The one the Lord loved. Not that
he loved him more than the others, but there was a fellowship between
them that was special. He leaned upon our Lord's chest
at the Last Supper that says that about him. John, son of
Zebedee, youngest of the apostles. And he survived them all, all
of them. died were martyred, all of them
were martyred, with the exception of John. We understand that John
was exiled to the Isle of Patmos. And this epistle, unlike many,
is not addressed to a particular person like Timothy or Titus,
but it's a general epistle that is written generally for all
believers. And I want to point out six things
from this first chapter entitled, the message is entitled, The
Comforts of Christ. The Comforts of Christ. And I've
divided, as I said, this chapter into six parts. The first part
is, this is our Messiah. This is our Messiah. The subject
of John's preaching and writing was Christ. Christ was the subject
of his preaching, subject of his writing. John the Baptist,
his preaching was Christ. He said, Behold the Lamb of God,
taketh away the sin of the world. Philip, when he spoke to the
eunuch, he began at the same scripture and preached Christ.
Of course, the Apostle Paul wrote that powerful declaration to
the Corinthians. He said, I'm determined, I am
determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. He's my message. I preach Christ
and Him crucified. And here the subject of John's
writings is his Messiah, his beloved Messiah. Verse 1 and
2, he tells us about Him. He says, that which was from
the beginning, from the beginning, He's eternal
God. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And all things
were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that
was made. And the Word was made flesh.
and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. And without controversy, great
is the mystery of Godness, God, Almighty God, was manifest in
the flesh, dwelt among us, walked this earth in a human body, lived
on this earth, died on the cross. He's God in the beginning, That's
what he said, that which was from the beginning, eternal God. Now listen, which we have heard,
which we have seen with our eyes, which we've looked upon in our
hands of handles of the Word of Life. The Word of Life became
a man in flesh and bones and blood. And we saw Him. John said, I'm telling you, I
saw Him. And I heard Him. And I touched
Him. Three times he says that. Three
times. Look at verse 2. For the life.
He is the life. He is life. He has life in Himself. He's the author of life. He's
the life. He's not alive. I see these signs
all the time. Jesus is alive. The Lord Jesus Christ is life. He is life. He's not alive. He
is life. In Him is life and light and
truth. That's what He's saying. He's
the Word of life. You know, 1 John, John wrote
this over here in chapter 5. He said, let's turn over there
and read chapter 5, this same epistle, verse 10. John, 1 John 5, 10. He that believeth
on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth
not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the
record God gave of his Son. And this is the record. That
God hath given us life. God has given to us life. Eternal
life is not how long it's going to last. It's the quality of
it. It's the life of God. There's a life that's not eternal.
Natural life. Animal life. Mineral life. Vegetable life. It goes away. Eternal life. That's what Adam
lost in the garden, his life. Eternal life. Spiritual life.
Christ is that life. He's the Word of life. He's the
author of life. He's the giver of life. And this
is the record God has given us. God has given us life again. He restoreth my soul. I'm born
again. That which is born of the flesh,
John says, is grace. That which is born of the Spirit
is spiritual, the life of God. And he that hath the Son, verse
12, hath life. He has life. Divine life, spiritual
life, eternal life, the life of God. We can't die. Can God die? No, we can't die
either, because we live as He lives, because I live, you live.
I'm come that they might have life. They don't have life. I quickened them from the dead.
You who are dead in trespasses and sin, He's quickened. I'm
come that they might have life and have it more abundantly.
And he that hath the Son hath life. And all your friends who
have not the Son have not life. A man who doesn't have Christ
is dead. He's dead in sin. He's dead. He doesn't have life. He's dead. You'll be destroyed. And these things, verse 13, have
I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God,
that you may know you have life. Eternal is all right. Put it
on there, because it's spiritual. Put any word you want to about
it. Spiritual, divine, eternal. But it's the only life that lives. and lives and lives and lives
and lives and never dies. It's the life of God. It knows no disease. It knows
no pain. It knows no sin. It knows no
death. If a man is quickened, a woman
is quickened from the state of death and sin, Lifelessness. By the Spirit of God. And the
Spirit of God gives life. You'll never die. That's what I'm talking about
here. He says, the word of life, verse 2, the
life was manifested. The life. The only life. The
life of God was manifested. I saw Him. I bear witness and
I show unto you that eternal life, that life, everything else
is death. Everything we know is death. We fade and pass away. Only this
life lives, Christ. And I show you that eternal life
which was with the Father. and was manifested unto us. I'm
telling you, that's who He is. He's life. Turn to John 5. Listen to what our Lord says
as He speaks here in John 5, verse 21. For as the Father raiseth up
the dead, Everything that's not in Christ
is dead. Christ is life. That He raises
up the dead and quickens them, even so the Son quickens whom
He will. Now look at verse 26. For as the Father hath life in
Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself.
And that's where our life is, in Himself, in Christ. That's the miracle, the marvel
of redemption. It's life. It's not a decision
someone makes. I've decided to live eternally.
No. That's not a decision someone
makes. It's a life God gives. Christ gives life, quickens. He dwells within. And I'll never
die. Of whom shall I be afraid? Don't be afraid of them which
kill the body, and after they have that, have no more that
they can do. I'll tell you whom you shall fear, who is able to
destroy soul and body in hell, destroy, but not life, eternal
life. This is my Redeemer. John said,
I saw Him. Look, turn to Luke 24. And he's
talking about not only while he walked this earth before the
cross, but when he arose and walked this earth after the cross.
I saw him, I touched him, heard him. Listen to Luke 24, verse
36. And as they thus spake, Jesus
himself stood in the midst of the disciples and said to them,
Peace be unto you. They were terrified. and afraid,
and supposedly they'd seen a ghost, a spirit. And he said unto them,
Why are you troubled? Why do thoughts arise in your
hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, it's I myself, handle me. And see, a spirit hath not flesh
and bones as you see me have. Reach out here and touch me. Touch those nail prints. You
saw them drive those nails. You saw them pierce my side.
You saw them drive the nails in my feet. Here, touch them. Touch the scars, the flesh. It's I Myself. Life. And when He had spoken, He showed
them His hands and His feet. This is our Lord's glorified
body. This is the way we shall be when He raises us, just like
Him. And while they yet believed not
for joy and wondered, He said to them, Have you any meat? They
gave Him a piece of boiled fish. That's what I had for lunch today,
a piece of fish, prepared and cooked. And I ate it. It tasted good. Satisfied my hunger. And a honeycomb. I love honey with a comb in it.
I didn't have that for lunch. But he took it and ate it. Did
eat it before them. John said, listen to me now.
I'm telling you. That which was in the beginning,
with God, was God. All things were made by Him.
I saw Him. I heard Him. I touched Him. That Word of Life, and that Word
was manifested in the flesh as a man, my Redeemer, my security,
my representative. And I bear witness, and I show
you, that's eternal life. He lives forever, and I saw Him
ascend to heaven. The man, Christ Jesus, the one
I touched and saw and heard, a man like me, except I've got
to go through the valley of death and rise from the grave, and
I'll be like Him, a man, flesh and bones, able to eat. I'll go to be with Him. That's life, eternal life. That's my Messiah. Three and
four is the second thing. This is our ministry. And that
which I've seen and heard and touched, declare I unto you. This is my ministry. This is
my ministry. And this is the goal of my ministry.
I preach Christ. I preach this eternal life. And I do it for three reasons.
And he gives them to you here. Number one, that you also may
have fellowship with us. I want you to have this life. This life that Brother John was
reading about in Psalm 56. This trust, this faith, this
joy, this confidence, this peace, this rest. I want you to have
what God's given us. That's the reason I'm preaching
this Gospel to you. That's what he said. This is my ministry.
that you may have fellowship with us, that you might be a
part of this life. And then secondly, our fellowship
is with the Father and with His Son, that you might have fellowship
with the Father and with the Son. If you have fellowship with the
Father and the Son, you'll have fellowship with us. For in Him
there is life, peace, and joy. And thirdly, listen to verse
four, and these things I preach unto you and write unto you,
that your joy may be full. What does that mean? That your
joy may be full. Well, every joy associated with
this world is incomplete and temporary and finally comes to
an end. Now think about that. There's a television listener
up in Huntington, Mrs. Spurlock, and she'd been
writing to me for 20 years, she and her husband, Mr. and Mrs.
Laban Spurlock, never met them, 20 years, every month, every
month. a little note and a check for
this church and the television ministry. Twenty years. About three weeks
ago or four weeks ago, she wrote me a little note and she says,
my husband died. We've been married 70 years.
And she said I'll have to make an adjustment in my giving because
I don't have as much. Some of you widows know about
that. I noticed her address again. I've seen it. I've always, when
somebody writes like that, I always send them a personal letter,
a thank you note. And I've been writing to her
all these years. But I never really noticed the address. It's
up in West Huntington on 11th Street, 11th Street and about
7th or 8th Avenue. And I was going up there to have
supper at a restaurant about a half a mile from her house.
And I thought after the supper, maybe Darsie and I can run by
and see her. So we ate. After supper, Darsie and I, Ron
and Trish, went by their house, her house. I knocked on the door.
She came to the door. Little bitty lady, 88 years old,
in a pink bathrobe, about 9 o'clock at night. And she said, I don't know you
through the door there. I was a stranger standing out
there on the porch at nine o'clock at night. I said, well, I'm your television
preacher, Brother Mahan. Oh, she said, she just squealed
out. She said, I never thought I'd
ever see you in this life. Come in. So I called Dyson, Ron,
Trish out of the car, and we went in. And she said to me,
I said, how did Laban die? She said, well, December the
19th, we were going out to eat a Christmas dinner with some
of the family. He took a nap. Said, been married
70 years, lived in this house since 1941. And she said, I went
in to wake him, to get ready to go. I laid my hand on his
arm, and it's cold, she said, and he was gone. Well, that's a blessed way to
go to be with the Lord, but she's lonely now, heartbroken. Joy
is gone. And now, she said, I don't know
whether I can keep my house or not. I don't have anything. See,
everything we have here, the joy, Seventy years ago, they
were two young people so happy, and now so sad. But that's every joy in this
world is destined for failure. He said, I'm preaching to you,
so your fellowship will be with Him and with us, and you're joyful,
complete. and never be taken away. Never. Never. Not this joy. It's full.
It's joy unspeakable and full of glory. Full of glory. Isn't that right? That's what
he's talking about here. That's why we preach. I'm not
looking for church members. You know that. How many of you have Sunday school?
I don't have the foggiest notion. How many members do you have?
I wouldn't have any idea. I was preaching down in Pound,
Virginia, and I was having breakfast with about five or six preachers
down there. One of them looked across the
table and he said, how big is your church? I always don't like
for people to ask me that, you know, An old preacher sitting
next to me said, it's 50 by 70. I said, thank you. I've been
looking for that answer all my life. So when anybody asks me,
how big is this church, I'm going to say, 50 by 70. It's not how many, it's who. Our joy is Him. If it's one of us or two of us
or five of us or 500 of us, It's His family. He's our joy. Look at the third thing, verse
5. Here's our message. This then is the message which
we've heard of Him and declare unto you, that God is light and
in Him there's no darkness. What does that mean, preacher?
God is holy. God is holy. God is righteous. God is just. And anything that He does for
us, in redemption has to be in accord with His holiness and
His righteousness and His truth. That's the reason Job kept asking
this question, well, how can man be just with God? How can
He be clean that's born of a woman? Behold the moon, it shineth not.
The stars are not pure in His sight. How much more abominable
and filthy is man who drinks iniquity like the water? How
can man be just with God's holy? We're unholy. Now, I'll tell
you, that's what this message is. Christ is our holiness. Christ
is our righteousness. Turn to Romans 3. This is the
message that God is holy, and in keeping with His holiness,
He sent Christ. In Romans 3, verse 19, look at
it. Now, we know that what things
whoever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law,
that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become
guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, there shall no flesh be justified in God's sight, for
God is holy. By the law is the knowledge of
sin. But now, the righteousness of God without
the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the
prophets. It's even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of
Christ Jesus unto all and upon all them that believe. There's
no difference. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God, but being justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus. That's our message. God is holy.
And Christ enabled God to be holy and save us. To be just and justify us. For He, the just, suffered for
the unjust that He might bring us to God. God is holy. And Christ, in Him, we're holy. We have fellowship with God.
And then, here's our walk. Here's the fourth thing. This
is our walk. If we say we have fellowship with Him, if we say
we have life, eternal life, we have Christ, and walk in darkness,
we're not telling the truth. But if we walk in the light,
the light of His Word, the light of His Gospel, the light of His
fellowship, as He's in the light, we have fellowship with Him.
And the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from
all sin. Turn to Romans 8 a moment. What
is this walking in the light? Walking in the light. Walking
in the Spirit. That's what it is. Look at Romans
8. In Romans 8 verse 1, there is
therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus.
They walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. That's
the tenor of their lives. That's their direction. That's
their walk. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ has
made me free from the law of sin and death. But what the law
could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending
His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and foreseeing
condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law
might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but
after the Spirit." Now here's that walk. Listen to the next
verse. They that are after the flesh, they that walk in the
flesh, do mind. See that word? There's the key.
Mind. Think upon them. Delight in. Enjoy. Seek after the things of the
flesh. People who walk in the flesh,
that's their life. That's their way. They mind the
things of the flesh. They're interested. Delight in. Seek after. Crave. Seek to find
their satisfaction in the things of this world. They mind those
things. They're interested. But now watch. But they that are after the Spirit,
their minds and thoughts are the things of God. That's
what they're interested in. Mostly and mainly. That's what
they think about. That's what they're interested
in. That's their happiness. When John was reading here and
making such encouraging comments and teaching, then this John
was singing. I was sitting there thinking,
it would be so good just to stay here and never come down off
this mountain. And I know some of you that work out there in
that mess. This is so refreshing, the things
of God. Minding, delighting in, enjoying,
desiring the things of God. I know you have to work and you
have to go to school and you have to make a living and you
have to identify and associate with this world and with the
people of this world. But that's not our life. This
is our life. That's not our primary interest.
That's not the things we seek and crave and delight in like
this. That's what this is saying. And
that's the walk. And that's what he's saying here
in verse 6 and 7 of 1 John 1. If we say that we have fellowship
with Him, and the world, and the things of the world, and
the people of the world, And the materialism, if that's our
desire, and we walk in that, then we're
not telling the truth. But if we walk in the light,
as He's in the light, we have fellowship with Him, and the
blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin.
Now, that's our walk. But now, notice fifthly, here's
our confession. Believers are honest people.
They're not hypocrites. They don't pretend to be what
they're not. They'll tell the truth about themselves. And we
do. We walk in the Spirit. We do
mind the things of God. We delight in the things of God.
If we had our way, we'd be perfectly holy without sin. But verse 8, if we say that we
have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. We
don't say that. We say Christ is my life, and
my love, and my hope, and my heartbeat, and the king of my
life. But I'm not saying that I don't
have a nature of sin. I've got a nature of righteousness,
and a spiritual life, and the life of God. But I also have
a nature of sin that I got from my father Adam. And you do too.
If we say we don't, if we say, I'm not like other men, oh yes
we are. In that vein we are, in the fact that we still have
the motions of sin and the nature of sin and the desires of sin
within us. You see, turn to Galatians 5
for a moment. Galatians chapter 5. If we say
we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. Listen to Galatians chapter 5,
verse 17. Verse 16. Now this I say then,
walk in the Spirit. Walk in the Spirit. Walk with
the people of God. Walk in the Word. Walk in the
worship services. And you'll not fulfill the lust
of the flesh. It's there. But now absent yourself
from the people of God, from the things of God, from the influence
of the Word, from the study of the Word, from the worship, the
fellowship, and you find yourself tempted and swayed. The more
you fool with the world and dabble with the world and walk with
the world, the more it will rub off on you. So he said, walk
in the Spirit. Because, listen, verse 17, because
this is the problem. The flesh, which we still have,
lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit battles the flesh. And these are contrary one to
the other, every believer. Yes, we have the life of Christ
and righteousness before God, but we've got a nature. that's
still fascinated with and tempted by this world. And they're contrary
one to the other. So you can't do the things that
you would. You would be perfect, wouldn't you? Your God nature
would. But your old Adamic nature won't
let it. And that old Adamic nature would
pull you down. But this God nature won't let
it. Both ways. That's true. So that's what he's
saying here. We do walk in the things of God,
but we're not saying we don't have any sin. No, sir. And look at verse 10. If we say
we have not sinned, I haven't sinned this day. Oh, that makes
God a liar. That makes God a liar. Back here
at verse 8, if I say I have no nature of sin, I'm a liar. If
I say I have not sinned today in word or thought or deed or
lived above sin, I make God a liar. Because God and His Word is not
in me. But listen, here is our confession,
verse 9. But if we confess our sins, don't
be hesitant or reluctant to confess your sins. He that hideth his sins shall
not prosper. He that covereth his sins shall
not prosper. But whoso confesseth his sin
and forsaketh them will find mercy." So if we confess our
sins, God's faithful. Faithful to His Word, faithful
to His Son, faithful to His covenant, faithful to His people. He's
faithful and He's just to forgive us our sins. And because
Christ died for us, He's just in forgiving us. Yes, He is. If God spared not His own Son,
but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him freely
give us all things? So our walk is with God and with
His Word, and we walk like Enoch right on into the presence of
God. We're not going to cease to walk. But now we're not going
to say we have no sin. And we're not going to say that
we have not sinned this hour. But we're going to confess our
sins. And listen. Chapter 2, verse 1. Here's the
sixth thing. And I have to go here. I can't
leave off there. My little children, these things
I write unto you that you sin not. Wouldn't that be wonderful?
I write unto you that you sin not." Well, that's the way he
has to write. He couldn't write and say, now sin a little bit.
He couldn't. He just said, I write to you,
don't sin. Don't sin. Do not sin. Is not this the desire of every
believer? Is not this the perfect goal? But this is not our experience. It's not our experience. So he
said, little children, I write unto you that you sin not. And
I would like to change one word here. It says, if any man sin,
let's just change that to when. I think it'd be all right. And
when any man sins, we have an advocate. It didn't say, if we
sin, we're lost. It says, if we sin, we have an
advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ the righteous. These
preachers say, and if you sin, you're lost. No. If I sin, I
have an advocate. It doesn't say if I sin, I've
forfeited my faith and my inheritance. No, it says if you sin, you have
an advocate. It doesn't say if we sin, we're
no longer sons of God. It says if we sin, we have an
advocate. It's right unto you that you
sin not, but remember when you do sin. You have an advocate with the
Father. What is an advocate? Well, an advocate is a high priest. An advocate is the intercessor.
An advocate is one who pleads your case and calls. That's what
an advocate is, one who stands for you. And you know, somebody
pointed this out, it doesn't say if any man be righteous,
he has an advocate. A righteous man doesn't need
an advocate. It says sinners need an advocate. If you sin,
you have an advocate. It doesn't say if any man be
perfect, he has an intercessor. A perfect man doesn't need an
intercessor. It says if any man sin, sinners
need an advocate. I didn't need my mother to go
to my father for me when I was a good boy. I went myself. wanted somebody to take the blame
in the blunt, I sent her. And she could usually fix it
up pretty good. And so if I'm righteous and perfect and without
sin, I don't need an advocate. I don't need an intercessor.
But this brat needs an intercessor, an advocate, a mediator, a great
high priest. And thank God, Don't just have
any advocate. People say, well, to some friend, pray for me.
And that's good. We should. But I tell you, we've
got somebody praying for us. And you know what it says here?
If any man's saying, we have an advocate, we have it. We have
him. Not going to have him, we have
him. Father selected him, accepted him, anointed him, appointed
him, exalted him, and here's him. We have an Advocate who
is Jesus Christ, the Righteous. The Righteous. The Righteous
One, and we in Him. And He is, listen, He is the
propitiation, mercy seat, atonement, covering for our sins. All of them. Every sin. And not ours only, not the Jews
only. Not this crowd only. every true
sinner in this world. Find a sinner, and you'll find
a man to whom you can say, you have an advocate. If any man
sin, Jew, Gentile, white or black, rich or poor, old or young, he
has an advocate. With the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous. Our Father, thank you for this
day. Thank you for your precious Word,
the written Word that comforts us, encourages us, teaches us,
and the Word of Life, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is our life. Thank you for Him. Thank you
for your mercies and blessings. Now, may it help us to remember
what we've heard. Give us strength and grace to
walk in Thy way, in Thy will. And
bless us throughout this week according to Your will. Give
us wisdom and strength and grace. Thank You, Lord, that You order
our steps and our times are in Thy hands. We give Thee the glory
in Christ's name. Amen.