And we're turning to the book of 1 John. 1 John, we're getting into chapter five now as John makes his closing arguments about what it means to be a Christian and what it means to know the Lord. And of course, in the book of the gospel of John, we see that he tells us in chapter 20, verse 31, the reason that he wrote the whole book. And in that he said, but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that believing you might have life through his name. So clearly the book of John was written as an evangelistic tool. And of course, we look at the book of John as the book that we hand out people, in fact, or hand out to people. There's been times when there was a publishing company one time in my ministry that would actually print just the gospel of John. And we would take it and pass it out to a whole neighborhood because they financed even if you do it. And so we just passed it out there right in town because there again, John is so simple and yet it's the evangelistic book of the Bible. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. And so the book of John is clearly written for evangelization of the world. But the book of 1 John is we know there's almost 40 times or 40 times in the book of John, just five chapters, he uses the word, no, I want you to know. And in fact, verse 13 of chapter five is where he says, these things are written unto you that believe on the name of the son of God. Now, notice he said, I wrote the first John or wrote the gospel of John that you may believe in the name of the son of God. Now I'm writing to you who believe in the name of the son of God. that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. So he says, I'm writing to you that you may know and know forever that you are a child of God, that you know the Lord Jesus. as your savior and that he is yours and now that you can walk with him. And so you have a relationship with him. Christianity is not a religion. It's a relationship. It's a relationship with a living God. And we see this throughout the New Testament. And the New Testament writers did not contradict each other. In fact, they had some very solid principles they stood on. And we'll look at that this morning. As far as knowing Jesus Christ and what he did, there are certain things that are totally inalterable. And so he wants you to know, but at the same time, it's a double-edged sword, like the Bible is, because it tells you that you can know, but those who don't know, it should challenge them to say, am I really saved? Or my, I've put other things, but this is what he says is salvation. Am I saved? Well, that's exactly what we should do. We want to challenge those who are either on the fence or they, you know, come and go or plug in, plug out type of Christianity. Do you really know him as your savior? If you do, then God wants you to have this confidence. He wants you to be able to sing what we just sang. I need no other argument. I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me. And so we see now as we begin reading in chapter five, verse one through five, he says, whosoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And everyone who loves him who begot also loves him who has 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 burdensome. For whosoever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith. Who is he that overcomes the world? But he who believes that Jesus is the son of God. Now, Father, we pray that you would bless the reading and the preaching of your holy word. Oh, Holy Spirit, you tell us that you are living within us, that we, that the Holy Spirit abides in us. We see that several times in this great epistle. And so as we have the living word and the living spirit living within us as a living savior, oh, how we pray, Lord, that you would open our eyes that we may see greater things. and that you would move us to a rock that is higher than we are this morning. May we advance, may we progress in our knowledge and our wisdom of the knowledge of God and in the ways that you would have us to walk with you and how that we are to love one another and teach us how to love, Lord, as you would teach us how to pray, as you would teach us the simple things of life because we walk with you and we talk with you and you lead us in the paths of righteousness. for your name's sake. Oh, Lord, we pray for your leadership. We pray for your love. We pray for your presence in our lives, but also we pray for your power to work through us, Lord, that others will see the love of God and the power of God and the grace of God. working in our hearts. We're praying in Jesus' name. Amen. So it's interesting as you look at this passage, all through the book of the Gospel of John and the Epistle of John, you will not see one word that Paul uses repeatedly and James uses it. We call it the apostolic doctrine. And there are certain words that Paul uses and James, they emphasize, but the one word that we don't see that John uses in those books, or in the books that he's written, and he wrote, except for the book of Revelation, he wrote that, he wrote five, he wrote three epistles and the gospel of John. And in those three epistles and the gospel of John, we don't see the word faith. in those epistles or in this gospel. This is the first time and only time that we see the word faith. So it's interesting how that his idea of faith is believing. It's an active, it's something that you're doing. It is something that changes your life. And so to John, faith is believing. And this is where he says, this is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith. And that's the only time he uses the word faith. All the rest of the time he uses believing. Believe on, believe into, get into him. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And so you'll notice now, I call this kind of the gospel sandwich. because you look at verse one and the first phrase of verse one, and then you look at the verse five, the last phrase, and he says, whosoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And so then we see down the last phrase of chapter, of verse five, he who believes that Jesus is, who is he that overcomes the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the son of God. So again, we see that salvation belongs to those who know Jesus Christ as Savior, that He is the Son of God. Now, of course, that sets the Christian from the non-Christian. There's a lot of people that call themselves Christians that don't believe that Jesus Christ is God. That is an unalterable doctrine all the way through the New Testament. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God hath not life. That's all one syllable words that he will say later on in this chapter. I mean, either you have them or you don't. And so this is not any different than all the rest of the apostles who wrote the books of the Bible or the New Testament. And so this is what we call the apostolic doctrine. These are the things that every one of them agree on and emphasize. And we'll see that even with Paul in a moment in Corinthians. But that Jesus Christ is God and that he is the only way of salvation. And so he says, whosoever believes this, he says, first of all, that Jesus is God. Now we go back and we can look at both ways that John opened his gospel as well as his epistle. Back in John 1 through 3, he says, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. All things were created by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. He was the creator, he's God. But then in verse 14 of chapter one, and this is all the preamble. He tells us what he's gonna do in the first 18 verses of his gospel. Then he explains what he did. And as we've read in verse 20 of what he did and the reason he wrote it. So the book of John is not like the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, which is kind of a progressive history of what the Lord did. John says, no, I'm right. It's a treatise. He tells you what he's going to do, what he's going to do, he does it, and then tells you what he did. That's good preaching. You tell them what you're gonna say, then you say it, then you tell them what you said. And so here we see that he is, again, that the whole idea is that Jesus Christ is God. We behold his glory full of grace and truth. all that in the first part of John. But then of course, we look back at 1 John and again, he tells us, he wants us to make sure. And of course, as he begins that chapter in verse one, if you could just flip back a couple of pages, that which was from the beginning, remember verse one of chapter one of the book of John, that which was from the beginning, the beginning of what? the beginning of time. In the beginning, God created the heavens and earth. Now he's always eternal, so he doesn't have time. But he, in the beginning of our time, and so Jesus Christ was before time, right? Time began. There's coming a time, we sing a song, there's coming a time when time shall be no more. So we are bound by time. But the Lord is eternal. He's not bound by time. Well, you don't, the whole idea there, they get into science about all that and science, space and matter and all that kind of stuff. I don't understand it all, but they get into the timing of things. Well, and then they realize time is not eternal. So there's all those philosophies and physics and everything that get into that. But that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the word of life, that life was made evident, it was manifested, and we saw it, we bear witness, and declare unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was made real to us, manifested." We said that's one of the favorite words of John. It became obvious to us, don't tell me that Jesus Christ didn't walk on the earth. Don't tell me there was some historical Jesus who just came and loved everybody. No, he was God. I touched him. I heard him. I know what he did in my life. And I know what he can do in your life. And this is totally inaudible. Either you have him or you don't. So John is very strong about that. And folks, we can't, that is one doctrine that we cannot dispel. We cannot negotiate. Well, there are certain people that believe in Buddha, and then there's other people, you know, that they don't really believe he's God, but they're Christian. No, they're not Christians. Oh, there are certain people that believe that you can become a God. I was listening to a false cult the other day and I said, this guy sounds pretty good, but I'm waiting to see what he says about Jesus Christ. And he never mentioned him. He just talked about being good and he talked about being a Christian and all that, but he never mentioned that Jesus was God and come to find out he was a Mormon. So see, that's what you, you listen very carefully to see what they think of Jesus Christ. Now, the Mormons think that, yeah, he's a God, but we can become a God because we're all gods. Well, no, they, you listen to what they're saying. And if they're leaving that out, be very susceptible or skeptical of what they're saying. And so John, and this is the people that John is writing to. I mean, he's got all these Gnostics and Greek people around and all these people that were saying, well, you know, what do you think of Christ? He might have been a pretty good guy. No, he said, we know who he was. I touched him. I know who he was. And this is totally non-negotiable. He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. And so we cannot negotiate that. We cannot get with a bunch of liberal people, and there's several churches, I can name them right here in town, that don't even get with their pastors, because they don't believe that Jesus Christ is God. He is a God, or he's a pretty good guy, or, you know, how can we know that he walked on the earth? He's the spirit. And when they talked about the resurrection, it's, you know, the spirit of God is the resurrection. No, Jesus Christ bodily was raised from the dead. And I serve a risen Savior, and he's not just some spirit out there. No, he's a living God that lives in my heart. We cannot negotiate. There's no negotiation of that. And so as a church, if we start doing that, then let's just close up or become a social club or whatever else. And that's what happens to most of those churches. They just become social clubs. And so we see that he is God, that he is the only way to heaven. So what did he say? I am the way, not a way, the way, the truth, the life. No man comes to the Father, but how? but by me. Peter said in Acts chapter one, there's no other name given among men, given under heaven, whereby men must be saved. What's the name? Jesus Christ. And so some of this CCM music that's coming out, some people call him Buddha, some people call him Allah, but we call him Jesus. No, that is heresy. We reject that music and the artist or whatever you want to call it. Well, they're, oh man, but that's good. No, that is heresy. We cannot and we will not compromise on that. We can't. If we do, the whole foundation of scripture goes down the drain because the whole, the main character in all the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is Jesus Christ. And the theme of the whole Bible is redemption by his blood. And so we throw the whole Bible out if we throw out the name and the work and the person of Jesus Christ. And so John is coming very strong, that he that knows and believes who he says he is, one must believe what the Bible says he did. And of course, even Paul now, he says, I delivered on you first of all, that which I also received, that Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures. So if you're gonna believe in something that we must believe, if you're gonna believe the Bible, what do you believe? That Jesus died for our sins. Well, the Bible, you know, you can take it or leave, no. It's either the word of God or it's trash. One of the two. It's unalterable. And so we see that he says that he died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. And so did the Bible say it? Yes, it did. And so if you don't believe it, then there again, you're throwing out the whole basis, the whole foundation of Paul, of Peter, of John, of any book in the New Testament, because this was all about what Jesus Christ did. This is why we call it the apostolic doctrine, because Jesus didn't write it, he assigned his people to write it. And this is what he says later on. He says, okay, what do we receive? We receive his word. Because in Romans 10, 17, of course, Paul says that, so faith comes by hearing. And hearing by what? This word. So my friend, if it's not the word, then why are we even here? And why do I preach it? I mean, it's not, I mean, it's not my philosophy. It's not something that I'm trying to do. It's either the word of God, or it's just a philosophy of man that we could just all band together and just love one another, no. No, it's, these are the cardinal doctrines that cannot be compromised. And so John is coming very strong on this as he's finishing up now his epistle. And even in John chapter 17, he records the Lord's prayer. We call it the high priestly prayer. But the Lord is saying, I do not pray for these alone. I'm not praying for only these apostles. But remember, he's in the Garden of Gethsemane. He says, I'm not only praying for these people, but also for those who will believe me, who will, coming again, who will hear it through their word or through my word. And so folks, we preach the same thing that the apostles preach. We do not change it. And so he says, I'm praying for Calvary Baptist Church and all those people who hear the word of the apostles. that, of course, I inspired them to write. Why didn't Jesus write the Bible? Because if he had written it, everybody would worship the Bible as a closed book rather than an open book. God uses men. Why doesn't Jesus just come down and save everybody? No, he has designed that you and I are to take the word to a lost and dying world. And folks, if we don't have the word, we don't have anything. We can't get anybody to heaven. It's him that does the work. For by grace are you saved through faith and not of yourselves. You have to have faith in somebody. And so we see that faith then comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And so we see that this is the gospel sandwich or this is where those are the two pieces of bread. You've got to believe that Jesus Christ is God and that he'll save your soul through his blood. I hope you believe that this morning. If you don't, then we need to go back and start from scratch about what the gospel is all about. But if you are saved, then you have been born again. Remember back in John chapter three, you must be born again. And that is you now are a living, You have the living word living within your heart, and now you are a child of God. 1 John 1.12, to as many as received him, to them gave he the power to become children of God. And we see that passage, born of God. And how many times has he said that now in just the last several verses? But you're born of God, which means you're living. Now, you were dead in your trespasses and sins. And people who are dead can't raise themselves. It's only God who could raise them. I love the passage where, back in the book of John again, where Lazarus has been dead for four days. No way that Lazarus is gonna come out of the grave. His sisters couldn't save him or couldn't bring him back. Doctors couldn't. But all the Lord did had to do was say the word, Lazarus. Come forth. And he turned from death into life. It shows that God has power over death and life. Jesus Christ is God. He is the one who called you. You were dead in your trespasses and sins, but he is the one who made you a living child of God. And as a result, It's not that you will have eternal life, but you have it because as many as received him, to them gave you the power to become children of God. And whosoever believeth in him has everlasting life. Amen? And so we see that this is the gospel. And this is what John says. And Paul says, what Peter says. I'm giving you that Jesus Christ died for your sins according to the scriptures. That he was buried, that he rose again. He did all that for you. And the whole doctrine of salvation is wrapped around the cross. And of course, the God of heaven coming and dying there for you and me. If he was a mere man, he couldn't have died for anybody. But since he meant more to God the Father than all of us put together in all of creation, that he could die for us all. But the great thing about it is even if you were the only person who ever sinned, God would have come to die for you. Well, what a God we have, isn't it? And so he's our personal savior. But as a result of that, faith produces something. Notice he says, this is a victory. It produces something in our lives. And this is the meat that's in between. As a result of being saved, it's gonna produce love. And of course, we looked at those three tests, the doctrinal test, the moral test, and the social test that all the way through, he just keeps wrapping it around, wrapping it around. And this was one of those really very tight passages in five verses that he does it again. But we see that he says, first of all, he says, and everyone who loves him, who begot, in other words, he's the one who born you, he's the one to bore you, loves him, whoever who loves him is begotten of him. So what does the Lord say? He says, there's two commandments that I have for you. First of all, that you love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind and soul. So do you love the Lord? That's one of the things that God produces. He's going to produce a hunger and thirst such a righteousness. He's going to do those because you're living. You're a babe in Christ. You're a child of God. And children get hungry. There's a relationship there. And he's always ready to feed you because he's the bread of life. He's wanting you to come. He's asking you to come. He wants to have fellowship with you because he's your living savior. He's not done with you. Salvation is just the beginning, not the end. And so he, that we love him. And, but this, by the way, also, we know that we love the children of God. And we already saw that back in chapter three, verse 14, where he says, we know that we pass from death to life because we love the brethren. And so again, Christianity, true Christianity is gonna produce not only a love for God and a hunger for Him, but also a love for the brethren. This is what frightens all of us because how many people that call themselves Christians today that hate the church or hate people in the church or whatever else. Now, there's a lot of churches that have left the faith and they left the love of God too. But why is it that one of the things that destroys churches today is the bitter ending in strife? Because if the devil can get in there, that's the one thing that the Bible says that by this, Jesus says, by this, the world may know that you're my disciples if you have what? Love one for another. And so that's one of the things that Satan loves to come in and rip people apart and get us all bitter toward one another. and all down in the mouth about one another and cutting down one another and all the rest. And so we've got to work on that, right? Love overcomes a multitude of sins. And boy, do we have to overcome a multitude of sins at times, even in our own lives. But it's one of those characteristics. The fruit of the Spirit is love, not fruits of the Spirit, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, which is gonna produce peace, which is gonna, it's gonna produce joy, it's gonna produce peace. And then all the rest of those, if you'll notice, meekness, long-suffering, those are the social things, again, that love produces, because God is love. And so we see that it's gonna produce love. We're gonna love him and we're gonna love the brethren. Faith does not, I like what a man named a missionary that became, just read a little book on 1 John. And he says that faith does not lead to, faith that does not lead to love is meaningless. And love that is not based on faith is powerless. In other words, let's just love everybody. What does that mean? The world, as we saw, has several ideas about faith. It's eros, which is just, I want what I can get because I love you and because what you give me. Brotherly love is, oh, I like you because you like me. But love, agape love, which John always talks about, is God to love the world that he gave. Now, I want a good response, but I love you in spite of the fact of your response. So we have to love people in spite of the fact of how they respond. Like we love our children in spite of the fact of how they respond at times. And so love is giving. This is the love that he's talking about. It's the love that so many of you have seen. When I preach on this, I see how that so many people are willing to open up their wallets, to open up their hearts, open up their lives, their time to other people. That's what love is all about. It's giving to others. And we see that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. So that's a characteristic of a Christian. They're giving people. They're loving people. Oh, that we could quit saying, what can this church do for me? And say, what can I do for God through this church? How can I turn for just always feeling hurt and upset and down in the mouth and feeling like a victim into a conqueror of, I mean, or as a soldier of the Lord who wants to see God bless? And so how can I turn it from inward, needing it, to letting God flow through me and giving it? And so if the fruit of the Spirit is love, and if we wanna be filled with the Spirit, what are we gonna have? We're gonna have love. I want power. Well, if you have love, you'll have power. And so these are, again, Lord, how can you turn me from being inward, and all of us are, to outward where I love the world like you love the world? Yes, I hate their sin, and we gotta stand against it. We're gonna stand against error. We're gonna have to tell people what sin is at times, and we're gonna have to tell them that we cannot go along with certain things, but can we speak the truth in love as Paul tells us to do it? So again, that takes wisdom and knowing how to do it. And so we see that it's gonna produce an obedience. This is the obedience test. We're gonna love the brethren. And of course, in 1 John 2 and 3, he tells us that we know that we love the children of God. When we love God and what? Keep his commandments. Now, what did the Lord Jesus say back in John chapter 15? If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Now, I like what John does here. He adds a little bit to it. And his commandments are not burdensome. The idea is God's commandments are good for us. God's commandments, he leads and he counsels through his commands. How much happier would people be in Belvedere if there was absolutely no stealing? How much better would it be if there was no threat of murder? How much better would Belvedere be if there was no adultery? Just think about it. That's good counsel, isn't it, folks? Most people who get into trouble is because they have violated the commands of God. Oh, how that would change everything if we just followed what he told us to do. Because he tells us that he's coming to me, all ye that are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Come to me. It's so interesting how the Lord Jesus come. He doesn't say, I'm gonna go to you. He says, come to me. All the way through the Bible, we see that he says, come. Back in whenever Noah was going into the ark, the Lord didn't say, go into the ark. He said, come into the ark. Where was the Lord? The Lord was in the ark. That's safety. You look at so many times where he says that. Lazarus, go forth. No, Lazarus, come forth. We see it over in Revelation, and there's many others in between. But the last phrases of the Old Testament, of the book of Revelation, he says, the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, and the bride, which is the church, says, come. Let him who wants to drink of the water freely come. So folks, what do we tell people to do? Come to the Lord, not go to Jesus, come to him and we'll tell you how to do it. Just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me. I come to thee. And so we see we come to the Lord. He's never moved. We're the ones all like we like sheep have gone astray. We have all turned to our own ways. And the Lord has laid upon him the iniquities of us all. We need to come back to the Lord. And the closer that we walk with him, the more that we're going to have confidence of His power, of His grace, of all the things He wants to do with us and in our lives as we live with Him and talk with Him. And we sing songs like, He walks with me and He talks with me. No, He does it as we obey Him. And His counsel is good, isn't it? It's always good. And so we see that He tells us, And I like what Ephesians says after he talks about the church. And Paul says now, to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power which works in us, to him be glory in the church. So Paul's praying for you and me. Because he says, in the church, by Jesus Christ, to all generations, forever and ever, just like the Lord says, I'm praying for those who are not even born yet, that they may be saved through the word. He was praying for me in the garden, because he tells me that he already knew my name before the foundations of the world. And he knows yours too. And he tells you to come, all ye that are heaven laden, whosoever will may come. And so he says, to him be glory in the church by Jesus Christ to all generations. That's our generation. Are you generation Z or H or whatever? Are you baby boomer? Are you whatever? To all generations. Well, are you World War II or you, whatever, create, what generation are you? Who cares? Whosoever will. The Lord will save a baby boomer just like he saved the Apostle Paul. The Lord will save a Gen Z-er just like he did me. Whatever it is, the Lord doesn't change. All they who are saved come to the Lord the same way. And that's through the blood and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he says, now, if that's the case, this should produce some power in your life. It should work in victory. But thanks be to God who give us the victory. And this is the victory that overcomes our faith. Notice how Paul and John, the apostles, they're working together. We call that apostolic doctrine. They reinforce each other. The word victory is an interesting word. We have a shoe company that's named it. It's called, it's a Nike. It means victory. Nike, actually. And so that's the Greek word for victory. So the Nike, unfortunately, has gone off the woke end or whatever they call it today. I don't even buy them anymore because so interesting how the devil takes God's words and changes them. But true victory is through the Lord Jesus Christ. And oh, he says, these things I want you to know. I want you to have power. I want you to have joy. I want you to have peace. I want you to have confidence that you know the Lord is your savior. I want others to see it working in and through you that they can have the same thing that you have. And as Charles Wesley said, he breaks the power of canceled sin. He sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the foulest clean. His blood availed for me. Oh, the Lord can't save me. The Lord can never use me. The Lord will save whosoever will. The Lord will make anyone who is willing his child as we come to him and we allow him to change us, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy. He saves us and he gives us a life within where we're hungry for him. And he wants to sanctify and use us. And he sanctifies us through his word. And he tells us his word, or sanctifies us through his truth. And his word is truth. He'll lead us in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. And wherever his paths of righteousness are, there's peace and safety and comfort and confidence. Oh, that we can have that in our Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know him? He that hath the Son hath life. If you know him, are you allowing him to lead you and to counsel you with his commands? Are you a child of God? Are you allowing him to work in your life? Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for what it can mean in our lives. And faith comes by hearing, and it's hearing by this precious word that we've opened this morning. And you tell me not to preach philosophies, but to preach your word, to preach the word, to be in season when it's popular, and out of season when it's not popular. Oh, Lord, may the word of God give us light. And may we walk in the light as you are in the light, and that we can have fellowship one with another, and truly our fellowship is with our Lord Jesus Christ. May we have that sweet fellowship that comes from knowing you and knowing one another as a result of knowing you. For we pray in Jesus' name, amen.