Part 5 - Keeping Fellowship With God
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Introduction
Introduction
“Fellowship”, we like that word. It has a nice ring to it. It is Baptist for food.
In truth, the word fellowship means “things held in common.” It implies standing together on common ground.
Imagine the glory of this statement, “God desires to have a close, personal relationship with you, where you and God stand together on common ground.” Sounds good doesn’t it? However, to many it sounds impossible! John doesn’t think so! In fact, he tells us exactly how this can take place.
He shows how close communion and intimate fellowship with the Father can be the normal Christian experience, instead of some mystical thing we only hear about, or see in the lives of others.
This is one of the critical and transforming truths that is found in the Bible. The only way to enjoy fellowship with God is through confession of sin.
The gateway to fellowship is biblical confession!
18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear me:
6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
Once we are saved, we can never lose salvation, but the sin in our lives can cause us to lose the joy of salvation!
The thing is, we cannot experience the joy of a thriving relationship with God if we are living in unconfessed sin…Let’s take a look at confession tonight.
The Handling of Confession
The Handling of Confession
1 John 1:9 (KJV 1900)
9 If we confess our sins,
Notice, this verse begins with the statement, “If we confess our sins”…Not, “If we sin”...
The question is not if we sin…We will:
23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
22 But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
20 For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.
So here’s the thing…We sin…The question is whether or not we will confess it. Some people literally believe that it’s not possible to sin after being saved, but we will get into the context a bit more in the next point, but John was writing this to believers...
10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
1 John 1:9 should be one of the key verses that we live by as Christians; it should be practiced all the time, for every sin, in any place.
What is confession? Simply naming your sin to God, specifically, and agreeing with Him concerning the nature of that sin.
Confession is not praying a lovely prayer, or making excuses, or trying to impress God and other Christians. True confession is naming sin—calling it by name as God calls it: envy, hatred, lust, deceit, or whatever it may be. Confession simply means being honest with ourselves and with God, and if others are involved, being honest with them too. It is more than admitting sin. It means judging sin and facing it squarely.
Confession is something that we should be doing every time we sin.
Let me give you an example. If a sinful thought pops into your mind, the moment you catch yourself thinking that thought, confess it.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a sinful thought, a sinful word, a sinful deed, confess that sin the moment you realize it for what it is, and that is: a sin against God!
Before sin can be dealt with, it must be seen as an affront to God. Until sin is recognized as a personal attack on God Himself, it can never be forgiven and there can be no real fellowship with God!
This isn’t being sorry that you got caught, or sorry that you have to face the consequences, but being sorry that you sinned against a thrice-holy God!
I’m thankful tonight that I don’t have to come before a priest to be cleansed of my sins. I can confess them anytime, anywhere, and receive the forgiveness of Christ.
The Heart of Confession
The Heart of Confession
The heart of 1 John 1:9 is fellowship with your Heavenly Father…Let’s look at the context of the verse:
3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
4 And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.
5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
God knows that our sin nature will sometimes prevail and we will sin against Him, this is why we have this passage of Scripture...
When we sin against God, His desire is to restore us back into a right standing with Him.
Psalm 51 is probably the best example of confession we have in the Bible…
1 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: According unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: And my sin is ever before me.
4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, And done this evil in thy sight: That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, And be clear when thou judgest.
5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; And in sin did my mother conceive me.
6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: And in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Make me to hear joy and gladness; That the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
9 Hide thy face from my sins, And blot out all mine iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; And renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from thy presence; And take not thy holy spirit from me.
12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; And uphold me with thy free spirit.
In this, we see David acknowledging his sin in verse 3.
We see him admitting his guilt in verse 4.
Then we see him asking for forgiveness in verses 7-12...
David here exercised true confession of sin, and it strengthened his relationship with God!
The Hope of Confession
The Hope of Confession
There’s a promise here!
1 John 1:9 is one of the most encouraging verses and transforming truths in the Bible because of the hope it offers.
1 John 1:9 (KJV 1900)
9 ...he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
God is faithful to his promises and John teaches us here under guidance and direction from the Holy Spirit that there is a clear promise to all who will lay hold of the procedure that God has mandated.
11 It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him:
12 If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:
13 If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.
Make no mistake about it God is faithful. Even when we are not He remains faithful. He is faithful and just to forgive and cleanse. Amen.
Forgiveness frees us from the punishment of sin and cleansing frees us from the pollution of sin.
Like the old Hymn writer put it, “Because the sinless Savior died, My sinful soul is counted free; For God, the just, is satisfied, to look on Him and pardon me.”
I want you to understand today that because God is faithful to forgive, He is also just to judge. We cannot think that 1 John 1:9 gives us a license to sin. We are to forsake our sins and hate sin just as God hates sin.
Many people use 1 John 1:9 as an excuse to sin…They might think, well, I can go ahead and do this or do that because God’s going to forgive me. I’ve heard friends literally say things like that…Let me tell you that’s wrong; the Bible doesn’t teach that. It’s actually quite the opposite.
26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
It’s good to know that when we do mess up, there is forgiveness to be obtained!
Conclusion
Conclusion
The first and primary step toward fellowship with God is the admission and confession of sin.
You see, you cannot save, nor cleanse yourself. Jesus has already done the work, He simply asks for you to respond to Him by faith. When you do, you will be received, forgiven, cleansed and in fellowship with him.
This is what happens in salvation, but it’s also something that you must practice even after being saved.
1 John 1:9 is a transforming, life-changing verse if it’s applied daily to our lives.
Unless we are confessing sin on a daily basis, we won’t experience victory in other areas of our Christian life.
What’s your situation tonight? Do you need salvation? Christian, do you need to confess something to God and restore fellowship?