Fellowship with the saints is a profound reality that begins the moment one is saved and becomes a member of the body of Christ. Jesus' prayer in John 17 highlights the desire for believers to be united, a unity achieved through the baptism of the Holy Spirit into one body, regardless of background. This divine work, initiated by God, grants believers a relationship with all fellow believers, forming the greatest fellowship the world has ever known. The sermon emphasizes that this unity is a testament to God's work and a witness to the world, urging believers to endeavor to keep this spiritual unity in the bond of peace.
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Now, shall we open our Bibles to, first of all, to the seventeenth chapter of John, John's Gospel, that is, chapter seventeen. It's good to try and catch the setting of this wonderful, wonderful chapter. If you look at the last verse of the fourteenth chapter, the Lord Jesus said, He was in the upper room talking to His disciples. In the last verse of the fourteenth chapter, the Lord Jesus said, Arise, and let us go hence. I think that's when they left the upper room. The last verse of the fourteenth chapter. If you look at the first verse of the eighteenth chapter, it says, When Jesus had spoken these things, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Kidron, where was a garden into which he entered and his disciples, the garden of Gethsemane.
I remember very, very well some years ago, thirty years ago now, a group of us met in the traditional site of the upper room in Jerusalem. And it was a large group, maybe a hundred of us. And we came from all over the world. It was in World War II. And we met together that evening, and we walked down to the Garden of Gethsemane. I will never forget it. We had decided we would walk in silence. No one would speak all the way. It's quite a long walk. It's a zigzag path.
You go down underneath, close under the city wall and zigzag down, and then you go over a little bridge, over the Brook Kedron, and into the Garden of Gethsemane, where we spent a very, very wonderful hour. It was Thursday evening. the day before Good Friday in the year nineteen forty-three thirty years ago I remember it so clearly and as they went down that way the Lord traveled that pathway somewhere along the way he stopped and it says in verse one these words spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said Father the hour has come.
This hour which had been singled out by God from all eternity, the hour of which we sing sometimes, O Solomon, O hour alone in solitary might, when God the Father's only Son, as man for sinners to atone, expired, amazing sight. That hour had come when the center of two eternities we're going to meet and the Son of God was to hang upon a cross and deal with this great question of sin and give his life a ransom for many. We were talking about him this morning as the good shepherd and he said the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
Many times he'd said in this John's Gospel, my hour is not yet come but now he says as he lifted up his eyes to the Father Father, the hour is come, the hour of his suffering, the hour when he was going to meet the claims of God's throne on your account and mine. And he prayed. And I marvel and wonder as I read this prayer and as I have read it over the years, surely on an occasion like this, as he was entering into that garden and as he was going into all this deep sorrow and pain, Surely he'd be praying for himself.
He'd be praying for strength for the hour that was coming, that had come. But he didn't. He didn't. The wonder to me is that he prayed for you and me. Let's read it. Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee. as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the earth.
I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Now here's the burden of his prayer. The men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine they were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word. Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.
For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world. And I come to thee, Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one.
Now note that term, that they may be one as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest me, I have kept. and none of them is lost but the Son of Prodition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. And now I come to thee, these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them thy word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shalt keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is true. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself that they also may be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also what shall believe on me through their words. In our reading this morning, you remember in the tenth chapter of John talking about the sheepfold and the Lord coming to the Jewishfold. We came to a spot in the tenth chapter of John when he says, And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold.
He was referring to the Gentiles. other sheep I have which are none of this for. And here in this wonderful prayer, he suddenly switches over and refers to the Gentiles. Let's read it again. Verse twenty. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word. That's where you and I come in. Them also which shall believe on me through their word. And so what he has in mind as he's praying then are the men which thou gavest me out of the world and those who would believe on me through their word.
That's to say his church. Those who would believe and later become members of his church, believers in the Lord Jesus Christ in this present day of grace this church age. And he's looking out into this church age as he says this. Verse twenty again, Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word, that they all, look at it, I have underlined it in my Bible, that they all may be one, as thou father art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
Now the great reason why he prayed that we should be one, the great reason the object was, that the world might believe that thou hast sent me. I always like to read the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. It says, when they were all with one accord in one place, then he sent the Holy Spirit and the Church Age study. But all with one accord in one place. And he says, that they all may be one, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one. I in them and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and that thou hast loved me.
Now notice I read four times I read in verse eleven that they may be one. I read in verse twenty-one that they all may be one, and in the same verse that they also may be one in us, and in verse twenty-three that they may be made perfect in one. Now, I want to try and be simple tonight. There's some young people here tonight who try and make it interesting for young as well as old.
I remember when I was a little boy and I used to go Sunday nights to the gospel meeting, much of it went over my head. But, you know, even though a child is at the meeting, if the children come and come and come, it doesn't all go over their heads. and they learn lessons and we used to have one preacher came to our assembly in those old days and he used to say now the first five minutes I'm going to stop to the children and I remember to this day some of the lessons he gave us in the first five minutes as he spoke to the children I learned to love that man and as the years went by and I grew up I never never failed to be at the Bible reading on Wednesday night because he led the Bible reading.
He used to come right across the city to lead this Bible reading and he was a great Bible teacher and I learned so much from him. So much. And so I like to be, if I can, simple enough for the young ones to understand. When I was a little boy, some of you have heard this story I say it especially for the young ones here tonight. When I was a little boy, my sister died. She died at six years of age. I was three. I remember the morning of her death very, very well.
Just about my first recollections, I was only three years of age. She just started school and on the Thursday night she came home from school. with a sore throat and they called in the doctor and the doctor diagnosed diphtheria. And in those days many, many, many children died of diphtheria. They had not discovered yet the toxins for curing diphtheria and many children died. In fact, six weeks later I had diphtheria myself and they gave up all hope and I remember when the doctor injected in my back.
I can feel the needle going in now all those years ago. And that was one of the first occasions in those early days when they used what they used to call anti-diptheric toxin. And they injected it, and the Lord, in his mercy, raised me up. But I remember it. And my sister, the doctor said, diphtheria, and they put her in one room, and they put her disinfectant, sheet outside of the room, this infected sheet, and I was not allowed to see her. That was Thursday night. But very early Monday morning, oh about half past five, my father came into the bedroom and took me out of bed.
I was asleep, and he took me and carried me. And he carried me, I remember it so clearly, across the passage, and he just opened the door a little bit. and in his arms he let me look around the door and my sister was lying on the bed and she said to me she had asked this she had asked that I would come in and see her she looked up to me and she said goodbye Bobby I'm going to Jesus I said goodbye Carrie I didn't understand all that that meant but goodbye I'm going to Jesus and my father took me back and I went to bed and seven o'clock that morning She crossed her hand over and said to my father, Daddy, take my hand and hold it tightly whilst Jesus takes me.
And the other hand crossed over to my mother, she said to mother, Take my hand and hold it tightly whilst Jesus takes me. And I heard my father say many times that her eyes lit up like electric lights. Now electric lights were just coming in. This is way, way back in about I suppose, nine hundred and two or three, and electric lights where we had oil lamps in those days. And he said her eyes lit up like electric lights and she was gone. But you know, that's one of the earliest experiences in my life. And it made such a great impression upon me. They took the little body back to home.
We were living in Birmingham, England, and we went back home to our home city of Bristol. Never went back to live in Birmingham again. And I remember going to the funeral, the first funeral I ever went to. And I remember the little casket. And I remember the funeral there. And they laid this little sister of mine in the grave. But you know, God had that experience in his plan for me. It was in God's plan that He would speak to my heart through that sadness and sorrow. I was too young to fully understand, but I knew that my sister had gone to heaven.
And although I was so young, I knew that I was not fit to go to heaven. I had learned going to these gospel meetings. and going with my parents from my very, very earliest days, from one month old, I sat with my parents at the Lord's Supper and have been there ever since on Sunday mornings. And going to Sunday school, I learned that I was not fit for heaven. I learned that I had to be saved. But how to be saved? You know, it's amazing that you could sit in a meeting like this week after week after week where we preach the gospel. It's amazing you can be brought up where the gospel is preached week after week and yet not know what you've got to do to be saved.
That was the position I was in. If you'd asked me how to be saved, I'd say, I wish I knew. And I would long to be saved. I remember I used to wake up in the night. and go and listen at my mother's, my father's bedroom door. If I could hear them breathing, I knew the Lord hadn't come back yet, because I knew that when the Lord comes, every true believer is going, and I knew I'd be left behind. And all the years that went by, as a little child, trying to learn the way of salvation. And yet salvation is so simple, and salvation is so wonderful. And there's not a child so small, so young tonight, that really cannot understand it.
Oh, understand. We never understand it. But really can't take it in if you listen simply to the Word of God. I know the Gospel was preached over and over again in my presence, but I never saw it. I never saw it. Until one Sunday night, and many of you have heard me tell this story many times, one Sunday night, as I sat by my brother Tom's side in the meeting down there on the Sunday night, and a man preached the gospel. The old man preached was called Rodman. He was a silversmith. He wasn't an ordained minister by any means. He was a silversmith, a rough kind of a fellow, but a gospel preacher.
And I don't know what he preached about that night. I can't remember. But I tell you what, as he preached, he quoted John three sixteen. Listen to it. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. And as He said this, I said this, because I knew it as well as He knew it. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believed it. And when He said that, the skill fell off my eyes when He said, Believe it. And a light shone down from heaven, and I said, I got it. At last I got it. The thing I've been looking for. What must I do to be safe?
That moment God saved me. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. It wasn't the sermon that did it. It was the Word of God that did it. The entrance of thy Word giveth light. That whosoever believeth in him. And the light came into my young heart. I was ten years of age then. And I said to myself, Believe it. I've always believed. If you would ask me from infancy, Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? Of course I would have said yes. Of course I believed it.
But I wasn't saved. I wasn't saved. You can believe all about the Lord Jesus. That's history. But that doesn't save you. You've got to believe in him. You have to receive him. And somehow, as we read the Word of God, and I advise you to read the Bible, if you're young, read it. Keep on reading it, because somehow the Spirit of God gets these verses, and He applies them to our very heart. That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And that moment, God saved me. That moment, God gave me eternal life.
I was born again. Didn't know much about it. I know very well I went to school next day, and Satan said to me, It's not as easy as that, boy. He can't. No, it's not as easy as that. And I hurried home midday, and we had to go a long way to school. I think we must have been... Two miles, I think, we went to school, and we walked in the morning, walked home for lunch, and walked back again, and walked back at night. We had no buses in those days. And I think I ran home all the way that lunchtime. And I went up into the bedroom, and I got my Bible, and I read it again. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish.
I said, it's true. It's true. I've got it. God says it. and I believe it. Now that's salvation. That's how I was saved. And I guess every one of you could come up here and tell a similar story in one way or the other, some miraculous way. God came into your life and the light came as it did in the case of the Apostle Paul. A light brighter than the midday sun shone down into your heart and God gave you eternal life. Wonderful moment. If you ask me, after all these years, and now I'm seventy-four years of age, if I go back over these sixty-three odd years, I've been saved, and you ask me, what's the most wonderful moment in your life?
That was it, that Sunday night, when God, by the light of his word, showed me how to be saved. Changed everything. But I didn't know what happened. And in a series of talks I have been giving here Sunday nights, I've been trying to recount and trying to go over some of the wonderful things that happened that moment. I had no idea what happened. All I knew was I was saved. I got eternal life. But as the years have gone by and I've read the Word of God and learned more and more and more about the Word of God, I found out that wonderful things took place that moment. And we have gone over some of these things.
In a series of talks, I think probably fourteen talks, something like that I've given here on Sunday nights, of the wonderful things that happened. You see, that moment I was made a child of God. I didn't know that at the time. I learned it since. But that moment I became a child of God. That moment I was adopted into God. I received the adoption, as Paul puts it, into God's family. That moment I was redeemed. That's to say, I was bought out of the market. place of the slave of sin, the Lord redeemed me and brought me out by His precious blood. That moment I was reconciled to God. That's another thing that happened. That moment I was sanctified. All these things I talk about are eternal things.
Things that took place the moment God saved us and took place forever. He sanctified me. That is, He set me apart for Himself, for all eternity. That moment, I didn't know it. I've learned it since. And so we've gone over these various things. Last time I spoke here on the Sunday night, do you remember what we spoke on? Citizenship. The moment God saved me, He made me a citizen of heaven. And I told you how I came to the United States. And now I became a citizen of the United States. And now we just swore allegiance to the flag of the United States. And the judge made a speech there, and he told us we're no longer aliens, but now we are fellow citizens here with the people of the United States.
And now that verse came to my mind, fellow citizens with the saints. We became citizens of heaven. Do you know the moment that God saved you, you became a citizen of heaven? And your politics, it says... Our conversation is in heaven. Conversation is not a good word there. Our politics, the Greek word polygyzma means politics. Our politics are in heaven. That's where we belong. Now tonight, very briefly, I want to talk about another wonderful thing that happened. That moment when God saved me, not only did I become a citizen, Not only did I become a son, not only was I adopted into God's family, but that moment God made me a member of a tremendous fellowship.
You see, as a son, that's relationship to God. As a citizen, that's relationship to heaven. But as fellowship, that's relationship to all fellow saints. And that moment God saved me, he gave me a relationship with all fellow believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. When the Lord Jesus prayed this wonderful prayer, the great burden of his prayer, as I've already pointed out, was he kept on saying four times, he said, that they all may be one. That they all may be one. I don't only pray for these few Jews, these disciples of mine, but I pray for all those that should believe in me through their testimony that they all may be one.
And the Lord Jesus was looking down over a period of probably two thousand years from then on until the end of the Church's history here on earth, which is very, very near, maybe tonight. The Lord was looking down over the planet of the ages. and he's praying that they all might be one. That everyone who accepts the Lord Jesus, that everyone to whom this great revelation of salvation through faith in Christ, everyone to whom that revelation is made and he opens his heart and life and accepts the Lord Jesus and is saved and becomes a child of God, he's praying that that one might be one with all true believers.
in the Lord Jesus Christ. So my subject tonight is fellowship with the saints. Last week, last time it was citizenship, heavenly citizenship. Now let's read a very well-known verse, which I have read on many occasions during this series of talks. Let's read in First Corinthians chapter twelve. First Corinthians chapter twelve. Verse twelve, For as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of that one body being many are one body, so also is Christ.
Now here the Lord takes up the picture of the human body. Later down he talks about the head and the eyes and the hands and the feet of the body. And he's looking upon his church as a body. But how do I get into that body? That's the great question. Well, let's read it. Verse thirteen. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body? And then he takes up the question, we were speaking of it this morning, of the Jews and the Gentiles. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles.
whether we be bond or free, and have all been made to drink of that one, into that one spirit. Now, this took place the moment God saved me. Last Sunday we had a baptism down here, last Sunday afternoon, but this is not the baptism referred to in these verses. That is water baptism. That is where a believer recognizes that he is dead with Christ and he submits to the ordinance of baptism as a witness and an acknowledgement that he's died with Christ when Christ died at Calvary and so he's buried in that water.
But this is not what we're talking about here, not water baptism. We're talking about the baptism of the Spirit. For by one Spirit Are we all baptized into one body? Now go back to the very famous chapter, John three, verse sixteen. John three, rather, and let's read what the Lord said to Nicodemus that night. John three, it says, Verse three, Jesus said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again. He cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus says unto him, How can a man be born when he's old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born?
Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Now, I think we would all agree that when it says being born of water, he's referring to the water of the word. In Ephesians it speaks of the washing of the water of the word. God takes the water of the word, as in my case he took John, John three, sixteen. He could have taken John five, twenty-four, John three, thirty-six, or some other verse of Scripture, the water of the word.
And then by the Holy Spirit he applies that to the heart. And then the Holy Spirit does this great thing. When I accept Christ as my Savior, and I receive Him and believe on Him, that moment I'm saved, and that moment the Spirit's coming in, the water and the Word, the Spirit, born of water and of the Spirit, and the Spirit comes in, and the Spirit baptizes me into the body of Christ. And that moment when God saved me as a little boy, those sixty-three years ago, the Spirit of God baptized me into the body of Christ.
I didn't know anything about it, didn't know what it meant. And as the years go by, I'm beginning to learn a little bit, not much, a little bit about what this means to be baptized into the body of Christ. You see, it means that I become a member. I become a member of the body, because He talks further down about members. Verse fourteen, For the body is not one member but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not the body. Is it therefore not of the body? If the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body. Is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?
And so on. God, the Holy Spirit baptizes into the body and members one of another in the body of Christ. Now, this is the fulfillment of the Lord Jesus' prayer as he went down to the Garden of Gethsemane. He said, Father, four times, he said, Father, I pray that they all may be one. One body. One body. When God saved me, one of the wonderful, wonderful things he did was to bring me into a tremendous fellowship, the fellowship of the body of Christ.
and I had nothing at all to do with it. All these things I've talked about, redemption, sanctification, justification, adoption, all these things that I've talked about in this series of talks, I had nothing to do with it. God did them all. All I can do is stand back in awe and wonder and reverence and praise His name that He did these wonderful things for me. And this is one of the wonderful things He did. He made me a member. He brought me into a fellowship which is the greatest fellowship the world has ever known. I remember years ago when I was going to leave the shores of England and go to Greece and was leaving home, leaving my native country then for the first time and going abroad.
I was working and there was a man there, a very nice fellow, he was, I didn't know much about him, he wasn't a Christian and he said to me, now look Bob, I would like to help you. He said, you're going to a foreign country and you don't know anybody there. I said, no, I don't know anybody there. But he said, you'll need friends and I can help you. Now I am in a society and I can get you in if you like. It's not easy to get in, but I can get you into this society. And once you're in this society, Wherever you go in the world, you'll have friends.
I said, indeed. I said, I believe I'm in a bigger and a better society. And I said, I have friends all over the world. He said, but now, wait a minute, you don't know what I'm talking about. I said, well, tell me what you're talking about. He said, I'm in the Freemasons. I'm a Mason. And he said, you know, we have a wonderful, wonderful... linked together and we're members of this secret society. You know when I was a boy I used to go home some Sunday mornings walking with a friend and how he got there I don't know he was a real Christian but he was in the Freemasons and he understood all their ritual and all their ways and I remember some Sundays he used to say to me now watch you see that man coming up there And the man would be a hundred yards away.
He said, see that man? Now you see, I have never met him in my life, and I've never spoken to him. And as that man would come along, he'd make a certain sign, and that man would speak to, wave to him, just as if he'd known him all his life. He said, that's the society, I mean. We recognized one another far off. We know one another. I don't know how he walked or what it was, but he knew that man was a mason. All that long distance. They had something that bound them together. And wherever they went, they knew one another. And they recognized one another. But the Lord Jesus has brought us into a society. A man is far, far better than Freemasons. We're in the fellowship of the body of Christ.
And I said to this man, you know, I was going to Greece. I was going to live in the city of Athens. I said, out there in Athens, I have friends, more than friends, I have brothers in Christ Jesus. And I said, I have never met them, but as soon as I meet them, I'll recognize them. And I said, we'd have the most wonderful fellowship. And we did. For many years I couldn't talk to them very much because I didn't know their language. But all the fellowship we had and the joy we had as we met with fellow believers in a foreign country. Now that's what God has done for us. He's brought us into our fellowship and that happened the moment we were saved.
If you accept Christ tonight as your Savior, he'll bring you into this membership and you'll be a member of the greatest society in all the world, the body of Christ. Fellowship with the saints. What a privilege. What a joy. Now the Lord Jesus prayed for this. And on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was given the Holy Spirit came down and baptized them they were baptized into that one body then the work of God began you remember he prayed for them that God would bless their testimony and he prayed for those who would believe because of their witness and so they started on the day of Pentecost to witness and Peter stood up and preached the gospel and three thousand souls were saved.
Verse forty-one of chapter two of Acts, then they that gladly received his word were baptized, that was water baptism, and the same day were added unto them three thousand souls. And this great fellowship that the Lord prayed for, and this thing he spoke of, we were talking about this morning in John ten, other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring. This began. And this is that fold that the Lord said, not of this fold. And there's going to be one. And remember, I changed the word because in the Greek the word is changed from fold to flock. And there should be one flock and one shepherd.
And when these people were born again here, they became part of this flock, not the fold anymore, not the Jewish fold, but a flock, the flock which is sheep, saved and born again out of the Jews and out of the Gentiles to form his church into this wonderful new fellowship, the church of God, his body, which is the church. They gladly received his word, were baptized, and the same day they were added unto them, three thousand souls. That's where it started. And that's where that fellowship started. And it's been going on down through the ages.
Now, whatever God does, Satan tries to undo. If I understand from the very brief references in Scripture, if I understand the right Satan tried to upset and mar God's wonderful creation way back in the past eternity. I don't know how far back. But it does tell us in the scripture how Lucifer, the son of the morning, that wonderful personality, Satan, who had a tremendous position, probably the second place in heaven next to the son of God, he rose up and said, I'm going to be on God's throne.
And there was rebellion in heaven. I tell you what, God can't stand is rebellion. And what's wrong with our world today is rebellion. Rebellion. There's a rebellious spirit everywhere. Nobody wants discipline anymore. They want to rebel. They want to do, I want to do my thing. I just want to do what I want to do. And I rebel against any authority. And God will not stand for that. And God is going to judge this world very soon because of this very thing. the rebellion that's in the world today. And Satan rebelled against God and he was hurled out of heaven. And then we come down to earth and God created the heavens and the earth.
And it tells us he created it not in vain. He didn't create it void as it was when we see the earth was without form and void. Something happened. I believe that Satan came in to mark God's work here and to spoil the work. And then the Lord came and his light shone. He said, let there be light and there was light. And God created again this wonderful world and put it into being. And then God made man wonderful, wonderful handiwork of God. Man, he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And man, the summit of all his creation, was formed by the hand of God and there he was in a perfect surrounding.
And God gave him a beautiful wife and gave him everything that his heart could wish for down here on earth. But God's enemy came in and he said, I'm going to smash this one up. I'll get hold of the weaker vessel. Eve should have obeyed her husband. It should have gone to her husband. She acted on her own and she dealt with Satan and she fell and Adam fell. And Satan came in and marred God's creation. And so you and I were born in sin and shapen in iniquity. For as by one man, Romans five, verse twelve, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.
And the black blood of Adam's sin flows in your veins and mine. And we're black and dark, just like the first creation, just chaos. Until one day God says, let there be light. And the light of the glory of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, shining in the face of Jesus, shines into our hearts. And he opens our eyes for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. And the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ comes in and shines in, and God saves us. And he brings us in his members of his wonderful church.
But Satan hadn't finished his work yet. Satan's work today is to smash up that church as he tried to break up the first creation and then the second creation on earth and he tried to break up the wonderful marriage relationship and the wonderful position Ma'am was in, so now he comes in to try and break up the church. And Satan's work today is to undo the words of the Lord Jesus. that they all may be won. And the Lord said twice in that seventeenth chapter of John, that they all may be won, that the world might know that thou hast sent me.
And Satan said, if I can smash that church up, the world will never know. And that's just what's happened. That's just what's happened. Today we have, I don't know how many, but we have hundreds of denominations. and they all call themselves Christians, and they all call themselves the Church of Christ, and they all think they are the right things. This is the work of Satan. Break it up, break it up. The work of God is to unite. Now, I don't think we'll ever unite. All the denominations in Christendom, that wouldn't be right anyhow, because denominationalism is not of Scripture.
Denominationalism is not of God. Denominationalism is usually man-made and very often carries a man's name. But the Church of God is one. The Church of God has one head. That head is Christ. And when God saved you and me, He might have saved me in a Baptist church or a Methodist church, or He might have saved me out in the middle of the ocean or up in the air. But when He saved me, the Holy Spirit baptized me into the one body. And I am a member of the one church. That's the fellowship we enjoy. Now, as I said just now, all these things that God did for us, He did them.
We had nothing to do with it. All we had to do was accept Christ, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, receive him, and all these things happened. And one of the great things that happened was he put me in this great fellowship. Now what can I do about it? Let's read Ephesians chapter four. Verse one, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that he walk worthy of the calling, that's the Greek word here, of the calling wherewith ye are called, with all loneliness and meekness, with long suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body.
Well, that's what Paul has been saying in one Corinthians chapter twelve, verse thirteen. There is one body, for by one Spirit that he all baptized into one body. There is one body, one spirit. even as ye are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all." And he says in verse three, Endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. I believe even in this day of detention, even in this day of breaking up and falling apart, I still think it's possible to recognize the one body of Christ.
And I believe that wherever I go, if I meet a born-again believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, he is my brother in Christ. I'm not worrying about his tag or his denomination. That doesn't worry me so much. What I want to know is he's the born-again believer. I spent six years of my life in the British Royal Air Force. away from home and loved ones. And the greatest joy I had was to meet a fellow Christian. And when we met, you know, I lived in the Middle East in Egypt for four years in World War II. And when we met a new Christian, come in, oh, that thrill of meeting a Christian.
Nobody said, are you a Baptist? Are you a Presbyterian? Are you a Church of England? They didn't say that. They say, are you a brother in Christ? And that was the link that joined us together. all one in Christ Jesus. And that's what we stand for at Park and Found. We believe in the body of Christ here. And we receive born-again believers. We endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. And we recognize and receive born-again believers. And we love and honor members of the body of Christ.
I do not believe in exclusivism. I do not believe in excluding the children of God. I believe if a person is born again and is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, he has just as much right at the Lord's table as I have because he's a member of that one body. And God has called us into that fellowship. And wherever we go in this great world, there are fellow Christians. You can sit by the side in an airplane or in a train or you can meet them on the street. I don't know. It's a great thrill.
We were sitting in a restaurant a few weeks ago up there in Kentucky on the way north a few weeks ago. And we were having breakfast in a holiday and in a restaurant. And I said to Vera, There's some Christians on that table. Like this Freemason, you know, I could see him. I said, there's some Christians there. She said, how do you know? I said, you wait a minute. And I went over, and there was a Bible on the table. And I opened the Bible and began to read a few verses. And their faces lit up, and we all shook hands. Brothers in Christ. Never met before. But do you know there's a mark about Christianity. If God saves us, He's given us a mark. He called us his own sheep by name, and we can call one another by name, and we can know one another.
And one of the great things that happened to me when God saved me was he made me a member of this wonderful, wonderful fellowship, the fellowship that's in Christ Jesus. Shall we pray? Blessed God, our Father, we thank you for this wonderful thing thou hast done for us, linked us together with eternal bonds so that we are brothers and sisters in Christ. We thank the Lord that there are marks about a Christian and we can know one another. Help us Lord not to be shy or backward when we sit in a public restaurant. Help us not to be shy about bowing our head to give me thanks for our food and let the world know we belong to thee.
Help us not to be shy to have the word of God in our hand. Help us Lord to witness And we ask the Lord that bless us and help us to recognize the unity of the Spirit in a bond of peace. Oh God, we thank you for making us members of the body of Christ, members of this eternal, wonderful fellowship. We thank you for all that has done for us the moment we accepted Christ as our Savior. So we seek thy parting blessing in the precious name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.