the body to be together. Now we are learning out of Timothy
and we have been the last two Sundays dealing with the church
in general as it is the buttress of truth, as it is the household
of God, the defender of truth, the standing for righteousness,
the image of Christ. And so today we're going to talk
a little bit more about the church, but we're going to walk around
some other scriptures. We're going to be in 1 Corinthians
chapter 12, and we're going to be in Ephesians
chapter 4. And so if you'd find those two
places, we will walk around those places for a good portion of
our time today. Now I've said a lot of the things
that I'm going to say today hundreds of times, year after year. As a matter of fact, if I were
to pull, and I did, I pulled out of about 3780 pages of notes
concerning the gospel as it relates to the church, and that's 15
to 20 years worth of stuff. I find that it's just repetition,
it's over and over and over and over again, sermon after sermon,
dozens and dozens and dozens of sermons and thoughts and ideas
and personal journals about what the church is. And there's something
that's always true when I go and I contemplate these things
and when I have moments and seasons in ministry where we start to
emphasize them as a people, as a shepherd, that we emphasize
the structure and the polity and the purpose of the church.
It's always in contradiction to that which is normative in
the culture around us. It's always in contradiction. And so what we think we see the
church being and what the church actually should be is always
different. And no matter how hard we preach
it correctly, no matter how much we emphasize it from the pulpit
here, beloved, there's always going to be a taintedness. There's always going to be some
of that worldly ideology and philosophy as it comes to being
the church that's invaded our thinking and our appreciation
or lack thereof or our intimacy. Last night, some of the brothers,
we all met together for roughly two hours, a little more than
some of us, more than two hours, but we talked about intimacy. what it is and what the Bible
says it is versus what we think about it. What the world says
it is versus what scripture teaches. It was a very fruitful conversation
because it centered on not just having a discussion about the
relationships with other people but it centered on the commands
of Christ according to the Word of God for his people. It centered
on what we're in covenant for and what we're called and commanded
to do and the promises of God that are conditional based upon
His prescription. Sometimes when you hear people
say that, and some of you may feel, oh, conditional promise.
Yes, God has conditional promises. Even the death of Christ was
a conditional promise. If Christ had not died, you and
I would not be saved. That's the condition. But it's
the only one. So the life of the believer is
effectually lived out in the local church. Now let me give
a caveat in the beginning because I'm teaching you the church.
And I'm teaching our church who aren't able to be here today
who may watch this sermon or listen to it later. And then
there are beloved, precious people who have aligned themselves with
our ministry throughout the years who are nowhere near a body of
believers that hold to what we hold to. And so we love them
as well, but I give a caveat. There are sometimes exceptions
that are out of our control providentially that prevent us from being in
the local assembly. I'm not talking about these tiny
circumstances. I'm talking about those who are
able to be in the fellowship of the body. Because even though we may love
and in some remote sense have an alignment or a quote, membership
or anything else, there is no intimacy if it's not face to
face. I mean, we just sang a song that
said that, didn't we? Face to face with the ancient
of days. That's what we're waiting for.
That's what we're longing for. We're wanting to be in the face
of Christ. We're wanting to be in the presence
of Christ. It's not enough for us to engage the unseen God in
the face of Christ through the scripture by the Spirit. It's
not enough. It satisfies us temporarily until
something else takes away our attention and then we are divided.
Then we have two masters. Then we are at ill, we're in
a spiritual illness, and then we fight to get back to the focus
of Christ. But one day, beloved, one day,
and these bodies remade and perfect and never sick and never upset
and never angry and never jealous and everything else that's included
in the promises of God for glory, one day we will exist in trueness
in life forever with Jesus Christ, never having a divided heart
or mind or soul again. That's what we long for. But we live in a day and age
where the ethereal Christian experience is good enough, where
the echo chamber entourage is plenty, where the social media
silliness is satisfactory. Boy, alliteration just comes
too easy for me. It's satisfactory. Well, you
know, I got my church, my Facebook group. It's not the church. It's
not the church. The closest example of that to
make sense is, I'm about to starve. I've not eaten in three days.
Let me look at a picture of a sandwich. Oh, the picture's not cutting
it. Let me watch a video of someone
making it. Well, that's enticing. But I really want to experience
eating the sandwich. Would you eat that sandwich for
me? Oh, wonderful. I could just taste it. You're
still starving. You're still hungry. You're still
in need. And for the beloved souls who
are sheep without a home, without that intimacy, that's what they
feel every day. So beloved, do not take for granted
what God has established for us. It is not promised tomorrow. The church of Jesus Christ is
the point of the New Testament. It's the point. I mean, I want
to keep this short. I've copy-pasted stuff from all
sorts of different places. Nine pages here and five pages
here and typically my sermons are one line or two line, maybe
just no notes at all. So I don't know what I'm going
to do. I just don't want to forget something. But I want to talk about the
beautiful church. I want to talk about what Paul mentions at the
point of marriage is that it's about Christ. The point of creation
is that it's about Christ, but not just about Christ alone.
It's about Christ and all of his beauty in that he has a body
called the church. That's what we call it. He didn't
call it that. He has a body, he has a people
for himself. that the most glorious, the most observable, the most
magnificent, the most amazing, the most absolutely stunning,
impossible to apprehend and comprehend and take in at all, the most
awful and awesome thing about God is that He has saved a people
for Himself and He has established His people across this world
through time and that they are together in a union that is beyond
friendships, that is beyond affinities, that is beyond hobbies and interests,
that is beyond who is liking who and who is not liking who.
It's beyond all of that. It's beyond the norms of cultural
things and it is in a supernatural sense with absolutely supernatural
affection that people are bound together by the Spirit of God
and they can't escape it. And some of us may say, I don't,
I don't experience that cause you're not in the body enough. Of course, of course it's easy to engage
with the world. It's easy to, how them things
doing? You know, I don't even know if
you can do that anymore. Can you do that? Do the Braves do that anymore?
I don't think so. That's like karate. Anyway. 94
is when I stopped watching baseball. It's easy to go, man, look at
this 10 point I shot. Look at this new gun I got. Look at this
great pair of shoes I just found. Can you believe the special at
Family Dollar? I got 900 packs of toilet paper for five bucks.
I wish. It's easy. And we can talk, and
y'all, we can go watch a movie, we can talk about that movie,
we can enjoy a good meal, we can have a horrible experience.
I know, girl, man, that place is terrible. Me too! We always find connection in
the world. It's simple. It's easy. Even
as so-called Christians, we can find the Lord is good all the
time and all the time the Lord is good. God bless America. And
I could go on and on and on and on. And then we find, as I made
this comment last night in our men's group, People who love
the Bible and love to read the Bible. I'm not talking about
theologian hobbyists. I'm not talking about ignorant
dummy zealots. I'm talking about people who
just love the Bible, love the text, and they read. Well, pastors
must be like that. Zealots, you know, evangelists,
possibly. Crazy people. The radical Christians. But,
beloved, we ought to love the Word of God. And the only way
we're going to love the Word of God is the discipline to being
in the Word of God. And as we see it more and more, Christ
that has saved us by His love and grace will be more and more
beautiful to us and that that which is more and more beautiful
to us we want to spend more time with. So, you know, ladies and
gentlemen who have dated or are dating or are married or are
engaged or whatever you might be, you know what I'm talking
about. The more time we are together,
the closer we become. And not in superficial ways.
but in intentional ways. And the Church of Jesus Christ
is not a social club. It's not, as I said last week, it's not
a social agency. It has no requirements whatsoever
to impact the world out there at all in any national sense,
in any international sense. We are not called to do that,
ever. As a church history freak And
as a historical theological freak, I love to see all the ridiculousness
of the history of missions and evangelism and everything else.
It's like one nightmare to another with a little bit of solidarity
and a little bit of sanity in the middle. And the same thing
is true with the context of the church. We can't treat the church
with conditions. God's love is not conditional.
except that Christ has died for His people. And there is no sense,
nor is there any teaching to the church or its elders or its
deacons, any man, any woman, any child in the New Testament
that would give us the privilege, the power, the authority to put
conditions on any other human being that's not found in Scripture
in relation to fellowship in the local assembly. In 1 Corinthians chapter 12,
Turn there with me. And then find Ephesians 4 and get ready to turn there too. I got a four-ribbon Bible. That's bougie. Paul is writing to this Infantile
church. Infantile not in their age, infantile
in their attitude and behavior. Infantile in their expression
of the gospel in their lives. Infantile in their willingness
to submit to that which is given to them in prudent instruction
and application in a way that gives them the joy of Christ
and the discipline therein of God's grace. And one of the things
that was happening in Corinth is there were these elite people
who were uber spiritual and they were excited about their great
spirituality and they were excited about their high theology in
regards to spiritual gifts. And specifically, there were
several gifts that everybody wanted. Everybody wanted the
gift of prophecy and everybody wanted the gift of Galatia, which
means language or tongue. And we understand if we look
at the book of Acts, we see what God has done in the undoing of
what? Babel. Man unites. Man says, look at us, we're going
to build a tower unto God. Just like Lucifer said, I should
stand next to the Most High. I will ascend the mountain of
the gods. I will, I will. Man said, I will. And men are still doing that.
Mankind are still doing that today. And that's one of the things
that we see Paul teaching Timothy. Mankind are going to stand in
their hubris and say that they have everything right when they
have hardly anything right. I know there's no condemnation
for us, but what an egg-on-the-face moment
it would be if we all got to heaven and in the day of glory
we're all recreated and we're standing there at what theologians
would call the judgment of Christ where the saints are rewarded. It'd be interesting if the Lord
Jesus went, hey guys, I'm gonna impart some wisdom on you real
quick on the count of three. I'm gonna inundate your mind
with everything that you were wrong about. Our heads would
pop. Every attitude, every experience,
every approach, every wrong application, every wrong motivation. You see
what I'm saying? We need to just be careful to recognize what
grace and mercy is all about. Thank God that won't happen.
Because it won't happen for me, I surely should not put it on
you and vice versa. This church was like, you know,
these uber spiritual people, this is the epitome of what it
means to be in the church. Paul's like, nope. Let me talk
to you about spiritual gifts. 1 Corinthians 12. Spiritual gifts. You need to have spiritual gifts.
But I want you to be ignorant, brothers. I want you to understand
what's really taking place here. Because remember, you were pagans
before the gospel found you. You were enemies of God, like
he told the church of Ephesus. You were dead in your sins and
your trespasses. You were wanderers. You were
far away from God. You weren't even close. I mean,
if Israel, and I taught my high school class in the book of Hebrews,
you know, if Israel, if this is Christ and Israel's up here
underneath, they're still separated from God. But if we're further
away from that, how far are we? You were led astray. You followed
after idols. You worshipped statues. You worshipped
mute and dead idols. You were led by your dumbness
and your ignorance and your blindness. So I want you to understand that
no one speaking in the Spirit of God says Jesus is a curse
and only by the Spirit of God does one say Jesus is Lord. Then
he talks about the varieties of gifts. Now I want you to think
about that for a second. The varieties of gifts, like going
to a gift store, there's all sorts of things. I mean, if you
go to a thingamabob store, there's a bunch of different thingamabobs
in there. There's a bunch of different types of things. It's
overwhelming. You go to Bath & Body Works to
buy soap, good luck. You won't even get to the front
door for your hacking and coughing and your eyes are burning, because
they're burning like nine cents, and they're blowing that stuff
out, chemical warfare. That's what we should do in nations.
We're at war. We'd just open a Bed Bath & Beyond and blow
the smell out. You can't just go buy soap. What
kind of soap do you want? What kind of skin do you have?
What color is your skin? And I know that's important, but
for men, soap, please, soap. You know, we don't go in there. Soap is soap. We wash the dog,
the dishes, the clothes, the car. Sidewall and your hair the
same soap. It's all it works It works But
that's not the way the world is is it there's a gifts There's
all sorts of things the same thing is true in the gifts in
the church. There are many different gifts God has not established
the church for all of us to look alike to wear the white robes
with the ball head and the round them round round rimmed glasses
Who did I describe there Gandhi, I don't know I I don't know why that popped
into my head. God has established us to all be tongue speakers,
and all be prophets, and all be this, because what good is
that? I mean, even in soap, we need
specialized things to clean specialized things. There's some soap you
don't put on your body, it will kill you. There's some soap you don't put
on your hands. Go wash your children's hair
with Hibiclens if you want to. Stop your crying. And they're
blind. I mean, I don't know if they're
blind, but it burns. It's like pouring alcohol in your eyes.
There are many gifts. 1 Corinthians chapter 12 verse
4 says, now there are many gifts, varieties of gifts, but what?
The same spirit. And this is point one. The church
of Jesus Christ all have the same spirit. We're unified by
the spirit of Christ. That's our unity. That's our
bond. That is our power. That is our
hope. That is our peace. Jesus Christ
is our head. We are his body. I have 10 fingers. And one of them doesn't work
the way the other nine does. Why? Because I have arthritis
right there. And I think it's from punching
blocks and bags and dummies and other types of people for so
long in martial arts. And I don't even punch with that
knuckle, but for some reason. And so when I knock on a door,
oh, I cripple. It's like, ooh. So I have nine
fingers that work, one finger that sort of hurts. Is that finger
not part of my hand? Is that finger not part of my
body just because it's a little weaker? Let's continue to look.
So we have one spirit. There are varieties of service,
of ministry, of doing, of tasks, yet the same Lord Jesus. So as we serve one another with
different talents, some of us have expertise and some of us
have talents and some of us have treasure. Some of us have time.
Some of us have all sorts of other things that start with
T's that I can't think of, but we're able to come together and
to give these things to one another as unto the Lord. So no matter what our service
is, it's unto the Lord. You know one of the greatest
services to the body of Christ is? Prayer, but I mean the application
of something practical is the people who clean the toilets
for our assembly. I mean you've all been to a truck
stop. We don't want that. We don't want that. I'll just
put some Bath and Body Works stuff in there, nobody will know. Same Lord, and there are varieties
of activities. There are many things that you are able to do,
many things that are happening in the body of Christ, not necessarily
the structure of the administrated church, but in the body of Christ,
but yet they are what? The same God who empowers them
in everyone. To each person is given the manifestation
of the Spirit, why? Why does God give His Spirit
and effectually calls us to serve uniquely? To have activities uniquely?
To have gifts uniquely? For the common good. For the
common good. No one, for to no one is given
through the Spirit, excuse me, to each is given the manifestation
of the Spirit to the common good. For to one is given the spirit
of utterance. Now this isn't a theological
treatise on the types of gifts. This is not Paul's point. He's
just naming some stuff and he's getting on to the meat and the
potatoes of it. But he says, some people get
this, another person gets this, another person gets this, another
person gets this. Somebody gets this, somebody
gets that, somebody gets some of the other gets this. But why? All these are empowered by, look,
one and the same spirit who apportions to each one individually as he
wills. Why is Bobby not doing this? Because that's not his gift. He tried it. It didn't work out. For just as the body, then, is
one, it has many gifts, it also has many members. And all the
members are one body. So it is with Christ. So there
in verse 12 of 1 Corinthians 12. Beloved is the key. We don't belong to ourselves.
We've made a covenant with one another in the gospel of grace. And then we have to listen to
what the Bible says concerning that covenant promise. We aren't
attending church service this morning. We're gathering together
as a family to be taught how we ought to be interacting when
this is over with each other. I'll say that again. Where'd
I get that? Ephesians chapter 4. So scoot on over there for
a minute. It talks about the gift of Christ
given to the church in Ephesians chapter 4. And I don't want to
dig up bones that are going to make you forget everything else
I've said today. But look at verse 10 of Ephesians
4. We'll just skip the questions that will obviously come. He
who descended, he who came from heaven, he who went into the
grave, he who died, is the one who also ascended far above the
heavens in order that he might fill all things. I don't have time for that. That's
a sermon alone. And then Jesus gave something
to the church. He gave himself and then he gave something else. He gave the apostles and the
prophets. He gave the apostles who have
written these letters for us and he gave the prophets who
we have the letters now to partner together to understand the gospel
and then understand what gospel living is all about and that
gospel living is not an isolated individual experience. It is
not possible to live as a Christian without being in the local church
and promise. Because you cannot obey any of
the New Testament letters. Why? Because their context is
unto one another, under the headship of Christ, under the oversight
of the elders, and under the ministry of the deacons, as we
learn. Christ gave the apostles and
the prophets, the evangelist and the shepherds and teachers. Now these aren't a list of all
the offices, just like there's not all the gifts. Matter of
fact, there are many gifts that Paul was dealing with in first
Corinthians chapter 12 that weren't exercised anymore. And some of
them that only the apostles had, but they were understood and
known. So Paul's just speaking generally. There's a lot of gifts. He gave the apostles, prophets,
evangelists, shepherds, and teachers in order to equip the saints
for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the body
of Christ until all of us, every one of us together in Ephesus,
attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son
of God to maturity to the measure of the stature of the fullness
of Christ in order that we may not be children anymore tossed
around to and fro by waves, carried around by every wind of doctrine,
human cunning, craftiness, deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the
truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who
is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body is joined
and held together by every joint with which it is equipped. When
each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it
builds itself up in love." That's beautiful stuff. Trey, you've
got to hurry me, I've got to get there. We need this teaching. That's about seven sermons, by
the way. It can also be one. And the point is that we are
a body in order that we grow in love, we grow in service,
we grow in affection, we grow in intimacy, and it's not what
we think it is. It's not about friendliness.
I think one of the brothers last
night said it's not about us being lovey-dovey. I like that. It's deeper than that. It's glorious. To say we're not necessary and
we're not needed and we don't need to be together is to tell
Jesus that he's dumb. It's to tell Jesus through Paul
that he doesn't know what he's talking about. It's to tell Jesus
that you died and I've got you, but you don't have me. I don't
want to be your knuckle with the arthritis. I don't want to
be your modest parts as we'll see back in 1 Corinthians 12.
So we are unified by the Spirit of Christ. And I can hear people
throughout the culture and the cults of America saying, yeah,
but everybody's got to have all the right things and doing the
right things. But no, they do not. Because we just saw in Ephesians
chapter four that one of the purposes of the assembly of Christ
is to grow into the knowledge of God. I'm not saying that we
embrace people who don't believe the gospel, folks. That is ridiculous. And people who make those charges,
you need to just go and walk away because that's as close
to intimacy as you ever get with that nonsense. Accusations by implication is
nonsense. Moving right along, back to 1
Corinthians 12. God puts the body together as
He wills in the Spirit of Christ so we are unified by Christ. Verse 12, For in one Spirit we
are all submerged into one body. That's what the word baptized
means. Jews, Greeks, slaves, free. It doesn't matter who we
are. Those things don't matter in the body of Christ. And we're all made to drink of
one spirit. For the body does not consist of one member, but
many. The foot should say, I'm not a hand. Does it not belong
to the body? Would that make it any less part
of the body? If the ear would say, I'm not an eye, I'm not
part of the body, would that make it any less part of the
body? See, it doesn't matter what we say. It doesn't matter what we
feel. It doesn't matter where our emotions
take us in the context of being a member of the church. It's
what Christ has taught us. It's what the Lord has taught
us through the word. If the whole body were an eye, you've heard
me say bag of eyeballs, bag of toenails. It's absurd and it's
a little macabre, but it really shows the silliness of sometimes
when we impose upon ourselves our place amongst the body of
Christ. And what does the church of the world do? The church of
the world says, well, I know what we need to do, and guys,
I'm an expert in this. I could put together programs
and plans and classes and things, and I'd be teaching nine days
out of seven. And we could employ everybody's
talents. One of the funnest things I ever
did was play dodgeball. And when you got dodgeballs,
and when you're throwing them at like a fifth grader, there's
power in that. And thousands of people come
to play dodgeball. Levi, me and you could talk,
we could play ping pong like nobody's business, couldn't we?
That would be awesome. You get a pool table out, I'll
let you all get the break, so you get a shot, and then, you
know, we keep on going. There's a lot of fun stuff we
can do as Christians. We can go to the movies, we can
have a lot of fun stuff. But let's not conflate that fun stuff
with actual spiritual intimacy. Because we have spiritual intimacy,
we may find fun things to do together, some of us. But the
key is the unity that we have in Christ. Drinking of the one
Spirit. We can't say we're not part of
the body. We can't all be the same thing. Well, I don't have
a teaching role, so I'm not important. You do have a teaching role.
First and foremost, to yourself, to learn what the work of the
ministry is according to the gospel. Secondly, what the church
is supposed to be. And thirdly, that you may help
encourage and teach others to do likewise. If the whole body were an ear,
where would the smell be? If the whole body were an eye,
where would the hearing be? But as it is, verse 18, important,
just like over in verse 8, God arranged the members in the body,
each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member,
where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts,
yet one body. Now this is just a picture. This is called imagery.
Paul is painting a picture of body parts that we can all relate
to. Everybody can relate to that.
Little children can relate to that. And now he is going to,
for the third time, say, hey, we're important. We're all part. Not because of what we feel or
what we're doing, because Christ said so. Christ said so. The eye cannot say to the hand,
verse 21, I have no need of you, nor again the head to the feet,
I have no need of you. On the contrary, the parts of
the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable. I mean, what
does the pinky toe do? Cut it off and find out. You're going to have some trouble. What
do your fingernails do? Pull them out. Now don't do that. And on those parts of the body
that we think are less honorable, we bestow the greater honor. And our unpresentable parts are
treated with greater modesty. I mean, everybody has a colon,
unless you've had it removed. Nobody wants to talk about, hey
man, how's your colon? How's your kneecap? I don't have a
kneecap. Unless it's men. How my glutes
look? I mean, you know, get out of here. Nobody want to talk
about that. I don't use the potty. I don't, you know, I don't blow
my nose. Not me. I'm a robot. Yet even mucus is necessary.
Now, I'm not saying strive to the mucus. There's not a correlation
with every body part to the body of Christ. There's not that. But beloved, if things like that
are necessary to the body, you are too. And in a greater way, because
you are Christ's body. But God has so composed the body
giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, so there may
be no division in the body, but that the members may have the
same care for one another. I want you to hear that. Being
a member of the church is that you have to have care for one
another. One of the things that we have in 2018, I looked June
the 1st of 2018, I talked to the church about the necessity
of deacons. And then we had two men who were
preparing for deacons, and then one of them sinned greatly and
was removed from the membership of the church, and then COVID
hit. And now here we are, ready to ordain a deacon. Why? Because it's necessary for someone
to oversee the ministry of the church, to help the body parts
understand their function, to look in a place, in everybody's
lives, as I teach and other elders teach, as we teach you what's
required of you and what's expected of you and where the benefits
of being the body comes from, then the deacons help administrate
those things for the sake of Christ. See, because it's all
for the sake of Christ. And then we do things for the
sake of Christ, we benefit for the sake of each other. And because of that, we have
the same care for one another. If one member suffers, we all
suffer together. If one member is honored, we
all rejoice together. Now, you are, verse 27 is the key to all
this, you are the body of Christ. You are. Not me. James Tippins is not the body
of Christ. I want you to hear this. None of you are the body of Christ,
but together we are the body of Christ. Individually, members
of it. And God has appointed in the
church first apostles, then prophets, then teachers, and because of
the context with which Paul is teaching, his rhetoric is moving
him into the argument to dispose of this heady, high holiness,
self-righteousness in gifts. He says, then miracles, then
healing, helping, administration, various kinds of tongues. And
he asks questions, are all of you apostles, is all the church
prophets, is all the church teachers, do all work miracles, do all
possess the gifts of healing, tongues, interpretation? And
then he says, look, don't knock it, earnestly desire the higher
gifts, and when you do, I'll show you an even better way.
See, that's not instruction there. It's admonition, which is a,
teaching and a caution at the same time. And we know what chapter 13 is
all about. It's all about what love really
is. We go to 1 John, we see that John teaches, okay, you who are
beloved, that which we have seen from the beginning, that which
was from the beginning that we have seen and heard and touched
with our hands concerning the word of life that was made manifest
to us that we may declare it to you that we also are with
the Father and you are with the Father in Christ. We are together
as one body in the Lord. It's all about the local church. So there's key things that we
need to understand as I move on this morning from this text.
It's at the church and every member is necessary. Beloved,
I have need of you. Oftentimes people think that
the pastors are called to a greater standard of association and intimacy
with the church than anybody else in the church, yet no member
of the church would tolerate my apathy regarding this pulpit. Would you? You know what, guys? Man, I was just... Let's just sing today. Anybody
got testimony? You know, that's a lazy pastor,
right? I used to think that was incredible until one of the guys
goes, man, I just do that because I ain't had time to study this
week. Anybody got testimony? And of course, out of a group,
somebody's got something to say. There's nothing wrong with testimonies.
I like them. But what has God commanded us
to do on the Lord's Day when we gather? To be taught, to sing,
to pray, to observe the Lord's table, to meet each other's needs. That's the point. So we'll do
that. And if there's other times we
want to do other things, we can do that too. Our members meeting
in October, come, stay, be a part of the family. You might learn
something about somebody. You may be able to share something
that God has taken you through or shown you or encouraged you
in that may seem so silly and simple and trivial, but when
you share it, God may really spark encouragement in the heart
of another brother or sister. All parts are useful. you are
useful. And if you're worried about how
you can be useful, come tell me. I will give you all opportunity
to be useful. There are many things that we
need as a church. There are many needs amongst
us. There are many prayers that are needed. There are many things
that just task-wise that could be done and I could have help
with and others could have help with. There's information that
you might be able to know or might be able to have that could
help me know how to better deal with certain things. All parts
are Christ's. We all belong to Him, so He possesses
us, and then on the same side of that, all parts are Christ. Now be careful. We're not little
Christ. I'm not going to that nonsense
apostasy. I'm just saying that we are the body of Christ, ergo
we are sharing in His What's that? A picture of the gospel.
We are one in Him. We have been credited His righteousness. And one day we will be recreated
together as a body forever in that. All parts are unified. So as Brother Trey read this
morning out of Hebrews, you know, if you continue to look at Hebrews,
you talk about the forsaking of the gathering. This is one
of those things that literally derails our spiritual lives.
It derails our prayers. It derails our intimacy. It derails
our focus. It derails everything. There's only one primary obligation
that you have in order to receive the ministry of the church, and
that is to be together for one and a half hours on Sunday. And
if you can't be here for an hour, if you can't be here for 20 minutes,
if you can't be here for 5 minutes, come. Come late, leave early, do what
you need to do. But be here. And I encourage
you to work on being here when you are here. Together. Because those who forsake the
assembly miss the ministry of Christ. And those who forsake
the assembly Honestly, biblically ought not to be receiving the
ministry of the church, including the teaching, and certainly pastoral
care and counsel or needs, because that's where the rubber hits
the road, isn't it? If your marriage is in shambles and you want me
to counsel you and your spouse, one of the first things that
I have to see is a good six to eight months without missing
church. Because without that, it's going
to fail anyway. Just go on. Go somewhere else. Go talk to
somebody else. If you want some different advice, go get some
different advice, you know? And I've labored so long. And for
those of you who have received that intimacy with me and other
elders, you know I'm right. People are like, well, you know,
we don't see them for months and then they show back up and,
hey, how you been? Well, I'm having trouble financially. Well, where you been? And see,
what's happened, though, is our culture says, shame on you for
not being in church. There's sometimes a reason that
we're not. There's sometimes we have obligations. Sometimes we
just, listen, God's not taking roll. Mm-hmm. Oh, three in a
row, you're out. I mean, you know. But just like if I didn't show
up tomorrow to my house and my wife hadn't heard from me, she's
gonna get worried. I'm gonna be in trouble. And we should have that same
kind of concern and care for each other. Where is brother
so-and-so? What is going on with him? We are necessary. And if
we forsake the assembly, then how dare we come and ask for
the ministry? Because that's the first, that's
the door, that's the basics. It's not when you think about
it in pastoral counsel, and you've heard me use this expression
before, hey guys, I need some help. I keep busting out my front
teeth. Why are you doing it? I don't know. Every seven steps,
I fall. Your boots are untied. Just tie
your boots and see how that does for you. Okay. I told you to
tie, you know what? I tried that once. I ain't tying
my boots. You're tripping over your shoestrings.
Well, I just busted out another tooth, you see. Get out of here. It's nonsense, isn't it? Here's
the reality of being the body. If we're not with the body, how
can we expect the blessings of God's promises? And it's hard,
isn't it? It's the hardest thing. Why is
it so hard? Paul talks about it in Ephesians 6. I always think,
and I still to this day think, and when I teach Ephesians, I
always start with Ephesians 6 as a prequel and then I go in so
that we have the reminder because we hear all that good instruction
and all that intimacy and all that ministry and all that growing
and all, and we're like, yay! I can't do it. Because it's a
spiritual problem. It's a spiritual battle. We are
fighting not only against our own flesh and proclivities. We're
not only fighting against our own insecurities and fears and
frustrations and aggravations. Some of us just are not people
people and it's okay. Believe it or not, I'm not a
people person. Some of you who have known me
a long time, there are times you can go to lunch and not say
a word. I enjoyed lunch. That's what happens. That's intimacy
right there. And you're not mad at each other
now if you sit there quietly and you're mad. That's different. It's hard because not only are
we fighting ourselves, we're fighting the culture, we're fighting
what is easy, we're fighting what is natural, and we're fighting
what is supernatural. We are fighting a war that supernaturally
is coming against us and thoughts and feelings and other people
and experiences by the sovereignty of God. God is not only permitting
and decreeing but causing all these things to work together
for our good and He's causing all these things to work together
for His glory. So what do we do when everything
is going sideways and we know we have to stay the course? We
stay the course. That's called discipline. And
the primary discipline of the believer is to be a member of
the local church and be in assembly on the Lord's Day above all things,
because everything flows in and out of that. We're not called
to chase after people. We're not called, we had a funny
conversation about this last night, but we're not called to
that. We're not called to be a counselor, we're called to
be a family and whatever we need and anytime we need, that's what
we do. Now some people would say, and
in closing I want to say a lot of things that would take a long
time if I try to expand on them too much, but a lot of people
say, well I don't see in the Bible where church membership
is biblical, then you haven't read the New Testament. I'm being
honest with you, you have not read the book of Acts and you
have not read the letters of Paul. There is no time when Paul is addressing
ambiguously a just group of Christians in the world. There's only one
time in the entire New Testament that that sense where there's
this large universal church is ever mentioned, and that's in
the future. Well, not one place, but in one
essence. We see it in Hebrews. where we're
together with the angels, worshiping Christ at the Day of Glory, the
Bridegroom, and we see it in John's Apocalypse. Church membership is public. Church membership is something
that is necessary. Church membership is biblical. Covenant relationship with people
is biblical, just like marriage. Just like marriage. There is an inside and an outside.
There's an inside and outside with Christ, the inside and outside
of the Garden of Eden, an inside and outside at Sinai, inside and outside of the Tabernacle,
inside and outside of the Temple. God prepared a people for Himself
and where they are He is because He is in them. And so we cannot
say we long for the day of the Lord and to worship as the gathered
ones, as the church, but we have no desire to do so now. But beloved,
that's the stress of it, isn't it? Some of us don't desire it
because we don't receive the benefits of it, because we don't
desire it, because we're not doing it, because we don't receive
the benefits of it, so we don't desire it. If we just do it,
then we'll receive the benefits of it, then we'll desire it. I promise you, it will. God looks at the world and He's
preparing His gathered ones. He's gathering His worshipers
in spirit and in truth. And they live and they love,
they exhort, they pray together, they work together, they do everything
together in the context and for the sake of Christ in the context
of the gospel. So the gathering should be the pinnacle and the
first and the last of our week. It should cap out our week and should introduce
our week all at the same time. We have the confidence to enter
into the holy places So let us draw near with a true heart and
full assurance of faith. Let's not neglect meeting together
as some are in the habit of doing, but let's encourage one another
and all the more as you see the day drawing near. Beloved, when
a believer is not in covenant relationship with the local assembly,
they know that they're lacking much. We are diverse, as we've already
seen. There are people who are mature, people who are not. There
are people who are mature in some things and not others. We are
all immature and childish in something. All of us, me, I have
a long list of things that I need to grow up in. And I'm not sharing
them with you because I don't need you on my back. You see, don't need you on my
back. Unless I'm giving you a ride somewhere, I guess. We're very
diverse. We have different powers, different
levels of faith, different strengths, different knowledge, different
understanding. And we all have a part. Grace Truth Church, Since
May of 2011, these things have been written down in our church
documents, and I'll read them now. The church is not a place,
but a people. There is one body and one spirit,
just as you recall, to one hope that belongs to your one Lord,
one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over
all and through all and in all. And this is not talking about
all the Christians around the world. This is talking about the local
church. And collectively, one day we will be the universal
church. I don't have time to get into
the grammar of scripture, but this idea of this universal invisible
church is hogwash. It does not exist today. Theoretically? Biblically? No. None. I don't care who wrote
it. It's not contextual. We are a
church that is a people, not a place. We are a people who
are not grown, but we are growing. As Paul would say in Ephesians
4, 15, 16, speak the truth in love or to grow up in every way
unto him who is the head. And to Christ from whom the whole
body joined and held together by every joint with which it
is equipped. When each part is working probably makes the body
grow up and builds itself up in love. We are growing and we
are growing worshipers for the God of glory. We are growing
And we worship God in our assembly, we worship God in our attendance,
we worship God in our intimacy, we worship God in our prayers,
we worship God, and all of that starts and stops with the assembly
every week. I mean, for 11 years, I've been,
longer than that, but for us, 11 years, I've been praying and
focusing by name, every one of you who are part of this assembly.
part of this family, all the time worrying, and then God will
bring something. I'll be reading something just for my own interest.
And the Lord said, you know what? So-and-so really needs to hear
that. I may message them. I may pray for them. I may incorporate
some teaching in the context of what the Word of God is showing
me so that we as a family will become more unified and more
focused on what we ought to be and who we ought to be serving. Otherwise, I could easily just
stand here for about four days, teach about 70 hours worth of
content, and we could just all stream it on demand as it's needed
so we can get our theological kicks in. Being in the church
is not about getting theological kicks. It's about worshiping the God
who is revealed in that theology. It's about knowing Christ who
knows us by name. So we're growing worshippers
for the glory of God and we know that with God all things are
possible in Christ and we will display God's wisdom together
so that through the church, what does Paul say? The manifold wisdom
of God might be now made known to the rulers and authorities
in the heavenly places. We covenant together as one body
with many parts and we do so and we desire certain things
and our church covenant is very simple, that we would love each
other in Christ That we'd have Christ affection and love toward
each other as we walk together for the glory of Christ and the
power of the Holy Spirit. This is love. That we would also rely
upon God, that we would depend upon Him, evidenced by prayer
personally as we pray for one another and corporately as we
petition God for His will to be done in our lives and in our
world. We commit to praying for each other and for God's purpose
for Grace Truth Church. We worship. We worship through
service. We worship through submission
to the word and to Christ. We worship through action and
doing. We worship through knowledge and through our affections. We
worship through study. We meet together regularly and
weekly in corporate worship in our homes and communities as
meets the occasion. Why? For the purpose of encouragement,
growth, mutual concern and accountability. We are accountable to God through
the local church. We are accountable to one another
through the elders of the church and to the members of the church,
and we are to submit to one another and to the correction and to
the love and to the growth and to the discipline of the Word
of God as prescribed for the sanctity of the church. This
accountability includes right living, pure testimony, holy
pursuits, church attendance, encouragement, direction, discipleship,
and other means by which we will obey the Lord in the spirit of
worship. We want to cooperate together.
We want to see Grace Truth Church flourish as a community of faith,
as a family of intimacy. And members of this church also
must agree with the doctrines of grace and the purposes of
church and the sufficiency and the efficacy of scripture and
the authority of scripture and all those basic things about
the true gospel and who the church truly is to be. And we are not
going to allow the world to infiltrate the actions of the body. but
the proper doctrine produces proper methods. And that's the
reality of being a church. That's a simple overview of what
being a church member is all about. That we're together That
we fight the flesh and we know it's not going to be easy, it's
going to be hard, but we learn, we submit to the Lord because,
listen, I'm not lording over you. I have never hammered you,
church. And if you've ever felt that way, you should have told
me. It is a character flaw in me
sometimes that I'm not hard enough. or that I am too long-suffering.
I'm not saying that humbly. I writhe in agony and self-pity
over certain things to which I am then taken advantage of
in a lot of circumstances. We don't hammer one another,
but we love each other. Beloved, I want you to know that
and I want you to rest in that because There's a lot of other
things that we could be doing. There's a lot of other ways in
which ministry, this ministry could have gone. And I'm thankful
for the way it has been gone. And I'm thankful for God's safety. Have we had problems? You better
believe it. And I don't think we've seen
anything yet. As we grow older in age, the problems are going
to continue. The question is, are we going
to face the world and God's call for all of us in Christ, together,
or are we just going to do it our own way? I choose together. I choose together. Let's pray. We thank You, Father, for Your
Word and for all that You've done to show us the truth in
Christ. And we thank You, Lord, that
you were patient with us and that you love us. So help us
to love each other in the same way. Never should we be angry
and frustrated. But Father, in every way, help
us to be gentle and focused on the gospel that we might live
it out. And Lord, by way of reminder,
you've just shown us passages today of, you know, the essence
of life together. There's still much to learn through
the whole of Scripture that we would become more intimate in
Christ, together for Christ, and that most of all, Lord, we
would respect and be in awe of your doing, that you are doing
what you're doing as you see fit. So in that, Father, we can
rejoice. We can stand up and be counted
as a member of this assembly. And Father, I pray for wisdom
as the elders of this church continue to think about, as we've
partnered with other congregations, as we pray for other communities
of faith, as we want to see congregations and studies expand and grow. But Lord, what we really are
seeking is intimacy. And we can't make it happen.
Only you can. And so, Father, by your Spirit,
guide us, direct us, give us clarity. And Father, I do pray
for those sheep without homes. I pray that if our ministry can
help them, Lord, if we can befriend them and be intimate with them,
even in covenant from a distance to whatever degree we're able,
Lord, that one day we would be able to see you grow up congregations,
true spiritual families, where your people could be together
weekly on an ongoing basis. So Father, as we take the table
today, Lord, help us to worship and as we receive these new families
today, Father, we thank you for what you're doing for us as a
church, individually, as members, and corporately as a family.
In Christ's name we pray these things. Amen.