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FTGC-49

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Dear 52 Greatest Chapter Friends,
We are down to the final stretch of finishing our year together, surveying the whole Bible.
These are exciting days to watch the world events and see them through the window of the Scriptures.
This week is a start on God’s plans for us living at the end of days.
Next week will be amazing as we look at the un-creation of the entire Universe by God in 2 Peter 3, and then the re-creation of the Universe by God into the New Heavens and the New eath of Revelation 21.
What an exciting time to study the Bible as we see God’s plan for our lives TODAY!
This is lesson #47 HOW TO ENDURE DANGEROUS TIMES OF HOSTILITY & PERSECUTION
The world that Peter served the Lord in was a terrible time in history. Some of the most memorable pages of the History of Christ’s Church are the years from AD 60 and 70. For half those years the hatred and evils of Nero had led to the random acts of fierce persecution of Christians.
Across the city of Rome, believers were killed from the arenas to the prisons. For his evening dinner guests Nero would have the followers of Jesus dipped in tar and burned alive in sticks as torches in the Imperial Gardens. For the bloodthirsty masses at the games, Christians were wrapped in animal skins and chased to death by wild beasts.
Have you pondered how hard it must have been to be a Christian in those ten years? Yet in that dangerous time to even be a believer, Peter boldly wrote to the Roman World’s saints about hoping to the end in Jesus. As he did so, Peter had become the “Most Wanted” man of the day. Peter demonstrated the holy boldness Christ can bring into the lives of His children.
First Peter 2
Title: How God Grows Me (2). God lays down the pathway for spiritual growth for believers.
Lessons:
1—1 Peter 2:1a—SPIRITUAL GROWTH IS A CHOICE: Spiritual growth demands some hard choices based upon the work of the Gospel “therefore”. Spiritual growth is based on, and only possible for those who are genuinely saved by redemption (1 Peter 1:18-21); have purified souls (1 Peter 1:22), and born again by the Word of God (1 Peter 1:23).
2–1 Peter 2:1b—FORSAKING SIN IS A BATTLE: I must choose to lay aside, throw away, abandon, and avoid all signs of lostness. Thus, spiritual growth starts when we repent of evil and hunger for God’s Word.
3–1 Peter 2:2a—HUNGER FOR THE WORD SHOWS SPIRITUAL HEALTH: I must want to eat up my meal of God’s Word.
4–1 Peter 2:2b—I NEED THE WORD TO GROW: Growth only comes via God’s Word.
5—1 Peter 2:3—GRACE IS SO SATISFYING: I can taste God’s grace that draws me back for more.
6–1 Peter 2:4-8—GOD HAS GREAT PLANS FOR OUR LIVES: each of us is a part of the Church, yet especially unique, but all together, to build up the offering, of spiritual worship. OT priests and NT believer-priests share nine characteristics… The main privilege of a priest, however, is access to God. to offer up spiritual sacrifices. Spiritual sacrifices mean God-honoring works done because of Christ under the direction of the Holy Spirit and the guidance of the Word of God. These would include:
1) offering the strength of one’s body to God (Rom. 12:1, 2); 2) praising God (Heb. 13:15); 3) doing good (Heb. 13:16); 4) sharing one’s resources (Heb. 13:16); 5) bringing people to Christ (Rom. 15:16); 6) sacrificing one’s desires for the good of others (Eph. 5:2); and 7) praying (Rev. 8:3) (MSB).
7–1 Peter 2:9-10—GOD DESIGNED ME AS HIS PRIEST: we are chosen to be priests.

Slides

Transcript

John Barnett here and welcome to week 49. I was just sharing with my wonderful wife Bonnie who’s sitting over there behind the desk, recording all this, that I can’t believe how timely this lesson is. We’re getting close to the end of the 52 weeks that we’re going through, the key chapters of the Bible and surveying the whole Bible. This week I read through 1 John, studied, and of course, wrote in my notebook. I would encourage all of you that are going along with us on this journey, if you really want to make the most of it, get some type of notebook that you can carry with you wherever you go; to the coffee shop or when you travel on vacation so you never get behind. Then tape in the front right here, the guide to what we’re doing, the instructions, and what you’re looking for. Then whenever you’re working through the scriptures record what you’re finding. I was telling Bonnie this was a perfectly timed week.

Let’s start with the slides and I’m going to show you where we’re going before I go to the marker boards behind me. We’re looking at the deity of Jesus Christ, which is the heart of the Gospel. Here is what got my attention this week: how to avoid Satan’s most powerful deceptions.

What you see on the slide, everybody always wonders about the picture I chose there. This is the great theater at Ephesus. Do you remember, and look up for just a second, I’ll remind you. When you grab your Bible and read it, every one of the books that you read has a context, a background to it. The Apostle John spent his last years, other than his imprisonment time on Patmos, in Ephesus. That’s why I showed you that theater. Most likely from the shadow of that theater and the great temple that we talk about when I go through Ephesians and the book of Acts, the Apostle John was writing the Gospel by John. He wrote the three epistles by John, and he wrote the Revelation of Jesus Christ from his time both at Ephesus and then being captured and sent off to Patmos. That’s when he did the Revelation of John.

Back to the slide. When you see the great theater there in Ephesus, you’re looking at where Paul had his greatest ministry, his three year ministry there in Ephesus, and where Timothy had his ministry. Think about it. Paul was here. Timothy was a pastor here. Then John was here and that’s not all. Mary was here. Remember John was entrusted with Mary at the cross. Jesus said, woman, behold your son and son behold, your mother. John took the oversight of Mary, to take care of her as a widow after Joseph was gone. This is the most visible part of Ephesus. That’s what I wanted you to see in the background.

We’re on week 49. We’re looking at 1 John, only really covering every verse of chapter 1. What we’re looking at is this: the key to understanding the true Gospel is knowing who Jesus Christ is. That’s the only way, as Jesus warned us, to avoid Satan’s most powerful deceptions. Here’s where we are, week 49. I always make a short phrase describing the portion of scripture we’re in. The first time that I went through 1 John I wrote the basis for joy and true fellowship, and I’ll show you how I got to that. I have several more titles and I’ll show them to you on the board in just a minute.

What we’re doing is we’re surveying the whole Bible, and this might be your very first week with us. If you want, you can go through the whole Bible by joining us for the 52 Greatest Chapters. We do one a week of these great chapters, or you can take longer. Some people take longer. I get your notes and you say, oh, I’ve taken two weeks. I say great, but just keep going and finish.

Here’s the key, we’re using the devotional method. The devotional method is where you write down a title for each chapter and you can have many titles. It’s what really stirs your heart and captures the essence of what you just studied in that read through. Then every time you read, you’re looking for as many lessons, truths, and doctrines as you can find. I highly recommend you invest the time and money to get a good study Bible like the MacArthur study Bible, or you use an online free resource, like the Blue Letter Bible. There are many of them, just make sure they’re a good solid one. You can also get a free version of Logos, which is another beautiful software. I use it all the time. I carry it in my pocket on my phone, on my laptop, and on my desktop.

So, you look for those lessons and then from them you take the points that you find and make them into an application prayer. You don’t just pray it in your mind. You write it out, actually asking the Lord Himself to unleash at least one of those truths that you have personally found to change your life. That’s what makes this study amazing.

Look up for a second. Before I go through the summary, I want to show you why I got so excited this week. The first thing is over here on this board. Remember when you are reading the Bible and getting to 1 John, 1, 2, 3 John, the Gospel of John, and Revelation, those five books, you’re looking at the last apostle. That’s John. He’s the last living apostle. We’re studying this week the very last epistle of the New Testament. This is the very last one. That should get your attention.

God knew this is the last time he could send a message in epistle form to all of the churches. We have the seven letters of Jesus to the seven churches of Asia Minor in Revelation. That’s the future. This is the very last of the normal church epistles. John is writing as a pastor. He’s the pastor, probably pastor emeritus because he is quite elderly, of the church in Ephesus after Paul founded it and after Timothy built it. After all those years John nurtured it. The last apostle is writing the last epistle. He’s already finished the last Gospel, the Gospel by John. Matthew’s already been written. Mark’s already been written. Luke’s already been written many years before. This is the very last of the Gospels, the Gospel by John.

By the way, we’ll see in 1 John that all the truths of the Gospel he’s summarizing and using in his message in 1 John. Then, it’s the last book of the Bible that comes from him, Revelation. John is so important. He’s the last apostle, he wrote the last epistle to the churches, he wrote the last Gospel account of Christ, and finally, he concludes the whole canon of scripture. The Bible.

Look over here. This is the next title I got. I showed it to you on the opening slide. Remember I said joy and fellowship. After reading through 1 John I realized it’s the deity of Christ that’s the heart of the Gospel. That takes me to this; I’m going to refer to this resource and this is the pamphlet from Rose Publishing. You can see it right down here in the bottom corner. I have every one of these that they’ve made. I first bumped into these when I was at Shepherd’s Conference at Grace Community Church. They were selling these on a table, and I looked at them and I thought, wow, they’re waterproof, they’re flexible, they’re compact, they can fit right into my Bible. Look at that, they are Bible sized, they fit right into my Bible.

Look down at this summary slide and I’m going to run through it with you then I’m going to show you what’s on this Rose chart. This is what I started with you. The last apostle is writing the last epistle. 1 John in your MacArthur Study Bible, you’ll see that the date on it and in Logos, is between 90 and 95 AD. He has already written the last of the four Gospels sometime between 80 and 90 AD. John writes the Gospel by John. He’s soon to be imprisoned on Patmos by Domitian.

From history, you can look in a history book or Encyclopedia Britannica or on Wikipedia, and you’ll see that Domitian’s intense persecution of the Church started in 95. During that persecution, John is put on Patmos as a prisoner, and he writes the last book of the Bible under the inspiration of God’s Spirit. He probably wrote it in 96 because sometime between that year and 98 Church History says that John was welcomed home to Heaven. It is so amazing to think about all that he did. Especially this climactic period when he is writing this last epistle after he finished the Gospel and he’s writing Revelation in his captivity on Patmos.

Look at the next paragraph. In this epistle, John explains why he wrote, and I actually want to show you these in the scripture so you can mark them. This is one of the lessons we learn when we do the devotional method, we look for repetition. Four times John says the very same things. He says these things are written, or I have written these things, or I wrote for this purpose. He tells us four truths through this repeated phrase on why he wrote. This is what I call them: the gateway to freedom for those living through the growing darkness, the hostility, and the temptations.

Here’s how John explains those four truths. These are the four reasons he wrote. He says, I write unto you and first he talks about freedom from emptiness. Look up from the slide and look at 1 John 1:4. Take the time, grab a pen, and underline this repeated phrase. Okay. It says in verse 4 “these things we write to you.” These things, the Holy Spirit’s inspiring me. It could very possibly be that John’s sight is bad and that he had an amanuensis, a secretary to write it. That could be why he says we, or probably the better thought for that is that he’s talking about we, he said, God is speaking through me. It’s His words. It’s coming out to you. We, God and I, are writing to you. Either God and me with a secretary or God and me to you. It doesn’t matter which it is.

Look what he says in verse 4. We’re writing this. Why? That your joy may be full. Look here on the board. This is freedom from emptiness. That’s 1 John 1:4. The gateway to freedom from emptiness is what we’re studying this week. That should get your attention. You ought to want to spend all week long in 1 John. Did you know that emptiness is the affliction that most humans are struggling with? They feel empty in their marriage. They feel empty at work. They feel empty in whatever they like to do, their hobbies, or their pursuits. They feel empty emotionally. They feel empty. Christ said I don’t want you to be empty. I came that you might have life and not just life, overflowing life, abundant life. I’ll show you in just a second when we get back to the slides, Jesus actually said, I want you to be like a river of water that gushes up and overflows your life like a fountain.

Number one, 1 John 1:4. Do you want to be free from an empty life feeling unfulfilled, unsatisfied, restless, aimless, empty? The gateway to freedom from emptiness is the reason that God asked John to write this letter and breathed it out through him. Wow.

Back to the slides. Remember Jesus has already said our lives are to overflow. Way back when we were going through John 7 I read this in verse 37, it says “on the day, that the great day of the feast, Jesus said…out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” Look what it says in chapter 10 verse 10. Jesus says I’m coming that you might have life and life more abundant. I want you free from emptiness and the gateway is right here in 1 John.

Secondly, see number two here. 1 John 2:1, freedom from guilt. Remember Jesus said neither do I condemn you to the woman taken in adultery? Look up here on the board. Freedom from guilt, 1 John 2:1. Let’s open, turn in your Bible there.

I’ve told you this many times, the chapter divisions were put in by Bishop Langton. He’s the same one that wrote the Magna Carta in England. He was the Archbishop of Canterbury, an amazing scholar, a prolific English writer, English speaking, Church of England leader. He took the Bible which was just one long manuscript and chopped it into chapters. Some of them are pretty clear like the Psalms, but other times, like 1 John, he arbitrarily cut it wherever. If you have a modern version, the actual Greek manuscript has paragraphs in it that don’t match the verses or the chapters. They were put in by Langton so that people in the Church of England could read the Bible through once a year. He had this Bible reading program and I would still strongly encourage you to read through it.

My wonderful wife Bonnie and I, this morning, went through the MacArthur daily Bible, and it’s already done for us. There’s an Old Testament reading, a New Testament reading, a Psalm reading, a Proverb reading, and then an application of all that. It takes how long honey? 15 to 18 minutes a day. We pray before and then we read and then we discuss, and then we seek to invite the Lord to transform our lives. That whole Bible reading as a church regularly was encouraged by Langton who put in the chapters.

Look in your Bible. “My little children” is right in the middle of this whole section. What I like to say is Langton was riding a horse and sometimes while the horse was going along Langton would get bumped and put in a division. The next thing it says in verse 1 is, “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin.” Look down at the slide. This is freedom from guilt. Jesus said, neither do I condemn you. He said that to the woman taken in adultery and that’s what John is saying. “That you may not sin. And if anyone sins,” verse 1 continues, “we have an Advocate with the Father.”

Look at this third one, freedom from deceptions. Remember, Satan is a liar. Remember it says in 8:44 that he is a liar and the father of it and a murderer. He comes to kill and steal and destroy. That’s what it says in John 10:10. Freedom from deceptions. Look up and let me show you verse 26 in your Bible. By the way, where’d the verses come from? Langton did the chapter divisions in the 12th century. When we get to the 16th century, guess what we have? The printing press. Gutenberg was doing the printing press. By the time the Bible started being printed commercially Robert Stephanus from Geneva put in all these verse divisions. Look what it says in the verse divisions Stephanus put in. Verse 26, “These things I have written to you.”

In my Bible, if you could see it, I have a little number 1 by verse 4 of chapter 1. I have a little number 2 by 2:1, and now I have a little number 3 by 2:26. I wrote by 2:26, and I said freedom from deceptions. “These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you.” How do we have freedom from deceptions? Look at verse 27, “The anointing which you have received from Him abides you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things and is true.”

What he’s talking about is what we all have, the indwelling teaching of the Holy Spirit. He lives within us. He’s a person, He’s the third person of the Trinity, that’s Orthodox doctrine. That’s what we’re emphasizing in this course. John told them you don’t need some secret initiation into some secret group. The cults that were besieging the Early Church with all their eras. He said, no, you don’t need to go off to some secret teacher who will reveal some hidden truth. Wherever you are you can just bow your head and lift your heart to God and say, open my eyes, help me to behold Your truth and immediately the Spirit of God illumines our hearts to the scripture.

You should have in your Bible a little number 1 and put freedom from emptiness by chapter 1 verse 4, a little number 2, freedom from guilt, a little number 3, freedom from deceptions through the anointing. That reminds me not everybody that watches these videos are Christians.

In fact, I just shared last night with Bonnie that I keep track of notes and postings and emails and texts and phone calls that Bonnie and I get. Since COVID started, when we started seeing it on the news like Christmas of 2019, and then full blown by March when they closed everything down in 2020. Since then, from 2020 until today, over the weekend, we just saw the 100th person. 100 people have written to us and said that during COVID I couldn’t go to work. I was working remotely, or we couldn’t get out of the house, and we started watching videos and somehow, they came on these videos on YouTube. 100 people have said, I came to know Jesus Christ.

I’ve told you stories. One of them raised their hand on the subway. The most recent one I got was from San Francisco and they said that the boyfriend got saved and changed so radically that his girlfriend asked him what happened to him. He said you need to watch this YouTube channel. She came to the Gospel by John chapter 10. That’s the lesson she picked. I was going through My sheep hear My voice. I said that you can cry out to Jesus, the Good Shepherd, and He’ll save you. Guess what this couple sent me? A video clip, actually a link to a video clip, from a church in downtown San Francisco, a Gospel preaching church where this young lady was baptized following the Lord in His death, burial, and resurrection in a beautiful little Bible church. Wow. Freedom from deception. At the instant of salvation, the Spirit of truth enters us. The Spirit of God, who is the Spirit of truth lives within us. Verse 27 says He anoints us with the truth.

Back to the slides. Here’s the last one we’re going to go to. It says in 1 John 5:13, we can have freedom from fear. Jesus said I am the way, the truth, and the life. He said I’m going to prepare a place for you in John 14:2. He reminded His disciples, He said, fear not, don’t be troubled or afraid. How do you do that? By abiding connected to me, that’s chapter 15.

Remember I said, look at this, John 7, John 10. I said, John is giving little snips, little summaries from the Gospel that he’d already written. In all of these verses on this chart, these four are the reasons why he wrote this letter.

Look up and let’s read this one right here and make sure you pause the video and get your pen out. In fact, I have a fine point pen that I write really small. I don’t know if you can see it right there, but I wrote with a fine point, number 4, freedom from fear chapter 5 verse 13.

This is what it says, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know.” That’s assurance, not being constantly afraid. I meet Christians who say, I’m not sure I’m saved, or I’m not sure I’m going to Heaven, or I’m not sure the Lord’s going to forgive me for that sin. I’m not sure. I’m anxious about the end of the world. We should be the most peaceful, confident, joyful, bold people in the world. Why? Verse 13. “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, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.” Wow. Boy, the promises that follow that in verses 14 and 15. Great.

Back down to the slides. There are four reasons John wrote this book. God wants us to have freedom from emptiness and this is the gateway to freedom from emptiness. Freedom from guilt, freedom from deceptions, and freedom from fear. Okay.

Next slide. Look where we are. Right here is where this epistle is being written. Right here is where the Gospel is written. See this is AD 90. This is where Revelation is being written. All of the Gospels are finished and spread widely by the time of Revelation. We’re looking at this time between all the apostles going off the scene and only John is left. What’s the message of God for every believer? 1 John is how to live for God in an ever-darkening world. That’s what we live in today.

Remember the context is right here. We’re in Asia minor. Come over here to my map and I’ll show you. This is the Roman province of Asia, and you can see it right here. These are the time periods down here on this map. I love this map. I’ve used it both for our study tour through the Gospels, which is the video study tour, and coming up soon it’s going to be the map that we use for our Life and Letters of Paul.

Right here is the area where these letters were written by Jesus through John in Revelation. This is where 1 John was written, 2 John, 3 John, and the Gospel by John, right here in the Roman province of Asia. You can see it again on the slide right there. Patmos is right off the coast of Asia Minor. This again is Patmos right there. Do you see it? Right here, this star is Ephesus. Right here is where John, in Roman Asia, pastored the church in Ephesus, wrote the Gospel, then he wrote the epistles, then he’s captured by Domitian and put out here where he wrote the book of the Revelation. Then Church History tells us he came back to Ephesus and the Lord called him home.

The dark days of deception are coming and as the end of the world approaches, so does Earth’s darkest hour. Revelation tells us Hell will open and the pit will vomit out its demon hoards. Next week we’re going to start Revelation so make sure you stick with us to the end. Other beasts from the abyss will wreak death and destruction globally. We spend three weeks on that book.

Look at this. Satan himself invades the Earth and conquers it at last. At the helm, the visible leader of the world, this is Revelation 13, will be the long promised man of sin. The lawless one, the beast, the coming world leader, commonly known as the Anti-Christ.

Look up for a second and get your Bible. I want you to see how important it is to tie together this epistle with the next three weeks in Revelation. Look at 1 John 2:18. It says, “Little children it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Anti-Christ is coming.” Notice the and a capital a, that’s a person. A person who wants to take Christ’s place. He is an anti, which means in place of, Christ. He is one that says I’m the Christ you should be following. I’m the one that you’ve always waited for.

Keep reading. There’s a second kind of Anti-Christ. Look at verse 18. “Even now many anti-christs.” Look at this anti-christ and the Anti-Christ. There are two different groups talked about here. Look here with me at 1 John 2:18 and this differentiates between these two. It says, “Little children, it is the last hour.” The Apostle John believed he was in the last hour. That’s the strength of the Early Church. That’s why it’s so important that we live every day like it could be the day that Christ returns.

Listen to what he says. “You have heard that the Anti-Christ is coming.” Isn’t that interesting? That was the first lesson. Eschatology was the first lesson that Paul taught new believers. He taught them this world is not their home. We’re looking forward to the place prepared for us in Heaven. We’re just passing through. We’re supposed to live every day expecting Christ is going to interrupt the day. Boy, has that fallen on hard times. You don’t hear that taught in churches anymore. Half of all the churches in America don’t think that should be taught, and yet he said, “It is the last hour,” verse 18, “the Anti-Christ is coming, even now many anti-christs” are here already. That’s how we know it’s the last hour.

What are those many anti-christs? Well, remember those are oppositions to the Gospel and Christ. It’s all of those who don’t believe in the deity of Christ. They don’t believe in His virgin birth. They don’t believe in the substitutionary atonement of Christ. They don’t believe that He is the Creator, and they don’t believe in creation. All of those are anti-christs. All of those are opposing the Gospel. Do you remember?

For the next three weeks, we’re studying Revelation. By the time we get to the third of those three weeks, the last week we’re going to be in chapter 14 of Revelation. When God gets to preach the Gospel through the voice of an angel flying around the world at the crescendo of the Tribulation, do you remember what He says? I’ll let you know what is coming.

Look at chapter 14 in your Bible. We’re not in Revelation, but I’m so excited to show this to you. Revelation 14:6 is kind of like John 14:6. This is Revelation 14:6. “I saw another angel flying in the midst of Heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach,” this is very important, “to those who dwell on the Earth – to every nation, tribe, tongue and people.” What is the everlasting Gospel? This is straight from God, sent through an angel with no human error possible. “Saying with a loud voice, ‘Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made Heaven and Earth, the sea and springs of water.'”

God preaches the Gospel with a global message to everybody that the last hope they have for salvation is to worship the Creator. Beware of those anti-christs who oppose the true Gospel, the everlasting Gospel of the Creator, of the Redeemer, of the substitute, of the divine, 100% human 100% God, Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life.

Back down to the slides. At the helm of the world during these dark days will be the Anti-Christ. There are 33 titles of him in the Old Testament and 13 in the New Testament. Behind him is the real power, it is the god of this world, the dragon, old Lucifer, the lying serpent of Eden.

The Bible clearly teaches, and that’s what I just read to you in 1 John 2:18, that we can expect this invasion from the pit in the last days. During the final days, most people will be led away by evil spirits and cult teachings. That’s what it says in 1 Timothy chapter 4, it says deceiving spirits. The shadows of these times are already darkening our world. Nothing but the restraining presence of God the Holy Spirit holds back the floodgates of this time of evil. Remember way back 49 weeks ago when we studied Genesis that advanced demonism was the mark of Noah’s day and it’s becoming an increasingly evident characteristic of the age in which we live. Remember what Jesus said as it was in the days of Noah.

Look at this slide. We have the writing of the apostolic fathers, the Early Church leaders: Barnabas, Clement of Rome, and Ignatius. Look at this. This is what was happening that John was writing about. The rise of gnostic heresies within the church. Look up for a second. Some of you are saying, wait a minute, where did that slide come from? It came from another resource. I showed you this at the beginning of class. I showed you this resource and I’m going to show you even more, but this is another one of these little beautiful flexible charts that Rose Publications makes. I’m on the very last panel of it right here. This is the very ending of it. That’s what is on the slide that I’m going to show you. It talks about all of the different eras. That’s why it’s called a Bible timeline. For those of you that are teaching classes, those who are teaching Sunday School, and those who are part of small groups, these little flexible guides are so helpful. They’re like a summary of a whole Bible course in seminary on the deity of Christ and cults. Also, on the biblical timeline of creation and the flood and future events.

Let’s go back to the slides. What’s going on that John is writing about is the anti-christs were denying Jesus’ humanity. It’s called Docetism, saying that He merely appeared to have a body. They also claimed this secret knowledge beyond divine revelation and faith, that you didn’t need just the Bible. Just about the time of John’s death this gnostic view was rising. You can read about that in that little pamphlet.

What’s the only defense? That’s why we’re studying 1 John, healthy doctrine. We need to be looking at healthy doctrine. Do you remember the story about the frog that landed in the pan of water and stayed till it got boiled? The longer I live the more alarmed I am at the trend of biblical illiteracy and the lack of discipleship in today’s church. Just as there’s a decline in church attendance, Bible reading, and even Bible carrying in each new generation, there’s a corresponding decline in even knowing the Bible, that’s biblical literacy, and obeying God’s word, that’s biblical discipleship. It’s making woefully powerless lives in so many believers.

Here’s Barna, the pollster, this is what he said from people that call themselves Christian. Less than half of all people in America who say they’re a Christian know Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. A majority of professing Christians struggle to identify more than two or three disciples. They know Peter, James, and John maybe and they don’t know anymore. They can’t name even half the 10 commandments. This is horrible. They think that Jesus was a sinner. He became sin, He never sinned. 40% of people that call themselves Christians aren’t Christians because they don’t believe in the deity of Jesus Christ, that He was sinless. 50% of all people that say they’re Christians think that anyone who’s generally good or does enough good for others will earn a place in Heaven. The Bible says Heaven can’t be earned. Look at this, 40% believe the Bible, the Quran, and the book of Mormon are all different expressions of the same spiritual truth. All of that is dangerous, heresy and wrong.

What’s the solution to spiritual deception coming from every direction because of a lack of doctrine and discipleship? God’s solution is the same. We’re seeing it right here in 1 John. In this final epistle to the church, God leads John to show us that every believer in Christ’s Church needs to be nurtured in God’s word. That’s why we’re in this course. That’s why you study your Bibles. That’s why we go to church. That’s why we’re in small groups. We’re supposed to be nurtured until we’re mature enough to discern the truth. In other words, we get a framework. We understand it from the scriptures. We embrace it in our minds.

We then become defenders against deception. We become like Acts 17:11, we examine the scriptures no matter whose book we’re reading, no matter who is preaching. They examined Paul. We examine the scriptures against everybody, every message we get, every church service, small group, and everybody who shares. Then all of us are responsible to disciple someone else to do the same.

Look up for just a second. I’ve said this 49 times, see, we’re on week 49. I said you should be taking the time to study the scriptures, write down your findings and find someone to share it with. We need to learn to get face to face and interact with people and I always show you my Gospel tract here. We need to be seeking to lead them to Christ.

This morning I was up at 4:30, went to the coffee shop early, and I was busily doing my study that I’m sharing with you. All of a sudden, this retired veteran saw my Bible, and boy, did he start talking to me. He says, tell me, what do you think about it? He started naming all these different books and things on television and everything. I had in my wallet; look I’ll just get my wallet out. Here’s my wallet that I had with me. Look, what’s right here, my tract. Every week I pray over one of these tracts and say, Lord, who do you want me to share this with? This morning, Ted was the man that the Lord gave me the burden to pray the Lord would open his heart to the Gospel. Back down here, we should be discipling people to do the same. That’s why I encourage you to go through the study and share it with someone.

Here’s my Bible. I would strongly encourage you to get a Bible. Look down in the description of this video, it has our recommendations on Amazon. You can go to your local bookstore, but they always say what are you looking for? You can read about it, take a picture, a screenshot, or something. What you’re looking for, this is just a normal Bible, of course, I’ve duct taped mine. Look, I write in it. This is one of many I have. Here’s another one over here. I have many of these Bibles. Look at this one, this one’s falling apart. I shouldn’t pick it up, I’ll use it with both hands. See, I use highlighters in many of these and I highlight keywords that are being repeated. I look for what I wrote in this one. I counted repeated words. I said that earlier in the class. Love 45 times in 1 John. Sin 28 times, world 22 times, command 14 times, life 12 times, light six times, fellowship four times.

I’m looking for what God is emphasizing. Then I even daisy chain, I draw circles and lines. You say, what are you doing all that stuff for? I want with all my heart to know and understand and obey the truth of the word of God. I want to spend enough time mastering everything possible to know from this book. All of you are mastering something. Some of you are mastering sports. You’re mastering cars, you’re mastering music. Some of you are mastering gaming. You’re mastering business. You’re mastering, whatever. It’s good to have a profession and to have a skill, but the reason we’re here on Earth, once we get saved, is to be living like we’re waiting every day for Jesus to return. I hope that this course will stir your heart to get into this book and mark it and earnestly ask the Lord to conform you more to Christ. That’s what I want for my life.

Back to the slides. That’s my Bible all marked up and I hope yours is. Here’s my journal. I typed it out for you. Remember the week we’re on, I put that at the top of the page. Then the chapter we’re studying. Look at this. I told you I change my title all the time. Look at this. This morning’s: the only gateway to freedom from emptiness, guilt, deceptions, and fear. How do we get away from emptiness, guilt and deceptions, and fear? Because the ultimate security against Satan’s Anti-Christ is confessing the true Christ.

Let’s start through 1 John. Look at verse 1 and I’ll read it to you, 1 John 1:1. “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.” Look down at the slides. Jesus is God’s Word. John says this in the Gospel of John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.” Right here in his epistle, he says the same thing. Jesus is the Word of life. He is the Word that brings life. He is the one that quickens the Word of God in our hearts.

Look at verse 2. Jesus is the only way to an endless life. Jesus is eternal life. Let me read to you verse 2. “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.” Do you remember what John said in the Gospel by John? He says in John 17:3, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”

Back to the slides. Jesus is the Word of God. He’s the only way to an endless life. That’s why I’m showing you, especially this resource, Christianity, Cults, and Religion. Here’s the index. I hold it up, but this is what I’m looking at. First, a definition of what biblical Christianity is, then every cult. It goes through Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormon, Seventh-day Adventist, Unification Church, Christian Science, Unity, New Age, Wicca, Scientology, Islam, Nation of Islam, Bahai, Judaism, Kabbalah, Hinduism, Hare Krishna, TM, Transcendental Meditation, Sikhism, Buddhism, Soka Gakkai, and what the Bible teaches.

Look up. Everything I just read to you is in one little, tiny pamphlet. If you are at all out in the marketplace of the world, you’re going to run into people that are Jehovah’s Witnesses. You’ll run into Mormons, or they’ll run into you. They’ll come to your door. What this guide does is it has the key person, founder, date, and location. The key writings; who is God, who is Jesus, who is the Holy Spirit, how to be saved, what happens at death, and other facets starting with biblical Christianity. This is a summary of everything we believe.

Then it’s contrasted with what the Jehovah’s Witnesses believe. Who do they believe Jesus is? Jehovah’s witnesses believe that Jesus is not God. He was Michael the archangel before He came to Earth. Can you believe that? How about Mormons? Jesus is a separate God from the Father Elohim. He was created as a spirit child by the father and mother in Heaven and is the elder brother of all beings, including Lucifer. He’s the elder brother of Lucifer? Jesus and Satan are brothers?

That’s just the first page. It shows where in their writings or sacred writings all this comes from. It does the same thing for Seventh-day Adventism, Unification, and Christian Science, all the way through. Amazing. Look, it fits right inside your Bible, right inside the cover. I strongly recommend these resources.

Back to the slides. In verse 3, John says, knowing God is salvation. It says in 1 John 1:3, remember these are the lessons I find. “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 the Son Jesus Christ.” Wow. What he’s saying is the only basis for fellowship is Orthodox doctrine, Orthodox belief about Christ. That’s why you need a resource like this.

Not all these people that are friendly and nice are going to Heaven. They don’t confess the truth the Bible says about Jesus Christ. That’s what we need to be able to discern; truth from error, and deception. Remember Jesus warns us the most about deceivers. Today many people are opposed to the true Gospel of Christ, and we need to study our Bible, mark it, and find these resources to identify the cults and the anti-christs of our day.

Back down to the slide, John 17:3. Of course it says, “This is eternal life, that they may know You.” It says in John 14:21, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me… I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” That’s the fellowship we can have with God the Father.

Then in verse 4, true believers know Jesus rose from the dead bodily. That’s the purpose of 1 John, that we live in the fullness of joy. Let me read to you verse 4. “These things we write to you that your joy may be full.” What is he talking about? What he just said. What “we have seen and heard” in verse 3, “we declare to you that,” verse 2, Jesus was manifest. We’ve seen Him, we bear witness. Verse 1, we heard Him, we saw with our eyes, our hands have handled. He said, Jesus really rose from the dead. I saw Him. I felt Him. I talked to Him. He says I made sure He had a real body. That’s the only way, verse 4, to have the fullness of joy. It’s the gateway.

Look at this. The gateway to freedom from emptiness is salvation. The gateway to freedom from guilt is salvation. The gateway to freedom from deception is salvation. When the Holy Spirit anoints us and indwells us, the gateway to freedom from fear is salvation. See the whole book of 1 John says that the gateway to God is through Jesus Christ, but you have to believe in the real Jesus Christ. Not the Anti-Christ that replaces Him or all the Anti-Christ’s philosophies that try to oppose what the word of God says.

Back down to our slides. It says in verses 5 to 7 that true believers walk in the light. We’re called to walk in the light. True believers in verses 8 to 10 are once forgiven and constantly cleansed. I’m going to read this slide and then I’m going to emphasize it. Okay. We’re to be confessing and being cleansed. Only when we agree with God about our sins can we be forgiven. By the way, the word confess right here is the Greek word homologeō. That’s a Greek word, homologeō. Homo means the same, and logeō means the words about the same. We say the same words.

This is how I wrote it. We agree with God about our sins. There’s a difference between admitting sin and agreeing with God. Look what it says in verse 9, that we’re supposed to study confession and forgiveness and not let our pride make us think that I’m not as bad as others. This is what we need to focus on.

Let me do that with you. Grab your Bible again and follow along. I’m going to start in verse 9. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” That’s the benefit of having a study Bible because, in Greek, there’s a great difference between those two parts of verse 9. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us.” It sounds like confess, forgive, confess, forgive. If you forget to confess, He’ll forget to forgive. Doesn’t it sound like that? That’s not what it says.

In your study Bible you’ll find that confess, the first Greek verb, is a constant ongoing present, active indicative. I am characterized by agreeing with God. Listen to what it says in verse 8. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” If we’re confessing our sins, that means I’m constantly saying, oh Lord, I didn’t have a Christ like attitude there. Oh Lord, that thought, I want to abstain from any fleshly thought. Oh Lord, I was impatient. If we’re confessing, we’re agreeing with what God says about our behavior. He is faithful and just, now this is the good part, to once and for all, forever He has already forgiven us of our sins.

Look at this. When Jesus died on the cross, here’s the cross, it was in about 30 AD. I came to Christ in 1962. Today is 2022. In 1962 I was six years old. In 1956, right there, I was born a sinner and sinned for six years until my mother shared the Gospel with me in 1962. In 1962, I called on the name of the Lord and Jesus who died on the cross 2000 years ago and said I forgive you for all of your sins from when you were born through today in 2022 and until the last day that you live on Earth before I take you home for your lifetime. See, a lifetime is from birth to death. Jesus once and for all, by one sacrifice forgave us of our sins. Remember our lesson on the book of Hebrews; by one sacrifice, not constant sacrifices. That’s one of those errors of religion. One sacrifice, He’s already forgiven us.

That’s well written out in those study notes. If you get a hold of that it’s life transforming. It makes me want to have a decreasing frequency of sinning against the Lord and an increasing frequency of responding to Him. I live in holy confidence in 1 John 5:13, look at this. “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.” That your sins are forgiven, that you and I are supposed to be constantly agreeing with God every time we sin and we still sin. 1 John 1:8 says don’t deceive yourself, we’re still sinners by nature and by choice by divine decree, but we have been forgiven once and for all. Every sin Jesus paid for on the cross from the day of my first breath on Earth through the day I called on the name of the Lord and was saved through today into my last day. I know I’m forgiven.

Back to the slides. Number seven. Remember, these are my observations. 1 John 2:3-6, true believers obey Christ’s commands. We’ve already covered that, John 14:21. Then my eighth observation is true believers resist the deceptions of the Anti-Christ and that takes us to this concluding thought. The only safe place is to have the security the real Christ gives. The only protection from the ultimate angel of deception named Satan is the signature of God. When you call upon Christ in repentant faith, God saves you. Salvation is the greatest work of God in the universe.

What is salvation? More than 50 years ago, a man in a penitentiary, he was in prison, signed up for a Moody correspondence course, that great Bible teaching institution in Chicago. He got saved and then answered a question. He would write and mail back and forth, his lessons. He wrote on his little study guide, and this is in a Moody publication. I read this, it’s just a beautiful story. He said, here I am in prison, but I am a new man in an old body. It was a most perceptive remark. That’s what salvation is, but it will go even further than that saved prisoner realized. One day each of us will be a new person in a new body. I like to call the work of salvation the signature of God. God writes Himself across our lives.

Here’s a summary of what happened to every one of us who comes to faith in God through Christ. What I’m going to list off for you right now I would encourage you to write them in your Bible, believe them, live them, and share them with people. I was sharing these thoughts this morning with Ted. Number one, regeneration. That’s when God changes my heart. Here’s the verse, “a new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes.” That’s regeneration.

In 1962 when I called on the name of the Lord that’s what happened to me. I was converted. That’s when God changed my life. Matthew 18:3, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of Heaven.” Conversion means we’re born again. We have a new heart and a brand new life. We start from the beginning like a baby.

What does the Lord say? Repentance is when God changes my mind. Matthew 3:8, “Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance.” Look up. Repentance is a change of mind that leads me to a change of behavior. I’m going this way toward destruction. I’m convicted. I repent, which means I say, Lord, I agree with You about my sin and that leads me to say no to sin and yes to Christ. A change in behavior is what repentance is all about.

Back to the slides. What does God do when I repent and believe and am regenerated and converted? God changes my family. I get into His family. Look at this. “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God” and the Spirit lives within us. “We cry out, ‘Abba, Father.'”  We’re “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.” Wow.

The next lesson is sanctification. This is my usefulness to God. God changes my behavior. Hebrews 10 says, “for by one offering He has perfected.” See God is committed to maturing us, growing us. We are being sanctified. That’s useful to God. The Holy Spirit witnesses to us. “This is the covenant that I will make with them…I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them.” That’s why every time we read the word of God the anointing of the Spirit teaches us. We are justified.

By the way, these are not in order. This is just a listing. God changes my state. I moved from one state to another. I moved from lostness to becoming a saint; to being saved, to becoming God’s child. “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Totally by faith.

What is justification? I’ve told you this many times. I’ll use the illustration of my little Bible here. Justification is that I was dead in my trespasses and sin. Jesus came and bought me, that’s redemption, and justified me. How did He justify me? He raised me up to be holy in God’s sight. This is how He did it. On the cross God treats Jesus like He committed every sin I’ll ever commit, and He punished Jesus like He committed them. Then listen, at the moment of salvation, I’m justified when Jesus places on me His righteousness. Here is me, here are all my sins on the cross. All my sins went on Jesus when I called on the name of the Lord and He saved me, He put all of His righteousness on me.

Do you know what God calls me? Saint John. Do I feel like a Saint? Not very often. Do I act like a Saint? More and more with less and less sin, more and more response. God says I see you already as you will be in Heaven, seated with Me around the table. That’s the wonder of justification.

Back to the slides. Justification, God changed my state. Whoop, I’m going in the wrong direction. Here we go. Glorification is the last one. It’s when God changes my location. “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with me where I am.” That’s why He is preparing a place for me in Heaven John 14 tells us. 1 Thessalonians 4 says He’s coming back to get me.

Well, really quickly, every lesson we end with this: I’ve found all my lessons, and now I want to apply them. I’m just going to pray this before we go. This is what I wrote this morning. Lord, I want to walk in the light, confessing my sins, full of joy, cleansed each day, and fellowshipping with You. For Jesus’s sake. Amen.

Next slide. Just three applications that I would encourage you today while you’re watching this movie to start in this direction. What are you doing to learn, to cling to healthy doctrines? Some responses to the truth God desires are number one, learn some healthy verses. Start learning verses that support key doctrines. We have a list on our website of 108 verses every believer ought to know. If you want to be protected from deception, get that list, and try to learn one verse every week for the next two years.

Here’s a picture of our website. It’s discoverthebook.org. There’s a tab. Across the top, it has these tabs and one of them says free downloadable resources, or it just says resources. Look at what the very first resource is 108 verses, New American, New King James, New International, King James Version. All kinds of other free resources. That’s the card I carry in my wallet and read to Bonnie. This is also what I have stuck in my Bible; God’s plan for me as an older man. If you’re a younger woman or an older woman there’s the same card for you. There are even all the resources I’ve shown about Roman Catholicism. There are pages of this stuff. Go to that website.

Number one, get some healthy verses. Number two, get a healthy study Bible. Look up. Here’s my MacArthur Study Bible. This is the 49th week. I’m telling you; you need one of these. What happens if the whole internet goes down? You have a paper Bible. What happens if they someday close off Orthodox doctrine, evangelical doctrine on the internet? You have your own copy. See, you need this to be studying. The great retreat is to take the Bible and read the study notes. That’s what I encourage you to do every week we’re doing our 52-chapter studies. Get a healthy Study Bible and healthy doctrine.

This is Wayne Grudem and I’ll tell you again for the 49th time why I like this. It’s not because I completely agree with Wayne Grudem, that’s not why. It’s because Wayne Grudem is one of the greatest living theologians I’ve ever met. Bonnie and I had lunch with him in Scottsdale, Arizona at the Phoenix Seminary. He is a brilliant man who loves God’s word and who has taken the time to study every one of systematic theology’s main doctrines.

This book has 1700 pages. Let me read to you, the doctrine of the Word of God, the doctrine of God, the doctrine of man, of the Holy Spirit, the application of redemption, the doctrine of the Church, the doctrine of the future, and then all the apostolic confessions and listen to what he did. I’ve never seen this before. For every doctrine, here’s a hot one, pneumatology, the Holy Spirit. Number one, he researched everything the Anglicans and Episcopalians said about that doctrine. Then everything the Armenians, which are the Wesleyans and the Methodist, and then everything the Baptist said about it. Then everything the dispensationalist said about it, like Dallas Seminary, everything the Lutherans said about it, like Martin Luther. Then everything that the reformed or Presbyterian, like John Calvin and Jonathan Edwards and all those, and then everything, the Renewal, Charismatic, and Pentecostal said. Then finally everything from Roman Catholicism, traditional and post-Vatican, too. Unbelievable. He does that for every doctrine. He lists them off in this book. That’s why I love it. I can look at what I believe and then I can look at what they believe and understand why what they believe is wrong and why what I believe is right from thousands of scripture references he ties to these doctrines.

Back to the slides. Use a healthy study Bible and reference a healthy theology book. Of course, you’ll see down in the recommendations at the bottom, in the description of this video, links to MacArthur Study Bible and Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology.

Here are my two final challenges. Find someone with whom you can share your findings and application prayer, and pray for us. There’s my wonderful wife, Bonnie. Okay. Look up and we’re about to go. This is week 49. Please take the time to go through and work on these doctrines, work on understanding that Jesus warned about deceivers. What an immense message this is from the last apostle, the last epistle. He had just written the Gospel and the last book of the Bible.

Understand the difference between anti-christ, little a, and the Anti-Christ. Avoid Satan’s most powerful deceptions by the gateway to freedom. What’s that? Salvation. Freedom from emptiness. Jesus wants you full and overflowing. Freedom from guilt. Jesus wants you to know that the stain of sin is gone forever. That’s why I love to lead people to the Lord, and the joy they have.

I just watched the video of a young lady who came to Christ. I’ve told you about her watching the John 10 video. Her joy in the waters of baptism as she gave her testimony and then as she was put beneath the water, buried under the water, and then raised up; just the smile on her face. Freedom from guilt, freedom from deception, being sealed by the Holy Spirit, freedom from fear. How do you promote that? Once you’re saved, fill your mind with healthy verses. Start studying the Bible, not just reading it, studying the details in a healthy study Bible. Then look up some of these key doctrines and understand healthy doctrines.

That’s the end of this week’s lesson launching you into a wonderful week in 1 John. When we come back next week, we’re going to be on week 50, which is introducing Revelation. I can’t tell you how important it is that you finish. For some of you who’ve jumped in today, keep going this way and then go back to Genesis and go through the lessons. By the way, if you haven’t done lessons 1 to 48, they’re building. For some of you, I’d encourage you to start today and get in the habit, because next week’s really exciting with Revelation.

By the way, next week’s going to be more exciting and then the finale is unbelievable. I want you to get in the word, find new truths, and then pray for God’s transformation. Then along the way get these resources and become men and women who know the truth, who defend the truth, and who disciple others. God bless you. John Barnett, my wonderful wife Bonnie, saying I hope this is a transformational week for you. See you next week.