A Formula For Fellowship - Part 1

I John 1:3

A child of God can slip into sin very easily but he should also have a desire to get back into fellowship with God very quickly.

To have fullness of joy you must have fellowship with the God the Father, His son Jesus Christ, and fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

Two relationships with God is sonship and fellowship.  They ought to both be the same but sometimes they are not.  When you become a Christian you are His, He is your Father.  You can still walk in darkness and still be Gods but your fellowship will cease as you are in darkness and so your joy ceases as well.  So you can have sonship without fellowship.  You never stop being His son.

How to have fellowship with God the Father and with His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.  Read verse 6

If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, 

we lie and do not practice the truth;  1 John 1:6

How do you get right with God and stay right with God?

1.  Your sin must be exposed to the Light - “If we walk in the light” (vs 7). 

         Who is the light?  God is light.(vs 5) “… for in Him there is no darkness…”

You just open your life to God and you say, “Lord is there anything in my heart and in my life that is not right with you?”

Many times we don’t want to do that.  We hate the life because our deeds are evil.  But your sin must be exposed to the light.  “If we walk in the light…” (vs 7)  Our     sin must be exposed to the light. 

Look in verse 6.  Look in verse 8.  Look in verse 10….”If we say..”  3 times.  Some people say one thing when the other thing is true.  John is talking about the evolution of a lie.  We first begin to lie to others (vs 6)  and then we lie to ourselves (vs 8) and then we lie to God (vs 10). 

                   vs 6 - If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in 

the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;

vs 7 - but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, 

we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of 

Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

                         

 vs 8 - If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving 

ourselves and the truth is not in us.

        

                   vs 9 - If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him 

a liar and His word is not in us. 

             

If you tell a lie long enough, you really start believing it.  You start making excuses, calling it a mistake, and giving yourself alibi’s, rename it, whatever.   Then finally you start lying to God.  When you lie to God you just stonewall Him and shutout the light.  So therefore you never really have that fellowship with God because you are not walking in light but in darkness.  You pull the veil of darkness over your sin.

Now what you must do is expose yourself to the light.  Just say, “Here I am Lord.  Holy Spirit of God shine your light on me.  Let me know if there is some sin or wickedness in me. Search me o’ God.  Try me and know my heart. Open yourself to God.  Don’t be afraid to do this.  This is not Gods way of punishment this is Gods way of blessing us.  God wants to lead us to fellowship and joy.  But so many of us just want to pull a cloak of darkness over our life.  Expose your sin to the light.  Now the light is the Holy Spirit of God.  The Holy Spirit of God will point out to you that thing in your heart, in your life that is wrong. 

You need to learn the difference between Holy Spirit conviction and satanic accusation.  The Holy Spirit of God convicts the devil accuses.  Now Jesus said, “He will convict you of sin.” But He says of Satan, “He is the accuser of the brethren.”  He accuses you before God and to yourself.

What is the difference between Holy Spirit conviction and devil accusation?  If you don’t know the difference between Holy Spirit conviction and satanic accusation you are going to be in deep trouble trying to have fellowship with God. The Holy Spirit of God will convict you legitimately.  The Holy Spirit of God will never convict you of any sin that has already been confessed and cleansed.  He will not bring it up again.  Lets say you tell a lie to your husband.  You said, “Oh God, I’m so sorry I told a lie. God forgive me.”  You confess that.  God forgives you because you confessed.  Then later on you feel dirty and guilty about that.  Who brought it up again?  NOT GOD.  The devil brought it up.  The devil wants to accuse you to bring you into double jeopardy.  Now the devil is dirty.  Remember what I told you…before you sinned, the devil said, “Oh, go ahead and do it, you can get away with it.”  But after you sinned, the devil will say, “Oh, you will never get away with it.”  Isn’t the devil something.  See he wants to bring up that sin that has been buried in the grave of Gods forgetfulness.  Don’t you let him do it.  The Holy Spirit will convict you legitimately, only a sin that has not been confessed.  But the devil will accuse you illegitimately, something that has already been forgiven. 

Another way the Holy Spirit of God convicts you is not only legitimately, He will convict you specifically.  Now the devil will accuse you generally.  If he cannot get you to dredge up some sin that has already been forgiven, then he will just try to make you feel guilty about anything or over nothing.  He’ll just say, “You are no good.”  Has he ever pulled that on you?  “Your just no good.  You’re unworthy.  God doesn’t love you.  You’re just vile.  You’re just a sinner.  You are no good.”  You are the righteous of God in Christ.  You’ve been saved, redeemed, born again, made a partaker of the Holy Spirit.  But the devil would just like to accuse you generally.  For the Holy Spirit of God convicts you specifically.  The Holy Spirit of God will tell you exactly, precisely, where it is that you went wrong.  You don’t have to do it.  You don’t have to dig around.  You don’t have to poke around.  You just expose yourself to the light and the Holy Spirit like a skilled physician will put His finger on the sore spot and push.  He’ll say you told a lie or you were proud or you were arrogant, or you were cruel, or you were selfish, or you were dishonest, or you were lustful, or you watched that show you ought to not have watched, or you told that lie you ought to not have told.  He is will name it exactly, specifically.  See, until He puts His finger on the sore spot, and tells you exactly what it is, you will really never have a sense of forgiveness.  But with the Holy Spirit of God convicting you legitimately and specifically, then you are going to have that sense of a wonderful cleansing, wonderful forgiveness. 

The third way the Holy Spirit of God will convict you redemptively.  I mean by that this…that He wants to bring you back into fellowship.  He wants to give you joy, he wants to bring you back.  Now, accusation leads to despair.  Conviction leads to confession and cleansing.  Accusation drives you from God, causes you to be morose and guilt ridden.  That’s on the devil.  The devil is the accuser.  He does not want to redeem, he wants to condemn.  But the Holy Spirit of God wants to draw you into fellowship with Himself. 

Adrian Rogers  3/9/09 “A Formula For Fellowship”