1 Corinthians: "Fellowship"

I trust that it will be a profit and blessing to all. Now we'll turn again to the first epistle of Corinthians in chapter 1. First Corinthians in chapter 1 and again verse number 9, God is faithful by whom you were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Chapter 10, verse number 14, 1 Corinthians 10 verse 14, Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.

I speak as to wise men. Judge ye what I say. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread, one body.

We are all partakers of that one bread. Behold, Israel after the flesh, are not they which eat of the sacrifices, partakers of the altar? What shall I say then that the idol is anything or that which is offered in idols is anything? But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. And I would not that you should have fellowship with demons.

You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot be partaker of the Lord's table and the table of demons. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? Now just for the sake of time, down the chapter verse 31, Whether therefore ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God, giving none offense.

The idea there is not stumbling anyone, neither to the Jews nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God, even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved. One final portion in 2 Corinthians 6. We'll break in at verse 11. O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged, ye are straightened.

Now you have this contrast, a man who is liberal and a people who are narrow. Ye are narrow, ye are not narrow on us but ye are narrow in your own vows or your own affections. Now for a recompense in the same, I speak as to my children, be ye also enlarged.

So now what he's going to bring before us is a way of being enlarged in Christian experience. Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? What communion hath light with darkness? What concord hath Christ with Belial? What part hath he that believeth with an infidel? What agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are temple of the living God, as God has said, I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people. Wherefore, come out from among them and be separate, saith the Lord.

Touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you and will be a father unto you and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Having therefore these promises dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Now we trust that God will add his rich blessing to the reading of what I'm sure are very familiar verses to all who are here and I trust with God's help something fresh can be seen from them.

The subject before us this morning, first of all, is boundaries obliterated. One of the great reasons for the chaos, the confusion that existed at the church in Corinth was that boundaries that God intended to exist had been totally ignored or obliterated by their behavior and by their actions and activities. Boundaries.

Let me just take a moment and take you back and show you the principle of boundaries that God has always been a God who has established boundaries or divisions or limits to things. It is really the very first day of creation that God begins to separate things. He separated the light, it says, he divided light from darkness and the first day he called or that day he called the first day, evening and morning, were the first day and God said it was good.

And actually as you go through those first three days, God is in the business each of those three days of making and dividing light from darkness, the waters above the earth from the waters beneath the earth and then day three, the seas from the dry land, he is dividing and setting boundaries. Now, just so you don't think that's just an isolated thing, you don't go too far, do you, until God says, I am going to separate one man, one family from everyone else and he sets apart Noah and puts a boundary around him. And he starts all over again then with Noah's family on the new earth and soon men are going their way again in wickedness, the tower of Babel is erected, a Nimrod rises up and men are rejecting God and now God says I am going to separate a family from everyone else and put a boundary around Abraham and his family.

And then time goes on and God begins to separate a nation from all the other nations and he puts a boundary around them. That's the wording really of Galatians 3, that the law was our schoolmaster. It was like a boundary that God established around the nation and he was establishing a boundary around the nation of Israel.

And then the nation of Israel went its way in rejection and God now has a remnant from that nation that he again establishes and separates from all the rest. And then that remnant that we see in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, that remnant descends into the sad tragic condition of the days of Malachi. And what does God do in the days of Malachi? Well now there is a remnant within a remnant.

They that spake often one to another, the Lord hearkened and God says they shall be mine. This remnant within a remnant. And then God begins again doesn't he in the New Testament.

And he is now taking out of the Gentiles a people for his name. He is separating one group from all the nations. That's what he is in the business of doing.

And so God himself is marked as being a God who was a God of boundaries. What is the purpose of boundaries? Now as you as a parent, why do you establish boundaries for your children? Why does God establish boundaries for individual believers and for assemblies and for his people? Well there are many many reasons we could give for it. One is to test us.

To test us. The tree that was in the midst of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, it was as though God was saying Adam everything here is yours. Everything here is for you to enjoy.

But this tree is a reminder that this garden is really mine. This tree is to remind you this garden really is mine. Going to test your affection, your loyalty.

Going to test whether you will appreciate that it is really mine. So he set a boundary at times to test and to see if there is genuine affection and genuine appreciation for him. But also it is to train us.

And let me just take you back. If I'm dwelling a lot on Adam, I think it's because there are principles that are seen in those early chapters of Genesis that are developed. You remember that God said concerning the garden that everything was good.

Now you get that in those first seven days of creation. Every day except one God says it's good and the tree was and the garden was good and man was good and so on. Now God says Adam, I am going to place you in the garden as the place of your dominion.

This is your training ground here in the garden. Training for being able to have dominion over all the earth. Adam, this place is good.

But what Adam didn't know, what we know is that there was a river flowing out of that garden that went to a land called Havilah. And isn't it remarkable? It says the gold of that land was good. So Adam, here is a place that is good, but I've got something good out there as well.

And it's gold. And if you are successful here in your dominion for God, if you are able to rule here in your dominion for God, God has something even greater for you out there. Advancement, growth, development, to enjoy the gold of the land which was good.

Not just the fruit and the trees and the creation, but gold, that which would be lasting and eternal. And of course you know what occurred, Adam fell. God establishes boundaries as well, not only to test us and to train us, but as a testimony for what he wants to proclaim to others.

And so he separated Abraham, just to separate him? No, as a testimony to what God was like. He separates a local company of believers, not because he is trying to make unnecessary restrictions or whimsical desires that we be different, but in our character as being separate to the Lord to display, to reveal to a world around us what God is like in his character. It is for testimony.

But then as well, you know as well, if you have something of value, you want to protect it, don't you? If you have something that means something to you, it may be something as small as a flower garden, a vegetable garden. And you may have to put a fence around it to keep things out that don't belong, to preserve it, to protect it. And we do that all the time in our lives, don't we? And if you were to go to other countries, we think crime is bad in this country.

You go to some third world countries and some other lands, you will find that every home has bars, every home has a wall and a gate around it to protect it. Boundaries. And so the principle of boundaries and the purpose of boundaries is obvious.

And we are reminded of the peril of boundaries, aren't we? You remember we said twice over in Deuteronomy, in Deuteronomy 19, God says, when you go into the land, make sure you don't remove the ancient landmarks. When a man sets up his boundary as to what belongs to him, don't remove that ancient landmark. And he says again in Deuteronomy 27, those chapters of cursing and blessing, cursed be he that removed the ancient landmarks.

And twice over in Proverbs, the same principle is taken up when Solomon says, to remove not the ancient landmarks which thy fathers have set. So God says, boundaries need to be observed. Now we're not talking about traditions.

We're not talking about customs and habits that we have that sometimes do need to be examined and judged. We are talking about divinely given boundaries that we need to observe. Corinth was blurring the boundaries.

Corinth was confusing the boundaries God had established. For example, what was outside was being brought in, wasn't it? The immorality of the world was coming into the assembly. And what was supposed to be kept in the assembly was going out to law courts.

So the boundary of within and without was being blurred. The boundary of the genders was being confused. God has established a boundary between male and female, between the leadership, the headship of the male in the assembly and the submission of the female in the assembly.

And that boundary was being obliterated. The boundary between the assembly of God and the idol's temple was all being blurred and set aside. And they were going back and forth between them.

And so Corinth had a boundary problem. They had a difficulty understanding the boundaries God had established for his testimony. So let me come then to this issue of boundaries.

And I want you to look first of all at five implications of fellowship from chapter one. We will notice as well when we come to chapter five, not just five implications, but five inconsistencies in their fellowship, five inconsistencies in their fellowship. When we come to 2 Corinthians chapter six, we will see five incompatibilities in fellowship.

And had we time and were at the main subject we had before us, we could look at 1 John, John's first epistle, and look at five impossibilities relative to fellowship. Now the fellowship of 1 John, of course, is not assembly fellowship. It's fellowship of a believer with the Father and with all the families, the fellowship of the family, a wider sphere, the fellowship we enjoy with everyone who is a Christian.

But you have those then five implications, five inconsistencies, five incompatibilities, and again from John's epistle, five impossibilities. So we'll look at those very briefly and try to just underline a few very important points relative to this issue of assembly fellowship. So let me just mention five implications.

1 Corinthians chapter one and verse number nine, called unto the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. What is the basis, first of all? Implication number one, the basis for assembly fellowship. What is it? Well, we have that brought before us in the word of God, don't we? We have the mandate and we have the moral order.

They that gladly received his word, salvation and baptism. Or you might say, is baptism necessary for assembly fellowship? It's as necessary as salvation because the one is the expression of the other. Baptism is not a door to the assembly, it's the proof of salvation.

So those two things move together. They never move apart from each other. Baptism follows salvation.

So they that gladly received his word were baptized. Now notice the moral order that you have in Acts chapter two. Notice the progression of steps.

They received his word, they were baptized, they continued in what? They continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and the fellowship and the breaking of bread and prayers. So look now, if you will, just take those expressions and notice how one leads to the other. The apostles doctrine, truth that was agreed upon, led to fellowship.

Fellowship was expressed in the breaking of bread and that fellowship was maintained by prayer. So you cannot reverse that order. Let me just give you, and this is especially for young Christians, so just listen up for just a moment and I think if you can grasp this simple elementary principle, it will preserve you in many of the decisions you have to make relative to what you can get involved in.

Fellowship is not something we agree to have. Now listen carefully. Fellowship is not something we agree to have.

Fellowship is something we have because we agree. Now there's a world of difference between those two things. We do not sit down and decide, well now, shall we have fellowship? No.

We have fellowship because we agree and if we don't agree, we can make all the decisions and all the compromises we want, but it's not genuine fellowship. Fellowship springs from truth that is agreed upon, truth that is shared. The apostles doctrine, it led to the fellowship of the assembly.

And so fellowship then is the result of agreeing upon truth together and uniting, having a common interest in that truth. So the basis then of fellowship is the truth of God. It is what we agree upon as far as divine order and divine truth is concerned.

That is its basis. There are barriers to fellowship and I think most of us are aware of those barriers and what is involved in the barriers of fellowship. There are barriers that relate to, and I'll use the word kindly, ignorance.

Because when we come to chapter 14, we will find those who are not part of an assembly fellowship and they are referred to as being unlearned. Oh, you might say they don't know all about prophecy and they can't outline the gospel of John and they, no, no, that's not what they're unlearned about. Just read the chapter and you'll find what they learn.

That's why they were unlearned. What they learn in that chapter is God is in you of a truth. What they were ignorant of was that this was God's order for believers to meet.

This was the way God intended assemblies to be carried on. And so they have come into an assembly and I would understand that they are believers because they can say amen at thy giving of thanks. They are able to intelligently follow the worship of the assembly.

They are not part of that assembly because it says if the whole church is gathered together and there come in those that are unbelievers or unlearned, so they're not part of the assembly. The unlearned are able to follow, so they're believers. They are observing the order.

And what they have to learn is this, that God is in you of a truth. And so ignorance of divine order is a barrier to fellowship. They can't share with you in the fellowship of the assembly.

They don't understand it. Immorality is a barrier. 1 Corinthians chapter 5 reminds us that immorality itself is a barrier to assembly fellowship.

Encouragability. Now what do I mean by that? What I mean by that is the spirit of a man of Matthew 18. Now I know that's discipline and his being put out of the assembly, but I would take it that an incorrigible man, someone who is not willing to bow to lordship and be subject to the word of God, he really is not fit for assembly fellowship.

We are not looking for rebels. And so that would disqualify a man. And then of course the incorrect doctrine of Galatians 5 also would disqualify a person.

So there are barriers to fellowship. There are as well from the word of God tremendous blessings. Blessings to fellowship.

The privilege of being linked with the lord's name. Can you imagine any higher privilege in life than being called to the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ our lord. Any higher privilege you can think of? Any greater honor? There were people in our area, and I'm sure there were people here as well, who had the tremendous honor of being called to an inaugural celebration this past week in Washington.

Tremendous honor. And those people will take those gold invitations, gold rimmed invitations, or if they were one of the 6,000 who were fortunate enough to get a champagne glass with the date and so on of the inauguration, they will take those mementos and they will cherish them, put them in some unique spot within their home for everyone to see and heirlooms to be passed down to generations to come. Why? Called to enjoy the inauguration of a president.

Just a few fleeting hours to honor a passing man, however great, in a passing world, and yet we have been called to the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ our lord. The tremendous privilege of being linked with him here upon earth. Blessings of assembly fellowship, the privilege of being linked with him, the protective care of shepherds that have an interest in your well-being, that are striving and praying for you.

You know, there are people out there in this world that have never had a single person pray for them. There are people out there in this world that have never known the care of a shepherd's heart looking after their welfare. Just lost souls in a huge populace of people and you're brought into an assembly and maybe sometimes you chafe because they seem a little bit hard, they seem a little bit out of date, they're just not with it as much, but they have a care for you.

Tremendous blessing to have the protective care of shepherds who have an interest in your well-being. The potential for growth, not just sitting like someone coming and going from a religious service, but the potential to grow and to develop and to have your gift useful for God and be a blessing to others. Think as well of the tremendous possibility of building something for God that is going to have eternal value at the judgment seat of Christ.

And think as well of the privilege of fellowship together with saints, the priceless honor of fellowship together with saints, the blessings of assembly fellowship. But what of the burdens of assembly fellowship? There are burdens linked with assembly fellowship. Let me just mention three or four of them if I can quickly.

The first burden, or maybe the word burden is too strong a word to use. The responsibilities of assembly fellowship might be a better way of expressing it. First of all, responsibility to the government of the assembly.

Fellowship in an assembly means responsibility to the government of that assembly. That means the leaders. Not a matter that I can do as I please and I can go where I want and say what I want because we're all equal and we're all, no, no, no.

God's assembly is not a democracy. I love democracy. I have background that came from two other countries, both marked by extreme poverty.

And I had grandparents and great-grandparents that came to this land as indigent individuals marked by tremendous poverty and no education and all the rest. And I am so thankful that in the land in which we live, I have had the potential and the possibility of the blessings I have enjoyed, even in a material way. And that democracy has given.

So please don't misunderstand me. I'm not in any way downing democracy. Thank God for it.

And I will join singing America the Beautiful if you want. I love our country. In fact, sometimes I feel I'm too patriotic.

But let me say this. Democracy is not God's intention, either for a local assembly, for a family, or for eternity. That's not God's plan.

It may be the best we can get under the conditions of sinful humanity, but it's not God's ultimate plan. God's plan is a theocracy, a theocracy where his rule is recognized. And in a local company of believers, that rule is carried out through the word of God in the hands of men to whom God has given that responsibility.

So there is a responsibility to the government of God's assembly. There is a responsibility for the good of others in the assembly. When you are brought into assembly fellowship, it is a fellowship, meaning simply that you become responsible for the welfare of others.

It's quite a thing to sit with someone who's asking for reception to God's assembly. And, you know, they're sitting there. They're nervous.

They've kind of rehearsed all the right answers because they've asked their friends, what do they ask you when you go there? And, you know, what do they want to know? And so they've kind of rehearsed all the answers, and you can almost tell it's almost like a boilerplate answer they've gotten off the computer and memorized, you know. And you just sit and say, now, do you realize now if you come into assembly fellowship, you're responsible for my welfare? Wow. Yeah.

You are responsible for the welfare of everyone else in God's assembly. You might say, well, what can I do? I'm a young believer. I'm only saved a few years, and I hardly can preach.

I can't teach. I'm just learning myself. You can pray.

You can pray. That's something the youngest believer can do. You pray for the overseers in your assembly.

You pray for those older sisters who live alone and hardly see someone from Lord's Day to Lord's Day. You pray for the Sunday school teachers. You pray for the gospel.

That's how you can be a help. And as God enables you, you'll become even more of a help to further the welfare of others in God's assembly. You have a responsibility for everyone else.

It's a fellowship. You share together. That's the idea.

Sharing together in the welfare of God's assembly. No free rides. Don't just come to go along with the thing and to belong to something.

No. God intends fellowship to mean an active participation, seeking the welfare of every other believer in that assembly fellowship in which you are in. So you have a responsibility to the government of the assembly, to the good of others in the assembly, and for the gospel of the assembly to carry it out, to be with it, and to seek to support it in every way possible.

Part of the responsibility that you have as far as the burdens. So let me come then from five implications and move to five inconsistencies. Clocks move as fast in Iowa as elsewhere.

Five inconsistencies. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 10. Now you know the background of the beginning of this chapter.

He brings before them Israel and its blessings. They all, they all, he tells us in the beginning of this chapter, if you look at verse number one, is it? They all, our fathers, were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized, all did eat, all did drink, but with many God was not pleased. So the background of this, where we're coming and where we're going rather, is this.

That privileges, blessings, do not ensure that a person pleases God. They all knew these blessings, but with the greater majority, God was not pleased. What happened? Well, that's what follows.

He brings them to five catastrophes in the history of Israel. Five judgments upon the people of God concerning the nation of Israel. And so that's the background.

That's what he is building upon now. Privileges and blessings, but a failure to rise to enjoy those blessings. Now he comes in verse number 14 and says, now I'm speaking to wise men.

I'm speaking to people who are wise. I want you to understand what I'm saying. So let me just stop there and let me just say I hope that we all understand where Paul is going in the verses that follow.

Now you're going to have to wake up. Fortunately, this is the first meeting. Probably by about two, you'll want to nap.

So this is the time to try to grasp what Paul is saying here because it's not just like reading a psalm and just enjoying the warm, fuzzy feeling it gives you inside. You'll have to pay attention to what Paul is saying and follow it carefully. Five inconsistencies.

Let me point them out to you one at a time. I want to talk about actions that are inconsistent with my blessings. Actions inconsistent with my blessings.

Okay, three scenarios Paul gives us at the end of this chapter. Three possibilities that have to do with this business of meats offered to idols. Possibility number one is going to the store, buying some meat, not knowing that it was offered to an idol.

I've paid my money for it. I bring it home. I eat it.

Paul says, don't sweat it. You paid for it. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.

That's no problem. Okay. Scenario number two is I actually go to an idol's temple.

Well, to me, the idol is nothing. You know, that means nothing at all. And so what if I go there and I eat some of the meat that's been offered to an idol? That doesn't really matter, does it? He says, wait a minute, that's been offered to idols.

People are going to associate you with that idol. So scenario number two. Scenario number three is someone invites you to their home and they put a piece of meat in front of you and they say, that was offered to an idol.

I want to see you eat it. Well, he says, you could stumble somebody by doing that. So three different scenarios.

Okay. What is going to guide a believer in this issue? Well, he says, first of all, be sure your behavior is not inconsistent with your blessings. What do I mean? Notice where he begins.

I'm sure that you've all noticed this, especially our older brethren. Maybe younger ones haven't. He comes to the cup before the bread.

Now, chapter 11, of course, and our own way of doing things is the bread comes first and then the cup. But he comes to the cup first and he says he calls it the cup of blessing. What does that mean? That means that when on a large day morning I join together in fellowship with other believers and I take that cup and drink from it, what I am confessing is that every blessing I enjoy comes because of the blood of Christ.

There is not any blessing that I have in life that doesn't have its foundation in the blood of Christ. Now, he says, you have taken that cup of blessing. Can I claim that I have blessings elsewhere? Can I act in a way that looks like I really have blessing from some other sphere? He says, the cup of blessing which we bless.

How can you go to an idol's temple? How can you enjoy what comes from that altar when you have said on a large day morning as you have taken the cup that every blessing I have is based upon the blood of Christ? Behavior that is inconsistent with my blessings. Behavior that is inconsistent with the body of believers. He says now the bread that you break, it is our participation in the body of Christ.

But then he adds something that he doesn't add when he is speaking about the cup. He said, for we being many are one bread, one body. What does that mean? That means on a large day morning when you take your portion from that bread, what you are saying is I am one body with every other believer here.

I don't think this is the church which is his body. This is the local company. Locally together we are confessing we are one body.

This is where my fellowship is. That's what you're saying. This is the sphere of fellowship that I have.

Now just in case you think this is maybe stretching things. Okay, put your mind on reverse for just a moment. Where is the first place in scripture that bread and wine are mentioned? First place.

Genesis 14. Melchizedek brought forth bread and wine. What happened? Why did Melchizedek bring forth bread and wine? What was it that really Melchizedek was doing in his ministry for Abraham as Abraham returned from the battle of the five kings? What was he doing? He was defining a sphere of fellowship because immediately the king of Sodom comes and says, you keep the goods.

Give me the souls. You know, we're together in this. Abraham says, no, I don't need anything you have.

I have lifted up my hand to the Lord, the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth. I won't take as much as a shoelatch from you. I don't need what you have.

I have God. The first mention of bread and wine defined a sphere of fellowship for Abraham. It says, I do not need what the world can give.

I have what God can give. Now let me just ask, when you partake of that loaf, when you partake of that cup, do you still need what the world needs? Do you still need other spheres of fellowship than the fellowship of God's assembly? You cannot belong to two things at once. You cannot belong to a local company of believers, the fellowship of that assembly, and then rove to some other fellowship when it's convenient.

Now, I'm not speaking about traveling and letters have come. I'm speaking about belonging to a sphere of fellowship. So I do not need, and I say this carefully because I've been through college and medical school, I do not need Christian Fellowship Association at school, at the university.

I do not need InterVarsity Fellowship. I do not need the Christian Businessmen's Association Fellowship. I have one fellowship to which I am linked, and I do not need the blessings they can bring to me.

I have partaken of a cup of blessing. All my blessings come as a result of Christ. So there is, first of all, behavior inconsistent with my blessings.

There is the possibility of behavior inconsistent with the body of believers to which I belong. I cannot rove and go somewhere else without contradicting and being inconsistent with that, inconsistent as well with the bond I have with the Lord. Did you notice we read together? He says, you know, it's possible your behavior might provoke the Lord to jealousy.

Strange, isn't it? Where's that come from? What I mean is, what's he referring to there? In the Old Testament, one of the, to our minds, one of the strangest rituals that is described, you will find way back in the book of Deuteronomy, I think it's in Deuteronomy, it's called the Jealousy Offering. I'm sorry, Numbers. It's back in the book of Numbers.

The Jealousy Offering, and those are early chapters of Numbers. That if a fit of jealousy overcame a man, and he felt his wife was unfaithful, she had to be examined. And the ritual was the drinking of the cup and all that went with it.

It was a question of her affection. He was suspicious of her affections, wandering to someone else. And so he became jealous.

And so what he is saying here is by your link with other things, by your association with things that God never intended, the Lord is beginning to question your affections. The Lord is being provoked to jealousy because he longs for your affection and mine. He longs for the uniqueness of our affections for him.

And so he says, your behavior, you're really being inconsistent with that bond of affection between you and your Lord. By going to places that are totally contrary to his mind, places that bring dishonor to his name. Behavior that is inconsistent with the bond of fellowship.

Behavior inconsistent with my brethren, with other brethren and sisters. He says, now notice this, there are only three spheres of activity in the city of Corinth. He said there are Jews, there is the Jewish synagogue, there is the Gentile idols temple, and there is church of God.

Now he said it's possible you could stumble. There's someone seeing you, someone watching your behavior, someone who is following after. And as they see how you are behaving, it's going to stumble them.

Always remember that there are others who are watching you. There are others who are going to engage their behavior by how you act. And so where you go, the things you get involved in become a standard by which they will begin to, oh, you say that's not right.

We should all go by the word of God. Yes, we should all go by the word of God. But also Paul makes very clear my life has an influence on others.

And however far I go, someone's going to just go a step further. And each generation goes a step further and a step further. Now I'm not suggesting legalism and anything of that nature.

I am just suggesting this, that in all of my movements, as part of the fellowship of God's assembly, I've got to remember that my life has an influence upon others. My life has an influence upon younger believers and upon others who are following. And Paul says, make sure you do nothing.

Make sure you do nothing to stumble another Christian. But inconsistency number five, inconsistent with a burden for the unsaved. Paul says, those unsaved people watching you, watching whether you'll eat the meat offered to an idol or not, watching you in an idol's temple, it's possible you'll stumble them.

You will hinder them in their salvation. Now, let me ask you very simply. You know, we have a wonderful gospel series and we bring our friends and you invite your classmates and you invite your friends from school and you invite your neighbors.

And with all of the strength of your being, you sit there and sing concerning the Lord Jesus, take the world, but give me Jesus or come away to Jesus. He'll do better for you than this world can do. And you sing it with all your might and main.

And then you need as much of the world as they do to live. You need the same world they need to get through life, because without it, somehow life becomes unbearable. You need the sports world.

You need the entertainment world. You need Hollywood. You need the music world.

And yet you've sat and sung about the tremendous blessings in Christ and the great truth that Christ can fill and satisfy and meet every need of a person's soul. And yet when it's all said and done, we need the world. We need what they need.

We've become very sophisticated. We have Christianized the world. So we have Christian entertainment and we have Christian sports and we have Christian drama and we have Christian movies and we have Christian rock music and we have Christian concerts.

We've put the adjective in front of it that somehow makes it all right. Now, I'm not against music and I'm not against some things that are valuable and virtuous, but I am just questioning, just questioning if perhaps the unsaved look at you and look at me and think we lead the same kind of lives they do, only we've cleaned up the act a little bit and maybe put a nice face on some things. Behavior inconsistent with a burden for the unsaved.

Now, you be honest. I may have told this before. I think I may have been told that at Marian.

So if it's redundant, please forgive me. But it's perhaps one of the best examples I can think of. And that is a man now home in heaven who was one of the outstanding overseers of our area, a man that had a great influence on me growing up, got saved out here in the Midwest.

He was from Philadelphia, got saved out here in the Midwest, visiting an uncle. And in those days, this goes back a number of years, took the train back home to Philadelphia. In those days, the train had to go through New York.

And so he had a layover, what we would call now a layover, had a period of time, a number of hours he had to spend time waiting for his connecting train back home to Philadelphia. And so he was there in New York with nothing to do for a number of hours. And in his unsaved days, one of his great joys was prize fighting, watching fights, going to fights.

And there he was in New York City with a number of hours. And he got the newspaper and noticed there was a fight at Madison Square Garden. And, of course, for a person not from New York, Madison Square Garden is like, you know, wow, the Mecca.

You got to make your pilgrimage to Madison Square Garden. Thought, great, got a chance to go see a fight in Madison Square Garden here in New York City. Newly saved, only a few hours, a few days, rather.

Taught very little, had no assembly background, no background on the word of God. And away he goes to Madison Square Garden and stands in line to buy his ticket. And he's standing there waiting in line.

And all around him, the people talking, cursing, swearing, all the rest. You know what it's like. And he stands there and says, you know, what am I doing here? He says, I've got something far better now.

I don't need this anymore. No one preached to him. No one lectured him about the evils of going to prize fights.

Never went to a conference where he heard men speaking on separation. All he knew was he had something far better. Now let me ask you, when you go where you go, is it inconsistent with the fellowship of God's assembly? Inconsistent.

The five inconsistencies. Time doesn't permit, let me just mention hurriedly the five incompatibilities that are brought before us in chapter 6 of 2 Corinthians. There are five features of believers and there are five facets of fellowship.

He speaks of fellowship, of communion, of concord, of parts, and of agreement. Two different standards for your behavior. What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? Two different standards.

Two different spheres, light and darkness. Two different spheres of ethics, of right and wrong. Light and darkness.

Two different sovereigns, Christ and Belial. Two different shares, the believer with the unbeliever. Two different sanctuaries, the temple of God with idols.

And he says, what part can you have with this? What fellowship? What do you have in common with the unsaved? What do you have in common with an ungodly world that has rejected righteousness, has rejected the light of God's word, has rejected the rule of Christ's sovereignty, has rejected part in God's purposes, has rejected a place in God's house? What do you share in common, he says? How incompatible to be in fellowship with God and to try to have fellowship with that. So he is telling us of how incompatible these two spheres are. Assembly fellowship brings me into a sphere of light.

A sphere of righteousness. A sphere where the sovereign rule of the Lord is recognized. A sphere where I am brought into being a partaker, a participant in God's great purposes.

It brings me into house of God conditions. Let me just show you hurriedly, time doesn't permit, but I just want you to look at what we lose. You see, separation to God, separation to the Lord Jesus Christ, both individually in my heart, because that's where it has to begin before it gets into the assembly, and separation in assembly fellowship is not a big restriction that really hinders.

Just the opposite. Paul says, you are being narrowed. You are the ones who are limiting yourself.

Now let me just show you that very quickly here and very hurriedly. First of all, there is the fact brought before us. He says, come out from among them and be ye separate, and I will be a father unto you.

I will receive you and be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. There's a narrowness of their hearts, isn't there? Their hearts were narrowed. Paul says your affections are narrowed because you're loving the world and wanting to be part of an ungodly world and your links with it.

So there was a limitation in their hearts. There's a limitation in their hands as well. Their service is limited for God.

Not able to do what they would like to do or could do potentially for God. Who was the man that could serve God? Abraham or Lot? Who was the man that they went to when Lot was captured? Who was the one that God came to to pray for Sodom? Oh, you say it was that narrow-minded, isolated man named Abraham. Who was the one that the ungodly came to and said, make a covenant with us because we know God has blessed you and we want you to protect us.

It was the man who was separated. Usefulness for God is determined by the measure in which I am set apart for his pleasure. So their hearts were narrowed.

Their hands were narrowed. What about their habitation? God says, I will dwell in them. So if we fail collectively in our separation, then we are missing.

We are going to lose becoming a habitation for God here in this world. But notice as well that if I understand the flow of things correctly, chapter 7, verse 1 brings us to holiness. And holiness will be learned by separation for God.

And as well, something of your happiness as a child of God. It's the only place outside of Revelation that God speaks and refers to himself as the Lord God Almighty. As though God is coming in with all of the fullness of his being to emphasize how important this great truth of being set apart for him.

And so what we find here then is that those who know separation know something of his fatherhood. I will be a father. Well, someone might say, I thought he was the father of all believers.

Yes. But there are many believers who do not allow him to be their father. Do not enjoy that fatherhood, that care, that provision that he is able to give to meet need.

He is the Lord of his own. He is the almighty and so on. Now, that is very hurried.

But if we could just grasp this tremendous truth of the great dignity and blessing of being in an assembly fellowship. That my behavior must be consistent. Where I go, what I do, the things I enjoy.

The things that mark me as a believer. All of that is taking character from this. I am linked with an assembly of God's people gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus.

Recognizing his lordship in the midst. Recognizing his sovereignty. And that all that I do must be consistent with that link and that fellowship that I enjoy.

And as a result, able to bring pleasure and to bring honor to his name. Now, with that we will just ask you to bow your heads and we'll commit what has been said to God before we go any further.