Would you turn to 1 Corinthians
1. Verse 9. God is faithful by whom you were
called. Under the fellowship of his son. Jesus Christ. Our Lord. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for your
faithfulness and Lord were staggered at the thought that you've actually
called us. With your irresistible grace.
Into the fellowship. Of the sun. We give thanks. We pray that
you would be pleased to speak in power to our hearts for Christ's
sake. Forgive us of our sin for his
sake and unite our hearts together to fear thy name. In Christ's
name we pray, amen. Now I don't know that there is
a more staggering, and that's the only word I can come up with,
but a staggering thought than that of being called by God to
fellowship with his son. What is more glorious, what is
more amazing than that? For God to call us, his people,
every believer into fellowship with his son, if you are a believer,
A saint of God, one of the brethren, God himself has called you to fellowship with his son. He's not called every son of
Adam to fellowship with his son, has he? And you know, they don't
want fellowship with him. It's not like they're wanting
fellowship with him and he's denying it. No, no natural man
wants fellowship with him. But he has called every believer. He's called me to have fellowship
with his blessed son. Is everybody called? Look in
verse 24 of this chapter. Let's begin reading in verse
22. For the Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom,
but we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block
and unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called.
Not everybody's called, are they? But unto them which are called
both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom
of God. Whom he did predestinate. Then
he also called. He saved us and he called us
with a holy calling, 2 Timothy 1.9. And that's one of my favorite
scriptures where it says he saved us and he called us because that
reminds me that my salvation, I had no hand in it. He saved
me and then he called me. I was saved outside of my personal
subjective experience. I was saved by what he did completely
altogether. He saved us and he called us. He calleth his own sheep by name. For the children being not yet
born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose
of God, according to election might stand not of works, but
of him that calleth. The Lord said, I came not to
call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Revelation 19,
9, blessed are they who are called to the marriage supper of the
lamb. Now, what a glorious thing to
consider being called by God into fellowship with his blessed
son. And second Thessalonians 2, 14
says he called you by our gospel. He called you by our gospel.
Nobody's been called who hadn't heard and believed the gospel.
The calling is by the gospel. Called with an effectual call
to fellowship with Christ. Now what does that mean? That
means that, I don't even know what I'm saying
when I say this, but if you have fellowship with Christ, that
means you have a saving interest in all that he is. Now that's once again staggering. You have a saving interest as
a joint heir with him. You have a saving interest in
all that he is. John said in 1 John 1 3, that
which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that you
may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with
the Father And with his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Fellowship
with the ones who are having fellowship with him. Every believer
is called upon to this kind of fellowship. We even read of the
communion or the fellowship is the word of the Holy Ghost. We
have fellowship with the father. We have fellowship with the son.
We have fellowship with God, the Holy Spirit. Now, what is
fellowship? I believe Henry Mahan gave the
best definition of fellowship I've ever heard. Fellows in the
same ship. Fellows in the same ship. People
who don't believe the gospel don't have fellowship with people
who do. Fellows in the same ship, and
I hope I can describe just what that means. The word means fellowship, a
sharing in common. If I have fellowship with Christ,
if I have fellowship with God, if I have fellowship with God,
the Holy Spirit, there's a sharing in common. Peter says we're partakers
of the divine nature. 2 Peter 1, 4, when God birthed
you into the kingdom of heaven, you became a, obviously you're
not God, I don't have to convince you of that. You know better
than that. But you are a partaker of the divine nature, birth of
the Spirit of God. The new man which is in you is
of God in Christ. And fellows in the same ship
are fellows who are in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now this fellowship,
turn with me to 1 John 1. It's the fellowship of light,
first of all. Verse five, this then is the
message which we've heard of him and declaring to you that
God is light and in him is no darkness at all. Now, if we say
that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we
lie and do not the truth. Now most people would interpret
that if we say we have fellowship with him and in the dark we practice
secret sin and keep it covered up, but yet claim that we have
fellowship with God, we're nothing but hypocrites. Well, with regard
to that, is there anybody here that does not sin in the dark?
Sin's never okay. under any circumstance. I wouldn't
excuse it in any way. But if this means you say that
you have fellowship with him, but yet you live a contradictory
life that nobody knows about, well, if that's the case, nobody
in this room will be saved. Or any other room. That's, and
that, once again, sin is never okay. It's never okay to commit
a sin. Sin is so bad that the Lord Jesus Christ died on the
cross when he was made sin. That's how, that's what the Father
thinks is sin. So I would never, ever countenance,
well, you believe grace, doesn't matter, no, no, no. But what
this means is if we say we have fellowship with him and walk
in the darkness of salvation by works, and that's what that's
a reference to. If we say we have fellowship
with him and walk in the darkness of salvation by works, we lie. We're lying. We're deceiving
ourselves. We're not real. But look what
it says next in verse seven. But if we walk in the light,
The light of how God saves sinners by Christ. That's the light.
He's the light of the world. The light of how God can be just
and justify somebody like me or you and make us actually not
guilty. Make us to where we're perfect before God. If we walk
in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one
with another. Now you know somebody that I
can't have fellowship with is somebody who doesn't believe
the gospel. There's nothing, we're not fellows
in the same ship, different ship. But look what it says, if we
walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship
with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanseth. Now that's right now, present
tense, cleanseth us. Don't you need to be cleansed
right now, all the time, continually? That's really what we have fellowship
in. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, cleanseth us from
all sin. The fellowship of light. Turn to Ephesians chapter three. Ephesians chapter three, verse
nine. To make all men see what is the
fellowship of the mystery. The fellowship of the mystery. Which from the beginning of the
world had been hidden God who created all things by Jesus Christ. Fellowship in the mystery. Now,
I love the mystery of the gospel. I mean, there's things that are
so glorious that can't possibly be understood but just believed.
You know, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest
in the flesh. That's not something you can
explain how it took place or even understand, but you believe.
That mystery of, uh, I speak a great mystery of Christ in
the church when he's talking about marriage, this great mystery
of union with Christ, eternal union with Christ. I've always
been one with him. I've always been in him. That's
a mystery. I mean, all the truths of the
scriptures are things that we would have never known had not
God made them known in his word. And we have fellowship in the
mystery of the gospel. I love the mystery of the gospel. If it's something that I could
understand and grasp intellectually, there wouldn't be much to it.
It'd be pretty simple if I could get, and same with you, but oh,
the mystery. The mystery of the faith, great
is the mystery of godliness. I show you this mystery, Christ
in you, isn't that a mystery? Christ in you, how mysterious. Christ in you, the hope of glory.
the mystery of Babylon, the great harlot. If you know the mystery
of false religion, you know that God's made this mystery to you
known, that you know that there's no salvation in false religion. It's a harlot and that's what
God calls it. And if you understand that or have some grasp of it,
God's made known to you the mystery of the gospel. Turn with me to
Philippians chapter three. Let's start in verse 8. Yea, doubtless, and I count all
things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things and do
count them but dung. That's important. When I hear
a religious person talking about all they've lost for Christ,
what'd you lose? Dung, are you going to be, look
what I gave up. Yeah, look what you gave up.
You know, that's ridiculous. He says, I count them but dung. That I may win Christ and be
found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the
law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness
which is of God, by faith that I might know him, the power of
his resurrection, and the fellowship, here it is, the fellowship of
his sufferings. I want to know that I had a share
in what he did. Now, when we talk about the sufferings
of Christ, I love the way the cross was covered with darkness. God turned the lights out to
let us know that we're never going to understand his suffering. And I realized that there's no
way I can possibly grasp what he felt when he was made sin
and what all even that means. You know, I believe it. I believe
it. But here's what I want to know.
I want to know I had a part in it. I want to know that what
he did, he did for me. That's what the fellowship of
his sufferings is. I want to know that when he was
suffering, he was suffering for me. You know, that scripture
in Second Timothy 2 13 says well, let's let's look at
it. I'm Can't quote it right, but I want you to see it second
Timothy 2 13 Verse 11, it's a faithful saying
for if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him. If
we suffer or suffer with him, we shall also reign with him. Now I want to make sure that
his sufferings were for me. Now, how, how can I know? It's actually very simple. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. If you're a sinner, for sure
he came to save you. He died for his elect. How can
I know if I'm one of them? Are you a sinner? Are you a real
bona fide sinner? I'm not talking about the way
you used to be. I'm talking about right now. Are you a real sinner? If you
are, he came to save you, and that's exactly what he did. When we were yet without strength,
Romans 5, 6, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Who did he die for? Those who
were without strength and ungodly. Would that describe you? That's who he came to save, and
that's where we have fellowship, the fellowship of his sufferings. Turn to Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2. This is said
of the early church, verse 42. And they continued, the early
church, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and
fellowship. And in breaking of bread and
prayers. I think the breaking of bread
could mean the Lord's table. I would say they did eat together,
you know, just friends eat together, people who love one another eat
together. But I think that this is actually a reference to the
Lord's table, but first they continued steadfastly. They wouldn't
be moved. They continued steadfastly in
the apostles doctrine. And I love the way it doesn't
say doctrines. Doctrine. It's called the doctrine
of Christ. Hold your finger there and turn
to second John. Verse seven, for many deceivers
are entered into the world who confess not that the Lord, that
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. Now, what is it to confess that
Jesus Christ has come in the flesh? You confess the whole gospel
when you confess that. Notice the word confession. This
is talking about a public statement with regard to this. It's in
agreement with what God says. It's what a confession is. Jesus
Christ was before he came in the flesh. He's the eternal son
of God, the second person of the blessed Trinity. He was before
he came. I love that scripture in John
1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. The same was eternally. The same was in the beginning
with God. I confess He's God. When I confess
that He came in the flesh, I confess He was before He came as the
eternal God. Now, what think ye of Christ? He's God. He came in the flesh. Great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh. He came in the flesh, and in
the flesh, he did what he came to do. He kept God's law for
somebody. He died for somebody, put away
their sins. He's the lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. He had to come in time and do it. He
came in the flesh and he did what he came to do. He saved
all of his people. Now that's the doctrine of Christ. Doctrines, you know, when people
talk about the doctrines of grace, there's only one doctrine of
grace. It's wrong to call it the doctrines of grace. As a matter of fact, every time
you see in the Bible, the word doctrines in the plural, it's
always a reference to false doctrine. every time. There's only one
doctrine. Now let's go on reading in 2
John. For many deceivers are entered
into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ has come in
the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves
that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that
we receive a full reward. Whosoever transgresseth and abideth
not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine
of Christ. You know what you're doing when
you're abiding in the doctrine of Christ? You're knowing that he is all
in your salvation, that he was before he came. He came in the
flesh and accomplished your salvation. Your salvation was accomplished
outside of anything you've done or thought. He did it and you
abide right there. You will not be moved by the
grace of God. Here's where I'm staying. Now,
this fellowship that they had was in the apostles doctrine. Well, it's dry, dead doctrine. Well, no, the doctrine is not
dry and dead. If you see it that way, you're
the one dry and dead. This is the doctrine of God.
This is the doctrine of the living Christ. They had fellowship in the apostles'
doctrine. They stayed right there. Doctrine
and fellowship and breaking of bread and prayers. Now, there's
no fellowship without the doctrine of the apostle, which is the
doctrine of Christ. Now, I couldn't help but thinking,
I mean, I have called the doctrines of grace that many times. I've
called it that. But you think about the fellowship
we have in the doctrine of Christ, or the doctrine of grace, call
it what you want. The Bible being the word of God,
not only do I believe it, I need it. I've got to have a written revelation
from God so I can know whether or not it's so. I've got to have
the doctrine of scripture. I've got to have God being sovereign.
If he's not sovereign over everything, then I'm in trouble. I can't
stand to think of, I can't even stand the thought of him not
controlling everything and everybody and just having complete, absolute
sovereign control. If it's not that way, I'm scared
to death. Anything that's not under his control is gonna put
me in trouble. I've always got a selfish motive for what I believe.
I realize that. I feel like I wanna believe what
benefits me the most. You know what benefits me the
most? God is absolutely sovereign. That means he can just will my
salvation. I love that. We have fellowship in that, don't
we? We're fellows in the same ship. Don't you know that you
need God to elect you? It's not just some kind of, well,
I see the scripture teaches it, yeah, but do you need it? Do
you need him to choose you? Do you need Christ to die for
you and put away all your sins so that you stand before God
without guilt? Do you need his grace to be irresistible
and invincible? That's the only way you can be
saved. Do you need to be preserved? You see, we're fellows in the
same ship. Our fellowship is in the gospel.
Now, you can have people who don't have anything in common,
humanly speaking, that have such sweet fellowship, one with another,
because of the gospel. That's what fellowship is. Fellows
in the same ship in Christ and everybody that's in Christ sees
everything the same way. And when they don't, there's
problems. We're going to look into that next week. I mean, but, but go
back to our text. First Corinthians one. Now verse 10, now I beseech you,
brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all
speak the same thing, that there be no divisions among you, but
that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and
in the same judgment. For it's been declared unto me
of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe,
that there are contentions. among you. Now this I say, and
he tells what they were, that every one of you saith, I'm of
Paul, I'm of Apollos, I'm of Cephas, and I'm of Christ. I don't follow any man, I'm a
follower of Christ. And he's speaking derogatorily
of that kind of thinking. Every believer is to be precisely
the same in faith. Christ is all. Men are nothing. God gets all the glory and salvation. Christ completed my salvation
without my help. We're all to speak the same thing.
Well, why weren't they speaking the same thing? Well, because
like me and you, it was made up of a bunch of sinners, a bunch
of stupid sinners. And I would take that title to
myself. So we'll pick up there next week.