Responsibilities to the World, Part 1

Introduction: The Church's Duties to 'Those Without'

0:03 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, March 22, 1987, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Our Father, in the singing of this hymn together, we have expressed the great realities spoken by our Lord, that when your word is preached, there is a devil who seeks to pluck up that seed, there are the cares of this world that would choke it, there are the lusts of other things entering in that would render it ineffective, there are those influences that rise up from within and press in from without to neutralize the saving, sanctifying influence of the word. And so we come calling upon you that by...

1:00 By the Holy Spirit and by the power of the risen Christ, all of those influences will be neutralized in our midst this morning, that your word may run and have free course, that it may take deep root in every heart and spring up in fruit thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold, fruit that will be born unto the praise of our Lord. Lord Jesus, hear our cry, O God, and do not mock the very longings that you have created in our hearts, that your word would do its intended work this morning and not return unto you void. Hear us as together we make our plea through the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Now, as we come to this ninth and final study in this general theme, of some biblical perspectives concerning the duties and privileges of local church membership, we come to the third of the categories that I have used as a teaching device by which

2:22 to organize the vast amount of biblical materials. In seeking to collate and organize those materials, I've suggested the imagery of a circle representing the church. And then three sets of arrows, one set of arrows going out of the circle upward to designate those particular duties and privileges of church membership, which terminate primarily upon God himself. And then we considered two arrows pointing inward from each outer edge of the circle, those representing the duties that membership.

3:06 And now, this morning, we want to look at the arrows that start inside the circle, but they go out and pierce the circle to the outer edge of that circle, the duties and privileges we have with reference to those who are without. Now, as I wrestled with what term to use with respect to the church's duties to those who are out of the circle, I decided to use the term, the duty. Now, as I wrestled with what term to use with respect to the church's duties to those who are outside the church, that is, the lost, the unconverted, I found that in the New Testament, one term is used, apart from the more general term of unbeliever or unrighteous, more than any other, and it is the term those who are without. And so I'm using that term because of its predominance in the Word of God. We first encounter it in Mark chapter 4. Mark 4, in which our Lord Jesus, speaking, says, Mark 4 and verse 11, Mark chapter 4 and verse 11,

4:23 Unto you is given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but unto them that are without, all things are done in parables, that seeing they may see and may not perceive, hearing they may hear and not understand, lest perhaps they should turn again, and it should be forgiven them. So here the disciples are contrasted with those who are without. And the withoutness was not a matter of space and geography or physical distance, but it was a matter of spiritual non-perception. And then this terminology is found several times in the Epistles. In 1 Corinthians chapter 5, the Apostle uses it in that section in which he is chiding the Corinthian church for its failure to discipline the immoral man who was among them. And we read in 1 Corinthians 5, 12 and 13, For what have I to do with judging them that are without? Do not you judge them that are?

5:42 Within, but them that are without, God judges. So here church members and non-members are described in the terms, those within and those without. In Colossians chapter 4, we find the same term used for the unconverted world in which the people of God at Colossae had to live, among whom they had to live and witness. Colossians 4 and verse 5.

6:16 Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. So the non-Christians are described as those who are without. And again in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, we find the same terminology. Verse 11.

6:39 Study to be quiet. Do your own business. Work with your own hands even as we charged you that you may walk becomingly toward them that are without. So here the unconverted world before whom the church is living and before whom the church is mandated to live in practical godliness, that world is described as the world without.

7:07 And then the final usage in 1 Timothy 3 and verse 7. A little different form of the word, but basically the same root word concerning the requirement for elders. Moreover, he must have good testimony from them that are without. In other words, the church is not to recognize as its leaders those who do not have credibility with the outside non-Christian, non-churched community.

7:42 And so it is the frequent usage of this terminology that has driven me to incorporate it into the subject that we address this morning. The duties and privileges of church membership with reference to those that are without. And as we think in those categories, two things are very clear from the frequent use of this terminology. Number one, there was among the members of the New Testament churches a definite consciousness of this discrimination.

8:23 This line of demarcation was clearly fixed in their minds. When the apostle says, those that are within you are to judge, those that are without God judges, the assumption is that every ordinary church member was aware that the church was not to judge. They were aware of that line of demarcation and knew who was on either side of that line. Furthermore, it's clear from the usages of this word that those within were given specific responsibilities with reference to those that were without.

Two Categories of Duties: Authentication and Proclamation

9:04 And in these epistles, those responsibilities are given in clear, unmistakable language. And the people of God are responsible both to know and to discharge their duties to those that are without. And so it is the use of that terminology that sets the framework of our study this morning. Now, as I wrestled for many hours trying to find some real as well as helpful organizing principle by which to collate the many, many duties that God has laid upon his people with reference to those that are without, I don't know how many sheets of paper had various scribblings only ultimately to be discarded until I settled upon this two-fold organizational principle that I believe is valid, though certainly not exhaustive. Our duties to those that are without can, for the most part, be ranged under two headings, the duties of authentication and the duties of proclamation. What duties do we have as members of the Church of Christ

10:29 with reference to those that are without? I answer that the Scripture tells us we have duties that can be ranged under these two headings, the duties of authentication, the duties of authentication, the duties of proclamation, the duties of proclamation, the duties of proclamation, and the duties of proclamation. First of all, then, the duties of authentication. Now, what does that big word mean?

10:54 Well, to authenticate something is to prove it to be genuine. Suppose one of you kids should be digging around in the backyard this spring for who knows what, and you come across a coin that looks like a very old coin, and you rub off the dirt and you wash it and you show it to your mom or dad, and your dad, who happens to be knowledgeable a little bit in old coins, gets very excited because he thinks that what you may have found was an authentic coin dating way back to early colonial American days. It'd be worth a lot of money. Some museum might want to buy it.

11:36 You may want to put it in a safe deposit box as an investment, but you first of all must find it. And find out if indeed it is a real, bonafide, colonial coin. So what will your dad do? Well, he will find out through various contacts those professional people who are qualified and licensed and properly accredited to authenticate.

12:05 That is, to prove to be genuine or not genuine that coin. So if he takes it to the person, he takes it to them for authentication. He wants them to prove and then to state that it is indeed a genuine early American colonial coin. Now, our duties as the people of God, with reference to the outside world, many of them are clearly set forth in the Word of God as the duties of the people of God, the duties of authentication.

Corporate Life Authenticates Identity as the New Humanity

12:46 In other words, our life together as a body and our lives individually as interspersed among those on the outside are to be lives which authenticate what we claim to be and what God's Word says we are. Now let me break that down into three. First of all, our corporate life as an assembly of God's people must authenticate our identity as the new humanity in Christ. Our corporate life as an assembly of God's people must authenticate, must prove to be genuine our identity as the new humanity in Christ. The Word of God says that in the Gospel, God is not only saving individual men and women, but that He is making one new man in Jesus Christ.

14:04 That truth is taught in many places of the New Testament. And everyone who becomes part of that new humanity is described as a new man. God is described in 2 Corinthians 5.17 as a new creation in union with Jesus Christ.

14:24 Or in the language of Galatians 6.15, in union with Christ, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth anything but a new creation. And God is making a new humanity as He saves individuals, individual sinners, and then incorporates them into His church. And as the new humanity, we as the people of God have the solemn responsibility to authenticate our identity as the new humanity.

15:09 And when we turn to the Word of God, we find that there are three graces which are described in Scripture as the primary graces by which we authenticate our identity as the new humanity. The first of those graces is mentioned by our Lord in John chapter 13. And notice the connection now between this grace and those that are without. John 13, verses 34 and 38, and 35. A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have loved one to another. The authenticating mark of the community of Christ's disciples

16:25 is that they love one another with a love that takes its contours from the love that Christ has manifested to them. Now we already had occasion to look at this passage with reference to the inward pointing arrow. That our great overarching all-encompassing duty with reference to one another is to love one another. But that duty in this passage is set before us with reference to those that are without. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have loved one to another. The love that acts. In the ways that we described in our earlier expositions, the love that receives one another, the love that is committed to edify one another, the love that covers a multitude of sins, a love that cares, that bears mutual burdens, that encourages, admonishes, exhorts, a love that cuts all of the channels described in those many sermons that I have described.

Unity Authenticates Identity as the New Humanity

17:42 The love that is committed to edify one another. The love that covers a multitude of sins, many sections of the epistles where we are told precisely how love acts, what love does and what love does not do in the intimate interaction of an assembly of God's people. And our responsibility to those without is to authenticate our identity as the new humanity by dwelling together in love. But then there is a second grace that also authenticates our identity and it is the grace of unity or of oneness.

18:24 John chapter 17.

18:28 In our Lord's prayer for His own, there are four great concerns in that prayer.

18:38 One of those concerns focuses upon the unity. Unity of His people. But notice the purpose for which that unity is to be realized. John 17 and verse 20 and 21.

18:54 Neither for these only do I pray, but for them also that believe on me through their word, that they may all be one. And here is mystery indeed. Even as you, Father, are in me, and I am in you, that they may also be one, that they also may be in us. Here our Lord is praying for a unity of His own that draws its contours from the unity of the persons in the Godhead.

19:35 Just as He says the love we are to have one to another takes its contours from Christ, Christ's self-giving love for His own, so the contours of the unity of the people of God are taken from the very mystery of inner Trinitarian life and unity. And what's the great end in view? Look at the last part of the verse. That the world may know that you did send me and lovest them, even as thou lovest me.

20:19 I pray that they may be one, that they may attain and dwell in a dimension of unity that finds some of its reality in that lofty mystery of the oneness between the Father and the Son, to the end that there may be authentication of this people, as the new humanity, that the world may know that you did send me and love them, that the world may know that indeed a Messiah has come and that they are the Messiah's people. There is authentication among the people of God before an onlooking world secured by their evident unity. Therefore it should not, surprise us to see this emphasis upon unity cropping up again and again in the epistles. For example, in Romans 15, verses 5 and 6, a passage which beautifully states the divine ideal for congregational life that authenticates our identity as the new humanity.

Radical Holiness Authenticates Identity as the New Humanity

21:42 May the God of patience, Romans 15, verse 5, and comfort grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, that with one accord you may with one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then that opening entreaty after those marvelous and lofty chapters, Ephesians 1 to 3, when the apostle comes to apply those details, the glorious and lofty truths, what is the focal point of this first exhortation in Ephesians 4, 1? I beseech you, he says, to walk worthily of the calling wherewith you were called with all lowliness and meekness, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of people. It is the unity of God's people in a fragment, a limited world that validates, authenticates their identity as the new humanity in Christ. And then the third grace is the grace of practical or radical holiness of life. And I say radical holiness simply to express that we are not talking about someone

23:11 who's just a notch above his worldly friends in his honesty, where his worldly friends are not. Where his worldly friend will cheat for ten dollars, he will only cheat for one and no more. Where his worldly friend will tell blatant black lies, he will tell only little white lies. No.

23:31 The identity of the new humanity is that it is committed to radical holiness, a holiness which has as its standard nothing less than walking as he walked. The absolute standard of God's holy, holy and inflexible law. Notice the emphasis there in Philippians chapter 2 upon this very issue. Philippians chapter 2,

24:05 verse 12, So then, my beloved, even as you've obeyed, not in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure, do all things without murmurings and questionings, grousing and grumbling and disputing. Why? That you may become blameless and harmless children of God without blemish.

24:43 Look at the standard. Blameless, harmless, children of God without blemish. Where? In the mother.

24:54 In the midst.

24:56 In the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you are seen as lights in the world. Here he says to the people of God that they are to authenticate their identity as those who have come within the orbit of God's gracious work of salvation. This work that subjectively is described as God's, God working in us both to will and to work for His good pleasure. It's described objectively in chapter 3 as being in union with Christ and having imputed to us His own perfect righteousness.

25:41 That salvation, he says, is to be one that results in such a lifestyle that the people of God are blameless and harmless children of God without blemish. A blemish shining in the midst, in the midst, not isolated from, not running in retreat from, but in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation and in the midst enough that they can be seen among whom you are seen, among whom, the crooked and perverse generation, they see your commitment to radical holiness. They see your commitment to radical Christ-likeness. And one wonders if Paul has not taken his imagery right from the words of our Lord in which he describes his own you are the light of the world. You are a city set upon a hill. And the whole concept of a city points to the corporate life of God's people.

26:54 And in that imagery he is saying you, my people, living by the directives of my own holy word and in the power of my spirit, you are like a city set upon a hill and your corporate life authenticates your identity as the new humanity.

27:16 And dear people, we must never think of the church's mandate to those without it in any other categories but the categories which serve the purpose of the church. We must start right here. It is no use to proclaim a message of God's saving grace that cannot be authenticated by those who profess to be the recipients of that grace. And therefore, our first responsibility to those who are without is that in our corporate life as the people of God, we ought, authenticate our identity as the new humanity in Christ. There in the world, men are at one another's throats. They trample over one another in pursuit of their own selfish ends. They bite and devour one another over the slightest issues.

28:20 There is insensitivity. There is prejudice of every kind. There is division. There is ambition.

28:27 There is the corporate mentality. There is the mentality of climbing over one's dearest friend to attain one's own selfish ambitions. God says, in the new humanity, love that seeks not its own, love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, love that bonks not itself, is not puffed up. It is that love which is the authenticating mark of the new humanity in Christ.

28:59 Amen. And there in the world, men are divided over everything. They divide over the slightest issues. They seem to delight to seize upon any issue.

29:10 One class divided against another. One race divided against another. One political perspective divided against another. But in the new humanity, all races, all ethnic backgrounds, from the full spectrum of economic and social, standing, dwelling together on the level ground of our lostness in Adam and the level ground of our glorious privileges in Christ, this authenticates the gospel.

Corporate Worship Authenticates Identity as the Temple of the Living God

29:43 And it is the purpose of our Lord that the world not have to hear the gospel in a vacuum, but hear it in the context of its authentication in the church. And so our first great response under the head of authentication is that our corporate life as an assembly of God's people must authenticate our identity as the new humanity in Christ. But secondly, our corporate worship and stated seasons of prayer and praise must authenticate our identity as the temple of the living God. And you see the progression in thought? Not only must our corporate life authenticate our identity as the new humanity, but our corporate worship in all of its dimensions must authenticate our identity as the temple of the living God. Now you know that this truth is taught in the New Testament.

30:58 If you have been in this church for longer than three or four months, and it is a truth we hold dear and to which we give great prominence, that the church is not a religious club. If it is a church, it is in a way that we cannot punch into a computer, but in a way that is real and true, it is the special dwelling place of God Himself. 1 Corinthians 3.16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God?

31:33 And the Spirit of God dwells in you? And in the context, Paul is speaking of the church at Corinth, the church that was built after the imagery of a physical construction with Paul being the wise master builder who laid a solid foundation. Others came along and added to its superstructure, but the thing that makes it glorious is not who laid the foundation, or raised its superstructure, but who inhabits it. And it is none other than the living God who inhabits His church.

32:14 Or in the language of Ephesians 2, we are builded together to be an habitation of God by the Spirit. Now that is our identity. We are the temple of the living God. Now what is our responsibility to those that are without?

32:33 Our responsibility is this, that when we gather for praise, for the remembrance of the Lord at His table, for prayer, for instruction, for the proclamation of the Word, that those without, who may be among us, will find in our corporate life an authentication of what we really are. Where do we find that? Turn to 1 Corinthians 14. 1 Corinthians and chapter 14.

33:14 Here the Apostle in sorting out the charismatic free-for-all that was going on at Corinth, for surely that is what we must call it, was a charismatic free-for-all. People jumping up all over the place, speaking in tongues, prophesying, women bellowing out, and men cutting them down, and it was a charismatic free-for-all. Confusion! And Paul is trying to sort all of that out and give directives.

33:47 And he says, if these directives are followed in a context of an ungrieved spirit, in the context of order, for God is the God of order and not of confusion, what will happen when the unbeliever comes among you? Read with me. Follow as I read. Verse 24 of 1 Corinthians 14.

34:08 But if all prophesy, and there come in one unbelieving, you see, one from without has come into the proximity of the gathered church, but if there come in one unbelieving or unlearned, he is reproved by all, he is judged by all, the secrets of his heart are made manifest, and so he will fall down upon his face and worship, God declaring that God is among you indeed. Apparently he had heard that these people who met in the humblest places in stark contrast to the ornate temples raised to heathen deities, that these people claimed to have the living God dwelling among them. And while they did not attract you to their worship services with shapely young temple prostitutes, and while there was nothing to dazzle the eyes and feed unregenerate and lecherous flesh,

35:31 they had the audacity to claim that their God, the Creator of heaven and earth, actually dwelled in their midst. And he says such a person comes in, and when under the superintendence of the Holy Spirit, in the context of divine apostolic order, the Word of God finds its mark in the heart of such a man, what does he do? He becomes gripped with this authentication of the true identity of the church, and so he falls upon his face and declares, indeed, among you. He sees that God is the God who knows. His heart is laid bare. He has a preview of the day of judgment.

36:28 He's unstrung. He's unhinged. He's with the most blessed shattering that can ever come to a careless sinner, the shattering of the discovery of who God is and the creature's accountability to Him. Now then, when someone comes to such a man, prostrate upon his face, beating upon the floor, God is among you.

37:00 This God knows me. My heart's been laid bare by His Word. Where can I hide? Oh, what a blessing for some humble believer in the assembly to take the man aside and say, that's the God who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.

37:21 And in that Son that He gave, there is a righteousness that answers to all the demands of that God whose law is strict and inflexible, that God before whom you now tremble and before whom you will tremble yet more in the day of judgment if you go before Him in the nakedness of your own naked sinfulness. And some humble believer points that shattered man to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Sets before Him the free, unrestrained offers of divine mercy in the Redeemer and urges Him to close with Christ what has happened. One who was without came close enough to those who were within to see that the identity of the church was authenticated in its corporate life and nature. You see that? You see that from the passage?

38:32 This is why Paul goes on to say in verse 33, God is not a God of confusion but of peace. What's he saying? He's saying, look you Corinthians, if you're the temple of God and yet in your gatherings there is confusion, you are not authenticating anything about the nature of the God whose temple you are. You're sending out a false message.

38:57 He's a God of order. Let your very worship and the structuring of the exercise of the God-given gifts reflect the character of the God who dwells amongst you. Let there be no contradiction in the order and form and content of your worship with respect to your identity as the temple of the living and true God who is the God of order. That's how he reasons.

39:27 It's not surprising then, is it, that we read in Acts chapter 5 and only in the interest of time did I not validate the first heading out of the book of Acts. The passages are there. But I do want to validate this one because it's so vital. In Acts chapter 5, this church that grew by leaps and bounds in the early days in Jerusalem soon found itself with what would have been a plague.

40:01 Two hypocrites. Who came in undetected, undiscerned by man. And God is going to give a lesson in the very early days of the church that hopefully would, if I may use the imagery, be burnt into the hide of that church and long remembered. Do you remember the story how Ananias and Sapphira attempt to lie to whom?

40:27 To the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost dwelling in and speaking through an apostle. The apostles who were at that time the appointed leaders of the church in Jerusalem. And God kills Ananias and Sapphira and what's the result?

40:45 Verse 11 of Acts 5. And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all that heard these things. By the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people. And they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch.

41:04 That is, the people of God, the church, were with one accord. Still breathing something of this atmosphere of trembling that God himself has intervened and struck dead two hypocrites among them. But now notice the next verse. But of the rest, the outsiders, dared no man join himself to them.

41:28 What had happened? The identity of the church had been authenticated. The living God dwells in those people. You lie to that God and He may kill you.

41:40 People said, I ain't joining that group. No way, Jose. They can have a membership drive. They can try to con us into a little syllogism of decision.

41:53 No way we're going among that bunch. God dwells in them in such a way that He kills people. That ain't for real.

42:06 But look at the next part of the verse. Albeit the people magnified them, and believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women. Do you see that? What had happened?

42:24 Why, the identity of the church that was established there in the upper room when the day of Pentecost was fully come. God came to those living stones that were gathered in the upper room and He filled them with His Spirit and constituted them the church in its consummate New Testament glory and reality. Here was that pneumatic condition established by the outpouring of the Spirit. Three thousand are incorporated into that.

42:59 And Peter says, repenting and believing, incorporation will result in your receiving the gift of the Spirit and having received Him individually upon conversion, they are brought into that living temple among whom God dwells. And what happens? That identity is underscored powerfully by God Himself in those early days. By killing these two hypocrites, word goes out beyond the church to those on the outside.

43:32 And the true identity of the church is authenticated with this two-fold result that no one carelessly tripped into their membership to join the local religious club at Jerusalem. But men stood in awe of them. They magnified them. And those who were brought to the knowledge of their God were incorporated into their number.

Individual and Family Lives Authenticate Personal Profession

43:59 Believers were the more added to the Lord. Dear people, it is useless to preach the gospel to the unconverted and to tell them that the call to repentance and faith is a call that should be followed by the call to incorporation into the visible community of God's people if that community does not authenticate the identity of the true church of Jesus Christ namely, a temple of the living God. Now, do you see why so much of our praying in our prayer meetings both Wednesday and Saturday so often in the prayers from this pulpit there is crying to God to send His Spirit to manifest His felt presence to pour out the consciousness of His livingness? This is why, dear people, that there may be a perpetual authentication of our identity that God Himself is among us. But then the duties of authentication pertain not only to our corporate life as an assembly in which we are called upon to authenticate our identity as the new humanity,

45:26 authenticate our identity as temples of the living God, but we are called upon in our individual and spiritual and family lives to authenticate the genuineness of our individual profession of faith and discipleship. What is our duty to those that are without? Moving from these two corporate duties, we come to this individual, personal duty. Our individual and family lives must authenticate the genuineness of our profession of faith and discipleship.

46:11 When we make known that we are Christians, a solemn responsibility is laid upon us to authenticate that profession at all levels of personal and domestic life. Notice how the emphasis comes through in some of those passages mentioned earlier. Romans 13 and verse 1 of Romans 13. With reference to our walk among the unconverted, Paul says, let us walk becomingly as in the day, not in reveling in drunkenness, not in chambering in wantonness, not in strife and jealousy. He says, let us walk in a way that is becoming, that befits, that is commensurate with what we profess to be, children of the day, not children of the night, children of light, not children of darkness. Let us walk in such a way that we authenticate in our walk what we profess to be. 1 Thessalonians 4 and verse 12.

47:26 And notice the practical issues that are in focus here. 1 Thessalonians 4. He commands the Thessalonians to be ambitious, to be quiet, not to be poking around in other people's business, to do your own business, to work with your hands, to be industrious, even as we charged you. Why?

47:48 That you may walk becomingly towards those that are without. You are to be conscious that your walk before those without either becomes, is befitting, is commensurate with your profession, or is a contradiction and a practical negation of that profession. Notice how it touches the practical matters of domestic responsibilities in 1 Peter chapter 3. Here Peter is addressing wives who have the burden of living with an unconverted husband.

48:26 In like manner you wives be in subjection to your own husbands that even if any obey not the word they may without the word be gained. By the behavior of the wives beholding your chaste behavior they may be gained beholding. They may be gained beholding. And perhaps what is the classic text in the New Testament, Titus chapter 2 and verse 10, speaking to servants and their relationship to their masters, he says, here's the great motivation, not purloining or stealing but showing all good fidelity that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. He says to these Christian servants that they are to wear the doctrine in all things. They are to authenticate the power of the Gospel in the manner in which they fulfill their tasks as servants. Now what happens when this is not done?

49:42 Well, one of the worst things described in all of the Bible is what happens when this is not done. When there is the open profession of Christ, the open identification with the church of Christ, but there is not authentication by a life of consistent blameless holiness, what is the result? Look at 1 Timothy 6 in verse 1. Let as many as are servants under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and the doctrine or the teaching be not blasphemed.

50:26 Why are Christian servants to give honor to their masters saved or unsaved, kind or unkind? This is why if they fail to, the name of God and the doctrine of the gospel will be blasphemed. Titus chapter 2 and verse 5. Why are younger women to receive the instruction of older women in what practical godliness involves in the domestic context?

51:03 Why are the older women to train the younger women to love their husbands sober-minded, chaste, keepers at home, kind, being in subjection to their own husbands? Look at the end of Titus 2.5. That the word of God be not blasphemed.

51:22 That the word of God be not blasphemed. And the extended commentary upon this motif, and we don't have time to look at it, is Romans 2, 23 and 24 where Paul says to the Jews, you have the law, you profess to believe the law and obey the law, but because your life does not measure up to that profession, he says the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. Oh, dear people, what is our responsibility to those that are without? It is nothing less than a responsibility of authenticating the genuineness of our individual profession of faith and discipleship by a life of radical and consistent holiness before an onlooker. The assumption of 1 Peter 3.15 is that if we sanctify Christ as Lord always in our hearts, we will have a lifestyle that provokes questions. So Peter says, being ready to give to every man a reason, to every man who asks you a reason of the hope that is in you.

52:22 According to 1 Peter 1 and following, such a lifestyle will at times provoke hostility and slander. They think it is strange that you are a man who is not a man. They think it is strange that you are a man who is not a man. They think it is strange that you are a man who is not a man.

52:37 They think it is strange that you are a man who is not a man. They think it is strange that you run not with them to the same excessive riot. They think it is strange that you run not with them to the same excessive riot. It may precipitate persecution.

52:48 Blessed are you, Jesus said, when men revile you and persecute you for righteousness' sake. Granted, but they see nonetheless a pattern of radical discipleship and of holiness. And dear people of God, it is useless. It is less than useless.

53:07 It is positively depressive and detrimental to the Gospel to think in terms of all of these schemes to mobilize the church into little bands of people who will go out and witness to every tree and everything that lives and walks and breathes if it is in any other context other than this. Our duty to the outside world according to the Word of God is a duty of authentication. Authentication of our eyes is a duty of our eyes of our eyes of our eyes of our eyes of our face our cheeks our manners our appearance our performance our identity as the new humanity in Christ authentication of our identity as the living temple of God authentication of the validity of our profession of faith by lives of careful and blameless holiness before God and men well, our time is gone I to take it up now, the duty of proclamation, the great duty of aggressively proclaiming the word of God to those that are without. So we'll just have to carry over the last half until the first message, God willing, when I get back from the UK. But let me, in

Practical Implications for the Believer

54:30 closing, seek to bring home to your conscience some of the practical implications of this verse 10. Let me ask you, sitting here this morning, have you ever soberly reflected upon the fact that your part in the life of this congregation either authenticates or negates what we profess to be? Your part in the life of this congregation either authenticates or negates what we profess to be? If someone who knew nothing of the gospel were to look to follow your patterns of interaction with your professed brothers and sisters in this place over the course of a month, would they, by any stretch of the imagination, stand back and say, behold, how he or she loves his or her brethren? Would they say, I can't understand it. There's such an element of shared joy and burden and concern and interest. There is a unity. There is a unity. There is a unity. There is a unity. There is a unity.

55:46 There is a unity. There is a unity. There is a unity. There is a unity. There is a unity.

55:46 There is a unity. There is a unity. There is a unity. There is a unity. The likes of which I've never seen among any group of people anywhere. And would they say there's a lifestyle that at every point shows me up? The man's honest to a half penny if they had such things in American currency. The man is honest to a bobby pin, honest to every aspect of his life. I ask you, would your life be authentic?

56:22 God didn't say, why am I going to be there? Why am I going to recognize you too? Remember, the words said when Jesus came to us as Jesus, and they said, tell me why am I going to recognize you too? Do you believe that Jesus was plateauing right now? Do you believe that Jesus is awake today? Do you love the勿 будто si restome if I die in church? Through yore, through in the bond of peace in this place. And you will not find yourself uncomfortable under a balanced biblical ministry that probes your conscience, seeks to lay bare your sin, show you the way of forgiveness and cleansing and the way of empowerment in Jesus Christ.

57:23 You will not want a ministry that merely parades Bible facts before your eyes and pumps your head full of Bible knowledge. You'll want your heart ripped open and then you'll want it put back together by the Word of God. Why? Because you want to be what you are, a member of the new humanity marked to be like Jesus Christ.

57:47 And you welcome the ministry of the Word of God which is His grand instrument to make us just that. And I say to any who are visiting amongst, if you want to know what we're all about, that's what we're all about. We're not here to play church. We're here to have dealings with God.

58:07 We profess to be the new humanity. We profess to be a people for whom there's no explanation, but that God in grace has taken us out of Adam and implanted us in Christ and that we stand to Christ as branches divine. With all of our sin and failure and imperfection, we are nonetheless new creatures in Christ. And we're committed by the grace of God to making it manifest that that's what we are.

58:39 Are you comfortable with that? Let me ask you the next question. Are you jealous to guard everything that will contribute to our corporate gatherings authenticating our true identity? Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God?

59:00 Why is there the constant emphasis upon keeping short accounts with God? keeping horizontal relationships right. Why? Why?

59:10 Because if the Holy Spirit is grieved through bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and unresolved horizontal tensions, we will not know the livingness and power of His presence among us. Then there will be no authentication.

59:29 Outsiders will come in and say, just another religious club. Oh, they run their show a little differently, but just another religious club. There will be none sitting in their pews struck with the fact that God is in this place. And I'm known to God.

59:49 And I'm not right with God. And I must get right with Him.

59:55 Dear child of God, are you committed as a member of this assembly that as far as you are concerned, there shall be nothing in your life that would arise. And erode the authentication of our identity as a living temple. And then I ask you thirdly and finally, as an individual, as the head of a household, are you committed that whoever looks at your life will sooner or later have to ask some questions. What makes you tick?

60:30 What makes you different?

60:35 I sat in a restaurant two nights ago with my son-in-law and my daughter. And my daughter. And we were just doing what Christians would do in a restaurant. Enjoying one another's presence.

60:49 Talking about the Lord. Smiling. Laughing.

60:54 We didn't get a lot of time to talk to the waiter. He was too busy.

60:58 But when he took my credit card and he saw an RV on there, he knew that that was Reverend. I never asked it to be put on there, but it was. He said, I knew there was something different about all of you. I said, why?

61:12 He said, I could tell. By the open faces that you were different people.

61:23 Have you ever had people come up and ask you what makes you different?

61:29 Is there anything that makes you different?

61:34 Anything that would make them ask a reason with the hope that is in you? Dear people, if not, why bring people out to hear the gospel? If your life is not validating what the gospel does. Now what happens is the word of God is blasphemed.

61:50 People say it's all talk. It's all religious hot air. It does nothing. It's all radical for this guy.

61:56 And he claims to believe it. And he's even asking me to come along and hear it and believe it.

62:02 Oh, may God grant that the humblest believer in this place, the weakest believer, will nonetheless be an authentication of the reality, of the power of the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And my friend, if you're not any of those things, there's only one way you can, become one of us. And that's not by going in the tank. That's not by signing on a line or having an interview with the elders.

62:35 You've got to have dealings with Jesus Christ. It is Christ in His grace who has made us what we are in Him. It is Christ in the virtue of His perfect life, in His substitutionary death upon the cross, in His glorious triumphant resurrection, in His sending forth of the Spirit. It is Christ in the virtue of His perfect life, and it is Christ as our great prophet, priest, and king who has made us what we are.

63:03 And that Christ invites you in His own word and in the gospel to come to Him. He will take you where you are, as you are, and in grace, cleanse, pardon, renew, and incorporate you into His own living temple, incorporate you into the new humanity. For in Christ, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything but a new creation. What is our great duty to the world without dear people of God?

63:40 Our first and great duty is that of authentication. May God make us such a people with ever-increasing grace for His glory and for the good of the souls of those whom He loves. Amen. Amen.

Prayer for Authentication

63:57 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

63:57 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

63:57 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

63:58 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

63:58 Amen. We long to see brought to the knowledge of Christ. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank You for Your Word.

64:11 We thank You that it is a lamp unto our feet and a light to our pathway. And our God, we bow in Your presence to confess with shame that all too often we have not been that instrument of authentication. We confess that surely some have been given reason to blaspheme because of our own carelessness. Do forgive and cleanse us.

64:42 We think especially of children, of professed believing parents who grow cynical while they see the shoddy lives, the careless, loveless lives of their professing Christian parents. Have mercy, we pray, our Father, that every man or woman who names Your name in this place who has the awesome privilege of being a parent will be a constant authentication of the power of the gospel. Help us as a church, O Lord. Don't leave us at the mercy of ourselves, but do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

65:25 And with ever-increasing measures of grace and power, tabernacle among us, that those, who are without, who may be found among us, will indeed know that we are the temple of the living God. Seal then Your word to our hearts, and may Your blessing rest upon us as we leave this place. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.