The Fellowship of Christ

“Only as they were willing to be purged from sin could they enter into fellowship with Him. Only the pure in heart could abide in His presence.” DA 108.

The fellowship of Christ and His sufferings (Philippians 3:10) is the greatest experience that man can know. The fellowship of Christ begins when all else is forsaken for Christ.

The Fellowship of Christ is Completely different From the Fellowship of the Church

“Those who give their affections to any leader but Christ will find themselves under the control, body, soul, and spirit, of an infatuation that is so entrancing that under its power souls turn away from hearing the truth to believe a lie. They are ensnared and taken, and their every action they cry. Release unto us Barabbas, but crucify Christ.” RH 1-30-00.

The failure to distinguish between the Church and the person of Christ has cost salvation of untold billions. The fellowship of Christ is something completely different from the fellowship of “the church.” The same Seminary professor who, with face flushed with anger, declared “ecumenism is not a dirty word,” the same professor who had his students read a book advocating dancing in church, would extol the wonderful fellowship of the ministry of the Structure.

The Jews Crucified Christ Because They Would Not Relinquish Church Fellowship for the Fellowship of Christ

“The Jews had agreed already, that if any man did confess that He was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue.” John 9:22.

The masses of the Jews would not relinquish the “fellowship of the church” for the fellowship of Christ. Christ was a threat to their fellowship. If they choose to follow Him they had to relinquish the “fellowship of the church” because they would be put out of the synagogue. “Because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue.” John 12:42. The parents of the man born blind, whom Jesus healed, were afraid to even testify that Jesus had healed their son, for fear of being put out of the synagogue.  (John 9:22) Their healed son, because He confessed Christ was put out of the synagogue. “They cast him out.” John 9:34. However, Jesus took Him in to His church-the church that puts Christ first, that confesses Christ that follows Christ alone. And no man could take him out of Christ’s hand or the Father’s hand. John 10: 28,29.

 

The Seduction of the Fellowship of the Church

However, today multitudes of those who profess to be the remnant have fallen for the seduction of “the fellowship of Church” instead of the fellowship of Christ. Today, social security is so tenuous, so fragile, and people are so lonely, that they cannot handle being separated from the “fellowship of the church.”

Our Spiritual Identity Must Come From God, Not the Church

Our identity, our spiritual identity, must come from God Himself, from Christ, from the testimony of the Holy Spirit in the soul in harmony with the Word, and not from “the church.”

The fellowship of Christ is so very great that human fellowship is not to be compared with it. To trade in fellowship with Christ, the walking of the narrow way, the fellowship of His sufferings, for the fellowship of human beings who are not in true fellowship with Christ is a travesty that results in eternal death.

 

It Was a Relief for Jesus to God Where His Name Did Not Exist

The path that Jesus walked in this world was the path of utter faithfulness to His Father and His Word. This meant that he had to walk alone. He was misunderstood, even by His mother, His brothers, and His sisters. “So pained was Christ by the misapprehension in His own home that it was a relief to Him to go where it did not exist.” DA 326. In addition, even more, He was misunderstood by the Pharisees, scribes, Sadducees, Sanhedrin, and the people. He was understood in heaven alone. “Jesus walked in solitude in the midst of men, He was understood fully by heaven alone.” MB 26.

Our Culture is No Longer Geared to Individual Surrender to the Person of the Unseen God

This is a test that many today cannot handle, for the culture of our time is no longer geared to individual surrender to the person of the Unseen God, the Unseen Christ, like it was during Puritan times. Our culture focuses on human, interpersonal fellowship and relations. The church is oriented this way; the media is oriented this way.

The person who forsakes the world and its associations, and even the fellowship of a world loving church for the fellowship of Christ, is out of sync in a thousand ways with the kind of human fellowship developed under the onslaught of worldliness, ecumenism, pantheism, NLP, Dialectical Praxis, and the elevation of self in the philosophy of Nietzsche, which now is the philosophy of the man on the street, and which became the philosophy of the churches after the publication of Dr. Schuller’s book, Self-Esteem: The New Reformation, in the early 1980s.

 

Christ Was Despised and Rejected of Men; So It Will Be With His Disciple

Christ was despised and rejected of men. Isaiah 53:3. Will not His true disciple be despised and rejected of men? The servant is not greater than his Lord. John 13:16. Men esteemed Christ not:

“He hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him.

“He is despised and rejected of men, a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.” Isaiah 53: 2,3.

 

Ecumenism and Church Growth Have Nothing to Do With Christ

“Multitudes will exult that God is working marvelously for them, when the work is that of another spirit. Under a religious guise, Satan will seek to extend his influence over the Christian world.” GC 464.

Christianity today is built upon popularity and popular entertainment. Structure pastors are sent by the droves to Willow Creek to learn how to merge the world with the worship service. The entire pastorate of the entire conference will be secretly shipped off to learn Neuro-lingusitic programming. Purpose-driven seminars are held across the nation to inure the people into the New Age Christianity of Dr. Schuller of the Crystal Cathedral, through Schuller’s disciple, Pastor Rick Warren, pastor of the Saddleback church, with its hard-rock music and pantheistic Bible-The Message.

To hold the youth there is rap music, rock music, and rhythm and blues. Pastors form rock groups and perform in public before the nation on satellite television at G2K.

 

Satan’s Three Devil Movement

All of this is not part of Christ, but rather is the false three-demon movement of ecumenism. John saw it-“And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.

“For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of earth and the whole world, to gather them to the battle of the great day of God Almighty.” Revelation 16:13.

 

Ecumenical Movement Led By Three Unclean Spirits

The ecumenical movement is led by three unclean spirits that are the spirits of devils. The ecumenical movement is being gathered together “into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon –Har meggedon, mountain of slaughter.” Revelation 16:16.

 

“Word of Faith” and Gospel of Prosperity

Part of this movement of ecumenism is the Word of Faith movement, a movement of New Thought metaphysics and Christian Science, which teaches the “gospel of prosperity.” If you serve God, then you will prosper financially and materially.

This is fundamental to the Church Growth movement, which sees outward numbers as the sign of success-with megachurchs of five thousand, ten thousand, or nineteen thousand members, as the sign that they are on the right track-blessed of God, they believe.

It is taken right out of the book of the Sadducees of Jesus’ day.

 

Church Growth Movement and Smorgasbord Church

Church Growth teaches its ministry to manage the church according to management by objectives-the objective being to increase the numbers in the church. This has resulted in the smorgasbord church in the Structure-offer the people what they want. An early service for the old conservative diehards, an eleven o’clock service that rocks for the Celebration crowd, and rock, rap and rhythm and blues for the youth in the basement.

None of this, I repeat, none of this has anything to do with the Christ Who suffered the shedding of blood in Calvary, and hung on the cross for you and me. It has everything to do with the three demons ecumenical movement that is being led by devils steadily to Armageddon.

 

Faith Requires Forsaking All For Christ

“Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, be cannot be My disciple.” Luke 14:33.

What then is the problem? The problem is an issue of faith. Jesus said, “When the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?” Luke 18:8.

It requires faith to forsake all for Christ-fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, wife, children, and one’s own psyche for Christ Who represents principles that are hated by a world-loving Christianity and church. One would be so isolated, so alone. Well, so was Jesus even more isolated and alone. Did I say alone? Oh, no. He had the fellowship of His Father, of the angels, of the Holy Spirit-fellowship so much greater than that of human beings who are not under the control of the Holy Spirit as the heavens are above the earth. Therefore, will you have this glorious fellowship as you forsake all for Him.  Once that bridge of faith is crossed, you will have friends for eternity.

 

John On Patmos Had the Companionship of Christ

“John was deprived of the companionship of his brethren, but no man could deprive him of the companionship of Christ. A great light was to shine from Christ to His servant. The Lord watched over His banished disciple, and gave him a wonderful revelation of Himself….God and Christ and the heavenly host were John’s companions on the lonely island, and from them he received instruction of infinite importance. There he wrote out the visions and revelations he received of God, telling of the things that would take place in the closing scenes of this earth’s history. When his voice could no longer witness to the truth, the messages given him in Patmos were to go forth as a lamp that burneth. From them men and women were to learn the purposes of God, not concerning the Jewish nation merely, but concerning every nation upon the earth.” ST 3-22-05.

 

The Companionship of God, Christ, and the Heavenly Angels

“Patmos, a barren, rocky island in the Aegean Sea, had been chosen by the Roman government as a place of banishment for criminals; but to the servant of God this gloomy abode became the gate of heaven. Here, shut away from the busy scenes of life, and from the active labors of former years, he had the companionship of God and Christ and the heavenly angels, and from them he received instruction for the church for the future time….Among the cliffs and rocks of Patmos, John held communion with his Maker.” CC 362.

 

John the Baptist Had Always the Companionship of Heavenly Angels

“Though no miraculous deliverance was granted John, he was not forsaken. He had always the companionship of heavenly angels, who opened to him the prophecies concerning Christ, and the precious promises of Scripture. These were his stay, as they were to be the stay of God’s people through the coming ages. To John the Baptist, as to those that came after him, was given the assurance, “Lo, I am with you all the days, even unto the end.” Matthew 28:20, RV., margin.” DA 224.

 

Jesus Offered the Rich Young Ruler Companionship With Himself

“Christ looked upon the young man and longed after his soul. He longed to send him forth as a messenger of blessing to men. In the place of that which He called upon him to surrender. Christ offered him the privilege of companionship with Himself. “Follow Me,” He said. This privilege had been counted a joy by Peter, James, and John. The young man himself looked upon Christ with admiration. His heart was drawn toward the Savior. However, he was not ready to accept the Savior’s principle of self-sacrifice. He chose his riches before Jesus. He wanted eternal life, but would not receive into the soul that unselfish love which alone is life, and with sorrowful heart he turned away from Christ.” COL 393.

When we follow Jesus, we have His companionship.

 

The Fellowship of the “Three Living Persons of the Heavenly Trio” [7ABC 441,442]

We are called alone. We follow alone. However, we are not alone, for Christ and His unreachable riches are ours. A fellowship that is beyond, infinitely beyond, all that this demonic world can offer. More than this, we have the fellowship of the Father of Lights, in Whom there is no shadow of turning, with all the resources of the universe. We have the providence of God. We walk in the light of His presence continually. We have the fellowship of the Spirit, Who reveals to us the things that “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man” – the deep things of the deepest heart and character of God.

Hundredfold More

And, having forsaken all for Christ, He gives us an hundredfold more- “And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.” Matthew 19:29.

 

Great Faith Required

It takes great faith to forsake all for Christ, but that is the faith that is required for discipleship for those that will win eternal life. We are given in Christ’s righteousness a character like Christ. That is an enormous security in an evil world. There is peace, shalom, like a river that attends the soul.

 

Fellowship With God is Defined by God’s Person

However, the fellowship with God is defined by God’s Person, not by “the church.”  That is what Jesus lived, taught, suffered and died for. He created an entire new church, a church built on Himself, the Rock of Ages, at first a very small church defined by utter faithfulness. A church so small that Jesus said that where two or three are gathered together, in My name, there am I in the midst. It is the presence of the Christ of Isaiah 54 and John 19, the suffering, despised, rejected, Messiah, Who suffered for us in Gethsemane and Calvary. Who alone can constitute a church. [See UL 315]

 

Jesus Experienced A Loneliness In Gethsemane That We May Never Need to Know

He learned obedience by the things that He suffered. However, many forget that part of that suffering was His loneliness, His aloneness, in this world. Until Gethsemane, that loneliness was tempered by the continual presence of the Father. However, at Gethsemane, when Jesus became sin for us Who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him  [2 Corinthians 5:21], the offensiveness of sin caused the breakup of the oneness between the Father and the Son, and Jesus went through Gethsemane and Calvary utterly alone [Matthew 27:46] –without the comfort of the Father’s presence. This is the loneliness that you, as His disciple, will never have to know.

 

Jesus Experienced the Wrath of God Against Sin

Not only that but Jesus endured the wrath of His Father against sin. “Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, and against the Man that is My Fellow, saith the Lord of Hosts.” Zechariah 13:7. The sword of the Father’s wrath pierced Jesus’ heart.

Christianity’s Survival Depends Upon Forsaking All for Christ

What if Jesus’ disciples, because of loneliness, had all gone back to the Structure? Christianity would have melted away and utterly died out on the earth. The future of Christianity’s very existence upon earth depended upon their faithfulness, upon their utter devotion, to putting fellowship with Christ and the Father first, ahead of fellowship with “the church.”

This happened over and over again-in the struggle with apostasy in Waldensian times, in the Sixteenth Century Reformation, in the days of Puritanism, in the Second Advent Awakening, in the post-1844 faithfulness of those two hundred souls who refused to give up their faith in the correctness of the chronology of the 2,300 days, and went on to form the Seventh-day Adventist movement. It is happening now, again, and we must learn from the past.

 

The Struggle With the Papacy

The struggle over how to relate to apostasy is dealt with very pungently in the Lord’s treatment of the battle that took place within the church as the papacy asserted its power: “It required a desperate struggle for those who would be faithful to stand firm against the deceptions and abominations which are disguised in sacerdotal garments and introduced into the church. The Bible was not accepted as the standard of faith. The doctrine of religious freedom was termed heresy, and its upholders were hated and proscribed.

“After as long and severe conflict, the faithful few decided to dissolve all union with the apostate church if she still refused to free herself from falsehood and idolatry. They saw that separation was an absolute necessity if they would obey the word of God.  They dared not tolerate errors fatal to their own souls, and set an example that would imperil the faith of their children and children’s children. To ensure peace and unity they were ready to make any concession consistent with fidelity to God; but they felt that even peace would be too dearly purchased at the sacrifice of principle. If unity could be secured only by the compromise of truth and righteousness, then let there be difference, and even war.

“Well would it be for the church and the world if the principles that actuated those steadfast souls were revived in the hearts of God’s professed people. There is an alarming indifference in regard to the doctrines that are the pillars of the Christian faith. The opinion is gaining ground, that; after all, these are not of vital importance. This degeneracy is strengthening the hands of the agents of Satan, so that false theories and fatal delusions which the faithful in ages past imperiled their lives to resist and expose, are now regarded with favor by thousands who claim to be followers of Christ.” GC 45, 46.

“The gospel of Christ is the law exemplified in character. The deceptions practiced against it, every device for vindicating falsehood, every error forged by satanic agencies, will eventually be eternally broken, and the triumph of truth will be like the appearing of the sun at noonday.” Mar 18

If a person sacrifices the fellowship with Christ for the fellowship of “the church,” or even the fellowship of the family, he will be lost. Jesus said, He cannot be My disciple. Luke 14:26.

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