Open—Bob Thonney
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Let's go back to the beginning again.
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 in our hands of handled.
Of the word of life.
For the life was manifested, and we have seen it.
And he 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.
Just like to make some brief comments.
It's interesting this expression at the beginning of verse one.
From the beginning? What beginning is it talking about here?
And so in verse two and three, it's evident it's the beginning.
Of the manifestation of eternal life in the Person.
Of our Lord Jesus.
Never before was eternal life visible in a person as it was at that time.
Go back to John's Gospel, chapter 8.
Just for one verse.
Verse 25.
Then they said unto him, This is the Pharisee said unto the Lord Jesus.
Who art thou?
And Jesus said unto them.
Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning. There is that expression again from the beginning, and it's interesting. If you read through John's epistle, first Epistle, you'll have that expression again and again. Notice in chapter 2 and verse 7.
Verse Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had.
From the beginning, there it is.
The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning.
Notice verse.
13 I write unto you, fathers, because you have known him, that is, from the beginning.
Verse 14 I have written unto you, fathers, because you have known him. That is from the beginning. It's the beginning of the manifestation of eternal life in the person of the Lord Jesus.
And as it's been brought out in this conference, this is the life that you have right now if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus.
And what I would like to encourage in these few brief moments is to cultivate.
Fellowship with the Lord Jesus. You know God is.
A personal God.
He's so personal.
That he came to be a man in this world, so that man to man, we can communicate, we can talk things over.
I think it is amazingly wonderful to think about.
And so you have in verse one, which we have heard. That's one of our senses. Have you heard him?
Here's the Word of God.
Has it really penetrated as it is in truth the Word of God?
At which you have seen with your eyes.
Well, there is the eyes of faith.
And in Hebrews chapter 2, it says we see Jesus crowned with glory and honor. That's the.
00:05:05
Vision of faith. We read it in the Scriptures. It becomes surreal to it. It is as if we are seeing it. Can you see him there, brethren? There he is sitting, a real man of flesh and bones in the glory of God. Wonderful to think about.
But then another statement which we have looked upon. What's the difference between seeing and looking upon?
Looking upon gets more detail. I may see something at a glance. Yeah, I saw that person today.
But when I look at somebody, I look at them in detail.
I sometimes say to people, if you look at thee brother, and you're going to see.
Some failure, so don't take too much time at that.
The more you look at him, the more perfection you're going to see in every detail.
You know, it's interesting because we deal a lot with literature and I have noticed that people that use printing presses have a magnifying glass off times and what they do after they have a press or a page that's been printed, they look at it under a magnifying glass and that way they can see where the defects are.
Put the magnifying glass to any of us, brethren.
And you're going to see defects. But put the magnifying glass to the Lord Jesus. Oh, magnify the Lord with me. All you're going to see is complete perfection to me. It is amazing to do that. And then it comes so close. The apostle John says our hands have handled the Lord Jesus laid on his bosom at the Last Supper. He says I.
Talking about, I'm not talking about.
Fables. I'm talking about reality.
This is what happened.
His hands have handled, and they say here in verse three, that which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us. Now this us is the apostles.
The Apostles fellowship. We often quote that verse in Acts 242. They continued steadfastly in the apostles.
Doctrine and fellowship. Here we have those two things. What they saw and heard, they declared to us. That's the apostles doctrine, that you also may have fellowship with us.
So that's the standard.
But notice it doesn't stop there. Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.
You know, it talks about fellowship.
In verse 7 as well, we walk in the light as He is in the light. We have fellowship one with another. It sure is great to be back together in meetings like this, to be able to rub shoulders, shake hands, give an embrace, and to see each other find out how you're doing. God has made us for that.
This is part of what Christianity is. But I want to point out this pact that fellowship won with another is not first.
What's first fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ? Oh, are you cultivating that fellowship?
And this is my desire in these few brief moments.
Is to cultivate that fellowship with the Father, with his Son, Jesus Christ. Again, I say God is a personal God and he's interested in walking together with us. We have two people in the Old Testament that walked with God.
To me, it's interesting. What does it mean to walk with God?
It says about Enoch, he walked with God 300 years. Wowie, that's pretty impressive.
300 years. How did you do it, Enoch? How did you walk with God? 300 years.
You know what he was said.
One step at a time, take it, each step with the Lord. We've heard that promise this afternoon. I will never leave you nor forsake you. Do your steps in the consciousness that He's right there. Talk to him. Listen to Him.
00:10:17
And so I say to cultivate this fellowship.
I say there are two things that are so important.
Reading the Word of God.
That's listening to him.
And then prayer.
That's talking to him. Both those things are so important in walking with God.
And I'd like to encourage young people to read the scriptures.
And I get some interesting reactions when I challenge young people sometimes to do that.
What does it mean?
To read the scriptures.
And I think I might have mentioned it, but at our conference in Oaxaca.
Mexico. Sometimes their conferences get quite large too. There was a conference in a place called La Cumbre in Oaxaca. I don't know if it is two or three years ago.
Probably close to 1000 people there.
And so I got talking to a group of young men between the meetings.
You read the scriptures.
Yeah.
Said how often? Oh, maybe two or three times a week. Oh well, I'm glad you hear you're reading at least that much.
And I say, let me ask you another question.
How often do you eat any food?
Oh, every day, brother.
Just once a day, I guess. Really. No. Three times a day Without fail. Yes, without fail. I say, OK, well, I'm going to make another conclusion then, that your, your body is a lot more important than your soul, isn't it? Don't say that. That's not right.
Well, let's be practical, brother.
Do we give sincerely time for the Lord to speak to us? And when you give time for the Lord to speak to you, you don't do it in the midst of doing a bunch of other things. You pay attention.
You listen.
So I want to encourage you to take time to listen to the Lord.
As you read the scriptures, I don't like to make myself.
An example that I must say, rather than that the Lord laid on my heart.
In early years.
When I was working at Bible Truth Publishers.
In Oak Park at that time.
There was a time that we had to leave for work.
I decided as a young person I was going to get up one hour earlier and take 1/2 hour to read the scriptures and maybe some ministry on it.
And another half hour to pray.
I will never regret having done that. The fellowship, the enjoyment of the scriptures, the understanding of the Word of God that I got not only from reading but from ministry of some of those good.
Ministry books that we have in English and now in Spanish as well.
But it was a tremendous blessing. And you know what?
I found that when you cultivate fellowship with the father and with his son.
Jesus Christ. Then, when you meet up with your fellow brethren, there's something that clicks immediately. There's fellowship on that ground, too. Why? Because you are cultivating the fellowship with the Father and the Son, and I am too.
Oh how important it is. Remember I really enjoy seeing you all together enjoying fellowship with one another. Remember fellowship one with another is not #1.
00:15:09
His fellowship with the father and with his son.
Jesus Christ.
Lord help us brethren, one more detail here in verse four. These things right we unto you that your joy.
May be full, not half full, overweight full.
Joy.
Enjoyment comes.
From walking in fellowship with the father and with his son.
I must say I've met up with people that radiate their enjoyment, they're so evident.
And it's because they're walking in the fellowship with the father and with his son.
My presence, so my Congress beginning.
By itself Horrible heart.
Our presence.
Save your life, Lord, give Lord, sin can come.
All I ever wanted to hear, our bride to hear instead.
Of our strange material, our snake of all.