We're going to be looking at 1 John in chapter 1, and I'll be reading to you. If you would like to turn there this morning in your Bibles. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life. The life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testified to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us. that which we have seen and heard we proclaim to you so that you too may have fellowship with us and indeed our fellowship is with the father and with his son Jesus Christ and we are writing these things to you so that our joy may be complete walking this is the The message we have heard from him and proclaim to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. And the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say 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 we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. Would you please pray with me? Lord Jesus, we give thanks to you for taking the blame on the cross for us. We give thanks to your apostles who have given us strong words of your being, of your teachings, and of your sacrifices. And so let us study together today and rejoice that we have you in our lives for our salvation. In Jesus' name, amen. Several weeks ago, Pastor Tim said he would need someone to fill in for him in June and August. I said I would. At the time, I had been reading through the Gospel of John. The epistle of one John came to mind, and I decided to prepare my sermons from one John. Lo and behold, Ed Branham wrote a piece in the newsletter about him reading through the Bible and that he was studying 1 John. When I told Pastor Kim I wanted him to do my sermons on 1 John, he told me that he had thought about preaching on 1 John. So I have received some good godly help from these two godly men. I hope I can do justice to this little book as it has a lot of good teachings in it. Recently I listened to a sermon by John MacArthur. He talked about the world we live in. He talked about our nation and our leaders. He talked about the corruption Wicked evil things that are occurring before our eyes Then he said we are right where we need to be We need to persevere All believing Christian excuse me as believing Christians We know that our sovereign God knows what's going on This fallen and corrupt world has been from the beginning from the Garden of Eden. We are but sojourners where we can make a difference in our faith and our walk with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. For we know that God is light in a fallen and dark world. In one John, the author calls readers back to the three basics of Christian life. True doctrine, obedient living, and fervent devotion. Because God is light. I have to confess I'm envious of the disciples and others who have heard, seen, and touched, and fellowshiped with Jesus. When events in the Bible come alive in the mind, and I long to be there, I think of the Apostle Thomas. He's been called Doubting Thomas. When Jesus had appeared to the other disciples after his resurrection, Thomas was not there. He did not believe that Jesus had risen. Then Jesus appeared the second time. and Thomas answered him. My Lord and my God, Jesus said to him, you have believed because you have seen me. Blessed are those who have not seen me and yet have believed, that being us. I am seeing things today that I can't believe I'm seeing. If I have any value left, It is being an eyewitness to the last seven plus decades that I have lived. We have a lot of slippage going on. The church is having to deal with events that are uncomfortable, that which should not be. Teaching and preaching is what the church is to be, dealing with woe, and cute other little pronouns are a total waste of the church's time and resources. Sadly, that's where many of the mainstream churches are. Our culture, our beliefs, and our standards are under attack. Our very vocabulary is being made into different meanings. Eyewitness accounts is the most solid evidence for any event. The Apostle John was in his later years when he authored 1 John and was the only living apostle at that time. He wrote the Gospel of John, 1, 2, and 3 John, and the book of Revelation. John was one of the first to appear at the empty tomb, and John was the apostle that Jesus loved. If you remember how John began his gospel, he starts it out, in the beginning was the word, and a little later he says, in him was life. The Holy Spirit seems to have recalled those expressions to his mind, for he moves to use them again. How clearly, how explicitly John writes concerning the eternal word. He said, that which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked and our hands have handled of the word of life. We declare that unto you. The facts of Christ's history on earth are recorded by eyewitnesses who could not be deceived concerning it. They exercise their various senses with regard to Christ Hearing, seeing, and touching them again and again. They were voracious witnesses. And they died in testimony of their faith in what they asserted. And when anything has been heard, seen, inspected, and even touched and handled, By a company of reliable witnesses, the testimony of such witness concerning it must be true. Is our face strong enough to die for? I think mine is. Of course, I don't have much wiggle room left as I'm kind of running out of numbers. I can honestly say that I am looking forward to eternity. That which was from the beginning, there can be no doubt that the reference here is to the Lord Jesus Christ or the Word that was made flesh. We know from the Gospel of John that Jesus was present at the beginning of creation. In this epistle John is referring to Jesus when he became incarnate, made flesh. It should be pointed out that those reading 1 John have access to the Gospel of John. 1 John Chapter 1, verse 1. 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 the word of life. Which we have heard. John was with the Savior through the whole of his ministry. And he has recorded more that the Savior said than either of the other evangelists. It is on what he said of himself that he grounds much of the evidence that he was the Son of God. Which we have seen with our eyes. that is pertaining to his person and to what he did. I have seen him, seen what he was as a man, how he appeared on earth, and I have seen whatever there was in the works to indicate his character and origin. John professes here to have seen enough in his respect to furnish evidence that he was the Son of God. We turn now to 1 John 1 verse 2. The life was made manifest and we have seen it and testified to it and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us. John and his fellow apostles were eyewitnesses to the coming of earth in human flesh, the indwelling of the word of life in a body like our own. That same eternal being, who is the very God, very God, and is worthy to be called eternally life, was made flesh and dwelled among us. Apostles could say we beheld his glory First John chapter 1 verse 3 That which we have seen and heard we proclaim to you John pulls no punches here For these are well attested facts of which we speak here John's testimony is clear, deliberate, and removes all doubt of who Christ was so that you too may have fellowship with us. Why is having fellowship with a gang of fishermen such a big deal? Don't fishermen tell walkers? It so happens that this gang of fishermen was hand-picked by Christ to be His companion. Then indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. That you may have fellowship with us, with us the apostles, with us who actually saw Him and conversed with Him, that is, He wished that they might have the same belief and the same hope and the same joy which he himself had, arising from the fact that the Son of God became incarnate and appeared among people. To have fellowship means to have anything in common with others, to partake it, to share it with them, And the idea here is that the Apostle wished that they might share with him all the peace and happiness which resulted from the fact that the Son of God had appeared in human form in behalf of man. The object of the Apostle in what he wrote was that we might have the same views of our Savior, which he had, and partake of the same hope and joy. This is the true notion of fellowship in religion. Moving on to verse four. As we are writing this thing so that our joy may be complete, this statement is very important to our study. The Apostle tells us, if you have doubts, they will kill your joy. Doubt is a great joy killer. But they have seen him, we have heard him, and we have handled him, who is the fountain of all true joy. Let no doubt come into your hearts, for these are well-attested facts of which we speak. Hear this, you people of God, the object of the revelation of Jesus Christ is that you may have joy, that you may have a heart full of joy, and that you may know what full joy means. For here below we get but drops and dashes of joy. Unless we are brought into fellowship with God through Jesus Christ, then we have the very joy of God in our souls. For the delight of it, oh, that you could know it in the full. Verse 5. This is a message we have heard from him and proclaim to you that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. Not a light nor the light, though he is both, but that he is light. Scripture uses the term light for knowledge, for purity, for prosperity, for happiness, and for truth. God is light. And then, in his usual style, John, who not only tells you a truth, but always guards it, adds in, in whom there is no darkness at all. Verse six. We say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness. We lie. and do not practice the truth. Who here has had a mother and father? Most everybody. We have a few angels here, I guess. Anyway, we've all had mothers and fathers. And my hope is that we've had a favorable relationship. When a mother or father gets sick, or worse, they die, this can be a dark time. But you have, or should have, fellowship with Jesus. I'm talking about when we have unrepentant sin. This does not mean walking in the darkness of sorrow. For there are many of God's people who walk in the darkness of doubts and fears, and yet they have fellowship with God. Sometimes we have fellowship with Christ all the better, for the darkness of the path along which we walk. But the darkness here means the darkness of sin, the darkness of untruthfulness. If we walk in a lie or walk in sin and then profess to have fellowship with God, I have lied and do not tell the truth. He who walks in ignorance and his sin is in fellowship with the powers of darkness, but he is certainly not in fellowship with God who is light. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. Walking in the light means to reflect God's perfection in the human sphere and includes both correct doctrine and moral purity which is truth and wholeness. The symbols of light, as we acknowledge, also imply that when Christians walk in the light, their lives will be known and will not contain hidden sins, falsehoods, or deceptions. Such walking in the light results in deep divine and human fellowship and progressive cleansing from all sin. Verse 8. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. The devil or the world may contribute to human strain, but in the end, each individual bears responsibilities for his or her own sin. Some sin remains in every Christian's life. And in the verse it says, John has, have, referring to himself, or referring to us, and then even that of us, we, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That is the point. And he who says that he has no sin will not confess them. He who believes himself to be perfect cannot enjoy the blessings described in this ninth verse. To deny that we have any sin is to walk in darkness and to show that we without light, which would reveal our sin to us. If we are walking in darkness, we cannot be in fellowship with God. But to see sin in ourselves from day to day, Humbly to confess it and mourn over it is to walk in the light and walking in the light. We have fellowship with God who is light. Christians must confess their sins to receive salvation and then to maintain fellowship with God and with one another to be faithful and just, to forgive. God is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving inequity and transgression. John also makes it clear that persistent, unrepentant sin is not the mark of a Christian. God will by no means He was faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. These words, and more especially, that glorious word, all, not part of our sins, all our sins, this must include the vilest sins, that ever stained human nature and the blackest dry that ever came from the black heart. If we say we have not sinned, we have made him a liar, and his word is not in us. A person may have heard an ascended to the gospel message But until it brings him to acknowledge his sin, it has taken root. The idea of having no sin is a delusion. You are altogether deceived if you say so. The truth is not in you, and you have not seen things in the true light. You must have shut your eyes to the high requirements of the law. You must be a stranger to your own heart. You must be blind to your own conduct every day. You must have forgotten to search your thoughts and to weigh your motives, or you would have detested the presence of sin. He who cannot find water in the sea is more foolish than the man who cannot perceive sin. Our only safe course, and that may be the spirit of God, to grant us grace and mercy to follow. It is to come to God as we actually are and ask him to deal with us. In Jesus Christ, according to our absolute If we are to walk with God at all, we must be in the light. And once we walk in the light and with our conditions, we'll be calling with the description of verse 7. We shall see sin in ourselves and daily feel the blood of Christ. Pray with me. Lord Jesus, we give thanks to you for your word, for your blessing, for the gift of your son, for the gift of the day, for the gift of fellowship with our fellow Christians, for the gift of family, for the gift of love. And so let us go about this day today enjoying these gifts and these blessings and this bounty and find peace and joy In Jesus' name, amen.