May it please God to bless us
together this morning as we meditate in his word. Let us turn to the
first epistle of Paul to the Corinthians and chapter one,
and we'll read verse nine. The first epistle of Paul to
the Corinthians, chapter one, and reading verse nine. God is faithful. by whom ye were
called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. The Apostle Paul was blessedly
called to write a number of letters to the various churches which
existed in his time, and there is much instruction and much
direction and much correction and much encouragement in these
letters. And this epistle to the Corinthians
is one of those, and we are very thankful that the Almighty God
has seen fit to record such words of blessing and encouragement
to us. And the Apostle commences this
letter by speaking and saying, he's sending it unto the Church
of God, which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in
Christ Jesus, called to be saints. with all that in every place
call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours."
So although it was written at that time specifically to the
Corinthians, it is written for the whole Church of God. And
therefore we can count ourselves among it today to be found reading
such a great and glorious statement. And the Apostle then tells us
grace be unto you and peace from God our father and from the Lord
Jesus Christ well May all of us know What this means it means
the free unmerited favor of God and every one of us is needs
to know the grace of God, the free unmerited favor of God,
because if we don't, we don't know God's favor. And if we don't
know God's favor, then we shall perish in our sins. And so we should be thankful
today that we have the word of God to read. And especially this
morning, this epistle of Paul to the Corinthians in the first
chapter, As we come down to this ninth verse which we read, the
Apostle says, God is faithful. That's a very simple, it's a
very true, it's a very wonderful statement. And it's something
which will never change. And today we can bless God that
he is faithful. On the other hand, we often fall
and are not faithful. but that doesn't alter the fact
that God is faithful. And because God is faithful,
then you see what follows in this word, we can believe is
true and indeed will come to pass. And he tells us, by whom
ye were called unto the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ, our
Lord. Now the relevant aspect is that
every true believer is called by God. We read it just now in
that second verse, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus
called to be saints. And every child of God is called
to be a saint. Every child of God is called
to serve God. Every true child of God is called
to hear the voice of God and to obey the voice of God and
to follow the commands of Almighty God. And so we see how this follows
and how it collects together. And we are called unto the fellowship
of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord and that's a very amazing statement
every believer Every believer is called to fellowship with
Jesus Christ as we read the fellowship of his son Jesus Christ our Lord
It is a great statement, isn't it? to think that we are called
to that position, to be blessed with fellowship with the Lord
Jesus Christ. And fellowship, of course, does
mean that we are called to communion, we are called to union, and to
believe that this is true, will be true in the life of every
believer, And that the word that we read here is so because God
is faithful to bring such truths about. And the apostle, when
he wrote to the Thessalonians, he said this very simple statement,
faithful is he that calleth you. Comes back to the necessity of
us being called. called by God. It's an amazing
thought, isn't it? That God, who is so great, God
who is in heaven, looks down and personally calls us, calls
us, awakens us from our condition of spiritual deadness. He calls us to awaken us out
of that condition of spiritual deadness into the glorious light
and life of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, what a blessing then this
morning if we have, in our spiritual life, If we have a personal experience
that Almighty God, none less, has condescended, has looked
down upon us and called us, so that there was that time when
we were in the world without hope, without Christ, And then,
by the aid of the Eternal Blessed Spirit, the Lord God called us
into, unto fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. You may say, well, that's a tremendous
statement. And I'm not really sure if I
really understand what is being spoken of. I'm not sure whether
I know what the apostle is referring to. Well, that may be so. And we should not be over-discouraged. We will be discouraged, but we
shouldn't be over-discouraged if we can't trace out in our
lives the very clear calling of God. Sometimes the calling
of God may not be what we have assumed it would be. We can often
have our own appreciation of what God's call will be. And
probably it tends to go along the lines that we expect some
amazing occurrence in our lives, of great wonder and amazement. In one sense, of course, the
call of God is always that. But it may not come about in
perhaps the same way that you and I expect. You see, God has
his way, and he has his way so that no flesh shall glory in
that which God has brought about for our glorification. Everything will be only for the
glorification of our God. And it may be, and I believe
it often is, in a similar way to that which we read about in
the Acts of the Apostles when Paul went and preached the Gospel
by the riverside to the women that gathered for a prayer meeting.
And amongst those women was a woman named Lydia, and we're just simply
told this, whose heart the Lord opened. And that was opened because
of the call of God, which opened her heart to receive the words
which were spoken. You may think, well, that's not
very much, but it is in actual fact, it's a very great blessing
if our hearts are open to receive the Word of God. Because by nature
we do not receive the Word of God. By nature we reject the
Word of God. And so what a blessing it is
if the Holy Spirit brings us to hear the Word of God and to
receive it because it emanates from God and it is really a call. And that call then is effectual. And what I mean by that is this.
It has an effect. God's call has an effect. And sometimes you might not like
the effect. You may not want the effect.
You might try and shake off the effect. But you won't be able
to. Because what God does is done. And you'll bless God for it in
time to come. You may perhaps be like a bullock
or sometimes a horse who's unaccustomed to being reined in, unaccustomed
to the yoke. You don't want to be controlled.
You want to do your own life, organise your own life. You want
to go about pleasing yourself. You don't want to bow down. under
the kingship and authority of God. You want to decide everything
in your life. Well what a blessing it is when
God comes and calls us and gives us that humble submission to
his will. Now it is because of God's faithfulness. What a mercy for his faithfulness
to this Calling and if we read together in this same first chapter
and in the 26 verse We read for you see your calling brethren
How that not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not
many noble are called And then he illustrates who are called
He's chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the
wise. God has chosen the weak things
of the world to confound the things which are mighty, and
base things of the world, and things which are despised. Hath
God chosen, yea, in things which are not, to bring to naught things
that are, And that's already said that no flesh should glory
in His presence. Well, hopefully this morning
all of us can come along and say, well, I'm glad of such a
statement like that, because it describes what I am. I'm not a great person. I'm not
someone who's strong. I'm not someone who is good. But we're thankful for such a
statement as we have in these words. And so the apostle says,
for you see your calling, brethren. You see, it is something to observe. It is something to search out. in our lives, to observe whether
we are amongst those who are called. The apostle says, for
ye see your calling. And all of us should be concerned
that we do see God's calling coming upon us. And that wonderful
calling is revealed to us, what we are, unworthy, sinners of
the earth, wretched, sinners of the earth, vile, sinners of
the earth. When the Holy Spirit comes and
calls us and directs us to look at ourselves, we'll be ashamed. Ashamed that we are so bad. Ashamed of the things that we've
said and done. Ashamed of the thoughts we've
had. We shall be ashamed. And yet
we can thank God for his grace, that free unmerited favor which
has called us. Oh, my friends, and why? It's because God is faithful. You see, God has determined in
eternity past who he will call. And here we have then the wonderful
evidence of it being worked out in our lives, that the faithfulness
of Almighty God, what a blessing it is that we do have a God who
is so wonderfully faithful. You know, God's servant, the
prophet Jeremiah, he had a tough life. And if you think you got
a tough life, read through the Lamentations and read through
the prophet of Jeremiah. And you will see what a hard
life the prophet had. But we are thankful that he records
indeed the faithfulness of his God. And what a blessing it is. And he tells us in the third
chapter of the Lamentations, he says this, It is of the Lord's
mercies that we are not consumed. Now, when God comes and calls
us, we will be surprised that God should have even looked upon
us. Such a bad person. It is of the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed because his compassions fail not they are
new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. You and I today can rely upon
the truth of God's word, his faithfulness. And Jeremiah goes
on to say, the Lord is my portion, saith my soul, therefore will
I hope in him. And what a change. This third
chapter starts off in a very different vein. It tells us what
he felt himself to be. He said, I am the man that has
seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He has led me and
brought me into darkness but not into light. Surely against
me has he turned. He turned his hand against me
all the day. That may be perhaps as you feel,
it may be as you think, of the effect of the work of the Holy
Spirit of God upon you. It's brought you into that condition. But you see, Jeremiah wasn't
left there. And Jeremiah didn't stay there. But he had to tell us what had
occurred in his life. And it wasn't an easy life Jeremiah
had. He tells us, He set me in dark
places as they that be dead of old. He hath hedged me about
that I cannot get out. He hath made my chain heavy. We can imagine, can't we, what
that means. A prisoner with a very heavy
chain put on them, perhaps around their neck, perhaps on their
arms, perhaps on their feet as well, so that it is basically
impossible for them to escape. They have this heavy chain around
them. What a difficult position it
is. And that's what Jeremiah's telling us about here. And you
know, all these things were to bring Jeremiah into this position
so he then comes and speaks about the mercy of God and the faithfulness
of God and the Lord being his portion. See how God works. God works in a wonderful way. to cause us to be small in our
own estimation, not anybody of any importance, but somebody
who is insignificant, but somebody who the Lord does look upon. God is faithful. By whom ye were
called unto the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. So we have this calling and then
this fellowship. of his son Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, just stop for a moment. Think of the life of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Was it an easy life? I'm sure
we can all say no, it wasn't an easy life. Did he have a lot
of comforts in this world? No, I'm sure he didn't, we all
have to say. Did he have to endure opposition? Yes, he did, we have to say. Was he reviled? Yes, he was,
we have to say. Was he cast out? Yes, we have
to say. And so we see there the life
of the Lord Jesus. It was not an easy life. That's
very clear, isn't it? And then this statement here,
that if we are called, we are called unto fellowship with His
Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. And that will mean to be a partaker
with Him of some of the difficulties some of the oppositions, some
of the trials and temptations that the Lord was called upon
to pass through in his life upon the earth. And perhaps you may
think, well, that's a very strange thought really, to think of that. But it is a place of blessing. It is a place of favour because
what it does is this, it brings us closer to Christ. You see, if Christ had lived
on this earth as a king, a natural king with all the things which
go with a natural kingship and all the wonderful palaces and
all the acknowledgement of everybody bowing down, such a person you
and I would not have had fellowship with. Such a person would have
been out of reach. We don't see our Queen, do we?
We may have very occasionally seen our Queen. We may have very
occasionally met the Queen. But generally speaking, the Queen
is out of reach. And if the Lord Jesus Christ
had been like that, We wouldn't have been able to come to that
person whenever we wanted to. We wouldn't have been able to
have had an audience with such a person. We would have had to
have muddled on in our own little life with all the opposition
and all the hardship, and we could perhaps think, that king
or queen never looks upon me, he never or she never remembers
me. But how different, how gloriously
different is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. It condescends
for us today to have fellowship with him, union with him, and
to realise he's always available for us to come to. And the great blessing is, he
understands us. He understands what we're like. He understands the pathway that
you and I are walking through in this world. You say, our Queen
doesn't know, does she, today? What pathway we're walking through?
She has no idea, does she? But you ponder the great thought,
the King of Kings, the Lord Jesus Christ knows all about us. If
he's called us, he knows all about us. He's watching over
us. And the truth is that we are
called unto fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ. Now this works
two ways. because the blessed Lord Jesus
Christ comes to us, comes to us where we are, and he also
calls us to come to him where he is. What a blessing it is
then to have such a person, and then to realise that this person
is none less than the Almighty God. The God who rules and reigns. What a blessing it is. Remember
a couple of wonderful statements and illustrations of this in
the Word of God and in the first epistle of John. It's a lovely
epistle that we have to read. In the first chapter, in the
third verse, we hear this, that which we have seen and heard
declare we unto you. that you also may have fellowship
with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his
Son, Jesus Christ. You see, true fellowship with
the saints of God is centred in fellowship with the Lord Jesus
Christ. If we, as the Church of God, had no fellowship with the Lord
Jesus Christ, there would be no true fellowship one with another. Because all we would be seeing
is each other's faults and we complain about it and all that
kind of thing, but you know what a blessing it is when we see
each other as it were in Christ. Pardoned, redeemed, a union with
Christ, fellowship with Christ. Truly our fellowship is with
the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. He goes on in his
first chapter, on the sixth verse we're told, 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, this is beautiful, the blood
of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. What unity,
what fellowship there is then, in this truth. Because it's true
of all the household of faith, all the Church of God, we can
all unite in this glorious truth, to know that we are all cleansed,
we're all washed from our sins by the blood of our great and
glorious Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. And it directs us, you
see, to Calvary. Because in these words, and the
blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin. God
is faithful. Look back to Genesis, to that
prophecy in Genesis 3.15, that there would be that one raised
up who would bruise the head of Satan. And so it came to pass
as we come to Calvary, we see now the blessed Savior taking
upon Him all our sins, every sin, every single sin. none left behind. And what is
the blessing? Fellowship then of his son Jesus
Christ our Lord. It is a wonderful meditation
to be blessed with fellowship with the Saviour in his sufferings. Now you remember that when the
Apostle wrote to the Philippians He wrote those beautiful words
in the third chapter, words that we should never be tired of reading,
because they are very full. And the Apostle knew it by a
personal experience, and it's good when the Holy Spirit comes
so that we understand and know them by a personal experience. And he tells us how he started
off. Oh, he thought he was a great
man. And he thought he had a great heritage. He was circumcised
the eighth day, the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin,
and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisee
concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness
which is in the law blameless. He was very proud of his profession. But the Lord brought the apostle
down. So then he was proud of his possession, which God gave to him in that
calling, bringing him into fellowship with the Saviour. And he tells
us, but what things were gained to me, those I counted loss for
Christ. He was able to evaluate The two
things, time and eternity. What a good thing for today if
you and I are able to evaluate these two things and to recognise
the tremendous value there is. Blessed with fellowship of His
Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Again, it's an amazing truth
to think that there we have Jesus Christ our Lord. Yes, and yet
fellowship with him. Yea, doubtless. There's no doubt
about it. I count all things but loss for
the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. How do we value the knowledge
of Christ today? How do we place the knowledge
of Christ in our lives? Is it at the bottom of the pile?
Do we put everything else first in our life? And if there's room
at the end, if there's time at the end, then we bring in Christ. Or is Christ first in our lives? First in our time? First in our desires? we don't put him down. And so
the Apostle says, the excellency, and it is nothing greater than
the excellency, the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, because
it brings with it the eternal reality. For I have suffered
the loss of all things in the camp of McDung, that I may win
Christ and be found in him. In Him, in Christ, the hope of
eternal glory. My friends, we're told, covet
earnestly the best gifts. And this is the best gifts. Don't
covet the poor old things of time, which may crowd in and
grasp us and occupy us so that we put the things of Christ,
as it were, in the background. It don't have the priority. Oh,
bless God if you and I are privileged to be found in this position,
counting all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus our Lord, being found in him, not having mine
own righteousness. That's a good thing, isn't it?
That means when God has removed our righteousness and we've seen
what they are, as we read in Zechariah, as filthy rags, no
value, you can't trade them, nothing at all, but all will
be found in Christ. And to have his righteousness,
which is of the law, sorry, and be found in him not having mine
own righteousness, which is the law, but that which is through
the faith of Christ. righteousness which is of God
by faith. And God gives faith. God gives
faith without any doubt because he is faithful. He gives faith
to lay hold of these treasures, to behold them, to rejoice in
them, to bless God for them. And so we have this statement
to be found in him, not having my own righteousness. He goes
on that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and
then we come to this statement, and the fellowship of his sufferings
be made conformable unto his death. Fellowship with his sufferings. That's not something that you
and I will naturally value. be blessed with this position. Now, we may perhaps think, well,
this only refers to a terrible and most painful death. Well,
that's one side. But you see, Christ suffered
throughout his life, really. Suffered day by day. The opposition,
the persecution which he had to endure, being put at naught,
considered of no value, contradicted. All these things, you see, were
not something that you and I would naturally go after. What it does
is, you see, the Lord brings us into a path like that, so
that in our lives, in some measure, and it'll only be in some measure,
and it'll only be a small measure really, we suffer. We find the
difficulties, we find the opposition, we find people speak against
us, we find people criticise us, just like the Saviour. And
what will that be? Fellowship. Fellowship with His
sufferings. We understand. Here, what the
Apostle says, called, oh friends, called unto the fellowship of
His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. And he comes back to this position,
fellowship with him as we come to him at the cross. We view him suffering in our
place, in our stead, paying the price of our redemption, the
life that he gave, that you and I might live. Don't pass it by. Don't run away from Calvary. Desire to be often there, viewing
Him, seeing what He suffers to redeem our soul, see the great
cost of our salvation, and then praise God for the privilege
of being brought to Him and enjoying fellowship, fellowship with Christ. There's no greater blessing and
it is that which all the Church of God in measure experience. Otherwise Christ would be of
no value. You won't understand the cost
of your salvation unless the Holy Spirit leads you into his
sufferings And you realise that in your sufferings, you are made
nigh, you are brought nigh to the cross of Christ. And so this
morning, here we have this great statement, God is faithful. He doesn't leave us. He doesn't
cast us off. He doesn't say, well, you failed
there and you failed there, which we do. But he remembers us in
our lowest state. for his mercy endureth forever. God is faithful. Praise God for
that this morning. Bless him for his faithfulness
in not casting you off. God is faithful. By whom you
were called, bless God for that calling. Unto, unto. You're not called to enjoy the
things of time. You're not called to waste your
time. You are not called to do those
things which are against God. Here is His calling, called unto
the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. And this morning,
may we be able to praise God, if through His amazing love and
mercy, He's called us to this, so we can rejoice that we have
the evidence of God's calling, and therefore the evidence of
eternal life. And to believe because of this,
it is eternally well with our soul. Amen.