Things found in the family of God

I want to read out of a letter from the Father, so I'm going to read in 1 John. This is a letter from the Father at home to the children here, I'm not going to say in the world, but on the earth. Now, I don't know if you've ever been away from home.

I did a hitch in the Army and one in the Navy. And every now and then I would get a letter from home. And it was a wonderful thing to get a letter from home, get the news from home.

And you even got the idea that maybe somebody at home really loved you and had an interest in you, and they'd send you a letter, write you a letter to encourage you. Well, here we are, the children, away from home, down here in this world, moving through it. And the Father has written us a letter.

It's a lovely letter. First Epistle of John. So I'm going to pick out a few verses out of this lovely letter from home.

Before I say anything else, John, in this letter, he's insisting on likeness. Like the Father, like the Son. So we're going to read in chapter 1, at 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. Verse 4. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. Now come over to chapter 2 and verse 1. My little children, these things write I unto you, that you sin not.

And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. Now chapter 2 and verse 10. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.

Verse 12. I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake. I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known Him that is from the beginning.

And I write unto you, young men. Children, fathers, young men. Because ye have overcome the wicked one.

And I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father. Now verse 15. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.

If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Chapter 3. Verse 3. And every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure. There's eight things found in the family.

Fellowship in the family. Joy in the family. Sin in the family.

Affection in the family. Forgiveness in the family. Growth in the family.

Separation in the family. And purity in the family. I have ten minutes.

Ten minutes. Alright? I'm going to think about fellowship in the family. Are you in fellowship in the assembly of the Lord's people? And if you're in fellowship and I'm in fellowship in the assembly of the Lord's people, then I'm involved.

It's like a partnership, a companionship. And I mentioned this morning over in Dunkerton, so if I mention a few things that I mentioned over there, I'm sure that the brethren from Dunkerton that are here this afternoon will bear with me. They've been bearing with me for years, so let's, you know, one more day.

That'll work. Fellowship in the assembly, being involved. And when I leave the assembly, say for example, whether it's a ministry meeting, a gospel meeting, or a remembrance meeting, and I'm driving down the road and I think to myself, what did I get out of assembly today? Is that a correct question? Or should I ask myself this, what did the assembly get out of me today? How did I contribute? In what way did I help the people of God and the furtherance of the kingdom? Fellowship in the assembly of the Lord's people.

So if you're in fellowship in the assembly of the Lord's people, are you involved? Are you in a partnership with Him? Are you a companion to those other folks that are in assembly fellowship? Something we can all ask ourselves. And verse 4, we read about joy in the family. Isn't it a wonderful thing that you and I have something to rejoice over? You know, things of time and sense, things we can see and feel and touch, they might make us happy.

And those are really things that are on the outside. But joy is something that is on the inside. It's the second fruit of the Spirit.

It's joy that you have and joy that I have over the knowledge that sin is forgiven and heaven is our home. Paul the Apostle wrote a letter to the Philippians. It's permeated with the idea of joy and rejoicing.

And when you stop and think about the circumstances of his life and the situation that he was in, and if I was in the same situation, I wonder how joyous I would be if all I had for companions were the rats that were in the dungeon. And so you see, it wasn't something from the outside of him that brought joy to his heart. It was something that was within his very being.

And it was there simply and solely because he was saved and born again the Bible way and washed in the precious blood of Christ. Joy in the family. We ought to be the happiest people in the world.

And people ought to see that happiness and that joy in us. You ever go to the mall? Sometimes Jan and I go to the mall. And Jan goes into different little shops in the mall than I do.

She goes into the soap and the bubble bath thing, whatever that is, whatever, you know. All them good smells in there, I guess. And I do what the old guys do.

I sit down on the bench, and I always look for a bench that has a back on the bench so I can rest my old back on this bench. And I'm sitting there with the other old guys, and I'm watching people coming up and down the tramway. And rare do you ever see a smiley face.

And I sometimes wonder how sad people really are. And I wonder what my face looks like when I'm sitting on the bench with the rest of the old guys. Fisher Hunter used to say, do you have a coffee pot face? Or do you have a tea cup face? He liked tea.

So if he saw a smiley face, then he linked that up with tea. If he saw a sad face, he linked it up with coffee. Oh, I like coffee.

Tea's all right once in a, oh, maybe once a month for me. Starbucks. That's a little rough on me, but I do like Seattle's Choice.

Enough of that. And then you come to chapter 2 and verse 1, and there's sin in the family. So I guess we need a bar of soap, right? Because we're not sinless.

Ideally, we sin less, unless you're a Nazarene. I met a Nazarene fellow one time, and I was sitting having a cup of coffee sitting alongside of him in a restaurant. And he told me that he had reached sinless perfection.

I said, how can that be? You're sitting here in this chair alongside me. You're not in the glory yet, so you can't have reached sinless perfection. But he actually believed that he had attained to some point in his life where he never sinned.

And I said, you've already sinned by telling me that you never sin. If we say we have no sin, we lie and do not the truth. But, we have that Christian bar of soap, don't we? If any man sins, we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ, the Righteous.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And you come to verse 10 of chapter 2, you have affection in the family. There should be affection in the family.

And my love for you and your love for me, I don't display to the world my love for you by the necktie that I wear. I don't even know where I got this. It doesn't matter.

So that's not how I display my affection for the people of God or for the dear unsaved that are all around us. And the sisters aren't displaying their affection for the people of God by the cap that they wear on their head. And my wife says, that's not a cap.

So it's not a cap. It's a hat. But some of them hats look like caps.

It looks like I could wear some of them. That's alright. I kind of like them.

Kind of nifty. I believe we read in John 13, don't we? By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye have love one for another. That's the badge we wear.

Love one for another. Affection for the people of God. Affection for the dear unsaved.

You know, Mr. I can't get his name, but then I'm getting kind of old. Mr. Ballhagen. I used to pray with him down in Walthall County, Mississippi.

He'd get down on his knees and he'd pray. And before he'd ever get off of his knees, he'd say, Lord, he'd say, give us more love for the lost. I wonder how much love I have for the lost and how much love you have for the lost.

You know, lost children, thee and me and our son John. But how about the old man down on the street corner with the shabby coat? How much love do we have for them? How about them folks that run up and down the coast with dreadlocks, shabby coats, fat dogs, and empty pockets? And how much love do we have for them? You know, inside of that old coat, there's a soul, an individual, a person, a personality looking out of their eyes. And God would have us to love them because He loves them.

Probably don't love their dreadlocks either or their shabby coat, but He loves that individual within that coat, the one that's wearing them dreadlocks and the one that's smoking pot on the street in Oregon because it's legal. Grow it in your garden. Smoke it on the street.

That's how it works. And God has a love for them. I should have a love for them as well.

Then there's forgiveness in the family. Anybody here today you need to forgive? You know, sometimes we forgive and we don't forget. Well, if we don't forget, we certainly haven't forgiven.

And I put it this way, it's like burying the cat in the backyard. Right? You leave the old cat buried in the backyard for about four months and then go dig him up. A pretty bad odor.

Well, that's like forgiveness without forgetting. If there's someone that you need to forgive or I need to forgive, then we need to forgive them and forget the problem. I'm going to make it.

Two minutes to go. Okay? Then there's growth in the family. And God would like to see His children grow just like you like to see your children grow and I like to see my children grow.

And the thing that is going to cause us to grow spiritually is based upon what we're feeding on. And so what are we feeding on? Worldly literature? Television programs? Oh, I could go on and on with it, but you've got as big an imagination as I do. But the thing that will cause us to grow spiritually is the Word of God.

We heard about sowing the seed. Well, where do you go to get the seed to sow? You've got to go to the greenery. Oh, where's the greenery? Here's the greenery right here.

The greenery is the Word of God. No, I'm not going to steal my brother's thunder. Then there's separation in the family.

Love not the world. Neither the things that are in the world. And then I'm going to quit, but I'm going to tell you this story.

I don't have very many stories. Aren't you glad? But here's a story I heard years ago. The old brethren in La Crosse told us about this preacher who came.

And he would preach on separation. And then the next time he came in, he would preach on separation again. And finally, somebody approached him at the door one night and said, brother, the next time you come, I wish you'd preach on love.

He says, I will. And so he came. And he opened up the Bible and he read this.

Love not the world. Neither the things that are in the world. Things that are found in the family of God.

The Lord bless you, if you have thoughts.