0:06 it's the story of how God was seeking a
0:09 bride for his son each book is different
0:11 from every other book I'm trying to give
0:15 you the keys for you to unlock it for [Music]
0:27 [Music]
0:29 yourself tucked away at the end of the
0:31 new Testament are three little Letters
0:35 by the Apostle John one quite long and
0:37 two very short and they're quite
0:39 different from Paul's letters which
0:41 we've been looking at well they're
0:43 written by someone else and the Holy
0:45 Spirit so inspired the writers of
0:47 scripture that the Holy Spirit didn't
0:50 override their temperament or their
0:52 particular Outlook their character and
0:55 personality and that's beautiful God can
0:57 use our
0:59 personalities and uh so they have a
1:01 different feel about them they're very
1:04 warm very personal uh some have called
1:07 them very fatherly letters I call them
1:10 very grandfatherly letters Because by
1:12 the time John wrote These he was an old
1:14 man he was the only Apostle to die of
1:18 old age all the others were killed ex
1:21 executed assassinated or whatever but
1:23 John was allowed to live and indeed
1:27 Jesus had hinted about this when Peter
1:29 had been told by Jesus you're going to
1:33 to die a uh horrible death crucifixion
1:35 actually you'll be carried somewhere by
1:38 others that you don't want to go and
1:41 Peter said but what about
1:43 John and Jesus said that's none of your business
1:44 business
1:47 Peter if I want him still to be around
1:51 when I return that's my business and
1:53 from then a rumor began that Jesus would
1:56 start come back before Jesus died before
1:58 John died that's not what Jesus was
2:00 saying actually and in John's gospel
2:02 he corrects that wrong impression but he
2:04 did live to an old age and he looked
2:07 after Mary the mother of Jesus of course
2:09 and they moved to Ephesus and that's
2:12 where the these letters were
2:14 written and later we're going to look at
2:17 the Book of Revelation and that's not
2:19 unconnected with Ephesus either well now
2:22 when we look at these letters there are
2:24 again these Bible scholars who say
2:26 they're not written by the Apostle John
2:28 but when you compare these letters with
2:30 John's gospel they have the same stamp
2:34 on them the same style the same
2:37 vocabulary and many of the features are the
2:38 the
2:41 same but the thing that really ties
2:44 these letters to John's gospel though in
2:47 a sense they're not named nevertheless
2:49 is the fact that all the way through
2:52 there there are these absolute contrasts
2:55 John is a very black and white person
2:57 and is always presenting things in terms
3:01 of absolute opposites and we who live in
3:02 an age of
3:06 relativism find this very different
3:08 relativ relativism means there's nothing
3:10 either true or false everything's just
3:12 an opinion there's nothing right or
3:14 wrong there's no black and white
3:16 everything's Shades of Gray and we live
3:19 in a society that's devoted to
3:22 relativist thinking whereas the Bible is
3:25 very much in absolutes Black and Whites
3:27 and John particularly sees things very
3:31 clearly as a matter of life or death a
3:33 matter of light or Darkness truth or
3:36 Lies Love or hate righteousness or
3:38 lawlessness children of God or children
3:40 of Satan love of the father or love of
3:42 the world and he just says these are totally
3:44 totally
3:46 incompatible and there is no third
3:48 position there's no middle ground
3:50 there's no in between you're either
3:52 walking in light or you're walking in
3:54 darkness and ultimately of course the
3:57 biggest contrast is heaven or hell and
4:00 there's nowhere else every everybody's
4:02 heading for one or the
4:05 other well that tells me that it is John
4:08 who's writing these letters and the
4:10 gospel as well that it's the same man
4:13 this is how he thinks now who does he
4:15 address his letters to well he does tell
4:19 us in chapter 2: 12- 14 he says I'm
4:21 writing to three groups of
4:25 people he says I'm writing to Little
4:28 Children I'm writing to young men and
4:31 I'm writing to fathers
4:33 now he's not in in a sense writing to
4:36 different physical ages but different
4:40 spiritual ages young children are recent
4:42 converts those who've just been born
4:45 again little children who need to be
4:48 given milk rather than meat to help them
4:50 little children who have experienced two
4:53 things they know forgiveness and they
4:55 now know God as father and that's about
4:57 the limit of their knowledge and he's
5:01 writing to them little children new
5:04 converts babes in Christ he also wants
5:07 to write to young men those who've grown
5:10 up a bit and who've matured a bit and he
5:13 says three things about them young men
5:15 young men in Christ have begun to
5:17 develop their strength they've grown a
5:19 bit stronger they're not weak like
5:21 babies they've also digested the
5:23 scripture they know the scriptures
5:25 they've been studying the Bible and that
5:28 has helped them to grow and above all
5:30 they've had their first battles with
5:33 Satan and they've had victory over Satan
5:34 and when you get a victory over the
5:37 devil that helps you to grow so these
5:40 are young Christians who are growing
5:44 strong in those three ways and then he
5:46 writes to much older CH Christians he
5:50 calls them fathers and he writes to
5:53 these because their experience has both
5:56 length and depth some people just have
5:59 length of experience and not depth but
6:02 he says fathers real fathers real mature
6:06 Christians have both length and depth of
6:07 experience with God so he's writing to
6:10 three groups all at once that's quite a
6:12 a big Target to
6:15 hit uh we do notice that he puts them
6:17 all into male
6:19 form and in fact you may have noticed
6:22 the whole new testament is addressed to
6:24 brothers and not brothers and
6:26 sisters well that's an important thing
6:29 to notice for a number of reasons it
6:32 does cover brothers and sisters but why
6:34 is there this male
6:36 emphasis because there there are now
6:39 non-sexist versions of the Bible that
6:41 put it as brothers and sisters all the
6:43 way through same Bible says God is
6:45 father mother and there's a whole lot of
6:48 confusion coming in there but I believe
6:51 one main reason is this the strength and
6:53 character of the
6:56 church can be seen in its
6:59 men and that men have the responsibility
7:01 of leadership in the church as well as
7:04 in the home and that their character is
7:08 the all important thing where a Church's
7:11 men are strong the whole church will
7:14 be where the men are weak that church
7:15 will be
7:17 weak and that's one reason why the last
7:20 five years I've spent so much time in
7:23 what we call our men for God conferences
7:25 and the most letters of thanks I've had
7:26 are from the
7:29 ladies for what's happened to their men
7:31 where the men are strong in the home and
7:34 the church the women and children will
7:36 be strong too but where the men are weak
7:38 that church will be weak it's an
7:42 important point and brothers are very
7:46 important and uh I'd be a wey man if I
7:48 had A1 pound note for every
7:52 family in church where the wife is ahead
7:54 of the husband
7:56 spiritually but it's healthy where the
8:00 husband is ahead of the wife
8:03 and a husband can't be ahead unless he's
8:07 ahead if you know what I mean so that's
8:10 the male emphasis it's not putting women
8:12 down or children down it's saying if the
8:15 men are strong in the faith the women
8:17 and children will be as well and that's
8:19 a profound
8:21 principle well now that's who he's
8:24 writing to so ask why is he writing and
8:26 we get a lot of answers because he gives
8:29 us so many answers and I've given you
8:32 two outlines two possible lists one is a
8:34 shorter one and one is a longer one but
8:36 you can put them together and make of
8:39 them what you will but for
8:41 example uh someone has said that he
8:43 writes for four reasons that these three
8:46 groups of people may be satisfied that
8:47 their Joy may be
8:51 full that they may be sinless and living
8:55 blameless lives that they may be safe
8:57 from all the Wilds of the devil
8:59 especially false teaching which is the
9:02 devil's particular approach to church
9:06 life and above all that they may be
9:09 sure Christians need to be
9:12 assured there's a doctrine of assurance
9:14 in these little letters that's terribly
9:16 important we don't want to be waking up
9:18 every morning
9:22 insecure but to be sure of who we are in
9:25 Christ and God and so he writes that
9:27 they may be sure that's picking out four
9:33 texts there I've got uh five here very
9:36 similar he's writing to promote Harmony
9:38 among them that they may have fellowship
9:40 with one another that they may really be
9:44 one writing to promote Harmony to
9:46 produce happiness that their Joy may be
9:50 full to protect Holiness that they may
9:53 remain a holy people and not distracted
9:56 from that and to prevent
9:58 heresy I'm sure you're getting the
10:00 message as we've gone through the
10:03 Epistles of Paul and now John that the
10:06 biggest danger to the church is false
10:09 teaching and we have to be on Constant
10:11 Guard against
10:15 it and finally to provide hope he wants
10:17 them to be full of Hope for the future
10:20 not depressed but looking forward with
10:23 eagerness to all that God's going to do
10:24 well you can put all those reasons
10:26 together but that's on his heart this
10:29 dear old man he's writing about the the
10:33 year 90 ad 60 years after he first heard
10:36 Jesus say follow me and here is the old
10:38 man I can see him with a long beard and
10:41 he's saying little children and young
10:45 men and fathers he he's saying I'm your
10:48 grandfather in the faith and I want you
10:51 to be satisfied and sure of who you are
10:53 and I want you to be holy and in Harmony
10:55 and full of hope that's why he's writing
10:59 so there's a very tender pastoral heart
11:01 right in these
11:05 letters well now let's try and sort
11:08 of get a pattern out of the letter it's
11:12 not easy because um there is no order in
11:14 this letter when you try and structure
11:16 it it's almost impossible to
11:19 analyze he sort of Goes Around in
11:23 Circles his thinking is as we say cyclic
11:26 rather than linear and I'm a linear man
11:29 I like AB c d you know I like to
11:32 see the progress of an argument and I
11:33 like to analyze and Paul is pretty good
11:36 at that he had a legal mind and I like
11:38 linear arguments so I find myself a
11:41 little lost when I come to a man who's
11:43 who thinks in circles and goes round and
11:45 round the same themes and keeps
11:48 returning to one and then starting off
11:51 again now why does he think in circles
11:54 rather than lines well he's a
11:57 fisherman for a start he's not a lawyer
11:59 like Paul he's a fisherman
12:01 and fisherman will talk from one thing
12:05 to another he he wasn't an educated man
12:08 he wasn't taught to think that way
12:10 that's a possible reason another
12:12 possible reason is his
12:15 age old men become
12:18 Gess and they talk around and around
12:21 things it's characteristic of age but I
12:23 think the real reason is this this man
12:25 is Jewish and though he's writing in the
12:28 Greek language he's Jewish and if you
12:30 study Jewish wisdom
12:33 Literature Like The Book of Proverbs it
12:36 is characteristic of Jewish Have you
12:38 listened to Jewish rabbis talk have you
12:40 seen the film Fiddler on the Roof they
12:44 they talk around things on this hand and
12:47 on the other hand and one Jew asked me
12:48 do you know why all Jews have short
12:51 necks and I
12:54 said see and and there there is this
12:56 kind of this Whimsical wisdom you know
13:01 on the one hand and on the other hand
13:04 um it's Jewish wisdom to talk around
13:06 subjects The Book of Proverbs for
13:09 example just goes round and round a
13:10 number of subjects it touches on
13:13 laziness and then on a nagging wife and
13:15 then on something else and then on
13:17 something else and then curse it be a
13:18 brother who Rises early in the morning
13:22 and greets with a loud voice and and
13:24 then it comes back to laziness and then
13:25 it goes on to nagging women again and
13:27 have you noticed it goes around in
13:30 circles and you have to pull everything
13:32 together from all over the place to find
13:33 a sermon on
13:36 laziness the same thing is in the letter of
13:37 of
13:40 James you read the letter of James and
13:42 he talks about the sins of the mouth and
13:43 then he goes onto faith and works then
13:45 he comes back to the mouth and it is
13:49 characteristic of Jewish wisdom to go
13:51 around circles and to have a number of
13:54 themes that you keep popping up and into
13:57 ens so you can't really structure it but
13:59 I've put it in a diagram of a kind kind
14:03 of world with two
14:05 hemispheres two halves of a
14:09 world and what he's saying is I want you
14:11 to live in this Hemisphere and not drift
14:13 into that
14:16 hemisphere I want you to stay up here
14:20 with the word of God and not go with the
14:23 world and that sort of little diagram
14:26 helps me when I'm reading through the
14:29 letters of John because the word above
14:31 the upper hemisphere the northern
14:33 hemisphere is where the children of God
14:36 are to live and that's a world of life
14:39 and love and
14:41 light because the biggest influence in
14:43 them is the word of
14:47 God but if you drift over the equator
14:49 you go to the other hemisphere that's
14:51 where the children of the devil
14:53 live and that's a world of
14:57 lawlessness of lust of
15:01 lies because they influenced by the
15:03 world and that's the choice that every
15:05 Christian has each day to live by the
15:08 word or to let the world shape their
15:10 life and that will be the character that
15:13 will result that'll be the kind of
15:16 atmosphere around the person as they
15:19 live if you love the world you'll soon
15:22 be living that kind of a life if you
15:23 love the word you'll be living this kind
15:26 of a life and once you've seen that
15:29 little simple framework of his thinking
15:32 you realize that in fact there is some
15:34 shape to the letter it's a bit of a
15:37 sandwich begins positive then negative
15:40 and then positive that's a nice sandwich
15:42 twice as much positive as negative and
15:43 the negative squeeze between the
15:46 positive what were to do what we not to
15:49 do and what we to do or to expand it a
15:52 little in chapter one we begin with life
15:55 and then as we go into chapter 2 light
15:58 and then there's the negative section
16:00 which concentrates Ates on the world's
16:04 kind of Life lust lies and lawlessness
16:07 that's from chapter 215 to 310 then he
16:10 goes back to the positive and emphasizes
16:14 love very strongly he is the only person
16:17 in the Bible to make the statement God
16:21 is love and that's the point at which he
16:22 makes it
16:25 there and then he finishes by talking
16:28 about life again now I wonder if you
16:30 realize what a Revolution it is to say
16:33 God is
16:35 love no other religion in the world has
16:38 ever said that and indeed
16:43 cannot not even Judaism can say that
16:46 Judaism can say God loves
16:49 us but that's a different statement to
16:54 say God is love means that God is more
16:56 than one
17:02 person because you can't Be Love by
17:05 yourself you understand that only
17:07 because we know that God is Father Son
17:11 and Holy Spirit can we say God is love
17:13 because before there was anybody else
17:15 around there was Father Son and the Holy
17:17 Spirit and father loved the son and son
17:18 loved the spirit and spirit loved the
17:20 son and son loved the father and they
17:23 all loved each other God is love which
17:26 means god is more than one person
17:28 whereas to Judaism God is only one
17:32 person therefore he can't be
17:34 love you understand what an
17:37 extraordinary statement it is to say God
17:40 is love and yet to say there's only one
17:43 God you can only say God is love if you
17:45 believe God is three in
17:49 one otherwise he can't be love you could
17:51 only say he loves
17:55 us but when there were no us to love how
17:59 could God Be Love unless he was three in
18:03 one in perfect love somebody once asked
18:05 me why did God make us I said well he
18:07 had one son and he loved him so much
18:09 that he wanted a bigger
18:11 family I said I can't put it more simply
18:14 than that he wanted to share the love he
18:18 already had with a larger Circle that's
18:20 why he wanted to make many
18:23 sons that's how it all came about well
18:25 that's a kind of
18:27 outline well we've got a lot to talk
18:37 quickly I'm looking at my notes and then
18:39 looking at that and I can't tie the two
18:41 together so I'm going to go back to my
18:44 notes for a moment and then we'll come
18:46 back to that that's a little further
18:50 ahead I want to deal with the heresy the
18:52 false teaching that he was having to
18:55 cope with right there in
18:59 Ephesus um you notice as he goes through
19:04 the letter he says we and you and they
19:06 and it's the they part that I just want
19:08 to talk about I haven't got any notes up
19:12 here for you basically again it's our
19:14 old enemy Greek philosophy that
19:16 separates the physical and the
19:20 spiritual and you know we we've so embi
19:22 this separated Outlook this
19:24 disintegrated outlook on life it is from
19:27 the Greeks that we got the word sacred
19:29 and secular
19:32 you'll never find that in the Bible and
19:34 yet even Christians say to me I'm in a
19:36 secular job I say you're in no such
19:39 thing unless it's immoral or illegal and
19:43 I keep saying there is nothing secular except
19:45 except
19:47 sin and you know when I said that once
19:50 in the north of England a pop singer a
19:51 nationally known pop singer was
19:53 converted through that
19:58 word there is nothing secular except sin
20:00 and from then on he began to sing for
20:02 the glory of God he thought he was in a
20:05 secular job and part of which was making
20:08 the jingles for commercial adverts on
20:11 TV he said I'm not going to do that for
20:15 the glory of God nothing secular accept
20:17 sin but the Greeks separated everything
20:21 into physical and spiritual secular and
20:24 sacred temporal and eternal they they
20:26 got it all separated
20:29 out and in particular they separated the
20:31 body and the soul and we've suffered
20:34 from that ever since and then they took
20:36 one further step and they said the
20:39 physical is what is evil the spiritual
20:42 is what is good the body is evil the
20:45 soul is good and they gave people the
20:47 impression which we still have that
20:49 anything physical is somehow dirty or
20:53 sinful and we suffer from it in the
20:56 church and it's all wrong but when you
20:59 apply that to Jesus you got to problem
21:02 how could God be a
21:06 man that's impossible God is eternal and
21:10 man is in time God is spiritual man is
21:13 physical how could God be a man on Earth
21:15 and of course this struck at the very
21:17 root of our Christian
21:20 faith and it took many different forms
21:22 one of which was that Jesus only
21:25 appeared in the flesh that his flesh
21:28 wasn't real it was just an apparition
21:31 it's a isy called docetism which means
21:33 simply to put on a mask to
21:36 appear and so one of the things John
21:38 says in this letter is if you hear
21:40 someone say that Jesus hasn't come in
21:48 devil and so in fact at a deeper level
21:50 they did what the new age is doing right
21:53 now they separated the human Jesus from
21:55 the Divine
21:59 Christ and one heresy in the time of
22:01 John which again is taught today I've
22:04 heard it I've read it is that Jesus was
22:08 a human being and at his baptism at the
22:12 age of 30 the Christ came upon
22:15 him and then at his death the Christ
22:18 went away again and Jesus died and was
22:21 buried so that Jesus and the Christ are
22:23 actually two different things do do you
22:26 follow me and that is why the new age
22:29 talks about Christ
22:31 they don't like using the name Jesus but
22:33 they say Christ and they say every man
22:36 can have the Christ come upon him you
22:40 see now it's very subtle and it fools a
22:42 lot of people but you see the the
22:44 physical human Jesus has now been
22:48 separated from this spiritual Christ that's
22:49 that's
22:52 heresy Jesus Christ was one
22:56 person physical and spiritual Divine and
22:59 human of Time and Eternity
23:02 but the Greeks separate this out like
23:04 this one of their favorite statements
23:07 was that God is outside time that he's
23:10 Timeless the Bible never says that Bible
23:12 says God is
23:15 Everlasting that's quite a different
23:18 thing time is real to God God is the god
23:20 who was and who is and who is to come
23:23 because time is in God God isn't so much
23:25 in time as time is in God whereas the
23:28 Greeks separated God entirely from time
23:30 and you'd be amazed how many Christians
23:32 think that when we go to heaven we'll go outside
23:34 outside
23:38 time no we go into Everlasting
23:41 Life Time extended
23:45 infinitely time is real in God and time
23:48 is real in the Bible and therefore
23:52 history is his story so all this heresy
23:55 John really had to fight hard this
23:57 separation of the human Jesus from the
23:59 Divine Christ
24:01 he says if anybody says that Jesus
24:04 hasn't come in the flesh that's of
24:08 antichrist that's not of Christ so in
24:11 their beliefs this is what was happening
24:14 and so he had to say when the Christ
24:17 came he was a real human being he says
24:20 we saw him we touched him we heard
24:23 him and those are the three strongest physical
24:24 physical
24:27 senses sight hearing and
24:30 touch and so he emphasizes that which we
24:32 saw that which we heard that which we
24:35 have touched with our own hands and John
24:37 had actually lended against lent on the Christ
24:38 Christ
24:42 bosom he'd actually put his head on his
24:46 breast he said I touched
24:50 God it's as real as that the Incarnation is
24:51 is
24:54 fundamental you see I suppose what
24:56 people think about Christ is the
24:59 absolute fundamental question
25:01 somebody's put it in a little poem I'm
25:03 not sure if I've got it right you may be
25:06 able to correct me what do you think of
25:09 Christ that is the ultimate test if you
25:13 do not think rightly of him you cannot
25:14 be right in the
25:17 rest and that's it ultimately everything
25:21 boils down to what do you think of Jesus
25:23 have you realize that he is totally
25:27 Divine totally human that in him the
25:29 physical and the spirit spiritual are
25:31 totally integrated the other world and
25:34 this world have totally met and the
25:37 Greek idea that there is a separation
25:39 between Time and Eternity between
25:41 spiritual and physical has been absolutely
25:43 absolutely
25:45 smashed when the word became flesh and
25:48 lived among us and we beheld his
25:51 glory well John Saw His glory he says we
25:54 saw his glory and they certainly did on
25:56 the Mount of transfig figuration they
25:58 saw that but it was the human Jesus they
26:02 saw glorified it wasn't a spooky
26:05 Apparition well of course once you
26:07 separate the physical from the spiritual
26:09 that not only affects your belief about
26:11 Jesus it affects your Christian
26:14 behavior and that Greek idea that
26:15 salvation has nothing to do with what
26:18 you do with your body I tell you that
26:20 idea has got really hold of many people inside
26:22 inside
26:25 church and there are people we know
26:28 living quite immoral lives inside the
26:30 church but claiming to be
26:32 spiritual because what they do with
26:34 their body has nothing to do with their
26:37 soul you see that's what Greek thinking
26:40 does and you live in two different
26:42 compartments and your body lives in one
26:44 compartment and your soul lives in
26:47 another and never the twain shall
26:49 meet and I think you know what I'm
26:51 talking about this is
26:54 rif and John had to write against this
26:57 also you see people who think like this
27:03 begin to think sin doesn't matter in
27:06 Christians Got My Ticket To Heaven Sin
27:08 doesn't matter indeed some go even
27:10 further and say sin doesn't exist in
27:12 Christians there's a kind of
27:14 perfectionism that says that as far as
27:16 God is concerned I'm
27:19 sinless see one of the biggest I think
27:21 mistakes people make when they come to
27:24 Christ is to think that their future
27:25 sins are forgiven when they come to
27:28 Christ no only your past sins are foren
27:30 for given when you come to
27:33 Christ you will need to go on getting
27:36 forgiveness for later sins and John has
27:38 to say and he's writing to Christians
27:42 remember he says if we go on confessing
27:46 our sins he is faithful and just to go
27:49 on forgiving our sins and the blood of
27:51 Jesus Will Go On cleansing us from all
27:53 unrighteousness it's not if I come to
27:56 Christ now all my sins are forgiven I've
27:58 got a blank check to sin
28:02 now it's all my past sins are now
28:05 forgiven and now I keep short accounts with
28:06 with
28:09 God and I found out how to deal with
28:12 sins and I confess them and he goes un
28:15 forgiving but only as I go on
28:18 confessing got the picture now again
28:21 this teaching is very much needed in the
28:24 church today we need John's
28:28 letter that kind of Greek thinking not
28:30 only leads to lawlessness in the church
28:34 and immorality it leads to a spiritual
28:36 elitism that thinks that Christians are
28:38 above the normal rules of right and
28:43 wrong and we're not read Romans 2 Paul
28:46 says how dare you who condemn others yet
28:50 do the same things yourself think that
28:53 you will escape God is absolutely Fair
28:55 he doesn't Overlook sin in unbelievers
28:57 he doesn't Overlook it in
29:00 believers but he's waiting to forgive
29:02 get it cleaned up and dealt
29:06 with well that's the kind of background
29:09 in fact it leads to a moral arrogance
29:12 combined sorry a mental arrogance
29:14 combined with a moral decadence and
29:17 that's a very dangerous combination in
29:20 the church well now let's move on you
29:23 see he wants Christians to be sure they
29:26 are Christians to have
29:29 confidence and so he said say the
29:33 children of the father reflect the
29:36 father's character if God is light his
29:40 children embrace the light they walk in
29:44 it if God is love then his children will express
29:46 express
29:48 love and if God is life then his
29:51 children will enjoy
29:54 life so that begins to tell you
29:56 something how do you find out who's a
29:58 child of the father well there's a family
30:00 family
30:03 likeness how do you know who belongs to
30:05 God well they embrace the light and they
30:08 express love and they enjoy life because
30:11 that's what God is like and his children
30:14 are like him but then he goes into much
30:16 more detail and he gives four
30:18 four
30:21 tests of real
30:25 Christianity and they are quite severe
30:27 tests and uh he goes through them very
30:30 care in great detail we haven't time to
30:32 look at them in detail but I want to
30:34 give you the keys so that you can look
30:36 into John and see what he's getting at
30:39 the first is the doctrinal
30:42 test and every Christian true Christian
30:46 must pass this test how do they think of
30:49 Christ and if they have that
30:52 shaky understanding that's not quite
30:54 sure if the human Jesus is the Divine
30:56 Christ or whether he's fully Divine and
30:58 human at the same time they don't pass
31:01 the test a true Christian first of all
31:03 must pass the doctrinal test otherwise
31:06 they're into heresy about Jesus and
31:08 there are plenty of people in church who
31:11 think of Jesus as a great human
31:13 being as a person who responded to God
31:16 better than any other but that's not the
31:18 doctrinal test that's
31:22 heresy he is both God and man fully both
31:25 very God of very God and very man of
31:28 very man that's the first test if if you
31:30 don't believe that then you don't pass
31:32 the first test the second test is the
31:37 spiritual test hereby know we that we
31:39 are sons of God because he has given us his
31:41 his
31:43 spirit and that is the witness of the
31:45 spirit bearing witness with our spirit
31:49 that we are sons of God without the Holy
31:53 Spirit you don't pass the second test
31:55 because it's the spirit who tells you
31:58 you are the children of God and you
32:02 no now just let me put a word in here
32:05 some people try and get Assurance from
32:08 scripture the Bible never does I mean by
32:12 that here's a horrible word for you by a
32:15 syllogism from scripture by a deduction
32:17 from scripture in simple terms the Bible
32:19 says it I believe it that settles it
32:22 have you heard that kind of thing trying
32:24 to prove to people that they're
32:26 Christians by pointing them to a text in
32:29 the scripture that is not the way of the
32:32 New Testament Assurance comes from the
32:35 spirit rather than the scripture in the
32:38 New Testament you see you can't try and
32:41 prove that you're a Christian by quoting
32:43 texts it's the spirit who tells you
32:45 you're a Christian not the scripture
32:47 it's the spiritual test hereby know we
32:50 that we're his children because he has
32:53 given us his spirit and if you know you
32:55 have the Holy Spirit then you've passed
32:56 the second
32:58 test if you have hav't got the spirit
33:00 then you're
33:03 still in the possession of the
33:06 devil and you're liable to be possessed
33:09 by his evil spirits the third test is
33:11 the moral
33:15 test if you are living right then your
33:18 conscience tells you you belong to the
33:21 father your conscience was given to you
33:22 as part of your
33:25 assurance and with a clear
33:27 conscience you know if you're living right
33:28 right
33:30 and if you're living as God wants you to
33:33 live then in biblical terms if you are
33:36 practicing righteousness if you find
33:40 yourself keeping the laws of God then
33:43 that's the moral test that confirms you
33:45 are his child but if you're rebelling
33:47 against his laws if you're kicking
33:50 against the way he wants you to live
33:52 then you don't pass the third test
33:54 you're following me you must read it all
33:56 in detail in his letter and there's a
33:59 fourth test it's the social test if you
34:02 love his other children then you pass the
34:04 the
34:07 test because you cannot say you love
34:10 Christ and don't like
34:12 Christians because Christ is in those
34:14 other Christians and if you love Christ
34:17 you will love the Christ in your
34:19 brothers if you hate your brothers you
34:22 certainly don't love your
34:25 father because the he loves the the and
34:29 I'll tell you a very practical case of
34:31 this it's one of the proofs that you
34:34 love the Father the god of Israel when
34:36 you find yourself with a love for the Jewish
34:37 Jewish
34:44 lovable frankly at the human level I'd
34:47 get on better with Arabs than
34:50 Jews but it's incredible that the spirit
34:52 can give you a love for the Jewish
34:55 people isn't that amazing it's not a
34:58 natural thing at all the world hates
35:01 them it's a supernatural
35:04 thing but Jesus called them his
35:07 Brethren and God still loves them in
35:10 spite of all they've done to God and he
35:14 still loves them and it'll be proof that
35:15 you have the love of the father in The
35:19 the you do but particularly he says it's
35:20 the love of the Brethren that proves
35:23 that the love of the father is in you
35:26 because the father loves them and if he
35:28 has shed abroad his love in our hearts
35:30 through the spirit giving to us we're
35:32 going to love them and not all
35:34 Christians are likable
35:38 either you know at the natural to dwell
35:40 above with Saints I love that will be
35:43 glory to dwell below with Saints I know
35:46 that's another
35:49 story nevertheless nevertheless you find
35:50 yourself loving people that you would
35:53 not normally like because they're
35:55 Children of the father and the love of
35:57 the father is in you now there are fell
35:59 for very good test some of you are
36:02 preachers there's a great sermon for you
36:04 if you're preaching next Sunday morning
36:06 I've saved you the time all right just
36:08 take them through the four tests the
36:12 doctrinal the spiritual the moral and
36:15 the social he says pass those four tests
36:18 you can be absolutely sure you're living
36:21 in the family of God and that you're a
36:23 son or daughter of the
36:26 father now once you have that
36:31 assurance that will give you tremendous
36:34 confidence in three dimensions says John
36:36 it gives you confidence within
36:39 yourself to set out each day knowing
36:42 you're a child of
36:44 God you know Christians are not wimps
36:46 Christians should not hang their heads
36:50 Christians shouldn't be you
36:54 know we're upright men Bible talks about
36:57 upright people we can lift our heads and
37:00 hold heads High I had to say that to a
37:03 young boy who was well been born
37:05 somewhat crippled and he was pushed
37:07 around by everybody and teased by
37:09 everybody even his family and now he was
37:13 at work and I said to him what's your
37:15 name he said Phillip I said listen
37:17 Philip are you a Christian yes do you
37:20 love the Lord he said yes I said then
37:23 from now on you're Prince Phillip look
37:26 into the mirror every morning and say
37:29 good morning Prince Phillip
37:30 I said you're a member of the royal
37:32 family lift your head up his head was
37:35 down here he lift it up he said how did
37:37 you know I said what do you mean how did
37:40 I know how did I know what he said when
37:42 I come into the factory in the morning
37:44 they all tease me and say Here Comes Prince
37:50 Phillip I said but it's the truth I said
37:52 when you go in tomorrow morning and they
37:54 say hello Prince Phillip just say to
37:56 yourself they're right you know
37:58 know
38:00 and you know it really helped that boy
38:03 he lifted his head up made all the
38:05 difference when you're sure you're a
38:07 child of the royal family of Heaven
38:10 you're a prince you are literally the
38:14 royal family on Earth lift your head up
38:16 gives you confidence within yourself it
38:17 gives you confidence towards others you
38:20 speak more boldly to others and above
38:23 all it gives you confidence with
38:25 God CU you sure you're his son you can
38:29 say Dad I'm asking you in the name of
38:30 Jesus for
38:33 this confidence toward
38:37 god well isn't John beautiful this
38:41 dear spiritual grandfather we're now
38:42 going to move into another subject and
38:44 it's such a big one that I'm going to
38:48 stop there and we'll start the next um
38:51 study with uh this very big subject of
38:53 sin in
38:55 Believers and John says some very
38:57 strange things about this which seem to
39:00 to contradict one another at times so
39:02 we'll need to just unravel it a bit I'm
39:04 not going to promise to solve all the
39:06 problems but nevertheless we just need
39:09 to unravel it a bit the one lesson we're
39:11 going to learn is this never take a
39:13 verse by
39:16 itself you can prove anything from the
39:19 Bible if you take a verse by itself and
39:22 too many people try to do that and quote
39:24 a whole ream of verses at you don't
39:25 think that's Biblical
39:28 teaching just know notice if they take
39:31 texts out of context because a text out
39:33 of context is a
39:36 pretext sorry about that but I didn't
39:38 invent that saying but it's a good one
39:40 let me just give you one example there's
39:45 a verse in my Bible says there is no
39:49 God so I can prove atheism from the
39:52 Bible if I quote the context the context
39:54 says the fool has said in his heart
39:57 there is no God do you see how easy it's
40:00 a silly example but if you take one
40:03 verse out of its context you can prove
40:05 anything you like and I'm afraid that's
40:07 been done with some of the verses in
40:10 John's letter about Sin in Believers and
40:12 we need to see the picture ho and we'll
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