Responsibilities to God, Part 2

Introduction: The Church as God's House and the Importance of Membership

0:03 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, February 8, 1987, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Our Father, we come again, thanking you that you are never weary of our coming.

0:21 In our sense of helplessness, we have none other to whom we can turn. O God, it is in your light that we shall see light. And we therefore pray that the Spirit may be given to us as the Spirit of illumination, that you will take away the veil from our minds, the prejudices from our hearts, the misconceptions of our judgment, and the perversity of our wills. O God, bring the entirety of our humanity subject to the impress of your holy word.

1:05 Speak to us, we plead, for the glory of Christ and for the good of our souls. Amen. The scriptures inform us that the church is the house of God, that it is the pillar and the ground of the truth. Furthermore, we are told that it is through the church that God has chosen to display his manifold wisdom and to secure.

1:43 Now, in the light of these things, and many others of equal significance and magnitude, we can never consistently think highly of God, his glory, and his truth, and yet have a low or indifferent view with respect to his church. One of the first ways in which a psalmist can be a psalmist is to have a low or indifferent view of the church. For each one of us needs to have a low or indifferent face, but we will be subject to our entire church to have one. This is why all of these scriptures tell us so.

2:22 The path to have a low or inert view of the church based on and according to their intellectual concept Or shots of the Acceptance of God on a muss shrine reli- ivas muio produ- lud combined in chapters and pages dietary specialions past few months have found us in an unusual period of increase with respect to the membership of Trinity Baptist Church, your overseers judged it wise to address this subject of

3:02 church membership in order to clarify certain fundamental issues for those who are newly joined to us and to enforce certain fundamental issues for those who have been long with us.

3:21 Someone who visited our country from another country and upon returning to his own home was asked, how would you describe the state of religion in America? His answer was, it's 3,000 miles wide and an inch deep. 3,000 miles. It's 3,000 miles wide.

3:46 It spreads from Maine to California but an inch deep. And no little part of that horrible reality is that the whole subject of church membership has suffered from gross neglect.

4:05 And if we as a church would not become wider but thinner, but rather wider in terms of the dimensions of the church, we would not be able to do that. We would not be able to do that. We would not be able to do that. If we were to go deeper and deeper in our relationship to God, then it is vital that we periodically address this vital issue of church membership.

Review: Admission and Steadfastness in the Early Church

4:31 Now in our first two studies, we examined Acts 2, 41 and 42, in which two basic questions are addressed in the text. Who was admitted to that first Pentecostal church of Jerusalem? And what happened to them after they were admitted? And we saw in our study, according to verse 41 of Acts 2, there was no open enrollment policy in the church of Jerusalem.

5:04 You know what open enrollment is in our state universities and city universities? You may not be able to read, write, or compose a sentence, but you can come in and they'll take you where you are. Open enrollment. Discriminating against no one.

5:19 And alas, many churches have a policy of open enrollment. No matter what you know or don't know, no matter what you've experienced or haven't, apply and you're in. There was no open enrollment policy in the church of Jerusalem. It was only those who gladly received the apostolic word in all of its richness and depth, with intelligence and with conviction.

5:47 Leading to true experience, validated in their confession of Christ in baptism, only such were received into that church. And then once received, they didn't scatter, go their ways, with a membership certificate in their pockets to be placed in a safe place at home so when they died, they'd know what name to call and what phone number to call for a decent Christian. But it says once they were in, they all continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, in fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers.

Framework for Responsibilities: To God, One Another, and the World

6:33 Now then, having expounded that passage in the first two studies, we then, in the third message, moved on to take up in a topical form what are the major responsibilities and privileges of church. And in addressing this question in our third message several Lord's Days ago, I laid out a basic principle, and I want simply to state it by way of review. The principle is this, that the responsibilities and privileges of church membership are what they are, because the church is what it is.

7:14 In other words, the responsibilities take their shape. The responsibilities take their shape and form and nature from what God has made the church in its essence and in its constitution. And then I suggested as an organizing principle we can think of our privileges and responsibilities in the church in three basic categories. Those duties which are directed to God himself, the arrow upward, those duties that are directed one to another.

7:49 The arrows inward, upon our internal life. And then those duties which are directed to those without. Arrows going outward, towards the world. Then we took up the first of the first category of duty.

8:09 Namely, our duty directed to God himself in terms of being present at the stated gatherings of the congregation. That is a duty which God himself lays upon us, and which we are to discharge as unto the Lord himself. And we establish that duty from the explicit directive of Hebrews 10.25, from the assumed complexion of the churches of the New Testament, an overview of the epistles, and then the varied images of the church which understand the church.

8:47 And then we establish that duty from the explicit directive of Hebrews 10.25, from the assumed complexion of the churches of the New Testament, an overview of the epistles, and then the Provisions rule. That is the third category of duty, we can also score this duty. Now today, we proceed to the second of our duties directed to God himself as members of his church.

The Duty of Appropriate Preparation for Worship

9:00 And it is this. We are to be present at the gatherings of the assembly having made an appropriate preparations for the varied spiritual activities of those gatherings. Or more briefly stated. Have regard, pong it upon all hearts.

9:22 tunidhusset. είer, tut. hiy音� apostle Lee Sagar. We are under solemn obligations to appear before God in the place of the special presence of God appropriately prepared to have dealings with God.

9:40 Now let me repeat that. We are under solemn obligations to appear before God in the place of the special presence of God appropriately prepared to have dealings with God. And if you don't get anything else out of that, you ought to at least get the impression that there is a God-centeredness to the life of the church. Not a self-centeredness, not an other-centeredness, but a God-centeredness.

Gospel Disclaimer: Preparation for Believers, Not Salvation

10:24 Now when I use, when I use the term that we are under solemn obligations to appear before God appropriately prepared, I want to make a very clear disclaimer. I am not telling those of you who sit here today strangers to God's forgiveness in Christ, strangers to heart religion, you've never repented of your sin and believed on Christ, strangers to what it is that you believe in, to be a child of God. I'm not telling you that you must prepare yourself to become a Christian. No.

11:04 All the fitness He requires is to feel your need of Him. You are welcome to go directly to Jesus Christ in all of your sinfulness, in all of your guilt, and lay hold of Him who is set forth as the only Savior of sinners by the God, who justifies the ungodly. You don't make yourself better to get into Christ. You get into Christ to be declared righteous, and then God will begin to make you better.

11:41 And then you can think about church membership, and then preparation for those activities. So I want to make a gospel disclaimer. I put it in my notes and underlined it in red. Gospel disclaimer before we get into the nuts and bolts of what we're dealing with.

11:57 Because the gospel disclaimer, the longer I live, the more I'm convinced people will confuse the most elementary issues as plain as we attempt to be. Dear sinner, I'm not speaking to you about how to be saved. If I were, I'd say, flee to Christ. Flee to Christ now.

12:18 Flee to Christ without delay. He stands ready to receive whoever will come to Him for mercy and forgiveness. But I'm speaking to the people of God, members of this assembly, and I am saying, if you are to fulfill your duties as a church member, you must not only see those duties to God in terms of your obligation and privilege to be present at the stated gatherings of the church, but to be present at those gatherings to appear before God in the presence, in the place of the special presence of God,

The Crucial Importance of Preparation: Lessons from Corinth

13:00 appropriately prepared to have dealings with God. Now, in setting forth this duty, let me first of all, heading number one, demonstrate the crucial importance of appropriate preparation for the gatherings of the assembly. The crucial importance of appropriate preparations for the gatherings of the assembly. I'm prepared to demonstrate from the scriptures that failure properly to prepare ourselves for the gathering of the assembly and its God-appointed activities

13:41 can render those very activities offensive to God and detrimental to ourselves. I'm prepared to demonstrate that from the Bible. In other words, going to church can become an assignment of offensive activity to God and detrimental to your own soul if you do not come properly prepared. Please turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 11 for a section of scripture which, among many, illustrates this truth very vividly.

14:19 How important is the matter of due preparation for the gathering of the assembly of God's people?

14:33 Well, you remember that in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, Paul begins in verse 2 by giving a word of commendation that in certain things the Corinthian church is following apostolic tradition. But then in verse 17, he says, now in giving you praise, as I did in verse 2, I'm not giving you blanket praise because there's something in which I cannot praise you. Verse 17, but in giving you this charge, I praise you not that you come together not for the better but for the worse. He says there is a coming together even at God's call to do something God requires

15:18 in which your coming together will leave you worse,

15:23 not better. Isn't that what the text says? That you come together not for the better but for the worse.

15:35 So he says, it is possible to come together and be worse off after that. Then before, verse 20, he said it's possible to come together and not regard the divine intention of our coming together. Verse 20, when therefore you assemble yourselves together, it is not possible to eat the Lord's Supper. Well, wait a minute.

15:56 They were breaking bread and drinking wine, but he says you're not keeping the Lord's Supper.

16:03 Whatever you're doing, even though it appears to be done by divine appointment and in the divine manner, you are not doing what God insists. You are not instituted. Furthermore, he says you're doing it unto personal harm. Verse 30, for this cause many among you are weak and sickly and not a few sleep.

16:23 For what cause? For the kind of eating and drinking they were doing at the Lord's table.

16:30 It was resulting in their own personal harm. Verse 34, if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home that your coming together be not unto judgment. You mean there is a coming to church that is not coming to judgment? That's not coming to judgment.

16:43 That's not coming to judgment. That's not coming to judgment. That can make me liable to divine judgment? That's exactly what he said.

16:48 Well, I thought God would judge me if I stayed at home. God says there are certain conditions in which he'll judge you if you come.

16:58 Now, what was his prescription to correct this? To ensure that the coming together would result in God's glory, their blessing and edification. You know what Paul's prescription was? It was a prescription for appropriate preparation.

Paul's Prescription for Preparation: Practical Steps

17:17 That's right. Notice, first of all, he says, make sure that ordinary hunger and ordinary thirst are taken care of in the ordinary way and in the ordinary place, namely your own families. Verse 22 and verse 34. What?

17:34 Don't you have houses to eat and to drink in? Or despise you the church of God and put them to shame that have not? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you?

17:44 Verse 34, if any man is hungry, let him eat at home. You see what he's saying? He's saying the reason your coming together is not unto blessing is you have not come properly prepared. You therefore come physically hungry and you turn what should be a supper of remembrance into a time of gorging your own bellies.

18:04 You're not duly preparing yourself for the Lord's table. So his prescription is, prepare yourself, make sure that ordinary hunger and thirst are taken care of in the ordinary way in the proper place. Secondly, he says, do give due consideration to one another and your mutual needs. Verse 33, wherefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait one for another.

18:32 Now the precise meaning of that is not my purpose to expound. It's a difficult injunction. It's the ordinary word for waiting for somebody to catch up with you. But one thing is clear.

18:44 They were not properly prepared because they were being incensed and sensitive to one another. And he says, here is my prescription. Take care of ordinary hunger and thirst in the ordinary way, in the ordinary place. Now then, prepare yourselves by giving due consideration to your brethren with whom you will sit down at the Lord's table.

19:08 And then thirdly, he says, prepare yourself by engaging in personal self-examination prior to your salvation. Sitting at the table, verse 28 and verse 31, but let a man prove or examine or put himself to the test and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. There is an activity of personal preparation. Let a man prove himself and so let him eat, so let him drink.

19:44 And again, as he says in verse 31, but if... If we discerned or discriminated ourselves, we should not be judged.

19:55 We have a responsibility to engage in acts of self-discrimination. We are under solemn obligation to put ourselves to the test. Now do you see the principles? Paul is applying some broad general principles to the specific concrete principles of self-examination.

20:18 to the specific concrete principles of self-examination. The situation there at Corinth, there were aberrations in one dimension of the instituted worship of God, namely the Supper of Remembrance. These continued steadfastly in the breaking of bread. And in the breaking of bread there were aberrations so that though they were coming together, it was not unto God's glory, not unto edification and blessing, rather, it was unto increased liability, it was unto condemnation or judgment and chastisement.

20:57 And Paul's prescription is a prescription of proper preparation for that aspect of the public worship of God.

21:10 And if I desired to draw this study out to greater lengths than is appropriate, I could take you back through the Old Testament and show how again and again in such passages as Exodus 19, which was read in our hearing several weeks ago, and in the whole ritual connected with the peculiar priestly activity, the daily priestly activity, the priestly activity at special set feasts and particularly on the Day of Atonement, that all approaches to God, in connection with the special place of God's special presence,

21:54 demanded specific and detailed preparation. To meet with God in the place of His appointment was no light and frivolous issue. And therefore, preparation was mandated again and again and again and again. And if anyone doubts this, and your knowledge of the Scripture is too limited to know where to turn, there are people here whose knowledge of the Word is sufficient to sit down with you and show you that this is the pattern throughout the Scriptures.

Primary Aspects of Preparation: Cultivating Present Consciousness

22:36 Well, that's all I want to say now on that first heading, trying to demonstrate in a very concrete way from the New Testament and then a general summary of the Old Testament witness, first of all, the importance of preparation for gathering to the place of God's special presence. Now then, secondly, and this will take the bulk of our remaining time, the primary aspects of appropriate preparation for the gatherings of the assembly. The primary aspects of appropriate preparation

23:19 for the gatherings of the assembly. Now, unless I've overlooked some major strand of biblical truth, and it's possible that I have, this is one of the disadvantages of topical preaching. Sometimes we don't see the trees for the woods, or the woods, I'm sorry, for the trees. And if someone comes upon a major strand that you feel I've missed, I would welcome your help in being more accurate and balanced.

23:49 But as I've reflected upon this really over many years, and in a concentrated way in recent weeks in preparation for this series, it appears to me at present that the primary aspects of appropriate preparation for the gatherings of the assembly can be ranged under four headings. And I'm going to state them in terms of imperatives. Number one, we must cultivate a present consciousness of what we are, what we are actually doing when we gather. We must cultivate a present consciousness

24:33 of what we are actually doing when we gather. Both in the Old Testament and the New Testament, it is clear that people can quickly forget or fail ever to realize the significance of their God-ordained religion. It is clear that people can quickly forget the significance of their God-ordained religion. In other words, both the Old and the New Testaments make it plain that men can stumble into the performance of an activity mandated by God and never think, what in the world am I doing?

25:16 And the Scriptures also teach that one can move into an activity conscious of what he is doing and spiritually conscious of what he is doing, profit from that activity, but by degrees lose the consciousness of the activity while carrying on the form of that activity long after the present awareness of its significance has died within his soul.

25:49 Wasn't this God's great complaint through the prophets again and again and again? He says, what unto me is the multitude of your sacrifices? I'm tired of all the formal rituals. Well, they were bringing sacrifices God had mandated, bringing them in the days and in the ways of God's appointment, but they had forgotten what the soul of it was.

26:18 All of that ritual was simply to be an external representation of evil. Internal spiritual realities. The Israelite was to see and feel the weight of his sin when he brought his lamb. He was in the day of atonement to see with holy mourning and with faith his sins being transferred to the scapegoat and to the goat that would be slain.

26:51 But God says again and again to the prophets, The soul is gone. Out of the activity there is no present consciousness of what you're doing. And God gets bold at one point and says, you may as well be offering pigs upon my altar. Unclean animals.

27:08 Why? Because he says, the consciousness of what you're doing has died, so you may as well prostitute the form when you have profaned the heart and the essence of it. And that's the complaint of our Lord repeated. The New Testament, when quoting from Isaiah, he says to the Jews of his day that were meticulous in doing what God had required in terms of forms and ceremonies of worship, he says, Well, did Isaiah speak of you people?

27:44 You draw near with your lips, but your hearts are far from me. In vain do you worship me. And you worship that does not engage the heart. And what is the heart without consciousness?

28:02 God says is vain, empty worship. So dear people, we must, this is not optional. We must in the way of appropriate preparation for the gatherings of the assembly, we must cultivate a present consciousness of what we are actually doing when we gather. Well then you ask?

28:27 What are we doing? When we gather here this morning? When we gathered yesterday morning for prayer? When God willing we shall gather together again tonight at six o'clock?

28:41 When we will gather, God willing, Wednesday at 7.30? The next time we will gather to the Lord's table, what are we actually doing when we gather? Well, let me give you just three simple but basic Biblical perspectives that I've found helpful.

What We Are Doing When We Gather: Three Biblical Perspectives

28:58 I hope you will find them helpful. First of all, we are responding to the call of the living God Himself to gather in concert with His people. It is the very God who has called us out of darkness into marvelous light, who calls us to Himself, to each other in our corporate life. And that is what we are doing.

29:28 That is what we are doing. We are leading these corporate gatherings. The psalmist understood this. In Psalm 27 and verse 8, we read, Psalm 27, verse 8, we read, Psalm 27, verse 8, we read, Psalm 27, verse 8, we read, When you said, Seek my face, My heart said unto you, Your face, Lord, will I seek?

29:49 Will I seek? Do you mean that the living God, as really, as truly, as literally, as literally, as wholely, will I seek your face, Lord? Will I seek God? literally calls me to Himself in the place of His special presence in concert with His people as He did when He spoke audibly from Sinai when the trumpet to gather the people was sounded in obedience to God and I answer without any qualification, Yes, God!

30:29 The giver of His only begotten Son, God of infinite glory, God of tender mercy, God of majestic awesomeness, God of gracious tenderness, God and Father of the Lord Jesus, He calls me to the place of His special presence in concert with His people. Therefore, do preparation when I say, It will mean that I cultivate a consciousness

31:11 that as I drive to church, I'm not simply driving there out of habit, I'm driving there in response to the call of the God of heaven and earth. Early if you received a telephone call from the White House Sunday morning at 9 o'clock and once you were sure it wasn't one of those odd friends who plays practical games, jokes, all of us have a few of them, some of us are such to others, and you were convinced that this was a bonafide messenger out of the Oval Office, and you were told that a limousine would show up

31:55 at your house in 15 minutes to carry you to a certain place where the President was ready there to have an audience with you. Tell me, where would your mind be from the time you put the phone up to the time you were ushered into His presence? Where would your mind be? I'll tell you where it'd be.

32:16 The President called me? Me? The President? Me?

32:21 The big one? Calls the little one? The world renown calls its little nobody? He wants to meet with me?

32:33 With me? You'd be filled with a sense of awe, a sense of wonder, a sense of excitement. My friend, what's President Reagan? He's a sinner in Adam like the rest of us.

32:48 If he doesn't die in Christ, he'll go to hell like any other sinner. The God of the universe holds his breath in his horn like he holds you in his arms. My breath and my breath in his hand. It is President Reagan's God, you hear this morning.

33:07 Did your heart feel any excitement? Or was your mind on yesterday's glitches when you tried to make that cake? And the frustrations of last week's work? And did you come sort of staggering and stumbling into here with your mind and heart in a thousand places without a tinge of wonder and awe?

33:30 The Lord is here. The Lord is here. The Lord is here. He told you into the place of his special presence with his special people.

33:45 Now, dear people, that's reality. That's not trying to overstate it to get you excited. That's the frustration of human words to try to describe what defines human words. We are responding to the call of the living God Himself to gather in the place of his special presence with his people, Secondly, we are coming to the place of his special presence because we are that place of his special presence.

34:23 We are coming to the place of his special presence to form God's invisible but real temple.

34:32 And as I see God's chariots coming up with his stones, and I see you all getting out and walking in, I love to think of that temple coming together, each stone in its place. And what makes it glorious is not the stones. We'd all be roasting in hell if we got what we deserved. It's the presence of God who dwells among us in grace.

35:02 Preparation means that we cultivate a present consciousness of what we're doing. We're responding to the call of God. We're coming together. We're coming together to the place of his special presence.

35:18 And thirdly, we are coming to render the spiritual sacrifices and perform the spiritual activities of his own commanding. We are coming to render the spiritual sacrifices and to perform the spiritual activities of his own commanding. And here, of course, my language is taken directly from 1 Peter 2. 1 Peter 2, where Peter describes the people of God under that beautiful imagery of the living stones in the living temple,

35:54 unto whom coming 1 Peter 2, 4, a living stone, rejected indeed of men, but with God elect and precious you also, excuse me, as living stones are built up a spiritual house, and then you say, what's a house of God with the presence of God? What's a house of God with the presence of God without priests to offer up sacrifices to God? He said, well, just give me time and I'll go on to be a holy priesthood. You see, we are not only the stones that constitute the temple.

36:32 We're the priests who function and carry out the rituals within the temple. And what are those rituals? To offer up spiritual sacrifices. Not carnal sacrifices offered up according to the old covenant ritual and rubric in law, but spiritual sacrifices mandated by God within the framework of the new covenant.

37:03 Sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus.

37:09 Acceptable to God. I do not come to offer sacrifices that God will spurn and turn away. Because of their imperfection. Though my praise does not rise to the heights of God's worth.

37:25 Though my confession of sin does not take me down to the depths of justifiable humiliation and brokenness. Though my sacrifice of a broken and contrite heart is marked. My sacrifice of praise is imperfect. Those very same sacrifices.

37:48 Those very sacrifices are acceptable to God because they come to Him permeated with the aroma of the mediation of His own beloved Son. Now that's reality. It's not reality that can be seen with the eyes and touched with the hands. But it's reality according to the word of God.

38:13 And oh dear people, shame, shame upon us. That we so often...

38:19 That we so often forfeit the blessing and worse we rob God of His due by simply failing to cultivate a present consciousness of what we're actually doing when we gather. That's why I urge you to try to catch at least two or three minutes in the busyness of getting prepared Sunday morning. Just a few minutes. I'm not urging your conscience, let alone binding.

38:50 I'm not urging it to say you ought to be up at three in the morning and pray for three hours. I'm a realist. Many of you I know. The weariness that comes by the weekend.

39:03 And remember, I don't speak as one who's home watching television Saturday nights. With my fellow elders I'm often up till ten-thirty, quarter to eleven before we ever leave an elders meeting. So I don't speak unsympathetically. But I'm pleading.

39:21 And I try so to arrange your schedule as to have a few minutes to say now Lord help me to get my spiritual wits about me and to concentrate, to cultivate a present awareness of what I'm doing when I go to gather with your people while driving to church. You who are the heads of the home, don't allow trivial conversation. If you don't have a cassette deck to put on a good...

39:51 Tape with hymns that the kids can sing along with, someone in the family who can at least carry a tune in half a bucket, strike out in a hymn, and try to get the mind going in the direction of God and His praise. And as you drive in the driveway, try to think in terms of these spiritual, biblical concepts. This is what I mean by cultivating a present consciousness of what we're actually doing. When we gather.

Primary Aspects of Preparation: Cultivating Thankfulness, Reverence, and Awe

40:25 But then secondly, the primary aspects of appropriate preparation will not only involve this present consciousness of what we're actually doing, but in the second place we must cultivate a present disposition of thankfulness, reverence, and awe as we gather. We must cultivate a present disposition of thankfulness, reverence, and awe as we gather. We must cultivate a present disposition of thankfulness, reverence, and awe as we gather. We must cultivate a present disposition of thankfulness, reverence, and awe as we gather.

40:53 We must cultivate a present disposition of thankfulness, reverence, and awe as we gather. and awe as we gather. Now, the reality of God making Himself accessible to sinful men in the place of His special presence has always produced thankfulness, reverence, and awe in the hearts of God's true people. Always. Let me repeat that. The reality of God making

41:25 Himself accessible to sinful men in the place of His special presence has always produced thankfulness, reverence, and awe among the true people of God. Turn to several examples of this in the book of Psalms, please. Psalm 122. Psalm 122. This psalm is in that collection

41:56 called the Psalms. It is of assent that the people of God would sing as they made their way to Jerusalem at the set feasts appointed by God. Now, notice the language of Psalm 122. I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go unto the house of Jehovah, the place of God's special dwelling.

42:23 And when the call went out, it is time to go up to God. The psalmist says, I was glad. Our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem, you who are built as a city that is compact together, whither the tribes go up, even the tribes of Jehovah, for an ordinance for Israel to do what? To give thanks unto the name of

42:56 Jehovah. You see, the whole concept of God's special dwelling, in the place of his own appointment, and the calling of his people by his own ordinance, fills the psalmist with gladness, not with a sense of drudgery and weariness. Oh, is it time to go up to Jerusalem again? I was glad when they said to me. One of the surest indications. You kids wonder, can I know if

43:27 I am really a Christian? Listen to me. Listen to me. You see, I am pretty sure there is a Listen, here's one of the surest indications.

43:30 How do you regard the coming of the Lord's Day? Do you regard it with excitement? I'm going to go and I'm going to be able to sit with God's people and sing His praise and be taught the Word of God in Sunday school. And those who preach are going to preach it with earnestness and they're going to preach it as those who seem concerned that we understand it.

43:52 I love the Lord's Day. One of the surest marks that God has saved you, young person, is you begin to love the Lord's Day. Instead of dreading it all, Sunday again. I can't do this. I can't do that. I can't go here.

44:06 And Sunday is just one big chafing yoke around you. You feel it. God gives you a new heart. You'll delight in the Lord's Day.

44:18 Why? Because that's the day when with thankfulness you can be summoned by God into His special presence in the place of His appointment. Look at Psalm 100. Psalm 100, another illustration of this.

44:39 Make a joyful noise unto the Lord all you lands. Serve the Lord with gladness. Now notice. Come before His presence.

44:54 Come to that place of His special presence appointed by Him. Come before His presence. Come before His presence with singing. Know that the Lord, He is God.

45:06 It is He that has made us and we are His. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates. The place of His special presence with thanksgiving.

45:18 Into His courts. The place of His special presence with praise. Give thanks unto Him and bless His name. For the Lord is good.

45:29 His loving kindness endures forever. Amen. His faithfulness unto all generations.

45:38 There is the element of thankfulness. You see that God, a holy God, would do anything but banish the whole human race to everlasting darkness is a revelation of grace and mercy. The angels that kept not their first estate, He has banished. No scheme of mercy.

46:07 Mercy was planned or will ever be applied. Every last angel that sinned, his fate was sealed the moment he rebelled. And no mercy has ever been provided or will ever be conferred.

46:25 Yet for us, creatures of the dust, little worms who dared to defy our Creator,

46:38 God who could have consumed us all and cast us into hell, in mercy, He has welcomed us into His presence through the blood of the everlasting covenant. And in His grace, He has drawn us to Himself and put us among His people. Surely then, it is not asking too much that we of all people should cultivate a present disposition of thankfulness when we anticipate coming into His gates and into His courts. No one should ever have to stand in a pulpit and graciously and gently chide you

47:20 for dull, half-hearted, half-lunged singing.

47:26 Rather, someone might occasionally, you'd think, have to say, Oh, my friends, look, look, don't get too carried away. People coming in may think you're mad. Your thankfulness is so abounding and so enthusiastic and so utterly without reserve that people may think, you're mad if you don't just strain it in a little bit.

47:54 If we've cultivated any sense of what it is that the God of the universe welcomes us on the grounds of the work of His Son, then surely we must come with a disposition of thankfulness. But the Bible also teaches that drawing near to God in the place of His special presence is to be attended with reverence and awe. Look at two examples, and it's obvious I won't get beyond this second head. We'll have to take up the next two next week, God willing.

God's Awesome Presence: Sinai, Jacob, and Calvary

48:30 In Exodus 19, it was an awesome thing for God to begin to make it evident that Israel would be the nation to whom He would join Himself in a covenant, a bond of intimacy, marking them out from all the nations of the earth, and that the great privilege of that covenant bond would be His special presence with them. And when God begins to make that known, preparation is first of all commanded in Exodus chapter 19. The people are told to prepare themselves

49:13 for God's coming down in three days upon Mount Sinai. And then when God does come down upon Mount Sinai, and we read in verse 18, there is smoke as of the smoke of a furnace, and the mountain quakes, and the voice of the trumpet waxed louder and louder, and God answers Moses, and God comes down. What happens? The people are filled with a sense of trembling and of awe.

49:51 They are filled with a sense that God is terrible and awesome in His holiness and in the brightness of His own being. Even the beast was not to break through and touch the mountain or it would be killed.

50:13 You find that in Genesis chapter 28 when God makes His special presence known to the old patriarch, or He wasn't that old at this point, the younger patriarch, Jacob. And God appears to him and what is the response when the whole thing dawns upon the spirit of Jacob? Notice Genesis 28 and verses 16 and 17. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep and said, Surely Jehovah is in this place and I knew it not.

50:52 And he was afraid. And he said, How dreadful! How dreadful is this place! This is none other than the house of God and this is the gate of heaven.

51:02 God has made this place the place of His special presence. How dreadful! God is here. You see, joined to thankfulness is the sense of reverence and of awe.

51:17 But now someone says, Ah, but Pastor Martin, don't you know that now that God has sent forth His Son and Jesus has come, and died, and risen from the dead, all of that threatening, dark, and foreboding dimension of God has been swallowed up in the blood of Jesus. It is completely obliterated by the glory that breaks from His open tomb and filters down from the throne of grace. Is that so? Is that so?

51:56 No, you turn to a passage that ought to be familiar. Familiar to many of you. Hebrews chapter 12.

52:04 And just the opposite is true.

52:09 For the very passage alluded to in Exodus 19 a few moments ago is referred to here in Hebrews 12, verse 18. You are not come to a mount that might be touched and that burned with fire and unto blackness and darkness and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words which voice they that heard and treated that knoweth no more word should be spoken unto them for they could not endure that which was enjoined if even a beast touched the mountain let it be stoned and so fearful was the appearance that Moses said I exceedingly fear and quake he says you haven't come to that mountain

52:52 that created such a sense of dread and awe you've not come to that mountain but verse 22 you are come unto Mount Zion unto the mountain of Israel unto the mountain of Israel unto the city of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem innumerable host of angels general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven to God the judge of all to the spirits of just men made perfect and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that of Abel see that you refuse not him that speaks for if they escape not when they refuse him that warned on earth

53:34 how much more shall not we escape who turn away from him that warns from heaven whose voice then shook the earth but now he has promised saying yet once more will I make to tremble not the earth also but also the heaven and this word yet once more signifies the removing of those things that are shaken as of those that have been made that those things which are not shaken may remain now here's the conclusion of the whole matter you see the the the

54:04 You have not come to that. You've come to this. And in describing the this, he sets forth these glorious commodities, these spiritual ingredients of new covenant church life and individual experience for believers. He says, wherefore, receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have grace whereby we may offer service. And that word for offer service throbs, it oozes with the connotation of ritual service under the new covenant.

54:48 So that it would certainly include our spiritual service. When we gather in the assembly of the people of God, though it is broader than that, it encompasses that. Let us have grace whereby we may offer service well-pleasing to God with flippancy and jocularity for our God is lovey-dovey. At this point, I restrain my spirit, but that is the blasphemous way.

55:29 In principle, this text is biblical. In rewritten by great statements of modern evangelicalism, the measure of grace is considered to be in direct proportion to the flippancy and ease with which you can feel comfortable in the presence of God. Whereas the writer to Hebrews says, let us have grace whereby we may offer service well-pleasing. Let us have grace whereby we may offer service well-pleasing to God.

56:10 And what are the characteristics of service that please Him? It throbs, it breathes, with residence and with awe. For our God, notice, it doesn't say was. On Mount Sinai, a consuming fire.

56:32 But now He's nothing but a gentle warm blanket. Harmless as a warm blanket on a winter night.

56:43 No, no, a consuming fire. And the greatest revelation of that was not made on Mount Sinai. It was made on Mount Calvary. On Mount Sinai, it was the smoke of God's holiness in contact with a cursed earth.

57:08 And a part of that earth being Sinai. Truly, when a cursed earth comes into proximity to the special presence of God, it should smoke. And quake and tremble. But on Mount Calvary, it is the holy, harmless, undefiled Son of God.

57:31 And when, bearing our sins by imputation, bearing our sins vicariously, infinite holiness strikes consummate sinfulness.

57:49 And a fire that makes the smoke and the fire of Sinai look like a fire. Like kids play on a boy scout outing.

58:01 For the fire consumes the soul of the Son of God until He cries, My God, my God, why have you forsaken?

58:15 And as though God Himself is embarrassed at the sight, He takes a dark curtain across the heavens at noontime. Don't you tell me you've ever seen your sin in the light of Calvary. If it's made your relationship. If it's made your relationship to God marked by flippancy and jocularity and lightness.

Reverence in Worship: A Valid Testimony to the Unconverted

58:44 You're as ignorant of the God of the Bible as a hot man. Dear people, if we, in our coming together, would come together to God's glory, come together to our edification, come together to a valid testimony to the unconverted of who God is, then we must cultivate a present disposition. A thankfulness of reverence and of awe. And isn't that the very point that Paul underscores in 1 Corinthians 14?

59:26 He said to the Corinthians, describing their worship in terms of the peculiar gifts that had been deposited, if that worship were conducted as it ought, he says, if the unbeliever comes among you and the gifts deposited in you are operating under the rule of the Spirit and apostasy, apostolic direction, he says, the unlearned, the unconverted, the unbeliever will fall down upon his face saying, God is of a truth among you. In other words, the God revealed in the gathered assembly, in the perception of the unconverted,

60:11 is not a God you come tripping up to and snuggle up to, saying, oh, he's so lovey-dovey, and anybody can feel comfortable with him. He's a God before whom they fall down under the sense of the awesomeness of being in the presence of a holy God as sinners yet uncleansed from the filth of their sin. That's my Bible, folks.

60:43 You don't like our straight-laced service here? Then you go stash your three-ring circus. I had a preacher call me this week. You wonder sometimes, Pastor, you know, as you get older, I think you get a little more disciplined over your spirit.

60:58 You engage in excessive rhetoric. Well, I'm sure at times I do, but you don't know how much I hold back. You don't have a clue. And if you had to sit at my desk and hear the things I hear, a man who's pastor of a church with some 800 members calling me saying, I've got to talk to you again.

61:17 He calls me about every three, four weeks.

61:21 Don't know what to do now. What's the problem, so-and-so? Well, I had a contingency. He'd come to me this week and they came with a complaint that they're tired that I'm taking all the life out of the public worship.

61:34 And they say, I'm making the worship dead. I said, well, what did you do? He said, I just insisted that when the choir sings their songs and the quartets sing their numbers that there be no more clapping in the sacred worship of God.

61:54 Because he had the temerity to say no more clapping at performances. They've come to tell him he's killing the spirit of worship.

62:07 And when he had the nerve to say to the choir director, look, that song is full of heresy. And he had no authority to overrule the choir director. So he made a public disclaimer and said the choir's about to sing the song. But I object and here are the words I object to.

62:22 And here's what I object to in the light of the scriptures. They accuse him of killing the spirit of worship.

62:30 Over the years, we've had many people come and go. And times they've had the courage to speak to our face. Most times they don't. It gets to a second hand.

62:40 Now, I don't want to go back to that place. The worship's dead.

62:44 What they mean is there is not a climate of jocularity and lightness and flippancy.

62:53 We deliberately seek to cultivate in this place a climate of reverence and awe. For our God is a consuming fire.

63:07 That's why we can be so thankful for his grace. And we know we need to have somebody up here whipping you up, sir. Now, let's all go at it. When you know that God, who is a consuming fire, could have consumed you, and instead, he's loved you and saved you by his grace.

63:28 The thankfulness is what gives the intensity and the volume to your praise and to your gratitude.

63:36 Because that's another thing that even from those who do not understand what we are, say time after time. I've never heard people sing like they sing their trinity. And they don't even have a song leader.

63:55 We do. He just doesn't stand up here. He sits over there at the piano and aids us in our worship. But you see the principle, dear people?

64:06 If you come as a prepared priesthood who have thought at least in the moments between Sunday school and Sunday morning and in the moments when you come up out of the foyer Sunday, Sunday evening and the few moments from the office to Wednesday night, that I am privileged to come into the special presence of the God of heaven and earth who could have consumed his wrath, but instead consumed his Son and now welcomes me into his presence as his son or daughter. Surely, thankfulness, reverence, and awe will mark our worship. Would God, God willing,

Conclusion: Personal Responsibility and God's Grace

64:50 next week we'll take up the other two. I'm more concerned that we get hold of these things and implement them than that I get through an outlife. May God help us because I can't do it for you. You must, as a new covenant priest, prepare your own robes, prepare your own sacrifices.

65:10 You must, as a new covenant priest, prepare your own mind and your own spirit.

65:18 And then if you find you've come unprepared, don't add, sin to sin. Just sit there in the opening hymn. Stand in the opening hymn. Contest the sin of unpreparedness and wonder of wonders.

65:31 God can come in a moment of earnest confession and prayer and do more work of preparation in 30 seconds than you may have been able to do in 30 minutes otherwise. He's a God of grace. And haven't we known it to be such when we've come right from a fuss in the car with our kids or our husband or wife. We've come right from a fuss in the car with our kids and we've come into the place of his special presence, carnal as a goat.

65:57 But we had hard dealings with God and we lifted up our hearts and said, oh God, forgive me, cleanse me, wash me, purge me. And lo and behold, in the singing of the first hymn, God came and by the breath of his spirit drew you out. And before the hour was over, you knew you'd had dealings with God. Oh dear people, may it ever be so.

66:22 And if you're a sinner this morning, who knows nothing of these great realities, I bid you come join us. I don't mean join the church, not the first. Join us as sinners who know that God's face is toward us with favor, not because of anything in us, but because we've embraced his well-beloved son who lived the life we should live and died the death we deserve to die. And now says to every sinner, come to me.

66:55 And I will give you rest.

66:59 Church membership,

67:01 treated lightly, but in the word of God, a wonderful privilege, a solemn responsibility. And as we contemplate our responsibilities to God, may we think of them in terms of our solemn obligation to be present at the gatherings of the assembly and then to be present with a heart prepared to engage in those activities man's life, man's life, man's life, man's life, man's life, man's life, man's life, man's life, man's life, man's life, man's life, man's life, by the Lord. The first two aspects of that preparation are, first of all, to be convinced that the preparation is necessary. And having been convinced of it, then cultivate a present consciousness

67:45 of what we're doing. Cultivate a present disposition of thankfulness, reverence, and awe in the next two, next week. God willing. Let us pray.

67:56 O our Father, we feel again something of our own humanity and frailty before the wonders of your grace and the privileges of being found among your people.

68:22 Our words fail us when we try to frame our privileges but we thank you that they are real and secured for us in the work of your Son and by the present ministry of the Spirit. Write the truth upon our hearts and bring forth fruit for many years to come. To the praise of your own name we ask through the Lord Jesus. Amen.