Would you open your Bibles with
me to 1 John 1. 1 John 1. I'm just going to deal with the
first four verses of this short epistle, a general epistle, meaning
that it was intended for all believers in all ages. The title
of the message is The Word of Life. the word of life. Now, you know, the apostle John
was probably the last of the apostles to leave this world
and go into the savior's arms eternally. And all the rest of
them had been martyred. As far as we know, John was the
only one who wasn't martyred. He died of old age. I believe
he was probably in Ephesus when he died. I'm not 100% sure of
that, but it doesn't matter where he was. It's like it doesn't
matter where we are when we die. That's it for this world. But
he wrote three epistles. And of course, you know, as he
was used of God to write the book of Revelation and the gospel
of John. But these three epistles are
really, really important because What they do is they set a clear
line of division between godliness, the people of God, and the world. And there's no gray area here. And what he does in the first
epistle, he establishes the grounds of our fellowship in Christ.
And it will go something like this, the ground of our fellowship
as far as bringing us together is the light, the light of God. Christ is the light and the life. And then he establishes the truth,
the truth of God. And then he establishes that
which is love of the brethren. And all three of those things
coming together. But he starts off here in verse
one, he says, that which was from the beginning, what 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. The word of life. Now what is
this word of life? Well, you might notice if you
have a King James version, the word word is capitalized. And
usually when the word word is capitalized, it's referring to
Christ himself as the incarnate word. Look over in John chapter
one. This is the gospel of John. You're familiar with this. John
chapter one, verse one. In the beginning, was the Word. Now we know that's speaking of
Christ and we'll show you that in a minute. And the Word was
with God and the Word was God. That's talking about a person.
The second person of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he
is the embodiment of the Word. And so I'm gonna give you a little
outline here just real quick. to introduce this message. I've
preached this outline here before, so you're all familiar with it.
But it says, the same was in the beginning, verse two, with
God, all things were made by him. This word is a him. All
things were made by him, and without him was not anything
made that was made. In him was life, and the life
was the light of men. So that's speaking of Christ,
the light and the life of his people. We'll jump down to verse
14. It says, and the Word, this same
Word, was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. That's the Word made flesh, that's
Christ in both His deity and His humanity. So the first point
on this outline is that Christ Himself is the incarnate Word. He is the embodiment of everything
that God will communicate to His people concerning salvation
and a right relationship with God. How God saves sinners. You want to know the answer?
Christ and Him crucified and raised from the dead. The righteousness
of God which is Christ alone. Grace which reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. All of that, the life
and the light of men. If you want salvation, if you
want to be accepted with God, if you want to proclaim that
you are a justified person, meaning that all your sins are forgiven
on a just ground, and all your righteousness before God, you're
declared righteous before God on a just ground, the answer
is the glorious person and the finished work of Christ who did
not fail to save even one of His people. To say that He failed
to save anybody is to deny Him. You need to understand that.
Because He is the Savior of His people. He died for His sheep.
The Good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep. He is the propitiation. You've heard that term. That's
a sin-bearing sacrifice that brings what? Satisfaction. Like that mercy seed in the Old
Testament, when the blood was poured on it. That's a picture
of this person who is the Word of God. So Christ is the incarnate
Word. Word incarnate means flesh. Now He's without sin. His flesh
was not sinful flesh like ours. And when I say sinful flesh,
I'm not just talking about the human body. It's not that there's
something sinful about our hands and our heart, our physical heart,
but it's a principle that comes from within. You remember what
Christ said to the disciples, it's not what goes in you that
defiles you, it's what comes out of the heart, what you speak
out of your mouth, which comes from the heart. So Christ is
the incarnate word. So when we look at 1 John 1 and
we talk about the word of life, we're talking about Christ. But
listen, Number two, Christ is the subject of the written word. Now when we say the written word,
what we're talking about is what the Bible calls scripture. Look at John chapter five. Now here Christ is speaking to
the Pharisees who claim to be experts in the scripture. They, the Pharisees and the scribes,
they were the guys who taught the people, who wrote the commentaries,
who discussed the theological ideas, and they claimed to know
and believe the scriptures. But look at John 5 and verse
39. Now my point is, Christ is the
subject of the written word. And if you go to the written
word, and you don't get to Christ as fast as you can, you're gonna
miss it. And he says in John 5, 39, search
the scriptures. Back then, that was the Old Testament.
And he says, for in them you think you have eternal life,
and they, the scriptures, are they which testify of me. Many, many people read the Bible
today. But they don't know Christ. They're no different than the
Pharisees and the scribes. Many people memorize it. I used
to listen to a guy, they called him the walking Bible. I never
heard him preach the true Christ. He preached against immorality.
He preached against lasciviousness. All things good to preach against.
that he never preached Christ that I remember. And yet he memorized
a bunch of the Bible. So it's not just reading the
scripture that does it. It's like the Ethiopian eunuch.
He was reading Isaiah 53. And Philip was sent to him. And
Philip asked him, do you understand what you're reading? And the
man said, and this was led by the Spirit of God, he said, how
can I understand it except some man show me? And Philip, he began
at the very place where the eunuch was reading Isaiah 53, and it
says, Philip preached unto him what? Jesus. So Christ is the subject of the
written word. Now there are other things in
the written word concerning the behavior. I preached this morning
on the role of men and women in the church. But it's all bolstered and within
the context and under the umbrella of the fact that Christ is the
head of the church, who he bought with his precious blood, and
the church is his bride, his wife. And if you miss out on
that, you miss the essence of it. So Christ is the incarnate
word, Christ is the subject of the written word, and then thirdly,
Christ is the subject of the preached word, the uttered word. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter
one. 1 Corinthians chapter one. 1 Corinthians one verse 17. Paul
says, for Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the
gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should
be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved,
it is the power of God. Now you understand what he's
saying. He tells you, you know, when we talk about preaching
the gospel, preaching the cross, that's preaching Christ. And on down through there in
verse 23, he says, he talks about the Jews require sign, the Greeks,
they want human wisdom. He says in verse 23, but we preach
Christ crucified. That's the glorious person and
the finished work of Christ. who died for the sins of his
sheep, imputed, charged, accounted to him because he was our surety,
our substitute, our redeemer. He's our keeper, our mediator,
our intercessor. So, but we preach Christ crucified
under the Jews a stumbling block and under the Greeks foolishness.
And let me ask you to turn one more time to first Peter chapter
one. This is really interesting here
because here we see that really you can't separate these three.
People try to do it. People will say, well, Christ
saves, so he can save me with or without the gospel. With or
without the Bible. You better be careful with that.
And I've heard all kinds of scenarios, I'm sick of hearing them. You
know? You know when, I'll read a scripture
too, you don't have to turn to, But look at 1 Peter 1.22. Talking
to believers here, the elect of God. He says, seeing you have
purified your souls and obeying the truth through the Spirit
unto unfain love of the brethren, see that you love one another
with a pure heart fervently. That's a heart of faith, a heart
cleansed by the blood. Being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God. which liveth
and abideth forever. Now somebody will say, well that's
Christ. That's not the written word or the preached word. Now
hold on. Let's read the rest of it. Now it is Christ who saves. We know that. There's no argument
there. Christ alone is the savior of
his people. But God uses means in our salvation
for his glory. Look at verse 24. For all flesh
is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The
grass withereth, and the flower fadeth thereof, falleth away. But the word of the Lord endureth
forever. Now the word there is the word
logos. You've seen that word, which
means word. And it says the word of the Lord
endureth forever. Maybe that should be capitalized,
maybe not. It doesn't matter. because we
know Christ is the incarnate word, he's the savior, he's the
subject of the written word, and he's the subject of the preached
word. He says, and this is the word which by the gospel is preached
unto you. Now that second word, word, in
verse 25, is another word for word, it means the uttered word,
the preached word. And I didn't read this over in
1 Corinthians 1, but it says there that it pleased the Lord
by the foolishness of preaching. to save them that believe. Now
preaching can come in many forms. It doesn't mean it has to be
a guy like me up here behind a pulpit preaching. It has to
be a communication of the word, the incarnate word, based upon
the written word, and preached out in the power of the Holy
Spirit to bring a person to saving faith and repentance. So don't
get bogged down, you know, well, you know, I was just walking
along the beach and God struck me down, you know, all that stuff.
He may do that, but that's not salvation. We don't, listen,
one thing about the true Christian religion is that we don't deal
in mysticism. We're not one of the mystic religions.
Now, there are mysteries in the Bible, but what does that mean?
That means if you know this mystery, God has to reveal it to you.
And he reveals himself to his people for salvation. But we're
not a mystic religion. I can't say that I'm saved because
I feel saved. Could I say I'm lost if I feel
lost? Feelings come and go. What was that poem that the guy
wrote? He said, I can't remember. I should have written it down.
It's a real good poem. He said, feelings come and go, or something
like that. So one of y'all may know it. But he ends it up by
saying, our only foundation is the word of God. That's the only
thing worth believing. What does God say? Does God's
word have any influence in your life? Because if it doesn't, you're
in trouble. You're in trouble. This is the word of God. It's
not the word of me. I preach it because it's the
word of God. But let me read you a passage. This is John 6,
63. You can mark it down if you can
get there quick enough. But in John 6, 63, it says Christ
told his disciples, it is the spirit that quickeneth, The flesh
profiteth nothing. The words, plural, that I speak
unto you, they are spirit and they are life. And did you hear
that? He says, but there are some of
you that believe not, for Jesus knew from the beginning who they
were that believed not and who should betray. And he said, therefore
said I unto you that no man can come to me except it were given
unto him of my father. We know that's true. John 6.44,
no man can come to me except the Father which has sent me
dry. And so in John 6.66 it says, from that time many of his disciples
went back and walked no more with him. They didn't want to
hear that. And then, verse 67, then said Jesus unto the twelve,
will you go away also? Then Simon Peter answered him,
Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words, plural,
of eternal life. So, to claim to be saved, even
born again, without the word of God, without the communicated
word of God, some way, is to deny the words of eternal life. That jumps into the mystic, see? And so I had a fella come to
the office one time and he was talking about this and he didn't
agree with me. Even though I read him scriptures just like I'm
reading you. And so if you read scripture to somebody, plain
scripture, and they don't believe it, you know nothing, the Lord
hasn't done anything for them in their heart. You understand
that? And he said, well, I'll give
you an example. He said, there was a lady over in some foreign
country, and she'd never read a Bible, never heard the name
Jesus, never heard the gospel, but she was walking on the beach,
and she just stopped and looked up, and she said, it just bore
on me that there is a God and he loves me. And the man asked
me, he said, now who but a born-again child of God could say that?
I said, just about every daggone person in the world. I mean, it's true, think about
it. The heathen will say that. Now, there are some who deny
God and call themselves atheists, but even an atheist thinks he's
lovable. I don't know how, but he does. Well, Peter said, thou
hast the words of eternal life, and then it said, and we believe
and are sure that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God. You know, Romans 10, 17, what does it say? It says, faith,
faith in Christ, cometh by what? Hearing. Now what does that tell
you? You gotta have spiritual ears
and you gotta hear something. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by what? The word of God. You say, well
that's Christ. Okay, it is. But it's also the
spoken word, the written word, the communicated word. That tells
me who he is. God manifest in the flesh. That
tells me what He has done. He saved His people from their
sins. He didn't try to save anybody.
Nobody in hell for whom He died. That's a lie. You know why people
believe that? Because they want to believe
that it's conditioned on them. What did He do? He saved His
people from their sins. Why did He do it? To the praise
of the glory of His grace. Where is He now? Seated at the
right hand of the Father. because he accomplished the very
righteousness of God wherein we stand, and he makes intercession
for us. So this is a message, go back
to 1 John 1 now, this is a message about God's revelation in Christ,
God's revelation concerning Christ, that is to say the true revelation
of God in the incarnate word, in the preached word, in the
written word, the true revelation of God. And they're inseparable. Look at verse two, he says, for
the life was manifested. That means made known. The life
was manifested. Christ was made known and we
have seen it. The word it is in italics. I'd say we have seen him. We
bear witness and show unto you that eternal life which was with
the Father and was manifested unto us. John, one of the things
he wanted to make clear here, he was an eyewitness. Now many
people were eyewitnesses to Christ in his humanity and the miracles
he performed and walked away empty. Is that right? You know, people today, I've
heard people, I remember when I was a boy, we watched the movie
The Ten Commandments. You remember that? Cecil B. DeMille. Boy, I thought that, wow, what
a movie. But I've heard people since then,
they'd say, boy, if I'd have been there, I would have believed,
you know, that kind of thing. No, you wouldn't. They didn't. They were there. After they got
on the other side of the Red Sea, what'd they do? They built
a calf and worshipped it. That's the nature of man without
God. Until the word of life by the
Spirit from Christ, the Father, And so he says, this life was
manifested. It was made known to us. Do you
know life? If you know life, you know Christ.
He is the way, the truth, and the life. And John says, we've
seen him. And we bear witness. We tell
people about this salvation, this life, and show it unto you,
that eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested
to us. Has it been manifested to me,
to you, through the gospel? And then in verse three, listen
to this. That which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you,
that you also may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship
is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. It is by the
power of the Spirit that we're brought into fellowship with
the Godhead. Turned, I promise this will be the last one I ask
you to turn to. 2 Peter, chapter one. Turn over
there. Just a few pages back. 2 Peter chapter one, and let's
listen to this. Now he says, John said in this
passage that, let me get back there, that is through this we
have fellowship with the Father and the Son, this manifestation
of Christ. If you don't have Christ, you're
alienated from the Father and the Son. But Peter says here
that he's talking about grace and peace. Look at verse two
of 2 Peter 1. Well, let's read verse one. Simon Peter, a servant and an
apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious
faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ.
It is through our being justified before God in Christ that we
receive this precious faith. See, faith is not the ground
of our salvation. Faith is not the ground of our
justification. It's the fruit of what Christ
has done. There's the difference. He says
in verse two, grace and peace be multiplied unto you. through
the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, according as His divine
power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life
and godliness." Now think about that. We have all things that
pertain unto life and godliness by the grace of God through the
righteousness of Christ. That means that none of these
blessings, we don't earn them and don't deserve them. And he
says, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory
and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious
promises. Now, how do we know the great
and precious promises? By reading God's word and hearing
it preached. What does God promise me? eternal
life and godliness and all blessings and benefits through Christ.
And he says that by these, these promises, and that's the word
of God, you might be partakers of the divine nature. That word
partakers is the exact same word that John used in verse three
over here, fellowship. In other words, through hearing
and believing the promises of God in Christ, You are brought
by the Spirit to be a fellowshiper, a partaker, a fellowshiper, a
partner with the divine nature, that is, with the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit. That's the divine nature. And
having escaped the corruption that is in the world through
lust. Do you see that? One more verse,
verse four back here in 1 John 1. And these things write we
unto you that your joy may be full. You know, when you're a kid,
there's a lot of joy in the world, isn't there? You're just happy
and free, playing, look forward to Christmas, birthday. I don't look forward to birthdays.
I got one coming up. Somebody asked me, when are you
going to do your birthday? I think I said, I'll lay in the bed and sleep. Just another year. I know I offended
a lady here one time by saying this, but I'm going to give it
to you anyway. There was a reporter, and he was interviewing Henry
Ford. And he asked Henry Ford, he said, Mr. Ford, how would
you like to be remembered in history? And Ford said, history? He said, that's just one damn
thing after another. And that's basically what it
is. Because, think about it. History without God, it's a sad,
sad thing. Now history in the providence
of God, we recognize the power and providence of God is a lot
different, isn't it? We can see some joy there. But as we grow
older and we go through experiences, some good, some bad, there's
not a whole lot of joy. But here's what Paul wrote in
Romans 14, 17. For the kingdom of God is not
meat and drink, these physical things that we're so concerned
with, it's righteousness. We've got a righteousness that
answers the demands of God's law and justice that cannot be
sullied, cannot be taken away. It's the righteousness of Christ
imputed to us. Righteousness and peace. And
from knowing that, through the preaching of the gospel, we have
peace. And somebody said, well, I've
got a lot of trouble. In the world you do. If you're a believer,
you remember what Christ said, what is it, John 16, 33? In the
world you'll have tribulation, but I've overcome the world.
And then he says, joy in the Holy Ghost. And in another place,
he says, that's joy and peace in believing, looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith. And he said, for he that
in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved
of men, believers. The word of life. Aren't you
glad that you know it, if God has revealed it to you?