Amen. I want to begin with a simple illustration. The purpose of the church. Why do we do the things that we do? In seminary, we had to take a class on the mission of the church. And one of the questions that we had to answer and we had to give all of our answers from scripture was, what should a regular church service look like? And there were all sorts of thoughts and answers. And I enjoyed that assignment. But what I enjoyed even more was how unified all of my classmates were in this one issue. The church is for the Christian. And we have a mentality in some churches where the church is looking to bring people in, they have a name, they call themselves seeker-sensitive churches, looking to open the doors to the world, to bring the world in to get them saved. I think it's a noble attempt. I mean, there are some churches that are truly attempting to do this well. Let me explain to you the problem with that approach. Imagine you have a birthday party, and you have a person of honor, and you have people showing up to the birthday party who do not know this person of honor. And they come in and they eat the food, and they insult the person for the party, who the party is thrown. They mock the things that they love. complain about what the party looks like, and then they leave and everyone looks around and thinks, well, what was the purpose of that? Here's the problem. They don't know the person of honor. And so they don't treat them well. When we bring unbelievers into the church, they don't know Jesus, the person of honor. And so they will lower the standards. of worship. And so what happens when we take this approach, and I believe there's a place for unbelievers in the church to be evangelized. I think you should always be talking to those who don't know Jesus to get them into the church to make them uncomfortable in their sin. To help them understand there's a better way of living and you're not the only one who does this. I mean, look around. You have friends, and suddenly you don't seem like you have two heads anymore. They're in a situation where they're the ones who are out of place, and it challenges their presuppositions. But church is not for the unbeliever. They don't know the person of honor. They don't know to whom we sing. They don't know to whom we pray. They don't know who has saved us. They don't understand our love for Him, our gratefulness to Him. And so how can they worship Him? This morning's sermon is really application from last week's sermon, Christ is the head of the church. And because Jesus is the head and because Jesus alone builds his church, he's given us commandments to follow on how to do church. And so the purpose of the church really comes down to this very simple truth. Back to fundamentals. The church exists to glorify Jesus Christ, its head. That's why we're here. We're here to glorify God specifically to Jesus Christ. Now, we have to recognize that Jesus builds his church, and he uses us to do that. Rather than thinking of us as the ones who are the architects building the church, we need to change the way we think of ourselves. We are not architects. We are not construction workers. We are not framers or masons. We are hammers and drills and saws. We are the tools God chooses to use to build his church. There was a book I read in my counseling ministry called Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands, and he uses that illustration. We are the tools, and some of us feel like we're very rusty tools, and we're the off-brand tools. Well, let me explain something to you. A master craftsman knows how to use a rusty tool as well as a brand new tool. It's not about the tool, it's about the craftsman. And so do not get discouraged when you look at yourself and say, I've got rust spots on me. Trust what the Lord can do with you in his hands. Now as we consider this, we have to recognize this important truth, Jesus Christ will build His church, which means the church is going to grow. The word growth in the New Testament letters, especially Paul's letters, is used not in numerical growth. There is an element in which the church will grow numerically because the gates of hell will not prevail against it. But it's specifically dealing with spiritual growth, the depth of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, that we will grow into the fullness of the knowledge of the stature of Jesus. That's talking about spiritual growth. Now, we want more and more people to know that. And so we proclaim the truth, and we give the gospel, and we evangelize, and we do discipleship, and we do children's church, and we do Awana, and we do Wednesday night Bible study, and we do Thursday morning men's Bible study, and Wednesday morning women's Bible study, and Tuesday night women's Bible study. Why? We want you to know Jesus. Here's an application to that. If Jesus Christ builds His church, If he builds the church universal and the church local, who gets to decide how big the church is? Jesus Christ. And so we don't get to walk around and say, it's just too big in here. There's too many people. I don't like this. It's getting too big. I like a small church. And look, I think there's some benefit in having a small church. The Word of God is being proclaimed, and God is building His church. We are not the ones to quench the Spirit. So that means we have to build a bigger building, and we have no intention of being a mega church, but we're going to build a bigger building to glorify Christ so that more people in Trumbull County will be in heaven because we were faithful to proclaim His name. So we don't get to say, well, it's just getting too big. I don't know all these people. Well, guess what? Christ is building His church. And you're going to know these people for eternity. Start getting to know them now. And let's work together with joy and excitement and urgency. There's an urgency now. There's an urgency. And we need to see this, how important it is that we worship Christ properly. So the purpose of the church is to glorify God. I want to begin with two texts. We will be here just very quickly. First text is 1 Corinthians 10.31, where Paul is bringing application to what he has been teaching the Corinthians on rightly using your conscience. And he says, whether you're eating, or you're drinking, and then he puts this little tag on there. Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. This verse is what moved the writers of the Westminster Confession of Faith to begin their catechism. And the first question is this, what is the chief end of man? What's the chief goal of man? And the answer is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. If you're a John Piper fan, he's changed that just a little bit where he says to glorify God by enjoying him forever. Either way, the point is we glorify God in everything that we do. That word glory speaks of that which honors God to the highest degree in our life, which means we're careful with what we do. When it comes to church, we're exceedingly careful with what we do. Because we want to glorify Jesus here. We want to lift high his name. We want to exalt his person in the world. And there are ways to do that. But he's given us command suits, we wanna follow those. I wanna now take you to John chapter four, the woman at the well. Here's one of these texts that I actually used in my response in seminary to show that church is not for the unbeliever. Well, there's a place for them, churches for Christians. Jesus is talking to this woman at the well, and he tells her, we, the Jews, know whom we worship. You don't know who you worship, and you're doing it the wrong way. See, God gave very clear prescriptions in the Old Testament how you worship God. Well, the Samaritans said, eh, we'll do it our way. They wanted to know why God wasn't pleased with their worship. And Jesus is very clear. If he doesn't tell her the truth, he doesn't love her. If he doesn't tell her the truth, she can't be saved. to worship God the right way. And he tells her that true worshipers in John 4, 23 and 24, true worshipers will worship the father. How? In spirit and in truth. Now listen to what he says in verse 24. For the father is seeking such to worship him. Let's talk about that for a little bit, because sometimes we talk about worshiping God in spirit and truth, and we don't understand what that means. Well truth, that which is known to be real. It speaks of doing that which conforms to the word of God. We have a conviction here at Calvary that what we do as far as our worship goes conforms to the word of God. We want to make sure that what we're doing honors God and the way you guarantee that is you take God's word and you repeat it back to him. and you do what He's called you to do. And some people look at that and they say, that's boring. Well, the new things. Well, there's a place for some new. But the principle is, is it found in God's Word? I just preached on Wednesday night, Psalm 96. Sing to the Lord a new song. You know, we need new songs in the church. You know, Holy Forever is a fairly new song. I'm glad we have that song. It's a wonderful song about God's character. We need young men and young women to write new stuff that honors God. There's a lot of new stuff being written that does not honor God. It's all about man. Oh, you make me feel so good. Listen, worship certainly has an emotional element, but the purpose of worship is not about you. And our younger generation need to get their eyes off of themselves. And they will find that all of these emotional troubles they have, this selfish absorption with themselves, will lead to a lot of healing in a lot of areas. When you put Christ first, he brings blessing. And so we have to conform to the truth. Second, we have to worship God in spirit. And that means you worship God from the heart. What you look like on the outside, that's what men see. God doesn't look there. Remember when Samuel went to anoint the new king of Israel? And he saw Eliab, who was strong and healthy and handsome. And he said, surely this is the new king. And God said, no, I've rejected him. Don't look at the outward appearance. I look at the inward appearance. And he has to go all the way out to the pasture to see this short, scrawny, red-haired kid. with sheep. And that was the king. We don't look at that. God does. He didn't choose the oldest, he chose the youngest. And David is one of the most holy men in all of scripture. He is a man after God's own heart. So the motivation and the desire in a man's worship is pure from his heart. And because Jesus is the head of His church, He gives the commands and we follow them. And so the most important command you can follow this morning is to be saved. Know Jesus. If you are here this morning and you have not confessed that you are a sinner, that you on your own cannot get to heaven, that you even in part can get yourself to heaven, If you think that Jesus has done most of the work and you have to do a little bit more of the work, you misunderstand salvation. Salvation is all of God. He offers it to you as a gift and you receive that gift in faith in Jesus Christ. That's the first call for us this morning. Know Jesus. And if you are here this morning and you're not sure that describes you, then you need to be praying that God makes me stop talking a little bit faster this morning so you can find me and we can get you worked out so you know Jesus. We're going to walk through four commands that make a New Testament church this morning. Four. I had many more, but I know myself and I'm not going to get through more than four. I might not even get through four. But if you're here this morning and you're not sure what to look for in a New Testament church, You're not settled that Calvary is your place and you're still looking for different churches. These are the most important marks to look for in a local church because these are the commands that God gives what a church looks like. Let's begin in Galatians chapter one. And the first central tenant of a New Testament church is that the word of God is central to everything that is done. If we don't start with the Word of God, we're going to go off into all sorts of other little tangents. Emotions are going to take over. Our imagination is going to take over. We're going to start making deals with the world. And we're going to miss what God has for us. So the Word of God has to be central. Look at Galatians 1, verses 8 and 9. I mean, this is after Paul gives his typical grace to you, and we're thankful for the Lord who's given himself for our sins. And then he turns in verse 6. I'm shocked! Paul went to Galatia and he preached the gospel. By the way, this Galatian church is the same church that we're looking at in Acts right now in Acts chapter 13 and 14. That's the Galatian church. And these men are thrilled that they get to be saved. And then in a few short years later, Paul's writing a letter rebuking them because they've wandered away from the truth of the gospel. And Paul says in Galatians 1.8, Even myself, Barnabas, Silas, Peter, if we preach a different gospel, if an angel were to come down from heaven and just shock you and bring you to this awe of his appearance, and they preach a different gospel than what we preached to you at the beginning, they are to be accursed. Now, these are strong words. You think about what it means to be accursed. It doesn't, it speaks of a curse, but not like a swearing word. You know, we think of, you know, some people use bad language, we say accursed. That's not the idea with the word accursed. The idea is to be cursed from God. Anathema is the word here, anathema. to be cursed from God, that which is rejected because it's hated. And one key point I want to make this morning, God hates false worship. God hates it. We must be diligent as a church. This is the primary job of a pastor and elder is to ensure our worship is pure, but it still is on you, the congregation. If you see things and you're worried about what you're seeing and say, pastor, elders, is this worship God honoring? Is this true worship or are we wandering into the realm of false worship? We need to be serious about this because God hates false worship. He desires, he is seeking after true worshipers. Not that God is lacking something. It's a metaphor that Jesus uses that God is after true worshipers. And that's what our standard needs to be. The main hope for a Jew was to have God's face shine on them. In Numbers 6, 24-27, the Lord bless you and keep you and make His face to shine upon you. The inverse of that? The Lord curse you and cast you away and forget you. Look at that and we think how horrifying. So we worship Jesus Christ. We do it according to his word. We're careful about the songs we sing. We're careful about how we proclaim the word of God. We're careful about who does it. We're careful about when it's done. We think through all of these things. because these are the applications of keeping the word central. Second, so we have the negative imperative, don't preach another gospel. Look at the positive imperative in 1 Corinthians 1.18, where Paul writes, the cross, the preaching of the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved, it is a power of God. We have to deal with the fact that the gospel is the power of God. Now, there's a paradox here. Because when the world hears the message of the gospel, they say, that's foolishness. And the Greek word here means a wildly mistaken or unfounded opinion or idea. We would say, that guy's crazy. And when the world hears the message of the power of the cross, they go, that's ridiculous. How does a dead man save anybody? And they just miss the point. But here's the paradox. For the world, that which they think saves them is absolute foolishness in the eyes of God. I don't know how it's all going to work. I know that there are illustrations given in the Bible of standing before God on the last day. But Jesus makes it clear there will be some who will stand before Him thinking that they absolutely are getting in. And He says, depart from Me. I don't know who you are. And one of the reasons is because they are doing life. their way. They'll take a practical, pragmatic, easy, worldly way and say, look how much this works. Look at all the people that are around here. This is why numbers are never the right metric to use for blessing. There's better metrics to use. Or second, they will say, look at how much money we have. Wealth is very rarely a wise metric to use for God's blessing. I believe in America, our wealth is a curse more than it's a blessing because it prevents many people from coming to know Jesus. What did Jesus say about the wise young ruler? It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a sewing needle than for a rich man to go into heaven. And the disciples go, what? Then who can be saved? Because they thought wealth meant blessing. Sometimes wealth is a curse. And look around at our country. I don't need God. I've got money in the bank. I've got a good job. I've got an education. I've got a good family. All of that gone. The moment the Trump sounds. And so we have to have the right metrics. We emphasize preaching because it's the power of God. God does this work. Every once in a while, I just have to sit in my chair and confess, God, you did this. I couldn't do any of this. I'm amazed at what God is doing in our church right now. Amazed. You know, before this series, I was not wringing my hands, but I was concerned about some things I was seeing and hearing, and preaching these tenets of truth. And all of a sudden, the Lord says, hey, look at what you couldn't see. There's a blessing here that you had no idea I was doing. I just, I'm amazed. God builds His church. Now, He puts urgency and concern in the hearts of the pastors and elders, that we would oversee you well. But then we have to just sit back and confess, wow, God, you're amazing. I couldn't do that. I couldn't see that. I didn't know that. And yet you are working the whole time to bring all of this to pass. And so we have to confess the preaching of the word of God is the power of God. Second, the practice of the ordinances of the church must be consistent. Matthew 28, 19, go therefore into all the world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Baptism is an ordinance of the church. Now, there's a disagreement as to the number of ordinances, or some would use the word sacraments, in the local church. Some go as high as seven, some say five, but everybody says at least two. Well, why is there universal agreement about these two? Well, because these two are explicitly commanded by Jesus. Baptism is commanded by Jesus to go and make disciples and baptize them. And the idea here is to instruct them in the ways of the teaching of Jesus. And then when they come to understand and believe, you give the sign of baptism of dipping them in water, which shows the death of Jesus and bringing them back out. It's a momentary dipping. Not a long dipping, a momentary dipping. Very clear about that. Some people don't like going to water. I get it. And you come back up and it shows a resurrection. Well, why is it a momentary dipping? Because Jesus' death was momentary. It was momentary, and his resurrection came right after. We're not waiting for Christ to rise still. He's been alive for 2,000 years. And we serve a risen savior. Now, baptism is for Christians, not just anyone. There are some out there who believe that you have to be baptized to be saved. And so they'll baptize anyone and everyone. But that is clear, is clear in Matthew and in Acts that baptism is for believers. About five years ago, we took a trip to the Dominican Republic. Pastor Chris and I were there together. And at the end of our week, we did a baptismal service for those who wanted to get baptized. And there were a couple of young men that we were really preaching hard at. And they decided they wanted to get baptized. They made no confession of faith. And so right there in the water, they jump in. Hey, I'll be baptized. Chris and I were like, I don't think they understand. And we asked them, have you confessed Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? No. Well, then you can't be baptized. And so right there in the water, we went right after him again. Know Jesus Christ. Believe on him and you can be saved and be baptized. No, thank you. Guess what? He didn't get baptized. I don't know what happened. We left after that week. But we left an impression upon that young man. Going into the water without Jesus, you're just getting wet. It means nothing. You must know Jesus. That's the most important part of this. The second ordinance is that of the Lord's Supper in First Corinthians 11, 23 through 26. We will practice this next Sunday. And Paul writes very clearly this is not from him. I received from the Lord that which I also deliver to you. And it goes back to when Jesus on the night he was betrayed, broke bread. And he tells his disciples, this is the new covenant. This cup is a new covenant of my blood. Now let's understand that word new covenant, because it speaks of a change, so to speak, a new way of relating to God. It's not under the old covenant anymore. There's a new administration of grace, and it's all through Jesus Christ. It's always been through faith. The Jews were saved by faith. They misunderstood the purpose of the law. And so they wanted to earn their salvation. And that's why so many of them ended in disbelief. It's why you can see a man like Moses leave Egypt and the comforts of everything he had and be at peace in the desert for 40 years. He was so at peace in the desert for 40 years, when God called him to go back to Egypt, he pitched a fit. And God reminded him, you're just an instrument in my hands, Moses. I made your mouth. I'll speak for you. And Moses believed God. And through the leadership of Moses, God led the people out of Egypt through the wilderness for 40 years. Right to the doorstep of the promised land. It's by faith. that Joshua could possess the land because there were times where he looked and he said, we can't do this. And God said, I got it. And he dropped fireballs from heaven to burn up the enemies. And he stopped the river to let them cross. And he confused the enemies. David. Great, great man with great sin. Who is greatly forgiven. Because he had faith in God. The new covenant doesn't change the method of salvation or the means of salvation. It simply reveals that Jesus Christ is the Messiah and that he has shed his blood for our sin. And all of the Old Testament saints are still saved by the blood of Jesus. And it was God who just put off the wrath for a few moments And then on Christ, he poured it out for those who had come before, for those who would come after. And Jesus Christ secures a salvation of Adam all the way to the last believer. That's the new covenant, and we know it's in Jesus Christ. And Paul says, as often as you remember this bread, which signifies Christ's broken body on the cross for you. And drink this cup, which signifies his blood, which washes you of your sin. You proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. You make openly known the good news of Jesus Christ that is through Jesus Christ alone you have salvation. The church's one message is that Jesus Christ saves. I get a lot of pressure from some people. Why don't you talk more about election stuff and political stuff during COVID? Why don't you talk about all the lies going on? I've got one message, people, and it's Jesus Christ will save you. That's the message you need to know. Because in four years, we're doing all this over again. But nothing will have changed about your soul. Jesus Christ saves it. That's why we preach what we preach. And so while we stand here and we say, yes, we have a responsibility on Tuesday to go and vote, you stand as a Christian and go, Lord Jesus, come quickly. But I'm at peace. I know how this ends. I know how this all works out in the end. I don't understand all the details, but I know my Redeemer. I know he lives. I know he's returning. And I can sleep peacefully at night. Third, the presence. of the offices of the church. There's two of them. Elder, pastor, deacon. Now you say those three terms there. Yes, the terms elder, pastor, bishop are interchangeable. They have the same task. It's that of teaching and oversight. So elders, pastors, bishops, if you want to use that term, they're overseers. They're teachers. They're instructors. Deacons are ministers, they're servants. Turn to 1 Timothy chapter 3. And as I told one of the men at the Bible study on Thursday, I put in my notes, keep going, because my tendency is to get stuck. So we're going to just keep going through this. But I encourage you to read through 1 Timothy 3, 1 through 13, as you think about the qualifications for both elders and deacons. They are very similar. But listen to what Paul says, speaking for God under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This is a faithful saying. If a man desires, if he seeks to attain a good position of bishop, elder, pastor, he desires a good work. But not everyone who desires it is qualified. Not everyone who desires it is qualified. Look at the first qualification for an elder, bishop, pastor. Blameless. This means that your testimony is clean. You're not perfect. I mean, at some point, someone's going to dig something up on you. Talk to your parents, talk to your siblings, talk to your kids. Oh yeah, I remember one day. Look, it's not that you're perfect, but you have moral excellence. The moment that a man has an affair on his wife, he's disqualified. The moment that a man cannot handle money with trust and without reproach, he's disqualified. The moment that a man uses the position for his own personal game, he's disqualified. The moment that a man can't be trusted to speak the truth, he's disqualified. And many of us, myself included, have men who have crushed us because we trusted them. And in the end, they were not trustworthy. They were not qualified or they were qualified and they disqualified themselves. So this is not perfection. This is blameless, moral excellence. Now look at the second qualification. This is interesting. We live in a time where we have to define our terms. He is the husband of one wife. Here's the emphasis on that. He's a man married to a woman. That's God's design. Men marry women. I don't understand how we are so morally confused on that issue. Even nature itself speaks of the fact that males and females procreate, and that's the order of design. But I want to draw your attention to something even more profound for the church. Bishops, elders and pastors are men. That's God's design. That's not Paul's design. That's not Peter's design. That's not John's design. That's certainly not my design. That's God's design. This is His word. And some people go and say, well, that's just a cultural thing. No, it's not. Because Paul will go to the order of creation. Christ is the head of the church. The man is the head of the wife. Not that the wife has to Just knuckle under. There should be a mutual love there, men. You should love your wife and lead her with such care and compassion that she doesn't even have to question whether or not she'll submit to you. Because he trusts you so much. That's the idea of headship here. But men, we have been given the task of leadership. It is our job. to oversee. God has, in the image that is given in Acts that we just read, God has granted to some men to oversee his church until he returns, and he will call us to account when he returns. And elders, that should cause us a little bit of trembling. There's some holy fear that we should have. It motivates us to do our job well. I don't know how much we should fear for churches in America, because I don't know all of them, but I do know this. You should fear for the typical evangelical pastor who plays fast and loose with the Word of God, because he is going to be brought to account And when he stands before Jesus, he's going to recognize the weight of his calling. I will confess to you, I don't understand the full weight of my calling right at this moment. I understand it's great. None of us will understand the weight of that calling until we stand before the King of Kings. But we take it seriously. So we're men. Now, a few years ago, we had a group of people come to Calvary. There was another church. There was a church split. the church they came from not only had female pastors and female elders, some of these women served as elders. And when they inquired about Calvary, how we did things, and whether or not, you know, how things operate as far as government goes, and if they were going to join the church, they weren't really sure. And I took the opportunity to be very open and honest with them. I said, we take 1 Timothy chapter 3 very seriously, and we take it literally. Which means, You, my friend, cannot be an elder if you're a woman. And I had no idea how they were going to respond. I didn't know if they were going to put their fist. What do you mean? These women, you know what the response was? Thank goodness. Because women who have served in that responsibility understand how important it is for men to lead. They understand the importance of God's design. So men, you need to step up. First, in your own home. Second, here in the church, as you oversee God's people. Now, not everyone here oversees, but if you desire that, that's a good thing. And we can talk through that. You know, the only skill that the elder and pastor has to have is to be able to teach. It could be like this, and I would trust any one of my elders to stand up here and proclaim the truth. And they all just got a little bit nervous. Hang on. What are you going to do? What's your plans? What are you doing? But here's also the implication. They can teach small groups one-on-one. They know how to instruct you in the word of God. I understand how hard this can be to stand up here and look at all of you. For me, that doesn't bother me anymore. It used to be very intimidating. Now it's just Sunday. But it's sometimes more. Only skill that's given. We could say so much more about this. I want to end with that section with saying that an elder should not be a novice. Literally, he should not be a sapling a tree that's easily to be rooted up He needs to have some skin in the game he needs to be tempted and tried he needs to have some scars and Their purpose is not teaching, it's serving, it's ministering, it's taking important work that should be done away from pastors, elders and bishops so that it frees them with prayer and preaching and teaching and overseeing. And the deacons do that work. The function of the church in taking care of the building, that's important. I'm glad I have men. I don't have to really worry about that too much. I might give the instruction and wait for them to do it, but they do it. Keeping the parking lot clear of snow. I don't have to ever worry about that. We have men who take care of that. Going and helping a widow or a single mom with a car that breaks down. Our deacons are good about those things. You don't always hear about them. They take place. It happens. That's the role of a deacon. I want to speak for a moment to the wives of our elders, our deacons. I want to speak a moment to the wives of the men who desire this position. If you look at verse 11 in 1 Timothy 3, likewise, in the same way, women, you must be reverent, not slanderers. Meaning, you're not allowed to be a gossip. You're not to cut people down. You yourself, women, you're to be self-controlled, and you are to be faithful. Let me put it to you in very simple terms. Women, you can disqualify your husband from a good work. I've sat on a search committee at a different church where we were looking at bringing someone in, and as we got to know that man's wife, we said, no way. No way. She will cause way more problems than she would help us solve. There's nothing wrong women with being strong willed and opinionated at the proper time. But speaking your mind and you don't care who hears it. You don't care who you offend. That is not honoring and glorifying to God because we put others first. We consider others is better than ourselves. And as we consider our husbands and the position that they desire, that God may have called them to, you need to see how important your character is in this. So I understand you don't always agree with everything that happens in life and in this church. Be reverent, be self-controlled, glorify God in all that you do, and honor your husband. Finally, I will just say a few words. We are over our time, but just say a few words on the fourth one, which is church discipline. It's the hardest one, I think, for a lot of churches. You can go to a church, and you can see they do all these other things very well, and then it comes to church discipline, and you go, well. Church discipline is not commanded by Paul or Peter. Church discipline is coming straight from the mouth of Jesus Christ, your King, who desires this place to be pure, And the great fear of every one of your pastors and elders is that we have to confront someone who is living in sin, who will not change, and discipline them. And declare to the church they're acting like an unbeliever. No one here wants to do that. I've been in churches where church discipline hasn't been practiced quick enough and it causes a cancer. And it festers and it grows. And a really good church A situation went for 10 years, 10 years, because they were doing their absolute best to lead people to repentance. And what did they do? They caused a great division in the church, so that when they were disciplined, there was a good portion of the church that picked sides. And this person went to that church, and some people followed them. And that person went to this church, and this person followed them. And we felt that. We're not going to rush to discipline anyone because sometimes these problems, people get saved and they've got problems of decades and they're working through it. So I don't see where Jesus says you have to, after two days, go to the next step. But once you see that they are no longer responding to you, it's time to go to the church. It's time to help them see how serious their sin is. It's time to put them on trial. Are you a Christian? If you honor the name of Christ, your sin must change. You must repent. Must. Not an option. It's a mark of a church. A New Testament church. You don't have to like it. I don't like that one. I don't get to not do it. We practice that here since my time. Not often. We've had to practice it. We will continue to practice it. As much as we hate it. Because we love Jesus Christ so much more. These are the standards of the Church. This is the purpose of the Church. This is how we are true worshipers that God is seeking. The Word of God is central. The ordinances are regular. There's offices of deacons and elders and they practice their position well and we do church discipline. Next week we'll talk about how we all work together to bring about the purpose of the church of glorifying God in practical ways. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this morning and Lord, there's just so much here. And I know there are people in different places and different walks, places of their walk of faith. And so I ask that you would send forth your word and bring an obedience in your people. You know where we all are. You know where we need to grow. You know where we are weak. You know where we are strong. You know where we are concerned. You know that there are some here who are just hurting from a past church issue. Would you remind us that the local church fails, but the universal church does not? Would you remind us that pastors and elders, we are not perfect, and we make foolish decisions when we do not consult you? And even when we seek to honor you, we still, we're not perfect. But Christ never fails. And one day we will see you in your glory. And while we are disappointed with men, and we're disappointed with decisions, when we see you, it will be all worth it. Give us this perspective. Give us this urgency. Give us this hope that we would come every Sunday morning and sing as an expression of our love and serve as an expression of our thankfulness and fellowship as an expression of our need for each other and hear your word as an expression of our need for you. It is in Jesus'