Questions And Answers: Liberal Churches

Introduction

The questions keep pouring in. And fact that I’ve had so many questions that I will get to them in the order that they were received. And I might cover more than one question at a time, depending on the nature of the question, but if they’re like any of the questions I’ve gotten so far, it’s not going to be easy to answer them in just five to ten minutes, you deep thinkers, you.

Obviously, this is not meant to be a flattering term or a positive term, but something that would be contrary to God’s wishes for us. So I’m going to talk a little bit more about that term, liberal, about churches of Christ generally, that is, those who put something to that effect on a sign that says, we are a church of Christ, and what you might encounter out there, the three questions involve practices in such churches, such as the acceptance of social drinking, instrumental music, the role of women, and we’ll be talking about that briefly. Is it okay to worship with a church of this kind? And if the Lord were to return on a ship or a plane to a certain place, would he attend one of these groups?

Or would he choose maybe a day other than the first day of the week? So I don’t know if I’ll be able to cover all of that. I will attempt to do so. This outline is going to be very difficult for me to follow. Obviously, labeling the differences in those who claim to belong to the Lord. Labeling these differences is difficult. Nobody really likes the label that gets attached to them. And so we’re going to have to go beyond labels, whether it’s liberal, conservative, noncooperative, sound, unsound, scriptural, unscriptural, all kinds of terms float about. I do believe that the best terms to use are probably sound and unsound. That’s a biblical term. And you might want to begin turning to Titus chapter 2, as we’re going to begin with that text in a little while.

1. Teach and Practice Sound Things

Many who make the claim of being a church of Christ or the Lord’s church have historical roots that tie them together. And I think that’s important to know, and that’s what I want our young people to know at the outset of this lesson tonight. Because there are so many distinctive practices and doctrines among those who claim to be churches of Christ. It’s hard to use just two terms liberal or conservative, mainstream versus anti, and I’ll be coming back to those. And so we’re going to try to talk about the fact that while a church may be unsound in its collective work, individuals can be unsound in a variety of ways. And so I want to look at Titus chapter 2 and verse 1, just to set the table for that point.

When Paul tells Titus, but as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine. The things that people teach can either be sound or unsound. The things that people practice can either be sound or unsound. And Paul encourages his practices and teaching to be sound. And that ought to be the goal of everyone who claims to be a Christian. Everyone who claims to be a church that belongs to Jesus, we need to teach and practice sound things because there will be people who profess to know God, but by their deeds they will deny him. That’s the previous verse, Titus 1, verse 16. And don’t let the chapter division fool you. It’s the continuous thought here. They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny him.

2. Understand Churches of Christ Beyond Labels

And those deeds he says are detestable and disobedient. They’re unsound and worthless for any good deed. And that’s when he goes, not you, Titus, speak the things that are fitting for sound doctrine. But then I want you to notice the context, the nature of the statements that result after he starts talking about sound doctrine. And I hope to come back to that. Now, first thing we need to do tonight is understand what we’re talking about. Understand churches of Christ. We cannot rest, and I’ve preached this now many times here. We cannot rest merely upon correct labels. Of course, the true church of our Lord is a church of Christ. It is a church that belongs to him. Now look beyond labels now. If it’s the Lord’s church, it’s a church of Christ.

It’s a church belonging to him. And so many people want to see denominational labels, and they don’t see that undenominational truth. A real church, a church that pleases God is of Christ. But labels alone don’t settle anything here. And I’ve made this point before. We need to be a church of Christ. By God’s reckoning. By God’s accounting. If anyone loves God, he is known by him, 1 Corinthians 8 and verse 3, and that’s really the bottom line on soundness, isn’t it? If anyone loves God, if God says he loves me, that group loves me by their practices, by their deeds, by their sound doctrine, we are known by him. And so you can label yourself all you want to. You can profess to know God, but that doesn’t make you sound just by having the right label.

That’s only a part of being sound. Calling yourself the correct thing, everyone who names the name of Christ abstains from wickedness. 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 19. Now, churches of Christ who are like us, and by that I mean, teach what we do about morality, teach what we do about how we can function as a group corporately, and that’s where a lot of the issues are. How do we function as a group corporately? The nature of our leadership, the nature of our collected funds and how they are used, that’s where the issues are in this. Churches that are like us, do you know what percentage of those who might put Church of Christ on the sign in the United States of America? What percentage of those groups are like us?

Mac Brown, Mac Brown, Mac Lynn is his name. Sorry about that, AM fans. Didn’t mean to give him a call out. Mac Lynn, who did a book which put together churches of Christ in the United States, perhaps even through the world, did a percentage basis on all of this and would suggest that groups like us only represent 20 to 25%. Now you may have thought that number was higher. Some of you thought that number was lower than that. So if you thought we were in the majority, you would be wrong about that. The largest group of churches of Christ are called mainline or mainstream. But while that might represent the larger number of churches of Christ, it has now become in the last three decades a very fractured group in and of itself.

3. A Dispute Among Brethren 50 to 60 Years Ago

And so I don’t know that there’s any one group, even among the mainline or mainstream churches, that’s as large of a percentage as those who think like us. Because they have become so fractured over the last several decades. And all of this stems from a dispute that took place among brethren far and wide 50 to 60 years ago. And there were a lot of churches at that time who were supporting human institutions from the treasury of the church. In fact, many were, such as Orphans’ Homes, and some had also begun to innovate with a church sponsoring arrangement that is sending money to one church, and that church would do a work in evangelism. One such church was the Highlands Church of Christ here in Texas, who did the broadcast, the Herald of Truth program.

And churches would send the Highland Church so that they would have enough money to do this television broadcast. And people thought that was a good work. And so they contributed to it in that way, but it became what is now identified as the sponsoring church arrangement. You have one church that sponsors the work, and all of the other churches become subservient and assistant to them. As a result of these things that were going on, and brethren started examining these things in light of what the scriptures were teaching, a great controversy unfolded. Debates were held, the battle was intense, churches split. Many churches did. Preachers were told to leave. They were even threatened in some cases. And like most controversies, attitudes were poor at times. Pride and selfishness interfered.

Now, to get back to something that I said last week about in Bible class about the 50s, Wayne was quick to inform me that I wasn’t alive in the 50s, and he was right. And I wasn’t alive when all of these debates took place. But on the latter end of this era, my parents actually made a decision about these practices. That was sort of late in this whole controversy in the mid to late 60s. I was like four years old at the time. And so I talked to a lot of people who were eyewitnesses of these events. I read a lot of materials from this era and studied this matter many times over the last 30 years. And so all of these debates and things were held.

And the differences that defined two main groups that have now somewhat splintered, mostly the mainstream side of things, but the two groups were labeled generally conservative and liberal, or anti and mainstream. Conservatives or anti’s believed that the local church and its autonomy must be respected. And that cooperating in evangelism was a violation of the biblical pattern. And that the treasury of the Lord’s church, funds that we contribute on the first day of the week, must not be used to support human institutions, or to be governed by human institutions. Mainstream or liberal brethren, as they are sometimes called, touted such passages as James 1.27 and Galatians 6.10 to support benevolence or giving monetary assistance to non saints. Those passages read, as we therefore have opportunity, Galatians 6 and verse 10, let us do good to all men, especially those under the household of faith.

And for some, that was all the justification that they needed. They were doing good to all men. And so the funds of the treasury could be used to assist non-saints or those outside of our fellowship. James 127 says, pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world. And so James said that we are to care for orphans and widows. And so then we as a church, though conservatives argue that this is individual instruction, this is my responsibility, this is your responsibility. It does not authorize corporate action. And so this thing evolved into can the church do anything that an individual can do? And that was a large part of this debate.

Well, the conservatives, or those who have been labeled anti or antees, believe that benevolence should be limited, that it is not within the scope of the New Testament, it is not within the authority of the New Testament to use the funds that were collected by the church in unauthorized ways or in benevolence that went beyond needy saints. And in support of that belief are two very important passages. In 1 Timothy chapter 5 and verse 16, when Paul is talking about assistance for widows and those who were widows indeed, he talked about the responsibility of families to provide for widows. And if that could be done first, he says that the church may not be burdened. And here we’re even talking about benevolence to saints, those who are within the body of Christ, but even that had a limited scope to those who did not have family who could take care of them.

Because for the church, out of its corporate funds or collective funds to take care of every needy person, obviously burdened her.

9, when Paul is gathering up that collection. There’s a lot of information about this in the New Testament. The poor saints in Judea, there has been famine, there is poverty, the saints are in need in Judea, and particularly in Jerusalem. And so Paul is gathering this collection from all the churches of Achaia and Macedonia. That’s why he’s writing to Corinth about it. And in 2 Corinthians 9, he says very clearly on more than one occasion in 2 Corinthians chapter 9, he labels this, he styles this a ministry to the saints. A ministry to the saints that would result in these help saints or assisted saints to pray and yearn for those who had helped in their assistance. They are obviously saints that are being assisted in 2 Corinthians chapter 9.

And so this debate came to involve what was God’s design for the local church. Benevolence to non-saints? To anyone who was a needy person, or did God have in mind a limited benevolence only to saints? And that was the biggest part of this controversy, along with the sponsoring church arrangement. Well, that’s that in a nutshell. If you need me to preach more on that, I have sermons that involve circles and diagrams and charts. We can go to those at a later time. If you give me that kind of feedback, we’ll do that. But not in one lesson. So what are we left with as a result? Instead of what was at that time, perhaps a conservative wing, you said, no, we can’t do this with the Lord’s money.

4. A Lot Has Changed Since Then

With this, we believe this is unauthorized. We had a conservative anti-element, and we had a liberal or progressive element that believed in a larger benevolence. Whereas there was basically two camps in the 50s and 60s, well, a lot has changed since then. And that’s because the treasury began to be used by some of the mainstream churches for social activities. Some have even gone so far as to practice instrumental music. Some of the mainstream group think that’s okay, others don’t. And so you have traditional services in some places and contemporary services trying to meet with both groups’ ideas. And again, the New Testament doesn’t speak to this at all. And yet these are the kinds of things that are being practiced, including as the question asked in regard to the leadership role of women.

That’s another area where this is changing among some of the mainstream churches. Now, I got this chart. Thanks to, again, Facebook and an article that I saw there. Now, this is not representing us per se, those of us who would be considered conservative or anti-benevolence to non saints. But this is what has happened by one author’s understanding over the last several decades among our mainstream brethren. And you have everything across the way here. You have the zealots over here, those who are satisfied with the way things that are always been, maybe some who are looking for something a little bit different. You have in this section over here individuals that are open and yet perhaps a little cautious. Then you have these way out left wingers, and you know, this describes almost every religious group.

And probably in some ways, even describes those who claim to be like us to some degree. And we’re seeing more of this than I think we saw 20 years ago among what we might style the conservative element. And he says about this chart, he says, the author Joe Bean says, exasperated, I had to give you this, are so fed up with the conflicts in our fellowship that they want to leave the church of Christ. Now, just that statement, I have to talk about that. So, what you’re saying is you’re so fed up they want to leave the Lord’s church. What good’s that gonna do them? I don’t want to be a part of the Lord’s church anymore. See, that kind of language, I know he doesn’t mean that.

But that’s denominational kind of language. And if you’re supposed to understand what he’s saying, these people are saying, I don’t want to be the Lord’s church anymore. And I want to warn you against that kind of denominational language regarding church of Christ. I’m so fed up with the conflicts, I just want out of the Lord’s church. Well, and I want to make this comment about this chart, and this is what I want to get to. These right-wing zealots, and he has a paragraph interesting about these zealots. They make strong attacks against everything and everyone they see as a threat to their culture and cling tenaciously to what they call the old past. You know, in some way, in some ways, I’m to the right of the right-wing zealots.

But some of the things that he says about them, I certainly deplore as well. And let me go on to read that. They believe their defense of their culture is a defense of God’s church, and that conviction makes them very motivated and very aggressive. They make statements that their deductions and interpretations of the Bible are the doctrine of Christ and therefore equal to the very will of God. Let me just say, the doctrine of Christ is what it is. The doctrine of Christ is the will of God, and we are to teach the doctrine of Christ. Or we do not have God. 2 John 9. Now, I can be wrong about what the doctrine of Christ is and make very strong claims in defense of what I believe, but we better be teaching the doctrine of Christ.

And he says, therefore, they strongly condemn any statement or action not in total harmony with their deduced doctrines. They oppose many things done by the left-wing and innovative churches or said by exasperated or open people. The extreme in this group sometimes fabricate or embellish evidence, which if you don’t have an argument, don’t make it. Don’t make arguments that aren’t sound just to try to defeat the adversary. But that’s what he claims that they do. To more forcefully attack those who feel to be, those they feel to be a threat to the church that they know. They may write an article saying, this is what he said, but this is what he really means. I’ve actually heard that among people who think like us in regard to limited benevolence.

I’ve actually heard that kind of argumentation. Here’s what he said, but here’s what he really meant. And in the case that I heard, that teacher, that preacher that they were talking about was being misrepresented. So this kind of thing even happens among us. I warned you about that. Don’t make an argument that’s not there. The difference in them and the satisfies is their extremely negative mindset and their quick willingness to attack orally, and in writing anything or anyone they see as the enemy. You know, I don’t feel like that it is my obligation to go fix all of the issues among brethren in the United States. But listen, this the Lord’s church goes beyond the United States. It’s all the called out in the whole world.

And if I’m going to fix the problems in the church, and I’m going to see my responsibility to go out and fix the churches in the United States like the real church is in the United States. No, I would be obligated to go where Jesse has been all the way over there in Germany, Rammstein, Germany, preaching over. I think I’ve got to make sure that church is sound over there in Ramstein. Jesse probably messed it up. No, he didn’t. No, he didn’t. But he’s been preaching in a foreign country. There are brethren over there, too. And if you’re going to be this zealot that’s got to fix everything everywhere, look, I don’t have a voice big enough. I know you’re saying it’s pretty loud, but it’s not big enough to even reach all of those who claim to be churches of Christ in Houston.

Much less the entire United States or the world. Now we do have mediums that can send the message out, like the internet, that can reach people all over the world. I mean, I have contact with brethren in the Philippines through the internet. But as far as really affecting change somewhere else, I can only teach and preaching. You know what we do? We put those sermons on our website, and people listen to those all over the world. That’s as much as we can do. And they’ll be hearing this lesson, I’m sure as well. And I would just say about that quote I was reading. If we care at all about souls, we will warn where we can. We will try lovingly to influence people to practice truth and things that are sound.

And if we see things that are unsound and we have an audience with these people, then we should attempt to try to reach them with the truth, with the doctrine of Christ, and with the patterns that are revealed in the Word of God. Again, I go back to a very elementary statement, but a so profound statement that Jesus made if you abide in my word, then you are disciples of mine, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. That simple statement says that truth is knowable, that truth needs to be practiced for us to be saved. And to what extent should truth be practiced in my life? Well, my response to God first involves me individually and how I think and live, and it involves how I operate in this corporate group of believers.

5. God Is Going to Determine That, Not Me

And so I need to practice truth as it pertains to both of those things. Individual and corporate or collective response to God. Well, there’s a lot more that I could say. But I will say this. And it’s true of not just people in mainstream churches that have generally adopted practices that I cannot participate in. This benevolence to non saints, the support of a social gospel that is using funds that have been collected for purely social and entertainment desires, building facilities that aren’t authorized by the New Testament. I can’t do those things. And that again represents a larger percentage of churches of Christ than those who are like us. But even those who believe like we do about the limited use of these funds that are collected, even some of them practice error on other things.

They believe wrong things about marriage, divorce, and remarriage and accept adulterous marriages into their fellowship. That’s just as unsound as what these mainstream brethren are doing. But I had a brother several years ago say about these mainstream churches or mainline churches. I don’t think they’re really our brethren because they practice these things. I can’t even call these people my brethren. Let me caution you about that. You know, we don’t like it when people charge us with they think they’re the only ones going to heaven. And that narrow-minded, seeming stigma that is placed on us. And you know what I believe about that? I’ve talked about this many times. Everyone who does the will of God goes to heaven. That’s Matthew 7 and verse 21. Not everyone who says unto me, Lord, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven, Matthew 7 and verse 21.

And ultimately, as I’ll say in a minute more about this, God is going to determine that. Not me. Who has done his will? But I’m not just going to swipe with a broad stroke. Anybody in conservative churches or liberal churches as all saved or all lost. And just because we might be sound in regard to how we might use the treasury, there’s a lot of other areas of unsoundness that could do us in spiritually. You could simply possess hatred in your heart and be lost. And you can stay before God and they’re going to say, Yeah, but we didn’t misuse the treasury. What could they do? If you hated your brother.

We stand opposed to that. Homosexuality, we’re against it. But you hated your brother. You’re just as lost. And so I’m not going to proclaim everybody good and wonderful just because they haven’t done unauthorized things with the treasury. And I’m not going to go to the other extreme and say, because there are people who misuse these funds that have been collected, that everybody in those groups are lost. Because I’m going to tell you what happens. They’re as zealous about evangelism and sometimes more zealous than we are. And I’ll tell you what they’re not teaching. Oh, by the way, if you become a Christian, let me tell you about how we use the treasury. That’s not a part of their plan of salvation. They teach them the exact same gospel that you believe.

And like many of us, the people that have received it had as little knowledge of the scriptures as we did when we were baptized into Christ. And I’ll tell you, when you first become a Christian, one of the questions on your mind is, I wonder how they’re using the treasury. That’s not one of the first questions new converts have. And so they’re going to be individuals in these mainline or mainstream churches who have believed the same gospel that we have and have come into Christ by God’s accounting. Now, where that goes from there and where spiritual growth and development ought to take them, you know, as we ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you shall find knock, and the door shall be opened, as these people continue to search for truth in their lives and in their hearts, who knows where that journey will ultimately lead them.

But let God deal with that. I don’t need to proclaim all of the lost, and I’ll just say, even beyond that group of people, the mainstream churches or the conservative anti groups, we’re going to encounter more and more people who are hearing the message of salvation outside of those fellowships. Because in our very fractured denominational world, there are some people that are just simply trying to teach the Bible, and some are going to teach the plan of salvation, just like we do, and they’re going to bring people into Christ, and they’re going to be all kinds of misconceptions associated with where they are, beliefs about the Holy Spirit, belief about the nature of the church and how it ought to work. They’re going to have all kinds of misconceptions that they’re going to confront, but they are going to be in Christ initially.

And so we don’t need to get narrow-minded about all of that, about who is a Christian, who isn’t. Whoever believes that gospel that we preached about Jesus Christ, who turns from sin, confesses him, and is baptized into him, rising to walk in newness of life, not sprinkling or pouring, those aren’t scriptural baptisms. But those who are immersed in him and rise to walk in units of life, they’re taught, if they’re taught that message, they’re in Christ. They believe the same gospel. And so the question is raised at what point will they be held accountable for practices that they will encounter that are not consistent with the scriptures? At what point is God going to say, now this is on your account? Because those who are leading, those who are deciding to use these funds in an unscriptural fashion or to engage in practices that the Bible does not approve, they’re going to bear a greater responsibility.

But at some point, perhaps these individuals, as they continue to study God’s word, should come to the point where they realize these practices are unscriptural. At what point is God going to hold them accountable? I don’t know. I don’t know the answer to that question. And so I want to tell you that’s God’s business. God will judge that. And so I don’t have to judge everybody in these mainstream groups who practice things that I don’t believe have authority from the New Testament to be practiced. That’s not my business. And I think that’s where the parable of the tares comes in Matthew chapter 13. And if you’ll just look at that very briefly with me, when Jesus tells the parable of the tares, the disciples want to know more about this parable about the tares that sprang up among the wheat, and sometimes those tares were evident, but he says at the conclusion of that, you may root up with the wheat.

6. Am I Sinning by Attending an Assembly?

You may root up with the wheat as you root out the tares. And so he says, allow them both to grow together in verse 30 to the harvest. And in the time of the harvest, I will say to the reapers, gather up the tares and bind them in bundles and burn them with wheat. And when Jesus gives the interpretation of that, he talks about those tares on the last day that he will pull out from among the wheat and cast them into the fire, and that conversation takes place in verses 36 through 43. And so ultimately, some of these things need to be allowed to God at the last day to determine what certain individuals might find at the end of things. So the question then was raised Am I sinning by attending an assembly among those who practice error?

Well, you don’t always know the errors that are being practiced when you attend a place, even if it’s conservative. We don’t know everything about. In fact, whenever I came here, I didn’t know everything. I knew the reputation you had among brethren that I trusted, but I didn’t know everything that had gone on here in the past. And that’ll be true to people who have come to us presently. You just don’t know everything about a group, and you may find things, you may encounter things, and I’m always afraid you go to a place and there are people who are living in adulterous marriages that you find out about, and you can’t say, Well, it happened before I got here. I’m going to look the other way. You can’t do that.

And that’s going to become perhaps a more common thing. And so when you go to a congregation, you don’t know everything about them. They are brethren. You certainly can’t contribute to practices that you don’t believe to be authorized. Wouldn’t be putting money in the collection plate if you believe that treasury is being used in an unscriptural fashion. But somebody said, But by my being there, am I not condoning or approving of it? I personally don’t think that you are conveying approval of everything a group believes when you attend. I may attend a religious group outside of our fellowship that I don’t believe even teaches the truth about salvation just out of curiosity, interest, want to see what they teach. I’m not going to do it on the Lord’s Day, not going to do it on Wednesday night, but I may go there sometimes just to observe and gain information and understanding.

And some of you have done that about another religious group. Being present, and I’ve been places where preachers have been slandered, where the leadership approved of the slander, and yet I still attended those meetings because I didn’t believe everyone there was implicated in that.

Conclusion

Or was behaving unsoundly. Presence in an assembly does not indicate approval of everything that is practiced. But if you feel like that’s what it does, if that’s how you feel that it is received, then by all means don’t do it. Don’t violate your conscience. But again, in that matter, of what you choose to do, God will judge. Now I want to conclude. Okay, I’ve already answered that question. I want to conclude by talking about emphasis in our preaching. Edmund Burke. My throat is going. Edmund Burke. Lived in the 1700s. He was a British statesman and philosopher who is credited with this statement. Those who don’t know history are destined. No, you thought doomed, didn’t you? He said destined. Or destined to repeat it, but it’s often quoted as doomed.

And it’s been quoted various versions of that by a lot of other people, I found out this week. But Edmund Burke has been quoted a lot. Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it. I think that may be true in regard to this. A new generation needs to know what’s happened among the Lord’s people in the past, the kind of thinking that was present, the kind of arguments that were made, and we need to be able to answer those arguments and give sound answers to those things.

So it’s profitable to talk about these things. But I want to make this point that while I might be considered a right wing zealot by some, truth matters to God. Submission matters to God. Following biblical patterns matter to God. Preaching on these matters like I’ve done tonight, as you know, is not my hobby. I do it infrequently. I believe it’s important. I’m glad the question was raised. Every generation needs to know what has happened and not to exceed what is written. 1 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 6. We must trust God’s plan, the all-sufficiency of his church and his plan, and we should not delve into trying to help God out. And that’s what some of this is. I want to go beyond the church. No, God’s wisdom exceeds our wisdom.

To be forewarned is to be forearmed. But I must tell you, in 30 years of preaching, I’ve only known once or twice where anybody suggested among the fellowships I’ve been involved with. Only once or twice in the last 30 years has anyone suggested we do something that would be a violation of the biblical pattern that we talked about tonight. And that doesn’t mean it’s not important, we don’t need to talk about it because we do. But I will tell you something about soundness. And that is, I see sometimes some people that there is a greater loyalty to corporate soundness, that is what we do as a group, than to personal soundness. And I really believe among our fellowship that we are going to lose more people eternally to the problem of a lack of personal soundness.

Titus, you speak the things that are fitting for sound doctrine. What follows that statement? Conduct of older men, conduct of younger men, conduct of older women, conduct of younger women. It’s often those areas of personal soundness before God where people stumble more tragically and to their eternal detriment than these problems of corporate soundness that I don’t believe has harmed very many people that I’ve known and worshiped with among churches of Christ. I think the great tragedy is we can’t go back to the 50s and 60s and be involved in that discussion and help at that time. But that ship has already sailed. What we’re left with are these different practices among churches of Christ, and we can only influence those for the most part that we have fellowship with on a regular basis.

So here’s the conclusion. You’ve been patient. My goal is this corporate soundness and personal soundness. Both of those things. Personal soundness. Daily submission, daily expressions of faith, daily confessions, daily attempts to serve. Those are our greater issues. All these issues we talked about tonight are important, but these are our greatest issues. They confront us on a daily basis and they trouble us more consistently. And may we avoid the daily trouble of selfishness, spiritual neglect, and loving the world more than we love God. Let us fight the good fight of faith and lay hold on eternal life. Well, here’s the question really. Does God look down upon the Decoratory Church of Christ and say, they are corporately sound? I hope so. I think we strive very diligently to make sure that is so.

We need to be corporately sound. But there’s a greater question, too. Are you personally sound? Because all the corporate soundness in this world is no substitute for that. Does God look down upon my heart and my life and say, he or she is personally sad before me? And that leads me to his invitation. If you need to respond for your personal soundness and salvation, won’t you come while we stand and say?