1 John 5

Oh, he's muted.

Though the tears may fall, my song will rise. My song will rise to you. Though my heart may fail, my song will rise, My song will rise to you. While there's breath in my lungs, I will praise you, Lord.

In the dead of night I'll lift my eyes. I lift my eyes to you. Though the waters rise, I'll lift my eyes. I'll lift my eyes to you. While there's hope in this heart, I will praise you, oh Lord.

The joy of the Lord hears my strength. The joy of the Lord hears my strength. In the darkness I'll dance In the shadows I'll sing. The joy of the God is my strength. When I cannot see you lift my eyes, let faith arise to you.

When I cannot feel your hand and mine, let faith rise to you. God of mercy and love, I will praise you, Lord.

Now you shine with glory, Lord of light, I feel alive with you in your presence now I come alive. I am alive with you. There is strength when I say I will praise you, Lord.

Oh, the joy of the Lord is my strength. The joy of the Lord hears my strength. In the darkness I'll dance, In the shadows I'll sing. The joy of the Lord is my strength. The joy of the Lord is my strength.

The joy of the Lord is my strength. In the darkness I'll dance, In the shadows I sing. The joy of the Lord is my strength.

When sorrow comes my way, you are the shield around me. Always you remain my courage in the fight I hear you call my name. Jesus, I am coming. Walking on the waves, reaching for your light.

The joy of the Lord is my strength. The joy of the Lord is my strength. In the darkness I'll dance, In the shadows I'll sing. The joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, the joy of the Lord is my strength.

The joy of the Lord is my strength. In the darkness I'll dance, In the shadows I'll sing. The joy of the Lord is my strength.

Be still. There is a hill healer. His love is deeper than the sea. His mercy is unfailing his arms a fortress for the weak. Let faith arise.

Let faith arise. Ris.

I lift my hands to believe again. You are my refuge, you are my strength. As I pour out my heart these things I remember. You are faithful God, forever be still. There is a river that flows from Calvary's tree, A fountain for the thirsty, your grace that washes over me.

Let faith arise.

Let faith arise.

I lift my hands to believe again. You are my refuge, you are my strength. As I Pour out my heart. These things I remember. You are faithful God forever.

I lift my hands to believe again. You are my refuge, you are my strength. As I pour out my heart these things I remember. You are faithful God forever. Let faith arise, Let faith arise.

Open my eyes. Open, rise, Let faith arise. Let faith arise. Open my eyes, Open my eyes.

I lift my hands to believe again. You are my refuge, you are my strength. As I pour out my heart these things I remember. You are faithful God forever. And I lift my hands to believe again.

You are my refuge, you are my strength. As I pour out my heart these things I remember. You are faithful God, you're faithful God forever. Forever.

Let faith arise, O Lord, my God. When I in awesome wonder Consider all the world thy hands have made. I see the star, I hear the rolling thunder Thy power throughout the universe display. Then sings my soul, My saviour God, to thee how great thou art. How great thou art.

Then sings my soul, My savior God, to thee how great thou art. How great thou art.

When through the woods and forest glades I wonder and hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur and hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze Then sings my soul, My saviour God, to thee. How great thou art. How great thou art. Then sings my soul, My saviour God, to thee how great thou art. How great thou art.

And when I think that God his son not sparing sent him to die, I scarce can take it in that on a cross my burdens gladly bearing he bled and died to take away my sin. Then sings my soul, My savior God, to thee how great thou art, how great Thou art Sings my soul, My saviour God, to thee how great thou art, how great thou art.

When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation and take me home what joy shall fill my heart Then I shall bow in humble adoration and there proclaim my God, how great Thou art. Then sings my soul. My saviour God, to thee how great thou art, how great Thou art. Then sings my soul. O my savior God, to me how great Thou art, how great Thou art, how great Thou art, how great Thou art.

Father, we thank you for this day. And we thank you, Lord, for your goodness and your mercy and all the things that you have given us. Father, we. We lift up in prayer today before we begin, all of those suffering in California from the fires, from the displacements, the loss of families, just all the tragedy going on. Father, I pray for those people in this time.

Father, I pray that as we go to your word tonight, that you will transform us into the image of your son. That you'll be glorified as we keep your commands and as we become more like you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Well, good evening everyone. Welcome back to another Sunday with us. So some announcements before we begin. I think just really one announcement. For those of you waiting for the oh two for those of you waiting for the Android app, I apologize.

It's Google has still not let it off. They've rejected us and said I'm impersonating Church of the Bible. So we had to send a legal letter to them saying that we have authorization to publish an app for our church. And we're waiting for that dispute. So I apologize.

Second thing, for everybody who does use our mobile app and watch our videos online, I have to apologize. I accidentally deleted last week's video so it does not exist anymore. So you'll see chapters two and three and then chapter five, but no chapter four. On that note, we're going to continue our study today in the book of First John. But we're not ending with First John.

We're going to go through second and third. Each are one chapter. So we have two more weeks in the Epistles of John. But here in First John, just kind of a recap of what we've been looking at in First John. We've been looking at fellowshipping with God.

How do I know I'm fellowshipping with God? Am I really walking in God's light, doing what God wants me to do? Knowing God? Do I actually know God? Right?

How do I know that I know God? Do we have the love of God? And we talked about the agape love of God a lot last week. Today we're going to talk a lot about obeying God's commands. But we've also talked a lot about loving one another.

We're going to see the both of those things tonight. Obeying God's command and loving one another. So we're going to begin here. We're going to jump into the first few verses and before I do that I had some people a few weeks ago I started putting my notes in the slides as a test and then thing the last few weeks I haven't because I've just not been feeling well and putting it in but I've had people ask me to bring it back. So tonight we'll have notes and the slides and if it's helpful let me know.

If it really isn't helpful then let me know as well. And I won't take the time to add them in. So let's begin. Says that everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. And everyone who loves the Father also loves the one born of him.

This is how we know that we love God's children, when we love God and obey his commands. For this is what love for God is to keep his commands. And his commands are not a burden, because everyone who has been born of God conquers the world. This is the victory that has conquered the world, our faith.

So kind of to break this down here, everyone who believes that Jesus is the Lord, this is a.

I talked about this last week a little bit, right? This is not as simple as an acknowledgment that Jesus existed or even a simple acknowledgment that Jesus is God. Even the demons, they believe they know and they shudder. Belief here.

I went into it a little bit more on my notes here. To believe in God is a few things here. I've got it marked as important. Number one is to consider him. The way the Bible uses belief here is to consider to be true and worthy of one's trust.

And then it goes in a little deeper and says to be convinced. When I've talked about repentance, and we have talked about repentance quite a bit, the biggest thing I've stressed about repentance is that true repentance, it's not saying, hey, I'm sorry, God, I sinned, I'm sorry, please forgive me. True repentance is being convinced, right? Persuaded that what you are doing is wrong, your ways are wrong, and to turn around from that because of the persuasion of your mind, and go the opposite direction. So when it says that everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ, it's using this in that same manner to be persuaded, convinced, absolutely convinced in your mind that everything he says is true, that everything he has done is true, that he is worthy of your trust.

And if he's worthy of your trust, to actually place your trust in him and be convinced that he is the Messiah. I'm gonna try and make this where you guys can see it. If you zoom in or go back to it down here at the bottom, I'm gonna zoom in for myself. I have some examples of the way this word believes has been used to kind of paint the picture. Because in the 21st century today, we use the word belief a whole lot differently.

So in Matthew 8:13, Jesus told the centurion, he says, go, and as you have believed that it will be done for you. And his servant was healed, right? So the centurion came to Jesus, told Jesus that, asked Jesus to heal his servant, and told him that he had the faith, the belief in his authority to do so, and that if he said it would be done, it would be done. So he considered it to be true, fully placed his trust in Jesus that he was persuaded. We see in John 2:24, says, Jesus, however, will not entrust himself to them.

And now the. The examples I have here, they only have a little bit before and after, right? But this is an example, right? Jesus did not trust. And I, John 2:24, I'm just going to pull that up on my end real quick so that we can have the context.

This little window I have here does not give enough context for comment.

Says Jesus will not entrust himself to them, since he knew them all, because he did not need anyone to testify about man, for he himself knew what was in man. So an example of belief, or the opposite of belief in the way that the Bible uses it, is to not trust. In Luke 16:11, he says, so if you have not been faithful with worldly wealth, who will entrust you with what is genuine? So again, the word belief here, this is. This example out of the Bible is dealing with money and whether or not you've been faithful with wealth and whether or not you can be entrusted, right, faithful with something else.

In Acts 16:34, we see another example. It says, and again, I only have on here limited stuff in order to get it all on for everyone but them, into his house, set a meal before them, and rejoiced because he had come in to believe in God with his entire household. Then we see it used in the way that John is using it here. In Mark 16, it says, Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, right? So it's the exact same word in Romans 3.

2 says they were entrusted with the very words of God, right? He's talking about the Jews and the fact that God gave them his word. They were the ones entrusted to share the light of the world, to share God with the world, but they did not do that. So I hope that these examples that I've put up here help with understanding in what way the Bible means to believe. When it says that everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ, everyone who is persuaded that he is the Christ and entrust him, those people have been born of God.

So in order to be born of God, that must happen. And then it continues, it says that whoever loves the Father also loves the one born of Him. So last week we talked about this just a little bit. You cannot say that you love the Father and not love Christ or reject Christ. And he also cannot reject Christ and say, you love the Father.

Christ is the exact representation of the Father. Christ is the manifestation of God in the flesh. And to know Christ is to know the Father. And no one can know the Father. But knowing Christ, it continues, it says, this is how we know that we love God's children.

When we love God. I got this here in a box here. When we love God and obey his commands.

So the way we know that we love the children of God is first and foremost. It says to love God, and then it says to obey his commands. And why does it say that? We need to understand what his commands are. Do not steal, do not murder, do not bear false witness, do not covet, do not commit adultery.

If you truly love, then you will keep the commands. And the reason is when you look at the commands, the commands are all designed. They all evolve or revolve around love. That's what they are, every one of them. So you know you love God's children when you love God and obey his commands.

And then it says, this is what love for God is, to keep his commands. And his commands are not a burden. I find that, I find that interesting. When I prepared this sermon, I, you know, I go there and I break the verses up and I even I break the sentences up, right? So to know God is.

Or love God, sorry, is to keep his commands and that his commands are not a burden.

I think that's a very important distinction there, that his commands are not a burden. If you feel burdened by the commands of Christ, and there are, there are more commands that we see kind of in the New Testament, right? Not just love your neighbor as yourself, but he said, feed, feed the poor, take care of the widows, take care of the orphans, practice justice and righteousness.

All of these things are love. Jesus is quoted in the Gospels as telling us that if we love God and love our neighbor as ourself, that we will keep the whole law in those two things encapsulate the entire law. So if his commands are a burden, if it's a burden to you to do the things in which God has asked, you are probably doing the works of the flesh, or you are trying to do it in your flesh, right? And you're not doing it it in the spirit of God. If we love God and we are born of God, then it's not a burden to us.

In fact, I'D say it's freeing, it's freedom. And the spirit of God is what gives us the ability to do it. Look at the very next statement here. It's in green. Because everyone who has been born of God conquers the world.

God Jesus conquered the world. He came and he was unique and special, being that he was God. But he came and he lived sinlessly and he conquered the world. He did not sin. Not only did he die, he conquered the grave and came back to life.

He resurrected. And so if we were born of God, we too will conquer the world. That doesn't mean that you're going to be sinless. It doesn't mean that it's going to be easy or that it's going to be a smooth roller coaster, right? Just coasting down the hill from here.

But ultimately you will conquer the world. It's not a burden because God's spirit inside of you allows you to walk in freedom, to walk in life. And it says that this is the victory that has conquered the world. Our faith. Our faith is, for one, I'm going to say, a gift of God.

I believe that God initiates it. And he tells us that in the Book of John, he says that no one comes to the Son unless God, unless the Father draws him. So God is the initiator of our faith. And even though we must accept that and proclaim that faith, that part on our own, it's a gift. And this faith is the very thing that not only saves us, but gives us the victory, right?

The. The victory that is Jesus Christ himself. I'm going to continue here. Says that who is the one who conquers the world, but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God, Jesus Christ. He is the one who came by water and blood.

Not by water only, but by water and blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies. Because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify the Spirit, the water and the blood. And these three are in agreement.

If we accept human testimony, God's testimony is greater because it is God's testimony that he has given about His Son. The one who believes in the Son of God has this testimony within himself. The one who does not believe God has made him a liar because he has not believed in the testimony God has given about His Son. And this is the testimony. God has given us eternal life.

And this life is in His Son. The one who has the Son has life. The one who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. So this is a great couple passages here.

Who conquers the world, except for the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

John poses this as a question, and I pose it as a question as well. How. How can you conquer the world?

For actually, everyone here knows that I'm in therapy right now, right? I see a psychiatrist. And one thing the psychiatrist said to me, and I don't agree fully with him in the way he phrased this, but I think he's kind of on the right, the right track. A lot of people. If I asked you right now, what is the opposite of happiness, you might say sadness.

But even happy people have sad times. The true opposite of happiness, though, especially if we look at this from a biblical context and in the book of John in chapter 15, what does he tell us? He tells us, sorry, chapter 14. No, I don't. 15.

He tells us the things he tells us to do and the things that he's proclaiming to us is so that we will have joy, his joy, and that our joy will be to the fullest. So I would say that the opposite of happiness, the way at least the psychiatrist said it and I said I don't fully agree with the way he said it, it is satisfaction. What people really think when they are looking and seeking happiness is satisfaction. And what is the problem with that? I've shown people the diagram that I use and I'm sharing the gospel, the two kingdoms, right?

We live in a broken and fractured world. And there are many, many, many ways that we try and deal with this broken and fractured world. We try and deal with it by some people, religion is the way they deal with it, right? I have a rigid set of rules and beliefs that I must follow. And some people it's work and money.

Some people it's sex and drugs and alcohol. Some, whatever the case is, it's chasing a form of satisfaction. But that satisfaction is all from the self. And the problem with any satisfaction that comes from the self is one, it's temporary, right? Eventually the.

The hype and the drugs were off, the buzz and the alcohol wears off. You've slept with so many women, it no longer has any meaning or satisfaction for you at all. You've lost your job. It. If religion is your satisfaction, you broke the rules.

It all originates from the self. And you don't conquer the world, you end up right back in it. So John posed the question, and so I pose it too. Who can conquer the world, but the one who believes that Jesus is the son of God, that is the only means of conquering the world.

Just going to pull this here up just so that we can take a look at it, right? And then it says, Jesus Christ, he is the one that came by water and by blood. Not by water only, but by water and by blood. All right, so this is important. And there are things that we can debate about this.

And I've made note of those things. There is debate among different pastors and different scholars and commentators and whatnot by what the water and the blood here means. And in my. In my notes, I accidentally wrote spirit, because I'm used to talking about John chapter three.

So I'm used to talking about John chapter three in this context. And so just. I defaulted right, in spirit. So there. There's debate, right?

Does water mean human birth? And I don't. I don't think so. I don't believe In John chapter 3, water refers to human birth either because it says by water and by blood. So some think it's.

It's human birth and the fact that he is God or human birth and death, water and blood. However, others. And this is the camp I fall into. I think that coming by water and by blood is the defining moments of his ministry. Most of the gospels early on begin at the baptism of Jesus by water.

But Jesus was also, if. If we want to say, baptized in blood by blood, right? He poured his blood out. So we have his ministry beginning with water baptism and ending in his. In his death with blood.

That ends his ministry. And then he rises again from the grave. However, the debate over whether or not water and blood is. It is his, encapsulates his ministry, or the means of his birth. What John is really, really trying to hit the point and wants us to know and understand, and he's gonna hit this later on, is that Jesus is.

Was fully human, but he's divine and fully God, but he is human.

Then it says that the Spirit is the one that testifies of this, because the Spirit is truth. And there are three things that testify. Now, with these three things that testify, we need to understand why John is right. And specifically, three things. And there's a whole lot more than three things that testify of Jesus, that he is God, that he is the Lord, that he did raise from the grave, all of these things.

But John specifies on three things. First, in Jewish law, truth is established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. And second, the three things that do testify. The first is The Spirit of God. The Spirit of God is a great big huge testimony that the Spirit of God testifies about something.

Then you know that it is true. And I'm going to say this. It says the water, right? Jesus's baptism. And there's a unique event that happened when Jesus was baptized out of heaven.

The voice of God was verbally heard among the crowd saying that this is the Son of God.

That's a major event. So the Spirit of God, the water. And I just wanted to mention that. And then the blood. The blood testifies of Jesus testifies first of his love.

That also testifies that he was indeed human, right? God didn't come here pretending to be human. God came here and really became human. And we can go on about the resurrection later. But it says these three are in agreement.

There is no contradiction in the testimony of these things. And then it says if we accept human testimony, God's testimony is greater. We often. We readily accept human testimony, right? If we grab a whole bunch of witnesses who actually saw something or felt something or heard something.

We often readily accept the testimony of man, yet reject the testimony of God.

That's a problem. And why. One of the things that, when I read this, I think about goes back to John, chapter three. Jesus talks to Nicodemus. And I do want to say this is.

It's not remotely the same context, but it makes me think of it. Jesus says to Nicodemus, if you cannot understand earthly things, how can you understand heavenly things?

The testimony of God is the greatest testimony we have. Why?

I don't want to say because he's God. That becomes circular reasoning, right? Because he's God, his testimony is true. How do I know it's true because he's God, that it becomes circular reasoning. So why is God's testimony greater?

His testimony is greater because there is a history where God has proven himself. There is a history where he has not only proven himself to be God, but he's proven himself to. In his knowledge. He's proven to know events. He's proven to.

To keep his promises. He's proven his love. He's proven all these things, right? And, and I do not say proof in the absolute. We.

We can prove in the, in the sense that the word means prove, but the evidence is there.

In Hebrews, chapter 11. The author of Hebrews defines faith. Okay. A lot of people think that faith is blind, right? That it's.

That faith is just accepting what is said and believing and that's all that it is. But that's not what Faith is. It's not how the Bible defines faith. The Bible says that faith is the substance of the things that we hold hope for based upon the evidence of the things not seen. Right?

So evidence of things not seen, meaning there must be evidence that we can base our hope upon. And so that evidence is the evidence that tells us that God's testimony is greater. Then it says that the one who believes in the Son of God has this testimony within him.

That is the biggest, most critical key component to this, because I can have conversations with people. But how do we know that it's true? How do we know this? How do we know that? Well, here's how we know for one.

Can we know with absolute certainty in the dictionary definition approved? No.

But can we know A. Can we take the evidence that we have that we've been given and use that evidence and weigh it out and say that it is significantly, you know, 99% sure here that it is versus not? But then we also can know, because if we do believe in God. Right. And I want to go back right here when we talked about belief, what does the Bible mean to believe?

It means to consider it to be true and worthy of your trust, to be fully persuaded and convinced. Right. So. Oh, you can't see my cursor hovering over it. Okay, well, I guess I'll quit using my cursor to hover over it.

So if you, you can see in that box there, there's some blue and some red in it, right. To consider to be true. In other words, to believe in God and have, have the faith in God. We consider not only God to be true, but we consider everything he says to be true. And why do we consider it to be true?

We have to answer the why. Right. Because the next part of this that it says here, and I took this because you'll notice above it I have a box that says believes with some orange. The words highlighted in orange are the Greek words. And so the definition I have here that I'm given is not, is not the English definitions, but from the Greek words and the Greek lexicons to consider it to be true.

So if God says it is, we consider it to be and we trust in him. Why? Because we are convinced. And being able to answer the question why is important because we're going to share our faith with people who don't believe, who don't know, and they're going to ask, well, why do you believe in those ridiculous things? That's how they're going to state it.

They're Going to state it as myths, as ridiculous as whatever, why do you believe in it?

And if we are to believe like they believe, like the world believes, that faith is just random belief, then we cannot give an answer. But if we can tell them, no, I don't blindly believe. But what faith is, is a hope. I have a hope in something that is based upon evidence. And then it says that if that testimony resides inside of you, if the Spirit of God which is promised to us, he says, and when we believe, he gives us a down payment, that down payment is the Holy Spirit.

If the Holy Spirit is inside of us, the Holy Spirit is going to tell us that these things are true. We don't need to keep evidence seeking, not saying that it's wrong. If that's your hob, your passion to go and look for evidence, not as a disprover. Right. But I love looking at the archaeological stuff.

I love seeing it because faith is based on evidence. And I love seeing just how much evidence there is and how it proves the Bible. But there are things that we will never be able to answer.

There are things we will never be able to know. And so the Spirit of God testifies to us that those things are true. And we determine them to be true because of that. Look at the next portion here. It says the one who does not believe God has made him a liar because he has not believed in the testimony of God given about his Son.

All right, so that's important. Remember how we just define belief? The one who does not believe in God, the one who calls God into question, calls into the things that God has declared into question. Call Jesus's deity into question, or his humanity into question, his truthfulness into question, his whatever into question turns him into a liar. Not that God is a liar, it's just that person makes him into a liar by not believing in what he has said.

So what is the testimony? Well, the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life and this life is in His Son. Alright, so first, we have eternal life. And second, eternal life comes through His Son. And the one who has the Son has life.

Okay, so that's the third thing. If so, we have life and we have it through His Son. So anyone who has the Son has life. And the one who does not have the Son of God does not have life. So if you do not have Jesus, if you do not have the spirit of God in you, you do not have life.

Now look at, I label this number three on my notes. It says, I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life. So John is writing first not to convince us of these things. John's writing to people who already believe. John's writing to people who already have the faith, who already have the spirit of God in them.

What? He is writing to his believers so that with. With a purpose. He wants them to know that, hey, you have life, you have eternal life because of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God. Right?

And the manifestation of God in the flesh. Let's look at the next passage here. This is the confidence we have before Him. If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked of Him.

If anyone sees a fellow believer committing a sin that doesn't lead to death, he should ask, and God will give life to him. To those who commit sin that doesn't lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that. All unrighteousness is a sin.

And there is sin that doesn't lead unto death. Okay, normally I would break a passage like this up into two, because the first half of this passage is, you know, we have a confidence that if we ask God these things according to his will, that we will have it. Then it jumps into believers seeing other believers into sin. And the reason I kept them together when I, when I, when I wrote out, my.

My brain has died on me, guys. I'm sorry. My outline is because of the way it flows. We'll get into it. So first, verse 14, we have the confidence, so we're persuaded.

We know before God if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us and that he gives us what we ask. So I'm going to come over here and I want to break this down. There's four things here to look at. We have confidence, first. Second, that if we ask anything, throw it according to his will forth, he hears us.

And I want to kind of rephrase this. God hears our prayers, and we are assured of that. And how we know that God hears our prayers more than just because the Bible says in this church here, over the last almost seven years, I think over the last almost seven years, we have had many, many, many prayer requests on Wednesday nights and Sunday nights with other groups on Friday nights. We've had dozens and dozens, hundreds of prayer requests over the years that we have seen God answer, that we have seen him hear and respond to.

But There is a condition here, and this condition is that he answers us according to his will. So if we go back to what Jesus said, Jesus has told us in the Gospels. He says, if you ask anything in My name, the Father will give it to you. And we predicated that upon a condition. That condition is, is it in his will?

Right before he tells us, if we ask for anything in his name, the Father will give it to us. He tells us that if we are abiding in him, he will be abiding in us. And if he's abiding in us and we are abiding in him, we will be in his love. And if we are abiding in Jesus, then we have the mind of Jesus, and we're going to be asking the same things that Jesus would ask. So a believer in God is not going out there asking for a Ferrari.

That's not a realistic prayer request that we can pray to God and expect him to answer. But that wouldn't be in your heart to ask God. You might ask for a million dollars. If there's a legitimate reason where the Spirit of God is prompting you to ask for it, that million dollars might be, hey, there was just a massive hurricane, and we're gonna go not only help people share the gospel, I don't know, but the. The entire thing here, the entire condition is within the will of God.

Right. Jesus did not intend for us to think that we can ask anything we want at all and he'll give it to us. But he's intending this to believers who live right in him, abide in him, and he abides in them. And so they are praying according to his will. Which leads us to number two, verse 16.

This is why I kept them together. If someone sees a fellow believer, right? So I'm a believer, and I see you who are a believer committing a sin. And then he says something interesting here we'll talk about in a minute. That doesn't lead to death.

He should ask, not ask the person, but ask God, pray to God, and He will give life to Him. So I kept these together because they belong together. For this reason, if we are praying according to the will of God, he will hear us and he will answer us. And it is the will of God that if there is a believer who is caught in sin, that that sinner would turn to repentance, would turn away from that sin and overcome it, right? So John's idea here is that the prayer of the believers will help other believers overcome sin.

And that's a powerful concept. We, back in the time of the first century church, don't get me wrong, that we did see people depart from the church. But the attitude is a whole lot different than today. Today, the attitude, when someone's caught in sin, whether it's a pastor or a congregation member or whoever, the attitude is to gossip about it, go around and tell people about it, or shame that person, or cut them off, right? Scold them.

Whatever the case may be in the Bible, the attitude that we need to have towards sinners, especially sinners who are a fellow believer, is not that of humiliate them or hate them or disassociate to them, but is that of love, right? Restoring them away from that. And we can do that. You know, we can approach them and say, hey, dude, you know, that's not what God wants for you, but what John wants us to do is pray for those people. Prayer helps other believers overcome sin.

Now let's look at this other part that I find really, really, really interesting. Come back into this. A sin that does not lead unto death. And then he says there is a sin that leads to death. And this is interesting.

He says, don't pray about that. If there's someone who is in the sin that leads to death, don't pray about it. And then he says, all unrighteousness is sin, but there is a sin that doesn't lead to death. We need to deal with this topic before moving on. Because if you turn into the book of Romans and go to chapter six and look at verse 23, it'll tell you that the wages of sin, sin is death.

Am I on the right chapter or is it chapter three? Sorry. Chapter three says that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Chapter six tells us that the wages of sin is death, all sin. And the Bible, all throughout the Bible, declares that all sin leads to death.

So false sin leads to death. And John says there are, you know, all unrighteousness is sin, but there is sin that leads to death and sin that does not lead to death. How do we clear this up? Is it a contradiction? And I'm going to say no, because we need to understand exactly what John is talking about.

So all sin leads to death, but most sin can be forgiven, right? Murderers, rapists, thieves, liars, adulterers, whatever, they can be forgiven. They can be washed and cleansed, renewed by the atoning blood of God.

So what is the sin that leads to death? Well, throughout this chapter, throughout this book, but this chapter in particular, what has John's theme Been his theme has been whether or not you believe in God. Right. Do you believe in him in the way that the Bible defines belief, or do you not? Right.

Those who call into question the truthfulness of God or call into question whether or not he's God, call into question the righteousness of God or deny God or reject Christ in one of two. There's multiple ways you can reject Christ. You can reject that he ever existed. You can admit that he existed, but reject that he is God. Right.

The Jews do that. Or you can admit that he was God and reject his humanity and say he was never human. Right. If you live in denial of God and continue to live in denial of God and die in denial of God, that is a sin that leads to death.

Right? That is the unforgivable sin. It's been called things, many different things.

That is, I call it, and I've heard it called blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, right to die. And some people don't have to die. There are some people, you can just tell, I know people who are so much into the denial of everything about God, even that he exists, that and. And unless there is a mighty, mighty miracle of God, they will never change. That is a sin that leads unto death, the unforgivable sin.

All other sins can be forgiven. And so there is no contradiction in this if we read it in context and understand it the way that John means it to be understood by saying that there are sins that lead to death and sins that don't lead to death. And it's my prayer that no one who encounters me and hears the proclamation of Jesus from me will sin that sin unto death, but that they will trust in Jesus, be convinced in his truthfulness, be convinced in his resurrection, be convinced enough persuaded to trust in him. Let's read the final passage. We know that everyone who has been born of God does not sin.

But the one who is born of God keeps him and the evil one does not touch him. We know that if we are of God and the whole world is under the sway of the evil one. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know the true one. We are in the true one, that is in His Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

Little children, guard yourselves from idols. I'm just gonna jump straight into my notes here. So we know that it says, we know that everyone who has been born of God does not sin. And I want to stop right there. This sounds almost.

If you Read this wrong and take it in a way not meant to be, you're going to fall into a dangerous trap. In fact, before I was truly a believer, when I was in a work based theology, reading this statement here made me call into question my belief or if I know God or I've been born of God all the time, right? Because the one who has been born of God does not say sin. So the number one, first thing I want to point out here is John is not saying that believers that the saints, right, that those who have the spirit of God in them never sin. That's not what he is saying.

We do sin every single day. But what he is saying is we do not engage in regular, habitual or willful sin.

There's a difference between waking up every day and saying, I am free because God has saved me and has guaranteed me heaven. So now I'm going to go out and find a new woman every night to sleep with from the person who says, God has freed me and forgiven me and I'm going to live my life for him. And then driving down the freeway, hits a deer and a curse word leaves his mouth. Totally different things, both are sin. But this is the sense in which John is saying this.

Those who are born of God, they do not continue in this regular pattern of sin, right? They instead their lives are changed. They begin to. Instead of walking in the fruits of the flesh, they walk in the fruits of the spirit. And I'm also not going to say that happens overnight, but you see that change in the believer instead.

The one who is born of God keeps him. What do we mean by keep him? Well, John tells us in John 15, right, if you abide in me and I anew. Later he says, if my words, same chapter, he says, if my words remain in you, right? So to keep God is to remain in him, to abide in him, in his word and in his love, and him to abide in you.

And then it says, the evil one does not touch him.

That doesn't mean again you won't send. But it is a promise and an assurance of salvation.

I'm going to jump down here to verse 20. It says, we know that the Son of God has come. Okay, we know that. How do we know it? There is.

Well, there's the historical evidence of Jesus even beyond the Bible, there's the historical evidence of Jesus, but we also know that he was the Son of God because there were so many prophecies. And not just prophecies, but specific prophecies and conditions about who The Son of God, who this Messiah would be, that the odds of anybody being born are so small. So, and when I say small, I mean smaller than the number of stars in the universe that the only way you know, this person could be this person is to be that person. Jesus had to have been the Son of God because there was no one else, period. The probability is so infinitely small that it's not possible.

So we know that he has come and he has given us understanding. So what do I mean by understanding? Well, he has taught us that a lot of the meaning of the Old Testament. I do not believe the Old Testament has lost its relevance in the New Testament age. I believe it's very relevant because, A, without the events of the Old Testament, there is no New Testament.

B, the New Testament clarifies a lot of the Old Testament. And see, there's a whole bunch of the Old Testament that is still so much very applicable to us. But he's given us understanding there. He's also given us understanding in our need, truly showing us our need. That was missed.

Where before Jesus, you might say, well, I haven't touched a woman who's not my wife, so I'm not an adulterer. Jesus has shown us that you are an adulterer. He says, if you've looked at a woman, it begins in the heart. He's shown us the need, so we have understanding. And he has done it so that we may know the true one.

So ultimately, we know he's done it because he wants us to have life. But life does not come without knowing the true one. So Jesus, the Son of God, also God did come in the flesh. We know that he's given us understanding and he's done it so we can know the true one. But here's something very unique about the way this is written.

Look at the next statement. It says we're in the true one. And who is the true one? It says, jesus Christ. He's the true one.

Which lines up with a statement of Jesus in the Book of John. He says, I am the way, the truth, the truth and the life. It says that he is the true God. And so you'll see I've connected here. He is the true God to being Jesus Christ.

Because there are people who believe that Jesus isn't God. There are people who believe that he wasn't God, but became a God, but he is the true God. And so he was always God, right back before there was any creation. Jesus was God. He will always be God.

He is the true God. And if, if the Bible has to write and distinct that there is a true God, what does that also mean? It also means there's a false God. But when I or false gods, and when I say false gods, I don't mean that they even exist. To say that there's a false God doesn't mean that this so called false God exists.

Zeus doesn't exist, he's a false God. But what it does mean is there are people who worship gods that are false, that don't exist, or even idols, which is why this ends. It says in verse 21, little children, guard yourself against idols, guard yourself from them, because Jesus is the true God. Jesus is the one God. All other gods that we make up are false.

All other gods that we turn into gods without even knowing it. You know, people turn money into God, people turn sex into God, people turn themselves into God and worship themselves. But there is one God, one true God. His name is Jesus Christ. And in him is eternal life.

And we have a final warning here in this chapter. It says, he says, protect yourself, guard yourself from idols. You're only going to find life in one place and that life is going to be found in Jesus Christ. He has died for you. He has given his life for you so that you may be saved.

And as we come to an end of the epistle First John, I'm going to remind everyone we are going to do second John next week. It's a single chapter and then we'll do three John the following week. But as we come and into this, there's a lot of questions that have been asked in this chapter, in this book of deep pondering. Do you know God? Like, do you know him?

Are you sure you know him? Do you trust in Him? Do you love him? Do you love your neighbors?

Do you even abide in his love? And if not, there is a way to fix that. It begins first with being persuaded, being convinced. Are you convinced that Jesus is the Christ and persuaded enough to determine what he has said to be true and if so, to put your trust in him, if you are. We need to acknowledge something about ourselves and that is that we sin.

We're sinners.

We can't fix this problem, but there is a solution and that is Jesus. So we believe those things we just talked about. We are convinced and persuaded that Jesus is the Christ, that he is the manifestation of God, and that he came here, lived, died and rose again. But one last component part of belief is a confession, right? Not just a simple profession that he is Christ, but a confession.

Of him as your Lord, that he is God, that he is the Supreme One, and that he rules and governs that will let him rule and govern over us. You can do that. You'll experience the freedom we've talked about tonight. You will be able to walk in freedom and you will experience right. It says that not only is he the true God, but he is eternal life.

And in him we read tonight that we have life. As we close tonight, I'll invite anyone who has not done those things, who is ready right now to know God and to walk with God. I'll invite you to profess these things to him, knowing that this prayer does not save you. It's the faith and the profession itself that saves you. The faith in God and what he did.

After that, we'll partake of the Lord's Supper. So those who are with us, I invite you to please stay and partake of the Lord's Supper with us. And then I'll see everybody else back here Wednesday night at 6:30 as we continue our Bible study in the book of Luke. Let's pray.

Father. I know that I'm a sinner. And I know, Lord, that I cannot save myself, that my ways are wrong. I believe, though, Lord Jesus, that you are the God man, right, the manifestation of God, that you came in the flesh and that you lived and you were sinless. And I believe that not only did you die for me and pour out your blood for the sake of love and for the sake of a wretch like me, that you rose again from the grave that they were day.

And I am convinced, Lord Jesus, not just that you are God, but I am convinced in your trustworthiness and what what you have declared. And I profess you as my Lord, as my God and king, oh Lord, I take off my crown and throw it to your feet and submit to yours. And I ask you for this free gift, Father, I ask you that we will walk in your love, abide in your love love. That we will love each other with the love that you have given us, that we will not walk in sin. And Father, that if we see one of our fellow brothers or sisters in sin that we will pray for them and that will help restore them rather than shame them.

Father, I pray that you will be glorified in heaven and glorified on earth. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.