I ask you to turn with me this evening to Paul's letter to the Romans chapter 12 and verse 1. Romans chapter 12 and verse 1. We're considering together this evening the third of those doctrines that we hold dear and the third doctrine is the working church principle. And here we see it enshrined in the language of the apostle, exhorting us, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that he present your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And I want to notice particularly that final word, service. There used to be an old adage amongst gospel-believing churches, and it was this, that we are saved to serve. And of course it's important to understand that we do not serve in order to be saved. We are saved by grace. through the sufficiency of Christ alone. But when the Lord saves us, he saves us unto a life of service. And here the apostle in this grand letter to the Romans has outlined all the doctrines of salvation. Salvation by grace, justification by faith. the doctrines of sanctification, glorification, they're all here. And when he finishes, if you like, those doctrines, he exhorts by way of practical response, by the mercies of God, as you take stock and survey all those doctrines of mercy that I've outlined, he says, I beseech you, present your bodies. And here bodies is not to be taken altogether literally. By bodies he means the entirety of who you are, everything that you are, all your faculties, all your gifts, all that makes you who you are, present your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. If we think of all that the Lord has done for us, if we are Christians, then the logical conclusion, that's what it means here, reasonable, the logical conclusion we have to come to is he is worthy of my all and I will serve him. In Ephesians chapter two and verse 10, The Apostle said, we are created unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. And at least part of the good works that Paul has in mind there are those works of Christian service, advancing the cause and kingdom of our Savior in this earth. Now, the idea that every Christian is called to serve and that every church is to be made up of members, all of whom, in a greater or lesser way, are engaged in labor for the Lord, has not always been emphasized in all the churches. But it should be. There is a call, of course, to holiness, and sometimes that gets neglected. And there are those who give the impression, churches, that it's all about service and there's no emphasis upon separation from the world and leaving a godly life. But then there are other churches it's all about, well, as long as you're holy. and you keep yourself separate from the world, you just get on with your life. But both have to be emphasized. That daily walk of godliness and that call to serve the Lord as laborers in his harvest field and in his kingdom. And the New Testament clearly presents this doctrine. We can think of it in two ways really. The call to individual believers to serve but also what I've called the doctrine of the working church, that all members are called to engage in some way for the advance of his kingdom. And I want to look at this doctrine under a number of headings this evening. And the first is what I've called the servant texts. And we're only going to look at a small fraction of them. But there are a host of texts in the New Testament that show that every believer is called to be a servant of Jesus Christ, a laborer in his kingdom. Now some of us here this evening, we're perhaps not yet Christians, and yet perhaps the gospel is beginning to get a hold upon us. We are concerned for our souls. We desire forgiveness. We realize our weakness, and we long for the Lord to do a mighty work in our hearts and lives. But let me ask you this question. As you seek salvation, what kind of salvation do you seek? Do you have this understanding of what it means to be saved, that I will be saved from my guilt? from a life of sin, but I will be saved in order to devote my life to Jesus Christ. Saved to serve him. That's what all these texts are going to show us. So I want to go back to Matthew chapter four to begin with. We read here the call of Peter and Andrew and James and John. And there's something slightly perplexing And that is that if we read the Gospel of John, we will see that Peter, Simon Peter, was called differently. There, Andrew fetches him and brings him to the Messiah. And when the Lord Jesus sees him, he says, you're Simon. From now on, you will be called Cephas, Peter, a stone. But then when we read in Matthew, we see Peter's call is altogether different. Here, Andrew's not fetching him. He's working with Andrew as a fisherman, and Christ calls him. So how do we lay straight these two seeming, conflicting reports of Peter's call by the Lord Jesus Christ? And the answer is easy. In fact, Luke has another account. The picture is that the Lord called more than once. And sometimes that's how he deals with us. We don't always respond the first time. He may call us more than once and call us to different aspects of discipleship. And here in particular, some would say this was Peter's call to service. Follow me. and I will make you fishers of men. Here they were laboring in the life of a fisherman. And the Lord in effect says to them, follow me and you will have a different calling. There will be labor for you in a different field, the field of gospel work. And that's true for every true Christian. Not that we are all called to be preachers or Sunday school teachers, but we are all called to a life of service. And we have to ask, is that the mindset I have? The Lord calls me in one sense to forsake all the earthly priorities I once had, but now I must come and serve in the kingdom of Christ. He will be my boss. He will be my master. And I'm ready to walk in his ways and serve for his cause and kingdom. There are so many other verses in the gospels. Remember those parables, the parable of the pounds, the parable of the talents. And the Lord encourages his hearers There will be that time when every faithful servant will hear those words, well done. Good and faithful servant enter into the joy of thy Lord, service. And then there is that parable of the man who goes into a far country and leaves his servants to manage his household affairs. And he says to them, occupy till I come. Some of you will remember our old brother, Derek Crane. He used to mention those words so often in his prayer. It meant much to him. But this is the spirit we should all have, a realization that here upon earth, if we are the Lord's, we are his servants. and we are to serve in his household, in his kingdom. We are called to occupy, to keep the house, to defend the fort, to advance his interests here upon earth. We are servants. When the Apostle Paul encountered the Lord Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus, he famously said, Lord, What will thou have me to do? Up until that point, he had been pursuing his own agenda, but now he yields fully to the Saviour, and that must be the language of every child of God. Lord, what will you have me do? It used to be said every convert ought to have a missionary spirit. I was told more than once by preachers of the generation above me. Some are now gone to glory. Others are still much older than me. And they used to say that in the mid-1900s, the vast majority of churches, whether they were Baptist or Methodist, or whatever, they had this spirit. And it was no problem to have a Sunday school because all members on the Lord's Day were at the disposal of the church, ready to labor, ready to toil. It was no problem to have a holiday club with vast numbers of children because many, many members would make themselves available to labor for the Lord. C.H. Spurgeon as a young man, I touched on this recently, I think, but I was quite enlightened when I realized that the moment he was converted, he was ready to get involved in district visitation, distribution of tracts, advancing the cause of the church where he was in Newmarket. That was the spirit that people had. But that's not always the case. Now I would say at this point I don't think we as a church here at Bulldock have a particular problem. But we need to be reassured that this is the picture that the New Testament gives us. We're called to serve and labor for the Lord. I want to turn to John chapter 15. Because one thing to keep in mind is the doctrine of what we call human instrumentality. God could save his people without the help of Christians. If he so purposed he could simply deal with us individually. But the Lord throughout the New Testament in particular demonstrates that it is his will and purpose that through other Christians, new Christians, will be brought to the Lord. And we see that illustrated in this chapter in particular. Go to verse 8 in John chapter 15. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be my disciples. And we have to ask the question here, what did the Lord have in mind when he refers to fruit. And it's not wrong to say that part of the fruit that the Lord is referring to here are those gracious characteristics in our life, the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, gentleness, and so on. But that doesn't seem to be uppermost in the Lord's mind when he refers to fruit in this chapter. The reason Paul wanted to go to Rome, he said, is because he wanted to have some fruits among them. What he meant was converts, those who came to faith through his ministry. And that seems to be what the Lord in particular has in mind in this chapter. Look at verse 16. You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain. They are going to be ordained to the Christian ministry. They are going to be apostles of Jesus Christ and they are going to be sent forth and they are to bring forth fruit, the fruit of souls, converts, and that your fruit should remain, that those converts will stand the test of time. They will be spiritual children added to the kingdom. Then look at verse 27. This is all in the same account, address. And ye also shall bear witness because ye have been with me from the beginning. So it is through witnessing that the Lord has ordained that these disciples should bring forth the fruit of souls, converts. They are going to be the Lord's instruments. Not everyone is a preacher, but we need to remember that the underlying principle of the Lord's teaching here, it applies to all of us. Why does the Lord call his people? What does he ordain us to be? Well, we're not all given that special call to the ministry, but we are all called to be fruit-bearing branches. The Lord intends that through our devotion to him and our labour for him, others should come to know the Saviour. In that context, and this is an aside really, I want to just notice verses five and six. Abide in me, the Lord has said, and I in you. He that abideth in me, verse five, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me ye can do nothing. If fruit here is souls, then the first priority in soul winning is not handing out tracts, not even standing in a pulpit to preach. The first principle is that we abide in Christ. It's that we are close to him in intimate communion and prayer, that we abide in his commandments, as he will say a little bit later on. in verse 10, and that we abide in his love. It's those who are closest to Christ whose lives will shine most gloriously of his character. And that will be the most important facet if we are going to be instruments to bring others to know the Savior. There's so much that every member of the Church of Jesus Christ can do. Not all are preachers, as I said. There's a Sunday school to run. There are all the associated activities with the young people. There's track distribution, neighborhood visitation. I think as a church we do little of that. Perhaps we ought to do more. There's the need for hospitality, to show to one another that's a ministry. We care for needy members. We can be exhorters and encouragers. Have you ever seen yourself after the evening gospel service as having a labour to do for the Lord? We can take what has been preached and engage those in conversation who've not come to Christ and encourage them and exhort them. It's an important part of the work. It's not all the preacher's work. And then, of course, there are many practical duties that are necessary in any church life, even the moving of chairs and the setting up of equipment. These are vital, but we do it as unto the Lord. It must be done voluntarily. Present your bodies a living sacrifice. Don't wait to be asked. Don't wait until someone twists your arm that you have to be dragged, kicking and screaming, or emotionally blackmailed into some service for Christ. We are called to voluntarily engage for the Lord. It's a labor of love, Paul wrote to the Thessalonians. It's something we do gladly because we are conscious of his mercy toward us. Another strand of thought in this doctrine in the New Testament is the fact that Paul is presented to us as a New Testament pattern for every believer. He's a pattern for every pastor, but he's a pattern for every believer too. In 1 Corinthians chapter 11 and verse 1, Paul says, be followers together of me. And you know, many of you, that the word translated follower there in the Greek is the word mimic. We're to be mimics of the apostle Paul. And in 1 Corinthians chapter four and verse 16, again the apostle says, wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me. Well, followers of the apostle in what? Well, he's just said this, we are fools for Christ's sake. But ye are wise in Christ. We are weak. We are despised. Even unto this present hour, we both hunger and thirst are naked, are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling place, and labour, working with our hands, being reviled, we bless, being persecuted, we suffer it, being defamed, we entreat, we are made as the filth of the world and are the offscouring of all things unto this day. You know what the word offscouring refers to there? It's what you scrape off the plate that hasn't been eaten at the end of the meal, the congealed gravy and The scraps that are on the side of the plate, you scrape off into the bin. That's what the word offscouring means there. And Paul said, that's how we're viewed by so many around us. Utterly worthless, they despise us. They have nothing but unkindness to dish out to us. And the apostle says, I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons, I warn you. And then he goes on, follow me. We are called to serve as Paul served and be ready to endure hardness as Paul endured hardness. When Paul wrote to Titus, he began his epistle, Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ. That's an interesting order, isn't it? He doesn't say I'm Paul the apostle. He says, I'm a servant of God. We can't follow in his footsteps as an apostle, but we are called to mimic him as a servant of God, a servant of Jesus Christ. So that's the first family of texts that set this doctrine before us. We are servants, and we are saved in order to serve. But then there's a second family of texts that will encourage us to, as to how we are to serve. And some have called these the laboring words that the New Testament uses to describe Christian labor, Christian work, Christian service. There's more than this, but I'm going to mention three. The first word is used in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, and verse 58. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. And this word, labor, it's a word which means to toil to the point of pain and weariness. It comes from another word, for chop, referring to the chopping of wood. They didn't have the tools and the power things that we have nowadays. Chopping wood was a wearying exercise, an exhausting process. And that word came to be synonymous with labor. And Paul uses it here to refer to our labor in the Lord and our labor for the Lord, the work of the Lord. And he says, your labor is not in vain. He doesn't say, actually, all that you do as a church by way of activity is not in vain, but when you truly toil, you toil for souls and you are willing to Yield your all in order to advance the name and the kingdom of Jesus Christ is not in vain. That kind of labor will never be in vain. The Lord will honor those that honor him. So that's the first word. The second word is found in Philippians chapter 1 and verse 27. where Paul writes to these Philippians and says, let your conversation, your way of life be as it becomes the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see you or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs. How you're doing as a church, in other words, that you stand fast in one spirit, you're all in this together, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel, striving together. That's the word from which we get athlete or athletic. You can see it's a picture of exertion, a picture of committed exercise. And here it's a striving together. As a church, are we a picture? Are our affairs such as Paul describes the affairs of this Philippian church? We're striving together like athletes. We are wholly exerting ourselves in order to advance the kingdom of Christ. We're ready to push ourselves to the limit, to exert ourselves. So we see these words and they're pictures to us of what is normative for a New Testament church. And the third word, the final one I want to look at this evening, in Colossians chapter 4 and verse 12, where Paul describes Epaphras, a servant of Christ, there's the servant word, He salutes you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. Now here, the word is laboring fervently. And it's the word from which we get agony or agonize. It means to use, to go beyond the pain limit or the pain barrier in order to achieve a result. Like that wrestler who is going to use every last sinew of his muscles and strength in order to break free. or the runner whose mind is telling him to give up, or his body is telling him to give up, but his mind is saying, no, there's another 100 meters to go. That's the word that's here. Yes, it's referring to Epaphras in his prayer life. That's a challenge in itself. But it's referred elsewhere to our labor for the Lord, agonizing for souls. agonizing over the work and the cause of Christ in this world. Is that really how we think? The New Testament sets that before us as an example here. The third heading on this subject is that Christian service in the New Testament ordinarily is always rooted in the local church. We see that in the case of the Philippines particularly. You are of one mind, striving together. It was under the auspices and under the umbrella, if you like, of the local church that service for the Lord is to be engaged. And ordinarily, that reminds us that a Christian, a believer, should endeavor to join a local church. Now, there may be times when all the churches in our neighborhood are so far from the truth that we cannot, with all good conscience, unite with them. There have been situations like that, but that must always be the exception rather than the rule, because in the New Testament, You see that labor for the Lord was regulated by and organized through the local church and its leadership. We're not to be loose cannons saying, oh, well, I can't get on with other Christians. I'm just going to do my bit for the Lord in my own time and way. I'll go out and witness, but I'm not going to be representative of Christ's ordained institution on earth. I'll just do it on my own back. That's not what we see in the New Testament. So on the one hand, We see in the New Testament the call to service. We see that churches are to be hives of activity. But on the other hand we see that that labor must be harnessed and directed through the local church. And that's not always the case today. Even William Carey I say even because you could say, well, he's an exception to the rule because he's going to go out to India as a missionary. There isn't a church in India for him to be connected with. So he was his own man, wasn't he? Well, no, technically he wasn't. He didn't have that mindset. I've told you before, I think, that when he was called to a cottage pastorate in Northampton, He didn't really feel that he could go, because his ministry had never been sanctioned by another church. He just happened to be in that particular place, and he taught the neighborhood cottagers. But no, it was when he was called to a larger church, he said, I can't do this. And so he went to John Sutcliffe at Olney, and he asked John Sutcliffe, will your church test my gifts and my calling? and sanctioned my going into pastoral ministry. He was unsure of himself because he knew that it ought to be authenticated and guided by the local church. And so that's what happened. But then when he went to India, he was always accountable to the sending churches. It wasn't just one church, but a number of brother pastors in this country. They united together to support him, prayerfully and financially, and they were concerned as to how he was serving the Lord. And on one occasion, they were utterly dismayed because they found out that Carey had become the manager of an indigo plantation, where they grew these plants and they were making indigo dye for dyeing clothes. And they said, what's happened to poor Carey? We sent him out there as a missionary and we find now he's become a businessman. they wrote to him and and upbraided him and he was heartbroken. I'm digressing a bit here really, but he was heartbroken because the only reason he'd taken this post in an indigo plantation is because the funds they sent were not sufficient for him to keep himself going. And he knew he needed to learn the local dialect in order to witness and preach to these Indian people. So he hadn't lost his zeal, and he hadn't lost his calling, but they challenged him. But on the other side, it shows that he was accountable. It wasn't William Carey's Mission Ministries Incorporation. He was a servant of Christ and a servant of the English Baptist churches. And that's the way in which he went into it. And we need to be aware that there are a number of ways in which today people can fall short of this model that we're given in the New Testament. So sometimes we hear of young people, particularly young men, and as 19, 20-year-olds, they decide, well, I've become a Christian. I want to be a minister. And so they enroll in a theological college. They do some course. but they're not sent by their local church. Their calling and their gifts and their character has never been proved in a local church. And it should be. Ordinarily, it should be our local church that guides us into service. They will know us best. They will know what we're ready for, what we have an aptitude for. And if we short circuit that picture and we just say well I've decided. That's not really what we see in the New Testament. Well I move on to a fourth heading and that is the spirit of Christian service. What is the spirit in which we are to do these things. The local church is described as a body. We go to Ephesians chapter 4. Verse 16. From whom the whole body, fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. The church is a body and here again you see every part of the body contributing. Every joint, every part supplies something. The effectual working in the measure of every part. Every part has a measure of usefulness, a particular call to service. This verse illustrates that, but the church is described as a body and when the church is described as a body, or as an army for that matter, it implies order and organization and mutual submission. every part integrated and interconnected. And the members of the body of Christ are subject first to him, but also to one another. And so that must affect the spirit in which as believers we serve our Lord. Within the local church, we must be ready to serve as we are directed. We're not to call the tune as it were and say, well, I'm prepared to serve as long as I can do this and I can have a free hand to do it in this way. Sometimes people, that's the spirit in which they want to serve Christ. Well, so long as you give me a blank, a carte blanche to do it my way, I'll do it. But if you don't, I won't. But that's not the New Testament way because the body is a body where all members are subject to the head. within an army. It would be no use if a small contingent within the battalion said, well, I'm only going to go to the battle today if you follow my blueprint. It doesn't happen like that. I've not been in the army, but I know it doesn't happen like that. The orders come down. And the soldiers have to do as they are directed and as they are commanded, even if, Inwardly, they may question the policy or the strategy. They have to carry it out, because it is their superiors who are accountable. And so it must be within the service in the army of Jesus Christ. The spirit in which we serve is to say, here am I, Lord, send me. We say first as the Thessalonians, we give ourselves to the Lord, and then we give ourselves to his apostles to his spiritual leaders. Here am I, use me as you see fit. Christian service is something that we seek the Lord's will in. Lord, show me how I should serve. I don't want to be self-serving. I don't want to just do it my way. I'm willing to serve as the Lord opens doors and as the Lord directs. And if he directs the deacon or the elders to call me to serve in this capacity or in that capacity, then I will willingly do to the best of my ability what they have called me to. That's the spirit of service. And if we do that, it's so often we say, oh, I don't think I can do this. I've certainly known this in the ministry, brothers and sisters. I don't think I can do this. And it's then that we prove the Lord's help most. I don't think I could teach a Sunday school class, we may think. I don't think I dare go and knock on that door and invite that family to send their children to Sunday school. I'd find it so nerve-wracking. But it's when we're out of our comfort zone and we feel that we cannot do this in our own strength that we prove the Lord's help. He upholds and he goes before us. and we see answers to prayer, and we experience His supporting hand time and time again. Well, I wanted to look lastly for our encouragement, really, at things that hinder us from serving the Lord, but I haven't got time to look at them this evening. So this is a precious doctrine. What a privilege it is to serve King Jesus. He's called us out of this world. He's blessed us with heavenly hope. He's overlooked graciously all our sin and all our failings. It is most reasonable that we should present ourselves to him a living sacrifice, ready to serve. Will you serve him? Will you lay down your life for Christ? David Brainard, I must read you this before we close. He died in his late 20s, worn out through ministry to the American Indians. There was a family weakness. Many of his family had died of TB and he would follow suit. But this was the mindset. He looked at others of his age who were settling down with wives and homes and family, and he thought about whether that would be the Lord's will for him. And he says this, but now these thoughts seem to be wholly dashed to pieces for me, not by necessity, but out of choice. He couldn't choose them. For it appeared to me that God's dealings toward me had fitted me for a life of solitariness and hardship, and that I had nothing to lose, nothing to do with earth, and consequently nothing to lose by a total renunciation of it. It appeared to me just right that I should be destitute of house and home and many of the comforts of life which I rejoiced to see others of God's people enjoy. At the same time, I saw so much of the excellency of Christ's kingdom and the infinite desirableness of its advancement in this world that it swallowed up all my other thoughts and made me willing, yes, even rejoice, to be made a pilgrim or hermit in the wilderness to my dying moment if I might promote the interest of the great Redeemer. If ever my soul presented itself to God for his service without any reserve of any kind, it did so now. What grace was given to that young man. He saw much fruit amongst those American Indians. Many of them came to know the Lord. But in laboring for the Lord, he would burn out himself. May the Lord give to us just a small amount of that spirit that he had. We close by singing together.