Because we have quite a list of individual verses to look up, I'm just going to ask that we begin with a word of prayer, and then we'll do our scripture reading piece by piece as we go along.
Dear God, again we thank Thee for the opportunity to assemble ourselves together and to sit at Thy feet as it were and to hear Thy Holy Spirit speak through Thy word. Lord, deliver us from approaching Thy word with the idea that we do not need to humble ourselves. Help us to be willing to be humbled before Thy word, so that Thou art able to use us and we can be Thy servants. Lord, we just thank Thee for the joy that we have in knowing that we are servants of God and so Thy word then becomes the communication from Thy heart to ours. Lord, open our ears that we may truly receive Thy word. For we ask it giving thanks in the name of Jesus our Lord. Amen.
There have been some very interesting communications from the elders in the past few weeks. And I have to confess that I want to resist the temptation to get into those subjects this morning. I thought that I might say this or that, but I know that in our study on the New Testament church, in time, we will try to come to those areas and so I just want to resist that temptation.
But I would like to say a word of encouragement to all here, and that is - let's not miss the overall point that is a real encouragement and that is the leaders in the assembly are seeking to give leadership. Now that's a more difficult task than many of us realize. They need our prayers, not our criticisms We may not agree with each little detail or exactly the way in which it's presented, but the point is the leaders are seeking to lead, and God will guide them. If anything is not according to His way in any area of our lives, we can count on God to adjust that. And we know that they are praying and we are praying. That will happen. So, let's give thanks to God for their concern to be leaders and know that God is going to honor that.
Now today we want to conclude our study of the local church. And then we'll be moving - Lord willing - next week into the subject of the priesthood of the believer. After that, we'll talk about elders and deacons.
Last week we looked at the subject of the one body, and how that great universal truth is to be expressed on a local level of the local church. And there are five points in my outline - four of which we covered last Sunday; the last one we're going to take up today. Let me remind you again, the first four points, and then we can pick up and go on immediately.
First of all we saw a doctrinal statement from the scripture as to the fact that there is one body.
Secondly we noticed a few forms of address given to local churches - how they were in fact addressed by the apostle Paul.
Thirdly we asked the question, "What constitutes the local church?" and I tried to suggest it wasn't a legalistic list of laws that must be satisfied, but rather God saying to His people in a city, "You are the church, now meet in such a way that will set forth the great truths of the one body."
Finally we finished with a little discussion of the importance of why we should strive to give visible expression to the truth of the one body on a local level. And I suggested there were three reasons at least - one was because it was a prayer request of the Lord Jesus as we saw in John 17; secondly because it is a requirement of scripture; and finally because it has to do with the fruit of the Spirit. The works of the flesh being division, splitting apart; the fruit of the Spirit being the love and peace and so forth that make for oneness.
Now we come finally to our final point in this outline and that is "what are the safe-guards of visible unity?" In other words, it's all well to talk about doctrine but sooner or later we have to get down to answering the question - what are we going to do, personally, individually, on our local level where we live? .And how are we going to put this into practice?
And here I would like to make a two-fold suggestion - a positive and a negative. The positive side, of course, would be that we need to be very careful in our love and our obedience to the Lord Jesus. That has got to be the foundation stone for what we do, if we maintain our first love, not only for the Head, but also for the body. In other words, it's not just the vertical love, but it's a love that expresses itself in our relationships so we care about the oneness of the body, and we're actually going to make changes in our lives, if necessary, in order that we might promote this visible expression of oneness among all believers. So, the positive side is maintain our love for the Lord and His people.
But the negative side, and the one that I want to spend a little time on, is to avoid anything that might be considered a sectarian practice.
I want to give you a little definition because we talk about sect all the time, divisions and sects, but we need to be clear. The spirit of sectarianism is that which recognizes a defined circle that's bigger than the local church but smaller than the whole body.
Okay, let me say that again. We've been talking about the local church and the universal church. The universal church is all the Christians all over the world. The local church is the believers in one local area and place. But sectarianism is anything that recognizes a defined circle bigger than the local church, but smaller than the whole body. That is what we need to beware of.
There are no federations, denominations, councils. There is no defined circle including the believers for all of one state or all of one country or all of the follower of one man anywhere in scripture. It is either all believers everywhere or the believers in the local area, the local church.
Now I believe that there are three things that we can do in a practical way to avoid any practice that is sectarian. And these are concrete suggestions that I want to make this morning.
No. 1, we can avoid using names and terminology that excludes any other saint - any other child of God. We should exclude using names and terms that include our friends or those whose see it as we see it, but cut off any other from the body of Christ. We could just avoid that. I know that we can't convince everybody to do that, I wish we could but each one of us can make that personal commitment to the Lord to take a stand on that.
Now I prepared a very brief study having to do with God's estimation of a name, names in scripture. Names occur a great deal in scripture and sometimes we're so used to seeing names for God, and names, that we pass right over them and we don't really realize how important this whole subject is to the heart of God.
May I suggest, in connection with this little study of names, that there are three lessons we should pay attention to.
Let's begin at Exodus 3, and read there one brief passage - Exodus 3:13-14.
One of the goals that I have for any class that I teach is that the people would know the books of the Bible, i.e. be able to say them off the New Testament and the Old Testament. The kids over at the high school, some of them are finding it a bit difficult to learn all those difficult words - 66 books. But, they finally concluded that since I have them look up so many books, and scriptures that it'll be easier just to learn the books than to keep looking in the index. That's true. So maybe if we do it enough, we'll all know where the books are at least in relationship to each other. Exo.3:13-14:
Can you imagine any one taking a name like that - I AM? "I exist" - that's my name. And you tell the children of Israel, I AM when your father Abraham (verse 15) was living, when your father Isaac was living. He says, "This is my glorious name forever. That's my name - I AM." That's a tremendous name. The name of God who is eternal, who has no beginning and no ending - he is the I AM - the eternally existent one. So, I just chose this, because that is a favorite of mine. But there are many, many great names and titles of God in the scripture.
For those of you who are young Christians, may I appeal to you in your personal Bible study, get into a habit of being arrested by the names for God. When you see one in the Bible, ask yourself the question, "Why this name? Why this title?" There are over 300 names and titles for God in scriptures. Someone said there's 365 all told, one for each day of the year. And you'll find that very often when God wishes to do a work, he reveals Himself by a name that reveals some aspect of his character that's going to be a blessing or a resource in order to accomplish that work. So , God then is very concerned with his name.
And I don't need to remind you that many individuals in scripture encountered God in their lives, and then found God changing their names. I think of Jacob back in Genesis 32 where he wrestled with the angel of God. And the angel said, Tell me what is your name. And he said, My name is Jacob. And we know that Jacob is derived from a word, and it eventually means 'the supplanter' or to put it bluntly ' the cheat'. And can you imagine a man who is going to be a great servant of God whose name is 'the cheat'? And the angel said, Thy name is going to be Israel. God is changing your name. Now he didn't say it, but I think what he had in mind was 'you can't be a great man of God with a name like that - the cheat'. And he changed his name to Israel - the prince of God. That's a lovely name. And the people of God became the children of Israel - the children of the prince of God.
And we go right through the scriptures, and again and again, at times God chooses to change the name of a person. Remember the name "Peter" - a stone? Peter would bear the character of the Great Rock - the Lord Jesus. He called him 'a stone'.
Now we go all the way through scripture, until the book of Revelation 2 and he says, to the overcomer, "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it."
So then I think we say without any fear that the name of God's people is very important to Him.
But thirdly, and perhaps most important for our purposes this morning, we want to establish that God is concerned with how His people relate to His name.
I have looked up and prepared seven passages and I want us to turn to them one by one. I hope that as we look at these seven scriptures, there might be, by the tine we come to the end, the conviction in our hearts that God is very concerned with how we relate to His name .
Let's begin over with the book of Exodus 23:20-21, and we'll work towards the end of the Bible. Exodus 23 ... remember that the children of Israel had just come out of Egypt. They looked forward to a long wilderness journey. Moses, I believe was cautious about leading about 2 and a half million people. It's a big task. And the Lord gave a revelation in verse 20, and following, that I'm sure calmed the heart of Moses and equipped him with courage for this task.
"Moses, I'm going to send an angel - a messenger- to guide you, to help you, and to protect you along the way. But you better be careful and be warned that my name is in this one. You cannot treat him as a man, in the sense that you cannot be disrespectful or be disobedient of him because my name is in him, Moses."
Now, we don't want to get into a discussion this morning about just who that was - I have thoughts, and I'm sure you have thoughts too. But the very fact that God cautions Moses and says, "My name is in this individual, therefore you need to be beware of Him," should cause us to think very carefully about who this one was.
Let's go to Deut. 28:10,58 please. Just before going in into the land of Canaan, God through Moses says this:
"Israel, you have a great national heritage to be called by the name of the Lord. And the nations will be afraid of you."
But then of course there's a responsibility. "If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law ..." And He had just spelt out some of the terrible things that would happen for disobedience, and he goes on to spell some more out, and he says :
And then he goes on and tells what would happen. "It's a marvelous privilege to have the name of the God of heaven and earth, and the nations will fear you because you are in identification with this great name, but there's a responsibility of obedience and reverence that goes with that too."
Let's go along a little bit farther to the psalms ... Psalm 91. Many here could quote Psalm 91:1 by heart.
It's a favorite scripture of many, promised to the one who wells in the secret place of The Most High. It seems that the Psalm is devoted to encouraging the people of God ... all the blessings that will come to them as they dwell in the secret place of the Most High. In other words, that they enjoy an unbroken fellowship of God.
But have you ever noticed verse 14?
says the Lord to the psalmist. Do you think there He was just saying because the Psalmist could pronounce the word 'Jehovah' or 'Lord' that these promises would come to him? I don't think so. I think he's saying, "He has known my name", i.e. "Here's a man who knows my name stands for my character, my attributes. And here's a man who really knows me." Here's a man who knows God. "And because he knows me, he has set his love upon me. And because of that relationship, that we have, I'm going to deliver him and set him up on high. He has known my name."
That should be a challenge to every child of God here this morning to come to know the name or the Lord, and all that it stands for, as much as we can.
Let's continue into the book of Proverbs, chapter 18:10. Someone shared this with me many years ago. I've never forgotten it. It's been an encouragement, I think I've shared it before, but I couldn't go through a study like this and leave this great verse out.
What do you do in a tower when you go in it? When you climb the spiral stairs and you go up to the top and then you look down out over the top of the tower? And what are the things you see when you look out of a tower?
You have a perspective that you never had before. You see what's going on down below. You see the world, as we might put it, a little bit more from the point of God's view. And it's so nice to be able to, once in a while, draw aside from our busy life, run into the tower, climb the stairs into the presence of God, look over the edge, and try to ask the Lord to help us see life as He sees it. That's really the fear of the Lord - seeing life as God sees it. And as we get that perspective, boy, it can have an effect on what we live for. It can really change our motivation, change our attitudes.
I appreciate so much what our brother shared at the close of our breaking of bread this morning, because I think it readjusted our focus just a little bit. We needed to hear what he said to us. In fact what both of our brothers said to us.
And so what is the tower then? The name of the Lord - God's person and work. And we run into this and we are safe.
Let's go to the book of Malachi, the last book in the Old Testament ... Malachi 1. As you know, Malachi the prophet is sent in the name of the Lord to protest against the way in which the people of Israel were responding to God (very irreverently, very mechanically). Their heart was not at all in their worship or in whatever it was that they were doing. And Malachi protests. In Mal. 1:11 God says something to His people that I'm sure must have shaken them a bit. He brings in the nations of the world, the Gentiles - the ones that they looked down upon. And he says,
That was what we were hearing in the first meeting this morning about the incense. And God, says, "Believe it or not, the day is going to come from the rising to the setting of the sun - all around the world - when my name is going to be great. An incense is going to be offered unto my name even among the nations of the Gentiles."
That's us here this morning. And what a privilege that we have to fulfill this prophecy of God. We come and we offer worship as we did earlier this morning to God and we extol and lift His great name.
Now, Mal. 3:16-17, very lovely text,
That did these people do that caused such joy to the heart of God! They feared the Lord and they thought on His name. They thought - they meditated - on the name of God.
Let's go into the New Testament book of Matthew 18:20. Most of us probably could quote this verse, but we need to look it up, on our way through. Matt. 18:20 :
Now, let's not take that promise too lightly just because we're familiar with it. I don't read of any authority given anywhere in scripture for believers to gather in any other name but in the name of the Lord Jesus. This is His promise, but it's not just a blanket promise that covers gatherings in all kinds of names and purposes and all the rest. We are to gather in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Someone says, "Don't all Christians do that?" God knows their hearts and God knows their motive, and far be it for me or us to judge. That's between them and the Lord. But I would simply say this - if we are gathered in the name of the Lord Jesus in our hearts, then let's gather, in the name of the Lord Jesus practically, openly, visibly in our meetings. It's very important.
So when people say, whom do you meet with? You can say, I meet with Christians. I meet with other believers. I meet around the Lord Jesus. And you want to take a hard stand. Some of the young people really get into trouble trying to express themselves about this. They want to take a stand but they can't make it understood to others. And some say, "We get a bit embarrassed. They don't seem to understand what we were telling them."
'What's the name of your denomination?' I guess I told you one time I was at a meeting and a fellow tried to pin me down on that. And I said, "No. I'm just Christian. That's it." And then he says, "Well then I'll have to ask you questions and try to see what denomination you're part of." And he started asking all these questions - 'Do you have elders?', 'Do you break bread every Sunday?' - and then finally his eyes lit up like he's finally cracked the case, and he said, "Oh, I know what you are. You're Plymouth Brethren." I said, "Sir, I've only been in Plymouth once in my life." Actually, I said, "I'm Hamden Brethren if I'm any kind of brethren, and I meet with Christians in Hamden. But we're just Christians."
But the world seems to have a tendency to force you or squeeze you into some denominational slot. And the old nature in us wants to say (like we studied a couple of weeks ago), "Why don't I just be not so odd and different, and just give them a name that will keep them quiet?"
Now, let's stand upon what it says in the scripture. We meet in His glorious name. That's the only name we have.
Let's finish with a verse in Colossians - Col 3:17 - that maybe we should all memorize. There's a danger in a verse becoming so familiar that it doesn't have any practical application anymore We just say, "Oh we all know that" and that's suppose to mean that it doesn't really carry weight any more because we all know it.
But what does Paul really intend for us in Co1. 3:17? I think he intends to instruct us on something that could be very practical on a day-to-day basis.
May I suggest that as we show acts of mercy, and deed of kindness, whether it be the deacons here in the assembly here or you in your home with your neighbors who are sick or distressed or shut-in or during hospital visitation or whatever we do, wouldn't it be nice if we did it in the name of the Lord Jesus?
I taught on this one time, and a brother went out and bought a few bags of groceries for a poor family. He brought it to the apartment, and knocked on the door, and when the lady opened the door, (they had some real family problems and distresses) he brought all this stuff and dumped it on the counter. And she says, "Where did all this come from?" He said, "This is in the name of the Lord Jesus." She said, "Well what church?" He said, "It's in the name of the Lord Jesus." And he was a young Christian but you know he really wanted to take this verse literally, and it blessed that family that there was one who was willing to speak up and say the name in which this was done. I think we should do this more often.
Well, what then are some acceptable names and terms that we can use as Christians that are going to not divide the family of God but are going to bind us all together? May I make five suggestions - all five of which are brought out of scripture.
First of all we could call ourselves 'believers'. That title or term is used twice in the New Testament. Believers - 2 times. Christians - 3 times. Now these are all from Acts through Revelation because I'm counting the passage since the church was formed, so I didn't count up in the gospels. Believers - twice. Christians - 3 times. Disciples - 32 times. Saints - 61 times. And 'brethren' or 'brothers' - be sure it has a small 'b' - 190 times.
Now these are titles that include every born-again Christian all around the world. And I think we can use these names safely and without fear. Before Martin Luther died, he wrote some letters to some brothers that he knew and he said, "Brethren, call not yourselves Lutherans for Luther was not crucified for you!!" I wondered how well his advice had been taken. And I'm not trying to pick on any group this morning because I think that we're not here for that purpose. But how sad it is when great men of God like that see the true issue at stake - Jesus Christ the Lord was crucified for us, called ourselves by His name - and people don't just grasp that message.
I want to read something to you that is a bit amusing in a little book "Scriptural Principles of Gathering" by A.P. Gibbs. And he just puts this in at the end of his chapter on the subject, and I think that it may just be fun to read it. He says,
And that's the lighter side. But I think it's very true. And we ought to just try to uphold that by our practice and by the terms and words that we use. Let's be very careful not to take upon ourselves denominational names that are going to separate other Christians from us. Let's use terms that scripture uses to bind together in one all of God's people. And let's also pray that others may also catch a vision of that, and who knows (only God is able to bring that about) the people of God may manifest a greater and greater visible as time goes on.
The second thing that I could suggest that we could do, as far as a practical suggestion, is not only avoid sectarian names and terms, but avoid joining man-made bodies.
Now some of you who are new in the area - maybe you've come out to West Woods recently - you wonder why nothing has been said to you about joining the church or getting on the membership roll. We're going to talk, Lord willing, in a subsequent message, about the whole matter of memberships. So we're not going to go into that today.
I just want to suggest that the whole matter of reception in the assembly, as far as the local assembly goes, in scripture, reception is always into FELLOWSHIP, not into membership.
If you are a born-again Christian here this coming then you are a member of the body of Christ. On the day you were saved, you joined the church. You want to put it in those terms. And you do not need to join any other body. In fact, I would suggest you not join any other body. Because there is only one body and if you're a member of it already, you're entirely pleasing and obedient to God.
Now you should be in fellowship with the local expression of that body in the local area. It's good to be received into the fellowship of God's people. And the elders certainly made a statement publicly, do you remember?, saying, "When new members come in, we would like to have the opportunity to recognize you and welcome you publicly - shake your hands and announce that you're living in the area now, and you would like to fellowship here and give the name of the family and children and so forth to the assembly here.
But please remember that this is a reception to fellowship, not a reception to membership. We are not members of a local body, and also members of a universal body. We are members of the body of Christ, but we fellowship in the local area.
I think also under this point we ought to say about the autonomy of the local church. The other day we were talking about this subject among the high school students. And I guess I mentioned it already, we were talking about the lampstands in Rev. 2 or 3 and how in the Old Testament there was just one base and seven branches. But if you go into the New Testament, the Lord Jesus stands among the lampstands, and each light stands on its own base right on the floor. Seven lampstands, seven separate bases - The autonomy of the local church. Not one lampstand with many branches. Not a federation or a council or a denomination. But seven lampstands each one standing on its own base - the autonomy, the self-governing independence of each local church before the Lord. Now we'll talk more about that in days ahead.
The third thing we do to uphold the oneness of the body on the local level is we avoid accepting anything as official besides scriptures. We have one official writing - it's the word of God, and we don't have any covenants or creeds or other things that you must sign to be in good standing with the Lord. If you want to know what our church handbook is - our procedures, our policies - here it is , the word of God. It's all we have to offer and we're not going to select out of it certain parts and re-unite them and make you sign that or agree with them. We simply stand on the word of God and that is our only one and only official authority.
And again I would encourage young people who go away to school, when you go out to fellowship at the local church, wherever it is, be very careful, that while on one hand you do get fellowship with other believers, be very careful that you don't get pulled into doing something that denies what your faith and convictions are about the one body. You are one with us back home, you're one with every child of God, and you do not want to be signing and accepting as official other writings of humans, in addition to the word of God. We accept only the word of God.
Now let's just turn to 1 Corinthians, and just move through the chapters here, and notice how Paul speaks to these Corinthians. I want to look at five scriptures and then we'll be through.
Corinth was an assembly that was having problems, and you know about their many problems, and I won't go into them. But I'm afraid that there are those that look at the letter that Paul wrote to Corinth with the perspective that "Well, you know, Corinth had such problems, and Paul had to write a very difficult and forceful letter to them. And how can we, living in the modern enlightened 20th century really expect to apply what Paul said to Corinth to our situation?"
Now, I'd like to suggest that the Spirit of God anticipating that problem, has, in this letter (more strongly than in any other book in the New Testament), spoken to that very issue. Is the material written to the church at Corinth of a local or a cultural significance only? Does it have a wider application? Well, you can judge for yourself. Let's just read these verses.
Paul says, this is written not only to those at Corinth but to all in every place that call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Is that us here this morning? It certainly is.
Let's go to 1 Cor. 4:17, Paul says,
This is a practice being established upon a universal precept. And the Spirit of God intends to see a universal practice. In other words, a practice that conforms to the word of God, because it is a precept that is not given locally. It is intended for all in every church.
And the specific context here - Paul had been talking about the head-covering on the woman, and he has given doctrinal reasons why this should be. But then he closes and says, "But now if a man wants to be contentious or argumentative, he ought to realize that there is no such practice among any of the churches of God as women praying or prophesying with their heads uncovered." The churches of God - a universal appeal.
And then finally, 1 Cor. 14:37,
If Paul is not inspired by the Spirit of God to write those words, we could say that they were certainly the height of arrogance. If the Spirit of God as not leading the apostle Paul in the writing of those words, it would certainly be a very, very arrogant statement to make. Because this invests the commandments, the words that Paul has spoken here, with the very same authority that God gave all through the Old Testament scriptures. Moses at Mount Sinai ... "These are the commandments", and he writes them down on the tablets of stone. These are the commandments of God, and Paul says, "If anyone thinks himself to be spiritual, let him acknowledge, let him begin by acknowledging that the things that I am writing unto you here, that these are the very commandments of God.
One of my favorite illustrations in the Old Testament - I want to finish by reminding you of it this morning - concerns something that happened in the life of Moses, the servant of God. I cite this because I see a tendency on the part of many people and in many church groups to be willing to trade long-term blessings for short-term results. I think that's a trend that's very unfortunate, because it says, in effect, "As long as there's peace and prosperity in my day, what do I care about the days of my children?" Now we all know the Lord could come at any time, and our children might be taken with us to meet the Lord in the air. But the point is, it may be in the providence of God not to come right away as we expect, but it may be that our children will live and grow up. We certainly did, and some of our parents did never think that that would happen. They thought the Lord would come many years ago. And I'm awfully thankful that they didn't just say, "Well, as long as I have peace in my days, I don't care what my kids will go through." I'm very thankful that many of the older folks who are here this morning not only lived as if the Lord can come any minute but they also lived as if He might in His sovereignty choose not to. And therefore our day is much easier because of that sacrifice that they made. We have a responsibility to do the same.
You remember Moses when he came to the rock the first time in Exodus 20, God said to Moses, "Take the rod in your hand and smite the rock." And Moses smote the rock and water came out. And the people were satisfied and they drank. Some time much later in their travels people were again thirsty and God said to Moses, "Take the rod in your hand and go and speak to the rock." And poor Moses, he was so aggravated with the people - they were so rebellious - and he was upset, he smote the rock twice. And I've often said, if I was writing that, I would put "and no water came out." But what happened? Well, we all know that water flowed out and all the people drank and were satisfied. And I'm sure there must have been many, and today there must be many who would stand around and say, "Why split hairs? The point was that the people were thirsty. 'Speak to the rock', 'Smite the rock' - what difference does it make? The point is people are thirsty and they need water."
You know, that act of disobedience caused Moses the single thing in all his life that meant most to him, more than anything else in his whole life - Moses wanted to go into the promised land and see it. And God said, "Because of that disobedience you will not enter that promised land."
What happened? For the short-term disobedience for the blessing right now, Moses forfeited the blessing down the road - the long-term blessing.
And many times when we see these principles and we read them and study them from scriptures, we tend to think in our 20th century pragmatic "Give me the reward right now. What's the blessing? How many people? Is it going to bring into the church right now? How many numbers? How much dollars is this going to give me right now?" And we're willing to trade the long-term blessing that in the end is much more important.
Let's remember that as we give obedience to these things, as the commandments of God, whether or not we agree with them or like them, or they're comfortable, they're only there for our long-term good. And we ourselves and our children will reap the reward of them. Who wants to see this church double its size today and be gone in five years to disobedience? Not me, and not you. Let's adhere to what is written in the word of God in all these issues, whether we understand them or not, knowing that God is going to work them for our own good and the good of our children.
Let's pray.