Please turn with me in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians chapter four, that's page 1158 in the Pew Bible. At the same time, you'll want to find your way to Lord's Day 21, and that's page 222 in the Forms and Prayers booklet. Now I've decided to divide Lord's Day 21 into three separate sermons. I believe that we need to slow down just a little bit here and take each one of these confessional statements at face value. So we're just going to be reading and reflecting upon the biblical truths that we confess in question and answer 54 this evening. Before we do that, we will read from the word of God. Ephesians chapter four, beginning with verse one. This is the word of the Lord. As a prisoner for the Lord then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle. Be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us, grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says, when he ascended on high, he led captives in his strain and gave gifts to men. What does he ascended mean except that he also descended to the lower earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens in order to fill the whole universe. It was He who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by the waves and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the head that is Christ. From him, the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work. Thus far, God's word. Then giving attention to question and answer 54, I'll ask the question and ask that we respond in unison. Question 54, what do you believe concerning the Holy Catholic Church? I believe that the son of God, through his spirit and word, out of the entire human race, from the beginning of the world to its end, gathers, protects, and preserves for himself a community chosen for eternal life and united in true faith. And of this community, I am and always will be a living member. You'll want to keep both the Word of God and the Heidelberg Catechism before you as we proceed. The church's one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord. She is his new creation by water and the Word. From heaven he came and sought her to be his holy bride. With his own blood he bought her, and for her life he died. Thus goes the first stanza of the church's one foundation, which we sang just a short while ago. Consider in comparison, verse six of Psalm 48a. Observe her palaces, mark her defenses well, that to the children after you, her glories you may tell. For God as our own God forever will abide. until life's journey close in death will be our faithful guide. My dear brothers and sisters, friends, that is precisely what we aim to do this evening, to tell to the children after us the glories of the church, the glories of this special creation by water and the word of Jesus Christ. This is something that there's not much likely to be said this evening that will be new to those of you who are above the age of 40 or so. And yet there is great profit for us in being reminded of the things that we already know. But praise God, there are a good many of you who are present here this evening who are not yet of the great age of 40. and I see you, and I hope you're listening. We're going to be talking about the most wonderful organization in the whole world, the church. Yes, she's dysfunctional sometimes. Yes, the church is broken. Yes, the church is filled with people who are yet being sanctified. And sometimes, let's admit, we think in our own hearts that they're closer to the beginning of that process than the end. But this is Jesus' bride. What a privilege it is to belong to this glorious organization. You know, the gospel is just that. It is a message of belonging. Think about where we've started in our working our way through the catechism and unfolding the biblical teaching that is there described. We began in the first place with this simple statement, I belong, body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. And just now we've confessed, of this community I am and always will be a living member. The gospel is a message of belonging. It's a message of belonging to Jesus, but it's a message of belonging to Jesus' bride, the church, as well. Something that not everybody in our day sees so clearly, do they? There are many, it seems, who are ready to profess their love for Jesus, who, if they're being really honest, don't have much love, much regard, much respect for her church, or for his church, rather. I trust that's not any of you. After all, you're here. I belong to the church. Very simple statement, but a very profound statement. We want to dig into that a little bit tonight, what it really means to belong. And we're going to consider two points, the basic, the way in which the catechism divides the issue, believing the Holy Catholic Church and belonging to the Holy Catholic Church. So in the first place, we consider what it is to believe the Holy Catholic Church. If we eliminate some of the clauses of the confession that we've just made, we narrow the statement down to this, I believe that the Son of God gathers, protects, and preserves for Himself a community chosen for eternal life and united in true faith. Now there's a lot there. And I hope that you see that what's there is particularly the work of Jesus. For after all, the verbs here, gathers, protects, and preserves, apply directly to the Son of God. And then we have these verbs, chosen and united, which are passive. They're referring to us, they're referring to the body that is the church, but in being passive, they're indicating that there's a different actor that is responsible for the choosing and responsible for the uniting that we experience as the church, and that is Jesus. And so that's where we begin this evening, the work of Jesus in building or in creating his church. Consider first of all the fact that Jesus does in fact gather his church as we have confessed. Those of you who are in my Sunday school class will recognize these verses readily because we read them this morning. John chapter 10 verses 14 and following. I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep and my sheep know me. Just as the father knows me and I know the father, and I laid down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen, I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. Already during his earthly ministry, what Jesus was announcing in no uncertain terms was that he was, as the Good Shepherd, creating one flock. That there would ultimately be one group of people or sheep under his care. And that was what he was engaged in in his preaching ministry. Of course, in John chapter 10, he's speaking to the Jews. And there's a separation that's going on as he speaks to the Jews. Those who are sheep and hear his voice and those who reject his voice, they do not recognize his voice and so they reject him. But he says that there are other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. That is to say, a reference to the Gentiles. And what's remarkable is if you want to find yourself in John 10, here you are. I have other sheep, not of the sheep pen, and I will call them too. Jesus speaking about you in space and in time roughly 2,000 years ago in some undisclosed location in Judea. Jesus building, or gathering rather, his people, gathering his church. But he also protects his church. He says just a short while later in John chapter 10, verses 28 and following, I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. No one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one." What encouraging and what comforting words. You see, we are faced every day with a great many dangers that we are entirely ignorant of, and praise God that we're ignorant of them. Because we would be absolutely paralyzed. With fear, if we began to perceive the kind of dangers that we're really facing, because surely the greater part of the dangers that we face is not even the physical, it is the spiritual. That the devil roams about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. We have our own sinful hearts by which we are enticed, we are drawn astray. There is the world vanity fair, as John Bunyan termed it, that confronts us or presents us with all kinds of pleasures to grab our interest and to lure us away, boys and girls. What is it about the world that you like? What is it about the world that you desire? Do you know that the world is actually trying to win you? Trying to keep you. But Jesus, protects his church. If you belong to Jesus, if you are one of Jesus' sheep, he says you are held fast in his hand, you are held fast in the hand of the Father because he and the Father are one. He is protecting you. But thirdly, he preserves his church. Those well-known words, right? Romans 8, verses 38 and 39. I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is a statement that the profundity of it grows every time that I come back to it. Because what kind of Savior is this? What kind of God is this? that death, the ultimate enemy, cannot separate us from Him. I mean, isn't that incredible? Because you might say, well, it's well and good that Jesus is protecting his church. Psalm 91. Some of you love Psalm 91, I don't doubt. And you think of the radical promises of protection, but if you read Psalm 91 in an entirely materialistic, world-based way, you say, but that sounds really good, but it's not true because bad things happen all the time. And bad things happen to Christians all the time. Ah, but Paul says, even death cannot break Jesus' grip on you, his dear child. What then can? Evil spiritual powers? Nope, neither angels or demons. Jesus gathers his church, he protects his church, he preserves his church to the end. That's what Paul says, 1 Corinthians 1, verse 8. He, that is Jesus, will keep you strong to the end so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. He protects you even from yourself. Praise God. But notice the fact that the pronouns in all of those passages that we have just discussed are plural pronouns. You see, in the church we have a lot of pronoun talk too, an entirely different kind. But they're all plural pronouns, you see, because this Lone Ranger concept of Christianity, which has overtaken the world, this idea of the individual Christian that is apart from the church, is a nonsensical idea. It is an idea that is contrary to the Word of God. Because the impetus, that which Christ is doing, that which Christ is driving at, is what? the unity of his church, the oneness. And that is why we confess, I believe, the Holy Catholic Church. Now that word Catholic, maybe for some of you that's a stumbling block, but good news, it doesn't need to be. Because what the word Catholic is doing is capturing in one word this phrase, out of the entire human race, from the beginning of the world to its end. Catholic is a word that we sometimes say universal, and universal is helpful, except that universal doesn't clearly communicate in the English language the span of time, the universal span of time. But what we're confessing when we confess the Catholic Church is that we're talking about everybody that's included in the church, not just in the world at any given moment, but from the beginning of the world unto its end. That is the Catholic Church, the body of saints in its entirety. The church is one, you see? Local churches are local manifestations of the one true church that Christ is building. And notice that the Old Testament saints are included in this number. Did you see how that was reflected in the catechism? Take a look, if you will, at answer 54. From the beginning of the world to its end, you see, so Abraham, is a member of the same body, the same church of which you are a member today. That the eleven apostles, that Paul the apostle, that they are members of the same church of which you are a member today. And so we can talk about the church militant, the church alive and engaged in spiritual warfare at any given point in history, or the church triumphant. And as we worship, Hebrews tells us, Hebrews 13, or rather 12, tells us that we're joining in worship with the church triumphant. I believe the holy Catholic church. And notice how emphatic Paul is about this in Ephesians chapter four. Look at this, verse three. I'll try to emphasize every word that refers to oneness. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called, one Lord, one faith, One baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. You see the point that Paul is making. There is only one church. That she is united by the one Spirit of Christ. That she shares in one confession. That her faith is one and the same. That's why we don't have a big tent. We don't have a tent with Muslims and Hindus and Christians and saying, well, everybody's seeking after God and according to the light that they have. That's not the confession of the church, right? The church is very particular. One Lord, one faith, one birth. But if you are in Christ Jesus, Whether you recognize it or not, whether you rebel against it or not, you are a part of the one true church of Jesus Christ. And I hope it's very clear already at this point that the church, whether we consider it at the local level, or we consider it universally, is not the invention of men. It's not. It is true that this church has a history, right? And that history is written down and recorded that on a particular day, a group of people began to meet together with the intention of planting a new church in this community. There's a history of ministers. If you go down into the consistory room, there's a line of pictures with ministers. My favorite is the one on the left end of the cardboard drawing. A little piece of cardboard with a little stick drawing on it. I wonder how accurate the likeness is. But the history of this congregation is relatively short in the grand scheme of the church, is it not? But you see, this is not, Pompton Plains is not the invention of men. She belongs to Jesus. She strives to be ordered according to Jesus' way and Jesus' word. And we pray that she lasts, she endures until Jesus returns from heaven. But Palmton Plains is pretty cool, but it's not the end all and be all of the church either. Because there are others, right? There are others in our community. There are others in our region. There are others in our nation and around the world. If you were to put down a pin where every faithful body of Jesus, local manifestation of the body of Jesus is in the world, it would be quite an overwhelming sight. And it's the invention, the creation of Christ. It is the purchase of Christ. Paul says, Ephesians chapter, not Ephesians rather, but Acts chapter 20, talking to the Ephesian elders, that God bought the church with his own blood. It's not man's invention. It's not a volunteer society. It's not like, well, you know, I like Jesus, but I... That lady he's always hanging with, don't really like her. No, you marry Jesus, you marry the church. In all of her imperfections, in all of her brokenness, in all of her trials, all of her difficulties, you can't have Jesus and not have his lady over for dinner. It doesn't work that way. But this is what it is to believe a holy Catholic or the holy Catholic Church. Now we move to consider belonging to the holy Catholic Church. Going back to John 10, verse 27, Jesus says, my sheep, listen to my voice, I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. No one can snatch them out of my hand." You see, here we find a clear statement of what we confessed in question and answer 54, and of this community I am and always will be a living member. You see, to be one of Christ's sheep, to hear the voice of Christ, is to be brought to life, and it is to be incorporated as a living member into the church. Peter uses a very interesting metaphor. He mixes two ideas that seem foreign to us, as he writes in 1 Peter 2, verse 5. You like living stones. So, boys and girls, have you ever picked up a living stone? I've never yet found one. But then again, actually, I'm being inaccurate because I'm standing in a room of them. You are living stones. Stones don't ordinarily grow roots. They don't ordinarily grow shoots. They don't ordinarily grow together over time. Ordinarily, stones remain separate unless they're mortared together by some human builder. But he says, you like living stones are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood. Offering spiritual sacrifice is acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. It might be helpful to think of like a woven fabric. except something much, much stronger than a fabric. Because what happens is, as Jesus calls individual sheep into his flock and into his one sheepfold, it is as if they are like living stones added to the wall of the church. And as soon as they touch, the stones around them grow into them, and they grow into the stones around them, so that you are connected to every member of the body of Christ. Think about this. This is a mind-boggling idea here. You are right now connected to every believer in Jesus Christ around the world. Oh, but there's something even crazier yet. You are connected to every believer that's ever walked the earth. Really, organically connected to them. More yet. You are connected to every believer that will be built up into this holy temple. When you hurt, We feel it. When you rejoice, we feel it. When you put pressure on one, others feel it. That's the illustration that Peter uses of the church because the church is one, she is not many. Christianity is a community affair. Individualism and independence, though they are deeply embedded in the American psyche, are deeply anti-Christian ideas. I'm not saying in every situation, right? But surely as we apply them to the church, it runs against the grain of the scripture because every believer is incorporated into Christ's body. You see, that's an image that Paul favors, the image of the human body, that each of us as believers, we are so many fingers and toes and noses and ears and mouths and every part of the body in between and the organs and whatever it may be. And the idea is that we're growing together, that we're working together, that we're growing closer in unity, that we're growing more cooperative in teamwork because we are all being guided by the one head that is Jesus. Make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all. No Lone Ranger Christian. Because every believer, first of all, has a need to be nourished by the ministry of the word and sacrament. And that only happens here. That does not happen on Sermon Audio, by the way. It does not happen on the interwebs. It does not happen on YouTube. Yes, you hear the word of Christ, and that is good insofar as it goes, but you are cut off from the sacraments that belong to the body of Christ unless you are here present. Because that is what Christ has ordained. And then you are also cut off from this body. And the reality is that in God's remarkable design, we need each other. were so many pieces of sandpaper and chisels and hammers. Some of us have a soft touch, some of us have a very aggressive and hard touch. And we hurt each other, that's true, but in the process what's happening is we're being refined as we interact in the body, as we minister to one another. The body of Christ is tangibly expressed. She is visibly expressed in this body. We have an incredible responsibility to be engaged and to be a part of this body. And may I just pause and say for that reason, I do so appreciate you being here on a Sunday evening. That is important. Your presence here is important. It's important because God has commanded it. It's important because it pleases God and you ought to worship and consecrate his day. But it's important to each one of us because we need you. And when you're not here, we feel it. Be encouraged. So then this leaves us with a whole host of questions. Because we can't deal with the question of the church if we don't, without at least running up against the question of membership. So first of all, are you a member of the church as described in question and answer 54 and Ephesians 4, one through 17? Are you a member? And by the way, what does it mean if your answer is yes, What does it mean to be a member of the church? Who determines whether you are a member? And how is that determination made? Are you committed to the church? How is your commitment manifested? Now I know that I'm talking to many who are members, okay? So I'm preaching to the choir in that regard. But this is something, if nothing else, you can take away for information's sake as you think about how to minister to others in the congregation. We live in an age that denigrates and despises church membership for various reasons. Some are scared of church membership because they're scared of actually being a part of something. Maybe they've been betrayed, maybe they've been burned in some way, they've experienced the negative that comes with human organizations, and so they say, I've had enough of that, no thank you. Some might say, well, I think that church membership is like a cult. Like, I mean, isn't that basically what you're doing when you join the church, you're becoming a member of a cult? Like, I believe in Jesus, that's good enough for me. Some might say something like belonging, church membership is stupid, it's outdated, we live in the electronic age, come on, get with the program. But what you have to understand is that the word of God everywhere assumes membership in the church. There is no passage in the New Testament that you will find that says, get your membership papers transferred to such and such or make profession of faith at such and such. That doesn't mean it's not biblical. Because everywhere it is assumed. that as you have believed in Jesus Christ, so you will unite yourself visibly to His body, to a local manifestation of His body, that you will live out the reality of the confession that you are making. It is also assumed that Jesus has appointed leaders, elders in his church, who are given oversight over the lives of a particular body of people. And the question that you ought to ask is, how can the elders exercise meaningful oversight over my life if I am not a member of the church? Church of discipline. Clearly, a process that is commanded by Jesus completely falls apart in the case where there is no church membership, because how can anyone be held accountable if there are not membership vows which they have made, and if there are not consequences for failing to abide by those vows in truth? You see, membership isn't just an acquaint or an outdated idea. It's part and parcel of what it is to be the church of Jesus Christ. So this is my encouragement to you. For those of you who are members. Some of you, you esteem that privilege, it is a privilege. Some of you esteem it very highly. I commend you for that. As we say, you put your money where your mouth is. and you put your shoulder to the wheel. That is a wonderful manifestation of the one Spirit of Christ indwelling you. Keep up the good work. There are those of you who are members because you felt forced to be members at some point, or it seemed the thing to do, but you're not meaningfully engaged in membership. And perhaps being a member doesn't really mean anything to you. And I encourage you to go back, even to consider a passage like Ephesians chapter four, and think about the radical implications of what it is to be a member of the body of Christ. and esteem your church membership more highly than you do. And if you aren't serving right now, begin to ask the question, as a member of the body of Christ, what is the function or what are the functions that God has enabled me or gifted me with, with which I can serve the body? And it doesn't have to be profound and it doesn't have to be posted on a billboard somewhere. For many of God's people, your calling is carried out very much in secret, in quiet, in one-on-one acts of Christian service and charity and encouragement and so on. But then for those of you who are not members of the Church of Christ, I ask you why. Why are you not joining yourself to Christ's body? What reason can you give for that? There may be reasons we can grant that. But they ought to be great and weighty reasons, don't you think? Because what you're doing if you reject church membership, is you're saying Jesus is good, his lady is meh. If you had a friend, and he married a girl you didn't like, and you repeatedly made it clear to him, we want you to come, for dinner, we don't want your wife. What do you think would happen to that friendship? Do you think it would last? I don't. Only in the rarest case. Because Jesus is united to his bride. He loves her so much that he died for her, shed his own blood for her, and guess what? He knows way more about her than you do. If you really knew how ugly she was at the natural level, you would shut her. But Jesus loves her and is making her something beautiful. Revelation 21, I saw the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven as a bride adorned for her husband. That's you, brothers and sisters. You who have been saved by Jesus, you who are loved by Jesus, you who are kept by Jesus, you who are being sanctified by Jesus, You who labor in the church, you endure in spite of the difficulties that you experience, the disappointments that you experience, that's you. That's us. A bride adorned for her husband, clothed in linen, pure and white. Continue to persevere. Continue to love Jesus' body, his church, Continue to serve her. Continue to seek to unite with her in every way that you are able to do. Maybe there's another group here this evening. A group who cares nothing for Jesus' bride because they don't know Jesus. You are living the worst kind of isolated existence. A fruitless existence. Cut off from Christ. Cut off from a future. Cut off from a hope. Destined to destruction. When Revelation 21 day comes, only terror awaits you. Will you not turn and heed the call of Christ? Will you not place your trust in Him and thereby be incorporated into His body, assured of His presence with you and your life forevermore with him. May God give us all the grace to seek our future and our fullness in him and in his church. Let's pray. Father in heaven, We thank you for the great love that you have bestowed upon us, having chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be members of Christ's bride, the church. We thank you for the work that you are doing in building your church. And we pray, Lord, that you would continue to nourish, strengthen, and establish every member of your church as we live in community together for the honor and glory of your name until the day of Christ's return from heaven. Help us to remain steadfast and immovable, abounding always in the Lord. Help us to live seeking one another's mutual welfare and seeking ultimately always the glory of your name. We pray, Lord, that you would continue to add to your bride, that you would continue to add to the church all those whom you have ordained unto eternal life. For we ask it all for the glory of and for the sake of Jesus Christ, our Savior, amen.