Well, we're going to be continuing and actually concluding today a brief series that we started looking at the membership covenant of Christ Reformed Baptist Church. And I want to read a little bit of a focal verse that relates somewhat to this theme, and we're gonna be citing some other verses as we move along. But just to get our thoughts focused on scripture, let's look at Romans 12. And there are actually a couple of verses that I want to read from this chapter. There's one listed in your bulletin that I'm actually gonna look at a second one as well. I'm going to read Romans 12 verse 10 and also verse 18. Romans chapter 12 and verse 10 reads, be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love in honor preferring one another. And then verse 18 says, if it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. May God bless today again, the reading and the hearing of his word. And as already noted, this is the fifth and final message, concluding message in this series. We've been looking at our church's membership covenant, which has five paragraphs. And we've spent a message in each one of these. And today we're gonna look at the last paragraph, it's the briefest. And let me just recap though what we have seen thus far. Paragraph one, we noted that each believer should, as our catechism teaches, give himself up to some particular and orderly church of Jesus Christ, that he may walk in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. So a Christian ought to desire to have fellowship and to belong to a church. And we also noted within that first paragraph that it is biblically faithful to enter into covenant with one's fellow members as a public declaration of the duties and responsibilities of church membership. paragraph, we noted that there's a call there for each member to exercise basic churchmanship in his support of the church through his interest in what happens in the church, through his attendance at its stated meetings, and through his generous giving of time, resources, and yes, money. Third paragraph. We noted that it is incumbent upon everyone who would be a member of this church that he or she would conduct himself or herself with exemplary deportment as become one who professes faith in Christ. So we ought to act in spiritually, ethically, morally upright ways, recognizing that this side of heaven, we're still being sanctified, but we would want to strive toward exemplary deportment in our lives. Fourth paragraph, we talked about last time, the peculiar duty that every member has to his fellow members in loving the brethren, in obedience to Christ's command that we love our neighbor as ourselves. And the rubber really meets the road as we have the opportunity to I love the brethren within this particular church. So today we come to the fifth of these paragraphs which gives instructions as to how one might leave the church if conscience or providential circumstances require. How might you rightly and justly leave the church? If we look at the membership covenant, which is in the back of the Spiritual Songs book, the very last paragraph says this, we moreover engage that when we remove from this place, we will, as soon as possible, unite with some other church where we can carry out the spirit of this covenant and the principles of God's word. So when we, should we leave under providential circumstances or because of conscientious reasons, if we should leave, we will as soon as possible. We will be diligent. We will make haste, giving time for proper deliberation. We will find another church where we might be joined as a member where we can carry out the spirit of this covenant and the principles of God's word. This final part of the covenant reminds us that there is a proper process for entering into the church, and there is a proper way to leave the church. There is a proper way to leave a church if you become a member. And because of, again, providential circumstances or for conscientious reasons, if you need to leave, then you are able to do that. A church is not a prison. It is a voluntary association of its members. This is the great thing about being a free church in a free state. There's no state church. We don't have the power of the sword. We don't coerce anyone to do anything. Anything that anyone does within this church is of their own will. It's something they desire to do. And so we would not have any force to enforce anything. It's all a voluntary association. And yet, we would appeal to one's conscience to act in a biblically faithful, upright, and honorable manner. Well, where do we get biblical guidance for this idea that one joins a church and that one also might be released from membership in a church or might be a member of one church and then join and become part of another? We want to turn to some biblical guidance Certainly we want all aspects of our life, our individual lives, our corporate lives as a church, to be biblically faithful. We want the Bible's guidance to direct our understanding of church membership. We talk about the regular principle of worship, our worship being guided by scripture. Really, we can talk about the regular principle of church membership. We can talk about the regulative principle of Christian living. And so we want scripture to guide things. There are indeed many aspects of church life where we do not have expressed commands about how we are to function. We are given instead biblical principles that we must glean, biblical examples that we must learn from, and we have been given the Holy Spirit, we have been given quickened consciences, And we have also been given prudential wisdom, which must inform and draw us to make faithful decisions as to how we are to operate as a church. And in fact, this is a point that is made within our confession of faith. And now we're doing this as a little bit of a break from our study of the confession, but I would call your attention to in our confession, chapter one, which is on scripture, But paragraph six is very important, and I'm just going to read part of it to you. It says, the whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man's salvation, faith, and life is either expressly set down or necessarily contained in the Holy Scripture, unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelation of the Spirit or traditions of men. Nevertheless, we acknowledge the inward illumination of the spirit of God to be necessary for the saving understanding of such things as are revealed in the word. And that there are some circumstances concerning the worship of God and government of the church common to human actions and societies, which are to be ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence. according to the general rules of the word, which are always to be observed." That's a very important statement. What it says is we want to be guided by the Bible, but we recognize there are some things that aren't explicitly taught in the Bible. And in those cases, we have to look to the Spirit's guidance and we have to exercise prudential wisdom. And we have to make these practical decisions. We can apply this. I think when I taught on this section and the message I did on this paragraph, I applied it to worship. I said, for example, we believe we should have corporate worship, but the Bible doesn't tell us what time we should meet. It doesn't say you must meet at 10.30 a.m. on Sunday morning. You could meet at 10. You could meet at 11. I visited a church in Hungary a few years ago, and because they met in a building that they didn't have access to in the mornings, they met at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. Well, you must worship together, but the time is something that's left to prudential wisdom. And when it comes to the government of the church, there are some things we know for sure that are taught. We know who the officers ought to be, that there ought to be elders and deacons. We know many things about how the church, ways in which the church ought to conduct itself, like how we ought to serve the Lord's Supper in 1 Corinthians 11. But there are some things that are not explicitly taught. There are some circumstances that aren't explicitly taught, and we have to use prudential wisdom. And I think there are many things related, especially, it calls out in Chapter 1, Paragraph 6, particularly worship and church government as areas in which we have to use this type of prudential wisdom. So, do we have a biblical basis for the idea of someone entering into a church in membership and there may be coming a time when a person would leave a church? And I do think that we can find some general biblical principles that would be helpful in guiding our thinking about this. A passage that we have, I'm going to mention a number of passages, you can turn to these or you can just listen to me read some of these. One that we've already mentioned from Acts chapter 2 at Pentecost after there were converts to the faith. It says in Acts 2 41, then they that gladly received his word were baptized and the same day there were added unto them about 3,000 souls. So there was some way for persons to be added to the fellowship of the church. There was some way for persons to be acknowledged as part of the church, there was some way to recognize new body parts. We also know that there were times, referred to in the scriptures, when a person would move from one area to another. And this necessarily would entail moving from one congregation to another congregation, often coming with the approval of the church or of church officers. both from which they came and to which they were going. Let me just give you a couple of examples of this. First of all, from the life of Paul, as is described in Acts. Remember, Paul was converted on the Damascus Road. And remember, because he had formerly been a persecutor of the church, some of the disciples in Jerusalem were sort of afraid of him, to welcome him. But one of the early disciples named Barnabas saw the potential in Paul as a teacher. There's an interesting description that comes to us in Acts 11 verses 25 and 26 where it says, then departed Barnabas to Tarsus for to seek Saul. And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church and taught much people and the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. So Saul, later to be called Paul, went from Tarsus where no doubt he I think had been part of a body of believers and he transferred and went to live in Antioch and became joined to the church in Antioch. And Antioch, by the way, as it says here, was the place for the first time where the followers of Jesus were called Christians. It was probably a pejorative in the beginning. These Christiani, they keep talking about Jesus, Christ, Christ, Christ, Christ, Christ. They're just Christianoids or whatever. And they started calling them Christians. We also have the description of A husband and wife, Aquila and Priscilla. In Acts 18 we are told they had to flee from Rome. They were Jewish and the emperor expelled the Jews from the city of Rome and they went to Corinth. There wasn't a church there but Paul came and they hosted Paul in their home and the church at Corinth was established. But we know that apparently they eventually ended up going back to Rome because there is a greeting that is given to them in Romans chapter 16. verses three and four, where Paul says, greet Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in Christ, who have for my life laid down their own necks, unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles. So they had been part of the church at Corinth, but I think apparently they had gone back to Rome and they had been received back into the church that was in Rome. Another interesting thing that we have, again not exactly an explicit command or direction, but just an example that we have within the New Testament, and particularly in the writings of Paul, is we have Paul often commending various brethren to be received by the churches. And many of these were not exactly cases of membership transfer, but they seem more like situations where these were helpers of Paul's, and he sent them to these churches for specific purposes, sometimes to report on the state of the church, sometimes to collect an offering. But he would give these recommendations, and there's a principle here showing the practice among the early believers of having recommendations and approval being given by the officers of the church, in particular, to commend persons to participation in the church. And there are many examples that I could give of this, and for time's sake I'm just going to give one. It's from 2 Corinthians chapter 8. verses 22 through 24, and this is a commendation that Paul gave to Titus, one of his fellow workers, there's a book of Titus within the New Testament itself, but this is 2 Corinthians 8, verses 22 through 24, wherein Paul says, and we have sent with them our brother, whom we have oftentimes proved diligent in many things, but now much more diligent upon the great confidence which I have in you, whether any do inquire of Titus, he is my partner and fellow helper concerning you or our brethren be inquired of, they are the messengers of the churches and the glory of Christ. Wherefore, show ye to them and before the churches the proof of your love and of our boasting on your behalf." And again, it's not a perfect description of a membership transfer, but these were fellow workers but it's a recommendation that he has given, giving to the church. He's vouching for them and commending the church to show their love to him. While we're in 2 Corinthians, there's an interesting place along these lines. If you look back at 2 Corinthians 3, verses one and two, and here Paul makes reference to letters of recommendation. Now he says, I don't need letters of recommendation because he was an apostle, he was an unusual person, extraordinary officer in the church. He didn't need letters of recommendation. And what he's saying is you are my letters, you are living letters of recommendation. But the very fact that he's talking about this indicates that letters of recommendation were used among the churches. And so he says in 2 Corinthians 3, 1 and 2, do we begin again to commend ourselves or need we? as some others epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you. Ye are our epistles written in our hearts, known and read of all men." The fact that he was saying, you are like living epistles to me, doesn't I think lay aside the fact that these letters of recommendation could be useful. In fact, just a few chapters later in 2 Corinthians 8, what does he do? He gives a letter of recommendation for Titus to be received by the churches. So what I'm saying is, here's a biblical principle. And what are the principles we've seen thus far? Persons, the church had a way to acknowledge who is part of the body. Persons were mobile, even though sometimes we think in the first century world, people stayed the whole place, they were alive. No, they didn't. They moved around, just as we do now. And so a person can go from one locality to another and join one church to another. It seemed to be common that there would be letters of recommendation to commend the character, the testimony of a person to see whether they would be accepted within a particular church. Now, that's the positive. There are some negatives as well. We see in the New Testament that sometimes persons were expelled from the church due to grievous acts of immorality. But they did this not simply to punish, but they did so in hopes of reconciliation and salvation. We can point to the example of the immoral brother in 1 Corinthians 5, the man who is living in a sexually immoral situation, and Paul commends that this brother be turned out of the church for his spiritual good. And it may be this same fellow that he's speaking of in 2 Corinthians 2, 6 through 8, where he, in this case, urges the church to welcome the man back who has repented and extend love to him and not to be harsh with him. We also see that sometimes persons may leave or be excluded from a church who prove to be walking in doctrinal error. And my proof text for this would be 1st John chapter 2. This was read in our morning service today as our New Testament chapter. But in 1st John chapter 2, there's a description of the Antichrist, those who are opposing the cause of Christ. And apparently there were some people in this church, we don't know where it was, but the Apostle John is writing to them. And there were some people who had denied that Christ had come in the flesh. They had denied the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this was a serious theological conflict. And there were some people who were holding to truth and some people who were holding to error. And those who had rejected the incarnation of Lord Jesus Christ, they had to depart because they were not holding to the faith that had been once for all delivered to the saints. And John can write about this and he will say in 1st John 2, 19, they went out from us, but they were not of us for if they had been of us, They would no doubt have continued with us, but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. And so there are times when there has to be separation because of doctrinal conflict and there has to be discernment between what is truth and what is not truth. On the other hand, now that's a case where the church expelled those who were false believers. But we also learn from John's letters that sometimes those who hold to the truth can be in the minority. And they can be falsely rejected and turned out of the church. And we see an example of this in 3rd John. 3rd John verses 9 and 10, there's only one chapter. Sometimes you might wonder, why is this little book even in the Bible? Here's one reason it's in here, to teach us something else about ecclesiology, about the doctrine of church. And here's a case in 3 John, verses 9 and 10, where John says, I wrote under the church, but diatrophies, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, received us not. Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds, which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words, and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church. Dr. Fees was a false teacher who loved the preeminence, and he opposed orthodox teachers, even the Apostle John himself. and even arranged for faithful men to be cast out of the church because of their standing for orthodox truth. So this tells us that sometimes churches can err. Sometimes churches can err in judgments, and there must be discernment of this, and there must be accountability for it. Well, those are again, Some biblical guidance, those give us some biblical guidance for understanding the circumstances under which we create our practice as a covenanted body of believers. So, what prudential decisions do we make about how we function as a church? Well, here's where the rubber meets the road. we decide that there should be a defined way for persons to come into membership in the church. There should be a defined way for us to acknowledge, hey, this person's now a body part in our church. And how do we do that? How do we have someone come into membership in our church? Well, first of all, if we have people who visit, and are interested in our church, we encourage them to attend. And I personally think it's good to encourage them to attend for quite a long time. I know of some churches, and I believe, we'll have to ask Pastor Poe when he's here. I believe at his church you have to attend for at least a year before you're considered for membership. We don't have a time frame on it, but you ought to come for a while. You shouldn't come one Sunday and then become a member. You should come. You should see what's happening in the church. What is the practice like? And also, the church should have a chance to see you and see, you know, what is your life like? What is your faith like? How do you exercise your Christian duties? Certainly, for someone to be a member of the church, they should be a baptized believer, someone who shows credible evidence of having professed faith in Christ and has been obedient to baptism, and someone who is in agreement with the faith and the practice of this church. So someone who has not professed faith and been baptized, they should be ready to do that, to stand forward and say, Jesus, Lord, I'm submitted to baptism. And they should say, you know, I am in agreement with the faith, what the church teaches and preaches and its practices. And then in our church, we have a very practical way for someone to seek membership, and that is we ask them to complete a membership application, not applying for a job, but you know, in many evangelical churches, there's simply an open invitation call, and I can tell you, I was in a Southern Baptist church, I had some freaky things happen sometimes with that. People would come down and do say sometimes strange things and sometimes ordinary things, but this is sort of a, maybe a more measured, judicious way of saying, have you given thought to what it means to be a member of this church? What is your testimony? What is your experience of the Lord? And we ask basic things like, what is your understanding of the gospel? Tell us about how you came to know the Lord. Have you been baptized? Have you ever been a member of a church? Have you read through our membership covenant? Are you in agreement with it? Have you read through our confession of faith and are you in agreement with it? Are there parts of something we teach or a practice you don't quite understand? And so the membership application gives someone the opportunity to initiate a desire for membership. And then we have a pastoral interview. The person has an interview with the elders to talk about their desire to join. And then if both parties are still willing, then the elders would present that person for membership of the church to seek the acknowledgement and consent of the church to that person becoming part of the body. And if you want to see this spelled out in our constitution, in section four on membership, it spells this out. Members may join either, one, on profession of their faith and baptism at CRBC, two, transfer of membership from a sister congregation of like faith and practice. If someone moves into our community, they're a member of another church. Then they would join by transfer and we would actually literally contact and sometimes in the old days it's becoming less and less practice today. We would actually write a letter and say this person would like to join. Will you send us a letter of recommendation back? It might be someone, may be someone who's a Christian. They've been baptized. They were previously a member of a church, but they either are not currently a member of a present church. The third option is joining by statement of previous Christian experience. So, okay, we'll take it on where you've been baptized. You were a member of a church. We simply accept that without having to have a letter of recommendation. Although we might call and talk to a church you were once part of. Then it says, those seeking membership shall approach the elders for counsel on becoming a candidate for membership. Each member candidate shall complete a written membership application provided by the elders, which includes a testimony of his faith in Jesus Christ. New member candidates shall then be examined and presented for membership in a church conference by the elders. The membership covenant shall be read by the congregation at any meeting when new member candidates are presented. New members shall then publicly affirm the membership covenant before their election. So that's the way you join the church. Now, the topic of this message though is how do you leave? And these things are also spelled out within our constitution. And guess what? It follows essentially the same pattern as how you join. It's a parallel path. It involves first reflection and consideration. You should not hastily, you should never hastily leave any church. You should give it much reflection and consideration. Secondly, you should seek pastoral guidance. And I'm not talking about just out of, you know, something might be happening that's unsettling to you. It might be you're thinking about moving. That's a pretty big thing in your life. And this is something you ought to seek spiritual counsel on. Is this the right time for me to move? What will this mean for my family? What will this mean for the spiritual life and well-being of my family? You should seek spiritual guidance, and that should be provided through your fellow members, but especially through the officers who have been appointed for shepherding. the elders. Third, then, if there's an agreement between you, your desire to leave, and the elders, then the elders should present this to the church membership to seek their acknowledgement and consent to release you from your covenant membership obligations. And, in fact, we spell this out within, once again, our Constitution. And I'm going to just read under that same section, membership, this description. It says, members may be released from their membership, covenant, responsibilities, and privileges, one, by death. Okay, if you die, you're definitely out of the membership, okay? You don't even have to have a pastoral meeting with you on that one. Two, by transfer to a sister congregation of life, faith, and practice. Let's say you move to another area. We did this with the Irelands within the last year. They remained members of our church. I talked with the pastor of the church they began to attend. And then we gave them an affirmation. They were members in good standing. We commend them to you. And they transferred their membership and became a member of that church. Third, by dismissal without transfer. A recommendation for transfer or dismissal may only come from the elders. It must be approved by the church body meeting in a conference. If a member desires to leave the congregation by transfer or dismissal, he shall first seek a face-to-face meeting with the elders in which he can communicate his desire to leave the membership and seek the counsel of the elders. The elders may provide in their counsel blessing and release from membership responsibilities while the member seeks a new church home. In most cases, the preferred situation will be for a departing member to remain in the membership of the church and under its shepherding until he finds a new church and requests transfer of his membership to this like-minded congregation. The least preferred situation will be dismissal without transfer, but it may be recommended to release members who are no longer in good standing, who have become a liability to the fellowship, or who have come under church discipline. And it also says there that the elders will make an annual review of the membership and offer a report to the church on the state of the membership, and we do that in our annual meetings. each year. What are some lawful reasons, some good reasons one might leave a church? One is you move out of the area. If you move out of the area and you obviously cannot faithfully attend our church, you cannot be part of it, you need to seek another church. Now the best situation is you remain a member of our church, we continue to give you pastoral guidance and help until you find a good like-minded church and then we commend you to that church and to their care. Sometimes that's going to happen. Another lawful reason to leave a church would be if one comes to convictions that are out of sync with our church's faith and practice, but that do not trespass against general orthodoxy. Even in those cases, especially in those cases, pastoral guidance is needed. We've had this happen a time or two. We had an instance where we had someone was a member and they said, you know, I'm not really sure that I agree with cessationism. I'm not sure that I agree that spiritual gifts, extraordinary spiritual gifts have ceased. And we met with them, we talked to them about it, we taught. Here's our doctrinal statement. This is clearly what our confession of faith teaches. Otherwise, they were not trespassing against orthodox teachings. And we said, you know what? We want to give you the freedom to visit other churches. If you're not in agreement with our statement of faith, we want to give you the freedom to do that. And we say we want to give you three months to do that. And we're going to keep in touch with you. We're going to talk with you during this time. And we did that. We did not simply dismiss them for membership. We said we acknowledge you have a conscientious difference with our church's convictions. We announce it to the church. This family has come to a different conviction. We don't agree with it as far as our teaching goes, but we don't think it's trespassing against Orthodoxy. We want to give them a blessing to visit other churches. We did that. And then after a period of time, we released them from membership. We gave them a blessing to do that. You can leave the church in that way. And we don't want anyone to go against their conscience. There are, however, improper ways of leaving the church, improper ways of leaving a church. I'm going to list three. One improper way of leaving the church is simply to stop attending for no compelling reason. To just stop coming. That's an improper way to leave a church. And of course it raises grave spiritual questions about what's going on because we assume if someone is a believer, then they will desire to worship the Lord. They will desire the body life that happens within the church. And this is another issue where, man, the framers of our confession were so wise. They addressed this in the confession. It's gonna be a while before we get to it in our confession series, but it's there in chapter 26, paragraph 13. No church members, upon any offense taken by them, having performed their duty required of them toward the person they are offended at, ought to disturb any church order or absent themselves from the assemblies of the church or administration of any ordinances upon the account of such offense at any of their fellow members, but to wait upon Christ in the further proceedings of the church. You should not absent yourself from the meetings of the church. Now I was talking about a situation where one might feel offended. But first of all, you should not stop attending for no compelling reason. Second, you should not stop attending in order to church shop on your own initiative. And we have a major problem with this in the modern age because so many people are part of evangelical churches and church membership has begun to mean almost nothing. And there's this very individualistic view that says, you know, I just want, you know, try some new music. I like this children's program at this other church or whatever. And I'm just gonna, I'm gonna, you know, I'm a member of this church, but I'm just gonna shop around a few others and see, well, that's a consumer mentality. That's not a biblical mentality. That's not a lawful, that's not a lawful reason. why one should back away from his duties and responsibilities, which include, go back to paragraph two of the membership covenant, a basic commitment to support the church by your attendance. Now, if you have a conscientious reason, if you say, I don't longer agree with the regular principle of worship, or I've got to be someplace where there are handbells or something like that, I don't know, then you need the counsel of the elders to say, let's teach you about regular principles. Now, if we find you're not in agreement with us, then maybe we need to give you a blessing to go somewhere else. But you should not unilaterally decide, I'm just going to, on my own, I'm going to leave. You need to seek the counsel of the brethren as represented by the shepherding of the elders. A third improper way to leave is by becoming angry with the church for lawful exhortations that you have received from them. or by being in the name of being offended by the brethren. And we already saw that in our confession, chapter 26, paragraph 13, that you should not absent yourself, but wait upon the Lord. And certainly in that situation, especially, you should seek the counsel of the elders to work out difficulties and to come to reconciliation. But in that case too, it might be after that council decision, it might be better for you to, we give you a blessing to go seek membership somewhere else. So the point is, just as there is a way, a process for you to join the church, there's also a process for you lawfully to leave. And just as when you come into membership in the church, you don't show up one day and say, hey guys, I'm now a member. I have decided I'm now in. You know, I'm now in the membership. No, it doesn't happen that way. And you're leaving, it doesn't happen that way either. If you're a member, you don't say, hey, guys, it's been good. I've enjoyed it. Glad y'all finally got the coffee machine, but I'm leaving. No, it doesn't work that way. It's countercultural, but it's a covenant. This is why we need the brethren. We need accountability among the brethren. And maybe after a consultation, yes, we decide you're right. You should leave. Do that peaceably. Live at peace with all men. We give you a blessing on it. Now, there might also be cases where you may present reasons that we may not think are biblical reasons. Or you might say, let's say, I'm going to go join the Roman Catholic Church. We say, wait a second, the gospel is at stake. Your spiritual life is at stake. We can't give you a blessing to do that. We can't approve of it. And a person who doesn't heed those exhortations, we may have to go and say, we need out of love to remove you as an act of discipline, hoping that you would repent and return to a biblical understanding of the gospel. I might also add. There are some unusual and extreme cases wherein I think a person can leave a church without its approval with a clear conscience. Let me give you two ways in which you might do that, circumstances under which one might do this. First of all, if the church is clearly teaching unorthodox theology, the church is clearly teaching heterodox theology. If it was a gospel church and all of a sudden, you know, the minister starts saying, I've got a new interpretation of the Trinity, or I think the Bible, you know, has some errors in it, then you should leave and not come back and you can have a clear conscience in departing. You should do that charitably. But you can leave. Secondly, I think if there is a grievous breakdown in orderliness, where the church is not practically functioning as a church, then I think you can leave with a clear conscience. I thought about, I watched some of the video of the city council meeting that broke down into total disorder in Charlottesville, if you're not aware of it, within the last week. And it was a perfect example of mobocracy. There was no order. There was no recognition of the leadership of the officers, in this case, of the city councilors in government. And sometimes that can happen in churches. There can be mobocracy where reasonable church order and guidance by qualified church officers is completely abandoned, unfortunately it happens in a lot of churches, the evangelical churches. In those sorts of situations, I believe that you can leave with a clear conscience when all orderliness, biblical orderliness breaks down. However, if it's not a matter of clear orthodox teaching and it's not a matter of breakdown of biblical church order, then you're under conscientious obligation to work with the leadership and to work with the church in order to depart in a peaceful and charitable and edifying manner. To be in church membership is an act of faithfulness and it is an act of discipleship. It is a spiritual discipline, just like prayer, Bible study, meditation on the word, service, It is a spiritual discipline. It is a blessing that only adds value as you practice it more. People who just begin praying sometimes like, I'm not getting much out of prayer. My mind is wondering. Well, do it for 30 years and see what happens over time. And the same thing goes with the discipline, the spiritual discipline of church membership. When done right, it is a foretaste of the spiritual fellowship of heaven and honors the Lord and honors and edifies our fellow believers. So with that, we conclude this series on the membership covenant. And I hope this will be profitable for us who are hearing now, maybe others who might listen to it later on. Let me invite you as you're able to stand together.