In Living the Christian Life

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

0:00 We are determined that our life and ministry will unquestionably confirm the unique place assigned to the church in the saving purposes of God. We are determined that our life and our ministry will unquestionably confirm the unique place assigned to the church in the saving purposes of God. Last week we had time only to give a brief definition and description of what we mean by the church and then a demonstration of the uniqueness of the church in the purposes of God with respect to salvation. And we looked at seven texts of scripture, each one of which points to the uniqueness of the church in the saving purposes of God. And we are determined. We are determined that our life and our ministry shall not occasionally make reference to that truth and the rest of the time ignore it. But we are determined that our life and ministry will unquestionably confirm that indeed the church is unique, one of a kind, in the saving purposes of God.

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

1:57 What is there in our life and ministry that constitutes a plain manifestation that indeed we believe the church is unique in the saving purposes of God? Is this declaration just good theology but merely theory among us? Well, if indeed it is more than theology and theory, then surely there should be some plain and unmistakably clear, clear manifestations of this conviction working its way out in our life together. And the first and primary way in which it manifests itself, and this is all I'm going to touch upon this morning, is in our theology and practice of the Christian life. The theology and practice of the Christian life that obtains among us in this place is a plain manifestation of our determination that we shall unquestionably confirm the uniqueness of the church in the saving purposes of God.

The Christian Life: Christ-Centered

3:13 Once a person has been brought to new life in Christ, his great concern is focused and expressed in such questions as these. Where do I go from here? I've been brought to see my sin. I've been brought to see that I have sinned.

3:29 I've been brought to see that I have sinned. I've been brought to see that I have sinned. I've been brought to see that I have sinned. I've been brought to see that I have no claim to acceptance with God on the basis of what I am and what I've done.

3:36 I've been brought to see that the only hope of sinners is in the Lord Jesus Christ, who died and rose again on behalf of sinners and freely, joyfully welcomes every sinner who will trust Him. When a sinner has been brought by grace to embrace the Savior, then his concern is, where do I go from here? What do I do to manifest my love to the Savior? How do I get oriented to the whole new life into which the Savior has brought me by His grace?

4:13 These questions are all questions concerning how to live the Christian life. And there are many theologies and practices of living the Christian life, some of them heretical, some of them more or less erroneous, partially true, well, we want to state this morning that our theology and practice of the Christian life could be reduced to these words.

4:39 It is Christ-centered and church-based. That's it. We have a theology and practice of the Christian life that is Christ-centered and church-based. And it's crucial that you grasp this.

5:01 Because theology... The theology is to our practice what the mold into which the frames of my glasses were placed is to the shape and contour of these glasses' frames.

5:15 Somebody, somewhere poured liquid metal into a mold that shaped and formed the plastic and the wire of these frames. I do not wear the mold, but I continually wear the impress and the fruit of the mold's influence. I do not wear the mold, but I continually wear the impress and the fruit of the mold's influence. I do not wear the mold, but I continually wear the impress and the fruit of the mold's influence upon my frames.

5:35 And so it is with our practice of the Christian life is the visible thing. But it is molded and shaped and all of its contours are derived from our theology of living the Christian life. And that is why I have stated that in our theology and practice of the Christian life, there is a plain manifestation. Of our conviction of the uniqueness of the church in the saving purposes of God.

6:10 First of all, I've said it is Christ-centered. And here one is embarrassed with the text of scripture that come to mind. That any theology of the Christian life must be Christ-centered is surely determined by such texts as these. Colossians 2.

6:33 And verse 6. Notice how the beginning and the continuance of the Christian life are both joined to Christ. Colossians 2, 6 and 7. As therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord.

6:54 That's how they became Christians. As many as received him. To them gave you the right to become the sons of God. Even to them that believe in Christ.

7:05 To them that believe on his name John 1, 12. Now notice what Paul says. He doesn't say as therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord. Now then move on from Christ to something else.

7:19 Move on from Christ to the spirit. Move on from Christ to great experiences. No. He says as you received Christ Jesus the Lord.

7:30 So walk in him. Rooted and builded up in him. And established in your faith even as you were taught abounding in thanksgiving. How is someone established in his faith?

7:46 By being rooted and builded up in the very Christ into whom he was planted in his coming into the Christian faith. You see how Christ-centered is the apostle's exhortation to Christian growth? As Christ was central in your faith. As Christ was central in your entrance upon the Christian life.

8:09 He is to be central in all of the development of that life. So that we do not move on from Christ to someone else. From Christ to something else. As you received him.

8:25 So walk in him. Rooted and builded up in him. Or we could take as a beautiful vivid picture. Of the Christian life.

8:37 Hebrews 12 verses 1 and 2. If becoming a Christian is being enrolled in the race of those that are on their way to heaven. The Christian life is likened to running that race until we get to heaven. And what is to be the great focus of our spiritual eyes as we run the Christian race.

9:03 That is live the Christian life. Hebrews 12 verses 1 and 2. Therefore let us also seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience or endurance the race that is set before us looking unto Jesus. The author and perfecter of our faith.

9:34 Who for the joy of the Lord. The joy that was set before him endured the cross despising shame and it sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. If any text teaches that living the Christian life is living a life that is Christ centered this text teaches it. Yes we are to lay aside weights and encumbrances but we are not to focus our attention upon our weights and our encumbrances.

10:01 We are to look unto Jesus. The same Jesus to whom we looked in the first look of saving faith. Look unto me all ye ends of the earth and be ye saved. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

10:25 Faith is likened to the initial looking to Christ as our sin bearer as our substitute. But we do not look in order to be saved. But we do not look in order to be saved. But we do not look in order to be saved.

10:35 But we do not look in order to be saved. But we do not look in order to enter life and then turn our eyes to a different object to see that life advanced and developed. No. The entire process of the Christian life until we see him face to face is described as running a race looking unto Jesus.

10:55 The Christian life is pervasively Christ centered. You receive Christ Jesus the Lord. Walk in him. Loot it and build it up in him looking unto Jesus.

11:11 Or take Paul's great statement in 2 Corinthians 5. Why has God saved us in the virtue of the death of Christ? This text answers that question. Now that I am a Christian what am I to live for?

11:26 Who am I to live for? What is to be the driving motivation of my life? Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5.4.

11:34 What is to be the driving motivation of my life? Sincerity gives the distinction that the way of life is to have taste from God when it comes to someone. God that has everything is preaching the love of Christ . We could not be false of Christ in a matter of mere responsabilities of worship by touching him.

11:49 What we as Christians must drunk and reflect on is the consciousness of Christ as being the person that He is to be. That is the true founders of Christ. It is true that Jesus Christ is the father ofoly and holy where eleva is first born, the son of Jesus Christ because he is the identity of God. He is most powerful.

12:03 For the honor of Christ in all things which lie after him in the world is what is true for his name. their sakes died and rose again, should live unto Him who died and rose. Who died and rose for us. It is Christ. And the whole of life is to be subsumed under this simple terminology as a Christian, I'm living unto Him who loved me, died for me, and rose again. And that that's the proper understanding of Paul's intention comes from his own testimony. When Paul, as it were, answers the question, Paul, what's your philosophy of life? Sit down and tell us in the next couple of hours. What makes you tick? You say, it won't take me

12:49 a couple of hours. It won't even take me a minute. It won't even take me ten seconds. Philippians chapter 1 and verse 21. Here the Apostle gives us what makes him tick.

13:04 He gives us the distillation of his whole perspective on the Christian life. He says in verse 20, according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing shall I be put to shame, but that with all boldness as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether by life or death, for to me live is Christ. Now you talk about the essence of simplicity. To me. That's personal.

13:37 To live, that's all of life, is Christ. That's it. Ah, come on. Paul, life's not that simple.

13:46 You're being naive. Hey, wait a minute. You're not talking to a dunce. You're talking to a guy that could speak fluent Greek, fluent Greek, fluent Hebrew, fluent who knows what else, Aramaic, who knows what other languages, talking about a man that even pagans say was one of the greatest minds that ever existed on the face of the earth.

14:10 One tutored at the feet of Gamaliel, brilliant, outstripping his peers in zeal and knowledge, but this man could say, here's my life. To me, intensely personal. To live, extensive and comprehensive. To live, that encompasses everything in life, is Christ. Nothing else, Paul? No. Not Christ plus, not a comma leading to, to me, to live, is Christ. Now we could go on and multiply.

14:45 But I trust, if you have any sensitivity to the Bible, these texts, these epitomizing texts, have convinced your judgment that any view of the Christian life, any theology and practice of the Christian life that is not pervasively, unquestionably Christ-centered is off-base from the Bible. If it's experience-centered, Holy Spirit-centered, happy, getting time-centered, healing the Christ is off-center. Even when it's one of the persons of the Godhead. Christ-centeredness is the mark of a biblical theology of living the Christian life. But now, and this is where a lot of people bail out and don't even ask for their life jacket.

The Christian Life: Church-Based

15:43 As much as the Bible teaches with unmistakable clarity that the Christian life is centered,

15:55 it also teaches that it is churched-based. That is, the nurturing of the Christ-centered life is ordained of God to be carried out in the framework of His church. And that it is the church that is the only divinely mandated context for the nurture of this Christ-centered life. The Lord's message is due to be heard by all the nations of the universe as a true, And so I've used the terms, the biblical theology of the Christian life is Christ-centered and church-based.

16:40 Now, what passages teach this?

16:44 Again, one's embarrassed by the multitude of them, but I want you to look at some key passages that simply distill the overall teaching of the Word of God. The first is in Acts chapter 2. There are many things to be said about the second chapter of Acts, but one of the things that I want to say this morning is derived from the great principle that in this initial work of the Spirit of God on the day of Pentecost, when the Lord Jesus came from heaven by the Spirit to take up His residence in His living temple in all the glory and wonder of new covenant privilege and reality, we have, as it were, specimen principles of God's operation throughout the entire period from Pentecost until the coming of the Lord Jesus. And in this chapter, we see God working through the proclamation of Peter, and hearts are smitten. And I pick up the reading now at verse 38. When people, verse 37, I'm sorry, of Acts 2, when they heard this, they were pricked in the heart.

18:03 And said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do? They came to see themselves as sinners. They came to own the reality that they had crucified the Lord of glory, that their hands were in the eye of God, dripping with the blood of the Son of God. And they said, What shall we do?

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

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

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

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

19:51 And he opened them up. And now we read, Then they that received his word were baptized. And they all went their way, happy and rejoicing in the Lord Jesus. To have their devotions every morning, alone with God.

20:06 To have their devotions every morning, alone with God. That isn't what it says. And they that received his word were baptized. And there were added in that day about 3,000 souls.

20:18 And they continued steadfastly in personal devotions and family devotions and in house fellowships. No, no. There were added unto them 3,000. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching and fellowship.

20:36 In the breaking. Of bread. And in the prayers. Verse 44.

20:40 And all that believed were together. And had all things common. 46. And day by day continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple.

20:55 The end of the passage in the Lord added to them day by day those that were being saved. Now what is God saying in this very initial, powerful outpouring of the spirit? This tremendous increase of the dimensions of His spiritual temple. When He adds in one day 3,000 living stones to the existing 120 that were there in the upper room.

21:24 This tremendous expansion of the living temple. What is God saying? Just as much as Peter's sermon was Christ centered, So the experience. Of those.

21:36 Those who embraced it in faith led to a church-based experience of the Christian life.

21:46 They were not brought to individual faith and repentance then to go on to live out a Christ-centered, individualized Christian life. No. No one comes to repentance and faith except he comes as an individual. Mom and Daddy can't believe for you kids.

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

22:19 Individually repent of your sins. Yes! But once we have individually repented and believed, we are not to go on in an individualistic Christian life. And this passage shows that when these 3,000 individuals, when they embraced the Word, they submitted to the ordinance of baptism and baptism became the door of their admission into the visible community and in community with the 120 they continued in the Apostles' teaching that is in church life where the instruction of the appointed instructors was given.

23:01 We learn further on that they would gather in Solomon's porch. They would sit there in the temple and the Apostles would instruct them in the truths which had now become precious. They continued steadfastly in the Apostles' teaching and in fellowship. And fellowship there does not mean just fellowship with God and fellowship with one or two choice friends.

23:25 No. It meant fellowship, shared life with the whole community of the people of God. And in the breaking of bread. They wereastes were witnesses with God." Add a part of chapter 6 to this His Apostle John said that technical term for the supper of remembrance. They didn't go off and remember the Lord individually but they remembered Him and their corporate identity. And the prayers, the stated seasons of prayers were seasons when they gathered in their corporate identity as the people of God.

24:01 And the Lord was adding to them those that were saved. All that were being brought into a Christ centered experience of salvation. So, we have had here morning show and a short talk of past testimonies. We learned this very short time and then afterwards하시는麻きک年代 came to say a sight you would never enjoy but that how deployment flare was prepared in Giade, John the Vaiolt, were Bruce ecological genius as, the house that brought the work of closing the mood into biggest church and nature from that community. and Nicolae Hoefer explained what was happening to Pascal. That interview told us positively with many things.

24:06 salvation were immediately being incorporated into a church-based experience of the Christian life. You see that from verse 47? You didn't have many saved and a few being added to them.

24:25 That isn't what the text says. The Lord added to them those. You didn't have every Tom, Dick, and Harry joining the church, regardless of whether or not he could give a credible profession of being saved. Neither did you have a bunch of people running around declaring themselves saved who were unwilling to be identified with God's people, and have their professed conversion come under the scrutiny of the spiritual leadership and of the whole body.

24:54 You didn't have self-proclaimed saved people running around as freelance Christians. It isn't there in my Bible, nor is it in yours. It just isn't there. And what is there in these opening things?

25:12 Verses of the book of Acts we see all the way through, so that the fruit of evangelism, with but few exceptions, and there are a few exceptions, because of the very circumstances, such as the Ethiopian eunuch, an individual found out in the middle of a desert. Well, Philip isn't going to start a church in the middle of a desert, turn the guy's chariot upside down, where four people could sit and have a meeting. So obviously, some things are not going to describe the foundation of the church, but as the general pattern, all the way through the book of Acts. The fruit of evangelism is measured in terms of the establishment of churches, not in terms of the numbers of individual people running around saying, I'm saved. I believe the Apostolic message. You just won't find it. It just is not there. So that when it

26:08 comes time to compose epistles, letters, apostolic pastoral letters . . . . . . , every Christian who happens to to get a copy of this and take it into his closet for his personal devotions. That's the way I read my Bible for years. I was so ignorant to the doctrine of the church, it never occurred to me, it never got through my thick head, that when I took the book of Romans to read it in my devotions, I was reading it in an abnormal situation. Now, I'm not saying you shouldn't read your Bible in your devotions.

26:45 But what I am saying,

26:48 the book of Romans,

26:52 and Paul assumed why he can write this way. The apostles separated unto the gospel of God. Now then, who's he sending it to? He says, verse 6, verse 7, to all who are loved of God.

27:18 He believes that every person who's a truly, effectually called saint is going to be there in the church.

27:27 He doesn't say, and any others who are called but aren't a part of the church and who happen to get this letter. You don't find any such exception clauses. And you go right through the introduction to all of the epistles. And it's amazing how some truths lie right on the surface and we miss them.

27:45 Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 1. Through the will of God, Sosthenes our brother, unto the church of God, which is at Corinth, even them that are sanctified in Christ, called saints, with all that call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in every place, their Lord and ours. And all the way through, even when individuals, are addressed, Philemon is addressed in conjunction with the church that is in his house.

28:17 When Paul addresses letters to Timothy and Titus, it's in conjunction with their labors in the church. There is no...

28:26 It's not there.

28:37 So that when anything of what we would call a theology of the Christian life emerging in the context of what is given, it is always in terms of the concept or frequently in terms of the concept of the organism of the body. Christ the head, all of us joined to Him in living bonds, shared life, but members one of another. The whole concept of the body as found in Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, and again in Ephesians 4, but it's the Ephesians 4 passage that I want you to look at with me for a few moments. As I say, there are so many passages.

29:19 I've tried to just give you a sweeping summary of what we find, in the book of Acts, the very way the epistles come to us. And now this specimen passage on the doctrine of the Christian life lived out in the context of the church. Paul is writing to the saints and he says that they're to give diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. There is one body, one Spirit, as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith.

29:50 And he mentions that amidst this unity there is diversity, there is diversity of giftedness according to the will of the ascended Christ. And he gave some, verse 11, pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of ministering. But now I want you to note down in verse 15, but speaking truth in love may grow up in all things into Him who is the Head, even Christ, from whom all the body fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplieth, according to the working in due measure of each several part, makes the increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love. The whole concept of the individual's maturity is that it takes place in the context of living relationship with the body of believers so that there is no doctrine of the Christian life that is Christ-centered, but divorced from the church. It is Christ-centered, but it is church-based. And you say, Pastor, why is that so? Well, we could give many reasons, but let me give you a couple very quickly.

Why the Christian Life is Church-Based

31:06 It is because God has been pleased to deposit those means for spiritual maturation within His church. That's where He's put them. He gives pastors and teachers to His church, and they are given for the perfecting of the saints in the context of the life of Christ. And central among those means of their maturation is the preaching and teaching of the Word.

31:31 God has deposited that in His church. Furthermore, God has given us the means of mutual exhortation and comfort and rebuke where? In the fellowship of His church. Hebrews 3, 12 and 13, exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

31:53 1 Thessalonians 4, 18, wherefore, comfort one another with these words. James 5, confess your sins one to another. Pray one for another. It is in the context of the church that God gives individual gifts.

32:07 To what end? That the entire body might be profited. The whole teaching of 1 Corinthians 12 in particular. The teaching again of 1 Peter 4, 10 and 11, as each man hath received a gift, ministering it among yourselves to the end that God may be glorified.

32:24 It is in the church that God has deposited pastoral guidance and care. It is to pastors of the church at Ephesus that Paul says take heed to the flock of God in the which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to feed or shepherd the flock which He purchased with His own blood. And we could go on and multiply the things that indicate that any theology and practice of the Christian life, that approaches the teaching of the Bible, will be a theology and practice that is not only Christ-centered, but church-based. Now listen carefully to what I say as I try to bring this now into the realm where I can do some legitimate exhorting. I am not suggesting that there is any substitute for secret private prayer. Jesus said when you pray, enter into your closet and shut the door, and pray to your Father in secret. I am not saying there is any substitute for secret private prayer.

Balancing Private Disciplines with Corporate Life

33:33 I am not saying that there is any substitute for secret private meditation upon the Word of God. Nor am I saying that there is not a legitimate place for visual nurture of the inner life of the child of God. But what I am saying is that if those private prayers and private personal secret disciplines are not growing out of and coming to development in fellowship with the church, they can be the very means of a person going off the rails. When I go into my closet to pray, I better take with me the realism of my deep involvement with the body of Christ, and Christ assumes that in the very prayer He gave us to pray. Enter into your closet, shut your door and pray, and when you pray, say, Our Father who art in the heavens, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. He is assuming we are in living relationship with people that will offend us and whom we will offend and we need to exercise mutual forgiveness.

34:53 And He doesn't say, When ye pray, say, My Father, but our Father. You see, there are hints of a corporate consciousness even in the secret place. You go into the secret place to meditate upon your Bible, and you're not sitting under proven men who are safe guides in the Scripture, Ephesians 4, who are conditioning you to read your Bible responsibly by the very example they set in the handling of the Scripture. God says He gives pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints.

35:26 In order that, In order that, ye be no more children tossed through and fro by every wind of doctrine. And many a heretic had the beginnings of his heresy when he became a Lone Ranger Christian. And he began in his intimate times with God to see things in his Bible no one else ever saw. And he didn't go into his closet to be a heretic, but he'd cut himself off from the means God had ordained to keep him from instability.

35:58 And that is the life and fellowship and ministry, of the church of Jesus Christ. No, I am not setting private devotional exercises over against the corporate life of the church, but what I'm saying is the God who knows and the God who is intimate on the exercises of love and devotion in the secret place is the God who has established that we shall have our Christian lives nurtured and lived out in a church-based, Christ-centered experience and life. Now, in the light of that which is the clear teaching of the Word of God, I want to show you what happens when people try to separate what God has joined. You have some who say, yes, we must have a church-based Christian life. And yet, in that church and in their own individual experience, there is not a living, spirit-empowered, Christ-centeredness to their lives. And what happens?

Dangers of Separating Christ-Centeredness from Church-Basedness

37:09 The church then, becomes either an object of idolatrous trust, or it becomes a horrible shell of empty, barren rituals and forms. If it's not Christ-centered and church-based, but only church-based, what life will be in the praises of a people who come to sing as we sang this morning, Jesus, Thou joy of loving hearts, Thou fount of life, Thou light of men. From the best bliss that earth imparts, we turn unfilled to Thee again. We taste Thee, O Thou living bread, and long to feast upon Thee still. We drink of Thee the fountainhead and thirst our souls from Thee to fill. How much real life would there be singing that corporately if you don't have a people feeding upon Christ, in the secret place? If their lives are not Christ-centered, drawing them into the closet, drawing them about their tables for family worship with warmth and Christ-centered spiritual reality, when they gather in their corporate life, they'll be empty, hollow, hypocritical church life.

38:36 And so we must not make an idol of the church or an empty shell of the church by divorcing intimate, personal communion from Christ. Among those who comprise the church. But now the flip side is true. There are many in our day who say, oh yes, I have a Christ-centered Christian life.

The Abnormality of the Freelance Christian

38:55 I love Christ. I feed upon Christ. I meditate upon Christ in my devotions. I pray through Christ in the secret place.

39:02 And I witness about Christ. And you say, what's your relationship to the church? Oh, the church, that's just an institution. That's just a manly...

39:11 Well, it doesn't make any difference when you get your name on a roll. Oh, is that so? Where do you find that? Where do you find that in the Bible?

39:21 Have you taken the time to see? If you profess to be a Christian, and that profession has any substance to it, and yet you are not committed to Christ's church, you are an abnormality not recognized in the New Testament. Now don't get mad at me. Please don't get mad at me.

39:43 Please don't get mad at me. Will you go to your Bible and find me? In the Bible. And I don't mean the thief on the cross.

39:50 He went to heaven before he could ever become a church member, hang around. Had he hung around in Jerusalem, he'd have been there in that crowd, I assure you. And don't take the Ethiopian eunuch, because that's a situation we don't know what happened. But you go to the New Testament, you tell me wherever someone is clearly identified as a Christian, whether or not he's found indifferent and absent from the church or a part of the church.

40:17 Even the great Apostle Paul, saved by direct revelation from heaven. First thing he did when he went to Jerusalem, what did he try to do? He went to Acts chapter 9. He tried to join the church.

40:30 He didn't come to Jerusalem and say, oh well, the Lord has saved me, light from heaven. What more do I need? I've got a commission from heaven. I'm going to set up the Jerusalem Pauline Evangelistic Society.

40:41 I'm going to go get incorporated, open up an account in the local bank, start doing my thing. No, he said as soon as he came to Jerusalem, the Old English says he assayed to join himself to them. They didn't believe he was a real Christian. See, they didn't just take everybody at face value.

40:56 Oh, you're Paul. Oh, we'll take you. He says they didn't believe he was a disciple. He said, we know about you.

41:03 You're the guy who goes around taking men and women and dragging them into courts and into jails and to death. Uh-uh. We believe you're trying to be a fifth columnist. We ain't letting you in.

41:13 What did Paul do? Pout and get mad and say, phew, plague on your house. The Lord spoke to me. I'll start my own church.

41:20 He didn't do that either. Nor did he say, oh well, since I'm saved by Christ and I tried and they won't let me in, phooey on the church. That isn't what he did. He didn't do that either.

41:31 Because he had a right attitude to the church, God brought a good man along called Barnabas. And Barnabas spoke to the leaders and said, look, this guy's all right. He's for real. Let him in.

41:40 And it says he was with them going in and out, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus. With them! He became a church member. And that's why we're thrilled when those of you who believe in the providence of God, God may have you relocate.

Despising the Church is Despising Christ

41:58 First thing you do is you come and say, is there a good church? There's a good church in this area. That's non-negotiable. The Christ church. Why?

42:12 Because you're convinced that the Christian life taught in the Bible is a Christ-centered, church-based Christian life. And you've got no silly notions. You can live that Christ-centered life in any other framework but that which is instituted of God. If God sovereignly wrenches a person loose through military service, or some factor outside His control, are we saying He can't be kept upheld up by God?

42:39 No. We've had living witnesses in this congregation of people marvelously upheld who had no church fellowship sometimes for months. But it wasn't because of their own presumption. It was because of the sovereign disposition of God.

42:57 But dear people, any of you that think the church is a luxury, the church is something you can take or leave, remember Jesus regards your treatment of the church as your treatment of Him. The Scripture says that Paul was making havoc of the church. And yet when the Lord speaks to him from heaven, He says, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Luke didn't say he was persecuting Christ.

43:25 He said he was persecuting the church. Jesus said, why do you persecute me? You touch my church, you touch me. Despise my church, you despise me.

43:37 You can't have it both ways, my friend. You can't profess to love the Christ to the Bible, and be a Christian. You can't be indifferent to His church. You can't do it.

43:47 You can't do it. Now you may try. And you may try to say, well I'm the exception. But my friend, let God be true and every man a liar.

The Necessity of Formal Church Recognition

43:58 And I urge those of you who are filled with this crass individualistic notion that you can declare yourself a Christian, and you can have all the rights and privileges of being received and treated as a Christian, but you will not commit yourself to Christ's church. No. Listen carefully to what I say. Whatever subjective grounds I may have to believe any man or woman, boy or girl, is a child of God, I have no biblical grounds to give him the rights and privileges of unfettered Christian recognition and privileges until he or she is found a member of Christ's church.

44:41 You see what complications this brings? If somebody says, well I'm saved. A young man begins to get interested in a young woman, vice versa. One's a church member, one isn't.

44:55 Now look at the mess you've made. How do you know that? Well a person says, I know I'm saved. And the guy says, I know I'm saved.

45:02 The gal says she knows she's saved. And then before long, on the wings of that romantic involvement, they come before the elders. I'd like to join the church. Why?

45:10 Oh, I believe I'm saved. Well, why not before? Now it's all complicated with the romantic involvement. And here the elders are saying, Lord, we don't want to let in people who are using the church for their own good.

45:20 Their own ends. But Lord, we don't want to be suspicious of people who are Yours. But neither do we want to let in people who'd use your church for their own base ends. Look at the horrible position we're put in.

45:40 It's a no-win situation. Let them in, we're gullible and we encourage sin. Keep them out, we're narrow-hearted and we're refusing one who may belong to Christ. But who created the problem?

45:51 We didn't.

45:54 The person who was a church member who began to get romantically involved with a non-church member created the problem, not us.

46:03 The person who was a church member was giving a recognition publicly and formally to someone as a Christian who has not yet met the terms of the Bible to be formally, publicly acknowledged as a Christian. Now, I didn't say you weren't a Christian if you weren't a church member. Now, don't go out and say I said that. I didn't say that.

46:27 What I said is, that the term, recognizing formally and publicly who is a Christian, God has set them. It's like a common law relationship. A couple may solemnly covenant on their knees to be truly married in the sight of God and pledge fidelity one to another and never enter the marriage bed till they do. But do I have any proper grounds according to the law of the state to call them a bona fide husband and wife until they've gone and had their blood test, taken out their marriage license and had it signed?

47:04 By a properly recognized authority? No! I have no right to call them a properly married man and woman. The state doesn't give me that right.

47:15 And does Jesus Christ have no more rights than the state?

47:20 Jesus Christ says those who have the privilege of being acknowledged publicly and formally as His own are those who are found in His church. Does that mean everyone who's in His church is truly saved? No! Everyone out of the church not saved?

47:38 No! We're not talking about that which God alone may know, but we're talking about that which God allows us to acknowledge and formally to recognize. And dear people, I fear that there's some sloppy thinking that despises the church of Christ and thinks that one can have all the rights and privileges of being recognized as a child of God and treated the same at every level including romance. How can I love Christ and His church and even think of being joined to a man or woman who despises His church?

Christ and His Church are Inseparable

48:19 Not this man.

48:22 Because I can't separate Christ from His church because He doesn't. He loved His church and gave Himself for it.

The Church as God's Nursery for Flourishing

48:33 Well, there's so much more that could be said. I leave you this morning with this very wonderful promise in the Word of God. One that I'm pleading much in these years of my life. Psalm 92.

48:48 Every true Christian longs to live a Christian life that flourishes right up to the point where in the language of one man God transplants us.

49:01 And the Christian who is a flourishing plant in the house of God gets transplanted when he goes to heaven. And Psalm 92 tells us the way of being flourishing. Verse 12. The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree, he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

49:18 They are planted in the house, house of Jehovah, they shall flourish in the courts of our God. They, those who are planted in the house of God and flourishing in the courts of God, they shall bring forth fruit in old age. They shall be full of sap and green to show that the Lord is upright. He is my rock and there's no unrighteousness in Him. What a wonderful thing it is when you see people growing old and growing greener and greener in the house of God, where the church of Christ becomes the very context in which their roots go deeper and deeper into Christ. And though the thatch on top may get thin or grow gray, and gravity takes its toll on the folds in the cheek and in the chin and the tummy and the thighs, and all the marks of old age creep on. See, though the outward man is decaying, the inward man is being renewed and they're ripening for transplant. And where does that happen? In the courts of God and in the house

50:30 of God. Don't despise God's nursery for heaven. The church is God's nursery, where He prepares His plants before He transplants them to heaven. What evidence is there that we really are determined to give an unquestionable confirmation that the church is unique?

Conclusion: Our Theology and Practice of the Christian Life

50:52 What evidence is there that we really are determined to give an unquestionable confirmation that the church is unique? In the saving purposes of God, I answer our theology and practice of the Christian life. That is the first and fundamental manifestation of that conviction. In the saving purposes of God, I answer our theology and practice of the Christian life. That is the first and fundamental manifestation of that conviction.

51:09 The action is here. This is not the thing that floats the machinery. But the real action is in a little house group or the real action is in some little group of certain age group or…No,no. Almighty God!

51:24 The action's here. God dispenses His grace to His people in their corporate life here and wherever we meet in His name. May the Lord grant that we shall lay these things to heart and by the grace of God recommit ourselves to them for His glory and our good. Let us pray.