We're always aware of Church has gone through factions and divisions and splits, unfortunately. How should I say unfortunately it's part of God's purpose in plan? It really is. I can prove that textually, but I don't have time.
So that's always the case. Brother John, there's always brothers facing that. But not like this year. I mean, we have so many brothers here right now who've just gone through, like Brother Max, a terrible split in the church. And some others of you who know it's just right around the corner.
So you've heard testimony after testimony. You're going to get through this. And we say the church splits. I understand that. I don't really believe in church splits, I believe in goat removals.
I don't really And if God never uses anything, he doesn't clean up.
So I just want to add that emphasis, hang in there. And one of the problems I have in teaching things is there's not time to teach all the balancing truths. And one thing I want to say right quick before we go to, if you would, Tommy, go ahead and put the tree back up with all the points on it. About expositional preaching, and I'm going to use Brother Jono as an illustration here. If you talk to Brother Jono about The effect in Mrs.
Chevron Mills, the maturity of the church, the sweet unity, it is a model church. Um he's going to talk about apostolic preaching. But he's lying.
Now, here's what I mean by that. This man has left blood all over the ground of applying his preaching to the church.
Now, you don't think about that, brother. You just think that's understood. But, brother, it's not understood.
Some guys think it's just almost like a superstitious magic formula if you actually text Shazam, mature church.
Well, this is true, and I hope I'm not being too redundant with what I'm going to bring out in a moment. Preaching the word in the power of the Spirit produces a godly humility in the church. And causes the people to be ready and able to be structures informed and do ministry. But that takes some effort outside of the pulpit.
So when you see, when you hear John O. Sims' exposition, what you're not seeing. Is untold hours of warfare and work in structuring his church. And sharpening his church and disciplining the church and managing and shepherding the flock to live out. What the text said in his preaching.
So. I don't want to diminish the powerful, miraculous, essential nature of the preaching of the word. But it's to the end of further follow-through. All right, let's go to the limbs on the tree. We've got the root.
Of a Bible-driven understanding, a biblical theology that flavors the totality of our study and our preaching. The instrument, the trunk of the tree that holds everything up is preaching the word and the power of the Spirit. And then we come to the limbs, what I call biblical structures and strategies, ecclesiology, if you want to use another word. But how now just what do we do? How does this thing look?
What does it look like? And I can't tell you how much in the first 15 That'd be about right, years of my pastoral ministry. I knew what was wrong. But I wasn't really sure what was right. I mean, I was troubled about easy believism.
I was troubled about unrepented of sinners all in our churches. I was troubled about missions was just throwing money at a distant missions agency. And all that's completely wrong, but I thought, I know this isn't the best way. Really, through just stumming along, learning here and there, trial and error, we put together. These biblical structures and strategies.
Nobody has ever, from the scripture, showed me a better way to convince me to change. If you don't choose my terminology in my way, this isn't. My way's not the final word on anything. But I think it is a proven way for four decades now to function as a church. Number one under the biblical structures and strategies is every member ministry through small groups.
A goal, there can be no concept of healthy church life unless you are striving. You'll never get there 100%. Unless you are striving that every member is ministering, scripturally defined ministering in the body of Christ. Um We found no other way, and there's no other biblical example of how to facilitate that than small groups. Baptists used to call it Sunday school, some people call it cell groups.
I really discourage meetings outside of the church plan. If you can get classrooms, Sunday school rooms built, and that's a whole nother several-hour discussion, that's the best way. Before the pandemic, we regularly ran 85 to 95 percent of our worship attendance every week in small groups. For a church our size, that's totally unheard of. But that's because you can't work harder at small groups than we've worked at small groups.
I mean, for 40 years, we have worked extremely hard. We have about 70 small groups right now, and it is to the end of organizing the people of God in small enough groups so they can learn each other, bond together, be transparent, and therefore live out the truth I've preached to them on Sunday. Live out the Christianity we proclaim for the pulpit. Brother Chris, that takes some work, though, to get those small groups up and going. And I mean, that's why and brothers.
God knows my heart. I don't want to beat you guys up. That's not my spirit.
So you do a pretty good job of it. Give yourself some. That's why I say 20-year vision. This is stumbling and halting, and two steps forward, and one and three-fourths back sometimes. It's just, but you just keep going.
Because you can't measure if God's used you to build a church at year six. Are you none?
Sometimes you're in year 13 to year 18 and you have a split. You know, I've had three splits here of about 600 total people leaving. 600 total people.
Now, in our area, a non-metropolitan, non-growing area of northwest Alabama, that's huge.
Now fortunately, we've about swapped out even. We've replaced them with folks who want to be here. But my point is, if I, at any time, and Brother John, at that time in my pilgrimage, said I'm a failure, well, I would have been. But God was doing something I couldn't see. Here's what happens when you're reforming.
The people that hate God and hate the truth and hate you are very loud. The people that are with you have never seen reform before, so they're quiet, not saying much. They're just learning. And it makes you think nobody's with you.
So, you've got to keep going until the people who are with you but are learning start saying, Hey, wait a minute, Pastor, I like getting it, and I'm seeing it. And I'm with you. We keep going, but small groups. And I just came up with this, thinking about this, preparing this message, and that is that. You might look at it this way.
Like a shotgun. In a shotgun, you've got a shell for those of you that aren't rednecks. It's a shale. There's a wad.
Well, there's gunpowder, there's a wad, and then there's the shot that goes out. And in the church, preaching the word is like the firing pin and the powder. Small groups is like the wad and the pellets. The preaching of the word is used powerfully to miraculously change lives, convert souls, energize the saints, convict them to be humble and ready to go to work.
Well, that's the bang, but then the Take the game, there's got to be the production of the wad pushing the shot out. to be successful.
So that's kind of a picture of what I'm talking about. Small groups is the arena where the saints live out their Christian duties and services. Not all of their Christian duties and services, but many, or we may say the bulk. Their Christian duties and services. I have no place in my theology for.
Things outside of the local church taking a significant amount of your people's times and calling it Christian ministry. I just I just don't I don't have that. I mean, I'm not here to condemn all of that. I'm just saying from Matthew through Revelation and particularly the ministry, Paul, I see one simple thing: preach the word, win lost souls, establish local New Testament churches, and make them help you do that again in other places. That's all we see.
It's just not that, and there's nothing else there but local church life.
So I think I'm safe with God to say, sell out to a local church, give it your all.
Well, first of all, find one where the pastor is trying to build a biblically, spiritually healthy church.
Now, don't judge him on how far he's gotten. It's a long journey. But if his heart is to do it right, stay there with him, support him. And give your all to it. And on the judgment day, I think you're going to hear, well done, good and faithful servant.
If you don't, say it's Jeff Noblet's fault. He told me to pour my all in one of your local churches. And I'll bear the blame. Um Acts 2:42, the church is just starting in the book of Acts. Thousands are getting saved, and we have this verse: day by day, Continuing with one mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to house.
They were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart. I don't think this is an incidental narrative on the historical situation. Whether you call it prescriptive or descriptive, to me it doesn't matter. The church is starting, and the leaders of the church, functioning of the leadership of the Holy Spirit, had the whole group meet as a congregation in Solomon's portico, but also they are meeting in small groups house to house. I think what that means, just they wanted to be together.
And it's hard to get together with three thousand people and feel a belonging and a bonding and an ability to love and be transparent and sharpen each other. But you get a group of seven men or twelve ladies in a small group, and it's powerful how that happens. A senior adult man told me I could give you Hundreds, if not thousands, of these stories. They were in their men's small group, and one of the men was kind of burdened, and he spoke up and said, Guys, would you pray for me? And they said, Sure, we'll pray for you.
And he said, Well, I want a tithe. I have a conviction ought to be a tither, but my wife is adamantly against it. And I love her. I think she loves the Lord, but I'm just struggling. Those men got on their knees, put their hands on that man's shoulder and prayed for him.
That's not going to happen in a couples class with ladies present. That's not going to happen in a class of 300. but in a small enough group where they learn to trust each other. In a small enough group where there was the bonding and the transparency, real biblical body life ministry is happening. And it's going to take a long time.
To get to a mature level in your small groups. And you're going to have some small groups go bad on you. But don't give up on the structure. God uses it.
Now, let me say this again. In the Pastor's Training Institute, we've got a whole semester on small groups that gives you the thorough theology, but boatloads of practical how-tos, the mistakes we've made, the things we've learned. Brothers, I'm just telling you, it's pure gold. Because it was lived out on the anvil of local church experience.
So, if you call me and say, Well, I don't know how to do small groups, I'm going to say, Did you take that class? That's what they're there for. Take advantage of those things we're giving you. Drink in deeply of them.
Now small groups basically for us following our exegesis, our theology, what we find in the text. Is to evangelize the lost, equip the saved, and meet individual needs. Those are the three components that we want the laity, the body, as a team in their small group, evangelizing together, equipping discipling. Training, maturing, use your own word, one another, and also there to meet individual needs. Hospitalizations, hurting, sorrows, bereavements, the small group is the first line of aid in our church.
Often it doesn't get to the ministerial staff because the small group meets the needs so well. I'll never forget, years ago, I got a phone call. And the leader of a small group said, Pastor, we're at the hospital. The man's name was John. He said, not a fictitious name.
That's actually his name. He said, John's had a heart attack, and he's in intensive care unit. He's stable. They think he's going to be fine. Our wives are with the children, and they're feeding them.
They're all good. We've already prayed with them. You don't have to come. We just wanted you to know. to be praying for him.
You see, they were taking ownership of body life. And when people do that, they feel so blessed.
So encouraged. And we've had more than one report from the hospitals like Man, when you have somebody hurting or sick, your church cares for them. Takes care of. What's because of the small group structure aided? The facilitation of living out the gospel humility and love for the body that only preaching can produce.
Are you seeing the connection, guys? Seeing why this is the limbs on the tree of preaching? It all goes together.
Now we do a lot of um Leadership training, but Brother David will tell you, though, we do formal leadership training for small groups. The most effective training is hands-on in the classroom. A small group leader will start letting a guy in his class teach some. He'll start teaching about outreach, et cetera, et cetera. And then by the time David gets him in the class, David just got to sharpen him up a little bit.
It's like Jesus trained his disciples. in the real work of ministry. And we can help you with the pitfalls and all of that, and those kind of things. We also have a lot of cyclical studies. There are foundational issues in a church that the sheep just seem to forget quickly.
So we repeat certain studies. Matter of fact, I'll preach on them and I'll cycle it through my preaching from time to time. Then we'll cycle the training through the small groups from time to time.
Now, think about it, I've got 70 small groups.
So when we train our, and we teach our teachers the lesson every week in one form or fashion. We write the lesson, the elders write the lesson, then the teachers go teach them. They don't get to teach what they want, they're not called to shepherd. If you're a leader of a small growth and grace life church, I love and exhort you again, you're not a pastor. You're to work under your pastors.
You don't get that authority because you don't bear the responsibility for those souls your pastors do. But nevertheless, we teach them the lesson. And then they teach that to their people. And we have, we cycle certain basic things through over and over, like biblical conflict resolution. Personal evangelism.
Local church mandates. Just what does it mean to be a part of a local church? That would include a lot of our purpose and strategy statement stuff. Our statement of faith, personalized strategic world missions. We'll look at the calendar, and Brother David will say, hey, man, it's been three years since we hit that.
We better hit that again. We have one we've developed from a brother's book. I forgot the brother's name. It's an excellent book called Expository Listening. You got to get that book.
Well, we made a small group study of it. And by the way, we've got boatloads of these studies already done and ready. All you've got to do is call, and we'll give it to you. That's what Anchor in Truth is just for: is to help you so that you don't have to reinvent all this stuff. And that's a powerful thing to do.
Now, my wife said, you're talking so fast. I'm trying to talk slow. One thing I don't want to forget about exposition is this. You remember when I told you I was an expositional idolater? And I don't mean God didn't use my preaching, but I just had a hang-up that, oh my goodness, I've got to go to the next verse next week.
That's all you can do, because you do anything else. John MacArthur will call you and You will might not make it to him. Brother John Old and I have talked about this struggle kind of together, how you just kind of wrestle, you just want to be true to the text. And then this brother helped me. You know what this guy's name is who helped me?
Martin Lloyd Jones. Have you ever heard of Martin Lloyd Jones? I read his book, Preachers and Preaching. And he said, guys, take a break in your exposition. On Christmas, take a break.
Preach a couple Christmas sermons. On New Year's, take a break. Preach a couple of sermons about the New Year, new beginnings. On so-and-so, take a break. I thought, praise God, hallelujah.
I'm free! I didn't feel that bondage that's got to be the next verse.
Now, 27 books of the Bible I've preached through now. Don't say, well, pastor, it's not an exposition. Brother, exposition can't be your idol. A true church has got to be your goal.
So as you're seeing issues Maybe you're trying to develop elders in your church. Stop your exposition and preach on elders from the text for about eight weeks. You got a youth issue in your church. Stop your exposition. Preach on that issue.
Don't do that somewhere else. Why do you think you're supposed to spend 20 hours getting ready to preach and then 20 more hours getting ready to teach your people about an issue in the church? Use your pulpit. You're killing yourself. You don't have the energy to study that many different things.
And here's what you'll find out: when you're exegeting the text. If not in a major way, at least there'll be a minor emphasis in the text that addresses what your church is dealing with right now.
So you might want to pause and say, you know what? I'm going to pause right here. Here's what this text teaches. And I'm going to build on that theme for two, three weeks because we need to hear this as a body right now. Then you get that taught and you go right back to your exposition.
That's what are you listening to me? Save me if you're listening. I call that local church exposition, and there is no other kind. Almost every book in the New Testament is addressed to a local church. It's local church exposition.
Your job isn't to feed the world, your job is to grow one church.
So have the church in your heart. Remember, that's your biblical theology, the centrality of the church. And try to find ways to address the practical issues that are at hand at that moment as you go through books of the Bible or stop and address it as you go along.
Now you don't want to get hung up there too long, obviously. But that will take a great burden off of you of doing all these stuff outside your pulpit to teach and admonish and correct things. Use the pulpit. When you look at Paul's letters to these churches, what does he do? It addresses the issues.
Men, y'all stop doing this. Ladies, get in line over here. You're acting like Heathen Gentile ladies. That's Timothy. Watch those silly women now.
Now if you're going to have elders, here's the, hey, just deals with the issues at hand. Do it in your exposition and occasionally, not all time. Verse by verse, chapter by chapter, should be the mainstay of the pulpit, but from time to time, interject something. All right, that's see, I've already left that point. Shouldn't have gone back.
All right. Number two, we're on the limbs of the tree, the structures and strategies. Small group, every member ministry through small groups. And I want to say this. I don't care if you hadn't got started.
I understand that. I don't care if it's not going hard at all. I understand that, but I want you to hear what I'm about to say. I'm not here to sell anybody anything. I'm not here to impress anybody.
If you don't have a heart, Pastor. To glorify God. By striving toward every member ministry in your church, then you cannot be a part of the Anchored in Truth Partnership. You cannot be. That's foundational.
You don't have to do it just like us. But if that's not your heart, if you think you're going to just preach. Just kind of barely keep everything else going, and that's what you're going to call that church life, and you don't belong in our fellowship. I don't mean that ugly. But I'd ask you to have a heart.
For building the church up. And striving toward every member ministry. And I don't know any other way to do that than through small groups. Is that fair enough, brothers? Number two, under structures and strategies.
personalized strategic world missions.
Now, we're using the word personalized in contrast to the word institutionalized. Baptists historically have had an institutionalized approach. You throw missions money at a distant institution and you call that your missions work. Personalized is what you experience in the true church conference. We know Max.
We just talk to Max. We know him personally. We go do work with him personally, and all these other missionaries. And all of our small groups have two to four or five missionaries they adopt and personally get to know them and email them and pray for them. And many of them go on the mission journeys to help them.
So it's very personal. You know what happens? They get alive with the passion to reach the world when they get to personally know the mission workers.
So we strive for a personalized versus an institutionalized approach. And we mean a biblically personalized and a biblically strategic. What we mean by biblically strategic. And I don't want to be ugly spirited about this, but we don't do anything like puppets for Jesus. We don't do skips for Jesus, basketball for Jesus.
We preach the word. We win the loss, we establish local New Testament churches, and then we do it again. That's all we do. That's biblically strategic because that's all you find in the New Testament. That's it.
Now, let's be kind to brothers who may do these other ministries, okay? Let's not beat them up. But for me, I put my money on what's thoroughly revealed in scripture. There's only one command that I know is given in five books of the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts. And that's going to all the world.
It's worded different ways, but in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts, we have go into all the world, make disciples. Preach to all the nations. You shall be my witnesses to the uttermost parts of the world. And on and on we could go.
So we cannot put second what seems like God puts first. Grace Life Church of the Shoals does not have a World Missions program. Grace Life Church of the Shoals exists for missions. If you biblically define missions. But here's my challenge to you.
Let's all strive to be a decent enough biblical model that we can take what we are to the world and not apologize for it. Have you noticed, guys, when you get on the mission field, a lot of what I do on the mission field is tear down what a lot of American churches have taken over there. Brother Barry, see it all the time, don't we? We take every fad and gimmick in the world instead of the simple, solid, biblical structures for true missions.
So just take What we're learning, and what we are, and let's reproduce it. And the one aspect of a mature church is reproduction. And obviously, the New Testament model, and I've got a lot of work on this, and it's absolutely amazing how much is there on this, how Paul. Absolutely, should I say, required. Probably required, at least expected all those new churches to join with him in cooperation to help him plant still more churches.
It's local churches working with local churches, and it's all backed up to Jerusalem and Antioch, the mother churches. And that's kind of our vision. That if you've been at it for decades and God has blessed it, then you should start, you should have a vision for leading and helping the coordination of other local churches so together we can get the job done. Because that now we don't have apostles. That'd make it easy.
Apostles just walk in and say, You church do this, you church, no, I need this church to do this, I need this church to give money, whatever it is. But we do have Jerusalems and Antiochs. That's churches who can serve as overseers and directors. of that work. Popper says that missions exist because worship doesn't.
I'm going to give you a knoblet addendum to that. Worship to be proper has to be worship in the context of local churches. He's right. I agree 100%. Missions exist because we need worshipers of God everywhere, but God says, I want worshipers to be organized into local churches.
and function according to my dictates.
So we don't get to g just have Entrepreneurial worshipers out there. No, we worship the way he wants to be worshipped. by establishing local churches and becoming biblically healthy local churches. Number three is what I call home life discipleship. It's the third spoke in the wheel.
I don't want to spend much time here, but Deuteronomy 6:4 through 7, actually, Deuteronomy 4:7, is the verse that I think gives us the best insight on how the godly home. Exercises or lives out discipleship within the home.
So what does he say there? He says in verse 7 You shall teach them diligently, your sons, and talk of them when you sit in your house. When you walk by the way. when you lie down and when you rise up. To me, that means as you're going about your daily home life, be real.
Be real about your love for Christ. Be real about your love for the truth. Throw it out there and talk I'm not talking about rigidly and legalistically. Here's what I want to say. The truth Taught from the pulpit of your church.
The truce taught Called in your small groups every week. Should be taken home by the fathers and the mothers and should slush over in everyday home life so that you're talking about the biblical truth your pastors told you that, or taught you that week. And you know what they'll do? That'll make your kids understand: man, our parents honor our pastors. They listen.
And when we get home, we talk about those things. And not just Sunday. He didn't say a particular day of the week. He just says, when you walk, by the way, when you lie down, when you rise up. Just as you're going about your daily life.
So we see That there needs to be the church as the center of your home life, the truths taught, then as you live out Monday through Saturday, there's just a rumination and a sloshing over of those truths in the home. I'm not against highly structured family altars, I've just never seen them do very well. I hope you prove me wrong. I hope you do them, and they're wonderful. Forty years.
40 years of observation. And what I've seen is the families that are not. Formal about it, they're not real structured about it, but it's just real, it just sloshes over. They seem to have the godliest kids. But I have seen a lot of families.
Now, to be honest, they are also home school Nazis. Another stuff. And they have this streak, but at this time we sit down and we have the word, we have family worship. Then at this time it's over. You know what the kids learn to do?
Well, let's get this over with. It's over with it. And by get out of here, I'm done with this. But when it just comes out of the life of the home sloshing over. from what the parents learned in the church.
Just seems to work better.
Now there's no guarantee here, okay? I had Your discipline, as good as it is, don't misunderstand me. My grandkids are homeschooled. We love it. But we don't worship it.
Not an idol. Your strictness about homeschooling and teaching and family altars, your strictness doesn't convert your child. The gospel does. The gospel does. Brother Matt, my senior associate pastor, we've talked about it all the time.
Said, man, when we look at our kids through these years, Matt's been here. Bright this whole lie. It just seems like the kids that do better are families that just didn't make a real straight big deal, but they really love Jesus. You sing? I believe in church integrated families.
Your family centers itself in the church, and you take the church's truth home with you, and it goes from that. By the way, Dads are not pastors of their home. Your pastor is the pastor of your home. He's the pastor of you. He's the pastor of mama.
He's the pastor of the kids.
Now I understand that's a figure of speech. The father is the head of the household. I get that. But there's some guys out there that what they mean is, I'm as much a pastor as the guy the church called to be the pastor. Wrong?
You need to go home and you need to quote your pastor. You need to make sure your family knows God's put him in a position to lead us and disciple us and teach us. And we don't worship him, but he's God's tool. And we're going to take what our pastor teaches and we're going to talk about it in the home. My main point here is: there's no mature body left, there's no mature local church.
If it's not real in the homes. Amen. Home luck discipleship.
Now, this is not one of the spokes in the wheel. The spokes in my wheel connect to the hub. Gosh, can you put that up real quick one more time? Course, you know the hub drives everything. Everything depends on the hub.
You might say, man, we started with a tree, now we're on a wheel, where else are we going? Yeah. Who knows? The hub of the wheel is preaching the word. That drives everything.
One of the spokes, the right spoke, every member of ministry through small groups. The left spoke personalized strategic world missions. We got local church-centered missions there, same concept. And then the other spoke is home life discipleship. Here's what I would strongly charge you.
Now, I'm talking with a 40-year record here. Until you get those right, don't do anything else. I mean, week in and week out as you preach, you keep telling God, hey, that's why we're going to do personalized strategic world missions. Hadn't really got there yet, but I want y'all to know we're going to do a personalized strategic world missions. And then next week, you're preaching text.
Now, by the way, this text alludes to this. That's why we teach every member of ministry through small groups. I know you don't get all that yet, and we're going to be working on that. It's going to take years, actually, but we're going to have effective body-life ministry through small groups. That's what I've done in this pulpit.
I've poured it out, poured it out, poured it out. And my people couldn't quote the words. Because we don't worry about quoting the Words, but they live the reality.
Somebody asked me about: are all your people five-point Calvinists? I thought they couldn't describe to you the five-points of Calvinism. But if you start studying the Bible with them, they believe them basically. They get it. They get the truth.
All right, now number four here. Back to the tree. We're on the limbs of the tree, and the fourth aspect, or I might say the fourth primary limb in this tree of a healthy biblical church. is a sound membership process. A SAM membership process.
Now, just as I told you earlier, our small groups take ownership of personally being involved with missionaries, so also the small groups take the leadership in the membership process. Here's my thing, guys: if you get small groups biblically right, you can get everything right. Are you hearing me?
Now it's going to take some time. Make it simple on yourself. Preach the word and the power of the Spirit the best you know how. Develop small groups, may take a long time. Develop personalized strategic world missions, and don't do anything else till those are right.
When you get those right, then do something else. I'm on 41 years and I'm still working on those. Amen. But it really makes church easy in a way, does it not? Oh, here's the new thing.
You've got to have this women's thing. I say, our women's thing are our women's small groups. Oh, we got to have this men's. Our men's ministries are men's small groups. We do other things, but it's out of the small group.
You get that right, everything else is pretty much downhill. I know some of you, your church is quite small. You can't have 70 small groups, but you can start preaching. And if I. If I could just Really twist your arm.
Preach the word in the power of the spirit. Identify two, four, five, seven men that you think might be elder material. You're not sure yet. And you meet with them one morning a week, just study the word together and keep selling them the vision. And Brother John Owen, when you start to organize your small groups, those are your small group leaders.
And so you've been with them. You pour your heart into a few key men. You organize and develop small groups. You begin to develop personalized or missions. You preach the word in the power of the Spirit.
And I'm telling you, if your heart's right and the Spirit's empowering you, You build a tree church.
Sound membership process. It grows out of. That's number four of the trunk on the tree of structures. It grows out of small groups. The key that unlocks the door to having a true regenerate membership.
is a biblical understanding of conversion. I got a call, and I've got a number of calls like this from a pastor years ago. It really shocked me. It shocked me. And I answered the phone and I talked to this pastor, and we were just bonding.
He believed like I believe. That's back when that didn't happen a whole lot, to be honest. And he said, You're really trying to build a regenerate membership. Uh-huh. But Honestly.
But John, I explained in the majority of Baptist churches, it's understood a huge chunk of our membership is lost. But here's what they say. But at least that'll help us keep a tab on them. Maybe they'll come and maybe they'll get saved. No, you're supposed to discipline those people.
You can't add to God's church what God had added to God's church. Brothers, if you're struggling with should I have a regenerate membership, you're in kindergarten. I'm not saying, have you got it done yet? That's hard. But in your heart, have you brother, that you must have how are you going to live out biblical ministry that requires the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit and lots of time and blood, sweat and tears with unregenerate people?
You can't get goats to be sheep. It's abhorrent. That was one of the most important journeys God put me on. We were exercising church discipline here, and we were having discipline about everybody who joined. And I thought, Lord, what is wrong?
We baptized 280 people last year. It's almost like God said, well, that to start with is wrong. You didn't know if those people were saved, and I didn't. This is a long, long time ago. I thought we're disciplining all these people.
And God said, Well. Not literally, not audibly. Louder than that. He said, you don't understand conversion.
Well, I actually I did. I was troubled already. The people were just going through the motions. And I began to teach. I began, and I probably, there was a two-year time where I insatiably read.
Delamore on Whitfield, Spurgeon on soul winning, just all the old authors, Puritan fathers, our Baptist theologians. And I realize what we're calling conversion is not what they called conversion. What we're calling soul winning is not what they called soul winning. What we're calling evidences of qualification of the new birth and therefore allowed into church membership. They wouldn't define it that way.
And I started reteaching our people and redefining it, and we slowed things down on the membership process. And then, for at least a two-year period, I wouldn't let my staff counsel with anyone who wanted to come for baptism. You know why? I needed to learn. Again, what conversion looked like.
I needed to learn again. And so We changed our mindset to say what, biblically speaking, does conversion look like? Let me spend a um A little time on Romans 10, 14 through 17. Familiar passages of scripture. How then will they call on him who they've not believed?
How will they believe in him who have they not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they believe preach, rather, unless they are sent? Just as written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of. The good news of good things.
Verse 16.
However, they did not all heed the good news. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our report? Verse 17, I'll just kind of anchor down here, Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ.
Now, preaching here, when he talks about preaching, is an active tense. It means continual preaching. Verse 17, preaching of what? The word about Christ, the word that proclaims and reveals Christ. That's the scriptures in general.
But also hearing. Faith comes by hearing. That's a continual action. Brothers, the Bible doesn't teach that the majority of the time you hear one simple three-minute gospel presentation, and boom, you get saved. Typically.
It's hearing, hearing, preaching, hearing, preaching, hearing, preaching, hearing. Before you can identify evidences of the true new birth.
Now, here's what I have guys. Who opposed me on this? And I'll just ask this simple question. Do you faithfully practice church discipline in your church?
Well, no, no, you know, we hadn't got that done. Do that for about five years and call me back on the doctrine of conversion. I mean, I'm not talking about being an FBI agency and finding out what church members might secretly be struggling with sin. We all are secretly struggling with sin. I'm talking about guys with brazen, open, rebellious, sinful lifestyles.
They'll have so many of those to deal with, they'll come back and say. These people can't be saved. That's what they'll do. And then they'll realize, like Jeff Noblet had to realize, I need to get the doctrine of conversion downright.
So it's preaching the word continually, hearing the word continually, and somewhere in that. Time God begins to birth people in the kingdom of God. Where there's sound preaching and sound hearing, that means the Spirit's enabling it. God will manifest his elect by manifesting repentance and faith in them. Do you believe that?
No, no, no, do you believe that? That God will use his word to convert his elect. You see, the problem with most churches, they don't believe in the Holy Spirit. They think it's their cleverness that draws people. instead of God's Spirit through the preached word.
I'm going to tell you: if you get them any other way than that, you've got a problem on your hands. But if they come through the Spirit of God convicting them to repentance and faith, then you've got great moldable clay you can work with. It's biblically molded into a healthy church.
Now we have a membership class. I I put one together years ago. Brother Matt did a wonderful job of redoing it a while back, and you can have it, and he can help you with anything you don't understand about it. And that's important, but but To be honest, I think the membership class at best might be, let's say, 25% of the process. But sitting under the preaching of the word is probably 75 to 80% of the process of us identifying: is this person really supposed to be one of us?
I mean, well, the man, after they've sit on the preaching the word for six months and hung out with our people, they're either moving away from us or coming to us. You hear what I'm saying?
Now, that's only true if you've got a decently healthy church. The average evangelical or Baptist church has as many unregenerate people as regenerate people.
So pagans can feel comfortable. But once, Brother John, oh, God gets us, I'm not talking about perfect, none of us are, but to a good level of maturity, then people walk in, and if they're a sheep, they'll like it because most of your folks are sheep. But if they're a goat. They'll put it on for a while, but they'll kind of remove themselves from the process.
So we believe a guy ought to come for months. Before he even goes into the membership class, because sitting under the word is better. to assimilate and identify If he's truly one God's adding versus our class. Um I want to say just a little bit about the word call in our text. It's used twice.
How were they call upon them? In whom they've not believed. Um Well, and then there's The phrase in this context. I'm not trying to look it up. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
I spent a lot of time on there. It's an air-subject-subjective middle, which almost means nothing to me, but that's what it is. But I consulted a lot of scholars, and they said, though, it's an Aristotense, it is a continuum. It's kind of like looking at a parade from a helicopter. It's a long, continuous thing, though you can only look at one point at a time.
So, this calling on the Lord has a continuum element to it.
So the idea is: conversion is that you become one who calls on the name of the Lord. It's not a one-time hoop hoop jump. It's a changed heart and a changed perspective about your sin, depravity, offensiveness. Before God, and your new growing joy and peace that Christ saves. I'm continually now looking to him.
And as I learned what the Bible teaches about prophets, priests, and kings, I begin to learn and treasure and joy in looking to him, calling on him as my only true prophet, that he only has wisdom to give me from his word. I'm just starting to love my prophet's word. He, Jesus, is my prophet. And then, as I learn what the Bible says about the priest, he mediates and connects me to God. I'm learning to be one who calls on him as the only one who can mediate and keep me connected to the Father.
He did it at one time, certainly, but it continues on. And also, as I learn that he's king, I gladly and joyously have at least the germ in me to want to bow to this king and honor this king. I'm one now who calls on him as my prophet, priest and king.
Now new converts are not going to understand that. But as they learn the scriptures instead of preaching, as the concepts come out, their heart identifies with it. And you're looking for that evidence. They are one who now is looking to the Lord.
Now, certainly, conversion, there is a one-time calling, if you will, where you begin the moment of belief. Justification is immediate and secured. But The conversion process is not some Superstitious Ritual or some mantra you repeat. That's decisionism or easy believism.
So, when converted, you do not just place your faith in Christ. You became a faither in Christ. When you're saved, you didn't just repent of sin, you became a repenteur of sin. Conversion is not a mathematical formula where if you plug in the right numbers, poof. you get the right result.
Justification is secured immediately. But the evidence of true conversion is not your justification, it's that beginning of sanctification. as one who calls on the name of the Lord. We have to remind ourselves if you give people any Ironclad steps. The flesh can easily counterfeit and mimic that.
But if over time, under the word, mixing it up with your true Christians. They're drawn, you see a humility, there's witness of a awareness of sin and a burden of their deep offensiveness to God, and there's a growing treasuring and hope and resting that Christ is my Savior. Then you're getting ready to start talking about baptism. You're not going to have a healthy church without a good biblical understanding of conversion. The key evidence, or one key evidence.
is humility and conviction about our sinful condition. I remember in the months after I was converted, I talked so much about what a wretch I was and what a vile, wicked sinner. I felt that. I felt it. My Sunday school teachers in my Baptist church blessed their hearts they meant well, rebuked me, said, Stop doing that.
You're not that bad. I said, I am that bad. You don't understand. I got a glimpse of this holy God. I know what I am.
Are you listening? Brothers, as you preach the text, you must. intentionally regularly preach a hearty Doctrine Our hearty message on the doctrine of sin and depravity and man's fallen offensiveness to a holy God, because then the regenerate will joy and treasure Christ. for saving such wretches like us. And when they've got that kind of gospel humility, you can mold them in anything.
They're willing to do what the Bible says.
So a key evidence is that Humility and that conviction about their sinful condition. They are now those who call on the Lord daily for grace and mercy. One of my prayers, and I say it to my people all the time, when I think about who I am and how Prone I am to faulting and shortcomings, I just have to call, I call out, I call on the name of the Lord. And I call out and say, Lord, if it's not Christ, and if you don't save me, I'm sunk.
Now, I don't say that like I don't think he saved me. I just call it. Do you do that? Am I the only oddball in here? How can you know your sin and not continue to call on Christ?
He says, Oh, help me, Lord Christ. And by the way, are you listening? He's mighty to save. Woo, he's mighty to save. He doesn't save us by the number of times you call on him.
You call him in the number of times because you believe that he saves you so well. Oh man. If I don't stay with my notes, we'll never get done. Yeah, we're just now getting off the runway, aren't we? We must urge all people everywhere to repent and believe, and encourage them that if they will repent and believe, God will save them.
Okay, not talking about a work salvation here. All people. Everybody. That's my form of Calvinism. Preach to everyone ever say, if you repent and believe, you'll be saved.
But We've got to slow down before receiving them as members. Those are two different things. As brother, we use his little book on children's conversion. He makes the statement: Can a young child be genuinely saved? He says, Yes.
But it's really hard to know. If they were generally saved.
So we need to pull back and wait. I don't have time to go here. Let me go. Another key evidence, I talk about conviction of sin, but the other key evidence is this agape love. That comes in.
The Holy Spirit brings this agape.
Now, I'm not a Greek scholar, but I think you would find that agape is almost. Only used for that unique special love only the Holy Spirit puts in Christians. That's why it's not used among the Greeks. It was coined by the apostles to mark out the unique special love God put in us. And this unique special love has two main objects that are really one, and that is it's Christ and his church.
When God saves you, there will be a growing love.
Now, listen, for the Lord Jesus Christ and for Christ truth. True church. Not church members, not congregations, a lot of false believers in those, unfortunately. But when you get around real believers, you just love them. That's what makes the church, and I like Brother John O.
said last night: I'm pastoring the sweetest, most united, most peaceful. Gracious people, because we finally got to where most of us are really converted. And God's put a supernatural love in our hearts for one another that you just can't even verbalize. And you know why some of you look at me like a calf at a new gate right now? Because you've never seen that.
You've seen little glimpses of it, but you've never seen a church. With a strong majority. are truly regenerate. You took a church. Brother Sonny?
Not everybody. But that's why a lot of em leave us. Is the love's not there for us?
Some God moves, we don't understand that, but that's why a lot leave us. And that's God to build in his church. That's not easy. But that's what the Lord does.
So, the new love for God and a new love for his church. Jesus said in John 8:42. If God were your Father, you'd love me. Is that not simple? You can span that out.
If God were your father, you'll love. His church too. How can you love Jesus? And he went to the cross and bore the wrath of holy God. bore the separation of God that he'd never known.
Bore the gruesome, offensive burden of our sins, took it all on him, tasted death. For the church. See, if your theology is not right, you're not getting it right now. He didn't die sloppy. He died for specific ones.
He fulfilled perfectly his goal for that elect church. How could you love him and not love the ones he gave so much in love for? You see, it's going to be there. I'm not saying it's matured. But like I tell you, I learned this from some Puritan writer.
At least the germ of that love will be there.
Okay, so be careful judging people. We're all in a journey here.
So being a true, biblically, spiritually healthy church. is very important, obviously. If one is a true convert, They're going to be drawn to sound preaching. and true local church fellowship. In contrast to being drawn to what John MacArthur calls the non-churches.
That are so worldly and mildly biblical, you can't really call them a church anymore.
So, when you worry about, oh my goodness, we might all do something, because they're going to be drawn by this game this church is playing, these shenanigans, and boy, down the street, they got the biggest show on earth on Sunday. And you're worried, oh my goodness, how are we going to keep look. The sheep will be drawn to the preaching of the word and the power of the spirit and the fellowship of true Christians. You see, your church is a goat repeller. Where is?
If it's true, Brother John, isn't that true? You'll have those goofballs join your church. They walked by Jono and said, I ain't going in there. Yeah. He'll call my sin out and preach the word to me.
I'm worse than you, brother. They all hate me. Let's go to the fruit, and I've got maybe 10 minutes, all right? Let's go to the fruit. That's the.
The leaves on the tree, the the final culmination. The pinnacle Priority Element Can I say it that way? The Pentacle final Proof That you're a true church, and that Christ is being glorified through your church. Is this fruit? John 13, 35.
All men will know that you're my disciples if you have love for one another. That's agape. That's that unique Holy Spirit-placed love. Holy Spirit. Preaching of the word matured love that only true saints of God share together.
That kind of love. It's a love the world knows nothing about. Jesus prayed in John 17 that we would have unity that would prove to the world we're his disciples.
So he says, when you love with that unique, special love only Christians have, And when you have the unity that only unique truly Christians can have because they have that love, the world will look on that and they'll know you're my disciples. Because the world can't do that. The world says, look at the strife and divisions and hatred and disunity. And you got people from all walks of life and all backgrounds, yet they love each other. How does that happen?
Your God is worthy of all honor and dignity. Because nobody can do that. We've never seen that before. This is a powerful statement. This love, this unique special.
Now, see, when I was a young Christian, young pastor, I thought this love meant I take the love I knew as a lost man, this worldly concept of love, and just work at it real hard in the church. Oh no, this is a new love. Its spirit wrought, its Bible defined. and its spirit and power to be lived out. We're to, Ephesians 4:15 and 16, speaking the truth in love, we're to grow up in all aspects unto him.
And I would say The highest example of the true love is confrontation of the truth one another. When we're willing to confront one another in love, I rather confront one another in truth wrapped in love. He says in Ephesians 4:16, from whom the whole body being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies according to the proper working of each individual part. Causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. In verse 15, grow up in all aspects.
In verse 16, but do it in love. Our continued growth, our Christian maturity, requires the brethren confronting one another with the truth. That's love the world can't understand. But the tenor and tone of our confrontation must be love. And the motivation for the confrontation must be love.
We need truth encouragement, truth exhortation, truth correction in our body life, all driven by and all wrapped in this new agape love the Spirit's put in us for one another. This love, this confrontation of truth one to another, is the key to show to others. That we're the real deal. Real quick, and man, I'm leaving some stuff out. Three key aspects of confrontational love.
That's done. In such a way that the world marvels over it and causes the world to praise our God for the unique and wonderful thing that this church is. Three confrontational aspects are these. Number one, a word about biblical counseling. Biblical counseling versus psychology or so-called Christian psychology.
Suffice it to say, the word counseling, the word neuthetic. That I guess Jay Adams kind of coined for us, neuthetic counseling it's called, is taken from the Greek word because it's usually translated many ways. It's translated counsel, admonish, correct, instruct. But the point is, the word neuthetic is so pregnant with meaning, there's not one English word that can define it.
So, you need actually a listing of things.
So, when we counsel biblically, you can't just say counsel, there's more to it than that.
So, when we have agape love giving us a special love for each other, and so we are regularly, lovingly confronting one another with the truth to grow up in all aspects of the Him, here's what it should look like: here's how I'm defining neuthetic or biblical counseling. Number one, there's got to be a true concern, a loving concern for the person. It's a loving concern based on truth.
Now, here's the way the concern should outline itself. The highest part of your concern is for the glory of God. If a brother's in sin and you're counseling him, your biggest concern is they're not able to glorify God in this sin. I want God glorified. That's your major concern.
The second part of the concern is, the second most important thing is I rather it knows the good of the church. The church is more important than you. Are you with me? And so, if there's undealt with sin or some issue in a brother's life, maybe it's not sin, he just needs help and you're counseling from the word. Because if he's not all he or she ought to be, the body's going to suffer.
So the good of the church is on the line when a member is suffering. Remember if one member suffers, they all suffer?
So, confronting them with the truth. I don't mean confronting in a harsh, even correction way all the time. Just bringing the truth to bear. Remember, it's got to be wrapped in love. That means tone, that means tenor, that means.
The way we select our words. But the third aspect of our concern is good for that individual Christian. We are concerned about them too, but only in this order: the glory of God, the good of the church, and their good.
Now, the second part of neuthetic or biblical counseling to me would be correction. You're basically saying, okay, here we are. Here's the way you're thinking, here's the way you're looking at this, or here's the way you're behaving, but here's what the Bible says.
So, you've got to repent of the way you're thinking, or the way you're looking at this, or the way you're behaving, and start replacing that with what the Bible says. That's biblical counseling. All right. Correction from the word of God. Here's where you are, but here's what the word says: here's how you need to change.
Thirdly, is accountability. Accountability. Paul said, 2 Thessalonians 3:14, if anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of that person and do not associate with him. That's an element of accountability. Actually, that's the last step of discipline too, but principle of accountability is there.
So that he will be put to shame. Lot to say there. We don't have time to say it. Verse 15. Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him.
That's neuthetic. That's the root word neuthetic. They're admonished. But admonish him as a brother. What's it mean?
Have a kindness. Look. Here's what we say. If your church is maturing and brothers are learning to confront and correct each other by the word. We do it with great compassion and patience if they show the slightest step of being a repenter.
Not uh not arriving. But they're willing to be a fighter here. They're willing to strive toward it. You know, we're going to put our arms around them. We're going to struggle with them.
Amen? All right. The fourth step in Euthenic Counseling. Let's see, we've got. Genuine love and concern.
We've got correction. We're going to hold them accountable for what the word told them to change. And then if. After great patience and long-suffering and care, they're not willing to even try, then there's church discipline. Listen to me: there is no Bible Christian counseling without church discipline.
It aggravates me to see the academics chop these up into separate disciplines. You cannot. Separate biblical counseling from church discipline. Because if they're clearly, now listen to me, unwilling to even try. I'm not saying they're struggling.
Hey, they're struggling, put your arms around them, struggle with them, help them. But if they brother Jonathan, if they walk out the door, bow their neck, I'm going to live this way, I don't care. You've been counseling, now it comes to discipline. There to be two are to go? Three or to go, sell it to the church, they won't repent, remove them.
You say counseling has no power to it if it's not backed up by discipline. Are you with me, church? All right, a word about conflict resolution. I don't have time for a word about conflict resolution. But just real quick, 2 Timothy, and I'm just picking out one little thing of 100.
In 2 Timothy 3:3, we have the listing of these fruits of the flesh, if you want to call it that. They are the antithesis of the fruits of the Spirit. And there's one here that jumps out to me so strong, and that's the fruit of irreconcilable. Irreconcilable. That's one of the fruits of the old man, the lost man, the flesh.
The word irreconcilable literally means truce breaker or covenant breaker. One scholar says it literally means without libation. And the point was: in the old world, when you made an agreement to come together. And be reconciled? You poured out a libation to seal the covenant of unity.
So, this is a brother that says, I will not have a covenant. I will not pour out the liability. I will not be reconciled.
Well, that's conflict. When you say that's conflict, we're talking about conflict resolution.
So he's refusing to be reconciled.
Well, in the context of 2 Timothy 3, we see two other things I want to bring out. The Bible lists, along with these other vices or fruits of the flesh, the phrase, a lover of self. He's proving by his unwillingness to reconcile with his brother or sister in Christ that he just really loves himself. Then, after he says irreconcilable, another truth comes out, 2 Timothy 3:5, holding to a form of godliness. It's the idea if he has the the the shell, but not the substance of true Christianity.
That's not always true, but that's a general truth of those who adamantly, well. How put this way. It's simply impossible. It's simply impossible for brothers in a local church. who were indwelled and filled by the Holy Spirit.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Impossible. And we've dealt with a little bit of this in the Anchored in Truth family. Here's what I'm going to say. If there's a division in your church, You call on us to help you mediate it.
And good godly men, or maybe in a church, your elders come to mediate the problem. And they say, well, you've got these three sins and you've got these one sins. Y'all deal with those sins and y'all reconcile. And you bow your neck and say, I'll not be reconciled. And I can't believe you belong to Christ.
Well, if God lets you go very long in that. You're supposed to lay down your life for your brother. Why can't you get over your petty disagreement and just eat it? For the sake of God and the church. What did he say in 1 Corinthians?
Paul said, why are you brothers going to to the secular courts when you have a disagreement? He said, why don't you bring it to the saints and let them mediate it? They have the mind of Christ. They know better than the ungodly and regenerate know. Why would you go to an unregenerate judge and ask him to bring to work out a mediation between your two brothers who have the Spirit of God?
So let the church, the elders, intervene there and work out a resolution. We had a man in our church who was a businessman and He had an employee, and I don't know all the details, but the employee was really responsible for him losing a lot of money. And he did what the Bible says. He brought it to the elders, and we looked at the situation. We thought the boy was clearly guilty.
But he just kinda bowed up. But that business owner said, I'm not going to sue him. I'm not going to take him to church. I'm going to forgive the loss. And we're going to go on.
And that businessman's still a faithful, serving, tithing member of our church. You know why? Because he's not irreconcilable. It's impossible for true Christian brothers to go on. In an irreconcilable spirit.
Here's what I'm saying about how these link together.
So, whether it's biblical counseling or conflict resolution, what happens when a brother resists? The mediation to be reconciled within the local church, then disciplines to take place. They would be brought before the church ultimately and removed for refusing to reconcile.
So, you see, these always go together. These should never be separated into three separate things, it's all one thing. For the glory of God in the good of the church.
So if there has been proper mediation in the conflict. And those leading the mediation propose a biblical remediation. and one or both of the parties refused reconciliation, then that's an abomination. And there should be discipline. I'm going to mention these and we're done.
A word about church discipline. Six primary purposes of church discipline. It's to repair God's reputation. That's the most important one.
Well, you know, we discipline people to restore them back, not first. You discipline people because they're dishonoring God by their sin. First, to restore God's reputation, we saw this with David: your sins given occasion for the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. God cares about his reputation. You know, God's a fanatic about his own glory.
So if we are willingly, openly, habitually Dishonoring him, it's got to be corrected. That means in the outward way.
So much more to say there. Number two, to restore a sheep to the fold. We are going out with a heart to restore them, if at all possible. Matthew 18, 18 through 20. The Corinthian example in 1 Corinthians 5.
Number three, to rescue a sheep from ruin. The Bible says the wages of sin is death. If this brother goes on in sin, he's going to... destroy himself he may bring death to his family he may bring death to his occupation We're saving this brother from ruin when we confront him and try to bring him back. Number four, to remove a false sheep from the church.
1 John 2:19, they went out from us, but they were really not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have remained with us. If God has changed them and given them the same Holy Spirit we have, they'll want to be with us.
So, the steps of church discipline: when a person will not be reconciled and returned to the church, we have no conclusion other than they're not gods. They went out from us. Because it was that they really were never of us. But the text says. Number five, it renews sanctification among the faithful sheep.
Hmm. In two places in the New Testament, the Bible talks about great fear. came upon the congregation after discipline was administered. Acts 5.11, 1 Timothy 5.20. And I've had people say, man, I don't know about that down there.
They'll bring me before the church. I'm afraid that'll happen. That's good. You won't be afraid. That that that concerned Um Yeah.
John MacArthur said one time, if you build a church where you deal with each other's sins, then you'll have church members joining your church who want their sins dealt with. That's pretty good, isn't it? You see, you'll draw the right people.
Now look. This is odd. Whenever there's church discipline, it's got to be carried out with absolute utmost confidentiality. It's never talked about. You don't spread it around.
And if you're confronting someone with sin and you start talking about it, we'll discipline you before the person in sin. Because you're damaging the body more by your gossiping about it than his sins damaging the body.
So, you make a tenacious commitment that it's got to be utmost. Private. Unless it becomes an open scandal and everybody in the church and the world knows it, then it's got to be dealt with openly, obviously. Or if he doesn't repent, finally it becomes an open scene brought before the church. Number six to repel the wolf at the door.
To repel the wolf at the door. When you are known in your community as loving one another with a genuine, deep love, loving each other so much. That you'd correct each other with the word. The people who don't want that, the wolves, are not going to want in your church. In Acts chapter 5, after Ananias and Sapphira were dealt with.
After the discipline case of Ananias and Sapphira, in Acts 5:13, the Bible says, But none of the rest dared to associate with them.
However, the people held them in high esteem. Who's none of the rest that went away? They wouldn't associate with them. It was folks who were just kind of ganging out with the gathering of the church, some of the meetings of the church, but they weren't saved yet. They were repelled away.
And God does that sometimes. You know, for over 20 years now, Grace Life Church of the Shows has experienced a sweet unity and a sweet peace. That is really indescribable. You have to experience it to get it. But that was after the first twenty years.
of cycles of turmoil and division and strife. An ugliness. But nothing has been more important. To build the love and the unity of our body, then the faithful practice, though often imperfect, but the faithful practice of church discipline. Church discipline is a filter on the front door.
Folks won't come in who really aren't supposed to be there once you're known as a church that functions in this. It's a sifter on the back door of the church. You know, a sifter holds the good in and lets the stuff go through that you don't need.
So, if you start pasting church discipline, you'll lose the right people and you'll hold the right people. But it's a light on the main floor. In other words, the light, what does light do? It purifies, it cleanses. It builds up and aids the sanctification of the church as a whole.
Now I know you're tired. I've gone too long, but get this last thing. The pinnacle fruit of a local church. And the pinnacle expression of love in a local church is when they exercise this loving confrontation. Loving confrontation with the truth.
And all the parties and love. are humble and thankful for it and keep growing together. And then you come full circle. To the first statement on our biblical theology, a priority of the glory of God. And when your church is doing that.
God gets the most glory through your church.
Now we never get done. We're always learning and growing repenting, but let's be in the race together. to build true churches. That live out Christianity in such a way that God gets. The glory.
Yeah.
