Ephesians chapter number 5, if you'll notice, verse number 22, wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. That's my text, verse 25, Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. Brother Mike, will you pray and ask the Lord to bless, please? Amen, thank you. You may be seated. I mentioned some this morning, the fact that the body of Christ, the church, is not just a head, the church has a body. Oftentimes churches, they forget about Jesus Christ, so it's a body walking around without a head, but sometimes that thing is flipped the opposite, to where the body is forgotten about, and when you study church history, you're not just studying about Jesus, You're studying about people, about Christians throughout time. And we talk about the church, obviously doctrinally, the church, the body of Jesus Christ. When someone trusts Jesus Christ by faith, they are placed into that body, just as Dr. Stephens has elaborated on some tonight. But in a local sense, obviously the Bible uses the word church in a local sense, I want to take a little liberty with this passage tonight. And you'll notice in verse 25, Christ loved the church. I'm glad that Jesus Christ loved me. I'm in that band. I'm in that number. When I got saved, I got transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son. I got transferred out from under the wrath of God to under the umbrella of God's love. I am so glad Jesus loves me, Jesus loves me, Jesus loves me. I am so glad Jesus loves me, Jesus loves even me. And I'm in the church. Don't you get sick and tired of people talking about the church? You invite somebody to church and they say, well, you know, there's nothing but hypocrites in the church. So we'll come join us, you'll make one more. You know, everybody downs the church, and there's a lot of problems with church. And I understand, as the world paints the picture of Christianity, they'll find, I have to be a pastor. They'll find a Roman Catholic whatever, and they'll find these bad cases where they did bad things and they'll plaster it all across the news to try to give you this persona that all preachers are bad, all preachers run off with their secretaries or piano players, all preachers are wicked, all church members are ungodly, that the church is no good. And by the way, a lot of people live just like they don't need church. And so we're living in perilous times to say the least. But I just want to preach just a few things here and leave you with this tonight. What's right about church? We are bad about criticizing, breaking down, and I know you're looking at me and probably already counted a few errors already because that's what we do. We're Bible believers, right? We don't correct the Bible, we just correct everybody else. What's wrong with the church? You know, sometimes the Bible says, the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up, and as pastors we live, eat, and breathe the church. My wife and I, we don't have any children, so the church is our baby. Amen. We live it, we eat it, we breathe it, and we're going to think about it all the time. You're going to be consumed with it, and rightly so. The word addiction is used in reference to the ministry in the Bible, and that's the only way that word addiction is used. You're going to be addicted to something, you'll be addicted to the ministry. So what about all your hobbies? Well, those things begin to fall on the wayside. The more you get into involvement in the church and involvement in ministry, you become consumed with it. What got a hold of me, I want to get a hold of Him. And God has put us in the church, and what's right about it? What's good about it? Let's rejoice with some of these things. Just like Brother Wheeler said tonight, there's some good things about church and some things that we've studied this morning, how that it's the pillar and ground of the truth. Man, I'm thankful for some Anglicans. I'm thankful for some people of the Church of England that sprinkled babies, that had some scholarship minds that translated the King James Bible. So they sure didn't have their doctrine right. Well, they sure gave us the right Bible. You go back and think in that critical mind, think about what we have, the pillar and ground of the truth. And here we are, we want to get all upset when somebody don't shake our hand, or we get all upset when somebody doesn't give us the position in the church, and we get mad, and we criticize, and we want to pick apart. Well, let's just talk about what's right. I'll give you just a few things. Number one, I believe church, what's good about the church, and what we love about the church. By the way, he loves it, we ought to love it. The church channels our concentration. It channels our concentration. It brings reality back in focus. Sin is manifested when you come in here. Now look, I know I'm not dumb enough to think that everybody who comes to church, they're all living great holy lives. You say, how come? Because I know I'm not. I know some people can sit in the pew and they can do something on Saturday night and walk in on Sunday morning. I understand that. However, you're going to hear some preaching against your sin when you come in here. You're going to hear some preaching against what's wrong with the world. You're going to have sin exposed in front of you by that Bible. And that's good. It channels our concentration. Sin is manifested. Paul said that sin might appear sin, Romans chapter 7. You need to be calibrated. Some of you, you just send the world just a little too much. I know you have to work out there, but you've just buddied up with the world a little too much and you've become a little sympathetic with sin. And you need a little old timey preacher to stand up here and get a little mad. Get a little upset, stomp his foot and yell a little bit and say, hey, it's not right even though the world says it's right. It's not right even though your flesh likes it. It's a sin against God. You need that. It manifests sin. Church channels our concentration. Society is maligned. We preach against the world. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. You have to realize you are in opposition to this world because this world is in opposition to Jesus Christ. And you get that focus when you get in here. You don't get that out there. You don't get that in a lot of churches. Sin is manifested, society is maligned, the Savior is magnified. They get up and sing these songs about Jesus. You open up that hymn book and you have 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 songs about Jesus. You have testimony time and somebody wants to brag on Jesus. That kind of brings things back into focus. We're here because of Him. It's the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us from all sin. Not just our coming together and trying to make ourselves feel good about ourselves. It's Jesus Christ the reason we're going to heaven. Not by works of righteousness which we have done. It channels our concentration. But I believe church also constricts carnality. Like I said, I don't buy this idea, you know, like some of these preachers, they think since they're a man of God and they have this list of standards, that everybody adheres to the standards. I'm sorry, I don't go swimming in a two-piece suit. Amen. Let me just stop there for a second. I ain't going to tell you about my pajamas, but I do have some pajamas, amen. You know, all this kind of stuff, you know, to where we think that we control people. This book is the final authority, and I think you get that. You understand that. But there is a sense of a godly environment because of positive pressure to live right. You need that. You need that social aspect of, hey, I've got a brother Josh that's going to be texting me if I miss church. I've got somebody that's going to be praying for me saying, hey, where were you when we did such and such? Hey, how's it been going? I've been noticing. You need that positive pressure. It constricts that carnality. If you just are left to your own, just put down the Bible for a while. Get out of a good church, out of a good fellowship. It will affect you spiritually. And that old man is always there, you know, with braces and so forth. What happens if you don't wear your retainer? Those of you who had braces and any type of work like that, you don't wear the retainer every night, what happens? They go back just as crooked as they were before. You need the church. It constricts carnality. Number three, the church carries concern. Thank God for the church. 2 Thessalonians 1.3 says, We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth. It carries concern. Your preacher cares about you. Your Sunday school teachers care about their kids and about their classes. Your fellow members care about one another. You have a prayer list and somebody says, hey, will you pray for me? There's care, there's concern. Care for your spiritual well-being, care for your service to Jesus Christ, care for lost souls. This world needs the church. Now the world doesn't need us to compromise what we're supposed to be in order to reach the world, but the world needs the church. Just like he mentioned, you just go across the landscape of this country and it's dotted with these little reminders, these little churches, and as weak as some of them may be, they may have a sign that says, Jesus saves out the front. As weak as they may be on a Sunday morning, somebody's driving along, and here's all these people parted at this church for what? because of Jesus Christ. He is the way. He is the truth. He is the life. And we do care that lost people die and go to hell. There's concern. The church carries concern. A couple more and we're done. I believe we ought to love the church because the church cultivates consistency and challenges our character. The church cultivates consistency. Appreciate the fact that we have a schedule. Appreciate the fact that we say this is the time we're going to have church. And when the church doors are open, you need to be here. Like we mentioned this morning, who you are defines what you do. When you identify yourself as a certain employer at a certain job, oftentimes they give you that uniform, you put on that uniform and that's you. And you realize, okay, I have tasks to do because this is me. When you wake up on Sunday morning, you know what you do, you think, okay, I'm a Christian. I've already made this decision years ago, so as a Christian and as a member, and by the way, it's a good thing to join a church. It's a good thing to be committed to take that step People don't want to commit. They'll commit to signing a mortgage. They'll sign a line for a $50,000 car for seven years without even praying about it. But they won't commit to joining a good church. Because they know, well, if I'm a member, you know, I need to tithe, and I need to contribute, and I need to be there, and I need to... Are you that cheap? It costs Him everything, but it's not going to cost you anything? Our salvation doesn't cost anything, but to show Him that we love Him and we love the church, I think we ought to be committed. And the church can cultivate that consistency. Yeah, there's Sunday school. Yeah, there's other things that the church is doing that we ought to be a part of. And it helps us to get on board. It can encourage that. cultivates consistency and challenges our character, reminds us of spiritual truths. I think we need to be reminded. It doesn't bother me that several of these guys, we've all kind of preached each other's text. There's no collusion going on here where we're like, the Bible's the Bible. You need to be reminded. You can sing Amazing Grace 500 times. I still believe when we get around that throne, we're going to have, what's his name, Newton there in front of us. He's going to lead us in that song. We need to be reminded of these things. It challenges our character. It cultivates consistency. Responsibility of spiritual duty. Positive peer pressure to step up to the plate. Sometimes you just need a little push. You just need somebody to say, you know what? You've got a great voice. Why don't you come over and let's practice a song. We'll sing a special together. Hey, we're going out and we're going to the nursing home or we're going to whatever ministry. Hey, why don't you come with us? Just a little positive pressure. I'm glad as a young Christian when I started going to church and God rang my bell and began to deal with me about ministry, I'm glad I had some people that gave me some positive pressure. They said, hey, we're going to pass out tracts, why don't you come along? And things like that, it helped me. I needed that. And then finally, The church clarifies our calls and cheers the comrades. Like has been said several times, we're not an island. This thing about being saved is not just an individual thing because the church is corporate. Yes, you have individual salvation. God saved you as an individual person. But God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it. You become a part of that organism when you, by faith, do what all these other people have done by faith. Trust Jesus Christ and receive Him as your personal Savior. Then you become, like as the preacher said earlier, part of something a whole lot bigger than you are. Isn't it amazing how people want to have that in their lives, especially during football season and stuff. They put the little flags on Saturdays on their cars and they get all excited about this stuff and they use the personal pronouns we. You know, we made some good decisions and we just weren't handling the ball that good. There ain't no we to it. You didn't do nothing. You're just driving around town in your little car with your little flags on it. You know, well I think this year if we get so-and-so and we get him in the Senate, you know, I think we can do a pretty good job and I think we, we, we. Are you really on Capitol Hill? Well, you know, I vote and your vote does that big of a job? There's no we to it. But people, I think it's in our nature, probably because of insecurity. Because I don't know if you realize how weak you really are, and how much of a nothing we really are. All it takes is one little flu bug, somebody walking around, I'm sure somebody's going to get sick after this meeting. Everybody walking around, just a little sneeze here, a little there, some little germ, little bug gets in you, and next thing you know, you're on the back of your bed, you're laying there, you're asking your wife to bring you some chicken noodle soup. Nothing as a kid growing up, like staying home, sick, eating chicken noodle soup, watching The Price is Right. Amen. But you know, your body, you realize how much of a nothing you are, and I think because of that, that people, they want to find something bigger than they are. So they join these groups, they join these clubs, they get on these teams, and maybe they're not the best player, maybe they sit on the bench, but if they win the championship, everybody gets the trophy, they're still a part of that. How much greater as a believer in Jesus Christ Not just the church militant, but the church triumphant. Think about all the martyrs that have gone on before us. We're in that number. We're in that number. Saved by grace. It clarifies our cause. It cheers our comrades. There is a cause. We're here for a reason. The money, the effort, the work, the dedication, opening the doors, having a place, having a public building in this town. There is a purpose to this thing. Coming out each and every time the doors are open when services are here. It says something to this community. It says something to the world. It clarifies what we're here for. By definition, the word ekklesia is the word you get for the word church, and it means a called out group, just like the word exodus or the exit sign. A group that's called out. It clarifies our calls by definition, but also by defiance. We are called out of the world. Like, I think it was Vance Havner, he said, you're called out of the world, and the only business you have in the world is to get somebody else to come out of the world. It clarifies our calls and it cheers the comrades. It cheers the comrades. Some of you, man, you're on a jubilee high right now. Man, you don't want this thing to stop and it's not stopping. You're going to have tomorrow and if you stay over for Sunday, man, he'll blow it in, blow it up, and blow it out on Sunday. And you need that. It cheers the comrades to gather around. to meet some other brothers and sisters that are going through some of the same things. And realize, you know, they got their prayers answered and God helped them, maybe God will help me. There's no temptation taking you but such as is common to man, so if God helped them, maybe He can help me. You know, they said something in just a way that I get it now. I see it now. It encourages us. I'm telling you what, we need encouragement. We got the reproof and the rebuke down, but often times we leave off that exhortation. Some of you, you're doing right and you're struggling and it's hard. I want to encourage you to keep doing right. Like one of the preachers was talking about, Brother Knowles I think, talking about you come to church and sometimes you deal with stuff and it's not always the most exciting thing and you have to do some things out of routine, obviously. but just stay with it. It'll cheer the comrades. Our gathering together by demonstration, and we have a commander, the Lord Jesus Christ. I think as the preacher, I think you may have said this, or maybe you say this often, you want the Lord to come back on Sunday night. That's pretty good. It'd be good if he'd come back when we're in church. We're already assembled. I don't believe in a split rapture. But it'd be kind of neat if the Lord, if He came back on Sunday night, and when He came back, He'd take all those that were in church and the shut-ins that wanted to be there, but the ones who were all lazy, if He just gave them a few seconds delay. That'd be a bad trick. But this is a good place. Don't let the devil pull this joy out of it. Don't let the devil come up and begin that critical spirit because of that discontent and let somebody rub you the wrong way. When that stuff happens, immediately plead the blood of Christ. Immediately forgive. You say, they didn't ask me to forgive. Forgive them anyway. Let it go. Choose like mothers do. I watched my mother-in-law three days ago when my brother-in-law died. For four days she stood there and only slept a few hours and those four days just rubbing his brow. A mother's love is unbelievable. Unbelievable. A mother has chosen no matter what to love that child. Make a choice that you're going to love the church. Make a choice if you're going to love your preacher and your preacher's wife. Make a choice if you're going to love each other. I didn't say you're going to always like each other. Some of your personalities may rub against you, but go ahead and make a choice. You know, they're a brother. Christ loves them, I'm going to love them. Now it's good if you like each other. But make the choice that you're going to love the church and see what's good about the church instead of what's so messed up about it. You know, I think that critical spirit is what gets so many people to find all these disagreements. And you'll ask these guys, and I know there's some legitimate reasons. We have students that don't have good churches to go to, and we understand that. We try to work those issues out. But there are cases where there are churches that people could go to but they nitpick and they criticize so much that they have created this monster and now they have no fellowship. Don't let that happen. Choose to love the church. There's a little difference in going to church and being in the church. A little difference in talking about, I wonder what they're going to do at church tonight. I wonder what they're going to do at Jubilee. Be a part of it. It's not just they, it's us. Amen. Preach it.