1 John 1, verses 1-4, the title
of the message this morning is, Fullness of Joy in the Person
of Christ. Fullness of joy in the person of Jesus Christ. Now
this general epistle of John, He reveals to us in verse 4 his
motive or reason why he was moved to write this letter. This general
epistle of John is written to every believer in the church
of God, every believer in Christ. This is written to us and John
gives us his reason here in verse 4. Look at this. And these things
write I unto you. Why? That your joy might be full. Our Lord allowed the apostle
John to live the longest among all the apostles. He was the
last to die. And he in his lifetime had seen
the heresy and antichrist creep into the church. He saw that
the time of the people of God was coming when Jerusalem would
fall, and they would be cast down into great despair, and
sorrow. He knew of a time that the church
would be brought into great affliction, and so he penned this letter
as a father to his children in great love so that their joy
might be full. The believer's life in this world
is filled with conflict of conscience, isn't it? We are many times exercised
in doubts, as to if indeed we are of the
elect of God. We at many times doubt if we
belong to the number of those who belong to God. And we, like Asaph in Psalm 73,
say, truly God is good to Israel and to everyone that is of a
clean heart, but as for me. See, I know God's good to Israel,
but as for me, I don't know. I'm in great conflict of my soul
and my joy is gone. My hope seems to be vanishing. My feet have nigh well slipped. We know in our hearts that God
is good to His elect people, but because of sin and lack of
faith, It seems as though our feet are about to slip off into
the darkness of despair and doubt. Many times our exercise of faith
is low. Doubts are strong and breed trouble
in our mind and terrors in our conscience. Our faith is much
like the sun. When it rises in its strength
with no clouds, there are few shadows of doubt. There are many
times we feel as though we could conquer the world, as though
nothing could move us from our Master. And not long after that, the
shadows, as the setting sun comes, and there are many shadows, sometimes
our faith is low and the shadows creep in and cause us great doubts. And so John is moved and he says
of the Spirit of God for the purpose that our joy might be
full. He wrote this to fill up our
doubts as to those who believe in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. To fill up our doubts as to whether
we are of the chosen race. And this joy, this fullness of
assurance, friends, this peace can only be found in fellowship
with God. Let me ask you this. Do you have
fellowship with God? Can you commune with God? Will
God accept your prayers? Will God accept your presence?
Will God accept your person? Because only having fellowship
with God is the only joy that's lasting. Is there any joy you
can name in this world that lasted? Anything. I tell you what, I
was happy with having my children. I was happy. But when they started
growing up, that happiness starts to wane a little bit, doesn't
it? It starts to move. Sometimes we feel discouraged
and these that we think would bring us joy, they bring us the
most pain. Friends, nothing in this world
is going to be of any lasting joy but this one thing. What we were created for? To
have fellowship with God. Man was created to have fellowship
with God. And when that fellowship is gone,
there is no joy. You try to fill it, and it's
never going to happen. You're never going to be satisfied
with the things of this life. The only satisfaction is this,
fellowship with God. John says that in the previous
verse, verse 3. That which we have seen and heard,
declare we unto you, that you may have fellowship with us,
and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with the Son.
And this I write, that the joy may be full. Fellowship with
God. No man can have fullness of joy
without fellowship with God. There's a problem. This is my
first point. There's a problem with this.
No man by nature can have fellowship with God. Friends, God is holy, God is
righteous, and God is just. And since He never can pardon
sin without His justice being satisfied, and man is every part
sin, the nature of man is every part, every ounce of us, every
ounce of our nature is nothing but sin. And God cannot have
fellowship with sin. He will not. This idea of God
being your buddy is a lie. And you do your soul justice
to leave that alone. God is holy, God is your ruler,
God is your maker, He is your King. And you cannot have fellowship
with Him unless you are as holy as He is. How can man who is continually
full of darkness and God who is continually full of light
have fellowship? This morning when I came in,
this building was dark. And I tell you, when I cut on
the light, it had no fellowship with darkness. Darkness fled
the room. How then could your darkened
heart and darkened soul ever have fellowship with God? I tell you this, and I want you
to hear me, fellowship with God is impossible for man to accomplish
in his flesh. It is impossible for man to deliver
himself. It is impossible for man to make
fellowship with God in His nature. I read this the other day and
it may shock you, but I want you to hear this. It is just as impossible for
a demon in hell to deliver himself as it is for a man to deliver
himself from the wrath of God. A demon cannot deliver himself
from hell, and no man can by nature deliver himself from the
wrath of God. It's impossible. The carnal mind
is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of
God, neither indeed can be. So then, they that are in the
flesh, here it is, cannot please God. Impossible. Impossible. I thought you were going to talk
about joy. I am. I am. But friends, without this
news, there is no good news. Unless you see this, you'll never
see the good news. So how then can a man have fellowship
with God? Not by the free will works religion
of our day. Is there any that desire fellowship
with God here this morning? Is there any in need of pardon
and forgiveness of sins? If you are, then I have a message
of hope for you. I have a message of hope delivered
from God so that your joy might be full. And this is my second point.
Man may have fellowship with God. I preach unto you that man
may have fellowship with God, but it will never come by his
own making. Man may have peace with God,
but it will never come by his best and sincere efforts. The
only hope of peace with God is found only, only in the person
of Jesus Christ. Only in the person of Christ.
Nowhere else. You won't find this fellowship
anywhere else. Man has fallen and he can't deliver
himself, but God in grace has decreed that some, that He would
elect some, that He would choose some to have fellowship with
Him. And so God in eternity chose
those and in Christ redeemed those. And so when man fell,
God then began to reveal His purpose of salvation. He said
this to Eve when they sinned, "...the seed of the woman shall
crush the head of the serpent." In other words, God says, I have
already prepared a Savior. When they fell into sin, they
couldn't please God. What did they try to please God
with? Fig leaves. It didn't work. It didn't work. And neither will
your righteousness. And God says, I have prepared
a man, a seed of a woman. He must of necessity be a man. But friends, not only a man,
this Savior must also of necessity be God. In Isaiah chapter 43, in verse
11, the Scripture says this, This is vitally important for
the message today. Isaiah chapter 43 and verse 11
says, "...I, even I am the Lord, and beside Me there is no Savior."
Friends, only God can be Savior. Only God can be a Savior. And yet God has also declared
that His Savior must be the seed of the woman. In the Old Testament,
God gave over the centuries pictures and types and shadows of this
Messiah, this Savior that would come and restore fellowship with
God and man, and how He would save them from their sins. That
this Savior would come and restore fellowship that man had lost.
But here, the Savior tells us that He will restore it. Psalm
69, verse 4, He said, "...then I restored that which I took
not away." So John here declares, he says,
I write this, that your joy may be full. And here it is, here's
the joy, that God has not only declared He would send a Savior,
but John says He's already come. The Savior of men has already
come. Believer in Christ, if your joy
is to be full, you must first and foremost behold the person
of the Redeemer. To be confident in His salvation,
you must rest in His person. Let me ask you this. If I came
to you tomorrow and said, hey, I'm going to give you a million
dollars. Would you trust me? Those of you who know me, you
say, you don't have a million dollars. And you'd be right,
I couldn't. Even though I might desire to
give you that, even though I might desire to give you that money,
I have no ability. So what good is my promise if
I have no ability? It's no good. What if I had a million dollars
and I said I'll give it to you but I wasn't willing? to give
it to you. What good would my promise be?
Of no value. Friends, what value is a Savior
that is not able and willing to give salvation? His promises would be of no value.
Therefore, John here begins this epistle to declare to us the
person of Jesus Christ. If you are to be saved, it is
to be by this one person, and you must know who He is. You
must see His person and the importance of it. And John declares to us
the Messiah, the person of Christ. He said, I've seen Him, I've
handled Him, I've looked on Him, I've heard Him. He does so, so that we might
believe on Him and have confidence and assurance of our salvation. First of all, John deals with
the deity of Christ. In this matter of fellowship
with God, we must understand that Christ must be God. He must be. Look at that in verse
1, he says, "...that which was from the beginning." John does
not say who was from the beginning we have seen, heard, and handled. This is to show us the distinction
between the two natures of Christ, who is the only Word of God,
the only Word of life. There's only one Word of life.
There's only one salvation. And John says He was from the
beginning. And He that was from the beginning
we also handled. We also handle. He is speaking
of the two natures of our Savior. When He says that which is from
the beginning, He is talking about the eternal God. The eternal God. Friends, God is Spirit. God cannot be seen, He cannot
be touched, He cannot be handled. And so John says, that which
was from the beginning, the eternal God. He is speaking of Jesus
Christ, who is the eternal God. In the gospel, he says, in the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. We understand John is speaking
of absolute deity. Would there be any surprise in
the voice of John if he was talking about a man? Is it anything for
us to touch one another? No, it's nothing. So if he was
just talking about a man, this would have been senseless to
write this. But he is talking about that
which was from the beginning, that Holy One of God. This Messiah, was none other
than God Himself. Now, there are many in this time
that deny the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I tell you,
there are many in our day who deny the deity of Christ. Who
deny the deity of Christ. They deny His deity, that He
is God. They believe that He is created.
by God, either at His birth or before the world began. But they
believe He was created, a created being. But friends, to affirm this,
or to deny the deity of Christ, is to destroy the gospel of God's
salvation. I just read to you Isaiah. It
says that God is the only Savior. If Jesus Christ is not God, then
He is not Savior. And there is no hope. There is
no hope apart from His deity. If you think about Jesus as being
only a man, think about this, Adam. If Adam continued in righteousness,
what righteousness would he have? He would only have the righteousness
that God gave him. He would only have the righteousness
of his own work, which was not to eat the fruit. That's the
only righteousness he would have. But friends, in order for us
to have fellowship with God, our righteousness must not be
the righteousness of Adam, but it must be the righteousness
of God. Or else we can't have fellowship with God. This is
why God had to come Himself, so that He might perform the
righteousness of God for us. Behold, friends, I declare unto
you that God has come." God has come to be the Savior of men. I want us to see the proofs of
this as well. To say that Jesus Christ is deity
is one thing. That's easy. Anybody can say
anything, right? How will you prove it? How will
you know that Jesus Christ is God? Well, the Scriptures declare
Him to be God. First of all, they declare Him
to be God by title. Flip over to 1 John 5, verse
20. Just a couple of pages. 1 John 5, verse 20. John says, "...and we know that
the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that
we may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true,
even the Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God." Now, you
should mark that. You should mark that down. This
is the true God. An eternal life. Who can be eternal
life but God? Second of all, we know that 1
Timothy 3.16 says, without controversy, without argument, great is the
mystery of godliness, God was manifest in the flesh. God was
manifest in the flesh. So He's given the title of God. He's given the title of Savior.
In Matthew 1.21 it says, And He shall bring forth a Son, and
thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people
from their sins. Not only given the titles of
God, but Jesus Christ is given the properties of God in Scripture. Omnipresence. Do you realize
that Jesus is omnipresent everywhere at once? That's a title only
given to God. In Jeremiah 11, 20, it says that
God knows the... I'm sorry, in Psalm 139, verse
8, it says, I will ascend into heaven and thou art there. I
will make my bed in hell and thou art there. Friends, Jesus
Christ is only God because He's omnipresent. When the Lord Jesus Christ spoke
to Nathanael, you remember that He said this to him, He said,
I saw you when you were under the fig tree. He said, I saw
you when you were praying before Philip came to you. When Jesus Christ gave the promise
to His church, He said, where two or three are gathered in
My name, there I am in the midst of them. How can He be in the
midst of us and in the midst of other churches if He's not
omnipresent? Jesus Christ is omniscient. He
knows all things. How many times did He stump the
Pharisees with His knowledge of what was in their hearts?
Only God can know what's in your heart and your mind. Jesus Christ is omnipotent. He has all power. The Scripture
says, "...our God is in the heavens, and hath done whatsoever He had
pleased." And yet Jesus said, "...all power is given unto Me
in heaven and in earth." He has all power. Jesus Christ is eternal. Only God is eternal. And yet
the Scriptures tell us, Jesus says, "...verily, verily, before
Abraham was, I am." He declares Himself to be the eternal God. Jesus' deity is also proven by
His works. He created all things. The Lord
Jesus, the Scripture says in Colossians 1.16, it says, "...for
by Him were all things created in heaven and in earth, visible
and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities
or powers. All things were created by Him
and for Him. And He is before all things,
and by Him all things consist." Now friends, who created this
world? God did. And yet the Scriptures
declare to us that Christ created the world. Why? He's God. He's God. He's also shown by His miracles.
How many miracles did the Lord Jesus Christ perform? If you remember in our Wednesday
evening messages, we studied in Matthew how He forgave the
sins of that man who was sick of the palsy. And the Pharisees
said, He blasphemeth. Only God can forgive sins. And
Jesus said this, that you may know that the Son of Man hath
power on earth to forgive sins. He said to the sick of the palsy,
Arise, take up thy bed and walk. He had power because He was God. And friends, only God is worshipped. Flip over to Exodus. See this
very carefully. Only God is worshipped. Exodus
chapter 20. Exodus chapter 20 and verse 3. Thou shalt have no other gods
before me. In verse 5, "...thou shalt not
bow down thyself to them, nor serve them, for I am the Lord
thy God, a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon
the children of the third and fourth generation of them that
hate me." Only God can be bowed to. And yet the wise men came
from the East, and what did they do? They worshiped the infant
Christ. The leper came and worshipped
Jesus Christ. The Jairus, one of the rulers
of the Jews, he came when his daughter was sick and he worshipped
Christ. When his disciples saw the risen
from the dead, they bowed themselves down and they worshipped the
risen Christ. Only God can be worshipped. Only
God can be worshipped. Believer in Christ, I want you
to understand that John wrote this so that your joy might be
full. For only God can provide the
righteousness of God. Only God can provide the righteousness
of God. We being sinners by birth, sinners
by choice, unable and unwilling to please God, yet because of
Jesus, Jesus is God, He restored fellowship by His meritorious
righteousness that He earned. Romans 3.22 says, "...even the
righteousness of God, which is by the faithfulness of Jesus
Christ." This should be all our joy, that
our righteousness is not of our own making. Will you stand before God in
your own righteousness? I won't. Will you stand before
God in your own works? Not me. I'm going to stand before
God in His righteousness, in the righteousness of God who
made my righteousness for me. and imputed it to me." Let me
ask you this, who is more faithful to the law of God than God? Who
can be faithful to the law of God but God? May your joy be full, believer
in Christ, because He is God, because Christ is God and there
was no chance of His failure. Had He been any created being,
there would have been a chance of failure. Who here has succeeded in all
your tasks that you've ever been assigned to do? Anybody? Anybody
have complete success in everything? No. Only God is perfect. And only God can perfectly fulfill
righteousness. Was there any chance that Christ
would be hindered in His work? Not if He's God. Therefore, we
believe and hold fast our joy-rest in that God has provided our
righteousness. Number two, His humanity. We not only believe and see that
Jesus Christ is a deity, but John here declares also His humanity. Go back to verse 1. He says,
"...that which was from the beginning, which we have heard and seen
with our eyes and looked on, and our hands have handled."
As I said before, you cannot handle the eternal God. But yet
John says, I did. I handled Him. I touched Him. I know that He's real. And that is because the eternal
Son of God became a man so that He might be a mediator for us. He took upon Himself the form
of human nature so that we might see Him, hear Him, and touch
Him who is the invisible God. Many in John's day, as they denied
the deity, they also denied the humanity of Christ. They thought
there was no way that the perfect God could take upon Him flesh,
because all matter is evil. But friends, Jesus Christ was
made truly a man. Just as much as you and I are
human, Just as much as we are man, even so Jesus Christ took
upon Him all the nature of a man. He was as much God as if He was
not man, and just as much man as if He was not God. The Scriptures declare to us
that He was a man. John said He was made what? Flesh. Flesh. That's why John could
see Him, touch Him, and feel Him. When Jesus was risen, and
He come to His disciples, and they were afraid, what did He
say to them? He said, Behold My hands and My feet, My side. Touch Me and handle Me. For a spirit hath not flesh and
bone as you see Me have. And as a man, he was able then
to suffer. He hungered. He thirsted. The Lord Jesus Christ felt sorrow
and grief. And the greatest witness of his
humanity was his death. Friends, Jesus Christ did not
feign death. But He actually died. John's
sitting at the foot of the cross, seeing the sweat and the blood
drip from his Savior's side. He heard His voice when He said,
It is finished! And He gave up the ghost. He
said, I saw Him die. I'm a witness to that. He was
fully man. He was bone of our bone and flesh
of our flesh. How then can this fill our joy? How then can you be joyful about
His humanity? What about His humanity fills
our assurance? Friends, it was man that lost
that fellowship. It was man that lost the fellowship
by sinning against God. And it must be by man that fellowship
is restored. And so God said, I will become
a man so that I might restore their fellowship, so that I might
be a representative man. And Jesus Christ as a man merited
God's righteousness by His obedience. And hear me, all who believe
on Him have this assurance, that His righteousness has been charged
to our account. His blood that was shed, that
was real blood, the real blood of a real man was shed and bore
the wrath of God in the place of His people. And that righteousness and that
blood was charged to us. He was made sin for us who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Oh, the joy of this, that God
was not willing to impute my sins to me. Instead, He charged them to His
beloved Son, who died as a man in my place, in my stead. And it is by His view, by the
view of this man, that I am assured of my salvation. Jesus Christ, the God-man, is
made the mediator of God's elect, and by His life and by His death,
He has accomplished, He has finished salvation and righteousness and
justification and sanctification and redemption, so that all of
us who believe on Christ might have fellowship with God. Right now, I have fellowship
with God Almighty by this God-man, Jesus Christ, and I am positive
of it. How can I be so sure? Because
I had nothing to do with it. I had nothing to do with it.
He did it all for me. Do you have fellowship with Christ? If you don't, I know this, you
have no joy. You have no joy. You have no
peace. This world to you is nothing more than an empty black hole.
And the more you try to fill your heart, the more the hole
becomes bigger and bigger and it can't be satisfied with anything.
I know this, I'm satisfied. My joy is absolutely and utterly
complete Because I have fellowship with my Maker. And I know this,
when this life ends, I will be ushered into the presence of
God, and He will accept me, He will love me, He will embrace
me, and I will sit at His feet and love Him forever. I know
this. Why? Because my Savior is the
God-man, Mediator, who accomplished my redemption. How then can man
have fellowship with God? Look back in your text, and I
want you to see this in closing. Look at verse 3 again. He says,
"...and that which we have seen, heard, declare we unto you, the
God-man, and that ye may also have fellowship with us." Friends,
in order for you to have fellowship with God, you must first have
fellowship with us. In other words, you must believe
the gospel that we believe. If you don't believe the gospel
we believe, you have no fellowship with us and surely you have no
fellowship with God. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ,
that God became man. As man, he accomplished redemption,
and by his blood he paid for sin, and he comes and he gives
salvation to all who believe on his name." That's joy and
that's peace. Anything else is nothing more
than an optical illusion. Do you have joy? You do if you have Christ. If
you have not Christ, you have no joy. John says, he that believeth
on the Son hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. Do you have fellowship with God?
I do. And my joy is found only in the person of Christ. I pray
this be a blessing to your hearts. Let's stand and we'll be dismissed
in prayer.