In his sermon, 'Covenant Membership in the Local Church,' Trent Moody focuses on Hebrews 10:19-25, particularly verses 24 and 25, to advocate for covenant membership in local churches as God's design for believers. He argues that while there is no explicit scriptural command to join a local church, the principle is woven throughout the Bible, similar to a thread in a rug. Covenant membership helps believers hold fast to their faith and prevents them from drifting away by providing accountability, mutual edification, and protection against false doctrines. Moody emphasizes the importance of the local church as a community where believers can fulfill the 'one another' commands of Scripture, such as exhortation and encouragement. He underscores the role of elders in providing oversight and accountability, which is crucial for church discipline—something that cannot exist without covenant membership. The sermon also highlights the biblical model of church authority and the necessity of being under it, comparing it to a ship needing a captain to avoid being tossed by storms. Moody challenges attendees to consider the benefits and scriptural basis of covenant membership and to examine their own commitment to their local church.

We're going to be looking in the book of Hebrews chapter 10 and we will be looking at verses 19 through 25. Hebrews 10, 19 through 25. The focal passage of this, the focal verses will be verses 24 and 25. So let's read God's word. Thus says the Word of the Lord, Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he consecrated for us through the veil that is his flesh and having a high priest over the house of God let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful and let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more, as you see the day approaching. Let us pray. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for your Word. Lord, your Word that is living, that is sharp, that pierces into our hearts and into our souls. Oh God, I pray today that you would use this passage of Scripture, your word, to do a great work in our hearts and in our minds and in this body.

And so Lord please edify your people and glorify your Son. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. You may be seated. So this morning our topic is covenant membership in the local church, God's design for all believers.

Covenant membership in the local church, God's Design for All Believers. It's one of the, on this topic this morning, it's one that for most of you it will not really pose any great problems or difficulties and you will find that really you fully agree with what is said this morning regarding covenant membership. However, on the other hand, there may be some of you here this morning who really are indifferent about the topic. You can kind of see it going either way. You're you're good with people who want to be members of a church, you're fine with those who don't want to be members of the church, and then perhaps you may be one of those who are directly opposed to covenant church membership.

You really don't think it's biblical, you don't see any passages that would lead you to believe it and therefore you're against it. Not against the local church but against being a covenant member of that local church publicly. And by the end of this message my hope really is that we are all on the same page and fully embrace covenant membership in local church and understand this is God's good gift to his people. There was a man and woman who were in, I'm going to make this real personal, they were in Lowe's home improvement store and they were going in to pick out a rug for their newly remodeled home. And as they were looking at this rug that would go in their living room, as all good wives do, they notice that there's a certain color that just won't go with the scheme and the pattern of the colors of the living room.

Any of you men ever been in this situation? Only me, okay. So the interesting part is this, There is a thread within this that is a certain color that certain men do not have the ability to see. At least this man didn't. And as he was looking at this, and his wife explained to him that this color just would not match well, he didn't even see the color.

He thought that it would just be fine the way it is. But then she pointed it out. And as he looked closely and examined the rug, there it was. And he found that this thread, this certain colored thread, was woven throughout the entirety of this rug. But because it was not a main focal point of the design of the rug, at first, without someone pointing it out, he did not see it.

And that's much like what we have here regarding covenant church membership. We do not unfortunately have a passage in the scripture that says thou shalt join thy local church. That would make it easy, wouldn't it? But what we do have is we need to understand in our study of this passage regarding church membership, we need to understand some basic principles of biblical interpretation. You know one of my least favorite things to do is to preach upon a specific topic of scripture because it leads such broadness there for me to choose from because there are many passages that we could look at regarding this.

And I just for me I'm really geared towards preaching through books of the Bible looking at a passage and delving into that passage. However we do believe as elders that this topic is important and necessary for us during this time as we're going through this series on the church and believe it will be helpful. And it also will be helpful as you will see next week when Mike comes and preaches on church discipline that these two topics or these two issues regarding the church are really distinct but not separate. In fact, you cannot truly have church discipline unless you truly have covenant church membership. Those two things go hand-in-hand and are really necessary one for the other.

So the challenge for me is looking into this and I don't know that I've ever preached a topical message in my life and so therefore I plan on preaching this topical message expository. My encouragement to you this morning though is this, Be like the Bereans of Acts chapter 12 where it says, these were more fair minded than those in Thessalonica in that they received the word with all readiness and they searched the scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. That is all we ever ask you to do as elders. We ask you to search the scriptures to see if these things be so. So now certainly once this message is over there will be many more things that could be said regarding this topic of membership.

In fact, some of you may come to me and say, hey, I was thinking about this or what about this or how about this? This goes along with what you're saying and these things are true. There's many more passages that could be mentioned in this message than what I will mention today. But in preaching this I really wanted to grab hold of and have an anchoring point for this message regarding membership and what continually grabbed my attention was this passage in Hebrews chapter 10 specifically verses 24 and 25. And I want it for us to solidify your belief in covenant church membership in the local church.

Now all of those words are necessary and important for me to get across what I'm trying to tell you, covenant church membership in a local church. So as we consider this passage in Hebrews, I want to give you a quick reference verse that really will help us to understand the overall look at the book of Hebrews. And if you will turn back to Hebrews chapter 2 and of course the book of Hebrews was written to Hebrews it was written to Jewish believers and as all churches these churches with Jewish believers also had a mixture within them much like these who much like what I said earlier you will have some who were full for full force they are believers loving the Lord Jesus Christ you have some who may have an intellectual knowledge they acknowledge the things the truths of the scriptures but they are not following them they're not trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ, and then you're going to have others who are just there, they're kind of the tears thrown in among the wheat. And so that's what was happening here. We had a group of Jewish believers and a church, if you will, that they were dealing with many different issues, one of which was persecution, as many of the early believers were, and they were dealing with this challenge within their own mind of reaching back also and grabbing what they were used to, tradition if you will.

Much like what Scott preached about last week about us being synchronized with the world because that's where we came out of. We have these things that pull at us and sometimes we are tempted to revert back To what we left it the same was true with the children of Israel going through the wilderness They always said let's go back to Egypt And so that's really what the book of Hebrews is dealing with here. And he says this in chapter 2 verse 1. Therefore, we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. Lest we drift away.

And really that's a summary if you will of the book of Hebrews. He's wanting them to give the more earnest heed and he begins chapter 1 with talking about how Jesus Christ is greater than angels. To which of the angels did the Father say, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool? And then he goes on and he shows how Christ, throughout the remaining chapters and up to a point of our passage in chapter 10, about how Christ was superior to all the animal sacrifices and how Jesus Christ is the High Priest, the great High Priest. And so he's showing them that these things that were in a picture or a shadow are now fulfilled in Christ.

And so on the base of that context, let us look again at Hebrews chapter 10 and he tells us this in verse 19, Therefore brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way he consecrated for us through the veil that is his flesh." See, he's showing the preeminence of Christ and how he was greater than all of the sacrifices and then all of the high priests who ever came before. I'm going to bring this around. He says, in having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith. Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water, again referencing some ceremonial cleansing there, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. Is that not what chapter 2 verse 1 said?

For he who promised is faithful. Now look at this. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some but Exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching what he is doing here He's building this argument and then on the basis of this argument. He says Here is how we will do this.

Here is the way in which we will hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who's promised is faithful. And then on the heels of that, he explains to us how to persevere in our confession of faith, how to endure the difficulties and struggles that we face, and he says how we do that is let us consider one another. This is one of the one-anothers of Scripture. How do I persevere? Obviously, it's the power of the Holy Spirit of God working in our hearts.

But brothers and sisters, do not neglect the fact that what the writer of Hebrews is saying, it is also you living with me in this group called a covenant church membership. That we would stir one another up and you say well yeah we're to do that with the universal church. Every believer I meet we should exhort and encourage. Yes, but notice what he says, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some. He brings it from this right down to this and he speaks about the local assembly of God's people.

That is how God has gifted his church. He has been abundantly merciful and he pours out abundant grace upon his church by giving us the means by which these physical means that are spiritual to help us in our times of wavering. Remember what chapter 2 verse 1 said, Therefore we must give them more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. Brothers and sisters, if you are not covenanted in a local church through membership, you are in danger of drifting away. I've seen it a thousand times over.

Those who are not dedicated and committed to the local church through membership drift so often drift away. Listen to what Matthew Henry says regarding this drifting away. He says, from the great loss we shall sustain if we do not take this earnest heed to the things which we have heard. We shall let them slip. They will leak and run out of our heads, lips, and lives, and we shall be great losers by our neglect.

Learn, number one, when we have received gospel truth into our minds, we are in danger of letting them slip. Our minds and our memories are like a leaky vessel. They do not without much care retain what is poured into them. This proceeds from the corruption of our nature, the enmity and subtility of Satan, he steals away the word from the entanglements and snares of the world, the thorns that choke the good seed. Two, those meet with an inconceivable loss who let gospel truths which they had received slip out of their minds.

They have lost a treasure far better than thousands of gold and silver. The seed is lost, their time and pains and hearing lost, and their hopes of a good harvest lost. All is lost if the gospel be lost. This consideration thirdly should be a strong motive both to our attention to the gospel and our retention of it and indeed if we do not well attend we shall not long retain the Word of God. In attendance of hearers will soon be forgetful hearers.

Now I'm talking about and what he's talking about is gospel truth with this very important application of how to retain and continually attain this gospel truth because we are forgetful hearers. We're like a bucket with holes in it. I was describing this to my children this week and I said, you know there was this time when we had this game day and we were having a race and we took these buckets but we drilled holes in them and you had to carry water from this place to that place. It was only those who gave earnest heed and speed got to the other side with any water left in their bucket. And what my point is is that these gospel truths that are so important are hemmed in and helped and protected and girded up by covenant membership in a local church because each of you play a part in each other's lives.

That's the whole point of each of God giving spiritual gifts one to another to help each other. That we exhort each other, that we stir up as he says and we'll get to unto love and good works. You have a responsibility this morning. You're here for the encouragement and for the edification of one another so that we do not drift away. That's why it's so important.

You see, covenant membership is God's design for helping people not drift away. Covenant membership is God's design for helping you not drift away. Imagine a ship, captain on the ship says I'm gonna go take a nap and he goes into the bow of the ship and a storm arises. What happens to that ship if no one is there at the rudder. It will be tossed to and fro and that's what we're warned about throughout the scriptures.

Those who were taught, we read it this morning, I believe it's in Ephesians 4, that were not tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. You are part of the guard of that. As we come together and as we hear the preaching of God's word and as we stir up one another to love and good works, you see the clear teaching on this passage is for the purpose of exhorting the hearers to hold fast the confession of their faith. Confession of their faith. I.e.

That Jesus is the blood sacrifice and the great high priest. Only through faith in Christ alone does a believer have direct access to God which is what he's speaking about in verse 19 and 20. You see they were in danger of slipping back into the mentality of thinking that they still needed animal sacrifices. They still needed to follow these things. Remember Hebrews 2.1 that I read earlier.

Look at what he says is the means by which God has designed to help them hold fast their confession and not to slip back into the old ways of thinking. Covenant, church, life, together. That is what he points to. You see, he mentions considering one another and this considering of one another and he mentions also the meeting or the assembly of the local church for worship. Notice what he says in verses 35 and 36 later in this chapter, therefore do not cast away your confidence which has great reward for you have need of endurance so that after you have done the will of God you may receive the promise.

Again he's talking about this endurance, He's talking about holding fast the confession of our faith and that is aided and helped by each of you living with each other. That we are covenanted together in this body for the good of the body and for the glory of Christ. So I submit to you that God has designed this local church for this very purpose. God has designed Christians to need one another. We are members of his body.

We are members of his building. We are members of the sheepfold of God. We are even called a household of God. Think about how personal, about how intimate that is. Can you imagine a child living in your home who does not want to be a part of your family but I'll just stay out here on the porch.

You do your thing I'll come in I'll look in the window and I will enjoy the things that you're enjoying. No. You are outside. Come inside. Be a part.

Join the family of God. Join a local church. It's for your good. He did not create us to live as lone ranger Christians. He created us to live one another's.

Why do you think there's so much exhortation about being long suffering and being patient and being kind? All of these hard things that we have to deal with, it's because we are to be intertwined with one another and sometimes it's a mess. Sometimes you offend me and I offend you and we have to work through that and we have to love one another and that is much more easily done and regulated when we are covenant members of a local church that we willingly, voluntarily submit ourselves to biblical church government. That is God's design. That is good gift to the church is that we would be covenant members of a church.

You see the one another's in this passage and throughout the New Testament really do not make sense apart from covenant membership. How exactly do I have the ability to consider each member of the universal church? I don't even know most of the people of the universal church. How am I responsible to stir up love and good works in the universal church? Well, sure, I can do it with people that I know, yes.

But he says when you're assembled together, when you come together for the worship of God these things take place. How can I possibly do that in the context of an assembly which is directly and explicitly identified in this text? Do not or for not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together as is the manner of some and so much the more as you see the day approaching I believe that not only is it important that we assemble more but it is important to understand that there are many who are drifting away and assembling less as the day approaches. So how can I possibly and encourage and exhort millions, untold millions? Well brothers and sisters, the fact of the matter is we need one another right here.

We need each other and if that is not in the context of a local church covenant membership I don't know how else to do it. Let us consider the following exhortations. He says this and I've mentioned this but we're going to go over it again. He tells us this, to consider one another. What does this mean?

Am I my brother's keeper? Well we know from Genesis chapter 4, yes I am my brother's keeper and you are too. And how much the more are brothers and sisters in Christ to watch out and to consider one another. The word consider means to consider attentively, to fix one's eyes or mind upon something. One commentator noted the words literally are, and let us observe or take notice of one another for the instigation of love and of good works.

That is, let us notice the state and the circumstances of each other for the purpose of stimulating love and acts of kindness and benevolence. That takes place in a local church. The Lord designed the church, the local church, to be a place of one another's where we do not live our lives by ourselves but we live our lives thinking about others. Do not look after your own interests but also the interests of others. We didn't come to live.

We're not here to live our lives for ourselves. We're not here this morning just to live for ourselves and our desires and our needs and our wants. We are to come here with an eye outward considering one another. That's your command. Consider one another.

Consider one another. Ephesians 4 1 through 6 says this, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called with all lowliness and gentleness with long suffering bearing with one another in love endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, there is one body and one Spirit just as you were called in one hope of your calling, one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all." And look at what verse 11 to 13 says, what we quoted this morning. And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Note that part of what God has done in his goodness to the church is that he has given pastors and teachers for the edifying of the body of Christ to help you to work out your ministry to one another.

And that is done again in the local church. These passages clearly show that the local church is the only means by which it is possible to live one another's. We have to do it within the context of the local church. The Second London Baptist Confession in chapter 26 paragraph 5 says this, in the execution of this power wherewith he is entrusted the Lord Jesus calls out of the world unto himself through the ministry of his word by his spirit those that are given unto him by the Father that they may walk before him in all the ways of obedience which he prescribed to them in his word. Those thus called he commands to walk together in particular societies or churches for their mutual edification and the due performance of that public worship which he requires of them in the word.

That's this mutual edification that is mentioned here is summed up in Hebrews 10, 24, which we are commanded to do, that we are to consider one another, look at what he says, in order to stir up. In other words, how can you stir up if you're not considering? We must be looking with an eye and a mind to others how we may stir up. This word stir up, it means to consider one another in order to stir up, but it means contention, contentious, sharpening, a sharpening of the feelings or actions. It denotes an incitement and sharp contention.

Now that sounds kind of rough but within the context we have what it means here is that it is a provoking in a good way not a bad way. You're stirring up unto love and good works. This Saturday morning is our big breakfast morning and we were sitting in there and I brought out the illustration. What did you do with the eggs this morning? Well we stirred them up.

They scrambled those eggs. They scrambled them up so that we could have breakfast. Well, we are to be stirred up by one another for a purpose, for love and for good works. Are you doing that? This wasn't a suggestion.

The writer of Hebrews is commanding it. Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works because we are members of one another. Look at what 1st Corinthians 12 says, for as the body is one and has many members but all the members of that body, of that one body being many, are one body also in Christ. This is why Christ gave gifts to men. This is why Christ gave gifts to his church.

Your gifts are primarily for the local church, those whom you do life with. So we can say that the local church is designed for the mutual edification and sanctification of the individuals within that church, specifically those who are who are designated as covenant church members. But not only that, we are commanded here to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. With this, we deduce a couple of things. There are times when we look at at the scriptures and we have to pull the truth out of that's kind of what exegesis means is that we're pulling the truth out of that text and sometimes when we look at a passage of scripture we would love for there to be, thou shalt join the local church.

That would make it pretty simple and clear for all of us. But at other times we have to go back and look at it like that thread through that rug, and we don't see the big picture of it but we see the thread going through all of it. And if you look through the New Testament and even into the Old Testament references regarding the children of Israel, you will see this thread. God has a chosen people, a peculiar people, a people that he has called out for his own purpose. Why would it be different with the local church?

You see, we are not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, so we deduce a couple of things here. There are some essential and needful things about the assembly of the local church. The writer gives this as a help against apostasy. Be faithful to the meetings of the church. That would be a summary.

Be faithful to the meetings of the church. You see we see clearly in the early church, they made this a priority, Acts chapter 2, 41 and 42. Then those who gladly received his word were baptized and that day about 3, 000 souls were added to them. I have a question, how did they know that? I think they were keeping track.

They knew who was getting baptized. They knew who were coming a part of the church. They knew it was about 3, 000. But not only that, it says that they continued steadfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and breaking of bread and in prayers and then he goes at verse 46 and 47 so continuing daily with one accord in the temple breaking bread from house to house they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. It's very interesting that just a few chapters later in Acts chapter 5 in verse 13 we read this, Yet none of the rest dared join them but the people esteemed them highly.

They understood the people on the outside, they were looking in, and they said, None of the rest dared to join them, but the people esteemed them highly. What is going on here? We know this is just right after Ananias and Sapphira were killed and we see that this word join here means to glue, to glue together, to cement, to fasten together. It means to join or to fasten firmly together, to join oneself or to cleave to. That is what they determined the outsiders wouldn't dare do.

Why? Well it says that there was fear. They didn't dare join them. They saw what happened to those people who did join them, but yet they esteemed them very highly. So there was fear involved because they saw something that I'll bring up here in just a few moments.

They saw the discipline of God coming down upon those who were unfaithful and who lied to the Holy Spirit. We see then that this joining here was a voluntary joining and with that joining it brought with it fear and an understanding that there were consequences and discipline for those who did not hold to that covenant, to that joining together. There is also from this we deduce that there is an authority over the local church. We see this in this passage that it is deduced from it and but I pull from other passages of Scripture that shows there is authority in a local church. The Lord Jesus Christ being the chief shepherd of his church we all know this but the writer tells us not to forsake the assembly.

He says this with authority. He doesn't suggest it. He tells it and commands it. Not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together as is the manner of some." So this statement in itself is authority. We are not our own to do with to do as we wish in all matters of life.

Have you had to teach your children this? That they can't just do anything they want to do? I have to remind myself that sometimes. I can't just do whatever I want to do. I have responsibility and I'm under authority.

All men, that means men, women, boy, girl, everything, we're all under authority. You may like it or you may not. You may submit to it or you can rebel against it but you're under authority. You're under God's authority and God tells us to be men and women under authority. There are certain areas of life that we are all called to submit to, every one of us.

We are in fact commanded to submit one to another. There's only one King and that's King Jesus. We're all under him. You see we see this that One of these authorities is the local church. I've spoken about authorities in the past.

It is abundantly clear from numerous passages throughout the New Testament that this church, a local church, is overseen and shepherded and led by elders. That's one of the authorities within the church. The Lord Jesus Christ being the first and foremost. In Titus 1 5 it is very clear from this passage regarding the local church of the need for elders. A church without elders is a church out of order.

So says Paul, For this reason I left you in Crete that you should set in order the things that are lacking. So early churches there were lacking some things. They weren't full, they weren't complete, and there was a need in that church. It didn't mean it wasn't a church, it just means it was lacking. There were areas that it needed to come to maturity in and that it needed to fullness thereof.

And therefore, Paul commanded Titus to go and appoint elders in every church because it needed to be set in order. It was out of order. A local church without elders is out of order according to this passage. So when Paul was heading to Miletus in Acts chapter 20, he sent for the elders of the church. Why did he do this?

Why didn't he just send for all the men? Because Paul recognized local church authority. He sent for the elders of the church because he knew that they were the shepherds and the overseers and they were accountable to the church and to God for the church. So when Paul was heading there and he called for the elders because they were responsible and then this and when the church would assemble back again the elders would oversee this in the meeting and they would feed the flock of God from the Word of God. Acts 20 28 says Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers To shepherd the church of God which he has purchased with his own blood for I know this that after my departure Savage wolves will come in among you not sparing the flock also from among yourselves men will rise up speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after themselves.

Let me just say, being a part of a local church as a member is a dangerous thing. Not being a member of a local church is a thousand times more dangerous. You will be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine and you will find in your life, but as you grow and as you get older, you will find that everything that you believe is absolutely right and everything you don't believe is absolutely wrong. And you will begin to interpret the scripture based off what you believe and not the other way around. I've seen it.

I'm thankful for these men in this church who do this. They consider me in order to stir up love and good works and what he says a little bit later that we exhort one another I need that I don't want to start the church of Trent Moody because that would be terrible I need the church of the Lord Jesus Christ and his people that we would work together and that we would love one another. So speaking here about elders and their responsibilities it brings to light other arguments that I believe are important regarding covenant membership in the local church though not specifically spelled out in this passage but I believe can be deduced from this passage and made more clear in other passages. So when something is not explicit and say we're implying these things in here we will make them more clear by the explicit not the other way around does that make sense something that is clearly stated in the scriptures we will get we might have something that's implied but we want to bring that thing that's implied over here and submit it to what is very clear. Okay, does that make sense?

We want to bring those things under those explicit things in the scriptures and what we will see is that regarding covenant membership in the local church, we'll consider a couple of passages dealing with elders and their responsibilities because this passage doesn't say anything about elders. It's implied because it speaks about there being an assembly and that is that they're coming together in this assembly. That's implicit. We want to take it to the explicit. 1st Thessalonians 5, 12, and 13.

And we urge you brethren to recognize those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love for their works sake be at peace among yourselves." And so we see from this passage that there are specific groups that elders were laboring among. Who are these groups? We would call them the local church. Who is this specific group? Like I said, it is the local church of believers who had covenanted together.

If elders are to be recognized, then surely those who labor, who they labor over, are recognized. Do you know who your elders are? Now don't be like those people I've witnessed to before and they tell me they go to such and such a church and I say who's your preacher? And they're like, You know your elders. Why?

Because you set them apart. You know who they are. Are you gonna let the elder from some other church come in here and shepherd you? No, that doesn't make any sense at all. You have tested us, you've examined us, you trust us, you obviously believe that we're faithful with the Word of God.

Why is the opposite of that not held on to as strongly? That we know who the people are. There's this love and respect and mutual understanding and this commitment and this covenant with one another. You know who we are, we know who you are, and we love you and you love us and we're exhorting together and we're stirring up together and to love and to good works. So in 1st Thessalonians 5-12 that is made clear.

What else do we see regarding elders? Hebrews 13.7, remember those who rule over you who have spoken the Word of God to you whose faith follow consider the outcome of their conduct you're remembering you're in another sense you're considering so who do elders rule over surely they don't rule over the Universal Church they rule over the local church It is very distinct and very specific. The group is the one whom the elders speak the Word of God to. It's you who are members of this church. Do I speak the Word of God to all of you here?

Yes, but I have a specific responsibility, a detailed responsibility that we will see in the next passage I bring up. So look at Hebrews 13-17 now, just a few verses down. The writer of Hebrews says this, obey those who rule over you and be submissive. There's the authority in the church. For they watch out for your souls.

That's my responsibility and Mike's responsibility and Scott's responsibility. We are accountable to God for this and I'll show you. He says, as those who must give an account, let them do so with joy and not with grief for that would be unprofitable to you. If you make it grievous to watch out for your souls, you're making it unprofitable for yourself. But he says that we give an account.

Brothers and sisters, how could it be possibly right that I would have to give an account for everyone in the universal church. That doesn't make any sense. I give an account for those in this local church who have voluntarily said we submit to this authority and you have the right to give to to watch over my soul. Think about the church covenant that we read. I wish I had printed out and had it up on the board.

Think about the church covenant. Think about what we say every time someone joins this church. We are voluntarily submitting ourselves to the local church government and we are committing before God and man that we are bound together in covenant. And it's for our good. It's so that we won't be drifting away here or there.

If there was no membership in this church, let me tell you, this would be a different church already because there would be people in and out all the time. As elders, we wouldn't have a clue who we're shepherding. It would always be different. So by way of logical argument, if the church knows who its elders are again, the elders should know who the church members are. So we surely understand this and we surely know that this is for the purpose of edification and for the advancement of the gospel.

Next we come to church discipline. I won't spend much time on this just because Mike will be hitting this next week and bringing out and showing this relationship between church membership and church discipline. Again how it is distinct but not separate. So I'll not spend too much on it. So in Matthew 18, 15, let me back up.

I want to read the second London paragraph 12 regarding this. He says, As all believers are bound to join themselves to particular churches when and where they have opportunity to do so, so all that are admitted into the privileges of a church are also under the censures and government thereof according to the rule of Christ." John Calvin noted, and this is not a direct quote, but this is basically what he said that if a church does not have church discipline it's not a church. Matthew 18, you know this passage very well, I won't read it for the sake of time, but you understand that when a brother sins against one another they go to the brother. If he doesn't listen they take someone else and then what do they do? If that person still will not listen and be reconciled they do what?

They take it to the church. This is very clearly seen as something that is a very personal group, something that is very distinct and that they know. They don't take it to the universal church. We don't get on the internet and bring you before the whole world. We bring you before the church.

We understand who we are. And if there is no church membership, how can there be church discipline? Because you have voluntarily said, we will submit to biblical discipline. Without membership, nothing holds you here. You're just coming and going as you want.

You're like a wave of the sea. You're in one day and out the next. So a couple of points to consider in this. The whole passage assumes a close personal relationship with with others in our local church and surely when there is discipline needed we take we don't take that to the universal church but to this local church and then we understand 1st Corinthians 5. Look at what 1st Corinthians 5 says, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ when you are gathered together, when who is gathered together, when the local churches gathered together we know who that is.

They come along with my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." So when the local churches gather that is when church discipline takes place. But also not in church discipline now but thinking about this another aspect of this is seen in Acts chapter 6 verse 3 He says regarding deacons Therefore brethren seek out from among you Seven men of good good reputation full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom whom we may appoint over this business. I'm throwing scripture on top of scripture so that you'll see this thread that laces through all of the New Testament regarding biblical church covenant membership. We see it again in 1 Corinthians 5 12, for what have I to do with judging those who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside but those who are outside God judges therefore put away from among yourselves the evil person.

How can you do that unless you know who yourselves are? There's a separation there. And I believe that there is also relation to church planting. Now this is definitely implied here but I believe that you'll see the connection in the other scriptures that are explicit but we see this in the ministry of church planting and in just ministry in general you know there was a time we went up to Williamsburg and we were vacationing up there and there was a man standing in the street and I think some of you have probably seen him there before and he's standing there with his microphone and he's street preaching and we were listening, seeing what he was saying, you know, because that could be all kinds of sorts. I know some of us street preach here and praise God for it, but this man, I wanted to hear what he had to say.

He got in this conversation with a young lady and we walked a little closer and we were listening and then eventually we began to enter into this conversation with this young woman and it went on and it was fine but she was not listening so she left. Then I began to speak to him and I said, where do you go to church? Well, I don't really have church. And everything he said just, He cut him off at the knees. So we had a man here standing to proclaim the truth of the gospel and what he said was right, but then he undercut everything he had because he was not a man willing to submit to authority.

He was not guarded by the protections that church memberships provide, correction that church memberships provide, exhortation, the love of one another being rubbed and having to work through those challenges. And if I remember correctly, he was dealing with this woman regarding relationship issues. So we don't want to cut ourselves off. Very interesting, and I may have mentioned this before, in Acts 14 verse 21 through 28, I'm going to read this and then we'll talk just briefly about it, and it says, And when they had preached the gospel to that city, this is Acts 14, 21 if you want to look at it, Acts 14, 21. When they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.

So when they had appointed elders in every church and prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed. And after they had passed through Passidia, they came to Pamphylia. Now when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down to Adelaea, and when they had sailed to Antioch where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work which they have completed. Now when they had come and gathered the church together they reported all that God had done with them and that he had opened the door of fate to the Gentiles so that they stayed there a long time with the disciples. The interesting thing about this passage is not just that they appointed elders in every church and it's not just that they gathered the church together, although I believe that is very clear and very important, they knew who that was.

They gathered the church together. But the amazing thing is that really just opened my eyes to this importance of local church government is that the Apostle Paul, before his missionary journey, he was commended and commissioned by the church at Antioch and that at the end of every missionary journey where did he go? To the church at Antioch. Read the book of Acts and you will see it. He would go right back around and then what would he do?

He would give a missionary report. And I believe this solidifies and adds a million tons of weight to what I'm saying this morning that even the Apostle Paul understood local church authority and he would come right back around to Antioch. Now there's two Antioch's, be careful which one you're reading about, That can get confusing sometimes, but he came right back around to the church at Antioch and he would give a missionary report. Why? Because they are the ones who commissioned him.

He was not a man unto himself. He was a man under authority and specifically under the authority of the local church. He was not out seeking to establish his own foundation, but he was building upon the foundation of the Lord Jesus Christ and for the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And finally we see that we are called to exhort one another back to this passage in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 25 and he says this, but exhorting one another. Don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together, but exhorting one another.

We have a mutual responsibility to exhort. That means to speak to, to call upon. It may be done in ways of exhortation, entreaty, comfort, instruction, admonition, begging, entreating, again comforting and encouraging. That's what our roles are with one another. This is what the writer of Hebrews teaches us that will greatly aid us in our perseverance and our endurance in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Do you see, I hope and pray, why covenant local church membership is so important? We are not to be people unto ourselves. Some additional considerations in closing by way of application. If you were not convinced of covenant membership in a local church, ask yourself this question, why not? Why am I not?

Maybe all of you are. I pray that you all are. And then ask this, if not, what is the real reason why I'm not? I've heard arguments for and against, And those who are against typically say, I just don't see it in the Bible. You don't see, thou shalt join thy local church in the Bible.

I agree. But you cannot deny that beautiful thread that laces through all of it. Biblically, number two, biblically what are you keeping yourself from by not being a part of a local church? You're keeping yourself from the blessings, I know that there are many blessings and benefits of being part of local church. You're removing yourself from the protections of the local church and you're removing yourself from good and healthy discipline of the local church.

Number three, my experience throughout my ministry has shown me that the real reason people reject church membership is really not because they don't see it in the Bible almost every time it's because they have an issue with authority. That may be very uncomfortable for you. I'm just saying my experience has proven that out time and again. They do not want to be truly accountable when the hard things arise. It's easier to flee than to work through challenges.

Number four, my exhortation to you this morning is to humbly consider all that the Bible teaches regarding covenant church membership. Number five, and I'll be honest with you as an elder of less than a year in this church, I've been shocked at how many young people who have grown up in this church have not joined the church. And I know that many of you, it may have just been not on the purview of your mind, may have not been in the front of your mind. Your family joined and that's kind of where you left it. Brothers and sisters, don't stay there.

You're not a member because your mom and dad are members. It's individual. If you've been attending this church for over a year, I really see no reason for you to delay. You know this church if you've been here that long. You know the good and the bad and the ugly, and my encouragement to you is to come and speak to one of the elders today and let's set up a time where we can sit down and talk about church membership and joining this local church.

And then lastly, membership signifies your commitment to believe and live in a biblical and God-honoring way. That's really what it is. It's your commitment. You know I've often had discussions with people that really had a problem. I've been in churches before where we actually signed the church covenant and I don't really have a problem with that.

It's interesting as one man said he was talking to someone about this situation and he said can you imagine me looking at my soon-to-be wife and telling her you know honey let's just forego that whole ceremony thing let's just have common-law marriage. She was not too keen on that idea because there's something very important about standing before God and men to make a public commitment and covenant that you will be faithful. It carries with it weight and authority and all of those things are good. There is nothing bad about those things. Biblical church membership is for your good and ultimately it helps you from drifting away and it brings glory to God.

Let's pray. Father we thank you for your word. Oh Lord it is so abounding. It is so wonderful. It is absolutely true in every part.

Lord we thank you that you have gifted the church with men and women of all sorts of giftings for the good of your church. Lord, I pray that you would work within your people today to see their lives and their ministry in this local church as one of encouragement, of stirring up to love and good works. And Lord, I pray that there will be none, none that would drift. Oh God, help us, we pray in Christ's name. Amen.