Would you take your Bibles, please? Turn to the back of the New Testament to John's epistles to 1 John, chapter 1. As we talk tonight briefly about the three goals of gospel ministry. We are here tonight to install a new pastor here at Christ's Covenant Church, Mike Miller, is about to become our officially our pastor of outreach and missions. And this is the third ordination installation in as many weeks that we've been privileged to have here two weeks ago. We ordained Bernie Lawrence to become the senior associate pastor at our church. Last week we ordained and installed Andrew Holbrooke as the assistant pastor of campus ministries. And tonight we don't have to ordain because he already is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in America. But we are required by Presbyterian to call and to install, through a commission, Mike Miller to be the assistant pastor having to do with our outreach and missions. And so we've taken this opportunity the last few weeks to kind of take a look at what it is to be a minister, what the ministry is all about, and how we can engage in a profitable manner with our ministers. We looked with Bernie at kind of some of the attitudes and the actions, the affections that we needed to display towards our ministers to encourage them and to submit to them and to pray to them because they are sent here by God and they are commissioned by Christ and they need the filling and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit along with us. And then last week we looked at what a minister is. We went to 2 Corinthians and we looked at three images from 2 Corinthians chapter 2, 3, and 4 having to do with kind of pictures of what Paul says a minister is. He is first of all censor, full of the incense of God's grace and God's presence in our life. He is also a pen, a gospel pen that Christ will use to write the words of life on our hearts. And he is a jar of clay to carry the transforming glory and presence of the Holy Spirit from his life into our own. And now we turn tonight to look at 1 John chapter 1 and a little bit of chapter 2 at the three goals of the gospel minister. I remember several years ago there was a lady in our church down in Surfside Beach and she wasn't converted yet, she became a Christian, but before she became a Christian she really had difficulty with the whole idea of tithing and money. And so one Sunday she came up to me and she said, you know I figured out why you men go into the ministry because you do it for the money. And I said to her, dear sister, if we did it for the money we're the most stupid men on the face of the earth. And the poorest businessmen you'll ever meet. But it's often our stock in life. I think it just comes with being human and being sinfully human at that is we often conjecture upon the minister's motives. What does he really want by going into the ministry? And I think that ministers as well as ruling elders and decons would tell you the same thing, that they don't feel that they have chosen to go into the ministry as much as they have been chosen to do so. They really believe whether they're right or wrong, they believe that they have been called by God to do this sort of thing. And they do have three objectives in mind, three great goals. We could put them all under the simple title of a life with God. They want everyone in the world to have a life, an intimate life and the fulfilling life, a redemptive life with the one true God who reveals himself in the Bible. And to that end, they want each person in their congregation to have three great gifts of God. They want first of all for all people to have fellowship with God the Father. Secondly, they want all people to know the forgiveness of Jesus Christ. And thirdly, they desire that all church members know the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Their life and their ministry is as trinitarian as all of life is. A life with God, the Father, in the creation, a life with God the Son and redemptive history and a life with God the Holy Spirit in the community of the church. And so they desire for people these three great strategic goals, fellowship with God the Father, forgiveness with Christ the Son and the fullness of God the Holy Spirit. And they draw that directly from the apostles. You know, it is kind of stock and fair here for us in America that whenever a president retires, he writes his memoirs. And these books, they sell by the millions because they're fascinating. And what is fascinating reading about, so I've read several of them is you get an inside view of what it is to be the president of the United States. And for the most part, I think these memoirs are quite transparent. And whether I like the president or not the ones that I have read or listened to on books on tape and so forth, these men who are presidents and will carry that title for life, reveal a lot of the motivations behind the men who seek and are elected to the highest office in our land. And it seems that each and every one of them has motives and goals that I was unaware of and they all seem to be the same. They seek that office. We think oftentimes from the lust for power and pride, but the ones that I have been familiar with and read, they all said that they felt called to that office, that they knew how difficult it would be. But they did it because of three things. Number one, they loved our country. And they wanted to expend their life investing in our nation, hopefully for its benefit and its progress. Number two, they all confessed that they loved the American people and that there were certain things about the American way of life that they were not happy with. And certain groups of people that they felt were not cared for or ministered to, we may say, in the American world, that they felt a burden to carry their cause to and be a defender of their needs and their aspirations at the highest level. Thirdly, each one that I have read said that they felt that there was just something in their soul where they wouldn't be content until they had served the Lord in that high office. We may conjecture upon their motives and even the accuracy or truth of their statements, but I think that any author is worthy to be taken at his word until we can prove that his words are false. The first thing in the Bible is that the apostles, Peter and John and Paul, all give us a great deal of information about their motivation for the ministry. And what it was like to be a minister of Jesus Christ and to be called by God and filled with the Holy Spirit for the great cause of the kingdom of God. Perhaps no one reveals in his beautiful and his sacred language of what it means to be a minister as the last of the apostles, the one who was the die last, the youngest to start with, the oldest to end with, and that is the apostle John. And here in 1 John 1 beginning in 1, down through 2, verse 6, he tells us what it is that he and his fellow apostles wanted in this ministry. They wanted us to have a life that was characterized by fellowship with God and the forgiveness of Christ and the fullness of the Holy Spirit. First of all, John says that the gospel offers to all those who hear it a wonderful gift of joy called fellowship with God. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hearts 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 also to you so that you too may have fellowship with us and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with this Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be made complete. Here loved ones I think are some of the most touching and amazing and profound of all of the words in Holy Scripture certainly in the New Testament. John writes that he and his fellow apostles had the unique opportunity and the great privilege to be intimate with God in a way no other person since or before has been. He says that which was from the beginning meaning God. I tell the Bible begins in the beginning God made the heavens and the earth. That's how the New Testament begins and the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. That which was from the beginning what he describes and his epistles and his gospel in the book of Revelation as life and light. The life of redemption and the light of Revelation God reaching down into the world to save and opening up the world to see him as he reveals himself. That which was from the beginning this God we have heard and seen and looked upon and touched. You know the prophets couldn't say that. Moses one time said God I'd like to see your face. God says Moses this cannot be no man can see me and live. John says he saw the face of that which was in the beginning. Look what he says. That which was from the beginning which we have heard as they listened to Jesus Christ. That which we have seen with our eyes as they gazed upon Jesus Christ and watched him work. That which we have looked upon that which we have studied in depth and that which we have touched with our hands concerning the Word of God as they felt Jesus Christ and embraced him and kissed him and smelled him. That we make known to you. They say that they had these men like Peter, James, John and others like no other men in history and encounter with the living God that was incredibly intimate. In fact he says that which was once hidden has been made manifest. In other words in the Greek laid open or revealed it became an epiphany that they saw. They saw Christ work. They saw him die. They saw him buried and then raised from the dead and alive and ascended into heaven. They testified as eyewitnesses to the things they saw he said we've testified to these things and we have proclaimed these things to you. This has become the apostolic corugma or proclamation the message preached. This message that Christ has died and Christ has risen and Christ will come again and they did all this he says so that what they had experienced personally we might experience to a lesser but yet a profound degree. Through their witness and their life and what was that 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 made complete. Some texts read and perhaps the more accurate ones actually read so that your joy may be made complete. In other words these ministers of the gospel these first paradigms of pastoral ministry these apostles said we have a life with God. Through Jesus Christ we have experienced God as he's made himself manifest in such an amazing way that our joy could not be fuller and this joy that we have we want to share with you that's how it goes. The joy of this fellowship of father, son and spirit is given to the apostles and the prophets and as they experienced that joy they want to share it with you and with me with all the generations yet to come. A life with God of fellowship he says with God the father and with his son that we might know the father and the creation in the world in which we live that we might know this Jesus Christ this man of history who brings us into the kingdom of God. And we might possess the Holy Spirit in the community of his body known as the church. In fact when the early church decided to summarize what was the message of John and all of his peers the apostles they came up with something that originally was called the old Roman formula but now is known as the apostles creed. The apostles didn't write it not in the form that we recite it but they gave the content of that creed in its trinitarian structure to reflect what it is to have a life with God. A life with God the father in the world I believe in God the father almighty the maker of heaven and earth and a life with God the son in redemptive history and I believe in Jesus Christ. His only begotten son our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Spirit born of the Virgin Mary suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried. He descended into hell the third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and descended at the right hand of God the father of mighty from there he will come to judge both the living and the dead. And a life of fellowship with God the Holy Spirit in the church and I believe in the Holy Spirit the Holy Catholic Church the communion of saints the forgiveness of sins the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting amen. That's what they told us that's what they left to us this great creed not about stuff we believe as much as stuff we experience. A life with God the father and God the son and God the Holy Spirit. The apostles would be the first to say to us I conjecture if they were to come back to this modern world they would say you know your theology is very very very close to what we preach but there's one missing dimension. You have turned redemption and salvation into a formulaic structure that you argue over and if you get certain things right in your brain you think you're going to heaven but we presented salvation the way Jesus did. This is eternal life life that they might know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have a puzzled and we are the apostles sent out by Jesus Christ that you might experience a life with God is more than just a doctrinal belief. This is more than just a litmus test into the church this is us not only reciting what we believe but in a sense claiming what is our great benefit in the gospel to live with God the creator in the world to live with Christ the Redeemer in the kingdom of God and to dwell with the Holy Spirit in the community of the church. Martin Lloyd Jones when he back in the early 50s preached through first John his sermons were turned into five volumes one volume or one little book for each of the five chapters they were called fellowship with God walking with God children of God the love of God life in God because those are the themes of John's apostolic ministry. Lloyd Jones will on to say concerning this very first chapter in fact this very first paragraph that we're looking at the one of the problems in the modern world is that we assume that we need something differently than the ancient people we say things Lloyd Jones as like this well it was fine that they believe those things because they lived in a different world a more primitive and simplistic world and they were satisfied with these things but we need something different I even something more. And Lloyd Jones says that's not true for three reasons God never changes sin in the devil never change and the human spirit remains always the same and what men need and God knows it is they need a life with God whether they're old people are modern people what they need is to live with God and that's really Lloyd Jones says what John says this is down in the pit of our souls that when we're here on this earth and especially when we die and go to another place we want to be with God we were made we were made to be with God but with sin in the picture we are not with God. So these apostles come and they say this is the first goal of the gospel ministry for you to know God both intimately and experientially and for you to have fellowship with him and then your joy will be made complete. If I went up to the average person on the street of Charlotte and I said do you believe that you could have complete joy in life they would say no well that's impossible but the Bible says you can that when you have fellowship with God your joy will be made complete. You won't be happy all the time and you won't be happy go lucky day in and day out but you will possess an inner joy that only fellowship with God can give because you have begun a life with God now to do that the apostle says we've got to encounter the second person of the Trinity as well this is the second goal of the gospel it's even easier to understand and that is that we need the forgiveness in Christ this is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all if we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness we lie and do not practice the truth but if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness if we say we have not sinned we make him a liar and his word is not in us my little children I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin but if anyone does sin we have an advocate with the father Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world the apostle said there's only one thing that keeps any person and all people from having a life with God and that's sin. What John likes to call darkness for him light is the revelation of Jesus Christ perfect life and darkness is a life that is other than Christ centered to be in the darkness is to be outside of Christ to be in Christ is to dwell in the light. Light life in darkness and death those are the two key paradigms the two ends of the continuum in which we fluctuate day in and day out and even through life until eternity determines one or the other and he says we have no fellowship with God no life. And we have no light in God no revelation if we deny one thing that you and I have a problem with sin but if we confess the word in Latin confessio means I agree. Here in Greek it means to give an open expression of what was known to be true if I express the truth I am a sinner and I need Christ. I need the life of Christ to overcome the death in me I need the light of Christ to overcome my darkness I need the purity of Christ to cleanse me from all that is filthy and wicked and unrighteous. If I confess these things then Jesus Christ is faithful to forgive me of all my sins to cleanse me from all that is unrighteousness and to give to me the Holy Spirit the source of light and life that I might be born again born from above a new creature in Christ not condemned all forgiven rescued by this hero of it all. Jesus the righteous one he says I know you're going to sin now make sure we understand what John is saying he's not saying that if we lead a sinless life then we can have a life with God that's not what he says look at verse six if we say we have fellowship with him that is with God the father while we walk in darkness we lie and do not practice. We 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 his son Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. He's not talking about the person who struggles against sin and fails he's talking about the person who walks in darkness they prefer to settle into a life that is Christless, deadness and darkness. They prefer to remain in a sexually immoral relationship they refuse to end some illicit affair with someone else. They continually use things that are bad for their mind and their soul and their body they lives are dominated by some addiction to some substance or some crude behavior. They engage in illegal and unethical things as a way of living and doing business and all the while they want to call themselves a Christian John says this cannot be. If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us but if we confess our sins Christ is faithful and righteous to forgive us of our sins and we cleanse us from all that is righteous even the things we did not confess even the things we forgot to admit even the things we did not recall to our mind to ask forgiveness for. And he says if you do sin don't worry you have an advocate with the Father. Here perhaps is the most heroic picture of Jesus Christ presented in the Bible. He is presented as a paracletus one who was called on the long side to defend to support to speak for. In our language he is a defending attorney an advocate who stands before the throne of God by every center who is trusting in himself and pleads their cause. The one who is the accused of the brother that's what he's called this devil is the prosecuting attorney the district attorney who brings countless charges against God's elect Paul says in Romans but Jesus Christ speaks on our behalf and pleads his own case as our case and Lloyd Jones puts these words in his mouth. Father I must ask you to put your law to the side. I am here to remind you that the law has been fulfilled and that death has been died that punishment has been enacted that the penalty has been paid. I have done this on their behalf for you and for them therefore according to your own rulings they are free because I died for them. John says we have known this advocate we've been his personal friends in fact the night before he died for all of us who walk in darkness who live in sin. He said I have shared all these things with you because you are my friends and then he told us to go and tell people that there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because he is the propitiation the satisfaction for our sins and not only for our sins also but for the sins of the whole world. This is forgiveness in Christ. This is the second great goal of the gospel in fact it's by being forgiven in Christ that we enter into fellowship with God and receive the greatest of all God's gifts which is the third gospel goal of the ministry the fullness of the Holy Spirit chapter 2 verse 3. By this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments whoever says I know him but does not keep his commandments as a liar and the truth is not in him but whoever keeps his word in him truly the love of God is perfected by this we may know that we are in him whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. Now granted the Holy Spirit did not explicitly mention here but back in verse 4 John said that our goal was that your joy would be full and we know from the other apostles as well from John's writing elsewhere that the only way to have the fullness of joy is to have the fullness of the Holy Spirit in fact joy is one of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. And the only way we can do this is that the Holy Spirit produces in us what we might call a practical holiness and John describes it under three simple headings obedience and truth and a guarded way of life he says first if we keep God's commandments because we have come to know God and love God. Then obedience will flow from our lives because the Holy Spirit will produce us whoever says I know him but does not keep his commandments as a liar and the truth is not in him. Later on at the very end of this letter John would say his commandments are not burdensome not for the one who belongs to Christ and is filled with the Holy Spirit. He said secondly we will abide in the truth of God's word even when it convicts us of sin and makes us uncomfortable but whoever keeps his word in him truly the love of God is perfected by this we know that we are in him that we abide in the truth. If we love God John says not only do we keep his commandments but we abide in his truth we want to hear from him we want God to speak into our life with a voice other than the voices we hear around us. Thirdly we will adopt the lifestyle of that of Jesus Christ and those who followed him no one who abides in him keeps on sending no one who keeps on sending as he the scene him or known him he says in another place and here he says if we say we know him then we will abide in him and walk in the same manner in which he Christ walked. We will change in the way we abide and live and do the things that God has called us to do so this is the third great goal of the ministry not just a fellowship with God the Father and a forgiveness in Christ but a fullness of the Holy Spirit that we would experience all that God has for us in this world because of the gift of the Father that the Son promised us this one called the Holy Spirit. That was the great message of Jesus Christ in the upper room before he died the major theme of his upper room discourse is that I will give you the promise of the Father and I will never leave you forsake you I will not leave you as orphans I will give you the Holy Spirit and you will abide in the truth. You will love me and keep my commandments and you will walk in a manner worthy of those who call upon Jesus Christ and say they belong to God. And you know that's all your ministers want that's all we want that's the only thing we're after that you and your little ones have a life with God that you come to know what we have come to know. This unending and unshakable source of joy that you lay your head down on the pillow every night not worried whether or not you're forgiven but that you rest in Jesus Christ and know his cleansing grace you're so confident of that that you can look to him and say Lord I'm guilty of this sin I sinbed forgive me and be cleansed of all that is unrighteous. And that the energizing the the passionate power that drives your life is this day in and day out walking with the spirit and walking in the spirit that belongs to those who belong to Christ. One great hymn writer said look there the Christ our brother died in darkness paying upon the tree to offer us the worlds of light that live inside the Trinity what did he mean by that he drew that little stands of his him directly from chapter one verse five this is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you. This John says is what we heard from Jesus Christ and now put in the Bible so that Mike Ross and Mike Miller can preach this that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all and you can know the worlds of light that live inside the fellowship of father, son and spirit as you have a life with God. That is why we're calling Mike Miller to this church and that is why we're commissioning him to help us take this message out to the world and to our community and neighborhood because we have loved ones too friends and neighbors and relatives and we only want for them three things each of us who are minister to the gospel for them we want them to have fellowship with God the father who made them. We want them to be forgiven for Christ their advocate and their redeemer and we want them to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that their joy matched with our joy and the apostles joy will be made complete and now to that end we move to install this man as a pastor in our church let's pray. Father we want to thank you for this gospel ministry and message given to us by the apostles and passed down age after age this creed that we confess this message that we hold and pass on to others this life we share with all who let us do so so that your joy your satisfaction your pleasure might be made complete with all the elect coming home to Christ in our joy. And our joy combined with your fellowship and that of the apostles and one another might be complete we ask you now to meet us in this place in a sacred way as we install one of our ministers to that sacred duty for we pray this in Jesus name amen.