1-3 John - 1st John 5 Review/Questions of Chp 5

Today, we're going to review Chapter 5. And what I've done, basically, is to take the sections of scripture that we covered in the last, let's see, seven weeks or so. And I basically formulated some questions. And the questions, for the most case, are not either one of two ways I did it. Either I looked at the verse and said, well, what's the question that maybe we talked about in the class before when we covered it? Or maybe we didn't. And I tried to make it so that you could look at the verses and answer the question. But sometimes there's something we learned or something we came across that I wanted you to remember.

So I included those kind of questions, too. So none of the questions should be real hard. So actually, nice if I turn it on. There we go. OK. So who'd like to read the first three verses here? Great. So the titles that are for each of these sections, they're my titles, or I looked at somebody else's, and so they're not inspired. So anyway, but the scripture is. OK, so the first question.

How do we know we are born of God? Are there things in that verse, particularly verse 1, that would give us indicators? How would a person, based on verse 1, what would you say a born again child of God is? Okay, well, I'm looking just you know, I'm trying to you know when we do a Bible study, you know There's like observe and the four or five different.

This is kind of the observe phase here So what I did here, I think the answer based upon verse one would be one of the things is he whoever loves the father and That's one characteristic of a child born of God. And then he loves the child born of God. So we see that from verse 1 that a person who is born of God or a born-again believer, he loves the Father. And actually that's not really his love, that's Christ's love, if you think about it. And in the same way he loves the child or fellow believers born of him.

So there are two characteristics of the, so that's kind of the tenor I'm trying to do here. You know, observe the verse and see if you can, and hopefully this kind of reminds you of what we covered. In some cases I wasn't here for some of these classes and so I didn't go back and listen to all those. That would take, that would have been quite a challenging thing, but anyway. So that's kind of any other thoughts on and you're right both both the answers are just fine I'm just kind of trying to focus on these verses here.

That's my Right exactly and we're going to see that's very key loving God and loving the brethren are just our key what John's all about Okay, next question. What does loving the child of God show and this is basically from verse 2 I Right, that's all I'm looking for just what it says right and you're right again Jack I'm not but from verse 2 it says by this we know that we love the children of God So that's the first part of the verse is kind of We love the children of God when we love God and observe his commandments so we're going to see this love God and observe his commandments are intertwined and In the born-again believer, you really cannot separate that connection. Under the Mosaic Law, which Vern's been covering, we've been doing that for a lot, all the laws, everything was measured by how you performed against that set of metrics. In the Christian life, it's a relationship.

And you're going to see, even though they're His commandments, and that's actually my next question, because we tried to I know earlier in the chapter, back in chapter 3, we could look at that, we talked about His commandments. But before we do that, what are His commandments about?

Are they the Mosaic commandments? Well, that's one thing you want to absolutely keep in your head. Don't ever. That's one thing, hopefully, you come away from this class. His commandments, or He calls them My commandments in the Gospel, are not the Mosaic law.

They actually describe this wonderful relationship we have with our Savior. And you think, boy, it seems hard to kind of grasp that. But there are several verses, I think, that really help us with that. And actually, some of the ones are... So let's go back and look at 1 John 3. 1 John 3. and verses 22 to 24. Can I get someone to read that? Chapter 3, 22 to 24. Okay, good. Thanks Tom.

So we see in these verses here, this talks about this abiding relationship that exists as we obey his commandments. And we obey his commandments not as a checklist, but out of a life, out of the life that he's given us. And out of a realization that This is the life that He's given us, and this is pleasing to Him. Why wouldn't we want to please Him for all that He's done for us? Why wouldn't we want to be in harmony? It's out of grace. It's not out of, well, you must do this. It's out of, well, why wouldn't I want to do this?

Why wouldn't I want to please Him after I realize who I am and what He's done for me? Okay, and the next question is, it says at the end of the verse, in verse 3, it says, For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome. So what do you think about that? So the question is, why are his commandments not burdensome?

Well, that's good, Jack. A kid and an ice cream. Okay, I hadn't thought about that. Right, exactly, and that's a really good point. If you realize that his commandments are not a set of metrics that are going to catch you, oh, he's going to catch me, I know he's going to catch me. The next step I make, he's going to whack me over the head and say, you did it, you blew it again. But that's not his commandments, it's a relationship. Correct?

There's the element of fellowship with the Lord. Exactly. good I guess I flip it around and say, out of that fellowship flows doing his commandments. And his commandments, he talks about them there. Basically there are two aspects of that. One, a relationship to him and a relationship to our brother. So the two aspects of his commandment, and we actually talked about earlier on, loving God and loving your brother. That's the summary of his commandments, which is kind of cool. That's who we are too. Right.

As we abide in Him, as we read in the earlier part of 1 John, as we abide in Him and He abides in us in this mutual relationship, we're going to have this fellowship and out of that relationship, His life is going to be produced in loving Him and in loving the brethren. That's His commandments, or my commandments. And if you remember, that came actually in the Gospels, remember? Back in the upper room. in John 14 and 15. That's when Christ presented that for the first time.

Alright, so that's that section. In an attempt to keep rolling here, our thoughts will move on. Could someone read these two verses, 4 and 5? Okay. And some of these questions are, you know, just to kind of make sure we kind of, um, so in this verse, what, um, what is whatever referring to in verse four? And I, I'm sure, I believe we talked about this when we did the class, but I forgot who taught that. I don't know. Did you take this apart, Jim? I actually, I don't know.

After a while, it kind of, maybe you did. Well, you know, actually, okay, okay. I think, I believe it's the believer. Yeah, and whatever. And actually it's, right. Actually, the literal translation in the Greek is, all that. Well, it seems kind of strange. All that has been born of God. All that has been born of God overcomes the world.

So, Well, actually, thinking about this a little longer, couldn't we expand this beyond the believer? Couldn't we say our Savior? So actually, I begin to think that maybe it goes beyond just the believer. I was going to say, in Zodiacs, in fact, I was thinking of being the individual within the totality and the totality of the individual. Okay, I see what you're saying. The collective body. Okay, that's good. That's good.

And I even thought, well, why couldn't this refer to the Savior too? Because in a sense he's begotten of God, the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. He's called the begotten one. We're going to see that a little bit later on. John's going to use that phraseology about the Savior, the only begotten in a sense. Our overcoming only is because of His overcoming.

So it's all kind of intertwined. So when I thought about this second time around, I thought, well, maybe I could be the Savior as well. So I don't know. It's actually kind of neat to go back and look at this again after. I feel there's not as much pressure this time through, because I've already gone through all the... So I just kind of look at it and say, well, what's the question that hopefully I can answer? Or maybe not answer.

OK. All right. Now the question, what does it mean to overcome the world? Okay, that's good. I like that. I like that. Okay. Other thoughts? Okay, good. Excellent. Excellent. Well, I kind of went back and thinking about what – in some cases, I'm not sure I had a tight-knit answer, but our overcoming, and I kind of alluded to this, depends upon his overcoming.

If we look in John 16 – oh, and actually, just one observation before we – turn to John 16, and I want to show you something. You probably guys know this already. They're pretty sharp here. John 16. OK, before we go to the verse here, we have the word overcome right there. Let's see. For whatever is born of God.

Overcomes. Overcomes is the verb form and the noun form. Actually, am I getting kind of confused? OK, yeah. The noun form is victory. Right. There's a word that's pretty familiar in the Greek. There's a shoe that is picked up on this. Nikeo is a verb form. And I had to listen to it. Actually, if you have on your computer, if you have the thing that pronounces the verbs for you or pronounces the words for you in Greek. Nicaeo and Nicaea, which is we would say Nike So so both overcome and victory one's a verb form overcome is a verb form and victory is the noun form I don't know.

It's just a little interesting thing. So let's look at what the Savior says about John 16 verse 33 It says, these things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but take courage. I have overcome the world. So that's why I was kind of referring to the fact that our overcoming is based on his overcoming. We're standing in who he is. So the fact that he's overcome, we're overcomers because he's an overcomer. He has overcome. Sure.

You could expand this a lot. I went through all the, there's a list, maybe there's about 20 or 30 places where overcoming occurs. And a lot are in Revelation that talk about being overcomers. There's a positional aspect, and there's a conditional aspect, too, I think, about that. So there's a lot you could expand on.

So what is a victory? Just focus on this first. This is easy. Faith. Isn't that kind of neat? Our victory is our faith. If you think about it, the verse says, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him. I forgot what that is exactly. But anyway, how did you receive Him? You received Him by faith, right? How do you walk? You walk by faith. So wouldn't it make sense that as you're walking, your victory is by faith? And so hence, the victory is faith.

That's interesting. It sounds different than what you might think. Okay. You want to answer that? Okay. Okay. Well, belief in the work, you know, the person in the work, typically you would say the person in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, I mean, you need to even go, I mean, that's what saves you. That's the gospel. But faith is, you know, and it talks about in Hebrews there, faith is a substance of things not seen. Go ahead, Tom. Okay. Uh huh. Okay, okay.

Well, we typically define faith based upon our Savior, which we should, but Scripture talks about faith, and Hal did a great study on that, on that whole verse. Faith is a substance of things not seen. But basically, in terms of the Christian life, it's faith in what Christ has done, basically. The revealed Word of God, which is good. Somebody have a question over here? Okay. Right. Good. That's good. Okay. Okay.

So this may be a little bit hard to see, but I found three things that you could say just from those two verses. Three things that can be said of those who overcome the world. So start at the bottom first. It's easy, right? And this is all in those verses. And maybe this is not, you know, yeah. Anyway. Right. OK. Check. OK. What else? Right. OK. Basically, you have faith. Our faith is a victory. And what's the last one? Okay. Well, right. Exactly. Okay. All right. So I'm sure we could do a lot more. I forgotten. I'm sure a lot more was done with these verses, but other thoughts or yeah. Right. Yep, that's true. And basically, our job in this equation is faith. And faith is not a meritorious work. Faith is a response to what Christ has done for us. All right.

Testimony of the Spirit. Someone can read these two, three? This is the one who came by water and by Jesus Christ, not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood. It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three who testify, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood, and the three are one.

If you notice, this is the amended version. If you have a King James, it reads differently than this, as we pointed out. I believe this is the inspired part of scripture here. So anyway, when we talked about this, I had the privilege of teaching this part, and I thought it was really cool.

So first question, hopefully you remember this. What does it mean to say that Christ came by water? And I'm not going to, I wouldn't, I say, well, I mean, I'll be quiet. I say I'm not going to stake my there are just there are some people who have different opinion about what the water is.

But I think what we present in the class, certainly it hung together and made a lot sense. Do you remember what we thought we said it was what water was referring to here? Correct. Excellent. And what actually I begin to think about is that, well let's just ask question two. Why is it important that Christ came by water and blood? Why do we need both of those? Okay, I love it.

That's great. I was thinking, wow, this is back to believing in his person and his work. His person was revealed in the water. This is my beloved son. Listen to him. And on his death on the cross, his blood, that's his work. So I said, wow, the person and the work are in view here, the water and the blood. And that even got me more excited about that they hung together better. So I thought that was cool.

What is being testified about in these verses? And this is easy, too. I mean, this is nothing. Calm. Right. Right. Good. Okay. Well, it is testifying about the person and the work of Christ, basically. He accomplished, He came, His birth, His baptism, identifying who He was, His death on the cross on our behalf. And it says that the water and the blood and the Spirit, the Spirit of God, all testify about the same thing. And they all agree. Let's see. Okay. All right. Okay. Someone read... Actually, after Jeremy did his thing, I really liked what he... I think this is better titled, The Testimony of the Father. So I retitled this one. Could someone read this one?

If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is three. For the testimony of God is this, that he has testified concerning his Son. The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony of himself. The one who does not believe God has remained alive, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning his Son. And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has the life.

He who does not have the Son All these verses are just incredible. Why is the testimony of God greater? Look at verse 1. I think actually Jim pointed something out that was really helpful. So why in this context does it say that the testimony of God is greater?

Ok. Ok. Ok. Alright, well, that's ok. Notice here there's a contrast or a tension here because he's saying if we receive the testimony of men, and if you think about the climate where John wrote this, people were saying... All kinds of things. They were denying who He is. So, I think John is pointing out, if you see the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater. There's really no comparison. You have man's testimony about who Christ is, and you have God's testimony. Which one are you going to choose? Well, this is like a no-brainer, right? I'm going to choose what men say about that. I'm going to choose what God says about it. So I think that's what's kind of in focus. The testimony of God is greater.

It's true. Right. Okay. Right. Exactly. Right. Okay. Okay. Exactly. Good. No, absolutely right. Absolutely right. No, it is. In fact, actually, that's why I noticed as I started going through here. I found more of the – looking at it again, the more of the connectivity between – you chop it up, and then you tend to study it that way. But then you look at it, and you say, well, hey, it actually – there's actually – it flows. Wonderful. That's great. Okay, this is an easy one.

Verse 10. I'll be fine. Verse 10. How can we have the testimony of God in ourselves? As I looked at that, I thought about there's a parallel concept to this. If you look in Romans 8, let's look at 8.16. This is very familiar. 8.16 talks about the spirit and the believer.

Romans 8.16 says, The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. So the believer, his very life in Christ is bearing witness to who he is. And basically here it says that we have God's testimony is bearing witness in our lives. I mean, it's really kind of cool. OK. OK. All right. OK. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. That's good. OK. Good. Good.

From verse 11, what is the testimony from God? Eternal life, right. Isn't it interesting that we have that We're walking around and we're witnessing. Believers are witnessing to God's eternal life. I mean, that's kind of an incredible thing. I mean, I don't really think about that, but that's the truth. And the way we, you know, we have a sin nature and we, you know, we may not, but that testimony is of the way we conduct our lives. We conduct our lives as that we have eternal life. So death may come, but that's not the end of it. We have a hope, right? I mean, so it's wonderful that the testimony of eternal life in the believer is, you know, it's really incredible. I know. If you look at John's gospel, he tells us that we have the Trinity. Isn't it great to go through the list of all the who we are in Christ declarations, and you just say, I mean, it's just overwhelming. I have all these wonderful blessings. And that's why you say, I can't wait to obey. Like ice cream, you have to say, wow, is there anything better than this?

Okay. And then lastly, I was thinking about the thing that got milk. What were all the things that got this and got life? Somebody probably has done that, I'm sure. How do we get to life? Verse 12. That probably has been done. I'm sure that's been done. Anyway. Okay. Alright. Let's see. Anything else I wanted to – okay. Okay, let's go on then. Okay. Confidence and Certainty of the Believer. So I'm going to read this. So incredible verses and just incredible I Okay, so the first question, how do we know that we have eternal life? From verse 13.

OK. All right. That's good. Also, it's what he's written, right? Yeah. He's actually saying, I wrote these things. And actually, if you look back up, once again, tying it back, look back up in the previous verses, he just got through saying, giving you all these other wonderful things. And he said, kind of look back to that. So focus back to the previous verses. Because we have the life, right? We have the victory, we have the life. So, this is about knowing, right? How do we know? And, you know, John, yeah, John. I was going to say Paul here, but let's see here. What am I doing here? Well, it seemed like that kind of hung together. I thought, wow, that's kind of cool. I wrote these things, and why did I write these things?

So you know that you have eternal life. That was just in the context. These are such one-liners, the heavy hitter punches, that you think, look, I can find this piece of truth over here. I mean, they're all over. the revealed Word of God. There's so much. These are just one-line statements. Wow, look at that. That's true. We have the life. Christ said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

You can go just all over the place. Mostly in the Gospel of John. But I was just trying to stay with the context. It was kind of cool, I thought. So what is our confidence based on verses 14 and 15? Okay. Okay. All right. That's good. What I was looking for, 14 and 15 are going to focus in on prayer, right? They're going to focus in on prayer. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. So I did, I kind of said, well, It's really God's character.

We're going to find out in the next couple of questions. He's going to say, it's according to my will. And if it's according to his will, that seals the deal, just about. There's if statements here, so you may not – I think that's what they call third class. You may be yes, maybe no. You may not ask, but if you ask in accordance with his will, I mean it's incredible what the promises that are here. So our confidence is based on his character, basically, that he will do what he said he will do.

These are the things that God has said, and because of those things, he'll hear what you say. It's incredible. There's an open-minded communication here that he's revealing and testifying to these things, and if you believe those, he hears you. I know. So it's kind of a... So, okay, so I already kind of alluded to this. So what is the condition for God to hear our prayer? What is the condition for God to hear us in prayer?

I'm sorry. Based on the verses we have right here. Right. Okay. So you want to say something? No, I know. You hear the ask anything part, but the little part about according to his will kind of gets left by the roadside, right? I agree with you. And one thing to observe here, well, I'll say it in a second here. So that's the first part. Part two is, this is even the, what do we know if he hears our prayer from this verse versus Keep going the rest of From verse 15 and if he hears us and whatever we ask we know We have a request Okay, so I say hey, this is great man.

I just can't wait all I gotta find something in God's will and I you know The thing I find that it does not what does not say here it does not say that we'll I see the request. And I think about that in Hebrews there, it says, many died in faith, never seeing what they had asked, never seeing the result. So that's what, I said, wait a minute, this is not telling me that I'm going to see this request. He said, I'm going to answer it, but we may not see it.

And that's huge, because if you have loved ones that you pray for a lot, they're unbelievers, you think, Lord, we're not making any progress here. Things aren't rolling along here, Lord. Come on. The clock is ticking. I'm getting older. They're getting older. What's going on here?

Exactly. I know that you've heard this and you've requested this before. There's confidence in that. Exactly. That's what I came away with. I said, I don't want to try to make this into, I can get anything I want. This is my genie thing. This is to give us confidence. About our prayer. And we should be confident. But it doesn't say, we're going to see it. And also it doesn't say, some things we can say are God's will. He's not willing that any should perish and all should come to repentance. Yes, go ahead, honey. Well, I know what you're saying. This is supposed to be confidence. Well, how about this? Here's some encouragement for that. Let's look at Romans. When I got a chance to teach this in Romans, this helps a little bit.

You know, we don't always know how to pray. We really are clueless sometimes. Romans 8, let's look at 26 and 27. Romans 8, 26 and 27. And in the same way, the Spirit also helps our weakness, for we do not know how to pray. And actually, in the Greek, it's literally, we don't know the what. We know how to pray, but we don't know I pray that so and so will happen.

That my son will recover from his illness. But maybe that's not God's will. Maybe he's to be sick for a while and then get well later on. Or maybe he's to have this for the rest of his life. We don't know. So it's more the what. We don't know the what. to pray, as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes with groanings too deep for words. He searches the hearts and knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because he intercedes for the saints to the will of God, according to the will of God. So we have this operating, so the Spirit is is sort of translating but he's he's got he's he's in the mix there so we may not pray exactly the right words and this is so encouraging but it says this the will of God so I mean I actually he's got us covered we may not know exactly how to pray and we don't many times I find out how to pray I mean I pray for certain person not this person to get well or go home to be with the Lord or what do I know I don't know I mean think in scripture where Who was it?

Yeah, Vani, who was it we were talking about last night? Who was the person that asked to live... He asked to live longer, and the 15 years longer, it was just terrible. He had a son, it was awful. He asked, and the Lord granted his prayer. Okay, you want to live longer? No problem, you live longer, and this is what's going to happen. As Vani said, why would you want any prayer to be answered that wasn't in the will of God? But that's a hard thing to say because some of the things that may happen, you think, Lord, this is hard. Why did it have to be that way? I don't know. I can't answer that.

But we're to come away from these verses with this confidence that we have that God's character is such that his will will be accomplished. And if we see the process, then we can relax about it. We pray for it and... Jessica? I'm sorry. Exactly. I know. Exactly. And from our perspective, it seems like it's just like a, oh, this may happen or that may happen. To our mind, boy, that wasn't a very good thing that happened. We judge it. I just love how Malloy's thing about the seeming tragedies of the Christian life. They seem like tragedies. I mean, they, you know. Why did this happen, Lord? Sometimes you say, why did it have to be me? Why was it me, Lord? That's a hard one. Why does it have to be me? It's always easier to see your brother or sister. I hate to say it. I'll comfort them. I'll come alongside of them. But when it's you, that's so much harder.

That's so much harder, but that's not that's why the verses are here that we can have that that confidence that if it's his will then He created us, you know, it's wonderful. Okay, we better better move on here. Okay all right, and These last two I'll be pretty familiar. We just Okay Here's the connection. Okay, see if you see this connection. This is this kind of cool to me. What is what is first? I What is verse 16 an example of? So look back to 14 and 15 and tell me what verse 16... See if you see that's an example of something from verses 14 and 15. Okay, I think. But what... Okay, what do you see? That's what I saw.

If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will for him give life to those who commit a sin not leading to death. I said, wow, that's an example. That's an example we just got through talking about right there. Now, the harder part is you lean to death and not lean to death. There's other parts that are challenging in here. But then, I said, wow, look at that connectivity. I didn't see that before. OK. Somebody's got a trick question. How are we to pray about our brother's sin? How are we to pray about our brother's sin? OK. What are they?

The Holy Spirit. That's good. That's good. I like that. Okay. Well, from this verse it talks about the case we're to pray for is a sin not leading to death, right? So, we're to pray that it gives him life. And this is challenging. You can't have one be, you know, they have to match. I'm going to pray I'm not leading to death, but that's really spiritual life.

Well, no, it's just talking about, some have called it premature death, which I think is kind of a good way to look at it. It's just a Christian dying before his time. And this is saying you're not praying about a sin that causes that. And that's the only one we're to pray about. And then the last one is kind of a trick question in some ways. What sin would qualify as one not leading to death?

Tom? Well, I'll go ahead. Well, something I observed, if you look through here, it says a sin, a sin, it doesn't say the sin. So, where I was kind of coming from here on question three was what sin would qualify basically any sin, any sin, right? That's what I thought. So he wants us to be praying about sins not leading to death. And actually in the context it seems like it's talking about premature death of the believer. And then you say, well how am I ever going to know which ones are that way? And that's what Jim's talking about. I mean it's tough. And some people have kind of given up on these verses, which is amazing.

But I think there's something to be drawn from that. I mean, God wants us to be involved in prayer about our brother and about his sin. That kind of comes through. And God's will will be accomplished. And it seems like we're talking about physical death and physical life.

So, challenging verses. Okay. And then lastly here, we just did these last week. Okay. This is maybe a little geeky thing here, but how would you restate 18a since sins is in the present tense? So it says, we know that no one. OK, good. Excellent. OK. So you could say, we know that no one is born of God We know that no one who is born of God continually sins.

So that helps out because you look at – and Jim went through this. Good job. I mean that helped me. I think actually Weiss kind of picked up on that too. You could say it a little bit differently, but basically this is talking about continually going on.

But he who is born of God keeps him. Who is he who is born of God referring to? This should be easy too. Christ. You have to look at it carefully. But he who is born of God. The key word is keeps, right? Keeps him. And the evil one does not touch him. Once again, just trying to observe what's being said here. Touch is actually to assault, to lay hold of. Remember when Christ was in the garden? And was it Mary? And she realized who it was. And didn't she grab him?

And he said, don't touch me. And it was just this word. So it means, OK, so kind of take it into this context. And we know that, where is it here? An evil one does not touch him, lay hold of him. So we have a whole, there's a whole thing you could go into here. But you know, the, let's see. The one, and we are kept, let's see. Actually, I must have just clicked a couple of times, didn't I?

Okay, how are we kept from the evil one? Okay, and the last one is, what has Christ given us understanding about? Okay, let's just go back for a second. So, being kept from the evil one, the word keep is the idea to to watch over, to preserve. So I kind of thought that if you think about the context of what scripture teaches about our relationship to Satan, Satan is defeated, right? So positionally, we're in Christ. So positionally, he has no say over our lives. He can't call the shots in our lives. You can't do it. We're in Christ.

That's a completed work. But it does say, like in Ephesians there, he's in the world system, he's stirring up things, and it says we're to put on the full armor of God. So it talks about that we're to be aware of his schemes, what's going on. So there is awareness, but there's not a concern because we We are in Christ, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one, but we're in Him. We're sourced out of God.

So we're to look at it totally differently. So we can be at rest about Satan. Some people want to go out and fight Satan and do all kinds of crazy stuff. But scripture says he's defeated. And we're to be aware of his schemes and put on the full armor of God, which is basically a defensive thing. We're to realize, hey, he can't touch me. So to answer the question about touching money, I don't know, lay hold. Your hardest critic is your wife.

Lastly, what has Christ given us understanding from verse 20? 20 says, And we know that the Son of God is come, and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him who is true, That's question number one and we are in him who is true number two And in his son jesus christ. This is a true god in eternal life So no we know that he is true And we are in him is true. Well, that's that's just so so wonderful all these ones about John is just so full of We are in him. We are united with him and just over and over and over again I mean we come back to these things so many times and it's just you know And we're going to see more as we go into, oh yeah, I just forgot about the last one here.

OK, so here's the plan for the rest of the year. There's no class on the 25th, because we're just going to have, on Christmas Day, Vern's just going to have one service, the main service. So this is the plan. I'm going to teach on the sixth here, on the salutation. So we're going to see some of the same ideas come along again in second and third John.

So any last thoughts or comments? Thank you guys for teaching. I appreciate it. It's been fun. I'm looking forward to next year. If you're interested about what's going to happen, we're going to teach Philippians. Philippians will follow first, John. So we're going to do that. Same cast of characters. Okay, all right, well let's close then.

We thank you, Father. We thank you so much, Lord, for this day. We thank you for the blessings we have, Lord. We just pray for your will to be accomplished, Lord. We thank that we can trust your will, that we don't have to question it. We can trust it. Sometimes we don't understand it, but we want to trust what you're doing in our lives. In Christ's name, Amen.