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Face the wondrous thought, for who did it suggest #330?
1.
We are.
Going to fall in love with all the World War Day.
The given what we had before us the last meeting if we could.
Go to first, John.
Don't know how far we'll get, but in the 1St and 2nd chapters you have many of those things that were brought before us.
Would that be?
Suitable to my brethren.
Could read first John One for this meeting.
Let's see where the Lord leads us.
00:05:04
First John chapter one. At 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, of the word of life. For the life was manifested, and we have seen it. And bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us, at which we have seen and heard. Declare we unto 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 right way unto you, that your joy may be full. This then is the message which we have heard of Him, and declare unto 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 the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with 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.
Like to read a verse in John's Gospel chapter 8?
As kind of an introduction to this chapter.
John chapter 8 and verse 25.
Then said they unto him, They're speaking to the Lord Jesus.
Who art thou?
And Jesus saith unto them, Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning.
Now in verse one of our chapter, that which was from the beginning.
And it's helpful, brethren, to see we have several, We have three books, actually four books that start with the beginning.
Of course we know Genesis 11 in the beginning is the beginning of the creation, the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. But in first John, I should say in John's Gospel chapter, one is probably the beginning that goes back before any other beginning, when there was any beginning you want to speak of.
There was the Word in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, His individuality in the Godhead, and the Word was God his deity.
But here we have that which was from the beginning.
And this beginning is the beginning of the manifestation of eternal life.
In the person of the Lord Jesus in this world.
There in a real living person was manifested that eternal life. Notice verse 2 For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness and show unto you.
That eternal life which was with the Father.
And was manifested unto us.
So it's exceedingly precious, brethren, what we have in verse one here, that which was from the beginning. And then there's little phrases in which John speaks about him. Of course, he speaks in the plural because he wasn't the only witness. There were others who were witnesses as well. He says that which.
We have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon.
And our hands have handled of the word of life.
If you notice those little phrases, each one gets a little closer.
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The first one is heard. You can hear something at a distance, but to see it with your eyes it has to be a little closer.
To look upon it or to contemplate it, as it says in the new translation, it has to be closer yet, and to put your hands on it, it has to be even closer. So each one is closer. Just think.
Brethren, God so desired fellowship because that's the word that appears a number of times in this chapter.
He so desired fellowship.
The that we would enjoy fellowship with him like we've had in the last meeting, in those different ways that he came so close that the apostles could say we heard him, we've seen him with our eyes.
We've contemplated him and our hands have handled him. We're not talking about mere doctrines.
We're not talking about philosophies of life, we're talking about historical reality.
We heard him, we saw him, we looked upon him, we handled him. These are not cleverly devised fables, as Peter says.
These are realities, O brethren, this is where we have been brought to know this glorious person, the manifestation of eternal life in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ.
She's given the name or title of the word.
Both in John's Gospel and here at the beginning of this epistle. And we might well raise the question why in connection with the full manifestation of God the Father.
Is he given this? Is he given this name? But if we think about what words do, it perhaps helps us to understand.
Because words convey concepts and ideas, they talk about word pictures. You pick up a book and you read about somebody and without seeing a picture of that person, an actual photograph or painting, you may in your mind, if the writer is a good writer, you will in your mind have a vision of you will be able to visualize exactly what that person looks like, who that person is a lot about that person.
Can be conveyed in simple words and the Lord Jesus in coming to reveal who the Father was.
He came as the eternal word, and at the end of his pathway he could say.
As the word he could say, Have I been so long time with you? He that hath seen me, and hast thou not known me?
He that hast seen me hath seen the Father, it says in the beginning of John's Gospel.
The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory as of the only begotten of the Father.
Full of grace and truth, every attribute, every quality that makes up the person of God the Father was brought into full display and manifestation.
Through the Lord Jesus Christ, He came as the Word, and as the Word conveyed to us who God the Father was, so that ultimately, as Brother Bob has said, we could be brought in to fellowship.
With the father, with the son, and ultimately then as a result, with one another.
Notice a verse in.
UMM Titus, Chapter one in connection with our chapter.
Titus, Chapter one.
And verse two in hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie promise before the world began.
First, John is to communicate to us what eternal life is.
The first John's first epistle is an epistle about eternal life, the gift of God that we have now received, and that gift of God that enables us to have the closest of fellowship with Himself and with the Son. We've had the Word from all eternity and the Word coming into the world.
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In the due course of time and God's time to display itself to us.
But it's wonderful to me this verse that's just read in connection with this promise before the world began.
Was a promise to you? You weren't around to receive the promise. Was it promised to any of us before the world began? No, we weren't here. We didn't exist. But in the counsels of God.
Between the Father and the Son, it was determined to have creatures that it could have fellowship with them.
And so it was a council that was promised to be before the world ever was created and brought into its existence. And now God, in the greatness of his being with us, his creature.
Has given us to participate in something.
That is eternal.
Eternal life. Eternal life has no beginning.
Christ is our life, it says, and we participate in His life. We receive it as a gift to participate with Him in it, and it's something that connects us with the Father and the Son in the most innocent, intimate way. That was purposed by God before this world was ever created and before man ever existed. And now, in the proper time, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and displayed that.
Which is now been given to us to participate in. And so it's a wonderful epistle and that we want to enjoy.
That for which God purposed before anything existed.
And the reason?
I think we can say is because this was the counter Gnosticism, it was written perhaps in 90, uh, AD and that was a calculated, I believe, to take these things away from us. And so he says here, uh, or we have seen him are their eyes. We have looked upon him. Our hands have handled of the word of life. And I think the, the Gospel of John was written for the same reason.
Two, uh, counter Gnosticism, which said he couldn't have been a real man because flesh is evil, only the spirit is pure. Is that right? So in Colossians, the same way it was written to counter these things that Satan was bringing in to keep us from enjoying the person of Christ.
Dictionary one time looked it up in Webster's dictionary and at first it RA rather startled me.
It said incarnation, meaning Christ come in human form. Kind of startled me. That was a secular dictionary. And then I thought, what else could it be? No one else has ever come into this world in incarnation. But we want to guard very carefully when we speak of his coming into this world and partaking of manhood. We want to be very careful to guard the eternity of his person.
Because there's a great attack today, there's always been, but there seems to be a fresh attack today to to discredit the eternity of his person. Let me just give you a couple of Old Testament prophecies that confirm that eternity. It said when Isaiah prophesied of the coming of Christ, he said two things unto us. A child is born, thus his incarnation.
Unto us the Son is not born, but is given. God is the eternity of His Person.
And it's interesting and significant that when you go through the Word of God, you never read of the sun being born.
He's always sent or given because in order to send or give something, you already have to be in possession of it. And the the Lord Jesus was not just daily the delight of the Father when he walked here on earth, It's true heaven opened up and this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased and so on. That's true. But when it says prophetically of him in the book of Proverbs chapter 8, I was daily his delight.
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That wasn't just daily in his pathway here, that was from a past eternity. The sun was daily the delight of the Father.
Before he was sent into this world, before he took on him human form.
Before he was born a man, a baby in Bethlehem, before He, the dove lighted upon him at his baptism, and heaven opened up. The Father became audible, the Son was tangible, the Spirit became momentarily visible. But He was daily the delight of the Father before that. And it is so very, very important. And John guards this in a very, very precious way. And over and over again, God so loved the world that He gave.
I don't have any sons. I have daughters, but I don't have any sons. I could not send a son to you. I could not send a son to help you because I don't have a son. But God had a son, having one son, I'll send him. And so again, as far as his manhood, his incarnation, He was born into this world, born of a virgin. But as far as his eternal sonship, as far as him being the eternal Word, he was sent and given.
And those little distinctions, I believe, are important for us to get a hold of justice. Say this to her. But in comparison to Paul's ministry and John's ministry, Paul unfolds to us the counsels of God. And when Paul unfolds to us the councils of God as far as our relationship to the Father, he sent forth the Spirit into our hearts, crying the spirit of adoption, crying ABBA father in Paul's ministry.
Were sons by adoption.
Were adopted into the family of God and the dignity that goes with that position.
But John unfolds to us not so much the counsels of God, but the nature of God.
John gets right to the heart of the matter and in John's ministry.
We're not so much sons by adoption, but we are children by birth.
We have now the very nature of God, the very life of Christ, and it's not just everlasting life, it's eternal life.
It's the very nature and life of God and of Christ.
50 F 5652 years ago, 53 years ago, my parents went to an adoption agency and chose me. They adopted me. Wonderful thing. I'm so thankful for it. But they were never able to give me the, the, the their life. I have not one drop of Highland blood in me. They could not do both, but God has been able to do both. I'm a son of God by adoption. That's Paul's ministry, but in John's ministry.
I'm a child of God by I've been given the very nature and life of God. Tremendous to think about.
To uh.
In considering John's Gospel and the Epistle of John.
To see that in John's gospel we have eternal life in the person of the Lord Jesus.
And in John's epistle we have eternal life, that same eternal life in the believers in the Lord Jesus. So what we have in John's epistle is.
Nature and character.
If you look at chapter two, I think it's it's been helpful to me to see this rather than notice in verses 7 and eight of chapter 2, Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had noticed from the beginning. Whenever you have that from the beginning, it goes right back to the verse one of this chapter, chapter one.
The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning.
That's eternal life in the person of the Lord Jesus that we have in John's Gospel.
Verse eight again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him, that's in the Lord Jesus and in you, so that that eternal life that was manifested in him is now manifested in the believer in the Lord Jesus who's born into God's family, because the darkness is passing in the true light now shineth so the old commandment.
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As eternal life manifested in the person of the Lord Jesus when He was here in this world.
And the new commandment is that same eternal life now manifested in the believer, in the Lord Jesus. Oh brother, these things are so real and I want it to be.
Something that grabs our souls, especially the younger people. But for all of us, brethren, do we enjoy this like the apostles? I mean, we're talking about John and Peter, men who had no formal education. They were fishermen, uneducated men. They were ones who lived at the level of this world. And so don't think that we're talking about highfalutin things here.
This is something practical for each one of us. Notice in verse one that which we have heard. Have you heard Him? Have you taken time to hear Him, to open this book and to read the verses of Scripture and listen to Him? They heard Him. Have you and I heard Him? We can, if we.
Open this book to listen. Then it says that which we have.
Seen with our eyes, seeing goes a little bit further than hearing.
Have we seen him, brethren? Have you seen Jesus?
It says in Hebrews chapter 2.
We see Jesus, who has made a little lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honor, not with these eyes, these physical eyes, but faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. So that when we read about him sitting at God's right hand in highest glory, it becomes surreal to our souls. It's like we're seeing him there.
Do you enjoy seeing him?
Let's make it real. This is something individual that has to be individual. But it goes on from there, and the next little phrase is that which we have looked upon or contemplated. What's the difference between?
Seeing and looking on. Looking on is more detained. It's more detail and brethren, when we get into the Gospels.
To contemplate the perfection in that glorious person.
Never could they find a flaw in him. The lawyers got around him and tried to trip him up.
But you can't trip up a perfect man every time they went away completely confounded. Reverend, this is our life. This is the eternal life that we now enjoy.
And we can contemplate it. Oh, the preciousness of it. I I just love to go through the Gospels in that way and think of.
The Lord Jesus when they brought that woman taken in adultery, what a serious sin. What a shameful thing to be dragged right into the temple there before the Lord Jesus.
But if the Lord Jesus was going to condemn that woman, he would have to condemn those other Jewish men because.
Their their marriage laws were such that they were all in adultery. He would have to condemn them all, and he had not come to condemn. What did he do? He Stoops down and writes on the ground. They keep asking him, and he gets up and says, let him that is without sin among you, cast the first stone at her, and then he Stoops down to ride on the ground, and they all go out.
Because they realized that they were convicted too of that same sin that they were accusing that woman of. When he finally gets up again, he says, woman, where are thine accusers, as no man condemned thee. And she says, no man Lord, but wait a minute, there is one there without sin. He yes, he could pick up a stone to cast at her, but he had not come for that purpose.
What a precious thing it is to contemplate that perfection. And he says to her, Neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. We can look at that. We can contemplate it and meditate on it. This is our life, brethren. This is that eternal life which was with the Father, and now that is ours in Christ.
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What a precious thing it is. But there's one more phrase, and the Apostle John says our hands have handled.
They were more that was closer than even looking upon. And the Apostle John we know was close enough that he leaned on Jesus bosom at the Last Supper. Oh what a precious thing it is.
Become so real that we actually feel them in our hearts and our souls. This is what the Lord wants, brethren, because we're talking in this chapter, verse three, about fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.
And this is what God wants with us. But we need to cultivate fellowship. We need to take time to hear Him, to see Him, to look upon him, to feel the reality of his presence with us.
The ears and eyes of faith, isn't it? I was thinking about how Isaiah prophesied of the Lord Jesus.
And when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. And there were many in this world when the Lord Jesus was here, who saw him just as another man.
Perhaps as a prophet, perhaps as a Goodman, whatever it might have been. But they didn't see beyond that.
But for John and others who walked with the Lord, those whose spiritual ears and eyes were open.
They saw far, far more than just a man walking in this world. And I was thinking of what you said, Bob, of how.
When the bride in the Song of Solomon she goes over, she contemplates her bridegroom.
Piece by piece, part by part, so to speak. Not just a casual thought or glance toward the bridegroom, but as she goes over those various aspects.
Of the bridegroom and his qualities and his beauties and his glories, his attributes. What does she say at the end? He's altogether lovely. And that's the way we need to take up the person of Christ as revealed to us. And we have it here in the Word, to read the Word and to see Christ in the in the word of God. And you don't have to read very far on the pages of Scripture, whether it's the Old Testament, the New Testament, to see that the subject is Christ.
Some aspect of his person and work, and to read it slowly and prayerfully and with exercise.
And as Bob said, to make it real, to contemplate, to meditate, You know, sometimes we get a photograph in the mail. Someone will send us a photograph in the mail, and my wife will open it, and she'll say to me, look at this photograph. And I give it a casual glance. And she said, you didn't look at it at all. I saw it. I saw it, but I didn't look at it. And So what she wants me to do and what the person who sent it evidently wants me to do is to get it out and contemplate it.
And so I get out that photo, I take that photograph back and I say make some comments about the person or persons that are in the photograph, notice they're a little older than the one we received last year or what, whatever it might be. But to really study it, to contemplate, we can look at something, we can scan something, we can look at the word of God, We can, we can look at the person of Christ. We can read a chapter in the morning and that's wonderful. But what about really contemplating going over in our souls every day. And I, I speak to my own soul brother to go over in our souls every day the beauties and attributes of Christ.
The Word that was made flesh and dwelt among us, the life that we're reading about here that is ours now to stop every day and discipline ourselves, to take time to go over this. This is what is going to feed the new man. It's what's going to encourage us. It's go what's going to refresh us. There's nothing else, brethren. There's nothing else in this world that'll do it. But it is contemplation. I was thinking of this expression handle.
Because somebody might say, well, how can we handle the word of life today? Yes, I can see how we can hear and see and meditate, contemplate, but what about handling? Well, you've brought out some expressions, but I I've thought about the sense of so being so in the enjoyment of his presence every day that we feel his hand in ours, that we feel those everlasting arms about us.
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You know, David said, Thou hast holding me by thy right hand. David never knew the Lord physically, but he had such a sense of who he was and His presence with him that he felt his hand in his.
And I really believe, brethren, that's the sense of what you have in Philippians where it says the Lord is at hand.
That's not the Lord's coming. That is to have a sense, the handle of the word of life, to have a sense of His hand in ours every day, His arms about us, to brush His shoulder as we walk in the path of faith. That's the handle of who? The word of life. No greater privilege on the face of the earth.
And uh.
We might think, well, that's something that was to.
2000 years ago, but these things are very real today, and the application of them, as has been brought out, is very real in the day in which we live. There's been a renewed interest in Gnosticism. Maybe it's not called that by name, but there are books that have been written that have become extremely popular best sellers #1 best sellers. And then on the other side of things that Jim spoke about, the, uh, the, uh.
The eternal character of the Lord is again something that's under attack. So just recently in the, within the last month, there was a manuscript that was found that referred to Jesus wife. And uh, next day there was a rebuttal of it that said that it was a forgery. And then the next day said, no, it was real. But you know, none of these things should have any effect upon us. If I don't know someone very well and someone says concerning that person, did you know that someone so did such and such.
I might say really I OK, I guess, wow. But if I knew that person really well, would it matter what anyone said to disparage that individual? So tomorrow, let's say the headlines say they found the bones of the Lord Jesus, what effect would that have on you? Any any.
You know, as I said, these things are.
A real and practical for the day that we live in. The same attacks that were made against Christianity in the days of the apostle John are being still made today. And your faith, the strength of your faith, is going to rest upon your communion with the Lord Jesus, with and and with the Father.
Another thing with John's Gospel, uh, John's Epistle 2 is frequently described as being written in the abstract, which generally doesn't mean anything to anybody. But the thing to learn is the thing to understand is it's not about our experience. It's not about our experience. So at the end of John's epistle in the 13th verse of the last chapter, it says these things have I written unto you that believe in the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that she have eternal life, that same life that was in the Lord Jesus, the same life that the apostles witnessed, the same life we now share in Christ.
And it doesn't say that you may learn that you have eternal life.
In fact, the word for no in this verse is not the word no associated with learning, but rather the conscious knowledge of it.
That's what God would have us to have, the conscious knowledge of that life, that we might walk in the good of it.
Sense of importance. The fellowship here is helps me in this way when I think about it.
I don't have the nature of an Ant.
And I don't understand ants, how they think or feel.
And I dare say nobody else in the room does either. You can observe ants and you can learn a lot about them, but your feelings and their feelings are never gonna cross and be the same. In that way, you'll never have fellowship with an aunt.
Because it does not have the capacity to have fellowship with you, because it does not share your life and nature.
God has Adam did not know God in the garden as we do.
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He knew God, he had a measure of fellowship with God, but he was at that time.
Before send what we call innocent.
If you said if God had said.
Adam, let's have a conversation about Holiness.
Adam would have no capacity to understand God.
The conversation would have been meaningless to Adam because he didn't know. He didn't have a nature that was holy.
God has chosen because of His desire to have fellowship with us.
To give us the capacity to have fellowship with him.
And he has done so by giving us eternal life, the family, the life that the life of the Lord Jesus is now our life. And because of that we are enabled when we contemplate the Lord Jesus and His life, having received eternal life, were enabled to enter into his feelings.
And his thoughts, and what it meant to him to minister as he did to the woman at the well, and the woman taken in adultery, and when Nicodemus came to his house and had a conversation with him, and so on. But why can we? Because we have eternal life. Without it our knowledge would be very limited by comparison, and it would not have satisfied the heart of God.
And the purpose of God. And so, brethren, we can't, we can underestimate, but we can't overestimate the importance of the gift of eternal life.
Eternal life was not impossible, was not possible, until the Lord rose from the dead and he brought us into a relationship with Himself. The Old Testament Saints don't have this privilege.
They couldn't look up and call God our Father.
Solely believers, they were born again and they did have a nature but and could speak to Jehovah, but they did not know God as their Father. These are privileges that only believers in this dispensation have, which is so important that we learn how to rightly divide the word of truth. He told Nicodemus. You must be born again to see the Kingdom of God, but that's earthly truth.
When Christ died on the cross, that was something that happened within him.
But Christ dying on the cross was something that happened outside of us and has brought us into our relationship that none other has and none other will. Even the millennial Saints will not have this privilege and these things that were lost for years, brother. But God in his mercy to the church has recovered many of these truths that we're remembering and enjoying the smart this this afternoon and.
Do we have a heart for it? That's it. This is a wonderful privilege. This is something that was lost for 1000 years, and yet here we can enjoy these things.
Are you, I'm sorry, when you go to Revelations One and eight you read I will umm, Revelation 18I am Alpha and Amiga, the beginning and the ending saith the Lord who is and who was and who is to come and the Almighty and we have. We started out with the Eternal One. You go to Revelations 21 and six.
And uh, you read. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Amiga, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him. That is a thirst of the fountain of the water of life. Freely. You go to Revelations 22 and 13 and you read I'm Alpha and Amiga, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. We have the divine Speaker there, don't we?
We have the the the power of the spirit and the speaker there, but it's different when you go to the churches in chapter 2 of Revelations and you look at verse 17 of chapter one. Let's break on that one first.
And when I saw him, I fell at his feet dead. John that jumped in the bosom when he, Mary, had Jesus in her womb.
John that laid his head on the breast of Christ.
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John that saw him coming down, and he says, behold, that's what Bob was Speaking of. Don't just look at him. Behold him, meditate, feast upon him, behold.
The one that taketh away the sin of the world. And now what does it say? I am the 1St and the last. I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold, I am life forevermore. Chapter 2, verse 8 Unto the Angel of the church in Samaria, Right these things, saith the 1St and the last, who was dead and is alive. These verses omit.
His birth.
Those verses omit.
3334 years of his life. Those verses omit Calvary and the first is dead.
I am, I am, I am the first begotten of the dead.
Sorry, Jim, uh, go ahead.
Going to go back to what Vern said because it's important to understand in the Old Testament they had life but it's not referred to as eternal life and that's why the Lord Jesus when he was here, He said in John 10 verse 10.
I am come that they might have life, They had life in the Old Testament, but then he adds to it and that they might have it more abundantly because eternal life has to do with the quality and relationship that we are brought into now in Christianity. So it was life, but it's not referred to in that way. As Brother Vern said, we have now been brought into a position of relationship and fellowship.
That none other enjoyed in the up until the till Christianity. It's true in the Old Testament there was a sense in which they knew God as their father. Wilt thou not at this time crying to me, my father? Thou art the guide of my youth. Malachi is there not one God and Father and so on but it was father in the sense of what it says in Acts 17 he's.
We are all the offspring of God. They were hit. They understood that they if they had faith.
That God was their Father in the sense of coming forth from his hand in creation.
But not in the sense of having that very life that we've been Speaking of and not in the closeness of relationship. Now we cry ABBA father, we're brought into the closest place of relationship that is possible. And you know, it's interesting that the Lord Jesus used that expression of a father only in Mark's gospel because in Marquis and he never addresses the the father in Mark's Gospel.
Till the path of service is done, and in his greatest hour of need, he turns in the garden.
And in the intimacy of ABBA father, he turns to his father.
In, in light of his the hour of Calvary approaching. And brethren, that's the relationship we have now. We can come in the very intimacy of ABBA Father, the very intimacy in which the Lord Jesus enjoys. Now the Lord will be the only begotten of the Father for eternity. No other child of God will ever take that place. But nevertheless, this is the intimacy in which we have been brought into in Christianity as the possessors of divine life. Yes, but it's also eternal life. That's the quality of the life that we have now.
Where it says here.
Verse four according as he has chosen us in him before the foundations of the world and in verse 5, having predestinated us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ is what is that relationship as to what you were Speaking of what I said earlier in Paul's ministry where we have the councils of God unfolded. We are sons by adoption and and sonship brings us into a dignity of position and has having been chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.
Just like when there's an adoption takes place today, parents go and they choose a child and they bring that child home and there's a dignity in a position that goes now with giving that child, bringing that child into the family, giving them the family name and the title of of son. But that's not what John is bringing before us. In John, it's the nature of God. And in John, we're not so much sons by adoption. We're children by new birth because we've been brought. We have been given the very life.
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Of of Christ Himself, of God himself.
This illustration has been helped to me in connection with what we're talking about, and that is, if you had an orphan and you brought him into a room of people, that child would have the desires in his soul.
So love.
Without.
However, a father to love, but if you found if he were to come into the room and find out that a person in the room was his father, he would immediately have the feelings of the relationship.
Some weakness in the illustration, I think, but the point of it is in order to have our true.
Nature relationship with the Father. We have to have the conscious knowledge of the relationship and it enhances its life abundance. There can't be a better life than to have the consciousness that we are, that God is our Father. We have the capacity.
By the life we have, but also that life gives us as well the understanding of the relationship.
Of ABBA as Father. And yet on those two things is the richness of our relationship with God that He wants us to have. Likewise, you can have a man and a woman.
And they both might have the desire of what we would call a marriage relationship.
But they're not going to enjoy it in its character unless they're married and the Lord Jesus and wanting to have with us the closest, and the Father wanting us to have with him, Son, the closest possible of all relationships and all the affections.
That are suited to them purpose before the world began that we would be the bride of Christ and it's because we are the bride. We have feelings of relationship that no other person has. John the Baptist is going to be in heaven and he's going to be perfectly satisfied beyond our imagination at the moment, but he won't have bridal relationships with the Lord Jesus.
As we do because we are the most favored class, if you will, of all creatures that have ever been created is to have that relationship with the Lord Jesus as his bride and none other but those of our era that are part of the church are ever going to have it. And so John could say speak of himself and no greater than born of a woman. It's not a matter of worthiness or anything else.
It's a matter of sovereign love that we were chosen to be part of the Bride of Christ and get to enjoy for eternity the the the love and the bonds that can only be enjoyed in that relationship.
With an illustration, I think in the Jewish family, one is born into the family and he's a child until he's about 12 years old and then he's raised the status of a son. You never see a truck going down the street that says Smith and children. It's Smith and sons because he brings the sun into intelligence of that business. God has brought us into the whole intelligence.
Of his counsels. So there's things that go along with being a son that you don't have as a child. So it's a it's a raising to a different place. And so you might find in being a son there's dignity. Yeah. You know, somebody gave that little illustration of the one of the Princess who have to in the British Navy and he had to spend so much time. And so they were down on the equator and it was just burning hot. There wasn't anything.
1000 miles around. So they went in it, they went swimming. But you know, there was nothing but men on the boat. But when he got back to England, he was told it's all right to them to go swimming. It's it's skinny dipping, but it's not right for you. You're next in the throne. There's a dignity that goes along with that. And so we have dignity for being a son. We have intelligence of being a son. We have an inheritance of being a son. These are all things that we have by having eternal life and being sons of God.
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Isn't it? And there's other things that go along. There's affection. You have affection for your son that you don't have for the neighbor. You have privileges. The son can just come right into your room. Somebody give you an illustration if, uh, John F Kennedy and these dignities standing in a, in a foyer and, and if they try to go through that, that door, they, they shot. But here the doors open in goes this person. He dives under the desk. Each drops right up on his lap.
He had privileges that that the others don't have because he's a son. So we're sons of God. These are just some things that we have.
Being in this dispensation, what I think sometimes of God that created this universe.
He's my father. Are you putting me on?
It's true.
And this is doing as well. Let's look at it from the other, from God's perspective for a moment. We think of what we have and how wonderful it is for us to be brought into this place of blessing and relationship and standing and so on. But it was all in the heart of God. This is what God needed. This was what God wanted. God wanted children. And how was God going to have children? There was no other way except He come in the person of the Son.
God manifest in the flesh. There was number other way that God could have children to enjoy and to lavish his love on for eternity. No other way that Christ could could have a bride.
And when we think about that, it's tremendous. I remember when my first child was born, I walked into that hospital.
With a husband's heart. But I walked out with a father's heart. I didn't know what a father's heart was till I had children. And the moment that child was born, I knew what a father's heart was. And God's heart was not satisfied. All through the Old Testament he had fellowship with Adam and Innocence. He was the friend of God. Abraham was the friend of God. Moses was a friend of God. God enjoyed the fellowship to a certain degree of his people in the Old Testament.
But he wanted more than that. He wanted a family. He wanted children, those that would be the very partakers of the divine nature.
And so he says, I'll come in the person of the Son. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us so that the Lord Jesus could go to Calvary, so that the Godhead could know what a Father's heart really was and to have children for eternity. And the wonderful thing about the Lord Jesus is not only did he come, I want to back up, but I think it's important to understand now they don't need any come as a man, a real man, flesh.
He took upon him humanity.
Sinless humanity, yes, but humanity came in flesh. But in resurrection He did not just rise in spirit as some have taught. He rose as a man said, Handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bone as ye see Me have. And as a man he ascended. And as a man he's at the right hand of God, living forth, and as a man he's coming back for us. And as a man he's going to enjoy His bride and the heavenly company for all eternity, and God himself is going to view heaven.
With sons and daughters, with and like his beloved Son. Yes, the Son will remain the only begotten of the Father. But we're not going to be just with Christ in the coming day. We're going to be like Him. And God's heart will be completely satisfied with children. Heaven full of children.
Based on historical fact, would you say that Jesus came, he was born, he lived, he taught, he died, he rose again, he ascended God's right hand? Those are historical facts. And I think it's important, especially for young people to realize that Christianity is basically objective. In other words, that which is outside of ourselves, that we lay hold of this is.
What was taught? And that's what it says in verse two of our chapter here. The life was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested into us. Because sometimes in speaking about Christianity, people start to reflect inward. Do you feel that this is right or this is true?
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We're not talking about feelings here, we're talking about historical fact.
And to get that straight and to lay hold of it, whether I feel good or not inside of me, this is true. And that's what will help you in your life. If you're going to reflect on inward looking, I don't know if I'm there yet, if I've developed to that point. Don't look inside you. Look out. Look to these historical facts.
God came in the person of the Lord Jesus into this world.
He lived, he died, he rose again, he ascended the God's right hand.
Those are historical facts and we base our fellowship on that.
Those are incontrovertible. They cannot be changed. This has been proven.
And there are many witnesses to this. So it's not a matter of looking in. Yes, there is the part of Christianity that is subjective. In other words, looking in. In our chapter, for example, we have in verse six, if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not do not the truth that is looking in.
There's a test, yes, there's that, but it's based majorly on what is outside of ourselves. It's objective. Christianity is mainly objective, and the Lord help you because you won't get peace by looking in, You'll get peace by looking at God in the person of the Lord Jesus.
The word of God and I studied the Gospel of John. It got and I got saved. I got through the door on the other side of the threshold. I was on the inside of the door when I opened up the pistol to John. It was like, come on in, sit down at the table, have a cup of coffee. You're part of the family now let's learn. And all of a sudden you start reading all these passages and you see that at the the the fellowship here was made possible by my Savior. That fellowship wasn't made possible before.
But it was always there from the beginning, and all the mysteries were there from the beginning, even the mystery of the church at the end of Romans. And now it's been divinely revealed, hasn't it? And so when we look down through here, what we have that Bob's touching upon now is there are 6 passages because he wanted chapter one and chapter 2 in chapter one, verse four, if we say verse 6, excuse me, verse six first, if we say, uh, verse eight if we say, and verse 10, if we say, Now when you go to chapter 2, you look at verse 4.
He that saith still Speaking of yourself, verse six of chapter two, he that saith and verse nine of chapter two, he that saith. These are 6 tests of true spirituality. And in other words, you take a look at the first one. Uh, if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. It's a test of where do we walk? You go to verse 8.
It's a method of how we judge ourselves.
It's a test if you go down to verse 10, uh, is his message got a place in my heart? You see, you can change those words where it says if we say, if we profess or if we claim whatever it takes to understand, but you have a test of true spirituality in both chapters. So there are things will be covered in here that are beautiful that way. But it's nice to know that it's more than just getting through the door on the other side, two sides to the door. But I get to come on into the, and God says, come on in here. Let's have fellowship together.
Sure, you'll agree with me that it's more than a cup of coffee. It's the fatted calf.
Fast quite a number of times in his writings and I think it's it's nice to see it because literally it means to clearly show and God has clearly shown us in the person of the Lord Jesus eternal life hit later on. It's his love that is is manifest to us in this epistle, but it's just to clearly show because all Christian truth begins with the revelation of Jesus Christ come in flesh.
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That's the basis for everything. We wouldn't have Christian truth. We wouldn't have the understanding and the enjoyment of the relationship without the word being manifest, being manifested. It's interesting, perhaps a little aside, but I think it's important to see that the two Satan has always been busy from the beginning of time to bring into question the Word of God. And it's interesting that the first recorded words of Satan in the Old Testament.
Are half, God said.
Satan trying to bring into the mind of Adam and Eve. Was what God said really the truth, The spoken word of God?
Half, God said, and the first recorded words of Satan are in the New Testament are.
If thou be the Son of God, when the living Word came, Satan immediately trying to raise a doubt in the mind of the Lord Jesus. Was he really who he said he was?
Was he really the eternal Son of God? And I believe, brethren, that those two things are whispered on every hand. Well, maybe not so much whispered, but they're propagated on every hand today. And it's been said perhaps more and more.
Satan has accelerated his effort to bring into question the written Word of God for us like he did with the spoken Word of God for Adam and a question as to the living Word, the Lord Jesus.
Revealed to us in flesh. Let's be very careful that we don't listen to those voices because John in bringing out this manifestation is clearly showing of these things. Remember, all Christian truth and blessing is based on the full revelation, the full clear manifestation of the living word. That that's the basis. That's the beginning. And if we lose sight of that, we've lost a foundation.
That puts us on very shaky ground.
Son in verse three to say that which we have seen.
And heard declare we unto you, that ye also.
They have fellowship with us. That's the Apostles fellowship that we were talking about that was read this morning in in Acts 242.
They continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship. There's, that's what you have here, that which we have seen and heard declaring to you, that's the apostles doctrine.
That ye may also have fellowship with us so they.
Apostles Fellowship is based on the Apostles doctrine.
We can't get together and say we're going to have fellowship and this is the conditions of the fellowship we're going to have. No, it's already set down. The apostles have set it down. And upon that groundwork there is fellowship. And then he goes on to develop that. And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. Oh brethren, this is so amazingly wonderful.
That we can have fellowship with God and with the Lord Jesus. God is Father and with the Lord Jesus. And uh, Jim mentioned it earlier, but you have fellowship also in verse, uh, seven fellowship one with another. But notice brethren, that is not first. And sometimes I think we make a mistake.
In our Christian lives by putting fellowship one with another.
1St.
That cannot be. It won't work that way. Fellowship with the father and with his son is the first thing that's presented in this chapter.
On the basis of the apostles, the apostles doctrine and fellowship. But then it's fellowship one with another. And in the measure that you are walking in fellowship with the Father and the Son, and I'm walking in that same fellowship, we meet together.
And we'll find that we have fellowship one with another as well, but it is the result.
And so may the Lord help us to keep this focus right, because we can come together in meetings.
And sometimes the brother on the other side of the room, we really don't feel very much towards him like we should because we're making the focus our fellowship between us. That's not first, brethren. What's first is fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.
01:10:26
And then just to before we close verse four, brethren, these things right we unto you that your joy.
May be 4.
Don spoke about the Lord Jesus speaking about my joy.
Now we have your joy.
How can it be full?
By walking in the fellowship the Father and his Son Jesus Christ.
Hymn #9 hymn #9.
Nsnoise.
Yes.