Definition and Demonstration

Introduction to the Fourth Tenet: The Church's Unique Place

0:00 Now thus far we've considered three tenets or avowals in this manifesto. First, we are determined that Jesus Christ shall have His rightful place in the life and ministry of this assembly. Secondly, we are determined that all of our doctrine and practice shall be molded by the Word of God. And thirdly, we are determined to maintain a God-centered climate in the totality of our church life.

0:37 And let me affirm for the sake of our visitors that in all of these things I have repeatedly stated, we count not yet ourselves to have apprehended. We've not arrived. But these are the perspectives to which we are committed. And by the grace of God, towards which we press in His strength, and finding Christ sufficient to cleanse us of the sins of our failures, and to give us grace to know wherein we fall short and deviate from these fundamental biblical perspectives.

1:15 Now we come this morning to begin to consider the fourth avowal or tenet of our manifesto.

1:25 We are determined, we are determined that our life and ministry will unquestionably confirm the unique place assigned to the church in the saving purposes of God. Let me give it to you again. We are determined that our life and ministry will unquestionably confirm the unique place assigned to the church in the saving purposes of God. Let me give it to you again.

1:58 We are determined that our life and ministry will unquestionably confirm the unique place assigned to the church in the saving purposes of God. Let me give it to you again. We are determined that our life and ministry will unquestionably confirm the unique place assigned to the church in the saving purposes of God. Let me give it to you again.

2:02 We are determined that our life and ministry will unquestionably confirm the unique place assigned to the church in the saving purposes of God. Let me give it to you again. We are determined that our life and ministry will unquestionably confirm the unique place assigned to the church in the saving purposes of God. Let me give it to you again.

2:06 We are determined that our life and ministry will unquestionably confirm the unique place assigned to the church in the saving purposes of God. Let me give it to you again. a brief word of explanation and definition concerning my use of the word church. This is pivotal to this whole tenet of the manifesto.

Defining 'The Church' Biblically

2:22 It centers around what we are describing as the unique place assigned to the church in the saving purposes of God. And by the use of the word church, I am not referring to all of the people in the world and in heaven who are saved by the grace of God. Sometimes the word church is used to describe by men. I doubt it's used this way in scripture, but is used to speak of all of God's people, his true people known to God, whether on earth or in heaven.

3:00 For others, the word church is used very loosely. For any institution which is a branch of the Christian faith or in some way professes to be connected to the Bible and to Christ, you have the so-called church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is a man-made religion spun out of the woolly head and perverse, devil-deceived mind of Joseph Smith. Mormonism, in all of its ludicrous claims, claims to be the church of God, the church of Jesus Christ.

3:36 And the Roman Catholic Church claims to be the one true church of Christ. Well, I'm not using the word in terms of institutions that take to themselves the name church. Rather, I am using it in the sense in which it is helpfully defined in John Owen's little catechism, a brief instruction in the worship of God. And question 19 is this.

4:04 An instituted church of the gospel. And Owen answers, a society of persons called out of the world or their natural worldly state by the administration of the word and spirit unto the obedience of the faith or the knowledge and worship of God in Christ. Such people join together in a holy band or by special agreement, for the exercise of the communion of saints in the due observation of all the ordinances of the gospel. Then he gives about ten proof texts to footnote that.

4:47 Question 20. By what means do persons so-called become a church of Christ? If a church of Christ is comprised of people called out of the world through the word and spirit to the obedience of faith called together in a holy band for the exercise of communion of saints and the due observation of all the ordinances of Christ, by what means do people become part of that which is defined as a church? They are constituted a church and interested in the rights, power, and privileges of a gospel church

5:30 by the will, promise, authority, and law. Of Jesus Christ, upon their own voluntary consent and engagement to walk together in the due subjection of their souls and consciences unto Christ's authority as their king, priest, and prophet and in a holy observation of all his commands, ordinances, and appointments.

6:00 And it's amazing to me, and he doesn't put and their children. You see, when Owen and the...

6:08 The other men are in close contact with the word of God defining the church. They define the church in terms of the biblical data which describe the church as the gathering of the saints, those in union with Christ, committed to walk together under the rule of Christ as administered in the word of Christ. And so when I use the word church, I am thinking of such individual, local congregations gathered in any...

6:38 geographical area and of all such congregations collectively. That's what we call the universal church. The church local, the church universal. We're not using such terms as the church invisible.

6:54 I don't know what the invisible church is. The church of Christ is manifested in its local, individual setting. We are a church of Christ here this morning. And we, with those...

7:08 Those for whom we've prayed are part of the larger, universal church of Christ. And we are not saying they are all Baptist. We believe that there are Presbyterian churches that are true churches and independent Bible churches that are true churches. And there are churches which may take to themselves many and varied titles and names, but wherever they are comprised of those that are called out of the world, into fellowship with Christ through the gospel, committed to walk by the rule of the word of God in mutual communion and obedience to Christ, there we have a church.

The Necessity of Demonstrating the Church's Uniqueness

7:51 Now, with that brief explanation and definition conditioning your thinking about this tenet of our manifesto, listen to it again. We are determined that our life and ministry will be a church of Christ. And we will unquestionably confirm the unique place of the church in the saving purposes of God. Now, having given this brief word of explanation and definition concerning the church, the remainder of our time this morning will be taken up with a demonstration of the uniqueness of the church in the saving purposes of God.

8:35 I have stated in this tenet of our manifesto, is that we are determined unquestionably to confirm in our life and ministry the unique place, the singular place, a place shared by nothing else assigned to the church in God's saving purposes. Well, if no such unique place has been assigned, then we're on a fool's errand. We are perpetuating a false notion, a mistaken ideal, and this would be tragic indeed. And it would be doubly tragic to recommit ourselves to an ideal that has no roots in the Word of God.

9:19 But if indeed God has assigned to the church a unique place in His saving purposes, then woe to those who would be wiser than God in the setting up of their own institutions.

9:35 Now again, I'm choosing words carefully. I didn't say God has given an exclusive place. He has given an exclusive place to the church in His saving purposes. With all the attention we've been giving to the family, one of our great burdens is we recognize that the family ordered by the Word of God will often become a spiritual womb out of which God will bring forth children to Himself who will take their place in the church and be the rising generation of pillars in the house of God.

Demonstration 1: Christ Promised Only One Institution

10:07 But I am saying, in this tenet of our manifesto, that God has given to the church a unique place in His saving purposes. And where is that set before us? Well, I want you to follow with me as we consider the following lines of indication that indeed God has given to the church a unique place in His saving purposes. Number one, Jesus Christ promised to establish only one institution for the carrying on of His triumphant, redemptive purpose.

10:50 Jesus Christ promised to establish only one institution for the carrying on of His triumphant, redemptive purpose. And where is this taught? Some of you perhaps have already turned to the passage in Matthew 16. In this setting, you remember that our Lord is drawing out the confession of the disciples with respect to the identity of His person.

11:18 And when Peter, speaking for the rest, properly identifies our Lord as the Christ, the Son of the living God, our Lord responds by telling him such an understanding was not imparted by human agency, but by divine illumination. Now verse 18, And I also say unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. Now by passing the questions which arise concerning Peter's place in conjunction with the church,

12:03 this much is very clear about the church that Christ builds, regardless of what place Peter may or may not have in it. It is the church which Christ is committed to build, and it is the church which will be His triumphant agent in the accomplishment of the purposes of redemption. I will build my church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it. And nowhere else does He bring an addendum to this statement of commitment

12:46 to build this institution called His church. He does not say, I will build my church and societies, fellowships, parachurch organizations, and freelance associations, and anything and anybody that wants to do my work their way, and they have my promise of my blessing and of the conquest of my saving purposes. No. You can search the scriptures high and low, far and wide, and find no such commitment on the part of the Lord Jesus.

13:21 He says, all of my power, my wisdom, my grace, and redemptive triumph is bound up in the destiny of my church. The gates of Hell shall not prevail against it. It is unique in the saving purposes of God because Jesus Christ promised to establish only one institution for the carrying on of His triumphant redemptive purpose. Demonstration number two.

Demonstration 2: Christ Committed the Keys to Only One Institution

13:57 Jesus Christ committed the keys of the kingdom to only one institution. Jesus Christ committed the keys of the kingdom to only one institution. Stay in the Matthew 16 passage. I say unto the Lord, I say unto thee, thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

14:22 And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Now again, without entering into all the vexing questions about Peter, one thing is clear.

14:42 Whatever consequences Peter has with the keys, he has that contact within the confines of the church. I will build my church, and I give to you the keys of the kingdom. Don't take it out of its setting. Whatever contact Peter has with the keys, he has them as a keeper in the church.

15:08 Not in his person, not apart from the church, not over the church, but as an integral part of the church that Jesus Christ will build. And my purpose is not to give an exhaustive exposition of Peter's place, but to focus on this issue that is crucial to this tenet of our manifesto, that indeed the church is assigned a unique place in the saving purposes of God, because Jesus Christ committed the keys of the kingdom to only one institution, and that they are not committed exclusively or uniquely to Peter. Turn over to Matthew 18.

15:51 In this setting in which our Lord is giving directives for the resolution of private sin within His church, He begins in verse 15 by saying, If thy brother sin against thee, go show him his fault between thee and him alone. Then there is a progressive escalation of the circle of the knowledge of the sin with an effort to bring the sinning brother to repentance until finally being impenitent. We read verse 17, If he refuse to hear them, that is, the one who comes with the witnesses, tell it to the church. And if he refuse to hear the church, also let him be unto thee as a Gentile in the public.

16:33 And verily I say unto you, now he's speaking collectively, not speaking to an individual, but to all of his people, what things soever ye shall bind on earth shall be, shall be bound in heaven, and what things soever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. According to the parallel passage over in Matthew 16, 19, the exercise of the keys has to do with binding in heaven and loosing in heaven. Now that exercise of the keys is said to be given to the church in its corporate identity. And what are we to learn then from bringing these two passages together

17:17 this much? You will not find Jesus Christ talking to any other individual or speaking about any other institution and saying, the keys are given to it. Jesus Christ committed the keys of the kingdom to only one institution. And keys cannot be copied and handed out to any and every group that's got a vision.

17:46 To any and every individual that's got a burden. You can't go and get copied keys because you've got a vision and a burden and the know-how to start an organization to do the work of God. Christ himself has the keys. He alone dispenses them.

18:09 And he only dispenses them to his church. So the church is unique. Whatever the keys may be, however they may function, whatever they may open, whatever they may close, whatever locks they may fit, that's not the issue of our focus. But the issue of our focus is, to what other organization or institution has Christ given the keys other than the church?

Demonstration 3: Christ Pledges His Special Presence to Only One Institution

18:38 None. Alright? Line of argument number three. Jesus Christ pledges his special presence to only one institution.

18:50 Jesus Christ pledges his special presence to only one institution. Yes, he pledges his special presence to every individual believer. Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. We have every right to take those promises found in the Old and repeated in the New Testament, such as the promise given to Joshua, repeated in Hebrews, in which we can lay hold of the promise, I will never fail thee nor forsake thee.

19:23 I am with you. Yes. But in terms of institution, Jesus Christ pledges his special presence to only one institution. He does not pledge it to any gathering of his people who bind themselves together in order to pursue a man-made agenda according to man-made rules operating by man-made principles No.

19:58 He has committed himself in his special presence to only one institution and that is his church organized after the pattern of his own word. Go back to the Matthew 18 passage and we see this. Verse 15, If thy brother sin against thee, go, show him his fault between thee and him alone. If he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.

20:20 And when it escalates to laying this out before the whole church, what is the assumed framework? Mutual commitment to a given society of believers properly organized with an understanding that they belong to that society. And then when the church speaks and this man is disfellowshipped, excommunicated, regarded as Gentile and publican, there is no alternative court to which he can make an appeal. There is no higher court to which he can appeal.

20:53 Christ in this context goes on to say, verse 24, Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. What an abused text. It has been used to plead that the special presence of Christ is pledged for any gathering of any group of believers under any circumstances to do anything they choose to do that falls within the broad framework of what we might call biblical goals. No, my friends, in the context it has to do with the gathering of His church.

21:32 With a fellowship of those committed to Christ in the bonds of church union. And it is there that He promises His special presence. Ephesians chapter 1. We have a marvelous, mind-stretching statement of this same reality speaking of the measure of the power of Christ for which Paul is praying.

21:59 God would give spiritual illumination to the saints at Ephesus. Its power manifested as we heard several weeks ago when He was raised from the dead and seated at the right hand of the Father. And now verse 22 of Ephesians 1, And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is not one of His bodies, which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all. Well, if Christ's fullness is found in His church, how much is left for another organization that you make?

22:39 How much is left? The church is the fullness of Him that filleth all in all. That is not said of any other institution. And furthermore, when we turn to that marvelous picture in the book we just finished, the book of the Revelation, and John is in the Spirit on the Lord's day and he hears a mighty voice that so captures his ear that he turns to look.

23:06 And when he looks he says, I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like unto the Son of Man. And then the interpretation is given by God Himself that the seven lampstands are the seven churches and where is Christ? Christ's special presence in the midst of the churches. With all of their problems and sins and weaknesses, Christ did not abandon His churches and institute something new.

23:45 He addresses the seven churches in all the realism of their suffering, in some cases spiritual declension, error, heresy, in some cases immorality, but He stands in His special presence in the midst of His churches. So from our Lord Jesus Christ we learn very clearly that the church does indeed have a unique place, one of a kind, one not shared with any other. In the saving purposes of God He promised to establish only one institution, the church, committed the keys of the kingdom to one institution, the church,

Demonstration 4: Apostles Established Only One Permanent Institution

24:30 pledged His special presence to one institution, the church. And what we see in the ministry of our Lord Jesus is validated in the life of the apostles and I remind you that the apostles were the peculiarly designated ongoing foundation builders in the church and when it came to their directives for the churches, those are the very directives of Christ and Paul was conscious of this. He said in 1 Corinthians 14, 37, If any man is spiritual, any man among you seems to be spiritual or a prophet, let him acknowledge that the things which I say unto you are the commandments of the Lord. And when the apostle used

25:15 such terminology, so ordain I in all the churches. Was he being arrogant? No. He was fulfilling his God-given role.

25:24 So when we turn to the apostles, what do we find? Here's evidence number four. Piece of evidence number four. That the church is unique in the saving purposes of God.

25:35 The apostles labored to establish only one permanent institution to carry on the redemptive purposes of God in the earth. The apostles labored to establish only one permanent institution to carry on the redemptive purposes of God throughout the earth. Starting in Jerusalem, when a multitude were swept into the kingdom in one day, when that 3,000 was added, how is that group described in Acts chapter 2? We read in verse 41, Then they that received His word were baptized, and there were added unto them

26:20 in that day about 3,000 souls. And they continued in what? The full spectrum of church life and fellowship. The apostles teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and of prayers.

26:34 And verse 47, Praising God, having favor with all the people, and the Lord added to them day by day those that were being saved. Ah, but you say the word church is not used. Does God have to use the word to set the thing before us? But the word is indeed used over in chapter 5.

26:57 Still speaking of the church in Jerusalem, we read in this passage after that striking intervention of God cutting off two blatant liars and hypocrites, Ananias and Sapphira. We read in verse 11, And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all that heard these things. Verse 14, And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and of women. Now what's the point I want to make?

27:33 Well the point is this, starting with this tremendously large, diverse, multiply gifted church at Jerusalem. If ever the apostles under the guidance of the Lord Jesus as their head, were to give themselves to any other permanent institution it would be in this setting. Look at the tremendous amount of gift, and personnel, and manpower, and giving power. It was all there.

28:02 But what did they do? They didn't set up one rival institution. They didn't set up one institution to add to that which their Lord was building, namely His church. And when we read through the book of Acts, and we focus particularly upon the apostolic labors of Paul from chapter 13 onward, what do we find himself and his companions giving all of their energies, and tears, and blood to?

28:35 To the planting of churches, the strengthening of churches, the guiding of churches to spiritual and organizational maturity. When they have time to write, their letters go to whom? To churches. And if they go to individuals like Philemon, it goes to that man who's bound up in a church that meets in his house.

28:56 Read the opening greetings. Oh yes, they had the wisdom under the guidance of the Spirit to establish temporary committees to sort out doctrinal issues. The church chose certain brethren to go with Paul and his companions up to Jerusalem to sort out this influence of the Judaizers upon the Antioch church. They had a temporarily assigned committee to go off on a mission of sorting out doctrinal confusion, but they didn't have a standing committee for doctrinal problems.

29:29 They formed a temporary team to take up this large offering for the poor saints in Judea. And the churches were involved in selecting proven brethren to send them with Paul and his companions with the offering to Jerusalem. But when it was done, committee was dissolved. There is no permanently established institution under apostolic eye and hand but that of the church.

29:57 Now, does that say something? If they were content with plain Jane church, God have mercy on those who think themselves wiser than apostles. The apostles labored to establish only one permanent institution to carry on the redemptive purposes of God throughout the earth. Therefore, when one such apostle is describing the church in Ephesians 2, he describes it as a structure built upon a foundation of apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus, the chief cornerstone.

30:39 And the apostles so gave all of their labors to that single endeavor that they are not founded as even a little brick in the foundation of anything else. That's validated by the vision in the book of the Revelation where the church in her glorified state is pictured in one dimension of its reality as that city which rests down upon the twelve foundations which are the apostles of the land. All of their labors were given to that. Argument number five.

Demonstration 5: The Church as the Supreme Theater for God's Wisdom

31:16 The apostolic teaching asserts there's only one institution ordained of God as the supreme theater for the display of His manifold wisdom. The apostolic teaching asserts there's only one institution ordained of God as the supreme theater for the display of His manifold wisdom. And what is that? Ephesians 3.

31:41 I didn't say the exclusive theater. I said the supreme theater. God displays His grace, His wisdom, His power in many theaters. But He has designated a supreme theater in which to display His manifold wisdom and grace.

32:02 And what is it? In Ephesians 3, verses 10 and 11. To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Oh, get this connection.

32:32 Here God's eternal purposes in Christ are said to be inseparably linked to the existence and design of God for the church. So that loyalty to Christ and loyalty to the church are concurrent loyalties. And one is impossible without the other if one is thinking and acting biblically. The apostolic teaching asserts that it's through the church uniquely, supremely that God is determined to make principalities and powers unseen spiritual beings gasp and, as it were,

33:17 hold their breath and lose their breath as they look upon the display of God's wisdom in the church. It's unique. That's why Paul concludes that chapter with these words, verse 21, unto Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus. See that close conjunction again.

33:40 In the church, in Christ Jesus, unto all generations forever and ever, the church will never become passe because of sociological factors. Church will never become passe because of factor here or factor there. God's purpose is eternal and therefore unchangeable. Line of argument number six.

Demonstration 6 & 7: Pillar of Truth and Object of Christ's Supreme Attention

34:05 I hope you're not weary of this, folks. This is looking at the foundations. Every one of these texts ought to be at your fingertips and ought to be etched upon the fleshy tables of your heart. The apostolic teaching asserts that there is but one institution, one institution designated by God as the pillar and ground of the truth.

34:30 That's the apostolic teaching. Apostolic teaching asserts there is but one institution designated by God as the pillar and ground of the truth. And this text is well known among us, and I'm glad it is. May God grant that it ever shall be.

34:47 1 Timothy chapter 3, where Paul leaves his beloved companion Timothy behind at Ephesus, though he himself, Paul, has labored there for several years. They are a mature, flourishing, God-blessed church, yet he leaves his companion behind in order to carry on labors in that church. Well, why is he such a high churchman? There are those who tell him, there are those who tell us, don't be fastidious about the church, get as many souls saved as you can in as short amount of time as possible, and even if they get to heaven in bad shape, they'll get there.

35:23 That should be our passion, soul winning. Building up churches and having fastidious concern about the ordering of the church is fiddling while Rome burns, so we are told. Well, maybe we learned how to fiddle from the apostle. For we read in 1 Timothy 3, 14, These things write I unto you, hoping to come unto you shortly.

35:47 But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how men ought to behave themselves in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. And what kind of behavior was he addressing? Well, behavior all the way from the centrality of prayer and the place of men and women in the public worship to biblical status, to biblical standards for elders and deacons, for the care and concern of widows and the treatment of elders. My friend, this is detailed, meticulous churchmanship.

36:24 Why? Because the apostolic teaching asserts that there is but one institution designated by God as the pillar and ground of the truth. And if it begins to have the termites of careless churchmanship eating at its foundations, it's the truth that's at stake. It's God's truth.

36:43 Either upheld or falling to the ground in any given place and in any given generation. And my seventh line of argument and final is this, there is but one institution to which the risen Christ now gives His supreme attention, care and counsel. One institution to which the risen Christ now gives His supreme attention, care and counsel. Again, not exclusive attention, care and counsel, but His supreme attention, care and counsel.

37:20 Where do we learn that? I go back to Revelation 1. Christ is walking in the midst of the seven lampstands. He's inspecting the churches.

37:31 He opens every message with these words, I know thy works. I know, I know, I know. It is the churches in Asia Minor that are the peculiar object of His attention, His care and His counsel. We have those blessed words in Ephesians 5, No man ever hated his own body, but nourishes and cherishes it even as Christ the church.

37:59 John chapter 17, our Lord's high priestly prayer tied in with Hebrews 7.25, Wherefore He is able to save to the uttermost those who come unto God by Him, seeing He ever lives, to do what? Supremely to intercede for them. There is but one institution to which the risen Christ now gives His supreme attention, care and counsel, and that's His church.

Personal Application: Conviction, Loyalty, and Salvation

38:30 Well, in summary, if these seven lines of Biblical witness do not convince you that the church is unique in the saving purposes of God, then frankly I don't think seven more will do it. If those seven don't carry your judgment, my friend, I think it's because your judgment won't be carried. And this is the fourth tenet, the fourth avowal of our manifesto, that the church is unique in the saving purposes of God, and we are determined that our life and our ministry will openly, unashamedly,

39:13 unequivocally confirm that fact. For our life and ministry will either deny it or confirm it. God willing, next week, we'll consider, having given a brief definition of what we mean by the church, this more extended demonstration of the uniqueness of the church, we'll consider, God willing, next week, the manifestations of this determination in our life and ministry, and then some words of exhortation that grow out of it. But as I bring the message to a close this morning, I want to just ask you several personal and vital questions.

39:55 This has been primarily a didactic sermon. It's really been the teaching half of one sermon. But since we do not go on and preach for an hour and a half, I have to bring the sermon to a close halfway through. And I planned to do that in my preparation.

40:12 But I do want to bring this all home, though it's been primarily didactic teaching, instruction. I want to bring it home to the theater of your own conscience with these three simple questions. Number one, has the teaching I've given you this morning become yours by Bible-based, spirit-wrought convictions? Has this teaching on the uniqueness of the church in the saving purposes of God, has this teaching become yours by Bible-based, spirit-wrought convictions?

40:47 Only you can answer that. Remember I emphasized a couple of weeks ago the difference between first-hand truth and second-hand truth? Has this become first-hand truth to you? Have you bought this truth?

41:07 Have you paid the price to buy this truth? And are you prepared to sell it not? I ask you that question. I ask that question of those of you who are here and were part of seeing this block laid in the foundation of this assembly.

41:32 And are you ready to spill blood for it if called upon? You sang this morning, for her my tears shall fall. To her my toils and cares be given. Is that where you're at?

41:50 Has the teaching I've given this morning become yours by Bible-based, spirit-wrought conviction? Should someone challenge you in the parking lot today, a stranger driving up, and ask you what in the world you were doing in there? And you said we were listening to a manifesto. What was it about?

42:10 About the uniqueness of the church? Could you sit down with your Bible and not merely remember the seven passages, but could you teach them with an element of conviction? Only you can answer. I can answer for me.

42:32 You can answer for you. Second question. Have you seen that professed love, loyalty, and commitment to Christ that is not expressed in love, loyalty, and commitment to His church is either ignorant loyalty or self-deceptive hypocrisy? You come to see that there's no such thing recognized in the Bible as an intelligent loyalty to Christ, devotion to Christ, commitment to Christ that is not paralleled with and inseparably joined to

43:13 real love, loyalty, and real commitment to the church. Now it is possible that people can have an uninstructed love to Christ. I had it for years. My love to Christ as a young Christian in many ways I believe burned more intensely to my shame than it does in certain areas now.

43:41 But oh how ignorant I was of the church for years. But not willfully ignorant. Not deliberately and hypocritically ignorant. God had simply not brought me to birth in a context where there was any appreciation of the doctrine of the church.

43:58 The only people that recognized what God had done in some of our hearts and the only people that were ready to receive it for others in the polite evangelical churches it was too hot to handle what God had done for a few of us. We wanted to preach in the street corner and carry our Bibles to school. And we were causing the whole high school to get upset. And the whole town was buzzing with what was going on with these fanatics.

44:21 And a little mission. Not even a church. With some old people praying for years that God would pour out His Spirit on the young people of that town in Connecticut. Recognize the answer to their prayers and took us in.

44:34 And gave us guidance and counsel where they could. But they had no doctrine of the church. They weren't a church. There was no duly constituted church with a constituted membership with Biblical officers and Biblical oversight and Biblical ministry.

44:49 Just some white haired men that knew God. And when we said, hey, there's some people who know God. We know enough of our Bibles to know you find a white haired man who knows God, go after him. And we latched on like leeches.

45:01 And they passed on what they knew. And some of us are indebted to this day for what they gave us. But they had no doctrine of the church. And they went off to two schools.

45:10 Interdenominational. They couldn't have a doctrine of the church. They'd lose half or three quarters of their clientele. So I didn't get any in my formal training.

45:17 And I kicked around the country for five years as an itinerant evangelist and Bible teacher. And that's when I began to see in my Bible that if this is what the Bible means when it says church, either God doesn't do what He did in days gone by or what this professes to be is bogus. And that's when I began to see. But I'd been a Christian 10, 15 years before those things began to really come to birth.

45:43 So I am not saying if a person does not believe will have a biblically sharpened doctrine of and commitment to the church. He's living and blatant, willful. No. I said he has ignorant devotion to Christ.

45:58 Because throughout the book of Acts being added to the church and added to the Lord are used interchangeably by Luke. If you don't believe it, just read through the book of Acts. And every time you read, believers were the more added to the Lord. Multitudes added to the church.

46:13 Added to the Lord. Added to the church. Why? Because the church is His body.

46:18 Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? Well, my Bible says he was persecuting the church. Touch His church, you touch Christ. I ask the question of you.

46:34 Have you seen that professed love and loyalty and commitment to Christ not expressed in love, loyalty and commitment to the church is either ignorant love and loyalty or self-deceptive hypocrisy. You don't want commitment to the church. Why? Because that's going to make demands upon you that you don't want anything to do with.

46:54 You want to be a freelance Christian. No such person is recognized in the New Testament. You can bristle and rear back in your hind legs and snort out your ears and your nose as well. But if you take time enough to come off your high horse and read your Bible, you'll see that what I say is true.

47:14 There's no letters addressed to freelance Christians. Letters are addressed to churches. The assumption is every believer knows who's over him in the Lord when the Scriptures is obeyed them. They have the rule over you.

47:26 Know them that are over you in the Lord and admonish you and esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. The assumption is there's no Christians running around and scratch their head and say, Paul, what are you talking about? Over me? Over me?

47:38 What are you talking about? Freelance Christians are not recognized. So friend, either you have an attachment to Christ that finds you detached from the church that is an ignorant attachment, but it's not ignorance after this morning. It'll be willfulness after this morning.

47:59 Then my third and final question is, have you seen, have you seen that as the church is the unique institution for the saving purposes of God, that Christ Himself is the unique Savior of sinners? The church is not your Savior. Christ is. We read it this morning.

48:18 Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for His church knows He shall save His people from their sins. And the glory of the gospel is that the sinner in all his naked meat and the Savior in all the plenitude of His grace come into direct embrace in the gospel. No water, no wafer, no priest, no minister, no nothing in between. He shall save.

48:47 Oh, my unconverted friend, have you come to see, sitting in a Christian church this morning, that no salvation has come to you through this church as the conduit to all the saving virtues in Christ? And you must get to Christ. You must go to Him in your need, in your nakedness, in your undoneness, and cry out, Son of David, have mercy upon me. Jesus, You came by way of Mary's womb to save Your people from their sins.

49:21 I am bound by my sins and I cannot break my own chains. I cannot cleanse my own heart. I cannot alter my own record in heaven. Lord Jesus, I put the case of my sin-sick, hell-deserving, sin-bound, helpless soul in Your mighty hands.

49:42 Lord Jesus, take care of the issue of my sin. Oh, my friend, that's the gospel. And it would grieve me if you went out of here this morning an unconverted, lost, hell-deserving sinner, thinking that somehow until you matched up and could meet the standards to become a member of a church, you couldn't be saved. Friend, that could not be further from the truth.

50:07 Christ is before you in the gospel. Go to Him. Just as you are, go to Him now. Go to Him, pleading His promise, Him that comes to me, I will in no wise cast out.

50:21 Well, God willing, next week, if the Lord spares us, we'll then focus in upon the demonstrations, the evidences, of our commitment to this tenet, this avowal, that we want to confirm the unique place of the church in the saving purposes of God. But I leave you with that teaching and with those questions. And may God be pleased to cause us to answer with judgment day honesty. Let us pray.