Fellowship with one another

November 27, 2016

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Sunday service, Erlo Stegen, 27 Nov 2016

1John 1:7
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.

I remember once I was in Vereeniging, I heard something that broke my heart. During services of Charles Finney in New York, many were converted. As a result the bars, discos, dance halls etc were closed for six years. But after six years they were reopened again. And that saddened me very much. It was wonderful that they were closed down but it’s sad that after six years they opened again.
Louis Harms of Germany said if someone is baptised and take part of the Lord’s supper and then backslides into sin, that person’s hell will be twice as hot. There are people that say once you’re a child of God, then you cannot go lost again. However if you’ve been baptised and taken part in the Lord’s supper it doesn’t give you a license to live as you like.

We read in Heb 10:29, “29 How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?” It’s like a dog eating its own vomit or a pig having been washed to wallowing in the mire (2Pet 2:22). How is such a thing possible?

According to history, when there’s revival amongst white nations, it stops quickly again. But it should not be like that. A Christian should never go back to his / her old life. That’s an abomination. The Bible speaks very clearly about such a state, that it’s the life of a dog or pig. God has no pleasure in such people.
The big question is, what causes a Christian to go back to his old ways?

In 1968 at a meeting, one Christian got up at a wedding and said to the bridegroom, God had created husband and wife to be one. There’s just one thing that can cause separation and that’s sin.

Our text refers to fellowship one with another and fellowship with the Lord Jesus. There’s just one thing that can make a separation and that’s sin.

In John 15:4-6 we read, “4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.”

Salvation is only possible if we abide in Him. Else we will wither. You will notice it when such a person withers. And such a one is on his / her way to hell. Spiritually we can only survive if we abide in the vine.

What does it mean to have fellowship with one another. In the first place we have fellowship with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. But we also have fellowship with one another.

It’s a curse if we call ourselves Christians yet we don’t enjoy that fellowship with God. It’s of utmost importance that we enjoy that fellowship with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Remember the Muslim woman who prayed to Allah to heal her sick child. Then she heard a voice say to her, don’t pray to Allah, pray to Jesus. She didn’t know who Jesus was, so she looked it up in a dictionary. And she read more about Jesus how He died for our sins and arose from the dead. She prayed to Jesus and her child was healed. In town people approached her who were Christians. Her eyes were fixed on them, wanting to see what a Christian looked like. She thought they were so privileged to know the Lord Jesus and be Christians.
What does it mean to us to know the Lord? Do you glibly take His name in vain?

Maybe you don’t even know the significance of Christmas anymore. Maybe it’s just about gifts to you and you forget that it’s because of the greatest gift, Jesus, coming to earth to take our sins away, that our relationship with God can be restored again and we have fellowship with God again.

Now the Holy Spirit wasn’t mentioned in this particular verse, but right through the Bible we find the unity between God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. It also says if we claim to have fellowship with God and don’t have fellowship one with another we’re liars. Are you one with your brother, while claiming to have fellowship with God? This goes deep. If you say you have fellowship with God yet you’re not one with your brother whom you can see, you’re a liar.

We read how the early Christians were of one heart and mind. They even shared all things. So when you see your brother in need you cannot just look on.

The Cross takes away the enmity and brings about love towards one another.

If you say you love God but don’t love your brother you’re a liar. If you’re one with God you’re one with those who are one with Him. In the old testament the word Selah is used, meaning stop and pause and think about it. This is what we must do today.