Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. – Isaiah 1:18

The 4 C’s of Fellowship with God:

1. Conditions for Fellowship

2. Conduct for Fellowship

3. Characteristics of Fellowship

4. Consequences of Fellowship

God created Man to have fellowship with him;

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. – Genesis 1:26

And God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. – Genesis 2:7

God had fellowship, and conversations with Adam in the beginning:

 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. – Genesis 2:15-17

Further, we see that Adam recognized the voice of the LORD.  How else would Adam recognize the Voice of God unless he had heard it before? They had spoken to one another before.

And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. – Genesis 3:9-10

Man’s sin broke the fellowship that he once had with GOD

And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.  And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.  And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. – Genesis 3:6-8

Satan tempted them to disobey the command that they received from God, by casting doubt in GODS Word (Genesis 3:4-5).  Man’s fellowship was instantly broken with GOD when they ate of the fruit; therefore God had to make a way for us to regain that Fellowship with him.

1)  Conditions for Fellowship

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. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. 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. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: 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.  – 1 John 1:3-7

The first step:

The first step in restoring Fellowship with God is that we must accept the personal relationship that he has offered to us, in the form of a free gift of eternal salvation, and reconciliation to himself.

As we just read in 1 John 1:7

..the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

In Romans 3:23 we read that: We have all sinned and come short of the Glory of GOD. And again in Romans 3:10:

As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one

Good Works 

Too many people are counting on the “good” that they do to outweigh the “bad” that they have done. The inherent problem with that philosophy; is that it just isn’t biblical:

 we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. – Isaiah 64:6

That verse just told you that the Best that you could do is filthy in GODS eyes.

You must be born again

Jesus told us in John 3:3 that we “Must be Born Again.” He went on to explain to us why he came into the world:

For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. – Luke 19:10

He also explains why Men are condemned:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. – John 3:16-19

Reread verse 18! What did that verse tell you?  Did it say that men are condemned because of the specific sin acts that they have committed? Or that because they have not done more “good” things in their life than “bad” things is the reason that they are condemned?

No, is the answer to both of those questions.  According to the LORD Jesus Christ, who is God manifest in the flesh( 1 Timothy 3:16); the ONLY thing that will condemn you in your sins is to reject the free gift that he is offering to you today.

He said that men are condemned merely because of their refusal to believe on him.  It has absolutely nothing to do with what we have done and has everything to do with what he has done for us.

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. – Ephesians 2:8-9

We cannot earn salvation by doing good works

Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.  – Titus 3:5-7

None of the things that we do can earn us Heaven; Those things can only earn us a grave:

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. – Romans 6:23

Eternal Life is a free gift

That verse just told you the key! Eternal life is a free gift that can only be obtained by faith and trust in the LORD Jesus Christ. In Romans 5:12 we are told that we have all sinned, and, therefore, deserve death, but the Lord is gracious and not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance(2 Peter 3:9).

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. – Romans 5:8

Jesus paid the price

Jesus paid the price for our sins for us on the cross:

For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:  – 1 Peter 3:18

The only thing that you must do to obtain Eternal Salvation is to receive the free gift.

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.  – Romans 10:9-13

Have you called upon the name of the LORD?

The only thing that you must do, to obtain Eternal Life, is to accept the free gift.  If you have never received the free gift of Eternal Life, why not get it settled today?

Just admit to yourself, and to the LORD that you are a sinner and deserve death and hell, and realize that there is not a thing that you can do to change that fact.

The best way that you know how; confess your sinful nature and put all of your faith and trust in the LORD Jesus Christ for salvation.

Jesus said that He was the way the truth and the life, and no one can come to the Father but by him (John 14:6).

You can know that you have Eternal Life:

Once you have accepted the Free Gift of salvation that is being offered to you by Jesus then you can know that you have Eternal Life:

And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.  – 1 John 5:11-13

Now that you have a personal relationship with the LORD, you can work on your fellowship with him. We will further explore the Conditions of Fellowship with God in our next posting.