Well, let's go ahead and move on into Part 9 of our New Testament overview, and we are considering the other epistles. The other epistles, the rest, in the early episodes of Gilligan's Island, they named off just a few of the characters in the theme song, and then they just said, and the rest. I always felt bad for those actors. They're just the rest, but there we go. We're looking at the rest of the epistles. These are not epistles to ignore. These are epistles for us to read and to understand. And that starts with the epistle of James as We are considering the remaining of his souls. The remaining of his souls. Now, of course, as I was saying, we have gone through the book of Hebrews. We finished that book and we spent a whole session on that book. They're just so much there. And now we are considering the books of James and 1st Peter and 2nd Peter and 1st John and 2nd John and 3rd John and Jude. I think I got them all there. So James through Jude, James through Jude and So let's start with James. If you haven't turned there yet, turn to the book of James, and let's look at verse 22, verse 22 of James chapter 1, James 1, 22. And we read there, but prove yourselves doers of the word and not merely hearers who delude themselves. Be doers of the word and not merely hearers who delude themselves. And so this is Oh, there we go. I didn't check the animation to make sure they're in order. So we probably will have some things popping up out of order here. This is the book of James. And it is written to the twelve tribes. Verse one says to the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad. This is the diaspora, the diaspora. This is the dispersion of the Jews who are now believers, who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. And James is writing to them. He is writing to them in. The well, sometime between the year 44 and 62. So there's a little bit of a debate as far as when this is written. But it is written by James. Who is James? Not not an apostle. He's actually Jesus's half brother. Wait a minute. Did Jesus have siblings? Yes, he did. We read in scripture that Joseph did not know his wife in an intimate way. And we understand that that is a euphemism for for sexual activity. He did not know his wife until Jesus was born. And so she was a virgin when Jesus was born. This is a great debate in church history where some people think that she maintained her virginity and that Joseph just seemed to think that she was just. sanctified at that point. She was holy and he didn't touch her for the rest of her life. And she remained a virgin for the rest of her life. But scripture actually doesn't teach that. That's an assumption that some people come up with. And I think it's based on a on a on a view of sexuality that's actually errant. There's nothing dirty about sexuality within a marriage. Obviously, God's created that. And of Mary and Joseph. There was obviously more children because we do read about these other brothers and sisters that Jesus had, of course, for the Catholics who say that she was that perpetually a virgin, they will typically argue that these are siblings from a different relationship, that Joseph was older when he married Mary and he brought in children from a previous relationship. But that is not at all what is taught. In fact, Jesus does seem to be the older brother. And James. It was a half brother, and we read about him in various places. But what's interesting is that he was not a believer in Jesus Christ. Throughout Jesus's earthly ministry, and we do read that, and there was a point at which that came to an end. Just as a review for that, let's go back to First Corinthians. First Corinthians. Chapter 15. And here we have the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. The resurrection was a key doctrine, and in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul makes that case that if there is no resurrection, then we are people most to be pitied. There is no Christianity if there's no resurrection. And I bring that up because Christianity Today, which we could also call Christianity Astray, just did a hit piece on John MacArthur because in the Q&A, someone asked him about Martin Luther King Jr. And John MacArthur said, no, I don't believe he was a Christian. And that is offensive to some people because he obviously claimed to be a Christian, but he denied the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And that point alone disqualifies him. And he also denied the divinity of Christ, which also disqualifies him. Someone said, well, God can save anybody. Of course, God can save anybody. And if you're saved, as we're about to read, James, you will have good words, which includes believing what the Bible has to say about these topics. The resurrection was so sure that Jesus's half brother, James, who did not believe in the Lord Jesus. came to believe in him after the resurrection. And we see that he raised from the dead. In verse four, he was raised on the third day, according to the scriptures. Verse five, he appeared to Cephas and then to the 12. Verse six, he appeared to more than 500 brethren at one time, most of whom who remain until now, but some have fallen asleep. Verse seven, then he appeared to James and then to all the apostles. And so he appeared to his brother. By the time we get to Acts chapter one, we see that James is there and Mary is there and the rest of Jesus family is there. Acts chapter two, they're there in the upper room, in fact. waiting for the giving of the Holy Spirit. What happens between the end of the Gospels and acts where James's brother suddenly believes it's the resurrection of Jesus Christ? And that is such a sure moment that that that he repents of his unbelief and he comes to believe because there's nothing quite like seeing a man murdered on a cross being buried, being dead for three days, and then him coming and visiting you. that that that is a pretty convincing argument to to turn you from your unbelief. And so James did become a believer and he became an elder. In fact, in the Jerusalem church, we saw him in Acts 15. We talked about that. Acts 21. He's an elder in the church. And so this is the James that is writing the epistle of James. And what is he writing about? Well, just as we started off with here in chapter one, he is writing about true faith. He is writing about true faith, which works blessed righteousness. And I like this particular theme, the way it's worded. True faith works. True faith works. blessed righteousness, because that is one of the great debates of this letter. We'll get into that in just a moment. This letter, though, is a notoriously difficult letter to try to section out and to try to outline. One outline I was looking at had like 15 points. This one, well, it's still a little small there, but you can see the points there. We have the prologue there in chapter 1, verses 1 through 18. And then we have the body, and the rest is the body here. which is the exhortation concerning the word implanted, which is able to deliver. And so we have this word implanted into us as believers. It's able to deliver, by the way, just because it's written to the dispersion does not mean it doesn't apply to Gentile believers. Obviously, this also applies to Gentile believers. And so we have this word that's implanted. It's able to deliver. What should we do? Well, the first thing we see is the principle summarized through the rest of Chapter 1. And then we see the principle applied. The principle applied. And specifically there, we see three principles that are applied in Chapters 1 through 5. And that's to be quick to hear and to do, to be quick to hear and to do. And that goes through the end of Chapter 2. Be slow to speak, Chapter 3. And then be slow to anger, Chapter 4 into Chapter 5. And so those are principles applied. And then the practices needed at the time that is in chapter five to turn to prayer and to turn others to the truth. And I believe that takes us all the way through the end of the letter there. And so there's a lot we can talk about with this particular letter. Obviously, we're not spending all night just on James, though. One thing I do want to talk about with James is this debate that we have with the meaning of faith and works. And that's here in chapter two. This is a big one, especially in this area where we have a lot of Mormon influence. And then, of course, also a lot of Catholic influence. This is a this is a chapter. If you are in discussions with unbelievers that you will come back to again and again. So you need to know this chapter. And that is chapter two. And just for the sake of that admonition, let's go ahead and read all of that for verses 14 through 26 here. What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that they save him if a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food? And one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed and be filled. Yeah, you do not give them what is necessary for their body. What use is that? Even so, faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. But someone may well say, You have faith, and I have works. Show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one? You do well. The demons also believe and shudder. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac, his son, on the altar? You see that faith was working with his works. And as a result of the works, faith was perfected. And the scripture was fulfilled which says that Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. And he was called the friend of God. You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works, when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead. Now, if you have memorized Ephesians two, eight, nine, you may have trouble with this passage. Ephesians two, eight, nine, which says it is not by works, right? It is by faith that we are saved, not through works, lest any man should boast. And yet this seems to indicate the opposite of that. In fact, if we were to compare this to another passage that Paul wrote, which is in Romans chapter four, verses two and three, We see a very specific contradiction where Abraham was justified by works. He has something to boast about, but not before God. Or what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. That seems to indicate that Abraham was not justified by works. And yet here in chapter 2, verses 21 through 23 specifically, we see what seems to be a contrast of saying the exact opposite, that he was justified by works, and even the same passage or same verses quoted by James that Paul quotes. And so sometimes you'll even see atheists or or Bible skeptics point this out and they'll say, aha, see, this shows that there are contradictions in the Bible. And then you might also have your Catholic friend or your Mormon friend who might say if you believe that you're saved by faith alone you are denying what James says So you have to understand this passage and understand the argument that he is Laying out and one place that we could just quickly look for that is to consider that this in the context of the rest of the letter. For instance, it comes after chapter one, isn't that something? Chapter two comes after chapter one. It's interesting how that always works out. But if we go back to chapter one, verse 26, we see James dealing with people who claim to be religious and yet they don't live out their faith. Chapter one, verse 26, if anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is worthless. Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. See, there is a good religion out there and there's a bad religion out there. He says a bad religion would include people who have profession of the one true religion, but they don't live it out. They don't live out their faith. And in fact, he says that this faith is worthless. This religion is worthless. He's actually highlighting that there are two kinds of faith, two kinds of faith that we can see in the church, a faith of those who hear only and a faith of those who hear and do. We would say that a person who hears, for instance, that Jesus Christ died on the cross, but doesn't believe that person's faith is worthless. Right. But the faith of the person who says they believe that Jesus died on the cross for their sins and then doesn't. bridle their tongue, doesn't try to avoid being stained by the world. That person is not living like a Christian. That's why we have church discipline. That's why we have these things, because it kind of helps us to suss out people who have false professions. And there are false professions out there. And so as we get into chapter two here, we see that's exactly what he's talking about. He's talking about the kind of faith he says in verse one of chapter two. Do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. There are people who would hold their faith in Jesus Christ while also practicing partiality. He says, No, don't be partial toward people. Don't be don't exercise favoritism toward people. Instead, you need to live out your faith in a in a in a way that is consistent with what the Bible has to teach. He goes on to talk about this in verse 14. The person who says he has faith, but he has no work works. Can that faith save him? He's talking about two different kinds of faith, two different kinds of religion. Is it that faith that saves him or is it the faith that actually changes him that that saves him? What does Paul say elsewhere that Jesus Christ has transformed us? We're new creatures in Christ. If we're new creatures, we're going to live differently. And so we're going to have a different kind of faith. We're not going to have a faith of mere profession. We're going to have a faith that is lived out. And so this is the faith and the works that James is highlighting. James highlights this. And again, we can go down to verse twenty six of chapter two, for he says, just without the for just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead. If you have a body laying up here and there's no spirit in that body, we might try to resuscitate that body. We might say, now it's time for you to get up. We might try to play music to wake that body up. We may try to sit the body up and say, OK, now you need to take communion or something like that. Guess what? That body's not having any of it. That body's dead. What about the kind of faith that doesn't have work set? Faith is dead to see a faith that is moving. There's a faith that has been energized by the spirit of the living God. That's the kind of faith we're talking about here. That's the kind of faith that James is talking about. And so those who might misapply Paul's teachings here. I forgot to mute my phone. Those who might misapply what Paul says about grace, for instance. They need to hear that a Christian who's been transformed by grace is going to work. But then you might have Christians who start to lean on their works a little too much and start to find justification in their works. Well, they need to hear Paul that it's not by our works that we're justified. It's by our faith in Christ. It's actually by Christ's actions. And so we need to hear both of these messages. There's not a contradiction. This is a both and. We are transformed by grace. Therefore, we work and We don't put our faith in our works because we put our faith in that grace that justified us. And so we need both of those. We need both of those in our lives. We need to hear both of those. And so that's the book of James. James has a lot of great stuff for us, warning us about our tongues and that final exhortation for prayer and everything. But let's go ahead and move on to first Peter. first Peter, and we'll look at first Peter one versus twenty two and twenty three, which reads. Since you have an obedience to the truth, since you have. In obedience to the truth, purified your souls for sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart. For you have been born again, not of seed which is perishable, but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring Word of God. And so we've been told here that we have been transformed again. This is an enduring word. We could even continue on for all flesh is like grass for all in all its glory is like the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower falls off. But the word of the Lord endures forever. And this is the word which was preached to you. The grass may wither all the things in the world around us may fade away But the Word of God stands forever and this is the word that that should then transform us the word that's been implanted and so we here we have first Peter which is written to the Christians of Northern Asia Minor And it is written in the year 60 and it is written by Peter. This is the apostle Peter. He is writing near the end of his life, but not quite there. But there is a lot of persecution that's starting up at this time. And so he's writing for believers to stand firm because this is the word that we need to stand firm on. And no matter what persecution, no matter what sufferings we may face, we need to stand firm on this word just take a look at chapter 5 for a moment chapter 5 We could start in verse 8. He says be of sober spirit beyond the alert your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour but resist him firm in your faith knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren. who are in the world. And after you've suffered for a little while, the God of all grace who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you to him be dominion forever and ever. Amen. That's so that that's worth a sermon right there. You know, we we we have the devil who is always seeking to throw us off our game. He is always seeking to to to deceive us or to threaten us. But we can resist him. The word of God says we can resist him. Why? Because we are so great. No, no, no. But greater is he who is in you and he who is in the world. So we can resist him through the power of God. And because of that, we can know that that our suffering, whatever we're facing, it's only going to be for a little while. And after that, the Lord will put a firm foundation beneath our feet. He will establish us. He will strengthen us. He will establish us. He will confirm us. And this is this is what we need to hear, that that we can stand firm amidst suffering, no matter if it's from the world or from Satan or even sometimes from ourselves. The Lord can help us to stand firm. The Lord can help us to stand firm. So this is an important word. I think it's going to be a word that's going to be more and more important as our culture moves away from. a nominal kind of Christianity. It's becoming more and more anti-Christian. We're going to need to hear this word that we can still stand firm. We don't need our culture to agree with us. We can stand firm nonetheless, because we have someone in us who is greater than all who are against us. And so what's an outline of this book? Well, Peter says we can have salvation. We can have salvation in chapter one. He goes through that and he gives us that assurance that that our salvation is being protected by the Lord Jesus Christ. Our salvation can can transform us again. He quotes from from the Old Testament there as it is written in verse 16, you shall be holy for I am holy we can be transformed by the Holy One of Israel and be set apart for his purposes. This is the kind of salvation that we have we are to be submissive though. We are also to have a submission submission to the word of God submission to the church submission to the Lord Jesus Christ, submission to authorities, even wicked authorities. And then finally, we have that word of the suffering of the believer. But we can still remain standing firm in the Lord. And so that's first Peter, first Peter. Now, Peter did follow up with second Peter. And yes, it is written by Peter. Some people doubt that the vocabulary is different. It's a little bit of a different style, but people can write in different ways. There's nothing that says that this was not written by Peter. Second Peter, let's turn to verses one Excuse me chapter 1 verses 17 through 21 I'll read this first from the translation in front of me, but I'm going to make a slight alteration after that 2nd Peter 1 verses 17 through 21 For when he received honor and glory, that's Jesus, when he received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to him by the majestic glory, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. And we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain. Just pausing there for a moment. What's Peter writing about? That's the transfiguration. That's where the Lord said, this is my beloved son. That's where God, the father said this of our Lord Jesus Christ. So we have the prophetic word made more sure I'm going to make an alteration to that translation in just a moment to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. But know this first of all that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. There were a lot of false teachers going around in Peter's day, and he had to specifically deal with this. And a lot of these false teachers were going on about their own personal experiences. Now, Peter had a pretty big personal experience, especially not just with the general ministry of our Lord and being there throughout the Lord's ministry, but also being there on the Mount of Transfiguration. That was spectacular that he could see the light of Christ as he was transfigured before them and he could hear the voice of the Father ringing out. He saw the Shekinah Glory descending upon the mountain. Peter could say, My experience trumps yours. But there's a better translation of this that I want to point out here. And that is from the Legacy Standard Bible. And it says that we have as more sure the prophetic word. This is a better translation than what the New American Standard has here. Because the New American Standard makes it sound like our prophetic word is made more sure by our experience. But that's not what Peter said. This is actually a better translation here, the Legacy Standard. We have as more sure the prophetic word. Peter says we have this great experience, but guess what? We have a more sure word. The word is not made more sure because of our experience. The word itself is more sure. And so he doesn't trump the false teachers with his experience. Well, you have an experience. Guess what? I have a bigger experience. I have a greater experience. No, no. He says, rather than comparing our experiences, let's go back to the word of God. And that right there is to be the attitude of all believers. We can't really exegete experiences. Someone can come up to me and tell me experience. I've heard some pretty neat stories, some of which I think, yeah, God could have done that. That sounds really neat. But I'm not going to preach those experiences as authoritative. I don't know that God really did that. I don't know if the person's lying to me. I don't know if they made it up. I don't know if they had a bad burrito one night and, you know, they just had a weird dream. And, you know, maybe maybe it was something else. I don't know. But I do know that this word is sure. In fact, this word is more sure than any other experience that we might have. And that's what Peter wants people to see. And that's what he goes on to talk about here, where he says no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation. People don't bring about scripture because they want to or or or, you know, produce it out of their own heart or their own conceptions. He says, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. How do we have the word of God? Because God himself moved men. It's not a surprise to us that men wrote the Bible. Sometimes atheists will throw that out there. They're like, I'm not going to believe a book that's written by men. I mean, you believe science books, right? I mean, who are those written by? Yeah, we know that the Bible's been written by men, but we also believe it's inspired, inspired by God. And we believe it's infallible and inerrant as a result. And so Christians do need to hear this word that this was written in the years perhaps 67 or 68. This would have been right before Peter was executed by Nero. Nero did begin persecutions. I was the first real Roman persecution. It was concentrated mostly around the city of Rome. Historians say that maybe Nero burned a part of Rome because he wanted to do some construction in Rome. And there happened to be some buildings there. And he was told, no, we can't do construction there because there are buildings there. And then a couple of days later, it's all burned to the ground. Just so happened. Wow. How fortuitous. And there's even that that that saying that he was even sitting there watching it happen while he was playing his fiddle or whatever else. And I don't know if that was actually what happened there. But some some folks have said that throughout time that, yeah, he's playing fiddle while Rome burned. But it was such a scandal that people started coming back to him and saying, hey, now, You can't just burn down our city because you want to build new construction. And he says, no, I didn't do it. It was the Christians. And so they became a very easy scapegoat because a lot of people didn't like the Christians already. They saw them as rabble rousers. And, you know, they they didn't like the fact that they didn't worship like like the pagans worship there in Rome. So so they were willing to believe that it was the Christians. And so, of course, Peter was executed. Paul was executed by by Nero. So this was near the end of his life. He knows it's near the end of his life. This is what he writes, that we need to have faith in the word of God. And it is written by Peter again, like I said, and he wants us to understand the character of true Christianity and he wants us to understand false Christianity as well and he deals a lot with false teachers in this book. In fact all of chapter 2 here we see the rise of false prophets and there is a lot of information here if you want to know how to how to discern If someone is a true or false teacher, someone is a true prophet or false prophet. This is a great chapter to go to. Chapter two. This will help you to see, OK, these are people who are full of covetry, covetousness. They're full of greed. They have hearts trained in greed. They have wandering eyes. They're always pursuing It's funny to me because all these folks who get promoted like on TV and or some something like that, who they say these are real profits. And it comes out just a few months later that they were having affairs on their wives or they were stealing from their ministries. I mean, there you go. I mean, that's proof enough. But unfortunately, some Christians are like, oh, well, you know, we all have sins we struggle with. No, I mean, we have a whole chapter here dedicated to finding out who false prophets are. And these are the people who are fulfilling these chapters. We can see that right there. I think the world sees that, too, and they they make fun of us for being so gullible. And we really shouldn't be that gullible. We should see. Yeah, no, this is this is exactly what the Lord has told us. There are true there are true Christians out there. men of character, women of character. But then there are false prophets out there as well. And so we have that chapter three. We also have a word about the coming day of the Lord and really description of what we have today. They look at chapter three for just a moment and starting in verse three. The coming of the day of the Lord, Peter says there, know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking. following after their own lusts. I mean, is that not today right there? Just just that one sentence. There are people who mock the faith while they engage in their own lusts. And that right there does scribe today. But what do they say? They say, where's the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation. And so a lot of people pointed out there you have that uniformitarianism. There's there's just no change. Today, we actually see people apply that to evolution and say, yeah, it's always been the same, just slow changes over time. There's not ever been a big flood. There's not ever been any kind of cataclysm, and there's not going to be one either. God's not going to come back. Jesus isn't going to come back and destroy this world or do anything like that. You're being foolish for believing that kind of thing. That's what the mockers say. That's what the mockers say. Of course, verse five continues that for when they maintain this it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed without or formed out of water and by water through which the world at that time was destroyed being flooded with water. But by his word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire. kept for the day of judgment and destruction of God, of ungodly men. There was a baptism, as it were, of water that this world underwent, and one day there's a baptism of fire that is coming upon this world. We need to know that that is a real thing. And Peter ends with that because he wants folks to have that right focus, that proper focus of Christ's return. And along those lines here, we have the the outline, the cultivation of Christian character in chapter one, the condemnation of false teachers in chapter two, and then the competence of Christ's return in chapter three. And so that brings us to the end of the Petrine letters. First and second, Peter. Now we come to the Johannine letters, the John letters, 1st and 2nd and 3rd John. Let's look at 1st John chapter 2, 1st John chapter 2 verse 3. There's a lot we could read with 1st John. It's just a great letter. But 1st John 2 3. By this we know that we have come to know him. By this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. I mean, that sounds like what James was saying earlier, right? We can actually have confidence or assurance in our faith because of our keeping of the Lord's commandments. And that is absolutely true. We can see how the Lord has changed us, how the Lord has transformed us. And that can bring us great confidence. That's why When Christians are not living according to God's Word, they can have doubts about their salvation. I'm not sure that I'm saved. Well, why don't you know that you're saved? I don't know. I just I don't have that feeling anymore. Well, let me ask you, are you going to church like you're supposed to? Well, no, I've had a lot of stuff coming up. Are you reading your Bible like you're supposed to? Well, no, no. You know, I get busy. Are you being consistent in your Christian walk in any way? No, no, not really. What are you doing? Well, I'm engaging in pornography on my phone or I'm doing this, I'm doing that, you know. doing drugs, whatever the case is. Okay, well, I think I know why you have doubts. I think I can see it. I'm not a prophet. I'm not the son of a prophet, but I think I can figure out what the issue is here. If we keep his commandments, though, we can know that we have come to know him. This is also something that John wants of us that the Lord wants of us. The Lord doesn't want us walking around in doubt as far as whether we know him or whether we have eternal life. The Lord wants us to know that we know him. And so he gives us these instructions so that we will have this confidence that he has saved us. And so this is written to believers in general. It was written toward the end of John's life. We're not exactly sure when each of these letters are written. So we're kind of we kind of put them in between 90 and 95. So so John was pretty young when he was walking with Jesus. He was probably the youngest disciple. I think some people have said he is probably a teenager when he was walking with Jesus. probably in his upper teens somewhere. And so he was able to live on, obviously, until the end of the century there. And this is John. This is the Apostle John. This is not someone who's writing under John's name. Later on, he's just kind of a fan of John, you know, and he's, you know, writing under John's name. No, this really is John writing. And he is writing on the test of eternal life. the test of eternal life. And that's what we see. Chapter one, verses five through ten. You know what? How do we know that we that that we walk in the light? If we say verse six, that we have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. People would say, well, that's that's judgmental. You don't know that people are lying. Well, that's the Holy Spirit of God inspiring scripture saying that. I think I think we can trust that word there. Verse eight, if we say we have no sin, we're deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. We can lie and we can be deceived ourselves and we can deceive ourselves. Being deceived and deceiving others is what scripture says about about false teachers. It's funny, we had once in jail ministry, an inmate come up to us and say, oh, no, I don't have sin, chaplain. I'm without sin. But you're in jail, yeah. We're staring at him in the jumpsuit, and he's, yeah, I have no sin. He was just a real big fan of Joyce Meyer, and that's what Joyce Meyer says, is that we don't have sin anymore. We can actually be sinless, and that's what he had adopted to himself. Usually with folks like that, you ask them some follow up questions. Well, I made mistakes. Oh, so you're redefining sin as mistakes. OK, you know, that's that's usually where that goes. Scripture gives us real tests of belief. And there are tests of belief. And this is from the apostle, by the way, he's he's older. He's very grandfatherly as he's writing. We can see his heart. He loves people. He's not writing this to to to just punch people in the face and give them a black eye. He wants them to know that they are saved. And we can see that heart as we go through this. He he talks about how If we if we hate our brothers. We can't be Christians because we're all part of the family of God. You can't be a part of the family of God and hate your brother. And he goes on to talk about this, about about knowing that you have eternal life. And of course, he does talk about testing the spirits in Chapter four, that we should not believe every spirit, but we should test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone into the world, just as you may be deceived about your salvation. Others may be deceiving you about their salvation. salvation and they may in fact even be trying to get you to follow them. He says you don't need a special anointed teacher. And there are some people who say that but you need to follow me because I have the anointing of God. Well, guess what? So does every single Christian. Because who do we worship? We worship Jesus Christ. You know what Christ means Christos. It means anointed one. And we have an anointing because we're in the anointed one. So so when when a Christian stands up and they are they're teaching nonsense, whoever it is, and they're they're a false prophet. And they say, listen, you don't you can't call me out because the Lord says, touch not mine anointed. Guess what? You're not the only one with the anointing of God. Every Christian has the anointing of God, and we can all read the Bible. And we have the right to judge and test the spirits. In fact, he commands us to do that. And so first, John, we have that given to us here. We have the introduction of eternal life in Chapter one, of course, in verses one through four, then the conditions for eternal life and then the characteristics of eternal life. And then finally, the consequences of eternal life in Chapter five. And so that's 1st John, 2nd John. 2nd John is a little bit shorter than 1st John. It's only one chapter there. And if we just look at verses 10 and 11 there, if anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house and do not give him a greeting. for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds. most likely who he's writing to he says here that he's writing to the chosen lady and her children that has sparked all kinds of theories maybe that's mary and he's writing to mary and her kids If John is in his 90s toward the end of his life or he's, you know, the writing in the 90s here. Mary probably is not still alive at this point as possible, but but A lot of people have come up with a lot of different theories about this, but it does appear that he is just writing to a house church of believers. And he's he's calling that church, that gathering a chosen lady, because that's that's what the church is. Right. The bride of Christ and her children, those who've come to faith in that church. He talks about the sisters, the chosen sister in verse 13, another church. It's almost like code, but it's actually a really beautiful description of of believers here And he wants he wants the people to understand that there are false teachers And if this is a house church and that really brings what he's talking about here into fruition where he says don't Don't receive this person into your house. What is he talking about there? He's he's saying don't bring this person into your church And don't don't don't bring false teachers up and let them speak from the pulpit as it were don't don't let them have this hospitality. Of course, if this is a house church, it's a it's a house. week as well. And so we might see some application there as far as, you know, if the Mormon comes and knocks on the door or the Jove's Witness comes and knocks on the door. You know, I would say there's a little bit more of a question as far as what you could do there. But you do not give those people a quarter. You don't you don't support them. You don't say, well, here's a little bit of money, you know, so that you can buy yourself something nice. No, they're false teachers. They are false teachers. Now, we also understand that they're not just deceiving, but they are deceived as well. And so we're going to try to share the gospel with them. We're going to do it in the most loving way possible. But, you know, if if if we started having, you know, Mormons coming into this building, for instance, or Jehovah's Witness coming in, what would the world think as they saw that they would say, oh, there are all things, all people, I guess everybody's welcome. It doesn't matter what you believe. No, it does matter what you believe. And so John is writing this. And yes, it is, John. And he wants to give that tough truth there. And it is a tough truth to receive. If we break this down, we can break it down right in half or thereabouts. Abide in God's commandments. The first six verses and then verses seven through 13. Abide not with false teachers. Abide not with false teachers. And then that brings us to 3rd John. 3rd John is just about as short here. And we could look at verse 11 of 3rd John. Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God. The one who does evil has not seen God. In this case, John is writing to a specific person. Yes, he's writing to a brother by the name of Gaius. He is having trouble in his church because there's another man, in this case, an elder in the church who is creating problems. And his name is diatrophies. diatrophies is actually putting people out. He's he's executing church discipline unilaterally, it appears against people who are supporting the apostolic doctrine. And he's bringing in false teachers. And so John is writing to him to try to give him a and encouragement, I guess we could say. He wants him to remain loyal to the truth, and that's the theme of this letter, loyalty to the truth. And he contrasts in this letter servanthood in the first eight verses and the selfishness of diatrophies and others in verses nine through 14. It might be tempting for Gaius to engage in the same kind of behavior that diatrophies was engaging in, but no, don't imitate evil. Imitate what is good. God will deal with this person. And so he does say that. And of course, he says he will help him. He says in verse 14, I hope to see you shortly and we will speak face to face. Peace be to you. And so he comes to to deal with that situation. And so that's the three John letters. And that just leaves us with one final letter, and that is Jude. A. Jude. Jude 3, we could see him saying this, Beloved, While I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt it. I felt the necessity to write to you, appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith, which was once for all handed down to the saints. This this is a fascinating verse. because it gives us a glimpse of what Peter was talking about, that the men were carried along by the Holy Spirit. Jude was sitting down to write to them about one subject, their common salvation. And then we read he felt the necessity to write to them, appealing that to them that they earnestly contend for the faith. And so he sat down to write one thing and the Holy Spirit gave him something else to write. And so we see just a little glimpse as far as what inspiration looks like there. And of course, this was written before the destruction of the temple in the year 70. So sometime between 68 and 70, perhaps the author is Jude. And this is actually Judas. Wait, Judas. Well, there's more than one Judas in the Bible. Judas actually was a pretty common name. before Judas Iscariot did what he did. Like Adolf was a common name for a little while. And you don't see many people naming their kids Adolf anymore. Right. All of a sudden, people who are named Judas don't want to be associated anymore. So here we have Jude, who is really Judas, the brother of Jesus. But just for the sake of clarity, we're going to call him Jude now. that we can all understand why. So so we have Jude here and he's writing. So that we beware, beware the pretenders, beware the pretenders, he also writes, just like second Peter two, he also writes quite a bit about false teachers. And that's what we have in the letter of Jude. It's again, just the one chapter there. We have the purpose of the epistle in the first three verses. Then we have the path of the apostates from verses four through 16. And then finally, the practice of believers in verse 17 through 25. There's a lot of fascinating content here, a lot that we could get into. If people, by the way, if they are If they are arguing with you concerning. Concerning Sodom and Gomorrah, and they say, well, the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was not homosexuality. The sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was that they just were inhospitable. That's why God destroyed him, because they were they were really inhospitable watch. We just need to be more hospitable We can see here in verse 7 that that that there's something given Specifically about that just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them since in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh And now this is actually something we can apply in the previous verse to the angels. This is one reason why I believe just six does talk about angels and man. But in the same way, it said they went after strange flesh. This is something that is hate speech today. This is something that is not well received. But if a man is going after another man, he is doing something strange. He is not doing something that is normal. And that is the point there. And these are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. And so that is what is given to us in these letters. And so that is it. We have made it through the other epistles and we only have one book left, but we have a couple of sessions left. So how what are we going to do next time? Well, next time, Lord willing, we're going to actually before we get into the book of Revelation, take a step back and we're going to talk about the end times. And we're going to talk about the various views of the end times. We're going to talk about the various views of the millennium, for instance. Are you all millennial? Are you post-millennial? Are you pre-millennial? Or are you, as some people say, pan-millennial because you believe that it's just going to pan out in the end? So that's what some people say. We're going to try to get to an answer on that. We'll talk about that next time. But until then, let's keep in mind this admonition that we are to have a faith that is to stand strong despite the false teachers, despite the pretenders, despite the suffering that may be happening in this world. We can stand firm in this world. We can stand firm wherever we are in this world because we have a Lord who is going to keep us firm no matter what we face.