THE SERMON - What Bible Verses Support “Church Membership”？
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Summary
In this episode, we talk about church membership, leadership, and the role of elders, deacons, and church members in the local church. We also talk about the importance of church polity, and what it means to be a church of God.
Transcript
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Amen. Let's stand for the reading of God's Word. Our primary text for today will be Matthew chapter 18.
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Matthew chapter 18 verses 18, or I'm sorry, verses 15 through 17.
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I'll read the text in its entirety. When I finish reading the text, I'm going to say this is the Word of the Lord,
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at which point I would appreciate very much if you would respond by saying thanks be to God.
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Again, our text is Matthew chapter 18 verses 15 through 17. The Bible says this.
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if your brother sins against you go and tell him his fault between you and him alone if he listens
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you have gained your brother but if he does not listen take one or two others with you that every
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charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses if he refuses to listen to them
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tell it to the church if he refuses to listen even to the church let him be to you as a gentile and
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a tax collector this is the word of god all right please be seated and we will begin today we are
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addressing the topic of church membership and what we've done if you're joining us for the first time
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we typically the steady diet more often than not here at covenant bible church when it comes to
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the preaching is expository preaching through whole books of the bible and so we recently have
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preached through the book of Joshua, and then we follow that up with the book of Ezra, and then
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Lord willing, next week we're going to start in the book of Matthew. So we did Joshua, we did Ezra,
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and we're going to start the book of Matthew next Lord's Day. But we've taken a little bit of a
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break in between the completion of Ezra and the beginning of Matthew next week to talk about
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church polity. Polity simply meaning governance. How is the church governed? What are the offices
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that make up the local church. And so we've discussed three primary offices within the local
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church, that being elders, deacons, and church members. Two of these offices being ordained
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offices of the church, that being elders and deacons, offices of leadership to varying degrees,
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elders being a higher office, deacons being a lower office in terms of authority and leadership,
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but still an ordained office that does carry with it some degree of authority.
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And as we've been going through this, it's timely for our local church in particular
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because we have been in the process of trying to identify, train, and examine, and then ordain leaders.
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And so we have just voted in three deacons and ordained them this past Lord's Day
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and are working towards in the process of ordaining one more elder here at the church.
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And the goal would be that by the end of it, if it be God's will,
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that we would have three elders, myself, Connor, who you've just heard from in our liturgy
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and a reading of God's law, and then Michael Belch would be a third elder.
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The three deacons that we ordained this past Lord's Day are Matt Jocelyn, David Maldonado, and Nathan Elam.
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And so as the church continues to grow in the providence of God, we want to be able to shepherd the church of God sufficiently as he would have us, which requires more qualified men to do so.
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So as we're working through that as a local church in identifying, training, examining and ordaining leaders, I thought that it would maybe be helpful and timely to teach on these positions of leadership within the church.
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So again, we've addressed elders on the Lord's Day through the preaching.
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And lastly, we're going to address church members.
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And then that'll finish our kind of mini series in between expository preaching through whole books of the Bible.
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We will pick back up with another book of the Bible, namely the book of Matthew, starting next week.
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We strive that the preaching would all be expositional.
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which simply means that we would always have a text of scripture and then exposits exegetes
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provide the interpretation the meaning this is the word of god this is what god means in this
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particular passage of his word and then lastly this is how it would be properly applied given
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our place and our time so we seek to be expositional in all of our preaching but not
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necessarily always expository in the sense of going from the very beginning all the way to the
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end of a book of the bible but again that is more often than not the case going through whole books
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of the bible but even when it's not the case we're still going to have a particular passage of
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scripture that by god's grace we seek to exegete and again for today we have multiple passages of
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scripture five in fact matthew 18 15 through 17 first corinthians 5 12 through 13 hebrews chapter
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13 verse 17 acts chapter 20 verse 28 and lastly first corinthians chapter 12 verse 21 through 26
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so five different passages of scripture but primarily matthew 18 15 through 17
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is the main text that i believe establishes the concept and the practice of church membership
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and it does so by way of implication explicitly addressing not church membership per se but
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explicitly addressing church discipline but in explicitly addressing church discipline it
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implicitly assumes church membership because there can be no church discipline as the new testament
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presents it without a clear definable visible way of determining who is a part of this local church
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covenant and who is not you can't do church discipline without church membership so kind of
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the main thesis and establishing the biblical support for the idea of church membership is this
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the top of your notes i've written the following the bible contains five strands at least five
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strands the five that we will look at today five strands of evidence for local church membership
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Each reveals something vital to the Christian faith, which would be minimized or outright denied if there were no definable local church membership.
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In other words, the Bible does not have an explicit command that says thou shalt be a member in a local church.
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But the Bible does have multiple other commands that assume church membership.
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these other commands in scripture if we are to seek to actually obey them in any tangible
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practical way whatsoever then it will necessarily logically force us to conclude that church
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membership is a biblical principle it is a biblical principle now I don't believe that
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there is an explicit command in the scripture thou shalt be a church member for the same reason
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that there are not a host of different commands
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you do and in the technical theological sense we can say that it is a command why because your body
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is a temple of the holy spirit we're called to be good stewards of this physical flesh that god has
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given us and not breathing is poor stewardship so i can exegetically make an argument that it is a
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command a new testament command in fact for those who are like well show me in the new testament
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chapter and verse it's a command that we should breathe and yet it's not written down explicitly
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in the new testament and i think that the same reasoning for why the apostles inspired by the
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holy spirit did not explicitly command us in holy writ to continue inhaling and exhaling upon
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conversion is for the very same reason that they did not command us to belong to local churches
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in a formal, visible, definable, covenantal way.
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so the apostles don't say thou shalt belong to a church in membership in covenant membership
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because my point is because it is assumed it is implied but these five other commands
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think about them in a logical sense as we read through them these five other commands can only
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be commands that we seek to tangibly obey, practically obey, if there's such a thing as
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church membership. So beginning with the text that we've just read, Matthew chapter 18, verse 15
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through 17, what we find here is a process laid out by the Lord Jesus Christ himself for dealing
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with sin as we find it in a local church setting. How to deal with sin. Not just the sin of
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of those outside the church, but the sin of a brother or a sister in Christ, and particularly
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the sin of a brother or sister in Christ that is against you. If your brother sins against you,
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go and tell him his fault. And so the first command that we find in Matthew 18, 15 through 17
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is the command of church discipline. And the process is laid out for us how to deal with sin,
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how to deal particularly when we're sinned against by another Christian
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or at least one who bears the name of a brother
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after going through the multiple steps that are laid out for us
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he doesn't listen to you when you tell him alone privately
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And those one or two who are wise and discerning
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They're able to hear out their counter, their defense.
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They're able to weigh the testimony and the evidence.
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And then they agree with you, if they agree with you.
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Now it is two or three coming to this individual, not just one to one,
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but now two or three and telling the individual their sin and calling them.
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What's implicitly included in that is not just telling them their sin, but a call to repentance.
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and then if the individual still does not repent,
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Tell it to the church, that is the congregation,
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the ecclesia, the whole gathering of the church.
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The church would then decide and render a righteous judgment
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the alleged accused, whether or not that person really is guilty.
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Now the church is calling this impenitent sinner to repent of their sins.
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And then more time is given for the Holy Spirit to produce the gifts,
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because it's not conjured as works of man, but rather gifts granted sovereignly by God,
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the gifts of faith and repentance in that individual being called to repentance.
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Time is given in the spirit of patience, not in the spirit of being lackadaisical when it comes to sin,
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Now, that assumes that the correction is actually founded, that it's true, that it's biblical,
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that I've actually committed the thing, the sin, particular sin that I've been accused of.
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But even if those things are true, the person is correcting me in the right way.
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In a spirit of gentleness, Galatians says that you who are spiritual should restore such a one
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who is caught in any transgression in a spirit of gentleness
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and also being careful, keeping watch over yourselves
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So let's say that they do it in the right manner,
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this confrontation, and they have the Bible on their side
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and I'm actually guilty of the thing that they're insisting
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In all those ways, I may, by God's grace, respond well immediately.
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But there's a likelihood, a higher likelihood, that given time, given a little bit of time, that the Holy Spirit would actually convict me of sin.
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That perhaps the flesh and some of those immediate shields, right?
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When you're confronted, it's almost like a Star Trek episode.
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It's like you can almost hear, you know, Spock in the background, shields up.
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You know, like, boom, immediate we go into defense mode.
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we assume that the person confronting us is in the wrong and usually it's through time
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that that confrontation is considered more carefully and that conviction of sin comes to
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bear on our hearts and minds and so my point is this with all these steps going to your brother
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one-on-one privately alone taking one or two others with you so that the testimony might be
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established in the presence of two or three witnesses and then lastly telling it to the
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church and the church weighing it, weighing the accusation that's being brought, seeing if this
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is true, this testimony. And then the church, if it is, then the church calling that individual to
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repentance. All these things take time. And again, here's the big idea. Churches should move slowly
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with church discipline, not because that church has a low bar for holiness and minimizes sin,
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But because that church has a high bar of the ministry of the Holy Spirit and maximizes the Spirit's ministry, knowing that the Spirit tends to take time to produce repentance in the hearts of sinners.
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But he also works through time and bringing things to bear patiently over time.
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So these three steps that we find in Matthew 18.
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These are not steps that are meant to be carried out over the course of an afternoon.
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It is not that someone offends you in the church and that you immediately text them and say, you did me wrong.
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And if they don't text you back or they text you back in a way that you don't like, that you immediately go and tell the Bible says one or two others.
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I'm going to tell seven others, you know, just to just to be extra sure.
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right and then and then we'll get everyone you know and it needs to be soon it needs to be today
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or maybe tomorrow and then you know maybe we can tell it to the church by evening if we're lucky
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we can carry out all three steps of church discipline you know before the end of day
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and certainly that would be pleasing to the lord because we're being expedient
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and diligent vigilance about upholding his word no you're being foolish
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it's not pleasing to the lord you're being foolish these things take time in the cases
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of church discipline that i've dealt with which by god's grace have been few but in those cases
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of church discipline that i've dealt with in god's providence pastorally all of them have been
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months not days but months at the shortest and more often than not years years
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taking time taking time coming again and again like for instance that second step of taking
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one or two others with you the text does not bind the conscience in such a way that you can
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only do that second step once i would suggest as a matter of prudence that this second step
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at least for now and we should leave room that the spirit through time might change his heart
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but number two the other scenario is not just that it's possible your brother is impenitent
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it's also possible that you're wrong it's possible that your brother is not repenting because the
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particular charge you've brought against him is not actually sin and that you are actually the
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one who needs to repent. And likewise, the same principle, the Holy Spirit often will take time
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to produce repentance in your heart. And so there should be patience going both ways. But the point
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is, if there's not repentance from your brother, and you still are insistent and convinced that
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your brother really is in sin, and so therefore there's no backing down with repentance on your
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part, well then that step can be followed up again. And probably not within 30 minutes,
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probably within a week or two or three. And then following back up, still on that first step of
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alone, one-on-one. And then eventually it could be two or three coming in. And that step likewise
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can be practiced and carried out not just once, but multiple times. The one or two that you bring
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with you at first maybe fellow believers church members that you have a high opinion of that you
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respect and that you see as being mature in the church body and so you bring them and then later
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on it may be that i think at this point we need to involve a pastor or a deacon a church leader
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needs to be involved in the process but you're still technically in step two the the two or
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three coming. It is not yet public. It has not yet been told to the church at large corporately.
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And so my point is each of these steps can be carried out slowly, patiently, and multiple times
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over a long period of time. And all of this again does not, or at least it should not,
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indicate that a church makes light of sin, but again rather that a church makes much
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as a broader category, the point is that this particular command in Matthew 18 of church
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discipline assumes, it implies, that church membership is a biblical category. How does it
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assume this? Because you can't do church discipline if there's no definable, visible, covenantal group
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of who's in and who's out. You need to know who is a member of this community. In your notes,
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I've written the following. Church membership is implied by the way that the church is expected
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to discipline its members. The church appears to be the final court of appeal in matters of church
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discipline. If there is no such thing as church membership, how do we define the group of people
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who will take up this extremely delicate and important matter of exhorting those who are
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unrepentant and finally rendering a righteous judgment about their standing in Christian
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community it's hard to believe that just anyone who shows up claiming to be a christian should
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be a part of this process surely the church must be a definable group in order to handle such
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weighty matters so that we know who the scripture is referencing in matthew 18 when it says tell it
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to the church so again in the most concise and simplest way that i can convey this point
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if church discipline is not just a theoretical abstract concept but actually a command from
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the Lord Jesus Christ and we're going to take it seriously by seeking to obey it in practice
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and not just salute it in theory if church discipline is a command from Jesus and we're
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going to try to actually obey it then that requires that we know who is in and who is out
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Church discipline requires church membership because the final step of church discipline is tell it to the church.
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And all church membership is at its foundation is simply seeking to biblically define that question or an answer to that question.
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If there's not repentance sooner, then eventually it goes all the way to the final step.
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But here's the question you have to then answer.
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And they did better than a lot of reformed churches when it came to COVID.
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They actually had a little bit of spying, which I appreciate.
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But Calvary Chapel, the reason why I mention them is they're notoriously against church membership.
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They, I mean, if they despise anything, it's the devil, hell, sin, and church membership.
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They just, you know, it's a weird thing to be so adamantly against.
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But it is, I mean, that's, you know, that's one of the key characteristics of the Calvary Chapel folk.
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Now, it makes sense when you think of their origin, you know, like where did Calvary Chapel come from?
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well California southern California right Chuck Smith ministering in the 70s to hippies with long
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hair who smoked weed and one of the key characteristics of his church denomination
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is that we don't have an organized church membership yeah that checks out that makes sense
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you know like the same it's like we don't have church membership and and pastor Webb and that's
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that's my father's name call me joel right that's you know so there's there's your calvary chapel
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it was really it wasn't a theological argument i'm sure they tacked on some you know pseudo
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theological arguments along the way to make it seem as though it's biblical but it's not it was
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much more cultural it's uh hey you know what there's those lofty denominations but we're not
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like that we're you know we're part of the jesus movement right lonnie fresby and you know hippies
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hippies for jesus which did not last very long and and uh sadly did not bear um very good fruit
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it did not despite whatever you know christian movie you might have watched in the theaters a
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couple years ago so all that being said uh church membership is biblical and for calvary chapel the
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question would be if you're going to follow matthew 18 and the last part is tell it to the church
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who's that who is that who are you going to tell it to and part of the argument that i want to make
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today is that mere church attendance is not enough in order to define church membership
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because that would be the counter right if i'm going to play the devil's advocate i'm asking
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begging the question well tell it to the church who's the church and you know you might be tempted
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to respond and say well the church is everybody here everybody here right now is the church
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but then the problem with that is it you know there's a few guidelines that would have to be
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set up for instance you would have to have bouncers outside the door
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to ensure that any non-christian could not attend on a sunday morning
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because a non-christian is not a part of the church you would have to test people
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and a credible, whether or not they have a credible profession of faith
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to determine whether or not they're actually a part of the church.
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Because if telling it to the church is merely church attendance on Sunday morning,
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well, what's one group of people that is allowed?
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but we even welcome and hope and pray that they might come.
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What's one group of people that we hope comes on Sunday morning?
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unbelievers we hope and pray that those who don't know christ and have not yet been born again
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might come and hear the preached word and the gospel of jesus christ and that god if he would
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be so merciful in his sovereignty might choose to grant them regenerate hearts and the gifts of
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faith and repentance that they might come to saving faith in jesus christ our lord and be
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made a new creation be born again we hope that we hope that unbelievers come to church on sunday
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morning hear the gospel and that they might be made new creatures in christ jesus but again if
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tell it to the church is defined who is the church by sunday morning then the church would necessarily
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include unbelievers and we know from other passages throughout scripture that that cannot
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be the case. It cannot be the case that the church is those bought by the blood of Jesus Christ
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and a handful of atheists and agnostics who hate Jesus and spit upon his name. That can't be the
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case. So then who is the church? Well, now we're saying mere church attendance, Sunday morning
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church attendance does not suffice in answering that question. So now we have to create some kind
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of process it can be elaborate it could also be simple but there must be some kind of process
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for discerning co-discerning who's in and who's out who is a follower of the lord jesus christ
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and not just a universal member of the universal holy lowercase c catholic church the invisible
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church global church but but who is a follower of jesus and has been called and desires to be
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a follower of jesus in this local church context we need some kind of process for discerning and
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determining who that is who is a christian and who wants to be a christian here with this local
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church community and whatever process that you come up with for determining these things and
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answering those questions, what you have essentially done is you have just invented
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church membership. So it is inescapable. The only way you can escape church membership
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is if you resolve with these five commands in your notes today, if you resolve to never seek
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particularly these commands in the Word of God,
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if you're going to seek to obey these commands,
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then you're going to have to answer the question,
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who is the church and then the next question is how do we determine who is the church and then
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what you've essentially done is invented church membership it's not whether but which you do have
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a church membership process you do have that that's not whether but which the church membership
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process may be biblical it may be elaborate it may be simple it may be unbiblical but you do
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at some level believe in church membership whether you'll verbalize it or not because again it is
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implied here's the second commandment first corinthians chapter 5 verse 12 through 13 says
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this for what have i to do with judging outsiders is it not those inside the church whom you are to
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judge god judges those outside purge the evil person from among you in your notes i've written
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the following church membership is implied by the simple fact that excommunication even exists
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Paul implies implies this in first corinthians 5 12 and 13 where he deals with the necessity of
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putting someone out of the church there are two significant implications here one is that there
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is such a thing as in the church and there is such a thing as outside the church Paul assumes
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that being in the church is definable, that it's knowable. It's something that can be known.
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So Paul assumes that in the church, that group is definable. Now, the other implication is that
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a person can be removed from being in the church. Such a formal removal would not be possible if
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there was no such thing as a clear membership. The question is, who is an accountable part of
00:31:49.220
this body and who is not so church discipline being the whole process from start to finish
00:31:56.460
when your brother sins against you which begins privately one-on-one church discipline the whole
00:32:01.580
process assumes church membership excommunication being the final result of church discipline if a
00:32:09.060
person remains impenitent that is unrepentant about their sin that also assumes church membership
00:32:15.660
you can't kick someone out of something if there's no such thing as being in that something
00:32:22.660
to begin with you can't remove someone from the church if there is no church to begin with and
00:32:30.740
again without church membership this is this is what ultimate logically you have to recognize
00:32:36.460
if there is no formal church membership then then the in the church and out of the church
00:32:41.640
are, they must be defined by mere church attendance. If there's no formal church
00:32:49.220
membership, covenantal, definable, visible church membership, then in the church simply means who's
00:32:57.180
allowed to attend and who does attend. And out of the church would mean who's not allowed to attend
00:33:03.540
and therefore does not attend. So now all these commands that we're reading, if there's no church
00:33:09.700
membership and it's simply church attendance all these commands not they're no no longer merely
00:33:14.920
practical now they're acutely physical physical so to remove someone from the church if mere church
00:33:25.240
attendance is what it means to be in the church it means to physically kick someone out and to
00:33:31.340
bar the door literally to where they are no longer allowed to come back in and what does it mean to
00:33:38.600
be in the church well it simply means whoever happens to be there on a given day in a given
00:33:44.760
moment and that's that's what these verses would have to mean tell it to the church merely means
00:33:50.880
whoever happens to be there being in the church simply means whoever happens to be there being
00:33:58.300
removed or excommunicated from the church means you're physically no longer allowed to be there
00:34:04.060
it all becomes physical that's the only way it can be carried out if if the church is simply
00:34:12.380
defined by mere church attendance but if it's more than church attendance it's church membership
00:34:18.420
and it is not just physical presence but it is with physical presence now spiritual covenant
00:34:24.620
is involved and it's definable and visible and practical not merely theoretical then all these
00:34:31.680
things can be carried out with prudence in a biblical and logical way the third command so
00:34:38.780
discipline church discipline then excommunication then submission this is hebrews chapter 13 verse
00:34:44.760
17 it says this obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls
00:34:49.860
as those who will give an account let them do this with joy and not with groaning for that would be
00:34:55.160
of no advantage to you. So we've already begged the question, what I've been laboring thus far is
00:35:01.980
who is the church? Well, here's another question now. Who is my leader? Right? Because this is a
00:35:10.340
command. And again, none of this, you know, I'm building an argument here from, you know, that
00:35:17.040
it's just as much logical as it is biblical. I'm building a logical argument with premises, right?
00:35:24.460
if a and b then c okay but it will ultimately fall flat if you are the average i want to say
00:35:34.740
evangelical but that wouldn't be true if you're the average reformed evangelical sadly uh because
00:35:41.140
the reformed is not just you know et tu brute you too reformed guys no no no it is not just
00:35:47.080
what i'm about to say doesn't just include the reformed um i would say that the reformed are
00:35:51.320
the pinnacle of what I'm about to describe. It is not also the Reformed. It is especially
00:35:56.740
the Reformed. And what is the thing that I'm talking about? Theoretical credence
00:36:02.380
with an absolute refusal to practical obedience. So if you're Reformed, you know, and you're the
0.95
00:36:11.940
typical modern Reformed guy, not historically. Historically, the Reformed were always seeking
0.98
00:36:17.360
to apply the word of God in practical, tangible ways to all of life around them. Certainly. But
00:36:22.520
if you're the modern reformed guy, then a lot of the arguments that I'm making may fall flat because
00:36:27.780
because you're hearing it. It's like, yeah, but all these things only logically make sense. He's
00:36:32.840
saying you have to define who's in the church. He's saying you have to be able to answer the
00:36:36.400
question, who are my leaders? Right. But you really only have to answer any of these questions. Who is
00:36:41.020
the church? How do we define who's in the church? Who are my pastors? Who are my brothers? Who's in
00:36:45.980
this but you only have to answer those questions if if you're determined to practically obey
00:36:52.460
the commands in scripture but i'm reformed so of course i don't i don't plan to practically obey
00:36:59.280
all right i mean i'm going to go to the the 17th conference on tulip
00:37:04.540
total depravity and limited atonement but that's all we do there will be a chalkboard
00:37:10.820
that's very important and there will be suits and maybe even a cruise
00:37:17.660
but one thing that there will not be right there may even be scotch but there will not be
00:37:25.300
god help me any attempt to practically obey the commandments of christ
00:37:31.080
you're describing the prosperity you know charismatic church no i'm describing my tribe
00:37:42.860
But no, that is a description of the Reformed evangelical church.
00:37:47.340
More than any other camp I can think of, honestly.
00:37:51.160
I don't know any camp that is more committed to the theoretical at the expense of the practical than the Reformed tribe.
00:38:04.340
But it has become the modern state, the current state of the Reformed tribe.
0.69
00:38:10.040
So, if you're a modern reformer, then there's about an 85% chance that everything that I'm saying,
0.94
00:38:16.900
These arguments don't land with me at all, Joel.
00:38:20.180
You assume that me, as a follower of Christ, decided, you know,
00:38:23.160
and wanted, desired to obey Christ in practical, tangible ways.
00:38:28.060
But I'm assuming that, you know, as the apostles would say, but not so with you.
00:38:34.340
right not so with you paul writes that you know as he's you know saying this may be going on in
00:38:40.360
a church over there or over here but of you we are hopeful of better things covenant bible church
00:38:47.740
as one of your pastors of you i am hopeful of better things i assume the reason i'm making
00:38:53.240
all these arguments and i think that they're good arguments and i think they will land
00:38:56.740
is because i'm preaching first and foremost to you and i'm confident of better things in your case
00:39:03.100
I am confident that one of the reasons that you are a part of this church is because of this
00:39:08.980
church's by God's grace not because of me but by the grace of God this church's emphasis
00:39:13.780
and commitment to obey God's word in every realm of life in practical tangible ways and not mere
00:39:22.800
theory I'm assuming that's why you're here and because that's why you're here I'm assuming that
00:39:28.100
all the arguments that I'm making for church membership today from the basis of if you desire
00:39:32.880
to practically obey jesus you therefore must necessarily assume church membership i'm assuming
00:39:38.860
that that rhetoric lands on a congregation of your caliber on youtube it will not land i can tell you
00:39:46.120
right now i will be in trouble okay so who is your pastor hebrews 13 17 obey your leaders and submit
00:39:56.960
to them for their keeping watch over your souls as those who will give an account let them do so
00:40:02.100
with joy and not with groaning for that would be of no advantage to you. Look at just the very first
00:40:06.300
part. Obey your leaders and submit to them. Here's the deal. Who are your leaders? You might say,
00:40:15.060
oh, well, that's that's not a big deal. Let's not read into that. Well, no, no, no. There are a lot
00:40:19.920
of Christian leaders doing air quotes here. Christian leaders who, you know, are self-prescribed,
00:40:28.860
self-exalted leaders. Joel Osteen claims to be a spiritual leader. Joyce Myers claims to be
00:40:38.840
a spiritual leader. T.D. Jakes would claim to be a spiritual leader. But here's the beauty
00:40:45.760
of this particular passage of Scripture. It doesn't say obey leaders. And it certainly does not say
00:40:53.060
obey anyone who claims to be a leader. But instead, in the mercy of God, there's a very important word
00:40:59.920
right between obey and leaders, the word your. Obey your leaders and submit to them. There's a
00:41:08.760
particularity involved. It's local. It's not universal. It's not obey, you know, anybody who
00:41:18.380
happens to be appointed on the other side of the world through some procession and now wears a very
00:41:23.480
big hat you know that obey francis no no obey your leaders not any leader but your leader
00:41:33.280
and here's the beauty of obeying your leader what that assumes in this is that the leader who
00:41:40.340
happens to be your leader is a leader that at least at some level you chose you had a say in it
00:41:47.500
he didn't just show up at your house one day and say i'm your pastor you've never seen me before
00:41:54.360
but i just determined last night that i'm the pastor of this neighborhood and everybody who
00:41:59.260
lives within this you know 10 square mile radius is a part of my flock well the beautiful thing
00:42:06.400
about being a protestant and really just a christian for that matter is you can say nice
00:42:11.360
to meet you. Take a hike. Get off my lawn. No, it doesn't work that way. A leader does not just
00:42:18.120
assume leadership over you, but there's also a sense in which it must be granted. There is, and
00:42:24.520
that's why I think the proper word is covenant. It's not just church membership, but in the truest
00:42:29.780
sense, it is covenant church membership. A covenant must be cut. Now, listen to me. Not all covenants
00:42:37.300
are of equal caliber the marriage covenant is much stronger and rightfully so than church
00:42:45.200
membership covenant in other words there are actually legitimate reasons for leaving a church
00:42:51.880
even a church that you've already made vows to that you've already entered into
00:42:55.960
a covenant membership status with that church it's still okay to leave now you shouldn't leave
00:43:55.900
For instance, one of those outs would be death.
00:44:29.460
there are only a few reasons that the lord prescribes as being valid and legitimate
00:44:36.100
but there are outs to the covenant of marriage and with the covenant of church membership
00:44:41.460
even more so even more so so there is a mutual determining from you the church member that i
00:44:49.060
want to be a member of this church and likewise you can determine at a later date with sufficient
00:44:54.400
reason i do not want to be a member of this church and i'm leaving so this idea of the third
00:45:02.140
commandment that i've listed here hebrews 13 17 obey your leaders well part of what makes them
00:45:07.920
your leaders is that you decided you determined that they would be your leaders you had some say
00:45:15.260
in the matter i've written this in your notes church membership is implied in the biblical
00:45:20.320
requirement of all Christians to be submitted to a group of church leaders, elders, or pastors.
00:45:26.460
Without church membership, who is it that the New Testament is referring to who must submit to a
0.51
00:45:31.780
specific group of leaders? Some form of expressed willingness, agreement, or covenant has to precede
00:45:39.040
a person's submission to a group of leaders. How is this leadership and submission going to work
00:45:44.520
if there is no official membership to define who has made a commitment to be led and who
00:45:50.100
has been chosen to lead. If we neglect the importance of church membership, then it is
00:45:57.360
difficult to see how we can obey this particular command in any practical way, which again does not
00:46:05.540
pose a problem for many of our Reformed brothers because practical obedience to Jesus' commands is
00:46:10.880
not the highest priority. But of you, I am hopeful of better things. So you want to obey Hebrews 13,
00:46:18.460
17 and not just acknowledge it in the abstract in the realm of theory not just tip the hat
00:46:24.760
but honor christ by practically obeying this what jesus is saying right all the bible this is a
00:46:32.300
life hack it's crazy but all the bible technically is red letters it's all the word of god so jesus
00:46:39.460
our lord is saying commanding not just suggesting that christians should obey their leaders and
00:46:46.000
submit to them. And the first thing you have to do in order to obey this particular command from
00:46:51.100
Christ is have some way of determining who your leaders are. Now, again, to play the devil's
00:46:57.500
advocate, you might be saying at this point, well, I don't think church membership is required for
00:47:01.400
that. I see what you're saying, Joel. I do need to be able to distinguish between self-proclaimed
00:47:08.520
leaders or you know just online universal leaders versus a particular you know my leaders local
00:47:16.880
leaders I do need a way of doing that but actually in this case Joel I think you messed up because
00:47:21.380
in this particular case I think that mere church attendance does suffice I have determined that
00:47:29.040
this will be these set of leaders in this local church will be my leaders and I've determined that
00:47:34.760
simply by showing up and not just showing up once but showing up consistently with regularity
00:47:40.560
i've led my family here on the lord's day week after week after week and that church attendance
00:47:47.020
is enough it does suffice for me to identify who my leaders are so that i then can obey the word
00:47:55.500
of christ in hebrews 13 17 to obey these leaders okay touche here's the problem though the other
00:48:03.440
side of the equation which is the next command shepherding so we've dealt with submission that
00:48:09.900
is for the congregant but what about shepherding for the pastor his responsibility because you
00:48:18.900
need to answer the question who are my leaders who is my pastor so that i know who to obey
00:48:23.360
and your mere church attendance might be sufficient to answer that question who is my pastor
00:48:57.160
and so to help me to sufficiently shepherd you i need to answer the question of who's in the church
00:49:06.160
and who's not and if you're not going to be helpful helping me answer that question of who's
00:49:12.540
in the church and who's not so that i can obey the commands that christ has given me to shepherd
00:49:16.940
the flock of god well then you're actually not obeying your command back to hebrews 13 17 which
00:49:23.160
is to obey your leaders and submit to them and to not make this a groaning but to do so in such a
00:49:30.680
way that it might be a joy to those leaders and i'm sitting here telling you right now and in your
00:49:36.160
defense i haven't said it necessarily before now but i'm saying it today it is not a joy for pastors
00:49:42.400
to be left in the dark and to simply wonder and guess at who's in and who's out
00:49:49.080
right merely attending the church but not expressing any
00:49:54.020
formal covenant and membership with the church is unhelpful it doesn't help to define for a pastor
00:50:05.780
who it is in specific that God is going to hold me accountable for on that final day
00:50:12.480
for shepherding and you might say well I still I get it that's a decent argument but I still think
00:50:18.980
church membership should be enough or a church attendance should be enough here's the problem
00:50:24.360
though um our church has existed for a whopping three years and two months not very long do you
00:50:32.000
know how many people have attended the church in just three years and two months some of you have
00:50:36.780
been here for a while you know you're nodding your heads you're like yeah i've i've seen it like
00:50:41.680
like a revolving door easy come easy go right i mean there's a ton of people who have attended
00:50:47.700
the church and not all that they've all left for bad reasons i'm not saying that i i think most of
00:50:52.120
them have not left for bad reasons but there's been a ton of people just even out of town
00:50:55.740
right they don't they don't attend the church in an ongoing fashion simply because they don't live
00:51:00.500
here but they were here they were stationed here for a little while or temporarily they were here
00:51:04.320
for the summer we've had so many cases like that we're not even just you know a one-time visitor
00:51:09.220
but they attended for uh you know four out of five weeks for three to six months
00:51:14.340
but but it was temporary they're not here any longer am i still responsible
00:51:20.240
in a covenantal sense as a pastor for that individual who was here for six months but
00:51:26.180
has now been gone for seven months are pastors responsible for anyone who ever darkens the door
00:51:33.620
of their church because pastors are responsible for someone that's certainly true acts 20 verse
00:51:42.140
28 says this this is now a command not given to the congregation but given to leaders pastors in
00:51:47.100
particular pay careful attention to yourselves and all the flock in which the holy spirit
00:51:51.540
has made you overseers now the holy spirit does so through agency and i believe he does so through
00:51:58.680
the suffrage of the church that is through the vote the decision of the congregation
00:52:04.060
itself but it's still ultimately once that takes place it is important to recognize
00:52:14.040
in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.
00:52:37.980
who has ordained them, and there are commands from God to that ordained individual. What are they?
00:52:43.960
They need to pay careful attention to themselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit
00:52:49.760
has made them overseers to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his blood. And in
00:52:56.180
order for a shepherd to do that, an elder or a deacon, in order to do that, it is not only that
00:53:03.100
the congregation needs to answer the question, who is my pastor? But the pastor must answer the
00:53:07.680
question, who is my congregation? And your mere church attendance may suffice for you to identify
00:53:14.700
your leaders, but mere church attendance does not suffice for your leaders to determine who is
00:53:21.200
their flock. Lastly, let's move on. First Corinthians chapter 12, verse 21 through 26,
00:53:27.100
the Bible says this, the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor again the head
00:53:31.820
to the feet, I have no need of you. On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be
00:53:36.240
weaker are indispensable and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow
00:53:43.500
the greater honor and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty which are more
00:53:49.740
presentable parts do not require but God has so composed the body giving greater honor to the part
00:53:56.280
that lacked it that there may be no division in the body but that the members may have the same
00:54:02.940
care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together. If one member is honored, all
00:54:08.800
rejoice together. In your notes, finally I've written this. Church membership is implied in
00:54:14.180
the metaphor of the body of Christ. There is a unity and organic relationship implied in the
00:54:19.880
imagery of a body. There is something unnatural about a Christian attaching himself to a body
1.00
00:54:26.460
of believers and not choosing to be a functioning member of that body. Yes, there is the universal
0.88
00:55:02.500
1st Corinthians 12 says. That's what Romans 12 says. The Holy Spirit deposits and distributes
00:55:09.320
gifts to each member of the body. He causes him to, with these gifts, to be realized into a
00:55:18.120
particular part of the body. He gives them in such a way that that person functions best as a leg,
00:55:23.680
or an arm, or a hand, or a foot, or an eye, or an ear. But without church membership, in the local
00:55:31.400
setting it would be it would be likened to the illustration of all these people made alive in
00:55:38.960
Christ Jesus saved by Jesus born again and imparted by the spirit with endowed with particular
00:55:47.500
spiritual gifts and caused to become certain specific parts of the body but without covenant
00:55:53.360
it would be like like the ligaments like the joints like like the the sinew that ties it
00:56:00.840
together without covenant without church membership what you really have is you still have a body but
00:56:07.100
instead of it being a body that's put together and functioning in unison it's actually just a part
00:56:12.800
or not a part it's a pile of body parts without church membership that's kind of what you have
00:56:20.260
it's like well yeah this is our church over here isn't it beautiful it's like it looks like something
00:56:25.860
out of a horror movie i i don't i don't know if beautiful is the word that i would use to describe
00:56:29.960
Like I see, I mean, that is a church in a sense.
00:56:39.560
There are eyes and ears and the nose and this, that, and the other.
00:56:42.840
But I don't think this is what Jesus had in mind.
00:56:46.300
This looks more like a horror movie than it does like the church of Jesus Christ.
00:56:52.500
It is a body, but it'd be great if we had some assembly.
00:57:25.820
and the agreement to obey him and to follow him.
00:57:29.420
But it is now a second covenant, a local covenant.
00:57:35.240
but now there is a second local temporal covenant
00:57:40.000
with the church, not just the church universally,
00:57:49.320
We're saying not only do I covenant with Christ to follow him,
00:57:52.360
but I have covenanted with you to follow Christ together.
00:58:49.320
Because your burden, you do have commands, you do have a set of law, but your burden is light and your yoke is easy.
00:58:57.080
And part of what makes it light and easy is your spirit, which empowers us to fulfill it and obey it.
00:59:02.540
But also part of what makes your burden, your yoke, your law easy and light is that it's simple and practical.
00:59:13.320
practical. That it's not just theoretical and something to be obeyed mentally by those with
00:59:21.220
180 IQ, but it's something to be obeyed practically by the blue-collar saint who loves Jesus, that he
00:59:28.980
can hear, understand, and obey with his hands and feet on a Tuesday afternoon to the glory of God.
00:59:40.240
You are a brilliant, genius, all-knowing, omniscient God.
00:59:44.120
And yet, at the same time, you are a simple God, a merciful God that you condescend to.
00:59:51.700
You remember, as the scripture says, that you remember our frame, that we're dust.
00:59:57.280
And you don't do so in a demeaning fashion, but in a loving, merciful fashion,
01:00:01.120
in the same way that a father condescends to his young toddler.
01:00:06.520
Not that he's demeaning him or insulting him, but he lowers down to his level.
01:00:11.380
Speaking in a way that he can understand, interacting in a way that he gets.
01:00:18.220
You do it in the gospel of your son, Jesus Christ.
01:00:21.600
But you also even do that merciful condescension in your law in such a way that we might be able to obey and not be burdened, but rather freed.
01:00:32.480
Freed from the burdens that others would try to place on us.