Assumption All Were Church Members

Introduction: Peter's Pastoral Burden and the Context of 1 Peter 5

0:03 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, January 23, 2000, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now may I encourage you to turn with me in your own Bibles to 1 Peter, the first letter of the Apostle Peter, and follow as I read in your hearing verses 1 through 11. 1 Peter, chapter 5, and verse 1. The elders therefore among you I exhort, who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, who am also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed, tend or shepherd the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight not of constraint, but willingly, according to the will of God, nor yet for filthy lucre, for base gain, or in more contemporary lingo, for being greedy for money, not as one greedy for money, but of a ready mind, neither as lording it over the charge allotted to you, but making yourselves examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd shall be manifested,

1:33 you shall receive the crown of glory that fades not away. Likewise, you, younger, be subject unto the elder. Yes, all of you, gird yourselves with humility to serve one another, for God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore unto the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your anxiety upon him, because he cares for you.

2:09 Be sober, be watchful, your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion walks about seeking whom he may devour, whom withstands steadfast in your faith, knowing that the same sufferings are accomplished in your brethren who are in the world. And the God of all grace, who called you unto his eternal glory in Christ, after that you have suffered a little while, shall himself, perfect, establish, strengthen you. To him be the dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

2:50 Now let us again ask the help of God as we take his word into our hands and set it before our minds. Let us pray. Our Father, we again bow in your presence. We again come asking help of you, not as a ritual before the preaching of the word, but as the very real expression of our corporate sense of our utter dependence upon you.

3:25 We would now acknowledge that without you, Lord Jesus, we can do nothing. The one who seeks to speak your word can do no good. Those who seek to hear and receive can receive no good unless you, Lord Jesus, are present, ministering, to both preacher and hearer alike, and in the expectation of faith, and in the fresh confirmation that we do not trust in ourselves, but in you. Come, Lord Jesus, by your Spirit, and minister to us in light and in power.

4:07 Amen. Now it was six Lord's Days ago, just prior to my wife and I leaving for a two-week vacation out in Michigan, that we completed our study in 1 Peter through to the end of chapter 4. And in the course of the expositions of the section bounded by chapter 3 and verse 13, and continuing all through to the end of chapter 4 and verse 19, we had occasion to highlight again and again that that section contains the central pastoral burden of the Apostle Peter. As he writes to the people of God in the regions of Asia Minor, an area of the world that we now identify as the country of Turkey. That pastoral burden consists in the desire to enlighten, to instruct, and to encourage the people of God concerning their present and future sufferings for the sake of Christ. About two-thirds of the way, through that section, Peter makes it clear that he fully expects that suffering for the sake of Christ will not deter the people of God from their active involvement

5:33 in the life and ministry of the Church of Christ. And so we noted that in chapter 4 verses 7 through 11, he addresses the people of God in terms of their corporate identity, and their corporate life, and interaction. He admonishes them to be fervent in their love among themselves, that they are to use hospitality one to another. They are to minister their gifts with a deep concern that every divine endowment will find a conduit of usefulness in the life and ministry of the Church.

6:13 Then he returns to his central burden again in verse 12, all the way through verse 19, addressing the subject of suffering in terms of the fiery trial or the burning that is among them. Now it's clear from our initial reading of the passage that has been read in your hearing, chapter 5 and verse 11, that Peter is once again directing the attention of his readers to aspects of their life together. Suffering is not totally out of his mind. Suffering is not totally out of his mind.

6:49 Suffering is not totally out of his mind. Suffering is not totally out of his mind. For you will remember, I trust, in reading this passage, he speaks of the fact that their sufferings are sufferings shared by their brethren. And as he comes to his concluding of benediction and doxology, he does so in terms of their suffering for a little while until they are utterly and completely perfected.

7:14 But here in this passage, verses 1 to 4, are a direct word to a statement, a segment of the church called elders. Those who have been appointed by God as the overseers of the people of God. And the people of God are set forth here, not in their individual identity, but in their corporate identity, with the terms, flock of God, God's heritage. Those are concepts that cannot be driven to individualism.

7:48 A flock is a gathering, a gathering of sheep. God's inheritance or portion is not to be thought of atomistically, but in terms of a corporate identity. And so as we come to this passage, we see Peter the pastor again concerned that none of the people of God ever think that any amount of suffering in any extent of that suffering is an excuse or warrant to become less committed to the life and ministry of the church. But as he approaches this subject in chapter 5, it is clear that he does so with an underlying assumption.

Defining and Stating Peter's Underlying Assumption

8:33 And the bulk of our time this morning is going to be taken up with simply identifying the underlying assumption of this passage and in a very real sense of the entire letter that Peter writes to these believers. Now it's important that I give a working definition of an assumption. An assumption is something taken for granted, something we don't stop to articulate, much less to prove. For example, when I stood up this morning to lead the service, there was an underlying assumption.

9:12 I did not identify it, much less prove it. And that assumption was this, that most, if not all, of you sitting here this morning have some degree of proficiency in the English language. If I could speak French, I would not have stood and begun to speak in French, or in Spanish, or Italian, or Hindustani, or some other exotic language. I was assuming that the moment I began to frame vocables in the English language, that there would be a registering in your brain of those vocables and I would be engaged in meaningful communication.

9:55 I am assuming that there is a basic proficiency in the English language. Furthermore, I am assuming that the whole complex of verbal communication is firmly in place. Think how much I assumed. I assumed that my thoughts, clothed in my words, can so register on my brain that impulses are sent to my larynx, to my lungs, to my diaphragm, to my lips, and to my tongue, that words will be framed and they will come out to you in the form of unseen vibrations.

10:30 And when those vibrations are picked up by your ears, they are transmitted through the ear into the inner ear and all of that complex mechanism and signals are sent by the auditory nerve to your brain in which there registers those vocables and voila, my thoughts have entered your head. Now all of that was assumed. I didn't come here with charts and diagrams to prove the working physiology of how sounds are formed and framed and transferred and thoughts become transferred in the process. I was reminded in a very vivid way of this wonderful phenomena of verbal communication the Church has provided me, as most of you know, with a lovely car, a 1998 Honda, the top of the line Honda. And many of the little gimmicks it has is it has a built-in brain into which I can store the impulses of three different electronic devices. Well, my wife keeps her car in the garage and she has one of those remote garage door openers and so when she is ready to go into the garage she pushes it and the signal is sent into that mechanized thing and up goes the garage door. Well I was reading through the manual and it said I can inject the impulses from any remote opener into the little brain in that car and it amazed me.

11:55 It said just hold the thing for 15 seconds in the light there and when you're done push the button and the door will open. And that's what happened. All I needed to do was take her remote put it next to that little place in the Honda and wonder of wonders whatever impulses are sent out from that little remote control without any words without any wires were injected into the little electronic brain in my Honda so when I have occasion to use the garage myself I push my little button and up it goes. Now wouldn't it be wonderful if we could transfer thoughts that way and I come down this morning and say the whole burden of my message is in my heart and in my head.

12:33 Yes I have it on five pages of notes and then I just come to each one of you and I say all right let's press foreheads and then I think hard and you say boom I've got it I've got the whole message. I tell you that'd be wonderful. God hasn't made us that way. You see I'm presuming I am presuming that you have some facility in the English language.

12:57 I am also assuming that what I am doing has significance. I'm not just making vibrations in the air to tickle the air. I'm seeking to take my thoughts that are closed in my words and put them into your brain so that there is a very real and meaningful communication of thought. Now why all of that?

13:22 Well simply to underscore that when we talk about the assumptions of something that's what we're talking about. Things we take for granted. We don't stop to analyze or prove them. And in this passage Peter has an underlying assumption that is critical to our understanding of this passage and in a very real sense of the entire letter.

13:51 Now in the time allotted these will be my heads. I want to state that underlying assumption and then seek to prove from the scripture that it was indeed Peter's underlying assumption. So the underlying assumption stated and proved. Secondly we will examine why it was that Peter could make this assumption.

14:16 Was it a valid assumption to make? Should he have paused to articulate it? To prove it? To demonstrate it?

14:23 I want to demonstrate why it was that Peter could make this assumption. And then thirdly I want to give you the reasons why I'm taking the time to highlight the assumption show you the biblical proof for the assumption and why it was that Peter made the assumption. Alright? First of all then the underlying assumption stated and proved.

14:45 What is the underlying assumption of this passage? One Peter sitting perhaps somewhere in Rome is penning this letter and he comes to this section and writes the elders therefore among you I exhort who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ who am also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed shepherd the flock of God which is among you exercising the oversight as he launches into this direct exhortation to elders in a letter addressed to the people of God in general what is his underlying assumption? Well let me give it to you in the long version and then the short version. Alright? Here's the long more accurate version of his assumption.

15:41 Here it is. That all true believers in Asia Minor to whom this letter was written were unmistakably identified with specific local assemblies of the people of God. When Peter writes his letter and says as he does in chapter 1 in verse 1 Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ to the elect who are sojourners of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia he is assuming that all true believers in Asia Minor to whom this letter was written were unmistakably identified with specific local assemblies of the people of God. Or the short version Peter's assuming that all true Christians in Asia Minor were church members. That's the short version. He's assuming that all true Christians in Asia Minor were church members.

16:48 Now note carefully I have worded the assumption this way. He's assuming all true Christians were church members. Now don't reverse that and say oh well does that mean then all church members in Asia Minor were true Christians. No.

17:04 It does not. And you students learning a little bit about logic that would be affirming the consequence. That's fallacious reasoning. It is not true that all church members are true Christians.

17:18 Peter knew better than that. Peter was the one who spoke to a character in Acts 8 who was a professing Christian baptized and a church member in Samaria. But he manifested that the root of the matter was not in him. He was a hypocrite.

17:35 The word of God teaches that there are temporary believers those who receive the word with joy believe for a while and then fall away. Many of them in that period of believing for a while make a credible profession are baptized and come into the church. But they are not true Christians. And then there are very clever hypocrites who maintain their credible profession all the way through life and only in the day of judgment will they be exposed for who and what they are.

18:04 Jesus refers to them in Matthew 7 21 and 23 Not everyone who says unto me Lord, Lord shall enter the kingdom. Many will say to me in that day Lord, Lord have we not prophesied in your name? Have we not done mighty works in your name? They rose up through the ranks to places of prominence in leadership and Jesus will say to them depart from me I never knew you.

18:28 Peter did not believe that all church members were true Christians. He knew the truth of 1 John chapter 2. They went out from us that it might be made manifest that they are not all of us. But Peter is assuming that all the true Christians were church members.

Proving Peter's Assumption from 1 Peter

18:46 You see, that's the affirmation. That's the assumption. The assumption is that all of the true Christians in Asia Minor were found in specific local assemblies of God's people so he can address that configuration of churches in which there is a flock and God's heritage and there are shepherds who are in the midst of and over those flocks of God in their God-appointed role and function. Now, how can I prove that from the Scriptures?

19:23 More specifically, how can I prove that from this letter of 1 Peter? Well, I want you to go back to chapter 1 and we're going to make a very quick flyover of this rich and variegated description of the true people of God. If you want to get your soul blessed as to what you are as a Christian, you ought to just speed read every once in a while the first two chapters of 1 Peter and note everything you are if you're a true believer. Notice what he says in chapter 1 in verse 1.

19:56 Those to whom he writes are elect sojourners. They have no abiding place here, but they are those marked out and chosen by God in His free sovereign love and mercy. They are described as being such, verse 2, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, that is, His predetermined purposes of love. They are set apart unto God by the Spirit.

20:25 They have come under the sprinkling of the blood of Christ. And they have freely responded to this grace with a disposition to be the obedient subjects of the Lord Jesus. That's the description of a Christian in the opening greetings. Then in chapter 1 verse 3, they are described as those who have been begotten again unto a living hope.

20:50 Verse 4, they have this possession of an inheritance undefiled and that fades not away. Verse 9, they are such as receive the end of their faith, even the salvation of their souls. Verse 8, they are described as those who believe in and have love for an unseen Christ. They are described in verse 18 of this chapter as those redeemed by the precious blood of Christ.

21:19 Verse 22, they are described as those who have purified their souls in obedience to the truth. Verse 23, those who have been begotten again, not of corruptible, but of incorruptible seed, even, the word of God. Chapter 2 in verse 3, they are such as have tasted that the Lord is gracious. They are such as, verse 5, have become living stones placed in God's living temple.

21:47 They have become a spiritual priesthood. They are described in verse 9 as the elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. Now why have I taken the time to give that brief overview? If this is not a description of true Christians, I don't know what is.

22:05 Alright? He is describing true Christians and all that they have and are in virtue of God's saving work. Now when he comes to chapter 3, 4 and 5, he is not envisioning a different class of people, nor is he marking off only some who are described in these rich terms. He does not begin chapter 5 by saying the elders therefore among some of you who have gone beyond being mere Christians and professing faith and have become part of local churches.

22:44 He makes no such two-tiered division. He is assuming that all who are elect sojourners, all who have been begotten again to a living hope, all who have the inheritance, all who love Christ, believe in Christ, all who have been redeemed, he is assuming that all of them, without exception, would receive this word the elders among you when they would be able to say yes Peter, I know who my elders are in coming into the membership of the assembly I saw in them. The marks and characteristics of true under shepherds of the Lord Jesus. I know who they are.

23:26 And when he says to the elders, shepherd the flock which is among you, none of the shepherds said, well Peter, I'm not sure which ones is and which ones ain't among us. They wouldn't know who were the ones among them. Peter is assuming that all of the true people of God, all real Christians, were part of a visible flock of God which can be shepherded by identifiable elders who have an identifiable flock that they seek to tend in Christ's name. And coming now to chapter 5, the key to an understanding of this is in a simple little prepositional phrase that occurs twice in the first two verses. I'll read it emphasizing that phrase. The elders therefore among you, I exhort, who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, who am a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed, shepherd the flock of God which is among you. Enhumene in the Greek.

24:40 It's the exact parallel. He says to the elders that you are among them. The elders among you. Enhumene.

24:52 And then he says, shepherd the flock which is enhumene among you. So what do we have? We have elders who are among the you. And who are the you?

25:05 All the people he's been describing in the previous chapters. All true believers. All those who are elect sojourners, who love Christ, who are redeemed, who are begotten again, who are part of the living temple. And Peter says, I'm now going to charge the elders.

25:22 Where are they? Floating around Asia Minor as a bunch of itinerant preachers? No. They are among the flock of God.

25:31 The elders who are among you. And this letter was to be read in the hearing of all the congregation in all of the churches. How many ever there were in that area? We know from the book of Acts that there were probably at least ten churches in these areas whose origins are recorded in the book of Acts.

25:53 Peter assumes that there would be an immediate recognition of the meaning of the words the elders therefore and who mean the elders among you. And that there was a you, a corporate identifiable group of God's people here and there and here and there in those five Roman provinces who would immediately recognize that what Peter is doing, he is charging those elders that are among us. That are the overseers of who and what we are as a specific, identifiable, concrete expression of the church of the Lord Jesus. Now then, when he says in verse two, speaking to the elders, shepherd the flock of God which is and who mean, which is among you. He is assuming that the elders would know immediately. The flock of God among us as elders are every one of those men and women who have voluntarily, unmistakably committed themselves to the membership of the given assembly. Whatever the mechanism of that commitment, whether it was written, whether it was memorized is irrelevant.

27:14 What is relevant from the scripture is that the enhumane phrase clearly boxes up this relationship. There is a mutuality of unmistakable recognition. A mutuality of unmistakable recognition. The elders know the flock enhumane among them and the flock knows the elders enhumane among them.

27:44 There is no true Christian who would have to say what elders among us and no elders who would say what flock? What flock in whose midst I serve? So I say in summary, the underlying assumption of this section and of the entire letter is that all true Christians in Asia Minor were members of specific local assemblies of the people of God. All true Christians were church members.

Addressing Objections to the Assumption

28:22 I lay before you what to me is unassailable evidence that this is Peter's assumption. There's no exhortation to Christians who truly believe and are weighing whether or not they ought to be committed to local assemblies. No such creature is even recognized in the New Testament. Now that's strong language, but I'm prepared to say, ah, but what about the thief on the cross?

28:49 What about the thief on the cross? He's a wonderful testament to the fact that believing on Christ in the last moments of one death is all that is necessary to be prepared for heaven. His incident proves nothing about church membership except that it's not necessary for salvation. But you can bet your boots had he lived, had the Lord taken him down from the cross, the Lord would have directed him to be baptized and come into the visible community of his visible expressions of his body here on earth.

29:23 Ah, but what about the Ethiopian eunuch? He was baptized and no record. What about him? It just shows again that a person may be baptized in confession of Christ and we know nothing of the church which in principle they are identifying with God is simply silent.

29:39 God's silences in those instances don't prove much. In fact, they prove nothing with respect to this issue. For we shall see in just some specimen passages the consistent witness of the New Testament is that when someone is united to Christ by faith, that person is found united in a specific, concrete, identifiable way with the local assembly of Christ's people. Now then, we come secondly to the origin of this assumption.

The Origin of Peter's Assumption: Christ's Words

30:11 Where in the world did Peter get this notion that he doesn't pause to prove, to demonstrate, to expand upon? He just assumes it. Was his assumption a presumption? And while in some instances the terms are used synonymously and I rechecked all the different meanings in the dictionary so I could say this with some degree I trust of accuracy, sometimes assumption and presumption are used as synonyms.

30:41 But when they are used with their proper distinction and assumption is an unproven given, a presumption is taking something for granted that you really don't have much basis to take for granted. So in his assumption, was Peter guilty of presumption? No, he wasn't. And I want you to track out with me two lines of thought.

31:04 Now I know this is different. I normally don't preach this way. We're parked in a passage. But if nothing else, it shows you I'm not bound by my own method.

31:11 And what I do, I do for your edification. So hang in there with me now, alright? Where did Peter get this assumption? Well, let's remember two categories of biblical witness.

31:22 Peter was one of those who heard the Lord Jesus speak the words, the only words recorded in the Gospels explicitly referring to the church. Peter was there and heard them. We're going to look at it. And then Peter, in his unique place among the apostles, in the founding of the church at Jerusalem, and in the opening of the door of faith to the Gentiles, Acts 10, the household of Cornelius, Peter knew what Christ, his boss, had directed him to do as an apostle with respect to this whole matter of establishing churches.

32:02 So the origin of the underlying assumption of Peter is what he knew of the words of Christ and what he was involved in in the work of Christ. Alright? Two simple headings. Alright?

32:16 The word of Christ. Turn, please, to the Gospel of Matthew. First of all, to Matthew 28 and the commission given explicitly and directly to the apostles, some aspects of which now merge into the standing duty of the church. Not all, but some.

32:34 Peter identifies himself in his letter as Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. Well, what were apostles supposed to do? Familiar words, Matthew 28, 18. Jesus came to them and spoke to them, saying, All authority in heaven and upon earth has been given unto me, going, therefore, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit, teaching them, that is, baptized disciples, those who have professed their adherence to Christ in faith and have acknowledged it in the initiatory ordinance of baptism, teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. In other words, the apostles were responsible in their evangelistic endeavors to gather together the fruit of that evangelism into assemblies of baptized disciples and then to give themselves to instructing them in whatever Jesus had already taught them. Now, according to the upper room discourse, Jesus promised to those apostles that much more would be revealed to them and that what was revealed to them is what is embodied in our New Testament letters and epistles. But here in the commission,

34:01 the focus is upon that which Jesus had already commanded them. And what was one of the things Jesus commanded them? Well, now turn with me to the two church passages in the Gospels where the church is mentioned explicitly. It's implicit in many, many passages, but explicitly Matthew 16 and Matthew 18.

34:23 Matthew 16. You remember the setting? Jesus is drawing out the disciples with respect to the question, who do men say that I am? Matthew 16, 13.

34:38 And they said, some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. An interesting little aside. No one said, we think you're a brilliant scribe raised up in our generation. They identified him as a prophet.

34:56 And what was the great function of the prophet? Not only to foretell, to foretell but to foretell the prophet was God's living irritant to the conscience of an apostate nation. The prophet was God's living sounding board of consolation to his distressed people. Jesus in the buzzwords around Palestine is identified as one of the prophets the note of penetrating authority and biting into the conscience in conviction and consolation.

35:34 But he said unto them who do you say that I am? Simon Peter. Simon Peter answered and said you are the Christ the son of the living God. He identifies Christ in his person son of God in his office as Messiah.

35:50 Jesus answered and said to him blessed are you Simon son of Jonah blessed are you but my father who is in heaven and I also say unto thee second person singular this is said to Peter to Peter specifically I say unto thee speaking to Peter you are Peter and upon this rock two different words in the Greek Petros and Petra you are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of Israel against it I will give unto you that is speaking to Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven what is the basic instruction of this passage and I don't want to be simplistic I know it has been a watershed of controversy particularly between Romanists and the preachers and the kita but I'm going to say everything that I know to the people in the world that you will know about it I'm going to say all these things I'm going to say everything I know in the world I'm going to say that I was

37:19 to be a good in my church. Not upon you, but upon this rock. The rock of what I am in my person and identity. As son of God and Messiah, I will build my church. Second thing is clear. Peter will have a strategic place in the building of that church which has Christ as its foundation. Peter will have a strategic place in that church of which Christ is the foundation. And that Peter understood it this way, we learned when we studied 1 Peter 2, where Peter himself poised to Christ as that stone which God has made the head of the corner. Not himself, according to the blasphemous folly of Rome.

38:08 Christ builds his church on that foundation which alone can bear its weight and stand against the powers of God. His own person as son of God and his identity as Messiah. Now, come to Matthew 18 and verse 15, our second church passage, and what do we learn? Matthew 18, 15. And if your brother sinned against you, go, show him his fault between you and him alone. If he hear you, you've gained your brother. If he hear you not, take with you one or two more, that at the mouth of two or more witnesses, two or witnesses or three, every word may be established. If he refused to hear them, tell it unto the church. And if he

38:56 refused to hear the church also, let him be unto you as the Gentile and the publican. Verily I say unto you, what things soever you shall bind, no longer spoken to Peter, second person singular, but second person plural, to all of the people of God, whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. What things soever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again, I say unto you, if two of you shall agree as touching anything they shall, two of you agree on earth as touching anything they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father who is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. What do we learn here? What did Peter learn about the church? In the Matthew 16 passage, he learned, that that church built upon the identity of Christ in his person and office, Son of God, Messiah, Christ will build, and nothing shall prevail against it. Peter learns that he will

40:01 have a special function within that church. Now what does Peter and do the other disciples learn? They learn this, that God's people gathered in churches will still be sinful and not perfect. There will be, disruptions in their unity because of sin. And the Lord Jesus gives directions as to how to deal with those imperfections that the unity might be restored. You see the language, if your brother sinned against you, well, we all fail, so just talk to a few other people about it and then forget it and hope it'll go away. No, if your brother sinned against you, if it's a significant sin that breaks fellowship, not the multitude of sins which love covers, if we go around with magnifying glasses, we'll be not doing nothing but running to brothers and sisters 20 times a day. It's a significant issue that you can't throw the blanket of love over it. Showing his fault between you and him alone. If he hear you,

41:04 what have you done? You've gained your brother. Real concrete specific fellowship between real concrete, specific saints is fractured and restored. You say pastor, you're beating it thin.

41:16 I see it. Well, you'll see why. Hang in there, all right? If he does not hear you, take with you one or two more.

41:25 One or two more what? Anybody that will receive your email and fish it out of his inbox?

41:35 God have mercy on us. One or two more what?

41:40 Members of the same assembly. Because look, look what the text says. If he hear you not, take one or two more, that at the mouth of two witnesses or three, every word may be established before what court? Before whom?

41:56 Keep reading. If he refuse to hear them, tell it unto the church. Unto the church. Not some indefinite church, universal, but the concrete expression of the church with brothers and sisters who are prepared to bear testimony and witness to these, and if he does not hear the church, he says, let him be unto you as a Gentile and a publican.

42:24 The church has this built-in Christ-appointed authority to cast out of its fellowship those who do not deal seriously with their sin. You heard in the previous hour that sanctification is not optional. Church discipline is the validation of the biblical doctrine that sanctification is essential to salvation. And when anyone who claims, to be in the way of salvation, in the fellowship of the church, will not persevere in sanctification, and is admonished and called to repentance, and will not repent, he's put out of the church.

42:59 Why? He's a living contradiction. The church is the assembly of those set apart unto God in Christ, pressing on in holiness and in conformity to Christ. And when anyone ceases to be that, he doesn't belong there.

43:13 You see that? Do you see it? Yes or no folks? Yes.

43:17 It's critical that we grasp this. Now, as he goes on to speak of the church, verse 18, one of the magisterial sayings of Jesus, whenever he says, verily, it's Jesus taking his own red pen, underlining his own words. Or if you computer buffs, it's Jesus pushing the right keys to get a nice, double-bold, italicized, attention-getter in the text. Alright?

43:44 So, whichever you like. Red pencil, that's me. Computer buffs, that's you. Alright?

43:48 Verily I say to you, look, what things whoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. What things whoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Whatever that means, and I'm not going to go into the possible significance of it, one thing is clear. It is a concrete, specific, aggregate of God's people who are doing things on earth.

44:09 It's not some invisible, nebulous, church universal. The invisible church. This is a very visible entity. What they're doing, it occurs on earth and is validated in heaven.

44:21 Verse 19, again I say to you, if two of you shall agree, you see what the Lord says, on earth. He didn't know why He put those words there. He put them there, on earth. I'm talking about the church on earth in its concrete expressions of real brothers and sisters with real breaches in fellowship because of real sin and a real effort to bring the sinning brother or sister to repentance with real witnesses, with a real action, activity of the church.

44:49 It's the church agreeing on earth as touching what they ask. Verse 20, where two or three are gathered together. That's bodies. That's not the spirits of just men made perfect who are in the presence of Christ.

45:06 It's something that occurs here on earth. Now you say, Pastor, what in the world does that have to do with 1 Peter 5? Well, I haven't lost my mind and I haven't lost my track. If you're still with me, what are we trying to show?

45:21 We're trying to show that when Peter writes to these Christians in Asia Minor, he is assuming that all true Christians are church members of the various churches. I've sought to demonstrate from the text that that is his assumption. Now we're wrestling with the question, where did he get that assumption? Did he properly acquire it?

45:48 And my answer is, it began when he took seriously the teaching of his Lord recorded in the Gospels concerning that which Christ would build. That in which Peter would have a distinct and in some ways a unique place while a living apostle. That which, according to this passage, has real people imperfect who sin, that has a real process of addressing the sin, that has real people gathering on earth, agreeing on earth, and who claim the living presence of Christ in their midst. In other words, whatever Jesus was teaching about the church, he's not speaking of some mystical, nebulous entity out there to which everyone who believes becomes a part and therefore it makes no difference whether they are a part of a visible, local, concrete expression of his church. Jesus, never gave any such teaching.

46:53 Peter never got such teaching from his Lord. Now we come to what Peter did as an apostle and we'll see him carrying out these perspectives in his own ministry. Here we turn to the book of Acts.

The Origin of Peter's Assumption: Apostolic Practice in Acts

47:07 We've seen what Peter learned from his Lord. Now we're going to see what he did in his service for the Lord. Acts chapter 1.

47:18 The Lord Jesus, according to the last chapter of Luke, ascends up into heaven in the presence of the twelve, of perhaps even five hundred, we're not exactly certain, but of the eleven. And we have a parallel account here in Acts chapter 1, beginning in verse 10, while they were looking steadfastly into heaven, two men spoke to them saying, you men of Galilee, why do you look bug-eyed up into heaven? This Jesus will come again. Verse 12.

47:46 Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near to Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey. And when they were come in, they went up into the upper chamber where they were abiding. And then he lists the eleven apostles. Verse 14.

48:02 These all, with one accord, continued steadfastly in prayer with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren. And in those days, Peter stood up in the midst of the brethren and said, and there was a multitude of persons gathered together about a hundred and twenty. You see, the seed church of Jerusalem was a specific entity of men and women, including the eleven apostles and the mother of our Lord. And they could be looked at and numbered one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, about a hundred and twenty.

48:43 It may have been one eighteen, one twenty-two. This was a round figure. Now this is critical. Why did the Holy Ghost tell us a hundred and twenty?

48:52 Why do we need to know that the Holy Ghost really gets a sense that when Luke is giving the record, he's not giving the record of some nebulous thing called the church that floats around somehow connected with people that say they trust Jesus and love Jesus. He's certainly not in the numbers game. There was no denominational headquarters that wanted his numbers so that he could get some brownie points and get a bigger church. It's critical.

49:16 The Spirit of God has underscored the numbers. Now come to chapter two, verse one. And when the day of Pentecost was now come, they were all together, the hundred and twenty, in one place. Suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of the rushing of a mighty wind filled all the house where they were sitting.

49:32 And there appeared unto them tongues parting asunder like as a fire and sat upon each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, all one hundred and twenty, and began to speak with other tongues or languages as the Spirit gave the mutterings. Now get the picture. The Lord Jesus has ascended.

49:52 This group spends much of its time, according to Luke, praising God in the temple and then retreating to this place described in chapter one, this upper chamber where they were abiding. We are told that there was approximately a hundred and twenty. There were a hundred and twenty in that group. When the day of Pentecost comes, they are all together.

50:16 And in that setting, the Spirit of God comes and visibly and audibly presents Himself in their midst. They are all filled with the Spirit. They begin to speak in other languages the mighty works of God which became a powerful attention getter to all of the people that were there in Jerusalem at the feast time. Then you know the rest of the story.

50:38 Once the attention is secured and some say, hey, these folks are out bending their elbow early in the morning. They're drunk. They're filled with new wine. And Peter stands up and says, no.

50:48 Here's the true explanation. Verse 14 of chapter 2. Peter stands up. Lifts up his voice.

50:55 Explains what has happened. And then we read in verse 37. When they heard this, they were pricked in their heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brethren, what shall we do? Peter said unto them, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins.

51:14 You shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promise. For to you is the promise and to your children and to your children. And we read, and we don't find dot, dot, dot, end of quote. I am weary of the pedobaptist use of this text.

51:31 Why do we sprinkle our children? The promise is to you and your children, dot, dot, dot. My friends, there is no dot, dot, dot. The promise, Peter said, to people steeped in a covenantal concept of family unity concepts.

51:47 He says, the promise is to you and to your children and to all that are afar off. Even as many as the Lord our God shall call unto Him. What is the promise that is to those who are distressed in heart and cry out, what shall we do? What is the promise to their children?

52:08 What is the promise to all that are afar off? The promise is, repent and in believing, turning to God in Christ, identify yourself with Christ and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Forgiveness and the gift of the Spirit is the promise. And it is given on the same conditions to our children and all who are afar off.

52:35 It's worrisome to see that twisting of the Word of God. It's plain that a child can see it. Peter says, you who are distressed, repenting and believing and openly confessing Christ, the pardon of all your sins, you who've murdered the Son of God, that grace is not exhausted in you. It will extend to all of your children who repent and are prepared to be identified with Christ.

53:04 They shall be forgiven. They shall receive the gift of the Spirit and it's even viable for Gentile dogs to the ends of the earth, even as many as the Lord our God shall call unto Him.

53:20 Now, what's that have to do with 1 Peter chapter 5? Is it faster? No, we're still on track. Look at the next verses.

53:28 And I hope it'll all begin to come together. And with many other words He testified and exhorted them, saying, Save yourselves from this crooked generation. Now, how in the world are you going to do that? Is He going to get them all together, put them in a 747 and go to some uninhabited island out in the South Pacific and set up a Christian community?

53:51 How do you save yourself from this crooked, this scolios, this twisted generation by repudiating your identity with it in Adam and in its Christ-rejecting spirit and becoming identified with those of us who see in Jesus, Son of God and Messiah. Is that what He meant? You bet your boots it's what He meant because look what they did. Next verse.

54:22 Then they that received His word, that is both extensive and inclusive, but it is radically exclusive. No one who did not receive the word was baptized. They who received His word were baptized. Infants don't receive the word.

54:46 They ought not to be baptized.

54:53 I've kept my sword sheath too long because of some of my dear Pedobaptist friends. But this is the flock among which God has placed me. And I don't know I don't want any of you vulnerable to the sophistry built on passages such as Acts chapter 2. They that received his word were baptized, and they all went on their way rejoicing.

55:15 Uh-uh, don't stop. Now you'll see where we've come from 1 Peter 5 to here. They that received his word were baptized, and there were added unto them in that day about 3,000 souls. Where'd they go?

55:34 From conviction, to the promise of forgiveness and the gift of the Spirit, to a call to a radical cleavage with the Christ-denying, Christ-murdering crowd, a call to be identified with Christ and his people. And by baptism, they did not go forth rejoicing, freelance, lone-ranger Christians. They were now added to the 100. The scripture says there were added unto them in that day about 3,000 souls.

56:12 And they, who's the they? The 3,120. That greatly expanded church continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers. And fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done, through the apostles.

56:34 Now notice, and all that believed were together. Doesn't say it. Some that believed said, well, church membership's important, I think I'll opt for that. But some say, well, I've got the Holy Ghost and got forgiveness, and I've got brothers and sisters, church and sect.

56:51 No indication. The text says, they continued steadfastly, all that believed had all things common. Now look. Look at the summary statement in verse 47.

57:06 Praising God and having favor with all the people, and the Lord added to them, day by day, those that were being saved. All that were being saved in Jerusalem were becoming church members. You see it? You see it?

57:28 The Lord was adding to them those that were being saved. They did not take into their number those who did not have a credible profession. They did not open the doors of the church to any Tom, Dick, and Harry that said, I've nodded my head to Jesus, walked an aisle, raised a hand, and prayed a prayer. But those who gave evidence that they had repented, were ready to have a radical cleavage with that Christ-denying, Christ-killing generation.

58:01 Those who were being saved, saved by the grace of God, through repentance. Through repentance and faith, through the transformation of their rebellion in Adam by the mighty work of God, the evidence of their being saved was they showed up in church, as church members. Now it doesn't say, and those who were added to them were being saved, as though their being added had anything to do with their salvation. No, their salvation was all of God and all of grace.

58:32 But when they received the salvation, all of God and all of grace, they were added. They were added to them. And the Greek word, is a key word in this, as you trace it out through the book of Acts. Well then, let's look at one other key passage in chapter 5.

58:49 I hope this has whet your appetite to go through the book of Acts and see how consistent this pattern is.

58:57 God has judged those two hypocrites,

59:01 Ananias and Sapphira. Think they're just dealing with human leaders. They can kid their human leaders, and God exposes them. Peter says, You're lying to the Holy Ghost.

59:11 God's church is a holy temple. He dwells in it. You're defiling it. God judges them.

59:18 And the result of it, verse 12, And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people, and they were all with one accord in Solomon's portico. But of the rest dared no man join himself to them. Isn't it interesting? It describes their present tentative attitude, to the gospel, in terms of they were scared to death to become church members.

59:46 He said, I'm not going to become a member in that church. If you're a hypocrite, God kills you.

59:52 Word got out. Two hypocrites were killed by God within the space of three hours. People said, I'm not going to mess around with that crowd unless I know that I'm one with them. And I have a favorable relationship to their God.

60:07 I don't want to come into their midst. No man dared join himself to them. But now look at the contrast. Of the rest, no man dared join himself to them, howbeit the people magnified them.

60:20 There was this sort of love-hate-fear-drawing relationship. And believers were the more added to the Lord. Multitudes, both of men and women. Do you see what the parallel is?

60:34 Joining them and added to the Lord. And Luke moves very easily from one to the other. He describes those who are, who are being saved and converted as being joined to the Lord. Well, being joined to the Lord is an invisible experience of the heart.

60:55 Being joined to the Lord in his visible, earthly, tangible expression of his presence in his church is something observable. And Luke is using the term interchangeably. You see, that's why when Peter sits down to write his letter and he comes to that part where he's going to give specific admonition to elders. And he says, The elders among you.

61:22 And shepherd the flock of God which is among you. He is able to assume that all true believers in Asia Minor were members of specific local churches because he operated in his ministry according to the teaching of his Lord. And the patterns established, in his own life and ministry as an apostle in that foundation church of the New Covenant in Jerusalem. And that was the pattern that proliferated throughout the Roman Empire under the ministry of the apostles.

Why Highlight This Assumption? Negative Reasons

62:02 Now in conclusion, my question. Why have you taken the time to lead us through what at times has been a bit of a complex argument? I've labored to make it as simple as I know how. Dear people, I can't do your thinking for you.

62:17 Why have I taken the time to do this? Well, let me tell you negatively. I've not done this to undermine the holy gratuitous nature of God's saving work in Christ. I have no desire to place the slightest qualification upon such statements as Ephesians 2, 8 and 9.

62:38 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, that no man should boast. It is the gift of God, not of works, that no man should boast. It is the gift of God, not of works, that no man should boast.

62:48 It is the gift of God, not of works, that no man should boast. I have no desire to cast the slightest inkling of a shadow over the simple answer the apostle and his companion give to a trembling jailer. Acts 16.31 serves, what must I do to be saved?

63:03 Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved and your house. And the context shows that is your house, hearing the word that I will preach to them and believing that word. The grace that is offered to you Mr. Jailor Man is not exhausted by you.

63:23 It's available to your house on the same terms. Not a separate set of terms. Then you should be saved. Your household, believing, shall be saved.

63:35 The text shows that in the middle of the night, Paul preached to the jailer and to his household. And he and his household were baptized and he and his household rejoice in God. Not a shred of any justification. of household salvation based on the faith of the parents.

63:54 It simply has to be put there to be found there. So I have no desire to undermine the holy, gratuitous nature of God's saving work in Christ. Paul did not when he wrote Romans 8 and Romans 10, 8 and 9, 9 and 10. He says, If you shall believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, with the heart man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto what?

64:27 Unto salvation. Is Paul teaching that our confession adds something to the work of Christ? No. But he's saying the confession born of real faith will be a confessing faith.

64:42 The calling that is a true calling will be a confessional calling. Paul has established salvation by grace in the opening chapters of Romans, but he does not scruple to say in Romans 10, 9 and 10, it's with the heart man believes and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation and you have the exact construction in the Greek. It is ice unto or into righteousness and into or unto salvation.

65:10 And without in any way casting a shadow over the truth that salvation is all of grace. I've preached what I've preached this morning. My motive is not to increase the numbers, but to increase the number of people. In the membership role of Trinity Baptist Church as a carnal symbol of success.

65:27 Someone has said too many churches live in the book of Numbers and not in the book of Acts.

65:35 There are some circumstances when numerical increase is a badge of the blessing of God.

65:42 There are some situations where numerical decrease is a badge of the blessing of God. From that time on, many of his disciples went back and walked with him. No more. It was a badge of his fidelity to his father.

66:00 He had spoken things that were hard to be understood and they wanted him to draw back and Jesus went on and took the same theme of eating his flesh and drinking his blood and he amplified and deepened the offense until he turns to the twelve and says, will you also go away? Paul could say, all that are in Asia have forsaken me. I have no man like minded. John says they went out from us that it might be made manifest that they were not all of us.

66:29 There are times when numerical decrease is a badge of the favor of God. In Revelation 3, 4, Jesus commends the church at Sardis. He says, you have a few names that did not defile their garments. So I have no desire to beat the woods for numerical increase as some kind of a carnal badge of success.

66:51 You've heard me say it in this place and I mean it. The day comes when you don't want the Bible simple, plain Bible preached and obeyed and lived out. And we'll go back to meeting in the school with a handful of people who do. You don't own me by your favor, your presence or your smile.

67:07 You don't own Pastor Lamar. You don't own any of your elders by your attendance in this place. Christ owns us. We're his servants.

67:16 And we're determined to do his will. That's not our motive. Don't want to erode the doctrine of salvation by grace. Don't want a carnal symbol of success.

67:26 And please believe me, if you sit here this morning and you are a Christian, I want to tell you, I have not spoken these things to demean or embarrass true Christians who may not be members of specific local assemblies of God. I've not spoken this to embarrass you. Love, Paul says, does not behave itself unseemly. It's not rude.

67:48 And I've spoken with conviction and I've spoken with passion because I believe this is what the Bible teaches. But I would be grieved if any of you think I've spoken to embarrass you.

Why Highlight This Assumption? Positive Reasons

68:01 I've not spoken this to embarrass you. I've not spoken to embarrass you. Well, why then have you spoken these things, Pastor, very simply? First and foremost, in order to be honest with my exposition of 1 Peter 5, I want to expound it understanding that you are convinced that Peter's assumption was well grounded and that my assumption in expounding it is well grounded.

68:24 And I want to inform your mind and persuade your judgment that I might responsibly expound the passage. That's reason number one. Reason number two, I want to raise a voice to counter the influence of the Lone Ranger Christianity mentality that obtains in our day. A few weeks ago, someone met me at the door,

68:45 a visitor, very irate. I could feel the steam coming out his ears. Now, he wasn't, he wasn't unkind to me excessively, but he said, I was very offended by the announcement one of the elders made. He said, I came tonight expecting to sit down at the Lord's table in communion.

69:02 And then he stood up there and said, and said that if you're not a member of the church or if you are and you're under its discipline, we encourage you to stay, but not to partake. He said, I love the Lord. Why can't I come to the table?

69:14 God helped me to speak meekly and say, my friend, we believe the scripture teaches that the table of remembrance is an ordinance for the visible community of God's people. And that conviction is based on our present understanding of a number of passages of the word of God. Well, I could tell he wasn't teachable. So all I said to him, I said, sir, I want you to take your Bible and go home and carefully read through the book of Acts and the epistles.

69:43 And when you have found any such creature as a Christian who's not a member of a church, you come and show me the evidence.

69:52 He hasn't come back yet.

69:55 I'm waiting for the evidence. No, I've said these things, dear people, because there is abroad in our day this crass American individualism, what one of my friends calls the zeitgeist of this generation the spirit, the climate, the ethos. I'm my own man. If God knows I'm right with him, that's all that matters.

70:17 No, it isn't all that matters. What matters is that you in your submission to Christ respect what he has committed himself to build and the institution he has established to get you safely to heaven. The church is not a luxury in getting to heaven safely. It's God-appointed earthly chariot to carry you there.

70:39 By the means established in it. I've said these things in order to further establish you, the people of God. You're to be well furnished to give a reason of the hope that is in you. I hope this rather cursory but broad overview has given you the stuff to be able to sit down with your children and sit down with those who challenge your thinking.

71:02 And then my last motive has been to lay a gracious, solid, biblical foundation to appeal to some of you to get into a biblical church. If not this one, some other one. Don't be that anomaly that is not recognized in the New Testament. But pray over the things you've heard and for the good of your souls and the good of the souls to whom you can do more good by being a part of the flock among the God-given shepherds and those who know who your God-given shepherds are.

Conclusion and Prayer

71:39 May God grant that as we've considered this introductory message, on the underlying assumption, Peter's directives, the Lord will seal it to our hearts. Again, I apologize for not having a handle on the time. I've never preached this before. I didn't know how to chop it up.

71:58 I appreciate your patience in following as I've sought to teach you from the Word of God. Let's pray.

72:07 Our Father, we're so thankful that we have the Scriptures as a lamp to our feet and a light to our pathway. And we pray that what we've studied this morning, would be the very things that we search out like the Bereans. And we embrace as our judgments are persuaded and our conscience influenced by the light of Scripture. We ask you, Father, by your Holy Spirit, stem the tide of crass individualism that marks our national life.

72:40 We pray, our Father, that we will cherish the church for which Christ shed his blood. Seal, then, your Word to our hearts to the praise of your name. Amen.