Now we look to the Lord in prayer.
Oh, dear Lord, we do acknowledge that there is no love in us except the love that Thou hast first put in us. And we do love Thee with that love.
We do thank Thee that Thou dost gather us here to study Thy Word. Once again, we ask Thee to give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation, that we may know Thee and know Thy Word.
We lay down our own wisdom, our own understanding, because our wisdom is foolishness and our understanding is darkness. But how we pray and thank Thee that Thy Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, Who will lead us into all truth.
So we do look to Thee, to Thy Spirit, to guide us into Thy truth this morning. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.
I hope that you have spent your leisure time reading over the first letter of John. I do not know how much we can cover this morning, but I would like to read just a portion first: 1 John 1, beginning with verse 5.
And this 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, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus 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.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous 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.
My little children, these things write I unto you that ye may not sin. And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
and He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.
We mentioned yesterday morning that the Gospel of John is on life, and the first letter of John is on fellowship. Someone says that the Gospel of John is a commentary on this first letter of John, and this first letter of John is a moral, spiritual, and practical application of the Gospel of John. I think there is much truth in such a statement.
The life that was with the Father has been manifested to us. Because of that, on the basis of this life manifested, we enter into fellowship.
It is the fellowship of the apostles, because through the apostles we come to know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. But the fellowship of the apostles is not their own fellowship. The fellowship of the apostles is the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.
So we are called into the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. We are called into the fellowship that the Son has with His Father.
We are called into this most exclusive fellowship—the fellowship that once existed only in the Godhead, but now has been extended and enlarged and includes all the redeemed of the Lord. In one sense, our fellowship is the most exclusive fellowship in the whole universe.
Yet, on the other hand, it is the most inclusive fellowship. It is so exclusive that, aside from the Father, the Son, and the Spirit; aside from the apostles; and aside from all those who are redeemed of the Lord, no one else can join that fellowship.
But it is so inclusive that all the redeemed of the Lord, no matter how young or how old, the newly born or the fully matured, are all included in this fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.
Let us remember that this fellowship is a fellowship of life. The substance of this fellowship is life. It is Christ.
We are not fellowshipping around ourselves. We are not even fellowshipping around apostles, however great they are. We are fellowshipping around Christ, with Christ, and in Christ. That is the very essence of the fellowship we are in.
So, dear brothers and sisters, let us always remember that this fellowship is a fellowship of life—of Christ. As we share Christ with one another, we are in fellowship.
We must also remember that, because this is the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, and it is so inclusive, we should not be exclusive in excluding our brother or sister for any other reason.
This fellowship is not based upon doctrine, teaching, interpretation, system, form, opinions, or experience. How you find God’s people divided today! They cannot have fellowship one with another because they hold different doctrines.
Maybe the doctrines they hold are all true, but only part of the truth. Yet, because of that, they cannot have fellowship. How many of God’s people cannot have fellowship because they have different experiences!
Granted, all these experiences are from God. Yet because some hold one experience as against another experience, they make experience a ground of fellowship.
No, dear brothers and sisters, the ground of fellowship is Christ and nothing else. It is not doctrine about Christ, even teaching about Christ. It is Christ—the living Christ, the life.
Of course, you cannot have the light if you are wrong in the basic doctrine of Jesus Christ, His Person and His work. But anyway, you will find it is not based upon these things. The ground of fellowship is life, eternal life, the life of Christ. Christ—that is the ground of fellowship.
Now this morning we would like to continue with the second thought of the first letter of John. It begins with the fifth verse of the first chapter, and it ends with the fifth verse of the fifth chapter.
Now in this part, we come into the practice of fellowship, or the grace of fellowship. Fellowship is more than something that is given to us; fellowship is something that we experience day by day.
By the grace of God, we are in the fellowship. But if we want to enjoy that fellowship, to experience that fellowship, and to deepen that fellowship, there are certain conditions required. These conditions are none other than what God is in Himself.
So we will now enter into the practical side of fellowship. But greatly we need help, so that our fellowship may be real and living, and not just a word, but a very living and real thing in our daily life.
Here you find, in this second thought, three essential points:
First of all, fellowship must be in life.
In 1 John 1:5:
And this 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.
As we are drawn into this fellowship, the first thing that we hear from Him Who calls us into such fellowship is that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.
God is light. When you think of light, what impression do you get? Probably you will think of light as something pure, clean, transparent, open, undefiled, and glorious.
Then, probably from there, you will begin to think of light as that which reveals, exposes, convicts, heals, and gives life. You can think of many things when you think of light. But here you find: God is light.
So far as God’s nature is concerned, God is light. He is pure. He is clean. He is transparent. He is open. He is glorious.
He reveals, He exposes, He convicts, He heals, and He gives life. All these things you can think of—that is what our God is. There is absolutely no darkness in Him.
No shade, no shadow, no compromise, no impurity. Absolutely glorious, pure, and sinless. This is the nature of God.
The light here is not the natural light that we know. You know, we live in this world, and in this world, more or less speaking, there is a certain light that governs our walk: custom, tradition, and the opinion of people.
These things are the natural light by which the natural man is guided in his walk. This light is not even the intellectual light—the light that comes from reasoning. We analyze, we draw conclusions, we use logic, and that gives us a guide, as it were, in our walk.
The best men in the world are not driven by natural light or tradition, but they are guided by their reasoning. But this is not the light of which the Scriptures speak. This light is none other than God Himself. He is the light.
To use an illustration, you find the tabernacle there. In the outer court there is no covering, so all the movements in the outer court are guided by sunlight.
But when you enter into the holy place, it is covered. No sunlight can penetrate into the holy place. When the priests move around the holy place to serve, they are guided by the lamp, the golden lampstand.
When you enter into the holiest of all, not even the light of the golden lampstand can penetrate the veil. The holiest of all is completely shut up from the sunlight and from the lamplight. It was total darkness, but it was not quite darkness, because the glory of the Lord filled the holiest of all.
And, dear brothers and sisters, God is light, and this light is now in the holiest of all within us.
Our body is like the outer court. Our soul is like the holy place. But our spirit is the holiest of all. Thank God, He dwells there as light.
So, dear brothers and sisters, do remember one thing: because we have eternal life, and this life is light—
In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.
—John 1:4
In Christ is life, and we have received Christ. We have eternal life, and this eternal life is the light of men.
What governs our walk on this earth? Not the natural light of this world, not the reasoning of man. Today you find God’s people ought to be guided in their daily walk by the light of life in their spirit.
The light in our spirit, when it operates, sheds light upon our path. God is that light.
That light is not even the Word of God. In Psalm 119:105, you find the Word of God is a lamp to guide us in our walk. It is true. But here you find John is not dealing even with the Word as light.
How often some people say, “I received a light today,” and by that they mean they got a new explanation of the Word. Well, that is a light, a borrowed light. But John is not dealing with that. John is dealing with God as light.
Oh, dear brothers and sisters, do you know the God Who dwells within you? He is your light. This is the light of life, and it shines upon your path. It is by this light that you have fellowship with Him.
If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth.
—1 John 1:6
God is light. If we say we have fellowship with God and yet walk in darkness, we do not walk in the light of life. We lie, and the truth is not in us.
In other words, even though God has drawn us into that fellowship, yet truthfully, so far as real, living, daily experience goes, you are not enjoying that fellowship.
How can we enjoy fellowship with the Father and with the Son? How can we enjoy fellowship with the apostles? How can we enjoy fellowship with our fellow believers? We have the ground of fellowship, but how can we enter into the reality, the daily experience, of this fellowship?
We have to walk in the light. As He is in the light, then we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
If we walk in the light—whenever in the Bible you find the little word if, you enter into the area of experience.
So far as objective truth is concerned, there is no “if,” because it is finished. Everything is finished, done, and accomplished in Christ. This is objective truth. There is no “if” in it. It never changes. It cannot be changed. It is eternal.
But when we come to our daily experience, you find it is full of “if.” Now, our “if” does not change the truth, but our “if” does change our experience.
So He says here, “If we walk in the light.” It does not mean that if we walk according to tradition or according to reasoning. What He means here is: if we walk in the light of life.
As we have communion with God, the life within us begins to shed its light upon our feet. If we walk in the light as God is in the light, you know there is a great difference here.
God is light, and He dwells in the light. God Himself is light, and He makes His home in the light. That is the atmosphere of God. It is all light. But we are only walking in the light.
Walk—why is it walk? Walk means continuous progress. It is a daily thing. If we walk in the light as God is in the light.
Well, God is light: unapproachable, pure, most glorious, perfect. But the light of life that we know today is very little.
Here we use an illustration. God is light—say, a hundred candlepower light. We walk in the light, but the light here is only one candlepower.
It is true that the life that is within us is perfect. It is light. You cannot improve upon Him. But if the life of Christ within us were to shine upon our path with a hundred candlepower, we could not stand it.
Therefore, you find the life that is within us begins to shed one candlepower first, to guide our first step. If we walk in the light—that is, one candlepower—we do not see everything yet. We only see that little bit.
But whatever the life of Christ has already shown us, if we walk faithfully in that light, as God is in the hundred-candlepower light, even though there is such a difference of degree, yet there is similarity. It is of the same kind of light, life. And we can have fellowship.
Dear brothers and sisters, the wonderful thing is, we are not perfect. If we had to wait until we were perfect as God is perfect before we began fellowship, there would be no chance.
Yet, however imperfect we may be, if we are faithful to the little light that is already given to us, there is no hindrance to fellowship, even though there is still much darkness that has not been discovered yet.
Dear brothers and sisters, how important it is in the matter of fellowship that whatever the light of life has already shone into you, you walk faithfully in it.
If you do, even though there is still much ignorance and much darkness, yet thank God, you can have fellowship with God and God with you without any interruption.
But, of course, even if you walk in the light that God has given to you now, in that light you will find that you need the blood of the Lord Jesus.
When the light of life begins to shine upon us, it begins to reveal what is within us. There is such darkness in us. There is so much that is not of God. We need to confess.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
—1 John 1:9
Oh, dear brothers and sisters, when we walk in the light, what is within us will be revealed—to our degree, to the extent that we can stand. God will not overwhelm us.
You know, when the enemy comes in to accuse us, he always tries to overwhelm us. But when the Spirit of God begins to convict us and shine upon our conscience, He comes just to that extent which you are able to bear. How gentle is that light.
But if we are shown that light, we begin to realize the darkness in us. Dear brothers and sisters, confess it before God. If we confess it, the blood of the Lord Jesus will cleanse it.
Then our fellowship with the Father and with the Son, and also our fellowship with our brothers and sisters, will be unclouded—without any cloud, without any shade. Thank God for that.
The closer you walk with God, the more you need the blood of the Lamb. Do not think that one day you do not need the blood of the Lamb anymore.
If you read the biographies of those men and women of God who lived so close to God, they all invariably bear the testimony that they need the blood every moment of their life.
Oh, the closer you get to God, the more you realize that even your tears need to be cleansed by the blood. Even your prayers need to be cleansed by the blood. Oh, how we need the blood of the Lamb!
But thank God, it removes all the darkness that stands in the way of our fellowship between us and God, and our fellowship with one another.
Why is it sometimes you find your fellowship with God is clouded? Why is it sometimes you find your fellowship with your brothers and sisters is hindered?
Because you do not walk in the light that God has already given to you. God does not require you to walk in the light that He is in, but God does require you to walk in the light that He has already given to you.
Now, if you walk in the light already given to you, then your fellowship with the Father and with the Son is without any cloud. You will find that you can fellowship with all your brothers and sisters, so far as your part is concerned.
But if you do not walk in the light that is already given, not only is your fellowship with the Father and with the Son interrupted, but your fellowship with your brothers and sisters will be hindered.
Oh, how we need to be open! How we need to be transparent! How we need to be pure, to be clean, because that is light.
We need to be open, transparent, and pure according to the light that we have received. Dear brothers and sisters, you will find that our fellowship with God and with one another will not be hindered.
Of course, when we really walk in the light, we will discover much darkness in us.
Is it because of this that we draw back and say, “We are not perfect. We cannot be perfect. Therefore, we must continue to sin”? Not at all.
On the contrary, you find the light begins to shine upon us in order to cleanse us from our sins. It shows us that we may not sin.
Because we have the light of life within us, and that light is life-giving. It not only exposes, but it heals. It not only cleanses, but it gives more life. By the light that is given to us, we may not sin.
What has been exposed is cleansed, and now we go on with a life of righteousness and overcome that darkness. So you find Apostle John says:
My little children, these things write I unto you that ye may not sin.
—1 John 2:1
He does not say you cannot sin. The possibility of sinning is always there so long as we are in the flesh and living in this world. But thank God, there is also the possibility of not sinning, because we have the life of Christ within us.
So, dear brothers and sisters, we have to see: on the one hand, if we walk in the light, we will be conscious of our darkness and conscious of our sin. We will confess our sin and be cleansed.
But on the other hand, in that light we will receive more life, that we may overcome sin and may not sin, so that we may go on with the Lord.
How do we know that we are in the light? How do we know that we walk in the light?
We know that we walk in the light, on the one hand, because we abhor sin. We who have the enlightenment do not want to go back to sin again.
And we discover that in Him there is the power, the life, that we may not sin. But that is negative. If we walk in the light, there is also a positive sign.
And hereby we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.
—1 John 2:3
If we walk in the light, we keep His commandments—not in the sense of treating the commandments as things, not in the sense of trying to keep the commandments by our fleshly energy.
But in the sense that, because we are in fellowship with Him, we find in Him that light and we find in Him that love. To keep His commandments is not burdensome.
It is the power of His life within us. We keep His commandments not out of duty, but out of love. By these two things, we know that we are walking in the light.
Why? Because if we walk in the light, we walk as He walked.
Of course, if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. In such fellowship with the Father, with the Son, and with our fellow believers, our life begins to grow.
Fellowship is the best way to grow. Sometimes we think ministry helps spiritual growth. It does. But fellowship is more powerful in helping us grow in the Lord than even ministry of the Word.
That is the reason why, immediately following, you find the Apostle John again mentioning the little children, the young men, and the fathers.
How do we grow in life? Real growth—not growth in the mind, but real growth in life—comes from fellowship: from being together, from fellowship with the Father and with the Son, and fellowship with one another.
That is how we grow from little children to young men and to fathers. In the family of God, in our own personal life experience, we begin as little children.
As children, what do we know? What do we have? As children, we have a consciousness. We are conscious of our Father.
As children, we do not know anything else, but we know our Father. You remember how in Romans we are told that the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and we cry out, “Abba, Father.”
Showing that we are children, we have a consciousness within us. We are conscious of a relationship with God. He is our Father, and we cry out, “Abba, Father.”
As little children, we look to our Father for our support. We look to our Father for our protection. We come to our Father and rest ourselves upon the breast of our Father.
You find this is what you have in little children. So John says, “Little children, you know the Father.” You do not know anything else, but at least you know the Father. Now that is little children.
Now, of course, as little children, we can be easily deceived. Suppose someone comes by and says, “I am your father. Follow me.” How do you distinguish?
How are little children protected from being deceived? Now, in the world there are many antichrists, and people will come and say, “Come and follow me.”
Is there any protection? Thank God, there is. There is an inbuilt protection. Not only is there the consciousness of the Father, but as little children we have the anointing within us, the unction within.
Not only is there a relationship with the Father, but there is the anointing within us—the Holy Spirit. God gives His Holy Spirit to every child of God.
We have the anointing which abides in us. He makes His home in us. He never leaves us or forsakes us, and He will teach us in all things.
So, dear brothers and sisters, by the teaching of the anointing, we know what is true and what is false. We may not be able to analyze it. We may not have the knowledge. Yet intuitively we know.
The anointing of the Lord works upon the intuition of our spirit, and intuitively we know: this is the truth; this is a lie.
Is it not true? Sometimes you hear some people who may give us a very beautiful, airtight message. You cannot find any fault. It seems to be true. Yet somehow, in your spirit, intuitively, you say, “Something is not quite right.”
You cannot explain it, yet you say something is not quite right. Later on, it proves not right. How do you know?
As little children, you do not have the knowledge yet. But thank God, you find the anointing within you will teach you in all things. How do we abide in Christ? We abide in Christ by the teaching of the anointing.
Then we abide in Christ, and our fellowship with our Father is uninterrupted. But a child’s life is a sheltered life.
Then you begin to grow. As you begin to grow, you come into the stage of the young men. The young men are characterized by vitality and conflict. You begin to enter into conflict, and life grows in conflict.
Young men, I write unto you, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the evil one.
—1 John 2:14
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
—1 John 2:15
As you begin to grow from little children, if you walk in the light as God is in the light, then you find the candlelight within you begins to increase—from one candlepower to two, to three, to four, to ten.
You begin to grow in the light, and as you grow in light, you begin to enter into conflict. But thank God, you are strong. Why? The Word of God abides in you.
How important it is for young people to really know the Word of God by heart. What strengthens a young person? The Word of God. Oh, we need the Word of God to dwell in us richly.
In that conflict, Satan does not come out and appear to you. He hides behind something. He hides behind the world. He uses the world to catch you.
What is the world? Young people find that the world is a real problem. What is the world? The things of the world: the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life.
There are legitimate things. God created our eyes to see and to enjoy His beauty. God gave us the flesh; we have to eat, to drink, and to be clothed. God gave us life; we have to live. These are legitimate.
But when we go over into excess, it becomes lust. The world uses these things to draw out our life.
What is the world? To put it very simply, the world is in contrast with the Father. Anything that takes us away from the love of the Father is the world.
Whether it be a thing, a person, a thought, or a desire—anything that takes away from us the love of the Father is the world.
But if the Word of God abides in you, you know what it is, and you are able to overcome it.
Then, as you grow in conflict, you enter into the stage of the fathers. Here you find that the fathers are given only one description:
Fathers, I write unto you, because ye know Him Who is from the beginning.
—1 John 2:13
Of course, the letter of John begins with that word: “That which is from the beginning.” In other words, the fathers are those who not only know the Father, not only know the Lord Jesus as their Saviour, but have grown in spiritual knowledge.
They know Christ as the purpose of God. They come into Ephesians. They know the whole counsel of God, and the whole counsel of God is centered upon Christ.
God is to sum up all things in Christ. He is to have the preeminence, the first place, in all things. The fathers have entered into such knowledge.
Because they have entered into such knowledge, their life is centered in God, and they are able to take care of others. You know, children need to be taken care of. Young people can take care of themselves. But fathers take care of all others.
That is how we need to grow in the Lord. Oh, dear brothers and sisters, it all begins with this: if we walk in the light as God is in the light.
One step at a time. You do not jump. Only one step at a time.
You know, oftentimes people want to be instant spiritual. In this country, we have everything instant. We not only have instant coffee; we have instant tea, instant noodles, and instant rice too. You find everything is going to be instant.
Among God’s people, you find that they want to be instant spiritual. If you can tell them there is a way that they can be spiritual instantly, everybody will like it. There is no such thing.
You have to walk step by step, continuously.
But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanseth us from all sin.
—1 John 1:7
By that we begin to grow in life steadily, steadily, until we come to the stage of the fathers. Then we can impart the life of Christ that we have received to others.
Dear brothers and sisters, this is the first condition of the grace of fellowship: in the light.
Here we are in darkness. Darkness is everything that is opposite to light: shadow, shade, hiddenness, sin.
If we walk in darkness, there is no doubt: you may be called into the fellowship, but you are not living in the fellowship.
So may the Lord help us, that we may daily walk in the light that God gives to us. If you walk in the light God gives you today, you are cleansed today, you have fellowship, and your life grows a little bit.
Tomorrow, the light of life will increase to two candlepowers, and maybe a month later, two or three more. Thus we go on with the Lord. Oh, it is a walk with God.
How our Lord Jesus walked! Although He walked with the Father, He walked from Bethlehem to Nazareth, from Nazareth to Galilee, from Galilee to Jerusalem, from Jerusalem to Golgotha, from Golgotha to the tomb, from the tomb to Mount Olivet.
He walked and walked until He sat at the Father’s right hand. Just a walk.
Dear brothers and sisters, if we begin to walk in life, one day you will find that you walk and walk, and you are there—raptured. So, friends, let us walk.
Oh, our heavenly Father, we do praise and thank Thee that Thou hast called us into Thy fellowship. But we cannot enjoy Thy fellowship unless we are of the same kind with Thee.
Oh, we do pray that the light of life may continually shine upon our path, that we may walk daily with Thee, that we may have our sins cleansed, that we may love Thee and keep Thy commandments, and that we may grow from stage to stage.
Oh, that we may walk until we find ourselves with Thee there. In Thy precious name. Amen.