Our Fellowship

Greetings in the name of Jesus! This is 15 Minutes With Jesus. This is Rob Haymes. Today’s program is called Our Fellowship. Let’s turn to 1 John 1:1-10, 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, concerning the Word of life—the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us—that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full. This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to 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 practice the truth. 

But if 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 cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 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. Psalm 32:1-6,  Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. People like to quote those first two verses, and they tend to leave out the last part of verse 2: and in whose spirit there is no deceit, and they say, Our sins are covered; our sins are forgiven; God does not impute our sins to us. They say that. And they fail to continue to read the following verses: verse 3, When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was turned into the drought of summer. I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and You forgave the iniquity of my sin. For this cause everyone who is godly shall pray to You in a time when You may be found; Surely in a flood of great waters they shall not come near him. So what is going on in the Church nowadays? What is the problem in the Church nowadays? Many people can recognize that the Church is no longer, for the most part, not every church, that the church is no longer what it used to be. I can remember myself going to church, when I first got saved in the 1970’s, you could go to church and the Holy Spirit would be present; Jesus would be there. Now many people are lonely and depressed and they go to the internet to find something to comfort them; to find something to entertain them, and many times they end up defiled. Then when they come together they oppress one another. Let’s turn to Isa 3:1-12, For, behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, takes away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water, the mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient, the captain of fifty, and the honorable man, and the counselor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator. and I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. 

And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbor: the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honorable. This is going on right now. It’s going on in the world, of course, but it’s also going on in the Church of Jesus Christ. Let’s go down to verse 9, The show of their countenance witnesses against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves. Say to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him. 

So this is happening right now: instead of going to the Word of God; instead of delighting in the Word of God, many Christians are totally involved with the internet every day. They go to many sights on the internet that are defiling. It may start out looking at  videos about puppies and kittens, animals and birds, interesting people and situations, and beautiful places; things that do not appear evil, but they end up in more and more evil; more and more defiled, and they come together with this worldliness and uncleanness in their hearts. Jesus said, It’s not that which goes in the mouth that defiles a man, but it’s that which comes out of the mouth that defiles a man. For what comes out of his mouth is what's in his heart. So as we expose ourselves to worldly things and things that are unclean, those things are in our hearts, and when we come together and start talking, those things come out of our mouth. So if, instead, we spend time in the Word of God, with the Holy Spirit instructing us and teaching us and revealing His Word to us; we are built up in the Word of God, and when we come together we build one another up. Conversely, when we spend time involved with evil things, and we come together, we tear one another down.

Do we really want to be a part of the first resurrection? Let’s look at what the Apostle Paul said, in Phil 3:7-11, But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Remember what we read earlier in 1 John 1:5-9, This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to 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 practice the truth. But if 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 cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So our true fellowship is with the Father and with His Son in the light. And when we do that; when we come together in the light, the Blood of Jesus will cleanse us. The light will expose anything that needs to be cleansed, and as we humble ourselves and confess our sins, the Blood of Jesus will cleanse us, and we have true fellowship. The only way we have true fellowship is with the Father and with His Son and with one another, because we are the Body of Christ; we are the Temple of the Living God! And when we come together in Him we have true fellowship. 

We can’t be fellowshipping in Him if we are continuing in darkness. So you can come together and you can smile and you can act happy and you can preach a message and you can play music, and all of these things, but even your worship is defiled. If you have that defilement in you; if you have unconfessed sin and it’s on you, and you worship God, your worship is not acceptable to Him. First you must go to your brother or sister that you sinned against, and confess your sin to them and to God. Then He will forgive you and cleanse you, and you can go on with a clear conscience and worship Him in Spirit and in truth, and you can have true fellowship. Like the Apostle Paul, if we want to be a part of that first resurrection, when Jesus Christ returns for His people and the dead in Christ shall rise, and along with those that are alive, we shall all be changed and conformed to His image, we must continue in the faith and not be moved away from the hope of the Gospel, and we must continue to purify ourselves, even as He is pure. 1 John 3:1-3, Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. How do we purify ourselves? The Apostle Peter said, Purify your souls by obeying the truth through the Spirit; continuing in His Word. If we continue in His Word with the Holy Spirit, every day, when we read the Bible; just sitting down and humbling ourselves before God; if the Holy Spirit brings up a sin, confessing it, and humbling ourselves before God and asking Him to teach us by His Spirit, He will reveal His Word to us, and He will also lead us to do it, to do what He is revealing to us; to walk it out in our lives. That’s continuing in His Word, and Jesus said if we do that we will be His disciples indeed, and we will know the truth and the truth will make us free. Amen!

What do we want? Will we pay the price? The Scripture says, He that seeks after righteousness shall be filled. Let’s turn to 1 Pet 2:1-5, Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. The Scripture says, Come out from among them and be separate, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will be a Father unto you. Instead of going to the internet, go to the Scriptures! Humble yourself before God and repent, and ask Him to bless you in His Word. His Word is a wonderful treasure, as He reveals it to you by His Spirit! Put down your flesh through the Spirit and the Word of God, and build up your spirit. Purify your souls by obeying the truth through the Spirit. In John 6 Jesus said, Does this offend you? What and if you shall see the Son of Man ascend up where He was before? It is the Spirit that gives life, the flesh profits nothing. The Words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit and they are life. As the Holy Spirit reveals His Word unto you, it is life to you!

Contrariwise, as you yield to the lusts of your flesh, and expose yourself to evil things, those things minister death to you. If you are having trouble turning away from the evil things, you can come before the Lord, to His throne of grace and ask Him for grace to help you in your time of need. If you are sincere He will answer. He will check you out to see how sincere you really are. But if you will continue to love Him, and hang on to Him, and say to Him like Jacob did, I won’t let you go until you answer me, until you bless me, He loves that!, He will respond. Keep praying! Don’t faint! God can do anything, if we will believe Him! Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.

Interpretation of a message in tongues:

I am God Almighty! Listen to my servant Rob this day. You who are listening, hearken to him. For I have put my Words in his mouth this day to warn you! My people that call upon the name of my Son, turn back to Me! Turn back to Me! You who have turned aside to follow evil; you who are indulging yourselves in evil things, Repent! Turn back to Me and be cleansed by the Blood of My Son! Be washed! Be purged! Be purified! For I am coming soon! I am sending My Son! He is coming in the clouds, with great power, with great glory, and only those who have purified themselves will be accepted of Him. Turn back to Me with all your heart and I will receive you to myself says the Lord.