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Sermons

Subject 14 : The First Epistle of JOHN

[Chapter 1-1] Jesus Christ Is God (1 John 1:1-10)

Jesus Christ Is God(1 John 1:1-10)
“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; and 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.”
 
 
Why Did the Apostle John Speak of Jesus Christ Who Was from the Beginning?
 
Do you know Jesus properly?
We must know and believe that Jesus is God Himself.

For us to understand 1 John, we must all first know Jesus properly, who is God Himself. All of us must stand firmly on the rock of this faith that truly knows and believes in Jesus Christ as God. To know and believe in Jesus the God as our Savior necessarily means that we would know that He is the God who created us. For all of us, Jesus Christ is fundamentally the Creator God and our perfect Savior. So for God the Father, Jesus is His only begotten Son, while for us, He has become our true Savior. It is when we all know Jesus Christ as God that we can encounter the true light of salvation and believe in it as well. 
On the other hand, if you do not know Jesus Christ as God, then only spiritual confusion will be brought to you. We must, therefore, stand firm on the Truth that Jesus Christ is truthfully God Himself, the One who has given us eternal life.
In 1 John 5:20, the Apostle John testifies that Jesus Christ is the true God, saying, “And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.” For all of us, in other words, it is Jesus Christ who is God, and it is He who has given us eternal life. As such, by placing our faith in Jesus the God and believing in this Savior, we must be washed from our sins and become God’s children. We must be saved from all our sins by knowing and believing in Jesus properly as the God who has given us salvation through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. 
 
 
Today’s Scripture Passage from 1 John 1 Is Telling Us from Where True Fellowship Comes
 
From where does true fellowship with God come?
This true fellowship is attainable only when we know that Jesus Christ is God for us and believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. 
 
1 John 1:3 tells us that for us to have true fellowship with Jesus Christ, God Himself, we must first begin by knowing and believing in Him as our Savior.
According to the Apostles’ understanding of the divine Jesus, in other words, He had no imperfection whatsoever. And the Apostle John also says in 1 John 1:6-7, “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.” 
This passage tells us that if we truthfully believe in Jesus as our Savior, then we can have true fellowship with Him by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that He has given us. The Apostle John is testifying here that to have this true fellowship with God is to be washed from our sins by believing that Jesus is God Himself and the Son of God the Father, and by also believing that Jesus Christ took upon the sins of the world through the baptism He received from John the Baptist in the Jordan River and shed His precious blood on the Cross. This is because the gospel truth of the water and the Spirit, that Jesus Christ, God Himself, has saved us from all our sins, lasts forever. 
The passage, where it says, “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin,” tells us the following: Because Jesus had been baptized by John the Baptist, He could take upon the sins of the world; and thus, that Jesus was crucified and shed His precious blood on the Cross became His meritorious deed that has washed away people’s sins in consequence. Our Divine Lord was baptized by John the Baptist to take upon all our sins, and He was crucified and shed His blood on the Cross to bear all the condemnation of sin. Therefore, today’s Scripture passage tells us that this blood that Jesus Christ shed on the Cross becomes our salvation that has atoned all sinners’ sins and iniquities. 
It is indeed through Jesus Christ that we have been washed from all our sins by faith. We must believe that Jesus Christ, God Himself, came to this earth as the Savior incarnated in the flesh of man; that to blot out our sins, He took upon the sins of the world by being baptized by John the Baptist, was crucified and shed His blood on the Cross, and rose from the dead; and that by doing all these things He has given us new life (Matthew 3:13-17, John 19:30). Since Jesus Christ fulfilled the perfect salvation as such, to know this Lord Jesus Christ as our God and Savior, we must first know His baptism and bloodshed, and by placing our faith in them, receive the remission of our sins that cleanses us from all our sins once for all.
1 John 1:9 testifies, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” This passage tells us that if we confess that we are piles of sin who are born with sin from the day of our birth (Mark 7:21-22), and if we confess our insufficient selves who cannot help but sin all the time, we can receive the remission of our sins by believing in the true gospel― that our Lord God has already cleansed away all our sins with the baptism that He received from John the Baptist, and that He bore all the condemnation of sin by shedding His blood on the Cross. In other words, even though we are such that we cannot but go to hell, when we admit that we are such sinful beings and when we believe in the Truth that Jesus Christ has already washed away all our sins with His baptism and the bloodshed on the Cross, seeing this faith of ours, God will then cleanse us from our sins. This was made possible because our Divine Lord is the true God who was more than able to already cleanse away all our sins with His baptism and bloodshed. 
Therefore, we must first confess to our Lord God saying, “We are evildoers who indeed sin all the time.” And we must know and believe in the Truth that this Lord has already blotted out all our sins once for all with the baptism that He received from John and the precious blood that He shed on the Cross. This perfect washing of sin was made possible because Jesus Christ is the true Savior and the true God for all of us. Our Divine Lord is the God who has enabled all of us to recognize and know the true washing of sin through the gospel truth of the water and the Spirit. It is Jesus Christ our God who has made it possible for us to know and believe in the true remission of our sins through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Now, all we have to do is just know and believe that our Lord has washed away all our sins once for all with His baptism and His bloodshed on the Cross. This Divine Lord is the true God and the true Savior for us.
The Apostle John said in 1 John 1:10, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.” We are such that we cannot but sin all the time. We need to realize that if we say to Jesus Christ our God that we do not sin in our flesh, we would actually be committing the sin of despising and standing against the work of salvation that God has done for us. However, these sins that we commit all the time as we carry on with our lives are also included in the sins of the world, and therefore this means that our Lord God has washed away all our sins with the gospel of the water and the Spirit that He has given us. We must also realize that our Lord said this so that those who neither know nor believe in the gospel truth of the water and the Spirit would not be able to receive the gift of the true washing of sin unless they believe in this Truth. 
If you now truthfully know and believe that Jesus the God is the son of God, then you will be able to believe that the Lord has delivered all of us from our sins by coming to this earth, being baptized by John the Baptist, and shedding His blood. In fact, it is only when we first begin by knowing Jesus Christ our God that it is made easier for all of us to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that the Lord has given us. It is not such a difficult thing for everyone to believe in this true gospel, because the Bible clearly says that Jesus Christ, the true God, has fulfilled this Truth. If it is something that the true God Jesus has done, then it must be true and perfect. It cannot be a lie or a mistake, that He should repent of it, for it is written in Numbers 23:19, 
“God is not a man, that He should lie,
Nor a son of man, that He should repent. 
Has He said, and will He not do?
Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”
Jesus, our true God, has saved us all mankind from all our sins through His baptism and His bloodshed on the Cross. He also was resurrected from the dead, ascended to Heaven to reveal His original status as the true God, and became the true Savior for the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Truly, it is by our faith in Jesus Christ, the God who came of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, that we can have unfaltering faith in this true gospel. 
 
 

We Must Know That Jesus, the True God, Has Saved Us with the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit

 
Had today’s Christians begun their journey of faith from the proper knowledge of and beliefs in Jesus the true God, they would have been able to accept it only as natural that He took upon the sins of mankind by being baptized by John the Baptist (Matthew 3:15). However, because many people do not believe that Jesus is the true God, as a result, they have not yet receive the grace of salvation that was fulfilled by His baptism and bloodshed. 
Therefore, for you and I to have true fellowship with God, we must begin from the faith that believes in Jesus as the true God. Let me repeat this once more. If all of us do not begin our faith from this faith that knows and believes in Jesus the God, our faith will all be rendered completely futile. If you have this faith in the divinity of Jesus, you will then find it easier to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. And it is by our faith in this true gospel that we can be perfected. By believing in Jesus Christ, the God who has saved us from all our sins, we can all be washed from our sins once for all by faith.
If we do not even realize that Jesus is God, what is the use of believing in Him as our Savior? And if you do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit given by this Divine Jesus, there can be no benefit for you at all. But if you have this faith in Jesus as the Savior and God, then by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit given by the Lord, you will be able to receive the washing of sin and eternal life into your heart. 
Jesus Christ, God Himself, came to this earth to save you and me from our sins, and by being baptized by John the Baptist, being crucified and dying on the Cross, and rising from the dead again, He has indeed saved us perfectly. It is my sincerest hope and prayer that you would all believe in this Jesus Christ who has enabled you to be saved from all your sins as the Son of God and the true God Himself.
The problem, however, is that many of today’s Christians do not know Jesus properly. The false teachers of Christianity had confused the spiritual Truth from the Early Church age (Acts 15:24), for they did not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit at all. To untangle from their sins those whose faith is all confused like a tangled spool and who believe in Jesus Christ our God only vaguely, we have to believe in Jesus the true God as our Savior even more fervently, As such, we have the duty to bear witness of the gospel truth of the water and the Spirit to all people. You and I must now know and believe that Jesus Christ our God is the Creator who made the universe and all things in it, and that He is the true Savior. 
 
 

Jesus the True God Is the Creator Who Made the Heavens and the Earth, and the Lord of the Universe

 
In Genesis 1:1-3, it is written, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.” This God here who said, “Let there be light,” is none other than Jesus Christ.
Let us turn to John 1:1-3: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” This passage tells us that in the beginning, God created the universe with the Word. So God created all things, and if anyone asks who He is, the answer is that He is Jesus Christ, God Himself.
John 1:10 also says, “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.” The pronoun “He” used here refers to Jesus Christ, the one and only God. Jesus the true God came to this earth incarnated in the flesh of man to save sinners. 
Jesus Christ is the One who created the universe and all things in it. In other words, He is God Himself. Jesus Christ is the God who has delivered us from all our sins and death by coming to this earth incarnated in the flesh of man, being baptized by John the Baptist, shouldering the sins of the world and being crucified, and rising from the dead again. This divine Jesus is the Son of God, and He has become the Messiah, our Savior. It is by Jesus Christ the true God that this world was created. 
Therefore, as we believe in Jesus Christ the true God, though we have never seen God with our eyes of the flesh, we can still meet Him through Jesus Christ (John 1:18). God the Father had sent His only begotten Son to this earth incarnated in the flesh of man, and through Jesus this Son of God, He has enabled us to find out who our Savior is. It is from this knowledge—“Jesus is God”—that our race of faith must begin. It is only then that the race can be begun from the faith that knows the Truth of salvation. We must all know the Truth that Jesus Christ, God Himself, came to this earth and has saved us from all the sins of the world with the gospel truth of the water and the Spirit.
We must have the knowledge and faith that the Divine Jesus is God Himself. He who is God, He who is the Creator who made the universe, came to this earth as our Savior and has saved us from the sins of the world. God Himself, in other words, came to this earth in the flesh of man, shouldered the sins of the world by being baptized, was crucified and shed His blood to death, rose from the dead again, and has thereby saved us from the sins of the world once for all.
You need to realize here just how much Jesus Christ had sacrificed Himself to save you from the sins of the world. Even though Jesus was God Himself, He had to become a creature to deliver us from our sins and make us God’s people, He had to take upon everyone’s sins by being baptized by John the Baptist, and He had to sacrifice Himself by shedding the blood of His own flesh on the Cross. And by rising from the dead, He has bestowed His mercy on all those who believe in this Truth that has made them God’s own people. It is because we believe in Jesus the true God that we, who believe in His baptism and His sacrifice on the Cross, have received the true power of salvation. This is how all human beings who believe in Jesus the true God can now be saved perfectly through the gospel truth of the water and the Spirit. 
Our Lord is, in other words, the God who came to deliver us from the sins of the world. In contrast, however, all the world’s great men and the founders of the religions that have come and gone in this world are no more than mere creatures. But the divine Jesus is fundamentally God Himself. Jesus who is our God is our Creator, and we are His creation. All human beings are the creatures made by Jesus Christ. It is because Jesus the true God created the heavens and the earth that everything exists. It is because this divine Jesus said, “Let there be light,” that this light still exists in this world. This is why Paul said that the knowledge of Jesus Christ is the most excellent one (Philippians 3:8). 
 
 
Beginning from the Belief that Jesus is God, We Must Seek to Understand the Word of the Bible
 
When we know and believe in Jesus Christ, God Himself, there is nothing difficult about the Truth of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The Apostle John tells us that Jesus Christ the true God has saved His believers from the sins of the world. If we believe in Him as the Omniscient God, we cannot but confess before Him that we are weak and insufficient beings—in other words, that we are the seeds of sin—and come to accept the gospel of the water and the Spirit. However, if we think of ourselves as believers in Jesus even as we neither acknowledge that He is God nor believe in the gospel truth of the water and the Spirit, we will ultimately end up deceiving both ourselves and God, and we will forever be unable to receive the grace of salvation.
Jesus Christ the Almighty God has saved us from all the sins of the world with the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We must know and believe that to save us from the sins of the world, Jesus Christ, the true God, came to us through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. He has given us the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and He has enabled all those who believe in this truth of salvation to have true fellowship with God.
Therefore, every Christian must recognize this true God Jesus as the Savior and believe as such. 
Those who do not believe in Jesus as God are unable to understand the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit written in the Scriptures. Even though it is clearly written in the Bible that the Jesus Christ, God Himself, has blotted out all our sins with the gospel of the water and the Spirit, they still do not acknowledge this work of God. It is because they do not recognize Jesus Christ as their God and Savior that they neither recognize all the Word of truth written in the Bible. Do you now believe in Jesus Christ as God Himself, and as your Savior?
If Jesus is our God, then He is also God for the entire mankind. It must then be also true that Jesus has saved us by coming to this earth, being baptized, dying on the Cross, and rising from the dead again. Even though Satan has muddled and twisted people’s understanding of God, the gospel Truth is, in fact, simple enough to believe.
We need to tell others that they must have faith in Jesus as God. Yet when we actually speak to countless Christians, we discover that while they believe that Jesus is the Son of God, not many of them know or believe that He is God Himself. This is what the Apostle John is speaking of. Those who do not believe that Jesus is fundamentally God Himself all have flawed faith.
The reason why I am saying this repeatedly is because people throughout the world do not know the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit, which is the truth of salvation that Jesus, God Himself, has given us. Our duty on this earth is to know Jesus as the true God and to preach His salvation, that God has remitted away all the sins of this world with the true gospel of the water and the Spirit. What could be more worthwhile than this? 
My dear fellow believers, please pray for me and for our co-workers also. When those of us who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit pray, the Divine Jesus Christ and God His Father hear us, for Jesus Christ has saved us and become our Savior God, and He is the only begotten Son of God the Father. Jesus Christ our God hears our prayers and answers us. I ask you to pray now that God would save all the people of this entire world. And I hope that you would all pray to God by placing your faith in the Almighty God Jesus. 
Let me once again reiterate my admonition for you here. Believe that Jesus Christ is the true Savior and God. From henceforth, Jesus Christ, God Himself, will now protect you from all danger in your behalf. However, if you do not believe in Jesus as the true God, then He cannot lead your faith to the right path. 
Satan is trying to corrupt your faith. And this age is turning increasingly worse. You should therefore believe even more firmly that Jesus is God, and that He has come to this earth through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. What you must know is the Truth that Jesus Christ is God, that He came to this earth incarnated in the flesh of man to deliver us from the sins of the world, and that He has saved us through His baptism and the blood of the Cross—in this must you believe. I hope and pray that you would all know and believe in Jesus Christ in the Truth of the water and the Spirit.
We must also realize that if we lose this faith in the true God Jesus as our Savior, we are nothing to God. Satan will persistently try to corrupt our faith in Jesus our God and in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. But this is the very reason why we must hold onto the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit that we believe even more steadfastly. 
The strong tide of atheism is flowing all over the world. After Friedrich W. Nietzsche dared to say, “God is dead,” the people of this world are publicly challenging God, saying, “Where is the living God?” Uniting together, they try to stand against God and to ostracize those who believe in Him.
However, we the faithful believers have to swim against this current by standing firm with our faith in Jesus the true God. It would be only a tragedy if we fail to keep this faith. Only when we believe that the divine Jesus is our God do we truly believe in Him; otherwise, we do not believe in anything.
As more time goes by, this world will now get only worse. But by believing in Jesus as our God, we are still preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit throughout this world. I am sure that Jesus the true God will protect us from all evil spirits as long as we have faith in His divinity and the gospel of the water and the Spirit. 
I give all my thanks to God.
 
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