Pastor Paul Chappell: Fellowshipping in the Light

first john chapter 1 verse number 5 this then is the message we which we have heard of 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 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 father thank you for the church and we know that you build the church lord you add to the church such as should be added but we want to be setting the sail so that the wind can blow and bring revival and so that the church will be what you wanted to be we know that your word is the primary tool used in building up the church and so help us as we open it tonight i pray bless the song we're about to hear in jesus name i pray amen you may be seated first john 1 and verse 5 the bible is speaking to us now this then is the message that we have heard of him and declare unto you that god is light and in him is no darkness at all there was a problem in the early churches around asia minor and the apostles often wrote to correct the problems the bible says that we're to preach the word we're to be instant in season out of season we are to reprove rebuke and exhort as pastors and in these epistles john is writing to give some rebuking to the agnostics and some exhortation to the faithful christians who would follow the lord jesus christ godly pastors as spiritual shepherds must warn their flocks about false teachers and the doctrinal errors they spread and this is what the apostle is doing you see we believe that fellowship is essential the local church fellowship is essential but satan through the years will bring in various philosophies or false doctrines to disrupt the fellowship and that's what was happening in the early churches the false teaching was called gnosticism the idea that uh there might be a god but uh you couldn't be 100 sure the idea that uh jesus uh was uh not uh god in the flesh only in the spiritual sense was another one of the fallacies that they promoted and that's why the bible says in acts 20 and in verse 28 to the elders at ephesus take heed therefore into yourselves and do all the flock over the which the holy ghost hath made you overseers to feed the church of god which he hath purchased with his own blood for i know this that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you not sparing the flock also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them similarly john wrote this particular letter of first john to protect the believers of asia minor by reiterating to them the truth remember what i said a moment ago we must build and then sometimes we must do what rebuild and we must teach and then sometimes we must re-teach repetitions the key to learning the gnostics had changed the truth of god into a lie and so they were teaching that you could claim to know god and live in darkness and john is saying that you cannot live in darkness and truly know god and truly be a believer and so i want to speak to you tonight about the subject of fellowshipping in the light fellowshipping in the light what does it mean to be a true believer who is fellowshipping in the light and how can the light be used to shine and to expose the false teachings and the darkness now three thoughts tonight and i want you to notice first of all the illumination of the lord the illumination of the lord the bible in verse 5 says this is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you that god is light now we see before us this evening a message that is given and we see the witness uh is john himself john the witness is giving to us in verse 5 a message it is a message notice it says that we have heard from him so once again he's emphasizing as he did in previous verses that which we have seen that which we have heard and so forth we declare unto you and again he's saying to these believers i'm simply sharing with you what i heard of him look at what he's saying is you can go to the gnostics to the false teachers for this message or you can hear it from me but i want to tell you i heard it directly from the lord jesus christ i saw him i was with him i know that he was fully man and he was fully god and in fact he showed himself alive to us by many infallible proofs first john chapter 5 and verse 20 says and we know that the son of god has come and hath given us understanding that we may know him that is true and we are in him that is true even in his son jesus christ this is the true god and eternal life and so john says this then is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you he said i want to declare to you what i have found to be true from the lord jesus christ and so the witness that is speaking is the apostle john and how many of you are thankful that we have the word of the witnesses found here in the new testament that that this is truly given to us by the holy spirit from men who had personally witnessed the resurrected christ and so the witness is john but notice here as we study uh this subject of the illumination notice secondly the wonder that he speaks about the wonder is found also in verse 5 it says and declare unto you that god is light and in him is no darkness at all now the wonder of all the statements about the essential being of god none is more comprehensive than this statement god is light god is light the very nature of god is light god's very being and makeup is light jerry vines in his commentary on first john wrote god is light john does not say god has light or god is a light god in his nature is light god's essence his very being is light now you'll go and sometimes in a bookstore perhaps see the new age section and you'll see their books about shining lights and you'll hear about their experiences uh with uh with some uh illumination so called but god is not one of the lights or another light he is the source of all light that is true he is the light the bible says in first timothy 6 16 who only have immortality dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto whom no man hath seen nor conceive to whom be honor and power everlasting light speaks of the holiness of god it speaks of the purity of god and the cleanness of god isaiah 60 and 19 the sun shall be no more thy light by day neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee but the lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light and thy god thy glory thy son shall no more go down neither shall the moon withdraw itself for the lord shall be thine everlasting light in the days of thy morning shall be ended jesus christ is the light of salvation he is the light of heaven he is the light of truth god is light the nature of god is light and the light of god has been revealed to us the bible says here god is light and in him is no darkness at all now then there is a positive aspect to light and there is a negative aspect to light the negative being that the light dispels the negativity of the darkness for light contains no darkness turn if you would for a moment to second corinthians chapter four and verse four as we understand just a little more about the nature of god as is described in 1st john that god is light and i want you to see an amazing passage second corinthians chapter 4 and verse 4 as we consider the illuminating power and resonance of god as the light of the world and notice what it says here second corinthians 4 verse 4 it says speaking of the gospel in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not lest the light of the glorious gospel of christ who is the image of god should shine unto them in other words there are some people that satan through philosophy through perhaps uh satanic influence satan has blinders on their eyes and the scriptures say so that the light of the gospel is not yet penetrating into their minds in fact it says the light of the glorious gospel who is the image of god should shine unto them and so their lights the light of the gospel is not shining through their eyes and verse 5 says for we preach not ourselves but christ jesus the lord and ourselves your servants for jesus sake for god who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of god in the face of jesus christ how many of you are thankful that the light of god has shone into your heart and showed you that you were a sinner and you needed christ the savior let me say to some of you that grew up at lancaster baptist and thank god those of you that were children when you were saved and many of you are grown and still here but let me just say something you need to go back and relive that salvation and thank god that even as a child you understood that you were a sinner and that the light of the gospel shone into your heart and that you realize because god is light that you had a darkness problem and that you allowed the light of the gospel to bring salvation into your life throughout the scripture god guides and directs by using the light of his word thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path and the effect of the light is not just to make people see but to help them walk and to help them walk rightly and to help them walk with right conduct how many of you have noticed that many crimes and sins take place at the night time how many have noticed that most of the people breaking the windows at starbucks and and uh hurting one another and breaking all the laws how many of you notice that most of the rioting takes place at night time and the fact is that the police can tell you that most crime takes place in the night time and of course often when alcohol is involved and you see god is a light and what is it what do they do when they come in on a crime scene many times they'll flood it with lights what do they do when they pull up behind you at night if you're getting a ticket they'll put light in your rearview mirror and and why they want to expose the darkness they don't want to they don't want a chance maybe a gun coming out or whatever the case might be and you see god is light and and this is why some men that are not right with god will turn away and stop attending a bible preaching church and this is why some men will shun your fellowship why because the light of god's word is convicting to them friend let me encourage you even if you've had struggles or fallen into some type of sin don't run from the light run to the light and just say as the psalmist said lord search my heart and show me if there be any wicked way in me how many of you would rather have god show you the beginnings of sin even though it's wicked and wrong but the beginnings the thought process whatever it might be before you act out and get involved in something that ruins your entire life and that's what the light of god does it convicts it reveals and we should not run away from the light we should run to the light this is what we do in the forest when it's dark and it's the men and boys camp out and a little child has perhaps gotten away we never tell the mothers about these stories we get a big flashlight or two and we go out into the forest and we say to the child come to the light come to the light there's safety here daddy's here come to the light oh how tragic would it be if the child ran from the light and perhaps ran over a cliff and was hurt when he could have come to safety there's safety in the light there's purity in the light there's holiness in the light god is light and in him there is no darkness at all and we want to keep the church strong as i said a moment ago so that the light will keep shining from 40 20 lancaster boulevard and from your house and mine may the light of jesus christ shine and the scriptures are clear let your light so shine amongst men that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven and it's not my light it's his light through me you see the light of god the illumination of the lord he brightens the corner he illuminates and he convicts of sin and he is the light of salvation the illumination of the lord and so clearly seen in verse 5 god is the true light but now to verse 6 notice if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lie and do not the truth we've seen the illumination of the lord the fact that god is light notice secondly the implication of the lost the implication of the lost now remember i said at the introduction the apostles often wrote to correct problems and we said the problem of gnosticism was prevalent and a part of this theology or this belief system of the gnostics was what we might call sometimes today antinomianism that is that the spirit they said is spiritual the spirit of man but the body cannot be spiritual so we can sin all we want we can be involved in fornication and sin of all different types and that's okay they said because only the spirit is spiritual it doesn't have to affect the body how many of you believe that if you're born again and the spirit of god lives within you it's going to affect everything about you including your body and so john is essentially saying here if you're walking around in darkness and living in sin and trying to say that you're a christian houston we have a problem here the implication of the lost the first thing we see is that there is a false profession verse six and he said verse number six excuse me if we wa if we say that we have fellowship with him notice that please if we say that we have fellowship with him now perhaps one of the most dangerous things about being lost and hanging around church is that it's easy to talk the talk it's easy to act the part i was so glad the other day to see one of our young men that felt convicted that he wasn't saved and he got saved the first week or so at bible college and do you know that requires humility and sensitivity to the lord that's not somebody that we say he must be weak that's somebody that we say praise god he listened to the lord because the holy spirit was convicting him that he was a fake that he did not truly have salvation but the fact is that any of us must try the spirits to know that they are of god and we must know in our own heart that the holy spirit is indwelling us but these were making a false profession if we say that we have fellowship with him you would make a profession that you're in fellowship with god in this case the false professors they were declaring that they shared things with god they had things in common with god the false claim here is the assertion that they had fellowship with god while at the same time they were walking in darkness now we're going to define this word walk in later bible studies and preaching time but let me just say for the moment the word walk implies to habitually live in darkness it does not mean that someone who sins is not saved but what we're going to learn from first john is that somebody who goes through lengths of time in their life unbroken by the conviction of the holy spirit of god someone that just walks along in sin and feels no conviction and lives in open rebellion to god is not someone in whom the holy spirit dwells we cannot say who's saved and who's not saved i would never try to do that and i would never say that someone who fell into sin was never saved uh for certainly the bible indicates there were those that were saved and they fell into sin but when the word walk is used it's describing someone whose lifestyle is a lifestyle of darkness debauchery denial of the presence of the holy spirit of god and if we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lie the bible says we are living a lie and i do not want to be remiss in this tonight because there may be someone in this room tonight that is living a lie and your life is a life of darkness and you can find an excuse with what's wrong with this and what's wrong with that and i need to make some changes and the change you need to make is to turn to jesus christ and be truly saved so that there will be true fruit in your life and if you need to be saved tonight then you turn to the lord jesus christ and come to him with repentance and faith now some of the early gnostics were guilty of blatant antinomianism meaning they completely denied the moral laws of god under this idea that their body wasn't sinful only their spirit was spiritual their body was just to be lived out however they wanted it to be lived out i recently wrote in the book keep the faith an entire chapter on the modern hyper grace movement and i listed many names of false teachers who in this day are antinomian who in this day are saying that because of grace you can live essentially how you want to live friends that is not what the bible teaches the bible teaches in romans chapter 8 and verse 28 we all know verse 28 that all things work together for good to them that love god are the called according to his purpose but verse 29 says that we are to be conformed to the image of jesus christ grace does not cause you to live a life of sin but to live a christ-like life and they thought their body was a mere envelope covering the human spirit which they further maintained was inviolable it could not be contaminated by the deeds of the body their spirit that was but the body they could live however they wanted to live in the body and the fact of the matter is that in verse 5 it is said that god is light and there is no a darkness in him and so the two cannot coexist and so we see here that there was a false profession if we say that we have fellowship with him i'm sure that more than once in my ministry i've had people when i've asked them and i try to ask carefully i try in preaching even to explain it in a well-rounded way has there been a time in your life that would be consistent with john 3 born again do you have the knowledge that you'll spend eternity in heaven that would be consistent with first john chapter 5. do you know do you know that christ is your savior do you know that heaven is your home and i've i've had some over the years oh yeah yeah yeah i've done that done that and and some of you that have been soul winning quite some time it kind of puts chills in you when someone just flippantly is like yeah i've done i've done it i've done it i got baptized before that's another problem getting baptized is not how you get saved sometimes i've had people that oh yeah our family our family i was speaking to someone not long ago he literally works in a christian ministry who's who i i said i don't know why i said i said tell me how you came to know the lord's your savior just kind of making conversation by the way that's the best thing you can ever talk about oh i was born into it he said it really got real to me once on a missions trip and i found myself giving a gospel tract to somebody who worked for a christian organization you see salvation is not an experience of emotion it is when we act by faith to trust jesus christ and the gospel message you can say that you have fellowship you can talk the talk but this verse is telling us that if we've really been saved we're going to walk the walk too so there's a false profession in verse 6 and that false profession often will lead to a fake lifestyle a fake lifestyle verse six if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lie and do not the truth there's a contradiction here it is that we walk in the darkness john 8 and verse 12 says then spake jesus again unto them saying i am the light of the world he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life the gnostic taught that the body was spiritual hence sin in the body wasn't spiritual hence sin in the body was not an issue so they said well uh i believe in jesus and this in my spiritual man but in my body i can live however i want and again the apostle's saying no no no no you have made a profession but you are not truly saved the fact of the matter is if we say that we have fellowship with him and you keep living a life of darkness with your body then you're a liar you're not living the truth and this is a challenging statement no doubt but they were being challenged to truly trust the lord jesus christ now let me let me help you with something someone might ask well can someone be saved and then grow more slowly than someone else who also is saved of course people grow at different paces i remember years ago leading a man to christ several times this happened and and uh brother stoner i think it was you but it might have been someone else and said man i was by their house and and they had outside on their curb trash cans overflowing with heavy metal records and and alcohol bottles and and all kinds of these types of things and the fact was that this gentleman had been saved and and never went to a discipleship class never had continue back then but what he had was the holy spirit working in his heart showing him you need to start walking in the light see that's the presence of god in someone's life he begins to guide us and direct us that's why the bible says in second corinthians 6 14 if you'll turn there very quickly second corinthians 6 14 as we look at this contradiction of life the bible says in second corinthians 6 14 be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers nearness is likeness make sure that your best friends are not unbelievers for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness and what communion hath light with darkness what communion hath light with darkness now you don't have to get up on a soapbox every time you get into a squad car or walk into a nurse's station or go to construction job listen the unsaved man ought to understand when you're there that those filthy dirty rotten jokes are not something you really want to hear you're not going to fellowship at that level because you're a redeemed person if you're going to say tonight i'm saved i'm glad to be here amen preacher and then tomorrow go out and live a lascivious life an immoral life an ungodly life there's a lie going on here and this is what the bible says what fellowship hath light with darkness not only must we separate from darkness not only must we shed the light into the darkness but we also must learn to walk in love notice first john 2 9 says he that sayeth he is in the light and hateth his brother is in darkness even until now you know i want to hate the devil and i want to hate sin but i don't want to hate people and certainly not christian people you say well sometimes people hurt me and christians can hurt too i can testify to that but i just don't have time to be spending my time hating people and if you're walking in the light you can't so the classification is then given there's the contradiction of life there's the classification of liars he said you're living a lie you're not living the truth now again i can't say who's saved and who's not saved but what the scripture is telling us is that these are implications of someone that is lost in other words they were saying well we believe in god but they were living in darkness and john the apostle said you're living a lie if you live in consistently unbroken sin never feeling conviction never never having a tinge of in your conscience that you need to repent and you're consistently through the years just living in the darkness then you're living a lie and i want you as a church family to be warned tonight and i want all of us to be sensitive to the fact that while we may sin and while there may be times when the light is not shining as thoroughly through our hearts because of uh because of the fact that we've quenched the spirit the reason that we have revival in sunday night church is that we might stay right with god and continue walking in the light of the lord jesus christ i see the illumination of the lord i see the implication of the loss finally tonight notice the indication of the light how do you know when you're saved well there's many ways but let's look at one final verse it says but if we walk in the light as he is in the light all right so if we're walking in the light the light is god as he the lord jesus is in the light then what what's going to be one of one or two of the indicators first notice we have fellowship one with another one of the very primary indications of someone that is saved is that they want to fellowship with other people that are saved now with all safety in mind and with all of the issues at hand in our society today the fact is no matter what is going on outside of the church that there's something biblically speaking and spiritually speaking in the heart of a christian that says i have a desire that i didn't used to have to be with other people who also believe in jesus christ we call it fellowship call it what you want that desire comes from the lord and by the way when you lose that desire and i know you get tired or you take vacation whatever but when somebody can cannot be around god's people for great lengths of time without missing it again someone might be in the hospital whatever someone might be watching me tonight with an underlying condition but there ought to be in the heart of a christian a desire to see other christians this is what the bible says look at it if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another that great day of pentecost when the spirit of god came down and people had a spirit of love and commonality one for another acts 2 42 and the bible says they grew and they they grew in doctrine the breaking of bread and in fellowship why because they realize hey we're a called out assembly and the world hates our jesus but we love our jesus let's get together and brag on jesus and sing about him and hear preaching about jesus christ i want to read a statement to you fellowship is a specifically christian word and denotes the common participation in the grace of god the salvation of christ and the indwelling spirit which is the spiritual birthright of all believers it is our common possession of god god the father the son and the holy spirit which makes us one isn't that a beautiful statement i'm going to read it again because what i'm about to read is not something you're going to find with your beer guzzling buddies who are without christ and you should love them and you should witness to them but what i'm going to read right now is something that can only be found with god's people fellowship is a specifically christian word and denotes the that common participation in the grace of god the salvation of christ and the indwelling spirit which is the spiritual birthright of all believers it is our common possession of god father son and holy spirit which makes us one how many of you are thankful tonight that you're saved that's why we use the term here brother and sister and i know it's old-fashioned and if you want to call somebody by first name have edit but still you can call them john or jane or whatever but if we're both saved we're brothers and sisters in christ that's why to me in many senses of the word my spiritual family in this local church is closer in many senses than other family members that are direct bloodline relatives i love them but there's a bond in jesus christ that should be much stronger and when it's not something's wrong there should be a love that you have for god's people the commonality that we have in jesus christ turn to john 17 21 very quickly john 17 21. this is the intercessory prayer of jesus christ and he says as he prays for the church he says that they all may be one as thou father art in me and i in thee that they also may be one in us that the world may believe that thou has sent us jesus in this intercessory prayer praise lord help them to be one there are there are christians whose doctrine is of a different flavor that that we would not have pronounced in this pulpit but if they have accepted christ as their savior there's going to be an affinity that i have with them that i cannot have with an unsafe person and with my church family there's going to be a love and jesus says that they all may be one why does pastor get up and have a visit with the pastor and say a key to a great church is forgiveness because it is the will of god that we walk in unity that we would all be one that's the indication of the light that we would have fellowship in prayer in preaching fellowship and soul winning that we would walk in fellowship so one of the indications of someone that is in the light is that they want to be with other people that are in the light that are of the day as it says in first thessalonians chapter 5. that's the first indication fellowship but then here's this great notice this great phrase and the blood of jesus christ his son cleanseth us from all sin you know what we all have in common tonight number one we all have in common that we have seen the light of the glorious salvation of jesus christ and and because of that we fellowship in christ but that light which was shown unto us showed us the gospel which is the death burial and resurrection of jesus christ and so we fellowship around our salvation and we fellowship around this redemption the blood of jesus christ quickly the blood the blood is a justifying power it was the shedding of christ's blood that gives forgiveness of sin and justification the bible says in romans 5 and verse 9 much more than being now justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him and we're not ashamed at this church to preach the blood atonement of jesus christ it was more than a symbol it was the literal blood of christ that was spilled that blood was necessary for the bible is very clear without the shedding of the blood there's no remission of sin and so we thank god tonight for the justifying power of the shed blood of jesus christ but also i want to mention the efficacy of the blood of jesus christ when we speak of something being efficacious we speak of the fact that it in the present tense is still working still today notice that in verse 7 and the blood of jesus christ his son would you say the next word please clenzeth say it again it's not only that it cleansed but it's still cleansing there is power power wonder working power in the blood and oh how we thank god that it was shed but that it cleanseth it cleanses the stain this verb is present active it is a continuing action cleansing is a continual process in the old testament temple the labor was where the priests washed their hands and feet multiple times a day and they would go to that laver and they would cleanse before they would take care of the works of the temple this pictures the daily walk and fellowship that we have with jesus christ it pictures the fact that there is an ongoing sanctification being made for us yes our sins were forgiven once for all but the blood of jesus christ didn't just cover sins uh for your teen years or your twenties or your thirties but it cleanses us and as i said earlier yes christians do sin and christians do backslide and when that happens we're going to see in verse 9 that we need to come to the lord and confess our sin but friends let me tell you something that the blood of jesus christ is always at work cleansing us from our sin it's efficacy we would be hopeless without that truth that's why we're here tonight you see the indication of the light when i see christians that really want to get to church and hear preaching these are people showing indication of salvation that they have been washed in the blood of jesus christ it is our commonality the illumination of the lord god is light the implication of the lost if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lie the indication of light that we want to fellowship with others who have the light with others that have been redeemed by the blood tonight if there's someone under the sound of my voice that says they have fellowship with god but really church is a total drudgery and really you're just as fine living in sin i would encourage you tonight to consider whether you've ever been saved to make sure that jesus is truly your savior you say well pastor i know i'm saved and i've had long seasons of sweet fellowship with jesus and but i've i know that i've not been where i should be lately and oh did you know that repentance is not just something you do when you get saved but even we as christians need to repent and come back to the lord sometimes and fellowship with the lord and messages like this are needful that we would examine our hearts we don't we don't want to wait just until the lord's table but even tonight if there's someone that isn't saved make sure that you're saved and tonight if sometimes you've gotten to the place well i've gone to church a long time and you know there's a lot of things going on wait a minute we ought to look forward to and thank god for the privilege we have to have fellowship one with another around these truths and if that's not the case in your life why don't you pray in a moment say lord help me to keep it sweet and tender with you

Channel: Lancaster Baptist Church

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Keywords: preaching, sermon, Christian, God, Jesus, Lancaster Baptist Church, Lancaster Baptist, Pastor Paul Chappell, Paul Chappell, 1 John 1, light

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Length: 39min 51sec (2391 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 28 2020