Fellowship and Walking in th..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. I want us, beloved of Christ, brothers and sisters and friends, that we may meditate together upon a very important topic given to us by the Holy Spirit through his apostles in scripture in the New Testament that is of vital importance for a biblical church. And that is the topic of the fellowship of the saints, the fellowship of the saints.

the relationship that the saints are to have with one another because of the salvation that by grace through faith they have been given from Jesus Christ, their Lord. And the verse that I want us to meditate upon is found there in the first letter of the Apostle John. in chapter one in verse seven, in which the apostle or the spirit of God through the apostle is going to give us this statement in what he said. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, We have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin. The apostle makes that statement that we are to or we have fellowship with one another.

And that is what I want us to think and meditate upon by the grace of God. But as we always do, beloved of Christ, let's read together. an extended portion of this text or any text in the scripture so that we will have the context of what we are going to be meditating upon. So I'm going to invite you by the grace of Christ to read together all chapter one and going into chapter two to verse eleven. So paying much attention to each one of the words and focusing our attention primarily on what the apostle says in verse seven.

We're going to read together a scripture, chapter one and chapter two, going into verse eleven. So this is the word of God. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life. The life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testified to it, and proclaimed to you the eternal life, which was with the Father, and was made manifest to us. Thou which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us.

And indeed, our fellowship is with the Father, and with his son, Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy, some of your Bible said, might say your joy may be complete. This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say We have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness. We lie and do not practice the truth.

But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. And the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say 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 sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not seen, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this, we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. Whosoever says, I know him, but does not keep his commandments is a liar.

And the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this, we may know that we are in him. Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning.

The old commandment is the word that you have heard. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true. in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light.

and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. Amen. This is the word of the Lord, beloved of Christ, brothers and sisters and friends. The topic of fellowship with one another.

The Bible says that we have been saved by grace through faith. That is by the Spirit of Christ that we have been inserted into the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. that we have been forgiven our sins. And the purpose of that salvation is that we will be made one with the Lord Jesus Christ. We were dead in our trespasses, but we were made alive in Jesus Christ.

We were given the life of Christ with the purpose not only of being united to him and the life that is in Jesus Christ, but also to be united to the body of Christ. And those who, by grace through faith, have been partakers of the glorious blessing of being a Christian and a follower of the person of Jesus Christ. I don't know how many times, and if you have at all, asked yourself the question of what is the purpose of your Christian life? What is the purpose of your redemption? I don't know if you have thought about it or if you have contemplated in your heart your individual purpose in light of Jesus Christ and the salvation that He has given.

What is the purpose of your life as a Christian, brother or sister? If you have been saved by grace, what is the purpose of the life that has been given to you? What is the purpose of your days? What is the purpose of your efforts? What is the purpose of your gifts?

What is the purpose of the grace manifested from above onto your sinful soul, redeeming you from your hell bound race onto a race and to eternal union with Jesus Christ? What is the purpose of your soul? What is the purpose of your life, dear soul? Thanks be to God. that when we are going to answer an important question pertaining the life that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are not to go to the thoughts of our mind or to the thoughts of our heart.

Because just as the 10 men that we have just read in numbers 13, our mind and our heart give an evil report of the things of God. Praise be to God that when it comes to receive a truthful report of that which is meaningful for spiritual life, we have the absolute, perfect, inerrant, life-giving Word of the Lord. Because the same Spirit of Christ that writes for us the things that we have read in 1 John also moving a holy man, the apostle Paul, in his letter to the Romans in chapter eight, gives us the answer to the question of what is the purpose of the life of those who love God. So the apostle, by the inspiration of the Spirit, being carried by the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, not interpreting a word of prophecy in his own flesh, but by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, He says that for those who love God, all things work together for good. And he describes those who love God as those who have been called according to his purpose, that those who love God, all things in their life work together for good.

And those who love the Lord, not that they love the Lord, but that the Lord loved them first. All things work together for good according to the purpose of God unto the life of those who love him in return. In verse 29, the apostle describes that purpose. And he says that those whom he foreknew, he predestined, given us the purpose for which we have been called. That those whom he foreknew, those who love God, the Lord has predestined.

to be conformed to the image of his son, Jesus Christ, the purpose of the life of the believer. Beloved of Christ, brother and sister, you who are within the sound of my voice, it's not for you to be seated in a chair. It's not for you to play Christianity. It's not for you to do religious things that fall within the framework of Christianity as a religion of men. The purpose of your life is not to spend the rest of your days just doing Christian things so that you will appease your conscience and your own morality, but rather the God-given, the God-illuminated purpose for the soul of the saint, those who love God, is that we will be conformed.

to the image of the Son, the image of the Son, Jesus Christ, the begotten of the Father, that having born the image of Adam, we shall bear the image of the better Adam, that having born the image of the men of disobedience, we shall bear the image of the begotten of the Father, the one that is without sin, the one that is the beloved of the Father. And the purpose of that, the purpose of your conformity to Jesus Christ is in order that He may have preeminence, that He may be the firstborn among many brothers. As the same apostle will speak in Colossians, that Jesus Christ will have preeminence in everything. The purpose of your life, beloved of Christ, is that continually you will die to self. And by the faith that saved you initially, Jesus Christ will increase in you.

And then when you look back in time, you will see yourself being death and Jesus Christ being alive in you. that you will find joy in dying to what you were in the flesh and being alive in the person of Jesus Christ, that you will find joy and fulfillment in changing the contents of your heart from what you had for the contents of the heart of the person of Jesus Christ, that having borne the image of Adam, you may now rejoice in bearing the image of the Son, Jesus Christ, that you will be conformed to the image of him who loved you and gave his life for you, that he will be the first begotten, the eternally begotten of the Father, that all authority, all worship and all exaltation will be given to Jesus Christ, the one who was without sin, yet gave himself for us, that the ones that are wicked and filled with unrighteousness will be the object of the love and the blessings of the Father, Not because of your face or your heart or your soul, which are wicked and unrighteous in every single aspect, but because of the countenance, the heart and the soul of Jesus Christ being formed in you. What a glorious life, the life of Christ in the life of the saint. In times in which preaching and churches and Christianity are self-centered, centered upon men, is the time in which we are to open this book and by the power of the Spirit to point to the one who indeed deserves the glory and honor and majesty and blessing. The Lamb of God who is seated at the right hand of the Father.

That is the purpose of your life. Do you desire that? That is the purpose, according to holy scriptures, of what we ought to do with our lives. Do we desire that? Do we desire to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ?

Or are we sufficiently satisfied with who we are and the thoughts that we have in our mind and the things that we have in our heart? Are we dying to self and eagerly decide that Christ may be in us and that he may remove from us the Canaanites so that he will be established and thrown in our hearts as the one that conquers the land that is unconquerable in the might of men? The apostle in the same chapter, chapter 8, continues in the following verse to give us an overview of this glorious salvation. He has said that we have been predestined, or those whom he foreknew, they have been predestined to be conformed to the image of the Son in order that he may have, or that he may be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined, the apostle adds, those whom he predestined, he also called.

And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified. The salvation of the lost soul who by grace through faith has been inserted into the person of Jesus Christ is with the purpose that we will be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ according to the eternal plan in the mind of God that from eternity past predestined us and in his mind glorified us to be in time being called and being justified by faith. Everything in the mind of God having taken place powerfully and mightily and lovingly displayed in time as we become children of God. He has predestined us, he has called us, he has justified us and he has glorified us.

Why am I saying all of these things, beloved of Christ, if I'm going to be speaking about fellowship? Well, beloved, because there's something very important that we ought to understand as children of God and as a congregation. There is a great danger when we see our salvation. There is a great danger of oversimplifying our relationship to Christ. There is a danger of oversimplifying our salvation.

and placing our eyes only in the fact that we have been justified. You see, there is a great danger in thinking that as children of God, because of the grace that granted us faith, now we have been justified and as justified children, we have been forgiven and that our relation to God or our relationship to God is meant to be seen through the eyes of forgiveness alone. Beloved, Brother and sister and whoever is listening to my voice, if there's something that you want to understand from your status before the Lord Jesus Christ and before the Lord God Almighty of Israel and the Israel of the world, is that your salvation? is not only forgiveness. That your salvation is not only a legal status to which you have arrived because of faith.

You are meant to be more than a person that has been forgiven by faith. but rather you are to be in the eyes of God as a person who indeed, and even if it doesn't sound reformed, that is in a genuine relationship with God. A genuine relationship with God. A relationship that in the minds and in the heart of God is started before the foundation of the world and is going to be consummated in the eternity that is to come. That's why the brother and even the brother quoted Ephesians chapter 3.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. in Christ, even as He chose us before the foundation of the world, in Him, in Him. Your mind is not sufficient, nor our minds put together, beloved of Christ, to comprehend the power and the might of those two words. that if you are by grace through faith in Jesus Christ today, you have been blessed not only with every spiritual blessing in the present and future time, but you were chosen in union with Christ before you even existed. The coming to happen of your sins, the coming to happen of your debt before the Lord, the coming of happening of your even God-given faith, the coming to happen and existence of your life and everything that you are happened.

But something happened before that. And that is that we were united in Christ before the foundation of the world, chosen in Him. And the apostle adds, in love, In love, he predestined us to be redeemed by his blood, not only in Christ, but in the beloved and in love, because the only explanation for which God will be united to a sinful person like you and me is love. That is the only explanation possible that can be given. Why would God forgive our sins?

Because of his love towards his people before the foundation of the world. But that love was much more than only to forgive your sins and to say that you are innocent. That love chose you into a relationship of son or daughter with the God creator of heavens and earth. Beloved of Christ, I hope that your hearts may not be dull, indifferent and having received an evil report from the doctrines of men about this glorious truth. that if by grace through faith we have been united to Christ, indeed we are partakers of the divine nature, and that the greatest blessing is not that in the divine court we are innocent, praise God for that, but that the greater benefit of this is Jesus Christ, the beloved of the Father.

and that in Him we have the blessings that are given to us by the Father, that it's in Him that we have every spiritual blessing. Your justification, your sanctification, your glory, every single promise, your life, everything is in a relationship with the person of Jesus Christ. And if you are not in a living, powerful, great relationship with the one who is alive, then there's something that is going on in our soul. Jesus Christ is not a concept. Jesus Christ is not a correct exegesis.

Jesus Christ is not a doctrinal statement. Jesus Christ is not a set of words. Jesus Christ is a person. And we have been called to be in a living relationship with Him. He was indeed in a living relationship with us before the foundation of the world chosen in Him.

Beloved of Christ, the gospel is not only a legal matter. Salvation is not only a legal matter. It is a legal matter and we praise God for that because we were debtors and now we have received the righteousness of God. But beyond a legal matter, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is foolishness for those who perish, but is the power of God for those who are saved. This gospel that gives us salvation is a message that reunited us vitally to the person that loved us first.

to the person that manifested His love upon that cross, to the person that continues to manifest His love throughout our lives so that we can believe that all things work together for good for those who are called according to His purpose, and the one who has loved us unto eternity so that we can have certainty that nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in the person of Jesus Christ. A relationship with a living God that has called us to be holy and blameless, and that He promises that when He comes and He takes us home, that we're going to be holy and blameless. And I promise that it's not only given to the individual, beloved, but it's also given to the church. How am I going to have a real relationship with Jesus Christ if I don't have a real relationship for those whom Jesus Christ died for? How am I going to have a powerful, living relationship with Jesus Christ, the Son of God?

How am I going to say that I am vitally united to the person of Jesus Christ if I hate my brother? How am I going to manifest the powers of the Spirit of Jesus Christ if my heart is taken captive by love to self? How am I going to say and open my mouth to proclaim that I'm a Christian, that I am in Jesus Christ, if my heart completely not acknowledges the powers of love within? if my heart and my soul are moved entirely and driven by self and not by those for whom the Lord Jesus Christ died. I don't know, beloved of Christ, if I have given you sufficient scriptural truth for you to see that it is impossible for those who claim to be in the person of Jesus Christ, who have been saved, and not only as a legal verdict that is just written somewhere there, but rather who have been inserted into a genuine relationship with Christ, not to have love for the brothers and for the sisters.

Beloved of Christ, praise God that we have been justified by faith and that we have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Praise God that this faith has imputed unto us the righteousness of God. But praise God that by our union to Christ in the Spirit of God, we have also been partakers of the imparted righteousness of Christ. that just as He loved us, He continues to live in us by faith. So the life that we live in the flesh, we live by the Son of God.

And we give fruits of righteousness in Christ and to the glory of the Father. Because we do not only have a legal status, but because Jesus Christ is meant to be increasing and increasing and increasing and increasing in our hearts. Then the word that is important here is fellowship. Fellowship, because that glorious relationship that we are to have with Jesus Christ is summarized by the scripture with fellowship, that we have been saved. Even the Apostle Paul says somewhere else that we have been saved or we have been called into the fellowship of the sun.

that is our salvation beyond a legal status, I hope that you can see that, is a fellowship with the Son. It is a partaking of the Son. It is a commonality, if that is a word in English, with the Son. It is a companionship with the Son. It is to be partakers of the common interest with the Son and being partakers of that fellowship with Jesus Christ.

We are to be partakers and participants of a fellowship as genuine with the brothers and sisters. Fellowship with one another is what the apostle says there in verse seven, that we are to have fellowship with one another. Fellowship with one another. A term that has been used in such a low sense. A term or a word that is often used with such level of carelessness, with such level of lack of understanding of the word of God.

A word that is used so often with lack of understanding of the will of God for that word that even I would have to ask forgiveness before the Lord, even from this pulpit for the times that I've used that word in that sense. Beloved, fellowship is just simply in the term given unto us. It's just being partakers of a common interest and to partake together of something that unites us. But beloved of Christ, let me submit to you that if we do not understand the concept of fellowship and the fellowship that we are to have with one another, then we are going to find ourselves trying to be united in the flesh and not in the spirit, according to the will of God. And then we might end up to the shame of God.

following the ways of many Western churches, creating programs and creating different ways to keep people seated in the chairs that they will not go when they are confronted with their sin. We may find ourselves just having this and that and having lights and loud music so that people will be pleased in their flesh and remain seated in chairs and calling that fellowship. or providing external community or sense of community not established upon Jesus Christ so that people will remain seated in those chairs because they have nowhere else to go instead of deciding indeed to go to the person of Jesus Christ. And I don't know about you, beloved of Christ, but the words of the Apostle John in John chapter 15, when he says that if we bear much fruit, then we will. Oh, that glorifies the Father, that we bear much fruit.

Indeed, my desire for my soul and for yours is that we bear fruit according to Scripture so that the Father will be glorified. that the kingdom that will be edified will be His and not will be ours, that the banner that will be carried will be the banner of God and not the banner of men, even if the banner of men has the label of Christianity. If we do not understand from the mouth of God, as He has given to us in the Holy Scripture by the Spirit and the ministry of the apostles, this concept or doctrine of fellowship, We are in danger of having fellowship that is pushed in the flesh. And we're going to find ourselves trying to have as many barbecues as we can. We're going to find ourselves trying to have as many men's meeting as we can.

We're going to find ourselves trying to have as many whatever meeting as you want, trying to push fellowship and union among us in the flesh. when we are separated in our hearts, when we don't pray for each other when we ought to, when the secret place does not exist or you don't even remember my name when you're praying. That is external hypocrisy. of which the world and Western Christianity rejoices and follow these ways, that that may not be the heart of our beloved brothers and sisters within the sound of my voice. So beloved of Christ, I'm going to try to present to you the definition of what fellowship is by pointing or by going through three important things.

First of all, I want to show you the importance of fellowship, the importance of fellowship. The importance of what we have here in 1 John 1, verse 7, this fellowship with one another. First thing, the importance of it. Second thing that I want to do from scripture is to show you the condition of fellowship, there is a condition for this fellowship with one another. So after I have shown you the importance of fellowship with one another, we move into the condition of fellowship with one another.

And then finally, I'll try to present from scripture to you the substance of fellowship as is given to us in the text of the scripture. So we would have moved from the importance to the condition. There is a condition for fellowship with one another and then to the heart or to the substance of it. Now, the first thing, beloved, is the importance of fellowship with one another. And actually, I'm not going to use the passage that we have there, but I'm going to bring your eyes to Acts chapter two.

Go to Acts chapter two, because these words fellowship that we have there in verse seven in John is a very interesting word that is not used very often in the New Testament. A word that speaks again of something being common among us, that we share a common interest. And because of that common interest, we are united. There in Acts chapter 2, you may remember on the day of Pentecost, when the Apostle Peter, by the power of the Holy Spirit, preaches the gospel prophetically, speaking about the fulfillment of the prophecy given to Joel and the Lord Jesus Christ as publicly portrayed as the Messiah, as the Savior of the world. After he has preached that, In verse 37, we are told that after these people have heard the powerful preaching of Peter, in chapter 2, in verse 37, we read, Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brothers, what shall we do?

And Peter said to them, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off. Everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, Save yourselves from this crooked generation. So those who receive this word were baptized and were added that day about 3000 souls, many salvations, many people became Christians. And now this is what is going to happen to these people who became Christians.

Verse 42. And they, this is all the Christians, this is all those who, by the piercing power of the proclamation of the gospel, by the spirit of God, those who have been genuinely saved and they devoted themselves, the scripture says, and they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and they fellowship. The same word that we have in first John and the fellowship to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe or fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common, similar word.

And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. And day by day, Attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. I said to you that I was going to present the importance of fellowship, beloved of Christ. We all died upon the doctrine of scripture and the importance that it is for us to submit to the teachings of the holy apostles and to the holy prophets.

The importance of following not the words of men, but the words of the apostles. Yet a scripture in the passage that we have just read speaks of the early church, the church in here in chapter two. devoting themselves not only to the apostles teachings as we ought to, but giving and devoting themselves to the fellowship. A fellowship that is later on in the text seen as their common heart. They're coming together.

They're loving one another. They're being united in the person of Jesus Christ. And that fellowship together with the teaching of the apostles, the breaking of the bread and the prayers, it seems to be that which enables the church to do all of the mighty things that comes after. You see the end, end, end in verse 43. And all came upon the church, verse 44.

And all who believed were together, verse 45. And they were selling their possessions, verse 46. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their own homes, they received food with a glad and generous heart. And then he says, and the Lord added to their number day by day. Beloved of Jesus Christ, what an important thing is for us to stand in truth or untruth.

What an important thing it is for you to have the right doctrine. What an important thing it is for you to have and understand the words of the apostles and the words of the prophets and the words of scripture. What an important thing it is for the church of the living God to be the buttress and the pillar, the foundation of the truth. What an important thing for us is to remain in the oracles of God as they have been given to us in scripture. But what an important thing it is also that the written word that we are to have in front of us is not only written, but it's also living word that moves us not only to love the Lord Jesus Christ, but also to love those for whom the Lord Jesus Christ has died.

That we may not be like the Pharisees who had the correct words in their mouth so that the Lord will say, do as they say, but don't do as they do. that we might be as those who, from the abundance of their hearts, speak. And that which is the abundance in their hearts is not the words or the ways of men, but rather the ways and the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, filled with truth and passionate for the truth as is given in scripture, but moved and impacted by that truth, moved us to love the Lord and moving us to love the saints and to have the fellowship of the saints. That is primarily important for the congregation. Because if I say that I love you, or if I say better that I love the Lord and I don't love you, then I'm a liar, I'm a deceiver.

That is what the word says. I hope that you see the importance in this short scripture, the importance of fellowship for the context of the biblical church. I'm not speaking about Beloved of Christ, the Western concept of Christianity. I'm talking about Scripture. And we are to submit ourselves, our hearts, our minds and as a church to that which is written in the Scripture, not to the traditions of men, even if they seem to be very nice and work many times.

We are to submit to that which the Spirit of God has given us through His holy apostles and prophets. The importance of fellowship. If it's important according to the Spirit, then our hearts and our efforts should be directed to indeed experience the effects of Christ in us, moving us to genuine fellowship among us, so that we will be not only proclaimers of truth, but leavers, if that is a word, to lift out the truth of Scripture. Very important. But there is a condition.

There is a condition, beloved of Christ, for this fellowship, and that condition is clearly given to us in the text to which I called your attention in the beginning in first John. So return to first John, because now in that passage of the scripture, I want to show you something very important, not only the condition of fellowship, but also the substance of it as is given to us by the apostle John there. So go back to first John, beloved of Christ, and then we will see that that statement that we have in verse seven, in which we are called to have fellowship with one another, that statement belongs to a conditional clause that is given in verse seven. You can see there that it says, but if when I say conditional statement or a conditional clause, I'm talking about that word, there is a condition. If there is a condition, if And that condition given to us in verse seven belongs to a group of five conditions that are derived from another truth.

You can see that there is a condition in verse six. If we say we have fellowship, first condition, second condition in verse seven. But if we walk in the light, then there is a third condition in verse eight. If we say we have no sin, And in verse nine, if we confess our sins and then in verse 10, we have the last condition. If we say we have not seen five conditions that are derived from the main statement given to us in verse five, the verse five is that which gives the substance of the truth of the passage that we have there in verse five.

It says this is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you. that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. That is the dominant statement that will help us understand the five conditions that we have there in the passage. But primarily, I'm trying to focus your attention to verse seven, in which we have this topic of the fellowship with one another. Now, beloved of Christ, keep your mind with me, please, on your hearts.

More importantly, fellowship with one another. is not only important for your soul and for the life of the church, but fellowship with one another is established and depends upon a condition. That is, that if you do not have that which comes first, you cannot have fellowship with one another. That if you do not focus on the requirement of the condition, then you're not going to be able to have fellowship with one another. It does no matter how many barbecues we have.

It does no matter how many comes or join or getting together, I think you say in English, we have. It does no matter how many whatever events we have, how many things we do in the church. If we do not meet the spirit given requirement given to us in the scripture, then our fellowship with one another is going to be pushed in the flesh and is going to bear no fruit unto the glory of the Father. The condition that we have there in verse seven is this. If we walk in the light, if we walk in the light as he is in the light, if we meet that requirement, that is namely, if we walk in the light as he is in the light, Then we have fellowship with one another.

And not only that, but the blood of the Lord Jesus cleanses us from all sins. The condition for Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church, the condition for your soul, whoever you are, and are listening to my voice to be partaker of the glorious blessing of God given fellowship and the powers that come thereof. is only if a condition is met. And that condition as we have it here is that if we walk in the light. See the collective aspect of the condition and the collective aspect of the condition or the fulfillment of that condition.

If we, collectively speaking, walk in the light, then we have fellowship with one another. If we have fellowship, means that we are walking in the light. You can't hear me. Can you hear me there? Can you hear me there?

Good. I hope that you understood everything that I said. Yeah? OK, beloved of Christ, bring your mind and your heart back to the text. OK, so we are not going to let things distract us.

So let's just go back to the text with all our might and effort and in reverence before the Lord and in love to the Lord and to the church. So with our minds back to the text, it says that if we walk in the light, As He is in the light, then we have fellowship with one another. Beloved of Christ, I don't know about you, but I genuinely, before the Lord, I can say with a clean conscience that I want us to have a Spirit-empowered, genuine fellowship. I don't think that this is going to help us. Hello, hello.

What about like this? Yeah. Can you hear me there? Perhaps you would just put the volume a little bit down. Good.

Okay, beloved of Christ. Beloved of Christ, once again, try to be with me. A condition has to be met, here given to us in the text, that we walk in the light. And I was telling you, beloved, that I don't know about you, but my desire, and besides a desire, my need, spiritual need, is to have biblical, genuine fellowship with your soul. my need, my spiritual need for my heart, walking before the Lord, for me to bear fruit that brings glory to the Lord, the need of my wife, my family, the need of every family within the context of the church, is that we will have genuine fellowship, that we will not be satisfied with just simply playing Christianity.

We're just simply taking things of religion, a piece in our conscience so that we can go to bed with peace, not peace that comes from above, but peace that has been just simply ticked by religion. Beloved of Christ, what a danger to be found like one of those of Matthew 7. Depart from me, you workers of inequity, if that is what is in our hearts. But genuine fellowship is not only that which we are supposed to desire, but is that which we need as a congregation. And there is a requirement for this fellowship that is given to us.

And that is that we walk in the light. There is no effort. There is no plan. There is no strategy that I can bring before you that is going to maximize, empower, strengthen our fellowship. If I don't meet and if you don't meet that condition and that condition is that we walk in the light.

What is it to walk in the light? If for us to have genuine fellowship, we are supposed to walk in the light. What is it to walk in the light? Tell me, Lord, so that I will know how I can have genuine fellowship with my brothers and my sisters. I will be able to have genuine fellowship with my wife as my sister in Christ.

I will be able to have fellowship with my sister as my sister in Christ. I will be able to have fellowship with each one of you as my brother and sister in Christ. How or what is it to walk in the light given to us? Of course, in the context there in the previous clause in verse six, the apostle presents to us the opposite of it, given us insight into what it is. Verse six.

If we say the previous condition, if we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie. and do not practice the truth. The antithesis here is that if we say that we have fellowship with him, if we utter the words that we are in fellowship with Christ, yet if he says we walk in darkness, we lie. And the external manifestation of our lie that we have fellowship with Christ is that we don't do the truth, that we don't practice the truth. That word there is do the truth.

That is that walking in darkness is not practicing the truth. Walking in darkness is not doing the truth. So that means that walking in the light is doing the truth or practicing the truth. That is what walking in the light means. Now, the passage of the context is going to give us greater understanding of what doing the truth or practicing the truth is.

But before I get into more detail of what the passage says here, let me bring you back to the mind of the apostle in his gospel as he describes this principle of walking in the light or doing the truth. But then if you go to the Gospel of John, the same author speaking not only through the same spirit, but with the same human mind, is going to give us a similar principle and is going to help us elaborate what this walking in the truth is. So if you go to John, chapter three, John chapter 3, you will see there that we have this famous passage after chapter 3, verse 16, of God's love, the world that He gave His begotten Son and so on. But then I want you to see in verse 18, pay attention to this. Whoever believes in Him, He is not condemned.

But whoever does not believe is condemned already. because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God, the Lord Jesus. And this is the judgment. The light or the light has come into the world and people love the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. Light, the Lord Jesus Christ came to the world.

That means that he came into the world And those who were doing evil things, they rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. He gives us the explanation in verse 20 as he takes now a general principle. Please pay attention. Verse 20, everyone, not only the Jews, everyone who does wicked things, hates the light and does not come to the light, lest His works should be exposed. That is that those who are walking in darkness, those who do evil things, they will not come to the light because the light has the power to reveal those evil works.

So they hate the light because the light reveal, exposes. And then we have in verse 21, but whoever, what the apostle says in 1st John is repeated here implicitly, but whoever does what is true or practice the truth, does what is true, whoever does what is true comes to the light so that it might be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. I don't think that I need this microphone. I think you can hear me, right? Verse 21, but whoever does what is true comes to the light so that I might be clearly seen.

Those who do evil are concerned with their evil works being clearly observed, and they are concerned with their evil things being exposed. By those who do the truth, they come to the light so that when the light exposes who they are, it might be clearly seen that the works are carried out by God. Beloved of Christ, may the Lord give me the grace and the words that are needed to explain the truth that is contained not only here, but also in 1 John. Beloved, as redeemed, as saved, as people who are in Christ, we are to actively die to self by putting sin to death and not to walk in works of unrighteousness. We are to constantly, periodically and intentionally kill our sin so that we will not be like the people of John 3 who were doing evil things.

That is that we are to walk in the light in the sense that we are to do righteous things. We are to walk in the righteous standard of God. We are to walk according to the will of God. We are to follow the commandments of the Lord and we are to produce good works. for which we were created in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world.

As our brother read, we are the workmanship of God in Christ before the foundation of the world. Prepare for good works. We have been called to walk in the light, to bear fruit of righteousness, and that is initially manifested in good works of righteousness. But there is a second aspect to walking in the light that is of vital importance in order for us to understand not only John here in this passage, but also for us to understand the passage that we have in 1 John. And I want you to notice that here in this passage, in verse 21, we have those who do the truth coming to the light.

While those who are evil and work evil things, they run away from the light. Those who are in Jesus Christ, they come to the light. They come to the light that is going to expose who they really are. Beloved of Christ, even though we are indeed called to walk in righteousness and we are indeed called to bear fruit of good works and we are to kill sin and to destroy sin, it happens that the New Testament and the Scripture speaks to us that there is still a reality of sin within us. So the apostle John is never calling us in 1st John to be sinlessly perfect, if that is a word, to be without sin.

We are not to sin, but he does acknowledge the reality that in us there's a remaining of sin. The difference for those who walk in the light, and this is going to be a benefit for your soul, beloved, the benefit or the blessing for those who walk in the light, is that they can have the certainty, the assurance, the full confirmation that when they come to the light and the light exposes who they are, even the still remaining unrighteousness in them, that they enter into an agreement with the light of God and they expose or better, they testify that the light or that the work of God is clearly manifested in them. Not very well explained. So let's go back to 1st John. You will see here in 1st John that this is the main point of the apostle.

Beloved of Christ, this is something that you have to make the effort to understand my limited words, to understand what I'm trying to say here. It is not only that walking in the light is walking in a righteous way, which we are called to do it. And you know that I have preached this for many now a couple of years. Many times I've said from this pulpit that we are to walk in righteousness and not to allow sin in our lives. But walking in the light is not only that aspect, but is the aspect that we have here in 1st John, in chapter 1, in verse 7.

That if we are walking in the light, as God is in the light, we are going to enter into an agreement with what the light reveals in us. so that if there is unrighteousness in us, we will come with our mouth to confess our sin and we will acknowledge our sin and we will have the certainty that the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ cleanses us from all unrighteousness. That is the point that the apostle develops in the next verses. If we say that we have no sin, that is, if the light of God reveals to us our unrighteousness, and then we are like the evildoers who run away from the light, and we say there's no need for the light of God to reveal and expose that which is in me, We are liars. That is what it says in verse 8.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But, the following verse, if we confess our sins, why? Because there is still sin in us. Not because we're sinlessly perfect, but there's still sin in us. And that word confessed is to be in agreement.

That is if the light of God, because we're walking in the light, exposes our sin, then the response of those who are walking in the light is not to run away like the evildoers, or to say, be self-righteous and justify themselves, but rather be in agreement with the light that exposes our sin. So we open our mouth to confess our sin. If we confess our sin, then we know that the work of God is clearly seen because of His light. And we have the certainty and the assurance that upon the confession of our sin. He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

The requirement to have biblical fellowship in the congregation, beloved of Christ, is that you and me, that we will be walking in the light. And walking in the light has two components to it. Now, I'm trying to explain how I see it in my mind, so perhaps this makes it clear. Walking in the light has two components to it. The first one is active, that we are to die to self and not to sin.

We are not to sin. But walking in the light also speaks of our response, our reaction when we do sin. And walking in the light when we do sin, takes us to acknowledge the convicting power of the Spirit of God through his light, so that we enter into agreement with God that is exposing the darkness or the sin that is in us. And then we say, Yes, Lord, I have sinned against you. But I also know that your light does not only exposes my sin, but I have the promise that upon my God given spirit, let confession of sin, your blood cleanses me from all my unrighteousness.

Forgiven! The sin that is confessed is forgiven so that you can continue to walk in the light. And you have the certainty that it is not because of your good deeds that you remain in the light, but it's rather because the one who has empowered you to walk in good deeds has also given you the promise that if you confess your sins and you come into agreement with the light that exposes your sin, then your sin is forgiven and you are cleansed from all your unrighteousness. Beloved of Christ, I don't know if this affects your soul, but when I understood this two or three weeks ago, I cried for an hour because then I understood what it says in verse four. And we are writing these things so that your joy or our joy may be complete.

My joy was made complete. Because I know that my Savior, independently of my sin, which I hate and I don't want to have within me, every time that I come to Him and confess my sin, He is good to forgive my sin and to cleanse me from all my unrighteousness. And that His light, when I'm walking in the light, He exposes my sin in such a way that my depraved mind, not once depraved, but now depraved mind, enters into alignment and agreement with Christ, that He convicts me of my sin with His Holy Spirit, and that His soul, His being dying upon the cross is like you are saved once again, because your unrighteousness is removed. You are forgiven. And once you are forgiven, you can move forward.

You are not to remain in guilt. You are not to remain in self-condemnation because that's what the devil wants us to be. He wants us to remain in guilt and in self-condemnation. And that type of life is the life that is required for fellowship in the context of the church. Everything apart from that is not walking in the light.

And when you're not walking in the light, you're either going to be dealing with your sins in your own flesh, and you are going to become a pretender. You are going to become a pretender in the eyes of others. You are going to try to be something that you want other people to think that you are, when the God who knows all things knows that you're not. The only word that I have to describe this, not only from a scripture and from what the Spirit of God does in my soul, is freedom. There's no other freedom, beloved of Christ, than to know that you are not only empowered to walk in the light, but that even if you fall in sin, you have the certainty that the Lord Jesus Christ will cleanse you from all your unrighteousness.

Will that give you a permit or permission or whatever the word is, to sin? If you think that, then you are lost. If you think that, then you are not in Christ. That light will move you to try to be more like the Lord Jesus Christ, because you want to die to sin, you want to die to self, and you want to be partaker of the glorious light. Confessing our sin, beloved Christ, so simple as that.

When you are in tribulation, when you are in difficulties, when you are in self condemnation, in guilt, the only simple thing is come with a genuine heart before the Lord to confess your sin. And when you have genuinely confessed your sin, then his blood cleanses you from all of unrighteousness. Now, if you are dealing with guilt, if you're dealing with condemnation, with a sin, that means that you are either in that sin, although you are not truly repenting before the Lord, that you're not truly confessing your sin. Because what I read in the Scripture is that if you confess your sin with faith before the Lord, responding in agreement to the light of God, that He cleanses you from all unrighteousness. And I don't take the words of God as careless or idle words.

His blood, indeed, cleanses you from all unrighteousness, removes guilt and condemnation. So examine your heart. Examine your heart. Because if you are dealing with guilt and condemnation, you are either still in that sin and you have not repented truly. And when you come before the Lord, you will come with lying lips, lying hearts.

Because when you are indeed broken in your heart because of your sin, the same brokenness, the same contrite spirit that is a gift of the Spirit of God, also moves you to biblical repentance and confession of your sin. And the only outcome of that is peace. The only outcome, beloved of Christ. I don't have any other words. That's my vocabulary.

That's how I can explain that to you. There's no other word to explain that to peace, confessing our sin. Now, there's just a little detail. The Scripture says that we are not to confess our sins only to the Lord, but that we are to confess our sins one to another. Because when we confess our sins to one another, when I do something wrong against you, or you do something wrong against me, then the only outcome of the confession of sin one to the other, with a genuine light given that exposes our sin, with a genuine confession is, that upon forgiveness you and I move forward in love.

And then we have fellowship. And then we have the second sentence, the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sins. That is the requirement. That is the requirement, beloved of Christ, for genuine fellowship among the saints. No time to pretend.

No time to follow the system of whatever moral scheme you want to show to the world. There is no time to pretend to be that which you are not. It is safer and better than you are who you are. whatever you are before the Lord in agreement with the light of God, so that he will be the one that works in you and you are not the one that is trying to work in yourself. Because let me tell you, let me tell you, the result of you working in yourself is double standard, disgusting, wicked and righteous and whatever similar words describe that category.

You working in you produces only that. Jesus Christ working in you produces the altogether lovingliness of Christ in you. So then when you smile, it's not the smile of whoever you are, but it's the smile of Christ. When you're speaking, it's not your words, but it's the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. When you have compassion, it's not your compassion because you have made that up with some type of moralistic, try to have compassion in your heart because you're a good person, but it's the compassion of Christ.

and is everything of Christ in our hearts. And then we have biblical fellowship among us. That is the condition. Walk in the light. Are you walking in the light?

Are you walking in the light? Ask yourself that question. Try to ask yourself that question every day. And you will see that when you come to Christ in faith, that is going to help you a lot because your conscience is going to be submitted to your beloved Savior, the one that rescued you from your unrighteousness. And in Him, there is peace.

And in Him, there is favor. In Him, there is forgiveness. And once forgiveness from the Lord has been given, you can move forward. You can leave that behind. You can move on to the next task.

You can move on to the next mission. You can move on to the next desire to glorify the Savior. You can move on to the greater weight of glory. You can move into knowing Him more. You can move into loving others more.

You can move and not remain in guilt or condemnation, because that's the power of the gospel for everyone who believes in the glorious Christ. But what is the substance of this? What is the substance of this? I'm trying to make it short. Of course, beloved of Christ, look what it says in verse 6.

Look what it says in verse 6, that which is equated in verse 7. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, if we say that we have fellowship with Him and we walk in darkness, we are liars. So that means That if we have fellowship with him and we walk in the light, that is true. That is that the substance of walking in the light is to have fellowship with him, to have honest, transparent fellowship with the Savior. Freedom in your fellowship with the Savior, not guilt and self-condemnation, not as the God who is going to destroy you because you are not what you want you to be.

Because it's not that you want sometimes to be what God wants you to be, but you have set a standard onto yourself. And because you're not meeting the standard onto yourself, then you're frustrated. But when you have fellowship, indeed, genuine fellowship with Christ, again, the only word that I have in my vocabulary to describe this is freedom. You are free. And when you have freedom, good works is not the concern of your soul, is the natural outflow of your heart.

Praises unto God is not that which you want to take to appease your conscience is a natural outflow of your praises, not because you're living your life because Christ is living that life in you. Fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. And the only biblical comparison that I have with this to be given and to be taken is the nakedness of Adam and Eve in the garden. Free. to be in the presence of one another, to be fully exposed one to the other and to the Lord, naked entirely, something that in a sinful world can only be duplicated with that person that you enter into covenant with your wife or your husband.

Complete freedom in nakedness, everything exposed and freedom, liberty in that. But when sin enters and takes part of who we are, shame, guilt, condemnation, then my body now it is mediated to the person that I have to love through something that covers my nakedness. Beloved of Christ, when we are walking in the light, and I don't want to speak like you think that I'm charismatic or anything like that, but when we are walking in the light, When we are in fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ, when we know that the relationship that we have with Christ is indeed more than a legal status, there's no other word than for you that is freedom, liberty. That's why James says the law of liberty, speaking of loving one another, of love, fulfills the law, freedom completely in the heart. This is the place in which we have to be individually and as a congregation so that our fellowship will not be, let's have many barbecues, let's have many whatever.

But rather, my heart desires my brother and my sister urgently, urgently. I want to see Christ in him and her in them. I want to be with them because it's the fellowship of Christ. And that walking in the light and I'm just going to finish very soon. It says verse seven.

If we walk in the light as he is in the light now, very risky to what I'm doing because it's very complicated. I don't even know how to explain this very well, but I'm going to try it. It says the governing statement. Try to pay attention to this one last one that I say, and then we pray, beloved of Christ. It says in verse five, the governing clause, the governing statement.

It says, this is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you that God is light. That is that God is equated to light. That just as the apostle says that God is love, God is light. It's not that God is with light. It's not that God is next to light.

It's not even that God is in the presence of light, but rather that God is light. Yet in verse 7, the Apostle, who does not make mistakes, of course, by the Holy Spirit, says, But if we walk in the light, as He, speaking of the Father, you can read that later, the rest is the Father, as He, the Father or God is in the light. So John, God is light, yet God is in the light. What are you talking about? How can God be light?

And yet God be in the light as the Apostle Paul even will say many times that God is an unapproachable light, but the God is light. Well, if by inspiration of the Spirit, you have and by help and illuminating power of the Spirit, if you have understood, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. If you understand that, then you will understand that God is light, and God is in the light. Because what the apostle is pointing us here is not only to a fellowship that we can have with Christ, but to the fellowship that God himself has within him. in the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit, just as He is in the light.

And if you don't believe that, then just simply read the first verses. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life, that is Christ, the life was made manifest and we have seen it and testified to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us. Verse 3, That which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us, the apostles. And indeed, the fellowship of the apostles is with the Father and with the Son, Jesus Christ. I hope that you may see it there by the Spirit of Christ.

But the only thing that I have to say here, beloved, is that when we are walking in the light and when we have freedom in our fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ, and that is the reality, not of one or two or three or four, but when that is the reality of the church, Then the fellowship of one another is the same fellowship that we can have with the apostles who indeed had fellowship with the Son, touching Him, seeing Him, observing Him, hearing Him, being in the presence of God, which is the fellowship of the Father with the Son. It blows our mind that the fellowship in love that we can have with one another is at some statement, in some degree or extent, in the same category of the relationship of the persons of the Trinity. And you know why? Because salvation is union with Christ. And by being united with Christ, you are partaker of the divine nature.

Not that you become God. Think that, not that you become God, but you're partakers of the blessings of Christ through you, the life of Christ, the one who loved God so much even before the foundation of the world. Not that we love Him, but that He loved us first. Beloved of Christ, Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church, those who are here, those who are online, whoever listens to this in the future by God's grace, We are to have genuine fellowship with Christ by the power of the Spirit, so that we will be united one to another with the same power that unites us to Christ. And when that happens, coming to church is like coming to heaven.

Being among the saints is like to be partakers of heaven on earth. And we don't need schemes of men, programs and systems, and a better building and better chairs. We only need Christ in our lives. And even if everything is removed, then the hearts of the saints remain joined together, because they are joined with something that goes beyond the flesh. His glorious name, Christ Jesus.

Amen.