And our main text is taken again from the book of Acts, chapter 12, verses 1 through 11. Acts chapter 12, verses 1 through 11. About that time, Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. He killed James, the brother of John, with the sword. When he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the Days of Unleavened Bread. When he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people. So Peter was kept in prison. But earnest prayer for him was made to God by the Church. Now when Herod was about to bring him out, on that very night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains. Centuries before the door were guarding the prison. Behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. You struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, get up quickly. And the chains fell off his hands. The angel said to him, dress yourself. Put on your sandals. And he did so. And he said to him, wrap your cloak around you and follow me. And he went out and followed him. He did not know what was being done by the angel was real, but he thought he was seeing a vision. When they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for him of its own accord. They went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel left him. Peter came to himself. He said, now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel, rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all the Jewish people were expecting. There ends the reading of God's Word. You may be seated. Later on in the service, we are going to repeat together part of our tradition, the tradition of the church. It's called the Apostles' Creed. We alternate month by month between the Apostles' Creed and the other creed, the Dicene Creed. We don't know exactly who started the Apostles' Creed. It just kind of is in the midst of the past. maybe 1,800 years ago, maybe even older than that. But it is a short summary of the word of God, of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Most of us could say it right off the top of our heads even now. Then we also, the next month, we'll say the Nicene Creed, which was about the year 325, first ecumenical council. A little more extensive, more detailed. It talks about God, the Father, Jesus Christ. I like both of them. I haven't memorized the Nicene one yet, but bits and pieces of it do stand out. We'll say it later on, but it opens up with God the Father. And then it spends a longer paragraph on Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord. And then it ends up, this threefold Trinitarian confession with, I believe, in the Holy Spirit, or the Holy Ghost, as the Apostles Creed phrases that. It immediately goes into, and in the Holy Catholic Church, or as the Nicene says, in one holy apostolic Catholic Church. Now, not all Protestants, Evangelicals, say it all the time. We say it all the time. It's just a great summary. But there's a phrase in there, right after you deal with who God is, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, you talk about the church. Now the title is, I Believe in the Church. I'm going to be talking about this, believing in the church. You've been reading scripture on it? This comes out of an experience I've had over the years. my 50 years of preaching. And you run into a variety of people that are believers in Jesus Christ. They love the Lord. But when it comes to talking about the church, well, that's another thing. You got to be careful about the church. Now, you ought to come to our church. You ought to hear the guy that speaks at our church. Wow. Or you ought to come to our church because we have a musical. I mean, we have a choir. We used to. We have a choir that really outshines everything. The music is terrific. And there are others that say, you ought to come to our church because we pray. That's one thing we do here. I mean, we pray a lot. And thank God for that. Now you say this in order to encourage people to come to church, yes. I don't know whether saying that we pray a lot makes them come. Yes, I want to pray, yes. You know, you can't do that at home. Even Jesus said go into a closet, close the door, and pray to your father who is listening to you, who in secret hears you and will reward you. So why worry about the church? nowadays, especially among evangelicals, and even reformed people. We happen to be calling ourselves reformed. There's kind of this idea that the most important thing is you believe in God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, and well, maybe when the church comes around, maybe we'll believe in that. But the main text is in Acts 12. We just finished reading it. So that first verse, I may not get through the whole chapter of Acts 12, but there's some of the passages I want to bring up, too. Let me repeat that, Acts 12, verse 1. At that time, Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. It's that word, belonged, gripped me. That really responded to me. You can find this in a variety of translations. Not all translations say it that way. But I want to talk about what it means to belong to the church. Well, I don't know whether I want to belong to the church. For heaven's sakes, I belong to a variety of churches. They come and they go. But the main thing is I belong to Jesus Christ, and that's true. But belonging to the church, after all, Jesus did come to set us free from men, from institutions, from organizations. But I belong to Christ. I belong to God. I belong to the Holy Spirit. I go to church. Now, as most of you know here, I am a chaplain, a medical chaplain, hospital chaplain, and Talk to people every day, scores of people over the past, now going on 18 years, a few thousand people. I ask them, what church do you belong to? What church are you a member of? Well, most of the time they can't remember, and the rest of the time it's a, no, I don't go to any particular church, but I do love Jesus. And isn't that the most important thing? Well, there's a truth to that, that is the most important thing. After all, when the Philippian jailer, in Acts chapter 16, the Philippian jailer, the sheriff, notices there's an earthquake and he fears that the prisoners have escaped and his life isn't worth much if he loses his prisoners and Paul comes out And the Philippian jailer, as you know, is about ready to skewer himself. And the Philippian jailer says to Paul, what must I do to be saved? And Paul responds with, join the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. You can join the PCA and NBC and CBS and all those other kinds of things, but with us, it's the OPC. And I don't know what church you belong to in radio land or in computer land. No, Jesus, I mean the Apostle Paul said, you should know this by heart, right? Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved, you and your household. There. Nothing about the church, nothing about the Apostles Creed, nothing about making a public confession of faith, nothing about prayer reading, nothing about all those gatherings and church dinners and fellowships and all that other kinds of stuff which you come to know and all the socials you have together. It's just believe in Jesus. Of course, it doesn't also say believe in the Trinity, believe in God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. There's a lot of things that the Apostle Paul left out in that verse 31. It does say that he went home to the Philippian jailer and taught him probably for the rest of the night. And then the family got baptized. So there's lots of things that it doesn't say. But what's the importance about this? What's the importance about, I belong to the church? After all, when we say the Apostles' Creed or the Nicene Creed, especially the Nicene Creed is, I believe in the church, one holy Catholic and apostolic. I believe in the church. You have to believe, let me put it to you this way, you have to believe in the church in order to be saved. You can go this way, or you can go this way. Some of you will go this way. Because there's a sense in which, no, you don't have to. There's the thief on the cross. I always go back to my favorite verse, thief on the cross. He didn't join a church. He didn't make a public profession of faith. He didn't get involved with all this stuff and learning Bibles, all that kind of stuff. Jesus said to him, this day you'll be with me in paradise. Boy, there's an assurance of faith that you and I will not have. But he did. And quite frankly, all he had was the cross to trust in. Well, it just so happens that so often a thief on the cross becomes our favorite Bible character. We like him. You know, when you belong to something, that means you have responsibilities. Belonging to something, belonging to someone means there are responsibilities that you have to do, perform, say, learn to get along with. Ye that just got married in the past year, You're learning that she belongs to you and you belong to her. And now you better be careful how you talk to one another, too. I thought I could say whatever I wanted. It's a free country. Marriage doesn't work that way. And maybe on your job, maybe in your career. I worked in the hospital. I worked for the hospital. There are certain things the hospital wants me to do. I, in some sense, belong to the hospital. But they can't tell me how to pray. Sometimes I'd like to suggest, leave off this phrase, say it this way. You're talking to someone from a different faith, someone from a different religion. You don't want to offend them in this and that. They make their rules about how to get along. And yes, I've gotten into many troubles there. Because I don't belong to the hospital, or I don't belong to my marriage, or I don't belong to that job in the same way I belong to God. Now, I belong to God. If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you belong to God, hook, line, and sinker. All of you belong, every part of you, every inch belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. You belong to the Holy Spirit. It's the Holy Spirit that creates all that desire. blessed graces in you, and you belong to Him. Then you can't say, well, when I became a Christian, I didn't have to go that far. You know, it is interesting, especially among evangelicals, Bible believers, we talk about Jesus all the time, and that there are other Christians, in the broader sense of the term, they have a life to live. They have a family. They have hobbies. They have all kinds of things to live. And so they don't think about Jesus all the time. You guys always are thinking about Jesus, not wanting to cross him. The only one I'm afraid of is my pastor. That's the only one I'm afraid of. I had a nurse friend, and we got to know each other. One of her patients was her significant other. For 17 years they lived together. They weren't married. Well, they didn't belong to any particular church, but they wanted me to marry them. Because if they went to their pastor, he'd get real mad. that they had lived together for 17 years. So I was kind of like the scapegoat. I was kind of like the one that could fall back on. And Donna and I went to that home, married them, gave them the gospel. We had a terrific time. Well, what about that? In this day and age of being so independent, You gotta be careful about which church you join. As a matter of fact, Donna and I went to a Bible school. It's called the Bible Institute. I won't give you its name, short of WNBI, but nonetheless. It was called the Bible Institute Era. that was in the latter part of the 19th century. The Bible Institute era was a phenomenon which basically trained laymen to learn the Bible. Otherwise, you had to go to seminary. And in order to go to seminary, you had to be approved by your church. You had to do all kinds of things in order to be able to go just to study the Bible in seminary. So this organization or this phenomenon called the Institute which was not a seminary. But let me tell you, I'm so thankful I went. Not only did I meet Donna, but boy did we study the Bible. Now I was reading an advertisement, the latest advertisement of this particular Bible Institute, and the caption basically said there was this young lady who wanted to go to this particular Bible seminary. They gave it a new name, Bible Seminary. What they liked was the fact that she wanted to go and learn what the Bible said so she wouldn't have to depend upon leaders in the church. And I'm thinking, uh-oh. Well, you know, to give it the best spin possible, yes, she should be able to learn the Word of God. so that you're not absolutely, totally, completely dependent upon anybody on earth, necessarily. Because you're only dependent upon, finally, exclusively and comprehensively on God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. You're not even ultimately dependent upon the church. It's good to study the Word of God, whether in a Bible institute, seminary school, or on your own. Learn that. but not so that I would dismiss the church. Now, there are various ways to describe the church, various characteristics. We talk about the church. We talk about the church visible and the church invisible as not two churches, as one church. We believe in one church, one body. As Paul says in Ephesians 4, one body, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. But there are two aspects of it, visible and invisible. Well, thank God for that because I only belong to the invisible church. An invisible church meets everywhere, all the time, anywhere. Bedside Baptist in the morning. Inner Springs Church of the Inner Springs. It's the invisible church. Is it proper to talk about the visible and invisible? Yes, it's a theological term. The New Testament doesn't use it as such. But there are two aspects. There's a visible, tangible, you see people. They are not ghosts, they are real people. We do get together in a place, physical place. We sing, we pray together. be partaking of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Very tangible. So there's a visible aspect. But there's also an invisible aspect as well. How do you get to belong to the church? Well, quite frankly, you get to belong to the church by the invisible sovereignty of God. And what's the first invisible sovereign act of God that brings you into the church? It's called predestination unto eternal life. You didn't see, touch, taste, feel, smell it, but you were part of it. We talk about the new birth, born again, totally invisible. Can't see, touch, taste, feel, smell. But what's required is that you be born again. We talk about being converted. You again cannot see, touch, taste, feel, or smell. Conversion. You are supposed to see the consequences of that for sure. A changed life. Well, ever since I joined the Invisible Church, they don't care about me, I don't care about them. I'm never late. I'm always early, and I can do it in my own home, or in the car, as a matter of fact. This invisible idea, biblical as it is, becomes an excuse for people. In Acts 12.1, King Herod persecuted those that belonged. It could have been translated, those who were members of the church. Those who belong to the church. Those are tangible, visible people. And he was out to persecute them. Now the interesting thing about the Acts 12 passage. Acts 12 is about King Herod. That's the third Herod in scripture. That's mentioned. And they pretty much followed one another. This herd, even number three, wanted to be the king of the Jews. He wanted to be the real, live king of the Jews. Technically, he was a Dumian or an Ishmaelite, which was a son of Abraham in some extended sense. And this king wanted to be the real messiah. Now what's interesting is, We hear his name first in Acts chapter four. We read Acts chapter four. Apostles were now starting to endure their persecution by the Sanhedrin, by the religious leaders. They stood firm for the gospel message. The religious leader says, don't bring up the name of Jesus. You can talk all you want about good deeds, marvelous ideas, even salvation to some extent, but don't use the name Jesus. The apostles said, it's better to obey God than man. Well, you can do that in your own quiet self. No one has to know about it. And they offered up a prayer. And the prayer in Acts chapter 4 was an excerpt of Psalm 2. Take a look at Psalm 2. Bring your Bibles to Psalm 2. Psalm 2. I'll try not to spend too much time in Psalm 2. I love Psalm 2. Psalm 1 is about the righteous man as well as the wicked man. Psalm 2 is a greater expansion on that idea of the righteous. And this is part of the prayer in Acts 4. Here's Psalm 2. Why do the heathen, the nations, in an uproar, the peoples, devising a vain thing, the kings of the earth take their stand, the rulers, take counsel together against the Lord and against his Messiah, Hamashiach, the Messiah. And what do they say? Verse three, let us tear their fetters apart. Let us cast away their cords from us. And the next verse says, he that sits in the heavens shall what? Some say laugh, some translations say mock, scoff. Yes, even God mocks and God scoffs at these peons, as it were, as they protest. They conspire against Yahweh, the Lord God and his anointed. And it goes on to say, and yet I have set my Messiah, anointed one, upon my holy hill of Zion. And he goes on to talk about, ask of me and I will give you the Goyim, the nations for your inheritance. Submit to the Son. The last verse of that chapter says, kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you perish. That's what's going on in the book of Acts. Psalm 2 is expounded in the book of Acts. And they prayed in Acts chapter 4, verse 30. It says, Lord, extend your hand and perform miracles, signs, and wonders. And the scriptures go on to say, he sure did. And they found out who was the Lord and who was his anointed. Skip over to chapter 12. Back to chapter 12. And it says this, King Herod. Incidentally, the word Herod also means hero. That's what he thought of himself, the hero for the people of God and for the rest of the world, too. But it's Peter that tells us that this Psalm 2 finds its beginning fulfillment in Acts, in the book of Acts. And what you have in chapter 12 is quite frankly two kings at loggerheads with one another. Two kings fighting against one another. I heard a quote. from an unbeliever describing Christians. Basically, the quote said, how do you fight against someone that's invisible? Where is your Lord? Where is your God? He's ascended at the right hand of the majesty on high and he rules. How do you fight against that? Well, in Acts chapter 12, He picked on those that belonged to the church. It's a dangerous thing to belong to the church. The visible church. Well, the invisible church. There's only one church with two different ways to look at it. How do you get to belong to the church? Well, in Acts chapter 12 it tells you. You don't belong because of King Herod, or King John, or any other king except King Jesus. That's how anyone belongs to the church. Tangibly, physically, visibly, invisibly, it all is the working of the Spirit of God Now there is a tangible, visible side to that message, and that of course is in the cross of Christ. And we look to that cross, as it says in Galatians chapter 3, we look to that cross in the preaching of the gospel, the preaching of that cross. Very tangible, historic thing. Real. visible and invisible things going on in that cross. Well, there's some other characteristic, and I'll end with this one. It's very important. It's been implied in the texts that I've been reading, the ones Psalm 47, Psalm 87, and that is the scriptures describe the church as a woman. The church is a woman. Not only that, the church is your mother. Aha! I got a book. And the title of the book is, The Church...A Woman and a Mother. Now, the particular author of that, I don't prescribe to everything she may say, but the title is so true. There is the woman in your life. And I dare say, the first woman in your life. Now, I was a mama's boy. I couldn't let my mother out of my sight for a split second. And I remember when I was four and mother had to go to church and I and my sister had to stay home. And mother walked out that and I thought that was the end of the world. And I shouted and screamed out the door. down the stairs, halfway down the sidewalk, his mother waved, and I thought, the end of my life. Well, within a few years that was over with. I'd still like to be known as a mama's boy, though, a daddy's boy. As a matter of fact, Jerusalem is called in Isaiah chapter 1, verse 26, Jerusalem is called Not only a female, woman, but the other term is metropolis. You know what a metropolis is? It's a mother city. Now what's interesting is the Hebrew is father. The Greek translation rendered it metropolis, mother city. We have a mother city, a metropolis, that we're members of. And it's not tied to any one particular congregation, any one particular denomination, association, affiliation. It transcends all those, but it is very much visible and very invisible all at the same time. The church is your mother. We've been talking about the church as a family, yes. In Psalm 87, it talks about who gives birth to you. It's the church that gives birth to you. It's a metaphor, it's a figure of speech, yes. But nonetheless, it talks about being birthed by the church. In the New Testament, the Christian is never a Christian without being a member of the church. There's no independent believers out there when the church was established, the New Testament church, the New Covenant church. And so we have the church as our mother that takes care of us, nourishes us, feeds us, and what else does it do? It disciplines us. Well, only God knows who a true believer is anyway. Let God do the disciplining. We won't discipline. You know, as a parent, you have to discipline your kids. Try raising them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord with no discipline. It doesn't work that way. The church is our mother, and so we are disciplined by that church. Well, I don't think they were fair in this discipline. Yes, we can complain. A few years ago, my son, who is in his late 40s now, sat down with me and he said, you know, Dad, when you made that decision to stay in San Francisco, you didn't ask us. I said, yeah, but you were like one year old, two years old, five years old. Thirteen years old. It's interesting how when you look back on those days, your kids will complain about what you cooked for them. You thought they liked it. Now they tell you they never liked it. Why did you discipline me for this and for that? Well, I had a few kind words to say to my son. But I finally ended up by saying to him, your turn's coming. Your turn's coming with your kids when they grow up. And I'll be there. I mean, I'll be in heaven at that time, cheering you on and praying for you. The church is the one that disciplines. The discipline doesn't mean smacking all the time. Discipline means training, means teaching. The Hebrew word for discipline is the word Chanukah. You've heard of what Chanukah is, right? The meaning of Chanukah basically means dedication. Discipline. Dedication. Train up a child. And the Hebrew word for train up a child is Chanukah. Dedicate your time to that child. And when he is old, he will not depart from it. And you may not be around at all when that happens. But nonetheless, we have Mother Church to rely on. Yes, we believe in Mother Church. Yes, we can trust Mother Church. Not exactly in the same way as we trust the Lord Jesus. Believe in the Lord Jesus. Trust Him and you will be saved. But we're also called to trust His church. And they're not always the wisest individuals in the world either. And so in chapter 12, verse 1, you don't belong because the king, King Herod, decided that. Nor do you belong because the church decided it. Why did you become a member of this church? I grew up in a denomination when everybody voted on membership. I never occasioned a time when there were some that objected to so-and-so joining the church. It seemed like everybody joined. Everybody said, yes, I approve. If you don't belong because the church said so, you belong because God said so. Christ said so. Spirit of God said so. And the church submits to that. So when the elders of the church, be it ours or other churches, approve of someone, that's not because we've seen the secrets of their heart. It's not because we have special glasses. I would hate to get special glasses for that reason. But because of the prescriptions that God sets down in his word, this is what constitutes a believer, one who submits in faith to the body, to Mother Church. And there are those that say, well, I'm a member of the church, but not any particular local church. It doesn't work that way. Any more than saying, I'm a human being. Oh, who are your parents? I never had any parents. It doesn't work that way. Same for the church. You have parents. Sometimes they may be older members. The official ones are the leadership, which you, the congregation, have some say in their leadership. I want to end with that. What makes you like the church? Well, again, it's God that makes you like the church. What was attractive about the church? Well, the heat works. And they leave me alone. I sit in the middle where nobody knows where I am. My dad used to have huge thousand-member churches. I liked it because nobody bothered me. I could hide. Trouble is, I was the pastor's kid, and I always got in trouble. So when we ask someone, do they believe in Jesus Christ first and foremost? Yes. What church do you belong to? is the next question that we have to encourage them, encourage others. We have to be encouraged ourselves to submit to Christ in this church. Let's have a word of prayer. Father, thank you for what Jesus Christ has done for us on the cross. what the Spirit of God does for us by his irresistible, saving, conquering work in our hearts and lives, but also for the Church of Jesus Christ. As the Psalmist says, walk about Zion, the new Jerusalem, the heavenly Zion. see her citadels, her towers, see how glorious the church is. And that's because Jesus Christ died for this church, his bride, his church, to be the mother of sons and daughters of this church. And we pray, Lord, for our leadership. not only in the local church, but the presbytery, but the denomination also. We would take seriously that we're called to carry out that work of discipline, reward, chastisement, encouragement, and thanksgiving. We pray all this in Jesus' name, amen.