An Overview of 1 John - 1 John

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. This afternoon, beloved of Jesus Christ, we are going to start with a series of studies on the first letter of the Apostle John. And what we're going to be doing is, in fact, we're going to be reading the whole book together, the five chapters.

And my goal for the day is just to give you a general overview of the book, of the heart and the burden of the Apostle here in first John. And then I hope that if the Lord extends his grace and he allows us with his spirit that we will get into the book next time that we are able to preach from this pulpit. So, as I said, we're going to be reading the first letter of John entirely. But now let me perhaps just go back and take a start point from Luke chapter 10. So if you go to Luke chapter 10, As I said, my goal is to give you a general overview of this book, perhaps, if the Lord allows us, a general overview of the burden of the Apostle John that is found there in the first letter of John.

But I want us to meditate upon something here in Luke chapter 10 that perhaps is going to help us to communicate the message that I desire to communicate to you in 1 John. So let us come together before the Lord before we read these words and pray that he may guide us, that he may give us the words that are necessary to speak and that he will help us not only to speak, but also to hear the words of the Lord. So Lord Jesus, we come before you and we give you thanks for your goodness, for your power, for your majesty, Lord, for your love. You loved us before the foundation of the world that you chose us, Lord. You have set us apart to be your people, that you have given us one to the other, Lord, that you have given us the church.

Help us, Lord, to have a greater view of your bride. Help us, Lord, to be real in our souls and in our hearts. Purify us, O Lord, protect us and keep us. And as we are going to read your word and as we are going to attempt or to speak things of your word, We pray, Lord, that you may help us as a church. This is not the time in which a person comes to do something, but the time in which the saints who by grace through faith have been saved come together.

to die to self corporately and also to desire that the Lord Jesus Christ will be enthroned in their hearts. So we come before you, Lord, asking you that you may help us, that you may guide us, that you may empower us, that you may strengthen us with your Holy Spirit and that you may point us to the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray these things in his name. Amen. Very good, brothers and sisters.

So as I said, We're going to be reading together the whole first letter of John. I hope that I'm not going to take so long here in Luke. But we're going to be reading together the whole book. I don't know how long it's going to take us. But we are going to read here Luke chapter 10, because I believe that with some of the comments that I'm going to be making here from this story of this narrative of Luke chapter 10, we will be able to get into the core of the burden of the apostle John that is found in his letter.

So let us read together the first 20 two verses of the first 20 verses of Luke chapter 10. And let's read it together in faith, paying much attention to each one of these words, and that the Lord may help us as we read and as we explain these things. Luke chapter 10. After these, the Lord appointed 72 or 70 others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. And he said to them, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.

Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest. Go your way, behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the mist of wolves. Carry no money back, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, peace be to this house. And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him.

But if not, he will return to you. and remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick in it and say to them, the kingdom of God has come near to you.

But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, going into its streets and say, even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe up against you. Nevertheless, know this, that the kingdom of God has come near. I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town. Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!

For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more bearable in the judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to Hades. The one who bears you the one who hears you and hears me, and the one who rejects you and rejects me, and the one who rejects me and rejects him who sent me.

The 70 of the 72 returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. And he said to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. Amen.

That is the word of the Lord. The Bible says, beloved of Jesus Christ, that for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believed in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. The love that God had for His people out of the world was so much that He gave His Son that He will be incarnate and come to this world, not to condemn the world when He came the first time, but to save the world. The Lord Jesus Christ came with that purpose, to preach the gospel to every single person that was before him. It was the burden of his soul and it was the burden of his heart that those who were lost and during his trespasses, during their trespasses, that they will be saved by the preaching of the gospel of the same Lord that was going to die upon that cross.

In his effort, he went to every single place preaching the gospel, trying to bring this good news of salvation. And not only that, but he also raised these servants of him, or these disciples, if you want, to send them with the same purpose, to preach the gospel and to bring the good news of the kingdom of God, that the kingdom is at hand and the Son of God has come, not to condemn the world, but to save the world. And here in this narrative that we have in front of us, we have these disciples of the Lord who indeed went to preach the gospel and with the authority that the Lord Jesus Christ had given them precisely to do that, to demonstrate the power of God given to them in the Lord Jesus Christ. When they returned to the Lord, they were boasting and they were joyful because of the mighty religious things that they had seen that had been performed through their hands. The spirits even submit to us.

We can cast out demons rejoicing in all of that. The Lord, as we have just read, is going to give them a very important truth. And that is that they are not to rejoice or to boast in the fact of all the religious abilities and empowerments, even if they are given by the Lord Jesus Christ, but rather they are to rejoice in the fact that their names are written in heaven. That is that the source of joy and peace and satisfaction of these servants of the Lord, of these disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, was not going to be the might of their hands and the things that they were doing and the mighty things that they were seeing, but rather that their hearts were supposed to be driven and taken by the joy that their names were written in heaven. that they had been appointed to be the children of God.

That once the gospel had been preached to them, they had been called by the Lord Jesus Christ and that they had been saved. Same thing applies to us, beloved. Our salvation is the greatest thing that we have. We were dead in our trespasses. We were taken by the unrighteousness of this world.

And it pleased the Lord that before the foundation of the world, we will be found in His Son, Jesus Christ, and that at time, within time, that He will come with His Holy Spirit to open our eyes and to open our hearts to save us and to redeem us. Sometimes it's so easy for us just to be taken by the religious activities and the empowerments of this whole thing. and not to be satisfied with the fact that our names are written in heaven. The main burden of the Apostle John in his first letters is about the reality of salvation in the people of God. If we are going to be rejoicing because our names are written in heaven, if we're going to be rejoicing, not because of the things that we're able to do or say or perform, but rather because our names are written in heaven, then we are to understand what is this glorious salvation that we have and that we profess to enjoy and that we profess to live for.

The Lord Jesus Christ continues to give an important teaching there in verse 21, if you want to read it with me, that will help us understand what I'm just trying to say here. In verse 21, in verse 10, the Lord Jesus Christ continues. It says, In that same hour, he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, this is the Lord. I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to the little children. Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.

All things have been handed over to me by my Father. And no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him." Here, the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking of the definition of that glorious salvation. In other words, what is to have our name written in heaven He is going to say that salvation is the revelation of the father to us by the son. That is what he says there in the end of verse 22.

Pay attention to this place. It says, all things have been handed over to me by my father. And no one knows who the son is except the father or who the father is except the son. And then anyone to whom the son chooses to reveal him. Salvation, according to the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, is no other than a revelation of the divine to those who are in the flesh by the Son, Jesus Christ.

It is a revelation of that which is divine, brothers and sisters. Our salvation is an encounter of this which is by nature, freshly, with that which is divine. It is a glorious encounter, and that encounter is not something that happened in the head. How are we going to say that an encounter of the divine with that which is fleshly will be something that is only understood in the mind? Salvation is a divine experience, is a visitation of God Himself to that which is fleshly, through and uniquely the person of Jesus Christ.

Because we cannot know God apart from His Son, that is eternal life, that we know Him and Jesus Christ, that is the one that was sent by God Himself. brother and sister, my dear soul, our salvation is not something that happens only with a mental ascent. It is not only a confirmation of, I want to belong to this group of people that agree and seem to be so nice and that I just get along with them so easily. Salvation is the divine visitation, a revelation of that which is divine. And that happens uniquely through the son, Jesus Christ.

There's no other way that we can know the Father. There's no other way that we can be genuinely saved. There's no other way that we can experience that. Salvation is an experience. Salvation is not only something that happens in the mind.

Once again, if the seed of God is going to be in your soul, how are we going to reduce down salvation to religion? How are we going to reduce down salvation of my name written in heaven just to a change of thoughts and a change of mindset? Salvation is a divine experience that takes place in the heart of a person who was dead in his trespasses by the unique intervention of the Lord Jesus Christ. And for that reason, the Lord Jesus Christ says you are to rejoice. So many times our salvation is reduced down just to a simple mental ascent, that we are driven and taken just to rejoice in temporal matters, because we might believe with our heads that we are something in Christ, yet our heart is so away from the experience of having the Spirit of God dwelling in us in such a powerful way that the just presence of God himself in us removes us from the temporal things.

making us indeed rejoice in the fact that we belong to Him and that He is in us. The Lord continues in verse 23 and He says, then turning to the disciples, pay attention to this, He said privately, this is speaking to the disciples, blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. My dear soul, within the sound of my voice, either here present in this room, or if you are online, Salvation is a divine intervention of God in your heart, in your soul, that happens uniquely through the person of Jesus Christ, because we cannot know God apart from the revelation that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is according to that which those who witness that have written for us.

We can know God only in the person of Jesus Christ, and we can know this Jesus Christ that reveals the Father only through the witnessing and the testimony of those who were here. Privately, the Lord Jesus Christ came to his disciples and said, Kings and prophets decide to see what you see. Kings and prophets decide to hear what you hear. That is the coming of the Savior that now, as our brother said in other times, God spoke to the fathers through the prophets, but in this time, He has spoken to us through the Son. The full consummation of God now has come incarnate.

God has come descended in the person of Jesus Christ and the disciples saw Him. witnessed Him, they heard His words, they saw His power, they saw His mighty hand bring into fulfillment everything that the Old Covenant, the Old Testament said, so that they will experience this salvation, not only spiritually as we do, but also they will witness the power and the might of the Lord Jesus Christ. The book of John, my dear brother and sister, the first letter of the book of John is nothing else that the calling of the Holy Spirit to your experience of your salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is, have you known the God of this universe through the person of Jesus Christ as it is written in the Scriptures? Has your soul and has your heart experienced the divine power of the Creator of all things through Jesus Christ and in union with Him as it is revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ through His Scriptures?

Has the God of this universe come and abode within your soul in the person of Jesus Christ, through the understanding and the illumination of the Holy Scriptures in such a way that indeed you can obey the words of the Lord Jesus Christ and say, I rejoice. But independently of what happens in this world, but independently of my skills or independently of my talents or independently of the lack of them, my name is written in heaven. Have you experienced the might and the power of the Holy Spirit through the gospel in Jesus Christ in such a way that the Spirit confirms to your soul that that is your reality? Because that is exactly what the Apostle John does in 1 John. So now I'm going to invite you to go there, and we're going to read that book together.

Once again, the message of this book is just simply a confirmation, an experiential confirmation of the genuine salvation of a person. And that genuine salvation of a person is not a mental ascent, is not a confirmation of the mind. It is an experience of God in union with Christ, according to the witnessing and the testimony of the apostles. I hope that with the limitations of my words it would have made that clear, because now this is what we are going to be seeing here in this letter that we are about to read. He is one of those witnesses.

He is one of those who heard those words and perceived all of that power, and this is what he is going to speak to us. 1 John 1. that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life. The lie was made manifest, and we have seen it and testified to it and proclaimed to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us. that which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us.

And indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, his son.

cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have no sin, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may know sin.

But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. By this, we know that we have come to know Him. If we keep His commandments, whoever says, I know Him, but does not keep His commandments, is a liar. And the truth is not in Him.

But whoever keeps His word, in Him, truly the love of God is perfected. By this, we may know that we are in Him. Whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. Beloved, I'm writing you a new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard.

At the same time, it is a new commandment that I'm writing to you, which is true in Him and in you because The darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness and does not know where he's going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for His namesake.

I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning. I'm writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong and the Word of God abides in you and you have overcome the evil one.

Do not love. the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life is not from the Father, but it's from the world. And the world is passing away along with these desires.

But whoever does, the will of God abides forever. Children, it is the last hour. And as you have heard, the Antichrist is coming. So now many Antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour.

They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out that it might become plain that they all are not of us. But you have been anointed by the Holy One. And you have knowledge, a right to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it and because no lies of the truth.

Who is a liar? But the one who denies Jesus is the Christ. This is the Antichrist. He who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father.

Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father." And this is the promise that He made to us, eternal life. I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you.

But the anointing that you receive from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as this anointing teaches you about everything, and it's true, and it's not a lie, just that he has taught you abide in him. And now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink from Him in shame at His coming. If you know that He is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of Him. See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God, and so we are.

The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, when we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself, as He is pure. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness.

Sin is lawlessness. You know that He appeared in order to take away sins, and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him keeps on sinning. No one who keeps on sinning has either seen Him nor known Him. Little children, let no one deceive you.

Whoever practices righteousness is righteous as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil.

Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous.

Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, Let us not laugh in words or talk, but in deed and in truth. By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our hearts before Him. For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything. Love it.

If our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God. And whatever we ask, we receive from Him. because we keep His commandments and do what pleases Him. And this is the commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He has commanded us. Whoever keeps these commandments, whoever keeps His commandments, abides in God, and God in him.

And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.

And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist. which you heard was coming, and now is in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them. For he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

They are from the world, therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us. Whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world so that we may live through Him. In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testified that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as He is also are we in this world. There is no fear in love. A perfect love casts out fear, for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

We love. Hemo, we laugh because he first loved us. If anyone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God who has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God and everyone who loves the father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the Children of God when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been burned of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

This is He who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ. not by water only, but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood, and these three agree. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater.

This is the testimony of God that He has borne concerning His Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe, God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. And this is the testimony that God gave us, eternal life, and this is the life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life.

Whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we have toward him. that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the request that we have asked of Him.

16, if anyone sees his brother committing a sin leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life. To those he commits sin that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death. I do not say that one should pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death.

We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him and the evil one does not touch him. We know that we are from God and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true. And we are in Him who is true, in His Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

Little children, keep yourselves from idols. This is the burden of the Apostle John, brothers and sisters, and I hope that you can see there in the end of this letter that the main concern of the Apostle here is about the reality of the experience of salvation. He's not seeking that we will just simply go and ask ourselves, what are the marks of a Christian? And then just try to find them and tick them just to appease our conscience that we are genuine believers. Rather, the apostle is concerned with the genuine manifestations of the life of God in the life of those who profess to be a Christian.

I said to you, then, from the words of the Lord Jesus Christ in Luke chapter 10, that salvation is a divine encounter, an encounter of God with that which is fleshly through the person of Jesus Christ, according to the testimony that has given to us in the Scriptures from those who were with the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is not something that happens in the mind once again, but rather is an experience as an unexperienced brothers and sisters is not something that happened in the day that you believed. Salvation is not just the day that I prayed a prayer. Salvation is not the day that I confess my faith. Salvation is not the day of my baptism.

Salvation is not the first time that I came into church. Salvation is a present ongoing experience that started, continues and will be consummated. In a sense, we were saved by faith or by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we continue to be saved in union with Jesus Christ. And as the Apostle Peter says in first Peter chapter one verse nine, obtaining the outcome of our faith is speaking of this Catalan of the end times or the end times for your soul, obtaining the outcome of our faith, the salvation of our souls. How terrible it would be for your soul to believe that salvation is just an empty profession of Christianity that has zero impact in your life, within your soul, in your being.

What a terrible thing would be for a person who professes to be a Christian to be satisfied with only being seated in a chair, coming to a church, attending a Bible study, or even performing Christian duties. What a terrible thing would be for something who confesses to be in Jesus Christ to be satisfied with the things of religions as the disciples and not to have experienced the joy of being united to Christ and that your name is indeed written in the kingdom of heaven. The concern of the apostle is the vital reality of the union that a Christian is supposed to have with the person of Jesus Christ. According to the Apostle Paul, he calls that union with Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ, even as He chose us before the foundation of the world, in the Beloved, in union with Christ.

According to this Apostle Paul, in Ephesians and in Romans, this is union with Christ. according to the mind and the providential workings of the Spirit in the mind of the Apostle Peter, that is to be partaker of the divine nature. Having escaped to the corruption of this world that is there by lustful desire, you are partakers of the divine nature by the exceedingly great and glorious promises that have been given through the knowledge of Jesus Christ. By union with Christ, you are partaker of the divine nature. No room.

for religious activity, no room for empty activity, but rather the Bible speaks about your salvation as something that is so glorious that according to the mouth of the Apostle Paul is to be united to God in Jesus Christ, or to be partaker of the divine nature according to Peter, and then according to the humble Apostle John, that is to be in fellowship. with Jesus Christ, or that is to walk in the light as he is in the light. Never, ever this apostle speaks through this letter about something that is supposed to be your reality, but it's not the reality of the relationship between Christ and the Father. Just as he's in the light, you are to walk in the light. Your salvation, according to John, or according to Paul, is union with Christ.

And according to Peter, is to be partaker of the divine nature. According to John, is to walk in the light as he is in the light. Or, in his other words there in chapter 2, is to have the love of God perfected in your heart. That is that if you abide in Christ, then you keep his word, and the love of God is perfected in your heart. walk in the light as he is in the light, abide in Jesus Christ, to know him according to him also, or to be in God and that God is in you, experiential in all levels, experiential from every single angle, not only experiential, but the expectation of the apostle of that salvation is great.

Walk in the light as he is in the light, This is the message that I bring to you, he says. This is the message that we heard from him, Jesus Christ, and declared to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If you say that you have fellowship with him, that is, if you say that you are a Christian and you walk in darkness, you lie and do not practice the truth. If you confess that you are in union, in fellowship, that you are partaker of the divine nature, and you walk in darkness, you're a liar. You deceive yourself.

You make him a liar. The truth is not in us. You're not walking in the light. The love of God is not perfected in you, experiential, in all levels. No room for a mental ascent.

No room for me to trust in a prayer that I prayed 5, or 10, or 11, or 20, or 50, or whatever years ago. No room for me to have certainty of who I am today upon a religious profession. Because the apostle calls to my soul to testify before God if those are realities. And the expectation and the standard here is, as you can see, very strong. Even words that cause much offense within Christianity.

Those who are born of God have the seed of God in themselves. And because they have the seed of God in themselves, they do not keep practicing sin. That is what the apostle says. that those who have been born of God do not practice sinning. That is even the last verse of the last verses that we read there in verse 18.

We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning. No interpretation, just a reading of a Bible translation here. We know that everyone has been born of God does not keep on sinning. Walk in the light as He is in the light. Have the love of God perfected in your hearts to love the Father with all your heart, to abide in Him, to be in Him, to remain in Him.

As if the standard of the Bible or the New Testament was the standard that many times we preach. The words of the Apostle John in agreement, complete agreement with the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 7, verse 1, that he calls us to bring holiness to perfection in the fear of the Lord. To cleanse ourselves from all unrighteousness of the flesh and of the spirit, bringing holiness to perfection in the fear of the Lord. What a standard of the Christian experience. not a Christian agreement, not for me to come and agree and to say whatever word I read, I agree and I'm okay with that, but rather what a standard of confirmation with the experience of the believer.

That is the standard that we have been called. That is the standard that we have just simply read here, to be like the Lord Jesus Christ. And in the last verse, in verse 20, this is the summary of what genuine salvation is, our beloved Christ, and says, And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him who is true, and that we are in Him who is true in His Son, Jesus Christ. Exactly the same truth that we read in Luke chapter 10, and that the same apostle John will speak in John chapter 17, verse 3. And this is eternal life, that we know the Father and that we know the Son, Jesus Christ, whom He sent.

This book, brothers and sisters, is only a practical exposition of John 17, verse 3. It's just the exposition of a mature apostle after tribulation and trials of John 17, verse 3. Just read it if you don't have it in your mind. Come with me. Almost half of you turned your Bibles to that, so I suppose that we should all do it.

John 17, verse 3. And this is eternal life, that they know you. They know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I am so tempted just to make you compare the verses. Read it again.

I'm sorry, but read it again. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. Now, if you go back again, that makes terrible preaching, but it's glorious to compare those two verses. Verse 20, and we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true. You see it there, right?

The same words. And that we are in Him who is true, that is God. And then adds, that union with God is in His Son, Jesus Christ. He's the true God and eternal life. brothers and sisters, we can so easily, please, if your soul is paying attention, we can so easily get distracted with the things of religion.

with the things of this world, with the things of our Christianity, just like the apostles were just like, wow, you know, like we're casting out demons and the spirits are subject to us. We can so easily get taken by the things of the world, by the things, the external matters that we forget the substance of what we are supposed to be. and the substance of what we are supposed to be as Christians is to have the life of Jesus Christ. Let me take that back. It's supposed to have the life of God through Jesus Christ in us, in us, in the depths of your soul.

So concerned about having the right answer and the right word to things that happen outside, and many times so negligent to the things of the heart, to the things that are just there inside that we cannot cover, that we cannot disguise, that we cannot remove, that are there. So concerned about having the right external manifestation of whatever you want. even if it's holy, even if it's true, and we ought to behave that way, we are to be concerned about the external manifestation of our faith. But just if a little bit, all Christians decided to pay attention to what is inside the heart. Brothers and sisters, because we are supposed to have the life of Christ in our hearts, We are supposed to, that is to walk in the light.

That is to have the love of God being perfected in us. That is to be partakers of the divine nature. That is to be in union with Christ. So many times concern about the external manifestations of religion while your heart is testifying to you that you're walking in darkness. that you're not walking in the light, that you're walking in darkness.

So many times, concern about the external manifestations of religion for them to be in the right place when you know that your heart has not been perfected in love, the love of God. When you know that your heart is not in vital union with Christ, that you don't desire Christ, that you don't even understand at times what it is to desire to be with Him, yet we can just go with life, so little concern about it. That is a terrifying thing. That is a terrifying thing for the soul of the genuine believer, who in that case is backslidden, or for the false professing Christian, who is going to hear the words of God saying, depart from me. I never knew you, you workers of inequity.

I never knew you. You said, you proclaimed, you did, and you gave yourself to religion and to all of these things. I never knew you. because salvation is intimate divine knowledge and encounter. How is a Christian going to be at peace when he passes one, two, three days, one week with a heart that is cold and indifferent?

I don't understand. How does a Christian, a genuine believer, how is a Christian okay dealing with envy, dealing with hatred, dealing with sexual immorality, dealing with lies, dealing with gossip, and allowing that in the heart for one day, two days, three days, four days, five days, six days, seven days, one week, one year? How is that even possible? I ask myself the question. How is it even possible that that would be the case?

The apostle then is concerned with our hearts. He does not want us to have assurance that we are in Jesus Christ because we have ticked all the boxes, we belong to a reformed Baptist church, and then we have the correct doctrine, or at least a little bit here and there. Rather, he pierces and goes in depth to our hearts. And brothers and sisters, vital Christianity is not other than union with the person of Jesus Christ. I wish I had better words, but that's what the Bible says in Christ, through Christ, by Christ, for Christ, partaking of the divine nature in fellowship with him, abiding in him, walking in the light to be in him.

The Spirit of God is the one that is supposed to testify to your soul what is to experience Christ. That is through Jesus Christ that we have an understanding. He is the Holy One that has given us the anointing that teaches us all things. Apart from Him, we are taken by the false prophets' capture. Because in your mind, you're understanding even you're a super theologian, you're captured.

by your own mind or by someone else. It is the Spirit of God in the person of Jesus Christ, the one that illuminates to us and opens the truth of the Scripture. How many times, beloved of Jesus Christ, we're just simply, okay, not living in the fullness of walking in the light as He is in the light. And as we were just singing in that song, Sometimes, you know, the peace that forfeit, or whatever the pronunciation of that word is, forfeit or forfeit, that because we don't bring things in prayer to the Lord, how many times we neglect that peace that can only be given in communion with Jesus Christ? That song is not speaking about that you pray and then instantly you remove from your burdens.

It's that when you pray, you come in communion with the Savior, who is the one that is able to give you the peace that surpasses all understanding. So when you don't pray, it's not that you're neglecting a spiritual duty, you're neglecting Christ. You are saying, I am able to do it on my own. I'm just going to think, and I'm just going to see what am I going to do just to overcome the government that's coming after me. But rather, your heart is to come to Jesus Christ, humble, in the presence of Jesus Christ, abiding in Him.

And then the apostle gives us the whole summary of the book in verse 21. a verse that has been confused or has caused a lot of confusion many times. He says, if you understand, or at least if I communicated a little bit clear that our life is meant to be a union, a vital union with Jesus Christ, that is to live in Him, to walk in the light as He's in the light, and to experience Him alone, God in Jesus Christ, then you understand verse 21, it says, little children, keep yourselves from idols. Little children, keep yourself from idols. He doesn't say, little children, run away from idols.

He doesn't say, little children, when you see an idol, just turn and change your ways. He says, keep yourself from idols. That is, protect yourself. The idol is going to be there. Protect yourself, keep yourself from idols.

Just as when the early people of the church, the apostles and the disciples of the Lord were put into change, you know, in the jail with soldiers, even sometimes they were kept in prison. He says here that we are to keep ourselves, we are to guard ourselves from idols. Because what the apostle has done through this book is speaking about realities of the heart and situations, very practical situations of the heart that deviate us from being in Christ, knowing God to something else. And when that happens, then we are not with Him, because you are not with God 99%. We are not walking in the light 99% or 51% that it's okay that I'm just doing majority of holy things.

We are in God in completeness or we are not. That is how it works. It is not only salvation by faith through faith in Jesus Christ, purely, completely, not doubting or not believing 99% and then just doubting a little bit 1%. I doubt that He's my Savior. No, if you had doubts, that is the opposite to faith.

So initial salvation requires a full and complete certainty, you giving yourself to the Lord. And guess what? Guess what? Your life as you progress, as a Christian, before you seek glory, is supposed to be given entirely to the communion, fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. then everything else that removes you from him becomes an idol.

Now, it's not the idol, the one that removes you from communion with the Lord Jesus Christ, is rather your heart that has not been kept in the place where you should have been, that has now turned to something that is not living, something that is not true and something that is not the only God that now has moved you to worship that which is temporal. If we would like if we understood the silliness, how how silly it is for us to give ourselves to things that are temporal and things that are passing away. So the apostle here is calling us to live life in the person of Jesus Christ. to be given to him entirely and not to be taken by any type of idols. He's going to present at least four different situations in this book that capture a person and that moves that person not to walk in the fullness of communion with Jesus Christ.

According to how your faces progress, I will see if I address them all, but let me at least present the first one to you. Go to chapter number one. We could call them idolatries. The first idolatry of the heart, or the first thing that can move your heart to deviate from walking in the fullness of Jesus Christ is called self-righteousness. Usually, the idol that we turn to, that we deviate from God is self.

And it's Paul, or Peter, oh, John here is going to speak about different manifestations of idolatry to self. The first one, my dear brother and sister, is self-righteousness. when you think that you are good. Self-righteousness is the greatest enemy to the gospel. Self-righteousness is just believing that I'm good enough in and of myself, and I don't need the righteousness of God to come and to redeem me and to save me.

I don't need the righteousness of the Savior that you're professing. So I'm good enough. I don't need any of that. I'm just okay with who I am. That is the enemy of the Gospel in the beginning of salvation, but also beloved of Christ.

He becomes an enemy in the life of the Christian. And that first idolatry of self-righteousness, we have it there in verse 5 through verse 10 of chapter 1. Here, brothers, you see the repetition that the Apostle John speaks about here. He says this, if you give me your eyes and your attention. He says, this is the message.

Give me your eyes and give me your attention, beloved. He says, this is the message that we have received from him. The Apostle John is speaking to these Christians, is speaking to your soul and saying, this is the message that we receive from Him. What is that message? That message is that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.

This God that you profess to believe is light, and in Him, no darkness at all. It's not that He's light most of the time, it's that He is light and absolutely no darkness in the presence of God. So then he says, if you say that you have fellowship with him, if you say that you have fellowship with the one that is light, all the time light, and you walk in darkness, you lie. And the truth is not in you, or you do not practice the truth. But if you confess your sins, or better, if you walk in the light as He is in the light, you will have communion one with the other, and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ will cleanse you from all sins.

Here we have a person that says, I have not seen. If you say, I have not seen, you deceive yourself. And his word, his truth is not enough. If you say, I have not seen the word of God is not in your heart. Self righteousness we have here.

Self righteousness, my dear brother, my dear sister, is one of the idols that our heart will easily turn to. That is to justify ourselves in our sin and self righteousness, according to this apostle, is going to manifest in at least two ways. The first way is that it's going to be very difficult for you to receive the forgiveness that you have in the person of Jesus Christ. And then you're going to live your life with a burden upon your shoulders, trying to be good, professing to be Christian and professing to live in the Lord Jesus Christ and professing and even saying with your mouth, He paid for all my sins. And even singing with the church, Jesus paid it all.

Yet when it comes to the real practice of your life, then you are not able to receive the forgiveness that God gives in the person of Jesus Christ, because you are self-righteous. You are saying, I have no sin, there's no sin in me. The light of God comes to convict and to give you consciousness of sin. And then the person simply omits the conviction and they continue in the practice of that sin, walking in darkness. The second manifestation of self-righteousness, according to the Apostle in chapter 2, he says, for if you say, I know him, and you do not keep his commandments, you are a liar.

The second manifestation of self-righteousness, beloved of Jesus Christ, is hypocrisy. Hypocrisy, when we utter words. when we are very quick to speak of things that are holy, when we are very quick to speak things of Jesus Christ, yet in the heart we are disobedient, yet we commit sins in the very secret place. That is self righteousness. That is seeing ourselves as the one who are able to do things in our own strength, either moving us not to receive the forgiveness that comes from the person of Jesus Christ, just simply being okay being a hypocrite.

And the heart is slowly given over to hypocrisy. The Lord testifies to the heart of a person of the sin that has been committed once and continue to testify to that heart and bring in consciousness of the presence of that sin. And slowly, because of the hypocrisy of the person who desires and who continues in the practice of that sin, that person becomes an open liar. I know him. I am in him.

I am a Christian. I am a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, contempt with the presence of sin in the heart, even knowingly. brothers and sisters, if we knew the importance of the things that really take place within our hearts, we will give ourselves to indeed examine ourselves to see whether we are in the faith and to see the manifestation of the power of Jesus Christ in us and not so much in the external deeds that we do. Let me just mention one more, perhaps two, depending on how you go, and then I will just make another comment about the Lord Jesus Christ.

Come with me, please, to chapter two. the first idolatry of self-righteousness in chapter one. Second one, there's actually at least four in this book, but let me just point you to a couple of them. Second one, chapter two, it says in verse 15, do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in Him.

Second idolatry here that takes the heart of the Christians, not only the one of self-righteousness that diminish the power of the gospel upon your soul to give you forgiveness and that moves you into being a hypocrite, but here there is another idolatry and that is idolatry of the things of the world. The heart of the professing Christian can be taken by the things of the world, and the point of the Apostle in verse 16 and 17 is that those things are temporal, and the heart of the Christian can sometimes prefer to give themselves to the things that are temporal instead of abiding in God, who is forever. He says there, whoever does the will of God abides forever. Someone said that if we just had a glimpse into the things that are eternal, Only if our hearts and our souls were established upon the things that go beyond the temporal, that go beyond this time, that go beyond the immediateness of the things that we see and the things that we observe. But rather, our hearts will be established upon the things that are eternal.

Because, beloved of Jesus Christ, the life that we're supposed to have is eternal life. Nothing of the things that we have, that we see, the powers that we have, compare with the fact that whenever all of these things pass, The things that we have, how we look, how we are, the things that we know. The only thing that is left is our relationship and our life that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't know if it happens to you. I'm only 36 years old, but as I see my body just progressing in time and as my head fills with you know, things that I remember when I was a kid or when I was a teenager and I see so many things that are just left in the past and I'm just experiencing time and I'm like, all of this time is gone and it's past and I was so concerned about things when I was 10 or when I was 15 or when I was 18, when I was 20 and I gave myself so much to those things that were really important to me and now I'm perhaps in the middle of my life I'm really, every day, getting closer to the day that I'm going to see my Lord.

And at times, I'm still taken by the things that are passing away. Lord Jesus, give me, please, an insight into things that are eternal. Because in the moment, brother and sister, that your mind is just simply fluctuating from being a Christian and to the things of the world, your nature is going to more easily take you captive by the things that are passing away. reputation, education, money, power, the comforts of Australia, the comforts of this world, whatever it is, accumulating power, accumulating money, giving yourself security by the bank account that you have, giving yourself security by the house that you have built, giving yourself security by the education that you have provided to your children, giving yourself security by the morals and the religion that you practice, giving yourself security by the things that you do, all of them are going to pass away. Giving yourself security by the things that you know are going to pass away.

Giving yourself by the efforts and the talents that you have, they are going to pass away. Rejoice in the fact that your name is written in the kingdom of God. My soul, your soul, our beings do not have the ability to actually rejoice in that fact. That requires, beloved, that we will have an insight so profound into the unrighteousness that is in this world and the righteousness that is in our hearts that we will cling to the Lord Jesus Christ and indeed desire to be with Him. Let me just give you the third one.

I'm not going to give you four, but let me just give you the third one and speak from here about the Lord. Go there to verse 9, please, in chapter 2. That is the second idolatry, and perhaps this is the one that the apostles despised the most through the book. And this is the idolatry purely of self. All of them have different manifestations.

As I said, the first one is self-righteousness. That is your good works, your good deeds that denies the conviction of the spirit and that moves you to be a hypocrite, to walk in sin. The second one there in chapter two, verse 15, is just the idolatry of the things that are passing away. These are things that are external, outside of you. And then in verse nine, which he is going to elaborate even through the chapters here, we have the idolatry of loving yourself.

We would have to deny very clearly the main aspect that the apostle tries to emphasize through this book, which is love, right? He speaks a lot about love and love and love and love. And the enemy number one to genuine salvation and the manifestation of the spirit in our lives is love to self. In verse nine, he says, whoever says that he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Now, dear brother and dear sister, the statement is very clear.

Whoever says that he is in the light and hates his brother or sister is still in darkness. So he continues in verse 10. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. Religious love. Fleshly love.

The love that is external and contingent upon shallow things. Religious love only because of the religious circumstances in which we are. That type of religious fleshly shallow love many times is the disguise of hatred that happens in the heart. Many times religious empty love that is contingent upon just simply religious activity and religious relationship between the members of the church is many times the cover up for a hatred that is happening in the heart. Hatred that it manifests itself with envy.

Hatred that manifests itself sometimes with separation, that is what Jude says, what Peter says, and even John says here in chapter 3 and 4. That is physical and spiritual separation, one from the other, because genuine love is the one that unites all things, is the one that brings things together. But this fleshly love that is just simply is smiling one to the other and just being okay and to do certain activities that even the hidden do and that are willing to do one with the other is usually the cover up in the heart of hatred. Envy, evil thoughts, meditations against the brothers and sisters, and taking just time to meditate and to ponder evil and righteousness. Creating a wall, as he says that in chapter four, creating a wall against brothers, against sisters around the heart.

If you see that someone is indeed, and you close your heart to that person, you're not walking in the light, he says the apostle. And this test, brother, sister, is something that goes beyond us here seated together, being in church. If someone was going to come through that door and say, who are Christians here? All of that will pass that test because we're seated in a chair. But when the Bible and the scriptures convict us and cause us to confront us in this particular way, is either the one who is in the light experiences love for the brethren or not.

Because the absence of love for the brethren is love to self. We hate others. We are envious of others. We feel uncomfortable with the good things that happen to others. We have malicious thoughts against the others because we exalt ourselves exceedingly.

And we want what they have. We want what they say. We want what they look. We want how they speak. We want what they do.

We want what they have. So our heart is moved to have secret hatred in the heart, secret envy in the heart, secret separation. I don't even want to be with them. I'm just going to find a way not to exercise the duties of love that should be so natural to myself, but because the actual natural aspect that is in my heart is hatred, then I'm just simply going to speak the word love, but in my heart I don't want to be with anyone. That is what Jude says also, the separation of those who are false and who are devoid of the Spirit.

Brothers and sisters, if it was only a simple physical thing that Christianity was, this is the most important matter in life. We are either in Jesus Christ or we are not in Jesus Christ. He came to this world to save. He came to this world to save and to redeem from the unrighteousness that is natural to our hearts. And genuine salvation promises that in union with Him, all of those things that are natural to our heart can be completely removed and completely taken because the main point of the apostle in this letter, brothers and sisters, is going to be that just as we are not able to love, we are to see the Lord Jesus Christ because the one who he was, we love because he first loved us.

The apostle is going to teach us, and I hope that he may give us the grace for me just to be able to explain many of the things that are here. He's going to explain us and he's going to lead us to develop the spiritual skill to have consciousness of sin, not only to be conscious of the presence of sin in our hearts, but also to identify the root of sin, because many people are able to identify the sin that they commit, but not the root of the sin that they commit, which is either walking in darkness or not being in light. But also from there it's going to point us to the righteousness that should be in the place of our hearts that sometimes is taken to darkness. And then the apostle is going to show us one attribute of Christ or better one attribute of God in Jesus Christ that is supposed to remove us. from that sin that we are committing.

So he says, for instance, in chapter number one, that if we say that we have no sin, we make him a liar and the truth is not in us. But then he continued in chapter two and he says, my little children, these things I write to you so that you may not sin. No, it's only that you will say that you will agree with the confession that there is sin. But I'm writing these things so that you will not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, who Jesus Christ, the righteous.

So if you're taken by self-righteousness, if you are taken captive by the idol of you are good and there's no sin in you, then know this, that when you sin, you can see to the one who is the righteous, Jesus Christ, the propitiation for our sins, and not only for us, but for the sins of the whole world. This Jesus Christ, the righteous, is seated at the right hand of the Father, interceding for your soul continually. No need of being self-righteous, no need of, denying the sin that the Spirit is convicting. No need of giving yourself to sin. No need of being a hypocrite in unrighteousness.

Look to Christ. He is the righteous. He is the one that is not only the righteous, but He is the propitiation for our sins. No, He was the propitiation for our sins. but He is the propitiation for your sins.

So then you understand the power of present continuous confession, because it's not about Jesus Christ died for my previous sins, my present sins, and my future sins. Yes, but the interceding role of Jesus Christ in heaven is as powerful as He was upon the cross, because He is the righteous one, He is your advocate, and He is at the right hand of the Father interceding for your soul. No need, says the Apostle John, to be self-righteous. No need to deny the light of God that comes upon you to give you conviction of sin. No need to say, I have no sin.

No need to say, I have not committed that. No need to make God a liar. but rather surrender yourself from your unrighteousness and look to Jesus Christ who is the righteous, who is the advocate, and in Him you find full and forgiveness of your sins. He cleanses you from all your unrighteousness. He cleanses you from all your sin, brothers and sisters.

Experiential power in the presence of Jesus Christ. what the Puritans wrote so many times and said so many times and read so many times and they continue to write and write and write. Everyone loves the Puritans. They don't love their lifestyle, though. But everyone loves the Puritans.

Everyone loves what they did and what they said. Experience with Christ. Give yourself in the morning just to simply be with Him, with your prayer. Give yourself to commune with the Lord when you open the Bible. Do not go through the motions.

Do not go through religion. Do not give yourself just to simply tick the box of your Bible plan. Give yourself to Jesus Christ to experience the life of Jesus Christ. One second, one minute, one hour, whatever the Lord has given you. That experience of the life of Jesus Christ on a daily basis, continuous basis, not in the religious way, but continually and ongoingly, this will give you the life of God in the person of Jesus Christ to walk in the light as He was in the light, to have the love of God being perfected in your heart, to abide in Him.

So this is just not just... words that we preach and we say to abide in Him. Love casts out fear. So many times that I'm just fearful about my kids, fearful about the future, fearful about the things that are taking place. Love, love of God when He's being perfected in our hearts.

cast out fear, remove the fear of punishment by brothers and sisters. This is not going to happen with religion. Even if that religion belongs to the correct theological camp and with the correct name of the church and with the correct color of the chairs and the correct way to doing the Lord's table. This is not going to happen with empty religion. It happens when the individual believer is receiving the fountain of God's life, that in his condescension, he has desired and has been pleased to pour into your soul, in the person of Jesus Christ, as the witness of the apostles, as is written here, to continually give you life and power indeed, over gossip, over unrighteousness, over lack of love, lack of prayer, Lack of Bible reading?

Are you tired of the things that are taking place and you're just so taken captive by the things that happen in the world that you see in the news? Christ, Christ, Christ, Christ, and Jesus. Christ is the answer for whatever situation that takes place in your soul. And when that happens in the individual, it happens what says in verse 7 in chapter 1. Please just see there.

just see this in verse 7, but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, like if we did not know what comes next, we would just give, if we were going to complete the sentence after that, we will speak about any type of individual blessing. It says, but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one. With who? With one another. If we walk in the light, as he is seeing the light, we have fellowship with one another.

And you think that the fellowship that the Apostle is speaking there is about us buying pizza and speaking about the weather and what the government is doing? That is not the type of fellowship that the Apostle is referring here. It's the same fellowship that he spoke about in verse one through four. That is the fellowship that the apostles had with the father and the fellowship of the father had with the son. My dear brother, my dear sister, if the Lord extends our days and we are here, I can continue to bring a sermon or two during the week and a Bible study and perhaps to have a barbecue every week and then just to go when the Lord allows to do evangelism.

I can do that if the Lord extends our days and gives us health for 50 years. But this is not what we ought to desire. We're not to desire religious activity that you have to reach to the point in which you are okay now just getting the kids ready on Sunday for them to be on time or just to do things during Thursday for it to happen. We are to desire the life of Jesus Christ inside of us so that this church, the community of believers here, will have a fellowship that is the result of the individual walking in the light as he is in the light. And imagine what, if that is the case, this town turned upside down, the Gold Coast, Queensland, this country.

Because that is the power of God in the believer. He came to rescue us from sin, from unrighteousness. He did not come to rescue us from unrighteous governments or unrighteous judges or unrighteous systems of men. He came to save us from something that is inside of your heart. And He has given us a promise that He can do it.

You believe that He can do it, right? And that He can transform you and empower you. And He says that He will do. The only thing is for us to hear, believe and come to Him completely surrendered, saying, Lord. Work in me for the sake of your people.

Lord, I want to walk in the light as you are in the light. Lord, show me the light that is in your presence so that I will remain there for the sake of my soul and for the sake of my brothers and sisters, that we will have fellowship with one another. And then there's no guilt because the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin. Now, there are some of you here within the sound of my voice even, those of you who are online, that if the Lord comes today, or if something happens here, or wherever we're meeting, or even if it passes 50 or 100 years, and all of us are dead, even with people and the amount of people that are within the sound of my voice. There is a big chance that some of you will end up in heaven with the rest of the believers that are within the sound of my voice.

And there is still the chance that some of you will end up on that day, given account before the Lord, And finding yourself that those who say, Lord, Lord, didn't we do these things? Didn't we do those things? Depart from me, you workers of inequity. And even as I said those things, and even as I preach those things, many of you will harden your heart in such a way that these will still happen. And that when the Lord comes and takes an account of your life, that he is going to give you according to your own works and deeds.

So let me just say to this beast now, there's no other day. There is no other opportunity. Today is the day of salvation. How many times have you, if that is your case, have you heard the gospel of Jesus Christ? How many times have you heard about your name being written in the kingdom of heaven?

How many times have you heard of this glorious salvation that is found in the person of Jesus Christ? Do not harden your heart. The greatest thing that can happen to a person is to be in eternal union with Jesus Christ. Do not give any more seconds, do not give any more Sundays, do not give any other opportunity for you to come to Christ, but come to the person of Jesus Christ. My dear brother and sister, if you are indeed on your conscience testifies of your union with Christ, continue to come to Him, continue to come to Him.

Continue to come to Him in prayer, in meditation, through the words. Experience the Lord. He's your Savior. He's your Redeemer. He's the lover of your soul.

He loves you. He loves you. He gave His life for your soul. He knows you from eternity past. He has rescued you.

He loves you. He gave His life. He continues to intercede for you. Imagine He's at the right hand of the King of heaven. interceding for your soul.

He's the advocate that is interceding so that you will walk in the light, that you will bring that the work that he started will come to completion in you. He is the lover of your soul. May the Lord help us to live according to the words and to bring holiness to perfection in the fear of the Lord, in union with the Lord Jesus Christ and loving this glorious Savior of ours. Amen.