Well congregation we begin a new exposition this Lord's Day. We open up to the letter of First John. As you know he's wrote a gospel which is unique in so many different ways. Particularly as John wrote his gospel it is centered upon really the passion of our Lord, the last few days of our Lord's life. Certain things in the book of John are unique. most scholars look at the synoptic Gospels as Matthew, Mark, and Luke and they don't include John and the reason why is because much of John is not written in the other Gospels. There's a particular theme or focus of the Gospel and we would expect that too in 1st John as well as the smaller letters of second and third John as well. So the scripture that we read this Lord's Day is first John chapter one verses one and two only, as we look under the title, The Essence of the Gospel. So first John chapter one verses one and two. 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, concerning the word of life. The life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested to us. May God bless the reading of his word to our hearts, this Lord's Day. Our congregation today, as I've said, we begin a new series of sermons on the letter or epistle of First John. Our focus, which is John's focus, is going to be on the assurance of salvation in the Christian life. We want to consider how true Christians are impacted in their life by what they believe and how they relate to one another in the world. We want to show how the Christian life is the outworking of the triune life of God, not only for us doctrinally, but also in us as expressed in being adopted by the sovereign grace of God as children into the very household of God. To be children of God. What does that phrase mean? How are we to understand it? The small epistle this letter deals with The letter of John, as a matter of fact, both the second and third John as well, not only give us a glimpse of what church life was like at the end of the first century, but also gives us insight into some of the struggles that were experienced by local churches in Asia Minor at the end of the first century. It deals with a very important contemporary issue, the issue of Christian life and faith. In particular the letter deals with Christian assurance of salvation. What do we mean by assurance? And how are we to understand what it means to be a Christian in light of that assurance? And how do we experience true Holy Spirit assurance? That you have a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. For John that is no joke, but a real struggle within the heart of every believer. and it is in a struggle in the heart of every believer today as well. John addresses these kinds of issues in this letter we call First John. It is an exciting book because all we need is true assurance. That's what we all desire is that assurance that we rest in Jesus Christ and that in Him we have eternal life. It is challenging as well because it calls out or distinguishes a true believer from a false one. John is never afraid to preach a discriminating gospel, which is so much not popular today. Calling people out who are hypocrites Name the name of Jesus but don't believe a word that Jesus says. Those who name the name of Jesus and yet live in disobedience to the Lord God. Today with God's help we will be dealing with verses one and two and our subject is the essence of the gospel message. Our points are first in the introduction, second pre-existence and then finally the word of life. First the Apostle John in introduction wrote this letter or epistle so that the people of God, those professing a true genuine faith would grow personally in their assurance of salvation. The text of the letter does not bear the author's name nor normal greetings, yet it's clearly the word of the Apostle Paul in witness in his particular character in which he writes. You can relate it to the gospel that he wrote as well as the other letters that he wrote. He claims in verse one to be an eyewitness of Christ and preaching to others the Savior he personally saw, touched and heard. The Apostle tells us that assurance is his main subject. We read for example in First John chapter 5 verse 13 why he wrote the letter. These things I have written to you, again this is First John 5 13, that you would believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life, that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. It is clear that John wrote to encourage the people of God in their troubles, in their tribulations, in their faith, that they would continue in the assurance of faith. It is important to note that John's goal in his gospel was more evangelistic, as stated, for example, in John chapter 20 verse 31. These things have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name. In other words, John's primary purpose in his gospel was Holy Spirit conversion of the soul to believe John in his gospel wants them to know that Jesus is the Christ, the living and reigning Son of God. He wants people, that is in his gospel, to believe personally in the Good News. In his letter, that is 1 John, the subject is assurance of salvation. And we had read that, for example, in 1 John 5.13, where he tells us that his goal is not evangelical, primarily, but to bring the faithful along slowly and patiently to know their assurance of faith. He wrote, these things I have written to you who believe. And so they're already believers and he wants them to continue in the faith. So John wrote to those who already believed the things that he wanted them to believe based upon his gospel in John. Again, he wrote, these things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life. So then again, as I say again and again, the primary purpose of First John is assurance of salvation. John wrote the letter, as well as second and third John, to Christians who have been troubled by false teachers. False teachers never take a day off, because you know the devil never takes a day off. False teachers never have mercy upon the flock of God. It's because Satan doesn't have mercy. In these letters, John is addressing the teaching of these false prophets who were producing various kinds of effects in their church. False teachers had produced the idea that doctrine was not important. Like many today, one of their motives would have been simply doctrine divides, but love unites. What a wonderful phrase, isn't it? It just tickles the heart of so many people. Doctrine divides. It's because it divides, let's just love one another. These false teachers deviated greatly from the teaching of our Lord as well as the apostles themselves. And John is here to correct that false notion. As a practical matter these false teachers taught that it was not really that important what we believe about Jesus as long as we proclaim to be Christians in some general way. Boy doesn't that sound like today. How many people call themselves Christians but don't have a clue what it means to be a Christian. How many people today call themselves a Christian and yet disobey the very words of Christ. How many people call themselves a Christian and don't believe anything that's in the Bible? Since doctrine divides, says these false teachers, then just be an encourager. Yeah, that's what we need. We need an encourager. Now in modern day we would call these encouragers motivational speakers. That's really what they are. They're life coaches. Oh, I like that term, life coach. I need a life coach. That's what I need. I need a motivational speaker. That's what I need. I need to be motivated, and I need a life coach. Oh, how many named the name of Jesus as a preacher, as a teacher, and they're nothing more than motivational speakers. I mean that's what Joel Osteen really is. Come on, let's face it. Let's call it for what it is. That's all he is. He's just there to motivate you. He's there as a life coach. What does he do? He takes Jesus off the throne and puts himself on the throne. Congregation, in this brief introduction you can see that the letter of First John applies much to us today. It addresses the necessity of thinking theologically first, as well as fighting through the real issue of assurance of the forgiveness of sin through the merits of Christ's death and resurrection. As you can see there is much that the Holy Spirit can teach us as we sit at the feet of Jesus in this small letter. Well secondly we deal with the issue of the pre-existence of our Lord. In these opening verses the Holy Spirit wants to rest, wants us to rest assure and be confident that the gospel is true, absolutely true. In a constantly changing world we need to be reminded about the fact of absolute truth. particularly in our age, which denies absolute truth, which is a contradiction in terms. They absolutely deny truth, which is an absolute truth. But that's another issue. We live in a society today, as John did in his day, that truth is under attack. Truth is assaulted every day by those skeptics who deny truth, especially in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Many today deny or misunderstand the truth about our Lord and His birth, His ministry, His death, and most of all His resurrection. This was John's day. This was John's culture. And it's really our day today, if you stop and think about it. Jesus is under attack constantly. with regard to his birth, with regard to his ministry, with regard to even his historical existence. And so in John verse one, he states that 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 concerning the word of life, Let's look at two very important points here in these first words. First, just as John opened his gospel with a statement of Jesus is the eternal pre-existent one, who is co-equal with the Father in John 1. So he opens his letter with the same emphasis. It is clear from the words that John is not simply talking about the message though of the gospel. but also the personhood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus, who is the eternal Lord God manifested in the flesh, is wrapped in the historical message of the gospel. Jesus is speaking, or John is speaking about Jesus, the messenger of the word of life and the message of eternal life, the gospel proclaimed by the disciples. In other words, when Jesus is proclaimed or preached in this world, John is saying to you and me that Jesus already existed. John is also, with great emphasis, pointing to the eternalness of the message of Jesus's gospel. The same Jesus we saw, touched, looked upon, and handled with pure joy, we declare always existed. Is Yahweh manifested in the flesh and His gospel message is wrapped up in His eternality. Our Lord Jesus is the incarnate Savior. Our Lord Jesus is the God-man, theanthropic. What John is telling us is that Jesus was not a ghost, or some type of phantom, or another guru, no mere spirit. He was a real man with a human nature, yet without sin. Our Lord Jesus is someone who we can touch, and see, and hear, and understand, just like John, only by faith, until we enter into glory. So in these opening verses we see the humanity and divinity of our Lord witnessed and declared to be true. As a practical matter, the Holy Spirit teaches us to never allow anyone, at any time, to make a division between who Jesus is, as declared from the Scriptures, and the message of eternal life in the Gospel. our confession, which is John's point, is that the glorious gospel truth rests upon the truth about who our Lord is as stated by the Scriptures. The only thing we know about Jesus is that which is stated in the Scriptures. And what the Scriptures testify of Jesus is that he's pre-existent, is Yahweh manifested in the flesh and that the gospel message is wrapped up in that truth. Deny the pre-existence of Christ, deny the co-eternality of Christ, it's the Jehovah's Witnesses and Unitarians and Oneness Pentecostals do, you scrape away the gospel message. But secondly, John is interested in us believing that the truth of the Gospel, the truth of the Incarnation, the truth about our Lord's divinity and humanity is not grounded upon any tradition, personal opinion, or philosophy. The Gospel is grounded or rests upon the truth, the objective truth that Jesus is the eternal Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity. Note the words of verse two. The life was manifested and we have seen and bear witness and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us. After telling us about the eternal pre-existence of our Lord, is the word of life, the life-giving word. John now explains in greater detail in verse two about that word of life, or that word of faith. He declares that both truth and life are found alone in Jesus our Lord. Now you notice in your text that there is a hyphen or a dash after verse one, and then another hyphen or dash in the beginning of verse three. What John is doing, which is reflected in the text, is diverting from his point for a moment in verse one, and then taking up it again in verse three. John does this to slow us down to reflect or meditate for a moment on the incredible faith, that incredible phrase that he tells us that Jesus is the Word of Life. That's how you slow people down grammatically. John's got a lot to say, and he's filled with vibrancy. He's excited about what he's saying, but he wants to slow things down so that we would really consider the whole truth about Jesus being the Word of Life. This is what we should all do to reflect upon the very glory of Jesus. And so in verse two the words the life controls our understanding of all that follows in verse two. The life-giving word is the ground in which the truth of the incarnation rests. This blessed life and eternal life points us to the Lord Jesus Christ alone. And John's saying meditate on that truth. Meditate upon the glory of God, the triune God. Meditate on the glory that rests in Jesus and how wonderful, glorious He is. What an incredible display of the love of God and a life changing truth that our Lord Jesus entered into time and space taking on human nature so that He would be manifested visibly to men. Isn't that incredible just thinking about that? That God condescended. Just think about that. That He condescended. He came down out of heaven taking on human nature. It's an awesome thought. But wait, there's more. He not only condescended, he accommodated himself to us. The Lord spoke his word, his heavenly word, his glorious word. as it were as many, as Kelvin would say, baby words to us. If God came out of heaven and spoke to us in the heavenly language we wouldn't understand. We'd be too ignorant to understand God speaking. But what he did is he condescended and accommodated himself to speak to us. The word is used is prattled. God prattled to us. He spoke as it were baby talk, so that we could hear Him, that we could understand Him, that we could touch Him and feel Him. Yea, even more than that, even more than that, as Jesus says, that we would have faith in Him, which is much greater than touching and seeing. Jesus said blessed are those who have not seen, but believe. You think it's incredible John, and it is. But oh, it's more incredible to have the Holy Spirit so indwell us and do us with power to see Jesus by faith and to meditate upon his condescension and his accommodation to us. Oh, what love, what incredible love of God. If that doesn't change our hearts and there's something wrong immediately with us, particularly stressing that apostles having seen and proclaimed that Jesus who gives life, eternal life, is the eternal truth of God. This is the essence of the gospel. This is the lifeblood of the gospel message that God has incarnated himself and came down to save sinners like you and me. I remember when I first began to read the scriptures I was astounded that God would walk with Adam in the garden in the cool of the day. I can't imagine that. It just boggled my mind. But not only that, but what he did with Abraham and so many others in scripture. That's wonderful. What kind of a relationship is it that we need to have with God is a living abiding relationship grounded upon the objective truth of the incarnation of Jesus Christ who is God manifested in the flesh. This objective truth must be important because John basically repeats himself in verse one and two, if you notice the words there. The Incarnation is so vitally important to the witness of the Gospel because without it we would remain blind as to the Father's will and the purpose in the Gospel. This is what the Apostle means with the words, that eternal life which was with the Father, that's co-equality, and was manifested to us. John tells us that the purpose or reason for the incarnation was to communicate the will of the Father through the person and work of Jesus Christ. It's important for us to grasp the truth of eternal life. It is more than just a concept or creed or systematic theology. Eternal life includes knowledge. It includes the creed. It includes the concept. It includes intellectual movement, for sure. But it's much more than that. Because this blessed and most glorious life is Jesus Christ himself, who is with the Father. any systematic theology that isn't Christocentric is unbiblical. Any sermon that's not Christocentric is unbiblical. You could expand it further. Any marriage that is not Christocentric is a fraud. You could say it personally in your own heart. Any heart that's not crystal centric is selfish. Life is personified or incarnate in the Son who is co-equal with the Father. This is the gospel that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. and whoever believes in Him has eternal life. And so the question that resides with you and me is do we believe in this word of life? Do you meditate upon who Jesus is? Is He your Savior, your Lord, your God? Do you believe in the testimony and witness of the Apostles as stated in the Scriptures? You see this is the essence of the gospel congregation and for it has its sole and primary object the Lord Jesus Christ, His person, His work, His death, His resurrection, His ascension and His second coming. This is the point of every sermon and teaching of Scripture, to sit at the feet of Jesus, the Word of Life, and hear Him through the Spirit and through the Word. May the Lord God be gracious to us, open our hearts to receive and rest upon the Word of Life, and transform us into the image of Jesus. Meditate upon those words, love those words, for our Lord is the Word of Life. Amen. Let us pray together. Our Father in heaven, we are thrilled. We are full of joy. That the very focus of the Gospel is on Christ. How much more should our life be focused upon Jesus? The Scriptures say to focus on whatever is pure, whatever is holy. That means to focus on Jesus. It says to put on the whole armor of God, which is Jesus. Oh Lord God would You help us to grow in our faith? Help us to lay hold of the truth of the Gospel. That Christ came out of heaven to save sinners. That Christ accommodated Himself and condescended so that we would hear the voice of the Father. O Lord God teach us. Help us to sit at Your feet, to enter into the school of Christ. and to gain an assurance of our faith upon the object of truth that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. May that be our creed and mold us into that image. We ask that in Jesus' name, Amen.