Our Duty Toward the Rising Generation (3)

Introduction: The Tragedy of Forgetfulness and Indifference

0:02 The following message was delivered on Sunday morning, May 29, 1994, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:13 Now will you follow with me in your Bibles, please, as I read what are very familiar words to many of you sitting here this morning. And may not the familiarity be a block to the fresh impress of the Word of God upon our ears as it is read. This is not one of the texts that will be expounded, but you will see the relevance of the reading of this passage prior to seeking God's blessing, again upon the ministry of the Word, and then proceeding with that ministry. Romans chapter 12.

0:52 Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12 and verses 1 and 2.

1:00 Having opened up in great detail the grand sweep of God's saving mercy to hell-deserving sinners among Jews and Gentiles, the Apostle then entreats the Roman Christians with these words, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a light, living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service, and do not be fashioned according to this world or this age, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,

1:44 that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Now let us pray and ask that God will attend the ministry of His, the word to the prophet of each one of our hearts. Our Father, we do acknowledge you to be the all-terrible God, the God before whom sinless, exalted creatures veil face and feet and cry one to another, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God, the Almighty.

2:30 We confess the sin, the sin of our wretched irreverence in our thoughts and in our dealings with you. Have mercy upon us that we trifle with you, the God who can smite a mighty king of the earth in the midst of his self-exaltation and cause him to be eaten by worms in the sight of all who beheld him. O Lord, give us a fresh sense that you are a consistent, resuming fire and that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of you, the living God. We come now to your word.

3:15 Help us to give to that word all the reverence and attention which it deserves because it is your word. Speak to every heart in this place this morning, we plead may the word run and have free course, be glorified in our midst through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. A tragedy worthy of the tears of

3:50 angels when any generation becomes so obsessed with the present pursuit of carnal pleasures that the past is buried in willful ignorance or careless forgetfulness and when the future is regarded as unworthy of serious reflection or of making any self-denying demands upon us in the present. And assuredly then if angels do weep they must weep profusely at this generation of angels.

4:32 of Americans on this Memorial Day weekend. While this legal holiday has been marked out to remember those who have died in the various wars of our country thereby securing and preserving the manifold liberties which you and I enjoy today. The average American identifies this weekend with the official start of the summer holiday. The Indianapolis 500 and the first days of surf and sand at the shore or relaxing at

5:15 the local lake. Surely as the people of God who worship the Lord of the nations and the commander-in-chief of the armies of the earth we of all people ought to be found breaking loose from the mentality of the average American. And find time to give thanks to this God who has been pleased to secure for us the manifold liberties and blessings that we presently enjoy and cry to this God that he would come in mercy

5:53 and saving power and arrest the frightening downward slide of our nation into certain ruin through our shameless disregard of the law of God and our arrogant indifference to his gospel. However while it is indeed a tragedy in society at large when the past is forgotten, when the patterns of God's past dealings are ignored and even a greater tragedy when amongst God's

The Manifesto's Purpose: Preserving Spiritual Heritage for Rising Generations

6:35 people there is no thought of the age. To come when it is a tragedy in the world surely among God's people it is an even greater tragedy when that disposition is mirrored in God's people. In order to seek to prevent this sinful forgetfulness of the past and this wicked indifference to the future we've been engaged in a very lengthy series of messages 110 to be exact entitled The Manifesto of Trinity Baptist Church.

7:14 And the constantly reiterated purpose of these studies has been to lay bare the foundational issues which have shaped our first 25 years of life together as a church and then to issue a fresh summons of commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ himself and to these principles insofar as they are true. The first 25 years of life together as a church and then to issue a fresh summons of commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ himself and to these principles insofar as they are true. The second 25 years of life together as a church and then to issue a fresh summons of commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ himself and to these principles insofar as they are true. The first 25 years of life together as a church and then to issue a fresh summons of commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ himself and to these principles insofar as they are true.

7:41 The first 25 years of life together as a church and then to issue a fresh summons of commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ himself and to these principles insofar as they are true. The second 25 years of life together as a church and then to issue a fresh summons of commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ himself and to these principles insofar as they are true. The first 25 years of life together as a church and then to issue a fresh summons of commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ himself and to these principles insofar as they are true. to the rising generations.

7:50 We have been looking back to understand something of our history. We have been called to commit ourselves and to preserve and perpetuate the spiritual heritage that has come to us, many of us, through the price paid by others. And yet we are the benefactors. And if there is ever a place at which the exhortation of Paul is appropriate, be not fashioned according to this age.

8:23 It is precisely here. This is an age that says history is junk and is indifferent to its past and says all that matters is what I enjoy now and straps future generations with shameful national debt, with morally ridiculous, with intellectual confusion, with perversion of every kind and says if it gratifies me now, nothing else is of any importance. God have mercy on a church when the rank and file of its people say I enjoy its worship,

9:07 I enjoy its ministry, I profit from it now, but I don't care about its past. And I'm indifferent to its future. We have become conformed to the spirit of this age. For one of the marks of God's people in both the old and the new covenants is that they have a great sensitivity to and even a fascination with their past and they have an eye to the future, not only the ultimate future of the consummation at the coming of Christ, but to any generations of the people of God

9:50 that will yet be present until he comes. And so for these past couple of years in our Lord's Day morning ministries, by and large we have been occupied with this manifesto in which we have tried to push back the backfill and lay bare our foundations and highlight the scriptural, the biblical, the stuff of which those foundation blocks are made and to commit ourselves afresh to Christ the Lord of the church and to those principles of our life together. We have now for the past couple of weeks

10:33 been considering the tenth and final tenet in that manifesto and I have expressed it this way, that we are determined to establish, maintain and transmit an understanding and practice of our duty to the rising generations. We are determined to establish, put in place, having put in place to maintain and maintaining to transmit, to pass on a biblical understanding and practice of our duty to the rising generations.

Recap: Duty to Natural and Spiritual Generations

11:16 And in our opening study we focused upon that duty as it is highlighted with reference to our natural generations, those that come by our natural progeny. And in the light of several passages in the book of Deuteronomy we saw that fundamentally our duty to the generations of our nature, to the generations of our nature, to the generations of our nature, to the generations of our natural children is basically two-fold. To pursue a life of universal submission to the word of God in our own experience and secondly to teach and to command

12:01 a life of universal submission to the word of God to the rising generations. That is the motif that comes out again and again in God's word to his ancient people in the book of Deuteronomy. Then last Lord's Day we began to focus our attention upon our duty to the rising generations of spiritual children within the sphere, not of the family now, but of the church. And we had time to highlight only two of those aspects of our duty.

12:38 First, that we must maintain an unquenched passion of love for the person of God. According to Revelation 2, 1 to 5, One of the conditions of remaining a lampstand where the light of Christ's presence is known and felt is that we maintain the passion of love to the person of Christ. And then secondly we must maintain an uncompromising adherence to the truth of Christ. According to Revelation 2, 1 to 5,

13:15 to Ephesians 2 20 that church or that part of the church universal that Christ recognizes as his work is only that which is built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets that is built upon the doctrine the teaching of Christ revealed through the apostles and prophets and the church is a church owned by Christ only so long as it functions for the purpose for which Christ established it and according to 1st Timothy 3 15 the church

13:56 is established to be the pillar and ground of the truth not the latest fad of social action not the latest crucible of whatever is important in the eyes of society but it is a church that is built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets that Christ is to be pillar and ground of that changeless eternal truth found within the pages of this Bible that very truth which from another perspective is its foundation Christ Jesus the chief cornerstone now this morning as time permits I want us to focus upon two possibly three more aspects

14:38 of our life together as a church which you, particularly the rising generation, must perceive as absolutely essential if you are to leave a spiritual legacy to the rising generations. And for some of us who are part of the generation that will soon be off the scene, should the Lord tarry, if you're wondering how should I focus my prayers for the rising generation? What should I pray for the young couples just having their children? What should I pray for the singles who are just choosing

15:19 marriage partners and establishing themselves in their life career? What should I pray for them? Dear people, these are the things that we need to pray. We need to cry to God, O Lord, by your mighty Spirit, through the ministry of the Word, through the ministry of the Word, through the discipline of chastening, by every legitimate means, O God, keep this assembly unquenched in the ardor of its first love to Jesus Christ Himself. And we need

15:52 to say, O God, keep this church uncompromising in its adherence to the truth of Christ, though it seems there is no aspect of that truth that is not up for grabs in our day, no longer just by skeptics and liberals, but so-called evangelicals, denying the doctrine of eternal punishment, denying the doctrine of the inerrancy of the Word of God, denying the clear teaching of the Bible concerning the relative roles of men and women in the home and in the church, and things up for grabs. And it will become increasingly difficult to be a church that is a pillar and ground of the truth.

16:36 All the truth. And nothing but the truth. A church determined to say, we will not allow one grain of Christ's truth to fall to the earth as something cheap. We need to cry to God that God will so work that there will be those first two elements absolutely essential in the life of any church that is to be indeed a true church.

Third Essential: Unfeigned Love for One Another

17:08 But those two things are not true. They are not enough. In the third place, we must maintain an unfeigned love for one another as disciples of Christ. We must maintain an unfeigned love for one another as the disciples of Christ.

17:30 Yes, unquenched love to the person of Christ, uncompromising adherence to the truth of Christ, but there must also be unfeigned love for one another as the disciples of Christ. When our Lord was about to finish his work on earth, he opened his heart in the most intimate way in the chapters of our Bible. What he said is recorded in John 13 through 16. One author commenting on those chapters, plus the prayer of chapter 17, entitled his commentary, The Inner Sanctuary.

18:16 The Inner Sanctuary. In this discourse, the Lord is opening his heart to his intimate friends. In fact, he says, I'm not going to even call you any longer just servants, for a servant is not privy to the intimate details of his master's life. I'm going to call you friends, because now I'm disclosing my heart at a deeper level.

18:41 And in the midst of that Inner Sanctuary of the Lord unfolding his heart to his own, he speaks these words of chapter 13, verses 34 and 35. A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall I...

19:12 All men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another. Now the first thing we must say about these two verses is that Jesus is not here saying that love amongst professed disciples of Christ is the only or the paramount criterion of their true identity. No. There are other passages, such as John 8, where Jesus says, If you remain in my truth, then are you my disciples indeed.

19:55 If you remain in my word, then are you my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. So this verse must not be taken out of the setting of the entire witness of the word of God. That's the first thing we must say. And the second thing we must say is, that when...

20:14 That when Jesus says, A new commandment I give unto you, he is not saying that love one to another is an entirely new commandment. For when the Old Testament law is summarized, Jesus himself says, The first and great commandment is, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, soul, and strength. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. So love at the horizontal level is not a new commandment.

20:44 What is new is the commandment to love one another, taking all of its contours and all of its savor from the work that Christ would accomplish in his love to his own. Look at the text. A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another even as I have loved you. That's the newness of the command.

21:13 And there is now a new standard in terms of redemptive history. Christ as the good shepherd is about to lay down his life for the sheep. He makes it evident that this was in his thought in verse 11 of chapter 15. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.

21:39 This is my commandment, that you love me, love one another even as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do the things which I command you. So our Lord here in giving the new commandment is emphasizing that the newness of the command to love is to be understood in the light of the manifestation of his love for you.

22:12 In laying down his life for his own. And he says, by this shall all men know that you are my disciples. If you have love one to another. What kind of love?

22:29 Not the kind of love that binds a bunch of elderly women together in their bridge club on Tuesday afternoons. If you go by and look at them, you'd say they really love one another. They enjoy one another. They enjoy speaking and playing bridge or the local flower club or whatever it is that binds people together in the semblance of some measure of loving intimacy.

22:54 No. He says, by this shall all men know that you are my disciples. If you have love one to another. What kind of love?

23:02 A love that reflects something of his love that is so selfless and so self-giving that he has prepared the glorious intimacy that the incarnate God of heaven is prepared to lay down that life impelled by the objects or impelled by his love for sinners. And this, the Lord says, is that which is to identify his own. For you see, the community of his people, the church, is a community brought together by its professed common participation in the benefits, of the love of Christ.

23:46 What is it that brings a church together if it's a church? It's a common acknowledgement that we are all sinners in Adam. We are all by nature under the wrath of God. Left to ourselves, we would have forever gone in the direction of sin and death and ended up in hell.

24:06 But the God who so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish, that God brought the gospel into our lives. And by one means or another, he brought us to see how much we needed the Savior and how perfectly suited the Savior was to our need. And we were brought to repentance and faith and into new life in union with Christ. And so we have made public profession of that.

24:36 In God's appointed ordinance of baptism, we have declared that our only hope of salvation is in Christ, crucified, buried, and risen from the dead. And we've confessed that in faith union with him, we too have died to sin. We too have risen to newness of life. And what is it that binds us together?

24:59 It is our professed common attachment to the Lord Jesus. Now how incongruous that, to profess that it is the love of a dying Savior that binds us together. And yet, not to have as the dominant grace of our relationship one to another a love that mirrors the selfless, self-giving love of Christ. Shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have love one to another?

25:39 And we could reverse it and say, by this shall all men know that I disown you as my true disciples if whatever else you have you do not have. The manifestations of this selfless, self-giving love one to another. And we find that emphasis of our Lord picked up in the epistles. We come to Ephesians chapter 5 after exhorting the Ephesian Christians to put away everything that is contrary to love at the end of chapter 4.

26:18 Ephesians chapter 4, tells them to, verse 31, let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, railing be put away with all malice. Those are all things that cannot abide in the light of Christ-like love. Bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, railing, let them be put away positively. Be kind one to another, tender-hearted, notice, forgiving each other even as God in Christ forgave you.

26:52 Then he moves to this general exhortation, be therefore imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love. And what's to be the standard of that love? What's the paradigm of that love? Even as Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us.

27:15 He loved and gave himself up. Walk in that love, that love that mirrors his love, that gave, that gave. The selfless, self-giving love of Christ is to be the standard of our love one to another. Peter picks up the emphasis in 1 Peter chapter 1 describing the experience of all of the community to whom he writes who are truly the people of God, who are truly the people of God, he describes their entrance into the Christian life in this way,

28:00 verse 22 of chapter 1, seeing you've purified your souls in your obedience to the truth. This is a rather unique way of describing their conversion. They have experienced the purification of soul in conjunction with obedience to the truth, obedience to the truth of the gospel.

28:23 They have experienced a purification of soul in conjunction with obedience to the truth. Furthermore, in verse 23, they have undergone a new birth having been begotten again, a new birth which occurred in conjunction with the proclamation of the word, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible through the word of God which lives and abides. And this is the word, end of verse 23, verse 25, of good tidings which was preached unto you. See these various strands describing their conversion.

29:02 They've undergone a purification of soul in conjunction with obedience to the truth. They have been begotten of God through the instrumentality of the word, that word which was preached. But now, set in the midst of that, go back to verse 22, in the midst of that, he says, seeing you've purified your souls in your obedience, in your obedience to the truth, unto, in other words, your conversion was unto something. And what was it?

29:35 Unto unfeigned, unhypocritical love of the brethren. And then he gives an imperative, love one another from the heart fervently. So in between, describing their initial Christian experience as a purification, as a purification of soul in obedience to the truth, as a divine begetting in conjunction with the truth, he plants the issue of love to the brethren, unfeigned love, as central.

30:11 If we were to take just this text, we would say the very end for which we have had a purification of soul in obedience to the truth is that we might love the brethren.

30:25 Now that's not the whole of the teaching of the Bible, but it is the clear teaching of this passage. And since we have experienced this purification of soul through obedience to the truth unto unfeigned love of the brethren, then Peter says, get on with the very end to which God purified your soul from all of its lovelessness, from all of its self-centeredness, from all of its self-preoccupation that would keep you from genuinely loving with a love that mirrors the love of Him who gave Himself for us. Central in Peter's thinking and fundamental to Christian experience

31:08 is unhypocritical brotherly affection. And there he uses the one word, philadelphia, brotherly affection, and then in the verb love one another, he uses agapao, showing that we cannot put some hard, fast distinction between these two things. Whatever is true brotherly affection in a selfless, self-giving way is to mark the relationship of God's people one to another. And surely I need not go back over all the passages in the book of 1 John.

31:47 There we are told by this we know we've passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. He that loveth not abideth in death. And then he goes on to say, we know the love of God, in that He sent His Son. And if He sent His Son and we claim to receive life from the Son who was sent and the Son who gave, then surely we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

32:12 And if that is the logical end of the love of Christ being perceived and spiritually apprehended, he says, surely then if your brother merely has a need and you do not respond according to your knowledge of that need and your capacity, then you do not respond. How does the love of God dwell in you? If the love of God dwelling in you as Christ loved would move you to lay down your life for your brethren, then surely it will move you to open your hand, to reach into your pocket, to open your door, to open your guest room, whatever it is that will minister to your brother's need. And without this, he says, all claims to be in the truth and to believe the truth and to know God and to be right with God

32:57 are false. So, dear people, it is not enough that by the grace of God, with our burden for the rising generations, we are determined that we shall maintain the unquenched ardor and passion of love for the person of Christ, an uncompromising adherence to the truth of Christ. We must maintain an unfeigned love for one another. We must maintain an unfeigned love for one another as the disciples.

Fourth Essential: Unfractured Unity as the Body of Christ

33:36 For by this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another. But then, fourthly, adding on from the two last weeks, the third, we must maintain an unfractured unity as the body of Christ.

34:00 We must maintain an unfractured unity as the body of Christ. Now, the fact that the people of God are constituted a body is a well-attested aspect of biblical revelation. 1 Corinthians 12, 12 and 13. And here, the perspective is broader than the local church and most likely is referring to all of God's people on the face of the earth at any given time.

34:34 For as the body is one and hath many parts, and all the members of the body being many are one body, so also is Christ. For in one spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free, and were all made to drink of one spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. Here, every true Christian is described as having been baptized into the body of Christ and has been made to drink of the spirit of Christ.

35:17 This is not some description of only a few within the church. If we are without the spirit of Christ, where Paul says in Romans 8, we are none of His. And if we possess the spirit, the spirit has incorporated us into the one body of Christ. Romans 12, 4 and 5, uses the same language.

35:40 Romans 12, I'm sorry, if I didn't say 12. Romans 12, verses 4 and 5.

35:46 For even as we have many members in one body, and all the members have not the same office, so we who are many are one body in Christ, and severally members one of another. And here the reference is more likely to the local expression of being a body, of Christ. But when we come to 1 Corinthians 12, 27, here the reference is obviously localized. 1 Corinthians 12, and verse 27, now you are, and the definite article is not there in the original, you are body of Christ.

36:29 You there at Corinth are a body of Christ, and severally members thereof. And Philip Hughes in his excellent, I'm sorry, not Hughes, Groshide in his commentary on 1 Corinthians states that Paul does not have the universal church in view in this passage, but the local congregation at Corinth, in which the universal church manifests itself. The Corinthian church is a body of Christ, an organism made by Christ and maintained by him, having the complete character of a body as that which was described. If the church does not want

37:13 to be guilty before Christ, it will have to show its character. It must be what it is. It must be what it is. We are one body in Christ.

37:27 And so I say, if we would leave a legacy to generations yet to come, what must we strive to leave them? We must seek to maintain, to maintain an unfractured unity as the body of Christ. And there are two texts, one here in Corinthians and one in Ephesians, that so clearly articulate this aspect of God's will for his people. 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 10.

38:00 As Paul begins to take up the problem of divisions at Corinth, he says, Now I beseech you, brethren, through the name of the Lord Jesus, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions, no schisms among you, but that you be perfected together in the same mind and in the same judgment. And then he goes on to tell them what he knows is happening that is contrary to that noble biblical ideal. And in so doing, he asks the question in verse 13, Is Christ divided? Does he have a fractured,

38:45 dismembered body? No. Then you Corinthians must not be fractured and dismembered. In the setting, they were being fractured and dismembered in terms of lining up behind their favorite preachers.

39:01 But it can be any number of anything that will cause a fracturing of the body, of that unity. And we must, as the people of God, if we have any concern, not only for our witness and effectiveness in this generation, but if we want to leave a legacy to rising generations, we must maintain an unfractured unity as the body of Christ. And it is that second pivotal passage, Ephesians 4, that indicates that this is not only our duty, but how it is to be pursued. Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 1, I therefore the prison of the Lord

39:46 beseech you to walk worthily of the calling wherewith you were called with all lowliness and meekness, with long suffering, forbearing one another in love, giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. This unity is a unity wrought by the Holy Spirit. When He unites us to Christ and to one another, He unites us as a living organism. Now we must be jealous to guard and to preserve that unity of which

40:30 the Spirit is the author. A unity wrought by the Spirit and characterized by peace. Let us keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. The absence of warfare and factions and friction and ill will and the disruption of carnal desires pursued by carnal means unto carnal ends.

40:58 No, where the unity of the Spirit exists, there is this climate of peace and it is based on common spiritual privileges. Verse 4, there is one body, one spirit, you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father. On what basis can this unity be established and maintained? All of the great common redemptive privileges that we have.

41:29 We've been placed into one body. We have been called by one, and we have been indwelt by one Spirit. We have been called in one hope of our calling. We all profess to be on our way to the same glorious consummation at the return of Christ.

41:47 We profess submission to one common Lord. We embrace one common faith. We have undergone one common baptism. There is one God and Father upon whom we call as our God and our Father.

42:01 Surely, we are not trying to create something that has no substance to it. All of these things are the stuff that we are called to be. The basis, the foundation of our unity. A unity wrought by the Spirit, characterized by peace, based on common spiritual privilege, but, but, maintained only by diligent effort.

The Diligent Effort Required for Unity

42:27 We are told to give diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit. It won't simply remain if we just let ourselves go. We must endeavor consciously and consciously and deliberately to maintain giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit. And in the context, the most effective way to do it is consciously to cultivate every grace that would militate against keeping the unity.

43:03 To cultivate every grace that promotes the unity and that will militate against any disruption of the unity. Look at the emphasis of the passage. He says, walk worthy of the calling wherewith you were called and what graces are highlighted, lowliness, meekness, long suffering, forbearing one another in love, giving diligence. Says these graces are the ones that must be operative to no ordinary degree.

43:37 If any congregation in any place at any time is to maintain unfractured unity as the body of Christ, but how much more in a congregation like this made up of a vast array of cultural and ethnic and social and economic backgrounds and stations with differing perspectives on a whole gamut of issues. If the graces of lowliness and meekness are not flourishing in our hearts, if long suffering and forbearance in love are not flourishing in our hearts, we will find in any given month enough occasions to split and fracture this body

44:21 in this place in a way that will bring grief to the hearts of all of God's true people. What a mercy that in 26 years we've never had a church split in this place. In 26 years we've never had a divided eldership and a divided diaconate.

44:43 In 26 years there's never been a congregational meeting. Where there has been an outburst of carnal bragging and carnal pushing and carnal manipulating. In 26 years God has enabled us to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. You think that's just happened?

45:11 I had a man once ask me, we were on a first name basis, he said, Al, why are you and your fellow elders so paranoid about one or two people becoming disaffected? Why are you so paranoid? And I looked him straight in the eye and I said, my brother, Psalm 133 says, behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity for there the Lord commands blessing.

45:44 And I said, brother, we're jealous for our unity because we're convinced if we allow a fracturing of that unity we're going to be we will grieve away the Holy Spirit and if God no longer commands blessing I want nothing to do with the church.

46:05 It hadn't just happened, folks.

46:09 And it won't just maintain itself. And that's what some of you, you see, you really don't believe because you've never known the other. Some of you have. And the first time you came to a congregational meeting, an annual meeting, you came holding your breath saying, oh no, is everything I've enjoyed and been blessed by going to go down the tubes?

46:29 A congregational meeting. The very first time the very word to you draws up connotations that make you shiver. And I've had many of you over the years come to me and say, Pastor, I never saw anything like this in my life. You could open up the floor.

46:42 Anyone have anything to say? Anyone have a concern? I said, why? Well, that's been done in the past in situations I've been in.

46:50 It's become a free-for-all. It's become a circus. It's become all-out war without bullets.

46:59 Dear people of God, that won't continue if the Lord carries for the next 25 years. Unless someone's in this place have the determination to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace and are determined to cultivate the graces of lowliness and meekness for the writer to Proverbs says only by pride comes contention. It's when I think that my perspective is more important than everyone else's that I'm going to railroad it even at the expense of fracturing the body of Christ. When my children taste in my desires and my inclinations whatever their roots may be only by pride.

47:43 It's when we have the spirit of Philippians 2 let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God thought not being equal with God a thing to be selfishly grasped at but emptied himself taking. Emptied.

48:03 Being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself. Became obedient of the day. Even the death of the cross. How can we claim to be saved on the grounds of the emptying of the Son of God taking true humanity to himself and in that humanity the form of a servant and in that servanthood the shameful death of the cross.

48:28 How can we be together saying we're saved by such a Savior and we're strutting around full of our own opinions ready to run roughshod over any others who differ with us or differ from us. Ready to press our own agenda even if it means schism in the body of Christ. A house divided against itself cannot stand. Those are the words of Jesus.

Fifth Essential: Unyielding Commitment to Corporate Holiness

48:56 Any man destroy the temple of God him shall God destroy. We must, we must by the grace of God maintain an unfractured unity as the body of Christ. And then my father my final head for this morning we must, by God's grace not only maintain unquenched passion of love for the person of Christ uncompromising adherence to the word of Christ unfeigned love for one another as disciples of Christ unfractured unity as the body of Christ

49:40 but we must maintain an unyielding commitment to co-existence to corporate holiness by the directives of Christ. We must maintain an unyielding commitment to corporate holiness according to the directives of Christ. One of the peculiar designations of the church is that it is called a company of saints when Paul writes his letters Romans 1-7 to the called saints at Rome. He uses the term again in chapter 15 25 and 31 16-2 and 16-15 at least five times in that one epistle

50:24 he refers to the church as the company of the saints. And while it is true that the saints have been set apart from the dominion of sin from the reign of sin set apart unto God in a life of holiness that's the significance of the word saint. They have remaining sin. They have the potential for the worst coming.

50:47 Kinds of sin however however listen carefully while the Bible says they must daily confess their sins and while the Bible says if any man says he has no need to confess sin he claims to be sinless he is self-deceived according to 1 John chapter 1. And while we must forgive one another forgiving one another as God for Christ's sake forgave us assumes that we're sinning against one another the Bible is not at all silent about the issue of the sins of the saints. But what I'm saying is this we must by the grace of God maintain an unyielding commitment

51:32 to corporate holiness according to the directives of Christ because the same Bible that teaches the saints sin they sin daily they will sin against God sin against one another the same Bible teaches that the corporate body of God's people must never take each other's sin lightly. We must if we sin against one another if it cannot be covered with a blanket of love if thy brother sin against thee rebuke him if he repents forgive him if thy brother sin against thee go tell him his fault between thee and him alone if he hear thee thou hast gained thy brother Matthew 18.15 and following if he hear thee not well forget it

52:16 you can't bat a thousand no take with you two or three more that at the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established if he refuse to hear them well don't be unkind and unloving just push it under the rug no tell it unto the church and if he refuse to hear the church let him be unto thee as a heathen and a publican in other words he no longer bears the marks of his sainthood therefore put him out of the company of the saints any man willfully stubbornly refusing to deal with his sin has no grounds to claim he's a saint now I didn't say any man

53:00 struggling with certain besetting sins and is waging all out war against them and may be for years I didn't say that I said any man stubbornly refusing to deal with his sin has no grounds to be in the company of the saints who with all his heart of their sins and faults are panting after that holiness without which no man shall see the Lord and therefore the community of God's people according to the standards of Christ must deal with the person who willfully perpetually goes on in a course of sin and will not repent or finds himself unable to deal with it thereby showing

53:44 he is devoid of the dynamics of grace Matthew 18.15 and following 1 Corinthians 3.15 1 Corinthians 3.15 and following Corinthians chapter 5 Romans 16.17

53:54 2 Thessalonians 3.6 and following we don't have time to turn and read them the passages are familiar I'm trying by way of synopsis to just shine the spotlight upon them the principle is this any who profess to be saints but refuse to walk as saints even after the patient loving admonitions and prayers of their fellow saints must know that they are not saints no longer be allowed the privilege of being amongst the saints as a member of that assembly would you leave to our children a church where the spirit of God is not grieved away

54:36 would you leave to the rising generation a place of which it could be said no man dared join himself to them but the Lord added such as should be saved would you have a place where the saints could be saved where the saints could be saved where the saints could be saved where the saints could be saved where there is no stain of public scandal in the community because it is known that a man living in adultery is retained on the membership rolls where a woman known to have a tongue as long as a city block and she lashes and cuts and gossips is a member in good standing of that church

55:19 do you long to have a church where whatever the community may be think or say about them being straight-laced and puritanical and old-fashioned and all the rest they cannot legitimately say what kind of church is that with that man that woman and to my knowledge to our knowledge as your elders we have never knowingly tolerated that which would not only bring shame to the name of Christ but would allow a defiling influence to spread according to 1 Corinthians 5 I know you not that a little leaven leavens the whole lump

56:03 put out that wicked man from among yourselves Paul says put him out not only for his own good that the spirit may be saved but for the preservation of the purity of the remainder of the lump of God's people if we would leave to our children the heritage of a church where Christ is present where the spirit of God works powerfully then we must leave the church where there is this commitment by the grace of God to maintain

The Normandy Illustration: Passing on a Legacy

56:47 unyielding unyielding adherence to corporate holiness according to the directives of Christ in summarizing and bringing the message to a conclusion this morning coming around full circle to where we began about the necessity of looking back and knowing our heritage and giving thanks for it and then committing ourselves to preserve it intact and pass it on to others insofar as it lies within our power I came across a very touching story in one of the Christian magazines that comes to my home a grown woman

57:31 accompanied her dad a couple of years ago to Normandy where her father with thousands of others of the allied troops landed on what was called D-Day that was the great final turning point in the Second World War as far as the efforts of Germany and Hitler to launch worldwide conquest and she said as she went from place to place there were many things that surprised her but this was one of them she walked into one town and this is what the woman wrote three generations of families stand in front of the downtown shops applauding fervently as we stride by

58:16 many people offer handshakes eyes communicating admiration and respect some who know English shout out we'll never forget what you did for us others hand bouquets of fresh cut roses to the veterans' wives a teenage boy grabs my dad by the hand and says I respect you very much sir I do respect you three generations what had happened the generation that was alive when our troops came on shore had passed on to their sons and daughters the price that American soldiers pay to liberate them in France and other parts of Europe and that generation had passed it on to their children

59:00 so that when this woman describes what happened in a little town in Belgium 800 people were waiting for them by the side of an American military cemetery they form an aisle for us to pass through and then grade school children come out of the crowd dressed in their clothes their Sunday best clothes they clutch a bouquet of fresh flowers in one hand and take the hand of an American by the other and one by one they lead us through the iron gates into another sea of white crosses you've seen the pictures where they've buried the dead thousands upon thousands ten year old Stephanie Danoel reaches for my hand she leads me to site

59:43 D13-43 the grave of Corporal Charles R. Felix handing me a small American flag she plants a Belgian flag on Corporal Felix's grave while I do the same with the stars and stripes together we lay the flower bouquet between the flags I stand up and wonder who Corporal Charles Felix was his inscription says he was from Indiana and died a week before Christmas in 1944 had he been married did his parents react after they learned their son was killed in action I looked across the acres of green lawn and white crosses dozens of Belgian children placed bouquets

60:28 and flags on the graves of soldiers from the U.S. 30th Army some of the children kneel as if in prayer I later learn these children are the designated caretakers they are taught about the sacrifice these soldiers performed and they are reminded to be grateful every year little Stephanie commemorates the death of Corporal Felix by decorating his grave you see the point you see the point not just a touching little emotional story you see the point Jesus said the sons of this world are wiser in their generation than the sons of light

61:11 here are a people who know somebody paid a price to give them what they enjoyed you see the point they were not going to bear children ignorant of that price though the children knew nothing of the war itself knew nothing of the privates and the corporals and the lieutenants who died to grant them their liberation from the Axis powers no but they had a sense of responsibility to pass on in a meaningful way to one generation in such a way that that generation at least that generation felt its obligation to be a part of the world to pass the baton to the third generation

Applying the Illustration to Trinity Baptist Church

61:55 for there were three generations of appreciative intelligent foreigners waiting for this American woman and her ex-soldier dad now in his seventies dear people of God that's what I've been preaching about in this manifesto people paid a price that there might be a trinity church with the word of God they weren't playing video games by the hours and they weren't out in the gosses by the hours

62:39 and they weren't in front of their tv's by the hours they were bent over their bibles wrestling with the rule of Christ and his church some experienced the severance of friendships of twenty thirty years some had relatives turn against them they paid that there might be a trinity baptist church I've been trying to lay bare not so much the price that was paid but that which God has been pleased to put in place by his word and his spirit

63:24 to this generation why that you might under God appreciate and understand what it is that God has given you and you might determine to hold it in time and to pass it on to the rising generation no matter what the cost dear people if we're going to have anything to pass on to the next spiritual generation to whatever extent the first generation has known

Personal Responsibility for Maintaining Spiritual Qualities

64:08 the outworking of these principles there's a very real sense in which our outworking of them will go to our graves with us and if some of us by the grace of God are unable to maintain the passion unquenched undiminished growing unabashedly unabashedly unquenched passion for the person of Christ that passion will be transferred to a better place when we breathe our last and not a gram of it will be left to divide up it must be kindled on the altar

64:53 of your own heart and there it must be fed by the fuel of contemplation of the love of Christ of the goodness of Christ of the tenderness of Christ of the self giving love of Christ it must be nurtured it must be cared for it's that tender plant remember the imagery last week we must not open up the doors of carelessness with regard to our use of Christian liberty and our entertainments and our recreations and allow the chill winds of worldliness to come and blast that tender exotic flower passion and love for the person of Christ

65:36 and whatever any of us have known we must have the desire of uncompromising attachment to the truth of Christ that attachment will be transferred when we no longer see through a glass darkly but we see face to face and we'll marvel at how little we knew but if there's to be that uncompromising attachment it's got to be in your heart where the truth of Christ is precious to you where you can say with David I esteem all thy precepts to be right and I hate every false way that must be kindled in your heart

66:20 and it's not kindled simply by threading the words of Spurgeon's morning and evening through your eyes and that's all the dealings you have with your Bible from one Sunday to another I'm not despising Spurgeon's morning and evening I used it as part of my devotions for two years my wife has used it for probably ten years but I'm saying if that's all with your Bible my friend that's not going to create the climate of uncompromising attachment to the truth of Christ and then we must at any cost short of sin maintain this unfamed love to one another as the disciples of Christ as unlovely

67:04 as some of us may be in certain areas you must cultivate the graces of long suffering patience and forbearance and we must continue to maintain an unfractured unity as the body of Christ and maintain an unyielding commitment to corporate holiness according to the directives now I ask you would you want to pass on to your children a church that lacked any one of those five things we've looked at would you want people to be converted out of raw paganism and come into an assembly that lacked any one of those five things

The Centrality of Christ and Call to Conversion

67:49 I don't think so I think it's on your shoulders before God you say but I thought the Lord nourishes and cherishes his church yes he does ultimately it is Christ and Christ alone as I've already asserted that is the preserver of his own truth and life in the hearts of his people but I'm saying we have a solemn responsibility before God the passages we've consulted indicate that it is that God is put in our hands to maintain these spiritual commodities within the life of this assembly if you're here this morning as an unconverted person

68:33 or a visitor wondering what we're all about I hope you've made at least one simple conclusion that the reference point of everything I've said has been Christ himself we've talked about the maintenance of an unquenched passion of love for the person of Christ and attachment to the word of Christ and loving one another as disciples of Christ and maintaining unity as the body of Christ and maintaining corporate holiness according to the standards of Christ and that hasn't been done to sound clever because my friend at the end of the day that's the heart

69:18 of it all once you take him out of that wheel in your bicycle and all the spokes are attached to it pull it out and there's nothing but wire spaghetti take Christ out and even if those things should seem to remain in place it won't be long before it'll be evident that the very soul and life of the church is gone may God grant that if you're not so attached to Christ that those things resonate in your breast and cause you to say I want more love to Christ that's what I want more attachment to his word more love for his people more oneness with his people

Concluding Prayer: Transformation and Legacy

70:02 more to know what it is to be amongst the people pursuing holiness with ardor and determination to be like Christ my friend to be a Christian is to feel at home in a climate like that and you never will unless you're given a new nature a new heart a new disposition and you're to seek it at the only place where God dispenses it and that's in the person of his own dear son let us pray our Father we acknowledge in your holy presence the great sense of solemnity

70:46 when we think of the history of the church that church at Ephesus founded by the great apostle the recipient of his labors for over three years benefactors of the labors of his spiritual son Timothy and yet this day shrouded in deepest darkness no lamps stand there oh Lord have mercy have mercy lest the exhortations and warnings are swallowed up in a sea of present pursuit of pleasure holy Father may we not be conformed to this present age but may we

71:31 be transformed may we think as the people of God that we may be transformed as the people of God have always thought when they have been filled with your spirit looking back looking forward looking upward write your word upon our hearts for your glory and for the good of your people and for the cause of truth and the gospel in the earth until our Lord returns we ask in his name Amen