Open—Bob Thonney
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Let's turn to 1St John chapter one.
This is the first ministry meeting of the conference.
And here we have in verse one, the beginning.
It's helpful to go back to the beginning, isn't it?
In this life, in this chapter, we have about the light that our brother has been talking about. But let's just read this chapter. 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 rightly unto you that are, your joy may be full. This then is the message which we have heard of Him, and declaring to you that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie.
And do not 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.
Interesting.
To meditate on John's writings, John does not speak of the church as the as such. He speaks of the believers as the family of God. And so we have in John one verse 12 to them which received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God to them that believe on his name.
Which were born not of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
And so it's a matter of being born into God's family, and those that are born into God's family have the characteristics of those by whom they were born. God is manifest, has manifested himself in the person of our Lord Jesus. And so the beginning in this verse one is not the beginning. We have in Genesis 1 The beginning of creation.
It is not the beginning. We have in John chapter one where you have.
In the beginning was the Word, The Word was with God, and the Word was God. This is the beginning of the manifestation of an eternal life in this world. When the Lord Jesus came into this world, that's the beginning of the manifestation of eternal life. Verse two says the life was manifested and we have seen it.
For the first time, eternal life could be seen in a real person in this world, the Lord Jesus Christ, and it's beautiful how he speaks of it here in verse one, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon or contemplated.
And our hands have handled of the word of life.
In this amazingly wonderful brethren, that we have been brought into the full revelation of who God is in the person of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. I think that is amazingly wonderful. We need to stop and think through that a bit.
You know, the Muslim people say that God is unknown and unknowable. You and I can know God, yes.
Isn't that amazing and wonderful? God has become a man in the person of the Lord Jesus and has demonstrated to us who God really is and eternal life is to know the only true God.
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And Jesus Christ, whom he has sent. So eternal life, sometimes we think of eternal life is something that goes on and on and on and forever. That's true, but it's really a lot more than that. Eternal life is to revel, to know the person of our God in the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior who came into this world. They heard him.
They saw him, They looked upon him. What's the difference between seeing and looking upon him?
Oh, brethren, and sight of somebody. I might see a person in the street, and I saw that person today. Have I been just a glance? But looking upon him, contemplating, is a lot more detailed. Somebody has said it this way and I have enjoyed it. One look to Jesus saves the soul. Every after look is the power of Christian living.
So look at him.
Oh, the more you look at him, the more you will see only perfection. You know, it says in the Old Testament, O magnify the Lord with me, let us exalt his name together. You start magnifying men. Brethren, we need to be careful about doing that because when you magnify men, what's going to come up is their defects.
But the more you magnify the Lord Jesus, all you will see is complete perfection. You look at the Lord Jesus when they brought that woman taking an adultery to him, what a serious sin that was. And they said Moses and the law said we should stone this woman. What are you saying? They thought they had him in a bind, but the Lord Jesus didn't answer. Sometimes it's best not to answer right away.
He stooped down and wrote on the ground, and when he stood up he said.
Let him that is without sin among you, cast the first stone at him, at her.
That wasn't an answer to their question. That was an answer to their conscience.
How important that is, how much we can learn from that. Then he Stoops down and writes again. And all those that accused her went out, till it was only the woman there and the Lord Jesus. And she said, woman, where are your accusers? As no man condemned you. She said, No man, Lord, he said, neither do I condemn thee.
No more. Wait a minute. He was without sin. He could cast a stone at her, but He had not come for that purpose. He had come not to condemn. He had come to say, did He make light of her sin? No. Oh what perfection it is. The more you see Him in detail, the more you see the perfection. His glorious person. But I like it. The end of this verse one.
That which our hands have handled.
You know, to handle a person you have to get really close, and God has come so close in the person of the Lord Jesus.
That the apostles could say our hands have handled of the word of life.
The word 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. There's the fellowship of the apostles.
They wrote it out. We have their writings in the New Testament, and the purpose of that is so that we can have fellowship with them. But it doesn't stop there. It says, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. So the fellowship of the apostles leads us into the fellowship of the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. I think this is so amazingly wonderful.
Are we reading the scriptures? Dear young people, dear older ones I see so often neglect of reading the scriptures.
Please take time to read every day something of the precious Word of God, and don't read it just flipping over one part and one time and another part another time.
Re consecutively.
So that you can understand the message that's been given to us, how important that is. You take time to feed your physical body every day.
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Or is there somebody here that hasn't eaten anything today? I don't suppose there's very many that haven't eaten anything.
Is your body more important than your soul? Oh, how important it is to take time.
To read the scriptures, I was just.
Noticing the other day I was going to check in how long it took us to read a chapter. I think it was about 40 verses long. I think we read it not too slow, not too fast, but we read it in just a little over 5 minutes. 5 minutes isn't that much. Don't you have that much time to listen? God has given us a wonderful.
Revelation of who He is in the person of the Lord Jesus. And the way we get it is by listening to what has been written, what they heard, what they saw, what they looked upon, what they, how they handled the word of life. May the Lord help us to take time to really listen. I want to encourage you when you read scripture not to read it.
Hastily but to read it.
Really truly listening to what the Lord has to say to you in it. Oh, how living this book is sometimes, you know, we think, well, we've gone over this chapter quite a few times. I think I know what it talks about. Don't worry about going back over it again and again. It is living the living word of God. So in verse three we have.
The fellowship of the apostles, and then it says true lair fellowship is with the Father.
And with his Son Jesus Christ, you know, brethren, we have been made for fellowship. That's the way we are as creatures. A person by himself does not heal himself complete. When God made Adam, he said it is not good that man should be alone. So he made him and help me for him. We are made for companionship. God himself is a triune being, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Chapter of the Bible it says God said let us make man in our image who's talking. God in his triune being is communicating and so we are made to communicate.
And above all, it's with God to know God as our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice verse four says these things right we unto you, that your joy may be full.
Not half full.
I can say to you right now that if you are not walking in fellowship with the Father and his son, your heart is rather empty. And this is the answer to that emptiness of heart is to walk in fellowship with the father and his son. You know the word fellowship occurs.
Four times in this chapter, two times in verse 3.
Once in verse six and once in verse 7. If you notice in verse seven says if we walk in the light as his in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin.
So what I want to point out here is that fellowship, one with another does not come first in this chapter.
Yes, I enjoy fellowship with my brethren, going from country to country to see that the same spirit in our dear brethren in other countries. What a wonderful thing it is to have fellowship. But that's not first. What's first is fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ, and then the measure that you enjoy that fellowship with the Father and his Son. And I do too, when we meet up together, the result is that there's fellowship between us as well.
Oh, how important to keep those things in perspective. Sometimes. I think sometimes we get so focused on meeting together, and meeting together is important. Don't let me.
Put that in any way down, but that's not first first is fellowship with the Father and with his son Jesus Christ and then fellowship one with another has its very definite important place. So when we come to verse five, he says this is the message which we have heard of him and declaring to you that God.
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Is light.
And in Him is no darkness at all. Light and darkness do not mix. In the very first chapter of the Bible, God divided the light from the darkness. You can't mix the two things. They don't mix. God is light and then Him has no darkness at all.
What a basic statement, how important that is. We live in a World of Darkness.
And we are light in the Lord. We are light in the Lord because our God is light. We are born of God. We are to walk as children of light. And so in verse six, I want you to notice the very the 1St 3.
Or the 1St.
Yes, the 1St 3 words of verse six if we say. Notice the 1St 3 words of verse eight if we say notice the first few words of verse 10 if we say you know, it's easy to talk.
But the Scripture tests our talk here. It's easy to talk. If we say verse six that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. John doesn't put anything in shades of Gray, puts it in black and white so he can tell just where you are in connection with the truth of God, how important that is.
If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness.
You know, we can say I'm walking with the Lord, I'm fine.
That's easy to say, but the reality sometimes is different. Lord help us, brethren.
But in verse seven it says if we walk in the light as his in the light, we have fellowship one with another.
And notice the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.
Sin is what breaks fellowship between man and God, and between brother and sister and brother and brother as well. Sin breaks fellowship. God has provided the means by which that which breaks fellowship can be taken away.
And I think it is beautiful to see that that's the basis that we can come back to God in repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus and have our sins washed away. It's not that every time we sin as believers that the blood of Christ continues to wash us. No, the blood washes once for all when we've accepted the Lord Jesus. After that, we need the washing of water by the Word.
And that's a constant daily.
Activity that the Word of God washes us, so the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sins. God so wants fellowship with us that He has provided at all costume self that which can take away that which hinders fellowship.
I like to look at the last three verses of this chapter as the way.
For restoration when fellowship is broken, said it so many times in Latin America. And I think it is important point salvation is something that can never be lost.
Scripture is very clear about that. There are those who perhaps have said they are believers, but they really weren't in their hearts and they wander off and.
Who knows if they were real in the 1St place, but once salvation is truly possessed, it's something that can never be lost. What can be lost is fellowship. Here I am walking down the street and the Lord has promised never to leave me nor forsake me. He's right there with me.
And we're walking along in fellowship and I have a temptation to tell a little white lie.
And I do now is their fellowship.
No, no way. Can there be fellowship? Is he still there? Yes, he's still there.
What I have to do, and I find that so many young people don't understand how to get back into fellowship once you've lost it.
Remember a young brother in South America that we went to visit one time that had been.
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Strayed for quite a while, little over a year and we went to visit him in his home and.
We asked him, as did you ever confess what you did to the Lord?
He put his head down, thought for quite a while, and he said, No, I just confessed it to the brethren.
I said that's the problem, it's to the Lord you need to confess it first of all. And so that's what we have in verses 8-9 and ten. I just want to point out if you look at verse 8 and verse 10, they're quite similar, but there's a difference. Verse 8 says if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in US. Verse 10 says if we say that we have not sinned, we.
Liar and His word is not in US. Notice the difference between those two verses.
Verse eight is the root of sin that is in US. Verse 10 is the act of sin that is committed. Why do we sin? Because of that root of sin, that sin nature in US and sometimes we don't recognize that we like to blame others, just like Adam who said the woman who you gave me.
She gave me to eat and Eve said the serpent beguiled me and I did eat. So we like to push the blame on somebody else. If I have sinned, I am the guilty party and I need to recognize it and confess it to the Lord. So not only do we confess the act of sin in verse 10, but we need to confess the reason we sinned is because of that.
Sin nature that there is in each one of us. Then verse 9 says if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Doesn't say if we ask for the forgiveness of sins. No, it says if we confess. And there's a big difference between those two things.
If I ask for the forgiveness of sins, I'm calling into question the disposition of the person I've sinned against.
That's not what's necessary because God has already showed himself to be disposed to forgive us. We don't have to ask for forgiveness of sins.
Sometimes people say, well the Lord taught his disciples to say forgive us our sins as we forgive our debtors. That was before redemption was accomplished on the cross. You look in your Bible, after redemption is accomplished, you will never find it necessary to ask God for forgiveness. We might have to ask our brethren for forgiveness, but not God. He has shown Himself to be disposed to forgive us. What does God want then?
He wants confession.
Just say what you did. That is confession.
Number one young brother who?
Drank too heavily and he lost control. Got drunk.
And he realized he was guilty of something serious. So he came to an older brother, said this is what happened to me. So the brother read this verse nine and they kneeled down to pray. He says you have to confess it to the Lord. Oh Lord.
I really messed up this time. I really made a terrible mess of things. The older brother nudged him and says tell him what you did.
So he starts out again and he says, oh Lord, I was in bad company. And he starts off again in another Tell him what you did.
Oh Lord, I got drunk.
That's confession. Say it just the way it is. It's what He wants. Doesn't He know about it? Yes, He knows about it, but He wants you to say so. That's confession. And if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You as a believer can't even do the cleanup job.
Even though you are a believer, you can't do the cleanup job.
Confess it. He is faithful and just to forgive and to cleanse from all unrighteousness. I do want to make a point that when it says forgive here, it's not judicial forgiveness that we're talking about. Judicial forgiveness is that which we receive once for all as a believer in the Lord Jesus.
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This is governmental forgiveness.
Forgiveness that God has in his family doesn't mean that you have sinned, that you have lost your place in the family of God. No, you've lost the fellowship of the Father and his Son, and you need to confess so that he can forgive you. Sometimes say if I say something to my boy, I don't want you going out tonight and he deliberately disobeys me and goes out.
When he comes back in again.
He sees that I'm rather reserved toward him.
And maybe he comes up to me and says, Dad, if I've done anything wrong, forgive me.
Is that going to resolve the issue? Not at all, because he's not confessing anything.
When he confesses it, when he says what he did, you told me not to go out and I did it anyhow. Then there's the basis upon which I can forgive and open up in my love, the display of my love toward him. So these are important points in connection with fellowship and fellowship. Is that normal?
Condition in the family of God the Lord help us to cultivate fellowship again. I say, brother, and are we reading?
The precious word of God on a daily basis. Oh, how important. That is another thing.
That is so important is prayer.
Remember, I think it was Martin Luther who said.
I have so much to do every day that I dare not take any less than three hours to pray.
Brethren, do we know how to pray?
Praying is I find hard work, I don't find it easy work.
But it is important work. It helps me to get into God's way of thinking. Sometimes somebody has said prayer does not change God's mind. It changes my mind so I can think more of God's thoughts. But to take time in prayer before the Lord, when we read His Word, he's speaking to us.
When we pray, we are speaking to him. Both are necessary.
If we are to maintain fellowship, Lord help us brethren to walk.
In the joy of that fellowship with the Father and his son, and as a result, with one another as well.
46 #46 in the back of the book.
Have I an object Lord?
Consensus.
Enjoy your.