for him. All that hath life in
breath come now with praises before him. Let the oven sound from his people
again. Gladly foray, we adore him. All right, go back with me to
first John chapter one. First John one and let's read
the first three verses again. First John one. That. Which was from the beginning,
which we have heard. which we have seen with our eyes,
which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the
word of life. For the life was manifested and
we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you that eternal
life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us, that
which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you, that ye
also may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship
is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. Read the next
verse. And these things write we unto
you, that your joy may be full. What is it to be a Christian. What is it to be a Christian,
a believer? It is to be a disciple of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, a disciple is someone who
believes the one that they heard a believer in. It is to be a
disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, a believer in, a lover of, a
follower of, a devotee of the Lord Jesus Christ. To be a disciple means that you
have heard of him and from him. You have seen his glory. And from then on, you become
his lover, his admirer, his follower. You marry him. You're his bride,
his wife, and that's total commitment, a life devoted to the one you
love, leaving everyone and everything, if necessary, to be with him
whom you love. It is to believe, what is it
to be a disciple, a Christian, a believer? It is to believe
him without reservation. Without question, to believe
him. It is to follow him without hesitation. It is to trust him
implicitly. It is to think about him. This is what it means to be a
believer, a disciple, a Christian, just to think about Christ. It is to talk about him. It's
to talk to him. It is to walk with him. It is
to live for him. It is true love. And the scripture
calls it marriage. Marriage. Now, when does this happen? When does this A person become
a Christian, a disciple, a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Well,
it comes only, it only comes when a person really hears from
Christ himself. He said, my sheep hear my voice
and they follow me. We're going to see that in a
moment. And it only comes, all of this comes when a person hears
of and from the Lord Jesus Christ and then finally sees him. I couldn't help but look around
at people as they sing. And I know we have different
times when we're distracted and all that. I look at, particularly
at some young people who just don't enter into the singing
and I think they haven't, they just don't know Christ. They
don't know him. They don't, they haven't seen him yet. This hasn't,
hasn't touched them yet. You're only, you're only enthusiastic
about something you really feel. You only talk about someone you
really love. You only want to be with someone. And that comes when a person
hears from Christ and sees him as he is. The disciples did. There was
a time when they had heard of him, but didn't care about it.
Everyone had heard about it. But they were fishermen and so
forth. But one day they did. They heard
from him. He called them. And they were
never the same. They were disciples from that
day forward. Christ was their life. Disciples. They left everything
and everyone. It was required of them, wasn't
it? They had to. to go on the road with the Lord.
They left everybody and didn't think anything about it. That's marriage, isn't it? And it will be no different with
us. It's no different with all of his disciples if we hear him,
if we really hear him and see him. If necessary, we'll leave everything. And everyone. And it will be
evident. To everybody. It will be evident. This is eternal
life. This is eternal life, this is
new life begun, this is life. To know God. To know Christ. And it's real. And may he be pleased. He does this for people all the time. It'd be something if he'd do
that for somebody this morning. John said in verse one, that,
which we've heard, that, which we have heard John says how do
you describe the indescribable. This message if you love the
Lord Jesus Christ you're going to love this message. This is
this is all about him. Start to finish. John says that
he says how do you describe the indescribable. To what do you compare the incomparable. John says that. That which we
have heard that one person to which nothing and no one can
be compared. Whose person whose acts whose
words are beyond definition John says that. That which was from
the beginning. First one that which was from
the beginning turn with me to proverbs eight OK the book of
proverbs Chapter 8, that when the angels came to announce the
coming one, the coming Christ, that's what they said. They had
never seen anything like this. They didn't know how to describe
what this was, this God-man. They said to Mary, to Joseph,
they said that which is conceived in her. There's never been anything
like this. So you can't describe anything,
can you can't put an adjective to you, can't you can't compare
anything, there's never been anything like it. And so they
said. What is it, you know, like manna?
That's what they named bread. That's what they named it. What
is it? Well, we don't call this manner
what we're going to call what we don't call it. That which is conceived of her
in her the angel says of the Holy Ghost that never been anything
like it. Nothing to compare it. Him. Is it a child? No, it's the father. Is it a son? No, it's the father. Is it a man? No, it's God. Man. Is it the beginning of a
new life? No, he never had any beginning. No, in him is life. In him we
live and move Have I be. Look at Proverbs eight I love
this verse twenty two to twenty five this is the Lord Jesus Christ
speaking the Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way before
his works of old I was set up from everlasting from the beginning
wherever the earth was when there were no depths I was brought
forth. that is declared. And then there were no fountains
abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled,
before the hills was I brought forth. Verse thirty-three, hear
this now, and be wise, refuse it not. Blessed is the man that
heareth me, and watches and waits. Verse thirty-five, whoever finds
me finds life. Life. Go back to our text. That's
what John said. Life was manifest. unto us a child is born. Yeah,
a baby had its beginnings. Ah, but the Son was given. The eternal Son. John says that. And John says that which we have
heard. And this is the way that which was
from the beginning which we have heard. This is the way life with
us begins. This is the way eternal life
begins. Faith cometh by Hearing, this is how it begins. It doesn't
come with the sight. Brother Gabe and I were talking
about this earlier, how that everything, every animal, when
it's born, the first sense that it has is hearing. A little child, they're born blind. They're born to have their eyes
closed, even when their eyes are open. They don't see anything. I don't see. Cats. And I look into the faces sometimes
of people have their eyes open they don't see anything. Well
how's it come how how's this life again. Right here that's
the seed is planted in here and go in here it starts right here
hearing. That which we've heard, that's
how it begins. In the boat, in a boat one day, the disciples,
the ones who were fishermen, were in a boat one day, fishing,
minding their own business, going about their business. And they heard a man. Somebody was walking on the shore
and said, Hey! John! Andrew! Hold on a minute. John says, we heard
a voice that we never heard before. No man spake like this man. We heard someone call our name,
and we were inexplicably drawn to him, as if by chords. Can't explain it, John said.
We heard it. That's what salvation is, something
that you can't explain inexplicably, irresistibly. We had to go to
him. We had to follow him. We heard
a voice which pierced our hearts, which stopped us what we were
doing, which, as if it could read our very minds and hearts
and pierced our consciences and grabbed hold of the reins of
our hearts and struck fear in us and quickened our steps. And we had to follow it. impossible
to resist. We heard him speak, and at the
same time, it was the most comforting voice. It was the most... John said that. We heard that.
It's something you can't describe. A voice that filled us with wonder,
with joy, as we followed him. And then
we followed him, John says. which we heard, we followed him.
And from the moment we started following him, he started talking
to us. And we heard from him things which are impossible to
utter. John said we heard things we've
never heard before. We heard him speak of things
impossible to recall. Mysteries beyond our understanding,
we heard him. We heard him speak with wisdom
as if it were from above. Mysterious. He opened mysteries
to us. The Apostle Paul later on, who
was an apostle later died. Second Corinthians twelve,
I believe it. Yeah. Second Corinthians twelve
talks about him dying. He was stoned when he was stoned
at Ephesus. That's when they left him for dead. That's when
it says he went. I knew a man and he was such a humble man.
Paul didn't even call his own name. He said, I knew a man that
ascended to the heaven, the third heavens. And when he came back. This is
what he said. Paul said, I heard things that
were impossible to utter. Paul said, I can't repeat what
I heard. I'm not capable. I can't put
into words what I heard. Has it been that way with you? I know it has. Many of you. Quite
often. unlawful to utter the repeat
he said we've seen him with our own eyes. We hear. And then we say. I see this as we said before it's
when it happens it happens and it it's pretty clear. And I've seen. They come at probably
as it already is with your child Samuel that You know, there's
a time you look into those eyes when it's first born and it doesn't
see anything. But then there comes a time when
she sees me. She heard the voice, she heard. But then there comes a time,
generally the first thing it sees or it can't see very far
off. Sees itself. My. I've heard you all this time. Now I see. In that salvation
that I've heard of you by the hearing of the year now I see
a thing I see myself. See we've seen it with our eyes
what John said that we've seen that. Life was manifest we've
seen that we've seen with our own eyes the one. Who well we
can't describe. Now. The scriptures does describe
the Lord Jesus Christ in depth. But not physically. Because his beauty is not skin. The scriptures does describe
the Lord in great detail. Great detail. And that's why there's 66 books
and thousands of verses and descriptions of it. But. It's indescribable. Indescribable. John said, we've
seen him with our own eyes. We've seen him, this one, this
incomparable one, this indescribable one. We saw him feed thousands. We saw his power. We saw him feed thousands
with just a few loaves and fish. We saw this, John said. We saw
him turn water into wine. We saw him give sight to the
blind. I mean the blind. We saw this.
We saw this with our own eye. We saw him give hearing to the
deaf. We saw him heal grossly disfigured lepers, cripples with
a word. All he did was spoke a word and
instantaneously, I mean miraculously, immediately just restored completely. We saw that. We saw him walk
on water. We saw him walk upon the raging
ocean. We saw him steal that ocean.
We saw him walk out on the bow of our ship one day, and we were
petrified. We were terrified. We thought
we were going to die. And we saw him walk out on the
bow of our boat with perfect calm and tell that ocean to lie
down at his feet. And it did like a hound dog. that we saw him one time we were
fishing and we saw him call fish. And our net. We saw him raise the dead. We saw this with our own eye. His power, but more than that,
more than that, and I say this the best we saw his person. His
countenance. This is why he's indescribable.
We saw his countenance to look upon his face, John said. Well. His eyes, his bearing. His majesty,
his glory. Can't be can't be can't be repeated.
It's why no preacher now can adequately declare the Lord Jesus
can't be done. Unlawful. Not possible. John
said we've looked upon that which we've seen with our eye. We've
looked upon him. We've watched him, his attitude,
his actions, his walk. Oh, how he walked. How he carried
himself. His regal bearing. Our hands, he said, verse 1,
our hands of handle. Our hands of handle. We touched
him. We hugged him. He was always warm. He was always
warm. His hands were never cold. He
touched us. Our hands of handling. The word
of life, he said, verse 1, the word of life. Verse 2, that life,
the life was manifested. We've seen it. Bear witness,
show unto you that eternal life was manifested unto us, that
which was with the Father, that, I'm having trouble preaching
this right now, that, John couldn't adequately, that, we've heard
him, we've seen him, we've handled him, we've beheld him for three
and a half years, the apostles, lived with him. And never, never got over it. Never got over it. And we are
going to be with him for eternity. And we'll never get over it. You ever been in the presence
of a truly great man? There aren't many left. But the disciples were. He said,
that which we've heard, which we've seen with our eyes, which
we've beheld, which we have beheld, handled, we declare unto you,
for three and a half years, John said every word he spoke was
a revelation. Every word he spoke was a revelation. I mean, everything he said left them dumbfounded. Come on,
stay with me now. Come on, man. Everything he said. We can't enter into this. We, you know, we get tired of
one another's company because same old, same old. Right? Same old, same old. You can't
tell me. We get disinterested. Everything he said was a revelation. I've been walking along, Barbara.
I've been walking along anywhere, doing anything, and he's telling
me. Everything he said, every word
out of his mouth, eternal mystery, truth. We didn't
know that. Look at this, look at that, look
at this, look at this, look at that. Listen to me. You listen to me
now. I'm going to tell you something. And they just walked around in
a stupor. John, James, I can't believe
this, this person. The word he spoke, every step
he took, every step he took was with a divine, eternal purpose. 99.9% of the time, we don't know where
we're going or not. We're randomly doing this. Every
step he took was with a divine, absolute purpose, plan, if you
will, purpose. Every step he took. Now we're
going this way. A while, he'll say. Now we're going this way. You've got to get in the boat,
fellas, we're crossing over. Well, what we just came from
that? Somebody, I've got to say. Every step he took, every act
he performed, every work was a marvel and a wonder. John would
say, we never saw a flaw in him. We never saw a flaw in him. We
watched Him for three and a half years. We never saw a spot or
a blemish in Him. In Him is no sin. We never saw a flaw in Him. He was never angry without a
cause. Never! He never spoke an idle
word. Ever! Not one idle word. He was never tempted by anything,
ever, ever tempted or impressed with or astounded
by or afraid of anything or anybody at any time. He never murmured, not one time,
ever. And his whole life he was pursued
by everyone, hated by everyone. Everything was against him. He
never murmured or complained one time for three and a half
years. Not one time. Not one flaw in
his person. He was always, all the time,
thankful. We heard Him constantly, day
in, day out, hourly, giving thanks to His Father. He was always
thankful. He was always kind, always kind, always considerate, more considerate
of others always considerate of others and not himself. He
was always gracious. The words that poured of his
grace poured from his lips. He was always patient. He never
lost his patience. Never, ever for three and a half
years, he was patient with everybody at every time. He was always bold. He would stand in front of mobs
of people who threatened his very life as if they weren't
even there, and boldly looked them all right in the eye. He was always Over do anything. As a matter
of fact, he. He worked without ceasing. Tireless work is hardest worker. We've ever seen. He's the hardest worker we've
ever seen. He rarely slept. Rarely slept. Rarely slept. He ate very little.
He ate very little. Sometimes we had to tell the
Lord, Master, eat something. And you know what he told us?
He said, I am. He prayed without ceasing. He gazed at the stars. We saw him go out at nighttime
and gaze into the heavens. And he would be looking at the
stars as though he knew them all by name. He looked like he was looking
beyond the stars. And we were left wondering, what's
he looking at? John says that. We saw him gaze into the sun without blinking. It wasn't good. And more than
that, John said, then one day we saw him turned into the sun,
and we couldn't look on him. We saw him turn into this. That. Describing and describing. That. He told us things we heard him
tell us years before, and we're only now recounting it, we're
writing this unto you, John said, only now recounting it, but he
told us things we didn't understand at the time when he was telling
us. And only now we're getting a glimpse of that but he told
us years before he prophesied he told us the exactly what was
going to happen to him. Where it would happen how it
would happen. Place time. And what would happen
after that. Exact details of every day every
detail as though he planned it. We saw him face an angry mob
in his final days. We thought we saw him face an
angry mob. One last time and bring them
to their knees in the dirt with just a word. They said, Who do
you see? He said, Who do you seek? And
they said, Jesus, and that he said, and John said, We can't
even repeat it. It can't be repeated like we
heard. He said, I am. And they all fell down. All fell down on his face. And then we saw him willingly,
obediently, willingly submit to them, put himself in their
hands. We saw very clearly he didn't
have to, but he did. willingly put himself into their
hands, and we saw him endure the cruelest, most barbaric,
inhumane torture. And we've seen a lot of this,
John said. But we saw him, we saw him endure what we've never
seen a human being endure before. And he did it without crying
out. Even Pilate, Pilate who'd witnessed
the torture of countless human beings before his eyes The strongest
of men cry out for mercy and cowl at his feet and beg and
whipper like puppies. But even Pilate said as he saw
this, that, that, even Pilate said, that's a man. Behold the man. I've never seen
a man, Pilate said, that's one. Even Pilate was trembling as
this prisoner stood before him. And look into his eyes. Caused the pilot to tremble. That, which we've seen. That. We watched him then, after
enduring inhumane torture, the cruelest. We watched him endure
a crown of thorns. shoved down on his brow, inexpressible pain he must have
been under. We saw them rip the beard out
of his face, spit in his face. We saw them pummel him beyond
recognition, beyond recognition. We saw them drive nails into
his wrist. nails into his wrist and in his
feet without wincing. We watched him drop this cross
down into a hole that every bone was thrown out of joint in his
body. We watched him hanging naked before thousands of people,
men, women, and children, hanging naked, yet he didn't appear to
be ashamed. And then we heard, we saw this,
and then we heard out of his mouth, we heard unbelievable
what we heard, the words. It was as if no one else was
there. I heard him talking to his father,
as if he were alone with God. Nobody was around. We heard him amazingly upon those
barbaric, savage people. We heard him say, forget them. John said, we heard it. We heard
it. And then, finally, as he hung
there, we watched him. We heard him. From a distance,
we were cowards. We heard him cry out with a loud
voice, and when we saw the rocks, the earth quaking, the rocks, we heard him cry out with a loud
voice, it is finished. With the most finality, the declaration
of that, it was as if he was pronouncing
an eternal end to everything. It's finished. And then we saw
Him majestically, sovereignly bow His head. And he gave up the gun. That. That. Which we've seen and heard. We're trying to tell you about
it. And then we watched the soldiers
come by and take a spear and disembowel him. Rip his guts
out. He's dead. We saw him die. We saw him take his limp body
with his bowels hanging out. All the blood gone out of his
body. We saw him take it down from the grave. And wrap it up in a sheet. Wrap
his face up and everything in a sheet. And put him in a tomb. and roll a huge, it took 10 or
12 men to roll a huge rock over that door and seal it up all
around. We saw him. He's dead. John said, he said, but three days later, we heard him again. We were all meeting in a room. Sad. Upset. Thought the end. Thought it was
all over. Scared. Afraid. And we heard that voice
again. It was Him. We saw Him. He's alive. That which we've
heard, declare we unto you, that your joy might be full. And 40 days later, John said,
40 days later, we were all standing out on a hillside and he was
giving us instructions and talking to us. For 40 days, we were just
spellbound. Once again, hearing his voice
and watching him. beholding Him and seeing Him. He said then we walked out on
a mountain one day and we're hearing Him and as He spoke to
us, as He was speaking to us, angels came. Angels came, a multitude of heavenly
hosts came down and we saw that and took Him up And we watched him. We saw this,
John said. We saw him. And he said as he
was ascending, the angel said, He's coming back. Tell him all
that. He's coming back. Go tell him. The ends of the earth. Tell him
what you've seen and what you've heard. Declare it. coming back he said wait you
wait you watch. That. You see as I began this message. You know a man will only. religion and also talkative and
got so many questions and they question the book and they question
God and they this and that and the other. The only time, if
you're ever in the presence of somebody that is great, somebody
that knows, you'll quit talking. That's the only time a man will
shut up. That's when they're in the presence of somebody really
great. And that's what happens when
somebody meets. That's what I look for. Somebody
really sees the Lord. They shut up. They just shut
their big mouth. Somebody sees the Lord, sees
him as he is. How do you reckon John sang?
How do you reckon? It says they went back, those
disciples. And we're going to look at this.
They're all contingent together. They're always, this is a fellowship.
You know, people have fellowships. They're in clubs and they're
in this and that and the other when they have something in common. They like to meet together and
talk about it and gather around it. That's their fellowship. That's what Christians are. What's the fellowship? This person.
And so all the disciples went back after he'd left. It says
they all continued in Acts 1. They all continued. With prayer
and supplication, with thanksgiving, with joy, with one accord and
this and that. Always breaking bread and had
all things in common. And they were joyful from then
on. Their fellowship around Him. Talking about Him. They were
enthused about Him. They were all gathered together
to see Him. Talk about Him. That's what this
is. And that's when a person will get interested. Only then
when a person really. When they really hear. And they really hear and they really
see that's when and you want to beg them to come. You want
to tell them to come. You won't have to ask them to
come. Life. Life. Life. Life. Truth. Truth. Truth is
revealed. That's what's going to go on
to say. I've got to quit. I'm kidding. Come back Wednesday night. We'll
talk about life. He that walketh in the light,
as he is in the light. God bless you. They all knew
the same thing. They all taught by the same one.
They all saw the same one. They all heard the same voice
on and on again. And they couldn't get enough
fellowship. And these things, he said, we
write on you that your joy may be full. Blessed are you. Whom
have they not seen? You love. How could you love,
did you read the article in the bulletin, The Paradox? That's
good, isn't it? Is that you? That paradox, is that you? We've seen him who's invisible. I have seen you. Not these eyes,
but right here. Hopefully you saw him this morning,
a friend. Heard his voice. Heard his voice. Saw his glory.
Now I'm a disciple. A follower. A lover. Sold out. Hope. Sold out. OK. That's the only, that's only
when a personal, it'll happen. It's of the Lord. Completely
of the Lord. To reveal himself. And blessed
are you if he has. My, my. You'll never get over
it. How are you saying. Well. Come here. I can't describe. All right let's sing a closing
hymn of the game. I'm sorry. Thank you. Thank you. I don't know. I don't know. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. I don't know. I don't know. you you you I don't know. I don't know. I
don't know. Okay. I don't know what to do. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what I'm doing. you.