Lampstand and Limb; God's Purpose for the Local Church (early itinerant message)

The Pathway of Obedience to God's Revealed Will

0:03 We have been seeking with the Lord's enablement in these past nights together to minister along very practical lines concerning our individual experience with the Lord.

0:16 We've done this with a very definite purpose in mind. The first several opportunities I had to minister to you folk here, you remember I ministered along the lines of the general theme of revival, draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you. Then throw to yourselves in righteousness, break up your fallow ground. It is time to seek the Lord till he reign righteousness upon you.

0:42 Several weeks ago, Lord's Day evening, I spoke on the matters of what we can do to put ourselves in the way of blessing. But I've moved from the general theme of general talk about the general work of God to specific matters of our own relationship to the Lord and to one another. And this has not been without a definite purpose. I believe the teaching of the scriptures is very clear concerning this fact that whatever fresh blessing God has for us, it will come only in the pathway of obedience to his revealed will.

1:21 Our Lord Jesus said, He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me, and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will manifest myself to him. For us to expect the blessing of God in any other pathway, but the pathway of obedience, is sheer presumption.

1:42 And so we have been dealing with the matters of grieving not the Holy Spirit of God and applying it to the details of our family lives, of our personal thought lives, of our relationship one toward another within the framework of the local church. I trust that this word has found its mark in very specific realms of our lives. If it hasn't, then we have been guilty of the deception that James, speaks of when he says, Be not hearers of the word only, deceiving your own selves. What he means there is this.

2:17 You mistake new understanding for new experience. You mistake proper concept for proper living, and you deceive yourself when you merely hear the word but don't obey it. And now tonight we're going to deal with another very practical matter. And some may wonder, well, how is this related to the work of God in reviving us, in pouring out his spirit among us?

2:38 It's very clear. It's very definitely related. For unless we enter in anew to practical obedience within the realm that we're going to speak of tonight, then our prayers for his quickening and reviving presence will be presumptuous. So as we come to this matter tonight, shall we not look to the Lord and ask him to be our teacher, and ask him to apply this word very specifically and very pointedly to our own hearts?

Prayer for Divine Teaching and Humility

3:06 Let us pray together. Our Father, we draw. We draw nigh to thee tonight.

3:14 And we are sure that we draw nigh with little of that holy fear and reverence that should become the sons of dust and of sin approaching their creator God. And yet we would draw nigh with reverence and godly fear, and yet with boldness and confidence, for we draw nigh in that worthy name which is above every name, even the name of thy dear, son, the Lord Jesus. And our Father, we've gathered in his name, and that his name might be exalted and praised among us. We're asking thee to give unction and anointing to thy word.

3:59 We're asking thee to open the eyes of our understanding. Lord, if one of us has come here tonight with self-confidence, thinking that we have the wherewithal to perceive divine truth, will thou not strip us down before the sheer weight of thy word that without thee we can do nothing? Oh, God, strip away self-confidence, we pray, and grant that every one of us shall have that dependent, teachable spirit of a little child. To this end, we trust thee to minister to our hearts and to reveal thy son and his will for our lives.

Defining the Local Church and Its Purpose

4:43 In Jesus' name, amen. The subject that I want to set before you from the word of God tonight is along the lines of the theme of God's purpose and function for the local church.

5:04 A land stand and a limb, God's purpose for the local church. The reason I want to do this is because we can never act scripturally until we think scripturally. And as God is present, He has privileged me to get about to different parts of the country for these past four years in this itinerant ministry. I do not advertise myself as a world traveler and nationally known evangelist.

5:33 I get rather amused when I pick up the paper and I read of so many nationally known evangelists. I say, well, I must be living in the wrong nation. I had never heard of him before. But the Lord has, in His goodness and in His will, privileged me to get about to different parts of the country and in different denominations and in different even doctrinal persuasions.

5:53 And in this time I've observed that there's so much shoddy, unscriptural thinking about the function of the local church and consequently there is much shoddy, unscriptural activity within the local church. The psalmist said, By word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. It is only as we have marked before us the pathway of duty by a revelation of truth through the word that we can be saved. We can intelligently walk in the path that is well-pleasing to our Lord.

6:29 The verse I quoted a few minutes ago illustrates this. He that hath my commandments in a perception and understanding of them and keepeth them, I will manifest myself to him. What is the local church? What is this that we call the Christian Church of Lewisburg or the First Baptist Church of Montoursville or whatever church is present here or represented.

6:56 We're familiar with the references that are found at the beginning of many of Paul's letters to the different churches. Phrases like this in the book of Romans. To all that be at Rome. Romans 1-7.

7:09 1 Corinthians 1-2. Unto the church of God which is at Corinth. Galatians 1-2. Unto the churches of Galatia.

7:18 In 1 Corinthians 16. The churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla salute you. With the church that is in there.

7:26 And then in Revelation 1 you remember send these messages unto the seven churches which are in Asia Minor. Now what is the local church? Now this definition won't please everyone especially some that have had a little bit more theological training but I believe it's accurate as far as it goes. Now will you listen carefully?

7:49 I trust this isn't going to be a dry lecture. I don't intend it to be that. But will you gird up the loins of your mind and listen carefully. What is the local church?

7:58 The churches of God at Galatia. The seven churches in Asia Minor. What are these churches?

8:06 A local church in the New Testament sense is a group of regenerated, group of saved people gathered from a particular geographical location who meet together for mutual edification and who labor together for the advancement of the gospel in their community and unto the ends of the earth. Now will you listen closely as I repeat that? A local church is a group of saved people. It speaks of the churches which are in Christ.

8:41 A group of saved people gathered from a particular geographical location. The churches at Galatia. The church in Corinth. The seven churches in Asia Minor.

8:54 Gathered in a given geographical area or location who meet together for mutual edification Pastor read one of these passages. When ye come together let all things be done unto edifying. But they don't meet just for edification but who meet together for edification and who cooperate together for the spread of the gospel in their community and unto the ends of the earth. This is obvious as you read the book of Acts where they took their witness not only in their community but when the Holy Spirit said separate unto me Paul and Barnabas to the work one drive.

9:31 Paul. They being sent forth by the church went out and proclaimed Christ unto the ends of the earth. Now this in a very simplified manner is what a local church is. Now what is the function of the local church?

The Church as a Lampstand: Displaying Christ's Glory

9:46 I venture to say that there are many of you people here genuinely born of the Spirit of God members of some local church and you've never soberly reflected for ten minutes on this question what in a nutshell is the purpose of the local church. I'm caught up in a world of activity here. What's the purpose of it all? What has God ordained as the function of this church?

10:13 Now I imagine it would be rather embarrassing for some of us if we had to fess up tonight and raise our hand and say we'd never done that. What is the purpose? What is the God-appointed function of the local church? If we were to break it down into its manifold duties we'd never be able to touch on all of it.

10:31 But I believe that the... the whole purpose of the local church can be summarized in two simple concepts given to us in the Word of God.

10:42 First of all, the function of the local church is given to us in a wonderful picture in Revelation chapter 1. Will you turn with me please to this passage? Revelation chapter 1, 12 verse 11.

11:07 John was in the Spirit in the Lord's day and heard this voice speaking to him saying, Revelation 1, 11, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, what thou seest, write in a book and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia. And then he mentions the seven churches. Verse 12. And I turned to see the voice that spake with me and being turned I saw seven golden candlesticks or lampstands and in the midst of the seven lampstands one light unto the Son of Man.

11:41 Now as John turned, apparently he saw these seven lampstands or candlesticks probably arranged in a circular form. And in the midst of the seven lampstands one light unto the Son of Man and then he received this vision of the glorified Christ in all of his beauty. Now I believe God has given to us here among other things what is one of the essential purposes of a local church. These seven lampstands we read in the last part of this chapter are the seven churches.

12:21 What is their function? What is the purpose of those seven churches down in Asia Minor? The church at Ephesus, the church at Pergamos, the church at Thyatira, the church at Philadelphia, Laodicea and the others. What is their function?

12:34 I saw one light unto the Son of Man in the midst of the lampstand. The function of a local church is to be a lampstand to bear the light of the glories of the person of the risen Lord. The function of a lampstand or a candlestick is to bear a light not its own.

13:03 And I believe Peter mentioned this and spoke of it so clearly when he said, Ye are a royal priesthood, a chosen generation. For what purpose? That ye should show forth the virtues of him who called you out of darkness into marvelous light. Why are we a chosen people?

13:22 Why are we? Why are we a royal priesthood? Why has God gathered us out to himself and to one another in a local fellowship that we should show forth the virtues of him who called us out of darkness into marvelous light? That we here on earth might bear a light not our own.

13:43 I am the light of the world. Ye are the light of the world. What light? The light of the radiance of the Lord Jesus Christ among us.

13:54 Among and in his people. The first function of the local church is to be a lampstand to display the glories of the person of the risen glorified Son of God. Not the cheap, tawdry, sentimental Jesus who's the creation of 20th century evangelism. God never called anybody to display that kind of Jesus.

14:25 John saw the Christ of glory in the midst of the saints. Seven churches. Isn't this what the people saw in the book of Acts when it says, Fear came upon all and no man durst join themselves. But it says that the people magnified them.

14:43 There was something that demanded a holy fear and a sober respect. The church didn't come up with its unsanctified hands smeared with the blood of Christ and pat the church on the back and go walking down the street together.

15:02 You see, amidst the immutability, imperfections of human flesh as you read through the book of Acts and just a quick, hurried reading, you gain this impression that somehow this land stand at Jerusalem and then at Antioch and then at Ephesus. Somehow these land stands were bearers of a light not their own.

15:25 I wonder,

15:27 do men in Lewisburg see this as they behold us?

15:32 This is the function and the purpose of the local church. We could go into detail on this where Paul says that through the church, might be made known the manifold wisdom of God. Jesus said that the world should know his love through the church as they behold us loving one another. They should behold his power, his holiness, all of these attributes and virtues of our risen Lord there to be demonstrated and held forth through the church.

15:59 In the midst of the darkness of this community and the community that you come from, what hope is there? The only hope is our Lord Jesus, the light of the world. Born and held up by the church of God at Montoursville and at Lewisburg and at Milton. We are to be land stands bearing the light of our glorified Lord.

The Church as a Limb: Doing Christ's Work

16:25 Then secondly, and I believe the whole function of the local church rests upon these two things. A land stand to bear his light and then secondly, a limb to do his bidding and to accomplish his work. In 1 Corinthians 12 and then again in Ephesians 4 we have the very familiar picture of the church functioning like a body. Now in Ephesians chapter 4 now I know there are some brethren who say there is no reference in the New Testament whatsoever to anything but a local church.

17:00 Well I beg to differ with them and stand with the historic position of the great spiritual commentators that there is the picture of the church universal. When we have in Ephesians 4 that God has given gifts, apostles, evangelists, pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints and of the work of ministry till we all come to the unity of the faith and we have that picture of coming up into the stature and the fullness of the stature of Christ. The picture of God's people as a great body coming into maturity. But in 1 Corinthians 12 the body concept is dealt with on a local basis.

17:39 And so Paul says now, the foot doesn't say I have no need of the hand and the hand doesn't say I have no need of the foot. Now Paul said you find your place in that body and you function in the God appointed place and he pictures the local church like a well coordinated body functioning with all of its different members contributing their rightful due to the benefit of the whole.

18:05 The word of God came as we follow it through in the book of Acts through an evangelist or through an apostle. God by his spirit, called out a people to himself and from that point on the vehicle through which God got his work done in the community was that local church.

18:25 The servants of God came to Ephesus. God called out a people. Those people labored for three years and then God moved them on and the thing that was left to do the work of God was not a professional evangelist, was not what some of the trappings in our day, but the church of God left there at Ephesus was God's vehicle or God's instrument to get his work done. And so the work of the church, the function of the church is to be a lamp to bear his light and a limb to do his work.

19:02 This is a terrible thing for there in Revelation there was sin in certain of the churches and the Lord Jesus made this threat. Except thou repent, I will remove thy lampstand. Stand out of its place. What does it mean?

19:19 It means that the only bearer of light in the midst of darkness will go out and the only limb which God is true has been pleased to use for the accomplishment of his purpose will be rendered inoperative and ineffective. Now this is all key and this is all concept. Now I want to get down to brass tacks in our own personal lives. How is this function to be carried out?

Responsibility Rests on All Saints, Not Just Pastors

19:43 You follow me so far? What is a local church? A church is a church. A group of regenerated people in any given locality who gather together for mutual edification and for cooperation together for the spread of the gospel in their community and to the ends of the earth.

20:01 Now what's their purpose? Their purpose is to be a lampstand to bear his light and a limb to do his work and his bidding. Now upon whom does this responsibility rest? Upon whom does the responsibility rest?

20:17 To be a light and to be a limb. Will you turn please to Ephesians Chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 10. He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens that he might fill all things.

20:42 And he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ and for the praise of God. He gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, body of Christ. Now, the punctuation here does not allow us to catch the force of these words, especially in verse 12. May I read how Mr. Williams translates this in his translation

21:13 and then in the Amplified New Testament? Will you listen carefully now as I read from these two translations? He gave some apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers for the immediate equipment of God's people for the work of service, for the ultimate building up of the body of Christ until we all attain. Now, do you get that? The risen Lord has given special

21:41 gifts and special ministries for what purpose? For the immediate equipment of God's people for the work of service, for the ultimate building up of the body of Christ. Now, the Amplified New Testament. This way. His intention was the perfecting and the fully equipping of the saints that they should

22:04 do the work of ministering toward building up Christ's body, the church. Now, do you see what this tells us? It's a marvelous thing. The risen Lord in his sovereignty and in his wisdom and power has appointed some with peculiar gifts. Most commentators agree that the first two apostles

22:26 and prophets and possibly evangelists were the peculiar gifts given of God or by God in the early church. But it's clear that the latter two and some pastors and teachers are the peculiar gifts and ministries that God gives to some for what purpose? For the perfecting of the saints unto the work of ministry. Now, notice there is a distinguishing between the saints and the

22:58 teachers. Now, what is that distinction made for? In order that the pastors and teachers might minister to the perfecting of the saints unto the work of ministry. Or, as we read here in the Amplified, his intention was the perfecting and the full equipping of the saints that they should do the work of ministry.

23:30 For lack of a better word, all the full-time ministries. Now, that's a bad word, but I don't know a better one to use to clarify in our thinking what we mean. Every Christian is a full-time Christian. But in the sense of those who are set apart from the normal means of employment that they may give themselves to prayer and the ministry of the word, their being set apart in that way is that they may be adequately equipped to so minister to the saints that the saints may be built up to do the work of ministering in the various functions of the local church. Instead of lessening our individual responsibility, the fact that God brings among us

24:15 one who is set apart from normal employments to give himself to prayer and the ministry of the word, that he might feed us with the meat and bread that he's received from God's hands, this intensifies our responsibility, for we have to be able to minister to the saints that they may be set before us, the bread and the table of God's choice meats. Why? That we might become spiritually fat and indolent and lazy? No, but that we might be strong unto the work of ministry. It intensifies

24:47 our responsibility. Let's look at several passages that make this so clear. Will you turn, please, to Philippians chapter 2? I'll never forget when my attention was directed in my reading at one time to this passage. Philippians chapter 2, verse 1.

25:13 We should be reading verses 12 through 16, but before we do, let's remember to whom this epistle was written. Chapter 1, verse 1. Paul and Timothy, the servants of Jesus Christ. Now, get the next phrase. To all the saints in Christ Jesus, which are at Philippi. Now, this book was written to all

25:35 the saints. Now, chapter 2, beginning with verse 14. To all the saints, God says, do all things without mercy. To all the saints, God says, do all things without mercy. To all the saints, God says,

25:44 do all things without murmurings and disputings. You hear this, fellas and girls? You boys and girls, do all things. That means when mom tells you to do the dishes, no murmurings and disputings. Otherwise,

26:00 when you sing in church, oh, how I love Jesus, you don't really love him, for if you loved him, you'd keep his commandments. Do all things without murmurings and disputings. This is God's will for all the saints at Philippi and all the saints at Lewisburg and Montoursville and wherever God finds his people, has his people. Verse 15. That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst

26:26 of a crooked and perverse nation or generation. It is God's will for all of his saints that they be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke. In other words, no one should ever be able to use my life as an occasion for despising Jesus Christ and his power to save. How often we as ministers of God are to say, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know.

26:50 How often we as ministers of the gospel have someone come and say, I've seen that so-and-so and he's supposed to be a Christian, he's done this and this, and if that's what it is, I want no part of it. Now, they're just using an excuse, I know, but they should never be able to have as a handle to hold on to their unbelief and rebellion a child of God, a professing child of God. We are to be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke. Is this God's will just for preachers? No, no.

27:18 This is for all the saints at Philippi. All the saints at Philippi are to shine. All the saints at Philippi are to shine. All the saints at Philippi are to shine.

27:52 saints. Now let's read on. Holding forth the word of life. Who's supposed to hold forth the word of life? All the saints of Philippi. Now you can't attach any other meaning to

28:06 these words. Every child of God, and within the context of our message, every one of us identified with a local fellowship, we are to be a lamp to display his glory and a limb to do his work, to hold forth his word, and to speak abroad the message of his salvation. Now whose job is this, to hold forth the word of life? It's your job. It's yours. Have you

28:40 held forth that word today to anyone? Have you held forth that word to anyone during this past week? This is your responsibility. To shine as a light in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, to hold forth the word of life.

Every Believer is Light and a River of Living Water

28:58 Then we have... We have that passage of our Lord Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. You're familiar with

29:02 it. Ye are the light of the world. To whom was he speaking? The closing of the chapter says that... Well, let's look at it. Chapter 7 and verse 28 of Matthew. Chapter 7, verse

29:16 28 of Matthew. Our Lord was speaking not just to his disciples, for we read at the closing of this discourse that we commonly call the Sermon on the Mount. Verse 28 and 9. It came to pass when Jesus said, I am the light of the world. I am the light of the world. I

29:32 am the light of the world. I am the light of the world. I am the light of the world. I am the light of the world.

29:32 When Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. And our Lord said to the people, the multitudes of his professed followers, he said, ye are the light of the world. Ye are the salt of the earth. Not just his ministers. Not just his apostles. But he spoke

29:58 this to those who claim to be his followers. In John 7, 37, our Lord promised...

30:06 He that believeth on me out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. Every child of God is to be a riverbed of blessing. And when people come into your presence and to mine, they are to be aware of the sweet water of life that is so filling us that the riverbanks of our own lives can't hold it and they get some of the overflow. He that believeth out of him rivers of living water shall flow.

30:33 So, this is God's will and this is God's purpose for all of his children. Now, we've seen something of the function of the local church. We've seen something from the word of God concerning who is to bear this responsibility. Every single one of us is to feel the weight of this matter, of shining as lights and of holding forth the word.

Removing Unscriptural Concepts: Sacred Man and Building

30:57 Now, in the light of this, there are certain concepts and certain patterns of thinking that we're going to have to deal with. I should say we're going to have to ask the Lord to deal with because I fear they're so deeply ingrained within us that only God himself can drive them from us. The first one is this. We must remove the concept of everything depending on the sacred man and the sacred building.

31:23 Now, we've become awfully wormish in our concepts.

31:28 The Roman Catholic, he looks to his sacred cathedral, to his sacred man, the priest, in whose hands that wafer becomes the very flesh, of Jesus Christ.

31:40 I fear I may be speaking to people tonight who feel if I go to that sacred building called my church and if I hear that sacred man called my preacher, then I've done everything that I'm supposed to do in the work of the local church.

31:54 No, you haven't. Now, thank God if you do that much. If you don't, you're disobeying the Lord. For God says, forsake not the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is.

32:07 If you haven't done that, you haven't even begun to obey. But if you've gone that far, that's not far enough. We must get from our minds the concept that if we've come to the sacred building called our church and we've heard the sacred man called our pastor, therefore we have discharged our obligation and we're well pleasing to the Lord. No.

32:28 God calls upon you to be a light to demonstrate His praise and His glory and to be a limb to hold forth His word and to do His bidding.

32:40 Now, I'm going to say something that may get me in trouble, but if it gets you to think I'm willing to get in trouble to get anybody, you will search in vain in the New Testament except for one instance of people bringing the unconverted into the assembly of the people of God to hear a gospel sermon. There's only one instance that I found. Now, there may be more. You check this.

33:08 You find it. Good. At least this will get you in the book. I trust it will.

33:11 Don't take my word for it. I may be saying something wrong. You'd be like the Bereans who search the scriptures daily. 1 Corinthians 14 says, If an unbeliever come among you, the thoughts of his heart will be revealed and he falling on his face will cry out, God is of a truth among you.

33:29 If the unbeliever come among you, apparently it was not the established pattern. Now, I'm going to balance that with another truth in a minute. But do you see how foreign this is to the thinking of many of you? You say, well, if I can only get my neighbors to come to church, and so you think it's witnessing by asking them to come to church.

33:46 No, it isn't. You're making they're getting in a car and coming two miles or three miles the issue, when that's not the issue at all. The issue is they're sinners and rebels against the Holy God and they need to be told so in love and in tenderness. The issue is that they are utterly indifferent to the claims of Jesus Christ over their lives and to His call to repent and to believe and their obligation to submit to Him.

34:15 So this whole concept of the sacred man and the sacred building, God must get it from us and we must allow His Word to purge it from our hearts. Now, this moves to the second truth. We must remove the concept or ask the Lord to remove the concept that the ministry to the lost and the edification of believers is wholly and solely the pastor's responsibility.

Removing Unscriptural Concepts: Pastor's Sole Responsibility

34:42 I am convinced after going about from place to place that the average believer in the average gospel church today, if he didn't say so in so many words, his actions prove that he believes the lost in his community are the evangelizing responsibility of his pastor and that all the exhortation is the responsibility of the pastor. Now, if you're honest with yourself, I believe many of you will have to confess that this is at least the subconscious conviction, if not the clear-spoken conviction of your lips. Now, is this scriptural? Why, of course not.

35:22 We read in Acts 8 when God sent the persecution that they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word except the apostles. Except the apostles. That meant men and women, fellows and girls. It meant believers out of every rank and every station and every class of life there at Jerusalem.

35:42 God tells us, well, let's apply this first of all to the matter of ministry to the lost. James says, writing to the brethren, he was not distinguishing between those with special gifts and special callings. He says in James, chapter 5, in verses 19 and 20, Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth and one convert him, if one be the instrument which God is pleased to use to bring this man to himself, let him know that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins. Brethren, if any of you err and one convert him.

36:24 He doesn't say if any of you err and the elder among you convert him. Apparently he was just talking in terms that he thought were normal that there would be in that assembly of God's people those who would be instruments in God's hands and labors together with him to bring souls into a state of genuine conversion. This applies to the matter of exhorting one another. Romans 15 and verse 14.

36:51 Just share some of these verses that I trust will get us to thinking and digging into the word. Romans 15, verse 14. And I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another. He writes to the brethren and he says, I am convinced, brethren, that you've been stabilized and built up in the word and you're able to admonish one another.

37:23 Hebrews 3 and verse 13, exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. We are to have amongst us as believers not only an individual ministry to the law, but a ministry one to another in exhortation. Now this is scriptural.

37:46 When the Lord Jesus said to his own, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, what was he doing? The average concept is this means I've got to obey the missionary call to Africa. No, go into all the world. What world?

38:00 Your world. The world of your contacts. You housewives. When God brings that milkman to collect his bill, that's part of the world in which you're to give the gospel.

38:14 It's just with a gospel tract and a kindly word and an invitation that he might seriously think on spiritual matters. You men, when you pick up your gas, go to get your gas and you're there at the gas station, that's part of your world. In that world, you're to proclaim the gospel to every creature. Go into all the world, proclaim the gospel to every creature.

38:38 Exhort one another daily. Paul said, I'm convinced you're strong to feed and to encourage one another. Brethren, if any of you be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such in one. And so I submit to you tonight that we must remove the concept that the ministry to the lost and the exhortation of believers is the sole responsibility of our pastors.

39:03 In his official position under God, the pastor is to feed the flock of God. This is clearly taught in 1 Peter 5.1 where Peter said, the elders among you I exhort to feed the flock of God. Paul said this when he was speaking to the Ephesian elders about feeding the flock of God over which the Holy Ghost had made them overseers.

39:26 In his official place as a special minister of God, the pastor and the teacher, and if there is yet the office of an evangelist, their ministry, is for the perfecting of the saints. Their ministry is primarily to feed the flock of God. Now who reproduces the sheep?

39:46 The shepherd or the sheep?

39:54 Who reproduces the sheep?

39:57 It's the shepherd's responsibility to lead the sheep into pastures that are green, into verdant fields and by the cool brook to keep them from danger.

40:09 And the normal product of healthy sheep will be reproduction.

40:13 Now in our individual capacity,

40:17 I'm just another sheep out in the street corner. The gas station. I am to be a faithful witness. I am to be out seeking to proclaim the gospel to every creature.

40:27 But in the framework of the function of the local church, the primary responsibility of the servant of God is to feed the flock of God. That's not the only responsibility for God says do the work of an evangelist. Now, here's the balancing truth to the thing I mentioned a minute ago. And if God can somehow get this through to us tonight, it could transform our gatherings together.

40:50 I said nowhere in the New Testament, except that one instance, as far as I know, do you find the unbelievers coming into the midst of the believers to hear the gospel. But apparently that did happen. And when it did, these people were smitten with conviction. And as we read the history of God's dealings in his church in past years, how blessed it's been when a servant of God to whom God has given the peculiar gift of teaching and preaching and to whom has been given the blessed privilege, of being set aside from serving tables to be given to prayer and to the Word.

41:26 How blessed when a man comes fresh from the presence of God and filled with the Spirit of God and exalts the Son of God. And in the congregation there's a Mrs. Jones, whose next door neighbor, Mrs. Smith, is a believer.

41:40 And she's been praying for Mrs. Jones. And she's been shedding some tears of compassion. And she's been faithfully witnessing.

41:47 She's been demonstrating the glories of Christ. There in her backyard, in her home. She's been holding forth the Word of life. She invites Mrs. Jones to come along to the service.

42:00 And Mrs. Jones comes having seen something of the Christ the preacher's preaching in the life of her neighbor. Having heard something of that Word through the lips of her neighbor. Then the Holy Spirit is pleased.

42:14 One has sown. One has bought her. And then God gives the blessed increase. Our witness is now.

42:23 This is never is to work in cooperation with the proclamation of the Word in the pulpit. Bringing men and women to hear our pastor is never to be a substitute for our own individual fitness. Charles Spurgeon had several thousands, I believe. Wasn't there a brethren that stood with him near me when he had made that covenant with them that would stand together with him and be alert for opportunities to minister to the souls of men?

42:51 And as this man of God would preach and the Spirit of God would deal with hearts all through his congregation were men and women with eyes that were quick to see a soul that seemed to be troubled and exercised. And they would go to that one and they would minister the Word to them. So may God help us to remove the concept that the ministry to the lost and the edification of believers is the pastor's responsibility. If we begin to do that, the third thing will follow.

Removing the Double Standard of Holiness

43:21 We will begin to remove the concept of a double standard. Now, I want to speak very frankly. You men who are on a pulpit committee when you call a pastor, you want to know something about how he spends his time, don't you? You never call among you a man who was ugly with his wife day after day, if you knew about it, who spent Saturday nights watching the TV in the late show, who got up late mornings, never prayed, and fritted away his time.

43:49 You wouldn't want a man like that, oh no. No, sir, I want a preacher who studies, who visits, who prays, who disciplines. What about your life? You don't want to commit your soul to the gospel.

44:00 You don't want to commit your soul to the gospel. You don't want to commit your soul and the well-being of the souls of your family into the hands of a shoddy, cheap, indifferent, undisciplined, professed servant of Christ. You don't want to commit your soul into the hands of a man like that, oh no. Yet your neighbor's souls and their well-being is committed into the hands of some of you who may be living on the standard that's been at least partially described by me.

44:29 When the weight of this thing comes upon my heart, that I am not filled, filling my place if I merely attend the sacred building and hear the sacred man, that I am to be a light and a limb when this thing begins to get hold of me, I'll do away with this double standard, condemning in my creature what I tolerate in myself, and expecting of him what I refuse to see work in me by the grace of God. It's a cursed thing. No, no, I want a man who walks in cleanliness before God, No, no, I want a man who walks in cleanliness before God, in heart and in life,

45:08 that he might be a channel that God will be pleased to use for his glory, that I must stand before God and by the grace of God be that kind of a man and a woman that I might be a channel through which he can work to demonstrate his glory and to do his work. We must do away with this double standard concerning personal holiness. You wouldn't want your preacher's wife to be out in the backyard so the neighbors could see her, running around in shorts in the summertime. Don't you do it.

45:47 You wouldn't want your preacher and his wife to be known as a neighbor gossip. Don't you be known as a wife. You see how intensely practical this is? I trust God will deal with us.

46:03 I could never deal with all the issues that will apply to the lives of so many gathered here tonight, but God the Holy Spirit will if our hearts are open and our hearts are tender. We want a preacher who's filled with the Spirit and anointed of God? Then let us be that. For the praise of his name.

Practical Demands: Prayer, Life, and Proclamation

46:24 Well, these are some of the things that we're going to have to do, readjusting our thinking. Now I want to close by laying before you some practical demands that this is going to make on us right now, tonight. If we are to fill our place in the local church, what will it demand of us? We must remove these concepts that I've mentioned, and now in the positive sense, we must begin anew by the grace of God to do our individual work, to do our individual work, to do our individual work, to do our individual part by prayer preparation.

46:58 Call unto me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things. Paul said, Brethren, pray for me that I may open my mouth boldly and speak as I ought to speak. This great apostle who stood before kings and rulers, who stood before the face of magistrates and was bold in the spirit rights to these believers and says, Brethren, pray for us that we may be bold to speak. How long has it been?

47:24 Since you spent an honest five minutes Sunday morning before you came to church, in heartfelt supplication that God would give your pastor boldness and open his mouth to speak as he ought to speak. How long has it been? And yet you dared to go out and criticize because there was no liberty and freshness in the word? Paul prayed that men would pray that the word of God would run and have free course and be glorified.

47:59 Let's begin by the grace of God to do our part in the function of the local church, by taking all of its activities and bathing them in prayer. This concept that we do our work and then God helps us when we pray, that's not scriptural. If our work is not the outflow of what we have discerned to be the might of God in prayer and the strength we have received in prayer, our work is good hay and stubble. The only work that will stand the test is the work that God does through us by the spirit in answer to prayer.

48:33 Anything else? Anything else won't stand. So may God help us tonight to begin to do our part by prayer preparation, looking ahead at the week and its services, praying that God's enablement may be the portion of everyone, praying for our Sunday school teachers, praying for our own hearts and our own lives, that we may fit in and find the God-appointed place for us in the work of the local church. Secondly, begin anew by the grace of God to do our part by life demonstration.

49:11 Prayer, preparation, and then life demonstration. Paul said, Herein do I exercise myself to have a conscience always void of offense to God and to man. Has God dealt with some issue in your life that you know tonight is keeping you from being an effective light and an effective limb? Then deal with it.

49:33 Deal with it. That your life might begin in a new way to be a demonstration of the gospel that you hold for it. And that gospel which is held forth in your local congregation. And then thirdly, resolved by the grace of God to do our part by lit proclamation.

49:51 Prayer, preparation, coupled with life demonstration, issuing forth in a lit proclamation. Whosoever shall confess me before men. The Lord wasn't talking about standing up as we did tonight. And this was a blessing.

50:08 This was part of 1 Corinthians 14. My heart was blessed by this. By these nuggets from the Word that were shared. I'm sure they're going to be helpful in the days ahead.

50:16 But the Lord Jesus was not talking about standing in the midst of a sympathetic audience who all love the same Christ you love and then saying, I'm saved. He wasn't talking about that. Whosoever shall confess me before men. What men?

50:29 The kind of men before whom we might be tempted not to confess Him until the Lord says, But whosoever will deny me before men. It would be unpopular to deny the Lord in church. In the assembly of God's people. That would be unpopular.

50:43 He's talking about a place where it would be convenient to deny Him. He took for granted in the Sermon on the Mount that our witness would be such that men would revile us and persecute us and say all manner of evil against us falsely. I would ask you, have you ever felt any genuine persecution at all? Have you known anything of any real persecution?

51:06 I don't mean physical abuse. But have you ever felt the barbs of being identified with a despised Savior? If you haven't, and yet you have reason to hope in the light of the word of God that you're a Christian and you seem to have some Biblical evidences that you are, you begin to open your mouth and boldly proclaim and affirm your faith in Christ and men's need of Him, you begin to feel the rub in some of the splinters of the cross. You begin to feel it.

Practical Demands: Faithful Participation and Self-Examination

51:41 But God will use that witness and here and there God will lead you to a heart whom He has prepared. And you'll have the joy of seeing that hungry heart. You'll respond to your witness of Christ. And then last of all, by the grace of God, let us determine to do our part by faithful participation in the work of the local assembly in which we find ourselves.

52:04 Prayer preparation, light demonstration, lit proclamation, and then a faithful participation. I'd like to ask you several questions as I close. If everyone shared your attitude to the Sunday morning service, I'd like to ask you a few questions. How much blessing would come?

52:30 Do you come faithfully? Do you come prayerfully? Do you come expectantly? Do you come reverently?

52:40 Suppose your attitude and your concern for the blessing of God, evidenced by your presence and by the state of your heart, suppose your attitude were multiplied by everyone else. What would that mean? Would it mean a fresh sense of God's presence among us? Yes, it would.

52:57 us, or would it mean a deeper evidence of death? You let your conscience be the preacher tonight. What would the Sunday evening service be like if everyone shared your attitude, Torrey? If everyone attended as faithfully or unfaithfully as you do? If everyone came

53:18 as prayerfully or unprayerfully as you do? If everyone came as exercised about getting in neighbors and friends to whom you've been witnessing, and you want to bring them under the sound of the word of God from one of God's servants, how many unsaved people would be present with hearts that had already been prepared by faithful individual witness and the demonstration of Christ in you? How much blessing would there be, or lack of blessing, if everyone shared the same attitude you do? Now you let your conscience ask. You let

53:51 your conscience ask. What would be the state of the Wednesday night prayer meeting if everyone reflected your attitude to the prayer meeting? Would it be a time when there was a sense of the presence of God, and of a heart, oneness, and a desperate crying out to Him with holy desire that He'd run to heavens and come down and bear His arm? Crying out that we might not have the curse that Brother Fox mentioned tonight, of the disobedience of our fathers who went through several decades without any manifestation of the power of God, and we suffer the dire consequences of it today? All the corruption in our churches

54:35 is primarily the result of... Two or three decades of spiritless orthodoxy. Would the Wednesday night prayer meeting find

54:46 the people crying out to God, burdened about this, broken over, if everybody shared your attitude, or would the place be empty? Would we testify to the world, no need to pray?

55:00 Would we testify to the world, or would the world know that there were a people who in their eyes may be crazy and a little unbalanced, but they were at least concerned. They were concerned. If everyone shared and reflected your attitude, what would be the state of the worship of Jesus Christ? would be the state of the Wednesday night prayer.

55:25 If everyone shared your attitude towards seeing the local church being the hub of scripturally directed activity of getting a gospel impact into the community, a willingness to go out into highways and hedges and compel men to come, that's in the Word.

55:46 I think most pastors would faint if a group of people came from their church and said, Pastor, somehow I don't feel we're getting the gospel out. We're coming together and getting it. What can we do to get the gospel out? I think most pastors would faint.

56:00 Brethren, would we? This should not be.

56:06 Oh, dear ones, I don't mean to be facetious. I trust if there's any note of sarcasm, God will forgive me. I don't want that. I don't mean that.

56:13 But I want to probe your mind and your heart to get to the place where you think and pray and reflect and then begin to move.

56:23 Well, I trust these thoughts will provoke us to think, provoke us to pray, and provoke us to act in the light of God's Holy Word. Will you begin by the grace of God to fill your place in the function of this local church?

56:44 If not, don't pray, Oh, God, send revival. Revival never comes as a substitute for obedience.

56:53 Do you hear me? Revival never comes as a substitute for obedience.

57:00 But thank God, revival, if it does come, will come in the path of obedience.

Closing Prayer and Call to Action

57:15 Now, our Father, we've sought by Thy help to set before the minds of Thy people some basic concepts of Thy Word. But, Lord, Thou must teach us. Wean from this message tonight anything that has been the reasonings of man, that which has been the pure truth and the eternal principles of Thy Word. May we not be able to quickly shake them.

57:44 Our Father, if perchance there be among us, and we're sure there are in a group this number, some who are strangers to Thy grace and foreigners to the experiences, to Thy saving power, be pleased to shine upon the face of Jesus Christ. Be pleased to show them the heinousness of sin. Be pleased to disturb them and awaken them. Be pleased to call them to Thyself.

58:14 Our Father, sanctify this word to our hearts, we pray in Jesus' name, that He might receive the praise due His name through the churches, represented here. Amen. I'm wondering if a man would go to the bank and place to your account a thousand dollars,

58:54 and then when he was leaving on vacation, if he would ask you to slip by and know his law, and I wonder if you'd be willing to do that.

59:04 I open up our closing service by asking that because number 290 is a question.

59:16 I gave my life for Thee, my presence, and the precious blood I shed, that Thou mightest ransom me and quicken from the dead. In other words, Christ has given not some things, God has not given His second best or His third best, but God Almighty has given His all, His only begotten Son. Now then, shall we be redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, and be ashamed to take some tracks along tomorrow, and hand out to some of those men, we work with? Shall we be ashamed, the ladies in our church, to give the milkman, to give the mailman,

59:59 to give one of your neighbors a track? Shall we be ashamed to do this when Christ went to the cross and shed His blood for us? Oh, may the Lord have mercy upon us if we're ashamed of the gospel. You remember what Christ said, if you're ashamed of me and of my words down here, you know the rest.

60:23 I'll be ashamed of you up there on Judgment Day. And as I said, it's easy to preach over a microphone or over the radio, it's easy to preach from the pulpit, it's easy to stand up in the service and give a witness, it's easy to stand around after the service and say, my, our heart's blessed, wasn't that a good message? But the test will be tomorrow, when you go out and face the folks that you meet in everyday life, your mother, your father, your mother, your son or your daughter, your brother or your sister, your cousins, your relations, or some stranger that you happen to meet, as we say by chance. Be prepared.

61:06 There's tracks back there on practical godliness, there's tracks back there on repent or perish, on regeneration, an excellent track on is Christ your Lord, I believe. Excellent tracks. Some over here free of charge, others over here put a little offering on the table. I'm going to take them.