In the Christian Life

The Church's Unique Place in God's Saving Purposes

0:00 We are determined that our life and ministry will unquestionably confirm the unique place assigned to the church in the saving purposes of God. We are determined that our life and our ministry will unquestionably confirm the unique place assigned to the church in the saving purposes of God. Last week we had time only to give a brief definition and description of what we mean by the church and then a demonstration of the uniqueness of the church in the purposes of God with respect to salvation.

0:42 And we looked at seven texts of scripture, each one of which points to the uniqueness of the church in the saving purposes of God. And we are determined. We are determined that our life and our ministry shall not occasionally make reference to that truth and the rest of the time ignore it. But we are determined that our life and ministry will unquestionably confirm that indeed the church is unique, one of a kind, in the saving purposes of God.

1:22 And so we come in the development of that theme. To our third head this morning, having given a brief definition and description of what we mean by church, a demonstration that according to the scriptures the church is unique in the saving purposes of God. Now then, this morning, I want to set before you, begin to set before you, the plain manifestations of this determination in our life and ministry. What is there in our life and ministry?

1:57 That constitutes a plain manifestation that indeed we believe the church is unique in the saving purposes of God. Is this declaration just good theology but merely theory among us? Well, if indeed it is more than theology and theory, then surely there should be some plain and unmistakably clear, clear manifestations of this conviction working its way out in our life together.

The Christian Life: Christ-Centered and Church-Based

2:37 And the first and primary way in which it manifests itself, and this is all I'm going to touch upon this morning, is in our theology and practice of the Christian life. The theology and practice of the Christian life that obtains among us in this place is a plain, manifestation of our determination that we shall unquestionably confirm the uniqueness of the church in the saving purposes of God. Once a person has been brought to new life in Christ,

3:16 his great concern is focused and expressed in such questions as these. Where do I go from here? I've been brought to see my sin. I've been brought to see that I have no claim to acceptance with God on the basis of what I am and what I've done. I've been brought to see that the only hope of sinners

3:39 is in the Lord Jesus Christ, who died and rose again on behalf of sinners and freely, joyfully welcomes every sinner who will trust Him. When a sinner has been brought by grace, by grace, by grace, by grace, by grace, by grace, by grace, by grace, by grace, by grace, by grace, to embrace the Savior, then his concern is, where do I go from here? What do I do to manifest my love to the Savior? How do I get oriented to the whole new life into which the Savior has brought me by His grace? And these questions are all questions concerning how to live the Christian

4:18 life. And there are many theologies and practices of living the Christian life. Some of them, heretical. Some of them, more or less, erroneous, partially true. Well, we want to state this

4:31 morning that our theology and practice of the Christian life could be reduced to these words.

4:39 It is Christ-centered and church-based. That's it. We have a theology and practice of the Christian life that is Christ-centered and church-based. And it's crucial that you grasp this, because theology is to our practice what the mold into which the frames of my glasses were placed is to the shape and contour of these glasses' frames.

5:15 Somebody somewhere poured liquid metal into a mold that shaped and formed the plastic and the wire of these frames. I do not wear the mold. But I continually wear the impress and the fruit of the mold's influence upon my frames. And so it is with our practice of the Christian life is the visible thing. But it is molded

The Pervasive Christ-Centeredness of the Christian Life

5:43 and shaped, and all of its contours are derived from our theology of living the Christian life. And that is why I have stated that in our theology and practice of the Christian life, there is a plain manifestation of our conviction of the uniqueness of the church in the saving purposes of God. First of all, I've said it is Christ-centered, and here one is embarrassed with the text of Scripture that come to mind.

6:20 That any theology of the Christian life must be Christ-centered is surely determined by such texts as these, Colossians 2 and verse 6. Notice how the beginning and the continuance of the Christian life are both joined to Christ.

6:45 Colossians 2, 6 and 7. As therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord. That's how they became Christians. As many as received Him.

7:00 To them gave He. The right to become the sons of God. Even to them that believe on His name. John 1, 12.

7:07 Now, notice what Paul says. He doesn't say, as therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord, now then move on from Christ to something else. Move on from Christ to the Spirit. Move on from Christ to great experiences.

7:25 No. He says, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in. In Him. Rooted and builded up in Him.

7:37 And established in your faith even as you were taught abounding in thanksgiving. How is someone established in his faith? By being rooted and builded up in the very Christ into whom he was planted in his coming into the Christian faith. You see how Christ-centered is the Apostle's exhortation to Christianity?

8:03 As Christ was central in your entrance upon the Christian life, He is to be central in all of the development of that life. So that we do not move on from Christ to someone else. From Christ to something else. As you received Him, so walk in Him.

8:27 Rooted and builded up in Him. Or, we could take as a beautiful vivid picture of the Christian life, Hebrews 12 verses 1 and 2. If becoming a Christian is being enrolled in the race of those that are on their way to heaven, the Christian life is likened to running that race until we get to heaven. And what is to be the great focus of our spiritual eyes as we run the Christian race, that is, live the Christian life, Hebrews 12 verses 1 and 2.

9:08 Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience or endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and the author. The author and the author. The author and the author. And perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

9:44 If any text teaches that living the Christian life is living a life that is Christ-centered, this text teaches it. Yes, we are to lay aside weights and encumbrances, but we are not to focus our attention upon our weights and our encumbrances. We are to look unto Jesus, the same Jesus to whom we looked in the first look of saving faith. Look unto me, all ye ends of the earth, and be ye saved.

10:14 As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Faith is likened to the initial looking to Christ as our sin-bearer, as our substitute. But we do not look in order to enter life and then turn our eyes to a different object to see that life advanced and developed. No, the entire process of the Christian life until we see him face to face is described as running a race, looking unto Jesus.

10:55 The Christian life is pervasively Christ-centered. You receive Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in him, root it and build it up in him, looking unto Jesus. Or take Paul's great statement in 2 Corinthians 5, Why has God saved us in the virtue of the death of Christ? This text answers that question.

11:24 Now that I'm a Christian, what am I to live for? Who am I to live for? What's to be the driving motivation of my life?

11:33 Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5, 14 and 15, For the love of Christ constrains us, holds us in its grip, because we thus judge that one died for all, therefore all died, and that he died for all that they that live, they that enter into the initial possession, of Christian experience in life by repentance and faith, that they who live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto him who for their sakes died and rose again. Should live unto him who died and rose. Who died and rose for us. It is Christ.

12:18 And the whole of life is to be subsumed under this simple terminology, as a Christian, I'm living. I'm living unto him who loved me, died for me, and rose again. And that that's the proper understanding of Paul's intention comes from his own testimony. When Paul, as it were, answers the question, Paul, what's your philosophy of life?

12:45 Sit down and tell us in the next couple of hours. What makes you tick? You say, it won't take me a couple of hours. It won't even take me a minute.

12:52 It won't even take me ten seconds. Philippians chapter 1. And verse 21. Here the apostle gives us what makes him tick.

13:03 He gives us the distillation of his whole perspective on the Christian life. He says in verse 20, According to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing shall I be put to shame, but that with all boldness as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether by life or death. Four. Two.

13:27 To me, to live, is Christ. Now you talk about the essence of simplicity. To me, that's personal. To live, that's all of life, is Christ.

13:41 That's it. Ah, come on. Paul, life's not that simple.

13:48 Hey, wait a minute. You're not talking to a dunce. You're talking to a guy that could speak fluent Greek, fluent Greek, fluent Hebrew, fluent who knows what else,

13:59 Aramaic, who knows what other languages. Talking about a man that even pagans say was one of the greatest minds that ever existed on the face of the earth. One tutored at the feet of Gamaliel, brilliant, outstripping his peers in zeal and knowledge. But this man could say, here's my life.

14:21 That shall, to me, intensely personal. To live, extensive and comprehensive. To live, that encompasses everything in life, is Christ.

14:34 Nothing else. Paul, no. Not Christ plus, not a comma leading to, to me, to live, is Christ. Now we could go on and multiply texts, but I trust if you have any sensitivity to the Bible, these texts, these epitomizing texts, have convinced your judgment that any view of the Christian life, any theology and practice of the Christian life that is not pervasively, unquestionably Christ-centered, is off-base from the Bible.

15:09 If it's experience-centered, Holy Spirit-centered, happy, getting-time-centered, feeling-good-centered, but Christ is off-center.

15:23 Even when it's one of the persons of the Godhead.

The Church-Based Nurturing of the Christ-Centered Life

15:31 Life-centeredness is the mark of a biblical theology of living the Christian life. But now, and this is where a lot of people bail out, and don't even ask for their life jacket. As much, As the Bible teaches with unmistakable clarity that the Christian life is Christ-centered, it also teaches that it is church-based.

16:00 That is, the nurturing of the Christ-centered life is ordained of God to be carried out in the framework of His church. And that it is the church that is the only divinely mandated context for the nurture of this Christ-centered life. And so I've used the terms, the biblical theology of the Christian life is Christ-centered and church-based. Now, what passages teach this?

Scriptural Evidence for a Church-Based Christian Life

16:42 Again, one's embarrassed by this. There's a multitude of them, but I want you to look at some key passages that simply distill the overall teaching of the Word of God. The first is in Acts chapter 2.

17:00 There are many things to be said about the second chapter of Acts,

17:07 but one of the things that I want to say this morning is derived from the great principle that in this initial work of the Spirit of God on the day of Pentecost, when the Lord Jesus came, He came from heaven by the Spirit to take up His residence in His living temple in all the glory and wonder of new covenant privilege and reality. We have, as it were, specimen, principles of God's operation throughout the entire period from Pentecost until the coming of the Lord Jesus. And in this chapter, we see God working through the proclamation of peace,

17:52 and He's working through the proclamation of peace, and He's working through the proclamation of peace, and He's working through the proclamation of peace, and He's working through the proclamation of peace, and He's working through the proclamation of peace, and I pick up the reading now at verse 38. When people, verse 37, I'm sorry, of Acts 2, when they heard this, they were pricked in the heart and said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do? They came to see themselves as sinners. They came to own the reality that they had crucified the Lord of glory, that their hands were in the eye of God, dripping with the blood of the Son of God, and they said, What shall we do?

18:24 And Peter said unto them, Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For to you is the promise, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call unto Him. And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, Save yourselves. Save yourselves from this crooked generation.

18:54 He preached to them the implications of repentance and faith and identification with God's people. And in Peter's sermon he didn't separate any of those. Repent, faith implied. Repent, be baptized, be openly identified with God's people.

19:17 The promise of forgiveness and the gift of the Spirit is set forth before you, to you, your children. All that are afar off, as many as the Lord our God shall call. Then with many other words he opened up the implications of that little, as it were, distillation of his response to their inquiry. Save yourselves from this crooked generation.

19:41 Coming to faith in Christ, coming to baptism, coming to identification with God's visible people has implications.

19:51 And he opened them up. And now we read, Then they that received his word were baptized, and they all went their way happy and rejoicing in the Lord Jesus, to have their devotions every morning alone with God. That isn't what it says. And they that received his word were baptized, and there were added in that day about three thousand souls.

20:18 And they continued steadfastly in personal devotions and family devotions and in house fellowships. No, no. They were added unto them three thousand, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in the prayers. Verse 44, And all that believed were together, and had all things common.

20:46 46, And day by day continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple, the end of the passage in the Lord added to them day by day those that were being saved. Now what is God saying in this very initial powerful outpouring of the Spirit, this tremendous increase of the dimensions of his spiritual temple, when he adds in one day three thousand living stones to the existing 120 that were there in the upper room. This tremendous expansion of the living temple. What is God saying?

21:29 Just as much as Peter's sermon was Christ-centered, so the experience of those who embraced it in faith led to a church-based experience of the Christian life. They were not brought to individual faith and repentance, then to go on to live out a Christ-centered individualism, individualized Christian life. No, no one comes to repentance in faith except he comes as an individual. Mom and Daddy can't believe for you kids.

22:08 Husband or wife can't believe for you. That's why Jesus said he came not to bring peace, but a sword. You must individually embrace Christ. Individually own your sin.

22:19 Individually repent of your sins. Yes, but once we have individually repented, and believed, we are not to go on in an individualistic Christian life. And this passage shows that when these three thousand embraced the Word, they submitted to the ordinance of baptism, and baptism became the door of their admission into the visible community. And in community with the 120, they continued in the apostles' teaching.

22:54 That is, in church life, where the instruction of the appointed instructors was given. We learn further on that they would gather in Solomon's porch, there in the temple, and the apostles would instruct them in the truths which had now become precious. They continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching and in fellowship. And fellowship there does not mean just fellowship with God, and fellowship with one or two choice friends.

23:25 No, it meant fellowship, shared life with the whole community of the people of God. And in the breaking of bread, that technical term for the supper of remembrance, they didn't go off and remember the Lord individually, but remembered Him in their corporate identity. And the prayers, the stated seasons of prayer, were seasons when they gathered in their corporate identity as the people of God. And the Lord was adding to them those that were saved.

24:01 All that were being brought into a Christ-centered experience of salvation were immediately being incorporated into a church-based experience of the Christian life. You see that from verse 47? You didn't have many saved, and a few being added to them. That isn't what the text says.

24:27 The Lord added to them those that were being saved. You didn't have every Tom, Dick, and Harry joining the church, regardless of whether or not he could give a credible profession of being saved. Neither did you have a bunch of people running around declaring themselves saved who were unwilling to be identified with God's people, and have their professed conversion come under the scrutiny of the spiritual leadership and of the whole body. You didn't have self-proclaimed saved people running around as freelance Christians.

25:00 It isn't there in my Bible, nor is it in yours. It just isn't there. And what is there in these opening verses of the book of Acts, we see all the way through. So that the fruit of evangelism, with but few exceptions, and there are a few exceptions, because of the very circumstances, such as the Ethiopian eunuch, an individual found out in the middle of a desert.

25:31 Well, Philip isn't going to start a church in the middle of a desert, turn the guy's chariot upside down, where four people could sit and have a meeting. So obviously some things are not going to describe the formation of the church, but as the general pattern all the way through the book of Acts. The fruit of evangelism is measured in terms of the establishment of churches. Not in terms of the numbers of individual people running around saying, I'm saved, I believe the apostolic message.

26:01 You just won't find it. It just is not there. So that when it comes time to compose epistles, letters, apostolic, pastoral letters, where are they addressed? Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to any and every Christian who happens to get a copy of this and take it into his closet for his personal devotions.

26:25 That's the way I read my Bible. For you. For years. I was so ignorant of the doctrine of the church, it never occurred to me, never got through my thick head, that when I took the book of Romans to read it in my devotions, I was reading it in an abnormal situation.

26:41 Now I'm not saying you shouldn't read your Bible in your devotions. But what I am saying is, how did the book of Romans come? Because there was a church at Rome, and Paul assumed that all the Christians at Rome were in that. That's why he can write this way, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God.

27:09 Now then, who's he sending it to? He says, verse 6, verse 7, to all that are at Rome, beloved of God, called saints. He believes that every person who's a truly, effectually called saint is going to be there in the church in Rome. And he doesn't say, and any others who are called but aren't a part of the church and who happen to get this letter.

27:32 You don't find any such exception clauses. And you go right through the introduction to all of the epistles, and it's amazing how some truths lie right on the surface and we miss them. Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, 1 Corinthians 1, through the will of God, Sosthenes our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, even them that are sanctified in Christ, called saints, with all that call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in every place their Lord and ours. And all the way through, even when individuals are addressed,

28:11 Philemon is addressed in conjunction with the church that is in his house. When Paul addresses letters to Timothy and Titus, it's in conjunction with their labors in the church. There is no such concept in the New Testament of free, of freelance Christianity. It simply is not there.

The Church as the Context for Spiritual Maturity

28:35 So that when anything of what we would call a theology of the Christian life emerging in the context of the church is given, it is always in terms of the concept or frequently in terms of the concept of the organism of the body, Christ the head, all of us joined to him in living bonds, shared life, but members one of another. The whole concept of the body as found in Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, and again in Ephesians 4. But it's the Ephesians 4 passage that I want you to look at with me for a few moments. As I say, there are so many passages.

29:20 I've tried to just give you a sweeping summary of what we find in the book of Acts. The very way the epistles come to us. And now this specimen passage on the doctrine of the Christian life lived out in the context of the church. Paul is writing to the saints and he says that they are to give diligence to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace.

29:44 There is one body, one spirit, as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith. And he mentions that amidst this unity there is diversity of giftedness according to the will of the ascended Christ. And he gave some, verse 11, pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of ministering. But now I want you to note down in verse 15.

30:08 But speaking truth in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head, even Christ, from whom all the body fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplieth according to the working in due measure of each several part makes the increase of the body. Unto the building up of itself in love. The whole concept of the individual's maturity is that it takes place in the context of living relationship with the body of believers. So that there is no doctrine of the Christian life that is Christ-centered

30:51 but divorced from the church. It is Christ-centered but it is church. But it is church-based. And you say, Pastor, why is that so?

31:02 Well, we could give many reasons, but let me give you a couple very quickly. It is because God has been pleased to deposit those means for spiritual maturation within His church. That's where He's put them. He gives pastors and teachers to His church.

31:19 And they are given for the perfecting of the saints in the context of the life of the church. And central among those means of their maturation is the preaching and teaching of the Word. God has deposited that in His church. Furthermore, God has given us the means of mutual exhortation and comfort and rebuke.

31:40 Where? In the fellowship of His church. Hebrews 3, 12 and 13. Exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

31:53 1 Thessalonians 4, 18. Wherefore, comfort one another with these words. James 5. Confess your sins one to another.

32:01 Pray one for another. It is in the context of the church that God gives individual gifts. To what end? That the entire body might be profited.

32:10 The whole teaching of 1 Corinthians 12 in particular. The teaching again of 1 Peter 4, 10 and 11. As each man hath received a gift, ministering it among yourselves to the end that God may be glorified. It's in the church.

32:26 It's in the church that God has deposited pastoral guidance and care. It is to pastors of the church at Ephesus that Paul says take heed to the flock of God in the which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to feed or shepherd the flock which He purchased with His own blood. And we could go on and multiply the things that indicate that any theology and practice of the Christian life that approaches the teaching of the Bible will be a theology and practice that is not only Christ centered but church based. Now listen carefully to what I say as I try to bring this now into the realm

Integrating Private Disciplines with Corporate Life

33:10 where I can do some legitimate exhorting. I am not suggesting that there is any substitute for secret private prayer. Jesus said when you pray enter into your closet and shut the door and pray to your Father. Pray to your Father in secret.

33:29 I am not saying there is any substitute for secret private prayer. I am not saying that there is any substitute for secret private meditation upon the Word of God. Nor am I saying that there is not a legitimate place for individual nurture of the inner life of the child of God. But what I am saying is that if those private personal secret disciplines are not growing out of and coming to development in fellowship with the church they can be the very means of a person going off the rails.

34:11 When I go into my closet to pray I better take with me the realism of my deep involvement with the body of Christ and Christ assumes that in the very prayer He gave us to pray. Enter into your closet. Shut your door and pray. And when you pray say Our Father who art in the heavens hallowed be Thy name.

34:30 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. He is assuming we are in living relationship with people that will offend us and whom we will offend and we need to exercise mutual forgiveness.

34:53 And He doesn't say when you pray say My Father but Our Father. You see there are hints of a corporate consciousness even in the secret place. You go into the secret place to meditate upon your Bible and you are not sitting under proven men who are safe guides in the Scripture Ephesians 4 who are conditioning you to read your Bible responsibly by the very example they set in the handling of the Scripture. God says He gives pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints in order that you be no more children tossed through and fro by every wind of doctrine.

35:31 And many a heretic had the beginnings of his heresy when he became a lone ranger Christian. And he began in his intimate times with God to see things in his Bible no one else ever saw. And he didn't go into his closet to be a heretic but he'd cut himself off from the means God had ordained to keep him from instability. And that is the life and fellowship and ministry of the church of Jesus Christ.

36:03 No, I am not setting private devotional exercises over against the corporate life of the church but what I'm saying is the God who knows us and the God who longs to hear us in the most intimate, unshareable exercises of love and devotion in the secret place is the God who has established that we shall have our Christian lives nurtured and lived out in a church-based, Christ-centered experience and life. Now in the light of that which is the clear teaching of the Word of God I want to show you what happens when people try to separate what God has joined.

Dangers of Separating Christ-Centeredness and Church-Based Living

36:47 You have some who say, yes, we must have a church-based Christian life. And yet in that church and in their own individual experience there is not a living, spirit-empowered, Christ-centeredness to their lives. And what happens? The church then becomes either an object of idolatrous trust or it becomes a horrible shell of empty, barren rituals and forms.

37:23 If it's not Christ-centered and church-based but only church-based what life will be in the praises of a people who come to sing as we sang this morning Jesus, Thou joy of loving hearts Thou fount of life Thou light of men From the best bliss that earth imparts We turn unfilled to Thee again We taste Thee, O Thou living bread And long to feast upon Thee still We drink of Thee the fountainhead and long and thirst our souls from Thee to fill How much real life would there be

38:07 singing that corporately if you don't have a people feeding upon Christ in the secret place? If their lives are not Christ-centered drawing them into the closet drawing them about their tables for family worship with warmth and Christ-centered spiritual reality when they gather in their corporate life they'll be empty, hollow, hypocritical church life And so we must not make an idol of the church or an empty shell of the church by divorcing intimate personal communion from Christ among those who comprise the church But now the flip side is true There are many in our day who say

The Abnormality of a Christ-Centered Life Apart from the Church

38:52 Oh yes, I have a Christ-centered Christian life I love Christ, I feed upon Christ I meditate upon Christ in my devotions I pray through Christ in the secret place and I witness about Christ And you say, what's your relationship to the church? Oh, the church, that's just an institution It doesn't make any difference when you get your name on a roll Or is that so? Where do you find that in the Bible? Have you taken the time to see?

39:22 If you profess to be a Christian and that profession has any substance to it and yet you are not committed to Christ's church you are an abnormality not recognized in the New Testament Now don't get mad at me Please don't get mad at me Please don't get mad at me Will you go to your Bible and find me in the Bible And I don't mean the thief on the cross He went to heaven before he could ever become a church member Hang around Had he hung around in Jerusalem he'd have been there in that crowd I assure you And don't take the Ethiopian eunuch because that's a situation we don't know what happened But you go to the New Testament

40:07 You tell me wherever someone is clearly identified as a Christian whether or not he's found indifferent and absent from the church or a part of the church Even the great apostle Paul saved by direct revelation from heaven First thing he did when he went to Jerusalem What did he try to do according to Acts chapter 9? He tried to join the church He didn't come to Jerusalem and say Oh well The Lord has saved me Light from heaven What more do I need? I've got a commission from heaven I'm going to set up the Jerusalem Pauline Evangelistic Society I'm going to go get incorporated Open up an account in the local bank Start doing my thing No, he said As soon as he came to Jerusalem The Old English says He assayed to join himself to them

40:51 They didn't believe he was a real Christian See, they didn't just take everybody at face value Oh, you're Paul Oh, we'll take you So they didn't believe he was a disciple See, we know about you You're the guy who goes around taking men and women and dragging them into courts and into jails and to death Uh-uh We believe you're trying to be a fifth columnist We ain't letting you in What did Paul do? He didn't just pout and get mad And say, phew, plague on your house The Lord spoke to me I'll start my own church He didn't do that either Nor did he say Oh well, since I'm saved by Christ And I tried and they won't let me in Phooey on the church That ain't what he did either Because he had a right attitude to the church God brought a good man along called Barnabas

41:35 And Barnabas spoke to the leaders and said Look, this guy's all right He's for real Let him in And it says he was with them Going in and out Preaching boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus With them He became a church member And that's why we're thrilled when those of you Who believe in the providence of God God may have you relocate First thing you do is you come and say Is there a good church in this area? That's non-negotiable We must take second place To Christ's church Why? Because you're convinced that the Christian life Taught in the Bible Is a Christ-centered, church-based Christian life And you've got no silly notions

42:20 You can live that Christ-centered life In any other framework But that which is instituted of God If God sovereignly wrenches a person loose Through military service Or some factor outside his control Are we saying he can't be kept and held up by God? No We've had living witnesses In this congregation Of people marvelously upheld Who had no church fellowship Sometimes for months But it wasn't because Of their own presumption It was because Of the sovereign disposition of God But dear people Any of you that think That church is a luxury That church is something You can take or leave Remember Jesus regards

43:05 Your treatment of the church As your treatment of him The scripture says that Paul was making havoc Of the church And yet when the Lord speaks to him From heaven he says Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Luke didn't say He was persecuting Christ He said he was persecuting the church Jesus said Why do you persecute me? You touch my church You touch me Despise my church You despise me You can't have it both ways My friend You can't profess To love the Christ To the Bible And be indifferent To his church You can't do it You can't do it Now you may try And you may try To say Well I'm the exception But my friend You can't do it You can't do it Now you may try

43:50 And you may try To say Well I'm the exception But my friend Let God be true And every man a liar And I urge those of you Who are filled With this crass Individualistic notion That you can declare Yourself a Christian And you can have All the rights And privileges Of being received And treated as a Christian But you will not commit yourself To Christ's church No Listen carefully To what I say Whatever subjective grounds I may have To believe any man Or woman Boy or girl Is a child of God I have no biblical grounds To give him the rights And privileges Of unfettered Christian recognition And privileges Until he or she

44:34 Is found A member of Christ's church You see what complications This brings Is somebody says Well I'm saved And the young man Begins to get interested In the young woman Vice versa One's a church member One isn't Now look at the mess You've made How do you know that Well a person says I know I know I'm saved And the guy says I know I'm saved The gal says She knows she's saved And then before long On the wings Of that romantic involvement They come before the elders I'd like to join the church Why Oh I believe I'm saved Well why not before Now it's all complicated With the romantic involvement And here the elders Are saying Lord we don't want

45:18 To let in people Who are using the church For their own ends But Lord We don't want To be suspicious Of people Who are yours We don't want To refuse people That belong to you We don't want To let in people Who'd use your church For their own base ends Look at the horrible Position we're put in It's a no win situation Let them in We're gullible And we encourage sin Keep them out We're narrow hearted And we're refusing One who may belong To Christ But who created The problem We didn't The person Who was a church member Who began to get Romantically involved With a non church member Created the problem Not us

Formal Recognition and God's Nursery for Heaven

46:03 The person Who was a church member Was giving Recognition Publicly And formally To someone As a Christian Who has not Yet met The terms Of the Bible To be formally Publicly Acknowledged As a Christian Now I didn't say You weren't a Christian If you weren't A church member Now don't go out And say I said that I didn't say that What I said is Set the terms Of recognizing Formally And publicly Who is a Christian God has set them It's like A common law A couple may Solemnly Covenant on their Knees To be truly Married in the sight Of God

46:48 And pledge fidelity One to another And never enter The marriage bed Till they do But do I have Any proper Grounds according To the law Of the state To call them A bona fide Husband and wife Until they've Gone and had Their blood tests Taken out Their marriage License And had it Signed By a properly Married man And woman The state doesn't Give me that right And does Jesus Christ Have no more rights Than the state Jesus Christ Says Those Who Have the privilege Of being acknowledged Publicly And formally As his own Are those Who are found

47:32 In his church Does that mean Everyone who is In his church Is truly Saved No Everyone out Of the church Not saved No But we're talking About that Which God Allows us To acknowledge And formally To recognize And dear people I fear That there's Some sloppy Thinking That despises The church Of Christ And thinks That one Can have All the rights And privileges Of being Recognized As a child Of God And treated The same At every level Including romance Especially To the Children

48:16 Of Israel But we Must Continue To keep It In Our Minds And look At the Truth Of us Who Threaten All In Our Life To the Church And when We See That There's life that flourishes right up to the point where in the language of one man God transplants us

48:57 and the Christian who's a flourishing plant in the house of God gets transplanted when he goes to heaven and Psalm 92 tells us the way of being flourishing verse 12 the righteous shall flourish like the palm tree he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon they are planted in the house of Jehovah they shall flourish in the courts of our God they those who are planted in the house of God and flourishing in the courts of God they shall bring forth fruit in old age they shall be full

49:38 of sap and green to show that the Lord is upright he is my rock and there's no unrighteousness in him what a wonderful thing it is when you see people growing old and growing greener and greener in the house of God where the church of Christ becomes the very context in which their roots go deeper and deeper into Christ and though the thatch on top may get thin or grow gray and gravity takes its toll on the folds in the cheek and in the chin and the tummy and the thighs and all the marks of old age creep

50:19 on yet you see though the outward man is decaying the inward man's being renewed and they're ripening for transplantation and where does that happen in the courts of God and in the house of God don't despise God's nursery for heaven the church is God's nursery where he prepares his plants before he transplants them what evidence is there that we really are determined to give an unquestionable confirmation that the church is unique in the saving purposes of God I answer our theology and our faith in the ому

51:04 eternal life

51:29 14 15 16 17 15 life here and wherever we meet in His name. May the Lord grant that we shall lay these things to heart and by the grace of God recommit ourselves to them for His glory and our good. Let us pray.