1 John, Part 1

Message has already begun, but I need a book to bring up here with me. We're going through 1 John, and 1 John, for those of you who was not here last time, can I see a show of hands, please? Anybody not here last time? The reason why we're going through 1 John is the importance of the message that it brings, and the theme of 1 John is certainty, that there are certain things that we can be assured of. Let's appreciate that this letter, which we've come to know as 1 John, it wasn't known as 1 John when it was being pinned, it wasn't a writing 1 John, but it's come to be known as 1 John. It was written probably anywhere between 85 and 100 A.D. I don't like, frankly, the latter date. I think it was more maybe around 85 to 90 A.D. It was, perchance, I say perchance, written from Patmos, that same aisle that the book of Revelation was written from. We don't know that. That's what some of the commentaries allude to. Most likely, the direct object of this book was to the Church of Ephesus, or the churches around that area, which would have been then known as Asia, which is where much of the energy of the latter half of the 1st century A.D. Church was. Here is an elder statesman writing to these people. We're writing to people that now it's basically maybe even two to three generations of church members, and things are happening. Many of the original families are no longer with them. Most of the apostles are dead. Here is the man John writing with confidence. Basically, his message is, I was there. I was there from the beginning. Again, when you look at 1 John, and you can open up your book and see that, which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes.

As we recall last time, and I'm not going to repeat all of last time, there are four incidences in 1 John 1 of the term saw, or seen, or looked. So much so that the word looked is as if we gazed upon. The word in the Greek is a theo word, which is where our term theater comes from, that when you go to a movie, you stare at a screen.

You're locked on. What John was basically telling them is, I was there from the beginning, and this was not just a wink and a blink. We touched him, we handled him, and we gazed upon the Son of Man. What is the importance of this? What is being dealt with? Well, again, we said that a part of it was that we were into the second and third generation of the church.

There were some doubts. There were some concerns. There might have even been a little waffling back towards the culture there in Asia. There was also this matter of Gnosticism that was coming into the church. Gnosticism is not a religion of and by itself. Gnosticism is a philosophy. Gnosticism is a philosophy that attaches itself to host religions, be it Christianity, be it Judaism, be it other of the religions that were extant at that time. It's basically a philosophy that good and evil are basically moving away from one another in opposite directions, and that good in no way can come into the presence of evil.

Basically, bottom line, what this was saying, what was happening in the church was a heresy was being spread throughout portions of the church, that Jesus did not come in the flesh. Jesus did not come in the flesh. Basically, if you want to put it this way, you want to jot this down, he was a cosmic deity, a cosmic deity that happened to be on earth, but he was not flesh and blood like you and me.

One of the more outlandish thoughts of Gnosticism, how extreme it got, was, well, if Jesus walked on this earth, well, then he didn't leave footprints. You have to kind of figure that one through. I mean, just kind of amazing where the extremity of the minds come. I'd like to review my notes from last time, just a moment, because I want to kind of move right into the section. There are five certainties that the book of 1st John gives us.

Number one is fellowship with God and believers. If you don't have this handout, it's on your computer. Fellowship with God and believers. Number two, that our joy might be complete. Might be 100% full. Not 50, not 75, not 25%, but that it might be complete. Also, that we do not sin. That we do not sin. Another certainty is that we have eternal life. And number five, that we may believe on the name of the Son of God. So those are some of the themes that are mentioned here.

Where I'd like to pick this up today, because I don't really want to go through the whole foundation again. I don't want to hear the taped message or on CD. There's two unique things that are brought out here. Let's look at verse three. Again, I think this centers on where we need to go. John speaking, that which we have seen and heard, we declare to you.

We announce, we trumpet, as it were, that you may also have fellowship with us. And truly, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. Now, let's understand something here that's very important. First John is essential in understanding Christianity. Sometimes we become so accustomed to the words of the Bible that we don't appreciate what's being spoken to us. We lose it. Thinking of the deities of antiquity, whether it be a Saturn, whether it be a Mars, whether it be a Mercury, whether it be a Jupiter, whether it be a Zorast, or whatever it might be.

It wasn't a matter of having fellowship with them in a familial sense. And what John is revealing that the goal of God is that we have fellowship. Now, you think about that for a moment. Many of the people of old looked upon a first cause, or they looked at a spiritual sovereign over their life, but it was something that they were afraid of, or they had to be respectful of, or they had to continually bring sacrifice before.

Sometimes their daughters, their wives, or what was easier was to get the guys from the other side, the captives, the slaves, and sacrifice them. These were gods that were hungry for human attention but didn't give back. What makes Christianity Christianity is that God desires to have fellowship with us in a family sense. Now, what is also interesting, we look at verse 3, is to understand that when we come to services or any assembly of God, we're using our eyes and we're using our ears and we see people here, but through 1 John we're reminded that when we assemble together, our fellowship is not just with Jane and Harry and Joe and Sally, but literally when we come to assembly, our fellowship is with God the Father and Jesus Christ.

The term in the Greek is kononeia. That means communion.

You find that in Paul's writings in the book of Corinthians, which is written with the thought of Passover in the days of 11, bread of kononeia or communion or fellowship. Now, what is equally interesting in this set of scripture, then, is that we not only have fellowship, but that these things we write that your joy might be full.

Now, there's something that can separate us, though, from having fellowship and from having joy that is complete. And that is now what John is going to address beginning in verse 5, because there's something that can cut off our fellowship or make our joy incomplete.

And that is the subject of sin. And that's what we're primarily going to be addressing today. Because notice what it says in this is the message, verse 5, we have heard from Him, speaking of God, and declare to you that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. Now, the way that John is going to frame this fellowship and or this joy is through three different elements. One is going to be light, which we're going to begin with.

Then there is love, and then there is life. And that's how we're to look at God. This is how John teaches us through and by the Spirit is that God is light, He is love, and He is life. Now, notice it says, this is the message, and we declare you that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. Now, that's kind of hard for us to understand today. We'll try for a moment because we live after Edison and not before.

Before Mr. Edison, you know that guy from the great state of Ohio. That's for my wife's sake. Edison was born long before Susan, but nearby in a little town called... Boy, I'm going to be in trouble tonight when I go home. It's called Mylan, Ohio. And that's Edison's birthplace. We've been there. But you might call him a...if you do a little Greek mythology, who is it?

Promisedimus, who brought light, I forget, supposedly. Well, Edison brought light to the world. But before that, you could really appreciate the differential between light and dark and what light does. How piercing it can be and how illuminating it can be. And light is like that. Let's think of some of the qualities of light. The reason why God...excuse me, johns up the subject of light is that light represents purity and holiness.

We talk about putting light upon a subject. Let's put some light on something. And or light is radiant. Light is revealing. Light can also guide. Light cleanses. You know how, ladies? I don't know how it is with all the machinery today. But you know, when we used to put things out on the clothesline and we allow the sun to almost literally, by its light, bleach whiten our clothes. Also, light expresses...excuse me, light exposes whatever exists, whether it be good or bad. When you put light on something, it exposes what is good and what is bad.

Think about it this way. If you don't have light, good and bad look the same in the darkness. Light exposes this. And then he comes into this point, though, that there's something that we need to recognize. To be able to have the fellowship with God, and to be able to have this light, and to be able to have our joy filled, we've got to talk about the subject of sin. Now, I know a lot of those, probably over the years, and I think especially with the aspect of the Passover, often contemplate 1 John 1 and look at these following verses of 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 in our study towards the Passover.

But perchance we miss a little bit of what the Apostle Paul is talking about here. We need to recognize that what Paul is going to be doing in these next several verses is he is going to be exposing and refuting Gnostic teaching. And he does it in a systematic order. Let's look at verse 6 now. If we say, if, and that's the question mark, if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice truth. The first Gnostic teaching that he is addressing and going on the pause of attack towards is this, a false teaching.

Number one, that we can walk with God and still walk in darkness having it our own way. Allow me to repeat that. We can walk with God and still walk in darkness, basically having it both ways. This Gnosticism that was affecting the Roman Empire and was slipping into the church kind of spilled off into two unique ways. One is what we call the Epicurean philosophy. Some of us might be familiar with that. We still have Epicurean societies today.

Well, that if the flesh is already bad, let's take it to the full tilt. Let's eat, drink, and be merry, and feast, and go on. The other flip side, because human nature has a flip side, is the Stoics. Those that were ascetic, those that were rigid, those that wanted to, in a sense, not enjoy themselves in the flesh or to limit the flesh. But they had this basic concept that, well, we can walk with God and still walk in darkness having it our own way.

Now, John counters that thought that God does have a certain way. But, what's interesting when you look at these words, a lot of it's going to be if and but, so that we move in the coming. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, He being Jesus Christ, being thought of, we will have fellowship with one another.

And the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son cleanses us from all sin. Now, what we're talking about, the themes here in John that are being alluded to are fellowship with God in a family sense, and that our joy might be complete. Joy is not happiness. Happiness is based upon external events, good things, happenings happening to us. We're talking about something much deeper here. And He says, again, that we can have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ.

Now, this is something that we cannot speak about enough in the church, and that is the center on the blood of Jesus Christ. And recognizing who Jesus Christ was, that He was the Son of God, and that He was the Son of Man, and He came and lived this life for us. I'm going to open up our Bible for a moment.

John 1, verse 29. Let's go there for a second. I'm going to build on this verse for a moment. John 1.29, because it's interesting that John, in his opening gospel, the gospel of John, in John 1.29, how he references Jesus Christ. Where he says in verse 29, the next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, his cousin, and said, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. So here we have this pashal kind of phraseology already bringing in the thought of Passover and or sacrifice from the very beginning of John's writings in the gospel. And so now we find in 1 John this thought of the blood of Jesus Christ.

But it's a different kind of fellowship. Join me if you would in Philippians 3. In Philippians 3, we notice again the fellowship that we're being asked to partake of in Philippians 3 and verse 10. Paul speaking, saying that I might know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings and being conformed to his death.

So this is a different fellow. This is not talking about having a party. This is not talking about having a meeting, but a meeting of existences of where we take on the same kind of life that Jesus Christ did. I want to take us to one more scripture about the blood, and that's over in Romans 6. In Romans 6. And let's pick up the thought in verse 1. In Romans 6 and verse 1. Because here were people saying that in the church, not outside of the church, but because of this Gnostic philosophy coming in saying, well, you can just have it both ways. Paul is countering that. And he says, if you're going to have real and true fellowship with the Son of God that walked on this earth and had access to God Almighty, you have to have this kind of existence. What shall we then say? Shall we continue in sin that grace may be abounding? Certainly not. And how shall we who die to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized? The Greek word there is baptizo, or immersed into death. See, that was my spot here. We're baptized into death. Therefore, we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in the newness of life. For if we have been united together, this fellowship in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing that this, our old man, was crucified with Him, and that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. And now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him. So it goes right back to this cardinal subject. We're opening up in the first chapter of John, kind of good as we're coming up to the spring festival season. Last year we had a whole series on not without blood.

And the blood of Jesus Christ is what grants us fellowship with God, and also can make our joy complete. Interesting, you think about it.

Verse 8, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. Now this is interesting because now John is attacking a second false teaching of Gnosticism.

And that is simply this, that man's natural heart is not bent towards evil. A second false teaching of Gnosticism that was attacking the church is that man's natural heart is not bent towards evil. Gnosticism is still down to our day. Let's think about this for a moment. Have you ever heard of that thought of a spark of good that's in us?

A spark of good. That really humanity is basically good. It's just our off moments. But that runs very contrary to what, again, God's indictment is of the human heart left to itself. Jeremiah 17, verse 9, where God says in Jeremiah 17, verse 9, the heart is deceitful above all things, desperately wicked. And who can know it? That's just a little itty-bitty bad. Again, if I'm not mistaken, let's see if I wasn't going to do this. Yeah, in Romans 8, verse 7, because the carnal, that is the flacarnal, that term comes from the Latin or the Greek like carne, like chili con carne, meat. It says, because the meaty mind is enmity and or in confrontation against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So it's interesting. This was an approach that was coming into the church that basically humanity by itself is okay and it's not bent towards evil. Notice how John comes back and answers this. If we confess our sins, it says that he is faithful and he is just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, it's kind of interesting. The word confess there. Now, we're going to go to our Greek here. See the word here? You can all see it here. Homo legos. We were teasing earlier about legoland. Homo legos. Aren't you just glad the English is a little bit shorter? What this really means is to come into agreement. It means to come into agreement. Homo means same and lego means to speak and or to speak the same thing, to be in agreement. Confession is a part of coming into agreement with God, coming into fellowship with God, thus coming into the full joy of what God wants us to experience. But the bottom line is this. That takes honesty and that takes humility and that takes knowing that God does want to forgive us. No, it's interesting that I remember hearing this many, many years ago, sometimes when we've talked, I had a discussion of Constantine. All of us have heard of the Emperor Constantine, the man that opened up the empire to professing Christianity. Normally, at one time or another, you've heard people say, yeah, but, you know, he didn't get baptized, right? Until he was about to die. Know why he didn't get baptized? Who can tell me why he didn't get baptized before he was about to die? One guess? Because he might sin. It was a very common thought in Christianity at that time that you've a lot of people... that's where the deathbed confession thing comes in. People waited until they just about thought that they were going to die because just in case... uh-oh! Now, let's think about that for a moment. Is that the God that we want to worship? Is that the God that we want to adore and to emulate, that he's just waiting for us to mess up? That somehow, you know, can you imagine as a father, I remember our three daughters when they were growing up, you know how kids can be really excited and they're kind of coming around the house like a racetrack, you know, trying to teach them how to walk, you know, like sitting there running. Could I, as a father, would I want to be behind the door and put my leg out and see one of the kids trip, you know, spill over? Ha! Gotcha!

Little whipper-stapper. Go watch where you're going next time. Now, I'm not going to help. You fell on your own. Get up on your own. Yeah, I mean, what would you do? Hopefully not. We're not... You're not like that, are you? Your kids seem pretty well adjusted. Oh, okay, just teasing. Is that... We wouldn't do that. Now, why is that? Because we know as adults, those little munchkins, you know, when they got the morning, if they knew how often they were going to fall and cry, during the day, they probably wouldn't get out of bed. Remember that? When your kids were growing up, they stumble on their own. They get into problems, but I'm not... I'm not looking to pounce on them. And this was the difficulty that was coming into the church by those that were coming and still bringing in the thought that somehow God was down on you. And a God that was just simply a conqueror, a God that was a sovereign force without a heart. And what John is bringing out is that, look, He is faithful. This is the same God that sent His only Son and wants to forgive. The emphasis is that God is proactive. That's what grace is about. Remember, grace is simply put this way. It's about God's initiative. It's about God's invitation. And it is about God's involvement. If you want to know how I look at grace, I just use the three I's. I gave you the four P's in the sermon. I'm giving you the three I's now. Here's grace. Grace means that it was from God that everything flows. It wasn't about us or about our works. Nothing that we can master, oven by with our human hands. Grace is that from the beginning, it was all what God wanted to do. He said, let us make man in our image and after our likeness. Grace also, then, is about God's invitation. It said, Jesus speaking, no man can come unto me unless first the Father draw him.

It wasn't me wanting to join a church. It wasn't me saying, oh, I understand it now. God was leading and guiding me by His Spirit. And then we also recognize that God says, He'll be with us. He'll never leave us nor forsake us. He says, I'm going to be actively involved with you.

This is the kind of Father that we can love. This is why, to go back to verse 4, this is why our joy, friends, can be complete. Because we have a Father that loves us and is pulling for us.

And such honesty, when we confess our sins to God and recognize that we need His help, that kind of honesty never pushes our Father away from us, but draws Him towards us. Now, you know, and I realize, sometimes confession can be cheap.

You know, some people will go in and what we call the Old Father Confessor Syndrome, and it's just a matter of they go in and kind of like a cycle like on a hamster wheel. Well, you know, with the curtain in between, well, I did this and I did that, and then they go out and they go back and do the same thing. That's not what true confession is.

Confession is not only in the sense of admitting what you have done wrong, but having the commitment to follow God's way. Confession is not just a matter of honesty regarding the past, but commitment about what we're going to do in the future. Let's go to the next one, then we'll take a break for a moment. Now you address something else.

If, see, if, so he's coming in like a lawyer. He got to understand this. He's moving towards dealing with this issue. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar. And then notice what it says, and his work, excuse me, and his word, pardon me, is not in us.

Oh, we can be around it. We can know it, but it's not in us. This leads us to the third false teaching of Gnosticism. They not only deny that sin breaks fellowship, as we see in verse 6 here, but that we don't have sinful nature at all. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. Then it says, and if we say that we have not sinned. So we see the point here that they didn't even think that they had a simple nature, but denied their conduct involved any sin at all.

Now, John had to address this, and he does this beginning in chapter 2 and verse 1. Notice how he opens up, and I think this is very important that I can make a point about this. John is probably somewhere, I don't know, 80, 90 years of age. Not sure what it is. But notice how he refers to the people that he's writing to. He says, my little children... Now, if we don't get anything out of this, because Gnostic teaching can be a little out there. But we can also look at some of the attributes to learn from this man. John approaches the church as a family. He says, my little children, you detect the affection and how he considers his role and how he looks at these people that have come up, perhaps by his teaching over the years. He calls them, my little children. There is a fondness, and there is a heart here. Let me share something with you that is perhaps of interest. If I can find my... Oh, there it is. Excuse me. It's very important to understand this.

The ministers in the New Testament are given two terminologies. One is presbyteros. Presbyteros... I may not be quite spelling this right. It's all Greek to me, as we say.

Presbyteros... okay. Got that one down? And the other is episcopi. I always like to say eskimo pi.

Episcopi. Elders in the church... this is like the handwriting on the wall.

I just thought of this when I came to... elders in the church serve both of these functions. They've got to be guided by God's Spirit to fulfill both. In the Jewish community, the Jewish community was basically familiar with this aspect of spiritual eldership. And that is just the term you might want to just jot this down. It's very simple.

This was an elder. This is like being a family member. A family member. That, as Paul says, approach the older people as if they're your parents. Approach the younger men and the younger women as if they're younger brothers and younger sisters. Deal with the church with your heart, not just with your brain.

Not just with the authority that I've given you, but the love of God that is in you by me to bring people together. Presbyteros. The other aspect of a minister, or term that is used, is episcopi. Episcopi is a term that means overseer. One that is given a project to do. It was a term that when one was sent forth from a major city to help colonize, let's say like one of the mainland Greek cities, and as they went and colonized Sicily and developed Syracuse, there would have been one that was an episcopi, an overseer.

And so we need to recognize that both of these terms are used for ministers. That we are to, in a sense, deal with the heart as family members. And also that we have, in a sense, a responsibility as shepherds to organize the flock. And it's only God's Holy Spirit that really brings us into play to effectively do it. It's here that John basically is using the aspect of presbyteros, where he says, My little children, these things I write to you so that you may not sin. There were people that were in the congregation most likely that thought that it no longer mattered what they do.

Basically, they had this knowledge. That's what Gnosticism means. It means knowledge. And I have the knowledge, and therefore I don't have to worry about my conduct. My little children, these things I write to you that you may not sin. Sin is there if you don't deal with it. Trust me, it's there.

And if anyone sins, because some people were probably just dodging it. If anyone sins, notice we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world. Now, this is a mouthful. Let's talk about this for a moment. John was countering this aspect that a portion of the church and the teachers that were creeping in were denying that sin breaks fellowship.

So much so that we don't have sinful nature, and that there's no sin at all in the conduct. John comes back now and says, look, you're dodging something here. And even if you have sin, which you will, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. The term there is very interesting. Advocate. Let's talk about that for a moment. It literally means one who pleads the cause. One who pleads the cause.

And I'm going to explain it in a way that maybe you've never heard it before or thought about it. We'll see in a moment. One who pleads the cause. In other words, John is reminding his audience that we have the best defense attorney in the universe. It's also interesting that that term advocate comes out of the Greek paracletos. Paracletos. Now, this is a term that we're somewhat familiar with. Where else do we often see the word term paracletos? Can anybody help me? Bob? The helper?

The comforter? Again, the same concept of one who walks alongside. What is very interesting, do you remember where Jesus says in John 14? He says, and I will give you another helper or another comforter. What we want to understand with this term paracletos used in this language is that the Holy Spirit is given to us on this earth to help us walk through this earth and defend us against the onslaught of Satan's ways down here. But the paracletos up in heaven at this time is also a title for Jesus Christ.

He is the paracletos. He is the defender. And He is the one who is pleading our cause. Now, when you understand that Jesus is pleading our cause, what is He doing up there? And why is He allowed to do that? He's allowed to do that because in verse 2 it says, He Himself is the propitiation and, or let's put it this way, the atoning sacrifice for us. This is what grants Him His ability of advocacy.

But let's understand something that maybe you've never thought about before. You ready? What is He pleading up there? Is He pleading our innocence? What's He doing, Suzanne? Because Suzanne's shaking her head. Okay. But I thought He's pleading our cause.

Okay. In other words, He is not defending our sins. Right? He is actually, what, Jim? You ever thought? That's right. Yeah, He does not plead our innocence. We're guilty. See, that was a part of the Gnostic Schoon handle that if somehow they stepped over the line and said, Well, I have sinned. What do I do now? I'm a goner. And what John is bringing back is, we're going to sin. But we have a loving Father. And not only that, but there is a Helper up there. We have an attorney and one that has been through it himself. He does not plead our innocence. He acknowledges our guilt. He says, Yeah, Father, they are guilty. Guess what? Satan, who is the accuser of the brethren, Revelation 12 and verse 10, and he goes up there and says, God, look at the list. What's Jesus going to say now? See, it changes our concept sometimes of this pleading. And it is to understand that He is not there to plead our innocence. You got it right, by the way. Right? He's there to basically say, Father, they are guilty. But that is where His vicarious work for our acquittal goes into play. Because He became sin for us. So we need to understand that. When Christ is pleading our cause, as our, shall we say, divine heavenly lawyer. A lot of lawyers will try to get... What do most lawyers try to do? Get their client off. Well, He didn't do it. There can be a lot of people in the penitentiary system, and most of them say, I didn't do it.

We, as Christians, have got to admit we did it. But we've also got to recognize then that right by God the Father is the One that can redeem us to Him. And not only for ourselves, but for the entire world.

So what we want to remember here is simply this. That Jesus brings up His sacrifice. And I'll say this, and I don't mean to make it superstitious in that sense. I hear sometimes people pray, and they won't say in Jesus' name. Well, you know, I think God can give us an eye on that. But, you know, we were asked to use Jesus' name when we come to the Father. But when we say in Jesus' name, that is the connection of our fellowship. That's why I always strive to conclude a prayer with in Jesus' name. And I know most of us do that in our culture and in our way. And I think it's a good way. Because when we say in Jesus' name, we need to remember that it's only through His blood and through His sacrifice that we can have fellowship with God even to begin with. This is what John is bringing out. That's how important it is that when we say in Jesus' name, God remembers that forever moment. When He had to look down on Golgotha and remove His presence from Christ for that moment, because He became sin for us. And He took all of our sins upon Himself, and God in that sense, for the first time in Jesus' existence, He felt a separation from God. Because God the Father cannot be confronted directly with sin. And then Jesus said, I feel forsaken. I feel as if I'm not connecting for the first time. Where are you, Father? But God had to do that. Something that's very interesting to think about as we come up to the New Testament Passover is to recognize that Jesus not only allowed Himself to be sacrificed, but God also had to allow His Son to be sacrificed. They were both in this. They were both in this to create this perfect sacrifice for us. If I take a break from any thoughts? Any thoughts to the left of me? Any thoughts to the right of me? With us said then. Let's complete the thought here for today. Because now, it's kind of interesting when you get this Gnostic scenario going on in the background. You begin to understand what these words mean. Gnosticism, literally, Gnosticism means, Gnost means knowledge, means to be in the know. And these were people that thought that they were in the know and could exist simply by what they knew rather than what they did. Here's the bottom line of what we're going to talk about. John is going to bring this together. We must not simply know, but we must act. It's not enough to have the precept, but we must engage in the practice of following God. Now, by this we know that we know Him. If we keep His commandments, and He who says, I know Him and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in Him.

What was happening in the first century AD is people were existing with a living knowledge. They vaunted themselves, and they thought that knowledge was enough, and therefore, after that, they could do what they wanted to do. But basically what John is saying here is, if you're really going to be a Christian and be certain about it, you've got to practice what you preach. See, Gnostics claimed to know God, but they lacked in practice. And that was very much a part of the world of the first century AD. I want to share a thought with you here for a moment. I hope I can find it. I was reading it this morning. One second. One second here.

Leave a break.

One second.

I hope I can find it.

You know what? It was in here this morning. Ah! This is from Acts for Today by Michael Green.

Speaking about the first century AD, what was the aim of the Christian community? Without clarity of aim, one achieves nothing. Clarity and or certainty. That's the whole theme of John, certainty. These men and women had great clarity of aim, and they wanted to see people from every background and antiquity, one to the exclusive allegiance of Jesus Christ. The note of conversion was strange to the ancient world. We used the word to mean that someone has left one religion or none for exclusive attachment to another, or else we would use it of someone who has hitherto been a merely nominal adherent of some faith, but has then awoken to its significance with enthusiasm and insight.

And that simply did not happen in the Greco-Roman world. That world was polytheistic. It recognized all manners of God. If you like to take on the worship of a few more, that was your business. The others got rearranged, not wiped off. Some of the philosophers, it is true, spoke of an awakening to Stoicism, or cynicism in terms reminiscent of Christian conversion, but the parallel is more apparent than real. These noble pagans like Cicero and Sinica and Marcos Aurelius have left us, detailed reflections on their life and beliefs, their struggles and attainments. And all of them ended up in agnosticism, confessing that they have no compelling reason for believing that the gods even exist.

Moreover, for all of their claims to transformation of life through adherence to the new philosophy, the gap... Now, this is first century. This is when John is writing. The gap between precept and practice in these men was enormous. Marcos Aurelius came out with some of the most Christ-like talk, but was the most bitter persecutor of Christians during the first two centuries. Sinica claimed that he was not only being improved but being transformed, but his life showed no signs of it. He claimed to be totally uninterested in whether he was rich or poor, yet hung assiduously onto his vast wealth after acquiring much of it by questionable means.

His ruthlessness to his creditors was one of the economic reasons between the Boa Dacia Revolt in Britain, which cost the empire one of its best legions. He proclaimed noble truths about the equality of slaves and freedmen as human beings, but did nothing to set his own slaves free. Coming to point, men came to philosophers like these for advice, but not for example. The separation between belief and behavior was one of the fundamental differences between the best of philosophical religions and Christian conversion.

In other words, in Christianity, we practice what we preach. Join me, if you would, in Acts 1. In Acts 1. I don't know if you've ever noticed the preamble of the book of Acts. Acts 1 and verse 1. The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus noticed began both to do and to preach. Why do we worship Jesus Christ?

Why do we follow him? Why is he that perfect example? Why is he the greatest of all? Why is Christianity, not just simply one more, spoke on the wheel of moral relativism? Because the head of the church, the one that founded Christianity, practiced what he preached. Totally different than the philosophies of old, of Gnosticism, of Stoicism, of Epicureanism, etc.

Notice what it says. Now by this, we know. In other words, there's going to be fruit involved that we know him if we keep his commandments. You say you're in the know, you Gnostics? We will know that you're a follower if we keep his commandments. He who says, I know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar. And the truth is not in him. Interesting. John, as an older man, did not milly-mouth around. Black was black, the white was white. See, one thing we understand about John when he's writing, there is dark, there is light, there is good, there is evil.

The contrasts are very powerful here. And it shows here, too, that while we are saved by God's grace, while we experience his initiative, his invitation, and his involvement in his life, we therefore then also have a responsibility. If the Father and Christ are the rulers of our life, and Jesus is the king of our life, that king also has privilege to ask his subjects how to live. We have then a responsibility to respond by the rules and the guidelines that he gives us to live this life by.

But whoever keeps his word, verse 5, truly the love of God is perfected in him. And by this we know that we are in him. Interesting. How do we know if we have his love, if we keep the commandments? He who says he abides in him ought himself also to walk just as he walked. Now, we're going to finish up on this thought. We're going to go about five minutes, take questions, or conclude. Now move from light into the aspect of love. And love is also one of the frameworks that John uses that we might understand our fellowship with God.

Brethren, I write to you no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning. And again, a new commandment I write to you which thing is true in him and in you because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

He who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in the darkness until now. Now, what we're moving into, you might want to jot this down to students, let's put down an old commandment, let's put down a new commandment. We'll define them, we'll bring them together, and then please be ready because this is not just a study, but there's going to be some homework involved.

Don't worry about it. It won't take hours. It'll just take a lifetime.

Because the homework that God gives Christians is not on paper. It's really hard work. And we're going to be discussing some hard work here for a moment. Let's understand. Brother and I write to you, you know, new commandment. He talks about this old commandment. The old commandment is over in Leviticus 19.18. Join me if you would for a moment. Leviticus 19 verse 18. You shall not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the children of your people. For notice, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. What we find in the Old Testament, which was radical at that time, radical, we always need to understand that God's ways are apart. And ahead of society, God said in the Old Testament, you are to love your neighbor as yourself. Now, what is interesting, and let's go to John 13.34. And interesting is we're coming to the spring festival season.

A new commandment, a new commandment I give you, that you love one another. Well, wait a minute. This was already written in the Old Testament, wasn't it? That you love one another as I have loved you that you also love one another. Now, who out here in the class can explain to me the difference between the Old Commandment and the New Commandment that Christ has given? And why is one called Old and the other is called New? Mark.

That's very good. Absolutely good. Good. Okay. Let's go to John 15.13.

And John 15 and verse 13, notice this.

Now, Jesus is speaking about this the night before he's about to be sacrificed. He's speaking of himself, of the act that is about to occur, and the ongoing example for all those that will follow him.

Mark nailed it right on the head. Kaboom! Right on the head. The Old Commandment, the one that's mentioned Leviticus, is a love that is predicated upon self-respect. You respect yourself, therefore you love others as you love yourself. The Old Commandment was about self-respect, self-love.

The New Commandment, the new extension of where God wants to lead us now is, are you ready? Sacrificial love. Apart from ourselves. Away from ourselves. Without any gain or anything coming back. Now, with this, remember what's being said here. We're going to take you up to point and conclude. Where he says, He who says, I know him, and does not keep us commandment is a liar, and the truth is not in him. And whoever keeps his word truly loves God. So, there's an admonition here. Now, notice where this is taking us. He who says he is in the light, as Christ is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now.

If we have feelings towards anybody that are wrongful feelings, and feelings that we're not dealing with towards reconciliation, and towards restoration as much as we can in this lifetime, it says that we are in the dark. And he who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. Now, notice verse 11. This is where we're going to conclude today. But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. When we make the choice to express and expand such love as is being talked about here, God is going to supply what we lack and become like Jesus Christ. John saw this. John was, you know, the one... Here's John who says we handled, we heard him, etc. Join me in Luke 23, 34. Remember, Jesus was different than any of the philosophers of old, because he was the son of God. And he set an example. He didn't just talk about it. He did it. Remember? From the cross, one of the seven final sayings, then Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do. Forgiveness is the beginning act of love. And if we're going to be in the light, as God is in the light, it's something else. Let's go home this week, look at this, explore this, especially maybe... A lot of the first part was a lot of the battling of Gnosticism. And we can either understand that or not, but I think we can all understand, especially from verse 4 on, that this is some real heart work that we've got to all work on, if we're honest with ourselves.

Because if we're not, God says that we're in the dark, we're not in the light. And we can have a certainty that if we do this, and say, well, God, I don't know if I can do it. Well, it's not about you. And you can't do it by yourself. But God says that He will always supply our needs. So that's the end of the study. And thank you for coming. And I'll send you out some notes tonight. I've got some notes on this, and I'll put them on the computer tonight. And for those that don't have a computer, come see me right now.