Thoughts On The Local Church (Mack Tomlinson)

0 views

April 14, 2021

Mack Tomlinson speaks on the importance of the local church and the privileges and responsibilities of those who are its members.

00:00: This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. To access other sermons or to learn more about us, please visit our website at graceedmonton .ca.
00:15: Hello, you guys. It is a joy to be here. I have to correct one thing. Lynn and I have been married now 43 years, not 41.
00:26: She has a lot of grace to keep putting up with me. So, I enjoyed being in Edmonton two years ago, and so I wish
00:39: I could be there with you now. Maybe one day, God willing, that will happen. But I appreciate the opportunity and the privilege to share my heart, my thoughts about the church, the body of Christ.
00:55: So, what I want to do today is I want us to turn to Ephesians and just read some passages from Paul to the
01:07: Ephesian church. So, if you can turn with me two or three places, we'll just see these references to the church.
01:16: And then I want to share somewhat some miscellaneous thoughts about the importance of the local church, the responsibilities and the privileges of being in the local church, and then whatever else the
01:39: Lord will give us. So, let me pray again before we read from Ephesians.
01:47: So, join me in prayer, if you would. Father, we thank you today that we are brothers and sisters together in Christ, that we're separated by miles.
02:01: Thank you for the blessing of meeting together. And Lord, I ask you to make these moments together helpful and beneficial for my brothers and sisters there in their sojourn,
02:22: Lord, in becoming a local church. So, would you,
02:29: I ask you, Father, to make my words be what you want them to be.
02:36: And together, give us new eyes to see and ears to hear concerning the glorious body of Christ.
02:50: So, we ask you to meet with us and open to us the scriptures and give us understanding in the things,
03:00: Lord, that we will share. And Lord, just make this come.
03:08: We ask all you want it to be. In Christ's name, amen. Well, I'm going to read from four places in Ephesians.
03:18: And these are going to be just some brief readings. So, let's just turn to chapter one.
03:27: All the passages that I've chosen speak to the issue of the church.
03:33: You know, Ephesians, in a way, more than perhaps any other of Paul's epistles, is the book about the mystery of the church.
03:47: He speaks about the church so much in here. And so, let's just read these verses in them as you read them or as you hear them.
03:58: See where Paul is addressing the issue of the church. Ephesians 1, 22 and 23 at the end of chapter one.
04:10: Now, the context here is Paul has prayed for their enlightenment.
04:18: That the eyes of their understanding would be enlightened. That they would know the hope of God's calling in what is the riches of the glory of God's inheritance in the saints, plural.
04:35: So, the saints refers to the church, the universal body of Christ.
04:43: And he goes on, he talks about the work of Christ and God raising
04:49: Him from the dead. And then God has seated Him, Christ, far above all principality, power, might and dominion.
04:57: And above every name that is named. Not only in this age, but also in the age to come.
05:03: Verse 21. Now, 22 and 23. Notice what he says about the church.
05:11: And He, that is God the Father, put all things under His feet, that is
05:19: Christ. And gave Him to be head over all things to the church.
05:29: Which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
05:36: Now, let's just pause there. Christ, God says to Paul here that God the
05:45: Father made Christ through His death and resurrection. The head over all things, the head of the church.
05:55: Which is His body. Now, think about this for a moment. The Bible says that the
06:04: Lord Jesus Christ was the lamb slain from before the foundation of the world.
06:12: Remember that verse? So, Christ was slain in the economy, in the eternal purpose of God.
06:20: He was slain before the foundation of the world. Now, this means that God had eternally predestined and decreed for there to be a
06:34: Redeemer. Of a people that would be the bride of Jesus Christ.
06:42: So, the church was God's eternal purpose from all eternity.
06:48: And God, in eternity past, viewed
06:56: His Son, Christ, as the lamb that would be slain. From the very foundation of back in eternity.
07:09: So, the church is not a new thought to God. It wasn't that the gospel came to Israel, Israel rejected the gospel, and then
07:20: God says, okay, well, my plan didn't work, so what can I do now?
07:25: Let me think. Oh, well, I'll just come up with this plan B, and I'll have a church.
07:32: No. The church was God's purpose from all eternity past.
07:39: And so, Ephesians, throughout the book, chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3, chapter 5, maybe chapter 4,
07:50: I forget at the moment, but all through Ephesians, the mystery of the church of Jesus Christ is on the apostle
07:58: Paul's mind. So, going forward now into chapter 2, Ephesians 2, starting in verse 18.
08:07: And here, look for the language about the church. Because remember, the church is not a building, it's not a denomination.
08:14: It is a living organism. It is the whole body of Christ. Every believer through all of history, right down to the end of time, both dead and living, every true
08:33: Christian is a part of God's church. We make up the church, the body of Christ.
08:41: And we are the living stones within the body. So, Ephesians 2, 18.
08:49: For through him, we both, meaning Jew and Gentile, have access by one spirit to the
08:58: Father. Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners. Oops, excuse me just a minute.
09:07: I've lost my support. My laptop couldn't pull up the
09:20: Zoom meeting, so I'm on my phone. And I've got my phone propped up here, so it won't move.
09:27: But it moved for a second, I apologize. All right. Verse 19.
09:34: Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints.
09:45: Now, brother and sister today, young person, if you're a Christian, that's how you have to view yourself.
09:52: That you are no longer outside of the people of God, but you are fellow citizens with the saints.
10:01: You're members of the body. Members of the household of God.
10:09: Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
10:16: Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone.
10:22: Now, here he's talking about us in verse 21. In him, that is in Christ. Brethren, I think my phone's going to die.
10:34: Pause and let me get my charger. I apologize. Are we with you still?
10:44: Yep, we're good. All right. Now, verse 21 is talking about us as members of the body of Christ, the church.
10:56: In whom, that is in Christ, the whole building. Now, remember, the
11:03: New Testament pictures the church as a flock. As a body.
11:10: As an army. As a building. A lot of pictures of the church.
11:19: Here Paul says in whom the whole building, that's us, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple.
11:31: Now, there's another word picture. We are the temple of God. And he says in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the spirit.
11:50: Now, just think about the Old Testament. The dwelling place of God in the
11:56: Old Testament was what? Well, in the tabernacle of Moses.
12:04: And the temple of Solomon was, it was a physical place where the presence of God was represented.
12:18: And that is where the people of God met with the Lord. So here, the church in the
12:28: New Testament is not a physical place. It's not a physical temple. It's a spiritual living temple.
12:34: And we are the bricks and mortars. We're the living stones that make up the temple. So he says we, in verse 22, we're the dwelling place of God in the spirit.
12:51: Now, turn on over to chapter three. And Paul speaks here about the church.
12:57: Chapter three, verse eight. To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given that I should preach among the
13:08: Gentiles, the unsearchable riches of Christ. And to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery.
13:18: Now, what's the mystery Paul's referring to? Well, let's keep reading. The mystery, which from the beginning of ages, has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ.
13:31: To the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers of the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose, which he accomplished in Jesus Christ, our
13:49: Lord. So the mystery in Ephesians is that God, while he had the
13:56: Jews as his elect people in the Old Testament, in the body of Christ, in the gospel, he takes
14:03: Jew and Gentile and he makes a one flesh, a new people whose identity is not
14:12: Jewish. It's not pagan. It's not ethnicity. It's not where you're from.
14:18: It's not your background. The identity is we are one man as the church in Jesus Christ.
14:27: Now, he goes on in chapter 3.
14:35: Look at verse 20. Ephesians 3 .20,
14:45: Paul gives this doxology. Now to him who is able to do exceeding, abundantly above all we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.
14:57: To him be glory, where? It says in the church, through Christ Jesus to all generations.
15:09: So I want us to notice this verse 21. Paul doesn't leave the phrase the church out at all.
15:17: He puts it in intentionally because of this reason. God's glory is seen the most in the earth, not in the
15:28: Old Testament, not in nature, where you see a beautiful sunrise or you see a beautiful scene at the mountains and you just say, oh, that glorifies
15:40: God. God is not most glorified in the Old Testament or in nature.
15:46: He is glorified the most now in the gospel. Here through the church in the earth.
15:57: God's primary purpose in the earth is the church, the body of Jesus Christ.
16:03: He has no other agenda in the earth. The gospel has come to his body.
16:10: Think about how important the church is. Christ is the very head of this body.
16:19: So you can't be head without a body. There's no functioning head, practically speaking, unless the head is connected to a body.
16:29: And the body sure can't function without its head. So Christ is the head of the church.
16:37: He is the bridegroom for the bride.
16:42: The church is the bride of Christ. And so you don't have any glory of God happening in the earth with the gospel, without his people, the church.
16:57: The church is central to God's purpose. And you know, when God saves a person and makes them a
17:06: Christian, his purpose is not for them to walk alone.
17:13: His purpose is to put them in connection with life, connection with other believers in a church body.
17:24: Because all the commandments of the New Testament, you can't live those out if you're disconnected from a church.
17:33: There's no way to be a healthy, obedient Christian who's thriving, who's growing, and who's being used of God, if you are not a real part of the church.
17:46: God has no lone ranger, so to speak. He has nobody who he wants out there on their own, sitting at home, listening to sermons on YouTube, sitting at home, doing church online.
18:02: No, this is living Christianity, where we have to be with one another, because that's the way
18:11: God made it. Now, look at chapter 5, Ephesians 5, and we read another passage.
18:22: Paul addresses the church. We often think this one is about marriage and family. But marriage and family here is only an illustration of the greater truth of the church.
18:37: Ephesians 5, verse 20.
18:45: Giving thanks always for all things to God the Father, in the name of our
18:51: Lord Jesus Christ. Submitting to one another, that's in the church, in the fear of God.
19:00: Wives, submit to your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as also
19:08: Christ is the head of the church, and he is the savior of the body.
19:16: Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands and everything.
19:23: Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for her, that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word.
19:38: Now, you come to verse 27, and you realize Paul here is not talking about marriage.
19:44: He's talking about his church, the bridegroom's relationship with the bride.
19:50: Verse 27. That he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she, that is the church, should be holy and without blemish.
20:06: So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
20:13: For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the
20:20: Lord does the church. For we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones.
20:27: For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.
20:36: So, before I read the last verse, Paul likens this picture of physical marriage, and he says, the two become one, and they are joined, and they are one, they are united in marriage, and nothing is to separate them.
20:57: That physical marriage picture is a, is speaking of the great invisible mystery of the church, and he says that in verse 32.
21:08: This is a great mystery, but I'm speaking concerning Christ and the church.
21:18: So, you know, when the Lord saved me in 1974, as a 19 -year -old,
21:27: I immediately got connected to a Bible -believing, Bible -preaching church, and now, whatever it is, how many years later, over four decades,
21:43: I have always been a part of a church. Imperfect churches? Yes.
21:49: Yes. Churches where sometimes there were disagreements? Yes. But I've always been a part of a local body of believers.
22:00: Because, why? Because the New Testament is very clear that that is
22:06: God's will. Jesus loved the church and gave himself for her. He said,
22:12: I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not be able to come against her.
22:24: And so, anyone who loves Jesus Christ, truly, will know that they need to be with his people.
22:34: They will love his people. If we love God, whom we haven't seen,
22:40: John said, how can we not love one another who we have seen?
22:48: So a test of our love for Christ shows up in our love for the brethren.
22:55: Are we connected to other Christians? Do we love God's people? And do we want our lives to join together with them?
23:04: So, I want to talk about, here for a few minutes, what it means to be a part of a church.
23:15: Whether you're a true member, or you're only an attender. A member where you're really joined and your life is given, or you're only attending once in a while.
23:28: You know, the New Testament doesn't give us a picture of people just attending, but they're committed to their church.
23:39: So I want to contrast this for a few minutes, and I'll just give you some scriptures.
23:46: You can write these down, look them up later. I'm not going to read them, but I want you to reference these scriptures later.
23:52: So, number one, someone who's truly a member of a body.
23:59: Now what I mean is, let me just illustrate. When people began to come to Providence Chapel here in our church, they visit because they can't find a good church, or they've moved to the area, they're looking for churches, and they start coming.
24:20: And one Sunday leads to three, which leads to six weeks, seven weeks, eight weeks, and they're attending regularly.
24:30: And generally, one of our pastors will ask them, well, you know, we're really thankful that you're coming.
24:37: You seem to be enjoying the fellowship. So, do you believe
24:43: God is showing you that Providence Chapel is where he wants you?
24:49: It's an honest question. And they'll say, well, we're not sure yet. We, we lack the worship here, but we're still praying.
24:57: Or they say, yeah, we feel like this is where God wants us. And so, ultimately, they join the church, and they become faithful members, not just frequent attenders.
25:15: And there is a difference. So let's talk about that, about being a faithful member of your local church.
25:23: You know, the term church actually is used in two different ways in the
25:29: New Testament. In Ephesians, it's used in a sense of universal church, the greater body,
25:38: Jew and Gentile, all members of the household of God. And so Paul talked about that, bowing his knee to the father who is, among whom all the household of God is named.
25:57: So we know that there's a universal church, the wider body of Christ. Every believer in the world is a part of the universal body of Christ, of which
26:10: Christ is a head. But when you look at the New Testament references to church, most of them have to do with the local church, the church at Ephesus, the churches of Galatia, the church at Rome.
26:30: And so according to the Bible, you can't be a member of the universal church without God wanting you to be a part of a local church.
26:44: Because how can you worship with the universal church? You can't. You can only worship with a local church.
26:51: How can you spiritually build up and minister to the universal church?
26:59: You cannot. But your life as a man, as a lady, as a
27:06: Christian young person, your life in the local body is how you can minister to others.
27:14: All the commands, love one another, exhort one another, encourage one another, strengthen one another, comfort one another.
27:24: You can't do that unless you're in the local church. You can do it to Christian friends you have out in the community, but you're not worshiping with them.
27:37: God has put you with a body of believers. So let's talk about membership, what it means as opposed to attending.
27:47: Number one, a true member of the church joins themselves together with a specific group of believers.
27:59: Acts 9 .26 addresses that. In 1 Corinthians 12 .27, you can look at those up later.
28:06: Acts 9 .26, 1 Corinthians 12 .27. So here's a
28:12: Christian couple or a man or a woman, a single person. The New Testament wants them joining themselves to a body of believers, a specific group of believers who gather together regularly for worship.
28:29: Now someone who's just attending, an attender, they don't see any real serious need to always gather with the same group.
28:40: They're kind of mavericks. They roam around. They're like Lone Ranger here one week, another place the next week, third week.
28:48: They don't want to go anywhere, so they stay home. They feel free to come and go if they please.
28:54: That's just attending once in a while, but they never have connection, and that's very easy to do.
29:02: Why? Because you don't have to give anything. You are free just to be self -centered.
29:16: Christ doesn't want any attenders who come and go. It's like going to a restaurant, maybe that has a big buffet, and you go through the line, and you like this, so you take it.
29:27: I don't like that. I don't want that. You pick and choose what you want, and if you like the sermon, then you come back, but if a sermon offends you, you don't like it, well,
29:40: I'm not going back there again, and so think about the difference between being a real committed member and only an attender.
29:50: Christ wants members of His body, and one reason is we need one another to strengthen and edify one another.
30:01: Your life needs other believers week in and week out, and other believers need your life and your gifts spiritually for you to encourage them.
30:13: Number two, a true member of the church recognizes that he needs to function as a vital part of the particular body that he is joined to.
30:29: He recognizes that he has the responsibility to function as a vital part of the particular church to which he's joined.
30:41: Now, an attender who's not committed to the church, he just drops in.
30:49: His participation is just self -determined. He calls the shots, but he has no real sense of belonging or needing to fully function, so let me just apply this to you, brethren.
31:07: God has brought you together as a body, and He's making you into a church.
31:15: Every one of you that are called by God to be there, and He's placed you there, your church needs you.
31:23: That means don't be out on the fringe. Don't be inconsistent. Be faithful.
31:31: Be participating. Continue to get to know one another. Love one another.
31:36: Be a family, because we have to be a vital part of the church that we join.
31:44: God doesn't want a few poor people that are really faithful and several out on the fringe, not really getting close to anybody.
31:54: That's not the body of Jesus Christ. Thirdly, a member has a heart to give himself for the good of the body.
32:08: You are there not only for you to profit and grow, but you're there because God wants your life and your gifts and your love for the good of the church.
32:22: We're not just in the church for ourselves. We're here as members of the body of Christ to build up the body.
32:32: Well, an attender and not a member, he's really primarily interested in what he can get out of it.
32:42: He comes for himself. And if he likes what he's getting, then he's satisfied.
32:50: He's self -centered. He's just there as a consumer. And no one can benefit a church by being an attender who's interested primarily to be there to get what he can get from the group.
33:07: Number four, about membership. A true member of a church appreciates the
33:14: God -given need to be under the oversight of elders and pastors.
33:21: As sheep, we know we need elders and pastors. We know we need spiritual counsel.
33:30: We need to be taught the truth. We need to be equipped in the word. And the
33:35: New Testament tells elders to feed and shepherd the flock of God, take the oversight of the church.
33:43: So that's why God gives pastors and teachers and shepherds as elders.
33:51: And we recognize that we need them. Now, our church has five elders.
33:58: We share the preaching. We share the counseling. We share the shepherding.
34:05: And yet, all five of us, we pastor one another.
34:11: Because we're sheep, and we need spiritual care. We need encouragement.
34:20: We're Christians first, and then we're pastors and elders. So even the leaders view themselves as needing the body.
34:31: And even leaders view themselves as needing you as members. They need your encouragement.
34:37: They need your support. Hold on. I lost it again. Give me a moment.
34:55: Now, that's just an illustration of how much we need the equipment to proceed in the church.
35:09: If one part goes wrong, then nothing works. So, all right.
35:17: So, point number four. True Christians appreciate their need for pastors.
35:26: Well, those who just attend, they don't feel a need for pastors.
35:34: They don't think they have any need for shepherding. They just think,
35:39: I got my Bible, and I got the Holy Spirit. I'm good. That's all I need. Such a person is proud.
35:47: They're not teachable. And because they don't want to be under any proper spiritual authority.
35:59: Number five, a true member of the church committed to their church commits to the church.
36:08: That means you come and you say, I'm all in. I want to be faithful to the body, which means
36:17: I'm going to be faithful to the meetings. All the meetings of the church, unless providentially
36:25: I can't be there. I'm out of town, or I'm sick, or I have to work. But it means we're committed to the church, our life, our giving, our love.
36:41: We have to see ourselves like in marriage, like in family. If I'm in your church,
36:49: I'm called by Christ to be committed to you, to be committed to the body, to love each other, and to care for one another.
37:05: And it means I commit myself to the biblical leadership of the church.
37:12: Does the church have a pastor, elders, leaders? And I'm committed to be faithful to them, to support them, and to trust them.
37:28: But those who are only attenders, they just want to follow
37:34: Jesus on their own. And they don't feel any need for human leaders.
37:40: Because they're not interested in any accountability or anybody telling them what to do.
37:48: Such a person is deceived. If they think they can have Jesus in the
37:54: Bible and disobey the Bible, they can't. So this is very, very important to view the church right, to view
38:05: Christ's headship over the body, and to truly, as a member of the body, to be committed with the body under the headship and lordship of Jesus Christ.
38:20: Number six, the true committed member of the body responds to exhortation, responds to encouragement, even responds when they are rebuked properly, lovingly, for sin.
38:45: True Christians have to be humble enough to receive admonition, to receive encouragement, and to receive correction.
38:54: You know, I pastored for 40 years, and I have had members of the church who love me, and I love them, who come to me privately, respectfully, and they say, you know,
39:14: Brother Mac, I was kind of hurt by what you did, and I don't want that to come between us, so I'm just bringing it up to clear the air, because I want to be right.
39:27: And when they said that to me, I saw that what they were saying was right.
39:33: I saw that I had made a mistake, I was wrong, and I can either let my pride get in the way, or I can say,
39:43: Brother or Sister, you're right, I was wrong, and I'm very sorry.
39:48: So here's the test of your love for the church. When someone in the body comes to you, and it needs to be in love, it needs to be with humility, not prideful, not in the flesh carnally, but if someone comes to you with an admonition, hey,
40:12: I think you ought to think about this, or a correction, you know,
40:18: Brother, I kind of think you might have been wrong in that, and you might have missed it, or a rebuke.
40:27: How teachable are you to correction, admonition, and rebuke? Do you get defensive, or are you teachable?
40:38: The extent to which we love Christ's church will show us if we really love the church.
40:50: When we were received, what's hard to take? When we are corrected, it's easy, it's very easy to take the good, the encouragement, the love, the support, but we have to take both.
41:12: So true members of a church learn to humble themselves and respond to exhortation, to admonition, to encouragement, and to rebuke, and we have to see that as coming from Christ through the body to us.
41:32: Well, an attender of a church who's out on the edge of the church, not really involved, they don't want anybody intruding into their personal space.
41:45: Input is not appreciated unless they initiate it. And I've seen a lot of Christians over years, maybe they were struggling financially, and they're coming to church regularly, but they share a true need, and maybe the elders come alongside and give a gift to help them through a hard time.
42:08: They're very appreciative, and they become open to those elders because they feel loved.
42:15: But a month later, if one of those elders encourages them, hey, brother,
42:23: I saw that you missed the last two Sundays, and we missed you. Is everything okay?
42:31: If that person is just neglecting to come, but they're committed to the church, supposedly, if they're called out on it lovingly, then they can get defensive.
42:43: They don't want intrusion like that. Well, they want the support, but they don't want the accountability.
42:49: So that's important. And I'm going to go over all these again briefly without commentary later.
43:01: Number seven, the true church member should highly regard and love the elders in the church.
43:14: Now, your leaders are only men. They're imperfect. They know that.
43:20: They will make mistakes. They may, you might see them get impatient.
43:29: You might hear them once in a while maybe speak in a way that's not becoming to an elder.
43:36: They are not perfect men. Don't expect them to be perfect. There's only one perfect elder, and that is our elder brother in heaven, the
43:47: Lord Jesus Christ. And so even with qualified elders in the church, you will see their flaws.
43:57: You may get your feelings hurt by one of them, but you're called to be under their gospel ministry.
44:08: You're called to properly submit to their authority, and their authority is limited to what
44:15: Scripture says. No elder can tell you what kind of car to buy or what house to buy, but they can come to any
44:26: Christian in their church and say, Brother, I think you've been being a little harsh with your wife.
44:33: Is everything okay? They have a right to ask a man that because that's within the biblical confines of men walking as Christians.
44:42: The Bible gives that kind of level of authority for us to speak into one another's life.
44:51: So a member of the church should have high regard and true love for their leaders.
44:59: In 1 Thessalonians 5, 12, and 13 tells us that we're to esteem them highly for the sake of their work.
45:08: All right, well, someone who's just an attender of the church, he doesn't view elders and leaders as anything more than some stranger who's preaching.
45:24: He wouldn't believe the elders in a church that he's attending are any more important to him than some guy he watches on the internet.
45:35: He has no more relationship with the man he's listening to preach in the church than he does with John MacArthur.
45:45: So elders by that person are viewed no differently from any other believer, teacher, or preacher.
45:53: Number eight. True members of a church pray for their pastors and their leaders as their
46:02: God -given shepherds who are given by Christ to feed and shepherd them.
46:11: Now let me ask you a question personally. Do you see your leaders right now who are called to preach and teach to you, do you see them right now as your shepherds?
46:30: Is your heart submitted to their biblical ministry? Do you pray for them for their feeding and caring for you spiritually?
46:42: You need them, and they need you, and you must have a loving, true, honoring relationship with them.
46:55: Well, the one who's just attending the church, he doesn't pray for his leadership because he doesn't really have them in their life.
47:04: He doesn't say that their preaching, their teaching, or their care is connected to his personal care because he's independent.
47:13: He's an independent spirit, and he doesn't want anyone watching over his soul.
47:20: Number nine. The true member of a church sees the glory of Christ in the church.
47:28: You see, as a member, that the glory of God is what's central in your church.
47:37: Not some doctrine, though we need doctrine. Not what building we're in, though we've got to have a place to meet.
47:47: Not what your name is as a church, though every church needs a name.
47:52: Now, the central thing is the glory of God. God needs to be honored and glorified in our church, and I'm a part of that.
48:03: I have to glorify God in the church. We as a body together are to be the light in the world of the city we're in.
48:16: You as a body, you as a church, or a city set on a hill, and your example, your ministry, your love for one another, others are going to see it.
48:28: And what you've got to make sure that happens is Christ is being glorified in our midst.
48:35: And that's what you ought to have a primary heart for.
48:41: All right, I'm going to pause and just ask, are you still hearing me? That's a thumbs up.
48:51: I still see the thumbs up. All right. Well, the person out just attending a church, they don't see the church as truly glorious and primary.
49:10: Other things are more important to them. Maybe their earthly family.
49:17: Maybe their Bible study that goes to do with somebody. Maybe their
49:23: Internet church. Maybe the people they get on the Internet with to talk, discuss, argue about things.
49:31: But they don't really see, because they only attend. They're not committed. They don't really see the glory of God in the church as all that important.
49:43: All right. Finally, number 10. The true member of the church, the
49:49: Christian who's committed to their church, loves the church. Christ loved the church and gave himself for it.
50:00: If we love him, do we have love like him? Do we love what he loves?
50:07: The greatest thing in the earth that Jesus Christ loves is the church as it is manifested in towns and cities and villages in a local church body.
50:21: Christ loves the church. And if we love him, we have to love who and what he loves.
50:29: So, you know, you're together as a church, and you start walking, and weeks turn into months, and months will turn into a year, two years, three years, five years, ten years.
50:49: Is Jesus still loving the members of that body? Yes. Do we?
50:56: You know, love is easy until somebody irritates you or offends you or hurts you, and then you draw away from them.
51:06: Well, in the body of Christ, we don't have a right to draw away from people because we're all going to make mistakes.
51:16: We're going to fail one another, offend one another, and the love of Christ keeps us continuing to love each other even with our flaws, even with our mistakes.
51:32: That is the unconditional, agape love of Jesus Christ.
51:39: Does he love us when we mess up, when we sin, when we're flawed? He doesn't stop loving us.
51:46: Well, we can't stop loving one another. I've seen churches where two people, their relationship is broken, and they keep coming.
52:00: One sits on one side of the church, one sits on the other side, and they avoid each other, and there they are worshiping
52:07: God, praising God, and yet they won't even speak to one another. That is sin.
52:15: That dishonors Christ, and it grieves him as the bridegroom over the bride.
52:20: It grieves him as the head of the church. If his children don't get along, he won't tolerate that.
52:29: So true believers committed to their church, they're on a lifelong mission to keep loving the church for which
52:38: Jesus died. You know, someone just attending a church, their attitude is, you know, no church is all that special.
52:51: I want to find the perfect one, because, you know, I'm kind of perfect myself.
52:57: I want to find the perfect church, and so they never get connected to a true church, and that's a real tragedy.
53:04: A good study is to read all of the epistles in the book of Revelation, starting with Romans, and just read through them sometime, and underline and mark every place that the body of Christ is mentioned, the church, the people of God.
53:34: And you'll see an unbelievable amount of material of how central the church is, how important the church is.
53:47: The church is the vehicle in the earth that glorifies
53:55: God. The church is his body in the earth to reflect Jesus Christ, to carry out the great commission.
54:03: And one day in heaven, the glorious body of Christ will all be together.
54:14: You know, when the last person in history is saved, and all believers are brought into the body of Christ, I'm sure that's pretty soon when
54:25: Christ is going to return, and everything will be over down here. And then there'll be a new heavens and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness, and the church, the new
54:37: Jerusalem in heaven, all believers will be together forever, and we will worship
54:43: God. So a church, almost the single most important responsibility for any church member is to make sure they continue to walk in love to one another.
55:05: And if somebody hurt your feelings, just forgive them and keep loving them.
55:11: They're like you. They're imperfect, and like you, they make mistakes.
55:18: Don't hold grudges, brethren. They will eat like a cancer in the church. Also, walk in unity.
55:30: The most fragile thing in a church is its unity. If you're not unified, it doesn't matter what you have.
55:38: If you're not unified, you could have a beautiful church building. You could have the most famous, wonderful expositor in the world in the pulpit.
55:51: You could have many things, but if you don't have unity, you don't have a true church.
55:58: Over and over again, the Apostle Paul calls the churches to above all, above everything else, preserve and maintain your unity.
56:09: And I promise you it will be tested. I know a church in the United States six months ago, back in November, they were thriving.
56:22: They were loving one another. There was unity, and the enemy came in, and six months later, they're arguing with one another.
56:36: They're accusing one another. They're holding grudges with one another. They're gossiping and slandering one another, and they are completely being deceived by the enemy because they did not remain vigilant to keep their unity, to preserve the unity and the bonds of peace.
56:57: Your love in the church and your unity with one another depends on one person, you individually.
57:06: Every member of the church is called to love the church, to support it, to be faithful, and to be the best church member that you can.
57:17: Your church growing and being truly biblically successful depends on you as a member of the body to do what you're supposed to do.
57:29: You do it under Christ, your head. You're not doing it to please men.
57:35: You're not doing it to please others. You're doing it to please your bridegroom out of love for him.
57:43: So I'm trying to think if there were other things
57:52: I wanted to share. Brothers and sisters,
57:59: God is giving you a special opportunity. He has put it in your heart to be there, and I'm presuming that everyone there feels like they're called to be a part of the church there.
58:15: Your presence is important. Your church won't be the same without you being fully committed, fully on board.
58:26: So that means we have to learn to walk together in transparency, in humility, in honesty, loving each other, praying for one another, supporting one another, exhorting one another, encouraging one another.
58:42: And as a flock, trust your leaders. Listen, many, many
58:53: Christians, as long as they agree with their leaders, their elders, their preachers, they will trust them and support them.
59:03: But when they get offended by something or they disagree with something, they disagree with the decision, then they back off in their commitment.
59:13: And here's what happens. When Christians in the church start behind closed doors, criticizing the leaders, disagreeing over what's being done, that is sin.
59:28: It's sowing division among the brethren, and it is undermining the leadership.
59:36: Never, ever, ever criticize your leaders to one another. Don't go to someone else outside the church and criticize your leaders.
59:47: And church members don't understand how to do this. If you have a problem, you have a question, you have a struggle with one of your leaders, or with a doctrine, or with a decision that's being made, have the love to go to them privately and just say,
01:00:07: Brother, I'd like to meet. I have questions. We have questions. And you meet privately.
01:00:13: And in love, you bring up the question and you're honest with them. You know, I struggle with this.
01:00:21: Can you help me understand this more or share with me what would benefit me?
01:00:26: You go to them and you share with them. Be the best church member you can be, because those leaders, they need you.
01:00:39: Under Christ, their responsibility is great to preach and teach the word faithfully, to love you, to shepherd you, to care for you.
01:00:50: And you need them and they need you. So I think
01:00:57: I'm going to pause at this point and just ask you, if any of you have questions,
01:01:06: I'm happy to address them. So prepare for that now.
01:01:12: But I want to read that list again of the 10 points of what a true member in a church does and believes.
01:01:23: Number one, they join themselves together in commitment with a specific group of believers.
01:01:31: They join themselves to a church body. Number two, they recognize that they must function as a vital part of that body to which they're joined.
01:01:42: They're vitally needed. They can't stay out on the edges and out on the fringe.
01:01:48: They recognize that they must function as a real part of the body. Number three, they give themselves for the good of the church.
01:01:57: Time, commitment, love, giving, resources, faithfulness.
01:02:06: We must give ourselves to the body of Christ. Number four, the true member appreciates the
01:02:13: God -given need to be under the oversight of pastors and leaders.
01:02:18: Number five, the true member commits to following the biblical leadership of the church.
01:02:27: If you don't understand the direction or if you disagree with it, don't criticize it.
01:02:35: Don't go talking to others. Go to the leaders and ask for clarification.
01:02:44: So a true member of a church commits to follow the biblical leadership of the church.
01:02:49: Number six, a true member responds from the heart to exhortation, encouragement, and rebuke from those
01:02:59: God has placed over them and from those in the body. Number seven, he highly regards and loves the elders in the church and esteems them for the sake of their work and ministry.
01:03:14: Number eight, they pray for their own pastors or teachers because they recognize those men are their primary
01:03:25: God -given shepherds to feed and care for them. Number nine, the true member of the body sees the glory of God in the church as all important.
01:03:37: And number 10, the true believer loves his church, and he continues to love his church, and he grows in love for the church more and more.
01:03:52: All right, well, I'm going to pause, and if y 'all want to ask questions, I'll take them.
01:03:59: So I think I can hear you.
01:04:05: I'm not muted. I don't think you're muted to me. So anybody have questions?
01:04:13: Anyone have anything you wanted to ask? Oh, sure. You know what, Jason? Yeah, just come up and pick up the microphone.
01:04:23: Yeah, the mic's on the back of the camera. Can you hear me? Yeah, just speak up, please.
01:04:31: All right, thanks, Matt. Yeah, the question regards to excommunication and whether you can share any stories or experiences you've had in the past.
01:04:40: Excommunication? Yeah. Well, I can only give a summary.
01:04:51: I have led in more than one excommunication process in the church.
01:05:01: Excommunication is biblical. It's limited to those who are immoral or who are divisive or who hold to heresy or if they are in public sin where they're, as Paul said in Romans, the name of God is blasphemed among the
01:05:38: Gentile world because of professing believers' sin.
01:05:46: So excommunication starts in Matthew 18. It's following the steps laid out there, private admonition.
01:05:57: It's got to be real sin that's at the heart of this.
01:06:03: And usually, if you look up the verses about excommunication or cutting off believers in the church, there's things always named in those verses that they're doing to separate from them, to have no fellowship with them or to put them out of the church.
01:06:23: So this choice of excommunication lies with the leaders of the church only.
01:06:39: The elders and officers of the church have to lead a church to engage in excommunication.
01:06:47: It's not a democratic vote. There's no voting on this in the New Testament.
01:06:52: So an elder wouldn't come to the church and say to the church, well, we have to vote today on whether we're going to put so -and -so out of the church.
01:07:02: No, it's not a democratic process. So this needs to be understood carefully.
01:07:11: It has to be done properly. It has to be done in love. It's done as a last measure, a last extreme measure when everything else has failed.
01:07:24: So leaders would need to go to that person privately, one -on -one.
01:07:32: And if the person doesn't receive, but they reject it, then you go back, but with two people or more, that every word can be established.
01:07:42: That's what's said. And then you admonish them in love. Brother, sister, what you're doing is wrong.
01:07:50: Please return to the church and please stop this. Because excommunication or church discipline, the goal of it is restoration always.
01:08:02: It's meant to bring pressure on the erring believer, the disobedient
01:08:09: Christian, for God to chasten them, to correct them so that they'll repent and turn back to the church.
01:08:21: So I have seen it work where a brother who was disciplined, put out of the church, he came back in a few months in tears and really apologized to the church.
01:08:35: I've seen it not work where people would not receive the admonition.
01:08:41: They hardened themselves and they left. Now, the challenge comes within a church.
01:08:49: Let's say there's somebody who's really loved in the church. Maybe a family member of someone in the church.
01:08:57: Maybe they're really popular. And liked by a lot of people. But one of those people just goes astray, falls into immorality, starts publicly causing division, and they won't stop.
01:09:17: Okay. Oops. The temptation is for people to choose sides and to say, well, you know,
01:09:31: I think this is wrong to do this to them because I love them a lot. They've helped me.
01:09:38: They supported my family when we were struggling. They let us live in one of their houses for a year.
01:09:45: These are good people. This is wrong to do that to them. And a church cannot do that.
01:09:53: They can't. It's not a popularity contest. Members of the church, if they're faithful, they have to view discipline and excommunication totally biblical and not show carnal favoritism because Jesus is the one that started church discipline and excommunication.
01:10:18: And I've seen people get angry and leave when somebody is under church discipline because they like that person that was excommunicating, and they couldn't stand it to happen.
01:10:38: This is a great danger. So I think, you know, a church has to study this subject.
01:10:45: The church body over weeks should study a good book on church discipline, excommunication, because we all have to view it right.
01:10:54: And if we trust our leaders, if we believe that our preachers and our teachers and our elders are men of God, and we know they love the flock, their responsibility as leaders is to honor
01:11:11: Christ and be biblical, even if it comes to church discipline. It should not be entered into rashly, emotionally, quickly.
01:11:24: It should be entered into with prayer and in the fear of God and done biblically.
01:11:32: So off the top of my head, brother, that's probably the most I could say. Maybe I've already said too much, but I hope that helps.
01:11:44: Any other questions? Last one.
01:11:56: Matt, quick question. So amongst our group, there's people that have been believers for a number of years now, other people that are quite new believers.
01:12:06: And what counsel would you give? One of the things that we're approaching is the topic of baptism.
01:12:12: That's something that we'll be talking about over the next few weeks. And what counsel would you give to a believer who might be here who hasn't been baptized yet?
01:12:24: And I guess just relative to the life of the church and that obedience to that ordinance.
01:12:32: Well, that's a great question. I guess
01:12:38: I would just say, you know, in the New Testament, all believers who believe the gospel and trust in Christ, they were immediately baptized.
01:12:50: There's no record of an unbaptized believer in the early church.
01:12:56: You see that in the book of Acts, especially. And so I would say a new believer who's never been baptized, they need to be willing to follow
01:13:12: Christ and what he commands, right? So Matthew 28, 18 through 20,
01:13:19: Jesus commands his church to go make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the
01:13:25: Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Jesus himself was baptized as an example to us.
01:13:34: And so we know that baptism doesn't forgive our sins.
01:13:40: Jesus was baptized as an example, but he didn't have sins to be forgiven. So baptism doesn't take away our sin or wash our sin away.
01:13:50: But it is a sign of public identification with Jesus Christ.
01:14:00: Luke says in Acts, as many as received his word were baptized.
01:14:07: And so a new Christian may have reasons why he's afraid of baptism. He might say, well, you know, when
01:14:15: I was in the Catholic church, I was sprinkled as a baby. So I think that's all I need. So he's got to ask himself, what does the
01:14:24: New Testament teach about this? What does Christ want of me?
01:14:31: We're called to be obedient children. So a new Christian should read the passages in the
01:14:39: New Testament on baptism. And he should take them seriously and be willing to obey
01:14:46: Christ about baptism. Jesus is the one that commanded it. And so if I'm a new
01:14:53: Christian, do I want to follow and obey the Lord Jesus? That's the most important question.
01:15:01: And maybe they're afraid of water. Well, the one baptizing you will not let you drown.
01:15:09: There's nothing to be afraid of. There's other fears, maybe being the center of attention.
01:15:17: But baptism is a step of submission to the church.
01:15:24: You're submitting yourself to that church to become a member. And you're submitting yourself to the leader who is baptizing you.
01:15:33: So it is a point of submission. And more important than that, it's a point of obeying
01:15:39: Christ, who commanded his church to go make disciples and baptize them in the name of the