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I think let's take that up, that'll be fine.
I wonder if we could read the.
Another verse to connect with first John one.
In.
Second Peter.
Chapter One.
And.
Burst one, read that verse second Peter one and verse one and then start on 1St John.
Do you want to read all those paper two first time?
We may not, we may not get through it all, but you can read it OK.
Second Computer 11.
Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior of Jesus Christ.
First Episcopal John, Chapter One.
Which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon in 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 is with the Father, and was manifested unto us.
That which we have seen and heard declarantly 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 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 sins, believe 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 this word is not an us. Chapter 2. My little children, these things right eye unto you that you send that. And if any man sin, we have an advocate for the Father, Jesus Christ.
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And here's a propitiation for our sins.
And that for hours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And hereby would you know that we know Him if we keep His commandments. He did say as I know Him and keep us not His commandments is a liar. And the truth is not in hell. But whoso keepeth his word, him verily is the love of God protected.
They're buying Know me that we are in now Either saith He abideth in him, or himself also salt so to walk even as he was. Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but it has commandment which he had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which he had heard from the beginning.
Again a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passed, and the true light now signeth he that says he is in the light, and hateth his brother is in darkness. Even until now he that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in hell.
But he that hateth his brothers in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His namesake. I write unto you, Father, because He has known Him, that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked ones. I write unto you, little children, because He has known the Father. I have written unto you Father's, because He has known Him, that is from the beginning.
I've written unto you, young men, because you're strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and you have overcome the wicked one. Love not the world. These are the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father, but of the world. And the world passeth away in the lust thereof. But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.
Little children, it is the last time, and as you have heard that Antichrist will come even now are there many antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last time they went out from us, but they were not of us, for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out that they might be made manifest, that they were not all about. But you have an uncensored from the Holy One, and you know all things. I have not written unto you because you know Massa truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
It was a liar, but neither denies that Jesus is the Christ. He is Antichrist that denies the Father and the Son. Whosoever denies the Son, same has not the Father, that he that acknowledges the Son has the Father also? Let that therefore abide in you which He had heard from the beginning. If that which He had heard from the beginning shall remain in you, He also shall continue in the sun and in the Father. And this is the promise that He had promised us, even eternal life.
These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduced you.
But the anointing which you have received by the venue, and you need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teaches you of all things and his truth, and is no lie. And even as it has taught you, he shall abide in Him, and now little children, abide in him, that when he shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before. No matter, Tommy, if you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him.
I suggested reading the first verse of Peter second epistle because of these words with us.
Peter says those that have obtained like precious faith with us. That's the apostle. Now notice what it says in first John in the first chapter.
Uses same words.
In the third verse.
That which we have seen and heard a few apostles.
Living with the Christ here below.
Declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us. That's the apostle. Peter and John were very significant in the Lord's use of them in the early church.
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But it's all the apostles. Matthew was one of them. He wrote the first book of the New Testament.
So we've been noticing in second, I mean in, you know, the second chapter of Acts, verse 42.
They continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship. Now here's the original writers of those two books, those two persons that walked with Jesus, telling what they had seen and heard when he was here. Now we're going to have fellowship about the Lord and his feelings. We're going to get it second-half. No, we're getting it first hand by the Spirit.
Because the Spirit of God caused Peter and John to write this way. It's a wonderful thing.
Deduction and the fellowship we were speaking about that yesterday they are so basic and so important the foundation truth.
We have 3 beginnings in scripture.
There may be more, but I think at three and John one in the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God and the Word was God. That's the eternal past.
That's the beginning that had no beginning, and put it that way, Genesis One says.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth to be That was the beginning of creation. And in this epistle that which was from the beginning refers to that time when he came into this world.
The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, so the from the beginning is Christ down here.
In this world is man.
I think it helps to see that because right through this epistle that expression is used over and over again in second chapter. Notice in verse 7.
I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which you had from the beginning.
Verse 13 I write unto you, Father, because you have known him, that is, from the beginning.
Verse.
1414 as well, Yes, it's readdressing the Fathers there as looking on down the chapter in verse 24. Let that therefore abide in you, which you have heard from the beginning. Is that what she have heard from the beginning? It's all referring back. Every time you see that little expression you can refer back to the very first verse of the Epistle is the beginning.
As Chuck has said of the manifestation of eternal light in this world and the person of the Lord Jesus, isn't that wonderful? Brethren, what we have embraced in Christianity is not.
A difficult philosophy to comprehend. What we have embraced in Christianity is the person of the very Son of God come into this world.
It is historical fact. There was a man born into this world who was the Son of God, and he in his life, his death, his resurrection, his ascension, these are historical facts. It's not philosophy, something difficult to embrace. No, this is what we have seen, what we have heard, what we have looked upon.
What we have handled with our hands, this is real.
And it's interesting in the first verse to see the progression. The first phrase is, which we have heard. The 2nd is, which we have seen with our eyes, the third which we have looked upon.
4th Our hands are handled, and I like to think of it in this way, that each one of those gets closer to home to hear something and to hear an explosion in the distance.
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Quite a distance you hear it. Yes, you heard it. To see it, it might have to be a little close.
But to look upon it, the translation reads contemplate. It means look at it in detail. You have to have it closer yet. And to handle it, it has to be within your reach. And God came so close in the person of the Lord Jesus.
Desiring the fellowship of man, that the apostles could say.
Our hands have handled him of the word of life and he was noted and noticed in scripture as the one who lay on Jesus bosom. He often says indirectly himself in the lay on Jesus bosom without using his name. No wonder he could take our hands have handled of the word of life. Now He gives that to us by the Spirit in the written prayer.
So we're going to get the truth as it is in Jesus. We're going to get it through this way of the apostles and the prophets that wrote the book.
Well, we've never had the privilege, like John and Peter and those that were alive in the days of the Lord Jesus of physically carrying this out. But is He any less real to our hearts, brethren today? Is the relationship any less? No, in fact, the relationship, as I think we mentioned in the first reading, is deeper and more real than even the disciples having the privilege of walking with the Lord Jesus while He was here in this world.
Because the things that we noticed that he brought before them in the upper room, that we're going to bring them into relationship with himself, not as a man walking here in this world, but as a man in the glory, were things that they never had or could enjoy while the Lord of Jesus was walking with them. Because we might say, well, what a wonderful privilege. John had blessed the thing to be able to sit with the Lord Jesus, to walk with him, to lay his head on his bosom.
At supper to speak to him directly, to look into the face of that blessed One who had come in incarnation. But rather we have the blessed privilege and have been brought into a place of nearness and relationship that was never enjoyed before the coming of the Spirit of God on the day of Pentecost. And when you read in the Old Testament of those men of faith and women of faith who had a relationship with God and with Jehovah, and so on, whatever name.
They, whatever time they lived and whatever name they knew him by, wonderful the relationship they had with old brethren. As we leave this place in a few hours, if we're left here, may we go with a conscious sense of the one who we have been brought into relationship with the Father and with the Son, and may we seek by grace to look up more and more by faith to be occupied with Himself.
As our brother Buchanan has said, to go to the epistles, the life of the Lord Jesus and then the Epistles and to drink these things in. How are you going to know the Lord Jesus? I don't mean how are you going to know him for salvation? Perhaps most here, not all know the Lord Jesus as their Savior, but the great desire of the Apostle Paul who never saw the Lord Jesus in the way that John did. He said that I may know him. He said, well, didn't he get to know him on the Damascus Rd. Yes, he got to know him as Savior, but his whole.
Desire of his life was that there would be a cultivating of that fellowship and relationship. Yes, we're brought into it positionally, but what about the cultivating of it is the desire of our souls that we might know Him in the power of his resurrection?
These four things that Bob has pointed out from the first verse they heard him, they saw him, they.
Him. They handled him.
I just want to read a few verses from Esther five. Well Esther core the edict had gone out to destroy the Jews. And verse 9 says of chapter 4 Haytack came and told Esther the words of Mordecai. And he was he told her in verse 8 to charge her that she should go in under the king to make supplication unto him to make the request before him for the her people.
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She hadn't disclosed herself that she was Jewish, and she was told, Mordecai, you got to go in and make intercession. And Esther spake unto Haytack and gave him commandment unto Mordecai. All the King's servants and the people of the King's provinces do know that whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come unto the king into the inner court who is not called, there is one law of his to put him to death.
Except such to whom the king shall hold out the golden scepter that he may live, but I have not been called to come in unto the king these 30 days. And Mordecai says if you don't do it, then God will raise up deliverance from the for the Jews is from another place. And then she decides she will go in and she says in verse 15 Esther bad them return Mordecai this answer go gather together all the Jews that are present.
In Shushan and fast for me you neither eat nor drink 3 days, night or day. I also and my maidens will fast, and so will I go in under the king, which is not according to the law. And if I perish, I perish. The reason I'm reading this is the access to a earthly monarch was not. No one could presume on that. No one dared approach him and come into his presence unless he was called.
And.
Verse chapter 5 Now it came to pass on the third day that Esther put on her royal apparel and stood in the inner court of the King's house over against the King's house. And the king sat upon his royal throne in the royal house over against the gate of the house. And it was so when the king saw Esther, the queen standing in the court, that she obtained favor in his sight. And ** *** was the queen, and even she, if she hadn't been bitten, risked her life to come dare to come into the king.
Without being invited when he sees her, when he saw Esther the queen, that she obtained favor in his sight, and the king held out to Esther the golden censer scepter that was in his hand. So Esther Dunier and touched the top of the scepter.
That's how inaccessible the earthly monarchs were. No one dared to approach them. What do we read here? The God who created the universe, the sovereign of all. He came.
Into flesh and blood.
They heard him, they saw him, they looked upon him, they handled him.
That's how accessible he was.
Do we realize?
What that means?
The most accessible of all men, and yet the greatest.
He holds out his word to everyone of us, The golden scepter coming. I've come to save you.
That's the gospel. That's marvelous. Marvelous.
He is precious Brother Chalkin, while it's true we've been brought into a relationship with the glorified Christ.
John isn't occupied with that, he's occupied with God, eternal life come down and taking his place as a man.
The real man.
Really. You don't have the attention of Christ and John?
What captivated his heart was the person who had come so close to him that he could.
Hear him, see him in Hamilton, and it becomes the criteria of of faith.
Deny Jesus Christ, come in flesh, your Antichrist.
It's everything to John and and we want to consider him coming fresh. We want to consider him as this man is John presents him of God and man eternal life. It's it's vital to us. It's vital to Christianity.
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Of Jesus Christ, common flesh.
And it's it's been given up and it does. It isn't even understood by the Christian world. Or they wouldn't for a moment tolerate.
Any thought of another religion being possible as another way? This is Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, eternal life taking up manhood and coming so close that he was touched and heard and saw and handled.
That's the 14th verse of first John John Gospel.
The word became.
Flesh and dwelt among us.
Full of grace and truth, you just can't make quite that too much.
And I think that God develops that, at least because of the way he's going to get glory in defeating Satan.
Let's go to that first chapter of John and read the last verse.
And see how God.
Is going to.
Show him.
It's another place where heaven is open. We refer to two of them yesterday.
And there's another one. And then there's this one, John one, and the last verse.
It's Nathaniel.
And he pronounces this and the.
Well, Jesus said in the 50th verse, Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, Nathaniel, I saw thee under the fig tree. Believe us now, thou shalt see greater things than these. Evidently Nathaniel was a godly man, and it was practiced to.
Pray under Sycamore fig tree.
For their privacy.
Well, he was doing that, we think, and Jesus was walking up there and he said.
Before that failed called, even that was under the fig tree. I saw thee. Then he said in the last verse to get to it. And he said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you hereafter.
Now that's a long time later.
Shall seek greater.
Ye shall hereafter he shall see heaven open.
We were enjoyed yesterday. Have an open.
In the.
Baptism of Jesus by the Spirit in Matthew 317 when the Spirit came upon him, and then we went to Acts 7.
And.
We had a man on earth being murdered and heaven was opened so that he could see in there.
And he looked up there, and he saw that man that had been crucified. He saw his glory standing on the right end of God. He had yet seated himself. He was ready to come back. Opportunity came.
But there is revealed that Jesus standing on the right hand of God.
Now, coming down through time, I'll just refer to Revelation 19. There's another place where heaven is open, and that's for Jesus to come out riding on a White Horse. That's the kind of the character that.
After six developed some Morty chaos or from Haman, the man of the flesh was the one that pronounced. What would you like to have?
But on a horse and ride through the Jerusalem on earth, right? And through the city.
And be proclaimed thus shall it be done to the man, and the king delighted to honor.
And a little measure the beeps of the time of Jesus. As he was approaching to go to the cross, he got on a.
Ash Rd. Into the city.
And they proclaimed him, Well, heaven was opened there to see this.
I mean heaven has opened Revelation 19 to see that man taking the place of king and coming back with with us too other horses. The Lord Jesus is going to take the throne, but here in Nathaniel is hereafter and notice what it says in this last verse again of John. Hereafter shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man, not the Son of God, it's the Son of man.
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Now let's go to John 5 and see why God does it this way.
John 5.
And verse.
22.
As the Father judges no man.
But have committed all judgment unto the Son, For the Father judgeth no man, but I committed all judgment unto the Son.
Then in the 27th verse.
For the mother had and had given him authority to execute judgment. And here's this word because, because he is the Son of man, God has gained the victory in the Son of man. He lost in the first man. That's what it looks like. It still looks like that Satan has messed it up. Well, here's a man that came to undo the works of the devil.
Jesus the unleashed and we had yesterday about the and what took place at Pentecost the he undid the confusion of the tower Babel.
So here is the man, the Son of Man. He's going to be the one that comes forth and as it says in John Wonder.
The last verse.
Nathaniel sees the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. He is the center of everything.
Ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. What a mighty show God is going to get in the Son of Man who has pleased him so much.
Whereas the first man, as Phil told us yesterday, into the first man was the cross.
He became the Son of man to be a savior, and if he's refused as a savior, he will be a judge. But we will all meet him, whether saved or lost, we will all meet him and stand before him. Either meet him now as a savior, or you will meet him then as a judge. But meet him, every man and woman, boy and girl will meet him and stand before him either one way or the other.
Either as savior or judge. Very solemn, isn't it?
They've taken us away from John first, John one. Let's go back and connect up with the fellowship with us.
Like Peter says, obtained like precious fellowship with us, that this is the first fellowship we find in this first epistle of John.
Just to read the third verse again, that which we have seen and heard, declaring unto you, we have this, we get this through the apostles.
That ye may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.
Fellowship with us comes first. You don't get the fellowship of the Father and the Son 1St, and you don't get fellowship one with another further on down. Let's read that.
Which verse is that 7/7?
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, Princess from all sin. Man, in his natural attraction to get to God, would rather ignore everything else and put fellowship one with another first. You can't get into God's fellowship that way. You can't have brotherly fellowship that way. It's not possible. We've got to start.
We it's a beginning. That which is from the beginning, we got to know that Son of man.
And they that we get from the apostles. So this book is so important. You can't get this any other way than going through the apostles doctrine and taking that, taking this book and believing it. Then you can have the next thing comes real quick. Our fellowship says John is with the Father.
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And with his Son Jesus Christ, that's the highest thing there is. But we got to get into it through this book, through this word, through the apostles and the prophets.
We heard last night in the gospel.
Of two houses that were visited, the one there was fellowship because they loved the sun. The other there was no fellowship because they had no room for the sun. And it He divides the world, doesn't he?
He divides the world either those who are his and those who are not a wonderful to know him.
Brother said to me the other day.
I don't know how he put it. What do you know? What do you know? I said, It's not what you know, it's who you know. That's what counts. That's very important, isn't it? Because John brings before us the person of Christ in a very, very remarkable way, the one who saw and heard and looked upon and handled. And when you read the Gospel of John.
Doesn't it touch your heart the way John so beautifully brings out the eternity of his person, the glories of his person?
It it it almost overwhelming when you go through the Gospel of John, but it is a person now. It's based on the work, of course, because when it's all summed up here, the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin. I used to think this was a rather strange place for this statement to be made.
When he's talking about the person of Christ and the fellowship to which were brought into.
And then all of a sudden he goes and he turns and speaks about the blood of Jesus. But it's interesting, isn't it, that John is the only one who records that a soldier with a spear pierced his side and forthwith came there out and watered. And having recorded that, he now says that the basis of all this, the basis of fellowship, the relationship and circle of blessing we've been brought into.
Whether it's with one another, the apostles, with one another, with the with the Father and the Son, he says it's all based on the work of the Lord Jesus at Calvary's cross. Brethren, apart from the incarnation of the Lord Jesus and his atoning work on Calvary's cross, we'd still be without hope and without God in this world. We'd be sinners, doomed for a lost eternity. And we want to never forget as we speak.
Of the preciousness of the person of Christ and that which is ours in Christianity. We want to never forget the cost to God the Father and his Son, the Lord Jesus. And that's why I believe we need, and we need it often, the remembrance that we had yesterday morning, a loaf and a cup. And notice that the it's not all combined in one. It's not all in a wafer. The Lord, when he instituted the feast, he instituted it the way we kept it yesterday morning.
A low separate from the cup. The loaf speaks of his body given in death, and the blood speaks of his blood, and the separation of the blood from the body was the proof of death. And John brings this out so beautifully and brings it out so clearly. I would like to say one other thing too, in connection with John bringing before us the person of Christ. We've had much before us as to the importance of the apostles doctrine, the truth that they bring.
Out and so on. But let's go to John in chapter 8, John's Gospel just to notice 2 verses.
That bring perhaps tie these things together.
John's Gospel, chapter 8.
And verse 32.
And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Now drop down to the 36th verse. If the sun therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. Well, I used to ponder these two verses as they appear here. First of all, it says you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. And so the truth does liberate. And we've had expressions concerning that in these meetings. And I don't want to in any way take away from what has been said in these meetings as to the importance of familiarizing ourselves with the fundamental doctrines of Christianity.
00:40:15
And going over and over and over again, Peter said, I'll not be negligent to put you in remembrance of these things, though you know them and be established in the present truth. John said, no new commandment right I unto you, but that which you've received from the beginning. I'm going to tell you over and over and over and over again. And especially, brethren, in our day Jude, when he writes of the appalling days of apostasy and the giving up of the truth and the undermining of things, he says, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation.
It was needful for me that I should write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the Saint. Once delivered, nothing new once delivered. That's what we need to be familiar with. That's what we need to earnestly contend for. And so that you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. But in the 36th verse it goes a little farther, doesn't it? It's not just freedom, but you shall know if you know the sun.
If the sun therefore shall make you free.
You shall be free indeed. Now I'd like to hear more on it, but I've just enjoyed it in this simple way. You can know the truth and really not have the heart attack. Sometimes said we can be clear as ice and just as cold. You know the Ephesians, they were very clear on things when John wrote to them. They were even able to detect the false apostles and everything was in very much order. But they lost their first love. But you can't know the sun and not have the heart affected. And I suggest that's one reason at least why.
He goes a step further. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
And brother, if we take up, as it says in Ephesians, the truth as it is in Jesus, then it's going to affect our hearts. Not just, I want to say this carefully, not just mere doctrine, doctrine is good, but if we take it up in relationship to the sun, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, that is going to be to be free indeed. And when the heart is affected, it's going to have a practical purifying moral effect on our lives.
Sometimes said, there's only one way to be a true disciple, a true follower, and that's to have a heart where there's only one object in it. John had that object before his soul, and what is he referred to as the disciple whom Jesus loved. His heart was affected, and ours will be too if we're occupied with the person of Christ.
I'm glad that I haven't found him the word.
You've got to understand these things. How can I understand it? Jesus is God and Jesus is man.
God doesn't ask us to do that, and everything that you and I have, that we will always have, I'll tell you said that well, after I get through here, you have my face.
Everything that you have now that you will always have. You have my faith.
You don't have that car out there. You don't have that desire to eat breakfast every morning.
Everything that you have, that you will always have for eternity, you have my faith. It's all that Christ has.
That's enough to feel what is the.
Fourth verse of our chapter.
We're getting to the fourth verse.
First job, first John one back to first job. Now I'll read this the way that old brother Harry AO and he's the one that said everything that you have by faith you'll you'll always have not the only thing you'll have. He used to read this this way to get us young people to look up at it.
These things right We are to you that your joy may be half full. We're wrong.
Would that be great? No, that wouldn't satisfy God. No, it's got to be the truth, the truth as it is in Jesus. Now, I've agreed with everything you've said, Jim, but I don't understand a lot of it. And the truth is that in Jesus the truth shall make you free. And then if the Son make you free, you'll be free indeed. I believe that.
I think the great thing about the Bible is to believe it and go on and wait on God to make it a little bit clearer.
00:45:01
It's through the scriptures, doesn't. It's through the doctrine of the apostles that we get to know Jesus. That's why verse three it says that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you. John is speaking in the portal because he includes the other apostles who were eyewitnesses.
Done what they heard, what they saw, what they contemplated and what they handled. They have declared it where in the Scriptures. That's where you get. I think it's so important that is objective. That way it's not something subjective. First of all, it's objective here, written out in black and white for us to get to know the person of the Lord Jesus. We can go back to the gospel.
Not only hear him, we can seek him, not only see him, but we can look at him in detail, we can contemplate him. And the more you magnify him, the more you see the perfection.
That was in him at all times. So it's the doctrine of the apostles that leads us into the fellowship of the apostles, which is the fellowship with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. I'd like to say that the word fellowship is mentioned four times in this chapter. It's something that's normal in family life, and John takes up that subject of the family of God.
Not so much the Church of God, but the family of God. And so fellowship is what is normal. It's having common thoughts. The more I read the scriptures and find out what the apostles saw and heard and declared unto us, that I will have more common thoughts with them and will be brought into this fellowship that we're talking about. And then I think it is nice to carry that on.
If you mentioned.
Brother Clem, in verse seven we have fellowship one with another.
You enjoy fellowship with the father and with his son through the doctrine of the apostles. If I enjoy that fellowship, what is the automatic result is that we have fellowship with one another as well. And that's the order and I think it is something that really happens rather than to us and I really think it's something we need to reflect on that we do put that verse seven First off times we think of who I've got to get to meeting and.
Be it meeting and with the brethren, and that's important. I'm not saying it's not important.
The brethren, it's not first. First is fellowship with the Father and with his Son, and then the result is I will enjoy fellowship with those that are also walking in the fellowship God is Father and with the Lord Jesus Christ. That's not wonderful brethren, that God wants fellowship with us more than we want fellowship with him I think of.
When he put Adam into the garden in the beginning, it says after Adam had sinned, he heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.
It may have been that God, the Creator, man, the creature, walked together, communicating, enjoying common thoughts.
Sin came in and wrecked it all, and Adam ran in here and fellowship was spoiled. And it's interesting God never restores a thing as it was in the beginning. He always gives it back in a better way. Now we are brought back into fellowship with God, not on the ground of creators.
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Preacher, but now on the ground of.
Father, Father and his children, we're brought into his family now to enjoy that fellowship. We say that God.
Reveals himself.
In three special primary ways.
And you find it in the Gospel for John. You find it in the Epistle of John.
God is that starts it the eternal.
God is he that cometh to God must believe that He is.
Then we go on to another statement. God is light. That's the 2nd way that God makes himself known in John's Gospel and in this epistle.
And no further on. And Johnny makes God his love. That's a third chapter. I think it comes in the third chapter of John's epistle. Now it's necessary to try to get into the revelation of God in that way, that which is from the beginning.
In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with life, with God. The Word was God. That's the first verse of John's gospel.
We've got to believe that God is the eternal. He always is. There is no path.
Nor future with God. Everything is 1 eternal present. Can you understand that? I can't either, but I try to believe it. I do believe it always is.
Now he was going to communicate to us, and we're getting it here so delicately in this epistle.
He comes in.
To the world and chose himself to the 12, especially to others.
And they see him.
They walk with him, they talk with him, they look upon him, and they handle him of the Word of God.
Well, that's where we're going to get it to, if we can get it.
And then the light would show us others as we're getting here.
If we walk in the light, as he is in the light now, he's always in the light. If you and I walk with others that we find that are in the light, we're going to have fellowship with them. That's the only way you can get into this fellowship.
Walking in the light.
What does it mean to walk in the light? I want to read some verses from Exodus 20. When the law was given, verse 18, the people saw the thunderings and the lightnings and the noise of the trumpet and the mountains smoking. And when the people saw it, they removed and stood afar off. And the law was given it put man at a distance, didn't draw him near at all. And they set up to Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear, but let not God speak with us.
Lest we die. And Moses said unto the people, Fear not, for God has come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that she sin not. Now notice this 21St verse. And the people stood a far off, and Moses drew near into the darkness, thick darkness, where God was. When the law was given, God was in thick darkness. He did not reveal himself.
Fully as he has in Christianity.
And that's what we that's what we have in this seventh verse of our chapter. First John one, we walk in the light, we walk in the.
In the full revelation that he has given of himself in Christianity.
That's where we walk. We understand our portion. We understand our sins are forgiven, that we are redeemed, that we're reconciled, that we're justified. We understand that we're children of God, that we have access into his very presence through the blood of Christ.
That's the work that He did on the cross that opens that up to us. We could dwell and dwell and dwell upon His person, and I love to do that. But if that's all we have and don't understand the work that He did and what that has opened up to us, we don't dare approach His person without the work. We have no access to Him whatsoever without the work that He did. But in John's Gospel, and it's only in John's gospel, he pronounced upon that work that he did.
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He said it is finished. He pronounced upon it. The work that brings us into the very presence of God was finished on the cross. Nothing more to do. It's a finished work. And that's when we don't have that knowledge. Then we'll be doubting our salvation, wringing our hands in fear. We won't have liberty in His presence. We won't enjoy what the work that He did has opened up to us.
Then we can enjoy his person. Then we can feed upon his person once we understand the work and that's why it says the last cause of verse seven says and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
Now, I'm a city boy and I don't know much about farming, almost nothing. And I live in a, in a, in an assembly where they know a lot about farming. And oftentimes I just overhear a few things and they're talking about farming. And then I go to another assembly and they're talking about computers and then another one and they're talking about sports. Now that's not the fellowship that John's talking about. The fellowship he's talking about is enjoying the things that we have in Christ, those things which are eternal, not the things of time and sense.
And we often degenerate into that and we say we had sweet fellowship one with another, but how much of that was real Christian fellowship of, you know, meditating on him and his work and his person? That's really fellowship. So I'm not saying I'm not speaking against these other things because after all, we do live in this world and we have to make our way through it. But that ought not to be the the central focus of our conversation or our thoughts. It ought to be.
To walk in the light.
Of the full complete revelation of God. God has revealed himself in his Son and a fuller revelation we could not have and he and he did a work which now makes us who had to stand afar off that were trembling in fear. And he said, I remove all your sins, I give you eternal life, and now you can approach me and come into my presence at any time. The way is open by 1 Spirit we have act through him Christ.
We have one spirit, we have access by 1 spirit unto the Father. That's Christianity, that's the Trinity all working for us. And that's what it is to walk in the light. It's not how we're doing in the light, it's where we're walking. You mean you may be doing well or or not, but you're still in the light and that's where you walk. If you're a Christian, you're in the light and you can't get out of it. But there's an if here.
If we walk in the light, you know what do you mean? What do you mean by that?
Conditional as he is in the lake, if we walk in the lake, we have fellowship one with another. My fellowship with you and the others around here depends upon conditions. Now let's go to her Second Timothy 2 to see where we can find that. I think it gets very practical and rather simple.
Second Timothy 2.
I hope you all know this. I'm sure you do. But I'll start with reading the 19th verse and then going down because we have to know how we're going to have fellowship one with another we wanted.
The foundation of God's standard Sure. Having this seal the Lord.
Know it them that are his.
Then their separation.
Let everyone that name it the name of Christ depart from iniquity.
That's very conditional and very important.
Let's separation, but we want congregation. Let's go on down and look at the 22nd verse. But we want to get to this. We want fellowship one with another. We want it according to God.
Pre author youthfulness is put in there. It's something that.
Our children growing up show us the lusts of this life.
This speaker, that's all it says there.
But follow with there's congregation.
There here are people, brethren.
The stand on the foundation. The Lord knows them or his their brethren, but they followed separation from evil.
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Now they want to congregate. We want to have fellowship one with another. And I think this.
Last part of this 22nd verse is so beautiful, so inclusive.
Unconditional and so precious that we can call it out, but follow righteousness.
I'll quote from First John, First Corinthians down toward the end.
Of him that's God are ye in Christ, who is made unto us four things Wisdom. That's the wisdom of God that planned this whole thing out righteousness.
Sanctification and redemption, they're basic things.
Righteousness. We get it from North. We get it from this precious word.
Follow righteousness, faith. We don't get these things by understanding first. We get them by believing them first. Then He helps us to understand.
So separation from evil, would you say, Brother Clem, has always been the basis for fellowship? I say that because we're not really exhorted in Scripture to separate from true believers. What we are exhorted to separate from is evil. And if that ultimately means that there are true believers that we can't go on in fellowship with, then we have to bow our heads and say so be it. So I just raised that. So separation from evil is the basis for fellowship. Is that correct? True.
Ecclesiastical thing what we're talking about John's ministry is family truth and every true believer walks in the light. Every true believer if there's a profession of being a true believer and he walks in darkness, he lies and does not the truth. He's not a true believer, but every true believer walks in the light. That's where he is as a Christian, as a true believer, as a member of the family of God and to bring the thought of if is not.
To question it, he tests profession. All through John's ministry. Here he tests profession.
If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. You say you have fellowship with him and you're walking in darkness and he's the God who is in the light and who is light. How can you have fellowship with him if you don't even know him? So he tests profession. There's two sides to every line of truth and one is positional what where we are positionally and that never changes. The other is what we is the practical side of things.
And so we're all, we've been brought into this place of fellowship and relationship. As Brother Chuck says, we're always in the light. We can turn our back and the light may shine on our back. It's not that the light isn't still shining. We may allow a cloud to come between, but it doesn't mean that the light is still shining. But I would like to make a comment as to what Bob said earlier in connection with practical fellowship one with another because what we've been brought into positionally.
And what is practical or practice is often two very different things. At least I have to hang my own head and admit it for my own soul.
And really fellowship one with another in a practical way. Now I'm Speaking of it practically, fellowship one with another. True fellowship is our enjoyment of the person and work of Christ one with another. And why is it has been said, we sometimes get together and there isn't the enjoyment of Christ one with another that there ought to be, but brother. And I can only share Christ with my brother or sister if in the measure in which I have enjoyed Christ in my own soul.
I'd like to go back to an Old Testament illustration for a moment that I think it's helpful. Let's notice 2 portions in the book of Joshua in connection with Caleb, first of all in the 14th chapter.
Chapter 14 of Joshua.
And verse 13 And Joshua blessed him and gave unto Caleb the son of Jakuna, Hebron, for an inheritance. Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jefuna the Kenazite under this day, because that he wholly follows the Lord God of Israel. Well, we know that Hebron is the place of communion in the Old Testament. You remember that Abraham had an altar at Hebron.
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And he enjoyed many happy hours of fellowship and communion with his God.
And now we find that Joshua, who has finally gone in to possess his inheritance, and it's remarkable that he's the only one we read of that receives a personal inheritance. There are only two that we read up who for sure got into the land, and only one that received a personal inheritance. The rest all received their inheritance by pride. But here was Caleb, who had wholly followed the Lord, and he received the personal inheritance. And what is it?
He brought and does he ever lose that? It's his till this day. The scripture says that is it has to do with what we're Speaking of in connection with if we're, we're brought into that position in the light and there we are positionally. It's ours to this day, brethren, whether we enjoy it or not, we're in the light. And so Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb, the son of Jefuna. And I believe Caleb valued Hebron because it was the place of communion.
Now let's go over to the other side of it in the 21St chapter.
Now, I'll just preface my remarks and reading of this portion by saying that in the 20th chapter you'll find that Hebron was set aside as one of the cities of refuge, and just bear that in mind.
As we notice verse 11 of chapter 21.
And they gave them the city of Arbor, the father of Enoch, which city is drawn in the Hill Country of Judah, with the suburbs thereof roundabout. And so here we find it also becomes part of the portion for the Levites. But notice what happens now in verse 12. But the fields of the city.
Villages thereof gave they to Caleb the son of Jefuna for his possession. Now two things here. I think it was mentioned the other day that when God gives a list, the list is important. And notice here it's the fields and the villages, not the villages and the fields. Before I make another comment, hold your finger here and go to Song of Solomon Chapter 7 and you'll because it's connected.
Just have patience and hear me out on this.
Son of Solomon, Chapter 7 and verse 11.
Come, my beloved, let us go forth into Now notice the order here, the field. Let us lodge in the villages again. It's the same order, the fields and the villages. Now I would suggest that the fields here, which Caleb retained, these two things, the fields and the villages, the fields would speak to us of personal communion and relationship.
He maketh me to lie down in green pasture. If Isaac went out into the field at eventide for the purpose of meditating, I will go in and out and find pasture. It's that it's our personal relationship, personal communion, personal enjoyment of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's getting the Bible out and reading it and enjoying it, listening to His thoughts and what He has to say to it. That's the field.
And that's why the fields are first here. And if the fields speak of our personal communion and fellowship, then I suggest the villagers speak of fellowship one with another. If men have common interests or desires, what do they do? They form communities. They form villages. And so here we find it's the fields first in the villages. Now the bride and the Song of Solomon is speaking in the verse that we read. And she's been awakened in her affections. Her heart is going out to the bridegroom. She's occupied with himself.
And now she says two things that go very necessarily together, and in this order.
Let us go into the field. That's personal communion and what is the result? Let us lodge in the villages. We can only lodge in the villages as we are first in the field. And so I just mentioned this. Hebron was the possession of Caleb. It was his, it says to this day. But then there was a very practical side connected with Hebron. There's another verse we haven't really touched on. Verse five I think is helpful.
Connection with the Fellowship of the Father and the Son.
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Very basic. 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. We're going to talk about fellowship with God, brethren. It has to be in the light, because God is like and God.
Ain't light. There is nothing. Absolutely nothing.
That you can hide in His presence. In fact, if you try to hide something in the presence of God, you make yourself that much more conspicuous. You cannot hide in the presence of God. I like to think of the Samaritan woman who came to the Lord Jesus and found him sitting on the edge of the well. She didn't know who he was. All she thought was he was a Jew. But as she began to talk to him, and in the course of the conversation.
Says, go, call thy husband and come hit her. She says, I don't have a husband. The Lord Jesus says, Thou hast well said that I have no husband, for thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou now cast is not thy husband. And that's focused out truth.
She bound herself in the light. She found herself in the presence of one who knew absolutely every detail of her life. There was no way she could hide anything any longer. She leaves her water but she goes back into the city and says come see a man that told me all things that ever I did is not just the Christ.
And he told her every detail of her life.
Know that she felt herself to be so in the presence of God and the light, that she knew there was nothing that could be hid any longer. When we get to that point, brethren, of realizing that when we talk about fellowship with God, there is absolutely nothing to be hid, it really leads to liberty when you get to that point, not trying to hide anything any longer.
Everything is out.
God is the light, and light is that which manifests all things.
And in Him is no darkness at all. You cannot mix those two elements. Right from the very first chapter of the Bible it says God divided the light from the darkness, and that separation runs through the whole book.
God mix those two things absolutely impossible or like or darkness and as it's been brought out and the light is where a believer in the Lord Jesus is, understand it or not. That's where he is to be in the darkness is where an unbeliever is. John speaks in the abstract. I think it is helpful. He speaks in black and white words and then he gives us little tests.
And notice verse 6, verse 8, verse ten of our chapter, how they start those 3 verses. If we say there's a, if we say verse 10, if we say it's easy to talk, brother, it's easy to say, sure, I'm walking in the light. There's a test. If we say we walk in the light and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. He's just putting it in black and white.
You and I ought to be exercised in view of the truth.
The Word of God is presented here, so who walks in the light that we can have fellowship with? Let's go back to Second Timothy 222 and finish the verse and see who it is.
But follow.
With there's congregation, there's assembly, there's more than one person.
Righteousness.
Faith, Charity, love.
Peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
A pure heart. How do we get that?
Every word of God is pure. Let's go to Ecclesiastes.
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30 and see that, wait a minute, I'm not quoting that right. Proverbs.
30.
That's the third verse. The fifth verse.
Every word of God is pure.
Call on the Lord, have a pure heart. They have one motive. That's Christ. That's the word. Those people that do that, we can walk with them and have fellowship with them. We have to do that too. It's collecting.
Them that call on the Lord have a pure heart, no mixed motives, Christ everything.
What lovely brother we find in that place. But it's conditional as to the measure in which we do it. If we walk in the lightest years in the light, the light, the word makes it clear. We have problems. Go to the word and get clearance from God. As to walking where the light puts us, it's it's conditional, but it's everyday thing.
Which is a lovely place. We have fellowship with them. So as we've noticed, first fellowship is with the apostles. That's this book.
And that is with God and with his Son Jesus Christ. He calls us into the highest fellowship.
Notice a verse in First Peter 5.
As to what we're called into.
Understand.
Yes, the God of all grace.
Who have called us?
Into his eternal glory, eternal glory we're called to.
By Christ Jesus, that's what we're called to. That's where we're going.
What's the next statement?
What's the next statement?
After that ye have suffered a wife. That's a character of this life down here.
Sufferings of this little heart make you perfect. We're going to be paid perfect when he comes and gives us a new body.
And everything that goes with it and called into that scene where he is, that's where we're called. So that's what it means to follow these things with them that call on the Lord of a pure heart. Every word of God is pure.
Well, John never assumes, does he, that we reach sinless perfection down here. I know our time is gone and I'm rushing, but I think this is important to see because there are those who actually teach that you can obtain some level of spirituality that puts you on a plane where sin is burnt out. And while it's true, as members of the family of God, children of God, we have the very life and nature of the family, and that life and nature is the very life of Christ.
Yet we're not home yet, we're not rid of these bodies, we're not rid of the flesh. It's still there. And so that's why he brings out in this, the end of this chapter, in the beginning of the next chapter, that this isn't sin, is not burnt out. Yet if we say we do know sin, we lost, we lie. And so we have an advocate with the Father. And I just want to notice that because we have the Lord Jesus living for us in two capacities at the right hand of God.
He's living for us as our high priest, and that's what Hebrews brings before us. And there he's living for us as our high priest to preserve us in the path of faith and service. And his high priestly work is in connection with God, because when it's in connection with God, it's the power that's at our disposal. And so we have one who's at the right hand of God, the place of power, and he's living for us that we might be preserved through the ups and downs and the trials and the difficulties in the path of faith and service.
And so on. But here we find we have an advocate not with God, but with the Father.
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Now to my own soul, this is one of the clearest scriptures as to eternal security because you will find people come along and say, well, if you sin, something happens, you're going to lose your salvation. But it's not an advocate with God, it's an advocate with the Father, showing very clearly that the family relationship is not broken. I don't bring my children up to the court of law when they disobey me, but they do have to do with me as a father, and I take them up as my as my children and deal with them as to family relationships.
And so if we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, and then it's Jesus Christ the righteous. I like that because I might spare one of my children some punishment. But if they're really guilty of what they've done and there needs to be punishment, I'm not righteous in what I do. I might be brought up to the judge at the court of law and he might listen to my case and he might say, well, I know you're guilty, but I'm going to let you go.
Well, if I'm really guilty, he's not a righteous judge. But if someone else comes along and says now Jim, I know you're guilty. Or suppose the judge says, Jim, I know you're guilty and the penalty is so much, but I'm going to pay the penalty so that you can go free. Now he's a righteous judge because the claims of the law have been met, the claims of society and the Lord Jesus. To me, it's just as if when I sin, he says in the presence of the Father, I've paid for that sin. That's how he can be a righteous advocate.
And so if someone comes along at school this week, they're at work and tells you, well, they were saved or so and so was saved, but they've lost their salvation. They've backslidden, they've lost their salvation. No, they may have sinned. We've all sinned. We may fall, but we have an advocate with the Father.
Then breaks fellowship, doesn't it? And that's what our theme is here in this first chapter, and I think it is good to see that.
The scriptures show us how to restore fellowship.
If we have lost it and two of us can say we don't lose it quite often.
Sin, as minor as it may seem, always breaks fellowship.
Is God and we are walking in his presence. I tell what I might say is just an insignificant little white lie. I lose fellowship.
Until what notice and I like to read the last three verses of the chapter again.
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in US. If we can confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We say that we have not sinned. We make Him a liar, and His word is not in US. You know, look closely at verse 8 and verse 10. They are quite similar, but verse 8 deals with sin, the root.
Principle of sin verse 10 is the act that we commit, and oftentimes when we realize we've done something wrong, we try to justify ourselves by blaming somebody else. If we want restoration to fellowship rather than we have to recognize that not only what we did was wrong, but the reason I did that wrong thing was because I allowed that nature.
That evil nature of sin is to act and that other person may have provoked me, but I am guilty. That is important if you want restoration. And then verse nine, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Yesterday we were talking about that. It's not necessarily we heard that it's not necessary to ask for the forgiveness of our sins.
Because we have the forgiveness of sin. But here it says not if we ask for the forgiveness of sins, but if we confess. And that's what we need to do when sin comes in, is to recognize what I've done wrong and to tell the Lord about it. That's the that's our part. And if we confess, he is faithful and just to forgive.
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And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
I think this is the way to restoration of fellowship. So important. Young people and older ones too. Sometimes I meet up with people that you can see they're not in the enjoyment of fellowship with the Father and the Son, and days and weeks and months and years go by and they are down under. They're not in the fullness of joy that God means this to be.
And I ask your heart as I ask my heart.
Is there fullness of joy running deep in your soul? There ought to be. If there's not, it's because sin has come in, in some way or another. Recognizing, get into God's presence, recognizing, confess it. And if he, if we confess, he's faithful and just to forgive and to cleanse from all unrighteousness. And we don't need a fresh application of the blood, because the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sins.
And I just want to say in connection with verse seven, if we walk in the light, it doesn't say if we walk according to the light. And much as what has been said has been said as though that's what it reads, it's not telling us how we walk, but where we walk. We walk in the light of God's presence. That's Christian position. Then we have fellowship with one another and the basis for it, what has brought us into it and makes us perfectly.
At home there is the blood of Jesus Christ. His Son cleanseth us from all sins. It gives us a place there where fellowship is proper and it tests of the profession by by using the word if. But it's not if we walk according to the light. The next verse says if we sin, we should confess it. So we haven't walked according to it if we sin. But that's not the point of verse seven. It's where we walk.
We walk in the light of God's full revelation of Himself in Christ.
And until he came, God was in darkness. Now he's in the light. Sin is what hinders fellowship, and that's why I think it's good to see it first. We use in the Gospel a lot. The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son cleanses us from all sin.
But it's written to believers here. The reason is that God has provided.
At all costs to himself, the means by which that which hinders fellowship can be removed so that we can come back into fellowship with God, such as Christianity. What we've had in these last three meetings, such as Christianity, that's a little bit, that's a we touched on a little bit. I'd just like to mention three times that the word Christian is written in this book.
What is in Acts 11?
Disciples were first called Christians at Antioch.
Then Paul preached to Agrippa and finally, Agrippa says, almost felt persuaded me to be a Christian.
Now in first Peter chapter 4, there's another mention of it and it may surprise you.
And this is what we may expect if we walk in the light and if we walk as Christians.
One Peter 4.
And verse 16.
Yet if any man suffer.
As a Christian.
Let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf.
How can that be? Glorify God on this behalf? How can that be? Henry tell us.
Well, I don't know that I can, but I do know if we suffer as a Christian, it's to God's glory, and if we suffer because of our sin, it's to God's shame. Well said. Well said. For God's glory, standing up for God and the truth.
They're going to entail some suffering, isn't it?
Time is up.
We're supposed to his eternal glory.
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But number, What's your #275?
Our goal is light and though we go.
Across a Trackless 1.
Articulate.
Our God is my glory.
Oh, God will run the track. Let us watch.
Trees, I suppose.