Christ is Worthy of a Healthy Church

Rural Church Podcast 2.0

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

Welcome to the Ruled Church Podcast. This is my beloved son, with whom

00:05

I am well pleased. He is honored, and I get the glory. And by the way, it's even better, because you see that building in Perryville, Arkansas?

00:13

You see that one in Pechote, Mexico? Do you see that one in Tuxla, Guterres down there in Chiapas? That building has my son's name on it.

00:21

The church is not a democracy, it's a monarchy. Christ is king. You can't be

00:26

Christian without a local church. You can't do anything better than to bend your knee and bow your heart, turn from your sin and repentance, believe on the

00:37

Lord Jesus Christ, and join up with a good Bible -believing church, and spend your life serving

00:44

Jesus in a local, visible congregation. Welcome to the Ruled Church Podcast. I am your co -host,

00:52

Allen Nelson, one of the pastors of Providence Baptist Church in Perryville, Arkansas.

00:58

Today, we're going to listen to a sermon that I preached in 2022 for my friend, Wade Lentz, on the church being regulated by the

01:06

Scriptures. I hope you find this sermon challenging, encouraging, helpful.

01:12

As you think through Christ being worthy of a healthy church, no matter the cost, when

01:19

I preached this sermon, I didn't realize that the very next Friday, we actually, at our church, went through some very tumultuous waters as far as people resisting some changes and ended up going through some difficulties as a church.

01:35

It was just by God's grace that I had just preached this sermon. So the Lord helped sustain me through that.

01:42

But it's not always easy to remember that this is what the

01:48

Bible says, and this is how we have to do it. Okay, so maybe it's easy to remember.

01:58

It's easy to know the right thing to do. But maybe I should say it this way. It's hard to remember to apply it.

02:06

And so I'm saying this as a brother who has been through some difficulties, not as difficult as maybe some of you listening, maybe more difficult than some of you listening.

02:17

But I hope that you are encouraged, fired up, challenged, that really

02:22

Jesus is worthy of a healthy church, a church that is regulated by the Scriptures. So here we go.

02:29

It was a Friday night. It's a Friday night in October now. It was a Friday night in October in the year, or not a

02:35

Friday night, but a Friday in October in the year 1536. The date was

02:40

October 6, so 486 years ago yesterday on a Friday. There was a notorious prisoner in England.

02:49

He had been imprisoned at this point for 16 months. He climbed the platform to be executed in front of a watching crowd.

03:00

The sentence against him was that he had to be strangled to death and then his body was to be burned at the stake.

03:09

This sentence was carried out, by the way, but before it was carried out, they let this prisoner have an opportunity to speak his final words.

03:20

Here was his final words. It's a prayer, really. Lord, open the king of England's eyes.

03:31

This notorious prisoner, of course, was a man by the name of William Tyndale. Maybe you haven't heard of Tyndale before, but this man is more important than you might know.

03:41

Not only does the English language itself owe a debt to this man, but one of the very reasons that you own a

03:48

Bible today in the English language is due to this man's crime. By the way, what was his crime?

03:54

Why did this man die? Why was he strangled to death and then burned at the stake? It was for this, translating the

03:59

Bible into the language of the common person in England. In English.

04:06

In the 1520s, Tyndale was a tutor, a family tutor. In a little area northwest of London.

04:13

And they would have dinners, big dinners. They would discuss things over the dinners. Tyndale was pushing for reformation.

04:22

If you know your history a little bit, this is right. 1517 begins the reformation, unofficial date.

04:27

And then in the 1520s, Tyndale, he's pushing for reformation. The family was

04:32

Catholic, they didn't like it. One night, there's this Catholic scholar at the table. He says this to Tyndale, We were better be without God's law than the

04:43

Pope's. In other words, Cardinal says, It'd be better if we didn't have God's law rather than the

04:48

Pope's. We need the Pope's. And in response, Tyndale speaks his famous words. He says, I defy the Pope and all his laws.

04:56

If God spare my life ere many years, I will cause a boy that driveth the plow shall know more of the

05:03

Scripture than thou dost. In many ways, Tyndale did just that.

05:09

Three years after his death, his prayer was answered, really. The King of England authorized the

05:14

Tyndale translation. It ends up being an enormous success and an enormous help even to the

05:21

King James translation, which was published in 1611. And so now for the last five centuries, think about this.

05:29

We have had English -speaking plowboys outsmarting the Popes. The Pope can't tell me what to do.

05:38

He's not even in my Bible because I can read my Bible and I can see that the Pope ain't on the throne.

05:44

Jesus is. Friends, have you considered tonight as we begin what a treasure and wonder and glory it is that we have a

05:52

Bible today in any language, let alone that we have a Bible in a language that we can read and understand and obey.

06:00

We have the words of our almighty, infinite, triune, self -existing

06:07

God in a language in our hands and can understand.

06:14

This inerrant, infallible, authoritative, necessary, clear, and sufficient

06:20

Book tells us who God is. It shows us who we are. It is a testimony to the glory of Christ.

06:26

Jesus says that all Scripture bear witness about Him. And praise

06:33

God for men like John Wycliffe, for men like William Tyndale, for men like John Rogers.

06:38

Men throughout history have given great sacrifice to get this holy Book of God into the hands of common people.

06:46

Praise God for plowboys who can read God's Book. I am responsible to get to the sermon here in a minute.

06:57

But before I do, let me ask you a question. Again, this is the

07:03

Friday night crowd. I understand. Praise God that you're here tonight. But since this is the very

07:09

Word of our great and glorious triune God, who testifies to the glorious Christ our

07:16

Redeemer who we sang about tonight, since this is the Book of God in our language, why are our

07:24

Bibles so dusty? Charles Spurgeon said there's dust enough on some of your

07:30

Bibles to write damnation with your fingers. I'm going to call it like it is.

07:36

It is my conviction today. I'm not far from you. It took us about, well, with Conway traffic, it took longer than it should have, but I'm not far.

07:46

I know this area. You know my area. It's my conviction today that one of the great perils of professing

07:54

Christians in the Bible Belt, the Bible Belt, is we do not read the Bible.

08:00

We have time for Netflix or football or social media, but we don't have time to read the good book.

08:07

People are not spending time in the book personally. They don't read it with their families. Hey, even in a typical

08:13

Baptist Sunday School class, people may spend 30 minutes gossiping about prayer requests, and then maybe 15 minutes doing a lesson.

08:24

And then it turns out that that lesson is not even really reading the Scriptures, but just someone else's idea about the

08:30

Bible. And the guy who wrote the lesson was on a laptop in Starbucks with $8 coffee, and what he was worried about was being politically correct and culturally acceptable at the moment more than he was worried about God's Word.

08:42

And friends, this is the state of the Bible Belt. Because of men like William Tyndale, we live in a day with unprecedented access to the

08:51

English Bible. Unprecedented. Unprecedented. On your phone, in the store, copies upon copies upon copies.

08:58

You can get Bibles in the local Goodwill for a dollar. We have more access to the

09:05

Bible in a language we can read, and we have the ability to read, and we have the time to read, and all of that together, put all of that together, and you have to say that from the creation of mankind to today in 2022, our generation has more access to the

09:23

Word of God than any other generation in the history of the world. And yet, we are equally the most biblically ignorant generation in the world.

09:42

By the way, turn to Jeremiah 6. You can start turning there. I'm not sure that if the plowboy in Tyndale's day who couldn't read

09:50

God's Word in his own language might not have more knowledge about God's Word than some pastors and deacons in churches today.

10:01

Tyndale would be rolling over in his grave if he could. He can't. He was burned at the stake.

10:09

The point being that the state of our Bible knowledge today compels us to consider the sermon that I've been assigned this evening, and that is the church's way.

10:24

Regulated by Scripture. I hope there's not people like this in this room, but if there is, praise

10:32

God that you're here and you can repent tonight and you can change. But we have people in Baptist circles, they don't even know what the church is.

10:40

They don't really understand what the church is. There's a social club. They don't understand the leadership of the church.

10:48

They don't understand the mission of the church. All these things are wrapped up in this one truth that I've started off with.

10:55

We don't know our Bibles. So tonight, the church's way regulated by Scripture.

11:01

My text is Jeremiah 6. It is more of a topical message, but we're going to read Jeremiah 6 verse 16, and I'll walk through some exegesis of the text, and then we'll get into the topic of tonight's sermon.

11:16

Jeremiah chapter 6. Would you stand with me in the honor of reading God's Word? We're just going to read verse 16.

11:22

Jeremiah 6 verse 16. Thus says the

11:29

Lord, stand by the roads and look and ask for the ancient paths where the good way is and walk in it and find rest for your souls.

11:49

But they said, we will not walk in it.

11:56

Let's pray. Father, would You help us tonight to understand this text? Would You help us tonight to understand

12:02

Your church? Lord, as we begin this conference, I thank You for Beryl Baptist. I thank

12:07

You for the pastors here. Lord, I thank You for the vision of this conference. I thank You for the opportunity tonight to preach.

12:14

God, as we walk away tonight, we pray that we would see the beauty and glory of Christ, and we would see that we don't fully understand

12:22

His beauty and glory and gospel if we don't understand His love for and His cherishing of the local church.

12:32

So help us to understand what it means that the church should be regulated by Your Word. Tonight, in a room this size, it's inevitable that there's a lost man or woman or boy or girl here.

12:43

I pray that as they hear the gospel that they're convicted and would repent of their sin. Repent of any hypocrisy.

12:50

Perhaps as an older member even, they would repent of their hypocrisy and believe on Christ. For believers here,

12:56

I pray that we would renew our commitment and love for and defense of the local church.

13:03

We pray it all in Christ's name. Amen. You may be seated. Jeremiah is known to some as the weeping prophet.

13:10

And he wrote an entire book called Lamentations, so that ought to tell you something about that.

13:15

He began his ministry under the last good king of Judah, which is Josiah. He was called at a young age.

13:22

In which he spent decades preaching both God's blessing for any who would follow him and God's judgment for those who rejected the

13:31

Word of the Lord. He foretold the New Covenant in Jeremiah 33. He told how those in the

13:36

New Covenant will have the law of God written on their hearts. That they will know God and their sins will be forgiven and all blessings brought to us by, in, and through our

13:46

Lord Jesus Christ. But Jeremiah preached and preached and preached and nobody listened to him.

13:53

He preached until even after Jerusalem had fallen. But Jeremiah never saw the revival he hoped for.

13:59

His warnings were repeatedly ignored. In fact, one king, Jehoiachim, actually took

14:05

Jeremiah's writing and he cut them up and threw them into the fire. How's that for a rejection of the

14:10

Word of the Lord? But these things did not stop Jeremiah from preaching the truth. Including telling

14:16

Judah the right way. And if they would follow God's way, they would find rest. Thus says the

14:22

Lord, stand by the roads and look and ask for the ancient paths where the good way is and walk in it and find rest.

14:28

Find rest for your souls. There's actually five commands there if you see. Stand.

14:34

Look. Ask. Walk. Find. All these commands. Stand by the roads.

14:40

By the crossroads. And look. You come to a crossroads, you know there's several ways that you can go.

14:47

You can go this way over here. Maybe you can go straight ahead. You can turn to the right. So stand by the roads and look.

14:52

And then ask. Ask for what? The ancient paths. And don't just ask for the ancient paths where the good way is, but walk in it.

15:01

If you do those things, you find rest for your soul. If Judah would do this, they would see mercy. But they would not listen, the text says.

15:08

They were stubborn and hard -hearted. They refused the Lord's way. Now, what is the Lord's way? What are these ancient paths?

15:15

Well, I say to you this evening that we can understand them as they are this book.

15:21

God's Word is God's way for us to follow. These are the ancient paths to trod.

15:28

Let me prove it a little bit exegetically. The Hebrew word here for way. Stand by the roads and look and ask for the ancient paths where the good way is.

15:38

The Hebrew word here for way. Also for roads. In our text, it's used all over the place in the

15:45

Old Testament. For example, it's in Psalm 1. Also, it's in the Proverbs where it says, you've heard this, there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.

16:00

So these roads, there are roads in our life, as it were, roads or paths or ways that we can choose to follow every day, but so many of them are the roads that are deceptive or destructive or the way that leads to death.

16:14

So Jeremiah says stand at the roads and look. Which path, essentially, will you trod?

16:21

Which way will you go? The way of sinners? Or the way of the righteous? The way that seems right to a man?

16:26

Or God's way? We're to ask for the ancient paths, the paths that we are able to read right here in our own language.

16:33

We stop. We look like we teach our children. Come to a crossroad. You look both ways.

16:39

We look. We consider. But the way that we should seek is the ancient paths.

16:46

Now listen, this does not mean that the old is automatically right.

16:53

This doesn't mean that change is always bad. Some of you perhaps resist change in the church because you idolize traditions that the

17:04

Lord never gave you. You desire, maybe for example, the 1950's, but God is calling the church today much further back than the 1950's.

17:15

The ancient paths go much further back than that. Stop and look and ask for the ancient paths where the good way is in walking it.

17:23

God is calling His people to the ancient paths. And one neat thing about the Hebrew word here for ancient is that it can mean a long time back.

17:31

It can also mean a long time in the future. Think about that for a second. These ancient paths that we are commanded to walk are also the everlasting paths.

17:43

The ancient paths for us are the Scriptures. The ancient paths are the eternal paths.

17:49

The road God would have us to walk is the road of unchanging truth. The Word fixed in the heavens.

17:56

Listen, we live in a day of change. I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. I don't know what kind of press conference is going to come out.

18:02

I don't know what kind of nuclear warning there's going to be. We live in a day of change after change after change.

18:08

And God is calling His people to fix their eyes upon His unchanging truth and to go that way.

18:14

To walk in that. This is the way that God's people have always tried.

18:21

God's true people. Remember what Enoch did? He walked with God on these paths trusting

18:28

His revealed Word. Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, the Lord Jesus traversed these paths.

18:37

This is where the good way is. Stand by the roads and look and ask for the ancient paths where the good way is and walk in it and find rest for your souls.

18:46

One commentator notes, the path which leads to the enjoyment of covenant blessings from the Lord. This is the path of blessing.

18:53

This is the road believers must walk. The Word of God is the way of God's people.

18:59

Friends, not just theoretically, but practically. God's Word instructs us on how His church should be.

19:06

Now, it's the year of our Lord, 2022. And we are blessed this year with another election year.

19:13

And so we have the added blessing of our day, don't we, of campaign promises. I love campaign promises.

19:20

Don't you? Well, of course not. I'm tired of the lies from the left and the lack of backbone from the right.

19:29

Campaign promises are often empty. But let me remind us tonight of a promise from the

19:35

Lord Jesus. Jesus says in Matthew 16, 18 what? A promise.

19:42

I will. Not my. I will build my church.

19:50

This is a promise more sure than tomorrow's sunrise. Christ will build His church. It doesn't matter what the media might say.

19:57

It doesn't matter what Bologna or Perryville might say. It doesn't matter what any deacon or pastor might say.

20:02

Christ will build His church. In fact, He is building His church. In places

20:09

I can't name. Even though Cole can name them, I can't name. Christ is building

20:16

His church. All over the world today, this promise is coming to fruition.

20:23

And we understand that it is by the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ that all God's people of all time are saved.

20:31

And we understand that it is by His Gospel that the local church is birthed.

20:37

Christ lived for sinners. Christ bled for sinners. Christ was crucified for sinners. Christ rose again in victory for sinners.

20:43

Christ is a propitiation for sinners. All for the ultimate purpose of God's glory. And this victory means that sinners don't stay sinners in their identity.

20:55

The Holy Spirit applies the Gospel to our hearts in real time by sovereign grace alone.

21:01

They're born again to newness of life and in obedience to the Lord. They now seek to follow Him in believer's baptism and unite themselves with the local church.

21:09

Why? Because the Bible tells us, in Titus 2 for example, that Jesus isn't just saving individuals.

21:14

He's saving a people. What I'm trying to communicate here is that the local church is not just an addendum to the

21:22

Christian life. Really, in one sense, it is the

21:29

Christian's new life. The local church is not just a good idea for Christians.

21:35

It is how Christians live out New Testament Christianity. It's how believers walk

21:41

God's ancient paths. It means that sayings that you hear, I know you hear them in Valonia.

21:47

I hear them in Perryville. Quite often, sayings like, I don't have to go to church to be a Christian. Or stop going to church.

21:54

Start being the church. It means those sayings are stupid. They're about as useful as a steering wheel on a mule.

22:04

They're worthless. Any plow boy with the Bible in hand ought to see right through those cliches.

22:12

I promise you, if you're standing at the crossroads and you look at the sign that says, the local church is optional, that is not the ancient path that the

22:19

Lord calls you to follow. Turn and run from that idolatry before it ruins and kills your soul.

22:26

So Jesus promises to build His church. And then Paul says in Ephesians 2, 19 and 20, you're no longer strangers and aliens, but your fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,

22:40

Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone. That is, the way that the church is built is by the finished work of Christ for our sins.

22:49

And then now we assemble and we seek to follow our Lord so that the church's way is regulated by the apostles and prophets, by the

22:59

Scriptures. It is really the church's obligation to follow. I think that it is not inappropriate to this text to say, hey, tonight we need to think about Jeremiah 6 .16.

23:10

We need to stand at the roads and we need to look which direction are we going to go in the year of our Lord, 2022, and we're about to hit a new year.

23:17

Which way are we going to go? When the world is falling apart and when America is falling apart and all these things just seem to be changing, what are we going to do as a church?

23:26

And the answer is for us tonight is that we need to stand, we need to look, we need to ask, we need to see the ancient past, we need to see the

23:33

Scriptures, and that's the way we need to go. Whatever the book says. It's not just our obligation, friends.

23:41

It's our delight. Because the text is, and find rest for your souls. Man, there's a lot of people that profess to be

23:48

Christians and I'm like, they don't got rest for their souls. There's delight here.

23:54

When the church becomes just something else that you have to do and your life is so full of all these other things and people are like, man,

24:00

I just don't got time for church. That tells me, man, you ain't got rest for your souls, brother. When we seek to construct the local church

24:09

Christ's way, it is the most beautiful place on earth. It is not a country club. It is not a night club.

24:15

It is not a community center. It's much more glorious than that. I'll get to that in a minute. What I want to do this evening is again,

24:20

I want you to consider yourselves at the crossroads, so to speak. In your mind, it's fine.

24:26

Put yourself here. Stand by the roads. Stand by the crossroads and look. And so what you're doing tonight, you're standing at the roads and you're looking and you're considering.

24:34

And what I want you to ask yourselves tonight is this question. What is it, what is it that really shapes your thinking about the local church?

24:45

Is it the way that you grew up as a kid? By the way, I'm not dismissing all of these. Is it the way you grew up as a kid?

24:53

Is it your grandparents? Is it the fact that some church down the road is growing by doing this or that type of thing?

25:00

Is it your preferences? What is it? What is shaping your thinking about the local church above all else?

25:06

And my plea with you tonight, even some of those good things, my plea with you tonight, is that what shapes your thinking about the local church above all else, above tradition, above how you grew up, above your grandparents, as beneficials, all those things might be.

25:20

What you need to have shaping your thinking about the church above all else is the Word of God.

25:27

The Scriptures. Stand by the roads and look and ask for the ancient past where the good way is and walk in it and find rest for your soul.

25:37

The good way of the church is God's Word. The church must be regulated by the

25:42

Scriptures for it is Christ's church. This ain't

25:48

Wade's church. The other pastors' churches, deacons' churches, this is Christ's church.

25:55

He didn't say, I'm going to build Quatro. Everybody calls me Quatro, so some of you know me now. He didn't say,

26:00

I'm going to build Quatro's church, praise God. He said, I'm going to build my church. So let me give you two illustrations and then

26:09

I have five points. Are you okay? And then sometime before tomorrow's session we'll be finished,

26:16

Lord willing. First illustration, suppose I had a million dollars. No, no, no. We're supposing.

26:22

Let's go bigger than that. Suppose I had millions of dollars. Suppose I had a billion dollars.

26:28

And I gave you a few million dollars. And I gave you a blueprint. And I said,

26:36

I got to go overseas for a year. Here's a blueprint of the home that I want you to build for me.

26:44

So when I come back, I'd like you to have this house ready for me. And here are the plans to build it.

26:50

You have more than enough resources. You have all the resources you need. And if you don't have any other resources, in fact, ask me anything you will, and I'll make sure you have the resources.

27:02

Sound a little familiar, doesn't it? Okay, so I give you the money. I give you the blueprint.

27:09

I leave. Now what would you do with those plans? Never done it that way before.

27:22

Is that what you would do? You say, well, I think it would be more practical to put the kitchen over here.

27:30

It doesn't seem right to have all these windows here. Let me put more windows over here instead.

27:36

Oh, I know he wants the house painted red, but I think I'll paint it yellow instead. Of course, if you had any sense, you wouldn't do any of those things.

27:42

Why? It's not your house. It's mine. And you would build it the way

27:48

I want it. Friends, it's not our church. It's not our church.

27:54

It's Christ's church. And we have no right to move things around according to our preferences or worldly standards or cultural acceptance or political correctness.

28:04

Not even the government is over the church. This is Christ's church.

28:10

And we are under the great obligation of our holy and good

28:18

God to regulate the church according to Christ's blueprints.

28:27

We're both foolish and wicked if we try to do it our own way. Second illustration.

28:33

Elevates to PG -13, but be careful with my language. Suppose my wife and I were out to eat one night in Conway.

28:40

We come out of the restaurant. We're holding hands. Some guy comes up behind her and smacks her on the backside, puts his arm around her, says, how you doing, baby?

28:55

Now what am I going to do? Am I going to smirk? Am I going to laugh?

29:03

Am I going to run away? Am I going to look down? What am

29:08

I going to do? No. I'm going to lay hands on that individual quickly and violently.

29:15

Why? That is my bride. And you do not have the right to touch her like that, to seek to harm her, to treat her rudely or unkindly or any such thing, because she's my wife.

29:28

And this is the way that husbands ought to treat their wives. Friends, how much more serious does

29:40

King Jesus take those who mistreat His bride?

29:47

No pastor. No deacon. No committee member. No secretary. No church member.

29:52

No visitor. No politician. No president. No one has the right to put their hands on Christ's church and seek to harm her, abuse her, lead her astray, or mistreat her.

30:07

This is Christ's church. No one is allowed to tell her what she can and cannot do, except for one, our

30:18

Lord Jesus. This is Christ's church. He is supreme. And He has given us

30:24

His book. Friends, the church must walk in the ancient paths.

30:30

The church must be regulated by the Scriptures. There will literally be hell to pay if we think we can forsake

30:38

Christ by treating His church like a harlot. Okay, all of this is a long introduction.

30:47

Praise the Lord. Bringing me to my outline. I want to give you five ways the local church must be regulated by the

30:54

Scriptures. Stand by the road. I say this more topical, but stand by the roads and look and ask for the ancient paths where the good way is and walk in it and find rest for your souls.

31:07

That's what the Lord says. Thus says the Lord. If we're going to walk the ancient paths that God would have us to walk, then we must think biblically about the church in these five areas.

31:17

The Scriptures must regulate these ways of the church. Number one, in the church's meaning.

31:24

Number one, in the church's meaning. That is, here's what I mean by that. You and I don't get to define the church.

31:33

We don't get to say, well, I think this is the church or that's the church or this is what a church is. No, no. The Bible does this.

31:39

This means I can't only understand the church in its universal sense. I can't just say the church is every believer of all time and nothing else.

31:48

Why? Because the Bible tells me about the church at Corinth and the church at Philippi and the church at Ephesus.

31:56

And it tells me of the one another's, like, carry one another's burdens and confess your sins one to another.

32:02

And there is no way, if you study that and think through that, there's no way that you actually can fulfill these commands in any sort of tangible or meaningful way unless I'm plugged in to a local church meaningfully and covenantally.

32:18

I don't get to define the church. The Bible does.

32:24

The Scriptures regulate the church's meaning. You can't just say, well, me and three of my buddies go fishing every

32:32

Sunday. And the Bible says we're two or three together. That Jesus is with us. So we are a church.

32:39

Son, you're not anymore a church than Joe Biden is making executive decisions. Because the

32:48

Bible defines the meaning of the church.

32:55

And you laugh. But I've met a lot of knuckleheads who've said that and worse about Christ's bride.

33:03

Scripture defines the church. This is Christ's church. Secondly, the Bible regulates the church's meaning.

33:08

Secondly, the Bible regulates the church's membership. The Bible teaches us that it is only those who are born again who see the kingdom of God.

33:19

It's interesting, isn't it, not to take a shot at our Pado -Baptist brothers. It's interesting that we have some of those who would say that they want those outside the kingdom inside the church, right?

33:33

That actually doesn't even make biblical or theological sense. It doesn't even make common sense. The Bible regulates our membership.

33:43

And not just in telling us that only those born again can be members of the church, but that these born again also need to submit to believers' baptism in order to join the local church.

33:54

Because in baptism, I don't have time to preach all on baptism, but let me just suffice it to say that in baptism we are saying that this man or woman is a brother or sister in Christ and we know that, at least to the best of our ability, because he or she has submitted their life to Christ and is signifying such through this outward ordinance.

34:15

The Bible also regulates our membership by showing us what a Christian ought to be. A few weeks ago, no, maybe it's

34:25

October, so a couple months ago now, we had a young lady in our church. Praise God that she called me about this.

34:32

But she's off in Fort Smith and she went to a Sunday school class and she said, she just called me concerned.

34:39

She said, Brother Quatro, this Sunday school teacher told me that we are to judge other

34:46

Christians. And that just doesn't feel right. And I said, me and my wife were sitting there on the phone, had her on speaker.

34:55

I said, I want you to go to 1 Corinthians 5 .12. Did you know the Bible instructs us to judge those who profess to be

35:03

Christians? Now that seems so foreign to you because you've grown up all your life just hearing, don't judge, don't judge, don't judge, don't judge.

35:10

But listen to God's Word. 1 Corinthians 5 .12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders?

35:15

Paul is telling the church at Corinth during this church discipline issue. Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?

35:28

And Arkansans can understand it, right? The local church is to be a disciplined church.

35:36

Those whose outward actions are not in line with Christ's revealed will. That is what the

35:42

Bible says a Christian looks like. By the way, you don't get to define a Christian either and neither do I. It's the

35:47

Bible. So those not in line with Christ's revealed will for His people ought to be confronted in love by the church.

35:54

They ought to be called to repentance in love by the church. If they continue in unrepentance, they ought to be removed from the church.

36:06

You say, well, I don't like that. Okay. Go create your own universe and then you can be head of the church.

36:21

But until that day, the sovereign King of Heaven demands that you follow

36:28

His design for the church and not your own.

36:35

The Word of God regulates our membership. Who can be a member? How they are to become a member?

36:40

What their responsibilities are as members? Which, by the way, means that there is no such thing as members to just sit and do nothing.

36:48

Right? Paul says a church is like a body. I think a lot of people really feel that they have a divine call to be the appendix in the body.

36:56

They say they don't do anything until they get upset and then rupture the church. That's not what you're called to be.

37:04

You're called to be an active, viable, functioning member of the local church.

37:10

The Bible regulates our membership. The Bible regulates the church's meaning and the church's membership.

37:16

Thirdly, the Bible regulates the church's methodology. The church's methodology.

37:23

Again, Jeremiah, thus says the Lord, stand by the roads and look and ask for the ancient paths where the good way is and walk in it and find rest for your souls.

37:32

You know what's beautiful about this? What's beautiful about this is God doesn't give us the

37:37

Scriptures in such a way to just start our journey and just like, man,

37:43

I hope that you make it. Whichever way, we're all just walking this road and we're all just trying and we're all just trying to end up here and we'll do our best.

37:50

No, He's given us some very detailed instructions. And to walk the ancient paths means

37:56

I want to do church the way the Lord has instructed. There's two points to mention here under methodology. Number one, by methodology,

38:04

I mean our Sunday worship. Our Sunday worship. In the context of worship in the

38:10

Old Testament, God says to the people of Israel in Deuteronomy 12 .32, everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do.

38:20

How much, Lord? How much? Hey, look. I'm from Perryville.

38:27

You get a C in class, you know what we say. C means continue. Is that what you mean? Seventy percent?

38:33

Seventy percent, Lord? Can I just get a C in worship? No, He says, everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do, you shall not add to it or take from it.

38:46

I'm just going to tell you tonight, God cares how He's worshipped. God cares so much about how

38:54

He is worshipped and He's so deserving of our worship that He has given us clear instruction in His Word about how we are to worship

39:02

Him. There are so many places, even brothers and sisters that I think

39:09

I would agree with on a lot of things, so many places that have messed up the worship of God.

39:14

And the worship is to be centered around the Word of God and the

39:19

Gospel of King Jesus. We're to read the Word of God. Why did we start this tonight?

39:26

It's interesting. Now, let's think about what Brother Robbie did. He came here tonight and he opened us up by reading the Bible. Did we just come together and just say, boy, that would be a good idea, wouldn't it?

39:35

You know what? Let's read the Bible. That would be a good idea. No, the Bible actually commands us to give heed to the public reading of Scripture.

39:44

Robbie read the Scriptures in obedience to God's Word. He's revealed that we ought to read the Bible. We ought to read the

39:50

Word of God. We must preach the Word of God. We must sing the Word of God. We must pray according to the

39:56

Word. We must give in accordance to the Word. We must display the Word of God in the ordinance.

40:02

All of this with godly reverence, understanding that our approach to God is through the finished work of Christ alone.

40:11

Our worship is regulated by Scriptures. In fact, this is what we call the regulative principle of worship.

40:17

The Bible tells us what God desires in our worship, and we are careful not to add to that or take away from it.

40:26

Why? Because we long to honor and glory in our great

40:32

God. We love Him. And we want to worship Him. We don't just worship

40:38

Him however it is we feel. Your feelings stink sometimes, right? They're terrible sometimes.

40:44

And so we try to go from feeling in order to, like, how did worship feel for you today?

40:49

Well, in one sense, it doesn't matter how it made you feel. And it matters because it's true. Now, the truth leads our feelings, though, right?

40:57

Like, the truth shapes our affections, and we do feel, but the feeling comes through the truth rather than trying to dictate our worship by our feelings.

41:07

And it means we ought to judge it. I understand it. You can be a cranky person like this.

41:12

You better guard your heart. Okay, so there's some ways maybe you take this too far, but let me just say this.

41:18

We need to think about the songs that we sing. I think it was Charles and John Wesley that had the conversation that Charles, the one that we still sing some of his hymns, he told his brother

41:28

John, he said, you preach to the people and I'll lead them in singing, and in ten years, they'll still be singing my theology.

41:35

Right? They won't remember your sermons. That's true. We ought to think about what we sing.

41:44

The Bible must control the way we sing about God. His love is not reckless.

41:52

That's old. But how foolish can we be? Jesus is not our boyfriend gushing over us like we're his high school crush.

42:04

We sing a lot of horrible things in churches today because we don't know the Bible. And I'm not just talking about Caleb, though, yeah,

42:12

I'm on a vendetta against Caleb. No. I've seen some terrible songs in the heavenly highways.

42:20

Look up Ain't It a Shame, right? Ain't it a shame to lie on Sunday? Ain't it a shame a lying shame?

42:26

Ain't it a shame to lie on Sunday? When you got Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.

42:34

What? That's not a good song. The point is that the

42:40

Bible must regulate our singing. We must think biblically about how we sing and what we sing because our songs teach us theology.

42:47

I don't care if it's right or wrong or good or bad. Here's the reality. The songs that you sing teach.

42:55

And we also must remember, and I love what the screen says right now, so I don't have to go over this point, but right now we're worshiping.

43:04

Not just the songs are the worship. We're still worshiping during the preaching. As God's Word is being heralded, we're either responding in faith or we're closing our hearts to God.

43:15

Alright, the Bible regulates the local church's methodology. And the first way we see that is in Sunday worship.

43:20

The second way we see that is in soul winning. One, Sunday worship. Two, soul winning. What I want to say here is that the church is obligated to spread the

43:27

Gospel of our Lord and Savior far and wide in our neighborhoods and to the nations. I think there will be a message about that maybe tomorrow night.

43:34

So from Valonia to Veracruz to Venice, we want the Gospel of Christ to go to the nations.

43:42

But soul winning, or evangelism in missions, is not anything goes.

43:50

Our methodology is regulated by the Scriptures. A lot of churches are busy with a lot of activities that they want to call outreach.

44:01

Let me just say something to us. The Lord hasn't called us to do outreach. He's called us to declare the glory of His name to every creature in the planet.

44:13

I'm just grilling hot dogs and burgers out here just to let people know how much I love them and how much

44:19

Jesus loves them. But if they come and they eat a hot dog and they never hear the Gospel and they die on the way home, they've gone to hell and you haven't done evangelism.

44:29

There's a methodology. Yes, yes, yes. The church ought to be kind and loving and ought to help folks in need.

44:37

I'm not against those things. But biblical evangelism is telling sinners the good news of what

44:43

Jesus has done and it is calling upon sinners to turn from their sins and repentance and to trust

44:50

Christ alone by faith as their only suitable and all -sufficient Savior. Friend, if you haven't communicated that message with the response to repent and believe the

44:59

Gospel, you haven't done evangelism. There's a methodology. And too many churches have abandoned the ancient paths of soul winning long ago and now we're reaping what we've sown.

45:11

I'm almost embarrassed to tell you this because you make fun of our community, but last week in Imperiaville, we had a goat festival.

45:18

I'm not making that up. It was people dressed their goats in strange costumes. It's a real thing.

45:25

It's a weird thing. But there weren't near as many goats at that festival as there are in so many churches today because of poor methodology in evangelism.

45:36

Let the hearer understand. The Bible must regulate the church's methodology.

45:42

This is true of Sunday worship. It's true of soul winning. Fourthly, the Scriptures must regulate the local church's management.

45:50

In Philippians 1 .1, Paul says this, that he's writing to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi with the overseers and deacons.

46:01

Listen very carefully here because we see the three offices of the church. Yes, I said three.

46:08

I know as Baptists we only affirm two, but I'm being hyperbolic here. I'm going to add a third to make a point.

46:16

We see overseers who are the pastors. And we see deacons. Thirdly, don't forget the saints.

46:24

That is, we believe every member of a church is responsible in approving what the

46:30

Bible reveals. By the way, I'll just make this comment. It's not even anything

46:36

I want to even argue about. I'll just make the comment though that in Philippians 1 .1, just like in every

46:41

New Testament church we see, all three of these are plural. Pastors, deacons, saints. And that is, you really can't have a church with only one saint, right?

46:49

So you've got multiple saints. But then we also see multiple pastors and deacons. We should seek to model a plurality of pastors and deacons in our churches as we have qualified men to do so.

47:01

The point is our churches are to be congregational. They are to be deacon -served.

47:07

They are to be pastor -led. And all of this is under the government of King Jesus. Get this out of your mind tonight.

47:14

The church is not a democracy. The church has never been a democracy. In fact, just because a majority may vote one way doesn't make it right.

47:24

And you're tired of the Baptist jokes. I'm tired of the Baptist jokes. How many Baptists does it take to change a light bulb, right?

47:31

You've got to have a committee. And then you've got to have a meeting. And then you're going to argue at the meeting.

47:36

So then you're going to push it to the next meeting. And your committee is going to meet in three months to change a light bulb.

47:43

Because we don't understand the management of the church. Congregational, deacon -served, pastor -led.

47:51

All under the government of King Jesus. Just because a majority votes one way doesn't make it right. Because the church is a monarchy.

47:59

It's ruled by King Jesus. He's the head of the church. Deacons, if there are deacons here tonight, you're not the head of the church.

48:08

Pastors, I know there are pastors here tonight, you're not the head of the church. Members, you're not the head of the church.

48:16

Christ is. And Christ has given a specific instruction for how He would have

48:22

His church to be managed. Church members, you're to love and to serve one another and help support the mission of the church, even financially.

48:30

Deacons, you're to help serve and to help take care of the physical needs of those in the body and to model, exemplary, be an example in your lives of holiness.

48:41

Pastors, you're to care for the souls of the church as those who will give an account to the Lord. You're to preach and teach

48:48

God's Word faithfully while having lives that match what they preach, by the way. Why do I even have to say this tonight?

48:54

But I will go ahead and say it. You have to be a qualified man. A qualified man.

49:00

There are churches, I don't want to go down the

49:06

SPC road, but let me just say, there's churches all over my convention that are just confused about this.

49:12

It's so plain and clear. Well, okay, we have a woman pastor, she's not a senior pastor.

49:19

What? It's clear. And it's not all men can be pastors. Right? I'm a man,

49:25

I can be a pastor. No. Qualified men are pastors.

49:32

And these pastors are to be leaders in evangelism and an example of what it means to follow the Lord in the home and in the church and in the world.

49:41

And church members and deacons ought to love and honor and follow and be grateful for godly pastors.

49:53

They're in the minority. I know that, well,

50:02

I wish I was preaching my church right now. I know there's things about Quatro that my church may rub them the wrong way.

50:09

I know there's things about Lee and Wade and Robbie might rub people the wrong way.

50:15

I know there's people in Brother Rick's church rub people the, I'm sure that rub people the wrong way, it's just the nature.

50:23

We're just people undergoing sanctification and sometimes those things happen. But listen, church, please, and I speak to the folks at Barrow, you must love and honor and follow and be grateful for these men who love the

50:38

Bible and they love the Gospel and they love Christ and they're not afraid to preach the

50:43

Bible and to teach the Bible and to live the full counsel of the Bible. They're not afraid. They're men with backbones and we ought to love and cherish and honor such men and follow them.

50:57

Follow your pastors. It's the Lord's will. Again, the point of all this is that the local church must be managed under the headship of Christ according to the standards and precepts

51:06

He's given us in His book. The Bible regulates the church's meaning, the church's membership, the church's methodology, the church's management, and finally, the local church's majesty.

51:18

Now what I mean here is this. The Bible tells us what a healthy and effective church is.

51:28

Not the world. Not some dude sitting in the offices of Lifeway.

51:34

Not some church growth company. The majesty of the church is defined by the

51:40

Scriptures. Parents in the home define a good meal. Not the children.

51:48

Let a kid pick what he wants to eat for supper and maybe he picks cotton candy and Skittles. And a night or two of that he might say is an effective meal.

52:00

But let that run long term and see what happens. So too it is with churches.

52:07

A lot of churches are running on cotton candy and Skittles. In their worship.

52:13

In their evangelism. In their preaching. And you might be tempted today to peer into their meeting and their assembly and see their parking lot full and see all the things they've got going on and see the helicopters flying over dropping all the

52:27

Easter eggs. And you might be tempted to say boy, that's the kind of church that we need. That's the kind of church that I want to be a part of.

52:36

But friends, all that cotton candy and Skittles.

52:44

Spiritual diabetes. And it will destroy the soul.

52:51

The Scriptures regulate the majesty of the church. What a real healthy church actually is and actually looks like.

53:02

And it's not necessarily how many cars are in the parking lot. The reality is the local church walking in the ancient past is the most beautiful place on earth.

53:15

Here is where believers from all walks of life

53:22

That's why I hate CRT. It's another mess. Here's believers from all walks of life.

53:27

From various ethnicities. From various socioeconomic backgrounds.

53:33

From different pasts. Different hobbies. Different interests. Here is where they all come together.

53:39

And here is where they share in common the Lord Jesus Christ. They're united to Christ.

53:46

And they're united to one another. And somebody may like the Bulldogs and somebody may like the

53:51

Razorbacks. But they share in Christ together. And one person was rescued from a life of prostitution.

53:59

And another person was rescued from a life of self -righteousness when they grew up in a Christian home. And yet both of them are redeemed by the blood of the

54:07

Lamb. And now they are united together in membership in the local church. The most beautiful place on earth.

54:14

This is where we help each other fight sin and sharpen one another in the faith. And share fellowship in Christ.

54:20

Where the kingdom of God is expanding. Where believers are growing in holiness. Where Christ is honored and rejoiced in by all.

54:27

And where every Lord's Day, the saints can lay aside the frustrations and the burdens of living in such a godless,

54:35

God -hating, Christ -hating society. And they can come in these doors together. And they can sing the

54:41

Word. And they can hear the Word preached. And they can pray together. And they can rejoice in their Savior as they worship their

54:47

Triune God. What a glory the local church is!

54:55

Where the Gospel is carried forth. And where we see true conversions.

55:01

Where we see the prodigals come home. We see the worst person in town bow the knee to Christ.

55:11

Huh! What a beauty! It's the most beautiful place on earth when she is regulated by the

55:19

Scriptures. When she stands by the road and looks and asks for the ancient past where the good way is and walks in it and finds a rest for her soul.

55:37

But how many churches and pastors and deacons are guilty of the second part of this verse, the end sentence.

55:43

But they said we will not walk in it. We don't care.

55:53

We want the church to be like it was at this point in time.

56:00

Or we want the church to be like that church down the road. We want a better youth ministry or children's ministry.

56:09

Or we want to do things like they're doing. Or we want to be less offensive here so that we can reach this or that person.

56:16

By the way, let me just tell you something. I don't care. Where are we at now? Generation Z. So I don't know where we go after that.

56:22

Do we just start over in the alphabet? I don't know how that works, but I can tell you this. I don't care what generation it is. I'll tell you how to reach them.

56:29

Preach the gospel. But there are many that say we will not walk in it.

56:43

Whether it's pride or selfishness or idolatry prevents us from walking this road.

56:49

So I set before you tonight simply this. Will we trust God's way for His church? Will we trust

56:55

His Bible or not? I'm going to say a hard truth tonight, but I say it because I love you.

57:00

Some of you here tonight, you don't trust the Bible because you're not a Christian. I tell you that because the gospel is so big and so glorious that there's actually hope for your hypocrisy tonight.

57:24

Will you repent? What a terrible predicament you're in. Deciding even now whether you'll hold on to hypocrisy or flee to Jesus.

57:33

And I say under the authority of God's Word, repent now and go to the

57:38

King of mercy in repentance and faith. And there's not one person who's ever come to Christ in faith that He's turned away.

57:49

All the Father gives me will come to me. And whoever comes to me, King James says, I will in no wise cast out.

57:59

Repent and believe the gospel. For the rest of you, let me say this. This is

58:04

Christ's church. You stand at the crossroads tonight. You think about the state of our country.

58:10

You think about maybe the state of your home or the state of Valonia or whatever. There's so many ways that you could choose.

58:16

There's so many paths that we could follow when it comes to Christ's church. You could go the church growth movement.

58:21

You could go heavenly highway only. There's so many ways that you could go. But will you walk the ancient paths?

58:28

You have the Bible in your own language. You have no excuse tonight.

58:34

What we need today is a reformation. And the only way that will ever happen is if everyday

58:40

Christians get serious about this Bible. We need a reformation today, not of seminarians and theologians and professors.

58:49

We need a reformation of plowboys. We need the pig farmers and the row croppers and the construction workers and the blue collars to pick up this holy book of God and to be willing and ready to do all that it says, especially so when it comes to Christ's church.

59:04

We need that today. Will you take it up and read? What is it tonight that really shapes your thinking about the local church?

59:16

And if it's not God's Word, you must repent and submit yourself tonight to this infallible standard.