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.