Galatians 6, as I said to you
all last week, it is a concern when we are out of a specific
text and we are looking at some things topically. It's a concern
for me as a teacher because it's very easy to get caught in doing
things my way rather than the Lord's way. but also essentially
we trust in the Lord's word and that his word does that which
it is intended to do. And if we are faithful to teach
the scriptures as they are given, even though we may not teach
the full letter to the Galatians in this small section here, it
will be a benefit for us as the church. I also want you to understand
my heart in teaching. My heart in going through these
next few weeks as we prepare for Thessalonians is that we
might be reminded of certain things that oftentimes we forget. Also the fact that our fellowship
is forever growing and expanding. Some of us have been out in due
seasons, but also some of us are just new to the fellowship.
And I feel like that oftentimes I forget that not everyone was
with us four years ago when we began. Not everyone was with
us two years ago when we actually became a fellowship. Not everyone
has been with us even this entire 12 months. So it is good to be
reminded of that which we are, to whom we belong, and to what
purpose we're supposed to exist. And so in the teaching today,
I want you to understand that there's a lot of mistake when
it comes to the word or the phrase or the idea of fellowship. Matter of fact, when we use the
word fellowship in our world today, for most people, it constitutes
just gathering together. And gathering together then would
be that which gives the flesh satisfaction, which is eating.
Nothing wrong with eating. It is a gift of God, which is
having fun. Nothing wrong with that. It is
something that God allows us to do as we enjoy each other. But friends, when we see the
scriptural context of what fellowship in the body is, we have missed
the boat. Not just we as grace truth, but
we as the church as a whole in our culture, in our country,
we have come to a place where we have began to subject our
views of who the church is to culture and history rather than
to the word of God alone. And so in this very. day, I hope
to sit, show us what the Bible teaches about fellowship. Just
as last week we looked and saw the nature of the new Testament
church that just by the word church is it is a mistranslation
or a misrepresentation because of how we've changed the meaning
of that word in our own vernacular in present day. You might say,
well, so we're changing the text. No. We're understanding the text. We're translating the text. We
are expressing that which the scripture taught to its original
audience, which is the same thing that it means for us today. The
Bible was written to those people whom God had ordained to receive
it. and by those whom God spoke through,
the apostles, especially in the New Testament and the prophets
of the old. And in doing so, the meaning that they had in
their writing that moment is the same meaning that carries
with it today. So if we are mistaken, it means
that we've changed, not God, not God's Word. And so when it
comes to fellowship, which most people would say is important
for the church, We, honestly, even if we have a good biblical
understanding that the Bible teaches that it means all things
in common, the word koinonia in the New Testament does translate
that, all things in common, all things together, just as the
word ecclesia actually translates the called gathered. So if we
look at it that way, then we have to ask ourselves, then if
that's what it means, then do the words that we use in our
present lives actually carry that understanding. And I would
suggest, as I remind us, as I did last week, that each one of us
in this room has, in some nature, a misrepresentation of what the
Bible teaches about most of these things, even if it's small. Not
even that it be heretical or apostate, but just wrong or inconsistent
or weak. And so in the teaching of God's
Word, Through example of the New Testament church, we can
see better how to define these things. And God's Word is always
true. I asked Jesse to read out of
Ephesians chapter 6 because in the next three weeks I will be
there. There's many other places I could go. There's many other
places that I could... I mean, did I say Ephesians?
Yeah, you're paying attention, good for you. Galatians, Ephesians
6, we are in a battle. But in Galatians chapter 6, and
thanks for saying that because I'd have said Ephesians the rest
of the Sunday morning. We are, here we are, for the next few
weeks we will be there. Though there are many other places
I could go to show you in context the language of fellowship, the
picture of fellowship, etc., here we see in Galatians chapter
6 Paul very clearly showing what the church should be about in
their lives together with each other. And the reason for the
occasion of Paul's writing to this church in Galatia is that
the Judaizers, those who were part of the Jewish faith, who
had lived their lives in Judaism, who were devout and devoted to
the precepts of Moses and to the law of the Old Testament,
They came to what they would consider faith in Jesus Christ,
and then they began to city by city infiltrate the Greek or
the Gentile Christians so that they might polish them in such
a way that they would be really, really good, devout, and holy
Christians. They brought with them what we
would call legalistic ideals and legalistic theology today.
And by the way, there's another term that we do not know what
it means. but yet we use it. Sometimes we think it's legalistic
for us to be told that we need to be holy. That's not legalistic.
That's gospel. That's truth. We ought to be
pursuing holiness, lest we say, lest we become a liar because
John and his The first epistle says that if we are not pursuing
holiness, we lie and we do not practice the truth. We ought
to understand that even though we are forgiven and justified
by the grace given through Jesus Christ to be received by faith,
that we also are in need of repentance every moment of our lives. That
turning away from sin is not an act that the flesh pursues
because we desire holiness. It's an act that the flesh pursues
because Christ in us has given us a desire for holiness. And
so just like that, the same thing is true for the New Testament
church when it comes to fellowship. Now, when I say these things
today, the main reason that I want you to hear them is because we
exist as a people for God's glory. by the power of His grace. I
use that all the time. That is sort of the quote byline
of our congregation. And if that is true, then what
does it mean? Well, friends, I believe Galatians 6 can show
us what it means. And these Judaizers had come
into this church And these people were devoted to the gospel. They
received the gospel through Paul himself. He preached to them
and God in his mercy and grace saved these people of Galatia
that they might be the righteousness of God. For he bore their sins
on the cross. so that they could be forgiven.
And he became their propitiation so that the justice of God would
be met and satisfied on their flesh. In this, then, they were
established as the body of Christ in Galatia. They were the called
out and gathered ones of this city. And in being those people
who were called by Christ, The Judaizers came in and said, Oh,
there's our fellow Christians. Let us go into this city and
polish them just a tad. And the problem that they brought
with them is that the Judaizers brought with them a precept of
obedience given unto the old Testament Israel of circumcision. Circumcision was an outward sign
of an inward change. an outward sign of a visible
or of a spiritual covenant and an outward sign of a physical
covenant that these people had with God, with Yahweh, with Jehovah,
whatever name you want to use there. And in that, when Christ
came, he is the fulfillment of all these things. And the New
Testament apostles, Paul especially, and we just got through with
a 40 sermon series in Philippians. I didn't realize it had gone
that long, praise God. But 40 weeks, we saw the pedigree
of Paul. We saw that Paul was not just
a Jewish man who enjoyed his Hebraic heritage. He was the
Jew of Jews from the tribe of Benjamin, part of the Sanhedrin.
Paul was one of these men who by his own mouth proclaimed that
if he were to be followed and watched and measured by the law
of God, by the law of Moses, he would be blameless. And he
says that all of that was worth nothing, yet none of that affected
righteousness in his heart or his life, nor did it give any
credence or credit before God as he stood before Him, but that
all that he was and all hope that he had or would ever had
rested in Christ Jesus and His finished work alone. So in that
same way, then the Judaizers wanted to embrace the picture
and the shadow of Christ through the precepts of Judaism and marry
it with the coming of Christ and the fulfillment of Christ.
It'd be very much like some people who are dispensationalists who
believe that the temple will be rebuilt for the purpose of
sacrifices. But if we believe that, and some
of us may, I'm not going to make fun of us, but I just want to
ask this question. Why then does all of the New
Testament teach that Christ IS the final sacrifice, that God
in Himself in Hebrews shows us that He did not desire the blood
of goats and of bulls and of birds? and that they had no effectuality
and righteousness but were a shadow of the one who was to come, who
was the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. Why
then would Christ, as the final sacrifice, who is now and continually
propitiating for us and advocating for us, why then would we institute
something which was fake when the real has come? That is the
same thing that we see the Judaizers doing in Galatia. And Paul argues
and he talks about Christian liberty, he talks about maturity,
but he has some very harsh words to say with these Galatian Christians.
He says to them that they have forgotten or forsaken or abandoned
the gospel that came to them by grace and by the power and
the call of Christ. And by doing so, that he uses
the word anathemas in the Greek, which he uses it in a play on
words because the argument was that they were so just intrigued
by this Judaistic idea of circumcision that they came to the place where
they were actually beginning to practice circumcision. and
thinking themselves right, or let me use this incorrectly,
it's not the right word, but righter with God, they felt themselves
better than the regular Christians of their day because they embraced
not just Christ, but the Judaistic tradition and command of circumcision. So Paul says that this gospel
that has come to them is no gospel. And because of that, that they
would, if they receive it by any nature, even by the flesh
or by the heart or by the mind, that they are going, those who
teach it, would be forever cut off, anathemas, from Christ. He goes on to further say in
chapter 5 and 4, that if anyone decides that they want to embrace
a different gospel, which is no gospel, that they are forever
cut off. And that if they want to practice
circumcision, that they should take it to the next level and
become completely emasculated. Why stop with circumcision? If
you want to ruin your body, you want to ruin your flesh. It's
very much, I think the same people who were coming into the Philippian
area. When he talks about those who
mutilate the flesh, he says that they were mutilators of the flesh
and that they were what? Enemies of the cross of Jesus
Christ. Why? Because they brought a no
gospel. and said it was the gospel of
God. And so as Paul closes this letter. He says, what you ought
to be doing is pursuing holiness, embracing the fullness of the
gospel that came from us, that came from Christ. And if we or
an angel or anyone else comes to you with another gospel, they
are apostate. Do not embrace it. And he says
that the practice of this godly gospel of this Christ filled
power in your lives is this. And he talks about people being
overtaken in sin. He talks about people who are
spiritual dealing with those brothers and sisters who are
also of the faith, who are falling prey to sinful things and not
just, not just circumcision, but other worldly and worldly
wisdoms. In worldly practices, Paul is
saying, listen, this is what the church should be doing. This
is how the church should be living. This is how the church should
be acting. And so when I consider the idea of fellowship, and I
look throughout the whole New Testament, when I see what fellowship
looks like in the book of Acts, which is the best place to go,
and when I see what fellowship looks like in the first church,
I mean, it's easy for us to go through and start to actually
make lists. Oh, we ought to bear each other's burdens. We ought
to pray for one another. We ought to, as people have,
what does Paul say? As people have need, we give
to each other. All of these different, we ought
to be making disciples of one another. We ought to be, as Paul
said to the Ephesians church, growing and learning to do the
what? Work of the ministry that we
might grow to the maturity of Christ and the full stature of
Christ. We need to speak the truth in love, and the list goes
on and on. I'm willing to say that if we
started in the New Testament epistles and wrote down everything
that we see in command by the apostles for the church to be
doing, we'd have a very good volume of things that we ought
to be practicing. In all reality, most of us would
feel very comfortable with that. That's a good plan. Let's do
that. Let's take this year and let's develop a new membership
manual that gives us a list of everything we're supposed to
be doing. But that's really not what the Bible teaches. The Bible
teaches that the context of the scripture is the power of God
and the word of God that comes to the people of God and that
the Spirit of God through His Word gives life, and not just
gives life, but endures us in life, sustains us in the life
of Christ, and presses in us the pursuit of Christ in such
a way that our relationships are changed dynamically and supernaturally. When Paul prayed that I come
to you with all the love and all the affection of Christ,
friends, he meant it. He says then in that verse, if
you remember Ephesians chapter 1, Philippians chapter one, Galatians
chapter six, there we go. He says to them, tell you my
mind's not right. He says to them that I am coming
to you with the greatest of affection and the affection that I have
for you Philippian Christians is the exact same affection that
Christ has for you. That Christ's love is perfectly,
or my love is a perfect example of Christ's love. Now see, that's
a tall order. That's a tall... Matter of fact,
that sounds... For me, in my flesh, right now, as I say those
things, I think, that is really a little bit blasphemous, Paul.
But he's absolutely right, and he does not lie. Because it is
the work of God in Paul that gives him the heart of Christ.
It is Christ that loves. It is Christ that lives. It is
Christ. Paul would later say, what? It's
not I who live, but Christ who lives within me, and I live by
faith. and the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for
me." John would say that we love because He first loved us, that
God is love, so that if we as the church have love for one
another, that the love of God is the love we have. And that
the love of God that we have for each other is a costly love. Just as God's love for us cost
him the life of his son, cost the son the glory of his radiance
or the radiance of his glory. He came out of glory to become
a man so that he would satisfy the judgment of the father against
man. Then that mind that Christ has
is the mind that we have so that the love that we have is the
love that Christ has. And if our love wanes in that,
it's because our flesh has entered into our relationship of love.
Every time. And what happened in Galatia
is that these Christians in Galatia, their flesh had entered in, seriously,
physically, had entered into their relationship with Christ.
And then their flesh had entered into their relationship with
each other. Because I can imagine if there's 600 people in Galatia,
probably three or four or five times that many who were in the
faith, but imagine a fellowship of a couple of blocks of about
600 people. maybe 20 households. And then there's five or six
households who are now talking about circumcision. Oh man, we
need to be circumcised. We need to practice these things.
And some of the other people go, wait a minute, you think
they're all just went hook, line and sinker in that? No, we know
they didn't all follow it, but there were a large constituency
who were promoting it. Someone said to me very wisely
years and years ago when I was complaining, against the command
of Paul and Philippians. I was doing everything with complaining
and grumbling. And this person said to me, listen,
the squeaky wheel gets the oil, but it's not necessarily that
every wheel is squeaky. It's not necessarily, and that's
the way it is. And I think that's the way it
was in Galatia, is that there were a small number of people
really promoting and preaching this, really being pressed by
these Judaizers. These Judaizers were not quiet
people. They were proactive people. They
invested in their belief. They went out, and it sounds
much like the cults today. who go out and knock on doors
and walk around and pin up flyers and leave tracks and spend all
the money that they can get their hands on on evangelizing for
their cause, while we Christians just, meh. There's a lesson in
it. The Judaizers were active and
they upset the nature of the unity of the faith in the Church
of Galatia. The body of Christ began to be
pitted against itself as brother and sister would come and say,
oh, we've decided circumcision is correct. And some other brother
and sister would say that this is not okay. What does Paul say
about this? What does the Bible teach us? What has the word that has come
to us of the apostles taught us? What are the other letters
that we've received shown us about these things? And so these
people became divided on fleshly matters. Friends, I like to say
that circumcision is something that would never invade our fellowship. But the parallel of what it could
be is dynamically important for us to keep watch on. It may not
be circumcision, but it may be something else. It may be something
as simple as style. It may be something as simple
as taking something out of the scripture and pushing it on everyone
in the sense of, he talks about Christian liberty and making
a yoke of bondage. As many of you know, those who
have engaged in life in this community at Grace Truth Church,
it has been a costly endeavor for many of us who have journeyed
over the last few years. And it's not because you're a
part of this fellowship. It's because you are a part of
the body of Christ. And if you are actively engaged
in living out your faith as the Church of Jesus Christ, you will
be persecuted. Now listen to that. Well, that's
a tall statement. That's what Paul tells Timothy
in the second letter. Anyone who desires to live a
godly life will be persecuted. That's what it means. There's
no hidden message there. The English is pretty good. It's
a very, very good translation because it's exactly what Jesus
is saying through Paul. It's exactly what the Lord is
saying to Timothy. You're going to suffer persecution.
And so a lot of times I think circumcision in the church of
today would look a little bit something like this. Well, you
know, I want to follow the Lord. I really want to be fed the Word
of God. I really want to be part of a community of faith intimately
and powerfully for the sake of the glory of Christ. But I've
just got a job to do. I've got a life to live. I've
got a family to think about. I've got a business to run and
I can't be embroiled in all this. I can't be looked upon like a
fruitcake. I can't be seen as some radical
Christian. Friends, if you're not a radical
Christian, I would say that you're not a Christian. And I hate to say things like
that. And I hate it when the Lord gives me those things in
my heart that I might look in the mirror of my soul and ask, How is it that we even grow in
grace anyway? Through the easy peasy lazy river, I think I mentioned
that last week, of faith? We just enjoy the ride, barbecue
and barefoot soccer? No. We grow in our faith, we
grow in grace, we grow in our resolve to trust in the Lord
when through His sovereignty we suffer. Through His sovereignty
we're persecuted. Through His sovereignty, we are
able to endure and we look at our flesh and we say, there is
no way that I could endure except Christ be with me. Glory be to
God. Glory be to God. Well, I want
to talk about fellowship. Verses one and two is all I'm
going to have time to deal with today. And in the next few weeks,
I'll get through verse 10. Ephesians, excuse me, Galatians. You know
why I say that? Because it's right there, that
big Ephesians right there, and I keep seeing it, and I'm not
in the right spot. Galatians 6, verse 1. Brethren, if a man is
overtaken in any trespass, any transgression, you are spiritual. Restore such a one in a spirit
of gentleness. considering, watching, keeping
a watch on yourself, lest you also be tempted. The scripture
then says, bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law
of Christ. And so if we want to talk about
fellowship today, that's what it is. That's the core of it. That's the heart of being together
as one body with all things in common. And friends, I will tell
you now, I'm not one of these guys that dug his way out of
a, out of a wood stack in the middle of a forest somewhere
and decided to brush my teeth and comb my hair and just come
on out and say, Hey y'all, let's be a church. And that looks back
at the big churches and the dynamic churches and the large churches
and all these successful and forefronted ministries and say,
oh, you know, they, they, listen, I'm not the guy who just looks
at that and scoffs at it because I don't know any better or because
I'm jealous of it. I'm the guy who used to promote
it. I'm the guy who used to stand
in the pulpits of thousands of people in front of me and preach
the Word of God, but my motivation was different. I'm the guy who came from mega-church. And let me tell you what happens
in churches. Can I even say so-called churches? And I'm not making
an indictment on any church who has anything, but I'm telling
you this is the reality. When crisis comes, and it will,
when people are so active doing things that aren't necessarily
ministry, we think they are ministry, but they're not. And then crisis
comes, there is no time or energy or talent left in us to engage
in fellowship. That's the church. There's no
opportunity because we are exhausted. We're exhausted in our spiritual
lives because we've been spending more time organizing the administration
rather than just being all of the Lord. Someone offered me a thousand
dollars yesterday. And I'm saying this, the conversation
was in somewhat a joke, but he offered me, and it made me think,
he offered me $1,000. He says, I'll give you $1,000 if you can
help me answer how to help this particular brother overcome his
selfishness. So I just went to James 4 in
my mind, and I'm like, because you're selfish, wicked. The answer
that I gave this brother, who was a pastor in the church, is
bring this brother under discipline if he doesn't repent of his selfishness. Take him before the church and
say, this brother's having a hard time. Y'all deal with him for
a little bit. Please. Oh, that scares me, you
might say. Well, what scares you about Christ's
ordained list and policy of how to restore someone who doesn't
stop sinning? Why would it scare us to obey
the God of heaven knowing that is the only true way in which
a person will ever come to restoration? We call it church discipline.
My friends, We get so busy in our culture doing stuff that
when people come to the end of their rope, when people come
to the place where nothing else matters because the stuff that
just landed in their lap is more than they can handle, and the
body of Christ has to stuff them into a program to minister to
their needs, something needs to give. And I want to remind
you of that, because some of you have never been with us before,
some of you have been with us for a few months, some of you
weren't there in the first days when I was on that soapbox a
lot. Many families have visited and
left, and visited and left, and visited and left. Even under
the idea of saying, can I meet with you, we need to have this
going, we need to have this going, we need to have this going. And
not bad things, but these things that they wanted going were things
that would take away from living and being the church. And so
if I had to say, if I had 30 hours a week to prepare to shepherd
you, what would I rather have that time doing? Administrating
or ministering? God has never called a pastor
to the CEO. God has never called a pastor
to be a governor. God has never called a pastor
to be an expert in a profession. God calls a pastor to shepherd
the flock with fear and trembling, not lording over them, not under
compulsion, but with a pure affection, with all the affection of Christ,
that they would grow. That's why we're here, that we
would grow as a people for the glory of God. And when crisis
comes, friends, when sin comes, when death comes, We must always
be prepared to do the work of the ministry, which is inclusive
of making sure there's nothing over here in the forefront that's
going to have to take hours and weeks and months of preparation
to get rid of so that we can minister to each other. Do you
see that? It's not that it's wrong. It's
just wrongly motivated. It's not that it's sinful to
do cool stuff or to have certain, you know, like, what are you
talking about? Well, I don't really want to say what's in my mind that way,
but let me give you an idea. Like people always talk about
children's ministry. Let's have a children's ministry.
We've got a children's ministry. Look around the church and there's
10 of them missing today or more, maybe more than that. We've got
a children's minute. What is it? To sit with them
under the teaching of God's Word that they are hearing the Word
of God and by the faithfulness of God's Holy Spirit, they are
going to be born of God by hearing His Word. Whereas in my days as a children's
pastor, years ago, when that got laid on my lap against my
will, oh, well, this guy left, now you can do it. And you know
what I did? Hey, Robin, now you can do it. 600 kids coming through
the church every Sunday morning. You know what we do? We entertain.
We throw out candy. We teach them as much as we can
to keep them from rioting and taking our heads off. And a very
light way to teach them how to act like Jesus. But no power to show them how
to love Jesus. But is it wrong to get a bunch
of kids together and teach them the Word? No, Jesus did it. Let's just
make sure our motivation is right. Let's make sure that it's not
going to be in lieu of worshiping as the church. So that's one
of my top 700. So what would happen if calamity
fell and we had 600 kids that we had to keep entertaining for
three days a week? Those who were engaged in that,
they can't let that go, can they? How do you know that? Because
I had a children's ministry that was 600. We had a youth ministry
that was 350. And we baptized 300 people in
2001 to have none of them be in the church in 2002. None of
them. Couldn't find them. Had a stack
of cards. Couldn't find them. Why? Because they came to faith through
the institutions of men. They came to faith and were never
preached the gospel. They were preached a presentation,
and it was called the gospel. And they were given a clear formula
for how to respond to that presentation, and they checked every piece
off. And then they were declared saints
in front of 5,000 people. And then later, they were nowhere
to be found. Why? Because calamity struck. Sin came into the church through
the life of one of the pastors. There were nine of us. Sin came
into the church and sin took over and the flesh rose up because
there were none who were spiritual to restore us. And sadly, I have to tell you
that though I went to the Word of God and preached with all
my heart, when the pulpit time was over, I went back to the
pragmatism of my training. So even when the message is right, the mission will prove that the
message is powerful. What does that mean? When we
were in Jude, right learning produces right living. If we
learn Christ, if we learn His Word, then the outcome of saying
that we've learned Christ is that Christ produces the work
that we do, the ministry that God has created for us to do.
the work that we do with each other. So if anyone's caught
in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore
him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch then, lest you be
tempted. Pay attention. Be careful. Well,
let me back up for a moment. And let me point this sermon
very specifically to verse 2. Because verse 1 speaks for itself. Verse 2 is really what I want
you to see today. bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law
of Christ. Verse 1 is one way in which that's
done. Well, for a moment, take yourself
back to Genesis chapter 2. Genesis chapter 2 is a recapitulation
with very focused, microscopic view. It's not a second creation,
as some would argue. A very microscopic view of then
the creation of man and woman and their union and the purpose,
theologically and spiritually, in God's wisdom for creating
humanity. And he says that it was not good
that the man would be alone, so he put him into a sleep, took
out of his rib, formed woman out of the rib of man. She shall
be called woman, for she came from man, is what Adam said.
Flesh of my flesh, bone of my bones. And then God says to them
in Genesis chapter 2 verse 25, he says, and the man and his
wife were both naked. And what else does it say? And
were not ashamed. A dear brother in Christ, Dr. Bill Downing, preached two hours
on this text one time in my hearing, and I just sat there. I put my
Bible up in my notebook. And there's a lot there. But
I want to show you, just in a very quick way, that in Genesis chapter
2, verse 25, there was a union of fellowship there, all things
in common, that was a picture of the church. And this isn't my creativity.
This is the apostolic authority of Paul. God created husband
and wife to be one flesh so that he could show in a great microscopic
picture, the macrocosmic reality of Christ in the church. And
you want to get that microscopic is that which is tiny that is
looked at under a microscope. Macrocosmic is the full view
of that, which is almost impossible to see because it's so large.
Christ upholds the cosmos by the word of his power, Colossians.
And so in doing so, Christ created the world. Christ created everything
that there is. God, Jesus, the God, man, God,
the son created man and woman so that he could be seen in their
existence. with what would happen in Genesis
3, of which Dr. Downing would say happened just
hours later. And I like his argument, and
he'll tell you it's not a biblical argument, it's a common sense
argument based on biblical truths. And we won't have it today. Whether
it was hours later or days later, it was quick. And he posits one,
he says, there was never a man born of man that was without
sin. except Jesus the Christ. So that if the perfect man and
the perfect woman with absolutely perfect DNA were to see each
other for the first time and be given a couple of days, they
would have produced a perfect man out of that. And then he
goes on to posit that that probably didn't happen. And so therefore,
that the fall in his mind happened just a few minutes after Eve
came into the garden. It doesn't matter, it's not important,
it's just a theory and he enjoys playing on that. But what did
happen is that Adam and Eve fail. They fell into sin because they
believed the lie of Satan, the enemy of God, the adversary,
the fallen angel, rather than the truth of the command of God
for their good and for His glory. And God in His sovereignty, before
He ever said, let there be light, knew without a shadow of doubt
and not just knew, but ordained the fall of humanity, that in
the fall of humanity and their creation with the purpose of
their failings, that He would be a redeemer of these people
for the sake of the praise of His glorious grace. This is what
the Bible teaches throughout the entirety of the Bible, old
and new. And that in Genesis chapter 2,
there is a fullness of God with man as they had intimacy with
Christ. If you're getting up in the morning
or getting ready for bed in the evening, I don't know, most of
us don't sleep like this. Shoes and socks and jeans and
jacket and glasses and all. We either sleep close to nothingness
or we sleep in some pajamas that are not necessarily modest, don't
we? I mean, we sleep in less than
we wear. And if the doorbell rings, we're
grabbing for robes. Somebody knocks on the door and
you're getting dressed. I mean, some people do, but we
shouldn't just walk to the door with two socks and underwear
on. I mean, you know, it's just improper. I don't want to walk someone's
door and see that. My father was the greatest of
that, and when our friends would come over, what you want? Oh, nothing. I'm glad he's not
here today. He would turn red. But here's
Adam and Eve in the presence of God, naked and unashamed. You know what that means? That means that they had no awareness
of their nakedness because there was no need for them to be aware
of their nakedness. And there was no shame in that
nakedness because there was no awareness of that nakedness because
there was nothing wrong with that nakedness. There was no embarrassment, they
weren't considering. Friends, we look in the mirror
more than we look in the Bible. Why? I'm not talking about the
James mirror. Not my mirror, but the book of
James mirror. I'm not talking about the mirror of the Lord. I'm talking
about the mirror in our bathrooms. How do I know? Because we freshen
up. We know when it's time to get
a haircut. We know when we brush our teeth. We shave or trim up. We do all sorts of things. Our
hair is fixed. We put some makeup on. Well, not all of us, but
some of us. So we spend time doing that.
Why? Because there is a concern with how people are going to
view us, even in the body of Christ. Well, I don't want to
go to church all ragged looking. That's why it's such an easy
excuse. Well, I've been working and I'm not clean, so I'm not
coming to church today. Come to church anyway. Naked and unashamed they were,
but after they fail, what was the word of God teach us? What
does it say? So when the woman saw that the
tree was good for food, when the woman saw that it was a delight
to the eyes and that the tree was desired to make one wise,
she took the fruit and she ate of it. And then the scriptures
say, and she also gave some to Adam, her husband, who was there
with her, and he ate of it. Now imagine that scene. Here's Adam and Eve. and Satan standing there lusting
over that tree that God had told him not to eat from. And then
it says in verse 7 of Genesis chapter 3 that their eyes were
open and they knew that they were naked. I mean, imagine that. I'm eating this and they're like,
woman, you're naked. Where's your clothes? Because
all of a sudden shame came into their hearts. Rebellion came
into their minds. Death entered the world. Being
ashamed of our nakedness is a result of death. That's why the Bible
commands us to cover our bodies in modesty so that the only place
we're naked and not ashamed in the physical is with our husbands
and our wives. But I posit that there is a metaphorical
reality in that that we ought to experience as the Church of
Jesus Christ. I want you to hear this. And they heard the sound, they
sewed fig leaves together and made themselves one cloth. And
they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden of
the cool of the day. They had intimacy with the fullness of God. Now
what happened? They had failure. And now they were ashamed. And
the Lord called to the man and said, where are you? They hid.
And Adam says, I heard the sound of you in the garden, but I hid because I was afraid. Because
I was naked and I hid myself. Who told you you were naked?
Have you eaten from the tree which I commanded you not to
eat? And the man said, the woman whom you gave me ate of the tree
and I ate. And the Lord said to the woman,
what is this you've done? The woman said, the serpent deceived
me and I ate. And it goes on down. Not taking responsibility. But
the reality of their shame is that they, what, were afraid.
The Lord's going to see me and he's going to see me naked as
I really am broken and dying and diseased. So they covered
themselves with worldly wisdom, but these leaves might work,
but God could still see their nakedness. And so what God did
is what he intended to do all along. As he says, you know,
what I will do is I will bring a son through the seat of woman
and he will be your redeemer. And he will set you straight.
And the transliteration of the word that we use and atonement
at one minute. Is that Christ endured? Listen to this. We are all naked
and ashamed. Our sin is forever before us,
as David would cry out in Psalm 51, a prayer of repentance or
the depths of our depravity has no end. are the measure of our
lusts and the pride of our lives and the majesty of our possessions
and the power of our, of our, uh, of our positions nuts. First John two that it has, it
can't even be measured. It's so great in our lives and
God cannot Look at us without seeing that no matter what we
do in our lives, no matter how we come to fellowship together
and worship, no matter how spiritual we may sound, no matter how much
Bible we may teach, no matter how many preachers we have or
how many sermons we've preached, it does not cover the nakedness
of our soul to the fullness of the omnipotence of our God. And without Christ, we are and
should be ashamed. But Christ and Paul teaching to the Ephesian
church in chapter two says that you once were beloved, once were
dead, once were an enemy, once were ashamed, but now you have
been made alive with Christ. Why? Because of the great love
with which God loved us. He has caused us. He has made
us to be born again. He has raised us to life in Christ. This is the truth of the good
news. We call the gospel. This is the only way where we
could stand before God naked. Because friends, for all of eternity,
we shall stand before God naked. He will see the depths of all
of our iniquities. But the good news is that Christ
took the shame of our sin and he bared it himself. He bore
it himself. He put his flesh on the cross
and on his flesh came our guilt. Though he knew no sin, Paul would
write, he became sin. that we might be the righteousness
of God. So in this fellowship with God
and the fullness of God was broken because of the fall. God, before
it ever was a thing, Before, if there were eons and eternities
before God said, let there be light, where God in the triune,
in the Godhead was pleased and fulfilled and greatly satisfied
with the existence of himself. God needed no creation for any
purpose except that he wanted to do it. And in his wisdom,
he saw that it was good. Take it or leave it. It didn't
change who God was and it didn't add to his joy. Oh, but the joy
that comes through the great wisdom of God to create us. And
oh, the great joy that comes through the Christ who is the
God-man who took our sin that he might recreate us in Christ. And the scripture tells us that
that fellowship, although it is not fully restored today,
what will be. It will be. It is done. It is
finished. But in this side of our lives,
we still see the shame of our flesh. We still sometimes embrace
the lust of our deadness. But we are no longer dead in
the Spirit. We are saints of God, righteous,
holy, justified, as Paul is so clear in Romans 8 that it is
a done deal in the past tense. We are glorified already just
waiting around for it. It is done, church. What, pray
tell, does this have to do with fellowship? It is fellowship. We have nothing in common if
we don't have unashamed holiness in common. We have nothing in
common if we don't have an unashamed affection to be spiritual and
to help those around us who fail. We have nothing in common if
we don't have everything in common in Christ. Because honestly,
if we need Christ plus this, that's no gospel at all, which
is where I started. If we need these circumstances
to change for us, that's another gospel. Our contentment and our
hope and our peace and our satisfaction is in Christ no matter what this
world dumps upon us. And every time the world dumps
on us, it is by the hand of our Sovereign Father who orchestrates
the load. So we rejoice. And we hear that beep of that
dump truck backing up. We just go, Oh Lord, I don't
want it, but Your will be done. Dump it over there and I'll go
by. It's not the way it works. Now,
let's put it into the measure of Grace Truth Church. Friends, it hit me this week
as I was just praying and studying through this and ineffectively
able to do that. I can't think much when I'm hurting.
And by the Lord's grace, He is. When we gather together, and
we gathered at our house. A lot of you came to our house
Sunday. It was a wonderful time of fellowship. It really was.
We were fellowshiping. We gathered together. It was
great. We want to do that again soon. But even then, there's a sense
or an air of putting on a mask when we come together. Now I'm
not talking about that which is proper. Put on a robe when
you answer the door. You know, if you can, clean the
toilet before somebody comes in to use it. I mean, you know,
if you can. If you can't, it doesn't matter. What's more important? Being together in Christ. But
I want to talk more on how we view ourselves in the fellowship
of the church. And I'm willing to say, because
I still have these tendencies from time to time as I recognize
them. It doesn't mean they come and
go. It's probably always there. I just see them sometimes and
sometimes I don't. To put on some type of front, not intentionally,
but it just happens naturally. Well, I don't want to get too
close. I don't want them to know what's going on. I don't want
them to see what's under my bed. I'm speaking metaphorically. I don't know what's under your
bed. It doesn't matter. But if we're naked and unashamed
before Christ, should we not also be naked and unashamed before
each other, together? Are we not the same body? Did
Paul not cry out after that great treatise of Romans chapter 7,
for those that know it? What a wretched man am I? What's
going to save me? How am I going to find escape,
he argues? Christ. And then he preaches
the gospel to himself and to the Roman Christians who were
really, really, really susceptible to Judaistic tendencies, to want
to look so spiritual on the outside though that for years they were
pagan idolaters. Jesus even told the Jews that
for years they were pagan idolaters as they held the word of God
up and said, blessed be the name of the Lord. Paul says in verse 1 of chapter
8 of Romans, these words, therefore now. When you see a therefore,
you need to ask, what's it there for? It's there for the fact
that before that, he says we are free in Christ, by the grace
of God. We are naked and exposed. Paul's sin that he confessed
in Romans 7 was covetousness, but Paul's life He said in Philippians,
was perfect. So where in the world was this
covetousness visible? Only in the heart of Paul. And yet, even in the depths of
his rebirth, he could see that just that alone was enough to
justify God's wrath upon him. And he says that it's because
of Christ now that I can say, therefore now, I have no condemnation. And he just doesn't talk about
himself, but in that text he says, therefore now there is
no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus. Friends,
there is a plague amongst the so-called church of our day. I'm not talking about people
who are concerned with burdens or who are heretics. I'm talking
about people in the body, maybe even in our own fellowship, our
own assembly. We're not immune to it. who condemn
each other in their own hearts and forget that they themselves
are redeemed by the grace of God. How dare we forget the depths
from which we've fallen. And young Timothy, oh, I weep
when I read Timothy. I weep when I read the words
of Paul, his spiritual father, to this young boy who was thrown
into the eldership of Ephesus. And I see what Paul says to him,
and I'm just overwhelmed with how God can use people to bring
about his gospel and to take it to a dying world so that they
can be naked and unashamed. And when I see Paul talking to
Timothy, And then I look at the end of John and the end of John's
life, and I see his apocalypse, and I see him right by the order
of Christ to the church of Ephesus. And I see the words of Jesus
Christ there in the first few pages of Revelation, and he says,
I commend you for this, O church of Ephesus. Your theology is
right. Your worship is pure. Your practices
are there. You defend the church against
heresy. You defend the church against
this. You stand for righteousness. But this I have against you.
I condemn you, O church of Ephesus, that you've forsaken your first
love." And he says these words that I've already quoted. Remember,
go and do that which you did prior. Do that which you've done
before. And remember the heights from
which you fell. Repent, or I will take out your light. There's a lot of churches in
existence, in practice, who have no light. And Ichabod is over their forehead. The glory of God has departed. The light that God takes away
from a church is not that it ceases to exist, though it will,
because the church will die and then it will be a so-called church. But the light is taken when we
forsake our first love. And I'm willing to bet you that
the issue that was in Galatia was the same issue that was in
Ephesus, and that people began to pride themselves for their
walk at the cost of the fellowship of the brethren, with haughtiness
and self-righteousness and unwillingness to hear the failings of the others,
when the Bible teaches us very clearly we need to be about gentle
correction. Pray for those who doubt. endure
the burden of the weak, the spiritually immature, we give up our liberties
that they might not be offended by what we do. And we do it with
joy, not because we're obliged, not because we must, but because
when we see the joy of our brothers and sisters in Christ, as they
work out their salvation in the faith of God, the faithfulness
of God, with fear and trembling. It gives us joy to be an agent
of God's blessing, even when it costs us. So church, that's why we're here. That's what fellowship is all
about. Don't forget that ministry is
all about not things, not stuff, not organizations, and not events. It's about people. It's about
praying, and reconciling, and forgiving, and forbearing, and
teaching, and being taught, and growing, and being stagnant,
and encouraging each other as long as it is called today to
what? Love and good deeds. Ministry
is also power. There is no true ministry that
any human being can say, look what I did. Because if we could
do it, it's not God's work. If I could stand before you with
all the eloquence of my human wisdom and teach you, it would
be vain. And if I prayed for you with
all the sustenance of my faithfulness, it would be worthless. But because
God is faithful, ministry is power. God can do more than we
could ever think of, than we could ever ask Him for. And Paul
says in Ephesians 3, that you may be filled, I pray that you
may be filled with all the fullness of God. We need to have gentleness and
kindness and patience because these are the attitudes of Christ.
These are the fruitfulness. This is the fruitfulness of the
work of God. But not only is ministry as a
reminder about the people, and not only is it about the power
of God, but it is very pressing. Friends, ministry is pressing. It's pressing in that it's very
burdensome. It's pressing in that it comes at a time when
it's not convenient. It's pressing in that it's going
to cost us something. If your neighbor sees your house
burning, but he's in the middle of a Yahtzee game, what kind
of neighbor is he to say, alright, one more roll? Friends, the ministry to the
church is much more important than that. Much more important
than perishing in a house fire. Much more important than running
to the aid of a stranger, though those are of great importance.
We, as the body of Christ, must be able and ready to answer the
pressing call of God. A reconciled people living together,
as we say in our mission, as though we have received grace
upon grace. Let us not forget it as we stand
naked and not ashamed before God, through Christ, and with
each other. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this
opportunity to see your Word at work. I pray, Lord, that our
hearts would be intimately invested with each other as we pursue
Christ, not only for eternity, for the name of Christ, but,
Lord, also for the elect, for our brothers and sisters, for
the redeemed, for those who by faith are saved, so that your
glory would be made much of, so that as we're together, we
continually point each other to the cross, to the person of
Jesus, to live as a family that is supernaturally equipped to
be that family. Father, help us not to lean on
the wisdom of our own flesh or this world, but to hold fast
to the confession of our hope in Christ and to remember and
always be ready. To hear what the world would
say is a foolish truth. But what your word says is truth. Help us to seek. Your work. Into the lives of each other.
And father, as the gospel has been clear today. I pray that
you would help all of us see. That it is our only hope. Christ
is our only way. We will never overcome the sin
of anger, the sin of selfishness, the sin of pride, the sin of
apathy, the sin of anything except Christ creating us a new heart.
So, Lord, let your word be the power to bring life. And if it be your will, bring
it into the lives of those who are lost among us right now.
In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.