Requirements #2: Knowledge, Profession, Experience

The point: Keep two questions before us: 'Who has a right and a responsibility to seek admission to a biblically ordered church?' and 'Whom does a biblically ordered church have the right and responsibility to receive into its memb…

The church is likened to a house with a front door (membership) and a back door (discipline), emphasizing the stewardship God's people have over who enters and exits.

And the first thing I attempted to do this morning was to persuade you of the critical importance of this subject. And I sought to awaken that sense of its importance by making this statement, that as a general rule, the God-prescribed purpose, for the church, and a God-prescribed standard for membership in the church, will stand or fall together. Then, in order to put all of this study in this area into a cohesive analogy, I set before you the imagery of the church as a house with a front door and a back door,

3:13 - 3:57 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The sermon turns to Acts 2, the Day of Pentecost, as a pivotal passage. Martin highlights the conviction of Peter's hearers, their cry 'What shall we do?', and Peter's command to…

Martin recounts the scene on the Day of Pentecost where people cried out during Peter's sermon, expressing a longing for such genuine, Spirit-wrought conviction in contemporary services.

the new covenant blessing is born, we have so many helpful principles set before us. I remind you of what we saw in another life this morning. While Peter is preaching, in the midst of his preaching, people come under such conviction that they cry out in the middle of the sermon. I said to several last Lord's Day evening, when at several points in the ministry there was a very heightened sense of God's presence, and I said how I longed for the day when in the midst of Pentecost, when the church was in the middle of the sermon, when the church was preaching, someone is so overcome, not by worke...

11:28 - 12:11 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin continues to build the case for repentance and faith by examining Acts 20, where Paul summarizes his preaching as 'testifying both to Jews and to Greeks repentance toward…

Martin imagines the Ephesian elders' internal affirmation when Paul reminded them of his preaching of 'repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ,' highlighting their vivid remembrance of conviction and turning from idolatry.

Jesus Christ. And when he said that, they didn't scratch their heads and look at one another and say, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait a minute, Paul, just, will you mind, we're going to have a little caucus here. You're saying that we will remember that from the first day you came among us, you served the Lord with humility, that we know, with compassion, with tears, that we know, but wait a minute, Paul, repent, repent, what's that you said you were, no, nobody scratched their head and said, what's he talking about? When he said, testifying among you, repentance towards God, if one could put his...

18:59 - 19:43 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin continues to build the case for repentance and faith by examining Acts 20, where Paul summarizes his preaching as 'testifying both to Jews and to Greeks repentance toward…

The story of Paul and Silas singing in prison, the earthquake, and the jailer's subsequent conviction and conversion is used to illustrate the process of coming to faith and the need for gospel instruction.

sister, Philippi. And they are thrown into prison because they've shriveled up the pockets of some people who are making money on the demon-possessed girl, and they delivered her from her demonic powers, and this jailer has beaten them, thrown them into the inner prison. And at midnight, instead of having a pity party or plotting on how they're going to get the Roman government to release them, they're having a hallelujah meeting. They're singing praises to God at midnight. No doubt the jailer heard that, and it's as though God is

22:00 - 22:30 Read in full sermon

Driving home: No one is in Christ sacramentally. The Roman Church and the Lutheran Church notwithstanding, there is no water. There is no water placed upon anyone in any circumstances that can bring the recipient of the water into Chr…

Martin uses the examples of the Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches to illustrate that water baptism does not sacramentally bring one into Christ, nor is union with Christ hereditary, emphasizing that God has no grandchildren.

From God's standpoint, when God sovereignly regenerates people in the context of gospel light and knowledge. And when the sinner, quickened to life by the Spirit, in repentance and faith, embraces Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, he or she is incorporated into Christ. And no one is in Christ sacramentally. The Roman Church and the Lutheran Church notwithstanding, there is no water.

35:01 - 35:33 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin returns to 1 Thessalonians 1, showing that Paul knew the Thessalonians' election by the gospel's power and their transformed lives (work of faith, labor of love, patience…

Martin humorously dismisses the idea that God showed Paul a list of the elect in Thessalonica, explaining that Paul knew their election by the manifest power of the gospel in their transformed lives.

Now how in the world did Paul come to know the election of the Thessalonians? And one of those experiences, when he said, He was caught up into the third heaven, did God say, Here, Paul, come here, come here, come here. I want you to see the role of my elect. Look at those names.

50:02 - 50:15 Read in full sermon

The point: When interviewing prospective members, ask if they are content with their God-given gender identity as man or woman.

The account of Ephesian believers burning their expensive magical books is used as a concrete, specific example of 'works worthy of repentance' and the ethical transformation wrought by the gospel.

This is what it meant in the concrete and the specific at Ephesus. You're turning from your idolatrous worship of Diana and your involvement in the occult and the magical arts then bring forth fruits, meet for repentance. Clear your bookshelves of those demonic books. And burn them.

52:18 - 52:36 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not accept plastic, wooden, or checklist responses when discerning genuine repentance and faith; seek to understand their personal experience.

Martin shares an anecdote about elders interviewing prospective members, noting the challenge of discerning genuine experience when people might give 'plastic, wooden, checklist' responses or feel intimidated, emphasizing the need to draw out their true understanding.

And that's where it becomes humorous at times when we as elders are interviewing people that are knocking at the front door. We don't want to put words in their mouth. So we say, tell us, how did God bring you to himself? And often because they're trying to, I'm not quite sure what they're trying to do sometimes, but they obviously are not really being themselves.

56:41 - 57:04 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Repentance unto life is a saving grace whereby a sinner out of a true sense of his sin and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ does with grief and hatred of his sin turn from it unto God with full purpose of and e…

The blossoming of repentance and faith in some hearts is compared to a flower opening to the sun, illustrating that conversion doesn't always involve a dramatic, traceable moment, especially for those with godly nurture.

For some, repentance and faith blossom in their hearts and lives like a flower opens to the sun. And at what point would you say it's closed? And at what point is it open? It went from closed and now it's open.

58:28 - 58:47 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not let the lack of a dramatic conversion experience keep you from knocking at the church door if you genuinely possess repentance and faith.

The analogy of a tree known by its fruits, which are produced by its roots, is used to explain that manifest repentance (fruits) indicates the presence of genuine repentance and faith (roots).

Not when, but that. And if the fruits of repentance are being manifest, it's because God put the roots. For the tree is known by its fruits. But the tree produces what its roots enable it to produce.

60:44 - 61:04 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not let the lack of a dramatic conversion experience keep you from knocking at the church door if you genuinely possess repentance and faith.

The church is described as God's school, from kindergarten to promotion to heaven, emphasizing that it's a place of maturation where believers grow, and one doesn't need to be a theologian to join.

And that's the only way to be saved. And that's the only way to be saved. So that's the only way to be saved. So first of all, the Bible tells us that we ought to profess Ephesians 4 says the church is God's school.

61:55 - 62:21 Read in full sermon

The point: If you are a man or woman who knows you are a sinner deserving of hell, that Christ has saved you, and you love and want to serve Him as an obedient disciple, you have an obligation to seek church membership.

The story of Simon Magus in Acts 8 is used as an example of a 'calculating hypocrite' who sought to join the church for self-serving reasons, illustrating that not all who enter are genuine.

If the church is monitoring the opening of the front door by these biblical principles, a man or woman, who professes repentance in faith and manifests a transformed life, the church will be made up of true disciples, unwitting, self-deceived people, who think what they are and have is the real thing, and others observing them make a judgment of charity that what they have is the real thing. And then calculated deliberate hypocrites, who for some reason want to be in the church for devious means and ends. Simon Magus, Acts chapter 8.

64:21 - 65:04 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin offers qualifications: neither the Bible nor the constitution requires a dramatic conversion experience, only that repentance and faith are present and bear fruit. He…

The account of Ananias and Sapphira is referenced to show that God sometimes directly exposes and disciplines hypocrites when the church is unaware of their sins.

Let no one deceive you. Be not deceived, my brethren. And we can trust God under a balanced biblical ministry that has sufficient emphasis on self-examination, that God will mercifully expose to their own judgment the unwittingly self-deceived. And sometimes, as he did in the book of Acts, God may directly reach in and touch the hypocrites in striking ways.

65:32 - 65:59 Read in full sermon