Transcript

Grab your Bibles and let’s go to Luke 2 this morning. Luke 2. If you are visiting with us, we normally are verse by verse, chapter by chapter through books of the Bible in our pulpit preaching but we’re between books. We spent about 5 1/2 years in the Gospel of Luke but I wanted to take this season in between expositional preaching of books in the Bible to touch on some foundational issues for the church. You know, we have a lot of new members in our church in recent days and it’s good for them to hear, “Oh, that’s what we believe and that’s what we stand on.” But also it’s good for the rest of us to reaffirm some things. So I’m going to preach our purpose statement. “The Bible Driven Church,” the Christmas edition. You might say, “Pastor, what does the birth of Christ or the incarnation of Christ, what does that have to do with our purpose as his church?” Oh, it has everything to do with it. Everything to do with it.

Luke 2, if you would, and we’ll begin in verse 8.

8 In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; 11 for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”

You see, heaven gets it. Heaven gets it and hopefully we are, by God’s Spirit, getting it also. When these angels, this multitude of awesome terrifying angels burst on the scene before these lowly shepherds tending their flocks by night and they cry out, “Glory to God in the highest, and peace,” in the King James version, “and good will toward men,” these angels are extending that peace and goodwill has come to man from God and it has come to man from God through his Son Jesus Christ and this is worthy of the highest of glory. Now, all of God’s works give him glory but this work, this work that was beginning to unveil in the city, no, the little hamlet of Bethlehem, that first Christmas morning, is glory in the highest. You see, heaven is already there. Heaven already gets what God’s glory is about. Heaven already understands that the centerpiece of time and eternity, the purpose for everything, is the glory of God. And heaven especially grasps as these angels show us, that the highest of glory is what God accomplished through his Son in saving a sinful people to be God’s people, to be sustained in churches, and one day when he returns to be joined with him and glorified with him and reign with him forever in the eternal state. This, this part of God’s work is God’s highest glory.

Now, our text tells us that one angel informed the shepherds of the Messiah’s birth but a multitude of heavenly host sweep down from heaven and under the press of sheer joy and expectancy, are compelled to cry out, “Glory to God in the highest.” God’s being, God’s wisdom, God’s beauty, God’s power and his other numerous attributes have been displayed in myriads of ways from eternity past and his glories are too numerous to mention. Think about the glories of the first creation. They are often so breathtaking: the stars, the planets, the suns, the moons, the galaxies, the earth, its hills and trees and mountains and rivers and streams and oceans, the land creatures, the creatures of the sea, the serene illumination of the dawn, a blazing sunset, the power of the hurricane or tornado, the piercing brilliance of lightning, the rolling thunder, the blast of winter’s cold, the awe-inspiring beauty and peace of a new snowfall. The power and majesty of the angels, heavenly creatures, angels who are superior in power, wisdom and intellect even to man, and then there is the masterpiece work of mankind himself, man which is made in the image of God, man a marvel of spirit, soul and body. The physical body alone is a marvel to behold and despite all of our scientific powers, as many mysteries remain today as have been discovered. All this and countless other wonders testify to our God’s holy unparalleled wisdom, beauty and power. These all bring him glory and render him worthy of endless praise.

But on this dark night, tucked away in the pastoral hamlet of Bethlehem, a wonder, a mystery is just beginning to unfold, a marvel of God’s doing which is of such dimensions that all of the other wonders of all of the ages and of eternity past, cannot but touch the hem of the garment of the glory of what is unveiled in a stable cave and laid in a feed trough. God’s work of redeeming men, sustaining them through this life and then one day glorifying them in eternity future, all through the righteous works of this one born to the virgin, his own Son, is the wonder of all wonders. It is the glory of all glories. Nothing in all of God’s previous works compare in glory to his work of redeeming his children through the work of his Son. If all of his other works combined are the hem of the garment, his saving work of saving fallen man through the life, death and resurrection of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the full garment and what a glorious garment it is, it’s like the train of the robe filling the temple in Isaiah’s vision. One of the ways in which this glory, the glory of God’s work of saving people through his Son is the greatest of God’s work and the greatest of God’s glory, is that everything that is and every event of all time and eternity has been precisely orchestrated to the fulfillment of this greatest of works. This is the greatest of all of God’s work performed by the greatest of all persons, the Lord Jesus Christ. As the Apostle Paul recorded in Colossians 1:13 through 18, “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities–all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.” Ephesians 3:21 reminds us, “to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.”

God is to be glorified for everything but the highest of all glories is his work through his Son Jesus Christ. That’s why we’ve got to be careful in churches that we don’t forget to be Christ-centered in everything. You see, Jesus is the highest of all beings and of all works, Jesus’ work is the highest of all works and Jesus’ work is the saving and the building of his people, his church. It is indeed, church, our duty but more, indeed much more, it is our treasured joy and delight to join God in his mission of glorifying himself in the building of his churches until the kingdom comes and then all his true children will be gathered as one glorious church to bring him glory and honor and praise for eternity. But for now, we are still fallen creatures, though redeemed, on a fallen earth. Now he is presently employing his wisdom accompanied by the power of his Spirit to work through our efforts as astonishing as that is, to build the church and to build up the church until the last member is added and he returns to judge the earth and establish the eternal state. As the church is being built by his wisdom and his power, then he is glorified and this is his highest glory. So God has commissioned us, he has called you, to join him in his highest work and his glory in the highest, the work of his Son and the building of his church. That ought to humble you. That ought to make you say, “Oh, me. But, wow, what a privilege.”

Approaching 30 years ago, I put together a purpose statement. We adopted it as the purpose statement of our church all about what the church is about and it centers on and it stands on and it thrives toward the glory of God. Now, someone has said to glorify God means you make the right estimation of God and then you make a very great presentation of that so we have to know what he is, who he is, and what he wants, and we have to do that accurately and then we want to show that forth, and God has chosen that his church, saving those who are in the church, growing and being a true biblical church, is his primary means in time, that is not in the eternal state so it’s true in the eternal state to a degree also, but in time that’s the way God will manifest – listen – his highest glories.

We said this, we wrote it out this way: the purpose of the church is to glorify God by obediently making and equipping disciples of Christ both in the Shoals and throughout the world by the power of the Holy Spirit. Let’s take that a phrase at a time. First of all, to glorify God. As we have seen very clearly even from the message of Christ’s birth, the glory of God was the center. I mean, there it was. The shepherds are being informed. “There is a baby born, a Savior who is Christ the Lord.” They are terrified. “Don’t be terrified,” the angels said. “This is news of great joy for you and really for all the peoples. He’s not just the Savior of the Jews, he’s the Savior for all peoples, tongues, tribes and nations.” Then as if heaven can’t help it, the sky is illumined and bursting forth sweeping down out of heaven is this mighty realm of angels who say, “Glory to God in the highest.” It’s almost like the angel said, “Do you guys not get it? We’ve been waiting from eons and eternity from the unfolding of this, the highest of God’s wisdom, the greatest of God’s beauty, the wonders of God’s power manifested in his Son to save his people to make them like him that they might reign with him forever.” The angels are saying, “Do you not get it? This is it, the highest of everything that God will ever do is now beginning before your eyes.”

Now, that’s why we begin our purpose statement with the purpose of the church is to glorify God and it must glorify him. The church is his prized purchase. He bought it. He purchased it. Acts 20:28 says, purchased it with his own blood. He purchased it. It’s the church is his building, our text says in Matthew 16, that upon this rock I will build my church. You know, when an architect or a contractor builds his finest structure, he wants it to say something about him. “Look at the skills I’ve acquired. Look at the abilities. Look at the creativity. Look at the workmanship.” So as Christ saves his own people, we don’t save them, it’s not up to us, it’s not our manipulations, schemes and techniques. God forbid the blasphemous thought. Christ builds his church, saving his own, and it’s to show forth what he can do, not what we can do. He bought it with his own blood. He builds it by his own strength and power.

And the church also the Bible says is his body. He’s the head, the Bible says, and the church is the body. I’ve heard people say, “Well, you know, I love Christ and I’m committed to Christ but I don’t care much for the church.” Well, I can sympathize with that because a lot of churches are not worth caring much about, to be honest, but you ought to find one that is worth being a part of and commit your life there because that’s God’s plan and he doesn’t have a Plan B. Remember, my testimony, I was 19 when I was converted and knew nothing about nothing and God had saved me and I had problems with the churches I would visit and the people I would meet. In fact, I don’t think they are serious about Christ and the Holy Spirit said to me, “Well, you ain’t so hot yourself. You’ve got growing and maturing and humbling and repenting to do.” And I sure did and still do, by the way. But here’s what God in effect said to me, you say, “Did he speak audibly?” No, it was louder than that. He said, “Jeff, my desire and my design is to glorify myself and do my work through local churches. You can either get inside and be a part of the solution instead of standing on the outside and just be a critical part of the problem.”

It’s through his church. The church is his body. You can’t love the head, Jesus, and not love the body, the church. It’s his prized purchase. It’s his building. It’s his body. And then in a precious and beautiful way, he says the church is my bride. It’s my bride. Ephesians 5 and Revelation 21. You now and in the proper biblical understanding when a man wins a bride, she comes over to be one with him. They are one flesh. She takes his name and therefore she begins to represent his character and his reputation and his name in the world and in the community and that’s what the church is to be. We’re not here to do what we want to do, we’re not here to do what makes us even comfortable. As a matter of fact, to be a true church may make you and I sometimes uncomfortable. It may not be rah, rah, happy, happy every Sunday. Why? Because it’s not about us. The church is not my bride, the church is Christ’s bride. It’s to be about him and, and you see, I get the wonderful privilege, you and I get the wonderful privilege, of being on this sanctification pilgrimage of slowly but steadily changing my want to’s and my desires or my affections to line up with what he wants and what he desires and what he is pleased with, and then pretty soon I want his church to be what he wants it to be and not what I used to think I wanted it to be.

Folks, that’s the growth and sanctification process of every Christian and we have to be patient with new believers and young believers. Sometimes new believers and young believers if they haven’t grown, come into the church and they have 1001 creative, wonderful ideas of all the things we should be doing to make the church more effective and some of those are okay but often if they are like Jeff Noblit and all of my wonderful creative ideas, they were fleshly and they were worldly because I just hadn’t had much of that purged out of my system yet. And then we grow to develop an insatiable appetite for what does God want in God’s church? It’s his prized purchase. It’s his building. It’s his body. It’s his bride.

You know, I thought through the years a couple of things that I do not want anyone messing with. I do not like nurses and doctors messing with my body. When they start sticking and probing and scratching and injecting and cutting stuff, it just bothers me. I had a little thing to be removed on my back years ago, I went into the doctor’s office and I said, “Now, Doc, what’s the strongest legal substance you can give me before you begin whittling on my back?” He just laughed and he helped me out. Just to be honest, he did good on his part. I don’t like people messing with my bride. If you’ve got one half ounce of manhood in you, you don’t want anybody to mess with your bride either, amen?

Years ago we were in a store, I’m not going to mention the name because it wouldn’t be appropriate. Pam and I were in there and she was about 10, 15 feet away from me and she went up to the counter and the person who ran that store was a known womanizer and he came up to my wife and my wife is pretty, she’s pretty on the inside, she’s pretty on the outside. He walked up to her at the counter and he said, “Can I help you, baby?” Did he just call my wife baby? He did. So I walked over there, I hadn’t done this before or since and I said, “Sir, she ain’t your baby.” Now, I’m not a fighting man but on that day I was committed if he didn’t understand what I meant, I’d just drag him over the counter and help him understand just exactly what I meant by, “She ain’t your baby.” I don’t know about you, boy, I don’t want to go here but I don’t like the crudeness, I don’t like the infuriating rhetoric at times, but I would love to have a little more manhood in our culture. Real manhood. I’m a little bit tired of effeminate sissy men.

So anyway, that happened that day and do you know why? I don’t want anybody messing with my bride. Now, listen to me: you keep your hands off of the bride of Christ. This church is not yours, it’s his. Pastor, Jeff Noblit, keep your hands off the bride of Christ. It is not the deacon’s church, it is not the pastor’s church, it is not the denomination’s church, it is not the majority vote church, the church is the bride of Christ. We must be dedicated with all of our hearts, “What saith the Scriptures?” That’s what we’re committed to do. Why? It’s of him. It’s about him. It’s for him. It’s by him. It’s through him and his work of building his church according to the angels on this day, the shepherds, it’s the highest of his glory and we can get in on it with him and, God forbid, we’re an obstacle in his work of glorifying himself through his church. Can I get an amen there? Let’s strive there. We always fall, we always slip, but we must always be repenters and come back. The purpose of this church is to glorify God. It should be that when the community hears those testimonies, they’ll say, “No man could coerce or manipulate that.” And so what do they have to say? Jeff Noblit didn’t do that. Those clever elders didn’t create some kind of clever techniques and got that done. It wasn’t the sweetness of the ladies serving those folks. No, God did that through his Son and his Gospel. Then he gets the glory and we don’t get it and that’s what we want in his church.

The purpose of the church is to glorify God, secondly, by obediently. That’s the next phrase in the outline. By obediently. You see, we bring Christ the glory he deserves through a total commitment to obedience to his will for his church. I’m convinced God does not want us any smarter in our church work, he just wants us more obedient to the work of the church. You know, the Bible is a thoroughly sufficient manual for the church, we just need to believe it and need to obey it. I’ve said this so many times and I know it gets old but let’s say it again, how amused we are at all the creative faddish techniques that have been coming down the pike. I mean, years ago I’d get the flyers in the mail that said, “All right to reach the Boomer generation, the baby boomers, you’ve got to make your church like this, this, and this.” So you have to do all these creative faddish techniques to reach the Boomers. About the time you got that one done they’d say, “Wait a minute, there is a new generation, the Busters are coming and they are totally different so you’ve got to change the church now and you’ve got to do this, and this, and this, do these techniques and these fads and these gimmicks to reach the Busters.” Then it got to Generation X and then it’s the Lost Generation, then it was Generation C and now we have the Millennials and the church is like a dog chasing its tail. Why don’t we just be obedient to the work of the church. Look, it doesn’t matter to me if you’re a Boomer, a Buster, a Generation X, a Generation C or a Millennial, what you need is the Gospel of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit to regenerate your heart. Be obedient to the work of the church.

Churches have become Six Flags over Jesus and evangelical country clubs. Today too often when a family chooses a church, it’s choosing just another form of family recreation. “Well, here is some good clean stuff. My kids need to be involved in it.” That’s not what a church is. A church is people who have been changed by the Gospel so much so that they are willing to lay down their lives one for another. Charles Haddon Spurgeon in the middle part of the 19th century saw this trend even in his day of leaning toward amusements and entertainments and cool stuff so Spurgeon said this, “The devil has seldom done a cleverer thing than hinting to the church that a part of her mission is to provide entertainment for the people with a view to winning them. Providing amusement for the people is nowhere spoken of in the Scriptures as a function of the church.” Listen what Spurgeon said here, “The need is Bible doctrine so understood and so felt that it sets men aflame.” That’s what we need. You say, “Well, it won’t work anymore.” Well, if it doesn’t work, you get on your face and you pray until the Spirit of God energizes it and then it will work. You don’t change the means just because the power is gone. The power is gone because you don’t believe in the means anymore.

In John 14:15, Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” We’re talking about obedience to what God wants done in his church. The early church leaders said this to their persecutors in Acts 5:29, “We must obey God rather than men.” Their formula, their approach to church life was not fitting with the culture, it wasn’t cool or hip and they said, “Sorry, we’re going to obey God. We’re not going to obey men.” Romans 16:19, Paul wrote to the church at Rome and he said, “the report of your growth”? No. He said, “The report of your success”? No. “The report of your great giving”? No. “The report of your obedience has reached to all.” Paul is saying, “That’s what I want to hear out of the churches.” And I would hope that it would be that if someone thinks about Grace Life Church, they will say, “Well, they’re not a perfect people, as a matter of fact their pastor is probably the most imperfect one, but they are humble and repentant and they strive to be an obedient church.” That’s enough for me, amen? Obedient to the head of the church. Why? Look, because like the angels told the shepherds on this day, this is the highest, this is the glory of God in the highest. God is glorified greatly for all the wonders of his work but his work of saving people and building his church, that’s glory in the highest. We must be obedient here.

Oh, let me say this because I think this is so important: if we had been focused in those early years on success instead of obedience, we would not know in ministry today the successes that we know. Did you get that? And that’s where a lot of young pastors mess up. They get to pulling off of the old standards and they get to doing what “works,” what the people want, and they end up, I’m in year 30 something now, 36ish in total ministry, and these are the best years of my life ministerially but if we had been chasing success, so many pastors reach their 50s and they are worn out and they realize, “I’ve given my heart and life and energies to the wrong stuff and it’s too late now to start over.”

Glory of God. How? By obediently. 3. making and equipping disciples of Christ. Jesus gave these marching orders right before he ascended back into heaven. He said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Go and make disciples. I think it’s important to remind ourselves what he did not say, he did not say go and get decisions. The question is not how many decisions did you have. He did not say go and get responses. “Well, we had so many respond.” I think that’s wonderful. I’m not against decisions or responses but what I’m really for is have they become disciples. He didn’t say go and get baptisms. We’ve had a wonderful fall of baptisms, a lot of conversions, but it’s not important to me to compare numbers of baptism. He didn’t say go and get decisions or responses or baptisms, he said go and make disciples.

If we’re not careful, we will fall into this craft of creating things that get decisions and it’s not true to Christianity, it’s decisionism. We create schemes and methods and environments where we can get people to say they believe on Jesus but I don’t understand what Jesus they are believing on sometimes because I don’t see a love and devotion to Christ and his church in their lives and it’s not true believing, it’s a believeism. And you have decisionism and believeism and responsism and then this whole formula comes together for outreach meetings and they call it revival. It’s not true revival, it’s revivalism. We’ve been there, Grace Life, amen? Remember them lined up around the walls and out in the hallways and baptizing those hundreds of people? Where are they? Did I say that loud enough? My point is I’d rather have the 95% faithful after two years after they are baptized we know today, than the 95% that we baptized 25, 30 years ago that were never faithful two years later because we learned to stop just getting decisions and baptisms and responses and to make disciples. And we’re not through. We’re still repenting and growing, amen? But that’s the track we ought to be on and all of this decisionism and believeism and responsism doesn’t make up Christianity, it makes up a Christianityism.

Three quick things, three quick biblical strategies, if you will, for making and equipping disciples. First of all, through the faithful preaching of the word of God in the power of the Spirit. Nothing will ever supplant that primary means God has ordained for making and equipping disciples in his church. You have made a strong strong commitment to that at this church. You have released me to do that and I thank God for that great great gift because I would not have had the stamina to maintain what I did 20 years ago but you decided a long time ago, “We’re going to set you apart for studying and praying and preaching because that’s God’s primary means of reaching my children and my grandchildren with the Gospel and I don’t want you distracted with other stuff.” I believe God has blessed that, not because of Jeff Noblit but because that’s what the book says is the priority. Romans 10 so clearly teaches that, 2 Timothy 3, 2 Timothy 4 teach very clearly the primacy of preaching the word in the power of the Spirit.

So much we could say there but I’m flying through fast, all right? 2. Disciples are made and equipped through every member of ministry through small groups. We find it throughout the Old Testament, we find it throughout the New Testament that God organizes people into smaller units so that in these smaller units they could fellowship and there became a bonding and an openness and a transparency whereby we are able to open up and share a little bit more about the reality of where we are and minister and care and encourage one another. We just outline it this way: the entire local church family organized into small groups for evangelizing the lost, equipping the saved, and provide fellowship to meet individual needs. I wrote that but that’s not mine, that’s just Bible. Old and New Testament taught the principle. Moses organized the children of Israel into thousands, hundreds and tens to the end that they were able to faithfully minister one to another. In the New Testament, we have household units meeting to care and minister and fellowship and disciple one another and also the whole church would meet together in Solomon’s portico. These are just biblical principle. It’s not hard. We just decided 35 years ago we are just going to keep doing it until we get it right and God’s Spirit blesses it and empowers it.

3. Family discipleship. Disciples are made and equipped through family discipleship. Let me say a couple of quick things here. One of the best things and this may strike some of you as odd but one of the best things that happened to me as a father and as a father who is a pastor is when I heard another older pastor that I respected say that he shied away from real structured formal training in the home as far as Christian training. Now look, if that works for you, that’s fine. Don’t think I’m judging you, okay? But his point was as a pastor, all I do is structured formal training and teaching and preaching and equipping. My kids don’t need to see me as a preacher, they need to see me as a dad who loves Jesus. So Pam and I early on we’d do some of that but we don’t have a mainstay of a family altar and quiet times at this time. What happens if you’re not careful is you’ll do these things rigidly in the home and it’s not really in the heart and your kids just see it as a pharisaical legalistic work and they just check it off so they can get back to the other stuff they really want to do. But you want to just take your memory verses and talk about them with your kids and with your wife or husband. Take your small group lesson and discuss it with your kids as you go to Walmart or even watching the football game about how the principles of that Scripture would apply to that situation and that’s what we tried to do in our home and I think it’s far better to do like the Old Testament says, talk about these things when you rise up in the morning, when you walk along the way, when you sit by the wayside and when you lay down at night. What he’s saying is just let it be real. Let it come out in your lifestyle and occasionally or if you’re one of those that the structured thing works, praise the Lord, but what I’m saying though is if it’s not real at home, nothing can replace that. Nothing can replace that. You need the primary foundational means of the preaching of the word in the power of the Spirit. The church needs the foundational ministry of every member of ministry through small groups, but we all need it to be real at home.

Boy, once again, I think the most important tool in effective parenting is this right here, looking at your son or daughter and saying, “Sweetheart, when I said that, when I did that, that was sin and I was wrong and I ask you to forgive me. You have to honor your authority but daddy needs a Savior too.” And they’ll learn that I’m under my mom and dad’s authority but they’re under God’s authority and it just tenderizes their heart to love God and the wisdom of God.

The purpose of the church is to glorify God. That’s what we have to be about. Well, how do we do that? We don’t get to think up how we’re going to glorify him. Now, your children do all kinds of funny things, especially when they’re little, to honor you and that’s good but God, we are not that immature, he has given us a whole book as to how he wants us to glorify him. So how do we glorify him? The second phrase: by obediently looking at the book and saying, “What’s our marching orders?” If we look at the book and find out our marching orders, broadly speaking, what does that entail? The third phrase: glorify God by obediently, 3, making and equipping disciples of Christ. What’s the scope of that? Fourth phrase: in the Shoals and throughout the world. That means that we from the very moment of inception, we are to have a local and a global vision for our Lord’s work. We can’t just focus locally but also globally.

I mean, from the very beginning, the church had a global calling. In Acts 1:8, Jesus said right before he ascends, “you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and to the uttermotest parts of the earth.” Now, the Greek scholars tell us that you can really amplify that this way, “you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, at the same time in Judea, and at the same time in Samaria, and at the same time to the uttermost parts of the world.” It’s not one or the other, it’s all the above. Now, we are all involved differently but all in our hearts are participating and impacting the Shoals area and the ends of the earth. You see, the scope of the church’s heart can be no smaller than the scope of the heart of God. Where is God’s heart? John 8:12, the Bible says Jesus is the light of the world. In John 4:42, Jesus is the Savior of the world. In John 3:16, Jesus loves the world. And in 1 John 2:2, he died for the world. The world is on his heart. Do you know why? Are you listening? Because he deserves the highest glory from all peoples, tongues, tribes and nations and if they don’t know him, they can’t glorify him as he deserves to be glorified. That’s the primary motive, it’s the glory of God among all peoples.

And I know you might say, “Well, pastor, what about sovereign grace? What about the elect? That God is going to save who he foreknew from the foundation of the world?” Absolutely clearly taught in Scripture. You can’t erase it out but Spurgeon, the most famous Baptist preacher of all time who was a Calvinist, don’t tell anybody but he was, Spurgeon said, “Well, if God would have put a red stripe down the backs of all the elect, we could have just gone around the world pulling up their shirttails and seeing who the elect are and just witness to them but,” he said, “God didn’t do it that way.” So our job by commission of God is to every person on the globe preach to them, urge them, witness to them, disciple them, to trust Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and God will save who he is going to save, but we are to urge all men everywhere – listen to me – all men everywhere to repent and believe on Jesus Christ.

As a matter of fact, the only command given in five books of the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Acts, it’s worded differently but it’s basically this: go into all the world, preach the Gospel to all nations, you shall be my witnesses all the way to the remotest parts of the earth. The early church even began with the world missions outreach. In Acts 13, we have the church at Antioch just getting started and this church at Antioch sent out probably two of its best pastors, Paul and Barnabas, into the mission field. Another place for me to commend you, Grace Life Church, for not being selfish and inwardly focused. Years ago you began to release me to help other pastors and I spend probably more energy outside of study ministering to other churches than I do to you guys but we have a great staff and great elders and great small groups that fill in that void. But that’s the vision of God from the very first beginnings of the church age, even in the church at Antioch. They sent Paul and Barnabas out and evidently Paul and Barnabas did a good job because you get to Acts 24 and Tertullus is a lawyer that’s been hired by the Jews to accuse Paul and Barnabas and they are accusing Paul and Barnabas before Governor Felix, and here’s their accusation against Paul and Barnabas before Felix, “These men have stirred up dissension throughout the world.” And if I was Paul and Barnabas, I would’ve said, “Hallelujah! Praise God! That’s what we went out to do!” Are you guys okay this morning? That’s good. If somebody were to come lock us up someday and say you’re spreading this, what they would call this hateful Gospel, this narrow, demeaning, bigoted doctrine throughout the world, we’d say, “Praise God! That’s what we’re trying to do!” Now, it’s not all those things but that’s what they tell us it is. Friend, we cannot back up, we cannot let up until the enemies of our Lord cry in desperation like the enemies of the early church cried as recorded in John 12:19 when the Pharisees said, “The world has gone after Him.” I hope that maybe in the little tribes up in the Andes Mountains in Peru where God led us by grace to start the church, the Gospel church that has ever been in that people group, I hope there are some pagans and some heretics, I hope they don’t stay that way but I hope there are some that say, “There is some group in a state called Alabama in a city called Muscle Shoals and they’ve got our whole villages going after him, Jesus Christ.” To which I say, “Hallelujah!” We are to have a local and a global calling.

Real quickly, V. The purpose of the church is to glorify God. How are we going to do that? We don’t do it our way, we do it his way, by obediently. We are obedient, broadly what we’ll be doing, making and equipping disciples of Christ. What’s the scope of that? It’s to be local and global all at the same time. If you miss number 5, you miss everything. Everything. By the power of the Spirit. By the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said to his disciples as he sent them out right before his ascension, he said, “Lo, I am with you always.” Lo, I am with you always. Colossians 1:28-29, the Apostle Paul is summarizing how he functions and he says, “We proclaim Him,” that’s Jesus, “admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.” Well, Paul, how are you going to get this done? Well, “For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.” So we are to strive in labor to preach, to teach, to share, to witness, always with compassion but listen to your pastor, never with compromise of the truth, casting all of our hope and all of our confidence on God’s Spirit to produce the results.

You say, “Well, pastor, in today’s world and the way people view things, if you hold to those old standard doctrines, how is that going to work? I mean, if you hold to a meaningful membership where people need to exhibit clear biblical evidences of repentance and faith and people who are unfaithful and will not even try to work, that you dismiss them from the church rolls, that kind of stuff gets around and people don’t want to be a part of that.” Well, I’m sorry. That’s what the whole book teaches. Then a church membership where there is accountability and compassionate church discipline, people aren’t going to go for that. I like what John MacArthur, John MacArthur’s amazing in that he’s had I think a decently biblically healthy church and he’s also a great theologian and scholar and he said a while back, “If you pastor a church that deals with sin, then you’ll have church members that want their sin dealt with.” I’m a pastor who wants my sin dealt with. I don’t trust me. I’m my own worst enemy, amen? I want my sin dealt with. I’d better have men in this church that if I get in open and obvious sin will sit me down, hopefully with compassion, please be compassionate, but very clearly say, “Pastor, we love you but you need to repent right here.” Amen? “Pastor, if you teach that stuff, people just want to come and be amused for 45 minutes with a little bit of Jesus thrown in it and then go and do their own thing. They don’t want a church. This is not going to work.”

Well, we try to make a passionate commitment to missions where we strive to teach and encourage every person in some capacity to be involved in ministry to everyone else. In large churches today, if they’ve got 35% of their membership in their community groups or whatever they call their small groups, they think that’s good. We think it’s bad if we drop below 90% in small groups because we believe every member ought to be ministering to some capacity. Never put on the spot but everybody ought to be involved in that.

So these things are not popular and all the experts are saying today that you’ve got to design the church to have amusements and entertainments, you’ve really got to be focused on men and what men want and what men’s needs are, not on God and what God says and on God’s glory. So how are we going to prosper? How are we going to survive doing these things? It’ll take God. If God doesn’t hold us up, we’re sunk. Good place to be because if God’s Spirit uses this Gospel we preach and teach and by his Spirit if God transforms the hearts of men and women and young people and boys and girls, then they will begin to desire what we are. But if God’s Spirit does not do that work, then it’s over. That’s why we pray and that’s why we’re humble because we know if he doesn’t bless it, it’s not going to work. It’s not going to work. We must be loving and compassionate and faithful and always humble, continually to pray and reach out to everyone everywhere but trust God to bring into his church those that he wants.

And I believe if you will commit yourself faithfully to this church as we continue to learn and repent and grow together but are committed to what matters, if you’re committed to this church, if you will use your talents and your abilities, if you’ll give faithfully and generously, then I am confident one day you will hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Perhaps God will say this to you, “You got it. You got what heaven already understood. You got that the thing that really matters, the highest of God’s work and the highest of God’s glory was his work through his Son to build his church his way for his own glory. You got it. So in that case, you brought me glory and you were involved in the things that brought me the highest glory, the work of the Gospel and the work of the local church. So well done. You got it. Well done, good and faithful servant.”

I’ve been here 36, I’m going to tell you this: if you’ll center your life on the glory of God and what the Scripture says is about the glory of God, it’ll last you 36 years. I can’t say 37 because 37 hasn’t happened yet, but I do know 36. You don’t have to chase fads and gimmicks and techniques and nonsense, anchor yourself to what matters and then do you know what? Your children will have a much easier time grasping it than you did and then your grandchildren will have an even easier time getting it than your children or you did. Amen? And so maybe one day we’ll stand before the Lord and hear him say, “You got it. You got it. You were involved in the highest of glories.” And then we’ll say, “Yes, Lord, and if your Spirit hadn’t opened my mind and understanding, I would never have been involved at all. So to you be all the glory, all the honor, and all the praise.”

Let’s stand together this morning.