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Sunday morning service from Faith Baptist Church
To you on this Lord's Day. So thankful to the Lord for his goodness to us in this past week. And we gather together on the Lord's Day to not only reflect on that, but to praise the Lord for it. And our worship is partially spurred along by our reminiscence of what our God has done and his faithfulness to us in this past week.
And just the very fact that you are here today is a testimony of God's faithfulness. His mercies are new each day. If we only have eyes to see and take the time to consider how has God shown himself? How has he revealed his mercies to us in this day?
So we've come together today and we're thankful for his mercy and his kindness in this past week. So a few things, just to emphasize in your bulletin, if I can. One is that, just a reminder to the finance committee, we have a meeting this evening after the service.
Should be a brief meeting, but our monthly meeting tonight after the evening service. Then Wednesday, completely different kind of format for Wednesday. We're going to start at six o 'clock for any who would like to be here for a meal.
It'll be a light supper, like a Sloppy Joe kind of supper. So that'll start at six o 'clock and we'll have that cared for. You don't need to bring anything, just need to let us know that you're planning to come.
And you can do that on the signup sheet on the bulletin board there in the foyer. Then at 6 .45, we'll split up and the kids and youth group will meet and do their thing. And then the adults will gather together.
We'll just meet here in the auditorium. And technically this is the Wednesday night YMSA group. And what we'll be focusing on this Wednesday night is going to be helpful for everybody. So you say, well, you know, I'm not in that YMSA group.
So, you know, I guess I should just stay home. No, no, no, no, come. Because it will be very helpful for young marrieds, young couples with families, newlyweds and singles, but it will be helpful for everyone.
So I encourage you to be here Wednesday night, sign up for the meal. The Bible study time and so forth will begin at 6 .45 this Wednesday. So plan on that. And then next Lord's Day, Scott Williquette, a missionary that we support, he has that pastoral enrichment program ministry.
He goes to third world countries and trains men in the ministry. Men who, you know, people who can't go to seminary, don't have Bible colleges and so forth to go to. So he has that ministry and he'll be here next Sunday in Sunday school.
He will give us an update on his ministry. And I mentioned in Sunday school this morning that, you know, his ministry has been largely curtailed in the last year because of COVID, but he's still been very actively involved in doing things.
And he'll share that with us next Lord's Day in Sunday school. And then he'll be bringing the message in the morning service. And I know you'll want to be here for that. It'll be a blessing to us. So look forward to the Williquettes coming next week.
Well, as we prepare our hearts to worship the Lord, Psalm 122 verse one says, I was glad when they said to me, let us go into the house of the Lord. Oh, let's pause and ponder that one for a minute. So kids, when your mom said, come on, we're going to go to church this morning.
Were you glad? Or you said, oh, I want to go back to sleep. Oh, what is our attitude in coming into the Lord's house? I hope that today, when you said to yourself, we're going to the house of the Lord, that it's something that gave you some delight.
I was glad when they said, let's go into the house of the Lord. So Jim, come and lead us in this opening hymn that expresses our gladness that may Jesus Christ be praised.
Pastor, page 48 in your hymnals, 48, when morning gilds the skies, we'll all stand together please and sing all four verses together when morning gilds the sky, number 48. Father, we just, deception and refreshing it is to come into your house and your presence and hear your word proclaimed, Lord, the pure truth and how wonderful it is that we can worship Christ the way the truth and the light.
Pray that you would focus our hearts on you today. Lord, help us to live out the truth in our lives. Give us the wisdom.
You may be seated. Our psalm reading, we wanna read section of Psalm 95 on the back of your bulletin. And we'd like to read this responsively today. So today you will read the even numbered verses and I will read the odd number verses, verse five.
By the way, just a way of word of clarification to you young people who were asked this morning and they were told that we're gonna go to church. I was talking about myself when I was a kid. I grew up in a pastor's home and so going to church was never an option.
And so I don't know, I've never kept record of how many times I got stomach aches on Sunday morning. Does that sound familiar to some of you? Okay, all right. Well, true confession there. Psalm 95. I'll read verse five and then you read the even verses to follow.
O Lord, how great are your works, your thoughts are very deep. When the wicked spring up like grass and when all the workers of iniquity flourish, it is that they may be destroyed forever. For behold, your enemies, O Lord, for behold, your enemies shall perish.
All the workers of iniquity shall be scattered. I also has seen my desire upon mine enemies. My ears hear my desire on the wicked who rise up against me. Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God to declare that the Lord is upright.
He is my rock and there is no unrighteousness in him. Lord, add his blessing to our reading together of his word today.
Take your Psalter, your red books that is. Turn to page 199. 199, it is good to sing your praises. Sing all three verses together. To sing your praises and to thank you, O Most High, showing forth kindness when the morning lights the sky.
It is good when night is falling of your faithfulness to tell. While with weary, loneliest praises lungs of adoration swell. You have filled our hearts with gladness at the works your hands have wrought.
You have made our lives victorious. Late your works and deep your thoughts. You, O Lord, on high exalted reign forevermore in my. He shall perish and be banished from your sight. But the good shall live before you, planted in your dwelling place.
Fruitful trees and ever verdant, nourished by your boundless grace. In his goodness to the righteous, God is righteousness displays. God, our rock, our strength and refuge, just and true.
Being glad to go into the house of the Lord, you heard about the guy, did you not, that woke up on Sunday morning and complained to his wife and she said, come on, it's time to get up. Gotta get ready for church.
He said, I'm not gonna go today. Come on, you really need to go to church today. I don't wanna go to church. No, you're getting up now and you're going to church. Tell me why I should go to church. She said, well, I'll give you a few reasons.
Number one, it'll help your rotten attitude. Number two, this is sin and you gotta deal with that sin. And number three, you're the preacher and they expect you to be there. That has nothing to do with what happened at our house today, believe me.
All right, on a serious note, let's pray together this morning. And as we do, we do wanna remember the rails, our missionaries to Brazil, and to pray that the Lord will continue to use them in their ministry.
They're heading into the winter months as we're heading into the summer months. And so there's change of season for them. It gets up into the low 90s, I think, for highs instead of upper 90s for them.
But it's also, I believe, the rainy season starts soon. So pray for them and their ministry. And then within the church family today, wanna pray for, continue to pray for Jodi Knapp. Jodi, great answer to prayer yesterday regarding her condition.
She is now in St. Anthony's in Rockford and will be, I don't know how long she'll be there, but she'll be there for a time. But much improved over 24 hours ago, and we thank the Lord for that. Pray for Denny McAllister.
Denny got ill Wednesday, spent a couple nights at CGH, came home Friday evening and is improving, but is still very tired a lot, sleeping a lot. And has infection that needs to be cleared up. So pray for the Lord to deal with that in his body.
Also, we're praying for Kent. Kent's been dealing with some decreased energy, fatigue, tiredness. So pray for him and for Renee Koster. Pray for Renee as she's dealing with this diagnosis of Hodgkin's lymphoma and needs wisdom for the treatment of that and so forth.
So we're gonna pray for God to give grace in her life. And then we wanna pray today, especially for Tanya Hemmon. Tanya found out this morning that her grandmother passed away. Was that this morning that she passed away?
Last night? Okay, so wanna pray for that family, for God to be gracious and give comfort in this time of sorrow. Let's look to the Lord, shall we? We are grateful, Father, for the strength that we can derive in comfort and encouragement from the way that you, the God of all comfort, use your people to give comfort and to be of comfort.
We thank you for the comfort and strength that is found in numbers. So even as the body of Christ gathers together on the Lord's day and we can share these burdens and concerns with one another, those who are most acutely afflicted with the burden find some encouragement and they find a little bit of the weight lifted by brothers and sisters in Christ.
And we certainly would pray that today for Tanya and pray that you give comfort to her and to her family, to the children who've lost a great-grandmother and the sorrow that is certainly attached to that.
Father, I pray that you would give comfort that only you can give. And I pray for the family as a whole and the loss of this loved one, that you would meet the needs of sorrow in this time. Father, we also pray today for Renee and ask that you would give her wisdom in knowing a course of action to take regarding her condition and pray that by your grace, it would be healed, you would heal her of that.
We think of the same thing regarding Denny and pray for the eradication of this infection. His body would be healed, he would be restored to strength. Ask for Kent and grace and mercy for Kent and just pray that you would strengthen him, raise him up.
Lord, do a miraculous work of power and might in his life, we would pray, and for Jody as well. Father, we do thank you for so many ways in which you have answered prayer in her life in the last few weeks and even most pronounced yesterday.
We thank you for sparing her life and I pray that you would continue to strengthen her, allow her, God, to get off of the sedation and to be at rest and be calm as that is minimized. I pray for the healing of the body.
We just pray that you would continue to do a work in her body. And encourage her husband, Bob, encourage him as certainly a great deal of up and down emotionally. I pray that there would at least be the stability of soul knowing that you, the gracious God, who loves his people, are in control of his wife's condition.
Father, we also pray for Bob Klein, continue to be gracious to him and give him rest and peace of mind and heart through his ordeal. Thank you, Father, for John and Joyce Rayl, their faithfulness in Brazil through these many years of ministry.
They come to another season, a change of season in ministry. I pray that you would bear much fruit. We know, Father, they're dealing with some of the issues and some of the struggles of COVID as many places in the world are.
I pray that they would have wisdom to navigate those and that their people would be faithful and committed to the work of the ministry in spite of some of the restrictions that they endure. And I pray that much fruit would come forth from their labor in these days.
Thank you again, Father, for our time together this morning and thank you that we could come to the house of the Lord. And Father, I pray that when we walked into this place today that whatever the things that were weighing us down and causing us to be distracted, that these things would be put aside and that we have found, even in the singing of hymns together and the reading of Psalm together, we have found some focus and some spiritual refreshment.
I pray that this would continue through the remainder of the service. We ask this in Jesus' name, for his sake.
I would ask you to stand, but I think I don't have to. With the name of the next song we're gonna sing is, O Church, Arise. So let's all stand together. Oops, I said it. Well, let's all stand together and sing all three verses, number 52.
Number 52, in your blue books, that is your supplements, O Church, Arise. Hear the call of Christ our captain For now the weak can say that they are strong In the strength that God has given With shield of faith and belt of truth We'll stand against the devil's lies An army bold whose battle cry is love Reaching out to those in darkness Our call to war, to love the captive soul But to rage against the captor And with the sword that makes the wounded whole We will fight with faith and valor When faced with trials on every side We know the outcome is secure And Christ will have the prize for which he died An inheritance of nations Come see the cause where love and mercy meet As the Son of God is stricken Then see his foes lie crushed beneath his feet For the conqueror has risen And as the stone is rolled away And Christ emerges from the grave And victory march continues till the day Every eye and heart shall see him So spirit come, put strength in every stride Give grace for every hurdle that we may run With faith to win the prize of a serving good and faithful As saints of old still line the way Retelling triumphs of his grace We hear their calls and hunger for the day When Christ we stand in glory Please be seated.
If you would, take your Bibles and turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 12, our scripture reading this morning. 1 Corinthians 12, I wanna read verses 12 through 27. 1 Corinthians 12, beginning with verse 12.
Paul writes, for as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body being many are one body, so also is Christ. For by one spirit, we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and have all been made to drink into one spirit.
For in fact, the body is not one member, but many. If the foot should say, because I am not a hand, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, because I am not an eye, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body?
If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as he pleased. And if they were all one member, where would the body be?
But now indeed, there are many members, yet one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.
And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor. And our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care one for another.
And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. Or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. Brief prayer. Our Father, we do thank you this morning for the body of Christ.
Even as we've already prayed today, there is great benefit being part of the body. We pray that you would, through this time together, speak to us through this passage and more. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Now let me preface what I want to say today regarding the whole subject of being a part of the body by a few words of explanation. In the first place, I want to make it clear that what I am not doing today is arm twisting, or cajoling, or guilting.
Obviously we're going to talk about being a member of a local church. And the reason that I want to do, well, and some might think, well, you know, you've been kind of harping on this thing about the church for a while now, and now you're going to harp on, kind of pull strings to get members into the church and stuff like that.
Well, I hope that you don't take it that way. And I was thinking about that even, how to introduce this message today. I was thinking about that and wondering to myself, how many times, I've been in the ministry now 40 years.
You say, man, you're old. Yeah, I know. But 40 years, and I don't remember ever preaching a message that said you need to be a member of the church. You need to join the church. In 40 years. So obviously this is not something that is a hobby horse of mine, but I have been interested in the, in presenting a series of messages on the doctrine of the church.
And we've gone through that. The last several weeks, we've looked at the different pictures of the church, the images of the church, that the church is the bride of Christ, and the church is the building of Christ, and the church is the body of Christ.
And really kind of today is bringing all that to home and making it a very, you know, a much more personal thing. You know, like, well, what about me? What is my place in the body of Christ? Now, in the last year, the COVID lockdowns have created a bunch of discussion about this whole matter of the church and participation and so forth in the church, being a member of a local church.
And some have even come to the conclusion it goes something like this. These lockdowns have, of course, prompted churches to do what we're doing, live streaming services, and so people can see it anywhere.
And what that has ended up doing, in the minds of some people, it's fueled the illusion that I really don't need to be a part of or to join a local church. In my house, at any time I want, whether it's Sunday morning or Thursday evening or two o 'clock in the morning on Friday, anytime I want, I can go to church.
I can go to the church's website and I can pull up the past Sunday morning service and I can go to church, quote unquote, online. And this is very convenient. Well, there are several problems with that conclusion and with that attitude.
One of them, of course, is it completely misses the point of the church. The whole idea of the church is that the church is the called out ones who gather together. And while what we had to do for a few weeks during a lockdown was a way of accommodating the need at the time, it does not satisfy the purpose of the church.
Another thing it does, if a person develops that attitude, is it robs that person of a full-orbed experience of the Christian life, making the Christian life to be very individualistic, very much all about me, all about myself.
Furthermore, that attitude robs other people, other brothers and sisters in Christ, of the gifts that I have to contribute. And I do, because even as the text we read says, we are all a part of, need to be a part of that body.
We have gifts that God has given and contributed to individuals, and those individuals are given those gifts not for themselves, but to use in service and ministry to others. Well, if I absent myself and content myself with online church, if you will, I rob others of experiencing that contribution.
And then this is a little more painful to admit, but really that attitude, it kind of exploits or takes advantage of the people who are committed to the local church, in the sense that those who are committed and a part of that local church, they're contributing the funds and the resources to be able to make that streaming thing available in the first place.
And for someone to say, well, I can just, and by the way, let me just say, I'm not talking about someone who is ill, who's homebound and who, for whatever reason, can't get out. That's why we do the live streams, because we realize that there are certain situations where people absolutely can't become a part of the in-person attendance.
But anyway, those who develop the attitude that says, well, I don't ever need to go to a physical church building anymore because I can just watch online, they're really, to put it bluntly, kind of taking advantage of those who are so committed to make that a possible thing.
It's almost like a, if I can use this expression, it's almost kind of like spiritual welfare. You know what I mean? You know, you think about, do you get aggravated with welfare programs that reward people not to work?
You know, no, that's not what welfare is supposed to be. It's for those who need it and they can't work and so forth, anyway. And then the last thing about that attitude is that it kind of, if you think about it, it subtly works to bring about the eventual demise of the local church altogether.
How so? Well, it's not something that would happen like next year, but it would happen in time eventually because the more and more, as more and more people would develop that attitude, then there would be no one left to provide the service that's broadcast in the first place, you know what I'm saying?
In other words, if everyone had that same idea about church membership and commitment and so forth, there would be no local church, you see. It just wouldn't exist. It would go away. And that, of course, would be a tragic thing.
Well, long before COVID came along, the whole concept of church membership in America has really been suffering a significant decline. Let me illustrate it by these statistics. In 1947, 73%, 73%, almost three-fourths of Americans were church members.
And that's, of course, across the board, all the different kinds of denominations, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But three-fourths. In 2000, in the year 2000, 70 of Americans were church. So that was 21 years ago.
70 of Americans were still church members. 11 years ago, in 2010, that number dropped to 61%. And then in 2020, it dropped for the first time below 50%, it dropped to 47%. So from 1947 to the year 2020, church membership in the United States declined by more than 25%.
That's a pretty significant number. And there are no signs whatsoever that that is going to reverse itself. Why is that? Why is that? Why is there such an aversion to church membership? Well, I think there's a lot of logical reasons, and then there are some superficial reasons.
So, I mean, it's perfectly logical, for example, to conclude that, why should I join a church that has essentially gutted the Bible of its integrity and its authority? You know, I mean, if a church is preaching that the Bible is not the inspired word of God and it's got full, it's full of errors, and the idea of a virgin birth is not important, or whatever, if a church is gutted that those key fundamental doctrines, well, why bother with it?
It's irrelevant. I would agree. And then why join a church when you don't believe in the Christian faith anyway? Well, you shouldn't. Absolutely not. But then there's some more superficial things, like, well, you know, church is boring.
I don't like it. I have better things to do with my time and money than to give that time and money and energy to a church. So, why join? But I think also that decline in church membership, in the United States, at least, mirrors the culture's disinclination to sacrificially commit oneself to anything.
And we see that, we see a parallel, and I found this to be a rather interesting parallel, because it almost mirrors exactly, between the average age that couples get married, and compare that to this decline in church membership.
For example, remember, in 1947, I said 73 of Americans were members of churches. In 1947, the average age for a woman getting married was 20, the average age for a man was 24. That means at very young age, young couple, comparatively speaking, at young ages, young couples were committing themselves, sacrificially committing themselves, covenanting together to marriage, to be together for the rest of their lives.
In the year 2000, the average age for a woman getting married increased to age 25, and men, 27. In 2010, increased a little bit, age 26 for women, age 28 for men, and in the year 2020, the average age for a woman getting married was 31, and the average age for a man was 33.
So you see that, that pushing back of even the commitment to marriage is a, is indicative of a reluctance of sacrificially committing oneself to somebody else or to something greater than myself. And I think that is, I think that is mirrored in the church and the whole subject of church membership as well.
Now, I wanna spend the rest of the time talking about Bible-believing church, professing Christians, you know, because that's what I'm concerned about. I'm not concerned about, you know, unbelievers who aren't part of a church, that, I wouldn't expect anything else.
But what about Bible-believing Christians, professing Christians, who have really concluded that I don't need to join a local church? Their arguments are usually a lot more spiritual-sounding. And I want us to think these through a little bit this morning, and think about some of the objections to the idea of church membership, and then I want us to look at some of the evidences in the Scripture for it.
And I think that's, I think that can be a valuable thing. One of the objections is that the idea of church membership, or the words church membership, don't exist in the Bible. Jesus never commanded anybody to join a church.
It's not even, he never even mentions it. Jesus never even mentions church membership. The apostles never mentioned the term church membership. Therefore, therefore, to insist on it, insist on church membership, or to suggest it's expected, is really kind of adding a man-made rule, or a tradition, to the Scripture.
Okay, it sounds reasonable, it sounds like a reasonable objection. But the problem with that objection is it engages in what's called the fallacy of the word thing. The fallacy of the word thing argument.
And it goes like this. The absence, the word thing argument goes like this, that the absence of a particular word or phrase indicates the absence of a particular truth. Because the word or the phrase doesn't exist, therefore the truth doesn't exist.
Well, if you accept that idea, then you've got some real problems, because the word trinity does not exist in the Bible. Nor does the word, nor do the words virgin birth. Nor does the word inerrancy. And we believe that the Bible is inerrant.
So we have some key doctrinal terms that we use, and we understand, and we accept, but the words themselves are not in the Bible. And by the way, you know, that Jesus never, Jesus never uses the term and so forth.
One of the arguments that's used against conservative believers in our moral stand on the subject of homosexuality, for example, is that Jesus never says a word about it. Jesus never condemned it. Jesus never said anything against it.
So therefore, there must be nothing wrong with it. Well, you can see through that pretty easily. A second objection that's often raised is that church membership is legalistic. It's legalistic. Well, the problem with that argument is it's a misapplication of what legalism is, what legalism is.
Legalism means that you insist on the keeping of some kind of a rule, a particular rule, in order to gain God's salvation, to earn his grace. You keep a rule, you do some act that you're required to do in order to earn God's grace.
That would be legalism. But that's not what we're talking about here, encouraging toward church membership. And what I want to see people do is to come to the conviction that, you know, yeah, it does seem that the Bible teaches this, and therefore, I want to obey.
I want to obey what the Bible has to say. And the obedience to any biblical precept or principle is not legalism. It's not. It's an expression of love. It's an expression of gospel obedience, that gospel obedience being a response to the grace received, not as a thing to do to earn grace.
But it's realizing, you know, I've been graciously saved by God, and how can I, therefore, respond to that? What would he have me to do? And that is not legalism. That's just loving obedience. And then a third argument, and this takes us to 1 Corinthians 12, is that, objection, I should say, is that all believers are members of the body of Christ, the universal body of Christ.
All believers are members of the universal body of Christ. There's kind of a syllogism, you know, a logical argument. It goes like this. All believers are members of the universal body of Christ. I am a believer and a member of the universal body of Christ.
Therefore, membership in a local, organized institution called the church is not necessary. Well, let's think that through, okay? Here in 1 Corinthians 12, you see that the original premise, all believers are members of the universal body of Christ, that's true, that is absolutely true.
Look at verses 12 and 13. Paul says, for as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one spirit, we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and have all been made to drink into one spirit.
And Paul echoes that same idea in Ephesians chapter four, verses four and five, when he says, there is one body and one spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all.
Well, I would submit that that is talking about this universal body of Christ, and that universal body of Christ is comprised of all the believers in Christ for all time and all ages, and no matter the denominational stripe or the era in which they lived, all who are true believers in Christ are part of this universal body of Christ.
All who have ever lived and all who ever will live are part of that universal body of Christ. So that premise that, yes, all believers are members of the universal body of Christ, that is true. The second part of the syllogism, I am a believer and therefore, and I'm a member of the body of Christ, well, I have to leave that to you and God.
You know whether you are a believer in Christ, whether you've trusted him as your savior, and you are in his body. I leave that to you, and if today you realize, you know, I'm not sure that I am really a believer in Christ, I'm not really sure that I am a part of that universal body of Christ, then I would encourage you, I would implore you, trust Christ today, receive him as your savior today.
Become a part of that universal body of Christ today. Turn from your sin, turn to Christ, and call upon him to save you. I would implore you to do that. But it's that third conclusion in that syllogism that I'm interested in.
The syllogism, again, all believers in Christ are members of the universal body of Christ. I am a believer in Christ, therefore, I'm a member of the universal body of Christ, and it is unnecessary to be a part of a local organized institution, a member of such that is called the church.
Well, that conclusion doesn't follow, and it doesn't follow logically, and I would submit here, even in 1 Corinthians 12, it doesn't follow biblically. Because look at verses 26 and seven. Verse 26 says, if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it.
Or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. All right, now look, there is no way that verse 26 can refer to the universal body of Christ. It can't. Why not? Because, you know, there were believers in Jesus who were part of the universal body of Christ that suffered in Turkey in the 10th century.
And I guarantee you there's not a person in this room who suffered with them. I mean, you don't even know about it. You don't even know who they were. You don't know how they suffered. You don't know where they were when they suffered.
You have no clue. And even in the contemporary world, there are believers in the body of Christ, the universal body of Christ, that right now, this morning, are in Asia, who are suffering. They may be suffering from political oppression.
They may be suffering from disease. They may be suffering from some other kind of affliction. They may be suffering from poverty. There's all kinds of suffering going on in the universal body of Christ that you and I have no knowledge of whatsoever.
And therefore, we can't be suffering with them. We're not. We're not suffering with them. Don't even know about it. And likewise, who is being honored among the believers in XYZ Church of Jesus in Nairobi, Kenya, this morning?
You don't either. Somebody is. I mean, the believers in the church there in Nairobi are rejoicing with a believer in their congregation and other believers, but you and I don't know anything about it, and therefore, we're not rejoicing with them.
We're not honoring those who are being honored in Church XYZ of Jesus in Nairobi, you see, even though they're in the universal body of Christ. No, verse 26 must refer to the local body. It must. If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it.
Members of Faith Baptist Church this morning, I trust, are suffering today acutely with Bob and Jody and with Denny and with Bob and Jerry and with Kent and Lori and with Tanya. We feel them. We feel what they're feeling.
We suffer with them. And the believers, the members of the body of Christ of Faith Baptist Church today, I mean, we can rejoice, and we remember our rejoicing together with the McCanns and the Hemmonses in the last year and the marriages that took place in their families.
But you know what? We didn't expect the believers in Kenya to be sending letters of congratulations and cards and all that kind of stuff and rejoicing with them. We didn't, we don't. No, verse 26 has to be referring to the local body.
And verse 27 actually leaves no doubt. It doesn't leave any doubt. Look at verse 27. Verse 27 says, now you are the body of Christ and members individually. All right, now watch. It does not say, it does not say you individually are part of the body of Christ.
Doesn't say that, does it? I mean, you have your Bible before you, you can see it. It doesn't say you individually are part of the body of Christ. What it does say is that you collectively are the body of Christ.
The word you in verse 27 is plural. You are the body. The whole, he's talking to the church at Corinth. You, the church at Corinth, you are the body of Christ. So he's talking about the membership, the people who comprise that local church in the city of Corinth that is receiving this letter.
He's saying you collectively are the body of Christ. And so if he were writing to us at Faith Baptist Church, Paul were writing to us, he would be saying to us collectively who are the members of Faith Baptist Church, he'd say you are the body of Christ.
He'd be saying that same thing if you were writing a letter to Faith Baptist Church of Danville where Pastor Rudy is now and so on and so forth. So the local church. You, the individuals, collectively comprise the local body of Christ.
Now I'd like to forget about those objections, go from there and look at some evidences in the New Testament for church membership, local church membership. And before we look at some things specifically, let's just ask ourselves some questions because I think most of us would be at least familiar with the basis for these questions, all right?
So number one, where does the universal church assemble for worship? Where does it assemble for worship and when? When does the universal church assemble for worship? Kind of rhetorical questions, I know, right?
Another thing, another line of questioning here. Who are the officers of the universal church? Right away you reckon, well there aren't any. There's an attempt at there being one and that is of course in the Roman Catholic Church, the pontiff, the pope, you know, but he surely wouldn't be the officer for the entire universal church.
Where are the officers? Who are the officers of the universal church? And what are their qualifications? How are those officers chosen? And then how does the universal church, that is all the believers in Christ from beginning to the end and now, how does the universal church fulfill the great commission and send forth missionaries?
Again, it's kind of rhetorical, but I want us to think these things through a little bit here. And then thirdly, you're familiar with Hebrews chapter 10 verse 25, right? How can you forsake the assembling of the universal church?
If the universal church doesn't ever meet, can't, I mean, the vast majority of those in the universal church are dead and a whole bunch aren't even alive yet, how does that, you know, how could you forsake the assembling of the universal church?
And yet Hebrews 10, 25 says, not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together as is the manner of some. And the word, by the way, forsake, it means to desert. Not the stuff June makes, not that kind of desert.
To abandon. Now, catch this. I think it's important to get the understanding of that word. You don't abandon something or someone to which you have no commitment, where there is no relationship. For example, in chapter 13, look at chapter 13 here in Hebrews, verses five and six.
Chapter 13, verses five and six, Paul says, let your conduct be without covetousness and be content with such things that you have. Why? Because he himself has said, I will never leave you or forsake you.
There is the, Jesus is saying, I have such a relationship to you and a commitment to you that I will never desert you. I will never abandon you. So therefore, you and I can boldly say, the Lord is my helper.
I will not fear. What can man do to me? How can I say that? Because the Lord has promised, he's made this commitment in this relationship that we have to one another, he's not going to desert us. He's not going to desert us.
Another indication of that level of commitment relationship is seen in Jesus' words on the cross, remember? As he quoted the psalmist, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? There is a relationship there that involves a level of commitment for desertion to take place.
You can't forsake the assembling of the universal church. And then, how, realistically here, realistically here, how can the 24 one another exhortations ever be realistically carried out and fulfilled in the universal church context?
We see a couple of those one another things here in Hebrews chapter 10, verses 24 and 25. Let us consider one another in order to stir up to love and good works. And in verse 25, but exhorting one another so much the more as you see the day approach.
But there's a bunch of others. Be kindly affectionate to one another, edify one another, be like-minded to one another, admonish one another, have the same care for one another, by love serve one another, be kind to one another, forgiving one another, submitting yourselves to one another, forbearing one another, admonishing one another, abound in love toward one another, comfort one another, exhort one another, confess your faults to one another, pray for one another, love one another with a pure heart, use hospitality toward one another, be subject to one another.
A couple of dozen of these exhortations to us related to one another. There's no way that those things can begin to be fulfilled in a context outside a local group that's committed to one another. Well, let's ponder some points.
Let's think about some things. Some evidences of church membership in the Bible. Number one, I'm just gonna rattle off these things and you think them through. Number one, you realize in the New Testament that the church kept track of its members.
In Acts chapter one, at the very beginning, Jesus has ascended and we're waiting for the day of Pentecost. But an interesting point in Acts 115, it says, in those days, Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples.
Now listen, altogether, the number of names was about 120. So right at the very beginning, they're keeping track of names and numbers. And it is to this group of about 120 names recorded that in chapter two, verse 41, the 3 ,000 were added on the day of Pentecost.
Remember that? Look at verse 41, chapter two. Those who gladly received his word were baptized and on the basis of that receiving of the word and being baptized, there were added to them 3 ,000 souls.
Added to whom? To the 120, the original 120. Were they added to the invisible body of Christ? Yeah, absolutely they were. But they were also added to them, to those who were alive right then and there.
And this is evident from their activities that follow in verses 42 and in chapter, look at chapter four as well. In chapter four, verse 32, it says, now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul.
Neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. This is evidence of their commitment to one another as the church begins. But it's also evident by the growth.
Because back in chapter two, verse 47, it says the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. In chapter four, verse four, it says, however many of those who heard the word believed and the number of men came to be about 5 ,000.
There is this, at the very beginning, a record of names and numbers, people who are becoming a part of the church. And that church had to have compiled some detailed membership records, some level of detail at least.
Because again, in chapter four, verse four, it says the number of men came to be about 5 ,000. So there is a distinction there between men and women. There were 5 ,000 men and then there were also women.
Let me show you another place where this distinguishing of membership is brought out in chapter five of First Timothy, First Timothy chapter five. First Timothy five, it's a letter that Paul writes to Pastor Timothy, and he's giving him instructions about a ministry of the church in caring for widows.
And First Timothy five, verses three through 16 talks about that caring for widows, honor widows who are really widows and so forth. But notice in verse nine that if nothing else, they needed to know among the congregation, among the people who are in this church at Ephesus, who are the widows, how old are they?
And he even didn't need to know how old they were. Because verse nine says don't let a widow under 60 years of age be taken into the number, that is the number of widows that the church is going to actively care for.
So they needed to know some things. They needed to know the age, they needed to know the marital status, they needed to know the family relationships because Paul says if anybody has, any widow has family that can take care of her, let the family take care of her.
So they had to know some things about these members. But let me show you another point to ponder. Back in Acts chapter five, Acts chapter five, look at verse 11, and I want you to notice the singularity of the term used.
Acts 5, 11, it says so great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things, upon all the church. Now this is in Jerusalem, okay? And in Acts chapter eight, turn over a few pages, Acts 8, verse one, this is following Stephen's martyrdom.
Again, it's in Jerusalem, look at verse one, it says now Saul was consenting to Stephen's death, and it says at that time, a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem, all right?
But now there is a becoming of something more. The church became the churches. Let me show you, look at chapter nine, verse 31. Chapter nine, verse 31, it says, so the gospel spread as a result of the persecution.
Believers went all over the place, and where they went, they took the gospel with them, and they led people, people came to Christ, and they planted churches. How do we know that? Because of what chapter nine, verse 31 says.
It says then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified. And I think that's an important distinction to make. It's not, Luke doesn't record that the church had peace and was edified, as if there's just this big universal church.
It's the local churches. The local churches were at peace and were edified. So the church became the churches. Another point to ponder is the fact that the church held elections. It held elections. In Acts one, we looked at this passage a minute ago.
Peter stood up in the midst of this 120 people that were assembled, and the purpose of his standing up and talking to them was they needed to elect someone to replace Judas. And so there was this election to replace Judas.
In Acts chapter six, the church at Jerusalem had grown so large, and there was a ministry caring for the widows of the people who were part of that church. And it got to be so cumbersome that some of the widows were being neglected, so the disciples, the apostles said, okay, you need to, you, the group, the congregation, you need to select some men that we can put over this business of caring for the widows.
And the church elected seven deacons. We use that word because it's what they were called, servants, ministers. They elected seven deacons out of a pool of 5 ,000 plus men. And in Acts 15, Acts chapter 15, verse 22, there were some representatives that were elected to accompany Paul and Barnabas when they went to Antioch.
It says, and it pleased the apostles and the elders with the whole church, and this is the church at Jerusalem now, to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch. So there was this company that was the church at Jerusalem, and that company chose certain individuals to go with Paul and Barnabas to Antioch.
Now here's the point of that. Elections and the choosing of individuals and so forth, it's only possible among an organized body whose membership is a matter of record. And that really makes perfect sense, doesn't it?
In other words, you had to meet established criteria if you were going to participate in choosing these representatives or choosing the deacons. I mean, we're facing that crisis of basic common sense in our own country, aren't we?
Should illegal immigrants have the right to vote in elections? Well, you say, no, I mean, it's just common sense. Of course they shouldn't. They should be citizens of this country. Yeah, of course they should.
You see, and that same reality carries over into the fact that the church held elections. Another point to ponder is that the church disciplined its members, it disciplined its members. Jesus anticipated this before the church was even established, right?
In Matthew 18, he has this deal where, you know, if somebody has something against another, you know, you go try to make it right between the two of them. You know, if the guy doesn't repent, doesn't deal with it, take a witness, a couple of witnesses, and confront him again, if he still doesn't get right, then Jesus says, tell it to the church.
Tell it to the church. And then if he doesn't listen to the church, then the church is to treat him as a publican, a tax collector, and sinner. You know, expel them and have nothing to do with them any further.
The infant church, the baby church in Jerusalem practiced it, Acts chapter five, Ananias and Sapphira, remember that one? You know, they tried to deceive the church into thinking they were such generous people and they were really hypocrites, and the Lord saw to it that they were, they were expelled from the church permanently by death.
The established church in Corinth was compelled to practice that church discipline. The guy committing incest with his mother-in-law, or his stepmother, considering he's committing incest with her, he is to be expelled, and Paul uses the term, dismiss him from among you, from among you.
The point is, of course, that the church would have no authority over the life or the conduct of a non-member. So by way of illustration, many years ago, in this church, there was a woman who was unmarried, and she came to me one day and said, oh by the way, just so you know, I'm gonna have a baby.
Okay, and she was a member of the church. She said, I'm gonna have a baby, and she divulged the fact that she and her, the father of the child, were engaged in stuff a lot, and she was even gonna move in with him.
And so I told her, well, you know, that's sin and that can't be tolerated, and you know, do you realize that that's sin? Hmm, she wasn't so sure. So I pointed out the fact, you know, from the scripture, this is sin.
Do you realize this is sin? Well, I know you say it is. I said, well look, it is, and if you're gonna be a member here, you're gonna have to confess that as sin and repent of it, and you know, this is a public thing.
Everybody's gonna know about it. You're gonna have to deal with it. And she said, nope, I'm not gonna deal with it, and left. And we had to dismiss her from the membership of the church. Now, if she wasn't a member of the church, and she just attended, and all that happened, the church would have no authority over her.
We wouldn't tell her you can't come here to church. We wouldn't tell her you can't sit under the gospel. You know, I mean, you know, there would be no authority or basis for exercising that kind of church discipline.
Now, by the way, remember the purpose of discipline. It's not punishment. Purpose of discipline is protection, protection of the integrity of the church and the ministry. Its purpose is restoration. We want the sinner restored.
Its purpose of discipline is also prevention, you know. So like Paul tells Timothy, don't receive an accusation against an elder except by two or three witnesses, and those that have actually sinned, rebuke before all so that all may fear.
It's a preventative thing. Church discipline is for spiritual growth. Let me give you another point to ponder. The biblically required organization and structure of a church demand a membership record.
For example, the Bible definitely says that, you know, a local church is to have certain officers, elders or pastors and deacons, laid out in 1 Timothy chapter three what their requirements are. But that requires, does it not, a pool of individuals who are qualified.
It also requires that there are people qualified to evaluate those who are presented as potential elders or pastors and deacons. We already talked about the fact of elections. In Romans chapter 16, turn with me there quickly here.
Romans 16, verses one and two, Paul says, I commend to you Phoebe, our sister, who is a servant of the church in Centuria, that you may receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints and assist her in whatever business she has need of you.
For indeed, she has been a helper of many and of myself also. So here's this sister who's a part of the church in Centuria, she's heading to Rome, and Paul, because, now look, because of the connection to the church at Centuria, she's a part of that church, he is able to commend her to the church at Rome.
There has to be a formal commitment of an individual to a local assembly for that local assembly then to be able to commend that person to another assembly. Likewise, in verse 17, this, there needs to be some kind of a membership record, if you will, for what happens here to be carried out.
Paul says, I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrines you learned and shun them, avoid them. You see, well, again, on what basis if they're just people who come and go, you see?
And then the last thing I want to point, a point I want us to ponder is seen in Revelation 2 and 3. Turn there with me real quick. Revelation 2 and 3. And some of you might recognize right away, oh, that's, okay, that's the seven letters to the churches in Revelation, right, in Asia.
Yep, it is. So what I want us to see here is that church accountability, church accountability involves her members. So Revelation 2 and 3, there are these seven letters, and each one, just look at the first one here in chapter two, verse one.
Each of these letters is written to the angel or the messenger of the church, and that's generally assumed to be, considered to be the pastor, the lead pastor, if you will, of that local church. The first letter, of course, written to the church of Ephesus.
Now, here's the thing. Each of these letters, each of these letters is written in the singular to the angel of the church, and then he goes on to say in verse two and following, I know your works, and that's in the singular, the works of the church.
He says, I know your works, your labor, and so forth. So the content of these letters is written in the singular. It's addressed to the body as a unit, much like we saw in 1 Corinthians 12, 27, right?
You are, you are the body of Christ. You, collectively, Corinthians, you are the body of Christ, and individually, you're members of it. So these seven letters were written in the singular, addressed to the body of the church as a whole, as a unit.
That demands some kind of formal connectedness of members, if you will, of that body in order for the evaluation to be of the whole unit. You see what I'm saying? There had to be some kind of commitment and connection with the people who comprise that unit of that church.
And in the evaluation, there's commendation, like in verse two, I know your works, your labor, your patience. You cannot bear those who are evil, and this is spoken of as the church as a whole. There's criticism, as in verse four.
I have this against you. You, the church, as a unit, have left your first love. And then there's correction in verse five. Remember from where you have fallen, repent and do the first works, or I will come to you quickly, remove your lampstand from its place, unless you, as a church, collectively repent.
But now here's what I want you to get. In verse seven, as this letter is applied, it's applied individually and personally. Verse seven, he says, he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches, to him, to the individual who overcomes, I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.
So the church as a whole is held accountable, but the individuals who comprise that church have personal, individual responsibility within that assembly. All right, what's the conclusion of this? I realize that this has been more of a Bible study, sort of, than anything, but here's the thing.
Here's why I'm doing this. To you who are members of Faith Baptist Church, my purpose in all of this has been to strengthen your understanding of the biblical basis for that membership. You may have joined the church a long time ago because you thought it was something you were supposed to do and that's, you know, people do it, and so it's just a thing to do.
But I want you to understand that there's a biblical basis for it. For those of you who are not members, all right, look, I am not interested in guilting you. I'm not interested in twisting your arm. I'm not interested, myself, in numbers, and as we often joke in pastoral work, in buildings, bodies, and bucks.
Doesn't impress me, doesn't interest me at all. What I'm interested in is simply your own spiritual welfare and your growth. And I'm also interested in the long-term, long-term, outliving me, health, vitality, viability of this local body of Christ.
Because here's the thing. It will thrive, it will flourish, but only in proportion to the level of the loving, faithful commitment of her members. Our Father in God, I just pray that your people would get the sense of my heart in this message, and I pray that your people who are members of this local church would be encouraged and just realize there is a biblical precedent for being committed to the local church.
And Father, for those who maybe have attended a long time and just sat on the fence and not really thought much about it or thought it was all that important, I just pray that, I just pray that your spirit would get them to think and to ponder and to consider these things and respond accordingly to how you would work in their hearts.
And this I pray in Jesus' name. Would you take your song supplement book, and we wanna sing number 37 in that supplement. It's a song I love the church, I hope you do. I hope you do, trust you do. Number 37 in the supplement, I love the church, and I wanna sing the first, fourth, first, fourth, and last stanzas.
So let's stand together as we sing, shall we? Number 37, stanzas one, four, and six. Of the church, the flock bought with Christ's blood Sheep gone astray, yet and brought to God Guarded and fed by shepherds he provides We follow Christ, secure and satisfied May Christ be praised, preeminent, adored, and loved I love the church, because I love her Lord On the fourth.
I love each part distinct, yet one through Christ our head Each member serves, and thus our body grows by gifts May Christ be praised, bestows, preeminent, adored I love the church, because I love her Lord And the last.
I love of God's word, he will exalt the truth Till all have heard them from Christ, preeminent, adored I love the church, because I love her Lord Well, I encourage you to join us at six o 'clock this evening.
Evening service will be getting into the Gospel of Mark, really just getting off the start on that gospel, a new series in the Gospel of Mark. We'll be looking at chapter one tonight. Now, may you grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and to him be the glory both now and forever.
In his name we pray, amen and amen. You are dismissed.
