- Please open your bibles to 1 Peter.
1 Peter.
Chapter Two.
Peter says, speaking to the church,
"But you,
"are a chosen race,
"a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
"a people for God's own possession,
"so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him
"who has called you out of the darkness
"into His marvelous light;
"for you once were not a people,
"but now you are the people of God;
"you had not received mercy,
"but now you have received mercy."
This morning I spoke to you about the most important event
in history and if you were not here,
basically what I said
was the fact that the resurrection of Jesus
was and continues to be and will always be
the most important event in the history of mankind.
And I mentioned for several reasons.
One, because it proves that Jesus is divine.
Two, His resurrection initiates our faith.
It's the spark that ignites the faith that we have.
And three, it also produces hope for our own resurrection
and our own eternal life.
The idea of being, if God can raise Jesus from the dead
then He can also raise us from the dead.
Not only showing us the resurrection of Jesus,
but also promising us a similar resurrection.
So this evening I want to talk to you about
the most important thing in the world.
You may think the most important thing
and when I hear people talk about this,
you know when they, well the most important thing
is family, for example, or health.
If you don't have your health, you know,
you can't enjoy anything, people say.
You may think, as I say,
family or health, happiness,
all of these things very important.
But more important than these is the church.
Not saying those other things are not important,
but the most important thing from God's perspective
is not how happy we are, how rich we are,
if we have a big family or not.
The most important thing from God's perspective
is the church.
In God's eyes, the most precious,
the most beautiful thing in all of creation
is the church of Christ, the church that belongs to Christ.
God's people, the saved, the body.
All kinds of names that the Bible attributes to the church.
And here's why.
Just cut to the chase,
why does God consider the church the most important thing?
Well first of all, it's value.
It's the most valuable thing in all of the world.
You know, we determine the value of something
by it's cost, don't we?
How much is that cost?
Well I'd like that car, how much does it cost?
In Acts 20:28 the Bible said, or Paul says,
"Be on your guard for yourselves and for all of the flock,
"among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers,
"to Shepherd the church of God
"which he purchased with His own blood."
The church was purchased not with money or gold,
it was purchased with the blood of Christ.
This price is beyond any amount of money
or any human sacrifice because the blood
or the life of Jesus, is perfect.
It is divine and so the intrinsic value of Jesus's life
is beyond anything that we have in creation.
Nothing else like it.
The value of gold and the value of diamonds
can be compared or measured
but there is nothing else on earth that costs
a perfect and eternal life in order to purchase.
Nothing else costs that
and so all the money or all the souls in the world
cannot equal the value of Jesus's life.
And so the church is important because it is
the most valuable thing in existence.
Even the creation of Adam
did not require the life of Christ as payment.
God did not sacrifice as much for any other thing
as He did to establish the church
and so it's the most important thing in all of creation
because of its, because of its value.
It is also the most important thing because of its role.
It has the most important purpose.
Nothing else in the world is tasked with doing
what the church is tasked with doing.
We read in 1 Timothy 3,
Paul says, "But in case I'm delayed I write so that
"you will know how one ought to conduct himself
"in the household of God,
"which is the church of the living God,
"the pillar and the support of the truth."
So the church is responsible for maintaining
and spreading the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Now there is truth in various books,
truth taught by schools,
every sort of organization and institution
but only the church has been given the mandate to guard
and proclaim the truth that can save a person's soul
and lead them to eternal life.
No other organization has been given that job.
No other organization has been tasked with
that important responsibility
and so the church is supremely important
because of the role it plays
and it will continue to play until the end of time.
To reveal and to propagate the news of
God's offer of forgiveness and eternal life
to all who believe Jesus Christ and obey His gospel.
That's you know, as we used to say
that's job number one,
of the church.
And so the church, you know,
we can be involved in benevolence work,
many churches are, we do.
We provide food and other services,
certainly to the congregation
but to many people in our community.
All kinds of good works that the church is involved in.
You know, the care packages we send to the troops
and the backpacks that we do for students
in different schools.
You know, we have potlucks for the sports team,
all kinds of good and benevolent works that we do.
We organize events and we operate schools.
We don't but many churches operate schools.
Various clinics, all good works, absolutely.
But its purpose is to be a witness to the world
concerning the truth that Jesus Christ
is the divine Lord and salvation is found only in Him.
That's the job.
If all we do is hand out food
but don't hand out that message, we failed as the church.
We're not doing our, we're not doing our job.
In Acts chapter 4:12, Peter says,
"And there is salvation in no one else;
"for there is no other name under heaven
"that has been given among men
"by which we must be saved."
Is Jesus the only way a person can be saved?
Yes.
Who says so?
The Bible.
Where does it say that specifically?
Well it says that specifically in many places
but you can't get it more compact than the way
Peter says it in Acts 4:12.
There's no way that you can twist this scripture.
There's no way that you can shuffle this scripture around
to make it mean that there is another way
to be saved other than Jesus.
There's only one conclusion from this verse.
No other name under heaven.
That excludes everybody.
No other name under heaven that has been given
among men by which we must be saved.
Only one, Jesus Christ.
Well what about the 10 million people that depend
on this other name, of this other religious figure,
person, historical person is.
What about all those people?
Well I don't know about those people.
All I know is the Bible says only one name given
under heaven by which we must be saved, just one.
So the church, as I say, can be involved in all
kinds of things but promoting this idea,
proclaiming this, that there's only one name
by which we can be saved, this is our primary task.
You know political activists and governments,
they often cast themselves as the guardians.
You know, the guardians of the environment
or the guardians of democracy or freedom or
our rights to you know own and buy and own guns
or our rights to speak and say what we wish
and there are all kinds of groups protecting those rights
but only the church has the responsibility
given to it by God to guard this truth.
To guard this truth.
Sometimes we're upset because they've taken prayer
out of school and well, we have a right.
Look at what's happening.
Children are killing other children.
Well if you don't ever teach them that the commandment
that says, "Thou shalt not kill."
And you do that for a couple of generations
and they don't learn in their homes, "Thou shalt not kill."
And they don't hear in school, "Thou shalt not kill."
If they get a mind to kill
there's nothing holding them back.
Don't ask yourself why this is happening.
Don't ask even how can we prevent it.
We go back to teaching people what is right,
what is wrong, the will of God.
The church is the most important thing in the world also
because of its destiny.
The importance of someone or something
is often measured by its relationship
to other important people or other important institutions.
For example, if your sister is the governor of the state,
well you might have certain benefits from her position.
You know, if you want to get a job
working for the government of the state,
if your sister's the governor,
you have a pretty good shot at getting in.
In 2 Timothy 2:11 and 12, Paul says the following,
"It is a trustworthy statement:
"for if we died with Him, we will also live with Him;
"If we endure, we will also reign with Him;
"If we deny Him, He also will deny us."
And so no matter what condition the church
finds itself in here on earth.
Whether the church is poor or young or small,
whether the church is ignored or persecuted,
its final position, its final relationship,
will be at the right hand of God ruling with Christ
over all powers, all spirits, all dominions,
even angels and kings and authorities,
and will reign in this way for ever and ever.
The destiny of the church is important.
The church is important because no other
person or organization has been promised
such a position by God.
We're not just related to some politician,
we are related to God who is in heaven.
That's a much more powerful advantageous relationship.
No other organism is connected to God in such
a dynamic and intimate way.
We're connected to God organically
because in Colossians 1:18, Paul says,
we are the body of Christ.
He is the head we are His body.
We are related to God organically
and we're also connected socially and emotionally
because in Ephesians 2:19, Paul says,
that we are the church's, God's household.
Being someone's household is intimate, right?
It's your brother, it's your mother,
it's your relatives, it's people of your own blood,
your own kin, and so Paul describes the church
as the household, the family, if you wish, of God.
So I preach sermons with the hope that
they will fulfill certain spiritual needs.
When I say I, every preacher
preaches with, he has a target.
He has objectives in mind.
So this lesson was given so that you might
become more aware of how truly important the church is
to God.
Never mind if the church is not important
to the local government.
Never mind if the church doesn't seem to be important
to the to the community,
that's not how we measure its value.
Its value is measured by how important it is to God
and that's the point I'm trying to get across tonight.
This congregation, for example,
is the most important thing in this town.
Better everything else should shut down
before this church shuts down
because it is the most important thing to God,
we need to remember certain things.
First of all,
we cannot please or serve God outside the church.
The Hebrews 10:23 says,
"Let us hold fast the confession of our hope
"without wavering."
What's the confession of our hope?
My hope is that through Christ I will live eternally.
So he says let's hang on to that confession
of our hope without wavering.
For He who promised, promised what?
Promised us eternal life.
"For He who promised is faithful; and let us consider
"how to stimulate one another."
Who's one another?
It's you, it's me, it's they, it's them.
Let us continue, right, to stimulate one another
to love and good deeds,
and what else should we do?
Says the author, "Not forsaking our assembling together."
What's that, assembling together?
Let's not forsake being the church,
coming together as the church.
As is the habit of some.
What had happened here?
Well the some, were Christians,
but what the habit they got into,
they got into the habit of not assembling together
and so the writer says,
don't get into the habit of not assembling together.
Continue the habit of assembling together.
As is the habit of some, but encouraging one another;
and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
Well the day drawing near can mean the day,
the Lord's day or it can mean the Judgment Day.
As you see the Lord's day/Judgment Day,
you, the church, ought to encourage one another
not to forsake the assembling together as a church.
Why, because the church is the most important thing
in the eyes of God.
Why, because in the church you are reminded
of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And you and I are reminded at the church,
that we also will resurrect with Christ one day.
You don't get that reminder at Walmart, [laughs] right?
At Walmart, you get to see the the latest trends
in the public wearing of pajamas.
But you don't.
[laughs]
You don't get the reminder, that you
are an eternal being, at Walmart
and the government doesn't remind you of this.
You're reminded of this when you come together
as a church, very important.
And so our value,
our role, the greatest fulfillment,
are developed and realized within the context of the church.
It's the only place where Christ is.
If you are outside the church,
then you are also outside of Christ
and you are outside of His purpose for you.
Secondly, the church is important
and because it is important, belonging to the church
is the same thing as being saved.
When someone refuses to belong to the church,
what they're actually refusing is salvation.
You know, in the book of Acts, familiar passage,
where Peter is preaching to the crowd on Pentecost Sunday
and when he preaches the gospel to them,
they ask him, men and brethren what should we do?
And what does he say, repent be baptized every one of you.
In the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins
and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit
and then it keeps going on and on.
And down in verse 2:47 it says, the church was praised.
All those who had been baptized, they were praising God
and having favor with all the people.
And the Lord was adding to their number day by day
those who were being saved.
When someone refuses to belong to the church, as I say,
they're refusing salvation.
There are two ways of saying the same thing.
If you say I'm a member of the church,
you're saying I'm a member of the body.
You're also saying, I'm saved.
When someone is cut off from the church
because of sinfulness,
they are also cut off from Christ and his salvation as well.
You cannot be a body member
without being a member of the body.
[laughs]
I mean, it goes together.
For example, if my arm is infected with some poison
and the doctors amputate my arm as a result
and my arm is laying there on the table after the surgery.
And you look at my arm, you know what, that's still my arm.
That's not the doctors arm, that's my arm.
But it is no longer connected to my body
and therefore, it can no longer function as my arm.
Yeah, it's my arm but doesn't work anymore.
It will eventually rot and disintegrate into dust,
while the rest of me goes on living without it.
I may be a one-armed man but I'm a living one-armed man.
My arm that I left behind, however,
is not good for anything else anymore.
When Jesus returns, he's going to return to find
and reward with eternal life, his church.
His faithful church.
Remember I've told you,
he's not coming back to look for
the biggest Church or the flashiest Church,
he's coming back to find the faithful Church.
The key word is faithful.
The unfaithful, those who have been cut away,
dropped away or never added, they will perish.
2 Thessalonians
1:6 to 10 read, "For after all it is only just for God
"to repay with affliction those who afflict you,
"and to give relief to you who are afflicted
"and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed
"from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire,
"dealing out retribution to those who do not know God."
That's one group,
"And to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction,
away from the presence of the Lord
and from the glory of His power."
To those individuals, who reject the idea
that there's no such thing as hell,
and that is a kind of a comforting idea.
They have a little bit of a problem with
this particular passage here, to interpret this passage
and wish away the existence of hell.
And he says, "These will pay the penalty of
"eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord
"and from the glory of His power,
"when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day,
"and to be marveled at among all who have believed
"for our testimony to you was believed."
The faithful will rejoice and the unfaithful will suffer,
this is what we call a hard truth.
It's a hard truth.
Why do we say it's a hard truth
because even if we believe and even if we are faithful,
it still hurts to think that there are some
who are unfaithful, who will be lost.
I personally take no pleasure in anyone being lost.
I take no pleasure in whole groups of people being lost.
Thankfully God is not given to any of us,
the responsibility of judgment.
He has only given to us the responsibility of proclamation
and this we must do, so that we can stand
before Him in good conscience.
Not because we condemned anybody
but because we did what we could
to proclaim the good news,
so that everyone would have an opportunity to
receive the eternal life that we have received
and humbly accept through Christ,
our Lord.
And so it's a hard truth
but it's a truth nevertheless.
One other thing to remember,
because the church is important,
believers will never fully experience the joy and the peace
that comes from knowing God and Jesus, His son,
until they begin loving and serving the church.
I've made this into a little math thing here
because don't have enough room on the slide
to put the whole thing on,
but basically you get it.
Love plus service equals joy and peace in the church.
In 2 Timothy 4, we read,
"But you be sober in all things, endure hardship,
"do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry."
I was telling someone else,
and Hal and I talk about this all the time, you know,
for Bible talk.
The bigger it grows, the more expensive it is
to support the thing.
When you have a million viewers,
when you have a million minutes of watch time per month,
when you have over a hundred and thousand visitors,
that means there are people asking questions,
that means they have to be answered.
That means we, you know, we have to have people
who type the closed captions and do the translation.
You know the bigger it gets, the more expensive it gets
to support the thing.
Well we have to find the money to do that
and you know, we go out and I preached in different places.
I'm going to Tennessee next weekend,
couple of more weeks I'm going up to Luton,
and all, you know, for Bible talk.
And that gets burdensome sometimes
because every year we start at zero,
is everybody going to be with us in 2018?
Will we lose all our support in 2019
and we won't be able to continue?
And I have to thank Hal, he's the one that exerts me.
And from his exhortation,
I write down on my to-do list,
I don't know but you got a little to-do list, you know.
Appointment here Tuesday, call so-and-so Thursday, whatever.
At the top of my to-do list,
every week when I make it up,
I write the following words:
just do the work,
let the Lord provide.
Just do the work,
let the Lord provide.
Hasn't he provided almost 40 years of full-time ministry,
has he always provided?
Yes, what are you worried about.
Just do the work,
let the Lord provide.
Paul continues to speak to him, he says,
"I have fought the good fight,
"I have finished the course, I have kept the faith;
"in the future there is laid up for me
"the crown of righteousness, which the Lord,
"the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day;
"and not only to me, but also to all who
"have loved His appearing."
Paul just did the work
and let the Lord provide for him.
I believe Paul could face a cruel and unjust death
with joy and confidence because he was assured
that giving up his life for the church,
he was offering it for something that was worthwhile.
For example,
the church is priceless in value
and so his life was not wasted.
He was giving up his life for something that was priceless.
The church was unique in its purpose
and so his life had meaning.
How many people have I spoken to,
who have gone into ministry and said,
you know I just, I just can't see myself
selling another thing or and making another widget
or you know, I need to go and preach the gospel.
They see no purpose in what they're doing,
they they must leave and go and proclaim the gospel.
Paul wasn't just leaving something
to go preach the gospel,
he was about to give his life for the gospel.
And when he looked at the church,
when he examined the thing that he had worked for
and suffered for,
he realized that this church
was unique and so his life had meaning.
Even if it was to end, it was okay.
And of course the church is eternal in its destiny
and so Paul had hope beyond this life.
Not just, he wasn't serving just a movement that would,
you know, perish once he was gone.
He was sure that the thing that he served
would continue on long after he was gone,
would continue on until the end of time.
And so his life was intertwined with the life of the body
and if the body was eternal, so would his life be,
and so is our own lives.
How many of us spent so much of our time searching
for meaning and purpose and direction for our lives
in the things of this world?
And we continually come up short and dissatisfied,
disillusioned, discouraged, depressed.
When will we learn that the yearning for a spiritually,
meaningful, valuable, eternal contribution of our lives
and talents, can only be satisfied in service to God,
worked out through our service to the church.
I don't mean everybody's got to quit their jobs
and be preachers, some do, some do it.
I did it, Marty did it, others did it,
doesn't mean everybody has to do it.
But at some point,
at some point, our life finally finds its meaning
in how we interact with God's church
and how we serve it.
No matter how we serve it.
You know, the church is the most important
thing in the world and because this is so,
we cannot be saved, we cannot please God,
and we cannot reach our full spiritual potential
outside of the church.
And so this evening therefore,
I offer four invitations on behalf of the church.
Invitation number one,
if you're not a member of God's church
then I encourage you to allow Christ to add you
to His household through repentance and baptism.
That is always the invitation.
Why are we always inviting, you know, all the time?
Because the church is the most important thing
and our own resurrection will become
the most important event in our lives.
It is worthwhile to repeat once or twice a week at least,
the invitation to be added to the church
and to guarantee your eternal life in Christ, Jesus.
Invitation number two, return to the church.
If you've fallen away from the body
because of neglect or sin,
you know, you can be separated from the body
and still be sitting in the pew. [laughs]
I've seen that a lot of times,
some people make the mistake
that if they attend worship,
it means they're okay with the entire church and the Lord.
Not exactly the same thing.
If you want to be sure, that you are
a member of the church in good standing
and you have sinned or if you've neglected the church,
you've just not been the Christian
you know you need to be.
I can't judge that, only two people can judge that.
That's you and the Lord.
And so if that's a decision that you need to make,
to be restored to the church,
then let's do it.
Come forward, repent, ask the elders to pray for you,
to help you, to support you.
Invitation number three,
if you are a baptized believer
or new to the area or you've just been visiting us
and you'd like to identify yourself with our congregation.
I say give us the right hand of fellowship,
allow the elders of this congregation to be those
who oversee your life, who shepherd you.
We need to know that, then make that known tonight.
And finally, if you need the prayers of the church
for any reason but specifically,
if you need the prayers of the church
to be stronger in your faith,
stronger in your hope that resurrection
is what you are aiming for, is what your going towards.
If you need the prayers of the church
because you need to be a better, fill in the blank, okay.
A better son, a better daughter, a better husband,
a better wife, better child,
better worker, better you know.
We all can fill in that blank with something different
but if you need the prayers of the church
in order to help you be that better person, then come.
There's no shyness here.
We are the family of God, the household of God.
We're supposed to be able to share with one another,
not only our strength in our victories
but our weaknesses as well,
and our defeats also.
Usually when someone who has failed badly comes forward
I have found, this is just anecdotal here, no scripture.
Just my own opinion, I have found that,
that many times is much more powerful
and affecting the faith of the brethren,
than the sermon I just preached.
Because we see that person have the courage to come forward
and say I want to confess Christ and be baptized.
Or that person comes forward and says,
I've not been living right and I want to do right
and I need the help of the church
to strengthen me to do right.
That encourages everyone else
because they're saying, hey if that person there
that I thought had everything going for them,
I thought they had everything together.
If they need the help of the church,
who am I to stand back?
Who am I to continually put off asking
for the prayers of the elders in the church.
So if you are needing to answer any one of those
and if I've left the one out, [laughs]
the unknown reason to come forward,
then I encourage you to do that now.
As we stand and as we sing our song of encouragement.