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It's 1 John chapter 1. The theme
of this book, of course, is the deity of Jesus Christ. Why was
Jesus crucified on the cross? Well, we would all say, as far
as God's concerned, as far as from His perspective, it was
to be the Lamb of God would take away the sin of the world. But
you see, mankind could not see that. They were focused on what
He said. They were focused on the fact
that He claimed to be the only begotten Son of God. He was crucified as far as the
Jews were concerned, as far as what they gave to the Romans
as concern, that He claimed to be God, that He was a blasphemer.
He was not a blasphemer. He told the truth. But for that,
He was crucified. And in 1 John, the whole book
is devoted as a theme along many wonderful other truths that we
learn along the way. But the ultimate theme is that
Jesus Christ is who He said He is. And if you noticed when Brother
Jim was talking with that lady on the phone in Connecticut,
do you remember him saying, do you believe that Jesus is the
Son of God? Folks, it is critical who we believe Jesus to be. I'm
thankful that He's the greatest teacher that ever lived, but
this world did not really need a teacher. I'm thankful that
He is the healer, but the world did not just need another physician
or a healer. What the world needed and what
the world needs today is a Savior, the Lamb of God, to be our sin
sacrifice. That's the presentation of 1
John 1. And let's look, please, in verse 1 as we read, that which
was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have
seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands
have handled of the word of life. For the life was manifested and
we have seen it, and bear witness and show unto you that eternal
life, which was with the Father and was manifested unto us. That which we have seen and heard
declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us.
And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son,
Jesus Christ. And these things 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." Isn't it interesting how God
puts a service together And the special that is played before
we read this text is holy, holy, holy. In him is no darkness at
all. He is light. Let's go to him,
the God of light, our Savior and our Lord. Let's pray. Heavenly
Father, thank you so much that we can trust in you through your
son, Jesus. And Lord, I thank you that he
is the true Messiah. He is a Savior of mankind. Lord,
we're here to worship him. We're here to lift his name high.
Lord, help us to do that. Help us in our heart, not just
in a message, but in our heart and in our life. As we leave
these doors to be a minister and a missionary to a lost and
dying world, Lord, feed us and charge us, I pray. Help us to
be willing and bold to share the good news to a lost and dying
world that doesn't know Him. Bless, I pray, in this time.
Encourage our hearts. In Jesus' name, we ask these
things. Amen. Here in 1 John 1, verse 1, that
which was from the beginning Make no mistake, this is talking
about a person, exalting the person of Jesus Christ. This is the first thought here
in this passage, is that we can never go wrong by exalting the
person of Jesus Christ. The orchestra played a song for
the offertory. I will serve thee because I love
thee. You have given life to me. Now, whenever we serve Him and
have an impact on people's lives for the cause of Jesus Christ,
someone is going to walk up to you, and they're going to say,
thank you so very much. No one has an impact on my life
like you have. You pointed me to Jesus. You
are the greatest example I've ever seen of Christ-likeness,
of being a Christian, and what that really means. And they're
going to lay it on, and they're going to mean it, and they're
going to be sincere. Some people, they're just professional at
that, and they can do it without meaning it. But sometimes you're
going to have folks and they're going to really mean that. And
what do you do with that? What do you do with that kind
of praise? Make sure that you find a way to deflect that praise
in your heart to the Lord. Do not let that inflate you. Exalt the person of Jesus Christ. Were it not for Him, where would
we be? We would not have a place to
serve. We would not have power to serve. We would not have any
effectiveness. Anything done with eternal value
is done by Him through us anyway. So he makes sure right out of
the gate. I mean, there's no, I, John,
write unto you, the blessed church of, you know, there's no salutation,
no greeting. He jumps right into the crux
of the matter and he gives the headline, this is about Jesus
Christ. And so may our lives be that.
May our church be that. May our families be that. It
should be our goal to magnify, exalt the person of Jesus Christ,
that which was from the beginning. I don't know. I've mentioned this
before, I think, but I don't know if you've ever tried to
ponder eternity. I'm not sure if you've ever done
that. And you can take your pick. Eternity past or eternity future. Either one will make you, if
you really think about it very long, it will make you physically
ill. Because your stomach will start
turning as you wonder about, okay, thousands of years back
to creation. And if you have a different take
on that and stuff, God'll straighten all of us out when we get to
heaven, but I'm a young earth guy, and I think the world is
thousands of years, not millions of years, but that's okay. That's
my understanding, and I understand I've been wrong many, many times,
but that's just where I'm... But if you think about thousands
of years, The eternity past goes back millions of years. It goes back beyond years. It
goes back past eons. It has no beginning. If you think
about that. Or you think about eternity future. Eternity future is kind of a
little bit of a better thing because we're going to be with
Jesus. Amen. We're going to be in heaven. We're going to be
a new heaven, a new earth, and everything's explained in a little
preview given to us in the book of Revelation. But that which
was been from the beginning, which we have heard, which we
have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, the hands
have handled of the word of life. He exalts the person of Jesus
Christ and he explains the proof of Jesus Christ. the proof, the
evidence. Now, faith is a substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. I'm thankful
that we have evidence to put our faith upon. We do not have
a blind faith, a leap into the dark, that which our eyes have
seen, our ears have heard. Now, this is not redundant. Look, please, in verse 1, which
we have seen with our eyes. and which we have looked upon.
There's a little difference there. If you see something, that's
one thing. If you look at it and you examine
it and you look at it, it's different. Seeing it, hearing it, and listening. Just ask your wife, gentlemen,
what the difference between hearing and listening is. They'll explain
to you what that means. Did you hear me? Yes. What did
I say? And if you are really sharp,
guys, you can replay, just like a football game, you can do a
quick replay and generate it out of your short-term memory.
If you're really sharp, but most of us aren't that sharp. Listening
usually involves turning the head and looking at the person
and listening to what they have to say. Explaining the proof of Jesus.
If you need to turn back one page, it's 2 Peter 1. Just maybe
one or two pages backwards to 2 Peter 1 in verse 12. Follow
along, please, as we read. Now, this is the Apostle Peter
writing his final epistle. And he says, while I'm in this tabernacle,
in this body, this is my last chance. I want to bring something important
to your remembrance. Verse 14, knowing that shortly
I must put off this, my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ
hath showed me. Moreover, I will endeavor that
ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in
remembrance. For we have not followed cunningly
devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were, what's the word, eyewitnesses
of his majesty. For he received from God the
Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him
from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I
am well pleased." Twice that took place. When was the first
time? At the baptism, River Jordan,
baptism of John the Baptist, and there in the Jordan River.
The second time was when? Transfiguration. Verse 18, and this voice which
came from heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy
mount. We have also a sure, more sure word of prophecy where unto
ye do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth
in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star arise in
your hearts. A more sure word of prophecy
than what they witnessed. What in the world could be more
sure than their experience? I mean, they heard it, they saw
it, they experienced it. What in the world could he be
talking about? Look at verse 20. Knowing this first that no
prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man,
but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."
Here the Apostle Peter is making a very good and powerful point.
He was saying, Hey, look, I did not just spin a yarn to you.
I did not just tell you some things that might tickle your
ears. I'm telling you the truth of
what I saw and what I witnessed, and there were other witnesses.
We saw it with our own eyes. I'm going to tell you something
even better, that the holy scriptures that God gives by inspiration
is even more sure than my testimony and my witness. That is the witness
of God in written form, writing it down. All scripture is given
by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for
a proof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
The man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all
good works. So, exalting the person of Christ
and explaining the proof of Christ. John 1, verse 1, the Bible says,
"...in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God." Verse 14 says, "...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." So the Word that was before time ever began, that
was with God and was God, became flesh. God became flesh and dwelt
among us, and we beheld His glory. The proof of Jesus Christ is
explained here right out of the gate here in chapter 1 and verse
1. Look at verse 2, please. 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." This begins this third thought,
not just exalting the person of Jesus Christ and explaining
the proof of Jesus Christ, but also examining the preaching
of Jesus Christ. Examine the preaching, examining
the witness. When you're talking about witnessing
for the Lord, no less than three times in the book of Acts, and
possibly partially even four, is recorded for us in the book
of Acts, the Apostle Paul's personal salvation testimony. Not once,
not twice, three times in great detail. Now, anything that is repeated
in the Word of God is there on purpose. It's not just by accident
that it's repeated. It's for a reason. Your greatest
witnessing tool in pointing people to Jesus Christ is to be able
to tell them what Jesus did for you, okay? Outside of the precious,
inspired Word of God, the only other thing that you have is
what God, to tell your story of what God did for you, what
you experienced. In essence, John is doing the
very same thing. He's saying, I'm telling you
about Jesus. I saw him. I was an eyewitness. He's telling
you his experience, okay? And so, that amplifies the inspired
Word of God. It allows us to apply it to their
life. What God did for me, he will
do for you. And here in verse 2, it says, we have seen it and
bear witness and show unto you that eternal life. We are surrounded by death. We
are surrounded by discouragement. We are surrounded by despair.
People are taking their own lives and taking the lives of others
every time we turn around. It is now commonplace and we're
not at all shocked and surprised when we hear about shootings
and multiple deaths and all that kind of thing. It used to be
that when that was reported, that we stopped, we gasped, and
we thought, well, where is that? That's in Chicago, or that's
in New York, or that's around the other side of the globe.
No, that's in Orlando. That's in DeLand. That's in Orange
City. Death and despair, discouragement,
depression. The Bible says that the thief
cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy, and he
has given us a mission, a mission to preach the good news, the
good news, to bring witness of that, the mission. The Bible
says in verse number three, that which we have seen and heard
declare we unto you. That's what going to these homes
of people who have come to journey through Christmas, knocking on
their door. and say, hey, we do care about you. Brother Les
Rawl was talking about making some visits this afternoon. He and Susan made some visits
this afternoon and also on yesterday in Orlando. And he was talking
about the folks in Orlando, how they received that spiritual
birth certificate in the mail. Thank you, ladies, those of you
who helped Sandy and Betsy put those out. Thank you so very
much for doing that. And they said, yes, we received
that in the mail. And they loved having that reminder of their
spiritual eternal decision for Jesus Christ. When you knock
on that door, you're trying to make an impact for the Lord to
declare the mission, the good news, to declare unto you. And here's our motive, not just
our mission, but our motive. Verse 3, that which we have seen
and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship
with us. There's a motive. There's a motive. It's wonderful when God's people
get together. Satan's goal is divide and conquer. If he can divide a family, if
he can divide a church, if he can divide a work of God, if
he can divide, then he can more easily conquer. A predator will
try to divide the herd, try to find the weak, the young, the
injured or whatever, and go after them and feed on them. That's
the work of Satan, folks. And we need to draw people into
the fold, not push them out of the fold. Draw them in that our
fellowship might be with you. Now, there are different ways
of getting people in. Notice the miracle of fellowship,
not just the motive of fellowship, but the miracle we read on. Ye
also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship
is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. So we're wanting to point people
to Christ so that we can fellowship with them and so that we together
can fellowship with God the Father. Now, when you do something together,
isn't it more exciting? Some of you love to watch football. Is there a difference? Is there
a difference? For you to attend a sporting
event, and you go to the sporting event, and you're in the stands,
and you're there with thousands of other supporters, is there
a difference between that and sitting at home watching it on
TV? I mean, are you going to get
more into it on the bleachers than you do in your recliner?
The answer, of course, is yes. I mean, there's going to be wonderful
things that you have at your disposal there watching on TV. You get close-ups. You get replays. You get all these kinds of things
that, I guess, in the newfangled modern areas, they've got these
now big screens, and you can see the replays right on the
big screens, but it didn't used to be that way. But there, when
you're surrounded by people, and you're about to say something
to someone, and all of a sudden, you hear people, yay! They jump
to their feet, and you see exactly what's happening, you wanna,
oh yeah, go, go, go, go, go! No, no, watch out, he's coming,
get him! And you find yourself into it,
and at the end of it, you're hoarse, and you're happy about
it. Listen, there are people who
cannot come to church. There are people who, their sicknesses
and their problems and they can't drive after dark and all these
kinds of things. And they have physical ailments
and problems and they can't be here. And their lifeline to Volusia
County Baptist Church is the live stream. But I'm telling
you folks, it's not the same watching on TV and on your computer
as it is right here. It's a little better when you're
fellowshipping with the family of God. And when we're fellowshipping
around what God's doing. Not about our church. Certainly
not about the preacher. But about what God is doing in
our hearts. And we sense that amongst us. And someone over here gets blessed
and they praise the Lord. Somebody over here says, Amen.
And you know, you just don't get that, you know, on a recording. There's something about being
together with a family of God. Forsaking not the assembling
of ourselves together as the manner of some is. We're to be
exhorting one another and so much more as you see the day
approaching. So, in the preaching of Jesus
Christ, we examine our mission, we examine our motive, we examine
the miracle that takes place, and we examine the message. The
message. Jesus said this, I am the way,
the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. We live in a tolerant society
wanting to tolerate everything but truth. Okay? And we just erase truth out of
the matter and say, anybody that is sincere can be right. I'm not going to say that I'm
right. I'm not going to say that you're right. We're just going
to tolerate anybody and everybody and everything just fine. Well,
in getting along down here on earth and in politics and in
your job and those kinds of things, there might be some rules that
you have to follow, and we certainly understand that. But as far as
coming to God, God is truth. And the message must be in agreement
with what God says. And I do not make apology for
that. I didn't make the rules. I did not write the book. I'm
to proclaim it and I'm to preach it in its truth and as accurately
as possible. The message, verse 4 says, and
these things write we unto you that your joy may be full. We're not mad about the truth.
We're happy about the truth. We're glad about the truth. We're
glad to be on God's side. It's marvelous when we're in
tune. It was a few weeks ago before King's Brass came. I said to Hope, I said, I was
going through the documentation and they were saying that the
piano needs to be tuned to A440. If you don't know what that means,
don't worry about it. It means it needs to be up to par, you know? And
I said, when's the last time we had the piano tuned? She said,
oh, it's been a while. I said, well, we better get that
taken care of and get that tuned. Contacted the man he came out
and and tuned up the piano and get it up to where it's supposed
to be and everything in because you know sometimes a piano not
only gets out of tune flat sometimes even gets out of tune with itself
and Certain notes when you play it, you know, it just there's
a little twang a little run around, you know and things in your in
your ears You don't really understand Why that is? But you know that
happens in a church That happens in a family When we get out of
tune with God, we find that we're out of tune with one another.
And whenever the Lord begins to play through us, and to minister
through us, through junior church, and ushers, and choir, and whatever
capacity that you might be serving, and then something comes out
of our mouth that shouldn't really come out sideways like that.
I've been there, done that. God forgive me. We're out of tune. And it causes
dissonance. It causes problems. When we are
in tune with God, guess what He gives? He gives joy in our
fellowship. Joy amongst one another. Joy
in serving Jesus. The joy of the Lord is our strength,
the Bible says. If you do not have joy in your
life, you are just running on fumes. Sometimes fumes stink,
by the way. The Bible says that your joy
may be full and this then, verse 5, as we close, 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. He never makes
a mistake. He never misses a beat. He can
see around the corner. He knows what tomorrow holds.
Oftentimes, I've prayed, Lord, I pray that you would guide us
around the corner because you know what's over there and we
don't. God knows what's going to come into your family and
come into your home, come into your life and my life, into his
church. And God wants to see Jesus Christ
magnified by life or by death. As we look through the Word of
God, how many characters, how many Bible characters can we
see the time after time after time that great misunderstanding,
great trial, great accusation, starting with our Savior and
then going down from there? You think of a man named Daniel.
He had an excellent spirit. He was thrown in a den of lions.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Others should have stood, but
they all bent the knee and bowed before Nebuchadnezzar and his
image, and they said, no, we will not bow. We will not bend. Joseph. Here's a young man. He was innocent. Had he done
anything wrong? The only thing he could have
done wrong is that he was loved by his father. And perhaps he was just a little
bit, his father was maybe just a little bit partial. And that made the other brothers
jealous. But jealous enough to want to kill him? To sell him into slavery? And
you go on and on and on through time after time after time. And
then you look back at those lives and you see how God vindicated,
how God blessed their faithfulness. Look at Job and how that God bragged on Job. I doubt seriously that God has
ever bragged on me. I doubt seriously. I know me. I know my life. But God bragged
to Satan. Have you considered my servant
Job? He maintained, the Bible says, he maintained his integrity. Integrity, the word means wholeness. His heart's desire was full and
whole to follow God in his life. He prayed for his children. He
prayed with his children. And yet, God allowed some terrible
things to enter his life. The end of the story, as you
fast forward to the end, you find that God gave him back double
of what he had. Double of his animals, double
of his flocks, double of everything. And then God gave him the children
that he had lost. He gave him the same number of
children. Didn't give him double children. For the loo that bothered
me for a while, it really did. Why did he give him double animals
and double properties and double all this that he took from him?
Why did he give him double and then he didn't give him double children?
He did. He did. You see, his first children
were in heaven waiting for him and he was going to see them
soon. He got double children. God pays his debts in magnificently
wonderful ways. He's worthy to be trusted. He's
worthy to be followed. So it's all about Jesus. It's
not about us. Love God, love people. Do you remember, by the way,
my daughter came and picked up my suits. I appreciate that. Melody's out
in the nursery tonight and helping with the kids. And I looked back
while I was talking to some folks and she was picking them up.
And one dear lady, she left me a note or sent me a... No, someone
watching on live stream sent me an email and said, make sure
and have your suits dry clean before your wife sees them. If our service for God is anything
but out of love, it's sounding brass, a tinkling cymbal. It has no value. But if we say,
Lord, I just want to show you that I do love you. Nine-year-old boy, he said to
a man, he said, I love my mom with all my strength. Now, you
find that in Gospel of Mark chapter 12 that we read in our church
reading today. He said, I love my mom with all
my strength. The man who he said that to, he looked at him and
said, well, what do you mean, son? He said, well, we live in
this apartment building right here. We live up on the fourth
floor. My mom, she cooks, she cleans,
she takes care of us kids, and I'm the oldest. My dad's not
around. He said, it's real cold. He said, I go down to the basement,
and I get a great big, as much as I can carry, container of
coal, and I climb those four flights of stairs. And that's
about all that I can carry, sir. When I get to the top, boy, I'm
just thrilled to dump it out and I've got to go do it again. It holds three of those. And
my mama, she can't do that. She's too tired. She has her
hands full. And so this is something I can
do for my mom. And I love her with all my strength. I wonder
if we can say that about Jesus. Lord, I love you with my strength. I give you what I have to offer
right now. Let's bow our heads together,
please. Our heads are bowed, our eyes are closed. It's all about Jesus,
worshiping and serving him. One day, we're going to see him.
The Bible says, whom having not seen, ye love. So even though we haven't seen
him yet, we will see him soon. But until then, my heart will
go on singing. Until then, with joy, I'll carry
on. Until the day my eyes behold
my Savior. Until the day he calls me home. Lord Jesus, we bow our hearts
before you, Lord, we humble ourselves before you. You set us not by
might nor by strength, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord. But, Lord, help us, whether we
eat or drink or whatsoever we do, to do all to your glory to
give the right opinion of God. I pray now that you would speak
to our hearts now as your church. Lord, there might be some here
that have been attending who would say they've been saved,
but they've never followed you in obedience to your command
to be baptized. I pray, Lord, that they would
show their love to you by being baptized. Lord, there are some
that have been saved and baptized, and you've been dealing with
their heart about having a church home to sink down their roots
and get busy for you. Time is short, and I ask you,
God, that you would move upon their hearts and speak to them
clearly when it's time. Lord, if you would lead them
here to join. Lord, for the members, I pray, Lord, that you would
call people into areas of need and areas of service. Lord, we
need people. We need people to drive the shuttle bus on Sunday
nights and on Thursday nights to help go pick up people who
would come to God's house, but we don't have a driver. Lord,
to help with our preschool age on Sunday evenings in this new
program, we don't have anyone to help with the preschoolers.
As the Riley's are heading up the Sunday night program this
coming Sunday, we don't have anyone for that. But, Lord, You're
going to take care of all these things as needed and, Lord, we'll
trust You in that. We need folks to play instruments
in the orchestra and sing in the choir. We need folks to go
and knock on doors as soldiers of the cross and say, we're glad
to have you journey and glad you got saved. Lord, there's
so many needs, so many needs. May you call your people. May
you enlist us in your great army. Thank you for what you're doing.
Thank you, Lord, for your goodness to us. The grace is greater than
our sin. in Jesus' name, as we stand.
It's All About Jesus
Series A Study Through 1 John
| Sermon ID | 17181921214 |
| Duration | 35:57 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Bible Text | 1 John 1:1 |
| Language | English |
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