Tonight I want to begin a series in this particular book of 1 John. Let me ask you this, how many of you in your lifetime have ever used cliff notes? Keep your hand up high. Shame on you people. No. You know, sometimes either in high school or in college, you have maybe a literature course or some other course, you're supposed to read a book. You quote-unquote didn't have time to read the book, so what do you do? You get the cliff notes, you kind of get the highlights, you get the summary version, you get the overview, and perchance just maybe that will be enough. We're going to do the cliff note version tonight of 1 John. I want to introduce the book to you. try to give you a bird's eye view, an overview of the book and help us to have a good understanding and then we'll come back and week by week by week we'll piece our way through this particular book. The way I'm going to do this is I'm going to preach for two Sunday nights and then Mark or Jim are going to preach and I'll do two, and then one of them will preach, and we'll just kind of rotate our way through the book like that, so give a little variety to it, but we'll try to get a good understanding of the book tonight. So I've just entitled this Getting to Know the Book of 1 John. Who's the author? Well, you could easily say, well, it's John, John the Apostle, and you would be absolutely correct. Let me give you a little bit of underpinning that will hopefully help with that. 1 John and our current study, an adult Bible study, the book of Hebrews, are the two epistles that do not name their author. And there's much conjecture, particularly with the book of Hebrews. Was it Paul? Was it Luke? Was it somebody else? We really don't know. But with the book of 1 John, although not named, as he is not named in the gospel that he wrote, we can with really full assurance say that John the Apostle wrote this particular book. It was somewhere towards the end of the second century. One of the church fathers, Irenaeus, really quoted from the book of 1 John, he was the first to do so, and named John as the writer or the author of this epistle. Why is that significant? Well, Irenaeus was a student or a disciple of Polycarp who was a direct disciple of John himself. And so there was some good substance there and then really for the next century or so there were several of the church fathers that said, yes, John is the author. And we come to the fourth century and Eusebius really gives a summary of all the thinking of the church fathers in regard to the authorship of this epistle. And he writes, but of the writings of John, not only his gospel, but also the former of his epistles, without dispute, both now and in ancient times. And so he's saying, hey, John is the author of this particular book. You know, we're not going to take a lot of time with this, but if you were to do some comparison between 1 John, the Epistle, and the Gospel of John, you see some similarities. You know, John likes comparisons, and he'll use comparisons like light and darkness, life and death, love and hate, truth and lies. You find that in the gospel, you certainly find it in this particular epistle. And then the author of this epistle says within the first three verses that he was an eyewitness to Jesus Christ. He spent time with Jesus Christ in comparison to second generation Christians who did not have that opportunity. And so it really narrows the field pretty substantively by the time that this particular book was written, who could say that I was one who walked with Christ, who lived with Christ, who knew Him intimately, and so really it all points to John as being the author of this particular book. By this particular time in his life, he was probably at least 80. Somewhere in his 80s, And what do we know about John? And just a quick survey of his life, even a quick survey of scripture, we know that he was the son of Ah, I heard it, it was a little weak there, the son of Zebedee, yeah. And he had a brother by the name of James, most likely an older brother, because when we find them named, James was always named first. So an indication that James was an older brother. Of course, his father Zebedee was a prosperous fisherman in the Galilee area. and John and James were involved in the fishing industry. He was likely a disciple or a follower of John the Baptist. And then came a point in time where he became a permanent, we might say, disciple of Jesus Christ. We find in Matthew chapter 4 where James and John were in a boat with their father, they were mending nets, and Jesus comes along and He calls them, and the Scriptures just simply say that they followed Him. And then we go to chapter 10 of Matthew, and we find that John was declared to be an apostle. And so just a little of the history of who John was. Of course, we know that he was part of what we often call the inner circle, being Peter, James, and John. So we've got two brothers, and we've got Peter, who were part of the inner circle. What an amazing privilege it would have been to personally view the transfiguration. Can you imagine that? What an amazing privilege that would have been. What a privilege it would have been to have been pulled aside by the Lord the night before He was to die in the Garden of Gethsemane for a time of prayer. That's the sum of the privileges that Peter, James, and John were afforded by being in this inner circle with the Lord. John was known as the apostle of, see if you can fill in the blank. Heard one or two say it. Love. The apostle of love. And that is certainly true because he writes about love in both the gospel and this epistle a lot. But he also had a temperament that was a bit fiery. Jesus named James and John the sons of thunder. which may have been representative of their temperament. And then we find an account in the book of Luke when there was a Samaritan village that did not accept Jesus and His disciples. And John and James come to the Lord and say, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them? Does that give a little insight into John's temperament? Wow, they won't accept you, Lord. They won't accept us. May fire fall from heaven and consume them. I think maybe John was just overstepping his authority just a little bit there. That wasn't his position, but I think it gives us maybe a little insight into his temperament. History tells us that John spent many, many years in the region of Ephesus, most likely overseeing several congregations in that particular area. It was an area known as Asia Minor. It may have included several of the churches that we find listed in Revelation 2 and 3. Churches such as Ephesus itself, Thyatira, Pergamos, etc. Many of those churches may have been churches that John had direct oversight over. And then we know that John really, although he was the apostle of love, he never lost his steadfastness for truth and standing for the truth. According to Polycarp, who was, as I mentioned earlier, a direct disciple or follower of John, he wrote this, When John entered a bathhouse where there was a heretic inside the bathhouse in Ephesus, he said, quoted John, let us fly, lest even the bathhouse fall down, because Serenthes, the enemy of the truth, is within. So apparently he went into this bathhouse. There was a false teacher in there. He went flying out of the bathhouse saying, look, it's possible that maybe even the roof will fall down, the walls will fall down, because there's a heretic inside. Clement of Alexandria writes that John fearlessly entered the camp of a band of robbers. and led its captain, who had at one point in time professed faith in Christ, to true and genuine repentance." So it was not only a temperament that was a bit fiery, but he used that temperament to stand dogmatically for truth. So just a little summary of who John was. When was this book written? You know, we don't have anything much to go on with inside the book, but if you put some pieces together, you can kind of figure out probably a good time when this book was written. There is seven times within the book where he refers to his audience as little children. It could be that he's referring to a spiritual status, if you will, that they hadn't been saved long, that they were still immature in their faith, or he could be saying that he was much older than them and they were truly, genuinely, by age, much younger than he was. Like I said, he was probably into his 80s at least when he wrote this particular book. Many point to the fact that there is a lack of reference within the book to the persecution under the Emperor Domitian. And that occurred somewhere around AD 95. And so a good date for the book is somewhere between the latter part of the first century, 90 to 95, somewhere probably 20 or so years after the Apostle Paul was off the scene. Who was John writing to? I alluded to the fact that it was most likely addressing not just a singular church, but a group of churches whom he was overseeing in the Ephesus region. And he's really concerned not just about one congregation, but a number of congregations. And we'll see here in just a moment that there was some false teaching that was rampant throughout the churches, and he's trying to help them thwart this false teaching. This false teaching of Gnosticism that was popular at this particular time. a group of believers in several different churches whom John likely was providing oversight for. So what was the purpose? What was the purpose? If you go to chapter 5 and look at verse 13, John clearly states, these things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. John is trying to give some underpinning to maybe at times a belief for some believers that was a little shaky. There was false teaching coming along. At times they weren't certain who to believe. And he's saying, look, I'm writing to you who are genuine believers in Jesus Christ, and I want you to know that your belief in Jesus Christ is right on. It's right on target. It's sure. It's assured. And amidst all of this stuff that's going on around you, I want you to know that you can hang on to the truth. You can stand steadfast on the truth of Jesus Christ. Do not be moved, and you will be in a good spot. You know, this contrasts a little bit to the writing of his gospel. We find in John 20 that he says, but these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through His name. John is clearly writing the book of John to give, in essence, the gospel. He's telling about Jesus Christ. What is this Gospel? What is everlasting life? What is eternal life? We find those terms repeated in the Gospel of John, and he's writing so people could know the truth of the Gospel. He's writing this epistle to a group of churches so they can be assured that they have the truth, they are believing the truth, they can be settled in the truth of Jesus Christ. And so, he's writing to believers to help them. You know, Paul predicted in the book of Acts 20, he writes, For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock, also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Paul gave this prediction. He said, look, I guarantee false teachers are coming. And you've got to be ready, and you've got to forth their teaching, and some of them are going to come right from your congregation, and they're going to go out, and they're going to deny the faith of Jesus Christ, and they're going to teach a false gospel. By this time that John is writing this epistle, certainly one form of false teaching had arisen, and it became known as Gnosticism, from the Greek word gnosis, or knowledge. And I'm going to try to just summarize it here a little bit tonight. But basically Gnosticism was a belief that taught that matter was inherently evil, and spirit was good." Matter is evil and spirit is good. And so you say at first hand, okay, now how did that affect the church? Well, they took that and they really applied it to Jesus Christ. And that they would accept some form of His deity but they would teach that he really couldn't have had a human body. Or with one form of Gnosticism, it was Decadentism, where they said, okay, it looked like he had a human body, but it wasn't genuine. It wasn't real. And so they denied the humanity of Jesus Christ. Is that a problem? Yes, that's a problem. It's a big problem. For if Jesus Christ was not fully man and fully God, He could not have paid the price for our sin. Another form of Gnosticism said that, okay, we'll give you this, the human spirit or humanity came upon Christ at His baptism, but it left Him right before His crucifixion. So they kind of worked it in a couple of different ways, but in essence denied the humanity of Christ. Now this dualistic philosophy led to another problem, where the Gnostics were greatly indifferent to moral values and ethical behavior." In essence, Saul, that there was a distinction and a gap, if you will, between the body and the spirit. And so, what you did with your body really didn't matter. There was not a sense of good and evil in their thinking because it was the body and not the spirit. And you can see where that would lead to all sorts of decrepit activity and just sinful, wicked things that one would do with their body. And in their thinking, hey, it wasn't part of the spirit, so you're okay. And so this is a form of false teaching that John is addressing, and he's dealing with, and he's attacking, and we'll see that again and again and again throughout the book, that he's saying, look, this teaching, this philosophy is wrong. It's not biblical. It's ungodly. What are some themes that we find in this particular book? And I want us to take just a few minutes here tonight and kind of piece our way through the book and we'll make our way around to several different verses. And I want us just to see some of the themes that exist within this particular book. Well, the first one is we find the word fellowship, and fellowship particularly with God. And if we're going to have fellowship with God, where does that begin? It begins with a relationship with God, right? And that relationship only comes through Jesus Christ. Look at chapter 1 and verse 3. Now at the middle of the verse, he says, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. Go down to verse 5. This then is the message which ye have heard of Him, and declare unto you that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. You get the idea that John, his writing, particularly in this epistle, is a little bit like James, and that he at times is incredibly direct. He's saying, look, you don't believe this, you're a liar. If you act this way, you're not telling the truth. He just kind of lays it out in a very direct fashion. Verse 7, but if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. And why do we have fellowship with one another? And the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. John is making it very clear that we have fellowship with God, we have fellowship with one another as believers because of Jesus Christ and His shed blood on the cross. in chapter 2 in verse 2. And he is the propitiation for our sins. He is the appeasement for the wrath of God. That's the idea of propitiation. And not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. Go over to chapter 5 in verse 11. And this is the record that God has given to us eternal life. And this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. What's he talking about here? It's a relationship with Jesus Christ. And either you have eternal life because of Christ or you don't. But if you're going to have fellowship with God, you're going to have genuine fellowship with other believers that only comes through Christ. Back to chapter 1, if we're going to have fellowship with God, it also includes confession of sin. Now there would be some who would contend that this book is written to unbelievers, and that verse 9 is dealing with salvation. And I think you have to work pretty hard to get there. John is writing to believers. And when he writes verse 9, he's writing it to believers. And he says, if we confess our sins as a believer in Jesus Christ, he is faithful. And He is just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Why is He just? When I come to God, is it just on a whim that God may say, okay, in essence I forgive you? John is saying no. It's not catching God on a good day. It's not catching God in a good mood. But He's just. Why? Because our sins have been covered by the blood of Jesus Christ. They've already been dealt with. They've already been covered by the blood of Christ. And He's saying, look, when we come and we confess our sin, He's faithful to forgive us and He's just. The justice of God. And He cleanses us from all unrighteousness. Well, we're going to have fellowship with God. It also necessitates obedience to the commands of God. Chapter 2 verses 3 and 4. And hereby, we do know that we know Him, what? If we keep His commandments. If you have a desire in your heart, and it's a habitual pattern in your life that you're obeying God, and that's just your passionate desire, it is an indication that you are a genuine, true believer in Jesus Christ. Go over to chapter 5 and verse 3. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not grievous. And we'll delve into all of these in detail when we make our way through the book, but John is saying, look, it's not like we go around saying, oh, yeah, I gotta obey God. Yeah, it's really a, and it's kind of a burden, but I gotta obey God. He's saying that's not it at all. Our spirit as a genuine believer is we delight in obeying God. We delight in pleasing and honoring God. And then, a passage that we looked at not too awfully long ago, in chapter 2, verses 15 through 17, he says, look, fellowship with God demands a singular focus and affection. A singular focus and affection. When he says, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof. But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." It's a reminder to his audience and to us that we need to have a singular focus and affection in order to have fellowship with God. And then finally, it results in victory. Our fellowship with God results in victory. Chapter 5, verses 4 and 5. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. So we're a genuine believer in Jesus Christ. John is saying, look, the victory is assured. It is yours. Who is he that overcometh the world? But he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God. He's saying, look, it is true, genuine believers who have victory, and that victory is assured, and we know the end of the story. We know that we have victory in and through Jesus Christ. Well, certainly one of the themes of this book is fellowship. And as I've already mentioned, there's warnings about false teachers. Chapter 2 and verse 19. Chapter 2 and verse 19. And this is really a fulfillment of the prediction that Paul made in Acts chapter 20. That they went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had 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. He's saying, look, there were some in these congregations who started out and things were looking good, but at some point, they went out of the congregation and they started to disseminate that which was not truth. They started to disseminate false teaching. They started to give a false gospel. And it became very clear that they were not true, genuine believers. They were really not of us. Then we go down to verse 22. Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is an Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son." Now there is a place in the book where he talks about the Antichrist. When we're talking about prophecy, future events, eschatological events that are to come. But in this case, he's just saying Antichrist, small letter A, one who denies Christ. One who has a false teaching about Christ. He just, again, very direct, very straightforward. He's saying, look, they are liars. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father. But he that acknowledges the Son hath the Father also. And then chapter 4, verses 1 through 3. He says, Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby, know ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus is Christ, come in the flesh, is of God. What's he dealing with right there? That Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. He's dealing with Gnosticism, isn't he? What I just mentioned a moment ago, that false teaching that denied the humanity of Jesus Christ. And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God, and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come, and even now already, is it in the world? You know, just a couple of Sundays ago, we dealt with, in some detail, false teachers. And I really just strongly warned us and admonished us that we've got to be discerning. We've got to be discerning in what we read, and what we listen to, and what we take in, what we digest. We can't just assume that when we waltz in any Christian bookstore and just pull any book off the shelf, that it is a good, solid, theologically correct author. We just can't assume that. You've got to do a little research. You've got to be discerning. Because the bookshelves are filled in Christian bookstores with people who are messed up theologically. And so, as I've tried to give some warning and direction to us as a church, You know, that's exactly what John is doing. He's warning about false teachers. He's saying, look, you've got to be discerning and know exactly what they're teaching and who is teaching it. Then, thirdly, as far as some general themes in this book, John gives some marks of a genuine believer in Jesus Christ. Chapter 2 and verse 6. Chapter 2 and verse 6. It says, "...he that saith he abideth in Him, ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked." There's a purity of life. There's a Christ-likeness, we might say. If you claim to be a believer in Jesus Christ, then there is something about you, there's something manifested in you that there is a Christ-likeness. You're walking with Jesus Christ. And in chapter 3, in verse 3, it talks about His appearing and His return that will happen one day. And every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure. So it's a pure Christ-like walk that is a mark of a genuine believer in Jesus Christ. And then in chapter 2, verse 28, He talks about the practice of righteousness, or consistently living out Christ's likeness in your life and obedience in your life. He's saying, and now little children, abide in Him, that when He shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him as He's coming. We talked about that just a couple of weeks ago as well, that Jesus is coming back. and that we need to be living in a pure, right, clean manner, that when Jesus comes back, He is pleased and honored with how we are living. In verse 29, He says, If ye know that He is righteous, ye know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of Him. Does that mean somehow that we're perfect? No. That we never sin, no. But there is a characteristic about us that we are living right. That's the idea of righteousness. That we are doing that which pleases and honors our God. Chapter 3, verse 9. Again, we'll get into some of this in more depth, as I mentioned, as we cover this book. But whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. Now that's a strong dogmatic statement, isn't it? And you may be sitting here tonight and you say, wait a minute, I've sinned today. Does that mean I'm not saved? No. No. What John is trying to convey is that it is not a characteristic pattern of your life. That you are not characterized by sin. And I think he's making that point very clear. For his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God. In this, the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. And so John is making, again, some comparisons and some distinctions. And he's saying, look, this is a characteristic of a believer in Jesus Christ. This is a characteristic of an unbeliever A believer is not going to be characterized by sin in his life. And then thirdly, under the marks of a genuine believer, is that there is love for other believers. We talk about him being the apostle of love. He writes about love. Over 35 times he uses the word love in this particular epistle. In chapter 3 and verse 14, he says, we know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. He's giving another mark of a genuine believer in Jesus Christ. He's saying, hey, how do you know that you have passed from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of His dear Son? You've passed from death to life. Brethren, you love other believers in Jesus Christ, and that love is clearly manifest in your congregation, in your families, in that church. It's manifest. It shows that you love other believers. Whosoever hateth his brother, verse 15, is a murderer. And ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. Again, John's really direct here, isn't he? He's just very pointed in what he's saying. "...Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?" John just poses the question, how can it be that You're a genuine believer or claim to be a genuine believer. You see a brother or sister who has a genuine need, and you just kind of walk away. You don't meet that need or at least attempt to meet that need. And so he makes a big deal about love for our brothers and sisters in Christ. Then finally in chapter four, verses seven and eight. Chapter four, verses seven and eight. Beloved, let us love one another for love is of God and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. Again, just very pointed, he's saying, look, a characteristic of a genuine believer in Jesus Christ is somebody who loves his brothers and sisters in Christ. Who's the author? John, all right. And his recipients are churches in the region of Ephesus whom he has oversight over. Written towards the end of the first century, probably somewhere between 90 and 95. And one of the primary purposes for which John is writing, he's saying, look, I want you to be assured in your faith. And he's thwarting false teaching, particularly a false teaching known as Gnosticism, that believed inherently that material is evil and spirit is good. Some key themes throughout the book are words such as fellowship, righteousness, truth, and love. And there is an amazing amount, as is true with all of Scripture, of practical material for you and for me. This book was written a long time ago, but its application is for us today. It's as if John is writing to Burj Harris Baptist Church and He's going to be a help to us. We're going to find some exceedingly helpful, practical, doctrinal issues in this book that will help us in our walk with Jesus Christ. Edmund Hebert said this, The forceful simplicity of its sentences, the note of finality behind its utterances, the straightforward manner in which John addresses certain things, The marvelous blending of gentle love and deep-cutting sternness of its contents, and the majesty of its ungarnished thoughts have made 1 John a favorite with Christians everywhere. The plainness of its language makes it intelligible to the simplest saint. while the profundity of its truths challenge the most accomplished scholar. Its grand theological revelations and its unwavering ethical demands have left their enduring impact upon the thought and life of the Christian church." And I trust that will be true for our church. That as we make our way through this book each and every Sunday night, that it will be a true help I would encourage you in the coming days and weeks to repeatedly read through this book. You can sit down and read chapters 1 through 5 in just a short period of time. And I would just encourage you to just to repeatedly read through this book, familiarize yourself with it, And as we address certain things each and every Lord's Day evening, it will be familiar to you and not unfamiliar. And by God's grace, by the time that we finish this book, we'll be able to piece it all together and step away and say, you know what? What a great, grand, and glorious book that we've just studied. And so we've got a lot to look forward to in the coming Lord's Days here at Birch Terrace. Let's pray, Father. I pray that You would help us tonight to truly appreciate and understand what 1 John is about. Lord, I pray that You would help us to catch John's heart. And Lord, I pray that we would be good students of Your Word. You have admonished us to study the truth, that we can cut it straight. Lord, there's many things in this book that are rich and helpful and practical, and God I pray that you would help us to glean them as we make our way through this book. Lord, help us to understand that our fellowship with you is based in Jesus Christ alone. and may we stand firm on that. May we be discerning, and may we have a discerning eye and spirit and ear to that which is false, to that which is not true to Your Word. And Lord, I pray that we would be faithful by Your grace to live in a Christ-like fashion that would please You and honor You. And Father, I pray that as a result of this study, that our love for one another in this congregation would ever increase. Lord, may we truly love each other as you love us. We ask all these things in the wonderful and the precious and matchless name of Jesus. Amen.