1 John 1:9 The ongoing remedy for our sin
In some ways when we get saved or born again the Lord could say ‘I have cleansed every sin from your life so go and sin no more.’
However, we know that we often slip and fall into sin (due to the old sin nature), and we would be stuck in sin if the Lord had not provided an ongoing way to get us back into fellowship with him.
That is what we are going to study today ‘how do we keep in continual fellowship with the Lord.
We can only bear fruit when we are in fellowship with the Lord and when are in sin we can bear no good fruit.
This is like playing badminton say 20 years ago or more, you could only score when serving.
The suggestion is that we can bear fruit only when we are in fellowship with God.
Relationship versus Fellowship
¨ Relationship is permanent.
¨ Fellowship is conditional.
Amos 3:3 Can two walk together, except they be agreed?
Salvation has two parts to it: kindred relationship and fellowship.
If like me, you agree that once saved always saved then our kindred relationship is permanent (eternal). If you disagree then you must consider just how permanent our relationship with Father God is, and what could break it. However, hopefully we can agree that our relationship is stronger than our fellowship.
We are born again into the family of God and are secure in it.
Fellowship (koinonia) is our ongoing interaction with God and can be broken quite easily.
Amos 3:3 can be understood as ‘how can we walk in agreement with a Holy God’? When we are out of fellowship with him through sin.
Fellowship in this context is our old friend koinonia which means an intimate sharing of our life
with God and with our fellow believers.
Fellowship with Him and One Another
1 John 1:5 This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to 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 practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses 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. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
As always when we want to correctly interpret scripture, we need to put in in context.
v5-7 God has no darkness or sin in his being whatever and has no truck with sin.
If we live in sin our fellowship (koinonia) with God is broken and we are kidding ourselves on (self-deception).
If we walk in the Spirit, we are agreed with the Lord, this brings us into fellowship with each other and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.
v8 If Christians say that they do not sin then John says that they are lying indicating an aversion to the truth.
v9-10 We will return to these verses further into the sermon.
In Part 2 we will consider 'the chastening of the Lord'.
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