There is no dispute among the
historians as to who wrote the epistles of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd
John. Clearly, they bear the marks
of John upon them. If you read John's Gospel and
read these three short epistles, you will see clearly that the
same man wrote the epistles who wrote the Gospel of John. was the last of the apostles
to leave this world. Like the other apostles, John
had spoken of times of darkness and difficulty. The apostle Paul
wrote concerning the Antichrist that should come, John lived
long enough to see Antichrist appear. He said, many Antichrists
are going out into the world. Antichrist is not single person. Antichrist is a system of religion,
any and every system of religion, that denies the gospel of Jesus
Christ the Lord. That's Antichrist. And John lived
long enough to see the heresies that now abound everywhere, creeping
into the church. And he writes this epistle. It's
one of the most comforting cheering, assuring portions of all the
Word of God. These five chapters of 1 John
are just full of comfort and encouragement and confidence. John speaks concerning the certainty
of Christ person and work, the certainty of the gospel of God's
grace that we preach, the certainty of eternal life in Jesus Christ
the Lord, and his purpose in writing. was that your joy might
be full, you who believe. His purpose in writing was that
you might know that you have eternal life in Jesus Christ
the Lord. And yet this epistle is perhaps
the most soul-searching of any single portion of scripture.
John's purpose not to destroy or disrupt in any way the confident
faith and comforting assurance of any true believer, but to
destroy every refuge of lies, to tear down every false refuge. In fact, Robert Lowell, who wrote
a commentary on this epistle in the 19th century, entitled
his commentary, The Tests of Life. John's epistle causes us
to search and try ourselves as to whether we are in the faith.
This epistle is called a general epistle. because it was not written
to any specific person or to any single local church. It was
written addressed to God's church everywhere, in every age, to
God's saints everywhere, in every age. This general epistle doesn't
deal with any specific issues involving any specific local
church. but rather it deals with the everyday life of faith in
Jesus Christ the Lord and problems and difficulties faced by God's
people in every part of the world in every age of time. It's a
pastoral epistle. John writes as a pastor with
a pastor's heart. He writes to his dear children,
those who were dear to him as men and women, young folks who
had been converted by God's grace, committed to his care, trusted
to his hand as an under shepherd to Christ. And he writes for
their spiritual welfare that they might know Christ and walk
with Christ in the sweet fellowship of the gospel, in the blessed
assurance of faith in Christ Jesus, that they might commit
themselves evermore to him. As John writes this epistle,
he seems to have three things specifically in mind. He clearly
wanted to establish our hearts firmly in the doctrine of Jesus
Christ. That is, he wanted to make us
understand clearly, understand distinctly who Jesus Christ is,
what he accomplished as our Savior and what he is doing now as our
advocate on high. John lived in a day when there
were already goats among the sheep who denied the gospel. Particularly, they denied two
things. Men, some of them denied the
everlasting eternal deity, the eternal Godhead of our Savior.
Others in that day denied the real humanity of the Lord Jesus. They taught that he really never
came in the flesh and that all the things about Jesus were just
mystical things. There was not any real man who
became flesh, as God became flesh and dwelt among us, but he just
appeared to be a man, just seemed as though he were a man. And
John's intent is to show us that this one who is God is the God-man,
our Savior, and by his obedience unto death as our substitute,
he has accomplished all our salvation for us. And John wanted to give
assurance to every believer of his interest in Christ. Listen
to this. He says in chapter 5, verse 13,
These things have I written unto you that believe on the name
of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. Over the years, I have read and
heard a good many sermons from 1 John. And I can't think I can't think
of having heard more than one or two from men who preached
a message that caused comfort and peace to rise up in my soul
and the knowledge of Christ. Rather, it was always something
that would leave you sort of uneasy. The intent of the message
was to rob you of confidence. The intent of the message was
to make you feel uncomfortable about your relationship with
God. John's intent in writing this epistle Now listen to me
somewhere. You ought to write this down.
So you don't forget it when you read first John John's intent
in writing this epistle is that every sinner who trusts Christ
Might know that he has eternal life. I Don't know why preachers are
forever determined to try to disturb the confidence of God's
people. Now, if you have a refuge of
lies in which you're hiding, if you have a false hope, then
John's epistle is intended to destroy that. But John wrote
this epistle with the intent of causing every believing center,
every center who trust Jesus Christ, the Lord, as his savior,
to know that you have eternal life. As I preach through these
five chapters, try to expand the scriptures to you. I pray
that God, the Holy Spirit, will give me understanding and wisdom
and grace that I may convey to you who trust the Savior. You have eternal life. You have eternal life. And then
third, John's intention. is to establish the people of
God in true godliness. In true godliness. Almost everybody
thinks that godliness has something to do with taboos. Religious
taboos. I think I told you this not long
ago. The first time I was in Lexington, down here at Bible
Conference. And Brother Dave Collier and
Brother Brant Seacrest and I were walking around downtown. I don't
know what we were doing. We were just visiting with each
other. And I got thirsty. I got thirsty and I walked into
a place and got a Coke. And I asked them, I said, you
fellas want something to drink? And they said, oh no. And I walked in and got
a Coke and came back out and they were almost as white as
your sweater, Bob. Brother Don, that was a pool
hall. I saw the tables in there. I just wanted a Coke. But you
can't go in there. Oh, these folks are upset to
go in there. Well, time for folks to get upset. Time for them to
get upset. Godliness has nothing to do with
meat and drink. The book says so. The kingdom
of God is not in meat and drink, but in righteousness and peace
and joy in the Holy Ghost. The scriptures clearly teach
that we ought to be temperate in all things, moderate in all
things, but the scriptures do not teach that godliness is to
be attained by some religious activity or some religious taboo,
you refuse to participate in this or have that or go here,
go there. That's not godliness. That's
pretense. That's pretense. People have
this idea that if you dress a certain way or you talk a certain way,
when you say God, you say God. You preach, you have to use a
certain tone of language so you sound holy. What stupidity? What stupidity? No. In the book of God, this is what
godliness involves. Are you listening? This is what
godliness involves. Faith and love. Nothing else. Faith and love. Nothing else. Look at first John
chapter three, verse 23. This is his commandment that
we should believe on the name of the son of God or of his son,
Jesus Christ, and love one another as he gave us commandment. Well, I thought you were supposed
to wear your hair a certain way. I thought you were not supposed
to go mix bathing. Now, for you folks who aren't
familiar with terms back when I was growing up, most people
practice what they call regional godliness, or what I call regional
godliness. In the South, you weren't allowed
to drink a glass of wine. Oh, you couldn't. Most folks
in the North didn't think anything about it. But in the South, you
didn't dare go mixed bathing. That didn't mean you take a bath
with other people. That meant you go swimming, boys
and girls together. Oh, you don't dare do it. In
the North, that's all right. Those things didn't involve godliness.
In the North, you didn't dare use tobacco. Where I was growing
up, you was winged on it. And nobody said anything about
it. Nobody. Nobody. Because that was just accepted.
That was just accepted. Godliness is faith and love. Read the book. Everything that's
described as anything to do with the practice of godliness in
this book is the exercise of love and kindness toward God
and his people, toward our fellow man. This is his commandment,
that we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ,
and love one another as he gave us commandment. All right. Our
text this evening is verses 1 through 5 of chapter 1. And I will deliberately
spend the bulk of my time on the first two verses. We'll come
back to the others another time. The title of my message, this
is the message. First John chapter 1, 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, right? We unto
you that your joy may be full. This then is the message which
we have heard of him and declaring to you that God is light and
in him is no darkness at all. This is the message. Oh, it will
be a blessed day for God's church, a blessed day for many women
on this earth. When men who stand, as I do now,
in the pulpits of churches understand that this book is a book with
one message, one message. I spent a good bit of time one
day this week, Wednesday afternoon, a fellow came to visit with me,
and his business is proving creation. Proving that the Bible is true
with science. And I listened to him, and it
was nice, and we had a good visit, but he hadn't got the message.
Hadn't got the message. This is not a book about science.
It's not a book about politics. It's not a book about morality.
It's not a book about how to live in this world. It's not
a book about how to be a good Christian. Churches everywhere
have got folks professing to be Christians, and now they've
got to figure out what a good Christian is and to try to tell
you how to live like a good Christian so you can show other people
that you're a good Christian and you can be proud of yourself
and they'd be proud of you. That's not what this book is
about. This is a book with one message, and the message is Jesus
Christ. That's it. That's it. The intent
of the Word of God is to cause you to know, to believe, to worship,
to trust, to love, to follow, to serve with your whole heart
Jesus Christ, the sinner's substitute. That's the purpose of this book.
That's the purpose of it. It has no other function. It has no other use. It is the
intent of God to reveal his son on the pages of Holy Scripture.
Mr. Spurgeon told a story of a young
Welshman Many, many years ago, he was a man that the church
seemed to recognize. He had some gifts, and they sent
him off to England for his theological training, and he studied and
was a good student. He learned his languages, and
he learned his theology, and he learned how to prepare sermons
and write them out. And he came home. He was going
to preach his first sermon in his own church. He stepped up
to the pulpit, climbed those stairs like they have over there
into the pulpit, and he preached his sermon. And after the sermon
was over, folks met him at the door like you folks do, and I
encourage you to congratulate him, spoke so highly of him and
just encouraged him. But there was one old elder in
the church that he particularly hoped to have a good word from. This one old outer was the man
who was respected in the congregation as a man of knowledge and understanding,
of faith and commitment. And everybody else had left and
this fellow hadn't said a word. So finally, the young preacher
made the mistake of saying, you haven't said anything about my
message, about my sermon. Was there something that you
wanted to say? He said, well, now that you've asked, it was
a very poor sermon. Needless to say, he was taken
back a little. A very poor sermon. Was something wrong with my exposition
of the passage? He said, oh, no, you very faithfully
expanded the passage. Did I fail to illustrate things
as I should? Oh, no, your illustrations were
just fine. Oh, it must have been something about my gestures or
speech. He said, oh, no, your gestures and speech were just
fine. Was it not well-organized, not presented clearly? And the
old man said, no, the sermon was well-organized and presented
clearly. And this preacher, after a little
while, he said, the sermon's well-organized and well-prepared,
exposition's true and presented well. What was wrong with it?
And the old man said, there was no Christ in your sermon. And
he said, but Christ wasn't my subject. And the old man said, he should
have been. Because in every text in that book, there is a road
that takes you to Calvary. And it's your business as a preacher
to find that road and get to Calvary as quickly as you can. This book is the message of Jesus
Christ crucified. When Paul said to the Corinthians,
I determined not to know anything among you, say Jesus Christ and
him crucified. That's exactly the same thing
as he said to the folks at Ephesus when he said, I've not shunned
to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Jesus Christ crucified
is the message of Holy Scripture in all Scripture. The message
is about our savior. This is the message. This we
have in common with all the prophets and all the apostles. I don't
pretend to have nor do I desire to have apostolic gifts. People
who pretend to have them do just that. They just pretend. Folks
who pretend to speak in tongues don't have any idea what the
scriptures talk about about tongues. Speaking in tongues is not saying
tie my tie, tie my bow tie real fast until you get tongue twisted.
Speaking in tongues and the scriptures is declaring to men the gospel
of God in a language you've not learned. It's a distinct gift
given in that day. We don't have the gifts of healing.
We don't have the gifts of healing. We don't have the ability to
go and heal somebody of some sickness or disease. We don't
pretend to have it. Those who do just pretend. And
you will notice they never preach the gospel. Not one of them preaches
the gospel of God's grace. Well, what do you have in common
with the Apostles the message? We preach Christ This is our
message This is the message of the book in these five chapters
are these five verses of inspiration John shows us that Christ Jesus
is the great object of the gospel the foundation and object of
all true faith and hope and He is the bond that unites us to
God and to one another. You got that? Christ is the message
of the gospel. He is the object of all faith
and hope. He is the bond that unites us
to God and to one another. And verses one and two, John
shows us the proof of the gospel. Then in verse three and four,
he shows us the purpose of the gospel. And then in verse 5,
he speaks of the proclamation of the gospel as being all sufficient. Like I said, we'll spend the
bulk of our time in verses 1 and 2. The proof of the gospel. Proof? How do you prove the gospel? If you get a theology book, almost
any of them, the best of theology books, they'll have lots of arguments
for the existence of God. Lots of arguments for creation,
scientific arguments, logical arguments. Arguments that can't
really be gained, say, but they don't prove anything. Well, how
do you prove the gospel? How do you prove? You get in
a debate and you study hard and you argue and you got your proof
text. And when you get done, you haven't
accomplished a thing. Not one thing. You lost your temper and
the other fellow did too. You start to offer historic things
and you're going to, ah, I've got just the right thing now
and convince folks. Won't convince anybody. Won't convince anybody.
The fact is, Mark, you can't prove the gospel to anyone who
doesn't know it. The gospel is proved by experience. That's all. by experience, by
experience. First time the West Roseboom
came to our house, came down here to visit a long time ago.
Folks up in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, bless his heart, that
fellow had grown up all his life and had never tasted biscuits
and gravy. Didn't know what you did with
biscuits or gravy. He was at our house one Sunday
afternoon, served breakfast, had biscuits and gravy. And he
said, what's that? It's mom and dad. What's that?
That's biscuits and gravy. You open the biscuit up, put
some gravy on it, good stuff. And then they bit into it. Ah,
now they proved it. Now they proved it. You can talk
to them all you want to about having some bacon grease or some
sausage grease mixed up with some milk and flour and calling
that good. But once they bit into the biscuits
covered with gravy, oh, now you proved it. You will know the
gospel when God gives you faith in Jesus Christ and not till
then. You will know the proof of the
things of God when God causes you to experience the things
of God and not till then Some of you listen to me preach or
listen to these other Believers discuss the things of God and
the blessedness brother Rex just prayed What more could anybody
want? Than free justification the pardon
of sin And you think, well, I can think of a lot of things I'd
rather have than that. Until you've experienced it. Now, what
more could anyone want than free justification, the pardon of
sin, righteousness in Jesus Christ the Lord? John says, 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. We've seen with our eyes, we've
heard and we've seen with our eyes and we've touched with our
hands that which was from the beginning, the Word who is God. Read on. for the 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. John tells us of his first-hand
knowledge of the Lord Jesus. The apostles did not pass along
second-hand information. They testified that which they
had heard themselves, that which they had seen themselves. I recall
many years ago, Brother Harry Graham said to me one Sunday
afternoon, I'd been down to preach for him and we were sitting at
lunch. He said, I'll tell you what Bible
colleges and seminaries produce. They produce polyparity preachers.
I said, what do you mean? He said, well, you know what
a parrot is, don't you? I said, yeah. He said, a parrot doesn't
think on its own. It just says what it's heard.
Just repeats what it's heard. Say the same thing often enough,
loud enough, the parrot will start saying the same thing.
And he said, the preachers of this age don't think on their
own. All they do is learn to recite
what they heard in Bible college and seminary, and they just polyparrot
what they've heard. not God's messengers. That which
we preach, we've heard for ourselves, not just from a man, but from
God. We've seen for ourselves with
our own eyes. We've experienced ourselves.
Our own hands have handled. In this opening verse of this
epistle, John sets forth the eternal divinity of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Really, there are three things
he distinctly seems to be pressing here. And that is Christ's eternality,
his pre-existence, not as God the Son. That's that's understood. If he's God, he's eternal. But
his preexistence as our mediator, his preexistence as our surety,
his preexistence as the last Adam, he stood before God. He stepped forth before time
began in the beginning. Before ever the earth was, he
stepped forth as our surety. And he was in the beginning the
word of life. God, the word. John's telling
us that Jesus Christ, our savior, our substitute, our sin atonement,
the lamb of God, was from the beginning. So that before there
was a sinner, there was a redeemer. Before we fell in our father
Adam, we stood in our Lord Jesus Christ. Before we were lost,
we were found. Before we went astray, he came
and got us. Before we ever knew spiritual
death, Spiritual life was ours in Christ Jesus. This eternal
life, which is with the Father and in His Son, Jesus Christ.
From the beginning, when there was no creature, when God existed
alone in the sacred persons of the eternal Godhead, Jesus Christ
stood forth as our surety and our mediator. We were chosen
in Him. We were blessed in Him. We were
accepted in Him. We were redeemed in Him. We were
justified in Him. We were sanctified in Him. We
were glorified in Him. You mean it was all done before
the world began? Read your Bible. Read your Bible. I can't tell
you how many times folks say, well, the way you talk, salvation
has always been. And I was just as much saved
before I was saved as I was after I was saved. I say, read your
Bible. What does the book say? If you're
justified now, you were justified in eternity. If you come to experience
life now, life was yours in eternity. From the beginning, we were accepted
of God in the beloved. And then John would have us to
understand that Christ Jesus is personally known by his people. He was personally revealed to
the apostles and personally known by them. John's description of
his knowledge of Christ shows that he really was and is truly
a man. Our mediator must be God, but
he must be a man. John said we saw him, and we
heard him, and we handled him. Thomas handled him. The Lord Jesus said, Thomas,
you said you wouldn't believe except you put your fingers in
the nail prints in my hand, put your hand in my side, hand me
your hand, buddy. He came to his disciples after
his resurrection, and he said, a ghost, a spirit, you won't
see him eating fish like I'm eating with you today. Our Lord
Jesus was seen and heard, looked upon, looked upon. That word
looked upon, such a strong word. We gazed intently upon him. Eyewitnesses of his majesty and
being eyewitnesses of his majesty, he caught our eyes and we gazed
upon him. I recall when I was a boy, they
were telling us we're going to have an eclipse of the sun and
told us not to look up. That's like saying stick them
to a dog. And I thought, yeah, nothing going to hurt me. And
I looked right at that thing. And I realized immediately why
they said not to do it. When I looked away, all I could
see were spots of that sun, eclipse. Thank God it didn't hurt me. It didn't injure me. Thank God
it didn't do permanent damage. But I looked. And the fact is,
if you look intently at the sun, you get what they call sunburnt
eyes. All you can see is the sun. You get the point? Look away
to Jesus Christ crucified, the son of righteousness, and God
will give you sunburnt eyes. All you can do is gaze at him. Intently look at him never tire
of seeing him in every fresh manifestation of his goodness
grace and glory We've seen him. We've heard it. We've handled
it this one who is the word of life the word the word in the
beginning was the word and the word was God and The same was
in the beginning with God and all things were made by him and
without him was not anything made that was made. He's the
word of life. He's the word by whom God reveals
himself to me. He's the word when revealed to
you, conveys life. He's the word by whom life is
given so that this book is the written word. But it's all about
the living word. This written word is all about
him who is the word of life. And he comes and makes himself
known, makes God known to men. So that Christ is the full, final,
complete revelation of the triune God. The only way men and women
know God communicate with God, see God, speak to God, or hear
from God is in the person of the God-man, the mediator, Christ
our Savior. He is the wisdom of God. He said in Proverbs chapter 8,
describing himself as wisdom, the wisdom which is the word,
the revelation, the embodiment of all that God is. He said,
I was set up by him from everlasting. I was by him when he made the
earth and my delights were with the sons of man. I'm the word,
the eternal word of God, the word by whom we know God. If you would know God, you will
meet God in the crucified redeemer nowhere else. Nowhere else. Shelby and I watched an interesting
movie the other night. Came on, preaching named Peter
Marshall. Some of you heard of him. Died
when he was 49 years old. Man was well known in the States,
twice chaplain of the US Senate. Didn't preach anything, but he
was good to listen to. He entertained folks a lot. And
his conversion experience, according to his wife's book, he's walking
along in the fog one night, And he, what? Who is it? Who's there? And then
he suddenly tripped over a root sticking out of the ground and
fell with his face looking right down into a deep, deep pit. He came home, told his mama,
God wants me to be a preacher. And that's how everything got
started. Well, that may work well enough for religion. But
if you ever come to meet God, it'll be in the revelation of
his son. Did you hear me? The revelation
of his son by this word of the gospel, the message we preach
to me. Now notice how John begins this
epistle. He begins abruptly. But I write
a lot of letters. And I always begin the letter
with some sort of introduction. Hello, how are you? Thank you
for your note. Something to connect me with the person I'm writing
to. That's just the way you write. I write books and always has
some kind of an introduction to the book, something to express
the purpose of the book. John writes this epistle and
he begins with the word that. I never heard tell of anybody
beginning a letter or a book with that. That. That. Oh, what reverence. What urgency. What honor. John sits down to write and he
says, that which was from the beginning. That holy thing. In your room, Mary, the angel
described him, that holy one who is God, our savior, that
which was from the beginning, that which was from the beginning
before ever the earth was, that is the one we've come to declare
to you, this holy one who brings life. Now look at verse two.
For the 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, revealed to us. God gave us salvation
and eternal life in Christ Jesus before the world began and it
was made manifest, brought to light by the gospel, Paul tells
us. And then he tells us in verse
three, the purpose of the gospel that God has given. That which
we have seen and heard declare we unto you, watch this, that
you may have fellowship with us. Fellowship with us. That's not a good time with us.
That's not it. People use the word fellowship
to talk about a good time. You can go to the ballgame and
have a good time. You can go to the bar and have a good time,
if that's what you call a good time. You can go hunting and
have a good time. Not fellowship. Fellowship is
something that is distinctly Christian. It is distinctly spiritual. Fellowship is union. Union. Union with us. Now watch this.
And truly, our union is with the Father and with his Son,
Jesus Christ. By the gospel, Rex Bartley, God
who commands light to shine out of darkness has commanded light
to shine in your heart to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ and brought you,
a hell-bent rebel, into union with God. into union with God's people
so that we who by nature hate God, we who by nature despise
God, now are reconciled to God by the gift of faith through
the gospel. And we're brought into union
with one another. The gospel of Christ, that's
the thing that binds our hearts to God and binds our hearts to
one another. Here we are, in this congregation,
folks from far different backgrounds, different social backgrounds,
different ethnic backgrounds, different educational backgrounds,
far different backgrounds, living in union, in sweet, blessed
union with one another. How come? Because there's one
person We've been taught to love and that's God our Savior. And that binds us together, that
binds us together. And John says it is this gospel,
this message we preach to you that your joy may be full. Oh, the joy of faith, the blessed,
blessed joy of faith in Jesus Christ. Have you ever been really sick? Really sick? And then have your strength restored? That's joy. I know. Have you Ever been in
jail and then been set free? That's
joy. I know. Have you ever been lost and then suddenly find your way
clear? That's joy. That's joy. Jesus Christ, the son of God,
by the word of the gospel, came to this sinner whose heart is
plagued with spiritual death and healed me by his grace. He
came to this man shut up in a prison of despair and proclaimed liberty
to my soul. He came to this one who was lost
and found me. and put me in the way and guides
me with the light of his grace and knowledge, giving me life
and forgiveness and acceptance with God and the assurance of
the love of the triune God for me, the knowledge of his providence. Before we lay down for our nap
this afternoon, Shelby and I, It's been a good while talking
about God's providence, his special, special providence. The providence
of God by which he has been so very distinctly manifest in our
lives. John says in verse five, this
is the message which we've heard of him. This is the message and
declaring to you. Declare unto you. This message
is sufficient. It's sufficient for the saving
of God's elect. Nothing else would do. It's sufficient
to give you strength along the way. Nothing else will do. It's
sufficient to guide you in paths of obedience. Nothing else would
do. It's sufficient to inspire your heart with love and faith
for Christ and love for one another. Nothing else would do. It's sufficient
to rebuke your sin, coldness, unbelief, and indifference. Nothing
else will do. It's sufficient as long as time
shall stand, declaring to us God's all-sufficient
grace. This message. God is light. God is light. Pure, holy, dazzling, brilliant
light. Light. In him is no darkness
at all. Bobby, you spent your life in
darkness until the light shined. We were blind men, groping about
in darkness until God commanded the light to shine in our hearts. And now, We walk in the light
as he's in the light, and we have fellowship one with another. And the blood of Jesus Christ,
his son, constantly, perpetually, everlastingly cleanseth us from
all sin. Amen.