Transcript

Congregational worship. Why, why, why are we here? Why do we meet together like this? And to many folks, it’s just because, “Well, that’s just what we do. We meet together.” And I’ll say this again, but folks, look, this is God’s idea. God ordained this meeting of us together. God ordained that we would have one another and we would meet together to worship him and honor him.

So this latest edition of our Congregational Worship Strategy Statement goes like this. It’ll be on your screens. The church assembled to worship. How? Through the Spirit- empowered preaching of the word to strengthen the saved and convert the lost with singing that reinforces the faith and expresses praise to God our audience. I believe that’s the best biblical, thoroughly biblical strategy statement for what we’re doing in a worship service that I could find. It’s really got tons of hours of my life in it meditating, thinking, praying, looking at it.

Well, let’s start with the first phrase. I. The church assembled. Why should we assemble? You do understand there’s a lot of folks around the world and a lot of folks in the Shoals that believe they’re followers of Jesus Christ but view a local church and assembling with the local church something they may do if they get around to it, something they might participate in if it fits their busy schedule. Or many of them, and I, I’ve heard this so many times, “I’m just so close to God when I’m out here fishing and I can just be just as close to God.” Well, you might can be close to God but you can’t serve God and take care of your brothers and sisters in Christ out there fishing unless your boat’s really big and we’re all out with you. Nothing wrong with fishing, certainly nothing wrong with hunting, but that’s not the base of my service to God.

The church assembled. Now let’s talk about the Old Testament picture of this. In the Old Testament, we find that word “assembly,” the people gathered together is used over 100 times referring to the gathering of the congregation of Israel. Now that was quite a feat, you understand, when the whole congregation of Israel was summonsed together, but very often that’s exactly what God would do. Then, of course, they assembled in their synagogues town to town, city to city all over the known world.

Deuteronomy 31:12, ” Assemble the people, the men and the women and children and the alien who is in your town,” now why they assembled we’ll get to this further in the outline, but in order “that they may hear and learn and fear the LORD your God, and be careful to observe all the words of this law.” God’s people getting together, learning the word of God together. There’s something special about that. There is a sanctity to congregational worship. It’s not just a good idea. Brother Matt, it’s not like, “Well, we could meet with a discipleship group on Thursday, might meet with Fellowship of Christian Athletes before school on Monday, and that’s good enough.” No, that’s not good enough. That’s secondary. The congregation of the local church is required to meet together. There’s a sanctity, a uniqueness to that that no other Christian group has or can claim.

Nehemiah 8:2, “Then Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly of men, women and all who could listen with understanding,” that means they had a nursery, that’s what that means, “on the first day of the seventh month.” So here they all come together so they could listen and understand what does God tell us as a people to be and to do.

Eight times the Old Testament mentions the whole assembly. The place of the collected assembly around the world as the, as Jews were scattered in all parts was called the synagogue. Now we even know our Lord as Jesus comes in to usher in a new dispensation yet living under the old, the Bible says in Luke 4:16, he says, “And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read.” Now even though the synagogues had become a den of, of wickedness in many cases, Jesus because he was faithful to God’s ordinance was faithful to the assembly of God’s local congregation, at least in that context of congregation which was the synagogue.

Now let’s cross over to the New Testament. We have the Greek equivalent of the old Hebrew word “assembly” used to gather the congregation of local church believers. For example, in James 2:2 James writes, “For if a man comes into your assembly.” It’s understood you as a local church family will assemble together. As a matter of fact, if, are you listening to me? To, to, to belong to a local church…. Let me say this to ya, and, and, and boy, these kinds of thoughts are so ingrained in our downgraded spiritual climate of the day and that is church has become the thing you attend. Where do you attend church? Where do you attend church? You hear that all the time and I know what they mean and I’m not gonna go out and reprove the next person who says that to me, but folks, you can’t attend a church. A church is us. It’s the body of Christ. You can’t attend a church. You can attend a church’s worship service or whatever they call some of these shenanigans they’re putting on, but you can’t attend a church. A church is not where you attend, a church is what you belong to. It should be, “Where do you belong in church? To what group are you a part of? To which church do you belong?” Not where do you attend church.

Acts 5:12 shows us how they all assembled together, “At the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were taking place among the people; and they were all with one accord in Solomon’s portico.” They all came together as one great congregation, all those who were being saved.

Acts 6:5, and “The statement found approval with the whole congregation,” they’re talking about appointing the deacons who would oversee the serving of the food to the widows who were being neglected in this context. But again, the whole congregation is together and the whole congregation heard the plan and the whole congregation said, “That sounds like a good plan. Let’s go for it.” Just like I’ve told the whole congregation of Grace Life this morning where God seems to be opening doors for us through Anchored in Truth missions and I hope the whole congregation here says, “Let’s go for it.” This didn’t happen overnight. This is what we’ve been praying and working toward for decades and that is indeed the truth.

Of course, the Bible clearly commands us not to miss these assemblies. Hebrews 10:24 and 25, instead of neglecting them or thinking light of them, we’re to be working to do what? To “let us consider,” you’re to be thinking on how what you’re gonna do when you get together with one another on Sunday, “let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together.” You should be through the week praying and thinking, “How can I help God’s people this week? How can I be an instrument or an agent to stir them on to biblically defined love and good works one toward the other knowing that this is the centerpiece of my life? I may do other things, I may go other places, I may belong to other groups and that’s okay, but this is my primary and first obligation in service to God, his local church assembly.” And not the one that fits the flavor of the week for you. Not being a church-hopper, finding the one that fits you, finding the one that suits you best. Who cares about what suits you? You’re a reprobate, wicked, lost, depraved, unregenerate sinner apart from God’s grace. How do you know what’s best? Your heart’s full of foolishness. You’d better go to the book and find out what the book says is the best church and find that one and belong to it, if they’ll take you and I’m sure if you’re humble and genuine they’ll take you. We certainly would. He says, “Don’t forsake the assembling of yourselves together as the habit of some.” The early church is just going and already some are laying out, “but encourage one another and all the more as you see the day growing near.”

So we see all through the Old Testament and I’m only scratching the surface, but all through the New Testament, faithfulness to the sacred ordinance of God, the assembling of yourselves for corporate worship is expected and commanded. Old and New Testament. Be careful in your thinking that to some degree parachurch ministries and parachurch Christian organizations do not take the place of your devotion, your energy, your giving to your local church. Other things are good to be involved in. I understand that and I applaud that as long, crowd out or diminish your devotion to the assembly of God. Now, when I say assembly here, I really mean the congregational worship assembly but it does go further, it means all we do together, small groups, missions, etc. But it all flows out of this hub of the wheel which is congregational worship in the spirit and power and preaching of the word.

The word “ekklesia” as I remind you often, is the word that is translated “church” in the New Testament and that word literally means “called out ones.” In the final and true definition and understanding, you don’t choose a church, God chooses it. God calls you out of belonging to other entities, to other collectivities, or to other assemblies. Not that you have to abandon all of those completely but he moves your heart to where your primary purpose and commitment and belonging is the local assembly of God’s believers, the church. So it is both our divine privilege to be a part of this called out group and it is our duty to be faithful and assemble with them. So the church assembly.

Now let’s go a step further. II. To worship. We gathered in here to worship. Now immediately when we say worship, everybody thinks about singing and playing music. That’s wonderfully good as a part of our worship but that’s not the primary part of our worship and it’s certainly not all that has to do with worship.

So what is worship? Well, let me back up just a little bit and remind you that worship, worship entails the totality of our lives. When we obey God, we worship God. When you take God’s word and you say, “Now in this situation at work, and this situation at school,” look at me, young people. Everybody look right up here. “If this situation at school, I want to do this. I want to tell her what it is. I want to tell this guy, I want to…” No, you go to God’s word and say, “Here’s what God says so I want to obey him. That shows that I honor and reverence him more than me.” That’s worship. When you obey God, it’s worship. When you serve God, it’s worship. That’s a part of our worship in the totality of our lives.

Now there’s one modifier that must be put in here. When you obey God and serve God according to his word, you worship him. If you “obey” God, if you “serve” to worship God, really what you’re doing, you’re obeying and worshiping yourself if it’s not according to his word. God, God has not left you to how you feel about worshiping him. You say, “Well, I don’t really enjoy the way y’all worship.” Well, find a more biblical pattern and show me and we’ll change. The goal is because God’s changed your heart is to learn to worship God according to how he wants to be worshiped. That becomes your joy. That becomes what excites you and then you have to grow into that. That’s part of what sanctification is and pastors need to quit catering to the carnal and the immature and the least sanctified to keep them excited and coming to church. We need to keep pushing them and exhorting them and growing them to where they reach for the higher and more biblical concepts of what worship really is.

We assemble to worship. We worship him in the totality of our lives. When we obey God we worship him. When we serve God we worship him. You remember when Saul came back from disobeying God about not killing all the Amalekites? And Saul built a big altar and sacrificed to the Lord and thought, “Maybe I’ll just do this big elaborate service to God here and this’ll make God happy.” And God said to Saul, “Saul, to obey is better than sacrifice. This was an impressive array of worship before Me but I don’t care because your heart’s not in it. You didn’t do, you didn’t do what I told you to do. I said to kill everybody and you brought back spoils from the war, from the battle.” So striving to be obedient is so important.

Now obeying God is worship to him, serving God is worship to him if it’s according to his word, but enjoying God is worshiping him. Enjoying God. As I know him better, as I study his truths, as I purpose to obey what he says, I begin to realize the glory, the wonder, the wealth, the privilege of knowing his wisdom and I begin to enjoy him and that’s worship. All of these components come together.

Now let’s come to the congregational assembly a little more directly now. Belonging to and worshiping with a local church family, once again, is a primary duty and primary joy of the child of God. Psalm 122:1, “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the LORD.'” Something in me has grown to where that’s not a necessary drudgery, that’s become a joy in my heart.

I remember after I was converted before I even came on your staff, how I looked forward to Sunday morning and how I looked forward to Sunday night, and how I looked forward to Wednesday night and that was so different for me because I didn’t look forward to going to any church before I was converted. It became my joy.

III. The church assembled to worship through the Spirit-empowered preaching. Let’s talk about Spirit empowerment. That is so vitally important. Notice how the Apostle Paul talks to the Corinthians about the difference in his preaching ministry compared to the teachers and philosophers of the Greek culture of the day. He says in 1 Corinthians 2:4, “my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” Now what he’s saying is, “You Corinthians, you have this high esteem for great oratory skills, you have this high esteem for men who can get up and sway the audience with their grandiose language and the way they can speak and enunciate. You have the highest esteem for men who are persuasive in their speech.” Paul says, “Don’t matter to me. I didn’t come to you in any way to compete with the eloquence, the charisma, the persuasiveness of the philosophers and teachers of your age,” because, you see, man’s power is in persuasion. Paul says here, “I came to you in demonstration of power.” Man’s power is in persuasion, God’s power is in demonstration. “I’m not here to wow you with my antics and my delivery and my charisma and my yelling or whatever it is, I just do what I do.” At the end of the day, are you affected? Are you changed by the Spirit of God? That marks the authenticity of this pulpit. If lives aren’t changed, if marriages aren’t changed, if young people are not changed, Paul says, “When I preached to you Corinthians, you guys changed. You love Christ now. You’re gathered as an assembly of believers now. You love the preaching of the word now. You began to repent of your fornications and your adulteries, in your wickedness in your lives.” Now they weren’t finished products yet but it’s clear the power of God changes them. Paul says, “Listen to your persuasive orators of your culture all you want, my preaching changed your life.”

“My message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” That’s the kind of preaching we must have where people are broken over sin, where people see the weight of the depravity and their wanting before a holy God, when people begin to embrace the glories, the wonders, the realities of this Christ that saves us and they begin to treasure him and love him. Changed and it’s demonstrated in their lives and as you have the True Church Conference, it’s demonstrated when the people come in and just mingle with you and learn what your heart’s about.

Persuasion was the Corinthian passion. “Oh, he is such a powerful persuasive speaker.” Persuasion was the Corinthian’s passion, demonstration was Paul’s passion. He said, “I want to show you changed people who used to love sin and self and, no, they’re not through sinning, they’re still repenters but now they love God and His Son Jesus Christ. They used to meet at the temple of Diana and committed gross fornications with temple prostitutes, they no longer go there, they meet with the church of the Lord Jesus Christ and have renewed their vows to their own wives. Be done,” Paul says, “with just great speakers, powerful, impacting sermons or, or lights and sound and drama and multimedia. It’s not all bad but here’s my question: who’s being changed?”

Two key words for pastors if you want your preaching to change lives. Two key words, they go together: believing prayer. Do you pray, pastor, believing God’s gonna use this word by the empowerment of the Spirit to change lives? Small group leader, do you pray going into Sunday morning believing God is gonna use the teaching of his word to impact lives for his glory this week? Believing.

I’m not believing Tom Clay’s excellent music ministry is gonna build the kingdom of God. I’m not believing Jeff Noblit’s pulpit abilities are gonna build the kingdom of God. I’m not believing that a beautiful new mall area with carpet without wrinkles is gonna build the kingdom of God. I pray believing God will take his word sometimes when I’m at my most feeble and weakest and use the truth of it to change lives so that the, at the end of the day Tom Clay nor Jeff Noblit nor anyone else gets the glory. God must get the glory.

We, this church, must be a demonstration that God changes lives his way for his glory. Some of you sitting out there right now this morning, you’re changing. Some of you sitting out there right now, this will shock many of you, you used to not like me. I’ve got news for you, I don’t like me. I don’t like a lot about me, that’s why I’m a continual repenter. But I’ve seen your countenance change. I’ve seen your interest in the preached word change and God by changing your heart not from me personally, that can come or go, but for the truth I proclaim shows God changing you. Do you know what happens when God gets through changing you? You’re hooked. You won’t leave. It’s better than cocaine. It’s better than anything else on earth. It’s like, “I’ve got to have that. I don’t have to have Jeff Noblit but I gotta have that, the preaching of the word in the power of the Spirit.”

In another verse, 1 Corinthians 4:19 and 20, the Apostle Paul writing to the same church says, “I’ll come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I shall find out, not the words,” you got a bunch of false teachers coming in there that were putting Paul down saying Paul wasn’t a true man of God, he said, “When I show up at Corinth, I’m not looking for their fancy speech and persuasive speech, I want to know about their power. For the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power.” Now he goes on to say, “Now when I show up, am I gonna need to bring a rod?” I wonder if Paul really took around about a 10-12 foot stick. Do you reckon? That’d straighten some of y’all out if I had a 10-12 foot stick and whacked it around up here awhile. That’s literally, I’m not making something up to be silly, that’s what the Bible says. Of course, it was figurative language. Paul knew he was God’s man, in God’s place, doing God’s will, for God’s glory, and he said, “Bring on all those fancy impressive guys that are stealing your hearts away. I wanna see if their teaching’s changed you to love God and grow you in godliness.” Here’s what you find, when you start listening to a false teacher, when you start listening to a slick, whiz-bang guy who can really sway you and really draw you in, here’s what you’ll find out: over time you become more sensual, more fleshly and more worldly versus being more of a repenter, more humble and more godly. That’s the power of God, the last one.

So the Corinthians gloried in the power of discourse but not in godliness and Paul confronted it head on saying, “Preaching must be Spirit-empowered.” Now let’s go to the preaching of the word. The church assembled to worship. What’s the first part of worship? Spirit-empowered preaching of the word of God. That’s our greatest form of worship, Spirit-empowered preaching.

Now when I talk about preaching the word, I’m not talking about using the Bible to scratch your carnal itch. I’m not talking about massaging and manipulating the text so it, it kind of meets you where you in your carnal pursuits are right now. I expect preaching this word faithfully – are you listening to me – I expect preaching this word faithfully will sometimes rattle your world, shake things up, trouble you. “I don’t know if I’m gonna go back there.” Well, go on to Happy Church and you might find yourself in hell one day. You better develop a love for the truth even if it rattles your cage, even if it doesn’t fit what you enjoy because if you’re saved – listen to me – there’s at least the germ in you that says, “I want the truth.” There’s at least the germ in there that says, “I want the truth.” Why? “Because I need it. It helps me.”

So not using the Bible to scratch a carnal itch but preaching the word to meet the spiritual need. When Martin Luther broke off the Roman Catholic Church with his 95 theses, the 95 unbiblical things he saw in the Church centered in Rome, Martin Luther said this, “Preaching the word is the first mark of the church.” Whatever else the church must do, assembling together to have a God-called man exhort and preach, reprove, rebuke, exhort, instruct, encourage from the word of God is the first mark, the primary mark of the church. He went on to say, “God’s word cannot exist without God’s people.” He said, “Where you find God’s people, pretty soon they’re gonna get somebody to preach to them.” He said, “It’s, it’s just gonna happen. Preach the word to them. When God’s people get together, it just begins to happen.” And then he also said, “And God’s people cannot be without God’s word.” You put out the truth of the word of God, you throw out the truth of the word of God, you know what you’ll find? You’ll find the sheep, “Baa, baa,” start coming to the sheep food. The problem with a lot of us pastors is we kinda like having a bunch of goats in there because we want the numbers up. Boy, did I ever learn my lesson. I’ve decided you can have the goats, they’re a lot of trouble. Sheep want sheep food.

Albert Mohler, the President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary said this, “The early church leaders did not just dabble in a little bit of preaching.” In other words, it was the mainstay of what we’re about.

Well, in the Old Testament this is so vividly and clearly taught. Exodus 35:1, ” Then Moses assembled all the congregation of the sons of Israel, and said to them, ‘These are the things that the LORD has commanded you to do.'” God’s people meeting together, the word of God preached to the people.

Nehemiah, the governor, Nehemiah 8:1-3 wrote this, “And all the people gathered as one man in the square which was in front of the Water Gate, and they asked Ezra the scribe,” the priest, “to bring the book of the law of Moses,” the Bible, “which the LORD had given to Israel.” Now they’ve returned from exile and they said, “Number 1, God’s people are together, let’s get the book and let’s preach it.” Verse 2, “Then Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly of men, women and all who could listen with understanding, on the first day of the seventh month.” And, “He read from it before the square which was in front of the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of men and women, those who could understand; and all the people were attentive to the book of the law.” The first thing they did getting back from pagan captivity was, “Let’s get together, let’s get the Bible, let’s preach the word.”

The congregation in the Old Testament was assembled, God man brought God’s people, God’s word to God’s people. That’s what we see throughout the Old Testament. In the New Testament, I can only run through this quickly. Paul instructing Timothy, 2 Timothy 3:14 through 4:5, “You,” Timothy, “however, continue in all things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God,” it’s God speaking out to you, it’s God’s breath, so “All Scripture is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season,” Timothy, keep, “reproving, rebuking, exhorting, with great patience and instruction.” Why, Paul? Why do I keep on keeping on with great patience? “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.” Can I pause? Is that you? Are you one of these flighty, little, fickle, backbone like a jellyfish Christians? You think, “I think I’ll leave Grace Life. I think I’ll go where it’s fun on Sunday.” You know what I’m gonna do if you do that? First I’ll weep some because that’s very very sad, and secondly I’ll get in this pulpit next week and I’ll reprove and I’ll rebuke and I’ll exhort with great patience and instruction. The next week I’ll do it again. The next week I’ll do it again. Because if you’re one of the sheep, now there are other churches out there that I know you can go to and serve God, not many of them but there’s others out there. So if you’re God’s sheep, you’re gonna come back looking for God’s sheep and God’s sheep food and we gotta be faithful putting it out there so when the sheep come in, they recognize it. You know what I’ve told the people who join our church? We’ve got some joining this morning, at least they were before this sermon. I’ve said, “You know what you’ve probably found? When you came to Grace Life Church, you came home to a place you’ve never been before.” And they’ll say, “That’s right. It feels like home. I’m drawn to this. I, I fit this. I ought to be in on this.” Sheep want that sheep food so he says, “Timothy, keep on reproving, rebuking, exhorting with great patience and instruction, for the time will come,” can you put that back up, Tommy? “The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine,” they’re just not gonna have the discipline to sit under sound preaching. They’re gonna say, “Is there anything new? Is there anything different? Isn’t there anything unique out there other than this stuff?” “But wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and they will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship,” really what it means is endure that hardship. That’s not easy to deal with when they don’t really want sound preaching of sound truth any longer. “Endure that hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”

I want to talk about that phrase “fulfill your ministry” for just a second. Fulfill your ministry. What it means is leave nothing undone. What he’s saying is if you will faithfully preach the word of God the way you know to preach it, you’re filling your ministry full, you are fulfilling your ministry. That is your responsibility.

True discipleship requires one to be faithful to congregational assemblies, to be equipped through the biblical preaching of the pastor. If anyone has ever told you, “I can be a disciple of Jesus Christ and serve the Lord and without the local church or without the preaching,” no, you cannot. God’s ordained you must have it and he’s wiser than you are and it’s needful for some of you, and you are sharp and you do know the Bible and you do have insights and you can lead great discipleship groups, I can give you all that, but God has ordained that you require the humbling of sitting under the preaching of a failed, weak preacher because that’s the way he does it, so much so that to the, to the Corinthians he said, “It’s the foolishness of preaching.” In other words, that’s what the world says this is, it’s foolish. There’s so many other ways to communicate more effectively today. So they would call it, “It’s foolish to center all your lives on gathering as a congregation and hearing this man exegete and preach the word of God.”

Well, then he goes on to say, “But what the world calls foolishness, we call the wisdom of God.” The highest form of worship is the preaching and the receiving of the preaching of the word of God.

When we built this auditorium, I’m trying to think how long it’s been. It’s been, what? Twenty years? Is that, is that close, 20 years ago? When I laid out the design, I put this pulpit front, center and prominent. I patterned it after Charles Haddon Spurgeon’s pulpit. I, I patterned it after the Puritan and Baptist pulpits of former centuries because unlike the Catholic pulpit which is over to the side because the center of their worship is the sacraments where the priest gives you juice and the priest gives you a wafer, and they teach that Jesus dies for you again when you get that and you get saving grace but you’ve gotta keep coming back to get more of Jesus and saving grace. Aren’t you glad that when the word of God is preached and Christ is revealed in you, you place your faith in him and once for all you’re done. You don’t need Jeff Noblit or any priest with some silly party hat on to administer anything to you. Their pulpit is over here because the center of their worship is sacraments, but the center of the old Protestant, Puritan, Evangelical, Presbyterian and Baptist is the preaching of the word so they always built their buildings centered on the pulpit where the word of God is preached. It doesn’t have to be me, but a faithful, God-called preacher of the word.

Now I want you to notice when Paul’s writing to Timothy in Corinth as in Rome and other places, theater was a big thing. The arena and fantastic spectacles that you could see in the arena was a great event of the day but there’s not the tiniest notion of bringing any of that into the church to help the church be more effective. There’s no mention of any of those things. There’s no mention of music style. There’s no mention of doing dramas. There’s no mention of lighting or smoke or special effects or great, um, screens to put all kind of fanciful things on. There’s no mention of any of that. You know why? Because why do we need to put on something when you can just demonstrate the reality of what we’re about? This marriage is saved. This man’s returned home to his wife. We’ve got one of those that’s happening right now. This lady over here’s gotten over her gossiping bitter spirit. And on and on and on we could go, a demonstration of the reality. I don’t need to put on a drama, I can just show you the real thing. Amen? It’s the world. Look at Hollywood. Hollywood puts on all this garbage today, I, I’ve, I’ve seen my last movie where the superhero saves the world and she’s a 110 pound woman beating all these 200 pound guys up all the time. It’s a lie. It’s a fantasy. The world puts on dramas because they don’t have the truth, they don’t have any of the reality. We’ve got the real thing.

I got jotted in my notes here that when I preached this the last time, we had 13 marriages in biblical counseling. I don’t know if they’d all been lost but I do know at that time they’d all been saved. Thirteen marriages. I’m not saying it’s all wrong or wicked, don’t misunderstand me, but instead of flying a banner out front that says, “Divorce care,” the church of Jesus Christ should be flying a banner that says, “Divorce prevention.” And sometimes that happens and I understand that and there’s repentance and there’s new beginnings. I understand that. I’m not condemning anybody on that point, I’m just saying why do we embrace the world when we have the word of God in the power of God?

Now finally, the church is a living organism and the church has to breathe. As a church faithfully preaches the word of God in the power of the Spirit and strives to live out the word of God, then a church breathes and it breathes in the oxygen of the truly converted, the sheep, and it brings, breathes out the carbon dioxide of the false professor and the unconverted, and that’s a process that happens. Now in my early days in the pastorate, we had a lot of carbon dioxide going out, not so much oxygen, but as a church matures, that becomes less and less and less. Paul worded it this way in 2 Corinthians 2:14 through 17. He said, “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.” Now he’s talking to a people who knew what a triumph was. In a Roman triumph, the, the general would bring his troops back in and as he’s marching those troops through Rome, or whatever major city he brought them into, they would be burning incense and they would have in chains all the captives they’d taken in conquering their enemy, and so as they walk along, there’s this aroma, aroma that the Romans would cheer and yell and shout, “Victory! Victory! Victory! There’s an enemy we don’t have to worry anymore! They’re conquered!

Look at them, their leaders are in chains coming back in! The incense aroma is going up. We can all smell it, it’s a sweet savor of life and victory for Rome!”

Verse 15, Paul using the analogy says, “For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.” When people smell us, they smell the work of Jesus Christ and how he gets men to God. They get something of the smell of the wisdom and the power and the love of God.

Now go further, verse 16, “to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life.” As the Greek Roman general brought his triumphal entry into the city, the incense were going up and for the Romans, they smelled that incense, life, “We don’t have to dread that foe. We’re safe. We conquered them. Look at them in their chains.” But for those in the chains walking along, when they smelled the incense of the triumphal entry, they knew that soon, “I’ll be imprisoned or executed.” To them the incense was not a fragrance of life, it was a fragrance of death.

And Paul said, “Everywhere I go,” time out. Now you listen, I’m going to ask you when it’s over and you’ve got to answer this correctly. Paul said, “Everywhere I go, I’m not changing my method to get better results. I’m not capitulating to the clever junk of the world to make Jesus look better. I’m gonna stay with what I’m supposed to do. I’m gonna herald and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ. To some it smells like death. They hate it. They detest it. They don’t want any of it. To others it’s like, praise God, I’ve found God and found my Savior and found sins forgiven and found life eternal.” And Paul says, “Everywhere I go, it’s that. It’s both. To some it’s an aroma of life, to others it’s a fragrance of death.”

As you’re sitting in this service this morning and I’m preaching God’s truth and God’s word about God’s way in the church, is there something in you that grasps that and is drawn to that, that seems like, “That’s life. That’s what I need to be a part of.” Or is there something in you that says, “O dear God, get me outta here.” Then you’re in death. You’re in spiritual death. You are spiritually dead and the judgment of God awaits you. Sir, ma’am, young person, you must repent and embrace Christ before it’s too late because right now you’re in chains and if you wait too long, you’ll be spiritually executed at the judgment bar of God. Which one is it? Is the truth of God’s word and the Gospel of Jesus Christ a joy to your spirit? Now certainly it rebukes us, it does me, it humbles us, it tells me I need to do better, yes, absolutely, but there’s a part in there that says, “Oh yes, praise be to my God and Savior. It’s an aroma of life to me. Of life to me.” Is it for you?

Now to come full circle, you need to pray as in North Africa, South America, several points across America, we teach preachers these truths and have lived them out in their churches for the glory of God.