Corporate Disciplines

Recapitulation and Introduction to Corporate Disciplines

0:03 Now, just briefly, to recapitulate and then pick up the thread of thought that we might carry on our study and conclude it this morning, having looked at the importance of this great doctrine of sanctification, we then moved into a consideration of the pivotal aspects of the doctrine proper. Sanctification begun, the radical cleavage. Sanctification continued, the gradual process. And then I have only mentioned the third aspect, sanctification completed, the glorious climates.

0:39 Under this matter of sanctification continued, having looked at the concept of progress as found in Scripture, we then focused our attention upon the goal of that process, which is the purging away of all sin and the complete conformity of the entire life to the image of Christ, the agents involved in that process are God in the trinity of his being and the redeemed, quickened sinner in the totality of all his redeemed powers.

1:14 As one quickened by the Spirit, with confidence in this triune God, pattern that is before us in this process is God himself, and then flowing out from that his holy law, his revealed will, and the person of his dear Son. Well then, if we are to get on with that process, there are certain disciplines to which we must submit ourselves. And those disciplines I have broken down into two headings. There are the individual disciplines, and there are the corporate disciplines of progressive sanctification.

1:53 The individual disciplines we looked at yesterday, assimilation of the word of God, participation in biblical prayer, recognition and submission to the disciplinary activity of God, the implementation of the practical directives for avoiding sin, flee, follow, come off, pluck out, and there must be constant mortification of sin, and it's under mortification that the discipline of fasting comes. No treatment on sanctification is biblically comprehensive if it does not at least mention the discipline, and it does not at least mention the discipline of fasting. The discipline of fasting under the heading of mortification, and then the sixth individual discipline

2:37 is what I call the maintenance of a conscience void of offense to God and to man. Now this morning, we come to conclude our thinking on the disciplines or means of sanctification continued under the heading of the corporate disciplines of sanctification. And by that I mean those disciplines which are, are peculiarly attached to and exercised within the framework of the gathered people of God. Disciplines that in a peculiar way are attached to

The Biblical Principle: No Freelance Holiness

3:16 and exercised within the framework of the gathered people of God, that is, the church. Now the first thing I want to do this morning is to establish with you from the scriptures, that the word of God nowhere recognizes freelance holiness and do-it-yourself sanctification. We live in the age of freelance-ism and do-it-yourself-ism. But there is no such thing as freelance holiness and do-it-yourself sanctification.

3:56 There are many passages which indicate that sanctification continued, the gradual process goes on in individuals as part of corporate progression and development in the life of the church.

4:17 And this is true for the simple reason that when God, by His effectual calling, joined you to His Son, He incorporated you into His body. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jew or Greek, and have all been made to drink of one Spirit. Therefore, verse 26 of that chapter from which I quoted, 1 Corinthians 12, says, when one member suffers, the whole body suffers. Whether one member prospers, all the members prosper with it.

5:00 Now your incorporation into the body of Christ is not something you take by faith or you submit to by a conscious act of recognition. No! By the very virtue of God's effectual calling, you have become an integral part of the body of Christ. Consider with me the teaching of Paul in Ephesians 2, verses 20 to 22.

5:29 Perhaps then we ought to back up to verse 19. So then ye, you people at Ephesus, are no more strangers and sojourners, but ye are fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom each several building fitly framed together groweth into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are builded together for a habitation, a foundation of God in the Spirit. Yes, it is true that Paul says to individual Christians in Corinthians,

6:13 know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost? Every true believer is a sanctuary of God. But, according to Paul in Ephesians 2, there is a sense in which the people of God as living stones are fused together into a temple so that their corporate life, becomes the dwelling place of the Spirit. You find this thought in 1 Peter chapter 2.

6:43 Ye also as living stones are built up, he says, into this spiritual temple. Then you have the figure of the branch and the vines in John 15. There is but one vine and all the people of God are branches. There is this sense of organic life union not only with the vine, but with the other branches as well.

7:09 The figure in Romans 11, 16 to 24, of the olive tree, one great root of God's redemptive purpose and application of redemptive blessing. There are some that are broken off, others that are grafted in, but there is but one olive tree. There is but one people of God and they are not only in living union with Christ the head, but with God. But with one another as members of his body, as part of the same vine, as aspects of the same olive tree.

7:44 And then of course there is that classic passage in Ephesians chapter 4, where he begins the chapter by encouraging them to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Why? Because there is one Lord, one faith, one body. And then he shows diversity of gifts within the one body to what end?

8:04 That as the body, the body grows together through that which every joint supplieth, it makes increase of itself in love. Yesterday we looked at 2 Timothy 2, where Paul says, flee youthful lusts, but follow after righteousness. But he says, don't do it alone. He concludes verse 22 by saying, win them also that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

8:33 He says, Timothy, don't think that you can flee and follow in a freelance relationship. You are to flee, that's an individual discipline. You are to follow, that's an individual discipline. But you are to do so with them, in the company of those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart.

8:56 And so we must, as we think of the progress of sanctification, come to grips with the teaching of Scripture, concerning not only the individual disciplines, but the corporate disciplines of this process. Did our Lord say, by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another?

9:24 Yes, He did. Alright, then what kind of love is He talking about? 1 Corinthians 13 love. That love that suffers long.

9:33 Well, where can love show itself to be that kind of love, unless it's in close proximity to things and people that demand that you suffer long?

9:50 Is that love kind, patient? Well, where can it manifest itself except in a context where kindness and patience are demanded? So God knows what He's doing, I say it reverently, when He places us into the body of Christ with people who have experienced the radical cleavage, but who still have, the remains of corruption, and oh, how at times we need to suffer long with them, to be kind, to be patient, to think no evil. God put us in that close relationship with people

10:33 who are also in a state of imperfect sanctification. Oh, that He might show us the remains of our corruption as they come to light in the interaction with God's people, and then to show us the power of His grace, as He enables us to be kind, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven us. I'm suspicious of the person's piety who seeks to have it exercised and cultivated in isolation,

11:08 just as you never knew what a rotten person you were until you got married,

11:14 and had the painful self-disclosure that comes in the intimate, total involvement of marriage, so you never really know how deep is inbred corruption until you get totally involved in the life of the church, and then you see all of your corruption sopping to the surface.

11:39 That's why God has ordained that the sanctifying process go on in the context of the life of the people of God. Well then, so much for establishing the biblical principle, and I must discipline myself to just leave it there, because this thing just opens up into one channel after another. But what are, then, the specific disciplines of the corporate life of the church by which the sanctifying process goes on? May I suggest three this morning?

Corporate Discipline 1: Consistent Gathering with God's People

12:13 And again, this is rather arbitrary, but I only do this to try to have some pegs upon which you can hang all of this biblical material. First of all, there is the discipline of consistent gathering with the people of God. Consistent gathering with the people of God. The key text, of course, is Hebrews chapter 10, verses 19 to 25.

12:43 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the way which he dedicated for us a new and new life, and living way through the veil, that is to say, his flesh, and having a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and having our body washed with pure water, let us hold fast the confession of our hope that it waver not, for he is faithful that promised. What can be more, what can be more individualistic

13:26 than the souls drawing nigh into the very presence of Almighty God through the blood of Christ. This comes to the very deepest level of true biblical piety, and it's suffused with the concept of individualism. Nobody can come for you. You must come boldly.

13:51 You must plead the promises. You must fix the gates. You must build the gates of faith upon that sufficient sacrifice and that succoring high priest. And yet he moves right from that exhortation into these words, and let us consider one another.

14:10 In the deepest exercises of the most intimate aspects of individual devotion, you must never forget you're part of the body of Christ. You must be the happiest of all for greater conformity to Christ, are you crying out for the mortification and the shriveling of the roots of the lust and pride of your heart. Never forget in those most intimate, fervent, direct dealings with God, you're not freelance. You're a member of the body.

14:50 Therefore, he says, in that context, let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works within what, in that framework, not forsaking our own assembling together as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day drawing nigh, for if we sin willfully, one of the soberest warnings in Hebrews comes right on the heels of this exhortation

15:31 for consistent gathering with the people of God. So whatever we may think about progressive sanctification, it should be obvious on the very surface of the issue, there can be no valid progress unless there is consistent gathering with the people of God. Now, in what way does that gathering contribute to the sanctifying process? There are a number of ways we could come at it, but again, one must be selective with such a mountain of biblical material, and I again have arbitrarily chosen a way to do it, and that is to just look briefly at the framework

16:14 of how the corporate life of the first church in Jerusalem contributed to progressive sanctification. So turn, please, to the second chapter of the book of Acts. It is not by some magical sacramental power of simply being where other Christians are that this work of progressive sanctification goes on. But it is a process which goes on when, gathered together, these means are exercised in their corporate life.

16:53 Notice Acts 2. Those who had been powerfully moved upon by the Spirit, who have gladly received the word, the word promising forgiveness through Christ, the word demanding baptism as a confession of that embrace of truth, the word demanding separation from a crooked generation, verse 40, they that received that word, verse 41, were baptized, they were added to the church, verse 42, and they continued steadfastly in, one, the apostles' teaching and, two,

17:36 fellowship, three, and in the breaking of bread, and four, and the prayers. Incorporated into the life of the church, Scripture tells us that in their consistent gathering with the people of God, there were these four strands of influence. First of all, apostolic doctrine. That entire early assembly, corporately exposed itself to the prophetic office of Christ, exercised through the apostles' instruction.

18:14 Now follow me closely. I would in no wise minimize what I emphasized yesterday. The necessity of the individual discipline of consistent prayerful assimilation of the word of God. But mark now, it is the formal, systematic, public exposition and application of the Scriptures, which is the primary discharge of the prophetic office of Christ.

18:49 And it used to trouble me when I would read the Puritans, because they put the public preaching of the word as a means of grace above the private study of the word. And I used to question them, but now I see their wisdom. For listen, it is the opening up of the Scriptures, by those who are given special gifts by the ascended Christ, Ephesians 4, which has peculiar reference to the building up of the body of Christ. And as you gain proper thoughts of God, and of relationship of one truth to another, through a solid, expository, applicatory ministry,

19:34 that you are collecting the tools, which have been given to you, which make your private study fruitful and accurate. You would steadfastly in the apostles doctrine. And the person who says, well I've got God, I've got the Holy Ghost, I've got my Bible, I don't need preaching. He's either ignorant, or he's proud, or he's both.

20:02 No, no. There is no such thing as going on in the sanctifying process, apart from this exposure to apostolic doctrine. And then there's another aspect of it. If the church is the body of Christ, and if a body is to function as an integrated whole, there must not only be life and strength in every member, there must be coordination of every member to the will of the head.

20:33 When the ball player comes up to bat, and he stands there and looks at that pitcher, it'll do no good if he's got 17 inch biceps, biceps and a 50 inch chest. If that big old arm says come down, when his eye sees the pitch coming in and it's letter high, and the head says come around this way, there must be the total coordination of all of the faculties of that body, if that bat is to meet the ball at the fat part dead center and knock it 450 feet over the left center field or right center field wall. So it is not enough that people be made strong through assimilation of the word privately,

21:16 unless they are sensitive, to what the Spirit is saying to the church, in the development and corporate life of the church. Some of the greatest problems preachers have are people who have a wealth of scriptural knowledge gained on their own, but who, because they are not present whenever the people of God come together, are not hearing and sensing and feeling the direction in which the Holy Ghost is leading that church at that time. And I've seen this as a pastor, that whenever we come to an issue that involves the corporate decision of the people of God,

22:00 those who've been there Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, the cumulative effect of the prophetic office of Christ ministered through the regular exposition of Scripture has fused their minds and hearts so that they've moved as one body in the direction of the will of God. And those who've only been out, say, Sunday mornings, or who have been sporadic in their attendance at other meetings, they're the ones that always come up with a jangling voice. They're the ones that always seem to be, as it were, moving in the opposite direction. Now I'm not talking about the area where we have valid differences and through discussion new light comes,

22:44 but I'm talking about this matter spoken of in the book of Acts where it says, This saying pleased what? The whole multitude. They could say, It seemed good unto us and to the Holy Ghost. And there will be no congregation moving as one body if this means of corporate sanctification is neglected and ignored.

23:13 Have you caught what I'm talking about? Or has this been all kind of mystical? Oh, dear people of God, listen. Don't measure the effect of preaching by your immediate consciousness of its effect.

23:25 The cumulative effect in the ministry of the Word. Just there as there is with your eating of physical food. You don't remember everything you ate a week ago. Now occasionally you get the kind of meal that you'll remember for a lifetime.

23:46 Take that any way you want. But there is the cumulative effect. Proper eating. Much eating.

23:58 Improper eating. Whatever it be. So with preaching. As Christ exercises prophetic, exercises His prophetic office, and you sit prayerfully, expectantly, there are times you'll go away and say, Well, what did I really receive?

24:12 Well, maybe the Lord was giving you something there that was needed for some congregational life and action three months down the line. Well, isn't it His privilege to stick it in your mind there and bring it to remembrance later on? And so I submit if you and I are serious about going on in the process of sanctification, there must be consistent gathering with the people of God. Why?

24:37 That we might be constantly exposed to apostolic doctrine. Secondly, they continued steadfastly in fellowship. And the basic thought of the word fellowship is mutual participation and sharing. That's the concept of fellowship.

24:54 And they continued steadfastly in fellowship. There was shared life. Not only sitting, as it were, in the same pews, receiving the same directive, from the apostles, the parallel being our sitting in the same pews, receiving the same directive from pastor-teachers who are expounding apostolic doctrine, but there was shared life, one with the other. This would take in the whole spectrum of worship.

25:25 God wants to hear the individual cry of His children in the closet when they look up into His face and say, Like David, O Lord, in the morning I will direct my prayer unto Thee and will look up. He longs to hear them tearfully praying through the 51st Psalm when there is wrung out of their hearts in bitterness their confession of sin and it ascends as a sweet incense to His nostrils. But ah, my friend, God wants something more than His individual children in their individual closets praying, confessing, supplicating, worshipping. 1 Peter 2, 5 says,

26:06 We are built up a spiritual temple to offer up spiritual sacrifices. Where? Within that temple. And oh, the thought should thrill us that whenever God sees an expression of the body of His Son, a local assembly, 10 people, 12 people, 50 people, 500, who according to the words of Paul in Romans 15, with one mouth are glorifying God.

26:37 He is that which delights Him. For He is building these spiritual temples that there might be the continual sacrifice of praise, of worship, and of adoration. May I say it reverently, but in a way that I trust it will stick, when you, for no good reason but personal convenience or somehow giving in to the tendencies of the flesh, absent yourself from the gathered people of God, you're robbing off of that which is the delight of His heart, the corporate worship of His people. Fellowship.

27:18 Sharing together in bringing that which delights Him. Sharing together in this common life. I must stop there. Thirdly, breaking of bread.

27:31 This could either refer to their common meals which were shared on a social level, or it could refer to the special supper of remembrance. And if it doesn't refer to the supper of remembrance here, we have other warrant in the New Testament to know that this is to be an integral part of the shared life of the people of God. The Lord's table is not an individual supper of remembrance. The idea that you go into the religious bookstore and you get a little portable communion thing, so that when you go out to individuals and the rest, you give them the elements.

28:11 In rare cases, one might bring, representatively, some of the elders and a few of the people into a sick room, so a dear saint of God can remember the Lord as He's commanded. And that would be the exception, but it's accurate to say this is a family ordinance. He says, when ye come together, 1 Corinthians chapter 11, and it's in the breaking of bread, and that constant call to self-examination of our relationship Godward and manward, that this becomes a mean. Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat.

28:50 How can we take of that one loaf? If with the hand that I break off my piece from the loaf, desire to strike my brother whose hand breaks from that same loaf. Oh, what a terrible contradiction of the whole symbolism. Christ is that broken bread.

29:12 We are one in Him. We all have a shared life in Him. How dare we share the sinful source of life if there's aught between our brethren, between us and our Lord. And so in the breaking of bread, there is this means of grace, by virtue of self-examination, by virtue of the positive aspect that we are confessing our common hope in Christ as our only Savior, and as our life.

29:45 And then they continued steadfastly in the prayers, the public prayers, probably in this case, the stated prayer times at the temple. God has given that marvelous promise in Matthew 18, a promise attached to corporate prayer that nowhere else is attached to any other kind of prayer. If two of you shall agree on earth is touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done of my Father who is in heaven. Why?

30:18 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst. Well, wait a minute. You taught us the other day, Mr. Martin, from four texts of the Scripture, that Christ indwells every believer individually.

30:33 Yes. But in a way that we cannot understand nor clearly delineate, He dwells in the midst of His gathered people in APQ, where they are gathered. There am I, and with my living presence amongst them, there is peculiar authority in their corporate prayers. I've been astounded as I've been carrying our people through a study, basically in the first few chapters of the book of Acts, on the weapons of the early church, how she faced all the formidable aspects of the paganism and the immorality and all the other problems of the first century.

31:16 And you find that, woven into the whole history of those first 11, 12 chapters of the book of Acts, is the corporate prayer of the people of God. You never got the feeling that they laid their programs in their board meetings or session meetings, and then they came out intact on a little prayer, sort of like sprinkling holy water on their carnal plans to neutralize the effects of fleshly wisdom. No, no. Everything grew out of the context of corporate prayer.

31:46 She faces her first personnel crisis. How? Praying. Lord, your word says somebody's got to take Judas' place.

31:54 Lord, we cry to you. Show whom you have chosen. It's as she's continuing steadfastly in prayer that her initial equipage comes upon her. They are in one place of one accord, waiting upon God, and suddenly there comes from heaven the sound as of a mighty rushing wind.

32:15 They are filled along, and people are full of the Holy Ghost, that the first opposition will always come from apostate religion. So in Acts 4, the church faces her initial religious opposition. What does she do? They're threatened by the authorities.

32:31 They run back to their company, and it says this, and it's beautiful. With one voice. How many were there? And it says, with one voice, they cried to God, and they worshiped Him, and they sought His face, and no other weapon but prayer.

32:50 They cry out, oh God, behold their threatenings. And it's as though God says, I am so pleased with how you've gone about facing this problem, I want to give you a visible token. And He shakes the roof, and then He shakes Jerusalem. On you go.

33:12 I don't want to give you two Sunday night's messages here this morning, though I'm tempted to. Corporate prayer. And so I say, when you cut yourself off from the corporate life of the people of God, you are weakening its torments. You are weakening its total effect.

33:32 Therefore, the first corporate discipline of progressive sanctification is consistent gathering with the people of God. When Wednesday night comes and you've got a headache and you feel dull, you don't go on the basis of impulse. As people gather, I belong there. In Congress, they see me coming to preach this morning, and my larynx laying in bed, or my ear stuck in there on the washroom sink, or my foot sitting there by the dresser.

34:14 How incongruous then for one member of the local body, and Paul calls the local church in 1 Corinthians 12, a body of Christ. Ye are the body of Christ. How incongruous for any of the members to be found anywhere else but where the body is gathered. Well then, the second corporate means in the process of sanctification is what I am calling the demonstrated construction for the people of God.

Corporate Discipline 2: Demonstrated Concern for God's People

34:44 Listen to some of these texts, and this is the only way I knew to gather them all together without breaking them down into about four different categories. Listen to these texts, Galatians 6 and verse 1. Brethren, if any of you be overtaken in a fault, he that is spiritual, restore such in one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. And then he goes on to develop this thought of concern, one for the other, Galatians 6.

35:19 For if bare ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if a man thinketh himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. And I never saw this until the other day. In the context, I wonder if this is what Paul is saying.

35:36 He says, now, bear one another's burdens. And it's as though someone says, ah, no, I'm strong enough to go on my own. He says, if you think, that of yourself, you don't know the first thing about yourself. If any man thinketh himself to be something, I can go it on my own.

35:51 I'm a strong enough individual Christian. I don't really need my brethren's suckering concern. It's a luxury I would like to have when I feel that I need it. But otherwise, I'll go on my own.

36:05 Is that the meaning? I wonder. In the context, I wonder. Then he goes on to say, but let each man prove his own work then shall he have his glorying in regard of himself alone and not of his neighbor.

36:18 For each man shall bear his own burden. He uses a turn phrase here. Each man will be responsible to God for the discharge of his own duty, part of which is to bear the burden. Romans 15, 1.

36:33 We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak. Hebrews 3. Classic passage on this matter of demonstrating concern for the people of God. Listen to the context of Hebrews 3.

36:51 The serious warning about falling away. Verse 12. Take ye, brethren, lest haply there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in falling away from the living God. Well, what means?

37:04 We'll correct it. Not only individual prayer, individual watching, individual discipline, but exhort one another while it is called today, lest there, exhort one another while it is called today, so long as it is called today, lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Remaining corruption is deceitful. Often its workings are such that I cannot detect them, but they may be very obvious to my brother.

37:39 For he can look at me more objectively than I can look at myself. It's like a disease the symptoms of which may not be obvious to the one who's contracted the disease, but to others whose eyes are sensitive to the symptoms it may be very obvious. Now he says, not to pastors, but to brethren, exhort one another today in the immediate situation if you see your brother beginning to be drawn aside by the deceitfulness of sin. He says, the reason he's not coming to prayer meeting, is, and he gives some very plausible reasons, but you notice, you notice, that there's a lack of reality.

38:21 That there seems to have been the loss of the freshness. When you get together, holy things don't naturally come to the center of conversation. And you discern, not as a hypercritical, self-appointed judge, but as a loving brother who realizes this is a member of my body. If my eye sees this finger beginning to wither, it doesn't turn away and ignore it and say, I hope it'll just get better on its own.

38:46 The whole body comes to work to restore that finger. Not to cut it up, not to stick pins in it, not to lop it off, but in love to restore it. And if I see sin by its deceitfulness, the love of riches, the love of the world, the cares of this life, dampening the ardor, turning aside the affections, stultifying and quenching worship and praise and involvement in worship, and involvement in witness in God's name, can I see my finger wither and turn away in unconcern? I must in love go to my brother and say, my brother, we are members one of another.

39:29 And I sense that there's a coldness. Could it be that all your rationalizing is just that? And I exhort him in love and in compassion, demonstrated concern, and that's why the book of Proverbs says, open rebuke is better than secret love. Faithful are the wounds of an enemy, of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

39:58 Better is open rebuke. How I thank God for those men who've loved me enough to put their hand on my shoulder and exhort me. I remember when I first began preaching, just weeks after I was converted, and God was pleased to bless, in that little mission where we preached up in Connecticut. And I look back now and some of us who were involved in that believe it's the closest thing to revival we've ever seen.

40:26 When the Spirit of God would be poured out and people thought nothing of praying for hours. We did nothing but preach and pray. I'll never forget the first time someone even suggested that we leave one of our meetings and go for a hamburger. We felt as grieved as if someone had suggested we go out to a whorehouse.

40:42 Now there's nothing wrong with going for a hamburger. I'm just trying to convey the climate and atmosphere in which we were brought into the knowledge of Christ. And I can remember in this context preaching one night and feeling some sense of the Lord's help as the details come back to me now. They're rather fuzzy.

41:01 It's been 18 years now. But this dear brother who had eyes like fire. Oh, he could look holes through you. Every time he looked at you he saw the last fiber in your little toe and everything in between.

41:11 A Scotsman. I can remember him taking me by the lapel and getting up very close as he could with one eyebrow like this. And those eyes would look right through you and he'd say, Al, there was too much of Al Martin in that sermon. We would occasionally sit around in a circle with open Bibles and exhort and rebuke one another and point out every area we had seen that was contrary to the standard of Scripture.

41:44 If you missed a prayer meeting, somebody was on the phone. Hey, you getting backslidden? If you missed a street meeting or two, brother, somebody was climbing up your back. You think we hated one another for that?

41:57 I don't think so. I tell you, the love that knit us together is something that was most precious. Faithful are the wounds, but those kisses of the brother or sister who can see you in church, can see you on the street, talk with you on the phone, who discerns the withering of a finger but never rebukes. He's your enemy, not your friend.

42:24 And so we need the corporate life of the people of God within which framework there will be this demonstrated concern Paul says, a mark of spiritual maturity is this demonstrated concern. Romans 15, 14. He says of the Roman church, I am convinced of you, my brethren. What?

42:47 Listen. Ye yourselves are full of goodness, that's grace, filled with all knowledge, understanding, and what's the fruit of grace and understanding in the corporate life of the church? Able also to be able also to admonish one another. Where the mind is being stretched with truth and the heart is being filled with grace, truth and grace in the local church should express itself in mutual admonition.

43:17 Oh how thrilled I am as a pastor when I see this. Someone will come to me and say, you know so and so has been gone from prayer meeting a couple of weeks. I called them this week and they really didn't have any good excuse. They'll be out next Wednesday and sure enough there they'll be.

43:32 As a pastor one's people showing concern in front of them. Oh you say, can't that lead to Phariseeism? Oh yes, yes. What truth is not open to abuse?

43:42 But I'm not going to let the possible abuse of truth keep me from the right use of it. The doctrine of justification by faith has been abused. Shall we all become Romanists and seek to work our way to heaven with fastings, prayers, penance, nirvanas and all the rest? Capacity for food is, I'm not about to go on a 40 day fast.

44:06 Capacity for sex is abused. I'm not about to become a eunuch. Truth can be abused. Keep us from this which is a means of grace.

44:23 Exhort one another lest ye be hardened by the deceitfulness. So let me say by way of application under this second corporate discipline, let us pray that God will give us grace to be obedient in giving of this demonstrated concern. It's hard. Oh I find it easy to stand up and thunder to 500 people.

44:49 And to go lovingly and tenderly to one sheep in the flock and face them with their sin. Oh it's hard. We always think the worst. Don't we?

44:58 Always think the worst. And I found nine times out of ten, it always turns out so much better than I go fear and trembling but God honors the step of obedience. And then may I say let's pray for the grace to be humble in receiving that admonition. What would you think if this finger began to show signs of the loss of life, began to turn blue, and when all the rest of my body was employed to help it, it began to wiggle and squirm and say, leave me alone and mind your own business?

45:29 Unthinkable. May it be such with us when someone discerns the operations of the deceitfulness of sin in us and comes to us in love, God forbid that we should say, leave me to my creeping death, my decline to spiritual life, I'll stay and go to hell. If you don't believe me read verse 14 of Hebrews 3 for in that context of exhortation one of another he says,

46:12 for we are partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our steadfast and what's the means of holding it steadfast, my brethren exhorting me. A great means in the process of sanctification. Then the third is what I'm calling the official discipline of the church of God. Not only regular assembling with the people of God, demonstrated concern for the people of God, but the official discipline of the church of God and there are two forms of discipline what I'm calling normal discipline and radical discipline.

Corporate Discipline 3: The Official Discipline of the Church

46:57 The normal discipline is that set forth in Hebrews 13, 17. Obey them that have the rule over you and submit to them as they that watch for your souls. What a privilege to have someone who is officially charged by the living God for my soul. And everyone who formally identifies himself with any given local assembly automatically becomes the official charge of its overseers, its teaching and ruling elders.

47:38 And what a privilege to be under that kind of discipline. What a privilege. Do you think the sheep counts it a burden to have a shepherd or shepherds in whose eyes its very life is precious? Do you think the sheep counts it a constriction of its liberty to have a shepherd that will protect it from danger if necessary even to the giving of his own life?

48:10 For a good shepherd our Lord says will give his life for the sheep. And so if you are not formally identified with an official under the discipline of a given local assembly I plead with you make haste and get yourself formally committed to an assembly where when the servants of God look out they know Mr. So-and-so Mrs. So-and-so Johnny So-and-so Pete and Harry they are my charge for whom I shall give an account in the day of judgment.

48:45 What a precious gift is the discipline of scripturally qualified biblically functioning elders teachers, pastors. And there is this normal discipline that is part of God's means of sanctification. 1 Thessalonians 5.12 is another text that underscores this principle know them that are over you in the Lord and admonish you.

49:12 All believers have the duty of admonition and the privilege but in a peculiar and special way elders, pastors and teachers are charged with the duty of admonition. Well then there is the other kind of discipline what I am calling radical discipline and it has increasing stages. You have the stage mentioned in Romans 16.17 and this is church action.

49:41 This is not just the action of a select few pastor, elders it is to be church action. Notice verse 17 of Romans 16. I beseech you brethren mark them that are causing the divisions and occasions of stumbling contrary to the doctrine which ye learned and turn away from them. If there arises in your midst those who are teaching and acting contrary to apostolic standards of truth and life the church is to turn away from them.

50:16 And generally speaking they will leave. We had an example of this recently that confirmed this so clearly. One Sunday morning in the Sunday school class I heard a voice behind me. We have open end discussion type thing guiding us through the teaching and this voice I didn't recognize at first but it was obvious by a few phrases this man was an Arian in his Christology.

50:38 Never having seen him before didn't know him from Adam I turned around and I said sir I don't know who you are I think you are Jehovah's witness but anyway you believe Arian theology which is heresy this is a church of the Trinity and we will not allow any Arian heresy to be spoken. If you want to sit and listen you are welcome if you want to propagate your heresy I ask that you leave immediately. He raised his hand a few more times but the teacher wouldn't recognize him. I went to him afterward and to make a long story short we made it clear to that man if he wanted to come into that church and sit and listen we welcomed him.

51:16 We longed to see him under the teaching of the word but he was not to pass out literature he was not to open the door and he was not to open the door of the church. You know what happened in two weeks time we've never seen that man again and yet he has gone back to Bible classes and churches in our area and been given opportunity to parade his heresy by the hours because people wouldn't mind what God says. When that man was marked by our people and was turned away from knowing he could have no hearing he left to go to greener pastures. Now that's to be church action that's a discipline to keep infectious doctrine from the ranch of the people of God.

51:55 That's for their health and their sanctification. But it also relates to those who seem to be brothers in second Thessalonians. We obviously have a situation where there is not outright heresy as such but you find someone unwilling to follow the directives given in the exposition of scripture and it's in the context of someone who's unwilling to work. He's too spiritual he's going to wait for the Lord to come and trust God to provide in the meantime.

52:25 Second Thessalonians chapter one Thessalonians 3.14 If any man obeyeth not our word by this epistle note that man that you have no company with him to the end that he may be ashamed yet count him not as an enemy but admonish him as a brother. Let me illustrate. Suppose your pastor is preaching through and I want to take something that's right down in the nitty gritty.

52:48 Suppose he's preaching through the book of Ephesians and he comes to the passage where he's laying out the duties of wives to husbands husbands to wives who goes right on refusing to accept his or her God given role whether love husband to the wife a rule of love or the wife's submission as unto Christ what are you to do? You go to that person and say look until you shape up to that area of biblical truth I love you in Christ I'm going to admonish you but you can just count us out having any kind of close intimate fellowship until you shape up. Isn't that what it says? Mark that person don't treat him as enemies but admonish them but don't go on as though everything's all right

53:33 let them feel the pressure of their unwillingness to conform to scripture for if one member suffers the whole body suffers their disobedience is affecting you it's affecting the whole life of the church Is it no wonder that the Holy Ghost doesn't come into our assemblies when we gather? Where you've got an assembly made up of a hundred or two hundred people each one in his own little area driving a stake of indifference to some precept the Holy Ghost quenched in this woman because she won't submit to her husband quenched in this man because he's a tyrant in the home quenched in that young person because they're flirting with the flesh quenched in brother so and so over there because he incurs bad debts and doesn't believe what the Bible says

54:17 owe no man anything quenched in that sister over there because she's a busybody quenched here quenched there Is it no wonder that the Holy Ghost doesn't come? What would happen if we took seriously these admonitions and began to faithfully exert the radical discipline of broken fellowship until we saw evidence of the thing dealt with and then there is the most intense form of radical discipline 1 Corinthians 5 a brother being cut off from the official membership of the church given over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved now I want to ask you a question what do you think

55:02 that brother thought that the Holy Ghost had done when the letter was first read to the Corinthian assembly try to just transport yourself back there here this man has been carrying on this illicit relationship with his mother-in-law or with his stepmother a form of fornication not even known amongst the Gentiles Paul says and you're sitting there one morning and you've pretty well sweated through first chapter second chapter no chapter divisions but I'm doing this for our sake and he talks about divisions and all the rest and now he comes to chapter 5 and he says I am told that there is fornication among you all of a sudden all the blood drains from his face he becomes white as a sheet he begins to break out in a cold sweat he says I am told

55:46 that there is someone in your midst and he describes the case and the brother feels as though time has suddenly shifted into eternity and he's standing before the judgment bar of God and then the apostle says when ye are gathered together by my spirit and by the Lord Jesus deliver such and one over to Satan for the destruction can you imagine the terror that seized him can you imagine the fear the dread perhaps the anger and what did they do did they say well let's just be patient let's give the Lord no no Paul writes the second letter and says you did what I told you and what was the blessed fruit of it that brother

56:30 was restored and I'm sure to his dying day he thanked him he thanked God for a church that had spiritual muscle enough to exercise radical discipline to the salvation of the soul of this erring brother may God give us the fiber that will in love exercise radical discipline not to condemnation but to restoration now again we're a slick bunch we say in the New Testament you take care of that situation

57:15 with so and so I know we ought to discipline Lord but that's tacky nasty business but if you'll send your spirit you'll clear it all up we won't need to touch it shame on you my Bible says he gives the Holy Spirit to those who obey to those who obey him acts 532 Jesus said in John 14 21 he that hath my commandments and keepeth them I will manifest myself to him God's reviving, quickening presence in our assembly may not be contingent upon dealing with one or two or three achings in our midst.

57:55 There comes a time when God says to his Joshua, stop your praying, get up off your feet, and start disciplining the assembly.

58:05 Though none of us prays for revival as we ought, I believe there's a sense in which unless our praying and our being prostrate before God with pleading is not coupled with diligent exercise of radical discipline where necessary, God says to us, up off your face, there's an aching in the can, I've told you what to do, now get on with it.

58:28 In love, in tenderness, in the patience of the Holy Ghost. So I submit that this is a means of corporate sanctification, not only for the person disciplined. He was restored. But what does?

58:46 Paul said to the church, oh, what clearing of yourselves, what jealousy, holy fear came on the whole church, and the whole church was sanctified. And the little bit I've seen of this is a pastor, one of the most wholesome, elevating, purging breaths that came upon us as a church, when as a newly formed church we had to take our first step of radical discipline, and there was a breath of God amidst the sorrow and the grief of it, and a holy dread. And some people who were sort of on the fringes, they said, hey, they made business, they've been showing up now.

59:25 Fear came upon all. Isn't that what it says in the book of Acts? And no man dared join themselves to that number. They say, boy, you get in that crowd, God might strike you dead if you're a phony.

59:36 Their God strikes phonies dead. But their God is so real, the next verse says, the Lord added, such as should be saved. When the church loses its power to repel, she's lost its power to attract to anything. She may attract it to Vaudeville, but why not stay home and get it on the TV?

59:57 She may attract it to a big three-ring Madison Avenue business circus,

60:03 but the church has no power to attract to anything worthwhile to repel. No man dared join.

60:19 Contrary to what one of the brethren said the other day, there's an element of truth in it. If the people of God are full of love, love goes out to its objects. Certainly you'll greet. You'll greet those who visit you with warmth.

60:31 You'll show them hospitality. And again, what a joy it is as a pastor. Some Sundays when someone hasn't showed up that we thought was coming and we've provided a place for them. There have been some Sundays I couldn't get a substitute.

60:42 Everyone I met at the door, would you go to... No, no, no.

60:44 Thirty, forty people out in different homes, sharing together. Wonderful. But I don't want our church to be known primarily as the friendly church. No, sir.

60:54 If there's one word that I trust God would make the natural consequence of His presence, it would be this. The awesome fear came upon all men. The unbeliever comes into your midst, Paul says. The thoughts of his heart are manifest and he, falling down, will cry out.

61:18 You say he'll jump up and say, Oh, isn't this a lovey-ducky place? Everybody just feels so...

61:28 He, falling down on his face, will cry God. May I say it's in the context, at times of this heart-wrenching experience of radical discipline.

Warning 1: Beware of Simple Formulas

61:49 Well, the other things we'll have to leave for the next... Series.

61:52 The warnings I wanted to close with, I'll just give you the headings, you can write them down. Alright?

61:58 Beware in the process of sanctification of simple formulas.

62:05 Beware of simple formulas. If there was a simple formula, then throw out all the detailed instruction of the New Testament. Beware of simple formulas. People with lingering diseases are prey to medical quackery.

62:19 It's people with arthritis and cancer that are the objects of the most forms of medical disease. Because weariness, under a lingering disease, psychologically conditions you for a quick remedy.

62:33 And my friend, you've got a lingering disease, and there are times you're going to get weary reckoning with it. Indwelling sin. And you're psychologically conditioned for spiritual quackery. Someone says, I gotta...

62:47 And your fangs drip, and your ears stretch out. If you get my secret, no more battle, no more conflict, no more struggle, and by about then, you've just about got the...

62:58 I've got a jumbo vein saying, tell me or I'll kill you.

63:05 My friend, listen. You listen to him, and it may kill you.

Warning 2: Beware of Downgrading Detailed Instruction

63:09 Beware of simple formulas. Secondly, beware of downgrading detailed instruction. People say detailed instruction is moralistic and pietistic. If you sever it from Christ as motive, power, and end, yes.

63:25 But all the detailed instructions in the Scripture are permeated with redemptive principles. There is redemptive blood. There is redemptive blood in every verse of practical instruction. Masters, treat your servants kindly.

63:39 Why? You've got a master up in heaven. Servants, obey your masters. Why?

63:43 Because you're serving the Lord Christ. Husbands, love your wives. Why? Because Christ loved the Church.

63:48 Wives, be subject to your husbands. Why? The Church is subject to Christ. You people at Corinth, don't fornicate.

63:54 Why? Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. You Christians, don't lie to one another. Why?

63:59 You're members one of another. All the details of duty...

64:03 ...are permeated with the blood of redemptive powers and motives and principles.

Warning 3: Beware of Making the Disciplines a God

64:10 And that's not moralistic. That's true biblical holiness. Thirdly, beware of making the disciplines or the means a god. Jeremiah 17, 5 through 9, Cursed be he that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm.

64:29 All of these means, individual and corporate, these disciplines are but means. Don't make a god of them. Cry to God for the blessing of the Spirit upon them and through them. Fourth warning, beware of the curse of contentment.

Warning 4: Beware of the Curse of Contentment

64:46 It's an old man about to go to heaven that says, I forget everything I've attained up till now and I'm pressing on. Philippians chapter 3. Forgetting the things that are behind. Not gloating in my attainments.

64:59 There's still so much ground to be covered. I'm straining for the tape.

65:06 Never forget that... Whatever lukewarmness is, the one infallible interpretation of its expression in practical thinking is given right in the text in Revelation 3.

65:17 For our Lord says, Because thou sayest thou art rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing, I'm about to spew thee out of my mouth. Whatever spiritual lukewarmness is, its characteristic is, no felt need that fills me with holy discontent. And whenever you get to that place, my friend, I don't care if you're outward-looking, life is impeccable. You're in a dangerous spiritual condition.

65:43 Beware of the curse of contentment. If you think you've made some progress, get on your prayer bones and open up to Exodus 20 and turn from there to Matthew 5, 6, and 7 and read those chapters through prayerfully and you'll see that you haven't begun to get your ankle in Canaan. And you'll start crying out to God for mercy and for grace. And then the last warning, beware of perfectionism in all of its forms.

Warning 5: Beware of Perfectionism

66:09 And you can always sniff out the heresy of perfectionism by several things. Number one, it lowers the standard of holiness and talks about known sin, conscious sin, etc. We touched on this the other day. The standard is nothing less than God Himself.

66:29 Be ye perfect as your Father's perfect. Be holy as He is holy. Nothing less than Christ Himself, the full extent and spirituality of the law. Perfectionism always lowers.

66:40 Perfectionism always lowers the standard and the second mark of perfectionism. It gets you into the place of keeping that standard by one big leap.

66:48 It's either called the rest of faith. It's called the crisis of surrender. It's called the baptism of the Spirit. It's called by many other terms.

66:59 But it always puts its emphasis upon this one great leap that gets you into that plane. Some more or less say you've got to grow from it to all different shades. But wherever you find teaching on sanctification that lowers the objective standard or that says the primary way to get to it is by a crisis, you're in the realm of perfectionism. Steer clear of it.

67:24 It'll lead to self-deception or to absolute frustration. And in many cases, it's led to downright atheism if people become disillusioned with the whole thing. And so I felt in doing justice to this subject, I had to close with those brief warnings. I hope that the Lord, will cause us to remember them and that they will be of help to us in the days ahead.

Conclusion: Pressing On to Sanctification Completed

67:47 May the Lord give us grace to go on in the process and one day, you'll be able to preach a better sermon than I on sanctification completed, the glorious climate. When that church, without spot or wrinkle, will be presented to the bride that bought it with its blood.

68:10 Oh, may God hasten the day and stir us up to press on. Let us pray.