Turn back with me, if you would,
to Philippians chapter one. Philippians one. Let's read these
six verses one more time. Paul and Timotheus, the servants
of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus, which are at
Philippi, with the bishops and deacons, grace be unto you and
peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I
thank my God upon every remembrance of you. always in every prayer
of mine for you all, making request with joy 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 until the day of Jesus Christ. I believe there
are two motivating factors in preaching the gospel. A man who truly preaches the
gospel, preaches it because God has called him to preach it.
If a man is truly, honestly, sincerely preaching the gospel,
he preaches it because God has called him to preach it. A command
has been given. A message has been given. And woe is unto that man if he
doesn't preach it. But I'm talking about inside
the man. From the preacher's point of
view, I believe there are two main things going on inside that
make a man want to preach the gospel. Number one, it's love
for God. love for our God. If it's in sincerity, I believe
men stand up in sincerely in the flesh. But if it's in sincerity,
true sincerity, it's love for God. It is love for his honor. It is love for his Praise, the
thing that I desire most this evening is that he might be honored
and praised and glorified. That's right. And if that's the
case, I believe we will all be blessed. I want us to be blessed.
I've said this so many times, but first and foremost, the motivation
for doing this is love, a desire that he might be exalted. High
and lifted up before us. Exalted for who He is. It comes from a love for declaring
Him in all of His glory. I love declaring Him in all of
His glory. For who He is. The scripture describes Him as
prophet, priest, and king. Everything we need. All we need. Christ is all we need. We preach
because we want His name to be known. We want Him to be worshiped. We want Him to be bowed before. The number one reason why we
preach is love for our God, love for our Savior and our God, Christ
Jesus, our Lord. That's who our God is. And the
second reason is Love for men and women. It really is. Love for boys and
girls. We do this because we have a
deep concern over men and women's souls. Lord, give us a greater
concern for men and women's souls. We don't know who His elect are. God has an elect people. And
we don't know who they are. So our desire is preach to everybody. Preach to every single person
that the Lord will cause to hear it. The Lord will allow to hear
it. Blessed are we if we can read this. Blessed are we if
we can hear this. Blessed are we if we can preach
this. We want men and women to know who God is. We deeply desire
for men and women to be under the mercy and under the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's our prayer. And then there's no greater reward
in preaching than seeing that mercy and that blood evidenced
on a person. There honestly is no greater
reward in preaching the gospel than seeing the evidence of the
mercy and blood of Christ on a sinner by way of that sinner
believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean truly believing on Christ. Casting their all on Christ. Believing on who He is. Believing
on what He's done. Believing in the finished work. of the Lord Jesus Christ and
worshiping Him for it. That's what we do. We worship
Him for it. We bow to Him for it. When that
happens, that same love that God has given to the preacher
for God, God gives that very same love to the preacher for
the people of God. That's what motivates us. That
is sincerely what motivates us. Love for the God we preach. And
love for the people of God who we preach to. And that's a wonderful
motivation. That is a blessed love. That is an eternal love. Love for God and love for God's
people. That's an eternal love. It's an eternal binding fellowship. And it's one that all of God's
people give thanks for. They all thank him for that.
I just had the privilege of going out and meeting some brethren
that I had never met before. Two of them I had met before.
The rest of them, it was the first time I had ever met them.
And my experience with them was fellowship in the gospel. That's what it was. I went out
there because the Lord, I believe the Lord called me to go out
there, opened the door, opened the way, provided the way, gave
me a message. And when I got out there, I found
some men and women who loved that same message. Sincerely
loved it. I talked with them. And that was by experience. It
was fellowship in the gospel. That's what those who truly love
the true and living God share. They share fellowship in the
gospel. And it just hit me what a precious
thing it is. Just what a blessed and precious
and rare thing it is to have like precious faith with other
men and women. It's so precious. It's so rare. But that's the blessing that
God's people have in Christ. All who believe on that finished
work of Christ. I was talking to a brother out
there and he was telling me about someone who he loves, he dearly
loves, who cannot let go of the law. And he said, we just can't have
any fellowship. It's just that simple. He just cannot let go
of the law. And therefore there's no fellowship. Fellowship in the gospel. That
is a glorious fellowship to be a part of. That's a glorious
fellowship to experience. Fellowship is fellows in the
same ship. And that's what we are. We are
fellows in the same ship. It's something that unites. Fellowship. Something that unites. And that's
what the gospel does for God's people. It unites us. It truly
unites us. Turn with me if you would to
Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians 4, look with me at
verse 4, it says, there is one body. And there truly is, there is
one body. That's what I experience as I
travel and preach. to those who love our God for
who He is. There is one body. You go out
and you meet somebody for the one, you meet them one time,
and you talk to them and you find out that this person loves
the Lord Jesus Christ, loves this true and living God, and
that's all it takes. You're joined together. There
is one body. Someone who loves our sovereign
creator, our sovereign controller, our sovereign king. There's one
body. One body. You find a sinner who
acknowledges what he is before God. I'm a sinner. And all of God's people can enter
into that. I can have fellowship with a man or a woman in that.
I'm a sinner. Then you find someone who renounces all of their own
efforts, every effort they have tried to do to redeem himself
or herself before God. I tried this, I tried that, nothing
worked. It all failed. You find someone who is totally,
completely clinging to the blood of Christ alone. No works of
mine added to it. No filthy self-righteous works
of mine added to his. I do not tarnish what he has
done by trying to add my own hand to it and trying to add
my own works to it. You find a sinner who says that,
truly looking to Christ, truly clinging to Christ, and you are
connected to that sinner. You're connected to that man
or woman. In Christ, there is only one body. Verse four says,
there's one body and one spirit. There is one spirit, one heart,
one united soul, one mind. We have the mind of
the Lord Jesus Christ. One will, thy will. Not my will, thy will. Don't
you love to hear a person say that and mean it? Not my will,
thy will be done. Verse four says, there's one
body and there's one spirit, even as you are called in one
hope of your calling. There's only one hope. There's only one calling. And
that's Christ. Christ is our hope. Christ is
our calling. Verse 5 says, there's one Lord. There's one faith. There's one
baptism. All three of those are the Lord
Jesus Christ. There's one Lord. There's only one faith. Faith
looks to Christ. Faith is of Christ. It believes
Christ. There's only one baptism. We're
immersed into Christ. Verse six says, there's one God
and father of all who is above all and through all and in you
all. And how do we know him and see
him and have him? Only in Christ. Christ is the
fellowship of God's people. Christ is. Christ is the gospel. And he's
our fellowship in the gospel. As soon as you find another center,
And that's what just blessed my heart so much. Soon as you
find another sinner who is completely clinging to Christ, you are vitally connected to
that person. You share a fellowship. You share
a oneness with that person. And the Apostle Paul described
that oneness in our text. He went into good detail on what
our oneness is in our text. Turn with me back to Philippians
chapter 1. In everything that he says right
here, let's see if this is our fellowship, okay? This is what
unites us. Verse 1, he said, Paul and Timotheus,
The servants of Jesus Christ. Servants of Jesus Christ. Willing, happy servants. Servants, I love that. I wanna
show you something here, right? This is just precious to me.
Turn with me if you would to Mark chapter six. Mark chapter six, the Lord came
into his hometown here, his own country, the scripture words
it, and he preached and he taught and he performed miracles and
the people were confused. All right, Mark six, verse three,
they said, is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary? the brother
of James and Joseph, and of Judah and Simon, and are not his sisters
here with us?" And they were offended at him. Alright, that
was his, in quotation marks, family. Earthly speaking. James, Josie, Judah, Simon, those
were his brothers as the scripture refers to brethren. James and Jude, Judah is also
called Jude, James and Jude were called to be apostles of his
own brethren. After the Lord revealed Himself
to Paul, this is what the Apostle Paul said. He said, I saw none
of the apostles except for Peter and James, the Lord's brother. That's how he worded it. So earthly
speaking, the Lord, James, and Jude were brothers. But watch
this. Go with me if you would to Jude. just before Revelation, Jude
1. He said, Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James. Servant of Jesus Christ and brother
of James. You say, well Jude, earthly speaking,
aren't you the brother of our Lord too? No. I'm the brother of James. I'm
the servant of Jesus Christ. That's what Jude said. That's
what Paul said. That's what all of God's people
say. The willing, happy servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
our fellowship. We serve the Lord Jesus Christ. Aren't you so glad? Doesn't that
put joy in your heart? That literally does put joy in
my heart. We serve the Lord Jesus Christ. That is our fellowship. We bow in fellowship. We're sinners
in fellowship who have been saved in fellowship And we bow in glory. I just cannot wait to witness
every knee bow. On earth, every knee will bow,
some in judgment, but in glory. I cannot wait to see every knee
bow. Every tongue confess in fellowship. We worship Him. We serve the Lord Jesus Christ. That's our fellowship. Go back
with me to Philippians 1. Verse 1 says, Paul and Timotheus,
the servants of Jesus Christ, not the co-workers, not the co-pilots,
the servants. The servants of Jesus Christ
to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi with the
bishops and deacons. Verse 2 says, Grace be unto you,
and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace and peace. That's our fellowship. I went
out there and I had fellowship with some brethren in grace. Grace. The grace of God, the
grace of our God. Thank God for his grace. Thank God for His grace. Thank
God for His kindness. Thank God for His favor, His
tender love, His tender mercy, the freeness of His gift of salvation. Thank God for the freeness. I'm pretty sure that's a word.
Thank God for the freeness of His salvation. Thank God for Christ. Thank God
for the peace we have in Christ. Thank God it's not of works. That's the fellowship we have,
and I had, and all of God's people have. We cry, thank God it's
not of works. Thank God. While everybody else
is saying, look at my works, look at what I've done. Our fellowship
and our unity is, thank God it's not of works. Thank God it's
not by works that we're saved. Thank God we've been freed from
the law. What a happy condition. That's our fellowship, service, grace, peace. I love peace. Peace with God,
peace with his people, peace in the heart. Service, grace, peace, and thankfulness. I've been saying, thank God,
thank God, thank God. Look at verse three. I thank
my God upon every remembrance of you. So thankful. We are thankful. You wanna know
what our fellowship is? Thankfulness before God. Thankfulness. We're just humbled. We're not
proud. By His grace. We're just grateful. We're grateful to God for Christ
and for his people. Verse three, he said, I thank
my God upon every remembrance of you. And I do too. I'll never forget the first time
I really took notice of this verse of scripture. I was a teenager
and somebody wrote me a letter and put that on the bottom of
the letter. And it meant so much to me. And I have never forgotten
that and I've never stopped applying it to my brethren. I truly thank
God on every remembrance of you. The word remembrance means mention. Every mention of you, he said,
every time your name is mentioned, I'm thankful. And I know I'm
a sinner, and I know I can upset you and all that kind of stuff,
but the Lord will let us get past that, and He'll bring thankfulness
to us for the fact that God would have a people. Thankfulness for
what He's done for us in Christ. Thankful for Him. Thankful for
all of His people. If you truly love somebody, you'll
light up every time that person's name is mentioned. If you truly
love somebody, you get a grandparent who has a grand, a brand new
grandbaby and watch that face light up every time that child
is mentioned. If you love somebody at the hearing of that name, you'll be glad you'll give thanks.
We thank God for each other in Christ, don't we? Verse four
says, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making request
with joy. Our fellowship in the joy of
our prayer is in His will. We just said a moment ago that
we love His will. We love His will, we trust His
will. It is usually not our will because
His ways are not our ways. But we trust Him. We trust His
will. We trust His purpose. We trust
everything He does. We know that it's good and right.
The judge of the earth can only do right. And our fellowship
is in the joy of His will. Lord, not my will be done. The
joy of knowing that His works are going to be done in and for
His people. We can't help but continually
talk about the brethren over there because they just had a
big impact on me. But Sunday morning, a brother
closed in prayer. And when I tell you it blessed
my soul, he preached a message to me. And it blessed my soul
so much. And as he prayed, I just had
joy. I entered into the joy of what
he was saying, because I was thinking in my heart, I agree
with every word. I agree with everything that
you're saying and that you're begging God for. And based on
what that man was praying on our behalf in that moment in
time, I knew I have fellowship with him. And it brought great joy to me.
Our fellowship is in service, grace, peace, thankfulness, prayer,
joy. And it's all because of this
right here. Verse five says, our fellowship is in the gospel. And it has been from the first
day until now. He said that's what I'm thankful
for, your fellowship in the gospel. The gospel is Christ. The gospel
means good news. It is the good news of the Lord
Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 10 verses 16 and
17. Tell us about our fellowship
with the body and blood of Christ. We have fellowship with the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Joined to His body, joined to
His blood. 1 Peter 4 verse 13 tells us about
our fellowship with the sufferings of Christ. We're vitally joined
to His person. We have been vitally joined to
His sufferings. Thank God. If we weren't vitally
joined to His sufferings, we would still have to be vitally
joined to our own. But that's what 1 Peter 4 told
us and Philippians 3 tells us the same thing. Look at Philippians
3 verse 10. Philippians 3 verse 10 says that
I may know him. Can we not all enter into that?
I just want to know him and the power of his resurrection. I
want to know the power of life through His resurrection,
the life of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings,
everything that He suffered, I want to be vitally joined in
union with that, being made conformable unto His death, if by any means
I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. So we've been vitally joined
in fellowship with the person of Christ, vitally joined in
fellowship with the sufferings of Christ, and 1 John 1 tells
us about our glorious fellowship with the Godhead. In Him, we
have holy, sinless fellowship with the Father and with the
Son. That wonderful news is the gospel. That good news is the gospel.
Oh, we thank God for the fellowship that we have had in the gospel
of Christ from the first day until now. That God would keep
us, that He would keep us all these years and not let us go.
From the first time He revealed it to us, all the way to the
end. If you go back to Philippians
1, verse 6 says, being confident of this very thing, that he which
hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day
of Jesus Christ, all the way to the end. Our fellowship is
in his start to finish work, that he will perform all the
way up to the day he returns. And the hope of that work and
the hope of his return That's our fellowship. We are waiting
for His return. That's what we're doing. Waiting
on His return. And I thank God for that fellowship.
That's what motivates us to preach. We preach love for Him, love
for His people, thankfulness to Him, thankfulness for His
people. This glorious calling into his
fellowship, that's what motivates us. I pray God will call more
into this fellowship. I pray he will. Lord, call your
people in and give us fellowship in the Lord Jesus Christ. All
right, let's all stand together.