Alright, we're here in 1 John chapter 1, and the name of the sermon is The Eternal Son of God, and it's best for us.
And so, we're starting a new book, we're going to be going verse by verse through the book of 1 John,
and to the best of our ability we'll try to explain every single phrase, every single verse in the book of 1 John.
There's no verse that I will not explain in this series.
Let me say a couple things to start off.
If there's one book in the Bible that's a little bit confusing on salvation, this is the book.
I mean, you read the book of John, nothing confusing at all.
You read the book of Romans, nothing confusing about salvation.
But if you talk to people that are repentant of sinned people and Calvinists,
they'll often pull out verses in 1 John to try to say,
well, if you're really saved, there's going to be a change.
If you're really saved, you're going to do some works.
There are some confusing verses in the book of 1 John.
And as a soul winner, this is a very important book for us.
We need to be able to defend what we believe.
But let me also say, since it is a bit of a complicated book,
you will find good people that interpret some of the verses differently.
And to the best of my ability, I'm going to interpret and explain every single verse.
And to be honest, some of the verses I have a different explanation than what I've heard other people say.
And one of the challenging things of 1 John is I'm not just trying to explain how to answer a heretic on a verse.
I want to actually explain what does each verse mean.
And it's hard to be consistent with all these phrases because these are some deep things.
So at the end of the day, though, if people believe the same doctrine,
it is okay if they interpret certain verses differently.
So you might interpret some of these verses differently, and that is okay.
This is an important book for us that are saved because it's a tricky book.
And so I deeply encourage you, during this sermon series especially,
to write down certain things if they sound new to you or if you haven't heard them.
Because we need to be able to answer and defend what we believe.
Point number one is this.
The nature of the Son.
The nature of Jesus Christ.
And so the Bible describes in great detail in these first few verses about the nature of God the Son.
One of those aspects is the Son of God is eternally the Son of God.
He has always been the Son of God.
He always will be the Son of God.
Notice what it says in verse 1.
That which was from the beginning.
Now, that which was from the beginning is referring to Jesus Christ.
We're going to see that here in these verses.
But what it says about Jesus is He was here at the beginning.
And if He was here at the beginning, that means He was not created afterwards.
Not that complicated.
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard.
And so the writers of the Bible, especially the writers of the New Testament,
many of them actually heard the Lord Jesus Christ speak.
And John was one of those people.
He says, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes.
He saw Jesus Christ with His own eyes.
Now, I want you to understand something.
The Bible says no man has seen God at any time.
That's in reference to God the Father.
But many people have seen God the Son because Jesus Christ was here.
And so Jesus Christ, people saw Him with their own eyes.
And let me say this.
Because no man has seen God at any time referring to God the Father,
nobody in the Old Testament saw God the Father.
They said, well, who saw Him?
Who did they see?
They saw God the Son.
And they saw an Old Testament appearance.
They call it Christophany, if you went to Bible college or whatever,
which is an Old Testament appearance of Jesus Christ and Christophany,
I think is what they say.
And Jesus Christ appeared in the Old Testament at times.
And then, of course, He was here in the New Testament.
And they saw Him with their eyes,
which we have looked upon in our hands of handle of the Word of Life.
And so Jesus Christ is the Word of Life.
And the hands actually handle them, the Bible says.
Look, I'm sure that the soul winners that were with Jesus
shook Jesus' hands.
They hugged Him.
Obviously, we know that with John.
And so they were actually around Jesus Christ.
You say, why is this important?
Because this book was not just written by people who say,
well, 500 years ago this happened.
They actually were there for the events that took place.
And so people actually saw Jesus Christ.
They saw Him rise again.
So it's not random people writing about something that they know nothing about.
They actually handled the Word of Life.
They actually saw Jesus Christ with their own eyes.
They spoke to Jesus Christ.
It's not just random people saying this event occurred.
You say, well, why is that important?
Well, think about the Mormonism.
I mean, Joseph Smith says, well, this event occurred 2,000 years ago.
Between the Lamanites and whatever he says,
this big battle that took place, the Nephites, he wasn't there for it.
He's randomly writing about an event that he knows nothing about, supposedly.
But see, when it comes to the Bible, it wasn't just written randomly.
People actually experienced those things, and they wrote them down.
They lived through it.
Or they had a personal testimony of someone who did live through it,
and they wrote those things down.
Verse number two, for the light, referring to Jesus Christ,
the Word of Life, for the life was manifested,
and we have seen it and bear witness and shown you that eternal life.
Notice this, which was with the Father.
Which was with the Father.
What does that mean?
It means God the Son and God the Father are not the same,
because He's with the Father.
And the context is at the beginning, you have God the Father
and you have God the Son, and you also have God the Holy Ghost.
See, we must understand that God exists in three persons,
and He always has and He always will.
This is what the Trinity is.
God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost.
Because there are people that claim, well, at the beginning there was God,
and then God decided to become the Son,
and then later on He decided to become the Holy Ghost.
That's not what the Bible teaches.
The Bible teaches that God has always existed in three persons.
So at the very beginning was God the Father,
at the very beginning was God the Son,
at the very beginning was God the Holy Ghost.
So it's not that God decided to become the Son and manifest Himself to us.
No, God the Son manifested Himself to us.
Now that does not negate the fact that Jesus is fully God,
and we'll talk about that later on,
but God the Son has eternally existed,
because He was with the Father.
The Father of who?
The Father of Himself.
God the Father, God the Son.
God the Son.
Okay?
Now look, when it comes to the Trinity,
this is a complicated concept.
This is a deep thing in the Bible.
It's not something we're going to have a perfect grasp on,
but it makes sense.
It's going to be confusing because of the fact we are the creation.
It's hard to understand perfectly your Creator,
especially a Creator that has always existed and always will,
and He put us inside a system of time
where we're going to live and then we're going to die.
It doesn't fully make sense in this brain to me.
That's right.
That's because God is far above our realm.
That's right.
But this is what the Bible teaches.
He says He was with the Father and was manifested unto us.
Verse 3,
That which we have seen and heard declare beyond you,
that we also may have fellowship with us,
and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.
So our fellowship is with God the Father and God the Son, Jesus Christ.
This indicates that there's both God the Father and God the Son.
I mean, if the fellowship is with God the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ,
this is two.
It's not one.
And so, look, you need to understand that God has always existed in three persons
and He always will exist in three persons.
Now, we're not going to fully grasp that,
but this is what the Bible teaches.
Now, when you look at religions,
especially in Eastern religions and philosophies like Hinduism,
Hinduism believes in one God that manifests Himself
hundreds of millions of different ways.
But, see, we don't believe in one God that manifests Himself in three ways.
We believe in one God that is also three,
that He exists in three persons.
And, look, this is a deep concept,
and sometimes the terminology and the understanding can break down
because it's really hard to explain.
It's a deep thing.
But you have to understand, it's not that God was one
and then He said,
Now I'm going to be three.
And in one day, He can manifest Himself in the fourth way in Davao.
It doesn't work that way.
Right?
God has always existed in three persons
and He always will exist in three persons.
That's what the Bible teaches.
Now, turn to Genesis 1.
Genesis 1.
Now, there's a teaching in the Christian realm called Oneness.
And what they believe is that God is one,
but He chooses to manifest Himself in different ways.
And what they'll say is that Jesus became the Son at the virgin birth.
And God became the Son at the virgin birth.
No, God the Son was at the beginning,
according to the first three verses of 1 John,
and He was with the Father, meaning He already existed.
It's not that the Father became the Son.
The Father and the Son already existed
along with the Holy Ghost and the Holy Spirit.
We can see this in Genesis chapter 1.
Notice what it says in verse 26.
And God said, Genesis 1 verse 26,
and God said,
Let us make man in our image after our likeness.
So, notice how it says,
our image, our likeness.
Now, our is plural.
Right?
So, we're not just referring to the one.
So, it's an easy interpretation for us to believe in the Trinity
because we say,
Well, God is speaking to another one of the persons of the Trinity.
Right?
God the Father is speaking to God the Son and God the Holy Ghost.
God said,
Let us make man in our image after our likeness.
Now, those that would deny the Trinity and teach oneness
would have two different interpretations.
And one of them we'll talk about now,
one of their interpretations is that God is speaking to angels.
Well, the problem with that is that
that would be saying,
Angels are made in the image of God, the Bible says.
Man is made in the image of God, the Bible says.
Okay?
So, it says, God said,
Let us make man in our image after our likeness.
It's one of the persons of the Trinity
speaking to one of the other persons of the Trinity.
And he said,
Let us make man in our image.
Then it says,
And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea,
and over the fowl of the air,
and over the cattle,
and over all the earth,
and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
They notice this in verse 27.
So, God created man in his own image,
and the image of God created him,
male and female created he them.
So, in verse 26,
God said,
Let us make man in our image.
Verse 27,
God created man in his own, singular, image.
Look, if you're just trying to read this simply
and see what the Bible's teaching you,
what it's doing is going from plural to singular.
You say, why?
Because there's one God that exists in three persons.
So, in verse 26,
we see the persons of the Godhead,
and then in verse 27,
well, there's one God that we believe in,
one God that we worship,
God created man in his own image, the Bible says.
Okay?
Now, look, you're not going to walk away from this sermon
and just be like,
Okay, two plus three equals five.
You showed me the hidden clue.
You're going to have to take it by faith,
but this is clearly what the Bible teaches
all the way back in Genesis chapter one.
Now, it does say this,
in the image of God created he him,
male and female created he them.
You say, what is the Bible saying?
Well, the Bible's saying men and women were created by God,
but men were made in the image of God, not women.
You see the difference there?
In the image of God created he him,
male and female created he them.
You say, why?
Because Jesus didn't have long hair.
Okay?
Man has made God's image.
That's not an insult to women.
Okay?
Men and women are different.
But look, there is no mother God.
There is no queen of heaven, like the Catholics say,
to worship Mary.
There's no mother God.
There's no queen of heaven.
There's no mother.
If there's a male, there's got to be a female.
Right?
No, that's not the way it works.
God the father?
Not God the daughter.
Not God the wife.
God the father, God the son, God the Holy Ghost.
Okay?
Man is made in the image of God,
but men and women are created by God.
Okay?
Now go to Genesis chapter 3.
Genesis 3.
And actually the Trinity is taught in the first several chapters of Genesis,
but it's more clear in chapters 1 and 3,
so I just want to show you a couple of examples.
Just to show you that right at the beginning,
you're seeing all members of the Godhead.
We believe that Jesus was at the very beginning before Genesis 1-1.
I mean, in the beginning was the Word,
but I'm just saying right at the beginning,
you're seeing this.
Like early on in the Bible,
you're seeing the members of the Trinity,
because people try to say,
well, you know, you never see God the Son in the Old Testament.
Well, Genesis chapter 1,
and here we're in Genesis chapter 3.
I mean, he was here at the beginning.
Genesis 3, verse 22.
And the Lord God said,
Behold, the man is become as one of us,
to know good and evil,
and now lest he put forth his hand,
and take also the tree of life,
and eat, and live forever.
The man is become as one of us.
What's he referring to?
Well, he's referring to the members of the Trinity.
God the Father,
God the Son,
God the Holy Ghost.
And so look, you see all members of the Trinity.
Now look, it doesn't go into great detail about this,
but you see plurality in the early chapters of Genesis,
but we also see that there's one God, okay?
And so what the Bible is showing you
is it's showing you the Trinity.
Just because that's not the main focus of the Old Testament
doesn't mean that you don't find it anywhere,
and it also doesn't mean that it's not true.
Just because the main focus
is not about the Trinity in the Old Testament,
you still see God the Son in the Old Testament,
and you see verses in the New Testament
that say he was there at the beginning.
Look, you can take the New Testament
to give you clarification on the Old Testament,
and realize this,
that in the first six chapters of the Bible,
that's 25% of human history,
and there's very, very little about it.
And yet, there's New Testament verses
that give us extra clarification
that the days of Noah were very wicked,
that Jesus Christ was here at the beginning.
So look, the Trinity has been here at the very beginning.
God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost.
God the Son has always existed. He always will exist.
And look, when you go to heaven, you're going to see three.
And God cannot exist in four persons.
He cannot exist in five persons.
It's not that God chose to exist in three persons.
God is three persons,
and His nature cannot be changed.
Because some would say,
God, yes, I believe He exists in three persons,
but He could have chosen to exist in ten persons.
No, God is three persons.
In the beginning was the Word,
as was God the Father, as was God the Holy Ghost.
That's what the Bible teaches.
I go back to 1 John chapter 1.
1 John 1.
So not only do we see that the Son of God
eternally existed as part of the nature of the Son,
we also see that Jesus is the Word.
Okay? Jesus is the Word.
So the Word of God and Jesus Christ are synonymous.
They cannot be separated.
Notice what it says in verse 1.
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,
of the Word of life.
And the Bible calls Jesus the Word of life.
It's trying to describe about who He is,
and it calls Him the Word of life.
It's not like this is a wrapper,
where it's like, hey, what's your name?
I'm the Word of Christ.
No. Jesus Christ is the Word of life.
It's describing Him.
And so, look, that's the terminology
you would only give to Jesus Christ,
because He is the Word.
And so just as Jesus is perfect,
His Word must be perfect.
Okay? Jesus is the Word of life.
And then it says here, go to John 1.
Go to John 1.
John chapter 1.
Now, the other interpretation that is common
with people that believe in oneness,
they say, well, God wasn't speaking
to the angels in Genesis 1,
but God was speaking to a book
in Genesis chapter 1.
This is a common teaching, right?
This is what Tyler Baker said.
I don't know if you heard that,
but that's what people that know Tyler Baker,
this is what he taught,
that God was speaking to a book of words,
and then one day this became God the Son.
That's what he teaches.
That's what people that believe in oneness teach.
And so, yeah, I believe Jesus Christ was the Word.
And so God was, in the beginning,
was God in a book with words,
and then one day God was just speaking to a book.
Now, I don't know about you,
but I don't usually speak to a book.
Okay? Now, that's just a thing that they go for.
But when I pray and say in Jesus' name,
I'm not doing it staring at a book.
You know, I have my eyes closed
and I'm talking to God, okay?
And so that's the other interpretation.
One is, well, God was speaking to a literal book
because they have to explain,
well, in the beginning was the Word,
so, yes, in the beginning was these words.
Now, here's the thing.
I do believe that the Word of God is eternal,
and the Word of God, the literal words,
have always existed.
Forever, O Lord, Thy Word is settled in heaven.
They were settled from the very beginning.
But that doesn't negate the fact
that God the Son actually existed in the beginning.
Okay?
And so it says in John 1, verse 1,
in the beginning was the Word.
Okay?
In the beginning was the Word referring to God the Son,
Jesus Christ,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
Okay?
So the Word was not only with God,
but the Word was God.
So here's the thing.
If your interpretation is,
well, these words were here at the beginning,
like a literal book with God,
then you're saying that this is God.
Now, we do believe the Word is God,
but it's like,
for them to try to believe in oneness,
well, now you've got kind of two-ness there,
because you've got God and the Word.
That's kind of two now.
So you're not even consistent with your oneness belief.
Okay?
But in the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
How is that possible?
Because God exists in three persons.
Right?
God the Father,
God the Son,
God the Holy Ghost.
That's right.
Okay?
And then it says here in verse 2,
the same was in the beginning with God.
Then in verse 3,
all things were made by Him,
made by who?
Made by the Word.
Made by God the Son.
Okay?
Now, some people have a problem with saying
God the Son,
and they say,
well, it should be the Son of God,
not God the Son.
Well, Jesus is both the Son of God and God the Son,
because He is God,
and He is the Son of God the Father,
hence God the Son,
but He is the Son of God.
Okay?
So there's no problem with saying
God the Son or the Son of God,
even though the Son of God
is mentioned more than the Bible,
because He is God,
and we'll talk about that later.
Okay?
And it says all things were made by Him,
made by the Word,
and without it was not anything made that was made.
So here's the thing.
If the Word,
Jesus Christ,
made all things,
it means He was not made.
Does that make sense?
If everything was made by the Word,
then the Word could not have been made
by something else,
because there are religions like Jehovah's Witnesses
that teach,
well, Jesus was made by God.
Okay?
They don't believe Jesus is God.
They believe that Michael the Archangel
was Jesus in the Old Testament,
and he turns into Jesus Christ
at the virgin birth.
Okay?
But all things were made by God the Son,
and if everything was made by God the Son,
then that means He was not created or made by anything.
And when you think about the three members
of the Godhead,
and you think about the creation of the world,
you're really looking at God the Son.
That was His ministry.
Okay?
Now obviously all three of them work together
in these things,
but the Bible focuses on God the Son being the Creator.
All things were made by Him,
made by the Word,
and without it was not anything made that was made.
Okay?
Then it says in verse 14,
look at verse 14.
Verse 14.
And it says in verse 14,
and the Word was made flesh.
And it's referring to Jesus Christ was made flesh.
And we know God was manifested the flesh
referring to Jesus Christ.
The Word was made flesh who dwelled among us,
and who He held as glory,
and glory is it the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth.
So He is the only begotten of God the Father
because His very nature comes from God the Father.
Okay?
I want you to realize that every one of us
in this room is a sinner,
and the reason why you're a sinner
is because you have a sin nature
passed down from your Father.
This is what the Bible teaches.
Your sin nature does not come from your mom.
Now that does not mean that your mom's perfect.
It just means this is the way it works
that your sin nature comes from your Father.
That's right.
Well, who is the Father of God the Son?
God the Father.
God the Father has no sin,
hence God the Son has no sin.
He's the only begotten of the Father
because He directly proceeds from the Father.
Okay?
And He is fully God Himself,
so He had no sin.
But He's not the only Son of God
because I'm a Son of God.
Right.
And if you're saved in this room,
you are a son or a daughter of God.
You are a child of God,
but you're not begotten.
Okay.
Jesus Christ actually had the nature of God,
which is different than us.
That's right.
And it says the Word was made flesh,
because somebody had to die for our sins,
and because you're a sinner,
you couldn't die for anybody else.
Right.
You have your own sins to worry about.
So the only one that could come and die for our sins,
well, God the Son came,
He lived a perfect life,
He born of the Virgin Mary,
and He died and paid for our sins.
And so the Bible teaches that God the Son
was manifest in the flesh.
God was manifest in the flesh,
which refers to God the Son.
Now turn in your Bible to John 17.
Now, technically speaking,
and this gets a little bit complicated,
but there's a lot of deep things in the Bible
when you stop to meditate on things.
In the Old Testament,
God appeared as God the Son appeared,
because no man had seen God the Father at any time.
God the Son appeared.
But here's the thing.
God the Son was not born of the Virgin Mary yet
in the Old Testament.
So when God the Son appeared in the Old Testament,
He had no blood.
But once He was born 2,000 years ago
of the Virgin Mary,
then God was manifest in the flesh.
Now He still appeared in the Old Testament,
but there was a difference.
And of course He was fully God,
He was fully the Son of God in the Old Testament.
But then He was born of the Virgin Mary 2,000 years ago.
And this gets pretty deep.
Obviously when we're talking about a lot of this stuff,
we're saying you have to stop and meditate
on every great, big detail.
But I will say,
this is how people bring heresy in,
because they bring in confusing questions
that we've never thought of.
John 17, verse 17,
talk about Jesus being the Word.
It says in John 17, verse 17.
And because, to help clarify that,
the Bible says,
flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.
And see, in the rapture,
there's a change that takes place to the body.
John 17, verse 17,
sanctify them through Thy truth,
Thy Word is truth.
Now this is interesting because we know that
even though we speak in the physical Word,
we know that Jesus Christ is His Word,
because it's synonymous with the Word.
But it also brings to mind when Jesus said,
I am the way, the truth, and the life.
Because Jesus is the Word, but He's also the truth.
Right?
Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
So we see that Jesus Christ is the Word,
and we also see that Jesus Christ is the truth.
Go to John 11.
John 11.
And we're also going to see that Jesus Christ is life.
Okay?
So He's the Word, He's truth, He's life.
And another verse as you're turning there,
the Bible says that He was both the best or dipped in blood,
and His name is called the Word of God,
referring to Jesus Christ.
Okay?
So look, you see the Word of God at the beginning,
but you also see the Word of God up in heaven.
So if you're going to try to say this is just literal words,
does He become a man and then become a book again?
You know, it doesn't make sense.
The logic breaks down.
Better teach it once.
But remember what it said was Jesus is the Word of life.
So not only is He the Word, but He's also life.
Okay?
Now all these things are going to be very important.
This is pretty deep what we're looking at.
But it says in John 11 verses 25 and 26,
Jesus said unto her,
I am the resurrection and the life.
He that believeth in me, though ye were dead,
yet shall ye live.
And whosoever liveth and believeth in me,
shall never die, believeth thou this.
He's saying if you put your faith in me,
you are never going to die because you have eternal life.
Because Jesus Christ is eternal life,
and He grants eternal life to those that believe
and then you're never going to die.
Now of course physically your body is going to die,
but spiritually you're never going to die
and you're going to get a new body
and you're going to be in heaven.
Okay?
So John 11 verse 26 is referring to eternal security,
but Jesus said I am the resurrection and the life.
Now this is interesting because a couple of things
you see throughout the Old Testament
is that God is the living God, right?
All other gods are dead gods, false gods.
God is the living God and He's the true God.
So when Jesus is saying He's the truth and the life,
when He rose again from the dead,
He proved He was a true God and a living God.
Because the true God is a living God,
He's a true God, not false, doesn't lie,
doesn't do anything wrong.
And when Jesus rose again and said
I am the resurrection and the life,
He proved He was the living God, right?
Is there any better way to prove you're the living God
than when you die and then you resurrect yourself
from the dead?
Now there are verses that say God the Father resurrected Jesus
versus saying God the Holy Ghost resurrected Jesus,
but then in John 2 Jesus said
destroy this temple and in three days
I will raise it up.
So when He resurrected Himself from the dead,
He proved that He was the true God.
This does not negate that there's three persons
in the Godhead, okay?
I want you to understand that Jesus proved He was God,
but that doesn't negate the fact that there's God the Son,
God the Holy Ghost, and God the Father.
Okay, go back to 1 John 1, 1 John 1.
And look, this is really all contained
in these first couple of verses of 1 John.
He said, brother Stocky, man, only 10 verses,
we got Father, who stayed fellowship,
this is going to be a short sermon, right?
Probably not, okay?
There's a lot of information in these first couple of verses
but oftentimes in books it kind of sets the theme
for the entire book and that's what we're seeing here
because really in 1 John 4 is a chapter
that destroys one's heresy because one chapter's life is.
And so, notice what it says in 1 John 1, verse 1.
That which was from the beginning,
which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes,
which we have looked upon in our hands and handled
of the Word of life, referring to Jesus Christ,
is the Word of His life.
Then it says, for the life was manifested
and we have seen it, we are witness
and showing you that eternal life.
Who's the eternal life?
Which was with the Father and was manifested unto us.
So the Bible's saying that Jesus is eternal life.
So when it's saying He's life,
it's referring to Him being eternal life.
That's the terminology given in the Bible.
So He's the Word, He's truth, He's life,
He's God the Son, this is what the Bible teaches, okay?
And this also teaches us that life comes from the Word
because the Word is truth and Jesus is life,
so if we wanna receive eternal life,
it comes from the Word of God, okay?
And so there's a reason why
all these terminologies are given.
And then the last part of the nature of the Son
is the fact that He is God.
This is not the gate that we talk about God the Son,
but He is Holy God in and of His own right as well, okay?
Notice what it says in verse John 1, verse 2.
It said at the end there,
which was with the Father and was manifested unto us.
So He was with the Father, meaning He was not the Father,
but then it says He was manifested unto us, okay?
Now, go to John 6 real quickly.
John 6, we'll look at a few places.
Okay.
Now, one thing I'm glad about,
because I like this sermon.
I'm excited to preach.
There's been a lot of deep things,
but at the same time,
I'm glad to preach a sermon on this,
but I'm glad I don't have to explain all these things
with a normal, unsafe person.
Isn't it nice to grow up in a Catholic country
where people believe in the Trinity?
They don't have to have a perfect grasp on this stuff.
You know, if you grew up in certain countries
where their idea of God is just...
You'd be happy to have these sorts of conversations
while you're preaching the gospel.
That would be frustrating.
It's cool when it's only every once in a while
and you don't have to try to perfectly explain it,
because your gospel presentation would be like 30 minutes
easily if you're talking to Hindus
and people like that all the time.
In the Philippines, most people believe in the Trinity,
and they don't have to have a perfect grasp of that,
but people believe that Jesus is God the Son,
and they also believe he's God, and you know what?
They believe that even if they don't have a perfect understanding.
You ask people, hey, do you believe Jesus is God?
Usually they'll say yes.
You ask them, do you believe in the Trinity?
Usually they will say yes.
If they do not, though,
you're going to have to explain some things to them.
Sometimes you run into people of other religions,
like that church over there,
and then they'll say they believe Jesus is God.
You're like, are you sure you believe Jesus is God?
You're not supposed to believe Jesus is God
if you're not.
Maybe they haven't taught you what they believe, right?
But even people that have changed religions to cults,
a lot of them still believe Jesus is God.
A lot of them still believe in the Trinity,
which, praise the Lord for that,
because if you get too brainwashed with those false ideas,
Jehovah's Witness-type teachings,
it's going to be very hard for you to end up being Satan.
John 6, verse 46.
Not that any man hath seen the Father,
save he which is of God.
He which is of God, the only begotten Son,
referring to God the Son, is of the Father.
He hath seen the Father.
It says in verse 47,
Barely, barely, I say unto you,
he that believeth not me, hath everlasting life.
So right before he explains a good soul when he bursts,
he kind of talks about his nature
of the fact that he was with the Father,
and of course he explained how he was God.
That's why they tried to kill him.
They threw stones at him,
because they said he was with the Father,
and of course he explained how he was God.
That's why they tried to kill him.
They threw stones at him,
because they said he was blaspheming,
declaring himself to be God.
And I want you to understand this.
They understood that if you declared yourself
to be the Son of God,
you were declaring yourself to be being.
You say, why?
Because they understood that God existed in three persons.
The Pharisees were not saved,
but they understood that God existed in three persons,
because that's always been the nature of God.
It's not like that started 2,000 years ago.
They understood that God existed in three persons.
Genesis 1 is right at the very beginning.
They understood that.
So when he declared himself to be the Son of God,
why is it the Jews and the Pharisees tried to kill him?
Because they understood that if you were the Son of God
then you're a deity.
They understood that.
They understood the three persons of the God,
and even though they weren't saved themselves.
Go to 1 Timothy 3.16.
And let me just give you a couple verses
showing you that Jesus Christ is God,
and there's several good ones in the Bible,
and obviously throughout the Bible Jesus was God.
People worshiped him and obviously accepted worship.
But I want to make it as simple as possible,
and the most famous chapter verse to remember is 3.16,
because John 3.16 is the most famous verse, right?
So 3.16 is a very common and easy thing to remember,
and then what you can remember is 1 Timothy 3.16,
because 1 Timothy 3.16 is one of the great verses
that shows that Jesus is God.
So if you have to show somebody that Jesus is God,
1 Timothy 3.16 is something I often quote to people
that probably says he's God.
Notice this.
Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh.
Sometimes I ask people, well, who is that referring to?
God was manifest in the flesh,
and everybody knows it's Jesus.
Was it Buddha?
No.
Was it Muhammad?
No.
Everybody knows that's referring to Jesus Christ.
So Jesus Christ was God.
God was manifest in the flesh.
Another common one you can remember is 1 John 3.16,
and that one's really easy to remember,
because you know John 3.16,
and then you have 1 John 3.16.
So go to 1 John 3.16.
Let me show this to you real quickly.
This one's great because it's so easy to remember.
You got John 3.16?
You got 1 John 3.16.
1 John 3, verse 16.
Hereby perceive we the love of God.
So who are we talking about?
We're referring to God, okay?
Now, when you seek God in the Bible,
it can be referring to God the Father,
it can be referring to God the Son,
it can be referring to God the Holy Ghost,
it can be referring to God in totality, okay?
But here it says in 1 John 3.16,
Hereby perceive we the love of God,
because he laid down his life for us.
Well, obviously we know Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.
And so there you're seeing that God laid down his life for us,
and the reason why he did is because he's perfect.
We're not perfect.
And so we're seeing there that Jesus Christ is God.
Let me show you one of them.
Go to Colossians 2.
Colossians 2.
And actually, the book of 1 John has a lot of great verses.
I mean, in 1 John 5, the second to last verse in the book of 1 John
has a great verse.
This is the true God of eternal life,
which we'll look at in this series,
so I don't want to take any time to show it now.
But I want you to just understand about God,
that Jesus Christ was God the Son,
but he was fully God in his own right.
So notice what it says in Colossians 2, verses 8 and 9.
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy
and main deceit after the tradition of men,
after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
Colossians 2, verse 9.
For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
And so, look, Jesus Christ was God in the flesh.
But what's interesting is right before this, in verse 8,
it talks about philosophy and vain deceit.
You say, why?
Because people will come up to you when you say Jesus is God
and say, well, that doesn't make sense.
Isn't this true?
When people try to deny Jesus being God,
they always come up with arguments,
well, that doesn't make sense.
It doesn't make sense to me.
They try to give you some philosophical argument,
and the Bible is exactly saying this is what people are going to do.
Because they don't understand it, they don't believe it.
But as Bible-believing Christians, we should believe God's Word,
whether we have a full and perfect grasp on it or not.
And the Bible says that Jesus Christ believes God.
Now, go to 1 John, chapter 1.
That's the first three verses of 1 John, chapter 1.
That's the nature of the Son.
This is why memorization is so key,
because you see so many things that you just kind of passively read over,
and you're like, well, why is God saying He's the Word of Life
and things like that?
So 1 John 4-4, though, is the most important verse in the entire book of 1 John.
And the reason why is 1 John 4-4 tells us what the entire book is about.
And the second point is this.
Light and darkness are having fellowship with God.
But notice verse 4.
And these things rightfully on you that your joy may be full.
Verse 4 tells us that the book of 1 John is written that we might have joy.
Do you see that?
Different books serve different purposes.
You think about the Gospel of John,
and that book was written so that people might believe,
according to John 20, right?
The book of 1 John was not written so that people might believe on Jesus Christ and be saved.
That's not the main purpose of the book.
So when people try to pull out verses in 1 John and say,
well, see, we've got to do good works to be saved,
well, that's not the purpose of the book.
And they usually are pulling out verses out of context
that are talking about living a holy and godly life
and applying it to salvation when it's about sanctification,
obeying God's commandments,
getting close to God.
And it has nothing to do with being saved.
It has to do with drawing close to God.
And many of the verses they're confused about,
because it's a book about living a righteous life,
realize God has a lot of strong recruits and rebukes about living a worldly life.
And he talks about the judgment upon us in this life.
And people see the judgment in this life and they try to apply it to hell,
but it's not talking about that.
It's talking about how God will judge his people in this life,
even if you're saved, if you do wrong.
But the purpose is that we might have joy.
You say, why?
Because this is all about living a godly life
and walking in the light and fellowshiping with God and not sinning.
And here's the thing.
What is the secret to being happy as a Christian?
Not sinning.
That's the secret.
When you're living a life of sin, you have depression.
Is that not true?
When you're doing things that are wrong, you feel guilty.
You feel bad.
You feel wrong.
You get depressed.
But isn't it true that if you're reading the Bible and walking with God
and not caring about the things of this world, you're happy.
Isn't that true?
And so the Bible's saying, if you want a book to make you happy, first John.
Because God's going to tell you, hey, obey my commandments.
Do what's right.
Walk with me.
Walk in the light.
Don't walk in darkness.
That has nothing to do with going to heaven, though.
It has to do with being close to God.
And he wrote these things that we might have joy.
And look, the reality is, if you do not have joy as a Christian,
you're going to fade out.
It was probably two years ago.
I don't remember exactly.
At one of the missions conferences, I preached from the book of Joel on joy.
People got to remember that.
And I talked about the importance of having joy in your life.
Because when you cross-reference, if you do not have joy,
like David talked about in the book of Psalms,
he said, restore to me the joy of thy salvation.
He said, I need my joy to be restored.
And then will I teach transgressions thy way.
Then will I be a soul winner, is what he said.
If we do not have joy, we're not going to serve God.
You're not going to serve God forever if you're not happy about this.
You might be able to go through the motions from time to time.
But if you're living your life and you just hate coming to church,
you hate reading your Bible, you need to make some changes.
Otherwise, you're going to fade out.
Because if you don't enjoy stuff, you don't do it.
Right?
Whatever your hobbies are, you do them because you enjoy them.
Right?
You don't do them if you hate them.
You do the things that you enjoy.
And here's the thing.
If you're not having joy in your Christian life,
that's not the way God intended it.
And you are going to fade out of the Christian life.
So the things are written that we might have joy.
So how does a person have joy?
Verse five.
This then is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you
that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.
There's basically two paths in life.
Light and darkness.
Now, of course, there's the narrow way which leads to heaven
and then there's the broad way that leads to destruction.
But light and darkness are different.
As a saved person, you can walk in light or you can walk in darkness.
Okay?
It's completely up to you.
Verse six.
If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness,
we lie and do not the truth.
The Bible says if we say we have fellowship with God
but we're walking in darkness and living a sinful life,
we're lying.
We're not doing the truth.
We're not obeying God's word.
So, look, you cannot say, hey, you know what?
I have a close walk with God while you're committing sins.
Why are you doing what's wrong?
You have a close fellowship with God if you're obeying what he says.
But it didn't say in verse six that, hey, if you're not walking in light,
you're not even saved.
Did it say that?
Because people try to pull out verses like this.
It doesn't say that.
It says you're not doing the truth.
You're not having fellowship with God because you're walking in darkness.
Look, it's possible for a saved person to walk in darkness.
You say, what's your proof of that?
Well, we have a whole book that we're covering verse by verse
where he's trying to reprove saved people not to walk in darkness.
That shows a saved person can walk in darkness, right?
Now, look, obviously an unsaved person,
they don't fully comprehend these things.
But what I'm saying is this.
He's telling us that are saved, you've got the choice now.
Don't walk in the flesh or walk in darkness but walk in the light,
walk in the new man.
Have fellowship with me, and if you do this,
you're going to have joy in your life.
What's more enjoyable than leading someone to the Lord?
Is anything more enjoyable than seeing somebody get saved?
I mean, sometimes you get people saved,
and then they tell you how happy and how thankful that you are.
Like yesterday, we were playing that game Family Feud,
you know, in Hong Kong afterwards.
And the question was, because the questions are hard
because as a Christian, you think of it from a Christian lens,
what do you do that brings people joy?
Give them the gospel, right?
Preach the gospel to them.
That's how I give people joy, right?
That was not in the top eight answers, okay?
But the reality is that when you're serving God,
that's going to give you a greater joy than anything else,
as a saved person.
An unsaved person, no, they probably do not enjoy
singing the songs in this family.
As a saved person, you know what?
When you sing them, it's going to cause you joy.
It's going to give you a life filled full of joy.
Bible talks about it in James 5, I think it is,
where if you want to be married, sing songs, right?
And so, look at verse 7.
But if we walk in the light as He is in the light,
we have fellowship one with another,
and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
Now, people will look at phrases like this,
like the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin,
and they'll say, well see, if you're not walking in the light
and you don't have fellowship one with another,
then you're not going to be forgiven
and you're going to go to hell, okay?
But realize that, you know what,
there's salvation where you believe on Jesus Christ,
but there's also the daily forgiveness
that God will give you if you're doing what's right
and saying you're sorry, okay?
It's like if my son does something wrong
and he does not apologize, I'm going to be mad at him.
But when he apologizes, I forgive him.
And so what the Bible is speaking about is that us,
if we're walking in light and doing what's right
and asking for forgiveness, God will cleanse us and forgive us.
And you know, that is what the psalmist,
who was David in Psalm 51, said of being cleansed
in the context of getting his joy back, okay?
Now, go to 2nd Corinthians 6.
And the Bible also talked about having fellowship one with another
if we're walking in light.
See, I mean, you have to realize that at a lot of churches,
I know in America they talk about football all the time.
Probably here they probably talk about basketball all the time at churches, right?
And what I want you to understand is that the most important things in our lives
are about serving God, about our families, about raising kids.
Obviously, moms have things to talk about,
fathers have things to talk about and stuff like that.
And it's nice to be at a church where you don't talk about the things of God.
And see, the Bible says that we're going to have fellowship
and good fellowship one with another when we're walking in the light.
And what's amazing about this is people can come from completely different backgrounds
and have nothing in common.
You had different jobs, different majors.
There's nothing in common except your belief in Jesus Christ
and trying to serve God, and then you have a close fellowship.
Isn't that true?
I mean, the reality is that if all of us were unsaved,
for most of us we probably wouldn't be friends with everybody in this room
because we just don't have that much in common.
Look, all my friends growing up played soccer.
So if you didn't play soccer, I mean, brother Roman would be my friend, right?
But other than that, I have a problem when you have any friends.
I mean, just because that's not my interests.
I mean, my interests were soccer.
So you hang out with people that you have similar interests with.
Well, this is the thing about church.
We're hanging out at this church because we like to hear the Word of God preached.
We like to go soul-witting. We like to serve God.
And then not only do we hear the preaching,
not only do you do the soul-witting,
but you have the fellowship one with another because we're all walking in the light.
We're trying to. Right?
But if we're not walking in the light, that fellowship's not going to be there.
2 Corinthians 6, verse 14, it says,
Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers,
for what fellowship hath righteousness and unrighteousness,
and what community hath life and darkness?
And in 2 Corinthians 6, verse 14,
it talks about not being unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
Now, obviously, the best application is marriage.
Don't yoke up with an unsaved person.
What sort of fellowship can you have with an unsaved person?
What are you going to talk about in your marriage?
Just talk about movies all the time, TV shows.
You should marry somebody of life faith.
And look, it honestly wouldn't make sense for a Muslim to marry a Buddhist
because it's like you have so many different beliefs.
Why would you do that?
It makes no sense, though.
We have Baptists that marry people of other faiths all the time
because they find them attractive.
I mean, that's all the way back in the Book of Genesis.
You're better off waiting for the right person
that you can actually have fellowship with
because otherwise your life's going to be miserable.
And the Bible says don't be unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
Now, that's one application.
Other applications are even your close friends.
Now, don't misunderstand me.
By all means, invite your unsaved co-workers to church.
Invite your unsaved co-workers to lunch and preach the Gospel to them.
But don't make them your best friends.
Even if they were your best friends before.
Look, the reality is that when you get saved and start serving God,
whether you try or not, your old friends kind of just separate from you.
It doesn't change.
Right?
Now, when my wife and I started talking to these,
my wife changed a lot.
You know, we started dating and talking when we got married and everything,
and a lot of her friends just completely changed
because they weren't all fundamental Bible-weaving Baptists
and soul-winners and stuff like that.
The reality is that if you're going to serve God,
you must be willing to set aside some things from the past.
Don't misunderstand me.
Preach the Gospel to your unsaved family members.
I'm not saying don't hang out with them at Christmas,
but you know, you shouldn't be doing it for a purpose.
But you know what people do is this.
They say, well, you know, I feel bad not hanging out because they're not safe.
So then you hang around with them as they get drunk
and do all kinds of things that you don't want to prove.
What you're teaching your kids is that it's okay.
Look, I don't want my son and my daughter to see people struggling around drunk.
I'm not okay with that.
My wife has lots of unsaved Catholic family members,
and we preached the Gospel to some, given them the Gospel,
and we'll still do that.
But we're not going to make them our best friends.
I mean, people don't always understand this,
but if you're trying to serve God, then you know what?
That's the sort of line you need to have.
When I lived in Sacramento, California in the U.S.,
I had two first cousins, and I've only met one of them.
Other than my sister having a lot of kids, I don't have a big family tree.
And I had one first cousin, and he also lived in Sacramento, California.
Now, I'm not from California.
I'm from West Virginia, but by chance, my cousin lived in Sacramento as well.
And my mom's sister and then her husband and then their cousin lived in Sacramento,
while the parents lived in Connecticut.
So one day, I got the address of my parents,
and then I just randomly knocked on his door.
I hadn't seen him in five years and preached the Gospel to him.
But I lived in Sacramento for three and a half years.
I think I saw him twice.
You say, why?
Because he hates the things I believe in.
Hardcore pro-abortion, hardcore LGBT.
What fellowship can I have?
Oh, but you've got blood relation.
What fellowship can I have with someone who believes completely different things?
We're not talking borderline here.
I'm not saying, hey, he's a Baptist, but there's some differences.
No, no, he's an anti-Baptist.
Anti-religious person, anti-Baptist.
It's just like, I don't have anything in common with him.
I tried to give him the Gospel.
I did give him the Gospel.
He didn't get saved as far as I know.
I didn't seem to believe it.
It doesn't seem like he ever changed his mind.
So, look, you shouldn't form close fellowship with people that are not saved
or people that believe completely different things.
Go to Ephesians 5, Ephesians 5, Ephesians 5.
And see, the thing is, that's why it's so important to get connected in church
because you're trying to form new friendships and new bonds.
It's not just the preaching.
You can listen to this preaching online,
but there's an importance of being at church to form those close friendships,
that close fellowship,
because you form fellowship with people when you're around them.
One of my favorite things to do is when you're going sowing with someone
and you're just talking in between the doors about life.
And you form close friendships.
And look, the thing is, at our church, we have plenty of activities.
We have sowing, we have activity today.
We have people sticking around with fellowship.
If you want to make friends with this church, you can make friends.
You say, Brother Stuckey, I'm shy or I'm introverted.
I don't like being around other people.
Well, if you didn't have friends, well, show them some friends.
I consider myself a relatively shy person.
But you know what, that's how you form friends is you're around people.
Look, it's okay if some people are more outgoing than others and some are more shy.
You still want to form friendships with people that love God and want to serve God.
Ephesians 5, verse 7.
He might be therefore partakers with them.
Free are sometimes darkness, but now are you like the Lord.
Walk as children of light.
And he's commanding them to walk as children of light
because it's not a guarantee that it's going to happen.
Okay, don't tell me it's a guarantee you're going to start serving God.
Well, why is he commanding them walk as children of light if it's a guarantee?
It's not a guarantee.
Then it says, for the fruit of the spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth,
and the fruit of it is acceptable unto the Lord,
and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
You know what that means?
It means when your coworker makes a dirty, perverted joke, don't laugh at it.
It's not appropriate.
It means when your coworker uses the Lord's name in vain,
you're respectful, you're nice, but you talk to them privately and say,
hey, you know what, I just want to let you know I'm a Christian
and I don't really feel comfortable with that kind of language.
90 plus percent of the time if you say it in a nice way,
they will try not to use those words in front of you.
But if you don't make a stand like that,
they're always going to be saying, gee to me, gee to me.
Look, I find that offensive.
I can't stand that when you hear people saying that.
I'm like, why can't you put Buddha's name in front of that?
Why is it God?
Why can't you put Muhammad in front of that?
Right?
I don't like hearing people laugh.
I mean, that's a sin that somebody was killed for in the Old Testament.
Right.
Sounds pretty serious to me.
I know you hear it in the movies and TV shows and all these jokes,
but it doesn't sound like God thinks it's funny when somebody got killed for doing that.
Right?
Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness,
but rather reprove them,
for it is a shame he didn't speak of those things which are none of them this evening.
Now verse 13 is one of my favorite verses in the Bible.
It says, but all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light,
for whatsoever not made manifest is light.
Everything that's reproved,
everything that God would rebuke and is not okay with,
are made manifest by the light.
You say, what does that mean?
It means if you come home and it's dark inside and you turn on your flashlight,
you're seeing a little bit of light,
but as you get closer, it's shining brighter.
Right?
As it shines brighter, you see more and more problems, don't you?
I mean, from here, it would still be pretty dark.
I wish it was dark in here,
but as you get closer, it's going to shine brighter,
and it's going to reveal or manifest problems.
See, as you get close to God, you're going to see more and more problems.
And people have this idea, well, when you get close to God,
you're not going to see it.
No, you're going to see more problems.
Yes, you're getting rid of your old problems,
but you're revealing, oh man, I didn't know this was a problem,
and God says no.
And as you get closer to God, you say,
Brother Steck, I'm at this church.
I've never had to change so many things in my life.
I'm making all these changes, and then, man,
I still feel like I'm doing wrong and I need to make changes
because you're getting close to God.
That's good.
Because that problem exists whether you realize it or not,
so it's good to know it exists.
And then you can make the change.
But this is also why, if somebody's not saved,
what's the purpose of trying to get them to live a holy life
when they're dwelling in gardens?
They're not going to understand this.
And also, if we get somebody saved today
and they come to church next week for the first time,
don't expect them to be perfect.
I mean, everything's new to them.
They're far away from the light.
They're not going to see these problems.
So look, don't go overboard
and just try to fix every problem they have.
Give them a chance to grow.
Look, I have to preach against everything through the pulpit.
I try to do it in a kind way.
I don't go up to people and act like a jerk to them.
I mean, do I ever go up to people and say,
hey, you need to change this, you need to change that.
Hey, I preach the word God.
It's up to you what you do with it.
It's your choice what you do.
But look, all things that are approved or made manifest by the light.
So look, when we're walking in light, we're getting rid of the problems.
And that is what makes you happy.
Don't be upset when you see problems
because the closer you get to the light,
according to 1 John, you're going to be happier, okay?
If you have sadness in your life,
it's not because you're not watching enough movies.
It's because you're seeing these problems
and you're resisting making those changes
and it's causing you to be a little depressed, right?
Now turn your body back to 1 John.
1 John.
And so we see the nature of the sun.
We see fellowship, we see light and darkness.
And one other thing.
The end of this chapter refutes the sinless perfection heresy.
Now, sinless perfectionism is this doctrine
that once you get saved, you can be perfect.
Like sinless.
Like never sin ever again.
I had met people that said,
I remember knocking on someone's door
and he told me, you know, I was going through this stuff.
I was like, well, haven't you ever lied?
He said, it's been 18 years.
I'm like, have a nice day.
You haven't sinned in 18 years.
I go, when I got saved, I stopped sinning.
It's like, it's not a very common thing,
but you do hear people say that,
well, you can be sinlessly humbled.
Right, now, repentance of sin's preachers do not say this,
but they may say, well, if you're really saved,
you're not going to sin much, right?
They have this idea.
But in 1 John, because I believe
the sinless perfection heresy is rebuked,
but it may be a different way than I've heard it
preached a lot of times.
Look at verse one real quick,
and then I'll go back to verse eight.
Look at verse one.
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 the work of life,
and life was manifested and we have seen it,
there are two words that appear in every verse
in this chapter.
That's the word we and the word and.
Now, the word we is indicating
he's always referencing saved people,
we, we, we, right?
I mean, the Bible's obviously written to save people,
and the word and appears in every verse.
The word the does not appear in every verse,
only we and and.
And so we, we, we.
Well, I don't think the context ever changes.
I believe verses eight through ten
are all referencing saved people,
because usually what you hear is,
well, verse nine is in reference to saved people,
but verse eight and ten
is not in reference to saved people.
That's kind of strange to me,
because it says if we, if we, if we.
So if one saved, I would say in verse nine,
then I would say verse eight they're saved,
verse ten they're saved.
I don't think the context is ever broken.
Okay, now, I will say my interpretation
may be different, I've heard it's up to you
what you believe in.
Let me just explain what I think is being said here.
Verse eight, if we say that we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
So usually what I hear people say is,
well, if we say that we're sinless,
then we're not even saved.
I don't think that's what's being said here in verse eight.
If we say that we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves, referencing saved people.
I think that's talking about the person
who hears the preaching of God's word,
and every time they hear it, they say,
man, so-and-so really needed that sermon.
It's like, man, you know what?
That sermon on Bible reading, that person needed it.
Me, I read the Bible all the time.
Or a sermon on so-and-so, man,
a lot of people needed to hear that one, brother, stop eating.
It's like, you haven't done so many in six months,
what are you talking about?
Or sin against worldliness is like,
man, a lot of people needed to hear that sermon.
And there are people that are like that in church.
You hear people say that whenever they hear the preaching,
they never apply it to themselves.
I don't think it's saying that we have no sin.
It means that somebody believes that they're sinlessly perfect.
But someone whose neck is so stubborn,
someone whose head is so stubborn
that whenever the preaching of God's word comes,
they deceive themselves by thinking, I'm good to go.
I mean, doesn't it say in the parable of the sower,
the last group having an honest and good heart?
You must have an honest, not a deceptive,
not deceive yourself, an honest heart
if you're going to be a sower until the day you die.
Meaning, whenever you hear the word of God preach,
you may be ashamed to say, brother, stop eating.
Why does it say, then, the truth is not in us
if that's not referring to salvation?
What's that referring to?
Well, which member of the Godhead
indwells us forever when we get saved?
God the Holy Ghost.
Which member is the truth?
Jesus Christ.
Doesn't the parable of vine and branches in John 15
talk about how we should abide in Him
and that He will abide in us?
There's not a guarantee that Christ will always abide in you.
The Holy Ghost indwells you forever,
but you need to walk with God
and have Christ abide in you.
Okay?
And so that's what it says in verse 8,
and verse 10 is very similar
because it says His word is not in us,
and who is the word?
Jesus Christ.
That's the member of the Godhead.
And so I think he said in verses 8 and 10
that guess what?
If you hear the preaching of God's word,
you know there's changes you need to make,
don't deceive yourself,
don't lie to yourself,
but make the changes,
and if you don't,
then Christ is not abiding in you.
That does not mean that you're not saved,
but it means that no, you're not abiding in the vine
like the Bible says.
Because look, here's what I know as a preacher.
When I preach a sermon on why we need to go soul winning,
the people that are going soul winning the most
are usually the ones that really think.
And I didn't hear that.
I felt my zeal was kind of dying out a little bit.
Or you preach a sermon on reading the Bible,
and the person who reads the Bible the most is like,
man, I almost skipped my reading this morning.
I needed that one for a second.
Or someone who's living a really holy life,
and they're the ones that get impacted
on the sermon on worldliness.
Look, when you get closer to the light
and then the lights reveal to you,
the ones that are close see more problems,
not the ones that are far away.
So look, what I've noticed, though,
is people that, you know,
whenever you preach a sermon specifically
for someone that you're thinking of
or people in church are thinking,
these people could really use this sermon.
They're the ones that are in so and so
really needed that sermon.
And what I think is called deflection
when they study terminology and stuff,
where basically you deflect everything
from yourself onto a projection.
And they project it onto other people
when they're actually the ones
that could actually find it.
Now, verse nine, everybody I know
applies this to safety pretty much.
It says, if we confess our sins,
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all our righteousness.
And look, as safe people, when we do wrong,
we say we're sorry, we confess to God,
and God cleanses us, okay, from all our righteousness.
Now, this is not a verse that you link
to when you get saved from.
It's part of your daily walk with God.
And the context has really never been broken
from having fellowship with God.
So when you see problems and sins in your life,
fix them.
When you see sins, don't dwell in darkness, okay?
Now, go to 1 John 2.
Let me show you something.
1 John chapter 2.
1 John 2.
Because here's the thing.
When we're looking at a whole book,
the interpretations need to be consistent.
Because if those verses at the end of 1 John 1
are referring to you're not even saved
if you say you're sinless.
And look, by the way, if somebody says they're sinless,
I'm not disagreeing with you.
Of course they're not saved.
I just don't think that's what those verses
are talking about.
And by the way, if a saved person
cannot look at their life and say,
I have no sin, I have no problem,
then an unstable person can say that.
So there goes sinless perfection anyway.
So if a saved person cannot say,
hey, I'm without sin, I'm gonna go,
neither could an unstable person, right?
So it still rebutes sinless perfection.
But notice 1 John 2 verse 4.
He that saith, I know him,
and he that not his command is,
is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
Now, you do not have to know God to be saved.
God has to know you.
My sheep hear my voice,
and I know them.
Being saved is when God knows you,
but knowing God is when you get close to the light.
Knowing God is when you're not only saved,
but you're walking with God, okay?
So if a person sits here and says,
I have fellowship with God,
and I know God, and I'm close to God,
and he that not his commandments
doesn't keep the commandments of God,
well, he's a liar.
Because you cannot say you're close to God
if you're not obeying God's commandments, right?
But then it says, and the truth is not in him.
See, if the truth is not in him
is in reference to salvation,
then according to 1 John 2, 4,
if you don't keep God's commandments, you're not saved.
Is that what we believe?
Not at all.
You see, what I'm saying is
if you have that interpretation
for 1 John 1, verses 8 and 10,
I think it falls apart in 1 John 2,
and things need to be consistent.
You do not have to keep God's commandments to be saved.
You don't have to keep God's commandments
as proof of your salvation.
But you do have to keep God's commandments
if you say you love God, and you know God,
and you've been walking with God,
and you're close to God,
and you have fellowship with God.
If you say I know God,
and you don't keep his commandments,
you're a liar.
We talk to people all the time,
and some of them are saved,
and it's like, man, I know God.
I'm close to God.
They don't read the Bible.
They don't go to church.
You say, what are they?
You're a liar.
They're deceiving themselves.
They think the Word of God's in them.
The Word of God is not in you.
Now, the Holy Ghost might be in you
because you might be saved,
but the Word of God is not abiding in you.
The truth is not abiding in you.
It doesn't mean you're not saved, though.
But you're lying by thinking I'm so good,
and what you're doing is you're lying to yourself
and deceiving yourself,
and the truth is not in you.
So if I don't give that phrase,
the truth is not in you,
the Word is not in us,
I don't think it's in reference to salvation.
I think it's in reference to abiding in Christ
because that is not a guarantee.
The Holy Ghost will indwell you forever,
but in John 15,
it talks about terrible abiding branches
depending on how you walk with God.
Abide in me and I in Him.
As the branch cannot recruit itself,
no one can be accepted abiding in me.
So we have to choose to abide in Him
in order to bear fruit.
Now, go back to 1 John 1.
Let me just show you one last thing.
And I skipped some verses for second time.
It was already past time.
Ten verses and three hours later,
we are done.
And look, he might have a different interpretation
of those verses.
That's fine because a lot of people
have different interpretations.
But one thing we need to realize is
what's the purpose of verse John?
And verse 4 gives us the purpose of verse John.
And I want you to walk away from this sermon
and realize that because that will change
your interpretation of how you look at certain passages
and verses in verse John.
Verse 4,
And these things rightly on you
that your joy may be full.
See, at the end of the chapter,
he's not explaining to people how to be saved
because they already understand that.
But he's explaining,
you want to have joy in your life,
you better obey my commandments.
You want to know me,
you want to have fellowship with me,
you better walk in light and not in darkness.
Well, not to be saved because
we believe on Jesus,
we have eternal life.
But that is the secret to joy in our lives
is certainly God.
And what often happens in our lives is
we have, all of us,
we have ups and downs, right?
We have moments where we're doing well
and moments when we're not doing well.
And what we tend to do as people is
when we start getting a little bit depressed,
we think it's because we don't have enough
worldliness in our life.
It's like if I just calm down the Bible reading
a little bit,
I will be happier.
No, you wouldn't.
You get more depressed.
And I think what it is on the inside of us is
we like to blame everything on God
or on someone else when in reality,
it's actually our fault.
It's like the reason why you're depressed
is because you're leading a double life there.
It's like you're serving God
and you're not serving God
and that will result in depression
because you're walking with a new man
and you're walking with the old man
and there's this constant battle
between the new man and the old man.
Hey, just kill off the old man.
Just serve God
and that is what's going to give you happiness.
Now it doesn't mean your life is perfect.
We have times of depression
and we understand that
but the secret to us as Saved Christians
being happy is obeying God's commands.
The Bible says,
If ye know these things,
happier ye if ye do.
And if we trust in what God says,
God says happiness is the same person
as found in obeying His commandments and serving Him.
Let's go to the word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for allowing us to be here today
and to see where it is taught here.
Help us to apply this to our lives, God,
and there are a lot of defense in 1 John.
Help us as soul-winners
and as people that love you
and as people that are safe.
Help us to understand all of these verses.
Help us to apply them to our lives
and help all of us try to walk with you
as we close to you
and help us to have joy in our lives, God.
We pray this in Jesus' name,
Amen.
And for our last one,
we'll start to read number 86.
Sing the song in the garden.
In number 86,
let's sing the song in the garden.
In number 86,
let's sing the song in the garden.