Fellowship's ins and outs

There’s a very common false teaching that says when a Believer sins, he/she loses fellowship with Jesus Christ and in order to restore that lost fellowship, he/she needs to repent of the sin and be forgiven.

Jordan explains, “There’s this idea that you can have a relationship with God and not fellowship, but if you’re out of fellowship with Him, what are you out of fellowship with? Eternal life.

“The word ‘fellowship’ is talking about sharing in common. If you share His righteousness, you’re in the fellowship of His Son. If you share His eternal life, you’re in fellowship. To break fellowship with Jesus Christ would mean you break fellowship with His righteousness, His life. That means you’re going to be lost!

“So He calls you into an eternal, unbroken fellowship with His Son, not based on your performance--not based on some covenant, religious activity and/or ceremonial correctness, but based on the reality of the dispensing of His grace to you and the dispensing of all that God is free to do for you through the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary, 'whereby when you read you may understand by knowledge in the mystery of Christ.'

*****

“The 'fellowship of the mystery' is what God’s forming as He forms the Church the Body of Christ and His death becomes our death and we’re crucified with Him. That’s more than just, ‘He died for my sins.’ That’s more than just, ‘He paid for my sin.’ That means I’m now dead to that sin for He paid for it. He that is dead is free from sin. I can sing that song Glorious Freedom.

*****

“The passage in Hebrews 8 reads, [10] For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
[11] And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

  

“Jehovah’s going to take Israel back and restore the fellowship between Him and Israel based upon a new covenant that’s made in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

“That’s what the Book of I John’s about, by the way. I John 1 starts out, [1] That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;
[2] (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)
[3] That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.

“Now, you notice this epistle was written by John? We read that verse in Galatians 2:9, 'And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision.’

“They agreed Paul would go to the heathen and they would go to who? The circumcision. So if John had agreed to go to the circumcision, who do you think he’s writing to?

“You need to think about that because that will help you understand what’s going on in I John. That will help you resist some religionist who comes along and uses I John to tell you that if you don’t live by the commandments this guy wants you to live by in his particular denominational system, you’re not ‘born of God.’ That’s what they do, you know. You’ve been there, done that.

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“I John is a book written by one of the 12 apostles to the nation Israel. He says in the first verse that ‘our hands have handled the word of life.’ John’s saying, 'We were there, we saw the Lord Jesus Christ, we had Him in our hands, the life was manifested to us that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.'’

“John is going to tell Israel how to get back into fellowship with God through this new covenant He’s going to make. He writes to the self-righteous nation Israel, who thought they could do it on their own, and he tells them to admit that they’re not able; that they’re the adulterous wife and need to come back to their husband.

“Look at how he says it in verse 5: 'This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.'

"How much darkness is in God? So if you’re walking in darkness, are you in God? He continues, ‘If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
 [7] But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

“So if you’re in the light, the blood of Christ cleanses you. That’s good news. If you’re in darkness, you’re out.

“Verse 8 says, [8] If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

“Jesus said, ‘I didn’t come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners. If you say you have no sin, Israel, you’re nuts. You deceive yourselves.'

"The idea is, ‘If we say we’ve got no sin, we’re in trouble. If we say we have sin, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us.’

“The rest of the chapter reads, [9] If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
[10] If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

“Very clearly, when you read that, that is a plea to the nation Israel to confess what they are, who they are and return to their first love on the basis of the new covenant.

*****

“You see, I John 1:9 is used in religion to tell you if you ‘keep confessing your sins and keep short accounts with God . . .' That verse has nothing to do with that! That’s a salvation verse for the nation Israel!

“One day Israel's going to do it. Go back to Hosea 2 and He says, ‘I married you, you departed and I divorced you but I’m going to remarry you and I’m going to restore you and I’m never going to let you go again.’

“You ever hear the song Beulah Land? The word ‘Beulah’ in Isaiah is a name for the land of Israel. The name Beulah means ‘married.’ God’s going to take the nation Israel and marry them to the land of Palestine, the land of Israel, and never allow them to depart (that’s what divorce is) again. They’re going to be stuck in that land and they’ll never be separated again.

“God’s going to do that for Israel and that’s the 'fellowship of prophecy.' Problem with that is you’re not in that! You’re on the outside looking in.

“Paul writes in Ephesians 3:9, [9] And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:

“We have a different fellowship. We don’t have the 'fellowship of prophecy,' where He gave them the Law covenant and they failed, or He gave them the new covenant. He didn’t make the new covenant with us, folks; He made it with Israel!

“Look in Hebrews 8 where He says, ‘Again, I made it with the house of Israel,’ and He says it’s a ‘better covenant,’ because it’s going to WORK. Because it isn’t dependent on their working; it will be dependent on what HE does.

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"When Jesus in His earthly ministry says to His apostles--when He gave them the Great Commission in Matthew 10--He said, ‘Go not into the way of the Gentiles.’ You see, they couldn't preach that gospel of the kingdom to you and me today! They wouldn’t have come to the U.S. and Chicago. Why? He told them not to.

“You say, ‘Well, what kind of a God and a message is that?!’ That’s the program God had to send salvation to the nations through Israel. That’s what the ‘fellowship of prophecy’ was all about. Now, with the ‘fellowship of the mystery,’ it’s for everybody without any distinction: Jew, Gentile, Bond, Free, Scythian, and Barbarian.

“It’s not based on Israel’s covenants and promises. It’s based on the gospel. Paul says, [5] Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit;
[6] That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:

“Everything comes because of the gospel. As Ephesians 2:15 says, ‘Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace.’

"It’s the Crosswork that gives God the capacity to bring everybody back into fellowship with Him. Verse 16 says, [16] And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:

“We’re ‘fellowheirs.’ We’re of the same body. We’re part of the program now. Why? Because of the dispensation of the grace of God ‘given to me to give to you,’ Paul explains.

“I Corinthians 1:9 says, [9] God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

“God has chosen to do something He didn’t prophecy, He didn’t promise, He didn’t covenant with anybody to do. He’s chosen to take us—idol-worshipping pagan Gentiles who didn’t care anything about Him—into His fellowship with His Son and through His Son with Him. Christ is the heir of all things and we are ‘fellowheirs’ of God through Christ."

(new article tomorrow)