Philippians chapter 1, beginning
there in verse 1, it says, Paul and Timotheus, or Timothy, 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 and 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, even as it is meet for me to thank this of
you all because I have you in my heart inasmuch as both in
my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, ye
are all partakers of my grace. For God is my record, how greatly
I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. In this I pray
that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and
in all judgment, that ye may approve things that are excellent,
that ye may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ,
being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by
Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God." Now, there is
quite a mouthful in all that Paul has said here, but I wanted
to center our thoughts there in verse 5. for your fellowship in the gospel
from the first day until now. Paul is speaking here to the
Philippians concerning the fact that he prayed for them. And the reason that Paul prayed
for them was because he had fellowship with them. Now, the word fellowship
is one that is used in many different contexts, but it is one which
essentially means that men are united together in a cause. That is essentially what fellowship
is, that we come together for a cause. It is fellows or people
who come together. And so it is that fellowship
implies that there are things that are in common. You can't
have fellowship with people that you don't like. You can't have
fellowship with people that you have no common interest with.
It's just you don't have it. That's why Paul said, that it
is impossible for light and darkness to have fellowship. Why is that? Because they don't have anything
in common. They are completely opposites
of one another. So there can't be any mixture
of light and darkness. You either have the light or
you have darkness. You can't have a little bit of
light and a little bit of darkness. So it is that he says here that
he is thankful to the Lord and he prays for them and he is glad
when he thinks about their fellowship in the gospel from the first
day until now. The very first work of God in
the soul of a man unites that man to those who share that like
experience. That's why it is that the brethren
share a common bond that is not easily destroyed. Paul, when he was on the Damascus
Road, had an experience that was totally
different from any of the other apostles. The other apostles
had all been called out by the Lord directly in the normal course
of life. They were mending their nets
or sitting at their tax tables or doing whatever they were doing,
and the Lord came along and He said, ìCome and follow Me.î And
they were with Him during His ministry. When Paul came along,
he said, ìI was one born out of due time.î In other words,
I was not in the mix from the beginning
because he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He was not involved with the gospel. He was breathing out threatenings
and slaughterings against the church. He didn't have any fellowship
with the church at all, did he? And yet he was one of the anointed
men of God. called to be an apostle by his
own admission. And yet he had no fellowship
with the other apostles. He had no concern or desire to
walk in the gospel. But he had something that happened
to him that changed all of that immediately. All of a sudden,
that which he despised, he embraced. that which he had no knowledge
of, suddenly he had some understanding. And so it was that whenever he
came among the early, among the other apostles, they brought
him in there, among the believers, many of them said, wait a minute,
this guy, we don't have anything. They said, we don't have any
fellowship with him. And yet, by the grace of God,
the Lord gave some the understanding that something had occurred with
him. And so they became his spokesmen. And so then when they understood
that what he was about was the same thing they were about, what
did they have? They had fellowship. Now until
such time as that, they couldn't have fellowship. And so it is
that We can't have fellowship with somebody simply because
they say, I am a Christian. Paul said, I'm a Christian. They say, well, I don't know
about that. But you see, God is able to take those things
if they are real. Now there are many who claim
to be Christians who by their testimony and according to the
teaching that they embrace, we cannot have fellowship with them.
Because why? There is nothing of a common
cause that we share. But simply because we don't necessarily
know if we can have fellowship with them doesn't
mean that we can't. Because the Lord is able to take
our understandings and show us that indeed there are those who
love the gospel of Jesus Christ. So we don't just openly fellowship
with everybody, but we do have fellowship with those who with
like mind in the knowledge of Jesus Christ confess that Jesus
Christ is the Lord of glory. And we do have fellowship in
that manner with them. Now Paul is speaking of something
that is not just a flip-up type of fellowship. Now there is a
measure in which we have fellowship of a sort with all those who
confess that they are the followers of Christ and give evidence of
trusting in Christ alone. There is a measure of fellowship
that we have with them. But the fellowship that he is
talking about here is a fellowship that only arises as brethren
are put together in some measure and fashion when they come together
and they share with one another those things that they believe
and hold to. Now that is what the church is. This word fellowship is a word
koinonia, which that is the Greek word koinonia, and that is the
word that is used consistently sixteen times in the scripture
in the New Testament for the term fellowship. And that just
literally means coming together in a cause. But it is that word
which is most clearly associated with the coming together of the
local assembly. And that's the place where we
really have what Paul is speaking about here is not just a type
of fellowship, but a real fellowship because we come together as brethren
who share a common desire, brethren who share a common goal, brethren
who share things in common. That is what Paul said. He said,
Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.
If one member suffers, All the members suffer. See, that's what
fellowship is. Fellowship is not just belonging
to something and having no concern for those who belong to the same
thing. I mean, you can join the Elks
Club and have a form of fellowship with your fellow Elks, but that's
not the fellowship he's talking about here. Because the fellowship
that he is talking about here is the fellowship, what did he
say, of the gospel. And the fellowship of the gospel
is something that is far more in depth than joining the Elks
Club. And you see somebody walking
down the street and you say, oh, well, he is a member of the
same club I am. Now the sad thing is that in
today's society and in the religious world, There is very little emphasis
placed on the fellowship that Paul is speaking about here.
And the mindset of the average person who attends a church is
they could be attending the Elks Lodge in about the same fashion
because that's how they look at it. Well, we're going to church.
We're going to the meeting. We're going to the Elks meeting.
We're going to the church meeting. But you see, the fellowship that
Paul is speaking about here is something totally different than
just going to a meeting. We don't just meet together because
we want to meet. I mean, you can meet with anybody
about anything. But you see, the fellowship of
the saints is a coming together of heart and mind. It is that
which only the Lord can bring to pass. I mean, it's impossible for men
to decide, well, I'm going to love my brother as myself. I'm
going to esteem the brethren more highly than myself. You
can't just decide to do that. Oh, you can decide to do it all
day long, but will it come to pass? But you see, if God is
pleased to cause fellowship to exist among the saints, that's
what you'll have. And it is only in that fellowship
in the gospel, which he is describing here, that there is a bond one
to the other. Because it is a bond that goes
beyond merely what we think. I had some discussions with a
fellow here recently, and he made the statement that the only
thing that will keep a church together is sound Bible preaching. And I did not disagree that that
is a very important part of what keeps a church together, but
I believe this is the truth of the matter. The only thing that
will keep a church together in the scriptural sense is the fellowship
of the saints which is brought on by the love of the brethren
one for the other. Because you might not like something
that I do or say or think or whatever, and you might fall
out with me. And if the only thing that you
have in common with me is what I preach, then we won't have
any fellowship anymore, will we? It happens all the time. But you see, if men love one
another in Christ, as Paul is speaking about here, it does
not rule out sound doctrine. We are not in any way saying,
well, just anything goes or whatever you want to preach, because it
is sound doctrine that gives us a place that brings our mind
and heart to focus on Jesus Christ. Now any doctrine that anybody
preaches, that does not cause the hearers to focus on Christ
and Christ alone is not something that those who believe that can
have fellowship with, is it? I mean, can you have fellowship
with somebody who believes that Christ partially saved His people,
or He might save His people, or He hoped to save His people? Can you have fellowship with
that? I have to confess to you, I certainly cannot, because to
me that is the destruction of the gospel. It is not the proclamation
of the gospel. It is robbing God of glory. It
is not giving Him the glory. See, at the end of the day, the
preaching of the gospel and that gospel, preached gospel in which
we have fellowship, is that which leaves us designed to exalt Christ
and just forgets all about us. For it's all about what we could
bring to the table, what you should have done or what you
shouldn't have done or this, that or the other. Now, all of
that has a place where we need to consider it. But you see,
the fellowship of the gospel in the preaching of the gospel
is that we fellowship in the finished, complete work of Jesus
Christ with nothing added to it. Zero. You can't add to it. You can't enhance it. You can't
cause it to be better in any fashion. What Christ did is the
sum and substance of all that we rest upon. And we don't desire
to see anybody else exalted. Now there's a lot of talented
people in the world, is there not? And there's a lot of talented
people among God's people. But we don't desire to see those
talents exalted. I think it's a glorious thing
when a man uses the talents that he has for the glory of God.
What a glorious thing. But the focus is not on the talents.
See, our fellowship is not, oh, what a great preacher he is.
Now, there's plenty of churches that their fellowship is that.
Oh, you need to come here, old brother so-and-so. He's just
the greatest preacher that's ever been. And oh, he goes like
a house of fire, and everybody loves preacher so-and-so. Well,
then preacher so-and-so leaves town, and guess what? They don't have any fellowship
anymore. Well, that's a fellowship in the wrong thing, is it not?
And so our fellowship is in the gospel. It's not in the preacher. It's not in any individual. It's
not in any individual's talents or abilities. Oh, you need to
come to our churches. We have the greatest music program
you'd ever want to listen to. Fantastic. Come and you can just
sit back and just be swept away. Is that the place where God's
people can have fellowship? What happens if the sound system
goes down one Sunday? It doesn't sound so good, and
nobody is swept away. No, it's not in all of that stuff.
You see, our fellowship is in the Gospel. Our fellowship is
in Christ. And that's what Paul said from
the very beginning, always in every prayer of mine for you
all, making requests with joy. Because you see, our fellowship,
one with the other, is that which brings joy. to our heart, is
it not? I mean, if you don't have joy
in the coming together with God's people to magnify the name of
Christ, if that doesn't cause you joy, then you can't have
fellowship with those in whom it does, can you? I would say
it would be impossible. Because you see, that is the
work of the Spirit of God, to give God's people joy in the
Holy Ghost. Is it not? Now, some people think
that joy in the Holy Ghost is something that is always external. But joy in the Holy Ghost is
a work that is done in the heart. Now, it may have an external
manifestation, and there is certainly nothing wrong with that. But
we are not looking for the external manifestation of that, because
that is not where our fellowship is. Now, that is where the fellowship
of some folks is. They want to get together and
say, who can just be the most out of control? I have been in
some places like that. And I mean, the more out of control
they got, the more out of control they got. And everybody was saying,
man, this is great. And I am sitting there, what
in the world is going on? Because that's not the place
where those who are seeking to exalt Christ and Christ alone
can have what? Fellowship. Because you see,
it is in Christ. Our fellowship, that's what Paul
is saying here, our fellowship in the gospel from the first
day unto now, it doesn't change. No, we're not into this this
week. Oh, come, we're having a series
on Bible prophecy. Come and we'll have great fellowship
as we count the hairs on the horse's tail and see the beasts
rising out of the ocean and who they are and what they're going
to do and all that. Just come and you'll be carried away. It's not about all those kinds
of things, but it's about Christ. You can go through the book of
Revelation and you can see some wondrous things, but I'm going
to tell you this, if you go through the book of Revelation and you
don't see Christ, you've missed it. Because the book is the revelation
of Jesus Christ. And He's the one in whom we have
fellowship. Not in how well a fellow might
predict the future, or be able to tell you what army is going
to destroy which one when or whatever, our fellowship is in
Christ. That is why Paul said, I determined
to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Why? Because he knew that that
was the place where true fellowship, true lasting fellowship is going
to be found. And that is what he is talking
about here. to these Philippians, for your fellowship in the gospel
from the first day unto now, being confident of this very
thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform
it till the day of Jesus Christ." Oh, we've got to have a committee
that figures out ways to promote fellowship among the children
of God. In the church, we need to have
a committee that says, well, we're going to go to this restaurant
this week, and everybody's going to get together and go bowling,
and we're going to do all these things, and that will help us
to have fellowship. Now, I'm not saying there's anything
in the world wrong with God's people having friendships and
fellowships with one another, but that's not the fellowship
he's talking about here. Because you see, all of those
kinds of things can wax and wane. You might like a certain kind
of activity. You might like bowling for a
while, but you might get tired of it after a while and not want
to do it anymore. But you see, this is what he
says here, 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. See, there's the place where
we have fellowship. It's in the knowledge that if
God, who is rich in mercy with the great love wherewith He loved
us, if He has called God's people out of the darkness and into
the light, He will continue to work in them until the day of
Jesus Christ. It's not a feigned thing. It's
not something that we've got to keep going. We don't have
to keep fanning the flame. Now, the preaching of the gospel
is a fanning of the flame, but it's a fanning of the flames
of the fellowship of the gospel, of the knowledge of what Christ
has done, and not a fanning of fleshly flames trying to keep
everybody on the same track. There's no way that the children
of God can have fellowship one with the other if that fellowship
is not centered in the person of Jesus Christ and their desire
to see Christ magnified in one another. Say, I want to see you
built up in the most holy faith. I'm not satisfied if I see you
going astray. Ye which are spiritual, if a
brother be overtaken in a thought, he said, ye which are spiritual,
do what? Restore such a one in the spirit
of meekness, considering yourselves, lest ye also be tempted. We are
our brother's keeper. Now that doesn't mean that we
constantly go about trying to get one another to do exactly
what we think. But when we see somebody straying
away, from that which they at one time were strong in, then
we have a necessity to pray for them first, to desire their fellowship,
to seek that that fellowship be restored insofar as we are
able. But the fellowship has to be
Christ. See, it is not about Compromise? Well, we're going to compromise.
No, there's no compromise in fellowship. You don't compromise
when you fellowship. Fellowship is coming together.
Politics is compromise. That's the art of compromise.
We're not interested in politics. As far as what we're talking
about here, we're not concerned about trying to get this one
happy and that one happy and all that kind of stuff. Well,
my feelings got hurt. Well, I'm sorry if your feelings
ever get hurt. But our purpose is not one another's feelings. It's
the truth of God in Christ Jesus. Now, having said that, we are
concerned with one another's feelings. And that's exactly
what he says here. But we know that if Christ is
in you, that we know that if God has
begun a good work in you, He will perform it. And the best
way for God's people to be recovered from error is what? Exactly. It's the preaching of the truth.
You see, the preaching of the gospel, the exaltation of Christ,
that solves all the ills of God's people. Now, when they're not attentive
to this, they can't be built up in the most holy faith, can
they, if they don't show up? How can you have fellowship with
somebody you never see? It's impossible. Can you do it? How can you have fellowship with
somebody that you think of in an offhanded way? I mean, when
Paul thought about the Philippians, he thought about the bond that
he had. He didn't just think about them when he showed up
on whatever day they met or whenever he actually physically saw them.
They were on his heart. They were part of him, he said.
I have fellowship with you. Because see, he wasn't even with
them, but he said, I'm having fellowship with you. How's that?
Because you're on my mind. You're on my heart. I'm bearing
your burdens. I'm praying for you. I'm concerned
about you. If you have a need, I'm concerned
about that. Bear one another's burdens. Always in every prayer of mine
for your making requests with joy. This is not a duty. Oh no, now we've got to go and
Spend some time praying. We could be watching TV, but
we need to pray for the brethren, so I guess we'll go do it. That's
not fellowship. No, fellowship is in the Gospel. It is a love that we have for
one another which is brought about by the love that we have
for the Savior. And the Spirit of God is that
one that does the work. cause you to love Me. I can't
cause you to love the brethren. I can't cause you to have fellowship
with the brethren. Only the Spirit of God can. But
Paul said, I'm confident of this, that the reason that we have
fellowship is that God has begun a work in you. And He having
begun a work in you, He'll perform it. Because he knew this, if
he didn't perform it, it wasn't going to happen. Is that correct?
I mean, if the Lord doesn't cause us to have fellowship, we're
not going to do it. Now, fellowship is a thing that cannot be abused in
its pure form. In the flesh, men will seek to
take advantage of the ostensible fellowship that they have with
someone. And they'll say, oh, well, you know, old brother so-and-so,
I'm going to see if I can't get him to help me because we have
fellowship with one another. It often happens that a man considers
that the fellowship that he has obligates somebody. Now, one of the greatest problems,
I think, that happens among God's people is that they look one-sided
at things, and this is because of the flesh. the natural man,
because we're dealing with him every day. And we often look
one-sided at things. And we look at when Paul said,
"...bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ."
If we have a burden, we get to thinking, well, you know, if
they really loved me, they'd help me with this burden. Well, that might be true. But see, that's not for you to
think, is it? Because our fellowship is in Christ. And whether they
help me or whether they don't, it doesn't make any difference.
That doesn't affect our fellowship if our fellowship is in Christ. Because the same Paul that said,
bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ
also said, each man bear his own burden. See, every one of
us is to bear our own burden, and the thought of that is that
as we consider our problems, they are our problems. They are
not anybody else's problems. It is not up to you to solve
my problems. My problems are my problems.
I caused ninety-nine percent of every problem I have ever
had. My fault. Totally. It's not a little bit my fault. It is my fault. It's my problem.
Now, on the other hand, fellowship causes brethren to say, He's
got a problem. I wonder if I could help him.
Now, the flesh says, Well, he's got a problem, but he caused
it himself. If he'd have done dozens, he wouldn't have ever
had that problem. I ain't doing anything. See,
that's the flesh. That's not the fellowship of
Christ, is it? I mean, what if Christ had treated
His disciples like that? Man, I mean, there wouldn't have
been anything we've got here, would it? He'd have cast them
all off to start with. I mean, when He went to pray
and He came back and they were asleep, He woke them up and then
He went back, And he came back again and they were asleep again.
See, fellowship in Christ causes us
to recognize the weaknesses of one another and the weaknesses
of ourselves. And if you can ever get a handle
on that, that you are a weak and beggarly creature who deserves
nothing, And your brethren are weak and
beggarly creatures who deserve nothing. But yet, because of
the love which is given to me in Christ, for Christ, He said,
Love your neighbor as yourself. And so when we have a problem,
we desire to be helped with that problem, don't we? And so if
we see a brother with a problem, then if we love him as we do
ourselves, what would we do? Seek to help him. I mean, that's
just the way it is. And we don't look at other brethren
as we look at ourselves from the standpoint of the accused. Now, you can accuse yourself
all day long. You've got free reign to do it
because you need to accuse yourself quite often and recognize that
it's your fault. But that's not how you look at
it. See, what was the problem with the miserable comforters
of Job, the physicians of no value? It wasn't that they weren't
right some of the time in their assessment of things, but the
problem was they didn't really offer help to Job. They tried
to straighten him out, didn't they? They didn't come and just
try to help him. They said, well, now, Job, if
you would do this, this would be the thing that would happen.
Now, I'm not saying there's not sometimes when that needs, obviously,
the Scripture points out the fact that if a brother be overtaken
in a fault, ye with your spirit shall restore such in one. But
I'm talking about in the fact of when a person is in a place
of need. And so it is. falls into. And, you know, our needs run
the gamut of all sorts of things. But the greatest place that you
can meet the needs of God's people is in the place of prayer. And
that's where Paul said he was, and that was the reason why he
said, that I remember your fellowship in the Gospel from the first
day until now. And it's precious to me. He said,
I'm bound to you. See, when the Lord gives you
fellowship with somebody, you can't escape it. You can run,
but you can't hide. You know, you can decide to do
this, and you can decide to do that, but when God gives you
fellowship one with the other, that's a work that He performs,
and He'll perform it until the end. And so whenever brethren
fall out with one another over the stupidest stuff that they
do, it's because they don't have fellowship one with the other
in Christ. Because it doesn't make any difference
where you go or what you do or whatever if Christ has begun
a good work in you. And He has begun a good work
in me. And we are brethren together in Christ, fellowship with Christ
in the Gospel, then we are bound together with ties that cannot
be broken. And if those ties can be broken,
then it is something other than fellowship. Oh, what a sweet
thing. What a blessed thing to be brought
into that place that Paul is speaking about here. for your
fellowship in the gospel until now. It's more than just what
we preach, although that is vitally important. You can't have fellowship
in the gospel if you don't preach the gospel. You can have fellowship
in a lot of stuff surrounding the gospel, but you can't have
fellowship in the gospel if you're not preaching the gospel. If we have fellowship in the
gospel, it's a sweet thing. And it's that which has ramifications
beyond just meeting together and hearing somebody preach.
I mean, if that's all we're doing, just meeting together to hear
somebody preach, I mean, you can turn the radio on and hear
somebody preach. Most of it ain't worth listening
to, but you can every now and then find something that's worth
hearing. So if that's what our fellowship
is about, then it's of no good. But you see, the fellowship in
the gospel is greater than that. It's more intense than that.
It's more aggravating than that. Because you see, there's no excuses. Paul said, My little children love one another. Why do you say that? Because
we've got fellowship in Christ. What else are we going to do
other than love one another? If we have fellowship in the
gospel, as Paul speaks about there in Philippians,