1 John chapter 1, and our text
will be found in verse 3. The title of my message this
morning, A Declaration. A Declaration. Now every week
I come here and I strive to preach the gospel to you. I give you
all that I have been given of the Lord for you. Every week
I come and I expound the Word of God and preach Jesus Christ
to you as best that I can. With all of my strength, all
of my passion, and all that I have, I give unto you to hear the gospel
every week. And after each service, Wednesday
and Sunday, after each service, I've always found this to be
true. When I get done preaching, I
feel like I am spent, like I have no strength whatsoever. I have
nothing left. I feel empty. I feel like the people of Israel
in the day when they had manna. They had manna for the day. And
they had to trust the Lord for the next batch. And so therefore,
every Thursday and every Monday, I'm back to square one, zero,
nothing. I'm empty. I'm empty. And I must wait for the Lord
to give me a message. Now, I know where the message
is going to come from, and I know who the message is going to be
about, but I just don't know where I'm going to find it. And
God instructs me and gives me a message. There are times I've
thought, I've had this, and man, that's a message. I know I got
that one. I got that one. Sure enough, after Sunday, I'm
going to start working on that one, and that's going to be it.
And sure enough, by the end of time, I'm out of time, and that's
not the message. But God has always been faithful.
God has always been faithful to give me a message, something
about His Son to declare unto you. Always been faithful. And I feel this week the text
that the Lord has given me is 1 John 1 verse 3. And here it
is, "...that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you."
that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you." First of
all, I want us to look at this passage of Scripture by two ways,
two things. What does He declare? He says He declares unto us something.
What are we to declare? What am I to declare unto you? Second of all, what is the purpose
of this declaration? What's the purpose of declaring
this message, this thing that we are to declare, this statement
that we are to make? What is the purpose behind what
we do? Let's go right into it. What
does He declare or what am I to declare unto you? Look at this.
Read this. He says, "...what we have seen
and heard." That's what He declares unto us. What He has both seen
and heard. You see, the Apostle John was
an eye and an ear witness to the message. He was an eye and
ear witness to the message to the person and work of Jesus
Christ. That's what he witnessed. John
says, I did not get this message from another. I was an eye and
an ear witness to this one man, Jesus Christ. That's who I heard,
and that's who I got the message from, and that message that He
gave me, I will declare unto you. That's the only message
worth declaring. He said, I didn't get it from
men, I didn't get a vision, I didn't have a dream, I didn't have an
epiphany, I heard it directly from Him. This is not a hearsay
message. You ever try to do that? Talk
about, you know, pass a message from one person to the next person
to the next person. When it gets to the end, you
know the message is all messed up. It's all messed up. That
grapevine message just don't work. You see, this message I
declare is the same message John declared that he heard from Jesus
Christ Himself. It's not a hearsay message. This
is something that was witnessed. This is real. And what did he
witness? What did he see? What did he
hear? that He's going to declare unto us. First of all, He's going
to declare the Person of Jesus Christ. He does this in both
His letters, doesn't He? In His Gospel and in this one,
He begins much the same way. Let's look at that. Look at verse
1. 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 the Word of life. John chapter 1. How does
that begin? It says, 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. You see, He begins in the beginning. He says, this
One that we heard, He was from the beginning. From the beginning. This is the Word of God, which
He heard, the living Word. How can John make such a declaration? How could he do that? How could
he make such a declaration to say, this man that he heard,
this one that he's seen, how could he make such a declaration
as he makes in those two chapters, the first chapter of this book
and the first chapter of the Gospel of John, declaring this
man to be God? Because that's what he's saying. John says, I declare unto you,
Jesus is God and none other. How do you know, John? I saw
Him and I heard Him. I know, I saw Him. I witnessed
this man. But see, we don't have to speculate
about what John heard, do we? John recorded for us what he
heard. He heard Jesus say Himself that He was God. John chapter
8. Verse 56 to 58, you can write
it down and read it all later. This was the message where he
was talking to the Pharisees and they were boasting in Abraham's
seat. And Jesus said this, Abraham
rejoiced to see my day and saw it and was glad. And they asked
him, they said, how in the world do you know Abraham? You're not
50 years old and you know Abraham? What was his response? Before
Abraham was, I am. I am! He said it! I am God! That's what He said. That's why
the Jews picked up stones to throw them at Him. Because they
knew this was the name of God that He used with Moses at the
burning bush when He said, tell them that I am has sent thee. So before Abraham was, Jesus
Himself declared, I am! So the message I declare to you
is the message of this man, Jesus, who is God Himself. I'm not talking
about just any man. I'm talking about God. He is
God. That's the message we declare.
John chapter 5, 17 through 18. The Jews sought to kill Him again.
He said, why did you kill Me? He said, because you said God
was your Father, you made yourself equal with God. When we say the
Son of God, it's not like I'm talking about Andrew my son.
It's not the same relationship. You see, God the Son is equal
with God the Father and God the Spirit. They are one and they
are equal in will, in power, and in purpose. And at this time,
the Son of God humbled Himself. to this state of being under
the Father. You see, He humbled Himself for us, not for His own
purposes. He didn't need a righteous, we
did. Jesus declared in John 10, 30-33, He said, I and My Father
are one. Now, does that get any plainer? I
can't make it any plainer. Then to say this, Jesus is God. That's what I declare to you
this morning. Jesus is God. My friend, Jesus
who John heard and saw is the eternal Son of God. He is the
Son of God. equal in will and power and purpose
with the Spirit. He that was from the beginning,
I declare Him unto you. He who made all things by the
word of His power and upholds all things by the word of His
power is the same Jesus whom John both saw and heard." Do
you realize that if Jesus Christ were to think it, And I use that
loosely because I really don't understand the full power of
this. The world and the universe would
come apart. That's all he would have to do
is mum the word and just it would be gone. He has all power, whole
power. He is God. He created all things. And there are some people in
John's day, as well as our day, and I want you to be aware of
them. I want you to take note of them. They are ones that either
declare one of two heresies. That Jesus is not God, but He
was a good man. That's a heresy. That's a lie
and a heresy. John says, I know He was from
the beginning. I saw Him. You have a witness. You have more than one. John,
Paul, all of the apostles, they heard and saw Him. Paul says,
I didn't get my message from any other. I got my message directly
from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Some false preachers will tell
you that He was only a man. Oh no, my friend, more than a
man. He was God. He was God. Then there are some
men on the opposite end of the spectrum who will tell you that
Jesus Christ was God, but He wasn't man. Oh, God came down alright, but
you see, He didn't have a body like we had a body. You see,
He had some kind of spiritual body, they'll say. Oh no, my
friend, the Scriptures are very plain. John says this, we not
only heard Him, We not only saw Him, but He says, our hands have
handled. He said, I touched His flesh. I know He was real. And Jesus Himself at the resurrection,
what did He tell His disciples? He said, touch me. See that a
spirit hath not flesh and bone as you see me have. He was truly
God, but He was also truly man. He was truly man. He was bone
of our bone and flesh of our flesh. He felt the pains you
feel. In tenfold He felt them. Whatever
you feel and I feel, He felt them tenfold what we feel. He felt them all. That He might
be a merciful and faithful high priest. It behooved Him to be
made like of the seed of Abraham. He was a man. He was in the flesh. And He'd come in some spirit.
John says, I touched Him. I leaned on His breast. Think of that. Isn't that something?
Isn't that something that one day we too will be able to touch
and feel Him? That we too can lean our head
on His chest. When it's our day to go and to
be with Him, He will stand at the right hand of God with His
arms outstretched as He did to Stephen. And He said, come here.
Come here. And we too will be able to hold
Him and to love Him. But as of now, we believe God.
And we believe God's Word that He was truly God and truly man.
Truly God and truly man. I declare you the message of
God which was witnessed of John. He hath humbled himself and that
God came into flesh." John says this, every man that
confesses that Jesus Christ has not come into flesh is a liar.
Isn't that clear? That's just plain and simple.
I love the Bible because the best commentary on the Bible
is the Bible itself. It's pretty simple. Anyone that confesses that he
has not come in the flesh is not of God. You see, to confess
he came in the flesh is to confess where he came from. Isn't it? It's to confess both his deity
and his humanity. I confess both of them because
John was a witness of it. I confess and I believe His Word
because this is the Word that God gave John. You see, this
message came from that same man, that God-man that I just told
you about. This Book is His Book. This Book is His and He has given
us His Word. And I believe it. I rest on it. My soul depends on it. And so
does yours. So does yours. Dear children, reject anyone
who comes with such heresies, no matter what good they do.
I don't care if they're real do-gooders and they feed everybody
and clothe everyone. I don't care. They're liars. And they do not the truth. Believe
only those that confess Him to be God and man. Confess Him to be God and man.
Let the others be accursed, Paul said. Let them go to hell. Let
the blind lead the blind. They'll both fall in the ditch.
Leave them alone. Don't have anything to do with
them. They'll both fall in the ditch of hell. So this is the
message that we declare. We declare His person, who He
is. Second of all, John declares
the message is Jesus Christ. Look at verse 5. Here's the message. John says this, this then is
the message which we have heard of Him. Who? The God-man. This
is the message we've heard of Him. That God is light and in Him
is no darkness at all. That in Him is no darkness at
all. You see, God the Son came down from heaven and took upon
Himself the form of a servant. And being found in fashion as
a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. The Son of God humbled Himself
and gave us the message of God. You see, if He had not come,
we would have not had the message. If He had not come, there would
not have been a message for any man upon the face of this earth
had Christ not come. But He has. But He has. And He has left His message.
And what is this message? It is the message that God is
light and in Him is no darkness at all. In John 8.26, Jesus said
this, I have many things to judge of you. Did He judge them at that time?
But he said, no, I am not sent to judge. Why? Because he humbled himself. He
had the right to judge. He could have condemned the world
and cast us all into hell and done right by doing so, couldn't
he? He could have done that. He could
have judged immediately. But no, he did not. Praise God,
he did not. Praise God, he didn't. Why did
he not judge? He tells us in John 8, 26, he
says, because I have come with a message from the Father. He
says, I have come to tell you the message of God. And this
is the message that John heard, that God is light. And in Him is no darkness at
all. God is light and in Him is no
darkness at all. You see, the message of God always
begins with God, doesn't it? It always begins with God. Man
likes to begin the message like this. Well, I, me, I, me, let
me do this and then God will do this. If I can just do this,
I know God will then react to what I have done. No, the message
doesn't begin with you. The message begins with God.
And what does God say about Himself? You see, that's the important
thing. What does God say about Himself? Because we don't know
God. We don't know anything about
Him. We have ideas and they're all wrong. But God knows who
He is and He tells us who He is. And this is who He is. He's light. And no darkness at
all. What does that mean? He's light. What is that talking about? That
He's light and no darkness in Him. My friend, this is stating
God's holy perfections. Jesus came declaring God to be
holy and manifested by His life. He did it by walking in front
of men. You see, He could not be convinced
of sin. Because there was no sin in Him.
John says, I saw Him. I walked with Him three years
and there was no sin in this man. God is light and He's holy. He's holy. There's no darkness
in Him at all. That means there's no sin. It
also means that God doesn't change. Since I've been here a year and
a half, I've saw you change. And I know you've seen me change.
Why? We change. We're changing people. God doesn't
change. Whatever God said yesterday,
He says today and He says forever. He doesn't change. You see, God
always loved me. He always loved me. Will He ever
change? No. He won't ever change. He don't have any variableness
nor shadow turning with Him. He's light, no darkness at all.
He's without sin or error and everything He does is right.
See that God is light. And why is this important? Why
is it important for us to know that God is light? What is the
purpose of this message? Why is this the message? Because we are darkness and no
light at all. That's right. You and I are born
darkness with no light. We have no light in us at all.
No holiness in us at all. We are all as unworthy, worthless
creatures. When you walk into a room, is
darkness good for you? Do you like that? You like to
walk into a dark room and try to walk around. What good is
darkness? It doesn't do anything for you.
It only makes you stumble and fall and hurt yourself. That's
exactly what we are. Staggering blindly through this
world, groping at everything and grasping nothing. Darkness. All men are darkness. And hear
me right now as I declare the message of God unto each and
every person sitting in this building, to my children and
your children and everyone here. We all will stand before this
God. You will stand before this God. You will have to do with this
God. I'm not talking about a weak,
effeminate God who has no power. I'm talking about the God of
all power. And He will judge you. He will
judge me. We will stand before Him. Understand. Know this. In Him is no darkness. And when you stand before Him,
if He finds the least shade of darkness in you, He will cast
you into outer darkness. That is what we declare. That
is the truth that we receive from Christ. Think about the Son on the cross. Think about God's Son. And I
want you to picture what God did to His own Son. Will He have mercy on you? I think not. If darkness is found
in you, He will kill you forever. That's a promise. All men are darkness. Let me
ask this. Can darkness dwell with light?
Is it possible? Is it possible for darkness to
dwell with light? Wherever there is light, there
is no darkness. Wherever there is light, there
is no darkness. When you walk into a dark room
and you flip on the switch, where does darkness go? Can darkness stand before light? Is it possible? Is it possible
for darkness to say, no, I will not go? No, it's foolish to think
that darkness would stay in the presence of light. And how foolish
do you think you are that you will stand before God without
perfect light? We cannot stand before God without
perfect light. God will not allow it. If He
allowed us to stand who are darkness and perfect light, He Himself
would be tainted with sin. But the Scripture says, in Him
is no darkness at all and there never will be. Jesus was the man of perfect
light. Even His enemies knew this. He
alone is the Word of God and He alone is eternal life. And
I declare to you this day, Jesus Christ, the Word of God, and
in Him is life and light. Do you want to be light? Do you
want to stand before God? The only hope is to stand in
the light. What happens when you stand in
the light? Where does darkness go? It cannot do anything but flee. And when we stand in Christ by
faith, my friends, we stand in the light. We stand in the light. You see, because He honored God's
law that you and I would not do and we could not do, He honored
it! He made it perfect! Did he do that for himself? I
just told you he was God. I just told you who he was. And
in him is no darkness at all. So then how could, why did he
come? He didn't do this for himself,
but he did this for God's elect. He is the only life for men. There is no light apart from
Him. And if you are standing outside of Christ this morning,
you are darkness, and in you is no light. Ah, but if we stand
in Christ by faith, this is our standing before God. You are
light. You are light. In Christ, we
are made the light that's able to stand before God. And I'll tell you this, my friends,
if you have life only here in this body, I pity you. I pity
you. If this is all you got, I really
pity you. Some people look at me and they
say, oh, I pity him. He's in that religion, you know,
and he can't do all the things that I do. I don't want to. I don't want him. You can have
him. That's not living. How many people has God set before
our face and given men for our lives so that we could see the
foolishness of sin of this world and the things of this world?
Can you not look at Hollywood and see that? How many of men
has God given everything to and you watch them and they get into
their sin and they tell you, I want to have everything and
God gives it to them. They usually end up dying all
burnt out or they end up killing themselves, one of the two. That's what you want by all means. Have at it. If you think that's
living, go right ahead. That's not living. My friend, that's death. The things of this world only
bring sorrow and death. That's it. But the only one that
I declare unto you that will give you life is Jesus Christ. You can't earn it, you can't
merit it, and He doesn't give it based on who we are. He gives
it only to whomsoever He wills. Maybe He'll give it to someone
here, I don't know. Maybe He won't. I don't know. But I declare this message unto
you and this is the only way it'll come. The only way it'll
come is if God uses this word that I'm speaking to you and
touches your heart and gives you life. I declare unto you Jesus who
is light." John says this in verse 520, he says, We know the
Son of God has come and has given us understanding that we may
know Him that is true and we are in Him that is true. Are you in Him that is true?
Are you in the Son of God? If you are, God says, you're
light. You're light and not darkness. Are you in the Son? Have you
been given understanding? Have you been resurrected? See,
I'm not talking about academic understanding. There's altogether
a difference between academically knowing Jesus Christ and all
the things about Him than it is to really have Him. It's a
difference. You see, I've not just been given
a good education. I've been given life. It's altogether different. Altogether
different. Did He come down and resurrect
your soul? If He did, you have life. You
have life. If He did not, you don't have
life. I declare that Jesus Christ is
God manifest in the flesh, and in Him is no darkness. And He
alone honored God's law, and he suffered under the wrath of
God in the place of his elect whom he chose." This matter of
election gets people all riled up. It's really quite simple. You see, did God save men on
accident or did He save them on purpose? If He saved them on accident,
then free will is right. But if He saved them on purpose,
then He chose them on purpose. He redeemed them on purpose.
He called them on purpose. And He will bring them home on
purpose. And that's exactly what the Scripture tells us. Romans
8, 28, For all things work together for good to them who love God,
to them who are called according to His... Accident? According
to His purpose. He saved us on purpose. And if
God will save you, I guarantee you, He'll save you on purpose. He calls us and His call is effectual. Have you been called to faith
in Christ? Not called to a decision? Not
been scared into repentance? I'm not trying to scare anyone.
I'm not trying to trick you. Because as soon as you walk out
of this building, if God doesn't touch your heart, you'll walk
away the same way you came in. No, but God will touch you. Oh, if God will touch you, then you'll be saved. Then you'll
be saved. If God will do it. I declare
the message of Jesus Christ, the only hope, and God will call
you, He has also called you. And if He's called you, He's
also justified you. And if He's justified you, He's
also glorified you. Isn't that wonderful? There's
no hope of being lost. Praise God. Praise God. If you have heard this message,
then this message will bring you joy and peace. When I tell you of the blessed
Savior dying for your sins, does that not bring you joy? When
John says, He cleanses us from all sin, that's like a breath of fresh
air to me. It's like a spring flowing in my heart because I
need perpetual cleansing. I need it always. brings me such
joy. And this is the reason why we
preach the gospel. This is the purpose. Number two,
we know who He is. We know His person. We know His
work. We know that He is light and no darkness in Him at all.
We know that only by Christ, only by His blood and righteousness
can a man have life and He comes to whomsoever He will and gives
it to whomsoever He will by His free and sovereign grace. We
know that. I declare that unto you. What's the purpose of me
declaring this unto you? What's the reason that I do this
every week? Every Sunday? Every time during Sunday school?
Every time during worship service? Every time during Wednesday night?
Why do I do this again and again and again? What's the purpose?
Well, John tells us the purpose. Look back at our text. That which
we have seen and heard declare we unto you. Here it is. That. In order that. You also may have
fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father
and with the Son. And these things write we unto
you, that your joy may be full." Two things. That you might have fellowship
with us. And that your joy might be full.
I declare this so that you might have fellowship with us and that
your joy might be full." Most people who don't believe
in election ask the question, if God has chosen a people and
God will save only those people, why do you preach? Why do you
declare this message? What's the purpose, preacher?
If God's going to save them and He's doing it on purpose, then
why in the world would you do this? What is the purpose of
us being here? Well, God that has purposed all
things also purposed the means by which He will accomplish those
things, and this is the means by which He has purposed to save
His people, and that is by the preaching of the gospel. We were
going over this in Sunday school earlier this morning. I like
books. I like tracts. Good books are
really good to have. But my friends, the way God saves
people is by this method that we are doing this morning. A
man sent of God, given a message by God to declare to you. That's
how God saves people. All these other instruments God
may use in certain means to get someone under the sound of the
gospel. But it is only by the sound of the gospel that God
saves men. That's it. Anyone here have someone
who doesn't know the gospel? Then my friends, I urge you to
ask them to come. Because this is where God saves
people. This is how God saves people. If you are going to be
saved, if your children are going to be saved, they must be under
the sound of the gospel. Or you're killing your own offspring. They must be here. They won't
be saved anywhere else. It must be. This is the means
God has chosen by the foolishness of preaching. God is pleased
to save them which believe. Therefore, I preach with great
confidence in the message of Jesus Christ. And you know what?
I never stand up here in vain. I never preach in vain. How can
I know that? How can I be so confident of
that? Every time I stand up here, every time I preach Jesus Christ
and Him crucified, I know this, it is not empty. It always accomplishes
something. Always. Every time. 1 Thessalonians
2, 1, Paul writes this, For you yourselves, brethren, know that
our entrance end unto you, that it is not in vain. Paul said later in that chapter,
my labor, I didn't labor in vain. I didn't labor in vain. I didn't
preach this gospel to you in vain. Every time I preach the
gospel, it is always doing exactly what God wants it to do. God
says this, My Word shall not return unto me void,
but shall accomplish whatever I send it to do." What is that? What does God send
His Word to do? There's two things that is going
to happen here today, right now, with you, personally. Personally,
each and every one of you will go away from this with something.
I guarantee you. God has determined it. It will
happen. What two things will happen?
What one of two things will happen? Go to 2 Corinthians 2. Flip over to 2 Corinthians 2.
I want you to see what's going to happen when you leave this
building today. To each one of you. Something's going to happen,
but what is it? 2 Corinthians 2. It's in Corinthians chapter 2
and verse 15. Now this Scripture gives me great
comfort, because I know that I am anything but the best preacher. I am the least of all the saints
of God to preach the gospel. I know that. Recognize it, all
my faults. But this gives me great comfort.
Look at what Paul says in verse 15. For we, preachers, called
of God to preach the gospel, we are unto God a sweet savor
of Christ always. I am always a sweet savor of
God unto Christ every time I preach. Why? Because I'm always preaching
His Son. Preaching anything else is worthless. I preach Christ.
I preach Him because He's worthy and God loves it. And God says,
I'm a sweet saver to him. Look at this in verse 15, continue
on. In them which are saved, I'm a sweet saver of God. I'm
still a sweet saver of God to you that believe. And look at
this, and in them that perish. Now it doesn't say that I'm a
sweet saver to you. I'm a sweet saver to God when
I preach to them that are saved and to them that perish. I'm
still a sweet saver regardless of what you are. Whether you're
a believer or not, I have no point in that. I cannot do anything
about that. But look what happens. To one,
now he's talking to the people who are saved or perish. To the
one, To the unsaved, to them that perish, this is what I am. I am a saver of death unto death. And to them that are saved, I'm
a saver of life unto life. Who is sufficient for such things? This morning, I will be a saver
of life unto life to you that believe. What is a saver? It's a smell. There's nothing
better than a sweet smell, is there? But there's nothing worse
than a bad smell, right? Has anybody ever smelt a dead
carcass? It stinks. And some of you, this
message I preach is a savor of death and it smells to you and
you don't love it, you hate it. I'm a saver to you, alright,
but it's a saver of death. But to you that believe, I'm
a saver of life unto life." In other words, every time this
message goes forth, the message of Jesus Christ, you will either
come to fellowship with us, or you will walk out of this building
harder than when you came in. Your heart will be harder than
when you came in the building. Something happened to you. You
will go away hating this message even more today than you did
yesterday if God doesn't do something for you. If God doesn't bring
you into the fellowship of His dear Son, you will never, never,
never, never love this message. But if He has, I declare this
message unto you that your joy might be full." Smell the savor of life, believers. It is the fragrance of your Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. One day we shall really, really
enter into His presence and that smell of life will be so precious. We have that in a little vial
now. Earthen vessels. Men, who God
pours this savor into, and I pour it out to you every week. And
you that love Christ, you love it. It is a joy to have fellowship
with you. And truly, our fellowship is
not just with each other. We're not a social club. We're
not a social club, are we? We're not trying to entice you
to come in and join the party. No. But my friends, we are truly,
our fellowship is with God. Do you have fellowship with God? If you do, then you have fellowship with
us. And truly, we all fellowship together around God and His Son,
Jesus Christ. Why do I declare this message?
I declare this message because God said so. This is the way
God saves sinners, and this is the way God feeds His people.
I pray that the Lord will bless this to our hearts this morning,
that God would fill us with Himself. And that some that do not know
Him may come to know Him. That is the reason why we declare
this message. And my friends, this message
is never in vain. It always does exactly what God
sends it to do. And praise God, He's determined
to save some. Praise God, He's determined to
save this rich. And not only saved me, He called
me to preach. What an honor! And I pray for you, that this might be a joy to your hearts. Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God,
the Prince of Peace, the Great I Am, My Lord, my Savior and
my God. I pray that you can say that.
Let's have the men come forward for the Lord's Supper.