Fellowship with God (Part 1)

Knowing God — Steve Gregg

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Fellowship with God (Part 2)

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Fellowship with God (Part 1)

Knowing GodSteve Gregg

Discover the profound significance of fellowship with God as Steve Gregg eloquently shares insights on the shared oneness, celebration of unity, and mutual communication that it entails. This privileged connection offers a growing intimacy, knowledge, and familiarity that surpasses worldly pleasures, bringing true fulfillment and rest. Uncover the joys and struggles one can experience in pursuing this attainable and realistic journey, where the desire for fellowship with God becomes foundational for experiencing true communion with Him. Embrace the invitation extended by God to all, as failing to recognize this vital connection is to forfeit one's birthright for temporal satisfactions.

Transcript

I believe it will occupy, I would imagine, about three sessions, which is how many we have left actually this week, to discuss the general topic of fellowship with God. And this is of course part of our larger series on Knowing God. We've talked about the fear of God, and we've talked about loving God, we've talked about a lot of other things too.

But perhaps what is at the very heart of the distinctive privilege of those who know God, and who love Him and who fear Him, is the privilege of fellowshipping with God. Now, we need to understand what we mean by that word. The word fellowship, as it occurs in the Bible, is generally translated from the Greek word koinonia.

If you know only one Greek word, you probably know the word agape. If you know two, you might know the words agape and koinonia. A person does not have to know very much Greek to have already encountered this Greek word, because it is often mentioned by preachers.

And it is a relatively common word in Scripture, koinonia, which if you used English characters rather than the Greek, would be spelled K-O-I-N-O-N-I-A. Koinonia. And this word has the meaning of oneness or communion or, well, fellowship.

The word fellowship is the state of being a fellow with somebody else. If we are fellow heirs, it means that we and the person with whom we are fellow heirs are both heirs. We share something in common.

We have this shared status as heirs. If we are fellow soldiers, then it means that we share in common something. We are both soldiers.

We are fellows in the war, in the soldiery. And fellowship is simply this state of being fellows, the state of having something in common, sharing together. And therefore, the Bible speaks both of our fellowship with one another and of our fellowship with God.

And this fellowship requires that there's something we have in common, something we share. And another word for fellowship, another translation of the word koinonia, is oneness or communion. Now, it is possible that the word communion raises more specific images in your mind.

It is also possible that the word communion doesn't raise the right images because the word communion is sometimes associated with the, what other people call the Lord's Supper or the Eucharist or whatever. The taking of a ceremonial meal is sometimes called taking communion. It's a sad thing that this is so.

Not that I have any low regard for the Lord's Supper. It's just sad that the word communion, at least in some traditions, has come to mean very little else than the taking of this ritual meal. The fact of the matter is there is reason to speak of communion when we talk about this ritual meal.

The Apostle Paul is the one who apparently justifies this linkage of the idea of the eating the bread and drinking the wine as an act of communion with God and with one another. Over in 1 Corinthians 10 verse 16, 1 Corinthians 10, 16 and following, Paul said, The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread and one body, for we all partake of that one bread. Now he goes on to say that Christians who partake of the Lord's table should not go into the temple of idols and participate in that kind of supper as well because in verse 20 he says, But I say that all things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons.

You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the Lord's table and the table of demons, or do we provoke the Lord's jealousy? Now when Paul says in verses 16 and 17 here, 1 Corinthians 10, that the cup that the Christians drink ceremonially is, which he calls the cup of blessing here, he said, It is the communion of the blood of Christ. And the bread which is broken ceremonially and eaten together is the communion of the body of Christ.

Now he does not clarify whether this communion, which is the same word as fellowship, whether this fellowship is a fellowship between ourselves and God or a fellowship among ourselves, and it's very possible that Paul left it rather vague in order that both would be in mind, that the ceremonial meal of the Christians was an act celebrating our communion. It is not itself our union. And this is where I think, well, I don't know, I guess I'm stating a theological opinion about this because I think that the Roman Catholic and some other traditions would actually say that it is actually our union with God is in this meal.

You know, you take this, you take it and it becomes the blood of Christ. You take it and it becomes the body of Christ. And that is your union at that moment with God.

I personally don't believe the Bible teaches such a thing or that Paul is here teaching such a thing. I believe that what Paul is saying is that when we eat our meal together, when we commemorate the fact that the blood of Christ has cleansed us all and that we are all participants in the benefits of the body of Christ, we have a shared reality that there's a communion among ourselves that is celebrated by a meal together. By the way, table fellowship in the biblical times, biblical world, and even to our present times was considered to be, you know, the most intimate of fellowship between friends is that someone would come invite you to their table and feed you.

So that what he's saying is that when we have this shared meal together, we're celebrating the unity, the fellowship, the sharedness of our lives as Christians. And he seems to mean that or clarify that that is his meaning in verse 17 when he says, for we being many are one bread and one body for we partake of that one bread. So the fellowship of the body of Christ, which we are celebrating by eating of that one bread is a reality that transcends that ritual.

It is a reality that we are all in fact one body. We all participate and share together in one identity in Christ. Now, he goes on, however, to indicate that this meal is also a celebration of our fellowship with God.

Not just with one another, not just that we all are one body and therefore share something in common with each other, but we also have something, a link with God, as at least we're celebrating such when we have such a meal as this, because he indicates that those who eat at the demons tables are having fellowship with demons. And he says, I don't want you to have fellowship with demons. You can't eat at the, you can't have table fellowship with, with demons and table fellowship with God also.

That's what he says in verses 20 and 21. So he indicates that the Lord's supper is something that is a celebration, both of the unity that Christians have among themselves as parts of one body together, but also is a celebration of our fellowship with God himself. Now, what I, the only reason I bring this up is not that we might get off on a lengthy discourse about the Lord's supper or its meaning, but rather that I bring it up because in the tradition I was raised in, if you said communion in my, my tradition, the church tradition I was raised in, communion meant, you know, taking a thimble full of grape juice and a little, a pretty fat cracker, about half the size of your pinky's fingernail.

And, and this was communion. And if someone said, do you enjoy communion? I would have to say, well, there's not much there to enjoy. I have to tell you the truth.

And we only have communion on the first Sunday of every month in the church I was raised in. You know, it's, you don't, you don't have communion all the time. You have communion only one Sunday a week.

I mean, once a month. And, and that's your communion. Now, the reason I say that's unfortunate is not because of any wish of mine to downgrade the value of that meal or that celebration or ritual, but really to say that when we talk about communion with God, we're talking about something more than a ritual meal.

We're talking about a union, a shared life, a linking together, an interaction, a, a relationship of communication, mutual communication and mutual companionship with God. That's what I'm talking about when I talk about fellowship with God. I'm talking about communion with God.

We also have fellowship and communion with each other, but that's not the focus of what I want to talk about here. I want to talk about what it means or how it is obtained and maintained that we have fellowship with God. This is certainly the loftiest of all privileges of human creatures because no other animal, as far as we know, is capable of communion with God.

God is a spirit and God must be known and related to through the spirit. And I'm not aware of any other creature other than man that is given the spiritual capacity to have spiritual communion with God. So it is the highest activity, I believe, of moral beings that they can commune with God.

Now, some might say, well, wouldn't worship of God be higher? I don't think there's a difference, to tell you the truth. I don't know that worship of God amounts to anything other than just part of our life of communion with God. I mean, worship directed toward God is part of our communion.

His communication with us and interaction with our life is also part of our communion with God. But to have this interactive relationship with God, this knowing of God like you know a companion, not just the way you know an acquaintance, but the way you know a companion. An acquaintance is somebody you've met, you know their name, you have some general idea of who is being talked about when their name is being discussed, you're acquainted with them.

But if somebody is your companion, that is somebody that you are having a growing intimacy, a growing knowledge and familiarity with, somebody that you in time begin to think of almost as a part of yourself and you a part of them. Somebody that if you know them to be upset, you are automatically sensing the same kind of feeling. If they are rejoicing, you are sensing something of their rejoicing.

That's what Paul said is true among Christians in fellowship with the body of Christ. If one member suffers, all suffer. If one member is exalted, all rejoice.

And so we have this kind of fellowship with God also. Welcome. Come on in and find a place to sit.

Probably over there would be best. Glad to have you with us. We're talking about what it means to fellowship with God or to have communion with God.

First, there's actually four points or more, maybe five, that I'm going to be discussing, but they won't all be discussed in this lecture. I think it will take this lecture and two more besides to cover, but I'll tell you what I have in mind to talk about. I want to talk to you about the prerequisites for fellowship with God.

Not everybody has fellowship with God and part of that is because one has to qualify. There has to be certain things in place before fellowship with God occurs. So I want to talk about the prerequisites for fellowship and communion with God.

I want to talk about drawing near to God. How do we draw near in order to have fellowship with Him? There's much in the scripture on this subject. I want to talk thirdly about what it means to dwell with God, to live with God, to have Him dwell with you and you dwell with Him.

That's why fellowship can occur because He's our companion. He dwells with us and we with Him. What does that mean and how is that maintained? I want then to talk about what it means to walk with God because dwelling with God is not a static thing.

It's not just that you go to a church and you just stay there because He happens to be there and you live there. God is a dynamic person. He's active.

He's in motion. He's progressing and you must walk with Him. Jesus said, if anyone come after me.

He didn't just say, come unto me. He said, come after me. You've got to deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me.

Therefore, we're not just called to come to God and to dwell with God, but to walk with God. To keep up with God, to keep in step, as one translation says, to keep in step with the Spirit. I want to talk about what it means to walk with God, which is necessary for the retention of fellowship with God.

The final point that will be part of this series or part of this exploration will be how to know, how to hear from God. How to recognize when He is speaking. How to receive guidance from God.

How to move in response to His direction. And therefore, the general subject of divine guidance or hearing God will be the final part of this, what I expect will probably be a three part lecture series on fellowship with God. Okay, let's talk first of all about the prerequisites for fellowship with God.

As I said, fellowship with God is not automatic. Not everyone has it. Not even everyone who could have it has it.

And there are reasons for that. Let me say first of all that the first prerequisite for there to be communion between God and man, between God and woman, between any parties actually, is that there must be mutual desire. I'm sure that all of you have had somebody that you found attractive to you or was appealing or interesting or intriguing and you desired to become one of their best friends.

You met that person and after maybe one or two encounters with that person, I'm going to become that person's friend. But it didn't happen. And you were sincere.

You really wanted to, but it didn't happen. You know why? The other person didn't feel as strongly about it as you did. And that sometimes is humbling.

That's sometimes aggravating. But it's a fact of life. Not everybody is going to desire to be your friend as much as you desire to be their friend.

And contrarywise, there will be people who would desire to be your friend and you just won't have the same interest. There must be for regular companionship and communion and fellowship to take place, there must be mutual desire. Both parties must need it.

And in the case of fellowship with God, the desire has to be on God's part first. For a simple reason. If God didn't want to fellowship with us, we wouldn't know where to look for him.

You can't find him with a telescope. You can't find him with a shortwave radio. If God does not seek to reveal himself, he is unfindable.

You cannot fellowship with God unless he desires it. And then the remarkable thing, perhaps one of the most remarkable things in scripture, the most astonishing, is that God, in fact, does desire it. That he desires to fellowship with you.

David said in Psalm 8, When I consider the heavens and the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have made, what is man? That you are mindful of him, or the Son of Man, that you would visit him. What in the world could motivate God to do a thing like that? Well, we might have many theories, but all we can say for certain is that God does desire it. God is, fortunately for us, desires of our fellowship with him.

Sadly, for him, maybe for us in the final round, he desires it more than we do sometimes. We can see right at the beginning when God called the Israelites out of Egypt at the time of the Exodus and gave instructions for the building of a tabernacle. God stated essentially what the bottom line was, why he wanted this tabernacle built.

There was to be in the tabernacle a holy place and a holy of holies, and in the holy of holies there would be an article called the Ark of the Covenant and upon that a gold slab lid called the Mercy Seat. And of that Mercy Seat, which would be on top of the Ark of the Covenant, which would be in the holy of holies of the tabernacle, God made this prediction in Exodus 25 and verse 22. In Exodus 25 and verse 22, God said, and there, meaning above the Mercy Seat, there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the Mercy Seat, from between the two cherubim, which are on the Ark of the Testimony, of all things which I will give in commandment to the children of Israel.

A marvelous thing this is. God says, I will meet with you. I will speak with you.

No man could ever have coerced God to do this had God been unwilling. It was God's initiative that he took. The Israelites in Egypt were not seeking God and therefore he came.

They were groaning under oppression and God initiated a deliverance. Moses was not seeking God on the mountainside when the burning bush appeared to him and God spoke to him from the bush, caught him totally by surprise. He wasn't even ready for it.

He wasn't even amenable to it. But God initiated this encounter and God did so in order that he could meet with his people. That he could speak with them.

Anyone can pray. Anyone can talk to God. But not everyone can have God talk to them.

For there to be communion there must be mutuality. There must be interaction. And God came down, if we might use the anthropomorphism, and sought after a relationship with people.

And said, listen, you build the tabernacle, you build these things where I say, and I will meet with you there. I'll commune with you there. I'll speak with you there.

This, to my mind, is astonishing. The only thing that diminishes my sense of astonishment is the number of years I've been acquainted with the fact. But it's still, if you think about it for a moment, no matter how long you think about it, it remains astonishing.

That God, who has no need of us, yet desires fellowship with us and has made fellowship with us a thing possible and available, accessible to us. If you look at 1 John, chapter 1, and to my mind 1 John, chapter 1 is the premier chapter in the Bible on fellowship with God. That's a short chapter.

There's many other things in the Bible on the subject. But I'd like to read the opening four verses of the first chapter of 1 John, the first epistle of John. 1 John 1, verses 1-4, That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, John speaking for himself and his fellow apostles, 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.

Let me pause for a moment there and just say that this is the same John who wrote the Gospel of John, which began with the words, in the beginning was the word. The word was with God and the word was God. So John, who wrote this epistle, had previously written that Jesus, prior to all history beginning, back in the beginning of all things, Jesus was already in existence.

He was the word. He was God. Now John says, that which was from the beginning, in this epistle, and of course he's referring to the very thing he said was in the beginning back in John 1. In the beginning was the word.

And he identifies it right there at the end of this verse, the word of life. He's talking about the word, Jesus. Now, here we have the expression, the word of life, but that's not really anything different than what he talked about in the opening chapter of his Gospel, because he said, after he spoke of the word was with God, he said, in him was life.

And that life was the light of men. So, and John will go on to talk about light here also. Life and light and the word, these are all almost mystical concepts it seems to me that John interweaves together to describe the essential pre-incarnate existence of Christ before he came to earth.

But here's the thing. In verse 2 he says, the life was manifested and we have seen. Now, in verse 1 he says, he not only seen, he heard, he saw with his eyes, he looked upon, he even touched him with his hands.

This was, this one that he touched, this one that he saw and heard was that which was from the beginning, that word. Because that word was manifested allowing John and others to see him and to bear witness to us, that is us and his readers who did not have the opportunity to see him. John's readers were probably in Ephesus or elsewhere in Asia Minor who they were not in the right geographical area to have seen Jesus, even if they were alive at the same time that he walked the earth.

But like ourselves, they only had heard of him from people like John who had actually seen and heard and handled him. And he says, the life was manifested and we have seen and bear witness and declared 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, notice this, that you also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with God. Our fellowship, he says, is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

And these things write we to you that your joy may be full. Well, I could imagine that that would be the case if you could have fellowship with God I would imagine that the fullness of joy would be rather unavoidable. How could you have fellowship with God and not know the fullness of joy? You see, as philosophers have said for ages, I think it was way back in Augustine's time, it was probably Augustine himself if not some other famous guy like that who said that man has got a God-shaped hole in him until he finds God.

Augustine said, Oh God, you have made us for yourself and man is restless until he finds his rest in you or something like that. That's almost a quote from Augustine. But I guess it is more someone else said man has a God-shaped hole and without that hole being filled he cannot be fulfilled.

And we are made for God and we are restless until we find our rest and our peace in Him. So fellowship with God is what we were made for. It's as if you had a horse that was bred for racing and that horse from the time it was born was kept in a small stall and never allowed to stretch its legs more than to walk three paces to the other side of the stall.

And it's just surging inside with this nature of a racehorse and it never really gets to go out and stretch. It would be a restless unfulfilled creature. But when you let it out on the track and just let it open up and take off that horse is going to be delighted.

That horse is going to be in its element. And man and woman are made to fellowship with God. That's what we are made for.

Until people learn to fellowship with God they cannot be fulfilled. And it says also in Psalm 16 and I don't want to take your attention yet off of 1 John 1 but in Psalm 16 it says this of the Lord it says You will show me actually according to the New Testament the speaker in this Psalm is Jesus speaking to the Father You will show me the path of life Now notice this In your presence is fullness of joy and at your right hand are pleasures forevermore To be in God's presence to be at his right hand which means to be in favor with him is what? In his presence is fullness of joy at his right hand are pleasures forevermore. Now I've known pleasures of another sort than those which are found at the right hand of God.

I've known pleasures such as the world has to offer and some of them I will admit have their attraction some of them provide a bit of gratification but I've never known any of them to be pleasures of which you could say they are forevermore They are usually forever less as you continue in them they become less gratifying you have to screw up the quantity knob you have to increase the dosage or whatever it is you have to do because the pleasures of the world are like the glory on the face of Moses that fades away but the pleasures at the right hand of God are forevermore and so a fellowship with God we would expect to result in fullness of joy because that's what's in his presence there you dwell in his presence you should find what is there if you are at his right hand if you are in the place of favor with God then you can expect pleasures not perhaps exactly the same kind of pleasures the world has to offer but certainly every bit worthy replacements for them and it says of Moses that he preferred to endure the suffering of Christ with the children of Israel than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season I'm sure there are pleasures in sin anyone who would say otherwise hasn't tried it I guess not all sin is pleasurable some sin is very unpleasurable there are pleasures to be found in some kind of sin but as the scripture suggests they are only for a season the pleasures of another sort is what we are made for we are not made to seek after pleasures that fade pleasures that dwindle pleasures that need to be replaced periodically with stronger stuff we are to seek that pleasure for which we are made and those who are there those who dwell in the secret place of the most high those who are in the presence of God and at his right hand they know that there are pleasures there forever more it really causes a great diminishing of the attraction of the pleasures of sin you know there's a in Greek mythology there's the well known story of the island of the sirens and the sirens were these women with beautiful voices lived on an island that was surrounded by a reef that was below the surface it was the water but not very far below the surface it was a treacherous reef and ships could never approach the island without being dashed on the reefs and sailors usually were lost at sea if they tried to approach that island the only problem is the voices of the sirens were such that none could resist their sound and it was I don't know how it came to be known since no one survived it but the legend went about throughout the Mediterranean that there was this island with these women with beautiful songs and anyone who would hear it would just be overwhelmed by the power of the song and be drawn to their doom and their ship would be destroyed on the rocks I don't remember the story well enough to know whether the women were cannibals and ate the people or what their motive was for drawing them in but we don't need that part of the story in order to make my point there are in Greek mythology two men who successfully heard the song of the sirens and lived to tell the tale there was first of all Ulysses Ulysses knew the legend Ulysses knew of the sirens but he like all other living men had never heard it but he was determined that he would but he wanted to be the first and perhaps the only man ever to hear the song of the sirens and live and so he made an arrangement with his sailors he said listen you bind me here to the mast of this ship and we're going to go sailing in near the island of the sirens we're not going to go in but we're going to go near enough to hear the song and you all you sailors put wax in your ears so you can't hear anything and you bind me to the ship's mast so that I can't do anything and I'll probably when we go near I'll probably change my mind and I'll want to go in and turn in as all others before me have but you won't be able to hear me and I won't be able to do anything because I'll be bound and so his sailors followed his orders and he was bound to the mast of his ship and so they sailed near the island of the sirens and yes the song the siren song as the expression now is used came wafting across the waves and they came to the ship and he heard them and as all other men before him he found them irresistible he could not resist the sound and he started shouting to his sailors turn in turn in go into the island but they couldn't hear him because they had wax in their ears and they couldn't hear the song because they had wax in their ears and so he struggled at the ropes but he couldn't get away he was bound tight to the mast of the ship within a certain period of time they sailed beyond the range of the song it was safe the sailor could take the wax out of the ears he could be unbound and all was well he heard the song of the sirens and lived to tell the tale and there was another man in the mythology who also heard the song of the sirens and lived and that was Orpheus who is the the legendary musician endowed by the Greek gods allegedly with almost supernatural powers of music and he was on a ship also and they came near to the island of the sirens and the song of the sirens was heard by the sailors as it came across the water and onto the ship and the sailors began to turn in which would have resulted in their doom but Orpheus pulled out his instrument and began to play a music that was more beautiful and the music he played distracted the sailors in fact not only distracted they had no interest in the song of the sirens because Orpheus played a more beautiful song and their ship passed by safely and did not experience destruction either what in the world is the point of telling these stories from Greek mythology in a story about fellowship with God well quite simply this in our struggle against sin which every Christian who is a true Christian does engage in if we don't struggle against sin it means we have surrendered to it and that's not something Christians do and they do struggle and they fall but they don't surrender if they don't want to struggle against it one has to wonder whether they have experienced any regeneration because the bible says regeneration results in a heart that has God's laws written on it and anyone who has God's laws written on the heart is offended and grieved by violation of God's laws so a regenerate person hates sin and desires to resist it but does not always successfully do so because sin or the temptation of sin is not entirely unlike the song of the sirens it is something that a man may know that if he heeds it he will die but its appeal is too strong and many of course are drawn to their doom but there are two ways that people have sought to overcome sin in their lives one is to like Ulysses who bound himself to the mast of his ship many people bind themselves to their religious standards their rules and their regulations this is what legalism is legalism says I will not its like Paul represented legalism in Colossians 2 touch not taste not handle not etc. etc. who is that for there? Reed would you mind turning the ringer off there after you take it? those who resist sin by legalism by rules and by binding they are in a bondage they are not free like Ulysses they may survive they may get by the temptation and not surrender but they never get a life you know what you call that living so you heard the temptation you were drawn to the temptation but you resisted it because you were bound by stronger cords to rules and regulations you are not a free person but there is another way to overcome the temptation of sin and that is to be in fellowship with God and to be listening to if we might make the application of the analogy listening to the more the more beautiful music to be attuned to the pleasures and the joys that are associated with his presence in his right hand to dwell in his presence is to know fullness of joy yes the world offers joys but never the fullness and once you have the fullness the joys of the world that it has to offer frankly seem quite tawdry and lame and rather it's almost embarrassing you feel sorry for the world having so little to offer to try to attract you it's like if an extremely ugly person was trying to seduce you and you found him repulsive to look at it you feel embarrassed for them and in God's presence and in his right hand are pleasures forever more the world has its pleasures too there is pleasure in sin for a season the music is attractive but not as attractive if somebody is aware of the pleasures that are at the right hand of God sin just seems like such a cheap substitute you might say well that sounds all very idealistic maybe that makes good preaching but that just isn't realistic no one could really enjoy God that much well of course I hope no one here is thinking that way but if you are then I just have to say you are giving away your lack of experience your naivety the fact of the matter is this kind of communion with God is the birthright of every Christian it's the sad thing that many people sell their birthright for a bowl of pottage or worse but there are many Christians who have not sold their birthright or will not sell their birthright and they could testify as I can that these things are so and this is the testimony of scripture as well John says these things I have written to you that you may have fellowship with us and our fellowship was with the Father and with the Son of Jesus Christ and I have written this so that your joy may be full how by being in fellowship with God with us so John wrote his epistle he says for the sake of encouraging our fellowship with God now he says I and my companions John and the other apostles we have had this fellowship we have touched him we have seen him we have heard him we have been right in his presence and we are writing this so that you can share with us such fellowship with God as we have come to know such intimacy and that is what the rest of the book of 1st John especially the rest of chapter 1 focuses very clearly upon now what I want to bring out from this passage is that the life he says in verse 2 was manifested we did not draw him down as Paul says it is not as if anyone could say who shall ascend into heaven as if to bring Christ down or who shall descend into the depths as if to bring him up from the grave but the word of God is nigh unto thee God has already come near the word has been manifested it is an evidence that God desires this communion we don't have to convince him we don't have to pay him off we don't have to beg and coax he wants it he came down he manifested himself why so that we could have fellowship with him that God desires fellowship is of course a prerequisite for anyone to have fellowship with God, God has to want it one of the saddest things I think in the Calvinist theology that many Christians hold to is that it is a part of that theology that God really doesn't want fellowship with everybody God only wants fellowship with a few he really wouldn't even like it if everyone had fellowship with him it never was part of his plan that they should that to me is a tragic position for anyone to think because if God doesn't want fellowship with everyone then how could I ever know if he wants it with me but the Bible teaches that God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth God has come down for all of us now he won't get all of us because some of us don't desire fellowship with him and that is the next point we'll be talking about but before we do let me just give you another scripture on the fact that God desires fellowship with us in Revelation 3 and verse 20 Jesus is speaking and he says behold I stand at the door and I knock if anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come in to him and dine with him at table fellowship in other words with him and he with me there will be mutual fellowship we'll have a meal together and he's not talking about necessarily a physical meal although some would think that this may be a reference to the Eucharistic practices and so forth that are alluded to several places in Revelation but the way I understand it is that Jesus is there making his appeal to every man at least everyone in the church will say something the Calvinists can agree with at least to all the elect I believe to all people and his knock is at the door now whether it's at the door of the church as the context might suggest or at the door of your heart as popular evangelicalism usually represents it is a moot point the important thing is if anyone hears this knocking and is responsive Jesus comes in to them in to dwell with them and to sup with them and to fellowship with that person again we see Jesus is doing the knocking we're not knocking at heaven's door he's knocking at our door and he's the one who wants the fellowship who's offering it this is this is an astonishment and a wonder but it is a prerequisite we could never hope to have fellowship with God unless God desired it and quite scripturally we know that he does but the other thing is we have desire, that's another prerequisite God I believe would have fellowship with all but not all want to have fellowship with him it says in Romans chapter 1 that even those who reject him are without excuse because God has manifested himself to them so that they're without excuse but he says some have not liked to retain the knowledge of God in their minds he says there are those who do not desire to think about or to know God they don't want to fellowship with God and this is a great affront to him of course I mean well we don't have to go into some preaching fit about what an affront it is to God but let me just say this if we are to have fellowship with God we have to desire this how much? well not a little suppose you I'm going to address myself mainly to men because it would be men more often than women suppose you have decided that you want to marry somebody you don't know quite yet if they want to marry you but let's just say this person is a person of low station has very few suitors and the suitors that she does have are really repulsive lousy candidates for marriage and you let us say, let's use your imagination let's say you're a great catch let's say you're virtuous athletic handsome intelligent, witty everybody loves you everyone who has any taste you've got class and here you are Prince Charming Mr. Wonderful and you go to this woman who's got no desirable options available to her just a bunch of sleeves bags and she's no catch but you come to her and say I have decided I want to devote the rest of my life to our relationship I want to be I'm asking you to marry me and suppose that woman said well maybe I'll tell you what how about if we just start dating but I still want to have some other guys on the side too well that wouldn't really be acceptable first of all it would be an insult if I mean if you knew yourself to be the only virtuous and appealing option this person had and yet she wanted to keep open options for some sleeves bags too you'd find it probably offensive she'd be suggesting that you and these other sleeves bags are essentially kind of on the same level and she's not sure if she can pick between and if God comes to us and says I want to fellowship with you I want to have exclusive access to your heart and you say well I like the idea you can come fellowship with me whenever you want but I also am going to find some of my pleasures elsewhere then this is an affront to God and frankly God won't do it if you propose marriage to somebody and say listen I want you to marry me and she says tell you what I will come and live with you under your roof you can support me if you'd like and we'll have an amicable relationship but I'm going to have other men too you wouldn't agree to that the wedding would never take place likewise fellowship with God can never occur unless we desire it as much as he does unless it is as much a passion of ours as it is a passion of his well is it a passion of his we've read that he wants to fellowship with him but how committed is he to this well does the fact that he didn't redeem us with corruptible things the silver and gold from our vain conversation received by the tradition from our fathers but by the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish without spot does it give any indication of how interested he is of what sacrifices he is willing to make he is fully committed he's held nothing back and for us to be less fully committed less concerned less eager is simply going to result in no link no connection we have to bring the same degree of eagerness to fellowship with him as he has to fellowship with us the same degree of commitment now let me show you some scripture on this in Psalm 42 we have probably a fairly normative attitude of one who will experience fellowship with God because this person who wrote the Psalm we don't know who it was desires this obsessively Psalm 42 verse 1 he says as the dear Brooks so pants my soul for you my soul thirsts for God for the living God when shall I come to appear before my God my tears have been my food day and night while they continually say to me where is your God he's not really receiving at the moment any manifestation he feels God is far away but of course God is not but he feels like it and he is not pleased he is obsessed with finding God as a panting deer he is obsessed with finding water he is thirsting he has a raging thirst for God now when a person is thirsting not just a little bit but panting after water there is really nothing else that can occupy the attention very much I mean at times when you are not dying of starvation or thirst you have the liberty to think about all kinds of different things but when you are dying of thirst you have only one thing on your mind there is no room for anything else there is one obsession and it has to be met or else nothing else will matter and that is that you have to find water and if you don't you are dead and your mind will be obsessed with it and this is the degree of desire that the psalmist professes to have toward God to have fellowship with God look at Psalm 63 this one we know David is the writer of Psalm 63 verse 1 O God you are my God early will I seek you my soul thirsts for you my flesh longs for you in a dry and thirsty land where no water is so I have looked for you in the sanctuary to see your power and your glory because your loving kindness is better than life my lips shall praise you thus will I bless you while I live I lift up my hands in your name my soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness and my mouth shall praise you with joyful lips now he says I am hungry for you my soul longs for you my flesh longs for you but I will be satisfied when I find you the person who will have fellowship with God must take God seriously God will not be known casually God will not be taken lightly and God will not manifest himself to somebody who is partially committed it just won't happen it doesn't mean they'll never ever hear from him God can speak even to his enemies and has been known to do so think of Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus God knows your number and you don't have to be looking for him for him to find you but Saul of Tarsus prior to surrendering to God never had communion with God communion is one thing for God to get through to you with an urgent message once in a while is another God takes the prerogative there but the point here is that to commune with God you must bring a like desire as that which God himself possesses for the relationship and for the fellowship short of that is an insult to God of course and God does not respond well to insults if you really want communion with God you should by all means avoid insulting him by little interest on your part and so David says in another place Psalm 27 Psalm 27 in verse 4 one thing I have desired of the Lord and that will I seek well what would that be? that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord to inquire in his temple well this is, he means he wants to fellowship with the Lord he wants to be where God is he wants to inquire of God he wants to hear from God he wants to behold the beauty of the Lord he wants to enjoy God and he says that's the one thing I desire, that's the one thing I will seek you don't seek that and several other things besides you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and then all the other things are added you don't have to have multiple pursuits one pursuit is enough Jesus said to Martha you're bothered by many things but Mary has chosen, she said only one thing is needful one thing is needful and Mary has chosen that better part and it will not be taken away from her Martha was concerned about many things some of them religious, some of them had to do with serving God, serving Jesus and the disciples, she was preparing food for them but she was nervously pursuing all kinds of different things, the one thing she wasn't doing was listening hearing discerning what God what Jesus wanted her to do Mary was doing that, Mary was there experiencing communion with Jesus Martha was simply serving serving is a good thing if it's what God wants you to do how would you ever know what service he prefers unless you've first been in communion with him that's the one thing needful, David said it's the one thing I've desired, it's the one thing I will seek after and if you do seek after God you'll find that all other things that you might otherwise have been inclined to seek you don't need to seek anymore because they will be added unto you, Jesus said in the New Testament we have Paul's thirst for fellowship with God expressed in chapter 3 of Philippians he talks about all of his religious credentials and all the things he used to think were something to boast about before he knew the Lord but now he says in Philippians 3 verses 8 through 10 but indeed I also count all things lost for the excellency 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 I've suffered the loss of all things what a sacrificial guy you are yeah it is a big sacrifice, like taking the rubbish out to the trash can what a sacrifice I count it as rubbish more correctly dung I heard one preacher shock his audience by giving a more modern word for dung from the pulpit to try to express exactly the strength of what Paul was trying to say and it's a word that I will not tell you what it is but you can use your imagination I've never used the word from the pulpit very rarely have I ever used it at any time of my life in any case Paul said that which stood instead of a knowledge of God that religiosity that was actually a counterfeit for the knowledge of God he finds it repulsive it's dung to him, it's rubbish he's passed it and gone on to other things for what? well, that I might gain Christ verse 8, verse 9, and be found in him not having my own righteousness which is from the law but that which is through faith in Christ by the righteousness which is from God by faith verse 10, that I might know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death now I won't talk at the moment about the fellowship of his sufferings but obviously what Paul desires is knowing Jesus in fellowship with him and for this, everything else can go by the boards he can pass up on everything else, whatever else even the things he thought were gain the things he boasted about before they're so little in value as to be of negative value they're a loss those things he thought were a gain he counts them as a loss now why? because he now wants something far more and that is to know him in the fellowship that is available to the Christian with God now that being so, we can see that this is the attitude of desire after God that is rewarded with a revelation of God that is rewarded with fellowship God will come out from behind the curtain if he finds there waiting a suitor who is fully committed and fully desirous and obsessed to know him now I'm not saying that a person with less obsession than that can never be saved I don't know at what low level of interest a person could be saved only God knows I guess where that line is crossed I wouldn't wish to explore the lower levels myself I wouldn't want to take my chances it may be that a person who is only half interested in God but enough so to give up his sin and to more or less pursue some level of obedience to God maybe God considers that person savable I don't know I don't know of any scripture that would give credit to that person as being capable of assurance of salvation a person who is not whole hearted there just isn't a description of anyone like that in the Bible who is saved the norm for Christianity may be higher than what is permissible it may be that God will save some who are subnormal but I don't know that he has any interest in saving people who have a desire to be subnormal I have no interest in being subnormal if anything if it's a possibility I'd like to be I'd like to be excessive above the norm in terms of my passion for God but if I can't do that I at least want to be normal David expresses the normal desire for God I didn't say the average there's a difference between that which is average and that which is normal the average of many in many areas is quite below the normal normal is what is normative normal is what things ought to be when things are that way they are just as they should be the average is often far short of that but David is the norm Paul is the norm, Jesus is the norm and we've read of these what the normal desire after God is we could say it certainly is not average in the body of Christ perhaps many who when they read of that norm they wonder if anyone could really think that way, could anyone really be that way? could anyone really love God that much? well, what a sad thing that people have to ask but it's one of the reasons the question is asked is because so few people have met normal Christians or at least if they've met some they are not surrounded by them they are not in fellowship with a great company of normal Christians we live in a time of great sub-normality and deficiency in the Christian church but let me guarantee you on the authority of scripture and by personal testimony that you can desire God more than all other things and if you desire God supremely and uniquely if Jesus is not just going to be one of the things in your life or the highest thing on the list of your priorities Jesus doesn't want to be the highest thing on your list of priorities he wants to be the whole list the bible doesn't say that you need to find room for Jesus in your life, it says Christ is our life, when Christ who is our life shall appear we shall appear with him in glory Paul said for me to live is Christ, he that has the son has life, he that has not the son of God has not life, Jesus is our life it's not that people need to find room for Jesus in their life if they don't have Jesus they don't have any life to find room for him in he is it, he is all that's the norm for the Christian if a person can be saved with less than that attitude toward Christ, fine, I'll be as happy as anyone to see people go to heaven who, albeit cheated themselves out of their birthright during their lifetime, which was to fellowship with God but if you want fellowship with God there's no lesser qualification than to desire God as a deer pants for the water books and you know, counting all other pursuits as loss and dumb but desiring him only now there's another prerequisite for fellowship with God I'd like to bring up, we've talked about the fact that before fellowship with God can happen, he has to desire it secondly, you have to desire it, but there's another and that is found at least implied if not directly stated in 2 Corinthians chapter 6 2 Corinthians chapter 6 verses 14 through 18 do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers for what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness and what communion has light with darkness and what accord has Christ with Belial or what part has a believer with an unbeliever and what agreement has the temple of God with idols for you are the temple of the living God as God has said I will dwell in them and walk among them and I will be their God and they shall be my people therefore come out from among them and be separate says the Lord do not touch what is unclean and I will receive you I will be a father to you and you shall be my sons and daughters says the Lord almighty now notice in verse 6 there's a promise verse 16 there's a promise Paul quotes this quotation actually is from Ezekiel 37 and he says I will dwell in them I will walk among them God walking with us God associating with us God being a companion to us notice all the different almost synonyms that Paul uses to describe fellowship in verse 14 he uses the words fellowship and communion in verse 15 he uses the word accord what accord has Christ with Belial what part that is what shared part is there between the believer and the unbeliever what agreement this is a pretty good this is like Paul's amplified version of the word fellowship fellowship communion accord agreement partnership partnership really now he indicates here that the reason that a Christian ought not to be unequally together with unbelievers is because they will find no partnership there an unbeliever is on a different wavelength an unbeliever has a different set of dominant desires and values and therefore what fellowship could one possibly have I've always been amazed when non-christian single people come to me and say does the bible ever forbid dating a non-christian well I don't know that dating is even biblical at all even if it were my question is why I mean it's not only forbidden that we that we not marry a non-christian the question is raised why would you what is the attraction if you have one thing needful in your life one thing you're pursuing and nothing else but God and there's someone over here who hasn't even begun to think about pursuing God what in the world are you going to do with him or her what have you got in common you like the same music a thin foundation to build a relationship on you like each others looks so that won't last both will grow old unless you die young what in the world are you going to have in common like the sense of humor a christian who loves Jesus isn't going to like the sense of humor of an unbeliever I'm not saying a christian can't love good humor but an unbelievers humor is other than a christians tastes when I say when I'm asked can a christian date a non-christian I just can't understand the question I mean I know what it means I just don't understand where it's coming from what in the world would you want to for you are exhibiting a deficiency in your own passion for God now what Paul is saying here when he argues against being unequally yoked together with unbelievers he says what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness what communion has light with darkness these are opposite things you can't join opposite things like that and have unity and have communion and fellowship now taking this a step further to discussion of fellowship with God which actually Paul does extend it that far he does extend it to God's promise to dwell in us and to walk among us and to associate with us our fellowship with God is what is at stake here there must be some measure of likeness or there cannot be any measure of fellowship there must be a conformity in other words when God first met you or first became aware of you of course we might say he became aware of you before the foundational world but let's just talk in terms of your history, your personal history when you were born God knew you as you grew up God knew you not in the sense of necessarily approving or fellowship with you but he knew who you were he knew your name, he knew your number there came a time when you knew him or wanted to know him or else you wouldn't be here now but at that first acquaintance with you God would have to have said you and I are not compatible because before you came to Christ you were committed to things that are contrary to God self for one thing that's why he said if anyone came after me let him deny himself you were committed to self no human being has ever lived that was not initially committed to self that is something that is only overcome by repentance and by regeneration self interest is the natural fallen condition of all people from babyhood on the newborn baby is committed to self now some might say well don't blame the baby for being corrupt and sinful it doesn't know any better it's just interested in self preservation it wants to be fed because it's hungry and so forth I'm not arguing the morality or immorality of it I'm just stating a fact the natural person is committed to one thing above all and that is self interest and that will not suffice in fellowship with God a person who is living for self is not compatible with God now there's another thing you need to bring into this consideration if you're not compatible with God someone's got to change and God doesn't change God is not going to conform himself to be a God made in your image fellowship with God requires compatibility it requires some conformity but God's not going to be conformed to you, you must be conformed to him therefore as a prerequisite for fellowship light and darkness have no fellowship with either God is light you're in darkness what are you going to do about that? let me show you something in 1 John again chapter 1 1 John 1 verses 5 through 7 this is the message which we have heard from him and declared to you that God is light remember he said earlier that the reason he's writing this is that we'd have fellowship with God along with him so I want you to know something 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 it can't be you're in darkness God's in light how's that going to work you're not in the same domain how can you fellowship? there's no conformity there but he says in verse 7 but if we walk in the light what's that mean? well he said in verse 5 God is light there's no darkness in him if you walk in light that means you're conforming to him you're coming over into his territory he's not going to come down into yours he's not going to become darkness just because you want to walk into darkness you have to make the transition you have to conform to him if we walk in the light as he is in the light as he's already told us then we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanses us from all sin one of the greatest and most universal misunderstandings of the meaning of this verse that I've heard preached I don't know if I've ever heard anyone teach otherwise is some people think that we have fellowship one with another John's talking about you and me having fellowship together as we walk in the light no the context is about fellowship with God and lack thereof he says in verse 6 if we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we're lying but if we walk in light we do have fellowship with him he and I have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanses me from all sin this is a statement about fellowship with God we cannot fellowship with God if indeed he is all light and we are in the darkness we have to come over to his side we have to conform with a walk in the light therefore a measure of conformity to God is required as a prerequisite that is why people do not have a relation with God until they repent the first word of the gospel is repent Jesus said in his first recorded words in the gospel of Mark chapter 1 verse 14 and 15 he said the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand repent therefore and believe the gospel when Peter was asked on the day of Pentecost what must we do his first word was repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and you will receive the gift of the Holy Ghost in Acts 2 38 so repent is the first command repent means turn around repent means change your mind you got one way of thinking God has got another you got to turn around and conform to his way of thinking or else there is going to be no communion here nothing is going to be happening between you and him of a positive sort until you conform let me read you something or you can turn with me if you want to this in Isaiah 55 Isaiah chapter 55 verses 6 through 9 very good passage on this point Isaiah 55 verses 6 through 9 seek the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is near it sounds like there are occasions when God draws near and the opportunity to reach out and lay hold of him is greater than at other times there are times when he is knocking and times when you don't hear the knock for a while when he comes near avail yourself of the opening seek him while he can be found call upon him while he is near let the wicked forsake his way and the righteous man his thoughts let him return to the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon why why should the wicked man forsake his way and why should the unrighteous man forsake his thoughts the answer is given in verse 8 for my thoughts are not your thoughts says God nor are your ways my ways says the Lord there is the problem you've got a set of ways and a set of thoughts and God's got a different set of ways and set of thoughts different than yours now you want to conform to him then you have to forsake your ways and your thoughts and adopt his ways and his thoughts why should I even make that exchange well he says in verse 9 for as the heavens are higher than the earth so high are my ways so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts you're not making an exchange downwards an exchange upward his thoughts and ways are much superior to yours you've got wicked thoughts you've got what's it say wicked ways and unrighteous thoughts those are different than God's therefore if you want to call on him if you want to draw near to him if you want to know him you're going to have to make an exchange here you've got to give up your thoughts and your ways and conform to his fellowship with God requires first that God desires it secondly that you desire it and thirdly that you make the exchange you make you conform to his will you change your mind you repent turn around you change your opinions now this is something that many Christians I believe have apparently never been told to do or if they have they haven't been listening very much because many people when they become Christians bring with them into their Christian life all the same opinions and values they had before except for the most gross ones maybe they were maybe they were extreme blasphemers before they were Christians or maybe they were extremely promiscuous or drunkards or whatever and when they become Christians of course they realize that's not consistent with Christianity so they give up their blasphemy or their drunkenness or their promiscuity at least they try because they know they should but many Christians don't know that they have to give up all their opinions because every opinion you formed before you knew God was formed in the darkness it's like people with blindfolds on trying to form opinions about how this yard is laid out someone who has never seen it a blind man walks up and says where are the trees well I suspect they're probably maybe there's a stand of trees over there in the north corner and let's see maybe a little bit of grass over here you probably have a pond over on that side well I mean he can have any opinions he wants to but if he's in the dark there's not any likelihood that his opinions will bear any resemblance to reality and when people form opinions about what's right and wrong, what's desirable what's undesirable what's wise and what's unwise what people ought to pursue and what people ought not to pursue how people should relate and how people ought not to relate all of these are decisions based upon some ultimate reality out there which the opinions formed before you're a Christian are all made in the dark you might as well be blind and trying to describe a landscape you've never seen and therefore I always counsel Christians when they become Christians that they should probably come into the Christian life assuming that everything they've thought until now is very possibly maybe probably wrong it takes a little humility Jesus said you have to become like a child, humble like a child some people say well children I've seen are not humble is not the word I would use to describe them pride is in children too but one thing that is clearly humble about a child at least a very little child they ask a lot of questions and by so doing they don't hide their ignorance as a matter of fact a little child a newborn child has everything to learn and wants to learn and is willing to hear the answers from people who know in other words when you become humble like a child it means you stop thinking you know and you start realizing I'm in a new dimension I've come into a new life, I've been born again I'm a brand new person in a realm I've never been in before and I don't know anything I mean I know what I used to think but now I've come out of the darkness I'm in the light what corrections may be necessary for me the Bible says all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for what? reproof, for correction, for teaching for instruction of righteousness so that the man of God might be perfect thoroughly equipped for every good work we need the Bible to correct us to instruct us because however wise we may have been in our own eyes before or however wise we may have been in the eyes of others before we now are like babies, newborns into a world we've never known in need of learning of everything we have everything to learn and we begin to learn by conforming our thoughts to his thoughts we have to give up those thoughts those ways we had before and that is why I'm so shocked I guess I'm not shocked anymore because I got shocked so much I got numb to it but I'm still aghast I suppose when I find Christians who obviously haven't become Christians they've never forsaken their old ways their old philosophies their own ideas about whatever politics, psychology, feminism whatever all that junk that the world gave them by the way, some people never learn those bad things until they're in the church because someone before them brought it in but the fact of the matter is they didn't get it from here that's a fact they look for it here they desperately try to shoehorn verses into it because they've decided what they believe is true what their values are what the nature of reality is that they're comfortable living with and they try to force God's thoughts revealed in here into this straight jacket of what their thoughts already were and the one thing that their thoughts all had in common was they were all self-centered death to self was not part of the program death to self was not part of the agenda before you were a Christian therefore all your opinions all your values everything embraced by your mind and by the ways that you determined you should go, your goals, your ambitions were all determined by the fact that self was everything and when you become a Christian you better realize that you've just changed universes you've just transferred to a different solar system in this solar system the sun is at the center not you and you go around him and he's at the center and everything that you do is a rotation around his desire and his glory and his brilliance and his will and his wisdom and that universe that you transferred from where you were at the center and everything in it went around you you just better figure hey I'm in a foreign territory here I guess I better get a little humble here and figure maybe there's some new ropes I've got to learn here in this new world, maybe I'll read my bible, maybe I'll let God have a say about things, maybe I'll stop trying to sandwich or shoehorn or force into the mold of my preferences the things the bible says, I'm going to conform myself to God I'm not going to try to conform him or what he has to say to me and there will be no fellowship with God until that conforming to God has been, has happened now that's not something that has to take years to happen you can do that instantaneously, you can repent you can say, you know I've been wrong I'm a little child in need of God to instruct me and I will turn to his word and what he says I will believe, if it goes against my pride I'll believe it anyway, if it calls me to be crucified I'll believe it anyway because I am now going to conform to him, without which I can have no real fellowship with God now let me tell you a tremendous mystery something that's a mystery to me it's not one of God's mysteries, it's just one of those mysteries of reality, is that there are people who profess to be hearing from God all the time as if they walk, talk and breathe God all the time, and yet their lives are totally committed to self, just like they were before they were professing to be saved I've been around these people very much it's as if they are in fellowship with God on a regular basis, moment by moment, in fact every thought that comes to their head they're quite sure it's a word from him and yet there's not one unselfish bone in their body and they have in no way repented of their self-centered life, it's evident by every pursuit of theirs by their pride, by their boasting by every other kind of carnality that exhibits them, it's a sad thing but here's the mystery, how is it that these people are having such intimate fellowship with God when they have not come in conformity, has light now come into fellowship with darkness? No, Paul indicates that can't happen, if we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lie and do not the truth, John said 1 John 1 6 it's only if we walk in the light as he is in the light, if we conform to him, that we have fellowship with him, what's happening with these people then? They think they're in fellowship with God well let's face it, fellowship with God it's kind of an abstract thing there is such a thing as delusions in fact there are so many delusions that these days the majority of people who claim to hear from God are in mental institutions because they are delusional Charles Manson was hearing from God too and so were a lot of other weirdos who did terrible criminal things, now none of us believe that Charles Manson was really hearing from God when he was told to go and murder all those people that's obviously not God well why is that obviously not God? Well because that's sinful, that's not agreeable with what God said, ok, I accept I accept that conclusion, well what about things that are not quite as scandalously sinful as serial killing how about just plain selfishness and envy and gossip and malice and pride and self-serving I mean are those less scandalous to God than murder? Maybe a little bit, but I don't know, maybe not Jesus said if you're angry at your brother it's all the same as murder if you lust it's all the same as adultery I mean is it less delusional for a charismatic believer who's not in a mental institution to say I'm hearing from God all the time, I'm in fellowship with God while at the same time living in total carnality and self-centeredness is that any less delusional than for Charles Manson who lived in self-centered delusional murder you know as a lifestyle he thinks he's hearing from God too how do you know if someone's hearing from God or not how can you know more importantly whether you're hearing from God well don't judge by what you think, feel, or hope judge by the truth the truth is if we walk as he walked, if we walk in the light then we do have fellowship with him if in other words we bring ourselves into conformity with his thinking and his ways, if we make that basic transition of denial of self and willingness to bear a cross and to follow him and to die to self, then that's where fellowship with him comes, that's why Paul said I want to know him in the fellowship of his sufferings being conformable unto his death, Paul knew there's no fellowship with Jesus without that conformity to his death that's what he said in Philippians 3.10 I want to know him in the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death I want to die to myself I want to bear my cross as Jesus died to himself and bore his cross in that I can fellowship with him I can be conformed to him in that respect and fellowship with him in that reality and so these are the prerequisites I thought I'd get actually further today but actually you know I have a few more minutes on the clock, I might go a little further but not too much because the next point unfolds too far for us to go in this session, so maybe I will kind of wind this down here although I certainly wanted to get further in fellowshipping with God we must have these basic things first there are three that I mentioned and two of them are up to us the first is not but it's already covered God wants to fellowship with you the other two are up to you, do you want to fellowship with him and does it matter really enough to become all that you want and the second is are you willing to conform to him, to his cross, to his death to deny self to reorientate your thoughts your ways to be just like his, not to try to shift his around and stretch them beyond recognition to fit what you already were comfortable with thinking but are you ready to conform to him if so, then the requirements have been met you are qualified for fellowship with God but there are actual means by which the Bible teaches us to approach God to draw near to God, to dwell with God to walk with God and all of this must be done if fellowship with God is to be a reality and so in the remaining sessions that we have we will continue along these lines that I mentioned at the beginning and which I just mentioned we will talk about how to draw near to God how to dwell with God and how to walk with God and we will also talk about how to hear from God that is how to know his voice and his guidance in our life and that should be a good conclusion to our larger series on knowing God so let's stop there and figure that we will have a couple more sessions left to to cover the ground that we need to cover yet