First John chapter five, verse one. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world. And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world? But he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God. This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ. Not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness because the Spirit is truth. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, for this evening. Lord, I've just enjoyed being in your house this afternoon. Thank you, Lord, for the baby shower that was put on, Lord, by our church. And thank you, Lord, for the gifts that were given Lord, it just does my heart good. Lord, not that I ever doubted. Lord, they don't love me and they don't love my family. But Lord, they go out of their way to prove it and to show it to us this evening. Lord, to express it to us. Lord, I'm so grateful for that this evening. Lord, I'm grateful to be the pastor of South Haven Baptist Church. But Lord, just as much as I'm grateful to be the pastor, I'm glad to be part of the family that is here. Lord, I love these people. Lord, I'm closer to the majority of them than I am my own family. And Lord, I'm just grateful for the blessings. or that you have given to our church, or you've put us in a place where we're able to give freely. Lord, you've put us in a place where we're able to fix some things and get some things repaired, and we're so grateful, God, for what you're doing here. We thank you, Lord, for the men and the ladies that you've put here. I thank you for the men that you've put here who you've called to preach, and you've put preach in them, and Lord, they preach the word of God. Lord, when I'm out, Lord, while I'm here, I'm grateful for it, all of it, Lord. I thank you, Lord, for the ladies, Lord, that are the keepers of the home, God, and they're raising their children in the loving admonition of the Lord, They'll pray one for another and they'll just encourage one another. Lord, I'm so grateful for the unity, Lord, that you've given. I ask you, Lord, that you never let it leave. I ask you, Lord, whatever it takes, God, remove whatever would be coming in between it, Lord, and Lord, let no division come in this place. Lord, we're one body. Lord, we're one spirit this evening. We thank you for that. And I pray, Father, Lord, you'd help us now as we get into the Word of God. Help it, Lord, to encourage us, Lord. Help it to challenge us, change us. Lord, remind us of some great truths tonight. Lord, we already know but we're grateful for him and just make him a fresh to us this evening. I ask you, Lord, that we just, Lord, give you the glory this evening and we'll be so thankful, Lord, for what you're doing in our hearts and our lives. Lord, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. So be it, amen. 1 John chapter number five, verses one through six tonight, and if you read through this, like, preacher, I think we've already covered all this. I think John has already said this to these little children that he's speaking to, those children of the faith. And how many of us know that sometimes you just gotta tell kids things twice, three times, four times, and five times for the rest of your life? If one of those things, if I ever had a dollar for some of the things I've told my children, or that my parents told me growing up, we'd both be millionaires tonight. Because they've been repeated so many times. But what I found out is even when we did children's church, and even when we would have class with the kids, every now and again when we'd do what was called review time, or we'd have a class that was just specifically for review. We wouldn't teach anything new. We wouldn't go to any new stories. We wouldn't go to know any new scriptures. We wouldn't memorize any new scriptures. We wouldn't preach any more sermons, so to speak. We would go back what we've already gone over, and we would repeat it verbatim, pretty much, what we had just covered. And I say, preacher, why would you do that? Just to make sure they had grasped either the subject, the truth, the reality that we are trying to get across to them. Can I say tonight, it's almost as if John, he's about to end this first letter. And he says, before I end it, there's some things we're gonna review. There's some things we're gonna go over quickly, and then we'll move on to the next thing, but we're gonna review these things tonight. So the reality is, you read these first six verses, John doesn't introduce anything new. Matter of fact, it is what we've already covered in the previous four chapters this evening, and so tonight, my title tonight, my thought for tonight is, it's just review night. Would you go back over some things that we already know? And can he say, Preacher, well, I need something new, Preacher. I need something that I've never heard before. Well, you're going to have to go find somewhere else to hear it tonight, because there's nothing new under the sun. And tonight, reality is me and you are going to learn the same things over and over and over again, and not in a repetitious, boring way, but it'll be the same thing that you heard, but it'll come from a different avenue and a different facet and a different focus. You'll say, I never saw it like that. Just like this morning, I don't know how many times I've read that verse and never seen it like I did this morning, where God was explaining his promises as yay and amen and for the glory by us this evening, but we're gonna look at these review things. I'm gonna give you, I think, four things this evening that John reviews with his children. Notice number one, his first review point is you must believe on Jesus. You must believe on Jesus. Look at verse number one. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And everyone that loveth him, that loveth him also that is begotten of him. What was John saying? You must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now notice how John words it this evening. That whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ He doesn't say he's real, is a good man, is a great teacher, a great prophet, a great miracle worker. He's all of those things tonight. And here's the thing, me and you, there's a lot of people, if you ask them, do you believe in Jesus? They'll say, oh yes, I believe in Jesus. I believe that he was a real man. I believe that he came and I believe that he died and I believe all these, I believe he did those great works. I believe he taught that great stuff. But there's a big difference believing in something and believing on something. John didn't say, hey listen, whosoever believeth that Jesus is real, is that what it says? Is the Christ, the promised one, the Messiah, the one that came to die for every man's sin. John said, listen, whoever believes that Jesus isn't just real, but that he is the Christ, he is the one that paid our sin debt, he is the one that died on Calvary, he is the one that rose again, he is the one that completed redemption's plan and completed salvation's plan this evening. John said, that's the kind of faith that it takes to be born again. It's not just a simple believing that Jesus was real. We could read a history book and find that out tonight. History will tell you that Jesus walked the planet, or Jesus walked upon this earth this evening. But the Bible tells us that he wasn't just some man, that he was the very Son of God in flesh this evening. He was the Christ, the one that was promised from really the beginning, not just the beginning of time, but eternity past, when God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit reasoned together We sing that song, you've maybe heard that song saying that they searched all throughout heaven trying to find somebody, no God already had, the father already knew he was gonna send the son. He already had all of that figured out long before he ever spoke the world into existence. And so we have to realize tonight that you must believe, John was telling these children, you must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that he is the Christ. And here's the thing, he said, if you'll do that, you won't separate them, you won't separate them from either. You won't say, well, I love Jesus, but I don't love the Father. John was saying, listen, if you believed on Jesus, then you'll believe they're three in one, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And so this evening he said, you'll believe not only that who was begotten, but that who begat him. So he said, you'll believe the Father this evening. And can I say this evening, that's something. Real salvation. I understand you're not going to know everything immediately when you get saved, doctrine-wise. You're just glad that you're saved by the grace of God. You're glad that your sin has been paid for. You're glad that Christ has changed you. But here's the thing, as a Christian, one of the main things that I've learned in my Christian life is that now the Holy Spirit dwells inside of me, so when a truth is taught to me, as a Christian, I want to accept it. I'm not trying to push against it. I'm not trying to argue. It's truth. The Spirit witnesses and tells us it's truth, and I wanna agree with that tonight. And so John was saying here in verse number one, in point number one, little children, you must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Think about your average children's church lesson. Good News Club. I absolutely love Good News Club because it'll cover from Genesis. I don't think we've ever taught the Revelation in Good News Club. But it goes through all these different accounts. You'll follow the patriarchs. You'll look at the life of Paul. You'll look at the life of Christ. You'll look at the life of Joseph. You'll look at all these different men and all these different accounts. But no matter what the story is, no matter what the account is, there's always a turn to Calvary. There's always a turn to the cross. There's always a turn to salvation. Why? Because the main thing is, yes, do I want the kids to be understanding of the word of God and to know these accounts, but more than that, I want them to know that Jesus died for them. And can I say, we can never expel whatever the word is. We ought to never get tired about preaching about Calvary and preaching about the cross, because without the cross, without Calvary, without the resurrection, what do we have to preach? Why do we have the Old Testament to point towards Calvary? To give us the pictures and the types of Christ's coming and dying for us. See, you must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. See, there's a big difference. See, James tells us in chapter two, verse number 19, thou believest that there is one God, thou doest well. Then he goes on to say, the devils believe and tremble. They believe God's real, they know God's real. There's a lot of people who'll say, I believe in God. but do you believe that Jesus was the Christ, that he died for you and paid the price on the cross of Calvary this evening? See, you can't, there is no other way. Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. You can't get around that tonight. There is no other way to salvation tonight except believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Number one, you must believe on Jesus. John said, point number one, as for if you're not, you must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You must believe on the Lord. Then he goes on to say, number two, we will demonstrate love. As a Christian, we will demonstrate love. We will show love. We will show love. Remember, we talked about God is love and how we're to love one another and how we're to express the love of God, that at Christ like agape love. Look at verse number two to that. By this we know that we love the children of God. Preacher, how do we love each other? How do we love each other? Well, do we have to empty out our bank accounts one for another? Do we have to go and get whatever you need or whatever you want to express my love? And even when I was praying, I used the word prove their love. I don't necessarily like that this evening, and I didn't necessarily mean it that way, but this evening, me and you will express love tonight by certain actions. So preacher, how do we do that tonight? How do we love one another? It isn't necessarily an act. an action, so to speak. It isn't necessarily a thing that we do, but in reality, our love for each other is based on a mutual love for the same things. What do you mean by that, preacher? Look what he says right here in verse number two. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God. Me and you will love each other when we're loving God like we're supposed to. It'll just overflow and outflow from our life this evening. Brother Jamie's testimony, I enjoyed it. What was it? That was the love of God. Working in a situation where, and I've been there, Brother Jamie, I know what it's like, and I've made that same argument myself. And God said, if you love me, then you'll do what's right. You'll do what I have done for you. We should forgive one another as Christ has forgiven us this evening. And so our love, we'll love each other when we love, it's found in our love for God, but notice it's also found in verse number two, in keep his commandments. It's a mutual love, not just for God, but his word. See, when me and you are under the word of God, when we're reading the word of God and he's speaking to us, he's not gonna tell me and you to hate each other. He's not gonna tell me and you to put division against us this evening. Those of us that are in the church, and those of us in the family of God, God's desire is for unity. God's desire is for me and you to walk hand in hand, and how do we do that? How do we love one another? Well, we love God, and then we love his word, and I think Brother Jed shared the illustration with me that if you were to take a Bible tonight, and if me and you all walk towards the same Bible, I don't care where we start from, I don't care where we begin at in the room tonight, if we all walk towards the word of God, we're gonna walk closer together. because we're all going to the same place tonight. And so me and you, if we're gonna love each other, preacher, how do we do that? Do we have to take up more love offerings? There's nothing wrong with that. Do we have to do all this kind of stuff? No, if me and you will just love God and love his word to the best of our ability, we'll find out we can love each other. He said we will demonstrate love this evening. we'll have a love for God's children. Then verse number three, for this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous, we'll have a love for God. And John has said this over and over again, if you love me, Keep my commandments. If you love me, keep my commandments. Remember, we talked about how that is not living by the law. That is not trying to keep all the law to love the Lord. The commandments here, and to keep the commandments is literally to take them and hold them tight, to view them dearly, to love them. to keep them close. Remember the Bible says that when the angel came to Mary and said Mary was going to be with child and she was going to give birth to Christ and the Bible says she kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. She thought about them. She dwelt on them. She meditated on them. And can I say tonight that's how me and you express our love to God. By doing what he says. How do we do that? By keeping his commandments near to our heart this evening. My wife was looking up some stuff this afternoon that she was studying something in the Bible and it led to something else and led to something else. And then we were looking up, well she was looking up and telling me all this stuff about the laws that a modern day Orthodox Jew lady must try to keep when giving birth to a child. Absolutely crazy stuff. Some of it, through study, had been pulled out of the Word of God. You go read in the law and the purification process for a lady that's given birth, and depending on the child, if it was a man, she had to stay secluded or isolated for seven days. If it was a girl, it was 14 days. And there was these time periods. And some of that stuff's still there, but they've added to it. And some of this stuff was absolutely crazy. One of them was if you have to take a taxi on the Sabbath or on a holy day, request a non-Jewish taxi driver. Because they don't want them working on those days. They said if you know it's going to fall on the Sabbath, if you know it's going to fall on a holy day, take the money prior to that that would pay the taxi driver with, put it in an envelope and set it on the side and ask the taxi driver to come in and grab it. Because they don't want them working on the Sabbath. One of them, me and my wife are still trying to figure this out. One of them was, if you have to open the door on the Sabbath, do so in an ordinary fashion. What does that look like? I got it. It's open. I'm about to fall off the platform. What are you trying to say, brother? Here's the thing. They're trying to do all of that. There were so many rules and regulations, I thought there ain't no way I could remember all that. One of them was the husband is to not read, but quote just about every Psalm to his wife while she's giving birth. I knew one of them, almost. Psalms 1. It's like Psalms 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 21 through 25, and then Psalms 119 was in there. If you've ever been in that experience, if you've ever been in the birthing room of a child, it probably would be a good thing to quote scripture. I don't know what scripture I'd be quoting. Lord, help me. Lord, help. Who said that, Simon Peter, when he was drowning? Lord, help. Oh, I have no idea what that's got to do with what I was preaching on. Oh, keep his commandments. and keep His commandments. One of them was that the family members are to take portions of Scripture and plaster them throughout the hospital and along the walls and in the delivery room and the recovery room and have Scripture all around the wall. Not so the people that can read could read them, but for the child that has just been born. So they could see holy things. I thought, well, that sounds nice, but that little infant can't read. Can't even see that far. Science tells us they can see this far when they're first born. What is that, preacher? It's a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. It's things that look religious. It's things that look spiritual this evening. And here's the thing, when me and you, we take that mentality that I've got to do for God to be pleased with me. we're gonna mess up, because Christ has already done everything that needs to be done. But notice what he says right here in verse number four, excuse me, verse number three. It's not that we keep his commandments, it's just that we hold them near to us, but they're not grievous to us either. They don't grieve us. I'll tell you what, preacher. If I wasn't a Christian, I'll tell you what I would do. You know, you ought to thank God that you are a Christian. And you know right between wrong. You know how to discern those things. If I wasn't a Christian, I'd go out and party, really? Because the day you got saved, he was ready to give all that up and go away from that lifestyle. Preacher, it's just so grievous to me. It ought not to be that way. If it is, there's something wrong with the love life. There's something wrong with the keeping of the commandments this evening. So number one, we must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. We must demonstrate love one to another. How do we do that? By loving God. So we must demonstrate love to God as well. Number three tonight, review. Write these down, there'll be a test afterwards. I would say whoever gets them all right can have these things, but I don't wanna give them up. They're too good. Notice tonight, number three, through God, we've overcome the world. Look at verse number four. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world when they get everything figured out. When they understand all truths, When they know everything, they've been to Bible college, they have a degree, they've been in ministry for 25 years, then they'll overcome. This is whatever is born of God. Remember that night we stood T.R. up on the communion table? And we said that he was talking to little children. He was already telling them they were already overcomers. So we think so much of our Christian life that if I have to do all these things to overcome these things. Do you realize that? How do me and you overcome the world? Notice what he says, it's not necessarily an action. It's not anything that me and you can do per se. I'm not against putting up safeguards and things like that. But verse number four, how do we overcome the world? For whosoever is born of God overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh what? Even our faith. What is faith? Taking God at his word. Let me ask you tonight, what recipe did God give me and you to deal with sin? Did he tell us, me and you, to go and sit ourselves in the middle of sin and do our best to overcome it? No, he said run away from it, flee from the appearance of it. How do we do that? We don't even go anywhere near it. Why? Because that's what God told us to do. And I have faith that if I flee from it, it can't get to me. If I go in the opposite direction of sin, it's going that way, it's going away from God. I'm gonna go towards God, because that's what he told me to do. So preacher, when does that start? When you got born again. God put something in you that says, I don't want to go that way no more. I don't wanna do those things. We sang that song that one night, and it was rough. Not that y'all did bad, but I was up here leading it. Those things I used to do, I don't do them anymore. Those things I used to say, why? Because I got it all figured out. No, because there's been a great change since I've been born again. Through God, we overcome the world. Preacher, when did I become an overcomer? When did I overcome the world? When you got born again. You can't overcome the world in your flesh. You can't do it by yourself. It must be done by faith. So we see number three, that through God, we've overcome the world. Number two, we'll demonstrate love. We'll love God, we'll love each other. Number one, we must believe on Jesus. Then notice number four tonight, whatsoever is born of God. Excuse me, verse number six. This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ. Not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the spirit that beareth witness because the spirit is truth. I read that verse and I said, John, what in the world are you talking about? And for some odd reason, John didn't answer me. John didn't tell me. But I did some study this evening and found out number four review, it's Christ alone. It's Christ alone. It's Christ alone this evening. It is the gospel. It is the life, the death, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ this evening. See, what John was saying here when he talks about water and blood, that water is the picture of that natural birth. That's the same thing that Jesus said to Nicodemus that we talked about in Sunday school this morning, that man must not just be born of water, It's that natural birth. That's what we're anticipating in a couple weeks, that natural birth. That's the birth that everybody else has to tell us about. That song Brother Ray sings. I had a first birth and I've got a second birth. I know it's not the words of it. And I don't remember anything about this first one. Everybody had to tell me. I mean, I can tell you what my birthing experience was like because somebody else told me about it. This is what Mom told me. She was so, it was such an experience. She said, Tate, if you'd have been my first, It had been my last. I said, I know they don't make any more. That's the best there was. And she said, no, that was not why. And then she lied and they had my sister. Now, there's two generations of Tatans who are middle children. I pray for TR. But this evening, he's talking about that physical birth. He told Nicodemus, it's not just that one, he must be born again, must be born of the spirit. Here we see, here's the thing, why is it Christ alone? Because by ourselves and our own ability, that's the only birth that me and you have, is that natural birth. He said, but by water and blood. One of the commentators said that blood is a picture of the new birth. that has been made possible by the shedding of Christ's blood on the cross of Calvary. He said, it's in Christ alone this evening. Because man by himself, every other religion, they can only offer you one birth. He said, but in Christ, not only is there that water birth, but there's that blood birth, there's that birth of the spirit this evening, that born again, that thing that Nicodemus said, how can I go back into my mother's womb? Jesus said, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm talking about putting your faith, Christ said, in myself. The one that God sent, the only begotten, that whosoever believeth in him shall have everlasting life. It's in Christ alone tonight. Preacher, we know that, I know that. I know that this evening. But every now and again, we just need to be reminded. It's in Christ alone tonight. And there's somebody out there that you'll walk into that all they've got is that first birth. And they're trying their best to make it. Brother Ron testified about that. I have no idea. Preacher, how do people that don't know Christ make it through? They don't. Oh, they might live through it, and they might continue on, but sad reality is they'll go through all of that heartache alone and spend eternity without Christ. And here we are, who will sit back and say, I didn't deserve any of it. It's by grace alone. It's because I simply received a free gift. We've held on to it and we hold on to it and we're grateful for it. There's somebody out there that needs to know it's in Christ alone. It's in Jesus. The help you're looking for, it's not in that first birth. It's in the second birth. That first birth is a few days and full of trouble. A man's life is a few days but full of trouble. That second birth is life eternal. Life everlasting. Sin forgiven. Rejoicing in what God has done for us. John was saying here, children, half the children just looked at me. It's in Christ alone. It's in Christ alone. How do we know that preacher? Because the Holy Spirit beareth witness. You know there's only one gospel that the Holy Spirit agrees with? It's the gospel of the Bible. You don't agree with it? No works-based salvation. He don't agree with baptismal regeneration. He don't agree with none of that. He only bears witness with truth, and the truth is, in Christ alone. No other gospel is a true gospel. He talked about it in the previous chapters. If anybody say that Jesus is not the Son of God, if he's not the Christ, John said mark him, because they have the spirit of antichrist. Tonight, it's in Christ alone this evening. And I know we understand that tonight, but I just don't want you to forget about it. This evening, it's in Christ alone. We are here tonight because Christ. And I'm grateful for that this evening. So review tonight is, one, we must believe in the Lord Jesus. Two, we'll express love, we'll demonstrate love. Three, we're overcomers when we got born again. Number four, it's in Christ alone.