Responsibilities to God, Part 1

Review of Church Membership Foundations and Introduction to Duties

0:03 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, January 18th, 1987, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:14 Now, as we take up our third study this morning in this subject of a biblical view of church membership, let me very briefly remind you of the ground covered in the previous two studies. I indicated when we began this series that in the light of the fact that God has added many to our ranks in recent weeks and months, and the Lord is in the process of adding others to us at the present, your elders were of one mind that this was a good time to address the subject of a biblical view of church membership, not with an intention of being exhaustive, but with the intention of capturing the major dimensions of biblical truth and pressing them upon our consciences. And after setting forth...

1:04 some introductory perspectives, we then turn to the second chapter of the book of the Acts of the Apostles. And there, in verses 41 and 42, we saw the answer to two very vital questions. Question number one, who should be a member in a church that claims to be a biblical and apostolic New Testament church? And Acts 2.41 answers that question by saying, Then they that received his word were baptized, and there were added unto them in that day about three thousand souls. And we sought to open up the significance of that statement of Luke with reference to the immediate context, what was that word which they heard, what was receiving of that word, how they manifested that reception in the God-instituted order, the ordinance of baptism, and then joined the 120 who were the existing congregation of what we cheekily designated as the first Pentecostal church of Jerusalem.

2:18 And then after answering the question, who was taken into this first apostolic church, we then looked at verse 42, which answers the second question, what happened to them after they got in? And Luke tells us that they continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching and fellowship in the breaking of bread and the prayers. And I remind you that those two questions are always relevant in seeking to ascertain the state of any church at any point in its life. Who gets in, and what happens after they get in?

2:58 The important question is not how many are in, and how many are not. How much activity characterizes those that are in? Those are the great questions of the church growth movement. But those are not the questions pressed upon us by a biblical view of the church.

3:17 The two crucial questions are, who gets in, and what happens when they do get in? Now, having set forth these fundamental biblical perspectives on church membership, we begin this morning to consider the major, specific duties and privileges of church membership. Now, obviously, we can only hope to address the mountain peaks of duty and privilege. To paint in the whole landscape would mean, literally, to collate large segments of almost all of the epistles of the New Testament.

3:54 For I remind you that those epistles were not written primarily to private Christians so they could have something with which to have devotions, in the morning. With but few exceptions, they are letters written to churches. Instructing churches, correcting churches, comforting churches, guiding the consciences of churches. And granted, churches are made up of individuals, but I simply remind you that when we open those epistles of the New Testament, we read again and again, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ unto the church of God, which is at Corinth.

4:36 Paul, an apostle and bond-slave of Christ unto the church of God, which is in Christ Jesus, at Thessalonica, unto the church of the Philippians, etc. And we must seek to think in that biblical mentality when we pick up these epistles, reminding ourselves that they were, in the first instances, words of apostolic instruction, correction, and comfort, setting forth the privilege and duty to the churches of Christ. And therefore, to be exhaustive would mean we'd have to go to all of those epistles and seek to organize and collate the full spectrum of the duties and privileges of church members. Now, we're not going to do that. That's the whole landscape. Rather, we're going to just focus upon the mountain peaks, as the sun, when it sets, is flooding its light upon the peaks of the mountains. rather, we're going to just focus upon the mountain peaks, as the sun, when it sets, is flooding its light upon the peaks of the mountains.

Fundamental Principle: Identity Dictates Duty

5:33 long after the foothills and the lower mountains are shrouded in darkness. So, we want, as it were, our attention to be focused upon those great mountain peak duties and privileges of church membership. And what I propose to do this morning is to quickly cover three introductory concerns, and then we'll address this subject in our first message. First of all, I want to articulate in your hearing a fundamental principle, then describe for you the organizing framework of this part of our study, and then give a justification for the words that I'm going to use.

6:18 First of all, a fundamental principle, which, if we grasp, can become a tool that will be instrumental in helping us in our own study of the Scriptures to feel the pressure of the Word of God upon our own thinking, to feel the pressure of the Word of God upon our own thinking, our own thinking about the duties and privileges of church membership. And the principle is this. The responsibilities and privileges of church membership grow out of the identity of the church and of its members. The responsibilities and privileges of church membership grow out of the identity of the church and its members. In other words, our duties and privileges are what they are, because the church and its membership are what they are. We would have to change the nature of the church and the nature of church membership as revealed in the Scriptures if we are to alter the nature of the responsibility and privileges of the responsibilities and privileges of church membership. For example, in 1 Corinthians

7:34 chapter 3, Paul, in addressing the subject of divisions at the church in Corinth, having given a word of instruction regarding the various laborers who labored in both the foundation work and the superstructure work of the church, says in verse 16, chapter 3 of 1 Corinthians, says, Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? He said, Do you know, and are you presently living in the light of this fact that as a church you are a sanctuary of God? He said, Now if you understand what you are as a church, then you'll understand why I'm so concerned that the church...

8:33 Well, that's a clean one. ...should not be disrupted by divisiveness and careless laborers building with wood hay and stubble. For he then goes on to say, If any man destroys the temple of God, him shall God destroy, for the temple of God is holy, and such are ye. You see how he comes back to that? Think, he says, of what you are, and as what you are fills your mind and heart, it will reward you.

9:03 regulate what you do. You see a similar emphasis in Ephesians chapter 4 with regard to the nature of church membership. But is it to be a church member, simply to have my name on a roll and happen to be found in the same building at the same times with a bunch of people? Or is church membership in its very essence something more than that at the horizontal level? Well, here in chapter 4, as Paul is giving exhortations that the Christians no longer live as they once lived when they were in the world, notice what he says in verse 25. Wherefore, Ephesians 4, 25, putting away falsehoods, speak truth, each one with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. He said, when you're tempted to lie to a brother or sister, remember what it means to be involved.

9:58 You are members one of another. How utterly unthinkable that my hand would lie to my eye and my eye to my foot, why my body could not function if that were so. And Paul said it ought to be just as incongruous that one church member would ever lie to another church member. Why? Because there is an organic living relationship one with another. We are members one of another. You see what he's saying? Your duty is rooted in what you are as members. Your duties and privileges in the church are rooted in what the church is. It is the temple of God. Now, those are but two of many examples. But I would urge you to meditate upon that simple principle and pray that the Spirit of God will write it upon your heart. For some of you, it could be nothing less.

10:58 That vital principle that the responsibilities and privileges of church membership grow out of the identity of the church and its members. And once an individual and a group of individuals begin to relinquish the high statement of biblical truth about the nature of the church and the nature of church membership, and they begin to view those two realities in something less than biblical vigor. And integrity, it will not be long before the standards and commitments of church membership, amazement at the privileges of membership will begin to erode. And then it won't be long before one would have to look high and low for the slightest traces that there was anything supernatural about that which is called the church. Well, so much then about that important principle that lies at the foundation of all that we consider about the church. Now, let me say a word about the organizing framework. How in the world can we organize even just the mountain peaks? I'm thankful I'm not purporting to give you an exhaustive treatment

Organizing Framework for Duties and Justification for 'Duty and Privilege'

12:12 of the whole mountain range, the foothills and the mid-sized mountains as well as the mountain peaks. Although there is some overlapping, and though I realize that all duties and responsibilities ultimately are responsibilities that come from God, I think you'll find this framework helpful. I have in trying to think through the biblical materials. We will consider this matter of our duties and privileges in three categories. Those duties which are rendered directly to God. And if you want to think in terms of a circle as the church, then see an arrow going out from the center of that circle upward. So we've got an arrow upward. Those duties which are rendered directly to God. And then think of two arrows starting at either side of the circle and pointing inward. The

13:04 arrow points in the middle. Those are the duties we have one to another within the church. And then thirdly, think of some arrows going out of the center in those directions. And those are the duties that have reference to the world or to use New Testament language, those that are without.

13:25 So those three simple categories, you can think of as the main part of the church. The first is the individual and the second is the non-illegal prayer. The second is the individual who is in the church. The third is the individual who is in the church and the under which we shall attempt to range our major privileges and duties as members in the Church of Christ, those rendered directly to God, those rendered to one another, and those that have reference to the ones that are without.

13:48 And then, finally, just a word of justification for the fact that I will be speaking of the duties and privileges of church membership. Now, for many, the word duty and the word privilege can never be found together, dwelling in the same house, sleeping in the same bed, embracing one another. If it's a duty, it must be conceived of as something that is drudgery and bondage, which I do with reluctance. I'm going to do my duty.

14:23 Privilege, that's something that's optional. And, therefore, when I choose to do it, it brings me delight. I do it spontaneously. I do it automatically.

14:31 But duty and privilege together, it can never be.

14:36 Well, let me give a simple illustration to demonstrate that not only is that bad theology, it just plain doesn't make sense even at the human level. Imagine that there exists in a certain kingdom where they still have the arrangement of a king who has absolute rule under God and subjects who are, who are answerable to the rule of the king. There dwells a good, a gracious, a righteous, a beneficent king. He exercises his rule not simply to promote his own image and certainly not to have a platform from which to indulge his carnal appetites and desires, but he has a sense of accountability to God to exercise his rule for the good, the well-being, the protection, the advantage, and the advancement of his subjects. And this king's rule as a righteous, gracious, kind, just rule is well known throughout all his kingdom so that the king is not only revered and obeyed, but he is deeply loved by his subjects, even though many of them have never seen him face to face. One day, there's a man in a village who has a knock at his door, and upon going to the door, he finds, he finds that there is an ambassador, a messenger who's come directly from the king's palace.

16:02 He identifies himself, shows his credentials. It's not Halloween. He's not fooling. It's not some long-lost cousin showing up to play a joke on him.

16:11 I mean, he is a real messenger from the king. And he holds in his hand a letter that is sealed with the king's ring. It's the real thing. He wonders, what in the world has the king got to do with a poor little peasant like me off in some remote village?

16:26 But he anxiously breaks the seal and opens the letter, and there he sees in the very handwriting of the king an invitation from the king to come and to sit down at the king's table and to enjoy the bounty that the king is going to set before him. Now, this comes as, quote, an order from his king.

16:52 So, at that point, he knows what his duty is. As a subject, the king has summoned him to his table. And if he has any regard for the authority of the king, there is no question as to what he will do. And nothing but death or sickness or some other providential hindrance will keep him from rendering his duty to his king.

17:13 Now, my question is this. Can he have any measure of delight mingled with the fulfillment of his duty? Well, if he believes the king to be a gracious king, a loving king, who would not have sinister, sinister motives up his sleeve to get him at his table that he might poison him, that he might set his henchmen upon him. You see, he will not only comply with that directive from the king as a matter of duty, but he'll go around to all his friends and neighbors and say, I can't figure this out.

17:43 What in the world has the king got to do with the likes of me? A little nobody. What a privilege! I'm going to sit at the king's table, at the king's invitation, and he gets all sighted, and someone says, wait a minute.

17:56 Did the king come? And you to come? Oh, yes! Well, then it can't be a privilege.

18:00 Don't you know that duty and privilege can never go together? He said, look, man, speak for yourself, but ask for me. I go in obedience to my king, and I count it an unspeakable privilege to be an obedient subject, to come and sit at the banquet house and look upon the face of my gracious king. You see, a sense of privilege and a commitment to duty are not, are not necessarily incompatible.

18:29 It's only if you hate the king, have no appreciation for the king, if you have mean thoughts and suspect the king of ill will, that you would grudgingly do your duty with a deep sense of reluctance. But if you so regard the king, don't think that everyone else does.

18:50 And you see, when we come to speak of the duties and the privileges of church membership, there are those who dig in their heels and say, I'd like to be told what I must do. For if I must do it, that's legalism, that's bondage. It is, my friend, you're indicating that you have a defective heart relationship to the king. For the duties of church membership are the gracious impositions of the king of kings and lord of lords upon the king of kings.

19:28 The subjects of his kingdom and in the heart of everyone who's beheld his glory, who has come within the orbit of his grace, who reads the heart of God in the bloody wounds of the son of God. Duty and privilege are not enemies, they are handmaidens. You see it?

First Duty to God: Presence at Stated Gatherings

19:53 So I'm using the words purposefully and addressing the subject of the duties and the privileges of the king. The privileges of membership in the church of Christ. Well, we'll only have time this morning to take up the first of three aspects of the first arrow. The duties that are directed specifically to God.

20:19 And when I say God, I mean God is revealed to us at the end of these days. God in the mystery of the trinity of his being. God revealed in Christ. God revealed in Christ and in the gift of the Spirit and in the completed canon of Scripture the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

20:46 And when I announce what that first strand of duty is with reference to God himself, some of you are going to slip back in your pew and say, oh no, here I had my appetite all whetted for something profound after a nice illustration like that. And here he's going to give us just that. That's right. That's what I'm going to give you.

21:06 You already anticipated it, aren't you? What is our first? What is our constant? What is our non-negotiable duty and privilege with reference to God himself as it pertains to church membership?

21:21 It is this. To be present at the stated gatherings of the congregation. To be present at the stated gatherings of the congregation. Now this, this simple, this basic issue must become a matter of conscience between us and not our elders, but us and our God.

21:47 Now follow me closely.

21:50 There is abroad among many professing Christians and some in Trinity Church this notion. Well, the obligation to be present at the stated meetings of the congregation is somehow or another conditioned by the size of the congregation.

22:10 Jesus said, where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst. He envisions a situation, whether in the midst of unusual unbelief or in the midst of persecution, but he pictures a situation where the church may be reduced in a given area to two or three.

22:29 And he says, there am I in the midst. And people reason this way. Well, if I were one of the two or three, then surely my absence would mean a 33rd percent drop in the attendance. And therefore, in a small work, my obligation to be present at the stated gatherings is intensified and underscored and my absence would be seen for the horrible thing that it is.

22:52 However, if there are 3,000,

22:57 how do you figure out the mathematics of one, one three thousandths? Why, that's minuscule. And therefore, my obligation is not as great. And if there were 30,000, it is even less.

23:11 No, no, listen, listen. Don't ever think of your obligations and privilege to be present at the stated gatherings of the congregation in terms of the size of the congregation. It has nothing to do with the size of the congregation. It has to do with the nature of the church and the nature of church membership and unalterable obligations and privileges that are vertical and are not calibrated to anything.

23:38 It has to do with any horizontal reality.

23:42 And that verticalism of that privilege and responsibility does not change whether we are 2 or 3, 10, 100 or 10,000.

Evidence 1: Explicit Directive of Hebrews 10:25

23:53 Now, what I'm prepared to do in the time that remains is to set before you the evidence for this duty in three categories. Number one,

24:04 we are very careful in this assembly not to use the word duty unless we are prepared to demonstrate that the word of God binds the consciences of God's people. We get in trouble for that because we won't make up rules of our own, but we dare not stop short of God's rules. And I lay before you these three categories of biblical evidence that it is our solemn duty and unspeakable privilege as members of a Christian church to be present at the stated gatherings of the congregation. Category of evidence number one, the explicit declaration and directive of Hebrews 10 and verse 25.

24:47 The explicit directive of Hebrews 10 and verse 25.

24:56 Now, those of us who have sat under the instruction of Pastor Bob Martin in recent weeks will be familiar with the general setting of this entreaty in the light of all of the rich privileges of the new covenant culminating in the privilege of the new covenant. of coming under the blessings of the one sacrifice offered once for all for the people of God. The writer to the Hebrews gives an exhortation in verse 19 of Hebrews 10. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the way which he dedicated for us, a new and living way through the veil that is to say his flesh, having a great high priest over the house of God. Now, here's the thing. Here's the exhortation. Let us draw near.

25:51 A second exhortation. Verse 23. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope. A third exhortation.

25:59 Verse 24. Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works. In the light of all of these unspeakable privileges, what are we to do? We are to draw near with boldness.

26:15 Let us draw near. With a true heart in fullness of faith. Let us not in our approaches to God act as though there were no perfect sacrifice. There were no great high priest ministering in the heavenly sanctuary representing us before the Father.

26:35 Let us not by a carnal pseudo-humility stay off at a distance groveling with unresolved guilt and with crippling and paralyzing guilt. Let us not by a carnal pseudo-humility stay off at a distance groveling with unresolved guilt and with crippling and paralyzing guilt. Let us not by a carnal pseudo-humility stay off at a distance groveling with unresolved guilt. Let our approach to God magnify the provisions He has made in Jesus, mediator of the new covenant.

27:03 That's the exhortation. Then he says, let us hold fast the confession of our hope that it waver not. We are saved in hope, that is. We are saved in the context in which we've laid hold of a promise that though we receive full forgiveness, now, the best is yet to come.

27:22 We're saved in the confident expectation of a completed salvation in the new heavens and in the new earth. He said, hold fast that confession of hope that it waver not. Ultimately not because of your faithfulness, but because of His. He is faithful that promised.

27:41 Clinging in the confidence of vigorous faith to a faithful God never leads to presumption. It's clinging to the memory of a past experience that leads to presumption.

27:55 But clinging to a present God and His promises. No, let us hold fast. Let us draw near. Let us hold fast.

28:04 And then let us consider one another. Let us consider one another. Let us not think that this is an individualistic salvation. Oh yes, it is individual.

28:14 It's applied individually. But it incorporates us into a body. Let us consider one another. To do what?

28:19 To provoke each other. Not to sin. Not to stumbling. No, but to provoke one another unto love and good works.

28:28 Let every brother or sister whom you touch go away from His time with you, saying, you know, time with that brother or sister makes me want to be more prayerful, more careful in my walk, more tender in my conscience, more like Jesus. Do people say that when they've been with you? That's what He's talking about. Let us consider.

28:50 Let us consider one another. To provoke unto love and good works. But now, what's the context in which all of that is to be done? Our drawing near.

28:59 The assurance of faith. Our holding fast the confession of our hope. The considering one another to provoke unto love and good works. Verse 25.

29:09 Not forsaking our own assembling of ourselves together as the custom, as the manner, as the pattern of some is. And what is this? It is. It is an explicit directive to the people of God not to forsake, to abandon the assembling of themselves together.

29:32 It's the word used in that familiar text in 2 Timothy chapter 4. Demas has forsaken me. He's abandoned me. He has relinquished all of his attachment to me, having loved this present world.

29:46 Verse 16 of the same chapter in 2 Timothy. Paul says, All that are in Asia have forsaken me. They've left me. He says, Do not forsake.

29:55 Do not abandon. Not abandoning. Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. Some have already fallen into such a pattern as the custom, as the pattern, the habit of some already is.

30:16 And one does not need to be too knowledgeable in the book of Hebrews to draw a link between who those some were and who they are. And those sober warnings about those who draw back, who drift away, who are overcome, who willfully sin. One of the most certain harbingers of apostasy is the beginnings of this forsaking of the assembling of ourselves together. For you see it is in that assembling under the divine directives that God, has deposited or to which God has deposited the great means by which other things that keep us in the way are disseminated in full assurance of faith. If we are not in the place where Christ is preached authoritatively and in the presence as he is in the assembly of his people, to keep that confession of our hope vigorous and strong, if we do not gather with those who are animated by

31:35 that same hope from whom we can receive something of that contagion of a vigorous hope in the Lord Jesus Christ, and how can we exert this influence upon one another to provoke, to love, and to good works if we cut ourselves off from one another? You see this word not forsaking the assumption that we are not in the place where Christ is preached authoritatively and in the assembly of ourselves together does not drop down on a sky hook. It is embedded in these exhortations based upon the great realities of new covenant privilege on the one hand and the frightening possibility of apostasy on the other. And for those of us who have sat trembling under the word in recent weeks and several months, dear people, if that trembling does not give birth to a resensitized conscience about the stated meetings of the assembly of God's people, it will come to naught. I say it is our duty and our privilege to be present at the stated gatherings of the congregation. Evidence number one, the explicit directive of Hebrews 10.25. Category of evidence number two, the assumed complexion or constitution, a

Evidence 2: Assumed Constitution of New Testament Churches

33:03 ransacking of the church. And finally, about eight o'clock this morning, I said, Lord, I got to put some word in there on my notes. So I put the word complexion. The assumed complexion or constitution of the churches of the New Testament as they really existed in the mind of the writers when they wrote to them. That's what I'm driving at. When the apostle Peter, when the apostle Paul sat down to write a letter to a church, what did they do? they envisioned when they wrote unto the church of God at Corinth, to the faithful in Christ Jesus? Well, when you read those epistles, it is assumed that when the epistle came and was read by one of the readers or elders, leaders in the assembly, that all of the church would be gathered, even in what we would call very unhealthy churches. For example, take

34:03 the church at Corinth, the church with manifold problems. I don't mean to be coarse, but if we were to liken the church at Corinth to a person who was sick, and I mean sick, that church had an evidently fevered brow, had a stenching breath because of some internal gastrointestinal problems. It limped. It had arms and slings, patches on the eye. I mean, its problems were evident. It wasn't some hidden thing off. It wasn't in the left corner of some unessential or non-vital organ. No, its sickness was evident.

34:43 But one thing is clear. With all those problems, apparently there was no problem of chronic absenteeism in the members. Isn't that interesting? For example, when he comes to take up the matter of divisions, he assumes that all the divisive ones are there. He said, how say some among you? I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, I am of Cephas. He knew they'd be there. At least he assumed they would be.

35:06 And when he comes to take up the matter of discipline, he assumes that even these people with their sick, non-judgmental, unconditional love, who were tolerating this incestuous man, he assumes they'd be there. He says, the next time you come together, in the name of the Lord Jesus and by my Spirit, deliver such a one unto Satan. He assumed that even these people with this soupy, saccharine notion of love would be there. He assumes that the people teaching errors on the resurrection.

35:36 He argues that even these people with this soupy, saccharine notion of love would be there. He assumes this was, really, the mostérieur authority in the creation of mankind. Finally, he goes with them, right in the epistle, in chapter 15 and he assumes that, those abusing the Lord's Supper, that those who come together must eat the Lord's Supper. When you come together, it cannot be to eat the Lord's Supper. For one of you, comes drunk and the other one comes hungry and another one comes like a glutton! But he assumes that they'd all be there! He assumes that those abusing the Lord's Supper. That is the point!

35:55 Now, when you turn to the seven letters of the seven church in the book of the Revelation, where Jesus himself is the critic of the church, his eyes are as a flame of fire, he, like Jesus the Lord, actively flatters them and urges them to dwell. But we know it is He who The Lord Jesus examines His church, and then He speaks words of exposure and rebuke and admonition and comfort and exhortation and entreaty. But the assumption is, you see, that when that letter went to the church at Ephesus, Smyrna, Thyatira, Pergamum, Philadelphia, etc., that even the people involved in these deficiencies and sometimes downright heresies and immoralities would still be there when the church gatherer says, You suffer this woman, Jezebel, to teach false teaching. Deal with her. Get her out. But the assumption is that the members were there.

36:49 Now, you see the point? So often we look for proof text, and we miss a mountain of evidence that is standing right in front of us. And as I went through the epistles, directed to churches that deal with problems, it never occurred to Paul that Jody and Syntyche wouldn't be there the day the letter was read. He said, I beseech Jody and Syntyche be of the same mind in the Lord.

37:12 Oh, yeah, they'll be a little red-faced when they hear their name read out before all the congregation. But so what? A red face is better than a grieved Holy Spirit. I've never called anyone's name out.

37:24 There are times when you may have felt a red face and said, Surely pastor's done everything but name my name. Well, if the Holy Ghost...

37:30 Taylor makes the application, accept it. But I've not called your name out. Paul did. He even told the church at Corinth who paddled on them.

37:38 It's been reported unto me of the household of Chloe that you folks are having a free-for-all down there. Shame on Chloe. He says, no, shame on you for your free-for-all. Don't get mad at Chloe for telling.

37:48 Get mad at yourself for tolerating this. Deal with your sin. But the assumption, you see, in all of those epistles is that the complexion or constitution of the church as it gathered was that it was a gathering. The church.

38:02 Now, surely Paul knew that at any given day there might be some sick, some in the midst of childbirth, some nursing mothers, some caring for an aged. I know that. Paul was a reasonable man, as I hope I'm a reasonable man. But apart from those truly providential hindrances, the assumed complexion of the New Testament churches is that they were gathered churches.

Evidence 3: Varied Images of the Church's Identity

38:28 And when the church was to assemble, the church was assembled. And that was the rule and not the exception. But then thirdly, and perhaps most profoundly, the third line of evidence I give to condition your conscience further, for some of you, perhaps for others for the first time, to see that your first privilege and duty as a member of the church is to be present at the stated gatherings of the assembly. The third category of evidence is found in the very, the varied images of the identity and nature of the church.

39:06 The varied images of the nature and identity of the church. You see, the church as an assembly of the people of God is set before us in Scripture in a rich and varied spectrum of images or likenesses. Now, each of those images or likenesses captures and displays, some precious aspect of what the church is in its very identity and in its very nature. Now, no one image could capture it all.

39:42 So God holds up an image here. And He says, in some respects the church is body. In some respects the church is bride. In some respects the church is temple.

39:58 In some respects the church is family. And it's, it sets forth all of these images and likenesses and inherent in every one of those images. One of the common denominators of all of them is this matter of the duty and privilege of each of the members being present at all the stated gatherings of the church. Now, let me illustrate it with several of those images briefly.

40:30 Is the church the temple? Is the church the temple of God? We read together 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 60. One of the several passages in the New Testament in which the church is called the temple or more literally in several passages the sanctuary of God.

40:49 And as the sanctuary was the place of God's special presence, so the church is called God's very appointed place of special presence. Notice the emphasis in that text, 1 Corinthians 3, 16. Know ye not that you are a temple of God? And this is not just a lovely, nice, ephemeral notion.

41:14 He says, no, you are a temple, not in the sense that you are made of brick and mortar and visible stuff. You are a temple in the sense that you are the appointed dwelling place of God. And that dwelling is not an imagery. It's a reality.

41:31 Look. Know ye not that you are a temple of God? Imagery. And that reality, the spirit of God dwells in you.

41:43 Now, that's not imagery. That's reality. The spirit of God dwells in God's temple. Now, if you ask me to demonstrate in a way that would satisfy the mind of a physicist or a mathematician or an architect or someone else who uses weights and measurements and spatialization and spatial concepts, if you ask me to demonstrate in a way to satisfy such a person, I cannot do it.

42:10 It is a great mystery. Christ in you, the hope of glory, is the great New Testament mystery, according to Colossians 1. Though I cannot set it forth in spatial, conceptual language that will satisfy men of this world, it is nonetheless reality that when the people of God, quarried out of the mass of humanity, constituted as living stones, God's living temple, when they come together, God dwells among us in a way that is distinct from and in addition to His personal indwelling in the heart of every believer, His general filling of heaven and earth, there is a distinct, redemptive and glorious reality. We are His temple. And according to Peter in 1 Peter 2.5, that temple is made of not dead brick and mortar, with all due respects to masons and other craftsmen, not made of hard granite or field stone, but Peter says, you also, as living stones, are built up to be a spiritual house.

43:28 Every believer is a stone in that temple. But He is a living stone. He has been given life from the Lord Jesus as the Spirit has come to take up His residence in His heart. Now then, think of the incongruity.

43:45 Shall I allow the temple to come to its visible expression in a stated gathering of the church, and willfully and deliberately leave a hole in the wall where God in sovereign grace has marvelously placed me? Shall God, shall God's pain redemptive to take me, to take you, who were dead in sins, in the midst of the deadness of the whole quarry of humanity, as living stone? We so despise those those that we willful from the coming of that temple in its stated gathering for despising the grace of God. Do you see how horrendous it appears when you look at it in that light? That's why I said, get hold of the nature and identity of the church and then you'll know your duties and your privileges.

44:55 and your privileges.

44:58 Do you see it? Do you feel the weight of it? May God grant it, we'll feel the weight of it.

The Church as the Body of Christ

45:05 Then there's a second imagery. Is the church the body of Christ? The Scripture tells us it is. 1 Corinthians 12.

45:15 An explicit statement where Paul is fleshing out the imagery of the body in conjunction with the diversity and function of various gifts in the church. And he says in verse 27, Now you are the body of Christ and severally members thereof. You, Corinthians, you constitute the body of Christ. Now, not the only body of Christ and not the totality of the body of Christ in terms of the church universal, but you are the body of Christ.

45:56 At Corinth, I say it reverently, but according to the Word, I must say it, there was but one body of Christ and it was not His body corporally offered upon the communion table when an elder, alias a priest, said some magic words over it and turned the bread into the body of Christ and offered it up afresh in a bloodless way upon a Romish altar. No! He wasn't referring to the communion service. He's talking about the identity of the church at Corinth.

46:30 He says you are the body of Christ. Now you see, when that gets hold of us and we ask the question, if I'm a member of the church and therefore part of the body of Christ at Corinth, Philippi, wherever that body may find its expression geographically, what did God do to make me thus? It meant that Jesus, who as the eternal Word was ever with the Father, had to say in the language of Psalm 40, quoted in Hebrews 10, a body thou hast prepared for me. Lo, I come in the role of the book it is written of me to do thy will, O God, and in that body join to that pure human soul without taint of sin and stain of uncleanness in the integrity of the one man, the God-man, Christ Jesus, in two distinct, two distinct natures and one person forever. In that body He lived in this oppressed, humiliated, sinful world in a weekend condition under the curse that was our doom. Live the life we should live. Die the death we should die.

47:54 All to what end? That having turned away the wrath of God doomed to us for us, our sins, having stored up, as it were, in the bank of heaven, a righteousness which, when put to us, would give us title to life and acceptance with God. He then sent forth His Holy Spirit after His ascension to the right hand of God, the Father Almighty, that He would do His work in conjunction with the preaching of the Gospel and open the blinded eyes of sinners, give them to see their wretchedness, give them to see the glory of God in the face of Christ, that being regenerated by that Spirit, repenting and believing and receiving the gift of the Spirit as the Spirit of adoption, they might be incorporated into Christ's body and that that incorporation might not simply be individual and inward and hidden, but find concrete expression in the body of Christ at Corinth coming together, functioning as an integrated whole to the glory of God. Now, dear people, let that work its way into your conscience. Shall God go to such pains to make me a part of His body? And when the body comes to its visible, tangible expression in its stated meetings, shall I, a pinky, be willfully, deliberately absent?

49:23 Shall I, an ear, be willfully, deliberately absent? Shall I, just the slightest appendage on the right hand of God, shall I, an ear, be willfully, deliberately absent? Shall I, just the slightest appendage on the right hand of God, shall I, an ear, be willfully, deliberately absent? Shall I, an ear, be willfully, deliberately absent?

49:33 Shall I be absent? A kneecap! Shall I be absent? You say the thought is, it's grotesque to think of the body without its pinky, without its ear.

49:42 Yes, there is something grotesque about absent members whose absence is not due to the providential dispensations of Christ the Head, but to the carelessness of their own hearts, to the carnal and worldly perspectives that have dulled the sense of wonder and cable privilege to be found visibly among the other members of the body, reveling in Christ the living head, who by grace has made us his body. Oh, the privilege, as well as the solemn duty. No wonder then churches have problems, because you see, it's when the body is gathered that the will of the head is made known in the reading and preaching of the word. Christ is present in a peculiar way as the prophet of his people in the midst of their gathering when as the living head he speaks through the word and the spirit by his servants, giving direction to all the members of the body. That's the beautiful imagery in Ephesians 4. It is corporate sanctification of the body, not individualistic sanctification envisioned in Ephesians 4. You see, dear people, when we make this plea, I say without any reservation,

The Church as a Royal Priesthood and Family of God

51:02 knowing I speak for your other elders, this is not a matter of us wanting to save face so we can say, oh, we had a full church today. We don't count heads. It has nothing to do with our identity and our security and our image. It has to do with Christ's done to have a body. And what he does in calling that body together for the sacred institutions that he has departed. Well, let me just touch quickly. Time is gone. Two other images. Just quickly. Is the church a royal priesthood? Yes. I don't have time to turn, but you look it up in first Peter two verse five and then again in first Peter two in verse nine, we are called a royal priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God. This is one of the images of the church that almost every Lord's day, not every, but almost every day, we are called a royal priesthood.

52:06 Almost every Lord's day gives me a sense of wonder when we gather. Maybe you've wondered, maybe you haven't. Maybe I'm the only person that wonders such things, but maybe some of you have wondered what do the men who sit on the platform think about when they're preparing their hearts for worship? That's a legitimate question. I'll tell you what I often think about is this concept. What am I doing here today? There's a last place in the world I'd be if left to the dictates of my own native disposition, my own unregenerate heart. I'd be far from God.

52:36 What am I doing here? I'm here because God saved me. Now, why did he save me? Well, among other reasons, he saved me to make me a new covenant priest, to enroll me in his royal priesthood, that here in a special way on his own day, I might in concert with my fellow priests, stand in his sanctuary and offer up spiritual sacrifices to God. Hands on my chest that once were cleansed in defiance against him, stand inwardly, not outwardly, but inwardly open in worship and praise and defenselessness before him. A mouth that once cursed and told its dirty jokes and mumbled its rebellion at its parents is found framing such words as we have sung this morning of praise and adoration and worship. What am I doing? I'm a priest in the company of God. I'm a priest in the company of God. I'm a priest

53:37 in the company of my fellow priests, offering up sacrifices to the living God. Sacrifices that he's appointed, that through the mediation of Christ he will accept, that will be in the language of Ephesians 4, an odor of a sweet smell in the nostrils of God. Oh, I love to picture God bending over heaven, sniffing the peak of Trinity Church, and when he smells the aroma of the sacrifice of Christ. Sacrifice of worship, coming up from mouths and hearts the likes of ours. He smells in it the fragrance of the garments and the blood of his Son, and he says, ask us what I sent my Son for, that I might have a royal priesthood to offer up sacrifices to me, the living God. Oh, dear people, when the glory of that gets hold of you, it'll take more. It wasn't a little headache to keep you from the assembly of God's people. On the one hand, you'll say, how dare I rob God of his due of sacrificial service from me, whom he loved

54:59 from eternity and washed in the blood of his Son, keeps by his grace. And on the other hand, we'll say, how dare I, how dare I avoid fulfilling that wonderful privilege that is mine, a privilege. Our hearts ought to leap within us, come every Lord's Day morning, another day, when God calls his royal priesthood together. And I'm one of them, with my croaky old voice that can't put two notes together in order, and God leans over heaven and smiles and smells and says, that's good.

55:41 Now, you may not be the shouting type, but I tell you, if you're ever going to be, that'll get you close to it. Take the imagery, last of all, of the church as the family or the household of God. And that's what it's called in 1 Timothy 3, 5, regarding an elder. If a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the house of God? The church is the house of God, pillar and ground of the truth, 1 Timothy 3, verse 15. Well, take that imagery. Are we the household of God, his family? What did he do to get us into that family? Well, read Galatians chapters 3 and 4. What he did was send his son to bear the curse of the law. That we might receive the status of sonship and then the gift of the spirit of sonship to the end that we might call him Abba, that is, Father in the most intimate, endearing terms. And Christ, according to Scripture, and it's one of the terms that gets stuck in my throat, and it's only because the Bible says it that I can bring myself to say it.

56:44 He is the elder brother in this family. He's the great prototype to which God is molding and fashioning all of us. And wonder of wonders in Hebrews 2, this comes near to blowing my mind. He says, in the midst of the congregation, I will sing thy praise in the midst of my brethren. Christ calls us brethren, and in a way I don't understand. He's present to sing with us the very praises of God. In the family intimacy, God is our Father through the redemptive work of Christ. Christ, our elder brother among us. God is our Father through the redemptive work of Christ. And so he calls the family together to encourage us, to feed us, to reprove us, to rebuke us, to guide and direct us. Oh, dear people, do you see why you have an obligation and a privilege to be present in all of the stated assemblies of his people? Who would want to be absent from such a family? Unless your heart is growing estranged to the elder

57:49 brother and to the father. Unless your heart is being galled and irritated by the family rules of the household. Surely if you have a healthy heart to the father and to the elder brother, you'll long to be present whenever the family gathers. So I lay before you in conclusion, my brothers and sisters, this threefold court of evidence with respect to our first duty directed to God, not the elders, not the church, not the church's constitution, but to God. And that is to be present in all the stated assemblies of his people. God is our Father through the redemptive meeting to the church, the explicit directive of Hebrews 10 and verse 25, the assumed complexion and constitution of the New Testament churches as they were addressed in the epistles, and then the duty that rests down upon the varied images of the identity and nature of the church. You and I must train ourselves to think in these categories. Learn the art of holy soliloquy.

Call to Holy Soliloquy and Challenge to Unbelievers

58:53 You know what I mean by that? I mean talking to yourself in the light of biblical realities. The next time you're indisposed to come to a prayer meeting, come to the stated hours of instruction and worship, talk to yourself, say to yourself, shall I, who says that I am determined to hold fast the confession of my hope, determined to draw near, determined to provoke the love and good works, shall I deny what I say by forsaking the assembly of myself with God's truth? I am determined to hold fast the confession of my hope, people's gospel did. Shall I, whom an apostolic writer would assume would be present among the people, shall I be that anomaly, that exception? No! Shall the temple be there and that living stone missing? Shall the family be gathered in that place empty? Will the priesthood engage in holy

59:49 service and be lacking one voice, one heart to yourself?

59:58 The biblical realities train your mind to think in terms of what you are and in terms of what your duties and privileges are. But what of you who are strangers to Christ? As you've seen my face get red and my voice get excited in speaking about the privileges of being saved, you've sat there and wondered, is that all a big act? I mean, can anyone really mean that and be sincere? My friend, listen to me. My faith, my faith, my faith, my faith, my faith, my faith, my faith, my faith, my faith, my faith and my voice have not expressed one-tenth of what I feel. And what I feel is rooted in the great realities of the Word of God. My feelings are not hitched to a cloud comprised of the surmisings and the fables of men. But these are the great realities. Christ has come. Christ has

60:53 died. Christ has risen from the dead. He sits at the right hand of God the Father. He sends His Spirit to the world. He sends His Spirit to the world. He sends His Spirit to the world. He sends His Spirit into the hearts of sinners. And oh, my friend, these realities can be yours, but only in Christ. It's a beautiful thing. I'd hope to have time to deal with it, but I don't. You see in the book of Acts how added to the church and added to the Lord are used interchangeably. Believers were the more added to the Lord. And the church is increased and multiplied. There's only one way for you to become part of a true biblical church, and that's to be added to the Lord, to be joined to Christ.

61:31 And there's only one way for you to be joined to Christ. You've got to divorce your sins, turn from your sin, and throw yourself in helpless dependence upon the Lord Jesus as your only hope of salvation. And I may be speaking to some who say you're in Christ, and you may be in Christ, but you're not in His church. My friend, you are a preacher not recognized in my Bible. I say it kindly, but I say it with a challenge. You show me from the New Testament where anyone is called a Christian who is not part of a church. Well, then you bring up that Ethiopian eunuch who was baptized, and who knows where he ended up. That's right. Who knows? I don't. But you don't take that unexplained question mark of this exceptional

62:22 case, but you take the ordinary principle throughout the book of the Acts where people's response to Christ is measured in terms of their incorporation into the church. It's right there in Acts chapter 2. They that received His word were baptized, and they were added unto them in that day, 3,000 souls. I challenge you to think about your freelance Christianity, to see if you can find in the word of God any justification for a Christianity that doesn't find you incorporated into the life and privileges and duties and responsibilities of the church of Christ.

Prayer of Confession and Supplication

62:59 Dear people, can you see why we're in such a mess today? Christ's church has been despised. I was made to be a Christian, and I was made to be a Christian. I was made to be a Christian, and I was made to believe for many years while attending evangelical schools of higher learning that the church was just sort of a convenient boat from which to fish for sinners. That's about the only concept I had of the church. God have mercy on me. And if that concept is in any way in your mind and heart, God help you no longer to despise His church, but to love the church purchased with the blood of Jesus. Let us pray. Our Father, how we thank you for your word.

63:40 Thank you for our time together this morning, for the privilege of tasting and handling things unseen. And our hearts at times sink beneath the weight of the glory of what you've given us to be as your people. Lord, forgive us for the many times we've dishonored you by bringing the lame and the halt to sacrifice of half-hearted praise and worship, when as a company of priests, purchased unto you by the blood of your Son, we've rendered such unworthy sacrifices of praise and adoration. Forgive us when we've despised the family in which you've placed us, when we've treated lightly the body of which we are a part, the temple of which you have made us integral parts. O Lord, may these truths filter down in to every facet of our being until we view our privileges and our obligations in the light of them. Seal then the word to our hearts, to your praise and to our profit, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.