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Father in heaven, Lord, we come before you this morning, so thankful to have the opportunity to just gather to be called your people, to have your word, to have this opportunity for fellowship, for teaching, for just exchanging our joy in what you're doing.
Lord, I pray that you would bless our time together as we look at what your word says about the church, about how we ought to view it.
Father, I pray that you would teach us to love your work, that is the building of the church, even more as time goes on.
In Christ's name we pray, amen. Let me ask you a question. If you were, and I'm not suggesting this, but if you were looking for a church, what would be some of the questions that you would want to ask?
Stephen, do you deal with overt sin?
That's a good one, because a lot of churches don't. Doctrine. Doctrine.
What do you guys teach? I mean, you know, it's funny, because I go to a lot of church websites, and when
I click on what they teach, you know, and they have like three sentences down there, and I'm like, you know, is there something else?
No? That's what we teach. I don't know, that's kind of sketchy. Good, doctrine, you want to know that, right?
Melissa? Do you believe the Bible is the inerrant word of God?
Because there are a lot of churches that don't really believe that. And then there are churches that say they believe that, and then don't really practice it.
So, yeah, that's a good one. Eric? What?
Do they practice church discipline? Now, what do you suppose, what kind of questions do you suppose we get the most here at Bethlehem Bible Church?
People who haven't been to the church, they call or they email, what do you suppose they want to know? Flow. What's your music like?
What's your music like? That's number one with the bullet. Yeah, that's a big one.
People want to know, you know, really what they'd like to see is laser shows and Charlie playing the guitar behind his head.
That's what they like. He could do that, but, Charlie. Sorry, Bruce.
Yeah, what kind of programs do you have? You know, are you going to be able to keep my kids entertained because I really can't?
Sorry. Will. Yeah. Yeah.
How long are the talks? That's what I want to know. Because if the talks are really long,
I don't know if I can handle that. Yeah, talks. Who shares on Sunday morning? Seniors program?
Oh, singles program. See, I...
Becky was asking about the senior single program. Singles.
Yeah, we do get that question. That's good. People... I mean, people, you know, much like...
It's almost like politics. Everybody wants to know that their particular interest group is going to be addressed, right?
I see another hand over here somewhere. Carmen. Yeah, do you have a drama or dance ministry?
And, you know, Mike and I have been working on it, but I can't get him in rhythm at all.
Some of the questions that we also get asked are...
How about this one? What version of the Bible do you use? Why do you suppose people ask that question?
Generally, because they're fundamentalists. They want to know if we use the King James Version. Because if we don't, that's three strikes against us already.
You know? Because the King James is the Word of God. Any other things that come to mind,
Stephen? Yep.
Yeah, what do you believe about the gifts? You know, things like that, yep. You know, another interesting thing is people want to know how big the church is.
Why? I mean, if I said on the phone, no, I wouldn't say this. 3 ,000. Would that make them more or less likely?
What does that have to do with anything? Now, if I were calling in a place like, you know, central
Massachusetts, if I was looking for a church and I called up and they said 3 ,000, I'd probably right away think, what?
Well, either you're lying or it must be a really weak church. That would be my, you know. You can't get 3 ,000 people in central
Massachusetts to come in here with a Bible. That's what, you know, humanly speaking, we would say that.
Yeah, so those are some of the questions that we do get asked. You know, how long are the services? All these kind of things.
You know, and they ask about kids. And I think the version of the Bible is interesting too because people seem to be hung up on that.
But they're asking all these peripheral questions when they ought to be asking things like, you know, what do you teach?
What do you believe? Things like that. You know, is there a website where I can go listen to some sermons?
I like to test drive before I show up. I rarely get that. But we've been talking about the nine essentials,
I believe, of any Bible teaching church. And we've been going through those.
And we've talked about... make sure I don't skip any of them.
Well, we've had expository preaching, biblical theology, biblical understanding of the gospel, biblical understanding of conversion.
Those two really go hand in hand. If you have a biblical understanding of the gospel, how it transforms lives and what it consists of, then obviously you would want to see that fleshed out in the lives of people.
Biblical understanding of evangelism, again, tied very closely to that. And if you understand the gospel rightly, you will evangelize, hopefully, rightly.
What you won't want to do is present something...
How many of you have ever been through any kind of evangelism program? Not enough.
The first one I was in was called Discipleship Evangelism.
It was based on Evangelism Explosion, which started in Florida.
I forget the guy's name. What is it? D. James Kennedy, yeah.
Thank you. And, you know, it really did contain the gospel.
My discomfort with it would be we would go out... Well, first of all, one of the problems was I had a female...
She was my... I don't know what you want to call her, teacher, advisor, supervisor.
You know, and as soon as... It's interesting because as soon as I... I remember the story. I'll just tell you this. The kind of the back story.
As soon as MacArthur... They were in the elders' meeting one night, and I had a buddy, I had a spy in the elders' meeting.
I'd gone to seminary with him, and he said, you know, is there anything at the church that you don't like? I mean, you know, a church of 10 ,000 people,
Steve, that you'd like to change? And I said, well, you know, the evangelism program. And I talked a little bit about it, and one of the concerns
I had was women teaching men. And so this friend of mine was explaining in an elders' meeting because he was on the elder board at Grace Community Church, and MacArthur's sitting there scratching, you know, his notes for his sermon or whatever.
I mean, he's there, but he's not really there. And all of a sudden, he hears that, and he goes, we have what?
And that was the beginning and the end of discipleship evangelism. You know, it was like, we can't do that.
And so they changed the whole program. But it's important to have a right understanding of evangelism.
And one of the issues I had with that was that we would gather together after the night was over, we would gather together, and we would talk about whether we had any,
I don't think they called it decisions, whatever they talked about. And then it was like, okay, well, somebody said that they believe.
Well, did you try to walk them back? Did you try to talk them out of it?
You know, and all this other kind of... And it really was more of a sales -oriented... It made me a little queasy, and I didn't really like that.
And we would never see the Bible or the gospel presented in that way. And so we were reading last week...
In fact, let's just read this verse because it really does give us some kind of idea. 2
Timothy 2, verses 8 to 13. And we're going to wrap up talking about evangelism and move on from there.
2 Timothy 2, verses 8 to 13. And when somebody has that, would they read it, please?
Just give me a hand, and I'll... And we really focused on this idea of Paul enduring everything for the sake of the elect.
You know, here he is in prison. Suffering. But, you know, his purpose here is that they, talking about the elect, whom, you know, may be in prison with him, might also obtain salvation.
And then listen to verse 11 again. This saying is trustworthy, for if we have died with him, we will also live with him.
Well, what does that mean, to die with him? You know, when you're baptized, you are...
It's symbolic of being buried with Christ and then being raised with him. Well, to die with him means to die to self, to be willing to put aside what is comfortable for you, what makes you feel good, and to do what
Christ wants. So, you know, what's the number one reason people have for not evangelizing, for not presenting the gospel to people?
Fear of rejection. And like I think I said last week, you know, the greatest opportunity you'll ever have is if you're talking to a complete stranger, because you'll probably never see him again.
So who cares if they think you're an idiot, right? It's harder with family and with neighbors and whatnot, because these are people that you interact with all the time.
But if we consider what they're facing, if we consider an eternity of condemnation, an eternity facing the wrath of God, and we have compassion for souls like Jesus did, then we'll want to preach the gospel to people, because that is the way that God saves people.
It's through the hearing of the word. We learned that from Romans 10. How do people come to faith? It's by hearing the word of God.
Now, moving on through that verse there, he says, for this reason, through that passage.
Why? Because the scripture is not imprisoned. It's not chained up. We might be chained to some locality.
I mean, it's interesting when you think, you know, Pastor Mike's in Europe, but when you think of all the places that the gospel goes because of the
Internet, I mean, not just No Compromise Radio or the sermons here or whatever, but when you think about other ministries and the impact they have, you know, when you read, you know,
Grace to You has millions of downloads now that they made it all free. How awesome is that? Because the word of God is not imprisoned.
And the more communication, I mean, there are a lot of bad things with the Internet. There's a lot of time wasted, a lot of other issues.
But the fact is now the gospel can go anywhere at any time, 24 -7.
That's a great blessing. Notice again that in that verse, he endures all things for the sake of the elect.
And Hendrickson, I think I read this last week, but just to kind of catch us up where we were, it means more than mere acceptance.
It means going right ahead, believing, testifying, exhorting through the load under which one is traveling on life's pathway, even though it's become very heavy.
Imprisoned for the sake of the gospel, this is Paul, suffering at every turn, facing what will turn out to be his execution.
And he has a motivation. His motivation is, as long as I'm here, I'm going to try to reach the elect.
You know, people have a lot of problem with that. Well, you know, how do I know I'm one of the elect? How do I know if my spouse is one of the elect?
How do I know if my kids are one of the elect? How do you know if someone is elect or not?
Time and trials. They believe, right? And then we watch their life, or they watch their life, however it works out.
I mean, I don't, frankly, watch everybody's life. But you know that somebody's saved over time, the way that they respond to things.
And those who are chosen by God, but whose salvation has not yet come about, will come about in time.
And we don't know who the elect are. We just keep preaching, and God saves. You keep presenting the gospel to people, and God will surprise you.
Now, people say, well, you know, if you believe in the sovereignty of God and salvation, if you believe that he's going to save the elect, then maybe you don't have to evangelize.
There's no burden on you to evangelize. Well, what's the truth of that?
Does it dampen your desire to preach the gospel of God as sovereign in salvation? It should encourage you.
It's quite the opposite. Why? Because you know that God is going to do it despite you.
I mean, well, I mentioned Spurgeon before. I'll just tell you about me. The first time
I went to a Bible study, and it was really, with all respect to those who were there, pitiful.
It was a total pooling of ignorance. And I can remember, you know, the response was the next day, you know, one person talked to me and said, well, what did you think last night?
And here's, I'm the unbeliever, and they're concerned about what I'm thinking. And I said, well,
I was really hoping to hear about the difference that God had made in people's lives. And I didn't really hear that last night.
And so the next time was all about the changes that God had made in people's lives, which was fine, right?
But I mean, they shouldn't really have catered to me. But that's, you know, that's just kind of, that's the sort of Bible study it was.
But as a church, I wonder sometimes what we are willing to endure for the sake of the elect.
I mean, you know, to put myself kind of under the, throw myself under the bus.
You know, you are willing to endure me while Pastor Mike's in Europe. So you're doing that for the sake of the elect.
That's a blessing to those over in Europe, that's for sure. But what are we as a church willing to do?
How about you? Let me just put it this way. If you've been a
Christian for a month, or you've been a Christian for 40 years, or you've been a
Christian longer, and you can say to yourself, you know, I can never remember a time where I shared the gospel with anybody.
Why would be a good question to ask yourself? Why? What is it that I'm afraid of? Why am I not willing to endure whatever comes my way for the sake of the elect?
Some people say, well, I'm a good example. Well, being a good example is good.
It's good to be good, and it's nice to be nice. But the people get saved by the word of God.
Let's move on to biblical understanding of church membership, a biblical understanding of church membership.
And we're going to go to 1 Timothy 3, verses 14 and 15. And would somebody read those two verses while I steal a drink of water, please?
1 Timothy 3, verses 14 and 15. Mark. Thank you.
Now, when Paul wrote that to Timothy, do you think when he said, so that you may know how one ought to contact himself in the house of God, do you think he meant, you know, once you enter, you need to be quiet.
Make sure that you don't get in the usher's way. When the offering plate comes your way, make sure you throw some money in there.
Sing, you know, don't cause a ruckus. Is that what he was talking about?
Proper etiquette within the walls of the church? What do you think?
What did he mean by that? How are you supposed to conduct yourself in the house of God? What do you mean,
Bruce? Okay.
Wanting the right order in the church, wanting things to be done well, wanting the elders, certainly, and the deacons to be spiritually qualified.
But I think that there's even more to it. And we'll know that if we move on to in the household of God, which is the church of the living
God. If we think about when we come together, this is the local body of Christ.
Now, here's a burden. The pillar and support of the truth. That's what the church is. That's a description of it.
The pillar and support of the truth. We are to uphold the truth. But when we gather together on Sunday morning or Wednesday night or whatever else, how are we supposed to conduct ourselves?
Well, there are things that we ought to do and things that we ought not to do concerning body life, how we interact with each other, how we relate to one another.
Now, why is it important that we treat each other right, that we think about each other rightly?
Why are these things important? Part of the reason is because the church is a witness to the watching world.
When it says we are the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.
Well, we are to lift up the truth of God. We're to live out the truth of God.
And how exactly do we do that? How does it flesh itself out? Well, first of all, by gathering together.
Imagine if people know, let's just say, let's use neighborhood, but not in the sense of neighborhood evangelism.
Let's say your neighbors know that you are a Christian. And then you go to Bethlehem Bible Church.
And you go to church once a month. You go to church, you know,
Christmas and Easter. Then what is their take on the importance of going to church? It's not too important.
Hebrews 10 .25 says that we should not forsake the assembly of the saints.
That we need to gather together. We should encourage, we gather together to encourage one another. Now, I get, as you know,
I get the TBN newsletter. Because once you, you know, true confession time,
I did give once upon a time to TBN. And once you give to them once, you're on their, I mean, it's been almost 20 years.
And no matter, you know, and, you know, people are like, well, why don't you just tell them to stop? Why? It costs them money.
And it, you know, gives me something to talk about. So, and they have something called the church channel.
Now, imagine that. What are you supposed to the church channel? Why would you call something the church channel? Because people don't really need to go to church.
They can just turn on their TV and they can get their church there. And again, in Hebrews 10 .25.
In fact, let's just read that. Let's read Hebrews 10 .25. Not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
Now, that phrase there, as is the habit of some. We ought not be numbered among that some, the people who just kind of view going to church as an option.
I often tell people, you know, I hear this frequently. Well, you don't need to go to church to worship
God. Is that true? Yes. But what does it leave out of the equation?
By the way, I'm not asking you if you go, you know, if you're camping or something like that, if you go do something else, you know, once in a while.
But it's the habit. It's forsaking the assembly of the saints. Now, why do some people say that they don't really need to go or whatever?
Well, think about what they're missing out on. What are some of the things that you miss out on if you don't go to church, Carmen? Accountability.
I mean, how much easier is it to, you know, just say, well, I just commune with God in a forest.
I just light the campfire and turn on my Benny Hinn VHS tapes and I'm good to go.
That's easy, right? Did I see another hand over here? Yeah, Brian. The opportunity to serve.
How can you possibly, you know, everybody wants to figure out what their spiritual gifts are and that's good.
But how can you possibly employ them if you're by yourself? Because spiritual gifts are not to edify you.
They are what? To build up the body, to edify the body. What are the reasons why, what are the reasons are there that we should not forsake the assembly of the saints?
Bruce. Okay, you're not sitting under the teach word.
You know, that has a multitude of issues associated with it.
You know, if you meet with somebody who hasn't been at church in a long time and they've been getting their teaching via TV or the radio or whatever, what are you going to find out?
I'm going to guess that they probably have some holes in their doctrine. Why? Because they're not sitting under the preaching and teaching of the word.
They're not able to interact with other people and get their questions answered. I mean, you know, hey, if you're away from everybody else and you need to do something, well, it's better to listen to a sermon than do nothing at all.
But you're not going to systematically work through. I mean, those TV guys are terrible, but for the most part.
But you're not going to, most people would not systematically work their way through a book. And there's going to be no checks or bounces.
If you have some wrong view of scripture, how's it going to get corrected? How are you going to take care of that? What other sorts of things are lacking if you don't,
Joni? Well, it is different.
You know, listening in a sterile environment is different than listening in a non -sterile environment.
Because, you know, afterwards you get to talk about the sermon. You get to interact. You get to find out how one another are doing.
You're missing out on the whole effect of body life. It's not iron sharpening iron.
It's you dulling yourself, you know, basically. You're becoming a dullard.
Submission to authority. How are you, which is a great one. I like to say that, you know, the Bible says, submit yourself to your elders.
How do you do that if you have none, Dottie? Yeah, that's a great point.
You hear the needs of others. Not only might you be able to help, but you might be able to pray for them or encourage them in some way.
So that's a great point. We bear one another's burdens, right? That's why we come together. Charlie?
Yeah, I mean, what does that say about us that our convenience is more important than anything else? You know, I can't be bothered to get up.
I'll just worship at the Church of the Wrinkled Sheets, you know. Yeah, it's putting off sin.
It's putting on Christ. You know, we also won't get public reading of Scripture. We also won't get to sing, which is a great opportunity.
And it's also commanded in the New Testament. You know, yeah.
Yes, you may. Yes, you can put some fat on it too, which is a sad statement about a lot of churches.
But yeah, the hymns are rich with theology. And as Charlie says, I mean, I wouldn't recommend this as a means of discipleship, but you really can learn a lot just from the hymns, the songs.
You know, think about it. I am a humongous music fan.
What do we do if we have difficulty or trials in our life?
I mean, besides pray, besides become depressed, besides, you know, isolating ourselves or whatever, we often listen to music or we think about songs, at least
I do. And, you know, at times like that where there is difficulty in your life or whatever, you can find a lot of comfort, obviously in the
Scriptures, but also in good music. Why? Because as you rehearse, you know, it is well with my soul.
Amazing grace. When you think about the lyrics of those songs, I mean, I just, you know, my sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin, not the part, but the whole.
When I think about, every time we sing that verse, I get goosebumps. Why? Because I just think, I instantly think about every sin, not every sin that I have ever committed, but all the ones that readily come to mind, and I think they're all nailed to the cross.
I bear them no more. Now, do I feel bad after I sing that? No, because I'm reminded that I'm a bad sinner and that I have a great
Savior, that I'm redeemed, and these are things that bless us. You know, this is one of the things,
I'm not saying if you're sick, come to church anyway. I am saying that if you can be here, you really ought to be here, because you miss out when you're not here.
I had a seminary professor, and he put it in a different way. He said, he was talking about trying to be, you know, kind of the lone ranger in ministry and isolating yourself and everything, but it's true of every
Christian. You want to be the lone wolf? Well, the lone wolf is the dead wolf. You know, as Christians, we belong in a pack.
There's strength in numbers, not in the sense that, you know, we're some gang or something like that, but each of us individually are weak, and as a body, together, there's strength.
Some are weak in some areas, and they're strong in others, and when we come together, our weak points are reduced and our strength is built.
Tim? Yeah, I think that could definitely happen.
If you're isolated, if you're this lone wolf, definitely salvation can become about you and not about Christ.
You can kind of tend to forget a lot of things, a lot of truths that you absolutely need, and as believers, you know, bottom line of this verse, we absolutely need to gather together as often as possible.
Yeah, Karen? Yeah, it really is a little foretaste of heaven, and why would we want to voluntarily not do that?
I can't imagine. I mean, people have reasons, and things come up in life, and I understand that, but, you know, our first priority,
I mean, as somebody who spent, you know, the first several years he was a
Christian, basically working on Sunday in one way or another, you know, that's difficult, and if you have to work, then you have to work.
But boy, if I was starting out as a Christian, first of all, I never would have been a police officer, but secondly,
I would definitely have looked for a job that I didn't. I mean, I like being in church. I don't know about you, but I like being here.
So, and obviously, you do, too, or you wouldn't be here. But we should not forsake the assembly of the saints.
Let's look at 1 Peter 4 .10, and these are just going to reinforce some of the things that we've already discussed.
1 Peter 4 .10, and would somebody read that, please?
Yeah, go ahead. Now, just think about that.
You've received a gift, and it's now a stewardship. It's a responsibility. You need to use it.
And again, I just get back to that whole idea of being the lone wolf, or, you know, I don't need to go to church to worship
God. Well, you don't need to go to church to worship a god, but to rightly take care of what he has given you.
If you're a Christian, you have a spiritual gift. You are to employ it, serving other members of the body of Christ.
I could put it in a more challenging way. How dare you deprive the brothers and sisters of Bethlehem Bible Church of your spiritual gift?
God gave it to you. Why? So you could hide it under a bushel, bury it in the backyard, so you could employ it, so you can use it, is to serve the body of Christ.
1 John 4, 20, and I'll read this. It says, If someone says,
I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar. For the one who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love
God, whom he has not seen. And you say, well, how does that apply to church? Well, it relates to how we're to get along within the body of Christ.
And, I mean, we could do lesson after lesson about this. But we love one another within the...
By the way, that's not talking about a universal love. You know, if you're...
It's not talking about loving your neighbor or whatever, you know, or hating your neighbor.
This is talking about within the body of Christ. We need to understand the context of 1 John is to believers.
But if someone says they love God, but they hate somebody within the church, then he's a liar.
You say, well, what does that have to do with what we're talking about? Well, it's this. We come together. One of the things that happens when we come together is sometimes there's friction.
And what do we do about that friction? What happens if we don't get along with somebody? What are we to do? Parking lot.
You know, afterwards. No. We reconcile one to another.
Why? Because we want to love each other, not just have a warm, fuzzy feeling, but actively do good and do right to others.
And if we have something against somebody, what do we do? We don't just ignore it.
That would not be love. We take care of it. We address it. We go to them. This is what
MacArthur says. He says, one cannot love God without first loving his fellow believer. A claim to love
God is a delusion, if not accompanied by unselfish love for other
Christians. You know, you think it's hard to share the gospel with an unbeliever.
How about telling a believer that they've sinned against you?
Is that easy? I can tell you it's not.
Now, how does this love that we're to have for one another manifest itself in your life? You know, are you just too busy with other things to be bothered with the body of Christ?
That shouldn't be our testimony. We should love to be around the brothers. And, again, that goes back to just being in church, but during the week too.
I mean, I would say, and I talk about the Mormon Church, obviously, for a lot of reasons, but that was my life, you know, for the first probably 18, 19 years of life.
And it's a very cohesive lifestyle. I mean, you're with people from the church
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, I mean, all the time. I think they exhibit love sometimes better than we do.
And such things should not be. We need to show our love for one another. And this one was mentioned,
Hebrews 13, 17, Now, how do you do that if you're not part of a church?
You know, some people even struggle with this. Well, you know, I am submitting to you.
I just don't agree with you. What does submission mean?
Even though I don't agree with you, I'm going to submit. I don't really know that you're right, elders of Bethlehem Bible Church, but I'm going to submit.
Now, if there's a verse that you can point to and you say, well, you know what, I think you guys have this wrong and here's why.
Well, then if we don't repent, we're in trouble. But generally speaking, I haven't come across that yet, where somebody has been able to come up to us with a verse and say, you know what, you guys need to change this.
But what we find is that people want to, they want to say that they're submitting to the elders and then they want to do what?
Complain. I'm going to submit, but, you know, let me get Hank and some other guys over here and we're going to complain about those elders.
That's not submission. That's just not submission and it should not happen. But again, you know,
I would just point out that if this is a command to obey your leaders, that there really is no, there are no, there are no
Christians that should be separated from the pack. There's no, you know, sheep that are separate from the herd.
There's just no, you know, there's no way to be alone and on your own and submit to your leaders. That just can't happen.
We need to join, every one of us need to join a church. We need to subvert, serve, submit, and love the brothers.
Paul also tells us that we should not trivialize or make light of church membership.
Let's look at 1 Corinthians 5, 1 Corinthians 5, and we're going to talk for a moment about church discipline.
And, you know, it really is kind of a breathtaking thing when we, when we see this and trust me, the people it's hardest on, and I'm not boasting in any way, but it's hardest on the elders.
Because we know what's going on, we can't tell anybody about it. We go and we confront people and we beg them to repent and then we'll send follow -up letters and we'll tell them that we're going to have to take it to the church.
And then we do that and then it's the, on the, but when we've done this, each and every time,
I mean, it is sleepless, it is thankless, it is hard. And by the way, it's not like we do it a lot, because thankfully by the
Spirit of God, most people repent long before we get there. But listen to 1 Corinthians 5, verses 1 to 5.
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans.
For a man has his father's wife, and you are arrogant. He's writing to a church.
Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.
For though absent in body, I am present in spirit. And as if present,
I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the
Lord Jesus, and my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the
Lord. Listen, we, when we do this, when we find out somebody who's in sin, however it is, you know, generally speaking it comes from some third party, and we say, well, have you gone to that person?
Yes. Well, then it's right for that person and someone else to go confront them, right? It's Matthew 18, and we walk through it step by step by step, always with the goal not of, you know, body slamming the person, making them feel horrible about themselves or whatever, but it is for them to repent, for them to have a change of mind about what they've done, to understand that they've sinned against God.
And look what he says. He says, when you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus as a church, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction, that is to put him out of, not to, you know, hold some kind of satanic ceremony here, but to kick him out of the church, to deliver him to the world, to Satan.
Why? Not because we don't love him, but because we do love him, for the destruction of the flesh, so that whatever sin he's involved in, he'll turn away from, so that his spirit might be saved in the day of the
Lord. We're to treat him as an unbeliever. We're to evangelize him. We're to love him enough to tell him the truth.
But again, that's an obligation placed on a local church. And if we don't gather together, if we're not members of a body, then how do we do that sort of thing?
The church is where one another's are practiced. This is where we serve one another. It's also where we admonish and correct and reprove and disciple one another.
All these things need to take place within the body of Christ. Okay, well, we're out of time, and we will talk more about church discipline next week.
Let's pray. Father, I just praise you for your work, not just in this body, but in every church that loves you, that is called according to your name, that is worshiping you today.
Lord, I pray that you would give us a greater understanding of the importance of the church, a greater understanding that it's not just a human organization, but that it is a divinely designed organization, one meant to glorify you, to edify the saints, that is to build them up in the faith, and also to keep us from wandering off by ourselves, to keep us from wandering into sin and to correct us when we're in error.
Father, I pray for each one here that we would grow in our love for the church, in our love for your word, in our desire to glorify you by serving in the local church.