The Discipline of Jesus Christ in the Local Church — Rolfe Barnard

I ask you to hear me as I make a statement that I've been making, but I want to make it again so that you can, I hope it will be of help to you in hearing me. If I am a God called evangelist, then I am one of the group of five men whom the risen Lord gives to the church.

The Fivefold Ministry of the Risen Lord

The five or four, I've never known, in Ephesians 4, he gave some, that's the risen Lord, he gave some apostles, that's not the twelve, and these men are the gifts to the church of the ascended Lord. He led captivity and gave gifts.

Barnabas was one of them, Paul was one, Timothy was one, Titus was one, so forth, Apollos, so forth. He gave some apostles and he gave some prophets. Now these are gifted men. When I say gifted men, that doesn't mean that they are gifted, but that he has gifted them.

The book of Proverbs says a man's gift shall make room, and if you're a Christian, you have a gift so that you can prosecute the ministry that the Lord has called you into. There's no way on earth you can be a Christian unless you've been given a ministry and a gift so that you can do the job that the commander-in-chief has appointed you to do.

So these are gifts of the risen Lord. He gave some apostles and he gave some prophets. These are not the Old Testament prophets, they are men that we have today, but we've kept our prophets in exile all the days of our lives.

And if we haven't exiled them, we've stoned them, we've built monuments to them after we've killed them. He gave some apostles and he gave some prophets and some evangelists. The church has been getting along now for sixty-odd years without any evangelists.

And some pastors and our teachers. I do not know whether five men there or four. I'm inclined to think there are five, but many good men say there are just four. The play is on whether the pastor is the pastor and teacher, or whether the pastor is one man and the teacher is another.

But the work of these men, like that, they just have one job to do. All five of them have the same job. And that is to perfect or mature the work of the ministry. The evangelist, the pastor, and teacher of the pastor are teachers.

These are offices. There's a difference between the office of a pastor, the office of an apostle, and the ministry of God's people. I favor that a little bit. I say that every child of God is called to be a preacher.

That's different from being an evangelist, an apostle, a prophet, a pastor, a teacher. That's a proclaimer of the gospel. That's a preacher. And they have one job, and that's to mature you. If you're genuinely committed to Christ, you're still a little baby.

But you ought not stay that way. Amen? And their job is to make mature saints of God, perfect them, mature them, so they can perform the ministry that God has given to them. And in this way, if you'll continue to read in the fourth chapter of Ephesians later, if you're interested, we're going to have a full-grown man.

We're going to have a church come to the fullness of the stature of Jesus Christ. A church through which Jesus Christ can manifest himself in full. And that is to take place right here on this earth. And that must be the goal to which every preacher, whether he be apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher, will work together.

So the time when once again, Jesus Christ will come back and attend our services. It's been so long since he's graced our services with his presence. He's tearing the pieces of his shoulder. We've been having church all of these decades of time in the absence of the living Lord and the Lord of life.

Repentance as the Central Message

I said that to say this. I just have one message, and that's repent. I stick to it. I said to you, we desperately need that God would be merciful to our similes and brain. Make manifest the desperate division, congregations of the Lord Jesus Christ.

That was the Sunday morning message. Sunday night, we desperately need it to become manifest. It's already here, this church split wide open over who Jesus is. It's just that the lion and the lamb have made peace where there is no peace.

To preserve harmony, we have exiled the Holy Spirit, and we have harmony in our churches at the cost of the absence of the living Lord and the demonstration and power of the Holy Ghost. God knows I'm telling the truth.

Then I said that we are desperately divided, and we're hauled, and the church is now becoming the greatest enemies of the souls of men on topside of God's earth. Christ is being wounded in the house of his so-called friends, and he's clearly not welcome in the assembly of the people.

Because we are desperately divided over what it is to be saved. To most folks, it's a joke, but it's a commitment to Jesus Christ and his program of redemption. Then I said, since I've been here, that we are desperately divided, and thus we are hauled deep as congregations, and we are well now helpless.

Most of us can't even win our own families to Christ. In a sense, the least is an utter necessity is a convenience. Last night's message on Christ's demand, certainly that demand is ignored or evangeled against in all titulation to his person and to his program.

Now, tomorrow night, I'm going to bring half of the message tonight. It's not exactly fair to some of you who come from everywhere, but I can't bring it all tonight. I want to bring you an optimistic note.

Mine is not a very popular ministry. I'm saying you're all wrong. Repent! See, that's not very popular. I do not consider myself a visitor. I'm a gift, if I am an evangelist, to the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, and I consider this to be a local expression of the Church of Christ.

I think you're like our Baptist churches, to whom I've ministered most of my life. You're terribly out of order. I don't think you need to stay that way. And I want to address myself tonight to an optimistic note, since I've been telling you everything's wrong with you.

I want to suggest a remedy, because I believe there is a remedy. I want you to hear me tonight, not agree with me, but listen to me. Without any pious religiosity, I claim that I could not have lasted 36 years as an evangelist, crossing the grain of what's called evangelism.

I am known in the South, by what passes as evangelists today, as the greatest enemy of evangelism in America. That's how they brand me. I am an enemy of what we've called evangelism. And I have lifted up my voice all the days of my ministry against it.

And yet, subject to pastors. For I can't call Brother Duvall and say, I'll come down and preach to you next Sunday. I have to wait for him to call me. I'm content to do it. But I've never gone anywhere yet to preach except by invitation.

I have to wait, you see, until Father the Devil moves on some preacher and says, come over and preach to us. It wasn't that way in the New Testament, but it is now. I'm saying it's utterly unscriptural that I'd have to wait for an invitation to come and minister here.

But it's what we're used to. We've got to do the best we can with what we have until it gets better. I said that to say this. I want you to listen to me tonight because I think the 36 years entitles me to say it's just possible I may be a God-called evangelist.

If so, you need to listen to me. Isn't that right? I'm not a visitor. I'm not an intruder. I'm not meddling. I have a part with the other four in the ministry to God's people. Isn't that right? So I want you to do your dead-level best to hear me, whether you agree with me or not.

The Future Glory and Revival of the Church

I believe that the time of glory for the Church of God is future. Our gray-beard Baptist preachers two generations ago, they hardly ever preached a sermon, then they quoted that text from the New Testament to Him, that's God.

Be glory, Christ Jesus, in the Church. Jesus today very well thinks as they are, and I don't believe they have to stay as they are. That God could begin to mind God would quit hiding His face and would come and visit us again.

I believe that with all of my heart. I want to talk tonight and tomorrow night of what light I think I have and share it with you as to how that's going to come to pass. And I want to begin reading in the book of Isaiah chapter 4.

I'd appreciate it if you'd turn with me now, and we'll not stay in Isaiah, but this will introduce my thinking to you tonight. I'm going to speak to you tonight on what it means to be under the discipline, the authority of Jesus Christ in the Church.

And tomorrow night I'm going to speak to you on the subject, what happened on the day of Pentecost can happen in every church and must in your day and mine. Again and again and together, the same thing that happened on Pentecost doesn't take place in our assembly.

In the book of Isaiah chapter 4, I read two or three verses. Verse 1, and in that day, now here's my interpretation, where it's right and not. In that day, that's the day of Antichrist. When that enemy of the gospel nation, one who is against Christ, that one of whom my Lord spoke when he was here in the flesh, I am come in my Father's name, and you receive me not.

If another shall come in his own name, him you shall receive. Nearly ever contributing to the condition that will obtain when Antichrist makes his appearance, this world of church members will embrace him.

That you and I will see the day when there'll just be two kinds of people in this earth, worshipers of the true God and worshipers of Satan. That's what scripture is coming sometime. And I believe what we call evangelism.

I believe what we call the pattern and the rebellion constitutes the way we conduct ourselves in our churches, not in the building, but as God's professing people. I believe it's all contributing to the reception of Christ when he comes back, but to the reception of Antichrist.

I don't know whether it's true or not, but I believe it with all my heart. I believe these are the days of confusion and battle, and the worst fornication of hell. I believe these are serious hours. In that day, Presbyterianism, Baptist, Methodist, Congregational, Catholic, just name it.

I believe that Almighty God is the whole life. I believe, I believe the seven women, seven is the number of, moves to the place the cup is full. You know what's going to do it? It's going to give birth.

He's the greatest religious leader this world ever saw. Isn't that right? Amen. God knows that's awful, but it's so. In that day, seven women, and they say, now we're going to keep on being Presbyterians and Baptists and Catholics and Congregationalists.

We're going to keep our little doctrines and have our own little programs. We'll eat our own bread and wear our own apparel. There's just one thing we ask of you. Let us be called by thy name. Take away our leaders of the World Council of Churches are serious men.

They've got sense enough to know that if this generation of Church Antichrist don't hang together, we're going to hang separately. They're saying we must get together, that they're going to succeed, and that that will form the platform upon which Antichrist will be embraced.

Well, that's sure enough. I don't think you're going to Carl McIntyre and the rest of them, they're fighting them. I don't think they're going to make a dent in them. I think they're going to get bigger all the time.

Ecumenical Unity and the Scandal of Denominational Division

But that ain't all of the chapter. Verse two says there's going to be another movement. Who knows what this ecumenical movement is growing beliefs inbound. It meets a tremendous scandal, a scandal of divides.

Two or three different kinds of Presbyterian congregations, I think, right here in this town, isn't that right? Baptists, they've got, I don't know how many, Methodists, just name it. They've got a church on every corner and one in between.

They've got splits and splits and splits and splits. Scandal. And their ecumenical leaders know it. They also know that what we call missions, you folks give money, send somebody to town. They haven't been over there preaching the gospel, been over there making little miniature churches like we got here.

Too much of it. And the folks over in the country are saying, you ain't going to go to hell. The sooner they come home, the better it'll be for the salvation of souls. The biggest scandalous site of hell is what's called our foreign missionary program.

That's awful hard to take, but God knows it's so. Folks can put your money into it. They ain't going to get nothing of mine, brother. This world's in bad enough shape without sending some little Presbyterians and Baptists and stuff over here to make them just like us.

The Remnant and the Spirit's Work

They're in bad enough shape. God knows I don't want to be like us. There's another movement, and it's described in verse 2. And this is my theology, whether it's right or not. In that same day, he and the colonists of the earth, that's the movement I minister to.

For them that are escaped of Israel, that's the movement of the Spirit of God in your day and mine. I don't believe he's going to pay attention to Presbyterianism or Baptists or Methodists or nothing of that.

Just tell me what I don't believe. I see it breaking out all over the world. That's the movement I'm in. I'm not going to waste one minute fighting that great big ecumenical. Every time I throw a stone at it, it gets twice as big.

Somebody else, maybe God wants them to do that. I don't know, but for me, I'm just interested in this little movement. Because the Lord has always been the God of the rest. It's springing up everywhere.

This is the most optimistic hour I ever saw in my 64 years. It's not a lie. That fell right on the back of the nation. It's not going to be working too. Thanks to the Lord, it shall be glorious. I think that's what I just talked to you about in Ephesians 4.

I believe the church of Jesus Christ is going to be made Baptist here on this earth. I ain't talking about the Presbyterian or the Baptist because this ain't a church. I hope there's a church within it.

This ain't a Baptist church on earth. It's a church. It's a congregation. This is a Presbyterian congregation. Maybe the Lord's got a church. If he's got two people in here that know him, then he's got a church in the congregation.

Is that right? I'm interested in that church within our congregation. Don't pay attention to your denomination. I guess I've been in trouble with my Baptist. I got a cancellation the day before I got up here because the Baptist found out I preached for folks like you.

That's the truth. We've got Baptists. I did what they said I couldn't preach to anybody but Baptists and Bible Presbyterians the same way down our way. Boy, they won't hardly speak to you unless you're a Bible Presbyterian.

That's right. Well, you don't want to be that way. I can't see that. I'm interested in this little group here and that little group over there and getting together, brother. Amen. In fact, your man is trying to get everybody together and they're going to do it.

I want to be in that little gang of people that are the called out saints of God. We're scattered and outnumbered and defeated. Bless God, I believe God is going to make his people manifest and the branch of Jehovah is going to be beautiful.

When hell is popping here on this earth, I don't know whether it interferes with your doctrine or not. If it does, you come up at the service and apologize to me and I'll forgive you. Is that all right?

Christ's Authority and the Need for Church Discipline

Now, that's just an introduction. Let's turn to the book of Acts, will you? I won't tell you what discipline. I'll just show you, since the Bible is not mine, that the Lord is going to make his true church, that's silly, his true church, well, his church is the one that is, but I'm going to believe he's going to manifest it so you can tell it.

See what I mean? Those are the people of God. The Lord is going to do it. He's going to use me. He will either submit to the authority of his father and mother or he'll rebel. Is that right? He will either submit to the authority of the government or he'll rebel.

Is that right? He will submit to the authority of Jesus Christ or he won't. Is that right? And the best index to the character of a nation is constituted authority. Isn't that right? And I wish that I could say now that it's just our nation, socially, that's being torn to pieces because men and women, boys and girls are rebelling against everything that smells like authority, but that's what's tearing our churches up too, tearing our homes up too.

That's why I wonder, it'd be interesting if I was smart and I could unlock what's going on, how many broken hearted parents there are in this house tonight because your children utter against the authority God has demanded that you exercise.

All hell's taking place in our homes. Broken hearted mothers and fathers seem to have gone out the window. All the platitudes are gone and God knows what a day will bring forth in this nation. They're liable to tear the whole thing up tomorrow night, you never know.

Our church is a hotbed of the church and I barely believe that the Lord is going to come to the rescue of the church. I believe he's going to exercise his authority. He's going to do that and people who will no longer evade the fact that he delegates some of his authority to his church and demands that the church exercise the authority he's delegated to it, not evade it.

See what I mean? That brings us to discipline in Acts chapter 2. I'm going to give you a brief outline of it tonight and tomorrow night. We're going to pursue it a little further. I think this is fundamental.

I think this is hopeful. In Acts chapter 2, I think you'd scarce find a Bible teacher that wouldn't agree to this. The divine order of the church of Jesus Christ. The church of course was not organized to start it on the day of Pentecost.

It was in existence. It's the creation of the Lord in the days when he was here in the flesh. The church became a church in the 20th chapter of John when the risen Lord said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.

That's what I believe. I believe it was formed as a church for witness and empowered on the day of Pentecost. And so in the book of Acts, a church is a group of people who have been filled with the Spirit as a group.

For the church that is not as a congregation full of the Spirit is not a church. Who knows the Lord never authorized any group to call themselves a church if they haven't been made full of the Holy Ghost.

This world's in bad enough shape without us operating on them in our own strength. And of course filled with the Holy Ghost. They were full of Christ and they just filled the city of Jerusalem with the wonderful gospel of God.

That's the gospel isn't it? And the folks said what in God's name is the matter of these folks they must be drunk. And Peter said no we're not drunk we haven't had time to get drunk but this is that which Joel said.

And they got a little taste of it. And then Peter got up and this is the first time a church ever preached the gospel. I remind you that the man who stands behind this pulpit isn't the fellow who's called to preach the gospel.

It's this church that has given the commission to preach the gospel. If you're paying a man to preach the gospel for you a million miles wrong that's your job as a church. Amen? You don't believe that but that's so.

We got that from the Puritans but there's dead wrong. A man in this congregation is not supposed to preach as your pastor. He's supposed to make preachers out of you. That's right folks. That's his job.

Or out yonder. They're not here. The day when people crowded our church buildings to hear the gospel is gone. That's some day. And we'll start doing what God's been trying to tell us to do all the time.

Place to preach the gospel. Because every time you need a fellow to get in stand still long enough to listen to you. Amen? Where he is. That's where the gospel's supposed to be. The gospel sermon was preached.

Peter stood up and who stood up? The electors. It wasn't one man message see. And he preached. He talked about that fellow they just crucified didn't he? But verse 36 he told them who that Jesus that had been recently crucified by them right there in that city.

He brought his message to a conclusion in these words. Verse 36. Therefore let all the house of Israel know as a matter of fact that that same Jesus whom ye crucified God's made him both servant to them.

Unto who? Well verse 37. Now when they heard this. Heard what? That the man approved of God. Christ the man they crucified. Jesus Christ the Lord and Messiah. When they heard that they were stabbed in their hearts.

And they said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles. Men and brethren what shall we do? Note the answer. You're in theology. But note the answer. Here's the first thing about the order of the church.

Repentance and Baptism as the Divine Order

Then Peter said unto them repent and be baptized. Talk that this is a transition period and that's just for the Jews. Don't you believe a word of it? This is the divine order. And this is what God's going to bring his churches back to.

Listen to me now. If this is strange to you I don't know. But don't spit it out until you chew it just a little harder. This is serious. And to baptize every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ. The remission of sins shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

How is it that people still trying to get the gift of the Holy Ghost have to claim their saves? If you'd repented and been properly baptized that would have been settled Johnny on the spot. In the New Testament when people got filled with the Holy Spirit.

When? When they came up out of the waters of baptism. You sprinkled it and you spread the tears just so it meant the same thing. It's happening on the mission field now where the real gospel is being preached.

It's for the Lord. It's this far for the promise is unto you. And then it's to your children. And then it's to all that are far off. And then it's even as many as the Lord our God shall want. For in sinners the promise is good for the day.

Repentance. Repentance looks to what God's done about Jesus Christ. What man do? You had a part in it. You crucified the Son of God. Amen. Raised him, made him Lord with God's act. You Presbyterians better get baptized.

Most of us Baptists never have. To us it's just a ritual. And our Baptist churches are full of peace against the discipline of Jesus Christ as it's exercised in the local church. So they've never been baptized.

How do you know that baptism means to come under the rule and the authority of Jesus Christ? Well, three reasons. Baptism is the only way you can make a public profession of faith in Christ. You walk in the aisle and say, Jesus saved me.

That don't count. I'm going, this May, God willing, back to the Virgin Islands where I was several years ago. They rented a ballpark and all the Baptist churches on the islands are going to get together and we're going to try to get somebody to God.

And I was there years ago and they took me out to the Caribbean Sea where anybody who asks for baptism on that island knows that he can't get married or buried if he's ever baptized. And when a Christian who's been baptized dies, they take him and throw him in the waters of the Caribbean and the sharks and the alligators eat him.

That's the God's truth. It won't count your profession over there. It's just like we are here. Everybody's Christian over there living like the devil. But when you come to the place that you're willing and anxious that you've been captured and conquered and brought to Jesus Christ, it's a white horse of a different color.

It's got to come back now. I'm going back over there and on a kind of invitation, I won't ask anything about their ballpark and say, Jesus saved them. I'll say, and people want to walk down and ask these churches to baptize you.

The world can't see your faith, but it can see your baptism. Baptism means that I'm another captive of King Jesus and I'm coming willingly under his rule in the church. I say, you Presbyterians, you tickle death by Jesus being at the right hand of God and he's there.

But in the spirit, he's the head of the church. And it's mighty nice to say, oh boy, I'm glad he's Lord. But it's a white horse of a different color to mind him in the local church. That's what it means to be baptized.

Now, how do you know that's what it means? Is that something you've sunk up? Oh, no. Of course, this goes on as long as God's still calling sinners in the second place. First place, it's the only way you can publicly profess faith.

Second place, it's to continue to this good hour. And the third place, look what happened to the ones that were baptized. They joined, they were joined to something. And they were prepared to fit right in.

Perseverance in the Apostolic Fellowship

Skipping a few verse, well, and with many other words, did he testify and exhort, save yourselves from this unfortunate generation. Now, he's explaining what he meant by repentance and baptism. Ten days of gladness.

They received his word, were baptized, and the same day there were added unto them about 3 ,000 souls. And what'd they do? Well, I'll tell you what they do down at the church in Winston-Salem where I remember.

They get converted Sunday morning, devote them in as candidates for baptism, and they ain't even back preaching that night. I know a Baptist church in the South that baptizes over 1 ,000 people every year, and they don't have a bit more in the congregation of any service than they had ten years ago.

Why, bless God. Listen to me. Repented and got baptized. Got baptized into something. And when they got in it, the scriptures say they did what? They continued steadfastly in four things. These four things described the authority and the discipline of Christ's church.

I wish I hadn't taken all my time. I'm going to continue tomorrow night if you're interested. This is vital to me. No such thing as heathen lands and Christian lands. There's no more heathen land in the world than this one.

There isn't a spot of ground on this earth that isn't taken to the core now. There isn't a congregation on earth that isn't in a missionary situation. You're next door neighbors. You can't even reach them with the gospel, can you?

We baptize people in our churches, us Baptists do. I don't know enough about you to talk about you. But from what I've seen in a week as your guest, I kind of think you're about as guilty as we are. You baptize folks into the fellowship of your church that haven't the slightest idea of what it means to be a member of the church.

Whatever else can be said, these Jews, they could baptize them the same day because they are raised on the meaning of repentance and baptism. That's right, huh? They knew what it meant. All over the country now, churches are having to come to what our missionaries, in any count, did long years ago in what we call the mission fields.

You walk down the aisle and say, I'm going to be baptized. I'm going to be a member of this church. It's okay. We'll teach you for about a year. That blessed young Stephen Oldford in Calvary Church in New York City takes eight months now.

When you press in, go there and want to sign up, he'll take you if you'll come to their school for eight months. Then after eight months, if you kind of act like you know what it's all about, they'll make you a member.

If you don't, they won't. For the worst thing that can happen to any person is to have him think that he's a member of the church that Jesus bought with his own blood, when he don't know what it's all about.

Because he's as sure for hell and hell as he can be. There's one thing that's certain, this generation of church members are going to go to hell unless they're already saved. Because there ain't no voice except the voice of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit that can do anything for you and you won't listen to him.

The rules of men, penance and baptism, need to cling to the rule of Christ coming under that rule in a local church. And a fellow who's bowed and is willing to be taught so that the Lordship of Christ will mean more to him tomorrow than it does today and more to him the next day than it does that day.

That's what salvation's all about. That's got to be done again. See what I'm talking about? And this is happening all over the country. These folks continued steadfastly. I'll quit. They continued steadfastly in the activity of Christ's church.

The Four Activities of Christ's Church

The activity of Christ's church is four things. Learning the proclamation of what? The Apostles' Doctrine. Second, in fellowship, that's koinonia, partnership, priesthood of believers. Third, the breaking of bread.

Worship in the New Testament church always is around the Lord's table. You can call this 11 o 'clock hour, the Sunday morning worship service, but they ain't so. You worship around the Lord's table. Sin, because we don't worship him.

That's all there is to a church. I'm going to ask you to stay with me another minute or two. How's the Lord going to bring blessing? And he's going to fix it so that you can't be a member of his church if they ever have a meeting and you ain't there.

Isn't it something to claim to be a member of the Bible Presbyterian Church, and there has been one service this week that any member of this church could have been present, and he wasn't. See, that member is in rebellion against the discipline of this church.

Isn't that right? I want to read you what one of the early church fathers said, before I let you go, about church attendance. In an early church document, the old father said, When thou teachest, command and remind the people that they be constant in the assembly of the church, so that ye be not hindered and made smaller by one little member of the body of Christ.

Do not deprive our Savior of his members. Do not mangle and scatter his body. Now, staying away when the church meets sounds mighty innocent. You got a headache? Well, if you have, come to the Lord's house and the headache will go away.

Well, I got to stay home with the kids. Well, you and the kids just have to go on to hell, I reckon. We're talking about discipline now. Well, now, you Presbyterians wouldn't be a member of a church where you had to be present when the church met, would you?

So you'll quit and just leave God's people there, and then we'll start getting somewhere. So that's what it means to be under the discipline of the Lord. I'm not saying that this church has perfect discipline, but I'm saying this congregation has got to start with what you've got.

And if you wouldn't be under the authority of Christ as far as you've got light, he ain't going to give you no more light. But I'm saying that when you absent yourself from any meeting when the people of this congregation say, we'll meet.

See what I mean? I actually talked to church members of congregations where I was present and said, they're having meetings. They, not me, but they. Church members decide whether or not they'll attend the services they're committed to attend.

Did you know that? And then rebellion. The Lord starts enforcing that, honey, and he'll enforce it by the pastor and the elders and whoever has authority around here enforcing it. And you'll say, ain't no pastor and elders going to tell me what to do.

I know you're going to split hell wide open, too. Let God and nobody else tell you, you've got to do something. But if you was under the rule of Christ in the local church and you'd be tickled to death about it.

Who was supposed to have the meetings this week? Just me and the pastor and some of the members if their belly didn't ache and they'd show up? Was the Bible Presbyterian congregation supposed to have these services?

Huh? Now, boy, wouldn't we have lots of fun if the Lord raised up some elders and some deacons and some pastors that start discharging the authority that God's invested in them. Man, I'd see you Presbyterian running, you wouldn't stop.

I'd smack you into hell and go across the street and join a church where it's a joke to be a professing Christian. But that's how God's going to start doing something, brother. You mean tell me when the saints meet together that you ain't one of them and you don't like the company of the saints?

Huh? Huh? Thirty-five years ago I went to Toronto, Canada to preach for Dr. Shields in Jarvis Street. I was just a kid. And he was the white-haired orator of Canada, the Spurgeon of Canada. And he was so gentle with a young preacher.

And God blessed. And he told me how every Sunday night they come to the Lord's table and all the members sign the register. And if you miss three of them purposely, you're no longer a member of the church.

You don't have to have a meeting, you're just out. You mean tell me it wouldn't be a wonderful, wonderful privilege if the Lord said, I'm going to spread the table, folks. Won't you come have supper with me?

You mean tell me you wouldn't say, oh, Bob, we're going to have the Lord's table tonight. He's going to sit the head out of it. He's the host and we're his guests through his shed blood. Hallelujah. Us Baptists, we have the Lord's table about once a year and get through it just quick as we can, you know.

And to be excellent and scatter the body of Christ, amen. There's the trumpet sound of judgment day. Well, I got to quit. I preached too long. I haven't got started. I hope you can hear me. Whether so or not, tomorrow night let us stand.