Turn with me, if you would, to
1 John, chapter 1. 1 John, chapter 1. We were in this chapter Wednesday
night. And we looked at the last three
verses which say, verses 8 to 10 say, if we say that we have
no sin, we deceive ourselves and the
truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned,
we make him a liar and his word is not in us. I enjoyed being
in this chapter and reading through the chapter so much, I felt led
to be in it this morning, both for this Bible study and for
the message in just a moment. So for our Bible study, we're
going to look at the first four verses this morning. All right,
let's read those. Verse one says, that which was from the beginning,
which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which
we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life. For the life was manifested and
we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you that eternal
life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us. That
which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that you
also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship
is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. And these
things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. Those are wonderful verses, aren't
they? I've titled this Bible study
Our Fellowship. That's what he said in verse
three, our fellowship that which we have seen and heard declare
we unto you that you also may have fellowship with us. And
truly our fellowship is with the father and with his son,
Jesus Christ. That's what I want us to look
at this morning. What is our fellowship? Our fellowship? What causes us to have fellowship? The fact that we all attend this
assembly means we desire to have fellowship with each other. We
come here because we want to. We desire to have fellowship
with each other. After this is over, Lord willing, we're all
going to go down and have a fellowship lunch. And we're going to fellowship. We're going to fellowship together.
Why are we going to do that? Why do we desire to fellowship
with each other? What is our fellowship? Is it new buildings? Do we all want to be here because
we're in a new building? I don't think so. I really don't
think so. Our fellowship was just fine
in the old building, wasn't it? Is it good cooking? Do we choose
to come here because everybody here is a good cook? And everybody
here is a good cook. I mean, I can say that with honesty.
But I don't really think that's the reason. I really don't. Is
it geographical location? We all come here because this
is the closest church building to our house. I really don't think so. I honestly
don't. I'm pretty sure there are some
buildings between Abingdon and here. I'm sure you pass at least two
or three buildings between Irwin and here. I'm sure you do. None of those things are the
reason for our fellowship. None of those things. All right,
what is? What is the reason for our fellowship?
When you look up the English words here, our Bible's in English,
and when you look up the English words in a concordance, it gives
you the original Greek definition and translation of each word.
And do you know what the very first word in verse one translates? Him. Who. The one, that's what it translates. He, verse one says, he, him,
who, the one that was from the beginning. He's our fellowship,
isn't he? He is our fellowship. He is. He is. Who are we talking about?
Who was from the beginning? God was. God was. In the beginning, God. God is our fellowship and we
need to take that a step further because everybody claims God. You just say God, well everybody
claims God. It seems though that everybody
has a different God, doesn't it? Which evidences the fact that
man naturally doesn't know God. There's only one God. So to take
it a step further, who is God? Who is our God? Verse one says,
that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we
have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands
have handled of the word of life. Who is that? Who is the word
of life? That's Jesus Christ, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Oh, to just enter into his name,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the sovereign Jesus Christ. The word Lord means
sovereign. That's what it means. Sovereign. What that means is the God, Jesus
Christ, the God. Jesus Christ. He is our fellowship. We have a glorious, happy fellowship
around the fact that Jesus Christ is our God. He's our God. He's our God. He is not our co-pilot. And anybody who says that, I
can't have fellowship with that person. I cannot have any fellowship
with that person. He's not our co-pilot. He's not
our co-worker. He's not our co-anything. He's our Lord. And he's our God. My Lord and my God. I think I
can have fellowship with Thomas. My Lord and my God. Right there on that ground. we
have fellowship. Turn over to John chapter 10. John chapter 10 verse 30, this
is the Lord Jesus Christ speaking. And he said, I and my father
are one. Then the Jews took up stones
again to stone him. Jesus answered them. Many good
works. Have I showed you from my father
for which of those works do you stone me now? Watch verse 33.
The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee
not, but for blasphemy. And because that thou, being
a man, makest thyself God." They hated him for that. They hated
him for that. But that very thing is our fellowship. That's our fellowship. That man
is God. You say, well, what about the
Father? He said, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. God, that's our fellowship. God,
man, mediator in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
our fellowship. Look with me at Acts chapter 20. Acts chapter 20, this is, look
at this closely, this is wonderful. Acts 20 verse 28, it says, take heed therefore unto yourselves
and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made
you overseers to feed the church of God. God, capital G, God to
feed the church of God. It goes on to say, which he speaking
of God hath purchased with his own blood, which he had purchased with his
own blood. Do we see what that's saying? It's saying, God, the
God almighty purchased us. with his own blood. Who purchased
us? Well Jesus Christ shed his blood,
right? Yes! God. God purchased us with his
own blood. That's our fellowship. That's
our fellowship. Who is God? Jesus Christ. What
is Jesus Christ? He's God. The sovereign God. Who purchased us with his own
blood. And purchased is past tense. Purchased. Purchased,
paid, done. Don't turn to this, but 2 Corinthians
5 verse 19 says, God was in Christ, Father, Son, and Spirit. All
the fullness of the Godhead was in that man, in that person.
God was in Christ reconciling the world, His chosen people
out of this sinful world to Himself. And that's our fellowship. Turn
with me over to Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4 verse 1, it says, I therefore, the prisoner of
the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith
you are called with all lowliness and meekness, with long suffering,
forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Verse 4 says, there is
one body and one Spirit, even as you are called in one hope
of your calling. One hope. One hope. And that
one hope is the accomplished work of our God-man mediator,
Jesus Christ. That's our hope. What's your
hope? What's your hope of glory? What's
your hope of entering into heaven? Well, it's because I finally
stopped being the kind of person I was being. That's not my hope.
I can go right back to that tomorrow. There's no hope in that. It's
because of this. It's because of that. There's
no hope in any of that. What's our hope? It's in the accomplished
work of Christ our Savior. It's not in because of what I
did, or what I have done, or what I plan on doing. It's in
what He did. Everything that He did. Jesus
Christ. He is our hope. Verse 5 says,
He is our Lord. There's one Lord. There is one faith. You know,
people talk about, you have your faith, I have my faith. You believe
this, I believe that. There's only one faith. Our one faith is looking and
trusting in the fact that we've been immersed into Him. We must
be in Christ. We don't want to leave this world
outside of Christ. We don't. We've got to be in
Christ. What's our hope? That we're in Christ. That's
our baptism. Yeah, we bought a pool, sure.
We confess openly before everybody what the Spirit has done for
us, but being immersed into Him, that's our baptism. The Holy
Spirit laying hold of sinners and plunging them and washing
them in the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 5 says there's one Lord,
one faith, one baptism. It's Christ. Us in Him. Our life is in Him. In Him we
live and move and have our being. Verse 6 says, one God, there's
one God, and father of all, who is above all and through all
and in you all. That's our fellowship. Go with
me back to 1 John 1. 1 John 1 verse 1 says, that which
was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have
seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands
have handled of the word of life. The apostle said we heard him. We heard his voice with our own
two ears. We heard him. I can't wait to
hear him. with these ears. Job said, I
know with these eyes I'm going to see him. The apostle said,
we have seen him. We have seen him with our eyes.
And they said, we have been given faith to look upon him. You know, many people, and this
is important, many people in his day saw him and never looked
upon him. Many people saw him but they
never looked on him and that's the case today. Many people see
him, know of him but they're not given faith to look upon
him. Lord increase our faith, I believe help my unbelief. Give
me faith to look upon Him, to see Him to be my all, my only
hope before God." They said, we saw Him, we were given faith
to look upon Him, and we laid hold of Him. Our hands touched
Him. Not only before His death, but
thank God after His resurrection. They said, we touched Him after
His resurrection. Thomas said, I touched the nail
prints in his hand. Can you, you looking forward
to that at all? I touched that spear wound in
his side. I touched it. We touched him. And they said,
we're telling you from an eyewitness experience, he is the word of
life. To whom else shall we go? You
have the words of life. You are life. Life is in one
place. He is the word of life. Verse
2, they said, for the life was manifested in a dead, dark world. The life was manifested and we
have seen, the word it is in italics, it was added by the
translators, we've seen and bear witness and show unto you that
eternal life. He, whom, him, that eternal life. which was with the father and
was manifested unto us. That which we have seen him,
which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that you
also may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship
is with the father and with his son, Jesus Christ. What they're
saying is without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh, not God's helper. God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the spirit, no sin, perfect, well-pleased, seen of
angels before his death, after his resurrection. Those angels
watched him walk right out of that tomb. preached unto the
Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received up into glory. That's our fellowship. Truly,
our fellowship is with God the Father and God the Son by way
of God the Spirit, revealing it to us. In John 17, the Lord
said, Father, I will that they be one with us. Isn't that amazing? I will, my
desire is that they be one with us. The father in Christ, us
in Christ. Christ in the father, Christ
in us. One. That's our fellowship. And
that right there is a very happy fellowship. You know, if our
fellowship, this is the honest truth. If our fellowship was
based on all of us trying together to accomplish the demands of
the law. If this was our fellowship, we're
all trying together to accomplish the demands of this law. Trying
to live a life in this flesh, in this sinful, wicked flesh
that God would look at and say, I'm well pleased with that. I'm
satisfied with that. If our fellowship was based on
the bondage of our own works, whoever is under the bondage
of works is under the curse. And trying to satisfy God based
on our own merits is a bondage. That'll never be fulfilled. We'll
never come out from under it. And if our fellowship was based
on that bondage of us trying to work our way to heaven and
be good and be righteous on our own, self-righteous, then we
would have a pretty sad and miserable fellowship. But because our fellowship
is based on the finished, this makes me happy to say this, the
finished, complete, restful, peaceful, accomplished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ our Savior. Because our fellowship is peace
with God in Him, in Christ, in what Christ came here and did
for His people. You have peace with God. Because
that's our fellowship. We have a happy, joyful fellowship. It's so happy, just so happy. Verse 4 says, And these things
write we unto you that your joy may be full." He said, we're
reminding you of this fellowship so that your joy can be full,
just so full. Psalm 133 says, behold how good
and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. That means one. Brethren just
dwelling together in one, Christ. He is our fellowship. He's our fellowship. Let me just
close with this. Go with me to Psalm 103. This is just a wonderful word
to close on. And let's see if we can all say
this together in fellowship. Psalm 103, verse 1, it says,
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless
his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
forget not all his benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquities,
who healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction,
who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies,
who satisfieth thy mouth with good, so that thy youth is renewed
like the eagles. The Lord executeth righteousness
and judgment for all that are oppressed. He made known his
ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel. The Lord
is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide, neither
will he keep his anger forever. He hath not dealt with us after
our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the
heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward
them that fear him. As far as the east is from the
west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Like
as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that
fear him, for he knoweth our frame. He remembereth that we
are dust. As for man, his days are as grass
as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind
passeth over it and it is gone, and the place thereof shall know
it no more. But the mercy of the Lord is
from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him. and
His righteousness unto children's children, to such as keep His
covenant, and to those that remember His commandments to do them.
The Lord hath prepared His throne in the heavens, and His kingdom
ruleth over all. Bless the Lord, ye His angels
that excel in strength, that do His commandments, hearkening
unto the voice of His word. Bless ye the Lord, all ye His
hosts, ye ministers of His that do His pleasure. Bless the Lord
all his works in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord,
O my soul. Can we all say that? I believe
we can. That's our fellowship. All right, you're dismissed.