Voddie Baucham - An Orderly Church and Godly

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, good morning. I assure you that the honor is
always mine to be able to break bread with the
Lord's people, to be able to preach the word, to
be able to share fellowship with the Lord's people. And
I'm honored to be with God's people. And understand that

(00:21):
this is real Christianity. Amen, this is real Christianity. A
lot of the things that I get to do, they're
not real Christianity. And the danger becomes. And when I
say they're not real Christianity, let me explain what I
mean by that. When I get to stand up in
front of a group of you know, thousands and thousands
of people at the conference somewhere or whatever, I praise

(00:45):
God for things like that and events like that. But
the danger, especially here in the US, and we talked
about some of this earlier, the danger is that we
begin to experience that over and over again and we
begin to think this is where it's at, this is
this is real Christianity, this is what we're moving forward,
this is what we're striving for. And then all of

(01:06):
a sudden, when we get into a meeting where there
aren't thousands of us or even hundreds of us, where
there are just dozens of us. We begin to say,
number one, what have we done wrong? And number two,
what can we do right so that we can then
become the thousands? Do you you're hearing me, You're hearing me.

(01:28):
And so a lot of times, you know, people will
even come into a gathering like this after having had
their thinking affected this way, right, you know, you know,
because you go to an event like that, you're with
thousands of people and it just ooh right now you're
just going, oh man, this is like heaven, this is what,
this is the this is it, and now all of

(01:50):
a sudden, it's what you yearn for. And you come
to a meeting like this, and I know that you
guys have probably experienced this. People have come to the
church and they've experienced church here, and they go, this
is okay. Maybe someday, you know, maybe someday they will
arise and have that thing that I'm looking for. But

(02:12):
in the meantime, I'll go see somewhere else if we
get right. Because the songs we sing, man, they sound
different when there's thousands of people singing to them. You know. Ah,
you know when you can you can feel it in
your bones through the sound system right. So when I
say that's not real Christianity, that's what I'm talking about.
That that's just that's not normal, that that that's not

(02:37):
where our life is. Where our life is is in
real body life, where we are engaged with one another,
where we are face to face with one another, where
it actually matters, and we're getting our hands dirty in
one another's lives, where we're actually offending each other and

(02:59):
having to forgive each other and not able to just say, fine,
I'll just go to this part of the thousands and
I deal with you anymore. Huh. No, this is the
real stuff. It really is and what really and I
know we were all off we haven't even gotten started
yet on top of it. But just okay, this is

(03:21):
important stuff what I've experienced, and I've been guilty of
it time myself. We always see what's wrong with the
things that we're close to, Right, the beautiful supermodel. You
look at the beautiful supermodel and you just like, that's perfection.
But when the beautiful supermodel looks in the mirror, all

(03:43):
she sees is our imperfections, right, Because that's what we do.
So in the United States, as American Christians, we talk
a great deal about what's wrong with Christianity in America.
We talk a great deal about what's where the church
is sort of off the rails or whatever. And we
have a tendency to believe that American Christianity is in

(04:07):
this great spiral and this great crisis. That's not true.
And one of the reasons that we believe that's true,
it's because the only thing that we look at is
the big picture, the thousands. We see the big megachurches
and compromise. We see the big famous pastors who fall,
We see the big movements that have gone astray. But

(04:28):
what we don't pay attention to is the thousands of
churches just like this one, where some faithful man that
few people may not even know is hammering away, faithfully
expositing the Word of God, loving the people of God,
being a faithful minister of the Gospel. There are tens

(04:49):
of thousands of them across this land who have not
bowed the need of bail. And the church is healthy
in America because of it. Christianity is healthy in America
because of it. Don't just pay attention to the big
picture stuff. We got twenty four hour news cycles. People think,
for example, people think that, you know, like certain crimes

(05:11):
are just off the charts. Nowadays, it's not so much
that those crimes are off the charts, it's that we
have twenty four hour news cycle, national news, so every
time it happens, you hear about it. Right, we think
your floods of floods are just all the No, floods
have always been happening all over the place, but now

(05:32):
there's news cameras everywhere, so every time one of them happens,
we hear about it. Do you see what I'm saying.
So Christianity's healthy, And I'll say this before we get
started here. One of the things you need to realize
is this. And it's something I've come to realize because
everybody's talking about, Oh, the Gospel is just going forward
and it's flourishing, and Africa and South America and Asia

(05:55):
and so on and so forth, and there are people
come into faith in Africa and Asia and South America.
But the church by and large and African, Asian and
South America is a mile wide and half an inch deep,
filled with syncretism. And it is not healthy. It's not healthy.
Christianity is not shifting away from America it's just not.
And if you want any piece of evidence, I'll give

(06:16):
you one. It's the only one you need. When you
think about books that you need to read. And I'm
not talking about self help books. I'm talking about sound
Christian theology. You can't name three authors whose books you
feel like you need to read who are not American.
You can't. They're all here. The greatest and strongest churches

(06:37):
in the world here, the strongest preachers in the world here,
the greatest and strongest theological institutions in the world here,
and ninety five percent of all the Christian books published
in the world. Here. You live in the center of
the Christian universe. Be grateful for it and stop complaining. Amen.
And if you don't believe me, just move somewhere for

(06:57):
six months. That's all you gotta do. Just move outside
of America for six months, and you'll stop all that
wanting and complaining and you'll run back and kiss the ground. Amen.
All right, So be encouraged today, all right, be encouraged.
Are their problems? Of course, Well, you've got three hundred
and twenty million people, of course, right, of course there's problems.

(07:22):
Of course, there's difficulties, but don't miss it. Okay, don't
miss the fact that coast to coast, border to border,
all across this land today there are healthy bodies that
are meeting, and all over the rest of the globe
there are people who are struggling to find a healthy

(07:42):
church within twenty thirty fifty one hundred miles of where
they live. Here. When somebody in America says, ah, ah,
it's just so hard to find a healthy church, you
know what they mean. They mean, I've got fifteen criteria
for what I wanted a church. We're consumers fifteen things
that I'm looking for it in church, and ten of
the fifteen aren't essential, right, And if I go to

(08:05):
a church and there's only thirteen out of the fifteen things,
I'm like, ah, I can't find a church. Whereas in
much of the world people are going, if I can
just find the gospel, Amen, If I can just find
that gospel. We're worried about what we sit on and
what color of the carpet is, and the songs that
we're singing, and you know, the style of the worship,
and all of a sudden, people are going, Man, if

(08:26):
I can just find the gospel, so realize that even
when you hear people saying, ah, so hard to find
a church, a lot of them are going, you know,
I am a redheaded, left handed Reformed Baptist sixteen eighty nine,
you know, regulative principal hymnity, you know, instrument. Yeah, I

(08:49):
just can't find a church. If you can't say amen,
you ought to say ouch, right, okay. And I think
it's relevant to what we're talking about here, because you
guys are in the middle the theories on the local church.
And I think in our culture, part of the problem
with people's appreciation for an understanding of the necessity of

(09:10):
the local church is our consumeristic attitude, because we are
very quick to say, you know, church equals these fifteen things,
and if we don't have those fifteen things, forget about it.
And we're just not willing to submit ourselves, partly because
we don't understand what the essentials are. We don't get it.

(09:32):
We don't get it. And we do have the luxury
here of looking for the other things. And praise God
for that. Amen, Praise God for that. Praise God for
Walmart and Costco and you know, and you know, and
for the spiritual equivalent of that don't apologize because God
has blessed you with abundance. Amen. Really, I've got huge

(09:55):
bags that I'm headed back with because I live in
a place where we don't have same day Amazon delivery.
We don't even have same week Amazon delivery, right, So
be grateful for that. Don't complain about that. Be grateful
for the abundance of healthy churches around, Be grateful for
all those sorts of things. But also recognize that it

(10:18):
has the tendency to distort your view, so we have
to be careful with that. Open your bibles to the
Book of Titus, Titus Titus, Chapter one, Love the pastoral epistles,
you know, first, second Timanyon Titus. What are the things
that you hear a lot from people? Again, there's this
complaint we're complaining about the church. And when we complain

(10:41):
about the church, people will often have their answer or
their solution right. And a lot of the times you'll
hear people say, we just need to get back to
the first century church, you know, we just need to
get back to the church. In the Book of Facts,
we just need to get back to the first century church,
to which I always respond, which one corinth they were
mess Galatia. That's an anaika. The first century churches were

(11:05):
messed up. That's why we had the epistles. Folks. Amen,
there were huge problems in the first century church. And
so we have to again completely unrealistic view, you know.
And another issue was this when we think about the
again first century church problems. While we have the epistles,

(11:26):
the second thing is we should need to get back
in the church to the church in the Book of Acts.
And so we want to go back and look at
the Church of Acts, and we want to be that
the Book of Acts is not given to us to
teach us how to do church. Narrative is not normative.
The Book of Acts tells us what happened. It's not
prescriptive for us. Okay, for example, you know analysis to fire,

(11:47):
Did it happen? God killed them in church? Amen? He
killed them in church. Does that mean that that's the
way church discipline is handled. No, narrative is not normative. Yeah,
praid God, brother, Amen? Right? If not one of the days,
one of these days, I'll walk into church and somebody
will be behold the feet of the men, right amen. Well,

(12:09):
we don't want that. We don't want that. And so
if when we under when we try to understand how
we put together the church. And there are a lot
of theoretical teachings in the church today that come from
people going to the Book of Acts to figure out
how to do church. The Book of Acts is not
there to teach us how to do church. The epistles

(12:29):
are there to teach us how to do church. The
Book of Acts tells us what happens. The epistles tell
us what's supposed to happen. Okay, the Book of Acts
is narrative. The epistles are normative. Then among the epistles
we have the pastoral epistles. The pastoral epistles are very
specific in giving us instructions as to how the church

(12:50):
is supposed to be ordered. Okay, this is where we go,
this is what we look to. So here's an example.
You look at Acts chapter right, and in Acts chapter
six we have a picture of Dickens being selected. Right,
But if you want to understand the qualifications of that office,

(13:13):
you don't go to Acts chapter six. You get First
Timenty chapter three, because there we have an epistle that
gives us guidance as to what to do as opposed
to Act just giving us an example of something that happened.
Is this making sense? Okay? And so Paul talks about

(13:33):
you know, in the Book of Acts, we have a
picture of him exercising his apostleship there and exercising his
eldership there. But if we want to understand what ownership's
supposed to look like, we go to the pastoral epistles
and we get very specific instructions on those things. So

(13:54):
first Segntimothy and Titus. We have these pastoral epistles. Listen,
here's Paul's ministry. In a nutshell, Paul traveled, right, he
would go to various places. He's the he's the apostles
of the Gentiles, and so he travels. When he travels.
What does he do when he travels? He teaches, and

(14:14):
he teaches two different ways. In the synagogue, he's taking
the scriptures and he's expounding the scriptures in the synagogue,
and he is teaching in the synagogue why Christ is
the truth to which this text points right, and then
and they said, oh, sorry, are we doing I can

(14:35):
stay over here okay moment, And then that that's what
he's doing in the synagogue, and then in the marketplace
and everywhere else. Right, he's doing that in the synagogue,
with the Jews, marketplace and everywhere else. With the gentiles.
What is he doing. He's basically giving them the Gospel
in meta narrative form or the big picture form. Right.
You know, I walked around and I saw the objects

(14:57):
of your worship, right, that which you worship and ignorance.
Now I'll explain to you. And then what is he given? Creation, fall, redemption, consummation.
It's the big picture. He's not necessarily expounding on the scriptures,
but he's given him the gospel in the big picture form.
People come to faith. He plants the church, He makes disciples,
sometimes a few months, sometimes a few years. Right, and

(15:21):
then he travels. It starts all over again. But as
he began to travel, there are a couple of things
that began to happen. Number one writes his epistles, gone
on the missionary journey planet churches. He gets back, Hey man,
we got some letters for you. Here's one from Chloe
and kore It. They need your help. So he writes letters. Okay,

(15:42):
so we have the epistles. He's writing these letters dealing
with problems that are arising in the church. Dealing with
questions that are arising in the churches as he's planting them. Right.
But then there's a second thing happening. The second thing
that's happening in addition to him writing these letters is
that he's pouring his life in demand. Timothy is the
pastors John Mark. He's pouring his life into men so

(16:04):
that they in turn will travel, preach, plant. Okay, So
in the pastoral epistles we have sort of the apex
of Pauline ministry, because in the pastoral epistles we have,
on the one hand, here is the writing that is
a byproduct and fruit of his missionary journeys. Right. But

(16:27):
also in addition to this just being his writing, this
is his writing specifically to the men whom he mentored
in order to send out. So like all of Pauline
ministry comes together at its apex in its most complete
form in the pastoral epistle, that's just good, y'all amen.

(16:51):
So here in Titus we have an example of this,
this sort of this kind of essence. You know, it's
kind of like the first pressing of the allahs, right,
the extravergent, olive, all the good stuff, right, we have
it right here. So let's look at it here in
Titus chapter one. When a view toward understanding the importance
the centrality of the local church in our life and

(17:15):
experience as believers, we're going to see that there's a
couple of the three things here. Let me give you
these three things that we have these when it comes
to our life and our vitality as believers. We have
the local church. And when I say the local church,
what I mean there is godly elders and their function. Okay.

(17:36):
When I say the local church, I mean godly elders
and their function. And beyond that this this authority and
teaching in the low church. We have the home as
a disciple making entity, okay. And then we have godly
mature men and women in the church and the ministry

(18:00):
that they provide both an example and in teaching. Okay.
These are the three legs of the school, if you will,
And we see all of those here in this first
chapter of the book of Titus. First, let's look at
the eldership beginning at verse Let's start a verse one.

(18:20):
So I want you to get this the flavor of
this Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of
Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's
elect and their knowledge of the truth which accords with
Godliness in hope of eternal life, which God who never lies,
promised before the ages began, and at the proper time

(18:41):
manifested in his word through the preaching with which I
have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior.
So here's Paul talking about his ministry, and the essence
of his ministry is the preaching of the Gospel for
the sake of the elect, whom God has laid out

(19:03):
and chosen beforehand, both the who the elect are, and
that this preaching would be calling forth of the elect.
So there's for Paul this foundation of his ministry to Titus,
my true child in a common faith, in other words,
number one true child, protegee. I've ventured you, I've discipled you,

(19:26):
and in a common faith you're called it the same
thing that I'm called to right grace and peace from
God the Father in Christ, Jesus our Savior. This is
why I left you in crete, so that you might
put what remained in order and appoint elders in every
town as I directed you. He has to appoint elders

(19:47):
in order to put things in order. And I want
to say this, a church that doesn't have an eldership
is out of order. Amen. A church that doesn't have
an eldership is out of order. Okay. Now this is
not to say that a church that doesn't have an
eldership is in sin. Because their churches in crete that

(20:07):
didn't have eldership. Paul's not saying that they're in sin.
He's just saying that they're out of order. And when
you fix that. Now, if you don't have eldership and
you have no intention of having eldership and it's not
you don't consider it a catastrophe. Now you're in sin,
not just out of order. Amen. Do we follow that? Okay,

(20:27):
But there's another step here. A church that doesn't have
an eldership is out of order. A Christian that doesn't
have a church is out of order. Amen. Because here's
the thing. The apostle doesn't say, I'm writing so that
you can put things in order, and here's something for
every individual Christian to be in order. No, no, you

(20:47):
need to put things in order in crete. How do
you start eldership in local churches? Because Christians need to
be in local churches. Do you follow that? And then
he gives requirements, and these are important if anyone above
reproach the husband and one wife, his children are believers,
not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. Let
me just say a word that there are that when

(21:08):
he says his children are believers, the Greek word here
for believers is pissed, the same word for faith. Some
translate this faithful children. I believe that's a better translation
than this translation for a number of reasons. Number one,
because he's getting ready to explain what he means here,

(21:29):
what he's talking about. He says, not open to the
charge of debauchery or insubordination. Secondly, we're talking about the
elder and his qualifications. The elder in his qualifications has
to do with his role as a parent. His role
as a parent doesn't make people believers. Amen. That's the

(21:51):
second That's the second issue. Third issue is if we literally,
if he literally means that your children have to be converted,
then every time a new child is born into an
elder's home, he's disqualified. Again. So you know, there's some
significant issues with with with with this this translation. The
better translation is safeful children. Okay, Because you can have

(22:16):
a guy whose children are out of order, but if
he is qualified for his office, he'll be dealing with
them properly. So basically, you take some children who are
out of order, and you want to know if they're
if their dad's qualified. Here's the question that you ask,
this child is out of order. What's your response, Ah,
typical or huge trouble? Because I know your daddy. Do

(22:43):
you see? You see the difference? Okay? The qualification here
has to do with the way a man is governing.
We got that, okay. Buffer pro's husband and one wife. Again,
he is an exemplary husband, and he's an exemplary father.
Verse seven. For an overseer, as God, Stewart must be

(23:04):
above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick tempered,
or a drunkard or violent, a greedy for gain. There's
the negative, right, we expect him not to beat these things.
But here's the positive. Hospitable, a lover of good, self controlled, upright,
holy and discipline. There's the positive, the things that we
do expect. So there's this character, first his home and

(23:25):
then his general character, and then thirdly his teaching. He
must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught. So
he must hold to sound theology so that he may
be able to give instruction and sound doctrine. He must
teach sound theology and also rebuke those who contradict it.
He must defend sound theology, hold to it, teach it,
defend it. Okay, so there's the picture. There's the picture,

(23:49):
and it's only when you understand the context of this
that you get the why. Here's what you need to
set in place in crete. You need to set elders
in place. Here's what we're looking for in elders. Why.
Look at verse ten four. Here's the explanation, right four.

(24:10):
There are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers,
especially those of the circumcision party. They must be silenced
since they're upsetting whole Sunday school departments teaching what that's
not what the text says, this is an amazing truth.
They must be silenced. Why because they're upsetting whole families

(24:31):
by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. Folks,
don't miss this. He's saying, you need to set things
in order in crete. How and why? How do you
set things in order in point elders, here's the qualification
for those that you appoint as elders. Why because whole
families are being destroyed by false teaching. So there's the

(24:53):
second leg, right, the first, the first. The first leg
for our healthy Christian life sperience is the church, its foundation,
and the eldership as representative of this foundation. Right, when
you talk about the church as our foundation, what are
you talking about? Are you talking about a building? No? Right,

(25:15):
when you talk about the church, are you just are you?
Are you just talking about just a gathering of people? No,
although that's where most people try to get to the well. No,
the church is not the building, it's the gathering. That's
almost right. That's almost right. Because again they had gatherings

(25:35):
in crete. But the gatherings were out of order. Why
because they didn't have eldership. So so here's our other issue.
I'm gonna move a in great camera person. Okay, I
appreciate you taking notes, but when I get ready to move,
you gotta okay. All right, So here's the issue. You know,
I'm here, I was here for a homeschool conference. A

(25:56):
lot of you were at the homeschool conference. And so
here's where a lot of the families in our circles
have gone off the rails. The church is not the building,
it's the gathering. We're several homeschool families who have a
list of fifteen things we're looking for. There's no church
around in our area who has these fifteen things. So
since the church is not the building, it's a gathering,

(26:17):
We're going to get three or four homeschool families to
gather together on Sundays and this is going to be
our church. Because the church is not the building, it's
the gathering. Where are your elders g See, church is
not the building, it's the gathering. Almost right, almost right.
There must be an eldership, and the eldership must be qualified,
because Paul says, though a man, I don't write the mail,

(26:40):
I just deliver it. Right, are we saying this? Okay?
And so here's the other thing that's important. Not in
the gate these families, right, The smallest teaching unit in
the church is the family. Okay. These families need to
be protected. Paul does not deny that these families need

(27:02):
to be taught. Paul does not deny that these families
need to be functioning the way families are supposed to
be functioning. Paul does not deny that, but he says
they are not an end in themselves. They fall under
the rubric and under the authority and under the auspices
of eldership. Church without eldership is out of order. Christians

(27:25):
without church out of order. So these things work together.
And let's look specifically now at these issues here in crete,
and then we'll look at the third leg. One of
the Cretans, a prophet of their own said, Cretans are
always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. This testimony is true. Therefore,
rebuke them sharply that they may be found in faith.

(27:49):
Now go back up to the first paragraph. Remember we
start in verse one. I want you to see some
things here. Paul is servant of God, the possible of
Jesus Christ for the sake of the faith of God's elect.
So there's faith. And we now see that these people
need to be rebuked so they can be sound in faith.
I'm an Apostle's my apostleship about the faith of God's elect.

(28:13):
And then the second thing and their knowledge of the
truth thirdly, which accords with godliness, faith based in knowledge,
which bears the fruit of Godliness. Now, watch what's happening here.
The Cretans testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply that
they may be sound in faith. They're evil, beast, lazy gluttons.

(28:36):
Why because they're not sound in faith? Paul's ministry exists,
why so that people can be sound in faith? Eldership
needs to exist in why so that these people who
are not sound in faith and are evil, beast and
greedy gluttons can be sound in faith? Great? Now, this

(28:56):
faith is in accordance with the knowledge of the Okay,
let's keep reading, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and
the commands of people who turn away from the ah. Ah. Now,
in the first paragraph we saw faith and truth, which
accords with godliness. So now if Paul is sort of

(29:19):
recapitulating the same argument, the next thing that we ought
to see is what godliness? Right, Well, let's keep reading.
To the pure, all things are pure. But to the
defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. But both their minds
and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God,
but they deny him by their works or deeds. They

(29:40):
are detestable disobedient, unfit for any good work. What's that godliness,
faith rooted in truth, which spares the fruit of godliness.
Paul says, that's his ministry. He says, Titus, this needs
to be your ministry. And oh, by the way, here's
cree here's what's wrong in crete that needs to be

(30:03):
set right in crete, which is answered by this same ministry.
And it's the ministry of preaching. That's why. In chapter two,
verse one, he says, but as for you, teach what
accords with sound doctrine. So we see teaching again. Look
at chapter one, verse three, at the proper time manifested
in his word, through the preaching with which I have

(30:25):
been entrusted by the commands of God, our Savior. So
Paul says, the basis of this ministry is his preaching,
this apostolic preaching verse nine. He must hold from the
trustworthy word as taught, so that he might be able
to give instructure to sound doctrine, rebuke those who contradict
theres the preaching of the apostles that Titus is to establish.

(30:45):
And then he reiterates it again in chapter two, verse one,
when he says, ask for you teach what it course
with sound doctrine. My apostolic ministry is built on this preaching,
pointed at faith that accords with the truth and bears
the fruit of godliness. You need to find elders who
will engage in this preaching pointed at faith founded on

(31:06):
the truth, which results in godliness. Because you're in a
place that lacks faith and truth and therefore lacks godliness.
So you teach what accords with sound doctrine. This is
the teaching of the eldership. This is the teaching of
the people of God. This is the teaching that is

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to be mirrored in our homes. Let's look at that
third length verse two. Older men are to be sober minded, dignified,
self controls, sound and faith, in love and in steadfastness.
Older women, likewise are to be reverend in behavior, not
slanderers or slaves so much wine. They are to teach
what is good. There we go that teaching again, and
so train the young women to love their husbands and children,

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to be self controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and
submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God
may not be reviled. Likewise, urge younger men to be
self controlled. And then in case you didn't get it
the first three times, show yourself in all respects to
be a model of good works. And in your teaching,
show integrity, dignity, sound speech that cannot be condemned, so

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that an opponent may be put to shame having nothing
evil to say about us. There is your teaching and
your conduct put together again in case you missed it.
And so now we have this eldership leg number one. Secondly,
we have families who are doing what God has called
and commanded families to do. That's leg number two. And

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then thirdly, we have godly mature men and women in
the church who are modeling this and engaging life on
life and instructing younger believers in this. This is body life, folks,
This is body life. You don't get this at a
ten thousand person conference. And this is why I spent

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all that time talking about that earlier on, because we're
beginning to create this image in our minds of Christianity
that is stadium based. What do you need? I need
the conference, I need the event, I need the boost
I need to know. What you need is a godly
eldership committed to sound teaching that is pointed at faith

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based in the truth that leads to godliness. What you
need is your family who is being submitted to this
and shaped by this and modeling it in the teaching
that you're doing in the home that is pointed in
faith rooted in the truth that leads to godliness. And
you need to be in relationship with mature men and
women in the church who've been at this for a

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while so that they have faith based in that truth
that has led over time to a track record of godliness,
so that they can model it for you. This is
body life. This is what the church is. This is
what the church looks like. It's a mess, like a
glorious mask. Amen. This this is what Paul gave his

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life for. That's what he gave his life too. And
this is what he's what he's raising up young Timothy
and young Titus and a papers and market up. This
is what he's raising up, raising them up for because
this is the way that the Gospel marks marches forward
into the next generation. And it's the only way that
the Gospel marches forward into the next generation. Again, there

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are more details about what this eldership looks like. And
I praise God that you guys are going through this
series and dealing with the local church and the essence
of it and what it does and all you know,
all all of that is is vital. But today I
just I want you to see the big picture. I
want you to understand the essence of the Christian existence

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and ethos and how you cannot separate this from body life.
You just what does this look like if you take
eldership out of now it's not just a mess. That's
a hot mess, right, no longer a glorious message. It's
a hot mess if you take eldership out of it.

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The rails aren't there, the boundaries aren't there, the checks
and balances aren't there. The gifts of God aren't there. See,
eldership requires these gifts and callings. Right, there's measurable things there.
You take away the checks and balances are the measurable things.
And where are we going? Now? Again, this is no guarantee.

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There's still difficulties that come. But praise be to God
that when we are functioning in accordance with the teaching
of the scriptures and the Bible becomes our authority for
faith and practice. Even when the wheels fall off, we
know where to go to get new wheels. Hey man,
So no, this is not a guarantee against problems and

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sin and difficulties. And you know that's not it. But folks,
this is also the beauty of the church church when
it is submitted to the apostolic authority. There are churches
who have been through horrible experience and they still stand.
There are marriages, somebody, you could probably stand up and testify.
There are marriages that have been through horrible experiences. But

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if you're rooted and grounded it in God, rooted and
grounded in the Gospel, rooted and grounded in His word,
you stand up and testify. So we've been married for
forty to fifty sixty years. Twenty years ago we almost
did make it right. That's a real testimony. And there
are churches who have that testimony. I love the was

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with John MacArthur. You know you mentioned John MacArthur earlier.
I was with him last week and in a meeting
of some guys, and one of the things I loved.
John MacArthur started pastoring Grace Community Church. They're in the
LA area. The year I was born, my hometown, the
year I was born, Okay, and so I'm forty nine

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years old. I'll be fifty eight. Next year he'll celebrate
his fiftieth anniversary. He's still in La I'm gone right,
but he's still right there at that church. A lot
of people don't realize Johnny Mack almost lost Grace Community Church.
He was almost ousted. His elders were meeting to get
rid of him at one point early on in his

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ministry there, it was a mess. It got ugly. But
when you're committed to the Apostolic teaching, I'm telling you
it's no guarantee that the wheels won't fall off, but
you know where to go, get some replacements. You can
survive difficulty, come out on the other side still running

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the race. This is a marathon. It's not a spirit.
Hey man, If you're running one hundred meters and you
stumble your toast, you can be Usain Bolt. You stumble
out of the blocks your toast. If you're running a marathon,
you can fall on your faith and you still got
time to get up and win that thing. Right, God,

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that our journey is a marathon. It's an ultra marathon,
not a spread because falling is the norm. Amen, But
we know where to go get wheels when the wheels fallow,
And we praise God for the Bride of Christ, the glorious,
imperfect yet being perfected Bride of Christ. May we love
her as he does. Let's prank Gracious God, our heavenly Father.

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How we thank you for your kindness toward us, for
your goodness in our lives, for the Church, the glorious
Bride of Christ. Thank you for healthy bodies of believers
led by godly elders submitted to your word, teaching that
truth that produces godliness. Thank you for homes and families

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that are committed to faithfully modeling and teaching this truth
day to day. Thank you for godly mature men and
women in the Church whose lives have been shaped by
this truth over the years, and who give of themselves
to transmit this truth and life on life relationships with

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younger believers. And thank you for the magnificent way that
all of these things come together to bear fruit for
the sake of Christ, who gave his very life for
this grant by your grace, that we would give our
lives two the thing he gave his life for, that
Christ might indeed have the fullness of the reward for
which he died, and that we might indeed have the

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fullness of Christ in us, the hope of glory, in
whose name we pray on him