Before we start our class, I would like to read from 1 John 1 1-4 and then we'll pray together. 1 John 1 1-4 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, and which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life. The life was made manifest and we have seen it and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us. That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you. so that you too may have fellowship with us. And indeed our fellowship is with the father and with his son, Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. Let's pray. Our gracious and heavenly father, we give thanks to you for your protection in the past week, Thank you for being with each and every one of us, providing all our needs according to your riches. But above all, we give praise and glory to you, our God, for our salvation, for the communion and fellowship that we enjoy with you, your son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. And this morning as we finish our class, our study on communion with the Triune God, Lord, we ask you to be among us and teach us by your Holy Spirit. Give us that joy that comes from having fellowship with you. from having communed with you, our God, with the Son, Jesus Christ, and with the Holy Spirit. Oh, triune God, we ask you to be present among us this morning and teach to our heart and bring comfort to our souls. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. If you recall, We announced that at the end of our class on Chameleon with the Triune God, we will give you a summary of what we have been studying and then open the floor for questions. So if you have any questions, on our communion with the Father, with the Son, with the Holy Spirit. I encourage you to ask your questions so that all of us will participate, not only in giving answers, but also in edifying and instructing one another with the help of God Dr. McGraw and my brother Lou Ivy would be here and some of us would interact with you but Dr. McGraw is preaching at Redeemer in Atlanta this morning and our brother Lou Ivy is in Virginia Beach preaching in the church to which he has been to participate in giving answers to the questions from all of you. Communion with the Triune God. Very important and vital aspect of our Christian life. And remember what the Bible teaches us, we have been created for this very purpose. In our shorter catechism, we have a question that we always ask and it's very instructive. What is the chief end of man? And the answer is, you know, man's chief end in this life is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. But without, you see, God, communicating and presenting himself to us so that we would respond to God communicating himself with us with love, then that duty of glorifying God and then the privilege enjoying God would not happen in our Christian life. God has to act first. God has to reveal himself to us. and present himself to us through his divine revelation, by his grace, through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And then we will grasp and understand who God is. We will be able to have fellowship with him by the work of his spirit. So the first thing that I want you to remember is when we say communion with God, what we mean is God's communication of himself to us with our response to him in love. And this definition has been taken from John Allen. That's how he defines what communion with the triune God is. A communion is with the Father, with the Son, and with the Holy Spirit. But it is, you see, when God communicates himself to us with our response to him in love. And all in such a way that he glorified in us and we rejoice in him. when you are in communion with God about your salvation. You know, you think you are in communion with God, but you doubt about your salvation. You doubt about the fact that you are a child of God. You doubt the fact that your sins have been forgiven through the sacrifice, the blood, and the righteousness of Jesus Christ. You doubt about God's love for you. that electing and preserving and saving grace. You doubt about that. You are not really in communication, in communion with God in a biblical sense. You commune with God as a child of God. You commune with God as an individual who has been saved by grace and through faith in Jesus Christ alone. You are in fellowship with God with a sense of understanding that your sins have been forgiven through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. So you see, it is God's communication of himself with us. But we also participate in responding to his love, to his grace, and we do that with joy and a sense of thanksgiving to him. But our communion also is with God as it relates to all three members of the Trinity, Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. So, especially John Owen, when he deals with communion with the Triune God, he brings us to the reality of our communion with the three members of the Trinity. And the other, I think, unique privilege that you need to remember as a Christian is every Christian does have a communion with God. Communion with God is not, you see, limited for few people in the church. Communion with God is not only for the pastors. Communion with God is not only for the deacons, Jeff and Joy and others. Communion with God is for every child of God. No one is excluded, and the communion takes place distinctly with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Why is that? It's because of God's grace. It's because of God's love. Remember what the Bible says about God's love. God loves all his children and God wants all his children to have fellowship with him. So he's not going to exclude you from having fellowship with him. Even you see at the time that God exercises divine mortification in your life. Even at the time that God is in a process of punishing you for your sin as he's He's not going to exclude you from having fellowship with him. You may falter. Your faith might become weak. You may get confused about certain things in the Christian life. Last week, I met with a Christian brother who was going through a very distressing time in his life. And he kept telling me, it was on the phone. He kept telling me, I know God loves me. I know my sin has been forgiven. But right now, I'm not enjoying Christian joy. I don't have joy. I feel like I'm losing the joy of eternity. So he still believed that he was a child of God. He still believed that he was on his way to heaven, but he was confused. He was in distress. He needed help. He needed someone to remind him who God is and how much God loves him. So a communion is with the three members of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So let me start with a fellowship with the Father. It's just a summary. A communion with the Father is through love and faith. A communion with the Father is through love and faith. And what do we mean by that? 1 John 4, verse 19. John says this, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because He first loved us. You see, this is the ground of our fellowship with God the Father, His love. You remove the love of God, you cannot have fellowship with God the Father. So first, you see, his love should come to the picture of our fellowship as prophesied in Ephesians chapter 1. God loved us in his son Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world. You were not even born, you see, but God loved you before the foundation of the world and then the object of his love. was Jesus Christ his son. He loved you in Christ Jesus, which means you see everything that Christ was going to do on the cross. His sacrifice. His ministry as a high priest. His ministry as a mediator. His ministry as the one who will justify you. You see, all those fruits of his ministry will bring you close to God. They will bring you into fellowship with God the Father. But it's based on his love. Based on his love. When a man and a woman are getting married, and they are standing before the congregation, making their vows, exchanging their vows, The one thing that you should always remember is there is there is one thing in common in between the man and the woman. Of course, they have Christ in them and in between the two of them, but there is love between the two of them. You see the object of all the marriage vow. All the words of love that they exchanged one another, I love you and I will live for the rest of my life with you is based on love. If the man doesn't love the woman, he's not going to make this vows. And if he does without loving that woman, he's just pretending he's a liar and the marriage is not going to survive. And my brothers and sisters, God by his love brought us to the point where you and I say to God, Lord, I love you. But for you to respond in that way, for you to say, Lord, I love you, you see, he had to draw you to himself. Not by a lot of wrath and punishment, but with the object of his love. which was Jesus Christ his son. We love because our fellowship with God the Father is grounded. And then comes faith. Not only love, but also faith. Now why is faith with our fellowship with God the Father? Because faith is a gift from God. You see, God gave us this gift, the gift of faith, so that we would respond to his love and to the offer of the gospel, to the call of the gospel by faith. So that you and I would live the Christian life by faith, not by works, not by assumption, not by an empty expectation, But by faith, and that faith is a living faith. Being grounded in the finished work of Jesus Christ our Savior. But this faith is a gift from God. No one earned his faith by his own merit, by his own work, but it was a gift from God. is the base for our fellowship, for our communion with God the Father. And then comes the Son. Okay, the Father, love and faith, and then the Son. And we have communion with the Son through fellowship and through grace. The first one is fellowship. 1 John chapter 1 verse 3. that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you so that you too may have fellowship with us and indeed our fellowship is with the father and with his son Jesus Christ now let me ask you this I think this question will bring us to the reality of this verse with whom do you enjoy your Christian fellowship most? With believers or with unbelievers? Answer? It should come from you. With believers. Where do you think you enjoy your fellowship, your partnership, your friendship, your time together with believers than unbelievers? you in one communion, in one fellowship, fellowship with the father and with the son. The fellowship that you have, it's not the fellowship that you have with one another takes you to the fellowship with the father and with the son. it is the fellowship that you have with the father and with the son takes you to a true Christian fellowship. Then if you say to your Christian brother or your Christian sister, I love you in the name of Jesus Christ, you really mean it. Because you are in fellowship with the Father and with the Son. And you will not have any problem, any difficulty to have a true and sweet and meaningful fellowship with your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. That's the reason you see why John said that which you have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us. And then he takes us to the ground, you see, to the source and the ground and the fountain of our true fellowship. And our fellowship is with the father and with the son. So fellowship, John 14, 23. It is in this communion that both the Father and the Son will come to the believer and make their abode with their soul. John 14, 23. What kind of fellowship? And how does it start? John 14, 23. Jesus answered him, if anyone loves me, He will keep my word. That's your Christian duty. If you claim to love Jesus Christ, you are commanded to keep his word. And my father will love him. You see, anyone who keeps the word of the son, the father will love him. Because you are honoring his son. You are honoring the one whom he sent to you for your redemption, for your salvation. The father becomes pleasing. towards you. He smiles at you. He's happy with you because you love his son and you are obeying the words of his son, the command of the command of the command of his son. So for that reason, the father and the son will come to you and make their home with you. Now making fellowship, it means communion. Jesus said, I'm standing at the gate knocking so that you would open the door for me and I come and sit with you or eat with you, have fellowship with you around the table. So you see fellowship is the first and at communion with God the Son. And then the second is grace. The second is grace. I don't know how many of you have noticed that carefully and in a very meaningful way. Whenever myself or Peter or Dr. Curta or other pastors pronounce the benediction, Remember the words that we pronounce upon you as God's people. The first one is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you. Now, remember the first word of benediction, the grace of our Lord All of them are important. The love of the Father is important. The fellowship of the Holy Spirit is important. We'll consider when we deal with the Holy Spirit, our fellowship with the Holy Spirit. But we start with grace. Because without the grace of Jesus Christ, you can do nothing. And without the grace of God, no blessing through the spirit. The grace of God is the starting point. By grace, through faith, you have been saved. You see, faith comes after grace. By grace and through faith. Paul, you see, didn't say by faith you have been saved. And then it will not, you see, bring the full meaning and but by grace. You see the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is the ground and the foundation of all he has done for his people. His grace is the foundation of his nation, his obedience on the cross, his suffering, his death, his work as a mediator, and his ministry of shepherding us. All these are, you see, So our fellowship with the Son is based on the grace of God. And then we'll go to the Spirit. Our fellowship with the Holy Spirit. The first one is our fellowship with the Holy Spirit is through comfort. And then the second is through sanctification. John 14 16. If you love me, you will keep my commandments and I will ask the Father and he will give you another helper And the exact meaning of the word is comforter. To be with you forever. Let's say you are mourning over the loss of your beloved family member. Or you are going through a very difficult time in your life. Maybe your relationship which people has been suffered. Maybe you are sick. So you are struggling and wrestling with illness or sickness in your life. Maybe you are backsliding from God. You need comfort in your life, especially if you are in sorrow. Your pastor would always come to you and bring comfort to you from the Word of God. And he should come because he is your pastor. Your elders can come to you and they should come and console you. But you know they have other responsibilities. They will stay with you for a little while and they will go to their family, to their children, to other responsibilities that they have in life. They are not going to live with you every day of your life. They are not going to be with you, you see, with you forever. You see the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The beauty of the ministry of the Holy Spirit is not going to leave you. he's not and he is with you you see according to john you see he is with you forever with you is the you see that sign of uh close and intimate um communion with you and then you see the the lens of time is forever he's going to uh bring every day of your life. What a ministry, what a gift. I always remember my time in prison. No Bible, no Christian friend with me, no news about my family. I knew nothing about what was happening in the outside world the church family, nothing. The only friend who was with me and I can sense his presence in my life was the Holy Spirit. You see, the guard wouldn't stop the Holy Spirit to be with me in the prison cell. I'm glad he's spirit. I'm glad he's invisible. But the sense of comfort Strength and sense of joy that he brings to us is beyond of your imagination But he's with you you see he's in fellowship with you Because of God's grace and because of God's love so his ministries you see constant for you It doesn't stop You know the Holy Spirit is not going to say to you I am fed up with you You are a child of God. He is going to be patient with you. He is going to shape your life. He is going to mortify you. He is there with you for your good. That is the reason why the Bible exhorts us not to grieve the Holy Spirit. If you grieve the Holy Spirit for the purpose of teaching you, for the purpose of giving you a lesson in your Christian life, he will act as if he's not with you. You see, so that's the kind of fellowship that we are talking about. And then, of course, through sanctification. Let me read 1 Corinthians 6.11. 1 Corinthians 6.11. Chapter 6, verse 11. And such were some of you, but you were worshipped, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our Lord. You were lost, you were sinners, you were dead in your sins and transgressions. But then when the mercy and the love of God revealed to us through his son, Jesus Christ, you were worshipped by the blood of Jesus Christ. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is your redeemer, the one who cultures you by his blood and then by the the work of Christ in your life. You have been sanctified by the work of the Holy Spirit. Now many Christians misunderstand how the Holy Spirit sanctifies us. You know being in fellowship with us and then he fulfills the ministry of sanctification in our life. How does the Holy Spirit does that? Through the Word of God. Through the Word of God. The tool is the Word of God, the living, life-giving Word of God. The Holy Spirit uses the power of the Word of God to sanctify you every day. He's not going to do that apart or without, you see. Reminds us in John 17 sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth In that you see in that work the word sanctifying you You have the presence of the Holy Spirit using and Accompanying the power of the word in to sanctify your heart, to sanctify your mind for the glory of God so that you would live a life that is worthy to your call. So, I think it's sufficient. I think it would be good for a start. It would be good for you to do more reading and reflection. And as Dr. McGraw and Lou Ivy did, I would like to encourage you to buy the book by John Owen, A Communion with the Triune God. I think it's a short volume. And it will be very edifying for your soul. I have read that book. I am still reading it It's very useful. So I encourage you to it's not expensive I encourage you to buy to own it and then use it in your Christian life Do you have any question on? This topic communion with God or anything that you would like to add that you think would be very edifying for all of us Vernon I was recently listening to an audio series from Ligonier and they talked about the comfort of the Holy Spirit. And in our day and time, we tend to think of comfort as being relieved from pain or some sort, in a way, consoled. And that is a work of the Holy Spirit. But he was explaining, and it was very helpful to me, that in that context, in the way the Word was used at that time, he was also stressing He comes along with us to strengthen us. So the strength and the power of the Holy Spirit being with us relieves those other aspects that we're struggling with. So I think if we lose that aspect of the power and the strength and the Holy Spirit that we have with us always, we tend to think more perhaps in a sentimental way. Right, right. Yeah, I see. I see a point. It's because of, you know, the limited, you know, time that we have for the class that, you know, we didn't go deep with that. But, you know, when the Holy Spirit is in fellowship with us to bring comfort to our Christian life, he also fulfills the ministry of guiding us and teaching us. and also praying with us and for us. You see, you can't really pray, not only as a child of God, but also with a sense of hope and confidence without the help of the Holy Spirit, you know, the Holy Spirit being with you. And he is our helper. He not only brings comfort to our Christian life in time of trouble and sorrow, but also with God-glorifying, biblical, and acceptable, you know, in the sight of God, words while we pray towards our Heavenly Father. So his ministry is very wide. Yes, sir. I think all three of you have done very well, and we've learned greatly. The concern I've had all along is that we must not think of the communion, our communion with the Trinity, as being a doctrine that we've learned about. We know a lot about it now. but it's something we must practice. It falls short if we just think of it as it's up there on our doctor's shelf. Yeah, now we know that pretty well. Well, but what are we doing about it? And so I guess I think of it as in a very simplistic way. God has given us his word. That's God speaking to us. We must pray. We speak to God. and meditate as well. And then the Holy Spirit who teaches us how to understand the word, how to apply the word in our response and glorifies Christ and all that Christ has done. And also of course the Father has graciously given the Holy Spirit to us and promises that if we ask him he will give us more of the Holy Spirit. So I guess I've I completely agree with what you said. I remember one time I was talking to a friend You know, we're having coffee together and another person comes in and he knew my friend. I didn't know him. So they were talking. And when they were talking, the person was telling the other one about his experience with Christ, with the love of God, and what he was saying to him was nothing Wrong about what he said so that person leaves and then my friend says to me Did you know that that Pentecostal guy? You know experience experience experience, and you know and then we continue talking about what do you mean? Because he talked about his Christian experience. He's a Pentecostal so tell me more. I know what do you mean by that? So he started telling me about you know how he understood experience in the Christian life not the guy who left but My reformer friend was wrong. You see, whenever we talk about, you know, experience, experiencing the love of God, experiencing communion with God, the father, his son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, we tend to think that, you know, it's, it's not something that we need to think and pray about in our Christian life. We should experience God's love in our life. We should experience his communion with our father, with his son Jesus Christ and with the Holy Spirit in our life. We don't base that on our own merit, on our own efforts. We don't say that or we don't claim to have that experience so that people will think we are more righteous than them, but we need to experience our God. And the way to experience, you see, the love of God, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the comfort of the Holy Spirit, is as what Mr. John Van Voorhis was saying, is to pray, to meditate on God's word and to have a sense of that, you see, experience, you know, spiritual experience of Christ, his love, his work of salvation in your life. And as I told you from my personal experience, and then you see when, when trouble comes to life, when your faith is tested, you see, you are a person in communion with your heavenly father. You are a person who is in communion with the Holy Spirit, who lives with you forever. So your faith, because of that, you see, because of God's grace and your experience, your daily experience with God, his love, his mercy, his grace, your faith in time of trouble and trial is not going to be shaken. You will remain strong. and being a man of, and a woman of faith in the sight of God. So it is very important for all of us to be reminded that, you know, we didn't teach this class so that you would be introduced to John Allen. doctrine of communion with God. But our purpose to teach this class was that every member of covenant, every worshiper in this church will remain and continue in true communion with the Triune God. With that sense of assurance and experience by the help of God's grace. So I think that's My concluding remarks for the class, unless you have a question or something that you want to add. Exactly. It's based on addition of a relation, in addition to the word, which is very unhealthy for any child of God. Louis. I'm so glad that you're putting so much emphasis on the practical matters of this. A man came to me some time ago, his marriage was failing, his wife was leaving him, he had trouble at his work, He had trouble with his children and relations for them. And as we were talking, I asked him, how is your reading of your scriptures? Do you pray to the Lord? And he started vacillating. He said, no, not that much. And that's when we really established, there is a problem. There's no communion with God. We really neglect that. How can you expect that God will bless you in these things? diligent in your obedience to God as well. There's an aspect of obedience as well that we have towards God. In our reading of Scripture, our praying, and our daily communion, think of God even as we're walking through on the street or driving. Seek that communion with God daily, minute by minute. In that way, As you say, the comforting, it is tremendous. He is such a blessing to us that we often forget. I also think that the classes help renew our focus and just the foundational aspects of what goes on every Lord's Day. Focus on preaching, prayer, renewed commitment to a prayer service on Wednesday night. I think about, on like Friday night, to hear what were the disciples doing after the Ascension? They joined together in one accord for prayer for the women of the church. Shortly after that is when the coming of the Holy Spirit. And so when we think about union, communion, fellowship with the Holy Spirit, Right. Those are all renewed aspects of fellowship believers in the church and the community. And our church is part of an outreach evangelism and all that stuff as well. So it's been very helpful. Very good. Thank you. Good remarks from Vernon. And for that good remark, I will ask you to close us with a word of prayer. for the gift of your word, and I faithfully proclaim and talk, preach, and pray here to thank you for the example of union and communion amongst the God-heavenly Father, Son, and Spirit. As an example, I thank you for the love, first of all, and grace, and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and thank you for the love of the Father, who has been bestowed upon us through Christ by the power of the Spirit, who created you and the simple things of life. Lord, reading of our Bible, prayer, meditation, attending upon the preaching of your word, word and sacrament, and that we would be diligent to bear one another's burdens and just continue to seek the growth of your kingdom here in Taylor's and Greenville area and to the uttermost ends of the world. Amen. Thank you.