If you would, please turn to
1 John. 1 John. What I have planned for today,
now you know about plans, right? Okay, they never survive contact
with the enemy. But what I have planned today
is to give an introduction to the first epistle of John. just an overall introduction,
which basically is the first chapter and the first two verses
of the second chapter. I'm just gonna kinda hit the
highlights before I get into what I wanna do. Because eventually,
what I wanna go with is a sermon entitled We Know Him. We Know Him. As I said a couple
of weeks ago, I believe the key theme of the book, this epistle
of John, the first epistle of John, is about knowledge. And it's about our knowledge
of God and of Christ and of his spirit that he has given to us. It's a book of great assurance
to believers. And I believe this epistle was
given for our knowledge. 22 verses in four chapters of
this book, because you won't see this in the first chapter.
The first chapter, like I said, is basically introduction leading
up to this. But 22 times in four chapters,
first John two through five, you will find the word know.
Now most of the time it's listed as we know. But it's also listed as ye know. And guess what? It's the same
people. It's the same people. But this John is continuously
writing. If you wanna go through, we can
do what Earl used to say. Go through the book of 1 John
and just underline every time you come to the place we know.
It's everywhere in this book. Because I understand what you've
heard the saying, right? Knowledge is power, okay? And
there's a certain amount of truth to that when you're dealing with
the world. I do believe when you're dealing with the world,
knowledge is better than ignorance. Okay? But that's not what John's
gonna be talking about here. Not in this epistle. Because
as far as God is concerned, knowledge is not power. God is power. God is power. And what we know,
And more importantly, who we know is because of the power
of God. God gives knowledge and understanding,
and he gives it to his people. Because anyone and anything we
know of God is a gift of God, and it comes down from above,
from the Father of Lights. We are to study, we do study,
and we are to study to show ourselves approved, a workman that needeth
not to be ashamed, and who we know and what we know is a gift
of the Son of God. I want to make this clear from
the start. Because this is where John starts this epistle. In
1 John 1 and 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, of the word of life. Who's that? That's Jesus Christ. He's the word of life. That's
who this epistle is about. Now I'm gonna go into it and
there's gonna be a lot of things that we know. And most of all
we know him, first and foremost. Believers know him. But here's
the thing, this is an epistle of the revelation of Jesus Christ.
This is an epistle of Christ. And that's where John starts
it out. That which was from the beginning, whoa, in the beginning
was the word. And the word was with God and
the word was God. which we have heard, which we
have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and this
is amazing, and our hands have handled. John leaned upon his
breast at the last supper 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. John starts off speaking of Jesus
Christ. And he's gonna continue on through
the whole epistle. We declare unto you who we have
seen the word of life. Our fellowship, verse three,
is, 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 then this great statement.
And these things write we unto you that your joy may be full. Your joy may be full. John's not writing to put anyone
down. John is writing to lift up the
children of God. John is writing to uplift and
comfort what you read this morning, David. Comfort one another with
these words. There's no better word to be
comforted by than the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the
words about our Lord Jesus Christ. and there's no way your joy can
be full without Jesus Christ. It's not possible. Then verse five says this. This
then is the message which we have heard of him and declare
unto you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship
with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light as
he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood
of Christ, his son, cleanseth us from all sin. That's a comfort. What's it mean to be in the light
and to walk in the light? To be in the light, you're in
him. He's the light. What did he just say? This is
the message. God is light. And in him is no
darkness at all. To walk in the light is to walk
in God, to walk in Jesus Christ, to walk in our Lord that we have
been given to believe and love and trust him. And we have fellowship
with the Father. What did Paul say in Ephesians
5a? And you sometimes who were darkness, what? Now, now, right
now. If you believe right now, ye
are light in the Lord. You're not light in and of yourselves.
I'm not light in and of myself. But in him, I'm light. Ah, I like that, I like that.
Because God is the light. God is the perfect illumination. And when God's light shines on
us, he sees the sun, his sun, our Lord Jesus Christ. Ah, I
like that, I do. But then, And here comes the
part of the introduction that I wanted to get to. After all this, the word of life and the life
manifested in which we've seen and we declare unto you in the
fellowship with us and the fellowship with the Father and the Son that
your joy may be full. And this is that message, God
is light, in Him is no darkness. And if we have fellowship with
Him, we walk in the light. As He is in the light, we have
fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ
and His Son cleanses us from all sin. And then comes these
three strange verses here that just kind of throw it in here,
and it just really doesn't seem like it fits. 1 John 1 and verse
8, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the
truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned,
we make him a liar and his word is not in us. That's not exactly the most uplifting
message in the world. But it's the truth of God. Every
single word of it. And we go from declaring Christ
to what happens when we walk in fellowship, when we walk in
the light, as he is in the light, and we have fellowship one with
another, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. Now,
John is very clear here. He is describing the difference
between sin in you and sin's actions, the result of what's
in you. He's very clear. Believers know
both. They know sin, their own interior,
nature, of sin that's in them, and they know their sins. And that's thoughts, that's words,
that's deeds. Which pretty much covers the
whole gamut of actions. Why does he put this here? Because John is putting this
here because he wants us to remember and to know Even as we walk in
the light, we are no better and just exactly the same as that
publican that Christ heard pray, that he said went home justified.
He said, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. The sinner. The sinner. A lot of people don't understand
the difference between sin and sins. Just like they don't understand
the difference ungodliness and unrighteousness. Because it's
the same thing. We're unrighteous because we're
ungodly. See, people have this tendency
to think you become ungodly because you commit unrighteousness. They
think you become a sinner because you sin. And that's exactly the
opposite of what John is saying here and what this whole scripture
says. We commit sins because we are sinners. There's a difference
between what we are and what we do. Our Lord Jesus Christ
preached it this way to some. He said, out of the abundance
of the heart, the mouth speaks. What's that mean? Well, it's
in you and it's gonna come out. That's what it means. And it's
not just your mouth. It's what you do and it's what
you think. The whole man is corrupt. The
old man is nothing but corruption. That's why we needed a new man.
If any man be in Christ, he is what? A new creature. And Paul
in Romans 7 is clear. If you wanna read what he says,
he's very clear. In my flesh there is no good
thing. Anything good that I have has
come down from the Father of lights. It's his spirit, it's his spirit. But I remember years ago being
scared of my sin and my sins. Now I
can't swear to you, I don't know that I knew the difference. I knew that I personally, I thought
I was in trouble. I remember thinking that if something
doesn't happen to Mason, I'm going to hell. And I knew that. And now I can look back on it
and understand the fact that I was worried about me, what
I was. Now I was worried about what
I was doing also, but I also was worried about what I was,
what I am. But then later on, I read this
in the scripture. Paul wrote this. He says, and
you have not received again the spirit of bondage unto fear.
What fear? The fear of the Lord. We've not received it again.
But that's where I started. And that's where John's starting
here. Because if you believe Christ, if you know Christ, you
are to know your sin and your sins, both. And if we confess
our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned,
we make him a liar. Now, you don't actually make
him a liar, you're just calling him a liar. Because he said all
have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And his word
is not in us. The first part says, if we say
that we have no sin, if we have no sin nature, if there's nothing
evil in us, What's it say? We deceive ourselves. You understand? You might deceive
others too, but that part don't matter. If you think you don't
have a sinful nature, you're deceiving yourself. And I can tell you this, if you
wanna tell me that, you ain't deceiving me, Mason. You ain't
fooling me, Mack, because I know this scripture. And I know me,
and I know others who have witnessed to the testimony of this word,
that this word's true. You're deceiving yourself. And
now here's the thing. If you're deceived, you don't
know you're deceived. There are people who sincerely
believe that they are good all throughout. I can't stand to
be around them. But they're out there. I'm being facetious with that.
But this is the whole thing. This is the word of God also.
It's not, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten
son and that's all true. When Christ was on the cross
and said, it is finished, that's all true. and every bit of it
was finished for who he meant it for. For what his work was,
his work was complete there on that cross that he did. But this
is also just as true, if you say you have no sin, you deceive
yourself. And the truth is not in us. It's serious, that's serious. And if we say we have not sinned,
you're calling God a liar. And what? And his word is not
in us. So what's John telling us here?
Believers know their sin and they know their sins. And if
you don't know your sin and you don't know your sins, both, you
might wanna make your calling an election short. you might
need to examine yourself. Because if you don't think you
have a sinful nature, you're deceiving yourself. You ain't
fooling anybody else that knows the truth. Now you might fool
some really good church people. You might fool the religious,
you might fool the secular. I mean you, well I'm not gonna
go into that, but that's not the part that matters.
And if you can't fool me, you can't fool God. Come on. You deceive yourself. You deceive
yourself. And if we say we have not sinned,
we make him a liar and his word is not in us. Remember that fear of the Lord? Proverbs 1 and verse 7 says the
fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. But fools, but
fools despise wisdom and instruction. Proverbs 9 and 10 says the fear
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And the knowledge
of the holy is understanding. And I got tickled, I looked up
that word wisdom and knowledge, I wanted to make sure it was
two different words, and it is. But the word wisdom in Proverbs
9 and 10, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The
definition of that, according to Strong's concordance is, it
means wisdom. In a good sense. I like that. This is wisdom in a good sense.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom in a good sense. Now
why would Strong put that? Well, here's the thing. There's
a wisdom that ain't good. There's a wisdom that is not
good sense. The wisdom of this world will
not profit you in the least. Not when it comes to the things
of God. It may profit you in this world.
You can be extremely successful, well-respected. They might call
upon you to give commencement addresses because you're so well-respected
for your wisdom. But if you don't know God, you
don't know wisdom. You don't know wisdom. But here's
what John's saying. Through all this, Our knowledge of our sin and
our sins comes first. We receive the spirit of bondage
unto fear before. We don't receive the spirit of
bondage again to fear. After that, it says, we received
the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Fear comes first and then knowledge. Because, let me tell you, I'll
put it this way. The spirit of bondage to fear
is always followed by the spirit of adoption or it's not the spirit
of bondage under fear. What do you mean? What I mean
by that is, it's not just fear. It's the fear of the Lord. There
are a lot of fearful people around who are scared of their own shadow,
whatever, scared of everything. They're scared of crowds. I don't
like being around crowds sometimes. They bother me. I can do it,
but I don't necessarily like it. But it's not just the fact
that you're in fear, it's the fear of the Lord. It's the fear of the Lord. And here's the other thing, what
we wanna say. Because here, it continues on,
chapter two and verse one and two, it says, my little children,
these things write I unto you that ye sin not. And if any man
sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous. And he is a propitiation for
our sins and not for our sins only, but also for The whole
world. Here's the good news. You know your sin. You know your
sins. Jesus Christ came to save sinners. Here's more good news. Jesus
Christ came to call sinners to repentance. Isn't that a marvelous
thing? Now we see why John started out
here. I mean, because here it is, verse
four, and these things write we unto you that your joy may
be full. And then he goes into know your
sin and know your sins. Your joy can't be full unless
you know your sin and your sins. Isn't that about the strangest
way of putting it? Only those who know their sin
and their sins can have a joy of the Lord. A joy that is full. I think that's just amazing.
Because that is the exact opposite of what this world thinks. Which
God always is. It is, God always is the exact
opposite, especially what the religious world thinks. But even
the secular world. Because the world, religious
and secular, want you to think wonderful thoughts about yourself
and everybody else. Oh, my personal favorite to use
as an example is this. You've ever heard this statement?
I am somebody. Come on now. You say it with
me. I am somebody. The world, religious and secular,
is concerned with your self-esteem. They want you to have a great
self-esteem, or at least a good self-esteem. And I understand
that, as far as the world's concerned. You understand? But you have
to remember, and believers need to remember especially, that's
just one worm bragging against another worm, or bragging to
another worm. You understand? Self-esteem has
worm value. Okay? Maggot value, if you want
to call it that. Getting really mean. But here's the thing. Never,
never, ever try to extend your self-esteem to Godward, because
it won't wash. It does not work. Because our self-worth, my self-worth,
means absolutely nothing to the God who created the heavens and
the earth, and he rules and reigns therein. Scriptures are clear. All of
mankind, is less than a drop in the bucket. All of mankind,
everybody put together, all of us, alive now and times past,
are less than the small dust of the balance. You know the
teeter-totter balance. You put something here and you
put a little way over, there's a little dust on there, it don't change
how the thing moves. And that's all of us together.
So what's that make? I am somebody. No, I am nothing. On God's sight, not in and of
myself. If God even sees me, the only
reason he sees me is because he sees his son. Those that believe him know this
and, and have the joy of fellowship with him. You can't have any fellowship
with him if you don't know your sin and your sins. You can't
have any joy unless you know your sin and your sins because
we don't get a whole grasp of it by any means. But God, how do I put this? God makes it for you to see your
place and your self-worth. And the reason God lets you see
a little bit of what you are is to elevate his son even higher
in your eyes. Because his son came down here
and lived his life right here and did everything perfectly.
Never sinned in thought, word, or deed. Kept the law perfectly. the law that I break daily. He kept the commandments perfectly,
the commandments that I break daily. He is way above us. And we aren't even on the ground,
we're under the ground. Worms and maggots, that's what
he uses to describe us. But we believers have fellowship
with him. That's an amazing thought. We're
in the light because he put us in the light. And we walk in the light because
he put us in the light. And he leads and he guides our
footsteps. That's the good news. Jesus Christ
came to save sinners. Worms and maggots. Jesus Christ
came to call those sinners to repentance. The question is,
are you a sinner? Are you a sinner? And that never goes away. Earl used to say it. He said,
I was brave, I am depraved, and I shall be depraved till I awaken
his likeness. Well, I can say it this way.
I was a sinner, I am a sinner, and I'll always be a sinner until
I awaken his likeness. We ought to remember the pit
from which you're digged. Now Walter said you don't hang
around. Don't run around the edge till you fall in. Don't
go back, but don't forget either. Why? Because I was a sinner,
I am a sinner, and I'll always be a sinner until I awaken his
likeness. And from there, by his faith
which he's given in him, you can have a joy this world will
never know. You have the knowledge that God
has given you, that you're a sinner, but that he is our Savior. Yes,
you're a sinner, and he is your Lord. Yes, you're a sinner, and
he's the Christ of God, the one who came and gave his life so
that those sinners might live. What's it say about those sinners? We have an advocate. With the Father, Jesus Christ,
the righteous. The righteous. You understand,
the world doesn't have an advocate. Wouldn't do them any good if
they had one, because they won't have him. You understand, the
world refused Jesus Christ. They killed him. We have an advocate only because
he has brought us in. The world deceives themselves
and the world calls him a liar. but we have an advocate. We have
one who stands and says, that's my brother. That's my sister. I died for him. I was punished for their sins,
for his sins, for her sins. Oh my. If any man sin, we have an advocate. You understand, I know there's
some people out there that say, well, he'll forgive your sins
if you confess them. That's not what that says. That says if
any man sin, he's got an advocate. I can't confess all I've done
wrong. There's no way. I can confess to being wrong,
but I can't confess everything I've done. but he knows what
God is like, that perfect light. He knows exactly everything I
have done, and he punished the son for every single thing I
have done, I am doing, and I will ever do. Because you understand,
one sin is enough to send you to hell. With God's sight, imperfection
is imperfection. Now don't get head up about that,
because ain't nobody ever been able to limit it to one sin.
It's not ever happened. But here it is. When we sin,
we have an advocate who pleads our case to his father. He's sitting on the right hand.
He's sitting there, right there on the right end of God. Ah, I think that's amazing. And these things write we unto
you that your joy may be full. Does it not make you happy to
know you have an advocate with the Father? Does it not give you joy to know
that it's not your deeds that God's looking at, it's His son's? He looks at you, if you believe
Christ, he looks at you and sees Jesus Christ, the righteous. He doesn't see Joe Galuzek, the
unrighteous. He sees Jesus Christ, the righteous. He doesn't see Mac Hatfield or
Chad. He sees his son. And his son,
this is, you know, Jesus Christ is not neutral. He advocates
for us. He's our advocate. The word advocate
means he's our lawyer on our side. Now we don't have a side
unless we're in his side. But he's our advocate if we believe
him. I think that's just amazing.
And John says all of that to come to this. I'm gonna just
read this out here a little bit and say a couple words and quit.
Verse three of chapter two, and hereby, because of all this I
just wrote, because of talking about Christ, because of our
fellowship, because of your sin and your sins that you know, because we have an advocate with
the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And hereby we do know
that we know Him if we keep His commandments. Now isn't that a glorious statement?
You gotta go from, you gotta know about your sin and your
sins before you can know Him. And you're not gonna know Him
perfectly, you're not gonna know Him maybe not even greatly, but He's
gonna hit you with them. Because He's gonna make it so
that you seek Him. Yeah, because that's, you read
scriptures. You'll read scriptures. And it tells you to seek God.
And it talks about some who sought God and found. But it also says,
none seek after God. What's the difference? Our advocate. Jesus Christ the righteous. He's
the difference. The Father's getting all the
glory from what? Jesus Christ. bringing in many
sons to glory. Jesus Christ brings us in, and
he will bring you to your knees. You're gonna bow to him. Why? Because of your sin, your sins,
and because of who he is. And this is the statement of
believers. Hereby we do know that we know That's the first thing that John
tells us blatantly, flat out, that we know. Because this is
where it all starts. As far as the knowledge of God,
you gotta know him. You gotta know him. And believers
know him. I love that, I do. We know him. And here's the great thing. We
know that we know him. Now say that three times fast. We know that we know him. You understand? Christ said it himself, I thank
the Father that thou hast hid these things from the wise and
the prudent But what? And revealed them unto babes. When all those people, the 5,000,
went away from Christ because of what he preached, that he
was sovereign and you can't come to God, can't come to him unless
God gives it to you. And they all walked away and
they all left. He looked at his disciples and said, are you going
away too? And Peter answered correctly. To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. And guess what? Flesh and blood
didn't reveal that to Peter. But my Father which is in heaven,
we know that we know him. And I'm gonna tell you something,
that'll make you joyful when you get a hold of something like
that. That'll put a relief on you that you cannot get rid of. We know that we know him. And every other we know in this
book of John, and I mean they're everywhere, we know and ye know
and ye knoweth, and if you want to know, every one of them comes
from here. We know that we know him. The world doesn't know him. Why? They can't. But we do. The things of God are spiritually
discerned. So that's a spiritual discernment.
That's a gift of the Holy Spirit. If you know that you know him. Now, You gotta know to write him,
the hymn of this book. I mean, it's the Christ that
John's writing about. From the beginning, from Genesis
all the way through Revelations, it's the same Christ. Because there's a lot of people
that know a lot of Jesus, but that doesn't count. You gotta
know the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world. John
said, behold. John told some other people,
there's one here, he's here now. And guess what? They didn't care. And those folks were religious.
They didn't ask John, well where is he? That's all it would have
took. John said, that's him over there.
Behold, the Lamb of God. And John did say, behold, Lamb
of God. And guess what? The religious
world still didn't care. And the religious world killed
him. But believers know that we know him, this Christ of the
Bible. The one from the beginning, promised
throughout all the law, the testimony, all the prophets, all the Psalms,
all the Proverbs. And he came and he did exactly
what the father wanted him to do. And he did exactly what it
was prophesied that he was going to do. He saved his people from
their sin. The redemption is done. The redemption
is done. And we know that we know him. They did it. I think that's glorious. Our Father, we're thankful again
for this time and this place, but most of all, for your son,
our Lord Jesus Christ. He has done it all and is doing
it all for our salvation, for our life in this world. Thank you, Lord, for everything
you've done and everything you'll do. All of it. We give you all the praise and
the glory and the honor. It is yours now and forever. Amen.