He told me this thing might go out. If it comes out, maybe—like, you’re hearing me, okay? Just nod every once in a while, and there’ll be some encouragement.
Reading again those verses from 1 John 1:1-4:
That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard,
Which we have seen with our eyes, that which we contemplated, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life—
And the life has been manifested, and we have seen and bear witness, and report to you the eternal life, which was with the Father, and has been manifested to us—
That which we have seen and heard we report to you, that ye also might have fellowship with us; and our fellowship is indeed with the Father, and with His Son, Jesus Christ.
And these things we write to you, that your joy may be full.
Then in Philippians 1:3-6, familiar verses, Paul writes to the church at Philippi:
I thank my God upon all my remembrance of you,
Always in every supplication of mine making supplication for you all with joy,
For your fellowship in furtherance of the gospel from the first day until now;
Being confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ.
Let us have a word of prayer.
Lord, we are so grateful that we have Your Word. Without Your Word, where would we be? Indeed, like the psalmist said, Your Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.
We are so grateful for the words that come from You. Again, we always remember Your words: “The words that I have spoken unto you are spirit, and are life.” To whom shall we go? We only come to You this morning.
Speak something living and forever. Help us to see the vastness of what we have been brought into in Christ Jesus. We wait; we look off; we ask You to speak. Lord, Your servant heareth. Amen.
Today we will continue on this burden of fellowship. I think there is not a more important thing for us as the people of God—nor a more important thing for the Father, for that matter.
Think about it. Everything revolved in eternity past, if you can use that phrase, before creation, around the fellowship He had with His Son. That was everything. It was the center and focus of everything.
And if you can imagine, He brought us into this same fellowship, that it might be the center and focus of the church. How amazing. It is beyond any human description.
Today we will speak about personal fellowship as we continue to develop this thought. Last time, you remember, we talked about 1 Corinthians 1:9:
God is faithful, through whom ye were called into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
We said that verse is all-important. It is what I like to call a loaded verse. There is a universe of meaning in that verse.
We talked about the unparalleled declaration. Just think: if those three words, “God is faithful,” were not in the Bible, where would we be? What would we rest in? What would we depend on?
Those are three of the most important words in the whole Bible. Again and again, the writers of those sixty-six books picked up on this theme and declared it. Even in the midst of judgment, like Isaiah, and even in the midst of judgment, like Jeremiah, they knew this one truth: God is faithful.
Then we talked about the universal call. Thank the Lord for His calling. He called Abraham. He called David. The whole Bible, I have said before, is about calling. It is also about response.
It is a universal call: “By whom ye have been called.” What a wonderful calling it is, being called into this fellowship.
Then we spoke about the unfathomable privilege. If you can imagine, He did not just call us to be saved. He did not just call to deliver you from hell. He did not just call to bring you into eternal life.
He called you to share this same fellowship that He had for all eternity with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. It is almost unimaginable. That is why I use the word unfathomable privilege.
We see the very nature of God in this—who He is. God is faithful: His person. We see His desire for man, which is so incredible. It is beyond anything we could ask or imagine—His pursuit of man.
Thank God for that. You would not be here, brothers and sisters, if it were not for the pursuit of God. Thank God for that.
And you think about it: we see His end. Why does He do what He does? This wonderful purpose. David shared about this wonderful purpose, but we have been involved in and brought into this wonderful purpose for all eternity. You cannot imagine.
So today, as we begin to dig a little deeper into personal fellowship, I think we need to understand all that has been given to us in Christ Jesus. We need to understand the vastness of this fellowship.
It is deeply personal. It is for you, for me: unclouded fellowship, endless fellowship—fellowship so deep that no one could ever have imagined it in the Old Covenant.
Then we want to look at all the things that God has made possible to bring you into that personal fellowship. If it were not for these things, you would not have that personal fellowship. It would be unthinkable. But because He has done what He has done, we have it.
These are the two things I would like us to major on: the vastness of personal fellowship, and all that God has done to make it possible.
I think one thing we can say is that the whole Christian life is a personal life of fellowship with a living God. That is the simplest definition I can come up with.
You cannot underestimate personal fellowship. If you do not have personal fellowship with a living God, you do not have the Christian life. It is as simple as that—and as profound as that.
Can you imagine? We have been put into and brought into this life of endless fellowship with a living God. Wonderful. Human words are not able to describe it.
There is an important point I need to make: without personal or individual fellowship with the living God, the Christian life is utterly impossible.
You have heard me before. You have borne with me for years. I always say the Christian life is not difficult. People come to me and say, “Oh, the Christian life is so difficult.” I always say, “The Christian life is not difficult. The Christian life is impossible.”
There is only One who can live the Christian life. We live the Christian life in Him, through Him, and by Him, as the writer of Romans said.
This is the burden I want to share: fellowship that begins, continues, and is completed in a direct relationship with the all-powerful and living God. If you think about it, that is your heritage. How wonderful.
You may think, when we talk about these things, that they are impossible. Because of Who He is, and because of what He has done, they are totally possible. He has done everything to ensure it is possible.
You know, in my profession as an engineer, I am not allowed to use that word ensure. It is one of those verboten words. My professional-liability insurance carrier says, “You can never use the word ‘ensure’ to your clients.” They wonder what they pay for, I guess.
I cannot ensure them that their building will stand forever. But I can assure you that God, the living God, will never fail. He cannot fail.
The writer of Hebrews said that God, who cannot lie, has made these promises. From this we have strong encouragement. This is personal fellowship.
Let me go back to what John said in 1 John 1:1-4. John reports just how deeply personal this fellowship is. Some people think fellowship is sort of abstract, just sort of mystical. It is not really that real.
But the phrases John chose to use make it abundantly clear that it is absolutely real and deeply personal.
He used phrases such as, “That which we have seen with our eyes.” We have seen something. It changed us forever.
He says, “That which we have contemplated.” You remember what John said in his Gospel:
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us
(and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father),
Full of grace and truth.
Other versions say, “We contemplated His glory.” We have contemplated it. We thought deeply, and it changed us forever.
Then John says, “Our hands have handled.” Can you get any more personal than that? Your hands have handled these things.
And then he said, “We have seen and bear witness,” and, “That which we have seen and heard.” I think those words are marvelous.
If John had simply made a statement that you have been brought into fellowship, it would not mean as much. But he used these words to tell us how deeply personal this is.
All that he wrote was for one reason and one reason alone: “That ye also might have fellowship with us.” That was his purpose. That was behind his writing.
Those of you who know the order of the Bible know that John’s epistles were among the last books written. There is some discussion about whether the Gospel of John and the three epistles were written contemporaneously, but together they were among the last books of the Bible that we have.
Many think that because the Apocalypse, or Revelation, is the last book in our Bible, it was written last. That is not true. But John’s epistles were written last.
They were written last for a single reason: that you would have fellowship with us. John said, “I write these things to you, that your joy may be full.”
When you have that fellowship, you discover fullness of joy. I believe this is very important.
I like Graham Scroggie. If you do not have Scroggie’s Bible handbook—which is about this big and about yea thick—you should go out and purchase it. If you do not have the money, Linden is not in here; I will buy it for you.
Scroggie said that the key word of 1 John is fellowship. I love the way he always found the key word. John is sharing with us that wonderful, deep, and personal fellowship.
Then John describes what it is. He says, “Our fellowship”—and he did not stop there. I love words. I love to focus on words when I meditate in the Bible.
“Our fellowship is indeed with the Father, and with His Son.” What a pronounced way to say this. This is the highest fellowship into which you have been brought.
I remember years ago—we all loved Carolyn and Fontaine Bowles—when we started Bible Fellowship years ago and called it that. We were at Carolyn and Fontaine’s house one Friday night.
That was when what used to be the Redskins were actually good. It has been decades. I used to be quite a fan. By the way, many are relieved that I am no longer a season-ticket holder—for those who have been praying for this stubborn brother.
Fontaine and I were so excited about the season. Before the meeting started, we were talking about the Redskins. I will never forget: Brother Stephen Gog looked at us with his sternest look and his sternest voice, and he said, “Redskins, not fellowship.”
I will never forget it. I never brought it up again.
Indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with the Son. How marvelous that is. How wonderful.
Let me go back to the Philippian verses, because I did want to mention that. Philippians is Paul’s last letter to a church.
I got in trouble one time saying that, because someone said, “Brother, you do not know your Bible. First Timothy, Titus, and Second Timothy are the last books.”
I said, “No, no, brother, you did not understand what I said.” They are pastoral epistles, written specifically to men to carry on the charge. But Philippians was his last letter to a church.
Paul deeply loved that church. He began to share his heart for them and the bond that he had with them.
I always say that you share the deepest things, the things dearest to your heart, with those you love. Paul had a bond with the Philippians that lasted from the time he was called by the Macedonian man to come over into Macedonia until the very end.
That bond never stopped. Even when Paul said, “All that are in Asia turned away from me,” this bond with the Philippians was never broken.
Paul said, when he gave that opening greeting, “Because of your fellowship in furtherance of the gospel.” That was the reason he had such a strong bond.
Now, what is our bond with one another? Think about it. Is our bond cars—old cars? I say that for John’s benefit. He likes old cars, and I like old cars, and he is trying to convert me to like old cars even more.
But is that our bond of fellowship? Paul made it abundantly clear that our unique and unfailing bond is fellowship in the gospel. This is the secret, and this is the joy.
Paul said, “I never stopped praying for you.” It is because of this, in my supplication. It is a bond that will hold longer than anything imaginable.
Paul stated his confidence in the One who was able to complete what He had begun in them and complete it unto the day of Jesus Christ—all because of that personal fellowship they had.
It is an unbreakable bond. Many things can be broken in life, but this bond of fellowship cannot be broken. Hallelujah. What a story it is. I think it is altogether wonderful.
When you look at what these two brothers wrote—remember, these are last words. I happen to believe last words are important.
John’s last words, and Paul’s last words to a church, centered on this matter of fellowship. How important it is.
Today we would like to consider, from these things reported, that everything we need to bring us into fellowship, everything we need to keep us in fellowship, and everything we need to complete that work of fellowship has been made available in Christ Jesus.
What strong encouragement that is.
We will look at a few things:
If you do not understand the new and better covenant, you will never understand the depth of what has been given to you to bring you into fellowship and keep you in fellowship.
If you do not understand God’s promises—that He cannot fail—you will never understand what has been done to bring you and keep you in fellowship.
If you do not understand that you are a new creation, and that there is a new ability, you will never understand the depth of this fellowship. And if you do not understand the new power that has been given to you, you will never understand.
First of all, let us look at the new and better covenant. You have to start by thinking about the old covenant. The old covenant absolutely limited fellowship.
There is a night-and-day difference between the old and new covenants.
Now we are back to that verse I wanted you to read in Hebrews: Hebrews 8:6, speaking of the Lord Jesus as our great High Priest:
But now hath He obtained a more excellent ministry, by so much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which hath been enacted upon better promises.
Brothers and sisters, these two things—the better covenant and better promises—are what we are going to spend most of our time on. They make fellowship possible: the impossible possible.
Think of the Old Testament for a moment. There are some hard facts about the old covenant—very hard facts.
The old covenant condemns us. I think most of you will agree with that.
The old covenant limits our access to God. That is absolutely clear. When only one could come in once a year to the holiest of all, present the offering, and leave, it is clearly limited access.
The old covenant constantly reminds us of sins. It is always bringing them up. The old covenant always requires continuous, unending sacrifices, day and night.
The old covenant cannot perfect anyone. You remember Paul says that in Romans. And the old covenant requires sinless perfection. Those are hard facts.
Those people who say, “Oh, I would want to live in the old covenant, with the fire in the bush, the fire on the mountain, the manna from heaven, and the water out of the rock”—oh, dear brothers and sisters, what a mistake. You would be living in the most limited fellowship imaginable.
Remember what God said to Abraham when he was ninety-nine years old, when He was making the covenant promises:
I am God Almighty; walk before Me, and be thou perfect.
Any of you who know Abraham know that is impossible. Think of the little matter of Ishmael, and the little matter of Sarah, his wife-slash-sister—well, whatever. Imperfect indeed.
We are imperfect vessels, imperfect beings. Think of what the Lord told Moses to say to the children of Israel in Leviticus 19:2:
Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I, the Lord your God, am holy.
Once again, He said:
Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy; for I am the Lord your God.
Think of that standard that is set. Can you live up to that standard? Is it possible? If you are going to maintain unbroken fellowship, you must live up to that standard. That is the old covenant.
Thank God for the new and better covenant.
I always look at this unyielding demand of the old covenant and wonder, why did God allow such a thing? Was He just putting them through deep trial? No. He was teaching them something.
Galatians makes it very clear that the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ. It was to teach us one thing: that fellowship—personal fellowship with a living God—is impossible under the old covenant.
It goes on to say, as I have already mentioned, that no man can be made perfect by the law, as Paul wrote to the Romans.
I always go back to the Ten Commandments. We are not going to read them all, but you can look in Exodus 20:2-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21.
You begin to see how difficult the old covenant was. There is a repeated phrase that occurs again and again: “Thou shalt,” or “Thou shalt not.”
Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.
Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image.
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
Thou shalt not do any work on the sabbath.
Thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not covet.
Think about that. All the responsibility is on you. Is that not what that phrase says? “Thou shalt.”
If you want to live in continuous fellowship, unbroken fellowship, deep fellowship with the living God, you must keep all these things. It says clearly, “Thou shalt do this.”
Now, you can deceive yourself. You can say, “Well, I am a pretty good person. I have never committed adultery, I have never stolen anything, and I have certainly never killed anybody. Maybe I have thought about it, but I did not.”
It was like the rich young ruler. You remember the story: the rich young ruler came to the Lord Jesus and said, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?”
The Lord said, “Why callest thou Me good? None is good save One, even God.” That was a good way to start. It should have been flashing red lights: “Only One is good, but God.”
The Lord said, in effect, “All right, do not kill. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal.” Notice, He did not say, “Do not covet.”
The rich young ruler, believe it or not, said, “All these things have I observed from my youth.” If there was ever deep deception in a man, there it was. He may have wanted to follow the Lord, but he was deeply deceived.
I always think of the Sermon on the Mount. I wish the Lord had not spoken some of those things. How many times I have been caught by them, thinking maybe there was something in me, only to realize, no, it is not in me at all. It is altogether in Him.
You remember what the Lord said in Matthew 5:28:
But I say unto you, that every one that looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
Does that not find you out? I am not asking you to speak up. I am just saying, does that not find you out?
How He amplified this deep burden of the law. He did not lessen it. He did not discount the law.
Then in Matthew 5:21-22, He said:
Ye have heard that it was said to them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:
But I say unto you, that every one who is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the judgment.
I wish the Lord had stopped there—but He did not. He knew better. I was probably lightly angry with a few of you before I got here, and you are probably more than lightly angry with me now.
But think of it: how impossible fellowship is under the old covenant.
It is only when you come to this new and better covenant. I love Jeremiah 31:31-34. You should memorize those verses. They present quite a contrast between the old covenant and the new covenant.
The writer of Hebrews, the anointed and anonymous writer, calls it the new and better covenant.
Jeremiah says:
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah.
I will put My law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it.
And I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
And I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.
Do you hear the emphasis? Is there not a tremendous contrast between “Thou shalt not” and “I will”?
Brothers and sisters, that is the difference between heaven and earth. I am so thankful that we do not live under the old covenant.
James said that he who offends in one point of the law is guilty of all. Try that on and see if it works for you.
But in this wonderful new and better covenant, Christ is the mediator of a better covenant. How possible this personal fellowship is.
“I will, I will, I will, I will”—over and over. Thank God, the responsibility shifts. Our response is required so that He might bear that responsibility.
That is what makes fellowship unbroken, unending, and full. How wonderful it is indeed.
This is the better covenant, established on the footing of better promises.
God was not playing with us in the old covenant. In His wisdom, He had to take a people who were to be His living testimony, just as we are to be as the church, through a period of convincing them that this was impossible with them.
They could not do what He required. Only in the end could He do what He required. I think that is wonderful revelation in the Bible. That is the difference between the old and the new covenant.
You remember I spoke of the rich young ruler. Do you remember the disciples’ reaction? In Matthew 19:25, when the disciples heard it, they were exceedingly astonished. They were not just shocked; they were exceedingly astonished.
They said, “Who then can be saved?” And the Lord gave the answer, the only answer:
With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.
Is that not wonderful? Oh, I love that verse. I love that story.
How wonderful this covenant is that we live under. Do not ever take it for granted.
Think of this matter of limited access to God. I always think of the Old Testament, when the queen approached King Ahasuerus, and he held out that golden scepter.
Brothers and sisters, I like to say this because I think it is absolutely clear in the Scriptures: the golden scepter of fellowship is always extended to us. We can always approach.
I like to tell people, I do not have unlimited access to my dentist. I bit down on a Panera Bread baguette—I guess that is what you call it. Those things are hard as a rock.
When I finally got my appointment, the dentist said, “I tell people, never eat Panera Bread baguettes.” But I bit down and sheared a tooth right off.
I called them—I was like two years old—and they said, “Bob, we cannot see you until next week. We can get you some medication, but we cannot see you until next week.”
I do not have unlimited access to my doctor. I called, and they said, “He can see you in six months.” That is the strangest thing.
I do not even have unlimited access to my mechanic. I call him and tell him I need to see him, that I have problems. He says, “Well, the first appointment is two weeks from now.”
But think of it. Just consider it: you have unlimited access to the holy God. That is what personal fellowship is.
It was unthinkable in the Old Testament. No one could have imagined it. But we can, because of the new and better covenant.
Then I think of the new and better promises. Oh, those promises are wonderful. Thank God for them.
When you look through Hebrews, I will tell you a short story. Years ago, when I was studying Hebrews in depth, I noticed the word better occurring many times.
Graham Scroggie said it occurs thirteen times and is a key to the book. Better, better everywhere you look. Better everywhere.
It speaks of Christ being so much better than the angels; the better covenant; the better altar; the better resurrection; the better sacrifice. You could go on and on.
In Hebrews 8:6, we read of this new and better covenant, founded on better promises.
The other thing I noticed in studying Hebrews was the phrases that keep recurring: “so much,” “much rather,” “more excellent.” It began to be a pattern, and sure enough, it is a clear pattern.
The writer is trying to convince Hebrew Christians, who were drawing back from this new and better covenant to the old covenant, how superior the new covenant was.
He used phrases like “much more,” “so much more,” “how much rather,” “by so much the more,” and “of how much.” These phrases—better and so much more—occur again and again, and they declare the unfailing promises of God.
Do you know those promises? If you do not know them, you cannot live in continuous, uninterrupted, heavenly personal fellowship. It is impossible.
There are so many we could think about. I just want to mention a few.
Hebrews 1:4 says that Christ has taken a place “by so much better than the angels,” as He has inherited a name more excellent than they.
In Hebrews 3:5-6, there is a key—a key in the Bible and a key to all fellowship:
And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were afterward to be spoken;
But Christ as a Son, over His house; whose house are we, if we hold fast our boldness and the glorying of our hope firm unto the end.
If you are one of those people who refuse to underline in your Bible because it is so sacred, please underline that phrase: “But Christ.” It is a most important phrase.
I will never forget when I was a young believer. I am not a young believer anymore. But when I was a young believer, I was struggling with the Christian life.
That was when I struggled and came to this revelation that it is impossible. It was starts and stops, victories and failures, discouragement and despondency.
Then I read Galatians 2:20, and it lit up my spiritual world:
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me.
What a revelation that was. It turned my spiritual understanding upside down and right-side up. Then I got it. I said, “Lord, I get it. I get it.”
As much as You love me, and as much as You have given for me, You never intended me to do this. But Christ is the key. That is absolutely important.
Hebrews 6:9 says, “But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation.”
In our salvation, everything was provided for us to live in continuous fellowship with a living God.
Then Hebrews 7:25 says:
Wherefore also He is able to save to the uttermost them that draw near unto God through Him.
Is that not wonderful? I do not know about you, but uttermost is one of those archaic words. We do not use it very much anymore.
I do not go up to Linda and say, “You are so beautiful. Your beauty is to the uttermost.” I would never do that, and she would slap me if I did.
But you get the point: He is able to save us to the uttermost. How much better this salvation is. It is incomparable.
Then I think of Hebrews 7:7:
But without any dispute the less is blessed of the better.
Do you know what that is about? It was written about Melchizedek and Abraham. It is not directly about the Lord, by the way. It is about Melchizedek and Abraham.
In the battle of the kings, when Abraham overthrew the four kings, this priest of the Most High God, Melchizedek—who is only mentioned twice in the whole Old Testament, but is mentioned again and again in Hebrews—met Abraham.
The explanation was this: “The inferior is blessed of the better.” If you do not see the analogy, I can help you.
We have been blessed beyond anything imaginable by the Better. Think of what the Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 1:3:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.
He did not say some spiritual blessings. He did not say a few spiritual blessings. He did not say many spiritual blessings. He said, “Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.”
If you know that, you can know the depths of personal and unbroken fellowship. We, the inferior, have been blessed in the Better. You get it?
I know I am being deliberate, but I am trying to make a point. This really is not about Melchizedek. The writer of Hebrews was foreshadowing the Lord Jesus, Who is the true Priest of God.
He made no bones about it when he told them what he was talking about in Hebrews 8:1:
Now in the things which we are saying the chief point is this: We have such a High Priest.
That was his entire subject.
Hebrews 7:19 says, “For the law made nothing perfect,” but it brought in a better hope, through which we draw near to God.
Think of the better hope we have. Not just hope. It is not just, as we often used to say, “I am doing this on a wing and a prayer.” Whatever that means—a wing and a prayer.
Maybe you think you are some kind of airplane with one wing out. It is an old World War II “wing and a prayer” thought, and you hope you make it.
But in this hope, there is absolute hope. It is a better hope. The writer of Hebrews was deliberate. He said, “This is the better hope.”
Because you have this better hope, you can draw near to God. Is that not wonderful? That is what makes personal fellowship possible.
A few other things I would like us to think about: Hebrews 9:22-23.
And according to the law, I may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and apart from shedding of blood there is no remission.
It was necessary therefore that the copies of the things in the heavens should be cleansed with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
You remember how I said that the Old Testament required continuous sacrifices.
I do not want to burst your bubble here, but Judaism, in a sense, no longer exists. Now, do not let any of you pro-Israel people storm the lectern and throw me out the window into the parking lot.
Judaism, in that sense, no longer exists because there is no longer a sacrifice. There is no longer that sacrifice because they have not accepted the Sacrifice—the better Sacrifice.
Sometimes we wonder, “Is God really on the throne? Is He really ruling?” He knew exactly what He was doing when He allowed A.D. 70 to occur, Jerusalem to be sacked, and the sacrifices to be put to an end.
When that supreme, better Sacrifice came, it was the end of all sacrifices forever. Thank God. Thank God for that.
Hebrews tells us that we have a better substance and an abiding one, in Hebrews 10:34.
Think about that. There is a whole lot of difference between substance and shadows. The Old Testament is shadows; the New Testament is reality. The Old Testament is shadows, but the New Testament is substance.
Do you understand the difference? It is a very big difference. Not only is it substance—because you can hold some substance in your hand and it can disappear—but the writer of Hebrews knew exactly what he was doing. He said, “An abiding one.”
This is a better substance that we will never lose. That is the reality.
Then all of you know Hebrews 11. We love Hebrews 11, the hall of faith. They were seeking a better country.
I always used to think America was the best country. This past year, I am not so sure anymore. I am so thankful for the great freedoms and liberties we have, but I know one thing for certain: we have a better country.
We have an abiding city. We have a place that will never be taken away from us.
Those saints in the Old Testament went through extreme persecution and hardship because their eyes were on the better country.
Are your eyes on the better country? If your eyes are not on the better country, your fellowship will be limited.
But if your eyes are on the better country, that Jerusalem which is above, which cannot fail, then you can know fellowship.
Lastly, I will just mention that Hebrews 11 says women received their dead by resurrection, and others were tortured, not accepting their deliverance.
There are people who never accepted deliverance. The writer of Hebrews gives the reason: that they might obtain a better resurrection.
Is that not wonderful? We are waiting for a resurrection that cannot be compared. That is the secret. That is the secret of this fellowship.
Do you understand this strong encouragement in Hebrews? If you do not, you can never know the depth of that personal fellowship. You can never see it, handle it with your hand, hear it, or contemplate the depth of it.
It is all for one reason: that you may enter into this fellowship.
I have two more very brief points. Very brief.
Did you know God did something else unspeakable when He put you in Christ? You were made a new creation. You were made a new creation.
People say, “Oh, if I could just get a new start—a new start in life. Catch a break.” Is that not the phrase people use? Catch a break.
You caught more than a break.
It says in 2 Corinthians 5:17:
Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new.
What a wonderful thing happened when you were put in Christ. You are now a new creation that can live in this new realm of unbroken fellowship. God did that for you.
He translated you, as it says in Colossians, from the authority of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of His love. Now you can know unhindered personal fellowship because He did that.
I will never forget when I experienced that, when I was saved. I knew I was a new creation.
My friends at college, in the last semester, thought I had lost my mind when I showed up with a Bible and a big orange “Jesus Saves” pin.
They thought it was a joke. But I knew I was a new creation. Old things had passed away. All things had become new. How wonderful.
Finally, He put in you a new power. Think of that. Could God have done anything more for you than the new and better covenant, the new and better promises, making you a new creation in Christ, and then putting a new power in you?
Even God the Holy Spirit.
Paul talked about that in Ephesians. We are reading it now. In that first prayer, he asks that God would give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him.
You remember the last point he made in those threefold points: that you might know the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.
Think about surpassing power—not some power, not limited power. This is what we need to know.
Those two phrases, “in Christ” and “Christ in us,” are two of the most important phrases in the whole Bible. You need to study those—study them carefully.
In Christ, you are a new creation. But Christ in us is that unspeakable thing: He put the Holy Spirit, the indwelling Holy Spirit, in us to live in us and make us all that we are to be.
Unspeakable. How wonderful. Beyond description. The surpassing greatness of His power: God the Holy Spirit.
I do not mean that the Holy Spirit is nothing more than a divine GPS, but He is always there—speaking, correcting, adjusting your path. He is the resident Expert, the unction, the anointing that John spoke about.
That is what God has done. He has put you in Christ. You are a new creation. You can therefore have unbroken personal fellowship.
He has done something even more marvelous: He has put Christ in you. That always astounds me.
That is what Paul meant when he wrote to the Colossians about the mystery. You remember, he was countering the Gnostic heresy—these higher levels of teaching. I think sometimes, as Christians, we get hung up in these higher levels of teaching.
He was coming against the Gnostic heresy, and he said:
The mystery which hath been hid from all ages and generations, but now hath been manifested to His saints,
To whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
How wonderful. How wonderful. It is the secret of fellowship.
You do not have to go far. He is there. You just have to abide in Him.
You just have to be in fellowship with the One Who is in you, and walk in light, walk in love, and walk in life. That was John’s message.
These are the secrets of fellowship. This is the way personal fellowship is possible.
A new and better covenant. You cannot even begin to compare it to the old covenant.
New and better promises, and a God Who has promised, Who cannot lie, as the writer of Hebrews spoke about.
A new creation. You are a new creation in Christ.
And even more, a new power. Who would have thought? God the Holy Spirit taking up residence in me and in you to make personal fellowship possible.
That is what the Bible has to say about personal fellowship.
Lord, we come to You with thanksgiving for all that You have done. We can hardly imagine that this is true, but it is wholly true.
It is hard to take in the breadth, and length, and height, and depth of the love of God—of what has been made available to us. But we are thankful.
This was all done to bring us into that very fellowship that You had forever with Your Father.
Teach us, Lord, how to live in this personal fellowship, walk in this personal fellowship, and abide in this personal fellowship.
May we be made into those sons of God. Amen.