Dear BPCWAians, After having covered the morning devotion messages from the camp, I will briefly summarise the messages preached by our guest speaker, Rev (Dr) Jeffrey Khoo. The thematic messages were from the church’s theme verse, Acts 2:42, “And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.” We shall review continuing stedfastly in the following areas:

In the apostles’ doctrine. The early Christians in Acts 2 had just believed in the gospel and been saved. The gospel is just the beginning of our Christian walk, but we must end well too. There is more to Christianity than the gospel, and our faith must continue to grow even after knowing the gospel. The just shall live by faith (Rom 1:17), and believers must have a dependence on the Word. For the individual, paying attention to doctrines helps us to remain steadfast in our walk of faith. Just like the New Testament church, the church only grows when it is grounded on doctrines. This is because doctrines are the basis of our practices. There are devilish doctrines outside (1 Tim 4:1) that can sound very convincing and excite our emotions, but we must not be deceived and allow ourselves to be led astray. Only doctrines that unite us with God will unite us as a church for God. And in order to be united with God, we must believe that we still have God’s perfectly preserved Bible to guide us on His gospels and His doctrines today (Ps 12:6-7). Since godliness is profitable to all things (1 Tim 4:8), this naturally means that the study  of doctrines is important. Without this, it is not possible to be godly. This makes the study of theology the highest study. The Great Commission is more than speaking about the gospel. The Great Commission commands the church – God’s covenantal community – to be involved in the lifelong process of sanctifying believers by God’s truth (Matt 28:20). The church must be committed to indoctrination, because of dangers from within and without (Acts 20:26-32). To warn others of dangers, teaching must involve the negatives as well, warning against falsehood. But before even teaching doctrine, we must have the correct doctrine of the Bible. God has given to us preserved words, not just preserved doctrines. We must know how to protect ourselves and defend God’s truth against heresies. Only when we know doctrine and get deep into them will they protect us. We must know our doctrines well in order to discern right from wrong. This study involves hard work, and we should be ready to suffer for Him. Good sound doctrine is very practical. For example, knowing Christ’s humility should humble us. Faithful doctrine from the right Word will lead to the right life; and a true understanding of doctrine will make us lovers of God and to love each other.

In fellowship. Fellowship is a means of grace whereby we encourage and provoke one another to glorify Him, and to praise God together. But fellowship does not exist in a silo, but centred upon the worshipful study of God’s  Word  and what He desires. The word fellowship comes from the Greek word koinonia, or “commonism”. It is a picture of Christians who share, distribute, participate and partake in the sufferings of others, motivated by love and willingness. This is Christian companionship in the covenant community. Fellowship must be in spirit and in doctrine. Acts 2:44 tells us that the early Christians were together. They had a spiritual and physical “sameness” because they had a fellowship centred on the Word. Fellowship is not mere socialising, but a practice of doing good deeds for one another, binding us together as a common people with a common goal for Christ and His Truth. But the cross that unites is also a sword that divides (Matt 10:34-35). Doctrine marks out truth and makes light clear, dividing between truth and error. So, while uniting, doctrine also divides, and we must understand that such division is not bad. Christ speaks about such divisions (Lk 12:51). We must have a dividing line from those who bring in heretical doctrines (Rom 16:17). Sometimes, this may lead to discipline and excommunication in order to preserve true unity. Uniting love within those who love the truth will divide and separate us from those who hold on to false doctrines. As such, the church must have a sound, good and right view of what biblical fellowship involves. We must remember that charity rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth (1Co 13:6). The ministry of the Word is to bring us unity and fellowship around a common faith (Eph 4:11-16). We are united in fellowship around the truth (John 17:17). Another enemy to fellowship and unity are those who are friends of the world (John 15:18-20). Those in church who are full of self, pride and who seek self promotion, have envy and strife, will work against true fellowship and unity. Instead, we must be constrained by the love of Christ in humility, not seeking our own recognition. It can be hard, but to get true fellowship, we must remove from the church unholy “fellowships”. Above all, we must seek to have the same mind in theology and doctrines and work happily together despite personal differences. Only with this sameness of doctrine and with no selfish ambition can the Board of Elders function in consensus and unity to move forward.

Brethren, let us endeavour in BPCWA to only have true fellowship and commonism. Only when there is such true Biblical unity will there be church growth.

Ac 2:47 Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

Yours in our Lord’s service

Pastor