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Matthew 16:18; Acts 2:47 Pastor Rob Kimsey October 8, 2023
We're going to be looking at some selected scriptures this morning as we really look at a specific topic and that topic is church membership. Church membership. We'll be voting soon on a new constitution and part of that constitution is the doctrinal statement of Laurel Bible Church and what we believe the teachings of the apostles are that we would hold firm to those teachings and we would live them out in our lives.
So we're going to look at really this topic for the next several weeks. This will be part one. Church membership part one. And the question before us this morning is this, the question of church membership.
The question of church membership. And so we'll look at a few passages this morning. Really this will be a topical sermon. So when I candidated here I said I was an expository preacher, but you can still do topical sermons and exposit the scriptures.
So this will be a little bit different than what we normally would do in the time of worship through preaching. This sermon will be on the topic of church membership and this will just be the first of it probably a four-part series.
The question of church membership and one of the sources that I would want to put before you is this really wonderful resource. It's called the what the why the what and the how of church membership by a guy named Wayne Mack.
Very helpful very helpful resource. I've actually ordered some copies of these so if you'd like one we can maybe chat about that. And so in this book Wayne Mack starts out by asking these questions about church membership.
He says, should I join a church or not join a church? Is church membership an essential or optional matter for Christians? Is it the main option for Christian growth and service or one of many options?
Is church membership important or unimportant? Is it a matter of obedience to the Lord or a matter of choice for individual Christians? And Mack starts the the section out that we're going to be getting into these questions of church membership.
He says this, Wayne Mack, how would you answer these questions and why would you answer them the way you do? And if you have an answer to these questions, what is your authority for answering as you do?
Is it your own opinion, the opinion of others, or the Bible? Jeff Robinson, a pastor in Kentucky, wrote an article for Founders Ministries. So some of you may be familiar with this ministry, Founders.
Very good source of information, very biblical and sound. And so Jeff Robinson is this seasoned pastor, older gentleman, been in the ministry for a number of years. He's from Kentucky and he wrote this article for Founders.
It's called, When Do You Leave a Church? When Do You Leave a Church? Is the name of the article. And Jeff Robinson asks these really questions and he's kind of challenging the reader of the to think carefully about why you leave a church.
And the reciprocal of that is, why do you join a church? Why should we be in church membership together? And so I thought this was practical because this article is, When Do You Leave a Church? And these are things that he has been told as a pastor.
So folks have come to him and said, this is why I'm leaving the church. And he gives these reasons and then he kind of explains why those reasons are wrong. And so we'll go through these reasons from, When Do You Leave a Church?
And the first reason is because our children want to go to another church. Our children want to go to another church. And so he says that he's heard this reason. He makes this point, the most spiritually immature, presumably, members of the family should not single handedly make the most important decision facing a family.
This is perhaps the most common reason I have heard for people leaving a church and I find it deeply troubling. Now, I have a little bit of experience with this one because we had a lady visit with us at the church that I was interning at before I came here to serve.
And we had met her in the local park outreach. We're doing evangelism in a local park. She came to know us at the prayer table. She actually came and visited with us and she actually joined the church as a member.
She filled out a membership form. She had a pastor interview. She did membership classes. And we asked her why she was leaving the church that she was, you know, coming from to us. And she said that they had called a homosexual pastor there and that she didn't like that and it was, you know, unbiblical.
So praise God that she was, had discernment and wanted to leave the congregation. The elders had put this person in the position of teaching and preaching the gospel. So this is a, you know, I would say that's a valid reason.
But through the course of time, she actually withdrew from our membership. She left and we said, well, what's, why are you leaving? The church situation had changed a bit. The same elders were there. So she was going back to this congregation.
And the reason she gave is that, oh, my kids are in the youth group and they really like it there. Okay, we can't, we can't go to church based on what our children want. We have to go to church based on does it match the criteria of what the church is according to the Bible.
And that's what we're going to really try to answer this morning. The question of church membership has to start with the question of what is the church? And so we're going to look at that this morning.
Now, getting back to this article, when do you leave a church? The next reason he heard a lot, Jeff Robinson, the Kentucky pastor said, because there aren't many people here my age. There aren't many people here my age.
And he says this, the body of Christ is supposed to reflect the culture, which is made up of a diversity of ages and backgrounds, not reflect the culture and where it is in terms of morality. No, we don't want to be like the culture at all.
As you can see in the ever shifting tides of morality within a culture, they are up and down. No, the church is separate from the world, but we exist in the world. But we call those that are stuck in sin in the culture to repentance, to follow Christ.
So his remark here is that it should reflect the culture in a diversity of different ages and backgrounds. We should have different ages. That's not a legitimate reason to leave. And the note he makes here is the church is not a social club, but the gathering of sinners saved by grace.
Age of members or attendees should not be a determining factor. The world should be at odds to explain the church. And what he means is this, it should wonder what is it that brings together such a diverse collection of people in such a tight bond of love?
That's a good question. And of course we know that's Jesus Christ. We are united in Christ. Another common reason he heard is because I don't like the music. I'm leaving. I don't like the music. The contemporary traditional question is usually wrongheaded in his opinion.
This is what he says, in my opinion, this is wrong. Of greater importance is the question, what is the content of the songs being sung? And so as we think about this, we have to ask the question, is the church singing good theology?
You know, this is one that we see in really the top 100 songs that are on the copyright list for the United States of America, the top 100. The top 10 songs out of those 100, the top 10 songs are from Bethel and Hillsong.
These are not valid sources of worship or teaching and preaching. These ministries teach false gospel, prosperity gospel, word of faith, and all these weird things, miraculous healings. And this is getting in the area of Benny Hinn and Mike Murdoch.
These are false teachers. For example, the main pastor of Hillsong, I saw him do a sermon and I listened to the whole thing in context, and he said that Yahweh and Allah are the same being. Okay, the top 10 worship songs in the United States of America are from two well-known false teaching ministries.
So we must not choose whether to go to church because of the music. That's the question that Jeff Robinson is saying, is the church singing good theology? And we're not talking about traditional music and hymns versus contemporary.
There are many, many very sound, great theological truths being proclaimed in contemporary music today. And so we do sort of mix here. We want to stay to the traditional hymns because they're so good with doctrine.
They teach what the Bible teaches, but there's many other good contemporary songs that do the same. He says, tune and text must fit one another. And he says, but I find that this debate usually falls out along generational lines, saying this might be something more for the younger crowd.
The music isn't entertaining. I go to that church because I like the music. Meanwhile, the preacher isn't even preaching the Bible. The next reason that he's heard over these years of ministry is because the pastor's sermons are too long.
And this one might be something for us. I've been preaching a little long lately. I knew it. I knew it. It was only a matter of time. But let's think about this. Here's Jeff Robinson's point. And this is a truth we have to wrap our around.
Preaching is the central act of Christian worship, and it should receive the lion's share of the time. Preaching is the pinnacle of the worship, where we hear God's Word proclaimed. We sing wonderful theological truths in the worship, and then we sit and listen to God's Word being proclaimed.
That's the preaching. It's the central act of worship. And I have some experience here as well. The church that I got saved at, the worship leader was one of the elders. He was on the elder board. Well, at some point, the church had to call a new pastor.
And the new pastor came in, and he wanted them to cut one song. So if they're doing six songs, he wanted them to do five songs. So he could have just two to three minutes more, but three, four minutes, however long a song is, so that he could sort of have that time to polish the sermon, land the plane.
He wanted just three to four minutes more on the sermon. And that worship leader was offended and left the church over it. Said, no, this is the central part of the worship, me singing, leading in worship.
And something was revealed there in his own heart and pride. That person left the church over this, went to another church, so he resigned from being an elder. An elder is a pastor in the church. A pastor of a church left because he couldn't sing those extra three minutes.
He didn't want the sermon to be an extra three minutes long, and he left over it. And then the church he went to, last time I checked in, he wasn't serving as an elder, and he's not leading worship. So he gave up what he was called to do by God over a personal preference of three minutes, you know, because the pastor's sermons are too long.
That is not a valid reason to leave a church. And here's another reason, because there are many sinners in the church. Like, do we not understand what the church is? I hate to break it to you folks, this room is a hundred percent full of sinners.
Okay, we're all sinners. And praise God that He has ordained the church together, that there are many sinners in the church, because what a demonstration of God's perfect grace in every one of our lives, that we are redeemed sinners, regenerated by the Holy Spirit, washed.
And this is the point that Jeff Robinson from Kentucky makes. He says, as Martin Luther put it, followers of Christ are simultaneously a saint and a sinner. The local church is a hospital for the sick.
Obviously, there is a serious sickness where open, wanton, unconfessed sin is tolerated, but that is not what I have in view here. So he's not saying that we're going to not do church discipline when someone's running away from the Lord and in very serious sin.
No, we're not talking about tolerating sin, but the idea that the church is not filled with sinners, and that's a reason that he's heard over the years. This one is, I think, more common. He says, when do you leave a church?
This is a reason he's heard, because the pastor doesn't do things the way we did back in 19, fill in the blank, or 20, fill in the blank, add your favorite year. The pastor doesn't do things the way we used to do things.
Well, the other pastor did things this way. As long as the things that are being done are biblical, that is what matters. And sometimes, praise God that we're not doing things the way we used to do it, because maybe it was an unbiblical thing.
I can say, by the grace of God, in God's providence, preservation and protection for this congregation, that is not the experience that I have had. Pastor Jerry Overholt, for 20 years, served faithfully here.
He was a man of God who loves God, loves God's Word, loves God's people, and faithfully preached while he was here. So, praise the Lord, I don't have to worry about this one. But man, think about that.
The pastor doesn't do the things we did in fill in your favorite year. And Jeff Robinson says, tradition can be helpful, but traditionalism is where churches go to die a thousand deaths. There are many, many churches who have closed their doors because they got stuck in doing things the way they got used to doing things, right?
This is not changing with the culture, it's just following the biblical parameters. And this is why we need to answer the question, what is the church? We can't really talk about church membership unless we get this key understanding correct.
And he gives another reason, Jeff Robinson from Kentucky says he's heard this, because they don't have a good youth or children's program here. They don't have a good youth or children's program here.
You know, we can very clearly see, this is a small congregation. We don't have a lot of youth stuff going on right now. We need help in the children's program. Right now, my wife is subbing for one of the faithful volunteers, but normally in the past, we've had one person in there.
Folks, we can't have one adult in a room full of kids. We need people to pitch in and help. So instead of leaving the church because they don't have a good youth program, start serving in the church so they'll have a good youth program.
I apologize for the microphone. But think about that. Praise God, my 15-year-old daughter is in there with my wife. There's going to be two adults in children's church. I got to make this as plain as possible.
If there is only one adult in children's church, we will not have children's church. The kids will be in here with us. There has to be two adults back there. We've got a room full of men and women, adults who have been saved for a long time.
It's time to help out. We need to serve in children's church. You don't leave a church because they don't have a good program, a youth ministry. You start serving so they have a good ministry. So this is something we're working on as a small congregation.
And we trust the Lord. The Lord is sovereign over these things. And in His providence, He will provide exactly the right people at the right time. He wants those kids to know the Son, Jesus Christ. And He's going to help us to do that.
But we do need a lot of help. So if this is an area that you've been on the fence about, please prayerfully consider joining the children's church ministry so that we have lots of adults and we can get a rotation going.
So in response to this one, they're going to leave because they don't have a good youth or children's program. He says, parents are the spiritual caretakers for the children. Not the Sunday school teacher, not even the pastor, the parents.
The parents are the spiritual caretakers for children. The church should merely reinforce the biblical truths taught in the home. Where is the instruction to happen with your kids? In your home. And then we reinforce those truths as we come together to worship once a week.
And Lord willing, twice a week. We're going to have Wednesday night church. No church program will adequately shepherd our children. That is the calling of parents. And listen carefully, particularly fathers.
The father is called to be the spiritual leader in the home. And every dad in here is going to have to give an account for the way they taught their children in the Word of God. And of course, that can't be done without a wife who's helping him do that.
They're both doing that, but there's going to have to be an account that the fathers are going to give for the way they taught their kids. This is what the Bible teaches. And a few more and then we'll move on.
Two more. This is another reason he heard a lot. Because the worship or preaching is boring. Because the worship or preaching is boring. And this is one that I've had a lot of experience with. Even as a young, I'm 45, a younger guy, sort of young.
A new pastor, a rookie pastor. You know, the Lord has given me a lot of opportunities to preach. And for the preacher, you'll hear this again and again. Your sermon was good. You had a good sermon. It's like, we have to think about preaching.
This is not rotten tomatoes. We're not reviewing sermons. And this may sound harsh. I don't care what one of you think about whether I'm a good preacher or not. I care about one person. I'm preaching to one person when I get in this pulpit.
And it's the Lord Jesus Christ. Because that's who I'm going to have to give an account to. Of course I care what you think about the preaching. I want you to listen to the Word of God. And I want it to pierce your heart that you would change the way you live while you're still on earth.
That you would serve him. That you would glorify him. That we'd be practicing the one another. So, you know, I say that in a crass way. But, you know, it can't be that you're judging the preaching. Whether it's entertaining or not.
Whether it's boring. I don't care if a person is a dead fish in the pulpit. The most vanilla guy you're ever going to see or hear, really, listen. He's reading the Word of God out loud. I don't need to be excited or entertained.
How is listening to the Word of God being read out loud not exciting? How could it be boring to listen to the creator of the universe revealed mind read out loud? I mean, the worst thing a guy can do in preaching is read the Bible.
Read out loud. So, we got to get away from whether it's preaching is boring or entertaining. Is that person telling the truth? Is that person preaching the truth? I don't want to be entertained. I want to hear the truth from the scriptures.
And the thing that Jeff Robinson says here is the aim of worship is God's glory, not our amusement. It's not our amusement. You know, even since I've been here in town, this is not a California issue.
This is a Montana issue. This is a Laurel issue. This is a Billings issue. Since I've been here in town, you know, you have preachers that are running around on the stage. It's like, oh yeah, I love going there.
They have good music. Their music is great. And I like the way the guy preaches. It's like, oh, awesome. What did he preach on? And what are you, you know, what are you doing with that message? Oh, I'm not sure.
I can't remember. But it was sure entertaining. And they're running around on the stage. Yeah, an amazing gifting and oratory skill. Very amusing to listen to. Entertaining. Are you changed by it? Has the word of God been preached?
Has there been exhortation? Has the gospel been preached? No, it doesn't matter. But it was sure fun to listen to. We got to, we got to do something. This is not right. We can't leave because the worship or preaching is boring.
We should stay and listen to the word of God preached as a faithful man preaches the word of God. And the last reason he says he's heard again and again is because they have or don't have Sunday school.
Some folks leave because they don't like that their Sunday school. Some folks leave because they don't have Sunday school. And Jeff Robinson says, I realize many adherents of family integration will disagree with me here.
And what he's talking about is family integration is when we all meet together. There is no Sunday school or children's church. Every age group. And that's what I kind of remarked on at the beginning here is that, yeah, every age group stays together in here.
Infants, newborn babies to the, to the teenagers. It doesn't, there is no, we leave the church. We all stay together. That's family integration. So he's, he's acknowledging that there's many of adherents of this that will disagree with me.
And he says, but I want to argue respectfully that the gospel and theological truth, not secondary convictions are the proper unifying point for a local church. So I'm trying to use God's wisdom in what are the right age groups.
And I'm doing that by what has been done in the past and where we're going in the future with generations of grace that we would have children's church, but at an appropriate time, there's a cutoff and the older kids should be in here hearing the preaching and worshiping together with us.
And we just trust in God that he will reach them, their young minds at where they are. Even the young kids are much smarter than the them credit for. These young kids are very intelligent. They're like sponges and they're soaking it all up.
They need to be in here listening to the word. And some of the, I'm, I'm going to work on this. Some of it may go over their heads, but some of it won't. And through the Holy spirit, it will land directly in their heart the way that God would have it land in their heart.
You know, God's word doesn't go forward without accomplishing the purposes for which he sent it. Do we believe this? I mean, do you believe this? Your child can understand because God is the master communicator and they will understand his word exactly what he intends them to understand.
And so that's, you know, we're not doing exactly family integration, but we're trying to get close to that. And Jeff Robinson's conclusions are that those are invalid reasons for leaving a church. And there are dozen more besides that, but there does come a time when seeing a new church home is a legitimate consideration.
And so he asked the question, so when should one leave a church? And there's an article within an article here on this founders thing, founders ministry. And Jeff Robinson actually quotes pastor John MacArthur from grace community church in sun Valley, California.
He says, MacArthur is helpful on this point. He advises and provides biblical rationale that you should consider leaving a church if, and so we can think about this in the way of leaving a congregation, but also should you join with a congregation?
Should you be joining with a congregation? And here's what MacArthur says, as he's quoted by Jeff Robinson. The first is heresy on some fundamental truth is being taught from the pulpit. This is not error.
This is heresy. And he quotes Galatians one, seven through nine, only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we are an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to the gospel, we have proclaimed to you, let him be accursed as we have said before.
So I say now, again, if any man is proclaiming to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let him be accursed. And this may be shocking to some of you to hear this, but the social justice gospel is not the gospel.
And any man who stands in the pulpit and says otherwise is preaching heresy. Say goodbye to that person. A person who steps in the pulpit and teaches about Marxism, socialism, critical race theory, and the Black Lives Matter movement and says they have come to correct conclusions is not teaching you the truth from the word of God.
There is no such thing as the social justice gospel. It's just the gospel. Because the only true justice, if we want to talk about justice related to the gospel, it's this. Turn to Isaiah 53. You don't need to really turn there, but in your minds, think about this.
What does God say? I preached on this when I first came back in January, that the Father crushed the Son, that He took pleasure to crush the Son, that the Son took on the iniquities of the transgressors.
They were laid upon Him and He was crushed. He took on the rightful, righteous wrath, penalty of sin from God. Jesus Christ did that. That's justice. And if you add anything else to the gospel besides that truth, not about marginalized people or oppressed people or oppressed people groups or all of these Marxism and some of these terms, folks, that's not the gospel.
That's a variation of the gospel. I don't care if it's 99 .9999 true. If there's a .0001 mistruth in there, then it's not the true gospel. So heresy on some fundamental truth is being taught from the pulpit.
But actually, what do we see? They're doing that, but you know what? They have good music. They're doing that, but they have a good kids program. They're doing that, but it's really entertaining to listen to them talk.
So folks are staying for unbiblical reasons, and they're leaving for unbiblical reasons. These two things have been flip-flopped. We have to get back to the truth of the Bible. Another point that MacArthur makes through this article, so this is Jeff Robinson quoting MacArthur, and this is a reason to leave the church.
The leaders of the church tolerate seriously errant doctrine from any who are given teaching authority in the fellowship. So this is a critical area because Romans 16 17 says, now I urge you brothers to keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and stumblings contrary to the teaching which you learned and turn away from them.
And we can get into the realm of some of the things that have been preached over the last three years again in this point. Anything that's not correct as a regular tolerating teaching mode in the church, this can be error, but it's not being corrected.
They just are teaching error consistently, so that's very serious. The next reason is this, to leave a church. The church is characterized by a wanton disregard for scripture, such as a refusal to discipline members who are sinning blatantly.
You know, you hear about, something's reported to you about a church where they have elders who have been caught in adultery, and there was no church discipline. The person's still serving as an elder.
Okay, you need to get out of that. That is not biblical. If a person is caught in wanton disregard for scripture and a refusal to discipline members who are sinning blatantly, that is not a valid church.
They're not practicing church discipline. And he quotes 1 Corinthians 5 1 through 5, and this is, there's a few sections I took out here, but this is the gist of it. 1 Corinthians 5 1 through 5, it is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and sexual immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles.
And you have become puffed up and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst. In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.
And here you see even church discipline is always restoration. But if a person is in gross immorality, or has been caught, or is confessing to these things, he's disqualified from being an elder. 1 Timothy and Titus.
We have to take these things seriously. We can't sweep it under the rug and act like something never happened. Another reason to leave. Unholy living is tolerated in the church. Unholy living is tolerated in the church.
And he goes back to 1 Corinthians 5 here. He says, I wrote you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. I did not mean at all with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the greedy and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have you'd have to go out of the world.
But now I'm writing you to not associate with any so-called brother if he is sexually immoral person, or greedy, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler. Not even to eat with such a one.
We can't tolerate sin in the church. I mean unholy living is tolerated in the church. And this one, I have I guess a little story for you. My wife and I were able to go visit Israel as part of my seminary studies in 2019.
And when you go on these trips, there's a lot of other pastors that are there, because it's a study trip. And there was a pastor there, a really godly guy, great guy, quality guy, his name's Steven. And he was talking with my wife and I at dinner, and he said, yeah, this situation had happened in the church, and small church, 40 people, small congregation.
And he said one of the prominent families who was there worshiping had a daughter, and the daughter had got a boyfriend. The boyfriend was an unbeliever. They were starting to live together. They're not married, they're not even engaged.
So they're living together. Okay, they're in fornication, they're fornicating. You can't go live together with an unbeliever and move out of the parent's house. And he said, yeah, it happened. And I know if I approach her, her parents might get mad, and they might leave the church.
And I, and it's like, oh man, Steven, like, so what did you do? He said, well, the Lord helped me, and I really got convicted, and I had to go confront her about it. I had to talk to her parents. I had to call her to repent, to move out of the house, to move back with her parents.
She's not married, and the guy's an unbeliever. And they did counseling, and he said, no, I'm a believer, I'm a believer. There just weren't signs, he didn't understand the gospel. And it turned out in the longer time, he ended up cheating on her.
He was an unbeliever, but praise God, she got convicted. She listened to his counsel. She moved out. She went back with her parents. But that was his job. He's the pastor of the church. He can't tolerate this unholy living in one of the church members.
We have to do what the Bible says, not what we want to do, what the Bible says. And so, praise God, Pastor Steven did the right thing, and God helped him through that difficult situation. Yeah, these are real-world scenarios, guys.
So, MacArthur makes this point, when do you leave a church? The church is seriously out of step with the biblical pattern for the church. The Bible tells us how we are to worship, how we are to listen to the preaching, how we're to preach the Word.
So, we need to be in step with the biblical pattern for the church. So, if a congregation is seriously out of step with the Bible, is that the right thing to do to stay? Is that a congregation you should join?
And he quotes 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 here, really two verses, verse 6 and 14. 2 Thessalonians 3, 6 says this, now we command you, brothers, remember this is to believers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from every brother who walks in an unruly manner and not according to the tradition which they received from us.
Because the tradition is based on the teaching. And then verse 14, he says, and if anyone does not obey our word in this letter, take special note of that person to not associate with him, so that he will be put to shame.
They're not living out in the church the teachings of the apostles. He says mark that person. Something's wrong. You claim to be a follower of Christ, but you don't want to do what Christ says regarding church.
And I think this is the last reason. So, this is what Jeff Robinson is pointing out. MacArthur said, when do you leave a church? He says the church is marked by gross hypocrisy, giving lip service to biblical Christianity, but refusing to acknowledge its true power.
And he quotes 2 Timothy 3, 5, holding to a form of godliness, but having denied its power. And then Jeff Robinson says this, when members or friends have discussed leaving a church with me through the years, I have typically advised them to stick around and be a gracious reforming presence, and avoid exasperating the problems in their local body.
Both joining a church and leaving a church are serious business. Business for which those involved will give an account before God. That's helpful and practical insight from a seasoned pastor. And Wayne Mack, in this book here, the why, the what, and the how of church membership, is asking the question of church membership, and he looks at it from two viewpoints, but both are anchored in the Bible.
The first is the modern view of church worship. What do we think about this in a contemporary setting? The modern view of church, really membership, what we do together when we come for worship. The second is the historic view of church.
So the modern view of church membership, the historic view of church membership, but both of those are anchored in the Bible. The Bible is what matters. So it's not that what we think now, it's not that what they've thought in the past, it's what the Bible teaches.
But he's going to look at this from these two angles. Mack says this in his book, he says, in our day there are many professing Christians who believe that church membership is an optional matter. If asked, they would say that it's not important and certainly not a requirement for believers to identify with a local church in a formal way.
To them, joining or not joining a church is something like deciding which version of the Bible to use, which translation is your favorite, or deciding whether or not to vote in an election, or deciding whether to eat meat or to be a vegetarian.
In the same way, these people would say that church membership is simply a matter of preference. He says, in my 60 years of ministry, I've had many people say to me something like this, and he has a, it's sarcastic here, I'm not saved by church membership, I'm saved by the grace of God through faith.
Well, amen, that's true. When I get to heaven, I'm not going to be there because I joined a church, but because I repented of my sins and believed on Jesus Christ. So what difference does it make whether I'm a member of a local church or not?
After all, I can be just as good a Christian without being a church member as if I can by being one. In fact, I know lots of people who are members of a church and they're hypocrites. Their lives are certainly no better than mine.
Church membership is optional. Well, today we'll look at Mac's points about the modern view and the historic view of church membership, but most importantly, the biblical view. This morning, my goal is really to begin to answer the question of church membership.
We'll start by looking at two New Testament passages that define the church, and then we'll circle back to the differing views of membership both contemporarily and historically, but both are in subjection to the authority of the scriptures.
So to begin, we'll define the church according to the Bible, and that's what our goal is this morning. Define the church. What is the church? We'll look at two passages, one from Matthew 16 and one from Acts chapter 2.
We'll start in Matthew. In the gospel of Matthew... Okay, that was my introduction. That was a long one today. Let's get to the word. In the gospel of Matthew and the Acts of the Apostles, the biblical writers clearly define two important aspects of the church so that you can begin to see the biblical basis for church membership.
Number one, the universal church. The universal church. This is Matthew 16, 18. And number two, the local church. Acts chapter 2, verse 47. So really two clearly defined important aspects of the church so that you can begin to see the biblical basis for church membership.
The universal church, Matthew, and the local church, Acts. So to begin, we'll look at the universal church, and you can turn there. It's Matthew 16. We're going to look at verse 18, but we'll read a few more verses for context.
The gospel of Matthew demonstrated that Jesus was king, and it taught the reader about the coming of the kingdom. The gospel of Matthew was written to account for the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and to inform the reader of Israel's error in rejecting or the rejection of Jesus, while clearly demonstrating Christ's rightful kingship over his people as the true Messiah.
The themes of the book help to establish the clarity in Jesus as king and the coming of his kingdom in both the incarnation and the future kingdom. By focusing on the themes and the outline with general divisions, the text speaks for itself in regard to demonstrating Jesus as the rightful king of Israel and all creation.
The gospel of Matthew is an instructive or teaching gospel. It's written for converted Jews to clearly demonstrate Jesus as the rightful king over all Israel. The gospel prepares its readers for the glorious blessings of reconciliation with God and the coming kingdom of heaven due solely on the atoning work of the king, Jesus Christ.
Two important aspects of the church. The first is the universal church, Matthew 16, 18. So, we'll start here in Matthew 16. I think we'll go back. We'll start in verse 13. This is the section that Peter is confessing Jesus is the Christ.
Matthew 16, starting in verse 13. Now, when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he was asking his disciples, saying, who do people say that the Son of Man is? And they said, some say John the Baptist, and others, Elijah, but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.
He said to them, but who do you say that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said to him, blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.
Verse 18. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.
Then he warned the disciples that they should tell no one that he was the Christ. So, we want to focus our attention this morning on verse 18, the universal church. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.
The gospel of Matthew is super helpful in describing the church. The word church is used in this gospel alone. Yeah, this is where we learn about the church. It's this chapter and later in chapter 18 in church discipline.
This is what Jesus says. He's going to be the one that defines the church because it's his. He created it. He's the head of it. What he says about it is the only thing that matters. So, what is the church?
We're going to look at this. So, a few things that are interesting and noteworthy from verse 18. The first is the name of Peter. Him and his brother were the first to be called by Jesus as disciples, the first disciples.
And we can even look at a slide here. So, we'll look at some scripture together. Matthew 4, 18 and 19. Now, as Jesus was walking by the sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who was called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.
And he said to them, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. We know this is an accurate statement. We just read it in verse 18. So, he's called Peter. But there's something going on here that I want to make you sensitive to.
Matthew's comment, really the comment about Simon in verse 18 from chapter 4 is based on the exchange later found in chapter 16. He's called Peter, but that is not what Simon was called face-to-face by Jesus on a regular basis.
Both by Jesus and later by the Apostle Paul. In the Gospel of John, we get a little bit more clarity here. So, we can look at another passage. John chapter 1. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.
He first found his brother Simon and said to him, we have found the Messiah, which translated means Christ. He brought him to Jesus. When Jesus looked at him, he said, you are Simon, the son of John. Simon bar Jonah.
It's just the son of Jonah, the son of John. So, there's a little Aramaic in there. You are Simon, the son of John. You shall be called Cephas, which is translated Peter. And so, this is important. The name of a person matters.
This involves information. It communicates information. Peter or Petros in the Greek means stone. And if you look in the Greek lexicon, you're not going to see a very myriad, you know, different meanings of words.
It's his name. It's the name that he uses. It's capital P. Petros. It just means Peter. But something else is going on here. Cephas is the Aramaic surname for Simon. The Hebrew of the Old Testament simply transliterated in the Greek.
The Aramaic Cephas also means stone. And you may have heard before, it's little pebble. No, it's not little pebble. It's stone, as in a rock or a piece of a rock that might be found in like a river. You know, the rocks that are down there.
We're not talking about little pebbles. This is a rock. You can pick it up. Rock or stone. The Aramaic Cephas also means stone. Jesus called Simon Cephas. Aramaic for Simon with the Hebrew root that means stone.
And this matters. Now, there are other examples of Paul calling Peter Cephas. We see a few there. Galatians and the first letter to the church in Corinth. Several passages there. And we have to say that on other occasions, he does also call him Peter.
But he's calling him Cephas because that's what Jesus called him. And we can even see from Galatians, just a brief example. When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned.
You're like, man, what's going on here? Why is Paul saying this about Peter? Well, this is an area in the early church and ministry where Peter was sort of promoting adherence to the Old Testament dietary restrictions.
And Paul said, no, you're wrong, Peter, for doing that. Converts in Christ don't need to follow the Levitical laws of diet. They're free to do that if they want to, but it's a personal preference. And so the two had a disagreement.
And actually, they came together on it and Peter saw that Paul was right. And that was the correct doctrine. No, we don't adhere to Old Testament dietary laws to find more grace or to get salvation. And so Peter is being confronted.
When Cephas came to Antioch, I, Paul, opposed him to his face because he was wrong. And they worked it out over time. Now, I point this out because there's something interesting going on in verse 18. Peter, or Petros, means stone.
But Jesus uses a different word for rock. And there's a really interesting wordplay. It's the word petra. Petros, stone, petra. But it's a different thing that's going on here. This is an important wordplay going on that tells us on what Christ will build his church.
What is it that Christ is going to build his church on? Church is the Greek word ecclesia, ecclesia. It's where we get the word ecclesiology, the study of the church. Church, ecclesia. In Greek literature, it literally means a regularly summoned legislative body.
This is the assembly, a casual gathering of people, an assemblage, a gathering, people with shared belief, community, congregation. In the New Testament Greek context, the lexical meaning is the global community of Christians, the global community of Christians, otherwise known as the universal church or the invisible church.
It's every believer ever, no matter where they're at. So the question is on what will Jesus build his church? He does not say Peter or Petros. He says the rock, petra. It is the declaration that Peter made.
You are the Christ, the son of the living God. While Peter means stone, the Greek for rock, petra, means bedrock or massive rock formations. Rock as distinguished from stones. So if you get the dictionary out, that's actually in the definition.
Rock as distinguished from stones. This is not Peter. Peter is a small stone. While the truth that Jesus is the Christ proclaimed by Peter, revealed to him by God, the Father, is the foundation boulder or cornerstone on which the church will be built.
Jesus Christ himself. Jesus is the cornerstone, the foundation. And we can think about this. What a glorious truth is revealed here. While the local church may fail, that is true. Congregations may split or divide.
Congregations stop meeting and the church is closed. In a local setting, and we've all heard of churches closing, the universal church of the body of Christ will never fail. Impossible. We often hear of churches closing, but the big picture, universal church will never close.
I will build my church and the gates of hell will not overpower it. That's what Jesus says about his people, that he gathered together. The MacArthur Study Bible has a helpful note on this one. It says, Matthew is the only gospel where this term church is found.
Christ called it my church, emphasizing that he alone is its architect, builder, owner, and Lord. The Greek word for church in one of the nuances is called out ones. While God had, since the beginning of redemptive history, been gathering the redeemed by grace, the unique church he promised to build began at Pentecost with the coming of the Holy Spirit, by whom the Lord baptized believers into his body, which is the church.
At Pentecost, an offering of first fruits was made. The Holy Spirit came on this day as the first fruits of believers' inheritance. Those gathered into the church then were also the first fruits of the full harvest of all believers to come after.
That's helpful. The rock on which Jesus would build his church has been identified as Jesus himself, specifically his work of salvation by dying for us on the cross. In Peter's own New Testament writings, he reminds Christians that they are the church.
Peter would later write that the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ as the cornerstone. All true disciples of Jesus are joined into this church by faith in Jesus Christ as Savior.
Think about it like this. Your membership in the universal church, right, the big church, the universal church, the invisible church, is based on the same confession of faith that Peter gave. In other words, all subsequent true believers give the same faith profession that Peter expressed here.
It is faith like Peter's and every professing Christian since in the last 2 ,000 years that is the foundation of Christ's kingdom, acknowledging that Jesus is the Christ. And we're going to look at a supporting scripture on this one, and this is the scripture.
I want to bring us back to the Old Testament, what was proclaimed by the prophet Isaiah, Isaiah 57. This is what God does. God is the one who does this. Listen to the prophet. It says, and it will be said, build up, build up, prepare the way, remove every stumbling block out of the way of my people.
For thus says the one high and lifted up, who dwells forever, whose name is holy. I dwell on a high and holy place, and also with the crushed and lowly of spirit, in order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the crushed.
In the context here, Yahweh has declared through the prophet that a command has been given to remove all obstacles in order to prepare a way for his people, the Israelites, to return to him. In the context of judgment on the nation, Yahweh declares he will bring true revival to the humble.
Despite the sin and backsliding and resulting destruction of Jerusalem, the grace of God will prevail. Spiritual healing and restoration is promised to God's people. And because of Jesus, we are God's people.
He has adopted us into the family of God. We are children of God, as we have faith in Jesus. Because of Jesus, all true believers are restored to God and are his children. This is all people, every tongue and tribe, anywhere on the earth.
Two important aspects of the church. The universal or invisible church is made up of all believers. The universal or invisible church is made up of all believers. And number two, the local church. This is where we need to pay attention.
This is about us, the local church. They're both about us, but this is very practical for us. And for the local church, we're going to look at Acts chapter 2. So you can flip to your Bibles, Acts chapter 2.
And we're going to start, really, the verse that I want to put under the microscope is verse 47. Acts chapter 2, verse 47, the Acts of the Apostles. So we'll go ahead and turn to Acts chapter 2, and we'll actually start in verse 37.
Let's read it in context, but 47 is what we're going to look at. So Acts chapter 2, you can just park on 37. God, by the Holy Spirit, is responsible for the spread of the gospel. This is what God has done.
Specifically, the means the Holy Spirit uses is preaching. To trace the spread of the gospel, according to the book of Acts, the preaching ministries of the Apostle Peter and the Apostle Paul are necessary to highlight.
The book of Acts was written by Luke the historian, or Luke the physician, as a second volume to the gospel of Luke to give an account of God's sovereign plan to form his church, made up of Jews and Gentiles, through his word spread by the ministry of the Apostles, through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit who proclaimed Jesus as Lord and Christ and his message of repentance and salvation through grace.
Ultimately, the Holy Spirit is the star of the historical narrative of Acts. This is the eyewitness account, the Acts of the Apostles. The Apostle Peter and the Apostle Paul share the supporting roles from really whom God, by the Holy Spirit, guided and empowered to spread the gospel of grace in Jesus Christ.
The spread of the gospel, according to the book of Acts, can be traced by examining the preaching ministries of the Apostle Peter and the Apostle Paul. Although the preaching ministries of the Apostles are the focus of the narrative of the book of Acts, their preaching ministries would not have been possible without the guidance and empowerment of the Holy Spirit.
Ultimately, God, by the Holy Spirit, is responsible for the spread of the gospel, according to the book of Acts. And we can pick up in chapter 2, verse 37. About 3 ,000 souls were saved that day in this narrative of preaching, this eyewitness testimony.
Verse 37, now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the Apostles, men, brothers, what should we do? And Peter said to them, repent, and each one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to himself. And with many other words he solemnly bore witness and kept on exhorting them, saying, be saved from this crooked generation.
So then, those who had received his word were baptized, and that day there were added about 3 ,000 souls. And they were continually devoting themselves to the Apostles' teaching, and to the fellowship, and to the breaking of bread, and to prayers.
And fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were taking place through the Apostles. And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common, and they began selling their property and possessions, and were dividing them up with all as anyone might have need.
And daily devoting themselves with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart. Verse 47, praising God and having favor with all the people.
And the Lord was adding to their number daily those who were being saved. The local church. The Lord was adding to their number daily those who were being saved. There's four things to point out here.
First, the Lord is the one doing the adding. It is a work of God when he sovereignly adds souls to the oversight of a pastor in the local congregation. First Peter 5, 2 and 3, shepherd the flock of God among you, overseeing not under compulsion, but willingly according to God, and not for dishonest gain, but with eagerness, nor yet as lording it over those allotted to you, but being examples to the flock.
Listen very carefully. Not one pastor in all of church history has ever grown his church, lowercase h. Not one pastor in all of church history has ever grown the church, because it's lowercase h there.
God grows his church, capital H, not man. No, this is what God does. Now, we can look at it in a realistic light. Men have tricked people to come to their congregations with gimmicks and programs, oh no doubt.
That's true, and that's an important observation. The Lord is the one who grows His church, not men. And second, the people that were added responded to the preaching. And he says there in verse 37, and after hearing this, now when they heard this, well, what is it referring to?
You can just go up a few verses here. Acts chapter 2. We'll just look at a small excerpt from this sermon, from the preaching. Look at 22 through 24 in Acts 2. This is what Peter had just got done saying.
Men of Israel, listen to these words. Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs, which God did through him in your midst. Just as you yourselves know, this man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of lawless men and put him to death.
But God raised him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for him to be held in its power. Just a small excerpt. You can only imagine listening to Peter, and they're crying out, what do we do?
How do I get saved? It pierced their hearts. God adds people to the church in response to the faithful preaching of his word, not tricks or gimmicks. The folks that the Lord added responded to the declaration of the gospel, not whether their kids had programs to attend, not whether the music was good, not whether there was a coffee bar.
That's important for us to think about. What are we doing? Is Jesus the creator of the universe? This isn't a social club. We're not in a country club. This is a gathering of sinners redeemed by the grace of God.
We have a call. We have marching orders. What are we here to do on earth? Well, the third observation is the Greek term translated daily. And I wanted to highlight some of the grammar here. Look at the word daily.
It's actually two words in the original language. The first word is a preposition. It's a marker. And this is important for us as the local church. Think about what we're talking about. This word, the first of these two words that make the English word daily, the first word is a preposition that is a marker of extension or orientation in space or specific area.
The second is a noun literally meaning the period between sunrise and sunset. This is daily, but with a specific area. That's the word day. Now, the fourth observation here is that the word translated number is actually a common personal pronoun as in he, she, it, self, or same.
It can be translated they when in the plural. The pronoun when used with referring to a specific person pertaining to something that is identical with or closely related to something the same. So this is important because paired with the preposition and the noun, it conveys the number of the same folks who made a genuine profession of faith in response to the preaching of the word by Peter.
In verse 47, the writer of Acts Luke points the reader back to verse 41. So then those who had received his word were baptized and that day there were added about 3 ,000 souls. So Luke's use of a specific number in verse 41 suggests records were being kept.
Records were being kept of conversions and baptism. This is a membership role based on shared belief in the literal teaching of the apostles. Church membership in a local body who congregate in a specific geographical location, the local church.
D .A. Carson, the theologian and Bible commentator said this, these verses describe the Christian community in the days after the Pentecost preaching. The believers displayed a generous attitude toward possessions, but there was no blind rush to rid themselves of all their possessions as if personal property was in itself evil.
Instead, they gave as there was the need. The believers' financial problems were not automatically and miraculously solved by virtue of becoming Christians. Even in this golden age of the church, there were needy people, although because of the sharing they didn't generally remain needy.
The believers continued every day to meet together in the temple courts as well as in their homes where they shared table fellowship. The definition of the local church is clear to see in this passage.
Born-again believers who share common belief and practice in the teaching of the apostles. But we don't want to walk away without application. The easiest and most important application is that the Bible teaches believers to join a local church after conversion.
You are to be in community with fellow Christians. You know, what did the 3 ,000 people do after becoming new believers when Peter preached the good news about Christ? These new Christians were united with other believers.
They were regularly taught by the apostles. They included themselves in the prayer meetings and fellowship. The takeaway for us this morning is that believers in Christ need to be in groups where they can learn God's Word, where they can grow together, where they can pray and mature in the faith.
If you have a relationship with Jesus Christ, seek out fellowship with fellow believers to practice the one another's for prayer and teaching, most importantly for worship and preaching. This is the God-ordained way that we grow.
This is what is depicted in the book of Acts 1. Commentator pointed this out. He said, recognizing the other believers as brothers and sisters in the family of God, the Christians in Jerusalem shared all they had so that all could benefit from God's gifts.
It is tempting, especially if we have material wealth, to cut ourselves off from one another, concerning ourselves with only our own interests, providing for and enjoying only our own little piece of the world.
But as part of God's spiritual family, it's our responsibility to help one another in every way possible. God's family works best when its members work together. A healthy Christian community will also attract people to Christ.
The Jerusalem church's zeal for worship and brotherly love was contagious. A healthy, loving church will grow in numbers. And then he actually finishes here and he says, what are you doing to make sure your church is the kind of place that will attract others to Christ?
Brotherly love, tenderness, dedication to prayer and teaching, the preaching of the word, worship. A place filled with Christian brotherly love and affection, unity. That's Christ-likeness. We're not attracting anyone.
Christ, through the Holy Spirit and the Christ-likeness in His people, He has redeemed out of the world. That's attractive because it's Christ-likeness. And we can think of a supporting scripture here.
This is important for us as a local congregation. I wanted to listen to Peter, 1 Peter 3. Now to sum up, all of you be like-minded, sympathetic, brotherly, tender-hearted and humble in spirit, not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but giving a blessing instead.
For you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing. We've inherited the blessing in the gospel. We should also give a blessing to our fellow brothers and sisters. Is that what people are seeing when they see this congregation?
I mean, let's make it practical. In this passage here, Peter's writing to congregations and provinces located in modern-day Turkey, which were part of the Roman Empire. In this part of the letter, he's talking about the conduct of husbands and wives and then connects that teaching to the rest of the local congregation.
This is one example of pure conduct amongst a local body of believers congregating in a specific local geographical location. Two important aspects of the church, the universal or invisible church is made up of all believers.
And number two, the local or visible church is made up of believers in a specific geographical location. The local or visible church is made up of believers in a specific geographical location, the universal versus the local church.
Now with a clear definition of the church, that's what the scripture teaches the church is. Let's look at the modern and historic views of church membership. Let's see if these views hold up under the light of scripture.
Now first, the modern view, and this is from a book called Exit Interviews by William Hendricks. So in his book, Exit Interviews, William Hendricks said this, there's a dark side to recent reports of church attendance in North America.
While countless unchurched people, I guess he means unbelievers, it's kind of a weird term. There's unchurched people. You mean unbelievers? So it's already there's some sudden, what are you talking about?
So while countless unchurched people may be flocking in the front door of the church, a steady stream of the church is flowing quietly out the back. And this is a sad statistic. It's estimated that 53 ,000 people leave churches every week and never come back.
And that's why I wanted to start by pointing out, are they leaving for the right reasons? And in often cases, probably not. Now I'm not going to tell you whether Hendricks believes in church membership or not.
I'm going to ask you to pay close attention to what he says. This is the modern view of church membership. Hendricks then goes on to describe several exit interviews he had with folks who had left the church.
And this is a quote. He says, despite glowing reports of attendance, more and more Christians in North America are feeling disillusioned with the church and other formal institutional expressions of Christianity.
I don't know what he is talking about. What formal institution of expression of Christianity is there than the church? I can't think of one. He says, that's not to say that these backdoor believers have given up on the faith.
On the contrary, they may be quite articulate regarding spiritual matters. Indeed, some have remarkably vibrant spiritual lives and touchingly close friendships with a kindred spirit or two. But in the main, they tend to nurture their relationships with God apart from the traditional means of church attendance and church membership.
God is doing his marvelous work in someone's life, even apart from the church, believe it or not. I can't find that in the Bible. Can you guys help me here? Where's the chapter and verse that, what is he saying?
You're going to be able to be, you're doing a marvelous, God is working a marvelous work in a person's life outside of the body of Christ. He says, believe it or not, I don't believe it. In the final chapter, he says this, I'm extremely reluctant to shake my finger in your face and say, you turn right around and get yourself back into a church.
I don't know your circumstances. It may be that there are lots of alternatives around you, in which case I certainly would encourage you to explore them diligently until you find something that works.
There is nothing in this world that is going to work outside of the church. Jesus hasn't ordained other things than the church. He says, tradition holds that you cannot grow apart from a church. You mean the Bible?
Was he talking tradition? You mean the Bible, traditionally, like the apostles taught that? He says this, how then will you proceed if you don't want to become a part of a church? A few of the people I've interviewed have moved forward by standing tradition on its head and taking spiritual sustenance wherever they can find it, from books, magazines, television, or radio ministries, a sympathetic friend or two, perhaps the arts and music, maybe volunteer work.
Over time, they've become quite resourceful in finding ways to meet God apart from a local church. I don't blame you for walking out. Can you see where he's coming from? This is flawed thinking. This is not correct thinking.
And as Wayne Mack correctly points out, Hendricks obviously does not believe that church membership, let alone attendance, is essential. Sad, very sad, unbiblical, but it captures the sentiment of many professing Christians in this contemporary time.
That's the modern view of the church. Historically, this is not the case. Wayne Mack in his book, Church Membership, points out that Saint Augustine in the fourth century said this, he cannot have God for his father who does not have the church for his mother.
Martin Luther, after he left the Roman Catholic priesthood, said this, apart from the church, salvation is impossible. Now, he's not saying that you get saved by attendance in church, but he's saying the body of Christ, regenerated sinners called by Jesus, reborn, redeemed sinners are the God-ordained means in which people hear the gospel.
If there's no church, there's no salvation. That's the point Martin Luther's making. John Bunyan, the author of The Pilgrim's Progress, wrote a poem of 130 lines in which each one extolled the importance of the church and of believers being involved in the church.
Very important. Praise God for John Bunyan. We saw him in the Essential Church movie, locked up for 12 years for preaching the gospel. They said, you could go anytime you want, you just have to stop preaching.
He said, I'll stay here. 12 years in prison, the author of The Pilgrim's Progress. A churchman, R .B. Kuyper, a Dutch theologian in the early 20th century, wrote a book called The Glorious Body of Christ.
Kuyper said this, it's clear that in the days of the apostles, it was the universal practice to receive believers into the visible church. Local church, he's referring to. It's possible that a true believer, because of some unusual circumstance, may fail to unite with the church.
One may, for instance, believe in Christ and die before receiving baptism or joining a local church, but such instances are exceptional. The scriptural rule is that while membership is not a prerequisite for salvation, it is a necessary consequence of salvation.
John Calvin, one of the reformers, said this on church membership. This is from Calvin. It's now our intention to discuss the visible church, referring to the local church. Let us learn from even the title mother.
There is no other way to enter into life unless this mother conceive us in her womb, give us birth, nourish us at her bosom, and lastly, unless she keep us under her care and guidance until the time we put off mortal flesh and we become like the angels.
Our weakness does not allow us to be dismissed from the school of the church until we have been pupils all our lives. Furthermore, away from her bosom, one cannot hope for any forgiveness of sins or any salvation.
God's fatherly care and a special witness of spiritual life are limited to his flock. That's the church. Historically, this has always been the way it has been because it's based on the teaching of the apostles.
More recently, the church historian Robert Sousey drew this conclusion on church membership. Very helpful note here. He says, throughout the course of history, God has worked in a variety of ways through individuals, nations, and peoples.
The focus of his present work is the church. That which was begun in the scriptures as men and women were called to acknowledge the lordship of Christ continues today in fulfillment of Christ's promise to build his church.
Not only is Christ building his church, but also it is the primary instrument through which he ministers in the world. As the father sent Christ, so the church bears the ambassadorial role for its lord as sent ones with a message of reconciliation.
The follower of Jesus Christ cannot profess allegiance to him and deny his church. What is needed is far more than denunciation is renewed effort to seek God's ways in which one may be part of that building process.
This is the historic view of the church, and we'll finish off the historical view with R .B. Kuyper's comment on the universal church being of critical importance which proceeds the local church. In other words, we are all saved by God into the universal church, then God places us in the local church.
Kuyper said this on the universal church. He said, what could be more logical? He who believes in Christ is united with Christ. Faith binds him to Christ. He is a member of Christ's body, the invisible church, but the visible church is but the outward manifestation of that body.
Every member of the invisible church should, as a matter of course, be a member of the visible church. Extremely significant in this connection is Acts chapter 2 verse 47, and the Lord added to the church daily as should be saved.
Not only does the Lord Christ require of those who are saved that they unite with the church, he himself joins them to the church, and the reference is unmistakably to the visible or local church. And just as Mack correctly concluded William Hendricks does not believe in the church, he also correctly concludes that the historic view of church membership is that it is an essential part of every true believing Christian's life.
Wayne Mack concludes in this section of the book that it is not enough for us to merely say that we're part of God's universal or invisible church. Though we're a part of that church by virtue of salvation, we must also make a commitment to a specific local group of God's people.
Even more important, however, than the testimony of these historic witnesses is the testimony of scripture itself. The word of God has much to teach us about the character and responsibilities of the local church, and over the next few weeks we're going to look at 10 biblical reasons that Wayne Mack gives from this book, grounded in the scriptures.
That's my task for the next few weeks. I want to show you, I want to give you straight out of the Bible 10 biblical reasons to join a local fellowship. So let me end today by giving you an example of why the local church is so important.
A real world example or testimony of the importance or function of the church both universally and locally. And I'll share some slides with you. This person's name is Kat Bondy. She is a 41-year-old tattoo artist and TV personality.
You can kind of see that with her tattoos there. Kat Bondy is a celebrity who garnered fame by becoming a tattoo artist to the rock stars of the early 2000s. She was on a reality TV show called Miami Inc. about competing tattoo artists, and she famously was the exclusive artist to tattoo many of the most infamous and depraved rock stars of the last 20 years.
So here's another slide of her, and I'll just give you a heads up. This is, it's weird, but this is how she's presenting herself. You see the satanic hands behind her. Over the years, she started a clothing company, and I believe this image was taken to promote her clothing line.
So this is what happens when you live in the world and you don't know Christ. Very demonic, I would say satanic. Here's another slide. She looks like a demon. She had her own perfume company. This is a promo for the perfume launch.
It was called Sinner. Kat Bondy is also known for her satanic occultism and promotion of the occult and even witchcraft. So here's another example. This is her on her wedding day. So for the ladies that are married, this is how she chose to represent herself.
This is her wedding photo. I believe she fancied herself as a modern-day witch. She was an adulterer many times over, dating rock stars on the rock and roll concert circuit. Well, she's now married, and in 2018 she gave birth to her first and only child.
She recently stepped down and left her own clothing company. She walked away from the business that she started. A year ago, she stated that she threw out all of her occult books, books on witchcraft, trinkets, and idols, all these satanic things, and she was quoted as saying this recently.
She said, I don't want this stuff in my home, and I don't want my family exposed to it anymore. This is a spiritual battle. That's what she said. We'll just look at this. She has recently denounced occultism and witchcraft, stated that she was wrong to promote these things in the past.
Last week, she posted a video of her being baptized at a local church. There she is, with all these rock and kind of punk vibe type people, all tatted down, and they're attending a church worship service, singing in the worship team, and getting baptized, publicly proclaiming her allegiance to the lordship of Jesus Christ over her life.
There's a guy named Benny Johnson.
Who has a conservative radio show, and he posted this clip. We can end it there.
That is what God has both ordained and charged the church to do, to proclaim judgment and the forgiveness of sins to those that believe on the name of Jesus. One aspect of the church, the gathered, the assembly, is that we are new creations in Christ, born-again believers with a calling.
God saves sinners, then places them in community with one another, fellowship, practicing the one another's, and carrying out the great commission of sharing the gospel. Through the church, God has chosen to deliver to all people everywhere the good news of salvation and faith alone in Christ Jesus, to repent and believe in the gospel.
Every person who has accepted faith in Jesus has done so by the free gift of God's grace. Since the start of the church inaugurated by the Holy Spirit 2 ,000 years ago, as recorded in the book of Acts, God chose the church to be his ambassadors on earth, the means of proclaiming and sharing the gospel.
What is the church? The bride of Christ, a living body of believers chosen by God to proclaim the gospel on earth. And as we started this morning, we need to think about these questions. Should I join a church or not join a church?
Is church membership an essential or optional matter for Christians? Is it the main option for Christian growth or really one of many options? Is church membership important or unimportant? Is it a matter of obedience or just a matter of choice for the individual Christian?
This morning, we started answering these questions. Yes, church membership is important, essential, and biblical. Today, we have answered the first, the most really important question to start the discussion.
What is the church? In the gospel of Matthew and the Acts of the Apostles, the biblical writers clearly define the church so that you can begin to see the biblical basis for church membership. The universal or invisible church is made up of all believers, and the local or visible church is made up of believers in a specific geographical location.
And Lord willing, in the coming weeks, I'll show you 10 biblical reasons for formal church membership with the local congregation. Let me pray for you.
