Turn with me to 1 John chapter
1. When you read this chapter, you're
given a sense of the condescension of our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ, who came down and dwelled among men. and was touched by
sinners, heard by sinners, seen by sinners, sinners who rejoiced
in His words. And He came in this flesh, the
likeness of this sinful flesh, in the weakness of this flesh,
and He did that. The jewel of heaven came down
in the likeness of this flesh to redeem sinners. sinners, and
you can see that condescension of our Lord throughout this whole
chapter. We won't make it through this
whole chapter, we'll just be looking at the first four verses,
but understand that when you read this chapter you see the
condescension of our Lord for sinners. John writes, or begins with this
word, that. That. That is the word that John
uses to begin this epistle. That is the word John uses to
describe the Lord Jesus Christ, that who, which, He that is unknowable
to us is made known in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and he is the eternal Son of God." That is John's first description
of Jesus Christ in this epistle general to the church. And it's
called a general epistle because it's not specifically addressed
to any one church. This is to the church as a whole. And this word, that, is similar
to what the angel said to Mary concerning Christ's birth, when
he should come into the world in flesh. Luke 135, Therefore
also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called
the Son of God. That which you do not know nor
understand, that which I do not know nor understand, must reveal
himself unto us. Otherwise, we will not know him. And we must know him. There is
no other salvation given among men whereby we must be saved.
He is the Savior. He is the one salvation of the
true and living God for his people, for sinners, for sinners. And John sees a wonder in this. He's reflecting on the wonder
of Christ, whom they beheld in the flesh from the time when
they first met him. And when he turned to them and
said, what seek ye? What are you looking for? And
all they could say is, Lord, where dwellest thou? Where dwellest
thou? And that's actually the question
that we have as sinners too, isn't it? Where dwellest thou?
With whom do you dwell, Lord? He that is of a contrite heart,
he that is broken, that's whom the Lord dwells with. Not the
proud and the arrogant and the self-righteous and those that
have it all together, but he dwells with the sinner who's
broken and contrite, who sees their sin and sees what a wretch
they are and has no hope in their own righteousness and sees their
need for God's mercy and grace. and sees the sufficiency. Here's
the word of God which declares Christ and sees him as their
sufficiency, the very one whom they need to cover their sin
and to deliver them from death and give them life. And so John's
thinking of this and he stands amazed realizing we're witnesses
of that. which dwells in the heavens,
who came down, condescended, and came down in the flesh, and
dwelt among us, us. And so holy God, the Lord Jesus
Christ, the jewel of heaven, robed himself in flesh, laid
aside his glory, and robed himself in the weakness of this flesh,
and dwelt among us, and revealed himself to us, spoke to us, taught
us, was patient with us and continued to teach to us. He came and was
crucified, led away to the cross willingly, willingly for the
salvation of his people, for his bride, whom the Father gave
to him before the foundation of the world that we should know
Him not just in this flesh but by resurrection, power, and glory. That same power that raised our
Lord up from the dead is the very power that gives life to
sinners and makes us to see and to behold and to know and understand
Him who is our very life and our salvation. that who what
that's what those words can be translated as is a complete mystery
to us and we would not know him at all because we are in darkness
if not for his grace revealing himself to us we would walk right
by him and wouldn't know him from any other person we would
have walked by the Lord Jesus Christ and not even known him
or recognized him for who he is. John wrote in his gospel,
he said that Christ was in the world and the world was made
by him and the world knew him not. And so we can't see him
by this nature. Because of this, what we are
in this flesh, we're so full of ourselves, we're so full of
our religion, we're so full of our customs, so full of our traditions,
so full of thinking that we know what pleases God and what we
must do to please God and to stand before Him righteous. We're
so full of ourselves and pat ourselves on the back and don't
realize by nature we don't know Him. We don't know the true and
living God and we're sinners. dead in trespasses and sins,
and unless God is gracious and merciful to us, we will never
know him. And so we cannot approach him
without a perfect righteousness. You consider that which Isaiah
saw. In Isaiah chapter 6, he writes
of this, and he tells us in the first verse that he saw the Lord
sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled
the temple. That's his robe. That's the length
of his robe. Filling the whole temple the
whole area so that there's no room It's filled with his glory
so that there's no room for our glory nothing for us to glory
in it's all his glory And the seraphim Isaiah saw flying around
with six wings, two they covered their eyes, two they covered
their feet, and with two they flew. And they cried one to another
saying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth
is full of his glory. Not just the throne room, the
whole earth. He rules heaven and earth. And then, seeing God on the throne,
if we would but see God on the throne, how tightly closed would
our mouths shut from our boasting and our glorying and thinking
of ourselves as something when we're nothing. Then he said,
I saw him, and I cried, whoa, is me. For I am undone. His joints melted within him,
and his body fell apart. because he saw what he is before
the true and living God. Woe is me, for I am undone, because
I am a man of unclean lips. And I dwell in the midst of a
people of unclean lips. I thought I guarded my lips.
I thought I was careful. And it isn't very long before
I see what a fool I am and what a sinner I am. and how desperate
I am for the grace and mercy of God in Christ. He said, I'm a man of unclean
lips and dwell among a people of unclean lips. How do you know?
For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. That's what
Job said, too, isn't it? He said, I've heard of you. With
the hearing of mine ear, I heard of you. In the ear, I heard people
talk of you, and I heard messages, and I heard of you. But now mine eye hath seen thee,
and I abhor myself. I hate myself, and repent in
dust and ashes." That's what Job saw and was brought to see
when he saw the true and living God. That is who John is here
describing, that. Now he goes on and says, that
which was from the beginning. From the beginning. Now understand,
he's talking about a beginning here. What do you mean? God's
eternal. There's no beginning with God. What does he mean here
in that which was from the beginning? Well, this beginning concerns,
or what he's speaking of here is the beginning of God's revealed
gracious will and purpose to redeem a people, to be gracious
to a people, to save a people in the covenant of grace. That's
the beginning he's talking about here. When God purposed in time,
to be gracious to a people, to be gracious to us in the Lord
Jesus Christ. John actually used that same
language when he began his gospel, right? In John chapter 1, the
gospel of John chapter 1, verse 1 says, in the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. We
understand that to be so eternally. That's true. He's always been
with God. but also here it's talking about
in the beginning, at the beginning of God's revealed gracious will
and purpose to save a people. 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. And so that's the beginning spoken
of here. Now you might ask and wonder, wait a minute, are you
saying that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the eternal Son of
God didn't begin until this point? No, that's not at all what I'm
saying. In fact, the scriptures shed very clear light on that
concerning Christ, the Son of God. Micah 5, 2, when he's speaking
of Christ's birth, who should come into the world, he says,
But thou Bethlehem Ephrata, though thou be little among the thousands
of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me, that is
to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of
old, from ever lasting. He's always been. He's always
been. So this is talking about that
revealed will and purpose of God to be gracious to a people. So God, who is eternal, made
a beginning of time, so to speak, that we understand, what we dwell
in, to reveal himself to a people chosen and prepared by him before
the foundation of the world through his darling son. And Colossians
1 tells us that it is the word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who created all things. Colossians 1 verse 15, Christ
is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. For by him were all things created
that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible. whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers, all things were created by him
and for him." That gives great comfort in our world today, doesn't
it? When there's all kinds of fightings and politics and wars
and governors and rulers and countries and continents, God
is over every one of them and in perfect control. He is before
all things, and by Him all things consist. And the hosts of heaven
concerning that very thing cried, saying, and for thy pleasure
they are and were created." We're here for the pleasure of God,
not our pleasure, His pleasure. Now, I want to take you to one
more reference concerning the beginning. Turn over to Genesis
1. Genesis 1, and I think this will be more clear to you. Genesis
1. As you're turning there, remember
John, in this first verse, says, that which was from the beginning,
which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes. So he speaks of a beginning,
he speaks of a hearing, and he speaks of seeing with the eyes. It says in Genesis 1.1, in the
beginning, God. created the heavens and the earth,
or the heaven and the earth. And the earth, he tells us, was
without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon
the face of the waters. Now, the Lord is, of course,
revealing here what we are by nature in seeing this world in
darkness, void, and without form. That's a picture of us by nature. We're in darkness. We're not
in. We have no form. We're not in
the body of Christ. We're in that body of sin. We
have no form, and we're void of life, just like this world
was, just like this world. And in that day, God said, and
here we hear his voice, just like John says in 1 John 1, in
the beginning, We hear him, and we see him. God said, and that's
how he reveals himself to us, by his voice, by his word. And
God said, let there be light. And there was light. And so God
gives light concerning the true and living God, concerning his
salvation, concerning what we are by nature in our need of
him by his light. And when that light shone, it
declared God's gracious purpose for people that he would create
and put on this planet and save, cover by the blood of his daughter
and son Jesus Christ to the glory and praise and honor of his name. And so in the very beginning,
God speaks and he shines that light of Christ upon a dark world. just as he shines his light upon
a people in darkness, a people not in his body, without form,
and a people void of life in themselves, according as he hath
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and blameless before him in love. him in love, without
blame before him in love. And so this revelation and manifestation
of that from the beginning is now brought forth and manifested
unto us in a body. Great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh. And that's a wonder to us. And
the more we understand of what Christ has done for us in our
need of him, it becomes more and more wonderful to the child
of God who is saved from their sins. And so this first chapter
describes that condescension of that. That which is unknowable
to us came down and made himself known to his people. in grace
and in mercy. When John says, which we have
heard, he's beginning to describe that. He's beginning to describe
who the true and living God is. He's saying that who came in
the flesh is the voice of God. This is the voice of God. You
begin to know who a person is by their voice, by the things
that they say. It's the voice of God, and that's
the voice, the same voice that Adam and Eve heard walking in
the cool of the garden when they had sinned and rebelled against
God. We're told that they heard the voice of the Lord God walking
in the garden in the cool of the day, Genesis 3.8. They heard
him walking. Now, of course, they were in
darkness when they heard his voice, and they ran and hid.
in the tree line. They hid from God because there's
enmity in their heart and they distrusted God. Before they were
friends and spoke to God face to face. Now they ran and hid.
Now Adam ran and hid from them. And God testifies to us saying,
this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him. Hear his voice. Listen to his
voice. He's the shepherd. His sheep
hear his voice and follow him and not another. not another. We follow His voice. And so,
through the preaching of the Gospel, that's where the sinner
first hears the voice of Him who is their Savior, who is the
Lord, the King, the Savior. And it's through preaching that
God manifests to us that Jesus is both Lord and Christ. Hear
Him. Hear Him. Next, John says, which
we have seen with our eyes. Through His voice, that light
shines forth, and we see Christ. We see Jesus, made a little lower
than the angels. We see Him who came in the flesh
for the salvation of His people. We see Him. It's by Him who is
light that we know the truth of God. to lay down our works
and look to him for all our works in salvation. Paul said, for
God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness. We
just read that, right? Back in Genesis 1, 3. For God,
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined
in our hearts to give the light of the glory of the knowledge
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That's how we know the true and
living God in Christ. Then John says, which we have
looked upon. He's just bringing them down
more and more with understanding. He's condescending to reveal
himself to us. We've looked upon him and he
means we've looked upon him with understanding. We've seen his
works. We're sure that he is both Lord
and Christ. Peter was made to say, thou hast
the words of eternal life. He said, we believe and are sure
that thou art that Christ, the son of the living God. God makes
that known to His child. He makes Christ known to us.
He gives that revelation to us. Otherwise, we wouldn't know Him.
That's why one man takes Christ and nails Him to a tree. And
another man looks to Christ and says, He was nailed there for
me, for my sins. He went willingly to that cross
and gave Himself up willingly, bearing my sin in His body on
the tree to put it away forever. He did that for me. And so God
hath blinded the one, and yet given light and salvation to
the other. And John adds, our hands have
handled of the word of life. By his grace and power, we're
made partakers of his body. We're made partakers of him.
John says, we've handled him. Who is it that handles Christ? It's sinners saved. It's sinners
saved. You know, you look at, I think
it's Luke chapter 7. Luke 7, that's where Simon, a
Pharisee, invited Christ over for lunch. It says that a woman, it says
behold in verse 37, Luke 7, 37, behold a woman in the city which
was a sinner when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisees
house, she brought an alabaster box of ointment. All right, she
wasn't even invited. But she heard Christ was there,
and she went, and she brought an alabaster box of ointment,
stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his
feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head,
and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. And the
Pharisee looked at that and said, if this man were a prophet, he
would know what manner of woman this is who touches him. She's
a sinner. and she's touching him. That's
who touches Christ. Do you know that what Christ
said, he said, Simon, you see this woman? He said, I entered
your house, and you didn't touch me once. You didn't give me any
water for my feet, and you didn't wash my feet. You didn't give
me a kiss, he said. You didn't anoint my head with
oil. And this woman, since the time
I came in, has not ceased to touch me." And that's just a
beautiful picture of what John is saying there is that we're
partakers of him. We've handled him. We've handled
him. He's let us, sinners, touch him,
approach unto him, and come near to him, and he didn't push us
away and say, filthy dogs, get out of here. No, he drew us to
himself, just like that sinful woman, and he said, she, her
sins, which are many, are forgiven. and she went home justified that
day. And so that's what he's saying
there, the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld
his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the father,
full of grace and truth. And we see here in this, as John's
talking, there's a distinction. that God makes, not where we
visibly know the distinction, but He reveals it in the hearts
of His children. He reveals it in them who are
His. He makes it known. Those who
have heard Him, seen Him, looked upon Him with understanding,
have handled Him, there's a distinction between believers and this world. His people believe Him and trust
Him and have no other hope but Him. Those of this world have
all kinds of other hopes, all kinds of other confidences, have
everything together and can do what they want to do. And they're
very confident and proud in it. But God's people need Him. And
when we forget, we're reminded by His grace and mercy that we
need Him. And He shows us that. And He
makes it plain to us. And He speaks to us. and is very merciful and gracious
to show us our sin and show us our need of Him, and to break
us, and to heal us, and to draw us to Himself again. And so we
see there, your deeds, we're told in another scripture, your
deeds are made manifest that they are wrought in God. God has wrought them. And so
God calls us out of darkness, right? Just like Adam and Eve,
when they ran to the darkness of the tree line, what did God
do? He didn't leave them there. He called them out into the light. And he brought them to confess
their sin. That wasn't even a confession. They were just blaming others.
But he brought them out to the light and showed them their need. And what did they do? They had
made fig leaves to cover their nakedness. And he stripped those
fig leaves down and showed them that there must be bloodshed
to cover their sin. And he showed them that. And
that's what he does. One publican of that parable
in Luke 18 of the Pharisee and the publican, they both went
up to the temple to pray. And one was boasting and bragging
on himself of what he had done. And the other beat upon his chest,
the fountain of his sin, right there on his heart, beating on
his chest. and crying out to the Lord to
be merciful to him. Do you know what that word merciful
means? That word merciful. Be merciful
to me, a sinner. He's saying, God, find a propitiation
for my sin. Find something, find another
to cover my sin so that you put it out of your sight, that you
may be gracious and merciful to me. That's what he's crying
out. That's what that word merciful
means. Lord, find a propitiation. propitiate my sin put it away
from you just like he did for Adam and Eve that's what he did
that for Adam and Eve right they took the fig leaves off slew
two beasts and covered them with the skins of those animals who
had shed their blood he had propitiated his wrath which looked to Christ
of course they were saved by Christ not by those animals And
so Paul said this distinction here. We see it here when he
wrote to the Thessalonians saying, but we are bound to give thanks
all the way to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord. Those are
distinguishing words. You, brethren, beloved of the
Lord. That's a distinguishing word that is not said of this
world. Because God hath from the beginning
chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit
and belief of the truth whereunto he called you. He didn't call
someone else, he called you. He called you and called you
to himself by our gospel to the obtaining, not to the failing,
not to come in short, but to the obtaining of the glory of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Again, Paul said it this way
to the Romans in chapter nine. What if God, willing to show
his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering
the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction? He put up with them,
and He suffered them, and that He might make known the riches
of His glory on the vessels of mercy which He had aforeprepared
unto glory." He had a people chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world that they would inherit this glory in Christ. even us whom he called, whom
he called with effectual grace and power, not of the Jews only,
but also of the Gentiles. And so believers, sinners saved,
are made to rejoice in that coming down, and condescending, and
revealing himself to them. Because once he reveals what
we are, and who he is, and manifests his grace in us, in that salvation,
we rejoice. We're thankful. We're blown away,
just like John was, just overwhelmed with joy when he began to pen
this letter to the church. And so we rejoice in that blood
redemption made effectual to our hearts. Christ said to his
disciples before he went to the cross, the world seeth me no
more, but ye see me because I live. He says, ye shall live also. I'm gonna bring you home. I'm
going to accomplish your redemption and I will return for you. and
take you to myself." And believers hear him through this word preached. And they then hear and see Christ. Now the reason we shall live,
he tells us verse 2, 1 John 1, 2, 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. Our Lord, when He went to the
cross, and died, and was buried, He rose again, and revealed Himself
to His disciples, and He gave them this witness of what He
did. telling them to declare the sufferings
of Christ, meaning that the Son of God took upon him the mortality
of a man, that he might die, suffer and die in the room instead
of his people whom he came to save, bearing their sins, bearing
the wrath of God, which was to propitiate God, to turn God's
wrath and anger away from us for our sin, and to put it on
Christ instead. And he bore that wrath and anger
and justice of God to put away the wrath of God, which was against
us, and to make us righteous in himself. And he died. He died,
sacrificing himself to the Father, yielding up the ghost, and was
taken and buried and laid in the tomb. But God raised him
from the dead. to declare that, yes, indeed,
your sins, you that trust him, you that believe him, you that
have no righteousness of your own, you are justified, perfectly
righteous, to stand before me. Your sins are gone forever. My
son has taken, he's paid the debt, he's settled it in full,
and it's put away forever. John 17, 20, our Lord prayed,
therefore, concerning this witness. He prayed that we, for us, this
day, hearing this word of what Jesus Christ has done, he said,
neither pray I for these alone, these 11 disciples yet with me,
but for them also which shall believe on me through their word. Through this word preached. through
this gospel preached. That's how our Lord saves people. That's how he manifests them
for whom Christ died. He reveals the salvation. It's
part of that salvation. It's a part that the Father is
pleased to work out for us of what Christ accomplished. He
takes us out of darkness by bringing that light to us through the
word preached, that we would know what God has done for us.
And so that's the heart that he gives to his church to make
this word known. Verse 3, 1 John 1, 3. That, there's
that word again, that which we have seen and heard declare we
unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us. And truly,
our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. So we see that God never leaves
himself without a witness in the earth. He has a witness of
what his son has done and accomplished in this good news. And he gives
it to his church. And his church proclaims it,
preaches it, and declares it. And the people are brought out.
And so to aid in that work, he pours out the Holy Spirit as
the gift of salvation. He gives the Holy Spirit to attend
this word, to take the things of Christ, and make them effectual
to your hearts so that you hear it with understanding. And you
hear it with conviction that he's speaking to me. Christ died
for me. I'm the sinner. I need that salvation. Lord, save me. He does that for
his people. Otherwise you just hear it and
you might hear good doctrine and you might agree with doctrine,
you might be a good religious person, but that's not salvation. Salvation is being brought to
know Christ died for me. I'm the sinner. I'm the guilty
sinner. I'm the rebel who's rebelled
against God. I need the blood of Christ to cover my sins, and
that's what he makes known to his people. God hath revealed
them unto us by his spear, Paul said, for the spirit searcheth
all things, yea, the deep things of God. Now, we have received
not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God,
that we might know the things that are freely given to us of
God. And so this salvation of our
Lord is the free gift of God through the righteousness of
another, even Jesus Christ. And through Christ, the new and
living way, we have life. And that is what John is rejoicing
in. that one who has made himself
known unto us. It's not done because we've earned
it. It's not done because we asked
for it. It's not done because we seek
God for it. It's not done because we've kept
the law. It's not done because we've kept
a religion that we've decided to follow it's not done because
of our customs our traditions it's not merited by us or earned
by us or kept by us it's all done it's all been earned it's
all kept by the Lord Jesus Christ and he works it to the glory
and praise and honor of his name in his people, in his people. It's by free, sovereign grace. And John reveals that this isn't
about some doctrinal head knowledge. He says, we write to you, verse
4, these things we write, write we unto you, that your joy may
be full. And that's what he's saying there
is the gospel brings great relief to great sinners because of a
great Savior, a great Savior who labored in darkness, who
spent, sacrificed, strove, tried, did everything we could for the
God that we invented and thought we knew. And we were just punching
in the wind, just punching in the darkness and didn't know
what we were doing. But God came and was merciful
to us. You know, when Adam and Eve,
when they sinned, the scriptures tell us that their eyes were
opened and the first thing they saw was that they were naked.
And immediately they got to working. They got to sowing fig leaves,
showing that their problem isn't that they're not religious. They
were very religious. They tried to cover their nakedness. And the Lord had to put all that
away. He had to destroy that. Because
we know when you separate a leaf from a tree, from a branch, from
a root, that thing immediately begins to wither and die. It's
dead and it begins to wither. And then it gets brown and crinkly
and it just goes back to dust and is blown away with the wind. So man doesn't have a religious
problem. The problem with man is that we're enemies of God.
I've said it recently before, it's not our sin that keeps us
from God. It's our righteousness. It's
our self-righteousness that keeps us from hearing God and believe
in him. sinners are when they hear it when they see god like
like isaiah they know i'm undone but it's when you think i'm all
right i've got it all together i'm a good guy i'm better than
that guy over there that's what keeps us from god but when you're
a sinner And you hear of Christ, there ain't nothing stopping
you from coming to Him. And you're crying out to Him and begging
Him for mercy. Even Isaiah said it this way,
we are all as an unclean thing, and our righteousnesses are as
filthy rags, and we all do fade as a leaf. like fig leaves trying
to cover our nakedness, and our iniquities like the wind have
taken us away. The self-righteous, when we come
before God in our works, it's like taking your dirty laundry
and airing them out under God's nose. And God's not pleased with
that. He's not, because it's a rejection
and a despising of his son and the righteousness that God has
provided and told us, you hear him, you look to him. That's
the salvation whom I've provided sufficiently for my people. You
come to me in him and you shall be received perfectly. Perfectly. Believers joy and rejoice in
what Christ has done. Romans 10, verse 4, for Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. He
goes on saying, but the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on
this wise. It's of God. It speaks in this
manner, this faith that we preach. What saith it? The word is nigh
thee. Even in thy mouth and in thy
heart, that is the word of faith which we preach. You're preaching faith. And he
preached it so freely that they hated him and wanted him dead,
and said, you speak against Moses. That if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. For the scripture saith, whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. In other words, you
that so trust Christ, you that are so confident in Christ that
you are trusting everything to him and not coming to God with
having any confidence in your own righteousness, he says you
will not be ashamed. The self-righteous Pharisee says,
when you get up there, you're going to have another thing coming.
God's going to tell you, what were you thinking, trusting entirely
in Christ? How could you rest in Christ
and believe that he was going to save you? Is that what he's
going to say? No. He's going to say to them
who didn't trust Christ, what were you thinking? How dare you
come to me with your own works, thinking that this is your righteousness
and this is your sanctification and this is your righteousness
and redemption and wisdom. And so he says, we'll never be
ashamed. So here's what John says, those
first four verses. 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 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 that ye also may have fellowship with us and
truly our fellowship is with the father and with his son jesus
christ and these things right we unto you that your joy may
be full amen