Now, this epistle of John, 1
John, is called a general epistle. It was written to all believers
in general, not addressed to a particular person or particular
church. And most of the historians all
agree that this was written by the Apostle John when he was
the last surviving apostle. He's an old man. And I've never
been old yet, but from the old man that I've known, It seems
like that they only want to take time for what's most important.
They don't want to waste much time on trivial matters. Time's
short. They're going to focus on what's
the most important. Things that are the most important
come into sharper focus when time is short. And the most important
matter to this old man, John, as he begins to write this epistle,
is clearly the Lord Jesus Christ. that God-man, that He is both
God and man, Son of David and Son of God. That's such an important
thing for us to understand. He must be a man to be our substitute,
but He must be God to be able to put away our sin. John's going
to write in this epistle about the important doctrine of the
Trinity. He must have been under some
attack or disbelief in his time, and he wrote about the Trinity.
He's going to write about the importance of believers. showing
evidences of the new birth. There's got to be some outward
evidence of an inward work of grace. He writes to us that we
show our loved one to another, that we have fellowship one with
another, that we don't live like the world any longer. And he's
going to correct the error that a believer is sinless. He's going
to show us here in this very first chapter that while our
sin is forgiven, sin is still in the believer. So he begins
here in verse one of chapter one, 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. He begins this epistle much like he begins his
gospel. If you'll turn back over into
the gospel of John chapter one, his beginning of this is very
similar. And John one, verse one. 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. It says down in verse 14, that Word was made flesh
and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. The glory is of the
only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. He's
teaching us here that Jesus Christ, the man that John and the other
apostles spent those three years with, is the eternal God. He is the great I Am, the One
who spoke to Moses out of that burning bush. And God became
a real man. A real man. He wasn't just a
figure that looked like a man. He was a real man. He dwelt among
men. And those apostles saw Him as
a man. They spent those three and a
half years with Him. They saw Him eat as a man, drink as a
man. He had an appetite and thirst
as a man. He slept. He got tired just like any other
man does. But those apostles saw that man
as God. They saw Him cleanse lepers.
They saw Him heal the sick. They saw Him raise the dead.
They saw Him speak as no other man, both in spiritual power
and physical power. They saw Him speak and stop the
wind and the waves. They said, what man is this that
even the wind and the waves obey His voice? And they saw him as a man. They handled him. John leaned
upon his breast. That's not a ghost. That's not
a figure. He leaned on his breast. A real
man made of flesh and bones. They saw him as a man suffer
and bleed and die. They saw him risen from the tomb.
They saw him ascend back to the Father. This man is the God-man. And John says, here's one of
the things we learned. about the Lord Jesus. He is the
Word of Life. He's the very expression of God.
You know, we use words to express ourselves. Well, God's expression
of Himself, the Word, is the Lord Jesus Christ. But He's not
just empty words. You know, half the time what
we say is empty words. Christ is the Word of Life. The ancient writers talked about
Him as the vital Word. The Word of Life. He has life
in Himself. He's the fountain of life. He's
the giver of life. And to the believer, He is our
life. He is our life. And He became
a man and dwelt among men so that He could restore the life
that we lost in Adam. In Adam, all died. In Christ,
we have life. He's the Word of life. And John
says in verse 2, for this life was manifested. And we've seen
it. and bear witness, and show unto
you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested
unto us." Now the apostles, they bore witness to what they were
eyewitnesses and earwitnesses of. What they saw, they were
faithful to tell other men and women about. What we saw is what
we're declaring this eternal life unto you. And you know,
when they did that, they do what every preacher does. All we can
do is tell people what we've seen and what we heard, what
we know to be true. And if you look over in John,
chapter three. They're copying the example here of our Lord,
the greatest preacher who ever lived, the word of God, that
this is what he said. In John, chapter three, verse
11. Barely, barely, I say unto thee. We speak that we do know
and testify that we have seen and you receive not our witness.
Even our Lord said we speak what we know and testify what we've
seen. Same thing John said. And if you look over in Acts
chapter four. Next, chapter four, verse 18. These apostles were faithful.
to tell what they knew, what they were eye and ear witnesses
of, even when they were under attack. Acts 4, verse 18, And
they called them and commanded them not to speak at all, nor
teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them
and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God
to hearken unto you more than God, you judge. For we cannot
but speak the things which we have seen and heard. They are
faithful. to tell those things that they
knew to be true. And they knew them because they
were eyewitnesses of these things. The Lord revealed Himself to
these twelve apostles in a special, unique way. Like He didn't do
anybody else. There were just twelve apostles.
He taught them directly the Gospel. But you know, the Lord reveals
Himself to all of His people. And He teaches us the same things
that He taught the apostles. The same things that the apostles
bore witness of. And the apostles bore witness
that the reason that Christ came was so that His elect would have
life. Life in Him. Spiritual life. Eternal life.
The invisible God made Himself manifest to men. God told Moses,
you can't see me and live. You can't see God and live. Yet you can't live without seeing
the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God. He revealed Himself to men
in the form of a man, so we'd have life. He's the manifest
to us, the Word of Life. In verse 3, John says, that which
we've 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 these things
write we unto you, that your joy may be full. And here, just
in these first three verses, this is the third time John says
we're declaring unto you the things that we've seen and heard.
There can be no doubt that what John's teaching here is true.
He's seen it. He's heard it. He knows. And
the message that they declared is a person. What John's declaring
here is a who? The Lord Jesus Christ. We're
declaring Him unto you. Who He is. What He did. Why he did it and where he is
now. These are the things that John has seen. Now, here's a
question. How can I be as sure of this
gospel? How can I be as sure of the Lord
Jesus Christ as the Apostle John was? I've never seen him with
the natural eye. John did. I've never touched
him. I've never handled him. I've never heard him with the
natural ear like John did and the other eleven did. How can
I be as confident as they were? Well, a couple of things. Let
every word be established by the mouth of two or three witnesses.
There's many witnesses in the Word. I don't have to see them.
Faith doesn't have to see things physically. Let every word be
established by the mouth of two or three witnesses. That's good
enough for me. I don't have to see things firsthand
to know that they're true. But look back in 2 Peter chapter
1. Peter, like John, was an eyewitness and an earwitness of these things,
of everything our Lord did. In 1 Peter 1, look in verse 16. This is my beloved Son, in whom
I am well pleased. And this voice which came from
heaven, we heard. We are eyewitnesses of these
things and earwitnesses of them. We heard when we were with Him
in the Holy Mount, in that time when He was transfigured. But
look what He says in verse 19. We have also a more sure word
of prophecy, whereunto you do well that you take heed, as unto
a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn, and
a day star arise in your hearts, Knowing this first, that no prophecy
of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy
came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake
as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. We have a more sure word
of prophecy than if we had seen these things with these eyes
and heard him speak with these ears." The word. We have the written word. They
had the incarnate word, but it's the same. The same Word. You
can't separate the written Word and the incarnate Word. That's
how we can be sure we have God's Word. So that's the first thing,
he says, why we declare these things unto you. The second,
he says, is so you can have fellowship with the Father. There's two
reasons. The first is this. You can have fellowship with
the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ. The only way that we
can have fellowship with the Father, the only way we can come
to the Father is through Christ, through the Word that the Father
sent. And being in Christ gives us acceptance, gives us fellowship
with the Father. Right now, we are accepted in
the Beloved. We will be accepted one day in
the Beloved. Right now, we're accepted in
the Beloved and have fellowship with the Father. We can come
to Him in prayer and call on His name and be heard in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And this is heavenly fellowship. This is spiritual fellowship.
It's God living in us. And us living in Him. And that
comes through faith in Christ. And if you have fellowship with
God, with the Father, you'll have fellowship with His people.
Because we're all part of the same body. So John says, we write
these things unto you so you can know God. You can have fellowship
with Him. And we write these things unto
you secondly so that your joy may be full. You cannot have
joy without the Lord Jesus Christ. It's an utter impossibility.
The Gospel of Christ brings joy to believers. It brings joy to
our hearts. Knowing the Gospel, knowing Christ,
doesn't give us the attitude, well, ha ha ha, I know something
you don't. That's not the attitude that the gospel brings. That's
not the attitude that Christ brings to the heart. It brings
joy. He brings joy. There is joy in
knowing our sins are forgiven under the blood of Christ. Now,
there's joy there. There's joy in wearing His righteousness. There's joy in wearing His name,
not my name. That's joy. There's joy in having
communion with Him. Being able to call on the Father. Being able to call on His name
in prayer. Have fellowship with Him. There's
joy in that. There's joy in having a sense
of His love that passes all human understanding. Now that's joy.
There's joy in telling about Him. There's joy in hearing about
Him. There's joy in singing His praises. And there's joy. In knowing,
I'm on my way to be with Him. I'm not staying here. I'm on
my way to be with Him. To be perfectly conformed to
His image. Now that's joy. And that's what
we have in Christ. Now verse 5 he says, This then
is the message. There's not any doubt here. This
is the message. Which we've heard of Him and
declare unto you. That God is light. And in Him
is no darkness at all. This is the message that we have
from Christ, the Word of God. That God is light. He's pure
light. I don't know how to describe
that. He's pure light. There's not even a shadow of
turning with Him. There's not a speck of darkness
in Him. He's pure light. He's the light
of life as opposed to the darkness of death and Adam. He's the light
of knowledge as opposed to the light of ignorance. He doesn't
leave the darkness of ignorance. He doesn't leave His people in
the darkness of ignorance. He brings us to the light of
knowledge. And God is the light of holiness as opposed to the
darkness of sin. In Habakkuk 1, verse 13, we won't
turn to it. Sandy, that would have been a
good tiebreaker for Bible school where Janet and I were having
our sword drill. Habakkuk 1, verse 13, I wrote
it down, so we won't turn to it. Thou art of purer eyes than
to behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity." God's holy. That's the message of the Gospel.
He cannot behold evil. He can't even look on iniquity. God requires absolute holiness. As holy as He is, that's what
He requires. Well, that's not good news for
a sinner who's filled with iniquity. How can God ever Look on me."
John says, this is the message. That Christ the Word was made
flesh and dwelt among us so we could have His righteousness. So His righteousness and His
holiness would be given to us. And in Him, we're accepted. In Christ, we are everything
that God requires. So He can look on us and behold
us. Now that's good news from a far
country. That's why Christ came from a
far country to bring us that good news that righteousness
can be found in Him. Now verse 6, if we say that we
have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and
do not the truth. If a person says he knows God,
he knows God who is light, but he walks in darkness, the tenor
of his life, we all sin, but the tenor of his life is to walk
in sin. He shows all the evidences of
unbelief. He doesn't show any evidence
of believing God. He doesn't walk according to the Word, the
revealed will of God and His Word. Then John says that man
is lying and he does not know the truth. All he is, is a religious
hypocrite that is pretending to be something that he's not.
It's an impossibility to walk in darkness and have fellowship
with light. It can't be done. Just like Dwight
said Wednesday there from Psalm 85, if there's no turning, if
there's no conversion, then there's not been a work of grace in the
heart. When God saves somebody, there's a turning. There's a
turning away from what we are and who we are and a turning
to Him. If God has regenerated us, there's
going to be a difference. Salvation gives a person a new
walk. We walk in a new direction with
a new attitude. And you can't walk in darkness
anymore once God's revealed the light to you. And we'll see this
in a minute. It won't be perfect. That walk
will not be perfect. But it will be an imitation of
our Savior. It may be a cheap imitation,
but it'll be the best imitation we can produce to follow Him
and walk after Him. Now, verse 7. But if we walk
in the light, as He's in the light, we have fellowship one
with another. And the blood of Jesus Christ,
His Son, cleanses us from all sin. When a person's been given
spiritual light, they walk in light. That's just what the new
man will do. They walk in Christ, the light
of the world. And when you have spiritual light,
you see. Now, when you're in darkness,
you can't see anything because it's dark. But when you're in
the light, you can see. You can see your sin. You can see your lack of obedience.
You can see that Christ is everything I need. His blood, His righteousness,
His sacrifice, His obedience is all I'll ever need. When you
have light, you can see that. A person doesn't stumble over
things when it's light because they can see. And a believer
walking in light has fellowship with God. What he doesn't just
mean by fellowship with each other, he means we'll have fellowship
with God. God in us and us in him. And that happens because Christ
came to bring his elect back to God. At one time, Adam in
the garden had fellowship with God. But Adam fell and he lost
that fellowship. Christ came to bring us back
to God. To bring us back into fellowship
with him. And the reason that a person
walks in light, the reason that a person, a sinner, a man like
you and me, can have fellowship with God is because they have
been cleansed from all their sin in the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. His blood cleanses us from all
sin. It cleanses us from our original
sin in Adam. It cleanses us from our own sinful
acts and our own rebellion. The blood of Christ, as the song
says, goes deeper than the stain is gone. His blood goes to the
very root of the problem in Adam and cleanses us from that original
sin. And His blood cleanses us from the fruit of the problem,
from our sinful acts indeed. His blood cleanses us from all
sin. That's the only way that a holy
God can have fellowship with us, even look on us. It's the
blood of His Son has cleansed us from all sin. Now, verse 8, if we say that
we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. I
just got done saying a believer is cleansed from all their sin,
didn't I? That's what I said. That's what
Scripture said. His blood cleanses us from all
sin. Every sin of God's elect has
been paid for. The ransom's been paid. That
sin has been put away under the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are free from the guilt of sin. We're free from the power
of sin. We're free from the punishment
of sin. But we're not free from the presence of sin. These bodies,
this flesh that we're born with, was shapen in iniquity. It was
conceived in sin. It was born dead in trespasses
and sins. And that which is born of the
flesh is flesh. It can't change. It cannot be
anything but sinful flesh. That's all it ever will be. And
when God saves His people, He doesn't change this flesh. He
doesn't change the heart that we're born with. He hasn't changed
the nature that we're born with. He gives us a new heart. He gives
us a new nature. He gives us a new will. A new man is born that never
existed before. That man is born in righteousness.
He's born in perfect holiness because he's born in the image
of God. Just like this flesh is born in the image of Adam.
And it does just what Adam does. Nothing but sin. The new man
is born in the image of God. And that man follows God. Can't do anything. Cannot sin. But the old man is unchanged. He still can't do anything but
sin. Now he doesn't rule, but he won't quit. He won't quit
fighting. He won't quit sinning. Everything
we do is mixed with sin of that old man. It makes everything
we do sinful. Sin is sin. Whether it's in an
unbeliever or whether it's in a believer. Sin is sin. God didn't change the nature
of sin in His people. He paid for it. He put it away.
But sin is sin. And we'll never be rid of it
in this life. Never. It'll just get harder. The older we get, the more we
grow in grace, the harder it will be. The more it just rears
its ugly head and will not be rid of it until this flesh is
put in the ground. God's going to have to kill it.
Set that new man free from the body of this death. And that
new man will go be with the Lord, to be forever with Him. But this
must have been a problem in the early church for John to have
dealt with it here. If we say, and you know, you
still see this today, it's the same. People don't change. You know, there's these holiness
crowd may, you know, say, well, they're getting more holy. And
if we say that after the Lord saves us either suddenly or maybe
eventually that we become holy, that we can act without sin.
We're deceived and the truth is not in us. A saved person,
a person who knows Christ, will never say that. The truth is
not in us, is what Scripture says, if we say that we don't
have any sin. If the truth is in us, then the
light is in us, and we have light to see our sin. Well, then when
we see our sin, what do we do? What does that cause us to do
when we see our sin? Well, look at verse 9. If we
confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we see our sin, we will confess
that sin to God. Not to some man in a dark closet
somewhere, because we didn't sin against him. We sinned against
God. And we'll confess that sin to
Him. And a big part of this confession is begging for mercy. Lord, forgive
me. Wash me in the blood of Your
Son. God be merciful to me, the sinner. That's confessing our
sin. And God is faithful to His Word
to forgive the begging sinner. He's faithful to His Word to
show mercy. Look over Proverbs 28. In Proverbs 28, verse 13, He that covereth his sins shall
not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have
mercy. So have mercy from God. God is
faithful to forgive, and He is just to forgive the sin of His
people. He's just to forgive our sins
because in an act of justice, He punished Christ for our sins. That blood that cleanses us from
all sin enables God to be just, to forgive us our sins. And verse
10, if we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and
his word is not in us. Now, if we deny that we have
sinned, that we commit sin, we're just lying. I mean, that's just
foolishness for a man to say he doesn't sin. And worse than
me lying, if I say that, I'm making God a liar. Let God be
true and every man a liar. If I say I don't have any sin,
I'm making God a liar. God's the one who said in His
Word, we all come forth from the womb speaking lies. God said
that. God said we've all sinned and
come short of His glory. God said there's none righteous.
There's none that doeth good. No, not one. Well, if I deny
that, I'm making God a liar. There's a difference between
knowing the doctrine of total depravity, knowing that men are
totally depraved, and knowing I'm totally depraved. There's a world difference in
that. I grew up. I cannot remember a time that
I was not a five-point calvinist. I've always known men are totally
depraved. I've always known that. I can't remember not knowing
men. There's a difference. The day
came I knew I'm totally depraved. All is different in the world.
This is totally different. And the reason you know that
is because God showed it to you. He shed forth the light of His
presence in your heart. And it's good to know that we're
a sinner. It really is. The more we realize
I'm a sinner, the more we'll appreciate the Lord Jesus Christ. If I deny I'm a sinner, I cut
myself off from the joy of forgiveness of sins in Christ. I don't want
to cut myself out of that joy. The more I realize how sinful
I am of myself, the more I'll worship Him who paid for my sins."
Isn't that right? I think it is. Alright, well,
Lord willing, we'll pick up there in chapter 2 next week.