1. Purpose of the letter is to impart this new life to those who would read this epistle.

This is NOT: Having a Better Time.
More fun
How to get gusto. How to be rich
ETC

It IS: A deeper full, abundant and satisfying productive life.

a. Seek it from the world...Folks a full abundant life is not available on this earth...apart from knowing Jesus Christ as ones personal Savior.

b. Some seek it in...yes...religion...that too is wrong place and will fail you.

          There are lots of religious people in Hell at this very hour....

           Religion is man made and not of God, Webster says religion is belief in a divine power or powers to be obeyed and worshipped.

           ...Lots of folks believe in a god, and yet do not know the ONLY TRUE God...Paul in Acts 17 on Mt. Olympus, said Athenians worshipped many gods, yet they did not know, the only true God that created them and that they were responsible to. Paul then introduced them our real God and Savior.

           These people has a religion they actively practiced and believed in, but it was not of God. Webster says that religion is the expression of belief in conduct and ritual.

           That is the heart of religion: Conduct and ritual.

c. Dear friends that's not what John tells us about n God's word the Bible! Lets look at the things he does say...!

Question is "How can a person really truly know be save and have fellowship with God?"            John says the believer can. . . and in fact a truly saved person who by simple belief puts his faith and trust in Jesus Christ can have their sins forgiven, be given eternal life, heaven when they die and present fellowship with the Lord. The Bible explains this fellowship is possible in three ways.

A. 1 John 1:3.."our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

B. So the basis having this fellowship is in first knowing it is truly possible and obtainable.

1. How? Through trusting the Lord Jesus Christ as one's Savior....when we believe and put our trust in Jesus Christ then Fellowship is established.

2. Romans 10:9-10...."if thou shall confess with thy mouth, the Lord Jesus and believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead...thou shall be saved"

A. Verse 3, Fellowship: The Greek word "koinonia," means having in common or sharing with. "a joint participation with someone else in things common to both"
1. Means: Coming in line with God's plans.
2. It is reflected in Jesus' model prayer? "THY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN."
3. Basis of fellowship is being in a joint venture together.

B. True fellowship begins when one comes to know personally God our creator. John 1:1 states
           "In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the Word was God" (John 1:1)
           John 1:3 states that "all things were made by Him, and without him was not any thing made that was made"

           Note that the pronoun "Him" in verse 3, refers to that who is spoken of in verse 1 and 2.

           Revelation 19:13, specifically refers to Christ as the Word. In Armamic and in the Greek language the way the word is used is understood as a designation for God.

           John 1:14, states that the Word, was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory.

1. Thus was John is saying is that Jesus Christ is God and our Creator.

2. In 1 John 1:3, is saying that the fellowship he is talking about is with Christ, our God and Creator.

C. In Genesis 1:1-2:3, we can clearly see that God created the earth for man.
1. During the six day creation God moved toward a goal, that of making first a home for man and then after it was complete and God saw it was good, He created man.

2. Gen. 1:26, states of all that God created only man was made in His image. Only man was given the authority to rule the world that God had created for him.

3. In Gen 2:4-25 the facts of creation are stated as they relate to man.

D. In Gen. 3:8, states that God came on a regular basis to visit with Adam and Eve, and that had a personal face to face relationship.

           The One they fellowshipped with is Christ himself in a preincarnate appearance of Christ.

1. What we must note is that man was created in a state of sinlessness and before man sinned he fellowshipped personally with God.

2. After the fall of man, when they sinned, God because of their sin, had to separate himself from them.

Sin came between God and man. It did then and it does now.
Sin replaced open joyful communication with fear and evasion.
Adam and Eve, hid when God came in the cool of the evening.

3. The result of sin, was that death came to the earth.

The first result was a separation of God from man in communication or a spiritual death. Next came death and physical separation from the the earth that God had created for man.

E. When God shut Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden, God ceased to dwell among the human race.
1. Many in looking at the tabernacle, that God told Moses to build, fail to see an important fact. That is that the tabernacle was built as a dwelling place of God among men, or Israel, God's chosen people.

2. Again, when man sinned the glory of God, departed from them and the Shekinah Glory of God left the tabernacle.

F. You see God again, was reaching out to man to establish a communication and fellowship. When a person believes and accept Jesus Christ as their Savior that fellowship which was lost in the Garden of Eden is restored.

A. This is God's program...God's pure and perfect program. For the Christian it begins when they believed and are saved and is strengthen and made full as a person is faithful to the program God set up.

B. How is fellowship established, and how do we know we are in Fellowship?

When we are "Walking in the Light". Then and only then....When we are taking an active part in the things of God, in the local church which is his program.

Walking is the Light, means walking in the path God has lit up!

C. Note Verse 1 John 1: 6. Says " If we say (profess) that we have fellowship with Christ and walk in darkness . . . we what ...lie, and do not the truth."
1. Dr. Bowman, said this is a family book, addressed to the family, 1 John 2:1 "my little Children".

2. When family has a talk...it for the good of the family....for its benefit,,,for the benefit of individual members.

3. V7..if we walk in the light, as God is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

           Say it another way, If the professing Christian, is an active part of God's program in his or her's local church, they are living faithful to Lord in their personal life and are in truth being lead of the Spirit, then those folks are truly in fellowship with God, because they have been cleansed from sin by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

1. Each of us must answer the question the question for himself... Does my actions, my faithfulness show I apart of God's program or outside of it looking on?

           Jesus says if you are an onlooker..then you are not in fellowship with the Lord.

           You see true salvation is in the person of Christ!

           It is not in a acceptance of a system or a church or a ritual.

           I am a Baptist, yet my first loyalty is to Christ my Savior and His word. My only loyalty to being a Baptist is only when they are loyal to the Word of God and faithful to Him.

           God wants to establish fellowship with you. He wants to save you, forgive your sins and then begin to communicate to you through the Bible his word.

           You can ignore Him. He will not violate the will He gave you. Yet he has gone to great links to reach you with the truth that He might come into your heart and establish an eternal relationship with you.