December 21st

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to On the Way with Tony Chris. Each weekday, Dr. Chris will be discussing biblical passages, people, places, and prophecies. Tune in daily to start your day right and deepen your understanding of how to better walk the way and enjoy the journey. Here's your host, Dr. Tony Chris.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Welcome to On the Way. This is Tony Chris, and this is the 365 Bible Reading Plan. Today is December the 21st, and our chapter for today is 1 John chapter 5. Now, before we get into the text, I want to answer questions concerning this coming year, 2023. Yes, we're going to go through the 365 Bible reading plan starting all over again on January the first. You can access the podcast, and there will be a podcast that will be repeated for this year. Don't worry, you say, well, I've already heard those. Well, until you know that word for word and you can teach it to someone else, you probably need to listen to it again. Because remember what I have taught you and others down through the years. Repetition is the mother of learning. And so it will not hurt you to read those chapters again. Read the others beside of it, and you'll read all the way through the Bible in a year. I hope many of you have already done that this year and are finishing up. For those of you who want more, there's going to be a 365 plus podcast just for you. I pray that you will go through the 365 podcast again. There's 365 of those. Some of the days we're missed this year, they will all be on 365 podcasts. We are making sure that all of those are on. Some will be redone simply because there's been new information that I want to get to you in some of the podcasts. But every week, this coming year, all 52 weeks, we are going to be dealing with questions that you've always wanted answered. For instance, we're going to be looking at Genesis chapter six and the problem of whether these are angelic beings, the great Nephilim that are spoken of, or whether that is the line of Seth. We're going to tackle those kinds of issues. We're going to try to crack the hard nuts, at least give you what I believe are the biblical answers that are there. And so it's going to be an exciting year. We're going to deal with many of the things that you have asked me over the last 365 days, questions that I just simply could not answer by email or I could not answer and continue the podcast and do a podcast just on that because I wanted to get through the 365 days first of all while doing all the other things that God has given me and put in my hand to do. So I'm going to be very clear. Starting January the 1st, we're starting back through the 365 chapters that I have chosen as priority chapters in the Bible, Old and New Testament. You will be able to access those at TonyCrisp.org or wherever you are, we will post those again just like we did this last year. They'll all be there. Some will be redone. But we'll also have another podcast called On the Way 365 Plus. On the Way 365 Plus. And we will deal with all different kinds of subjects. And I pray that it will be a blessing to you. And as you know, my goal is to teach and to teach for obedience, not just so you'll have more knowledge, but so that you will know God better. You see, the reason we learn more about him is to know him better, not just to know more about him, but to know him in a greater way and to walk with him. And so the Lord has given me the opportunity to do this, and I want to do it, and I want you to pray for these endeavors that we're involved in. I'm doing another podcast, a weekly podcast called Warriors Walk. It's a podcast for those that are policemen, law enforcement agents, FBI, CIA, all of the state agencies, sheriffs, policemen, small or large cities. If you want to know more about what we're doing with all of the law enforcement across the nation, you can go to Warriors, W-A-R-R-I-O-R-S-Walk.com. Warriors-walk dot com. We are taking men and women who are in law enforcement. We're taking them to Israel. Many are being scholarshipped there. We are taking them there for professional training, for biblical training, forming a network of encouragement, equipping, and education. We've teamed up with Bruton Parker College in Mount Vernon, Georgia. Sachs, a regionally accredited school, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, for an online program in criminal justice to try to get education to them at a low cost. We're doing everything we can to encourage our law enforcement as many in our nation have turned their back on them. We want them to know that we believe that they are agents of the Lord that have been sent to us to help us, to protect us, and we want to encourage them, and we're doing everything we can to do that. So all to say, these are things that are close to my heart that I want you to pray for because we want to disciple those who are in law enforcement. And we want to form a network of encouragement. And you can get on that website, warriors-walk.com. Also, we will be adding this year to TonyCrisp.org and uh pray with us. Many have said we don't see you on TV anymore. The National Religious Broadcasters, just because of the cost of doing business, they have gone up and all the TV stations basically have. And it has just become cost prohibitive at this point in our pilgrimage, and we don't want to go in debt to go on TV. And so we're doing everything we can to be on radio, podcast, anywhere that we can get on the air. We're getting on to teach the word of God. But we do believe that one day we'll be back on TV. We'll be presenting programs and doing everything we can to teach the word of God. Also, if you would like a copy of the monthly devotional guides, that is on the way, devotional guides that has a devotion every day of the month of the year. All of those devotional guides will be available to you free of charge. Many of you have already paid up for the year. You will get everything that you paid for and more. Those of you who would like to have a devotional guide, all you need to do is write me at Dr.Crisp D R C R I S P. That's right, just like lettuce or bacon, Dr.Crisp at TonyCrisp.org, and just say, I would love to have a copy of the monthly guides of On the Way every month this year, so I can follow along and read and then also listen to the podcast. If you will just write and say, I want to do that, and make sure you include your address, a full address with a zip code, your name. If you want us to send it to you, we'll send it to you. Postage paid, no cost to you whatsoever. We'd love to do that just to tell you how much we appreciate you and standing with us this first year of the 365 Bible reading plan. So time is getting along. I want to get into first John as much as we can in the time we have. The scripture says, Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves him who begot also loves him who is begotten of him. What John is trying to say is what he's been saying all along, and that is when a person loves the Father and says he loves God, he must love the Son of God. And if you have the Son, you have life. If you do not have the Son, you do not have life. You cannot know the Father except through the Son. So let's just read through here and you'll see why John says this. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments. Remember these words commit, keep, do, obey, these are all in the present tense. That means it's a continual way of life. It's a habit of life. It's not just something you do every now and then when you get in trouble. You obey. You obey as a child that loves his father and mother and wants to obey simply because he loves. You see, we don't have to keep the law of God. We don't have to keep all of these commandments that God has given us. He's given us these commandments for good, not for evil, to help us, not to hurt us. But we keep his commandments, and they are not burdensome. Now this is the same thing the Lord Jesus said. He said, Come unto me all ye that are weak and heavy laden, burdened down, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Remember when we went through that in Matthew chapter eleven, I told you that that was indeed Jesus saying, Enroll in my school, yoke up with me, learn of me, he said. Let me disciple you, and you will see that my yoke is easy and my burden is light. The teachings of Jesus are easy. Now I'm not saying they're easy to do, I'm saying that they are a pleasure to do because we love the Lord Jesus and we're in a relationship with him. And so what he says is, I'm not going to burden you down with do's and don'ts, because you see, when you're in a relationship of love, like in a marriage, you do what you do. Yes, sometimes it's like peaches and cream. Other times you do what you do out of duty, out of commitment, out of love. It's not some feeling, it's not some infatuation. It is a commitment. You see, love is a commitment. Agape love is a commitment. It is a choice based upon the character and the will of the one doing the loving rather than in the attitudes or the actions of the one being loved. And so we choose to act in a gracious way toward people, even when they don't act in a gracious way toward us. Now, wouldn't this help a lot of marriages if we would begin to act like this and love like this and not just quit and give up because somebody's not treating us the way that we want to be treated? I'm glad that God doesn't love us like that. And so John says, you can trust the Lord, you can walk with him, and he's not going to burden you down. And so when we follow the Lord, we're going to be persecuted. Yes, there'll be times when it's going to be uncomfortable. But the Bible clearly says that his commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God, that is perfect tense, at a point in time you were born into the kingdom of God. You didn't just gradually come into the kingdom. Oh, there were steps and incremental steps that God did this to bring you to himself, and God did that to bring you to himself, brought this person into your life. But there is a point in time when you pass from death unto life. And that is what this is talking about. Whoever is born of God, there is a time when life comes, and you have overcome the world. There's that word Nicky. We don't say short I Nick. We say long I Nik as Nike. That is the word for overcome. That's the word for victory. That's the word for overcome again in the same verse. We have overcome the world through trusting God. The word faith is the word for trust. It's the word for to commit to something or someone. Who is he who overcomes the world that's victorious? It's he who trusts that Jesus is the Son of God. Now this is he who came by water and blood, Jesus the Christ, not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness because the Spirit is truth. This is what John said that Jesus spoke of in John chapter 4. For there are three that bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit. Now remember, John identified Jesus as the Word in the Gospel of John chapter 1 and verse 1, and that the Word became flesh in John chapter 1 and verse 14. And it says, These three are one. You say, Well, I just don't understand how three could be one. Well, that's why you are the creation and God is the creator. And if you try to say I can understand that, no, it will blow your mind. Because we can't understand that, that's infinity. We are finite. If we receive the witness of men, and we do, we believe men, the witness of God is greater, for this is the witness of God which he has testified of his son. He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself. We know that. He who does not believe God has made him that is God a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of his son. You see, you either believe that God's word is true or you do not. This is the only way we can be saved is by trusting in God's word. Now look at verse twelve. He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life. This is the same thing that Jesus said to Nicodemus in John chapter 3, or that famous passage, John 3.16. Sometimes we stop reading at 16. We should go ahead and read the following verses. He who has the Son has life. He who has the Son, he is free. The one who does not, the wrath of God remains on him. You see, outside of Jesus, you have the wrath of God hanging over you like a cloud, and it can pour down any time upon you like a great storm. 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's interesting. The Gospel of John was written according to the John chapter 20 and verses thirty and thirty-one. John said, These things have I written unto you, this same phrase here, that you would believe that Jesus is the Christ, that Jesus is the Messiah. That's why John picked out those seven miracles, seven sayings, introduced Jesus in chapter one as the Son of God, seven miracles, seven discourses, and then he gave in great detail his suffering, his substitutionary death, burial, and resurrection. All of that is in the Gospel of John to prove that Jesus is the Son of God. But first John was not written to lost people as the Gospel of John was as a gospel tract, but instead, first John is written to those of us who believe. Why? So that we may know that we have eternal life, and that we believe in his name and trust in his name and continue to have life and continue to trust in his name. You see, this is why John wrote 1 John, is so that we could have assurance of salvation. And he gives us all these tests. And so if you're walking with God, if you're living for the Lord as a way of life, you're keeping his commandments, that's proof positive that you're a child of God. Do you love God? Do you love other people? Do you love the church? Do you love the brethren? That's another sign that you are a child of God. And John gives us all of these signs. And first John to help us to understand that we are children of God if we do these things. Now, these things do not cause us to be children of God. We do these because we are children of God. These are the proofs or the tests that John gives us all the way through, from 1 John 1 through the end of chapter 5, to let us know that God loves us, that He has a plan for our life, and it is to love Him, love others, and to walk with Him in truth. This is the book of 1 John in a nutshell. For On the Way, this is Tony Chris.

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Thanks for listening to On the Way with Tony Chris. Tune in every weekday for information on biblical passages, people, places, and prophecies. Fridays are for your questions. Email your questions to questions at TonyCrisp.org, then just listen for your question to be answered on Friday's podcast. That's Questions at TonyC R I S P dot org. Thanks for listening and have a blessed day on the way.