Yhe Faithfulness Of God And Fellowship Of His Son

Q: What does the Bible say about God's faithfulness?

The Bible declares that God is faithful and dependable, providing mercies morning by morning. God's faithfulness is a central theme throughout Scripture, namely expressed in 1 Corinthians 1:9, which states, 'God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.' This signifies that God's faithfulness is not merely a characteristic but is deeply connected to His actions and promises. For instance, in Genesis 8, God assures Noah that the seasons will remain, showcasing His dependability in providence. Additionally, Psalm 37:25 affirms that God has never forsaken the righteous throughout generations, further solidifying His role as a faithful provider.

Q: How do we know that salvation is by grace?

Salvation is by grace according to Ephesians 2:8-9, emphasizing that it is a gift from God, not via works. The concept of grace is foundational in Reformed theology, firmly rooted in Scripture. Ephesians 2:8-9 stresses, 'For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.' This indicates that human effort plays no role in salvation. The assurance of God's grace also encompasses His continued mercy and love towards His people, pouring out unmerited kindness without any requirements on their part. Furthermore, 2 Timothy 1:9 reminds us that God saved us and called us not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace.

Q: Why is fellowship with Christ important for Christians?

Fellowship with Christ is essential as it leads to spiritual growth and mutual encouragement among believers. Fellowship with Christ is central to the Christian faith as indicated in 1 Corinthians 1:9, which states we are called into 'the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.' This fellowship signifies a deep, abiding relationship with Christ, where believers are united with Him and with one another. Such communion is pivotal for spiritual growth, as it enables Christians to partake in the blessings and grace of Christ. In practicing fellowship, believers encourage one another, support one another in faith, and collectively share in the sufferings and joys found in Christ. The fellowship with Christ also imparts a sense of belonging and identity within the body of Christ.

Q: How does God's sovereignty relate to salvation?

God's sovereignty ensures that salvation is entirely His work, as He elects and calls His people according to His purpose. In Reformed theology, God's sovereignty is central to understanding salvation. It dictates that God, in His eternal counsel, has predestined those whom He would call to salvation. Ephesians 1:4-5 reveals, 'He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself.' This highlights that our election is based on God's will and purpose rather than human effort or decision-making. As Romans 8:30 states, 'Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.' Thus, the whole process of salvation is a result of God's sovereign grace.

To prayer and to God, straightforth
to heaven for tomorrow. With ten thousand besides. Great is Thy faithfulness, Great
is Thy faithfulness, Morning by morning new mercies I see. Thank you, Jeanette. All right,
turn over to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. I heard some of you really singing
out on that song. I'd love to hear somebody sing loudly. That means they're
entering into the song. The thoughts of His faithfulness
ought to make us shout and sing loudly. 1 Corinthians 1. Sunday night's
message was intended to warn our hearts, warn us. Tonight's
message is intended to warm us. 1 Corinthians 1 is written to the
Church, to redeemed, regenerated believers. This is how he addresses
the letter. Verse 2, he says, unto the Church
of God, which is at Corinth. And he says, with all that in
every place call upon Christ. The church at Corinth, who is
sanctified, he says, to them that are sanctified. That means
set apart. And we're set apart, first of
all, by God choosing us, God electing us, God set apart, set
aside some people for his own. And then in time, the Holy Spirit
comes and actually separates or sets us apart from this world. Like, we're plucked as brands
from the burning, as Amos, I believe it was, said. And he puts us,
where he puts us to save us or for safekeeping is in Christ. Of God are you in Christ. We're sanctified in Christ, set
apart or put in Christ to be saved when that overflowing scourge
of his wrath comes by. We're hidden in the cleft of
the rock, the riven side of Christ. You remember that illustration
of those ants one time? Well, one of them got under a
rock. You remember that? I burned all
those ants up, but one of them got under a rock. I said, you
stay right there, you're saved. We're saved or sanctified in
Christ Jesus. Read on. Called to be saints.
Called to be saints. We've been chosen, predestinated. Whom he predestinated, he called. Whoever God elects or whoever
God chooses, whoever God has predestined to save and put in
Christ, he calls them in time. This does away with that old
hard-shell belief that if you're elect, you don't need to hear
the gospel. That's just not so, because whoever he predestined,
he called. And what is the call? The gospel. When he called you by our gospel,
Paul said in 2 Thessalonians 2, to the obtaining of glory. To whom he predestinated, he
called, and he called, he justified whom he justified. When God calls by the gospel,
he doesn't ask anything. He doesn't offer anything. But
he simply announces what he has done and what we are to receive. That's the call of God. doesn't
ask us, God doesn't ask anybody to repent. Scripture says he
commands men to repent. And he announces our election. Verse 3, this is what he announces.
Grace be unto you and peace. Grace be unto you and peace. Now this call, this gospel call, for the sake of remembrance.
I'm not trying to be clever at all here, but this is similar. This call is just like receiving
a call in which you're informed that you are a grand prize winner. Have you ever received one of
those calls? It's never true, is it? They said you have won,
you're a winner. You're a winner. I've never won
anything like that. Have you? There's a catch to
it. Well, this is indeed a call that
we have won a prize. This is what he said in Philippians,
didn't it? Oh, that I might win Christ and
be found in him. And all whom he calls, he notifies
of that. You have won the prize. The prize
is And the great calling is to be found in Christ, to be found
in him. And your name was picked. Your
name was picked, not out of a hat, but out of his heart. Your name
was picked, and you've been called to be a saint. That's what he
said there, called to be saints. A high calling, the scriptures
call it, a heavenly calling. And then he goes on to talk about
this in verse 9, and that was just a little reminder of who he's talking
to. Because verse 9 says, and this
is our text, in verse 9 it says, God is faithful by whom you were
called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. We are called by God who is faithful. into this fellowship of his son. All right, now let's look at
these two things tonight. I started to say briefly, but
I don't know. This may be my farewell message,
right? Well, God is faithful by whom
you were called into the fellowship of his son. So we're going to
look at God's faithfulness and we're going to look at this fellowship
if we get to this fellowship. I had a glorious time thinking
about God's faithfulness. God is faithful. Now, this is
a short statement, but oh, how long on me. A short message,
God is faithful, but we're going to spend eternity considering
it and praising him for his faithfulness. These three short words, God
is faithful. Now, when you think of someone
who's faithful, what do you think of? When you say so-and-so is
faithful, they're a faithful friend or whatever, what comes
to mind when you think of somebody being faithful? What attributes,
what characteristics are found in someone who's faithful? Well,
I jotted down a few. I asked a couple of the folks
in the study. woman invaded our study tonight,
men. There's a woman that came in
there. Well, she, we learned some things from her and we're
glad that she was there. But I asked her and some others,
I said, what do you think? Well, first thing I thought of
was dependable. When somebody's faithful, they're
dependable. You can depend on them. Look
over at Genesis chapter 8. Genesis chapter 8. Our God is
dependable. He is faithful. He is dependable. He is faithful in his providence
to us. God will faithfully provide all
things necessary for us. On that you can depend. The Lord
is my shepherd. Can you say the rest without
a doubt? I shall not want. Why? He's faithful. Genesis chapter
8. God is faithful in providence
to all flesh, but especially his people. Look at verse 21
or verse 20. Noah, after the After the flood,
Noah built an altar unto the Lord, and took of every clean
beast and every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the
altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet savor, and the Lord said in his
heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's
sake. For, or even though the imagination
of man's heart is evil from his youth, neither will I again smite
any more everything living as I have done." While the earth
remaineth, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter,
day and night shall not cease." All these things necessary to
sustain life on this earth will continue on as they should. The rain will fall, the sun will
shine, the crops will grow, the people will be fed. Why? Because
God is faithful. He will provide. he will continue
to provide. He's faithful. Now, why did I
read verses 20 and 21 with that? Do you know why God is faithful?
Why God hadn't destroyed this earth a long time ago? Because
of a certain sweet savor he smelled. God said here, I'm not going
to destroy it all because of this sweet savor I smelled of
this clean animal sacrificed by Noah. And the same thing applies
for this planet. God upholds all things. God has
not destroyed this earth because Christ died. For the elect's
sake, because Christ ever lived. In him we live and move and have
our very being. So God is faithful. to provide
for all flesh, especially his children. Psalm 37. Turn over there. If you don't
know this by heart, you should, especially when you go through
lean times. You're going to need it. Psalm
37. This ought to be hid in your heart. Psalm 37. It will give
you comfort. Psalm 37. God will especially
provide for his people. Always. Verse 25, David said,
I have been young and now am old. David was about 70 years
old, about Charles Ross's age when he wrote it. And he said,
I've been young and now am old, yet have I not seen, not one
time in 70 years, the righteous forsaken, or those that trust
Christ are found righteous in him, nor his seed begging bread. Not one of his people ever have
sat on the highway side and wanted for anything. Not one time in
70 years. And you go back a little further,
Abraham would have said the same thing. He lived 175 years or
something like that. And you go on beyond him, you
go on to Noah and Noah lived 700 and some odd years, and you
keep on going back. And they'll all say the same
thing. I, not one time, have seen God's true people forsaken
or begging bread in all these nine hundred and some years.
Why? God is faithful. He's faithful. He's dependable. On Him, you
can't depend. God is dependable or faithful,
and not only in providence, but in salvation. God is faithful, dependable in
His mercy. Under salvation, put the word,
the letter A, and put mercy. Mercy. God is dependable. You can depend on Him in salvation
to show mercy to sinners. You can depend on it. One time
David got so down and feeling so sinful and so wretched and
so vile, and so hopeless and all that, and he said, are his
mercies clean gone? Do you remember reading that in
the psalm? Are his mercies clean gone? Are his mercies gone? Well, David, go down to the ocean
and look over that vast expanse of water and dip down, get you
a glass and dip in that water and then say, have I drowned
the ocean? Is there any more where this
was found? David, God's mercies go beyond
that. His mercies endure forever. Mercy. Any sinner who needs it
will get it. On that you can depend, sinner.
And they'll get it forever. Once he shows mercy, he continues
to show mercy. Now, I'll always be a sinner. On that, I can depend. God will always show mercy. On
that, I can depend. He'll always show mercy. He's
faithful in mercy. God is dependable or faithful
in grace. Salvation is by grace. Salvation is by grace, alright? What about, now God saved me
or God justified me by his grace, all right? Then what's it all
depend on then? All right, he's going to save
me by his grace. It's all going to be, he's going to find me
as a wretched, vile, dead sinner and quicken me and save me and
justify me freely by his grace. Then what? Then it's going to
be work? No. Salvation is by grace. It's going to begin that way,
it begins that way, and it's going to end that way. It's always
going to be by grace. On that you can depend. It's
a good thing that your heart be established with it. Grace. God saved you by his grace. He
didn't see anything in you worth saving, but he saved you by his
grace. And he's not going to see anything
in you worth keeping, but he's going to keep you. by his grace. Salvation is by grace. On that
you can depend. And God is faithful. He giveth
more grace. You're going to need grace until
the day you die, and he's going to give it until the day you
die. He is. Since God saved me by grace,
that is free, unmerited favor, I can be sure he's going to keep
me by his grace and never require anything more from me. than grace. He's never going to require anything
more of me than grace. I am what I am by the grace of
God. I am saved by grace. I'm kept by grace. I will always
be saved, kept by grace. Now, you can depend on that.
God is faithful. God is faithful. God is dependable
in his love, his mercy, his His love. God is faithful and dependable
in love. Once loved by God, always loved by God. Now this
is where our children get their calm and assurance. Right? This will allay all the fears
of our children. If they can be assured of the
fact that we love them, then they never need worry nor fear
ever being cast out or forsaken or rejected or not being provided
for. Why? Perfect love casts out fear. Now, not talking about our love.
Our love is so imperfect and so small, but His love is perfect. Charity never fails. Love never fails. He is faithful
in his love. He said, I have loved thee with
an, what kind of love? I love you today, but I will
not send you to hell tomorrow. Is that faithful in love? Could
you depend on love like that? He said, I have loved thee with
an everlasting love. It never stops. Saving love,
too. Saving love. Effectual love. He said, therefore, with loving
kindness I've drawn them down. I've drawn them down. Chords
of love. Chords of a man. God is faithful. Here's another
thing I thought of in faithfulness. When you think of somebody that's
faithful, you think of someone that's dependable. You can depend
on them. Secondly, someone who is honest
and trustworthy. A faithful person is someone
who is honest and trustworthy. God is true to his word. He is true to his word. You can rest, you can rely on
his word. Peter said in 2 Peter 3, verse
9, he said, God is not slack concerning his promise, as some
men count slackness. Now, I may tell you I'm going
to do something tomorrow. I may tell you I'm going to return
your tool tomorrow. Now you cannot depend on that. I may really mean and be sincere
in it, but I don't always have the power to do so. Circumstances
will determine my trustworthiness, right? Well, God is not, his
faithfulness is not determined by anything but his own self,
his word. We're not dependent on anything
but his own word. Whatever he says, he'll do it.
He said, I've spoken it, I'll bring it to pass. I've purposed
it, I'll do it. Whatever he says, he will do.
God is true. Alright, listen to this faithful
saying. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. Now that's a faithful saying.
That's worth accepting. It's a faithful saying. It's true. You can trust him. He's true to his word. He said,
He that cometh to me. He's honest. He's trustworthy. Worthy to be trusted. Trustworthy.
Worthy to be trusted. He said, Him that cometh to me.
And he doesn't say, If you're a good person and you come to
me and straighten up your As a matter of fact, he says the
opposite. God didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners.
And every sinner that comes to me, he's able to save to the
uttermost them that come unto God by him. So him that cometh
to me, no conditions attached, not if you do this, he'll receive
you. No. Him that cometh to me, I
will no wise, under no circumstances, for no reason ever, at any time,
cast out. He's trustworthy. He's trustworthy. I will in no wise cast out. He's
faithful to his word. Here's another thing I thought
of. I might get to this fellowship Another thing, when somebody
is faithful, somebody dependable, somebody that's honest and trustworthy,
somebody that's diligent in doing a job, especially if they're
doing something for you. They're doing something for you.
If they're a faithful person, they'll do what they said, and
they won't quit until they finish the job. faithful in their work. Philippians
1.6 says this, being confident of this very thing, this thing,
that what God hath begun, he'll perform it, he'll finish it until
the day of Christ. God doesn't do anything halfway.
God doesn't start anything and not finish it, does he? If you give a diligent man or
woman a job, And if they're diligent, if they're faithful, you can
rest assured that the job will get done. Well, God, whatever
he starts, he finishes. And I believe he hath begun a
good work in me. And sometimes I despair of myself. Well, I always despair of myself,
that I make no progress. No, I don't make any progress.
But God does. His work will progress. Mine
won't. That old saying, you know, only
one life shall soon be passed. Only what's done for Jesus will
last. No, it won't either. Not one
work done for Him will last. Only what's done by Him will
last. Everything done by Him will last. And He will finish
the job. He will finish the job. God always
finishes what he starts. And for that reason, he never
does all he can and then leaves the rest up to you. Like preachers
say, God's done all he can do, now it's up to you. Well, if
that's so, it wouldn't ever get finished, would it? I'll give
you an illustration. A preacher talked about, well, these silly Armenian preachers
talk about This thing like football, Christ
running with a ball for 99 yards and then giving it to you to
go on in the end zone. You know what had happened? It was a game one time where
a fellow caught an interception. I remember
they caught an interception and ran a long ways and got turned
around somehow. They were diving and trying to
tackle him. He got turned around and he turned around and went
the other way. And we're in the end zone. And he was celebrating
like, I did it. What did you do? You blew it. You didn't do anything. You were
making some progress, but you went backwards. Right? You didn't get there at all.
You're further than you were to begin with. Well, Christ carries
us all the way. We're carried, that's what it
says in Isaiah. He says he'll carry us all the
way from the cradle to the grave. God never starts a job and then
leaves it for us to do. If you want something done right,
you've got to do it yourself anyway. God is faithful, and
he had by himself purged our sin, and he will by himself get
us to glory. If someone is faithful, it's
someone that's there. You think of someone faithful. And I wrote this down at first. I wrote it down that somebody's
faithful is someone who's there when you need them. Well, that's
true, but I scribbled that out and put someone that's always
there. God's always there whether we
think we need Him or not. Right? We don't always need Him. I mean, we do, but we don't know
it. We don't think it. We carry on like God is not even
there at all, but he's there upholding us by his faithfulness
lest we fall. We're driving down the road,
there are times, hours, maybe even days, God forbid, but days
we go by without giving God much of a thought. And he has, by
his faithfulness, kept us every hour of every day, every moment
of every hour, every second of every minute. He's kept us from
harm's way and provided and given and given and given and kept
and led and guided, whether we acknowledge him or not. He's
there whether we know we need him or not. He's always there. He's faithful. All right, let's
look at the second thing. God is faithful. And I didn't
come anywhere near to doing that justice, but God is faithful. By whom, in our text, God is
faithful by whom you were called. unto the fellowship of his Son,
Jesus Christ our Lord, by whom you were called." Now, eternity
will be spent realizing just how faithful our God was and
is. Eternity will be spent realizing
and experiencing the blessedness of this call into the fellowship
of Christ. Now listen to that. Eternity
will be spent realizing just how faithful our God was and
is to us. Come on. Eternity will be spent
realizing just how faithful our God was and is to us, and it
will be spent in experiencing the blessedness of this, being
called into this fellowship. Well, look at me. Here I am.
Here I am. Well, there's Noah, there's Abraham,
there's Moses, there's Paul, Peter, and here I am. But you know, they're saying
the same thing. Peter's saying, well, there's Moses, and there's
Abraham, and here I am. And Moses is saying the same
thing. Well, there's David, and here I am. Why? How did I get here? I was
called into this fellowship. I was put of God. Are you in
Christ? Who is made unto us? this call into the fellowship
of Christ. I'm going to try to illustrate
that with an illustration. That's something that happened
to me years ago, twenty-one years ago, when I was a twenty-year-old
boy, or young man, if some of you feel the doubt. Twenty-one
years ago, I was called by someone, I received a call, to be a crew
member. of a sailing vessel. It was a six to eight man sailing
vessel. All the way to Hilton Head, South
Carolina. eight hundred and fifty miles
by sea, all expenses paid, plus the thrill of being on board
this sailing vessel. I was called. I was chosen. A friend of mine chose me out
of all others. I was the only real greenhorn,
landlubber they call them, of the bunch. And it was a real
honor. and a real thrill to be a member
of that crew. Well, God hath conferred a high
honor on some people, not all, but some people, in calling them
by his gospel and putting them in Christ. Now, I like this word
fellowship, and my illustration's a good one, because this is exactly
what we've been called into, to be fellows. in this ship,
but to be found in the ark. Wasn't Noah called into the fellowship
of the ark? Wasn't Noah's wife, weren't Noah's
sons and daughters-in-law called to be fellows in this ship, this
ark of safety? It was a high honor, wasn't it,
conferred on them? Not everybody was. God called
Noah, didn't God called, that's what it says there in Genesis
7, and God called Noah, Noah, come thou and all thy family
into the ark, come. Noah wouldn't have come if God
hadn't called. And God called Noah. And did
Noah come? Oh yes, this is God's will, that
of all which he hath given me, they'll come. They'll lose nothing. They'll come into this ark. They'll
come into Christ by faith. They'll be members of his body.
They'll be fellows in the ship. The ark of Christ. All expenses
paid. All expenses paid. Noah didn't
have to provide anything, did he? I didn't have to provide
anything. When that fellow called me, he
didn't say, bring plenty of money and bring plenty of food. No.
It was all provided. It was all provided. All expenses paid, plus the glory
and the honor. of being on that ship. And someday
we're going to realize, like I said, eternity is going to
be spent experiencing the blessedness of being on that ship. Noah spent
forty days realizing, boy, I'm an object of grace. Forty days
and forty nights Noah spent considering, oh, I'm an object of mercy. Here
I am. Why me? Why me? Why Noah? Can you answer that question?
Noah found grace. God was faithful to Noah, wasn't
he? And the blessings. God had conferred
a high honor on some and calling them by his gospel and putting
them in Christ. And there are blessings in being
in Christ. Blessings of being on board this
ship. There was aâ€”on that ship that
we sailed on. There was a captain, and he was a good one, because
we made it. How do you know he was a good one? Because we made
it. I'll tell you what, we didn't
make it because of me. We did not make it because of
me. We made it because of that captain.
There were times when we were 150 miles out to sea. no land
in sight, and pitch black at nighttime. And all because of
the skill of that captain. We didn't run aground or we didn't
get lost at sea. We found, we made it because
of that captain. But there was also a cook on
board. While on board that ship, there was a cook, a hired cook,
and he was a good one. I'm glad he was a good one, because
for ten days Ten days we had to eat what he fixed. We couldn't
fish, moving too fast. No time for fishing. And we didn't
bring any food. We had to eat what was already
prepared. That fellow had prepared ten
days' food for seven men well ahead of time, prior to this
journey. And you know what? We never went
hungry. And that was the best food I've
ever put in my mouth, I guess. He went out and dug clams right
out of the bay and had clam chowder. Anybody like clam chowder? I
mean, this was right out of the bay. Oysters, you name it, we
had it every day. I didn't pay a cent and I didn't
cook a morsel. It was already prepared for me.
And all we had to do was eat and ride. We had a little work
involved. Little work. But do you see the
picture there? And the sight, not only the food,
but the sights and experiences of being out to sea, I'll never
forget it. We saw whales. Dolphins followed us. They just
followed us everywhere. Plane alongside us. Those huge
manta rays, you name it, we saw it. I was overwhelmed by it all. I was overwhelmed. It was glorious. I'd never done anything like
that. Well, I hadn't seen it. Now,
this is a foretaste of glory divine. There have been times
when I've experienced the food that is the gospel of Christ,
and I've thought, I just miss it. Nothing tastes better than
this. And we didn't prepare it. It was all prepared before. He
hath prepared us a table in the presence of our enemy. He hath. He hath done all this. Pre-prepared all this for us.
Fat things. Wine on the leaves. There's times
when I've sat at this gospel table and I've thought, Solomon
never ate like this. And the sights and the experiences
of being in this fellowship of the gospel have overwhelmed me
at times. I've just been absolutely overwhelmed
by it all. Speechless. I've been left speechless
at times. You probably don't think so,
but I have. I've been left speechless and
just absolutely overwhelmed by the glory of it all. Well, the
scripture says, I have seen. and ear hadn't heard, neither
have entered into the heart the things that God had prepared
for them." You think this is good now? You enjoying this,
Nancy? Well, it had not yet. You haven't. The best is yet to come. We've
said this before. Nancy and I have said this between
us. It doesn't get any better than that. Well, yes it does. It gets a whole lot better than
that. A whole lot better. And when we hear Christ preach
some day, we're going to say, the half was just told. And better
than that, the whole story. I've heard the whole story. And
that's the reason there's not going to be any tears. There's
not going to be any sadness. That's the reason there's going
to be silence in heaven for the space of thirty minutes. We're
all going to be speechless. I know it's hard to believe that
some of these ladies are going to be speechless, but they are
going to be speechless for the sights and the sounds that we're
going to experience. Food, sight, glory. You know what else on that ship?
When we were on that ship, we did have some jobs to do. There
was some service to be performed, mainly swabbing the deck. That's what sailors do, Stan.
I've heard that. They call them swabbies. But
that's what they do. They have to. And we were called
on to do that. Captain ordered us to do that.
But we didn't mind. I didn't mind a bit. Matter of
fact, I thought that's the least I could do for being called to
be a fellow on this ship. And it's a beautiful ship. Beautiful
teak wood deck, you know, and it was just a privilege to scrub
that deck. And I got down on my hands and
knees, and I scrubbed her neck. No problem. It wasn't anything,
no big deal. It was a privilege. And God calls
on us to do some things, a service that would present our bodies
living sacrifices. Why? Why should we? Well, it's
the least we could do, because of the mercies of God, for being
called to be members of this glorious ship called Christ. But Paul talks about the fellowship
of his sufferings, doesn't he? Over in Philippians 3.10, we've
been called into the fellowship of his sufferings. A couple of
times we went through some inclement weather, Stan, and that's when
the landlubbers are readily known. The ones that are hugging the
rail, you know. or the commode wand. I didn't write that down, but
that's off the top of my head. But it's so, if you've ever been
seasick, oh my, there's no sickness like that. Well, there's some
suffering involved. We went through some rough seas.
We sailed through some rough seas together. I remember when
we started out on that voyage, I wasn't so thrilled when we
started. When we started out, we motored out of the harbor,
you know, it was kind of choppy in there, and it was okay, you
know. But I looked out, and the skies
were pitch black. I mean, ahead of us, the skies
were pitch black. And I thought, is he going to
turn around? Isn't he going to turn around? We're not going
to go out on that, are we?" And he, no, he just went right on.
We were straight before those black skies. And when he turned
the motor off and put that main sail up, that boat keeled over
like this, and I thought, I'm a goner. I'm a goner. I mean,
the boat was at a 45 degree angle. And that's the way we stayed
for about 24 hours. I thought, why have I done this?
But then the sun came out. But anyway, the point is, we
went through some inclement weather, but we went through it. It passed,
and the sun shone, and all those things, and the glorious sights
and all that. And believers go through some trials, they go
through some rough seas, and they go through them together.
No believer is exempt from sailing through rough seas. and uncharted
waters. I didn't know what was out there.
Roberta, I didn't have any idea. There's a couple of times I remember
saying, are you sure we're on the right course? Are we going
to make it, Captain? Are we going to make it? He said,
go back and sit down and do whatever you're doing. I'm at the wheel. I know exactly what I'm doing.
And there have been times when I've doubted and feared and wondered,
you know, am I going to make it or not? Well, if you've got
a good captain, you will. The captain of our salvation
has never lost one passenger on his ship. Not one has fallen
overboard. Not one. Oh, they've fallen,
but he's reached down like Peter and pulled him up. Pulled him
up. And lastly, that was my last
point. You know, I'm here, aren't I? Did I make it? When I took that
voyage, Margaret, did I make it? Here I am, aren't I? We made it. We made it. We pulled into that port down
in Hilton Head, and you'd have thought that we had just won
the Round the World Sailing Championship. According to me. Boy, I was happy. That's another time when you'll
know a landlubber. He'll get out and he'll be like the Pope,
he'll kiss the ground. Glad, I'm so glad I made it. And, oh my, upon reaching our
final destination, and when we pulled into Hilton Head there,
there were all kind of boats and people lining the harbor
and all that, and they watched us come in, and I don't know
if it's a sailor thing or not, but they just welcomed us, welcomed
us there. You know, it's like, here they
are, they made it. Another ship made it, safe flight.
And the angels and the saints that have already made it are
going to bid us welcome. But the Father, Christ, that
song says, He waits for me over that shore. He's going to bid
us welcome. That's strange, isn't it? But
it's true. He went with us all the way, but yet he's going to
be the first to welcome us. That sounds like the time when
Christ went before them, walked on the sea, but they found him
on the other side waiting. He went first. He went first. Well, God is faithful. Are we going to make it? Yeah. God's faithful. by whom you were
called into this blessed fellowship. Now, it hasn't yet entered into
our heart just how blessed it is, but someday it will. I hope
we've got a little inkling tonight. The blessed fellowship of his
Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. All right, let's stand. Our Heavenly Father, we thank
you for your faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness, O
God our Father. There is no shadow of turning
with thee. Oh, your mercies, your compassions, they fail not. As you have been, you forever
will be, because thou art God, and beside thee there is none
else. Is this the way of man? No, it is not. But this is the
way of our great God. On him we can depend, trustworthy. In God we trust. None of them that trust in him
shall ever be desolate. O Lord, thank you for your faithfulness
to us. We will ever live to praise and
sing your great faithfulness. And thank you, O Lord, for calling
us by your mercy and grace into this blessed fellowship of Christ
Jesus our Lord. Lord, don't ever let us take it for
granted. Let us do what we can, what you've called on us to do.
It's our reasonable service. And let us ever be thankful for
this high and heavenly calling to be a member of the body of
Christ. Thank you, Lord. The time has
been glorious, and we look forward to even more glorious days until
that day that we are finally glorified to be with him. In
Christ's name we have met together and pray these things. Amen.

Yhe Faithfulness Of God And Fellowship Of His Son

What does the Bible say about God's faithfulness?

How do we know that salvation is by grace?

Why is fellowship with Christ important for Christians?

How does God's sovereignty relate to salvation?

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Yhe Faithfulness Of God And Fellowship Of His Son

What does the Bible say about God's faithfulness?

How do we know that salvation is by grace?

Why is fellowship with Christ important for Christians?

How does God's sovereignty relate to salvation?

Sermon Transcript

About Paul Mahan

Comments

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