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First John and we'll read chapter
one today. The first epistle of John, John's
epistle chapter one. Let's hear the Lord's word as
we read together 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 may 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.
But 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, cleanseth 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." Well, again, I
welcome you. 1 John 1, and we're going to look
at this chapter and try and see some precious truths in this
book. And in chapter 1, verse 3, there
is a particular word, and if you mark your Bible or if you
take a note, this is the word to mark. 1 John 1, verse 3. And it's the word that, that
which we have seen and heard declare we unto you. And then
it's the next word that ye also may have fellowship with us. Now that second, that is a statement
of purpose. John is writing this book to
these believers so that they will come into this wonderful
fellowship with the Lord. Now, in this passage, the word
fellowship is very deep and very special. Christians speak of
fellowship in many ways. You could go to one another's
house for fellowship. You could meet up at a coffee
shop and have a chat together, and you would say, that was fellowship.
You could sit out in the car after church and say, well, we
had a good talk, and that was Christian fellowship. Some people
call their whole church fellowship. And that is all accurate and
good. But in this context and in this message that John is
giving, he uses a word that every Christian ought to know. And
unfortunately, it's a word that free Presbyterians sometimes
shy away from. It's the word koinonia, koinonia. And some people shy away from
it because it's used by the ecumenists. They use by those who want to
have inter-church fellowship and the ecumenical movement. Now, obviously, that is wrong. And we're not going to advocate
joining up with any group that is not biblical. But here is
a koinonia fellowship. That is John's burden that every
reader would enjoy. And this word means much more
than just talking and befriending. It really means partnership.
It'll be like going to work on a Monday morning and a boss saying
to his worker, I want you to become a partner in this business. I'm going to share with you right
down the middle all the benefits, all the labor, and all the profits
of this business. and you will become a full partner. And of course, that's what the
Lord does for us. We are brought into the family
of God and we are made to be heirs and joint heirs of the
Lord Jesus. And it is this knowledge that
a Christian is in partnership with the Lord that really excites
our souls. Now, sometimes this is called
union. We are in union with the Lord,
like the branch in the vine. And the Lord said, I am the vine,
ye are the branches. And every Christian has to be
joined to the Lord. And we enjoy his life flowing
into our lives. Now in this book of 1 John, John
keeps up this theme right through the whole book. And he is seeking
to lead his readers right into this koinonia fellowship but
he uses different terms along the way. He will use terms such
as to know God or to be born of God. And I see that six times
in this book. Now, the other way that John
keeps up this miracle of partnership with God is using the term to
know God. Now, again, we go back a little
bit into the word study of the Bible. There's two ways to know
something. Someone could be looking in the
window or maybe the stained glass. They wouldn't see very clearly,
but they might hear us. You might hear your singing,
hear the piano, hear the prayer. They might enter into something,
but they really don't experience. They just see it vaguely. and
that would be an observer on the outside. But John is speaking
about knowing God on the inside, experientially, in our hearts. And repeatedly, he makes reference
to knowing God. And as we go through this book
of 1 John, we're going to see the emphasis on that, because
a Christian truly does know God. Others may know about him. But
a born again Christian knows him because you are in partnership
and you are joined to the Lord. Now, the first question that
comes up, how can this possibly be? We who are but worms, children
of Adam, sinners by nature, we who have rebelled against a holy
God, how can all of this come about that we are made to be
sons of God, joint heirs in union, and having this partnership with
God? Well, there are three big things
in this chapter one that tells us how. The first is by a revelation
of God's Son. And you'll see at the very beginning
of this chapter, he gets right into the personal knowledge that
John has of the Lord Jesus. 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. And you can see immediately that
John is writing about the Lord Jesus. Now, John was writing
this epistle many years after Calvary. And he's going away
back to his earthly ministry. Three years, John was a disciple. He heard the Lord Jesus. He touched
the Lord Jesus. This is the John who laid upon
Jesus' breast. This is the John who witnessed
the Lord's miracles and his marvelous parables and his teachings. And
John emphasizes that he is a personal eyewitness. And then you will
see that he testifies of Jesus eternal nature, that which was
from the beginning. That sounds very like John's
gospel chapter one, one in the beginning. And of course, before
the world was Jesus was, he was there when it was created. And
that is very much John's witness and testimony. And this is the
way that we know the Father, because Jesus is God and He's
eternal. He is, in fact, the mirror of
God. He's the express image of the
Father. And every attribute, every power
and glory that was in the Father was in the Lord Jesus. Now, John testified of his teaching
ministry. He says, which we have heard. What a privilege that was. To
sit at the feet of the Lord Jesus, sit on the mountainside while
he told the Sermon on the Mount, while he distributed the 5,000
loaves or the loaves to the 5,000 people. And again, to 4,000,
the miracles that he performed. And John testified to all of
the mighty, wonderful works of the Lord Jesus. And he is God. Now this is important because
John was a late disciple, a late apostle. All the other apostles
died through persecution one way or another, and they were
off the scene at the late part of the first century. John continued
to a very old man, nearly 100 years old, And he was still ministering
and writing. And when he was in the Isle of
Patmos, given that revelation, it was probably the year of AD
98. And for a number of decades,
John was the apostle that held forth for the gospel. And there
were cults that arose, the Gnostics and the Arians. The Gnostics,
they said that they had a superior knowledge. That's what the very
name Gnostic means, to know by revelation or by some other means
outside the Bible. John, he emphasized that he had
the truth and he had the knowledge of God. Now these Gnostics, they
said that Jesus never came in the flesh. He was not a real
human person. And that's why John says that
they not only heard him and have seen him with his eyes and looked
upon him, but our hands have handled. And so John could stand
up and testify that the physical human body of the Lord Jesus
was real. Now, the other side of the cults
were the Aryans, and they said that Jesus was a man, but he
wasn't God. And for that period of time,
and right into the next century and more, this error, Jesus is
not really man, or Jesus is not really God, it was like the pendulum
swinging from one side to the other. And you have one group
saying one thing, the Gnostic saying, he's not really man.
And then the Aryan saying, but he's man, but not really God.
And what did John do? He came right down the middle
and he said, he's both. The Lord Jesus is both God and
man. And that makes him a supernatural
savior. And it is because Jesus is a
supernatural savior. that you and I can be in union
with God, that we can be reconciled to God, and that we can have
partnership in the very family of God. And so this became very
much John's message in this opening part of the book. And he did really pretty much
what Doubting Thomas did. And he emphasized putting his
hands into the kneel prints of Jesus. and confessing that Jesus
is Lord and he's God. Now, looking at that verse one
again, I want to point out something that he speaks in the plural.
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. Who's the we? That's the apostles. All of them, not just one man. Our gospel does not stand upon
the opinion of one man. Our gospel stands, it's called
an apostolic faith. And the foundation of Christ's
church is upon Christ and his apostles. And so he says here,
we have seen him, we have heard him, we have handled him. And he testifies that this is
the joint apostolic Christian message that has stood the test
of time. And it is by knowing the Lord
Jesus that we are brought into partnership with God. If you're
saved today, if you've asked the Lord to be your Redeemer
and Savior, then you have partnership. You're not just imitating Christ. You're not just striving to be
like him. You have joint airship with the
Lord Jesus and with the God of heaven. And this is a tremendous
thing. And it is so rich, so full, so
enduring that we are indeed a blessed people. And I feel like one of
our ministers, he said, my job is to convince people how blessed
they are. to convince Christians how rich
they are in Christ Jesus. And I hope you know today that
you are not just anybody, you are an heir with Christ and you
are in partnership with him. You have this fellowship. And John says that he writes
these things, these things write we unto you that your joy may
be full. And so we ought to be the happiest
people on earth. with a thrill in our souls because
we have this union with the Father. Now, the second big reason in
this chapter why we can have this partnership is because we
acknowledge that God is light. If you look at verse five, this
then is the message, which we have heard of him and declare
unto you. Now, again, I will point out
it was not John's own opinion. This is the message. It's a singular
message. It's one gospel, one faith. This then is the message which
we have heard of him. This is what the Lord taught. And now the apostles are teaching
it and declare unto you that God is light and in him is no
darkness at all. There is no dark spot in God. There is no imperfection, no
cloud, no gloominess, no stain. God is holy and perfect light. Now, how does that help? How
does that bring us into a right relationship with God? Well, that's the basis of our
worship. We don't bring God down to human
level. We don't bring our worship down
to a God of our imagination, an idol that looks like us, that
acts like us and talks like us. But we understand that God is
perfectly holy. God is perfectly light. And the only way to have fellowship
with God is to walk in the light. It says if we walk in the light,
as he is in the light, we have fellowship. And that fellowship,
again, is koinonia. It is partnership, union, joint
air with him. And this is the way that we have
this wonderful fellowship with God. Now there is built into
this a warning because in verse six, John says, if we say, which
really is equal to saying, if we pretend, if we say that we
have no sin, that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness,
we lie and do not the truth. The only way to have partnership
with God is to accept him as the God of light. And that is glorious. Can you say today that your God
is holy? Can you say today that your God
is thrice holy? Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty. And he's the one you adore and
you worship and that you walk with in spirit and in truth. Now, a Christian then is always
interested in truth and light. If there's sin in our hearts,
we want to know. Now, I have an illustration on
this, but my wife reminded me that this is a pretty old one.
Do you remember the days when people took their carpets out
in the spring cleaning time? That would be your spring, it
would later in the year, when the dirty, moldy days are over and spring
has come and summer light has come. What do people do? They
took their mats and their carpets out into the daylight. Because
in the dim light of some dwellings, the dirt may not show up. But
if a wife or a housekeeper was really conscientious, wanted
to make sure she got those carpets clean, took them right outside
into the sunlight. and you let the sunlight expose
the dirt. And that's the attitude of a
true Christian to God. We want to know if there's any
sin in us. We want to acknowledge our own
shortcomings and sinfulness. And that's why in a Christian
gospel church, we have confession of sin. And we confess our sin
corporately as a church. We're all prone to sin, but also
we confess our sins privately. And if you're going to worship
a God of light, a God of thrice holiness, you take the position
of a sinner. If we say that we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves. That's verse eight. and the truth
is not in us. The only way to have fellowship
with a holy God is to take the humble sinner position, confessing
your guilt and sin and your need of mercy. Those who have a proud
heart, a proud spirit, boasting in themselves, do not have fellowship
with God. There's pride, there's self in
the way. But when you recognize that God
is light and that we have fellowship one with another, it is by taking
that lowly and needy position in need of the cleansing of the
blood. Now, there's a third point here
in this chapter. And it's really the big remedy.
And we've had the recognition that Jesus is the son of God.
We have had recognition that God is light. But again, how
can we as sinners have this fellowship with the God of heaven? Well, if you look at verse seven
through nine, you will see the revelation of our cleansing. in the blood of the Lord Jesus. Look at verse seven with me.
But if we walk in the light, and you see the but, the but
answers the problem. The problem is saying that we
have fellowship would be really a walk in darkness. That's a
problem. But the answer, the remedy is
verse eight, verse seven. But 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, cleanseth us. Now, notice the ETH ending
of the word cleanse. It means that that blood goes
on cleansing and cleansing and cleansing. And every hour of
our Christian life, when we are in union with the Lord, The blood
of Jesus goes on and on, cleansing us from all sin. And although
every day and every hour we need to confess that we are unclean
in the sin of this world, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's
son, cleanseth and goes on cleansing us. over and over and over until
we are brought right into glory where we sin no more." Where
Beulah and I now live, we are an hour, one hour north of Toronto. It's a small town in Canadian
terms. It's about 150,000 people. on an edge of a lake. It's called
Lake Simcoe. And about two and a half hour
drive south toward New York is Niagara Falls. I'm sure everybody
here in Locke has heard of Niagara Falls. It is a mighty site where
a torrent of water flows constantly from the U.S. side into the Canadian
side of the border, and that water flows right down a gorge. below. And when the water hits
the rocks beneath, the mist comes rising up, even above ground
level, above the heads of the tourists that may be looking
on. And if the wind is blowing your way, you're going to get
wet. That mist is going to fall all around you like rain. And
then, of course, the tourist industry, they have little boats
that go on the lower end of the Niagara, and they seal right
up close to the waterfall. And again, people need to protect
themselves from this mist. They have capes, and you'll see
them down on their little boats that are coming as close as they
can go against the current of the water, and the mist is falling
all around them. And that's constant, day and
night, year in, year out. Now I Googled this to see if
it ever stopped. And in the history of the records
of man in North America, there was only one date that that river
stopped. And that was in March 29, 1848. when there was such a nice storm
and a cold wind blowing from Lake Erie right across this gorge,
the Niagara Falls, that it froze solid and stopped. And that's the only time known
to man that it actually stopped. But I have news for you. Even
though the Niagara Falls can stop flowing, the blood of Jesus
Christ, God's Son, will never stop flowing. It will never lose
its power to cleanse you and keep on cleansing you until you
arrive in glory. And here we read in these verses,
that, well, verse nine, we're just going down another step
here. Verse nine, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, that's past sins, present
sins and future. And there's no sin that can keep
us out of heaven. The blood of Jesus goes on. cleansing, and cleansing, and
cleansing. And this is the gospel. And we
have this koinonia partnership with a holy God on the basis
of the cleansing blood of the Lord Jesus. Now that ought to
thrill your soul today. That ought to fill you with the
greatest of joy. But one thing I would say, It's
not a license to sin. It does not mean that you will
now be able to carelessly sin. Because if you do well, I'll
get cleansed. No, you'll see in verse chapter
two, verse one, my little children, these things right onto you that
ye sin not. Now, John must have had that
concern. He must have had the thought that people who read
this will take it light and easy and say, well, if it's as easy
as that, and the blood of Jesus keeps on cleansing, I can sin
as I please. But that's not the Christian's
attitude. Indeed, going through this book, you will have such
statements as, he that is born of God sinneth not, will not
keep on practicing sin. Why? Because you're the Lord's. and your loyalty to Christ, your
loyalty to the God who is light, in whom is no darkness, no sin,
you will fear and tremble to sin against him. And that will
become your new walk and your new fellowship with God. Now, I want you to take this
message to heart. and you can leave every sin behind,
you can get victory over sin every day, and there is no barrier
between you and fellowship with God. Our confession of sin is
met with the remedy of the blood, and we enjoy constant, constant
cleansing by the precious blood of Jesus. And so a Christian
can say, I don't fear because I'm under the blood. That's a
great thing to know. I'm under the blood constantly. That mist of the cleansing blood
of Jesus constantly washes me and purges me from sin. And this
matter of daily sin problem was seen in the Old Testament when
they had the morning sacrifice and the evening sacrifice. That
meant people were conscious of sin. That meant daily they had
to offer sacrifices for sin. Now we go to Jesus as our sacrifice
daily. Indeed, it's a good thing to
begin every morning. Lord, keep me from sin. Cleanse me from any desire to
sin. And then as we end the day, like
the evening sacrifice, It's a good thing to pray, Lord, cleanse
me from the sins of today, the thoughts, the words, and perhaps
even the deeds. Lord, let that blood flow over
me afresh. And that's why every time a preacher
comes into this pulpit to lead worship, he's going to make reference
to the blood of Jesus and our need for confession. acknowledging our sinfulness
before God. But I'll remind you, you must
never stop when you confess sin, never stop until you get to the
cross. Don't keep looking at yourself
and saying how poorly you performed or how little you accomplished.
Don't look at yourself constantly. Begin looking at yourself, yes,
but don't stop until you get to Calvary, because there is
the victory where Christ our Savior accomplished salvation
in full for us. Now John says, these things are
written unto you that your joy might be full. So what kind of a week are you
going to have in the week ahead? How are you going to live? Would
you be able to take the hymn book and sing every day? Sing
gospel hymns? Hymns about the cross? Will you
be able to pray every day in victory? Confessing your sins,
yes. Recognizing God as holy. But also thanking the Lord that
you're under the blood hour by hour, day by day, under the blood. And that's our safe place. That's
our happy place. That's our ground of partnership
with God. That's how it comes. A revelation
of the sun, a revelation of God as holy light, a revelation of
the blood. And John has all of these things
in here in chapter one. May the Lord bless you today
through this word and lead you to victory ground to rejoice
in your savior more and more, more and more. That's our hymn
to close with today.
Fellowship with God
| Sermon ID | 5112565198182 |
| Duration | 36:05 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Bible Text | 1 John 1 |
| Language | English |
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