Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter
1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. I said I was going to preach
on 1 Corinthians just on Thursday night, but I've got a message
here that I really want to preach this morning. I think we'll do
a lot of turning to Scriptures too. I want us to look these
Scriptures up, as many as we can, This is very important.
Let's go to 1 Corinthians 1 verse 9. It says here, God is faithful,
by whom you were called unto the fellowship of His Son, Jesus
Christ our Lord. Now our subject is the fellowship
of Jesus Christ. the fellowship of Jesus Christ. Now, what does that mean? What
does it mean to be called unto the fellowship of Jesus Christ? Well, the first thing it means
is we're called into union with Christ. To union, living union
with Christ. Look over at John 15. John chapter
15. And you want to mark that place. We're going to come back to John
17. John 15. Now Christ is the life. We know
that. Christ is the life. And union
with Christ. A union with Christ. A living,
vital union with Christ. Christ in you, you in Christ.
That's the only way we can have spiritual life. That's the soul. Union with Christ is the soul
means by which a sinner has spiritual life. Now look, Christ says that
very thing. John 15, 4. He says, Abide in
me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself, except it abide in the vine. No more can ye except
ye abide in me. And now there was his illustration,
a branch and a vine. And now he says to us in verse
5, I am the vine. I am the vine. Ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I
in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. Without me, you can
do nothing. Now look at Romans 11. Look at
Romans chapter 11. Mark John 14 and then go to Romans
11. Now Paul used this same illustration
of a branch and a vine. Remember he was talking about
how the Gentiles and the Jews are made to partake of the same
vine. Look here at Romans 11, 17. He
says, if some of the branches are broken off, These were not
true, elect, chosen children of God. These were just natural
sons of Abraham. He's talking about natural Jews.
You know how you get a sucker on a tomato plant? A sucker on
a tomato plant is not really a partaker of the vine. It's
not going to produce any fruit. And you just break that sucker
off. And it will just snap right off. That's what they were. They
were just suckers on the vine. And he says here, they were broken
off. And he says, but if thou, being a wild olive tree, and
right there for tree it should be a wild olive branch. If you, being a wild olive branch,
were grafted in among them, and with them partakest, you partake
of the root and the fatness of the olive tree. You see, Christ
is the root. He's the olive tree. Just like
He said, I'm the vine, Christ is the root. He's the olive tree.
And we partake of His Spirit. We've been made to have His Spirit
in us so that we're in Christ. Just like that branch is connected
to the vine and the sap from the vine goes into the branch.
That's the fatness. It goes into the branch and it
gives the branch life. That's a believer. Christ, we've
been grafted into Christ. We're one with Christ so that
we have His Spirit dwelling in us and we're in Him. We get all
our life from Christ. But look at verse 18. Boast not
against the branches. Don't think you're better than
one branch is better than another branch. If thou boast, remember
this, thou bearest not the root. You're not the one giving life
to the vine. You're not the one giving life
to the root, to the olive tree. But the root is bearing you.
You see what he said? When he says, you abide in me
and I in you, you're not bearing Christ. Christ is bearing you.
He's the vine. Alright, so that's what it is.
When God the Father calls us into fellowship with His Son,
we receive spiritual life in Christ, union with Christ, so
we're really in Christ. Let me show you another place,
Galatians 2. Galatians 2 and verse 20. You
see, this is why a dead sinner, you call on a dead sinner all
day and tell him to repent, tell him to believe. But until Christ
enters into his heart and spirit, he can't do it. He's just dead.
You have to be, the Holy Spirit has to put you in Christ and
Christ in you so that you have life. Now look here, this is
what Paul said, Galatians 2.20. I am crucified with Christ. Now
I really died when Christ really died. Because I was in Christ
when He died. And I died. I really died. It's
not as if I died. I died when Christ died. Nevertheless,
I live. Now I live. Now I've got life.
Yet not I. I didn't give myself life. This
life's not of myself. And we're not talking about that
fleshly life I got from my mother and my father. That's not what
we're talking about. That came from Adam. That's really death. Now, the life I'm living now,
look here, the life which I now live in the flesh, I've got life
in this old dead flesh, not partaking with this dead flesh, separate
from this dead flesh, but dwelling in this body of death, now I
have life. And where is that life? I live
it by the faith of the Son of God. By His faithfulness, Christ
is entered into me, and there's my life. Christ the life dwelling
in me. It's not I, it's Christ dwelling
in me. Christ liveth in me. Now, other
ways this union is spoken of in Scripture is it's spoken of
as the head, and the body, and members in particular. You know,
the only reason my little finger moves is because it's united
to me. It's united to my body. That's
it. And the only way that a believer
has life is by the members, each member being united into the
body. The church is the body. Each
member in particular is a member, just like these members in this
body. And the head is Christ. Christ is the head, His church
is the body, and we're members in particular in Christ. Listen
to this scripture. I won't have you turn there,
but 1 Corinthians 12, 12. He says, as the body is one,
and has many members, all the members of that one body, being
many, are one body. So also is Christ. For by one
Spirit are we all. Paul speaking of himself. He's
talking about Apollos. He's talking about Peter. He's
talking about me. He's talking about you. He's
talking about every elect, regenerated child of God. All of, all of
it. By one Spirit are we all baptized
into one body. Whether we be Jew or Gentiles,
whether we be bond or free, we've all been made to drink into one
Spirit. We got one life, one Spirit,
one heart. Isn't this amazing? You think
about it. Okay, I'm a believer sitting right here. I got brethren
down in Tennessee. They got the same Holy Spirit
of God in them as I got in me. So, you know what the results
gonna be? If they hurt, I'm gonna hurt. If they rejoice, I'm going
to rejoice. Just because we're divided, they're
not in my local congregation. I'm not in their local congregation.
That don't mean we're not one. We're one. We've got one spirit
dwelling in us. We've got one life in us. Let
me illustrate it this way. Ravi, when your kids get grown
and y'all all get separated, me and my mom and dad and sister,
we're all separated. Well, if something happens to
one of those children, And they're hurting. Robbie's going to hurt. Debbie's going to hurt. Faith's
going to hurt. Peter's going to hurt. Sarah's
going to hurt. Chloe's going to hurt. Because
they're one family. They're one family. Well, it's
even more with Christ's church because we're born of one spirit. One spirit. And so we feel what
each other feel. Another way it's spoken of is
the husband and the wife. Listen to Ephesians 5.31. For
this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother, and
shall be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. Now, is Christ teaching us husbands
to have a bunch of wives? No, He's teaching us you've got
one bride. One bride. And he says here, this is a great
mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Christ
has one bride. He loved it. He loved her and
gave himself for it. That one church. And my favorite
is John 17. Go there. I want you to see how
he speaks of this union there. Union. And this union won't ever
be severed. It will never be separated. Once this union is And this union
began mysteriously before the foundation of the world. Of God
are you in Christ Jesus. He put us in Christ because we'd
be born of Christ. We were in His loins before the
foundation of the world. Look at this. Now we're in Him
vitally by the Spirit dwelling in us. Look here. John 17, 21. Christ prayed that they all may
be one. Now, what does he mean by one? What's the definition of this
being one? Here it is. As thou, Father, art in me, and
I in thee. You get that? That's the oneness we're
talking about. How one is God the Father and
God the Son? Would you dare say they're divided
in anything? Nothing. That's how one we are
in Christ. He said, "...that they also may
be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent
me." Verse 22, "...and the glory which thou gavest me I have given
them, that they may be one." How so? Even as we are one. I in them, and thou in me. They may be made perfect in one. And that the world may know that
thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. You know what this world knows
about us? You know what this world around us knows about us?
This is what this world knows and hates about us. This is what
this world knows and hates about Christ. This is what men always
say about our gospel. It's not fair. You know what
it is they hate? They hear us preach it, and they
see it, and they understand this, at least in their head. God loved
us just like He loved Christ. That's a special love. That's
a particular love. That's a love that's distinguishing. And this world knows that. I
think this world knows that. That's why they hate our gospel,
and they hate our God, and they hate us. But it's amazing, brethren,
you're a habitation. You're a habitation. You're a
dwelling place. You say, I live in a habitation,
I live in a... But you are a habitation. You're
a habitation of God through the Spirit. Isn't that something?
Now, alright, that's the first thing this is. To be called into
the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord is to be united
with Christ. Alright, secondly, fellowship
with Christ means we're partakers with Christ. We're partakers
with Christ. Turn to 2 Peter 1. We're partakers
with Christ. You know, all of these truths
just sort of blend. Let me see here. Is that right?
2 Peter... Yeah, 2 Peter 1.4. All these truths, you know, sometimes
they don't seem like they're that far apart from each other
because they all blend together and they're just sort of little
additions to what we just said. But here's an addition to what
we just said. Now, this is as essential as
it is amazing. This is essential. When God calls
us unto fellowship in His Son, when we're united with Christ,
Peter says we become partakers of Christ's nature. Look here,
2 Peter 1, 4. They're given unto us exceeding
great and precious promises in this gospel. We're born of that
incorruptible seed by the word preached in the gospel, that
by these you might be partakers of the divine nature. Now, that's essential. It's absolutely essential. We're
partakers of Christ's holy nature. And that's essential, brethren,
because he says there, that's how we have escaped the corruption
that's in the world through lust, beginning with the corruption
of our old sin nature. That corruption of our old sin
nature that was just made us, we just followed His lust all
the time. The only way we're delivered
and escaped the corruption of that lust is for Christ's nature
to be formed in us so that we're partakers with His nature. Now
we have a new will. Now we have a new heart. Now
we have a new love. Now we have new desires. This
is what makes you love what you once hated and hate what you
once loved. To be made a partaker of the divine nature. Now, When
this happens, and He brings us to behold Christ, He speaks something
into the court of our conscience, and He makes us to know something.
Two things. Two things. We're made partakers
of this. Now, I'm going to give you the
same illustration I gave Thursday night, just slightly different.
It's a little slightly different than the... I put it in the bulletin.
It's a little slightly different than in the bulletin. But you'll
get it. When Adam broke the law, In the garden, all Adam's children
were in Adam. We were in his loins. Just like
when Abraham paid tithes, Levi was in his loins so that Levi
paid tithes in Abraham. Well, same token, we were in
Adam's loins. All his children were. So when
Adam broke God's law, we broke God's law. And we became unrighteous
by Adam's disobedience. Righteousness has to do with
the keeping of the law. Unrighteousness is the breaking
of that law. We became unrighteous by Adam's
disobedience. But we didn't have a being yet.
We didn't have a being yet till we were born of Adam. And then
when we were born of Adam, by his incorruptible seed in natural
generation, you know what happened? We became partakers of Adam's
fallen nature. we became unholy, sinful. And so, when you're born again,
the first thing God teaches you is this lesson. He teaches you
what you are. And He charges you in the court
of that new man, in the conscience of that new man, after he's purged
your conscience, He charges you with sin. Makes you to know you're
a sinner. And the charge is just. God said
in the Old Testament law, you don't charge a man with what
he's not. We don't settle for a judge to
do that in our land. You'd kick a judge off the bench
and protest if you went into the court and you were innocent.
And everybody that went into that court, a righteous man,
he's pronounced him wicked, declared him wicked. You say he's not,
that judge is not just. And the wicked man, He declared
him righteous? God said, you declare a man what
he is. So when God said you're a sinner,
it's a just charge. Because God only, the judge of
all the earth shall do right, and He only judges according
to how it is. When He said you were a sinner,
were you a sinner? Absolutely. Why? That's what
Adam made me. He made me that. He made me that. By one man's disobedience were
many made sinners. Well, all the credit goes to
Adam for making me a sinner. And then, when Christ fulfilled
the law, all his children were in his lawns. All His children
were in His loins. Of God are ye in Christ Jesus.
He chose a people and put us in Christ before the foundation
of the world. And we were in His loins from the foundation
of the world. And when Adam fulfilled the law, we fulfilled the law. I mean, when Christ fulfilled
the law, we fulfilled the law in Christ. We fulfilled it perfectly
in Christ. So we were made righteous by
His obedience. And then, we don't have a being
though. I'm talking about as that child
of God, as God's workmanship, as that trophy of His grace.
We don't have a being until we're born of Christ. You say, well
I had a being, you had a being from Adam, when you're dead in
your sins, but you didn't have this new man created in you yet.
And we gotta be born of Christ, and when we're born of Christ,
and we're united with Christ, we're partakers of His divine
nature, so that now, We're not only righteous by Christ's obedience,
we're holy by Christ's obedience. And when God, in the court of
that conscience, once He's pronounced you a sinner and declared you
a sinner, made you to see your need, now He makes you to see
what Christ has done, and when He brings you to fall at His
feet and worship Him, He declares in the court of your conscience,
you're righteous. Is God saying something that's
not? Is He just treating you like you're righteous? No, sir. So by one man's obedience shall
many be made righteous. When God says you're righteous,
friends, you're righteous. God don't call it what it's not.
No, sir. You're righteous. You're righteous.
You're righteous. If a man knows he's a partaker
of Adam's sinful nature, if a man really knows that and really
knows how devastating that is, that he's dead, I don't know
how in the world, why in the world he'd want to deny that
a believer's made a partaker of the divine nature. Why would
you want to deny that? These two are not together. When
Paul said, in my flesh dwells nothing good, he's not talking
about the divine nature, he's talking about that product of
Adam, that old man of Adam. That's what's not good. Everything
God makes is good. And if He created a new man,
that new man is what He made it. Whatever He made it, that's
what it is. And that's the only way we're
united with Christ. Christ is in that man and that
man's in Christ. You can't separate them! You
can only call that man evil if you call Christ evil. Because
they're that one. They're that united. You get
what I'm saying? We're partakers of everything
Christ accomplished by His obedience. And then fellowship with Christ
means we partake in God's spirit of faithfulness and God's spirit
of love. Turn to 1 John. Now let me say
that again. I want you to get this because
you may not have heard this before. You may not have heard it put
that way. Fellowship with Christ means
we're partaking of God's spirit of faith. and God's spirit of
love. This is how we believe and this
is how we love. We're made to partake of God's
Christ's faith and Christ's love. That's how we're made to believe
and to love. That's how we're made faithful
and how we're made to love. God loved us, but we couldn't
love God We couldn't, not as long as we was in that old man,
we couldn't. That old man's enmity against God. That's all he is.
And we couldn't love God until God entered in in spirit and
put His love in our hearts. And that new man made us partakers
of His love in that new man. Then we can love now. Look here,
1 John 4, 10. Here in His love, 1 John 4, verse
10. Here in His love, not that we
love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to propitiation
for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us,
we ought also to love one another. But while we were in our sin,
we couldn't. We couldn't love God and we couldn't love one
another. There wasn't any love in us. Paul said we hated God
and hated one another. Now look at this. No man hath
seen God at any time. God's a spirit, so how are we
going to love Him then? In spirit, that's the only way
we can. We gotta be made new. Alright, look. If we love one
another, if we want love one another, here's how we do it.
God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us. That's the
only way we love. God dwells in us. Hereby know
we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He's given
us of His Spirit. You could say that this way.
Hereby know we dwell in Him, and He in us, Because we love
now. He's given us of His Spirit of
love. And we love God and our brethren now. We didn't before.
Now we do. That's how we know. We dwell
in God and God dwells in us. Nor could we believe on Christ,
nor could we confess Christ, till He put the Spirit of faith
in us. That's from Him. Look here, 1
John 4, 14. And we've seen, and we do testify,
that the Father sent the Son, the Savior of the world, whosoever
shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God." Whoever can openly
say, publicly, Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And everything
that includes. He's God's elect. He's God's
righteousness. He's the one I'm predestinated
unto. He's my all. He's all salvation. Everything
that is included in calling Him the Son of God. He's my life,
resurrection, truth, bread, everything. Look here. The man that can confess
that, here's the only reason he can. God dwelleth in him and
he in God. And we have known and believed
that the love that God hath to us, God is love. Here's the only
way we knew that and the only way we believed that. He that
dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him. The only
way we believe, the only way we confessed Him was God dwelled
in us and we in Him. And the only way that we love
is we dwell in God and God dwells in us. We're made partakers of
faith and love when Christ the faithful one, when Christ the
beloved enters in and makes us partakers of faith and love. You get that? Partakers of His
faith and His love. That's the only way we can believe
and the only way we can love. Alright, turn to 1 John 1. Fellowship with Christ means
we're partakers of Him. We're just on this second point,
and I've just got two points, so don't think I'm going to sit
here and hold you forever. Fellowship with Christ means we're partakers. We're talking about being partakers
of all these things with Christ. Partakers of His nature, partakers
of His faith and His love, so that we believe and we love.
And we're partakers of everything He accomplished by His obedience,
His righteousness and His holiness. And then we're partakers now
of fellowship with the Father and with fellow believers. We're
partakers of that. Does Christ have fellowship with
the Father and with all His brethren? Sure He does. They're one. And
He's made us to have that same fellowship with them. Look, it's
1 John 1, 3. That which we have seen and have
heard declare we unto you that you also may have fellowship
with us. The only way to have this is
through the gospel. Now let me tell you what this
does not mean. John's not saying, we've preached the gospel to
you so that we can all come together in this place and we can all
get together in the back, drink coffee and eat a coffee cake
and talk about how much we love each other and we just fellowship,
have a good time and we can go over here to my house together
and eat crawfish and have a good time. He's not talking about
that. He's talking about this union that we have in Christ. This union we have with Christ
in us and us in Christ. That's what he's talking about
here. It includes all that other stuff, but this is what we're
talking about. You can have that other stuff and not have this
union. But we're talking about this union, alright? Look, and
it's only by the gospel. So he said, we declare this to
you that you might have this fellowship with us. And truly,
our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.
We're united with Him and the Father. This then is the message
which we have... I'm sorry, verse 4. 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. Later
He said, no lies of a truth. There's no lie that's of the
truth. A lie is darkness. And there's no lie that's of
the truth. God is all truth. God is all light. Now look, if
we say that we have fellowship with Him, that's what every religious
person says, I've got fellowship with God. I heard a preacher
one time that actually acted like he was in the middle of
preaching and God spoke to him. And he said, okay God, I'll tell
him that. Folks come to me. They hear I'm
a preacher. They come to Melinda at work and say, your husband's
a pastor. I'm want so and so and so and
so. Would you ask him to ask God if he'll give that to me?
I don't have a red phone in my office. I can just pick it up
and call God. That's not what we're talking
about here. No, we're not talking about a familiarity with God
that's flippant and so that we don't... God's sanctified in
our heart. We see who God is. We see how
holy He is and how reverent His name is and we don't come to
God in any shape, form or fashion in flippancy or familiarity. He's holy. Everybody that approaches
Him better approach Him that way or you'll be a burnt little
spot in the ground like Nadab and Abihu. Not playing. That's serious. But He's made
us now to where we have communion with Him, fellowship with Him,
union with Him. Look, but if we say we have fellowship
with Him, verse 6, and we walk in darkness, we walk in the darkness
of the lie of man-exalting, free-will works religion, And I'm telling
you he's not talking about sin, because later he says, if you
say you don't sin, you're a liar. We're going to take for granted
you're a sinner. Now he's going to say don't walk in sin, but
right here he's talking about that lie of man-exalting, free-will
works religion. We say we have fellowship with
God, and that's the message we delight in? Because right here
he's talking about how we preach this gospel that you might have
true fellowship. So if we say we have fellowship with God,
but that's the message we delight in? He says, we lie, and we do
not what? The truth. We don't do the truth. But, if we walk in the light,
if we've got this message now in our heart, and He's put it
there by this gospel preached, we've got it in our heart, as
He's in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood
of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. Now that's what
you have through the gospel. Can two walk together except
they be in agreement? When we have the same faith,
by the same spirit, by the same truth, we have fellowship with
the Father, fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ, and fellowship
with one another. And the blood of Jesus Christ
cleanseth us of all our sin. Our fellowship is in the gospel.
Our fellowship's in the gospel. That's the only kind of spiritual
fellowship that exists. Do you know that? Men can talk
about having fellowship with God. The only fellowship that
exists is in the truth of God. That's the only fellowship that
exists. The only fellowship that exists. Christ is the truth. Every doctrine of truth gives
Christ all the glory and man zero. That's how you know if
it's true or not. It gives God all the glory and
man zero. If a man talks about his will
doing something, Mark that off, that's not truth. That just took
Christ's glory and gave it to man. It's not true. The truth
glorifies Him. And there's where our fellowship
is. It's in the gospel. We have no fellowship with the
unfruitful works of darkness. And the world doesn't understand
this. They don't understand Christ is the tie that binds. We don't
just sing Christ is the tie that binds. He really is the tie that
binds. That's why this gospel is called the fellowship of the
mystery. It's hidden to this world. This
world's religion don't know this. And we have fellowship in ministering
to the saints. That's what it's called in the
script. Fellowship of ministering to the saints. We minister gladly
to the saints here and wherever they are in this world because
we hurt when they hurt and rejoice when they rejoice. I ran my first
5k race yesterday and I can tell you from experience of trying
to get out of the bed this morning, if one member of my body hurts,
it all hurts. My whole body hurts. And that's
true with Christ's body. When one member hurts, we all
hurt. So we minister to one another. And here's the best part. We
are joint partakers of everything Christ possesses. Everything
Christ possesses, we possess. Listen to this. This is what
makes the Church of God so peaceful. We're not competing with each
other. We're not trying to get a better reward than our brother
or our sister. We're joint heirs with Christ.
Everything that belongs to Christ belongs to each of us jointly,
equally. When He took on the seed of Abraham,
He took our nature, His life became our life, His suffering
became our suffering, His righteousness became our righteousness, His
death became our death, His resurrection became our resurrection. Now
His righteousness is ours. His holiness is ours. His acceptance
with God at God's right hand is ours. Your life is hid with
Christ in God. And now His Father is our Father.
He said, I go to my God and your God, my Father and your Father.
Now His kingdom's our kingdom. He said, I appoint unto you a
kingdom as My Father has appointed unto Me. His throne's our throne. Whoo! Clay, you didn't say that. Yeah, that's what the Scripture
said. Christ said to him, that overcometh will I grant to sit
with Me in My throne even as I also overcame and am sitting
there with My Father in His throne. You mean I'm going to sit in
a big chair somewhere with Christ? No. It means we're going to reign
with Christ. There's where His throne's at.
Reigning. Wherever He's at, reigning with Him. And His inheritance
is our inheritance and His glory is our glory. He said, If children,
then your heirs, heirs of God, join heirs with Christ, if so
be that we suffer with Him, that we also may be glorified together
with Him. We'll join heirs with Him of
His inheritance and we'll glorify together with Him. We'll be.
Isn't that amazing? So see, go back now to 1 Corinthians
1.10. Let me just read this. It's just
like Christ said it is. In the beginning of the message,
He said, they're one, Father, even as we're one. And that's
how it is. That's really how it is. Now
listen to this. This is why Paul says this. This
is Paul's point, obviously. And this is why he says this.
Now let you and I endeavor. I mean endeavor. You have a divisive
thought coming to your mind. to be critical of somebody, to
not obey the gospel you hear coming forth from this pulpit,
to speak evil against it. There's a lot of things I'm going
to speak from here you're not going to understand. Just like
there's a lot of things you fathers say to your children and your
children don't understand. What would you do if one of the
children went back to one of your other children and said,
don't listen to dad, he doesn't know what he's talking about.
God will teach him, but he don't know what he's talking about
right now. You say, come here to me boy, what's wrong with
you? You're rejecting the authority that God's put over you. Same
thing, if I say something in this pulpit that I've studied
and I know is so, and it's for the good of this congregation,
and men reject it, telling their children, don't listen to that,
don't obey that, you're in the place of Korah. Careful you don't
get swallowed up. But endeavor, put that away. That's the old man. Put that
away. Hate that. Detest that. And here's what Paul says, verse
10. 1 Corinthians 1-10. I beseech you, brethren, by the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, by this union we have, that you
speak, you all speak the same thing. And that there be no divisions
among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind
and in the same judgment. And that's what we'll be if we've
truly been called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our
Lord. Amen. Let's stand together, brethren. Father, what great, great thanks
we have to give to you that you called us, that you called us
into this fellowship, this union, making us partakers with Christ
of everything He is, and everything He has accomplished, and everything
He provides, and everything that belongs to Him. We are truly
one in Christ. Lord, God, You've called us to
that. How we do thank You. Make us
to truly Have the heart of oneness. Put off our baby carnal flesh
and grow us in that inward man that we might be strong in the
faith and strong in this union by Christ and by your grace.
Forgive us, Lord, of our sins. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.