If you want to follow me this
morning in my text, you'll find it in 1 John chapter 1. It's on page 1328 in your Pew
Bible. Let me just begin by reading
a few verses for us here in 1 John chapter 1. Let's begin reading
in verse 1. Think about this this morning,
the message we are to believe. The message we are to believe. What message are we to hear and
what message are we to believe? That's what John is speaking
about today. 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 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. 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.
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 cleanses
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. My little children,
these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man
sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous. And He is the propitiation for
our sins, and not for our sins only, but also for the sins of
the whole world. I'll basically be looking this
morning at the first four verses. But it's obvious as we begin
reading this chapter here and these first few verses that it's
evident that our knowledge and our faith is based upon what
others tell us. We don't have, neither do we
seek, any evidence apart from what others have already told
us. And when I say others, I don't mean any that's lately been born
and live and speak to us, but those who lived almost 2,000
years ago now. They gave us the message that
you and I are to believe. John is speaking here in these
verses of the incarnate Son of God that He was manifested. He was manifested to them. And
John declares that manifestation to us, to you and to me, that
we might believe it and be saved. He says here in verse 2, he said,
For the life was manifested, and we have seen it and bear
witness and show unto you. That's what he did. And then
in verse 3 he said, That which we have seen and heard declare
we unto you. And then in verse 5, this is
the message which we have heard of Him and declare unto you. So He declares unto us what to
believe. What He has seen and what He
has heard, He declares unto us. He does it for this reason. Here
in verse 3, He says that you may have fellowship with us,
that you may share with us in this communion with us and with
the Father and with His Son. And then verse 2, that your joy
may be full. So what He's saying here, I'm
declaring unto you what's been manifested to me, that is Jesus
Christ, the Incarnate Son of God, I declare it unto you. that you might believe it and
believe in it, you might have life through His name and may
have fellowship with us and with the Father, and that your joy
may be full. These benefits can only be shared
with us by our believing the testimony of these great apostles. Our fellowship that we have with
the apostles and with the Son of God and with the Father is
a fellowship of faith. It is a fellowship of believing.
Our joy is a joy of believing. And whom now, though you see
him not, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full
of glory. You and I can reap the benefits
of salvation only by believing the testimony of these apostles. And apart from believing their
testimony, there is no fellowship with them. And there's no fellowship
with the Father and with His Son. I want you to hold to our
text and I want to show you that over in John chapter 20. Look
in John chapter 20. And look in verse 20. John chapter
20. Look in verse 29. You remember the context of this.
The Lord Jesus had risen from the dead, and he had appeared
to his apostles, but Thomas wasn't there. And seven days later,
the next Lord's Day, the Lord Jesus appeared again, and Thomas
had said to him, except I see the prince in his nails, the
prince in his hands, I'm going to believe him. If I can't see
the hole in his side and put my hand in his side, I'm not
going to believe that he's risen from the dead. And the next Sabbath,
this is exactly what happened. And the Lord Jesus came and He
stood before Thomas and He said, Thomas, reach into your fingers,
put in the Prince of these males and thrust your hand into my
side. And Thomas said, My Lord and my God, you are alive. You are alive. And then the Lord
Jesus says to him here in verse 29, look at this. Jesus said
unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not
seen and yet believed Me. And many other signs truly did
Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which are not written
in this book, but these are written that you might believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might
have life through His name. Now why did Thomas believe in
a resurrected Christ? He saw Him. Because you have
seen Me, you have believed. But He said, Blessed, happy,
happy, well off are those who have not seen Me. Then how are
we going to believe if we don't see Him? How can we believe on
Him that's in heaven whom we've never seen before? Well, He tells
us here, doesn't He? We believe upon the testimony
of their Word. These things are written that
you might believe that Jesus is the Christ. And believing
what's written, you might have life through His name. You know
life comes to us by believing the record that God gave of His
Son. It comes to us that way. And you know how we live in the
assurance of this life? By continuing to believe what's
written. When we start seeking assurance,
how do we seek it? Where do we seek it from? Our
feelings? I tell you, your pastor is as
guilty as anybody in here this morning seeking for assurance
by my feelings. And sometimes I feel awful. Men,
Wayne often talks about how vital, what a vital union the soul and
the body is. If you touch the soul, you touch
the body. You touch the body, you touch
the soul. And sometimes, because we're feeling bad in our body,
it affects our souls. And we equate that bad feeling
with a lack of assurance of salvation. Get up some morning with a bad
case of indigestion, and you've had acid reflux all the night
long, and you trust your feelings, you ain't gonna have much assurance
of salvation. I'm feeling awful. I just don't know if the Lord
saved me or not. I don't know if He loves me or not. Am I His
or am I not? Why do you doubt it? Because
you're seeking assurance from your feelings or from your experience
or the knowledge that you have instead of looking at the Bible
and saying, here's God's record that never changes with my feelings. I believe it. Ain't that what
the Lord said? These things are written that
you might believe, and believing you might have life through His
name. And John, this same John wrote to us also, and he said,
These things have I written unto you that believe on the name
of the Son of God, that you might know that you have eternal life,
and that you might believe. How do we live in the assurance
of salvation? Brothers and sisters, I'd rather
take this Bible I'd rather take this book and open it and take
God's Word for it than my feelings or my experiences, wouldn't you?
I can face death with God's Word because He can't lie. But my
feelings will deceive me. So what does He say here? These
things are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ. You know something? We can't
know that Jesus is the Christ apart from the Word. apart from
the Word. If we had to determine what kind
of Christ He was, we'd make a pathetic Christ out of Him, wouldn't we?
If we didn't have the Word of God to guide us in our rule. This then is the message which
we have heard of Him and declare unto you. What is that message? Well, it's Jesus Christ, the
Incarnate Son of God. And look at some things now.
Look back over at our text in 1 John. Look at some things that
He declares unto us concerning the Son of God. Let's just look
at these things closely and carefully just for a few minutes. Look
at some things that John declares unto us concerning the Word of
Life. And he says in verse 1, look
at this, That which was from the beginning, which we have
heard, which we have seen with our eyes, we have looked upon
on our hands of Hamel, of the Word of Life. What's the first
thing He tells us of Jesus Christ, the Son of God? That He's the
Word of Life, which was from the beginning. Now, there's two
ways that you can look at this word, beginning, here. One of
them is, it's the beginning of the Gospel, when Jesus Christ
began to preach. As soon as He began to preach,
He called these apostles. And he said, you're going to
bear witness of me because you were with me from the beginning.
But this is not that beginning. This is that beginning that the
Bible sometimes calls from everlasting. That's a beginning that has no
beginning. Let me give you a couple of scriptures for that. Listen
to Proverbs chapter 8. When Christ himself was speaking
under the heading of wisdom, listen to what he said. The Lord
possessed me in the beginning of his way before His work of
old, I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the
earth was." When John says here that we declare that Jesus Christ,
the Word of Life, is from the beginning, what he's telling
us is He's from everlasting. The Word of Life is from everlasting. In Micah chapter 5, when he's
speaking of the birth of Jesus Christ coming to the Jews, He
said it like this, And thou Bethlehem Epirate, though thou be little
among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall come he
that is to be ruler in Israel, whose going forth hath been of
old from everlasting. So the beginning that John is
talking about here is everlasting. We declare unto you the word
of life which was from the beginning. And John said it in another place
like this, in the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God
and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. And listen to this, all things
were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that
was made. So the Word, Jesus Christ, was
before all things. He had to be because all things
were created by Him. So He was indeed in the beginning
from everlasting. And John heard the Lord Jesus
say one day, before Abraham was, I am. And then in the garden
of Gethsemane when our Lord was praying to the Father, He said,
Father, glorify Me with Yourself with the glory that I had with
You before the world was. So what's the first thing we
see declared unto us about Jesus Christ, the Son of God? He's
the eternal Word of Life. No mere man is He. He's a man. Unlike us, He had no sin. But
oh, John said He's the everlasting Word of Life. He has no beginning
of days. He's declaring that unto us.
Aren't you amazed, brothers and sisters, that when you think
of Jesus, the Son of God, that suffered on Calvary's tree 2,000
years ago and cried, ìIt's finished,î and hanged limp and dead on the
cross, that was the Word of Life hanging there? It's not that
He was. He never ceased to be that. And
when He lifted up His voice and said, ìIt's finished,î there
He hangs the Word of Life. That's what John is telling us,
that eternal Word. And here he says something else
along that same line. He says here in verse 2 about
His eternality. Look what he says in verse 2
again. For the life was manifest, and we have seen it, and bear
witness, and show unto you that eternal life," look at this,
"...which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us."
He's not only telling us here that Christ was from eternity,
but now He said He was eternally with His Father. Now that's not speaking just
of union. That's not speaking of them two
just being one. I and my Father are one. That's
so. But it's speaking here of a closeness,
of an intimate friendship. The everlasting Father and the
everlasting Son delighting in one another. It's an intimate
relationship, the Father and the Son. The Father telling the
Son all things concerning His eternal purpose and His will. The Lord Jesus said the Father
loves the Son and shows Him all things that He's doing. Back
in eternity, the Father and the Son was in close communion. And the Father was telling the
Son and showing the Son, My Son, I have an eternal purpose. This
is My will. and the Son understanding that
purpose, and the Son agreeing to that blessed purpose, and
said, ìMy Father, Iíll fulfill all the terms of that covenant.î
He was with the Father, and they had this close communion. I say
that for this reason. Listen to what John also heard
our Savior pray to the Father. He said, ìThou lovest Me before
the foundation of See what a close relationship
the father had with the son. The son was with the father all
the way back in eternity. And here the son lifts up his
voice and he said, my father, you loved me back then. What a close intimate relationship. And from that time back there
in eternity, when the father began to speak of him, he could
hardly hold his tongue. Even before the Lord Jesus came,
He began to write these things down and predict these things
concerning Him that He is daily my delight. I delight in the
eternal Son, my Son. And no sooner was He born and
hanging on His mother's breast than the Father sent all of His
angels down from heaven to announce His birth to this fallen world. It's almost like I can't wait.
I love Him so much, I'm going to unbosom Him and let the world
see how I love Him and how I delight in Him. The Father loved Him
every step of the way, didn't He? He delighted in Him just
as He had back in eternity. When the Lord Jesus was baptized,
the heavens was opened to Him and the Father said, This is
My beloved Son. I'm pleased in Him. And on the
Mount of Transfiguration, this light cloud came over those apostles,
and the voice came out of that cloud and said, This is my beloved
Son. Hear ye Him. And in John chapter
12, when the Lord Jesus was so troubled about His death, He
said, What shall I say? Father, save me for this hour?
But for this cause came unto the world. Father, glorify Your
name. And then what happened? Oh, the
Father spoke again, didn't He? And He said, I have glorified
it, and I'll glorify it again. He couldn't keep quiet. All the
way back in eternity, He loved His Son, and He never ceased
to love His Son. Every step of the way, He loved
Him. And even there on the cross, when He had taken the sins of
His people and suffered the pain of it all, there He hanged under
the awful temporal wrath of God. But you know something? The Father
never ceased to love him. He was under that everlasting
love of the Father. He said, Herein does my Father
love me, because I lay down my life for the sheep. And he laid in that grave for
three days. And the Father raised him from
the dead. And what did He say to him? My
son, come up here. Ain't that what He said? Come
up here and sit down at my right hand and let me look at you.
I love you, my son. I delight in you. And I've given
everything into your hands because I love you. Set here and reign
until I make your enemies your footstool." What a close, intimate
relationship the Father has with the Son. And you know something?
It's an eternal relationship. An eternal companionship. The Father loving the Son and
the Son delighting in the Father. Oh, are you here this morning,
poor soul, and you're tossed with a tempest of doubts and
fears? Well, think this. Think what
a mighty Savior Jesus Christ is. What a mighty Savior He is. He's the Word of Life. He's no
mere man. He's the eternal Word of Life. And think how willingly He came
to save you. How lovingly He came to do it.
You don't force somebody like this to do anything. He came
willingly, and He came lovingly. I think sometimes if I had a
thousand souls, and all of them was weak, and needy, and sinful,
I could trust Him with every one of them. Because of who He
is. He's the eternal Word. And John
said in time, He was manifest. He was manifested unto us. And He tells us about that. He
tells us more about that here in our text. He says here that
He was manifested to us. Look what He says in verse 2.
For the life was manifested, and we have seen it and bear
witness. He was manifested. You know that unmanifested Jesus
could not save us? What if He hadn't have been manifested?
What if the Father says, I love Him too much? I'm not going to
unbosom Him and send Him. I'm going to protect Him up here
in heaven. What would have happened to you? What would have happened
to me? We would have went down to hell, wouldn't we? We would
have suffered in the flames of hell forever. But what did the
Father do? He unbosomed His Son. He showed Him to these men. And that's what John is going
to tell us here. Oh, this Son that's eternal was with the Father. Now He's come. And how does John
tell us here? He says, first of all, look at
this. He gives us several ways that He was manifest to them.
The first thing He says, and we have heard Him. We've heard Him. Oh, how many
of them said, never a man spake like this man. And the apostles
knew it, didn't they? Oh, they heard him speak and
hang on to his every word. No mere man speaks like this. The bread of God is he which
cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. No mere
man ever said, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth
in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. They heard the
gracious words that proceeded out of His mouth. They heard
Him one day speak peace to a poor, guilty sinner. He said to that
man, Be of good cheer. Your sins are forgiven thee. They heard Him when He spoke
of that. They said, The Son of Man has power to forgive sins. Oh, they heard His voice. They
knew that was the same voice that said way back yonder in
the beginning, let there be light. And there was light. They heard
Him make this statement, the Son of Man came not to destroy
man's life, but to save man's life. Oh, gracious words that
He spoke. He said God sent not His Son
into the world to condemn the world. The world's condemned
already, isn't it? Our conscience condemns us. The
law of God condemns us. Christ didn't need to come to
condemn us. He could have come and told us
of the coming judgment and left it there. But He didn't come
to condemn us, did He? But He come to save us. He come
to remove the condemnation. And John says, listen, I heard
Him. I heard these gracious words
proceeding out of His mouth. Did He talk of judgment? Oh,
yes. He talked of the solemn judgment,
the day when men would stand before Him and give Him an account.
Oh, but He spoke of salvation. He spoke of forgiveness of sins. He spoke of His blood, didn't
He? Shed for many for the remission of sins. And John said, we heard
Him. We heard Him. And we bear witness
unto you that we heard Him. Oh, do we believe John? Do we
believe the record that John gave of the Lord Jesus? I don't
think He'd lie to us, do you? I don't think He'd lie to us.
And look here at the second thing that He gives to declare unto
us. He said we have seen Him. First we have heard Him and He
says now we have seen Him. Well, they saw Him on the Mount
of Transfiguration, didn't they? When His deity, when His Godhood
broke through His humanity and His face began to shine like
the sun. Can you imagine that? John said
his face began to glow and shine. It outshined the sun and his
raiment, his clothes, was whiter than the light. We saw that,
he said. We saw him. John saw him in the
garden when he laid upon the ground, shedding tears like a
baby and crying and sweating drops of blood. John said we
saw Him hanging in His humiliation upon the cross between two thieves. We've seen Him. And they've seen
Him at glorified Christ after His resurrection. And they saw
Him as He was taken out of their sight up into heaven. Oh, we've
never seen Him, have we? We have never seen Him. Do we
believe what this man is telling us? We've never seen Him, but
He did. Though now we see him not, yet
believing we rejoice with joy unspeakable. And he tells us
something else about him. We have looked upon him. This
word to look upon means to gaze with a wide open eye at something
that is remarkable. It sometimes means to lust. to
desire extremely, to lust. Look not on a woman to lust after
her. This is that Word. We have seen
Him. We've looked upon Him with this
great desire. I tell you, they watched ever
move, didn't they? They knew this is no mere man. This is
Christ the Son of God, the Eternal One. And they watched Him. And
when He said, I'm going away, they said, Lord, wait a minute. We can't live without You. We
saw you and we watched you for three years. We'll die if you
leave us." They wouldn't let him out of their sight. Like
poor Elijah, following Elijah around when he was going to be
taken up to heaven. I ain't going to let you out
of my sight. And that's what they said. Oh, we've looked upon
Him. It's that same word in Revelations
22 forward. They shall see His face. What will it be to see the face
of Jesus Christ? Oh, don't you long to see Him?
Isn't that your hope, to see Him? That's how they felt about Him
here. They looked upon Him. And something else He gives quickly
here. He said, and our hands have handled
of the Word of life. Ain't this amazing? Our hands
handled the Word of life. Ain't that amazing how He says
that? How can you handle the Word of Life? Well, you can't
until it's manifested in the flesh. Until He takes into Himself
our humanity, and then you can handle Him. John laid his head
upon His breast, didn't he? And can you imagine as He rests
Hisself thereupon to save His breast? Can you imagine what
He's thinking? when Peter was out in the midst
of those waves, and he was ready to perish in his own mind, and
the Lord reached down in those waves and pulled him up, and
can you imagine? He grabbed ahold of the Lord
and grabbed around him and thought, Oh, I'm hugging the Word of Life. They handled him, the Word of
Life. Oh, how amazing this is. How
amazing this is. If Thomas reached his fingers
and put them in the prints of the nails, and if he did indeed
thrust his hand into his open side, he had to think to himself,
this is the word of life. The word of life. And you know,
if he had ceased to be what he was, maybe it wouldn't be anything
amazing. But he never ceased to be what
he was. Well, He was standing and walking with them in His
humiliation. And even after His resurrection,
He was still in our humanity. And yet He never laid aside what
He was. This was the God-Man, the Word
of Life. Handle me and see. Ain't that
what He told them? Handle me and see. Brothers and
sisters, do we believe it? Do we believe it? Do we rest
in our feelings? Do we rest in our opinions and
our mere knowledge that we conjure up that we're so quickly error
in? Or do we rest in what this man
and these apostles tell us? We've never seen, but they have. We believe. We've never handled
Him, but they did. We believe Him. We believe these
men. We believe the testimony that
they declare. Robert Murray Mache died as a
very young preacher, young man. He wrote this concerning these
verses. He said, what do we learn in
these verses? We learn the way of coming to
peace. It is by looking to a manifested
Jesus. It is by receiving the testimony
others have witnessed of Him. He said some of you think you
will come to peace by looking into your own heart. Your eye
is riveted there. You watch every change there. If you could only see a glimpse
of light there, oh what joy it would give you. If you could
only see a melting of your stony heart, If you could only see
your heart turning to God, if you could only see a glimpse
of the image of Jesus in your heart, you would be at peace.
But you cannot. All is dark within. Oh, dear
soul, it is not there that you will find peace. Your heart isn't
an empty sepulcher. You must avert the eye from your
bosom altogether. You must look to a declared Christ. Spread out the record of God
concerning His Son. The Gospels are a narrative of
the heart of Jesus, of the work of Jesus, of the grace of Jesus. Spread them out before the eyes
of your mind until they fill your eye. Cry unto the Spirit
to breathe over the page to make a manifested Christ manifested
to you. Make Him to stand out plainly
before your eyes in the moment that you believe all that is
spoken concerning Jesus Christ the Son of God. That moment you
will wipe the tears from your eyes and you will change your
sigh into a song of praise. This is the way to come to peace,
even peace with God. Peace in your conscience is to
believe what's written. I've never seen, I've never heard,
I've never had, but I believe they did, and I believe their
record, and believe in their record, I have peace with God.
Now, this is the second part and the last portion of my message.
What was John's aim? What was his end in declaring
this manifested Christ? Well, in verse 3, he tells us
this. This is the reason, he said,
I'm declaring what I've seen and heard unto you, that you
may have fellowship with us. You believe my testimony concerning
this revealed Christ, you will have fellowship with us. This
word fellowship means to share in, to have in common with. We're told in the early church
that they were of one heart and one soul. Neither said any man
that the things that he possessed was his own, but they had all
things common. That's what John is saying here.
He said, believe the testimony that I give you and you share
with us in this common salvation. You know, John never did use
these words, me and I. He was a great apostle, but he
never did exalt himself personally. He exalted his office. But he
always spoke, even to the youngest convert, to the youngest believer,
as saying this, Your share is with me in this great salvation. Look at just a few places. Look
in chapter 2, and look in verse 12. Look at this. Even these young children who
had just believed in Jesus Christ, I write unto you, little children,
because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake." And
he said in chapter 2, verses 1 and 2, he said, Jesus Christ
is the propitiation, the atoning victim for our sins, not just
for my sins, but for your sins. And not just for the sins of
God's elect among the Jews, but all over the world. There's one
atonement for sin, and we share in all of this. Can you believe
that your sins are forgiven just like John's? If you believe this record that
he gave of the incarnate Son of God, your sins are as forgiven
as his sins. He said, that's why I'm declaring
this unto you, that you may share with me in this salvation. He said in chapter 3 verse 24,
look at this. In chapter 3 verse 24, And he
that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him.
And hereby we know that he abideth in us, not just me, but us, by
the Spirit which he hath given unto us. We have the same Spirit
that John had. Maybe he had a greater degree,
no doubt, but we have the same Spirit. Look in chapter 4 and
verses 9 and 10. Look at this, the love of God.
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 He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. Oh, isn't it wonderful then?
that believe in this record we share with John? We have fellowship
with him? What about our hope? Look what
he says in chapter 3. Look in verse 1. What manner
of love the Father has bestowed upon us, not me, but us, that
we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth
us not. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God. It doth not yet appear what we
shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be
like Him. That's our hope, isn't it? That
was John's hope. Do you think his hope is secure?
Do you think John will realize his hope? He will. But what He's saying is, I declare
these things unto you, that you may share with us our fellowship
with us. I'll tell you something else
that we share with John too. And he talked about the world
hating us. I'm not for sure where that is
in 1 John, but he talked about since the Lord has called us
and regenerated us. He said, don't marvel if the
world hates you. Don't marvel if the world hates
you. We share in that too, don't we? We share with John in that
too. They banished him to the Isle
of Patmos. And they tell us that he suffered
there. Suffered at the hands of men.
And he talked about being in the kingdom of patience. The
patience of the Lord Jesus Christ. We share in that. We not only
share in forgiveness of sins and the love of God and this
hope, we share that, but we share these tribulations, don't we?
We found out that it's not only John that suffers. He may suffer
to a greater degree, but don't we suffer? When the Lord has
called you, don't you suffer? You may not suffer in your flesh,
but don't you suffer in your soul? Aren't you sometimes pruned
by the Father? Don't sometimes He cut the dead
limbs off of you, and that hurts? Well, John experienced that,
didn't he? And he said, I'm declaring this
to you, that you may have fellowship with us in everything. We have fellowship. with these
apostles. That's so encouraging. They've
done innards. They've done innards. They're
there in heaven with the Lord. But we're going to be there too,
if we believe this testimony. If we're in Christ. This manifested
Christ. But notice this, he says something
else. Not only that you may have fellowship with us, but he said
that you may have fellowship with the Father. And truly, our
fellowship is with the Father. There in verse 3. fellowship
with the Father. Can you imagine sharing in common
with the Father? How wonderful that is! Sharing with the Father. What
do we share with the Father? Well, I tell you this, the Bible
says, and this is amazing, and I don't know what else to believe
about this, but what He says. He says we're partakers of a
divine nature. God has begotten us in His very
likeness. He has planted in us this holy
seed. Well, I just thought of that.
Look in chapter 3. Look in verse 9. Look at this. This
is the way we share with the Father and partake of Him. Look
in verse 9, chapter 3. Whosoever is born of God doeth
not commit sin, look at this, for his seed remaineth in him,
and that seed cannot sin, because he is born of God." This seed
is incorruptible, isn't it? It's a holy seed, and this seed
is within the believer. You know there's something in
every believer that's incorruptible. You can't see it. You search
your whole self and you can't detect it, but it's there. It's
a holy, incorruptible seed. It's the very nature of God.
It cannot be corrupted. It cannot corrupt. And if you
have this seed in you, that's a seed of holiness. And you'll
never be satisfied until that seed blossoms. And you're in
the full likeness of Him that sowed that seed in you to begin
with. See what I'm saying? Since the Lord, since the Father,
since the Father put this seed in you, don't you long to be
holy? Don't you long never to sin again? Don't you long to
be free from sin? That's that holy seed. That's
the divine nature. You're sharing with the Father.
How does He feel about sin? You feel the same way, don't
you? Oh, we're partakers with the Father. And he goes on to
say this, and I'm almost finished. Not only do we have fellowship
with the Father, but fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ. Now, this is so easy here to
understand when we talk about being sharers with the Lord Jesus
Christ. How are we sharers? What do we
have in common with Him? Well, I'll tell you this. One
thing is this. complete justification from all
sin. This is one of the most amazing
things we share with Him. You know there was a time when
the Son of God was guilty? There was a time when the Son
of God was guilty. One man said He was unjustified,
I don't know if I'd go there, but He was guilty, not for His
own sins, But when he hung upon the cross of Calvary, the Bible
says that God laid on him our iniquity. And he called it his
own, and said, You've known my foolishness, and my guilt is
not hid from you. And he came under God's awful
wrath, didn't he? Oh, he said, You that pass by,
is there any sorrow like unto my sorrow? Wherewith the Lord
hath afflicted me in the day of His fierce anger? God afflicted
him. He was guilty, wasn't he? Not
for his own sins, but for ours. And he died without guilt. But
I tell you, he was so full of merit and so full of worth that
that guilt was put away. That sin was purged away. The
sin was atoned for by the sacrifice of himself. And when he raised
from the dead, what does that tell us? He was justified from
all of that sin. Let me show you another verse
if I can find it. I probably can't even find it. I'm getting
old and I'm losing my poor ability to even find a verse of Scripture. I can't even find it. Let me
see. He said something to the effect
that He was manifested to take away our sins. That's in this
book somewhere. I read that. He was manifested
to take away our sins. And He did that, didn't He? By
the sacrifice of Himself. And listen. And in Him is no
sin. Ain't that amazing? In Him is
no sin. What does that mean? That means
there is no sin in you. That means you are justified
from all your sins. As He is, so are we in this world. You say, Bruce, I feel sin working
in me. I do too. But before the court
of heaven, brothers, you have no sin. Before the court of heaven,
you are not guilty. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ. If He is free, those who are
in Him are free. If He's condemned, then you're
condemned. But there's no sin in Him. He
took it away. Oh, isn't that wonderful? We've
never heard of such a salvation, have we? Who ever heard of such
a thing? Here we are guilty, but completely
without any condemnation. We're justified as He is. Are
we not? That's what John's telling us.
These things I declare unto you, that you may have fellowship
with the Son, that you may share with Him in what He's done on
behalf of poor, miserable sinners who believe in Him. As He is. How is He this morning? Well, I tell you, He's perfectly
accepted. He's perfectly received in heaven,
is He not? Heaven, with all its pomp and
glory, has received Him. The Father says, Son, it's so
good to have you home. You'll never leave this place
again. Sit down here. You're welcome. As He is, so
are we. So are we? You mean we're as
accepted as He is? We're as much received as He
is? Yes. Yes. I'll tell you this much, too.
In our adoption, we're as much sons as He is. Now, you get a hold of that,
you believe that. You're here this morning and you believe
the record that God gave of His Son. You have been able to look
out of yourself to this revealed Christ, this manifested Christ.
You're as much a son of God as Jesus Himself. I send to my Father and your
Father. I send to my God and your God. Father, I will that they whom
you have given me be with me where I am, that they may behold
my glory, for you loveth me from the foundation of the world.
But that's not all He said. He didn't stop there. And thou
hast loved them even as thou hast loved me. Partakers of this fellowship
with us and with the Father and with His Son. And lastly, He
says this in our text. In verse 4, He said, These things
I write unto you. And you believe these things,
and here's what's going to happen. Your joy will be full. Full joy. Fade, fade each earthly
joy. And I'm thankful for earthly
joys, aren't you? I'm thankful for earthly joys.
It's a part of life. I wouldn't want to be without
any earthly joys. But you know, joys that's born
of this world die with this world. And they fade, don't they? Fade,
fade, each earthly joy. But there is a joy that comes
through believing. Oh, Robert Machine said this
about this joy. He said, Believe none, and you'll
have no joy. Believe little, and you'll have
little joy. Believe much, and you'll have
much joy. Believe fully, and you will have full joy. Full
joy. The joy of the Lord is our strength. Wonderful text, isn't it? Wonderful
text. You know something? Really and
honestly, we're here this morning, 2017, and we're absolutely basing
our eternal destiny upon this Word. No other evidence we have, or
we're not seeking any, what's been declared unto us. I believe
it. I believe it. Let me tell you
one more time what the old black man John Jasper said. John Jasper the slave that could
out-preach all of his white counterparts. He was always rejoicing, full
of assurance. Wanting to go be with the Lord,
and they said to him one day, Mr. Jasper, you always seem to
have a lot of joy and assurance. He said, I do. I do. Thank God I do. They said, what
if you get up to heaven, and after all, the Lord won't let
you in? He turns you out, He turns you away. And Mr. Jasper
said, I'm in trouble if He does that. Because I've lost my soul,
that's for sure. But he said, I'll tell you this
much, God is in more trouble than I am. I lose my soul, but He loses
His honesty. He loses His integrity. He loses
His honor. Because if He turns me out after
I've simply believed Him with all my heart, then He's no God
of honor. It'll never happen with Him.
You put all your confidence in His Word, And you'll see if he's not faithful.
He's faithful.