Sermon Three - The Conditions of our Fellowship

Introduction

Unless a Christian really knows how to have fellowship with God, he or she will be an easy target for Satan’s efforts to undermine believer's harmony with the Father and the Son. When this harmony is interrupted our fellowship with God suffers and our fellowship with one another suffers.

A. Conformity to a Standard - (vv.5-7) The Requirement Conformity: Consistency; agreement. Amos 3:3 “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?”

Light can have nothing to do with the darkness, except to clear it away. There can be no fellowship where the strongest opposition is provoked. Walking in darkness is opposition to God’s standard. The fellowship of believers with each other depends on their individual fellowship with the Father and the Son. To walk in the light is an identity in the essential element of our daily walk with the essential element of God’s being. Without fellowship with God, there can be no fellowship with one another. Walking in the light describes the effect not of justification, but of sanctification.

Staying on God’s Path: To conduct ourselves in the sphere where God Himself is, as He is in the light, and thus to share the light with Him.

Proverbs 3:1–7 “My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments: For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man. Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.”

Isaiah 2:3 “And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.”

Isaiah 2:5 “O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.”

Standing in God’s Presence: How do we do this? If I enter a lighted room and walk around in it, I am walking in the light; I am moving in a sphere which the light illuminates as it shines not only on me but upon everything around me. If I were to personalize the light, I could also say that I was walking in the presence of the light. God not only is the light, but He is also in the light, to walk in the light must mean essentially to live in God’s presence, exposed to what He has revealed about Himself. Living in God’s presence is done through openness in prayer and through openness to the Word of God in which He is revealed. The believer who wants fellowship with the Lord must maintain an openness to his Lord and a willingness to be honest in His presence about everything that God shows him.

Secured by God’s Pardon: While we walk in the light something else is happening at the same time: The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. We have been cleansed by His blood and we have full forgiveness in Christ. Ephesians 1:7 “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;” This cleansing is ongoing. Every moment of fellowship with the living God is a moment bought for us by the precious blood of God’s sacrificial Lamb.

B. Confession of sin - (vv.8-10) The Result Confession: Confession is “the act of acknowledging.” Proverbs 20:9 “Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?”

Despite the clear teaching of this passage, from time to time it has been claimed that since the born again believer is already forgiven for their sins, there isn’t really a need for them to ask for forgiveness even after they commit sin. Those who take this view are mixing apples and oranges.

It is true there is a perfect and permanent forgiveness that we have “in Christ.”

Ephesians 1:7 “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;”

Ephesians 4:32 “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”

Colossians 2:13 “And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;”

Listen to me very closely when I say this; this is “POSITIONAL RIGHTEOUSNESS!” Therefore “in Christ” our “position” is that of people who have died with Him, been buried with Him, raised with Him, and seated with Him in heavenly places. If this is our “position” before God, there can be no question about our having full forgiveness, since God sees us as alive and seated before Him in His Son.

Numbers 23:21 “He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel: the LORD his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them.”

Although we are seated in Christ as fully accepted and forgiven people we live down here in this sinful world and we live in a sinful flesh, therefore we need daily cleansing. This is where we get into our “PRACTICAL RIGHTEOUSNESS”. This deals with our daily walk and if we are not walking in the light then our “practice” is not pleasing to God.

Deceived - (v.8) When we claim we have no sin we are deceiving ourselves by ignoring the truth His light has revealed.

Jeremiah 17:9–10 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.”

Declared - (v.9) When we confess our sins we are declaring to God we accept the truth in what His light has revealed.

Psalm 32:5 “I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.”

Proverbs 28:13 “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.”

At this moment when we declare the truth God’s light has revealed we have the assurance that the blood of Jesus provides a continual cleansing within our lives.

Defamation - (v.10) when we claim to have never sinned we defame God by saying there is no truth in what His light has revealed. The person who will not acknowledge as sin whatever God calls sin is calling God a liar, by denying the truth of His words. This is in complete contrast to the person who is walking in fellowship with God and agrees with the light and confesses. For the believer, the essential essence of fellowship is our willingness to share the light with God and to agree with everything we can see in that light. When that is the case, God is pleased because He finds “truth in” our inward parts.

Psalm 51:6 “Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.” When truth is found within us we can then enjoy His ongoing fellowship and cleansing.

Conclusion

Are you walking in the Light? Are you walking in Darkness? Is there something you need to confess in your life right now to your Heavenly Father?