your Bibles to 1 John chapter
1. We've started a new series going
through 1 John, and I'm going to try to preach from it only
on Thursday night. So I want you all to know that
so that you can tune in. If you're not able to be here,
you can tune in on the live broadcast and watch. So we'll be going
through 1 John on Thursday night. But today I'm going to preach
from it. And 1 John 1, verse 3. John declared here that he declared
Christ in those first two verses how he had seen Christ the Word,
the Word of life. And then he says, verse 3, that
which we've seen and heard declare we unto you. This word of life
that we've seen and heard, we preach this word unto you. That ye also may have fellowship
with us. And truly, our fellowship is
with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. So our subject is fellowship
with God. Now fellowship means we have
all things in common with one another. That's what fellowship
means, to have all things in common with one another. In Acts
4.32 it says concerning the early believers after Pentecost, it
says they were all of one heart and of one soul. Neither said
any that all of the things which he possessed was his own, but
they had all things in common. And brethren, this is the amazing
thing. We have fellowship with God our Father and with His Son,
Jesus Christ, and it means we're one with God in Christ. None of the things we possess
are our own. We have all things in common
with God and He with us. Nothing He possesses is His own. We have it in common with Him.
Isn't that amazing? It's amazing that worms like
us can be brought into this unbreakable union with God our Father and
His Son, Jesus Christ. Amazing blessing. I want to look
this morning at why we cherish communion, where it's found,
how it's given, and a few things concerning what it is. Now first
of all, the reason we cherish communion with God is because
we lost it in Adam. We lost that communion in Adam.
Scripture says two cannot walk together unless they be in agreement.
Two cannot walk together unless they be in agreement. When we sin and we come into
this world sinners, God is light and we are darkness. God is life
and we are dead. God is love and we are enmity
in our hearts by nature. And so while we are dead in our
sins, we are without Christ and without hope and without God
in the world. We are alienated from the life
of God through the ignorance that's in us. Our iniquities
have separated us from our God and our sins have hid his face
from us so that he will not hear us. That's so of us by nature
as we come into this world. This is why we cherish communion
with God. We lost it in Adam. Now, secondly,
where is this communion found? Well, it's not found at Mount
Sinai. It's not found by the works of the law. It's found
in Mount Zion, where Christ abides, where He gives His free grace. It's in Mount Zion. Look at the
contrast in Hebrews 12. I want you to see this. Sinai declares separation from
God due to our sin. That's what the law declares.
Hebrews 12, 18. You're not coming to the mount that might be touched,
that burn with fire. Nor unto blackness, and darkness,
and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words,
which voice they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken
to them anymore. Catch this next word. For they
could not endure that which was commanded. And neither could
we. And we still can't. Not in ourselves. And if so much as a beast touched
the mountain, and it should be stoned or thrust through with
a dart, and so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly
fear and quake. But now look at Mount Zion. But
ye are come unto Mount Zion and unto the city of the living God,
the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels,
to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written
in heaven. and to God the judge of all,
and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the
mediator of the new covenant, to the blood of sprinkling that
speaks better things than that of Abel. So in Mount Sinai we
see distance and darkness and death, but in Mount Zion we see
Christ our righteousness and our oneness with the Father in
Him. In Mount Sinai we hear thundering
wrath, at Mount Zion we hear unchanging love. In Mount Sinai
we're condemned for the slightest deviation from the law, but in
Mount Zion we're blessed with this great truth, you are complete
in Christ. At Sinai The sinner's law-keeping
and his morality and his so-called goodness before men and all these
things that he thinks he possesses, all his fleshly confidences,
they're all burned up by the law. And he's left naked and
trembling before the judge of all the earth. But at Mount Zion,
we have abounding blessings from Christ to them that mourn. to
them that hunger and thirst after righteousness, to them that are
persecuted for righteousness sake. So it's not by our works,
it's by the grace of God in Christ from Mount Zion. Now thirdly, God the Father gives
His child communion with Him through Christ through the Holy
Spirit. It's our three-in-one God who gives this fellowship. A man can't give it. Can't give
it to himself, can't give it to others. Our triune God gives
this fellowship. God brings us into unity through
the preaching of the gospel of Christ. John says in our text,
this is why we declare the word of life unto you. We preach it
unto you. This is why. that you might have
fellowship with us. That's why we preach the gospel.
Look over at John 17. This is something I saw, and
maybe I've seen it before, but I just don't recall it ever having
the impact on me that it did this past week. John 17 and verse
22. Christ is speaking to the Father
and He says, And the glory which thou gavest Me, I have given
them, that they may be one, even as We are one. What is this glory
He's talking about? It's the Gospel. It's the Gospel
that God gave to Christ in eternity to work out. And this is the
Gospel that Christ gives to us, the incorruptible seed through
the preaching of the Word. And we know that's what it means
because it's the same purpose that John was declaring in 1
John. Here's why he does it, that we
might be one. that they may be one even as
we are one. I in them and thou in me that
they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know thou
sent me and has loved them as thou has loved me. So it's through
the preaching of the gospel. Let me support that. Go to Ephesians
4. Ephesians 4. Why did Christ give His preachers?
Why did Christ give the gift of His preachers to His people?
What was the purpose? Look at this, Ephesians 4.13.
Till we all come in the unity of the faith. Till we're all
made one. That's why He does it. Till we're
brought to the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man. I like that. A perfect man. When
God gets done, we are not going to be separated anymore. There
is going to be one perfect man with Christ our head and His
body being made up of all His elect. Because we are going to come
to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. It is what He said back in Ephesians
1 when He said Christ is the head over all things to the church,
which is His body, the fullness of Him. His body is the fullness
of Him. So He's calling out through preaching. He's calling out. And this is
important. He's the capital W word. Word of life. And He's using
the small w word of the preaching of the gospel by which He plants
that incorruptible seed of the Word in our heart and gives us
life and faith in Him. And what happens when He at last
brings all His elect together? Look at Ephesians 1 and verse
10. In the dispensation of the fullness
of time, He is going to gather together in one all things in
Christ. And that word things means all
His elect. He's going to gather them all
together, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even
in Christ. When He finishes this work, we're
going to be one. We're going to be one. And for you that He's given this
grace, look over at 1 Peter 1. You that have been called through
the preaching of the Word, look at this. 1 Peter 1, this is what
He's given you, right here. giving us fellowship with one
another, with our brethren, in unfeigned love. It's not fake. It's not fake. It's not pretend. It's not hypocritical
love. It's real love. Look, 1 Peter
1.22, seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth
through the Spirit, The Holy Spirit worked this in our heart.
Unto unfeigned love of the brethren. That's that fellowship John's
talking about with one another. See that you love one another
with a pure heart fervently. How do we get this? Being born
again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the Word
of God, which liveth and abideth forever. Look at verse 25, the
second part. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached
unto you. I don't know how anybody could
deny that. It's so clear. Here's the reason a believer
cannot leave the gospel of Christ. Here's why he cannot leave his
brethren. Jesus answered and said unto
them, if a man love me, if he's truly born of God, that's what
he's saying, if a man love me, He will keep my words. He will keep my words. And he
says, and my father will love him. And we will come unto him
and make our abode with him. That's why a believer can't leave
the gospel of Christ and he can't leave his brethren. Brother Henry
Mahan used to say of men that leave the gospel, It's absolutely
no loss to the body of Christ. It's sad to see men leave Christ
and not go anywhere else to hear the Gospel preached. But it's
not been any loss to the body of Christ whatsoever. Scripture
is clear that if we do that, we only prove we never were in
the body in the beginning. Because this is what God works
in His people. And it's true. It's certain. It's certain. Brother Darwin
preached a message in Fort Smith, Arkansas. And after he got finished,
a man came up to him and he said, if we're saved only through the
preaching of the Gospel, then how do you justify my profession?
See, there's the problem. Men want to hold up their profession
and make that to be the touchstone. That's not the touchstone. That's
not the test. And Darwin answered him, he said,
I'm not sent to justify your profession. I'm sent to preach
the word of God. And if our profession doesn't
line up with the word of God, our profession is false. That's
just how it is. We need to drop any confidence
in a profession. If I'm holding on to a profession,
And I'm denying the very clear preaching of the Word, the clear
truth of the Word, because I'm holding on to a past profession.
Then brethren, that's an indication. I'm not holding on to Christ.
I'm holding on to a profession. And that's confidence in a place
that we need no confidence. Our confidence needs to be in
Christ, not in something that we did, an experience or something
like that. It needs to be in Christ. God
has to bring His child into agreement with Him. Anybody sitting here
heard what I've preached so far and you're saying, I don't agree
with that. Well, here's the problem. God
only can bring you into agreement with Him. And you've got to be
brought into agreement with God. We've got to be made agreeable
with God concerning our ignorance, concerning our our sin and concerning
our total inability. Jude speaks of judgment, but
I'll tell you when Christ comes in grace, this is what He does
to His child. He convinces all that are ungodly
among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly
committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners
have spoken against Him. Christ convinces His child of
that. And He speaks in power in the heart and He says, Thou
art the man. Talk no more so exceedingly proud. Don't be proud anymore. Let not
arrogancy come out of your mouth for the Lord is a God of knowledge
and by Him actions are weighed. You know when the Lord called
us. Didn't you discover this? That
the Lord even knew all your secret sin. He knew everything about
you. We were like that woman at the
well. Remember, she ran and she said, come see a man that told
me everything I ever did. This has to be the Christ. This
has to be the Christ. He knows everything about me.
And that's the case with our Lord. We find ourselves in agreement
with Him. We say, I acknowledge my transgressions
and my sins ever before me against Thee and Thee only have I sinned
and done this evil in Thy sight, that Thou might be justified
when Thou speakest and be clear when Thou judgest. And then God brings us into agreement
that all fullness is found in His Son. He brings us into agreement
with Him that all fullness is found one place in His Son. He says to us in our hearts,
and He says this effectually. He says, this is my beloved Son,
hear ye Him. And when He speaks that, we start
hearing the word of our Redeemer. Christ is the key of knowledge.
He's the key of knowledge. When God shines in our hearts,
He gives the light of the knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And He's the key of knowledge.
He's the revelation of God's holy character. The fullness
of God in Him. We see God when we see Christ.
He's the revelation of the Word. This whole Word is concerning
God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And for the first time, we begin
to see Christ everywhere in the Scripture. He's the revelation of the righteousness
of God. We thought that the gospel was
all about what we need to be doing. And he makes us to understand
the gospel is about sending forth Christ that the righteousness
of God might be manifest. To show how God can be a just
God and a Savior. That's the gospel. And it makes
us cease then trusting in a system of doctrine, a system of points
that we learned in a catechism. and we start looking and beholding
Christ. He gives us light to see Him. And that light in all the Scripture,
everywhere we look, in all doctrine, that light redounds back to His
glory. And that's when we understand
doctrine. When Christ has come and given us light. Then we see
that the depravity by the first Adam We see now God made Adam
the representative head of his people to glorify Christ. That
was the purpose of the fall, to glorify Christ. He's the last
Adam. Just like Adam made his people
sin by his disobedience, Christ makes us righteous by his obedience. Then election. Oh, we hated election. Now election ceases to be something
we use to just buttonhole people and argue with them. Election
becomes the glory of Christ. We start seeing that God chose
His Son. He said, Behold mine elect. This
is my Son. And He chose all His people in
His Son. Limited atonement. We begin to
see that this is for the glory of Christ. Christ knew who He
came to redeem. And He accomplished their redemption. He accomplished making satisfaction
for them. He accomplished sanctifying them
by His blood, giving Himself without the gate. He accomplished
it. That's why we preach He came to die for a particular people,
to declare He accomplished what He came to do. God said He cannot
fail. And He did not fail. And irresistible
grace ceases to be about defending our false gospel and our false
professions and whatever else is false about us. Irresistible
grace begins to be about the glory of Christ our prophet,
priest, and king. This is why he saves through
the preaching of the gospel. Because all three of those offices
are glorified in Christ. He is our prophet who preaches
the word and makes it effectual in our heart. He is our high
priest. Remember the high priest was
to make reconciliation, and then he would go to the people, and
because he knew the people, he could succor the people. And
what that word includes is Christ comes, having made reconciliation,
he comes to his child as our high priest, and he makes us
willing to be reconciled to God. That's what a faithful high priest
does. And all of it glorifies Christ our King. Because He sovereignly
brought the Gospel to us. Nothing stops Him from doing
that. Nothing stops. You all are sitting here under
the Gospel right now. Think about what God did to bring
you here. Think about all the obstacles
He overcame and everything He did to bring you right here where
you are right now. He sovereignly, as our King,
brings the Gospel to us and then effectually, irresistibly works
this grace in our heart. He is our prophet, priest, and
king. Nobody else in the Scriptures ever held all three of those
offices at one time. He is the only one. He is our
prophet, priest, and king. So all the Gospel, brethren,
perseverance of the saints. It stops being about us, you
know, There's this doctrine men talk about, once saved, always
saved. And what men mean by that, what
religion means by that, is they use it to defend the fact that
a great many people, friends and family and themselves, make
a profession and then go back out into the world and never
darken the church door again. And they say they justify that
rebellion saying, well, once saved, always saved. They got
their name on a church roll. That won't save a man. What's
saved, always saved, in truth means Christ preserves us. And He keeps this fire burning
in our heart for His gospel and His people and we will not part
from Him. Now notice in our text, brethren,
the purpose, John's desire in all of this was for us to have
fellowship with Him and the other apostles, with the Father and
with Christ. That was His desire. That's why
He said we preach. We want you to have fellowship
with us. And truly our fellowship is with God our Father and His
Son, our Lord Jesus. When God's brought us to faith
in Christ, we have the same fellowship. and are in fellowship with the
Apostle John and all the Apostles. We're in fellowship with them.
We just saw we've come to the spirits of just men made perfect
in Mount Zion. Men who already are in glory
with God. And we're in fellowship with
them. Right now, as I preach the Gospel to you, we're looking
at Christ. And you know who they're looking at right now? Christ.
And we're in harmony, in full agreement that He's all. We have the fellowship of free
forgiveness before our Father in Christ, just like the apostles
had. They had the same need of forgiveness
of sin that we have. And all who believe on Christ
experience and share in Christ's justification. That's our fellowship. We all share in Christ's justification. Robert McShane from Scotland,
years ago, made this statement. And this just jumped off the
page at me because at first I thought, how could he make that statement?
But he backs it up with scripture. He said, once the Lord Jesus
was unjustified. because He was made sin, the
sins of many. And it was this that occasioned
His agony in the garden and on the cross. And His only comfort
was, and this is what Christ said, He is near that justifieth
Me. He is near that justifieth Me. And when God justified Him in
Christ, all His people are justified. were justified in Christ. And God's going to show it one
day because Scripture says Christ is coming again without sin. The scapegoat took the sin away
and it's gone forever for His people. And when we see Him again,
He's not going to be bearing sin like He was the last time
we saw Him. He's going to be coming in all
His majesty and glory. God justified the believer in
Christ on the cross. And you being dead in your sins,
in the uncircumcision of your flesh, as He quickened together
with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses. We have fellowship
of free justification. And then all who rest in Christ
have fellowship in God's holiness, the same as the apostles had.
Holiness is not of us, it's of God. You and I come into this
world When we don't have a holy nature, a holy heart, we come
into this world with a heart full of enmity toward God. Now, men object when they hear
us say this because they say, well, we're not as bad as other
men are. Well, up to two other men, you
might be kind. You might be a pleasant and agreeable
person. And they might consider you full
of integrity because you don't lie and steal. But before God,
you are an abomination. That's so, of a man who's dead
in his sin. But in our regenerated state,
He makes us holy. And we're holy in Him. And we
have this holiness from God. That's why he chastens his child,
remember? Hebrews said, to make us continue
to be a partaker of His holiness. And then believers have fellowship
with Christ as His sons. And He is our Father. And that's
what the apostles had. We have it the same as they had.
God's love is everlasting. He freely loved His people in
Christ Jesus the Lord, not based on anything in us. Therefore,
when we fell in Adam, that love didn't change. Not at all. His love is from everlasting
to everlasting. That's why us sons of Jacob are
not consumed. He changes not. And so He sent
His Son because He loved His people. He sent His Son because
He loved His people. He didn't send His Son to make
Him love us. He sent His Son because He did
love us. And this was manifested, the love of God toward us, because
that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might
live through Him. And everybody He loves, they're
going to live through Him. Everybody He loves are going
to live through Him. Christ said to His disciples,
I send unto my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. That's fellowship. We have in
common with Christ our Father. The same Father Christ as we
have. The same God Christ as we have. That's fellowship. That's fellowship. And here's
what the Lord does when He works this in our heart. He brings
us out of our will works religion. By speaking this, He says, Be
ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship
hath righteousness with unrighteousness? Wherefore, come out from among
them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean.
And I will receive you, and will be a father unto you. And you shall be my sons and
daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." And when he speaks that word,
this is how you know he's saved you, called you. Because wherever
you are, you just cannot anymore stand to hear lies spoken against
your Lord Jesus. You can't stand it. You just
can't sit under a message that's going to diminish His glory in
any way. It just nauseates the believer. Because He's spoken that word
affectionately in our heart. And He has separated us. He has
separated us. Scripture says Christ brings
us to the banqueting house and His banner over us is love. Sinner, drop your profession. Drop confidence in your profession.
Drop confidence in anything in you. And flee to Christ. He's everything we need to be
accepted with God. How do I flee to Him? Believe
on Him. Some men won't tell sinners to
do that. They think that since we have
to be born of the Spirit of God, we can't tell people to believe
on Him. What about what the Lord told His watchman to do in the
Valley of Dry Bones? There was all these bleached
out dry bones and what did the Lord tell him to say? He said,
you say to these bones, live. You tell them to do something
they absolutely can't do. And he said, and I'll enter them
by my Spirit and they'll do what you told them to do. That's why
we call on people to believe. Then we behold what manner of
love the Father hath bestowed on us, that we should be called
the sons of God. And the Scripture says, John
said, and it's for that reason that the world knows us not because
it knew Him not. This is why men are set for years.
I've seen this happen. Men are set for years and hear
the Gospel preached, hear the truth preached. And one day they
hear it. They hear what's being preached.
And their countenance changes. And they start staring at the
preacher like a calf staring at a new gate. They're hearing
something they never heard before. And when they hear that, the
Lord either makes them drop their profession and calls them to
Himself, or He makes this gospel death unto death to them. and
they'll depart it, one or the other. Well, I haven't exhausted by
any means what this fellowship is, but let me give you one last
thing. When we have this fellowship with God, Scripture says, if
children, then heirs of God. We're heirs of Him. Scripture
says we're heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. Everything
that the Father has given to Christ, He gives to us who believe
on Him. He that spared not His Son, but
delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him freely
give us all things? He said through Paul, let no
man glory in men, for all things are yours. All things are yours,
whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life,
or death, or things present, or things to come. All are yours,
and you're Christ, and Christ is God's. You see why we have,
why we joy and rejoice when we have this fellowship? That's
what John said. He said, truly, our joy is having
this fellowship with God our Father. and His Son, Lord Jesus.
This is joy. This is why we rejoice. Let's
stand together. Our gracious Father, we thank
You that You've worked all this work for us and brought us into
agreement with You. Lord, thank You for cementing
Your people together fixing us and framing us together so that
we cannot be separated. Nothing shall be able to separate
us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. Lord, thank
you for this fellowship. Don't ever let us take it for
granted. Make us to endeavor to keep this
unity. Make us lay down all our vain
causes and vain confidences Whatever it is that's coming between us
and you. And be reconciled. Fall on our
face and cry out for mercy. Lord, we ask you keep us. Keep us right here, vitally connected
to you. And with one another. We ask
it in Christ's name, amen.