1st John, again, last week, our purpose was to marvel at the fact that we had received a letter from Apostle John, that when he wrote that general letter it continued to be received by God's people for millennia, and that we asked the question, are you as excited as they would have been back then to receive such a letter? You look into the Word of God, understanding or comprehending with some sense of awe at what you're holding there in your hand and what privilege it is to have not just one sliver of the mind of God, but what we what we know to be the full counsel that God desires us to have, the full explanation of his mind, of his history, of prehistory, pre-our history. Do you take up the Word of God? I know that from some of y'all's reaction and some of y'all's feedback to those questions that were posed that there has been some renewed, some refreshment in terms of how we look at the Scriptures that we have there on our stand, next to our bed, or as we walk by, a renewed attraction to picking up the Word and seeing it with that kind of interest that we should have in the Word of God. So praise the Lord for that, I give all all the credit to God and all the praise to God for bringing those thoughts to bear on all of us. Look at the Word of God as if it has been sent to you, because it's been sent to you, as if you've gotten the letter, because you got the letter. And we sit in a very unique position in history in that we received all the letters. They're not being developed anymore. We received all the books and all of the accounts and all the Gospels and all the law. It's there for us to study, it's there for us to learn about God. And so that was essentially catching up last week. We did a little bit of combing through just as an overview. The purpose of John's letter was, he states his multiple purposes, but you could probably sum it all up in the idea that John is intent to present information that would bring about full and complete joy in God's people. And that it would also bring about certain reactions to the truth that's being presented. So we pointed out that John is very stark and very black and white in his presentation of the Word. And that is a comment that is usually made about this particular letter, that John being considered eminently mystical or very loving and tender in his terms, here seems to come forth in a very black and white sort of strict set of repeating imperatives and didactics. There's just not a lot of wiggle room here with John. And I believe that I personally have connected to why that is, and it has to do with what we'll study today, which is found in the very first verse of the first three verses, is kind of where we'll be. It has to do with John's presentation of our eternal union with Christ and his eternal humanity, which is the image that the Godhead put forth, that they would, the Son of God as he exists and coexists, co-equal in the Godhead with all the glory in that essence that makes up the Godhead, there would be the Son of God would take up an image that would express the full spectrum of God's glory that he wished for us to see or that we could even handle. It's far beyond, I believe, what we can perceive, but it has been provided from all eternity. So let's get into it, and I'll kind of give some thoughts that I believe would get us there to a comprehension of why John is so adamant in his imperatives as he presents them. It's not one of those things that you would actually, if the more you ponder it, the less you wonder at how stark the imperatives are and how clearly defined everything is. You actually wonder, as I've been wondering the last few days, why are we not cut down just upon the very first wrong thought or the very first desire to follow the world and lust after the world? Why are we not cut down? We are in an eternal union with God. It actually illustrates very well the long-suffering and patience of God to us. It actually serves to put forth a better understanding of how kind and how loving and how patient he is with us. But the first few verses here, John says, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, and which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the word of life, for the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us. That which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you. And so that, if you really think about it, John, the Apostle John, did craft the perfect way to open the letter. If that doesn't grab your attention, that which was from the beginning. So, when all of this that exists was created, and he uses the term was from the beginning, indicating that he already existed, he didn't begin to exist with the beginning, but he already was. If that doesn't grab your attention to ponder that when all this came to be, and was brought about, there was this man, this figure, this image, and that image was manifested in time, and could be seen, and could be heard, could be handled, could be interacted with. If that doesn't grab your attention, what can be done for you? What more of an introduction could you want than to be told in plain language, there's this being that existed before creation, and we have seen it with our eyes, and we have heard him, and walked with him, and handled him, and interacted with him, and we're going to declare him unto you. It's pretty remarkable, and my hope is that as we marvel that receiving a letter from an eminent Apostle, that we would marvel at this introduction, that we are being called to ponder this being that has been manifested to us by direct witnesses. John was human, and we have to accept the fact that though he was an Apostle, he would still be pulled by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, that he would still be magnetized in his flesh to that. The Apostles don't ever dismiss that condition of being in the flesh, in fact they admit to it frequently. Paul probably makes the greatest admission of them all when he laments that he lives in this body of death, who will free me from it? I thank Christ. So we know that he personally felt the weight of the imperatives that he was about to issue. He himself was under the imperatives that had come from other Apostles' writings as well. John read the letters that circulated from Paul and James and others. By this point we believe, Paul, I believe John is at Ephesus, is how it's understood, where he was actually stationed during this time of his life and writing this letter, and so he would be familiar with and under the imperatives that have been issued. He would have taken the information that was revealed to other Apostles, and he would have reacted to it by obeying the word that had been issued. And so it's not as if he is just in this void issuing commands to the people and saying, you're gonna have to obey these things. He is very much as an elder in a church or a shepherd in a church would be under the same weight of reacting to and obeying the word as it goes forth. Every believer's faith would be tried and purified for the glory of Christ, and the Apostles were no exception. In fact, they were made the greater example for us. They were, many of them, most of them martyred, if not all of them persecuted unto death, so that their faith could play out before Witnesses, and we would know the extremes to which we might be called ourselves to obey. That we have not resisted unto blood. You haven't been killed for your faith, Paul says, but they were, and many have been, called upon to pay the ultimate price in the refinement of their faith. So John knows. He's serious about what he's issuing here. It's not a casual letter that he's sending out, and so he had probably been in strife with others. He had felt the kind of friction that can develop between brothers and sisters in a church. He wasn't oblivious to that, but by this stage in his life, so he's an elderly Apostle at this point, he also understood how to best overcome the evil one. He was already refined and at an advanced stage of the testing of his faith, so John isn't going to put forth dubious information to undergird our reaction and obedience to the truth. He's going to put forth refined information, inspired information, and praise God that it is testable and provable. What did John know to do by experience at this point when he issues the letter? Well, one of the mistakes that many have made through history is to open a book like this and, okay, the Elder John, elect for sake of truth, to all that's in us, from grace be with you, mercy. Oh, here's a directive. Here's an imperative, and say, okay, that's what I'm going to preach. I'm going to preach about what we got to do with this information. We got to go do. Or to open another portion of Scripture and say, oh, Paul, oh, chapter 1, 2, 3, that's a lot of information. Oh, here we go, walk worthy, and to just cut over all that information and all that doctrine and all that face-to-face time with Christ, with God, and all of the links that God makes for us. The temptation is to just kind of skip over all that, and I think you probably understand what I'm talking about, and just start to find, okay, what do I got to do to go serve the Lord? What do I got to do to obey? Okay, these are the things you do, these are the things you don't do, and so on. If you do that, you will not be able to obey. You actually will not have a cause burning in your heart to follow unto blood or unto death, or even unto peace and unity in the body. The idea there is...let me think about something I didn't write down for this, but I had been mulling it over and did write out some statements in it. What I concluded for my own thoughts, and I think they'll be helpful here, is to say just as faith without works is dead, works without understanding are dead. They are worthless, they are no good, and they're not even sustainable. So what I mean by that is to come before the Lord, to present yourself before the Lord, and sing praises unto Him, but have a very little comprehension of how He's presented Himself in His Word or what He claims to be. To just say things that you're unconnected to, that you don't understand, what pleasure do you suppose God would derive from that? I mean, it may do you some good. You may enjoy the singing, you may impress others, there might be some effect in the universe for that kind of activity, but what pleasure would God take in ignorant worship? Actually, He speaks to that many times. He speaks to times where Israel is going through all the motions, but He's finding no pleasure in them, and actually abhors the loud clanging. He finds it annoying that these foul smells are issuing up to Him, which have no real love for Him, or no real joy. It's like a man buys this beautifully arranged, fragrant bouquet of flowers and gives it to a wife that he doesn't care for, that he doesn't really have any affection for, that he doesn't really have any interest in the relationship with her. What's the value of that gesture? If the woman understood the coldness, it would actually not just be neutral, it would offend. And so what we'd want to do here is not run to the imperatives and say, I can do these things, and this is what God's looking for. God is very clear about what He actually desires of us and what He's actually looking for, and it's not sacrifice, or else we would give it. It's not a thousand sacrifices, or else we would give it. He's looking for us to love Him, to honor Him, to respect Him in knowledge. I will sing with intelligence, David, in the Psalms. I will sing with understanding. That is a major point that's labored a time or two in the Psalms, and so what John does is not just open up, laying out imperatives. He opens up with information about our union with God, our eternal union with God, and that begins to underpin, that begins to inflame the heart, that begins to give strength to our step, give strength to our arm as we seek to then look for the imperatives as they will come to us. John's purpose is that we would have full assurance that we may have communion with God, that he has communion with us, and so he lays that out in these first few verses very well. I'm not gonna have the privilege at this stage of where we are as a church to go verse by verse with the kind of detail that the Word of God is deserving of. It would really just drag on a decade. I know by now, having studied out part of verse one, that it would really take us, I did the math, a decade to cover in detail everything that's in here. Our minds would fragment so much over that period of time, and so what I have to do is sort of gather up a lot of information with not a lot of detail and look for some application for you. What you learn about God in any part of the Scripture will help you with any imperative. So if you work out something about God from James, it works for the imperatives in John, okay? So it works for what Paul calls us to. It works for the Sermon on the Mount as Christ issued it to us. That's one of the of digging into Peter is that as you dig into Peter and learn about God, you will have underpins, you will have energy, you will have undergirding for applying all the imperatives no matter where you find them. So when you find them in the Psalms and you go back to 1st John or you go back to Ephesians or you go back to 1st Peter or wherever we're at, to the Minor Prophets has been a big subject for us, you will find the strength, the will, the energy, and the cause to do much with what you read. And so we won't get into real deep detail, but the course I think we should take today is to actually do what we did last week and just to highlight and magnify Jesus Christ. So we're gonna do that through various scriptures that put him forth in his true state that would be before time during his incarnation and after time concludes. Because the claims of the Godhead are, I am that I am, and I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, there is a lot of crossover. You can't put God in eternity of antiquity and say, look, we're gonna look at God there, because that's not how it works with the eternal Holy God. He is across the entire span, and so for human frame, for our frame of mind, we'll try to put it into that kind of space. But here's what John is communicating, and what he communicates here is to serve the purposes, the stated purposes of his letter. What he's saying in those first few verses is, we have seen and heard and handled the actual, the only true, the living and invisible God. We've seen him, we've handled him, not one of the persons, not part of God. The invisible God has seen fit to manifest himself and to communicate himself entirely and fully to us. And John's claiming we've handled him, we've seen him, we've heard him, and we'll show him to you. It's the actual, only true, and living and invisible God. Here's some detail that you have to really dig into, but I'll just lift it out into these statements for us. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit co-equal, co-eternal form the singular self-existing essence. Okay? There are persons that they are happy to be within that unified essence. This is very difficult stuff to communicate, just so you know. I'm on the verge of tears because I know that it's just too wonderful. It is very far down the hallway of mysteries. It really makes you a child. It makes you a child just to be in the presence of minds that comprehend it better, that contemplated it deeper. But even they give up. They stop at some point and say, I'm not fit for this. My faith gets me to here. I'm not even know if I'm supposed to be in here. Many of them say that. They say, I don't know. I don't know if I'm supposed to even be touching these things. I think so, but this is as far as I am willing to go is how they typically portray it. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit co-equal and co-eternal, the singular self-existing essence was fully expressed. They, if you can use the word chose, they brought about that they would fully express and fully set forth into a perceptible form their full glory and beauty, their full perfections, their full qualities. He who already was from the beginning and had existed forever in an incomprehensible state of union with humanity, after whose image the Godhead fashioned man, the word of life, the eternal life, is what we are declaring to you, says John, for divine communion. That's why. For overflowing joy, for personal holiness, for full assurance of salvation, for enduring faith in the name of the Son of God. So let's also set him forth in scriptures from God's own mind. Let's set him forth before the congregation and enjoy and marvel at. Let me just say this again. I hate to keep qualifying things, but the whole Bible could be read this morning, the whole Bible in response to what was just said. It all is proof, all of it, everywhere, open anywhere, it all is proof of the great and enduring and eternal union of God with humanity. When did Christ, when did the Son of God, God the Son, begin to identify with humanity? Have you thought of that? Was it when God finally made Adam? Well, that doesn't work because they said, let us make man in our image. They didn't take on the image that they had fashioned Adam into, they made Adam into the image that they had already taken in eternity. Again, so we have been unified, we have had a union with God. God has been unified to humanity for all time, but for all time doesn't work as a term in God's realm. So we are stuck in a lot of terminology that fails to convey. You go write this all out and you will find how your words fail you very quickly, and you know that you're beyond your depth, you know that you're out of your depth, you know that it cannot be conveyed. But nevertheless, it's worth the doing, it's worth the trying, to put it forth. For God to be holy means that God has always been holy. He did not become holy. For God to find anything about God in the Scripture, and it's not something that he grew to become, he is. That's why he uses terms like, I am that I am. You can ponder that one for a long time. We ought to ponder those things for a long time. I am he who was, I am he who is, I am he who will ever be, and many other statements that we won't even refer to by flipping to them. I am the same today forever. There are so many Scriptures. I am the Lord God, I change not. There are so many proofs in the Scripture that allow us to say, if God says he is love, he has ever been so. If God says I am long-suffering, he has ever been so for all eternity. If he says that he has been found in the fashion as a human, there is a connection for all eternity to that. That is as real as the incarnation of Christ in time. He has ever been expressed in human form, in body and soul. He walked among us as the Son of Man, and endures even now as the Scripture puts him forth as the Prince of the Kings of the earth. And though glorified, he is still the Son of Man, and there is proof. There is proof for his personal interest in the imperatives that he calls you to, and that he will support you in it. Here's God, the God-man, in eternity and at creation. If you turn to Micah 5.2, Micah 5.2 says, But thou, Bethlehem, Ephrathah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall come forth unto me, that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth, whose issuings forth, have been from of old. And that word there is simply antiquity, but he further qualifies antiquity. What degree of antiquity? Well, from everlasting antiquity. From perpetual antiquity is how that is phrased there. Go to John 1, 1 through 4, and we'll read as it was read by our brother Noah, the Gospel of John 1, 1 through 4. Very familiar with this, but in light of what was read out of John's letter, it would be worth seeing how he put it forth here. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. That is as clear of a statement as Paul puts forth in Ephesians, the third chapter, verse 9. He says in something that he's saying, in the continuation of something that he's saying, he says, and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Christ Jesus. So he is there in and from the beginning doing that work. Proverbs 8, if you want to turn there. In Proverbs 8, and we're looking at verses 22 through 30, here is the Son of God personified as wisdom. This is a very poetic language, you can feel the mystery of it all as you read through it. Verses 22 through 30. The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, wherever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth. When there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the fountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth. While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. When he had prepared the heavens, I was there. When he set a compass upon the face of the depth, when he established the clouds above, when he strengthened the fountains of the deep, when he gave to the sea his decree that the waters should not pass his commandment, when he appointed the foundations of the earth, then I was by him, as one brought up with him, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him. Christ is our wisdom, as Paul establishes in 1st Corinthians twice in that book. I can just read this one, Genesis 126, and God said, as we quoted, let us make man in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. Man was made in the image of God, indicating that God already had possessed an image through which he would express himself. You can take that reality and actually consider any part of the created universe and ponder what it exists for. What are sheep? Are they a convenient way for God to then later think about communicating that he is the shepherd of the sheep? Or are they created because he is the shepherd of the sheep from all eternity? You can do that with any part of the universe, practically, and you can ponder and ponder and enjoy that reality. I am that I am. I change not. His creation is a manifestation of who he is and who he has ever been, and we ought to value that. In this verse in Genesis, we have a clear glimpse into the mystery of our eternal union with God in the person of the Son of God. The self-existing and invisible God already had a manifested, expressed image, a human form after which he fashioned Adam. Just enjoy it. Just ponder and enjoy that reality, that Adam was made after a human form that God had already possessed for all eternity. Adam was made according to a form that the invisible God had chosen through which to reveal all the glories and perfections he wished to communicate. We have this out of Colossians 2.9, for in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. In Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead in a bodily form. Bodily. And here is the God-man incarnate. If you would go to Hebrews chapter 1, we actually have a few readings there through parts of chapter 2. I've been, I've had to be selective, and so here in Hebrews chapter 1 verses 1 through 3, we read this very frequently, and so here they are again. God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds. Who being, okay, my heart has rejoiced so much. I hope that you catch the joy that is available to us in these statements. Who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. He is the express image of the person of God. Verses 8 through 12 of that same chapter. But unto the Son he, God, saith, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity. Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. And thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth. And the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou remainest. And they shall all wax old as doth a garment, and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up. And they shall be changed, but thou art the same. And thy years shall not fail, declareth God to God the Son. Chapter 2, 9 through 18, bearing witness still to the same fact that he is ever living and everlasting. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death. We see him crowned with glory and honor, that he, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man. For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he that sanctifyeth, and they who are sanctified, are all of one. For both he that sanctifyeth, and they who are sanctified, are all of one. For which cause? Because of that, he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren. In the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, behold, I and the children which God hath given me. When did he begin to become our brother? When did Christ, when did the Son of God, God the Son, begin to become our brother? He ever was and ever will be. You have such a union with Christ, that he has been your brother forever. You have such a union with him, that John can't think of another way to make his imperatives, but to be perfectly stark and clear. There is no softening if the union is eternal. He should be able to snap his fingers and say, actually, we should marvel that we're not bound in chains to do good. We're not actually guarded over by angels all day long with a sword to do good. It really is remarkable that we are given such liberty. And why would that be? Because God is not interested in compliance. He's interested in love out of obedience, as John will illustrate. Compliance is nothing to him. To do good works out of threat is not pleasurable to God. But to communicate himself and his union to us in such a way that we declare with John, that we catch with John the energy of and the significance of, behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we who are but dust, we were formed from dust, that we should be called with the Son of God, sons of God, that we should be included as sons and daughters of God himself. What love is that? Who wouldn't obey? Who wouldn't lay down their life readily? Who wouldn't be about the Father's business? Who wouldn't? We could be compelled to do it. It's of no good. It's of no use. It's not even that good. You know that as parents. You've known it as children of parents, that if you were made to do something, there was no heart in it. There was really no real accomplishment in it. The thing got done, but there was really no good exchange in that. Continuing with Hebrews chapter 2, for as much as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. Are you afraid of death? Well, he bound to us has destroyed death. He has tasted death for us. Wherefore, in all things, it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, such as his union, that he will raise us to his degree of glory. He will let us inherit with him. He will bring us to the father and show his glory to us and draw us into paradise. But such as his union with us also, that he did not shy from lowering himself to our level. He did not count himself above bringing himself down to lower than the angels to be beaten, to be abused, to be killed for us. His union in paradise with us, it's beautiful, it's wonderful, but how horrible is his union with us as our brother here in this fallen and cursed place? There's some stuff that transcends here, that he left his glory for a time to be here. So unified is he with us. Such is his commitment to his union that not only is it eternal, but it's practical. It works out in time in a way that abuses him, that demeans him, that puts him down. You know what? As you read this, he was okay with that. He is so committed to this. God is so personally invested in this that he's okay. It became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things and bringing many sons into glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. I will declare thy name unto my brethren. In the midst of the church, will I sing praises unto thee. And again, I will put my trust in him for verily he took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore, in all things, it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself had suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted. Such is his union with us from all eternity that he entered into the whole spectrum. Whatever had to be transcended, he entered into it willingly and gladly for us. How will you then respond to love your brethren? How will you then respond to you pull any imperative out of the scripture? How are you going to respond to it? Seeing how, how willing he was, how could you deny him? And I think that's, what's an operation in John's mind when he puts forth stark, hard, full stop commandments is his, his thinking. Look at what, look at what he transcended. Look at how he lowered himself to our level. Look at that. He tasted death. Of course, we will respond. Of course, we will give all energy, all we will, we will give all attention to living this way. Let's see him finally as alpha and omega. Just a few more verses, revelation chapter one. We are unified for all eternity with this, with this being, with this being supreme and honorable and holy being. You are a speck of dust. You are nothing. Have you pondered how nothing you are? How in, how remarkably worthless cells are that they, they can just lose their moisture and go away and, and blow away as the wicked blow away as, as the grass blows away as the wicked blow away like shaft. That's, that's the worth of, of, of a, of a cursed human. It's, it's so nothing in comparison to God. And yet we find in first John that we are in a union with this being. Revelation one, eight, I am alpha and omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come the almighty. If you found out that you were related to someone very important to you, that would impact you. You, I think this is humans. We, we, we, oh, you're, oh, that's your brother. Or, oh, I don't know why we, we, but we have an interest in, in what our connections are to, to prominent families or to important people. I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord. You are related by his choice to the being that ever was and ever will be, who has no beginning and no ending. Rejoice, rejoice at your connections, rejoice at your union. Verse 10, John says, I was in the spirit on the Lord's day. And I heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet saying, I am alpha and omega, the first and the last. And he says to John, what thou seest, write in a book and send unto the seven churches, which are in Asia. And John says, and I turned to see the voice that spake with me and being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks. And in the midst of the seven candlesticks, one like unto the son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot and gird about the paps, about the chest with a golden girdle, with a gilded belt that is given to a champion. His head and his hairs were white like wool, the wisdom of all ages and of all the Godhead portrayed and hairs white as snow, white like wool. And his eyes were as a flame of fire, able to pierce through and see it all and judge it all right. And his feet like a defined brass for the crushing of the nations, for the destruction of his enemies, as if they burned in a furnace, it's molten, it crushes, it destroys. This is who you are connected to in eternal union. This is the mighty Christ, the Lord of the universe, your brother, your real, not theoretical, but your real practical, willing, loving brother who has overjoyed to be your brother, who is delighted to have sons and daughters to bring to the father who is interested in showing his glory to them in paradise. As if they burned in a furnace and his voice is the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars and out of his mouth when a sharp two-edged sword, he has called the word for a reason. And his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me saying unto me, fear not, fear not. I am the first and the last. I am he that liveth was dead, but behold and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. So, so valuable is the statement that Christ makes here that he amends himself. He certifies himself, his own words. I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of hell and of death. Okay. Do you seek a union with something as petty as your besetting sin? Is that what you want union with? These are questions for me. I'll speak them out loud to you. Do you want union with, I don't know, the world and the stuff in the world, the things of the world, it's geopolitics, it's wars, it's monies, it's pleasures. Is that what you want union with? Then go have it, but you can't have it with God as well. And that's the starkness of John is you can't both love God and hate your brother. If you do, you're a liar. You can't walk in darkness and say that you're in the light. If you do, you're a liar. And actually, you're full of darkness and you haven't seen the father. This, I believe, our union to Christ for all eternity. And by all eternity, it's perpetually both directions. We have to think about it in those terms. I don't know that God thinks about it in those terms. Your union to God through his eternal humanity, through his eternal love, where he has held us forever in his mind and held with joy the secrets of the pleasures in the paradise that would be revealed to us. Our union to that makes our union with the world impossible. You cannot have both. And to John, it's that obvious. You cannot be unified to both. And so he just simply says, no, no more sin. I'm writing you these things so that you won't sin. I'm writing you these things so that you will increase in joy to a fullness. I'm writing to you these things so that you'll have full assurance so that you will know that you know him and so on. We will take some time to get to John's actual imperatives, but I'll try to gather these things back up next time. I have the privilege of being in the pulpit so that we can actually get to some of that. But in a very practical way, love not the world or the things of the world. If a man loves the world, the love of the father is not in him. That's the most practical thing I can communicate to you. Love not the world. Love the brethren. Love one another as God for all eternity has loved you. Love them when they draw you into paradise. Love them when you draw yourself down to their level. Enter into the sufferings of your brothers and sisters. Christ did. Christ, who is a million, trillion times more eminently worthy than you are, came down to where you are. Love one another as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. A command to the husband to love the wife that way. But half of us are wives and half of us are husbands. We may freely apply the principle. Love. And John will work that out. He gets into some realms where he even gets stark about how love and fear work, and which one operates better. He wants us in a state beyond being afraid to sin. He wants us in a state where love is motivating all of our actions and guiding us through our life. That's it. I will pray to God for another opportunity to get into this book. May God bless the teaching of his word. I would encourage you to get some Gil and some Henry commentary. There are many other good ones. They are a little on the lighter side, not that they are not profound, but they're good to read. Keep in 1 John. Stir up your own heart to revisit these things and see the starkness that's there and the intensity that's there and remember why it's there. It's there because you have been joined to the I am that I am. He has willingly, no one compelled him, he has willingly joined himself to you. Therefore live as if that's your reality because it is your actual practical reality. Our Father will obviously need your help to know how to begin applying this truth of our union with you for all eternity. We praise you. We give you thanks. We ought to give you every minute of our lives, every thought that we can conjure. We ought to give you every ounce of energy we have in every day. We should give ourselves to rejoicing, to giving you thanks, to sacrificing the sacrifice of praise before you continually, to sending up that sweet-smelling savor of prayer at all times. Every manner of prayer should come from our lips all the time, constantly. We should engage every battle willingly and happily, though it cost us our life, knowing that you have joined yourself to us in love for all eternity in both directions as we conceive of it. We thank you, Father, for the congruency of your Word that every place we checked to build this message we found that the Word corroborates the Word, that there was no detail so small that the Word did not confirm itself. We thank you for that, Father. Thank you that we may have the confidence to know that you desire communion with us, a fellowship with us, a fullness of joy for us, but it will call us to cast off sin. It will call us to walk in the light. It'll call us to love not the world or the things of the world. It will call us to deny ourselves and our flesh with greater intensity, and there will be joy to be had. Bless the preaching of your Word. We ask, Father, that you would grant of the Helper, your Holy Spirit, to lead us into truth and to enlighten us, to open our eyes, that we may see you as you ought to be seen, and that you may be worshiped as you ought to be worshiped. In Christ we pray. Amen.