This is encouraging in the middle of the week any part of the week really if you think about it first one
Begins in the dark of the midnight. Have I offed hid my face? We've been there lift it up from your heart
We're gonna let the instruments drop out on the chorus and just sing to your Lord tonight all that first verse all together now
Buster
Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to the Steadfast Baptist Church.
It's awesome to see everybody here tonight.
If we can go ahead and find our seats, we will go ahead and get started.
Once we've all found a seat, let's grab a hymnal.
And for our first song tonight, we'll sing 164 together, praise him, praise him, song
Number one, six, four, praise him, praise him.
Let's all sing it out together on that first.
Praise.
singing everybody let's open up the service now with a word of
prayer. Lord we just want to thank you once again for this
awesome church and awesome people gathered here to serve you
and praise you Lord we just ask that you help us lift up our
voices this evening and sing unto you with all our might and
it's in Jesus name we pray amen. Alright for our next song
let's go to song number 30.
Thanks for coming to Set Fast Baptist Church.
If you didn't already have a bulletin, you'd like one.
Just lift your hand nice and high.
On the front, we have our Bible memory passage, Jude 17.
On the insides are service and soul winning times.
Also, our church stats on the right
is a list of several expecting ladies.
Men's retreat, there should be consent forms.
Are they out there on the four?
electronic. Okay, Vangesfer was gonna see if you get the consent form, if you're going on the
men's retreat, print it out, send out to him, or bring it with you if you if you forget, well...
We'll have some extra that you can sign when you get there
We're if you want to carpool you can just meet here at the church building and we'll go around nine
Otherwise you can just meet us there if you're not sure about the address
Let's just let us know again reminder make sure to bring your Bible sheets pillow toiletries towels swimsuit and
Apparently some strength. So I mean that's it's the mighty men's competition that we're gonna be doing it actually is gonna be different this year
I'm pretty excited about it. So
Down below, we also have some notes about...
Other events August 27th to the 31st is our FBBF conference. So that's coming up
One thing we had mentioned in our group chat
But if you are interested in helping you see brother fur about this is we're gonna get some people to help us
Just like a welcoming
Crew just to help like pass out some of the shirts and some of the the free goodies that we had
So that's just gonna be kind of before the service is if anybody would like to help with that
That would be a great blessing.
You can see Evangeles for about that.
And we'd love to have some assistance on that.
Also, missions trip, Mexico City, September 8th to the 12th.
Tyler, Texas, soul-winning marathon, September 27th.
There's a soul-winning seminar.
Brother Marcel's going to be leading October 4th.
Missions trip to Nassau Bahamas, October 6th through the 11th.
On the back is our prayer list.
If you'd pray for the Carlson's parents' health.
Continue to pray for miss miller's mother friends mother her cancer treatments if you'd pray for both the scots and
Also miss Olivia continue to pray for brother Tony's health. We're praying for the Foley's dad's kidney disease
If you'd also pray for the urbanax grandmother. She was in surgery today
this afternoon, I'm not sure exactly how that went,
but if you continue to just pray for her
and pray for her recovery.
Also for their friend who's been recovering
from heart surgery, if you pray for the good winds,
for their brother-in-law who's recovering from surgery,
if you could pray for brother Gabe's mother.
Ms. Ginger has a cousin, Ms. Tammy,
who's also diagnosed with cancer.
If you'd please pray for her.
Please pray for brother Stewart's father-in-law, Bob,
who had a recent heart attack and is recovering.
And then if you'd pray for Ms.
Madrej is daughter Vanna and also friend who also has cancer, unfortunately.
And then Brother Suhail asked if we would pray for his mother who's having an operation on the 18th,
which is next week sometime, Monday.
Okay, so we'll definitely keep her in our prayers and we'll say a quick word of prayer as a church family now.
Thank you Heavenly Father so much for our steadfast Baptist Church. Thank you for all the ladies who are expecting in our church.
I pray those that are hoping to conceive that you'd bless them. I pray that you'd bless those who are
recently given birth that you'd be with them in their
They're new babies. I pray that you would also please help our church family and our friends that are struggling with cancer and these various illnesses and these serious problems.
I pray that you'd help those that are going through surgery or upcoming surgeries. I pray that you would just give them favor in those procedures.
They would help have them have a speedy recovery. I pray that you would just help our evangelists in the Philippines and the work that they're doing over there.
And I pray that you would bless our upcoming events and conferences, in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
So pretty much all I have as far as announcements, we'll go ahead and sing our Psalm of the Week, Psalm 139.
It's in our special Psalm hymn and binder.
Psalm 139, sing it out nice and loud.
All right, that was Psalm 139 in your special binder, Psalm 139.
We love you, man.
We're never gonna see each other again
Go ahead and open your Bibles to 1st John chapter 5, that's the book of 1st John chapter number 5.
First John chapter number five, the Bible reads,
whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God,
and everyone that loveth him also that is begotten of him.
By this we know that we love the children of God
when we love God and keep his commandments.
For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments
and his commandments are not grievous.
For whatsoever is born of God overcomeeth the world,
and this is the victory that overcomeeth the world,
even our faith.
Who is he that overcomes the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ, not by water only, but by water and blood,
and it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.
For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one.
And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water and the blood, and these three agree in one.
If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater, for this is the witness
of God which he hath testified of his Son.
He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself.
He that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record
that God gave of his Son.
And this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his
Son.
He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God.
hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God,
that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God."
And this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will,
he heareth us. And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the
petitions that we desired of him.
If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall
give him life for them that sin not unto death.
There is a sin unto death, I do not say that he shall pray for it.
All in righteousness is sin, and there is a sin not unto death.
We know that whosoever is born of God sineth not, but he that is begotten of God keepeth
himself, and that wicked one toucheth them not.
And we know that we are of God in the whole world,
life and wickedness.
And we know that the Son of God has come
and have given us an understanding
that we may know Him that is true,
and we are in Him that is true,
even in His Son, Jesus Christ.
This is the true God and eternal life.
Little children, keep yourself from idols, amen.
Let us pray.
Heavenly Father.
Thank you for this church. Thank you for allowing us to be here
I pray that you fill past your show with the Holy Spirit and bless his preaching help us to understand it and learn from it and
Apply to our lives and I pray us in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. We're here finishing 1st John
The Bible says in verse one whosoever believe that Jesus the Christ is born of God and everyone that love of them that begat
Love of them also those begotten of him now here in this first part of verse number one
I think we have to be careful to not get an overly simplistic understanding of what some of these
verses are meaning because there's probably a lot of Christians, if not all Christians,
virtually speaking that would affirm that Jesus is the Christ. They would say that verbally,
they would acknowledge that, they would use the name or the title, Jesus Christ specifically in
at least lip service to this particular title, to this particular understanding.
Virtually all Christian groups, apart from a handful of cults,
would give lip service to this particular mention.
Even maybe groups outside of Christianity might even make that particular claim.
So how do we understand that salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ and what this verse is
potentially saying? Well, whenever we say that Jesus is the Christ,
that has a meaning to it. We're not saying some surname that has no real meaning,
there's actually a theological meaning when it comes to who the Christ is, what that actually
means. And I think when we study what the Christ is according to the Bible, we realize why those
who are saved believe Jesus is the Christ and those who are not saved do not believe that Jesus
is the Christ. Go over to Matthew chapter number 16, go to Matthew chapter number 16 for a moment.
And we're just going to kind of take a quick trip through the Gospels looking at several
different verses, bringing up what does a Christ mean?
What is that even talking about when we say Jesus Christ?
The Bible says in Matthew chapter 16, look at verse 16, and Simon Peter answered and
said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
He is the Son of God.
You're saying He's the Son of the living God.
So if someone were to acknowledge that Jesus is the Christ,
they would have to acknowledge that He's the Son of God.
That something Muslims obviously don't believe.
That's something that some fringe groups may not believe
is that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
So by labeling the Christ,
one aspect is that He is the Son of the living God.
Go to chapter 22 for a second and look at verse 42.
This is Jesus responding to the Pharisees saying what think he of Christ, whose son is he?
They say unto him, the son of David.
He saith unto them, How then doth David and Spirit call him Lord,
saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand,
Till I make thine enemies thy footstool.
If David then call him Lord, How is he his son?
So in this particular passage, we have the Jews being asked the question here.
Jesus is kind of showing that they don't actually believe in the Son of God because he's not even asking them about himself
He's just saying from a theological perspective or from a doctrinal's perspective
What is your doctrine on Christ and they're saying? Well, he's the son of David
So they're saying he's gonna be a physical descendant of David, which is true
There's nothing not true about that. But then Jesus asked this question. Okay, then how is he also called his Lord?
in the Old Testament.
And they're not gonna just simply say,
oh, well, because he's the Son of God
and he's from eternity past,
because they don't actually believe that particular doctrine
because they don't actually believe
in the Son of God existing.
And so there's definitely people who deny the Son of God.
They deny Him being a particular person.
Whether this be a oneness theology or some variation thereof, Judaism denies the Son of God.
We have the Islam denying the Son of God.
You have oneness groups denying the Son of God.
Unitarian groups denying that the Son of God is a concept.
They would say, He's the Son of God only like we are.
deity of the Son of God or that He exists.
Another thing that is kind of interesting from this, go to Matthew 23 and look at verse
number eight.
It says, Be not called Rabbi for one is your master, even Christ meaning specifically
Christ and all ye are brethren.
So number one, we've established that being the Christ is the Son of God.
Number two, that the Son of God predates David,
that he's from eternity past.
A third point that we notice is that he is the master.
According to the Bible, there's only one master and that's Christ.
Now think about this, Jews don't believe this
because they go around calling each other rabbi.
So, they don't believe in, we have one master, we have one Christ, we have one Lord.
They go around calling themselves master and calling themselves the leader as the teacher.
And so, they don't look to Christ as their master, they look to themselves as masters.
Go to Luke chapter number two, go to Luke chapter two, so declaring that Jesus is the Christ
is a major significant theological statement to make.
Obviously, I could teach a parrot to say,
ah, this is the Christ!
But you know, that doesn't make him saved.
He's still a parrot.
He's still a bird and look humans are better than parrots
Humans have more intellect than a parrot. So you you have to understand that an unsaved person
Can do what a parrot can do and can just literally state a phrase or could make a public statement
But that doesn't mean that he believes that in his heart. It doesn't mean that he's a he's
Understanding what that particular phrase even is meaning. Okay, so we have to realize that
Salvation is putting your faith in Jesus Christ and you have to realize that He is the Christ
otherwise you're not believing the gospel. Luke chapter number two, this is going to bring us
kind of a picture of the gospel here from the understanding of Christ. Look at verse number 10.
And the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy,
which shall be to all people, for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior.
which is Christ the Lord.
So by being Christ,
you're not just the Master,
you're not just the Son of God,
you're the Savior.
Well, in order to have a Savior,
that means you need to be saved.
What, how can you have a Savior
if you don't need to be saved
and you don't have a Savior?
We have a Savior because we need to be saved, right?
And that's being implied
by what it means to be Christ.
Go to Luke 23,
go all the way to the end of Luke.
Luke 23 so being the Christ is the son of the living God being the Christ is the son of God from eternity past being the Christ
Is the master being the Christ is a Savior?
Matthew I'm sorry Luke 23 verse 35
The Bible says
And the people stood beholding, and the rulers also with them derided them, saying,
He saved others, let Him save Himself, if He be Christ, the chosen of God.
To be Christ means to be the chosen of God.
They acknowledge that, hey, if He was the Christ, He is the chosen of God,
but they don't believe that He's the Christ at this moment.
And really, if you think about this, they're denying the death of Christ.
Not not necessarily Jesus here. They're denying the death of Christ because they're saying if he was the Christ
Then he wouldn't die
But the reality is that Christ will die
So in a sense they don't even understand the doctrine of Christ and they don't believe that Jesus is that Christ
So they have two major theological issues here is they're denying not only that Jesus the Christ
They don't recognize that to be Christ means you would die
that you would die for the sins of the world.
Look at chapter 24 and verse 25.
Now, Jesus gets mad about people not believing this
or not understanding this.
Luke 24, look at verse 25.
Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all the prophets have spoken, ought not
Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory.
So these two people are upset because Jesus Christ died and they feel like that somehow was a failure or
didn't fulfill what the scripture said and Jesus is rebuking them from a theological perspective, from a doctrinal perspective, saying,
How is it that you don't believe that Jesus was to die?
That proves that he's the Christ because the prophecies declared that he was going to die.
In fact, he even said he was going to die repeatedly in the Gospels and said that he would rise again.
And so he's calling them fools for having not believed that Christ is someone who would have
suffered and would who died for the sins of the people.
Now in John chapter one right here, look at verse 25.
And they asked him and said to him,
why baptizes thou then, if thou be not that Christ,
nor Elias, neither that prophet?
And in this particular setting,
they think that John the Baptist is Christ.
And he tells them that he's not the Christ.
And he makes it clear that he's not worthy
to be that particular Christ.
And then he says he's gonna point to him, verse 29,
in the next day, John sees Jesus coming unto him
and say, behold, the Lamb of God,
which take away the sin of the world.
So, who is the Lamb of God?
That's that Christ that he's going to point to.
He says, I'm not the Christ, but I'm one sent before him,
and he's gonna point to him, and then when he points to him,
what does it mean to be Christ?
It means to take away the sin of the world.
Take away the sin of the world.
If you look a little bit further in this chapter, verse 41,
he first findeth his own brother Simon,
which sayeth unto him, we have found the Messiahs,
which is being interpreted
the Christ. So Messiah and Christ are synonymous terms and it means Christ.
So to be Christ means you're the Messiah. To be Christ means that you're going to
take away the sins of the world. To be Christ means you're going to
suffer, you're going to die, that you're the chosen of God,
that you're a Savior, that you're the Master, that you're the Son of God from
eternity past
and you are the Son of the living God. That's what it means so far.
John 4 verse 42 the Bible says and said to the woman now we believe not because of
thy saying we have heard him ourselves and know that this is indeed the Christ
the Savior of the world notice what it means to be Christ is it means that
you're the Savior of the world look at chapter 7 verse 42 chapter 7 verse 42
The Bible says, have not the Scripture said that Christ cometh of the seat of David and out of the town of Bethlehem where David was.
So to believe in the Christ means you believe that he was born in Bethlehem specifically.
Whoever Christ is, is born in Bethlehem.
To declare that Jesus is the Christ is to declare that Jesus was born in Bethlehem and to believe that particular doctrine.
Isn't that kind of the starting point of the Gospel messages?
The starting point of many of the gospel messages is the fact that Jesus was born in Bethlehem
so that we would know what?
That he's the Christ.
Go to chapter 11.
Go to chapter number 11.
And look at verse 26.
Chapter 11, verse 26, the Bible says, this is Jesus speaking, and who's, I'm sorry, yeah,
verse 26 and who said we're living and believing in me shall never die believe is thou this she saith on him
Ye Lord I believe that thou art the Christ the son of God which should come into
The world so notice this is someone that would come into the world
So he's the son of God that came down from heaven
That's who the Christ is it's someone that came down from heaven as the savior of the world who's the son of God
Go over to chapter number 20, go to chapter number 20 here, and look at verse 31.
Now, this gives us the purpose of the book of John.
What is the purpose of the book of John?
Well, it says in verse 31, but these are written that you might believe, what?
That Jesus is the Christ.
What's the whole point of the Gospel of John is that you would believe that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life through His name.
So what does it mean to believe that Jesus is the Christ?
It's to believe that salvation and eternal life only comes through believing in Jesus.
And believing what? That he's the son of the living God, that he's the son of God from eternity past,
that he's the only master, that he is our savior, he's the savior of the whole world,
he is chosen of God, that he is to suffer, that he's going to take away the sins of the world,
that he's the savior of the world, that he was born in Bethlehem, that if you believe in him,
that you'll have everlasting life, and that he is the son of God, and only by believing him
that you may have life through his name.
That's what it means when you say Jesus is the Christ
It's not just saying I just believe this wording or that happens to be his last name
It has theological connect connections to it. You believe that he's the Messiah
Look at chapter 2 of Acts chapter 2 of Acts and look at verse 36
Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus,
whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
Notice that Christ is one whom what is crucified specifically.
Look at chapter 3 verse 17.
And now, brethren, I wrote that through ignorance, you did it, as did also your rulers,
but those things which God before hath showed by the mouth of all his prophets,
that Christ should suffer, he has so fulfilled.
Notice again, the Bible repeating the fact that Christ would suffer.
Look at chapter 8, verse 37.
Acts chapter number 8, and look at verse number 37.
And Philip said,
If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest.
And he answered and said,
I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
Notice that you can make that connection
that being Christ is the Son of God,
which is the prerequisite to what?
Getting baptized.
So what did this guy believe?
He believed all the things associated
with believing that Jesus is the Christ,
that he was born in Bethlehem's manger.
that he came from heaven, that he is the Messiah,
that he's the Lamb which is going to take away the sins of the world,
and that life only comes through believing in his name,
and that believing he is the Son of God,
that's why he can get baptized is because he's saved by his faith
and what Jesus did for him.
Go to Acts chapter number 17.
That's a great verse to have in your Bible,
because if you have a modern version, they'll take it out.
And they'll say, what's stopping you from getting baptized?
And the answer is literally nothing.
There is nothing stopping you from getting baptized,
whereas the Bible says no, you have to believe that Jesus is the Christ.
You have to put your faith in Jesus Christ.
Acts chapter 17 verse 3,
opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered
and risen again from the dead and that this Christ whom I preach unto you
is Christ. Look, it's like, hey,
I'm saying Jesus Christ, but you need to believe that he is Christ.
And what does that mean, to believe that he is Christ?
Well, you have to believe that he suffered.
You have to believe that he rose again from the dead.
And you have to believe that Jesus that just came,
that I've encountered, that was in Jerusalem just recently,
is that specific Christ that the Bible is talking about.
You have to believe that that's how you get saved.
He says in chapter 18, look at verse 28.
I'm noticing a theme in the Bible.
He had to believe these things in order to be saved.
Acts chapter 18, look at verse 28,
for he mightily convinced the Jews and that publicly,
showing by the scriptures that Jesus, notice this,
was Christ.
It's not just saying, hey, this guy's last name's Christ,
he's showing him what?
That he was born in Bethlehem.
He's showing him that he's from eternity past.
that he's the Lord of David.
He's showing him that he's the Messiah.
He's showing him that this person would come
and would suffer.
He's showing him that he's the Lamb of God.
He's showing him that he would take away
the sins of the world.
He's showing him that he would rise again three days later.
He's showing him what?
That Jesus Christ is the Son of God
and he's the only way that you get salvation.
That's what he's showing them.
He's showing him that Jesus was Christ.
That's how you get saved.
Look at chapter 26, you say, how do I do soul winning?
Well, the Bible is showing you how to do soul winning.
This is how you do soul winning,
is you're showing people that Jesus is Christ
and what it means to be Christ.
It's not just saying the name,
it's believing that Jesus is the Christ.
That's what actually saves you.
Acts chapter number 26 and look at verse 23.
Acts 26 and look at verse 23.
That Christ should suffer and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead and should show light under the people and
To the Gentiles notice again. He's the savior of the whole world. He's the savior of the world
He's the savior of not only the Jews but also of the Gentiles
Why because he didn't die for just some people he died for all people
He died for every single person and I'm not gonna do every verse, but go to Romans 1. We'll look at one more
There's so many great verses on just Christ, just studying the word Christ in your Bible
and what that actually means.
Romans chapter 1 verse 16, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power
of God and the salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the
Greek for therein is the righteousness of God revealed, from faith to faith as it is
written, the just shall live by faith.
So by believing that Jesus is the Christ, that's what actually saves you.
Now go over to Matthew chapter 7 for a moment. Go to Matthew chapter number 7.
Won't most Christians though still give lip service to Jesus being the Christ? Yes.
Won't most Catholics give lip service to Jesus being the Christ? Yes.
Will many Christians say Jesus was born in Bethlehem? Yes, they will.
Will many Christians say that Jesus is the Son of God? Yes, they will.
Will many Christians say that Jesus is Lord? Yes, they will.
But they do not believe that He's the Christ. Now why?
Well, what does the Christ mean the Christ means that he's going to pay for the sins of the world
That's gonna take away the sins of the world if Jesus Christ paid for all of my sins
Then what's stopping me from going to heaven?
Nothing
because if I truly believe he's the Christ,
then I truly believe he paid all of my sins.
So then I will go to heaven.
Whereas if I think that going to heaven
is also me living a good life, doing my part,
getting baptized, doing some other works,
then I'm not believing that Jesus paid all my sins,
and I'm denying that he's the Christ,
and I'm denying that he's the chosen of God,
and I'm denying what he did,
so I don't actually believe he's the Christ.
I'm trying to make myself the Christ.
And you'll notice in Matthew chapter 7, these same people do the same thing.
Look at verse 21,
Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter in the kingdom of heaven,
but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
So these people might be able to give lip service that Jesus is the Christ.
They even call him Lord, which is Master.
Which is what it said, Rabbi, meaning master, meaning Christ.
He's our one Lord.
They say Lord, but they didn't do the will of the Father.
Many will say to me in that day,
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name,
and in the name of cast out devils,
and in thy name do many wonderful works?
And then will I profess unto them,
I never knew you, depart from me ye that work iniquity.
Why are these people not saved?
because they did not believe that Jesus was the Christ.
They did not look to Christ and say,
Jesus, I believed you were the Christ.
I believe that you died on the cross for my sins.
I believe that you rose again for my sins.
And I put my faith in you to save me.
They said, no, look at all my works.
And that's why they're not saved
is because they were trusting in their works.
They weren't trusting in Jesus Christ.
And that's why they're not saved.
Do not get confused and think like, oh, anybody that gives lip service to Jesus being the
Christ is saved, or can just state a fact that Jesus is the Son of God is saved.
No, they must believe that he's the Christ, meaning he paid all their sins.
And isn't it funny when you talk to people and they get confused on this?
They think, well, Jesus paid all my sins, but then they don't actually really believe that when you really question them.
You ask them to say, yeah, but if I lie, if I steal, if I commit murder in the future, I'm going to hell.
How does that person believe that Jesus paid for all their sins?
They don't.
They think that they have to do something to constantly pay for their own sins,
and they think because of their good works they're somehow accepted with him,
but no one is accepted in his sight by their works.
It's by the faith of Jesus Christ only.
That's the righteousness of God which has been revealed through faith.
Is it from one faith to another faith?
That's why we go soul-winning, is to show people, hey,
believing that Jesus is the Christ is what's going to save you.
If you believe in yourself, if you believe in your works, if you believe in another religion,
you will not be saved. You must believe that Jesus is the Christ.
And what that means is that He's the Savior of the world.
What that means is that He paid for all your sins.
What that means is that faith in Him is the only way to get saved.
It's only by believing Him that you'll have life.
That's how you get eternal life is by believing that Jesus is the Christ.
Go back, if you would, to our chapter, 1 John chapter 5.
I want to emphasize that because sometimes you read these really simple statements
and it may confuse you and you may think, oh, well, then everybody's saved.
No, it's not discounting the rest of the Bible.
It's a very deep theological meaning to say that Jesus is the Christ.
And notice what it says.
Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. Notice it doesn't say whosoever says
Notice it doesn't say whosoever can give lip service to it says whoever actually believes that is the person that's actually saved and
What does the Bible say out of the abundance of the heart?
That's why we ask people questions because we're trying to test them to see if they actually believe that Jesus is the Christ by where their faith is.
Is their faith in the Christ that paid for all their sins?
Or is their faith in their good works, in their service, in their church attendance, in their religion?
And that's where we see if they actually believe that Jesus is the Christ.
Because everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ, when you say why you're going to heaven, will say because Jesus paid for all my sins and I'm putting my faith in him.
testifying is Jesus is the Christ. Whereas the person that says, no, I'm a good person,
I go to church, I pay tithes, I do this, they're not testifying that Jesus is the Christ, they're
trying to make themselves the Christ, they're trying to look to their works and they will
not make it into heaven. We must understand these deep, the deep aspect of what this verse
is actually saying. It says, and everyone that loveth him that begat...
Loveeth him also, that is begotten of him.
Now that's kind of a tricky wording.
If you slow down for just a second,
everyone that loveeth him, that begat,
who's the one that begat?
The father, right?
God the father is the one that begats.
Loveeth him also, that is begotten of him.
So everyone that loves the father,
also loves those whom the father has begotten.
Meaning what? Well, first of all, we would love Jesus, right?
Who's the only begotten Son of God?
That's Jesus Christ.
Everyone that loves the Father loves the Son.
And if you don't love the Son, you don't love the Father.
I also believe by extension, this applies to all Christians,
and that if you really love God, you'll also love the Sons of God.
And so therefore, those who don't love the Sons of God don't love God.
Because those who love God are the ones who love the sons of God, those who love Jesus are the ones who love the father,
and when you don't love one, you don't love the other.
It's a package deal. Verse 2,
By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments.
So now it's giving us a backwards test here.
It's saying, well, you really want to see how much you love God.
then let's just see how good you are at keeping commandments,
and let's see how much you love your brother
and are doing good under your brother.
And then that's a good test for you to realize how much you really love God.
And think about it.
If you go out and just lie a whole bunch today,
that means you don't really love God much
because you don't care about His commandments,
and you're hurting people by lying.
You know, when you commit fornication, when you commit adultery, when you steal, when
you lie, when you covet, when you do these evil things, really what you're just showing
is you don't have enough love for God because you're hurting other people and you don't
care about other people and if you really boil it down, if we just really think hard
about it, sin is just being selfish.
It's just being selfish.
You're willing to hurt other people for your benefit.
Why would I lie?
because there's some selfish reason, right?
Either to gain advantage in some way,
or to not be embarrassed about maybe a bad decision
that I've made, or to cover something up
that would cause me some kind of a problem
or some kind of an issue, right?
Why do we lie?
Because of a selfish reason.
Why would someone commit adultery?
Because they're being selfish.
Why would someone commit fornication?
because they're being selfish.
Why does someone steal because they're being selfish?
But here's the thing, all of these things
that we're talking about, there's pretty much a victim.
I mean, there's going to be a victim in these particular situations, and of course, even
if we abstract these to just the sins against God, he's still the victim.
When we would worship another God, he's the victim and he's going to be jealous for that
attention because we're supposed to give that attention and glory and honor to him.
We're not supposed to take that glory and praise of God and give it to some other kind
of a God or some kind of a false religion.
dishonor our parents, that's going to hurt them and harm them.
Taking the Lord's name in vain, you know, using His name as a cuss word is going to hurt Him,
hurt His feelings, because you know what? God has real feelings. He's not an emotionless,
abstract idea. He's a person, and He has feelings. And of course, He doesn't like it when His name
is taken in vain. He doesn't like it when people are going against Him, worshipping and bowing
He doesn't like it when he made you the way that he wants
and then you tat your body up with a Batman symbol on your chest.
He doesn't like that.
He doesn't like it when he made you as a man and you grow your hair out like a woman.
He doesn't like it when you dress like a woman as a man.
He doesn't like it as a woman trying to look like a dude.
He doesn't like it when you're just doing his...
He doesn't like the paintings of Jesus that are not Jesus with long hair.
He's the victim of those things and then when we sin against man
Obviously, it's a double whammy because we're hurting some person and we're hurting God when we lie
When we steal when we cheat when we covet when we do things that are awful door neighbor
if you think about it if I really love this person if I really care about this person then I wouldn't make a decision that would harm them
Right if I love my brother, I'm not gonna lie about him. I'm not gonna slander him. I'm not gonna gossip about him
I'm not gonna attack him. I'm not gonna hate him in them in my heart. I'm not gonna be envious of him
I'm not gonna do bad things on him because I actually just love him and I want good for him and
Really when you notice that you're just sinning a lot towards a particular person
It's just a test to say I guess I don't really love this person as much as I thought
And I need to increase my love for this particular person.
You know, I need to increase my love for my wife.
I need to increase my love for my children.
I need to increase my love for my boss, for my pastor,
for my church, for my brothers and sisters in Christ,
for the people that are in my life, for the lost.
Think about this, how many people just don't love the lost enough
to want to go and give them the gospel ever?
It just shows a lack of love.
And what is it, it's just selfish.
They would just rather spend their time
doing something for themselves,
enjoying their life, enjoying whatever they have
instead of being willing to spend a few minutes,
maybe an hour a week,
to just tell somebody how to escape hell
for all of eternity.
You would think that there would be a good enough motivation,
but it's not because we're selfish.
And all sin at the root core is really just selfishness
if we really think about it, and it shows an absence of love,
because love makes sacrifices.
Love decides to do better unto someone else.
And you know, people can sit here and say,
I quote love, you know, whoever, but do you really?
Hey, I mean, I love my wife, but I never want to give her any attention.
I never want to talk to her.
I'm always thinking about other women.
Well, how do you really love your wife?
I mean, it doesn't seem like you really love your wife.
It just seems like you're being selfish.
You know, as a wife, I really love my husband.
What do you do for him?
Well, I nag him a lot.
I mean, I complain, and I don't help him with anything.
I mean, that doesn't really show a lot of love, does it?
You know, I really love my brothers and sisters in Christ, but it's like, okay, but you talk positive about them
Do you help them? Do you do good under them? You know, what does what does love really look like?
Well, it's it's wishing no ill upon your neighbor. It's doing no ill upon your neighbor
It's not wanting to be envious of him. You're actually you're esteeming other better than yourself
You're looking upon their things above your things. You're wishing good for them. I mean, this is what true love looks like
Now, as anybody arrived, no one's arrived.
So we have to realize that we are still a work in progress and we're saying to find ourselves,
but this is that test.
We should test ourselves.
You should constantly be testing yourself and say, hey, do I really love this person?
When you notice yourself sinning and when you commit sin, just take a second and reflect
on it for a moment.
Just think about it and think about the person that was a victim there and think about the person that you hurt and think about
How that's not fair and maybe that could help motivate you a little bit to say you know what?
I don't really want to hurt this person and even if they don't know where of it just think like well
If they found out if they knew what I was doing it would really hurt their feelings
And you know I love this person too much to want to just keep hurting their feelings like this
So I want to make some changes. I want to improve. I want to do something different because I just I actually do love them
And when you actually love your brother,
you're willing to make changes,
you're willing to sacrifice,
you're willing to do things that aren't comfortable,
you're willing to lay down your life for the brethren.
I don't think Jesus Christ wanted to lay down
all the power and might that he had in heaven
and be condescending to men of low estate
and be in this lowly, humble fashion
and to make himself in the form of a servant
and to go around and wash people's feet
and to wash Judas' feet.
I mean, he didn't even get to come in an era of like, you know, the Cybertruck and ride
that around.
You know, he had to walk around in sandals and stuff.
He didn't have all the same luxuries and delicacies that we have of today.
He had to walk everywhere.
He was hungry.
I mean, he had to go through the wilderness for 40 days without eating.
Who wants to try that?
Most of us would probably die, for sure.
And, I mean, I don't know how he survived, but he was able to survive some extreme measure there.
And then as soon as he's done, he then just starts a huge ministry where he's just dedicating his whole life,
just sacrificing by going around, giving the gospel, healing people to people that are very unappreciative, very ungrateful.
And you know you have to realize that most of ministry is going to be the people that are not grateful.
Think about it, most of the people who get saved out so many are never going to come to church,
are never going to say thank you, are never going to really do much.
It's like where are the nine? Didn't I heal ten lepers? Where are the nine?
And you even, you have disciples,
and then you have a Judas out of it, right?
And you have things, I mean, people are never
gonna really appreciate the things that you truly do.
They're never gonna reciprocate necessarily.
You're gonna just, some people are on borrowed time.
They come and go.
Demis have forsaken me, having loved this present world
and has departed on the Thessalonica.
I mean, you just have all kinds of situations like this, but you know what?
If you just truly love your neighbor, you just do it anyways.
You're just like Jesus who laid down his life and you say,
you know what, I actually love these people.
I'm going to get on the cross and I'm going to even die for some of these people
that are willing for me to be killed unjustly
so that maybe, per chance, God would give them repentance on a life.
And he said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.
I mean, that's love.
You're watching some Hollywood movie where some whore ends up running away from the stable guy
to go with the bad guy, the bad boy or whatever,
because he connects with her on an emotional level in the Titanic or whatever, right?
I mean, you would think that she hit the jackpot.
She's on the most expensive boat with some rich guy.
She's set for life and that's not good enough.
She has to sleep with a homeless artist.
And he wasn't even Hitler.
I mean, he was just a homeless Hitler.
He's not even, you know, he's not cool.
And I don't think Hitler's cool.
I was just making a joke, okay, folks.
I was just saying, like he's a starving artist
and she's just some whore that has to just,
and then like the end of the movie,
she just throws money down the drain.
That's what it's like to be married, okay?
But she just throws diamonds down the well or whatever.
It's like, they take this expensive boat.
Right, to find stuff and they lose even more money at the end of it.
But I'm just thinking like, what in the world is wrong with the world today?
But you know, that's just how it is sometimes.
You just, you love people and they don't reciprocate, they don't deserve it.
You know, you try, but people just make bad decisions.
And you know, you think like, oh, well I love, because look, I love this bad boy.
She doesn't actually love.
You know what she was doing?
She hated him and she hates all of her family
and all the people that invested in her
and invested in that relationship
and all the things that she's done just to be selfish.
It wasn't love, adultery's not love, it's hate.
Fornication is not love, it's hatred and selfishness.
And people think like, oh, that's what love is.
No, no, love is when your spouse is sick
and you stay by their side and you do good
under them when they don't deserve it.
Love is when your spouse is having a hard time
and you stick with them and you do them good.
Love is when you don't really like certain things
about your spouse and you still try to do good
in them and help them.
I was listening to some video,
I wanna make a response to this specific video,
but there's this guy named Dr. John Deloni
and he's like a sidekick of Dave Ramsey.
Who knows who Dave Ramsey is?
He's the guy that gives out financial advice.
Really what he does is he sells financial advice.
And most of his financial advice, I find to be stupid, okay?
And he just assumes all kinds of things like you already own a house and all this stuff and I'm like thinking
Dude, you're gonna lose the next generation. They don't have a house. They're mad. They don't have a house
Okay, but anyways, he has this sidekick dr. John Delaney
That's always giving advice like marriage advice and marriage counseling
And you know, he's like the stereotypical person of why I hate getting marriage advice from non-save Baptist pastors
Okay, because these other type marriage counselors in the world
Divorce is on the table for them, and because divorce is on the table, what I've noticed
is that this is how they give marriage counseling advice, is they just basically offer up divorce.
Pretty much every time.
This guy like calls in and he's complaining about his wife.
He says, I love her, but I don't like her anymore, which is a meaningless platitude.
How do you love her?
Okay, whatever.
This is what I don't like.
He's like, well, what do you don't like about her?
He's like, well, sometimes I talked to her
and then in the middle of the conversation,
she asked me a question that makes it clear
that she wasn't listening to me.
I was like, have you ever talked to a woman before?
Have you ever talked to a man before?
I mean, come on, that's just like the human condition, folks.
She sometimes isn't listening to him.
And then he said, sometimes even I'll ask her,
you know, we'll have a conversation
and she'll forget about a previous conversation
we had a few days ago or weeks ago or something.
And it's like, I feel like she didn't really listen
or something.
And again, I'm just thinking like,
you just don't like your wife because occasionally
she doesn't connect with the conversation
or forgets about the conversation.
I mean, if that was the case,
I think all those men would be doomed
because like, I'm thinking like,
man, I do that to my wife all the time.
Right?
Life is hard to just always stay focused or always remember everything.
I mean, if I had to quiz y'all after my sermon, y'all would be in trouble, you know what I mean?
But this is the second thing that he brought up.
He said, well, sometimes my wife has what he called emotional explosiveness.
It was like, what straight man ever said that sentence?
Emotional explosiveness.
But then I'm thinking, again, you married a woman, bro.
I mean like occasionally they might be emotional.
Now again he was trying to say like sometimes in public
she's you know loses it and embarrasses him or whatever.
And I get like that's a little bit uncomfortable,
it's not fun and not every woman is like that necessarily.
But I'm just thinking like you're so,
you don't like your wife just because of those two things.
I mean there's some guys in the Bible
that have a little bit worse situation like Hosea
who's having to raise a bastard child
that's not even his own.
And he's having to pay his wife not to commit adultery against him and you know God's advice is like stay with her
pay her the money
What is dr. John DeLonnie's advice to this guy? He said well immediately this way said well, it's the wife's total fault
She's the blame in this and I'm thinking like
This is the worst advice whenever somebody's giving advice. You don't just immediately side with the with the person
We don't even know the situation or the circumstances or what he's actually describing or what's
really going on in the relationship.
You should never just immediately side with someone.
The Bible is really clear that every man is just in his own cause, or seemeth just in
his own cause.
He that is first in his own cause, seemeth just, I think is how the Prophet actually
worded.
But it's just like, everybody kind of presents themselves in a way that seems like they're
That's my number one pet peeve with this guy.
Second thing though is then he says,
you know, you need to have a hard conversation with her.
You need to sit her down and say,
I'm inviting you into a hard conversation.
Don't ever say that.
Okay, that's just weird.
So you need to say, I'm gonna inviting you
into a hard conversation.
I'm not willing to fight.
And if you're gonna keep being this type of a person,
then we're no longer gonna have this marriage.
And I'm thinking, like, you're going to threaten your wife,
saying, like, this is what he said.
You're supposed to go to your wife and say, I don't like you.
And if you're not willing to change, the marriage is over.
And what she has to change on is not
being emotionally explosive and always remembering
every conversation they have.
I mean, he's basically just saying, divorce your wife.
And I, like, even asked online about it, and they said,
His opinion is just that, you know, you're in a relationship where you're just not happy
Then you know divorces on the table and I was thinking like what person calls in and asks for marriage advice. That's happy
Hey, I want to know what to do in my marriage situation. I'm super happy. No one asked no one says that
Every is asking for marriage advice is actually unhappy
And again, even people that are very content
in their relationship could be unhappy at different times.
You know, you need to realize like,
hey, marriage is just for life, till death.
And what that guy should have done is like,
I'm gonna just figure out a way to like my wife more
or to help her with some of these issues
and I'm gonna come up with solutions
and think about that.
As opposed to just threatening your wife
that, hey, I'm not gonna be married to you
unless you aren't emotionally explosive
or whatever nonsense this is.
I mean, this is just silly.
And then how can he sit here and say,
I love my wife, when you're willing to divorce her,
you're willing to divorce her
over forgetting a few conversations.
That is not love
You don't even know I mean you're supposed to stand there before God and you're vowing for better for worse for richer for poor
But if you forget a conversation, it's over
If you're ever emotionally explosive, it's over. I mean this is just this is the state of our modern country today
Where people are deciding whether or not they're gonna stay married based on their emotional explosiveness, you know, well then marriages are doomed
You know what, this guy is a fraud, he's a fake, he's imposter, he's not a real Christian,
he's not a real marriage counselor.
Do not get advice from these people because they will only counsel you to divorce.
They will not actually counsel you and give you good advice.
And any situation where it's actually real, like a real situation, that's not even a real
situation, I'm sorry.
To me, if that's your marriage problems, then you have virtually no problems.
Okay, you're just experiencing what's called life.
But if you actually had real problems and people have real problems in their marriage like hey
You should still work on them and fix them and you go to these other people they will counsel you to get a divorce
You should never go for their counseling. They don't give marriage counseling. They give divorce counseling and you know what?
I don't agree with it. I think it's all bad. It's all wrong
You should stay away is someone that you go to for counsel on marriage believes in divorce or has been divorced do not counsel with them
And you know what, if you actually love your spouse, you would never divorce them.
Well, you expect God.
You think God expects me to be in a relationship where I'm not happy?
Yes, I do.
And you know who also expected it?
You, because you said it when you vowed it.
You didn't say, for happier, happier.
You said, for better, for worse.
Okay?
And you know what?
Here's the reality.
When you start really loving your spouse the way the Bible is saying,
usually your marriage gets really good.
And most of the time, most people,
they're just not putting in much effort.
And they think like, well, I'm just kind of giving up,
well, then it's gonna get worse.
It only gets better if you put effort and energy into it,
just like everything.
And most people stop doing what they were doing
when they're dating, you know,
just start dating your spouse again,
whether they're doing it or not.
And usually it really makes things different.
And you say, well, how long am I gonna have to do that?
Am I gonna have to keep that up to keep them happy?
Yes, it's called work.
Look, you know marriage is one of the hardest relationships you'll ever have maybe the hardest
But it's also one of the most rewarding if you put the work in
If you put the effort in if you put the energy in and a lot of times you know what you get out what you put in
you say, hey, I just want to say hi in the morning for five seconds and
You know high at night for five seconds and we're not getting much in a relationship
Well, you know, you're not gonna get much in a relationship if you're like that, you know
I'm glad that Jesus doesn't want to give me five seconds
You know, he's always willing to be there for me.
I'm glad that he didn't give me five seconds on the cross
or five seconds in hell.
Hey, he gave me the whole package, didn't he?
You know, that's what real love looks like.
for this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.
And His commandments are not grievous.
Look, it's not grievous to not lie about people
and not steal from people and not covet people
and not do evil into people.
No, it's actually, it's much more grievous to do those things.
And you know what, it'll hurt your heart
and it'll hurt your mind so much more
when you sin against people
than when you do good unto them, when you help them,
when you love them, when you do right unto them.
The commandments of God are not grievous, sin is grievous.
That's what'll mess with you for the rest of your life.
People are not coming to me upset because of the good that they did in their life
Man pastor, I'm just so mad about you know going soul winning the other day. I
Went soul winning for two hours. I should have only done one hour, and I just I feel terrible about it
I feel awful pastor. I spent all I spent some money on going on a missions trip, and I just totally regret it. I
Can't believe I did that pastor. I went to church on Sunday night, and it just made me feel way worse
Pastor, I read my Bible, and now I can't sleep.
No, you went to sleep because you read the Leviticus, okay?
People are not coming to me, and they're all upset and all disappointed
because they did something the Bible said.
You know what they're upset about?
That they didn't do what the Bible said.
That they lied, that they stole, that they committed an adultery,
that they committed an abortion,
that they got a stupid tattoo, that they got drunk.
that they did some drugs, that they did something evil,
they did something wicked, they got backslidden.
That's why people get upset.
That's what's really grievous.
People have some real grievous situations.
People do some really messed up stuff
and ruin their lives permanently.
You know what?
No one's ruining their life serving God.
They're actually a lot happier when they do it too.
Verse four, for whatsoever is born of God
over come of the world, and this is the victory
that over come of the world, even our faith.
What does it mean to overcome? It means to believe on Jesus Christ and to be saved. It means to believe that Jesus is the Christ.
That's what it means to overcome.
Who is he that overcomeeth the world?
But he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God. There it just restates it again.
Who is this guy? It's the guy that believes in Jesus Christ. We overcame. We are overcomers.
Verse 6, this is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ, not by water only, but by water and blood.
And it is the spirit that beareth witness, because the spirit is truth.
This particular verse is interesting, because it's saying not only did he come by water, but he also came by
blood specifically. What is the water coming by water mean? Well,
We pretty much could have compared this to maybe John chapter 3 and talk about water birth, right?
He came he was born
When it comes to the blood, I think you can kind of look at this two different ways
Number one is that he had blood
That when he was born he had blood
and that he wasn't just some apparition or just some body that's being, like, manipulated or something,
that it's a real flesh and blood person, that he was a real human, that was powered by blood,
because the Bible talks about the blood is where the life is. The life is in the blood.
And what powers our life is blood, and if you don't have blood, you don't have life.
You have to have blood. That's why it's important that if someone's bleeding,
to stop that immediately, because if you lose too much blood, you die.
That's why it's important. It's also important that Jesus had blood so that it could be shed because without the shedding of blood
There's no remission of sin
So it's important that Jesus Christ not only come by water but come by blood having blood so the blood could be shed
Another thing that could possibly be alluded to here is just his death in a sense because he had to die so that the blood could be
Abstracted so the blood could then be taken up and put on the mercy seat so that we could have the blood atonement
We are saved by the blood atonement of Jesus Christ
And it's not only that he was born. It's that he died is what saves us
Jesus Christ had to die for us to be saved. Otherwise, there is no salvation
And that's a really important point that's brought up in John chapter number 19.
Keep your finger here and go to John chapter 19, and we'll see the Bible reiterating this point
in this chapter that we're reading.
And in 1 John 19, I'm sorry, 1 John 7, 5 verse 7,
It says in John 19, look at verse 33,
but when they came to Jesus and saw that he was dead already, they break not his legs,
but one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side,
and forthwith came there out blood and water.
And he that saw it bear record, and his record is true,
and he knoweth that he saith, true, that he might believe.
So we have a couple of elements here.
Number one, he's dead. They said that he was already dead.
So they didn't break his legs, not a bone of him was broken,
but they pierced his side and out came the water and the blood.
Just making it abundantly clear that he's dead,
because they have to make sure that he's dead.
These Roman soldiers' job is to make sure that they die.
They can't take someone off the cross and them not be dead.
They would lose their own life,
so they're going to guarantee the death of each person on the cross.
That's their entire job.
And it's important that we know Jesus really died so that we can also believe something
important.
The resurrection from the dead.
Because you can only rise from the dead if you die.
And that's where we have our hope.
Our hope is in the resurrection of the dead.
Because if Jesus Christ didn't die and didn't rise again from the dead, we have no salvation.
And we have the water, the blood.
Also we have John talking about it.
And he says that he knows what he's saying is true.
Why?
Because he's filled with the Holy Spirit and that Spirit of God is bearing witness of the
death of Jesus Christ.
And so we have the water, the blood, and the Spirit all testifying that Jesus Christ really
died.
And that's an important point because if he's a living and he was dead, then we have the
Gospel message.
Go back to 1 John chapter 5.
It says in verse number 6 again, and it is the Spirit that beareth witness because the
Spirit is truth.
We didn't get to witness this, but we have the witness of the Word of God.
We have the Bible, which is our witness, and this is the Spirit, because the words of God are inspired by the Holy Ghost.
So this is the Spirit of God telling us about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.
It says in verse 7,
For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one.
So if we went to heaven, there would be three witnesses to what?
Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection.
To the fact that he came, he was born of water and of blood, who would testify of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
What is the point of verse 7?
Like, what is its actual point?
For there are three that bear record.
The point is that there's three witnesses, there's three persons that would bear the exact same record.
The Father will give the exact same record of the Son, the Son will give the same record of the Son, and the Holy Ghost gives the same record of the Son.
And we have them being what?
These three are one.
What does it mean by one here?
Well, let's compare with other verses in the Bible for a second.
Let's not just think about what we think.
Let's just see what the Bible says.
Go to John chapter 17 for a moment.
Go to John chapter 17.
It's important that we understand what these verses actually mean.
Of course, 1 John 5-7 is arguably one of the greatest verses in the Bible in the Trinity.
That there's really a Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in heaven.
And they're not apparitions, they're not ideas, they're real persons.
The Father really is in heaven, the Son really is in heaven, and the Holy Spirit is really in heaven.
When Jesus Christ was on the earth, He said the Son of Man, which is in heaven?
So somehow, Jesus Christ was in heaven.
I've heard some people claim or get weirded out about the...
omnipresence of Jesus Christ by saying when he was in his flesh,
he didn't have omnipresence or something,
and they get nervous about that.
But here's the thing, Jesus has omnipresence whether he appears in flesh or not
because he's somehow everywhere.
I mean, he's saying all on earth that he's in heaven,
so that doesn't stop him, but the person of Jesus Christ,
the flesh of Jesus Christ is not everywhere.
There's one...
instance of that particular individual.
He's on earth because if you took a human body
and you put it on the moon, it would die.
It needs things like oxygen, right?
And this is important because if he wasn't in a real person's body
he couldn't die.
He was actually put in a body so that he could die.
That's the whole point of him coming here.
But obviously, who he is as deity somehow transcends
just how we have one particular instance of ourselves,
one particular location.
We can't really, you know, right now, I guess,
be in two different locations.
Obviously, our body can be separated from our spirit, but...
It's not really who we are, our body's just kind of like a suit, it's just kind of like clothes or something.
But Jesus Christ was on the earth and yet he's still everywhere somehow at the same time.
He's in heaven. I don't believe that there's ever time where it's not true that there aren't three
in burying record in heaven. I think the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost are always in heaven.
for there are three that bear record in heaven,
the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost.
Obviously, when the Spirit descends from heaven,
I don't think he leaves heaven
in the sense that he's no longer in heaven,
but obviously he did descend down and comes down.
Just think about it, this is how I liken God
to give us an earthly example, it's like fire.
Fire can be in multiple places at the same time, and it's not like it's not fire
That's why we love to use the candlelight service is we can show yet
We light the candle and there's the fire and it goes look the Holy Spirit can obviously be in multiple places at one time
Because he's in me and he's in you
Unless you're not saved and then he's not in you okay, but he's in a lot of us
Why because God transcends, you know things that you know as far as like
Being in one place at one time. I don't understand how that works. I I don't know if I ever will understand, but I believe that's true
There's other things about Jesus that we learn in the Bible that we can know
Hey, this is true
Even if we don't fully understand how that works or how that makes sense John chapter 17 look what it says in verse 20
Neither pray I for these alone
But for them also which shall believe on me through their word that they all may be one
as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee,
that they also may be one in us,
that the world may believe that Thou has sent me,
and the glory which Thou gavest me,
I have given them, that they may be one,
even as we are one."
Now, let me ask you this question.
Some people would say, well,
when the Bible says that Jesus and the Father
and the Holy Spirit are one, that just means they're one person.
Well, does that mean that you, me and the Father
and all of us are one person too?
Because that's what the Bible is saying, is that we may be one specifically as they are one.
But are we one with the Father and Jesus Christ in the fact that we are God and we are Jesus Christ?
No, this is not Hinduism. We're not trying to become one with the universe or anything like that.
No, no, no. What does one mean? It means unified.
That's one word one really means in the Bible unified unity on the same page
So think about it if the father has the same testimony as the son and the Holy Spirit
Aren't they perfectly unified?
Aren't they on the same page because they give the same testimony?
And isn't that the context of what first John 5 is actually bringing up?
It's not saying, hey, wink, wink, no, no, they're actually one person.
That's not even in theological view.
That's not in the context of the passage.
What does it mean that they are one?
It means that they have the same witness, they have the same testimony,
that they are in perfect unison, they're in perfect unity.
That's what it really means.
If we keep reading, I want to read the rest of these verses, because I like them.
He says in verse 23,
Father, I will that they also, whom thou has given me, be with me where I am, that they
may behold my glory, which thou has given me, for thou lovest me before the foundation
of the world.
O righteous Father, the world not known thee, but I have known thee, and these have known
that thou hast sent me, and I have declared unto them thy name, and I will declare it,
Notice again that Jesus was loved before the foundation of the world, because Jesus has always been with the Father.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
So the Father was always with the Son, and the Son was always with the Father.
And they loved each other.
And look at verse number five,
with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
So from a biblical wording, I'm not making words up here,
from a biblical wording, I believe that the Father has his own self separate from the Son.
So what would that mean?
I believe that there's three selves in the Trinity.
The Father as a self, the Son as a self,
and the Holy Spirit has a self.
And these three are in heaven,
and they all have the exact same testimony,
the exact same record, and in heaven,
hey, they're one in the sense that they would give you
the exact same witness record and testimony of Jesus Christ.
But they're not one person
They're one God. There's one God and three persons. Now, how does that make sense? Well,
you know, I don't think there's an earthly example that perfectly understands this, but this is just what I typically explain to people just as a quick
earthly analogy to understand a little bit of the concept of the Trinity. It is time.
I think that time is one of the best illustrations to help us because if we think about it, the time is comprised of past, present, and future.
and a sense they're kind of their own selves, right?
Past has its own self, present has its own self,
future has its own self.
These three are not each other though.
The past is not the present.
The present is not the future.
The future is not the past.
They are distinct, but there's only one time.
No one would say, oh, you're describing three times.
You believe in three times.
No, I believe in only one time,
but it's manifested in past, present, and future.
There's three aspects of this time and each one is fully time the past is fully time
There's nothing stopping the past time. It's not like past is a little bit of time
It's fully time the presence fully time the future is fully time
Not only this
They're not each other, but they're also subject one to another in a sense because
Whatever will happen is
Happening and did happen
There's never gonna be a there's never be anywhere where they're out of sync
They're all gonna give the exact same testimony if you knew the future which we can't but if we knew the future
Then we would know what would happen and then we'd experience it happen
And then we remember that it happened because they would be perfectly in unison. They would be one
that they would all give the same record and the same testimony.
True future is true present, is true, past.
And the past can't be altered,
and we notice the subjection of these three.
Whatever will happen is happening and did happen.
Not only that, it's exactly three.
There is no opportunity for there to ever be a fourth time.
There's nothing else, like there's nothing that's gonna interject
and be like a fourth dimension of this time.
No, it's eternally past, present, and future.
It's always going to be past, present, and future, and it's always been past, present, and future,
and it'll never stop being past, present, and future, in a sense.
Obviously, we understand God kind of created the concept of time, but I'm just saying within that framework.
Not only that, there's exactly only one time, and there'll never only, there'll only ever be time.
There's just time, it's past, present, and future, that's just how it is, and it's how it always will be.
And they give the exact same testimony.
Here's another thing, they cannot be, they cannot exist without each other.
So, if we think about it, you cannot have the past if you didn't have the present.
The reason why you have the past is because it happened.
And the reason why it happened is because it was going to happen.
So, in order to have the future, you have to have the present.
Because if it never happened, then it was never going to happen.
So all of these three have to exist same way the father has to have a son or he's not a father and
The son has to have a father or he's not a son and the spirit has to be of God or
It can't have a spirit
Right? And so in a sense, we have these three. They have to have each other. They're always locked in the sense
they're always going to exist and so that that's just kind of my
way of explaining these things. Now, if I'm at the door, if I'm talking to somebody,
I don't necessarily go that deep, but I just simply you'll just say something simple like, hey, time just passed by the future.
They're not each other. There's only one time. That's kind of how it works with God. And is this analogy perfect? No, I don't think it's perfect.
But I do think it illustrates a lot of the same characteristics that we understand about God.
There's only one God. He's always been the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. These three are in heaven.
They give the same testimony of Jesus Christ. We see that the Son is subject to the Father
and we see their relationship has always existed. They've always loved each other.
God, the Father's fully God, the Holy Spirit's fully God, we don't want to take away from their divinity,
but that's just...
And in fact, you would say this, that the present is kind of like the only thing that's tangible.
Like you can't really like I can't go into the future. I'm in the present and I can't really go into the past
I'm in the present and it's like Jesus kind of the more tangible one, right?
The Son of God is kind of the more tangible one that we have we have the Bible
We can kind of experience it right now and of course, I'm not saying you can't experience the father and the son
But I'm just saying like it kind of has that parallel as well
Gov would to bet. I don't know if you're if you're not there, but go back to 1st John chapter 5
These are important verses. This is important verse in the Bible
Obviously, modern Bibles will take this verse out and they'll just totally skip this and
it's just bizarre.
You know, I think it's a powerful verse.
It's clearly what the Bible teaches.
And we see the parallel here and verse 8, and there are three that bear witness in earth,
the Spirit and the water and the blood and these three agree in one.
So notice it's giving us the same kind of a concept here that they're agreeing in one,
meaning what they have the exact same testimony again.
water and the blood that we see in John chapter 19.
I think that there's other ways
that we could even interpret this.
There's other concepts that could be accurate
as far as understanding the water
or the blood in this particular instance,
but I don't wanna go into all of them for a second time.
Verse nine.
If we receive the witness of men,
the witness of God is greater.
For this is the witness of God
which you testify to the Son.
How does verse nine make sense if you took verse seven out?
It's like, hey, this is the witness of God, here's the witness of the earth, and then it's like, hey, by the way, the witness of God is greater.
But, you know, in the modern Bibles, they just took out that witness of God, and it's just kind of...
It doesn't have the same theological understanding.
If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater, for this is the witness of God who was you testified of his son.
He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself.
He that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his son.
Notice again, this is helping us understand who saved those who believe the record that God gave of his son.
The record is mentioned in verse 11, and this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his son.
out so wanting I don't always use it in the present but I've used it in the
past a lot to help somebody understand look if you don't believe these three
elements of the gospel you're not saved and there's three elements that I've
noticed in this record number one is that salvation is only through Jesus
Christ it's in the life is in his son eternal life or salvation is only in
Jesus Christ in order to be saved you must believe in Jesus Christ notice
In order to be saved, you must accept that salvation is by faith and it's a gift.
It's not something you work for or you earn.
And lastly, that gift is what? Eternal life.
If you think you can lose your salvation, you don't believe the record that God gave of his son.
In order to be saved, you must believe it's only through Jesus as a gift and that gift is eternal,
meaning all of your trust is in the finished work of Jesus Christ, you're not saved.
And you know what you're doing? You're calling God a liar.
Because the Bible tells us, I mean, the most famous verse in the Bible says this,
that whosoever believed in them should not perish but have everlasting life.
That is the same message.
And when you don't believe that, you're not saved.
People can quote it, doesn't make them saved.
People can quote a lot of things and they're not saved.
You can quote John 1, John 5, 1, not saved.
You can quote 1 John 4, what is it like, 2 or 3,
where it's just saying, hey, I believe that you came in the flesh, not saved.
You can quote John 3, 16, not be saved.
You have to believe it.
You have to believe it in order to be saved which means that your trust is in Jesus not in yourself verse 14
And this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will
He heareth us and if we know that he hear us what so we ask we know that we have the petitions that we desire to him
Notice that we get more confidence to pray to God when we're right with God
Anna notice this he hears us
Specifically if we ask anything according to his will
He here with us.
You say, well, I don't know what his will is.
Yes, you do.
It's in your hands.
We have the mind of Christ. We have the will of God. Whenever we read in the Bible something that God wants, we can pray for that.
When we don't find it in the Bible, well, then we don't have the same confidence to know that God's going to hear our prayer because
we're not necessarily praying according to His will. We're asking a miss, as the Bible says.
But when we ask according to His will, we know that He hears us and we can have whatever petitions.
He wants to give us all things, but He wants to give us all things according to His will.
Not necessarily according to our will that's why Jesus has to say not my will
But thine be done and of course God will answer prayer you say why doesn't God answer my prayer?
Well, are you a praying according to his will? How many prayers are not being answered today because they're not praying according to God's will
That's why they're not being answered not necessarily because God doesn't answer prayer
It's because you're not asking the right kind of prayers
You're not asking for the right kind of things
It says in verse 16 of any man see his brother sin is in which is not under death
He shall ask and he shall give him life for them that sin not under death. There is a sin in the death
I did not say that he shall pray for it all unrighteousness of sin and there is a sin not of death now
This is powerful because number one
You can actually help your brother a lot and don't be a Catholic. You're not praying to a dead saint
We pray for each other that are active and alive and we have the opportunity to help people
Why do we have a prayer time at church because it actually means something?
The prayer of a righteous man available as much as what the Bible says and so we should pray for each other
We should ask God to do good unto people
We should have faith that God can hear our prayers and answer our prayers
And I've seen him answer lots of prayers and we should never forget the prayers that have been answered in our lives
And we should give thanks to God for the prayers that have been answered in our lives.
Does that extend to everything? No, the Bible says there's a caveat here.
There's a sentence of death. He says we shouldn't pray for it.
A lot of people have different ideas on this.
I typically have leaned towards the idea that this is the idea of maybe a capital punishment
type sin, because obviously in the Bible there's some sins that are unto death, and the Bible
is just saying, hey, this guy should still receive this kind of a punishment.
And I think that that's, you know, makes sense.
And in a civil society, we shouldn't cover everything up.
When something gets super extreme, super egregious, you know, we just have to let things be dealt
We don't want to necessarily cover up extreme, egregious sins necessarily.
But obviously, even some death penalty sins,
things like adultery and stuff,
it seems like God allows people to still live and go through their lives,
and I would still want the best for them in theory,
but we shouldn't try to escape consequences for serious and grievous sin.
And, you know, if God gives you mercy, like he did to David for adultery and things like that, or even murder,
you know what? Count yourself very blessed that you're still getting that opportunity to do things
and take advantage of your opportunities.
You know, don't continue to feel shame for it.
Take advantage of the opportunity that you're still in.
God obviously saw something in you to keep you around.
Think about it that way.
If you deserved a worse punishment, you didn't get it.
That means you could do something great with your life.
Because if you couldn't, you'd probably just take you home.
But if you have done something bad, you know what repent get right and keep serving God as long as you have breath
I believe God wants to use you
Here's another thing that's important though and and this is an accusation
I often get is like how dare you throw anybody out of church for sinning because we're all sinners and all sin is under death
Because they'll still quote Romans 623 for the wages of sin is death. Wait a minute
Doesn't the Bible clearly say there's a sin not under death. So there must be another context than isn't there?
That yeah, okay, sure all sin is deserving of hell and the Bible is clear on that particular context
But the Bible also talks about how some sins are worse than others
Some sins should even receive some kind of a criminal punishment
And yes, some sins are worthy of being kicked out of church as well, and we understand that there's differences between sin here
Verse 18 we know that who serves born of God says not but he that has begotten of God keep of himself and that wicked one touches them
Not I believe that once you're saved you can't ever be possessed by devil or a demon
Verse 19, and we know that we are of God and the whole world lies in wickedness.
FYI, the whole world is bad.
Verse 20, and we know that the Son of God has come
and has given us an understanding that we may know that Him that is true.
And we are in him that is true, even in the Son Jesus Christ, this is the true God and eternal life.
Little children, keep yourselves from idols on men.
We should understand that Jesus is the Christ.
We should stay away from all graven images, all other false, you know, religious icons and things like that.
You know, what we need to give our attention and focus to is the Bible, because this is the true God.
This is the eternal life. This is what gives the eternal life.
We go out and we don't give somebody some icon to kiss or some image to bow down to.
won the eternal life to believe in.
They give someone the true God to actually believe in.
And you say, oh, God's the one that saves.
Amen.
I've never gotten someone to say it without this.
You're trying to take away from God.
No, I'm bringing God with me.
In fact, my words don't work as well as his words.
He's the one that's getting him saved. Absolutely. They're believing in him. They're not believing in me
But let me tell you something. You know what? He uses us to carry this message forth
We have Christ in our hearts and we go from faith to faith. That's how we get people saved
What conclusions can we draw from first John as a whole?
Well, I think that the first John wants to remind us and explain to us in multiple passages that were saved
He wants us to know that we're saved
He says that in verse 13, didn't he?
That he wanted you to know that you have eternal life.
And how do you know you have eternal life?
Because you believe the record that God gave of his son.
And you believe in Jesus.
That's how you know that you're saved.
Number two is that he wants us to also know who else is saved.
Who else has saved the ones that also believe the same record that God gave of his son and that we're one?
Why are we one because we all have the same testimony of Jesus?
Just like the Father Son and Holy Spirit have the same testimony of Jesus all of us that are saved
We all same we all have the same testimony of Jesus too
And that's how you discern who's saved the who's not saved when someone comes in with another Jesus
which is not another, but there's someone that would pervert the gospel of Christ
and they would teach something amiss,
hey, when they're not abiding in the doctrine of Christ, they're not of God.
Hey, if they have a different Jesus, he wasn't born in Bethlehem,
or he wasn't born of a virgin, or he's not the son of God,
or he didn't die on the cross, or he didn't rise again, or he didn't pay all of our sin,
well, you know what? They're not saved.
Because those that are saved, we all have the exact same testimony.
We are one, just like the Father and the Son are one.
We also know how to have fellowship with God how do we have fellowship with God by keeping his commandments?
That's how you love God is by loving God through loving his commandments and keeping his commandments and loving your brother
That's how we know how to love each other is by keeping his commandments and loving the brethren
And I think lastly the Bible here in 1st John is telling us how to avoid bozos
And I think when we really abide deep in the doctrine of Christ,
when we're keeping His commandments, when we're loving each other,
it's going to help us to recognize who's really of God and who's not of God.
And I hope that through this study you've maybe learned a little bit more,
you've been reassured of a few things.
And look, there's so many pressures, there's so many temptations,
there's so many people that want to stop you from keeping God's commandments.
They want to stop you from loving your brother and they want to stop you from having fellowship
with God.
We need to make sure that we're trying to stay in the right fellowship with God, that
we're seeking the fellowship of God, that we're loving our brother, that we're keeping
His commandments, that we're going out and preaching the gospel.
This is why we're here.
This is our whole purpose.
We can't take much out of this world with us, but we can take the souls and we can take
And you know you could sit here and say like oh man, you know your pastor is constantly trying to keep you in church and stuff like that
Yeah, because everything else doesn't matter
Oh, you know you're gonna waste all your time there. Well, you're wasting all your time doing anything else. I
Mean what how is it gonna benefit you to go home and watch cartoons or?
Sleep more or make more money look they're gonna print more money, and it's gonna go down in value
Or to have more property to pay more property taxes.
I mean, look, I'm not against the things that we have to do in this world, we've got to do them.
But at the end of the day, you're not wasting time in church.
You're not wasting time reading your Bible.
You're not wasting time going soul-winning.
You're not wasting time loving your brother.
You're not wasting time earning rewards in heaven.
Everything else is a waste of time.
You're not wasting time going to a foreign country to preach the gospel to people and get them saved.
You're not wasting time going in the ghetto and giving people the gospel,
but you know what? You're wasting time going online, explaining how racist you are.
So stupid. There's so many people who are so stupid and racist.
It's annoying.
It's just, it's just silly.
And it's like, even if it was true, you know, you're just so much better than everybody else.
It still doesn't benefit you.
You know, when you get to heaven, you're not going to be rewarded because you were awesome in this life
just because you're born white or something.
There's not like a white section in heaven, sorry.
And if there is, the people there served God and weren't racist, okay?
Because at the end of the day, I mean, yeah, obviously there's nations and I get that,
but at the end of the day, like, it doesn't matter.
It's meaningless.
All the stuff, the fashion of this world, all that stuff, I mean the Bible says love
not the world, neither things that are in the world.
That's not the love of God, that's not the love of the Father, loving these carnal, stupid, silly things.
Going to church, loving your brother, and you know what, we have a very diverse church
with a lot of diverse people and I love it.
I love it because you know what, we are one because we have the same doctrine!
I don't want to be around a bunch of white atheists,
a bunch of white Catholics, a bunch of white Jews.
You know what? I want to be around Baptist that love the word of God.
Red, yellow, black, and white, they're all precious in his sight.
Yeah, why do we have flags on the wall?
You think I really care about those countries?
Nuts to those countries.
I want those people in those countries to get saved and become a Baptist.
And you know what? I want to be one with them.
You know what? I could care less about countries.
And you know what? America, nuts to America anyways.
America sucks lately.
Oh, but you know what? It used to be cool. Okay, great, but it's not anymore. So what does it matter?
We used to be patriotic. Okay, and then look I'm not like down on our country like I'm not gonna keep fighting for it
I'm not down it like I don't like the heritage. I love the heritage. I love the history. I still love our land
I love Texas. I love these things, but at the end of the day, it's all meaningless
What we should really care about is getting people in Texas saved
loving our brother and going to church and nuts all the haters and nuts all
the weirdos and nuts all the people that are trying to stop you from doing this
because this is what matters. Oh why have a conference? Why haven't many men's
conference because that matters? Why have an FBA conference because it matters?
Why do you kick all the dogs while they're down and the haters because
they need to be kicked more?
Hey, it's the new IP fan club. All right. I like things. I
Mean think about how much of a waste of time it is to just sit home and watch me preaching and hating me the whole time
I mean, isn't that weird I mean, it's truly psychotic
They're like this guy's a terrible preacher, but I listen to him all day
You're such a glutton for punishment, bro, like enjoy your life do something else
You know I mean if this is your only one life because it's gonna go to hell you might as well enjoy it
Why would you sit there and listen to me and belly ache about it?
You know I just got I'm just gonna torment you in hell all the memories of me preaching to you or something
You know like you'd be better off. Just not just tuning it out and trying to forget
Sorry
They're like all your voice is whiny. It's not gonna be as whiny as the people screaming in L
But you know, I hope that you keep reading your Bible.
I hope that you get a more fondness for Jesus.
And I was listening to some guy,
I don't even know if he was saved,
but he made a good point.
He was talking about how some people are nervous
about forcing their kids to go to church
or forcing their kids to like be Christian
or something like this.
And he's like, well, I forced my kids to clean their room.
And I was thinking about it like, you know,
your kids aren't gonna hate Jesus
because they spend time with him.
Jesus is awesome. The Bible is awesome. Church is awesome.
You're not going to hate church by going to church.
You end up falling out of love with things and not liking things because you don't spend time with them.
You're not going to fall out of love with your spouse because you're hanging out with them too much.
Fall out of love. Distance makes the heart grow and fonder.
Yeah, it's stupid. Because isn't it like,
oh, well, I'm spending all this time with this woman at work and then I start to have feelings for her?
Like be careful spend time with the things that you like, you know, there's a lot of food that I like
It seems like every time I have it. I want it even more
I'm not sitting here like oh man. I had chocolate for the last time. I'm thinking I can't wait to have chocolate again
Right. I mean you you do things that you like you want to do it again
I'm gonna go and take a shower again
Every day because I like it
I'm not like, oh man, I've been showering a little too much lately or something, you know.
It's like sleeping too much or eating good food too much or having intimacy with my wife or something.
It's like, oh man, I'm not going to want it.
No, no, no, you know what?
If you hang out with Jesus, if you go to church, if you read your Bible, you're only going to like Jesus more.
The person that doesn't like Jesus, it wouldn't matter. They're not going to like him.
But at the end of the day, the ones that would, make him do it.
Make them read the Bible, make them memorize scripture, make them go to church, make them sing the hymns,
make them do something, and you know what, that's you, drag yourself to do it too.
Drag yourself to church, drag yourself out soul winning,
force yourself to read your Bible, force yourself to memorize
some scripture every once in a while, and you know what, apply it to all areas of your life.
Force yourself to hang out with your wife and with your kids
and with your brothers and with your sister, and force yourself to do the right things
and pretty soon you'll start liking it.
And you know what?
Just force yourself to come to a new happy church and eventually really like it, right?
Let's close in prayer.
Thank you Heavenly Father so much for your word.
Thank you for helping us to understand that we're saved.
Thank you for giving us a great opportunity to serve you and earn rewards in heaven.
I pray that we would go fonder of the Bible, we would go fonder of our brothers and sisters,
that we would try to sin less.
I pray that you'd help keep us away from all the evil and wicked people that want to stop
us from loving people and serving God.
Pray that we'd have an eternal mindset pray that you would bless our men's retreat this week and that you would bring
Us back refreshed and I pray that you would help us to all want to draw closer to the things of God and Jesus
Then we pray amen
All right for our last song let's go to song number 363
Song number 363
wonderful words of life.
Song number 363.
It's all singing out together.