The Corporate Means of Grace (1)

Introduction to the Sermon Series and Current Focus

0:02 was delivered on Sunday morning, June 6, 1993, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:12 And now then, will you turn in the word of God to two portions of Scripture, portions very familiar to many of you in this place, but it is their very usefulness that makes them familiar. The first is found in Acts chapter 2, Acts chapter 2, and I shall read in your hearing verses 37 through 42. As Peter is preaching on the day of Pentecost, explaining this unusual manifestation of the presence and power of God, which many gathered on that festive occasion saw and heard in the midst of his preaching, Luke tells us, verse 37, Now when they heard this, they were literally stabbed in their heart and said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do? 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,

1:36 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 from this crooked generation. They then that received his word were baptized, and they were added unto them in that, today, about three thousand souls. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching and fellowship in the breaking of bread and the prayers. And now over to Paul's first letter to his spiritual son and comrade in the work of the gospel, Timothy, 1 Timothy and chapter 3.

2:40 Having given to Timothy many directives relative to the ordering of the life of the church at Ephesus, and many directives to follow, Paul here gives the rationale for what he has been doing and what he will complete in this epistle, 1 Timothy 3, 14 and 15. These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly, but if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how men ought to behave themselves in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. Now let us once again ask the blessing of God upon the teaching and preaching of his holy word. Our Father, we are so thankful. We are so thankful for the privilege that has already been ours in this hour to draw near to you in the way of your own appointment, to sing your praises, to hear your word read in our hearing,

4:02 to seek your face in common agreement for the concerns of your kingdom. And now as we draw near again, we pray that the same Holy Spirit, who has attended and quickened our praises and our prayers and the hearing of your word will now come and be given to us in copious measures in the hearing and proclamation of the scriptures. Lord, undertake for your servant that your strength will be made perfect in his weakness. Undertake for every listener that the word of God be given to you.

4:44 That the word may come to every heart not in word only, but in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance. Hear us as we beseech you for these mercies through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. For the sake of those of you who are visiting with us today, I believe that the very lowest level, it is a matter of common courtesy to take a few minutes in order to give you at least a general awareness of where we are in our present Sunday morning expositions of the word of God. We come this morning to what is the 78th message in a series of sermons which I have chosen to entitle A Manifesto of Trinity Baptist Church. Now a manifesto is a public declaration, of the principles, aims, motives or beliefs of an individual or a group of individuals. And the occasion of beginning to preach this series of sermons entitled A Manifesto of this Assembly

6:08 was the approach of our 25th year of existence as a duly constituted Church of Jesus Christ. We were so constituted in the fall of 1967, and the fall of this past year marked 25 years, or if you want to feel shocked those of us who have been a part of it, a quarter of a century of life together. Now the purpose of this series was in its inception, has continued through its unfolding, and remains the same to this very hour. And that purpose is twofold.

6:51 First of all, to remind the older spiritual generation of this assembly of its heritage and to call us all to a renewed commitment to these things most surely believed and loved among us. My goal has been to do what Peter had in mind when he wrote in his second epistle, I shall be raised from the dead. I shall be raised from the dead. I shall be raised from the dead.

7:18 I shall be ready always to put you in remembrance of these things though you know them and are established in the truth which is with you. I think it right as long as I am in this tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance. The truths that he writes, they knew. The truths that they knew, they believed.

7:48 The truths that they believed, they believed. The truths they believed, they were practicing. But Peter says, I want to stir you up to an even greater zeal in holding to and in the outworking of those truths. That is my first purpose, and it remains to this hour.

8:09 But there has been from the beginning a second major purpose, and that is to articulate in a focused way, to the new spiritual generation, the major elements of your deposit of truth, and to call you as the rising generation to a commitment to preserve these things by the grace of God, even for generations to come. The scriptures make it very clear in such passages as Hebrews 2 and verse 1, that it is so easy with the passing of time to drift from our moorings of truth. And therefore the writer to the Hebrews speaking to these Christians says in chapter 2 of his epistle, therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things that were heard, lest haply, we drift away from them. What will keep us from drifting from our fundamental spiritual moorings? Only giving earnest to them.

9:36 We cannot hold them casually. We cannot hold them in a cavalier way. We cannot hold them in indistinct and nebulous conceptual forms. We must, we must see them clearly.

9:51 We must grasp them tenaciously. And we must be determined by the grace of God to preserve them intact and to pass them on to the generations to come. And that is the twofold purpose of this manifesto. I trust under God that purpose is being accomplished.

The Christian Life and the Corporate Means of Grace

10:17 Now in the course of setting out, the various parts of the manifesto, we've been doing that in terms of assertions which have focused on aspects of truth which have been indeed the very lifeblood, the lungs and the spiritual viscera of this congregation for its first 25 years of life together. And we are presently focusing our attention on the 95th, the ninth affirmation in that manifesto. And that ninth affirmation is this, that we are determined to maintain a balanced New Testament perspective in our teaching and expectations concerning conversion, the Christian life, and the mission of the church. Now having opened up some of the most crucial aspects of the New Testament doctrine of conversion, we have for a number of months been addressing ourselves to matters related to the doctrine of the Christian life. And if some of you have noticed that in some of these elements of the manifesto

11:36 there has been an uneven or disproportionate emphasis, that disproportionate emphasis has been dictated by pastoral concerns. There are certain aspects, aspects of God's truth, which are under more fierce attack in our day. And if we are to be true to the legacy which God has given us, then on those issues we must have both clear heads, warm hearts, and a principled commitment to Jesus Christ, to be faithful to Him and to His truth, and open unto death. And so we have seen in examining the New Testament doctrine of the Christian life, that there is no one master key to living the Christian life, that there is no escape from tension and conflict in living the Christian life, that there is no cancellation of any of the faculties of our redeemed humanity in living the Christian life, that there is no post-conversion crisis experience promised or commanded in conjunction with living the Christian life,

12:57 and that there are no effective substitutes for the God-appointed means of grace in living the Christian life. I have defined a means of grace far more broadly than the use of that term in classic theology. I have defined it as a discipline, a relationship or activity ordained by God to nurture the spiritual life imparted by God in conversion. And we spent a number of weeks looking at the first category of those means of grace, the individual or private means of grace, which we saw subsumed under three heads, maintaining the habit and the spirit of secrecy, the spirit of secret prayer, assimilating the contents of our Bibles, and the effectual working of trials, affliction, tribulation, and divine chastisement. Now this morning we take up the second major category of these means of grace, namely the corporate or the social means of grace. Those means of grace which are generally found not in the activity of the individual believer in isolation or in secret,

14:26 but which are found exercised by the believer in concert with his fellow believers. And in this initial examination of these corporate means of grace, we'll consider the teaching of Scripture under three major divisions this morning. First of all, the general principle stated. Secondly, the major means identified.

The General Principle: Corporate Means in the Biblically Ordered Church

14:56 And thirdly, some crucial conclusions drawn. First of all then, the general principle stated. When we address ourselves to the whole question of the public means of grace, we are confronted immediately with this principle. The corporate means of grace are deposited and exercised primarily within the life of a biblically ordered church.

15:33 If we pick up our Bibles, and in particular the New Testament with this question, if there are means of grace, that is, disciplines, relationships, and activities ordained of God to nurture the life of His people, and if some of those means are to be exercised in concert with other believers, we soon come to this conviction in reading through particularly the book of Acts and the epistles, that the corporate means of grace are deposited and exercised primarily, I didn't say exclusively, but primarily within the life of a biblically ordered church. You say, well, that's a very simple statement. Well, I assure you it didn't come simply. What I've told you represents hours of wrestling in order to grasp the heart of the teaching of the New Testament in a balanced way, and unless God radically alters the content of my Bible and my ability to understand it, I'm prepared to stand by that general principle.

Biblical Evidence from the Gospels: Christ's Vision for His Church

16:56 The corporate means of grace are deposited and exercised primarily within the life of a biblically ordered church. Now, the Bible evidence which supports this statement is manifold. It is explicit in many places. It is implicit in even more places of the New Testament, and I can only give you a specimen of that explicit and implicit evidence, starting with one of the two references to the church in the Gospels, and you know that those two references are in the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew 16, and again, Matthew 18. It is clear that our Lord envisions His people bound together in churches as the fruit of His work and as the context of His special presence. For our purposes this morning, we look only briefly at Matthew 16 and Jesus' statement in verse 17 and 18. Jesus answered and said unto him,

18:24 speaking to Peter, Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed it unto you, but my Father who is in heaven. That is, you have not come to the conviction of my identity as Son of God and God's anointed Messiah, the Christ. You have not come to that by logical deductions. You have not come to it by paying careful attention to a catechetical instructor.

18:56 You have come to it by a revelatory work of my Father in your heart. You have come to a knowledge of the identity of my person and of my office by this work of my Father. Verse 18, And I also say unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock, upon this rock of the confession of my identity and the realities which that confession embodies, I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it, and I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Here the Lord Jesus gives the first recorded reference to His church, and He says that He will build it, and that it will be built upon the truth and the realities surrounding who He is, Son of God, and the office He occupies as the anointed one, God's final prophet, priest, and King. Then when we turn to Matthew 18, and He gives us the second and only other reference to His church, notice what He envisions

20:24 with respect to the building of that church in terms of concrete, specific communities of His people. Matthew 18, If thy brother sin against thee, go, show him his fault between thee and him alone. If he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. If he hear thee not, take with thee one or two more, that at the mouth of two witnesses or three every word may be established.

20:54 And if he refuse to hear them, tell it unto the church. Now what's the assumption of our Lord? The assumption of our Lord, is that brothers who are brothers in spiritual life, in a common faith in the Lord Jesus, in a common confession of His identity as Son of God and Messiah, will be found gathered in churches. It's assumed.

21:32 He doesn't stop to prove it. He doesn't stop to exhort that it might be so. He simply assumes that as He builds His church upon the great foundation of His own person and work as Messiah, and as He uses as unique builders in that church the apostles, that what they build will be local churches where there is a brotherhood of faith, where there is a concrete expression of His gathered people. So that He doesn't say, and if He refuse to hear them, run around and find a few other spiritual brethren somewhere, somehow, in some relationship, and see if they can sort it out. No, tell it to the church. And if He refuse to hear the church also, let Him be unto thee as the Gentile and the publican. And then the similar words found in Matthew 16, Verily I say unto you, What things soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.

22:46 Now verse 19, If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything they shall ask, it shall be done of my Father. Now verse 24, Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst. In the midst of them. Gathered, there am I.

23:09 Gathered, there am I. And in the setting, we see it is the church gathered to implement discipline, and perhaps secondarily to unite in prayer, but it is the church gathered with specific brothers and sisters within its spiritual family, to which Christ pledges His special presence. And it is in the setting of His special presence within the church that the means highlighted in this passage is the means, restorative, corrective discipline, united agreement in prayer. Those two things at least are highlighted. But I want you to notice it is not secret prayer that is highlighted, nor is it mere private exhortation that is highlighted. It is corrective discipline taking place in the context of the church.

Biblical Evidence from Acts: The Apostolic Pattern of Church Planting

24:25 And it is united prayer, this symphony of agreement in the context of the gathered people of God. So here in seminal form our Lord is setting forth the principle that the corporate means of grace are to be deposited and exercised primarily within the life of biblically ordered churches. Therefore it should not surprise us when we turn to the book of Acts to see that the general pattern of the apostolic endeavor was, to preach the gospel by every legitimate means, publicly and privately, by debating in the synagogue, by open proclamation in the marketplaces, by more formal instruction and disciplines of communicating truth in hired halls, the school of Tyranus we read about in Acts 19, but by preaching to send forth the evangel, to herald the message of Christ and his salvation. Then when men responded in professed repentance and faith to that message,

25:53 they were regarded as converted, believing, penitent sinners and were baptized. We saw that pattern in Acts chapter 2. People stabbed in the heart with conviction of sin, crying out, what shall we do? Peter putting a band-aid of a condensed directive to quiet until he can finish his sermon.

26:18 He says, repent and be baptized every one of you unto the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. And the promise that the Spirit will be given to every penitent, believing, confessed disciple of Christ is not only to you and to your children but to all that are afar off. The door of God's mercy in Christ is open to everyone from you murderers of Christ to any sinner whom the Lord will call from among the nations. And that seemed to quiet him down long enough that it says then that many other words he testified and exhorted.

26:56 He finished his sermon and the focal point of his sermon was the implications of being identified with Christ and his people. With many other words he testified and exhorted saying save yourselves from this crooked, this perverse, this untoward generation. You must be prepared to step out from your association with this perverse generation and into the fellowship and association of the people of God. Committed to their alternate lifestyle.

27:32 Committed to their view of Christ. To their view of truth. To their view of spiritual reality as revealed in the gospel. And we read that those who received his word didn't say those who then felt led were baptized and that the baptized those who felt led joined the church.

27:54 No, no. You look at the passage carefully and the wording is very simple and straightforward. Those that received his word that is his message in its entirety. For Peter's word was his message.

28:12 His message was one of explanation of the phenomena connected with Pentecost. A word of declaration concerning Jesus Christ. A word of invitation and call to repentance and open confession. It was a word demanding separation from that word that crooked generation.

28:36 They that received his word his message the whole of it and pick and choose. Oh, I like this forgiveness. Take a little of that. Or I like this gift of the Holy Ghost.

28:46 That sounds exciting. I'll take a little of it. No. They that received his word his message in its entirety and all those who did receive the word were baptized.

28:59 Only such as received his word so that excluded all of the timid all of the proud all of those who were unwilling to be associated with Jesus of Nazareth as their Messiah unwilling to be associated with this bunch of people in whose presence God did some strange things tons of fire rushing mighty wind speaking in dialects that they had never learned in the normal means of acquisition. Those that were prepared to receive the word were baptized. It excluded the timid it excluded the ignorant it excluded the proud it excluded infants. They didn't receive the word and therefore they weren't baptized. So it said the promise is to you and to your children. And we are told by our pedo-baptist friends well no Jew could hear that promise and not assume he could bring his little kids to the baptismal font. Well why didn't they do it then?

29:59 It says they that received his word were baptized. Do unconscious infants receive the word? No. Then they weren't baptized.

30:10 At least not here. The only way you can get babies here is to put them there. And when you put them there you add to the word of God. Whatever the motive may be.

30:20 Now don't get angry with me just look at your Bible. Well what about the promise to Abraham? Abraham ain't here. Abraham's not here.

30:30 Well what about circumcision? Circumcision not here. This is baptism in conjunction with the Christian evangel. And in that context they that received his word were baptized.

30:43 And there were added unto them in that day about three thousand souls. All the professed converts were baptized. All of the baptized became part of the first Pentecostal church of Jerusalem. There was the pattern.

31:06 And then when you read through the book of Acts you find that pattern again and again. That once the gospel was preached and the Holy Ghost made it effectual to the repentance and conversion of sinners they were gathered into biblically ordered churches. So much so that when Luke is summarizing the missionary endeavors of Paul and his companions notice the words with which he summarizes those endeavors. Acts 14 and verse 21.

31:43 Acts 14 and verse 21. Acts 14 and verse 21. Now remember all we are seeking to do is to demonstrate just a smattering of the biblical data that lies at the base of this principle that the corporate means of grace are deposited and exercised primarily within the life of a biblical church. Verse 21 of Acts 14.

32:15 And when they had preached the gospel in that city and had made many disciples how are disciples made? By the preaching of the gospel. Plain as the nose on anyone's face. They didn't make disciples by coercion.

32:31 They didn't make disciples by waiting around till people had babies. They made disciples by preaching the gospel. And when they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch confirming, strengthening the souls of the disciples exhorting them to continue in the faith and that through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God. Now before they left what did they do?

33:04 Even going back to cities where their lives had been in jeopardy. But so concerned were they about a certain issue. Verse 23. And when they had appointed for them elders in every church and had prayed with fasting they commended them to the Lord on whom they had believed.

33:29 They saw that in these fledgling churches God had deposited those corporate means of grace. And if those churches did not have competent pastors elders, bishops, overseers men to teach them and men to govern and guide them they would be tremendously vulnerable they would be greatly hindered in their ongoing development even though the apostle and his companions exhorted them at the most crucial points where new converts needed to be exhorted they recognized the need of ongoing competent leadership within that crucible of the church's life in which God has deposited those means of grace. And then to show that they themselves were not exempt from that divinely appointed sphere we read in verse 24 and when they passed through Pisidia they came to Pamphylia when they had spoken the word at Perga went down to Italia and from thence sailed to Antioch from whence they'd been committed to the grace of God to the work they had fulfilled and when they were come and had gathered the church together they rehearsed all things

34:56 that God had done with them and he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles and they tarried no little time with the disciples they themselves needed the means of grace to be found back in the church at Antioch. They had been giving and giving and giving they had been itinerating they had had the disruption of an ordinary pattern of life and now for the re-strengthening of their own spiritual fiber for the renewing of the inner man where does God place them? Not off in private retreats but in the crucible of the loving community of the church at Antioch that had sent them out on that first journey. Even an apostle needs the life and ministry of a biblically ordered church for his own spiritual development in that. And dear people that's found everywhere through the book of Acts that's just a specimen passage and when we turn to the last book of the New Testament and we open up to that majestic first chapter in which John records his experience while in exile in the Isle of Patmos what does he tell us? He said I turn to see the voice that spoke with me Revelation 1.12

Biblical Evidence from Revelation and 1 Timothy: Christ's Presence and the Church as Pillar of Truth

36:24 and having turned what was the first thing he saw? Seven golden lampstands. When he is captivated by this thunderous voice that speaks on that Lord's day in which he was in the spirit the first thing that strikes his eyes are these seven burning lampstands obviously arranged in a circle for then he says and in the midst of the lampstands one like unto a son of man. Lampstands, son of man.

37:06 In his vision two things are inseparable the son of man and the lampstands. Lampstands and the son of man. Of the son of man his identity is clear. It is none other than the risen exalted Lord Jesus Christ granting this unusual manifestation of his glory and power that so shattered John that when he had had the vision he didn't dance around for joy and write a little pity about I love Jesus.

37:42 He said I fell at his feet like a dead man. It was like someone had taken a 357 magnum and shot him through the temple like a dead man. All of his life he lay prostrate before the presence of the majesty of the exalted Christ. Then some of the most beautiful words in all of scripture verse 17 when I saw him I fell at his feet as one dead and he laid his right hand upon me saying don't be afraid don't be afraid I am the first and the last and the living one and I was dead and behold I am alive forever more and have the keys of death and of Hades. He now knows who this person is. I was dead and am alive. I am the same Jesus upon whom you leaned your breast.

38:49 I am the one to whom you spoke in that upper room. It is I your Lord and Master giving you as it were just a little peek at my present majesty and glory at the right hand of my Father. And then the risen Christ expounds the significance of the vision. Verse 20 The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands the seven stars are the messengers of the seven churches and the seven lampstands are seven churches not seven epochs of church history. As some irresponsible commentators have taught no seven churches churches that existed at the very point at which the revelation came to John. They were churches which if you look them up in a map are roughly configured in a circle there in Asia Minor. Ephesus Smyrna Pergamos Thyatira etc.

40:07 What's the point of all of this for the principle that the corporate means of grace are deposited and exercised primarily within the life of a biblically ordered church? Do you see the significance? John sees the risen Lord in the midst of the lampstands and then he says what you hear and see write. And then he writes seven messages to seven messengers of seven churches and in every single message the assumption is that all of the people of God at Ephesus would be there in the church at Ephesus.

40:45 And the only place they would hear the risen Lord speak was when the letter was read in the church. Blessed is he that and he that and he that keeps the words of the prophecy of this book. And the only ones who heard were those who were present when it was read. You see this was not something to be sent to every individual Christian delivered to his front door for his personal devotions.

41:25 It was the risen Christ as the great protector and examiner and physician and healer and rebuker of his church who speaks to his churches. Why does he do that? Because the corporate means of grace are deposited and exercised primarily within the life of a biblically ordered church. That explains the second text that I read in your hearing at the beginning of our study today 1 Timothy 3 1 Timothy chapter 3 Those of you familiar with the depth of affection that existed between the church of Paul and Timothy can only imagine what it must have meant for Paul whenever on principle he had to be severed from his spiritual son and the one whom he later designates not only as his son but his fellow worker his beloved spiritual son Timothy. And he leaves him behind in Ephesus while Paul alone goes on alone into Macedonia as he tells us in chapter 1 in verse 3 and while he gives a specific directive and rationale for that heart wrenching

42:54 parting of the ways to have Timothy remain in Ephesus while Paul went on into Macedonia or Greece he gives us in chapter 3 a distillation of the whole purpose in broad scope chapter 1 verses 3 and following just give us one of the strands but here are all of the strands brought together verses 14 and 15 these things write I unto you hoping to come unto you shortly like an elastic band kids the further you pull it apart the greater the tension it is to get back together again when Paul was severed from his beloved son and fellow worker Timothy it only made him feel more keenly the tension of the bands of love with which his heart was entwined to that dear younger man and fellow worker and he says therefore I write hoping to come unto you shortly but if I tarry long I have no direct revelation from God I don't know what God will providentially do in giving me the desire of my heart but if I tarry long there is a central concern upon my heart if I were there with you Timothy I would implement it but I don't know how long I'll be away from the risk of having these concerns unattended to here's my concern Timothy but if I tarry long

44:22 that you may know how men ought and that word ought is the word of solemn obligation how men are under obligation to behave themselves in the house of God he has a passionate concern for divinely mandated desires and the desire to behave in the house of God and what is the house of God some nebulous gathering on occasions of Christians who meet together no he tells us what that house is which is the church of the living God that church which God has constituted the pillar the great rising foundation the footings and foundation beneath the pillars that church which is the pillar and the ground of the truth now think for a moment what is God's great means in the ongoing sanctification of his people John 17 17 sanctify them in the truth thy word is truth Ephesians 4 speaking the truth speaking truly in love we grow

45:51 up into him in all things who is the head even Christ well you say if I have my Bible I have the truth well that is true but is it just you and your Bible and the Holy Ghost no God is ordained that within his church the pillars of the truth and it is within her walls that God has deposited those means by which the saving truth of scripture is most intently and powerfully both proclaimed implemented manifested clothed all of that terminology is within God's house his church pillar of the truth and ground of the truth and therefore it should not surprise us that the corporate means of grace are deposited and exercised primarily within the light of a biblically ordered church why because it is by the truth that we are sanctified and the church in the concreteness of all of these details of the pastoral epistles with fighting heresy and proper priority to prayer

47:20 and proper gender roles to leadership and proper standards among males who would be elders and deacons and care of widows and exhortations to the rich and to the slaves and to masters you don't have church as some nebulous undefined notion floating through the pastoral epistles got real live lives and masters and rich people and poor people and heretics trying to worm their way in and perhaps women trying to take places they shouldn't and men who won't take places they should real live churches and paul has this passionate concern that divinely mandated behavior with so many areas that have not yet heard the gospel where there is no church ethicist was blessed with the most lengthy stay with paul himself over three years of labor already had elders already was an established congregation why so concerned because ethicist was put in a strategic place of influence he had a passion that there in that pillar and ground the means of grace

48:49 which god had deposited with flourish to the maturation of the people of god and to the glory of their god so that's the principle stated and the biblical roots to that principle that's the general principle the corporate means of grace are deposited in exercise as the formal and official capacity of god and of the church and the church and the old church and the new church and the priest and all the church and the moral and Blake and the church and the church Do you view the church as God has constituted it?

The Church as God's Divine Institution for Preservation and Sanctification

50:02 You see, if I were to ask you, do you view this building as the architects and as the builders both designed and constructed it? If you do, what you will see is a building in which the roof is supported by laminated arches, in which there are four main arches going to the four corners, joined with a compression ring, a building that is square in its basic configurations. If you view this building for what the architect designed it to be and the builders made it to be, then what you see is what is. Now, I'm asking you, do you view the church, as God has constituted the church, or do you view it as something that kind of just evolved and then have a herding instinct, and if the instinct is to hunt and fish, they form a hunting club and a fishing club, and if it's to play bridge, they form a bridge club, and if it's to pray and praise and hear preaching, they form a church? Is that all you see in this blessed institution? Or do you see, behind every line and every contour, the heavenly architect who said, I will build my church,

51:29 the wisdom of Jesus, the wisdom of the Son of God, and do you see what he has actually made, that which is his house,

51:45 temple, and ground of the truth, within whose walls he has deposited those means ordained for me, your maturation and development, preservation and perseverance? I can remember when I was first beginning to be aware that somebody studied the Bible before Schofield wrote his notes and began to realize there were creeds and confessions that the church had hammered out centuries ago. What a discovery. It was like discovering the nose on your face for the first time.

52:29 Say, hey, buddy, you've been there a long time, just never noticed you. And when I read in the Westminster Confession, in the chapter on the church, these words, after describing the church in a generic statement, outside of which, ordinarily, there is no salvation, I said, oh, those poor people, they didn't leave Rome behind. Rome teaches that outside of the Roman Catholic Church, there is no salvation. What were these presbyters, Presbyterian Protestants doing using Romish language?

53:06 I really was upset with the Westminster Confession when I first read those words. Now, thankfully, I had enough sense not to say anything about it publicly because I said these guys knew a lot more than I did. They were brilliant theologians, they were godly pastors, and the church had respected them for centuries, so I didn't badmouth them outwardly. Oh, I talked back to them in my study.

53:28 I looked back at some of those early days and the books I read and what I said to the office, and I've been tempted to erase it, but I said, no, I want to leave it there to humble me and remind me that maybe 20 years from now, if the Lord spares me, I'll laugh at some of the notes I write in the margin of some of the books I'm reading today. But none of us has arrived. But one thing I've come to see, my brethren, they had not failed to cut off a remnant of Romish superstition. Those men understood the Bible doctrine, that it is within the fellowship of the church that God is the creator, and it posited those means which are ordained of God to keep you in the way to heaven and bring you there safely at last.

54:11 And therefore, if that means is available, and you in your stinking pride or crass independence refuse to commit yourself to that crucible of God's forming you and molding you and shaping and keeping you, it would be right for God to curse your arrogance by letting you apostatize and damn your soul. That's what they meant when they said, out of which ordinarily there is no salvation. Why? Because within the church he has put the institution of preaching.

54:48 Within the church he has placed, as we shall see God willing next week, a whole array of simple but mightily effectual means to keep us in the way.

55:03 Do you view the...

55:10 to keep us in the way? Do you view the...

55:11 to keep us in the way? Yes, so then surely you will not want to have a surface relationship to her. You will not want to have an uncommitted, oblique, or even common law relationship to her. You will want to know that when the New Testament letters are addressed to brothers and sisters in the fellowship of the church at Thessalonica, at Corinth, at Philippi, at Philippi, at Ephesus, wherever that church is, that you can say, O God, I'm not grabbing at goods that don't belong to me,

55:51 but in this day, in your providence, I'm a part of this or that particular assembly, which is not perfect, for no church this side of the consummation is perfect, but it seeks to order its life by the principles and precepts of the word of God. Amen. Therefore, the purpose for which the divine architect planned it and the mighty builder constructed it and the Holy Ghost indwells her life and ministry with power to make those means effectual, it is there that I am helped on my way to heaven. O may God grant that as we turn our minds now to the public, corporate means of grace, if we've never come to grips with this principle, we'll come to grips with it for the first time. If I get some of you upset enough to go home and read your whole New Testament this afternoon, I say hallelujah. Just read it with an open mind and with dependence on the Spirit of God that the corporate means of grace are deposited in exercise primarily within the life of a biblically ordered and for those of you who've become convinced of this, I may ask you something.

Commitment to Christ's Church and Its Means of Grace

57:21 Are you prepared if called upon to spill blood for that truth?

57:29 Are some of you kind of just inwardly thumping your foot saying, I'm going to wait until some of these old buzzards with their high churchmanship die off and we're going to loosen up at the joints around here?

57:41 I believe there are some that are ready to stand with Martin Luther and say, though you don't have the jowls of the man who plays his part, in the best of the Martin Luther films, here I stand. So help me God. I can do no other. May you take your stand on that which is precious to Christ.

58:06 With all of the problems that emerge in those seven letters to the seven churches, you think Jesus would have been ashamed and run off to be found maybe in the midst of some great constellation. But he was unashamed to be found in the midst of the last. With all her failures, with all her sins, with all of her abnormalities and irregularities, Christ said, my church is that for which I die. My church is that for which I live.

58:41 To perfect her, to wash her, to perfect her until that hour when I present her to myself without spot and without wrinkle. And for you who sit here, strangers to God's grace, you see why God brought you into a Christian assembly today? It's here that he's placed the preaching of the word. And in spite of yourself, you've even found yourself listening at certain points.

59:07 You came to come and said, nobody's going to get to me. This religion stuff is happening. But it's gotten to you, hasn't it? Why?

59:13 Because there is a real, albeit mystic, presence of God in the midst of his gathered people. There is an attendance of the Holy Spirit upon the prayers and the praises and the preaching of the word in the church. That is self-authenticating and unconverted man, woman, boy or girl, you know that we're not playing games. That the God of whom we've sung is real.

59:38 The God who calls us into his courts to praise him is real. He has a right to tell you you're not your own. He made you. He has a right to call you to stack arms and bow and embrace his son.

59:53 What a privilege to be in this church. The place where the knowledge of his son is the very place the very fragrance of its gathering. The place where people have dealings with the God who is. Through the Christ who died and rose in the power of the Spirit who has been given.

60:14 Oh, dear people, may we love the church. May we say with Timothy Dwight, for her my tears shall fall. To her my toils and cares be given. Though we enter the place where there are no more toils, no more cares.

60:34 Let us pray. Our Father, how we praise you this morning for your holy word. Thank you. Oh, we thank you for your church.

60:53 Thank you that you, Lord Jesus, designed that those who would be the fruit of your sufferings and be brought to embrace you as their only hope of life and salvation and would openly confess their identity with you, that they would be found gathered in assemblies such as this one gathered here today. We thank you for all of the precious means of grace deposited in such assemblies. And we pray that you would make them effectual in all of our hearts to make us more like your Son, more determined to be heavenly-minded, more committed to zeal for the advancement of your kingdom. Oh, Lord, work mightily in us even this day. Bless, we pray, those who are strangers to your grace. May the things they have heard create within them a determination that they will give themselves no rest till they know this Christ who alone can save them from their sins.

62:04 We pray, oh, Lord, that you'd write upon the rising generation in this place a deep, indelible, immovable conviction concerning your will and purpose that your church should be the place where these means of grace are operative. Oh, Lord, we call upon you to deal with each one of us in mercy. Hear us, as together we commit ourselves into your care. Dismiss us with your blessing and your grace resting upon us.

62:41 We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.