In 1 John chapter 5, we have the dignity of believers, the duty of love, the confirmation of their faith, and their preservation from idols. Hear now the reading of God's inspired word, profitable for us. Verse 1. 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. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood, and these three agree in one. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater. For this is the witness of God, which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath a witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record that God hath 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. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us. And if we know that He heareth us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him. If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death, I do not say that he shall pray for it. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not unto death. We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not. But he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true. Even in his Son, Jesus Christ, this is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen. Thus far, the reading of God's Holy Word from 1 John 5. Much could be said on this passage. I'll try to be brief. Verses 1 through 5, we have the dignity of believers, the duty of love, its trial, and victory. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. This is what we are to believe concerning God. Everyone that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. This is obedience, the duty of love. This is the duty God requires, the reflection of God's image. God loved us and we ought to love for his sake. Now, he says that this is love when we love God and keep his commandments. Now, the obedience that God requires toward our neighbor is contingent on our love for God himself. The Geneva Bible comments, the love of our neighbor depends on the love with which we love God, of which it follows that that is not to be called love when men agree together to do evil. Neither that when as in loving our neighbor, we do not respect God's commandments. People say love is love. And then they say, so we can be perverts and do evil. Does God say that's love? No, love is not love. Not all that glitters is gold, they say. Here is love when we love God and keep his commandments. Let us then love God supremely, and having loved him, let us especially love his people, our brethren. This stands as a rebuke to those who would subordinate God's rights to human rights, who would love the creature over loving God. Let me illustrate. Now, there are many in our land who believe that they have an inalienable right to murder infants in the womb. Is that good? No, it's very evil. It's very wicked. And to promote the murder of innocent children is lawless and evil. But let me ask you a question. Do we love God more than we love babies? Because I will tell you, I've not heard of many in the political sphere who give one iota about any of God's rights in the first table of the law. Yes, they wanna see murder end, and so do I. Do they want to see idolatry end? No, they don't. Do they want to see blasphemy end and punishments to come down on blasphemers? No, they don't. Do they want to see God and Him alone worshipped in the civil realm? No, they don't. Do they want to see the Sabbath kept holy by the civil magistrate? No, they don't. So do they actually love their neighbor? No, you can't. You must love God to love your neighbor. If you do not love God, you cannot love your neighbor. And this is not somehow false once we come to civil government. And there's this big wall that says, no, this isn't true anymore. The first and great commandment is what? Love the Lord your God. That is first, and the second is like unto it. So this is how we love our neighbor, by loving God and keeping his commandments. And his commandments, he says, are not grievous. They're not seen as oppressive. Rather, God writes them upon our hearts. We wish and desire to do them, even if we find another law in our members. And whatsoever is born of God, verse four tells us, overcometh the world. Do you remember what's in the world? It's not trees and birds and anything of that nature. It's the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. That's what's in the world. And whatsoever is born of God mortifies, puts off, puts to death those things that are in the world. And how do they do it? By their faith. This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. We trust in God's promises in Christ. We lean upon Christ for holiness, for love, as well as for justification. And the spirit of God works in us to put off the lust of the flesh. The old man is mortified more and more as we grow in grace and knowledge. Verses six through 13, we have the confirmation of their faith, the blessing of eternal life. Notice our Lord Jesus is he that came by water and by blood. What did the water do in the Old Testament? Well, God says it sprinkles for cleansing, doesn't it? What does the blood do? Well, it makes atonement for sins. And what is the problem that we have in our sins? Well, we have guilt that needs to be atoned for, and we have filth that needs to be washed. Jesus came by water and by blood. Do you need your record expunged? Yes. Do you need yourself cleansed? Yes. And so Jesus came by both. Notice also there are three that bear record in heaven. There is a heavenly witness as well as an earthly, as we'll see in verse eight. Not merely the spirit of God speaking through the apostles, verse nine, but the voice of God witnessing from heaven concerning his son. And notice, there are three that bear record, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. He doesn't say these three agree in one, as he does with the others. He says these are one. God is three persons in one Godhead. God is a trinity of one essence or substance, three in persons. the Father unbegotten, the Son eternally begotten, and the Spirit eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son. Do you know there were manuscripts of the Bible sitting in a garbage dump in a seminary that some scholars went in the 19th century and they found these old manuscripts sitting in the garbage and they took them out and they said, oh, these look older than anything I've ever seen. Let's use these for the Bible instead of those older manuscripts that everybody's been using, because these look older than the ones that we've seen before. Well, do you know why? Do you know what happens when you use a book? Have you ever seen a Bible that's well used? Will it last long? No. What about a Bible that nobody ever reads? What will happen to that? Well, it'll be preserved, won't it? No fingers touching it? No dirt on the edges? No possibility of dropping it in the dirt or you're carrying it around and you happen to misplace it? No, that doesn't happen. When it gets set up because it's trashy, you're not going to use it, are you? And so these scholars created the critical text of the Bible, and guess what's not in there? Oops! There's nothing in there about God being Father, Word, and Holy Ghost, and these three are one. It's not even there, it's just sort of poof, it's gone. Jerome says that the anti-Trinitarian heretics made up their manuscripts to omit verses like this. In fact, this very verse, he says, Let us then adore our triune God. Let us receive his heavenly witness to his son, Jesus Christ. Let us overcome the world by our faith. Notice verse eight. There are three that bear witness in the earth. We had the heavenly in verse seven. Now we have the earthly in verse eight. The spirit and the water and the blood. And these three agree in one. Here we need, again, cleansing from sin. We need the forgiveness of our sin. And do you remember when our Lord was on the cross and they pierced his side, what came out? Blood and water. That's what came out, showing mystically that Christ Jesus not only forgives us for our sins, he cleanses us from our sins, moving us more and more in the ways of righteousness. These three agree in one. They are not one as the Father, the Word, and the Spirit are, but they agree in their witness to one way of salvation and one Savior. This is the witness, he says in verse nine, that God hath testified of his son. God has thundered his testimony. This is my beloved son, hear ye him. This is what he said on a couple of occasions. We saw it in his baptism, at his transfiguration, God approved of his son. And even while Jesus was discoursing with the people, God thundered from heaven when those Greeks came to see Jesus and approved of his works. God, he says, hath given to us eternal life, and where do we find it? Is it to be found in the multitude of the gods of the heathens? Is it to be found in some Melchizedekian priesthood? No, one place and one place alone, only one name, only one mediator, only one savior in his son. This is the heavenly witness. This is the earthly witness. This is the only way. He that hath not the son hath not life. And as is usually the case, John states it positively. You must have the son to have life. And then he states it negatively. And if you don't have the son, you don't have life. What is he doing? Absolutely no other way. Christ and him alone. And notice, why did John write this letter? Sometimes you might get a letter and you don't find out, why did this person write this to me? What are they trying to say? What's their goal? What are they trying to get across? John, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, tells us, these things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know. Here's the purpose. that ye may know that ye have eternal life. Here's the purpose of the book. That your knowledge may be confirmed that you have currently in your possession eternal life. And, he says, that ye may continue to believe on the name of the Son of God. knowledge and confirmation of your eternal life, and a continued faith. Would you have the knowledge and confirmation of your status as eternally alive? Would you have your faith strengthened in our Lord Jesus Christ? Read the epistles, record and receive what God has said and say, this is God's testimony. He's spoken to us through the prophets and through the apostles. I can know what God actually says. And the purpose of these writings is to confirm us in the knowledge of the truth of our salvation and to strengthen our faith in Christ. Then verses 14 through 21, we have the prayer, the sin unto death, the preservation of God's people and their true knowledge of God. He refers to the confidence that we have in Christ on the basis of the purpose of this letter in verse 13. Verse 14, that if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us. We'll get into more detail. And we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. Here's what we know. If God hears our prayers, he will answer them. He will give us what we're requesting. If we pray according to his will, which we'll look at in just a little bit. Then he says, there is a sin which is not unto death. Elsewhere in the Bible, we see this called the unpardonable sin, which hath no forgiveness. You may read of this in Matthew 12, verses 31 and 32. They said that Jesus was demon possessed, that he cast out demons by Beelzebub, the Lord of the demons. And so they said, this mighty work of the spirit of God is satanic. And it was not. That was the sin that had no pardon in this world or the next, Jesus said. I do not say that he shall pray for it. Now it is contrary to God's will revealed in the scripture. If we know someone to have sinned the sin unto death, we may not pray that God give them life. For example, let me tell you this. When I was a child, I thought I could pray for the devil to be converted. Is it possible for the devil to be converted? No, because he has committed a sin unto death. There is no hope of redemption for fallen angels. But did I understand the Bible? No, I didn't. So I thought I could pray for him that he would be, and then all this trouble would go away, right? Wrong, that's not how it works. God has doomed the devil and he has doomed those who have sinned the sin unto death. We may not pray for them. He's not telling us to pray for them, why? Because God's revealed will is there's no hope for them. So we're to pray according to his will and not to pray also according to his will when God makes his will known to us. All unrighteousness is sin. Remember, sin is lawlessness. The law requires righteousness and therefore sin is unrighteousness. There is a sin not unto death, as Jesus said, again, Matthew 12, 31, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven. Then he says, verse 18, whosoever is born of God sinneth not. In what sense? In the absolute sense? No sin whatsoever? That's to call God a liar, according to chapter one. He does not sin in this way he's talking about. One who is born of God keepeth himself from sinning the sin unto death that has no forgiveness. Verse 19, he says, we are of God and the whole world lieth in wickedness. Who is we? Again, the apostles, the emissaries of our Lord Jesus Christ. And those who bear the marks of this letter may say to themselves, we likewise are of God. We have received this truth. We have examined ourselves according to this doctrine and according to these duties. Now we see that Jesus Christ is the true God and eternal life. Look there at verse 20. We know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. This meaning who? Jesus Christ. He is the true God, the God of gods, and all other gods are called what? Idols. And so he says, little children, keep yourselves from idols, and thus far the exposition of 1 John chapter 5.