If you have your Bibles, turn to the book of Romans. The book of Romans chapter 1. If you're visiting with us for the first time today, we are in a study of ecclesiology, the doctrine of the church. And we've had several messages in this study already. And we, today, will be speaking of the local church. The local church, and we will probably spend some time here in the next several weeks, but this is sort of an introductory message, and things will begin to get a little deeper as we consider Christ in the midst of His church, the power of the church, The purpose of the church in the world, the local church in the world, in this community. So Romans chapter 1, I want us to read verses 1 through 7. It says, Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scripture concerning his son, who was descended from David according to the flesh, and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by His resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of His name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. And then our focal verse, to all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank You for the confession and the witness to the Word that we have the privilege of making in this world. We pray, God, that You would add Your blessing to the reading and the study, the ministry of Your Word. this morning, that you would be pleased, Lord, through the weakness of what is delivered and through the one delivering it to accomplish great things in our hearts and our lives. And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. In our study of ecclesiology, the doctrine of the church, we have considered that Christ established the church. Matthew 16 and verse 18. We have considered the fact that Christ loved the church and that He gave Himself for her. He died for His church. Ephesians 5 and verse 25. And last week, we considered the fact that Christ is personally building His church. Again, Matthew 16 and verse 18. And we know that Christ is building His church and will continue to build His church because there are believers all over the earth. There are believers worldwide. The church of Christ is a universal church. The church of God is a universal church. And we consider the doctrine of the church universal. There are believers on every continent from different geographical locations in varying cultures. We know this to be a fact. Anywhere you go, you can meet another believer. However, we may not know them personally, and we may never even see them. And in that sense, the church is invisible. Because there are so many believers around the world, and none of us are going to meet all of them. There's going to be a great portion of them that we will never see, we will never meet, we will never have contact with, we will never engage with in conversation. So in that sense, the church is invisible. We know that in seeking to be faithful to the instruction of Scripture, those believers around the world whom we may never meet and whom we may never see are seeking to make the church visible in their locations by assembling and gathering themselves into local churches. This is how the church is made visible in the world. This is the doctrine of the local church. The New Testament speaks of the universal church in several places. But in speaking of the church and in speaking to the church and about the church, most of the time it refers to the church in a local sense. And so it is with many of the great confessions, articles of confessions of faith that the churches had down through the ages. You think about the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Westminster Confession of Faith, the London Baptist Confession of 1689. In those confessions, what you have is in that chapter on the church, you may have one or two paragraphs on the universal church or the church universal, and you will have upwards of 15 on the church local. In the London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689, there is one paragraph on the church universal and there are 14 on the church local. And oftentimes the section in those confessions on the church is longer than the section on Scripture even. And all those confessions say very clearly and definitively that those who know Christ, those who are His chosen and elect people, will and must join themselves to a particular congregation of believing people. Let me ask you this question this morning. How highly do you value your church membership? How highly do you value your church membership? Or what I'm asking this is, how much does it mean to you that you are a member here at Glencoe Baptist Church, that you're a member here at Glencoe, that you're in this congregation? How important is it to you that you are a part of this congregation, that you have a place in it? Do God's people here in this local assembly, do they matter to you? Do they mean much to you? And do you feel compelled to use your gifts and your talents for the good of the body here at Glencoe Baptist Church and for the glory of God? The church is of supreme importance. The church is of supreme importance to Christ. The church is of supreme importance to our God. And if we love Christ, we're going to love His church. If we love Christ, we're going to be in the midst of His church. There is no such thing as a churchless Christian. or a Christian who is doing life without the church. You will not find that pattern. You will not find that model in Scripture. There are some people today who say, well, I just don't like organized religion. Well, what do you prefer? Disorganized religion? I've been in some churches where it was like that, but... I don't like organized religion. I can be a Christian without the church. The Scripture doesn't say that. Anytime in the Scriptures when you see people coming to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, they will affiliate themselves, they will join themselves to a local congregation in their region, in their locale. If we love Christ, we'll be in the midst of His church. You know, nine out of the New Testament books are written directly to churches. Three of the New Testament books are written to pastors of churches. And one book gives a record of the development and the history of the church, and that is the book of Acts. You cannot be a non-participant in the church or uninterested in the church without having to throw away three quarters of your New Testament. If you are a New Testament Christian, then you must be also a person who is deeply and intimately involved in the life and the activity of a local church. Because that is what the New Testament speaks so much about. Really, I would say, go so far to say, as that's what the New Testament is all about. Now we know that the church is not the central theme of the New Testament. Christ and His redemption is the central theme of the New Testament. But the outworking of Jesus Christ and His redemptive work is seen in our lives and our fellowship and our activity in the local church. We cannot claim to be a New Testament Christian, to be a follower of Christ, to be a disciple of His and be indifferent toward the local church. Simply cannot be. The book of Romans was written by the Apostle Paul to the church in Rome. And I want you to notice his personal address to them in verse 7. The Apostle Paul is writing to a church in Rome. He's writing to a church. And I want us to consider what this verse, what these words written by the Apostle Paul tell us about the local church. The first thing it tells us is it has a location. Hence the term local church. It has a location. The local church always has two things. It has a particular context and a particular identity in the community in which God places them. So the context for the original audience here was Rome. Rome was the hub of the ancient world. It was the epicenter of everything. Rome was the place, literally, where peoples came together. You've heard the old saying, all roads lead to Rome. That was indeed true during the time of Christ. All roads did lead to Rome. And in the ancient world, Rome would have been like L.A. and Washington D.C. and San Francisco all rode into one. That's what Rome would have been like. It was a bustling place. It was a happening place. And in that city of cities, a church of the Lord Jesus Christ had been planted and it was growing." Now I want to stop for a minute and I want us to make a few connections here. Although New Smyrna Beach isn't Rome, there has been a church of Jesus Christ planted here in this small town. And that church that has been planted here in this small town is also growing. Now we're not a major city compared to where I come from. This is a major city, but to hear some of you all talk about this place, it's little. I came from a city of 2,000 people, a town of 2,000 people. Two red lights. and two railroad crossings. No, we're not a major city. I guess you would call us a small-town America. But this is where God has seen fit to establish our local congregation. He moved a man by the name of Hal Lee to plant a church in the Glencoe area. And that plant was made. We first met, from what I understand, before I ever knew anything about Glencoe, There was a school bus out here in this parking lot, and that's where this church began. And then it continued to grow, and it is what it is today by God's grace. And since God has seemed fit to plant a church, a local congregation here, since God has seemed fit to plant us here, this is where we're called to serve. This is where we're called to serve. We're not just called together. We are called to serve. We are called to serve one another. We are called to serve our community for the glory of God, for Christ's sake. This is where we're called to serve. So young people, as you look at and think about the future, I wanna ask you to do something. Do so with New Smyrna Beach in mind. As you look and think about the future, do so with Glencoe Baptist Church in mind. I want you to seriously consider serving the Lord at Glencoe. And there's a reason why I say that. I would say, as you think about the future, as you think about what the future holds for you after high school or whatever, that you think you have to go somewhere else to really serve God, that you have to go somewhere else to have an impact for Christ's sake. I thought that way. but you don't have to go somewhere else in order to fulfill God's calling for your life. You might do that. God may call you to do that, but it doesn't have to be that way. Being raised in a small town in a relatively small church doesn't mean that you have to move on or move up or go somewhere else in order to be an active believer. It doesn't mean that at all. All that can take place here. All that can take place here. You know what always surprises me is that people in the church who are always complaining about what's not going on in their church, young people who are complaining about how boring their church is and how there doesn't seem to be anything going on are doing the least in regard to contributing with time and energy and effort in that church. You can serve here. Actually, God wants you, rather than sitting in a pew, to be serving in a church, serving here. Look, don't view Glencoe as some kind of a launch pad, as some kind of a stepping stone to bigger and better things. Why not just set down roots here? Why not grow where you're planted? Why not bear fruit here? Why not serve the Lord where you've been raised in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord? Look, Rome may have been the city of cities, but it really wasn't the destination for God's people. It wasn't like Christians were flocking to Rome because being a believer in a major city in that church meant that you were more important than other believers in other smaller churches. Not at all. No, the church was planted in Rome because God wanted one there. That's why it was there. It wasn't because everybody was flocking to Rome because they wanted to have the status of being in the church at Rome. Now eventually it did fall into pride, the church at Rome, thinking it was bigger and better than every other church and therefore you have the Roman Catholic Church with all of its issues and heresies. But think about it like this. If this is where God in His providence has established a church, if this is where God in His providence has placed you, then this is where you are to use your gifts, you are to use your talents, as an opportunity to glorify God and to build up other believers. This is your opportunity in this place to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. That's the chief end of man. Being a part of the church is an aspect of that. It's an opportunity for you to be a blessing to your fellow believers that sit on the pew around you. God's placed you here. And He's placed you here for a purpose. There's a reason that you're here. Look, we should all recognize and be grateful for the fact that it's by God's saving grace, it's by God's saving mercy that we have been accounted among His church worldwide, that we've been accounted among His people worldwide. I mean, we always look to Jesus for salvation. His salvation is full and free. We have all that we need in Jesus. Absolutely, yes. Amen a thousand times. But we also need to look to Jesus for the strength and the wisdom and intentionality that we need to live for Him in this location. Every last one of us. That was the calling of the believers in Rome back in the first century, and that's the calling that we have as believers in Christ here today in New Smyrna Beach at Glencoe Baptist Church. So the church, the local church, has a location. It also has a description. Look at verse 7 again. "...to all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints." The true church, every true church in every geographical location, in every city, has a description. And it's a two-fold description. First of all, it's a wonderful description. And secondly, it's a spiritual description. Look at this. To all those in Rome who were loved by God and called to be saints. You want to know what this is? This is a summary of the manifold blessings that we have been given in Jesus Christ. It's a summary. Just one phrase. On the one hand, the wonderful part is this, that we are loved by God. That's the wonderful part. That we are loved by God. And I would say that God's love can never ever be overstated. You cannot make too much about the fact that God's love is given to God's people. You simply cannot do it. It's a theme that runs throughout the scriptures. No matter how, and here's the thing, no matter how much we extol it, no matter how much we sing about it, no matter how much we talk about it, and praise God for it, it will forever fall short. of the acknowledgement and praise that God's love deserves. We simply can't give God's love the praise and the adoration and the worship that it's deserving of because we're finite, weak, sinful creatures. But we are to strive to. So on the one hand, the wonderful part is that we are loved by God. On the other hand, there's the spiritual part. And that is that we are to live unto God as saints. To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints. Loved by God, that's a wonderful thing. We can't talk about it enough, we can't sing about it enough. Called to be saints, that's spiritual. And the danger is that since God's love is made so much of on the pages of Holy Scripture, the danger is that we cease to wonder at it. That's the danger. And when we cease to wonder at God's love for us, that's when we begin to look and live less like saints of God. And this is the thing that sets us apart from the rest of the world, right? We are saints. We are made saints of God upon conversion. Christians are called saints throughout the New Testament, throughout the Scriptures. No one confers that on us. We are made saints by trusting in Christ for our salvation, being reconciled to God in Him. And as saints, we have been set apart from the world unto God. When Christ saved us, the call for us was to come out from among them and be ye separate. And being saints is what defines us. It should mark the way we live, it should mark the way we serve, the way we walk, the way we speak, the way we think. Saints describes who we are in private and in public and in every situation. We are saints. And if we forget to consider the love of God, the love that He has not only said that He has for us, but that He has actually shown to us in Christ Jesus, then that's when we begin to live less like saints. Because true Christian living that pleases God and serves God is always and only a response to the mercy and the grace and the love of God. If we do any of that for any other reason, our motive is impure. We should be enraptured with God's love given to us in Christ Jesus. Now just think, as a believer in Jesus Christ, you are loved by God. I want you to know that. The greatest sin that we ever commit, I believe it's Martin Lloyd-Jones who said this, one of the greatest sins that we ever commit as believers is to doubt the love of God. But you are loved by God. That's the best news that you could ever hear. What more could you ever want besides that? What more could you ever need besides that? What else really could you ever hope to hear besides that? That you are loved by God. I hope that sinks down deep in your soul. And I hope you never lose sight of it. I hope God uses That fact, in order to tether you to God's people in the local church. Tether you to God's people here in this place. Young people, your friends may fail you. Your classmates may fail you. Your co-workers may fail you. Even your parents, trying their best not to, will fail you and disappoint you. But God, who is your heavenly Father, will not fail you, ever. His love is perfect through Jesus Christ, our Lord. And why do I say that? Because young people, the pressures on you today are unbelievable. The things that you deal with today I didn't have to deal with. The opportunities for you to get into some really dangerous places in your life are so available to you because of technology. People say, well, you know, things are different today than they used to be. In some ways that's true. I just say that people have more sophisticated ways to commit their sin than they used to. And for you trying to be a Christian in your school or at your first job working at Wendy's or wherever it may be, I hope you do better than that, but that could be the way it is for a while. But sometimes I know you have to feel like the world's against you as a Christian. I know you have to feel that way. Sometimes I know you have to feel like, man, living this Christian life, it just isn't worth it. It doesn't earn me any friends. It doesn't get me noticed. Certainly doesn't make me popular. Let me tell you something. Both of those things are a lie from the devil and a corruption of the truth. Both of them. As a believer, as a member of the church of God, as a believing member of this church, let me tell you what the Scripture says. The Scripture says, greater is He who is in you than he that is in the world. The Bible says if God is for you, nothing can be against you. Who can stand against you? The Bible tells us that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Neither height, nor depth, nor things visible or invisible, nothing. So before you think that the world is against you, and that living the Christian life simply isn't worth it, I want you to think about the fact that you as a young believer are loved by God. What more really could you want? And I'll tell you this much, when it's all said and done and it's over, it's the only thing that's gonna matter, that you were loved by God, that you were known by God, and that you know God. But this is who you are. This is who we are as the church. We are those who are loved by God and we are those who are called to be saints and we desire to be saints and live like saints in response to the love of God for us. So yes, I know that thinking about the love of God and the grace of God has fallen on hard times. And the reason why that is is because of things that have gone on in our culture and things that have gone on in our churches. Because sadly, when preachers are continually preaching on The grace of God, grace, grace, grace, the church has a tendency to fall into apostasy and into sin. When churches are speaking much about the love of God, love, love, love, the same thing can happen. But that's not supposed to be the response or the result, if we think about those things rightly. No, the love of God should result in us loving Him in return, adoring Him in return, and desiring to please Him in every aspect of our lives. That's a part of our description. We are saints. We have been called to be saints because we are loved by God. So the local church has a location, the local church has a greeting, or has a description. Thirdly, it receives a greeting. I want you to notice the greeting in this. You say, well, it's verse 7. Why is there a greeting in verse 7? I don't know, Paul does a lot of weird things. Even Peter said, Paul wrote some things that are hard to understand. But, verse 7, "'To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.'" There is also a greeting back up in the previous verses. Well, actually, That is the greeting in verse 7. But in many of Paul's epistles, in the epistles of the apostles, the greeting is always at the beginning. There's always a greeting. There's a salutation, if you will, and there's a benediction. And the greeting in verse 7 is, "...Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." Do you know why greetings are At the beginning of the letters that are written by the apostles, Paul in particular, Paul uses a similar greeting in most all of his epistles. Now we may not think much of the greeting. Matter of fact, it may not mean much of us. I have a feeling that when Matt Carswell, and I don't know what chapter you are in Philippians, but when he began chapter one, he spent a lot of time on that greeting. I would say, right? There's a lot to be said in the greeting. But we don't often think much of the greeting because every epistle begins something like this. But do you know what those greetings are? They are a special word from God to His people. That's what they are. And this word of grace and peace to us from God is meant to do so much more than be read. It is meant to come off the pages of Holy Scripture and be something that we know and we experience in our daily lives and in our life in the church. It is meant to stay with us all throughout the course of our day, all throughout the course of our week, all throughout the course of our year. The word of grace and peace is to be in our hearts and minds always. It's to be in our hearts and minds when we're on the go. It's to be on our hearts and minds when we're at work, when we're in the office, or young people, when you're in the classroom. Because you know what God will do and what will happen if you keep this word of grace and peace in your heart and in your mind as you make your way throughout this world, throughout life? What He will do is He will use it to keep you close to Him. That's what He'll do. If you meditate on this greeting every day, then you will come to know by way of experience that the promise of the gospel of peace, the promise of the gospel to God's people of peace, peace that surpasses all understanding, you'll come to know that and understand that and be filled with that. Think about something. Outside of the church, there is no salvation. Outside of the church, there is no salvation. You want to know why that is? The word of grace and peace is spoken only to the church. The word of grace and peace is spoken only to the church, is spoken only to those who believingly make up God's church. That word of grace and peace is only for believers in Christ Jesus. Because outside of Him, whose body is the church, there is no grace and peace, there is no salvation. That's why one ought not to separate themselves from the church. Now listen, I get frustrated with how things are in the church, believe me. There's something that frustrates me every week about the church, sometimes more so than others. But why would anyone ever want to leave the church? Why? Now I understand But by the grace of God, we would all walk away. I know I would have packed my bags and quit the pastorate a long time ago, but by the grace of God. Why would anyone want to leave the church? Either they are unaware of how tragic that is, or they are simply foolish, or they believe the lie. or they are indifferent, and their pride has caused them to think that they don't need elders, and they don't need deacons, and they don't need members meddling in their lives. And I wish that you wouldn't think about it as meddling in your lives. I prefer to think of it as sharing in your life. Or maybe they're just unbelieving. and they walk away because even though they are numbered among the church, they are not really of the church. And we do pray to see that change. But why would anyone leave the church? Cyprian, the early church father of the third century said this, he that would have God as his father must also have the church as his mother. Now he did not say that in order to exalt the church." That's not why he said that. Contrary to that kind of thinking, he said it to exalt Christ. Because Christ is the one who established the church. He is the one who died for the church. He's the one who's building the church. But to pick up on Cyprian's language of motherhood, what does Christ use the church to do in our lives? Christ uses the church to mother His people. He uses the church to nurture us and to strengthen us and to comfort us. That's what He uses the church for in our lives. Christ is the sole Savior of His church, and He reconciles His church to God. He redeems His bride. But He places us in the church. He places us particularly in local churches in order for us to be nurtured and strengthened and grown and matured as we edify and build one another up and are sanctified as we gather ourselves together around His Word. This is why the greetings are here. to those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Man, we need to hear those words, grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to hear them over and over and over again. We are dependent upon that greeting, folks. Grace and peace. We are dependent upon that greeting. Dependent upon that greeting if we are to have a hope. Dependent upon that greeting if we are to have any hope. So here are words to the church. Grace to you and peace from God our Father in the Lord Jesus Christ. And how should the church respond to those words? We are to respond by believing them and we are to respond by living like we have been given them, grace and peace. There are a lot of Christians who are wringing their hands and fearful and full of anxiety in the world in which we're living right now. And yes, it is a crazy world. I mean, this is not my grandfather's world. Not my grandfather's times. Things have changed and they've changed rapidly. Sin is so pervasive and so prevalent. And it does seem like the world is against the church. But I don't know about you, I've read the back of the book and we win. The church wins. And you want to know why the church wins and why the church perseveres, why believers persevere to the end? It's because we have been given grace and peace. And we can have that grace to persevere and the peace while persevering in a dark world, in a sin-cursed, sin-darkened world. That's the reason why we are told over and over again that the benefits of knowing Christ are grace and peace. And that's the reason why Christians, in troubling circumstances, if they truly embrace these words, believe these words, can have what is known as the peace that passes understanding. We can have peace when the world can't understand how we can have peace. And that's because we know Christ. We're in Christ. And we, as His people individually, we as His church universal, we as His church local, are given grace and peace day in and day out. It is true that our Lord's mercies are new every morning. But this is just the beginning of our study of the local church. The local church has a location, the local church has a description, and the local church has a greeting, receives a greeting, gets a greeting from our God. Much to think about.