De rijkdom van de gelovige in Christus Gemeenschap met God

So, we are now live streaming on Facebook. So, we've got that going. got my notes open in front of me. And we are continuing our study on the subject of the spiritual life. And we're looking at the believer's riches in Christ. And we looked at those static blessings that we have that come to us at the moment of faith in Christ where we are forgiven all of our sins. We're given the gift of eternal life. We're imputed with God's righteousness. We're we become new creature in Christ Jesus. We become an ambassador for Christ. We're transferred from Satan's domain of darkness into the kingdom of the beloved son. we've been adopted into the royal family of God. we be we have citizenship in heaven. we have spiritual gift. we have all of these wonderful wonderful blessings that are ours immediately at the moment of faith in Christ, but we also enjoy these conditional experiential blessings. And that's what we're moving into now. We're talking about those conditional experiential blessings. And the first one that have listed here is the fellowship with God. Now, let me jump over here and open my notes. should have been little better prepared for this, so bear with me for just moment. should probably go through and clean up some of these notes. suspect probably have too many over here. I'm kind of hoarder when it comes to doctrine. must confess. All right. So, talking about the conditional blessings, while the first 33 blessings of salvation are irrevocable and grounded in God's grace, scripture also describes series of conditional blessings that depend on the believer's fellowship, obedience, and daily walk with the Lord. Now, these blessings do not alter salvation or positional truth. but they do profoundly shape the believer's experience, growth, usefulness and reward in time and we might also add in eternity as well. So tonight we're going to unpack the subject of fellowship with God. Fellowship with God. Now union relationship and fellowship are related but they're different. at the moment of faith in Christ, we come to have relationship with God through through Christ and that is our relationship. That is our union. that is our position. But position and condition are different just like relationship and fellowship are different. You can have relationship with somebody and not be in fellowship with that person. and one can think of child to parent. You can be disobedient child and you know dad is still dad and mom is still mom but you might be in trouble because you didn't wash the dishes like you were told and now you're grounded to your room for the next 3 hours. and so there can the fellowship can be damaged. and that's kind of what we're looking at here if were to put it in very simple terms. So fellowship with God concerns the believer's relational closeness with the father. Though union with Christ is unbreakable, communion is not. now walking in the light and John talks about that in first John. walking in the light keeps the believer in experiential harmony with God. experiential harmony. And according to Thomas Constable and have this good quote by him which I'm going to quote again in an expanded version of these notes which put together and sent out. According to Constable, quote, practicing sinner cannot have close fellowship with holy God, though he can have relationship with God, that is be true Christian." God revealed this truth throughout scripture. And he said, "We do not need to reestablish our relationship with God every time we sin, though we do need to reestablish our fellowship with him." End quote. So sin fractures fellowship but not salvation. And confession restores fellowship and enables the believer to resume walk of unhindered intimacy with God. So let's go ahead and unpack this subject of fellowship with God. Now fellowship concerns the believer's relational closeness with the father. though union with Christ cannot be broken because we are locked into the family of God at the moment that we become children of God. fellowship can be broken. Now walking in fellowship with God is one of the greatest conditional blessings available to the Christian in this life. In fact, there is no better place to be. There is no safer place to be than in the will of God. And when you are in the will of God, no one can force you out of that. you are there. And and so that is the preferred place to be. And I've been in situations where I've been in the will of God and experienced some life crisis, some difficulty, some suffering. It happens. Welcome to Christianity. Paul makes it very clear that those who wish to live godly lives will suffer persecution. Now that can come in various ways and to varying degrees but it is part of the Christian life and it is something that is to be expected. but even when you are experiencing that you can have that inner peace, you can have that inner strength in your soul, that confidence that even though you're going through something that is challenging and difficult and unpleasant, you are still in the will of God and you are walking by faith and you are sustained by the spirit and and you know that and you can be like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who in the furnace were willing to face that. And of course we know that there was the fourth person there in the furnace with them during the time of that trial. Now as Christians it is important to distinguish between union and fellowship. now union with Christ is permanent and is established at the moment of faith in Christ because remember that according to Colossians 1:13 we have been transferred from Satan's domain of darkness into the kingdom of the beloved son. And 1 Corinthians 15:21 and 22 makes it very clear that we are no longer in Adam but we are now in Christ. And we talked about the prepositional phrases in Christo in alto to be in him and how Paul and use employs that language throughout his writings to talk about our union with Christ because real transference occurred at the moment that we trusted in Christ as our savior. And so union with Christ is permanent and is established at the moment of faith in Christ. When person believes in Jesus as savior, he is born into God's family and becomes child of God forever. Now John 1:12 says, "But as many as received him and that speaks positive valition to the unbeliever who receives Christ, who who wants to know God as father and and that is only possible through faith in Christ." He says, "But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God." And how do we become children of God? Well, he tells us there, "Even to those who believe in his name." Even to those who believe in his name. Galatians 3:26 says, "For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus." Wonderful passage. In fact, had friend of mine some years ago Diana who passed away suddenly on short notice, heart failure, got to preach her funeral service and her family had thrown in flown in from New York and there was quite bit of people there. don't remember if if it was 100 or not, but we had we had pretty full pretty full room and had the privilege of sharing the gospel there and we talked about it. But Diana, few days before she passed, we talked about her funeral service and we talked about what scripture would be on her on her tombstone. And she wanted Galatians 3:26 on there because even in death, she wanted people to go by and to be able to read scripture because she had an evangelistic heart. She did. She was so amazing. loved her for that. but you know it's when read this passage think of her but think of people that will pass by her her grave and we'll will be able to read Galatians 3:26. And so even in death she continues to evangelize as people walk by her her graveite. But but the point is that the scripture says that you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Now this union cannot be broken because it rests on God's grace and not on human performance. Remember Jesus in John 10:28. He says, "And give eternal life to them and they will never perish and no one will will snatch them out of my hand." And then he he doubles down on that. He brings the father into that. He says, "My father who is who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of the father's hand." And so we are kept in the double grip of God's grace. Now fellowship however is experiential and concerns the believer's momentby-moment communion with God. While union is secured by faith alone in Christ alone, fellowship is maintained through humility, obedience, and dependence upon the Lord. Now, 1 John 1:5-10 addresses the issue of fellowship with God. and recently finished course, graduate course last spring, few months ago. and we went from Hebrews through through Revelation in 15 weeks. And it was challenge to go through First John in one night. It took me about 3 hours. got through it, but I'll tell you, felt pretty strained at the end. And First John, there's so much doctrine in there. There's so much in there that you can unpack. but this was fresh on the brain because we had gone through First John in one evening. In fact, took those two lectures and stitched them together in MP3 format and uploaded them onto my podcast couple weeks ago and it was it was long but it was it was basically the the classroom lecture is what it was with even some of the exchange back and forth with some of the graduate students who were taking it but very very interesting epistle. So 1 John 1:es 5-10 addresses the issue of fellowship with God. Now, one of the things that's very clear when you're reading First John is that he's writing to believers. And I've run into people who have tried to make the case that First John is is not for Christians, that it's quote evangelistic. And and you could not get that from the Gospel from from First John. You just you can't from the Gospel of John. Yeah, it's evangelistic, but not from First John. And 1 John, he's writing to believers. In 1 John 2:1, he says, "My little children." Now, he's writing to believers. He's writing to believers. In verse 12, he again calls them little children. He says, am writing to you little children because your sins have been forgiven you for his name's sake." So, he's writing to believers. 1 John 3:1 and2 see how great love the father has bestowed upon us that we should be called children of god and such we are clearly John is writing to believers and and this is important to understand because what he's talking about in this early in these early verses is the subject of fellowship he's not talking about how does one get saved. That's not what he's talking about. He's talking about how do we maintain fellowship with the father. And in 1 John 1:3, he says, "What we have seen and heard, we proclaim to you also that you too may have fellowship with us." Now, here he's talking about horizontal fellowship, but he's about to invert. He's about to flip it and make it vertical fellowship. But here he says, "So that you too may have fellowship with us. And indeed our fellowship is with the father." Notice it goes vertical. Now with his son Jesus Christ. And then he says in verse four, "These things we write," and love this here because John is stating purpose clause. think he has actually few purpose few reasons for writing his letter that are stated throughout. But he gives purpose clause here and he says, "These things we write so that our joy may be made complete." and some translations will take the word complete and communicate the idea of being full, that it's full, that it's optimal, that it's ideal. And John wants us to have joy. And so he he says these things we write so that our joy may be made complete. and then John writes in verse 5 he says this is the message we have heard from him. Now John is communicating doctrine. He's he's communicating messages. Now the things that that he's communicating we can find John employs language that is particular to John. He likes the word light. He likes the word darkness. He uses that throughout his his his gospel of John. he he likes the word love. That's that's big word for John. but he says this is the message we have heard from him that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. Now light speaks of God's absolute holiness, his truth, his purity. And there is no darkness or we might say sin at all in God. And it's interesting because John often referred to Jesus as light. In John 1 in the Gospel of John, we'll we'll my examples I'll I'll pull from there. In John 1:es 4 and 5, he says, "In him was life and the life was the light of men." And notice the word light there is capitalized. And he says, "And the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it." John 3:19 is very fascinating passage because it says, "This is the judgment that the light has come into the world." That is God the son, the eternal son of God has come into the world and taken upon himself humanity. In theology, we call that the doctrine of the hypothatic union. which teaches that Jesus is unddeinished deity combined together forever with perfect humanity. we understand this to be the incarnation where he where God the son added humanity to himself. And so he is 100% God and 100% man. And he is he is the theanthropic person or the God man. but here he's called the light that the light has come into the world and then it talks about the heart of men that is the majority of those who heard and saw Christ rejected him and this is just this is just mindblowing to me and I've given examples of in the in scripture where you see God's people you think of Noah who was preacher of righteousness for 120 years and yet he had just seven converts right and and then you think of you think of Jeremiah 25:3 where Jeremiah was talking to the leadership of Israel and he said for 23 years delivered the word of the Lord to you and you would not listen. Isaiah was also told that he would have recalcitrant audience and one can one can really feel the pain of of of that sort of information. Paul was also told that he would suffer much for the cause of Christ. And and what's interesting is is you have these examples in scripture, whether it's Noah, whether it's Jeremiah, Isaiah, you have these examples where people were faithful to the Lord and yet the response that they got was was largely negative. you know, people with hard hearts who rejected them and even persecuted them. Remember that Jeremiah was beaten, was thrown into was thrown into pit. you know many of God's people suffered persecution for for doing the will of God and Jesus you know again the light has come into the world and men loved the darkness rather than the light for their deeds were evil and so they turned from the light and he says in verse 20 for everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed But he who practices the truth comes to the light so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God. In John 8:12, Jesus said to them, am the light of the world. This is one of seven am statements found in the gospel of John. He says, am the light of the world and he who follows me as talking about disciplehip here. He who follows me will not walk in darkness because it is possible to walk in darkness but will have the light of life. John 12:46 Jesus says have come as light into the world so that everyone who believes in me will not remain in darkness. Now, we've talked about it before that being that the believer who comes to faith in Christ is now in Christ and is therefore said to be in the light. To be in the light and to be in the light is positional truth. It is an identification truth. But being in the light and walking in the light is different. And in Ephesians 5:8, Paul writing to believers, track with me here. You got to you got to follow the language because it's very precise. Paul says, "For you were formerly darkness such that you belong to Satan's domain of darkness and you resided in that domain of darkness." And so you were part of that darkness. You were actually part of the darkness. And here Paul is talking about the believer prior to faith in Christ. He says, "You were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord." And here he's talking about position, your status of being in Christ. You are, that speaks of of status, again, position. You are light in the Lord. Then he says, "Walk as children of light." In other words, the shortened version is you're Christian, act like it. Okay? You're Christian, act like it. And then and then he he gives you specifically what that looks like. He says, "For the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth, trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord." Trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. was talking with somebody at work couple days ago cuz we were interviewing somebody for position to replace me as the supervisor in in operations cuz I'm I'm exiting. I'm I'm going back to what know as case manager working out in the field with my clients. And and they said, "Well, well, how do you how do you lead your team? What's your leadership style?" And and said, "Well, lead from the front, not the top." said, can can go from the position of authority. can lead from the top if needed. reserve that, but generally lead from the front. And said and during the interview and I've got the president there, another VP and this candidate who's been and said, you know, there's wonderful passage in Proverbs chapter 3:es 3 and 4 where Solomon says, do not let kindness and truth leave you. Bind them around your neck. write them on the tablet of your heart and so you will find good favor and repute in the eyes of God and man. And said kindness and truth those are two governing principles for me as leader. and said hold them together very tightly. said I'm very kind when come to you. If find fault I'm going to address it privately. If do address it publicly it doesn't matter. I'm going to be very kind to you. I'm going to come with gentleness. Now, I'm going to be direct and I'm going to speak the truth. I'm going to be honest, but I'm going to do it in gracious way. I'm going to ask, "How can support you? How can help you? we want to we want to succeed together. so let me walk with you through this." But bring myself into that equation cuz I'm not going to ask them to go somewhere where am not willing to lead and and and go with them. Okay? But I'm gonna I'm gonna do it very with gentleness and with kindness. And said, you know, Solomon says, do not let kindness and truth leave you. And think if you're passive, think you can lose those virtues. think you have to be very proactive and intentional. And he says bind them around your neck. Now, the neck is is very open place. You think of wearing like medallion on your neck. and and so to bind it around your neck is to make it to where it's visible to other people, but it's something that is bound to you that is visible and write that write them on the tablet of your heart. Again, there's great intentionality there. But think about taking the word of God and applying it to all aspects of my life. In this case, it was work. And anyway, gave my answer. gave little bit of longer answer here, but gave my short answer. And then we had blinking contest for few seconds while everybody was processing like did he just quote scripture? And it's like and then we moved on and moved to But that's just me. just just insert my I'm not neutral about my Christian. don't ram, cram, and jam, but I'm not I'm not neutral either. So, but the point is is that want people to know these are my values. These this is where it comes from and this is how fly. Okay? This is how operate. But again, want to live out my Christianity because take my walk with the Lord seriously. as all Christians should take their walk seriously. So Paul says, "You were formerly darkness, but now you are light. You are light. That is your position. Walk like it." And and and this is just demonstrating the the truth that Paul establishes earlier in Ephesians 4:1 in Ephesians 4:1 and2 where he says, "Therefore, the prisoner of the Lord implore you to walk in manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love In other words, your performance should match that of your position. You're in Christ, act like it. Okay? So, that's what he's getting at here. So, what he's talking about is the walk. So, therefore, they are called to walk in the light by living openly before God, responding to his word, and conducting their lives in manner consistent with their new identity in Christ. So again, John makes it very clear that this is the message that we have heard from him and announced to you that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. Now John then writes in verse 6, he says, "If we say that we have fellowship with him," now notice the fellowship here is vertical. And notice that John does what any good leader does. He brings himself into the group, doesn't he? He says, "If we," well, that includes our good friend John. "If we say that we as Christians, have fellowship with him, that's God, that's vertical, and yet walk in the darkness. We, that includes John, we lie and do not what? Practice the truth." Because one of the things that drive over and over and over again is that you cannot live what you do not know. And that learning God's word necessarily precedes living God's will. And much of the success in the Christian life is predicated on the acquisition and application of divine viewpoint to all of life. But you've got to apply it. James 1:22, "Be ye doers of the word and not merely hearers only who delude themselves." So you got to put it into practice. So he says, look, if we say that we have fellowship with him, and fellowship here has to do with our walk, it's not our position. It's not how do you get to be in the light, it's are you walking as children of light. Okay? if we say that we have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness that is according to Satan's world systems his philosophies and values that are anothetical to the character and to the will of God if you are operating according to your sin nature in status quo carnality if you are walking in the darkness he says we lie and do not practice the truth because fellowship with God has to do with practicing the truth has to do with walking in God's will. Now, we spent months talking about knowing and doing the will of God. Those lessons are recorded. They're up on the website on the podcast and YouTube and they're out there so you can go back and track those lessons. But we talked about knowing and doing the will of God. Now, believer may claim fellowship with God while living in disobedience, but such claim is false. And the word walk translating the Greek word here parapetto parapetto it's metaphor for how we live and it refers to one's lifestyle how are you living how are you living out your Christianity in your relationship with other people with your spouse with your parents with your children with your neighbors with your co-workers how are you living that out. So, walking in darkness refers to behavior that is governed by sin and contrary to God's revealed will. Now, the issue is not loss of salvation, but again, loss of fellowship. Now, just as disobedience can disrupt harmony between child and his father without ending the family relationship, so sin disrupts the believer's fellowship with God without ending his position as God's child. Now, we need to understand that all believers sin, and all we have to do is look in the mirror and realize that we're we're among that camp. First Kings 8:46 says, "There is no man who does not sin." Psalm 143:2, "And do not enter into judgment with your servant." Servant here being believer, child of the living God. Do not enter into judgment with your servant. For in your sight, no living, no man living is righteous. Ecclesiastes 7:20 says, "Indeed, there is not righteous man on the earth." Now, here he's talking about believer. There is not righteous man on the earth who continually does good and who never sins. Now, when used to work in the jail ministry at the Leach County Jail many moons ago, did for about 12 and half years, ran into couple that was going through the Leach County Jail and was teaching this false doctrine on the eradication of the sin nature. and this is one of these outlier crazy heresies that still floats around and people will put forth on occasion, but it was really disrupting the faith of lot of the men who were at the Le County Jail. And because what this couple was teaching was that at the moment of salvation, your sin nature is eradicated and you no longer have that proclivity to want to sin. and in fact, you don't sin anymore. And of course my question to them is okay well when were you saved and well that we were saved when we were young when we got married. Well did you have children that were born after you got saved? yes. Well if you are without sin and you have no sin nature do your do your children have sin natures? Because logically it would follow that if you don't have sin nature then your offspring would not have sin natures either. and of course the further we got into the discussion, the more apparent it was that their children were were little sinners. even when they were little babies in the in the cradle, those little bologoney loafes and bassinets, as like to refer to them as, that you could see you could see the sin nature coming on very early in their development. but anyway, know it creates quite an image, doesn't it? but nonetheless there is no righteous man on the earth who continually does good and who never sins. James 3:2 says for we all stumble in many ways. We John's interesting James talking about himself there isn't he if he says we all stumble in many ways. They're talking about our our failings as Christians. 1 John 1:8. If we John includes himself here, if we say we have no sin, and the word sin here, as I've pointed out in the past, translates the Greek noun hamartia. Hamaria. And noun refers to person, place, or thing. And here he's talking about the sin thing or the sin nature. He says, if we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. Verse 10 says, 'If we say that we have not sinned, there he translates the Greek verb hamartano. Again, we make him liar and his word is not in us. So, John expects Christians to struggle with sin and to and acknowledges the need for ongoing cleansing and confession. That is truth. That is truth. So as believers if we walk in the light, well verse 6 again, if we say that we have fellowship with him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. So John is not teaching sinless perfection. that is not truth of God's word. We will hit the place where we will when we leave this world, when we get our new resurrection body, it will be body that will be free from the contaminants of sin. and how wonderful that will be. But John is not teaching sinless perfection. There are no sinless Christians. He is teaching that fellowship with God requires honesty about sin and responsiveness to God's light. Now he says in verse 7, if we walk in the light, see now he's talking about the walk. He's talking about the walk of faith. the walk of obedience where we learn the word and we live the word. where we as Christians are walking as obedient to the word believers. But if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. That is between us and God. He's not talking about fellowship among believers. Now that that is included in secondary sense, but here he's talking about fellowship with God. If we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin. So walking in the light means living openly before God, responding positively to his truth, and allowing his word to direct one's thinking and conduct. have this quote by Dr. Earl Rodmcker. He says, quote, "To walk in the light is to live in such way that one is enlightened by the truth of who God is." End quote. Now, the believer who walks in the light enjoys fellowship with God and other believers who are walking in the light. Now, I'm I'm around Christians and prefer those Christians to be part of the inner circle of my life to be those believers who generally are walking in the light. Now, see believers sin. That doesn't surprise me. In fact, if I'm around you long enough, it's inevitable. I'm going to see it. And the question is, what do you do with it? You know, are you honest about it? You're going to confess it. mean, and was having conversation again with somebody at work. You know, was talking with, one of the VPs at the office, and, she has been very helpful to me, very supportive of me, and I've come to her with number of problems in my new position, and she's been very encouraging, and there's stuff that she can't answer, lot of stuff she can't, but she says, "Well, I'm with you. We're going to we're going to get through this together." And walked into her office and said, "You know, First Peter 4:8 says,"Love covers multitude of sins." And and she's blinking at me. Blink blink blink blink blink blink. And said said, "You have been very kind to me. And want to thank you for your graciousness because have made number of of mistakes and and and want to thank you for living out first Peter 4:8." Blink blink blink blink blink blink. and and said, "You've been very gracious and kind to me, and want to thank you." because love covers multitude of sins. Blink, blink, blink, blink. And she was she was thankful, you know, but but you you do try to recognize when people are are kind to you, you know. but my my flaws are obvious. If you're around me, you're going to see them. Okay. my wife's in the bedroom holding up her hand saying, "Yes, yes, if were public, would do." No, I'm just kidding. now John also notes that the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin. Now the idea is ongoing cleansing that preserves fellowship. Christ's finished work on the cross remains the basis upon which believers enjoy continual communion with God. Now because union and fellowship are distinct, the believer's walk with God may be illustrated by both the prodigal son and the tax collector. And we know these stories from the gospel of Luke like the prodigal son who is son by the way. Now he goes prodigal and he takes his his inheritance and he goes out and squanders it and and the father lets him go and and there's built-in mechanism there that what you sow is what you reap and he who sws from the flesh will of the flesh reap corruption. And if you've walked in the flesh as believer for any period of time you you come to know that. Now like the prodigal son, Christian never ceases to be child of God. Even when he wanders into sin and lives independently of the father, even when the son was out in the world acting like the world and finds himself eating with the swine, he is not swine. He is still son. And the Bible calls him son. And when he thinks to himself about his situation and he realizes how foolish he's been as son, he recognizes who his father is. and he recognizes go returning to his father and he and he recognizes that but he's returning to his father as son and so the sunship remains secure but fellowship is disrupted until there is return to the father significantly the father's heart towards his son never changed during the time of his rebellion the father's heart toward his son never changed even when the son was and rebellion. Notice Luke 15:20. So he, this would be the son who has come to place of humility and and biblical rationality, we might say. He's now operating in divine viewpoint. So he got up and came to his father. Okay. now he's already crafted this this confession that he says you know I'll go to my father and say father have sinned against heaven and in your sight and I'm no longer worthy to be called your son make me as one of your hired men. He's already got this script of this confession in his head. Verse 20 says and so he got up and came to his father but while he was still long way off his father saw him. Now that tells me that the father is looking. He's looking for his son. And he sees his son far way off and felt compassion for him. This is the heart of the father. And ran to him. He did what the elderly in that culture would not have done because it would have been considered undignified. But the father runs to his son and embraced him and kissed him. Notice, even before the son had chance to get his confession out. Even before the son had chance to even get his confession out. And this speaks of the heart of the father toward his son that he runs to him and embraced him and he kissed him. And then the son finally begins to confess. He says, "Father, I've sinned against heaven in your sight. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son." and he doesn't even get to complete his confession. And the father interrupts him and says, "Enough." Paraphrasing here. But the father said to his slaves, "Quickly, bring out the best robe and put it on him and put ring on his hand and sandals on his feet and bring the fattened calf and kill it and let us eat and celebrate for this this son of mine was dead and has come to life again." Now, this language has confused some people. But death means separation. Death means separation. And life here means restoration. It means restoration. And you see that in the latter part of in the in the very next clause it says for he was lost. That is he was separated for time and has been found. Now he's been returned and fellowship has been restored. And they began to celebrate. So Jesus reveals father who has who was looking for his father's return. who saw him while he was still long way off, who ran to him, embraced him, and kissed him even before the sun had time to complete his confession. And this demonstrates that God's love for his children remains constant even when fellowship has been broken. have this quote by Dr. Lewis Barry Schaffefer where he says, quote, "The saved who have sinned confessing their sin are free to come to God for the needed forgiveness and cleansing and are never turned away." He says, "The prodigal son, who is an illustration of son returning to the father for restoration on the ground of confession rather than faith, was kissed by the father before he had even made his confession." end quote. And love that because it captures the heart of the text there. Another passage is the tax collector who's in the temple who comes in to confess his sin. And so, fellowship is not maintained by claiming sinlessness. That's that's not what we do. Rather, it is characterized by the humility of the tax collector in Luke 18:13 where notice the tax collector standing some distance away was even unwilling to lift his eyes to heaven but was beating his breast and saying, "God be merciful to me the sinner." The Pharisee saw little wrong with himself because he was blind to his failures. Whereas the tax collector stood in the in the light of God's truth and saw himself accurately. In the same way, believers who walk in the light are not those who never sin, but those who live openly before God, allowing his word to expose their sins and responding honestly when it does. And live in that light because if we're honest, we know when we sin. We know when we're impatient. We know when we're not gentle or kind or loving or gracious or merciful. We know. We know. And and the important thing is is in that moment of knowing the light of God's truth is now shining upon you. And you immediately know that. And I've walked out of number of situations says, "Father, confess my sin. was worrying. Father, was fearful. Father, said something shouldn't have said." immediately confess it to the Lord. And then if I've hurt somebody else, go to them and confess my sin to them. And never try to excuse it away. just say, "You know what? misspoke and was totally wrong in what said. There's no excuse for it. Will you forgive me? And just own it and appeal to their mercy and just, you know, you you reach out. But you try to be honest with God and with others. Now, when believer refuses God's truth and persists in selfdeception, he resembles the prodigal in the far country. and when he acknowledged his sins and his sin and turns back to the father, he resembles the tax collector standing humbly before God. In both cases, fellowship is restored and enjoyed not because the believer regains his position as son, but because he returns to honest communion with his father. have quote by Zayn Hodgeges. He says, quote, "True communion with God is living in the sphere where one's experience is illumined by the truth of what God is. It is to live open to his revelation of himself in Jesus Christ." End quote. Now, 1 John 18-10 addresses the danger of selfdeception regarding personal sin. John says in verse 8, "If we say that we have no sin, then we are deceiving ourselves." and the truth is not in us. Now, some believers may deny the presence of sinful nature or refuse to acknowledge personal failures. That is true. Such denial breaks fellowship because it rejects reality. God's light exposes sin. Whereas human pride seeks to conceal it. Spiritual growth begins with humility and willingness to see oneself as God sees him. Warren Wearsby says, quote, "The fact that Christians sin bothers some people, especially new Christians." He goes on, he says, "They forget that that they're receiving the new nature does not eliminate the old nature they were born with. The old nature fights against the new nature which we receive when we are born again. End quote. You see, the Christian has two natures. We have sinful nature whose power has been crippled, and as believers, we no longer have to yield to the sin nature. And believe the more that we advance in our walk with the Lord and the more we learn to live this thing called the Christian life and we pursue righteousness, then sin will begin to diminish more and more and more the further we advance. do think that that that is true. But the sin nature never goes away and it cannot be reformed or revised. It is sinful nature and it is that internal proclivity that wants to act contrary to the character and to the will of God. It is that internal nature that if Satan were broadcaster sending out his message into the world, the sin nature is that internal receiver that is automatically tuned to his message. You can't change the signal. Not like the radio. You can change the station. You can't do that with the sin nature. It is automatically tuned in tune with Satan and with his world values and philosophies. And as Christians, we are told, "Do not love the world, nor the things of the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life." And that command would be absolutely meaningless if it were not possible for Christians to do that very thing, to love the world. And so we have to guard against that. And we've spoken about that in past lessons. Now, when we sin, we are out of fellowship with God. John gives the solution. And there is solution. And praise God that there is solution. And the solution is first John 1:9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, later on in 1 John 5, he says, "All unrighteousness is sin." Now, what that means in 1 John 1:9 is that if we confess the sins we know about because if we're honest, sometimes we can lose track of sins or maybe not even be aware that we have sinned, that we have operated outside of God's will. And if you want good synonym for the word sin, think of the word crime. because you can break God's law and and and not even be aware. can be driving down there. do it. we talked about it before. try to abide by the speed limit. It I'm conscious of it, okay? I'm very mindful about driving the speed limit. But there are times I'm going buzzing down the highway. Zippity doo dah zippy, you know, and joy, joy, what wonderful day. You know, I'm just zippy. I'm happy singing this. And look down and lo and behold, I'm I'm going over the speed limit. And so I've got to bring it down. Well, when we think about sin, sin is lawlessness. It is it is it is going contrary to the character and to the will of God. And so when he says that all sin all unrighteousness is sin, what John is saying here in 1 John 1:9 is that if we confess the sins we know about, he is faithful and just to forgive us of those sins and to cleanse us from all the sins we don't know about or have forgotten. Because when God does something, he does it perfectly and there's nothing to add to it and there's nothing to take from it. And God has so worked that men should fear him. Ecclesiastes 3:14 tells us. And so he says, "If we confess our sins," now confess translates the Greek word homalo and it's it's language it's it's language of the courtroom and it means that we admit to it, we acknowledge it, we agree with it. And it introduces also the word if here translates third class conditional clause according to Greek grammar. Now, if you remember, there's four uses of the word if in the Greek New Testament. The first one is if and it's true. The second one is if and it's not true. The third one is if, maybe it is, maybe it isn't. And the fourth one is if and wish it were true, but it's not. and that's very rare usage of of the fourth class conditional. But the first class conditional is if and it's assumed to be true for the sake of of argument. And could say, "If were man, well, I'm using the word if, but it's true." Now, could use if and it's not true. could say, "Now, if were woman." Well, I'm using the word if, but it's not true. Now, the fourth class conditional clause is the if and wish it were true, but it's not. And that would be like me saying, "If were millionaire." Well, wish it were true, but lo and behold, it's not. But the third class condition is is conditional in the sense that we most often think of the word if and that is maybe it is maybe it isn't maybe will maybe won't. In other words, it means the ball's in your court. If were playing game of checkers with you and leaned across the table and said it's your move, you would know what mean. it's your move. And so anytime we sin and God the Holy Spirit recalls scripture and brings that to our attention at that moment the spirit of God is leaning across the table and saying it's your move. What are you going to do? You going to execute 1 John 1:9 or not? Because 1 John 1:9 says that if we confess our sins now we here he's talking to believers. Again John's not talking about these are Christians and he includes himself in the we. If we and remember John had sin nature too and and twice in the book of Revelation John bowed down and worshiped an angel. Twice John got rebuked for it because John had sin nature too. And John and John was sinner. He committed sin. So he said if we confess our sins he that is God the father is faithful which means he always does the same thing. And that means that if you sin 5,827.2 times in your Christian life and you confess your sins that same amount of times, in every occasion when you confess your sin, God is faithful and just and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And you say, "But Steve, don't feel forgiven. don't care how you feel because the fact of God's word is true whether you feel it or not. And there are times where I've confessed my sin. And trust me, I'm mean walk around, you know, feeling 2 in tall cuz said and did something really stupid when shouldn't have. And then you got to come back and you're just like, "Hey, I'm sorry. made mistake." But I'm here to tell you what. The moment that confess that sin to God, it's done. And it's done because the word of God says it's done. And how feel has nothing to do with the faithfulness of God. His word is true and it is always true. And we are to walk by faith, not feelings. Now, my feelings will come around eventually, 15, 20 minutes later. I'll eventually get fully recalibrated. but I've got to live by faith in God's word. Now, confession is not penance, self-punishment, or emotional sorrow. It is simply agreeing with God concerning one's sin. You see, here's the thing. We can produce sin, but we cannot undo it afterwards any more than we can unscramble an egg because once you scramble the egg, you can't put it back together. Okay? Now, we can produce sin, but we can't deal with sin after it's only God can forgive sin. Now, you can produce sin, but then you got to come before God's throne of grace. And Hebrews 4:16 calls it throne of grace because the father loves you. And you're like the prodigal son. Now, you might be prodigal for 5 seconds. You might be prodigal for 5 minutes, 5 hours, 5 days, 5 months, 5 years. However long you're prodigal, the father is looking off into the distance. And he's waiting for his son to return and his daughter to return. And he's waiting for you to come back. And he sees you. And when you start coming back and you're and and he knows when you're coming to confess, he runs to you and he hugs you and he kisses you because the heart of the father is love for his child and he's waiting for you and he's so happy when you come back and you confess you. and you're restored to fellowship. And the forgiveness here in view is familial, not judicial. Judicial forgiveness occurs once for all at salvation. Familial forgiveness restores fellowship between the father between the believer and his heavenly father. Zayn Hodgeges has good comment here. He says, quote, "What is considered in 1 John 1:9 may be described as familial forgiveness. It is perfectly understandable how son may need to ask his father to forgive him for his faults while at the same time his position within the family is not in jeopardy. End quote. William Macdonald in the believer's Bible commentary says, quote, "The forgiveness John speaks about here is parental, not judicial. Judicial forgiveness means forgiveness from the penalty of sins which the sinner receives when he believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. It is called judicial because it is granted by God acting as judge. But what about the sins which person commits after conversion? Well, Macdonald goes on. He says, "As far as the penalty is concerned, the price has already been paid by the Lord Jesus on the cross of Calvary. But as far as fellowship in the family of God is concerned, the sinning saint needs parental forgiveness. that is the forgiveness of his father. He obtains it by confessing his sin. He closes out. He says, "We need judicial forgiveness only once. That takes care of the penalty of all our sins, past, present, and future, but we need parental forgiveness throughout our Christian life." End quote. Now John concludes out in verse 10 saying that if we say that we have not sinned, we make him liar and his word is not in us. Now like first John 2:1. He says, "My little children," writing to believers, am writing to you so that you may not sin." That it is always the will of God that we not sin. And John says, "I'm writing to you these things so that you may not sin." But notice the latter part of verse one there. And if anyone sins, and as Christians we do, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. You see, we have legal counsel in heaven who defends us by saying, my blood covered that one. My blood covered that one. Paid for that one. Paid for that one, too. Paid for those 13. look at that one over there. Paid for those 5,827.2. Got all those covered because he's thorough that way." So going back to verse 10, if we say that we have not sinned, we make him liar and his word is not in us. Whereas John previously referred to the believer's sin nature in verse 8, here he addresses personal acts of sin. The mature believer recognizes that he still possesses sinful nature and remains capable of personal sin. Romans 7, Paul talks about that. He says, "For know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh. For the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not." And here he's talking about the struggle between these two natures. He says, "For the good that want to do, do not do, but practice the very evil that do not want. But if am doing the very thing do not want, am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me." Verse 21, find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. He says,"For joyfully concur with the law of God and the inner man." That's his new nature. Praise God. agree with the law of God in my inner man too and my new nature. He says, "But see different law in the members of my body waging war against the law of my mind." And here he talks about the law of sin which is in my members. Charles Ryrie says, quote, "Even believers sin. And if we deny past sin and present sin, present guilt, we are deceiving ourselves, mocking God and not walking in the light." The believer who consistently walks in fellowship with God enjoys the conditional blessings of divine guidance, spiritual growth, effective prayer, inner stability, and intimate communion with the Lord. Such fellowship does not make one child of God. Rather, it enables the child of God to to enjoy the daily blessings of close walk with the heavenly father. So, walking in the light keeps the believer in experiential harmony with God. like that place. try to stay in that place as much as can. It's the place of happiness for me. It's the place of stability. It's the place of peace of mind. It's the place of blessing. According to Thomas Constable, he says, quote, practicing sinner cannot have close fellowship with holy God, though he can have relationship with God. That is, he can be true Christian." And this was the quote that we started with. He goes on. He says, "God revealed this truth throughout scripture. We do not need to reestablish our relationship with God every time we sin, though we do need to reestablish our fellowship with him." End quote. So sin fractures fellowship, not salvation. Confession restores fellowship and enables the believer to resume walk of unhindered intimacy with God. So in summary, fellowship with God is precious but conditional blessing available to every believer. And we're studying this because we're studying the spiritual life, phase two of our salvation, our walk with the Lord. While our relationship with God is secured forever through faith in Christ, our fellowship with him is affected by how we respond to his truth in daily life. God calls his children to walk in the light, not in sinless perfection, but in honesty, humility, and openness before him. As Christian, know that continue to have sin nature. And know that that that because of my weakness in the flesh that will continue to sin. know that that that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good, and that will struggle with that. And I'm honest with God about that all the time. And know when my sin nature flares and and gained the victory over it, you know, most of the time. I'll say 95%. feel like I've made some tremendous success in my walk with the Lord over the last 35 years when came from crime and homelessness and all that nonsense. And God has been super gracious to me and abundant in his blessings of goodness to me. and and feel like I've been good steward and capitalized on that and really taking the time to learn his word and live his word. spent probably good six hours today studying the word of God. love getting into the word. love investing myself in that. It kills me when got to run off to work because I'm pulling myself away from the word of God. But then realize I've got to learn to put this into practice, too. The word of God has to be field tested otherwise it's, you know, it's it's not really applicable in beneficial way. but again live in the reality that trust in his promise of familial forgiveness and cleansing. In this way fellowship is restored and maintained allowing us to enjoy close communion with our heavenly father. The believer who consistently walks in the light experiences the blessings of spiritual growth, divine guidance, effective prayer, inner stability, and intimate fellowship with God. Therefore, the Christian life is not characterized by denying sin, but by responding rightly to it, relying continually on the cleansing work of Christ, and pursuing daily walk of fellowship with the one who is light and in whom there is no darkness at all.