The Christian life..

Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Thank you for using and sharing our resources. What you're about to hear is God's Word from one of our teaching elders. We trust that God's Word will inspire, instruct, and bless you. For further teachings or information on our ministry, please visit us on our website at cornerstonerbc.

com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. So, as I said, we're going to be addressing the topic of fellowship, biblical fellowship. And generally speaking, when we say or when we mention the concept of fellowship, we speak of the relationships that the saints are supposed to have in the context of the church.

fellowship, interaction, the coming together, communion, the coming together of the saints in the context of the church. And as I said, the passage that I want to call your attention to is found in First Corinthians chapter 12. And we are going to be reading from verse 12 until the end of the chapter addressing by God's grace. And I hope that with his help, not only as I speak, but also as you receive and those who are online and those who are going to be listening to this in the future, by God's grace that we will be illuminated in this concept of fellowship, biblical fellowship in the context of the church. Now, brethren, let us read from verse 12 all the way until the end of the chapter.

And I want you to pay special attention to verse 27. Verse 27 will be the focus of our attention. So, this is the Word of the Lord, 1 Corinthians chapter 12, from verse 12. Let us read the Word of the Lord, paying attention to each one of the words and by faith in our Savior. It says, verse 12, For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.

For in one spirit we were all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one spirit. For the body does not consist of one member, but many. If the food should say, because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing?

And if the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body and each one of them as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts or members, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor again the head to the feet.

I have no need of you. On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable. And on those parts of the body that we think less honorable, we bestow the greater honor and are and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, All suffer together.

If one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now, verse 27. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. Let me just read that once again. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles?

Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues, do all interpret, but earnestly desire the higher gifts, and I will show you a still more excellent way. Amen. That is the word of the Lord. And as I said, brothers and sisters, my desire is, I hope briefly, to address the topic of biblical fellowship.

Now, I wanted to point your attention to verse 27 because in that verse we're told something very interesting. We're told there that the people or the Christians are one body in Christ. We say, now you are, speaking to the church, the body of Christ and individually members of it. Of course, the Apostle in this passage is trying to emphasize and introduce the spiritual gifts. But one of the main points that the Apostle makes is that condition of the members of the body, namely Christians who by grace through faith have been saved in being united to the body and be united to the body of the Lord Jesus Christ.

If you quickly pay attention to verse 12, you will see through the passage that this is one of the main points of the Apostle of speaking of the union of the individual believer to the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. It says in verse 12, for just as the body is one, speaking of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, and has many members, and it says, and all the members of the body. speaking and pointing to us about the union that the members, as he says in verse 27, individually have to the body. And this is the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. Follow with me, please.

In verse 14, it says, For the body does not consist of one member, but many. This is the body has many members. If you quickly go to verse 18, you will see that he continues to emphasize the belonging or the union that the members, as he says in verse 27, individually have to the body. Verse 18, it says, but as it is, God arranged the members, and here he uses a different preposition, in the body, each one of them as he chose. So each one of the members, as he says in verse 27, are individually united to the body.

And this is the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. Even if you pay attention there in verse 20, once again, it says, as it is, there are many members or many parts, yet one body. And then in verse 27, Oh, I forgot my water. Verse 27, it says, you are the body of Christ and it says individually members of it. Now, beloved brothers and sisters, you remember from last week that we cover a very important topic.

And this topic was the topic of the nature of the church. And one of the distinctions, one of the distinctions that I mentioned last week about the nature of the church, if you remember, is that the church can be seen from a universal point of view, remember, and also from a local point of view. And we said that by virtue of the grace that we receive as Christians and the faith that we have, we become members of a universal church. But the life of the Christian is to be experienced and is to be lived out in the context of the local church. So when we read 1st Corinthians chapter 12 and the Apostle is once and many, many times emphasizing this concept of union of the Christian to the body, where do you think that he's referring to?

Do you think that he's referring to the universal church or to the local church? He's referring actually to the universal church. He's speaking about the spiritual experience. If you go there in verse 13, it says, for in one spirit, we were all baptized into one body. Jews or Greeks, speaking of different locations, slaves and free, all of us were made to drink of one spirit.

The apostle here is speaking about the reality of the belonging of each one of the members of the body of Christ to the universal church. And he makes a very important point in verse 27 that says that now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. So that means that each believer is individually united to this universal body of believers that come from every tribe, from every nation, from every tongue, from every background, people that we have not seen, people that we are not going to see, people that we have never seen. And those that we see are in the context of the local church, but the apostle speaks of this universal church. Why is this important?

This is important because I don't know if you have met the type of people or the type of professing Christians that at times... Thank you so much, bro. Thank you so much, brother. Brethren, I'm pretty sure that you've heard or you've seen or you've met a professing Christian or a type of Christian that says, you know, like, I'm a Bible believing Christian. And when you ask them, OK, but what church do you go to?

And they say, I don't go to any church because I'm a member of a universal church. I'm united to Christ by grace, through faith, I have been saved and I belong to the universal church. And I am a member of the body. I'm a member of this universal church and I'm connected to the brethren, you know, through the person of Jesus Christ. And, you know, even with the situation with COVID and all of the lockdowns and people just going and checking things online, even these things have increased because now many people have found unto themselves the right to even just simply not belong to a local church, but just do church online and do it on a Sunday in that particular way.

Many people will come and take this concept of our belonging, which is true, as we have just read, our belonging to the universal church, our individual union with the person of Jesus Christ. The problem with that is that not only here Paul in 1 Corinthians, but in the testimony of the New Testament, every single author through their spirit speak of the importance of the context of the local church and the context of the fellowship of the brethren. even to the point that when the Apostle is speaking in a parallel passage of this same concept, he will use very strong words. Come with me, please, to Romans chapter 12. And in Romans chapter 12, this Apostle, the same Apostle, the Apostle Paul, will speak in a parallel passage about the membership that Christians have to the universal church or to the body of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And he will say something very important. So have in mind this verse 27, please. because we're going to read the parallel verse that the apostle uses to give us a deeper nuance of the context of the church. It says, verse 27, Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. Now, the it is referring to what?

He's referring to the body of Christ. I'm just repeating verse 27 in chapter 12. So it's once again, please keep that verse in your mind says now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it, individually members of the body of Christ. Now come with me to Romans chapter 12. And in Romans chapter 12, the apostle is going to give us a very profound truth.

In chapter 12 in 1 Corinthians, the apostle speaks of the union that every believer, by virtue of their salvation, have with the person of Jesus Christ, united to the body of the Lord, individually united to the Lord. By grace through faith, each one of you who have put your trust in Christ have been united to the Lord. And in that sense, we belong to the spiritual body of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the universal church. But then in the parallel passage here in Romans chapter 12, In verse 3, I want you to pay attention to this. It says, For by grace, for by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has designed.

Now pay attention to verse 4. For us in one body, you see the same language, right? For us in one body, we have many members. and the members do not all have the same function. So we, though many, are one body once again in Christ.

And now he says, and individually members, one of another. Individually members, one of another. Now, beloved brothers and sisters, the power of what he's actually saying here is incredible. And I don't think that words will be enough to explain what he's actually trying to say here. The union that we have with the person of Jesus Christ is not only that union that puts us in context for being together, but the substance of the union that we have with Christ is the same substance that unites us as members of his body.

So, in a sense, brothers and sisters who, by grace through faith, have been saved, they are united to each other in the same way that they are united to Christ. Think about this, our union as brothers and sisters is imperfect. We don't love each other as we ought to love. We don't have the strong fellowship that we ought to have. But there's going to come a day in which glory comes, in which we are not only going to spend eternity in communion with Jesus Christ, But that is not going to be communion with the Lord Jesus Christ in the eternity that is to come.

It's not going to be a heaven allocated for each one of us so that we will have our individual relationship with Christ. But heaven and eternity is also the enjoyment of the fellowship that the saints can have one with another by virtue of the union that they have with the Lord Jesus Christ. And just as the union that the believer has individually with Christ is unbreakable by reason and by virtue of that unbreakable union that the believer has in the universal body or in the universal church, the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, then the relationship that the same has with one another is unbreakable as well. There's not going to be divisions or separations in heaven. There's not going to be someone that says, OK, I don't want to belong to this church anymore, and then I'm just going to depart and go to hell.

No, everyone is going to be without sin, without it, completely united in the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. No, brothers and sisters, the union that we have with the Savior started in eternity past. We were found in Him, chosen in the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we had faith, we were vitally united to the person of Jesus Christ experientially and received the Holy Spirit. That means that in the same sense, his whole church was chosen before the foundation of the world.

And even though our relationship today is imperfect, we don't love as we should love. We don't have fellowship as we should have fellowship. And we fall short of many of the relationships that we have as Christians. This, for me, at least, is mind-blowing. is that we are united, one to each other, in an incredible way.

That's why nobody will give to each other in marriage, right? In heaven. because there's going to be a stronger, more eternal union that the believers and the saints are going to experience one with another that goes beyond the covenant of marriage, which is glorious in this present time. And it's not to be broken, but there's going to be a union between the saints that goes beyond it. And that is the union that we have in the person of Jesus Christ.

Now it says, members one of another. Wow, what a shame upon me that I'm not able to love my brethren, I'm supposed to love them, that I'm not able to sacrifice for the brethren I'm supposed to sacrifice when I'm united to them. as I'm united to the person of Jesus Christ by virtue of the love that he had for me. Now, brothers and sisters, this is very important because this means that the core and the heart of fellowship in the context of the church is not just simply external activities that are done or simple things that are done, you know, just manifested externally. But the relationship of the believers in the context of the church has to be rooted in a spiritual And this is very important that we need to say and that we need to speak about.

Because, beloved brethren, we have been made by the Lord with this genuine and natural desire to be surrounded by people. We are social beings by nature. And according to our flesh, we want to be with other people. We want to be heard. We want to communicate.

We want to experience community. And all of those things can be accomplished. All of these levels of fellowship can be accomplished in the flesh. There are people that come together and that they love one another in the flesh and they do it very well. Not spiritually, but they do it very well.

There are people that come and help one another and even have peace with one another. And they can do that in the flesh. There is a genuine fleshly desire, natural desire to us to have community and to have, you know, people around us and speak to other people and to hear and to help each other and to grow in loving one another. And all of those things, those are natural to us. yet there's a very thin line of distinction between doing all of those things in the flesh and doing all of those things in the Spirit, rooted and by virtue of the union that we have with the person of Jesus Christ.

Beloved brethren, this is very important that we understand, because if you come with me to Ephesians chapter four very quickly, and if you remember the passage that we use for this series of Bible studies in which we are speaking about bringing the church together and bringing unity and maturity in the church, there's something very important here. If you come to Ephesians chapter 4 very quickly. In verse, let us just read from verse 11, all to the end to verse 16, it says, and he gave the apostles, you know, like you see the parallel with 1 Corinthians chapter 12 that we read, apostles and prophets and all of those things. Now, I'm very tempted to let's just read it. Verse 11, it says, And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip.

Now, these ministries have been given to equip. Remember these were equip the saints for the work of ministry. And that is with the purpose of building up the body of Christ. That is the universal church to building up the universal of the body of Christ, until we all, saints, attained to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. And then he says in verse 15, Rather, speaking the truth in love, we speaking of the saints, pay attention to this.

We are to grow up. in every way into him. This is Jesus. He's going to be clarified now. We are to grow up in every way into him who is the head.

And then he says into Christ from whom that is Christ, the whole body joined and held together, not only to him, but one to another. Right. It says by every joint, Just pay attention to the language that the apostle uses, joint and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, which it is equipped. I don't want to say anything there, but OK, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. Brethren, Oh, brethren, maturity for the body and for the church, not only universally, but for the local church.

is, of course, foundationally contingent upon our union with the Lord Jesus Christ and our experience of the Lord Jesus Christ. But also what he says, they're joined and held together by every joint which it is equipped. Apostles and prophets and evangelists and shepherds and teachers, all of these ministries of the word that have been given to the church so that we will grow up in maturity. Beloved brethren, if a church does not have biblical fellowship. that church will never grow in spiritual maturity as we have it in the scriptures.

And beloved brethren, we are going to be very tempted to define fellowship only by having good relationship among us and by having good friendships among us and by having just this conversation or that conversation or having one barbecue once per week or doing this or that. Yet, if we do those things in the flesh, because all of these are manifestations of fellowship, We will never grow in maturity, spiritual maturity. We will never have victory over sin. We will never grow in Christ-likeness. We will never grow in understanding of the biblical things.

We will never grow in understanding of the times. We will never have a word ready in our mouth to speak to this world in darkness. We will never have words in our mouth ready to speak to the one that is lost. We will be powerless. We will be coward.

We will be afraid. We will be just not growing, as he says here, all in love, in union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Fellowship is the greatest temptation that the church has to do church according to the flesh. What churches do is that they try to offer people different type of events and programs and situations so that in their flesh they will feel so attracted to the community of the church that they will want to remain in the context of the community of the church. And they will say, I went to that church and the preaching was good and the music was good and the fellowship was great.

And what they mean is that people were friendly, that people received them with a coffee or that the church had a good coffee shop or this or that. Beloved brethren. This is fellowship in the flesh. And what I'm trying to say to you is genuine fellowship that happens in the power of the Holy Spirit in the soul of the believer that now is manifested in barbecues and is manifested in having a coffee together and that is manifested in all of those things with the purpose I will tell you many purposes later on, but with the purpose of exalting Christ, not only in my individual life, but in the life of the other. You see, it's different for me just to go and grab a coffee for me to have a good time, which is selfless, which is just pleasing my flesh.

I want to have a good time. It's different when I want to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ by sharing time with you, when I want to see the Lord Jesus Christ in you and in me. And I want to, as you know, many times we use carelessly those words, iron, sharpened irons. Are we having a coffee and speaking about the weather and speaking about COVID and the government? Come on, we are to sharpen one another through the words of God in the power of the Spirit, biblical fellowship interested in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, brethren, for me, this is just very profound. But I need to continue to what we need to address. Of course, if we are going to have fellowship one with another that is established in this, I want to show you the example of the Lord Jesus Christ, because that is the union that will give us union with one another. So I'm going to invite you to come to Galatians chapter two. Let me just show you something very powerful once again.

Galatians chapter 2 in verse 20. Brothers and sisters, in this passage here, the apostle Paul is going to speak about his present He is writing this many years ago, but he's going to speak about his present, whenever he wrote this, his present experience of union and fellowship with Christ. And he's going to explain that the reason why he has this union of fellowship with Christ is because of what the Lord Jesus Christ did for his soul a few years before this was written. So he's going to say, the life that now I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. He says in verse 20, let's read together.

It says, I have been crucified with Christ. In other words, I have become a genuine believer. That is what being a genuine believer is, is to be crucified with Christ, is to die to the old self, is to die to the man that is made according to the image of Adam or in Adam better. is to die to that man crucified with Christ. And that is not left dead, but is made alive in Christ.

That is what he says, it is no longer I who live. But Paul, you said that you were dead. No, he's alive, but he's alive now in Christ. He says, he's not only I who live, and then he says, but Christ who lives in me. Speaking of now this fellowship that if you want, or this communion that now he has with the Lord Jesus Christ.

And the life that now I live in the flesh, once again, it's not the life that he lives, but Christ that is living in him. I live by the faith of the Son or in the Son of God, he says, and then he gives the reason or the cause for the type of fellowship that he had or that he had in that moment, present when he was writing the fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. He says that he gives the reason here. He says, the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me, who loved me and gave himself for me. Paul was able to have fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

In other words, Christ living in me is very strong fellowship because Christ initiated this fellowship with him when he loved him and he gave himself for him. In order for Christ to enter into this glorious communion and union with Paul and with your soul, He loved you first and then He sacrificed Himself so that by virtue of that love that He had for you and the sacrifice that He had for you, He could enter in fellowship with your wicked and righteous, dirty as mine soul. the two key important components of fellowship. Love. Sacrifice.

He loved us first, as the Apostle John says in 1st John, and he was a propitiation for our sins, which is the definition of love. And by virtue of the sacrificial love that Jesus Christ had, now every believer has fellowship with Christ. And you remember what John says in 1 John, in the first letter? And these things we write to you so that you indeed may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with Jesus Christ, His Son, beloved brethren.

These are the examples, these are the activities, these are the desires of Jesus Christ in loving us and in sacrificing himself for us. What do you think the true fellowship is then going to be for the believer? Nothing less than love. and sacrifice, nothing less than giving one's life for the sake of this bride that is not my bride, but is the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing else that to be spent spiritually and to be spent physically for the sake of people who are sinners and righteous and wicked and many times will hate you and say things to you, but they were bought by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, you don't have fellowship with them by virtue of who they are, what they say to you, but because He loved them and gave Himself for them. Once we understand that, beloved brethren, The relationships that we're going to have are not going to be based upon, I like what you like, and we have come to a social agreement of telling each other things that are shallow enough not to bother each other and not to pierce each other so much so that we don't depart from each other. But then when your eyes are open to this, every soul is Jesus Christ dying upon the cross. And beloved brethren, that was the gospel of the early church. Now, you know, after studying John, after studying John, his gospel was very simple.

He died, loved one another. He is coming back. That was his gospel. He died for your soul upon the cross. Now, love one another, He's coming back.

And then when you see it in the gospel of John, the narrative and the story of He died for your soul. Then when you go and see 1st, 2nd and 3rd John, love one another. And then you go and see Revelation, He's coming back. And that was the gospel of the Apostle John, who was the one that perhaps lived longer. He's the one that had been more experienced with the life of the church.

Simple, powerful gospel. He died for your soul, love one another, have hope because He's coming back. He's coming back for your soul. He's coming back to rescue. He's coming to take the bride out of the wilderness, leaning upon the Beloved.

This is the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Come with me to 1 John and then I will show you a necessity and a condition for fellowship, beloved brethren. 1 John. We ought to have love and sacrifice just as the Lord did for us. And of course, our fellowship with one another will necessarily depend on our fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

We are not to have fellowship, relate to one another upon our fleshly preferences and our similarities or the things that we like and agree upon. But the root and the source of our fellowship is to be to be in the light as he is in the light. He says in verse seven. But if we walk in the light with a conditional, if the word if is a conditional, but if we walk in the light, as He is in the light. And how is He in the light?

Unchangeably, unmovably, constantly, ongoingly, unstoppably, constantly, enduring, remaining, abiding. That's how He is in the light. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, then the result of that conditional is we have fellowship with one another. Now, the Spirit of Christ not only indwelling us upon salvation, but the Spirit of Christ also constantly indwelling us in our life, not only showing us the glory and the virtues of the cross and the love that He had for our souls, but also displaying that love in the life of other people. That's why when you go and read and see the early church and the book of Acts, you see the level of sacrifice that they will have one for the other, because the Spirit of Christ had come recently upon them and their eyes had been opened in such a way that there was no other cause.

There was no other purpose to be pursued. There was no other empire to be built, other cause to be pushed rather than this one of the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in that passage, we learned a lot of things. If you come with me, please, to Acts chapter 2. There in that passage of Acts chapter 2, indeed we will learn a lot of things.

Let me give you from this passage a few characteristics of biblical fellowship, beloved brethren, because as I said to you, there is a great temptation in the flesh that we will engage in fleshly fellowship and that we will enjoy one another with selfish desires. that we will enjoy the company and the community that we can have just purely in the flesh. As I said, there are people in the flesh, even lost, that are able to build communities that live in peace and that have experiences and that go all good through the years and endure as a community, not having the Spirit of God. In the church, we are not to trade that level of community for biblical fellowship. So let me here give you a couple of characteristics that will help us discern if the fellowship in which we are engaged is in the spirit and is according to the light of the Lord Jesus Christ who is within us.

You may remember here of a very a very powerful verse that is found in chapter 2, verse 42, in which we are going to have there the concept of this idea of fellowship. If you read it, we read it there together, it says, And they, speaking of the Christians, they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship and to the breaking of bread and the prayers. So here we have that the saints, the early saints, the new believers, they devoted, they given themselves unto the apostles teaching 1, fellowship 2, the breaking of bread 3 and the prayers. These are the four practices that they gave and we have their fellowship. But now let us read the context of verse 42 so that I will be able to point you to a couple of things and I will have to try to be short.

and so that we will be able to pray. Let us read, if you remember, this is the exposition, this is the sermon upon the Spirit of God come or came upon the brethren there, the early church in the day of Pentecost and the apostles, their mouths were open to speak of the glories of God. And Peter was raised or lifted by the Spirit of God to preach a very powerful sermon to the point that the hearts of men were pierced, were cut, and many people were saved. If we read, that's kind of like the context. If we read from verse 37, it says, Now, when they heard this, this is the powerful preaching of Peter through the Spirit of God.

Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brothers, what shall we do? And Peter said to them, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself. And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, Save yourselves from this crooked generation.

So those who received his words were baptized. not only in the water, but because they had been baptized in the Spirit, they had been baptized in Christ. So they were baptized and they were added that day about 3,000 souls added, newly saved. Their first love had come upon them. Their eyes had been opened.

Now they have left everything behind. I will follow you to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now it says in verse 42, and they devoted themselves. All of these souls that had heard this gospel preached, and these many souls that had been saved, and they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, and the fellowship, and the breaking of bread, and the prayers. First necessity of biblical fellowship, beloved brothers and sisters, is genuine salvation.

Union with Christ is, as I have now said, necessary for union, spiritual union, one with the other. We cannot have genuine fellowship in the context of the church if there is no genuine salvation. We can cover and disguise type of fellowship and programs and events and activities and all of these things as activities that we do. But if we are not truly in Jesus Christ, all of them, they will be done in the flesh. We will experience joy, we will experience gladness, we can even experience peace.

But if we are not in the person of Jesus Christ, we will never be able to obtain the level of biblical fellowship that we ought to have one with another. The visitation of Christ, the visitation of the Spirit to the heart of that person is utterly necessary for biblical salvation. Second, genuine salvation will produce a Spirit-given desire, not only to partake, of one another, but rather what it says in verse 42, they devoted themselves. The spirit will move the desires of the person, the desires of the Christian to devote himself not only to fellowship, but to the apostles teaching, to fellowship, the breaking of bread and the prayers. Do you think that these early believers were dull, indifferent and cold in their heart to all of these activities?

You think that they were doing it in a forceful way, that they were just doing it through motions and they were just simply ticking boxes as they were partaking and participating in the Apostles' teaching, fellowship, breaking of the bread and the prayers? No, they were giving up or renouncing, if that is a word, giving up their lives and many things to give themselves and to see the pleasure and the satisfaction and the joy that will be to devote themselves to all of these things. Genuine salvation and a spirit driven in the heart to give themselves to this, including fellowship. And the third thing that I want you to pay more attention to, those two very quickly, but the third one and very importantly, See the companions. Companions is a word, right?

The companions of fellowship. See those practices that came together with fellowship. Because even though they are not used there as an adjective or as a word that describes fellowship, when you put them together, this is what they devoted themselves to. Pay attention to those things that come together with fellowship, and this will help us to discern the nature and the type and the power of fellowship in which we are engaged into or to. It says that they devoted themselves not only to fellowship, as these were just simply activities of participating in whatever thing that they did.

But first of all, they gave themselves to the apostles teaching. It says on the fellowship, third thing, and the breaking of bread. And third thing, to prayers. It's not that on Monday they gave themselves to the apostles teaching and on Tuesday they gave themselves to fellowship and on Wednesday they gave themselves to the breaking of the bread and on Thursday they gave themselves to prayers. These were the practices of the church that took captive the hearts newly converted of these early Christians that moved them by the Spirit to give themselves to that.

That means that the practice of fellowship comes with, and is accompanied with, the giving of oneself, in this case of the church, to the apostles' teaching, the breaking of the bread, and the prayers. Let me briefly speak about this and we will end with that. We will never have, beloved brethren, genuine fellowship if that fellowship is not, first of all, spiritual, and that fellowship is moved and it is conducted by the Word of the Lord. I'm not speaking or saying that every time that we come together we ought to discuss this doctrine and that doctrine and the Bible and that Bible and this and this and that, but there has to be some of that. Come with me to Colossians chapter 3 and you will see here the very popular verse that speaks of this very, very important matter.

Colossians chapter 3. Imagine the early Christians devoted themselves to the apostles' teachings. There were no New Testament. There were no writings. There was nothing that they could refer to, yet they gave themselves to the apostles' teaching.

Now, we do have the apostles teaching in our hands, and that is the New Testament, and that is the Bible, of course. Now, let us pay attention, please, here to Colossians 3, verse 16. It says, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness or with grace in your hearts to God. Beloved brethren, it is a spiritual duty and a spiritual necessity and a spiritual characteristic of the heart of the Christian. I desire to let the word of Christ dwell in our hearts richly so that our mouth will speak of the abundance of our heart and that the abundance of our heart will be the word of the Lord Jesus Christ.

When the heart, the mind, the soul is filled with the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, the desire of the person will be this, to speak the words of the Lord, and not only to speak them, but to one another, to teaching, admonishing one another in wisdom. Word that has been given to an earthen vessel by the grace of the Lord, a word that is not given for the word to dwelt in that person in a secret, a captive way, but rather is a word that has been given, light that has been given for this person to open his mouth and to share with the brethren and to exhort one another and to share with one another with thankfulness in the heart, joyful that the brother is able to open or the sister is able to open his or her mouth to speak the words of Christ unto another brother or sister. Fellowship together with the giving of oneself. to the doctrine and the teachings of the apostles. You know, some brethren says, and I think that I've said this to you before, he says, with thankfulness in your hearts or with great in your heart, that is that when you have been dwelling so much in the words of the Lord, then your heart is filled with thankfulness, which is filled with grace.

The same question that some brethren, and sometimes we ask, do we have grace in our hearts? That is, have you been dwelling in the Word? Has your mind been in the Word of God in such a way that I can say, brother, sister, do you have grace in your heart? Is your well filled with water? Give me some of your water to drink.

Share with me some of the things that the Lord has been speaking to you through the Scriptures. Teach me some of the things that the Lord has illuminated. Share with me some of these glorious things that is it only the Lord, the one that is able to share with you. And beloved brethren, this is powerful when it comes to fellowship, because now iron is sharpening iron, giving oneself to the word of the Lord. Come once again, please.

I will try to be very short. Come with me, please, to Acts chapter 2 once again. That is the word of the Lord. I said to you, beloved brothers and sisters, that this biblical fellowship is to be seen, understood by the companions. The first companion is the apostles teaching.

The second one is the breaking of bread, right? It says apostles teaching and the fellowship and the breaking of bread. It says that could be either that is taken as the communion. Some people say that this is the communion, or it could be that is also just breaking the bread. If you go there to verse 46, it says, and day by day attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes.

Right? So some people will say, OK, this is referring to the breaking of the bread or the breaking of bread, which is the Lord's table or communion, or just simply breaking of bread in each one of the houses, just having a meal together. It doesn't really matter. Everything matters. It's very important.

Everything is very important in the Scriptures. Beloved brothers, there's one that excludes the other. And that is that if we take this as Lord's Table, it's going to somehow exclude the other. But the other does not necessarily exclude the Lord's Table, because when you go and read 1 Corinthians 11 and you carefully read 1 Corinthians 11 and the description of the communion, the Lord's Table, it sounds very familiar that there was before or during or after the Lord's Table, the communion, that there was food that would be able to fill that person and make a person or a person will not be hungry. A person will get drunk with the wine.

And that was the exhortation that the apostle was given there in first Corinthians chapter 11. Independently of what it is, taking it from there or from verse 46, there's a very important element of fellowship that even if we had more energy in the flesh, I would be able to point you to Exodus chapter 24 and show you something very important there, but this is the energy that the Lord has given us for this day. And so let me just speak about that. Either if it's the communion, the Lord's table, or it is the breaking of the bread, there is a very powerful element in eating and drinking together, giving the church or the people of the saints of the church to the Lord, to the apostles doctrine, but also to the breaking of the bread. Of course, the exaltation of it on the Lord's Day as we come and break the bread and we partake of the wine and the bread as we're doing it in the community, but also, beloved brethren, there's a very important element of the coming together of the saints to break the bread as they were doing and eating together.

I'm very tempted to do it, so please bear with me and come just to Exodus chapter 24. And I promise that I will be just super brief there. Come quickly to Exodus chapter 24. And brethren, eating and drinking together is not only something that is a cultural thing that brings people together. It has, you know, what theologians call a biblical theological aspect to eating and drinking together.

Just remember Abraham, just like you can remember every single person and you will see that there's this component of eating and drinking and fellowship. And this was not a Hebrew or Middle Eastern thing. This was a biblical thing. So please come to Exodus chapter 24. In Exodus chapter 24, the covenant is going to be given, if you remember, right?

The Ten Commandments have been given. The covenant is going to be as you have, perhaps you will have the title there. So Moses is going to go up to the mountain, is going to spend some time there with the Lord. And he's told just to approach the mountain. And the Israelites were supposed not enter into the mountain.

They were just supposed to go to the edge of the mountain. If they cross through the mountain, they will just die. It was taking 70 elders. The 70 elders could reach a certain level. And then Moses was the one that was able to ascend.

The Mount of the Lord. Please, brethren, bear with me. Let us read together because I'm not able to recollect the whole thing and just to put it in your mind. It says, Then he said to Moses, Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, these are the priests, if you remember, and 70 of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar. Moses alone shall come near to the Lord.

This is the presence of the Lord. But the others shall not come near and the people shall not come up with him. Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, all the words that the Lord has spoken, we will do. And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord.

He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain before he's going. So he built an altar, brothers and sisters. And you should see here the similarities between the three levels in the mountain and the tabernacle. But anyway, He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and 12 pillars, according to the 12 tribes of Israel. And he sent young men of the people of Israel who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord.

And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar. He took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, All that the Lord has spoken, we will do, and we will be obedient. And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, Behold, the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words. Then Moses and Aaron, Nathan and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up.

All of this happened down in the mountain. Remember, the mountain is when the presence of the Lord is. Remember this, what do you call it? A cloud? You know, this smoking cloud.

Remember that they will see this in the mountain, in the top of the mountain, they are going to come ascend. the hill of the Lord, Psalm 15, you can read Psalm 15 to see this. They are ascending to the tabernacle, the dwelling place of the Lord. And he says, the people of Israel, you are to remain there. Only the priest and Moses and the 70 elders come to the presence of the Lord, it says in verse 9.

and they saw the God of Israel. There was under His feet, as it were, a pavement and sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness." This is indeed a type of heaven that they were seeing on the mountain. They were seeing a reflection of what the heavenly reality is. They were seeing physical things, but that was the presence of the Lord upon the earth.

And then verse 11, And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel. They beheld God." In other words, he did not kill them. He did not destroy them. They beheld God and ate and drank.

Ate and drank? What place does it take eating and drinking in the presence of God who is fearful that the people of Israel would say, please, you know, you go on and speak to him because we don't want to hear unless we die. All of this is more empowered the presence of God himself, yet fellowship of that which is limited and that which is going to perish and die, these people and God ate and drank. eating and drinking, this is the biblical theological teaching of food and drink. And this is the breaking of the bread, whatever you consider it, the breaking of the bread of the saints, so essential and important in the fellowship, in the coming together, giving oneself to nourish the mind and also to nourish the body with the brethren.

to enjoy the pleasures that the Lord has given us in our mouth, in our taste, also enjoying the pleasures that He has given to our hearts, enjoying the presence of the bread bought by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and also the gospel and the scriptures. And that's it. I'm not going to speak more about that. Let us come to Acts chapter 2, please, and I will finish there. What is the third companion of fellowship, brothers and sisters?

According to that passage, Prayers. We will never be able to have genuine biblical fellowship one with another if we are not given ourselves to the doctrine of the scriptures as it's taught to us, given to us through the Spirit in the apostles. Spending time with one another in this intimate fellowship, breaking bread, yes, in the exaltation of this moment, at church and breaking of the bread and communion and then partaking of the bread and the wine, but also spending time one with another in the secret place of our households. You see how destructive this whole thing of lockdowns and things, sorry for those who will hear this or if the government is hearing, you know, the lockdowns and the things that they did to the church. separating people, not only from coming together on the Lord's day, but removing at times the possibility of people coming to each other and spending time with each other.

This is a vital aspect of the life of the church, the doctrine of the apostles, fellowship in that sense of giving one another and prayers. Imagine the saints of the early church coming together to spend time at their homes to speak about what Peter said. Did you hear how he preached? Did you hear the things that he said? Did you hear when he quoted the prophet Joel and how he brought light to all of these things?

Did you hear those things? Did you memorize those words? Because we don't have it written. Did you memorize all of these? meditating upon the teaching of the apostles, giving one to the other, communing one with the other.

Brother and sister, do you have need of this or that? Not in the flesh, in the desire of Christ. Brother and sister, let's get on our knees and let's pray for this Lord of ours who died. And he said that he will come. He may come tomorrow.

They did not know. He may come the day after tomorrow. Let's pray. that this kingdom might come powerfully and that these people of Israel will indeed be transformed and saved and resurrected from their death and they will be transformed. Beloved brethren, this is heaven on earth.

And the way that we experience heaven on earth is when the individual Christian is having communion and fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ, so that our fellowship and our communion would be heaven on earth. Eternally united, never able to love you perfectly on this side. But imagine this, eternally united, eternally united. We are here united in whatever sense, but eternally united in the person of Jesus Christ. How are we going to see then another brother or sister with bitterness in the heart?

How are we going to treasure up envy or evil desires or evil thoughts in our hearts against our brother or sister? How are we going to harbor thoughts or things in our hearts and get our brothers and sisters and not deal with those things that are going against love? That's why love fulfills the law. That's why loving one another fulfills the law, because when we love one another, it's not us loving one another, but it's the manifestation of the love of Christ operating in our lives, making us to love one another. May the Lord bless us, brothers and sisters, to achieve these levels of seeing Christ in our lives and transforming us to give one to each other.

And let us pray.