Hallelujah! Amen. Let's turn to First John and continue in this epistle. It's a book I have always loved. I like how straightforward it is. It's the same thing with the Epistle of James: they just bring out the practical aspects of walking in the Spirit and of how to relate to our brothers and sisters. There is really almost no way to get lost in these books. What I mean by that is that we are able to just read the simplistic truth that the Holy Spirit is bringing out. Really, the only way to get lost is to enter with prejudice. We saw this morning that a number of us have read this epistle over and over at least five times in the past couple of weeks, some considerably more than that. How many of you, in your reading through the epistle, took some time to read some of the commentaries on First John? Anybody? Let me see your hands. Okay. Have you noticed, in reading the commentaries, that you don't always find agreement? Let me give you one of the best commentaries to read on the Epistle of John: the Gospel of John. So if you want to read a great commentary on the Epistle of John, read the Gospel of John; it's the same Holy Spirit (amen?) and the same Apostle trying to communicate the same truth to us. The emphasis of the Gospel of John is on the deity of Christ, the love of God for us, and the necessity of our loving one another. So you can fill any gaps or questions that you have in the epistle by reading the gospel.

That would be my encouragement to you. Because, if we begin to read just commentary (and I'm not discouraging you, because there is so much to be learned), remember as you read these, that you will see prejudice based upon humanistic truths, which have infiltrated because of repetition over the last hundred years. I'll say it more plainly than that: You are going to be able to pick out very quickly who the Calvinists are and who the Armenians are as you begin to read these commentaries. Very few people have the ability to come without prejudice. How many of you have found yourself even going into this epistle approaching the Word of God with prejudice? You don't have to raise your hands. There are certain things we want to hear, aren't there? And when we can come in innocence and we can come with a child-like faith, the promise is that the Holy Spirit will lead us into truth; amen?...