1 John 1:1-4

It was a large empty room and a convention center, and it was filled with the sounds of. Sobbing tears. Everywhere you look, there were people being being comforted, some people being embraced, some receiving pats on the back or the shoulder. But everywhere in this large empty room, in this convention center with nothing but folding chairs, sat down everywhere. The picture was very similar. And what had happened was this was the response time, the response time after an evangelistic sermon and a gospel invitation, and I happened to be in the back of this room. It was a large conference, a multi day conference, and I wasn't preaching on this particular day, this particular night. I was going to be preaching the next morning. But I intentionally walked down during the response time into what was then called the counseling room, as people had responded to the gospel invitation and had come back to speak with counselors. And I just sort of made myself kind of a fly on the wall. I know, I'm a big fly, but just go with me on this one, okay. As I just listened time and time again, and almost universally, what I heard was the same response why have you come? And the response would come, I really don't know. I just felt like I needed to time and time again, why have you come? I really don't no tears streaming down faces. I just felt like I needed to. There were over four hundred people at this conference who came down during the gospel invitation. Over four hundred mainly college students, who had come down and responded during this gospel invitation. But there was a small problem. There had been no gospel. There had been spiritual manipulation, there had been emotional agitation, but there had been no gospel proclamation. And at the end of this soul stirring message, it was wrapped up with a mac magnificent sales pitch that resulted in over four hundred people walking down the aisle praying a prayer, repeating after the individual standing there behind the podium, and then going to sit down and talk with counselors. Now here's what was interesting. They had come down the island. They had prayed this prayer that basically went something like this, if you want to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior, if you want to go to heaven when you die, repeat this prayer after me and meanness in your heart. Lord Jesus, I'm a sinner and I need you to save me. You died for my sin, and I'm trusting you to save me. If you prayed that prayer and you believed it, then you've been born again. There's some counselors over here who want to talk with you. And over four hundred people go into the next room having been told that they were converted, that they were on their way to heaven when they died. But when they sat down with the councilors, they had no idea why they had come. They just felt like they needed to. I wish I could say this was unusual, but it's not. It's not unusual at all. I wish I could say that the organizers of this event after this individual who didn't come close to the gospel. It was a skyscraper sermon, one story on top of another, on top of another. Okay, And after his skyscraper sermon, this man just did what he is known for, cash the net and hundreds came. And so I wish I could say that after this happened, the organizers of the event said, I cannot believe the kind of manipulation. We just saw. I cannot believe the kind of perversion of the gospel we just saw. We'll never have this man back again. But that's not what the organizers of the conference said. The organizers of the conference said, see told you he was a harvester. He was back the next year, still not coming close to preaching the gospel, and having a lot of the people who had been there the year before responding again during the gospel limitation, Why don't know, just felt like I needed to. There are probably many of us in this room, not probably some of you I've had conversations with. For some some of you, this is your story. For some of you, this is exactly where you were. This is exactly what your experience was. For some of you, you wrestled with your salvation for years because of this kind of manipulative, underhanded salesmanship that did not come close to the proclamation of the gospel, but was masterful in its ability to get you to feel like you needed to do whatever they were telling you to do at the end. For some of you, that was your story, and you wrestled, some of you for years after that. Why because you hadn't heard the Gospel, and you hadn't been converted, but somebody told you that you were. And after they told you that you were, maybe they even told you to write down in your bible. Write this date down in your bible, this day your name was sealed in the Lamb's Book of Life. They told you to do it, wrote it down. Hadn't heard the gospel, hadn't been converted. But you repeated after someone they told you that if you said what they said and you meant it, and you meant it, that you were going to heaven when you died. Rightelal name in your bible. Rite the date in your bible. There's the date when your name was sealed in the Lamb's Book of Life. But a week later, a month later, a year later, there was nothing in you, around you, or about you that spoke to. The truth of your conversion. Now what do you do, I mean, really, what do you do with that? Because now, for the last several weeks, or the last several months, or the last several years, you've been telling people that you were Christian, You've been telling people you got saved. You remember the day, you remember the hour, you remember the moment you got saved. You asked Jesus into your heart, or another one, you accepted Christ as your Lord and savior. You know, there's only two things wrong with those phrases. Number one, they're nowhere in the New Testament. Amen, I asked Jesus into my heart. I accepted Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior, not New Testament phrases. And secondly, you can walk. All around those things and be as lost as a goose. Why, here's what it all comes down to, a failure to understand, a failure to comprehend, and a failure to accurately proclaim the gospel. And that's what we're dealing with here in the book of First John. The gospel. What is true biblical conversion? Not this stuff that we see, not this stuff that we hear about, not this stuff that many of us have experienced that was. As artificial as a three dollar bill. What is the gospel? How do we define the gospel? How do we know the gospel when we see it? Is the gospel just you know, three or four propositions and then a formulate prayer? Or is the gospel something broader than that. Here's the other thing that's interesting when you go through First John, What are the things that we discover? Is this that the gospel. No matter what we think the Gospel is, it's more than you think it is. That's what you're gonna learn as we walk through the Book of First John. Whatever you think, the Gospel is more than you think it is. For some people, we think the gospel is actually the message that you share with people who are not saved so that they can get saved. That is a woefully inaccurate understanding and description of the Gospel. The Gospel is not just something for lost people. Newsflash, if you're here and you've been saved for fifty years, you still need the Gospel. You're still living by the Gospel. The Gospel doesn't just tell you how to be saved Gospel. The Gospel tells you how to be everything. The Gospel tells you how to understand everything. The Gospel tells you how to interpret all things. It's the Gospel. Our life is a Gospel life, Our walk is a Gospel walk. Our parenting ought to be Gospel parenting. Our marriages ought to be Gospel marriages. The Gospel is not just these few little propositions that are necessary in order to emotionally twist somebody's arm and get them to pray some formulate prayer that is not the gospel. Unfortunately, it's what passes for the Gospel, and the overwhelming majority of situations and circumstances, it's what passes for the Gospel. And we're in the season now, we're at the height of the season. We're in vacation Bible school season, the season that makes me sick to my stomach because little kids all over this country are being manipulated with a simplistic version of the Gospel and being convinced that if they just repeat after somebody that they'll be saved. Am I saying that a little kid can't get saved at a vacation Bible school. Nope, that's not what I'm saying. But here's what I'm saying. I wish I had a dollar for every time I talk to somebody who went through one of those experiences and then later on in their life said, I really didn't know what to do because when I was five or six or seven, I prayed the prayer that they told me I should pray. But later on in my life, I didn't really feel like I was saved, but I had prayed that prayer, and they had told me that I was a Christian. There was nothing in my life that bore evidence to the fact that I was a Christian. I didn't know what to do. In the first four chapters of the first four verses rather of First John, which we're going to look at today, we get a picture of the magnitude of the significance of the gospel. Again, we don't get all of it. We could be here from now until every last one of us dies, and we wouldn't get all of it. Amen, we cannot exhaust it. But we're going to get a picture of the magnitude and the significance of the gospel here in four verses of the book of First John, because this is what John's after, and John's after the true gospel, the real gospel, as opposed to the false gospel, because there are false teachers. So he is taking false teachers on toe to toe, knows to nose eye to eye. There is a true gospel and there is a false gospel. We need to understand that. And not everybody who claims to be preaching the gospel is preaching the true gospel. There are many who are preaching a false gospel, and John shows us this in the Book of First John. Specific things that he deals with here, some of them were still dealing with today, but others of them with far reaching implications for some of the other heresies with which we wrestle even in our time. Listen as he begins, 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 also, 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 so that our joy may be complete. We see here this picture of the gospel. We see this picture of the nature of the gospel, and we also see a picture of the impact of the gospel as it relates to the nature of the gospel. Let's look at what he says here, Beginning that first, first, that which was from the beginning, that which was from the beginning, Folks, Ultimately, the Gospel, if you just want to boil it down, is about the person and work of Jesus Christ. Ultimately, the Gospel is about the person and work of Jesus Christ. Now, if you. Think that it's simplistic, let's just unpack it for a few moments here, because that's a mouthful. The person and work of Jesus Christ. Who is the person of Jesus Christ. There are theology books filled with the answer to that question. What are the works of Jesus Christ. There are theology books, multiple volumes, filled with the answers to that question. So when we say the person and work of Jesus Christ, we're not being reductionistic here. We're just giving you the broadest categories. Because even here in this first verse, that which was from the beginning, in that statement alone, we get a picture of the nature of Christ, of the person of Christ. That which was from the beginning means that Christ is eternal, means that he always has been, means that he did not come into existence in the manger, means that he was and is and is. To come listen to what Calvin Rights, commenting on his verse. The words that which was from the beginning refer doubtless to the divinity of Christ. For God, manifested in the flow, was not from the beginning, but He who always was Life, and the eternal Word of God appeared in the fullness of time as Man. It's what a poignant statement. There are so many who look at the person of Jesus Christ and they say, Jesus is a good man, He's a good teacher, he's a good prophet. All over the place, there are people. Who want to, who want to, who want to say to Jesus or about Jesus, good things, wonderful things, loving things about Jesus. You turn on your television, people are not talking bad about Jesus. People will say things like, we like Jesus, we just don't like Christians. Isn't that what we hear? But when they talk about Jesus, they're just referring to a guru, they're referring to a teacher. They're referring to some guy who did some very important stuff. That's not enough. If that's all we believe, then we don't believe the gospel. Because the Gospel is about Jesus Christ and who he truly is the person of Christ, the nature of Christ. And we see here his existence in eternity, that Jesus Christ existed in eternity. If we don't believe in Jesus that existed in eternity, we don't believe in the Jesus of the Bible. And if we don't believe in the Jesus of the Bible, we cannot claim the salvation that the Bible offers. It is only. To the degree that we believe in Jesus as he is presented, that we believe the gospel. I mean, how many times have we had this experience? You know, we meet over here, there's another congregation meeting over on the other side, and we've had a number. Of vacations where people kind of showed up fellowship meal time, going you know, we were over there. Now, what if those people had left, you know, those people had gone to the other church. Either when the other Presbyterian church is over here, the new churches over here, they go to that church and they visit that place, or they came to the right address, they went to church. They could go back, and they could have gone back had they not figured out what their mistake was. They could have gone back and somebody said to them, hey, did you go visit Grace Family Baptist Church. And they could have said, Yep, we did, but did they no, because we're over here. They were over there, they visited the right address. They just didn't come into the right meeting. And that's where many people are with Christ. They're close. They got the right name, they've even got the right time period. They even have some of the right sayings. They're phrases that they proclaimed, that are the phrases that came straight out of the mouth of Jesus. But they're wrong on the person of Christ. They're wrong on the nature of Christ. And if you press them on the issue, do you believe that Jesus is co eternal with the Father, which, by the way, means that he is God almighty, not close to God, not like God, not almost God, He's God. Do you believe that Jesus is God? That's the gospel, folks. If we don't believe in Jesus as God, we don't believe the Gospel. And if we are not proclaiming Jesus as God, we are not proclaiming the Gospel. And here's the problem with much of what is passing for gospel preaching today, it begins mansinnered and what we do is we try to get our hands around the need in the heart of man. As Rick Warren has said in his book The Purpose Driven Church, I believe you can lead anyone to Christ if you just find the right felt need. You find whatever that person's need is, and then you demonstrate to them how Jesus can meet that need. You're not clear about who Jesus is other than listen to me from your perspective and inside your world, Jesus can be the answer to that problem you have. That's what passes for gospel preaching. In most instances. Jesus can be whatever you need. Is your marriage rocky, Jesus can be a marriage fixer. Is your health bad, Jesus can be your healer. Problems with your kids, Jesus can fix that, problems with your finances. He's a provider all of those things. Whatever that need is that you have, That's what Jesus can be for you, and he wants to be that for you. Don't you want him to be that for you? What person in her right mind is going to say, Nah, I just they all messed up over here. Just not. And then you just take the next step. But there's a problem. So how if we couched the gospel? We started with you and your yearnings. And after we've shown you you and your yearnings and how this Jesus can be the answer for you and your yearnings, we then go to but there's a problem. Okay, well maybe there's hope here. Are we going to define the problem correctly? No, we don't even define the problem correctly. We don't even deal with the issue of sin and repentance. What's the problem? The problem is you haven't accepted him. The problem is you haven't asked him into your heart. So how do you overcome the problem? Accept Jesus, Ask Jesus into your heart. You know, Jesus is the king of the universe. You're not worried about you accepting him a man. But that's how we're couching the gospel, and that's what people are responding to. That's why you can come up to people after they've accepted Christ and ask them a few questions about who Christ is and they don't know. How do I know this? Done it? Done it? Whenever I'm around one of those rooms, whenever I'm around one of those gospel limitations. I always want to go and talk to people. Always. If I can do it, I will do it. I'll get there, I'll sit down. I want to talk to people. Tell me about this Jesus that you just accepted. What is his nature, what is his essence? And there are people who hear, they just pray to receive Christ. You tell them that Jesus is God, that he's eternal, and they look at you like the men in the moon. I don't know about all that. That's not what I signed up for. No. What I signed up for was it's some stuff in my life, and they told me about this guy who can fix that bad stuff in my life. Now you're talking about all this he's God stuff. I'm not going there, but I accepted him. John starts with that which was from the beginning, you want to understand the gospel, understand the nature and the person of Christ, that he is co eternal with the Father. And it's interesting he uses that phrase from the beginning. He could have used another phrase. I'll explain to you why he did that in a moment, but for now, listen to this Micah five two. But you o Bethlehem a Pratha, who are too little. The clans of Judah from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler of Israel, who's origin is from old, from ancient of days. You know John one to one. In the beginning was the Word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. We also know John chapter eight and verse fifty eight, where Jesus looks at the Pharisees and says, I tell you the truth before Abraham existed. I am. John chapter seventeen and verse five. Now, Father, glorify me in your own presence, with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. John seventeen twenty four. Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me, may be with me where I am to see my glory that you have given me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Ephesians chapter one and verse four. Even as he chose us before excuse me, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love. Hebrews chapter seven and verse three. He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God. He continues a priest forever Hebrews thirteen eight Jesus Christ the saying yesterday, today and forever. And then we get into Revelation chapter one and verse eight. I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and was and is to come Revelation chapter eleven and verse seven. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Who's this? This is Jesus. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, fear not. I am the First and the Last and the living one. I died, and behold, I am alive forevermore. And I have the keys of death and hades Revelation chapter two and verse eight. And to the Angel of the Church at Smyrner, write the words of the first and the Last. Jesus Christ is coeternal with the Father. Paul puts it this way in Philippians. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ, Jesus, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped. Jesus is coeternal with the Father. But the phrase he uses here is quite interesting. He says that which was from the beginning. Now, what he could have said was that which was from eternity. But he chooses the word beginning, that which was from the beginning. Why he's not just interested in telling us about this Jesus who is eternal. He's interested in telling us about this Jesus who's the creator of the world, that which was from the beginning. In the beginning, what happens in the beginning? In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Interestingly enough, and that verse we already quoted when we talked about John chapter one, verse one. If we continue, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. Through him all things were made, and apart from him nothing was made that has been made. Colossians, Chapter one, beginning of verse fifteen, very similar. Here's the image of the invisible God, the first born over all creation. For by him all things were made in heaven and on earth, whether rulers or dominions, or thrones or powers, all things have been made by him and for him. Not only do we see. Jesus existing in eternity, but we also see Jesus creating in power. Listen to this from the nice in Creed. We believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible, and in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God's Light, of light, very God of very, God begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made. Jesus Christ is the creator of all things. He's not just co eternal with the Father. He is creator with the Father. Jesus Christ is the creator of all things. He's the ruler of all things. There is nothing outside of the realm of his sovereignty or his power. That's who we're talking about. Not just a good teacher, not just a good man, but we're talking about the one who spoke the world into existence. That's this Jesus. If we're not proclaiming that, we're not proclaiming the Gospel. If that's not the Jesus about whom we speak, we are not proclaiming the Gospel. It's not just this man's picture of what I need to be satisfied, what I need to be fulfilled. Jesus is who he is, regardless of what I feel like I need, and he is what I need, whether I know it or not. Amen. I mean, after all, who am I to think that I'm wise enough to even know what I need. I don't know about you, But that's not me. I'm not wise enough to know what I need. But God knows what I need. So when this proclamation of the Gospel, we see Jesus having existed from eternity, We see Jesus having created in power. But then look at what else he said? What else he says 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. By the way, this phrase, these phrases are very important because if you remember, the hair that he's dealing with is. A heresy, this arian heresy, this. Idea that Jesus did not come in the in the flesh, this idea that Jesus was just sort of this spirit being. Sometimes it was this sort of Dosetic heresy, other times it was Srinthian gnosticism. Now, the difference between the two is. One says that he was a spirit being upon whom Deity came. Others says he was a spirit being who never actually had anything other than this spiritual manifestation. But the idea is that matter is evil. Therefore God would never sort of inhabit matter. So so Jesus could not have been God unless he didn't really inhabit matter, it just looked like he did. John deals with this heresy. So what does he say? What we've heard, matter, what we've seen with our eyes, matter, what we've looked upon in touched with our hands. Matter concerning the Word of life Verse two, the life was made manifest, and we have seen it and testified to it, and proclaimed to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us. That which we've seen and heard, we proclaim to you. Also, the gospel is about Christ, who existed before all things. The gospel is about Christ, who created the world and all things in the world, and therefore has a claim on all things in the world. And the gospel is about Christ who revealed himself in time and in history. That's what the gospel is about. You know, there are those, for example, I don't know how many famil with the Emerging Church movement or certain books within the Emergent Church movement, But one of the most popular books among the Emergent Church movement is a book called. Blue Like Jazz. And in Blue Like Jazz, the author basically makes this proclamation whether this stuff was really true historically or not, that's not Ultimately the question questions just whether or not we believe it. How about that that doesn't sound like John's attitude. John's attitude is not. Hey, you know what, these gnostics they're wrong on the nature and the essence of Jesus, but they're calling on his name. They can't be that bad. Sure they believe he was just a spirit being, but certainly they can't be that bad. I mean, can't we all just get along? I mean, after all, they're believers, we're believers. We just differ on a few little things here, like the nature of the Son of God. You know what John's attitude was toward that. Turn with me to the right and look at chapter four for just a minute. These first three verses in chapter four, beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world. Now we got him call them people false prophets. Verse two. By this, you know the spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. And that interesting. He's talking directly about the gnostics and directly to the Gnostics. And what does he say. He says, every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, that's the spirit that's from God. Now is he saying that if that's all somebody's got, that that's enough. No, he's addressing a specific hariiss see here. And what he's saying is Jesus revealed himself in space and time and in history, and the historical facts matter. And if people are wrong on the historical facts, they're wrong on the Gospel. Look at the next verse. Every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist. Now they're not just false prophets. They're not from God. And they're Antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. That's John's attitude. John's attitude is this is too important for us not to stand up. This is too important for us not to face off. This is too important for us not to point out every time we see it. And he says, we're proclaiming to you the Gospel number one. We're proclaiming this Jesus who is eternal. We're proclaiming this Jesus who created the world. We're proclaiming this Jesus who revealed himself in history in human flesh. God wrapped himself in flesh, and he came as a man. By the way. That's incredibly important. Why because that's the way he died for us as a man. That's the way he represented us as a man. That's the way he expressed his obedience to God. Remember, we've talked about this before, but let me put it in a different context for you. We've talked about Jesus Christ and his sacrifice and his passive obedience and his active obedience sound from here. We've talked about this several times. The active obedience of Christ is how Christ fulfilled the law. Christ was obedient to the law. He fulfilled the law, and he was righteous under the law. That was the active obedience of Christ. Now, the active obedience of Christ was accompanied by the passive obedience of Christ. The passive obedience of Christ is that obedience whereby he allowed himself to be crucified as a penal substitutionary atonement for those he came to redeem. Now, why is the active obedience of Christ important? Because it's the active obedience of Christ that's imputed to us as righteousness. God looks at you and me as a complete law keeper. Why because Christ, in his active obedience, kept the law on behalf of those he came to redeem. God made him who knew no sin, to become sin for us in order that we might become the righteousness of God in him imputed righteousness. You're not righteous because you die. That's not where we get imputed righteousness from Christ. We get imputed righteousness from Christ because as a man, he obeyed where Adam did not. Therefore he was righteous. Therefore he can impute his righteousness to those whom he came to redeem. Now here's the context. If Jesus was not really a man, we have no imputed righteousness. You can't get there from here because the law only applies to those of us who are man, the descendants of Adam. We got a problem because of our federal head, Adam. Well, how do we come under our federal head Adam through physical birth into this world. Well, if Jesus never experienced physical birth into this world, then he cannot undo what Adam did. He had to be a man. If he doesn't become a man, he can't impute righteousness to us. That's why John makes a big deal out of this. John makes a big deal out of this because he says, number one, these individuals are outside the camp, not inside the camp. And number two, if you begin to accept, even to the smallest degree what they are teaching, you will begin to undermine the very doctrines upon which the Gospel are built. And if you don't have imputed righteousness, you don't have the Gospel. That's why this is a big deal. That's why he uses this language. That's why he talks about this, and he goes back again and again and again and again. What we've seen, what we've heard, what we've touched with our hands. He was physical. By the way, here's another thing that's very interesting. The Gnostics are always on John's mind. A couple of examples that we get from John's Gospel, For example, that we don't get from other gospels. You know, one of the things we get from John's gospel that we don't get from other gospels. Thomas, put your hand in my side, touch the wounds on my hands. We get that in John's gospel. Why, because John's the Gnostic warrior. That's what he does. He fights the Gnostics, And even in his gospel, he's talking about things that the other writers don't even think of at the forefront of their minds. Did it happen, absolutely, That's why it's proclaimed in the gospel. But other writers look at that and don't see it to the same degree of importance as John does when he sees it, because now he's thinking about the Gnostics. You know what the Gnostics are saying that Jesus was not flesh. Newsflash, we touched him after the resurrection. Here's another thing you see in John's gospel that you don't see another places, the fish fry. Why is it important to record that Jesus is eating fish. It's very important to record that Jesus ate fish after his resurrection if you're doing battle with the Gnostics, because the Gnostics don't believe he was flesh. He's not flesh. What's he doing at the fish fry. It's important. Wrong on Jesus, wrong on the Gospel. If we're not proclaiming Jesus, we're not proclaiming the gospel. If we're not proclaiming these works of Christ, we're not proclaiming the gospel. Here's the other thing. Look at it with me. In verse two, the life was made manifest, and we have seen it and testified to it. 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 may have fellowship with us, so that you may have fellowship with us. Here's what's interesting. If you don't get this, you don't have fellowship with us. We're proclaiming this so that you can have fellowship with us. In other words, why do I need to proclaim something to you in order for you to have fellowship with me if you already have fellowship with me. We see the exclusivity of the gospel here. In other words, this refutes universalism, this sort of universal brotherhood of man all of us will ultimately be saved. No, without the proclamation of the gospel, there is no salvation without our response to the gospel, biblical response to the gospel, there is no salvation. There is no fellowship there. If we're not responding to the gospel as it was proclaimed, if we're not responding to the right gospel, there is no fellowship there. We're not responding to the gospel. That's it's proclaimed, there is no fellowship there. So he says, these individuals are outside of fellowship. That's the spirit of Eddie Christ. In chapter two, they went out from among us because they weren't all of us. If there were of us, they would have remained, but they went out so that it might be shown that they were not all of us. See what he's doing there, Just in the next chapter, he's already dealing with that, the exclusivity of Christ. It is only through a right understanding of the gospel, and it is only through an appropriate response to the gospel that we have fellowship with Christ, and that we have fellowship with one another, and that only comes through our proclamation of the gospel. We must proclaim the gospel. Now here's what's so ironic. Many of us don't proclaim the gospel because we think proclaiming the gospel is divisive when the fact is the opposite is true. It's only through the proclamation of the Gospel that we experience true unity. Anything else is a lie, anything else is not true. If we look at one another and say, you know what, we just we just won't talk about those things because we know we disagree about those things. We'll just find areas where we have agreed. No, no, no, no no. We got to get those things on the table, amen. All of those things have to be on the table, because that's where true unity comes. If you and I, as frail human beings, try to come closer to one another, we'll mess it up every time. But if you and I, as frail human beings, walk closer and closer to Christ, we automatically come closer to one another. We're gonna do it. We're gonna do it. It's interesting, Trey and I we're talking about this. The other day. We had the opportunity to be in several places, I mean, just this year, with believers from all over the place, and he made the comment, it seems like wherever we go, we see the same people. I mean, wherever we go, we see the same people. We just flew back this morning on the Red Eye from Oregon, got on a like twelve thirty last night in Portland, so we can fly and get here six point thirty this morning to Houston. Amen, Hallelujah, Praised the Lord. I want to go to sleep. Okay, So so we just flew back. But you know what, whether it was in Oregon or the weekend before that in Colorado or wherever we go, we meet brothers and sisters in the Lord. How does that happen? You go from here to Russia, from here to China, from here to Zambia, from here to Romania, and you meet brothers and sisters in the Lord. I mean, you have stuff in common, You know each other, you love each other, and all of a sudden, in a couple of days, you feel like, you know what, I'd lay my life down for this brother? What is that? That's the fellowship that we have with one another, when we have fellowship with Christ. That's what the Gospel gives us. And only the Gospel gives us that. Nothing else does that. It's the Gospel that unifies us. And here's what's unfortunate, because the Gospel is being polluted in our culture. We have a fragmented so called Christian community. And here's what everybody's saying. Christians can't even get together and agree on things. What does it look like to the world when Christians can't even get together and agree on things. If Christians could unify, we could change this culture. I agree wholeheartedly. Problem is, a lot of people call themselves Christians, are not. You can't have unity that way. The reason we don't have unity is because we're trying to have unity apart from the gospel. You only have unity to the degree that we're tenacious about the gospel. That's the only way we have unity with one another, because that's the only way we have unity with God. And that's what Han says here fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and his son, Jesus Christ. We're proclaiming this to you because if you believe the other gospel, or if you believe a perversion of the gospel, you're not gonna have fellowship with God, and therefore you're not gonna have fellowship with us. So we're proclaiming this to you because we want to have fellowship with you, not because we want to drive you away. Doctrine divides, you know, no doctrine unites. Amen. The only time doctrine divides is when somebody's sin doesn't want to accept the doctrine. And in that case, it's not doctrine that divides. It's sin and disobedience that divides. And we need to divide over that. Well, you're gonna say, Jesus is just some Middle Eastern guru and we're supposed to unite. You might as well, but no, that you can't do that. That's like a man coming up to me insulting my wife but wanting to shake hands and be my friend. Well, you're not gonna shake my hand. No, I'm not gonna shake your hand. I need my hand free to punch you in the mouth. Not really, kids, not not not not really. Okay, But but and think about that for a moment. A man walks up he insults your wife. Man, I can't stand your wife. She just I just I hate her, but I really want us to be friends. Well what do you do? We go, well, okay, no, no, no, no, no, no, you can't we can't do that. How is it that we can get that? And we can understand that, But when somebody insults my Jesus, my savior, my Master, my Lord, King of Kings, God of Gods. When somebody insults Jesus Christ, we're supposed to say, can't we all just get along? No, there's no unity there. There's no unity there. If you're wrong on my Jesus, I have but one goal, and that one goal is this for you to get right on Jesus. Why because if you're wrong on Jesus, you don't have unity with me. That's the least of your problems. You don't have unity with God. That's what the gospel does. And then here's this last phrase. I love it in verse four. We're writing these things so that our joy may be complete. We're writing these things so that our joy may be complete. I love that. I mean, it almost seems like it doesn't fit. There's this polemic argument going on where basically he's saying, there's false teachers out there, and some of you might even be listening to the false teachers because some have actually left because of what the false teachers are teaching. These false teachers are messing up the gospel. They're wrong on the gospel. And if you're wrong on the gospel, you don't have fellowship with God. And you don't have fellowship with us, And so it seems like John is sort of standing there and he's going toe to toe and knows to nose and eye to eye, and it sounds like like that. No, no, no, that's not what John's doing here. John's not doing one of these. He's doing one of these. He's saying, come on, do you understand the significance of what you're doing. You're polluting the gospel. There will be no unity when you pollute the gospel. But if you hold on to the gospel, to the real gospel, to the true gospel, there's unity between us, and there's unity with you and the Father, and that makes my joy complete. I don't know about you, but I'm not happy when people are wrong in the Gospel. I'm not. I don't sit there and go, oh wow, great, they're going to die and spend eternity separated from God. And hell no, that doesn't make my joy complete. In fact, I thought about this, and as I thought about this statement, I kept running back over the statement again and again in my mind. Do I really mean that? Do I really mean that? And here's the statement. Nothing should bring us more joy than seeing sinners redeemed. Nothing should bring us more joy than seeing sinners redeemed. And the unfortunate reality is that for some of us that's not true. For some of us, we think there are things that more important than that, There are things that bring us more joy than that. For some of us in this room, we're more concerned about the right person being elected to an office than we are about sinners being redeemed. How do I know that, because for some of us, you look at the time and energy that we put into our political efforts, and you look at the time and energy that we put into proclaiming the Gospel, and the answer becomes clear. We would much. Rather have our guy our laws than we would to have sinners redeemed for the cause of Christ. Some of us have come to this place. Nothing brings us more joy than to see sinners redeemed. Well, what about no, No, no, The most joyous thing in the world is is the birth of a child. It's the most joyous thing in the world. No, it's not. No, it's not because from the moment that child is born into your home, what do you want more than anything else for them to be born again? To have a child born into your home and that child never be born again. That would not satisfy you. It won't, it won't. I hope it won't. That's not enough just having a baby come into the house. That's not enough. No, it's glorious when that child is born. But from that moment on what burns in us? Oh? God, would you save them? Would you redeem them? Would you rescue them? I want my child to be in heaven with me. I want them to be saved. I want them to be born again. Successful in business, yeah whatever, fine, born again though, see them getting married, Yeah, that's great marriage, wonderful thing. But born again though. My children are never married, but they're born again. I'm all right. If they're never successful in business, but they're born again. I'm all right. If they never ace an exam, but they're born again. I'm all right. If they never master a piano concerto, but they're born again. I'm all right. Because the most glorious thing in this world is when the lost sinner is saved. And my prayer for us is that we never lose that, that we never miss that, because that's what John says makes his joy complete. His joy's not complete without that. And some of you in this church. You're satisfied just being part of a family integrated church. Shame on you. Shame on you if that's the case. Shame on you who cares if we find a family integrated church, but lost sinners never get saved. In fact, the reason that we're committed to this format is because we believe that it's the most effective way to carry out the Great Commission, not just becauseween hate youth groups. It's not about what we're against, it's about what we're for. We're for the Great Commission. We're for seeing people reached with the Gospel and being taught to obey all the things that He's taught us. And we believe the most effective place for that teaching of all things to happen is in the home. That's what we believe. But it's not just about the homes we got. It's about the homes that we don't have yet. As I said, yet, it's about the homes that we don't have yet. It's your heart broken over the homes we don't have yet. When you ride out of your neighborhood, When you ride out of your neighborhood, do you look down your nose at the people who are playing golf. Do you look down your nose at the people who are riding their bikes? Do you look down your nose at your neighbors whose cars are stealing the driveway? Or do you say, Oh, God, give us those souls? Which is it? Which is it? I wish I could say I was always on the right side of that. Sometimes I'm looking down my nose, but I pray that God would give me the attitude that's present here in one John, chapter one and verse four. My joy is not complete just looking down my nose at other people, because they don't go where I go on Sundays. My joy is only complete when the Gospel penetrates the hearts and lives of lost sinners and rescues them from where they're headed now and puts them on a new path, redeems their life, redeems their future, redeems their family. That's what we're about. That's what we gotta be about. And if your joy can be made complete without that, then you don't understand the gospel. Because once we understand the Gospel, our joy is never complete unless and until the Gospel is having its full impact and full effect here, and it's full impact and full effect out there. That's what we desire more than anything else, More than anything else. Good laws. All praise God for good laws. Good lawmakers, all praise God for good lawmakers. Whatever I'm accounting on that. Nope, not by a long shot. We're pulling our hair out. Oh, California has gay marriages. They are happening right now. Can you believe it. Here's the newsflash. They got the law they wanted and it still happened. Do you know that California got the law they wanted. Homosexual marriages had taken place right now all over my home state of California, even though Californians went and sixty one percent of them voted and they got the law passed that they wanted. But here's the problem. The problem in California is not the law. The problem is the depravity of man, and law can't fix that. You know what you do when you put up a law against the depravity of man, it's like putting up a levee against the flood. You know, when you put up a levee against the flood, you don't stop the flood. Floods don't stop, they just get diverted. We get the levee up high enough here. All we did was let the flood go down there with our laws, we're getting up the levees. Am I against getting up the levees? No, no, no, I'm not against getting up the levees. But here's my point. I want the hearts and minds of men. I want souls saved. I'm not satisfied when that homosexual couple is not allowed to walk to a courtroom in California or Massachusetts or anywhere else and get married. I don't say. Whew, no, no, no, no, I'm not satisfied. And my joy is not complete until the Gospel has penetrated those lives and they have been released, saved, and rescued from their depravity. Until then, my joy is not complete. How could my joy be complete with individuals who are condemned. They're still condemned, but they didn't get to do what I didn't want them to do. Who cares? I want them redeemed. That's what I want. That's when our joys complete. Only at the point and only at the place of redemption. That's what we're after. Do we always get it? No, we don't always get it, But that's God's business, not ours. We just proclaim, and we continue to proclaim, and we proclaim and proclaim and proclaim again. And some of the people to whom we need to proclaim are individuals who think they're among us because they've heard a perversion of the Gospel. They've heard a man centered, emotionally, spiritually manipulative Jesus exists to make you happy version of the Gospel. And what they need is the God of this universe created this world and everything in it. He owns it, he runs it, and he reigned supreme over it. And that means you got a problem. And your problem is you, Your problem is your sin. God addresses your problem. How because that King, that Lord, that Master, wrapped himself in flesh and entered into history as a man. He entered into history as a man and revealed himself to men so that they could record for us the fact that number one, he kept the whole law and was righteous. Therefore he can impute righteousness to those who place their faith in him. And number two, he died for sin, once for all the just, for the unjust, in order that he might bring us back to God. And because of his active and passive obedience, he pays the penalty that we owe and can impute to us righteousness. And then and only then can you and I stand forgiven before a holy and just and righteous God. When we repent of our sin and place our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and not before that's what we proclaim, because that's what brings us unity. We don't get there, we don't get unity. And it's only the proclamation of the gospel, and it's only the proper response to the gospel that brings us to a place where our joy is made complete. I don't just want you to not do bad stuff. Oh on God to save you, you to not be who you are, but to be a new creature in Christ. If you're struggling to not do bad stuff, that's not gospel living. Gospel livings were more than conquerors. If you're one of those individuals who's been manipulated and cheated, my prayer for you is that you would come to a place of authentic faith and genuine repentance before Almighty God, that you would trust in Him and him alone, the finished work of Jesus Christ on the Cross, his active and passive obedience, his imputed righteousness, unto you and his penal substitutionary atoning death on the cross, That and nothing but that that you would see your sinfulness for what it is, that you would flee from it with everything that you have, that you would turn from it, and that you would turn to Christ and to Christ alone, to be redeemed, to be forgiven and to be saved. That's my prayer for you. And that as a result of that, you become a new creature in Christ. You bear fruit that you can't manufacture or fake on your own, and you have unity with the brethren because you have unity with God. That's my prayer for you. My prayer is that you don't leave this place till you have that