Fellowship

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Address—D. Spence
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And shall we see thy face and hear thy heavenly voice well known to us in present days? Well may our hearts rejoice. #270 Someone started with.
And shall we see thy name?
I'd like you to turn to the first key pistol of John in the first chapter.
And just like to say that the Brethren in California and Buena Park send their greetings to you and.
Ensure that.
You are in their prayers, as we pray often for brethren all over the country. I think. I often pray for you. I think of you often times in the in the farming season. When you're in the planting season, I'm praying for you and I've been praying for you. This year the Lord leads us here, that you might have a good year and realize that all of you are not farmers, but without that, we're all in trouble.
Whenever I think of Sully and this little meeting room, there's one word that always comes before me and that is the word fellowship. And that's the subject that I just want to cover a little bit in first John chapter one tonight, the subject of fellowship. It's a subject that we've talked about before. We've read this chapter and others that deal with the subject of fellowship, but every time I read this chapter I get very encouraged. So let's read it together and then we'll make a few comments on 1St John chapter one, verse one.
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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 who was manifested unto us. That which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you, that ye also may have.
Fellowship with us.
And truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus Christ. And these things right we unto you that your joy may be full. 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 live 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 cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in US. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and the truth is not in US.
Let's go into chapter 2, verse one, my little children. These things right I unto you that you send none. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins or also for the whole world. And we got counseling His words.
Fellowship.
Fellowship, and it is the word, has the thought of community.
Or communication, Or being being brought into common thought.
With someone.
Now when Adam and Eve were here, God created them so that he could have fellowship with them. God wanted to have fellowship with man, with this man and woman that he had created. He desired fellowship.
Ever desire fellowship.
Some of us who perhaps have lost our mates, we've had fellowship all through those years, and suddenly we lose that one to the Lord's presence and we miss fellowship, we miss it. But God longed for fellowship. He wanted to have fellowship with this man and woman that he had created.
But suddenly sin came in and sin marred man's.
Fellowship with God is broken, and it marred his ability to have fellowship with God. So the communication device was damaged, it was broken, and fellowship was broken up.
You know, fellowship, I suppose you might say, to a certain extent. God could have had fellowship with his angels. I suppose there was a degree of common thought there that went on between God and his angels, but.
Desire to have full communion with man. And he allowed man to go through this process of having that communion broken and then at the cross, and that's what's going to be before us here tonight. At the cross, communion was restored, the communication device was repaired, and man now through the work of the cross, would be able to look up in a fellowship with God. That's the privilege that you and I had fellowship with him.
Now what is the difference between fellowship and relationship?
Well, fellowship is something that you may experience momentarily. Relationship is something that is built over time. When I met Gene for the very first time, there was there was a longing to have fellowship and we did have fellowship, but we didn't have relationship. We didn't have a relationship. It took time to build that relationship.
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And over the years, through the trials and problems and difficulties and hanging in there together, through those times, we've built a relationship. And that relationship in time gets deeper. If we go on in fellowship, you see what I'm saying? So if you have fellowship with God and you walk in fellowship with God, that's wonderful. But if you do that over a period of time, you will build a relationship with God. That's what God wants. He wants a relationship with you.
Anthony And the only way that we will have that relationship is experiencing fellowship over a period of time. And that's why it's so important, you know, when trials come and difficulties come, not to give up on God and not to get angry at God and not to question God what God is doing. We don't know what God is doing all the time, but if we trust God and stay in fellowship with God.
Over this period of time.
We will have a relationship with that relationship will be built and we will be able to look back and say, I know, I know what God is doing and I look back in my own marriage as some of us have been married for a while. And I just thank God for the trial, the difficulties that the things that I didn't understand because through those trials and difficulties and problems, God was building a relationship. He was testing us. He was, he was testing our love for each other.
You see, you see what I'm saying? And so God brings us into fellowship with himself. But it is it is through that fellowship, over a period of time that he builds a relationship. Now he goes back to the beginning. He says that which was from the beginning we heard. That which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon in our hands and handled the word of life. He goes back to the beginning.
Because it took.
And Eternal God can solve that problem.
Nelda was telling me last night, she said with this young lady who's been saved, I think her name is Maria from France. She was saying she asked this question. This question was why didn't God send somebody else to the cross? Why didn't he send an Angel to the cross? Why didn't he send a man to the cross? Why did he have to send his son? And we were talking about that last night.
And. And your answer was something like this, because it took an eternal God to solve the problem. How long would it take you and me to suffer for our sins? In an eternity? In a lost eternity it would take forever, wouldn't it? So if God cast me into the lake of fire, how long would it take me to pay for my sins? Infinitely long. So.
If you take a load of sins.
That are infinitely long to pay for and you multiply that times the 10s of billions of people that will be in heaven. There is only one person that could ever solve that problem and that is an infinite God because in three hours of darkness.
In three hours of darkness on the cross, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, four of those sins, and he paid for every one of them, because he could bear an infinite load. He could bear an infinite load. An infinite God could bear an infinite love.
And as you and I look into the sufferings of Calvary, we will never be able to fathom the depths of it. Why? Because it was infinitely deep. And you and I, even through all eternity, will not be infinite. We will be finite, but we will be like Him. And so we will look into it, and we will say, I cannot fathom the deficit, because an infinite guy died there on the cross. An infinite savior suffered.
And He suffered in three hours what would have taken us in all eternity to take. So he goes back to the beginning, that which was from the beginning. Why? Because God had you and I in mind from the very beginning. Isn't that wonderful to think of that. And he knew the course that sin would take. And He knew He could look down into this very room tonight and know that you and I would be here, and that you and I.
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Would be long to him.
So he goes back to the beginning. My son Tim just came home a few weeks ago with his first dose of.
Evolution from school. And we were talking a little bit about it. And he was saying that I just can't sit through that stuff and listen to it. And I said, well, it might, it might not hurt you to sit there and listen to it because it might show you the holes in that theory. And we were sitting around talking about it. And I said, Tim, did they ever tell you about the beginning?
Where did where did it all come from? They say that there was a mass of gas, They say that it spun off into different galaxies and so on. But did they? Do they ever talk about the beginning? Where did it come from? Because man has this theory. It's one of the theory of theories of thermodynamics. It says that matter can neither be created nor destroyed outside of course of some supernatural means. So.
Matter has always been there then. But where did it come from?
Well, they never, they never deal with that. Another one of the theories of thermodynamics is that things are running down, you know, well, they're running down from what? And where did this all come from? It had to have a beginning. And so John just enjoys introducing us to the Lord as the one who is from the beginning. You go back right to the beginning of things when there was nothing there and when God was going to speak the Word and the earth was going to come about.
And so on, but.
He was there. He was there in the beginning. And the amazing thing is that John says we heard it and we saw him with our eyes and we touched him with our hands. Isn't that amazing that the very God who was there in that eternity past, that nobody had ever seen, that nobody had ever touched, and maybe few had ever heard, that God became a man?
He became a man, a real live person like you, like me, and he walked here in the scene. People could walk up to him and they could touch him. People could sit around and they could listen to him. People could look on him with their eyes. Three of the senses, three of the senses were affected, John says. It's always interesting to me with, with all of the evil doctrines that are going around in the cults that.
Most of the time, these cults are based on an experience that only one person saw or heard, John says. We Who does he mean? Well, All of those who saw him. So it was in the mouth of two or three witnesses. But it was also based on two or three or three of the senses, the eyes, the ears, and the touch.
There's a little song that the world has that goes something like this. You fill up my senses, and I've thought about that sometimes, about somebody who's in love. And I know the feeling. I know how there comes this flood, you know, a field that a person may have as he thinks about the one that he's in love with. But oh, there's only one person that really, Indeed.
Fills up our senses and will for all eternity, for we are going to have the experience.
Someday, and maybe soon, of seeing him with our physical eyes, of hearing him with our physical ears and touching him with our hands, we're going to have that experience. John had it, and it just thrilled it. He'd been brought into contact with the very Son of God, so that life was revealed. And then in verse two we see the the life is experienced, for the life was manifested and we've seen it and bear witness.
And shown to you that eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us.
So John saw that life, and he calls it that eternal life. Because the Lord Jesus Christ is the source. He is the source of life. And as you and I have come into contact with him, we have been filled with that life. We have eternal life. And John says we saw it.
And we bear witness, and we saw it. We were telling you about it, so we wanted to share it. And in verse three, 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.
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So John is writing to them so that they might have fellowship with him. And what is that fellowship? Well, it is a fellowship that is based on having fellowship with the Father and with his son, Jesus Christ. Now it's something, if I were drawing a picture here, I would draw a little picture of a person standing here, and I would draw that picture's channel just coming right down from from heaven, connecting up to that person. And I would call that fellowship. And then I would draw 2 arrows that go out on either side of that person.
And those arrows going out would show fellowship. And that's what fellowship is. God. God has this channel of common thought of communion, of fellowship that he wants to have with us. And so John says we have that fellowship with the Father and with his son, Jesus Christ. Isn't it glorious? I just think that's so fantastic. You know what I think if I? I've never had the privilege of having?
Fellowship with President Bush. I was in Washington, DC just recently and I walked around there and I looked at the White House, but I never got an invitation to come in and sit down at his table. Nobody ever walked up and said President Bush would like to have fellowship with you tonight. But one thing that I can say is the God of Heaven has, and I I have the privilege of fellowship.
With the God of Heaven now, there is nothing that is more, could you say, central or more key to a life that is victorious over sin and over the world and over everything around us in fellowship with God. We're living in a world that is probably more filled with devices and things to hinder fellowship with God than any than any generation that ever lived.
Enoch.
And in Enoch's day, they never had all of these things around that will hinder fellowship with God. Enoch walked with God. But you and I have a challenge in the day that we live in, to walk in communion with God every moment of the day. And it is that kind of fellowship that enhances our fellowship with each other. I just want to challenge every one of us here, especially young people. I know, you know, it's difficult in the day that we're living in to have fellowship with God.
But just to get up in the morning, I often find myself, you know, as I'm waking up saying, Lord Jesus today, help me to walk through this day in fellowship for communion with you. And I think that's the challenge. The challenge of today is to walk in fellowship with God. And as we do so, it enhances our fellowship with one another, with other members of the body of Christ. It brings us into contact.
With them, oftentimes we allow other things, don't we, to come in. And we often are thinking about things on a fairly low level. But fellowship with God brings us into the very communion of God's thoughts for us, and there is nothing beyond that. And then a day when when everything is discouraging, when things aren't going the way we want them to go, and we're having trials that we don't understand.
To walk that day in communion with God is a way of walking victoriously over every problem and every difficulty.
So John then writes, could we call verse 4 the effect of fellowship and these things rightly into you? That's your joy may be full. Your joy may be full. You know, joy is something that we all seek. Is that not true? Do we not all want to be happy? Is that not what we're seeking? Sure.
No, people are pursuing one course or another in life. And if you were to ask them why are you pursuing this course, what are they after? Well, ultimately they are probably after Chuck or after happiness. The problem that people have is that they're on the wrong course and they're going after things that will never make them happen because they don't have Christ. But you and I have the Lord Jesus Christ, and we have a channel that has been opened up into His presence.
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That is something that will bring about joy. Joy is something that it spills over. You know, it's like this blast full of water. If I were to walk around with it, I would spill it all over if I had it completely full. Joy is something that spills over. It's contagious, it's catching. And a person who is walking in communion with God is very contagious. You know, people look at you.
And they say, I like to be like that sometimes. Not everybody says that. Some people say, what's wrong with him, You know, why is he smiling? Why is he so happy and so on. But the person that is walking in communion with God always experiences joy. You go into a hospital room sometime and you say, I got to go encourage brother so and so or sister so and so because they're going through this serious problem, this difficult trial.
And you go in there and you come out and you say, I think I was the one that got encouraged.
Why is that? Because the person in that hospital bed is often in communion with God, and so they have that, could you say infusion of joy that you that happens when you're there?
Now verse 5. 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. It's real important to know that we've been brought into fellowship with a God who's holy.
And it is not possible for us to go on with unholiness and yet be in fellowship, which sin will always break fellowship. So he's reminding us that this God is light, and there is no darkness in him, none whatsoever. There's no darkness, no shadows in God, no darkness in Him in His person or in His presence. So we must always remember that that we are brought into this circle of fellowship that is.
No God is also loved, that's true. And we would find that from reading the the rest of first John, behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us. And that's a wonderful thought. But the but we must remember that fellowship is based on life. It is based on a life that contains no darkness at all.
Now in verse six, we're going to start here some if, then statements, if and then statements, and these are conditional statements. Five of them, in fact. You'll notice that the next 5 verses begin with if.
If we say that we have fellowship with him and while in darkness we lie and do not the truth, haven't we all had a little bit of this problem? We say, yes, I'm having fellowship with God, but we're walking in darkness, that there is an inconsistency then that develops. So John is saying we love don't tell a lie. I I kind of always have trouble.
With certain books in the Bible, one of them has been the Epistles, or the First Epistle of John. Don't quite understand John sometimes the way he writes, but the way he writes is what people call in the abstract. So with John, it's either black or white. It's either black or white. Either you are or you aren't. If you're if you're in color, you're walking in fellowship with God then.
You better not be walking in darkness. He doesn't cover the in between either. You are. You aren't. It's black and white. And that's helped me understand John just a little bit. And John, what he's saying here is that there's got to be a consistency between our walk and our dog. You know, if we say that we are walking in fellowship with God, then there better be a correspondence in our walk. Otherwise we are lying to others.
And we'll notice here this is a line to Oaks, because we don't. Could you say we don't deceive anybody else? We might deceive ourselves, but we don't deceive anybody else They know. Now notice the contrast in verse 7. 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 thundered us from all sin. Now in the contrast is.
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Walking in the light, and that has to do with walking in obedience to the Word of God.
That's why it's so important that I read this book every single day of my life.
It's important that I read it, that I meditate on it, that I understand it, that I memorize it.
That it becomes a part of my thought processes. That it becomes a part of my practical everyday life. You know, it's so easy to could you say, accept something in principle? Immediately you may, you may sit down and you may say, Dan, I'd like to explain to you this principle of truth. And I will say that's good. I understand that. I can understand that very well. But to put it into practice in my life takes.
Time. It takes effort. And you, if you were to look at my life very closely, you would notice that I haven't achieved perfection yet. I haven't achieved perfection. No, I have everything.
All the ability to do that and it's a goal, yes, but I haven't achieved it. But it has to do with walking in the light.
That's where the secret of fellowship is. If we walk in the light, and what is, what is the standard for that? As He is in the lake, there's no less standard than Christ and glory as He is in life, then we have fellowship, one with another. What is it? Further, what is it that enhances our fellowship with each other? It is walking in obedience to the word of God. And that's why, you know, if I allow something.
Let's suppose that I allow some evil thought in my heart. Maybe I allow a lust for someone else, but I can't go home and just sit down and have fellowship with my wife because something there is wrong. I know it's wrong, you know, And I I may try to cover it up and I may try to to to fake it, but I can't until that sin is confessed.
It is walking in the light, and that's the point. As we walk in the light, then we enjoy fellowship, one with another.
Now the basis of that fellowship is the blood. The precious blood of Christ, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sins. The basis of that fellowship is the cross and the blood that was shed there.
Now, it is not necessarily our agreement. We were talking a little bit about this at our dinner table tonight, and I don't know that I can bring back the thought, but it's something like this. You and I may not agree 100% and yet enjoy fellowship, because the basis of our fellowship is the blood of Christ that has brought us into this area of fellowship or common thought. Now it is true as we go on.
In the things of God, as we go on with one another and walk in that light, we're probably going to converge. You know, we're we're going to, our thoughts are going to convert. But it could be that you would disagree with me on a number of things. You might disagree with me on what kind of car to drive. You might disagree with me on some of the things that are listed in Romans 14 that matters of personal faith.
But that doesn't make any difference because the basis of my fellowship with you is the cross and the blood that was shed there. You see, that precious blood that is shed there has perfectly satisfied God's claims and the sin that stood between God and me.
Has been forever erased. It's gone. There's no record of it up in heaven. And that that precious blood that cost the Lord Jesus so much is the basis of my fellowship with God and the basis of my fellowship with you.
Now notice in verse 8 we're going to come back to verse 7. But notice in verse 8. Now we have another contrast that we say that we have no sin. We deceive ourselves in the truth is not in US.
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Now here is a person saying, well, I've gotten to this point of sinless perfection. I don't have any sin anymore. And if we say that.
Who are we deceiving? We're deceiving ourselves, not deceiving anybody else. In the truth is not in us. We're lying to ourselves. So we don't want to go down that pathway until the moment that the Lord Jesus comes. We're always going to have some problems.
But we will never reach His state of sinless perfection until we hear the shout and are called into His presence.
Now notice verse 9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now here is the basis of restoration of fellowship. This is how fellowship is restored if we confess our sins. That's why people say keep short accounts, you know when we send confess it to the Lord.
And it says, it doesn't say if we confess that we have sinned, you know that would be good. But it says if we confess our sins, plural, you know, it doesn't say if we we confess sin, you know, which might be the root. It says sin if we confess our sins, that is. I would, I would. I understand that to mean that we are to take the specific things that we've done wrong.
And say, Lord Jesus, I am sorry, I have told a lie not to say, Lord, I had a bad day and I sinned.
Now why is that? Because God is working on this subject of fellowship and it is the specific sins that are hindering them. So he says I want you to be aware of it, I want you to confess this specific sins and if we do that, what does he do? He is faithful and just to forget.
Us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That is a work that He does. That is a work that He does.
Now remember last couple of summers ago we were up at in Michigan with a bunch of young people, older young people at a camp and one of them raised this question.
He said, you know when I fall into a sin, he says I I go into this sin and then he says I.
Confess it to the Lord and then he says it takes me about one or two weeks to climb out of this depression that is caused by it. And about the time I'm just getting my head up there into the sunshine plant, it happens again, down I go, and then I can touch that to the Lord and I just barely make it out.
And over and over, he says. It just seems like I'm down all the time now. What is the problem with that person? That person doesn't believe John first. John 19. Because what first John 19 says, The moment that you and I confess what we have done, we are restored. The moment that we do that, we are restored. Fellowship is restored.
And you see, it is so easy for me to believe first John 17, that the blood of Jesus Christ Godson, cleanseth us from all sin. I believe that that record is forever gone. But when I come to verse 9, for some reason I'm having a struggle with that. I do not believe that just on the basis of my confession that I can be restored. Why is that? Because there is a tendency always to think that I must punish myself for what I did.
There's a tendency always to think that there's some works involved here, that I've got to prove myself and I've got to prove my repentance. He doesn't. The Lord doesn't say. Now, if you do sin, I want you to grapple around in the sin. I want you to think about it. I want you to shed some tears. I want you to be depressed. He doesn't say that. What he says is confessing, isn't it? It's just amazing to me. And I've had this problem myself that and so I I drew this little.
This little diagram on the board, I said here's what you're doing. You're going falling down into the scent and then you if there's this little shaky line and finally gets up and then it falls out again. And what the Lord is saying here is when we fall into a sin, immediately confess it and then we are restored to fellowship and then we go clear out here again, we fall into the sin again, confess it were immediately restored, you see, and they're resolved.
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That 90% of the time now or more, I'm going to be walking in community instead of trying to work my way back up. I'm just going to confess and I'm going to accept what first John 19 says, forgiven in plant. You ever have that problem? And I went through this in my life and it was a struggle for me just to believe that I was going to go through this cleansing process and I was going to be forgiven right on the spot. And yes, I could have a bad night Saturday night.
But Lords, day morning I could walk in and I could sit down in the presence of the Lord. And if he saw that I could take part in that meeting, I didn't need to punish myself for 2-3 weeks trying to demonstrate some kind of repentance to the Lord. Now first John 17 has to do with the eradication of sin.
God once for all but first on one night has to do with, could you say restoration from sin. Now I want, I want to go back. If you'll just turn over to the Gospel of John, chapter 19.
And we'll look at just a verse or two there.
John 19 and verse 34.
But one of the soldiers with the Spirit pierced his side and forthwith came there up blood and water. Now I want you to turn over to Hebrews chapter 10.
Hebrews, chapter 10.
And verse 22.
Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience in our bodies quashed with pure white. Now you will notice that on the cross that not only was their blood shed, but there was also what I want to I want to emphasize the significance of both, and you see that from.
From Hebrews 10 that we can draw near. Why? Because our hearts have been sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. The evil conscience has to do with that which is inward. There's been an inward cleansing, but our bodies washed with pure water has to do with our walk. Or that was without it, both of those.
The the basis of both of those cleanses was Calvary's crops, the blood for expiation. I will quote Mr. Chapter Brown, the blood for expiation.
The water for Clinton and so the basis of my restoration back in first John One if you want to turn back there, and verse 7 is the blood of Christ that made atonement manly. His death made atonement. God the blessed made atonement men. So I'm brought in the fellowship with God through that. But sin hasn't been eradicated yet, so I have a problem.
And I fall into sin as I'm walking along the pathway. The basis of restoration is the what? That's the water, the cleansing site. So when I come along, the first John 19. And I don't believe that I'm not accepting the work of the cross. So when I fall into sin, I keep a short account and I say, Lord, I'm sorry and I'm restored right on the spot. I don't know why this is so hard for me to get ahold of it, but it's true.
Someone came along to me one time at a conference and it was a fairly intimidating person. And this person said to me, I don't agree with your thoughts on forgiveness. And I said, well, what are we talking about here? So he began to tell me some of the I guess I've had a meeting on forgiveness somewhere in Matthew chapter 18, and I was talking about that verse where Peter said, Lord, how often shall I forgive my brother?
And the Lord said until 70 * 7. And I have been saying that I just, you know, feel that what he's saying there is that we just throw a blanket forgiveness over everybody. When people sin against us or they hurt our feelings or when they say something that is bad, why we just forgive them unless it's a real serious thing. And then we then it says that if somebody offends, you go tell them they're fought between you and them alone. I think that was some of the.
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With us in that meeting. And so this brother said, well, I don't agree. So I said, well, what don't you agree about? And he said, well, I don't forgive anybody until they come and tell me that they're sorry. And I said, well brother, if I felt that way, I think what I would do is I would hire a a driver and I would get a big semi trailer and I had this big record of wrong, you know, in there.
Keep this record. And whenever anybody ever came up to me and so I sinned against you, I'd go race it out of the book. And I said, you know, I don't think I'd ever be in fellowship with anybody. You know, he said, well, I just don't agree with that. So I said, well, why don't you agree? And he said, well, look at first John 19, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just we've got to confess them, right? Right. That's right. So I said to this brother, I said, well, brother.
Tell me, how many times do you send every day?
And he didn't want to answer this question. So I said, well, would you say about 300? And he said, oh, no, that's high. So I said, well, let's come down a little bit. How about 50? He said, I think I could go with that figure. So I said, OK, 50 times you send every day. How many times? How many of these fifty sins do you confess to the Lord? And he said not very many.
And I said, well, then you're out of fellowship with the Lord all the time, is that right?
And he looked rather puzzled and he said, I don't think I understand. First John 19. And I said, well, I don't know that I do either. So I think we're in the same boat. But here is here is my understanding thinking it over a little bit and you may not agree with this.
You may not agree with this. Here is my understanding. There's a blanket forgiveness in the blood of Christ that has opened up a channel of fellowship to God. But.
There's sin in my life and the moment I get saved, you know, there's a lot of things that need the direction, but God has kind of a blanket forgiveness. But as I begin, could you say, here's this line of sin in my life, this black line. As I, as I open up this channel or this channel of fellowship opens up and I begin to confess specific sins to God. What what happens here that those sins are the ones that?
Are forgiven. Endless. Those are the ones that could you say this, This channel of fellowship is white. It's broadened. And those of you who are older here tonight, who have, could you say, read this blessed book and you know more about the holiness of God than I will probably ever know. Why? that Channel of community is probably much wider than mine. You see what I'm saying? I think that God begins to deal with little things in our life and as we confess them.
He forgives them and cleanses them out of our lives. Otherwise I would say I'd be out of. I would be out of communion most of the time. All the time. Perhaps we've got. But the point that I want to make here, I want to really emphasize it, is that in First John 19 there is restoration and fellowship with God. We need to believe it because the work is done in the cross. We don't need to punish ourselves for it. We just need to do what it says.
Verse 10 The 5th if statement if we say that we have not sinned.
We make him alive and his word is not in US. So now before we said that we had no sin, but now if we say that we have not sinned, that's in the past tense. Then we make God a liar. So this time we're lying to God and his word is not in. Now I just want to go into chapter 2 and verse one a little bit. My little children, these things right eye unto you that you sin not.
And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
The goal is that we should not sin. Never give up that goal, that that is the goal. I write unto you that you sin not, but if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. That word. Advocate is a word that means a lawyer, like a District Attorney, but it is a word that means a very kind and loving person.
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So I don't know if you know any district attorneys. I don't. But I've been in court a few times and I don't like them very well and they look like a very hard nosed person. But this person or this word, the word that is used here is a a lawyer, a District Attorney type of a person with a very kind heart, very kind.
So if we send.
If we sin, we don't have to approach the hard nosed District Attorney. You know who's going to Could you say grueless with all of these questions and make us feel about that high and condemn us?
He's one who loves. And what happens probably when we sin is the devil goes into the presence of God and accuses us or one of his demons or whatever it may be.
And Can you imagine in heaven the accuser of the brethren walks in. This is get this from Revelation 12. The accuser of the brother walks in after I have sinned and he says well.
Your servant down there on the earth, he is he ascend again. He's a terrible testimony. He's not much of A servant, you know. Can you imagine how God must feel?
That's when the Advocate steps in and he steps in with the record and he says look at the record. The record is clean. He I have no record on him, you know, because of blood, because the blood has wiped it out. And that's why in Revelation 12, when there's a battle right in the middle of the tribulation, there's a tremendous battle in the heavens and the devil is cast out. It says that they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.
The blood of Christ that destroys, could you say, the effort of Satan to condemn the servants of God? And so the work of the Advocate begins the moment we sin, and it may involve some work there in the course of heaven. But it also involves a work in which he seeks to restore to himself. The moment we sin, we the advocacy of Christ takes over, and he he wants to restore us back on the road.
Ever on the pathway of obedience, the high priest, the Lord Jesus is our high priest and is our high priest. He tries to keep us out of the ditch, but when we fall in the ditch, then the advocacy of Christ takes over and we are restored to that pathway of obedience and fellowship with him. Isn't that grant? I think it's just fantastic. We were in Pella last night. We were talking about some of the provisions that God has made for us and.
I was reminded of that verse and justice back a page or two in Second Peter.
Chapter one and verse three, that he has given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him that it called us to glory and virgin. Last summer we had the privilege of taking a little trip. My wife spokes took us up to Alaska, and we took a cruise down the inland passages of Alaska and Canada, and it was quite beautiful.
And we were off of the ship there in a number of cities, and I think this city we were off at this particular time was Juneau, AK and while Jean and her mother were shopping in some of the little shops there.
Dad and I were over at McDonald's drinking a cup of coffee and talking, and we noticed this man come in the door. While we were sitting there, he struggled in with this huge backpack.
He could hardly make it in the door and he he took it off of his back and it dropped on the floor, made a big clunk, and I happened to have a VCR along with me. So I swept this man and I said, Sir, could I take your picture? And he said, yes, sure, that'd be fine. So I said I'd like to interview you. He said sure, that'd be fine.
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So I said while I was taking this picture, I said, could you tell me a little bit about this pack that you're carrying on your back? And he said, well, that's what you call an Alaskan Survival kit. And I said, well, where did you get it? And he said, I bought it down here at the camping store.
And I said, well, what does it happen? He said it has everything that you can imagine. And he said.
Everything that you need to survive in the wilderness. And I said, well, what? Like what? He he started showing me several things. Here's a a here is a bedroom and here's a little camping store and here's a tent. And he was telling me all about this and I said, how much does this weigh?
And he said, I would say it weighs about 100 lbs. And I said, well, how are you ever going to get this into the wilderness? And he said, I haven't got that figured out yet. He said, you know, I bought it down there. And he said I've had to stop three times on my way to McDonald's here, and I've got a lot farther to go. But he said one thing that I will guarantee you is that it will help me survive in the wilderness. I don't know how far he ever made it into the wilderness.
And I hope that he survived. But one of the things that that I have just enjoyed and thinking back on that is that God has given us His survival care. So that here we are living in the most evil day, a day just before the coming in the Lord when we expect the shop to call us home and we we know that there's just a sea of sin that's floating around out there. Can we survive? Yes, we can survive because we have been given a Survival kit.
And one of the items in that case is fellowship with God. And I just want to return to that thought and just close on that thought that that to walk in fellowship with God. Could you say we'll solve so many of the problems? There are problems of sin, the problems of discouragement, you know, the problems of unhappiness, the problems of sorrow. To walk in fellowship with him is a thing that will cause boundless children.
Close.