serious on my part, I always
try to remember what one of the old preachers, Richard Baxter,
now there was a lot of things that he wrote I didn't particularly
agree with. In fact, I don't agree with everything
that any mere man has written, I don't reckon. But he said,
he made this statement and you've heard it He said, I preach as
though never to preach again. He said, I preach as a dying
man to dying men and women. And that's the way I always want
to be. I realize to some extent the
seriousness of this time we spend together. And I hope you understand
how serious it is. At any moment, you may be taken
away from this world to face God. And if I haven't told you right, then
poor me. Woe is me if I preach not the
gospel. But if I have told you right,
if I have set forth the word of God in its simplicity and
in its glory and in its awesome power, if I've been honest with
you and I've told you about Christ, and that glorious salvation that's
found in Him, if I've been faithful to you, then there's a great
responsibility upon you to believe what you hear. And you should
listen to every message as though this would be the last message
you would ever hear in this world. That's how serious this is. We
must not take this lightly. It's good to see each other.
We rejoice. We kid sometimes, and we delight
to visit with one another briefly before the service begins. But we're here on the King's
business. And this is the king's word and
this is the king's gospel. And we ask God to be gracious
to us and meet with us by his spirit. Let's speak to the Lord
once again and ask him to bless. Lord, we bow before you in recognition that thou art
God and there is none other. Our breath is in your hands. In fact, you've said that in
yourself we live and move and we have our being. Lord, as our
physical breath is in your hands, so also is our spiritual life. We ask you to be merciful to
us. We're all just sinners by nature,
by choice, by birth, and by practice. And we're not deserving of anything
good from you. We've ignored you. We've been
unthankful. We haven't been attentive to
the Word of God. And yet Lord, you keep giving
us the privilege of hearing the gospel. Forgive us for our inattention
if we have been inattentive to your word and give us this evening
grace to hear with interest, to hear with faith, to hear so
as to be enabled by the Spirit of God to believe that which
we hear. We bless the name of Christ Jesus,
our great prophet, priest, and king. And we rejoice that you
sent him into this world to save sinners like ourselves. And we
counted the greatest Blessing that we can ever receive from
you if you'd give us faith to believe Him, to rejoice in Him. And we counted a great blessing
to be able to sit under this gospel. No matter whose voice
we listen to, which preacher we sit under, As long as it's
a preacher of the gospel, Lord, we're thankful for him. And we're
thankful for the understanding and the grasp you have given
to so many of us of spiritual truths. Now, Holy Spirit, take
the things of the Lord Jesus. and show them unto us, and may
we truly worship God tonight in spirit and in truth. We pray
for all of your people, those of our congregation, those who
belong to the great shepherd of the sheep scattered throughout
this world. Most, by far, most of them we
don't know. Lord, you know them when we lift
your people up to you and all of your preachers. And we're
so thankful that you minister to us in this gospel. Bless us this evening as we open
the word of God again and give us understanding and comprehension
and give us attention. to the things that are vital.
Oh, that we might know God, know Christ and the power of His resurrection. May it be so for Your glory and
for our good, Father. In the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ and for His sake I pray. Amen. I take my text this evening
from 1 Timothy 3, and verse 15. Actually, I'll
read verse 14 also. These things write I unto thee,
hoping to come unto thee shortly. This is written, of course, by
the apostle Paul. He writes to a young preacher
who is his, he considers him to be his son in the faith, and
the young preacher's name is Timothy. And he writes these
things to Timothy in order to instruct him in the things of
the Lord. And he says here, he hopes to
see him soon. But he says this in verse 15,
because the apostle doesn't know the will of God, he doesn't know
the direction that God will send him in, just like you don't know
the direction God's going to send you in, neither did the
apostle Paul. He says this in verse 15, but
if I tarry long, I wanna come see you real soon, he says, but
if I tarry long, I write these things that you may know how
you ought to behave yourself in the house of God, how you
ought to conduct yourself, what the house of God is all about
and what you're to be doing in the house of God." And he says,
this house of God, he says, it is the He defines it, the Church
of the Living God. That's the title of my message,
the Church of the Living God. Well, what is the Church of the
Living God? What is the responsibility of
the Church of the Living God? He said, it is the pillar and
the ground of the truth, not any truth, not a truth, the truth,
the body of truth that God has given to us that is the gospel
of his redeeming grace. And then of course, and I tried
to speak to you this morning from verse 16, he says, and without
controversy, and now he goes into this truth. Without controversy, great is
the mystery of godliness. Great is the mystery of true
religion, of real reverence for God. God was manifest in the
flesh. He was justified in the spirit. And then he was seen of angels. He was preached on, preached
unto the Gentiles. He was believed on in the world
and he was received up to glory. Now in this world, God has, he
has two institutions that he has begun, that he started. And these two institutions are
for the happiness and the wellbeing of his people, his children. God has his children in this
world. We were predestinated unto the
adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto himself. Now God
had only one only begotten son, but he has many, many adopted
sons and daughters. And there are some of them here
tonight, and some of them are watching by way of the internet.
But to all of us, God has given two institutions. Number one,
he's given to us marriage, or the church. Now back in Genesis,
the second chapter, God instituted marriage. God made a man. Later in the second chapter of
Genesis, we find that this man's name was Adam, red dirt. He's the representative of all
the human race. And then God gave to that man
a wife. And that's the first institution
in this world, marriage, that is the home. And of course, it
is a picture of, and we know this because we picked up on
it from the passage Joe read to us, that marriage is a picture
and a type of the second institution, which is the church. Actually,
the church was first in the purpose of God. And then in fact, in
a point of time, marriage or the home was first in point of
time. But it's a picture of a spiritual
relationship between people and the Lord Jesus. Now in that first
institution, the home, God made Adam, God formed Adam. The word
formed, he formed him out of the dust of the ground is akin
to the word a potter forming, taking a ball
of clay and forming it into whatever he wanted to. You know why we
look the way we do? Because that's how God fashioned
us. That's how God made us. We were
created by the word of God, by the power of God, out of the
dust of the ground. God made all things and he made
man. And pay no attention to those
who say that we originated as some kind of single cell piece
of whatever. No, God made man in his own image. That's what the word of God says.
And also pay no attention to those who say there was another
race of people that died off and we're the next race. No,
the Bible talks about in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, the first Adam, the
first man. There hasn't been another race
that lived before us. We're the only race that God
has created, the race of man, mankind. And God made mankind
and out of mankind, he has a people that he has ordained to eternal
life. Now God made Adam out of the
dust of the ground. And he brings Adam forth and
he says, now Adam, I'm going to parade all these animals before
you and I want you to name them whatever you want to name them.
The reason we call a giraffe today a giraffe is because that's
what Adam named it. And an elephant is an elephant
because that's what Adam named him. And an ant is an ant and
so on and on and on we can go. But as Adam viewed all of these
animals, he saw that God made them male and female, but he had no mate for himself. And God took care of that. God
put Adam into a very deep, deep sleep, even a coma. And he took from his side a rib. And from that rib, he made Adam
a wife. And God brought her to the man. God performed the first wedding. And God sewed up Adam's side
so that it didn't even leave a scar. And now man and woman
come together. That's the unit, there's the
home. That's the very basis of humanity
and in organization and humanity is the home, marriage, marriage. Marriage is honorable, we read
in the New Testament, and the bed undefiled, but whoremongers,
God says he'll punish. The Bible is very strict. It
insists on marriage. Marriage, and I know there are
people today who they don't want to get married. They want to
just experiment and we'll try living together and we'll see
if it works and we don't want to be tied down and we don't
want to make a commitment. Now, wait a minute. That's wrong. It is absolutely wrong to ignore
marriage because God ordained it. Now, that's just the way
it is. I just don't agree with that.
It don't much matter whether you agree with it or not. It's
what God said. I remember years ago, my dad
used to say, God said it, I believe it, and that settles it. You've
heard that before. God said it, I believe it, and
that settles it. Let me tell you something. God
said it, whether I believe it or not, is of no consequence. God said it, that settles it. That settles it. and adultery
and fornication are wrong. That's the scriptures. You see,
God had, this is a picture, a picture, a man and a woman coming together
in union, in love, in affection, in caring for one another. That's
a picture of the next institution, the church. As Joe read to us,
Christ loved the church. And he gave himself for it. When
God brought Eve to Adam, Eve bore responsibility, or Adam
bore responsibility for Eve. And Adam was the head of the
unit. even as the husband is the head
of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church. And husband,
the husbands who are here, the husbands who are watching, you
have a responsibility given to you by God to provide for your
wife, to protect your wife. You're the head of the house.
Act like the head of the house. Conduct yourself as the head
of the house. Do so in an honorable way. Love
your wife. Christ said, husbands, love your
wife. How? As Christ loved the church
and gave himself for it. And wives, you submit yourself
to your own husband, as unto the Lord. You see, God took a
rib out of Adam's side. and made the woman. He didn't
take a bone out of his foot so he could trample on the woman. And he didn't take a bone out
of his head so she could be head over him. He took a bone out
of his side. He's to care for the woman and
love the woman. And I would say this, and I think
the wives here would agree with me. If your husband loves you
to the degree anywhere near what Christ loved the church, you
don't have any trouble submitting to that kind of husband, because
he's going to take care of you. He's going to do everything he
can to make sure you're comfortable because he loves you. He loves
you. This is the first institution
in the world. And it's instituted by God. Marriage, the home. And the key to a happy home is
both of you loving Christ, believing the gospel, having your priorities
straight, believing the word of God. of that first union, of that
first institution. God says, therefore shall a man
leave his father and mother and shall cleave unto his wife. They
shall be one flesh. Union. Union. Just like our Lord Jesus left
his father. And he came down here to this
world. You know why he came? Because
he loved us. And he's going to honor God by
saving the objects of God's everlasting covenant affection. He's going
to save them all. Because he bears responsibility
for us. We're the bride of Christ Jesus. And He loves us and He protects
us and He provides for us. You who are the people of God,
you need not be fearful of anything because of who your bridegroom
is. It's Christ the Lord. He oversees
all things for the good of His bride. Everything that lives and moves
and has existence in this world, our Lord Jesus is the head of
all of it. He's the master. He's the Lord. He governs all things for His
glory to bring His will to pass. And He does all things in such
a way that He works them for the welfare of His bride. Boy, He sure has a wonderful
husband in me. And it's just an honor to be
the bride of Christ Jesus. And we're one with Him. We're
joined to Him. He says, you're bone of my bone
and flesh of my flesh. That's the union that can't ever
be divided. This is one of the reasons divorce
is such a bad thing. And I know sometimes, In some
circumstances, and there are biblical circumstances where
divorce is okay, but divorce is, it kind of ruins the picture,
it muddles the whole thing. Because with our Lord Jesus,
there is no divorce from his bride. He will never cut us off,
even if we're unfaithful, which we often are. That's the love that Christ has
for us. Now, this second institution
is the church. The church. Now, there's no question
about it that the original institution, and like with Nancy and myself,
that's very important. But as vital and as important
as the home is, as marriage is, this other institution is even
more important, the church. Look with me over in Matthew
chapter 12. We're thankful for our earthly
family. thankful for the love that we
have, that my wife and I share one for the other, the years
that God has given us together. And that's a very, very vital
and important institution. But this other institution is
even more important, the church. You see, Physical, fleshly relationships
are, they're wonderful. But spiritual relationships are
even greater. And the reason is because the
first institution, marriage, the home, one of these days,
that'll have to come to an end. But this other relationship,
our relationship to one another, You'll always be my sister. She's
not always gonna be my wife, but you'll always be my sister,
and she'll always be my sister in the Lord Jesus Christ. You
see what I'm talking about? And this institution is more
important, the church. Are you there in Matthew chapter
12? Our Lord's been speaking to religious folks. And he, as he's teaching them,
look at verse 46, Matthew chapter 12. While he yet talked to the
people, behold, his mother, Mary, and his brethren, his brothers
and sisters, because after our Lord was born to Mary, Mary and
Joseph got married and they had kids. Okay, so our Lord Jesus
has got these half brothers and sisters. So while he's talking
to the people, behold, here comes his mother, here comes his brothers
and sisters, and they stood without and they wanted to talk to him. And verse 47, then one of them
said, behold, he's preaching. That's kind of daring to interrupt
the people. message of our Lord Jesus Christ,
but they said, hey, just a minute, sorry to interrupt you, but your
mother and your family's out here and they want to talk to
you. They got something they want
to talk to you about. Verse 48, but he answered and said unto
him that told him, who is my mother? And who are my brethren? And
he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples and said, behold,
my mother and my brother. Behold, my family. Here's my
family, he said. And I know there are denominations who exalted
Mary to be a mediator and she goes to Jesus on our behalf,
and then Jesus goes to the father. The father's supposed to be angry
and kind of grumpy, and it's the son who says, my mother wants
this to happen, and she is not a mediator. She's a sinner saved
by grace. Don't ever forget that. Don't
you exalt her. Now, she found grace with the
Lord. The Lord was gracious to her.
But she wasn't any better or any worse than any other woman
who was a child of God in that day. It's just sovereign choice
of God. But she's not to be exalted.
She's not to be worshipped. She's not to be adored. Her son
is. He says, behold, my mother and
my brother. Verse 50, for whosoever shall
do the will of my father, which is in heaven, the same is my
brother and sister and mother. In other words, those who do
the will of God, who believe, what is the will of God? To believe
on him whom God has sent. That's the will of God. I don't
know the will of God for me. Believe Christ Jesus. And all who believe. Ah, there's
the family. He's not saying that the home,
the marriage is unimportant. Oh, it is important as far as
it goes, but there is a relationship that is of greater importance,
and that's being united to Christ Jesus. You see, our text over here in
1 Timothy 3 speaks of the church of the living God. Why is the church of the living
God so important, so vital to Him? It may not be important to you.
I'll guarantee it's important to Him. Well, it's because he
loved the church. He's always loved the church
and nobody else. The only way you can be sure
he loves you is if you believe the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not
gonna be one of these false preachers who runs around telling everybody,
smile, God loves you. He may not love you. I don't
know. That's really none of my business
whether he loves you or whether he hates you. I can't tell anybody whether
God loves them or whether God hates them. I can tell you this,
if you in your heart believe the Lord Jesus, who he is, God
and man, what he did, he died on a cross to satisfy God's justice,
he redeemed his people by his blood, and you cast all of your
soul's hope of salvation upon him, if you really believe him,
then absolutely smile. and rejoice in your heart. He
loves you. Christ died for you, if the Spirit
of God's called you. But this, you see, the church
is important to God, because he loved her. And because he's
redeemed her. Acts chapter 20, 28, feed the
church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. It's important to God because
he sent his spirit to woo you to Christ Jesus. He sent a preacher
to you and he told you the truth. You found out you wasn't so good
after all, you're bad. You found out you're alienated
from God, but you found out God sent a savior who honored God's
law and died under the wrath of God to put away the sins of
his people. The Spirit of God get a hold
of your heart and you believe the message of Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. He has sent to you the effectual
call of grace. Draws you to, have you been drawn
to Him? I'm always being drawn to Christ,
aren't you? Always, always. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. Psalm 110 verse three. You know,
church is an interesting word in the New Testament. I believe
it's used in at least three different ways. Number one, it sets forth
all true believers of the Old Testament and the New Testament. Believers on earth and believers
in heaven. And in that sense, I do believe
the church is universal. It's the spiritual body of Christ. Turn to Ephesians 1. Ephesians
chapter 1. Look at, and of course this chapter,
and you know it well, it's one of our favorite chapters. setting
forth true doctrine, the work of the Father in electing grace,
the work of the Son in redeeming grace, the work of the Holy Spirit
in sealing grace. We're sealed with that Holy Spirit
of promise. He's the one who quickened us.
Look here at Ephesians chapter one and verse, look at verse
22, for the sake of time. God's put all things under his
feet, the feet of Christ. and gave him to be the head over
all things to the church or for the benefit of the church. He's
the head of all things for the benefit of the church, which
is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. That's really a quote from Psalm
eight, verse six. Thou madest him to have dominion
over the works of thy hands and has put all things under his
feet. All things are under the feet
of the Lord Jesus. He governs everything for the
welfare of his people. Why in the world do we worry? Why do we murmur? Why do we get
so upset when things don't go our way? When our beloved Bridegroom,
who knows all things, who governs all things, is directing everything
that pertains to His people, and governing all things, being
the head of the church, out of love for us and for our consideration
for our good. It says in Romans 8, 28, and
we know that all things work together for good to them who
love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
How can we be sure that that is true? We can be sure that
is true because Christ is the head of all things, all things. He's been, here's where he's
been put. Look at verse 21 here in Ephesians
one. He's far above all principality
and power and might and dominion and every name that is named,
not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. He's
greater and higher than everybody. And he loves me. He loves me with a perfect love. No husband has a perfect love
for his wife down here on this earth. We love each other, but
we don't have perfect love. Ain't nothing perfect about us
except we're perfect in Christ. I know that. But our Lord loves
us with an absolutely perfect love, and he's going to take
real good care of us. You say, well, that means I'll
never stump my toe or anything. No, I don't mean that. You're
going to stump your toe. I was telling these ladies back
here, my gout's flared up a little bit and my big toe on my left
foot. That's not too pleasant. And some of you having arthritis
over here, Arthur visits. You got problems. Yeah, but these
things, here's what they do. They drive us to our bridegroom. They keep us before Him. They
keep us humble, keep us needy. You see, if everything went our
way, if everything went to suit us, I don't know. I don't know what we'd do. I want Him to do what's best
for me in keeping me in a position of needing Him, of looking to
Him. Isn't that what you want? I know
it is. So it sets forth all true believers
of all time, Old Testament, New Testament. Number two, the word
church is used to set forth a local assembly of people who profess
to believe the gospel. Therefore in the Bible, we have
the letter to the church at Rome, to the church at Corinth, to
the church at Galatia, church at Ephesus, the church at Philippi,
the church at Colossae, the church at Thessalonica. And then we
have the pastoral epistles to Timothy and Titus and Philemon. Local churches. But bear in mind
every local church, just about, maybe I better not say every,
but most local churches have in the congregation of professed
believers, both wheat and tares. The master said that. Sheep and goats, believers and
unbelievers. Our Lord in, turn with me to
Matthew 13. Get Matthew chapter 13, I believe
it's Matthew 13. Matthew 13, 24. Every church,
hey, are you looking for the perfect church? Hey, this ain't
it. I'm sorry, this ain't it. You can go over to where Alan
preaches, but you get over there and you know what? You're gonna
find that that's not a perfect local church either. Well, I'll
go somewhere else. Go anywhere you want to. The
grass may always look greener on the other side of the fence,
but I tell you, there is no perfect local church in this world. Here's what the Lord says in
this parable, Matthew 13, 24. Another parable put he forth
unto them saying, the kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man
which sowed good seed in his field. The good seed being the
children of God. But while men slept, his enemy
came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the blade was sprung
up and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. And so the servants of the householder
came and said unto him, Sir, didst thou not sow good seed
in thy field? From whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, an enemy's
done this. The servant said unto him, wilt
thou then that we go and gather them up? We'll go pull the tares
up. Verse 29, he said, no, no. Lest while you gather up the
tares, you root up also the wheat with them. let them both grow
together unto the harvest. And in the time of the harvest,
I'll say to the reapers, gather ye together first the tares and
bind them in bundles to burn them, and then gather the wheat
into my barn. I'll tell you this, anytime pastors
and elders and deacons and churches take it upon themselves, we're
gonna purge the church now. They do far more harm than good. Ah, preacher, we got tares in
here. We need to get rid of them. Now, just take it easy. Because what you may think is
a tare, it might be wheat. I'm always fascinated by the
story of Lot, aren't you? Abraham said, well, our servants
can't get along. Where do you want to go? I want
to go down there in the valley where those cities are of Sodom
and Gomorrah. And if we had been sitting on
the discipline committee of the church that Lot was a member
of, we'd say, we need to vote him out. Let's get rid of that, he's a
tear. He's a tear. And then when the messengers
came from God, one of them being the Lord Jesus in pre-incarnate
form, let's go, let's get out of this city, God's gonna destroy
them. I don't wanna go. And had to take him by the hand.
and get him out of the city. We'd say that's for sure a tear. But you see, you misjudge. We can't see people's hearts.
People can do some things that disappoint the preacher. The
preacher may do some things that disappoint the congregation.
And you say, that guy, I don't think he even knows the Lord.
Well, just be a little patient. I'm not saying there isn't a
time for discipline within the congregation, but discipline
within the congregation is for correction and instruction. It isn't to purge the church.
You can't see one another's hearts. See, you can be sitting here
tonight, and you look fine to me, But your heart may be filled
with hatred. I don't know. I don't know. You may be putting on the front
for all of us. You see, God sees in such a way
that we can't see. He discerns the thoughts and
the intents of the heart. So we just gonna be patient with
one another. Local assemblies. Hey, our Lord had 12 disciples. Boy, that was a perfect local
church, wasn't it? One of them was the devil. I bet the Lord disciplined him
and wouldn't even let him take the Lord's Supper. No, you're
wrong on that too. That's the idea a lot of people
have. Well, so-and-so isn't living a life that meets the standard
that we think he ought to be meeting. So, preacher, when the
men go around serving the bread and the wine, skip over that
guy or skip over that woman. Wait a minute. Our Lord had Judas to be served
when he instituted the Lord's Supper, and he knew his heart. The scripture says, let a man
examine himself and so let him eat. I can't examine your heart. I got my hands full examining
mine. We're not the judge. We're not
judges of anything. You take the church at Jerusalem.
You say, boy, that is a good church. A bunch of racists. You going to preach to the Gentiles?
What? Not them dogs. A bunch of racists. But you know, most folks love
Christ. You have to get straightened
out on that. There are other examples in the
Bible of local assembly. You take the church at Corinth. Division. Oh, I hate division. Don't you? Strife. Man, they
had it. Drunkenness. Incest. What a mess. but it was a true assembly of
the Lord Jesus Christ. You say, I don't want to shock
you, but the church of the living God is made up of sinners saved
by grace. That's what we are. And if we
hadn't done something literally and really that other people
has done, it's not because we're better or more spiritual. or
we've reached a higher degree of sanctification. That's not
it. It's because of the restraining
grace of God. You're capable of doing anything. I'm telling you, you're capable
of doing anything that any other son or daughter of Adam has ever
done. That's the violence of the heart.
And then I'll give you this quickly, the church, It sets forth, the
word church sets forth all true gospel churches at any time in
the world. What's the word church mean?
A called out assembly. A called out assembly. Whose church is it? It's the
church of the living God. It's not your church. It's not
my church. It's the Lord's church. It's
the church of the living God. We're his flock. And he's our
shepherd. We're the house of God. He builds the church. You know,
he builds the church out of living stones. 1 Peter 2. You're living stones. The Lord has gone into the quarry
of the world. and he has cut you out and fashioned
you and made you perfect in his righteousness and you just fit
right in to the living temple of God. And what's our business? Our
business is, go back over here to our text. Our business is to be the pillar and the ground
of the truth. We're not the source of the truth. Our responsibility is not to
teach the tenets of our denomination, but to teach the Word of God. We're not the source of the truth. We're not the basis for the truth. I know that the truth is distilled
in verse 16, a summary of the truth. But one word summarizes
all the truth of God's gospel, that's Christ. Christ, he is
the truth. And the entire church is the
pillar and the ground of the truth, the pillar. What does
the pillar of a building do? Well, it holds it up. The pillar's
outside. It bears the weather, the rainstorm,
the sun beats down on it, and still that pillar stands. Oh,
God, help us to be a pillar. Even when the anger of the world
frowns upon us, and there may even rain persecution upon us,
just stand like a pillar. Those old time pillars used to
have inscriptions etched in them. And we have an inscription etched
in us as the pillar of the truth. And that which is etched in us
is for the glory of God, the word of God only, Christ only,
faith only. That's what's etched into the
pillar. And we're the ground of the truth.
The ground is the undergirding. That which we build on is the
rock. We have a firm foundation. And we are the church of the
living God. And that's all of us, all of
us. It's not just me. It's not just
the leaders of this local assembly. It's all of us. We're the church
of the living God. You're important. You are to
me. You're part of the church here.
God has saved you. He's quickened you. He's put
you in this local assembly. This is not a one-man show. If
it's a one-man show, we need to close the doors and forget
it. We're all, we're in this together. You ladies, I'm appreciative
of you. You can pray. You say, well,
I can't preach. I know you can't preach, but
you can pray. You can encourage, you can invite. See, we all labor
together. We're laborers together in the
Lord. That's what a local assembly
is. This is a call down to assembly of men and women who were chosen
unto salvation, redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus and brought
by the Spirit of grace to trust the Son. We're a spiritual kingdom
under the leadership of our great head and king, Christ Jesus himself. And I'll tell you something,
it's a privilege to be associated with the church
of the living God, isn't it, Alan? It's just a privilege,
such a blessing, such a blessing. There are people who are watching
right now, some of them, they don't have a local church to
which they can attend, where they can go and gather with other
people who love the gospel. And we pray for you, and we remember
you. And it reminds us, let's don't
be negligent when it comes to the gathering together of the
local assembly. And I know this virus, it's got
some folks behind the eight ball here. And I understand. There are some people that have
some underlying physical problems and issues. And we hope and pray
that through this, the medicine that's come out and so forth,
that the day won't be too far in the future when we can all
come back together. That'd be wonderful, wouldn't
it? And we can start singing again, lift up our voices together. This is the church of the living
God. It's not Jim's church. It's the
Lord's church. I sure am honored to be a part
of it, aren't you? It's just, it's glorious. Well,
let's close in prayer. Our Father, we thank you for
the great privilege of