Your Churchmanship, Part 4

Introduction: The Final Counsel to Hold Fast

0:03 Hear again the word of our Lord Jesus to the church at Thyatira. Nevertheless, that which you have, hold fast until I come. Let's pray.

0:26 Holy Father, we again address you upon your throne of grace. And we come to obtain mercy and to find grace to help in this, our time of need. You know the needs of your servant that he might rightly handle your word. You know the needs of those gathered together under that word that they may rightly receive it.

0:55 And so we ask in your perfect knowledge of our need, come to us. We pray to the praise of your grace. We plead in Jesus' name. Amen.

1:10 From 1962 until the present, I have preached to the people of God, now identified as Trinity Baptist Church, several thousand sermons. I've taught dozens of lessons in the adult class. And now it all comes down to three. Three more sermons, possibly four.

1:44 And then my ministry among you, as one of your elders, is done. D-O-N-E, done.

1:57 So I've chosen to entitle my final messages among you, Parting Councils to the Members and Friends of Trinity Baptist Church. My first and foundational word of counsel, was this. By faith and love, cling tenaciously to the person of Jesus Christ. And then out of faith and love, obey resolutely the word of Christ.

2:35 Then on that foundation, I have read to you the word that I read again this morning. Jesus speaking to the church at Thyatira. Nevertheless, that which you have, hold fast until I come. And my first specific application of that exhortation was this.

2:59 Hold fast to your biblical churchmanship. And if you ask what will that mean, I've answered along six lines. Hold fast to your convictions and practice. Concerning churchmanship.

3:15 Concerning the unique place of the church in the saving purposes of God. Secondly, hold fast your convictions and practice regarding the necessity for maintaining doctrinal purity and unity in your life and ministry as a church. Thirdly, hold fast your convictions and practice concerning biblical standards for membership in the church. Fourthly.

3:45 Fourth, hold fast your convictions and your practice concerning the worship that is acceptable to God in His church. Fifth, hold fast your convictions and practice concerning the biblical standards for the recognition of office bearers and for the function of those office bearers. And then sixth, I have entreated you to hold fast your convictions and practice concerning the ministries you are to perform to one another and to the entire church and body of Christ.

Duty to the Universal Church and a Lost World

4:30 This morning, I want to set before you the seventh and final aspect of this counsel or exhortation to hold fast to your biblical churchmanship. And subhead number seven is this. Hold fast to your convictions and practice regarding the duty of this church to the church universal and to a lost and a needy world. I repeat, hold fast to your convictions and your practice concerning the duty of this church to the church universal and to the entire church.

5:12 I repeat, hold fast to your convictions and practice regarding the duty of this church to the church universal and to a lost and a needy world. As I sat at my desk working on the language of my heading, I had duty, mission, calling. I called one of my fellow elders. I said, brother, help me.

5:30 I don't know which word is the most appropriate. And I finally settled on the word duty. Now, I know in many circles, even some that claim to be reformed, the word duty is a, a dirty four-letter word.

5:46 But I use it deliberately because duty ought never to be dirty in the mind of the true child of God. Did not Jesus in the Great Commission say, Make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things, whatsoever I have commanded you? So the responsibility of the official teachers of Christ's church is to inform every disciple of his manifold duties

6:28 as delineated by the word of Christ, teaching them not simply to believe in, but to observe, to keep all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And the apostle Paul, did not believe that duty was dirty, for when he wrote to the Thessalonians, he could say in chapter 4 and verse 1 these words, Finally then, brethren, we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received of us how you ought to walk and to please God, even as you do walk, that you abound more and more,

7:12 for you know what charges, we gave you through the Lord Jesus. He says to them, You received of us how you ought to walk. How I ought to do anything is my duty. Paul says, I taught you your duty as to your walk as the people of God.

7:35 And furthermore, I want you to abound more and more in the fulfillment of your duty. And he goes on to say in verse 2, I gave you that delineation of your duty as a solemn charge. It was not optional. It was delineated as your duty.

7:57 So without any embarrassment, confident that I stand on solid biblical ground, I say to you, the members and friends of Trinity Church, in holding fast to your biblical churchmanship, hold fast, to your convictions and practice concerning the duty of this church to the church universal and to a lost and needy world. Obviously, this word of counsel and exhortation has two major divisions. Your duty to the universal church and your duty to a needy and a lost world. Consider these matters in that order.

Holding Fast to Your Duty to the Universal Church

8:42 First of all, hold fast, your duty to the universal church. Now, there have been some in the past and some in the present who would attempt to bend the Bible to teach that all the references to the church in the New Testament refer only to distinct, specific, local churches. And there's no such thing as the church universal. But an unbiased reading of the New Testament leads to a double-edged sword.

9:15 different conclusion. Listen to our own confession of faith. Chapter 26, paragraph 1. The Catholic, not Roman Catholic, but the Catholic or universal church, which with respect to internal work of the Spirit and truth of grace, may be called invisible, consists of the whole number of the elect that have been, are, or shall be gathered into one under Christ, the head thereof, and is the spouse, the body, the fullness of him that fills all in all. All persons throughout the

9:55 world professing the faith of the gospel and obedience unto God by Christ according unto it, not destroying their profession by any errors, averting the foundation, or, or unholiness in manner of life, are, and may be called visible saints, and of such ought all particular congregations to be constituted. So the framers of our confession recognize that there is this larger dimension of the body of Christ beyond the church local. We, as the people of God, do not exist in isolation from that wider, larger,

10:39 larger dimension of the body of Christ. Paul was concerned that the people at Corinth would understand this. When he writes to them in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, he writes in this way, Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God in Sosthenes, our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, there's a church local, even them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, that's the nature of their union with Christ, with all that

11:18 call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, their Lord and ours. So the apostle was conscious in addressing that church local that there was a wider dimension of the body of Christ, all that call upon the, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in every place. And I'm exhorting you as a congregation to hold fast your duty to that wider dimension of the body of Christ. And how have we sought to do

11:55 that over the years? Well, long before we left the denomination, we knew what it was to seek counsel and direction and input from brothers, in other circles than our own, recognizing that in the larger body of Christ was a deposit of wisdom, of experience, and we sought to tap into that. Think of where we would be as a church if we had not been enriched over the years through the ministry of a Presbyterian by the name of Pastor Ted Donnelly. Where would we be without the ministries of other brethren,

12:38 such as Pastor McDiarmid, and many others who have stood in this pulpit from other assemblies, some of them from other ecclesiastical structures, enriching us by the exercise of their gifts. Very early in our life, we expressed benevolence to people of God totally outside our circles by special offerings sent to Nicaragua, some to various places in Africa, using certain para-church organizations through which to funnel those expressions of our love and

13:16 concern into the hands of local churches in these places that they might extend their hands in the name of Christ on our behalf. We have sought diligently not to become parochial and ingrown and navel-gazing, but to recognize that while God has constituted us, a church specific and a church local, we have duties and responsibilities to the church universal. This is on the face of the New Testament. When the people of God at Jerusalem enter a period of economic privation, the Apostle Paul works among the Gentile churches,

14:01 brings together a team of men to receive and to administer and to dispense a benevolence offering in the name of Christ. We have duties and responsibilities to the church universal. This is on the face of the New Testament. And among the many purposes of God was this purpose to express the reality of our union with the people of God in every place. Where would we be as a church without the cultivation of a framework of communication

14:27 by letters from sister churches, our present awareness of the work of God in Italy, the Far East, India, Sri Lanka, the Suffering Church? Around the world, I keep a record of all my correspondence, just in terms of my secretaries have always written out John Doe, such and such a date, how many letters were dictated. And I'm amazed when I look back into the 70s and 80s, it was not uncommon week after week to send out 20, 25, 30 letters. Who was I writing to? The people of God around the world

15:07 who were correspondents of God. And I'm amazed when I look back into the 70s and 80s, it was not uncommon looking for counsel, looking for encouragement, so that woven into the fabric of the very life of Trinity Baptist Church has been this effort to fulfill our duty to the church universal. And after that initial international ministry in 1967 that I alluded to in the previous hour, how selflessly you as a church held me so that when calls came, to go to Sweden, when calls came to go to Scotland and Wales and Ireland and Pakistan

15:47 and these various places, you did not begrudge those weeks spent away laboring for what purpose? Not to build up the A.N. Martin Evangelistic Association, to build up churches to encourage brethren who were struggling with issues that a few years before we had struggled with and they needed encouragement and counsel. Or in many cases, they felt it was a time of reaping and

16:15 they wanted me to come and exercise an evangelistic gift. And you as the people of God held me with an open hand. Why? Because you had been instructed that you had a duty to the church universal and you were willing to fulfill that duty. And then with regard to ongoing sympathy,

16:38 and concern for the work of God in other places at the practical and monetary level, just as Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 4, 9 and 10, concerning love of the brethren, you have no need that one write to you, for you yourselves are taught of God to love one another. For indeed you do it to all the brethren that are in Macedonia. They were loving all the brethren in Macedonia, not just their own little assembly. But then Paul says, As we exhort you, brethren, that you abound more and more. And how open-handed you have been

17:16 since Pastor Smith has come on to the eldership, holding him with an open hand, his many visits to Pakistan, his two visits to Hong Kong. Your open heart to minister to the church universal year after year after year. Twenty-five years this fall with the pastor's conference, where the whole church becomes mobilized, and you open your hearts and your homes to these men. What do you gain from it? This is a ministry to the church universal. Your commitment to the modules

17:52 in which I am freed up and your homes are open, that men might come in, that we might leave a legacy of this material that the church has consented, is desperately needed, and have pressured me to do this. Trinity Christian School does not exist simply for the families of Trinity Church. These are the ways, ways that I cannot recount, in which you as the people of God have fulfilled your duties to the church universal. Just a few weeks ago, when you heard of the needs there

18:31 in Kenya, what did you do? You forked over nineteen thousand dollars to help build hopes homes for brothers and sisters you've never met, to meet the concrete needs. Dear people of God, never lose that passion and that vision. Don't lose it. Hold fast to your duty to the

18:54 universal church. The ways that you fulfill that duty will change as it has with us over the years. But the duty remains the same. And the great biblical principle, I mentioned it in the previous hour, is this. He that would save his life will lose it. But he that

19:18 will lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it. Mark 8 and verse 38. You want to lose your life as a church? Then save it. Get close-fisted. Grasp what you have. Hold to what you have. Hoard what

19:42 you have. And mark the word of Scripture. You'll lose it. You'll lose it. You want

19:51 to retain it? Then give it away. Lose your life and you save it. This is the gospel way of blessing. So I urge you as the people of God.

20:04 I charge you. I urge those of you in office, my fellow pastors, my deacons who labor faithfully, never forget the open hand is the key to the blessing of the arm to which the hand is attached. And if you as God's people would continue to know his blessing upon you, then it will come in the way of fulfilling your duty to the universal church. Continue to be faithful in your commitment to the prayer meeting. Seven-eighths of the

20:44 prayer meeting is taken up with doing what? Ministering to the church universal in your prayers. A very little bit is reserved for praying for our own number with their specific physical and crisis needs. And it is right that it should be there. That is not what I inherited.

21:06 When I came to that denominational church in 1962, the prayer meeting was a disgrace. The whole prayer meeting taken up with praying for Aunt Susie and her second cousin who had an ingrown toenail.

21:23 That's a bit of an exaggeration. And I had to instruct the people that our prayers should be kingdom oriented. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. And bless Aunt Susie's second cousin with the ingrown toenail.

21:38 Know thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Dear people of God, that didn't just happen. It was painful instruction. It was learning a whole new orientation.

21:56 And by the grace of God, I plead with you. Hold fast to your duty in terms of your faithfulness. To the midweek service. I know it's hard.

22:08 You're tired. You're worn out. And I know some of you are very clever and say, Well, there's nothing in the Bible that says the church met on Wednesdays. Come off it.

22:20 No, there is nothing in the Bible that says the church met on Wednesdays. But it's a wonderful tradition. And the Bible does say that the church continued steadfastly in the prayers. And unless we want to turn our Lord's Day service into three-hour service, where we give an hour of it to prayer, then there's got to be some other time when we can gather to seek the face of God.

22:42 We still have our civil liberties. We have the blessing of God upon our external circumstances. There is no reason you cannot come and wrestle with the people of God for His blessing upon the work of His kingdom throughout the world. Continue to be faithful in your giving, so that when the elders and the deacons contemplate, this need that they hear of, and that need that they hear of, and when it's time to send one of the elders to visit that struggling, pastorless work there in Rawalpindi, we don't have to say we can't afford it.

23:20 That's a $1,500 air ticket. Things are too close. Dear people, continue to pray for a generous spirit and an open hand. And why?

Primary Duty to a Lost World: Validate the Gospel

23:30 That we might fulfill our duties to the church universe. But then, secondly, there's a second major division of this exhortation. Not only do I exhort and counsel you to hold fast your conviction and practice with respect to your duty to the universal church, but also your duty to a needy and a lost world.

24:02 Now, I want you to listen very carefully. What do you believe? Your primary duty? What do you believe your duty is to a lost and a needy world?

24:13 Your primary duty.

24:18 May I shock some of you and say your primary duty to a needy and lost world has two aspects to it. And the first one is not to speak the gospel to a needy and a lost world.

24:40 Do you hear me? Your primary duty as a church and as individuals is not to speak the gospel to a needy and a lost world. Your primary duty and responsibility individually and corporately is to illustrate and validate the transforming power of the gospel in your life as an individual and in the life of this church corporately.

25:20 That's your primary duty. To illustrate, to validate the transforming power of the gospel in your life individually and in the life of this church corporately.

25:43 Can I prove that from the word of God? It's relatively easy. In the Sermon on the Mount, after our Lord has delineated the character traits that the Spirit of God works, in all the true sons and daughters of the kingdom, for that's what the Beatitudes are. They are Jesus' delineation of the character traits of the sons and daughters of the kingdom.

26:09 He no sooner does that than he says to those in whom such character traits are present, in that transformation that the gospel has produced, he says in Matthew chapter 5 and verse 13, You are. Not you ought to be. You may eventually become. It is your duty to be.

26:40 No, you are. In terms of what you are, as men and women whose lives validate the transforming power of the gospel, you are the salt of the earth. And verse 14, You are the light of the world.

27:03 You are salt and you are light because you are true sons and daughters of the kingdom whose lives validate and illustrate the power of the gospel. This is precisely what Paul has in mind when he says to the Philippians in chapter 2 of his letter to them, in Philippians chapter 2 and verse 14, Do everything without murmurings and questionings. Why? That you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without blemish,

27:47 in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom not you are heard, but you are seen. You are seen. As lights in the world holding forth or holding fast. The Greek verb, the exegetes go back and forth.

28:07 And if the correct term is holding forth the word of life, who is it that Paul envisions holding forth the word of life, communicating the word of the gospel? Those who first of all, by their lives, are validating and illustrating the transforming power, the power of the gospel.

28:31 And that's exactly Peter's assumption when he writes to those saints scattered abroad in Asia Minor and says in 1 Peter 3, 15, But sanctify Christ as Lord always in your hearts. That is, live a life consciously under the lordship of Christ. Not the lordship of the world. The world...

28:58 The lordship of... The world society.

29:00 The lordship of current consensus. No, sanctify Christ as Lord in your heart. Live your life in every situation, in every circumstance, in every relationship as one, bound over to Christ as His bondslave. Sanctify Christ as Lord in your heart.

29:25 Ready always to give answer, to every man that asks you a reason concerning the hope that is in you. The assumption being that as your life validates and illustrates the power of the gospel, a gospel that brings you out from the lordship of self, the lordship of sin, the lordship of the world, the lordship of anything other than Christ, that kind of life, validating and illustrating the gospel, will awaken the curiosity of those who see it

30:06 and will ask a reason of the hope that is in you. Dear people, the best thing I could do for the progress of the gospel with some professing Christians is to put duct tape on their mouth. They open their mouth and speak of Christ out of the context of a life that invalidates the power, of the gospel. I thought the gospel we preach is the power of God unto salvation.

30:38 Yes, it is. And if you're conveying that gospel with your mouth, with your hand, with a tract, with a booklet, then your life should show what the power of the gospel is, how it transforms, how it reorients the total focus of one's life and one's experience. Your first responsibility to a needy and a lost world is to validate and illustrate the transforming power of the gospel in your own individual life. Are you doing that?

31:19 Do your children have the unanswerable polemic when they meet a skeptic who says, Ha! Nothing to Christianity. Is your relationship to your wife and your husband such that your kids can answer the question, and your kids can answer the question, and your kids can answer the question, and your kids can answer the question, and your kids can answer the question, without any hesitation, and say, Look, I don't know why you don't want to believe the gospel. Frankly, I don't believe it myself.

31:42 But I'll tell you one thing. There's no explanation for the way my mom and dad relate to one another but the power of the gospel. Are you forcing your kids to say that?

31:57 Not by the threat of a belt on their bottom, but by the power of a transformed life,

32:06 willing to own your sins before your wife, own your sins before your unconverted children, seek their forgiveness, not walking perfectly, but walking so as to validate the gospel is power. It's not just words. It's not just notions. It's power.

32:30 Do you validate and illustrate that in your intimate relationships in the home?

32:39 How about in the place of business?

32:42 Honest, upright, diligent, in a context where people cut corners continuously, where people are dishonest and double-talk. Oh, I thank God for a father. It was known George A. was honest to a hairpin, to a paperclip, production control manager over the entire Schick electric shaver operation, putting out thousands of shavers a day, putting out hair dryers by the thousands.

33:15 And when my dad wanted a cord for his shaver, he went in and made a cord for his shaver. He made out a requisition slip and paid his dollar and thirty-nine cents when he could have walked out with a new shaver every week and no one would have blinked. I thank God I saw in my dad the power of the gospel to make an honest man, to make a man who embraced his duty without complaint, without chafing. A man is a creature who does what a man's supposed to do.

33:49 And he explained that he expects no praise for it. He simply doesn't because he's living before his God with Christ as Lord in his heart. How about it, men? Is that true of you in your place of business?

34:06 How about you women? Are you chafing under your assigned role as a keeper at home? Well, there's no real fulfillment in my home. It's just my husband burping after I eat and the kids just pushing themselves back.

34:21 I've got to have fulfillment. I've got to have fulfillment outside the home. Is that where you're at? Get back in touch with your Bible.

34:30 The Bible makes women embrace from the heart with joy their role as keepers at home, lovers of their husband, lovers of their children. Read Titus 2.5. It's pretty plain.

34:46 I didn't write it. Pastor McDiarmid powerfully expounded it. Are you validating what the gospel does? Or are you reflecting the world that says it's alright if you want to have it all, then have a couple of kids and have a husband?

35:03 But surely you'll not limit yourself and all of your talents and your sense of worth to the domestic sphere. You'll have to really validate your worth and express your talent in some second career. Where do you see that? In your Bible.

35:21 In your Bible. In your Bible. Dear women, where do you find that? In your Bible.

35:30 In your Bible.

35:33 You say, Pastor Martin, I heard you the first time. I'm not sure you've heard. All these years preaching on the biblical standard of the home has grieved me to see how the world has infiltrated your thinking.

35:50 No, the first thing, dear people, if we're going to open our mouths and make the gospel stick, our lives must validate the power of that gospel. Must illustrate the power of that gospel. But not only individually. I've touched on just a couple of areas specifically.

36:13 I hope the Spirit of God will take you into many other areas. You kids, I'm going to touch one more. It's not in my notes. But I'm going to touch on it.

36:23 What's the validation of the gospel in all you young people who profess to be converted? Listen to me. Very simple. You honor and you love.

36:33 You obey your parents for as long as you're under the roof. And when you get out from under the roof, you may no longer obey them, but you honor them. Plain and simple. Plain and simple, children.

36:50 Obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. Parenthesis. Albeit there are many, many exceptions. No, no, no, no, no, no.

37:01 No parenthesis, children. Obey your parents in the Lord. For this is right. Honor your father and your mother, which is the first commandment with promise.

37:14 Oh, Paul, don't you know? That's an old covenant word from the Decalogue. He says, I know that. And it's a binding word upon the new covenant community.

37:27 Honor your father and your mother. Listen to me. You young people that profess to be converted, your conversion doesn't mean diddly to me or any discerning man unless it produces in you a disposition of cheerful obedience to your parents and a constant honoring of them. It doesn't mean diddly.

37:55 Validate that the gospel has wrenched you loose from your native pride and stubbornness and arrogance that you know better than mom and dad and become that docile, sweet, obedient,

38:14 honoring son or daughter. Or shut your mouth.

Corporate Validation of the Gospel

38:21 Talking of the gospel means nothing unless you validate it by your life. But what's true individually is also to be true corporately. Remember what Jesus said,

38:36 a new commandment I give unto you, John 13, 34 and 35, that you love one another as I have loved you by my hand. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have love one for another. Jesus said, an onlooking world will behold the new covenant community and where they see them loving with the selfless love wherewith Christ loved them, they will know you have some real attachment to me. They will know you are my disciples in truth and in reality.

39:17 By the love you have one for another. And then John 17, 23, he says, I pray that those who are my own and who will become my own may be one that the world may believe that you have sent me. The corporate love and the corporate unity of the people of God in a world where it's dog-eat-dog and everyone at his brother's throat where dishonesty and where taking advantage and where this putting down of one and raising up of another in carnal means is part of life to see a community

40:00 bound together by selfless, sensitive, long-suffering, forgiving love. It validates. We're the real deal. We're the real thing.

40:14 That's why it says in Acts 4, 33, that in those days when the Spirit of God was working powerfully and the Lord was adding hundreds, even thousands to the church, listen to this statement in Acts 4, 33, and with great power gave the apostles their witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. The Greek word megas from which we get megabot, megalopolis, it says great power was upon the witness of the apostles. But it was in the context

40:58 that great grace was upon the church. And then it tells how it was manifesting itself in an utter selfless disposition. Nobody saying, this is mine, you can't have part in it. There was a brother in need.

41:13 People said, look, I hold everything in trust from the Lord Jesus. You've got a need and I can meet it. Hallelujah, here it is. Nobody coercing, nobody manipulating, nobody twisting arms.

41:26 Great grace was upon them. And dear people, God's been good to us over the many years of our life together. We've known seasons when great grace has rested upon us. I believe there's great grace resting upon us now through the pain of leaving you.

41:47 The fact that I leave with no, no diminution of our mutual affection without being covered with shame that I have deflected morally or doctrinally. It's a great comfort. Grace is upon us. You could love this guy after he stands up here and thunders and hollers and pounds and repeats his words and then you still give me hugs at the door.

42:14 Great grace is upon you. Great grace is upon you. Dear people, it must continue upon you. Or your witness, your witness to a world is neutralized.

42:26 You should be able to bring any sinner that you're witnessing to, you've given a tract to, you've given a booklet, you've explained the gospel, bring him into this place and say, this is what the gospel does.

42:40 People look around and they see different pigmentation and they see different orientations socially, economically, and yet we sit together under Christ in the presence of Christ and God meets us. He's with us. And they say, ah, I can see. This thing you're talking to me about in that booklet, this is what it produces.

43:02 I see men, they lead, they rule, but they treat their wives like queens. The wives don't go around all bent over, afraid to open their mouths and look up and speak. The women are treated like queens. But the men rule like kings.

43:21 I can't figure this out. In the world, they say, if a man rules, he's a tyrant. If he doesn't rule, he's a wimp. I don't see tyrants.

43:31 I don't see wimps. I see men carrying themselves like men. And women carrying themselves like women. Is this what your gospel does?

43:41 You say, yeah, that's what it does. It'll change your family life too. I see kids. They're open-faced.

43:48 They're outgoing. They're gregarious. They're fun. But they're not a bunch of little wild brats.

43:55 What? Well, what is this? That's what the gospel produces. Homes where children are lovingly, biblically disciplined and trained.

44:04 This is what the gospel does. Dear people, you are the theater of the gospel in your corporate life together. And when you cease to be that, you've cut the nerve of any meaningful impact upon a lost and a needy world. So I'm pleading with you with all my heart, with all my energy, with all my 74-year-old remaining strength, hold fast to your duty to a lost and a dying world.

Secondary Duty to a Lost World: Confess and Communicate the Gospel

44:39 And the first part of that duty is to validate and illustrate the transforming power of the gospel by your lives individually and by your life together corporately. But then secondly, it is openly to confess, your attachment to Christ and according to your gifts to verbally communicate the gospel of Christ. Now don't treat that lightly. It took a long time to finally come up with that statement.

45:14 It is openly, notice carefully how I've worded it, it's openly to confess your attachment to Christ and according to your gifts to verbally communicate the gospel of Christ. The limited responsibility of every Christian is openly, verbally to confess his attachment to Christ. Matthew 10, 32. Look at the passage.

45:42 Get it through the eyeballs as well as the ear. Jesus said, Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess before my Father who is in heaven. Amen. Amen.

45:58 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

45:58 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

45:58 Amen. Amen. Amen. Whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I deny before my Father who is in heaven.

46:06 Christ's confession of his own will be both an inward judgment and an outward declaration. Come, you blessed, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Every believer's limited responsibility is to confess his attachment to Christ. Amen.

46:30 In what setting? It differs. To what extent? It differs.

46:36 But we have the word of Jesus, whosoever confesses me before men. And God gives to all of us opportunities where we cannot be silent. Our attachment to Christ must be spoken to one degree or another. And I'm not prepared to set parameters, but I am prepared to quote the Bible.

46:59 He that confesses, confesses me before men, him will I confess before my Father. If your professed faith in Christ has not brought you to the place where you are anxious and thankful to have opportunities to make it known you belong to Christ, then that faith is suspect. Then there is a comprehensive responsibility of the church to a lost world. Matthew 28, 18-20.

47:27 Speaking to the eleven. He was not, not speaking to the vast multitudes, but to the eleven apostles. Verse 16. Jesus said, All authority has been given unto me in heaven and earth, going therefore, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the triune God, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.

47:55 That task was originally given to the eleven. They are gone. It has now merged into the standing orders of the church. This is not an individual commission.

48:07 Unless you are prepared to say every Christian has the right to go out and not only witness and bring the gospel, but baptize people and become their official teacher. Anyone here ready for that? I hope not. That's folly.

48:20 No, this is the comprehensive task of the church. The church is to make disciples by the proclamation of the gospel, primarily through those set apart and recognized to preach it. Romans chapter 10. How shall they hear without a preacher?

48:40 How shall they preach except they be sent? God's way is primarily through men endowed by the power of His Spirit with suitable gifts and graces to preach the gospel. However, however, the people of God in their circumstances according to their gifts and opportunities are also privileged to communicate the gospel to others. But not everyone is to baptize.

49:11 Not everyone is to teach. And then what's the pattern for fulfilling it? Acts 1.8 He shall receive power, the Holy Spirit coming upon you.

49:20 You shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, all Judea, Samaria, the uttermost part of the earth. There is to be this concurrent witness to Christ from where we are to the ends of the earth. Not first Jerusalem, then Samaria, Judea, then Samaria. No, the language is clear.

49:41 Both in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and the uttermost part of the earth. And by the grace of God in spite of all of our failures, we have sought to urge God's people openly to confess their attachment to Christ and according to their gifts to verbally communicate the gospel of Christ. While in the cracker box, there were three men particularly gifted with confrontational evangelism. I mentioned them in the previous hour.

50:16 They went out systematically, door by door, street by street. Throughout the years, we've attempted our home Bible studies, our evangelistic dinners. We've got a new tract kiosk down halfway between the first and second levels. The ministry to the marginalized, the nursing homes that have gone on for years.

50:40 And in the midst of all of that, a commitment to plant churches in our more immediate area. The work that has been established there in Newark. The work that was established in Hazleton. Sending men to the ends of the earth.

50:56 Pastor Blaze to London in 75. Steve Huffmeyer to the Philippines in 1980. Arif Khan to Pakistan in 88. Thompson Chung to Hong Kong in 07.

51:10 We haven't done a lot, but we've at least tried to do what our task is to a lost and a needy world. That's our primary duty. To a needy and a lost world. Validate the gospel by our individual and corporate life.

Accompanying Duty: Doing Good to All Men

51:30 Confess our attachment to Christ and according to opportunity and gift, communicate verbally the gospel of Christ to the ends of the earth. But then I want to touch briefly upon an accompanying duty. Notice I didn't say secondary, but an accompanying duty which we have to a lost and a needy world. And what is it?

51:53 It's to do good to men as an expression of our genuine love for men. It's to do...

52:00 To do good to men as a genuine expression of our love to men. It is said of our Lord Jesus. This is a pivotal text in Acts chapter 10 and verse 38. Peter's preaching in the household of Cornelius.

52:16 And he says, Even Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power. And what was the fruit of that anointing who went about doing good? And healing all that were oppressed of the devil. For God was with him.

52:36 He went about doing good. There's no indication that Jesus saved everyone he healed. No indication that the thousands he fed by the miraculous multiplying of the loaves and the fishes all were saved. Yet they went away filled.

52:56 He did them good. And this text says, He did it in the power of the Holy Spirit. He went about doing good. And in Galatians 6.10,

53:07 Paul writes to the Galatians, says, As we have opportunity, let us, the same language, do good unto all men, especially, but not exclusively, to the household of faith. As we have opportunity, we do good to validate our bringing of the gospel is born of genuine love, and so we have our Vacation Bible School in which we seek to do good to this community, to help enhance ministry, doing good to those who have critical afflictions. Your special dinners for the elderly, the Boy Scout endeavor, and I pray God will multiply these opportunities

53:51 and channels to do good. Why? That we validate to men that it's genuine love, genuine love for them as men in the totality of their need that moves us to bring the gospel.

Conclusion: Earnest Pursuit and Urgent Plea

54:08 Well, my dear brothers and sisters, do you see in the light of the duty that God's laid upon us how crucial it is to live lives of serious, earnest pursuit of conformity to Christ? Why it is essential that we be counter-cultural in our lives. In the use of our time, our money, our entertainment, our avocations. Dear people, if you don't get unbound from all of the things that will sap away your time, you're never going to validate that the gospel has loosed you

54:51 from all of these trinkets and toys to be free to serve in sacrificial love to others. Do you see how critical it is in our life together to keep the unity of the Spirit, to avoid the gossip that sows the seeds of schism, to maintain the spirit of prayer, the disposition of generosity? Do you see how critical it is that these things continue and increase and abound yet more and more? And do you see why times without number in this place, preachers, including this one,

55:35 have been loathed to conclude a sermon so focused upon the people of God without tacking on an entreaty to the unconverted?

55:47 My dear unconverted man, woman, boy or girl, we believe what we read in Revelation 21.8. If you go on unbelieving, live and die unbelieving, you're going to go to hell. You're going to go to hell.

56:07 You're going to go to hell. You're going to go to hell. Weeping, wailing, gnashing of teeth, joining the devil, the beast and the false prophet. You're going to go to hell as sure as you sit in that pew.

56:25 And therefore we cannot help but use Paul's words as Mike Brackett used them so powerfully a couple of months ago. We beg you, in Christ's stead, be reconciled to God. We beg you. We beg you.

56:44 Forget your my space and forget your you too and all the other nonsense to which you give your mind and your time.

56:58 Sit down and face the fact that Almighty God's got a controversy with you. Your sins cry out to heaven for punishment. And Almighty God in mercy withholds that punishment and keeps you in the land of the living. But boast not thyself of tomorrow's for you know not what a day may bring forth.

57:20 Be reconciled to God. Give yourself no rest until you know that in Christ your sins are pardoned. That in union with Christ you're a new man, a new woman, a new boy, a new girl with a heart that loves holiness and loves Christ and loves obedience and wants to follow Him so that one day you may be with Him part of that beautiful bride that you're going to be with. Amen.

57:48 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

57:48 Amen. Read about this morning and God willing we'll read more about next week where the bride is described in terms of a beautiful city. Dear people, time is passing quickly. In these days I've walked around my house saying under my breath again and again, I can't believe it's been 46 years.

58:13 I can't believe it's been 46 years. I can't believe but it has been.

58:24 And when I stand before God I want to be able to say with Paul my hands are clear from the blood of all men. If in that day you hear the words depart from me I never knew you. I want God to be able to say remember that preacher?

58:46 He pled with you. He reasoned with you. He wept for you. He urged you.

58:53 Forsake your sin. Go to Christ. And you did not. What excuse do you have?

59:00 What will you say to the Son of God? Father, we can only ask you for your name's sake to bless your word, to make it effectual in many hearts. Look upon us in our need and help us that by your grace we may hold fast to this aspect of our biblical church. Let us pray.

59:43 Amen. Let us pray. Let us pray. Seal your word to our hearts we pray in Jesus' name.

59:51 Amen.