Turn with me to 1 John and let's
hear again the first four verses. That which was from the beginning,
which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which
we looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the
word of life, the life was made manifest and we have seen it
and testified to it and proclaim it to you the eternal life which
was with the Father and was made manifest to us. That which we
have seen and heard we proclaim also to you so that you too may
have fellowship with us and indeed our fellowship is with the Father
and with His Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things
so that our joy may be complete. You might think it odd that I
would teach the same text over again and possibly in the next
week as well. We will deal a little bit more
with some of the things that are written here. But for those
of you who have just journeyed through 147 sermons in the Gospel
of John, you know that we do take our time. Remember that John's gospel is
his evangelistic appeal to his Jewish brothers and sisters of
his day. so that they might see through the lens of Judaism the
perfection of Jesus Christ and His fulfillment of all righteousness
on behalf of His people, that He would impute His righteousness
to them and that indeed He is God sent from the Father to do
the will and the work of the Father for the sake of the elect.
And as John closes out his evangelistic writing, his gospel, He ends
it. He stops. He lets it rest on
its own. There are no therefores. Why? Because it is a narrative. It
is a historical account of the gospel in theological format. It is the teachings of Jesus,
of who He is, the revelation of God, the fullness of the glory
of God, seen and revealed in such a way that through the life
of Jesus, specifically those first chapters that deal with
three and a half years and the last half of the letter dealing
with only one week, mostly one night. So John does not have a voice
in that letter. He doesn't have a voice in that
letter because he is pointing to Christ mostly. As John records
the words of John the Baptist, he says, I must decrease, he
must increase. Now God's established purpose
in that prophetic word was that God would purpose John the Baptist
to be arrested and to be beheaded. And the significance of John
the Baptist as a forerunner had been fulfilled, had been finished. But John, even in this letter,
even in his gospel, never wrote his name. He never wanted to
take credit. He never wanted to be the topic
of conversation around the brethren throughout the centuries. He
did not want to be oogled at. He did not want people to bother
Him because He was the disciple whom Jesus loved. He wanted all
who came to hear His words to see and to know the Christ. So there is no therefore in John's
Gospel. If we go to Paul's writing to
the Romans, We see gospel truths, we see extremely deep and solid,
irrevocable doctrine. And then in chapter 12 we see,
therefore, do not conform, but be transformed. When we see the
writing to the Ephesians, we see Paul with rich, deep, indisputable
teaching of the gospel of election. The gospel of free and sovereign
grace, the gospel of sovereignty. That God has his people before
he created the world and in the creation of the world, his purposes
are fulfilled in the redemption of them through Jesus Christ. But then as we see in chapter
four, therefore walk in a manner worthy. How odd would it be if I were
the type of teacher who would come in to teach you something
every Sunday and I was in Ephesians 5. Then I was in Colossians 4. Then I was in Romans 13. Then I went over and preached
Jude one more time toward the end. Or I stayed in the latter
notes of Titus. or I preached 1 Corinthians,
the rebuke of 1 Corinthians over and over and over again, you
would do well to kick me out of this pulpit. Yet in doing so, in my preaching
of those texts at the cost of their purposes, I would be showing
you the therefore without the teaching of the gospel. And in
doing so, I would stack upon you a burden that the Scripture
would not command of you. And I would appeal to the fleshliness
in all of you. And our chairs would be full.
And our online ministry would be so busy, we'd tear up the
airwaves. Because most of the religious
zealots of our day would go, now that's truth right there. Beloved, when I say please sweep
up around your chairs when you drop your candy paper, that's
not truth right there. That's not gospel. That's not
even a good instruction. It's certainly not life. How
many times do we teach our children to clean their rooms, to pick
up their toys, to brush their teeth, to learn to dress themselves,
to learn to wipe their own backsides and wash their bodies, to learn
to speak politely, to learn not to use profane words, to learn
to speak in some sense of grammatical construction that the syntax
that comes out of their mouth makes sense to the whole of society. Yet none of those things give
them life. John. In his first epistle is
the therefore of his gospel. But the beauty of it. Is that
he recapitulates the gospel over and over and over again as he
instructs the church how to live together in fellowship with Christ
and his people. As we saw last week, the eternal
nature of Jesus Christ is in view in 1 John. The totality
of God's nature of the incarnation coming in the flesh to reveal
the glory of God to us. That word which was in the beginning. John uses that language. so that he can emphasize both
the incarnate person of Jesus Christ and also the very straightforward
teaching that comes through Jesus Christ. The Bible doesn't say, look at
Jesus, watch Jesus, learn to live like Jesus by doing what
Jesus did. As a matter of fact, I would
say that most people who do what Jesus did sin in their mimicking
of Jesus because they rebuke people with all authority that
they can't see the hearts of. Then they use Jesus words as
the license to be a butthole. Is that OK to say? To be a jerk,
to be a pompous. I don't know. How do you tell
the truth of someone who is highly offensive and rude and obnoxious
and not even pleasant to be around because they're so hateful? What
do you call them? I don't know. Our vernacular
has done a terrible job of finding a politically correct, socially
acceptable term for that. As our children would say, a
meanie. And then some people would say,
well, you know what? I got a right to tump over tables. I got a right to... Jesus fulfilled the prophecy
of the zeal for his father's house. James can't do it. And
when I act like Jesus, I need to go to Hollywood and usurp
Jim Caviezel and make a new movie. We don't have the right to judge
as Jesus judged and speak as Jesus spoke. We can't die on
the cross for his people. We can bear witness to the witness
of Jesus, who is the witness of the Father, who bears witness
of Him. And that is all done through
teaching, beloved. It is all done through hearing.
And in the hearing, God the Spirit gives seeing and believing and
hoping and trusting and life. So the person of Christ, and
the doctrine of the Trinity, and the eternality of the Son,
and all of the beautiful, glorious things that John's gospel portrayed
are in view here. But now John is also taking this
to its heart, and He's saying that which was from the beginning,
which we have heard, which we've seen, which we've looked, which
we've touched, concerning the eternal life. Because just because Jesus walked
on the earth and people noticed Him, does not mean they saw Him. Just because people en masse
followed Him for years and listened to His teaching and called themselves
disciples of Christ because they were truly following after Christ,
does not mean they belong to Him. Just because people can
regurgitate theological things does not mean they've been taught
by Him. And so John is emphasizing in
a very, very straightforward manner That he's not only talking
about the person in the work of Jesus, but he's talking about
the teaching of the person in the work of Jesus. The witness, the word that they
heard by the spirit, the work that they saw by the spirit. As John watched the Savior die
in his heart of hearts by the mercies of God, he could truly
say, I have seen the glory of God. I have seen God for who He truly
is. I have seen God in a manner that
no one else standing around me can see. Why? Because it had been revealed
to him. It had been revealed to him and
then he and the other apostles wrote it down so that it could
be revealed to the elect forever. and that as we see the witness
of this scripture, we are not just learning academically the
historical concept of the birth of Christianity, we are seeing
face-to-face the eternal life who was made manifest, whom we
proclaim to you. I want you to get that, beloved,
because fellowship as a theme is going to be the heartbeat
of this text. Fellowship in our culture means
so many different things to so many different people. For most of us, fellowship throughout
our lives and Christendom, especially in North America, has meant let's
get together and eat something. But if we're really spiritual,
let's get together and pray about something. Remember those prayer
meetings that were more gossip than prayer? Remember those opportunities
that we had to gather together around the scripture and there's
always the one who just takes over everything and talks about
everybody and then says, Lord, bless their soul, let's pray
for them. But it's what we're taught. We call that fellowship.
Or maybe we experience a basketball game, or a fishing tournament,
or a range day, or a sewing class, and we call that fellowship. Or maybe we enjoy a day at the
park. Maybe we enjoy something that
we all like, and we call that fellowship. And I'm not saying
that we're not together doing something, but it's not fellowship. It's a misinterpretation of the
term. Nowhere in the New Testament,
when we see the idea of fellowship, does it have anything to do with
what we're doing together outside of being in Christ and
focusing on His truth and being found in Him. That's why it is
so easy for the so-called churches of our day to establish this
ministry and that ministry and the other ministry and provide
opportunity for people to go like a shopping mall or a food
court and say, well, you know, I'm hungry, but I just don't
know for what. Let me taste this. Let me taste
that. You know, is it pizza? Is it chow mein? What is it? Lo mein. Sorry. Is it what? What am I going to eat? Let me
take a little taste here. You know what? My palate likes
that. Oh, we're together? Well, I'll tell you what, why
don't you get that from Subway? Why don't you get your pizza? Why
don't you get your lo mein? And we all sit back here together, we're
in fellowship. And that's what ministry looks
like in our world. That's what the teaching of the scripture
looks like from unconverted pastors who don't know the gospel. that
we're always able to manipulate and massage and assimilate and
put people into places that makes them feel like they're part of
something, but they're not part of anything. What is a ministry
if it is not in Christ? What is a ministry if there's
not an affinity intimately, supernaturally fused with someone else who believes
in the Christ that you believe in? What is ministry? What is fellowship? According to this, it is being
found in Christ. It means to be in Christ. The eternal life means if you
have fellowship with the Son, that means you believe what the
Son has taught concerning Himself. You believe what the Father has
witnessed concerning the Son. You believe in the truth of who
Christ is. Christ did not say, I came to
teach you some truth. He says, I am the truth. All that I am
is everything that God is, Christ says. And that if you want to
know God, you must know me. And in order to know me, you
must be in me. In order to be in me, you must
eat of my flesh. You must drink of my blood. You
must be given to me by the Father. Does this sound like evangelism
to you? Nope. Not common day. One of the greatest needs in
the life of the believer today is to be in fellowship with the
saints who are in fellowship with the truth of Jesus Christ. We can enjoy time together and
I believe we ought to take every opportunity to do things that
we enjoy doing together. But let's make it very clear. I can do that with any person
or persons or types of people in the world. And I can have
some sense of fellowship. I'll shoot guns with anybody
that's safe and sane. And I'll play chess with anybody
who's got the time. And if somebody says, hey, we're
in B flat, grab your horn and let's go, I'll play on the stage
as long as it's not a dangerous location. But I'm not in fellowship
with those people if they're not in Christ with me. And if they don't know the truth
of Christ as taught by Him, they're not in fellowship with Him either. That's the point of the Apostle
John. Fellowship is not about regeneration. Fellowship is the product of
regeneration. And the outcome of true fellowship
is the fullness of joy, the completeness of joy. That is why affinity
groups, Sons Gospel Fellowship are so futile. How long can we do cool stuff
until it gets not cool? Quote me on that one. How long can we be engaged in
life in this world until it just becomes mundane? But what does not become mundane
is life in Christ with His people. Fellowship is in the person of
Christ. Fellowship is in the doctrine
of Christ. Everything that Christ has done,
we find ourselves in him and those who are in him are with
each other in fellowship in Christ. So Christ is the common denominator. Christ is the one who brings
us together. And in doing so, beloved, you
need to realize just how loosely people understand who Christ
is. Go out into the streets. Go out
into the neighborhoods. Go out into the stores and into
the restaurants and into the grocers. Go out into the world
in which we live and just listen to people say, the Lord is good.
Jesus, Jesus. I love my Savior. Ask them who
He is. They will tell you how they feel. Ask them what He's done. They
will give you a picture of their pride and joy. It's about temporal happiness,
to which John will say over in chapter 2, not to love, to not
put our affections there. Jesus says it very clearly, not
even vaguely, in John 6, don't labor for the bread that perishes. The doctrine of Christ, the teaching
of Christ, what he says concerning what he did, for who he did it. This is important. Everybody
who says, Jesus, Jesus is not in Jesus. For there are many
Christs, as John will show us. Many antichrists have come. Many
more will come. Sometimes people, when you say
something about the Antichrist and the questions that I get
sometimes throughout the weeks, you know, what is the Antichrist
in Revelation? Well, you got to understand the Antichrist
in John in order to understand what he means in Revelation.
And in order to understand what Antichrist is, you have to know
the Christ of John's gospel. So in order to understand what
is not Christ, you have to know what is Christ. And when we know
what is Christ, that which is Christ, the teaching of Christ,
the person of Christ, then we are in fellowship with others
who believe and know that Christ. Friends, it's very easy for us
to say, oh yeah, so-and-so's a believer, so-and-so's a Christian,
so-and-so's a sister, so-and-so's a brother, but until we know,
I would be very hesitant to say, this is my brother in the Lord
Jesus Christ, this is my sister. And I think one of the greatest
responsibilities we have with our household and with our close
friends and with our co-workers who talk about spiritual things
is for us to absolutely ask them what they mean. Not with a snarkiness. Snarkiness is sinfulness. Rudeness is expulsion from the
assembly. Whether it's here or on the internet. Because it's evil. God doesn't
need our tenaciousness to undergird His glory. Jesus is His glory. He doesn't need us. He doesn't
need our sword and shield and AK-47s to establish the presence
of His prominence and preeminence. He is. Calm down. Relax. We are not called to be
forceful. Boldness is not forceful. For those of you who practice
Kung Fu with me, you know that. The doctrine of Christ. We have
fellowship in this message. We have fellowship in this Word.
We have fellowship that was with Christ, with the Father, with
the Apostles. And that's where John is really
taking this We proclaim, look at verse three, I'm jumping around
up here because I want to get all this out. Verse three, that
which we have seen and heard, we proclaim. What has happened?
We've taken the physical presence of Jesus Christ, the manifestation,
the revelation of the glory of God, all the work that he did,
all the things that he taught, all the ways that he revealed
himself to be doing the work of the Father, and the efficacy
thereof, that means what it did and what it accomplished, And
now we teach it to you. Now we tell you what we learned
by being taught by God the Son. So fellowship then is in the
one true Christ and His doctrine as taught by the apostles. So the Apostle's proclamation
of Christ is now what is being turned up on the top of the page. And that is what's going to be
carried throughout. Abiding in Christ, what you have
learned concerning Christ. Walking as Christ walked, what
you've learned concerning Christ. And so on and so forth. Because
I'm going to tell you, beloved, you may think I'm running a broken
record right now, but if I move too fast here, you will be condemned
in your spirit by the time we get through with chapter 2. And
you will think yourself lost. And then we will make John a
liar because he says that our joy may be complete. I'm writing these things to you. that our joy may be complete. Let me ask you some questions.
Is your joy complete when you're confronted with the guilt of
sin in your heart? Is your joy complete when you doubt your
salvation? Is your joy complete when you
develop this resolution to live in a certain manner so that you
can honor God? Very, very good. Try. Do it.
please the Lord, live for His glory, honor His name, love His
people. But that's not what I'm talking about. I mean, you've
been there. You wake up one morning, you've had this long weekend,
you go, you know what? I heard the preachers preaching and the
gospel is just alive and Monday morning, I'm going to get up
early, I'm going to read for nine hours the Bible, I'm going
to witness to all my neighbors before sundown, and I'm going
to have a Passover meal just for the fun of it. Get up six in the morning, I'm
too tired, wake up at nine, pull out the Bible, can't understand
it, go get a cup of coffee, check your Facebook, day's over. Oh, I didn't even go to work
today, you see. That's how it works. And then that night you
lay down and you know what, Lord, I let you down. I made a promise
I couldn't commit to. I didn't do it well. I didn't
come to the table of glorifying your name with everything that
I did. I'm not mocking that conviction. I'm asking you, when you're there,
is your joy complete? And the answer is no. If that's
joyful to you, don't share it with me. If it's joyful to you
to constantly labor over the sin in your life and how miserable
that you are and how weak you are and how impossible it is
to ever get past certain things, don't share that with me because
I don't think that's the joy I want. I'm so happy, I hate
myself, my life, everything about me. I'm a horrible person, blah,
blah, blah, blah. Those all may be true. But as you're joyful. So what
is John trying to do for us? What is he trying to do for his
Jewish brothers in the faith? He's wanting their joy to be
full. He wants their joy to be full. And the fullness of joy
is only seen when the fellowship of the saints is truly resting
in the essence and the doctrine of Christ. We proclaim to you. Look at this, let's read it again.
That was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we've
seen with our eyes, which we've looked upon in touch with our
hands concerning the word of life. The life was made manifest
and we have seen it and testified to it and proclaim to you the
eternal life, which was with the father. And was made manifest
to us. This is John's gospel, just.
Truncated. That which we have seen, that
which we have heard, we proclaim also to you, so that you too
may have fellowship with us. Why does he emphasize that first?
Because he's not talking about evangelism. He's not saying I'm
teaching you this so that you can be saved. I'm teaching you
this so that you can have eternal life. He's already said the eternal
life was manifested. We proclaimed it to you. Now
we proclaim to you the eternal life that you may have fellowship
with us. Some of the brothers and I were
talking last night and it's very stressful. Even this morning,
very stressful when the world comes against us and the religious
world comes against us and say, well, y'all think y'all got this
special revelation. It's very fitting because it
is some of the context of John's gospel. Special revelation, things
that aren't their witness, things that aren't their, the apostles'
teaching, but somebody else has come up with something else that
doesn't match. They're not in fellowship with the apostles.
And it's very frustrating to have to answer that. I'm going
to answer it tonight at Theology on Call. in a longer way, but
shortly is this, and the short answer is that we don't say anything
that can't be proven through the context of scripture, through
its syntax, through its grammar, literally. right on the page. And this is one of those times
where we can defend the gospel as delivered once for all to
the saints. When we see that if you want
fellowship with the apostles, you have to believe their witness
concerning the Son. You are with us. So fellowship
is in the person of Christ, the doctrine, the teaching of Christ,
the apostles' proclamation of Christ, which was now manifested
through Christ's teaching, through His witness. He came from the
Father. Remember His audience. And now He's told it to us. And
we are together in this. We have all partaken of the same
truth, who is Jesus Christ. And this is our joy. Together. The eternal life. We have fellowship. If you have fellowship with us,
the apostles, we have fellowship with the eternal life that we
have proclaimed to you. If you don't have fellowship
with us, the apostles and our doctrine, how can you say you
have fellowship with the eternal life? Because what you say is
the eternal life is different than what we say, than what we
know when what we've seen. with what we've touched and heard. You see it now? It's not quite as obvious if
we hadn't just spent all this time in John. It just sort of
comes off the page very clearly. And this eternal life, this message,
this fellowship that is ours in Christ has been declared to
you. So fellowship is in these things,
in this person, in our unity of this doctrine concerning the
Lord Jesus. And fellowship is in the continued
truth that we proclaim. That's what John is saying. So
here, John is taking complete apostolic authority over the
message of the cross. And he is saying that the apostles,
as Paul would say, John's a little more poetic than Paul. Paul says
if nobody wants to believe what we have to write, then they're
not a brother. If anybody denies the letters I've written to you,
they're not a brother. If anybody rejects any of the instruction
I give to you, they're not a brother. Let them go. John is like, we
got fellowship, man. We're together, right? We're
together. We're together. Don't be misled
by Gnosticism. Don't be misled by New Revelation.
Don't be misled by all these ideas of logical reasonings and
things that aren't logical because they're illogically imposed upon
the text. Don't be caught off guard by
the law keepers. Don't misunderstand its point.
Frustrate yourself as we spoke some yesterday about what it
means to delight in the law. We have sole authority over the
witness of the message of the light of Christ because he gave
it to us and we are with him. And if you are not with us, you
are not with him. That's what he's saying. You
are not with him. Paul would say to the Galatians,
if anyone ever comes and preaches anything differently than what
we've already preached, he is cut off from Christ. This isn't
an isolated doctrine, apostolically. They all say it. We have fellowship
in the continued truth that we proclaim. If you hold to it.
So here's some language you're going to hear over the months
to come. If you hold to this light, if you hold to this word,
if you abide in these things. And beloved. It even means abiding in the
therefores. By faith. Doesn't mean accomplishing
the therefores. We're not going to love as John
has told us to love. So when our heart condemns us,
he says he is greater than our hearts. When we sin and our lack of love
and service to the brothers and sisters, and we find ourselves
condemned. John says when we sin, he is
our advocate and he is with the father. And He is our propitiation. And not just ours alone, beloved
Jewish brothers and sisters, but of the elect of the whole
world in context there. We'll get to that in chapter
2. If you believe it, if you believe
the doctrine of Christ, if you believe the only gospel, See, isn't it strange that we
talk about this a lot as an assembly? The only gospel, the peace of
God, the grace of God, the sovereignty of God. Friends, I want you to
understand just how wide unbelief goes in Christian circles. I want you to imagine for just
a moment these figures in your own mind. The number of people
that you know who are in a Protestant church this morning. Just generally that you can imagine. How many congregations are gathered
in certain buildings and locations? Just across the four or five
counties here. By their own statistics Less than 3% of evangelicals
can even give you a gospel answer when asked how they know they
have eternal life. And that's the evangelical statisticians. So they're, especially Baptists,
you know, they're skewed. The numbers are greater than
they should be. Oh, that's close enough. You know, we're playing
horseshoes here. Almost a point. If you get down to the nitty
gritty, very few people who confess to be in Christ even know how
to define Him. Very few people have even been
taught the very nature of what John's gospel teaches, which
is righteousness is only found through the gift of righteousness,
through the gift of the Son of God. That God's righteousness
to his people is a gift. He doesn't cause you to be righteous
in our flesh. He causes us to be born again. to a living hope through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, who atoned for
our sins, paid for them in full, took our guilt upon himself and
his holiness to us. His holiness. This is the good news. It is
good news that God sovereignly imputes righteousness to his
people. If you walk in that, you are
abiding, you are obeying, you are holding, you are believing. But so few people know that. And how many dozen times a week
do I say those very words? Not just to us as an assembly,
but on the internet, to the worldwide web, and how many of the same
audience can come week after week and go, now what is the
gospel again? How do I know that I'm saved?
You know the parable of the sower? The word of God is planted in
the hearts of humanity. And only the heart that is prepared
by God will it actually grow and produce faith. But sometimes it produces a amen. Sometimes it produces a that's
right. Sometimes it produces a I believe that. Sometimes it
produces tears of joy, of celebration, of worship. Oh my Lord, my God
has saved me. He's given me the righteousness
of his son. Hallelujah, hallelujah. And then a week later, I don't
really understand. Why does that happen? Because
God takes the word out of the hearts of those who don't belong
to him. Because they don't have fellowship
with him. Because ultimately, even false professors will be
sifted. Ultimately, we will all stand
before Christ, and we who are in Him will be alive and with
Him, and those who are not in Him, a majority of the religious
of our day, who proclaim to be His, will be cast into everlasting
judgment. And see, in my evangelistic training
in high school, I remember that is a segue into a gospel offer. because everybody's thinking
about going to hell, you know? And I was taught, when I was
19 years old, I was taught by an evangelist, big sweaty guy,
had to keep two towels when he preached, you know. He said, and when you get them
thinking about death, you get them thinking about hell, when you get them thinking
about hell, they're halfway there. Halfway where? Halfway to accepting the
Lord Jesus. You can accept all you want,
but if you don't accept the truth of the witness of the apostles
concerning the person and the work of Jesus, you're already
condemned. You're not halfway to hell, you're
there now waiting in a spiritual sense. And your fear of wrath, and your
fear of condemnation, and your fear of death, and your fear
of hell is not going to save you. How is it that people are not
walking around all the time, everywhere, tearing their clothes
and beating themselves in the head and ripping their hair out
going, oh woe is me, I'm headed to judgment, I'm headed to hell.
Why aren't people doing that? Because they suppress it. They suppress it through acts
of unrighteousness, that they do things which ought not to
be done, as Paul would teach in Romans. They do sinful things
and evil things and wicked things and things of debauchery and
things of fleshliness. And those are obvious for the
religious of our day to see. Look at all that sin over there.
But they don't understand that it is the same, exactly the same,
but with just a different clothing on, When we see people who suppress
the truth of the grace of God and His love for His elect by
walking around with a false Christ in their heart and a false gospel
in their mind saying, I know that I am okay because of what
I did to receive the Christ I was taught. That is just equal. That is equally an act of unrighteousness
as it is me going out and beating people on the street. And yet that is the vein through
which God, according to Paul's teaching in 2 Thessalonians,
deceives, reprobates people who otherwise would come to say and
profess that they were indeed in Christ. Friends, the deception
is not Buddhism. The deception is not the cults.
The deception is not world religions. The deception is not atheism
or agnosticism. The deception also is mainline
evangelicalism. Judaism was true according to the scripture. The
Judaism of first century was a lie because they didn't have
fellowship with God. They didn't have fellowship with
the prophets. They didn't have fellowship with the saints because
they didn't believe the same thing. So fellowship is in this
continued proclamation of the truth of the gospel of Christ
as the apostles have arrested it, have manifested it, and proclaimed
it. Any deviation is a lie. The outcome of true fellowship,
though, is joy. Joy in the fullest. I just want
to go back and preach John 15 and 17. Nah, we know what it says. Joy in the fullest comes from
the fellowship in light. The light, as we see and as we'll
see next week maybe, deals with the revelation of God, the Son. and his creative power to create
a people for himself. But today, as we close out the
last half of this message, let me ask you, where is your joy
truly complete? Why is it necessary to have intimate
fellowship with the saints around the gospel in order for our joy
to be complete? Because it is a hard world. And the thing is, the world is
on fire, literally. There are protests in five countries
right now that I saw on the news this morning. People shooting
and looting and burning and shooting and killing and stabbing and
bombing. And the big powers that always have been are flying close,
looking, peeking, surveying, observing. When they see the owner of the
house run in because he's got diarrhea, they're going to take
what's on the porch. We're in a very interesting time, and
all the dispies are looking out the window, looking at Revelation,
looking at the newspaper, going, yep, I knew it! They're wrong. We're
not going to preach the gospel through the lens of society. Why is the joy of the saints
complete together? Because when we are together,
it is that togetherness through the ministry of the Word of God
that actually secures us in times that we are powerless to overcome
otherwise. Now I can't repeat that, so just
listen to it later. But I want to ask yourself, is
your joy found in Christ. And when we are together in Christ
in truth, when we are together in the flesh, that is when the
opportunity for us to be reminded of the truth of Christ is most
vital. So that when we are fed, and
we are clothed, and we are embodied, and we are resting, it's almost
ridiculous. that we can have peace and joy
in the midst of seasons like this, isn't it? It'd be better suited for us
to change the format of our assembly and to go into something else
and to get some people to come in and talk about how to make
change, how to overcome, how to establish justice. Brothers and sisters, I could
really speak to that. When I say that I'm an exegete,
that means I can read a text and derive the meaning out of
the text. And I have done a lot of exegetical work in the Constitution. But the Constitution isn't my
joy. The Constitution does not feed
me. As a matter of fact, it's the
law of the land. It drives me to self-sufficiency
when the gospel shows me that I'm insufficient to save myself. It drives me to correct things
that my joy may be full if I look at the law of the land because
I can correct it. But the gospel says my joy is
full already in Christ. And that when we are together
in this truth, that true joy in its completeness comes from
Christ by his word in the unity of the saints. So John is saying
with us, you are in Christ. If you are in us and in our truth,
because we are in Christ and he is from the father, they are
together. We are with them. Are you with
us in the truth? You will remain in Him as long
as you remain in our doctrine. You remain in Christ as long
as you abide in the teaching of His work. You are in Him and
you are with us as long as you continue to hold fast in the
teaching of the eternal life that we proclaim to you. Otherwise,
there is no fellowship at all. There is no fellowship with false
gospels. There is no fellowship with added
gospels. There is no fellowship if it
departs from the word that we saw and heard and touched and
know. There is no fellowship apart
from the eternal life. Likewise, all fellowship and
thus all joy comes from Christ and being found in Christ and
being together in Christ. This is, as Paul would say, my
gospel. He took ownership of it. This
is my gospel. And if the apostles that are
up there in Jerusalem are teaching anything different, they're not
with me and they're not with God if they're not with me. See,
it wasn't about the authority of the human beings who are the
apostles. It's about the authority of the
message of Christ who gave it to them. The authority rests
in the truth. We are with the Father and of
course with the Son, thus our teaching is the manifestation
of His truth. And when you are with us, your
joy is full. In 1 John 5, He gives us the
security. And I'm going to read this text
in 1 John 5, verse 13 almost every week from now on until
we get through. Because if you want to know that you have eternal
life, If you want to have assurance
of salvation, I want to write these things to you who believe
in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have
eternal life. And what does He say? That the
Spirit of God abides in you. Chapter 2, verse 24. Let what
you heard from the beginning, that we have taught to you from
the beginning of our ministry even, Abide in you. Let the doctrine of Christ and
the fullness of His glory abide in you. If what you heard from
the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the
Son and the Father. This is exactly what I've been saying. Therefore,
the truth revealed to you is the truth that establishes fellowship
with us and fellowship with Jesus and the Father. So, you are with
them also. And you are with them because
you are in and with our gospel. Jesus does say the same thing
in John 15, John 17. I am the true vine. My father is the dresser. Every
branch that does not bear fruit takes away and every branch that
he does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit.
You are already clean, Jesus says, because of the word that
I have spoken to you. Abide in this word, abide in
me, and I will abide in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit
by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless
you abide in me. Unless you abide in the truth
of Christ and the pure gospel, you cannot have joy. And unless
you abide in Him, you are not in fellowship with His people. If you abide in me and my words
in you, ask whatever you wish, it'll be done for you. By this,
the Father is glorified that you bear much fruit and you prove
to be my disciples. As the Father loved me, so I
loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments,
you'll abide in my love, just as I've kept the Father's commandments
and abide in his love. These things I've spoken to you
that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. Now,
this is my commandment, he says in the very next breath, that
you love one another. as I have loved you. What does that mean,
Jesus? Greater love has no man than
this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do
this. I no longer call you slaves, for the slave doesn't know what
the master's doing, but I've called you friends. For all that I have
heard from my Father, I've made known to you, I've manifested
to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed
that you should go and bear fruit. and that your fruit should abide
so that whatever you ask in the name of my father he will give
to you. These things I command you so that you will love one
another. Jesus goes on to say later in
that text, he says, if the world hates you, know that it hated
me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the
world would love you as its own. But because you are not of the
world, because I chose you out of the world, therefore the world
hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, a slave is
not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will
also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will
also keep yours. The high priestly prayer. See
why I need to re-preach all this? The high priestly prayer in John
17. What is it that Jesus prays there? Jesus had spoken these words.
He says what? He says to the Father, The hour
has come to glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you.
You've given him all authority over flesh to give eternal life
to all whom you have given him. This is eternal life that they
know you. the only true God and the Son
whom you have sent and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I
glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you
gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with
the glory that I had before the world existed. I've manifested
your name. to the people whom you gave me
out of the world. Yours they were and you gave
them to me and they have kept your word. Now they know that
everything that you have given me is from you, that I have given
them the word that you have given me and they have received them
and have come to know in truth that I came from you and they
have believed that you sent me. praying for them, I am not praying
for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they
are yours. He goes on to say, all mine are
yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I
am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I
am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which
you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.
While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you
have given me. I have guarded them, and not one has been lost,
except the son of destruction, that the scripture might be fulfilled.
But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world,
that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them
your word, and the world has hated them, because they are
not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask
you to take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the
evil one. They are not of the world just as I am not of the
world. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent
me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And
for their sake, I consecrate myself that they also may be
sanctified in truth. And I do not ask only for these,
but also for those who will believe in me through their words, that
they may be all one, just as you, our father, are in me and
I in you. And they also may be in us so
that the world may believe that you have sent me the glory that
you've given me. I've given to them that they
may be one as we are one. And them and you and me, I and
them and you and me, that they may become perfectly one so that
the world may know that you have sent me and love them even as
you have loved me. And he goes on and on and on.
This is John's muse. For this letter. This is this is what he's teaching
us. Joy. is the knowledge of the
love of God for the Son, of the love of the Son for the apostles,
of the love of the apostles for the elect, for the Son's love
for the elect. And the fellowship that we truly
have is always and only in the gospel of free and sovereign
grace. There is no other gospel. And when we know and when we see this truth, our
joy is full. In John's other two letters,
in 2 John and 3 John, he talks about the joy being complete
when we have intimacy and fellowship with the gospel, with Christ. 2 John 12, though I have much
to write to you, I'd rather not use paper and ink. Instead, I
hope to come to you and talk face to face so that our joy
may be complete. Most Christians abuse their spiritual
promises by avoiding the assembly of the saints. You can't get
the joy that I'm preaching of in its fullness by watching. You have to interact. 3 John 4, I have no greater joy
than to hear my children are walking in the truth. Beloved, it is a joy. A full
and complete joy to know the Lord. and to walk in his truth. And when we know this gospel,
we have fellowship with all the saints. We have fellowship with
the apostles who claimed exclusive fellowship with the message of
God, thus exclusive intimacy with God himself. So that to
be apart from the truth that they preach is to be apart from
the saints, is to be apart from Christ. So as we live life together then
our joy is full. As heresy and lie and troubles
and trials come our way, we rest together in this gospel. Let's pray.