Our Fellowship

Introduction

Elijah was holding it next to me. I’d forgotten that the writer of that song, I believe, is Timothy Dwight. It was written over 200 years ago. And I’ve mentioned this before. What an incredible hymn I think that is. In fact, I’ve had John lead it at least, what, 30 times. Okay. And Ed picked it out on his own tonight. That song was way ahead of its time in some ways. I mean, the references to Isaiah in the song, what it says about Zion in verse 3, it actually exceeds several of our songs that mention Zion in the concepts that it presents. And it certainly apropos to tonight’s lesson as well. And so I want to commend the words that we’ve sung together tonight and talk about the heavenly ways of indeed the Lord’s people.

I want to talk about our fellowship together. And before I get started, I want to tell you there’s not a lot of scripture in tonight’s lesson. Because if I was going to read every applicable text, well, we would be here for hours just doing that. I’m going to assume some familiarity that you have with the New Testament message and everything that Paul says to churches. And so insert right here in the lesson, like all of 1 Corinthians chapter 12, it talks about the body and how it’s a function together. 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, though I may refer to it again a little bit later. But so many texts we could look at that relate to what this is. This local church, the Decker Prairie Church, of which we are a part.

And so if you don’t know all those passages, you’ve got homework. Go home and read those. But if you do know those passages, I just want to make some observations about the nature of this fellowship that we have. I say this because of some thoughts that I had last week and a lot of misconceptions that exist about how this is to function. This local church fellowship and membership within it. And furthermore, I think a lot of us, I would include myself, sometimes struggle to appreciate what this is. I think we get so focused on the behavior of people and personalities. Things about people, perhaps, that rub us the wrong way, that aren’t like us, things that people do, and we think to ourselves, that could have been done better, or that should have been done a different way.

And we get hung up so much on the peculiarities of people.

Boy, there’s some peculiar people in this group. And some of you are looking at me like he’s peculiar. And we can get a little distracted by all of that. And as I said this morning, disappointments that come our way on the path. And we can get very dejected and discouraged by what we perceive to be failures and things in the Lord’s people that ought not to be. And I think in the midst of all of that, we can struggle to really assess from heaven’s point of view and a biblical point of view what this is. How extraordinary it really is. And how amazingly blessed we are to be a part of it. And so I want to add to that, sort of in relation to failed appreciation, the unrealistic expectations that people have.

This is not a group of perfect people. These are people who are growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. The very implication of that statement in 2 Peter 3 and verse 18 is that we’ve not achieved everything that we will or could achieve. That there is a progress that’s taking place in us, a growth, as we saw in Ephesians 5 this morning, more of a likeness of Jesus in our lives. I mean, we’re moving in that direction. That’s the path we’re on, but there will be missteps along the way. Insufficient growth where we should have been more than we have been.

That everybody will be full grown and always say the right thing, never mention an insensitive thing, that would never emanate from their lips. And that’s just a little unrealistic.

That is a problem, and that is uninspired participation. Now you know when I use the term uninspired, I’m not talking about inspiration as in God free scripture. I’m talking about the way we commonly use that term. The idea is languishing. Insipid. Ooh, I like that. Insipid participation. Just wishy washy, not as zealous as you’ve been studying in the adult auditorium class. Just not much enthusiasm for this. And that’s why I talk about this a lot, because this is worthy of our utmost energy and zeal and enthusiasm. So I want to make a few observations. I don’t know how long this is going to take tonight. This is actually probably Patterns sermon number three, though I don’t like series, so it’s not. But I am talking about biblical patterns as we talk about our fellowship.

And I want to go to an interesting place. The slides actually sent me this direction, but there’s a psalm that has to do with participation among other believers in Israel’s community, but I think there’s an application to us. In Psalm 149, look at this Psalm with me. This is what we’ve done today. Praise the Lord. Sing to the Lord a new song and his praise in the congregation of the godly ones. And may we be such a congregation of godly people who are striving to serve the Lord. Let Israel be glad in his Maker. Let the sons of Zion rejoice in their king. And man, if you could say that in the Old Testament era, you ought to doubly be able to say that in the New Testament era.

Let the sons of Zion rejoice in their king. Let them praise his name. And this is why this psalm gets overlooked. The mention of dancing. Okay, this is not talking about lascivious dance. This is talking about the kind of dancing David did and rejoicing and celebration. And also the mention of instrumental music. And so we just sort of skip over this. But remember, this is a different covenant, different time. Let them sing praises to him with timbrel and lyre. For the Lord takes pleasure in his people.

The downtrodden have hope. Or is the NIV says there, he crowns the humble with victory. Let the godly ones exalt in glory. Let them sing for joy on their beds. And then this, which inspired my little advertisement for today’s lessons, let the high praises of God be in their mouth. And then another part of the psalm, which might not have particular relevance to us, and a two-edged sword in their hand. Oh, we say, well, the Bible, it’s a two-edged sword. The word of God’s a two edged sword. Well, that’s not what this is talking. This is actually talking about a two edged sword. To execute vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples. Again, this is a different era. To bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron to execute on them the judgment written.

1. Make Proper Distinctions and Not Blur the Lines

This is in honor for all his godly ones. Praise the Lord. To be employed as his ministers is such a blessing. May we sing the high praises of God. And may we look at what we’re doing here on every occasion to be that significant. So a few thoughts about the assembly of the faithful about our fellowship and the local church. Number one, I want to tell you that it is important that we make proper distinctions and not blur the lines in regard to fellowship in the Lord’s ecclesia universally, the Lord’s saved group of people that exist throughout the world. Not just the United States, by the way.

And the gospel has gone to every nation in the world. And so when we talk about the church of our Lord and prize her heavenly ways as we sung, and I love thy kingdom.

To the body of the called out ones to say throughout the entire world. Boom, you need to be in that number. But sometimes we don’t draw the distinction between the inclusion in the Lord’s universal body and inclusion in the local church. Not everybody who is included in the universal body of saved people, like Acts 247 says, is a member here at Decker Prayer. You think we have size problems in regard to our building now. If every person in the world who was numbered among the saved tried to worship, well, you know, that’d be impossible. But local church membership is different. When I was a kid, I always had, and this is why I’m preaching this lesson on this. When I was a kid, when somebody was baptized during an assembly, I automatically thought they’re members of our church.

And that’s usually what takes place. But you know, as I’ve done the work of preaching and teaching, it’s been my occasion on several times to baptize someone who never attended here. To baptize someone who never associated with the local group of Christians with whom I associated because of very circumstances, they ended up elsewhere in another congregation. And so I thought about the problem of blurring those lines. But just because someone is baptized in our building, it’s not like automatic membership in the local church. And I appreciate this about our elders who thought about these concepts. And I’ll say more about this in a minute, who don’t automatically consider baptism in this baptistry as the step to membership in the local church. It may well end up that way.

And if you’re one of the children of parents who attend here, that’s probably going to happen without a conversation. You’re going to be recognized as a member of the Decorate Church because you’re parents go here. But if you come from without, there’s going to be a sit-down with the elders. Because you see, they’re the shepherds of this flock. And by recent count, I think it was last New Year’s Eve, we decided that there are actually 168 souls who are members of the Decker Prairie Church. Where are they? They’re not all here tonight. Well, kids are not included. Unbaptized children are not included in that heaven. There are 168 souls over whom our shepherds tend and care for. And they are responsible for great responsibility.

2. The Limits of Public Confession

So it’s important that we make this distinction that just because someone is baptized in our baptistry, that does not automatically mean membership in the local church. The Lord adds to the church universally, but members join local churches, and it’s an agreement between two parties. So that’s an important distinction to be made, especially as we come to the second point, which has to do with the limits of public confession. When some people think about trying to fix things that are a mess, they believe that if they come to the building and respond during the invitation and come down to the front and make a confession of some kind, a public acknowledgement of wrongdoing, that fixes everything. That in and of itself. Now, I would say this about public confession.

It is often a very important step in the right direction. Though the idea of someone coming forward after a message and making an acknowledgement like that to the congregation, we don’t see anything like that in the New Testament. Is that a requirement? What is a requirement is that we have to agree to mutually participate together. We have to have an agreement that causes fellowship to occur. And just because someone does a right thing or a good thing does not necessarily mean that they are on a path that we can fully embrace. As a congregation who has expectations of righteous conduct and holiness. Just saying, you know, it’s like, let us not love in word, but in deed and truth. A lot of things can emanate from my mouth.

I mean, I could say, I love you, and somebody said, Well, I’m not feeling that love in your behavior. Somebody can say, you know, I have sinned before God, but does that really automatically mean that person has repented and is now moving in the direction that they should before God? And I think we’ve seen examples in my 10 years here of people who have made public confessions where there was no follow-through at all in terms of change in their conduct. And fellowship in the local church never resulted. They made the public confession, I’ve not lived as I should live, but they were never a part of this fellowship in an ongoing way. And again, that’s why our elders always say we’re going to have a discussion.

And somebody says, But you know, shouldn’t we just take things at face value? I mean, love believes all things. Well, I agree with love is hopeful and optimistic. And we don’t necessarily need to sit there and question someone’s genuineness, but there might be indicators from what we know that this person might not be genuine in what they’re saying. Let me give you an example. I heard about this several years ago. Some preacher we had here was talking about the situation. He was preaching in a foreign place, and this fellow said he was ready to be baptized. He was ready to become a Christian. But what he already knew was that this person had a live-in girlfriend. And so he had to inquire further. So now you understand what repentance means that coming to the Lord would mean that you have to leave this relationship of fornication.

You know, it’s not going to do any good to baptize this guy into Christ if he thinks fornication can continue. And again, a number of passages could be cited, which would suggest that doing such would cause one to be unsaved or lost. And so, if you know something about someone’s particular situation, you again, you might want to have further discussion with someone before there’s this agreement between two parties that fellowship can be maintained. That doesn’t mean we know everything about everyone. That doesn’t mean that there can’t be charlatans or hypocrites numbered among us, because we may not know everything. But our fellowship is based upon what we do know and what we believe about a person that they are striving to serve the Lord and to be the holy people that Christ calls them to be.

3. Termination of Local Church Membership

And so there’s limits to public confession. Another observation that I would make is about termination of local church membership. And I know Mike preached about this several months ago, and I wanted to revisit this. We just talked about it briefly, and I’ve been thinking a lot about it since then. And again, I’ve said this already tonight. We’ll say it again. Membership involves an agreement between two parties. Now think about how this works. When you come to the elders and you say, I want to identify, you indicate your desire to be a part of the local church. And so they ask you some questions, just not everything that could be known. They ask you a few questions about were you pre-baptized into Christ. They might ask you about your marriage status, because that’s sometimes a red flag that we’ve dealt with in the past.

And probably good to ask that question, you know, how many times have you been married? You know, what’s what’s the status of your marriage? That’s not the only issue in regard to holiness, but it’s a pretty major one that comes up. And we might ask some other questions. We again, we’re not going to be exhausted because the commitment to holiness involves a response to the entire New Testament. Let’s go verse by verse through the New Testament. How are you doing complaining with that? We don’t mean that. But again, we need to know that somebody is making a serious attempt to serve the Lord in their lives and to live a holy life. And so when somebody comes to us, that’s the way they join. I want to join.

I want to participate among you, be numbered among you, come under your leadership as the elders of this flock, and the elders will make the determination. We believe we can embrace you in our fellowship. And thus you have membership together. That’s why we know there’s 168 souls. We can count them up. We know who’s on the list. You’re either on the list. If you’re not on the list and you think you’re on the list, then you can talk to someone about that. And see if you can get on the list. Because you’re either in the 168 or you’re not. We have people like the Rose. We can talk about Harry and Penny because they’re not here. Who are living in two different places? I mean, it’s like, how do you do local church membership when you’re really living in two places?

That’s a tough one. I actually know of situations where people were members in places where they didn’t live full time, but they were at this church more than they were at this church. Tough things in our mobile times. Can you be a member of two churches? Not going to go there tonight. Okay. Where was I going? Okay. So what if you decide? Oh, I’m going to go somewhere else. No, our elders are going to not. Oh, you can’t do that. Yeah, you can’t. Well, there’s another, I’m going to be a part of another congregation. What happens when someone says, I’m going to be a part of another congregation? You don’t have that mutual agreement anymore. Termination of membership. Who decided that? The person who decided to terminate.

Because again, it’s an agreement between two parties. You can terminate, and I’m not trying to run people off. But you can decide to terminate your membership for the Decapary Church whenever you determine to do that. Now you need to communicate that because our elders are responsible for the souls. They’re going to give an account for the souls who are numbered among this group. Over which theypherd. So then the issue comes up. What about the person who leaves under the pretense of I’m going to go to another congregation? But they never come. You think that’s ever happened? Of course it has. You think it happens a lot? Yes, it does. Because by just up and leave, they’re going to public shame and humiliation of that. And I would just say about all of that.

You need to be more concerned about fellowship with God than fellowship with a local church. Oh, good.

Because ultimately, any determination that we make doesn’t change that 2 Corinthians 5 10 passage we talked about this morning in the judgment seat of Christ. You know, on the last day, God’s not going to call Tom over. Hey, Tom, come over here with the elders of Decor Prairie Church and Robert, Mike and Jeff. Hey, you guys come over here. What determination do you all make about this person over here? It’s not gonna happen. Hey, Decaprary Church, what did you decide about brother and sister so and so? That’s not gonna matter. We have determinations we have to make based on our understanding of how you’re living and what this book teaches, and we make a determination about whether or not we can share with you in these things and be regarded, you be regarded with us as the people of God in this place.

We have to make determinations about that. And when somebody among us is not living right, then we have to do something about that. But when somebody says, I am terminating my association with you.

Because it’s an agreement between two parties. Oh, but they’re they’re escaping discipline, not God’s discipline. They’re not. Now, there may be some results. The elders may get up and make an announcement and say, now, this brother and sister has departed from us. They have stated they’re going to attend elsewhere. We have concerns about their spiritual condition. I mean, if we care about souls at all, while they’re no longer numbered among us, we might make an announcement like that. You know, I’m involved in the well-being of souls that goes far beyond the parameters of the Decor Prairie Church. I’ll just give you an example this afternoon. I’m in a preacher page on Facebook. And I saw a post came up from a brother that I highly respect.

And so I’m gonna go read that because he writes good stuff. And he just put a quote on there and wanted some thoughts about what this quote said about 1 Peter 3:21. There’s some things about it I didn’t like. And I noticed the first person to object to the way this fellow worded the role of baptism and salvation from 1 Peter 3 21 was Philip Schumacher, who actually wrote our book that you’re studying an auditorium class on zeal. And so I wrote under Philip that I had some of the same concerns that he did. And then the preacher that posted it said, I can see, I can see why you would have concerns about the nature of the language used, that it might tend to say that baptism is really all about just the appeal to God for a clean conscience, and that the act itself is not important.

Now, I didn’t have to weigh in on that, but I thought if I could say something that would clarify what I believe 1 Peter 3 and verse 21 is teaching, I’m going to do that. I want to try to help people beyond just our fellowship. And so we might make an observation from the pulpit about someone’s spiritual condition who is no longer numbered among us. But in terms of our responsibility, our responsibility to take action involves those who are numbered among our group.

4. I Don't Get to Be a Christian at Large

Membership at large. You know, Paul is writing to Christians who are banded together, and rightfully so, in the midst of all the hostile influences and forces and culture, Christians need to band together. 1 Corinthians 12 would suggest the need that we have for one another. And as we saw in Colossians 2, as I mentioned this morning, our hearts being knit or woven together as God’s people. We need this association. I don’t see anything in the New Testament that suggests I can just be Lone Ranger unless I’m somewhere where there’s absolutely no Christians. You might find yourself in that circumstance, but I wouldn’t want to be in that circumstance for long because I’m not sure I can make it all by myself. That would be a challenge.

There is something about the group that we need. And you just don’t see that. That’s not a pattern we see in the New Testament, the Christian at large. And when Paul traveled about from place to place, at least temporarily, he would associate with the Christians in the town where he wants. Holiness, a right response to God, requires this involvement. It’s bigger than just me, bigger than just one person. I have a responsibility toward others. That’s where all those one another passages come in. And so I don’t get to be a Christian at large. I would say, I don’t know all of God’s wisdom in this. Let me just interact here. I don’t know all of God’s wisdom about a lot of things that he tells us to do.

And if I did, it would probably blow my mind. God knows a lot more than we’ll ever know just by just from reading this text. But I think one of the things that I see that comes out of our local church involvement is it helps refine my character to have this association. This involvement, this interaction with other Christians is a part of my personal spiritual growth. And without it, I would not, I’ve learned so much in my life just associating with so many of the Lord’s people in so many places.

5. Make a Difference in the Spiritual Journeys of Others

Together and work through problems. Those life skills that come about as a result of being a member of the body can be very helpful in our own character. And the last thing that I want to say that sort of flows out of that is that what I see throughout the New Testament in regard to being the local church is that we’re here to make a difference in the spiritual journeys of other people.

Acting in relation to me. Really, this organism, this body of Christians is about how I can make a difference in your life.

Conclusion

How I can assist in some small way to help you in this path we talked about this morning. Don’t underestimate your contribution in assisting in others’ spiritual journey to heaven. That’s what this is all about. And I want to say thank you for all that you’ve done for me. Let’s stand and sing the invitation song.