I'd like to repeat through our books. Handy, however, turn to Article 28 of the Belgian Confession. Article 28, you can find on page 865. Page 865. We're continuing forward the series in the Belgian Confession. Article 28 regarding the obligations of church members. Article 28, the bottom of page 865. a summary confession of our faith. It says, we believe that since this holy assembly and congregation is the gathering of those who are saved and there is no salvation apart from it, no one ought to withdraw from it content to be by himself regardless of his status or condition. But all people are obliged to join and unite with it, that is, with the Church, keeping the unity of the Church by submitting to its instruction and discipline, by bending their necks under the yoke of Jesus Christ, and by serving to build one another up according to the gifts God has given them as members of each other in the same body. And to preserve this unity more effectively, it is the duty of all believers, according to God's word, to separate themselves from those who do not belong to the church in order to join this assembly wherever God has established it, even if civil authorities and royal decrees forbid and death and physical punishments result. And so all who withdraw from the church or do not join it act contrary to God's word. understanding the nature of the Christian church. I invite you to turn your Bibles down to Colossians. In the New Testament, the book of Colossians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Colossians 3 at verse 1. Give your attention to God, where you were. Colossians 3, verse 1. You find page 984 in the Bible that's provided for you. Colossians 3, verse 1. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above. Where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God, set your minds on the things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also glory. Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil, desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these, the wrath of God is coming. In these, you too once walked when you were living in them, but now you must put them all away, anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices, and you have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here, there is not greed to Jews, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarians, sitting enslaved, free, but Christ is all, and in all, Put on, then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another, and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you. All these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony, and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body, and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. So far from God's holy word. Dear congregation, Lord Jesus Christ, what makes us so resistant to commands and to obligations placed on us from outside? It's sin, right, that makes us rebels. Maybe you were the person at one time in your life who if someone said you weren't Whatever I'm told not to do, it's like the red button in the cartoon. I have to push that button. I have to know. I have to touch it. Someone maybe could have told you, I command you. You're obligated to eat that delicious ice cream sundae. And you're like, I would rather choke than eat this delicious ice cream sundae for 364 days a year. I love ice cream. It's the best. Oh, I love it. But because I command it, it tastes like grout in my mouth. You have to go to this awesome water park or whatever. Go down the best water slides. I'm dying to do that. But as soon as someone says it's an obligation, as soon as they told me to do it, I'd rather freeze in a dark basement than have fun out in the sun. This is pride. This is the nature of pride, the rebel heart, selfish idolatry that says, I do what I want. And I'm free and beholden to no one. I do life my way. I do my will and my pleasure on my time. This is the rebel heart. But Christians must put away rebel attitudes, rebel talk, proud and selfish attitudes. We're meant to adopt the spirit of Christ. Conformity to Jesus is to be a part of the body, of course. We learn to pray, thy will, not my will, be done. We learn to be like Jesus rather than like the world in the multiple ways that we were reading in Colossians. So to be Christian is to submit to Christ and come to fellowship with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to carry our cross after him, to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. That is Christian. Are you one? But one way that would be very clear is to test ourselves about how we feel, how we relate to our connection to God's church. The Word of God plainly teaches Jesus gives life and salvation to his holy church body. This is where the life of the head flows. This is the body that the head directs. He gives life and salvation to his holy church body. And so every true believer, should join with and maintain meaningful membership with Christ's holy church. We have to be a part of it. And we want to contrast what's inside and what's outside, and then we want to talk about meaningful membership and how to maintain meaningful membership, the triple M's. Colossians 3 is a great way to see the obvious contrast between the church and the world. In the eyes of the apostle, is spiritual death. To be outside of the body is dead and dark and void of Christ and the beauties of Christ and the peace and the thankfulness of Christ. And so he has that obvious sort of challenge right off the start. If you've been raised with Christ, and you have, you Colossians, when you believed, you changed. And you came in, and you became one body, and you became a part of the work of God. And now it's counted as if you are raised with Jesus. Well, that's not something the dead world has. That's something the church has. It's a huge change. It's like you put off worldly clothing, and you've put on a different way of life, very different. Together, you live in a new, holy, And this is something that we must believe and practice. Do our beliefs match the teaching of the apostles? Or do they not? Are we making up our own things, calling it Christianity? The church and the life of the church has a way of showing whether we're making it up as we go or whether we have the apostolic faith. Making it up is not safe. to be inside or outside the body is life or death, according to the apostles. We don't want to be unique and independent in this way. We want to be apostolic and unified. So the summary Bible logic of our confession, it really helps correct our vision, maybe correct our delusion about the church. Lesson 27 in Belgian Confession, Article 27, it has to do with this amazing work of God. Jesus, in all his power and authority, seated at God's right hand, what is he determined to do? Well, he told his apostle, I'm going to build my church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it. And in this hostile world where nothing grows, causes his church to be planted and rooted and to be fruitful and thriving. So the church made up of saved persons is the special work of God that not even the power of the devil and other spiritual powers, not even the power of death and hell, can stop it from growing. That's our confession faith. And we stand in awe of what God can do. If it were just us alone, we'd be like lambs to the slaughter. But with Jesus, we have a shepherd. We have life. It's a wonder that the church even exists. God makes life spring up where there was death. He makes people who were dead in their hearts to be brokenhearted, now alive in Jesus. And I want to be a part of it. That's the urgent attitude. So far in our confession, the urgent attitude is, this is amazing. God creates this church and pours out his blessings in it. I want to be a part of his holy nation. I want to be a part of the gathering of his flock. I want to be adopted into his family and seated at his table and washed with his blood. If you desire to be counted as a child of God, you will join his church and be a part of his family seated at his table. If you hunger and thirst, you will you will bond yourself to the true vine and be a part of his church and start a new life with him. And Colossians couldn't be any clearer on this mentality. Dwell together in peace. It says in verse 15, the word of Christ is going to dwell in us, and we're going to put on love, and we're going to live together in peace and harmony because we were called to be a part of it, into this one body. That's very special. So the biblical pictures on this point, they are real. And skewing them and changing them is to our detriment. What do you call it if a hand is cut off from the body and laying there? We call that gross. We call that dismembered. The church is a body. And he's the head. And we are described as the parts of that body. We're not to be cut off, but living members of that living body. What do you call it when a tree or a vine has branches, and a branch is cut off? You call it withering, on its way to being dried out, on its way to being burned, according to the parables and according to the teaching of Christ. What do you call it when a child is all alone, and fatherless. You call that child an orphaned child. Jesus said, I will not leave you as orphans. What do you call it when a woman should have a husband and should be a bride but has no husband, right? In the Bible, it's the talk of a widow. The talk is of a widow, someone who has lost their husband, is separated from her husband. Jesus is the groom and the church is his bride. What do you call a sheep alone by itself? Easy prey. You call that sheep helpless, exposed, endangered, not in the flock. So what serious Christian can be content with being dismembered? is okay with the idea of being orphaned, or widowed, or spiritually exposed, and easy prey, and in danger. This shouldn't sit well with us. But that's how the Bible sees those who stand at a distance from Christ's church. And many today are content, or they promote, everyone should do this, which is against the ordinances of God. It's against his commands. It's against his word. Everyone should be independent. Everyone should have their own personal Nobody else can tell me anything about it. This has hurt us. It's hurting the church everywhere. And there's also, of course, in the Bible, no comfort for those who pretend to be halfway. The lukewarm God spits or vomits out of his mouth, the Bible says. But I am very afraid of being halfway in an elevator and halfway sticking out of it when it starts to move. That terrifies me. I watched too much TV as a child. Now I will never think that that's scary. So it's not safe to be out. It's not safe to be one foot in and one foot out. It is only right and safe and fitting in Jesus that we be serious Christians that are bonded to his church. So there's no talk in the Bible of, you know, here today, gone tomorrow in our Christian life. Serious Christians are serious about fruitful life within God. And there's no reason or excuse or label that we can put on that that makes it okay, that makes it safe, that makes it a good idea to be separated from Jesus' body because it's a matter of spiritual life and death according to the apostles, according to Christ. So we really have to humble ourselves and be honest with God and with ourselves. And like we read in Colossians 3, stop lying to each other. Stop lying to each other. Stop lying to ourselves to take on this biblical challenge. If we're distant with the church, then it stands to reason that we are friendly with or close to the world. And unrepentance is the biblical word for those who refuse to obey God and want to go their own way. That's called unrepentance. That's called wandering. That's called heart of disempowerment. God wants us to be connected and alive in his body and to remain distant, outside, and afraid. It's a mark of pride. It's a mark of unspiritual thinking. It's a mark of love. about that thought, you know? I don't arrange my life how I want. I don't like when someone tells me I'm on the hook for anything, when I'm obligated for something. I chose the most odious title I can think of, Mandatory Obligation Church. What church do you go to? I go to Surge Church, or I go to Fusion Church, or I go to Mandatory Obligation Church. I try to pick an ugly title for that purpose. No one wants to say that. No one wants to say it that way. in this culture, right? We don't want that. We have to be honest and think about the message we send in this way. God, here's the arrangement that I offer you. You say, join unreserved with submission to Christ Church. I've got a counteroffer, God. My counteroffer is that I live the spiritual life that I want to live. And I arrange my spiritual deadlines, times, walk, priorities, et cetera, the way I want. And I'll be, we'll call a Christian independent consultant. I'll be personally spiritual and holy for you. but on my own terms. Don't be stupid, God, take the deal. A lot of people want me, you know what I mean? I'm a commodity. Is this the attitude? Is this the interview environment, I guess, the headhunted environment, where we make our own terms and we go back and forth with Him? We need Jesus. We need Him. We need and depend upon God. And the place where we get his life and the place where we feed on Jesus and where we are receiving his grace is in healthy church membership. It's to be a part, not to be dismembered. It's a spiritual problem that we have to strive for. So now, we made this case. We need to come in. But that's not really all we're talking about. That's just a start, isn't it? We want to maintain meaningful, fruitful, living church membership. Every person to be true and fruitful as a unified part of Jesus Christ within his body. So the logic gives us only two options, and only one of them is ever good. First, there's death outside, but life inside the body of Christ. Then, being inside, we don't have the option to switch ourselves off and say, well, now I'm in, and I stop. I coast, I sleep, I recline. life abundantly within the church of Jesus Christ. So we come in and then we become disciples determined to mature, determined to bear fruit. Like it says in Colossians, let the word of Christ dwell in us richly. We want to become rich, potent, disciplined, mature in the word of Jesus. So the church body, then, is where Jesus will equip us and enrich us and change us and fill us. And we will participate and do the same, as it were, for others as well, setting them an example. So when you read Colossians 3, it's sort of a comment. You are obligated. It is mandatory that you feed on the riches of Jesus It is your obligation and mandatory that you look at him in his glory and splendor at God's right hand and live with him and know his power and love and mercy. Are we like, oh, that's what I get? It really makes no sense. We're obligated. It's mandatory that we live richly. It's our duty to be blessed by God and experience his goodness, his forgiveness, his life. as God's chosen people, holy and beloved. It's our responsibility to practice the spiritual fruits that lead to abundant and eternal life, forgiveness and peace and joy, singing that shows the Holy Spirit is rich in my life and in my heart. If you are a Christian, right, our confession talks about how we will guard and keep We will count it as precious. We will be the guardians of it all together. We will prepare with prayer and with thankful hearts to be enriched, to be taught, to be admonished, to proceed forward together in spiritual living and in the teaching that comes from God. Praying and worshiping, singing, discussing, participating in church life, there's 100,000 ways that we can be enriched by God. It'll be my desire, right, that everyone comes awake, comes prepared, comes prayerfully ready to hear the gospel. It's our desire that we would come prepared to share meaningful fellowship, not be strangers with one another. I sat with 50 strangers or 100 strangers, and then I went home. And I was blessed separately. Each of us, our little cup filled separately. That's not the picture of the church. Look at verse 12, right? Put on, then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, bearing with one another. If one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Put on love of all of these, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which, indeed, we're called in one body. Be thankful, and so on, and so on, and so on, right? But there's a point to be made here about who is being addressed, right? The whole body is being addressed. I'd like to talk about the church and the nature of the church, because this is where the Christian life is realized for us. In so much of the New Testament, the Christian life that you're called to, it's only talk. It's only theory. It's only a drawing on paper. pretend, or cherry picking, whatever you want to call it, when we're not a real member of a real church, when we're not really and truly committed to a church body. Without a church, how can I really talk about developing the deep love of which we read in Colossians 3? If I bounce around and if I'm here today and go on tomorrow, as it were, then I can't build the kind of love that becomes rich, that becomes well-founded, expands into every kind of devotion and service to one another. Without a church, I don't even have to like anybody that's hard to like. I can always put away from the sight of those that in some way irritates me or bothers me. A Christian on their own, they can pick and choose. I will go to a place where I feel like the pastures for me are greenest. In a real church body, right, we have to care for one another, work with one another, sacrifice for one another, especially those who are hard to love or very different from me and I don't fully understand them. You know, such a love that has grown and has been developed and has matured will prove, right, that our maturity is growing, that we have understood that God has not called us to do what's easy and convenient. He's called us to be faithful. He's called us even to suffer. He's called us to sacrifice, to serve others. And if we bounce around from one place to another, then our love only can really grow skin deep for the body. And then harmony? There's no harmony or unity with someone that you randomly see. There's only harmony and unity with those that you live with, that you maintain a life with through faith in Jesus Christ. Random acts of kindness promoted in our culture. That's all it is, though. It's random. It's very undependable. Catch as you can. But what body, and I mean what physical body, can afford to live at random? Randomly and selectively, I have teeth. Well, that changes a lot of things for tomorrow if I have no teeth tomorrow. At random, I have only one lung tomorrow, and one lung is missing, and I can't depend upon one. That changes things significantly if this is the kind of body member that we are. But a true and meaningful member of the church will make consistency you know or it will make steadfastness faithfulness fidelity loyalty the foundation of these other fruits right nothing comes from nothing if we're if we're not present to work how within the church. Some of them, all of them really, are far beyond a day's work. They're a lifelong project. And I'm proud of the projects that have taken years to mature, right? We're proud of projects that we have labored for, suffered for, for a long time. You know, as it relates to, you know, random gifts, right? How can we serve each other? How can others come to depend upon us? I think similarly with our bills, right? Just like your electric bills that come at random. It's a monthly thing. Just like your heat bills are not at random. They're a regular thing. Well, also, the church has a life like this. The needs of this church, the needs of our sister congregations, the needs of our plants and planters, our missionaries, the needs of the poor, all these things, they are regular needs. And you have to come to be realistic about the obligations that are good obligations. I'm obligated to feed my children. You know, every day. Can you believe that? You know what I mean? If I don't, they complain, or they're hungry. Unimaginable. We don't think this way about anything. You know, I have a dog or a cat. Oh, we love our pets so much. Not just Lindsay's pet. All of our pets. Mr. Pickles, too. You know, we don't, and we would, Somebody would probably be thrown in prison. You didn't feed your cat for a month. You didn't feed your dog. You were unfaithful to this poor, helpless, beautiful creature. The outrage. We need consistent. life in the body, meaningful membership. Jesus has given us this lifelong pathway. In fact, it extends to eternity in his kingdom. Baptized into his church body, now we must grow spiritually, descentify, make holier together, now develop as a unified body, a team, a whole, in harmony, develop and prosper the mission of the church body. We must be committed and faithful followers. What do you say about a team that's easily shattered? The band broke up. We fought about a song we were writing. The band's broken up. What do you say about a group that's easily dispersed, easily separated? What do you say about those who are easily put off track, easily discouraged, easily angered, easily insulted, distracted by a puffy cloud as it goes by. What kind of work can that body produce? What kind of faith, what kind of life, what kind of joy, what kind of love, what kind of harmony and peace can it build? When I was a child, a splinter could throw off my whole day. Mom, a splinter. And no thought of the work anymore, no thought of whatever project it's done. The sight of one bee in the backyard, all the kids are like, the backyard is dead to me. I'm never going back there again. There's a bee. And that's it. And whatever we were doing, it's over. What kind of church are we, right? We are the church that suffers like our Savior, Jesus Christ, the church that is to endure and is steadfast. always abounding in the work of the Lord, immovable in our commitment to Jesus. Think of the first Corinthians. So let it be no question, right? Let it be no question about me, where I stand. Let it be no question about us, that we're Jesus. Let it be no question that we are his church, and not distant, and not one foot in, one foot out. We are, we're in. We want Christ and Him crucified, and we want to fix our focus on Him. And instead of having it be a question, as it is so often, you know, whether I'm, you know, I don't want to be obligated to anyone, I don't want to be behold to anyone. If we haven't answered that question, then we can't talk about the rest. But we want to be answering a different, a whole different set of questions. Examining ourselves and answering, how can I better serve? How can I increase my fruit for God's glory and for the good of others? That would be my willing obligation. How can we together build a holier life? That would be my duty. That would be my command and my calling with joy. That would be the attitude that shows I have been raised with Christ, and I have a future with Christ, and I'm focused on him. So now we're the mandatory obligated church, the people that must feast on Christ, the people that must the powerful Holy Spirit, and that is our blessing, that is our willing and joyful duty, amen. Father in heaven, we pray that we would come to understanding and to maturity in our faith, so that we leave the elementary teachings of Christ, we leave the status of infant, and the status of child in our understanding to press forward to mature service, to the work and to the weight of adult and mature faith. Lord, we often feel really quick, we pray that you would remind us of your willingness to teach us your ways, to shape us, to fill us with your spirit, Lord, we often feel discouraged. We pray that you would forgive and heal and bless our body. We often, Lord, feel inadequate. We pray that you would remind us that Christ is able to fill and be all in all every need of ours. And as we press forward, Lord, beautify our unity, beautify our harmony together, and make us a body of peace and joy. In Jesus' name, amen.