If you have your Bibles this morning, turn with me to First John. First Epistle of John. This letter should probably be classified as a general letter. It is as current for our church today as it was back then for the Apostle John. who wrote St. John and the book of Revelation. No doubt John is the author. And the purpose of the letter was probably to help the church avoid error in its teaching. The letter, as we said, was probably written from Ephesus. But it's really uncertain. We don't know exactly where John was But the exact date of the writing was uncertain as well, probably around 90s, in the 90s AD. And this letter brings a special teaching to Jesus as the light, life, and love. And the letter was full of statements, stressing what we know of the Lord and his teaching. It is specifically or indirectly mentioned over 30 times in this small book. And I've said this before in the Gospel of John, but John knew Jesus better than any of the other apostles. And the love that John had for Jesus and Jesus' teaching shows his love for John. It was likely a great relationship between two brothers. Now, we want to go through these three letters of John, and I want to notice the closeness he had with Jesus that made him even more aware of the person of Jesus. To know someone, you must be close to them. I'm not talking about a standing or sitting, but you can be close to someone and they live out of state. But when you are close to someone, you sometimes know what they're gonna say before they say it. You understand them. Well, what we wanna do is to look at 1 John and these 10 verses. God said, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the word of life. John was there from the beginning. His knowledge is firsthand. John is not writing from something somebody else told him, but he lived with the Lord and in the same time period. So we know that is so because in the Gospel of John, chapter one and verse one, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God and the Word was God. When we look at John, you know, verse two here, he said, for the life was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us. Now, when we go back to John, and we'll be going back and forth from the Gospel of John to 1 John, as we study this, we see, as we just quoted a minute ago, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. So, Jesus was with God in the very beginning. He came to Earth. And he did for us what we could not do for ourselves. And we are thankful for that. In verse two it said, the saying was in the beginning with God, all things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made. The saying was in the beginning. We see that in the third verse, all things were made by him. So John knew that better than we, because John lived the same time period that Jesus Christ lived, and he was there. So we see that in very clearly in these first four verses of St. John. But when we go back to 1 John, and I'll mark this so we can get to it. It says here in 1 John 1, 2, for the life was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us. Manifested means to make real. To make real, Jesus is the eternal spirit, the word, and yet he took upon him the body. So when Jesus walked with John, he's seeing the word that we read in the flesh. Now, if we can understand that, We can understand and most of us have no problem understanding that in the beginning, it was God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. But the word became flesh and dwelt among us. John, here in 1 John and in the book of Revelation, we know how important John was to Jesus because when all the other apostles had these problems of being executed, John was put on the Isle of Patmos to write the book of Revelation. So God showed John things he did not show Paul or Peter or any of the other great men of God. So we see here, for the life was manifested. He said, in other words, we said means made real. When we read this Bible, the life of Jesus is being manifested unto us. He would not say any answer, a question any different if he was here right now than he would if we read it in the book. And that's why I'm so hard, I guess, as most people might say. You can repeat anything that I say. Just don't repeat something I didn't say. Well, when you change this word of God, you're changing what Jesus said, and the Holy Spirit does not bear witness with that. So Jesus is the eternal spirit of the word, and yet he took on him the body of a mortal man to reveal himself to mankind. He took on the form of flesh and dwelt among us for the purpose of experiencing the difficulties in the flesh. And if you've been saved any time at all, you know the flesh causes you many problems. It's difficult to live for the Lord in the flesh. Much easier to live for him up here. But you can't see what I'm thinking. but you can't see the way I act, what I'm doing, what I'm revealing. So when we look at this, we see back in John chapter 11, John chapter 11 and verse 25, we see here that God said, Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth on me, though he were dead, ye shall live. Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die, believeth thou this. Jesus spoke these words to this woman, and they were no more real or effective when he spoke them than they are now. Still the same truth is, if we can believe and understand, when Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life, he that believeth on me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. Which simply means, if I die today, only the body ceases. See, a child of God never dies. He only changes dwelling places. And we shed off this robe of flesh, which has been our trouble for so long. He says in John 11, 26, and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. He asks the question, believeth thou this? The same question is given to every person here this morning. It was given to me some 50 years ago. However long you've been saved, however long you have known Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, that question was asked, and he said, believest thou this? See, if you can believe this, then you know There's nothing that can save you except the blood of Jesus Christ. Well, when he said, believest thou this, really, he breaks it down a little easier for us in John 14. In verse six, when he said, Jesus said unto him, I am the way, and truth, and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me. Do you believe this? Then he breaks it down even more when he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man cometh unto the Father but by me. He makes it clear there is no other way to get to the Father except through the Son. He is the way. And that's where, you know, if you understand in the Greek, verbs and adverbs and pronouns, if you understand those three things about the Greek, you'll understand the word of God so much better. Now, what did he say? He said, Jesus said unto him, I am, definite article, the way. The death, definite article, which means there's no other way. He's not one of many ways. And I try to teach our young people, when I have opportunity, when they said, you know, I belong to the Ammon Road Baptist Church, you may or may not. There may be another Ammon Road Baptist Church, or Dresden Baptist Church, or whatever church you belong to, there may be another church by that name. So you belong to Ammon Road Baptist Church if God has placed you here. But Jesus said, I am the way, the only way. See, it's these little words that some translations want to remove. These little definite articles let us know that he is the way, the truth, the life. And no man, no man, No woman, no boy, no girl come unto the Father except through Him. Now, back in 1 John chapter five and verse 11, it said, and this is the record that God hath given unto us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Now he said, I am the way, I'm the truth, I'm the life, no man, that's the only way. Then he goes over in the fifth chapter of this and he said, and this is the record that God have given to us eternal life and this life is in his son. It's not in anything we do, anything that we can think of, it's in him. And he goes on to say in 1 John chapter one, in our text, he said, that which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us. To have fellowship means what? When we break fellowship with another church. When fellowship is broken in your family. As we celebrate Thanksgiving, there will be a lot of people, part of the family will not come together because the fellowship has been broken. What does that mean? Well, God said here in I John chapter one and verse three, that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us. That means that you can have fellowship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. You can have fellowship with them. And when we are out of fellowship, our life is miserable. When we sin, knowingly sin, that fellowship is broken. No place in the scripture does any better than Psalms 51. When David was out in sin, and he came to himself, and he asked God to, didn't say make it anew, restore that fellowship. Let's put it where it is. And that happens, and why I use that so much when I'm talking to people that are not talking to their family, not talking to their neighbor, one of you's wrong. Maybe both of you's wrong. But both of you can't be right. See, Steve and I can disagree. He can be wrong, I can be wrong. But if we disagree, both of us can't be right. But we gotta do as David said. David confessed his sin, acknowledged who he was. And he knew whose salvation it was because he said there in Psalm 51, restore the joy of thy, T-H-Y, your salvation. It belongs to him. You know why it belongs to him? I belong to him. That's ownership. And it's amazing we understand ownership, you know. You have a house. You wanna paint it blue, you wanna paint it pink, you wanna, whatever color you wanna paint it. You can do it if you have ownership. Well, the reason God made man in the first place was for fellowship with him. God wants the fellowship. And it grieves the Lord when I get out of fellowship with him. You know why? Listen careful. Because he loves me. It drives him. How can we as brothers and sisters break fellowship with one another and it doesn't even faze us? You ever thought about that? It ought to faze you. It ought to bother you. And being in fellowship, it's not necessarily I agree with you, but I respect your beliefs. That's what I said about the election. What bothers me more than anything is that people are not voting in pairs. If everybody votes, whatever the outcome is, we accept it. God said, You know, that which we've seen and which we've heard declare unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with who? The Father and with the Son, Jesus Christ. You know, to say that I have fellowship with the Lord, I mean fellowship, that means we've got a relationship. But notice here in John 14 and verse 20. And that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and he in me, and I in you. God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit are one. The Spirit of God lives in me when I EXCEPT FOR CHRIST AS MY LORD AND SAVIOR. REMEMBER ONE OF MY FAVORITE VERSES? JESUS SAID IT'S EXPEDIENT THAT I GO AWAY. IF I DON'T GO AWAY THEN I'LL NOT SEND THE HOLY SPIRIT. BUT ONCE THAT HOLY SPIRIT COMES EVERYBODY THAT IS SAVED IS INDWELLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT. NOW YOU CAN'T UNDERSTAND VERSE 20 IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE THAT BECAUSE VERSE 20 SAYS ALL At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. Me, this flesh, and the Son, and the Father are one, because the Spirit lives in me. Remember what we taught four or five different sermons? I died. I no longer live, but I live in Christ. That's not complicated, it just takes faith. It takes faith to believe that when God saved you, you had to die to self before you can be saved. You're dead. What Tom wants anymore, what Steve wants anymore, what Harold wants anymore, what Tony wants anymore, it's not important. I'm dead. None of us would go out to the grave this morning and ask someone we love, what do you want for breakfast? They would life us out of a camel. but yet will boldly and proudly, this is what I believe and this is what I want. You died. You died. But I was crucified in Christ. Even though I died, nevertheless I live. And the life that I now live is in him. Now we're not gonna do that perfectly because this flesh is our enemy. But God says in John 17 chapter and verse 21, 17th chapter in verse 21, he said, that they all may be one as thy father art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. The world doesn't believe that Christ has come because we say that Christ lives IN us, and they can't see any difference in Tony of today than the Tony of yesterday. I mean, he makes it clear, he makes it very clear in 21 that they all may be one. We are to be one. If Christ saved me and saved you, how come we differ so much on what we believe? One of us is wrong. And to make sure that I'm right and you make sure you're right, what the Bible teaches is Jesus. See, this Word, the flesh became Word. When I studied the Word of God, then I'll agree with the word of God. We read so much about being made in the image of God. This is exactly what this scripture is stating here. It is our spirit that becomes like God's spirit. God is a spirit. That every man ought to be like God. We ought to think the way God thinks. We ought to want what God wants. The flesh is our enemy. It's a constant battle. But you say, But I'm saved. That flesh is not saved. That flesh is flesh and it'll always be flesh until God says, come up hither. Then that flesh will take on a new form. This is my battle. John, I John 1, 4 says, And these things write we unto you that your joy may be full. To realize the relationship that we can have with God the Father and the Lord Jesus does bring joy unspeakable when we're in his will. Never talk to Anybody that's had marriage problems that says, if it should only be light, if it should only be light. But the marriage will not always be that way. Our spiritual life will not always be up on high. So we grow in grace and knowledge. we grow and to realize the relationship we can have with God and the Lord Jesus Christ brings joy unspeakable. You remember the time or shortly after when God saved you? I mean, you act funny, you expect things that are unreasonable. You know, I don't know whether anybody believes me or not, I was saved one day, Tuesday morning, I went into IBM, and I just knew everybody that would listen to me, that they would feel the way I feel. And instead, they said, ignore him, he'll get over it. And you know why they think that? Because most people do. There's no license, joy. God didn't promise your saved life would be without problems. And since the church and the family are alike, only two divine institutions, the church and the family, the church will always have problems and the family will always have problems. Because the devil knows if he can destroy the church and destroy the family, And boys and girls, he's doing a real good job so far. Verse five in 1 John. This then is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. What's the first thing you would think about that verse? You notice in this that God is not a light. He's not a light, he is the light. And that's the difference. All religion is a light, and it changes. But God said, God makes it very clear here in verse five. This then is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is. See that little word again? Those little bitty words that if you'll check with so many of the translations, they've taken those little bitty words out. But it changes, it changed the whole meaning. He said, he is the light. He is the source of all life. There's no true happiness in you until you become a child of the king. I mean, there's temporal happiness. You meet that person you want to spend the rest of your life with, and you buy that special car, that special house, that special this, that special that, but none of them last. He is the light. He is the source of all light. Light does away with darkness. How come we're not happy, even hard to be around sometimes? I don't know how many people say, man, if that's Christianity, I don't want it. I don't want it. They get upset about everything, they argue, they gossip. Ain't no difference between them and me and I'm lost on my way to hell. You know why? We don't understand that He is the light. He's not a light. Light does away with darkness. There's no darkness at all where there is God. Think about that. Where there's God, there's no darkness. What happens when I sit on my bed, head on my pillow, and said, is this worth it? God didn't promise you a world without trouble. God didn't promise you you'll never have upsets. He just said, I'll always be with you. I'll always be with you. What we believe, we act upon. Listen to me now. What we believe, we act upon. And that's why Romans 8, 28, if it's not one of your favorite verses, it should be. You ought to memorize it. You ought to get up every morning and when problems come, this is my promise. All things work for the good of those who love the Lord. who are the call according to his purpose. God is allowing whatever's in your life to correct you, to strengthen you, to bring you back to him. It doesn't just happen. There's a reason. There cannot be, you know, we hear some say Christianity can be possessed that Christians can be possessed of devil spirits, evil spirits. That cannot be. Because Christians have the light of the world dwelling inside of them. A demon can disturb me. A demon can cause me problems. But a demon cannot possess me. You can't have two gods. You can't have two spirits. We got the old flesh, and we have the Spirit of God living in us. You know which one controls you? The one you yield to. I've tried this Christian life. I've tried going to church. I've tried praying. I've tried reading. I don't care what the pastor says. It don't work for me. Well, if it don't work for you, then one or two things is happening. You're either so far out of the will of God you don't know it, or you're lost. That's a bold statement. You say, I don't believe a person can be out of the will of the Lord that far. You don't? When we get to heaven, if you get there, I want to introduce you to my brother, David. You remember David, don't you? Thief, adulterer, murderer, What did God say about David when it was all said and done? This is a man after my own heart. Now, I'm not indicating that it makes no difference what you do. Just like a friend of mine went to the doctor, they got extremely high blood pressure, and I said, what did the doctor say? Well, he told me to watch out what I eat, especially my salt. None of his business what I eat. He didn't say it was any of his business. He just simply said that your condition, if you wanna feel better and live better, you gotta tread down on this. Christians are the same way. If you want the joy of God in your life, you gotta do this. If you wanna be happy in the Lord, if you wanna get up in the morning and say, this is a day that the Lord has made and he made it just for me. You know why we need to say that? If I'm not here, it doesn't matter, does it? Doesn't matter to me, but he made it for me. What is he going to do in and through me? He saved me on purpose and for a purpose. WE NEED TO KNOW OUR PURPOSE. 1 John verse 6 says, IF WE SAY THAT WE HAVE FELLOWSHIP WITH HIM AND WALK IN DARKNESS, WE LIE AND DO NOT TRUTH. WALK IN A PARTICULAR INSTANCE IN SPEAKING OF THE LIFE THAT WE LIVE EVERY DAY. I asked myself a question when I was studying this and outlining this. I said, do I walk my life, do I live my life any different than a lost man? If I do, then I'm not going to have any influence. Now, it's not my business to tell you how to walk. That's between you and the Lord. But if you're a Christian and profess to be a Christian and you live like the world and you've got a lost family, forget about them being saved through you, because it won't happen. You've got to see that light. Jesus is a light. You know why churches are dark? I'm not talking about in, I'm talking about dark, there's no spirit there, there's no love there. Because the only difference, they attend church, the lost man doesn't. After church, if they meet at McDonald's, there ain't no difference. To be part of the dark side of life makes us a part of the devil. To say we are a Christian and live in darkness makes us a liar. You know, I was at Walmart here, seemed like I live at that place, I don't know why, but I was in Walmart the other day, Little gentleman, you know, started running through the front door and the lady said, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. So they came back and they said, what's in your pocket? Nothing. Would you mind emptying and get that nothing out? See, I mean, that's the way of life. And you say, but Brother Vance, that's none of your business. Yes, it is. Stealing from Walmart make me pay more. See, all I'm saying here is that what God says, you know, he's simply saying, if we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. Walk, in this particular instance, is speaking of a life, way that we live every day, our day-to-day life. It's not Sunday morning, it's seven days a week. How do I walk? How do I deal with people? Let me tell you the difference. The old gentleman that took my pickup truck about seven or eight miles out in the county charged me $85. And I gave him $85, I thought. Went home. Next day, he called me. He said, Brother Vance, I owe you a dollar. Well, it'll cost me more to go get that dollar than what the dollars were. But he didn't want that dollar because it didn't belong to him. They said, well, that surprised me. You know, he probably owns more money than anybody in the county. I said, that's probably because he's the only honest one in the county. God blesses honesty. God blesses faithfulness. Can you hear me preach? Verse 7, as we close here. But if we walk in the light, as he's in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin. I see in this the need for Christians to have friends who are Christians too. You walk with people that are like you. That's what happens when our kids go off to school, and I know the parents hate for me to keep talking about it. College is just, That little Sunday school girl, that little Sunday school boy goes to college and there's nothing but garbage. The professors teach there is no God. They make fun of you if you're a Christian. But what do you do? You know, if you want a better job, if you want a better paying job, so it means that, hey, I'm here for education, not for social life. That's what people call me. What does the church have to offer my kids? The Bible. Well, I know that. No, you don't. You don't really know that. And you really don't know that's the most important thing that any church can offer. See, I'm not against secular activities, you know. But as we close, what did it say? I see in this a need for Christians to have friends who are Christians. We must remain in the light of God, walk daily with Jesus and other Christians, and the world will get dimmer and dimmer. I have teenagers ask me stuff that, You know, one of them said last week, don't you know anything? Not much. I don't know. They talk about, James, have you seen this movie? What? You know, the latest movies where these animals come out and devour us. I don't watch that garbage. Well, it's not garbage. It is to me. I'm going to pay $10, $11 to see somebody devour somebody? No. You get enough of that in you and you'll begin to think different.