A Biblical Church - Paul Washer
-
0:23 - 0:25It is a tremendous privilege
-
0:25 - 0:28for me and brother Leiter
-
0:28 - 0:29to be here with you,
-
0:29 - 0:31a tremendous privilege.
-
0:31 - 0:37And I have been given sort of
-
0:37 - 0:39an insurmountable or difficult task:
-
0:39 - 0:42take an hour and preach everything
-
0:42 - 0:46that ought to be preached
on a biblical church. -
0:46 - 0:49And I think it would take
much longer than an hour. -
0:49 - 0:54But we are going to look at
a few things (incomplete thought). -
0:54 - 0:58Oh, well, be careful with
that kind of statement. -
0:58 - 1:02You may regret it.
-
1:02 - 1:05But we are going to talk about church.
-
1:05 - 1:07And if you are here tonight,
-
1:07 - 1:09you are probably here because you have
-
1:09 - 1:12an uneasiness or restlessness
-
1:12 - 1:15about the way things are,
-
1:15 - 1:21about the spiritual
decline in your country, -
1:21 - 1:25in Europe as well as America,
-
1:25 - 1:28looking for something.
-
1:28 - 1:30Well, let me just share with you.
-
1:30 - 1:37There are a lot of people and a lot of movements that can give you something.
-
1:37 - 1:41There are all sorts of things going on in Christianity today.
-
1:41 - 1:49It looks like a circus offering certain aspects of Christianity,
-
1:49 - 1:54certain power, certain joy, certain life.
-
1:54 - 2:01So many things, so many gimmicks, so many promises,
-
2:01 - 2:10healing, prosperity, life as you want it, your best life now,
-
2:10 - 2:15absolutely everything is laid before you.
-
2:15 - 2:20What Jesus Christ lays before you is this:
-
2:20 - 2:26the promise of eternal life, and a cross.
-
2:27 - 2:33What Jesus Christ lays before you is what really matters.
-
2:33 - 2:39And that is a character conformed to his image.
-
2:39 - 2:44The writers of the New Testament, although they speak quite frequently
-
2:44 - 2:48about all the blessings that God can pour out on a man,
-
2:48 - 2:55and the full counsel of Scripture tells us that the blessings of God are many,
-
2:55 - 2:58but for those who have come to know Christ,
-
2:58 - 3:01I think they have settled it in their heart
-
3:01 - 3:10that every blessing other than conformity to Christ is a lesser blessing.
-
3:10 - 3:13I want to be like Jesus.
-
3:13 - 3:16I want to be conformed to his will,
-
3:16 - 3:21and not just in some extravagant religious way.
-
3:21 - 3:25I want to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ
-
3:25 - 3:28in my personal relationship with God the Father,
-
3:28 - 3:32and I want to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ
-
3:32 - 3:39in the relationships in my life, especially the most intimate.
-
3:39 - 3:43Now I bring this up because it is so very important to me.
-
3:43 - 3:48I was preaching several years ago in Austin, Texas.
-
3:48 - 3:52And after I finished my first sermon, this pulpit committee,
-
3:52 - 3:55it is a committee in the church that is looking for a new pastor,
-
3:55 - 4:00it came up to me, and it said, "Would you be our pastor?"
-
4:00 - 4:02I said, “What?”
-
4:02 - 4:05They said, “Would you consider being our pastor?”
-
4:05 - 4:09And I looked at them and I said, “Are you crazy?”
-
4:09 - 4:11And they said, “Why do you say that?”
-
4:11 - 4:16I said, “You don’t know if I love my wife or not.”
-
4:16 - 4:21The point that I was making is: You know nothing about me.
-
4:21 - 4:24The devil preaches well.
-
4:24 - 4:33But true Christianity is seen in the life, the hidden life of a man, of a woman,
-
4:33 - 4:37and the dying to self,
-
4:37 - 4:43and the giving one’s self away in the name of Christ to God the Father
-
4:43 - 4:50in the power of the Holy Spirit, and giving that life to others.
-
4:50 - 4:54We hear a lot of talk today about doing everything for the glory of God,
-
4:54 - 4:55and that is true.
-
4:55 - 4:57It is a true statement.
-
4:57 - 5:02But I am afraid we sometimes use it to forget the Second Command.
-
5:02 - 5:06The first is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.
-
5:06 - 5:14And the second is to love your neighbor as yourself in sacrificial, joyful service.
-
5:14 - 5:18So the Christianity that I am talking about tonight
-
5:18 - 5:25is not some gigantic religious show in a coliseum.
-
5:25 - 5:28It's not about you getting your best life now,
-
5:28 - 5:34the car you want, the house you want or perfect health.
-
5:34 - 5:38What it's about is this:
-
5:38 - 5:45It's knowing God the Father and knowing Jesus Christ whom he has sent,
-
5:45 - 5:49and being conformed to his image.
-
5:49 - 5:51What joy!
-
5:51 - 5:59To be able, just think about this, to be able to love as he loves.
-
6:00 - 6:04To be able to represent him.
-
6:05 - 6:08Just to know him. That is Christianity.
-
6:08 - 6:16Now, we are going to talk a bit about church.
-
6:16 - 6:24Most of us have this ecclesiastical, organizational idea of church.
-
6:24 - 6:29We think of buildings with steeples on top of them and crosses on top of the steeples.
-
6:29 - 6:32We think of beautiful lawns.
-
6:32 - 6:37We think of old men preaching very boring messages.
-
6:37 - 6:40We think of all sorts of things when we think about church.
-
6:40 - 6:44But we need to understand what church truly is.
-
6:44 - 6:47It's none of that.
-
6:47 - 6:55Church is not so much an organization, as it is an organism.
-
6:55 - 6:59It is a living entity.
-
6:59 - 7:06It is a creation of God through his Son and for his Son.
-
7:06 - 7:11It is relational.
-
7:11 - 7:16Now I want you to keep that word in the forefront of your mind.
-
7:16 - 7:18It is relational.
-
7:18 - 7:25Church, like your own personal life, is about a relationship with God
-
7:25 - 7:31and a relationship with brothers and sisters in Christ.
-
7:31 - 7:34You see, it is all about relationship.
-
7:34 - 7:36It is all about that.
-
7:36 - 7:39There is so much that is done, dressed in religious garb,
-
7:39 - 7:43but it really has so little meaning.
-
7:44 - 7:49God has called us into a relationship with himself.
-
7:49 - 7:52He has done that as we are individuals.
-
7:52 - 7:54He has done that collectively as a body,
-
7:54 - 7:57and God has called us to be in relationship with one another,
-
7:57 - 8:02to love one another as brothers and sisters in Christ.
-
8:02 - 8:06And so the first thing I want you to see is that when we talk about church,
-
8:06 - 8:14we are talking about an organism, something organic in nature.
-
8:14 - 8:16Now, there are two passages of Scripture,
-
8:16 - 8:19and we are not going to spend much time there at all
-
8:19 - 8:21because we are going to look at several things tonight.
-
8:21 - 8:25But just for a moment, I want you to go to Jeremiah
-
8:25 - 8:32and I want you to see the origin of the Church, its divine origin.
-
8:32 - 8:48Jeremiah chapter 31, just quickly.
-
8:48 - 8:51Now if you look in verse 31 of Jeremiah 31,
-
8:51 - 8:54He says, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD,
-
8:54 - 8:58when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,
-
8:58 - 9:00not like the covenant which I made with their fathers
-
9:00 - 9:05in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt,
-
9:05 - 9:06My covenant which they broke,
-
9:06 - 9:09although I was a husband to them, declares the LORD.”
-
9:09 - 9:14Now the first thing I want you to understand is something about the nation of Israel.
-
9:14 - 9:23Do you honestly believe that everyone who came out of Egypt, led by Moses, was a believer?
-
9:23 - 9:24No, not at all.
-
9:24 - 9:29As a matter of fact, the great majority of them were idolaters.
-
9:29 - 9:34They were worshiping goat gods, demon gods, all sorts of things
-
9:35 - 9:38even in the desert as they are being led around by God.
-
9:38 - 9:46We are looking at basically a physical nation that was called out of Egypt.
-
9:46 - 9:49They were of the blood of Abraham.
-
9:49 - 9:53But most of them did not have faith.
-
9:53 - 9:56That is why they died in the wilderness, all right?
-
9:56 - 10:04So they were basically a carnal nation doing carnal things
-
10:04 - 10:11who had to be subdued by laws and authorities and this and that.
-
10:11 - 10:17They had to be subdued, in a sense, by the whip in order to keep them in line.
-
10:17 - 10:18And why is that?
-
10:18 - 10:22Because their hearts had not be changed.
-
10:22 - 10:25Now I want you to think about something for a moment.
-
10:25 - 10:31Most churches today are that way.
-
10:31 - 10:39Filled with a group of people whose hearts have not been changed.
-
10:39 - 10:44And pastors spend a great deal of their time doing what?
-
10:44 - 10:54Trying to motivate, manipulate, push, shove, coerce,
-
10:54 - 10:58throwing all sorts of little parties and all sorts of little gimmicks
-
10:58 - 11:00and this and that, and so many other things
-
11:00 - 11:06just to try to keep a group of people together in Jesus’ name.
-
11:06 - 11:08Behold the power of the gospel!
-
11:08 - 11:14Not much gospel power manifested there, is it?
-
11:14 - 11:17Countless people identified in this country, in my country
-
11:17 - 11:20with some denomination or some church,
-
11:20 - 11:28but it has no power, no sway over their life whatsoever, nothing.
-
11:28 - 11:33The true Church is not that way.
-
11:34 - 11:38Your ideas of Church as a building;
-
11:38 - 11:46as an ecclesiastical, organizational structure of half hearted people attending,
-
11:46 - 11:51and having to be held together by manipulation and coercion and gimmicks,
-
11:51 - 11:53that is not the Church.
-
11:53 - 11:56Now he is going to tell us what the Church is like.
-
11:56 - 12:00Look what he says: He says in verse 33,
-
12:00 - 12:04“But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,
-
12:04 - 12:05declares the LORD,
-
12:05 - 12:11I will put My laws within them, and on their heart I will write it.”
-
12:11 - 12:19Now you must understand God is not speaking here poetically.
-
12:19 - 12:20Now why do I say that?
-
12:20 - 12:23Because sometimes we hear such beautiful things in Scripture
-
12:23 - 12:29and we say, “Oh, that is nice,” but we are not considering what he is saying.
-
12:29 - 12:34He is saying, in the Church through the coming of the Messiah,
-
12:34 - 12:37He is going to create a new people,
-
12:37 - 12:40and they are not going to be a group of people
-
12:40 - 12:45who merely have some tablets of stone that they look at and disobey.
-
12:45 - 12:50He is going to create a group of people and he is going to transform their heart
-
12:50 - 12:57and he is going to put his will, his laws, his desires in their heart.
-
12:57 - 12:58Do you see that?
-
12:58 - 12:59They are going to be changed.
-
12:59 - 13:02And I use the word 'desire.'
-
13:02 - 13:06I know it can be sort of dangerous, but there is a reason for it.
-
13:06 - 13:10When I say he puts his laws in your heart,
-
13:10 - 13:14you can still have this mechanical idea
-
13:14 - 13:17that, yes, those laws are in there and I must obey them.
-
13:17 - 13:22But when I say 'desires,' he is not just revealing his will to you,
-
13:22 - 13:28he is changing your heart so that his will is your will
-
13:28 - 13:31and you desire to do what he desires.
-
13:31 - 13:34That is why John writes in his epistle
-
13:34 - 13:38that the commandments of God to the people of God are not burdensome.
-
13:38 - 13:42They desire these things. Do you see that?
-
13:42 - 13:44That is what the Church is.
-
13:44 - 13:46He goes on and he says,
-
13:46 - 13:50“I will put My laws within them, and on their heart I will write it;
-
13:50 - 13:56and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”
-
13:56 - 14:04All throughout the Old Testament, there is this impassioned longing that we see
-
14:04 - 14:07in the words coming out of the mouth of God
-
14:07 - 14:11in which he is constantly saying, looking forward to the future,
-
14:11 - 14:16“One day, they will be My people. I will be their God.
-
14:16 - 14:21I will have a people on this earth, and I will be that people's God.”
-
14:21 - 14:26That time came with the coming of Christ.
-
14:26 - 14:31Through his death and resurrection; through the work of the Holy Spirit,
-
14:31 - 14:36God has created for himself a people.
-
14:36 - 14:40Now, they are not a people who have simply turned over a new leaf.
-
14:40 - 14:43They are not a people who have simply decided
-
14:43 - 14:46that they want to live a higher lifestyle.
-
14:46 - 14:52They are not a people who just, one day, decided we are going to change and be better.
-
14:52 - 14:57No. They are people upon whom God has acted in his own power.
-
14:57 - 15:01He has transformed them.
-
15:01 - 15:06Now, are you that people?
-
15:06 - 15:11Do you know, I still, as we all, I struggle with many failures,
-
15:11 - 15:19many weaknesses, many struggles in the Christian life.
-
15:20 - 15:27But there is no doubt, the witness of my own, the people around me,
-
15:27 - 15:31and the people who knew me 25 years ago,
-
15:31 - 15:37this guy is not even the same the person that I knew.
-
15:37 - 15:40I mean, I know my desires have changed.
-
15:40 - 15:48I mean, one day just going from, "let’s go party, let’s get in a fight if we can,
-
15:48 - 15:51let’s chase women, let’s get drunk, let’s do this,"
-
15:51 - 15:54to the very next day, "I don’t want to do all that anymore."
-
15:54 - 15:57What has happened to me?
-
15:57 - 15:59I want Christ.
-
15:59 - 16:00I want to know him.
-
16:00 - 16:03I want to please God and be pleasing to God.
-
16:03 - 16:07Do you know that as a reality in your own life?
-
16:07 - 16:14Is your religion something that you are just trying to do the right thing,
-
16:14 - 16:19or has Christ transformed you so that you want to know him,
-
16:19 - 16:23you want to do his will, you delight to do his will?
-
16:23 - 16:28I mean, what has happened to you?
-
16:29 - 16:37Brother Leiter says quite often that most people’s Christianity is basically this:
-
16:37 - 16:45They are trying to do all the good things they hate, in order to please God.
-
16:45 - 16:52That is not Christianity.
-
16:53 - 16:57Christianity is when, "I want to do this."
-
16:57 - 17:02And you are not sad because you look at the will of God, and think, I have to do that.
-
17:02 - 17:07You are sad when you look at the will of God and realize you have fallen short.
-
17:07 - 17:10The burden doesn't come from obedience,
-
17:10 - 17:13the burden comes when we see we have disobeyed.
-
17:13 - 17:14Why?
-
17:14 - 17:16We are transformed. We are new creatures.
-
17:16 - 17:18We are saints of God. We are children of God.
-
17:18 - 17:21We are sons of the living God. We are led of the Spirit.
-
17:21 - 17:23Do you see?
-
17:23 - 17:29When he says, “New creature,” when he says, “I will write it on their heart,”
-
17:29 - 17:36he is not speaking metaphorically to the point where it no longer has meaning.
-
17:36 - 17:41He is not speaking poetically so it's just some beautiful nonsense. No.
-
17:41 - 17:48When a person is saved, they become a new creature.
-
17:48 - 17:51That is what the Church is made up of.
-
17:51 - 17:54Now he says this:
-
17:54 - 17:58“They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying,
-
17:58 - 18:02‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me.”
-
18:02 - 18:06That is not saying that in the Church there won’t be teachers or pastors,
-
18:06 - 18:08evangelists and so on.
-
18:08 - 18:11But what he is saying is:
-
18:11 - 18:20The people of Israel, although they saw these magnificent manifestations of God,
-
18:20 - 18:22they didn’t understand them.
-
18:22 - 18:29I mean, they could see God part the water, and then go worship a goat idol.
-
18:29 - 18:33They could see fire coming down from heaven, and then make a golden calf.
-
18:33 - 18:36They didn’t understand.
-
18:36 - 18:42In witnessing to people—and I know many of you have had this same experience—
-
18:42 - 18:47you pour your heart out to someone about the grace of God,
-
18:47 - 18:54and they don’t comprehend at all.
-
18:54 - 18:58Someone says, “Sir, are you going to go to heaven when you die?”
-
18:58 - 19:00“Oh, yes, I am going to go to heaven.”
-
19:00 - 19:00“Why do you think so?”
-
19:00 - 19:04“Well, I am a good man. I am a good man.”
-
19:04 - 19:12And so you go through, for the next 20 minutes, every Scripture in the Bible
-
19:12 - 19:16that explains he is a wretched beast under the wrath of God.
-
19:16 - 19:20He says "Yes" to every one of the verses;
-
19:20 - 19:23and then when you say, “Sir, are you going to go to heaven?”
-
19:23 - 19:24“Yes.”
-
19:24 - 19:24“Why?”
-
19:24 - 19:27“I am a good man.”
-
19:27 - 19:30Now, that is where you would be. Do you understand that?
-
19:30 - 19:34Your darkness would be to that extent and even worse.
-
19:34 - 19:35But what's happened?
-
19:35 - 19:44This passage. He has taught you.
-
19:44 - 19:49“They shall be taught of God.”
-
19:49 - 19:57He himself illumined your mind and changed your heart.
-
19:57 - 20:01So many people walking around, especially these TV evangelists.
-
20:01 - 20:04I think we ought to put most of them on a boat and just ship them somewhere
-
20:04 - 20:08to an island where there is no people.
-
20:08 - 20:11But they are saying, “The supernatural nature of Christianity
-
20:11 - 20:14and the supernatural this and the supernatural that.”
-
20:14 - 20:17Supernatural?
-
20:17 - 20:20There is more of the supernatural power of God
-
20:20 - 20:24manifested in the regeneration of a single heart
-
20:24 - 20:27than in the creation of the universe itself.
-
20:27 - 20:35Supernatural; we are not marveling at what is truly supernatural.
-
20:35 - 20:38You say, “Well, brother Paul, do you believe God can heal people?”
-
20:38 - 20:43I have seen God heal people in the mountains where there were no doctors,
-
20:43 - 20:47not frequently, but according to his will, his plan, his purpose.
-
20:47 - 20:52But I want to tell you something, I did not get excited in comparison
-
20:52 - 21:00when I have seen the Holy Spirit literally take a spiritually dead man and make him alive.
-
21:00 - 21:02Do you see that?
-
21:02 - 21:04There is the supernatural nature of Christianity,
-
21:04 - 21:10but focus on what is truly supernatural and important.
-
21:10 - 21:17Now, he goes on and he says this,
-
21:17 - 21:21“For they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.”
-
21:21 - 21:25Now will they all know him to the extent that Jonathan Edwards
-
21:25 - 21:28or a Calvin or a Luther or somebody like that?
-
21:28 - 21:32No, I am not even in their league.
-
21:32 - 21:35So what does this mean?
-
21:35 - 21:37Well, let’s go on.
-
21:37 - 21:40It says, “For they will all know Me,
-
21:40 - 21:44from the least of them to the greatest of them, declares the LORD.
-
21:44 - 21:50For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
-
21:50 - 21:54They will enter into a relationship with him,
-
21:54 - 21:57knowing that he is the one true God,
-
21:57 - 22:04and they will have a keen awareness that by his hand he has cleansed them,
-
22:04 - 22:09freed them from their sin.
-
22:09 - 22:14There will not be the smack of self-righteousness there.
-
22:14 - 22:17They will not say, "God and I have worked this out."
-
22:17 - 22:23They will have a keen awareness that God has taken care of their iniquity,
-
22:23 - 22:26and he did it all by himself.
-
22:26 - 22:31Now, another thing. Let’s go on.
-
22:31 - 22:36Just jump over really quick to verse 38 of chapter 32.
-
22:36 - 22:39Again, “They shall be My people, and I will be their God.”
-
22:39 - 22:51And look what he says, “I will give them one heart and one way.”
-
22:53 - 23:00Have you ever seen these marches for Jesus, the unity marches that they have,
-
23:00 - 23:03in which all these different denominations come together,
-
23:03 - 23:07and they are trying to prove to the world that there is unity between them
-
23:07 - 23:11when, in fact, there is very little unity at all between them.
-
23:11 - 23:14And they are all marching together and singing "Kumbaya,"
-
23:14 - 23:17and we are proving to the world that we are one.
-
23:17 - 23:21That is not what Jesus meant, ok?
-
23:21 - 23:26That is not what Jesus meant.
-
23:29 - 23:34You bring two Christians together, two Christians,
-
23:34 - 23:39and although they may differ in some things,
-
23:39 - 23:47but you bring two Christians together and, my friend, you will find unity.
-
23:47 - 23:51You will find Spirit bearing witness with spirit.
-
23:51 - 23:52You will find joy.
-
23:52 - 24:00It is amazing; I can sit down, for example, in an airplane in Zambia,
-
24:00 - 24:05and sit down beside a person I have never met in my life,
-
24:05 - 24:10and after a while pull out my Bible to kind of, you know,
-
24:10 - 24:14hoping this guy say something to me like, “What’s that?”
-
24:14 - 24:16Sometimes I pull out my Greek New Testament
-
24:16 - 24:18so they will look at it and go, “What is that?”
-
24:18 - 24:22I can’t read it very well, but it really makes a great witnessing tool.
-
24:22 - 24:25No matter where I am in the Greek New Testament,
-
24:25 - 24:29I read John 3:16 when they ask me to read something to them.
-
24:29 - 24:35But I can sit down with someone I have never met,
-
24:35 - 24:41and we start talking and discover that we are both believers in Jesus Christ,
-
24:41 - 24:46and I mean it is a party for the rest of the flight.
-
24:46 - 24:50We are one.
-
24:50 - 24:53People say, "There is so much disunity in the Church."
-
24:53 - 24:56No, there is not.
-
24:56 - 24:59There is a lot of disunity with a bunch of carnal people
-
24:59 - 25:01who are goats trying to act like sheep.
-
25:01 - 25:03That is the problem.
-
25:03 - 25:07But when you bring believers together, there will be unity.
-
25:07 - 25:09Does it mean that there will never be disunity?
-
25:09 - 25:12No, it doesn’t mean, because there is sin in all of us.
-
25:12 - 25:14It doesn't mean there will never be disunity.
-
25:14 - 25:17It doesn't mean there will never be disagreements.
-
25:17 - 25:20But it means when you look at the full course of the relationship,
-
25:20 - 25:28there is a fraternal love, a unity there.
-
25:28 - 25:32I remember one of the illustrations that I just love to use on this,
-
25:32 - 25:34I was traveling through the mountains years and years ago
-
25:34 - 25:38in a red zone that the Communists, the Maoists controlled.
-
25:38 - 25:40And we were lost and everything.
-
25:40 - 25:44It was pitch dark and we were scared, another missionary and myself.
-
25:44 - 25:49And we made our way into this little village and I kind of stood on the edge of it,
-
25:49 - 25:52my brother that was with me was a Peruvian.
-
25:52 - 25:55And he went in and he came back out.
-
25:55 - 25:56He says, “I don’t see any military.”
-
25:56 - 26:01So we kind of walked in, and I kind of humped over so everyone would think I was short,
-
26:01 - 26:09and we came up to this drunk and we said, [?], “Are there brothers here?”
-
26:09 - 26:16And he said, [?], “The old woman over there. She is one of you.”
-
26:16 - 26:20And so I went over there, and I knocked on the door.
-
26:20 - 26:23And after a few minutes, the door kind of creaks open.
-
26:23 - 26:30It is a little mud, adobe hut carved into the back of a cliff.
-
26:30 - 26:32And this little woman, she is about this big,
-
26:32 - 26:35she opened the door with her lantern and looked.
-
26:35 - 26:41And I said [?], “We are brothers.”
-
26:41 - 26:42She knew what that meant in Spanish.
-
26:42 - 26:47We are evangelicals, we are Christian, and we need help.
-
26:47 - 26:50And she went... I will never forget that face.
-
26:50 - 26:53And she just grabbed us and pulled us in,
-
26:53 - 26:58took us down to the basement that they had carved out of the side of the hill there,
-
26:58 - 26:59put us down there.
-
26:59 - 27:02A little boy came. She gave him some instructions.
-
27:02 - 27:04All of the sudden he took off.
-
27:04 - 27:05He comes back, running.
-
27:05 - 27:09And then this man shows up. He has got two chickens;
-
27:09 - 27:12and another little poor farmer comes up with some yucca plant
-
27:12 - 27:14and they start preparing.
-
27:14 - 27:16And we stayed there all night.
-
27:16 - 27:24All right, now they were won to the Lord by a group of Nazarene missionaries.
-
27:24 - 27:30The Nazarenes and I could sit down and debate some issues.
-
27:30 - 27:33We would.
-
27:36 - 27:44But these were people who knew Christ and knew their sins had been forgiven,
-
27:44 - 27:52and because I was a preacher in Jesus’ name, willing to risk their life.
-
27:52 - 27:57There is unity.
-
27:58 - 28:04Now, theology is extremely important. It is extremely important.
-
28:04 - 28:12But I'll tell you this: I will not separate and break fellowship
-
28:12 - 28:16with someone who disagrees with me on some things.
-
28:16 - 28:21Now I will separate with people who depart from historical Christianity,
-
28:21 - 28:24who preach another Christ and so on and so forth.
-
28:24 - 28:28But, you see, there is a unity there.
-
28:28 - 28:35They knew Christ. They rejoiced in him.
-
28:35 - 28:38That is what happens when you have a church
-
28:38 - 28:44and it's a church of people who have been converted;
-
28:44 - 28:52who have been regenerated by the Spirit of God.
-
28:53 - 28:56Will there be immaturity? Yes.
-
28:56 - 29:03Will there be problems? Live with me for a while, you will get your answer.
-
29:04 - 29:10But will people be able to see there is something different about this group of people
-
29:10 - 29:13and that something is their love?
-
29:13 - 29:18Jesus says, “They will know, the world will know you are my disciples
-
29:18 - 29:21by the love you have for one another.”
-
29:21 - 29:29Now, he says, “I will give them one heart and one way.”
-
29:29 - 29:34And then, “that they may fear Me.”
-
29:34 - 29:38Here is something about us as Christians.
-
29:38 - 29:44We can make a mess, but there is something that God has done to us.
-
29:44 - 29:49He has put his fear in our hearts.
-
29:49 - 29:57In a marriage relationship, my own, sometimes I will act like a jerk.
-
29:57 - 29:59Do you know what that word is?
-
29:59 - 30:10And not want to acknowledge it, not want to say to my wife, “I am sorry.”
-
30:10 - 30:14And I will walk out there and I will go into my office,
-
30:14 - 30:17I got a book to write, I got a sermon to prepare.
-
30:17 - 30:23It's like the Lord's there, "That's fine, you are going to be doing it on your own
-
30:23 - 30:26till you get this matter straight."
-
30:26 - 30:30But do you know what? There is a fear in me.
-
30:30 - 30:32There is a fear.
-
30:32 - 30:38There is an uneasiness, an unsettledness in my heart, a tremor.
-
30:38 - 30:45And I know I have got to go back and I have got to apologize
-
30:45 - 30:49and I have got to make this matter right.
-
30:49 - 30:55You see, you have a group of people who have been given new hearts,
-
30:55 - 30:58and in that new heart, the law of God has been written.
-
30:58 - 31:03And not only the law of God has been written, but he has put his fear in us
-
31:03 - 31:09so that even when we have conflicts, disagreements and problems,
-
31:09 - 31:13it is the fear of the Lord that causes us once again to humble ourselves
-
31:13 - 31:20and to acknowledge our wrong and to work for restoration.
-
31:20 - 31:22That is the Church.
-
31:22 - 31:28Now, I want us to go for a moment...Again, I said I would have to skip around.
-
31:28 - 31:35I want us to go to Matthew chapter 28.
-
31:35 - 31:37You know the great commission in verse 18,
-
31:37 - 31:40“And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying,
-
31:40 - 31:44‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.’”
-
31:44 - 31:46Oh this passage!
-
31:46 - 31:52Last month, I spent like three weeks on "All authority has been given unto Me.”
-
31:52 - 31:58Oh, man, it just laid me on the floor.
-
31:59 - 32:03We have very little idea what that means.
-
32:03 - 32:09But I would encourage you to read Daniel chapter 7 and Psalms chapter 2.
-
32:09 - 32:13Such authority has been given to him.
-
32:13 - 32:17He has so much authority that all the kings,
-
32:17 - 32:22all their actions and decrees are inconsequential.
-
32:22 - 32:23They don't even matter.
-
32:23 - 32:27It is as though they didn't even exist.
-
32:27 - 32:34When his kingdom showed up 2,000 years ago, everything else came to an end.
-
32:34 - 32:37Oh, he's allowing the kings and the nations to still play,
-
32:37 - 32:41as though they had life and power.
-
32:41 - 32:45But they have none. He rules over all.
-
32:45 - 32:47Now, but it says this,
-
32:47 - 32:55"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations."
-
32:55 - 33:02I am so glad that he did not put here, “Go therefore and preach the gospel.”
-
33:02 - 33:04You say, “Well, why, brother Paul?
-
33:04 - 33:11I mean, on YouTube that is all you talk about, you only have one sermon."
-
33:12 - 33:24Because it is so easy...now Adolphe Monod the famous French Reformed pastor
-
33:24 - 33:27he said, “Oh, the cross of preaching the cross,”
-
33:27 - 33:30meaning that preaching the cross was such a burden because of its grandeur,
-
33:30 - 33:34because a preacher could never preach the cross as it ought to be preached.
-
33:34 - 33:41But there is another sense in which the preaching of the gospel
-
33:41 - 33:45is a lot easier than making disciples.
-
33:46 - 33:50You see, someone hears a preacher like me on YouTube
-
33:50 - 33:53or you see me preach right now.
-
33:53 - 33:57But you don't know me.
-
33:58 - 34:02Or I know how to make sentences connect together.
-
34:02 - 34:05But do you really know me?
-
34:05 - 34:09Do you really know if I am a godly man?
-
34:09 - 34:14You see in preaching the gospel, I can preach, go.
-
34:14 - 34:19I can stand in front of people and, boy, look like something very, very spiritual
-
34:19 - 34:23and then go and you never see my life. Do you see that?
-
34:23 - 34:25That is so easy.
-
34:25 - 34:29But he says, “Go and make disciples.” And what does that mean?
-
34:29 - 34:33To make disciples, that means you are going, at least for a while,
-
34:33 - 34:37to imitate me as I imitate Christ, to follow me as I follow Christ.
-
34:37 - 34:40I am going to teach you, not only with my words,
-
34:40 - 34:46but I am going to teach you as you watch me live 24 hours a day.
-
34:46 - 34:49That is tough.
-
34:51 - 34:57That is part of the work of the church.
-
34:58 - 35:03This has...you know, when I first was a missionary in Peru,
-
35:03 - 35:06I just discipled, discipled and discipled.
-
35:06 - 35:13And it was tough because people watched your life.
-
35:13 - 35:19But I will tell you something that has been even more difficult:
-
35:19 - 35:24My three children. To disciple them.
-
35:24 - 35:28Because, you know, they are just... they can, you know,
-
35:28 - 35:32“Dad, you said this. Why did you do this?”
-
35:32 - 35:35You see, it is so humbling, but it is so good.
-
35:35 - 35:44I would rather be crushed so that the hypocrisy would be torn out of me
-
35:44 - 35:49than to put on a mask and make everybody think I am something I am not.
-
35:49 - 35:53See, make disciples, it means that you live with people.
-
35:53 - 35:58You touch people. You get involved in their life.
-
35:58 - 36:03I was evangelizing one day and boy did I have a rude awakening.
-
36:03 - 36:05I was out there, man. I was handing out tracts.
-
36:05 - 36:09And I was preaching and people were throwing the tracts at me,
-
36:09 - 36:13and I saw this guy kind of look kind of a punk rocker guy,
-
36:13 - 36:15and he took off kind of one direction.
-
36:15 - 36:17I walked up there and put a tract on him.
-
36:17 - 36:21I said, "Here, this is a tract of the gospel about Jesus."
-
36:21 - 36:26He turned around and he goes, “You don’t care about me.”
-
36:26 - 36:31And he, I mean, stopped me in my tracks.
-
36:31 - 36:36He goes, "Do you care enough about me to be my friend,
-
36:36 - 36:39to come to my house,
-
36:39 - 36:43to get to know me and my problems and my messed up life,
-
36:43 - 36:49or are you just out here winning brownie points for God?”
-
36:50 - 36:51Caring about people.
-
36:51 - 36:54That is why even be very, very careful in your evangelism.
-
36:54 - 37:00People can recognize just superficial, I want to just put another notch on my belt.
-
37:00 - 37:03Look at me, "I am a preacher that everybody persecutes.”
-
37:03 - 37:06It is not about you.
-
37:06 - 37:10To disciple people, you have got to enter into relationships with people.
-
37:10 - 37:11And to have a church,
-
37:11 - 37:17you are committing yourself to enter into a profound relationship with people.
-
37:17 - 37:20That is why one of our missionaries said,
-
37:20 - 37:22“Brother Paul, we need to start a church in this area.”
-
37:22 - 37:25I said, “Well, why do you feel like we need to start a church?”
-
37:25 - 37:27“We need to start a church here because if we start this church here,
-
37:27 - 37:29then we can start this church over here,
-
37:29 - 37:35and we can use it as kind of a mother or a seed bed to plant other churches over here.”
-
37:35 - 37:41And I said, “Stop. You don’t plant churches so that you can plant another church.
-
37:41 - 37:45You plant a church because you care about the people.
-
37:45 - 37:48And if you have any other idea about it,
-
37:48 - 37:54you end up using people to fulfill your vision.”
-
37:54 - 38:05You see, church is for these people.
-
38:06 - 38:15And I want you to think about some of the greatest writers among the reformers,
-
38:15 - 38:19the Puritans, the early Baptists.
-
38:19 - 38:21I want you to realize something.
-
38:21 - 38:24They never got on an airplane.
-
38:24 - 38:28They never traveled, some of them, outside of their country.
-
38:28 - 38:32Some of them even outside of their town.
-
38:32 - 38:38But as they pastored, and their sermons, their writings,
-
38:38 - 38:48their life of pouring themselves into a flock has been used to change the world.
-
38:48 - 38:58Adolphe Monod, the guy was so smart, his head must have been this big.
-
38:58 - 39:00He could do anything at the university.
-
39:00 - 39:03He could do critical studies in Hebrew.
-
39:03 - 39:06Then they'd get him over here, critical studies in the New Testament.
-
39:06 - 39:08Then over here, history of the world.
-
39:08 - 39:10I mean, the guy could do everything.
-
39:10 - 39:12And they wanted him in the university so bad,
-
39:12 - 39:16and he said, “No, I want to go pastor this little flock.”
-
39:16 - 39:22And the book that he wrote [?] The Farewell,
-
39:22 - 39:27are 19 sermons that he preached on his death bed to his flock.
-
39:27 - 39:30And the last few sermons he laid on his back like this,
-
39:30 - 39:32and could only look up at the ceiling
-
39:32 - 39:34because he couldn’t even turn his head to look at the flock anymore.
-
39:34 - 39:39That book is priceless.
-
39:39 - 39:44Sometimes we want to do so much that we don’t do anything.
-
39:44 - 39:48And sometimes we do so much and you can discern in there,
-
39:48 - 39:53man, you are all about creating a name for yourself.
-
39:53 - 39:58You're all about some great thing you're going to do.
-
40:00 - 40:05I was preaching last year in a place and people were coming from everywhere,
-
40:05 - 40:07but it really wasn’t of the Lord.
-
40:07 - 40:11It was celebritism and it stunk.
-
40:11 - 40:14And I walked over in the corner and the pastor came up to me
-
40:14 - 40:21and he said, “Paul, maybe you just ought to go somewhere and die,
-
40:21 - 40:24so that no one will hear your name again.”
-
40:24 - 40:28And what he meant is, maybe you need to walk away from this entire circus
-
40:28 - 40:32and go pastor a little flock of people and just die there,
-
40:32 - 40:33and walk away from this mess.
-
40:33 - 40:36You see, here is what I want you to see.
-
40:36 - 40:45I am 47. I mean, I am like, I am not as old as these two guys here,
-
40:45 - 40:48but I am getting older.
-
40:48 - 40:52I am not as old as him but I am getting older.
-
40:52 - 40:55I'm over the hill, and I figured out when you get over the hill,
-
40:55 - 40:58you start going down a lot faster.
-
40:58 - 41:03I'm getting older and I don't want to waste my life.
-
41:03 - 41:09And what I see is that a lot of the big stuff and big plans and big ideas
-
41:09 - 41:17and everything we have about winning the world is nothing but flesh sometimes,
-
41:17 - 41:24because we want to touch everybody, but we don’t touch anybody.
-
41:26 - 41:28And so he says, “Make disciples.”
-
41:28 - 41:30And then he says this. Look at this.
-
41:30 - 41:34He says, "Make disciples of all the nations,
-
41:34 - 41:38baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
-
41:38 - 41:43teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.”
-
41:43 - 41:44Now think about this.
-
41:44 - 41:48He doesn't just say, "Teach them."
-
41:48 - 41:55He says, “Teach them to obey what I have commanded you.”
-
41:55 - 42:00You can’t teach them to obey what God has commanded you
-
42:00 - 42:04unless you are obeying what God has commanded you.
-
42:04 - 42:11And so the Church gives us an opportunity to live, to flesh this out,
-
42:11 - 42:27to live in obedience before other people and to be an influence with our lives.
-
42:28 - 42:40And so the Church is a community of people who have professed faith in Jesus Christ
-
42:40 - 42:48and confessed his Lordship and have come together to worship him,
-
42:48 - 42:57but have also come together that they might mutually encourage one another
-
42:57 - 43:02towards the goal of conformity to the image of Jesus Christ.
-
43:02 - 43:05Now it is amazing. I was in Peru several years ago,
-
43:05 - 43:11and a young American Marine, it was just a freak accident.
-
43:11 - 43:15He had his gun and he just turned... it went off and he shot himself in the head.
-
43:15 - 43:20And he laid there in the hospital basically brain dead for three or four days
-
43:20 - 43:22before they pulled the plug.
-
43:22 - 43:26And I didn’t know this, but I show up to try to witness to him
-
43:26 - 43:33and there is these two Marines in full dress standing on each side of the door like this.
-
43:33 - 43:36I asked somebody, “What is this?”
-
43:36 - 43:41And the Marine says, “No Marine dies alone.”
-
43:41 - 43:42Wow.
-
43:42 - 43:45Well, I started talking to somebody and I found out
-
43:45 - 43:49if a bunch of Marines are running,
-
43:49 - 43:53the first Marine arrives when the last Marine arrives.
-
43:53 - 43:56They arrive together.
-
43:56 - 44:00So if you are running first, and this guy is last,
-
44:00 - 44:05don’t think about crossing that line until you get him and bring him with you.
-
44:05 - 44:10Well, you talk about an example of the Christian life.
-
44:10 - 44:12"I am growing."
-
44:12 - 44:20Yeah, what about your brother? What about your sister in Christ?
-
44:20 - 44:27You see, without a church we can’t do any of this.
-
44:28 - 44:30You want to have a biblical church?
-
44:30 - 44:31Why do you want to have a biblical church
-
44:31 - 44:34so that you can say you have a biblical church?
-
44:34 - 44:37Do you want to have a biblical church so that, you know, I mean...
-
44:37 - 44:41so that you can start a bunch of biblical churches?
-
44:41 - 44:45Or do you just want to honor God and love people,
-
44:45 - 44:50whether anything happens or not?
-
44:50 - 45:06Now, it goes on, and I want us to go for a moment just to Ephesians four.
-
45:06 - 45:12I want to talk about leadership for a moment, chapter four.
-
45:12 - 45:14Speaking of Christ in verse 11,
-
45:14 - 45:17"And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets,
-
45:17 - 45:20and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,
-
45:20 - 45:24for the equipping of the saints for the work of service,
-
45:24 - 45:26to the building up of the body of Christ."
-
45:26 - 45:35Now, this is both a beautiful text and a very dangerous text.
-
45:35 - 45:38What do I mean?
-
45:39 - 45:45He has given gifted men to the Church to do what? To equip the saints.
-
45:45 - 45:48But most of the time when this is preached,
-
45:48 - 45:52it is preached in a militant sort of way.
-
45:52 - 45:53What do I mean?
-
45:53 - 45:58It is preached to the..."Look, in our church, man, we have got to get going,
-
45:58 - 46:00we have got to get doing stuff.
-
46:00 - 46:03Look, I train you so that you can go out and do the ministry,
-
46:03 - 46:07and that ministry is winning people and making this church grow."
-
46:07 - 46:09And what am I doing?
-
46:09 - 46:14I am turning this thing back again into a factory,
-
46:14 - 46:18into a place where the saints come to labor.
-
46:18 - 46:21Do you see that?
-
46:21 - 46:30You are a worker in the beehive, in the anthill.
-
46:30 - 46:34"We have got to go. We have got to grow. We have got to build.
-
46:34 - 46:40We have got to do. I train you, you go."
-
46:40 - 46:42People have asked me several times today,
-
46:42 - 46:46how is it that some churches start out wanting to be biblical
-
46:46 - 46:50and then eventually they just kind of go the way of all other churches?
-
46:50 - 46:52These are the reasons.
-
46:52 - 47:01They turn church life into almost some kind of a factory, a work house.
-
47:01 - 47:03Now are we to do works of service?
-
47:03 - 47:06We absolutely are to do works of service.
-
47:06 - 47:10But I want you to look at this in a little bit different way.
-
47:10 - 47:14He has given us gifted men for the equipping of the saints.
-
47:14 - 47:19Now the equipping of the saints just doesn't mean so that they can go out and work
-
47:19 - 47:22and bring in more people.
-
47:23 - 47:34The equipping ot the saints means to prepare them, to grow them to maturity,
-
47:34 - 47:41to help them be able to enter in strongly into a personal devotional life,
-
47:41 - 47:44into a personal walk with Christ.
-
47:44 - 47:47It's not just about training them to go out to do something.
-
47:47 - 47:52It's training them so that they can be something.
-
47:52 - 47:55To be like Christ.
-
47:55 - 47:59And also this equipping is for the building up of the body of Christ.
-
47:59 - 48:04Now, of course, that includes evangelism.
-
48:04 - 48:11But I need to equip you, not to just go out and win somebody
-
48:11 - 48:15and bring them in and they remain just as immature as the rest of us.
-
48:15 - 48:21I need to equip you to be able to minister to him.
-
48:21 - 48:26To minister to the body also, to help us grow into maturity.
-
48:26 - 48:33I need to equip husbands to do what? To minister to their wives.
-
48:33 - 48:39I need to equip fathers to do what? To minister to their children.
-
48:39 - 48:44I need to equip women to minister to their husbands and their children.
-
48:44 - 48:50You see how we will just take a verse and automatically assume this is what it means?
-
48:50 - 48:54Get them all equipped so they can go out there and do a bunch of work.
-
48:54 - 48:57Get them equipped so that they can be like Christ,
-
48:57 - 49:01minister to one another, and witness to the world,
-
49:01 - 49:11but not in a machine, cog in a wheel, factory sense of a beehive sort of thing,
-
49:11 - 49:17or an anthill where everyone goes out, gathers and comes back in.
-
49:19 - 49:21You see, again, look at what we are talking about,
-
49:21 - 49:26relationships, loving one another, caring about one another,
-
49:26 - 49:30not so concerned about coming across the line first,
-
49:30 - 49:36but coming across the line with our other brothers and sisters in Christ as a church.
-
49:36 - 49:42Now, he goes on and he says,
-
49:42 - 49:45“For the equipping of the saints for the work of service,
-
49:45 - 49:47to the building up of the body of Christ.”
-
49:47 - 49:49Now look, you can see.
-
49:49 - 49:52"Until we all attain to the unity of the faith,
-
49:52 - 49:55and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man,
-
49:55 - 50:03to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.”
-
50:03 - 50:13To be a part of a church is to make a commitment to be biblically,
-
50:13 - 50:20practically concerned for the other people in that body,
-
50:20 - 50:27that they might become everything that God desires for them to be.
-
50:27 - 50:29Now, let’s go on.
-
50:29 - 50:36I want us to go now to 2 Timothy chapter three.
-
50:36 - 50:42The Church, its doctrine, its practices
-
50:42 - 50:48must be founded upon the Word of God.
-
50:48 - 50:54Now, he says here, “That from childhood you have known the sacred writings
-
50:54 - 50:57which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation
-
50:57 - 51:02through faith which is in Christ Jesus.“
-
51:02 - 51:04How does a person come to know the Lord?
-
51:04 - 51:08Through the sacred writings, through Scripture.
-
51:08 - 51:17Let me share with you. We will maybe talk about this tomorrow about evangelism,
-
51:18 - 51:23but I have seen recently people come to know the Lord,
-
51:23 - 51:33not as a result of a one time encounter or witnessing through a tract.
-
51:33 - 51:41I have seen people come to the Lord after eight months of Bible study,
-
51:41 - 51:44after eight months of the study in Scripture.
-
51:44 - 51:49My brother-in-law, John Green, from England is a great evangelist.
-
51:49 - 51:54He doesn’t preach. He shouldn’t preach.
-
51:54 - 51:58But as far as one on one dealing with people...
-
51:58 - 52:01And he just recently brought a guy to my office
-
52:01 - 52:05that he had been dealing with for about eight months,
-
52:05 - 52:08Bible study after Bible study,
-
52:08 - 52:12going through the Scripture, going through the Scripture.
-
52:12 - 52:17Listen to me: Preach on the streets? Yes.
-
52:17 - 52:20Witness to people, tracts? Yes.
-
52:20 - 52:25Have you ever thought about entering into a relationship with some of these people?
-
52:25 - 52:30Inviting to meet them at a coffee shop once a week, twice a week,
-
52:30 - 52:33going through Scripture, studying Scripture.
-
52:33 - 52:38Not just hit and miss, like a sniper with a rifle,
-
52:38 - 52:41giving them one shot to come to know the Lord,
-
52:41 - 52:49but maybe saying, “I am going to pour my life into that person.”
-
52:50 - 52:56And then he says, "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching,
-
52:56 - 53:00for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;
-
53:00 - 53:05so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work."
-
53:05 - 53:08When I was in seminary several years ago,
-
53:08 - 53:15my professor, he stood in front of the class one day
-
53:15 - 53:22and he goes, “Sh... sh, listen.”
-
53:22 - 53:23“What?”
-
53:23 - 53:30“Listen. I hear footsteps.
-
53:30 - 53:41Yes. They are the footsteps of Aristotle walking through these halls
-
53:41 - 53:44and they are louder than the footsteps of the apostles.”
-
53:44 - 53:47The point he was making was,
-
53:47 - 53:52much of what we were doing had more to do with Greek philosophy
-
53:52 - 53:58than it did with the New Testament, saying it was wrong.
-
53:58 - 54:03I want you to know something, not only walking through church,
-
54:03 - 54:14but walking through your mind and your heart is psychology, sociology,
-
54:14 - 54:24anthropology, doctrines of this age, and they will destroy you.
-
54:24 - 54:30We do not need to augment the Scriptures with the social sciences
-
54:30 - 54:33in order to have a church.
-
54:33 - 54:39A church is founded upon the Word of God,
-
54:39 - 54:46and it needs no help from any outside source.
-
54:46 - 54:48I will give you an example.
-
54:48 - 54:54If I were to teach on, right now, on the father's responsibility
-
54:54 - 54:58to be the primary educator in the life of his child,
-
54:58 - 55:05many of you would be going... because that is not practiced here.
-
55:05 - 55:06Yeah.
-
55:06 - 55:15Or if I began to teach on the biblical submission of the wife to the husband,
-
55:15 - 55:18some of you women would probably grow horns and claws
-
55:18 - 55:23and attack me right now, because that is not practiced here.
-
55:23 - 55:25It is hated. It is despised.
-
55:25 - 55:34Years and years and years of training, and all the dark arts you have received.
-
55:34 - 55:40You went to preschool. They did not teach you Psalms one.
-
55:40 - 55:43They taught you the ways of the world.
-
55:43 - 55:48You went to grade school, they taught you all the doctrines of this age.
-
55:48 - 55:51You went to high school and they did the same.
-
55:51 - 55:54As a child, every time you turned on the television set,
-
55:54 - 55:59they taught you in a manner completely contrary to Christianity.
-
55:59 - 56:07And now you wonder why it is so difficult to live the Christian life?
-
56:08 - 56:10You see?
-
56:10 - 56:14There are things that Scripture teaches that if I taught them right now,
-
56:14 - 56:20maybe some of you would rise up in anger and just jump right through that window
-
56:20 - 56:23or throw me through that window,
-
56:23 - 56:26because you can’t even begin to address the issue
-
56:26 - 56:32because you have been taught the contrary over and over and over.
-
56:32 - 56:37Do not bring those sciences into the Church
-
56:37 - 56:42because social sciences are not sciences by the pure definition of science.
-
56:42 - 56:47And do not bring something into the Church whose major theories change
-
56:47 - 56:51about once ever three years.
-
56:51 - 56:56We are to found the Church upon the Scriptures,
-
56:56 - 57:01and the Church and the Scriptures need no outside help.
-
57:01 - 57:03Let me give you a perfect example of this.
-
57:03 - 57:12You go to a Christian counselor who is also a psychologist
-
57:12 - 57:17and you say, “I need some counseling.” He goes, “Ok.”
-
57:17 - 57:19You walk in.
-
57:19 - 57:25You say, “Now, before we get started, I understand you are a Christian psychologist.
-
57:25 - 57:28What is your basis of authority?”
-
57:28 - 57:34Now that is a proper question in debate, apologetics, secular philosophy, ok?
-
57:34 - 57:36What is the basis of your authority?
-
57:36 - 57:39I mean, you are going to start telling me things.
-
57:39 - 57:42What is the basis of your authority?
-
57:42 - 57:45And so you say, “Well, the Bible.”
-
57:45 - 57:48I go, “What are all these other books?”
-
57:48 - 57:54“Well, I just... you know, the truth of Scripture, but all truth is God’s truth,
-
57:54 - 57:59so the truth we also find in these books are true, too.”
-
57:59 - 58:02“Well, I got a problem.”
-
58:02 - 58:04“Well, what is your problem?”
-
58:04 - 58:11“Well, I see there Freud, Rogers and Skinner,
-
58:11 - 58:16three main guys in the West with regard to psychology.”
-
58:16 - 58:19“Yes, so?”
-
58:19 - 58:25“Well, Freud said that Rogers and Skinner were idiots.
-
58:25 - 58:29And Rogers and Skinner said that Freud was a pervert.
-
58:29 - 58:32And Skinner said Rogers didn’t know what he was talking about,
-
58:32 - 58:35and everything Rogers wrote contradicted Skinner.
-
58:35 - 58:37So now here's my question:
-
58:37 - 58:41If all three of them contradict each other,
-
58:41 - 58:46and all three of them contradict the Bible, who is the authority?”
-
58:46 - 58:50And he goes, “Well, I choose..you know, the Bible, of course, is the authority.
-
58:50 - 58:55And then I choose out of these men what's true”
-
58:55 - 58:58“So now you are the authority.”
-
58:58 - 59:01Do you see the problem?
-
59:01 - 59:03There is one authority and it is Scripture.
-
59:03 - 59:14If they speak not according to the Law and the Prophets, there is no light in them.
-
59:16 - 59:18But it has become the religion of the age
-
59:18 - 59:25and one of the greatest hindrances to biblical church, a great hindrance.
-
59:25 - 59:28Now I realize that I may have made people mad
-
59:28 - 59:31and if I did so by my attitude I apologize,
-
59:31 - 59:36but what I said, I do not apologize for. It is true.
-
59:36 - 59:43Churches today are overrun with the ideas of secular anthropology,
-
59:43 - 59:49secular psychology and secular sociology.
-
59:49 - 59:52Now, don’t think you are going to have a biblical church
-
59:52 - 59:57by purging that out of your evangelism.
-
59:57 - 60:07You have to purge it out of your marriage, your idea of man, your idea of truth.
-
60:07 - 60:10You have to purge it out of everything.
-
60:10 - 60:13God’s Word is true.
-
60:13 - 60:17And if something does not line up with God’s Word, it is not true
-
60:17 - 60:21and it's not additional truth.
-
60:22 - 60:23Do you see?
-
60:23 - 60:27Many of you, let me ask you a question, you would possibly say,
-
60:27 - 60:31“Yes, brother Paul, I believe in the inspiration of Scripture.
-
60:31 - 60:35I am a conservative Christian. I believe in the inspiration of Scripture;
-
60:35 - 60:40that Scripture was God breathed, that it is infallible, inerrant;
-
60:40 - 60:44that it is a faithful communication of God's truth.
-
60:44 - 60:47Ok. You believe in the inspiration of Scripture?
-
60:47 - 60:51You have only won half the battle.
-
60:51 - 60:53Here is the next question:
-
60:53 - 60:58But do you believe in the sufficiency of Scripture?
-
60:58 - 61:04Do you believe that the Scripture is sufficient
-
61:04 - 61:08to make the man of God adequate for every good work
-
61:08 - 61:15or does the man of God also need Freud, Skinner, Rogers and everything else
-
61:15 - 61:19in order to counsel God’s people, in order to teach God's people,
-
61:19 - 61:20in order to train God’s people?
-
61:20 - 61:27You see, this is what Scripture is saying.
-
61:27 - 61:31All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching,
-
61:31 - 61:35for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;
-
61:35 - 61:41so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
-
61:41 - 61:48Every good work that needs to be done in the body, every good work,
-
61:48 - 61:51the Scripture can adequately prepare us for that.
-
61:51 - 61:56The Bible says in 2 Peter chapter one,
-
61:56 - 62:02Everything that we need for life and godliness has been granted to us.
-
62:02 - 62:08Everything we need to direct our marriages have been granted to us in this book.
-
62:08 - 62:13Everything we need to raise our children have been granted to us in this book.
-
62:13 - 62:18It is found there. It is.
-
62:19 - 62:21And you have to make a decision.
-
62:21 - 62:28Do you want a biblical church, or do you want a halfway biblical church?
-
62:28 - 62:32There is no, like the philosopher said,
-
62:32 - 62:38“What does Jerusalem have to do with Athens?”
-
62:38 - 62:44What does Christianity have to do with all these doctrines of the age
-
62:44 - 62:47that give no light and bring no blessing
-
62:47 - 62:51and kill all fruitfulness in the life of a person?
-
62:51 - 62:58Now, I want to go to one other thing and then we will bring this to a close,
-
62:58 - 63:02because I know I have gone on very long.
-
63:02 - 63:06Let’s just look for a moment at body life.
-
63:06 - 63:14I want us to go to chapter twelve of the book of Romans, verse 3,
-
63:14 - 63:18“For through the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you
-
63:18 - 63:21not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think;
-
63:21 - 63:24but to think so as to have sound judgment,
-
63:24 - 63:29as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.”
-
63:29 - 63:35Listen. As you grow in your Christian walk,
-
63:35 - 63:39you are going to come across true, honest believers
-
63:39 - 63:45that are not quite as mature, that are rather problematic.
-
63:45 - 63:47You need to constantly be asking yourself this question.
-
63:47 - 63:50What do I have that I have not received,
-
63:50 - 63:54and if I have received it, why do I boast?
-
63:54 - 63:56Who made you what you are?
-
63:56 - 63:58By God’s grace you have been saved.
-
63:58 - 64:04By God's grace, a work of sanctification continues in you.
-
64:04 - 64:07There is no room for boasting in the Christian life.
-
64:07 - 64:15And there is no room for comparison of setting one saint against another.
-
64:15 - 64:20I remember one time a woman who had done a great deal of damage
-
64:20 - 64:23with her wickedness in the Church,
-
64:23 - 64:27and one morning she came just running down the aisle.
-
64:27 - 64:30I was preaching, and she was weeping,
-
64:30 - 64:33and she just fell on the steps of the platform
-
64:33 - 64:36and she was crying out to God for forgiveness.
-
64:36 - 64:40And I looked up and I saw the faces of the people in that crowd.
-
64:40 - 64:49And I mean, they were like, unbelieving, unforgiving.
-
64:50 - 64:54The woman had done some bad things.
-
64:54 - 65:01And I went down and I put my hand on her shoulder and I prayed for her.
-
65:01 - 65:06Afterwards, some people came up to me and they said,
-
65:06 - 65:10“How could you touch that woman?”
-
65:10 - 65:15And I said, “Because if she doesn’t get forgiven, I have to go to hell too.”
-
65:15 - 65:18You see the point?
-
65:18 - 65:20Mercy...you know,
-
65:20 - 65:27if you need evidence that we are not perfected at the moment of our conversion,
-
65:27 - 65:30if you need evidence of that,
-
65:30 - 65:34then just listen to this one statement by Jesus Christ.
-
65:34 - 65:39“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.”
-
65:39 - 65:43That shames me, that verse; and I will tell you why.
-
65:43 - 65:48A man like me who has received such mercy,
-
65:48 - 65:51I have to be told to be merciful?
-
65:52 - 65:55I have to be reminded to be merciful?
-
65:55 - 65:56After the mercy I have received,
-
65:56 - 65:59after the things I have done and been forgiven.
-
65:59 - 66:06I have to be reminded to be merciful? That is pathetic.
-
66:11 - 66:15And so body life is, again, built around humility.
-
66:15 - 66:17It is built around a mercy.
-
66:17 - 66:21It's built around thinking more of others.
-
66:21 - 66:24And he says: "For just as we have many members in one body
-
66:25 - 66:29and all the members do not have the same function,
-
66:29 - 66:32so we, who are many, are one body in Christ,
-
66:32 - 66:35and individually members one of another."
-
66:35 - 66:42Now, In 1 Corinthians, Paul deals with this in greater length
-
66:42 - 66:43and I didn’t want to go there
-
66:43 - 66:51because I didn’t want to spend the entire night having you just sitting here.
-
66:55 - 66:59Sometimes I look at my wife
-
66:59 - 67:05and, you know, men are really bad in that we begin to think at times
-
67:05 - 67:08that our wives are an extension of us,
-
67:08 - 67:11and our children are an extension of us.
-
67:11 - 67:17We forget that they are persons in their own right.
-
67:18 - 67:23There will be things between our wives and Christ that we know not of.
-
67:23 - 67:28But sometimes I sit there and I try to remember this:
-
67:28 - 67:32She is God's daughter.
-
67:32 - 67:35Now I don’t know if any of you have daughters.
-
67:35 - 67:39But I have a little daughter.
-
67:39 - 67:44I don't know where my Christianity would go if somebody tried to hurt her,
-
67:44 - 67:49but I would do everything in my power to stop them.
-
67:49 - 67:54I mean, If you really don't want to be my friend,
-
67:54 - 67:58then do something bad to my daughter.
-
67:58 - 68:01I can't even imagine; someone would have to restrain me
-
68:01 - 68:04if somebody did something to my daughter.
-
68:04 - 68:11And I always try to remember my wife in that context with her Father.
-
68:11 - 68:16She is God’s daughter.
-
68:16 - 68:19I am going to mess with her?
-
68:19 - 68:21I am going to hurt her?
-
68:21 - 68:25If I being evil can love my daughter so much
-
68:25 - 68:27that I would throw myself in front of a train for her,
-
68:27 - 68:31or fight any man on the face of the earth at least for two seconds
-
68:31 - 68:35before he knocks me out,
-
68:35 - 68:39am I going to suppose that I want to deal with God in that way,
-
68:39 - 68:40treating harshly his daughter?
-
68:40 - 68:42Now let’s take that farther.
-
68:42 - 68:48You see, C S Lewis said this one time and I can’t quote him directly,
-
68:48 - 68:54but basically he said this, “There are no common people.”
-
68:54 - 69:06Every person you meet will either be, one day, a monster in the bowels of hell
-
69:06 - 69:11or will be a creature so splendid and glorious
-
69:11 - 69:14that if you could see them now in that future state,
-
69:14 - 69:18you would fall down on your face and have a tendency to worship them.”
-
69:18 - 69:23All right, now I want you to think that about your brother in Christ for a moment,
-
69:23 - 69:24your sister in Christ.
-
69:24 - 69:30Don't deal with this person in a harsh manner.
-
69:30 - 69:33Realize what they are.
-
69:33 - 69:36Realize what has been paid for them.
-
69:36 - 69:39Realize what they are going to become.
-
69:39 - 69:44Realize the relationship they have with God,
-
69:44 - 69:47and you will begin to treat them differently.
-
69:47 - 69:48Do you see that?
-
69:48 - 69:55They are not just some common little believer who attends church.
-
69:55 - 70:00They are God’s and one day they will be more glorious
-
70:00 - 70:05than anyone could even imagine.
-
70:07 - 70:09That is church.
-
70:10 - 70:17And he goes on and he says that we are members.
-
70:17 - 70:20I am told that I am one with my wife
-
70:20 - 70:25and that only an insane man tears at his own flesh.
-
70:25 - 70:31Only an insane man practices self mutilation, I mean, we all now that.
-
70:31 - 70:34You see a man on the side of the street,
-
70:34 - 70:35and he is ripping his arm off,
-
70:35 - 70:38you don’t say, “Hey, how is it going?”
-
70:38 - 70:43I mean, you say, “That is a very problemed person.”
-
70:43 - 70:53All right, now, to attack my wife is insanity, the worst form, to rip at her.
-
70:53 - 70:58Brother and sister in Christ, same thing, members.
-
70:59 - 71:01And just remember this:
-
71:01 - 71:05You are not just ripping at one of your members.
-
71:05 - 71:12You are ripping at one of Christ’s members, part of his body.
-
71:12 - 71:17The Church in Corinth was sternly warned that anyone destroys the body,
-
71:17 - 71:20God will destroy them.
-
71:21 - 71:24You see, you need to have a heightened view of God.
-
71:24 - 71:26You have heard that over and over.
-
71:26 - 71:28We need to have a heightened view of God.
-
71:28 - 71:30That's true. Do you know what else though?
-
71:30 - 71:37You need to have a heightened view of other believers;
-
71:39 - 71:44of what they are, what they will be, what was paid for them.
-
71:44 - 71:46And we are members.
-
71:46 - 71:49Now, gosh, I can do this in America,
-
71:49 - 71:55but here in Europe you guys are a lot more civilized.
-
71:55 - 71:56But I am going to do this anyways.
-
71:56 - 71:59Let’s see. Who has got tennis shoes on?
-
71:59 - 72:04Who wants to volunteer? Who is really brave? Is anybody brave?
-
72:04 - 72:06You don’t need tennis shoes, you can do it in socks.
-
72:06 - 72:08Ok, stand up.
-
72:08 - 72:12And, really, guys, if I am out of line, just realize I am an American,
-
72:12 - 72:15I am from the South. I have no culture, ok?
-
72:15 - 72:24Now I want you to run over to that rail as fast as you can, and then run back.
-
72:24 - 72:26As fast as you can.
-
72:26 - 72:28Go!
-
72:29 - 72:33Ooh, I should have got tennis shoes on him. He almost went out the window.
-
72:33 - 72:39Ok, now I want you to grab one foot like this,
-
72:39 - 72:44and I want you to run over there half way, and then come back.
-
72:44 - 72:48Halfway? yeah, just half way. We don't want you going out the window.
-
72:48 - 72:52Ok. Slower, right?
-
72:52 - 72:56All right. Now grab this foot like this,
-
72:56 - 72:58and grab the other one and pull it back.
-
72:58 - 73:00All right, thank you.
-
73:00 - 73:08Now look. I removed one member and he could not move as fast,
-
73:08 - 73:11as quickly and definitely he wasn’t as graceful.
-
73:11 - 73:13I removed one member.
-
73:13 - 73:18I remove two members and I incapacitated him completely.
-
73:18 - 73:21He couldn't even walk.
-
73:21 - 73:28Now, do you think every member in the body of Christ is important?
-
73:28 - 73:32This is not only an encouragement for every saint
-
73:32 - 73:36to come to understand their giftedness and their part in the body of Christ,
-
73:36 - 73:41but it is also necessary for us to appreciate every saint
-
73:41 - 73:46and to encourage them to be a part of the body, because we need them.
-
73:46 - 73:54Now, if you tell saints, “Look. We need you to minister according to your gifts.
-
73:54 - 74:00We need you to be a part of this body because, man, we are out to do this.”
-
74:00 - 74:03Again, that is mechanical.
-
74:03 - 74:06We just want you to be part of the factory.
-
74:06 - 74:11But if you say, “We need you in this body to minister to your gifts
-
74:11 - 74:16because we as a body need you.
-
74:16 - 74:17We need your giftedness.
-
74:17 - 74:19We need what God has done in your life.
-
74:19 - 74:22We need you as a person. We need you.”
-
74:22 - 74:27That is church, you see, that is church;
-
74:27 - 74:30that we are members of one another.
-
74:30 - 74:34And then he goes on and he says this...
-
74:34 - 74:40I want to just run down to nine because of the lack of time.
-
74:40 - 74:42He says, "Let love be without hypocrisy.
-
74:42 - 74:45Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.
-
74:45 - 74:48Be devoted to one another."
-
74:48 - 74:51So you want to have a church?
-
74:51 - 74:55Are you willing to be devoted to one another?
-
74:55 - 74:58I am not talking about showing up on Sunday,
-
74:58 - 75:04listening to a sermon and running away.
-
75:04 - 75:08I am talking about actually entering into relationships.
-
75:08 - 75:13You see, Christianity, especially now in reformed circles,
-
75:13 - 75:19in many ways has become like almost going to the theater.
-
75:19 - 75:22People got their favourite preacher,
-
75:22 - 75:26and their favorite worship, and so they go in
-
75:26 - 75:29and they take their seat in the church.
-
75:29 - 75:32We ought to get a thing with a popcorn holder
-
75:32 - 75:38and a place where you can put your Coke to watch your favorite preacher,
-
75:38 - 75:43to watch your favorite worship guy, and then to say good bye.
-
75:43 - 75:46And the best part is, it's free.
-
75:46 - 75:52Unless you're in a baptist church and then they make you pay a tithe.
-
75:52 - 75:53It's free.
-
75:53 - 75:54That is not church.
-
75:54 - 75:56I hear ministers say all the time,
-
75:56 - 75:59"The Bible says you shall not forsake the assembling of yourselves together.”
-
75:59 - 76:00And what he is saying is,
-
76:00 - 76:03“Listen, you need to come hear me preach.”
-
76:03 - 76:06But what it is saying is you don’t forsake the assembling of yourselves together
-
76:06 - 76:08so that you can minister to one another,
-
76:08 - 76:10exhort one another, encourage one another.
-
76:10 - 76:22That is why, at least, there is less obstacles in doing this sort of thing in a small fellowship.
-
76:22 - 76:26And if the fellowship grows larger, to either,
-
76:26 - 76:29some of the members that are in that fellowship that are from a certain part of town,
-
76:29 - 76:31send them over there to start another church,
-
76:31 - 76:36or at least break this thing up in some sort of house churches and things like that,
-
76:36 - 76:39so that you can actually get involved in ministering to one another.
-
76:39 - 76:41Another thing that is very important.
-
76:41 - 76:47I was preaching down in a place in Alabama a few weeks ago
-
76:47 - 76:50to a group of people in Tharptown, Alabama.
-
76:50 - 76:52And I just love these people, they are just wonderful.
-
76:52 - 76:58And I was preaching, and it was going a little bit long.
-
76:58 - 77:02I know you can’t believe that, but it was going a little bit long
-
77:02 - 77:04and I said, “Now, stop that.”
-
77:04 - 77:07They all kind of looked up. I said, “I know what you are thinking.
-
77:07 - 77:10You are all thinking about leaving here and going to El Rancho.”
-
77:10 - 77:16El Rancho is the most favorite Mexican restaurant there near the church.
-
77:16 - 77:21As a matter of fact, it is the only restaurant in the whole entire town.
-
77:21 - 77:23And I said, “I know what you are doing.
-
77:23 - 77:25You're not thinking about church anymore,
-
77:25 - 77:28you're thinking about going to El Rancho."
-
77:28 - 77:31And they were like, you know, all feeling guilty.
-
77:31 - 77:34But I said that because I wanted to teach them something.
-
77:34 - 77:44I said, "Now stop. Ask yourself right now. Are you doing church?"
-
77:44 - 77:47I said, "I want you to look at something a little bit different.
-
77:47 - 77:51Right now, you are sitting under the preaching of the Word of God.
-
77:51 - 77:55We have worshiped collectively and we have prayed collectively.
-
77:55 - 77:58Now you think you have done something spiritual,
-
77:58 - 78:02and then you are going to leave and you are going to go to El Rancho
-
78:02 - 78:05and do something not so spiritual.”
-
78:05 - 78:08I said, “Actually, the way you need to look at it is,
-
78:08 - 78:13you are leaving here to go to church.”
-
78:13 - 78:15And they are like, “Well, what do you mean?”
-
78:15 - 78:19I said, “Now, if you go there and talk about your favorite football team or something,
-
78:19 - 78:20not necessarily.”
-
78:20 - 78:25I said, “But do you realize, you are not talking to each other right now.
-
78:25 - 78:27You are not ministering to one another.
-
78:27 - 78:30You are listening to a sermon, which is necessary,
-
78:30 - 78:32you have worshiped collectively and prayed collectively,
-
78:32 - 78:35which is all necessary and good and it is part of church.
-
78:35 - 78:38But what do you say now that as soon as I dismiss this,
-
78:38 - 78:44we all go over to El Rancho and have church?”
-
78:44 - 78:52We go over there, sit down at a table with a fellow believer,
-
78:52 - 78:54talk to them, get to know them,
-
78:54 - 79:02find out what is going on in their life, eat some chips. God is good.
-
79:02 - 79:04And just get to know one another,
-
79:05 - 79:08to love one another, to bless one another.
-
79:08 - 79:13You see, their whole idea of church revolved around coming into that place,
-
79:13 - 79:18worshiping collectively, listening to a Bible study and then leaving.
-
79:18 - 79:20That is not Church.
-
79:20 - 79:23That is a very essential part of Church.
-
79:23 - 79:29But see, there you go again just identifying it with a service, a meeting, a meeting place.
-
79:29 - 79:33It is you collectively caring for one another.
-
79:33 - 79:39There was a pastor down in Argentina, and he had grown the church to about 600,
-
79:39 - 79:40and that is the language he used.
-
79:40 - 79:43He said, “Because I had grown the church to 600.”
-
79:43 - 79:45And he said, “I was miserable.”
-
79:45 - 79:49He said, “Finally I came under such... I didn’t even know why.
-
79:49 - 79:52I just knew something was wrong; knew something was terribly wrong.”
-
79:52 - 79:57So he set aside time for prayer and fasting, and studying the Scriptures,
-
79:57 - 80:01and it just seemed that the Lord impressed upon his heart through the study of Scripture,
-
80:01 - 80:06that everything he had built was just hay, wood and stubble,
-
80:06 - 80:08that he needed to start again.
-
80:08 - 80:12He is a really personable guy, a really great speaker, knew how to do things,
-
80:12 - 80:15and I mean people were coming to that church in the droves.
-
80:15 - 80:18And God was saying...
-
80:18 - 80:20So this is what he did.
-
80:20 - 80:25The next Sunday, you know, they got the big worship service and everything,
-
80:25 - 80:30and the music director goes, “And now, pastor Ortiz,” let’s say,
-
80:30 - 80:33“is going to come and give us the Word of God.”
-
80:33 - 80:35And he got up and he walked over there,
-
80:35 - 80:49and he goes, “Love one another as Jesus loved you.”
-
80:49 - 80:50And he sat down.
-
80:50 - 80:52And the music director hopped up
-
80:52 - 80:56and said, “We will have another song now before the main sermon.”
-
80:56 - 81:00So he sings another song and then, “Now our pastor will come and...”
-
81:00 - 81:10He goes, “No, really. Love one another as Christ loved you.”
-
81:10 - 81:14He said he did that for six weeks.
-
81:14 - 81:21And he said on the sixth week, two of the deacons sitting in the front pew;
-
81:21 - 81:23one in the front pew, the other one in the second pew;
-
81:23 - 81:25the one in the front pew turned around,
-
81:25 - 81:28and he said, “As soon as I got through saying, ‘Love one another,’
-
81:28 - 81:32the deacon turned around and goes, ‘Hey,
-
81:32 - 81:36I think I know what he is trying to tell us.’”
-
81:36 - 81:40And what happened was they started serving one another,
-
81:40 - 81:42caring for one another.
-
81:42 - 81:46The Spirit of God began to work.
-
81:46 - 81:51The deacons started searching out the widows in the church who were alone.
-
81:51 - 81:57I mean, just all kinds of things. Do you see?
-
81:57 - 82:02This is church. That is church.
-
82:02 - 82:11Now, he goes on and says, “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love;
-
82:11 - 82:16give preference to one another in honor.”
-
82:16 - 82:22Boy. We are not a people who know much about honor.
-
82:22 - 82:25In America, we pride ourselves,
-
82:25 - 82:29"We don’t have a king and we are never going to have a king.
-
82:29 - 82:31And I don’t care who you think you are.
-
82:31 - 82:34I am just as good as you are."
-
82:34 - 82:36That's our mentality.
-
82:36 - 82:41Independent spirit - I bow my head to no one.
-
82:41 - 82:45That is not Christian.
-
82:46 - 82:50He says, "Give preference to one another in honor,
-
82:50 - 82:55not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.”
-
82:55 - 82:59Look. But this lagging behind, look what it is in.
-
82:59 - 83:02Don't lag behind in being devoted to one another.
-
83:02 - 83:07Don't lag behind in giving preference to one another.
-
83:07 - 83:10“Rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation,
-
83:10 - 83:14devoted to prayer,” for your brothers and sisters in Christ.
-
83:14 - 83:19“Contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.”
-
83:19 - 83:23Do you do that? Do you practice hospitality?
-
83:23 - 83:30Invite people into your home, feed them?
-
83:30 - 83:32Call over other believers?
-
83:32 - 83:36Hey, come on over to my house tomorrow.
-
83:36 - 83:39I am going to put a pot of stew on and we'll just talk about the Lord.
-
83:39 - 83:40Do you open your home?
-
83:40 - 83:44Do you know it is one of the qualifications of an elder?
-
83:44 - 83:48He has to be hospitable. He has to open up his home.
-
83:48 - 83:50And if he doesn’t, he doesn’t qualify.
-
83:50 - 83:54I don't care if he is the best teacher on the face of the earth.
-
83:54 - 83:55Do you see?
-
83:55 - 83:59You can say, “Oh, we can look past that, because he is a great Bible teacher."
-
83:59 - 84:01No, you can’t.
-
84:04 - 84:07“Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.”
-
84:07 - 84:12Now, I want you to just think about this for a moment.
-
84:12 - 84:18A guy says... I will put this in the context of marriage;
-
84:18 - 84:21A guy says, “I can’t love my wife.”
-
84:21 - 84:24He is a Christian. He is in the church.
-
84:24 - 84:29He comes to the pastor and he says, “I can’t love my wife.”
-
84:29 - 84:31Ok. You can't love her as a wife.
-
84:31 - 84:33"No."
-
84:33 - 84:38Can you love her as a fellow believer?
-
84:38 - 84:40"No."
-
84:40 - 84:45Can you love her as a lost person?
-
84:45 - 84:47"No."
-
84:47 - 84:51Can you love her as an enemy who persecutes you and curses you?
-
84:51 - 84:52"No."
-
84:52 - 84:56Christ has commanded you to love her in all those ways.
-
84:56 - 85:00See, you are not just called to love your brother.
-
85:00 - 85:04You are called to love your enemy who persecutes you and curses you
-
85:04 - 85:06and wants your eternal condemnation.
-
85:06 - 85:14So if you are called to love that guy, most certainly you can love your brother.
-
85:14 - 85:17Do you see that?
-
85:29 - 85:33Do you know, honestly, what my goal is in life?
-
85:33 - 85:38I mean, I kind of have a little... I figured I wasn’t going to get everything, you know,
-
85:38 - 85:40I wasn’t going to be able to accomplish everything,
-
85:40 - 85:44so I thought, “I am going to set out one goal.”
-
85:44 - 85:51But it is kind of an all encompassing goal.
-
85:52 - 86:04If I can grow in my love toward my wife,
-
86:04 - 86:12if I can manifest Christlike love toward her, that is my goal.
-
86:12 - 86:16You say, “Well, that is kind of puny.”
-
86:16 - 86:20Obviously you are not a husband.
-
86:22 - 86:24But look at this.
-
86:24 - 86:33If I can love the person with whom I have the closest, most intimate relationship,
-
86:33 - 86:39she seeing all my flaws, and I having to bear with all of hers,
-
86:39 - 86:44then love is not going to be a problem with everybody else, is it?
-
86:44 - 86:48I am so tired. I told someone.
-
86:48 - 86:51They said, “Why are you going to plant a church somewhere?”
-
86:51 - 87:04I said, “I am tired of preaching Christianity. I want to go live it somewhere.”
-
87:04 - 87:15You know, guys, if this is a church and if this is not your goal,
-
87:15 - 87:18then what you are going to do is, you are going to go out and bring in people
-
87:18 - 87:23and make them two fold sons of hell like yourself.
-
87:25 - 87:33But this goal is, to be like Christ and to follow him.
-
87:33 - 87:36That is the church.
-
87:36 - 87:43A group of people devoted to Christ, devoted to one another.
-
87:43 - 87:44That’s it.
-
87:44 - 87:49So you can have all those other things and elders and everything else,
-
87:49 - 87:56but if you don’t have this, then you don’t have a church, ok?
-
87:56 - 87:58All right. Let’s pray.
-
87:58 - 88:01Father, I come before you and I pray, Lord,
-
88:01 - 88:07that you would help us to understand and to apply these truths,
-
88:07 - 88:13to be transformed by them, in Jesus name, Amen.
- Title:
- A Biblical Church - Paul Washer
- Description:
-
Video Provided by:
http://www.tilbagetilbibelen.dk
http://www.backtoscripture.comUploaded by Grace Community Church in San Antonio, TX:
http://www.gccsatx.comVisit Paul Washer's website at:
http://www.hcmissions.com - Video Language:
- English
- Duration:
- 01:28:25
Carrie Spradlin edited English subtitles for A Biblical Church - Paul Washer | ||
Michael Okiei edited English subtitles for A Biblical Church - Paul Washer | ||
illbehonest edited English subtitles for A Biblical Church - Paul Washer | ||
illbehonest edited English subtitles for A Biblical Church - Paul Washer | ||
illbehonest edited English subtitles for A Biblical Church - Paul Washer |