We never know what the Lord's
going to do, but when he does, we're glad in it, right? Let's
turn together to first Timothy chapter three. And I'm going
to again, talk about the church as the buttress and pillar of
truth. I'm going to talk about that
again today. And I'm going to talk about that again next week. Paul writes in chapter 3, verse 14, I hope
to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so
that if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the
household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar
and buttress of the truth. Great indeed, we confess, is
the mystery of godliness. He was manifested in the flesh,
vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the
nations, believed on in the world, and taken up in glory. With everything that we have
experienced as a community, as a culture, as a nation, as a
people, as a church, individual families and households, there
are a lot of things that can readily up top of us, turn us
over, mess us up, make us anxious, frustrate us. And in the midst
of that, we try to find some solidarity. We try to find something
that can be a foundation, something to stand upon. Now, the Sunday
school reality of this is that the Bible teaches that Jesus
Christ is the rock, not our obedience. The Bible teaches that Jesus
is the foundation. Not our faith. The Bible teaches
that God alone is sovereign and rules over all these things.
Not our decisions and will and good choices that make a difference.
But that God has purposed all things according to the counsel
of His will, to the praise of His glory, for the good of His
people. And sometimes we experience things
and we ask, how is this for my good? What is really good about
any of these things? Well, beloved, the good news
is, is that we don't get the foreknowledge. We don't get the
peak into tomorrow. We have the promise of forever.
And the promise of eternity is grander than the peak into tomorrow.
The promise of eternity is beyond anything and any season and any
opportunity that we may have to even know the future. Because
at the end of it all, there is no king but Christ and no kingdom
but his people. So, beloved, as we learn and
as we hear from this pulpit, our purposes do not change. Our
message does not mix. And we are here today because
we're instructed by the word of God to be together. We're
instructed by the word of God to be together in fellowship
so that we might have intimacy with the scripture, that it might
teach us how to be a people who live together under the gospel.
who take care of one another, who pray for each other, to truly
be a family involved in intimacy, because the world has many opportunities. We can always find a friend outside
the faith. We can always enjoy camaraderie
in the context of things that we enjoy. We can always have
a crowd in certain areas of our lives. The father being the church is
not about, the father teaches us that being the church is not
about being the crowd, but being siblings, being children with
one father. That's what I was trying to say.
Being a family with one father, a family with one Lord, a family
that comes together not because we're scared not to, it's because
we must, we need to. We need to see that God has a
purpose and a plan for us and that through the local assembly
of the saints, it's the only place where God has promised
most of these things will take place. Now, of course, it's not
salvific. Being in the church is not something
that, you know, if you don't attend the congregational services,
then you can't get into heaven. You can't say that, even though
the world sometimes believes that. Many people have come through
our doors and gathered with us on the Lord's Day throughout
the years because they were seeking a way to appease the wrath of
God, seeking a way to appease their conscience and say, you
know what? I feel like because I'm here today, I'm doing something
in the right direction for my eternal salvation. Now, it is
in the right direction according to the obedience to Christ. But
it is not going to help us in the judgment seat. It is not
going to help us say, well, Lord, I was involved in church and
I served my community and I did this and I taught Sunday school
and all these other things. And I sang in the choir and all
this other stuff. These things are not vital to the Christian
life. But what is vital to the Christian
life? It's the gospel of free and sovereign grace, the word,
the sufficiency and the authority of the word of God and learning
how from this pulpit and together as a people to live despite all
of our uniquenesses, despite all of our differences, despite
all of our loves and affections that may not be congruent with
one another for the sake of Christ in his name. So the church exists
as the buttress of the truth. It holds up and shines the truth
out there. Now, I'm going to talk about
some things today that are going to be extremely controversial, and when I say
that which is true according to the text of Scripture, a lot
of times people hear me saying something about someone else.
Well, I can tell you this, I've done that before. I've done that
several times in the 23 years of ministry, but I have not done
that in this pulpit. I've not preached according to
my irritation toward a particular individual. That doesn't mean
I haven't been upset and you've seen some frustration come through
because I love the Lord and I love most of all the Lord's people. But when we preach the scripture,
we are teaching the church. And when we see Paul deal with
things and the antithesis of the truth that he teaches with,
or even when he polemically approaches a particular subject, what that
means is that he attacks a particular point of view for the sake of
truth. We aren't to major in these errors. We're not to major
in these differences. We're not to major and become
experts in these intricate distinctions, if you will. We are to major
in the gospel. We are to major in being the
people who are in the gospel. And so when I say some things
today, some of us might go, I know who he's talking about. No, you
don't. I'm just opining in the commonality of our culture and
more importantly, probably in things that I myself have actually
been exposed to through the years. How does the church uphold the
truth? Last week we talked about that. We know the gospel. We
understand the word of God. And so today I want to say about
three or four different ways that the church should uphold
the truth. First and foremost, we uphold
the truth in the doctrine of Christ, the doctrines of Christ,
the gospel. Because, beloved, we are a people
of truth. We're a people of the word of God. We're a people who
are supposed to have true gospel understanding. And that doesn't
mean that we're not going to be persuaded. irritated or somewhat
deceived at times. Look at the Galatians. The people
of Galatia received the gospel. The people of Thessalonica received
the gospel in power and in truth by the Spirit of God. They were
converted by the Spirit, not by the propositions of Scripture. They were converted not by Paul,
but by God Himself, who brought them to life to understand that
Christ alone satisfied His wrath and gifted them the credit of
His own righteousness. You see, that's the point of
what it means to be the good report. The good news of salvation
is God has saved the people in the death of Jesus. It is finished
and it is never going to have to have anything else done except
Jesus dying on the cross. The sins are paid for. The sins
are paid for. When God grants repentance, he
gifts faith and faith rests upon that proclamation, rests upon
that promise. And that is a divine work that
God imposes upon the mind and the heart, soul, whatever, gut,
internal ideologies of the believer, of the believing one. And so
we as the church need to understand that we are here to stand and
proclaim the truth. And there's a manner in which
we do it. We are to give glory to God in the proclamation of
the truth. The true gospel teaching about God, about who he is, about
what salvation is. All these things that we see
through the historical confessions and the statements of faith and
every church in the world has some iteration of something.
These people that say, well, I don't have a statement of faith.
Yes, you do. Tell me what you believe about who God is. Whatever
comes out of your mouth is the statement of your faith about
who God is or what you believe. Tell me about what you believe
sin is. Whatever comes out of your mouth is your statement
of faith. Tell me what you believe about salvation. Whatever comes
out of your mouth is your statement of faith. So our statement of
faith is our ongoing, forever believing and learning from the
Bible and then expressly internalizing and being taught by God the Spirit
the things of God. The church is the buttress of
the things of God. And that is not to say that Rome
had it right. They didn't. It is not to teach
that the church is some institutionalized overseeing entity that tells
all the Christians what they do believe. No, the word of God,
God tells us what to believe. And God has prescribed the reality
of how he will teach his people and through what manner. That
is why you find me being a little heavy handed on these theological
studies, on this historical theology. on these cultural ideologies,
on all these other things that we always believed, we thought
we knew, we've been taught, or some superpower preacher over
here telling the whole world what should be known when the
Bible tells us. So the Scripture teaches that
the elders can teach the church and instruct the church, but
the church is not to be open-minded and stupid about it. Test it. And when it's wrong, there's
a means through which we get correction, even for the elders
of the church. There's a means through which
God has provided gentle, patient, loving correction. We are to,
as the church, tell the truth about God and salvation. We are
to tell the truth about humanity. We are to tell the truth about
sin. We are to stand and display amongst ourselves the truth about
living, And correction, living according to the scripture and
correcting according to the scripture. Now, there's two types of and
we call that church discipline, right? There's two types of church
discipline. Discipline means what? Practice,
loving practice. Discipline is about taking things
and continuing in a way that produces a result. Discipline
is about, I'm not going to eat four pieces of cake, I'm going
to eat one. Discipline is about, I'm going to go to bed before
3 a.m. because I have to get up at 6. Discipline, you know,
and we have it sometimes and sometimes we don't. When it comes
to the church, we have formative discipline. We have the teaching
of the scripture and the oversight of the elders and the service
of the deacons for the sake of the church so that we are growing,
we are being edified. What does the word edify mean?
It means to be built up, to be made strong, to secure. To establish. And so we are to be built up
through formative discipline. This is what the Bible says about
the truth. This is what the Bible says about this theological thing.
This is what the Bible says about our attitude. This is what the
Bible says about our lifestyle. This is what the Bible says.
But we're not to do that in judgment. We're not to do that in oversight
in a way like, shame, shame, shame. This is not what the Bible
has called us to. And then there's the corrective
discipline. There's the corrective discipline to say, all right,
Brother Bob, you're not doing this correctly and it's infiltrating
the relationships of the church. You're handling this wrong. Simmer
down now. Simmer down now. Like there's
nothing wrong with a child asking for a toy in the supermarket.
There's nothing wrong for a child wanting ice cream at the end
of a hot Saturday afternoon when you drive by Dairy Queen. Hey,
can I have an ice cream? No, not today, son. Okay. Versus kicking the back of your
seat while you're driving and screaming, ice cream, ice cream.
No, you're not going to act like that. We're not going to permit
that type of behavior. We're not going to let the child
pitch a fit in the floor without consequence. See, consequence
has a negative connotation, but their consequence is the outcome,
or the action, or the thing, the sum of all decisions and
choices. Everything has a consequence,
positive or negative. Sometimes corrective discipline.
feels negative, but the consequence of corrective discipline is always
positive, even when the member of the fellowship is expelled
either by abandonment or unrepentant sin. That's not negative, it's
positive. Why? Because we don't permit
tantrums and selfishness. Why? Because we can't focus on
doing and being what God has called us to be. We don't have
joy and peace. We can't pray correctly. Because
all we're doing is looking at this kid kicking the back of
his daddy's head and wondering why nothing's being done. Nobody's
paying attention to the truth when everybody's pitching fits.
When anybody's pitching fits. So we buttress the truth. We
buttress the truth of true affection according to the biblical prescription.
This is review from last week. We buttress, we stand up and
display the truth in the church. You notice I haven't talked about
anything in the world. I'll get there. The church has no business
teaching the world to be disciplined as the church. That's not okay. We'll get there. But we should
stand on the absolute sufficiency and authority both and of the
Bible. Let me say that again. We should
stand on the absolute sufficiency and authority of the Bible. In
other words, everything we need that matters in life, according
to our faith and our life together as a people is written in the
pages of Scripture. That's it. Not only is it written there
in context to teach us, but it's also written there in context
to train us. To train us. So we buttress the truth in that
way. The church also upholds the truth because we are stewards
of this truth. See, we aren't the origins of
truth, are we? We don't get to decide what's true and what's
not true. We don't get to say, OK, well, this is a little bit
more relative. We also don't get to emphatically and dogmatically
burden people with things that aren't necessarily prescribed.
For example, the way someone ought to, what type of clothing
they should wear. or what type of food they should
eat, or what type of entertainment they should enjoy. Now, there
are obvious things. There are obvious things that
are grossly sinful in the eyes of God, and there are also obvious
liberties that some of us can handle in our conscience while
others cannot. There are fellow pastor friends of mine that if
they hung around some of the knuckleheads that ring my doorbell
and heard the language that they used, they would probably melt
like the Wicked Witch of the West. I'm melting! You see, Because they're just
not engaged with that type of person. But no harm, no foul,
it's okay. But don't condemn someone just
because their conscience isn't destroyed when a worldly person
acts worldly. It's okay. The point is to grow. The point
is to receive correction. Well, we're stewards of the truth.
Jesus is the truth. The Scripture teaches us that
Jesus is the Word. The Scripture teaches us that
Jesus is the light. Jesus is the image of God. Jesus is the point of creation. The Bible teaches us that we
are His body. We are His bride. We are the
sheep of Christ. We display Jesus Christ unto
glory. And we share in His life and
His death and his future hope. We uphold, we do not change or
install historical or cultural truth. We hold to the written
word alone and that's enough. Now see, when you hear me say
that, a lot of people would say, well, every church says they
hold to the word. What makes y'all any different?
What makes you, Tippins, any different than the guy down the
street? who calls himself this, or the
guy down the street who holds the exact same translation of
the Bible up and says, we hold the full counsel of the word
of God. What's different? Well, I guess
the only difference is that if we're not being taught by God,
according to the scripture in its context, then we're not teaching
the truth of scripture. Yet everybody claims the same
thing, right? Everybody says, well, You know,
by golly, 1 Corinthians chapter 11, 2 Corinthians chapter, I
can't remember which one it is. My women are going to do that.
That's what the Bible commands. We're going to go to 1 Corinthians
chapter 7. No, this is commandments. We're going to do this. We're
going to do that. But what's weird about that is that there
are a lot of good people who claim to be following the scripture
in those things that are debatable in their context, but yet they
would ignore the very doctrine concerning Christ surrounding
them. They would ignore the very command of God to be gentle and
patient and kind and loving and not pass judgment. They would
rather themselves be a Pharisee than Jesus. They would rather
be like the spiritual elites, who are perfect in their doctrine,
by the grace of God. You know, don't take credit.
That's a humble brag, by the way. That's still arrogance.
I'm not wrong, by the grace of God. He showed me the truth,
by the grace of God. That's arrogance. It's not okay. Jesus uses that example, that
very example, the Pharisee. Oh, thank you, God, for changing
my life. Thank you, God, for teaching me the truth. Thank
you, God, I'm not like that tax collector. Oh, God, you alone
have caused me to pray. You alone have caused me to tithe.
You alone have caused me to dress like this. You alone have done
all these things. Oh, Lord, have mercy. Thank you
so much, God, that I'm not like everybody else. And the publican
goes, God, have mercy, propitiate for me. Satisfy your wrath. That's what
he says. And what happens? Jesus says, that man was justified. The other man condemned. So from the word, we uphold the
truth. We display the truth. We secure
the truth. We defend the truth. There's a simplicity in the reading
of scripture. And there's a danger with pretexts
and verses and all these other things that are so easily misunderstood
and pulled out of context. I can tell you anything if I
have just a sentence. I can make it say anything. I can make you believe anything
if you don't have the context from which it comes. So many times we hear people
say, well, that's what the Bible says. No, that's what that sentence
says, but what the Bible is saying is relative to where it's saying
it. It's just like the very nature
of 1 Timothy. Why has Timothy written all of
this? I mean, why has Paul written
all of this? To teach Timothy, an elder, how the church ought
to live and be in order. Under what occasion? False teaching
running rampant. The instruction was, let's do
this. Bad teaching. And bad behavior running rampant.
So what's the context of this writing? It's when everything's
going to heck in a handbasket and everybody's acting like idiots.
Just do these things. Just remember these things. Just
believe these things. Be patient this way. And charge people.
Hey, stop saying that. Hey, stop doing that. for the
sake of Christ. You know, when you charge a brother
or sister in Christ to stop doing something for the sake of Christ
and they ignore it, they are not in Christ. Now, that's a
harsh statement, and that statement might get me hung, but I will
tell you, the Bible tells us to treat them as if they're not.
So as far as we are concerned about someone's ability to understand
and apprehend and live out the faith, for someone to say, I'm
not listening to you, For the sake of Christ is to blaspheme
Christ. Now have we all done it? Yes.
But we don't get very far, do we? We do it in our pride and
our anger, we stomp our feet. But these people who double down
and then become righteous in their disobedience and rebellion
based on other qualifications that aren't found in the Bible.
We justify our sin and it is not okay. Just like we justify our sin
against the state. We sleep. We don't wear a sleep
belt. We do this, we do that, we do that. Oh, that's okay.
God is not a God of wiggle room. He's a God of righteousness.
And the gospel is that all His righteousness in wrath was poured
out on Jesus Christ for the sake of His people, and their sins
are paid for, so therefore, look at what we have received. We
should be and we will be taught by God according to His Word.
So whether it be a heretic, a false teacher, a cult leader, a cat,
a mouse, a clock, or a digital voice from a computer, when the
Word of God is spoken, we heed it. And in doing so, we are the
butchers of the truth. If we do not heed the truth in
all things, we do not uphold the truth in anything. Because the church is the picture
of Christ. What truths? Well, I could come,
let's say, I could probably deal with 30 or 40, 50 different things,
but for the sake of where I want to go for next week, talking
about church membership and then receiving to families and to
the membership of the church next week, I want to talk about
the church in several different things. We uphold and display
the wisdom of God. I read that text last week in
Ephesians chapter 3, that the church displays the manifold
wisdom of God to the realms and the heavenly places and things
of that nature. We display it. And only in the
church, beloved, listen to this, only in the church is the wisdom
of God seen in living, in life, learning, loving one another,
all the other L's that could come out of my mind, longing
for the things that are not of this world. Only in the church. It's not
in the world. It's only in the church. So if
we have hard, strong, formulated, foundational theological doctrines,
and we do, and we should, it is not because we have created
them or consolidated them or systematized them to a way that
now we know what God is. It's because God has given that
to us in His Word. We are the stewards of this truth.
So, in the same way the wisdom of God is displayed in that knowledge,
the wisdom of God is displayed in the humility of life that
comes with that knowledge. It's only when the church is
together, only when the church worships according to prescription,
only when the church loves and ministers according Not to the
culture, not to what the world says. That church over there,
that successful church, beloved, be careful what you think is
successful in the context of ministry. If butts in the seat were a success,
and that's what we needed, oh dude, that's easy. Wouldn't even have to compromise
the truth. We'd change the emphasis. And you know what we would change
the emphasis on? Let the truth be secondary and
not love each other because of truth. We just love each other
because of good times and fellowship. We call it fellowship. See how
I sound like I'm talking about somebody? I'm not. The church has no commission.
And here's a problem we see sometimes. Whatever the butts of the truth,
we're going to change the world. The church is not called to change
the world. God has established the world exactly the way it
is. God has sovereignly decreed the world will be exactly where
it is. Every wicked thing, every aggravating thing, every political
thing, every bad economic thing, everything. And the church has not been commissioned
to change the world, nor has it been commissioned to change
the viewpoints of the world, because the only way one is granted
repentance is if they're gifted faith to believe in Christ and
the sufficiency of him as the word. So the church has no commission,
there's no prescription in the New Testament, not one prescription
in the New Testament, nowhere where the church is taught by
the apostles or Jesus himself to go out into the world and
to change things. Nowhere does the Bible teach
that a government is considered Christ's people. Nowhere does
it teach that a nation is considered Christ's people. That's a whole other problem.
We'll get to that next week. People have changed the metanarrative
of the Bible for political points, and I think we've all bought
into it. The Bible, the New Testament
was written to the church, not to the world. It was written
not for the world to be called to biblical obedience, to biblical
discipline. This is not the way it is. It's not OK. The church is not
a social agency. Even though, as citizens and
as Christians who are citizens, we have a social responsibility.
To who? To the hurting, to the weak,
to the sick, to the poor, to the naked, to the hungry. As
we're able. As unto Christ. But not for big change. See,
what we do often is we put our eggs, we put our hope eggs. We
put our intimacy eggs, we put our spiritual eggs, we put our
investment eggs in missions, and we put our time and our hope
in a superpower. A charismatic leader who's saying
what needs to be said, who's doing what needs to be done,
and who is firing people up to follow after him and do likewise.
Beloved, that's not the way of Christ. It's not the way of the
Kingdom of Heaven. It's the way of the world. That's
the power of the air. who is at work in the sons of
disobedience, who forsake the truth and who forsake the assembly,
and who do not want anything except for change, because there
is a self-glory in that. No matter how much a person desperately
sees, does not see that self-glory, there is self-glory in worldly
ministry. Church is not a social agency
to change the governing of nations. The church is not a social agency
to change morality of a nation. We have no right to bring discipline
upon our neighbor if they are not in Christ, whether it be
formative or corrective, like we talked about a moment ago.
We have no right. We have no right to insist on
biblical obedience and adherence except with each other. I want
you to think about it for a second. How many pulpits would be silenced
today if God stopped all that foolishness? Most evangelical
pulpits. Most Protestant pulpits. Most
Catholic pulpits. Most cult pulpits. Most world
religion pulpits. Most sovereign grace pulpits. And the humble brag, by the grace
of God, not this one. You know what? He'll shut it
down too. We are not special. We are not some elitists amongst
a small herd scattered across this great cosmos. We are objects
of mercy, beloved of God, and by the mercy of God alone have
we learned the truth. Let us also live in the truth
according to the nature and the character and the witness of
Christ himself. according to the Bible, as it's simply taught,
that even a three-year-old who can read or listen can understand
the principles therein and abide by them. We are upholding the truth by
being the wisdom of God. We are upholding the truth by
being the picture of glory. We will share as the church the
display of Christ and His perfection, who is our head. Be established
in splendor and beauty and perfection with the Lord and be presented
forever as a new creation, as a new people. We are the picture of glory.
We are a people of redemption. See, what does Paul say there? He was manifested in the flesh,
vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed by the
nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory. We share in
all of that. We are recipients of all of that.
Christ came to this earth to save sinners, His people, the
elect of God. He came to this earth, put on
flesh, like a created thing, and subjected Himself to the
weakness of flesh, the God of glory, come into man. to walk
among us and tabernacle with us, to declare himself the Lamb
of God that takes away the sins of every one of his sheep throughout
the world. every nation, every tongue, and
every tribe. We are the people of redemption.
We are those who are a royal priesthood, as we hear in the
Scripture. We are those who are a new nation. Here's one of my
favorites. We are those who are not of this
world. But, beloved, how much time do
we spend in the world in thought and in affection? That's so much.
Just getting our yards done, it's like, where is the Lord? You know? And we're not going
to let it grow and be poor stewardship. You planted the grass, you need
to take care of it, and you get a ticket if you don't if you
live in town. So, I mean, you know, we're stuck. But I can't
tell you how many times throughout the years that I'm out there
going weed eating and growing and I enjoy it and I'm thinking,
what's the eternal value in this? Let me praise God for its beauty.
And if it dies, it dies. If it doesn't, it doesn't. Oh,
well. To God be the glory. So let's not sit here and act
like anybody on this planet in the faith is always looking and
living constantly in the Spirit, constantly with the mindset of
Christ. It's not going to happen. That's why monasteries exist,
because they think, I can't do it in the world. Let me hide
in a cave by myself. And when I feel like I don't
want to be here, I'll whip myself with chains so that I can focus
on the pain. And if I focus on the pain, I
can relate it to the suffering of Christ who died on the cross.
Hallelujah. I'm holy. No, you're not. You're
stupid. But it makes sense, doesn't it? Laboring for the food that perishes
makes sense. Even if it's a spiritual thing,
it's still worldly. We're not of this world. And
so we worship according to the Word, not the world, not the
culture. We worship in spirit and in truth. That in all of the apologetic
debates of the world, not one person has God ever used those
things. He's never used any of those
debates to cause a man to be born again to a living hope through
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Let me not be so dogmatic. In
all of my thousands of cohorts and associates, in all of my
academic circles, I've never met one who's given a prudent
testimony of the gospel of grace, who has come to understand spiritual
things through the debates of apologetic means. What is a true apologetic? Exposition
of the word of God and whatever language it needs to be in. And
there are some men, women, who are gifted, gifted, gifted in
the original languages, who help keep us on our toes to make sure
we're not missing something. But even then, it's about the
Word of God, isn't it? It's about the local church.
Not the apologists. Not seminarians. Those aren't
even biblical, y'all. They're not. There's no prescription. There's no promise. The promise
is heady arrogance. myopic blindness, missing the
gospel, missing ecclesiology. Pastors will be far better taught
by elderly women who have raised a lot of children and grandchildren,
who have served the Lord Jesus through means of physical, tangible,
practical ministry than they'll ever get from a professor of
theology. Learning to love people. That's
what it's all about. According to the Bible, not according
to the culture. See, the world will not do this. The world will not worship the
Lord according to the Scripture. The world in all of its iterations
will worship other things, other gods, other Christs, other Gospels. And we know who they are by what
is allowed to stand concerning the truth of Christ. allowed
to stand, and then also by how they handle it when things aren't
the way they should be. When correction is refused, and church discipline in either
pillar is denied amongst the people, that is not a church.
It's not a church. It's a social agency. The church, and you can look
at all of Paul's letters and see this, but the church is a
buttress of the truth because it is the purpose of creation.
To the glory of God, the praise of the glory of his grace, the
church exists by Christ who created all things through himself, by
himself, and most importantly, for himself. And I know I refer to this often
through the years, but I'm just amazed at the Philosophy of considering
the fact that Jesus created Mary and her womb and the body for
himself. Create your own body. So that you can come into the
world to save a people for yourself who will be recipients of your
created purpose. To the praise of your glory. The church upholds the truth
and buttresses the truth and displays the truth and defends
the truth, etc. in the context of the particulars
of grace, because we know that the gospel is about grace. It's
all of grace. It's all of grace. The church
stands on the foundations of the scripture in whole, not in
part, not in piece. It's like a brother and I were
talking two nights ago. And he was, we always groan about the
fact that chapters and verses and headings above these things
has really messed up how we read the Bible. But he said, aren't
you glad I don't have to say, you know, fifth paragraph, line
three, word six of Isaiah. Oh, no, no, wait a minute. Start
counting again. One, two, 63rd line. Yeah. No, not there. No, not there.
No, not there. There it is. So I'm glad we've got roadmaps. But those roadmaps, those chapter
verse distinctions are for our movement, not for our memory. We don't take them out. It is
written as a whole. If you do not know John's gospel,
you do not know what John 3 is talking about. If you do not
know Paul's letters to Timothy, you do not know what 2 Timothy
3, 15, 16, 17 is talking about. You do not know. what it means when it says women
ought to learn quietly. The church upholds the particulars
of grace. Not theological pieces of grace, not revelations of
grace, not philosophies of grace, not the way we think about grace,
but what the scripture says in its context and its language
concerning the grace of God. We reveal and rest in the teaching
of the Bible. And we do so through the teaching
of the elders for our up-building and growth. Ephesians chapter
4. God gave gifts to the church. For what? For building, for growing,
for intimacy, for love, that it may grow and build itself
up in love. So when we learn about the preeminence
of Christ, which I'll talk about in a minute, we do so for the
sake of our love for one another. So that when someone does say,
James, you hurt my feelings for the sake of Christ, would you
listen to what you've done? Yes. Because he's preeminent,
right? If anybody invokes for the sake
of Christ, for the name of Christ, for the glory of Christ, you
at least need to listen to whether they're right or wrong. And if
they're right, correct. If they're wrong, inquire patiently, lovingly. You see, it's a simple process,
but it's outside the nature of our fleshliness. We uphold the particulars of
grace through true biblical teaching, through the true biblical message
of the good report, which is what we call gospel. And this
good report is a message of mercy. It's a message of grace. And
the Bible is clear and grammatically and syntactically, it is very
purposefully exclusive on the use of the term possessive to
God. Every time we see the word grace
possessive to God, its audience is always the elect. In no other
way, no other sense do we ever see that term used in any language
or any iteration when it's possessive to God except to the elect. So
that we see a special reality when it comes to God's grace
being the salvation of His people through Jesus Christ His Son.
The church holds fast with patience to this doctrine love, and we
hold to the scripture in whole as we are instructed on as teaching
concerning Christ and how we handle everything, including
the context of this writing, which is theological error, gross
theological error. The church upholds the truth,
a buttress and pillar of the truth as the household of God.
We uphold the preeminence of Christ. See, when we deny theological
truths taught to us concerning Christ, we deny Christ. When
we deny the instruction given by Christ through the apostles
to the church, we deny Christ. If Christ were among us in the
flesh today, and He's handed out pamphlets, and we say, I
don't want that stupid pamphlet, we deny Christ. You see what
I'm saying? When He comes up and says, hey,
can I pray for you? You say, get away from me. I don't want
your prayers. We deny Christ. If it rings the doorbell and
we hide behind the sofa, no one's home, we deny Christ. But if Christ is preeminent,
how can we deny that which we stand to say is preeminent? That
means he's above all things, before all things, beyond all
things, the first of all things. He's the first of all things.
Where do I get that stuff? All the firsts, John 1, Hebrews
1, all this stuff. And I'll tell you, beloved, when
we start to think about this, we really start to test whether
or not our understanding of the sufficiency of Scripture is really
a belief of ours. Because when it comes to Christ's
preeminence, it's the bedrock of His sovereignty. His sovereignty is the power
of our union with him. And those are the last three
things I'm going to talk about. We uphold this. Jesus Christ, according to Colossians,
chapter one, verse 15. Now I've got to back up. Verse nine. So from the day we first heard.
We have not ceased to pray for you, Church of Colossae. Asking
that you may be filled, get this, hear this for a second, with
the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
what it is that God is asking and telling and teaching. In order that you may walk in
a manner worthy of the Lord, which is fully pleasing to Him,
bearing fruit in every good work, which requires the gospel truth
doctrinally and also gospel obedience practically. Increasing in the
knowledge also of God as you minister, in truth. Therefore,
thereby being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious
power and might, for all endurance, being able to handle it all and
stand under it, and all patience, with joy, here's a kicker, giving
thanks to the Father who has qualified you. See that gospel? See that sovereignty? See that
preeminence? You see that union? We are not qualified in and of
ourselves. We are qualified because of Christ. He is the preeminent
one. Qualified you to share in the
inheritance of the saints in light, in righteousness, in Christ.
Christ is the light of the world. He, Christ, has delivered us
from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom
of his beloved Son. We don't belong here. We are
no longer citizens here. in whom we have redemption, which
is the forgiveness of sins. He, this Christ of which I speak,
Paul says, is the visible image, the manifestation, the physical,
tangible, tabernacle reality of the invisible, eternal, immortal,
powerful God. in all ways. He is the firstborn
of all creation. For by Him all things were created
in heaven and on earth, whether they be visible or invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All
things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before
all things. And in Him all things hold together. And He is the head of the body.
You see, this is where Paul goes. Here's the stressful thing as
a pastor. We all love deep theological
things that get our tickles on. That's nice. Jesus is nice. I
love Jesus. Not if you're not loving His
people and your enemies. You love the idea of Jesus being
an all-powerful, merciful Lamb that gave Himself on the cross.
But if we're not practically living out the faith because
of Christ as a preeminent, sovereign Savior, then we are lying to
ourselves to think that we care. Remember what I said in the beginning. I'm not talking about your eternal
salvation. I'm talking about your life right
now. Because many in knuckle-headed
seasons of our lives do we act stupid and pretend like, we don't
remember what Jesus tells us we ought to be doing, but we
sure do love His sovereignty. No, come on. It's like driving
in San Francisco for the first few weeks and you stop at a stop
sign and you're going, is there a road over there? at the peak
of a... I'm not kidding. You can't see
the road before you. You just sort of go through the
stop sign and... like a roller coaster. It's unnerving. People
honking at you, cussing at you, screaming. Go! Go! Go! With your Virginia tags. Go! It's scary. There was a road
there. How do I know? I trust the sovereignty
of the city of San Francisco to make sure there's a road there. I can trust the sovereignty of
Christ and its preeminence. It's not easy. Oh, my goodness,
we're going to fail every day. But that's why he's preeminent.
That's why we are attached to him. So doing life together,
he is the head of the body of his body, which is the assembly
The gathered ones, he is the beginning, the force born from
the dead, that in everything he might be first and foremost
preeminent. For in him all the fullness of
God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile all
things. In him to himself, whether on
earth, on heaven, how making peace by the blood of his cross. Christ is preeminent. doing life
together like this Bible teaches us reveals the preeminence of
Christ and his power in us, the redemption of a particular people
who are bound together by the truth of Christ and the gospel
and who live together in Christ as revealed in the Bible according
to the commands of Christ that we find in the Bible. And this
is the bedrock of what I believe that we also show when we stand
and uphold patience in His sovereignty. Because I believe if we truly
rest in sovereignty and the preeminence and sovereignty of Christ, we
are going to be patient. Because with patient comes what? The
big C word, contentment. We hate that word. Because with
contentment we can't fuss, complain, bicker, growl, snap, moan, groan,
You see, let me moan and groan about that. I'm frustrated. I'm
frustrated. I'm frustrated. I give up. Good. Let's give up. When we
understand sovereignty, we understand patience. When we understand
patience, we understand contentment. And we're able to praise God
in all things. And we're able to do all these
things that are prescribed here because we have been made One
with Christ. We're not allowed to get flustered
and take matters into our own hands. I'm going to fix this.
What does the Bible say? How does the Bible say we're
to relate to someone who offends us? How does the Bible say forgiveness
is supposed to be given? If the person meets conditions?
No. Before they ever ask. They're free. What does the Bible
say about what it means to love one another in Christ? What does
the Bible say according to loving our enemies? What's the Bible
say about praying for those who persecute us? See, that's the discipline that
God works on me hardest. Because I can pray for everybody. But the people who make you mad. It's hard to pray. So you do
it anyway. Why? Because God is sovereign
and He's patient. And ultimately, and to the end
of all things, we are buttressing the truth by displaying the power
of our union with Christ. And this is like two hours. I
could talk about this right here, but I just want to get it all
out there. Because it all lands for next
week, talking about true biblical church membership. How we're
supposed to understand it. I'm not up here teaching so you
can check marks off your theological distinction library. I'm up here
teaching so that we can grow together and understand. The power of union with Jesus
Christ. We're mocked because of this.
You know that, right? We're not really mocked in echo
chambers and circles of self-interest and like-interest when we're
standing dogmatically with our whip in our hands and our torch
and our hay forks. But we're mocked at our non-action.
We're mocked at the resolve of resting. We're mocked at our
silence. But we are one with Christ. Thus,
we are to imitate Christ, not the world. Peter would say that
Christ said not a word in his defense. The most boring superhero movie
ever displayed was no vengeance, no great acts of strength, no
wars, no shootouts, no camel chases. No rock throwings. He just didn't stop rocks. You
can't stone me. Just throw them away. Like the
Matrix. You know. It's boring. They hit
him in the head with it. He didn't come here to be a superhero.
He came here to be the epitome of a sinless human being who
would take on the guilt of the sin of his people. And so, in
like manner, we are to do as Christ did In that, not in his
sovereignty, not in his preeminence, but in his preeminence as the
firstborn. The first true image of God holder.
The first real and only, ever, Immaculatae, for those of you
who understand that, image of God. Jesus Christ. The world loves a hero with a
great standing. The world loves a hero with a big mouth. Depending
on what season it is, with the right clothes, with the right
influence. You know what influencers are?
Kindling. Let me say that again. Influencers in our world are
just kindling for the fire of rage and wrath. I want to influence. Influence
one, peaceably. Who cares? Who cares? And, beloved, it's hard. It's
easy to try to, well, the church needs to get in there and be
like them. We need to have the same influence as them. We've
got the greatest influence of all in our calmness, our patience,
in the sovereignty of God, in the preeminence of Christ, and
in our union with Him. We have the greatest influence
of all. And the awesome thing is, is that when people are influenced
by our message and by our mission, then it is because God has drawn
them to himself through the message. There's three M's. And now we
are able to walk in a manner worthy together, celebrating
Christ that along the way. Where do these people come from?
God has brought them to us. They are one body. The world loves a hero with intelligent
arguments, who can shut down the naysayer, who can get on
television or social media or some video or some podcast and
just with a slash of his tongue silence the stupidity of another
person's ignorance. And you can train yourself for
that, guys. It's simple. It's not intelligence, it's cunningness. Paul would say, 2 Corinthians
chapter 4, we refuse to tamper with God's Word or to practice
cunningness, but by the direct, bold statement of the truth by
itself alone in simplicity and stupidity, we stand before God
and our conscience and yours and everybody else, knowing that
what we've done is right. Paraphrase. And if people don't
want to hear what we have to say, and what we have to say
is not influencing the nation, and en masse people aren't going,
I want to hear more about this Jesus. It's not because we're
not doing it or approaching it correctly. It's because the God
of this world has blinded the eyes of unbelievers to keep them
from seeing the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ. No matter how you parse that
reality there in that phrase, Who the God of the world is?
The God of the world is God Almighty Himself, Jesus Christ the Lord.
And so if he uses the devil for his purposes, it is only by his
sovereign design and decree. So God blinds the eyes of unbelievers
to keep them from seeing. But God who has shown light out
of darkness, who said, let there be light, has shown light in
our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Christ. And this is not of our own doing,
you see. It is so that God may be glorified
in it. The world loves a hero who can
rile up the masses and call for conformity. But Jesus Christ
did not model this. He modeled patience, submission
to the Father. He modeled a solidarity around
one mission, and that was to give glory to God the Father
at all costs, to make Himself nothing, to become nothing, to
become a slave, to go to the cross. He came, He created the
world that He might exist in it, in order that He might die
for those who were not of the world that He would save from
it. And beloved, that's what evangelism
really is. First and foremost of being a people by design,
by decree and by power to know the truth of the gospel and to
work it out and to correct it and to deal with it when it's
not right. To come to a place where we sit
on the same page doctrinally. so that we are able, in the midst
of that journey, to walk in a manner worthy, loving one another, and
the world looks at us and goes, y'all are about the useless,
most useless bunch of people I've ever seen. And that doesn't feel good, does
it? What are y'all doing for y'all's community? We baptized
953 puppies last week. All dogs could have them. How many diapers did you buy?
You know, I paid at Ford yesterday, $403. Can you believe that? Oh, I'll show you the selfie
I put on Facebook. Me and the poor family. They had the money
to pay for their food. You just wanted to pay for it.
Nothing wrong with doing these things. Don't let your left hand
know what your right hand is doing. When we share our ministry, we
spit in the face of Jesus. I'm not talking about anybody.
I've been seeing them all my life. Open air preaching shouldn't
have a video. What are you doing for your community?
My community, first and foremost, is my fellow saints who are in
covenant relationship. That means we have a promise,
just like we have in our marriages, to be together with them. Here's
the kicker. In marriage covenant, it goes
bye-bye. For it is like the temple pieces,
it's just a shadow of the truth. So Robin and I, we better be
brother and sister first and foremost in a spiritual sense,
so that our marriage makes sense eternally. So when we share the gospel,
we do so in life, we do so in truth, and we do so intentionally. And I will be preaching some
evangelism series in the fall. Lord willing. And I'm alive. So what does this all boil down
to? It all boils down to the reality that I say every week,
read your Bible, know and understand what the text is teaching, and
then live in a covenant community with people who are different. but who are learning the truth
together and be patient with the Lord. There's nothing more
ridiculous than to say, oh, God called me here and boast about
that only for months later to say I was wrong. That's foolish. It's foolish,
and it shows God had no part of it, except in his purposes
that they were not of us. And as bad as that hurts, as
frustrating as that is, that is the way of the Lord. But who
are we? Who is together this morning?
Who, had we had the elements, would be sharing in the tastes
of remembering the table? We who have shared in the true
blood of Christ. We who have shared in the true
union in power with Jesus Christ. We who were crucified when He
died and thus satisfied before the Father, and we who were raised
to life in Him when He rose from the grave with the promise of
glory forever. That is our hope. That is our
resolve. And beloved, I promise you, it
will be fleeting and it will be short and it will be seasonal,
but when God gives us the reprieve to rest in those small minutes
or hours or days The next time around, focus on that moment
when God did show Himself worthy and wait. Because He'll show
you again. He'll show you again, even if
it is like our brother Robert who is with our Savior today.
Simplicity of the gospel power of Christ to save. Oh, what a
beautiful, beautiful, beautiful love our God has for us as people. Let's love each other that way.
Let's pray. We thank You, Father, for the
greatest gift ever known, and that is the gift of Jesus Christ
to die in the place of Your people. You've given us faith to know
that we are Yours. You've given us faith to know
what You have promised. You've given us faith to know
that we can be patient, we can be forgiven when we're wrong,
we can be corrected We can grow together with each other. Lord,
help us to never lose sight of these things. Help us to never
lose sight of what it really means to be the body. Even though
the world around us just overwhelms us with all these different pictures
of what we ought to be, it's very easy for us to get distracted,
Father. So please help us to stay focused
gently, patiently, and calmly Knowing that even when things
seem like they're falling apart, nothing has gone. Nothing has
gone where You have ordained it to be. So give us that resolve. And
Lord, as we worship and as we pray and as we hear Your Word,
as we learn and understand, we pray for our brothers and sisters
who are so suffering in their flesh and other things, Lord,
we pray for those who are who are scared to even tell us what
they're going through. Lord, please heal us all that your
will may be done for us to have unity and togetherness, ministry
and service and worship. And Lord, we thank you for contending
with us and patience until the day of Christ. For you have promised
it to us in glory. In his name we pray.