chapter 5 verse number 11 turn there with me if you would we're getting close to the end of this by the way this Wednesday we did finish up our series on biblical principles this Wednesday I'm gonna be begin I'll preach I'm not quite sure how many sermons yet it'll be several probably on the subject of prayer And that'll be Lord willing, starting this Wednesday, we'll be looking at the subject of prayer. So you pray for me, if you would, and be here Wednesdays, if you can, it'll be a blessing to you, if you'll allow it to. First John chapter five, starting in verse number 11, the Bible says this. This is the this is the record that God have given to us eternal life And this life is in his son He that hath the son hath wife and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have Eternal life and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God Amen. Amen. Amen. I was this morning listening I was here earlier this morning and then had to go back home get my children. My wife's not feeling well today and So I went home to get the kids and on the way home I was listening and just listen to the radio stations Of course, there's preachers on different stations and there was a woman preacher and I knew for sure I didn't want to listen to her and so then there was I flipped to another station and there was a man preaching and I started to listen to him and realized in short order that he was from a Congregational Church a Pentecostal Church and Was preaching to the people just as Michaela got into the van as I was picking up the kids. He was preaching to them about how they could lose their salvation and The danger if you get away from God, you don't walk with God and you can you know God can give you salvation and God can take it away from you and he will if you don't do right and he All right Can't tell you how angry it made me, especially because I knew that this is what I was teaching my Sunday school lesson on this morning. I'm like, all you got to do is read your Bible. And we had a discussion, Michaela and I did this morning on the way in about eternal security and those things and how she was asking me, she said, Dad, do you think that somebody that believes that way, do you think that any of those people can pray and actually be saved? And I said, I'm sure that there's Pentecostal people and different people. I Know personally a couple of people that are go to Catholic Church That from their testimony, I believe that they probably are saved of what they tell me in their testimony is true I think there's gonna be a lot of people in heaven that were surprised or there But a lot of people that might not be there that would be surprised aren't there But just the blessing of knowing from this passage in first John as well as others like it all through our Bible that we can know that we're saved. 1 John 5.13 is one of the first verses I go to when I'm sharing the gospel with somebody and they get saved and I'm talking to them about eternal security or when somebody is just struggling with whether or not they are saved. 1 John 5.13, these things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have Eternal life and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God to know if you know that you have something And you know that you have something that is eternal if you can lose it It's not eternal if it's just here for a little while and then leaving it's not eternal I'm gonna be preaching this morning in the main service out of out of John chapter number 15 on abiding in Christ in the fact that To know that you have something that you're never gonna lose there's security in that there's peace in that there's you know I've been preaching the last couple weeks and teaching on Wednesday nights on waiting on the Lord and preaching on the peace of God and Then you talk about then this week going into preaching and abiding in Christ And if we abide in Christ, then we can have peace to wait on his timing and all those things they just go hand in hand, but we have to get to know him we have to know his word and in order to know those things and realize the fullness of what God has afforded to us as Christians, if we'll take advantage of it. The key words in 1 John are different forms of the word love are used 46 times in these five chapters. Forms of the word love used 46 times. It's at 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John. I'd encourage you, if you've never read through those passages, those books, I'd encourage you to do it. First time it's used, chapter 2, verse 5. Most significant time, chapter 4, verse 7 through 11. Let's look at that quickly. Chapter 4 of 1st John. 7. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 8. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. This was manifested the love of God toward us because that God sent his only begotten son Into the world that we might live through him Here in his love not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins Beloved if God so loved us we ought also to love one another You get the idea you think he said it enough times in those few verses to kind of get the point across guess what? We're supposed to do We're supposed to love people. And he says, for somebody to claim to be a child of God and not love the people of God and not love the lost world, he says, if you're a child of God, you will love people. You will love God's people. And you'll have a heart for lost people to see them come to know God. It's important that we understand love is not just something that's a good idea or something we should do when we feel like it. We ought to love people. It ought to break our hearts to see people that are lost and going to hell. It ought to break our hearts to see saved people that are away from the Lord. It ought to break our hearts to see saved people that are suffering, that are enduring hardship, that are going through difficult times. This ought to be a place of love. where love is evident at every turn from every person in every room. The importance of love, but then, secondly, forms of the word know that are used 38 times. First time, chapter 2, verse 3. Most significant, chapter 5, verse 13, the verse that we already read. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life. He's talking about knowing. There's a lot of things that Christians, Bible-believing, good, godly people, because they don't really know their Bible, They're kind of not sure about a lot of stuff and they don't know where to stand on. This is why Christians a lot of times are scared to take a stand on things because they don't know what the Bible says. And if you know what the Bible says and you believe the word of God, then you can know where you stand. You can know what you stand for. You can be sure of the love of God. You can be sure of so many things. God doesn't desire for you and I as children of God to walk around wishy-washy, not sure about what we think, what we believe. Well, do you believe that the Bible is the Word of God? Well, I'm pretty sure that it is. Our preacher says that it is, and I believe our preachers get to know it. If you get to know this book, there will be no doubt in your mind that it is the Word of God. Not because the preacher said so, not because your mom and dad said so, not because somebody else said so, not because hope so, think so, maybe so, I don't know, but because I know so, because the Bible says so. God desires for us to know Him and to know His Word. There's young people, especially for you, to know where you stand. You're going to be questioned. You're going to be pushed. You're going to be, you're going to go through a lot of difficulties that everything you go through, the importance of knowing what you believe and why you believe it cannot be stressed enough. To know this is why I do this. Why do you do that? Why don't you do that? Why do you stand here? Why don't you? You need to know. And the Bible can give you the answers, can give you the knowledge that you need. The theme of the book is fellowship. Fellows in the same ship. Fellows in common. That's what fellowship is. Fellows being in the same ship. We're in the same ship. Me and Brother David, me and Brother Bobby, me and Brother Ray, me and Miss Fanny. Guess what? We're in the same ship. We're fellows in the same ship. We're going the same direction, you know if you're in the same ship if me and miss Evelyn are in the same ship She can be in the front of the ship and I can be in the back of the ship But you know what? We're in the same ship and we're going the same direction. We're all going the same place We might not all be always in the same place in the ship. I But when you're out in the middle of the sea, there's no jumping ship. You're in the ship. You know what that means? We're all in it together. Nobody's jumping out. Nobody. This is where we're going. We're all headed in the same direction. That's fellowship. We all have the same goal, the same destination in mind. Fellows in common written in 80, 90. by the Apostle John, of course we know this about the same time that his Gospel was written, 30 years after any of the other Gospels were written. So John had a lot of perspective as far as being able to kind of look back on things and watch some of the things that God had prophesied that Jesus Christ had prophesied come to fruition and then maybe even to look at some of the other Gospels the other the other letters that were written by some of these other people and Had the advantage of even you know This is after all of Paul's writings after many of these other mostly other writings of the New Testament were accomplished that now John sits down and kind of has the perspective as an older man to sit down and write about what's happened. Is it any wonder then that the things that he focuses on would be the love of God? And knowing he knew what he believed. He could look back, and it had been through the trials and the testings and all those things, and he could look back and say, I'm speaking from experience. I know, I know. It was written to the Christians in Asia Minor from Ephesus, most likely. It's the 62nd book of the Bible, 23rd book of the New Testament, five chapters, just 105 verses. The purpose for the book was fourfold. First of all, John says four times, he says, I write. Number one, that your joy may be full. Chapter one, verse four. That your joy may be full. He wanted them to be full of joy. And you know, what else could make you full of joy than to say, number one, God loves you. And number two, you can be sure of what you believe as a Christian. I said last week, talking about the peace of God, one of the things that is the most troubling to Christians and to others as well is uncertainty. What's the solution to that? What's the opposite of that? To know. To know for sure. To not be uncertain. And for John to say, I'm writing that your joy may be full. That can make you full of joy, knowing what God has done for you, knowing what God expects from you. That breeds a lot of discontent in children, not knowing what their parents expect. Or students in a classroom to not know what the teacher expects from them. One of the things that I heard over and over again when I was in Illinois when I had the public school program and working with a lot of these kids that came from the projects and different things that had been kicked out of their schools and a lot of them from, almost every single one of them from broken homes, a lot of them living in foster care and different things, they knew when they came to church on Friday night, they knew exactly what was expected of them. I had I had teachers in the public school that taught some of those kids that came in Set in on some of our Friday night program and they say I don't understand you can get a kid to sit Still and listen to you preach the Bible for an hour. I can't even get them to sit still in the classroom for 10 minutes and Part of it is from the very beginning when a kid visits the very first time they know what's expected and we follow through But they know that we love them Knowing that you love them is what helps all the other things helps them to do what's expected He says that your joy may be full secondly That you sin not chapter 2 verse 1 thirdly that you might be aware of seducers chapter 2 verse 26 and Fourthly that you may know that you have eternal life chapter 5 verse 13 So that your joy may be full, that you sin not, that you might be aware of seducers, and that you know that you have eternal life. That's a lot in a little book, but to know all those things, those purposes, John rather says, these are the reasons that I'm writing this. The divisions, first of all, God is light, chapters one and two. Secondly, God is love, chapters three and four. And thirdly, God is life, chapter five. God is light, love, and life. You know, we need all those things in our lives. We need light. I need light to light my path. That's God. I need love. That also is God. And I need life. And that's God, too. Everything that I need, He is. He is everything that I need. The outline is this. Introduction to the reality of Christ. Roman numeral 1, our relationship to the Father, chapter 1. Our relationship to the Father. Fellowship with the Father in verse 3. Fullness of the Father in verse 4. Faithfulness of the Father in verse 9. Forgiveness from the Father also in verse number 9. Then secondly, of course, we know 1 John 1, 9. What? If we confess our sins, He is faithful. and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's the God that I serve. I serve a faithful God. I serve a forgiving God. I can have fellowship with God and I can experience the fullness of God. All that you can see just in 1 John 1. Then secondly, chapter 2, our righteousness and our surroundings. Our righteousness and our surroundings. First of all, our righteousness and sin in verse 1. Our righteousness and His commandments. In verse 3, our righteousness and others, verse 6, our righteousness and our brother, verses 9 through 11, our righteousness and the world, verses 15 and 16, and our righteousness and the Holy Spirit, verses 20 through 22. Thirdly, our responsibility to love one another. Notice it says our responsibility to love one another. We have a responsibility. We've been given a lot of privileges, but we have a lot of responsibilities that come along with that. My dad told me all the time, with privilege comes responsibility. With privilege comes responsibility. You have a lot of privileges in life. I've told you before, I was out of six children that grew up in my parents' household, I was the only one in my growing up life that didn't have a curfew. That was a pretty big privilege. But I was also the only one that had a lot of the responsibilities that I had. I had, you know, when I was in high school, I worked a full-time job managing a restaurant while I, you know, getting up in the mornings and milking cows and then going to school and having sports, played all the sports and everything and had sports practice after school and then would go to the restaurant after that. on the days we didn't have practice, we'd go right over there, and then on Saturdays, and then I had a bus route, and so I went out and visited my bus route every Saturday, and Sunday we were in, you know, of course we had youth activities in there too, and then Sunday you had church choir, and taught in junior church, and all those different things. I had a lot of responsibilities, but as long as I kept up with my responsibilities, I had a lot of privileges. There was one brief six-month stretch that I lost nearly all of those privileges because I didn't fulfill my responsibilities. I did something I wasn't supposed to do. My dad found out about it. Not only did he make me go and make things right, but he also said, Privilege and responsibility. You didn't handle your responsibilities properly. You just lost all your privileges. 17 years old, I had bought and paid for my own car, bought and paid for my own motorcycle, paid for all my own clothes and everything else. Mom and Dad put a roof over my head and food on the table. The rest of it, Dad said, you can pay for yourself. And so I did. But you know what? I was living in his house and you know what he did? He took my motorcycle away. He took my car away. He took everything else away. and said, if you want it back, you can earn it. I said, I earned it the first time. He said, well, you live in my house. You can earn it back if you want it. I learned my lesson. Privilege and responsibility, understanding that those two things do go hand in hand. Our responsibility to love one another. First of all, because of God's pattern. He set the pattern for us to love one another, chapter number 3, verse 1. Because of God's pattern. Then secondly, because of the blessed hope that we have, verses 2 and 3 of chapter 3. Because of His death for us, verses 4 through 8. Because of our new nature, verses 9 through 18. And because of the Holy Spirit, verses 19 through 24, we have a responsibility to love one another. And I've heard Christian people, well, why should I love so-and-so? You notice, here's the, let me read these things for you once, and then I wanna see if you notice what's missing. Five things, because of God's pattern, because of the blessed hope, because of his death for us, because of our new nature, and because of the Holy Spirit. All those things are reasons why we ought to love one another. You know what's not in there? It doesn't anywhere in there say, I need to love you because of you. We don't love somebody else. We don't choose to love the brethren because of who they are. We love the brethren because of who he is what he's done for us and what he's continuing to do in us If you love somebody because of who they are or what they if I love my wife Because of what she does or who she is what happens when she changes what if she's not that person anymore What if something changes? then does that mean I stop loving her? But if I say, I'm going to choose to love somebody because of who God is and what God has done for me and what God is doing through me, is God ever going to change? Is what God's done for me ever going to change? Is what God wants to do through me ever gonna change? I mean, his direction may change in a particular area, but ultimately, his desire to love others through me, that's not ever gonna change. And that's the kind of love that we're to have for one another. That's why we can't sit back and say, well, I would love so-and-so if they would just, no, because my love's not based on what they do. My love's based on what he's already done. Then our reaction as a child of God, chapter number four. Letter A, we have light in discerning spirits. Verses one through six. We have love in dealing with others. Verses seven through 14. And we have loyalty in dedication to the Lord. Verses 15 through 21. Let me ask you a question this morning. What or who would you say that you're loyal to? What are you loyal to? Some people are loyal to their family. Why you don't talk bad about my family? Some people are loyal to their school. Hey, White County High School, we're loyal to our school. We wear school colors. We cheer for our team. You better not talk about some other team. We are White County all the way. There's nothing wrong with that. I grew up, you know, went to Wildwood Christian School. We were the Warriors and we wore, you know, navy blue and white was our school colors. I bought tennis shoes that were navy blue and white. I bought a jacket that was navy blue and white. Hey, I was loyal to my school. But what are you and I, what are we loyal to this morning? Can I tell you a secret? We talk about the things that we're loyal to. It doesn't matter what it is that you're loyal to. If you can find somebody that'll let you talk about it, if it's a football team, if it's the Georgia Bulldogs, you'll talk about the Georgia Bulldogs if that's the team that you're loyal to. If you're loyal to the Lord Jesus Christ, You'll be talking about him to people. You'll be sharing him with people. You'll be telling people what he's done for you. Then lastly, Roman numeral 5, chapter 5, our response to the truth of God. Letter A, we understand what a Christian is, verses 1 through 5. And letter B, we understand who Christ is, verses 6 through 13. Look at that with me real quickly if you would. Chapter 5, verses 1 through 5, we understand what a Christian is. You say, wow, five verses to help us understand what is a Christian? What exactly? What what are we verses 1 through 5 of chapter 5 first John? whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is Born of God and everyone that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? That's what we're supposed to be as Christians. Those five verses, there's other passages as well, that do a great job of summarizing, what am I supposed to be as a Christian? You're supposed to be somebody that knows this book. that knows the God of this book and that keeps the commandments of this book. And if you're truly a child of God, if I'm truly a child of God, it says there in verse 3 that these commandments are not grievous. In other words, it's not a burden to be obedient to the Word of God. For a child of God to be obedient to the Word of God is something that's not a burden. It's not some you know, that's why when people say oh, you're a Christian That means you can't do this and you can't do that and you have to do this and you have to do that. No It means I don't have to do those things that you think I can't do and It means that I get to do those things that you think that I have to do You have to go to church every Sunday. No, I get to go to church every Sunday You can't drink. No, I don't have to drink. It's a complete difference in perspective. If we're truly a child of God and if we love God, the things that he doesn't want us to do, we can look to the world and look to a Christian that might be backslidden and say, it's not that I can't do those things, it's that I don't have to do those things. I don't need those things to make me happy. I don't need those things to try to bring me joy or to hide my pain or to bring me peace or to, you know, I don't need any of that. You know, over and over and over again, in Illinois, in the addictions ministry, we had people come through that were on all kinds of antidepressants. People that were taking six, eight, 10, 12 different kinds of pills to deal with emotional and psychological disorders. And you know what? Nearly every single one of them, not every single one, there are some people that do have actual legitimate mental issues, and I understand that. But most of the time, when that person got saved if they were lost, or got right with God if they were saved, and when they began walking with God, it's amazing how there was no longer any need for these psychiatric medications. No more antidepressants were needed. Why? Did their circumstances in life change? Not necessarily. But the direction that they were looking you can't take this stuff because you know, I don't need that stuff It's not necessary Because I'm walking with the Lord the one who controls My spirit and my mind if I allow him to He can bring me peace. He said and we looked at John 14 My peace I leave with you. There's no peace like God's peace. I And if you've got God's peace, you don't need all the peace that the world tries. Remember that passage where he said, not as the world offers? Not the world's peace. They try to explain it away, medicate it away, whatever. That'll never bring peace. Just some miscellaneous things about the book, first of all. Three words about fellowship in God. In this book, the basis is walking in light. That's where we can have fellowship. If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. If you're not having fellowship with the Christian brothers and sisters, it's because somebody's not walking in the light. If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. Barriers. Walking in sin. Chapter 1, verse 6. Not walking in the light. Benefits. Fellowship fellowship with one another chapter 1 verse 7 that I just mentioned. We have fellowship one another There's a benefit to having fellowship seven times that John uses as he or as he is first of all Walking in fellowship if we walk in the light as he is in the light abiding That's in chapter 1 verse 7, the word abiding, even as he walked, chapter 2 verse 6. The likeness, we shall see him as he is, chapter 3 verse 2. Purity, even as he is pure, chapter 3 verse 3. Righteousness, even as he is righteous, chapter 3 verse 7. Love, He gave us commandment chapter 3 verse 23 Representation as he is so are we in this world chapter 4 verse 17? We talked about last year where our theme was knowing him and making him known John does a great job of illustrating that in these five chapters of saying do this as He did as Jesus does then we do. If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we follow His example. He set the perfect example for us. And if we'll do as He is, or be as He is, or follow as He did, we can have fellowship and we can have the joy of Jesus Christ. A couple things just to finish up 1 John is an epistle of certainties. We know, I said the word know, formed what used 38 times, several things. First of all, a righteous life indicates regeneration. Secondly, that's chapter 2, verse 29, chapter 5, verse 18. Number 2, we know that we shall be like Christ at His coming, chapter 3, verse 2. We know that Christ came to take away our sins, chapter 3, verse 5. We know that brotherly love indicates that we have passed from death unto life, chapter 3, verse 14. We know that He abideth in us by the witness of the Spirit, chapter 3, verse 24. We know that we have eternal life, chapter 5, verse 13. And we know that our prayers are answered, chapter 5, verse 15. John was several things. He was one of the 5,000 that was fed. He was one of the 120 in the upper room. He was one of the 12 apostles. He was one of the three in the inner circle. He was the disciple whom Jesus loved. He was banished to the Isle of Patmos. which was a 10 by 6 mile rocky island in the Aegean Sea by the Roman Empire domination. The only surviving apostle at the time of the writing, he was called the Son of Thunder, one of the Sons of Thunder, rather. James and John, the Sons of Thunder. He was the son of Zebedee, that was the name of his father. He was a pastor at Ephesus from AD 70. He wrote 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John, the book of John and the revelation. There's some interesting things about the writer, of course, in the other couple, first, second and third John, we'll have to go over those things again, but John was a lot of things. And he was exiled to the island of Patmos. That's where he experienced the revelation that we see in the book of Revelation. And God used him in many, many ways. But as I said, to understand that when you look at the writings of John, you're looking at the writings of an older man that looked back and said, let me tell you some things that I know. A lot of times as a young person, or as a young adult, we can look at some things and say, oh, I hope this, or I think this, or I'm pretty sure about this. Somebody that's lived some more years can look back at things and say, let me tell you what I know. Let me tell you what I've seen firsthand. Let's pray.