In the Word

Pastor Mike Warren: We want to definitely do the introductions to First John. So, Father, we thank you this morning for the work of your Spirit. We can't even understand anything there is to understand about you unless you reveal those things to us by that work of your Spirit. The carnal man cannot understand the things of God. It's not through our human reasoning or wisdom.

Because they are spiritually discerned. And we thank you that we have the mind of Christ, those that are saved, that the god of this world no longer blinds us, that you've given us eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to understand. And so, Lord, as we look at this Epistle of John, as we start the first epistle, speak to us. I think there's a lot in it that really translates to the time we're living in. It certainly is applicable.

And so, just again this morning we pray, open our hearts and our ears to hear, to receive, and then, more importantly, to put those things into practice. Give permanency, Lord, to those things we hear this morning. We pray it in Jesus' name. And again, all God's kids would say: Amen.

If you're a note-taker, you need to get your pen out. There's some things that we need to take a look at, some things we need to outline, as it were, before we start our verse-by-verse teaching through the book, just to give you the overview. I need to paint the backdrop and paint the forest so that as we go through and take a look at the trees, you can understand. The theme of this book, and the theme of all three of his epistles, is authentic Christianity. Not being a Christian in name only, not being religious, not confessing to be something we don't live. It's authentic Christianity.

Because the true born-again person has been changed by the Spirit of God. We're a new creature in Christ Jesus. We've been given a new heart, a new mind, new desires, new ambition. We have a different worldview. In light of the worldview we have—that this world is coming to an end and we're going home to our Father's house—we live differently, we think differently, we act differently, and we behave differently.

In fact, John is going to tell us in First John that all who have this hope—how many have the hope of heaven? How many can't wait to go get the new body, to be in a mansion where there's no mortgage and you don't need gasoline at five dollars a gallon? You travel at the speed of light. You're going to be home safe.

But he said all who have this hope—all kidding aside—we purify ourselves even as He is pure. So Christianity is not something we confess; it's something we live. It's not something we do; it's something we are. Jesus did not come to make bad people good; that's what religion tries to do. Jesus came to make dead people live and gave us the gift of eternal life.

So authentic Christianity, as we're coming to the end of the first century—this is the time that John is writing. He's coming to the end of the first century. He's the last living apostle at this time. It's interesting. When you look at the flow of the New Testament, you find that when we came to Second Timothy, Paul is warning us because he knows his time of departure is at hand.

And the things that are important, he gives us, as we said going through Second Peter, he gives us the last will and testament. When we came to Second Peter, it's the same story. Peter knows that his time of departure is at hand. He will be taken and crucified shortly after the writing of that. Paul, shortly after the writing of Second Timothy, will be beheaded on the Appian Way, and they want to leave behind a warning, a roadmap, some things that are important that we pay attention to. It's that way in First John.

Now, some of you that are students of the Word, let me lay this on you—it'll mess you up a little bit, but I just think it's good information. The last epistle written in the Bible is First John. You say, "Wait a minute, after First John you have Second John and Third John." Well, most scholarship believe that John, after he came off the island of Patmos from his exile there, after penning the book of Revelation on Patmos, as he comes now and he's either with Polycarp in Ephesus or Smyrna or going back and forth in between, anyway, there he writes Third John.

It's a very short epistle that deals with the same issues that Second John and First John deal with. But as he wrote the first one, he realized he needed to expand somewhat on his exhortation. So he wrote Second John next. So Second John is in the right place; it's in the middle. But then he said, "Well, they're just not getting it. Let me write something a little bit more expansive." And so we find that he writes First John.

So First John is the last epistle. And then most scholarship believe that he wrote the Gospel of John after this, sometime before his death. It's the last of the Gospels written, and that's why it's not part of the Synoptic Gospels. Matthew, Mark, and Luke were set at a different time, but John is literally the testimony of who Jesus is. And then when that is penned and the pen is, as it were, set down, we have the canonization of Scripture. We have the final record of who Jesus is.

As you study through this epistle, we'll find there's five chapters, 105 verses, 2,141 words, but all of them are directing us to be the real thing, to be an authentic Christian. To be one that's not only born of the Spirit but walks in the Spirit, one that is obedient to the will of the Father, who has taken up their cross as Jesus said, denied self, and is following Him; ones who hear His voice and follow no other. So it's so important. I think that's why First John is one of my favorite epistles, because I look at it often and it reminds me of what it is I need to be.

Now, there's two false teachings he's going to deal with, so write this down. Antinomianism. You'll see it woven in the fabric and the DNA of this epistle as we study through it, because he's writing against this false teaching that's entering into the church at the end of the first century. John began to walk with Jesus, called to be a disciple about 17 years old. Seventy, seventy-five years have gone by. He's an old man, last of the living apostles. He's dying the martyrdom of an old age.

They tried to boil him in oil—Domitian did—and it didn't work. That's why they exiled him on the island of Patmos. All the rest have gone to be with the Lord; they've been martyred. He's the last living representative. And as he puts pen to paper, he wants us to understand there are things that are creeping into the church that aren't right, that you need to be warned about.

So woven into the fabric of this exhortation, first of all, he's going to talk about antinomianism. Big theological word—"anti" means against, "nomianism" means law. In other words, he's going to say hyper-grace will creep into the church where people will say you just have to pray a prayer and accept Jesus and then you can live any way you want. And he's going to remind us this morning, if we get into chapter one, that if we say we have fellowship with Him and we walk in darkness, we're a liar. Truth is not in us because the one who knows Jesus has been changed.

So he's going to warn us about hyper-grace—that's what we're seeing today in the churches—but they called it antinomianism in the end of the first century. The second thing is Gnosticism. Now, the Gnostics said that everything in the material world is evil, and the spiritual world is good. Thus, Jesus could not have had a physical body. In fact, the Gnostics taught that you can do anything you want. To prove that the material world was evil, they would have drunken orgies. Then they would say, "See, the material world is evil; as long as we serve God in our spirit, we'll be okay." Well, it's interesting: Jesus came to redeem your spirit, soul, and your body. John is going to deal with this false concept that as you're born again, there should be a change in life.

So those are the two, and it's woven in the fabric—you'll see it, and I'll draw your attention to it as we're going through. But there's four reasons. I want to draw your attention, so write this down. There's four reasons that John gives us. I love this about John: he gives us the outline of the book of First John. He tells us there's four reasons why he's writing this epistle.

We find the first one of those reasons in chapter one, verse four, where he says this: "And these things I write unto you that your joy may be full." He's going to connect in chapter one that joy only comes in right relationship with the Lord. That's why Psalm 16:11 says, "In His presence is fullness of joy."

That's why Jude, the uterine brother of Jesus—the younger of the four that came after Jesus, born of Mary. You know this thing that the Catholics say, that Mary was an eternal virgin? No, she wasn't. She had four other sons and at least two daughters after Jesus. She was a virgin when Jesus came. You have James, Joses, Simon, Jude. Jude writes to us in his short little epistle, "Build yourself up on the most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourself in the love of God and keep looking for the return of Jesus."

So those things are important, and now he's going to tell us that true joy comes as we walk in a right relationship with the Father, when we're in His presence. Not in religion—in His presence. So the first reason he gives us for writing this epistle is that your joy may be full, and then he's going to tell us how we get fullness of joy.

The second thing is found in chapter two, verse one: "My little children." The word there is "teknion" for little children, which means "my little born-again ones." How many are born again by the Spirit of God? Then you're a child of God. Isn't that incredible? You've been given a divine nature and a new name. Your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

He's writing to the born-again ones. He says, "I write unto you, my little born-again ones, these things that you sin not." Again, it's an absolute indictment against antinomianism. The standard for the true follower of Christ is we don't want to sin. We've come out from the world. We want to be separate. We don't want to be touching unclean things. It doesn't mean as we go through that text that we don't. He's going to say that's the standard, but if you do, you have an advocate with the Father, Jesus the righteous, and He has propitiated your sin. We'll take a deep look at that word and what it means to be justified, what it means to have your sins propitiated—not expiated, but propitiated. They are two different words we're going to take a look at because you need to know what Jesus has done for you.

So that's the second reason he writes this epistle: so that we would understand there is a standard of living that the Holy Spirit, through the grace of God, has brought into the heart of the believer. We don't practice sin; that's what he's going to tell us. We, as Christians, don't practice sin as a way of life. We can fall into it, but we don't live there anymore. We have a change of address.

The third thing is found in chapter two, verse 26: "These things I write unto you concerning them that would seduce you." He's going to expose false teaching and false teachers, which is always important. I find it incredibly interesting how naive some Christians are, how easily they are persuaded away from the truth into error.

That's why Jude says—growing up in the home as the younger brother of Jesus. Can you imagine growing up in a home where Jesus, your older brother, is God? Can you imagine the instruction those four younger brothers got? Can you imagine the tune-up? Can you imagine them getting alone, the four of them, and saying, "He's mom's favorite. That goody-two-sandals, he never does anything wrong."

Because they never believed that He was the Messiah until after the resurrection. I can imagine that was an interesting home. How would you like to be a fly on the wall in that household? But then after his conversion, Jude writes, "Build yourself up in the most holy faith." We have to build our lives on a foundation. That's why we had Laura put that sign up as you walk from the fellowship hall down the hallway into the sanctuary.

We're built up on a foundation of the apostles—the New Testament—the prophets—the Old Testament—and Jesus Christ Himself—the gospel revelation. Jesus Christ Himself is that chief cornerstone, and upon this foundation we are fitly framed together, every piece and every part put in its right place for a habitation of God through the power of His Holy Spirit. That's the church. That's what we're supposed to be.

In fact, when Paul writes to the Thessalonians, he says when the Antichrist shows up, he's going to deceive people through lying signs and wonders. And the reason he has the potential to deceive people is because they don't know the truth. See, that's the problem with the modern church. The three most important things—and it is a three-legged stool—the three most important things that ought to be in the church, a part of the church, the life of the church, have been expelled from the church.

Number one is the Word of God being taught, Old Testament and New Testament, expositionally. We need the Word of God. The second thing is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We've allocated that to those weird Pentecostal people that fall on the ground. Listen, I don't fall on the ground. I don't howl at the moon. I don't laugh uncontrollably. That's the flesh. But I'll tell you what I got, and I get every time, and I ask for it every day: the baptism of the Holy Spirit is strength and power, giftings, the ability, and then this precious language that He gave me.

When I can get alone with Him, I can speak to Him, and it bypasses my intellect, and my spirit bears witness with His spirit. With groanings and utterances I don't understand, I can communicate to my Father and know that I'm praying not in my own will, but in His will. The church still needs the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Don't listen to any of these lies—and John's going to expose it—of these people saying, "Well, that was just in the first century to get the church started, but after that, we're cessationists." Really? Is Jesus the same yesterday, today, and forever? Would He give something to the first-century church that He wouldn't give to the 21st-century church?

Would He withhold something from us that is necessary to be the church? What a lie from the pit of hell. I don't understand completely the Holy Spirit, but I don't need to. I'm not so prideful to think that I need to. The Bible says it's like the wind; it blows where it wills. We don't see where it comes or know where it goes, but we see the effect it has.

I wired this building. Most of you know that I was a heating and air contractor. We built this sanctuary ourselves, and my job was the wiring and the heating and air. I had some guys help me, but I don't understand how electricity works. I just understand if you connect the neutral and the positive and the ground and you run it through the switch, when you turn the switch on, lights come on. Amazing.

But if you ask me how electrons, neutrons, and protons work, I don't know. "How come you don't know? You wired the building." Yeah, I wired the building. I understand the mechanics of it, but I don't necessarily understand the physics of it. And I don't need to. I'm not going to sit in the dark until I understand it. I'm going to flip the switch on, and I'm going to sit in the light. Amen.

So he said there's those who are going to try to lead you in error, so I write to expose these things. And then the last thing, I think, is the most important—he saved it for last. It's found in chapter five, verses 13 and 14. Let's turn there. Because, how many have ever doubted your salvation? The rest of you are... We have an enemy who wants you to doubt your salvation. That's why the Bible says in Romans 8 there is now therefore no condemnation. He's always trying to condemn you and sow doubt in your heart that you're even saved.

He'll say things like, "If you were saved, you wouldn't get mad in traffic, Pastor Mike." Well, I am saved; I'm just working on sanctification. This is a different issue. Amen? But listen to what John says: "I write unto you in chapter five, verse 13, these things that you may believe on the name of the Son of God." Because there's salvation in no other. Religion will not bring you salvation. A belief system will not bring you salvation. Going to church—even coming to this church—won't bring you salvation. You can go home, stand in your garage, and go "honk honk honk," but it won't make you a car. "Vroom vroom vroom" won't make you a motorcycle.

Ron—I envy him—he pulls up on his motorcycle every Sunday morning. I used to ride bikes all the time until the Lord just convicted me. He said, "Dead pastors don't help people." So I had to give it up reluctantly. I'm still dealing with the issue in my heart about it. I don't ride one, but I still have a problem of coveting, brother. If he loved me, he would stop riding his motorcycle on Sunday morning and start driving his truck. If he loved me, he'd do that. But I digress. Where was I? Oh, yeah. That we might know. Because salvation is only in Christ.

There is one name given among men whereby we must be saved, and that's the name Jesus. That's why the Bible says one day every knee is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess that He is Lord to the glory of the Father. And to understand that Jesus—and John's going to bring that to the fore—came to sacrifice Himself for our sins, and we're here to bear witness of that.

When we come to the fourth reason he writes in verse 13, he says, "These things have I written unto you that you might believe on the name"—and there is power, "ousia," in the name of the Son of God—"that you may know." And this word for "know" in the Greek means to have an absolute certainty about this, no confusion in it. You would have absolute certainty that you have—not that you might get.

People are involved in religions. I've had a lot of conversation. I did this thing one time when I was a youth pastor where I went and interviewed people. Especially if they were religious, I asked them a question. We had a little survey and I would ask them, "Do you believe you're going to heaven?" The first question I'd ask is, "Are you religious?" "Oh yeah, I'm religious." Some would say, "I'm a Catholic." Others would say, "I'm a Baptist." Some would say, "I'm a Jehovah's Witness." I just let them say what religion they were and write it down. Then I would say, "Do you know if you're going to heaven?" And they'd say, "Well, nobody can know that. I hope I'm good enough. I hope I do enough good things that balance out the bad things. I hope that Jesus doesn't come until after I have my confessional with the priest or I have communion." They put the emphasis on all this other stuff.

And then I will read this verse to them. Do you know that you can know with a certainty? Because your salvation is not based on your performance; your salvation is based on His performance. And He performed. Because by one sacrifice—Hebrews chapter 10 tells us—by one sacrifice He hath perfected forever those that He made holy.

Look to your neighbor and tell them, "You're holy." We do this in marriage counseling, too. Look to your neighbor and tell them, "You're holy." No, look, do it. Don't be disobedient sheep. But then you have to add, "in Christ Jesus." Don't leave that part out, because you aren't holy outside of that—unless you put a "w" on it and you're full of holes. But you are holy because Jesus made you holy. Then he goes on to say in verse 17, "And your sins and your iniquities I remember no more."

Now, let me ask you a question: if He remembers your sin no more, how can you sin away your salvation? Think when you open the Bible; don't check your brain out at the door. He gave you one for a reason. How can you lose or sin away your salvation, like our Arminian brothers believe? I'm not an Arminian nor a Calvinist; I'm a biblicist.

The Bible makes it very clear that if He doesn't remember our sins or our iniquities anymore, then how can you mess up to ruin His salvation in your life? You can't. Because you're saved by grace through faith. That's not of yourself; it's a gift. Once it's given to you, He's not taking it back. Now, He'll take you to the woodshed—how many have been to the woodshed recently? Because you're His. But He isn't taking back your salvation.

That's why he says that having been justified by faith—Romans 5—the word for "justification" doesn't just mean... our Pastor Chuck used to say this all the time. I understood what he was saying, but it kind of irritated me because I think he left a lot on the table. He would say justification means "just as though you never sinned." Well, it can mean that, but it means much more than that. Do you understand the word justification means "just as though you never were a sinner"? Think with me for a moment. Just as though you never were a sinner. Because if He's only covering your sin and you're still a sinner—if He's only making it look like you never sinned, but you still have the sin nature—you can't stand in the presence of a holy God.

Because the Bible makes it clear, nothing unholy is going to stand in His presence. You have to be absolute perfection to stand before a holy God. And that's exactly what the blood of Jesus Christ did for you and me. It washes so clean and makes us so perfect that it is as though we never were sinners. That's why your sins and your iniquities He remembers no more, because you have been so cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ, so renewed by the Spirit of the living God as you're born of the Spirit, and so regenerated by the Spirit.

It is as though you never were a sinner. Can you imagine? Can you imagine? That alone should cause you to worship. That's why we can trust that what He began, He is able to guard and to keep unto the day of salvation. Now unto Him who's able to keep me, to keep you, to keep us from falling. Are you able to do that? Can you present yourself faultless before the Father of glory with exceeding joy? No, but there's one who can and will one day. Now unto Him who's able to keep me from falling. What He began in us, He will complete.

And one day He will present Mike Warren. It's a beautiful picture in the Greek, because Greek is a pictorial language. It's as though Jesus is putting His arm around me when my turn comes, and He walks me right up to the very throne of God the Father, who's seated on the throne. He says, "God the Father, I want to introduce to you—this is what's being said in Jude 24—I want to introduce to you Mike Warren. Mike Warren, meet God the Father."

At that moment, I'm going to look down and I'm going to realize I'm holy. I'm perfect. At that moment, I might howl at the moon. I think I'm going to get real emotional because I'm there. And I know that I don't deserve to be there; Jesus made me worthy. That's why we're going to take our crowns off and throw them at His feet and sing the song, "Thou Art Worthy." Because He redeemed us from every tongue, tribe, and people. Don't let anybody tell you that you're going through the tribulation. The church sings that in chapter five; the tribulation starts in chapter six. We'll get to that when we get to Revelation. Don't be deceived on that, either.

So he writes to us that we might know that we have—let me finish reading this, I'm tearing up—but know that you have eternal life and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. And this is the confidence we have in Him. There's a confidence that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us and He will give us that. Have you asked Him to forgive you? Have you asked Him to be born again? This is the confidence.

So he writes to us—these are the four reasons. Number one, "I want to write to you that your joy..." You shouldn't be a bummed-out Christian. We've got nothing to be bummed out about. So I want your joy to be full. That's why I write unto you. And I want you to understand that your joy is full when you're not living a life of sin. You can't do that as a believer; it'll mess you up. So I write unto you that you sin not, secondly.

Thirdly, I write unto you so that no one would seduce you into error. I want to warn you about false teachers. Then lastly, I write unto you that you might know. Have absolute confidence in the fact that you are saved, that you are sanctified by Jesus Christ, and that your name is indelibly written down in the Lamb's Book of Life. When He comes to judge this world and your name is recorded there, you pass from judgment to life. You need to know that, because that will stay you. I'm convinced one of the greatest lies of the enemy and one of the ways he has access to discourage us and to dissuade us and to defeat us is because we simply don't know who we are in Christ Jesus.

Not in a braggadocious or prideful way—because there's nothing proud about it when you think about it and understand it—but you are complete. The Bible says you are complete. Nothing more can be added to your holiness. You are complete in Christ Jesus. And you need to know it. Amen?

So those are the four reasons why he writes to us. Let's turn to chapter one. We've got a little time. There's an interesting thing that happens in chapter one, and this is one of the epistles I read over and over. Because we know at this point John has probably been serving the Lord since he was 17; he's probably in his late 80s at this point. This is written about 98 AD, at the turn of the first century. All the other apostles now have faded from the scene.

Every one of them has been martyred. They tried to martyr John; they tried to boil him in oil, but he just wouldn't boil. Can you imagine Domitian said, "I want to shut that guy up, so you make him a public example. Tie him to a big pole, get a big pot of oil, get it boiling, and dunk him. I want to hear him screaming." They dunked him and he came back up and said, "Ooh, that's nice for the skin. I didn't know it was spa day. This is spa day. Dunk me again!"

I would have done that. He was so mad, he said, "Send him to Patmos. Exile him." Then he finds that sanctified loneliness where there are no distractions. You need to find it. And Jesus appears to him. John did not write Revelation; he dictated it. Jesus said, "Write these things: the things that you have seen, the things that are, and the things that shall be. Get your pen and pad out and start writing."

You will never be... listen, you're indestructible until Jesus is done with you. Do you know that? And when He's done with you, who wants to stay here? Amen. So John writes these things, from a young man to an old man. He's the apostle that says, "I'm the one Jesus loved." Now, that's a little arrogant. He's the one who laid his head on the chest of Jesus.

He writes, and he always begins in the beginning. John always begins in the very beginning. This is not the beginning of creation or the beginning of this earth or the beginning of the church. The word for "beginning" means before anything else was. God is. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last.

Some people say, "How did God come to be?" I don't know. Ask Him when you get there. The Bible says He always was. "Well, that can't be." Well, it can't be for you, because there was a time in which you were created. There was a time when you were just a twinkle in your mom and dad's eye before they were even married.

We were up doing some things at Petra, a youth camp, and Jeff and Stephanie were there, and Josh. I just had this thought looking at them, that I knew his parents before they were his parents. I knew his parents before they were married. So it's like I've always known you, Josh. I knew you when your parents showed up at the church before they were even... There's some stories I could tell you about that, but I won't. That's the benefit of being a pastor for a church for over 30 years. You've seen a lot of things, and they're interesting. I won't betray any trust.

But let's get into it. So he's looking back. This is interesting. There's a Greek grammatical structure here where when he begins to write, he's looking back, and then as we get a few verses down, then he's looking at the present. I think this is so encouraging because, again, he served the Lord probably 75, 80 years at this point. He's going to say something to me and to you that's encouraging.

He's going to say, "That which was from the beginning." He starts his Gospel—let me read it to you so I don't make a mistake about it—in chapter one, verse one, by saying, "In the beginning. In the beginning was the Word." When you go to the very act of creation, Jesus was there, and John's going to remind us of that. Because when the world was without form and void, the Bible says that God spoke. That's the Word. And the Spirit hovered or dwelt over. So you have God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit all involved, as it were, in Genesis 1 in creation. Because in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

So he wants to take us back to the fact of who Jesus is. In fact, in the Greek it's more emphatic, and it just doesn't say "the Word was with God and the Word was God"; it says "and God was the Word." A switch there. The same was in the beginning with God, and all things were made by Him, so He's the Creator. Without Him, nothing was made that was made. In Him was life. He is a life-giving Spirit. God the Father didn't give Jesus life; Jesus had life. He is part of the eternal Godhead, part of the Trinity.

And people tell you, "Well, there's no Trinity." Well, I beg your pardon. All the way through the New Testament, God the Father is called God, God the Son is called God, and God the Holy Spirit is called God. They're all called God. The three of them make up one. People say, "Well, that can't be." Well, there's three of you. What do I mean? You are body, soul, and spirit. The spirit lay dormant until you're saved—you're only body and soul until you're saved. You're incomplete. That's why you're complete in Christ.

But he goes on to say, "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." Light is always, as it were, a symbol of truth. Light exposes darkness; light exposes the lie.

Light is... He is truth. In Him was life, and the life was the truth of men. And the truth shineth into the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. Listen, if you're not born again, the only thing that the Holy Spirit can do is convict you of sin to bring you to Jesus, because the god of this world has blinded your eyes so that you can't see. You need to be born of the Spirit.

You know, there was a guy that came to one of D.L. Moody's evangelistic services, and he said, "D.L. Moody, I've been reading and following your sermons, and I've been reading the Bible. I've got a few questions. If you can answer those questions, then I'll give my life to the Lord tonight." Moody said, "Young man, I'm just getting ready to go on the stage. I've got to preach in just a few moments. But when I am done speaking, I'll have you stay here with some of my team, and I'll come and answer your questions."

The guy said, "Deal." Well, when he got done speaking, Moody came to the young man and said, "Okay, I'm ready to answer your questions." He said, "It's too late. The Lord already answered every one of them. I'm saved." Well, that's kind of a bummer, because I'm pretty sure Moody wanted to be a part of it, but listen: the Word of God is light. It's truth. It penetrates the heart. Then he says in verse 14, "And the Word was made flesh."

Again, the Gnostics would say, "No, He wasn't flesh; He was a spirit." No, John says, "And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. We beheld the glory, the glory of the only begotten Father, full of grace and full of truth."

So he's going to tell us who Jesus is. And in chapter one—we're almost out of time—in chapter one he's going to give us three false confessions. I want you to find out before you come back next Sunday what those three false confessions are in chapter one. They'll begin with, "If we say." Because we can say things we aren't. Amen?

But let me get to this one point here and then we'll pray. Man, did somebody turn that clock up faster? You need to stop it, brother, because time just seems to fly here. I'm not even done with the introduction, and now we go into chapter one, verse one: "That which was from the beginning." Make note of that. "Which we have heard."

"Which we have seen with our own eyes." It's not hearsay. "Which we have looked upon." That idea in the Greek is that we studied. Can you imagine him sleeping, and they're up at night around the campfire studying him? Who is this one that can raise the dead? Who is this one who can speak, and the wind and the rain and the lightning and the thunder have to obey, just like that? That was good, right on time. Thank you, brother. Thank you, Tim; I'll pay you later. But who will obey? Who can cast demons out? Who can walk on water? Who can take a few loaves and a few fish and bless them and break them and feed multitudes? Who is this one who spake with authority?

I can imagine—I would stay up at night. Did Jesus snore? Did His feet stink? Inquiring minds would need to know. They studied Him. Did He laugh? Did He joke? Did He have a sense of humor?

So they said, "That which was from the beginning we heard, we have seen with our own eyes. We've looked upon, we've studied." "Our hands..." Listen, we've touched Him; we handled Him. He wasn't a spirit; He was physical. "...Of the Word of Life." It marveled them that what they were handling, hearing, and watching—what they were involved in—was God in human form. The incarnation of God.

"For the life was manifest, and we have seen it, and we're bearing witness, and we show unto you this eternal life which was with the Father and now is made manifest unto us." He was with the Father in the past; now He's here, present with us. So he's looking back in the first two verses. He's recalling seventy or seventy-five years ago, when he was 17 and he met Jesus, and how it was overwhelming.

I can think back now almost 50 years. I got saved in '75; next year will be my 50th year. Often I sit alone and I remember that night where the Spirit of God, through the Word of God, ripped open my heart. I knew, and I received. Those tears of joy began to stream down my face. I'd never experienced peace or joy before in my life until that night.

I have a testimony. John has a testimony: "I was there." A very young man, but he was there. "I saw Him. I handled Him, I studied Him, I heard what He had to say." Then, when he comes to verse three, he says, "And that which we have seen." The idea in the Greek is: "What I saw 75 years ago is still ringing in my ear, still as real in my heart as it was the day that I began this walk."

And I will tell you, in my life, it's the same. It's still ringing in my ear. I heard those words: "This is your opportunity. What that man is saying is absolute truth, and you need to make a decision."

I felt God rip open my heart and poke around in things and heal me of my sin nature. It's still ringing. Church, it's still ringing in my ear. It's still real in my heart. I'm not religious; I know Him, and He knows me. My favorite song by Keith Green never made it on an album, but we sing it here: "Born Again." Because there's a lyric in there that describes what happened to me 50 years ago and how it changed my desire. Keith Green says, "I want to spend my life watching You watching me."

That's it. It's still ringing in my ear. "That which we have seen and heard we declare unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us: and truly"—here it is, and we'll have to leave off here and pick it up next Sunday—"and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ." "Koinonia"—we're in oneness with Him. We're not in religion about Him; we know Him, and He knows us.

He watches us, and we watch Him. Our fellowship is with Jesus Christ, and that's why we write these things unto you—that your joy... Joy comes in relationship. It doesn't come in religion; it comes in relationship. We have fellowship with the Father through His Son, Jesus Christ, and through that work of the Spirit. We are born of the Spirit; we're a new creation in Christ Jesus. We have now become the sons and daughters of the Most High God, the children of our Father. We know Him, and He knows us, and we are one.

We'll pick it up next week in John chapter 17, but Jesus's prayer as He's leaving is that we'd be one with the Father as they are one. So don't let anybody rip you off and say it's about being religious. I've asked people, "Are you saved?" "Well, I go to church." That's not what I asked you. Are you born of the Spirit? Did you have a conversion? Were you changed by the work of the Spirit? Are you renewed? Have you eternal life living in you? Did you get a different heart? I got a heart transplant; I didn't get a remodel. I thank God He didn't remodel it; He pulled the old one out and put a new one in. And He fixed my mind. Can you believe it? I had wrecked my mind.

I was a mediocre student at best in secular college. I graduated from Bible college class valedictorian. I've taken an IQ test—you may not believe this and you might think I'm lying—but I got about a 160 IQ. I was lucky to have a 100 IQ before I got saved. God gave me a mind that He could use. What do you have but what you've received? And if you received it, why would you glory as though it originated from you? Every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from the Father above, in whom there is no variance or shadow of turning.

Authentic Christianity, let's close with this, is that you know Him—not about Him. We've got people who come here and say, "We really like it here; we want to join." And I'll say, "Well, you can't join." They'll get this weird look on their face: "Oh, I see. You four and no more. This is a clique." No, it's not a clique. You could come to my house after the service, knock on my door, and say, "I want to join your family." You can't. "Well, why can't I?" Because you have to be born into it.

You have to be born again. Then you're part of us. But they want something more, and so I'll say, "Okay, well, how many times have you been here?" "Well, I think this is our third time." "Then, okay, you're a member." I don't know what to tell you. You're either in, or you aren't. And if you're in Christ Jesus, you're my brother, I don't care what part of the planet you live on, or my sister. But if you aren't in Christ Jesus, you aren't my brother or my sister. You can be my friend. I can love you. I can share the gospel with you. But you are not my brother or sister, spiritually speaking, until you're born again.

We've got people come here and say, "I've been coming here for a few weeks; do you have a wealthy benefactor? Because you don't take up an offering." I said, "Why would we waste time? I speak too long, anyway. We're not having some lady or man come up here and sing a special and then shake a plate in front of your face. We're just not going to do that."

"Well, you must have a wealthy benefactor." In fact, we do. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, and He'll supply every one of our needs. You're sitting in a building that's paid for—how many churches can say that? We didn't do it; He did. Through your faithfulness, but He did it. Amen?

So John begins this by saying, "I remember." I can look back and I can remember when I first met Jesus. I saw Him, I heard Him, I studied Him, I handled Him—the Word of Life. And His words, all these many years later, are still ringing in my ear. We want you to have fellowship with us, because truly our fellowship is with Him. If you have fellowship with Him, I'm writing to you because you will experience joy—inexpressible, undescribable, the Bible says—but you'll be full of it. It's good to be full of something, because some of you guys were full of something other than that before you got saved. It's good to be full of joy. Amen? Amen.

Well, let's stand. Let's get the worship team up here. So where did I stop? Verse four? Okay, three. We'll back up to verse one next week and get a run at it. Aren't you glad you're in Christ Jesus? Amen? Aren't you glad you're saved this morning? Aren't you glad you know Him? Let the redeemed say so. Say yes! Yes, I know Jesus and He knows me and He saved me. I'm on my way to heaven, and nobody can stop it. Neener, neener, neener to the devil! You can slow me down, but you aren't stopping me. Amen? Because Jesus promised.

He said you can have this confidence. You can know that you have eternal life because it's not based on you; it's based on Me. And I'm the... we just sang it this morning: "I am the faithful one." Amen?

Father, thank you this morning that I am secure in Christ Jesus. I can have this confidence that what He began, He will finish. As we look at these four reasons why John wrote, and every one of them has a subject matter to it, speak to us this next several weeks. Speak to us, Lord. Speak to us about the joy that You want the Christian to experience. Speak to us that we ought to be those who are in an absolute battle against sin. Speak to us, Lord, about those who would deceive us and seduce us. And, Lord, give us the confidence that we know we have eternal life in You.

Jesus, we love You. We don't love this world—we have to put up with it, but we love You. So our prayer always is: come quickly, get us out of this mess. It's going to be a worse mess in the next three or four months. It just doesn't seem to get any better. But that's okay. When it goes down, we go up. And we thank You for that. In Jesus' name. And all God's kids, the sons and daughters of the Most High, would say with a loud voice: Amen.