First John. First John. It's going to look at these four
first verses this evening. 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
declare we unto you that you also may have fellowship with
us and truly our fellowship is with the father and with his
son Jesus Christ And these things write we unto you, that your
joy may be full." Here in 1 John, the title of my message this evening,
that from the beginning, that's what John starts out here saying,
that which was from the beginning. which we have heard, which we
have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, our hands
have handled, of the Word of Life. The Apostle John, son of
Zebedee, brother James, wrote this epistle to promote brotherly
love. He wrote it to promote brotherly
love. In verse 10 of chapter 2, he says this, He that loveth
his brother abideth in the light, And there's none occasion of
stumbling in him, none occasion of a scandal being in him. And
he also wrote it to oppose worldly living on the part of believers.
He says, love not the world, neither the things of the world.
For if any man loved the world, the love of the father is not
in him. He said that in 1 John 2.15. And then he wrote also in this
epistle to deal with the doctrine of the Trinity. And I tell you,
that's a needful doctrine even in our day. There's people who
don't believe in the Trinity. I can name several groups right
now that don't believe in the Trinity. But John wrote about
the Trinity and he used three different verses. He started
in verse seven, he used eight and nine, three verses in 1 John
5 to deal with the Trinity, the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost,
the water, the blood, the spirit, all these things. so he deals
with the trinity and also to deal with the deity and the humanity
of our lord jesus christ our lord jesus and in the day of
john it just started i mean this has always been this way but
they were antichrist people keep thinking about a great man that's
going to come that's going to be the antichrist but look in
john chapter 4 and verse 3 you know He dealt with Christ being
God and also being man. He dealt with the Lord Jesus
Christ. And we'll see that here in a
minute. But they were anti-Christ. Look what he says here. And every
spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. Now what that means is that God,
that the Christ, the anointed, the Messiah came in the flesh.
And every spirit that don't confess that, every person that don't
confess that, is not of God. And this is the spirit of an
antichrist. Wherefore you have heard that
it shall come, and even now already is it in the world. It's in the
world. And I give you two right off
the top of my head, Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons. They both deny Jesus Christ.
Deny that he come in the flesh. Deny that he come in the flesh.
And then the fifth reason he wrote this epistle was to encourage
assurance. He said, we know, we know, and
we know. I saw this this afternoon. I
never had seen it before, but I want you to just look at it
with me in 1 John 5 and verse 18. Here's three we knows in
a row. That's the same thing that Paul
said, who he had three who's in Romans chapter eight. But
here we go. He says, we know in verse 18,
that whosoever is born of God in verse 19. And we know that
we are of God and verse 20. And we know that the son of God
has come. So three, you knows, and all
of them deals with Christ and our relationship with Christ.
And so he says, those are things we know. We don't have to guess
about them. We don't have to scratch our
head and wonder if they're right or not. And then he sends forth
the gospel of God's grace in Christ. Look in chapter four
in verse nine and 10, just to set this message up. He sends
forth the gospel of God's grace in Christ. He said in 1 John
4 in chapter nine, Chapter 9 and verse 4, And this
was manifested, the love of God towards us, because that God
sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live
through Him, hearing His love, not that we love God, but that
He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation the mercy
seat upon which the blood of Christ was put, that took away
the wrath of God from us. So he even dealt with the gospel.
So back here in verse 1 of chapter 1, John says, that which was
from the beginning, that which was from the beginning, 1st John
1.1. You know, he uses this in his
first epistle. That's how he opens his first
epistle. That's how he opens John's gospel. He said, in the
beginning, In the beginning, that's how the Bible opens up.
In the beginning was God. And John said, in the beginning
was the Word of God. And the Word was God. And everything
that was made was made by Him and without Him, nothing was
made that was made. In Him is life and that life
is the light of man. And so John starts out in the
beginning, Our Lord Jesus Christ, Revelation says this about Him,
said, I am He which was, which is, and which is to come. So
He is, was, and He's going to come. He's the same today, yesterday,
and forever. And Our Lord Jesus Christ is
what John is saying is He's from eternity. Our Lord didn't begin
to exist when He came and was born of the Virgin Mary. Our
Lord Jesus Christ existed from eternity. He was the eternal
Son of God. And when He came into time, He
became the Son of God, begotten by the Spirit of God, without
the blood of Adam in His veins. So our Lord was from eternity.
God said He set Him up from eternity. He said He was His delight in
eternity before He laid the foundations of the world, He said in Proverbs
8. He said, I was right beside Him.
I was right beside Him. And I said, you know what God
said? He said, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever, and Thy
scepter is the scepter of righteousness. Who do you know He's talking
to? He's talking to His Son. Look in, keep John, 1 John here.
Look in John 10 and verse 30. John 10 and verse 30. John 10 and verse 30. Our Jesus Christ, our Lord is
God over all. He is God over all, blessed forever. When we say our God reigns, we'll
say Jesus Christ reigns. He has power over all flesh.
He has life that He might give it to whom the Father gave to
Him. He's God over all. Look what it says here in John
10 verse 30. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, I
and my Father are one. Now they know that His Father
is eternal. They know that His Father is
the Creator. They know that His Father is
the One, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They know that. And I and my Father are one.
Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. Jesus answered
them, saying, Many good works have I showed you from my Father,
lots of good works. For which of these works, what
work have I done that upset you so bad that you stone me? The
Jews answered him, saying, For good work we stone thee not,
but for blasphemy. And because thou being a man
makest thyself God. they knew exactly what he was
saying when he said I and my father warned he said I'm God
I'm God standing before you everybody's ever seen me has seen the father
and then John goes on to say that which was from the beginning
which we have seen with our eyes our eyes saw him and which we've
hand which we've looked upon, and our hands have handled of
the word of life." When he says we, he says we three or four
different times here, four, three, four, four times here, I believe.
And he, when he talks about we, he's talking about all the apostles.
He's not talking about somebody that's with him. He say, we,
the apostles, we that were with the Lord Jesus Christ. We that
saw him, we that handled him, we that walked with him, we that
heard his voice, we that actually got to touch him and sit down
and eat a meal with him. He says, we the apostles, we
bear witness, we've handled the word of life. And you notice
that word is capitalized, showing us that Christ is the same word
that he wrote about in John's Gospel 1 and 1. Now look over
here in 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 16. No, excuse me, 2 Peter 1, 16.
2 Peter 1, 16, yep. Got it in my
notes wrong, I'll change that here in a little bit. But I know
it wasn't over there. But here in 2 Peter 1, verse
16, look what he says here. Talking about the apostles. For
we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made
known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We're not, we're not, this is not fables that we cunningly
came up with and manipulated history and manipulated eyewitness
accounts and that. But, oh, we were eyewitnesses
of his majesty. Now there's talking about what
happened on the Mount of Transfiguration. For he received from God the
Father honor and glory when there came such a voice to him from
the excellent glory. This is my beloved Son, and whom
I am well pleased. And this voice which came from
heaven we heard when we were with Him in the Holy Mount."
So he said, we see this, we've experienced this. And this was
the knowledge that they possessed and the doctrine that they taught
in the beginning. The word of life that came, the
word of life, we seen it, we touched it, we handled it. We
are eyewitnesses of it. And he goes on to say, you know,
he said, we've heard his voice. We've heard his voice, God's
voice about him. We saw him, we handled him and
we touched him. I'm going to show you a place
where they touched him. You keep John, look in Luke 24 and verse
39. Here's a place where they touched
him. You know, John leaned on his breast. And then when our Lord was fixing
to ascend to heaven, Mary was fixing to bow down at his feet
and says, touch me not, Mary, I've not yet ascended to heaven.
And he was getting ready to go. But look what he said. He come in among them after he was
hiding for fear of the Jews. He said in verse 38, why are
you troubled? And why do thoughts arise in
your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet that it is I myself. Handle me, handle me and see
for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me have. He
said, handle me, handle me. And I wonder if any of them did.
I know they handled him before then. And then he says this word
that we saw and handled is the word of life. The word of life. The word that produces life. The word that brought life. The
word in which life was manifested. God has always worked by his
word. By Christ, He created the world. By Christ of the Word, He upholds
the world. By Christ, He created the world. By Christ, He saves His people
by the Word. And then His Word, this Word,
this Eternal Word, this Word that was with God, this Word
that was God, became flesh and came down here and were life,
life, The word of life came down here where was nothing but death
and degradation and depravity and sin. That's what it was. And then it says in verse two,
for this life was manifest. This life was manifested. It
always been there, but it was manifested life. The life that
was with God from eternity said it was manifested, it came. And he said, and oh, listen,
we've seen it and we bear witness of it. We bear witness of it. John said in his own gospel over
there, he said, I am the witness and the witness that I bear to
you is true. It's true. And I tell you, beloved,
eternal life, which was with the Father, eternal life that
dwelt with God, which was with the Father, who was in the bosom
of the Father, who was the delight of the Father, and whom the Father
rejoiced in every day throughout eternity. This is that blessed
eternal. He says here, for the life was
manifested, show you unto that eternal life, which was with
the Father and manifested unto us. This life, which was with
the Father, this that blessed eternal relationship with the
son the father manifested and the son manifested himself he
left the father's bosom the glory which he had with the father
when he says now father give me the glory that I had with
you before the world ever was I finished the thing you sent
me to do and he came here when he was manifested from the father
This glorious, blessed union between the Son and the Father.
He came here where sin was everywhere. He came here where death reigned. He came here where hatred would
abound towards Himself without any cause. He came here to be
rejected of men. He came here and was born of
poverty, and lived in His own world by which He created, and
upheld by the Word of His power, knowing that this would be His
lot in life." Knowing that'd be His lot. And this is the third
time He repeats it. In verse 3, He repeats it again. He said the life was manifested,
we've seen it, bear witness, show unto you that eternal life,
which with the Father was manifested unto us, unto the apostles, unto
the believers. He says the third time in verse
three, that which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you. That which we've seen and heard,
we declare. That tells us that the gospel's
a declaration. John's not gonna argue with these
fellas. He's not gonna debate with these fellas. He knows what
truth God taught him. He knows the truth that came
from the beginning. He knows who Jesus Christ was. He knows why he came. Knows he
came from the Father. Knows he saw him. Knows he touched
him. Knows he handled him as the Word
of Life. Saw him with his own eyes. Eyewitnesses
of his majesty. And then he says, oh listen,
I want to declare unto you that the Word of Life, the Author
of Life, The author of natural life. My natural life. I get it from Christ. I get it
from God. Do you know that? That's why
abortion is so horrible. That's why abortion is so horrible.
People taking it upon themselves to destroy a life that only God
can give. And here's, he gives natural
life. If he numbers the hairs of my head, and he says that
he holds the breath of every living soul in his hands, and
that our days, that's why David said, Lord, make me to know the
end of my days. Make me to know how precious
time is. And He gives us this natural
life. And then, bless His name, if that's all He had ever gave
us, we would have just died and went to hell and never known
anything about God, about Christ. But He came to give spiritual
life. He came, He was the Word of life, and He came to give
us this spiritual life, this life of God in our soul, the
life of the Spirit in our soul, the life of the seed of God planted
in us. He came, He said, I'm the Word
of life. And He said, I come to give you
life. John 5.25 says this, the hour is coming. And now He is,
right now. When the dead, spiritually dead,
shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall
live. As the Father hath life in Himself,
even so has He given the Son to have life in Himself. And he says, Father, I thank
you. I thank you that you've given
me power over all flesh that I should give eternal life. Give
spiritual life. Give a life that was never in
existence. Spiritual life, beloved, I've
said this I don't know how many times and everybody else does
it too. God puts in us a man that never existed before. He
puts in us a new nature. He puts in us a new will. He
puts in us a new mind. He puts in us new desires. He
puts in us new understanding. He gives us eyes to see with
that these natural eyes has nothing to do with. I've seen Christ just like John
did, but by faith. I've hailed Him just like John
did, but by faith. I've leaned on his breast, just
like John did, by faith. Huh? And oh, listen, he came
not only to give us natural life and spiritual life, but he came
to restore the spiritual life that was lost in Adam. He said
he came to restore that which he took not away. Psalm 69 and
four. And then look what it says. And
back, back up there in verse two, and this life was manifested.
this life was manifested he who is life itself the living God
from all eternity who was invisible who is invisible the eternal
God who is invisible became visible he became the image of the invisible
God God, who'd never been seen, came and became seen in His blessed
Son. Life came into this world in
Jesus Christ. All that was ever before that
was dead. Oh my! Look what John says over here
in John 5, 20. Look what he says over here in verse 20. And he says, we bear witness
to these things. Look what he says here in 1 John
5, 20. Listen, this is what he said. Oh, he says the life was
manifested. And look what he says here. And
we know that the Son of God has come. Oh, he's come. And guess what he did when he
came? Hath given us an understanding. That's that new birth. That's
that spiritual life he gives us. That we may know, know, know,
know, know, have acquaintance with. know him that is true and
he goes on to say he came that we not only might know him is
true and gave us an understanding that we are in him that is true
even in his son Jesus Christ now look what he says about him
this is the true God and eternal life that's what he says about
Jesus Christ Oh, I tell you, he said that
we bear witness to it. That's three things that bear
witness to it. The scriptures bear witness to
Christ's coming before he ever came. Bore witness to him when
he did come. And the Holy Spirit bears witness
to Christ's coming. And the Holy Spirit bears witness
to us that Christ has come. and then the gospel bears witness
to our lord jesus christ and bears witness to our heart that
christ has come and was manifested and that's what john says here
that which we have seen in verse three of chapter one that which
we have seen and heard declare we unto you oh listen he leaves
no doubt he mentions it three times that which we've seen which
is handled which we were touched three times he mentions it He
wants you to understand that I know what I'm talking about. You can be certain of the truth
that I'm teaching you. That's what he's saying. He leaves
no doubt to the certainty of the doctrine of the apostles
and him being one of them. And then he says there in verse
three, that which we have seen and heard declare you. We declare. We declare it in God's word.
That's what he's doing here. He's declaring it. He's declaring
it. He's making a declaration. You know, I tell you here, people
declare things all the time. People declare they're going
to run for this office. People declare they ain't going
to do that. People declare I'll do this. People declare I'll
do that. And then some of the old timers say, when somebody
hears somebody say something, say, well, I declare. You know, but all listen, he
declared these blessed truths in the gospel, by the word of
God, the blessed truths of the gospel, the beloved son of God,
who was with the father from all eternity, who is life itself,
the cause of life, the author of life, the giver of life was
manifested in the flesh. And you know, he says we declare
this glorious truth for two reasons. He gives us two reasons right
here why he declares this glorious truth. Tells three times about
what he's seen, what he handled, and what he touched. And looked
upon. And how this life was manifested.
And this is the first reason. He said in verse three, that
ye also may have fellowship with us. We're writing these things,
declaring these things unto you, that you may have communion with
us, that you may fellowship with us, that you may be one with
us apostles. That's what he's saying, we're
apostles. But your fellowship, we want you, you know, we say
these things so that you can believe what we say and have
fellowship with the apostles. I don't know if you all do this
or not, but when I read somebody in the scriptures, I hear their
voice in my head, what I think their voice will sound like.
I don't know if y'all, when I read John, I hear his voice. It's
a very soft, gentle, caring voice. When I read Paul, I'm hearing
a man who just absolutely, just without any doubt in his mind
whatsoever, he's one of the greatest logical thinkers of all time
and when he presents an argument, you just will not quit arguing
with him because he's going to win. And I hear his voice. I hear his voice. And you know,
and Simon Peter, you hear these men's voices. You know, you got
it in your mind what they sound like. And he said, and I want
you, we declare these things that you may have fellowship
with us, the apostles. And that you may with us, the
apostles, enjoy the faith and fellowship with Christ. That
you can see him and hear him and handle him. and that you
enjoy this by faith. That's what they did after Christ
was crucified. They lived by faith from that
day on. They didn't ever live by sight
from then on. They had Christ in their midst.
I want to say, I may be wrong here, but I want to say three
times after His resurrection. And they'd be looking at Him,
and then He'd be gone. Just, he'd go like that. And
then the next time they see him, he's walking by the Sea of Galilee.
And children, you got anything to eat? No! Caught anything? Nothing! So you know he would be right
there and then he'd be gone. And so you see, they knew what
it was to live by faith now. And said, we want you to have
this fellowship with Christ that we had and we enjoy now. And
oh, he says being united to the blessed Savior, you might participate
in being united to God, being accepted in the beloved communion
with Him and fellowship with Him. And then look what he says.
And truly, truly, our fellowship is with the Father and with His
Son, Jesus Christ. What he's saying is that we are
so united to Christ, so joined to Christ, that we are at one
with Him. We're in union with the Father
and with the Son. Now, beloved, the Father and
the Son are one. You can't have one without the...
If you've got the Father, you've got the Son. If you've got the
Son, you've got the Father. You can't separate them. In fact,
you can't have the Father without the Son. And if you have the
Son, then you've been chosen of the Father to receive and
believe that blessed Son. Oh, my intimate union with Him,
one with Him. He lives in us and we live in
Him. John said it like this in John
3, 1. Here, 1 John 3, 1. He lives in us and us in Him.
He said, I'm the vine, you're the branches. And without me,
you can do nothing. But look what he says here, verse
1 of chapter 3. Behold, what manner of love the Father
hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of
God. The sons of God. One with God. Fellowship with the Father and
the Son. And then he says this, And we'll
deal with this, start dealing with this a little bit next week.
And these things write we unto you that your joy may be full. And boy, don't you get full of
joy when you hear the gospel. Don't you get full of joy when
you understand the union you have with Christ and the fellowship
you have with Christ. And how Christ came into this
world, who was life and was manifested unto us to bear our sin, to put
our sin away, to give us this spiritual life that he gives
us. Oh, it gives you joy. And I'll
tell you something. No, I won't. I won't do it. I'll
wait till next week. I'll wait till next week. We'll
keep that. That'll keep till next week. I don't wanna get
ahead of myself. I'm generally trying to catch
up, but tonight I don't wanna get ahead of myself. Oh, our Father. Our Father. Oh, our blessed, blessed Father.
In the name, the name, the name, the blessed person of your son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you that you sent him. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for coming.
And thank you, Holy Spirit, for making him known to us. Thank
you for this word. Thank you for the truth. Thank
you for the things concerning our Lord Jesus. Blessed to our
hearts. Blessed to our understanding.
Blessed to our faith. We ask these things in Christ's
name. Amen. Amen.