Turn with me to the book of Psalms,
chapter 23. Psalm 23, probably the most well-known
of all the Psalms. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures. He leadeth me beside the still
water. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of
righteousness for his namesake. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou
art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil. My cup runneth over. Surely, goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the
house of the Lord forever. I invite you this morning to
turn with me to the epistle of Paul to the Philippians. Philippians chapter 1, verses
3 through 6. In Philippians 1, verse 3, he said,
I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. Now, I can't speak for the apostle. I can only speak for myself.
I've met so many believers, and people will come up to me, and
I used to do it, preachers all the time. And I'm Sally, or I'm
John, and I've only met them one time in my life. And it's
hard for me to remember, sometimes in a little conversation, then
I remember. I remember where I met them, I remember who they
are, and so on. But I don't spend my whole day going over and over
and over names of people that I've met throughout my whole
life, especially in ministry. It's been a long time. Been a
long time. Many names. And I think that's
where Paul's coming from here. He's thanking God upon every
remembrance. When that person's face, when
his, he remembered now. He remembered Lydia, but she was one of the first
ones he preached to. She was down on the riverbank.
The place wasn't big enough for a synagogue, so he went down
on the riverbank. He heard the saints were gathering
down there, and he went down and preached to them. Lydia was
converted. Then the Philippian jailer. And
I can just imagine him now sitting there in prison, and he's thinking
of these faces, these names, these people. And he's writing
to them. He had a personal connection
to them. And he said, I thank my God upon
every remembrance of you. Always, in every prayer of mine,
for you all making requests. He prayed for them. Last week I went up and preached
for a little church up here in Jackson, Missouri. I hope I don't
just forget everybody I met and everybody I saw and the pastor
and the work there. I hope in my mind and in my heart
I can pray for them. And that's what Paul's talking
about here. He said, for your fellowship in the gospel from
the first day until now. being confident of this very
thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform
it unto the day of Jesus Christ. Now, what I want to talk to you
about for a little while this morning is our fellowship in
the gospel. Gospel fellowship. I met some new folks up in Missouri
the other day. A middle-aged man from all the
way up in Minnesota came down and he'd been ministering there
to that little group in Rock Valley. And I met him, met his
wife. And we had gospel fellowship. It's as though I'd known him
my whole life. We sat down and we had everything in common. But our fellowship was over and
around the gospel. And nothing so filled the heart
of the Apostle Paul than to know the people of God, and especially
those that God had used him to call out, or in some way had
helped. And God had, through him, delivered
them out of their pagan idolatry, out of their false religion,
out of their false hopes. Men and women swallowed up with
a false hope, most of the time they stay right there until they
wake up in hell. But there's a few. There's a
few. God calls them out of that paganism. And it just thrilled Paul's heart
to see it. He was one. God called him out of Jewish
paganism. Self-righteousness. Law worship. And he got excited about it.
And I hope I do. God's people are His children. God's people are His heirs. Heirs
of mercy and grace. Objects of His love purchased
by the blood of His Son and will one day occupy a place that Christ
has prepared for them in glory. Look around you this morning.
Somebody in this room It's going to be your eternal neighbor. Think about it. That old song Henry said, when
we all get to heaven, he said, we all ain't going to heaven. But boy, if you know somebody
that is or has a good hope of it, don't you love to be around
them? Huh? Nobody's going to wake up
in glory and say, oh, him again? Ain't going to happen. Ain't
going to happen. We ought to be excited, shouldn't
we? Ought to be excited that anybody comes through that door
to hear. If they do, it's God's providence
that brought them here. Maybe God's going to do a work
in them. Could be. God's people are His children,
their heirs, their sons. and he'll one day occupy a place
in heaven. Now, unlike Paul, I'm not an
apostle. I've never been caught up to
the third heaven and taught by Christ personally. I've never
been given supernatural gifts to confirm my message and calling. My words are not divinely inspired
to be received into the canon of Scripture. Don't write down
what I say and go home and say, God said. find it in God's Word
where it's already been said, and confirm what I say. I'm not
an apostle. Yvonne and I were talking this
past week about the apostle Paul, thinking about how he must have
looked and felt. You ever think about that? This
man was beaten beyond measure. twice within one stripe of death. His back must have just been
a mass of scars. He was stoned and left dead. Could be he was dead and God
raised him from the dead. I don't know. But he was stoned,
not just once, but left there for dead. They didn't throw gravel
at him. They took rocks this big around,
big rocks. They meant to kill him. I just
can't imagine. He walked everywhere he went
unless he was taking a ship to go there. Perils of storms, he said. He couldn't go down to Holiday
Inn Express. He had to build a campfire, lay
down there on a blanket, cover himself up with rope. And from what I've seen on documentaries,
that place just covered with all sorts of Poisonous reptiles,
cobras, and who knows what else. Perils of storms, perils of robbers,
perils of beasts. Exposed to the elements. Walked
everywhere he went. Been beat up so much he must
have been sore. I can't hardly walk from a lifetime
of work. I can't imagine what it would
have been to been beaten like he was and live the kind of life
he lived. He gave himself to the gospel. I'm not an apostle. But I'm going
to tell you something, that apostle loved God's people and I do too. What I am, I am by the grace
of God. And I believe God's proven me
to be a pastor teacher. A pastor teacher. God's been
pleased to use me to call, teach, and care for His people. And
I think I can say with Paul, I thank my God upon every remembrance
of you. I like to go off and preach to
people I've never met or some that I have met. I enjoy going
to the conferences and preaching to God's people. But I tell you,
as soon as it's over, I'm coming home. And I may stay in a motel
going up, but I'm driving straight through to come home. I want
to come home. We drove straight through from
Great Falls, Montana. Oh well. And I'm not very good at expressing
my emotions. I need to work on that. But I
want you to know that what we have here is special. It's special. God doesn't raise
churches up everywhere. He'll raise one up here. Over
here, maybe way over there, maybe over in the country somewhere.
I've been looking at all Africa. One guy, one guy about midway
up in Africa, and he travels all the way down to South Africa.
Think about it. What you have here is special.
You're not going to find it. Well, I'll just go somewhere
else and worship. No, you won't. You'll go somewhere else and
go to church. You have to worship God's people.
We gather together and worship Him. We worship Him. We have an assembly called out
by God, given a love for the gospel, given a good understanding
of God's will and way to save sinners, and we have a favorable
providence, opening doors of opportunity to minister the gospel
to men. It's amazing. God sent a hurricane
through North Carolina so Tim James couldn't go up there. And
I did. That's God's providence. I'm not fit to carry His Bible.
That man's a faithful man of God, but God blocked his ministry
there and opened the door for me. Now, I don't understand why. I don't question why. But I know
this, if He don't open the door, you don't want to go through
it. Wait on Him. He'll open the door. And through
that another opportunity came up and in November, Lord willing,
I'll go up to Rock Valley, Iowa and preach to a little group
there. What we have here is precious. And some of you have good jobs. You have a good home to live
in. And thank God you do. But what
you have here in this assembly is more precious than your home.
Do you believe that? It is. Some of you have close family
relationships. Thank God for it. Not everybody
does. But what you have here is more
precious than anything you could ever have with your family. What we have here is gospel fellowship. Fellowship with God and with
His people and fellowship in and by His gospel. What is this fellowship that
the Apostle here thanks God for? Well, the best definition I ever
heard is fellers in the same ship. That's what fellowship
is. Fellers in the same ship. Believers
are men and women chosen of God in His Son. Listen to what Paul
writes to the Ephesians. He said, Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as
he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.
Secured all his holiness, his love, The remission of sins, all secured
in His Son. Spiritually speaking, we have
all things common in Christ. We're all sinners being saved
by grace. Boy, how we need to remember
that. I'm ready to go look down my
nose at somebody or get somebody else to smack it off. We're sinners being saved. I know Christ's blood redeemed
us. I know that. But you're not plumb delivered
from sin yet, are you? Sin still pops its ugly head
up, don't it? Yeah, more than you want to admit,
I guarantee you. We're all sinners being saved
by grace. God has saved us, called us with
a holy calling. Not according to our works, but
according to His own purpose and grace which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began. We're all sinners being saved.
And salvation is a work begun in the counsel of God before
the world was. It was manifested in His Son
when the fullness of the time was come. And now it's secured in Him in
glory. We're saved in God's counsel
and purpose. in the righteousness and shed
blood of Christ and were saved by his resurrection and ascension
into glory, saved by his divine intercession, saved by his calling
and regenerating work and the gift of faith. He saves us and
leads us to repentance, causes us to turn from what we are and
turn to him. Saved as we're joined together
with the saints of God who assemble themselves in some local place
of God's choosing. And there they're fed and led
and ministered to by God's pastors. Kept by the power of God, Peter
said, through faith unto salvation. Ready to be revealed in the last
time. Saved by the restraining hand
of God. Oh, my soul, when I think of
David, man after God's own heart, everything that that man did,
and now he's on the roof. Now he's planning another man's
murder. Huh? Oh, we say by the restraining
hand of God, and spiritually speaking, we have all things
common in Christ. Peter's second epistle is written
to them that have obtained, now listen to this, like precious
faith. Paul wrote to Titus calling him
my own son after the common faith. There's one body, one spirit,
we're all called in one hope of our calling. What's that? Christ in you. One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God and Father of all, who is above all, through all, and
in you all. Fellowship is fellers in the
same ship. Paul said, God told me every
man on this ship is going to be saved if you stay on the ship. Don't jump ship. Don't jump ship. And then secondly, this fellowship
is a precious thing. This fellowship, whatever it
is, it's not just a circle of friends. You can join clubs out
here if that's what you want. Go down and get your membership
down at the golf course. You can go to a club and find
friends, find people with something in common with you. This is not
just a circle of friends or having some common ground. This fellowship is a joining
of hearts. And love is what binds us together. Love. And I'm going to tell you something
else. It's what keeps them together. It'll keep them together. Listen to this. 1 John chapter
4 verse 16. And we have known and believed
The love that God hath to us. God is love. And he that dwelleth
in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him. He that loveth not,
he don't know God. He don't know God. And this love
is born and maintained by our knowledge of what God has done
for His people in His Son. That's where love's born. God
commended His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. You can't know the love of God
except as it's exhibited in His Son. Herein is love, not that
we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the
propitiation for our sins. Picture, if you can, the beginning
of our race, and this man, federal head of His race consciously, willingly sinned
against God. He fell under the judgment of
God and being the first man and in whom was the seed to produce
after his kind, possessed now a sinful nature and it's passed
to all his posterity. By one man sin entered into the
world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon on me. Scripture paints a picture of
all men dead in trespasses and sins walking according to the
course of this world, a course set in the fallen nature of Adam. And then, to make matters even
worse, Satan is cast out of heaven into the earth. Worked his deceitful ways, deceiving
the woman and by her causing the man to plunge himself into
sin. Actually, Adam is a type of Christ
in that he plunged himself into sin over the woman. He wouldn't
be separated from the woman. They're not just lost sinners,
but religious and lost. Lost, but believing the same.
Lost, but having confidence that they're not. Multiply that times the population
of the earth and see this multitude spreading lies, teaching the
children a false gospel, calling good evil and evil good. See
this world as it is in truth, a mass of wiggling maggots feeding
on the corruption of man. See this world as it is trying
to escape their responsibility to God, but just do for their
sins. denying the holy character of
God. And then think on this verse, but God, but God, who is rich
in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in trespasses and sin, quickened us together with Christ, made
us one in him. and raised us up together, and
made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Christ loved us, the scripture
said, and gave himself for us. And there can never be a greater
evidence of the love of God than the appearance, the life, and
the death of Jesus Christ. In John 3.16, I don't know why
we have lowered that scripture. I guess because it's been abused
so much. But he said, for God so loved
the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so the whole world
would be saved. That's not what it says. That's
how it's preached, but that's not what it says. It says, for God so loved the
world that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life. God has a people he chose in
Christ, a people he made full provision for us, set into motion
the means of their salvation, and having accomplished their
redemption, ascended back into glory, and having power now over
all flesh, sitting at the right hand of
his Father. having satisfied, having kept
the will of God in perfect harmony with God's character, being raised
from the dead to publicly justify all of His people and justify
Himself. He sends out His Spirit into
the world and sends out His preachers, arranges His providence to bring
them into contact with one another. I can't imagine. Can you imagine? Here's Phillip. He's down there.
Man, they're having a... Well, I guess what we call a
Bible conference. They're having a revival. I mean,
the Lord's work and thousands are being converted. And he said,
Phillip, take Route 5. Go out... Wait a minute. Route 5 goes out
the desert. Yeah, I know. I know. You go
out there. Go out there. What am I going
to do? I'll let you know when you get
there. He goes out there. Here's an
Ethiopian eunuch. Boy, he's been struggling. He
wants to know God. He's seeking God. Somebody said,
you go down there to Jerusalem. There are no feast days. Now,
you'll learn about God. He came back from that place
knowing less than he did when he went down. More confused than
ever. So he gets back in the Bible,
and he's over there in the book of Isaiah reading that. And Philip
knows he's out there to preach to somebody. He's looking around,
and he sees this man who's got a scroll in his hand. How many
people do you know about that? You couldn't even afford a scroll.
This was a wealthy man. This was a man who had access
to things. He had a scroll. And he's riding
along in the chair reading it. He said, that's him. That's the
one. He said, hey, you understand
what you're reading? He said, how can I? Somebody
don't tell me what this means. How am I ever going to understand?
He said, it's a kudos. It's God's providence. He sends
out preachers. He arranges in His providence
for them two to come together. I can't explain it. That's just
how it is. I'm not the one to come up with
it. This is God's way. It's His way. Read the book of
Acts. Listen to what Paul said. Pray
for me that God would open, affect your doors. Oh my. Paul told the Corinthians that
the testimony of Christ had been confirmed in them so that they
came behind in no gift. They had the gift of faith. They
had the gift of repentance. They had the gift of hearing,
they had the gift of providence, the gift of the gospel. Every
good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights, and
they didn't come behind in no gift. And these gifts given to them
left them looking to and waiting for the coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And then he says, God's faithful by whom you were called
into fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. We're not called
to bounce around the world trying to satisfy our fleshly cravings. We're called into the fellowship
of his son. That's where it's at. And I don't
care if you're in Arkansas or Florida, it don't matter. In 2 Corinthians 6.14, he said,
Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, not in marriage,
not in worship, not in partnership. For what fellowship hath righteousness
with unrighteousness? And what communion, common union,
hath light with darkness? In chapter 8, he talks about
the willingness of the churches of Macedonia supporting him and
his ministry to the Corinthians and to take upon themselves the
fellowship. Take upon themselves that fellowship
of ministering to the saints. That's what we do. We support
other little groups who can't even afford to support a pastor.
We support them. Don't we not? The fellowship we have in the
gospel is precious. Under you, therefore, which believes,
he is precious, and that's what makes this fellowship so precious.
He's precious, his gospel's precious, his people are precious, and
his ways are precious. But unto them that be disobedient,
that stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made
the head of the corner and a stone's tongue. What we have here is
precious. It's precious. Be thankful for
it. And if you have not entered into
it, pray that God will enable you to be a part of it. And then
thirdly, our fellowship in the gospel defines the life we live. No other reason I could find
for the saints to be left in this world were fellow laborers
with God. Find me another reason. We're
not progressively getting holier and holier. Sometimes I think
I'm getting worse and worse. What it is, that light. Boy,
I tell you, the greater that light, the more dirt you see.
That's right. Paul didn't start out seeing
it. Boy, down at the end of his ministry though, now he's crying,
oh wretched man that I am. Your local churches are called
the pillar and ground of the truth. Nowhere else in the world
where the truth is taught, defended, and maintained like it is in
God's church. God's churches are the pillars
that hold up and support the ministers of the gospel. And
the gospel is not just an important part of their worship, it's everything.
That's what one man said, well I know these things are important,
but we need a little law. No, no you don't. This is all
you need, right here. The gospel is Christ, it's a
divine person, the Son of God, the Son of Man. This is the record,
he said. This is, right here. This is
the record that God has given to us, eternal life, and this
life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life.
What do I have to do to be saved? Have the Son. Here is the Son. This is the
will of Him that sent me. that every one which seeth the
Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life. God's doing a work in this world.
All His saints are brought to see it and want to take a part
in it. As God calls out His people,
we embrace them. We care for them. We're willing
to see to their needs. We're mindful of how precious
they are. were patient, were long-suffering, were forgiving. Paul said, I thank my God upon
every remembrance of you. Oh, give this pastor a heart
of thanksgiving to know and minister to his people. to pray for you
as your faces come before me. You won't believe how many times
during the week that your faces come before me. I think about
you. I think about what I said to
you and what I could say to you. And I make requests for you. I might be in some way a help
to you and not a burden. And help me to realize what a
blessed privilege it is to minister to those with whom I have a blessed
fellowship in the gospel. And Lord, help me as I bring
this gospel to you, that I bring it in such a way that you can
understand it, receive it, and give you a heart to believe it.