Sermon Cloud

A Fearful Expectation 3

Hebrews 10:26-31

Grace Fellowship Church

April 13, 2008

Series 3 Sermon 42

 

²⁶ For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, ²⁷ but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. ²⁸ Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. ²⁹ How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? ³⁰ For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” ³¹ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

 

Introduction

Last week Gary Lankford and I were working under our house and when we were done and he was about to leave I looked down the driveway and staring at us was a red fox.  I motioned to Gary to look at it as it stared at us.  As he looked it hopped off into the brush at the front of our property.

 

Monday night when our family got home from Contenders we noticed a small animal out by the road near the trash can.  When I got closer I noticed that it was not a possum or a raccoon but was a fox cub.  It was cute and I had my flashlight with me and we actually were able to see two of the cubs out there.  Now you may not think too much of this story but most of you know that Mark and I just started a rabbit raising adventure.  Foxes and rabbits do not mix at least not for very long.  The fox would love to get at these nice plump, juicy bunnies and have a few meals. 

 

Now I am not even sure if our rabbits know these foxes are out there.  But I am sure that if these rabbits had the opportunity to get out of their cages they would happily run for freedom.  But in that momentary thrill of freedom there will be a great cost and that will be the teeth of the foxes in the flesh of those rabbits.  As long as the rabbits remain inside the safety of that cage the fox can not get to them.  It is too high off the ground and the mesh is too close together for the fox to be able to inflict any harm on them.  He or she may be able to intimidate them or frighten them but the fox can not touch them.  But if they leave the cages they are in serious danger and will soon be devoured. 

 

So however people might view a rabbit in a cage the cage is for not only my ability to keep the rabbits around but also for the safety of the rabbits. 

 

We have been talking a lot about judgment. Two weeks ago we looked at how God sometimes has to judge His people quickly and severely when they violate His covenant standards. We saw the three examples of Nadab and Abihu, Anninias and Saphirra, and the church at Corinth.  Last week we saw how the Lord will often judge those people who are not His people and the examples that we saw were the Amorites, the unbelieving Jews of the first century, and the example of Romans 1.  And what we learned about how God judges the lost is that sometimes he will do it quickly but it seems the biblical norm is for the Lord to wait an often lengthy time (400 years in the case of the Amorites) to judge them.

 

I hope that what you have taken from these two sermons is what verse 31 of our text says. 

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

 

The judgment of God is always right and always just and as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ when we step outside of the boundaries of God’s covenant with us in Jesus Christ we place ourselves in danger of receiving harsh judgment from the Lord.

 

We have already seen what that judgment can be in order to correct covenant unfaithfulness.  In 1 Corinthians Paul told the church there because of their carelessness and outright disobedience that some of the church were sick, others were weak, and some were even dead.  Now all sickness, weakness, and death are not results of covenant unfaithfulness but when the evidence of unfaithfulness is there in the life of a believer then there is a strong possibility that the person is under the judgment of God. 

Psalm 32:3-4 says,

³ When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away Through my groaning all day long. ⁴ For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. Selah .

 

Now that we have a better understanding how and why God judges and how severe that judgment can be, I want us to turn our attention to Hebrews 10:26-31 and see exactly what the writer is saying.  Start in verse 26. 

²⁶ For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,

I have told you already that the deliberate or willful sin in verse 26 is the forsaking of the covenant obligations of verses 19-25 of Hebrews 10.  Those commands were for us to continue to draw near to God, hold fast our confession of Christ, and to provoke faithfulness in one another by meeting together and encouraging one another in faith and good works.  That is what God expects of His people.  This is covenant faithfulness.  The deliberate sin is to forsake these three commands.  And the forsaking of these commands would be a process beginning with the first.  A person that fails to draw near to God will soon find themselves not holding fast their confession and ultimately leaving the fellowship of believers if they are not corrected. So what happens to this person?  What can they expect when they refuse correction and remain unfaithful to the covenant?  Look at verse 27.

 ²⁷ but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.

Remember I told you that this passage was speaking to real believers and not to spurious self deceived converts.  The writer puts himself into this category and says that the person here has been sanctified.  I believe what this passage is highlighting is the fact that God will indeed take the life of a believer in order to rescue them from ultimate perdition.  We have some examples of this in Scripture.  Listen to I Corinthians 5:1-5.

¹ It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father's wife. ² You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst. ³ For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present. ⁴ In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, ⁵ I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus .

 

Listen to 1 Timothy 1:18-20.

¹⁸ This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son , in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight, ¹⁹ keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. ²⁰ Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, so that they will be taught not to blaspheme.

 

Hymenaeus and Alexander had started teaching false doctrine and instead of Paul dismissing them as mere unbelievers, he tried to correct them and when that correction did not accomplish its proper end he simply handed them over to Satan so that they will be taught not to blaspheme.  The lesson would be harsh and unless there was repentance then it would also be final.   And if repentance did not come then death would come early and they would learn the lessons correctly and fully. 

 

I had a pastor one time who lost one of his sons to an early death.  He told me that his son was a believer but just shortly before his death he had gotten involved in a cult and was leading others down that same road.  He tried and tried to correct him but he said that he was unsuccessful.  This pastor told me that he believed the Lord took his sons life in order to save him from ultimate perdition. 

 

Now the question needs to be asked, how do we know that the Lord indeed will judge His people harshly and completely if it is needed?  The Scripture is replete with commands for the people of God to be faithful.  There was punishment for covenant unfaithfulness in the Old Covenant and there is punishment for covenant unfaithfulness in the New Covenant.  This is the argument of the writer of Hebrews.  Look at verse 28.

²⁸ Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.

A violation of certain laws resulted in the execution death of the people of God under the Law of Moses.  So what about those of us not under the law and who are under the grace of God in Christ Jesus?  Certainly we are exempt from any judgment by God right?  That is not what verse 29 says.  Look at it with me and tremble.

²⁹ How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?

Did you notice in verse 29 what God thinks about the violation of His covenant?  I think our problem is that we view sin too lightly.  We view these matters of covenant unfaithfulness as something that can easily be overlooked or easily forgiven and we not receive any consequences.  I think many of us have been poisoned by bad theology and we are fooled into thinking that God is our buddy and He would never be harsh to us.  But how many of you parents ever had or have to be harsh with your children when rebellion takes control of their hearts?  How many of you fathers have had to punish your children for sins that put others in danger?  God’s punishment always fits the crime.  So what is the crime in verse 29?  The crime is not keeping covenant faithfulness as outlined in verses 19-25. What does this crime look like to God?   Three phrases stand out here.  Notice the first one in verse 29. 

²⁹ How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who

1.  has spurned the Son of God,

The word spurned in Greek means to trample underfoot, to despise, or to show utter disdain for.  And here what is despised or spurned is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. 

Notice the second phrase.

 

2. and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified,

Notice the phrase “has profaned.” The NASB translates this as “regarded as unclean” and the KJV says “an unholy thing.” 

The Greek word is koivov.  When you learn New Testament Greek you are learning Koine Greek or common Greek.  There was classical Greek and common Greek and the elite spoke the classical while those who were everyday people used the Koine.  So the Christian who has deliberately sinned by neglecting the three commands of covenant faithfulness has in reality profaned or considered as common the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and as a result has profaned that precious blood by which he or she was sanctified. 

Notice the third phrase.

 

3.  and has outraged the Spirit of grace?

The word outraged is where we get our word hubris.  Hubris is excessive pride or arrogance.  And the way the writer uses this compound word in verse 29 really gives us a picture of what this deliberate sin looks like to God.  Thus we have different translations.  The NASB says “insulted” and the KJV says “done despite” and my translation says “outraged.”   I think the writer is trying to get across with his choice of words the idea that when we transgress the covenant we are insulting and thus outraging the Spirit of grace.  Now think about that concept. 

 

In the act of willful disobedience to the covenant that God has so graciously given us in the Lord Jesus Christ if we violate that covenant we have angered the Spirit of grace.  Grace is hard to anger.  After all grace forgives sin and removes due punishment.  How do you anger grace?  Here in the context of Hebrews 10 it is treating as common the grace of God in Christ Jesus. 

 

So what keeps us from this?  What will help us avoid falling into this trap?  Look at verse 30. 

³⁰ For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.”

Understanding that the Lord is in the business of judging His people will help us in remaining faithful to the covenant.  Knowing that the vengeance for abrogating the covenant belongs to the Lord is a fearful thing.  In the Old Covenant a violator would be stoned to death.  In the New Covenant a violator is handed over to the Lord for Him to deal with him or her as God sees fit.  Paul called this “handing over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh.  And verse 31 tells us all that we need to know about this punishment.  Look at it with me. 

³¹ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

 

So what about the rabbits?  If they stay within the cages that I have placed them in they will be fed, watered, and protected.  Their cages will be cleaned and daily they will get fresh water and food.  But if they stray from those cages they place themselves in grave danger.  They say that a wild rabbit will live approximately 6 months at the most.  A rabbit that is in captivity has a life span of five years or longer.  Why is that?  Because they are protected from predators and disease.  A wild rabbit if it survives infancy will then be under constant threat from hawks, owls, wolves, foxes, cars, and numerous other threats.  Life is not good for a wild rabbit.  It is very short. 

 

So what does that have to do with us this morning and with our passage? 

Proverbs 9:10-11 says, ¹⁰ The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. ¹¹ For by me your days will be multiplied,
And years of life will be added to you. 

 

Let me ask you this morning congregation, how are you protected?  How are you kept safe from the ravenous wolves and the roaring lion that seeks to devour you?  What protection are you under to keep you from becoming a covenant breaker and thus bringing yourself under the judgment of God? 

 

God describes His people as sheep.  Sheep are defenseless.  You don’t ever see any cartoons or movies about a hero, kung-fu sheep.  Why?  There only defense is to roll over and be killed when an enemy attacks.  The only hope for a sheep to live a long productive life is to stay with the herd under the watch care of the shepherd.  In the ancient world the sheep had no fences.  So as they grazed through the land they were very susceptible to attacks by predators.  They could easily get diseases if they were not taken care of and if they were not sheered could get mud caught in their wool so badly that they could not walk. And so they would fall over and die or be eaten by wild animals.  So the shepherd had the job of protecting the flock.  He had to watch them day and night.  He looked out over the horizon and would see if there were predators waiting to attack the sheep.  And if he saw the predator coming he would take steps to ensure that none of his sheep were lost.  If a particular sheep had a tendency to wander away from the flock the shepherd would retrieve that sheep and if necessary would take the staff and break one of the sheep’s legs so it would be taught not to wander.  The shepherd would make sure the flock was disease free and the wool remained free from encumbrances. 

 

I find it interesting that the second King of Israel, the man after God’s own heart, was a shepherd.  The king was told by God to shepherd His people. The Lord Jesus referred to Himself as the Good Shepherd.  In the New Testament the sheepfold of Christ is the church.  He is the Great Shepherd and has called biblically qualified men to be His undershepherds and protect, lead, and feed His flock. This is called the local church.

 

We live in day where many Christians do not understand the God given authority and protection of the local church.  So much bad theology has been preached over the last one hundred years that people have this idea that all that they need is Jesus.  I have told you over and over that this is a fallacy.  All that we need for salvation is Jesus Christ but the Lord in His wisdom has also shown us that we need each other. 

 

In a day where there are few biblical churches most find it difficult to align themselves with a church.  I think there are four marks of a true church that we can discern from Scripture. 

1. It is a church that is committed to Scripture both in its order and in its worship resulting of course in a commitment to the true Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

2. There is the proper administration of the ordinances of the New Testament which are the Lord’s Supper and Baptism. 

3. There is a biblical church government led by a plurality of biblically qualified elders.  4.  There is the practice of biblical church discipline. 

 

Folks, I want to communicate to you the importance of being part of a biblical church.  In a day of rampant apostasy those who are in churches that do not practice the truth are in grave danger.  Most pastors are more interested in what they can get out of someone rather than what they can invest in them.  If a person has the resources to keep an organization going then that pastor will seek that person out regardless of their testimony or lifestyle.  These false shepherds or hirelings will fleece the flock of God and leave damage, destruction, and torn apart lives in their wake.  They will build mega churches on the slave labor of people who are used and abused and entertained rather than protected and fed and cared for.

 

God has set up the church for the protection and edification of His people and has given the church shepherds to lead the flock.  For a sheep to not be a part of a faithful flock is an absurdity and will cause the sheep to have a shortened life span. 

 

Let me say to you this morning that a refusal to unite with a congregation places a person in spiritual danger. 

 

Let me insert a personal word here.  Over the last few months I have done some serious study and reflection on the thought of formal church membership.  I have even asked the question is joining a church a biblical act of obedience to Christ or is it a man made set up to keep up with numbers.  I was trained in a seminary of a particular denomination where numbers are very important.  So I want to be careful not to be reactionary in my conclusion and just dismiss something as unbiblical because groups have abused it.  So many times because of either bad teaching or no teaching at all what can be a very biblical thing to do with spiral down to mere tradition and no one understands the biblical rational for doing this.  I have asked some tough questions in my search.  Is it necessary for people to formally unite with a local church?  Is it an act of obedience?  Or is it mere tradionalism?  If a person is involved with a church, serving that church, participating in its services, contributing to the church, and fellowshipping with that church then how much more of a member of that church can they become?  Let me share with you what I have learned about church membership. 

 

The church of Jesus Christ is a benefit for believers.  It is a wonderful privilege to be able to unite in covenant membership with like minded believers who love the Lord and love one another.   Martin Lloyd Jones said, “We must grasp once again the idea of church membership as being the membership of the body of Christ and as the biggest honour which can come a man's way in this world." 

 

Over and over in the New Testament the people who were called of God to salvation in Christ united with their local churches.  The members of those local churches were part of the church universal as well as integral parts of the church local.  Think about the church at Ephesus, Corinth, Philippi, Colossae, and Thessalonica.  In the Book of the Revelation you had the church at Smyrna, Laodicea, Philadelphia, Sardis, Ephesus, Pergamum, and Thyatira.  When Paul sent Titus to Crete it was to appoint elders in every city to oversee and lead the churches there. 

 

So who made up the church?  Was the early churches these loose affiliations of believers that just informally met together for worship and edification?  Or was there something more?  I want you to turn to Acts 5.

The context of chapter 5 is the death of Aninias and Saphirra. They had been carried out and buried and I want you to read with me starting in verse 12.

¹² Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together(homothumadon-of one accord or one mind) in Solomon’s Portico. ¹³ None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem. ¹⁴ And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women…

I don’t think anyone would argue against the fact that the early church had a great togetherness.  But I think many in our day would argue against the fact that they formally joined one another in church membership. 

 

There are two ways that we know in Scripture what God’s will is.  First there is express commands.  We see that in places like the Ten Commandments.  God’s will and command for us is to avoid idolatry and murder and so on.  But there are times when God gives us instructions in His word by inference or example. 

 

Here at Grace Fellowship we do not practice infant baptism.  The reason we do not is because the example of the New Testament is baptism after confession of Christ as Lord and Savior.  That is the New Testament pattern and as for the paedobaptists whom I love and respect I see them as making too many illogical jumps to arrive at their position.

 

Finding out the will of God always means searching the Scriptures.  So what did the early church do?  Was there a formality about being part of the church or have we just made something up that we traditionally follow?  I want you to notice Acts 5:13 again.        

 ¹³ None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem.

Your translation may say associate with them, them being the church in Jerusalem.  Join or associate with is the Greek word κολλάω.

This is no loose affiliation.  As a matter of fact when the Lord spoke of marriage in Matthew 19:5 He used this word when He said that a man would leave his mother and father and be joined (kollao) to his wife.  Covenant marriage is no loose affiliation.    

 

The word kollao is a very interesting word.  It means to cling to or glue to or unite.  And this is no informal uniting.  If I take two pieces of wood and I glue them together you can break them apart but not without great effort.   Verse 13 also by inference suggests that the people had an option to either join with the church or in their case not to.  Those who were not as committed as the rest out of fear chose not to join the disciples.  Which also shows, in my opinion, that there were standards that were to be held as part of that membership.  You did not join with the early church and just behave any way you desired.  Remember chapter 5 is where two people were killed by the Lord in the very first act of church discipline. 

 

So thus far we have gleaned from this passage concerning the church that:

1.  People would join or unite with the early church.

2.  There were moral and spiritual standards for membership.    

 

The word kalloa is used in this same sense in another place.  Turn with me to Acts 9.  Let me give you the context.  Saul of Tarsus has been converted.  He was in Damascus with Aninias and now was heading to Jerusalem.  Aninias had been fearful of Saul because of his persecution of the church but the church at Damascus had accepted him in and Saul had been preaching Christ in the synagogues of the place he was heading to persecute the church.  Well, Saul decides to go to Jerusalem and when he gets there he does something that all believers should do when they relocate.  Look at verse 26 through 31.

²⁶ And when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join(kalloa) the disciples.

Saul did what I believe was perfectly natural for a believer to do in the first century when they went to a new place and that was to join with the believers in that area for worship, edification, discipline, and to come under the authority of the elders of that congregation.  But wait a minute.  Saul was an apostle.  If someone could have been a “do it all myself” Christian I think it would have been the Apostle Paul.  But over and over in Scripture we see Paul placing himself under the authority and guidance of others.  And when he gets to Jerusalem he attempts to join or unite with the disciples there who were already united together.  Read on.

And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple.

Folks, there was some spiritual discernment going on here.  They were not sure if they ought to let Saul of Tarsus join with them.  Remember Stephen?  I want you to make sure you catch this.  They did not let just anybody in to the membership of the church. 

 

I know today in most churches that Saul could have simply walked forward in the invitation in many churches, shook the preachers hand, filled out a card and would be a member of that church even if he never showed up again.  And that is spiritual neglect and abuse on the part of modern churches.  Which I think is why most people who have not considered biblical church membership shy away from uniting with a church. 

 

So what have we gleaned thus far? From Acts 5 we saw:

1.  People would join or unite with the early church.  And we see that again in Acts 9:26.

2.  There were moral and spiritual standards for membership.   

And from Acts 9 we see that even people like Paul sought to unite with the early church. And…

3.  There was spiritual discernment involved in deciding if indeed someone should be allowed in.

4.  I want you to see next that there was spiritual oversight over who came in to the church.   

 

It was not a come one call all type of membership. There were standards and the shepherds of those early flocks knew full well that they had a responsibility to not allow predators into the flock.  That is why they were fearful of Saul.  What Saul needed was a credible witness of his conversion and life after that conversion that was in opposition to what he used to be.  Look at the rest of the passage starting in verse 27.

 ²⁷ But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus.

So what were the elders of the church at Jerusalem looking for?  They were looking for a credible testimony and fruit of conversion that showed that Saul was indeed in the faith.  And in the witness of one of their own, Barnabas, they heard what they needed to hear. Look at verse 28. 

²⁸ So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord.

Once Saul was a part of the church he had the blessing of the church in doing the ministry that God had called him too.  I have been telling you this whole sermon in several ways why church membership is important.  Within church membership there is fellowship, there is mutual love, there is mutual service, there is accountability, and in the context of the judgment passage of Hebrews 10:26-31 there is both spiritual and sometimes even physical protection.  Protection is the fifth characteristic of what we can glean from these passages in Acts.  First the elders had to decide whether or not they would be protecting the flock of God by allowing Saul in.  And once they allowed him in they were then responsible for his protection because he was one of the flock.  Look at verses 29 and 30.

²⁹ And he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists. But they were seeking to kill him. ³⁰ And when the brothers learned this, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

These elders had their ear to the ground.  When they heard that Saul was in danger they intervened.  They exercised their God given authority and sent Saul to Caesarea to preserve his life.  Good thing these faithful men did this or we would not have the Apostle Paul who penned Romans and Ephesians and Philippians and several other well known letters. 

 

As I have worked through these passages this week I have wondered how many people have actually experienced biblical church membership in our day.  How many have understood beyond the tradition of their church why membership is so important.  I know most pastors make it important during the invitation when they invite people to be saved or join the church by stepping out of their seat and walking to the front of the church.  This practice in my opinion has devalued the idea of salvation and church membership to a mere decision and has not held up the standard which God has given us in His word. 

 

The sad state of the church today holds membership as a statistic rather than what it actually is.  The question is asked and the numbers are held up like a badge of honor.  Go to any conference and you will hear men introduced as the Rev, So and So who is pastor of the 25,000 member First Circus Church of Wherever.  But I wonder among the hoopla of the event has that man ever stopped to think about all the people that he is spiritually responsible for?  And the answer to that is an emphatic no.  And the reason I say that is because in our time most pastors are more concerned with what they can get out of the membership rather than what they can put in to the membership.   Shepherds have been replaced by hirelings for the most part and a hireling will never lay down his life for the sheep. 

 

Elders of Grace Fellowship Church, if Christ is our example and He laid down His life for the sheep then we are called to do just that for the sheep that God has provided in this pasture. We are commanded to provide spiritual oversight to and for the people God has so graciously given us.  And folks, we elders spent months doing just that when we made official our church documents. 

 

I want to take just a few minutes extra this morning and show you how we at Grace Fellowship Church, before we even had a prospect of a member besides the three families that have been here the whole time, followed this biblical pattern for church membership. 

Lets take it one at a time.

1.  People would join or unite with the early church.

We asked the Lord to bless our church and allow us to grow in His time and for us to follow His lead.  One of the prayers that we constantly prayed before the Lord in those early meetings was this, “Oh God, don’t let us get ahead of You but help us to follow You.”  So we put in place the process for uniting with Grace Fellowship Church.  You may have read in our documents that there is a process that you are unfamiliar with.  Probably in many of your experiences joining a church was simply walking forward.  Dani and I joined a church in Kansas City right after we got to seminary and they did not even ask us if we were believers.  As a matter of fact I was talking with one of the men who was in the new members class with us and I asked him when he was saved and he told me he had been saved a bunch of times. 

 

I think biblically speaking that uniting with a church is very similar to marriage.  Neither party normally goes into that relationship blindly therefore no one should go into church membership blindly and the elders should not do so either. And if you join with Grace Fellowship we want to know, just like the elders wanted to know about Saul,  your testimony of salvation and how you live your life.

 

2.  There were moral and spiritual standards for membership.   

All were not willing to meet those standards in the New Testament.  So what we have done in the tradition of reformed churches, we have made a church covenant which we ask all prospective members to sign.  The reason we do this is because we believe that this covenant represents the biblical standard by which those of us called into the New Covenant in Christ are called to live.  I encourage you to read it because there is some good stuff in there.  In it we don’t strangle on a gnat and swallow camels.  It is cut and dry biblical Christianity.  It is the standard by which all of us are held.  There were moral and spiritual standards for the early church and there are the same for this church. 

 

3.  There was spiritual discernment involved in deciding if indeed someone should be allowed in.

This one cuts across and against the grain of the modern church.  It is the responsibility of the elders to have spiritual discernment in understanding whether or not a person or family should be brought in to the fellowship officially.  This is for the protection of the flock.  And in our documents you will find the guide for that.  The elders make the final decision on that but not before the input of the church and much prayer and seeking the Lord.  To decide if someone is going to be brought into membership is a far more important decision than even where our church will be meeting ten years from now. So we do not get in a hurry or even put a time limit on the decision.  There has to be spiritual discernment.

  

4.  There is also spiritual oversight over who came in to the early church.  

From our constitution:

Under Christ and in submission to the Scripture, the authority of the local church is the board of elders. The elders are collectively responsible for ruling/shepherding (1 Pet. 5:1-2); equipping (Eph. 4:11-12); prayer/fasting (Acts 6:4; 13:1-3); teaching/preaching (1 Tim. 5:17); administering baptism and the Lord’s Table (Matt. 28:19-20; 1 Cor. 11:23-26); administering church discipline and restoration (1 Cor. 5:1-5); and visiting the sick (Jas. 5:14-15).

And the elders and the church are held accountable by scriptural admonitions in our church covenant.  Failure at any of those points by member or elder can and will result in corrective church discipline as outlined in Matthew 18.  All of this will result in our fifth and final gleaning from Acts 9.

 

5.  Within the church was physical as well as spiritual protection.

What have we been talking about?  We have been talking about the judgment of God that can come on believers who are wayward.  The covenant responsibility is for all of us to draw near to God, hold fast our confession, and to provoke faithfulness in one another.  We fall into the hands of God when we fail to do those things.  And God has been so gracious to give us the boundary and protection of His local church to spur us on to faithfulness. 

 

Think about yourself as a sheep.  Think about how defenseless you are against the wolves and the coyotes and the lions that would come and destroy you at their will. Think about your children and grandchildren whom you are setting a spiritual example for. 

 

If you neglect such a great privilege as formal church membership then so will they.  One of the reasons we are a family integrated congregation is because we want our children to understand that worship is a part of their lives and that it is something they will be part of forever.  Should we not also show them that church membership is important as well? 

 

What is it that keeps you from uniting officially with this church?  I encourage you to seek the Lord about His will for you.  I believe that it is God’s will for you to be a formal member of a local church.  And I pray for all of you that God would have you join here at Grace Fellowship. 

 

If you are still in Acts 9 I want you to look at verse 31 and see what the results of obedience were for the early church and its obedience to the Lord in matters of church membership.

 

 ³¹ So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied. 

 

Let’s pray.