Well, good morning to everyone. It's a beautiful day, sun's shining, birds are singing, all the little piglets are running around the farm, so it's a good day. 

We're going to begin 1 John today, 1 John the epistle, the first one written by John, and I was just thinking about as we were singing that last song, I know whom I have believed in, and that's really what the message of 1 John is. It's looking back to the truth, the gospel, what we know is true, what we believed in the beginning, and holding fast to that. Because what was going on in the church in this time was that some had come in and said that they had new revelation, they had new ideas, and they were attempting to draw away believers after themselves, as we see so many warnings concerning that in the New Testament. 

So we're going to begin this morning looking at this, and we're really just going to do an introductory message this morning, get a feel for the book, and what it's about, and where John is going, but it's a tremendous book. 

So I'd like to read 1 John 1, 1 to 4. John wrote, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the word of life, the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested to us, that which we have seen and heard, we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son, Jesus Christ, and these things we write to you, that your joy may be full.”

Well, beginning a new book of the Bible is very much like beginning a long journey. There's planning, and there's studying, and there's laying out the map. That's what I've been up to the last couple of weeks, and there is anticipation, looking forward, learning, growing, and then there's the unknown, what you will find, what twists and turns the road may take, and what adventures you might experience. And I think the book of 1 John is going to be like this for us. I'm confident that it holds many treasures for us, and great encouragement and edification is in store. 

I think it's a book a lot like James. It doesn't have a super clear flow or structure. It's hard to nail down an outline on this epistle. When we began the book of Romans, I had a clear outline in my mind and laid out on paper. Chapters 1 to 17 was an introduction, greeting the church in Rome and giving a basic outline of what the book would be. Chapters 1:18 to 3:20 was a general condemnation of all men. 3:21 through chapter 4 was all about justification by faith. Chapters 5 to 8 gave us the implications of that gospel, that salvation, leading with those wonderful words, having been justified by faith. 

In chapters 9 to 11, concerning Israel and God's faithfulness in keeping His promises, and chapters 12 to 16, the application section, where we were exhorted to apply that doctrine to our lives. You see, Romans has a real flow, a clear purpose and content, and I could see Paul's writing, A plus B equals C, and to be honest with you, that kind of style is much easier to teach, to wrap your mind around and follow in a linear fashion. 

But John and James and Peter, they don't write this way, and they tend to lay out what seem to be sometimes random statements of truth, thoughts that they have, yet often so very rich in meaning. They write in their own style, but they write tremendous truth inspired by the Holy Spirit as well. 

This letter of 1 John is a rich text and it has a tremendous meaning and application for us as it did to the early church to which John wrote. And I'm looking forward to working through it and trusting in the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth as we go. 

And I do believe that when the Holy Spirit inspired His word, His revelation, through these human authors, He did it with an express purpose in mind and breathed out the very words in their context in a systematic way in order to communicate a message, a meaning, a revelation to us. So it is helpful to understand the intent of the author and to see the structure and purpose of his writing in order to rightly interpret and apply it. 

And I believe that we can do this in 1 John as well. The internal evidence, the words of the book, give us the purpose for which John wrote and why it is that he wanted us to understand certain principles and to believe the truth and to look back to Jesus Christ. That's what I want to talk about this morning as we introduce this wonderful text, this letter, 1 John. 

I'm going to give you four points for an outline for our introduction. First, we're going to see assurance. The second, apostolic authority. The third, argument. And fourth, abiding. 

Well, it's interesting to note that this letter is really not written like a letter. It has no greeting or salutation, nor does it include the name of the author like other epistles do. It reads much more like a sermon. And this is a very personal and intimate letter. We could say it's addressed from a father to his family. And certainly the Apostle John would fit this description. He's writing to the believers, to his family, to his children in a very intimate way. And he has some very important things to talk to them about, to remind them of, to point them to. 

We see a few verses within the letter that help us to understand why it is that John was writing. Right away in our first verses, we see that John is writing to declare eternal life, to declare that word of life, to proclaim that which he had witnessed himself and had authority to testify concerning. In verse 4, he says that he is doing this that the believers' joy may be full. Full joy for the believer is an intent of his writing. 

In 1 John 2.1, he says that he's writing to his little children that they may not sin. This is an intent of this epistle to point believers to the truth, to Christ, to remind them that they may not sin. In 1 John 2.26, John says, “These things I’ve written to you concerning those who try to deceive you.” This letter is a warning as well, an argument, a polemic. A major underlying theme of this epistle is an argument or warning against false teachers who are trying to draw away disciples after themselves, and we'll develop this much more as we go along. 

All of these things are intents, purposes of John in his writing to declare the word of life, that our joy may be full, that we may not sin, and that we may remain in the truth and not be drawn away by false teaching. But I think the main purpose, the overarching intent of the epistle is found in 1 John 5.13, where John writes, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.” 

John is giving his eyewitness testimony concerning the word of life, God incarnate, Jesus Christ, pointing the believers away from heresy, away from this new revelation, this mystical higher knowledge that they were claiming to have, and back to something old, something they had heard from the beginning that John as well as the other apostles and Jesus Himself had taught them. The truth of the gospel, assurance through faith in Jesus alone and what He did on the cross. The main objective of the epistle is that the believers to whom John writes, who believe in the name of the Son of God, would know that they have eternal life. 

This letter is about assurance, assurance of salvation in Jesus Christ based on the clear revelation of God concerning the Son of God as revealed in His word through the apostles. We do not need something new. We do not need secret revelation or emotional or mystical experiences. What we need is what we heard from the beginning, what we believed when we were saved. What we need is the gospel. What we need is the word of life, Jesus Christ. And this is where our assurance comes from—believing Jesus Christ and loving one another. 

John calls us back in the first verses of this epistle to his apostolic authority. He was a very old man at this point. Some think this letter was written as late as 95 AD. He was late in years, but he'd not forgotten what he had seen, what he had heard, that which he had gazed upon and studied intently. He had handled with his own hands. He was the last of the apostles, the only one alive who had known Jesus, who had walked with him, laid his head upon his breast, had heard him, examined him, even handled him with his own hands. 

John was the apostle whom Jesus loved. And I can imagine that believers came from far and wide to speak with this man who had spoken with Jesus, had lived with him night and day for three years. John had authority. He had apostolic authority and he had witnessed these things with his own eyes. He was uniquely qualified to say what was true and what was a lie. And that's what he will do in the course of this sermon-like letter. 

For our third point, I'd like to take you back to a pivotal moment in the life and ministry of Jesus. An event that must have left an indelible mark on the Apostle John and changed his understanding forever. An event that I believe the implications of permeate this epistle and give us the key to unlocking its meaning. I'd like you to turn with me to Luke 22, please. 

Luke chapter 22, beginning in verse 14. “When the hour had come, He sat down and the twelve apostles with Him. Then He said to them, with fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” 

Then He took the cup and gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves. For I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them saying, “This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In verse 20 He says, “Likewise He also took the cup after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood which is shed for you.” 

Perhaps the most important truth that we can understand in order to comprehend the essence of the Christian life is the distinction between the old and new covenants. Since the beginning when Adam and Eve fell in the garden, God has been working out His salvation plan for mankind, the redemption of fallen man. The promise of a deliverer, a substitute, the Messiah was made all the way back in the garden. And God has at different times dealt with His people in different ways to bring to consummation His plan and promises through time. 

Romans 5 tells us that from Adam until Moses there was no law, no Ten Commandments, no Mosaic law. Through Abraham, God set apart a people to Himself, Israel, the Jewish people, to be a separate and holy people, a witness to the world concerning the true God, to draw Gentile nations to Him. God gave the law to Moses at Mount Sinai. He made a law covenant with Israel that we call the Old Covenant. 

When Jesus came fulfilling the promise made to Abraham concerning a blessing to all nations and the promise of a Messiah who would die in our place, who would be a sacrificial lamb of God, who would crush the head of Satan, Jesus instituted the New Covenant, making the Old Covenant, the law covenant with Moses, obsolete. 

Turn to Hebrews 8 with me, please. Such a tremendous passage in the book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 8 verse 1. The author of Hebrews has been writing throughout about how Jesus is better, the New Covenant is better, that there's something a new and better way of fulfillment of promises made in the Old Covenant. And in chapter 8 verse 1 he writes, “Now this is the main point of the things we are saying. We have such a high priest who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected and not man.” 

“For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, therefore it is necessary that this one also have something to offer. For if he were on earth, he would not be a priest since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law, who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For he said, ‘See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.’ But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry inasmuch as he is also mediator of a better covenant which was established on better promises.”

“For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. Because finding fault with them, he says, ‘Behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they did not continue in my covenant and I disregarded them, says the Lord.’” 

“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their mind and write and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” 

“In that He says a new covenant, He has made the first obsolete. Now, what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.” 

Jesus instituted a new covenant in His first coming, a new and better way, and that's what the book of Hebrews is all about. Jesus is better. He has accomplished our salvation. He has regenerated us, giving us a new heart and a new spirit, and He Himself has come to live in us, permanently indwelling us and empowering us. Now we are new men in Christ. We are released from the controlling power of indwelling sin, from the bondage of the law, which only brought death and condemnation. 

Because Jesus has defeated sin in the flesh where it dwells, because He has released us from the law of sin and death, and because the very power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead now works in us to produce fruit, to accomplish God's will, to bring life to our mortal bodies, the righteous requirement of the law can now be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. According to Romans 8, 1-4 and Romans 13-8, this fulfillment of the law is the ability to now love in a self-sacrificial way—Agape love. Love for God and love for one another. 

In the new covenant, we are now under grace, not under law, we live by faith, believing Jesus one day at a time, abiding, and the fruit manifest from these truths is love in our lives toward Jesus, toward one another. I want for you to understand the magnitude of this truth. I want you to see in this first epistle of John how central this doctrine is, this truth, this precious memory that John must have had from the Last Supper when Jesus raised that cup before his eyes and said, “I institute a new covenant in my blood.” 

I want for you to see the new covenant framework of 1 John and how it relates to our assurance in Christ, the purpose of this epistle. I made a little chart that each of you have a copy of before you showing how 1 John really wraps itself around these new covenant principles, these provisions, these promises that we find in Hebrews 8, and they were promised all the way back in Ezekiel 36 and Jeremiah 31 as well. 

If you look at that chart, you'll see a column there that says “John wants us to know.” What is it that we know? We know that God abides in us and we abide in Him. We know that we are born of God, children of God, that we know God and have fellowship with Him through Jesus Christ and that we have eternal life and forgiveness of sins. He wants us to have assurance concerning what we know and how we know it. 

Notice all of the verses in 1 John listed there that refer to the ways that we know these things are true through faith and love and obedience. And we will see that obedience is defined in 1 John through the commandment of Christ in 1 John 3.23-24 that we love one another, believing Jesus Christ. The commandment is to believe His Son and to love one another. 

Now, we're not going to go through this whole chart, but you can keep that in your Bible and maybe it will help as we study through the epistle of 1 John together to remind us of the centrality of the new covenant to the Christian life. What we see through the text of 1 John is that our assurance is related to two major themes. The first is obedience, and the second is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It's interesting that John defines obedience to the new covenant commandments of Christ in 1 John 3.23-24 as faith and love. 

Turn over to 1 John 3 with me, please, and just look at these central verses to the epistle. 1 John 3.23, he writes, “And this is His commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, as He gave us commandment.” 

“Now, He who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in Him. And by this we know that He abides in us by the Spirit whom He has given to us.” What is the commandment of the new covenant? What is the commandment we need to keep, to guard, to follow? Faith. Believe Jesus. 

The just shall live by faith. It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. In the life I live, I now live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. He who believes, he who loves, abides in God, and He in Him. These verses, the explanation of the new covenant commandments of Christ are central to the epistle and to our understanding of our assurance in Christ. 

We believe Jesus, we love one another, and God abides in us, and we in Him. This is the basis of our assurance, and thus these are the themes of the letter. So we see the purpose of the epistle, assurance, that you may know that you have eternal life. And we see the apostolic authority of John as he speaks concerning what he has personally seen and looked intently at and handled with his own hands the Word of life, Jesus Christ. 

Now next, I want us to consider the argument of the letter, the polemic or defense of the truth. It is clear that there were some issues, some false teachers, some false doctrine that was having an effect or had the potential to have effect on the believers in these fellowships. 

Turn over to 1 John 2.18 with me, please. 2.18, John writes, “Little children, it is the last hour. And as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many Antichrists have come by which we know that it is the last hour.” 

“They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out that it might be made manifest that none of them were of us.” John here speaks specifically of false teachers, Antichrists, that were part of the fellowship, who have gone out from them. And apparently now they were trying to lead some of the brethren astray to follow after them. Look at verse 20. 

“But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is Antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either. He who acknowledges the Son has the Father also. Therefore, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and the Father. And this is the promise that He has promised us—eternal life.” 

“These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you.” But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you, but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him. 

In Acts 20, Paul said to the elders in Ephesus to take heed to themselves and to the flock. He said that the Holy Spirit had made them overseers to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. He said, “For I know this, that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves, men will rise up, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore, watch and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears. So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the Word of His grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.” 

False teachers have been a concern since the fall. All through the Old Testament prophets, we see false teachers leading God's people astray. This certainly was a concern for Jesus in His time on the earth. In Matthew 23 and John 8 and several other passages, Jesus gives strong warning concerning false teachers and false teaching. When the disciples asked Him about the end times and the sign of His coming, the first warning that Jesus gave was, “Be not deceived.” Deception is a major concern in Bible times and especially now. 

In 2 Peter 2, Peter said there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them and bring on themselves swift destruction. Listen to this, “And many will follow their destructive ways because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed.” 

Peter promises that there will be false teachers. And this is true in John's time and in ours for sure. It's amazing that some of the basic errors we have to deal with today are the same errors that John sought to refute in this epistle. 

We see the major thrust of the error is a denial of who Christ is and what He has accomplished. This is always the error. A challenge to the truth of Christ's deity or His humanity or the sufficiency of His work on the cross. Error always centers around who Jesus is and what He has done. John was dealing specifically with gnostic heresy in this time, a dualistic belief that the material world is bad, but the spiritual is good. 

These teachers denied that Jesus was God incarnate, that God actually took on flesh because flesh was evil in their minds. So they taught that He was God, but that He did not take on flesh. It only seemed that He took on flesh. The heresy obviously varied among teachers, but the essence again was a challenge to who Jesus was and what He did. The conclusion of the teachers was that we are to foster the spiritual, that we are to increase the good on the inside and ignore or even satiate the flesh so that it's not a distraction. 

This led to all kinds of licentious living and excusing of sin, as they said that satisfying the flesh was not sin because it's wholly separate from the Spirit. We hear the same kind of heresy today in the New Age movements, calling on us to fan the flame of goodness inside of us, to look within ourselves, and this spreads into humanistic teaching as well where we are taught that man is basically good and that we all have good in us and also that life is about seeking pleasure and satisfying the flesh and that this really doesn't constitute sin. 

The important truth to see throughout this epistle and all of the epistles really is that the way to deal with false teaching is to point people to the truth. And that's what John does in his writings as well. When we focus on the truth, on Jesus, then that which is false becomes obvious to us and we can mark it and we can call it out and we can avoid it and avoid those who teach it. 

Nonetheless, the concern about false teaching runs parallel to truth teaching throughout the Scriptures. We need to be wary. We need to be concerned about those who would lead us astray. And that's why we see this thread woven all throughout John's epistle. 

So we see John's main purpose to give the believers assurance of their salvation concerning their faith in Christ. And we see him assert his apostolic authority in proclaiming to us the word of life and warning us of false teachers, his argument that runs through the epistle. 

Now last, as we overview and introduce this first epistle of John, I want to consider the positive answer that John gives concerning how we should live the Christian life, how we should have assurance and full joy, and that is to abide. 

Abide in Christ. In 1 John 2.24, he says, “Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and the Father.” 

In 2.27, he says, “But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you. And you do not need that anyone teach you, but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.” 

“And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.” 

4.13, “By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us because He has given us His Spirit.” Again and again, John speaks of abiding in Christ, abiding in God, He abiding in us. This is what is true of believers, and this is also the greatest need of believers one day at a time. 

I've told you this story before, but when Guy and I were in India, we were going to do some shopping and get some souvenirs, buy some saris for our wives and some of those really nice, cheap gold bracelets with lots of jewels in them that you could get at a great price in India there. So we went downtown, and we're going to go to this big store. And as we're walking from Augustine's home, kind of on a quiet street, relatively speaking, we come into this intersection and there's 8 or 9 roads coming together at this intersection. 

And there's bullocks with carts and people on mopeds and motorcycles and big giant buses and trucks and there's no lights, there's no street signs and apparently there's no rules and everyone's coming together in this intersection. And Guy's got his video camera and he's kind of wandering around like this and Sharon kept going, “Guy, come here, Guy, come here,” and he's walking and the motorcycle speeds right by him, you know. 

So finally we got us gathered there and we're trying to cross the street and I was scared to death. I didn't think there was any way we could make it across that street. And Sharon grabbed us and she said, “You stay with me.” And when it was right, she ran and we ran and we kind of made it and people swerved around us and honked and we made it across the street. 

But I was sticking with her when we went across that street because I didn't think there was any way we could make it through there. Stay with me, she said. That's what Jesus is saying to us. That's what John is saying to us. Just stay with me. Hold my hand. Hold on tight. Abide. Remain, is what the word means. We need to remain. We need to stay. We need to abide in Jesus, focused on Him. 

This is the daily key to the Christian life and the new covenant. And we do this by the word, by prayer, by faith, trusting Him, looking to Him, depending on Him. In John 15, Jesus gives us that great picture. That example that He gives explaining what the Christian life is. He says, “I am the true vine and my Father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit He takes away, and every branch that bears fruit He prunes that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine. You are the branches. 

He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit. For without me you can do nothing.” John was there when Jesus spoke these words. He came to know at the day of Pentecost when He received the Holy Spirit just what that meant. And all those years, perhaps 60 years later, growing, learning, suffering, John was more convinced than ever that what he needed, what each of us needs, is not something new. Not some new revelation, some new method, some new wisdom, but something old. Something he had heard from the beginning. 

What he really needed was the Gospel truth. What he really needed was the life of Christ in him, strengthening him by His Spirit one day at a time as John was abiding in the truth by faith and manifesting the fruit of love and resting in the assurance that was his and is ours in Jesus Christ. This is the message of 1 John. 

I just encourage you to be reading, to be studying on these things, thinking about these things and preparing as we come together to study. 

Let's close in prayer. Father, we're so thankful that we can abide in Jesus. We're thankful for the truth that through faith we have salvation. We can know that we have eternal life. And Father, that the Christian life is just trusting You, believing You, looking to You, abiding in Jesus, and You produce fruit through us for Your glory and we just pray that You would do that. That You would use us. We thank You for the privilege of being witnesses. We thank You for the empowerment to love that You produce through us, Lord, to be a witness of the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in this world. Help us to love one another. Help us to bring You glory in all that we do. In Jesus' name, amen.