Studies in 1 John-01 1 John 1:1-2:2 — William MacDonald

Very good. I hope I'm not forgetting something. So we turn in our Bible to 1 John. I thought in our meetings together now we would take a look at John's first epistle. John's first epistle. And we'll read the first chapter and two verses of the second chapter.

The Word of Life and Christian Fellowship

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 concerning the word of life. The life was manifested and we have seen and bear witness and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us.

That which we have seen and heard we declare to you that you also may have fellowship with us. Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.

This is the message which we have heard from him and declare to 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 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 Christ, his Son, cleanses 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. My little children, these things I write to you that you may not sin.

And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he himself is a propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the whole. Well, as you know, John wrote the gospel, the gospel of John, and he wrote three esophaguses.

His purpose in writing the gospel. He said many other things that Jesus did on earth. If they were all written in books, the world itself wouldn't be able to contain the books. If these are written, you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and believing has life in his name.

In other words, that gospel was written to tell you how to be saved. Well, this first epistle was written to tell you how you can know you're saved. 1 John 5 .13. These things have I written unto you that believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life for the believing you might have life through his name.

So it's good to keep that in mind. The purpose of John's first epistle was so that we can know that we have everlasting life. Now, I think it helps a little to know of the background of this letter. It was written with a certain false teaching in mind.

Gnosticism and the Person of Christ

And that false teaching was known as Gnosticism. Gnosticism. The Gnostics were a cult of the early days of the church. They had wormed their way into local churches. And they professed to have superior knowledge.

That's what the word Gnostic means. The Greek word Gnosis means knowledge. And their attitude was, well, what you Christians have is okay, but you'll never really be complete until you're initiated into the deeper truths that we have.

And some of their truths weren't so deep. They were just heretical. Some of them denied the humanity of Jesus. Some of them denied the deity of Christ. They thought that knowledge was more important than virtue.

It's what you knew that counted, not how you lived that counted. And so if you know a lot of the things that they believed, it gives you a closer understanding of this epistle, although it's not absolutely necessary.

For instance, they believed that the Christ and Jesus were different. They believed that the Christ was kind of a divine influence that came out from heaven and landed on the man Jesus at his baptism.

And left him, the Christ left him in the Garden of Gethsemane with the result that Christ didn't die. Jesus died. The man Jesus died, but he, the Christ, had left him. And so all the way through this book, you'll find John insisting, Jesus is the Christ, the identity.

And if you don't believe that Jesus is the Christ, you've got the spirit of antichrist in you. He's very emphatic about this. What is interesting to me, that God allowed every false teaching to arise in the early days of the church.

And they're all answered in the word of God in the New Testament. You think, oh, well, there's so many new cults today. Well, there really aren't. Well, what about Jehovah's Witnesses? They didn't exist.

What about Mormons? They didn't exist. What about the Catholic Church? It didn't exist. Well, there were no new false teachings. They're all old. And they're all answered in the New Testament. For instance, Christian science teaches that the Christ came upon Jesus at his baptism and left him in the garden.

They say that. They're probably the closest to the Gnostics. But Jehovah's Witnesses are Gnostics, too. And the Mormons are a form of Gnosticism, too. It's very hard to catalog all the things the Gnostics taught, because they didn't all agree among themselves.

And not alone that, they were always changing. They were always changing. And that's an interesting thing to me. Truth is static. Truth remains the same. Error is always changing. If you have a system of error, you've always got to be revising it and adding to it.

That's why, after centuries, the Catholic Church added the Immaculate Conception. That wasn't part of the original Catholicism. They added that. The Assumption of Mary, of Mary ascending back to heaven, wasn't the original belief of the Catholic Church.

They added that. They're always adding. And this is another characteristic, I think, and you find it brought out in 2 John, that these false teachers always go beyond the Scriptures. Usually they have something good to say about the Bible.

But the Bible is not enough. For instance, Christian scientists have the book, Science and Health with Each of the Scriptures, by Mary Patterson. Glover, Baker, and Eddy. She went through quite a few marriages.

I would have been afraid to marry her. She buried so many. Mormonism. The Bible plus the Book of Mormon. She always witnesses the Bible plus the writings of Pastor Rutherford or Pastor Russell. The Catholic Church.

The Bible plus tradition. Tradition is placed on an equal basis. And John speaks of that in his 2nd Epistle. Whoever transgresses, and it means who goes beyond, who goes beyond what's written in the Word of God.

Characteristic of false teachings. And so we should be very grateful for this letter because it answers so many of these calls. And he goes right at work from the very beginning. He says, "...that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked on in our hands of handles concerning the word of life.".

Now, it's obviously talking about the Lord Jesus here, isn't it? Why does he say, that which? Why does he say, he who? Well, the reason is he's speaking about the message. The message. That, verse 3, "...that which we have seen and heard we declare to you.".

He's not being dishonoring to the Lord Jesus. He's talking about the message concerning the Lord Jesus, which we now declare to you. That which. "...that which was from the beginning.". Hmm. From the beginning.

The Eternal Word and the Incarnation

There are several beginnings mentioned in the Bible. There's what I call the beginningless beginning. In other words, just stretch your mind back into a bygone eternity, where God always existed, the eternal God.

And yet, that's the beginning that you're having, John 1, 1. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God. It's a beginningless beginning. He had no beginning in eternity. And then there's the beginning, the creation of the heavens and the earth, Genesis 1, 1.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, right? It's another beginning. And then there's the beginning of Jesus' public ministry, which is an expression that's used frequently in John's writings.

The beginning. The commandment which you've had from the beginning. He's going to be talking about that commandment, Well, which do you think it is here? That which was from the beginning. Well, I think it's speaking about the eternal existence of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Say, why do you think that? Because down in verse 2 it says, that eternal life which was with the Father. That eternal life which was with the Father. That's the Lord Jesus. He was with the Father from a bygone eternity.

Then he goes on to emphasize the reality of the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he speaks about three of our senses that were involved. That which was from the beginning, which we. The we there means the apostles, the apostolic bands.

It doesn't mean we up here at Calvary Bible Chapel. Because the things he goes on to say haven't been true of us. But first of all, he appeals to sight. Which we have seen with our eyes. Which we have looked on.

First of all, which we have heard. The ear. The hearing. They heard him speaking words which no other man had ever spoken. Which we have seen with our eyes. Sight. Which we have looked upon. What's the difference between seeing your eyes and looked upon?

Well, the second has more of the idea of we gazed on him intensely. It wasn't just a passing glance that we had. We lived with him. We studied him. We gazed on him intensely. And it says, our hands have handled.

Concerning the word of life. Our hands have handled. It makes you think, doesn't it, of that time when Thomas was there. And Thomas said, well, I'm hard to believe. I'm a doubting Thomas. And Jesus said, reach forth your hand.

Thrust it into my side. The Spirit has done. Our hands have handled. Concerning the word of life. And of course, the word of life there is the Lord Jesus Christ. One of his names. A life-giving word.

The life was manifested. That's an interesting expression. The life was manifested. What does that mean? It means he always existed in heaven before, but he was manifested in his incarnation when he came down to the earth and dwelt among us.

Manifested means revealed. That's what happened in Bethlehem. That babe lying in the manger. The life was manifested. And we have seen again and bear witness and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us.

Now, as I say, John is speaking here as an apostle of the Lord Jesus who was an eyewitness. He accompanied with the Lord Jesus. Probably a little younger than Christ was during his earthly ministry. That which we have seen and heard.

Notice that. How he brings the changes on this. Bringing forth the humanity of the Savior. He was really man. The eternal God coming into the world and closing himself with humanity. Really what he did, wasn't it?

The God-man. So that you can look on that little baby lying in the cattle shed there and you can say in him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. In fact, you say, my mind can't take that in.

Of course it can't take that in. Great is the mystery of God. God was manifested. The union of deity and humanity in one person is something the human mind can never give us. But you accept it by faith.

And he made it very real to us. That which we have seen and heard we declare to you that you may have fellowship with us. Fellowship is probably the key word in this first chapter and maybe in the whole epistle too.

Fellowship With God and the Christian Life

And that means that he's speaking here not to sinners who need to be saved but to saints who need to be taught. He's speaking to Christian people here in chapter one. It's helpful to remember that. And I'll tell you why as we go on.

Fellowship. What is fellowship? Well, watch out for inaccurate definitions. Fellowship is fellowship in a ship. Watch out for these snazzy definitions of people. If you want scriptural definitions. Fellowship is really holding things in common.

That means walking together in harmony. How can two walk together except they be agreed to fellowship? And it means holding doctrines in common to the doctrine of the Christian faith. It means abiding in Christ.

And so he says, the purpose now of my writing to you, we want you to have fellowship with us and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. That's pretty wonderful, isn't it? That you can be a person lost and dead and trespasses and in sin.

Unspeakably evil as far as the nature that you have is concerned. And yet by a miracle of grace, you can be saved from eternal condemnation. And the next thing you know you have fellowship with the Father, the Father and with the Lord Jesus Christ.

You think of somebody in the world that you'd really like to meet. You think of some famous person you'd like to have fellowship with in the White House without knocking or something like that. But you know, to be on such terms with a great...

I've got something greater than that. Fellowship with God the Father, Lord Jesus Christ. That's actually what happens when you're saved, isn't it? With his Son, Jesus Christ. Notice he's Jesus Christ.

He's identifying with one person. He's not Jesus, but Jesus Christ. We write unto you that your joy may be full. You can't have hope if you don't believe that you cannot. You can be a child of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And sin breaks out of the grave of love. They're home with the Lord. I'm sad because of the lost in me. They're in the present. That is a breakthrough. Joy and sorrow, we know. We don't fight against one another.

Joy and sorrow for the Christian. Of course it's right in here, the church. Joy may be full. This then is a message which we heard from him and declared to him that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.

When it says God is light, light is used there. Light means incandescent light like this. Although there's a connection. God is light. Everything is out in the open with God. Nothing hidden from God. There's no sin, no impurity of any kind, no pollution of any kind.

Everything, God is light. There's no darkness at all. Not a shade of darkness. Absolutely perfect in all his ways. I think that's wonderful. God is light and God is love. He's going to bring that out later on in the epistle.

God is light and God is love. Notice, if we say that we have fellowship, this is going to be a very common theme in this epistle. If we say. There's a difference between processing to be a Christian and really being a possessing Christian.

There's a difference between saying you have fellowship and having fellowship. Those are key words in the epistle. If we say. If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth.

You can't do that. There's something hidden in my life. Is there something under the counter? Is there something I've never dragged out into the open before God had confessed it and forsook it? Forget it.

I'm not walking in fellowship with God. It doesn't mean I'm not saved, but in this case it means that fellowship is broken. You say, well, what's so bad about that? Well, it's very bad actually. Broken fellowship.

That puts the believer in a very bad position when his fellowship with God is broken. You say, what happens? Well, first of all, I think in many ways the Bible becomes a closed book for you. I think your prayer life definitely is hindered, isn't it?

Your prayer life is hindered. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. Guidance. You can't expect the guidance of God if you're not walking in fellowship with the Lord. The meek will He guide and judge.

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Lean not to thine understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him. He shall direct thy path. If you fulfill the conditions, He'll guide you. But if there's sin in your life, unconfessed, He won't.

And then of course your testimony. If there's sin in my life as a believer, forget it. Don't witness for the Lord. Be quiet. Because people say, what you say and what you are don't match. Or what you say, what you are speaks so loud I can't hear what you say.

And an awful lot of damage is done to the cause of the Lord by people who are aggressive witnesses for Jesus and yet they're hiding sin in their life. And I wish they'd just quit. Either confess the sin or quit witnessing for the Lord.

Terrible thing. That's what He's saying here. We lie and do nothing. If we walk in the light as He is in the light. He doesn't say He walks in the light. He says He's in the light. That's where He is all the time.

No question of getting out of the light as far as He's concerned. But for us to walk in the light means to walk with everything in the open, everything clear, nothing between my soul and the Savior. Not of this world's delusive dreams.

If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. And the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. What does that mean? Well, it means that if I daily and hourly, whenever I'm conscious that sin has come into my life, if I get on my knees and confess it to the Lord, all forgiveness is based upon the blood of Christ, isn't it?

And so there's a continual cleansing of the blood of Christ. Every time I confess my sin, the sin is forgiven, and it's forgiven on the basis of the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.

The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. Now he's going to zero in on that whole subject of sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. In verse 8 it says we have no sin.

In verse 10 it says we have not sinned. There's a difference. The first refers to the nature. The second refers to the act. There's a big difference. If we say we have no sin, verse 8, that means that we don't have a polluted nature.

Sin, Confession, and Cleansing

This is very real to me, these two verses. I thank God for these two verses because, you know, I was brought up, as I've often told many of you, I was brought up in a very strict home. And I can honestly say that as far as terrible outward acts of sin, terrible, you know what I mean, gross sin, I never engaged in any of those.

I got the strap if I tried. I got a mother who, she raised us with a thing from the singer's sewing machine, kind of a round leather thing that went around the pulleys. And this was a disused one. Well, it was still used, I take that back.

She raised us with that and the Bible. And boy, shows, out. Playing cards in the home, out. Drinking, dancing, just say nothing of sexual sin. I mean, forget it in that home. Forget it. You know, when I was 18 years of age, God, by the Holy Spirit of God, gave me a terrible revelation of what I was inside.

He showed me that what I was inside was far worse than anything I'd ever done. And it was, too. And it's true. That's what John is speaking about here, what we are inside. That's when I was in a hurry to get saved.

That's what brought conviction to me. And I thank God today. Christ died for what I am as well as for what I've done. Two sides of his death for us. He died for that rotten, evil nature that I have. As well as for all the sins I've ever committed or ever will commit.

That's wonderful, isn't it? Just to make you stand up and shout. So if I deny, if anybody denies that he has that nature. I was thinking this morning when I was reading this this morning. A man walks into the schoolhouse in Scotland, in Dunblane, Scotland.

He opens fire and kills, what, fourteen, sixteen children and the teacher. I mean, what a mindless thing to say. What in the world, what kind of a nature did he have? The same nature you and I have. I read all of the terrible things that happen.

I read about the Holocaust and everything on that. I'm capable of any sin in the book. It's only the grace of God and the police that keep me from it. Yes, really. Mostly the fear of punishment that keeps most people from.

And when they lose that fear of punishment, truth. All hell breaks out in the world, doesn't it? So that was wonderful for me to realize that when the Lord Jesus died, he died for what Bill MacDonald was inside.

It's enough to give you peace, isn't it? If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. It's just a vain delusion. People say, well, what is sin anyway? What is sin? Read the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle.

You'll find out what sin is. It's all sin. No good news. And we kind of point the accusing finger. I can say, you know, I've never committed adultery. No. But have you ever looked at a woman with lust?

Have you already committed adultery? Nobody can be proud. Nobody can pat himself on the back. Have you ever coveted? Have you ever been so angry with a person that you hated that person? Well, hatred is murder, Jesus says.

The seed of murder. So I guess what we mean when we come to this verse is that the capacity for evil in every human heart is almost limitless, isn't it? Terrible. People like that can't get into heaven.

Unless something wonderful happens through the work of the Lord Jesus. If we confess our sin, this is a wonderful, a wonderful verse. If we confess our sin, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Notice it doesn't say, if we beg him for forgiveness. It doesn't say that. You don't have to get down on your knees and plead with God to forgive you. All you have to do is, if you're a believer, just confess your sin.

And confession with the idea of forsaking. You don't confess with the idea that you're going to go on in that sin, but you confess it with the determination to make a break with that sin. You confess our sin.

Sin. He is faithful. How is he faithful? Well, he promised to forgive. And he's faithful to his promise. If he says it, he'll do it. He's faithful and just. What does that mean? He's righteous. It means he has a righteous way of forgiving our sins.

Why? Because Christ died for us. That gives God the Father a righteous way. He doesn't condone my sin. He doesn't wink at my sin. He doesn't pass over my sin. The penalty for my sin was paid there at the cross of Calvary.

God can righteously forgive those sins now. Forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's wonderful. There's a difference between forgiving and cleansing, isn't there? Forgiving has to do with the penalty of sin.

Cleansing has to do with the pollution of sin. I like that. Forgiveness has to do with the penalty of sin. Cleansing has to do with the pollution of sin. Then he says, if we say we have not sinned, this refers to acts of sin, as I said.

Not the nature so much as the act. We make him a liar and his word is not in us. He says we have sinned. All have sinned. We've come short of the glory of God. There are dozens of scriptures that say we have sinned.

We shouldn't have to be reminded of the fact. So, this certainly disproves any thought of sinless perfection. There are some dear Christian people that believe in sinless perfection. They base it a lot on chapter 3 in this same book.

So, we'll see that when we come to it. My little children, verse 1 of chapter 2. You can tell he's writing to believers here. My little children. And that means all believers. Sometimes in this book when he uses the word children, it means children younger in the faith.

Here it means all believers. My little children. These things write I unto you that you may not sin. This is God's will for his people that we should not sin. That we may not sin. I like the old King James.

These things write I unto you that you sin not. That's God's will. Supposing it is said that you sin as little as possible. Well, God would no longer be light if he said that. God can't say that. God's standard is always perfection.

God can't condone sin. He can't excuse sin. He can't say, well, there are nice people, those people down there in Calvary Bible Chapel, and I'll just pass it by that he can't say that. God's will for me is that I may...

And when I read that in the Bible, I'm tempted to say, doesn't he know I have to sin? That's not Bible language. The Bible doesn't say I have to sin. I don't have to sin. Don't misunderstand me. I do sin.

I sin every day in thought, word, and deed. But I mustn't say I have to sin because, look, when that temptation comes, all I have to do is cry out to the Lord to save me from it. If I say I have to sin, it means the Holy Spirit of God is not powerful enough to keep me from sinning.

The Holy Spirit is given to us. He's our paraclete. He comes alongside to help in that moment. I can honestly say as I stand here, I do sin. But there's never been a time when I asked the Lord to save me from sin that he didn't do it.

The only time I sin is when I want to sin. But thank God, largely, he took the want-to out of me when he saved me. He took the want-to out of me. My little children, these things are right in you. I mean, that's God's will.

Christ Our Advocate and Propitiation

But God makes provision. What a wonderful book the Bible is. And if any man sins, we have to advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ the righteous. It's wonderful, isn't it? You know, you kind of stiffen up.

You read the first part of the verse, and you relax when you read the second part of the verse. Isn't it so? The first part is so definite, you know. There's no budging at all there. But thank God, if any man sins, we have an advocate with the Father.

An advocate there, well, the closest word I guess we have is a lawyer. The word is paraclete. It means one who comes alongside to help. I've used the illustration of a nurse in the hospital. You're there, you need help, push the button, the nurse comes to help.

She's a real paraclete in a situation like that. It also means that the Lord Jesus is in heaven now pleading your cause. You're a believer, he's there pleading your cause. Satan comes before God day and night, accusing the brethren that the Lord Jesus is there pleading your cause.

He comes alongside to help us in a very real way. We have an advocate. I like that, we have an advocate with the Father. You know what that teaches? It teaches that even when a Christian sins, God is still his Father.

It doesn't say we have an advocate with God. He is God. Put that into the emphasis here. Even when you sin, if you're a believer, you have an advocate with the Father, which teaches that sin breaks fellowship, but it doesn't break relationship.

When you're born again, you're born a child of God through faith in the Lord Jesus, and you can't undo a birth. Once you're born again, it's forever, isn't it? Nothing can ever change a birth. So it's marvelous the perfection with which the Word of God is written.

It's beautiful. We have an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ the righteous. Isn't that nice? I like that. I've got a righteous lawyer. Not all lawyers are righteous. In fact, I get kind of a kick out of it.

You mustn't vote for 203 or something. And there's kind of an attitude today, well, if the lawyers are against it, I'm going to vote for it. There's kind of an anti-lawyer sentiment in California at the moment.

But thank God I have a righteous lawyer. That's great. And my father is the judge. You couldn't have it better than that. Father's the judge. His son is the lawyer, and he's a righteous lawyer. Thank God.

He himself is a propitiation person. When you study the Bible, you get used to some different words, don't you? That's not a word that's used commonly in the world today, propitiation. Well, just let me give you a synonym for it.

It's not a complete definition, but if you just think, when you think of propitiation, if you think of the word satisfaction, the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary satisfied God as far as all my sins were concerned.

His sacrifice was sufficient. God is completely satisfied with Jesus. I'm going to tell you, I'm satisfied, too. Aren't you? He himself is the propitiation for our sins. The satisfaction, not only for ours, but for the sins of the whole world.

You say, well, that means all the world is saved. No. No, the satisfaction has been made, but you've got to accept this. All that was necessary for your salvation was accomplished at the cross of Calvary and in the resurrection of Christ.

That doesn't save people automatically. God doesn't take people to heaven who don't want to be there, does he? No, he doesn't. And so you have to come by a definite act of faith. There has to be a time in your life when you say, this is it.

And when you say, Lord Jesus, what you say about me is true. I am a guilty sinner. I don't deserve anything but hell. But I believe you died for me, and I believe that your work was a satisfaction for all my sins.

And I take you now as my Lord and Savior. And when you do that, you know what happens? A new birth. You're born again by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. What a wonderful book this is. By the will of God, we're going to go on from verse 3 of chapter 2 next time.

And our souls will be fed, and there's enough gospel in every passage for anyone who's not saved. I think our brother John has a closing hymn for us.