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Recorded in Sydney, Australia at the 1998 Banner of Truth Conference 

The Basis for Christian Fellowship No.3 By Martin Holdt

the basis for Christian fellowship. Now, when you use the word fellowship, it means different
things to different people. It is a word which is being bandied about in Christian circles
today. To some, it means sitting around with others who are also Christians, sipping tea,
and the occasion is spiced with a few Christian thoughts. That is considered to be fellowship.
To others, it is an after-evening time of fellowship in the hall, once the ministry
of the word has taken place and there is some kind of an interaction. That is Christian
fellowship. To others, it is having some kind of church house party. It could be 101 things
when you hear the extent to which the word is used. It is a rich word. It is the word,
as you know, cornonia, and it literally means to share in, to share with, to participate
in or with. Now, there is a lot that has been said about the word that is really superficial
and empty and does not get to the essence of the meaning of the word, and I am concerned
about that here tonight. And we need to begin again where we always ought to begin, and
that is with God. And the first point that I make is this, that there is fellowship in
the Godhead. There is at least a hint of this right in the beginning of the Bible in the
opening chapter of the book of Genesis and verse 26 when God said, Let us make man in
our image, in our likeness. Let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds
of the end, over the livestock and over all the earth and over all the creatures that
move along the ground. Creation was a united act. God the Father was thee, God the Son
was thee, God the Holy Spirit was thee. The Father decrees, the Son acts, the Holy Spirit
effects, and never does the one person in the blessed Trinity act or do anything without
the other. And John picked this up in his Gospel and in the opening chapter. We're referring
to the word that became flesh, that there is nothing that was made that is made, but
that the word was there and himself created. So when it comes to the creation of man, the
crown of God's creation, it is God speaking and doing, a Trinitarian God, and as a result
of that, fellowship in the Godhead, fellowship between Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and the
product is man. When you come to the Incarnation, there is fellowship, and had there not been
fellowship there would have been no redemption. It is fellowship between the Father, Son and
Holy Spirit that is harmonious, it is purposeful, it is powerful. It is the Father looking down
upon poor lost humanity and sending the Son, and it is the Son coming with a willing heart
and in perfect cooperation with the Father's will. And when the Son comes, it is the Holy
Spirit conceiving in the womb of Mary, Jesus, who came to be our Saviour. And when you think
of it all, you are dealing here with something which is a mighty act of God in which fellowship
is a paramount thought. Think of some of the most moving words in the New Testament
when it comes to the whole idea of our redemption. And are you not moved as I am whenever you
read Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 5 and 6? We are told that when Christ came into the
world, he said sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for
me. With burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, here I
am, it is written about me in the scroll, I have come to do your will, O God. It is
the Son speaking in intimate, perfect, holy, loving fellowship with the Father about the
Father's intention to save his elect people. And the Son comes with a full consent of the
Father to do the work of which you and I are the products. So if you want to see fellowship
in its purest and in its most glorious form, then see it in the interaction that takes
place between the Father and the Son in the councils of eternity. And it is to this that
the Lord Jesus Christ speaks when he says, according to John chapter 5 and verse 19 to
23, I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He can only do what he sees the
Father doing, because whatever the Father does, the Son also does. For the Father loves
the Son and shows him all he does. Yes. To your amazement, he will show you even greater
things than these, for just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even
so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. Moreover, the Father judges no
one but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they
honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.
You see it, don't you? No one person in the Godhead speaks independently of the other,
and no one person in the Godhead acts independently of the other. There is in the Godhead glorious,
glorious communion about all that is and about all that happens and about all that is said.
And there is glorious, pure, perfect activity, harmony in thought, in speech, in deed. Look
at verse 31 of chapter 5. If I testify about myself, my testimony is not valid. There is
another who testifies in my favor, and I know that his testimony about me is valid. And
in verse 36, I have testimony weightier than that of John, for the very work that the Father
has given me to finish and which I am doing testifies that the Father has sent me. And
the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice
nor seen his Father. What our Lord is simply saying is this, that the will of one that
is the Father and the will of the Son as also the will of the Holy Spirit is perfectly bound
up with the other in a united work of effecting the redemption of the people for whom Jesus
Christ came to die. The thought again is there in chapter 6 verse 37. All that the Father gives me
will come to me, and whoever comes to me, I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven
not to do my will, but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me,
that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my
Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life,
and I will raise him up at the last day. Whom the Father loves, the Son loves. Whom the Son comes to
save, the Father intended to save. And although the Holy Spirit is not mentioned here as he is
elsewhere in this great gospel, the Holy Spirit is there to do his glorious, holy, divine work.
Our redemption has its roots in Trinitarian fellowship. So if you want to trace the meaning
of the word fellowship, you have got to go back to God. What the Father sees, the Son sees,
and the Holy Spirit witnesses. Whatever the Father does, the Son does, and the Holy Spirit brings to
pass. And whatever the Father hates, the Son hates, as does the Holy Spirit. Whatever the
Father loves with his Father heart, the Son loves, and the Holy Spirit loves as well. And so when you
look at the Godhead, there is movement there. And within that movement, there is purity and power
within the interpersonal relationship between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. How frequently
our Lord went back to this. Was it not because it meant so much to him? And was it not because he
would have us understand that that is so? John chapter 8 verse 16, but if I do judge, my decisions
are right because I am not alone. I stand with the Father who sent me. In your own law it is written
that the testimony of too many is valid. I am one who testifies for myself. My other witness is the
one who sent me, the Father. And then verse 29, the one who sent me is with me. He has not left
me alone for I always do what pleases Him. That is Trinitarian fellowship. In many senses
incomprehensible, indeed so, and inexplicable, but there it is. Listen to this marvelous comment by
Charles Haddon's speech about this very thing. It is the joy of the Father to express His love to
His Son. Throughout all ages they have had fellowship with one with another. They have
always been one in all their designs. They have never differed on any point and cannot differ.
And you notice when our Lord says, Father glorify Thy Son. He is so knit with the Father that He
adds that Thy Son may also glorify Thee. Their mutual love is inconceivably great and therefore
brethren God will do anything for Jesus. That's where you have fellowship at its best. It's
purest, it's highest, it's holiest. Secondly, there is fellowship in union with Christ. I find
it very interesting, very interesting that the same John who wrote these very verses I have read
to you this evening about fellowship in the Godhead picked up the theme when he wrote his
first letter. And as he began to write one John, lo and behold he touches on fellowship. He takes
it further from where he left off without using the word fellowship in John's Gospel. Because
whatever John wrote about fellowship within the Godhead has an effect upon fellowship between
people, believers, Christians. That which was from the beginning which we have heard,
which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched,
this we proclaim concerning the word of life. The life appeared, we have seen it and testified it,
and we proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We
proclaim to you that what we have seen and heard and so that you may also have fellowship with us.
And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. We write this to make our
joy complete. In other words, of the fellowship known within the Godhead, the redeemed may know
fellowship as well. Trinitarian fellowship flows to the elect according to grace, says John, so
that their joy may be full and their cups may run over because of that. And then interestingly,
John goes on to point out that God is the only factor which hinders, prevents fellowship with
himself. Verse five to seven, this is the message we have heard from him and declare to you, God is
light and in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in
darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light,
we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from every sin so
that what may happen, there may be communion between a believer and the Father, the Son and
the Holy Spirit. So that the result may be a believer touching omnipotence, to use Spurgeon's
definition of prayer, so that a believer may know what it is to be united to Christ,
so that a Christian may both feel and understand what God meant when he said,
this is what the high and lofty one says, who lives forever, whose name is holy. I live in a
high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit to revive the spirit
of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. And that being so, there can be no
way or no time when a believer is disunited from Christ. And what John himself therefore said,
as he quoted the Lord Jesus in chapter 15 of his Gospel, verse 5 is true. I am the vine,
you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will be much fruit,
apart from me you can do nothing. That is a fact. And therefore fruitlessness is impossible when
such a union exists and functions. Which is why he goes on to speak of such a union expressing
itself in the dynamic of prayer. If you're remaining me and my words remaining you,
ask whatever you wish and it will be given you. That is fellowship. Fellowship which further on
is sustained by the word of God, verse 10 and 11. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my
love just as I've obeyed my father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that
my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. How indescribably glorious it is to
be in fellowship with the Godhead who intends that his people should know it factually and
experientially. But then thirdly, there is for this very reason fellowship within the body of
Christ. The body of Christ is the only place where true fellowship can be known. And that
is the reason why genuine separation from evil is an absolute imperative for all believers. Wrote
the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians, do not be yoked together with unbelievers for what do
righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What
harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?
What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God
as God has said, I will live with them and walk among them and I will be their God and they will
be my people therefore come out from among them and be separate. Touch no unclean thing and I
will remember you. I will be a father to you and you will be my sons and daughters says the Lord
Almighty. Since we have these promises dear friends let us purify ourselves from everything
that contaminates body and spirit perfecting holiness out of reverence for God. Verses which
incidentally are not to be confined to marriage but go far beyond that. He is saying that fellowship
with the unconverted is impossible. This is one of the reasons why we ought to strive for a
regenerate church membership. It doesn't matter where you come from, who you represent. A church
is only one in name when its members are converted. A church is only one in name when its members are
unconverted and that is not fellowship. A church is a church when it consists of people who are
living stones and witnesses built upon the living stone. I remember preaching in a large church in
Pretoria consisting of approximately 2,000 members. A church where there are two Sunday
morning services and one of the elders sidled up to me after the first service and said to me,
my brother Martin, I have to tell you that if there are 100 converted people in the hundreds
of people here today, it's a lot. That's no fellowship. There is no sharing in God's grace.
It is not what the Savior intended. Yes, given the fact we will have our Simon Maguses who for
a time appear and then must disappear and we are to strive by pray, by preaching, by teaching, by
evangelism, we are to strive for the highest degree of regeneracy in our churches as is
possible and my appeal to you, whoever you are from whichever congregation you come is this,
do not hastily add members to the church. You may regret it. I had to discover to my shock
and alarm only after I arrived in the church of which I'm now minister that people could
become members so easily, so quickly. Thankfully, we have now changed the system of admission and
at least we have a leadership who have a vision for a congregation consisting of people who are
in fellowship with God and because of that in fellowship with one another. A church is not
an organization, it's an organism and by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, it was meant to be an
organism pulsating with divine life from the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
A church is furthermore based on truth. Fellowship is based on truth. Acts chapter 2 and verse 42.
They devoted themselves to the Apostles teaching and to the fellowship. Fellowship and the
Apostles doctrine went together. It was inseparable and whereas we have our quota of people who say to
us that doctrine divides, we respond by saying it does not divide when it is apprehended,
understood, enjoyed by a gathering of God's people who find it a delight to their souls.
If anything, living truth unites and brings together people into a state and an experience
of genuine Christian fellowship which is just a little fraction and a pale reflection of what
it is in glory. Doctrine identifies and excludes error and heresy and it has become critically
important that we say so and that we practice that. When the Apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians,
he wrote a truth of permanent importance. It is he who gave some apostles, some prophets,
some to be evangelists, some to be pastors and teachers to prepare God's people for works of
service so that the body of Christ may be built up until we reach unity, until we all reach unity in
the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature attaining to the whole measure
of the fullness of Christ. Extract doctrine and truth from fellowship and what you will be left
with is styrofoam saints lacking in spiritual weight, brittle, breakable and in many respects
useless and they only add to the package without the content. Doctrine is God's gift to his people.
Truth is a glorious, wonderful, inseparable element to genuine fellowship. But now what does this mean
in practice? Well, first of all it means that there can be no fellowship with heretics. When
Paul wrote to the Galatians, he was not beside himself emotionally for no reason whatsoever.
He wrote as a man whose intellect had been informed by God the Holy Spirit who knew what
it was all about, who could see the subtle dangers that they were in the heresy that
was threatening the very bedrock of truth in the Christian Church. Galatians chapter 1 and
verse 9, as we have already said and so now I say again, if anybody is preaching to you a gospel
other than what you have accepted, let him be eternally condemned. We say it here for fear of
possibly being misunderstood by one or another, but we say it as we shall keep on saying it,
that Roman Catholicism is heresy and there can be no fellowship whatever with a Roman Catholic
who clings to his error, nor with anyone whose views of the deity of Jesus, the necessity of
the new birth and the infallibility and sufficiency of Scripture are less than biblical. I repeat,
no fellowship. And the sooner we realize that, the more forceful will be our testimony. We
stand only to weaken our witness, to weaken the thrust of evangelism, to weaken fellowship
within our own ranks. If we give one centimeter on what I am saying here, we need to take a
stand in the interests of true fellowship. The letter to the Romans is a letter that was written
to a group of Christians who were meeting in very happy fellowship in Rome and if you read the last
chapter and you read the list of names of different people from different walks of
life enjoying fellowship because of their being united to Christ, as you will notice how often
Paul refers to this status as being in the Lord, in the Lord, in Christ, in Christ, he does get to
the point where before he puts down his pen and ends his letter he says, I urge you brothers to
watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way and then in order that they
might understand that what he is talking about is a doctrinal issue. He adds this, contrary to the
teaching you have learned, the things that I have set out and spelt out in this letter, the doctrine
of the depravity of the human heart, justification by faith alone, by grace alone, through Christ
alone, to God be the glory. Keep away from them for such people are not serving our Lord Christ
but their own appetites by smooth talk and flattery. They deceive the minds of naive people.
Thank God for Romans chapter 16 and verse 17 and 18. If ever we have needed them, we need them
today, tonight, now in 1998. Don't you welcome as I do John MacArthur's warning in one of his books
where he points out so clearly that one of the biggest weaknesses in modern evangelicalism is a
desperate want of discernment. And we seem to be fighting this battle all the time and because
spewing out his lies couched in a little bit of truth here and there, Satan is leading more people
astray than you and I know. There can be no fellowship with those who do not know and love
Jesus Christ and there can be no fellowship with people who by God's Word and by our understanding
of God's Word and truth and by the pure gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ do not love our Redeemer.
We refuse to be discourteous. To be courteous is Christian. We will not be unkind for as long as
we are called to be that. But we have to drink of the spirit of a Martin Luther when we have
understood the issues as we ought to and need to say now. Here I stand. I can do no other.
I've said it and I repeat it. Fellowship is rooted in truth and not in incidentals. When
matters not kernel to our faith become points of conflict and division, we sin against God.
I remember years ago in the younger years of my ministry reading one of the letters to the
editor, Ian probably was the one who replied, he will only know, and how much I appreciated it at
that time where as far as I can correct somebody was simply writing to say well what do we do? We
love the reformed faith. We love the doctrines of grace. We find ourselves in a church where now
the minister nor the people love the truths that we believe and love and yet it seemed as if it
was a Christian church of sorts. What do we do? And I appreciated the reply which included a
reference to John Newton who made a very valid point when he said that although he was an avowed
Calvinist, which I am and I take it you are, that he acknowledged to the fact that truth which was
not revealed by the Holy Spirit was a greater danger than a blessing and therefore he added,
if I know that a man loves God and hates sin, I will have fellowship with him at any time and in
any place. We must stop looking over our temporary walls that divide us and allow ourselves to be
agitated by irrelevant issues. For many years I served Baptist churches. There was one thing
that I found very difficult to handle and it was the kind of strict denominationalism that put
blinkers over people's eyes and I used to say to my congregation and to my leaders, just remember
one thing, you can only be a Baptist up to your grave and beyond not. After that you will no
longer carry that label into the eternal glories and one of the things that I'm appreciating about
the place where I now am is the godliness of some of those lovely Presbyterians whom I now serve.
And yes I think there are a few Methodists amongst them as well.
Coming out of my Baptist lager has helped me afresh to appreciate fellowship as we taste it
now and as it is a foretaste of glory to be revealed. What Jesus said to Peter in John
chapter 21 when he rebuked him, when Peter was terribly anxious about John and what about John,
that's got nothing to do with you. Follow me, follow me. It's fellowship, it's fellowship and
so very important. I think back of church members meetings which were to me so often a pain in the
neck and looking back and thinking about hours spent debating and discussing I realize now what
a waste of time we used to spend on things that were of no import whatsoever. Get down to things
that matter. What does matter? What constitutes fellowship? What is it? It is according to Acts
chapter 4 and verse 32, it is fellowship rooted in the truth. All the believers were one in heart
and mind. A picture of believers reveling in the delights of God's law, God's Word, God's Gospel,
God's grace, studying it from all angles, rejoicing in it as much as they could,
spurring one another on by the things they held dear to their hearts. Fellowship in truth,
truth that mattered. Then fellowship governed by concern and sacrifice. No one claimed that
any of his possessions was his own but they shared everything they had. And then fellowship forged in
evangelism, verse 33, with great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the
Lord Jesus and much grace was upon them all. I suggest to you that fellowship is not worth
the name if it does not lead to aggressive evangelism. I read years ago the pastor who
was forever being criticized by a member of his congregation and he was at his wits end
about this man and what to do with him until one day he decided to take him with him on an
errand of home evangelism. And from the moment the man got into the pastor's car he complained
endlessly about the preaching, about the minister, about the things he said and did until they
arrived at the house when the pastor said to him, well now you take over and you share with these
people the gospel as I have taught you to. And he did. And as they drove away the minister was
pleasantly surprised to hear the man commending him to high heaven for his marvelous preaching
and his wonderful pastoral ministry. It puzzled him but it made him realize something which the
Apostle Paul stresses in his letter to the Philippians where he speaks in this way. Listen
carefully. Whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, Philippians chapter
1 verse 27, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit. And there's no full stop there.
Contending as one man for the faith of the gospel. Fellowship in action.
When evangelistic techniques are unbiblical, criticism is valid. But not when you have
nothing to replace it with. One of my godly Methodist leaders in my present church told
me about a Methodist synod they had in South Africa some years ago when there was endless
debating about this issue and the other one and the next one and that one. And then in the last
meeting a good man, a godly man, got up and asked a simple question. While we have been here in these
last days arguing and politicking about this and that and the other thing and trying to resolve the
unresolvable, may I ask Mr. President, he addressed the chair, how many men here have taken
the trouble to go to New Brighton, which is a black township, and to spend only a few minutes
in evangelism? And how many here have taken the trouble to share the gospel, be it with hosts or
others, in the time that you have been fighting about trivialities? And he was there. The response,
he said, was striking. Acts chapter 8 verse 4 is active fellowship. Those who had been scattered
preached the word wherever they went. I commend to you Charles Haddon Spurgeon's sermon on that
verse, where amongst other things he points out that not even persecution, not even hardship,
not even the loss of goods and properties prevented them from spreading the gospel
wherever they went. Don't you be so busy ensuring orthodoxy wherever you are that you do not spread
that truth you hold dear. Get it out, because as you do, it will only reinforce genuine biblical
fellowship. Truth, forging fellowship is meant to be taught, is meant to be reinforced, is meant to
be exported. And if you do not do so, you are digging a congregational grave, the epitaph of
which will read, they died fighting each other. We do stand for truth, but we are also meant in
fellowship with one another to spread it. We'll let it go until the furthest corners
of Australia have heard the gospel of truth. Fellowship among saints will stoop to lighten
the load. Do you really know and understand the meaning of 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 26?
If one part suffers, every part suffers with it. If one part is honoured, every part rejoices with
it. Look at the Lord Jesus and then follow suit. If you are going to Philippians chapter 2, you
will see that what the Apostle Paul says about the Lord Jesus, he says with reference to
incarnational fellowship. If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ,
if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion,
then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and
purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others
better than yourselves. Do you see that his whole argument flows from his understanding
of being united with Christ in fellowship? And if that is the case, he is in effect saying to
his readers, let that move you and motivate you to do what the Lord Jesus did with a spirit of
sacrifice. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of
others. And what Jesus did is meant to affect us to the point that we show practical fellowship.
Then he proceeds with a famous Christological statement of our Lord Jesus Christ. Your attitude
should be the same as that of Christ, who being in very nature God did not consider equality with
God something to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the very nature of a servant, being made
in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient
to death, even death on the cross, therefore God exalted him to the highest place. It is as if the
Apostle Paul is saying, if you are united to Christ in fellowship, then you cannot enjoy that
unity in fellowship with Christ, if you do not have the mind of Christ, the mind of Christ which
moved him to do what he did. I have a beloved friend, a colleague in South Africa, who is the
minister in a reformed church, Khare Firmiye De Kerk. One day he said to his wife, I need to know
how the other side of the world lives. I'm going to leave you, I will be away for a few days,
because I'm going to live with people who live in a crawl. Now if you don't know what a crawl is,
a crawl happens to be a group of mud huts, there's no running water and people just live off the
little that they can get off the land, plus a bit extra. He wanted to spend time with them,
to see what it felt like, to talk to them, to minister to them, to tell them that he wanted
to be with them for those few days. And so Flip Bass went, godly man, he knows him.
At the end of the few days, after a time of rich spiritual fellowship, as he was about to leave,
they assembled around him and they said to him, we want to thank you for coming to us,
for sharing in our poverty, for talking to us, for giving us a listening ear, for loving us.
But we want to do something for you. First of all, we want you to know that we've changed
your name. From now on, we will call you Boitela, which means the one who humbles himself. And then
we want to give you this hat. Let it be a permanent reminder to you of your name,
and of this wonderful time we've had with you. I'm not telling you what to do, my brothers.
My concern about this evening's subject is that we who are reformed, and thankfully so,
to whom God has revealed such wonderful truth, should know this. We do not have the
deposit of truth that we have lodged in our minds and in our hearts because of anything we ever did.
Flesh and blood did not reveal them to you, but my Father in heaven, Jesus said to Simon Peter,
as he does to you. But if your being, what you are, begins and ends with what you believe.