Now, our plan over the next several months is to consider what's called the Johannan Epistles. That's simply 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Johns, what we mean by that. We'll get you another handout with the planned schedule, but the study will go, God willing, will go through the rest of this year, probably to the beginning of next year. There are some books on the bookshelf, in case you're interested, on the epistles of John. We are not specifically using these in our presentation, even though we are looking at a number of books, including these. But they're the little diary books, as you read the epistles, the ones that we've given before or have available before on different books of the Bible. It simply gives you the verse of scripture. and a place where you can jot down some notes as you go through the epistles. So these are on the bookshelf. It's first, one through third John. There is a book by Curtis Vaughn from the Founder's Study Guide. These are usually very good little study guides. It's one, two, and three John. Two or three of these are available on the shelf as well. So please note that. And one last one. is the Epistles of John by John Montgomery Boyce. There's a couple of copies of this on the bookshelf as well. All these are good little commentaries on the Epistles of John and we certainly would recommend any of them to you. So just know that they are there and there are some available if you so desire. Today what I want to do is just a general introduction. We're not really looking at anything specific as far as one passage or passages go in John. We'll start on that next week, Lord willing. But today's a general introduction primarily to 1 John. However, I'll mention 2 and 3 John in that introduction. So next Sunday, God willing, we will start with verse 1 and I think go through verse 4. And what is a Christian would be the question to be entertained So that will be our focus for the next Lord's Day. But today, again, is a general introduction of the epistles of John, particularly 1 John. I want to begin, I want to make another quote from John's, and I think this is on your handout as well. It says, he writes, it has been customary to designate John's epistle as Catholic. What do we mean by that? Universal. So again, that's a little C, so it's a general, sometimes called a general epistle. It's been customary to designate John's epistle as Catholic, but this should not be understood as if he was writing, as if he was putting things on record in the hope that they might be needed by some church, sometime and somewhere. rather it should be, it should mean that they have something vital to say to every church, everywhere, and at all, all the time. Close inspection of the three, the three epistles, will reveal that although none of them use a specific address as did Peter and Paul in their letters, and I know you can say, well, if I flip over to second or third John. Second John's the elder to the elect lady. You could say, well, that's a specific, but who's the elect lady? That seems to be a general, broad description of the church. Thus, that's the point of being, they're saying it's Catholic. Third John is addressed to Gaius. But again, this is a problem that's going on in Asia Minor. So I think that's the idea behind that statement. So his point, Jones's point is, that each of the epistles, because they are these general epistles, have something vital to say to every church everywhere and all the time. Close inspection of all three will reveal that although none of them uses a specific address as did Peter or Paul in their letters, which is to a specific church or individual in a specific location, each is directed to a current ecclesiastical or church circumstance. They therefore demonstrate that churches everywhere need the ministry of the Word of God in order to be kept authentic and to mature. So discussion questions, stop there for a minute. What are epistles? The New Testament, there are 27 books. 21 of those books are epistles. That's a pretty good chunk. I didn't sit down and figure out the percentage we could, but so 21 of the 27 books in the New Testament are called epistles. What, and we just answered this, but I'll ask it again, what is a general or Catholic epistle? A letter of all the churches everywhere. A letter to, generally we think of it as a letter not addressed to a specific church or individual in a particular location, but more of a general letter to all the churches of Jesus Christ. It may be a region or whatever it is in the case of the epistles of John. What does the Catholic nature of the Johanna epistles denote? You follow the question? Every church needs the epistles of John. Every church needs the epistles of John. That's what I'm after. Now, just as kind of a side note here, I've got some more handout sheets through where we've got them all. I think Leonardo might need one back here. Just a word about, a general word about the arrangement. Have you ever looked at the arrangement of the books in the Bible? And how did they get where they got? Well, 1st and 2nd and 3rd John haven't always been where they are now. In fact, in the early church, they were right after the Gospels. But as you look at the arrangement of the Bible, we have the New Testament, we have the Gospels, then we've got the history, and then you get into the epistles. And they usually, by and large, are arranged according to length and descending order. So you start with the longest one and their general, what's called the Pauline epistles. Those are the first ones. Romans and Corinthians, and you get through Corinthians and you get into Ephesians and Galatians and Colossians and all the different books. But they're in descending The order is in descending length. So as you move through, they get shorter and shorter and shorter. T hit the epistle of Hebrews. Then that one blows back up. It's a long book. The author of that one is debated. I think that's probably one of the reasons it's put there in that particular order, because the author is debated. And it blows back up into a, and it's called a Catholic or a general epistle. And then they start in descending order, but now these are addressed If you've noticed, just notice the epistles here for a moment. Let's just turn to James for a moment. James is the servant of God. He addresses himself, and he addresses the letter to the twelve tribes in the dispersion. Greetings. Turn over to 1 John. In 1 John chapter 1, it starts, That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes. So you see the difference. There's not that specific identification of the rider to anybody or any place. It just begins in this very general way. Okay, let's move on to some characteristics, purpose, and possible scenario of 1 John. Some characteristics of 1 John. First, and this is what we've just been talking about, it's a general letter. First John is not addressed to a specific church or individual, but it addresses some issues facing many churches in the Roman province of Asia Minor. So it's not addressed to the church at Rome, or the church at Galatia, or the church at Ephesus. It's general, some would call it a circular letter. This church would read it, pass it to the next church, and then go to the next church, and so forth and so on. According to church tradition, And again, underscore that, according to church tradition, John remained in Jerusalem until the death of Mary, the mother of Jesus. You remember the cross? And Jesus said, behold your mother and behold your son, speaking to Mary. According to church tradition, John remained in Jerusalem until the death of Mary, the mother of Jesus, which was around the middle part of the first century. The church father, Arrhenius, who lived from about 120 to about 200, 202, 203, states that John took up residence in Ephesus when he leaves Jerusalem after the death of Mary. According to early church tradition, John lived in Ephesus when he wrote the Gospel of John and his three epistles. Jerome, another early church father, states that John lived 68 years after the crucifixion. Now if that be so, it means he died around the year AD 100. and he was a very old man when he died. And so that's according to the tradition passed on in the church. While pastoral in tone, the epistles of John are also polemical. What do I mean by polemical? Argumentative. They're taking up issues. So they're very pastoral, but it doesn't mean that there's not A backbone here. There he is. Very much a backbone. As John Stott notes, John does not hesitate to call certain classes of people liars, deceivers, or antichrist. And those are words you'll find repeated in John, in the epistle of John. So yes, they're pastoral, they're fatherly, but at the same time, he's very direct in some things. That being said, John's primary purpose does not seem to be polemical, but encouragement. That is, John is not writing to the liars, deceivers, and antichrists, but he's writing to troubled believers. Even though he addresses these others, that's not his focus. His focus is the believer. Secondly, John is a difficult letter. First, John is the first and largest of John's three epistles. and has been described as the most difficult of all New Testament epistles, all epistles. Many scholars look at this one and just, the arrangement, the topics, the language is difficult and they scratch their heads because of the difficulty. That's not to say there aren't things that the plow boy can understand, there is. But at the same time, it's understood that it's complex epistle. It lacks the common structure of an epistle, which we've already talked about, which includes an introduction, a greeting, some sort of concluding salutation. It has none of that. Then you start looking at what are the topics? How do you order? How would you outline it? And you can get into all kinds of things there. It gets a little difficult. Some scholars believe that the structure of 1 John mirrors the gospel of John. So, for example, 1 John 1, verses 1-4 would be the prologue. Then there's two major parts, and that would begin at chapter 1, verse 5, and go through chapter 5, verse 12. Those are the two major body parts of the epistle. And the epilogue or the conclusion would be chapter 5, verses 13-21. Some take that position. It's a difficult letter. Thirdly, it's a crisis letter. John, First John was written in response to a deadly rising tide poised to overwhelm and destroy the churches in Asia. Based upon John's epistles, it appears that certain people left the church because they held anti-Christian views. First John, look at First John, chapter two, verse 19. They went out from us, but they were not of us, for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us, but they went out that it might become plain that they are not of us. And so, because of anti-Christian views, there was this group of people that had pulled away from the church. What these views were can be inferred by reading the Epistle of John. You see what the views are, because it's inferred. It's called a mirror view. You read it with inflection of understanding. He's referencing certain points in the epistle. And so we see that these are the troubling points that will lead to this schism and this pulling away. First, there was a spurious or a counterfeit claim by those who left that they knew God, that we're the true believers. First John chapter one, verse six. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and we do not practice the truth. They're saying that they have that. Johnson, that's not so. And he will lay that argument out. Again, chapter two, verse four. Whoever says I know him but does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. He claims that we are it. And they pull away and Johnson, this isn't so. They had this spurious view of their own position in Christ. Second, there was a spurious claim of sinlessness or perfectionism. First John chapter one, verses eight through 10. At the same, no that's two, excuse me. Verse eight. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, We make Him, Christ, God, a liar, and His Word is not in us. So, pretty plain, that was a spurious claim of sinlessness. Thirdly, there was a denial concerning the person and work of Jesus Christ. 1 John chapter 2, verse 22 and 23. Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the Antichrist. He who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. Also, chapter 4, verses 1 through 3, and there are other passages. I'll just try to pull out a few of these where John is making these points. 1 John 4, 1 through 3, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard was coming, and now is in the world already." You want to know the evidence? They deny the deity of Jesus Christ and that God has come in the flesh. There's a rejection of that. And then, fourthly, there is a lack of brotherly love. First John chapter two, verse 11. Whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. And of course, chapter four, Verse 8, anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love. Verse 20, 420, if anyone says I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, whoever loves God must also love his brother. These are the people that pulled away. They have these indications, these marks. I won't say each one had everything, but this is the general tone of what was happening. And then there was the practice of sinning. 1 John 3, verses 6 and following. I'll just read verse 6 and 7. No one who abides in Him keeps on sinning. No one who keeps on sinning has either seen Him or known Him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practice righteousness is righteous as he is righteous. And whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. So there is this minimizing even negation of godliness on the part of these that have pulled away. Five things that we could read through the book and easily see that are wrong that John is dealing with is a spurious claim by those who left that they really are the true believers. They're the ones who know God. Secondly, the spurious claim of sinlessness. Thirdly, a denial of the person and work of Jesus Christ. Fourthly, a lack of brotherly love. And fifthly, they made light of sin. They practiced sin. So those were the issues. Now John's argument is double-edged. I tried to make that point before when we talk about assurance and true assurance. There's the other flip side of that. There's a double edge here. And so John's argument is double-edged. He not only desired to destroy the false assurance of those who left, but he also desired to confirm the assurance of genuine believers. To that end, Many note that there are three assurance tests, or tests of assurance, the way you can know that I am saved, that is in 1 John. So I'm going to go say five tests. But for right now, I'm just going to say three. As we get into the book, we may parse out others. But the three tests that we can say that John gives us, first is the doctrinal test. And some of these verses I've already read, but 1 John 2, verse 22. This is the doctrinal test, and the question is, do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God? Period. And all that that means. I remember somebody years ago walking towards me at a gas station that had a particular track in their hand, and I saw the track as they were coming toward me, and I remember turning to the person and I said to them, I believe, before he said a thing to me, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he said, well, and he started, I said, no, you didn't hear me. I believe that Jesus Christ is God. And he said, well, I don't need to talk to you. I said, no, you don't. And he walked away. First John chapter two, verse 22, the doctrinal test is, is Jesus Christ the son of God? Is he truly the son of God? And what all that means, God with us, he is the hypostatic union, he is truly God, he is truly man, and is God in the flesh, even as John will open this epistle. But 1 John chapter 2, verse 22, who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? That's the liar. Second assurance test, the moral test. Are we practicing righteousness and keeping the law of God? 1 John 2, verse 3. And by this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. Other than that, we can say someone can make the claim, but they're liars. They're not telling the truth. They are deluded in their own minds. And the third test that John gives us, the social test, And that is, do you love your brothers? 1 John 3, verse 14. We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers. And that would be the church. That's what he's talking about. Whoever does not love abides in death. So those are the three tests. We'll be looking more at those as we come to those passages as we get into our study in John. Fourthly, John is a companion letter. It has been stated that there is hardly a single thought in 1 John that is not found in the Gospel of John. In fact, some scholars see 1 John as a summary of the Gospel of John. view it more as an introduction to the gospel, that it was sent along with the gospel of John to introduce the gospel. Thus, you see the close parallels and similarities, even in the way that 1 John starts and the way the gospel of John starts. Curtis Vaughan, in the little book I noted earlier, Curtis Vaughan writes, biblical scholars differ in their understanding of the relationship of the epistle to the gospel. But all are agreed that the two works are linked together by style, vocabulary, characteristic phrases, and fundamental concepts. It's hard to read, in other words, 1 John and the Gospel of John and not come away with the idea that the same man wrote both of these letters and the same truths that are in this letter or in that gospel or in this epistle because they relate. And lastly, the epistle of John, the epistles of John, the first John, are late, what's called late letters, late epistles. Many agree that the epistles of John were written toward the end of the first century. First John has been defined as a grandfatherly letter. There are certain paternal aspects to the epistle which imply the writing of an older believer. For example, John uses the word children 17 times in the epistles of John. And he uses the term beloved 10 times in the epistles. I'm talking about the three epistles now. Children, he says it over and over and over again. Beloved, he says it again and again and again. So there is this paternal aspect as you read through the letter. Let's take a moment for discussion, and I'll start with define the crisis in the churches of Asia. And that's what we're talking about. What were the crisis in the churches of Asia? One was the whole thing about denying the deity of Christ. Denying the deity of Christ became an issue. Some of the earliest heresies dealt with Christ, Christology. Is he God? Is he man? And you even even we probably get more into this, but in the Gnosticism you have other heresies that were very close into that. And the idea is that. The flesh is evil, therefore God can't be in that, so it wouldn't come that way. And they took that to say that. That Jesus was born really just a carnal relations between Joseph and Mary. Just be Gnosticism and that at later on the Holy Spirit came down and indwelt him. Not he wasn't. His father wasn't the Holy Spirit. He wasn't conceded to a virgin. He was born of natural procreation. At a certain point in his life, the Holy Spirit came down and dwelt in him, gave him power. He lived a holy and pure life. And right before he died, because God couldn't die, the Holy Spirit must leave him again. And it's just a man who dies on the cross. That would be part of the heresies that Brother Drew is referring to. And you can see how that is just awful. Just awful. And John said, they're liars, deceivers, and antichrists. And we'll touch on that a little bit more in a minute. Let's go ahead and quickly list out a couple of other, all these points that seem to be addressed in the epistle of John. I'll give them to you. There's various claims of those that left that were deceivers, that they were really saved. And John said, no, you're not. Secondly, the British claims of sinlessness, perfectionism. Thirdly, denial concerning the personal work of Christ. That one's just been mentioned. Lack of brotherly love. Well, God's my father, and yet I'm just cold to Christians and believers and people around me. And John said, no, God's not your father. if you don't love the brethren. And God is not your father. If you can see someone who's hungry and needs this and that and the other, and you do not address their needs. And then, last, the practice of sinning. Being easy and light with holiness and righteousness. So they take kind of a different viewpoint. We had some who went to live a monastic lifestyle later, separate themselves from the world, as it were, then you had others that said, well, basically I'm just all the world. It doesn't matter anyhow. So you had really two opposite extremes that are going on. Okay. What are the three assurance tests in first John? Well, has he, has he measured? Do you believe Jesus is the son of God? Second, I'm sorry. Moral test. Moral test. And the social test. Love test. OK. All right, let's move on and try to get the try to get this done. We got just a couple of minutes here. The purpose of John 17 times in three epistles, John refers and he uses the term writing. I am writing. 1 John 5.13 is probably the most referred to out of all of those, because usually that one's referred to as saying, okay, this is the reason we have 1 John. Because he says, I'm writing to those who believe that you may know that you have eternal life. And so the point of the book, the purpose of the book, based upon that is that you may have true assurance. And that certainly is part of the book. But that's not the only time John refers to his purpose in writing. In chapter one, verse three, he says, that which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us, that you may have the fellowship of the apostles, the apostolic fellowship. And he goes on to say, and indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. So he says, I'm telling you this, So you can have true fellowship with God in the apostolic faith. Secondly, 1 John 1.4, John writes, and we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. We want you to know this. We want you to have this full assurance and enter into this fellowship with God. And in so doing, we take joy in that. That's a paternal apostolic, I would even say pastoral point that's made in that. in that verse. First John 2.1. My little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteousness. I'm writing that you would be holy. But know that we do have a wonderful Savior, Jesus Christ the Lord. And then 1 John 5.13, I've already referred to, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. So those were some of the references in John itself of why John is explaining he wrote the book. Fellowship, joy, righteousness, and assurance. Now this is on your notes. It's called A Possible Scenario. Follow this, please, on your notes as I read through this. So this is what I'll give as a possible scenario as we consider particularly 1 John, but not to exclude 2 and 3 John. The aged apostle John, a part of the Christian community in and around Ephesus, wrote The three epistles of John, after the gospel of John, had been circulated among the churches. And certain beliefs, contrary and erosive to Christian dogma or Christian faith, arose. Such beliefs as denying that Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, had come into flesh, and the death of Jesus was necessary for the forgiveness of sins. A schism, or schism, or however you want to pronounce it, arose between those who began to hold to these new beliefs, and those who held to the faith once for all delivered to the saints. The false teachers sought to spread their ideas among the Christian community by circulating itinerant preachers among the churches who sought to win converts. And that comes in in second and third John in particular. All of this resulted in confusion which caused some sincere believers to wonder, did they really know God? Am I really saved? Did they really have the truth? were they actually saved. First John is a secular letter, a letter passed among the churches as a declaration of truth and encouragement to believers and a response to the false teachers. Second and third John are sent as follow-up letters among the churches warning them about false teachers. Second John, verse 10, warns the churches to not aid the false teachers. However, the church should know that it is not only false teachers who are circulated among them, but there were honest teachers of the gospel too, who were defending the name and cause of Christ. Third John, verses seven and eight, who should be received in hell? Third John, verses nine and 10, Gaius is commended for providing these truthful preachers hospitality and warned about diatrophies. a man in the same town who was refusing the authority of John in the gospel and refusing to assist these true ministers of the gospel as well. John Stott notes, if we are to identify the heresy against which John writes, we must find a system which denied that Jesus was the Son of Christ, the Son of God or the Christ, come in the flesh, and which viewed righteousness and love as indifferent. Whatever name you want to put on that heresy, then that's what John is responding to. Now discussion, and I'll explain the words. Let's do this. Let's take just a minute. The relationship of orthodoxy and orthopraxy. What does that mean? Some of you know. Orthodoxy is truth, the truth, and orthopraxy is practicing or following that. Okay. That's it. Orthodoxy is true or right doctrine. Orthopraxy is right practice. So what is the relationship between right doctrine and right practice? Why not? Anyone else? And even Luke 636, it says, and why call you me Lord, Lord, do not think which I say. In other words, he's implying that, okay, if you're not doing that, and I think doing it by faith, of course, then you shouldn't be calling me Lord. You're not gonna obey me because I'm a sophomore. Okay, anyone else? I would say the word of God is Jesus Christ is the truth. Hearing him and hearing it. We're reading it. We're believing it and doing it through faith. Yeah, what's the doxy is, of course, includes Jesus Christ. And doing his word following his word, I agree with Drew. Yeah. To go to the letters that were. Read about here, go back to the point about Christ in some God. You're not, you're not correct. Believe and I'll be great in that. Look at 1 Corinthians 15 for just a moment. What's the subject of 1 Corinthians 15? Resurrection. So we have the Apostle Paul's probably longest intact dissertation on the resurrection included in scripture right here in chapter 15. So you're reading all this wonderful truth and doctrine, orthodoxy about the resurrection. And as you're reading through this section, We come down to... I'll go down to verse 33. We could read more than that, but let's go right now to verse 33. Do not be deceived. Bad company ruins good morals. Wow. I'm reading about the resurrection and all this important truth, and all of a sudden Paul warns me makes a statement that bad company will corrupt good morals. There is this relationship between behavior and truth that John brings out in this passage for us, of truly believing in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. One last one. What is the relationship of Jude 1-3? Let me turn to Jude 1. There's only one chapter. Verse 3. Beloved, although I was eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. What is the relationship or is there a relationship between that and confessionalism? And what is confessionalism? Time's almost up. Well, confessions explain to us, it's not inspired word in itself, but it explains to us what the Word of God said and helps us to understand it. It helps us understand the truth of God's Word. And so we understand it, we have to understand it before we can keep it properly and honor God properly. So that's basically it. Okay. Drew, you want to say something? As a church, we're from 1689, and we all hold that in common, and that is our doctrinal statement of the house. That is not scripture. It's not elevated to the level of scripture. This is our doctrinal statement of what we believe, and that kind of keeps you clean between the ditches. Jude's right here saying that I wanted to talk about our common salvation, but I felt it necessary to talk about other I wanted to write about these other things, but I found it necessary to write to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. So we get to 1 John, and 1 John is dealing with a body of truth that has been delivered. And yet this body of truth is under attack from different quarters. The need of that hour was to defend and hold to the faith, that body of truth, that orthodoxy that was once for all delivered. It's not evolving. It's not growing. It is that truth that was once for all given to the church. Contend for that, he says. And so to me, the relationship is, that is the point of professionalism, is to contend for that truth that was once for all delivered to the saints. Okay, time's up.