If you have a copy of God's Word, turn to 1 John chapter 5. This will be our last sermon, Lord willing, today on 1 John. We're finally finishing it, Brother Dave. This is sermon number 43 on 1 John. It's a great book to study. It's very practical. And it's very straightforward. John tells it like it is. We'll be going through verses 18 through 21 of chapter five this morning, Lord willing. It starts out, we know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not, but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself and the wicked one touches him not. And we know that we are of God and the whole world lieth in wickedness. Verse 20, and we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding that we may know Him that is true or real. And we are in Him that is true, even in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. In verse 21, little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen. May we pray. Gracious Father, may you open up the word to our hearts this morning. We thank you for a privilege to look into your word and testimony and study the word that we may grow in grace and in knowledge of Christ and to know the things which the Holy Spirit has given us to understand and to know. Thank you for the Holy Spirit who is our teacher and reveals the things of God unto us. and that we've been sealed with the Spirit of promise until the day of redemption. Be with us now, Lord, and open up our hearts and minds to rejoice in so great salvation. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. This is a tremendous book. We're going to look at chapter 1 just for a few minutes to refresh your memory. John is writing to born-again believers. warning them about false teachers in the church. They were denying the deity of Jesus Christ. They were denying that he came in the flesh. They were saying he had just an appearance of a body, but it wasn't real. Gnosticism. He was like a phantom, like a ghost. That was all. So they denied the body of resurrection. They denied the incarnation. They denied every fundamental doctrine that we believe. And John starts off this chapter 1, "...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." Which is talking about Jesus Christ. Well, the life was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness. He said, you shall be witnesses to me in the uttermost parts of the earth and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the father and was manifested unto us. That's talking about his incarnation. Verse 3, He said, "...that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us." So our fellowship as a church is centered around Jesus Christ. The more we know about Christ, the more we can fellowship one another. And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. Verse 4, "...and these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full." John is writing to Christians to rejoice and be filled with the joy of God. You know, one of the Old Testament writers said, quoted, the joy of the Lord is your strength. The joy of the Lord is your strength. And in the book of 1 John, we see many things brought out. He emphasizes basically about the love of God. He makes that a very strong teaching in 1 John. We can't have fellowship with God if we don't love each other. Love is the key. Paul says love is the fulfilling of the law. So John has given us practical directions. Those who hate are not God's people. You can't hate and be a believer in the true sense of the word. God's people love one another. Now, we may not always agree, but we still love one another. Also, in the book of 1 John, you see the word, know. All the way through John, we know that we pass from death unto life. We know we're going to see that this morning. As I said already, there's two words. One is the word genusko, to know by experience. You ever remember them old stoves that was red hot years ago? They had the wooden stoves or they had the coal and they'd get real red. You tell a child, don't touch that, it'll burn you. Well, they hear it up here, but they don't understand it. But the moment they touch it, they've experienced the truth. They know what it means not to touch it. And that's the way we are. There's some things we know intellectually, That's only to know something. Like I mentioned, Dave knows His name. We don't have to tell Dave what His name is. He knows it. And there's some things we know too by reading the Word of God. We know that. But there's some things in the Word of God that we experience, and one of those is love. Isn't it wonderful when you can feel in your soul the love of God in your soul and know that your sins have been forgiven for His namesake? Now that goes a little deeper than just intellectual knowledge. You've experienced that in your soul. There's that evidence that your sins have been forgiven for His sake. That's genosco, to know by experience. So all through John, gospel. Take a concordance and look up the word, know. And notice how many times it's mentioned. Even this morning when we go through our message, you'll see that. And John deals with practical application of truth. One is we know that we've passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. Loving one another is an evidence that we've been born again. How do we know we've been born again, it says? Because we keep His commandments. That's an evidence that we've been born again. We keep His commandments. All through the book of John, there's practical lessons for us to learn. And I'll say, in these 43 sermons that I've preached on it, I just touched the surface. The book of 1 John, there are some verses in there are very profound. The ones on the Trinity are very profound. The Father and the Word and the Holy Spirit. And these three are one. And the one is three, 1 John 5, 7, 8 and 9. Very, very deep. But it's there, recorded for our learning. So as we look at the word of God this morning, we'll begin reading with verse 18, we know. And that's the word which means to know once and for all, to have positive absolute knowledge. When we read the word of God, it's absolute. Everything about God is absolute. We say God is awesome. And he's the only one who is awesome in my opinion. Whosoever is born of God is in the perfect tense. It speaks of a past completed act of regeneration with the present result that the believer, sinner is born one of God. He's been born of God. As I say, the word born again In some verses in 1 John speaks about that we're born or begotten of God. That means in the past we were begotten of God and present tense we're believing. But we were born again before we believe. But believing is an evidence that we've been born again. Cause and effect. If you've been born again, you will believe. You don't believe, you haven't been born again. It's that simple. There's no gray areas with John. He's very point and very plain. The verbs are in the present tense, indicating habitual, continuous action. That word sinneth is in the present tense. It means someone is continually, continually, habitually sinning. No break. No let up. Their whole life is a pattern of sin. God is saying those born of God don't sin like that. They don't live in a life of habitual sin. So the statement is not that Christians cannot fall into sin indeed, but he can and does. Whether it is that while we may fall into sin, he cannot continue in it indefinitely. We all sin, but we don't live to sin. You see the difference? You don't live in sin. One man said, it's not the falling into the water that drowns a man, but staying in it. And the evidence of a Christian is not him living in sin. It's not an evidence he's a born again child of God. We don't live in sin. We don't enjoy sin in the sense of the world does. They live for sin. When we sin, by God's grace, we're convicted of our sins in our heart, and we cry to the Lord for forgiveness. Forgive me, Lord, I've sinned against thee. Peter says, how many times should I forgive my brother? Seven times? The Lord said, no, 490 times. That's a lot of time. If I come to you, Rick, and say, forgive me, and you forgive me, then 30 minutes more I come back and ask you to forgive me again, and then 30 minutes later I come back again, you've got to forgive me. That's what the Lord teaches. As shown, we have a continuous loving, forgiving heart. In other words, if the individual is truly born of God, the new birth will result in a new behavior. And that's how you know that you've passed from death unto life. There's a change. As Dave quoted that verse this morning, we're new creatures in Christ. 1 Corinthians 5.17. We're a new creation of God. Born again means we're a new creation. We've been born out of the word ek and the Greek means out of. We've been born out of the source, out of God. He's the one that gives us the new birth. 1 John 3, 6-9 says, "...whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not." Again, it's talking about habitual sinning. "...whosoever sinneth hath not seen Him, neither knoweth Him." Now John is very plain. He don't lead around the bush. He tells it like it is. Some preachers don't want to tell people the truth. They want to kind of, you know, make it, cover it up with sugar a little bit. John says it's like it is. If you're a habitual sinner, you're lost. Period. You're not born again. You want to know whether you're born again? Are you living in sin? If you're living in sin and walking in sin and loving sin, you're not born again. Now the word of God says that, not brother Rhodes. Little children, let no man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness is righteous. That word doeth is habitual. He who's habitually practicing righteousness is righteous. Heaven is he is righteous. He that committed sin or is practicing sin is of the devil. For the devil sinned from the beginning. For this purpose, the son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. Jesus came into this world to save us and to destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin. That word there again is in the present tense. He does not continually live in sin. For his seed remaineth in him. And he cannot sin because he is born of God. Now there's a sense in which that which is born of us cannot sin. Our new nature does not sin. We sin through the old nature, but the new nature cannot sin. It's holy, it's pure, it's divine. God gave us the nature that cannot sin. And if we have the divine nature, we don't practice sin in the sense that we did before. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. But he that is a begotten of God, the born again child of God. The one who is born of God means to be born out of God, as I said before. And those who are born of God, they keep themselves. We keep ourselves. Now, it refers to Christians. You say, well, that would be, we keep ourselves. I thought God keeps us. He does keep us. The Bible says, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. We're going to work it out. But it's God who works in you, both the will and the do of His good pleasure. We have a responsibility as God's servants. As His disciples, we're to obey the Lord. We're to obey Him. That's why I emphasize, He keepeth Himself. keepeth himself." The Scriptures has more to say about that. In 1 Timothy 5.22, He said, "...lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partakers of the other man's sins, keep thyself pure." That's our responsibility. How do I keep myself pure? By avoiding things that are impure. By avoiding wickedness, by avoiding that which would make me sinful. We have to keep ourselves pure. But we do that through Christ's strength. I can do all things through Christ who infuses strength into me. We can't do it apart from Christ because He said without me you can do nothing. So when I'm told to keep the commandments of God and I'm to obey the Lord, I know I do it through His Spirit in the inner man. You're not left to yourself to do these things. God gives us the strength to do it. Also, James 1.27 says, pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world. We're to keep ourselves unspotted. Well, how can you keep yourself unspotted from the world? By staying out of the world. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. Jesus said in John 17, we're in the world, but we're not of the world. Love not the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. And beloved, we each one have to be cautious in this area. We're all tempted. Even Christ was tempted, but He never sinned. He was sinless, but He was tempted. In all areas as we are, yet without sin, praise God, we have a perfect sacrifice, a perfect example to follow the Lord Jesus. And in Jude 21 it says, "...keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life." Keep yourselves in the love of God. Meditate upon God's love. Read the Scriptures. Brother David and I both emphasize over and over, read God's Word. As you read it, you see the love of God, you experience the love of God, and you're keeping yourselves in the love of God by keeping confessed up. Now you can never, from God's viewpoint, be out of the love of God, because we cannot be separated from the love of God. Romans 8, 35-39. But our fellowship can be broken. Our relationship is settled. We can never be disowned as God's people. But we can lose that sweet communion and fellowship with the Lord because of our disobedience. And that's what we have to guard against, beloved. And Satan is continually trying to trick us and put things in our path to hinder us that we sin against the Lord to break our fellowship with the Lord. Because if you're not in fellowship with the Lord, how can you resist temptation? How can you fight the devil? You can't do it on your own, you know that. Satan knows that too. And the wicked one touches him not. You know, the devil wanted to destroy Peter, and the Lord said, Peter, I pray for you that your faith fail not. So God prays for each one of His children. He's in heaven right now doing what? Interceding for us. If it wasn't for the Lord keeping us and guarding us, now the Lord does keep us. Now some interpret that verse that only those that are begotten of God refers to Christ. And that's the truth that Christ keeps us. I don't deny that, but I don't think that's referring to Christ there in that verse. I think it's referring to the born again believing child of God. But God does keep us. We're kept by the power of God and Jesus is called in first in the Corinthians, he is the wisdom of God and the power of God. So we are kept by Christ. He said, I've lost none except the son of perdition. We are kept. Thank God that you're being kept and guarded by God this morning. You're divine property. Think about that. We are divine property. If you're a believer, and you're professing your faith in Christ, Christ paid for your sins, He bought you with His blood, that means you belong to Him, brother Dick. We belong to the Lord. And he said, Why call me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? We are to be obedient to the Lord. I don't say this in a bad way, but I say these things. If you're a believer and we're Christians, we're to obey the Lord Jesus Christ in everything He says. No exception. No exception. He gave His all for you and I. And He says to you and I, follow me. Follow me. We should follow Christ. If He commands you in His Word to do something, you should do it. That's my advice to each one of you if you're a believer. The evil one, the world system, I can't say it often enough. Beloved, be careful, be cautious of getting too close with the world. The world will bring you down. Look at the world out there today. We're getting more wicked and wicked and ungodly. Anything goes today. There's nothing wicked that they won't try. The lust of the flesh. Look at the world and the flesh, the wickedness. The lust of the eyes on the pride of life. And notice Satan's temptations has to do with the eyes and the ears and your mind. He works through the eye gate to get to your mind to corrupt you. He works through what you hear to get to your affections to corrupt you. Satan is continually throwing things at us through the TVs, through radios, through computers, through the internet. Everything is coming our way to what? To corrupt us. So we have to be on our guard. And then in verse 20 he says, And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding Praise God, thank God He has, that we may know Him. Aren't you glad you know the Lord this morning? Be thankful. There's millions and millions who don't know the Lord. There's nations who have never heard of the Lord in a special sense. They've heard about Him, but they don't know Him. And that we are in Him. That is true. Even in His Son, Jesus Christ, this is the true God and eternal life. You know, the Word of God says very clear in Galatians 4. But when the fullness of time was come, there was the time for everything under the sun, the Bible says. And Jesus came into this world as we're gonna read about Paul here, in the fullness of time. At the appointed time of God's decree, of God's sovereignty, at the appointed time, Jesus came into the world. He wasn't late and he wasn't early. He came at God's appointed time. When the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son. made of a woman, made under the law, so he could become the cursed of God for you and I." What a blessing. He hung upon the tree and the Bible says, everyone who hangeth on a tree is the cursed of God. That was a sign that they were cursed of God, were hanging on a tree. You know, he died without the camp. You know what that means? Outside the camp meant judgment. It was judgment. He was being judged and condemned and cursed because he was the cursed of God. And why was he cursed for you and I? He bore our sins in His body on the tree. What a Savior we serve. We shouldn't have to ask anyone to obey the Lord. We should be willing to do it if you're born again of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that refers to His incarnation as John spoke about in verse 1. And in John 1, verse 14, he says, "...and the Word was made flesh. He came and tabernacled among us, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. But glory is the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." That is talking about Jesus Christ, who was God's Son in eternity. God sent his son in time to assume a body and to die as our substitute and to teach people how to know God. How to know God. The son of God. Paul, when he began his ministry preaching, what did he preach? One of the first things he preached on was what? Jesus is the son of God. Paul says in Romans 9.5 of the Scriptures recorded, "...who are the fathers, and of whom are concerning the flesh Christ's King." Notice this. "...who is over all..." Who? Christ. "...God blessed forever." Amen. He's God blessed forever. Who? Jesus Christ. The Son of God. He was God before He ever came into this world. And when He went back, He went back to sin. 1 Timothy 3.16, and without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. Notice this, God was manifested in the flesh. Some of these perverted versions say He was manifested in the flesh. They're changing the Word of God. justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory." Hallelujah. He ascended that day there for all those witnesses, and He went up and the cloud took Him, and He went and sat down on the right hand of God to make intercession for us as our high priest over the house of God. Titus 2.13 says, "...looking for that blessed hope, I'm looking for that. I try to remind myself each morning, this could be the day. This could be the day that the Lord Jesus comes and takes us home. And the glorious appearing, it will be glorious when He comes. It will be something like we've never seen in our life. Of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. He's called our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. Showing His deity. In Hebrew 1.8, the father speaking about his son says, But unto the son he saith, Thy throne, O God. The father recognized his son as God because he was God. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed with the father from eternity. and agreed in the everlasting covenant to be our surety and come to earth and die as our substitute, is forever and ever a scepter of righteousness, is a scepter of thy kingdom. As we sang that song, hallelujah, what a savior. It's important that you understand the deity of God. A person cannot be born again and deny the deity of Jesus Christ. teaching that God the Spirit teaches his people, the deity of the Son of God. Moreover, the coming of the Son of God has granted to believers an understanding which makes possible a knowledge of God. Jesus came to reveal God. That was one of his missions also, not just to save us, but to reveal the true and living God. Paul speaks in Corinthians about the true and living God. He's the real God compared to all the false gods. There's one real God and His name is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We serve the one God. There's only one God. manifested in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. One is three, and three is one. I don't try to understand it, I just believe it. The Father sent the Son, and the Son came into the world. How did He come into the world? Not by motion, not by moving. God is omnipresent. But assuming Himself in the womb of Mary. He was manifested. He was conceived. The man Jesus was conceived and the Son of God and His deity possessed that nature to Himself. Now that's something, again, that's hard for us to comprehend. But when Jesus the man walked around on earth, He was the God-man. The person of the Son of God is the person of His manhood. That's why sometimes he could speak as man, sometimes he would speak as God through the man. He says, I and my Father are one. In essence, I'm one with God. I am God. Before Abraham was, I am. Now that wasn't true of the man, Christ Jesus, but it was true of the Son of God who was incarnated and took in union with Him a man. But He was the person of that man. which is a mystery, the mystery of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh. Whoa, we serve an awesome God. John and his circle were in Him who is true, and so were his readers that they continued to abide. But to abide in God is also to abide in His Son, Jesus Christ. For this matter, Jesus Christ himself is the true God. John 1, 1 in verse 14. Eternal life, John 1, 2. It says, he that hath a son hath a father. Without the father, there's no son. Without the son, there's no father. Beloved, you can't have one without the other. One writer says this, everything depends on his deity. And his deity means no less than this, that as the father who is made known to us by him is the only real God. 1 Thessalonians 1.9. So also his son, Jesus Christ, is the real God and eternal life. If the son is less, If He is not the real God, even as the Father is the real God, then this entire epistle and all that it declares about His blood, His sacrifice and His fellowship with God is all futile, means nothing, if He's not God. So when those people, those false cults denied Jesus being deity, denied His Godhead, everything went down the drain. They were denying. He said, they left us because they were not of us. Brethren, we've had many false cults in the churches down through the ages. One of the main things they tried to deny is the deity of Jesus Christ. They wanted to say He's a created angel. He had a beginning. He's not God. There's only God the Father. He's not God. Jehovah Witnesses is one. Unitarianism, Christian science, all of those are false cults. 1 John 1 verse 2 says, "...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." Just like when Jesus was walking on earth, and He was with His disciples, God was walking on earth. in the Son of Man. God was being manifested through the Son of Man. They have that hospitality union. We can't understand that. How did God, the Son, could speak through the man, Jesus Christ? He was a man just like we are, to a certain degree. because he was in union with the eternal Son of God forever, never to be separated. That's the mystery of godliness. Paul knew what he was talking about in 1 Timothy. The mystery of godliness. God was manifested in flesh. What flesh? In the flesh of Jesus Christ, the Son of Man. The Bible says we were purchased with what? The blood of God. Acts 20, 28. Well, how is that possible? Because He was the Son of God as well as the Son of Man. He was the Son of God in His deity. And the Son of Man in His humanity. One person with two natures. If you keep that in mind, it'll help you understand the Scriptures as you're reading. That the Son of God has the nature of divine, and the Son of God has the nature of the Son of Man, a human. Human nature. Because He couldn't die as God, but He could die as a man. He laid down His life. What love that is. And the wonderful thing about this, which is a mystery we don't understand, that the man Christ Jesus was in perfect harmony with the Son of God, with His divine nature. And He loved us, and gave Himself, and yielded to the will of the Father. 1 John 2.25 says, this is the promise, that He has promised us even eternal life. And in 1 John chapter 5, which we have went through already, it says, And this is the record that God hath given to us, the eternal life. And this life is in His Son, worse life in His Son, Jesus. And 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 you might believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may believe that's in the present tense there, is that you may continue believing. Believing is what that's saying. On the name of the Son of God. It's not saying you're going to believe again. It's saying that you are continually believing on the name of the Son of God. Because the child of God continues believing in Christ. The word believe is always in the present tense, basically. The real God Christ had given us an understanding that we might know Him, Janosko. We know Him by experience. And Jesus, His Son, Jesus Christ, that we are in Him who is true. And another thing, that we can never know God outside of Christ. Outside of Christ there's no knowledge of God. He came to reveal God. So we know God the Father only through Christ. Jesus said, no man can come unto Me except the Father. Draw him. No one knows the Father except the Son, and to Him whosoever He will reveal Him. We cannot be in the Father without being in the Son, nor in the Son without being in the Father. Our Lord is here at the end of the letter signifying given His full title as He was at the beginning. He is Jesus, the man, Christ the Messiah, and God's eternal Son in one person. What a Savior we serve. We sing that song, Hallelujah. What a Savior. And we know Jesus. At the present time, he says in Matthew 11, 27, all things are delivered to me of my Father. And no man knoweth the Son, but the Father. Neither know any man the Father, save the Son. And he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him. If you know the Father, praise God, God, the Son revealed Him to you through the Holy Spirit. And Jesus said in John 17, 3 in that prayer, and this is the life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God." Who's he talking about? God the Father. To know the Father is to have eternal life. You can't know Him no other way. And Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. And in closing, 1 John 5, verse 21 says, little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen. You know, Paul speaks about idolatry Colossians 3, 5, he said, mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry. We have to guard against thou shalt not covet. And in Ephesians 5, it says, for this you know, that no homeowner, nor unclean person, nor covenant man who is an idolater hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Now when I read this, I looked up some different ones and one commentary brought out something I had never thought about about this first. It was very interesting. He said what he's teaching here in this verse, Genocism denied the deity of Christ. They denied his humanity. They denied everything about Christ. He says, so what they were doing, they had changed the incorruptible God to a corruptible. And the word Jesus was no longer a deity. He was no longer the Savior. He was become an idol to them. Because when you deny His Godhead, you deny His Godhead, He's no longer God, then He becomes an idol. So there's a lot of people today who don't worship the same Jesus that we do. Those who deny His deity are not worshiping the true Jesus Christ. Paul said they preach another Jesus, they preach another God. So when he says to flee from idolatry, he's saying in a sense, he said what they're saying, don't follow the Genocism who made an idol out of Jesus by denying him to be God manifested in the flesh. Now that was a thought I had never thought about before. I give you that free, that's no charge for that. But I thought that was a good point. I had never thought about that. I had thought more about covetousness is idolatry, which it is. But there's a lot of people today, churches have made an idol out of Christ. By denying His deity, by denying His Godhead, by denying He came in the flesh, by denying that He's a crude God and saying He's an angel, saying He was created, they have made an idol out of Jesus Christ in their own mind. I hope these have been some blessings to you this morning. There's so much more I could have brought out in this. Pray for me that God would lead me what to study next, whether I should preach on another book of the Bible, preach on different subjects. I'm praying about that, so pray for me. And I want to encourage you, read God's Word. Learn all you can about your Savior. You're going to spend eternity with Him soon. Paul said that I might know Him and the power of His resurrection. That's what we all want to know. May we pray. Our gracious Heavenly Father, bless Your Word to our souls. Thank You for the Word of God. Thank You for Jesus who loved us and died and gave Himself for us. Thank You for the Holy Spirit who takes the things of God and reveals them unto us. Thank You that we're sealed until the day of redemption. And thank you for this opportunity to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. It's in His name we do pray and give thanks. Amen.