1 John: Know Pt 1

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Good morning everyone. It is Friday, October the eleventh, twenty twenty four. It is currently eleven thirty am Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Well. It was around four thirty am, about four thirty am this morning when I was here in the studio and I decided to listen to a sermon. I thought, you know, hey, it's a good use of my time, right. I mean, I have been challenging everyone to listen to at least one random sermon every single day for our Sermon's two point oh app sermon Challenge, Right, I've been telling everyone to do that. So I my iPad I just looked for the very first sermon I could find, and I found a sermon in titled five Critical Things you need to Know. Five critical things you need to know. And I'm like, okay, I'm ready. I need to know these five things because they're critical, all right, what are the five things? Well, I never really got to the five things, but I did get to the word no, and then that turned into Well, see, that was four thirty am.

1:26 It's now eleven thirty. That's a lot of hours that I've been spending time thinking about the word no, and then it led to one thing, to another thing, to another thing to now I've got probably ten pages of notes and oh and did you see the title if you're looking on Depending on where you're looking, if you see the title, you'll notice that it says first John No Part one. That means no, I'm about to begin another I guess series. I don't know how many parts this will be, but ah, I did not want to do that. But here we are. Now. I'm going to approach this today kind of like I've done the last few days. I'm finding this somewhat fun somewhat challenging because typically when it comes to reviewing any part of a sermon, what I do is I go in blind right, I don't know anything. I just see the sermon, I download it, I hit play for just like two seconds three seconds to see if it's loud enough.

2:29 If not, then I go and artificially increase the volume so that it will work fine for broadcasting. And then I go into the review. I go live on the air and say, we're going to review this sermon. I have no idea, I don't know the text, I don't look at any information. I go in completely blind. Now that's fun, right, well, at least sometimes it's fun. I think it's fun probably for the listener because you hear me start losing my mind or start like what is happening because none of us knows where it is going. But over the last few days kind of changed it up a little bit. Right, I'm hitting play on a sermon, getting the basic idea, getting all the way to the basic thesis of the sermon. Then I'm going and doing a little extra work, right, I'm looking things up. I'm kind of putting together notes so that as we are listening to the review. Then now I don't make it all the way through the sermon, I get the basic thesis, and then I stop. But then what happens when it comes to me reviewing Here's here's here's kind of basically how I approach it. We start listening, we get to where I got when I was listening to the basic thesis. Okay, I'm like, okay, there's their basic thesis. Now let them explain it. And then as soon as I kind of get their basic explanation, their basic thesis, they're kind of where they're really going with it, and especially if they kind of just start deviating or anything, we just kind of drop out of the of this audio we're reviewing, and then I just go into full blown kind of teaching mode, saying, Okay, here is what they said, here is my perspective. Right. We did that with the Proverbs thing,

4:02 with the idea that the slothful person is like, hey, there's a lion in the street, and we the sermon kind of just went against their entire their entire thesis. So we kind of challenged that and created our own. Then with the Amos chapter is, Yeah, Amos chapter four. Oh was it not Amos? It was it Hosea chapter four. Hang on, I'm not remembering exactly. Hang on, it was Hoseiah. Yeah, Hosea chapter four, Yeah, verse six, Hoseiah chapter four, verse six. I don't know why my brain was forgetting it, Probably because I'm so focused on what I'm getting ready to do. And so we listened to their hypotheses and I'm kind of like, well, I don't think this is about ignorance.

4:46 I think this is about rejection, and so we worked on that. Right, So that's kind of the way we're going. I'm listening to the beginning of it at first getting the basic idea, going to do my work on it. Then I come back, hit play, get back to at least that point in the sermon, and then go a little further. And then once I kind of realize they're not really going to do much with their thesis, they're not going to do any actual explaining it. They're just they kind of start deviating from it, then we just like, that's it, forget the audio. Now let's go to the teaching. I'm finding that a little bit, a little bit more satisfying because at least because so many times when we do these reviews, what happens is the pastor kind of gives their thesis, and I feel like they abandon their thesis.

5:33 They don't really do much to prove it, to justify it, to explain it, and many cases they're off on something else. They're like, you know, we're going to talk about this stillological issue, and the next thing they do, they're ranting and raving about the evils of rock and roll or something like what does that have to do with the sermon, and so that makes it that can be very frustrating and reviewing. But if I will listen to a little bit first, Okay, I don't know where they're going to go, but now then I can go do my own study. Then I'm ready. I'm just ready to go. And the minute they start deviating or just they go, it goes off the rails. I can say, well, okay, we're done with that. Now let's do some teaching. So that's kind of how I've been doing it over the last few days.

6:15 I find it interesting because it challenges me to do a lot of work and be ready to go. So that's what we're going to do today. So at about four point thirty this morning, I started listening to a sermon again called five critical Things you need to Know, And I mean I just wanted to know what the five things are? What are the five I never got anywhere near the five things because well, you're getting ready to find out. So here's what I have done. I have fess I've kind of skipped the introductory part because the introductory part, I guess this is some kind of like a revival, some kind of conference, but they have guest speakers in, and so the guest speaker here does a lot of how great this church is, how great the singing is, how great the atmosphere is, how great the pastor is, how wonderful all the people are, how it just it kind of you're like, okay, we get the point. You're telling everyone how wonderful they are. So there's no point in kind of going through that again.

7:14 I could probably make some kind of you know, observation or or some thoughts, but okay, that's that's pretty standard conference kind of speaking. If you're brought into a church, you want to you want to do everything you can to you know, endear yourself to the people and and and say good things about the one hopefully you'll be invited back. I'm not saying that everyone has that motivation, but you get the basic idea. So that's kind of what they've done. So I fast forwarded this until he's about to get ready to go into his sermon. His I don't know if we ever actually get to the thesis here. I don't think. I don't know if there's a clear thesis statement given. But what we will do is at least let him get to where I want us to go. And then well, then we're gonna be off on our own things. So we're just kind of utilizing this to go where I want to go, because I get as soon as he mentions the word no, right, that's the key word. And then he mentions the epistle, the letter from which he's looking at the word no, And then immediately my brain was, Okay, I know where this sermon has to go. Because if you're going to use the word no, especially the Greek word that's being used there, there's only one direction you can go. There's only one. Oh, but no, it doesn't appear that they go that direction. So well, we're gonna we're gonna get to at least where I stopped it. I'll let you know where I stopped it, and then we'll go a little past that just to see maybe I'm wrong. Maybe they do understand. Well the word no here, especially the

8:46 Greek word, can only lead you to one direction, So maybe we will see. But here we go again. The name of this sermon is five critical Things you need to Know. Of course you can find it on the sermon audio platform. And again, this kind of goes with what we've been doing all year, you know, trying to get you to listen to random sermons. So I've kind of explained my approach here, so that means I already have all of my notes ready to go. I'm not going into this completely blind like I typically would with a review, but we've seen how some of those go so bad. So all we're gonna do is listen, and whenever we feel like they deviate maybe from their thesis or we kind of get the thesis, but we will immediately back out, and then we'll get into some very important things. This deals with, not only the Greek word for no, there's actually two Greek words for no and that are used in this particular book that he's going to be siting here, you'll see. But we could get into a major hermeneutical argument about how this book should be actually interpreted. We could get into a major discussion about how this book has been handled throughout church history.

9:55 There's a lot of directions we can go, but hopefully you're ready, Hopefully you've been enjoyed this new kind of different approach versus how we've done it in the past. We can do a little mixture sometimes, but I hope this goes well. So are you ready. Here we go. We're jumping in to kind of right in the middle. He's doing his introduction and again he's like a guest speaker at this church, some kind of conference, and he's basically telling them how wonderful and great they all are. And now he's about to get into his sermon. And there's going to be a problem almost at the beginning here, because he's going to tell you how he got his sermon, and how he got his sermon has major implications that I don't think people sit in the pew actually understand, but it bothers me. Probably won't bother you, but it bothers me. Let's see if we can get to that part.

10:49 Here we go. We're not going to do that, Tony, but I'm will tell you. I told Brother Joey, we always look for it's one of those fired up sermons when we're gonna preach away. You know, when you go into a church to preach, you you want to leave them with something. Well, I thought, man, I'm gonna pick out one of these dynamics he asked me to preach, and I'm gonna come here and I'm gonna preach a dynamic. How many of you know, anything you preach out of here is dynamic. God showed me today. That's not what I was gonna do.

11:29 He gave me something fresh, never preached before, but I want to preach it here tonight. Okay, you already know where my problem is. He's claiming God gave him the sermon. Now, ladies and gentlemen, I hope you understand the significance of that. If you go to church on Sunday and you sit in the pew and the pastor stands before you and says, God gave me this sermon, at that point you cannot criticize it. You cannot disagree with it because it came from God. Therefore it is infallible. You cannot criticize it. If it came from God, there is no criticism to be offered to it. There's no criticism to be offered of it.

12:16 There can only be agreement with it. That is such. I know pastors say that all the time God gave me this. God, if God gave it to you, it can't look and not only that, Just think about this. Logically, if there's a person on the south side of I'll just go with the town I'm currently sitting in Abilene, Texas. If there's a pastor on the south side of Abilene, Texas saying, God gave me this sermon, and there's a pastor on the north side of Abeley, God gave me this sermon. And those sermons completely contradict each other, not only in their hermeneutical approach and their theological conclusion someone's lying.

12:56 God didn't give them the sermon who's lying because they can't contradict. But pastor after pastor after pastor after pastor all across the United States, God gave me this sermon. Well, God can't be giving everyone sermons if they all disagree. God gave me the understanding. God can't be giving you the understanding if everyone's understanding. It's different, it's nonsensical, it's I'm so tired of hearing that. And not only that, it just basically protects the pastor. Hey, hey, God gave me the sermon. You take it up with him. I mean, then you cannot be challenged, you cannot be questioned, you cannot be criticized. I'm gonna start that. I can stop all emails to me when people get mad at me.

13:42 God gave me that podcast episode. Back off, God gave me that interpretation. Back off, God told me. That's what it means. Back off, you can't ever question me. It's like when Christians argue that God is the one who leads us into all truth. Well, if he's leading us into all truth, and anything you believe is true because God led you there, therefore you can ever be challenged. No, there's the promise that the Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth. Was directed and given to the apostles and to those who wrote the New Testament. Right, that's what it was about, not for us, because if it was the case, after two thousand years, we should have all reached truth. But nobody has reached truth because nobody knows what the truth is because nobody can agree on what is true. So I'm not a fan that God gave me the sermon thing not I disregarded. It drives me crazy. And we're just going to see because he's getting ready to mention a word, and he's getting ready to mention a specific book and the Bible. And guess what the specific book in the Bible. If I was to trace all the different interpretations offered of that one book in the Bible throughout church history, which at some point we'll probably do series. I'm gonna go through the entire history. It's insane, the differences they're just they're they're radically different. So God can't be giving everyone radically different interpretations.

15:14 So you see where you see why that's a problem. All right, Now, let's see if we can get to the basic thesis here, or at least he's gonna introduce everything. As Brother Joey said, we're gonna have a baptism in a little while. We got seven Dad have been born again over at Saint Jame's just resate, and I'm gonna tell you what. We're excited. We're excited that God's still saving sinners. Amen. We're excited that God still building churches. Amen. He's still adding to the church daily such as. Should be saved. Amen.

15:57 I want you to take your Bible tonight, and I want you to turn with me to the first Epistle of John, the first Epistle. Of John. Now, the minute I hear I'm listening to a sermon and they say open your bibles to the first Epistle of John or first John, I'm just gonna be honest with you. There's a part of me that just like, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, not First John, not first because I almost know that by the time the sermon is over, I'm ah, I'm already gonna be I'm gonna have my phone open and looking for a way to order some alcohol because I'm going to be driven to the point of drinking. Okay, a little bit of hyperbole, but the way First John is handled by most churches drives me to the point of utter insanity. Now, if you look for our series Bible study exercise, if you'll look for that, you will see that we did a lengthy study in First John, and I did a lot of challenging the way First John is typically handled in most churches. They oh, I don't get the way they handle it. It makes no sense.

17:22 There's so many philological problems with it, and I think it completely ignores the historical context of First John. Well, First John is actually really trying to do We'll get into all of that, but what we're going to do is see what he's going to do with First John. So, First John, he wants everyone to open up their Bibles to the first Epistle of John, the first Epistle of John. Right, So you may want to have a notebook. You may want to have a Bible open. Let's see where this is going to go. But it's all going to come down to one word. One word no no, no oh, the Greek word there for no oh. It's okay, okay, I won't give anything away. Here we go.

18:15 Now, if somebody went to the Gospel of John, you all ready ready in the wrong place. Can I just say this tonight? This might sound elementary, but it's real and it's needful because a lot of our people are elementary. Somebody say, amen, something to take you someplace. See the reason tonight that folks can't find their place in the Bible, it's because they ain't got familiar with the Bible. And by the way, I'm not talking about these new born Christians we're getting ready to baptize in.

19:02 A little bit. I'm done by folks been saved for a year, two years, five years, ten years, twenty years, and they still don't. Know the books of their Bible. Hello. Now, we kind of talked about this with the Hoseah. I don't know why I said amos earlier, but Hosea chapter four. Okay, I was going to make a joke about why maybe I'm referring to amos, but that's you know, that would go back to classic radio drama. But okay, all right, I won't go there. All right. The point is is, why is it that you could have Christians who've been saved five years, ten years, fifteen years, twenty years and not know where the books of the Bible are. What would be the issue now I've been I've struggled with this a good portion of my Christian life. When I was young, my argument would have been because the churches are an absolute joke. Churches are all about fun, food, fellowship and activities, and nobody really actually cares to study the Bible in any meaningful way. As a result, the people are ignorant of scripture, that don't know where which book goes where, they can't put things in chronological order.

20:15 They're biblically illiterate, and that's the fault of the church. That was my typical approach when I was young. So then I was like, Okay, when my church will not be like that, We're going to be completely the alternative to that, We're going to be completely different. So that was my focus. Now my attitude is radically different. I no longer blame the church. I blame every individual who claims to be a Christian and doesn't know where the books of the Bible are, don't know the proper chronological order, doesn't understand I'm biblically illiterate. It's no one's fault but your own. Because it's twenty twenty four. You have access to literally the entire no knowledge of Christianity at your fingertips, in the palm of your hand. You have access to everything, all the writings of the church fathers, commentary after commentary after commentary, millions upon millions of sermons. You've got access to all the teaching you could ever begin to understand.

21:17 You've got access to Bibles, You've got access to reference tools, you got access to everything. If you don't know is because you don't want to know. And the question would be, well, why don't we want to know? So I used to blame the church. Now I'm done blaming the church. It's it's the individuals. It's the individuals, And I would I think we could argue, though, well, we can get into a whole discussionaire I won't. I won't. I won't continue that down this path. But all right, he's aware that a lot of people don't know, and a lot of pastors are aware that the people don't know. So how do you get the people to know? Obviously, going to church is not fixing it. I mean I've seen that my entire Christian life. We have an epidemical biblical literacy, and American Christianity we have an epid I've seen article after article, study after study. The Christians just don't know.

22:07 And I'm like, well, then what's the point of all these churches? Because the church, the churches have tried everything in their power. Oh, you need small groups to fix it. Oh we need this, Oh we need this that We've come up with every and none of the solutions have worked. So then what's what's the solution? Then? You ought to familiarize yourself with the Word of God. Amen. This is the living Word of God. This book right here, you can't go wrong every minute you spend in and I promise you it'll help you. Amen. So let's look tonight in the first Epistle of John, I'm gonna do two things tonight. I got a message I'm gonna preach on further down. But what I want to begin with tonight is just laying some groundwork and showing you some things in the Bible that the apostle John wrote about. And by the way, not only what he wrote about, but he tells us, gives us heads up why he wrote the things that he wrote. So if you've got first John, go to chapter one tonight.

23:29 Look at chapter one and verse number four. He tells you why he's writing. And these things right, we unto you that your joy may be full. Anybody got full of joy tonight? I'm not talking about you just got joy? You got full joy? See full of joy? Is that joy? Unspeakable and full of glory? Right now? I want you to look on down if you will, And I want you to go to chapter two and verse number one.

24:20 He continues. He says, my little children, these things right, I unto you. That you sin. Not. You know what he's saying. Right there, he said, I want to keep you from sin. And the reason I want to keep you from sin has caused your sinner. He said, I write these things unto you that you sin. No, Now I want you to look down. In chapter two, in verse twenty six, he says, these things I have written under you concerning them that seduce you. That word seduces the same word for deceive. He said, I'm writing these things so that you're not deceived, because there's some folks that would deceive you. There's some folks that would trick you. How many of you know tonight, there's people out here that will trick you. But the apostle John said, I'm writing to you so that you be not deceived.

25:50 Okay, So he said in First John two twenty six, these things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. He says, seduces. The same word for deceis eve. Let's look it up. It's this Greek word. It's this Greek word. Okay, yeah, it doesn't appear that is correct. Strong's g. Plan, no plan, no plan not oh is translated twenty four times deceive. All right, So that's good. All we're doing is verifying. All we're doing is verifying. I hate to say it. Look, ladies and gentlemen, I hate to say this, but you have to do that. If you ever listen to a sermon, I don't care who it is, me, anybody.

26:32 If we if a pastor podcaster, Sunday school teacher conference speaker says, this Greek word means this. You have to look it up. That's one of the things that I did all for years in preaching is making sure that when I said a Greek or Hebrew word meant something, I had everyone look it up with me. And real time, I tell everyone, take out their phones, tablets, open up the blue letter Bible app look in the antilinear. Do we all see what the Greek word is? Do we all? We all see it together? And the reason was is after years and years and years and years of listening to preaching, I cannot tell you how many times that would be told the Greek word means this, the Hebrew word means this, and you look it up. You're like, that is just absolutely categorically fraudulent, false being spoken from the pulpit about a Greek word. So I hate to say it. Whenever I hear I don't believe until I check.

27:24 I hate to say that. I hate to say that, but you have to do that sometimes. I Oh, I hate to do that. So I'm very grateful that here we've got the word. The English word is seduce, but the Greek word can mean deceive, all right, So that's good. It cannot It's also translated er to go astray, to seduce, to wander, to be cut, to be out of the way, I apologize to be out of the way, or all the different ways this can be translated. We can look at the outline of biblical usage to cause, to stray, to lead astray, to say, all right, so all good, we're on the same page. Everything is good. All right, we still haven't gotten to the word no. Right, So let's see where this is all gonna come at.

28:11 Now, I'm going to ask you to go over to chapter five, look at verse thirteen. He's going to continue here giving you insight as to ways right verse thirteen, These things have I written under you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know. I wonder if I. Can get some group help saying those four words tonight, that ye may know that you have eternal life. I wonder if there's somebody here tonight that's got eternal life.

29:04 I thank God, God, eternal life in Jesus Christ, tonight. Amen. And he said, it'll be good if you know that you God eternal life. Not maybe so not, I hope so not. Some possibility might have life. But know that you have eternal life. I'm glad I. Know tonight that I have eternal life. In Jesus Christ, he used the word no. Can I tell you?

29:44 In the First Epistle of John, he used that word no over twenty five times. Okay, now at four thirty in the morning, as soon as he said in the first in First John, he used the word no twenty five times. I immediately sat up and was like, WHOA. Okay, okay, okay, okay. Now that is interesting. So my first challenge for you now, I have them all listed right here in my notes. I have them all listed. First John two three, First John twoy four, First John two five, First John two thirteen, First John two fourteen, First John two eighteen, First John two twenty. I have them all listed, and I have the scriptures written out for each one. I want you to make it your assignment to go through the epistle of First John and fine, I know you can look look, I know, I know you can look them up and find them quickly. Don't do that. Go just open your Bible to First John and skim and find every use of the word no, and write down the reference. I would tell you to write down, write out the whole verse which is what I did. I know a lot of people won't do that. But the reason you do that is by your skimming, you're finding you're writing. Therefore you will remember it typically will work that way. So

31:15 I would challenge you to look. Go take your Bible, First John, go through finding each reference First John, first John two three. By this we know, all right, First John two four, the one who says I have come to know First John two five. But whoever keeps his word, let him in him. The love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know. By this we know are you're getting the idea? Okay, So but go and write them out. It'll take a little bit of work. I know it'll be tedious, but I'm telling you it will help you get this down, all right. So, but immediately it caught and my attention now my mind. I'll just let you know. As soon as I heard no, I was like, no, okay, I already know where this word no should take us, Like I think this should I think the word no and the fact that it's used twenty five times is really the hermoneutical key to understanding what First John is really about. And if you take the history, you take the use of the word no.

32:19 Twenty five times. I think we this challenge is the way we understand the book. Well, we'll go there in just a minute. We'll dig into this a little bit. I'm gonna let him go a little further. But this was the point where I'm like, oh, oh, I now my brain was telling me, okay, twenty five times, this is great, this is great. I know. Okay, yeah, I'm a little plan on words. I know where he's going to go with the word no, because the word no when first John, should only lead you to one very important discussion. If you're gonna talk about first John, and you're gonna talk about the word no, then you have to talk about come on, tell me what do we have to if you if you're gonna look at first John, you're gonna emphasize the word no.

33:07 Then there's only one thing that word no can lead you to. Right. It starts with a G. Right, it's kind of okay, all right, never never write well, well, well, well, I'll tell you some of you some of you know, some of you know, get it, no, some of you know, because this group is all about knowing. Come on, I'm giving it away. Come on, this. I mean, I'm giving you it's like open book here. All right. Okay, well we'll see if you know in a minute. All right, but let's see where he's gonna go with the idea of knowing and know in First John. It's right here in your Bible. Some of you didn't know that because you don't read your bib. But if you read your Bible, you'll know that. He uses this word no over twenty five.

34:00 Time. I'd say, he wants you to know something, wouldn't you. That word no means to be aware. Now he said, I think he said twenty five. Then he said over twenty five. I have a believe thirty. I think I have thirty written down, so I think it would be accurate to say thirty times, or we could say almost thirty times. Maybe my numbering is off. It's numbers. I'm horrible with numbers. Okay, you can find out for yourself, all right, you can find out for yourself, but all right, to know? All right, come on, come on, he's got to go there, right. I mean, if you're going to talk about knowing in First John, it can only go to one place, right.

34:44 It means to have knowledge, to be sure to understand, to comprehend, to have absolute. Assurance. I'm glad I got absolute assurance tonight. Because one Tuesday. Morning, July the fourth, nineteen seventy seven, down in Bitsburg, South Carolina, I nailed an old fashioned order, and I invited Jesus to come into my heart, and he came in and he gave me eternal life.

35:30 Okay, he's equating knowing with assurance, and he says the reason he has assurance is because of what happened in nineteen seventy seven. Let me make this philologically very clear to you. You do not get assurance from what happened in nineteen seventy seven, nineteen eighty one, nineteen ninety three, two thousand, twenty ten, twenty twenty. You get assurance for what happened two thousand years ago, when the eternal Sun of God hung upon a cross and died for your sins, and his passive and act of obedience is imputed to you by faith. Your assurance comes in what Christ did, not what you supposedly did when you knelt at an altar, or knelt by your bed, or said a prayer with your mom or broke down at church camp or wherever it has supposedly occurred. You do not find assurance and a decision you made, you find assurance and what Jesus did.

36:31 Assurance is found in Christ, not in us. Because you can make a decision and then some preacher will come along the wall. Are you sure you really made a decision? Was your decision sincere was your decision followed by abcdefghijk, elman, O, pqrstuv, w x Y, and Z yes. Are you doing all of these things? Well, then your decision wasn't really legitimate. Someone's going to come in and destroy your assurance based off a decision. Nobody can destroy my assurance because guess what my assurance is in the finished work of Jesus Christ, his obedience, his perfection, his holiness, his blood, his death, his burial, his resurrection, him sitting at the right hand of the Father, who is my advocate. He is my propitiation.

37:20 I mean, I could go on and on and on and on and on. You get the idea. So I do not like assurance being tied to what He did in nineteen seventy seven when he knelt and he decided. No, my assurance is what Christ did, not my decision all right. I know that's a different theological approach, but the only thing that Look, here's what I know, no matter what I do, no matter what I think, no matter what I say, no matter what I feel, that those things are transitory. They are changing. They're not immutable. They're very immutable, they're constantly in But you know, what is absolutely assured is the finished work of Jesus Christ. It was perfect, it was it satisfied the wrath of God. It was perfect.

38:10 All I have to do is believe in it. And I believe even my faith is not of myself, that God as to grant me the faith. That's all who different. Now, I know that's you get into theological distinctions there, but okay, it's the point is assurance has to be found in something that is absolutely perfectly sure. And that is not a decision. But I mean, how many decisions have you made and then we've kind of not stayed true to that decision. I mean, come on, have you ever made a decision? All right? Yeah, no, No, it's in the finished work of Jesus Christ. All right, That's that's where I'm going to point to. But okay, we still got this word. No, we're not going to get very far, but let's see if we can get a little further here.

38:57 I'm glad I have absolute assurance. I just want to take a ponder for is that a word? Ponder, a pause, a pondered. Maybe take a few seconds and just ramble about this and ask you the question, do you have absolute assurance? You say that you have eternal. Life? Now, just giving you some preliminary things. Everybody's still with me, say was in the world, brother Joey, you got a dead head up here tonight? Hello, I'm giving you some preliminaries.

39:41 Now we don't take you somewhere to the message that God put on my heart today. All right, that's the second time. God is the one who gave him the message God. So this is God's message again. We've already talked about my problem with that entire concept, so many problems with it. Okay, but right here we go. We got first, John, we got now no, I am already I love the fact that he mentioned no was mentioned over twenty five times. I love that, absolutely love it. I love the idea of talking about assurance. Okay, great, all right, so let's see where this goes again. Now to me, the fact that he's mentioned no this time.

40:28 There's only one direction you can go. There's only one direct. But he's not gone there yet. But I'm going to give him a little bit a chance to go a little further and then I'm gonna circle back around and at least get us started and what will be a lengthy discussion about First John, and maybe we'll utilize some of this sermon throughout all of our I don't know how many parts this is going to go. I never intended this to be a series. But if you're gonna tell me no is used over twenty five times in First John, you know what that screams. We've got to do something with this, right, Okay, So let's see what is he going to explain why. I think he's just going to explain no is used because of assurance. But I think that that, oh, I don't know. Let's just see.

41:09 I don't want to speak for. Him because in chapter three, go back there. I want to. Preach tonight on five critical things you need to know, and it's all found in chapter three. I want you to look, if you will, in chapter three, in verse number two, for the first point, he says, beloved now are we the sons of God? And it doth not yet appear what we shall be. Say these next four words with me, But we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. He said, it's critical that you know that Jesus is coming back again. Y'all didn't sound like y'all believe.

42:31 That I said. He said that Jesus is going to appear. Now, let me say this. It'd be good if that thing that you've been thinking about doing, and you might even be getting ready to do that, you don't do it. Let Jesus catch you with your hand in the cookie jars. Okay, Now we could have a long discussion here. Now. See, obviously at this point we realize what he's not going to do. Right, we're catching on really quick. What is he not going to do? He's not going to go into the actual Greek word for no. What it could be correlated to, how does know fit with the history?

43:26 Like he's not going to go anywhere, He's just going to go to It looks like five verses in first John three, it appears that possibly I don't know if it's going to use the word no, but five things critical things we need to know. In the first one, we need to know that Jesus is coming back. But his entire emphasis is something like this, Hey, make sure you're behaving because you don't want Jesus to come back and catch you doing bad things. Now, this is kind of bizarre, right because if you think about it, just for a practical StarPoint, does Jesus have to come back to catch me doing bad things? If we believe God is omniscient, then he knows what I'm doing. He knows what I'm desiring, he knows what I'm thinking. So Jesus come back and quote unquote catch me doing it is not going to be any different. He he already knows.

44:19 This is the idea that hey, be Hey, this is I'm I'm not a fan of this theological approach. This is like, hey, you guys, be good, so you don't want Jesus to open the door and catch you doing it. I don't I don't know if that is the right. Hey, don't let Jesus catch you. I'm not a fan of this way of I don't know if that even really works. Does it really work? I mean again, we can talk about like the sinful nature, the sinful nature is like, oh wait, I could get caught, so I shouldn't do that now. Maybe maybe sometimes that helps. I don't know. I just think this is kind of a very I don't know the word for it. I don't want to be super critical. It just seems very like it's like you're talking to a kid. Now, Hey, hey, don't let mommy and Daddy catch you doing that. Right, this is like, hey, don't let Jesus catch you doing it. But even if I'm not doing it, does that make me better? Now?

45:22 From a practical standpoint, it may may mean better, But from a theological standpoint, I'm just as guilty right whether I ever do it or not, because I've thought it, desired it, want it so. And But so let's let this play out just a little bit and then we'll circle back around. I know we're going to go a little long, but that's okay. That's okay. We're going to get back to where I think the word no should really take us. This is this you're gonna see here. He's just going to get further and further and further away from where I think, like, if you're going to talk about no being used, well, I think thirty times in the epistle. I think we got to address that, right, and don't we have to address that? I think so.

46:06 By amen, Hello, you don't wanting to come and catch you doing the wrong thing. You won't hear and when he comes for you to be watching and ready for him to come. You want to be doing things that becometh a Christian. Amen. You don't want to be caught doing the wrong thing. You don't want to be called at the wrong place. You don't want to be called listening to the wrong stuff.

46:46 You don't want to be caught listening to the So hey, don't be listening to the wrong music, because when Jesus comes back, he's gonna cat He's gonna catch you listening. How how dare you listening to secular music? Unbelievable? What are you doing? This really kind of reduces this to uh, I don't know. You you come up with your own description of it. I'm not you know, you do realize you could be listening to the right things and have a million wrong things going on inside of you. You do realize that, right, I mean Jesus like, oh, you're listening to the right music. Okay, You're all good to go.

47:29 I mean, I don't know in everything fully exposed to Jesus anyway, I like, I just this seems to have a very limited understanding of this. It seems well, let's continue here. So you know, so you don't want to listen. So basically, you don't want to be listening. You don't want to be in the wrong place. You don't want to be listening to the wrong things. Because we've got standards, right, we got stand we don't support anything that would be I don't know, ungodly right. You don't mean oh hey, and out with the wrong crowd. Befriending the wrong ones on TikTok and Facebook. Somebody helped me.

48:11 I see. You don't want to be friends with bad people, even though Jesus was a friend of sinners. So don't befriend people on TikTok and don't befriend people on Facebook, because you've got standards. You're not gonna support, You're not gonna listen, You're not gonna be friends with people who do bad things, right, I mean, because we've got standards as Christians. You wanna be sure when Jesus comes that he finds you doing the things of God, that ye may know when he appears, we sh we shall be like him, for we shall see him and the world. How in the world are we gonna be just like Jesus, because the Bible tells us that when he comes, we're all gonna be changed. In the moment, in the twinkling of an eye, had the last trump, Thank God, this corruptible is gonna put on in corruption, and this mortal is gonna put on immortality. And thank God, then shall be said thy saying our death is swallowing up in nactory. Amen, I thank God. One day after a while, I'm gonna shed this old flash, Amen, and I'm gonna put on

49:43 a new body, fasting life under his glorious body, and I shall see. Him and his glory. Amen. Thank God. Jesus is coming. And y'all know it. You heard. I know that Jesus is coming again. I know there's a lot of folk they don't believe it, Pastor Joey, there's a whole lot of preachers they won't preach. It seemed like the world's getting worse and worse, and so is the religious serena where men of God have quit preaching. Brother Joey there's two things that preachers don't preach on much, no more. They don't preach about Hell, and they don't want to preach about the Second Coming.

50:51 You remember back in the days, that's all you heard. You couldn't go to a revival meeting without hearing somebody gonna preach either about Hell or about Jesus coming. Last Sunday night, I preach. On Hell in that church, hallelujah, and somebody God saved. Amen. Let me tell you, folks don't believe it. Preachers don't preach it, but it ain't changed the fact that Jesus is coming again. Amen. Thank God, he's coming. This world's in chaos, but he's coming.

51:35 Amen. This generation has gone tie hell and back, but he's coming. Amen. And I want to tell you when he comes, thank God, he's gonna set some things strayed. Amen. He's gonna fix some things that need to get fixed. I'm voting for Donald Trump. But Donald Trump can't fix America. Hey, we got standards, but I'm voting for Donald Trump. Now, ladies and gentlemen, I'm not gonna sit here and go through everything Donald Trump has said, everything that he has done.

52:21 I'm not going to go through it all. The list is lengthy and long. This is what confounds and confuses the world over and over and over again. We're about godliness, We're about standards. We're about not befriending the wrong people, We're not about listening to the wrong things. But then we will proudly proclaim behind the pulpit while holding a Bible or support for Donald Trump. I think he goes on to say one more thing about Donald Trump. What I want to demonstrate is he's not in any way, shape or for I'm going to actually deal with the no here what first John is actually about. We're not gonna actually get into anything, and so we're gonna circle to it really quick here in just a minute. But I think he's gonna say it again. I think he's gonna be very proud about the fact that he's voting for Donald Trump. What this has to do with First John, what this has to do with knowing? Okay? Are the word no okay? But he wants us to know that he's voting for Donald Trump.

53:22 He can't. Joe Biden, cain't Finxy, Kamala Harris King, Finxy. Somebody all say amen, right there. I hope I'm not too controversial for your television whatever up there. But raw, raw rang, I'm preaching. I'm preaching. And I get to say tonight that I'm gonna go ahead and vote for Donald Trump. And I say, take a run, and fell on that. Hallelujah, he's to vote. He runs. You can hear him running because he's voting for Donald Trump. Hallelujah. That's what he gets saying he's voting for Donald Trump. That's what gets him excited. Now, ladies and gentlemen, I don't you do whatever you want with that. But the whole thing is, I'm grateful for the sermon because it gave me the idea about no no, and it gave me a chance for us to really dig into First John. So I know that took us fifty four minutes to get there, but that's okay. You get the basic idea right now. You can go listen to the other five things. You can go, you can do, you do the rest, and maybe we'll come back to some of it. But ladies and gentlemen, let's do a little bit of work, all right. So the first use of the word no in First John is found in First John, chapter two, verse three, First John, chapter two, verse three, And we read and hereby we do we

54:53 do know that we know him if we keep his commandments. Hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments. Now, let's go back, let's go to the anti linear and and hereby we do know and that we know all right, So if both of them are the same Greek word, we do know that that phrase we do know comes from one Greek word we know comes from the same Greek word. And that Greek word is this. Are you ready? Are you ready? Strong's G one ninety seven genosko. Genosco, genosco, genosco, genosco, genosco? Is that is that right there?

55:42 Did did the light bulb come on? Gnosco? And you're like, oh, I know what, I know? What's happening here? Gnoscore? Are you okay? Maybe maybe not? Gnosco? Well, ganosco has the same basic root as this word. You ready, genosco? Or nosis? Nosis? Nosis, ganosco, nosis, ganosco gnosis? What is nosis? What does that got to do with genosco? How are these two linked together? Well? Are you ready for a little bit of information that I think is very very important? There is a connection between the Greek word ganosco and Nostaism.

56:28 There is a connection. There is a connection between the Greek word genosco and gnosticism, but it is important to distinguish between the common linguistic use of ganosco and the philological or philosophical system of gnosticism. The Greek word genosco it simply means to know or to come to know, and it is used frequently in the New Testament, including First John, to describe knowledge and a relational, experiential, or intellectual sense. It can just be no in a relational way, know an experiential way, or know in an intellectual way. Write that down. Kenosco can simply mean to know in a relational way, to know in an experiential way, or to know in an intellectual sense. It can have different meanings, so you could say you know him in a relational way or in a experiential way, if this or this, and just keep that in mind, because this becomes a never ending argument about oh, this is about proving someone's salvation.

57:32 We could get into this all right, But it is a common Greek It is a common verb in Greek, not inherently tied to any particular philosophical or theological system. For example, it is used in many contexts to refer to knowing God, people, or facts. For John seventeen three, this is eternal life. That you may know Gnosco the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom you have sinn first John two to three. By this week Gnosco that we have come to know him if we his commandments right now, this could be the idea, just so that you know, I know Him in kind of in a fellowship way, in a relationship, a relational way. Doesn't necessarily mean if I keep his commandments, that's the proof that I am saying, Because if obedience is the proof of salvation, then wouldn't you need perfect obedience to prove Then you say, well, no, it doesn't have to be perfect obedience, but you're perpetually in disobedience because we never keep the law, all right, then that just becomes no assurance and only just a matter of crazy. But if we can understand it in maybe a fellowship way, then maybe it makes a little bit more sense. But okay, we'll get to that, all right.

58:37 And these biblical context Ganosko refers to knowing God knowing the truth or knowing facts through experience, relationship, or understanding. It is not inherently tied to any special or secret form of knowledge. Gnosko is not tied to any special or secret form of knowledge. Now, how does gnosticism and nosis, how does this comes along? Well? The term gnosticism is derived from the Greek now nosis, meaning knowledge. Gnosticism refers to a diverse set of religious and philosophical movements in the early centuries of Christianity that emphasizes esoteric hidden knowledge nosis as the key to salvation.

59:25 So John uses no no, no, no, no, no, okay thirty times, this idea to know something thirty times. And it's being written in the context of gnosticism, where gnosticism refers to a diverse set of religious and philosophical movements in the early centuries of Christianity that emphasize an esoteric hidden knowledge nosis as the key to salvation. So first John Listen to Me was written as a polemic against gnosticism. Gnosticism. You have to have this esoteric secret gnosis in order to be saved. And John is going to take the idea of knowledge no no, no, no and use it thirty times. This is your hermeneutical key and how to handle first John. Obviously, this sermon is not going to get into any of this in any way, shape or form.

1:00:24 Gnosticism taught that this special knowledge was accessible only to a select few, and that it allowed them to transcend the corrupt material world and reconnect with the divine. And gnosticism knowing was not simply about factual or relational knowledge, but an elite, mystical understanding of spiritual realities that were hidden from the masses. So in gnosticism, this is secret knowledge and most people don't have it. Only a select few are given this nosis. Now what's the connection between Genosky, so genosco and Gnosticism. Well, the word ganosco to know, and gnosticism rooted and nosis share the same Greek root.

1:01:09 The connection between them is more about how the Gnostics appropriated the concept of knowledge, rather than an intrinsic connection between the words themselves. So what happens is Gnostics took the concept of knowledge and they appropriated it. They took it, they took it for themselves, and they used it in a different way. Now this is all happening in the context of early Christianity. So now you're going to have. Well, these people speak of knowing or to know this way, Well, if John comes along, First John and then thirty times uses the words the word no, there's something going on here, right, I think very important the Gnostic. So they have the same Greek roots, but not the Gnostic emphasis was on secret knowledge, and gnosticism nosis refers, Okay, hang on, my notes are doing weird thing here. In gnosticism, nosis refers to a special hidden knowledge that supports that supposedly unlocks spiritual realities, and is necessary for salvation. Gnostics viewed this knowledge as superior to faith or ethical living, and reserved it for an elite, enlightened few. The contrast with the New Testament's more common and open use of ginosco, which emphasizes relational, moral, and experiential knowledge of God accessible to all believers. So basically, what you have in First John taking place is an argument against the Gnostic understanding of

1:02:42 knowing for a different understanding of knowing. You have a contrast between two concepts of no or two concepts of knowing. All right, so let me go through this again. In gnosticism, gnosis refers to a special hidden knowledge that's posly unlocked spiritual realities and as necessary for salvation. Gnostics viewed this knowledge as superior to faith. Right, it's not about faith, it's about knowing. You don't need to worry about ethical living. You just need to worry about knowing, and it reserved for an elite enlightened few. This contrast with the New Testament's more common open use of ganosco, which emphasizes relational, moral, and experiential knowledge of God accessible to all believers. John's use of genosco as a response to narcissism and letters like First John. The repeated use of the word genosco to know, can be understood as John's polemic against Gnostic ideas.

1:03:47 John emphasized that true knowledge of God is relational. It is not hidden or esoteric, but experienced through faith, obedience, and love, accessible to all believers. All who believe in Christ know God, not just an elite few, and is tied to moral living. Knowing God is evidenced by keeping his commandments and loving others, in contrast to the Gnostic view that separate knowledge that separated knowledge from ethical conduct. The Greek verb genosko to know is a common term in the New Testament and does not inherently carry the same connotations as gnosticism, even though they share the same Greek root. The connection between the two is primarily in how Gnosticism appropriated the concept of knowledge and turned it into a specialized, esoteric form of knowledge that was central to its teachings and contrasts. John and other New Testament writers use genosco to describe a relational, experiential, and widely accessible knowledge of God, often countering the Gnostic idea that only a spiritual elite could attain true knowledge. So what does this set up? I had to go through that quickly.

1:04:55 At sixty four minutes we have heard a sermon. Take us to the First John and look at a number of scriptures. It emphasized the word no is used over twenty five times. I think it's about thirty times. You can check and see if my math is correct. It does nothing to really explain why John is using no. It doesn't explain why no would be used. In the historical context of First John. Gnosticism has not even been mentioned. And then it turned into hey, guys, Jesus is coming back. You need to know this, so behave correctly, act right, and I'm voting for Donald Trump. That's kind of what it turned into, all right, Now you can look at how they're handling it. Now, Look, many of you prefer that kind of preaching. You like that. Just give me five things from about five critical things I need to know in First John chapter three. And I don't really care about gnosticism and gnosis and the other Greek word here or did I have it gonosco? Okay, I don't care about any of that. I don't care about polemic against gnosticism. I don't care about any of that. But here's the thing. You may not care, and you may like this more simplistic, surface level preaching. The only thing is you're not understanding the actual purpose of the book.

1:06:22 To understand First John, we have to understand why he's using the word no over and over and over and over again, because it's a contract. He is giving a polemic against knowing no versus their understanding of no or knowing. And it's completely different ideologies and different systems. One is a denial of everything Christianity teaches. We've got to understand that. And then when you go through First John, almost everything in there that most evangelicals and fundamentalists just turn into a test to prove whether we're saved or not saved, which I think is a misunderstanding of the book. And they completely miss this. Actually, it's an argument against Gnostic ideals.

1:07:11 It's like, hey, don't it talks about those who will seduce you. That's the Gnostics. The Gnostics were seducing and deceiving. The anti Christ at this time were the Gnostic leaders. They were anti Christ. They were were the antithesis to a Christian understanding of God, of flesh, of the world, and of knowing. First John is a test against Gnostic ideas. And if you don't get that, you missed the entire purpose. And how do you know? You know? You know because the first time you see no, you know it's this Greek. Word Strong's g one ninety seven ganoskoosko ganosco.

1:07:58 As soon as you hear ganosko, you're like knosco gnosis. Okay, same Greek root boom. First John is about gnosticism. It's an argument against Gnostic ideas. And the no of the know of First John is relational, intellectual, experiential, moral. The Gnostic idea of no was esoteric, it was secret. It was only for a select few, had nothing to do with moral living, had nothing to do with faith. It was the opposite of faith. So what we will do is we're going to do a complete understanding of gnosticism, and we're going to try to understand how Narsissism and First John worked together. And we're going to do so in a way that we haven't done before, hopefully in a little deeper way that we're going to look at all the different interpretations of First John and we're going to challenge many of those interpretings. Now, will we do anything else with this sermon? I don't know. I don't know.

1:09:05 How do you go from Hey, Jesus is coming back. Be a good person, don't hang out with bad people, don't be friends with bad people, don't listen to bad things. Just be a good person. But I'm voting for Donald Trump. Okay, I don't know how in the world. I I don't even know how that like what? And then he starts running. He gets so excited to tell everyone he's voting with Donald Trump. He runs and howllelujah. I mean, like not howllelujah that Jesus is my savior. But hawllelujah, I'm voting for Donald Trump. That's ladies, I'm you talk about the political hijacking of the American church. That's it right there. Well, what if Jesus comes back and sees if you're voting for someone? Who? Oh? Do we go through all the things Donald Trump has done? Do we? But see if I say anything that he's done, then Trump supported her?

1:09:55 Like fake news? Trump is sinless? Okay, well all right, so yeah, but you see where how that? Then? Guess what? What did that accomplish? You just took away from the entire sermon. Now, you could have made the same point by just saying, hey, it's election season. Electing someone is not what we need. We need Christ to come back. But until Christ comes back, well, what are we called to do as the church? Are we called to get someone elected? No, we're called to live out our Christian faith? Or maybe how about this? Explain how does hang on? Listen? And I will challenge you on this, thy good? Where was the passage that he uses first John three? I did not write it down First John chapter three? Where did he have it? Kind? Where did he? What verse was he looking at? Oh? I had I was I had it, Mark, Well, there's not that many verses in chapter three, I should be able to find it. He give me one second, here, give me one second. Here U okay, oh, here we go. First John, chapter three, verse two, But a beloved Now are we? Now? Are we the sons of God? And it doth not yet appear what we shall be? But we know that when

1:11:27 he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is as First John three to two. What does that knowing that has to do with gnosticism? That's the real issue. What does First John three too? Does that have anything to say about gnosticism? Is it in any way, shape or form? Is it referring to anything about gnosticism? But look, what's the issue here? Now? You I don't know if there is or isn't that That's really the question we should have, right because it's using the now which Greek word? Remember there's two Greeks that are translated no in First John. Now we're focused on on the one because it has the same Greek root as it has the same route as gnosis, which then connects it to gnosticism. Okay, you get the idea why I went that direction? Now, the other one may not have such a direct correlation too gnosticism, but it is still it's going to be emphasizing a different aspect of no, which may be very different than the Gnostic idea of no. But we're not gonna get this is not going to get into any of this. It's gonna just all right, so next time, what we will do next time, what we will do is to see where do I want to go next time? So I've got we could go through all the uses of first of no in First John, but you're going to be looking those up, so I'm not going to do that. We've looked at the correlation or the connection between the Greek word genosco and gnosticism. We've done that. We went through

1:12:58 that relatively quick. We'll probably repeat a lot of that. But then we're gonna look at the We're gonna do a summary of gnosticism and its origins, all right, and then and then that will give us once the more you know about gnosticism, the more you can understand First John. And maybe we always want to bring it to our context, but we always need to understand it in its original context. All right, I'm going to stop there that went much longer than I wanted. Hopefully some of that will be beneficial. I know we had to go through that quickly. About the two Greek words or the two yeah, the two Greek words with the same route and ginosko and gnosis.

1:13:41 You get the idea. We went through a little bit. We will, we will, we will. We will go through that again and the next one, and then we'll advance it a little bit and we will We'll just see. I don't know if we'll get back to the sermon if you listen to the rest of the sermon again, five critical things you need to know. Please, if you listen to it, let me know, like, oh, point number two or point number three, you he does mention gnosticism because where we stopped is about where I stopped, right, I stopped with the Donald Trump thing, so you get me. And because I kept listening because I was hoping, where what is he going to do with this? And it appears that he wasn't going to do anything that I thought he would do. But maybe at some point he's going to mention gnosticism, maybe right, So we will see and if he does, then we can use that part.

1:14:29 All right. Thanks for listening. Sorry it went so long, but you know I want to make sure you get your money's worth. Everyone, have a great day. God bless