The Word of Life and Christian Vital Signs

Alright, if you would open up your copy of God's Word to the book of 1 John. And we'll be in verses 1 through 4 tonight. This is what scholars refer to as the preface of the book. We'll talk about the composition of this book and how it is set up and structured a little. But I do want to divide these verses and get into this text tonight. As Brother Chris mentioned, we only have 9 to 10 weeks and got a whole lot of truth to unpack. So let's go ahead and read these verses.

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 proclaimed 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 so that our joy may be complete.

If I may, let me pray, just pray over this text and pray that the Lord would plant this word into our hearts and it would grow up and we have a greater understanding of who Christ is and who the Word of life is. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, I pray for the reading of Your Word and for the proclamation of Your Word and the giving of the sense of Your Word. And I pray that we as a congregation of believers at Grace Life Church, Brookhaven, would be nurtured in the Word or teach us what it means to know the Word of life personally.

Teach us what it means to love the Word of life and teach us what it means to have our joy complete among other brothers and sisters that know the eternal Word of life. Bless us tonight. We love You. In Your name we pray. Amen. So, I want to do a bit of introduction. I want to introduce you to the sermon series and kind of how we are unpacking this book. And I also want to spend some time to introduce the book itself. So the series title, if you're taking notes, if you follow us on Facebook, you'll see that we posted this last night.

The title series, series of the title is "Blessed Assurance, Fundamentals of the Faith in 1 John." This is why I sang "Blessed Assurance" tonight. In terms of blessed assurance, Scripture tells us that we get great assurance and great joy as we have a right understanding of certain fundamentals that are just slam-full, jam-packed, all throughout the book of 1 John. There are many tests and proofs, and these tests were given to this body of believers the Apostle John is writing to. And he writes to little children in the faith.

And he's writing to encourage them, he's writing to give them a litmus test, if you will, of things that should be in their life. And they are for us, reading over their shoulders, a sense of tests. These are fundamentals of the faith. These are things that should be in the life of every believer. Tonight as we break these four verses down, the preface of the book, we will see that the Word of Life, who is Christ, we will see what the Word of Life means to us and to the body of Christ. And we will also see Christian vital signs. So, five things we will look at tonight which will serve as vital signs for us.

We have nurses who attend our fellowship. It's good to see Clarissa here tonight because I had her in my illustration. You all have been to the doctor. You've all seen vital signs as they've taken. They've been taken. We give our vital signs as the nurses do this, usually as a first step. And the vital signs are measurements of the body's most basic functions. Body temperature, pulse rate, our respiration, blood pressure. And a sense, our vital signs show that we're living. In fact, they give a measurement and monitor as the first sign of any medical problem. John is writing to spiritual children about spiritual vital signs.

And spiritually speaking, what are the biblical vital signs of life? What things must be in your life to demonstrate that you are alive spiritually? Conversely, what things are lacking in the life of enemies of Christ? See, John is writing in a time where the church was about 50 years old. So this is about roughly 90 AD, 40 to 50 years after Christ's resurrection. And he is writing from the town of Ephesus where he's living in the latter years of his life. And the church had already settled and been harassed by heresies. Heresy had crept into the church. And John is writing to renew confidence that has been shaken by this false teaching.

When heresy comes in, it attacks several things. And in this case, heresy was attacking the very nature of who Christ is. It could be that we have been harassed by heresy that is in our day. And if we're not careful, we can see that heresies in church culture and in culture and in general can permeate and find their way into the church. And they can begin to pervert our understanding, a biblical understanding of who Christ is, who the Word of life is. Now John wrote the Gospel of John. You know the Gospels are Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. And he also wrote the Epistles of John. So 1 John, 2 John and 3 John.

John also was the revelator of revelation. Jesus physically manifested himself to John when he was secluded on the island of Patmos. And he is writing from Ephesus and in the letter of revelation there's a letter to the church of Ephesus. So this is a city that he lives in that he is well acquainted with. But these destructive heresies have harmed their spiritual growth. And I think it's important for us to see that there are times when we need a spiritual checkup. We need the great physician to move through his Word into our life, into a season of examination.

There were enemies of Christ that rose up from the church and they left the church and they were still seducing members of the church. They were attacking this beloved group of little children. And the great physician needed through John to take their spiritual vital signs. These vital signs not only would prove that they are alive spiritually or they are healthy spiritually. In some cases maybe there is an area of weakness in their spiritual life. But these vital signs can also reveal those who are dead. You will see that 1 John is a great book for discernment and developing our sense of discernment.

The book features a lot of writing about anti-Christs. In chapter 2, those who went out from among us because they were not of us. We hear of the anti-Christ which is spoken of in Revelation. But in 1 John we are going to learn this summer that the anti-Christ is alive and well. And the anti-Christ or anyone who is anti-Christ or anti-Christian will lack these necessary components, these vital signs. I want to introduce the book of 1 John. Anytime you study a book and you get commentaries and you look at research and scholars, there is always the who, what, when, where and why of every book that we study. Who wrote it? Who was it written to?

What is the content? What is the nature, the context? Where? Where is this taking place? Why was it written? Why is this book necessary? And also when? When was this book written? So we are going to look at the who, what, when and where and why of 1 John. Well the authorship of 1 John is interesting in that it's not like a traditional letter. If you read the epistles of Paul, the Pauline epistles, the letters that he wrote from jail, the prison epistles, you will see he always has an introductory note. Paul always announces his authorship. John does not ever announce his authorship or announce who he is writing to.

He does not open the letter with a salutation and he doesn't conclude the letter either. But John is clearly recognized as the author throughout church history. John was an apostle, Luke 6, 13 and 14. His older brother James along with John were both known as the sons of Zebedee in Acts 12, 2. They were known as the sons of Thunder, Mark 3, 17. John was one of the three most intimate of Jesus along with Peter and James. John authors these three epistles, the Gospel of John, the book of Revelation and he was well known to the readers that he was writing to.

One thing that a traditional greeting does for us is it helps us from a scholarship point of view nail down who is he writing to. It's clear that Paul is writing to Timothy in the books of 1 and 2 Timothy. It's clear that he's writing to Titus. It's clear that he's writing to the Corinthians or the church in Galatia. However, even though John never acknowledges the specific group of people he's writing to, we can understand something, not necessarily about the date, we get that from the early church historians that reference John. Most importantly we get the tone.

John writes, "My little children." This implies that he's writing this later in his life, possibly at the latter portion of his life. What are some of the characteristics of 1 John? This is a general epistle. A general epistle is a book of the Bible that was written to a group of people that's not named or it's written to the church at large. We can gather that the audience were Jewish Christians who were immediately concerned. 1 John 5, 13 makes it evident that he's writing to believers. He also links this with 1 John 2, 3 through 5.

He says things such as, "As you know," "As from the beginning," "As you have heard from the beginning." He uses language that would indicate he's clearly writing to Christians. But these are Christians who have been attacked by heresy. They have been assaulted by a false understanding of Christ that permeated the culture. The original audience needs self-examination. Any time we study a Bible chapter or a book of the Bible, we have to understand something about the context. What does the book mean to the original audience? And we gather principles from that. And 1 John was written to them so that they could take their own vital signs.

It is a letter, even though it may not begin or end like some letters of Scripture. You can say clearly that it is intensely personal. It is extremely personal. One commentator said this was a loving and an anxious sermon by a fatherly pastor. A loving and anxious sermon. And a lot of commentators make a lot out of the fact that there is no traditional greeting. It's almost as if he can walk into his house and pick up a conversation with his children. I was thinking about this.

You know when I walk into my house, I do not announce to those sitting around the table, my name is Keith Stovall, husband to Teresa, son of Gerald and Marcia, father to Ramey, Isaac and Camp. The relationship and my authority are unspoken because of the connection. I walk in and I simply pick up with an important issue. And John literally walks into the house, figuratively speaking, and speaks to his spiritual children and he essentially says, "I got a really important issue to talk about." Both the Gospel of John and the epistles of John were written towards the end of the first century, 95 AD.

The primary heresy that John attacks in this book is the pseudo-intellectual Gnosticism. Now if you're taking notes, it's not spelled with an N, it's spelled with a G. G-N-O-S-T-I-C. That's the Gnostics. Who were the Gnostics? And to introduce this book, we have to understand something about the historical context. Gnosticism came from the Greek influence. Hellenization or Hellenism was the Greek culture as it influenced the world, the Roman world. And Gnosticism made a false dichotomy between that which is spiritual, which was considered good and pure, and that which was physical, which was bad.

They could consider themselves to be privileged possessors of this knowledge. So the Gnostics, and specifically Gnostic Christians, which really is a misnomer. There is no such thing as a Gnostic Christian. But these are Christians who were influenced by Gnosticism and tried to convert other Christians to their view of thinking. And it had all sorts of damaging impacts to the Church. For one, specifically, they thought that they were elite. They thought that they possessed knowledge that others did not have.

If they considered themselves to be possessors of this knowledge, then they were in a place that elevated them above the regular Christians. And the impact of Gnosticism in the Christian Church was one that led to immorality because nothing that the body could do could tarnish the purity of the spirit. So an abuse of alcohol or reveling in debauchery, this was all seen to be part of the product of the body. This also led to a denial of Christ's human nature. And this was really, I think, the crux of John's argument. He speaks to the essence of Christ's humanity. If you read the Gospel of John, we hear him say, "In the beginning was the Word.

The Word was with God. The Word was God." He speaks to Christ's deity in the first few verses of that book. And he doesn't necessarily speak to Christ's deity throughout 1 John. It's almost understood. And even the Gnostic Christians weren't arguing that Jesus was not divine. They were actually arguing that he wasn't human. And that may not seem to be a very dangerous argument to say, "Oh, yes, we believe Jesus is God. We just don't believe that he was fully human the way you think historically." But in so doing, they were tampering with the Trinity. And that is important, as we will see tonight.

That is a vital sign, is our doctrinal understanding of the person of Christ. And if you're taking notes, if you write down the word Christology, this is a critically important word. Christology, the word Christ, Christology is your doctrine of the nature of Jesus. And every cult that has ever existed attacks a biblical Christology. And Gnosticism was doing the same thing. It led to immorality, it denied Christ's human nature. And it falsely said that divine nature was either make-believe or it was only temporary. Some Gnostics claimed that Jesus was divine just for a certain period of time. He could not have died because he was spirit.

These false teachers had actually been a part of the church. They had been seduced. First John 2.19 says, "They went out from us because they were not of us. They were men of influence for they claimed to be prophets." First John 4.1, "Many false prophets are gone out into the world. And although they have left the church, they were actively picking off church members." So there was a few different types. I will not be exhaustive here, but Dosticism, Dosticism, D-O-C-E-T-I-S-M, claimed that Jesus' physical body was not real, but it only seemed to be physical. It comes from the Greek word meaning to appear.

If another teaching comes along and says that Jesus was not fully human, it needs to be discarded. Sir Renthes was a heretic who contended that Christ's spirit descended on the human Jesus at his baptism, but it left him just before his crucifixion. Now this was problematic to argue that the divinity of Christ only came upon him from a certain amount of time is a heresy that you can still hear rumblings of today. There are people who still today will argue that Jesus was divine. The Holy Spirit descended on Jesus at the dove and it left him at some other point in his ministry.

But John wrote that the Jesus who baptized at the beginning of his ministry was the same person who was crucified on the cross. First John 5.6. It's important to understand the historical context because as we dive into this book this summer, we will make note and make mention of these attacks. First John also attacks a group of people called the Antinomians who said that God's people are not under the law and that they're not required to keep the commandments. John frequently references the commandments.

So moving into the body of the message tonight, if we are going to understand the word of life, if we are to grow spiritually, there are certain vital signs that must be in our life if we are to foster a blessed assurance. And that's our prayer that you will be firmly convinced that you will be assured in your life as a believer. Not because you have had a certain experience or because of a feeling or because of commitment, but because the vital signs of life are clearly evident in your life, that after an experience that's biblical and after you have repented and believed in the gospel, that you see that you are alive.

It's a great physician were to come and take these vital signs and to do an examination of your heart and life. Would you be spiritually alive and to be evident to all that you are vibrant and growing in your walk? Or would it be evident that you are not spiritually alive, that you are an antichrist and that these vital signs are not evident in your life? So the first vital sign of Christian life, we must see the unchangeable word of life. Let's read this in the book of 1 John 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 have touched with our hands concerning the word of life. Now this phrase, the beginning, is seen six times in this book. Now at first glance, if you open up the gospel of John and you see at the beginning, in the beginning was the word, the word was with God, the word was God, you might actually misinterpret this verse.

When it says the beginning, when John in 1 John verse 1 says that which was from the beginning, you would have to actually know the construction of the Greek language to realize that this is not talking about the beginning of creation or the beginning of the world. There's six times he uses the word, the beginning, and he's talking about the gospel message of Christ. He's essentially saying the beginning of the manifestation of the son of God, from the beginning of Christ's life. And the only way we would know that is if we did some study into the original language.

So what John is saying, the beginning, is that the word of life as seen in the nature of Christ was proclaimed in the gospel message. He's talking about the gospel. The beginning is the very indication on earth that Jesus was the Messiah. The beginning in this construction is unique to John's writing. And John is essentially with this word, this is what John is saying, I am a witness. I could testify in the court that Jesus was a real man and that the nature of Christ was wrapped up in the message of Christ. If you're taking notes, that would be a good one liner for you to write down.

That the nature of Christ was wrapped up in the message of Christ. We're going to see that the Christology that John had in the book of John is the same Christology he has in first John. The message of redemption is unchanging. From the beginning of the gospel of Jesus, it has been the same. John MacArthur says that those who preach the true gospel have always commanded faith and repentance. The kingdom of God is at hand and they've announced the merciful and gracious availability of divine forgiveness and they've urged sinners to be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ.

I've just gotten done finishing, finished up teaching the youth in Exodus. Last summer I taught through Exodus. Those of you who were there some for that understand that we unpacked fully that Moses was a mediator. He mediated between God and people. He was a picture in part of what Jesus was in completion. And what John MacArthur is saying is that Jesus came, John was a witness and Jesus was the perfect mediator. The gospel message is one of repentance. If I can ask you, when did you hear the life changing good news of the gospel? When did you hear that Jesus Christ was the mediator you needed?

That you were lost in your sinful condition, that you were undone, that you were broken in your sinfulness and that you were on your way to a devil's hell if you did not have the blood of the mediator, the sacrificial lamb cover you. That is the gospel message that John preached and the nature of who Christ is was being attacked and therefore the message of what Christ did was being attacked. The unchangeable word of life was proclaimed in the gospel message. But John's mention is that Jesus and his role in creation was also unchanging. So let's reach back into the book of John. Let me read this. In chapter 1 verses 1 through 5.

In the beginning was the word. The word was with God. The word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. And if you fast forward in the book of John to verse 14. And the word became flesh. As you follow along in scripture, read that if you would. I want us to read that out loud. It's okay if you have a different translation. I promise this won't sound like we're speaking in tongues.

But let's all read in the book of John chapter 1 verse 14. John gospel of John chapter 1 verse 14. Let's read out loud together. And the word became flesh. Let's say it again. And the word became flesh. The scholars know that the audience would have been familiar with John's gospel. They would have known that John commonly preached that in the beginning was the word. The word was with God. The word was God. And they would have known this verse. And the word became flesh. We have to understand the nature of Christ. It can't be disconnected from the gospel message. Jesus is savior and he's the perfect mediator because he is the God man.

He is eternal. And he took on flesh. Now there is a phrase you can write this down. Please do not be intimidated if we use theological terminology. We know that you can learn it. But there is a phrase hypostatic union. The hypostatic union. H Y. You can write this down. H Y P O. H Y P O S T A T I C Union. Raise your hand if you have heard that phrase before. Okay. Tell me what your understanding of what that means. Only God fully man. He did not cast aside any godness when he walked the face of the earth. But he also did not subtract in any way. Humanity. If he was not fully man then he would not have been the last Adam.

He had to be last Adam. He had to be like us in every way. Scripture says that he was tempted in every way we were tempted yet without sin. Now does this mean that we can understand and wrap our mind around the hypostatic union? No. We don't have to wrap our minds around it. We have to believe it. And we have to be prepared to fight tooth and nail against any whim and any theological fad that would come along and try to attack the very essence of what God's word says Jesus was. The word was made flesh.

According to AW Pink the Christian Gnostics in John's day taught that Christ's body was a phantasm or a phantom because they were to say that Christ's body was a phantom was it was like he was an apparition. And the reason why they had to discard the body of Jesus is because more so than the gospel they believed Gnosticism which said the body was evil. Jesus could not have had a full human body and been the son of God. They could not in faith submit to the truth of God as John wrote it and the word became flesh. The word became flesh. The eternal word of God. In 1 John he is the word of life.

Some Gnostics called into question his deity others called into question his humanity but either attack undermines the church's understanding of Christ's nature. I'll go back to the earlier phrase that I gave you cannot separate the essence of Christ's nature and the essence of Christ's message. We have to hold that Jesus was the God man and you have to hold to that because that's what scripture tells us in fact John beautifully orchestrates and beautifully highlights in his gospel wonderful Christology.

These Gnostics also claimed to have attained apart from the gospel a transcendent knowledge and this is the problem is that in our day today we still have people who are claiming that apart from the gospel there can be attained higher knowledge. One of them is critical race theory. This idea that apart from the gospel we can have an understanding of human nature is really influenced by Marxism and critical race theory is really becoming associated with this idea of woke theology or the woke gospel and it's an idea that there can be analytical tools outside of the gospel to help us understand maybe bring the gospel to bear that is not accurate.

There is no higher law knowledge. There is no higher level of understanding of anything that can help us understand the gospel but the gospel. For false Christ's and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders so as to mislead if possible even the elect. They threaten to undermine the church. So we need to see that if we're going to have growing spiritual life this summer one vital sign is that we need to see the unchangeable word of life the unchangeable word of life and that is that the correct essence of Christ's nature is linked with the message of Christ. Secondly we need to see the historical word of life.

Jesus Christ was made flesh. Jesus Christ the eternal word was made flesh and John is a witness to this and he speaks to the historicity of Christ. You can just say the historical word of life. Let me read first John 1 the second half of verse 1 and the first half of verse 2. There's a real historical Christ which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and which our hands have touched concerning the word of life. The life was made manifest and here John is speaking to the historical Christ. John is saying that this is the word of life which we have heard. Jesus spoke the Sermon on the Mount and John heard it.

When we read Matthew chapter 5 through 7 brother Chris is preaching through the Sermon on the Mount. We can picture John being right there on the front row. He heard it. There were times when Jesus spoke in parables. John heard every parable and afterwards Jesus had this theological after party where he would explain the parables that to those like the Pharisees they were always hearing. They were never perceiving. They were never understanding. Jesus grabbed his disciples and he explained them and John heard that.

The gospels tell us that his disciples came to Jesus when he was praying early in the morning and they said Lord teach us to pray. They heard him pray and they longed to know how to pray like that. They asked him and he told them and gave them instruction and John heard that. John heard Jesus rebuke the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Now towards the end of his life we don't see the primary enemy of the church being the Pharisees or the Sadducees. In 70 A.D. Israel Jerusalem was sacked and they became really a non-factor. They were no longer persecuting Christians.

And so the great enemy really became these antichrists that you hear John speak of. John is saying I heard him. John also said we have seen with our eyes. He is saying with my body, my eyes, I looked upon Jesus and his real flesh. He is a real historical person. We heard him and we saw him with our eyes. And then he takes a step further and he says we looked at. John was with Jesus morning, noon and night. When other disciples were not with Jesus, John was with Jesus. He was with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. He saw Moses and he saw Elijah. That is the law and the prophets were bearing witness to Jesus being the eternal word.

And John said I saw that, I heard that and I looked upon that. When Jesus healed the woman with the issue of blood, John said I saw it and then I looked at it. With increasing intensity and wonder and amazement, John is saying I looked upon him. And our hands have touched. John is the disciple who laid his head upon the chest of Christ, the Lord's Supper. John reclined next to him. John is the disciple that Jesus loved. Albert Barnes notes, "And our hands have handled. The evidence that he was a man was subjected to the sense of touch. It was not merely that he had been seen by the eye.

For then it might be pretended that he was a mere appearance assumed without reality." This was not an optical illusion. I think it would actually take more faith to believe that Jesus was an optical illusion than it would take for someone to believe that he was the eternal word made flesh. John 1.14 tells us again, "And the word became flesh and it dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory, the glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." But we see the proclaimed word of God as we continue to work our way through this verse. This is the second half of 1 John 1.2.

And we have seen it and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and which was made manifest to us, that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you. John has proclaimed it. He is an eyewitness suitable to testify in the court of the Gnostic heretics. He was an expert witness more so than the Pharisees and the scribes. He could bear witness. Scholars believe that John is most likely the last remaining apostle alive at the time and the writing. He has been proclaiming the gospel of Jesus and the message and it has not been changed.

His Christology is linked with his message and John is still proclaiming. John in fact is under a divine mandate that Jesus is the promised Messiah, the incarnate Christ appeared in personal and human form. In Jesus of Nazareth exhibited the very life of God. He was God in the flesh. He was fully God. He was fully man. But this was the personal word of life. First John 1.3. Let's read this if we can. 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 in verse 3. That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you.

John is a gospel preacher and he is proclaiming this message. This is a proclaimed and a personal word of life that you might have fellowship with us. This original Greek word is koinonia. And koinonia speaks to a mutual participation in a common or cause or shared life. John here is talking about the Christian in fellowship with Christ. But he's also talking about the Christian in fellowship with other Christians. I just want to speak to you all tonight that the gospel message received is not merely a collection of ideas. The gospel of Jesus is a person. When you accept the gospel message of faith and repentance.

When you turn from your sin to embrace Christ. You're embracing him as fully God fully man the sacrifice for your sins. He was a sufficient offering for your sins. You probably are very well acquainted with your mistakes. You probably have spent many times thinking about grieving over. There might even be a sense of hopelessness that comes. But when someone knows Jesus. The enormity of their sin pales into comparison in the enormity of his loving forgiveness. That the father's wrath was poured out on that Christ. And this is a personal Christ. And when we come here Grace Life Church Brookhaven.

We have fellowship with Jesus when we're singing these songs. And when we're preaching the word and we hear the word. We have fellowship with Jesus. His Holy Spirit is with us. He's changing us. But we also have fellowship with one another. Do you know when you repent of your sin. And you're in your quiet time with the Lord and God brings to your mind something that does does not need to be there. Could be an attitude or pattern of thinking or pattern of acting. And you repent of that and you come into church. You're not carrying that sin to the body of believers. Now if you're walking in open sin rebellion. When you're singing the songs.

You're bringing that sin with you and that blocks fellowship. Not just for you. But it makes God angry. Scripture tells us that bringing sin into the assembly affects the relationship. Right. And that's why church discipline is so important. But when we're talking about the coin Ania. That John speaks of. He is saying I am writing and I'm proclaiming this message so that our joy. That you too would have fellowship with us. That you the hearer would have fellowship with us. The writer. With the elders of the church. But also. With Christ fellowship. Between the Christian and Christ and fellowship between the Christian and other Christians.

And John's ultimate purpose in writing this book. Is so that. The reader would have joy. God desires us to grow in our joy. This summer. You might be going through hardship. You might be going through trial. You might be going through difficulty. But if you have the word of life. Then John is writing this. So that your joy would be complete. This is a joy producing word. Of life. Let's read first John. One four. And we are writing these things. So that our joy may be. Complete when you take. An evaluation of the vital signs. Of your Christian life. When you see that through difficulty you're growing. You're growing in your love for Christ.

You're walking in the light. You are accepting what the Bible says about who Jesus is and you love. The Jesus as revealed in the Bible. Your heart is growing. In love and submission to him. That's joy producing. John fifteen eleven. These things I have spoken to you. That my joy may be in you. And that your joy may be full. Those are the words of Christ in the upper room. And Jesus heard that. Excuse me. Those are the words of Jesus in the upper room and John heard that. Let me rephrase that make sure that that it's clear. John heard the incarnate Christ. In the upper room say. That it was his will. That your joy would be full.

Is your joy full. In the word of life tonight. If you find a spirit of despondence and despair. Even depression. I recently had a conversation with someone who is. Extremely depressed. Not a member of the church but extremely. Depressed. In despair and despondent. If I were to open up first John. Chapter one verse four. Or if I were to read John fifteen eleven. The very words of Jesus. These things I've spoken to you that my joy may be in you. There is no joy from Christ that is separate. From the truth. About his nature and his message. We can't find joy with the forgiving part of Christ. And discard the essence of his nature.

We get joy from understanding. Biblically who Jesus is. If you're struggling with joy. This summer I asked that you simply. Study this book along with us. That you show up. That you examine and evaluate yourself. Lord am I. Rejoicing. In the word of life. As he is revealed in scripture. If you find your joy in anything outside of Christ. It is a fleeting joy. If you find your joy in anything outside. The revealed word of scripture. It is. A temporary fleeting joy. Your joy can't come from your job. Moms your joy can't come from your children. Your grandchildren. Husbands your joy can't come from your hobbies. Primarily.

Now we love all those things. We love working in our occupational identity. We love our families. And seeing them grow. Especially seeing them grow. In the nurture and admonition of the Lord. There's times for rest. And relaxation. And we need that. And there's times. That we need fellowship with other brothers and sisters. But our joy will not be full. And it will not be complete. Until we are. Growing in submission and in love for. The word of life. So I. I would. Encourage you to join me this summer. As we seek. To have our joy full. As we simply look into our vital signs. And I think that if you join me in this. You and me of both.

If you've been born again. You will see a blessed assurance. Jesus is mine. Because you will see what the Bible says should be in your life. And tonight we looked at the nature of who Jesus is. And the nature of the gospel message. And the nature of those two things show us. What biblical Koinonia fellowship is. We ought to be able to show up every Sunday morning. Sunday evening for Bible study. Wednesday. And just be so excited about who Jesus is. Not just what he's done in my life. But who he is. So let's pray and ask God to do this.