Let's pray. Well, Father, thank you for the just amazing privilege to gather together here in this place as the body of Christ to unite our hearts together in purpose of worship, exhortation and encouragement of one another in the faith to be reminded of the glorious truth that Christ has paid for our sin in full and that we, now enrobed in his righteousness, stand perfect in your sight. Welcome as your children. And so now as we open your word, we pray that your spirit would enable us to be good listeners, to hear with obedient ears what you have for us this morning. For the glory of Christ, we pray. Amen. Well, it is a joy to be back up here again after a while, speak with you. And I want to talk to you this morning about the state of the church in America, because I am concerned and have been for quite some time about the state of the church and the fact that its attendance has been declining regularly for at least two decades. And not only has attendance been declining, I'm talking about when I say the church, there's only one church, an evangelical church. And yes, the evangelical church in America is in trouble. Attendance has been declining for two decades. Membership levels are at all-time lows. It is very concerning. And the causes of such a decline are beyond the scope of this morning. But what I do want to speak with you about are some of the symptoms of that decline and one way that could reverse it. There is a phenomenon of what I would call sporadic church attendance. And what I mean by that is about 20% of a body is missing every week. It's not the same people, but about 20%, that's kind of the average, is gone every Sunday. There are the phenomena of attendance at multiple churches. People attending this church for one thing, another one for a youth program in the midweek, and just kind of dividing loyalties, we might say. I'm concerned about internet preachers and the reliance of the believer on the internet preacher who can never shepherd your soul. I'm concerned about the resistance to the idea of church membership. People claiming to belong to the universal church, but have feeling no sense of need for membership in a local church. The word church, let's just talk about that a moment. The word church itself ecclesia is used 114 times in the New Testament, primarily by the Apostle Paul. There are very few, and some would argue, no, references to the universal church in that 114 uses. That might shock you to hear that, actually. But the vast majority, and all would agree to this, the vast majority of the uses of the word ecclesia or church in the New Testament is a reference to a local church. That's how the term is used. So, when we read the New Testament and we read the word church, we should think about the concept predominantly of a local assembly, a local assembly made up of baptized disciples of Jesus who gather regularly for worship, singing, teaching, and the Lord's Supper. When you read church, you should think local. And as such, each local assembly will have defined boundaries, making it easy to identify who is and who is not a part of that local assembly. In a word, church membership. That's what I want to talk to you about this morning. I want to talk to you about church membership. I've entitled this message The Membership Mandate because I believe there is a mandate in the New Testament for every follower of the Lord.

Lord Jesus Christ to become an active member of a local church. So as we explore the topic this morning of church membership, I want to do it by asking and answering two questions. Very simple outline. Just two questions. The first question is this. Why don't we find an explicit command for church membership in the Bible? If it's a big deal, and I believe it is, why do we not find any explicit commands for church membership in the Bible? I think that's a fair question, and it needs to be answered. The answer is actually surprisingly simple. It's because the Bible assumes membership. It assumes it. It doesn't feel the need to spell it out. It merely assumes it and moves forward on that basis. In fact, I would be so bold as to say that official membership of some sort is one of the defining marks of the people of God. Let me show you what I mean. The Old Testament, let's begin there. The Old Testament has many lists for identifying the people of God. Many lists. For example, we have the genealogical lists listing the believing people of God, the followers of Yahweh, beginning with Seth and running to Noah in Genesis 5. And then in Genesis 11, we pick up with Noah and we arrive at Abraham. Those are a list of people who are followers of God. We have the numbering of the tribes of Israel. You'll remember that. They number each of the tribes of Israel. And we get the book of Numbers. And we have two numberings, as it were, at the beginning of the end of the wanderings. In Numbers chapter 1 and chapter 26. They actually count how many people are part of the children of God. Now, the interesting thing, and here's where we're going to kind of be ransacking the Bible here. So I'm going to turn you first to Exodus chapter 12. I just want you to see something, keeping in mind this idea of lists, numberings. So Genesis, or excuse me, Exodus chapter 12, verses 37 and 38. So Exodus chapter 12, beginning in verse 37. Now the sons of Israel journeyed from Ramses to Sukkot about 600,000 men on foot, aside from children. Look at verse 38. A mixed multitude also went up with them, along with flocks and herds and a very large number of livestock. A mixed multitude went up with them, and yet they are not included in the numbering. Why? Because they are outside the boundaries of the people of God. Turn to your right to Ezra. Ezra preceding Nehemiah chapter 2. We see another illustration of this. Where here we have the exiles returning under Zerubbabel, after the Babylonian captivity. And I want you to notice here in chapter 2 of Ezra that again we have a numbering. Verse 1, now these are the people of the province who came up out of the captivity of the exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had carried away to Babylon and returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his city. These came with Zerubbabel, Yeshua, Nehemiah, Sara, Relaia, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mizpar, Bigvi, Rahum, and Baanna. If you say them fast enough, nobody can tell whether you're pronouncing them correctly or not, and nobody will challenge you. But what I want you to see, again, the number of the men of the people, the sons of Parash, 2,172, the sons of Sephatah, 372, and on and on and on. That's very specific numbering. That means a specific list. A specific list. Okay, that's the Old Testament. That's fine. Well, let's roll to the new.

So for the New Testament, I'm going to turn you to John chapter 9, where I want you to observe something more. And this has to do with the synagogue system. Chapter 9 and verse 22 in particular of John, John's Gospel, chapter 9, verse 22, the synagogue system, which arose during the captivity and was the mechanism by which the people of God organized themselves in local congregations throughout the land and the world, actually. And what I want you to see is that these synagogues kept records of who was in and who was out. You are part of the synagogue, you're not part of the synagogue, and there was a record that determined such things. And the reason I want you to see this, in chapter 9 and verse 22, where here what we see is the act of banishment from the synagogue. This is a man born blind, right? His parents said this. Well, they say he's old enough, you know, ask him, right? They want to avoid the conflict. Why? His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed him to be the Christ, here it is, he was to be put out of the synagogue. He was to be excommunicated from the congregation of the children of God. You can't be excommunicated from something that you're not part of and officially part of and officially excommunicated from. So the synagogue system itself had records of who belongs and who doesn't. Let's go to the right to the book of Acts. Chapter 2 in the birth of the church in chapter 2 and verse 41. This is after Peter's great evangelistic message here. In verse 41, so then those who had received his word were baptized. And that day there were added, and this is a round number, but notice there were added about 3,000 souls. There's no way to know that without counting them. They counted them. They knew who was and who wasn't. Furthermore, you go down to verse 47. And this is speaking about what happened here in these early churches, praising God, having favor with all the people, and the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved. If the Lord is adding to their number day by day, those who were those being added to what? To the number. To the number. They had records. They had records. Chapter 4, verse 4. Many of those who had heard the message believed, and the number of the men came to be about 5,000. That's church growth, by the way. Brought its own problems. We're about to see them here. But they're keeping records. They're keeping track. Those who are in, those who are not. The widow's benevolence list necessitates membership records. Chapter 6. Now at this time, while the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food. So the 12 summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, it is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables. Therefore, brethren, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. What task? To the task of providing for the widows. Again, there has to be a list. If these are being neglected and these aren't, that implies the list. Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 5 and verse 9 that there is a list, actually. 5, 9, 1 Timothy 5, 9, a widow is not to be put on the list unless she's less than 60 years old, having been the wife of one man. If you've got a list of which widows are eligible for the benevolence ministries of the church, that implies that you have very good records of who's in and who's out. Every widow doesn't qualify.

Only the ones on the list. And the first to be upon the list is you've got to be part of the body itself. Elder oversight assumes distinguishing a specific group of people over whom the oversight is exercised. Acts chapter 20, verse 28. By the way, what are we doing here? We're building a biblical theology. That's what we're trying to do. And we're trying to do it in short order. Acts 20, verse 28. Paul says, Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood. If you are an overseer and it's an overseer of a particular flock, that implies the flock has defined boundaries. Verse 15 and verse 12. But we request of you, brethren, that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction, and that you esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Live in peace with one another. Those who diligently labor among you. The you implies that it is a defined group. 1 Timothy 3:5 talking about the qualifications of an elder, but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God? It's got to be local. The responsibility is local. It's not every Christian that is in the city of Sandpoint. It's a local body for whom the elders give oversight. Hebrews 13:17. Hebrews 13 and verse 17. Obey your leaders and just submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls. As those who will give an account, let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you. And one more, 1 Peter 5:2. Picking up in 1, therefore I exert the elders among you as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed, shepherd the flock of God among you or under your care, exercising oversight not under compulsion but voluntarily according to the will of God and not for sort of gain, but with eagerness. Again, the call to elder oversight implies a defined group to whom they are to give that oversight. Church discipline assumes public knowledge of who is in the church and who isn't in the church. Matthew chapter 18 and verse 17. This is the case of the unrepentant sinner. If he, that is the unrepentant one, refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Tell it to the church. Again, it assumes a local identified body that can be gathered and told. 1 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 11. Church discipline assumes public knowledge of who is in the church and who isn't. Beginning in verse 11, Paul says, But I actually wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person or covetous or an idolater or a swindler or a drunkard or excuse me a reviler or a drunkard or a swindler, not even to eat with such a one. For what do I have to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? But those who are outside, God judges, remove the wicked man from your midst. In other words, there's got to be a defined body if you're going to remove him. You all know who he is.

He's now being called out for removal. Two more. This is all under the theme of why is there no explicit command for church membership? Because it's implicit. It's everywhere. It's assumed. The epistles themselves are written to local congregations. They are written to local congregations. That assumes that they are known to each other and gather together to hear the letter read. Romans chapter 1, verse 7. To all who are beloved of God in Rome. 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 2. To the church of God, which is at Corinth. Galatians chapter 1, verse 2. To the churches of Galatia. Philippians 1:1. To all the saints of Christ Jesus who are in Philippi. Colossians 1:2. To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossee. And 1 Thessalonians 1:1. To the church of the Thessalonians and God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The epistles are written to local congregations which have defined boundaries. They gather to hear from the apostles. Last, God keeps a list. God keeps a list of those who will inherit eternal life. Revelation chapter 3 and in verse 5, it writes, He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments, and I will not erase his name from the book of life. And I will confess his name before my father and before his angels. I will not erase his name from what? The book of life. There is a list. God knows who's in and who's out, and he has a list. He has a list. Membership is implicit. That's why there's no explicit command to join. Okay? First question. Second, what are the benefits of membership? Membership has its benefits, and actually they're significant. They are significant. And what I'd like to do is just briefly highlight four of them. Four significant benefits that come as a result of membership in a local congregation, a local assembly. The first is evangelism. The first benefit is evangelism. When Christ redeems us, he places us into a new society comprised of people who formerly had no reason to gather together and in fact were hostile or opposed to one another, but now have been reconciled to each other. This is what the gospel does. In Ephesians chapter 2, verse 19, Paul says, You then, so then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and are of God's household. Colossians 3:12. So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion. I missed it, verse 11, in renewal, in which there is no distinction between Jew, Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian slave, free man, Christ is all and in all. In other words, all of the barriers are broken down. Where? In a local body. In a local body. That's where they're broken down. This unity and closeness of this new society is expressed with terms that are familiar to you from the New Testament with words like a body. This is a body or a family or a community. Those are the kinds of words the New Testament uses to describe this gathering. And it says, community or body or family in which love prevails and peace is our bond. We enter the new community through faith in Christ. We are publicly identified as members of it through water baptism. And we publicly renew that commitment by partaking of the Lord's table together.

The two ordinances left to us by Christ ahead of this church. Now, the world is not like that. The world is a fractured place where everybody's looking out for number one. Striving, clawing, backbiting, scheming to gain advantage. But the church is otherworldly, otherworldly. It's a place where people go down to go up. It's a place where people serve rather than be served. It's a place where you forgive and are forgiven. It's a place where you demonstrate care and concern for others. It's a place to gather for worship and serve the living Christ. That is very different than any organization the world can offer you. And that environment is incredibly evangelistic, incredibly evangelistic, and by God's grace, appealing to a broken world. Jesus said in John 13 and verse 35: By this all men will know that you are my disciples if you have what? Love for one another. It's incredibly evangelistic. The first benefit: church membership makes you part of an evangelistic community. Second benefit is sanctification, sanctification. According to Romans chapter 8 and verse 29, one of God's great purposes in predestination is to transform his enemies into his beloved children so that Jesus Christ will be firstborn among many brethren. The agent of change is the indwelling Holy Spirit who both instructs and empowers the believer towards Christ-likeness. That process of change is commonly called sanctification. And as John Piper has correctly noted, sanctification is a community project, it is a community project. Beloved, all the many exhortations to grow in the likeness of Christ can only be accomplished through commitment to a local church. The fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control are not demonstrated privately, they are publicly demonstrated as we rub shoulders with other sinners saved by grace. The one and others of the New Testament require community to practice, they require it. For example, Romans 12:10: Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Romans 12:10, be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Again, verse 10, give preference to one another in honor. Chapter 15 of Romans and verse 7, accept one another. The idea here is to warmly embrace one another in spite of the profound differences that arise as Paul speaks of in chapter 14 of Romans. Don't divide over them. Accept one another and let a man's convictions be his own. Galatians 5:13, through love, serve one another. Ephesians 4:2, show tolerance to one another. Show tolerance to one another. This word tolerance is an interesting word. It has an idea of bearing or enduring with respect to other people or persons. Paul uses it over in Colossians chapter 3 and verse 13, where he talks about bearing with those in the assembly. This verb to show tolerance, it appears in the middle voice. It always does in the New Testament, by the way. And it means that we're involved in the action of that verb. We could translate this, hold yourself back from one another. That'd be a great translation. I wish they'd do it that way. Hold yourselves back from one another.

Why? Well, because the old man would like to wring somebody's neck. In the most simple terms, tolerating one another's differences, patiently enduring one another's foibles, their provocations. These are the community project. It's a joint effort. It requires a body. How do we do it? We do it in love, Paul says. In other words, by love or with love. You hold yourself back. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 32. Be kind to one another. Colossians chapter 3, verse 9: do not lie to one another. Why? Well, because lying is an attack on relationship. When we lie, we are attacking the foundations of our relationship. We're saying that you don't mean anything to me Colossians 3:16, admonish one another. Nuta teo. The idea is to admonish through instruction. Appeal to the mind to bring about a change of behavior. What do we appeal to the mind with? We appeal to the mind with the word of God. Again, that presumes what? It presumes we're together in this. We're working at this thing together. We bring the word to bear with one another. A few more. Comfort one another. Verse Thess 4:18. 1 Peter 1:22, fervently love one another. In other words, push it to the limits. 1 Peter 4:9, be hospitable to one another. So if you desire to grow in the likeness of Christ, you have to become deeply involved in a local church. If you do not, you cannot. You cannot grow in the likeness of Christ independent of a deep commitment and involvement in a local church. Cannot happen. Why? Because you're trying to do the thing that God is accomplishing in your own way. And the result will be a disaster. It is in the local church that we find the greatest concentration and display of God's sanctifying grace. It occurs in a local fellowship. Evangelism, sanctification, third benefit, elder oversight. The third benefit of church membership is elder oversight. For this, again, we'll turn back to Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 17. Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls. The leaders of a local church are given by God for the purpose of the spiritual care of the congregation. They are God's gift to the body. They keep watch over our souls. They keep watch over our souls. They are God's appointed means of guarding our welfare, the welfare of his people. And the idea of keeping watch necessarily implies that there's danger. There's a need to keep watch. There weren't any dangers. There's no need for a watchman. There are dangers. There are dangers from false teachers, according to Titus 1:10. There are various spiritual pitfalls, Galatians 6:1 talks about. And then there's the case of the spiritually weak Christian in 15:14. They need elder oversight. They need compassionate instruction so they do not remain in a condition of spiritual weakness. Because the weakest member of the body is the body's weakness. It's like the weakest link in a chain, right? The book of Hebrews itself is an example of the watchful eye of the shepherd. Notice the emphatic pronoun, they. They keep watching.

Over your souls, they and no one else keep watch over your souls. They lose sleep in the process. It's part of part of what it requires. So, evangelism, sanctification, elder oversight, and the fourth benefit, and this is the one that will challenge you the most. And the reason it will challenge you the most is because we live in independent America. But the fourth reason why church membership is a benefit to you, it is because in a church membership there is an assurance of salvation, an assurance of salvation. Now, let me kind of outline that for you. Okay, because this may surprise you, it is through membership in a local church that we receive assurance of salvation. Simply put, membership in a local church establishes, listen carefully now, the boundaries of who is part of the family of God and who is not. It establishes the boundaries. The local church is here to verify or falsify our claims to be Christians. After all, the man in 1 Corinthians chapter 5 who's sleeping with his father's wife, he thought he was a Christian. Think about that. He thought he was okay. He's a Christian. How? How does a local church verify or falsify our claim to be Christian? In two ways. Doctrinal clarity and moral purity. Doctrinal clarity and moral purity. These are the means by which a local church verifies or falsifies our claim to be a Christian, a follower of Christ. What do I mean? Well, let's start with doctrinal clarity because that one's probably easier for you. 1 Timothy 3:15. Paul writes to Timothy, But in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one is to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth. Paul writes to instruct Timothy and, by extension, the believers that have gathered here in Ephesus, the church at Ephesus, on how they are to conduct themselves, what to believe and how to behave. Now, it is that in a local church, and in particular among its elders, reside the collected wisdom and understanding of scripture that exceeds the knowledge of any one individual. I don't care how long someone has been walking with Christ, the collective wisdom of the church's elders is greater than that of a single individual. Now, it's easy to get zealous. It's easy to even get unbalanced in our own theology, particularly when it is formed without the benefit of being tested and refined by the wisdom of older generations. That's why the elders of the church must be men who not only know the scriptures, but have proven their ability to order their lives in conformity to them. In 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 22, Paul gives a warning to young men. 222. He says, Flee from youthful lusts. Flee from youthful lusts. I think often people will think, well, he's talking about, you know, sexual purity and so forth. Well, yeah, probably by extension, but I don't think that's primarily what he's talking about at all. In fact, just the opposite. What I think he's talking about is in verse 14 where he says, remind.

Them of these things and solemnly charged them in the presence of God not to wrangle about words. Wrangling about words. In other words, debates about theological minutia, which young men are particularly susceptible to. They love to argue. Love to argue. Chevrolet, Ford, diesel, gas, used to be Apple, you know, used to be Big Mac and big whatever. iPhone, Android, I mean, whatever it is, what sports team, young men love to argue. Paul said, that's youthful us. Youthful us. It's in the local church as it correctly understands and teaches the scripture. By the way, that's why the internet is so dangerous. It's like filled with young men who are awashing youthful lusts, spotting all kinds of incomplete theology. It's the local church, as it correctly understands and teaches the scripture. Here it is that provides the theological fences outside of which it is neither safe nor wise to go. Cults always originate as a spin-off from a local church. Did you ever think about that? Like, where do cults come from? They pop out of local churches. That's where they come from. Someone separates themselves from a local church and they form their own thing. So doctrinal clarity provides us an assurance of our own faith, that we are trusting in the real Christ, the right Christ. Beyond that is moral purity. It is in the local church that the assurance of salvation is confirmed by moral purity. What do I mean by that? I mean by that the blessing of redemptive church discipline. That's what I mean. God is very serious about moral holiness among his people. Probably the best place to look at that is 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and beginning in verse 9 where he writes, or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Who's he writing to, by the way? He's writing to the church at Corinth. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. I don't have to say do not be deceived unless there's a possibility of being deceived. Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators nor adulterers, or excuse me, nor idolaters nor adulterers, nor the effeminate nor homosexuals nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. Don't be deceived. You cannot live like that and inherit the kingdom of God. In other words, if you are living like that, you cannot make a credible claim to being a child of God and part of his church. He goes on, such were some of you. Such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and of the Spirit of our God. The reason it's so serious is it's expressed later in the same letter in chapter 15 and verse 33 where he says, do not be deceived. Bad company corrupts good morals. A church that refuses to engage in redemptive church discipline leaves its body wide open to moral impurity and the shipwreck of the faith of those under whom they have responsibility. The goal of church discipline is always restorative. Always restorative. Why? It's to bring the one who's erring back from their way. But there is a time. There is a time when, for the health and safety of the body, the church must remove from its gatherings that man or that woman who, by their flagrant and repeated moral offenses, falsify their claims to be a follower of Christ. The church has the boundaries set. They're God's boundaries, but their boundaries exist. By the church, here it is, okay?

If you're looking for the tweet, by a church having and enforcing biblically mandated moral standards, it provides protection to our souls and a means by which the Spirit assures us of our own salvation. And it's a blessing. It is a blessing. Well, prior to today, some of you may have been undervaluing the necessity of the local church, perhaps through ignorance of the scripture. If so, that's no longer true. It's no longer true. But what do you do with what you've heard today? Let me outline it really quick for you. If you are not a part of a Bible-teaching church, regular in your attendance, active in your service, faithful in your financial support, then you need to find one immediately. Pray that it would be this one. But you need to find one. Second, if you are involved, but have yet to take seriously your responsibility to become an official member of that church, then what do you do with this? You need to find out what's involved in entering the membership process and publicly aligning with this body and say, this is where I am. This is where I want to be held accountable. This is where I want to worship together. This is where I want to sing. This is where I want to serve. This is where I want to be instructed in the word. And if you are a church member already, but basically uninvolved in the life of the body, then what do you need to do with this message? You need to press in. You need to press in and love and serve Christ and His body. May the Spirit apply the truth of His word to each and every heart where it is needed.