The Skeleton A

We live in a world where everything's for you.

I mean, do your thing, get it your way, all coming to you, everything coming to you. And even our so-called Christian world spawns that same kind of feeling. And so you look at the church and if it's got something to offer, you show up. You don't understand the loyalty of supporting the pastor when he's up there or the man of God who's speaking. And that's the kind of attitude that breeds complacency in a church and that's the kind of thing that can kill a great ministry. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. It's a familiar scenario, a myth actually. If you throw a frog into boiling water, it will feel the heat and jump out. But if you put the same frog in cool water and slowly raise the heat, it will cook without ever realizing its fate.

The moral of the story, life can heat up around you gradually in subtle ways and cause serious problems. That's certainly true in the life of a church. With that in mind, today, John MacArthur is going to begin a series on the church, what it is, what your role in it is, and what sort of dangers can sneak up on it. The title of his study, The Anatomy of a Church. Now, John, as a way of setting the table for this three-week emphasis on the church, let me ask, what in your mind are some of the unique challenges churches face in today's culture? I'm so glad you phrased the question that way. What are some of the unique challenges churches face in today's culture? Let me tell you the first one. They face the challenge of understanding what a church is.

How about that? It's that foundational. What is a church? There are all kinds of things being called a church that only slightly resemble what a real church is. I can't think of a more important study than this, and how wonderful to be able to spend three weeks looking at the church, and we're going to launch this with a series on the anatomy of the church. And it draws from a variety of New Testament passages explaining how God has designed the church to function. We're going to look at the anatomy of the church kind of like a body with internal systems and muscles and flesh and the skeleton, and then even go back to Christ as the head of the church. And we're going to see how the body of Christ is constructed and how God has designed it to function for his glory, the advance of his kingdom, and his testimony in the world. You're going to get a good course of ecclesiology. That's the classic word for study of the church in theology. We're going to study the church in detail over these weeks.

Don't miss one day. Thanks, John. And so, friend, why do you need to be part of a local church, and what are your responsibilities in your church? Consider those questions now as John begins his look at the anatomy of a church. When I go away and minister in other places, preach in other places, talk to other folks, spend time in prayer and the Word and reading some books and things, I usually am able to back away from the pressure and think clearly. When I'm here, it's difficult to have the time to do that, and as a result of that, the Lord seems to impress upon my heart certain things that are needful for me to understand, for me to emphasize on my own heart and life, and for me to share with you. And I'm concerned about our church. I want you to know that this church is my life.

It is the very heart and soul of my life. I don't feel the ministry is plateaued here. I don't feel that we've done it.

Now we're just going to try to hang on to it. I feel we've only just begun. I believe that the future is yet before us. It is exciting, filled with joy and anticipation and tremendous potential and possibility. But I also think we are at a point in our church life where we're at a very, very crisis interval, and there can be a great future for us, or there cannot, dependent on what we do at the moment of opportunity which we have in our hands right now.

I was playing golf for the first time in my summer the other day, and I waited a long time to get the time to do that, even while I'm vacationing. I usually find some places to preach while I'm on vacation, so it takes some of the time, but I was playing golf with a pastor, and he wanted to know about building a church and had it in his heart to build a church, and really was hungry to build a church. Been to our shepherd's conference, and in fact been here twice, and I had preached in his church back east, and he said, boy, I want to see God do that.

I want to see a church build and so forth. And so he was asking me about the ministry, and then he said, you know, a church like yours, how is it? How is it in a church that's as large as yours and with so many things happening, so many ministries and so forth?

Is it difficult, or is it the implication of his questioning was now that it's there, do you sort of rest? And I said, let me tell you something. I said, being a part of the building of a church is easy. I mean, that's like being in a sailboat.

If somebody else is blowing it along, you're just sitting in it. And I can honestly tell you that the growth of Grace Church, the great years of tremendous growth when we started out with four or five hundred people and just took off and grew and grew and grew and all these wonderful things were happening, that was easy. I mean, I didn't even know what was going on, to be honest with you. I came here every Sunday just to see what was happening. In fact, it was so much God's doing. It was so thrilling and so exciting. Sure, there were principles which we applied out of the Word of God and there were emphases and there was a drive for excellence and so forth, but those were euphoria times. I mean, those were just ecstatic times. I like to call those the years of discovery.

I came here, I didn't know much of anything. And so every week I'd study and we'd learn together. And then I'd tell them what the Bible said and they'd say, wow, so that's what the Bible means there.

So that's what it's saying to us. And we'd get excited about that and we'd take another big step in terms of our spiritual growth and understanding and the Lord would add to the church and it just kept going like that. Really, it was like some kind of a prolonged honeymoon. There was energy everywhere and there was excitement and enthusiasm and everybody was thrilled and we weren't even doing in those years the things we're doing now, but no one ever expected anything.

And so everything that came was just marvelous. My goal, honestly, when I came here was to keep the people that were already here from leaving. That was my basic goal.

If I can just go there and they won't leave, that'll be a moral victory. I never envisioned this. That's why I've said that the verse in the Bible that has come most true and most to my understanding in the years of ministry here is Ephesians 3.20, Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all you could ask or think. I've seen God do that. But in those early years, we were all excited. There was a tremendous ecstasy. There was a tremendous sacrifice. Everybody was a part of the building and the growing together. One of the staff fellows said to me a couple weeks ago, he said if you look at history in just about every area of church life and the life of God's people, it's kind of followed a very interesting pattern. The first generation fights to discover and establish the truth.

And that's what we did. I mean that first flow of years was discovery and laying down the truth and tremendous excitement. And then he said the second generation fights to maintain the truth and proclaim the truth.

And we've seen that where we've put it down in books and on tapes and we've started sending out men to preach it somewhere else and drawing people here and teaching them and sending them and working with pastors. And we've started to want to maintain the truth and proclaim the truth. And then he said the third generation could care less.

Since they weren't a part of the fight on either front, they really don't have anything at stake. They tend to take it for granted. Boy, that scares me. That really scares me. The toughest thing, I said to this pastor, the toughest thing to deal with in the ministry is indifference or apathy, complacency. See, you can't deal with it. There's no way to deal with it except to just go at it as best you can in preaching and so forth. That is difficult. If somebody comes to me, and you know, we have problems just like any church would have. In fact, we have more of them, of course, because we have more folks.

We didn't have any people, we wouldn't have any problems. You understand. But when somebody comes to me and says, oh John, we've got a real problem. We have got a real problem.

Now I've come back, I've been gone and come back several times this summer. Every time I come back, somebody says to me, we've got a problem. We've got a real problem.

Do you know what happened? So and so and so and so. And my response to that is terrific. Boy, that is exciting. We've got a problem. And we know what it is. And we can solve it with the truth of the word of God.

Terrific. I mean that's the fun of the ministry. Who could stand a church with no problems? I mean if you find a church, I tell young pastors all the time, if you find a church with no problems, don't go there.

You'll wreck it. I mean what a great thing to have problems. Because problems can be solved with the application of divine truth. So I get excited about that. But complacency and difference are apathy. That's heartbreaking. And to think that we could produce a generation of people who weren't ever a part of the struggle. And to just take it all for granted.

Just walk in and pile up and sort of sit on the outside perimeter and say, well it's all here folks. We just take it for granted. They'll always be here. Since they didn't know what the price was, they can't even taste the sweet taste of victory. They don't even know what it is to have gone through the whole battle. I mean you only have one shot at life. And I look at it as if God has given me the greatest, most wonderful, thrilling possible use of the one shot I've got. He's put me right here.

And I don't think it's over yet. But the thing that I fear is that folks who weren't a part of the process of building, and the process of fighting and discovering, and laying it all down and getting it all moving are going to come here and not be able to appreciate what it is that God has done. And I'm reminded of a passage, and I'd like you to open your Bible to Deuteronomy chapter 6. And I think there is a good illustration, a passage written for our example of this same kind of thing.

God, of course, in his wonderful grace chose his people Israel, mercifully brought them out of bondage, put them in the promised land, literally inundated them with profuse divine grace and blessing. And he says in verse 3 of Deuteronomy 6, Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the Lord God of thy fathers has promised thee in the land that flows with milk and honey. He says, You better keep the commandments.

You better be true to the faith. Hear, O Israel, verse 4, The Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, with all thy soul, with all thy might. First thing he says is, Look, if you're going to hold true to the faith, you've got to love God with all your heart, soul, all your might. Love God. Love God. Love God more than you love the world. Love God more than you love your new car, your house, your job, your money, your wardrobe, anybody, anything, any place. I've been reading this last week a classic on loving God by Bernard of Clairvaux. Very convicting.

Very convicting. He says, I have three great desires in my soul. To remember God, to contemplate God, to love God. It's a far cry from some of us. We were asked to list the three great desires of our soul.

I wonder if that's what they'd be. To remember God in all things. To contemplate God at all times.

To love God. And so he says, it starts on the inside. I put you in a land with milk and honey. I put you in the best place of blessing. And you're going to have to get it in the inside. A commitment to love God.

And then it moves to the outside in verse 6. These words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart and thou shalt teach them diligently to thy children. Not only in your heart but on your lips.

Teach to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise up. What's your conversation like? Do you talk about godliness? Do you talk about God? Do you talk about Christ? Talk about the Holy Spirit? Talk about the Bible? Talk about virtue? Talk about things that are good and honest and pure and lovely? I mean, do you go on a trip with somebody for the weekend and never talk about God, never talk about spiritual things, never talk about things for which you should be accountable in terms of obedience?

I mean, where is your conversation? See, if we're going to hold on to these things, we have to love God with all our heart. We also have to talk about it all the time so that it stimulates our minds. And we need to be exposed to that. I believe one reason God has raised up Christian radio today is because it's the only way that I know of to sort of withstand the onslaught of godlessness that comes to people through radio and television. I mean, there was a day when you weren't bombarded in society by all that garbage.

You just went home and talked to the folks that lived there. Now you've got the whole world talking at you and selling you godless philosophy from every possible angle. And you can hardly make it from Sunday to Sunday without falling out in terms of your own spiritual commitment.

And so the Lord's raised up resources and we ought to be buried in those kind of things until we cultivate a pure mind. We need to talk about it all the time. Is that what you talk about? Is that your conversation?

I mean, it's fine to talk about the Dodgers once in a while, but it's not the real issue. And all the other stuff, it doesn't matter. And then in verse 8, he says, Do something else. Put reminders up. Bind them for a sign on your hand and frontlets between your eyes and write them on the posts of your house and on your gates. In other words, he says, jog your memory with some symbols. I mean, I believe that Christian homes and offices and whatever, wherever we are, we need to have reminders to jolt our memories into the things that we ought to be thinking about. That's all those things were, were just ways to jog their mind and remember, cause them to remember the things they were supposed to be committed to. We need to have those things around, too, to remind us. Well, we forget. So it starts in the heart and it comes out in the lips, and it ought to be jogged in our minds by signs and symbols. You say, why all of this?

I'll tell you why. Because it'll be when the Lord thy God is to have brought thee into the land which he swore unto thy fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities which thou buildest not, and houses full of all good things which thou fills not, and wells digged which thou digs not, vineyards and olive trees which thou plantest not, when thou shalt have eaten and be full, then beware lest thou forget the Lord who brought thee. I mean, the tendency is when you haven't been a part of the process, you take for granted the results. And I guess I fear that some of us even who are a part of the process may forget that process, may forget the hand of God the way we saw God move, and many new folks just come in, you don't even know the price that was paid. You don't even understand the sacrifice of time and talent and effort and money that people made. And sometimes people tell me things, little picky things, and my response inside, I don't always say it, sometimes I do, is who cares? I don't care about that.

What I do care about is this. And they say, oh, oh, let's get on to the real stuff. Why do people want to fiddle around with the non-essentials?

Get on with the kingdom? Some people spend their whole life fooling around with trivia, picky little things. They don't understand. And I think that the child of apathy is criticism. And it's so easy, you know, to get into the place where you take everything for granted and you become kind of indifferent to it all, and then you start to criticize it. And all of the imperfections you can see, you know, like Thomas Hardy said he had a friend who could go into any beautiful meadow and immediately find the manure pile. Well, that's a perspective.

That's a perspective that you don't want to have. I know that God's given us wonderful people. We are the richest church in the world in terms of the wondrous people God's given us.

We bless His name for that. But I also know that there are many people who come only when it's convenient. For some people, it's sort of the lesser of alternatives when the budget's low on the weekend.

For other people, they come whenever they want. They don't see any real need for commitment. And Sunday night to them is just something they never get involved in. They think one sermon a week is enough. If you think that's true, you need 200 sermons, at least, this week, maybe. Sort of blast you out of your complacency. Somebody said, I think it was Kierkegaard, said people think that the preacher is an actor and they're supposed to come and be his critics.

What they don't know is they're the actors and he's the prompter off stage reminding them of their lost lines. So it's easy for us to get to the point where, you know, we live in a world where everything's for you. I mean, do your thing, get it your way, all coming to you, everything coming to you. And even our so-called Christian world spawns that same kind of feeling. And so you look at the church and if it's got something to offer, you show up. You don't understand the loyalty of supporting the pastor when he's up there or the man of God who's speaking. And I worry about that sometimes when others are speaking besides myself and people say, well, it's only so-and-so speaking. We'll go away.

We won't go. And you realize, of course, what that says to that person. They're not blind. They're not stupid. They understand what that says. That that says to them, it's only you, isn't it? And that's the kind of attitude that breeds complacency in a church and that's the kind of thing that can kill a great ministry.

You see, that's right where Ephesus was and they left their first love. And they needed to be jolted to remember what it used to be like. Have you forgotten how it was?

So I said to this pastor, building a church is easy. It's trying to deal with a big one that's tough. It's trying to get your arms around a thing, keep people from getting complacent and different, taking everything for granted and not understanding what they have.

The teaching here is so good and the music here is so great, so glorious. We just take it for granted. And people work so hard to take care of our kids and teach our little ones and do all the things they do. It's so easy for us to just take it for granted. And we don't even pray like we should. I mean, do you pray for me regularly? Some people say to me very often, people that I love will say to me, I pray for you all the time. I hang on that. I hold on to that.

Because you don't understand this is a warfare. I know, I'm a preaching machine. I get up here and out it comes.

And you grade it on one to ten maybe. And once in a while, one's good enough to keep you coming for another, looking for another good one. And that's all right. I understand that. But do you pray? And what about the others? Do you pray for them too? The others who teach and preach here? The others who lead and serve? I mean, some folks are quick to criticize and not so quick to pray. And what about those of you in leadership? Are you praying for the people you lead?

Or do we think it's all being done so well we don't need God anymore? See, you don't understand the battle. You don't understand the warfare.

You just see the result and it all looks so easy. You don't understand the tears and the toil. You don't understand how the we who are in leadership in the church have to come alongside each other sometimes just to hold each other out.

Because it gets very painful, very difficult. And I just want you to remember that we need you to be a part. We need you to be totally committed. We need you to pray. We need you to use your gifts.

Serve. I had this brought home to my heart, I think, rather strongly by a letter I received from a young pastor. And I want to share it with you. My great joy in the ministry is to see young men go into the ministry. I got a letter from one who's thinking about getting out and that really kind of broke my heart.

This is what he said. This letter comes to your attention for several reasons and though we have not met personally, I have read some of your books and heard you on the radio several times. Let me explain my great concern, one which I have not been able to correct. And one that is causing me to consider leaving the ministry. Perhaps your insights the Lord will use to give me some light.

First of all, my position. I firmly believe that the leadership of the church should be the very best. Not only in their personal spiritual lives, but also in setting the pace for people they lead.

Now I hasten to add that I am not talking about perfection or any type of superhumanness. Just a living, growing, personal relationship with our Lord. I firmly believe that if the leaders of the church do not present a lifestyle of commitment and dedication to their Lord and to the local body, that those following won't either.

The problem. Pastor MacArthur, two-thirds of our elected officers attend only one service per week. Again, I'm not talking about being or having to be present every time the doors are open, but I do believe that other than unforeseen situations, illnesses and vacations, that the leadership of the church should make a double effort to be present at the services if for no other reason than for the encouragement of the saints and the pastor. I find it extremely difficult to believe that proper leadership is or can be provided when the leaders do not spend enough time with their people to even know where their hurts and fears are. I go to board meetings and find that by far the majority of the time is spent on items that have no direct relationship to the needs and hurts of people. I believe that because of this our church has come to a stalemate, which is equal to going backwards instead of moving ahead. I have brought this to the attention of our board on several occasions, and to be honest, not even all of them are faithful in their attendance and expressed my concern with absolutely no results. Again, I'm not talking about men and women who just cannot make it, but about those who could but will not. I receive the normal replies. My schedule is awfully busy, I'm just too tired at the end of the day, or they don't even offer an excuse. But these very same people are not afraid to remind me often that they are the power of the church.

It often happens. Pastor, I've come to the place where I am, if this is carried on into next year, ready to resign the pastorate. How is it possible for a pastor to direct his flock, establish the needed programs, spiritual leadership, if he can't even get the backing to get started?

I'm open to your advice. I believe our church has great possibilities, but as long as we're lukewarm, the Lord will not bless us or use us. That letter could have been written by thousands of different pastors, because that's so common to take for granted the good things God's given us. I don't want you to do that. I don't want you to take it for granted. I don't want you to forget the Lord.

I want you to go on fearing His name. Look with me for a moment at 2 Peter chapter 1, and I'll tell you just where I am in the words of Peter. Verse 12. 2 Peter 1.12, Wherefore, Peter says, writing to his congregation in a sense, I will not be negligent. I can understand that. You're given an opportunity by God.

You don't want to blow it. It's a holy calling, a high calling, a great privilege for which you are accountable, responsible. He says, I don't want to be negligent in my calling, so I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance.

And I stand here to do the same today. I'm not going to say anything new. I'm going to say some things that are old that you need to remember. He says, I want to put you in remembrance of these things though you know and are established in the present truth.

I know you know them. You just need to be reminded. You just need something to jolt your memory. And I'm going to keep doing this as long as I am in this body. So that when I leave this body, this earthly tabernacle, verse 14 and verse 15 says, you'll remember even then, after I'm dead. There's a certain virtue in harping on the same basic things that cannot be forgotten.

And that's what I'd like to do, just share my heart along the line of those things. Many pastors come here to find out why our church grows and what we're doing. And they usually come wanting to pick up some programs that they can take back and apply in their own church. And they are desirous of knowing what God is doing. They come thinking they can pick up methods, tools, programs, ideas and take them back and stick them in their church.

Which would be like coming to get a body and just dragging the skin home. I mean, they're looking for how we flesh out our ministry. What they don't understand is all the stuff that's inside. And so when they come for the shepherd's conference, we try to teach them that. That there's an awful lot under the surface that you don't see that is foundational to make everything else make sense.

You don't see the ministry functioning, but what you have to understand is what's behind the scene that you can't see. And so I'd like to borrow an analogy, if I can, from the Apostle Paul. The analogy of a body. And I believe, we can call this the anatomy of a church. But I believe that the body can be seen in four features.

This is not clinical, this is just for the sake of our analogy. Bones or skeleton, internal systems, muscles and flesh. And a church has to understand itself in that way.

There has to be framework, skeleton, there has to be internal systems, which I call the flowing through of certain attitudes. And then there has to be muscle, which is the kinds of function that we do, and then it fleshes out in the form of our ministry. That's John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. The title of the series he kicked off today, The Anatomy of a Church. Now, you know, with so many churches today offering virtual services at the expense of in-person worship under the same roof, maybe you've wondered if being part of a local church that gathers together is really all that important anymore. To learn what the Bible says about fellowship and worship with a local body of believers, I encourage you to download John's current study today. You can download all eight messages from The Anatomy of a Church free of charge in MP3 and transcript format at our website. That's GTY.org, and it's a great way to soak in this material at your own pace and to review all of the Scripture references again. And while you're at GTY.org, take advantage of our thousands of free resources, including the Grace To You blog, and check out John's sermon archive, more than 3,600 sermons, all available to download for free. Daily devotionals are also available, as well as videos of John's television appearances, messages from numerous Bible conferences, and much more.

Our website again, GTY.org. And if you've been encouraged by one of John's sermons or books, we'd love to hear from you. You can email your note to letters at GTY.org, or you can drop a letter to Grace To You, Box 4000, Panorama City, California, 91412. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson, with a question for you. It's obvious that you can't live without a heart or lungs, but what exactly does your church need to survive? Consider that tomorrow when John is back with another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace To You.