Would you turn back to 1 John? And notice what he says. In verses
three and four, when he's opening up this epistle. He says that
which we have seen and heard declare we unto you. And here's
why we do this. That you 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. I've entitled this message, Fellowship
and Joy. Now, John says we're writing,
I'm writing this epistle, So you will have fellowship with
us. Now what is fellowship? In order to have fellowship with
somebody, you gotta have something in common. It's that simple. Fellowship is having something
in common. When you have something in common
with somebody, you can have fellowship with that person. There's something,
there's a special bond. And he says, I'm writing this
letter so you can have fellowship with us. Now, I think this is
interesting. I've always wondered about this.
Why does he not say I'm writing this letter to you that you can
have fellowship with God? That's the way I would have thought
he would have said it, not fellowship with me, but fellowship with
God, because if I fellowship with God, I'll have fellowship
with him. But John says this, speaking as an apostle. with
apostolic authority, bringing the very word of God, and he's
saying, if you don't have fellowship with me, you won't have fellowship
with God either, because I'm speaking as his spokesman. You have fellowship with me,
you'll have fellowship with God. You don't have fellowship with
me, you will not have fellowship with God. Now that's how he's
presenting this. He doesn't say, I'm writing this
so You can have fellowship with God, but you can have fellowship
with us, the apostles, and having fellowship with us. God has inspired
us what to say. We're bringing his very word
and having fellowship with us, you'll have fellowship with God.
And then he says, I'm writing this to you so that your joy
will be full. You know, you can have joy and
be miserable. Do you know that? You can have joy and be very
unhappy. You see, happiness is based upon circumstances. It's
about what's going on right now. Joy is not based on circumstances. It's Christ. And knowing that
you're complete in him, you'll have joy no matter how difficult
the circumstances may be. Now let's, um, One other thought
before I get into this epistle. This is what we're going to start
studying on Wednesday night. It's the epistle of 1 John. If you were walking down the
street and a stranger came to you and stopped you and said,
trust me. Well, as soon as he says that,
I'm not going to. But he says, trust me. Hand all your life
savings over to me, if you have any life savings. Hand all of
your life savings over to me, and I'll take care of it for
you. And I'll do well. Would you do that? No way. I don't know you. I don't trust
you. I wouldn't trust you with something
like that. You'd have to know someone. You'd
have to know someone in order to trust them. And John is telling
us who this one we are to trust is, why we can trust him, and
we're trusting Him with something a whole lot more important than
our life savings. We're trusting Him with our eternal
destiny in heaven. All my hope is in who He is and
what He did. I'm trusting Him completely. Now I've got to know him in order
to do that. I can't trust someone I don't
know, and that's what John is about. He's letting us know who
it is we trust. And I love the way he begins
this epistle. You know, when you read Paul's
epistles, I love Paul. Paul always begins with Paul,
an apostle separate, you know, with an introduction to the saints
and so on, and he has this greetings and so on with every one of his
epistles. I love the way John starts, that which was from the
beginning. Now he's not saying that in the
beginning, he began to be in the beginning. He already was
the same was in the beginning. He's talking about the eternal
existence of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I love to think about this. Not that I can understand it,
but Jesus Christ never had a beginning. He's always the great I am. In the beginning was the Word
and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was, always was in the
beginning with God. Don't you love when he was telling
about Abraham rejoicing to see his day. He said, wait a minute,
you're not even 50 years old. What are you saying? You saw
Abraham? He said, before Abraham was, I am. The excellency, the glory, the
dignity of the eternal son of God. He said, if you believe not that
I am, you'll die in your sins. Somebody says, what do you got
to believe to be saved? You got to believe he's God. He's the great, I am. He's God, the son. He's the same
one who spoke to Moses from the burning bush. I am that I am. And I think it's glorious that
when he spoke to Moses from the bush, he's this, I am is in the
plural. God, the father, I am that I
am. God, the son. I am that I am. God the Spirit. I am that I am. He that cometh to God must believe
that he is. And that's what he's beginning
with. That which was. He's talking about his isness.
Not talking about his existence. He's talking about his isness.
His eternal existence. His isness. I don't even know
if that's proper grammar, but it sounds good to me. His isness. He is who he says he is in the
Bible. And I love thinking about his
is-ness. He is. He is simple. He's not made of parts that come
up together to make the whole. He's not part justice and part
mercy and you put them together and they balance each other out.
Everything he is, he's absolutely sovereign. You can't take that
too far. Do you know that he's controlling the thoughts that
are going through your mind right now? He's controlling. Somebody
said, I didn't hear you. I wasn't listening. Well, he's
controlling that too. He's in control of everybody and everything. He has absolute sovereignty.
You can't take it too far. He's in control of what's going
on in China. He's in control of what's going on in science
and physics and the weather and men and demons and believers. Absolute sovereignty. And would
you want it any other way? I would be scared to death if
it was any other way, but he's in absolute control. He's absolutely
just. You can't take it too far. He's
absolute love. He's absolute immutability. He's absolute infinity. He's
absolute independence. He is. He that cometh to God
must believe that He is. That's not talking about believing
in His existence. Somebody says, I believe in God. Well, you ought
to, but do you believe He is? Do you believe He is as He says
He is in His Word? He is holy. He's righteous. He's merciful. In the beginning
was the Word. The Word was with God and the
Word was God. Jesus of Nazareth. is the Lord
God omnipotent. I love that. That's who he is.
He's a creator. He's the one who is in absolute
control. He's before all things. Paul
says in Colossians one, where was Christ when God made his
decrees before the foundation of the world? He was the one
making them. Where was Christ when God created
the world? He was the one doing the creating. Where was Christ when Adam fell? He was the voice of God walking
in the cool of the evening. I'd never really thought about
that. Why does it say he was walking in the, I mean, the cool of the
day? Because he's at absolute control.
He didn't have a reason to get upset. He knew exactly what was
going to happen. Adam's fall was all part of his purpose and
plan. He was walking in the cool of the day. Adam, where are you? Where was God when the son was
born into the world? God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto himself. Where was God when he forsook
his son? How does God forsake God? I don't know how to answer that,
but I believe it. God forsook God. Where was God when Christ ascended
back to the Father? Well, he was the one ascending,
God. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, the Word
was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. Now, John speaks of his experience
of him, that which was from the beginning, And now look what
he says next, which we've seen. No, first of
all, which we've heard. I think it's interesting that
comes first. Faith cometh by what? Hearing. And hearing by the word of God,
by what we're doing right now. Faith comes through this. God
begets faith in the heart of the believer in hearing his word. First thing John mentions is
we heard him. And I think of hearing his voice,
the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the
voice of the son of God and they that hear shall live. That's
what's going on. It's something like this, Lazarus,
come forth. And he that was dead. we heard. You know what that
makes me say, Lord, give me ears to hear. That's the first thing
it makes me say, Lord, give me ears to hear. Don't leave me
to myself. I want to hear. I don't want to be left to myself.
I don't want to be left to my own understanding. Give me ears
to hear. You said he that hath ears, let
him hear. Lord, give me these ears to hear.
I want to hear the gospel. And I can say this With such
depth of conviction, there's nothing in this world as glorious
as being enabled to hear the gospel and the power of the Holy
Spirit. There's nothing that is as good as that. Nothing can
even compare. We heard. And look what he says
next. He said, we've seen with our
eyes. We've seen him. We've seen him
in his word. We've seen him in the preaching
of the gospel. We've seen him. We've seen John's giving his
experience. We've seen him with our eyes,
which we have looked upon, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith. That's talking about faith. First,
there's hearing. And I'll tell you what, when
you hear, you see, don't you? You see, you hear first, but when
you hear, you see this Christ I'm describing, you say that's
him. That's him, I see him, that's
him, that's who he is. That which we've heard and seen
and looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life. Now I've already, look at verse
three. That which we've seen and heard
declare we unto you that you also might have fellowship with
us. Now remember, if I can't have fellowship with John in
what he's saying, If I can't be in complete agreement with
John in what he's saying, if we don't have in common the same
beliefs, there's no fellowship, is there? Not with God. Because
John is speaking with apostolic authority, because when he's
talking about fellowship with us, he's talking about the apostles
that God commissioned to define and preach the gospel. It's kind
of like Paul. Paul is brought into the third heavens. He said,
the gospel that was preached of me is not after man. It's
not derived from any human source. I neither received it of man,
neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
And Paul was actually taken into the third heaven, and Christ
taught him the gospel directly. John. He got his gospel directly
from Christ. That's what the apostles are.
And that's why he's saying, I want you to have fellowship with me
because I have fellowship with the Father. I have fellowship
with the Son. And if you have fellowship with me, you're having
fellowship with the Father and the Son. Now, he's speaking in
absolute apostolic authority. And you know, John speaks with
such dogmatism. I know this would make people
mad. Look what he says in First John chapter four, verse six. Now, if I came into the average
religious assembly, I said, we're of God. He that knoweth God,
heareth us. He that's not of God, heareth
not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
Look at the dogmatism of that. If you're of God, you'll hear
me. If you don't hear me, you know why? It's because you're
not of God. He that's of God heareth God's words. You therefore will hear them
not because you're not of God." That's what the Lord said to the Pharisees.
Look in verse 19 of chapter 5. Look at the dogmatism with which
he speaks. And I love this. I don't want
it to be any other way. Now, if somebody's dogmatic about
something that's wrong, I can't stand it. A lot of that in there.
You know, somebody comes across with these real strong statements,
but they're not true. But boy, they're going to be
dogmatic about them. And all that does is irritate you. But oh, if someone
is dogmatic concerning the truth, you know, that's the way it ought
to be. Look what he says in verse 19. And we know that we are of
God and the whole world lieth in wickedness. Now turn back
to 1 John 1, look in verse 6. Now remember, he's talking about
we want you to have fellowship with us. Our fellowship is with
the Father and with His Son. We want you to have fellowship
with us. That's why I'm writing this epistle. Look what he says in verse 6.
If we say that we have fellowship with Him. Boy, a lot of people
make that claim, don't they? I have fellowship with God. He
speaks to me. I speak to him. I pray. He directs
me. I follow his leadership. I have
fellowship with God. I know God. I love God. If somebody
makes that claim, if we say, a lot of people say this, if
we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we're lying. And we don't do
the truth. Now the darkness he's talking
about, I know it's unfortunate the way religion has used this,
because they'll say, if you say you're a Christian and you're
sinning in the dark, you're nothing more than a hypocrite. Is there
anybody in here that doesn't sin in the dark? Anybody? Come on, raise your
hand. If that's what it means, none of us are sinning. Now,
I'm not sinning, Mark. I'm not excusing any kind of
sin, but that's not what he's talking about. He's not talking
about if you don't live up to everything and if you don't have
this certain kind of life, you must not be saved. You need to
have this victory over sin or you're nothing. No. If I claim to have fellowship
with him and walk in the darkness of salvation by works, If I walk
in the darkness of anything that's opposite to what is taught in
scripture, if I walk in the darkness of thinking there's something
that I can do to please God and that's what's going to get me
saved, some condition I need to meet. If I walk in that darkness
and I say I'm having fellowship with God, I'm nothing but a liar.
I'm not. I've lost all credibility when
I say something like that. If we say we have fellowship
with him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. Turn with me to Acts chapter
two for a moment. Acts chapter two, verse 41. And they that gladly received
his word, this is talking about after they heard the gospel that
Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, and then they that
gladly received his word, and that's the way you receive the
word, gladly. It comes as good news to you.
They that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same
day there were added unto them about 3,000 souls, and they continued
steadfastly in the apostle's doctrine, and fellowship." Now
you couldn't have fellowship with the apostles if you didn't
continue in their doctrine, could you? They continued steadfastly
in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of
bread and in prayers. So John is speaking as one with
apostolic authority when he speaks of what we're declaring unto
you. Now look in verse two, We've looked upon our hands of
handled of the word of life, the last phrase of verse one,
for the life was manifested. I love the way he calls the life
of Christ. The life was manifested. We've seen and bear witness and
show unto you that eternal life, which was with the father and
was manifested to us. Now, the life, the life. Now listen to me real carefully. Christ said, I'm the way, I'm
the truth, and I'm the life. His life is my life before God. Whatever it is He did in living
His life is my life. When my history is given, it
will be all perfect. No sin. What the Bible calls
justification, that means his life is my actual life before
God. That's why I have such confidence.
If I thought Any part of my works had anything to do with salvation,
I wouldn't have any confidence. But his life, his perfect righteousness
is my life before God. Now, how can you say something
like that? How can you believe something
like that? That his life really is your life before God? Well,
because he became what I am. Sin. Did he really become sin? I can't
explain what all that means, but did he really become sin? Did he actually bear sin in his
own body on the tree? Now understand, sin can't be
two places at once. If he bore it, I don't have it. And just as truly as he was made
to be sin, made to be what I am, I'm made to be who he is, the
very righteousness of God. Second Corinthians 521 says for
he for he had made him to be sin who knew no sin that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. Now, I wish I didn't
think this way all the time, but I walk around feeling guilty,
feeling distressed, but I don't have any reason to. I really don't. At all times,
every believer is the very righteousness of God. The life was manifested. He gave me spiritual life to
believe this. There was a time when I was dead
in sins. He gave me life. And now I believe
what I'm preaching. I really do. I really believe
that I'm the righteousness of God in him. You know, it makes
me nervous to say that. I wouldn't dare say anything
like that if the Bible didn't say it. But the Bible says that.
He's made into us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. Now, for the life was manifested,
literally uncovered who manifested it. God did. God did. He manifested this to me through
his word, but I'd never see it. I'd never understand it. I just
read this and not think anything about it unless God was pleased
to reveal what's being said. He's the one who manifested the
life. He's the one who uncovered the
life. Now there's so much that his
life manifests. First of all, it manifests God's
love. Look in first John chapter four. Verse nine, and this was manifested,
the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten
son into the world that we might live through him here in his
love, not that we love God, but that he loved us. and sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. In his life, we see how sin is
taken away. Look at first John chapter three, verse five. And you know that
he was manifested to take away our sins and in him is no sin. If you're in him, you have no
sin. 1 John 3, verse 10. In this, the
children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil.
Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that
loveth not his brother. Look back in verse eight. He
that committeth sinners of the devil, for the devil sinneth
from the beginning. For this purpose, the Son of
God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Now, God was the one who manifested
him. And here's something that's not
manifest yet. Let me just read this verse and I'm going to get
to something else. But it says, Beloved, now are
we the sons of God and it does not yet appear. It's not yet
manifest what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear,
we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is. Now, back to 1 John 1. Verse two, for the life was manifested
and we've seen and bear witness and show unto you that eternal
life, which was with the father. I love the way Christ himself
is called eternal life. This is eternal life that they
might know thee the only true God in Jesus Christ whom thou
has sent. He himself is eternal life. If
you have eternal life, you know, he is eternal life. Now, for
the life was manifested, we've seen it, bear witness and show
unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested
in us, that which we've seen and heard, declare we unto you
that you also may have fellowship with us, for truly our fellowship
is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. Now, fellowship
with God. Now, remember what I said at
the very first of this message? In order to have fellowship, you
have to have something. Well, what in the world do I
have in common with God? But 2 Peter 1.4 says we're protectors
of the divine nature. Now, I can't possibly explain
what that means. I know it says we're protectors
of the divine nature. That which is born of the spirit
is spirit. Somebody says, are you calling
yourself a god? No, I'm not doing that. But I'm a protector of
the divine nature. That's what the Bible says. And
we've got the same nature in common. We have the same object of faith.
You know, I have the same object of faith God does. What do you
mean by that? God trusted Christ with my salvation. That we should be to the praise
of his glory who first trusted Christ. He trusted Christ completely
with my salvation. And I trust Christ only. He didn't look for anything out
of me. When he trusted Christ, he wasn't trusting Christ for
99%. He was trusting Christ for my
whole salvation, and I am Trust in Christ. I'm not looking for
anything but who he is and what he did as all that's needed to
make me perfect and accepted before God. I have the same object
of faith God does. Christ. I've got the same righteousness. It's something we have in common.
I've got the righteousness of God. He's got the righteousness
of God. I do too. You see, I can have
fellowship with God because of What we have in common, you know,
to to God. How precious is the blood of
his son? How precious, how poignant. His blood is precious to me. It's precious. To know that his
blood makes me without sin before God, his blood is precious, that
blood is precious to God. It's precious to me, too. Do
you know how does God the Father see his only begotten and well-beloved
son? He sees him as all, doesn't he?
He sees him as all together and lovely, all together, glorious. He says that he says to the son,
Thy throne, O God, is forever. He sees him as all. You know what? I do, too. That is fellowship with God. You've got to have something
in common to have fellowship. And think of the fellowship that
we have with one another. What do we have in common? First thing, you know what we
have in common? We really believe ourselves to
be totally depraved sinners. We really believe that about
ourselves. Not just as a doctrine. Like I said, it's one thing to
give adherence to the doctrine of total depravity, and it's
quite another thing to believe you're totally depraved. Every
believer believes that about themselves. We have that in common. What else we have in common? We have the same faith. We look to Christ only. We have
the same nature. We've been born in the spirit.
We have the same salvation, it's called a common salvation, salvation
by grace, you know, every believer, we all believe the same thing.
I mean, there's no there's no difference. We believe the same
thing. We believe the same thing regarding the son of God. And
oh, what? what fellowship we have around
the gospel. Fellowship is people who have
things in common, and what things we have in common with the saints,
the common comprehension of the saints. And look what he says
in verse four. Now, we're writing these things. This is what this epistle is
about. This is why I'm writing this epistle, so you can have
fellowship with us, and in having fellowship with us, you'll have
fellowship with the Father and the Son. I want that, don't you?
I want to have fellowship with God. And here's a second reason
for writing, verse four, and these things write we unto you
that your joy may be full. Now, let me remind you, joy is
not happiness. Now, I would rather be happy
than miserable, would you? Of course you would. I've enjoyed
being happy. But a lot of times I'm not happy.
And it's always important to remember, don't make your goal
to be happy. Make your goal to do what the
Lord would have you do. Happiness doesn't even enter
into it. But joy is not based upon what's
going on. It's not based upon circumstances.
Let me show you where joy comes from. Remember, we were just
reading about that Ethiopian eunuch who believed the Son of
God. You just read about that. And
what did he do? You remember? He went on his way rejoicing. Rejoicing. Now, do you want to
know something about true joy? Turn with me to Romans chapter
14. Verse 17. For the kingdom of God is not
meat and drink. It's not do's and don'ts, it's
not rules and regulations, it's not things that you can do that
would make you a little bit more pleasing to God, but if you don't
do it, you'd be less pleasing to God. That's not what the kingdom
of God is about. It's not about meat and drink. It's not about following religious
rituals. It's not about works. The kingdom of God is not meat
and drink. What is the kingdom of God then? The kingdom of God is righteousness. Righteousness. Now I heard a
fellow preach on this recently. And he made this righteous living.
You need to live righteously. You need to dress modestly. You
need to stay out of places where you could get in trouble. You
need to live righteously. Now, I won't deny that. You ought to, ought to. Anybody
disagree with that? No, you ought to. As a matter
of fact, John said these things right unto you that you sin not. But is that what that verse of
scripture means? Not at all. The righteousness he's speaking
of is the same righteousness that he spoke in Philippians
chapter three, verse nine, when he said, oh, that I may win Christ
and be found in him not having my own righteousness. which is
out of the law, but that which is through the faithfulness of
Christ, the righteousness, which is of God by faith. That's the righteousness he's
speaking of. The perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. You know what
that means? That means when God sees me, all he sees is the righteousness
of Christ. Now, is that the way you want
God to see you? I don't want him to see me the other way.
That's why Paul said, Oh, that I may win Christ and be found
in him. When God comes looking for me, all I want to be is found
in him. And that's the first part of
this verse, not meat and drink. It's righteousness. What comes
from righteousness? Peace. Peace. If Christ really is my righteousness
before God, and that's all God sees, I can feel the tension
come out of my body. Peace. He is our peace. You know what happens when you
have this peace? Joy. Joy. And you're just like that Ethiopian
eunuch who found out that it was some other man, it was some
other. The prophet wasn't speaking of
himself, he was speaking of some other, even the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of God. And he went into Isaiah 53. He was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him. With his stripes were healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way. The Lord laid upon him the iniquity of us all. He heard
the gospel. What hinders me from being baptized?
He was nervous. If there's a reason why I shouldn't
be baptized, I want to know. Philip said, if you believe with
all your heart, you may. He said, I believe that Jesus
Christ is the son of God. Do you believe that? Do you believe that Jesus Christ
is God, the son? You know what you are? You're a believer. You
really are. You're a real believer. That's
that's what believers do. They believe. And what did he
do? He went on his way rejoicing. Kingdom of God is not meat and
drink. It's righteousness. It's peace. And it's joy in the
Holy Ghost. Now, remember John's reason for
writing. I want you to have fellowship
with us. To have fellowship, you have to have things in common.
And I want your joy to be full. Let's pray. Lord, may we enter in to fellowship with thee through
the gospel of thy son. And may we be delivered from
looking to ourselves and really believe that the righteousness
of Christ is our personal righteousness, that fine linen clean and white, that makes our joy full. I bless this word for your glory
and for our good. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.
Matt, got a closing hymn?