We are coming to the close of the epistle of 1 John. We will more than likely finish it next Sunday, Lord willing. I came into this epistle with naive expectations that we would spend a short study in it, and then we would begin the gospel of Mark as we started out the summer season. Turns out God had other plans. This is the seventeenth message in 1 John, with one more to go. This little epistle has taught me much concerning the life of a Christian, particularly in regards to what is Christian fellowship. There have been a

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If you have been following along with us in our study of 1 John, then you know that the theme of John’s epistle is that of fellowship. Fellowship means communion and union with God and with His people. John uses a number of different words or phrases which all speak of fellowship. For instance, he talks about abiding. That is fellowship. He talks about walking with God. That is fellowship. He talks about loving God. Love is the epitome of fellowship. So as I have said repeatedly, John is teaching that fellowship is the goal of our salvation. It is

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My kids are some of my greatest critics. If you have kids, then you know what I mean. Especially now that they are older, they have heard all my old stories again and again. And so now days, they never fail to let me know when I am repeating myself. We are usually driving in the car or something like that, having some sort of a discussion, and I start to launch into this story which I think illustrates the point, and they say something like, “Dad, you’ve told us this story before.” And I say, “I have?” with this

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Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” And essentially what that means is that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the truth of life. It is the source of life, and it’s the way of life. Belief in Christ’s gospel gives us life, and it teaches us how to live. You cannot truly live unless you have accepted this gospel as truth, and trusted in Christ as your Savior. Without that new life, the gospel teaches us that you are essentially dead in

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If you have been studying with us for the last few months as we have been going through the epistle of 1 John, you will know that the theme of this book is fellowship. We were created for fellowship with God. Another way of saying that is we were made to be in union with God, to have communion with God. We were created in God’s image, according to His likeness, that we might be, as it were, the bride of God. That He would abide with us, and we would abide with Him. But sin broke that bond of

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  If you have been in attendance at any point during our study of 1 John, then you will be aware that the theme of 1 John is fellowship. Fellowship with God and fellowship with His church. This is what we were saved for; fellowship, or communion with God and with His body. Fellowship is one of those old fashioned words perhaps. It is part of the proper name of our church. And we chose that name because it encompasses the full spectrum of the purpose of the church better than simply the word church, which in most people’s mind

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  I think it was last Sunday that I kind of threw out a surprise question to the congregation. The question concerned whether or not you could say that your life was a living testimony to the transforming power of the gospel. I don’t often ask for a raising of hands in our services, so perhaps I caught everyone off guard. Because the response was from just a half a dozen people or so, until I said that I expected a lot more affirmations, and then a few more people belatedly raised their hands. Now my purpose this morning is

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As we have studied 1 John, we have looked at various aspects of Christian fellowship. We have discovered that God created man for fellowship with Him. But as we progress in our fellowship with Christ, the natural result that is going to develop will be love. Love is the natural progression of fellowship. Just as in human relationships, when a man and woman come to know one another, and they have a relationship, the natural development of their continued dating, or fellowship, will be that they fall in love. So it is in our relationship with Christ. We come to

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  When you hear someone speak of a doctor’s office, they often refer to it as a place where the physician practices medicine. And we understand what that means, don’t we? It doesn’t mean that the doctor is practicing medicine as a means of learning medicine. None of us would trust our health to someone who wasn’t already a doctor, but was just someone who was practicing to be a doctor. We understand that it means a doctor is practicing what he has already been trained to do. He practices what he is. The dictionary defines practice as the exercise

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As we pick up again where we left off in our study of 1 John this week, it’s important that we are reminded who John is writing to. And he tells us in 1John 5:13; “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.” So he is writing to Christians, that they might have the encouragement and assurance of their salvation and sure hope of eternal life. And in that context, we should look back at vs.29 of the last chapter, and

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