1st John, chapter 1, and we'll
read from verse 1. That which was from the beginning,
which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which
we have looked upon, and our hands have handled 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. 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 these things write we unto
you, that your joy may be full. 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 Jesus Christ
his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that 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 that we have not sinned,
we make him a liar and his word is not in us. In Matthew chapter 7 and verse
14, the Lord Jesus Christ is delivering what we call the Sermon
on the Mount. And he makes this statement towards
the end of that sermon. It actually extends for three
chapters. It's chapter 5, chapter 6, and
chapter 7 of Matthew. But towards the end of his sermon,
he makes a reference in verse 14 of chapter 7, which says this. Straight is the gate, and narrow
is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find
it. Now, it might seem a little bit
self-defeating for me to begin this morning's sermon on Christian
assurance or Christian assurance as it is revealed to us here
in John's epistles by pointing out the narrowness of the way
of salvation and the obstacles which surround it. But I wanted
to draw your attention to the fact of the gate. the fact of the way of life. Because here in Matthew 7, verse
14, the Lord Jesus Christ is telling us that there is a gate,
there is a way, and there is an entrance into life. And we spend a few years in this
world, perhaps we have the threescore year in ten, perhaps a little
longer, perhaps less. Who knows when the Lord will
come calling. It is appointed unto men once
to die and then the judgment. And we spend a few years in this
world with eternity before us. And we are warned in the Gospel,
we are warned even by nature itself to flee the wrath which
is to come. We are a fallen people, we are
a sinful race, we are rebels in our heart, we are natural
men of fleshy opposition to God. and we have but a little time
to find that gate and find that way of salvation. And yet here
is the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, telling us that there
is good news, there is a gate, and though there be few that
find it, Yet there are some who do. And we could spend our whole
life looking for that gate, and it would not have been a misspent
life. But God is gracious, and if we
seek that salvation which he alone can give, then he has promised
that they who seek shall find. and we rejoice that the Lord
has laid upon our hearts a desire to seek grace at the footstool
of his mercy. And yet that gate of which the
Lord Jesus Christ speaks is a narrow gate. We come to that gate and
we discover that it is narrow. It is particular. It is precise, there's no generalities
about this way of salvation. There's no broad way of acceptance
with God. There is one way, not many ways. And there's no great breadth
in this way of access and this way of approach. It is a tight
way, it is a narrow way, it is a limited way. And I see that
gate of which the Lord Jesus Christ speaks in Matthew 7 as
a reference to the uniqueness of faith in approaching God. We cannot go on a pilgrimage
and find God. We cannot kneel down on the cold
hard floor of a church building and find God. We cannot appeal
to the earthly wisdom of the theologians of our age and find
God. There is but one way of approach
to God and that is by faith alone. And all the blessings of salvation
and all the blessings of comfort and all the reassurances that
come to us must come by faith. It is that way alone by which
we have a relationship with and communion with our Lord Jesus
Christ and through him, God the Father. A closed gate bars the way of
entrance. And so the absence of faith is
a block to those who in this life never find faith. But the
fact that it is a gate and not a fence is an encouragement to
realise that it is a way of opening, to provide access and allow access
into another realm, into another dimension. into another life,
into another way. And so it is faith that leads
us to Christ and brings us into that relationship with him. And that's what the Lord is telling
us here in Matthew chapter 7. And as we progress through these
studies in 1 John, we shall have a little motto. A reference point
which I shall return to with some frequency as we unfold some
of the lessons in this delightful little book. And it is this,
this is the motto, these are the verses to which we shall
return. They're found in 1 John chapter
5, verse 4 and 5. Listen to them once again. For
whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world. And this is the victory
that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh
the world? but he that believeth that Jesus
is the Son of God. May God grant us today that faith
to believe. May God the Holy Spirit come
and open our heart to receive that gift of faith and understanding
by which we may overcome the world, by which we may have that
belief in the promises of God that Paul spoke of, that Asaph
spoke of, that the Lord might shine his face upon us and that
we might be saved. Our victory in the world is by
faith, because faith opens the gate to life and peace with God. It is God's gift to us. By grace
are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourself, it is the
gift of God. And faith can be little, or it
can be great. It comes and it goes, it ebbs
and it flows, it rises and it falls. But by no other means
does a man or a woman have any spiritual experience or any hope
of eternal life, but by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. In
the opening verses of 1 John, the beloved apostle tells us
his principal reason for writing to us. And that is that we, you
and me, you and I, might truly enjoy fellowship with the Father
and with the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, as did the apostles. The apostles knew fellowship
with Christ. They knew what it was to sit
with Him. They knew what it was to listen
to Him. They knew what it was to embrace
Him. John particularly knew what it was to share that loving relationship
with God and they received that testimony from the Lord Jesus
Christ. personally, intimately. And what
John is saying here is that he is writing with this purpose
that we may also receive that testimony. He wants us to receive
it firsthand. This is a direct line between
Jesus Christ, the God-man, and you and me today. John has written
these words of his own personal experience and the personal experience
of the apostles of Jesus Christ who lived and worked and walked
and dwelt and communed with him and those to whom John writes
that we might receive their testimony and we might enjoy the fullness
of that joy in experiencing the same spiritual blessings by faith
that they received intimately and personally from the Lord
Jesus Christ. What John has to say to us, if
we can read it with the eyes of faith and hear it with the
ears of faith, will inspire joy in a believer's heart. Because
John's design and the Holy Spirit's purpose, that third person of
the Godhead and so inspiring John to write these words, the
purpose of God himself is to minister these words to our hearts
that we by faith might appropriate them for ourselves. John's design
is to speak to us of the Lord Jesus Christ and of John's personal
knowledge of him. And John will speak of his blood,
the blood that he saw running down the body of Christ. He will speak to us of the sacrifice,
the sacrifice that he understood Jesus Christ was making for John
himself, for the other apostles, and for all who are that body
of Christ. He will speak to us of Christ's
cross, before which he stood with the very mother of Jesus
at his side and heard Jesus speak to him from it. And he will tell
us what that cross accomplished in the salvation of sinners.
and he will speak of the resurrection and how the Lord Jesus Christ
rose from the dead and gives hope now to all who believe in
him, who gives hope now and joy for the present in an understanding
that no matter what it is that this world throws at us, those
who are in Christ, those for whom Christ died, those who have
faith in the power of His blood, those who understand the accomplishments
of the cross of our Saviour, have risen together with the
Lord Jesus Christ and will enjoy that life which is essentially
Christ Himself. This is our joy. There is a pleasure
which comes from sin and the Bible tells us it lasts for a
season and then it is gone, it dissipates and it leaves its
scars behind. But there is everlasting joy
to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. These few verses at the
introduction of John, I'm just going to take the first few verses,
the first four verses actually, and I just want to make a couple
of comments on these verses and then we are done. The very first
word of John's epistle here is that. And it might seem strange
that John begins his epistle referring to Jesus as that. but it is exactly what he does. The that of whom John speaks
is the Lord Jesus Christ. And I want to show you something
very interesting in John's words here, because John's words are
carefully written. Just as was his gospel in its
introduction, speaking about the word that was with God and
was God, So John here is careful in what he is writing and I think
he opens up to us a beautiful insight of the Lord Jesus Christ
by this reference to that. He is speaking to us of the Lord
Jesus Christ in his covenant office as our mediator. And it is worth noticing that. So he says, that which was from
the beginning. That which was from the beginning. So he is speaking here of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now the Lord Jesus Christ is,
I trust we know and understand the eternal God. And the Lord
Jesus Christ as the eternal God is without beginning. So we cannot
be talking here, eternal has no beginning and has no end.
So when John says that which was from the beginning, he is
not talking about Christ's divine nature here. He is rather talking
about the commencement of that plan and purpose of salvation,
that covenant of peace that came into being in the eternal mind
of the eternal God. where the Lord Jesus Christ was
set up in the covenant of peace as the mediator in his offices
as prophet, priest and king, as substitute and surety, as
that one who would come and liberate and deliver his people from the
bondage of sin. The Lord Jesus Christ was set
up as mediator and it is that picture that is being shown to
us by John when he speaks of that which was from the beginning. That which was from the beginning
of the covenant of grace. Christ in his God-man capacity. The Lord Jesus Christ In that phrase which he uses
in Revelation, I think he uses it four times in Revelation,
where he says, I am Alpha and Omega. I am the beginning and
the end. It's not talking about Christ's
divine, eternal nature, but rather his mediatorial nature. role
and responsibilities, by which the elect are chosen, justified,
sanctified in Him prior to the creation or foundation of this
world. Such is the eternal purpose of
our God, that that which was from the beginning is the setting
up of the Lord Jesus Christ as the God-man in the covenant purpose
of salvation and peace. This is what God is talking about
when Paul writes in Ephesians 3, verse 11, according to the
eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord, this
covenant of grace or covenant of peace. And it shows to us
that John understood the eternal and everlasting dimensions of
God's love and grace towards sinners for the salvation of
their souls. This salvation isn't a temporal
thing. It isn't something that begins
in time when an individual, I don't know, confesses their sin or
puts up their hand or goes forward in a church or makes some sort
of profession of faith. That is such an empty, shallow,
narrow perspective on salvation that accompanies the free will
religion of this age that it is almost an abomination. to
those who have come to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and
his eternal capacity as the instigator and accomplisher of the covenant
purposes of God. There is an eternal and everlasting
dimension to this great work. and John sees it here and that's
why he introduces this letter in this way. He is introducing
us to the Lord Jesus Christ in his God-man mediator role. And he says, this God-man, this
one who is the founder of the covenant purposes of God, we
audibly heard him speak. We visibly saw him with our own
eyes. We physically touched him with
our hands. The eternal God became flesh
as the living word amongst us. Then in verse two, John almost
seems to pause. That's what the brackets mean
in verse two. It's almost as if he can't go
beyond verse one without making another comment upon it. He's
pausing even as he's just beginning in order to emphasise this amazing
fact that we've just spoken about, that it was the eternal God in
the person of the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, who walked
and talked and lived amongst us, that we embraced, that we dined
with, that we walked and talked with, that this is the eternal
life of God personified in a man. He was with the Father as the
eternal Son and he is manifested to us in the person of Jesus
Christ. Make no mistakes, says John,
this is Emmanuel, Jesus Christ, God with us. And the life and the death of
the Lord Jesus Christ is what we are talking about. That's
what John's telling us. He's saying this isn't an abstract
idea. This is our testimony and it
demands a response. We preach for a response. We declare these truths for a
reaction. We witness of these things in
order that we be believed in the things that we are declaring. These things, John says, we are
telling you Because we know that it is true. We were there. We
were participants. We were eyewitnesses. And this
message that I'm giving you demands an answer. This isn't the philosophy
of men. This isn't man-made ideas to
be weighed together with other notions to be considered and
debated. that we can examine and we can
investigate and then pass judgment on or critique. I'm not interested
in debating this gospel with anyone or indeed discussing it
or analysing it with anyone. It is my role, it is my purpose,
it is my job here today to declare the facts of the Lord Jesus Christ's
coming and to lay upon you this fact that it demands a response
from you. God became man to save sinners
and to deliver his people from death, from everlasting judgment
into liberty and life. And the magnitude of this gospel
message is immense. and you miss it at your peril. Matthew 22 verse 42, the Lord
Jesus Christ is speaking to the Jews and the Pharisees and the
scribes and he says this, what think ye of Christ? Whose son
is he? And they say to him, the son
of David. And the Lord Jesus Christ says,
no. He's the son of God. Now deal with that. Deal with
that. And that's what John is telling
us here today. Jesus is not just a historical
figure with a family and a genealogy. He is the God-man come into the
world in order to save his people from their sins. And John says,
I'm telling you those things so that you might believe it.
and that having faith and believing in this, you might have the blessings
and the benefits that flow from it. That you with us might be
comforted and enjoy these blessings. We declare these things because
it is through believing this message and receiving this truth
and resting in this gospel and leaning upon this Jesus, the
God-man, that we enter into an experience of the union and relationship
that we have with God by his grace towards us. Faith is the
enabling grace by which troubled hearts in this world are soothed,
that cut consciences are eased, that forgiveness of sin is obtained
and that peace with God is enjoyed. Faith, granted as God's gift
to us, rises in our souls in the lively acceptance of the
truth as we hear it declared in the gospel. Faith discovers
the promises of God in the gospel, in the things that John is saying
to us, and faith believes them when it hears them. When the
gospel is preached to us we say we believe that word, we believe
that word. Faith sees the efficacy. in the accomplishments of Christ
upon the cross. Faith understands that this is
not just blood that's being shed, it is Christ's blood. This is
not just the death of a man, it is the death of the God-man.
This is not just another Roman execution, this is Jesus Christ,
the Lamb of God substituted for his people. This is the man of
God's right hand who is made fit and able to bear the rod
of God, enduring that rod for the salvation and deliverance
of his people. And faith glimpses the blood
that cleanses and faith seeks the benefits of that. Faith sees
the righteousness that justifies and longs for it. Faith understands
the liberty of redemption, of being purchased by that blood
and faith rejoices in it. Faith enables us to share in
the union and fellowship with John and the other apostles and
every true believer who is joined to Christ. by that Holy Spirit
gift of faith. It is God's goodness to us. It
is God's grace. Listen, my friends, faith is
more than head knowledge. Men and women can learn facts
about the Bible and figures about religion. They can earn a Doctor
of Divinity degree at university and college. But faith is a spiritual
energy. It is a divine spark. It's a
lively conviction. It is a Holy Spirit everlasting
gift which is given to weak, broken sinners like you and me. and you can't put faith in a
bottle, and you can't study it in a laboratory, you can't watch
it under a microscope, but, oh, it will bring you sweet comforts,
blessed hope, an ease of conscience, and peace in your heart when
you, by faith, trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and enjoy that real
fellowship with Christ which faith alone can bring. John wrote,
all for the sake of our joy. There are so many people who
doubt because they don't have the joy that they imagine they
should have. Listen, I don't think that there is a
true believer who hasn't doubted. that they have not the faith
that they truly desire. I think that is part and parcel
of our Christian experience. That is the reason why we are
often taken through trials and challenges and difficulties and
deep dark experiences because the Lord is testing and proving
to us the veracity and the legitimacy of our faith. Jesus wept Are
you to have no tears in this world? Paul complained. Peter denied. Thomas doubted. Trophimus got sick. Every one
of them died. But this spiritual joy that we
speak of here in John's opening verses, it isn't an ecstasy of
our senses. It's not a pride of achievement
or a euphoria of success or some sort of delight in our flesh.
Truly there is a joy in nature. There are blessings and privileges
and experiences that we can enjoy in this life but they come and
go and they rarely prove as satisfying as we hoped they would be. But
spiritual joy, like spiritual peace, it passes understanding. It is deep. It is significant,
it is enduring, even in the midst of our tears, even despite our
complaints, even though we are tried and damaged and hurt. And it's an enigma because it
flows to us, this joy, it flows to us from the suffering and
brutal death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why should we have joy
in his sufferings? It's built on a blood offering
and on an innocent sacrifice and in a forsaken son. It's founded
on such words as propitiation and judgment and redemption and
atonement and substitution. And spiritual joy is the joy
of faith that sees in the Lord Jesus Christ a friend of sinners,
a giver of rest, a comforter of broken souls, a way of life
and salvation. Listen, despite what some people
tell us, spiritual joy doesn't bring the giggles or inspire
some kind of holy laughter. And you can shed tears of grief
and remorse and repentance and regret and yet possess spiritual
joy. Why? because it is the product
and effect of Christ in you. It is the hope of glory. In the
midst of life's storms, we rejoice in the Lord by faith. John, the apostle, Beloved of
the Lord, he, this one who is writing to us, knew much hardship. He had a whole life of suffering
and disappointment and imprisonment and torture and trial. He knew
hardship and disappointment and suffering, as did all the Lord's
disciples and apostles, and as has done the Church of Jesus
Christ through all the ages. But in the furnace of trial,
Heated seven times by worldly temptation, by fleshly weakness,
by devilish schemes, the Lord's people gained victory by faith. For whatsoever is born of God
overcometh the world. And this is the victory that
overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh
the world? He that believeth that Jesus
is the Son of God. Amen. May God bless these thoughts
to us.