Turn with me please to Ephesians chapter 5, and I would say, boy, this is a familiar passage, but I'm not because it is, and it's obvious. I'm going to approach it a little bit different. The greatest jewel, with all respect to our jewelers, resident jewelers, The greatest jewel on earth today, in this age, is the church of Jesus Christ. It is a precious, precious thing to God, the church is. It's precious enough that if you want to measure and you can't, or shouldn't, that he would send his son from heaven incarnate upon this earth, dwell among men, live a righteous life on our behalf, and give his life on our behalf on the cross of Calvary when he took upon himself my sins and your sins. In doing so, he suffered the very wrath, the judgment of God. If you want a portrait of that sometime, go to the Gospels and read the account of Christ on the cross and see in that not just love for you, but wrath for him, your wrath that you deserve. When he died there, resurrected on the third day, account biblically probably, had commissioned his appointed ones, the disciples, with a great commission. There's out of this going to come a church. It's not necessarily Baptist or Methodist like we think of church. It's not a building like this is a building. He never meant for you to go to church. That's not why he died on the cross. He died to place you in the church. Now, stick with me until I define what I mean by church. Please. But I want to read before all that, and we look at this precious stone filled with virtue, value before God, his value, his virtue. Before we do that, I want to read this text. And I want to do with it what the Apostle Paul intended to do with it. We often read the text I'm about to read in light of marriage between a man and a woman. I'm going to read it with the focus on what Paul meant for it to be this morning. Would you look with me please in Ephesians chapter 5? And to begin to read in verse 23, for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church. And he's the Savior and the body. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church. and gave himself for it. I emphasize. That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of the water by the word. That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies, and he that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, even as the Lord the Church. For we are members of his body, and his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning the Church. Father in heaven, thank you for the Word of God. Thank you for the focus and the emphasis that, God, you have extremely pointed out to we that believe by the Holy Spirit you've taught and will teach. You will speak today continuously through your Word. Let us be hearers of the Word, but not hearers only, but rather doers of the world. We ask you, Father, to help us to exalt Christ Jesus. Thank you for the music that we have participated in this morning to bring praise and honor and glory to thee. Thank you for the fellowships that we've had among the congregation this morning. our visitors as well, thank you so much. And then Lord, we thank you for the opportunity to give a portion, a gift that Lord will never merit anything that's worthwhile as far as the worldliness is concerned. But it is our way of expressing our love for you and for your church. We ask you Father now to have your way in the service and as we prepare our hearts by the word of God, For what is to come of Brother Dennis leading us in the communion service, prepare our hearts. Be glorified, God we pray, in Christ's name and for his sake. Paul, in this particular passage of scripture, uses the word church at least five times. We, up until this point, have taken the previous two Sundays and preached concerning the leadership in the church. The leadership being that of elders, bishops, and we use 1 Timothy 3 for this, by the way, and Titus. That being that of elders and that of deacons and their role and establishments by God himself. We even read where Paul admonished Timothy in 1 Timothy 3 that he wanted to come and visit, but he may be He said, if I tarry long, I write these things that you may know how to behave yourself in the house of God. And he tells what it is, which is the church of the living God. We're not living in the first days of what we're seeing going on, quote, with churches. This isn't the first time apostasy has been manifest. It's not the last time it will be either. Not the first time we've seen men go astray. Pastors fall into sin. Churches divide over and have schisms over irrelevance. To me, it would be irrelevant things. What color to paint the wall or the carpet or whatever. It's not hard to offend Christians anymore. Have you noticed that? Just tell them the truth if you want to offend them. Nope. I'm like Dr. MacArthur. The Word of God is offensive. It's contrary to everything that I am by nature. You see, I'm just a sinner saved by grace. That when this person called Jesus Christ gave his life for sins on the cross, it was me that he died for. It was me that I might be born again. It was me that my sins may be remitted. It was me that I might be part of the elite or the elect, either way you want to put it. That is the church of Jesus Christ. You see, the church with God is distinguished from the world. We're not after the fads of the world. We're not after the cultures of the day. We're not changing it just because it's popular and so forth. We're not going to switch music because one generation likes one style and one generation likes another style. No, no, no. We're going to worship God is what we're going to do. And that's a little old-fashioned, but I'm a little old, so leave me alone. But the point being, the church is a precious, precious thing. I don't know how you view this. Your church, for instance. I don't know how you look at that sometimes. Whether it's an add-on that we have to go to church. And by the way, we don't go to church. I want to reiterate that. We are the church. We assemble is what we do. We go and assemble with the saints of God at 610 East Lake Drive. But the point being, it's a precious thing to God. that he paid the ultimate price for you to be saved. You can be saved. You say, Pastor, you can be saved and not be part of the church. Oh, before we get into all that, just hang on to that thought. I want to give you something that Jesus said, which ought to be enough. He saith unto them, Whom say ye that I am? This is pretty important, and we've been really stressing this lately, the identity of the Son of God, the real, true biblical identity, not the Jesus of the imagination or fascination, but the Jesus of the Word of God as it's depicted in the Scriptures. You don't know any Jesus apart from the Scriptures. You don't know any Jesus. It's not the way, the truth, and the life. You don't know another way to get to heaven. No man cometh to the Father, but by me. So you see the tie that we're bringing together here, maybe, or the perspective we're bringing together. But he said, Simon Peter, thank God for Simon Peter. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Boy, is that ever key or what? Matthew 16. That's key to the church, not key to the world. It's a key truth. For the church, I'll give you his words, don't take mine for it, please. And Jesus answered, said, Simon, blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven, not revealed what? His identity. And I say unto thee, thou art Peter, and upon this rock I'll build my, quote, church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. No, don't stop there. And I'll give unto thee the keys to the kingdom. Understand this. Because long after Jesus is resurrected, Peter is going to be left here on earth. Peter is part of that group called the disciples in Matthew 28 that received the great commission to evangelize, to incorporate into the church through baptism, and to continually train and teach God's people. That's the entities of the Great Commission. One commission. So we know that. And we read in Ephesians 5 where Paul is using a tremendous relationship. Matter of fact, it's the most powerful relationship on earth other than that with God. And he draws our attention to a marriage. A marriage between a man and a woman. And he draws our attention to their roles in the marriage are simulated by the roles that the church has with Jesus Christ. You hear this? You hear this? It almost implies that my relationship with Edna is reflective of my relationship with Jesus Christ. Doesn't it? I mean, look at it. I'll take you through it if you want to remember it. We'll be here a little longer, and lunch will be delayed. I mean, if you want to doze for a minute, give me a break, and we'll, no, I'm teasing you about that. So we look at the word church, and let's get that first, because we've got to be on the same page. We've got to be on the same page in definitions. The church, ecclesia, the ecclesia, the called out ones, the assembled ones that belong unto the Lord. Now get that. You belong to Jesus Christ. You are his possession, the church I speak of. And if you're saved, I'm talking particularly, of course, to you that are saved. However, we in our situation need to give you something here. When you look at the word church and you look through your theological studies or whatever, You'll find phrases like the particular church, or the universal church, or the militant church, or the triumphant church, or the visible church, or the invisible church. And we got some of those here today, invisible church members. I'm kidding. Again, for you that are visiting, that's a bledsoe humor. It's free. A particular church is a church that is of a specific local church congregation. This is a particular church. A universal church is all Christian believers in all times. Milton Church is the church for today. It's a visible Christian church in contrast with the Church Triumphant, which is ultimate when Christ comes and receives us. Visible church, invisible church, and so forth. We want to dwell on the local church. Now why? Because that's what the Bible does. And the Bible being the Word of God, inspired, inerrant, etc. All the attributes of holiness, of course. But we want to dwell on the local church. Now hang with me. Have you noticed your Bible, particularly the New Testament, from Romans through is written to local assemblies. Have you noticed that? For instance, Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesians, etc. Those were all local assemblies. So these letters that were written back to these local assemblies with local instructions and teachings and so forth. These have to be considered as a kind of like a format. Then if it's written to local churches, then that's where God's focus is on local assemblies. Now let me say this, local assemblies, visible local assemblies, make up the universal church today. In other words, we're not the only pebble on the beach. There's churches all over the world. They're real churches. They're preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and they're developing disciples and implementing them in the local churches and going out and starting in other local churches and other local churches and it just perpetuates on and on and on and on, of course. But we have to consider the local assembly as far as that's concerned. Now the imagery here in Ephesians chapter 5 is not necessarily depicted other than through a husband and wife relationship. Now, stick with me. As you go through the Bible, the New Testament in particular, you find the church image all throughout the Bible. For instance, in Corinthians, you find the church known as the body of Christ. We speak spiritually. In Hebrews, it's the people of God. In 2 Corinthians, it's the creation of God. 2 Corinthians 5.17. The church is a fellowship of God, Philippians 2.1. The church is the household of God, 1 Peter 4.17, 2 Peter 3.18. The church is the bride of Christ, Revelation 21. Those are the imageries. Even under the thinking that it was written to a local assembly, here's the imagery presented. In other words, you can't miss this. What avenue do you travel that you don't see this? What book are you studying that you don't understand this? And it's written to the church. What I'm reading it here in my study or whatever, I'm part of the body of Jesus Christ. I'm part of the bride of Jesus Christ. I'm part of the assembly that he's called out unto himself. I'm part of that number that when Jesus returns, I'm going to go home to be with the Lord Jesus Christ. And not just I, but you that are saved, you'll be called up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we all ever be with the Lord, according to Thessalonians. Man, that's a wonderful truth. Where does it lose its distinguishment with you? Where does it lose the perspective? Where does it lose the values, the validity? By the way, he says in Ephesians chapter five, and I'm not gonna be there all morning, and if I am, then Lord lets me live till next Sunday, we'll be back. In other words, I'm not cutting it. Watch this, in Ephesians chapter five. When he begins here, he says, I mentioned the fact that he mentions the word church six times. But then there's those pronouns that he might sanctify and cleanse it in reference to what? The church. He does that two or three times. Verse 27, that he might present it to himself, a glorious church. Now what you find in Ephesians chapter five, number one is salvation. You know the order. It's consistent throughout the scriptures. Number one, you find out that these people are the saints of God. Is that not true? Read chapter one and you'll find out real quick who he's writing to. So he's writing to the saints of God. Now the saints of God are those of us that have been redeemed by the blood of Christ. We that were one time alienated away from God, a barrier between us and God, are now being reconciled unto God through Jesus Christ. So number one is salvation. Number two, and you know the order, is sanctification. That's what we're getting into here. sanctification because he's headed with this toward glorification and that is the fact that he would present the church a glorious church without spot or wrinkle. There's the destiny. There's Romans chapter 8 all over again. All over. You'll never find it contrary to that. What a wonderful truth. God's purpose and plan for these local assemblies to one day all be assembled together. Revelation chapter 4 and 5 perhaps. Singing around the throne. or worshiping around the throne. So the church is of great value on earth right now. You know what I'm saying? Your church, this church, is of great value to you. Now you may not realize it, and you may think it's an add-on, and you may think it's not anything I want to get involved in. You may think a lot of things, but I'm thinking like God thinks. I choose right now. to think about the church like God thinks about the church. I choose to take God and his word about my role in the church, or my place in the church. Now watch this, and let me clarify this, because you could get really misunderstood with this. The church has never saved anyone. You can join all the, quote, churches in the world and die in your sins. The church is not in itself salvific, but the church is those that have experienced salvation. You hear this? And we'll talk more about this in a minute. But the church, we're going to determine some things. Number one, who's the head of the church? Colossians chapter 1, Ephesians 5, verse 23, Christ is the head of the church. Colossians 1.16, for by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are in the earth, visible and invisible. Let me skip ahead. And he says, he's before all things, and by him all things consist. And he's the head of the body, the church, the body, who's the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, speaking the truth in love that we may grow up into him, Ephesians 4.15, which is the head, even Christ. That's one thing we have got to determine. You've got to understand that he purchased the church. You didn't purchase your way in. You didn't work your way in. God saved your old wretched soul and gave you new life, and now you're the redeemed of God. That's how you got, quote, in God's church. And we'll talk more practically later. Second thing we've got to determine with the church, that Christ Jesus is the redeemer. He's the savior of the body. We can't have four or five different saviors or four or five different methodologies to get into heaven or to be saved or forgiven of our sins. As a matter of fact, let me do this, if I could, quickly. As the savior, he says in verse 23, as the husband is head of the wife, even as Christ the head of the church, the savior of the body. Colossians 1, it pleased the father that in him all fullness should dwell. And having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things to himself. By him, I say, whether it be things in earth or things in heaven. You who were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through the death present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight." So the second thing, not only is he the head of the church, he's the savior of the church. Husbands, love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself for Now the focus is on the church here, not the world. You've got to understand this. So Christ is the head, he's the savior. Watch this. The church of Jesus Christ is comprised of only those that are saved. This has been a historical battle in religion for years and years and years about unregenerate saints. Is there such a word? I just coined that. It's bad. Only the saved are part of the church. For instance, in the church of Rome, they were called saints in chapter 1, verse 7. In Corinth, in chapter 1, verse 2, 2 Corinthians 1, 1, he calls it the church of God that is called to be saints. In Galatians, he calls unto the church of Galatia, in Galatians chapter 1, verse 2, or the assembled and Galatia. Ephesians, he calls them the saints which were at Ephesus. And Philippi, he calls them the saints which were at Philippi. Colossae, he calls them the saints and the faithful brethren. The Thessalonican church, the church of God. The pastoral epistles, which is the church for pastors, of course, or saints. James and the Hebrew epistles, etc. And then the book of Revelation opens up with the letters to the seven churches of Asia Minor. Did you get the point? Did you get the point how significantly important this is before God? This is not convenient for us. It's not meant to be convenient. It's conviction. It's conversion. It's our, what would you call, conversation of life, not necessarily verbally, but our manner of living. So you've got the significance there. How important is it? This thing called the church. And what church are you talking about? If you're not talking about local assemblies, you're missing the point probably. Now, I'm part of a local assembly called Faithway Baptist Church. I've been part of a local assembly since God converted me years ago, back in 1973. And since that time, I have been in among the saints of God. You didn't have to go looking for me. You didn't have to wonder where I was. You didn't have to go find me. It became a way of life. And then I was just married, and we lived within walking distance of the church. Sunday morning we get our Bibles and go to the church. Pretty simple. That's all we need to do. I just believe that Christians went to church. Because they are the church. They are the church. And I prefer, in a strong way, the word Christian. Because it automatically identifies me with Christ. Regardless of what the world does with that, I couldn't care less. If I'm just a believer, then the devil identifies as a believer. Have you noticed that? And the devils believe and tremble. They believe and tremble. But I never heard of a devil believing in Christ. So I'm a Christian. I'm part of the church. If you're a Christian, maybe not this church, but you're part of the church. You're a significant member in the body of Jesus Christ. Now let's get to the message. Turn with me please to the book of Acts. And you know we have to go back to the beginning. Not Genesis 1-1, but Acts. Scared you there for a minute, didn't I? In Acts chapter 2 and 3, you know the story. Christ has ascended by this time. They're gathering together based upon, and I'm talking about they being the saints of God, 120 of them are gathered together for prayer in a place that God sent them based upon the promise of the coming of the Comforter. So they moved the saints of God, moved, this is prior to what we know as a church by the way, they moved by the promises of God. Now this is key truth, simple truth, but a key truth. That meant they operated by faith. Now let me express their faith to you for just a second. Why stand ye here gazing up into heaven? They watched him ascend to heaven. And that would be a fascinating sight, you've got to admit. Saved or not, that would be fascinating. As he ascended up into heaven and the angels appeared unto him, why stand ye here gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus shall so come, and like manners you've seen him go. Whoa. Well, if he's gone, what are they supposed to be doing? And they didn't like the idea he was leaving to start with, but he's gone. Well, he said, I promise you another comforter. Go wait for the fulfillment of that promise. And they did. And the Holy Ghost descended. And the signs of the miracle happened. And they did speak in tongues. And people understood them in their own languages, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Hang in there. Because we see God unfolding, not just in picture, but God making a tangible thing called the church. We are spiritually part of his body. But his body, as we sit as a church, is a tangible body. Reach over and touch the person next to you. Now, if you're not married to her, leave her alone. But the point being, it's tangible. Daniel Connor is not a fiction or some fictional character. He's not a mystical person. Now he believes in Christ, he's spiritual, he's been born again, he's part of the body of Christ. But I shook his hand this morning. It's tangible. You got it? The point? So all this tangibility is going to come out now because Peter is going to preach. And he's going to preach an expository message. Read it. Acts 2 and 3. Read it. Man, does he ever, ever preach a tremendous message. For a man who's never been to seminary or never taken a lesson in hermeneutics or homiletics, he did a great job. You know why? Two things. One, the Holy Spirit of God. Two, the Word of God. Read it. All he does is preach what's been written. He didn't come up with anything new. He didn't look for a new lesson, a new message, a new approach. He didn't change the music. He didn't change the format. He didn't do anything but stand up and preach. And when he got finished, he saw results. He scared them to death. To the point where they would cry, what must we do to be saved? Even the early church required a salvific experience before you were recognized in the church. Whoa! What must we do to be saved? Good question. What must we do to be delivered? We use the word Savior. Verse 37 of Acts 2, after Peter had preached, and I could preach Peter's message, but it would cause another series to come. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, I guess. He called them murderers, blasphemers. He just said everything in the world to them. It must have been true, they were pricked in their heart. And said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? Now notice something with our transition. It didn't stop with the prayer meeting where the Holy Ghost descended. These apostles continued on. together corporately. Did you hear what I just said? There's no mavericks in the church that God recognizes. No such thing as going out on your own and doing your own thing. Guys work together according to promises of God. Well, and they preached the word of God. They heard this, what must we do? And Peter said unto them, repent and be baptized, every one of you. Repentance, we think we understand somewhat about it, don't we? That these men repented, or these people repented of all the things that Peter had brought to their charge. They were willing to repent and turn from, what must we do to be delivered? Because Peter promised them that he's coming back. And he said, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ. for the remission of sins and you'll receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Now let me go back. I won't elaborate too long on repentance. It's more than I'm sorry. It's not an apology here. It's not apologetic. It's to the point I hate what I did. That's what it is. I hate it that I was guilty of the crucifixion of the Son of God. Read the context. I hate that. And you know now, even now, there's a tinge, I guess if you want to put it that way, a feeling of guilt when I think about my sins on him. It's just a feeling. I know judicially what happened. I understand that. I hate to hurt people. I really do. To offend people deliberately. I do it not deliberately. I'm just an offensive kind of guy. Right, Marie? I hate that. And now I think about how vile my sins really are and how He took them. I get ashamed that I don't want to be that way anymore. God's turned me from being a hater of God to a lover of God. How about that? Is that repentance or a good sign of repentance? I no longer hate God, I love God. I hope that love just keeps growing and growing and growing and growing. And then you should be baptized. Now here is our teaching briefly on baptism. Matthew 28, 18 through 20 is our umbrella. When people were baptized, and we'll go into that in a moment, They were incorporated into that assembly. They were recognized as believers through their baptism with that assembly. Baptism doesn't save them. It doesn't add to the repentance. It's just a good manifestation of repentance. So when we baptize, we baptize into this assembly. Now, if you go to another church, you get saved, you want to go to another church, then that's where you need to be baptized, to us. I'm not gonna die if you don't agree with that, that's okay. But I'll die believing that. That we put you into this local assembly. Now, if you wanna transfer your membership later, great. I mean, not great, but good. That's okay. You're not locked in here, is what I'm saying. You can always do what you gotta do. That was the purpose of baptism. What you want evidence of that? Watch this. Look in verse 41. Then they were gladly received his word and were baptized. And the same day they were added unto them about three thousand souls." They were baptized. Why didn't he just say they repented? They gladly received his word and were baptized. Why didn't he just say, and they gladly repented and received his word and were baptized? He didn't, did he? Not to do away with repentance. But now we know that baptism is an evidence of the fact that you have repented and trusted Christ as your Savior. That's just that. It's not for more salvation. It's not for less salvation, etc. And then something else happened. Watch this. This is New Testament local church stuff. Stuff being Hebrew for stuff. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine. Here's Matthew 28 again. That we trained them, we discipled them. See, they didn't put anything aside to have an experience. No, no. This is the church. It has to be done right. If there's anything on earth that needs to be right, it needs to be the saints of God. This needs to be right. It's not haphazard. We don't just decide, make decisions, and do what we whim to do. No, it has to be the right thing. And it has to be according to the methodology of the New Testament church. We have no liberty to start a church any different than what God ordained. We don't have the liberty. We can't go out and just, hey, get a King James Bible and preach. There's methodology, God's methodology to all this. So they continued learning and growing and in communion, the breaking of the bread, the fellowship. And here's where it may be a weak spot in the church today too. The opportunity to fellowship, how significant it is. Now, I don't mean just getting together and eat a piece of cake and drink a cup of coffee and so forth and so on. That's good, and I like that. The coffee, particularly. I like that. But I'm talking about fellowship like this. I'm talking about fellowship where Tim and I get together and we're discussing the things of God. Our elders' meetings don't consist of a deacon's meeting reverted over to an elders' meeting. Tim will tell you it's different. It's all theology. We don't care. I mean, I care. But this isn't the time to bring up the financial report. This isn't the time at elders meeting to bring up your ingrown toenail. It's just not the time. We'll meet with you later about your ingrown toenail and pray for you, or recommend a good doctor, et cetera. But it's spirit, the fellowship, that's what I'm talking about. When you leave here today, this morning, what fellowship will you have the rest of the day? Will you discuss the things of the church? Will you build upon them personally or between you and your spouse, if that would be the case? Or is it just an academic endeavor that we want to get this off our chest? Hogwash, it'll never get off my chest. No, no, I live and breathe this. Want to. If I could die for any purpose in life, it would be what we're doing today. Why? It's the most valuable gift that God has ever given to this world is the true church of Jesus Christ. Wait. Wait. All that believed in Acts chapter 2 were together, were assembled. Boy, don't miss it, please. Not that I'm the model, but Edna's here, she can testify to this. We were just married, as I said a little while ago. And I mean just married. I don't mean just as if only, I just mean if we had recently been married. I looked for ways to go to church, for reasons. If they dug a ditch, I'm going to help dig a ditch. If they unclogged the sewer, I'm gonna help unclog the sewer. I just wanted to be with the saints. If they had a college prayer meeting, I was at the college prayer meeting. If they had bus visitation, I was on bus visitation. I just looked for ways to be with the saints of God. Often had them to our home, she'll do. Often have lunches with, often, I'm just looking for a way to get with the saints of God. I have enough of this mess, and I'm not like you guys who are working out there in the secular world. But I have enough of this going on all the time, period. You don't think our counselees come in for a good theological lesson, do you? No, they're out there in the world and getting burnt. Getting burnt, and you that have done counseling, you know what I'm about to say. The time involved in that, and the effort involved in that, and the prayer involved in that, not just preparing to do it, but after the fact, it goes on and on and on and on and on. It's exhausting. But these people look for ways, they assemble together. Verse 46, I don't want to skip verse 45. They sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men, they were benevolent people. And they continued daily with one accord in the temple, harmony, unity. breaking of bread from house to house, eating meat with gladness, praising God and having favor with all people, and the Lord added to the church daily. Look at that. Can you see that unfolding there, that tangibility rolling forth? Rolling forth? No. Stick with me, because it didn't change in the Bible. I read all the way over in 1 Peter, chapter 5, as a matter of fact. to minister to the saints that are gathered among you. I read in 1 Corinthians 16 when you gather together on the first day of the week to bring this offering. I never read of the church where there's not a, quote, gathering together. And I don't think they meant Sunday morning alone. Do you? It said daily opportunities. I don't think that. But they gather together. And I never read of a church that doesn't gather together. And the church is the baptized believers. All the way over. And again, let me say, it wasn't for salvation purposes they were baptized. Now, just to illustrate, the model hasn't changed. It may be an oddity now, or a rare thing, But it hasn't changed biblically. You understand? So if you want to understand what the church is all about, read the book that was written to the church. Study it. Study what elders are, study what the deacons are, study what's going on in the church. Get your mind off the, what, the trivial stuff if it's on it. You might want spiritual things, things of the body of Christ, things that concern the head of the body of Christ, that glorify Him, that exalt Him. That's where the church needs to be. The local church needs to be there. I'm not concerned about nickels, numbers, or noses. I'm not. I have one concern when I walk into this pulpit, and that's you, the saints of God. God had one concern. when he gave us these epistles, and that was you. You hear this? Now, it brings me to the closing question, and we're going to go for communion, and I'm quitting on purpose. It brings me to the closing conclusion. If God did all you said he did, and has all he said he has, and so forth and so on, where am I in all this? I don't know. I wouldn't answer it for you. Where are you in the body of Christ? What's your function in the body of Christ? There's no such thing as a dysfunctional body of Christ, for sure. Now you may be dysfunctional, but the body of Christ isn't. You may be handicapped, but the body of Christ isn't, because the gates of hell won't prevail against the church. But I have to ask myself the question, God, this is so tremendous. What you've done. What you've done. And by the way, I meet saints of God about anywhere I go. About. Anywhere I go. By their own professions. I mean, when I've got a doctor who's asking me if I die, would I go to heaven? That's pretty good. Because it gave me the next 35, 40 minutes talking with her about salvation. She's a Christian, by the way. A saint of God. Doesn't even attend this church. How can that be? But she is part of a local church. And a pretty good local church, from what I understand. I'm just saying, you meet her wherever you go. And there's no such thing in the Bible as a believer that we can address as a Christian that's not part of a local church. What recognition do I have, biblically, of a faith that's apart from the local assembly. How do we recognize that? Well, God doesn't. Now, I know the lady or the guy in Corinth was put out to be restored, and he was eventually restored from what I understand. Then I read about a guy like Demas, rascal, went on mission trips, helped the apostle Paul. Paul's in prison getting ready to die. He's admonishing young Timothy or younger Timothy. listening to some folks, Alexander the coppersmith, and he said, Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world. And John said, we're not to love the world, leave the things that are in the world. If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him, and here is the closing factor. We don't play a game here. It's not one foot in, one foot out. I'm either saved or lost. Come on. I'm either heaven bound or hell bound. One of the two. I'm either unforgiven or forgiven. One of the two. There's no in-between. I either believe in Christ or I don't believe in Christ. There's no in-between. No in-between. Think about how close the other thief on the cross was to the Savior. Not the one who repented. The other one who didn't repent. He was just as close to the kingdom as the other one was. Wow. How'd you like to give an account for that? Why? He loves you. You're his church. Is he your head? There's what we get to. Is it His will for us? That's the issue. I pray God would impress upon all of us, not that He hasn't already, and not that you're not aware of everything I said today, but impress upon us what this means before God. His intention, His purpose, and His glory. Think on this. Would you do that? Let's bow our heads for prayer. Deacons, if you would. Brother Dennis is going to lead us to the Lord's table. And let me say this before he comes or as he comes. If you're here today and you're a Christian, although you're not a member of this church, you don't have to be to take our communion. It's open to every believer in Christ, every believer, whether they're with us or in another church or whatever. It's living for the Lord with a clear conscience. can participate at the Lord's table. I do admonish you also that not save perhaps that you would refrain because this is for, as I said, for the church only, for believers only.