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Our Lord can give us a dream.
Forehead.
I love our hearts. Let's make them.
In the world.
Will say my father and grace.
Like your devil and glory.
No one gives someone time.
To give me an airline, let's swallow 180.
Oh my, snakes are God.
You sing also that the fifth verse of 260.
Lord Jesus.
God, I am one of those standing in all of our souls.
Make our own words. Shall I write in my life?
It is alive.
Believe a verse that our brother referred to in his prayer.
Psalm 81 in verse 10.
I am the Lord thy God.
Which brought the out of the land of Egypt.
Open thy mouth wide.
And I will fill it.
We ask the Lord's help.
God and our Father.
Several brothers have expressed we're needy people.
We think of how the state of things in the.
Assembly in Laodicea.
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Was such that they were unaware of their condition.
So how would we know?
If we were in that condition.
So we just confess our need.
We look to you to fulfill that need.
Whatever portion we take up today, our God and our Father, we pray that.
Mouths will be open.
According to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
And also if any have questions.
That they would not be afraid to ask.
Off times, questions that one might be afraid to ask father tend to bring out much good truth that is needful.
And pray especially for younger ones.
But even many of us older ones.
Or sometimes.
Embarrassed. Ask a question we pray we would not.
Be controlled by our pride.
But in the interest of learning more, our God and our Father of your truth, that truth which is our very loving Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, we would open our mouths that they might be filled. We commit this time to you and the name of our precious Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. Amen.
Given the talk we had last night, brother and I would like to suggest.
The first two chapters of First John, I think it follows right on with what was presented last night as to eternal life, and I think it is so great to get those things clear as in the Epistle, the Gospel, and the Epistle of John, we have birth into the family of God and what it means.
That eternal life and I just suggest that unless there's something else that is more important.
I would add a hearty Amen to that.
For several months, if not years now, I felt that John's ministry very much needed among us in these days and I believe this would be a wonderful portion to take up.
We have 3 readings, perhaps we can take up chapter one. They're the first reading.
First John, chapter one.
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. 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, that which we have seen and heard. Declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ, and these things right we 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 cleanseth 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.
Three books of the Bible. Actually, it's four books, but three books.
Start with in the beginning of first. Genesis one is the beginning of creation.
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John's Gospel chapter one.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. That's perhaps the one that goes back further than any other, because it's eternity and God inhabits eternity.
But here we have another in the beginning, and it's interesting. It's from the beginning, it's a different beginning. It's the beginning of the manifestation of divine life.
In this world, in the person of the Lord Jesus.
Go back to John chapter 8 and you'll see the expression used there when the Lord Jesus.
Was here in this world.
Verse 25. John 825.
Then said they unto him, That's the Lord Jesus.
Who art thou? Jesus saith unto them. Even the same when I said unto you, from the beginning, He was the manifestation of eternal life. There in that person you could see eternal life on display. Beautiful to think about it, brother. And that weekend, know that eternal life, that person.
And so we have in our first verse of this chapter that which was from the beginning, and you'll notice as you read through the Epistle of John, that expression is repeated from the beginning. Notice in chapter 2 and.
Verse seven. Dear brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but that an old commandment which she had from the beginning.
Notice verse 24 of the same chapter. Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have had from the beginning. Every time you come across that, you can go back to the first verse of the Epistle.
What's it talking about? What beginning? It's the beginning of the manifestation of eternal life in the person of the Lord Jesus, because he goes on to say in this verse which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon on our hands up handled of the word of life.
What a wonderful thing it is, brother, to know him.
John uses this word beginning eight times in this epistle, and it really denotes a new beginning, doesn't it, the number 8. But he uses it in connection with the Savior, and it was. The epistle is written because it addresses the desire of some to go beyond what God had revealed and to negate the truth that the Lord Jesus was the eternal Son of God.
That he was the Son in the past eternity, but he came into this world and it was God. He was God manifest in the flesh. We read that last night. And so John says there's nothing new. He wrote, he's one of the last writers of the New Testament. And he writes and establishes the fact that what the apostles had been, what had been delivered to the apostles to give to the church, to deliver to the church.
All of the truth had been delivered, and so there was not a new revelation beyond what the apostles had been given. And so we live in a day and age now where people are going beyond the scriptures and some are taking black magic markers and marking out some passage of scripture that they don't like. They say it doesn't exist, and it doesn't exist in their minds. Well, you take a black magic marker and take one line out and it negates the whole.
Of the Bible. And so God jealously guards the divinity of Christ.
And the fact that he is the eternal Son never ever came became the Son of God. He always was the Son of God. And that's Christian revelation. The Jews knew that there was a a God that had was a plural eloquent Elohim, but they didn't know how many persons and they didn't know the distinction of the persons of the Godhead. But you and I know it's revealed to us, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.
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They always existed. And so John insists on this. It goes back to the beginning of what the apostles taught and the beginning of the manifestation of Christ in this world, because when they saw the sun, they saw God.
In a court of law, first hand testimony, eyewitness testimony has the greatest values and this is one of the things John is saying, one of the early controversies and false teachings.
Was that Jesus didn't really rise from the dead, it just did in spirit.
John is saying I was there, I touched him, I felt him. Thomas could say I he took my hand and shoved it into his wounds. Peter and the fisherman could say we ate fish with him on the beach. All the different ones he appeared to, including his own family who did not believe in him. He appeared to them and spoke with them and they believed in him. All of these people now remember John is the last apostles.
Living Anyone who had heard doubts or questions could go visit John. And even when he was on the island of Patmos, people did go there. John, is this true? Yes. I was there. I saw him, I touched him, I felt him. I was there at the start of it all. This is the truth.
Eyewitness testimony is powerful, and these are eyewitness documents.
People say I was there, we saw him, we touched him, we felt him, we heard his words. That's powerful. And for your own faith, all of these people that come questioning things, stuff on the Internet or people you may run into trying to tell you stuff. You have eyewitness testimony in this book, not only from the people, but you know also that the Spirit of God guided the very words that are written on these pages.
So this is powerful testimony from the apostle John saying I touched himself and saw him. I was there at the beginning.
He was seen of over 500 brethren at once in resurrection.
I think it is interesting that even aside from the testimony of Scripture, one of the best established historical facts in human history is the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. So even if they want to ignore the Scriptures, they have to face their own history. And so it is very important that question of his resurrection. It's interesting in this verse one that we have these little phrases.
We have heard.
We have seen with our eyes.
We have looked upon, our hands have handled.
Now to hear something, it may be at a distance. To see something, it needs to be a little closer.
To look upon it or contemplate it means look with more detention. You have to be closer. Yeah, to handle, you have to be right next there. And the apostle Paul or the apostle John says we have heard him. Oh, brethren, can we say that? We have heard him. We have his word in our hands as this word come home to our souls. It's the living Word of God. And the more I read it, brethren, and see how God uses his living word.
Are you in a listening mode? So often the Lord Jesus said he that hath hears to hear, let him hear. And even in the Book of Revelation when the story is closing the to the churches, the seven churches, it is he that hath an ear to hear, let him hear. Are you listening, young people? Is it getting through or is there some block there that's not letting his voice get through?
We have heard him. Oh, what a wonderful thing to hear him.
But then it goes to see him. Have you seen him?
It says in second, in the second chapter of Hebrews we see Jesus clothed ground with glory and honor. How in the world can we see Him? I don't see Him with my natural eyes, but it is the eye of faith, because faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. And so we can see there he is, seated in highest glory at God's right hand. It just thrills my soul to know that there is a living human being.
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In the glory of God at the head of all principality and power and we are united to him. Has that really gotten through to us? Have you seen him and then which our eyes which we have looked upon or contemplated It says in the new translation and that's looking at him more detailed sometimes say to the brethren, Please don't look at me very close because you're going to start seeing.
Faults and everything.
You look at him as close as you want, as detailed as you want, and all you're going to see is complete perfection.
Oh, how wonderful it is to contemplate him.
Famous Simon Greenlee is one of the founders of Harvard Law School. An atheist, his Christian students challenged him.
He wrote the books that are still used today in law school about the rules of legal evidence, what can be used, what cannot be used, what's most powerful. And they challenge you. Why don't you take your intellect? You're brilliant. And there's the rules you've laid down and examined, the life and resurrection of Christ. And he finally did.
Eyewitness testimony was one of the most powerful things that affected him. That man came to know Christ as his Savior. He wrote a book about it. You should buy it and read it. It's very interesting. How does a jury get persuaded when they say it's an open and shut case? How do they say that? Because there's so much direct testimony that there's no reasonable doubt to believe what you're being told? That's us. Now we know we got the Spirit of God working behind the scenes on this, too.
But the information being presented is eyewitness testimony from correct witnesses telling us this is the truth. And when you hear that with your ears are open, even if they're not, you can ask God to open your ears. Any believer, anybody that searches can say God, if I'm blind in some way, open my eyes. If I'm deaf in some way, open my ears. And he will answer that. And then when the information is laid before you.
Spirit of God brings it home, but there it is and people can look at it and even say, you know what, make a persuasive case and they can still say no. Now they're going to answer the gods for that. But that's what John is doing here. I'm an eyewitness testimony. Others were to were telling you the truth. It's not second hand. And when we preach the gospel, when we witness the people, when we talk to people, we can say, OK, I'm telling you what I believe that here's the eyewitness testimony. That's why it's so important.
Deterred in Scripture and show people what the eyewitnesses said. It has a powerful influence on people as the spirit of God then takes that says why this really happened. When Josh McDowell, the famous atheist who decided he was going to get rich and famous because he was going to disprove the resurrection of Christianity. He's going to write a thesis and a book. What does he find out? He says I didn't know there was evidence.
There is evidence brother, there's lots of evidence, clear testimony and John is telling us that he's and eyewitness, it wasn't just in resurrection that he was addressing that Christ had a physical body, but it was in fact Christ himself here in this earth that he wasn't just a spirit. In the the 3rd 4th chapter he says hereby you know the Spirit of God.
Every spirit that confesses that Jesus is come in flesh is of God. The the the error that was being brought in. And it's human nature, isn't it? To want to hear some new thing. That's what they did on Mars Hill. They came together to speak, it says in Acts 17, either to tell or to hear some new thing. We get tired of the old, we get tired of the manna, don't we? And we want to reform it. These people weren't denying the existence of Jesus.
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But they were repackaging him, and history has done that through the centuries. They repackaged him. So either denying his humanity or denied his divinity and Gnosticism denied both, essentially. And it's not just Apostle John that addresses it, though he does it here very late in the Apostolic period. But the Apostle Paul does too. He addresses it in Colossians. They denied that the fullness of the Godhead was present in this individual bodily.
They said he was just an emanation and furthermore, he didn't come in flesh. They taught that if he walked along a beach and it's in their writings that he wouldn't have left footprints behind him. Now you might say, well, I don't believe that, but we have a tendency to want to repackage who the Lord Jesus was. Man certainly has this tendency to make him more palatable, more acceptable to the rational mind or rationalistic mind. Perhaps I should say I think He's perfectly acceptable to the rational mind.
So again, just to emphasize, we live in this very day. It hasn't changed since John's day where people want to repackage who Jesus was and the errors can range from small to large.
Just like to reiterate a comment that was made yesterday evening as our brother brought before us that what we what he had been enjoying about eternal life, and that is that the book of first John is written so that we might understand what eternal life is. I think of how.
The need for the Epistle of First John was to correct.
Air concerning the person of the Lord Jesus, but God took great advantage.
Of what Satan was trying to do, and he gave us an epistle that teaches us what eternal life is. It was manifest in the Lord Jesus, and it was also given to us by one who was nearest to the Lord Jesus, the Apostle John. He leaned on the bosom of the Lord Jesus. He found his delight in being in the enjoyment of Christ.
And so God chose him to teach us what eternal life is. And it's a wonderful book for us to lay hold on because we have eternal life. God has given it to us. We have this life. And it's important for us to understand what this life is and how it responds and, and how it treats one another. And also.
We're going to get how it how we grow in the understanding of it. So as we get into chapter 2, we're going to see that we we actually grow in our understanding of eternal life. And so I just I'm encouraged as we talk about this work, we were talking about one of the reasons why.
The book was written was because Satan was introducing air regarding the Lord Jesus was.
But another reason why this book was written so we would understand the nature of God.
I think it's good, Bill, like you say, to see that John's gospel is eternal life in the person of the Lord Jesus. The epistle of John is that same life now in the life of those who are believers in the Lord Jesus, born into the family of God. It's that very same life that we possess. Isn't that wonderful? Incredibly wonderful.
There's a principle in Scripture and that these things are understood on the principle of faith, not on the principle of sight. It says in Romans, it says faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And so it's a principle with a for us to understand that we're not going to learn the things of God by sight or by natural means, but by faith. And might be helpful to notice too that it says we.
Have heard, we have seen with our eyes we have looked upon.
All of the apostles, it's not just John, the Spirit of God uses this term here we to establish the fact that many had witnessed the resurrection. It might be helpful. Bob mentioned or quoted that verse in First Corinthians chapter 15 and let's just read it in First Corinthians 15 verse from verse 3.
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For I have delivered unto you that first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen of Cephas. Then of the 12 After that he was seen of above 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep after that.
He was seen of James and then of all the apostles, and last of all he was seen of me also as of one born out of due time, For I am the least of the apostles that have not meet to be called an apostle because I persecuted the Church of God.
And so God has given us witnesses that faithfully by inspiration wrote and by faith we can read their their accounts and we can understand by faith we understand that the world's refrained by the word of God. It's by faith that we enter into the things of God.
What is written? The apostles saw him, they heard him, they contemplated him, they handled him even in resurrection. Remember the Lord Jesus said, handle me and see spirit as not flesh and bones as you see me have. So they handled him wonderful.
When they were going to replace Judas?
One of the requirements was that the one that replaced him.
Eyewitness.
That's an Acts chapter one when Paul was arguing.
Defending his apostleship to the Corinthians, he said, I think it was the Corinthians. He said, Have I not seen our Lord Jesus Christ? That was a requirement.
And so we do have the eyewitness testimony handed down to us in the scriptures.
And it's only those you may question, as this one did many times. How can highly intelligent people miss?
What is so obvious?
This all is quite reasonable. I know faith isn't reason, but faith is not unreasonable.
Faith is perfectly reasonable.
So why, you ask yourself, why not such intelligent people believe such nonsense that they do? But there's a simple answer. I won't look up the scripture, but you'll recognize it says the God of this age has blinded their minds.
The God at this age has blinded their minds. They're simply blind.
And if you eyes have been open to the fact that the Lord Jesus is God and that he was raised from the dead.
Your eyes were opened. That was an act of Divine Mercy.
And it's important, I believe, to see that.
The world of today, because what we see around us bears out that fact, as one of our old writers said to us. And it was very good, he said. We talked of common sense.
But he said, man forgets that it is God that gave it to us and God that maintains it to us. And when man gives up the revelation of God in his word, he generally loses common sense.
And that's why, and I say it to my own heart, and I say it to each one here, and especially younger ones.
Don't be surprised if out in the world you encounter the most ridiculous nonsense as to even common sense that you have seen, because your mind and mind would not be any better outside of the work of God and our souls. And I think what if I can refer to it back again? What Nick brought out to us concerning Gnosticism is very important because it started early on.
And it basically is, well, the word comes from the Greek to know, and it literally means knowledge. But it's knowledge that results ultimately from the working of man's mind to obtain some kind of higher knowledge, higher ideas of things outside of divine revelation. I like the expression you use, Nick. They haven't turned in that sense.
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Totally away from Jesus, but they have reinvented it and we hear it all the time today.
John writes to counter that because by the time John wrote, probably close to 30 years after Paul wrote, Gnosticism had really taken hold. And so he brings before them, as we've just all been saying, how that there were those who had seen, had heard, had handled, had every reason to be able to say with clear and definite assurance we know.
The one who is and was the embodiment of eternal life. We saw him as a resurrected man. And yes, Christianity has to be by faith. You and I didn't see it, but we have the the report from those who did a very, very important.
You look at believe what our brother Nick was referring to is mentioned in Second Corinthians Chapter 11.
And there are systems which have done this, there are people who are doing it, and it's even possible for us to do it. I.
Don't mean us corporately, but us as individuals can do this as well.
And our brother said repackage.
But this this verse, Second Corinthians Chapter 11 verse four. If he that cometh preaches another Jesus.
Another Jesus.
And so you go out and there are people that'll meet you on the street and said we want to talk to you about Jesus Christ.
Some of them are.
Bringing to you the Jesus Christ that the Bible reveals. They're bringing to you another Jesus.
And we can repackage him ourselves into something that's more palatable to us.
So that's why what our brothers have been sharing is so highly important that we accept the eyewitness testimony of those who were with him and saw him and even handled him in his resurrection.
Would you repeat that louder please? We're not hearing it down here either. Sorry. It seems the dress that I'm getting on this end of the stage there is that it's mainly his resurrection that this verse is being applied to and yet it's 3 1/2 years of his life. Seeing, hearing, touching doesn't seem to be spoken about very much. It's his resurrection that's the key theme in this verse here. Just curious if I'm missing something.
The passage is not referring to his resurrection. The passage is.
Referring to the fact that He was manifested at the end of verse two really answers your question. I believe was manifested unto us. When was He manifested? He was manifested when He came into this world. He existed for all eternity, but He was manifested. He was revealed. This word manifested maybe for our young.
Sometimes it's a little difficult. If you manifest something, it's like something that's hidden.
And you might have in the Old Testament, they had things that they knew, but they didn't see clearly.
And so you can have a table here and you'd have a couple of dishes under the on the table and then a tablecloth over it. And you would look on the table and you'd say, I think I see a plate under there. I think I see some cutlery. I think I see a glass. I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure that's what's under there. And then you take the tablecloth off and you see it clearly. And so in christened, in Christianity, what God has done is fully revealed his Son. And that's what.
John is saying here it wasn't in connection with his resurrection, although we've spoken of his resurrection and that he was a real man. He took a body so that he could die.
He took a real body, spirit, soul and body. He was a man. And so John insists on this, that he was manifested to this world. He was manifested. He was perfectly revealed as the Son.
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Rather, I would say that you can't separate the two. Before he was crucified and after this crucified. There's proof that God accepted that sacrifice is in the resurrection, proof that he wasn't some spirit, proof that he was who he claimed to be. And has all that had been manifested before he died proven afterwards? I'd have loved to have been a family on the wall in that conversation on the road to Emmaus.
But there it was.
That conversation with those two as he spoke of all the Old Testament scriptures and spoke of himself, that it's a resurrected man who is talking to them. And he had to do those 40 days to establish all that he needed to establish with those who had walked with him during that time, you know?
His family saw him. They saw miracles. They saw miracles.
Things going on.
They thought he was not. They say you're beside yourself. After his resurrection, he was fully made known to them. Can you imagine James and Johnny's brother and those conversations and his sisters? Wow, amazing.
Chapter 2 verse 8 is really a key to this book. Chapter 2 verse eight says again, a new commandment. I write unto you, Which thing is true in him?
And in you that is speaking that eternal life, that our brother.
Mentioned earlier with what was the John's gospel was about that life manifest in Him, but that life is now in US. And the point is, if it wasn't true of it Him, then it's not true of us now.
And so this is the the danger of the era that was being introduced. If it wasn't true of him, it's also not true of us.
And that's what he's bringing out.
So I think it's very important that we do see that this being manifest in flesh and being touched and handled and so on covers his entire life. It's important to realize too, that his body and resurrection was a spiritual body, was not a spirit, what we would call a ghost today. But it wasn't the same body. It was a spiritual body, physical, yes, He ate, yes, but it wasn't the same body that he had.
Prior to resurrection.
He says and another person that mentions from the beginning, and he also shall bear witness because he had been with me from the beginning. So it seems to me this this foretelling is connected with what we've been saying. And they have been with him from the beginning, from the point at which they, the disciples had seen his manifestation. But he's also connecting it with the preceding versus government. The comforters come. So it's after he's gone and and we're telling what.
What?
What John will then, as others did in the epistle, held forth of what they had seen and handled.
Interesting in verse two it says that the life was manifested and we have seen it and.
Their witness is showing to you that eternal life. So the Lord Jesus is that eternal life. Wonderful to realize that.
And which was with the Father. So it's like it's been said, He was always with the Father. He's the eternal Son in the bosom of the Father from all eternity.
And was manifested unto us. So that's in time when he came into this world. Then he goes on in verse three to say that which we have seen and heard two of the senses seen and hearing. And it's interesting if you go back just one page to first Peter chapter. I said, I'm sorry. Second Peter chapter one, he uses those two same senses in what he witnessed.
In the amount of transfiguration, notice it says in verse 16, we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His Majesty. There's the eye, the sea, and then it says verse 17, he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory. This is my beloved Son.
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Whom I'm well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven, we heard. So there's the scene and the hearing. And so in verse 3, just to keep the thing moving here, brethren, we have that which we have seen and heard. Declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us. That's the fellowship of the apostles. It's based on the doctrine of the apostles. Remember what it says.
In the early church they continued steadfastly and the apostles doctrine and fellowship the 2GO together.
There we have it, the apostles doctrine, they declared it unto us that we may have fellowship with us. And then he goes on to say, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. Now amazingly wonderful brethren, you know, sometimes we go down to verse seven of our chapter. We have fellowship one with another.
Fellowship, one with another is not first. Sometimes I fear we put that first. That's not first, brother. What's first is this fellowship, the apostles, which is fellowship with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. Isn't that amazingly fellowship, that which is held in common, that I can have fellowship with that eternal God and his Son Jesus Christ?
It's more than my heart could take in, brother, but it's the reality. It's true. Do you enjoy it? We need to cultivate that fellowship. You know, cultivation takes time and it takes energy to get into the Word, to read it, to take time to pray seriously, not just superficially. The Lord help us, brethren, to cultivate that fellowship. This is why it's been given to us, so that we might enjoy.
This fellowship with the Father.
And with his son Jesus Christ.
Psalms 34 and verse 8.
O taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth in him. If you turn to Exodus chapter 16.
Exodus 16 and verse 31.
In the House of Israel called the neighbor of mana, and it was like coriander seed light, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.
And then Deuteronomy 8 verse 3.
In the humble of thee, and suffer deed to hunger, and fed you with manna, which shall not.
Neither did thy father's know that he might make thee know that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord. Death man live.
I believe we have a privilege to taste of the Lord when we read His word, but I had a question and if you turn to Exodus 12.
I believe this is the time of the Passover when they were to put blood over their doors.
Exodus 12.
And verse 8.
They shall not eat the flesh, and that night rose with fire.
11 With bread and bitter herbs shall they eat it?
Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but rose with fire, that is, head with his legs, and the pertinence thereof.
And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning. That which remaineth of it in the morning shall you burn the fire. I've heard that this is the.
Symbolizes the Lord and the sufferings. But I was wondering if I asked the question, can we taste?
A little bit of those set will never build the fully comprehend but.
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Can we taste a little bit of those sufferings to the remembrance of the Lord?
I would suggest one thought as to that question. First of all, I don't believe we can ever taste the sufferings in the hours of darkness that was shut out from the eye of man. And I believe God dealt with His beloved Son there in a way that you and I will never be able to understand or participate in. But Scripture does speak, and Paul speaks of it in Philippians.
Chapter 3 The fellowship of his sufferings you and I can appreciate.
The sufferings that the Lord went through from the hands of man. But there is another aspect and we don't have time to develop it in this meeting or we'll get way off our chapter.
But there is such a thing as suffering for Christ.
And suffering with Christ. And suffering for Christ, of course.
We get that in the at the end of Philippians one where it talks about suffering for his sake, and many today in this world and many in the history of the church have suffered for him right to the point of martyrdom. And whether we'll be called upon to do that, we don't know if the Lord leaves us here. But it does tell us in Second Timothy chapter 3 that all that will live godly in Christ Jesus.
Shall suffer persecution, and there is such a thing as suffering with Christ.
Which may not in itself involve physical suffering, but it involves in entering into what he felt in every step of his pathway down here because of his love, because of his appreciation of doing the Father's will in a ruined world. Suffering with Christ in one sense is deeper than suffering for him, even though it may not entail.
Actual physical suffering.
So I just mentioned that is a very perhaps quick answer, maybe others want to add to it, but we can certainly share in his sufferings, but let's be careful what sufferings we're talking about.
I was trying to find a verse that the Apostle Paul said he filled up what was lacking of the sufferings of Christ.
For his body.
So you know that that verse could be could stumble you if you don't understand what he's saying there. There is no lack in his suffering for us to atone for our sin.
Thank you.
Let's look at that verse, Colossians 4, he said.
124.
He says, Fill up that which is behind or lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, for his body's sake. So here the apostle in his body shares in the sufferings of Christ, not for atonement.
But for the sake of his body, and we all can participate in that, to suffer for the sake of the assembly.
It's nice to notice that there are three things that John speaks of in his epistles here or this first epistle particularly that the believer has he has divine life. He has the very life of Christ. It's first John chapter 5 verse 12, He says he that hath the Son hath life.
He that hath not the Son of God hath not life while he has natural life, but he doesn't have divine life. And then the other thing that he says is that we have fellowship with divine persons. And I would just perhaps add just one word to what you said, Brother Bob. Perhaps meditation is not which that chewing of the cud. That is right. We'll have fellowship if we rightly to divide the word of truth and we divide the walk with the divided hook.
But we need meditation. We need to have a little portion of Christ for ourselves each day.
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And to meditate upon the person and the work of our Savior. But then it speaks of joy.
Here too, at the end of verse four, these things right we unto you that your joy may be full. So what's the privilege of a believer in the day that we live in is to recognize that he has divine life, the very life of Christ, and he can walk in fellowship with the divine Son of God. We know the Father as well. We're brought into the family of God, but we have fellowship with divine persons.
And is there a greater joy?
We have joy, not a temporal thing, not it's not focused on the natural.
Circumstances that we have or anything like that, but the joy comes from walking in fellowship with the divine Son of God.
In communion with him.
There's joy in just discovering these truths. I have the privilege of sitting down in a Bible study once a week with a bunch of 70 and 80 year olds.
Christians. Simple.
And we've been talking about these movies.
And you should see their eyes.
Widen this very thing here. They didn't know this.
Many of them been saved since they were children.
What?
God and his Son.
I get to be in their fellowship. They have. They want you there. They want me to be part of that. I didn't know that.
We take a lot of things for granted in some ways because we have learned these things maybe from a very young age. But there's even joy in this discovery. Well, when you see that joy in somebody's heart and face as they discover something, well, it brings me to our to enjoy with this new discovery some of these things that they did not know, did not understand.
My brother, who was recently restored the first meeting he ever attended since four years ago, was Jim Hyland's last admin.
Rapid tired, but in that meeting he spoke of how the father loves us with the love the same love he loves his son and my dad. One thing my brother came home with years of his eyes. I never knew that that the father loves me with the same love he loves me son entering into those things. There's a lot of God if we really angry.
True joy cannot be known unless there is that fellowship.
Young people, this is the answer. And sometimes I meet up with young people who seem to be all at Bay. They can't figure out what life's about.
And it's about this, the eternal God has come into this world in the person of a man. He's walked here, He's experienced what we have experienced. We have the record of it in the four gospels. You can go there and look at it, look at it in his all the detail you want to and you're going to find complete perfection. And we are called to walk in fellowship with him, it says.
In First Corinthians chapter one, we are called into the fellowship.
Of Jesus Christ, his Son. Isn't that amazingly wonderful? What if the president of the United States called you and he says, I want you to come and have dinner with me, have some fellowship? Would you feel free to do to refuse that?
We're not talking about the president United States, We're talking about the God of the universe. Oh, young people, cultivate that fellowship. It's gonna make you a happy Christian. Not only that, but if you cultivate that fellowship, and I do too, and we meet up together immediately, we're gonna find, oh, we're in fellowship with one another as well. And that's what we have in verse seven. We walk in the light as he is in the light. We have fellowship.
One with another.
And some have wondered why the end of that verse, We have a verse of a scripture that we use in the gospel a lot. The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sins. Why does that come there? He's talking to Christians. It's because, brethren, the basis of our fellowship. Sin always takes away, breaks fellowship. You can lose your fellowship. You cannot lose your salvation.
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But God has provided the means by which that which hinders fellowship can be completely taken out of the way, so that you and I can enjoy that fellowship. So you know what? If you're not enjoying fellowship with the Lord, whose fault is it? The Lords are yours.
It's yours, it's mine, it's my fault. Don't let that happen.
God has provided the means that that which hinders fellowship can be completely taken away.
Thank God.
Connection with that I'd just like to read in the Gospel of John chapter one, verse 18.
John, chapter one, verse 18.
No man has seen God at anytime, the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father.
He has declared him. What does that verse mean?
God dwells in the light which no man can approach unto.
But God desired to have fellowship with me.
I'm just the creature, he's the creator.
He desired to have fellowship with me. And how is that to happen?
The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
And the Lord Jesus was sent into this world to declare who God was. The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Who best could declare what fellowship was than the one who was in the bosom of the Father from all eternity?
And he wants me to be in that same fellowship with the father as well.
And that is so beautiful and touching. And just to connect that with what was just said, there's a verse in first John chapter 4.
In verse 12 it says no man. Here it is repeated again has seen God at any time.
If we love one another, God dwells in us. There's fellowship that expression. God dwells in US.
And His love is perfected in US.
How is that fellowship broken if we don't walk in the light?
If we do not confess those sins which come upon us day by day.
Those things cause us to.
Quarrel and not love our brethren as we should.
Those things break the fellowship.
And then what happens? We, as a witness as to who God is in this world, lose.
That witness.
The Lord Jesus was the witness of who God was in this world, and when we break fellowship, and I say this to myself with great solemnity, with him.
Then people can't see who God is in this world through us, and that's what it means to have His love perfected in.
Four, I believe perhaps is related to John 1720. We can turn there for a moment.
That.
Prayer of the Lord to the Father, which is.
Just so precious the Lord opens a window, as it were, on His communion with the Father in John 17.
What he says there?
And I believe, brethren.
That verse 20 should have parentheses around it.
Here is where he includes you and me.
In this prayer, because he said, I pray not.
For these alone, that would be those that we've been speaking about.
Those who were with him, who saw him, who heard him, who handled him.
The eyewitnesses, he says. I don't pray for these alone, but for those.
Who for them also which shall so its future?
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Which shall believe on me through their work.
That what that they may be.
All one as thou, Father art in me, and I and thee that they also may be one in US. I believe we're talking about the same thing.
Same thing as you're talking about, Sean. And what's been talked about, this is fellowship, this is communion, this is an intimate relationship and for us it we're brought into it through the word of them that were with him.
So it is a wonderful thing that he says we're declaring this to you, we're telling you this, we that we're with him, we're telling you this to bring you in to this fellowship, to this intimacy with God and with one another.
I think it's helpful to see that verse 68 and 10 each begin with if we say these are three tests that are given, and throughout John's first epistle he has various tests that may be applied to see if one is real or not. These are what our characteristics. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. This is profession.
But when we get to verse seven, we have three things that characterize the Christian position.
If we walk in the light, it doesn't say according to the light. We don't always walk according to the light, but we walk in the light.
We have fellowship one with another. That's the second thing. And the third thing, the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. Just it's every time we take up John's epistle and readings, this comes up. And it's important that we understand that John presents truths in a abstract way, black and white. He's not talking about the Christian experience. He rises above the Christian experience. If we look around us and judge Christianity by what we see and experience, we're going to misjudge it.
And the day in which the apostle John was writing things, error was coming in, serious error was coming in. We can't judge things based on our experience. We ultimately have to go back to the word of God. These things right I unto you, if He's written them unto us, it does us absolutely no good if we never read them. But we have to go back and read them and get re established on that which is black and white, that which is foundational.
And then?
The walk will follow, but I think it's helpful to see that there are three tests here that if we says speaks of Christian profession and then in verse 7, three things which characterize the Christian position in contrast to mere profession.
And so in two of these verses we could read the if that is verses 6:00 and 8:00. Not to get into a lesson in English, but English has two ways to use the word if. One is the if of condition, and that's what we get in verses 6:00 and 8:00. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie.
If and, then there's a condition attached to it.
But in verse seven, we could say it's the if of argument, you could read it. But since we walk in the light as he is in the light, every true believer is in the light. And in that sense the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. Now does that take away with the application to us of responsibility? No, it doesn't, but.
As Nick has pointed out, John often speaks in the abstract.
You think he looks at things as black and white and if we don't see that, we can misjudge a lot of what he says.
And so it's important to see that. And so every believer, every true believer is in the light and every true believer enjoys or should enjoy the truth that the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. We cannot take from this verse that we need a continual repeated application of the blood. That is not the thought. It's rather the assurance that.
With whatever the light reveals.
No matter how bright the light told us in a previous verse, in verse five, God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. Is that a bit frightening? Indeed it is. But then the brighter the light and the more it reveals, the more we see the value of the blood of Christ in covering it all.
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Want to bring down just because some get bound with this matter of confessing their sins and sometimes worried that I confess all the sins that I did and.
Don't think you're ever going to be able to do that.
It helped me a lot years ago.
When I was a Greek, my Greek teacher.
Told us that the word confess literally means to say the same thing.
So in order to confess, God has to convict you. He has to tell you.
You've done this just as the prophet came to David and David immediately did what he said the same thing he's I have sinned. So don't get caught up trying to think about what you might have done. The Spirit of God reveals to you convicts you just confess if you're not listening. He might have to bring a brother and in fact, he might have to bring someone who's not even saved.
To to tell you.
That you've said, well then you confess. That was a big help to me to learn that, that it means to say the same thing, you have to be convicted in order to confess.
Just want to go back briefly to verse five because this then is the message which we have heard of Him and declaring to you that God is light.
This is what God is. It's not a characteristic of God is what he is. Later on in the epistle it says twice God is love.
What is light? You go back to Ephesians chapter 5. There's a verse that tells us what light is.
Verse 13.
All things that are reproved are made manifest by the light.
For whatsoever does make manifest His light, in other words.
If we are in fellowship with God and God is light, there is absolutely nothing that you can hide.
From God. In fact, if you do try to hide something, it will be very evident something's wrong there. He's trying to hide some.
The light will show you that you're hiding something. Oh, how important that is. And it says in him is no darkness at all. In other words, you cannot mix light with darkness. The very first chapter of the Bible, God divided the light from the darkness. Don't try to mix up those two things in the world around. They say, OK, you're a Christian, I understand, but come on, a little bit of this. I know you'll enjoy it.
Don't try to make slight with darkness, it doesn't work. I think that's so important and so in the.
Versus like Nick is brought out in verse seven, we have a test if we say that we've what have fellowship with him.
And walk in darkness. We lie and do not the truth.
Oh, he puts it right on. He doesn't speak.
In application, but he says it as it is abstractly. And then in verse eight, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in US. Verse 10, if we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in US.
And I just want to say this to young people. I find that sometimes when people get out of fellowship with the Lord, they don't seem to understand how to get back.
And here is the recipe in these last three verses. Verse eight is if we say that we have not no sin as talking about the nature of sin, it's easy when there's a problem in my life to blame somebody else and to exonerate myself. That's what we tend to do. That's what Adam did the woman. And when the Lord turned to the woman, she said the serpent. And so we tend to do that.
If you want to get back into fellowship with God, that accusing finger has to come back to our own breast if we've.
Lost fellowship with the Lord. I am guilty. Don't try to blame anybody else. Verse 10 is really the act of sin to recognize that too is wrong. Then in verse nine we have what is called confession and what said. It's been very helpful to say exactly what it was that we did.
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Realize that he knows it all and it doesn't say if we ask for forgiveness.
Because we have forgiveness.
But it says if we confess our sins, we recognize and tell them that.
He is faithful and just the rest of the verses his part to forgive.
Our us, our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
And I trusted, I won't confuse people. But that is not judicial forgiveness there. It's the forgiveness that the father has in the family.
And his dealings with us. If my son does something that's blatantly disobedient to me, is he still my son? Yes. Is there fellowship with him? No. Why not? Why can't you just overlook it and go on? Because there's something that needs to be addressed.
And if he addresses that, then I accept him back into the circle of fellowship. That's the forgiveness it's talking about. It's not judicial forgiveness. Somebody has said that we received that once for all when we accept the Lord as our Savior. But this is governmental forgiveness. If we confess our sins, that's our part. He is faithful and just.
To forgive us our sins.
And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And that's important because see so many people, they think I got to clean up my ACT 1St and then I'll get back to God. That's not what it says. You tell him everything that happened and he will do the clean up job. How important that is.
I have a question, I'm sorry.
I was just going to ask about the term we. John uses the term we throughout this book.
And what it means is dependent on the context.
The we.
Inverse 1.
That's not the same as the we, for example in verse 8.
It has to be seen in the context the we in verse one is referring to a specific and very small group of people.
And sometimes we and John refers to man in general, not referring to believers. And you can misunderstand John's writings if you don't understand what we means in the verse that you're reading.
The we as contextual.
Just want to point that out. I wonder if other brothers would confirm or argue with that.
Well, verse 9 completely includes all believers, doesn't it?
That is applies to all believers wouldn't you say? Would it apply to to man? Because I know Mr. Darby with this first nine he gave 2 notions and he didn't seem to decide which it was. He said if the we here is referring to believers then it is teaching what our brother Bob has told us and so it applies to us as believers in that way. If the we here is referring to man then this is talking about.
Judicial forgiveness that comes when a man confesses his sins.
To God, then, he is.
Right, that's what. I can't remember Darby's exact teaching on that, but he said it could mean that because it's referring to man in general. Depends on what the we means there.
Been excellent, brother. Yeah, I, I don't know, I, I maybe someone else knows that if he ever spoke of it in that way in judicial forgiveness, but I might just say with judicial forgiveness.
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What took place at the cross of Calvary and the blood of the Lord Jesus being shed God on a righteous basis can forgive the Sinner if he receives Christ as Savior. That forgiveness means that God looks at you and says you're no longer guilty. Someone else paid the price, you're no longer guilty. What John I believe is speaking here is here is when we sin.
We may sin, and it may require the governmental.
Discipline of God.
Would just give an example in connection with David and Bathsheba while his life was spared the law said he should die but he was governmentally forgiveness forgiven. He was restored but he had to bear the consequences of what that sin had done had brought into his life. But he never lost divine life he was a child of God, but.
Here it's really Speaking of the.
Desire of the Lord that we would maintain.
Communion, I believe.
The word that I've spoken to you the Washington water by the word and then John is the family of God we're talking about restoration within the family of God in verse nine our brother this is not salvation here the 70s confessed with power for Jesus and believe in this heart. Your God is raised with the dead you'll be saved. The possession of the righteousness is in the family of God. The restoration of community members all seems we're mixing a few things that differ here. Well it's very true I think that's excellent brother Bill because.
In simple terms, just to make it clear.
Confessing my sins entails governmental forgiveness.
Being cleansed from unrighteousness means, in simple terms, that I don't turn around and do it again.
It's the it's the water brought in. But I would also say.
If an unbeliever read this verse, he could be saved through it. Let's not leave that out. Although I don't believe it's the primary meaning, but I believe if an unbeliever read verse 9 and appropriated it to himself, I believe he could be saved through it. But I don't believe it's really what, as Bill says, we we need to be careful what we're what we're mixing up.
But.
Do we sing number 69 in the back of the book? 69 in the appendix?
Peace with God, the blood in heaven speaks his heart, and now to me.
Peace with God the Lord is risen. Righteousness now counts me free. 69 and the appendix.
Praise the Lord's name in the world. We need the Lord.
And stop God.
No morning today and someone.
We are going fast, straight in the Lord.
'S green cloud behind us before.
Very cursed and contemplation.
How fair has been I stand?
Straight our sound.
And they are grandson and heaven.
Oh, because.
It is really great since I'm feeling love and brightness. Light stripes have been easily I love.
Reddit red frontier of praise, oh Lord God and glory. Thank God.