proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us. That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you so that you too may have fellowship with us. Indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son and we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. This is a message we have heard from him and proclaim to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. And the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin. 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 cleanse us. from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. Please pray with me. Lord Jesus, we come today to study your word, to know your will, and to know what it is that pleases you, Lord. So be with us today as we look to scripture to find out what is our purpose, what we are to do in our lives, that we can find peace and joy and happiness from your word and to learn from it. In Jesus' name, amen. John was, according to what I can figure, was in his later years, he was the only apostle that was alive when he wrote 1 John. They say that he was an elder at the Church of Ephesus, which was in Turkey, and that he was like I said, the only living apostle. And he was probably in his 80s, maybe. I don't know. I don't think they know for sure. But his writing of this book is very clear. It's very decisive. And it helps us to understand the way we are to live. It starts out, my little children, these things I write unto you that ye not sin. And he wants you to abstain from it, to abhor it, and not indulge in anything that would lead you towards it. He is anxious that they should not sin, He knows that they do. And if they say they do not, they lie. Still, the Christian's object is a sinless perfection. And though we will never have it until we get to heaven, that is all the better because we will always then be pressing forward and never reckoning that we have attained it. And he goes on to tell us that if any man sin, we have an advocate, an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. We are to seek to live a perfectly holy life, but inasmuch as we constantly fall short of that ideal, Here is our comfort. We still have an advocate. We still have one who undertakes our cause and pleads for us before the Father's throne. Verse two. And he is a propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. A sacrifice that bears God's wrath and turns it to favor. And that is also the meaning of the English word propitiation. God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. As a perfect sacrifice for sin, Jesus turns away God's wrath. If we turn to 1 John 4, verse 10, we see, in this is love. Not that we have love, not that we have loved God, but that He has loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. For the sins of the whole world does not mean that every person will be saved. For John is clear that forgiveness of sins comes only to those who repent and believe the gospel, But Jesus' sacrifice is offered and made available to everyone in the whole world, not just to John. Verse 3, and hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments. Holiness of life is the best proof that we know God. It matters not how readily we can speak about God or how much we suppose that we love him. The greatest test is, do we keep his commandments? What a heart-searching test this is and how it should humble us before the mercy seat. Obedience is a test of discipleship. Mere head knowledge is all in vain, and all in vain are fears, unless we render a practical obedience to the commandments of Christ. We shall not only savingly know Him, but we shall know that we know Him if we keep His commandments. Verse four. He that says I know him and does not follow his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. This is a terrible condition for anyone to be in. To say that he knows Christ and yet to have the Holy Spirit calling him a liar because he's not keeping Christ's commandments. Again, I remind you that obedience is essential to Christian discipleship. If we refuse to obey Christ's commands, it's clear that we do not really know the Savior at all. We are not even beginners in the school of Christ. Verse five, but who keeps his word in him? Is the love of God perfected? Hereby know that we are in him. Note the graduation. We know Him. We are in Him. We know that we are in Him. When every word of His is precious to us, and when we strive to live according to His precepts, then we know that we are in Him. This is even more than knowing that we know Him, for it is assurance that we are united to him by a living connection which can never be broken. Verse 6, whoever said he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. the way that led to the cross. Believers need not and cannot repeat Christ's unique saving death, but they can mirror his faith, his love, his piety, his obedience, and self-sacrifices. And this pattern of life will give greater assurance that we are in him. Verse 7, I'm writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. The old commandment is love for God and love for others, both of which are commanded in the Old Testament. If you look at Leviticus 19, 18, it says, you shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the son of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. In Deuteronomy 6, verse 55, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. Jesus confirmed but also renewed these teachings in Matthew 22, verse 34 to 40. But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together and one of them, a lawyer, asked a question to test him. Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law? And he said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. And this is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. So they also constitute a new commandment. We look at John 13 verse 34, a new commandment, I give to you that you love one another just as I have loved you. You also are to love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. It is what the apostles were given from the beginning. 1 John chapter 3 verse 11. For this is a message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Verse 8, again a new commandment. I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you? Because the darkness is past and the true light now shineth. The darkness is passing away. The age to come has yet not fully arrived. John 3 verse 2. Beloved we are God's children now and what we will be has not yet appeared but we know that when he appears we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is. It is progressively advancing in the world, for the true light is already shining. God's people can reflect his light, embracing the new commandment to love. Verse nine. He that saith that he is in the light and hates his brother is in darkness even until now. God's love and God is light. Therefore, love is light and the light of God is love. where enmity and hatred are in the heart is proof positive that the grace of God is not there. Verse 10, he that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is no occasion of stumbling in him. Love is the great and sure way of abiding in the light of Christ. Verse 11, but 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 eye. Hates his brother, John often writes in black and white for emphasis, light versus darkness, truth versus lies. Darkness has blinded his eyes. In contrast to light, the confidence of God's people, John knows his message is greater than the sinister realities against which he warns. I am writing to you, I write to you. The empathetic, repeated direct address points to John's strong feeling and determination to bring assurance to his He expresses his confidence in the whole of the Father and the Word of God in their lives. Verse 12, I'm writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for His name's sake. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know who you are from the beginning. I'm writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one. Little children, fathers, and young men symbolize the stages of spiritual maturity in a Christian's life. This is how we grow. and when we become very knowledgeable in the Bible and Scripture. Verse 15, I read three verses there together. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Do not love the world should not be read as an utter rejection of the world. For God so loved the world. You see that in John 3.16. John warns against devotion to a world system that is opposed to God. Verse 16, for all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of possessions is not from the Father, but is a form of the world. In warning against that, against all that is in the world, John does not demonstrate the whole created order. Rather, he gives examples. the desires of the flesh, and so on. Of what the believer should guard against is human desires are part of God's creation, and therefore not inherently evil, but they become twisted when they are not directed by and towards God. Verse 17. and the world is passing away along with desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. Warning concerning Antichrist and the world is passing away. Its appearance of permanence is deceptive. History is not an endless cycle, but a speeding toward a conclusion that is willed by God. Verse 18, children, it is the past hour, and as you have heard, that the antichrist is coming. So now many antichrists have come. Therefore, we know that it is the last hour. The last hour began with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Antichrist mentioned this name in the New Testament only here and in one John. Broadly, an antichrist is anyone who denies that Jesus is the Christ. More specifically, John understands such a person to be a human representative of the evil one of whom Jesus spoke. Many antichrists Persons doing the devil's bidding and not God's will. Verse 19, they went out from us, but they were not of us. For they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, and it might be complained that they all are not of us, though they outwardly belong to the church. their departure revealed that they were not truly of us. That is, they did not have genuine faith. If they had been of us, that is, if they had been genuine Christians, they would have continued with us. This implies that those who are truly saved will never abandon Christ, for they will be kept by his grace. Verse 20, but who you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge, probably means being regenerated by the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament, physical anointing with oil was an outward sign of an inward transforming and empowering work of the Holy Spirit. Verse 21, write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it and because no lie is of the truth. The truth is all of a piece and a lie cannot be part of the truth. Christ teaches us that error and falsehoods are not mixed with the truth. The gospel is all truth and those who believe it should say, you know the truth and you should also know that no lie as a part of the truth. Verse 22, 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, who clearly describes the Antichrist, John clearly describes the Antichrist, as the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ and who denies the Father and the Son. Verse 23, no one who denies the Son has a father. Whoever confesses the Son has a father also. The world's religions do not constitute many paths to one God. For all except the Christian faith refuse to confess that Jesus is God's Son. Verse 24. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too shall abide in the Son and in the Father. The original and authentic saving message of Christ's death for sin and his conquest of death. Verse 25, and this is a promise that he made to us. Eternal life, not transient life, but eternal life, is a great promise of the covenant of grace in abiding Christ. we possess it. The gospel that cannot change, let it remain. Do not follow false teachers. Christian faith is fixed and unalterable. If we stay faithful to the truth, we continue to experience intimate communion with God and Christ and perseverance to the full eternal life. 26. I write these things to you about who are trying to deceive you. A characteristic of the Antichrist is that they try to deceive the faithful. 27. But the anointing that you receive from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything and is true and is no lie, just as it has taught you, abide in him, children of God. John is not denying the importance of gifted teachers in the Church, but indicates that neither those teachers nor those believers are dependent on human wisdom or the opinions of men for the truth. God's Holy Spirit guides the true believer into the truth of God. The truth of God is true, and Christ is the truth. So is the Holy Spirit. Abide in Him in response to such deceivers. The task of the genuine believer is to walk in truth, perseverance, faithfulness, and sound doctrine. 28. Now, little children, abide in Him so that when He appears, He may not have confidence and not shrink from him in the shame of his coming. When John refers to abiding, he is referring to preserving in faith of salvation, which is evidence of being a true believer. The hope of Christ's return produces the effect of eternal Abiding in every true believer as they long for the glorious future prepared for them. Abiding signifies a permanence in remaining in Christ and guarantees the believer's hope. Those who truly abide continue in faith and in fellowship with the saints. Verse 29. If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him. To know that he is righteous is to have placed one's faith in Christ, not in one's own moral upbringing.