The. The. so so A. now before we Again, I ask God's help upon
the ministry of the Word, this being my last opportunity to
speak to you. In this setting, there are several
things that I have reflected upon, and I do want to say them
on this occasion. First of all, to express my thanks
again publicly to your elders for extending to me the privilege
of coming and ministering in your midst in this particular
conference. I do not regard myself as having
a right of access to any pulpit, let alone the pulpit of another
assembly. And it is indeed a privilege
to speak in Christ's name to those who have been gathered
by the Spirit with a hunger for the preaching of the word of
God. And I knew that in coming here, The only thing I had to
give is the thing that you desired to receive, namely, the Word
of God. I'm thankful for the many, many
expressions that different ones of you have given of how you
have been helped by various individual and series of sermons that you've
heard on those little mechanical preachers. and most of you had
never met me and it's been such a delight to meet you and have
you express how God has used his word And it has done two
things. It has increased my confidence
in the Lord's promise. So shall my word be that goes
forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void,
but it shall accomplish that whereunto I have sent it and
prosper in the thing whereunto I have sent it. And that confidence
has been deepened. And also, it has caused me to
be stirred up afresh, to be faithful and diligent in the language
of 2 Timothy 2.15, a text I sought to press on the consciences of
the preachers the other day, to continue to do my utmost to
show myself approved unto God a workman who needs not to be
ashamed, handling aright the word of truth. And then the second thing I want
to say after expressing those words of thanks is to entreat
you to pray for me personally that I may grow in grace and
in likeness to Christ, and that I may grow in diligence in the
application of myself to the work of the ministry." Another
text we looked at in the minister's conference on Friday, Paul said
to Timothy, give yourself wholly to these things that your progress
may be manifested unto all. And there are several men, in
addition to my own fellow elders, who love me enough to be honest
with me, and I periodically ask them if they see me improving
in my preaching. I don't want to coast. I don't
want to simply sit back and say, I've paid my dues. I've been
at it 40 years now. It's time to inwardly retire. I've asked God to kill me if
I ever came. to that place. So if you wonder
what you should pray for Pastor Martin, pray that I will grow
in likeness to Christ, that I will grow in usefulness and in the
diligence of stirring up whatever gifts God has given to minister
His Word, and then pray, if you will, for our assembly, that
God will help us to be true to the stewardship of the many responsibilities
that God has thrust upon us and he has thrust many from the training
of men for the ministry, the overseeing of the planting of
churches at home and abroad, And we are thankful that these
are ministries God has thrust upon us. We never originally
planned them. And my comfort, when at times
I wonder how we'll ever do all that we must do, is to say, Lord,
this is your doing, and you have only made yourself indebted to
your grace, not to our paltry strength. So may your grace prove
sufficient for us. Now then let us pray once again
and ask God to bless us as he has in our previous sessions
and grant us to know the word coming not in word only but also
in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance. Let us
pray. Our Father, we thank you for
these blessed few days we have been privileged to spend together
with one another in your special presence, vouchsafed to your
gathered people. For surely we have known that
as we have met, you have been among us. We thank you that we
have known the refreshment, the conviction, the enlightenment,
the comfort of the Word of God. And we pray that in this, our
final session, you would help us to gird up the loins of our
minds. You know our frame. You remember
that we are dust. And we pray that looking upon
us in pity, you will strengthen us, that we may be able with
mental and spiritual alertness to grasp that which the Spirit
would say to us through the word. And, O Lord, we pray for those
that are yet wedded to their sins, who see no loveliness in
Christ, for whom the world is the only thing in which they
see any beauty, and to the world they have given their heart and
their affections and their energies and their allegiance. O God,
tonight give them such a sight of Christ that they will gladly
divorce their allegiance to the world and cast themselves upon
the Lord Jesus, swearing allegiance to Him as their only Savior and
hope of salvation, embracing Him as their only Sovereign and
Lord. O God, do this, we pray. Honor Your Son. Give Him the
reward of His sufferings, even in this place tonight. Hear our
cry. Bind the powers of darkness And
may the Word run and have free course and be glorified, we ask
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Now, as most of you who have
been with us for any part of the conference know, we come
tonight to the last of our studies on the theme, The Christian's
Role in a Wicked Generation. And the first thing we did was
to establish from the scriptures that this generation indeed is
a wicked generation. Then we sought to identify from
the Scriptures what a real Christian is, for it is only a real Christian
who has any significant role to perform in the will and purpose
of God in ministering to this wicked generation. Then we looked
at the essence of what that role is, negatively and positively,
following the pattern of Scripture, Our role is to refuse in any
area of our thinking or practice to be shaped by this world system. Romans 12, 2, 1 Peter 1, 13 and
14, Ephesians 4, 17 to 19. Positively stated, our role is
to seek to have all of our thinking and all of our practice brought
into conformity to the standards of God. Be transformed by the
renewing of your mind, that you may prove the will of God, the
good, the acceptable, and the perfect. And then, this morning,
we focused upon two critical areas in which this negative
and positive spiritual discipline must, of necessity, be operative
if we are to be light and salt in this present generation. If
we are to fit the description of Philippians 2, shining as
luminaries in the darkness of this perverse, this crooked,
this twisted unto the breaking point generation, then surely
it must be in the area of our sexual identity, roles, and purity. If, as the people of God, we
are not rejecting the world's perspectives and being transformed
by the renewing of our minds with reference to our sexual
identity roles and sexual purity, we are simply blending into the
darkness of this present age. And then, in the morning hour,
we consider the whole subject of domestic godliness. with the
breakdown of the family and with the role reversals and egalitarian
marriages and social experimentation with the structure of the home.
Surely, if we are to fulfill our role in this wicked generation,
we must have homes where there are wives who embrace their definitive
role as given by God, particularly in Ephesians 5, and husbands
who embrace their role in the strength and power of the Holy
Spirit. Now we come tonight to the third
and final area. Though, as I said this morning,
I wish I had the time to address another dozen crucial areas,
but I've had to be selective and I could not leave with a
good conscience did I not address this area. Our role in this wicked
generation is to be seen in terms of being carried out in conjunction
with our commitment to and our involvement in the life and ministry
of a biblical church. The Christians' role in a wicked
generation must be carried out in conjunction with his commitment
to and involvement in the life and ministry of a biblical church. Now, as I attempt to prove this
assertion, consider with me, first of all, the central place
of the church in the saving purposes of God. If this generation exists,
and according to Peter, every generation that exists until
the return of Christ exists for a primary purpose, people mock
and say, oh, everybody's been talking about the Lord's return
since the fathers fell asleep. Everything continues as it did
from the beginning. Peter says they forget several
things. They forget the great epical
judgment of the flood, and they forget that this period of long
suffering, to use the language of Peter, and account that it
is the long suffering of God. that explains the extension of
history, not willing that any should perish, but that all should
come to repentance, that is, committed to the salvation of
the whole role of His elect. All of human history unfolds
and continues to march on until the Lord Jesus has the last fruit
of His suffering upon the cross safely garnered in, and then
there will be the shout and the voice of the archangel and the
trump of God. And our blessed Lord will return
to usher in the new heavens and the new earth. But in this period,
you and I must see that the church of Christ is central in the saving
purposes of God. And I want you to look at three
lines of biblical evidence. Number one, The Church is the
only institution which Christ is committed to build in the
conquests of His saving grace. The Church is the only institution
which Christ is committed to build in the conquests of His
saving grace. And you've already thought of
the passage, many of you, Matthew chapter 16. In Matthew chapter
16, Our Lord has elicited the confession
from the disciples as to the identity of his person, and Peter,
speaking for the others, says, You are the Christ, the Son of
the living God, Matthew 16, 17. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for flesh and blood
has not revealed it unto thee. You have not come to this conviction
concerning my identity as God's anointed Messiah, as the Son
of the living God, that is, God the Son Himself. You did not
come to this by mathematical formulas and by logical deduction. It has come by divine revelation. Flesh and blood has not revealed
it unto you, but my Father who is in heaven And I say unto you
that you are Peter, and upon this rock," not upon you. Our
Lord could have easily said, you are Peter and upon you, but
He didn't say that. He said, you are Peter and upon
this rock. The rock of the identity of the
person and mission and office of Christ. Now notice, I will
build one thing, my church. and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. In the building of my church,
I will be attacking the very bastions of hell, and I will
be a conqueror in that militant, aggressive assault upon the gates
of hell. But there is but one institution
which Christ is committed to build in that conquest of His
saving grace, and that institution is His church. I will build my church. I am its architect, I am its
builder, I am its owner, and blessed be God, He is also its
tenant. He conceives it. He brings it
to pass. It belongs to him. And he says,
where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the
midst. He indwells it. But it is that
institution and that institution alone which Christ is committed
to build. I will build my ecclesia. And with this institution, I
will storm the gates of hell and conquer in my name and power
and bring out of the grip of the devil those for whom I spill
my blood. And he goes on in the next paragraph
to speak of the necessity of his death at Jerusalem and his
subsequent resurrection. Now, by way of application, hear
me carefully. I am not here to say that God
has not, in his sovereignty, used other religious institutions. I am not here to say that all
other institutions, other than the Church, are of the devil.
Please don't go out and say, Pastor Martin said every other
institution but the Church is of the devil. No, that's breaking
the ninth commandment. I didn't say that. I didn't even
think it. But what I did say, I will stand
upon with my Bible open, that the Church is the only institution
which Christ is committed to build in the conquest of His
saving grace. I leave to others to justify
the existence of other institutions, To his own master a servant stands
or falls. I leave to others to justify
their Lord if they pour their time and money and energy into
other institutions to do, quote, Christian work. I am not their
judge. But please don't fault me for
having my conscience bound to the word of my Lord. And with
a conscience bound to the word of my Lord, I must say that the
Church is the only institution which Christ is committed to
build in the conquest of His saving grace. And frankly, I
want to know the institution where I put my marbles is going
to do well in the stock market. You get my point? I don't want
any speculative investment of my time and energies, of my prayers
and my endeavors. That's why I'm here. People would
say, Pastor Martin, you don't need to go to a bunch of little
group of people stuck in the middle of some little place that
most people don't even know exists on the map. Couldn't you be preaching
at some big hotshot conference somewhere? Yes, I could be. Turned
down just such an invitation a couple of months ago. It would
have thrown in a free week's vacation to see all of New Zealand
with my wife at my side at their expense. But I said, no thank
you, because it had nothing to do with Christ Church. For her my tears shall fall,
to her my toils and cares be given, till toils and cares shall
end. The central place of the Church
in the saving purposes of God is established, first of all,
by the fact that the Church is the only institution which Christ
is committed to build in the conquests of His saving grace. Second line of evidence. The
Church was the only permanent institution established by the
labors of the apostles. in the conquest of saving grace. The Church was the only permanent
institution established by the apostles in the conquests of
saving grace. In a sense, the Gospels bring
us right to the threshold of the conquests of the Gospel. There were some who were brought
under the sway of our Lord Jesus, but everything he said, everything
he taught led the disciples to believe that the best was yet
to come. He said, it's necessary that
I go away. And when I go away, the spirit
will come. And when he comes, then the action
really begins. And you will go out, starting
in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and to the uttermost part of
the earth, and you'll make disciples of all the nations, a world-encompassing
mission. Well, as those disciples went
out, it's very interesting. I challenge some of you to take
a Strong's or a Young's Concordance and look up the word church in
Young's Concordance, find the one, I think the only word translated
church is ecclesia, and look up all the usages of ecclesia
in the Book of Acts. It would give a wonderful Sunday
afternoon study for you to do this. Take your Strong's Concordance,
look up all the references to church, and you will see, beginning
in Acts chapter 2, all the way to the end of the book of Acts,
that there was no permanent institution established by the apostles other
than the church. Not a one. In Acts chapter 2,
you remember that marvelous incident of the descent of the Spirit
bringing the church into her full-blown new covenant dynamics
and realities of the indwelling of the ascended Christ. And what
happens? No sooner are those 3,000 smitten
and brought to conviction and to open profession of faith,
but we read in verse 41, Then they that received his word,
Acts 2.41, were baptized, and there were added unto them in
that day about 3,000 souls. It doesn't say that they professed
their faith and went their way with a scroll under their arm
to have their personal devotions and work out their own Christian
life. They were incorporated into the
Church. The Church swelled from 120 to
3,120 in one day. And I tell you, they stuck. Look at verse
42. writing thirty years after the
fact, Luke can say, and they continued steadfastly in the
apostles' teaching. They were there Sunday morning.
Fellowship, they were there for fellowship opportunities, however
they were structured, in the breaking of bread, the Lord's
Supper, and in the stated seasons of prayer. All the converts were
incorporated into the Church and continued in the fellowship
of the Church. And that fellowship was so real
that it touched their material possessions. And we read in verse
46, they continued steadfastly with one accord in the temple,
breaking bread at home. They took their food with gladness
and singleness of heart, praising God and having favor with all
the people. Now notice, and the Lord added
to them, some ancient manuscripts say, to the church, but obviously
added to them day by day, those that were being saved. You see
in the book of Acts, the work of God's grace in individuals
is always measured in terms of the growth of the church. Until
they were found in the church, they weren't considered the real
thing. And the only exception I know is of the Ethiopian eunuchs.
The story's incomplete about him, but all the others, this
crass individualism. You get saved, send your letter
to this association, that association, get our follow-up material that
utterly bypasses the Church. What a grievous thing and how
unapostolic. For the apostles, established
as their only permanent institution, churches wherever the gospel
brought, its conquest of grace. This grows. Chapter four gives
us a further account of it until we come in chapter five, verse
eleven, after God exercises the first disciplinary action in
the church. Two hypocrites, Ananias and Sapphira,
thought they'd outsmart God, agreed how they could have the
appearance of spirituality without paying the price. And God found
them out and God killed them. God was getting a lesson across.
Don't fool around in my church. I'm there. It's my holy temple.
And my eye sees all. And my holiness is offended when
people lie to me. Why hath Satan filled thy heart
to lie to the Holy Ghost, Peter says? The Holy Ghost who uniquely
dwells in the church, His living temple. And what happened? Verse
11, great fear came upon the whole church. and upon all that
heard these things. And by the hands of the apostles
were many signs and wonders wrought among the people, and they were
all with one accord in Solomon's porch. But of the rest dared
no man join himself to them." Church memberships scared the
liver out of them. Said, join that bunch and you
don't walk straight. You're liable to be wound up
in a sheet and taken out and buried. That's right. The whole idea, we're the friendly,
snuggly little church on the hill. Come up and join us, and
we'll have a holy snuggle. Not there. That's not the picture. Fear came. Nobody dared join
them. But look, howbeit the people
magnified them, and believers were the more added to the Lord
multitudes, both of men and women. Luke uses the term added to the
Lord interchangeably with added to the Church. They were added
to the Lord in terms of His visible body. That's how He knew. Added to the Lord is an inward
spiritual reality, but it became manifest when people declared
their faith and were found in that one institution established
by apostles, the Church. Just a couple of other samplings
to whet your appetite to do what I've suggested some Sunday afternoon. Chapter 8, in verse 1, Saul was
consenting unto the death of Stephen, and there arose on that
day a great persecution against the only institution where Christians
were found against the Church. It doesn't say against the Church
and this missionary society and that society and this organization
to advance this Christian cause and that organization to advance
another cause. If you wanted to get the Christians,
there's only one place they were found. That's in the Church.
It's the only place. And a great persecution was raised
against the church that was in Jerusalem, and they were all
scattered abroad. Chapter 9 and verse 31. Chapter
9 and verse 31, so the church throughout all Judean galley
in Samaria had peace being edified and walking in the fear of the
Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit was multiplied. That's after Saul is converted. And you know, it's an amazing
thing. After he gives his testimony in Damascus and preaches a little
bit, he comes to Jerusalem. You know, the first thing Paul
did when he came to Jerusalem? He applied for church membership.
That's right. He'd been converted by direct
revelation, commissioned by a voice out of heaven. What's he need
the church for? Man, if anybody could say, I got divine credentials
for my cause. Where are your credentials? The
risen Lord told me to be his messenger. He doesn't despise
the church. Look at Acts chapter 9 in verse
26. And when he was come to Jerusalem, He assayed, an old English word,
he attempted to join himself to the disciples. And they were
all afraid of him, not believing he was a disciple. They said,
no way you're getting in our church. You're a fifth columnist. We know about you. You want to
get on the inside so you can put all our names on your little
notebook. And the next time you go headhunting, you're coming
after us. No way we're letting you in. They refused him church
membership. Can you imagine a church refusing
the Apostle Paul church membership? What did he do? He say, Fooey
on you, I'll go across town and start my own church. No, he didn't
do that. Verse 27 says, But Barnabas took
him. and brought him to the apostles
and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way
and that he had spoken to him and how at Damascus he had preached
boldly in the name of Jesus. Now notice, and he was with them. That is the church going in and
going out at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. I tell you, brethren, this text
makes me angry. at these hot-shot individualists
who snubbed the Church for their almighty ministries. If anyone
could claim he had a noble ministry from Christ, it was the Apostle
Paul. He didn't despise the Church.
And when he made his first application, he didn't run across town and
start his own church or start his own Paul's Evangelistic Association. He waited upon God till God brought
this son of consolation alongside and said, look, Paul, it'll be
all right. These folks, trust me, I know
what God's done for you. Come on, we'll go have another
application. So he applied a second time, brought Barnabas. And they
were convinced. And they brought him to church
fellowship. And in church fellowship, he went in and out among them. That's what your Bible says.
That's what mine does. And my friend, you listen to
me, who despised church membership. You put yourself above the apostle
Paul. In your arrogance, in your stinking,
rotten independence, you put yourself above the Apostle Paul.
You say, I don't like that kind of language. I'm sorry. You don't
like it because it's pinching the raw nerve of your crass,
proud, stinking, rotten independence that despises the institution
of the Church of Christ. Now, don't get mad at me. Get
humbled before God and get on your knees and ask God to forgive
you. Repent! The apostles established only
one permanent institution, and wherever the gospel effected
conquests, they founded churches. Just one or two other quick examples
to whet your appetite. Further on, we read in chapter
14, in verse 23, after they had preached in these cities and
people were converted, they came back through some time later.
To do what? Acts 14, 21. Let's start the
reading. And when they had preached the
gospel to that city and it made many disciples, they returned
to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, confirming, literally
strengthening, stabilizing the souls of the disciples, exhorting
them to continue in the faith and that through many tribulations
we must enter the kingdom of God. They hadn't yet discovered
the health, wealth and prosperity gospel. They said, you folks
are in the church and in the kingdom, but we got news for
you. Between now and the time you go home, tribulations are
going to be heaped upon you. Not occasionally, but through
many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God. And when
they had appointed for them elders in every church and had prayed
with fasting, they commended them to the Lord on whom they
had believed. Look at this beautiful conjunction.
They commended them to the Lord, that the Lord Jesus, who was
the object of their initial faith, would keep them and strengthen
them and protect them. But they didn't leave them out
there as a bunch of individuals. They left them as congregations
with competent spiritual guides and overseers to shepherd and
guide and govern and teach and warm and to direct them. It's
not either the Lord or the church. It's the Lord working in and
through this church, which he himself said he would build,
and which his unique architects, the apostles, were careful to
build. And so I lay out the challenge
for anyone to show me one permanent institution established by the
apostles other than the church. They went to great pains to have
a temporary benevolence association. Remember? They went around the
churches and had the churches vote and enter in to the choice
choosing of proven men to take this collection from the Gentile
churches down to the poor saints in Judea. But once they had done
their job, the committee was disbanded. They didn't have a
standing benevolence committee of the first century apostolic
band. with a president and a vice president
and a secretary and a treasurer and no such nonsense. When there
was a doctrinal problem in one church, the church in Antioch,
And the people who were causing it said, well, we've come from
Jerusalem and Judea and we have their approval. They knew how
to organize a committee of men to go up to Jerusalem and to
consult with the apostles and the elders and the whole church
and to deal with the issue. But once it was dealt with, there
was no standing structure that they could appeal to any time
they had a similar problem, not a shred of evidence. that they
established any permanent institution other than churches. Now, I say this underscores the
central place of the Church in the saving purposes of God. If
Jesus Christ is building only one institution, if the apostles
established only one permanent institution, then surely God's
telling us something of my third line of evidence is this. The
church is the only institution recognized by Christ and addressed
by Christ in connection with his risen life in heaven. The
church is the only institution recognized by Christ and addressed
by Christ in connection with his risen life. Revelation chapter
1. John is in exile in the Isle
of Patmos. for the testimony of Christ.
And on a given Lord's Day, he hears a thundering voice behind
him like a piercing trumpet. And then out of that sound comes
these words, what you see. Write in a book and send it to
the seven churches. And then those seven churches
of Asia Minor are named. Verse 12 of Revelation 1, And
I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned,
I saw seven golden lampstands, apparently arranged in a circle. And if you will take and put
a dot on the map of those seven churches, they approximate at
least a rough kind of circle. Or an encirclement is probably
a better way to describe it. And what did he see in the midst?
And having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the
midst of the lampstands, one like unto a son of man. And after
he who had leaned on the bosom of Jesus in such close personal
intimacy in the days of his flesh saw him now in his glorified
majestic state of exaltation, it's as though someone had put
the crosshairs on John's temple with a thirty-aught six and pulled
the trigger. Pow! It's as if he fell down
as one dead. The majesty The glory, the outshining
of the perfections of the exalted Lord took his breath away, sapped
his strength away. He says, I fell down as one dead,
verse 17. And then the beautiful tenderness
of Jesus, he laid his right hand upon me. He didn't just speak
to me. The voice had already scared the liver out of him.
But he laid his hand upon him gently and said, Fear not. I'm
the first and the last and the living one. I was dead and behold,
I'm alive forevermore. Write the things which you saw
and the things which are and the things which are come to
pass. And then he says, the mystery of the seven stars that you saw
and the seven candlesticks, the seven stars are messengers of
the seven churches and the seven candlesticks are the seven churches. John, never forget. Wherever
I am, whatever I'm doing in my exalted, glorified state, never
forget it, John, I am in the midst of the seven lampstands,
with eyes as flame of fire, feet like unto burnished brass, voice
as the sound of many waters. And, John, I'm going to speak
now." And to whom does he speak? To the seven churches. No one
else. No one else! He speaks to no
other institution, no other organization, no other grouping. Unto the church
at Ephesus Rite. Unto the church at Smyrna. Unto
the church at Pergamon. Unto the church of Thyatira,
Philadelphia, Laodicea. Unto the church. What is he saying? He's saying, what I pledged in
my life, I will build my church. What I accomplished through my
apostles and the building of my churches, I want you to know
I haven't changed my program. I'm now in the midst of my churches,
observing, commanding, encouraging, condemning, rebuking, exhorting,
commanding, succoring all of this ministry of the risen Christ. is to the churches. Now brethren,
if those three lines of evidence don't convince your judgment
of this fact that there is a central place given to the church in
the saving purposes of God, then three more arguments wouldn't
carry your conscience. I'd have to say your conscience
is impervious to biblical arguments. Christ says He's going to build
one permanent institution, His church. The apostles established
only one standing institution, churches. And the risen Christ
addresses only one institution, the churches. You see, one of
the tragedies of dispensational theology is that it gave two
to three generations the notion by this arbitrary exegesis that
the letters to the seven churches are a prophetic outline of church
history and we're now in the Laodicean age where Christ is
spewing the church out of his mouth. He's no longer working
with the church and in the church. It was the thing that caused
the proliferation of parachurch movements. Dispensational theology
popularized Condition the soil to despise the Church. If Christ
is going to spew it out, why bother with it? And if Christ
is no longer going to work through the Church, the Laodicean age
is upon us, and He's just going to save a few people here and
there, then form your businessmen's organization and get them saved.
Form your ladies' aid group and get them saved. Have your independent
evangelistic organizations get them saved. Who cares about the
Church? Christ has puked it out. Friends,
that's a horrible, horrible, horrible twisting of the Word
of God. There's not a shred of evidence
that those seven churches are an outline of church history.
How intelligent people could have ever bought that nonsense,
I'll never know. They were seven literal churches
in existence in the first century. And in every century, any individual
church can have any number of the characteristics of any one
or more of those churches. And just like the epistle to
the Ephesians and the Philippians was originally addressed to a
specific church, but to the churches of all times and all places,
so the seven letters to the seven churches are addressed to all
churches in all places at all times. Well, I must hurry on. Having sought to demonstrate
the central place of the church and the saving purposes of God,
Now then, consider with me the glorious function of the Church
in the saving purposes of God. I hope I've convinced you of
its central place. But then you say, if it has such
a central place, then it must have a marvelous destiny and
a marvelous purpose and function and the purpose of God. And oh,
my friends, it does. And here I have to restrain myself
and again only give you three aspects of the function The glorious
function of the Church in the saving purposes of God, number
one. Thank God this one doesn't even
focus on us. The Church is the unique theater
for the display of the glory of God in this present age. The
Church is the unique theater for the display of the glory
of God in this present age. Turn to Ephesians, chapter 3.
And here I have to pray for holy restraint upon my own spirit,
for the spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets. And
I don't claim to be a prophet, just a plain old ordinary preacher.
But if a prophet can keep his spirit controlled, then a preacher,
well, ought to do so as well. But Paul is here unfolding the
unique ministry God had given to him to be the instrument to
make known a glorious mystery hidden for ages and generations,
now to make it clear, lucid, standing out in blinking neon
lights for all to see. And it has to do with how God
will incorporate into His church Jew and Gentile with no distinction
of privilege, distinctions that had kept them separated for ages
and generations. God says the middle wall of partitions
removed in Christ, and now God is making one new man in Christ. And let us pick up the reading
in verse 8 of Ephesians 3. Unto me, who am less than the
least of all saints, was this grace given, to preach unto the
Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, to make men, all men,
see what is the dispensation or the stewardship of the mystery
which for ages has been hid in God, who created all things to
the intent God had an intention in what he did in history. History
is not junk. History is not just chance events
triggering other chance events. It is God Almighty ordering everything
to the twitching of a grain of sand on a seashore that no one's
ever buried his footprint in. Everything's under his control
to the intent that now, unto the principalities and the powers
and the heavenly places might be made known through the church
the manifold wisdom of God according to the eternal purpose which
He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord." What an amazing concept. He says, as I preach this glorious
truth, that now in Christ, Gentiles who once were aliens, strangers
from the commonwealth of Israel, cut off from the covenants of
the promise, they are now incorporated into those promises. They are
now the Israel of God, joined with every believing Jew they
constitute, reconstituted Israel, the Israel of God, this glorious,
marvelous thing called the church. And he says now, God's intention
in accomplishing this now is that to principalities and powers
in heavenly places, There are spirit beings with intelligence,
with inquisitive minds. Peter says, which things angels
desire to look into. Imagine angels saying, oh God,
can we peek into that? And God says, no, not yet. Oh
God, can we have just a little teeny-eensy-weensy glimpse? Not
yet. Which things angels desire to
look into? And now God says, I'm going to
pull back the veil. Now I want you principalities
and powers, angels, archangels, seraphim, cherubim, and all the
unseen heavenly hosts, I want you to see the full spectrum
of my variegated wisdom. I want you to see my wisdom unfolded. And where are you going to see
it? Where's the theater in which God's displaying it? Look at
the text. Might be made known through the
church. The manifold wisdom of God. And
this is no afterthought in the mind of God. It's not as though
the Lord Jesus came offering an earthly kingdom to Israel,
and because she rejected it, God reached in his pocket and
said, oh, let's pull out plan two. I say that borders on blasphemy. No, this was His own eternal
purpose that He purposed in Christ Jesus the Lord. From eternity
He purposed that a day would come when through the church
Angels and principalities and cherubim and seraphim and all
holy intelligent spirit creatures would gasp with wonder as they
see little gatherings of Jew and Gentile meeting in secret
in some places in the Roman Empire for fear of persecution. meeting
as they did at Ephesus in the school of Tyrannus, meeting by
a riverside as they did originally at Philippi, meeting in the house
of another, and there they are, Jew and Gentile, the one for
centuries calling the other the filthy goyim, the outcast, the
Gentile dogs. And the Gentiles looking at the
Jews as a bunch of spiritual snobs. And now they sit and sing
their hymns and psalms of praise to Christ and to the Father.
And the tears of joy run down their cheeks as all their worship
terminates upon a crucified, exalted, risen Lord. And angels
in principalities go, what an amazing thing. through the church might be made
known the manifold wisdom of God. How can we despise the theater
chosen by God for the display of His glory? No wonder Paul
concludes this chapter by saying in verse 21, unto Him be the
glory where? In the church. And in Christ
Jesus unto all generations forever and ever, all the glory God will
get to Himself in Christ, in connection with Christ, He will
get it in connection with His Church as well. The Church is,
in its glorious function, the unique theater for the display
of God's glory. But secondly, its glorious function
is this, the Church is the unique structure for the upholding of
the truth of God. The unique theater to display
His glory, but the unique structure to uphold His truth. And where
is that taught? 1 Timothy chapter 3. 1 Timothy
chapter 3. Look at verse 14 and 15. Paul writing to Timothy, whom
he had left behind at Ephesus, He says, these things I write
unto you, hoping to come to you shortly. Paul had holy wishes. Many times they weren't fulfilled.
It's nothing wrong to wish things that don't come to pass. I meet
some dear, sensitive Christians, and they feel if every wish they
ever had does not ultimately prove to be a precursor of the
will of God, they must have been sinful. No, Paul said to the
Romans, I purpose many times to come to you. I packed my bags,
bought my ticket. And then the boat was canceled. Oh, we didn't get good weather
and we couldn't set sail. He said, well, so be it. It's
not God's time now. But he didn't sit back and give
up. He said, I purposed many times to come, but I was hindered.
So he tried again and was hindered. He acted responsibly. Well, in
this passage again, Paul says, I hope to come to you, Timothy,
and I hope to come before long. But I have no direct revelation
from God that I will come at all, or when I'll come. So if
I tarry long, this is my burden, that thou mayest know how men
ought to behave themselves in the house of God, which is the
church of the living God. He's been writing about what
many would call niggling, legalistic details of church life. He's
been writing about the place of women, the place of men, how
women should and should not dress, who should take the lead in prayer,
who should be the leaders, what their names should be, what their
qualifications should be. You take those first three chapters
of First Timothy seriously in our day and you're called an
ecclesiastical legalist. And yet Paul says, I wrote these
things because behavior in God's house is not a matter left to
our discretion. You see, the word ought, it's
that little particle of necessity, the very one used that says that
Christ must suffer. You who know a little Greek,
the little particle of necessity, de. How men are under obligation
to behave in God's house. It's God's house. He makes the
house rules. You come to my house, you may
be able in your house to walk in, stick your muddy feet up
on the couch. You don't do it in my house.
I say, it's so nice to have you. Get your muddy feet off the couch. Smile again. In your house, you
may be allowed to do many things. Did you come to my house? Ultimately,
God owns it, but I'm a steward, and I must administer that house
and all of its belongings in a way that I believe pleases
God. The church is God's house. It's not your religious club.
Nine-tenths of evangelical churches are just religious clubs, run
by the consensus of the club members. Remember when we were
kids and we'd start a club? Boy, what a sense of power it
gave you. Four or five of you would get together in the block
and say, we're going to start a club. Yeah, we'll be the club. You'll
be the president. Yeah. What are you? I'll be vice president. Good. What's
the rules? No girls. Good. All right. No
girls. Next rule, no guys from the other block. Good. What a
sense of power. You had your own club, made your
little clubhouse out of old pieces of wood, and boy, you had a sense
of power. You could call the shots, and
one of the guys from the next block would come and say, I come
in. Nope, you don't belong to our club. Gave you a real sense
of power. You know, I'm afraid that's what
most churches are. A group of people get together
and say, let's form a Jesus club. We'll put his name in it, but
we'll call the shots. We'll make the rules. We'll set
the terms, who gets in and who doesn't. What you have to do
and become to stay in, no, no. Paul says to Timothy, Timothy,
though I've labored at Ephesus for over three years, and though
you've labored there and it's a sound, stable church, Timothy,
I want the church to grow in its understanding of how its
behavior ought to be conducted, because it's God's house. It
is the church of the living God. It's not like the great temple
of the Diana, God of the Ephesians. That's an ornate temple of a
dead God who has no existence. But the church at Ephesus is
the church of the living God. He's alive. Alive in all the
plenitude of His power and grace and majesty. Now look. Now look
at the text. This thing that is the house
of God, church of the living God, look at the last description. The pillar and ground of the
truth. Here the church is described
as the pillar, the lolly columns, or the flying buttresses if you're
thinking in terms of old Gothic architecture. It is both the
lolly columns the support columns, the flying buttresses, and the
foundation, the footing, the underpinning of the truth. Now, does this mean that the
Church creates the truth and then holds it up? Oh, no. That's
the fallacy of Rome. The Church receives the truth. as revealed by God through his
apostles. But then the Church has constituted
God's unique structure to uphold that truth in any given area,
so that the truth that will sanctify the saints, the truth that will
save sinners, the truth that will mold lives, the truth that
will impact society as light and salt. It is the church which
is the unique structure to be both its pillar and its foundation. And God has nowhere revealed
he has any other structure to be the pillar and ground of the
truth. It's the church. It's the church that is the pillar
and the foundation or footings of the truth. The gospel is not
to be preached in a vacuum. Oh, dear people, hear me. If
only we could grasp this concept. It is the church in its organized
life, filled with the Spirit as the new humanity that is the
crucible in which gospel preaching is validated. How I bless God
when I preach the gospel in our own assembly. I know already
the life of our people has validated that gospel. And many times when
people have been converted and later come for an interview for
a membership and they give their testimony, they say, when I came
into the church and I saw everything from little kids to grown adults,
heads bowed, Bibles opened, I realized these people are here for business.
There's nothing on the walls for them to look at. It's plain
and simple. There aren't a lot of visual
aids to precipitate worship, yet there was an intensity. And
oh, when I heard them sing, I realized that they were singing from the
heart. There was reality. And when the men who prayed,
prayed, they weren't saying prayers, reading prayers. They were having
dealings with God. And long before I stood to open
my mouth, The life of the new humanity in the Church was pummeling
them with the truth. So that when I stood up to preach,
all I did was explain how all this happens. And I commend to
you those early chapters of Acts. That theme and motif is beautifully
repeated. Why does Luke say this is what
the people did? They had all things common. No
man said all of the things he possessed was his own. He underscores
this voluntary sharing of goods, which the apostles never instituted
as a general policy. Luke just describes it. But then
the next verse says, with great power gave the apostles their
witness to the resurrection of the dead. He's saying the church
as the new humanity was validating the truth in its lifestyle. So
when the apostles preached the truth, Hearts were conquered. Oh, dear people, the church is
the pillar and ground of the truth. And that's why it's so
vital you take seriously the biblical injunction, grieve not
the spirit. Don't allow bitterness and wrath
and anger and clamor and evil speaking to grieve away the spirit,
because no matter how true or passionate and clear is the preaching
from this pulpit, if the church is not the embodiment of the
truth, it ceases to be what God intends it should be. It's the
church and its collective life that is the pillar and the ground
of the truth. And we who preach just have a
unique and special function within that unique structure. But we
are not the sole upholders of the truth. It's the church in
its corporate life and worship and witness and internal interaction
that is pillar and ground of the truth. Then the church's
glorious function is not only the unique theater for the display
of the glory of God, the unique structure for upholding the truth.
But thirdly and finally, the church is the unique organism
for the maturation of the saints. The church is the unique organism
for the maturation of the saints. You see, the church is many things.
It's a theater, it's a building, but it's also an organism. And
here I commend to you for your careful meditation a passage
such as Ephesians 4, 1 to 16. We don't have time to expound
it and unpack it, but the gist of that passage is this, that
the maturation of the individual believer is never conceived of
as taking place in isolation. It's within the one body in subjection
to the one Lord, embracing the one faith in the one God who
is over all and above all and in us all and in the church in
which God deposits no longer living apostles, but apostolic
doctrine in the scriptures, no longer living prophets, but the
prophets who have spoken in whose word is embodied in scripture. And he gives living pastors and
teachers for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of service. unto the building up of the body
of Christ, till we all come in the unity of faith to the knowledge
of the Son of God, that we be no longer children tossed to
and fro by every wind of doctrine and the slight of men. There
is stability. There is maturity. We grow up
into Christ in all things, speaking the truth in love. This whole
idea that all you need is your Bible and your quiet time and
the Lord Jesus and you can come to maturity is biblical ignorance. God never envisions spiritual
maturation in isolation from the organism called his church,
his body. It is edified through that which
every joint supplier Professor Murray makes a very astute observation. He said, did you ever wonder
why God doesn't give a glorified body to every saint the moment
he dies? He could do it. He apparently
did it for Enoch. Enoch couldn't stand going to
heaven with this present earthly body. So when it says he was
not, for God took him, the indication is God took the hold of him,
body and spirit. and therefore gave him a glorified
body. No big deal for God to give a glorified body the moment
we die. Why does he let our loved ones
rot in the grave? Professor Murray makes this point.
God is so concerned to make it evident that he is committed
to the salvation of his people, not in individuality, but in
their corporate identity, that he waits till the last saint
dies And the last living saint is gathered in, and then all
at once we'll all get our glorified body. The dead in Christ shall
rise first. We who are alive and remain to
the coming of the Lord shall be caught up together, what?
With them. They'll get a head start, but
then we'll catch up if we're alive. They get taken care of
first, but then it says we shall be caught up together. And so
shall we ever be with the Lord. What's God saying? He's saying,
I'm committed to a salvation that is not crassly individualistic. Yes, every one of us must get
into the kingdom individually. You kids can't get in under mama's
skirt. You can't get in hanging on to
daddy's belt. You've got to face your sin and
you've got to face the Savior. And you must repent of your sin,
and you must believe on the Lord Jesus. Yes, we come in one by
one. It's crassly individual at the
entrance, but no sooner are we in than it's crassly corporate
and holistic. We're part of the body. And the
church is the organism, the unique organism for the maturation of
the saints. It's in the church that pastors
and teachers are given. God equipped rulers of His church. The description of an elder in
1 Timothy 3.5, if a man rule not well his own house, how shall
he take care of the church of God? God's given caretakers in
His church. Discipline is entrusted to the
body. When you come together, Paul
says, with my spirit and in the name of the Lord Jesus, deliver
such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh. The
Lord's Supper is a church ordinance. When ye come together, when ye
gather together, the togetherness in 1 Corinthians 11 is a dominant
theme. Well, I hope these three things
have convinced you, my friend, that the church has a glorious
function in the saving purposes of God. And unless some of you
think I'm just parroting the party line, let me make a confession
in public. I grew up in a religious context
where They didn't even seek to organize themselves according
to the Bible as a church. My background is Salvation Army.
I never heard of an elder or a deacon. You had captains, sergeant
majors, had no baptism, no Lord's Supper.
Then I got converted, went to an ordinary evangelical church
for a few months, and then they kicked me out because I was talking
to the deacons and elders' kids were a bunch of phonies like
I was till God saved me, and it was getting some of them upset.
Then I went off to two interdenominational schools, evangelical to the core,
mainline evangelical. Only thing I ever heard about
the Church was in one of my theology courses I had to read a little
about the Church and write a paper, but because if they took a stand
they would have lost support. They took no stand on the doctrine
of the Church. Then I went into an itinerant
ministry for five years. where I was answerable to no
one. I look back at God's mercy. I wasn't rejecting light. I had
no light. The first ten years of my life
as a Christian were basically churchless. During that time,
the more I studied my Bible, these are some of the things
I began to see and say, Oh, God, forgive me. I've despised your
institution. And over these years, as I've
been privileged to see God form a church from the embryo of 1962
into its full-blown present structure in 1992. Having poured 30 years
of my life into it, I tell you, I'd do it all over again, and
the only thing I'd do differently, I'd give even more of my energy
to Christ Church. That's why I'm here, because
I believe there's some people serious about Christ Church in
Vernonia. That's why I'm here. That's why
I'm here! God is witness. That's why I'm
here. If I can encourage you that you
will press on in the determination never to budge from your conviction
of the central place of the church in the saving purposes of God,
the glorious function of the church in the saving purposes
of God. Well, I must close and I'm going
to close by giving you three little questions to tuck in your
conscience and go home with them. All right. Three questions. Number one, do you view the Church as institution and organism,
as God does? Make it personal. Do I view the
Church as God does? Do I view it as God does, the
only institution Christ promises to build? the only permanent
institution built by apostles, the only institution addressed
by the risen Christ. Do I view it as God does? Do
I view it as that unique theater in which God displays His glory
under principalities and powers? Do I view it as that unique structure,
pillar, ground of the truth? that unique organism, his body,
within which I shall come by the blessing of God to maturity.
Do I view the church as God does? If I don't, then I need. See,
we're right back now. What's the Christian's role in
a wicked generation? Reject the thinking of the world.
Be renewed in the spirit of your mind. And say, oh, God, the scriptures
I've studied tonight helped me to pour over them like the Bereans
and pray them in until I view your church as you view it. Second
question, are you shaping your priorities so as to have a real
commitment to an involvement in the life of a biblical church?
Are you shaping your priorities so as to have a real commitment
to and involvement in the life of a biblical church? If the
church is this unique and important, then I can't have it down number
seven on the list of priorities. Next to the priority of providing
for my family, for if any man provide not for his own, he's
worse than an infidel. He hath denied the truth. is
the priority of providing for myself and my family a biblical
church. I didn't say a perfect church.
I didn't even say a Reformed Baptist church. I chose my words
carefully. A biblical church. A church where
people have something more than the local religious club. Where
this book calls the shots. Where the official leaders open
up this book and seek to be honest with this book. That's a biblical
church. Are your priorities ordered so
that you have a real commitment to and involvement in the life
of a biblical church? My third question is, if there
are unusual irregularities, you're miles away from a biblical church.
You're locked into a job, the nature of which you don't believe
can be transplanted somewhere else. And there are irregularities
and abnormalities that you're not able to be actively involved
in a biblical church. My question is, have you accepted
that as the status quo or are you pleading with God to change
the circumstances? Are you desperate that God would
either raise up a biblical church in your area or sovereignly open
a door for you to relocate where there is? Or have you just comfortably
sat back and said, oh well, what will be, will be? Do you have
a sense of holy restlessness pleading with God that He will
either change your circumstances, change your location, that your
life might reflect commitment to and involvement in the life
of a biblical church? Well, I've sought to deliver
my soul. You've been very patient. I trust God will own his word.
And as I leave, I must say to you who are not Christians, boys,
girls, men and women, especially you young people brought up in
biblical churches, don't be like an Esau and despise your birthright. God could have had you born in
a wealthy home, So everyone in the world would know your name
because they knew your mom or your daddy's name. You could
have been born Princess Di or Princess Caroline. But God gave
you something far better. Cause you to be born in a home
where you have a mother and a father who are concerned you be in a
biblical church. You've had preachers that have
preached to your eyeballs and to your conscience and pleaded
with you to repent and to believe the gospel. Some of you kids
under 15 years of age have heard more pure gospel preaching than
I heard by the time I was 40. Don't despise your birthright.
Don't treat it like junk. I beg you, kids, don't treat
it lightly. But say, Oh God, Help me to know
the God of my mother and my father. Help me to be a man, a woman,
who reflects the privilege of sitting under the truth from
my mother's womb. I pray God some of you precious
young men and women who've become dear to me even in these couple
of days, and I think if you'd admit it, you kind of like me
too. I want to hear in days to come
that you love my Savior. And you're serving my Lord and
you're following him with all your heart. Let's pray. Our Father, how we thank you
for your word. We thank you for your church.
Some of us are ashamed when we think of the years when in our
ignorance we despised the church. But we thank you, you've forgiven
us and cleansed us and given us the privilege to feel and
to taste and to see the realities of the special place your church
has in your purpose. And you've privileged us to see
it functioning, not perfectly, but really and truly according
to your purposes. Oh, Lord, use our meditation
tonight that we may love the Church of Christ as we've never
loved it before. and that we will give ourselves
to Christ in his church and to his service through his church. Thank you for everyone who is
here tonight. Thank you for those who have
been with us over these days. We pray that the memories stored
up and treasured will, by your grace, be converted into sanctifying
influences through the rest of our earthly pilgrimage. Thank
you for many of these dear children who have listened intently, who've
shown their love and affection. We pray that they will know and
love the Savior whom we've sought to proclaim and serve Him all
of their days. Dismiss us with your blessing,
we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen. you The. The End