. The word anointing corresponds
to the word of light. John knows this because the word
anointing is a metaphor for the oil that was poured into the
lampstands that lit the candle light or the candlestick in the
temple. The Old Testament temple and
tabernacle did not have electricity. The light that lit the tabernacle
that lit the temple was the lampstands. And what fueled the lampstand
was the anointing oil. John says, to walk in the light
is to have the presence and ministry of the Spirit of God flowing
into the body by which it is sustained in its revelation and
in its knowledge of God. To walk in the light is to have
the flowing work of the Spirit of God by which the church is
sustained in its knowledge and revelation of God. The commandment
in the Old Testament was this, never let the light go out in
the temple. And what I'm tying in our first
category of the subject of fellowship with this issue of light is anointing. And what we are talking about
is the work of the spirit of Christ, to knowledge, to revelation,
to anointing. We'll unpack that more fully
next week. The first, not next week, but
the week after. The first category in 1 John
1 and 2 has to do with light. It has to do with knowledge.
We'll be able to crack that open a little bit and see. The second
thing has to do with love. Do you guys see that? Chapter
3 and 4 John will treat the subject of love Look in chapter 3 verse
1 and 2. Are you there? Behold what manner
of what love the father hath bestowed upon us that we should
be called the sons of God So I want to stop right there. He's
giving us an imperative behold consider Diligently regard what
manner of love the father hath bestowed upon us. You guys got
that? Consider the character and nature of that love that
we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world does
not know us because it doesn't know him and then it goes on
to treat the subject of Love in the book of first John one
can't get away from it You can't get away from it Look over in
verse 11 for this is the message that you have heard from the
beginning that we should what love? One another look at verse
16 hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his
life for us We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Do you see that? Verse 23, and
this is his commandment, that we should believe on the name
of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he gave us
commandment. So you see what John is doing.
John first treats the subject of light, revelation, dependent
upon the spirit of Christ. Then he treats the subject of
love, and he treats it in two categories. He treats it from
a crystal centric, cross centered, communal perspective. He says,
it's impossible for you and I to claim to be sons of God. without God having first poured
the love of God into our heart. And that love of God poured into
our heart will manifest itself in the form in which Christ loved
us. Having laid down his life on
Calvary's tree, so should we in the same manner love one another. It's a crystal-centric, cross-centered
love. Listen carefully then. When we
are testing what constitutes true fellowship with God, it
will be a proper understanding of biblical light. It will be
a proper understanding of biblical love. It will not be this mushy,
gooey love. It will not be this esoteric
Gnostic light. It will be a Christ exalting
light, a Christ exalting love, a love that flows from the revelation
of God in Christ. To the church by virtue of his
sacrificial death on calvary. Am I making some sense? That
the the gospel for the christian starts and ends with christ He
becomes for us the beginning the middle and the end of all
things defined You do not have a christian doctrine that does
not have as its foundation An example and its goal christ himself
no christian doctrine Divorce Christ from any doctrine and
it's not Christian doctrine. Are you guys hearing me? therefore
if I say that I love my brethren in a Christian way my love for
my brethren must manifest itself in a cross-centered Christ-centered
Manifestation I have to love them like Christ loved them Then
you can we'll be able to work through what that means as it
ferrets itself out and on a practical level. Finally, the third category
is what? Faith. Faith. That's chapters
5 and 6, right? Right? Wrong. You're asleep. I just want to see if you're
awake. I knew that we were illiterate, biblically illiterate in this
generation. So I just had to see if some of y'all was with
me. My teachers used to do that to me. So I'm doing it to you
too. If you're going to be serious
about understanding the word of God, you got to be able to
catch those kinds of sleepy, careless responses. It doesn't
do you any good to go amen to something that's not true. So it's, um, Chapter 5 gets into
the subject of faith. Look at verse 1. Whosoever believeth,
do you see it? That's what faith is. Whosoever
believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And everyone
that loveth him that begot loveth him also that is begotten. Notice
what it says in verse 4. For whatsoever is born of God
overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh
the world, even our what? Look at verse 5. Who is he that
overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is
the Son of God? And that's the whole text of
1 John chapter 5 is developing the concept of believing. And
we'll get into the importance of the nature of that faith and
the manner in which that's constructed. But if you look at verse one,
just to help you, whosoever believe it, that Jesus is the Christ
is born of God. See that phraseology? Whosoever
believe it, that Jesus is Christ, John says, is already born of
God. In other words, believing doesn't
make you born of God. Believing is an evidence that
you're born of God. You don't believe to be born
again. You believe as an evidence that
you're born again. That's the way the Greek construction
goes. I'm not going to bore you now, but when we work our way
through the text, I'm going to explain the construction because
it's critical to our understanding. Remember what I was saying? You
can have a real confidence in the Word of God by your knowledge
of the English language where you are sensitive to how to marshal
together passages that are relative to the subject you're dealing
with. But if you understand language, then you can become even more
sensitive to the dynamic. In this context, Whosoever believeth
in Jesus Christ is already, it's in the perfect tense, born of
God, already born of God. And the believing here is a state
of being that starts a conversion and it ends when you die or when
you go to glory. It is not a one-time act that
you can tie to a decision you made for Jesus at an altar call. True believing is a lifelong
process is just as important as breathing. When someone says
the child is alive, we don't know that because of the date
at which he was born. We know that because he is breathing
in and out right now. When we say a person is a believer,
we only know that because they are right now believing the gospel. Am I making some sense? And that
has its own implications as we will work through down the line.
So there are three categories, and all of these categories can
be adumbrated under also life, love, and faith. These here are
expressions of the communion that we have with God. You guys
got that? You don't have true communion
with God or fellowship with God or partnership with God unless
these things are happening. Unless you are walking in the
light, walking in love and walking in faith, your communion, fellowship,
partnership is not true. Am I making some sense is important
for you to know that and all of this John says Constitutes
one word life Life Go back to first first John chapter 1 I
want to show you what I'm saying a couple more things I want to
share with you. We'll come back later on down the line I want
to make sure I open the floor for questions unless you are passively
sleep If you passively sleep, then we'll close out and let
it go. But if you're listening actively, you should have some
questions. In 1 John 1, listen to what he says over in verse
1, 2. And we'll just use verses 1 and
2. I want you to sense. I'm just going to read it, and
I want you to sense how to derive the subject, the central subject
of verse 1 and 2 for John is word life now watch this that
which was from the beginning which we have heard which we
have seen with our eyes and which we have looked upon and our hands
have handled of the word of what life for the here it is again
life was manifested And we have seen it and bear witness and
showing to you that here it is again eternal life Which was
with the father and was manifested unto us. You know what John is
talking about life You know who John is talking about Christ He's talking about Christ as
the life The life that now is the source for the light the
love and the faith that constitutes the nature of true fellowship
Are you with me so far? Follow me again. This is very
important John is using a Formula as he
opens up his epistle that takes us all the way back to creation
It's certainly seen in his prologue in John chapter 1 and in the
beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word
was God the same was in the beginning with God and all things were
made by him and whatever was made was made by him there was
nothing that was not made by him and the life was the light
of men and the light was the life of men you notice he uses
the term life and light because light is a consequence of life
there had to be life to produce light, and that light now become
a vehicle by which life itself is produced. What do you mean?
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The
earth was without form, void, and darkness was upon the face
of the deep. And God, the spirit of God brooded upon the heavens,
upon the waters, and divided the waters. And God called the
day night, and God called the day light, and the night darkness.
And God said what? Let there be what? light. So light became a critical component
to the creation process. Well, when God said, let there
be light, he didn't create the sun, moon and stars. He was talking about Christ being
the source behind the creative process that took place. Once
when he had created the first day and the second day and the
third day, Now we get to him placing the sun and the moon
and the stars into the sky and the hemisphere so that now we
have a vehicle of light, a vehicle of clarity, a vehicle of revelation
by which our world can function now on an orderly fashion of
seasons, days, weeks, months, and years. But when he said,
let there be light, he was talking about Christ being the source
behind which all things live. And this is why the Bible says
in all things were made by him and for him He upholds all things
by the word of his power and by him do they consist Christ
is the light that light is every man that comes into the world
And so when we the word light is a metaphor for life It's a
metaphor for life. It's a symbol of life. And so
what john is saying is we know what life is Life is Christ. And then he uses this extremely
graphic language of seeing Him and feeling Him and touching
Him and hearing Him. You do that to a person. Are
you guys hearing me? You do that to a person. And
so John in his very semantically mystical way is describing in
verses 1 and 2 the life. the life that constitutes the
fellowship between the believer and God. Now I want to call our
attention to the third point and I'll come to the fourth point
later. Now this third point we call
the antithesis or the secondary premise. Now this is important.
The antithesis and the secondary premise. When a person sets out
to prove something or explain something or to talk about something,
They can have more than one objective in view. Is that true? You can
have primary objectives. You can have secondary objectives.
You can have remote tertiary objectives. You can have more
than one objective. The first and primary objective
for which John is writing 1 John, as we already know, is to affirm
true and authentic fellowship, right? That's what he said, that
you may have fellowship with the Father. But the second objective
for which John is writing is to now deal with the antagonist. And there are antagonists that
John has to deal with. We would call these enemies. Enemies. Opponents. They would be opponents to the
truth. Now, earlier when I was talking
to you and we would call this the antithesis, the underlying
antithesis. that he has to deal with. The
underlying antithesis or opposition, that's the same thing. Opponent,
antagonism, enemies, opposition. The underlying opposition that
John has to deal with is the secondary premise upon which
the epistle or the letter to John is written. And I want you
to be able to see this. Remember what I was saying earlier
to you guys? If you come in on a conversation where two people
are talking, And they're talking to each other with a great sense
of mutual clarity, but there are spots in the conversation
of which you don't understand. It simply means that you are
in a disadvantaged position, not knowing the whole story.
You either have to inquire towards one or the other person to find
out what you guys are talking about, because I'm missing something.
But if you're reading a letter of a dialogue or a monologue
that's written to a certain category of people about subjects that
that category of people know about that you don't, now you
are disadvantaged twice-fold because first of all, you don't
know what they're talking about as their underlying premise and
you don't know how to get at that answer. If you are even
sensitive enough to know that I'm a third party to something
that I don't understand. And I want you to see this. This
is called the antithesis or secondary premise. The antithesis or secondary
premise was for the apostle John to warn the church against the
antagonist, the opposition, the heretics, and troublemakers that
were in the church. Are you guys hearing me? Give
me a few more minutes. When you read 1 John, John goes
into a discourse of conversation that begins to address some of
the common views that had infiltrated the churches by which it had
actually split the church that John was pastoring. John is addressing
troubles that had entered into the local church that actually
brought about a split in the church. Now, if you ever been
in a church where the leadership wasn't strong enough or wise
enough or careful enough to quail division, strife and argumentation,
you will see a church split. And when that church splits,
depending on who was right or wrong. In many cases, it's one
group is right. The other group is wrong. Sometimes
they can be both wrong, but generally one group is right. One group
is wrong. Sometimes the group that leaves is right. Sometimes
the group that leaves is wrong. In John's case, obviously John
is right. The group that left is wrong.
So what John is doing is now ministering to the flock in what
we would call as a form of genre in polemics, polemics. Polemics is a form of communication
that stands against something. It's almost, my pen is running
out of ink, it's almost like apologetics. I was talking about
apologetics earlier. We'll develop this in a couple
of weeks, but apologetics is not saying I'm sorry. Apologetics
in the genre which is written means to defend what is true,
to stand in defense and articulate clearly what constitutes truth
from error. Now, that's the area of biblical
theology that many Christians are deficient in, apologetics. And polemics is a style of communicating
that many contemporary Christians today avoid because they have
been conditioned by our culture not to be confrontational. To
be a polemicist is to be a person that exposes the error and says,
that's wrong. That's wrong. Like your pastor
is a polemist. That's what I am. I'm a polemist.
I admit that. I admit that clearly. I feel
that it's important in preaching and teaching to expose a thing
and say, that's wrong. That's wrong. I think it's to
the advantage of people who want to be grounded in truth to know
that it's all right for you to be told who, what and why they
are wrong. It's important as shepherds.
And that's why in your outline, what we have here is what we
call three forms of communication under the antithesis and secondary
premise and it's called a pastoral polemic. Do you guys see that?
Exhortations and warnings. Do you see that? Because of friends
and foes. So John is going to be working
between a pastoral approach of biblical teaching in the book
of first John, as well as a polemical approach of exposing the heretics. Are you hearing me? The pastoral
aspect is to speak in terms of exhortation, encouragement, doctrine,
teaching, edification, helping affirm the gospel among the people
of God so that they can be established in the faith. A polemical approach
is to say, watch out for this. That's error. That's heresy.
That's false. That's not true. Are you hearing
me? Which a lot of people don't have
a diet for. People want to believe that everything is true. And
everything cannot be true. You guys understand that the
principle of the law of non-contradiction means that if truth is truth,
there has to be something opposite to truth in order to verify truth.
And this is why the Genesis account gives us the chaos and the darkness
that God divided the light from the darkness. He called the light
day and the darkness night. You know what God was doing?
He was being a polemicist. He was being polemical. Of course,
we understand that the Genesis narrative is a redemptive testimony
to the work of grace. God's creating a new church,
a new creation. If any man being Christ Jesus,
he's a what? New creature. We are children of the day, children
of the light. We're not children of the night,
children of the darkness. He made a division, didn't he?
And he called the light good. Notice what he says. Here's how
this works. I want you to see the framework I'm not gonna actually
go into the other verses because I want to end here in five minutes
But I want you to notice some of the verses that constitute
the polemical approach that John takes I'm over in verse 6. Are you there? Watch this if
we say That we have fellowship with him. See this is the argument
and we walk in darkness. We lie and do not the truth This
is a polemical statement with a with a with a dichotomous approach
to it. This is very much like the Proverbs,
very much like the Proverbs, where the proverb will give you
a proposition and then the proverb will give you a contrast. The
way of the righteous is above that he might escape hell below. The way of the righteous is life.
But the way of the wicked is destruction. You guys see that?
This is what we call dichotomies, contrasting Proverbs to give
clarity on what is and what is not. And here's what John says.
If we say that we have fellowship with him and we walk in darkness,
we lie not. I mean, we lie and do not the
truth. Now, the next time that John speaks of this, we see over
in verse eight, watch this. If we say that we have no sin,
We deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Look at verse
10. If we say that we have not sinned,
we make him a liar and his word is not in us. Do you see that?
Go to chapter 2 verse 4. Here it is again. Chapter 2 verse
4. He that saith, I know him and keepeth not his commandment
is a liar and the truth is not in him. chapter 4 verse 6 chapter
2 verse 6 he that said he abideth in him also ought to walk even
as he walked do you see it look at verse 9 he that said he is
in the light and he hates his brother is in darkness even until
now so what John is doing is actually now watch this ladies
and gentlemen taking the common assertions that were held by
the heretics who were in the church, claiming to be Christians,
claiming to be believers, claiming to know God, claiming to have
fellowship. They were making the easy propositional
statement. We know God. We have fellowship
with God. We walk in the light. We abide
in the light. But John says you can say that
with your lips. But There are implications that
are unavoidable for the person who says we have fellowship with
God. There are implications for the
person who says we are walking in the light. See, all propositions
have implications, don't they? All statements have consequences
and what John is very clearly doing as he addresses what was
part of the heretical presumption that had dominated many people
who were in the church that John was overseer of Was the assumption
that you can say you are Christian but not live like one That's
why I point number four in your outline we have what are called
the ethical implications of the what the ethical implications
of the gospel The ethical implications of the gospel. The ethical implications
of the gospel. The ethical implications of the
gospel. Now, where does John get his
ethical implications of the gospel? From Christ. From Christ. He doesn't get them from Socrates.
He doesn't get them from Plato. He doesn't get them from Aristotle.
He doesn't get them from Philo. He gets them. He doesn't get
them from Sifona. He gets them from Christ. Listen
to me carefully. Christ taught the disciples precisely
what happens when a man is joined to him by faith. Christ taught
the disciples what it means to walk in the light. He taught
the disciples that true communion and true fellowship with God
is to become part of a vine of which the father is the husbandman,
we are nothing but the branches, and to abide in the vine is to
assure the bearing of the kinds of fruit that affirm that one
is abiding in the vine. Am I making some sense? So then
when we talk about having fellowship with God, when we talk about
walking in the light, when we talk about all of these things
that was John is saying, here's what he's saying. The ethical
implications of the gospel are unavoidable. Chapter three. Go
there. I'm almost done. Chapter three.
Here it is. I'm going to read it. Verses
six through 10. The verse versus six through
10 will give us our clear ethic as a consequence the gospel having
penetrated our lives. Are you there? Whosoever abideth
in him sinneth not. Whosoever sinneth hath not seen
him. These things of which John is
saying. Here's what he's saying. The ethical implications of the
gospel are unavoidable. Chapter 3. Go there. I'm almost
done. Chapter 3. Here it is. I'm gonna
read it. Verses 6 through 10. Verses 6
through 10 will give us our clear Ethic as a consequence of the
gospel having penetrated our lives. Are you there? Whosoever
abideth in him Sinneth not whosoever sinneth hath not seen him neither
known him Little children let no man what? He that doeth righteousness
is righteous even as he is righteous He that committed sin is of the
devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this
purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works
of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot
sin because he is born of God. Now look at verse 10. In this
the children of God are what? the children of the devil whosoever
doeth not righteousness is not of God neither he that loveth
not his what now in your outline here's what I say there is a
genuine fruit of conduct an attitude that flows from the root of grace
it reflects the work of the husbandman our Heavenly Father and it glorifies
Christ. Do you guys see that? There is
a genuine fruit of conduct and attitude that flows from grace,
from the root of grace, and it reflects the work of the husband,
our heavenly father, and it glorifies Christ. See what John is doing,
and we'll get a chance to unpack this as we go back and deal with
it very carefully, is helping the church that survived. It survived the apostasy. The church that John is ministering
to survived the apostasy. It survived the men who had come
in, who were pretenders, who also left. Look at chapter 2,
verse 18 and 19. Here's the apostasy that they
were dealing with. Chapter 2, are you there? Verse 18. Little
children, it is the last time, and as you have heard that Antichrist
shall come, even now there are many, what? Whereby we know that
it is the last time. Here it is. They went out from
who? See? They were on the inside. They were in the church. They
went out from us, but they were not of us. For had they been
of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. But they went
out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. Then he gives them in verse 20,
the comforting words of the presence and ministry of the Holy Spirit
that kept them from going out with these false prophets. But
you have an unction from the Holy One and you know all things.
I have written unto you because you know, I have not written
unto you because you do not know the truth, watch it, but because
you know it and that no lie is of the truth. See that? See what
he's doing? So I want you to get this, I'm done here. What
he's doing is helping the church that stayed Understand more clearly
what the gospel is versus what the gospel is not. If you ever
have been through a split, the one thing you know is that it
tests everybody's theology. False doctrine and false teaching,
heresy and heterodoxy, that is conduct that is inconsistent
with the fruits of grace challenges everyone, especially when in
the conflict that goes on in the local church, parties that
are starting to depart from the truth, apostatize, leave the
gospel and its implications are people you care, love and know. And then these people also may
be very knowledgeable about aspects of biblical truth. But I'm going
to close right here. Listen carefully to this. It
is impossible for a person to be unregenerate and therefore
not devoted to Christ through regeneration. for them to actually
stand in the gospel with what the gospel demands and the consequences
that come to it. It is impossible for the person
that is unregenerate, listen to me now, that is not born again,
that is not saved, to maintain allegiance to Christ. Allegiance
to Christ because the gospel demands allegiance. It demands
allegiance. It's impossible. Therefore if
a person embraces Intellectually biblical truths biblical concepts
that they would assert Constitute the gospel. I want you to hear
this now if the heart is unregenerate it will always shave biblical
truth distort biblical truth shape and form biblical truth
to justify their unethical behavior If the heart is unregenerate
Satan still rules the heart. The carnal man still rules the
heart. And that person will be willing to live with the conflict
that is inherent in their theological assumptions of which Paul has. I mean, John has just said these
things can't be. It's not possible for a person
to say he's walking in the light and yet is abiding in darkness.
These are mutually exclusive concepts. The allegations are
the assumption doesn't match the conduct. Am I making some
sense? And he's saying the reason why that's so is because they
were not of us. And the enemy that ruled their
hearts, the spirit of error, as we're going to work through,
ultimately led them down a pathway of disobedience that ultimately
caused them to formulate a doctrine where they denied the glory of
God and all of the essentials of biblical truth, although initially
it didn't appear that way. Down the line, the heretic will
ultimately deny what we would call the continuity of biblical
truth. Down the line, he will ultimately
deny the continuity of biblical truth. If any man be in Christ
Jesus, what is he? That's continuity. There's a
cause and effect to the invasion in the heart by the grace of
God. And so one will find themselves
struggling through a situation where apostasy takes place in
the church because you and I know that by the grace of God only,
we don't go down that course. And so what First John will do
for us, it will allow us to work through carefully, verse by verse,
the gorgeous language and imagery that John paints concerning what
true fellowship and authentic fellowship is about, but it will
also challenge us as we begin to look at what heresy is as
well. Let's stand for prayer. Father, thank you for this time.
Thank you for my brothers and sisters. Thank you for our introduction
into the study. As we go back and look at it
verse upon verse upon verse, help us to see what it means
to be a faithful pastor, a faithful shepherd, under Jesus Christ
to minister to a flock that has suffered the turbulence of apostasy
and heretical teaching that was brought in by men who did not
know God and it shook up the fellowship. Help us to learn
these things that we might avoid these things as well. As we go
our way, give us traveling mercies, bless us with safe journeys to
our home. Let us get great rest tonight. And may we be prepared
in our hearts to worship you on Sunday as you ought to be
worshiped. It is for us, first Sunday, we are looking forward
to telling the world that we have fellowship with God and
with his son, Jesus Christ, all by the grace of God. These things
we pray in Jesus' name, amen. God bless you.