Good evening. If you would, open
your Bibles back to 1 Corinthians 1. 1 Corinthians 1. My message
this evening comes from the end of verse 10. A specific phrase in the end
of verse 10. So let me read the verse. Now
I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that ye all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions
among you, but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind
and in the same judgment. The phrase here is, Ye be perfectly
joined together. The title of my message is Join
Us in Christ. Join us in Christ. Now, those four words could be
interpreted a few different ways. But tonight, the way I say them
and the way that I want us to think about this is as a plea
to our Lord. This is to be said, Lord, join
us in Christ. Join us, us, join us in Christ. Now those four words, let me
say what I want them to mean or what they mean in this example. The word us, who is the us? that
I'm referring to. Look at verse 1 of this chapter.
Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will
of God and Sosthenes, our brother, unto the church of God, which
is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called
to be saints. The us here could be a couple. It could be a household. It could
be a family. It could be a group. But tonight,
for this example, I want it to be as Paul was saying this, as
us, this church, this group of people. The word join and join
us in Christ. That word means put together
or unite. And I'll give more definitions
of it. But we want the Lord to join us, to put us together,
to unite us as a group, as one. Then the word Christ. Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ,
is the only person worth being joined to. History only remembers
if you were on the right side and if you were on the winning
side. Our Lord is holy and he's righteous and he is victorious. Everyone who is not in Christ
will be judged as unrighteous and sentenced to eternal death.
This is why this is such an important plea that we must make to our
God. And then the final word, join
us in Christ. The word in is a preposition.
And I'm not sure if any of you had to do this, but I remember
in middle school having to memorize a group of prepositions. And
I still remember in my head now saying, aboard, about, above,
across, after, against, along, among, across, and saying those
prepositions. There are a lot of prepositions
that in religion today they use with the Lord Jesus Christ. Some
use the phrase near Christ. I'm good if I'm close to Him,
if I'm near Him. I still need a little credit.
I need everybody to see me, but as long as I'm near Him, I'm
good. Some people put themselves above Christ. I need Him. I'm resting on Him, but I still
want everyone to see me. I need some glory in this. If
I sit above Him, everybody will give me credit. What about the
word beside Christ? What about for Christ? So many people would love to
get credit for what they're doing. Free will is so much about what
I am doing for Christ. And then even others are fine
being outside Christ or against Christ, but the right word is
in Christ. And I want to say more about
that. And this is where this afternoon, when I left church
this morning, that I was going to leave those four words. But
when I turned on my car, the radio station that it was on
had someone preaching. And within 15 seconds, I heard
these two lines, let Jesus into your heart. And then I heard
him say, allow him to be your savior. And I just simply forget
that people don't always refer to the same person when they
say the word Christ. There is only one Christ, yet
many people have no idea who that is and claim things about
that man. So I need to say this. When we
say Christ, we're referring to the Lord Jesus Christ, the living
God, the one and only Savior, the one who chose a people before
the foundation of the world, then became a man that He could
be our substitute. He lived perfectly without sin,
then willingly died bearing the sins of those chosen people.
After his successful sacrifice, he arose from the grave victorious
over death and sin and sits currently on the throne in glory and sits
there until his appointed time when he will come back and do
what he will with this earth and all the people in it. That's
who the Lord Jesus Christ is. So for my message, I want to
look at a few different things that the word join means, and
how they apply to what we plead to our God, that we want him
to join us, us, in the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn with me to Ephesians
chapter one. Ephesians chapter one. The first meaning of the word
join is to put together, to put together. So we say put us together with
Christ, in Christ. Look at Ephesians 1 verse 4.
according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made
us accepted in the Beloved. Why do we need to be together
with Christ? Because without Him, we have
nothing. In 2 Thessalonians 2, it says,
When we say, put us together in Christ, We're asking Him to do it. Everything
I'm going to say from here on out, and I'm going to be repetitive,
but it's okay. Everything is dependent upon
the Lord Jesus Christ doing it. So when we say things like, put
us in Christ, put us together in Christ, all of these things
are things that we cannot do on our own. Without Him choosing
us, as it says here, we don't choose Him. We must be in Him. In Matthew 19, it says, Wherefore,
they are no more twain, no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined
together, let no man put asunder. When we put things together,
we are left with whatever we have. When the Lord Jesus Christ
put things together, they become one. When we're in Him, we are
one flesh, one spirit in Him. In Revelation 17, it says, They
shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them.
For He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and they that are with
Him are called and chosen and faithful. We ask our Lord, put
us together in Christ. And if he does that, we have
confidence to know that what God hath joined together, let
no man put asunder. What he does, no man can break. All right, turn with me to 1
Peter 1. The next definition of what we
need to be joined in Christ is the word to come into contact
with. So how do we need to come into
contact? We need to come into contact
with the blood of Christ. 1 Peter 1 verse 18 says, Forasmuch
as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver
and gold from your vain conversation, receive by tradition from your
fathers. but with the precious blood of
Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who
verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world,
but was manifest in these last times for you, who by him do
believe in God, that raised him up from the dead and gave him
glory, that your faith and hope might be in God." We were redeemed
by the blood of Christ. If we are not in the Lord Jesus
Christ, we are not redeemed. We must be put under the blood
of Christ. And in verse 21, it says, We are dependent upon Him to
even believe any of these things. In Ephesians 2, it says, But
now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by
the blood of Christ. And in Revelation, it says, From
Christ Jesus, who is faithful witness, the first forgotten
of the dead and the prince of the kings of the earth. unto
Him that loved us and washed us from our own sins in His own
blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His
Father. To Him be glory and dominion
forever and ever. Amen. Two things about that verse. We had to be washed in His blood
from our own sins. The Lord Jesus Christ had to
die and shed blood because that's what we had to have. If He didn't
die, He couldn't cover up our sins. He had to be a sacrifice. Our God is holy and just, and
there is no covering of sins. We must be found in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And that verse ends, to Him be
glory and dominion forever and ever, amen. He gets all the glory
for it. The Lord Jesus Christ deserves
all the glory. All right, turn with me. Well, let me read the next one. You go to Romans chapter eight. Romans chapter eight. We must also be joined together
for a specific purpose. Why do we need to be joined in
the Lord Jesus Christ? We must be brought together in
the love of Christ. Now it's important to realize
this is not our love, before I read this, but bring us together
in the love of Christ. Our love is inconsequential,
it doesn't matter. We love Him because He first
loved us. So we say we must be brought together, joined with
Him in the love of Christ. Not in our love for Christ, but
in the love of Christ. It's His love. Now, we do love
Him. Once the Lord opens the eyes
of the sinner to see Him, there's no way not to love Him. Our Lord
Jesus Christ is so wonderful that when any sinner just gets
a glimpse of who He is, The first reaction is just love. That's
all you can see with Him. Look at Romans 8, verse 28. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are called
according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He
also did predestinate, to be conformed to the image of His
Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover,
whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called,
them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these
things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? If we are in the Lord Jesus Christ,
we are safe from everything else. Verse 32, he that spared not
his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not
with him also freely give us all things? If he spared not
his own son, He will give us all things freely. Verse 33,
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is
God that justifies. Who is He that condemneth? It
is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? If the Lord Jesus Christ did
all this for us, and it says He loves us, this is a great
question to ask. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation? or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for thy sake
we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sleep, as
sheep for the slaughter." So it's saying all of those things.
Could any of those do it? Because we're simply sheep taken
to the slaughter. We're easy prey. All of those
things right there conquer us on a daily basis. Am I the only
one who falls victim to tribulation, to distress, to persecution?
Those things just defeat me on a minute-by-minute basis. But
in verse 36, as it is written, for thy sake we are killed all
the day long, we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay,
in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that
loved us. For I am persuaded that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the
love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." That is such
amazing news to a sheep who is headed to the slaughter. That's
all we've got coming but there is nothing that can separate
us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Turn with me to Joshua chapter
24. Joshua chapter 24. Joshua 24, and we'll look at
verse 14. Let me say this first before
we go to that. Join can also mean to ally oneself or to be
an ally or on the same side as one. So we must ask, Lord, join
us as allies in Christ. Now that might seem like an odd
But look at Joshua 24, verse 14. and serve him in sincerity and
in truth. And put away the gods which your
father served on the other side of the flood and in Egypt, and
serve ye the Lord. And if it seem evil unto you
to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve,
whether the gods which your father served that were on the other
side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land
ye dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And the people answered and said,
God forbid that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods."
We don't have the ability or the desire to align ourselves
with the Lord. Not only would we not choose
Him, but we so often would run the other direction. We wouldn't
know who he is, we wouldn't know anything if he hadn't shown us.
Which is why we have to plead to him, put us on your side. Put us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Make us to be an enemy of ourselves
and an ally of the Lord. If we are not in Christ, if we're
anywhere, and I mean anywhere, but in him, we will choose ourself
over him every time. Every single time. We have to
make a choice here. It says, choose this day whom
you will serve. Let me give you an illustration.
As a middle schooler in eighth grade, on the last day of middle
school, everybody would always run a block away to this pizza
place. Everybody loved it, and none
of us could drive, so we all just went as fast as we could
because we knew if we weren't there right away, we were never
gonna get a pizza. So I made a deal with a friend of mine
that I had a classroom close to the door. And so I gave them
my backpack, and the moment the last day of school ended, on
my last day of middle school, I just jetted out of that place
at a dead sprint to get there first. I walked in as the first
person in, and I ordered myself a pizza. Well, in the two minutes
I was ordering the pizza, the place started filling up. And
as I finished, I tried to find a seat, and there was only one
table with an open seat, and that was at the back of the restaurant.
And there was only one boy sitting at that table. It was a booth,
and he was by himself. And as I made my way back to
there, I asked him, I said, can I sit here? There was nowhere
else to sit. I knew I was going to have the first pizza that
came out, so I needed a table. So he said, sure. Well, about
five minutes later, the place was packed, standing everywhere,
and a pizza came out, and they sat it in front of, on our table.
And he reached to get it, and I thought, well, whose is that? I said to the waitress, and she
said, well, that's his. Well, his mother, who worked at the
school, had called a pizza before mine. So, OK, that's all right. I'm still going to get the next
pizza. So I sat there next to him, just the two of us. Well,
when his pizza came out, he became the most popular person in that
restaurant. A couple kids came over and said, can I have a piece
of pizza? Well, he was under a lot of pressure, and the first
kid that he said yes to, within about 30 seconds, everybody there
was grabbing pieces of pizza until they were pretty much all
gone. And as I sat there in that 30 second period, I was well
aware of the situation. I decided I'm not gonna take
one of his pieces. Now, it was not because I was
trying to make the right decision or a good kid or whatever. I
knew I had the next pizza coming, so I wasn't worried about getting
a piece of pizza. But also, I knew in that circumstance, I was older
than him, he was younger than me, I knew I could have stopped
what was happening, but I didn't. So they all took his pizza. I
didn't pay much attention, but in a minute or two, he got up
and left. Well, a few minutes later, my pizza came. I started
eating it. People were asking me, and I wouldn't give anybody
pizza unless they gave me money. And no one took my pizza. So
about 15 minutes later, I wasn't done with my pizza yet. And all
of a sudden, I looked to the front door, and my mother had
walked in. And we didn't have cell phones. We didn't have anything.
So I didn't know what was going on. And I looked across the room
and saw her, and we made eye contact. And I realized this
was not a good visit. So she just gave me this finger
and I like, I have a pizza and she just gave me the finger again.
And so I walked to the end of the restaurant and she just pulled
me out. And I was like, I've got a pizza.
And she was like, come with me. So we got in the car and I said,
what's going on? And she said, you have to come
to the school with me. So she drove me the block back to the
school. We walked in and sat in the principal's office. No
one else was in there. Just the two of us, myself and
my mother. I had no idea what I had done. I was scared to death. So over the next five minutes,
a friend of mine came in with one of his parents and sat down.
And then another kid came in and sat down. And it quickly
dawned on me, these are all the kids who took his pizza. I started
feeling really good because I didn't take his pizza. That person's
guilty. That person's guilty. That person's
guilty. I did not take a piece of pizza.
So after about 15 minutes, that room filled up and the kid walked
in with his mother. The principal came out and started
talking to us and told the story. I hear that he got a pizza and
everybody took all his pieces. Well, I leaned over immediately
realizing that I'm good. And I was trying to whisper to
my mom, I didn't take any pizza. And she was giving me the shush,
don't say anything. The whole thing went through.
It ended. And we all got the exact same
punishment. Every one of us. I left and as we were walking
out, I was violently saying to her, I didn't take any pizza.
I didn't do anything. I didn't do what they did. They
all took the pizza. I didn't do anything. I tell
this story because I think this is a great illustration of where
so many people find themselves when it comes to salvation. Everybody
finds hope in the thought that this person is worse than me,
or this person did something I didn't do, or I'm not the worst. Not realizing that the problem
with the whole thing was I was the one who could have stopped
the whole thing from happening in that illustration. I'm actually
more at fault than everyone there. They all took one piece of pizza.
I, because of what I didn't do, I'm the reason all of it got
taken. We must realize that there is no excuse, there's no example,
there's no one who has anything to stand on. when it comes to
judgment before our God, other than I have to be in the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's all I have to stand in. If you stand in anything else,
it's the end. It's eternal damnation. We must become united in the
Lord Jesus Christ. We ask him, Lord, unite us in
believing in you. In Psalm 86, it says, teach me
thy way, O Lord. I will walk in thy truth, unite
my heart to fear thy name. The Lord Jesus Christ must make
us to believe. The only path for us to believe
is for him to teach us thy way. We think that we are making a
decision to believe. So often we hear people say things
such as that. Why don't you just believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ? If the Lord doesn't show us who
he is, teach us who he is, and make us to believe, we just don't
have that ability. That's why we have to say, Lord,
I believe, help thou mine unbelief. It's his belief, it's his faith
that we must rest in. Another thing that it says, join
us in Christ. This word join means to unite
in marriage. We ask Him, Lord, unite us in
marriage to the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me read you in Revelation
chapter 19. It says, And a voice came out of the throne,
saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear
him, both small and great. And I heard, as it were, the
voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters,
and as the voice of mighty thundering, saying, Alleluia, for the Lord
God Omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice and
give honor to him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his
wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she
should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine
linen is the righteousness of the saints." The bride of Christ
is arrayed in fine linen, clean and white. which is the righteousness
of the saints. And he said unto me, Write, Blessed
are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.
And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God. In Ephesians it says, for we
are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For
this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall
be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh.
This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and
the church. The institution of marriage was
instituted by God as a picture of his relationship with his
people. But as sinners, we aren't very good at it. and we constantly
mess it up and mar it. And over time, the definition
or what a marriage even is slowly just changes and moves and just
distances itself more and more from the scriptures. But it is
still the most common earthly example of His covenant with
His bride. Now do this. Imagine a marriage
in which the love of both partners is perfect towards one another.
Imagine that there are no arguments, there are no disagreements, there
are no misunderstandings whatsoever. Being united in marriage with
Christ is a perfect marriage. It's perfect because it is founded
in His love, in the love of Christ toward His bride. It is proved
by His sacrifice on the cross for that bride. and it was sealed
with his ascension into glory. Our Lord Jesus Christ did everything
so that we can be his bride, that he may adorn us in fine
linen, clean and white, that is his righteousness. We get
all of those things if we are simply found in the Lord Jesus
Christ. It seems so simple that there's
just one thing, there's only one thing that's important in
all this. We must be in the Lord Jesus Christ. The line that we
say all the time is there's just one thing needful. There is truly
just one thing that is needful for anyone in this life. We put
so many things ahead of it. We have so many things in our
lives that take our time, our efforts, enough to where it's
actually embarrassing when when I think of the time that I have
to force myself to make time to study. That I get a phone
call, and instead of just saying, I'll take care of that later,
I need to study, I answer the phone call. Or instead of making
my schedule around doing this or reading the Bible, I make
my schedule around everything else, and if this works out,
then that's fine. Maybe I can find a time for it.
There is truly one thing needful in all of this world and it's
the Lord Jesus Christ and being found in Him. And I want to skip
ahead because I want to talk for just one second on the last
thing. A couple things that I'll just summarize. We ask the Lord
that He would join us as members together, that He would join
us to be associated one with another, that He would join us
to take part with one another, join us as friends in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And all of these things are very
important, and we can't do them without Him. I've heard so many times over
decades of attending church and hearing people talk about it,
and pastors and men that I trust and revere deeply and hear them
talk about these types of things and how there are very few things
in this life that make it more enjoyable. As long as we have
the Lord, everything will work out. But when we talk about us
as a group, those things Being associated together in Christ,
to be members together in Christ, to be in one mind and one spirit
and friends in the Lord Jesus Christ is truly such a blessing. And I just want to say that we
are completely dependent on the Lord Jesus Christ to keep us
in that vein. We have an excellent situation. Our Lord has blessed this place
more than we can even understand. yet we are completely dependent
upon Him to do it and to keep it. Because this world is just
a combination of division after division. Every step we take
and decision we make gives us another opportunity to truly
show who we are and for you to see who I am and me to see who
you are. And if the Lord leaves us to
it, we will simply hate each other and just our fellowship
will be so different. So I pray that the Lord Jesus
Christ would keep us and bind us one another together in Christ. Now the last thing I want to
say, turn with me to Matthew 18. Matthew verse 18. There were a couple different
definitions of the word join that all came to meaning to participate
with or to include or to not forget others. And so my last thing I want to
say is I want to say, Lord, will you join our children with us
in Christ? Look at Matthew 18 verse 1. At the same time came the disciples
unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the
midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be
converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter
into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever, therefore, shall humble
himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom
of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such
little child in my name receiveth me. But whoso shall offend one
of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him
that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were
drowned in the depth of the sea." So often, When I was studying
this and talking about us, until I got into it, it was hard for
me not to think of us with a bit of an age floor to it. In the sense of when I say us,
I have a tendency to do that. And I don't want to get too specific
with it, but us is everyone that is in this building and everyone
who comes here to hear the word. And I think it's so important
that we recognize that we must ask the Lord Jesus Christ when
we say, join us in Christ, that that includes everyone of all
ages in this place. I remember a pastor telling me
one time, giving me advice on preaching that was saying, if
you say something that the youngest person in that building can't
understand, you're being too complicated. It's important that all of us
realize that we must be joined together in the Lord Jesus Christ. But we all want to be joined
together in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I pray to Him that if He
would tarry, that He would continue to bless this place with people
that would teach our children, that He will give us the desire
and the need to bring our children, that we make them to understand
that There is one thing needful, and the closest thing that we
can come to being found in the Lord Jesus Christ, earthly speaking,
is listening to the Word of God preached. And we give lip service
to that phrase. I am very guilty that when my
children, who often act more excited than myself about coming
to church, that we must realize that we're not just saying there's
one thing needful. We're not just saying that we
need to go to church. We're not just saying that we
want to go to church. We have to express to them that this
is the only thing that matters and it is a necessity. If we
miss everything else that seems to matter to us, if we miss every
day of work for the rest of the time and we can come worship
our Lord, that's what we have to do. If we can miss every day
of school, and I know some of you kids would be very happy
with missing a lot of days of school, that is less important
than coming and worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ. That's all
that matters. That's it. And everything else
we say, and all the other things that you hear preached and all
the other things that you hear so many other people say. Nothing
in this world matters apart from being found in the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's it. And I hope that in
this message we can take away that there truly is just one
thing needful. And we must ask and pray this
on an hourly basis. Lord, join us, join us in Christ. Join us in Him.