 So, primarily I'm going to be referring to some of the content of this book, which is Church Membership in the Bible by Peter Masters. And some of you will recognize that name because it's also right here. Peter Masters is the editor of this confession that we use. And I'm not one who normally seeks out photo ops with famous pastors, but I do happen to have just this one. And so, this is in the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London, and we are in the vestry of the church after the evening service there, and I think it was 2018, Marian and I took a 30th wedding anniversary trip to London. And the people there couldn't have been more gracious. It was such a, the whole highlight of our trip was our interaction with this church. But we're standing in front of Charles Spurgeon's pulpit. This was his church in the 1800s, and you can barely see it, but just to the right of the pulpit there's a clock that he used to time himself. But on that trip we went and visited on Friday evening and rang the bell at the church, and his secretary, Helen, came and met us, and I think she was the only person in the building. She gave us a tour, took us through the bookstore, invited us to go out evangelizing with them on Saturday, which we did, went down to a part of London where they were doing some open-air preaching, and we passed out tracks, and on Sunday after church we went to a fellowship with Helen and her husband and some other people in the church, and one of the really interesting things that they do at that church, and this is not a lesson about Peter Master's church, but I can't help but share some of this stuff. So it's in the middle of London, and they have a Sunday school that they do in the afternoons where they have, I can't remember if it was five, I think it was 700 inner-city kids who come to a Sunday school on Sunday afternoons, and the whole church is wrapped up in teaching, organizing, part of what they do is they go door-to-door in London inviting kids to come to their Sunday school, and often the parents are like, yeah, yeah, yeah, take them. But yeah, so I can't even imagine how many people it would have taken, how many members would have been involved in teaching that many young kids Sunday school, and then we went to the evening service, and it was interesting because Peter Master's, we talked for, I don't know, maybe 15 minutes, and he shared, he said, you people in America have this all wrong as far as Sunday school goes. You pull people out of the service during the church service for Sunday school, this is how you should do it, so maybe it's food for thought for us, but imagine the impact that they're having with these over the years, thousands of young people who, their only exposure to the Christian faith is likely, you know, the effort of that church. But so you can take the picture down, and the show and tell is over. In his book on church membership, he's got a chapter, and so are we passing out the copy of the lesson? Does everybody have that? Pardon? It's really what, I also, I've lost my coffee, there it is, wait, there you go, I'm getting cotton mouth up here, thank you sir. So he's got a chapter in the book on loyalty to the local church, and that's really what I've put into the handout that you have is essentially, I've lifted the first part of the chapter and, you know, reproduced it here, and then there's an outline of the rest of the chapter. And so we're going to try to go through this as much as we can this morning. So the lesson really is not so much about the necessity for church membership, but we want to talk about that just a minute before we get into this issue of loyalty. You can't live out your Christian life apart from being with people in a church. You can't love one another in the way that we're called to do, and really hold each other accountable in the way that we're called to do. So a couple of thoughts about church membership, Pastor Michael wrote this definition years ago when he was teaching essentials. He said church membership is a visible expression of one's union with Christ and his bride, whereby a professing follower of Jesus Christ formally commits to join, serve, support, and submit to one local assembly and its leadership, laboring to obey God's will for the edification of the body of Christ and the salvation of the lost to the glory of God. There's a lot in that, and we'll delve into some aspects of it this morning. John MacArthur said this about church membership, living out a commitment to a local church involves many responsibilities, exemplifying a godly example in the community, exercising one's spiritual gifts, indeligent service, contributing financially to the work of the ministry, giving and receiving admonishment with meekness and in love, and faithfully participating in corporate worship. Much is expected, but much is at stake, for only when every believer is faithful to this kind of commitment is the church able to live up to her calling as Christ's representative here on earth. To put it simply, membership matters. We see, I'll point you to a couple of passages, if you would look at Acts 2 and verse 47, excuse me, we see there at the end of that, and the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. And so there's a definite number that are identified. It's not a just a loose, easy, undefined kind of thing, it's a specific number. The Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. And one really interesting thing about church membership that our 1689 points out, if you have it with you, turn to chapter 26, and I'll just point you to sections 5, 6 and 7. So in the confession, chapter 26, section 5, in the exercise of the authority which has been entrusted to him, the Lord Jesus calls to himself from out of the world, through the ministry of his word, by his spirit, those who are given to him by his father, so that they may walk before him in all the ways of obedience which he prescribes to them in his word. Those who are thus called, he commands to walk together in particular societies or churches for their mutual edification, and for the due performance of that public worship which he requires of them in the world. And the particular thing I wanted to point you to here is so that they may walk before him in all the ways of obedience which he prescribes to them in his word. And then the next sentence, those who are thus called, he commands to walk together in particular societies or churches for their mutual edification, for the due performance of that public worship which he requires of them in the world. And the proof text there is Matthew 18, which is the section that we know about as being related to church discipline. And church discipline begins with making sure that there's nothing between you and your brothers or sisters. And so we're blessed to be part of a church where church discipline is practiced, and in fact, as we'll see in Peter Master's chapter on loyalty to the local church, one of the things that he says is, you know, if a church doesn't practice church discipline, leave it. So it tends to have this sort of negative, you know, thing, a lot of churches stay away from it, but it's really about preserving unity and true fellowship and, you know, not letting small things turn into big things, and we're here to worship God together, and, you know, we can't do that if we're hating each other. But in church discipline, what we see is that, you know, there are people, you know, if they're unrepentant and refuse to hear their brothers refuse to hear the church, they're put out of the church. So this idea of church membership and the necessity of church membership is reinforced by and supported by Matthew 18. And, you know, there are other passages in the Bible about discipline, putting people out and restoring them, and so church membership is crucial. There's nowhere it says, you know, you must be a member of a church, but the implication and the inference and all of the other ways that we see in which the Christian life has lived out assume church membership. But so the main thing we want to talk about today is loyalty and the issue that often comes up in the course of our lives where, especially in this country and especially in our world today where, you know, people are constantly moving and, you know, the jobs are changing, the economy is changing, the world is changing. I was going to say the climate is changing, but John McArthur did a sermon recently where he basically skewered all of the current thinking about the big threats to the country and said the biggest threat to the country is the government. But let's see, where was I? Loyalty. So, you know, one of the, we're inclined to think in a worldly way. Now, I did this years ago. I worked for Golf Week for 10 years and got laid off in 2007. Is Tom Matugi here? Tom, there's Tom. I've told this story about Tom many times, but, and so I, you know, I've been a journalist for forever and it's the only thing I thought I really knew how to do. You know, I got laid off and I started sending out resumes and I got a job offer in North Carolina and I was inclined to go there. We'd been here two years. This was 2007 and I was telling Tom about this and Tom said, well, what are you going to do about a church? And, you know, I naively was like, well, I'm sure there's a good church up there somewhere. And, you know, really the more I thought about that question and the more I thought about how I had wondered, wondered for so long from one bad church to another and had found a true church where there was a high concentration of genuinely converted Christians, the more it, you know, the more difficult it began to, you know, as I thought about leaving, I was like, I don't know, maybe I don't know if I can do this. Like, finally I found a true church. I need to rethink this. And so I did. And, you know, by the grace of God, you know, made the right choice to stay. Changed careers, which at 50 was, you know, a little nerve-wracking. Started a business in a field I knew almost nothing about. And so that was 2008. And I'm so glad that I did. The Lord has blessed that decision and that choice in many ways. And this is, so this gets at a point that Peter Masters makes in this chapter, which is that your first inclination, when a difficulty comes into your life that makes it appear to you that your first and best choice is to move away don't do it. He speaks of proving the Lord. And he speaks of it too as being a way that Satan often works in pulling people away from where they're supposed to be. So with that sort of as an introduction, let's look at what... So Peter Masters makes the point in the chapter that there are times when it is, you know, the Lord is calling someone to make a move to another place. And that does happen. He's not saying that, you know, regardless of whatever is going on, never do it. There are times when that is clearly... It's the Lord is orchestrating the circumstances in your life and moving you to another place because he has a purpose for you there. So that may happen. But, you know, you need to really look carefully and think carefully and prayerfully about whether that is, in fact, what's happening and not let worldly influences be the thing that really causes you to move away. And that's really where he starts in this lesson. So if you would just refer to this at the beginning, this quote that I pulled out at the top. He says, when the next trial arises in our lives, will we have the right priorities? Many fall in the time of trial without even a struggle and consequently they may suffer years of unhappiness without real spiritual usefulness. Some have gone into a spiritual wilderness because matters of career or location become the biggest influence in their lives, causing them to abandon their place in the service of the Lord. And so I encourage you to read this thing. I'm just going to highlight a few things that he says. This is counter-cultural. I mean, even though my own experience was, you know, as I described it, you know, inclined initially to just move, you know. I've got bills to pay. I've got a mortgage, you know, all the stuff. It's taken me a while and still, you know, as I see people leaving, with every year I see the gravity more clearly of this issue, of loyalty to your church and not treating this lightly. And partly that's because we've seen a number of people leave for really simple preference and, you know, worldly kinds of considerations and things often don't go well for them. I remember that there was a not long after we, Mary and I, made the decision to stay here. There was a couple who had been in the church and had moved to North Carolina and had been up there for two or three years and had gone to like 50 churches. And some of you have been here a long time, remember them, and came back, you know, threw up their hands and just said, we can't find a decent church up there, you know, and moved back to Orlando. I'm not sure where they are now, but I was like, hmm, maybe that's another indication from God that it's a good thing I didn't go. So Masters points to two things in this section, a low or high view of the church. The first is 1 Corinthians 12. And so in your handout, it's near the bottom of the first page I'm going to read. He says, the New Testament is clear in its portrayal of the local church as a company of believers very strongly related together in bonds of love and loyalty and service. The local church is much greater than a haphazard collection of believers. It is a spiritually integrated family vested with unique privileges and authority to carry out the commands of its head, the Lord Jesus Christ. A local church is the object of his delight and he is especially protective towards it. The local church is, as Paul says repeatedly in 1 Corinthians 12, one body. In the 18th verse he says, now hath God set the members, every one of them, in the body as it hath pleased him. In other words, God has designed each congregation. As people have left here, this is a point that we've tried to emphasize to them. There's no accident that you're here. I mean, this is where God brought you. This is where he has put you. And that's something that should weigh heavily in any kind of, you know, decision that you might make about whether to leave. The Masters goes on to say, we therefore conclude that if any are removed, other than by the design and overruling of the Lord, some vital quality will be missing. The members care and feel for one another to the extent that when one suffers, all the others suffer also. The congregation has a special place in the purposes of God. In 1 Corinthians 12, the analogy is of the body and of all of the parts of the body function that each one has. And some have more visible and seemingly more important functions, and others have what seem to be less visible and seem to be less important functions, but they're not. They're not less important. In Masters' book, he talks about the hands versus the feet. The hands are much more useful in many ways than the feet. You can't do everything with your toes that you can with your fingers, but the feet hold everything up. Even though they seem like lowly members, they're equally as important. And so your function here, you may not fully appreciate your own importance to the congregation. But God brought you here for a purpose, and he equipped you with certain gifts that you're to use for the edification of the body. And it's, as he says in this next paragraph, he refers to Ephesians 4-16, which describes the organic unity of the congregation using the most close-knit illustration available, that of the physical body, under the direction of the head, the whole body, fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplyeth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. The idea of joints and limbs being freely interchangeable between different bodies is unthinkable. Our removal from church should be unthinkable to begin with. I mean, if that is not how you feel about the church, then there's something off about the way you feel about the church. He goes on to this, some really powerful illustrations here, but the notion that a knuckle or elbow could unilaterally migrate to another body is ludicrous. The illustration of the body shows how seriously God takes his sovereign right to place his people in particular churches according to his overall plan. Our God insists that we see our lives and our service in the context of the particular church family to which he appoints us. So he takes in the next part of this chapter and he talks about the body of Christ. How does the idea of the body of Christ relate to the question of whether we should ever move? He makes two points in the section called Encouraging Loyalty. So it's, I don't know, two or three pages in. Two concepts arising out of the expression, the body of Christ should help us to develop the supportive, devoted attitude which we ought to have for our local church. The magnificent term used in 1 Corinthians 1227 may refer in Scripture both to the entire worldwide Church of Christ and to an individual congregation. As we have seen, the term speaks of a harmonious, closely organized unit with interdependent parts and limbs, but it also speaks of a person's presence. So bear with me, I'm going to read this. So he's got two points that he's going to make here. One is just as we are present in a place when our body is there, so Christ is seen in the world by his church. Every local church is his representative body in the world. Surely then, the local church as his representative body must be treated with the utmost respect and consideration. As members, we are the body of Christ. Whatever we do for his representative body, we do for him and to him. Whatever we fail to do for the church, we fail to do for him. If I am lazy or indifferent toward my church, the body of Christ, I am lazy and indifferent to him. If I am disloyal to his body, I am disloyal to him. How can I hurt the body of Christ or abuse it? How can I lightly leave or forsake it? So is that how you think about the body of Christ? Is that how you think about the people you're here with, like you're an integral part of their lives? I think of many people over the years who have left this one in particular on her way out. It was like, well I really love you all, but I'm out of here and I'll never see you again. It can't possibly be that way. You can't really love the people here and simply leave and never look back. Then he goes and talks about the body of Christ in a different way that was stunning, really, the first time I read this. He says, to further stir our loyalty to the local church, there is a second idea suggested by the term body of Christ. It is that of the sanctity of life. The word body reminds us that the local church is a living thing. Supposing we see a person lying in the street injured and bleeding, what do we do? Do we just pass by? If we do, we will afterwards feel sick and desperately ashamed because there is within everyone a powerful respect for life and we cannot betray that instinctual responsibility for the preserving of life without paying a price. As Christians, we should possess a similar instinct for the health and well-being of the body of Christ, the local church, viewed spiritually. It is a precious living body, Christ being alive and its members, having bound them together to represent him in the world. How can we allow it to be hurt? How can we bear to see limbs torn out? The world allows and encourages abortion, which is an outrage against the sanctity of human life, but the indifference shown by some believers to the body of Christ is, to some degree, a similar outrage in the spiritual realm. That's a pretty strong language. I see how he's trying to say that the body of Christ can be used in two ways, as the universal body, all the Christians, and also as the local church. Could you help me to see how it's used as a local church? I guess that's my question. What comes to mind is 1 Corinthians 12. Let's look there. In the first part of 1 Corinthians, he's talking about chapter 12, spiritual gifts, and why we're giving these gifts to edify each other. Then starting in verse 12, for just as the body is one and has many members and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one spirit, we were all baptized into one body. Jews or Greeks, slaves are free, and all were made to drink of one spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor again, the head to the feet. I have no need of you. On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable. And on those parts of the body that we think less honorable, we bestow greater honor. And our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God is so composed of the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body. But that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together. If one member is honored, all rejoice together. So how is the local church the body? It is because we have this interdependent life. And we need each other to function as Christians. So there is a universal church, a universal body, all Christians, the invisible church everywhere. But in the way that this interdependence is described, it's because we're together. And when you think about those verses that I referred to at the beginning, which talk about this particular number or being inside or outside this particular group, those are all local churches. So I don't know, does that answer your question, Tom? The interdependence described in the body is not, cannot be seen in the universal body, but rather in the local body, in the local congregation. That's where you can see that need for one another. And that the references that he's given here where he says in verse 23, and those members of the body which we think are less honorable, on these we would bestow greater honor. And our un-presentable parts have greater modesty, but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, that there should be no schism in the body, and that the members should have the same care for one another. And so that same care for one another would not be seen in the universal body, but rather in the local body. All right, yes, thank you. Immediately, that is. Yeah. So, he goes on to say here at the end of the section, when church members uproot and move as though their place in the body of Christ is of no significance, it is because they have lost their sense of awe and respect for the local church as the body of Christ. What a precious and important thing the congregation is. It is far, far more than a convenient arrangement. It is something to which we owe special love, loyalty, service, so long as it remains a worthy church. So I hope that, you know, at least to think about those things will serve as a counterweight to what could be your inclination. The next time there's a diff, you know, you lose your job, like I did, or, you know, there's some other trial or difficulty. Don't, I mean, that is the time to pray and trust the Lord. And your natural inclination may not be to do that. So I've outlined, and if you look at the, turn the page, the next, there are one, two, four sections where, you know, the rest of this chapter talks about wrong motives for leaving when loyalty is challenged, when loyalty is wrong. And when loyalty is wrong toward doctrinally sound churches. So wrong motives for leaving. We've got about 10 minutes. I'm going to run through these fairly quickly. A natural desire from our pleasant districts, you know, there's too much congestion in Orlando. The summers are too hot, but else, I don't know. The beach is too far away. I like the mountains better. That is not a biblical motive for leaving. Some be setting weakness that could not be controlled. You know, I just haven't been able to resolve this issue here, so I'm going to go somewhere else and start over, and maybe I can fix it there. That's not the way to deal with it. And third, people thinking more highly of themselves than they ought to think, becoming upset that their perceived talents are sufficiently recognized and that they're not given any early respect or office. But I want to sing solos during the worship service. I've got a great voice. And you're not letting me do that. So I'm going to go somewhere else. Then when loyalty is challenged, the practice of loyalty to a local church has brought many people a series of wonderful provisions and blessings. You know, I'm exhibit A as far as I'm concerned to that. If I had done what I thought I should do, which was stay in the publishing business, boy, what a mess that would have been. The Lord has, it's not going to, it may not be easy. Like, the hardest thing I've ever done in all my life was start a business. Was that an amen? But, you know, the Lord has blessed that. And so you're, you know, I'm encouraging you, Peter. Masters have encouraged you. Your elders here would encourage you that when there is this kind of a situation, your first thought should be, I'm anxious to see how the Lord is going to work in this circumstance to bless me. Because unless it's abundantly and overwhelmingly clear that you should go somewhere else, like is the case with Pastor Jerome going to Tahabon, that should not be your first thought. The history of the church is full of the loyal sacrifices of the Lord's people. You know, I mean, the other thing is like, suppose you did lose your job and you didn't find one for a year here, do you think that this church would let you starve or be homeless? I mean, that's not going to happen here. You know, you have many brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers and all of that here. So it may be that the purpose in that will be for us to show our own love toward you and your difficulty. And you just departing off someplace and wouldn't allow that to happen. And I mentioned this earlier, but number four here, all believers at some time are likely to be subjected to the devil's attempts to shift them from the church fellowship where God has placed them. Most believers who have been especially used by God for the building up of their fellowship have been at some time subjected to intense pressures to uproot and relocate elsewhere. Satan is constantly trying to spoil churches by taking believers out of the element in which God has placed them. So this should enter your thinking. You should think this way about these kinds of difficulties. Is this a satanic effort to derail your Christian life by pulling you out of a good church and taking you off to someplace where you don't know what you'll find? When the Lord sets us in a sound church, it is a divine appointment. And we must honor and respect that with all our strength. When loyalty is wrong, and the main two things he refers to first time at these six, three to five, if anyone teaches otherwise, sound doctrine and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, he is proud knowing nothing but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself. You're in a sound church. Like some of you are blessed to have, this is like the first church you were ever part of. And you don't know what a mess there is out there. I've been in some of those messes and by the grace of God, he pulled us out of them. But so if they're teaching error, and so you have to know, like when we talk about leadership in the church, you're the ones who keep the leadership accountable, you must know your Bible in order to do that. You should not just sit there and expect to be spoon fed, you know? You need to be Bereans about this. You need to, we are men who can be wrong. And I mean, we take this very seriously and make every effort not to be, but you have a responsibility. And in 2nd Corinthians 6, 14 to 17, do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers for what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness. So teaching wrong stuff, unbiblical garbage, and there's a lot of it, beware. Then, you know, when loyalty is wrong toward doctrinally sound churches, I mean, so they can teach all the right things, but not do them. When a church refuses to practice church discipline. Oh, I wonder if anybody's ever actually left, surely they have, but because they didn't practice. I mean, most people leave churches because they do practice church discipline and they're offended by it. If a church shows no inclination to obey the Great Commission. I mean, I left 1st Baptist Orlando because one principle reason was, I didn't even know what reform theology was at the time. So I'm really glad I left and discovered it, but they'd said, in effect, we don't want you going door to door because it's too confrontational. Okay, I gotta get out of here. And if a church ignores the standards of God's word by allowing the use of carnal and worldly styles of worship. So you've heard us talk about the regulative principle and the red circle is flashing. There are other really great treasures in this little book. One of them, the last chapter, the rules of church membership. And it's Principles of Conduct for Church Members compiled in the 1740s by John Fletcher. And I thought about starting with some of these, but I won't, let's pray and we'll move on. Father in heaven, thank you for our time together and thank you for this precious church for how you've worked in our lives and circumstances to bring us here. Help us, Lord, to fully appreciate what an amazing blessing it is to be here. In Jesus' name, amen.