What a joy it is to be with you all today, to see visitors and guests, former members who are back with work, and a lot of faithful people who gather week in and week out in between. It's been a taste of heaven as we've sung today, as we've prayed together, and as we seek to see God. These are just a few of the privileges of being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ. This morning we're going to talk about why church membership matters. Just to begin with, I want to say this is a subject, church membership, of which there was a time in my life which I thought was neither biblical nor important. What's the big deal of church membership? When I was a young Christian in my early 20s, I didn't think it was worth much time to think about it. But I have since changed my views. I want to start this message this morning by saying that the Bible is filled with cautionary tales of those who sought to do spirituality on their own terms rather than on God's terms. Just think about a few examples. Adam and Eve. It didn't go so well when they thought they would be like God on their own terms. Think about the Tower of Babel. They thought they could reach heaven on their own terms. Think about Korah's rebellion. Korah thought, hey, I can be a priest too, just like Moses. That didn't go so well for him and his followers. Think about Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, who thought they would do spiritual sacrifice in the temple on their own terms. How about the Pharisees who both said, we're children of Abraham. And yet John the Baptist reminded them that the axe is laid low at the root, bear fruit, and keeping repentance. Think about those that John called the children of the devil, who were former church members in the churches that John was writing to. He said, they were of us, but they went out from us to show that they were not of us. And think about as we looked at a few weeks ago at the church at Corinth. When our scripture reading a moment ago, Paul had to remind them that they're members of the body, they need one another. And yet they're taking the Lord's supper in such a reputable manner that some of them are getting sick and some have even have died. as a result of how they were behaving in the body. Like I said, the Bible's filled with cautionary tales of those who try to do spirituality Christianity on their own terms rather than God's terms. And I find that as we talk about contemporary issues facing the church, there are few that get people riled up more than a discussion on church membership. We are, by the way, preaching this morning not primarily because about half of us are not church members, which is just the nature of being a young church plant and a lot of people going back and forth. There's a lot here that I want to encourage to become church members, but also as we continue this Reforming Worship series, this is an issue that's really difficult for a lot of people, like I shared for myself when I was younger. I thought, well, what's the big deal? What does it mean to be part of the church? And I think in this day and age too, we'll just pop in every now and then, get kind of our spiritual download, and then we'll go back, do our own thing. We love to be independent. We love to not be committed to anybody. Right? I mean, even people, most people are living together as young people rather than getting married. Or they do it backwards and they live together first, then they get pregnant, then they buy a house, and then they get married. You know, everything is backwards. We live in a very non-committal age. So what does it mean to be the body of Christ. What does it mean to be a member of his church? That's what we're going to look at this morning. Someone sent me a message a few months ago and asked if we would baptize their kids. And I said that we will only baptize those that are members of the church. I got this long tirade of text messages about how bad and unbiblical church membership, show me where church, and on and on and on and on. So needless to say, we didn't baptize their kids or anything like that. So it dawned on me it might be good to have a resource in our church for why church membership matters. That's what actually kind of cued this off in my thinking of stuff that we need to talk about as a young church. But I do hope that if you're not a church member this morning, that you would find that it's important to become a church member somewhere. Whether here or somewhere else, it's important to be a church member. So this morning, we are going to see that church membership matters because One, there's no salvation outside of Christ's church. Two, Jesus shepherds his church through local church leaders. You'll get these again so you don't have to write them down yet. Three, we'll see that Christians have a duty of care in the local church as members of one body. And then four, we'll see that Jesus gives the church keys to determine its membership. And we'll save the most controversial one for last. But then after that, I'm going to argue that local church membership is the logical implication of the biblical data that we will study. And then I'm going to argue four more things. I'll argue that if a local church can exercise excommunication, it can certainly exercise incommunication. I'm going to argue that local church membership is not divorced from universal church membership in the New Testament. That's what you'll hear people say, well, I'm a member of the universal church. I don't need to be a member of a local church, right? We're going to deal with that. Three, local church membership enables elders to identify the flock of God that they are responsible to shepherd. And it's also a Christian's commitment to be led by particular leaders and to serve particular people. And then fourth, I'll argue that if you are not a member of any local church, then you have little basis for the assurance of your salvation. So at the end of each of these two sections, we'll save the most controversial for last. So let's dive in then. Why church membership matters. First, church membership matters, number one, because there is no salvation outside of Christ's church. There is no salvation outside of Christ's church. Now this statement has been abused in church history. Just to give one example, the Roman Catholic Church has argued there's no salvation outside of the Roman Catholic Church. which is a gross error, right? And I'm not arguing this morning that there's no salvation outside of the Presbyterian church. I'm not arguing that. I'm simply saying there is no salvation outside of Christ's church, okay? Here we're dealing with the universal church. There is, in other words, one people that Jesus has come to save one people. It will be a people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. The text I want to draw from this morning is John 10. John 10, the great Good Shepherd passage. And in John 10, Jesus tells us that he came to save one flock. For example, in John 10, 9, he says, I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out in fine pasture. Down in verse 11, he says, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. And then down in verse 14, he says, I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me. Just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. and I have other sheep that are not of this fold, I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice, so there will be one flock and one shepherd." Jesus' work as mediator, as our redeemer, is to save one people, his flock. And notice at the end where he talked about in verse 16, he's also pointing forward to other sheep in the future that will be saved. But they're not other sheep, so that there's like the African church, and then there's the South American church, and then there's the Australian church. They're one church, one flock, and one shepherd. There's no other categories of saved people in the Bible than this one flock that this one shepherd will lay his life down for. Jesus came to save one flock. Just to press this point then a little bit further as we move through John 10, Jesus also shows us that there is no salvation outside of his flock. There's no salvation outside of his flock. All roads do not lead to Rome in the sense. So the Jews are debating with Jesus. They're debating, they don't believe what he's saying. And we see down in chapter 10, verse 25, where John writes, Jesus answered them, I told you, and you do not believe the works that I do in my father's name, bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. So Jesus is talking about unbelievers here and saying, you are not among my sheep. That's why you don't believe. And then verse 27, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand. So Jesus is talking in terms of two categories, those that will perish and those that will have eternal life. There's not a third category between these two groups. And if you're not convinced, consider John's wider context. For example, John 3.16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already. because he is not believed in the name of the only Son of God. So why does church membership matter? It matters because there is no salvation outside of Christ's church. You're either a member of Christ's church or you're not. There's not a third middle ground. You're either Jesus's sheep who will be given eternal life because of Christ's mediatorial work, because you believe in his name, or you will perish. Those are the two categories. That's the principal reason, that's why I'm beginning with it, that church membership matters, because there's no salvation outside of Christ's church. Let's move to the second reason that church membership matters. Number two, Jesus shepherds his church through local church leaders. Jesus shepherds his church through local church leaders. I'm going to draw on three texts in this section. I'm going to draw on 1 Peter 5, Acts 20, and Hebrews 13. 1 Peter 5, Acts 20, and Hebrews 13. And if you want to just listen, I can give you the references afterwards as well, because by nature of a theological message, we'll be moving around to a few places. So why does church membership matter? It's because Jesus shepherds his church through local church leaders. In 1 Peter 5, it's a very important letter in the New Testament. And particularly as we think about church leadership, it's very important because in chapter 5, Peter gives some very important instruction about the character of Christ's leaders. of his church. We see in 1 Peter 5 that Jesus calls local church elders to care for his flock. So as it were, Jesus has hired some people to manage his people. Okay? So Peter says in 1 Peter 5, 1, So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed, shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge, but by being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another. For God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. This is a very important text for understanding the nature of Christian leadership. I'm sure all of us have seen examples where this has not happened. Of course, sometimes that's the main reason people don't want to become members, because they've seen bad examples, and there certainly are those cases. But we see here, as Peter's exhorting these elders of this church that they are in fact under-shepherds of the Chief Shepherd of Jesus Christ. And they have an important duty of care to the flock. They're to be examples. They're to not be domineering. And their chief hope is when Jesus appears, they will receive the unfading crown of glory. And likewise, there's instructions for those who are younger to be subject to the elders. I know that when I was a young man, I gave my pastors a pretty hard time, especially when I got into theology and I thought I knew a lot of things. I gave them a lot of grief. And there's an admonishment to be subject, to listen to your elders. You guys don't give me too hard of a time though, so I praise God for that. We also see as Jesus shepherds from his throne, as he shepherds his people through under shepherds, that these local church elders are called to protect the flock. Jesus knows, He knows better than any of us, the devil who seeks our ruin. And He has given church leaders to protect the flock from wolves. One of the most important passages in the New Testament for understanding what's at stake is Paul's last words to the Ephesian elders on the island of Miletus. Paul is making his rounds on his missionary journeys. He's on the island of Miletus and he calls the Ephesian elders to come down and meet with him. And in that farewell address, knowing that he's not going to see them again, He gives his last will and testament to them. He declares how he's innocent of their blood because he's declared the whole counsel of God to them. And then he's like, like in a sprint, he's handing off the baton to these elders. And he says, be careful, pay attention for fierce wolves are going to come in among the flock. In Acts 20, he says in verse 28, pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things. Here's Paul saying churches are going to be screwed up right here. And from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore, be alert, remembering that for three years, I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears." What happens to a sheep that's on its own? It's not a pretty picture, is it? No, there are wolves out there. There's lions out there. It's interesting how often the Bible points to shepherds to give us an understanding of what it is to be his people. Think of David slaying beasts to protect the sheep. That's just a shadow image of what Christ is doing. And I don't really understand why, because we're pretty fallible people. You guys know me, I'm a pretty fallible guy. But, and I know other ministers, they're fallible guys too, but in God's providence, he has called fallible ordinary men to protect his church. And if you're not a member of a church, you are opening yourself up to be devoured. Church membership matters because Jesus shepherds his church through local church elders. One last text again, just to reiterate this point, this is like the not cool thing to say in the 21st century Western world, but Jesus actually calls church members to obey their local leaders, to submit to them. In Hebrews 13, 17, the writer says, obey your leaders and submit to them. We have this shepherding imagery there again. The ideal picture of the church, which is very hard to get to in a fallen world, is where leaders are ruling the church, shepherding the church righteously and with compassion and with vigilance, and that church members are joyfully following along as one body. That's the picture we should be praying for. We'll never do it perfectly. We'll never do it perfectly because we all have a sin nature we're still dealing with. But this is Jesus's way. Let's go now to the third reason that church membership matters. Number three, Christians have a duty of care in the local church as members of one body. Christians have a duty of care in the local church as members of one body. What we need to see here is that the church is not like a store, where you just go and you get your goods and you go. You know, when you go to the store, you don't really have a relationship with the gal behind the register. You're just doing a transaction. You're just getting goods and going on your way, meeting your needs, and that's it. You're not normally going to the store to meet the needs of someone else. It would be good to shop local probably, support local businesses of course, but we primarily, I just, I need some ketchup so I'm going to the grocery store or I need some pork chops or I need a shirt or whatever it is and that's, it's a one way transaction. And sadly, many churches today have encouraged that behavior by giving you the kind of music you want to hear. You can have the contemporary service or the classical service. We actually foster consumeristic Christianity, which really isn't any kind of Christianity whatsoever. Because coming to church, being a member of the church, should be a three-way interaction. We come together before God. We come together to serve one another and to be served in turn. Church should not be a one-way interaction. It should be a three-way interaction. We're communing with God and with one another, which is reciprocated in the body. The Church of Corinth had a lot of problems, a lot of problems. And one of it is that they didn't think they needed one another, right? They didn't think they needed each other. They were all lone wolfers. They all thought they could do their own spiritual game. They were boasting about who was more spiritual. They were looking down on those they thought were less spiritual. They were boasting in who baptized them. They were ranking, well, my baptism's better than your baptism, because Apollos baptized me, no, Cephas baptized me. It was a nightmare. It was the world. And Paul had to remind them of their duty of care to one another. They have an obligation to one another, just like you have an obligation to your father or your mother, or your husband or your wife, or your children. The church of Jesus Christ and the members of it have an obligation to serve each other, right? We can't just be at one big honking nose. Remember how in 1 Corinthians 12, our scripture reading, you know, it's like the nose can't say to the eye or the eye can't say to the hand, or yeah, I'm paraphrasing now, but it's like, we can't just be an elbow. You know, we're not much good with just an elbow and nothing else. The whole church breaks down. If God's people don't show up, you know, in Ephesians 4, Paul said, it's when every member does its work that the whole is built up in love. So that if we're not showing up, we're like a car with one wheel or a car with no engine or a car missing a steering wheel or the shifting knob. You know, you're not going to get very far that way. And with, I'm struggling for the word, and I don't mean this to any of you here, because everyone here I know is very committed to this church, but with just the appallingly low expectation in the Western church today of its members, to me signifies why we're not doing much. Because we have this transactional consumeristic view of the church. And in far too many parts of the church, that's encouraged. If we want to make an impact in our city, we need to show up. We need to serve. Jesus said they will know we are Christians by our love. By your love for one another. It's the world saying, why does this Chechen like this Indonesian? Why do they hang out? You know, we went up north, a few of us guys, it was two Americans, an Indonesian and a Norwegian, all together, I couldn't, Sigva and Elga and Aaron and myself, you know, and the guys, they're like, how'd you get, how'd you get, you know, you could tell they didn't quite understand it. We're people from all over the world together, from various socioeconomic backgrounds, and yet we love each other and we're committed to each other, and the world scratches their head when they see that. But if we're not showing up, what kind of witness do we make? If we're not serving each other, we can't make that witness. We need each other. We have a duty of care for one another. Paul says in 1st Corinthians 12, 24, but God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. We're a family and we have a duty to one another. And that's why membership matters. That's one of the chief reasons why membership matters. Christians have a duty of care in the local church as members of one body. Paul says a similar thing in Romans 12. Verse 4, he says, We are members one of another. We belong to each other. In a way, even deeper than familial blood ties. Though it's blood that has united us. Paul says in Romans 12 verse 6, having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them. And he goes on and gives a string of examples. We have been given things to use them in the body of Christ. because we belong each other. My kids, they're not going to do very well if Debra and I are not using our gifts and our roles to serve them, right? And it's the same thing in the church. We will not do very well together if we are not here for one another. Christians have a duty of care in the local church as members of one body. The fourth way, the fourth reason why membership matters is that Jesus gives the church keys to determine its membership. Number four, Jesus gives the church keys to determine its membership. There's one of these things I've said that you may never have heard before, though it is by no means new in the history of Christian thought. It's probably this one, the idea of the keys of the kingdom of heaven. We touched on this two weeks ago when we talked about who should come to the Lord's Supper. The keys of the kingdom are the authority to admit entrance into Christ's kingdom and to exercise discipline. Let me say that again. The keys of the kingdom are the authority to admit entrance into Christ's kingdom and to exercise discipline. We see this firstly in Matthew 16, 19. where Jesus is talking to Peter and the other disciples. He says, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. And here we see that the apostles are given the authority to preach the gospel that will be the means of saving God's people. The way we are saved is through the gospel and through faith in the gospel. But related to that then is this idea of binding and loosing. of binding someone that should not be in the kingdom and loosing someone that should be allowed into the kingdom. Binding and loosing. And we see in Matthew 16, Jesus is giving this ministry the keys to the apostles. But then in Matthew 18, we also find that Jesus is going to give this responsibility to the church. In Matthew 18, verses 15 to 18, we see a repetition of this principle of the keys. When we see that Jesus says in 18-15, If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen to you, Or sorry, if he refuses to listen to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly I say to you, and this is the repetition of the keys here, truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. And here Jesus is given the church, the authority of the keys to excommunicate, to discipline, to treat someone like a Gentile and a tax collector. This topic, again, is probably one among the least popular in our Western individualist context, but it is essential to understand. If you study the history of Christian thought on this matter, there's been three answers for who holds the keys of the kingdom today. The Roman Catholic Church made the claim that the Pope is the one that holds the keys, that the Pope is the sole interpreter of Scripture and of who's in and who's out. That of course gave rise to the Protestant Reformation, right, when they're threatening to excommunicate Martin Luther and those that followed him, saying there's no salvation outside the Roman Catholic Church, which of course is patently false. But still, the keys are given to the church, so who holds them? Another view is that the congregation as a whole hold the keys of the kingdom. So if you are a Baptist or come from that Baptist or Congregationalist background, it would be believed that the congregation decides who are the members, and if there's a discipline case, who should be out. In the Presbyterian context, we argue that the presbyters, the elders, hold the keys to the kingdom, both at the local church level and at the general assembly and presbytery levels as well. So like I said a few weeks ago, wherever you land on this, the church does have the keys of the kingdom to deal with who can be admitted to membership. And in an extreme case of discipline, who should be excommunicated from membership. And just to give an illustration from the Bible of this practicing of the keys of the kingdom in the church, we find this in 1 Corinthians 5. where we see a man who is guilty of extreme sexual immorality, and Paul tells them, using the language from the book of Deuteronomy, purge. the evil person from among you. In 1 Corinthians 5.11, Paul says, but now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother, that is of Christian, if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler, not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. Purge the evil person from among you. So this would be an example in an extreme case where Paul said to the church of Corinth, you need to purge this immoral brother, this person calling themselves a Christian, but is living like the world in a gross way. You need to purge them from your midst. So we've looked at four reasons that church membership matters. We've seen that there is no salvation outside of Christ's church. We've seen that Jesus shepherds his church through local church leaders. We've seen that Christians have a duty of care to the local church as members of one body, and that Jesus gives the church keys to determine its membership. So now I want to turn in our remaining moments in this message to some implications then for local church membership. So I'm going to argue here that local church membership is the logical implication or application, whatever you want to say, of the biblical data we've studied. So again, some have said, well, I'm a member of the universal church. I don't need to be a member of the local church. That's something made up. That's something churches have just made up, maybe to control people or manipulate people or whatever else. I just thought it wasn't in the Bible as a young Christian and had to be challenged on it. But I'm going to argue that local church membership somewhere in some church is the logical application of the biblical data that we've just studied. So number one, If a local church can exercise excommunication, it can certainly exercise incommunication, right? You can't kick somebody out that was never part of your church. Right? Corinth wasn't just some kind of ambiguous universal church that happened to have people and they moved them out. You can't excommunicate somebody that wasn't incommunicated, that wasn't brought into communion in the first place. That, by the way, is why communion, the Lord's table, has been the mark of the membership of the church, the primary mark. It's the communion where you bring people into communion or you excommunion them. That's what excommunication means. If a local church can exercise it one way, they can go the other way. You know, the door swings both ways. You can't kick somebody out that wasn't brought in in the first place. A second argument is that local church membership is not divorced from universal church membership in the New Testament. Everywhere that the Bible talks about membership in the body, it's always given to local congregations. Like Corinth, when Paul's talking about being members of the body of Christ, he's not talking about in an ambiguous general way. He's talking about you Corinthians who have a lot of problems being divided, you petulant children. You know, he's like, he's like, he's writing to them specifically and saying, you belong to each other. There's nowhere in the New Testament where kind of this idea of a universal church membership is a separate category from local church membership. The apostles are always writing to local churches and Christians that belong to a body somewhere. So it's wrong for us then to divorce those two categories and think I can do one without doing the other, okay? A third application or argument here from the data is that local church membership enables elders to identify the flock of God that they are responsible to shepherd. The local church membership enables elders to identify the flock of God that they are responsible to shepherd. I am not responsible to shepherd, and Peter, as our other elder, we're not responsible to shepherd every Christian that maybe randomly comes in one Sunday, or may be out there. We're to exercise our shepherding call over the flock that is among us. To use Peter's language in 1 Peter 5, We can't shepherd every person. I'm not everybody's pastor. I can only be the pastor of those that have committed themselves to the church that I've been ordained to pastor. And the universal church is far too big a thing, and it'd be far too dangerous to give one or two people the authority over the whole church. Just look at the history of the Roman Catholic Church, right? Jesus has designed to give churches local leaders to care for local people. Likewise, I want to argue here, too, that local church membership also enables and signifies a Christian's, that is, your commitment to be led by particular leaders and to serve particular people. Like I could go around saying I'm a member of the Viking football team here in town, right? I used to play football. I like it. Ask the coach, is he a member of your team? They'd say, I'm crazy. Right? You have to be let on to the team. to be able to call him your coach. I don't know his name. Maybe some of you do. But at any rate, you have to be led on the team to say, he's my leader, he's my coach. You can't just walk around town saying, I belong to the Viking football team. You have to identify who's on the team. And then likewise, you have to then give your commitment to that coach, to that leader. I mean, at any rank of society, you belong to something. You belong to your school, you're assigned teachers, you have commitments and jobs, you have bosses. In every aspect of society, we belong somewhere and there's some kind of formal relationship so that those leading and those being led know who one another are. And as we see the commands and the reasons for membership in the New Testament, it's a very logical application that it'd be a good idea to identify those two. Talking about the keys of the kingdom. Talking about the calls to obey your leaders. The calls to shepherd the flock of God that is among you. And also to know who you, as the body of Christ, are primarily called to serve. That's why we've talked about having discipleship groups in our church. and being assigned to one another. Because yes, in one sense, we're called to serve anybody, right? Like we should serve our neighbor, right? We're called to love our neighbor. We're called even to love our enemy. But we're also given a particular call, for example, in 1 Corinthians 12, to serve the body of Christ. And Paul's talking to that church in Corinth that was really dysfunctional. You guys belong to one another, so you need to serve one another. There's a particular heightened sense of call and serving, just like the call to serve your family and your children is higher than your call to serve your neighbor. But both are important. A fourth implication. If you are not a member of any church, then you have little basis for the assurance of your salvation. I'm going to qualify this in a second, but if you are not a member of any church, then you have little basis for the assurance of your salvation. The claim that you can be a member of the universal church without being a member of the local church does not bear the scrutiny of scripture. I know that's a hard thing to say, but it's my full conviction. And it's been the church's full conviction for time out of mind that you need to belong somewhere. There are, of course, extraordinary exceptions. Think of the thief on the cross. He had neither the time to be baptized nor the time to join the body of Christ somewhere in a local church. Jesus said, today you will be with me in paradise. There will be exceptions for an elect child who dies in infancy. And there's probably other exceptions too. But I want to say this to not soften it too much. But if you have the opportunity, if you have the opportunity, and you are refusing to be a member of a local church somewhere, I'm not arguing you have to be one here, but if you're refusing to be a member of a local church somewhere, then you have little basis for the assurance of your salvation. And the reason I say that is because you are disobeying the voice of the Good Shepherd. Because scripture is how Jesus rules his church. And scripture is actually quite clear that if you're part of the universal church, you're part of the local church too. Remember what Jesus said in that great passage in John 10, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. The voice of Christ is not some mystical voice in here, though certainly we can be led by the Spirit. The voice of Christ is found in the pages of scripture. The one who follows Jesus is the one who follows his word. But remember the Pharisees, they thought they were part of the people of God, didn't they? What did Jesus say to them in John 10, 26? But you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. There are too many people in this world going about thinking they don't have to be part of the local church. It's like doing dating forever. Dating with benefits and all the goods, but never making the commitment. There's no goods at all in it. It's hollow and empty. As we started, remember that the Bible is filled with cautionary tales of those who sought to do spirituality and Christianity on their own terms. You can't do it on your own terms. There's only one term that matters, and that's Jesus' terms. We do it His way, or we don't do it at all. So I think it's a blessing this morning that we have visitors and you're not being aimed at in this message particularly. But I do hope you go away seeing the need to be a member of a local church somewhere. I'm not arguing that you need to be a member of this church, though you would be welcome to be a member of this church. But if you're hanging your hat in a church regularly, you need to become a member. You need to stop sitting on the fence and need to obey Jesus's voice. I just thought it would be helpful to close then at the end here about what does it mean to become a member of our church? If you want to become a member of our church, like I said, you should be a member of a local church somewhere. And if you consider this church your home church, I would encourage you then to be a member. We in fact heard of somebody that has not been to our church for two years, but recently said that FPC was their church. It was really kind of like, they're not, this is not their church, and I'm not their pastor. Like, they could call me their pastor, but I'm not their pastor, because they're not committed to this church that I'm ordained to care for. You know, Peter's not an elder of that person. But if this is the place you want to be, and I would love for that to be the case, I'd love to see us grow. I would encourage you to talk to me, talk to Peter about becoming a member. It's a pretty simple process. We just have you over for a meeting. I mean, a lot of you have already been through it. We hear your story. We talk about our convictions. The theology for membership is based around the Apostles' Creed, so you don't have to pass a theology examination, an extreme theology examination. You know we love theology as Presbyterians. But we gather, we want the bar to membership to be low enough that the weakest member of Christ's body can be a part of his church. And the vows for membership are very simple. We'll ask you five vows, which you have seen others take up here before. Do you acknowledge yourselves to be sinners in the sight of God, justly deserving His displeasure, and without hope save in His sovereign mercy? Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Savior of sinners? And do you receive and rest upon Him alone for salvation as He is offered in the Gospel? The third vow, do you now resolve and promise in humble reliance upon the grace of the Holy Spirit that you will endeavor to live as becomes the followers of Christ? Number four, do you promise to support the church in its worship and work to the best of your ability? And then number five, do you submit yourselves to the government and discipline of the church, and promised to study its purity and peace." I think if you studied these five vows, you'd find them intimately rooted in the four key texts I took you to this morning. And so we're asking nothing more than what Jesus asks of you if you're going to be a sheep in his flock. I want to close by reading the 23rd Psalm, and reminding us of the benefits of what we experience today in our worship, in our singing, and what we will experience in our fellowship together. The taste of heaven that is the green pastures that Jesus points to in this psalm. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his namesake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. When you are part of Christ's church, we are led together by green pastures and still waters. Think of the peace you've experienced when you shared your sorrows with others in the body. When you're going through something so extreme that it could even be described as the valley of the shadow of death, the body of Christ is with you. Christ is with you by the Spirit and with his body that we're united to. We together will one day judge our enemies and be set in the marriage supper of the lamb together as the church to have a feast with Christ. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow us. And we together, when we baptize and bring in new children, and when we bury our dead, we confess as the one church of Jesus Christ, that surely goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our life. And we together will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. That's why membership matters. Let's pray.