Fellowship, 1 John 1

I think we all understand that the first epistle of John is not an assembly epistle. I would call it a family epistle. An epistle that looks at the believers as members of a family in relation to a heavenly father.

And so there's not any assembly teaching, church teaching in this epistle, I don't believe. But yet certainly it is truth that applies to every one of us. And would follow along, I believe, with what our brethren have been speaking to us this morning.

We'll read from chapter 1 and verse 1. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of our concerning the word of life. For the life has been manifested, and we have seen it. And bear witness and show, we report unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father and has been manifested unto us.

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. And these things write we unto you that your joy might be full.

This then is the message which we have heard from him, and declare unto you that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light, or perhaps since 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 cleanseth us from all sin.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

I think I'll stop at that point and not read any further. God bless his word. When you read the first epistle of John, you'll understand that John is not writing to try to discourage the believers, but he is writing to discriminate and to give them the ability to recognize those that are truly enjoying fellowship with the Father and those that only claimed to be enjoying such fellowship.

In other words, he's writing to those that they might recognize that they indeed, as genuine believers, were displaying the characteristics of true children, in contrast to those who came claiming a superior kind of knowledge. The knowledge is based on a Greek word that has to do with knowledge, the word gnostic. And that's in the background of the epistle, no doubt, as those who claimed a place of superiority, and yet they were teaching things that were totally contrary to the person of Christ.

They were undermining the position of Christ in the hearts and minds of the believers. They were causing, as a result, disenchantment, or perhaps a lack of fidelity and faithfulness to the Lord Jesus. He's not writing to discourage these believers that are genuine in Christ any more than the sixth chapter of Hebrews is written to try to tell these believers that they would ever lose their salvation.

Father, he says that these things we're writing unto you, that you might be confirmed, that you might be assured, that you might have the confidence of knowing that as you display these characteristics that mark those that are genuine believers, genuine children, those who give the evidence of having the nature of God in their souls, that eternal life, that you might be encouraged as well as be able to recognize those who are coming among you and teaching things that were contrary. When you look at the epistle of John, I think you would notice that there's no mention of the Lord. That word is not found in the epistle.

There are very few mentions of the Spirit of God in the epistle, not until you come to the end of chapter 3 and in chapter 4. The entire emphasis of the epistle is on the Lord Jesus, and that's why it's such a delight to study the epistle and to see the characteristics that mark him and that should be and are displayed in those who belong to him. I think that you would notice in the first epistle of John that he is taking up a number of basic themes and basic characteristics that would describe and be depictions of the person of God himself, first of all, and that were truly manifested in the Lord Jesus and that would certainly also be manifested in those who belong to him. He indicates that there's the element of divine life, eternal life, spiritual life, that is a life of the Father, not the life of God so much as the life of the Father that is manifested in the children, the sons.

John doesn't use the word sons, of course, but he's thinking of it in the terms of those who are children in the family. He speaks about the one who is pure and holy in his intrinsic character, the one in whom there's no darkness whatsoever, absolute holiness, unblemished righteousness. In every way, the one with whom there's none to compare, and yet he says that those who claim to have a relationship with him should certainly manifest those characteristics in their life as well.

And so we also learn in this epistle not only the manifestation of life that was seen in Christ and also, of course, the extent of love, the manifoldness of love, or in this epistle he develops the fact that God is indeed love. And we find that those that are begotten of God have love as well that is of the same character as his. I want to notice with you primarily in the chapter that we have read that this is a chapter that develops or perhaps initiates the theme of the entire book, and that is the uniqueness and the special aspect of knowing fellowship with the Father.

And that is a theme that goes right to the book, right to the last chapter when he develops that element that he says just in a very brief number of words, he says, keep yourselves from idols, because idols are those elements that would come in to ruin your fellowship with God and take away the heart of a child of God from true devotion and love for the Lord Jesus, substitutes, things that we might have been hearing about in some way this morning. And he is developing the thought that those that are truly having fellowship with God manifest certain characteristics, and the manifestation of those characteristics is certainly an indication that they are enjoying such a relationship with God. I say that fellowship is really perhaps one of the great themes of the epistle, even though it's only mentioned in the first chapter.

And you find it four times in this chapter where we read it. He writes the epistle, he says, so that you may have fellowship with us, and that is the apostles. He says the fellowship that we have is apostles with the Father.

The fellowship that we have is with the Father. And then he says farther down that those that are in the light are the ones that have fellowship one with the other. And he says that we have fellowship with him.

There are certain ways, there are certain characteristics of that life. I would take it that when you look in the Bible, we find in Genesis chapter 3 the first suggestion of fellowship, though the word is not found. It seems to me that when you read of the Lord God coming down in the garden in the cool of the day, looking for Adam and expecting to find him, that that was the practice.

That had been continually carried out. God coming down to commune with a man that he had made who had the capability of responding to him, had the ability to recognize his responsibility before God. And what a delightful experience it must have been before sin came into the world and interrupted that relationship.

It seems when the words say that God came, the Lord God came to that point of meeting and found that Adam was not there. And so the Lord God went looking for Adam, calling Adam, where art thou? Because when fellowship with God is lost, it's not God who has interrupted it, it's man who has departed from it. And when we lose that enjoyment of fellowship with God as believers, it's not because God himself would not desire to know fellowship with you and me.

He desires that perhaps more than we do. The problem is that we have allowed things to come into our life that would separate us from God, the Father. Again, you find the suggestion of fellowship in chapter 5 of Genesis.

I read about a unique man that in the midst of a wicked and corrupt generation that was increasingly so, that Enoch walked with God. It's been said more than once, and I believe it's really true, that Enoch walked from that point in life when he was 65 years old, he walked with God continuously. Every day of the remainder of his life he walked in fellowship with God.

And since it requires agreement for two to walk together, we find that he was in agreement with God about his own life, agreement with God about the requirements of God. He was in agreement with God about the condition of the world around him. He was moving in harmony with the mind of God and manifesting a character of life that also indicated that relationship was prevalent in his life.

We have another example of fellowship, perhaps on a different scale, and that is in chapter 14, where you read about Abram going to deliver his brother Lot from the men that had captured him and those of Sodom and Gomorrah. We read about those who were confederate, confederate with Abram. And you find them going together for a common purpose and working together for the deliverance of those that have been taken captive.

And so we have different suggestions of fellowship right through the Word of God. It's almost as if that is a theme that is impressed upon the sacred page, the desire of the God in heaven to know fellowship with you and me and with mankind in general. Lovely to see the consummation of the entire book.

When you come to Revelation, you read in that chapter that the tabernacle of God is with men and He will dwell among them. What a day that is going to be. Nothing to separate between man and God on the enjoyment of the condition for which God made man in the very beginning.

They might know the sweetness of fellowship with God. Could I say to every one of us here today that more than anything else in a believer's life, that precious, daily, constant fellowship with God is more important than anything else that you and I can be or do. We emphasize service, and rightly so.

Importance in the gospel. Activities in the assembly. But those who are walking in fellowship and harmony with God are the ones who are the most effective in their service for the Lord.

Fellowship. If you look at the first chapter of 1 John, where I'd like to concentrate my thoughts for the remainder of my time, you notice, of course, there's a very striking relationship between it and the gospel of John, in the very beginning of it. Only that in the beginning of John's gospel, he is emphasizing the person, the one who was the word from the beginning.

In the beginning was the word. Whereas in 1 John chapter 1, he is speaking about the things concerning the word of life. That is, those things that have to do with the manifestation of the Father in the Son.

That which is called the word of life. The one that is connected with the possession of life that you and I enjoy in Christ. And all the riches of God's infinite blessings that have been showered upon us.

You notice in this chapter, first of all, that he is emphasizing in the first two or three verses that that fellowship and that ability to know the Father depends on a definite desire of God Himself to reveal Himself. It is God Himself that has come out toward you and me and made this possible. You notice that first of all, he says that this, that he wants to communicate to these believers is not some new truth, like these false teachers were bringing among them.

Something new and different. I think it could be said that there is no new truth. Anything that is new truth is likely not truth.

There is no new truth and there is no new heresy either because when the canon of Scripture was closed, the canon of heresy was closed as well. And the wrong teachings that we see all around us in the world today that deny the deity of Christ, that question the perfection of the humanity of Christ, the efficacy of the sacrifice of Christ, and everything else that pertains to the vital basic doctrines of the Word of God, they all are found in the New Testament in the days of the apostles. So all that we need to combat heretical teaching that we encounter day by day is found right in this sacred page.

And the Word of God is sufficient to answer those who would take such stands against the truth. And so John is emphasizing the fact that what I want to convey to you, he says, is based on an actual reality, not some fantastic visions that I've had, not some strange ideas that have been propagated, not some kind of esoterical or ecstatic experiences. No, he says, I want you to know that this truth that is so vital for the enjoyment of fellowship with the Father is that which God has made known in genuine reality in a tangible way, a visible way.

You can see in verse 1 that he is saying that the word that he is speaking about, the word of life, was audible. It was visible, and it was tangible. And John doesn't say that the word was from the beginning, like he says in John's gospel, because what he's emphasizing is the word, the teaching, the revelation, the manifestation of God that is in this person.

And while the distinction is being made between the person and the message, you cannot separate the two because the person is the message, and the message pertains intrinsically to the person. We read in Hebrews chapter 1 that in time past, God's spoken to the fathers by the prophets. Now he says in these last days he's spoken inside.

But God's last word for man is centered in one person, and that person is God's great message for the world. And what John is saying is that which was from the beginning, and I don't care when you put the beginning, we can try to establish it in terms of creation. We can establish it perhaps in relation to the experience of the apostles in this epistle.

It doesn't make really a lot of difference because the verb is most important, was, which indicates that whenever you plant your standard, whenever you plant your beginning, he already was, because it implies eternal existence. In the beginning, the word was existing. Without beginning, without any creation.

And speaking, of course, against those who would imply that the one who came into this world was a creation of God, but no, he says that's not true. He already was. And at the beginning of creation, he was.

He's the creator of all things. So that which was from the beginning, as far back as they can go in their minds and even still farther, that one, he says, was from the beginning. An unoriginated origin.

And let's be very careful that we maintain the doctrinal truth concerning the Lord Jesus. You know, if you're not right concerning Christ, you're not going to be right in the rest. That's what John Newton said.

So what thinking of Christ is a test. To try both your state and your scheme, you cannot be right in the rest unless you think rightly of him. The basis of every doctrine that touches upon the practical life and the enjoyment of Christianity in your soul and mind centers upon the Lord Jesus.

And so we must be very careful how we think and speak concerning him. I'll say at this point, there's something that I've been hearing lately. And maybe I'll be looked at as being critical and too critical about it.

But I'm disturbed about some brethren that I've heard praying to the Father and telling the Father that they thank him for coming down into the world and becoming a man and living in this world and ultimately going to the cross. It's not the Father went to the cross. It's not the Father came into this world.

But I've heard that, brethren, publicly more than two or three times. And that either indicates fuzzy thinking, careless expression, or just simple ignorance. Let's be careful how we address our prayers and our worship.

It's not the Father came to this world. The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. And he came for the purpose of accomplishing the work.

God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. But that doesn't mean God himself was the one. He was in the person of Christ bringing this about and accomplishing this work of reconciling all things unto himself.

So, brethren, be careful how you speak in prayer. Because carelessness in prayer can result in carelessness in teaching, and carelessness in doctrine. John is saying that the one that I want to speak to you about, the message that is pertaining to him and what is conveyed to you and me in him, he says, first of all, we heard and we were hearing.

It implies a thought that wasn't just once that he heard him, but over a period of time. Three and a half years, John said, we heard him. We heard John speak about him.

We heard him speak to us. We heard him call us. We heard him teach us.

We heard him unfold the truth of God to us. He said, we were hearing him. He says, what we heard of him is still resounding in our hearts.

It is remarkable that what men saw and heard concerning the Lord Jesus never seemed to leave them. It resided in their souls with power and ability to change them. And it never was forgotten.

I've noticed a number of occasions in the New Testament where there are those men who saw something concerning God or the Lord himself and never forgot it. Something about the sight of Christ and something about hearing the word of Christ had a lasting impact upon them. And when you and I hear the Lord speaking to us in a very distinct way, it will affect our life and our behavior.

We can't get away from it. He says, not only were we hearing the word that he spoke, but we were also seeing him. We were observing him.

We had our eyes put upon him over a period of time. He would take that to imply his period of humanity. As he moved in and out among the disciples or among the people, he said, we were hearing him and we were seeing him.

And not only that, he says, that which we looked upon according to a distinct act, a very definite event, or perhaps more than one event, but in a way that it seemed to make a tremendous impact upon his thinking. We looked upon him. And it means that we saw him in a way of observing and understanding what we were seeing.

Does that take us to the open tomb? For John, you remember, stooped down and went in and he saw. He saw with understanding. He saw something that Peter never saw prior to that point.

He said, we saw, we beheld. And not only that, he says, we handled. You hear the words of the Lord Jesus in Luke chapter 24, Handle me and see, for spirit hath not flesh and bone as you see me have.

So he takes him to the humanity of Christ and says over that period of time, we heard him and we saw him. And then we had the moment when we understood. We saw with understanding.

We handled him. He said, this was a real man. A real man.

He's, of course, counteracting the teaching of those that said the Lord Jesus did not have a genuine body. It was only the appearance of a body. He says, if you believe that, you don't have fellowship with the Father.

I forget who it is. Someone said that John wrote his gospel to prove the deity of Christ from the standpoint of his humanity. He wrote the epistle, the first epistle, to prove the humanity of Christ from the standpoint of his deity.

Think about that. He's looking at both aspects, but in one aspect, in the gospel, he's emphasizing his deity. The one that was truly God manifest in flesh.

In the first epistle, he's emphasizing his humanity, a genuine man. That's why when you come over in the epistle, he says, he that believeth not Jesus Christ come in flesh is not of God. It doesn't mean he first came, he just came into the world.

It doesn't mean he just became human. It means he came in flesh and that's what he still is. He took upon himself humanity.

So John says, what I'm telling you is based on real experience. Isn't there something about that that should touch your heart and mind? That his fellowship with the Father stems from real, genuine experience of being brought to know him and hear him and experience a reality of one who desires that you and I might walk in fellowship with him. You know, you don't have fellowship with just a strange idea or something that these philosophers were teaching.

No, he says the only one that you can really have fellowship with is by means of a genuine person. I'd ask you and me sometime to think about it. How real is Christ in your heart or in mine? Do you hear him? Do you hear his voice? Do you get a glimpse of Christ in the word of God? Is he just almost like a figure, a phantom, an ethereal individual? Or does he have reality? Because our fellowship with the Father is based on a real person.

And one that we need to develop that consciousness continually. He's real in my life, a real person that I can know. He says not only that, our hands handle concerning the word of life.

He says the life has been manifested. In John's Gospel he says the word became flesh. That's the incarnation.

But here he says the life has been manifested. That character of life that was of the Father, that life that was eternal, that life has been manifested, revealed to you and me. Primarily he's thinking of the manifestation of that life to the apostles.

He says we saw him. We know what kind of life he possessed. We know the kind of life he expressed.

And we know that life because we have entered into the good of it, we enjoyed ourselves. And so we find, he says, that life has been manifested, it has been revealed, displayed in its true character as it truly is. And we have seen it and heard.

Notice he reverses the order. We have seen it and heard. Not heard and seen.

Because seeing is more emphatic than just hearing. And he wants to emphasize to them that this is a genuine manifestation, a divine eternal life. A life that was with the Father and manifested in a person.

You know the things of God are not known by natural senses unless God designs and determines to reveal it in that way. 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 6 is it, I have not seen nor ear heard the natural means of receiving truth and learning. He says that's not the way that man learns the truth of God.

He has revealed it to us by his spirit. So he says this one that we're telling you about is one who we have seen and heard. We've seen that life and we've heard.

And so he says it was with the Father from eternity and has been manifested unto us. I go more quickly. He says that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you so that you also may have fellowship with us.

What does that really mean? Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. Listen, we need to be very clear and careful about it and that is that fellowship with God always depends on the apostolic doctrine that has been taught by these who are given the responsibility to do so. John is simply saying if you want to have fellowship with the Father you must be in fellowship with us apostles because we are the ones that are conveying the truth of Christ to your soul.

You never saw him, you never heard him, you never touched him. We did. And we are teaching you the truth that is concerning this life and those that are coming upon you and trying to infiltrate with their own teachings.

He says they've never had the experience of knowing the reality of Christ personally. And so he says that which we have seen and heard we declare it unto you because for one great reason we want you to enjoy fellowship with us the apostles. And our fellowship as apostles is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

We heard something, maybe we didn't this morning. Well there's something called the Emerging Church. I don't know if it's a church at all.

This claims to be a church. It's a church system. The Emerging Church basically says, I think it was Brother Skates that said this, leave your doctrines at the door.

Doctrine divides. We don't have any interest in doctrine. We want a warm feeling that makes everyone welcome.

I hope you're not being taken in by that. Because this passage teaches us that apostolic doctrine, the doctrine given to us by the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ is essential to enjoying fellowship with the Father, with one another. Fellowship does depend on doctrine.

Fellowship depends on agreement. Fellowship depends on more than an emotional experience. It's more than a warm feeling.

It's more than just getting along. It's more than compromise. Fellowship, brethren, depends on agreement on the doctrines that the apostles have given to us in the Word of God.

If we depart from them, there's no fellowship. And so he says, we're writing these things so that you might have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ, because we know Him that has manifested the Father to us.

I'm writing these things, he said, to you so that your joy, some translations put it, our joy, and that our would include yours as well, that all of our joy might be full. And so we learn very simply that joy in the life of a believer depends on knowing fellowship with the Father. You see a believer that gets out of fellowship with God, gets away from God and soul and sin has come into life where idols have been erected and objects of their affection have taken its place, you'll find that in that life there will be an absence of joy.

You'll be discouraged. You'll be perhaps happy in certain ways, but the genuine joy that should flood their soul. There's no joy like the joy that a believer has when they're walking in harmony with God.

I've experienced that. You've experienced it. You know that when your heart gets cold and you're not in the right relationship with the Lord, the joy is no longer there.

But what a joy comes in when there's restoration. And that is revived in the soul of a believer. Now, quickly.

I'd better not take the entire afternoon. But notice that he says in relation to that, he says, this then is a message, which you have heard from Him, that is God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. When did the apostles hear that message? When do you find that recorded in the New Testament, in the Gospels? When? When? I'm sure that the Lord taught them that.

But I would suggest to you that they received that message from Him. This is the message we have heard from Him. Because they saw the expression of light in Christ.

And it was enough for them just to see it displayed in all of its reality. You remember what Acts chapter 1 and verse 1 says? These things I write unto you, O Theophilus, because of all the things that Jesus began to do and teach. So that He displayed before them the reality of the light of God manifested in a person.

And when they saw what He was and what He did and how He conducted Himself, the character of light that was manifested, they recognized this is represented to us, expressing to us what God really is. John chapter 14, the Lord Jesus said to His disciples specifically, is it Thomas? Philip? Have I been so long with you, Philip? And you say, show me the Father? He said, He that has seen Me has seen the Father. And so He had come to manifest the Father to the people.

And He says, what we have received of Him is the fact that in God Himself manifested in Christ, there's absolutely no impurity. I was thinking yesterday, driving over from Black Earth, thinking about the holiness of God. I wish I appreciated more.

When we think of God and His holiness, we recognize it's a holiness that is incomparable with anything that man has ever known or displayed. Something that's so infinite, unmeasurable, and certainly irreplaceable and inimitable. It cannot be imitated.

But the standard of holiness that far exceeds anything that we can possibly appreciate in a proper way. He says, that's the one that I'm speaking to you about. One that does not have even the particle, the slightest particle of darkness in Him.

Pure light, pure holiness, pure righteousness. One that cannot tolerate sin. He says, that's the one you've got to know.

That's the one that if you're going to have fellowship with Him, you must know what kind of person He is. So that the first requirement for holiness in this passage coming down to the end of the chapter is a moral likeness to Christ. That doesn't say that we always are perfectly like Him.

And I acknowledge very quickly that I'm not. And I'm sure you would say in your own heart, there's a far, there's much that should be expressed that is never expressed in my life to this point. But what He is saying is that the position of a believer that is in fellowship with God and has been brought into the light, that's where He is.

That's His position. We walk in the light. We might not always walk according to the light.

We fail, we fall, we falter. But He says, we are in the light. And thank God that's where He has put us because that's where we are in Christ.

He says, if we say that we walk in the light, in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and we walk in darkness, that's total opposite to what He really is. How can two walk together except to be agreed? So He says, those might claim to be in fellowship with God, and you might see multitudes even in the world today that say that they're enjoying fellowship with God or they're living on a high spiritual plane.

He says, if they walk in darkness, they lie and do not the truth. In other words, He says, there's a moral standard that is required because there are those who are coming among them, and they were trying to teach them that we live on a high level of spiritual relationship with God. And yet their lies were the very opposite.

There must be a consistency between the displayed life of a believer and that which we profess to enjoy with the Father. I'm aware very much in my own life of inconsistencies. I'm sure you are as well.

It grieves us, doesn't it? The recognition that this is what I know is right, this is what is constantly brought before me as a standard that should regulate my behavior. And yet, I fall so far short. He says, if we say we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, if that is the characteristic of the life, if that is the practice, is that the normal environment of the life? He says, we lie and do not the truth.

John's very definite. But notice what he says as well, and I'm going to close very quickly, but he says, if we walk in the light, or since that's where you and I are, brethren and sisters, that's where God has put us. We are in the light in a positional way.

He says, not only do we walk in the light, but as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with the other, one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. He says, we have fellowship one with another. Now, what does he mean? Well, we'd naturally say we have fellowship with other believers, other believers that are in the light, right? Isn't the theme of the chapter, we have fellowship one with the other, with the Father? Our fellowship is primarily with the Father.

He says here, if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, there is to be a characteristic pattern of life that we can enjoy fellowship with Him. And not only fellowship with the Father, which is fundamental and most important, but he says also fellowship with the apostles. A unity of fellowship.

And that would also be reflected in unity with God's people, who are also in the light. And there's a sweetness of fellowship. You remember Psalm 133, verse 1, says how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.

It's the only time you read about unity in the Old Testament. And you only find it in the New Testament, Ephesians chapter 4. It's a product of the Spirit of God operating in the life of a believer. And fellowship is a precious thing.

Fellowship in the assembly. Fellowship with others of like precious faith. Fellowship with those who are also in the light and enjoying fellowship with the Father, and with that which the apostles have been teaching.

So he says we have fellowship one with the other, but he says the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin. That's what maintains us in the enjoyment of this fellowship. I like what I read in relation to this little expression, that it's the nature of the blood of Christ to cleanse us from all sin.

It's not a repetition of the work, it's not a need for another sacrifice, it's not a need for another application of the blood of Christ. No, the nature of the blood of Christ is that it will cleanse you and me from all sin. It could do nothing else.

And our maintenance of that fellowship is the enjoyment of the fact that there was a sacrifice made once for all that is still efficacious, it still has its effect, it's still that which applies to each one of us. We rest in the assurance of it that that blood is cleansing, has cleansed us from all sin. Now I know that that word, the word cleanseth us is that which goes on day by day, the enjoyment of it, but notice down the chapter in verse 9, he says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

So that we look in the last part of this chapter, we notice that not only does fellowship with the Father require a moral likeness to him and a proper standing before him, it also requires a sensitivity to sin to enjoy fellowship with God, with Father. He says if we confess our sins, that implies that when you and I sin, we are aware of it. And I understand, I should say I'm reading from, I'm quoting from someone I read in relation to the sin offering.

In relation to the priest, there's no indication of a lapse of time between the actual event of sinning and the offering of a sacrifice. What seems to indicate that the greater the spiritual apprehension of a believer is, the more immediately he'll be aware of the fact that I've sinned. And he'll seek to have forgiveness from it.

He says, he doesn't say if we ask forgiveness for our sins. A lot of believers are always constantly asking God to forgive them. Isn't that almost an insult? Because God has promised to forgive our sins if we confess them.

And confessing simply means saying the same thing. That when God by his Spirit convicts us of sin, regardless of what kind it is, what degree it is, how much it might be, there's a response from within that says, yes, I have sinned. And the recognition is that I need to have forgiveness.

Confession of sin is to agree with God about it, telling God exactly what I've done. And I can rest upon the assurance the blood of Jesus Christ is cleansing me, cleanses me. He is faithful and just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

The expression in verse 7 indicates something that is constantly effective. The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin. But when you come to verse 9, it's the point in time that when I confess my sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us.

What does that tell us? Well, I don't know about you, brethren, but it tells me that the Father in heaven earnestly desires to maintain fellowship between us and him. He's done everything possible so that we can enjoy fellowship with God. Fellowship with the apostles, fellowship with one another.

It's our responsibility to avail ourselves of the provisions that have been made for us so that we can enjoy that unique, special, spiritual relationship with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. So that we have this principle of fellowship right through the epistle. It seems to me that is something he desires that you and I enjoy day by day, uninterruptedly until our traveling days are done then to be, to enjoy fellowship with him for all eternity.

May God help us to appreciate the reality of what he has done, what he has manifested to you and me so that we might enjoy fellowship with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.